Help Us Lay Tyler to Rest

Update: 04/04/2025

While Tyler's passing has been devastating on the family, we still want to take a moment to thank everyone who has shared, or donated to the gofund me, or supported us in any way during this difficult time. We want to thank everyone who attended his service and shared their stories of Tyler with us. Your donations completely covered funeral and burial expenses! I also wanted to take a moment to share that we are keeping the GoFund me up to raise money for his headstone. We want to give him a monument that will memorialize the beautiful, eclectic, authentic, unique person he was. After a few meetings, we decided on a design that is perfect for Tyler. 3k has been covered, but we have another 3k left to pay. We have updated the Go Fund me to reflect the extra costs. We understand so many of you have already shared and donated, and we are still so thankful for all of you. We just ask for one more round of sharing. Thank you for your time, love, and kindness.

Update:c02/24/2025

Tyler passed Sunday, February 23rd at 1:33am. We are currently making arrangements for his service. Once we have a date we will announce. Don't stop donating or sharing please.

Update: 02/22/2025

As most of you know, on January 31st, Tyler was admitted to the hospital. . He had two seizures and unbearable headaches. We went through a pretty traumatic roller coaster with inappropriate ER doctors who wanted to send him home despite him needing to be admitted. We were yelled at and told we shouldn't be there. They fought us on admitting him. We were fought almost every step of the way at Three Rivers Asante Hospital. Once we got to the intermediate care unit, the nurses there were horrified we were told that in the first place. The nurses tried to get his pain managed but it took them almost 36 hrs to figure out a combination of pain meds that would work for him. He was writhing in pain the whole time. Don't get me wrong, there were great nurses at the intermediate care unit and at the general care unit. However, that does not ease the trauma of dealing with hospital bureaucracy. Pain management is a science in and of itself, but when someone is put through needless tests and nurses are waiting for orders that should've been approved hours ago, it prolongs everything.

We were told to say goodbye and make arrangements, that he would be lucky to live three more weeks. We were told we would be luck to see him come our of his postictal state. Which is why you saw me switch the title over the first time. Once his pain was finally managed he was moved to the general care unit for a couple of nights. His friends started visiting and over time we saw his old self coming back. He was walking around the hospital, eating, and shocking doctors. However, he still needed a pain management routine at home so we signed up for hospice. He was released form the hospital on February 4th.

We had two great weeks with him. We spent every second with him that we could. We did all the things he loved to do, watched all the things he loved to watch. His friends would come over and visit. Between all that and the visits from hospice, he was a busy guy. His symptoms kept him down 50-80%, but the rest of the time was spent with his family and close friends, living in the moment. His mother cooked him nutritious meals every day. Made his special teas. Juiced for him. Made sure he drank plenty of water. As I helped him with his alternative treatments and managed his medications. I was still looking into second, third, fourth opinions. Still looking at immunotherapy. Was still in touch with several doctors and universities overseeing clinical trials. We kept going where we left off before, just on hospice. Hence why I changed the title, again. We thought that maybe this was our second chance.

Now, here we are February 23rd and we've been in the hospital since February 18th. Asante Rogue Regional this time. Care has been night and day difference, which is the only good news I'll be delivering. February 18th, Tyler woke up with a terrible headache. Up until that point, I had been able to manage his symptoms with the pain regimen hospice gave us. Nothing worked. The nurse came over and together we still couldn't manage his pain. He went to take a shower as sometimes that helps with the nausea from the migraine. The nurse was calling the doctor to get next steps as we heard him fall in the bathroom. He yelled for me and I came in to see he had fallen straight down, sitting on top of his knees and he was too weak to get up. I hugged his upper body and pulled him up. He started seizing in my arms. I called for the nurse to help me and call 911. Once the paramedics arrived, I felt ganged up on my them and the nurse to not take him to the hospital. However, the nurse was not giving me any information on how she could help him and what options we have instead of the hospital. I recognized the same thing happening to him as two weeks prior and made them take him to the hospital the next town over where he could receive proper care. We played the bureaucracy game again, this time to a much lesser degree and got his pain managed quicker. He had 4 seizures since being at the hospital. The last one being a grand mal. This time, he has not come back from his postictal phase. He has days left. He is non-responsive. He's sleeping with his eyes open. He can't move his body on his own, with the exception of one arm. His breathing is getting shallower as the days pass. His body is shutting down before our eyes. His mother, brother and I are devastated. We are so lucky to have his friends and his brother's boyfriend here to support us and keep us laughing with great stories of Tyler. They have been showing up everyday for Tyler. That's just the kind of people Tyler brought into his life. That's just the kind of magic and light he holds inside him. Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of befriending him and having him in their life knows what I'm talking about.

So here we go, changing the title one last time.

Let's give Tyler a worthy send off.

A coffin just as beautiful as he is.

A site just as ethereal as he is.

A funeral just a enthralling and captivating as he is.

A service just as memorable as he is.

Please, donate what you can. Please, share shamelessly. Spam the shit out of your stories and feeds. Please, please, please. Tyler deserves it.

Short message to the rest of his close friends and family: he planned on reaching out to all of you, I promise. We would talk everyday about everyone he needed to call. If you were one of those people, please know he wanted to call you. He, just like us, thought he'd have more time. Also, please understand that everything took so much out of him. He was constantly exhausted and fighting symptoms. He was having an even harder time communicating than before. As most of you know, his second surgery effected his ability to associate words with meaning. And after that stay in the hospital, it his word association got worse. Conversations were very frustrating for him sometimes. So just know it wasn't personal. There were so many of you who wanted to talk to him and I know he wanted to call each and every one of you. He loved all of you.

Update 01/30/25

Tyler has been admitted to the ER due to unmanageable symptoms. His cancer has progressed fast. He was give a 6 month prognosis earlier this months. At this point, it looks like anything is possible. We are officially changing the go fund me from “Tylers Last Chance to Beat Cancer” to “Tyler’s End of Life Care and Burial Expenses”. We are looking into death doulas for Tyler’s transition, which are not covered by insurance. Death Doulas help the patient get comfortable with death, help the patient and family navigate conversations around death, help the family be proactive with tough decisions, offer resources, logistical, and emotional support, plus so much more. Another expense we need help with will be funeral costs. Tyler would like to be buried. It’s very important to him. The money donated so far will now be used for these purposes as well as helping with bills and expenses and we take time off to work through this. We are still waiting on FMLA to be approved. Please share!

Original Go Fund Me Purpose 

Summary: We are raising money for our beloved Tyler's immunotherapy. We have been quoted $50,000 for his life-saving treatment. We are running out of time and need your help.

Read his story below.

Imagine being 27 years old, in your prime. You decide it’s time to start thinking seriously about your future so you go back to school. You have a solid circle of friends, a healthy dating life, things are good.

Then, one day, everything changes. You start to get persistent headaches that don’t seem to go away for very long. You shake it off as you have had spells of migraines before, this can’t be any different. You start to feel other, less noticeable symptoms but chalk it up to getting older. This goes on for a few weeks, but nothing to be concerned about, right? 

Out of nowhere you’re waking up in the hospital being told you just had a grand mal seizure. Your migraine is at its worst. You are scheduled for an MRI, which you do in the next few days. You’re told you have to wait 4 weeks for the results. So that’s what you do. 

After 4 weeks you are at the doctors being told the worst news of your life: you have a brain tumor, and it’s most likely malignant. 

For six years, Tyler Powell has been battling brain cancer. He was first diagnosed with an Astrocytoma Grade II (a type of Glioma) in 2019, He had a craniotomy to remove the tumor, in which the surgeons were able to remove about 94% meaning it will most likely come back. 

Gliomas are the most deadly brain tumors due to their difficulty to remove, making them likely to reoccur.

 

Tyler was told he was have 1, maybe 2 years left to live. But like the fighter he his, he went on for 4 years without any sign of reappearance. 

He continued on with his life and decided he would live it how he wanted. He moved to Portland, got his own apartment, was moving up in his career, got a girlfriend (the person writing this- hello) 

This next part is a little personal for me, but it’s necessary to paint the full picture of the trauma this diagnosis has cause him and what we’ve have gone through together. We found out I was pregnant toward the end of July 2023 and decided to move back down to southern Oregon where we’d be closer to family and the cost of living isn’t as high. During our time packing and planning, Tyler started to get migraines that lasted most of the day and night. We were trying to come up with all sorts of reasons as to why he might be experiencing migraines; stress of moving, city smog, etc. I think deep down, we both knew. Scared and maybe a little manic, we decided to hire movers and move that very weekend instead of waiting until the end of the month. Meaning we both broke our leases and ended up in debt. But that’s was the least of our concern. Still is. 

From the time we found out I was pregnant to the time we were back home was maybe a week. 

I scheduled an appointment with his oncologist as soon as we got home. His mom scheduled an MRI and we waited. Scared out of our minds. 

Unfortunately, in September 2023 our worst fear was confirmed that he had another tumor is the same spot as the previous. This time a Glioblastoma Grade IV. A more aggressive form of astrocytoma.

We were told this the day after we found out I was going to miscarry. We couldn’t catch a break. 

He had a second craniotomy, which this time was harder for him to recover from. Leaving scarring on his brain that took away his ability to read and remember names. His favorite past time was reading, by the way. He has one of the largest book collections for anyone of his age. The cruel irony has not been lost on him or his family. Luckily after working with a speech therapist, he is able to carry on conversations without getting frustrated. A small victory. 

For the last year he has undergone 7 rounds of radiation and six months of chemo. It was a hard and tiring time for him and his family. We crowd funded last year to help pay off his debts as he is no longer able to work. Also to cover any of his expenses as we were fighting the disability office. Things were stable for a while. 

Early this month, January 2025 we learned that he had some spotting/lesions in his brain and upper spine. We are still waiting to find out more information on the rest of his spine. He is taking chemo. We will be meeting with a few different doctors within the next week to discuss treatment. His primary oncologist encouraged me to look into clinical trails. Meaning experimental/ advanced treatment. Usually done by OHSU, and Providence in Portland Oregon, and massive bio- a company that matches patients with clinical trails all over the country. However, there are issues with clinical trials in the US. They are usually very limited in funding, meaning limited space. They also take a very long time to get approved through insurance, if at all. So you could be wasting precious time waiting for nothing. We all know the bureaucracy of US healthcare and how frustrating it can be. For cancer patients its much worse, especially if they are considered later stage.

I have been conducting tireless research on advanced treatments all over the world. From what we've gathered, immunotherapy is Tyler's only option. There have been many success stories with his specific diagnosis and mutation, as well as other late-stage cancer patients. The united states is behind on FDA approval for these treatments. Here he is terminal, where other many other countries- he is treatable. I've reached out to countless facilities. The best option for us is an overseas facility that we have spoken with a few times that will house he and I for three months as they administer immunotherapy and other advanced therapies like;

Non-Toxic Cancer Therapies (cancer shots)

Full Spectrum Nutrition

Detoxify

Oxygenation

Restore Microbiome

Emotional and Spiritual Healing

They are called Hope4Cancer!

They have had massive success in treating cancer using similar methods to overpriced facilities in the United States. However, they are still spendy. They quoted us fifty grand. I know it's a shocking sticker price, It feels very dystopian to know there is life-saving treatment out there for him, but because of our income level, he can't have access. However, more has been crowdfunded for the same type of therapy, and the therapy worked!!

We are asking everyone we know, and everyone who sees this to please, please, share. This is our last hope.

IF ENOUGH PEOPLE DONATE EVEN JUST $5 OR LESS WE CAN MEET OUR GOAL! PLEASE donate and share, or just share if you aren't able to donate! We really appreciate you even taking the time to read this. We are scared. We need our community to come together and help us. We need a village.