Teresa was sick for the last 3 years. She had severe stomach aches and issues with her COPD that she had been diagnosed with in early 2017. Her illness began to worsen with each passing day. She was told by Doctor's, Nurses and Professionals in the Medical Industry that she had developed nervous disorders, like being depressed and she just needed to take something for the nausea and rest more. For 2 years she did what they told her only to wake up having to vomit and having diarrhea at the same time almost once a week. One doctor told her she was having panic attacks and it (THE REAL KILLER) was glossed over and never found or checked for. She developed a skin disorder on her lower right calf that looked like a burn but it wasn't - NONE OF THE DOCTORS knew what it was, and none of them bothered to have it checked.
Late 2019 the disease inside of her began to take a toll on her. She wouldn't eat because she couldn't. She stayed sick and every time we went to see a doctor, the ER or a clinic they said the same damned thing day after day. It is just your nerves and need to relax. Then came 2020 and she began to have the attacks at a higher level and longer duration. Hospital ER doctors never even found anything was wrong. Countless X-Ray's, CT Scans and MRI's revealed nothing.
Then in October of 2020 she began to have severe headaches followed by her left arm going into a throbbing painful spasm for hours. The ER diagnosed it as a pinched nerve, never minding that her left hand had drawn up and curled up so that she couldn't use it. A week later her legs began to go numb and we went back to the ER only to be told she was developing Neuropathy and nothing more. A week later on October 24th 2020 was the last day she ever walked again. She tried to stand up and walk but her legs buckled and landed her onto the floor of our home. I rushed to get her from the floor and back onto the sofa where we had been sitting. I took her to the ER that night and they again called it Neuropathy. six days later her face began to draw up on the left side and I feared a massive stroke. Again we flew to the ER and they hospitalized her for four days.
They determined it was a combination of all the other diagnosis of Neuropathy, pinched nerves, depression and Bells Palsy and told me to get her in with a neurologist as soon as I could. Nicky my oldest daughter and I worked night and day to wait and care for my wife while I called her primary doctor to help get her an appointment with a specialist, then the insurance company to help us and finally I called them myself. That started November 8th the day after she was released. I worked on how to get her help until I finally got mad and started calling all of them daily. She had to wait in pain for someone who would help her, and no matter how many times and people I begged, the so called medical experts ignored me and brushed me off.
3 days before Thanksgiving of 2020 I finally got one neurologist to agree to see her December 4th. As soon as he examined her he recommended she be hospitalized and again to the hospital we went. The test they did all had to be repeated, the results they had then were ignored and only because I begged them to not waste time on what was thought and instead prove what is causing her to suffer and wither. 7 days of testing and they came back with Neurosaracdosis. They were SURE it was the reason. They started her on high doses of steroids and other medications and released her on the 11th.
December 26th I had to rush her back to the ER and this time they kept her 7 days because she blood clots in her legs and chest. Still sure they were right they just treated the symptoms despite the two of us begging for help.
January 1st of 2021 I took her home and on the 3rd, the 6th and the 8th I had to take her to the ER only to be told she was compacted and her bowels were the issue.
On the 18th Of January I went off on 2 ER doctors and demanded she be hospitalized and that they search for what was about to take her life. My daughter Nicky had worked weeks assembling medical evidence they were wrong, I had done the same and it took a stubborn bull headed old man to get them back to table and revisit their diagnosis.
They did it and they redid so many MRI's, CT Scans, X-Rays and Blood test that she was black and blue and so weak. They installed a filter to prevent blood clots from getting into her lungs and then they decided to examine a lymph node in her right lung 10 days later we found out it was Small Cell Cancer, and they started Chemo on her less than 72 hour after they found out. 3 days of that and 5 more days of recovery and finally on February 10th they said she was well enough to go home for our anniversary.
We got home at 2Pm on the 10th, and went to her oncologist on the 12th at 4pm. That night at 9M on February 12th I had to take her back to the hospital with the same severe pain in her stomach and this time in her chest. She never came home again.
They told us that she had blood clots in her lung and pneumonia and that she was critical. For the next 5 days they worked to cure the pneumonia but couldn't on the night of the 18th they told me she had hours left. There was no hope so they told me and I refused to believe it at first. Then as I looked at the CT Scans and the xrays with the doctor I could see it was true her cancer had doubled, her right lung was shutting down and her left lung was filled with fluid as well. She was drowning in her own fluids and I couldn't stop it.
I felt like I had died. I wanted to die. I wish I had of because I had to be the one to tell my Soul Mate what was happening and watch her eyes dim and fill with tears like mine. Holding her as close as I can I could hear her laboring to breathe and whispering "no, no, no I don't want to leave you."
I asked her if she would pray and we did endlessly for hours and we held each others hand and the longer she went the harder that it was for her to draw a breath. She was in such pain my heart broken into a million pieces. She did not go gently because they told her she had 6 to 8 hours at 8Pm on the 18th. She fought like a true warrior angel and held on until Saturday at 11:22AM and there in my arms she left for heaven without me. She took half of my life with her and all the love I had and I never wept so much in my life since that moment.
She is my Hero. She showed me Love. She showed me Courage and She showed me true Valor in the face of death.