For those who may not personally know them, Ian and Christina Lacey run a small business called Retuned Jewelry (https://www.retunedjewelry.com. They hand make beautiful and unique jewelry from used, repurposed guitar strings and travel all over the country selling it at music and art festivals. Those who know Ian and Christina will tell you what great people they are.

Recently, Ian became extremely ill. After battling COVID in late fall followed by what doctors’ thought was bronchitis, he went to the ER in Longmont, CO on Saturday, January 7th, 2023 with a severe headache, difficulty seeing from his left eye and left arm pain. After several tests, the doctors discovered a lesion (area of infection) in his right lung which they believe traveled to his brain and caused five additional lesions. Ian was quickly admitted and transferred by ambulance to University of Colorado Hospital in Denver, CO, where he currently remains hospitalized. The doctors have been unable to determine the cause and type of Ian’s infection. This has led to a multitude of expensive tests including multiple CT scans and MRI’s, a pulmonary lavage, a lung biopsy, EEGs, EKGs, and a brain biopsy as well as an army of doctors including infectious disease, neurologists, pulmonologists and general physicians. Because they have been unable to determine the exact makeup of his lung / brain infection, the doctors have placed Ian on several broad-spectrum, heavy-dose, heavy-duty IV antibiotics. The brain lesions are causing vision and balance difficulties, weakness, confusion, and loss for words. The numerous medications he is receiving have exacerbated his symptoms as well as caused severe nausea making it challenging to keep up with calorie and vitamin intake. This has led to the placement of a nasojejunal tube (or NJ tube/feeding tube) for his food and medicine needs. A very uncomfortable procedure and they’ve had to replace it two times.

At the time Ian became ill, Christina was in Florida for a month-long work trip to attend three shows for their small business. Unfortunately, this trip came to a screeching halt after their first show as Christina needed to fly home and support Ian back in Colorado. Christina has been at the hospital with Ian every day for 10+ hours because Ian needs additional help beyond what the nurses can offer.

When Christina unexpectedly needed to fly home to be with Ian, she had to leave their work van and dog, Nico, behind in Florida. As if worrying about Ian wasn’t enough, Nico was attacked by a neighbor’s dog on January 20th while staying with her grandma. Nico’s bite wound became severely infected. She’s been to the vet daily and has had a couple surgeries to remove necrotic tissue and may need additional surgeries to get the wounds to heal. The dog’s owner will reimburse the cost of the vet bills, but Christina has Nico in Florida to worry about as well as Ian in Colorado.

It's unknown how long Ian will remain hospitalized or the amount of follow-up care he’ll need at home. After his release, it will be a long time before he will be able to help Christina in running their business. As a small business, there are only two of them, and if they are unable to run their business, there is no income. Due to the impending mountain of medical bills and unexpected expenses such as airfare, extra travel, etc., Ian and Christina could definitely use financial support. While they have medical insurance, it’s a crummy high-deductible plan. We all know how little those plans cover, and it will come nowhere close to covering the steadily growing mountain of medical bills. Ian’s basic hospital care is running about $6,000/day not including all his procedures, surgeries, twice daily lab work, cultures, tests, and more tests. There is no hard figure yet but it’s probably going to easily surpass the $300,000 mark soon.

Many have reached out and asked, “How can I help?” Honestly, if you are able to help in any way with a donation to offset a portion of the growing medical expenses, it would be GREATLY appreciated. This will be a life-altering event that will be difficult to recover from both health-wise and financially.

Please share this link with family, friends, and others in your life to help reach as many people as possible who are willing to lend a helping hand in Ian and Christina’s time of need. We, the family and friends of this couple, appreciate the funds, prayers, and positive thoughts you can share with Ian and Christina. They are definitely needed! If donations are not your thing, you can also help by patronizing Ian and Christina’s small business, Retuned, as they may be unable to travel to many of their scheduled fairs and festivals this year. An increase in online sales can help offset some of the income they are losing due to their current inability to travel.

To follow Ian’s journey, Christina is doing her best to post updates on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook: Christina Lacey

Instagram: Christinamlacey