My dear family, friends, and any kind souls who may come across this plea for help,
My name is Ryssa (kinda like Reese's Pieces). I am 31 years old and I'm happily married to my high school sweetheart, Jordan, and I'm a Momma to my beautiful 11 year old daughter Teejay.

​I have recently found myself not only in a battle for my life as I know it, but under a burden of medical, and therefore financial, difficulty and am asking for whatever assistance is available.

​For those of you that do not know this about me, I was hospitalized and diagnosed with severe asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In July of this year, I spent a couple nights in the ICU/Acute Care Floor of Alta View Hospital in Sandy Utah and was also told I had pneumonia on top of my other respiratory problems. I was given inhalers, antibiotics, and respiratory therapy. My condition was further exacerbated by the fires in the western United States during August and resulted in a second hospitalization plus heavier medication and stronger inhalers. I still wasn't feeling 100%, but assuming that all I needed was more time to get used to this new normal, I trudged on.
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​At the end of September, I discovered my health to be in further disrepair. My difficulty breathing was ever worse than before. I was feeling more and more drained, nauseous, and all around sickly. I started losing weight at an incredible rate as well as hair. I chalked this up to malnutrition from my ailments. Being hospitalized for the third time, It was jarringly brought to my attention that I had parasites in my system: roundworms. AKA- Ascaris Lumbricoides. AKA- The Monsters. As I explained to the doctors at Intermountain Medical Center—I needed to go to a more equipped facility—I had been dealing with Crohn’s disease, IBS, asthma, COPD, infections, antibiotic use and experiencing hair loss, weight loss, and finally passing worms. The doctors came to the conclusion that I might be suffering from Löffler's syndrome: white blood cells accumulate in the lungs in response to a parasitic infection.

​As it stands now, I was medicated at the hospital in order to flush the roundworms from my system (I will be seeing a doctor who specializes in parasites to make sure the medication was successful on the 20th this month of October). The way that I am feeling now, I am having strong doubts that the medication was successful in wiping out these monsters. Unfortunately I am still experiencing all of the symptoms I was prior to my last hospital stay. This will mean another round of anti parasitic medication no doubt. I will provide updates as I have them.

Amongst all of this, I am still recovering from the toll all of this took on my lungs and am currently on a home oxygen system full-time. I'm constantly tethered to an oxygen concentrator in my apartment.

​All of this treatment and equipment has had to come out of pocket because we do not have health insurance. Without the help of my husband’s loving, generous parents Thom and Diane, we would have likely ended up being evicted this month due to my husband missing work while being at my side during much of my time at the hospital as well as me not working. On top of all of my medical issues, my husband (Jordan) has plenty of his own. He has type one Diabetes and is insulin dependent. We spend roughly $300/month for his insulin, and that is not including test strips and other Diabetic supplies. The hospital expenses alone were about $16,800 accumulated in the last three months (this is a lowball figure), the inhalers will cost $700 every other month, the home oxygen system is costing approximately $1,000, our rent and utilities come to about $1,065, and all of this does not include daily living expenses like food, phone service, or our 11 year old daughter Teejay’s schooling and day-to-day needs. As you can imagine, we are in great need of help.

​We are hoping to raise enough money to at least cover the cost of the hospital expenses. We are looking into other resources to help with the daily expenses and any information anyone can provide to help us in our research would be welcome. We, unfortunately, do not qualify for anything like Medicaid or financial assistance from the state of Utah, but any other resources that exist would be helpful. Any kind of contribution, monetary or otherwise, is appreciated.

Thank you and much love to all,

Ryssa, Jordan, and Teejay
The Roylance's