A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Butch Parris. Butch is a long time member of the Rubio Family and his son, Ryan, is on the team at the University of Alabama. He notified me of a medical issue Ryan was having in Tuscaloosa. I offered to write this blog, so here we go.

Ryan needs some MAJOR positive vibes right now from the whole Rubio Long Snapping Family.

Here is the deal….

Couple weeks ago…The weekend of the LSU game this past season, Ryan started having vision and irritation problems in his left eye. It wasn’t the first time for something like that, he’s worn contacts for years and it happens occasionally.

This time though, it didn’t get any better.

To make a long story short, he has Acanthamoeba keratitis in his left eye. It’s a rare disease where an amoeba invades the cornea. It can result in permanent visual impairment or even blindness. It often takes 4 or 5 months to diagnose, but Ryan was lucky, it only took 2 months for him. Since the week after the National Championship game, he’s been visiting a cornea specialist in Birmingham once a week. During that time, he’s been on a strict regimen of drops that in some ways do as much harm as they do good.

We got some good news today, his vision, the irritation and the infection are all getting better. The biggest issue now is his cornea. Throughout this process, the irritation in his eye (in some ways exacerbated by the drops) has really been bad for his cornea. Today, the doctor put an amniotic membrane on his eye to a) slow down the damage being done and b) help the cornea repair itself.

If that membrane works, he should make a complete recovery. If it doesn’t, he’s going to need a corneal transplant. That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but it would most likely end his time playing football.

Today….But, he went back to the doctor yesterday and things have gotten worse. Right now, it looks like the infection has made a comeback.

It’s so bad, that when the doc held two fingers up two feet in front of him (with his right eye covered) he could only tell that her hand was there. He had no idea how many fingers she was holding up.

He’s going back to the doc tomorrow. If things aren’t better, it’s likely that he’ll have surgery on Thursday.

PLEASE keep the entire Parris family in your thoughts. This kid needs all of the positive vibes he can get right now.

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