Becky Siegel Cancer Treatment Funds

I'm doing this for my sister.  It started with my sister having a lung biopsy to identify a small mass...during that biopsy the surgeon discovered Stage 3 lung cancer.   The lung was filled with cancer and multiple lymph nodes outside the lung had cancer as well.  He removed her lower lobe of her lung and multiple cancerous lymph nodes.  He was able to get 90 percent of what he could visibly see.  He had to stop because going any closer to the heart would have put her life in danger on the surgery table.  Shocking news with a very bleak outlook.  Fast forward a few weeks later during recovery…my sister goes in to have a cat scan done of her brain. Another spot identified…now upgrade to stage 4 lung cancer. 

 

Ironically 4 years earlier while she was pregnant with the second to last child she developed pneumonia and was in the hospital…the doctors did a chest scan and found a small spot in her lung.  They did not think it was anything major but advised my sister to check it out.  Fast forward 4 years later and in that same exact spot is Stage 4 lung cancer.  The surgeon told us that by statistics anyone untreated with lung cancer lives on average 12 months.  He looked me in the face and said “your sister has been living with lung cancer for at least 5 years”.  I asked how she survived.  He said “I can’t answer that but I have to believe that is good news in terms of her recovery and her battle with this.”

 

Nobody including the surgeon, in their wildest dreams would have suspected stage 4 lung cancer when this began.  It was very unlikely in his opinion that it wasn’t cancer at all.  But as we are all discovering cancer is a very sneaky and pervasive thing.  It hides where you can’t see it…it hides from pet scans and x-rays often.  It’s a mischievous disease…ironically very much how my sister has been most of her life…watch our cancer you’ve met your match.   

 

She has started treatment at one of the best cancer treatment centers in America, MD Anderson out of Houston Texas.  She has started chemo already and its really taking a toll on her.  After chemo she will be undergoing radiation in her chest cavity to focus on the remaining cancer that they know the surgeon wasn’t able to remove.  There is a new procedure called a Gamma Knive that will be done on her brain if Chemo does not kick it.  And they also found a specific mutation in her cancer ALK that has some new treatments that could stop the growth of what she has giving her a much greater chance of survival and possibly a cure.  We are all keeping our fingers crossed. 

 

If there is one thing my sister has in abundance in her its fight.  I have no doubt she will beat all the odds that say she won’t survive.  She has to survive.  She is a mother of 6 children.  The youngest isn’t event 1 year old yet.  I know she will never give up.  The thing that kills me the most about all of this is the cost.  It’s just insane how much everything costs.  I am asking for help to cover costs including, Flights and hotel in Texas for treatment, Chemotherapy, Radiation Therapy, Gamma Knight Treatment, Monthly Bills that are racking up, Child Care while she is going through all this.  I did some math on my own and its shocking that if she survives the cancer the cost will likely put her and her children in poverty.  Please please help me help her.  Anything you can offer would be tremendously appreciated.  It can be $1, or it can be $10,000.  Every dollar will help ease the burden she will have at the end of this journey.  She needs the hope to help her keep fighting her way through this against all the odds.  Everything I read tells me that her attitude and keeping her spirits high will be the best thing for her recovery.  This financial piece of it would be such a gift if I can find a way to pull it off.  Thank you for taking the time to read this.