Juan's Memorial and Funeral Fund

Hello friends, family, and generous strangers,

We recently lost our very loved family member, my dad, Juan Alvarez. Dad lost his final battle Feb 12th, 2022. He has been fighting for nearly half of his life now. He has been through so many trials and tribulations, and he has always taken them head on. Through illness and amputations, he showed strength, courage, perseverance, sacrifice, stubbornness, and pure will. He was a good man, with a hard work ethic, that he passed on to my brother and myself. My dad worked hard every day until he was physically unable to do so and retired early. He loved to eat and wasn't very picky, but he definitely loved Mexican food the most. This is his Fight.

Dad's very first trial, I would say, would come when he worked at H.J. Heinz Co. He worked there for many years from a relatively young age of 18 while attending college classes which he ended up not finishing to work full time until the plant closed. Dad would take it upon himself to figure out problems and get them fixed. During one of these times a machine stopped working properly and needed to be cleaned or un-jammed. When he was clearing it out it somehow was able to grab his right hand. He fought and struggled to free himself but in doing so ended up losing most of his thumb. He was very fortunate it wasn't the entire hand. Like he did, he pushed through and moved forward.

Some years later in his early 30’s he was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. This was especially hard for my dad because of his love for all kinds of food, but especially his all-time favorite, Mexican. Being that they were high in carbs and starches it was difficult for him to make the dietary transitions he needed to. Thus, making managing his diabetes hard for him. He made many attempts in controlling his Glucose (sugar) levels and still enjoying foods he loved. He tried portion control along with taking insulin. But struggled with maintaining a normal level of glucose in his body. It would be something he struggled with for the rest of his life. But he fought on, pushed through, and continued to move forward.

On Jan 31, 1998, H.J. Heinz closed down in our hometown of Tracy, Ca and Dad worked there until then. Afterward he started working at their sister plant, Escalon Premier Brands. He worked there full time year-round but the plant had a seasonal up-tempo which caused Dad to work long 12 or more hours a day, 7 days a week, for months at a time, as long as that season took. In 2006 during one of these seasons he developed a cut on his right toe. Being the stubborn hard-working man he was, and the thought of providing for his family driving him to keep working, he never went to see anyone about it. He feared the time off it would have caused during such a busy time at work and tried treating it himself. Suffering through the pain it was sure to have caused. Because by the time he fell ill and went to the hospital it had already turned gangrenous and the doctors said any longer and he would have died. They were forced to amputate below the knee. Although the physical and psychological impact on him was very heavy, my dad pushed on and eventually started working again. He was a tough man. He again fought on, pushed through, and continued to move forward.

Around 2012 Dad was diagnosed with Renal Failure, better known as kidney disease. It was at this point he was put on Peritoneal Dialysis. He started applying to be put on a kidney transplant list which had a 7-12 year waiting list. Peritoneal Dialysis is an at-home dialysis, where he had to have a bladder surgically placed inside his abdomen with a tube sticking out to attach to a machine that would perform the dialysis cleaning. After his long days of work, he would have to hook himself, later on when I came home for good from the Marines I would assist him, to the machine for 8-10 hours, every day. Anyone who has ever known anyone on dialysis knows how draining to a person's energy this is. Dad would work and come home to this every day. But Dad toughed it out, fought on, pushed through and moved forward.

Dad’s prosthetic limited his mobility quite a lot and would throw off his balance. One day this happened to him, and he made a bad step that ended up breaking his remaining foot. He endured through the pain adapted to this way and continued to work until eventually he was able to see a doctor about it, the healing process had already started. His options were to re-break the foot and put the bones right which was not a 100% guarantee or let it heal as it is and get used to it however it heals. The foot would eventually heal but it never healed right causing him to walk even more off balance and now with the assistance of a cane for light short distance walking and a wheelchair for anything longer. Dad pushed through and moved forward.

The physical mobility and the drainage of energy from dialysis would eventually catch up with Dad. He had to take periodic times off of work that would force him to use either his accumulated time off or disability. In August 2016, the year was very hot, and he would sometimes only leave the door open while I was at work to save money not using the A/C. On one of these days shortly after I came home from work, after my usual “It's freaking hot outside! Turn on the A/C!” everything seemed normal. Shortly after while trying to talk to him I quickly realized he was speaking funny, asking him different questions and getting the same reply just saying “yelp” I knew something was wrong and called an ambulance. Turned out that Dad was having a stroke. The hospital only kept him for at most 2 weeks before discharging him, which we felt wasn’t long enough. We were right because the day after he returned home while still confused and uncoordinated with him still being off balanced tried to get off the couch too fast and fell against the screen door frame and broke his back. For 3 months he would be in a hospital recovering from the broken back and the stroke. He taken back to Tracy hospital, then transferred to Sutter hospital in San Francisco where Mom would sometimes stay for a few days at a time with him. One of the staff or patient visitors ended up stealing her bank card during one of those times when they allowed her to use the hygiene room that had a shower in Dad’s room. Shortly after that incident he was transferred to Central Valley Specialty Hospital for the rest of his recovery and to start physical and speech therapy. Dad was back home in time to celebrate Thanksgiving and eat some good food he loved. But Dad lost a lot of strength, balance and coordination and now heavily relied on a wheelchair for more of his mobility. He was able to fight on, push through, and move forward.

Dad’s stroke took a hard hit to him, physically and mentally. He never fully recovered and his ability to fully communicate his thoughts in regular sentences made it hard for people to understand what he was trying to say. For all of that, he could not return to work anymore. He just wasn't physically able to do such a demanding job and couldn't properly communicate. Fortunately, his job he had been at for nearly 20 years gave him some leniency and allowed him to exhaust all of his time off, sick, holiday leave and as much disability it took to get him through the time, he needed to reach a point to grant him early retirement. Dad cared a lot for his job and his co-workers, and it took a lot for him to leave, but knew he wouldn't be able to return in his condition and did what he must. He now relied on his retirement check, which was a fraction of what he earned monthly, and disability social security as his source of income that he was used to working hard daily to earn. He adjusted, pushed through, and moved forward.

Sometime in 2018 his doctor started noticing that the peritoneal dialysis was not being as effective as it once was and should have been. With much convincing by 2019 dad had to switch over to Hemo-dialysis. They removed his abdomen bladder and placed a stent in his arm to begin his treatment. He could no longer do treatment at home and was put on a 3 hours a day, 3 days a week treatment at a dialysis center which he deeply did not want to do. The hemodialysis took a lot more of his energy and strength. As always, and like the tough guy he was, continued to fight on, push through, and move forward.

With all of Dad’s ailments and illness’ he always managed to keep a positive mindset and attitude. He fought through high blood pressure due to his kidney disease, loss of mobility due to his amputation and broken foot. Loss of appetite due strict dietary limitations and when he was on the peritoneal dialysis. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (thickening of the heart) and on blood thinners due to the stroke, and many other problems. He was in and out of hospitals, doctor appointments, lab testings, wound care visits, medical exams and tests, you name it. He toughed them all out and fought through all of it. He recently got a sore on his foot again and had a doctors appointment no earlier than Feb 22nd of 2022. On the night of Sunday Jan 16th Dad accidentally took his high blood pressure medicine he only needed when his blood pressure was extremely high. It dropped down very quickly and dangerously low and an ambulance was called. He stayed in the ICU for a couple days then was given a regular room. During his visit they learned his sugar was low, which was abnormal for him, his foot was infected, and he had an infection in his stool. They kept him for as long as they could and transferred him to the nursing facility next to the hospital. They monitored his sugar, blood pressure and infections. He seemed to be doing well and progressing but on Friday Jan 28th his sugar dropped dangerously low and having a hard time breathing. They immediately sent him across the parking lot to the emergency room and into the ICU. With all of his problems attacking him they found out he also was Covid positive and put him on a ventilator. After two Days in ICU, they were able to remove the ventilator and that Sunday night we were able to talk to him. He seemed to be making progress again. On Tuesday Feb 1st, my birthday, my mom got an update that he was doing good and going on dialysis treatment. A few hours after that we received a call from the doctor telling us to immediately go to the hospital. Dad went into cardiac arrest, and they were performing life saving measures on him. They performed CPR for 10 minutes before bringing him back. Dad was fighting for his life, and everything was attacking him all at once. The cardiac arrest had done enough damage and his brain was no longer fully functional. With minimal support, his body hung on and on Saturday Feb 12 we told him he no longer had to fight, he more than earned his rest. Dad passed and finally got to rest at 3:53 pm.

Dad was a tough man and took everything that was ever thrown at him head on. He was a good man, and he will be greatly missed and loved forever by everyone that was fortunate enough to know him. He was on limited income and did not have a life insurance policy. I know times are rough for everyone. If you can help in any way our family would greatly appreciate you helping us be able to push through and with a massive hole in our hearts, move forward.