Help Becky during her Battle with Cancer

I met my best friend Becky Merriott almost 10 years ago. She was a single mom of a daughter who was just about to  graduate high school and she lived right down the street and over two blocks. We hit it off immediately and not only had she been my best friend but she babysat my son and became part of our family. Becky was probably at my house more than she was at her own house, even if I wasn’t home. I trust Becky with everything and she has been there for me and for my kids through so many good, bad, amazing and difficult times. I can honestly say I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support and friendship I have had from her.

On December 2, 2019 Becky went to the E.R. because her back had been hurting her for a few weeks and it got to the point when’re she just couldn’t stand the pain. 

Although they rarely ever do MRI’s in the ER when someone comes in for back pain, something told the nurse on duty to do one. That MRI showed a large mass on Beckys lung. This day was the day her life changed forever. 

Becky  was admitted that day to the hospital, they did a biopsy of the mass and discovered it was cancer and it also showed cancer in Lymph Nodes. 
Becky has always struggled with Migraines and after doing a PET Scan on December 26th she found out that she had 3 masses on the back of her brain, one on her tail bone and another on her other lung.The cancer that they originally saw on her MRI was diagnosed as Stage lV Adenocarcinoma.  Non curable, but treatable form of lung cancer. The tumors on her brain, tail bone and other lung could possibly get rid of with radiation.

The target therapy drug that they hoped they would be able to use as treatment for her lung cancer, Tagrisso. Tagrisso (osimertinib) is a cancer medicine that interferes with the growth and spread of cancer cells in the body.It is used to treat a certain type of non-small cell lung cancer. Osimertinib is used only if your tumor has a specific genetic marker.
Becky’s tumor has that specific genetic marker. The next step was to get her some insurance. Tagrisso cost close to $15,000for only 30 days worth of pills. All the paperwork has been turned in and she is just waiting for the approval from Medicaid.  
However a few days before Becky was to get her first radiation treatment on her brain, her health took a drastic turn for the worse. She was in unbearable pain with headaches and backaches and her legs were no longer working. She was has been in and out of the hospital and as of Sunday she has been in the I.C.U. and is unaware  of what’s going on, who anyone is and has been hallucinating .  Yesterday I sat there with her while the neurologist attempted to do an EEG. With my help trying to keep her calm, hold her still and a little begging, they were able to complete the test. I just got home from seeing her today. Her EEG was ok. However they did find out that she has hydrocephalus (fluid on her brain). They are unsure what they plan on doing for this and have talked about moving her out of ICU and up to Hospice where she will receive quality care.

I don’t know what Tomorrow will bring, all we can do now is pray. But I know as she is going through all of this, with the help and support from her loving parents, daughter, family and friends, her bills are all piling up. Her rent, utilities and other every day expenses aren’t being paid and her mountains of medical bills that aren’t going to be covered on the insurance she has yet to been approved for, is outrageous.  

I am not sure of an exact dollar amount of how much money she will end up needing to pay for all this but I know she will need at the minimum $10,000.  I am not asking you to donate a large amount, I understand how hard it is to donate money when you struggle to survive paycheck to paycheck, trust me I get it. But maybe the next time you go to the gas station you skip that bag of chips or you stay home Friday night instead of going out just this one weekend, and you take the money you would have spent and donate to helping Becky. 

A couple of really good friends of  Becky and of mine. who we worked with. recently moved back to Wyoming, before they left Jeremy took some amazing pics of the people we work with and wrote an awesome post to go along with the pics he would post everyday on Instagram. I want to share with you what he wrote about Becky. She and I both thought it was pretty spot on. 

“Becky - Oh Corn Dog, my partner in crime no matter if we were in the window or on the floor, she is always running her ass off. Its probably to catch up from being late because she left her shoes in some else's car or it was $.50-corn dog day at Sonic. We would always give her such a hard time about loving corn dogs and she always had a feisty defense for it. That was until Sonic over-charged her $10, then you would have thought WW3 had started because it did between Becky and the indefensible fast-food chain. They had no idea what they had unleashed. Like Scrat and his acorn, you didn't mess with Becky and her corn dogs. When she isn't talking about her love of corn dogs or thinking about fried pickles, she was always telling me the best stories of random shit that would happen to her each day. There is no way to describe how Becky tells a story and I can't
remember any of the bad jokes she would find, but they were always hilarious. We worked well together and I think she is the only person who never took my irritation personally when we got our butts kicked. I think its because she knew and understood what we had to deal with on the line and anything that was thrown at us, we always seemed to get through it together. I wouldn't have been half as good at my job without Becky holding me up. She is a sweetheart, a firecracker and a hilarious, amazing lady. Take care Corn-Dog.” -Jeremy Martin