Please help save my father, Ramon Rosado

Caye Caulker and friends abroad, it’s your friendly neighborhood councilor Ilya again.

A few months ago, my family and I were forced to go down a difficult path. My dad, a diabetic, received a tiny injury on his foot which turned into a major infection that seeped into his bones and almost cost him his life. The infection was untreatable in his foot and he had to have his toes and a part of his foot amputated. We were not sure how much this procedure would cost, but we were quite sure that we would not be able to afford it. I can still remember the sense of hopelessness, the desperation and the resentment that we had to find the funds to permanently remove a piece of my father’s limb. 

Through the kindness of friends and my community at home and abroad we received more help than we ever thought possible and he was able to get the procedure before the infection did more damage to his body. However no one, not even the doctors, anticipated how difficult his journey to recovery could be.

Over the past few months his sugar levels have varied between extremes as his body began to respond to his treatment. On several occasions, we have had to rush him to the emergency room as the medication pushed his blood sugar to dangerously low levels and he became unresponsive. I can recall each incident clearly, as we were forced to watch someone who I know to be so strong willed, sturdy, and focused spiral into a drooling state of incoherent partial unconsciousness. We learned the hard way that his sugar must be checked constantly and we decided that we would only give him his diabetic medication when his sugar levels spiked to dangerously high levels. The doctors have explained to us that if it were not for our timely action, he would have lapsed into a coma that he would have never returned from.

I never understood why some people dislike hospitals, until now. We have visited the emergency room so many times for so many desperate situations that it is hard for me to feel hopeful when I’m there. A short while after learning to manage his sugar, my mom woke me in the middle of the night saying that he was in agony, and we rushed him to the hospital to discover that the very medication that was supposed to help him recover was wreaking havoc on his stomach. So we had to spend close to a week at the hospital and had to spend over $10,000 to help his stomach.

We keep fighting, we still grasp at hope and we still continue to push forward. However the story and the challenges have become far worse and far more disturbing. A few weeks ago, after being trained to change my father’s bandages and clean his amputation wound, I returned from work to do his daily bandage change, and my father did not recognize me. He didn’t know my name. Just a few months ago, I thought that becoming accustomed to looking at an amputation sight would have been the most difficult thing my family and I ever had to do. I was wrong. I’m honestly driven to tears every time I think about that moment. Having to explain to my dad, the man who taught me to read, who I am.

I honestly don’t know how much more I can take mentally without losing it, but I have to keep pushing because I refuse to live in a world where he does not exist, or where I did not do every single thing in my power to get him back to his old self. After rushing him to the hospital and having him stay there for several nights at a time for the past few weeks doctors now believe that his mental confusion is caused by low sodium, however, they have no idea why it keeps falling. After spending over $45,000 for his amputation, over $30,000 for his recovery and $20,000 over the last few weeks of stays it is hard for me to envision any way out.

During his stays, the doctors have managed to bring his blood sodium levels back to normal and for a few brief moments after we brought him home he has been coherent enough to hold long conversations and recognize people and read his favorite books again.

After so much spent and so much time at the hospital we still have no permanent solution to his dropping sodium levels and doctors still cannot explain or find the cause or stop it from happening. Every time I’m with him now, I’m close to tears, when he is himself he keeps apologizing for being sick and I keep telling him that there is no need for him to be sorry. When he is not himself, and I have to watch him struggle to form words, I cannot keep the tears from falling, I try to hide them from him but he keeps asking me why I’m so sad and if I have been having nightmares, as if he thinks I’m a kid again after running to his room him in the middle of the night after a bad dream. I wish it was just a bad dream, but I’m a man now, just as he taught me to be, and I will be the man I need to be to save him and my family even if it is the last thing I do.

We’re at the point now where helping him has become unsustainable. He now slips in and out of confusion, and trying to help him has become a full time job. After two of my brothers received threats of losing their job because of always needing time off we decided that one of my brothers had to quit his job to be able to take care of him, as he requires someone to be with him at all times. The few times we have left him alone has led to falls, stumbles, and accidents. We need support, we have no money for bandages, doctor visits, food, or medication. We are at the lowest point our family has ever experienced but we refuse to see him suffer, we refuse to accept that there is no solution to this problem.

So, we are now raising funds for doctor visits, medication, and to take him out of the country to see if doctors outside of Belize can discover the reason he keeps lapsing into confusion. We know that his brain is fine, after CT scans, MRI scans, blood tests and x-rays, the only anomaly doctors can find are his sodium levels, and his symptoms correspond almost exactly with what one would expect from a person with dangerously low sodium.

His condition is not a death sentence, we just need to find the solution. If you can find it in your heart to support us, it would mean the world to us. Even a dollar, a dime, a penny, anything counts, anything goes toward helping him come back to his normal brilliant self. Please, help us.

Thank you -- from the bottom of my heart. Your friend and councilor,

Ilya Rosado