Ray
Ray Ciccarelli is a former NASCAR driver from Maryland with Crohn's Disease. Growing up in Maryland, Ray and his older brother Dion dreamed of racing cars. Today, Dion is a rising star in the NASCAR Grand National Division, while Ray’s racing career is finally back on track after his dreams were derailed by the devastating symptoms of a disease.
Ray first experienced painful abdominal cramps and persistent diarrhea in 2001. His doctors attributed his symptoms to a poor diet and recommended a healthier lifestyle. Despite his best efforts to adjust, Ray knew things were getting much worse. In May 2002, instead of watching his brother compete in a NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway, Ray spent the entire weekend inside his home, unable to move due to debilitating stomach pains and constant diarrhea.
Ray’s symptoms persisted and became so severe that he lost 110 pounds in just four months. Fatigue and joint pain compounded his digestive complications forcing him to put his racing career on hold. His family began to suffer as well, as he could not work, race or fulfill his duties as a father to his two sons. Soon Ray had to avoid the simplest of everyday tasks out of fear of urgently needing to use the restroom.
After months of suffering, Ray’s mother urged him to go to the hospital, where he was finally diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. His gastroenterologist prescribed pills to control his condition during flare-ups, but Ray still struggled with the debilitating symptoms of his condition and the 22 pills that he needed to take each day.
Along with the severe physical problems, Ray’s illness exacted an emotional toll. Once happy, outgoing and social, Ray became increasingly withdrawn as his symptoms worsened. He also became completely debilitated and had to rely on family members for even his most basic tasks. The film shows how Ray has been able to not only get his racing career back on track, but most importantly, how he is able to spend more time with his family and be the father he has always hoped to be.
Read more about this topic: Innerstate, About The Subjects
Famous quotes containing the word ray:
“Our reason may prove what it will: our reason is only a feeble ray that has issued from Nature.”
—Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949)
“These facts have always suggested to man the sublime creed that the world is not the product of manifold power, but of one will, of one mind; and that one mind is everywhere active, in each ray of the star, in each wavelet of the pool; and whatever opposes that will is everywhere balked and baffled, because things are made so, and not otherwise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The gods are partial to no era, but steadily shines their light in the heavens, while the eye of the beholder is turned to stone. There was but the sun and the eye from the first. The ages have not added a new ray to the one, nor altered a fibre of the other.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)