JTS 2013

For the past 3 years the guys in Ryan's family have gotten together for their annual JTS Tournament. The JTS came to be known after Ryan and his cousins on his moms side of the family all lost their dads. JTS stands for James, Tom and Steve. All of their dads names. They all try to get together on Fathers Day weekend and go down to the cabin for just the weekend. Guys only. They invite their friends, they have a little fishing tournament that they do. They just hang out and do whatever it is that they want to do. They always have a blast and always have the best stories when they come back. This is something they talk about for months after, even leading up to the next years tournament - they start way in advance emailing each other funny stuff and talking crap to each other as to who will win this year, etc. They literally love doing this.

This year it was postponed due to a few people being out of town. When they finally were able to plan it - it was the last weekend of June. I think every year they are going down earlier and earlier too! haha. They left Friday morning! At like 9am! They were anxious. They even had t-shirts made this year, a big banner and a few other things. I believe there were suppose to be around 20 of them down there at one time - including Ryans friends that were just going to stop by for a bit.

That Friday night I was at a skin care party with one of my girlfriends. We had just got started and Ryan called me. Every other word was cutting in and out. I only got Halo Flight and Allen(his moms boyfriend) at first. I got a little worried, but figured that they were just being safe calling halo flight because it sounded like Allen fell off the pier. I didn't hear back from him for about an hour or so. When we finally called me back I still had a hard time hearing. Literally we always get service at the cabin and it was terrible service that night. I was the only person they could get. Ryan then told me Allen dove off the pier head first into the shallow water and broke his neck. I got as much information that I could with the broken phone call I was on. I then had to call his mom and everyone else here to let them know what was going on.

It took the coast guard over 3 hours to reach him. Miscommunication or something. The guys did an amazing job while waiting for help. They all immediately came home Saturday morning. We headed to the hospital.

I am a type of person that doesn't think anything is really that bad. I down play a lot and I really try hard to no get worried or assume bad stuff. I always think everyone will get better, or get healed. My mind doesn't think the other way.

I didn't realize how bad it really was until we were at the hospital hearing from everyone what the doctors were saying, etc. He was in ICU for 2 weeks and he just got moved to a transitional hospital where he still needs that hospital care but not being in an actual hospital. He still doesn't have any movement below his shoulders and just got a trach put in. He was intubated for 2 weeks. He still can't talk. I could not imagine lying there knowing what is going on around me but not able to move or speak. How horrible. My heart hurts so badly for him and his whole family. For Gaye, for everyone involved.

Every day is going to be a new day. We don't know what the outcome will be. This is going to be a very very long recovery. We are praying for full recovery. Full usage of arms and legs. We know it doesn't look good, but Doctors are wrong all the time. we just keep staying hopeful! This has to be extremely hard and painful for him.