Support for Wes and Tamara

Dear friends and family, I come to you asking for your support for my sweet and loving aunt Tamara and her partner Wes.

About a year ago Wes suffered a heat stroke that hit him hard, he later fell trying to get out of the bathtub while having abdominal cramping that was thought to have been pain associated with several hernia opperations, He has always had intestinal issues. At that time it's suspected he may have suffered a mild stroke from which he never really recovered from. The doctors also suspect he may struggling with long Covid. Over the last 6 months he has lost 30 lbs, he weighs a mere 127 pounds at the moment.

A recent CAT scan revealed what his doctors believe (it's still very early) is metastatic colon cancer, along with lumps in the liver.

A little bit about Tamara and Wes, back in 2006 they met, fell in love and built an incredible landscape design company, T&W landscape designs. Wes had been tought the art of Bonsai by an expert bonsai artist. Wes is incredibly passionate about what he does and passed that passion onto Tamara, who has always been such an amazing artist and free spirit that fogred her own way foward. Wes and Tamara are able to reaveal what they describe as "the spirit of the plant". Over the last decade He and Tamara have created and maintained absolutley stunning residentail spaces that capture mother nature at her finest. This past year Wes has had to give up what he loves the most (besides Tamara, Lilly and the cats) his ability to work with plants and excersise incredible skills to create natural beauty. This has and will continue to be a very difficult time for Wes, Tamara and the Family.

I'm asking for your support with medical and living expenses as treatment begins, this will be updated as more information becomes available.

UPDATE:

July 2nd. A day of epiphany both yesterday & 2 years ago.

July 2nd yesterday was a good day. I went to work for a few hours & got some good doggie loving, worked in a zone with one of my favorite wranglers Lillie Stephens . Came home & got to hang out with my dear Wes & his sister Jennifer. The conversation never went to the event that occurred 2 years earlier on July 2nd. 2 years ago Wes finally agreed to go to the ER after many many months, well over a year of feeling absolutely horrible. We went early in the morning & of course Wes in his silly deductions in his head said I guess we best go now instead of waiting till July 4th when the ER will be full of people with mishaps.

I wish I could forget the moment that the ER doctors came in to share the news from the tests, but I will never forget the male Dr so nonchalantly told Wes to go home & get his affairs in order. How dare he... How dare he make that assumption.... How dare he just walk in a room with a very ill man & the ill mans loving partner & say he bud go home & get your affairs in order. Did they not teach him bedside manners in medical school. I realize that ER Drs are a different breed, but that was total disregard for the mental well being of the patient that you are supposed to be there to comfort.

Wes & I drove home in silence & got home & discussed if Wes would make it till Christmas. My heart has never been in such agony.

Well here we are 2 years later. The picture on the left was taken 2 weeks ago. The one on the right was 2 years ago. He weighed 127 lbs in the ER. Wes could not sleep lying down because it was so painful. I would cocoon him on the couch with pillows. We have speed bumps in our parking lot & I would have to gingerly drive over them because it hurt him so bad. The day that he could no longer take the mower out of the truck was the day he realized that it was something much worse than just old age & pain from having 5 hernia operations & his lifelong intestinal issues with sugar. Ironically our last mowing job was at the home of my now Scampers Boss. We appreciate all that they have done for us. You all know how much I love my job.

Some of you my closest of friends know that Wes started a new treatment 2 weeks ago. His original treatment was chemo infusion & immunotherapy for 12 rounds every 2 weeks. Then for the last year & 1/2 has been chemo pills one week on & one week off & the immunotherapy every 3 weeks. His antigen numbers have been slowing climbing since last November. Antigen numbers are a cancer marker. The lowest we had him was 5.6 last May 2023. At one point in October 2022 they were almost 3000!!!

Dr V said that the pills were not being as effective anymore so we are switching back to an infusion chemo & a different immunotherapy. Cancer cells are smart assholes & they keep fighting to stay alive. On June 4th they were 65.3, yesterday after starting the new treatment 2 weeks ago they dropped to 43.4. woohoo & the new side effects that come with this treatment have not been bad so far. Dr V was very pleased to hear that yesterday when we met with him. The protocol for this round of treatments is a year & 1/2.

Wes does a CT scan every 3 months, remarkably the cancer has not spread, but some of the very small tumors that had been decreasing for the last 2 years have increased a small amount hence the antigen numbers increasing.

Wes doesn't like for me to dote on him or praise him with words like courage, warrior & the like. So I'm just going to quote my dearest sista friend Lesa from our conversation yesterday.

" He's a medical miracle, hon. Great physicians and pure tenacity plus your loving care and support". "Most importantly y'all are together and living with love and strength everyday. That's where the power comes from "

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