So What's Wrong With Victor? (Pt.1)

There's all kinds of things wrong with the man, but we try not to judge him!  HA!  I'm kidding.  My dad's perfectly fine if you love sarcasm, goofy faces, and lots of chocolate and coffee!  But he's not fine if you look at his medical records for the past 3 months...

Victor has been suffering from a terrible case of Pancreatitis.

He had suffered about 4 previous bouts of this ever since around 1995.  Each time he was hospitalized, the doctors couldn't identify the cause of it and he was released within a few days (longest stay was 9 days.)  Common causes of pancreatitis are alcoholism or gallstones, none of which were problems my dad suffered from.  He would just get these terrible, debilitating pains in his stomach, get taken to the emergency room, then released when the pain and inflammation went away.  My family never knew the damage his pancreas could do when he got another attack August 28, 2012.

He was working when the attack hit him; thankfully his job was within a hospital so he was able to check himself in immediately.  Routine treatments were given with the same inconclusive results.  His initial stay was longer than usual, but the doctors determined him well enough to be released after a month.  Thanks to my mom I was able to visit him at this time (being a broke, late twenty-something living in the Dallas area, it's hard for me to get out to El Paso as often as I'd like.)  He had been out for about a week and had lost around 20-30lbs, still weak and unable to do much more than chill in the house.  We had a good time being lazy together while he recovered and things seems to be going back to normal.  But the second day I was there, he started having some pain and a fever (symptoms the doctors warned us to monitor.)  Turns out I had to call the ambulance that night and after a 4hr wait in the emergency room, he was admitted once again into the ICU.

His condition quickly deteriorated, his pancreas spewing out toxic fluids to the rest of his abdominal area.  The staff at the hospital were at their limit of being able to treat him and were trying to get him admitted to UMC, the only hospital in town that could perform the draining procedure my dad desperately needed.  Unfortunately, their ICU was completely full.  So we waited.  They estimated it wouldn't be longer than 48-72hrs, but the beds in their ICU never opened up.  My dad got worse and worse, he was dying from this stupid illness that we had no idea could ever get him in this position in the first place!

It was a miracle (the first of many, I'm happy to report) that his fiancée Kim had a friend who is a doctor at UNM that was able to help get my dad admitted to their ICU.  (The doctors in El Paso were thinking about sending him somewhere in San Antonio, another hospital whose ICU was full!)  As soon as there was clearance for the transfer, my dad was airlifted to Albuquerque, NM.  The procedure was done almost as soon as he was admitted; Kim and I drove to Albuquerque the next day to be with him.