Our Loving Dad Ricardo Lugo

Hello everyone,

Where do we start...well, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of events with the main man of our lives. Our Dad Ricardo went from being the healthiest, strongest, determined, and selfless person at a young age of 62, to a man solely dependent on bedrest, hospitals, nurses, doctors, family & friends. For a man that has never drank, smoked, or taken more then an asprin in his life, this has been a huge emotional rollercoaster for everyone.

Everything started about two months ago with a sore back.  After suffering for a few weeks he went to see a chiropractor. His second adjustment brought him to his knees in pain. He lived with that pain for two weeks, until it became unbearable with numbness from his belly button down, and weakness in his legs, making it hard to walk.

The chiropractor ordered an X-ray on February 20th. They found that the T-6 in his spine was fractured, but also saw something else, and ordered an MRI. That’s when they saw a tumor right behind the fracture. They think the tumor was there weakening his spine and that’s why it fractured with the adjustment. Eventhough we hate the pain he went through, it’s kind of a blessing in disguise because it brought awareness to the tumor. Our dad has been a healthy man all of his life and is not one to go see the doctor regularly. Not sure without the break we would have found the tumor as quickly.

By Thursday February 21st, he was doing his first round of 10 radiation treatments to shrink or destroy the tumor. They checked him into the hospital on bedrest for the next week while test after test were taken to start getting answers... but the answers weren’t coming, and still aren’t here.

He was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday February 27th to do bedrest at home in a full upper body brace. We continued radiation, along with steriods and other medications. After a weekend at home waiting for results he had a mini stroke on Tuesday morning, March 5th. He was re-admitted into the hospital. Thank goodness it was a mini stroke with only numbness on the right side of his face, arm & hand. He spent the next three days at the hospital recovering. During that time he finished radiation and we found out encouraging, but frustrating news. After a week of waiting for biopsy results, we found out radiation did the job of destroying the tumor, but the biopsy was inconclusive. Now we are back to square one trying to figure out where the tumor came from, and whether or not it is cancer. Dad is home on semi bedrest now, with his back brace, trying to let his fracture heal. We are also dealing with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and stressed kidneys.

We wish we had more good news but we still don't know why this all came about. He had a bone marrow biopsy test done today, and will have a PET/CT scan for Lymphoma tomorrow. We hope to find out the results next week when we meet with his oncologist.

We decided to finally share his story publicly because he is loved by many, and we wanted to let everyone know what is happening. People are already reaching out wondering how to help. As most of you know, our dad has been doing hair the last 30 years and is self employed. He will be out of work for a while, and the stress of it all is weighing heavy on our family. 

To help them out, we want to raise money for medical costs and lost wages. If you can't help with money, please say a prayer and send positive thoughts for the doctors to figure out what's happening. We are asking for strength & positive energy as we wait for results, and especially as we are about to celebrate his 63rd Birthday on St Patty's Day! If you'd rather send a card or drop off a small meal, you can do so at
2029 Southcross Dr W #302 
Burnsville, MN 55306.

We appreciate you all so much, and most of all, we pray this nightmare will be over soon... we want our rock back to his old self.

With love, his family~