Maria & Ruben Riera Wellness Fund
Donation protected
Ruben and Maria Riera have been married for over 15 years and their life was complete and fulfilled with their 3 beautiful children, 13, 5 and 2 years. Things could not be better but on February 2015, after symptoms of jaundice, itching and dark brown spots on his skin, Ruben was diagnosed with a rare form of gastric cancer, Ampullary cancer. It was just so rare and strange as to how a young healthy man, father, son, brother could have been diagnosed with this cancer.
Ruben had never had any serious health issues and he had his yearly routine in December 2014.
This is a cancer that arises from the Ampulla Vater, the ampulla vater is a nipple like projection into the duodenum into which the pancreatic and bile ducts open. Even after reading into the diagnosis of his cancer, Ruben could not believe that this was happening to him at 42 years of age.
Weeks after been diagnosed, he underwent a 12 hour surgery, Whipple Surgery, to remove this cancer, parts of his intestine, pancreas and bile ducts were taken. One week in the hospital. The biopsy results came back and he had 8 lymph’s nodes positive and he had stage IV Ampullary Cancer. His painful journey began.
Two months after surgery, he went in for a scan and it was found metastatic growths in his liver. A port was placed and he started chemotherapy in the summer of 2015. At first it helped reduce the size of the spots but eventually a new chemotherapy was started because it was not killing those cells. In March of 2016, he had radio embolization to his liver and now new spots appeared in his lungs. A 3rd type of chemotherapy was started on June and a 2nd radio embolization was done to his liver. Part of his liver was killed by this procedure.
But in August 2016, he developed an infection that put him in the hospital for 2 weeks and a catheter was placed to the liver. He went home with IV antibiotics for 3 more weeks. Mid of September he developed another infection and another inpatient visit, more antibiotics.
Finally in October he was able to restart chemo and after 3 weeks of it, he developed another severe infection and he ended up in the ICU with sepsis. After almost 2 weeks in the hospital, without remembering much of it, he was sent home with more IV antibiotics. One week at home and he started feeling sick again and came back to the hospital and he had an antibiotic resistance bacteria, VRE.
His port was removed, more and stronger antibiotics given. Per doctors he would have to have his liver catheter indefinitely since he is prone to more infections and this could help him avoid another sepsis.
The sad outcome of this is that he is not able to have chemotherapy anymore because of the risk of severe infections due to the anatomy of his stomach and his week immune system.
At this moment, his oncologist is recommending 2nd opinions at Mayo or U OF M for other treatments that could help him. Maybe immune therapy or trials. His prognosis is not good. Without chemo, there’s not much hope but to leave it to God’s hands and find something else that can help him.
His main priority and worry is his children. He talks about all the things that he wants to do for them but because of his condition he is not able to. He talks about their future and what it would be if he was not around. Ruben is somehow optimistic but he is also realistic about his future.
Ruben had never had any serious health issues and he had his yearly routine in December 2014.
This is a cancer that arises from the Ampulla Vater, the ampulla vater is a nipple like projection into the duodenum into which the pancreatic and bile ducts open. Even after reading into the diagnosis of his cancer, Ruben could not believe that this was happening to him at 42 years of age.
Weeks after been diagnosed, he underwent a 12 hour surgery, Whipple Surgery, to remove this cancer, parts of his intestine, pancreas and bile ducts were taken. One week in the hospital. The biopsy results came back and he had 8 lymph’s nodes positive and he had stage IV Ampullary Cancer. His painful journey began.
Two months after surgery, he went in for a scan and it was found metastatic growths in his liver. A port was placed and he started chemotherapy in the summer of 2015. At first it helped reduce the size of the spots but eventually a new chemotherapy was started because it was not killing those cells. In March of 2016, he had radio embolization to his liver and now new spots appeared in his lungs. A 3rd type of chemotherapy was started on June and a 2nd radio embolization was done to his liver. Part of his liver was killed by this procedure.
But in August 2016, he developed an infection that put him in the hospital for 2 weeks and a catheter was placed to the liver. He went home with IV antibiotics for 3 more weeks. Mid of September he developed another infection and another inpatient visit, more antibiotics.
Finally in October he was able to restart chemo and after 3 weeks of it, he developed another severe infection and he ended up in the ICU with sepsis. After almost 2 weeks in the hospital, without remembering much of it, he was sent home with more IV antibiotics. One week at home and he started feeling sick again and came back to the hospital and he had an antibiotic resistance bacteria, VRE.
His port was removed, more and stronger antibiotics given. Per doctors he would have to have his liver catheter indefinitely since he is prone to more infections and this could help him avoid another sepsis.
The sad outcome of this is that he is not able to have chemotherapy anymore because of the risk of severe infections due to the anatomy of his stomach and his week immune system.
At this moment, his oncologist is recommending 2nd opinions at Mayo or U OF M for other treatments that could help him. Maybe immune therapy or trials. His prognosis is not good. Without chemo, there’s not much hope but to leave it to God’s hands and find something else that can help him.
His main priority and worry is his children. He talks about all the things that he wants to do for them but because of his condition he is not able to. He talks about their future and what it would be if he was not around. Ruben is somehow optimistic but he is also realistic about his future.
Organizer and beneficiary
Oliva Ortiz
Organizer
Minneapolis, MN
Maria Riera
Beneficiary