Luis Ibarra started feeling less energetic in February.
He thought it was a side effect of his diabetes medication. His doctor thought it was a stomach issue and prescribed him pills.
But the pain persisted, so the 42-year-old headed to the emergency room in May. Two hours later, the handyman’s worst fear was confirmed with a CAT scan: His seminoma cancer had returned.
He prepped for his chemotherapy, worried about his wife and their four kids.
Then a week later, he was hit with new symptoms — fever, chills, body aches and no sense of smell. He returned to the hospital and received a second diagnosis: COVID-19.
It took him 2½ months to recover from the respiratory illness, delaying essential cancer treatment. By then, the tumor between his kidney and urethra had grown.
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Months later, he’s nearing the end of his third round of chemotherapy, but the pain, dizziness and nausea have made it hard to play outside with his kids or drive them to get ice cream.
His doctor will decide soon whether to schedule surgery to remove the tumor or continue with a fourth round of chemotherapy.
He’s relieved he’s almost done with treatment but constantly plagued by the uncertainty.

Luis Ibarra on September 8, 2020. Ibarra recovered from Covid-19 and then started treatments for seminoma cancer.
“You think you’re going to die,†Ibarra said. “You think, what’s going to happen to your family?â€
More than six months after the first case of coronavirus in Pima County, Ibarra is one of a number of residents of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s predominantly Latino neighborhoods who have been disproportionately hit by the virus.
The rate of COVID-19 cases among majority Latino neighborhoods is more than two times higher than the rate among white majority ZIP codes, according to an ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ analysis of the locations of local cases of the virus.
The Star’s analysis found that Latino ZIP codes have a combined rate of 40 cases per 1,000 people, while majority white ZIP codes have a rate of about 17 cases per 1,000 people.

Individually, four of the five ZIP codes with the highest case rates are majority Latino, on ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s south side. The remaining ZIP code in the top five is majority white and includes the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and the surrounding area.
Meanwhile, the five ZIP codes with the lowest rates of infection are all majority white, scattered throughout the county. The Star excluded four ZIP codes from the analysis that are mostly federal land or surrounded by federal land.