Scott Ryan Kick it Scott

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In December Scott was experiencing fatigue, nausea, and  then injured his shoulder. In early January he got a really mean sinus infection and fever (that was masked for a while by the Tylenol and Ibuprofen he was taking for his shoulder). He took a round of antibiotics. He never got well. Then he got bronchitis/pneumonia, for which he got another round of two different antibiotics. He was really miserable, but kept working and pushing through (like he does). Again, he never really got well. He was missing work (which he never does and hates to miss). Then he ended up with a gut infection, and could not eat or drink. He was running a fever. He got severely dehydrated and was sleeping 20 hours a day. 


His parents helped him get to nurse treatment at Cascade Park Kaiser for some IV fluids. Thankfully his mom insisted they check his blood (which had never happened in all those doctor visits).  A terrific nurse got him an appointment with an Urgent Care Provider. She was fantastic! The blood work came back revealing that Scott's white blood cell count was over 50,000 (that's a heckalot!) His red blood cell count was very low. She told us Scott needed to be admitted to the hospital. We thought, "Oh, a gut infection...yep, cool, sounds good." Then she said she wanted him to go by ambulance.


That stopped us in our tracks. Thankfully she took the time to get him directly admitted instead of having to go through the ER (praise Jesus!) It was scary and seemed really serious but not too alarming. Our son and I stopped by home for some things and followed Scott to the hospital. We knew we had an appointment with a hematologist (blood specialist) the next day at the hospital.  After more blood work and all of us having to wear crazy, disposable yellow gowns, gloves, and masks, (we have hilarious photos, and an embarrassing video of me trying to dance the Floss), they finally took Scott for a CT scan around midnight.  A doctor had come in to tell our son and I that they were concerned about a serious bacterial infection,  and possibly Leukemia. What?!???!! We thought surely she had the wrong room. 


The next morning our pastor arrived, in obedience to the Holy Spirit's prompting. It was soon very clear how important his presence was. Scott had an ECG ultrasound on his heart (later we learned that was to check for a fungal infection and to check things out for a PIC line.) Shortly the blood specialist arrived. She was actually an oncologist. She let us know that they were very certain that Scott had a form of Leukemia. We were stunned and so in shock. Apparently rogue, baby white cells had left the marrow and entered the blood stream. They grew into "blasts." Awful little mutant babies! LOL! Actually not funny, but trying to keep it light. She wanted to perform a bone marrow biopsy to confirm and determine what kind of Leukemia it was and how to treat it. 


If you're still reading...bless you! :)  I got to stay and watch the biopsy. Intense!!! Unfortunately it confirmed that Scott has Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). He started seven days of 24 hour/day chemo, with three of those days having an additional kind of chemo as well. He finished that round and we've been closely watching his blood counts. His ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count; a specific kind of white blood cells) is now 0, which is good. His Hemoglobin needs to stay at 7 or above, and his Platelets need to stay at 10 or above, otherwise he receives transfusions. So far he's been getting transfusions every day for the last week or so. 


We've been in the hospital since January 29 (today is February 15). He just had his follow up bone marrow biopsy (I got to watch that one too, but this time I was coloring and meditating on scripture). We will just wait for results and go from there....


Scott is hopeful. He is so kind to his nurses and doctors. He keeps worship music playing (or country music). Please continue to hope for him, and pray.
(written by Lori, Scott's wife)