Hello, my name is Ryan Ouellette, and I wanted to give you a little background on me. Life has not been easy for me since I was a young child. I was hit with bombshells at a young age. I grew up fast when things started to happen to me. At the age of 10 the doctor told my mother and I that I only had six months to live. I was sitting next to my mom playing my game boy. I was so scared I didn’t know what to do, I thought I was going to die.
Then I met a specialist, Dr. Amto in Bangor and they had to do a muscle biopsy on my leg. I was scared to find out what it was. They told me I had Beckars Muscular Dystrophy (MD) which is breakdown of the muscles.
After hearing the results, we went through Make A Wish Foundation where we ended up going to Disney Land. There was me, my mom, my sister and my dad. The reason we went was because the doctor knew I was scared.
At the age of 12 I got hit again. I was hunting with my dad and I got the worst stomach pain in my life, I went to the ER and then I was admitted to the hospital. I went in on Monday and they could not find what was wrong so I had to stay until Friday. When they came in and said we’re going in. While I was under, I saw my grandmother that had passed away not long before and she told me that it was not my time. When I woke up, I found out it was my appendix. If they would not have done the surgery I would have died. At that time, I was called a miracle.
At the age of 14 I got hit with another thing I had; it was diabetes. I was always sleeping a lot and would wet the bed; I had blurry vision so I went to see Dr. Pennorrow he was one of the best doctors ever. Then he told us we had to go to Bangor ASAP because I could go into a diabetic coma as my blood sugar was over 721. We did not have the money to go to Bangor and my mom was freaking out, but at this point in my life it had hit me so hard that I was a rock and learned to stay calm. Dr. Pennorrow went to shake my mom’s hand which he had place a $100.00 bill for us to go to Bangor. I got a crash course and was sent home.
I then went through High School, but I did not let anything get me down at this point. Giving up was not part of me. I would push through whatever life threw at me even with a cane. I worked at the FFA farm stand, picked vegetable with a cane. I did skill USA where I did a crime scene investigation competition where I was the team leader. We were told by our instructor not to get our hopes up as we did not have as much prep time as other teams, but you don’t tell me that. We went on to get third place. We were the first team to place in this event at our school.
I went to diabetic camp and event went on a hike up a mountain, it was hard with a cane but I did it.
I then continued my career by going to NMCC and UMPI. Received my degree in accounting, and minor in film.
Then my MD started to get worse, more muscles breaking down now. I was falling a lot and then was having to use the walls to support me so I would not fall. I ended up in a wheel chair approximately 5 years ago after losing a lot of my mobility. This was extremely hard on me because I felt I had to rely on my mom so much. It did get me down, but if you are down you got to keep going.
Now I collect WWI, WWII, and Civil War guns. I also do gun smithing on them to keep busy. I do a lot of gaming just to keep my mind going.
At this time, I am even more limited because I am having a hard time transferring myself into and out of the vehicle. I would be in great need a handicap accessible van for an easier way to get in and out of the vehicle. On the low end of these vehicles, they have a price tag of $50,000.00 which is out of the price range of affordability for me. At this time, it is getting to be a bigger struggle for me as MD seems to be progressing. I need to get to my appointment but I am struggling to get in the van we own now as it is not wheel chair accessible. Would you please join me in my fight as I will never give up fighting for myself. Any donation would be greatly appreciated no matter how small. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Family and friends of Ryan Ouellette are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with Catastrophic Illness.
Ryan has chosen to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility for contributors. Contributors can be sure donations will be used to pay or reimburse medical and related expenses. To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, click on the Give button.
For more information, please contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.
Thank you for your support!
