In memory and with deep respect for Becky G

[lilyjohn]

For those of you who don't know Becky was a wife mother or a three year old and school teacher. She battled the beast very valiantly and continued to teach right up until a couple of days before her death. She was also a non smoker. I think to she was the first really young person that we lost here. She was just 31 or 32 when she died.

Following is her introduction with her story.

My name is Becky. I am 30 years old and have never smoked. I was diagnosed with NSCLC in January (2003) after complaining of a cough that would not go away. They orginally thought it was stage II, even after multiple scans, and I was scheduled for a lobectomy on Valentine's Day. When they had me out on the operating table, the biopsied my mediatinal lymph nodes and found cancer there. The plan at this point had been to just sew me up and send me to a medical oncologist. However, there were complcations in the form of uncontrolled bleeding in my chest that caused the surgeon to crack my breastbone and open me up to stop it.

After that I spent 4 weeks recovering and started chemo and radiation concurrently with the hope of controlling the lymph spreading so that I would be a candidate for surgery. I had 34 radiation treatments and two rounds of Cisplatin and Etopicide. The radiation wasn't so bad, but chemo weeks were absolutely miserable. Now I am almost 4 weeks past treatment. My hair is starting to come back in. I just got the results of my CT scan--the tumor hasn't shrunk much, but the oncologist said it looks "beaten up". He is hopeful that the miscroscopic tumors on my lymph nodes took a good beating too. Next week I head to Houston to see what is next. My oncologist here says that it wll be a surgical decision, but he expects that I will be back in surgery before long. Hopefully it will be more successful than the last one!

My family, friends, and employer have been amazing through all of this. My daughter is almost three years old and has handled all this stress better than I ever imagined. For six weeks I couldn't pick her up and when she sat in my lap she had to be very careful not to hurt my chest--she just said, "You can't carry me because of your owies." When my hair fell out, she said, "You got a BIG haircut, Mommy." I had been in a new job for less than six months when the diagnosis hit. I missed a lot of work, but have not missed a paycheck. We had meals delivered by friends 3 or 4 times a week for three months.

It's not exactly true to say tht I am looking forward to surgery--the last one was far from pleasant, but I am definitely ready to get on with the program--the waiting is so hard.

Becky

[Nick C]

Oh gosh...this made me so sad.

[jean44]

I remember Becky and the special relationship that her and Curtis had and how much she loved that little girl. It's NOT fair.

Jean