Support for Victor Calderon

Victor Calderon's wife, Mappyta, passed away this afternoon (11/21/17).

This is the story he provided regarding her health struggles:

By mid July, my wife had to make an emergency trip to Mexico to help her mom care for a her brother that was semiparalized after some complications from a previous brain surgery that took place years back.

While flying back to Los Angeles from P. Vallarta by the last week of August, the first symptoms started to appear; a mild pain on her right foot that started at her hip going down to the tip of her toes. Nothing to worry about I thought. A massage, some pain ointments, rubbing alcohol and it'll be a quick fix. That didn't work. By the first week of September we made the first trip to the Kaiser Urgent Care Clinic in Lancaster where my wife was referred to a Chiropractor and after several sessions sadly found out that the pain now more severe was not going away. Another trip to the Urgent Care Clinic had to be made. This time a different doctor prescribed her some antiinflamatory pills ( Medrol ), thinking that there was a pinched nerve in her body causing all this pain. The third day after she started the Medrol pills treatment, coming home from work, I found my wife laying on the sofa, unable to talk clearly, not able to stand up by herself and mentally disoriented. More symptoms started to appear of what later would be the confirmation of a fatal disease that my wife had acquired God knows When, How and Where.

An appointment with a Kaiser Neurologist was made and after being checked out by the doctor, we were told that she was stressed out and with some relaxation and physical therapy she would be able to live a normal life again, but that never happened.

The trips to the Urgent Care Clinic and from there to the Emergency Room at the Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster continued and now dealing with another complications such as low sodium and potassium in her blood and UTI ( urinary track infection ) kept my wife hospitalized for 4 days.

Discharged from the Hospital and with the arrangement of a team of physical therapists that would come to my house to work with my wife, the supposed road to recovery had just started. But as the days passed, I noticed that my wife's mental status was deteriorating and so was her ability to walk, talk and eat by herself.

Finally, I decided to take my wife to the Kaiser Hospital in Panorama City where after numerous exams of the brain, lungs, blood, urine and God knows what else and being hooked up to a breathing machine for more than two and a half weeks in the Intensive Care Unit, the tragic news were revealed to me. My wife was diagnosed with CJD, a fatal brain disorder that is so rare and as of now there's no cure for it.

After 3 weeks of being hooked up to a breathing machine my wife was finally unhooked from such machine and now she is breathing on her own. Two more days she spent in the Hospital and after that she was transferred to a Hospice Facility where day after day I'm here by her side keeping her company and unfortunately watching her slowly dying. Still praying for that miracle that would let my wife completely recover from this terrible desease.

Many hours have passed and I'm still here unable to figure out why all this is happening to my wife. There's one thing I certainly know:  That I'm losing a great friend, an amazing wife and the exceptional mother of my two sons.

"Mappyta ", people only die when they are forgotten, well guess what? You mi Reina will NEVER die and to the top of my lungs y will scream on every direction that You will always be in my prayers, my thoughts and will live in my heart.

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!