Bernie Valencia

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. I'm reaching out to my family and friends at this time as I was encouraged to do so by my good friend Heidi.  As for myself, I don't really like to ask for favors, but as Heidi says "Bernie - it's no time to be shy about this!"  I have an extremely rare disease called Gastroparesis. There's only 200k people in the world who suffer with this illness. I'm nauseous 24/7 and don't have much energy. Two different times I thought I was going to be well but after a 2 month period in each event, I got violently ill again, and back to square one. Unfortunately when I vomit I usually end up in emergency for fluids as I get so dehydrated. Then it takes at least 2 weeks to not be fully bedridden. Now I understand why the death rate with this disease is 67%. When I'm doing well, I tell myself I'm the 33%, but when I'm ill, I understand why. I do thank the LORD I didn't get this at a younger age. I'll be listing ways to help if you are able to. Another thing is that I'm very lonely and depressed.  I will begin seeing a therapist next week, which I hope will help. So even just a visit to see a smile on your faces will bring joy to me. I especially miss going to see my grandchildren, so they'll have to come to me. I also miss going to my church in Napa. I'll only be in Sonoma until Nov. 13th, so going shopping or walking my pup Chloe, etc. are not long term needs. Thank you in advance for you caring.