One More Thing...

My dad has his shop set up on Etsy again!  Please go check it out!  Also, tell him to keep making more jewelry now that's he's home and has plenty of time to do it!!

Final Thoughts, Words of Appreciation and Love

I'm grateful beyond words as to how thankful I am that we all made it through this!  My dad is safe, happy, and on the road to getting healthy again!  (Kim, you gotta help that man put on some WEIGHT!)  There are still a few operations he needs, but they are on the horizon for now.  Right now my dad can just sit back, relax, catch up with everyone, and EAT EAT EAT to get back to his proper body weight again.  As all his friends on Facebook now know, he's back in the social networking game and can easily be gotten a hold of, so I think perhaps my writing on this blog here is done.

Thank you to all who helped my family though these difficult months, your kindness is forever engraved on my heart.  Friends, relatives, even strangers reached out to send my dad their love, compassion, donations, and support.  It's truly amazing.  I will never forget everything I've learned from this experience and will carry the lessons and the love with me always.

- Jess <3 

HOMECOMING!

The day has FINALLY arrived!  Victor has been released from the hospital!  And just in time to celebrate his birthday at home too!  YAAAY!  

I think this calls for a celebration...

 

My dad totally loves Ren & Stimpy.

 

P.A.P.A.S. Etsy Shop FINALLY Open!

 
 It has taken me MUCH longer than anticipated to finish getting the shop together, but it is finally up and running!  It wasn't really hard to set up, but the amount of attention to details is what tripped me up.  From photographing the jewelry, to writing product descriptions and calculating shipping costs, there was a lot to do!  I definitely admire all the people who are able to make a living off their Etsy shops; not only do you need the skills to create a craft/product/supply, you also need the skills to run a shop all by yourself, full-time!

Please take a moment to check out the shop, leave some feedback here, maybe find something pretty and fancy for yourself too!  All the jewelry featured is handmade by my dad!  He has not been able to run his shop since he's been in the hospital, so the last time I visited him I gathered up all his pieces to sell for him in my own store (which had previously been neglected for an embarrassing amount of time.)  Hopefully his own store will be back in business again soon; dad was just telling me how he couldn't wait to get back to making jewelry again!

Spending so much time working with his stuff has inspired me to get back to crafting again as well!  Expect to see some original pieces by me in there soon too!  (And if you don't, please harass me to get to work!!  hahaha)

All profits from the store will go directly to my dad, helping to aid him in any way possible to get back to health, get back on his feet, and get back home!  I cannot express enough how thankful I am for all the love, support, donations, time, effort, kindness.....(the list is endless!) shown by so many people.  Thank you everyone!  We are sooo close to seeing my dad get back home again!

Past-Due Health Update!

After long-last, Victor is finally well enough to start his rehab therapy!  He was moved to a new facility this week where he will be working toward being able to walk/move/function properly again!  Being stuck in a hospital bed for over 5 months and not being able to eat properly has really taken its toll on him physically.  My big, strong 6'2" daddy is now skinnier than I am!!  (Which reminds me, I need to be working out again.....don't judge!  hahah)  He has been back on a regular diet for a couple of weeks now which is helping him get back his strength and lighten his mood..... even though the cafeteria doesn't serve anything even remotely close to the meals promoted on the Food Network (my dad's new favorite channel).

From what we have been told, once dad has completed his physical therapy, he will be released from the hospital and will be able to come back home to El Paso!  Everyone is overjoyed that FINALLY his hospital stay has an end in site!  There will be a need for a few more procedures after he is released, but those won't take place until a couple more months down the line.  (More info on those later.)  Victor will hopefully be cooped up for only about 3-4 more weeks; I'll keep everyone posted on this as there is no set date right now.

That's all for now!  Much love to everyone.

What is P.A.P.A.S.?

Tired of feeling helpless and useless as my dad is stuck for months and months in a hospital bed over 600 miles away, I decided to put my brainface to work doing the things I do best:  rambling and interneting.  (Okay, I know I'm better at doing other things too, but this isn't the blog where I wax on and on about how fabulous I am hahaha!)  I needed an outlet for my emotions, a network to more easily share information with scattered family and friends, and (maybe, just maybe) a means for generating some income to help tackle his growing pile of medical bills.

The name P.A.P.A.S. was inspired by my dad's dog who is named, um, Papas (Spanish for potatoes) and my feelings of anger towards his malfunctioning organ (BAD PANCREAS!  BAD!  STOP BEING SUCH A JERK!)  I wanted something catchy and funny, as well as something that was relevant to my dad and his interests; thus P.A.P.A.S. was formed!!!  It's been a long, bendy road so far and every day seems to bring us something new.  It's hard living away from my family, but the internet has been a great way to help keep us close.  Victor has friends and family spread out all over the place, and I've come to realize I don't know even half of them!  My hope is that this blog will be shared many many times, connecting and informing all those people who care about him and want to know how he's doing.  So please share this with everyone!  I will do my best to update frequently about his current conditions, needs, goofy musings and general mischief making.....

If you have any questions, comments, or wish to send Victor cards, letters, etc., please contact me at:  to.victor.with.love(at)gmail(dot)com.  He has been moved from one ICU to the next, to different facilities, and back again!  He is still not really able to use the phone or send texts easily, so contacting me will ensure you know where they're currently stashing him and that he will receive all the love you wish to send him!  The donation button located on this site will take you to an account I set up specifically for my dad.  Anything and everything donated through that button and every item sold on my Etsy site will go directly to him.  Period.  I am committed to seeing my dad through this and doing whatever it takes to get him back on his feet.

So What's Wrong With Victor? (Pt.3)

There have been many more procedures since that super scary one that Victor has had to endure:  various abdominal drains, mainlines, various configurations of breathing apparatuses, feeding tubes, etc., and I had to get a phone call to approve every one of them!  (I designated a special ringtone for the hospital because I was practically getting anxiety attacks every time I heard my phone ring.)  All these things happening and yet the most stand-out operation was still to come.  [Side note:  I'm trying to document all these medical terms and procedures as accurately as I can remember them; I'll have this all double-checked if possible so as not to accidentally mislead or cause confusion concerning my dad's health.]

Dad had been teetering on balancing out after that initial operation until I received a call telling me the doctors felt they MUST OPERATE NOW OR ELSE!  (They needed to do the procedure AGAIN that scared us the last time!!!)  They had to go back in and try to physically remove the pseudo-cysts forming in his abdomen, as well as try to remove more of the dead pancreatic tissues.  His mortality was once again on the line.  "Can't the poor man ever catch a break?!" was on everyone's mind at this point.

We received yet another miracle that day thanks to the skilled hands of the surgeons working on my dad!  The surgery went as planned and they were able to remove a huge chunk of the dead tissues!  (Everything we kept hearing from the doctors was that they will try everything they can in order to NOT operate on the pancreas.  Apparently it's THAT volatile of an organ to deal with.)  The unfortunate part was that they were not able to fully close him back up due to his body being so inflamed/swollen, so he was left with a surgical mesh and a drain over the wound until he could properly be mended.

Slow but steady progress followed, he no longer needed to be intubated and had been given a tracheostomy instead.  (This was actually better because we were told it'd be less uncomfortable and he'd be able to talk with it when he was well enough; my dad not being able to communicate to us or the nurses had been a major concern.)  Soon there were less drains, less IVs, and real food brought for him to eat!  We finally started receiving text messages from him again and even phone calls!

Not being able to talk to my dad every day has been the second hardest part of all this for me.  (The first obviously is his life being in danger!)  I'm so thankful that so many family members and friends have visited him since he's been in Albuquerque; I can only be there so long at a time!  Plus, poor Kim fractured her foot recently, making it impossible for her to drive for the past few weeks! 

I just returned from my most recent trip about a week ago with my mom and am happy to report that Victor was eating, talking (when his energy level permitted), and had requested that we bring his guitar for him to play!  (He still was too weak to really play anything, but it was nice to see him doing something normal again.)  He'd been moved out of the ICU at UNM and placed in an acute care facility called Kindred.  He's scarily thin from basically not having any food for 3 months, but seeing him drink most of a frosty was encouragement that he's on the road to recovery!  (Don't worry, the nurse gave us permission to bring him some junk food to help entice him into eating more.)  He thinks everything tastes weird..... but we tried to convince him it was probably due to his non-eating since forever, the medications he's on, and the fact that he was, after all, eating hospital food! hahah!  (Sorry cafeteria people, I know you do the best with what you have!)  He still has the mesh covering the wound on his stomach, but the doctors say they will cover it with skin grafts as soon as it's healed the proper amount.

Unfortunately, we received some bad news on this most recent trip.  My dad's FMLA had run out and his company decided to fire him.  This means no more income and no more insurance.  *@$%&$#?!@#$&!!! Was all we could think at this point.

I feel ya, bro.

I admire that his boss drove to speak to him personally about this matter and how the man expressed how greatly disheartened he was that the company had made this decision, trying to reassure my dad he'd have his job back as soon as he was well.  But a terrible time had just gotten worse.  We were already in a financial crunch trying to make sure his normal bills were being taken care of and this was just the icing on the cake.  Thank goodness he is receiving long-term disability pay so that means he still has some kind of income, but this barely takes care of his regular bills and doesn't even begin to cover his medical ones. 


So this is where everything currently stands.  I got an emergency call from Kindred a few days ago that my dad had to be taken back to UNM due to complications of an infection that was highly resistant to antibiotics, but he is still on the path to getting well again.  Victor has a very long recovery road ahead of him; that skin graph still needs to be done, he's going to to need lots of physical therapy, and his body needs to kick out those stupid infections and abscesses!  We all hope he'll at least be able to come back to El Paso sooner than later and receive treatments closer to home, but right now he's still far too fragile for that.