Please help Ivan with Medical & Living Expenses

On Monday June 30, my boyfriend Ernesto Ivan woke up experiencing some really heavy and continuous headaches, he took some pills to see if it would go away, but as hours passed they were still consistent.

He has never experienced anything like this and I noticed his left eye began to shut down.

TRIP TO THE ER:

I took him to the ER and they tried to calm his headaches with pills and even morphine, nothing was helping, not even to help him go to sleep. So the doctors decided to do a CT scan and also tried other medications which helped him finally rest and at least took some of the pain away, even if just a little. Moments later the doctor came back and told me they needed to to do MRI scan and that they will have to admit him since it was already 3:00am.

THE SCARY & UNEXPECTED NEWS:

The next morning I received a phone call from the hospital neurologist, she told me that they had reviewed the MRI results and they found something. She told me that Ivan has a tumor in his brain, she said it was big in size and that it is the reason his headaches were not going away, that it is putting pressure on his nerves and could also be the reason for his eye shutting down. The neurologist said that because of these complications the only treatment that may possibly help make the headaches go away is to perform emergency surgery, otherwise he would continue with these massive headaches and more complications as it continues putting pressure on his nerves.

I went back to the hospital to discuss our options, talking with the nurses, doctors, case managers. During this time Ivan was weak and was given strong medications, which he had to take every 4 hours,it didn’t completely take the headaches away but It helped minimize the pain.

WAITING FOR BED AVAILABILITY:

The hospital which he was currently in did not perform these type of procedures, which included the a specialty team of neurosurgeons. He the was then placed on a waiting list for various hospitals that had these types of surgeries, that meant waiting for bed availability.

After what seemed like forever, our prayers were answered and the nurse came in and notified us that they had finally found a bed for him, he will getting transferred to the Loma Linda University Medical Center that Thursday evening.

TUMOR DETAILS, CONSENT & CONSULTATION WITH DOCTORS:

The next day on Friday, a doctor came to tell us that the tumor is known to be called a Petuitary Adenomas. Because of the tumor’s size and location, it was putting a lot of pressure on the nerves located behind the nose in his brain. This was also affecting his vision, which is why the doctor mentioned that they will be preparing the surgery for that following Monday. He said they need to get a team together, as this was a complicated surgery that will include various medical experts that focused within the neurological region. During that weekend multiple doctors and medical experts kept coming in to his room, they were having him sign consent forms in addition to explaining the risks and complications that may occur during these type of procedures. Oncologists, EMT’s, Endocrinologists & of course Neurosurgeons we’re only some of the healthcare professionals that were going to be participating in his operation.

BEFORE SURGERY:

The day of the surgery Ivan was nervous but ready for the surgery. They took him in and four long hours later the surgery was done. The doctor called to tell me that the operation went great and as expected, no complications. He was placed in the recovery room and I couldn’t be happier to see his smiling face.

POST SURGERY:

Thanks to everyone’s prayers and the team of doctors and experts ❤️‍ everything went well and they were able to remove more than 90% of the tumor in his brain, in the following days of recovery they did more tests and told us the tumor is benign.

Iván is now in recovery and out of the hospital. He is in good spirits and very grateful for the extraordinary job the doctors did! Which is also Including the entire nursing staff that helped care for him during these past weeks. ‍⚕️‍⚕️

RECOVERY:

Because the tumor was exerting pressure on the optic nerve part of his brain, Ivan has developed some vision problems, he is experiencing blurry and double vision primarily affecting his left eye, which means he can only open one eye at a time. Prior to the surgery, the doctors had mentioned that the eye problems that he was experiencing may or may not necessarily undo what was already happening to his vision. But only time and therapy will tell if this can get better.

Ivan is a determined and very hardworking person with a big heart, he is the type of individual that helps so many around him and expects nothing in return. Although this has affected his everyday life, this set-back is definitely not keeping him down, it is only making home stronger and appreciate life even more. Please continue to send your prayers and positive thoughts his way.

LET’S HELP IVAN GET BACK ON HIS FEET...

We hope that these donations will help minimize the stress of any upcoming and unexpected medical necessities that he may have, as well as every day living expenses. We hope that he soon is able to regain his total eyesight and get back to being his normal self, so that may then be able to drive again and get back to work, as he so eagerly wants. 

Any donation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all and I will keep updating this site on his recovery and progress.