Wendy’s Healing from Ovarian Carcinosarcoma

In February of this year, our beloved mama Wendy (Mother to All) was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. We are calling in our community to support her in healing, recovering, and thriving, and to help us continue to care for her needs in every way right now and going forward. We are determined to not leave one stone unturned in caring for her— she is currently receiving conventional treatments as well as alternative treatments for removing the cancer and full healing in body, mind and spirit. We want to provide her with as much comfort and peace as possible as she takes on this “intruder,” in her words.

If you know our family, you know the Burger family home in Ojai is also known as “Camp Wendy.” For as long as we can all remember, it has been a gathering place and a place of refuge for people and animals in need of love and care. Her radiant, loving presence has been a staple of the Ojai community for over 40 years.

You may know her as your unofficial adoptive mom, or she may have created beautiful cuisine for your event during her more than 40 years of owning and operating Summer Street Gardens Catering. You may know her from teaching your children art in the Art Trek program at Topa Topa in the 90’s, or you may have met her at an art show she organized of our great aunt Texana’s People of the World collection. You may know her because she fostered or adopted an animal you rescued or couldn’t keep; or maybe she helped you procure lovely things at Terramor Organic Home, where she worked for over 15 years. You may also know her from running Flying Carp Pool Service with our awesome dad, Karl, a business they started more than 20 years ago, after our dad’s retirement from the City of Ojai. Our dad is 76 and still working so hard every day!

If you are lucky enough to know Wendy, you know what it feels like to be embraced by her warm smile, uplifted by her iconic laughter, and feel loved and cared for by her generous spirit.

Right now mama Wendy needs ALL of our love and support.

Unfortunately ovarian cancer is notoriously symptom-free until it has already begun to spread beyond the primary site. Many women, like Wendy, are (speculatively) diagnosed in the Emergency Room once the often vague symptoms become more troubling.

Over these last few months we have continuously described the experience like crash landing in a foreign land—the necessity to orient ourselves to a new reality that includes a new language, new environments, new people, and a lot of very uncomfortable adjustments to life as we knew it—it has been hard on all of us, and of course especially her. True to form, even in the struggle, she regularly makes her doctors laugh, and all of us—this is a blessing for us all. Her strength of spirit shines through!

With three to four appointments a week, most of which require at least an hour or two driving round trip, it has been quite a journey already. We are grateful for the good care she has been receiving at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, at the Coastal Communities Cancer Center at CMH, and numerous other alternative healing practitioners in Ojai, Ventura, and Santa Barbara, and beyond.

She has thus far completed two chemotherapy infusions that include an targeted immunotherapy drug. Her medical oncologist and her surgeon are “encouraged by her progress” and so are we. Of course the measurements of “good” during a harrowing cancer journey are much different than during “normal” life.

This week she received her third chemotherapy infusion, followed by a fourth infusion in three weeks; the next phase of her care plan is surgery. This will require recovery time and a continuation of numerous healing modalities; after surgery the plan is three more rounds of chemotherapy infusions. This plan may change— we are walking day to day with as much positivity and focus on healing as we can.

We are reaching out and asking our community for help generating funds which are needed for:

-The cost of in home caregiving & weekly nurse visits 

-The cost of alternative therapies, including but not limited to: ozone therapy, infrared light therapy, Rick Simpson Oil, energy healing, acupuncture, massage, counseling, etc to support healing and comfort during treatment and post treatment/recovery.

-The cost of physical therapy as ordered by her doctors to strengthen her body before and after surgery.

-The cost of supplements and nutrition to support healing.

-The cost of transportation between Ojai, Ventura, and Santa Barbara and beyond to various doctors and alternative healing practitioners. Currently with 3-4 appointments a week, our days include a lot of driving.

-The cost of replacing her unreliable vehicle with a reliable vehicle that is easy to get in and out of, and that is big enough to fit assistive devices such as her wheelchair.

-The cost of making their home accessible and accommodating assistive devices (wheelchair, walker, etc) This includes tearing out old and unstable terraced deck that leads to their front door, which is no longer safe, and rebuilding a new, safe accessible entrance to their home.

-The cost of renting and or purchasing assistive devices to make her life more comfortable and help her to be able to get around safely.

-Recouping her lost wages after loss of work due to her illness, as well as the closing of her workplace, Terramor Organic Home, which closed its doors after her working there over 15 years (this occurred almost simultaneously with the sudden onset of her illness; the shop closing is unrelated, just unfortunate timing of “everything happening at once.”)

We are all continuing to work and dividing up caregiving and household duties between us siblings, our dad, and our wonderful partners. We need to be able to sustain our mom’s care over the next phases of treatment—chemotherapy, surgery, more chemotherapy, and post-treatment recovery and healing, which as anyone who has gone through this knows, lasts well beyond initial treatments. Relieving the day to day stresses of life is extremely important for her now and going forward.

We are deeply grateful to all of our friends and family who have made amazing meals, brought medicine, prayers, knowledge, and mostly, incredible LOVE. We cannot do any of this alone, and we are not meant to.

We feel your love and support and ask for your continued prayers for Wendy’s full healing and recovery. Please share this fundraiser, and donate anything you can—no amount is too small, it all will make a difference. Thank you for being a part of our field of miracles, from the bottom of our hearts!

You can also send direct payment via:

Venmo: Wendy-Burger-31