Hello everyone! We have been back in Minnesota for a little over a month, and man is it good to be home. We have reconnected with our families, so many friends, neighbors and even the Gopher Baseball family. 

Update on Ty's Status

Everyone has been asking how Ty is doing since coming home...the short answer is "it's complicated" 😅. We feel like we are headed in the right direction and his body seems to be back in equilibrium! The work we did in Florida turned his downward trajectory around and we are SO thankful for that. Liver labs have been normal, still no ammonia in his blood, his immune system has been restored, detox pathways are open from what we can tell! These are all critical pieces to the puzzle. Additionally, he feels like he has regained his independence back and has the ability to do normal, everyday things again. He returned to work on May 2nd in a fairly limited capacity, and made it to the remaining home games where he was able to reconnect with the staff and players.

The hard reality is that he still has a long way to go until he feels how he wants to feel, and until he truly feels like himself again. While we have plenty of positive things to report - about 2.5 weeks after being home, the progress we made on his head complaints faded and these symptoms  (internal pressure, migrating pain all around his face head and jaw, migraines, eye pain and visual weakness, and some dizziness) had come back consistently. There are still a handful of other symptoms that we still haven't found a solution for, and it all fluctuates hour to hour, day by day. He has to spend his energy wisely.

Update on Treatments

- We did another test called a Neural Zoomer that checks for autoimmunity and infections in the brain. I won't bore you with the science, but we got a few more answers on why his brain/nervous system acts like it does! We also found more evidence that Epstein Barr Virus is still an issue and a priority, and has been active in his brain for awhile now. This was huge information for us because we are able to refine his treatment plan that much more and decrease the viral load in his brain and body. 

- He is very diligent about doing his at home nutrient IV's and we calculated that he has done nearly 300 of them since getting his port put in. Each one takes around an 60-75 minutes so it's not a small investment on any counts, but they always give him an extra boost.

- Big news! Ty will be receiving his first Bartonella  SOT tomorrow at a lyme specialty clinic based in Alexandria, MN. We have been anxiously awaiting this treatment and are hoping for positive results in the weeks to come! We are anticipating a herx (die off reaction that makes symptoms temporarily worse) so please pray that it works effectively and efficiently with a mostly positive reaction! Quick refresher on what this treatment does: We send a blood sample to a lab in Greece and they identify the specific organism we are looking to target. Then create a small molecule called microRNA that is developed to match exactly into a “lock” portion of the infected cell. The SOT is injected intravenously, spreads throughout the body including past the blood-brain barrier, embeds into the Lyme bacteria or whatever infection we are targeting and will disrupt its ability to replicate. 

- He will be receiving a second Bartonella SOT and second Lyme SOT over the summer. We plan to space them out strategically as not to overload his body. 

Please Keep Praying 

It has been 648 days since he felt the first symptom (which is also how many days since Mila was born). If I personally felt anything - even a small splinter in my toe for 648 days - I would lose my mind. Ty is a warrior in the truest sense of the word, and it has been humbling to watch him take this battle head on every day with strength and resilience. It has also been humbling the way you all have shown up for us in too many ways to count. If  we could ask for one more thing, it would be that your prayers continue for his complete and total healing as soon as humanly possible. Thank you! 

- Claire and Ty