MY DAD, MY HERO, MY COMPANION, MY BEST FRIEND
Let me introduce myself. I am Arturo Salvador de la Cerda. This is regarding my dad's battle with Creutzfeldt-Jakob's Disease
written down through my mother's and sister's (Ignacia, and Sonya) eyes.
Well, where do I start?..... It all started in late 2001 when my father lost his job as a city manager of Corcoran, CA. A couple
months had passed and my father had no luck in finding a job. My family had decided to move down to Oxnard, CA where
the majority of my parents extended family members are.
Everything started to seem normal for the first half of 2002 until April/May rolled around. My dad started to have unusual
memory blackouts and occasional loss of balance (I am a wheelchair bound paraplegic with the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy
so I witnessed this unfortunate occasion first hand when he would assist me in transfers). Towards the end of the month of
May my sister and I were out of school for summer vacation. During the later half of May my family and I slowly watched my
dad decline.
In early June my dad was diagnosed with CJD. We live about an hour away from the VA medical center in Los Angles. To
confirm the diagnoses he went through a battery of neurological tests. He spent a week down there in the L.A. VA medical
center. A couple of weeks before my dad was diagnosed with CJD my mom was able to get a part-time job as a dental
assistant. During the week that my dad was home from the hospital my sister and I were clueless about his diagnosis. That
upcoming weekend (Sunday in particular) my father drove my uncle home. He had been helping my father with our front
yard. I felt something was going on but this time (for some unknown reason I chose to ignore my conscience).
On the way back from dropping off my uncle my father and I were just talking non-saliently that he was not going to be
around in a couple of months. He continued to explain that my mother felt that she should break the news. Ever since that
unsuspecting bit of news I have been looking up the latest news and research on CJD.
A couple moths had passed. During the month of September my mother was unable to care for him anymore. We suspected
that his steps towards the front door would be the last time he steps out of the house. That upcoming Sunday was the last
time I would see my father alive. On that Sunday when we arrived at the hospital my father was sitting out in the hallway of
his room towards the nurses station (so the nurses could make sure he would not get up and fall) eating his lunch. While he
was eating my mother went into his hospital room to drop off some of his things. I noticed buckles on the rails of his hospital
bed. It made me realize the extent of this horrible disease. As we left the hospital for that day I could not help but think of the
thought of that day being the last day I would see my dad alive. That week he was transferred to a nursing home in
Chatsworth, CA. That Friday at 11:30 P.M. he passed in his sleep.
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