Get well Ryan, and stay stong buddy!

To Ryan and Andy and all of your family, you are in our prayers.

The Bell family wishes you well.

Good progress today, as Ryan starting taking in food orally. The GBS had affected his swallowing, so he basically hadn't eaten anything since Monday, just IV fluids and a few bites of pudding. He can now lift his arms up to 90 degrees, plus he read 35 pages today and turned the pages by himself. He really can't grasp anything, but he did scratch his ear and nose by himself today. Yesterday he couldn't do this due to the paralysis he was suffering. Lots of steps ahead of him, like sitting up on his on, standing, walking, writing, and so on.

Mentally he is all there, and verbally as well. Just having issues connecting the messages from his brain to the extremities. He smiled a lot today, his voice is almost back to normal (sounded like he had a cleft pallet on Monday), and he cracked a few jokes.

A month ago this was him.


He'll be back up and running in time for summer steelhead and Sekiu silvers.

Thanks for all of your support folks.

You better get ready for him to get out of there. You may never be able to keep up with him again. Put some oar locks on his bed rails so he can practice.
Congrats on the recovery...

I'm glad to hear about the quick recovery and I'm so sorry that you and Dawn had to go through this ordeal, taking on the medical professionals when they think you are over reacting is something parents should never have to do. You saved his life------Do what you want to me but leave my children alone.

Great to hear the good news.

All the best to your family Andy. Sounds like the corner has been turned. I'm just up the road from you in Monte.....if you need a hand, give a shout.

We've gotten a few calls and many e-mails. Ryan realy appreciates your support. We're heading into a full week at Mary Bridge, and man is this a great staff. Docs are great, and the nurses are top notch.

He is doing good. Pain management is better now that he can have the hard stuff, morphine. The nerve disorder he has makes his skin extra sensitive, and he has "misfires" where the nerves start to wake up and it causes a fair amount of pain. I'm proud of how he has handed the pain.

Today he walked 150 feet. Looked like a ittle old man making steps, and he wasn't fast. From what his neuroligist said, it appears that he may have been lucky and gotten a mild case of GBS. (Mild case of a syndrome that paralyzes you sounds wierd).

He ate solid food today, pizza, one of his favorite meals. With luck he won't have to go into inpatient therapy, and just do the outpatient stuff. Our hope is to be home this week. We hope.

Like I before, we have been lucky. Our boy is alive, he will recover, and compared to what others are experiencing here, our week so far is a minor inconvenience.

Thanks for asking. Sorry for giving a similar response to a number of you, but cutting and pasting saves a bit of time.

Andy & Dawn

Glad to see he's getting better!!!! Must have been a trying week.

I hope everythng goes well this week.

Good luck Ryan. Hang in there and kick some ass.

Kids are resilient and I think he will probably be stronger than before.

Take care and you are in my family's thoughts and prayers.

Hi Andy,
I'm just now catching up on this thread and I'm very sorry to hear Ryan's ordeals.
Really glad to hear Ryan is doing better and I wish Ryan a speedy full recovery.

Andy,

It's comforting to learn that Ryan is doing so much better. This is very good news. That is one strange and scary disease.

Sg

Great news Andy. Very scary situation but it seems Ryan is stronger than I. Brings a big smile to my face to hear he is progressing well. Keep it up buddy and we'll see you at CQ soon!!!

Excellent!

That's great to hear.

I agree with you........the doctors and nurses that work at children's hospitals like Mary Bridge and Children's in Seattle are a credit to the human race. When our son was at Children's I was amazed at what I saw from all of the doctors and nurses on their staff. Truly awesome people.

I remember going through something similar to what you're going through now, Andy. It was a difficult thing to put my son's life in someone else's hands, but I knew it had to be done. Even though it was years ago, your story about Ryan had me reliving the events again, and being thankful that even though we were facing a difficult time, we were much better off than the parents of some of the other kids we saw at Children's.

I'm so happy to hear some good news about Ryan. Wish him well for me, give the wife and Hunter a big hug, and shoot me a PM or a call if you want to talk about anything.

Great news, keep the momentum going...

He's home!

Ryan is a bit shaky, but he walked in the front door by himself, and he will be spending the night at home in his own bed. Feels great to say that. He has a wheel chair that he gets to use until he no longer needs it, which may be a month or so. Otherwise there is a lot of PT that he has to endure.

Thanks again folks for your help.

Good news...when he's done with this he'll have the rest of his life to know that he can overcome anything...and that ain't half a bad thing to know.

Fish on...

Todd

that is great news