As each of you decide to become part of my streaming community, I want you to know how and why I started streaming and to let you into some of my personal life. During the recovery stages of 2018, I found myself able to play games from time to time. I also found myself watching some of the more renowned streamers play games. It was at that point I knew that I wanted to stream. I have always loved playing games and play them with an exceptionally high skill level. I have dreamed of being able to play on a big stage and have others watch me play. The best part? I can do it from my home no matter my health status! I have struggled to get everything together, but I can now proudly say that I can stream my gameplay for others to watch and become a large online community where we can become a family. I thoroughly enjoy playing games and socializing with people in the chat whether it’s about tips for improving gameplay or just good ol’ conversation. In the Reaper’s Syndicate, we aim to make a positive impact in the lives of those around us. Anyone is welcome! Without further adieu, I will jump right into the darkest year of my life: 2018.
As the new year began, I had been battling an infection for 4 months at that time. As I thought I was winning the battle, life decided otherwise. I had been seeing the same doctor that thought they had resolved the issue, but when I went back to them and asked for another MRI to see if the infection was back (fever/sweats/chills/excruciating pain in my leg), I was denied- not once, but three times. I know my body best and due to the inadequate attention from the doctor, time took its toll as the infection annihilated my system.
In early February, I was almost incapacitated at work with a 104* fever and was septic due to the infection spreading. The original diagnosis was a hard and crystallized abscess deep inside my inner right groin muscle. The culprit? Staph aureus. I NEVER get sick and live a pretty boring lifestyle- work, eat, sleep, repeat- so this was a pretty big shock. Since the infection was not superficial, there were never any signs other than the tremendous amount of pain I would have when moving my leg in addition to the fever, sweats, and chills. I made it to an Urgent Care where I pleaded for the doctor to listen to my medical history from the past 5 months. The doctor obliged after she ran a few tests and listened to my story. I was sent to the local ER with an authorization for an MRI. I found out this month was the start of a very long series of surgeries and the most brutal and critical time of my life.
The ER performed the MRI and found not 1 but 2 crystallized abscesses and a second bacteria: enterococcus faecalis. This bacteria was picked up from an aspiration performed in a non-sterile operating room at the first medical facility in 2017. The kicker? Both abscesses were 300% larger than the original finding. The dismissal of my request from the original doctor caused the infection to grow to a very large size. I was immediately transported and admitted to another local hospital where a trauma surgeon agreed to perform the I&D (incision and drainage) of my right hip to clear the infection from my system. It was considered a risky procedure due to the location of the abscesses being right up against my femoral artery- which is why the first facility denied surgery and opted for an aspiration.
The trauma surgeon performed the I&D and nearly cleared 200cc of infection from the abscesses. At this point, they confirmed that bacteria A was MRSA (methicillin-resistant staph aureus) and bacteria B was enterococcus faecalis. At the time, I was not aware that this meant many weeks of IV antibiotics through a PICC line in my left bicep. Due to the bacteria, I was signed up for an 8 week regiment of vancomycin and rocephin. I was soon released from the hospital with hopes that everything was finally over with and I was on the track to recover. It was only a few days before those hopes were crushed...
Within days of having the surgery, I started to turn for the worse. As I had feared, the time wasted from the original doctor by denying me a MRI, had allowed the infection to spread. I started regressing and I specifically remember on a Thursday night standing from my recliner to use the restroom. As I stood up, it felt as if my femur was going to split in two. As the morning came, I was in more pain than what I had been in yet. I proceeded to go to work and it got to the point I was in so much pain, I begged my wife to find a wheelchair on Facebook Marketplace so I would not have to walk. By the end of my shift, I was completely debilitated and unable to walk unassisted. As I finally pulled into the driveway at the house, I practically fell from the vehicle and crawled approximately 20 yards to the stairs into the house where I had to crawl up the stairs. The pain was excruciating so I called out to my wife to help me get the rest of the way into the house. I was scheduled for another MRI a few days later.
Some of you may have had really uncomfortable conversations in your life. It’s not always what you want to hear, especially when involving loved ones and their health. At my MRI result appointment, I was told I was losing my hip at 27 years old. The infection had spread to my acetabellum and femur neck. The bone was no longer full but hollowed and almost sponge-like- hence the incredible amount of pain while standing/walking and the sensation it was going to split in two.
March 27, 2018. A day I will never forget. The day I lost my hip at 27 years old. I played multiple sports throughout my life, including baseball at the collegiate level. I was now depressed with the thought that anything and everything to do with an active lifestyle was thrown away. My livelihood eliminated from choice at 27 years old. And I was unaware that this thought was nothing compared to the mental AND physical challenges shortly down the road ahead. On March 27, 2018, I had an excisional arthroplasty of the right hip. This is not a hip replacement. Additionally, the surgery did not go well. After the pelvic bone was reamed to clear out infection, the joint would not stop bleeding. They were unable to implant a temporary stabilizer that would allow me to gingerly stand and move about. To keep the blood loss minimal, I was sewn together and waited to awaken in recovery. I was now missing the connecting piece from my femur to my hip joint, approximately 3” of bone or so. After everything I had been through up to this point, I was now entering the darkest and most challenging time of my life.
It is an unfathomable thought to try and put yourself in my shoes at this point. I have a very high pain tolerance and the pain was constant and unbearable. I was forced to try and move and continue life with nothing but soft tissue, that had completely atrophied to the size of my bicep due to infection eating away everything around it, connecting my leg to my torso. As I would slightly move or stand the femur bone would drop and force my leg to stretch downwards and it would rubber-band back up and grind on my pelvic bone. If you have never felt bone grind on bone, thank goodness. It is a very nasty and awkward moment that causes pain. At times when my leg would rubber-band, it would seem as if my knee was going to separate from the femur or lower leg bones. No matter the position, movement caused extreme amounts of grief. So you would think if I sat still that everything would be okay? Me, too.... Unfortunately, I was wrong. As the 6 weeks progressed, I found myself sitting as still as I possibly could only for my femur to make its way to the back of my buttocks. The stinging pain was always nagging in my mind. I could not find relief unless my wife was able to come by on her lunch break and pull my foot 4-5 inches out from my body. Yes... my leg would slowly absorb itself into my body from the remaining muscle being stronger than the soft tissue until the point I could reach around to my buttocks and feel my femur bone pushing the skin outwards. As awful as that may seem, it was not the worst part.
All this time after this surgery, I am constantly forcing antibiotics into my body and having to be visited my home health nurses that had to stick me for weeks and weeks because my PICC lines would constantly clog and not allow blood to be drawn. The craziest part of all of this? Trying to use the restroom. A few days after having my hip removed, I finally met the discharge requirements and painfully struggled to get to the house. Sunday was a planned day of celebration where I was going to get to eat a steak and socialize with family. Due to the intake of pain meds, I had not had a bowel movement in several days. It was about that time so I requested assistance and was helped up out of the chair. All I had to do was simply rotate 90* and sit on a bedside toilet to try and use the restroom. The most challenging and fear-bringing task in my life, to this date, was trying to use the restroom during this time. As I would try and sit, the femur bone would not move with my body and would try to come out of the front of my groin as well as the bone would drop and move around and grind on my pelvic bone. In all seriousness, it would have been easier to simply use the restroom on myself and ask for someone to clean me- pride simply would not allow that as I was already taxing on all of my family members’ lives as it was. My father-in-law was trying to help steady my leg as I slowly tried sitting on the chair and what happened next was easily the most painful event in my life. The femur rested on the seat of the chair and was forced up and over my pelvic bone into my groin. The bone was trying to break through the skin where my reproductive parts were. I screamed as loud as I ever had in my life. Nothing we did was helping. I pressed myself up with my arms and held myself for what seemed like an eternity until the ambulance got back to the house. The only option... reverse what just happened. With my pants half down, two men grabbed me and picked me up from the chair and laid me on a stretcher. I let a second bellow out that undoubtedly echoed the entire neighborhood. Back to the hospital I went...
This unfortunate event landed me in a rehabilitation center after 5 additional days in the hospital. I was to be transferred in order to learn to “cope” with life as it was now fit. 13 grueling days of PT and doing activities on my own prepped me to hop approximately 480 feet on 1 leg. Sound easy? Go ahead. Try and hop that distance with unconditioned leg muscles that have been softening for the past 6 months. I achieved this solely off determination alone- we’ll get to that soon enough. I wound up “graduating” after 13 days and was released back to the house.
Fast forward tons of antibiotics and needle pricks for blood drawings and suicidal thoughts and family rushes to keep me from harming myself, I finally made it to May 12, 2018. On this day I finally received my hip. I had a total right hip replacement. I have a ceramic ball with a Stryker implant. The materials for new ‘femur heads’ is not like buying a car. There are pros and cons for each of the very limited types. In my case, being 27, I elected the more brittle ceramic ball that will last 60 years and allow a more active lifestyle as opposed to a metal ball that is more durable on impact but not as smooth of movement and only lasts 20 years. I obviously did not want to go through this again any time soon. The surgery went well and I was up and walking for the first time in a little over 2 eternities, a.k.a. 6 weeks. Once again, I was discharged with hopes of never returning. This was surgery 3 of 6 for the year.
As someone who has worked hard in life to achieve goals in life and to be the best I can be, I was determined to begin working as soon as I had my 2 week appointment and was cleared. I had scheduled to begin working the Tuesday after Memorial Day. From the time of surgery to the weekend of Memorial Day, I had 2 instances where I was having excruciating pains in my mid-lower back and my stomach. For one of them, I had the paramedics come to the house to check on me before denying a return trip to the ER. My wife and I loaded up and drove 100 miles to my parents house to be with family, celebrate surviving everything up to this point, and pay respects to the holiday. It was Sunday night at 10pm when the terrible pains came back. I tried for hours to rid myself of them. I sat there rocking back and forth questioning my very existence in this life and why must I keep fighting through setback after setback, writhing in pain and in tears. I finally caused enough commotion that family came to me. After throwing up and clinching on to what seemed the very last bit of life left in me for hours, we loaded up and drove an hour and 45 minutes to my hospital in case the pains were associated with my hip/leg surgeries. Turns out, it did not directly involve my leg.
We arrived at the ER approximately 6am that Monday morning. I had to go over what seemed like an exponentially increasing medical history that was absolutely minimal up until this point in my life. A few scans later and the problem had been identified. My common bile duct was supposed to be approximately 2.7mm in circumference. I was on the losing side of 11mm. My bile duct was clogged so bad, it was 400% the size that it should have been. At this point, I knew the routine and said just fix it. Tuesday rolled in and I had what I believe was called an ERCP. The surgeon went down my throat, through my stomach, and unclogged the bile duct, and was done. While I was still out, they checked my gallbladder. What was supposed to be a reservoir for excess bile was turned into complete stone. Wednesday I had my gallbladder removed laparoscopically. Just to lighten the mood at this point, if you ever have to choose whether or not you get a hip replacement or gallbladder removed, hip replacement was a much smoother recover than the gallbladder. You can’t laugh, eat, drink, breathe, lay on your stomach, or simply move the wrong way for weeks after gallbladder surgery. Brutal! I missed the remaining week for work but was discharged once again from the hospital.
As recovery began to look brighter and brighter, I was slowly getting stronger and healthier. I had to continue the antibiotics through the PICC lines with the exception that they removed the one in my left arm and put a new one in my right arm. I continued the IV antibiotics for almost a total of 25 weeks. Late July, towards early August, I finally had all of the PICC lines removed and graduated to oral antibiotics “for life”. Due to the robust bacteria that had developed in my body, I have to combat it with oral antibiotics for at least 2 years to make sure we win the battle. Luckily, I have moved from 2 meds to 1 for the next year. At this point, life is looking up and I was more focused than ever at the light at the end of the tunnel. That light goes by Amelia Jane and is my precious baby girl. She doesn't know it yet, but she saved my life multiple times.
I fought su***de and physical harm to myself primarily through the 6 weeks nothing was connecting my leg to my torso. I was also extremely ill due to all of the pain I was constantly in. My wife, Melissa, never faltered. She was there, by my side, the entire time- while pregnant with our baby girl. She spent countless nights in the facilities with me and we had only been married a few months. She is the only woman who I’ve known to truly love me unconditionally and wholly. For that, I owe her my life as she also helped save me from the darkness. When darkness clouded my judgment, when the devil was wrapping his hands around my soul, my wife and unborn baby girl always fought back the darkness for me. Even in the darkest times, there was always light. Because of them, I’m here today as a loving husband and father.
9/21/2019 my baby girl took her first breathe 3 weeks and 5 days ahead of schedule. She was snatched away from her mother and father (after a record setting delivery of 6.5 pushes from her Momma), and was taken to the NICU until her breathing and O2 stats stabilized the next day. As she was what got me through my difficult times, I was there for here. She was very bad jaundiced and had to stay on a bilibed. Thankfully, AJ fought the jaundice and was able to stabilize her breathing patterns over the next week. She is now very healthy, my entire world, and has me wrapped around her finger.
As 2018 was winding down, I had made it through the darkest time of my life, minus a few parts of me. Since August of 2017, I had been limping and walking incorrectly due to the pain and abscess(es). November rolled around and I was no longer able to contain the pain. Another trip to the surgeon and a knee scope later, I had been walking around with a partially dislocated kneed cap either from walking incorrectly or from when my leg was rubber-banding and I felt it was dislocating itself. In the grand scheme of things, this surgery was minor and I was discharged the same day. Since then, the inflammation has gone down and I have a positive outlook on the journey ahead with my wife and my baby girl.
-Jacob Woodley
*If you are experiencing struggles and difficulty with life. Please talk to someone about it. I overcame everything I did with the help of others. Together, we fought through the darkness and I know you WILL, too.*
