Last Thursday evening, my husband Tyler Davis was intubated as soon as we got to Duncan Regional Hospital because his throat was nearly closed up by a very large abscess.Our family had been sick for the past few weeks with what we know now was strep throat. We all had it but Tyler's lingered a lot longer than the rest of us. We thought it was just a bug and took over the counter meds and treated it as such. Anyway, earlier that day he had gone to work and everything seemed fine but for some reason around 7pm his throat started hurting to the point he was crying and this man never cries. We did all we could to try and calm it down but by 10:30, he was gasping for air and couldn't talk at all. I had my oldest daughter (she's 16) keep an eye on our severely autistic 6 year old son at home because he was still awake. I raced him to the ER and they tubed him within 15 mins of walking through the door. They hooked up IVs and gave him epinephrine thinking it could've been an allergic reaction but did nothing and he was suffocating. They made me leave the room and pumped him full of meds to knock him out and it took several tries to get the tubes in. The doctor said if we waited any longer, he would not have survived. The CAT scans showed an abscess by his tonsil that was the size of a large egg that was severely inflamed. He had to be transferred to OU medical center to be treated because Duncan does not have an ear nose and throat physician to take care of it in surgery. They kept him sedated/intubated until we finally got him into surgery 13 hours later. They went to cut the abscess and right before they could cut, the abscess burst and took his tonsil with it. So they cleaned it up and drained everything they could and felt confident enough to take the tube out. He came out of recovery and did awesome. They kept him overnight again because he was so sick and had sepsis. It took a few rounds to find the right antibiotic because the others weren't doing anything. After his culture cleared, they knew which one to finally give him. He's on one of the most hardcore antibiotics now and his levels finally got to the high range of normal so they let him come home. When this all started in Duncan, his white blood cell count was 29,000. The normal range is 4.000 so he was very, very sick. He's home now after 4 days of hospitalization resting and trying to recover. We have to keep our eye on him because he's at high risk for developing CDIF. He has insurance through work, but between the ambulance rides, surgery, and the doctor recommended the rest of us in the family get checked out because this was caused by the strep throat and it's a serious thing, we are going to need some help. We make it by the skin of our teeth paycheck to paycheck every month. I missed some odd jobs that help keep us afloat. It's just tough. If you feel like helping us, that would be incredible. If you can't, prayers and love are just as appreciated. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. God bless you! Xoxo