Giving It My ALL

One year later

Today marks exactly one year since Ryan was diagnosed with ALL and our lives were turned upside down. In some ways it feels like that was just yesterday and in many other ways it feels like ten lives have passed since then. This has been the most unexpected and challenging

Out of the ICU

After nearly a week at Riley, I made it home on Thursday! Thankfully my stay at the ICU was brief. Throughout last Saturday, they successfully weaned me off of the blood pressure medication. Around midnight they transferred me to the hemoc floor and I was finally able to get some

ER Trips and ICUs

I will start this post with a warning that it probably won't be uplifting, as it's been a pretty hellish few weeks. But I will also say Ryan is doing alright at the moment. My last post was on Saturday, August 28, and the Tuesday evening after that, he had

Déjà Vu

So a couple of weeks has turned into a couple of months since our last update. I think that's a testament to the feeling of constant exhaustion and burnout we're feeling - and that I know lots of you probably are too, as the COVID roller coaster continues. Ryan started

(Delayed) Delayed Intensification

I find myself using the phrase "all things considered" more and more lately. When people have asked how I've been doing in this last phase, my go-to response as of late has been, "Actually, pretty good! ... all things considered." It's my attempt at brevity while still hinting at the nuance

Back on Schedule

It's been exactly a month since Ryan's last update, and he continues to be amazingly resilient. He had to continue the at-home antibiotics until just a couple of days ago when the abscess from the ruptured appendix finally went away. After over a month of delays, he was able to

Home... again!

Hey everyone! I made it home on Friday afternoon. Very excited to be typing this on our couch rather than a hospital bed. My ultrasound on Tuesday showed an abscess where my appendix had ruptured, so I had a procedure on Wednesday to drain the infected fluid. The procedure went

An Unexpected Turn of Events

Hey all - it's me, Ryan! Figured I'd try to write an update for a change and give Anna a break. :) So yeah, after that last 12-day hospital stay, I finally made it back home last Wednesday afternoon. I came home, took a long nap, and then Anna and I

Home

After 12 days of an unexpected hospital stay, Ryan is finally home! His ANC went from 55 on Tuesday up to 135 on Wednesday, so late yesterday afternoon he was discharged. Thank you so much to all of our family members who have sent us amazing videos of your "ANC

Another Week

Well, it's been a week since our last update and Ryan is still stuck in the hospital. What we hoped would be a quick visit last weekend due to a fever turned into a whole week of waiting for his counts to go up. The fever came down over the

Hospital Time

Tired. That's been the continuous feeling over the past several weeks. It's been a month now since our last update and so much has happened, but sometimes even sitting down to write everything out feels overwhelming. So if you're taking the time to read this, thank you. Ryan ended up

Goodbye 2020

Thank you to those of you who said an extra prayer that Ryan would get through Christmas without an ER visit - it worked! After getting the transfusions on December 23rd, he ended up feeling really good for Christmas Eve and Day - a Christmas miracle if you ask me.

Christmas Transfusions

Maybe that'll be the next big Hallmark Christmas movie... no? Doesn't roll off the tongue? Well, anyway, this past week has been one for the books. This past Saturday, Ryan was feeling pretty rough all day, which we assumed was due to his blood counts dropping again. He ended up

Consolidation

Sometimes things don't go as planned. I find myself constantly forgetting this and constantly being reminded. This last Monday at my outpatient clinic appointment, I learned that my blood counts were low for the first time since my diagnosis from the three new chemotherapy drugs that I was given on

Phase 1 - Induction

And so it began... our new normal. Didn't we already have enough new normals this year? That's what we thought too. The doctors at Riley told us that pretty much every patient who had been diagnosed in the second half of 2020 had responded with something along the lines of,

The Beginning

(Post 1 of 3 to start.) As they say, to not bury the lede...During the last week of October, my girlfriend, Anna, called my younger-older brother, Marc (a pharmacist), because I was having yet another migraine. Over the course of the previous two months, I was initially diagnosed with