We Planned Our Future Together. Then I Had To Watch My Husband Die
One of the hardest things for me to comprehend is how quickly we went from trying to treat him, to losing him.
In the summer of 2024, Rudy Valladares and his wife were enjoying a typical family life with their two young sons. Rudy, who had been a police officer and later a detective, was the love of her life. Despite his usual good health, Rudy started experiencing unusual symptoms in January 2024, such as an unusually high resting heart rate and persistent back pain.
By June, he was also feeling occasional pain in his testicle, and doctors initially thought it was due to an injury. However, his symptoms continued, leading to months of visits to urgent care and various tests that initially pointed to digestive issues. By October, Rudy had lost around 50 pounds, and his condition had worsened.
A CT scan revealed numerous tumors in his lymph nodes and lungs, and he was diagnosed with stage 3B testicular cancer on his 29th birthday. Despite the high cure rate for testicular cancer, Rudy underwent surgery to remove the affected testicle and began a course of BEP chemotherapy. Unfortunately, his tumors returned, this time including a 6-centimeter tumor in his brain.
Rudy underwent more surgeries and treatments, including stereotactic radiosurgery and high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell transplants. However, his condition continued to deteriorate, and he developed hydrocephalus, a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. Rudy passed away on July 4, 2026, after a swift decline from being considered cancer-free just a few months prior.
Written by urgent.news from Newsweek's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
