Hello and a request

Hello friends of Ryan. Although our updates have tapered off, I wanted to use this platform to try and fulfill a request from Ryan's family. We are trying to locate video of Ryan from before the accident. I have reached out to our New Orleans friends and his local work/school affiliations, but have yet to receive any good leads. If you have a video of Ryan that you would like to share, please contact me (Whit) and we can coordinate delivery. Any help is appreciated.

Also, I want everyone to know Ryan is still doing well in Slidell. A group of us went out last month to celebrate Ryan's 31st birthday. He enjoys visiting with friends and, after some time at Trinity, has established a good group of friends at the facility. As we roam through the halls with him, you can tell he's still the popular and friendly person we remember.

Thanks for taking the time to read the update. Again, if you have video you want to share, send me an email or call. Look forward to hearing back.

-Whit, rslocum@tulane.edu

Jazz Fest Visitors

Hey everyone. Just wanted to take a second to post pictures of some of Ryan's visitors over Jazz Fest. Sounds like Ryan had friends visiting first and second weekend, which is great. He definitely enjoys being able to hang out with friends, even if it's just a short visit. When we recently stopped by to say hey, Ryan seemed to be in great spirits. Trinity, the facility where he's staying, is being renovated and got a nice new flat screen...just in time to watch the Celtics.

If you're in New Orleans or passing by on I-10, stop by and see Ryan. He's right off the highway in Slidell, and even if it's just for a few minutes, he loves seeing friends.

Post from Ryan's Family

Below is a message that Ryan's family asked us to share:

"Today marks the one year anniversary of Ryan's accident, and those of us in Ryan's family would like to take today to say how grateful we are for the unbelievable support that you, Ryan's friends and all our friends, have offered us. From the very beginning you stepped in with meals and helped find an apartment for us in New Orleans. You helped us find an office for Ryan's father. You provided rides to and from the airport for Ryan's visitors, and plenty of babysitting for Ryan's nephew. You pitched in to work on Ryan's house and care for his beloved dogs. You maintained this blog so that Ryan's impressive diaspora of friends could all keep informed about his recovery. You have sent loads of cards and pictures and you have visited so much that Ryan now has the distinction of being the most-visited patient ever at both Touro and Trinity. You have offered prayers and masses for his recovery. You have brought laughter into his room and smiles to his face even on days when he's not feeling great. We are in awe of the love and generosity you have shown us during this difficult year and we thank all of you for everything you've done."

Ryan's 30th Birthday!

As many of you know, last Saturday was Ryan's 30th birthday! Below is a picture from his birthday party at Trinity. We had a great day with pizza, presents, cake and Sadie! You can barely see her in the pic, but I promise that's her paw right above Ryan's head. Frank and Carol and several friends from out of town were able to attend. Ryan was genuinely thrilled to have everyone out there. He was laughing and smiling the whole time and kept making jokes about how he was still 29 and refused to be 30!

We'd really like to thank everyone who contributed to Jim's fundraising efforts for Ryan's birthday. Jim was able to raise $5,385 - http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/446538. It is truly amazing and overwhelming how many helped make Ryan's birthday wish come true!!! This financial support will go towards upkeep on his house and many other medical needs.

As an update on Ryan's progress, he continues to improve every day. While he did have a few leg cramps during our last visit, they have become much less frequent. He started a new medication for his muscle spasms several weeks ago. It has made a world of difference. He is not in nearly as much pain anymore. Therefore, his attention span is a lot longer and he is so much more comfortable. As Jim mentioned in his previous post, Ryan is 100% aware of who everyone is. He can name all of his friends and family. He is still not able to speak in long sentences, but can certainly carry on a conversation with a few words and clear facial expressions. He laughed a ton at his birthday party, which really filled the room with joy.

Ryan's brother and sister bought him a new mobilized wheel chair last month. I'm not a wheel chair expert, but this one is extraordinarily cool. It allows him to sit up and recline when he wants. It also enables him to get around more easily. He's still not permitted to roam around on his own quite yet... apparently, he bumped into a nurse one day. Knowing Ryan, he probably thought this was hilarious. However, I don't think the nurses found it quite as funny. With that said, he should be able to start cruising around on his own soon. The wheel chair also gives him a lot of upper back and neck support. In his previous chairs, he tended to lean a lot towards his left side and was mainly looking up and slightly crooked when he was out of his room, socializing. Now he is sitting more upright and able to see straight ahead as opposed to at an angle. According to Ryan's parents, this has given him much more confidence. We really think that Ryan sees the world in a whole new light and this a huge sign of progress in his eyes. He's also becoming a social butterfly at Trinity with his new wheels. He loves game nights and has made several friends. Every time someone passes him in the halls, we hear a "what's up Ryan?" He'll quickly respond with "Hey, what's sup!" I want to reiterate that Ryan is able to move his legs and will hopefully be able to walk on his own again with continued physical therapy. He is simply too weak to walk at this stage. We all know he will get there as soon as he can.

Ryan is going to remain at Trinity for the time being. He might be switching to a different facility in the New Orleans area in the next few weeks. We will certainly keep you updated if and when he does move. His parents are still spending the majority of their time in New Orleans. Ryan is so blessed to have such an amazing and loving family who is by his side at all times.

Christmas with Ryan and Looking on the Bright Side

So, it has been awhile since the last post.  I hope that just means that all of you are eagerly awaiting on the edge of your seat with uncontrollable excitement for this post.  I'll do my best!


First, an update from Ryan's sister Regan who was joined by several of Ryan's family to celebrate Christmas with him in Slidell.  


"Erik, Katie, Dave, baby Wesley, Alec and my father and I all went to Trinity to have dinner with Ryan on Christmas Eve. We had the conference room there to ourselves and had a lovely dinner from a nearby steakhouse. Ryan was glad to get a steak and really happy to see everyone. Wesley provided entertainment with some impressive dancing on the table and all of us had some good laughs. Ryan seemed much better than the last time I'd seen him. He was clearly enjoying being with friends and family and laughed hard at the baby's antics. Ryan's hair was longer than I've ever seen it and he looked good. My mother was unfortunately not able to be with us because my grandmother had a stroke just before Christmas and my mother needed to be with her, but we did talk to both my mother and Granny, and Ryan wished them both Merry Christmas. When it was time to go, Dave (Ryan's brother-in-law) asked if Ryan wanted a kiss from him or Wesley and Ryan said as quickly and clearly as could be "Wesley!"


Photographic evidence: 





Additionally, I visited Ryan on Sunday to console him (let's be real, I wanted him to console me) on the Saints upcoming vacation schedule.  Jan and Ken, some very committed volunteers who have worked with PNOLA for several years running now and both are close with Ryan and worked on his house a lot last year also came with.  I continue to be impressed by Ryan's improvement over the past couple of months.  It was a great milestone when it became clear that Ryan knew who his family and close friends were (both recognized and remembered).  Jan and Ken are folks that Ryan worked with for 4-5 weeks a few years in a row and he immediately knew who they were and was able to place them in the hierarchy of his relationships very quickly. 


When we got there, Ryan was not in his room (his new roommate Jack(?) let us know he was in the lunch room).  When we walked into the lunch room, Frita was just helping Ryan get set up to chow down on some rice/meat type substance and he spotted us immediately and said hello from across the room.  After lunch we returned to Ryan's room so he could watch some tube while he waited to get back into bed from his chair.  While the leg cramps started to creep up again, this is the first time I have personally visited Ryan where he didn't yell out at all and only dropped about 15 f-bombs (down about 1000% ; )


Ryan found whatever they were saying on QVC to be hysterical (either that or he was laughing at us).  He was able to manage his pain and stay in the conversation and remain upbeat enough to laugh (let's be real, it was really more of a giggle).  Obviously, Ryan has the ability to look on the bright side, and offered me some advice.


When I brought up the Saints loss, he pretty quickly advised me to get over it.  Of course the Patriots still being in it make it easier for Ryan to come to terms with the Saints loss, but really what he was saying is that football is great no matter who wins or loses and knowing his dad was coming to watch the Giants/Packers game with him (neither team Ryan probably cares about) was very exciting to him.  


Ryan is alive in far more than a medical definition at this point.  I wouldn't say he is going to be able to carry on monologues any time soon, but it has become clear over the last several weeks that when you visit you aren't just talking at him and smiling/nodding but you're truly visiting and having a conversation.  To me, when I used to leave from visiting when Ryan was awake but you weren't sure if he was there, it used to make me miss him more.  When I left from visiting on Sunday I didn't feel like that for the first time.  I'm very excited to see what is in store in the weeks to come.


It has been more than 8 months since Ryan's accident.  Still fresh off of New Years I encourage each of you to think about all that Ryan has gone through in that time and send him a thought sometime this week.  He is definitely getting them.  


And look on the bright side - as long as they sign Brees there will be a next season!

Sadie Eats Gunpowder

Meredith and I visited Ryan on Tuesday afternoon, just in time to sit with him while he fired down some chicken fried steak and mashed taters.  To mirror the previous post, he looked better than I had seen him in a long time and was able to run several sentences together that all made sense...so we had a back and forth going.  The most amazing part to me was when Ryan rolled his eyes in disgust when I told him that Sadie was wearing a bandanna around her neck - something I think Ryan worries may soften her street cred ;)  Afterall, she eats gunpowder for breakfast.

Ryan still had the goatee going and was wearing glasses.  We brought him up some sweatshirts to wear as it gets colder so that he can still catch some fresh air throughout the day.  His level of discomfort was noticeably less than I had ever seen and really the whole visit had a different vibe to it than previous ones as far as his responsiveness and outlook.

I think it's awesome that Ryan's whole family is coming down for Christmas and now is the time to start sending some holiday cards to him (address is to the right on this page).  He doesn't have a lot of storage so don't get too crazy on buying stuff, but cards are good.  In lieu of presents (or in addition to!) I might suggest making a donation towards Ryan's needs.  Please email me at jim@pnola.org if you are interested in doing so.

A Great Visit with Ryan

This is a guest post from a good friend of Ryan's, Brett:

 "Frita was there when I got there, apparently she has been visiting him quite often as she lives in close proximity to Trinity. When I arrived, Ryan was sitting up somewhat in the bed, and immediately perked up when I walked in. I said, 'what's up' and extended my hand, and he said 'hi' and extended his in my general direction! He without a doubt knew who I was. I gave him a picture of us from our first Halloween in NOLA, he studied it, and (mostly) the girls we were with in the picture posing with us dressed as the Fembots on Bourbon Street (it was 2001, very topical ;). I asked him if he remembered the girls in the picture, whom we knew from school, and he said that he did. We talked about how he was feeling better, and he conveyed to me that his leg, which was previously having bothersome spasms was now seemingly much better than it was during my last visit. His leg was almost fully extended, and was noticeably improved, even to the untrained eye. He did not scream at all during my visit, probably because he was not experiencing any spasms. He sat there and named off the names of all of the people that had recently visited him, both friends and family from here and out of town. You could see the happiness in his face. All of these things are vast improvements from the last time that I had seen him. Trinity is no longer performing the rigorous physical therapy with him during the day, now they are doing some sort of 'hyper-baric treatment' so he was not as tired as he usually is in the evening, AND I think that Ryan is now on the same regiment as TO (he is focusing on his 'acting' career too ;). I'm sure that there are still good days and bad days however, it was good to see him attentive, responsive, and in good spirits."

 Sounds like one of the better visits in recent history! Thanks for the update Brett! Now that Ryan is coming along even better, I'd like to encourage everyone to go see him. I will be going there on Saturday so if anyone wants to carpool just email me: jim@pnola.org.

Ryan's Dad, Frank, had some other great pieces of news to add as well:

"Ryan’s whole family should be with him for a week at Christmas, as his sister Regan, her husband Dave and their baby Wesley, and his brother Erik and his fiancée Katy are planning to come down for a week.

Ryan seems to like receiving phone calls. Carol says that on the days she is at Trinity or on the weekends when we both are there she would be happy to have any of Ryan’s friends and acquaintances call Ryan by calling Carol’s cell phone, 504-317-0585, and she will put Ryan on. She is generally there three days a week, from 11am to 5:30pm central time and on weekends we are often there in the evenings.

Ryan is now independent enough to be taken to the dining room to eat his breakfast and lunch there with the other patients. "

That, along with Brett's visit, are incredibly encouraging to us all I'm sure!

Also, I am donating to Ryan for the Saints vs. Lions ticket, so there are only two more home games up for grabs. The Falcons on 12/26 has already been called dibs on, so really if you want to make a contribution towards Ryan's recovery and see the Saints road to the Superbowl while doing it then your last chance is the Panthers game, the last game of the season, on New Years Day!