t all started with unbearable headaches. They got worse and worse until over-the-counter medications would no longer ease the pain. Then he began to have blind spots and to vomit frequently.

He went to his doctor to get a CT scan. The scan only yielded more questions, so Wes was sent to a specialist at Shands Hospital. It was there that he was told he had a tumor on the top of his brain stem that had to be removed.

"It was about the size of a pinky nail," he says as he holds up his thin pinky finger and points to the gnawed-down nail.

Something of that size may not seem life threatening, but had it grown larger, it would have been impossible to remove.

The tumor had already caused a buildup of pressure in Wes' head because it blocked fluid from being absorbed by his spinal chord. Even with this news, however, Wes was not alarmed.

"I thought they would cut it out, sew me up, and I would go back to school," he says.

Instead, doctors came back with the news that his tumor was cancerous and that his hospital stay would be prolonged two weeks.

It was shortly after his surgery that Wes began seven weeks of radiation treatment.>>>