Greetings! My name is Wesley and I started this LFEBridge for my Friend Beau Bolton. I met Beau in Billings, Montana back in 2019 while working with the best fly shop on the planet. Beau is a great person and has unfortunately been dealt a bad card which he is taking on with the utmost courage and positive outlook. I want to help Beau during this time and I hope that others do too. Those of us close to Beau are planning a fundraiser auction with fishing gear, artwork, and more. Check for updates which will include more information on how to bid on these items. I asked Beau for his story, here it is: "September 26th 2024, while out riding my mountain bike I became abnormally winded/fatigued. I was conditioned to the point where 10-15 mile trail rides were an everyday activity, and I had never felt that worn out. Thinking it was something simple I went to work the next day and throughout my daily activities I was struggling to breathe. Against my better judgement I finished up my shift and went to a walk in, it was obviously some type of infection or maybe asthma? My visit was brief, 5 minutes in I was told to go straight to the emergency room. Emergency room took x-rays that revealed that I had a very large amount of fluid that had accumulated around my left lung. This created enough pressure where my lung nearly collapsed entirely. Upon admission the goal was to get the fluid drained out and get to the bottom of what was causing this. The first attempt was where a catheter was inserted into my back to drain the fluid and send it off to be tested. At this stage I was in good shape and a non-smoker, cancer was on our radar, but it just didn’t make sense. Not to me, the nurses, doctors, surgeon, we were all puzzled. In the meanwhile, the fluid had returned, and it was decided the best route was for me to have a surgery done called a thoracentesis. This is a procedure where tubes were placed in my side through my ribs to drain the fluid over the next few weeks. Also had a procedure done called talc pleurodesis, basically had a biopsy taken while scraping scar tissue away so my lung could re-inflate/heal. October 3rd my surgeon came into my hospital room and to put it simply, I knew before any words were spoken. I was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, anyone familiar with this knows the outcome of that is generally very swift and there is not a whole lot that can be done. The plan was once I was well enough to get a port placed so I could start chemo. Beyond that, I went home with the mindset that I had weeks at best. I had been discharged from the hospital, my port placed and was going through the motions with my weekly visits to my oncologist. After discussion we decided to hold off on chemo until he was able to get the results from bio marker testing that was submitted while I was in the hospital. Thankfully he did so, because in his words I hit the “cancer jackpot”. Not that I wanted any part of the “cancer lottery”, it was news that changed everything. My cancer was not from smoking, environmental causes, it was a genetic mutation known as ALK+. While it is not known what causes this to happen, the advances in cancer research provided a way to combat this. I have since been placed on medication that they refer to as a TKI which directly targets and inhibits the growth of my cancer cells. This was a game changer for me, it has given me time. How much time is anyone’s guess, but I now have HOPE. While the medication is helping immensely, eventually the cancer cells find ways to work around this. It is a bit of a game that must be played trying to balance side effects with efficacity of the TKI while trying to maintain quality of life. I am beyond thankful for the time I have been given, and hope that I make it to a point where this is treated as a chronic illness versus a terminal diagnosis. While it is not easy to accept help for me in any form, I can not begin to express the gratitude that I have felt from all of those that have reached out to me. In short, all I can do is say thank you."
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