Well I now know that Tammy sure has lots of loving caring people in her world. 

Thank you so much for all your kind words and offers for help.  It’s very overwhelming and amazing at the wonderful community Tammy has created for herself. Who else could have a community of liberal lesbians to pot popping Jews to ultra conservative Baptists to Catholics that sell cattle, to buffalo grazing South Dakotans to crazy Canadian cowgirls to Swedes that would come in a moment to help to who knows what else. 

I was talking to Tina Battock, that works for Morris Communication and is around lots of powerful personalities about Tammy a while back and she said when she first met her that Tammy was this little person with a big presence that filled the room. (Something like that)

Whether it’s a horse clinic, the Art of the Cowgirl, my career, her kids life, or our marriage Tammy Pate is going to have a say and some (or all) control of the situation. 

This is what is so difficult about this cancer battle. She has taken control of the treatment and did an amazing job of researching and controlling things. She is still in command but the cancer is a tough one and it’s hard to control but she’s giving it her all.

So a big thank you to everyone that responded to my scoop lupe the other day. It really made her feel good to hear from so many folks. I got lots of emails and texts and I saw Tammy looking on Facebook last night when she went to bed.

I don’t go on Facebook so I don’t know what happened there but Tammy read stuff and I know she feels much better knowing all the wonderful people are out there pulling for her. 

So from Tammy and Myself and Mesa, Rial and Haize thank you for being there!

we see this white buffalo bull often on our way to Bozeman to doctoring. We think it’s big medicine.

I’ve gone missing for quite awhile from this deal.. I got a new GoPro and couldn’t figure out how to put things off it on this so I got frustrated and gave up.

The next thing that happened is my wife’s cancer came back.

Tammy’s cancer showed up strong after 5 years of keeping it in check with good nutrition, Panacur and medical drugs and lots of prayers from lots of you. 

It went to her liver and stomach.  Not good.  In Tammy style she researched and learned and came up with different approaches.  She went and did a fast to starve the cancer.  She went almost 20 days without eating at a place in California (a vegan based health center). 

She came back pretty weak and had to work hard at rebuilding her strength. She then went to Minneapolis to an alternative cancer specialist that she really liked and was t doing her protocol.  Somehow she got in contact with Dr Worden in Arizona. 

This lady is who we are working with now along with her traditional Oncologist Dr Thomas. From what I see Dr Worden is an amazing expert on cancer that doesn’t just go with one theory or method but looks at everything honestly and if it works she’s for it. 

Tammy’s liver was 3/4 tumors and there was cancer in the stomach. The oncologist had been trying to get Tammy to do chemotherapy for a long time but Tammy knew it wasn’t a cure but a delay and she was not satisfied with that but wanted to beat cancer.  Dr Worden then said we need to do something as the cancer had gotten ahead of us. 

She did the treatment and we headed to Arizona to work with Dr Worden on some oxygen therapy, bee sting therapy, advanced nutrition and make a real strong push to overcome. 

We made it to Arizona and had a wonderful apartment that her friend Daun let us stay in. We went to trying to do the treatments and therapy, and Tammy started getting really sick. The infusion drug hit her hard.  She ended up in the hospital and in terrible shape being very dehydrated and sick. 

We got her back in shape with fluids and we headed north with her in a bed in the car and needing to stop very often with diarrhea and stomach sickness.  It was a very difficult trip. 

I’ve seen my wife go through some bad stuff but this was terrible.  We got back to Montana and headed straight for hospital in Bozeman. She was so sick and miserable 

but they got her back on track and didn’t have very good news for us. They said it was over, that treatment wouldn’t help. 

I called Dr Worden and asked her what we should do. She said go home and get your affairs in order, and if we wanted we could try what she called  a “Hail Mary” drug. 

She had me contact a Dr. Hamad Hashemi in Cañada and he told me about marijuana/ flavonoid treatment that they were having great results with. I said send it no matter what it cost. He said they would not charge for it but send it to us. He and a group of doctors are doing this for good, not profit.  I wish more of the world felt this way. 

Long story short, we got it and Tammy has been high every day for a month!  She takes it at night and is still groggy in the morning but the groggy is getting less. Her last numbers were better.  I think it’s working. It has really helped her with pain and discomfort. The biggest challenge has been that her liver isn’t functioning properly and she gets a fluid build upon her stomach’s lining and had  to have it drawn off a couple times a week. Her ankles and feet started to swell as well.  It was really miserable for her.  The swelling in the ankles and feet has disappeared and the fluid is getting to be less and less. I think the liver must be starting to work better because of this.

The biggest challenge is nutrition. She can’t eat much and when she does it has a tendency to go right through her. We try to eat lots of high protein meals and stuff to get her stomach working. We have been eating liver, which I have never been able to eat but am now starting to like. Cooking is a challenge for me, but Mesa comes and helps and we are getting through it.

It’s really ironic that something we have really had trouble with and a dislike for because of all the trouble it got our son Rial in is the thing that is giving Tammy relief and hopefully curing the cancer. I really can’t imagine how we could have done it without the “Hail Mary” pill. We would have had to have some help to manage the pain. I really think it’s what’s helping. 

The reason I’m writing this is because so many of you have been so supportive through this whole journey. Prayers and encouragement have been what has kept Tammy strong emotionally, and our friends and those that care about her and what she is doing is so big a part of quality of life and confidence to beat this. It wouldn’t happen without the love and support shown by so many wonderful people. 

Tammy has gone into survivor mode stronger than ever. She not a quitter, she’s a fighter. She has turned all the management of Art of the Cowgirl over to Mesa and Jaimie and the rest of the crew that she totally trusts to do what needs to be done. 

To be honest she really didn’t have the strength to communicate with anyone and just was concentrating on getting better. She is staring to communicate a little more and I see that as a sign of her getting better. She was really sick and weak. 

So I want to thank you all for the support through prayers and good thoughts and all the concern. This has been such an incredible journey that neither one of us thought we would go on. 

Tammy has been the most dedicated person I know to good health through taking care of herself. It just is hard for me to understand why someone who is so good to everyone and takes such care for everything has to go through this. I don’t get it, but Tammy is not one to complain, so she just hits it head on.  She is one tough lady. 

We don’t want a bunch of pity or communication about this. That’s not why  I’m writing this.  You just deserve to know what is happening and Tammy wants to talk to everyone but just doesn’t have it in her to do it. She will and you can get her side of the story. 

One thing I want to say. I have heard lots of seminars lately about suicide and people being depressed because of all the problems in their life. I hear this and then I see how much try and desire my wife has to live and never complain and enjoying things like riding her horse and playing with her grandchildren and knowing what really matters in life, and I hope people will use Tammy as inspiration at what a true woman of the west is and does. 

I’ve wanted to get to driving my draft cross horses, Big and Little Big sometimes called Midnight and After Midnight.  I drove them quite a bit around here but never hooked them up. 

They ended up in Oklahoma and I took em over to the Tribe in Arkansas and then was headed home with them in my big van trailer.  It was really hot and I was worried about hauling them so I left them in Stockton Missouri with Riley Olson and crew.

They hooked em up and drove them some and did a great job with them.  Because they were good saddle horses it was pretty easy for them. 

They might be some of the most versatile horses around.  They have been evented on and can really jump. They also were on fox hunts, been to brandings and had a lot of young bucking bulls roped on them, so pulling a wagon was pretty easy.

These horses have been a great source of pleasure and accomplishments for our family. They are great horses.

Here’s some videos of our first feeding at our Ryegate place.