Hello, my name is Germán Guerrero and I’m making this page for, my wife, Tara Guerrero (Becker) who is currently undergoing Cancer treatment. Here is her story.

On 9/2 Tara went to the ER at Corewell Health/ Troy Beaumont because she had a mass growing in her right axillary(armpit)/chest wall region. The mass grew to be extremely painful prompting her ER visit. Luckily she had arrived with a mammogram, ultrasound, and CT already on record with suspicions of some type of Malignancy. On 9/3 she went through a painful CT guided biopsy of her right axilla which resulted with Berkitt’s Lymphoma (stage 4), a form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Her PET scan shows bone and intramuscular metastasis. 9/5 she underwent 2 bone marrow biopsies because the first attempt failed. 9/10 was her first paracentesis where 6 liters of fluid was removed. This was also her first day of chemotherapy. 9/11 was her first intrathecal chemotherapy. 9/15 was the day she had a thoracentesis where 1.1L of fluid was removed. 9/12 was her second paracentesis where 2.55L of fluid was removed. 9/17 was her second intrathecal chemotherapy. 9/22 was her last chemotherapy infusion which now concludes her official first round of chemotherapy. That day she came home to her boys. She will be going through at least 8 rounds total each with a combination of inpatient stays and outpatient appointments.

Tara wanted to become a nurse after her interest in health care perked up while she watched her grandmother go through an illness and multiple hospitalizations before her passing. She has been a Registered Nurse for 12 years. Her first year of nursing was essentially unpaid aside from living stipends while serving as an RN through the Mercy Volunteer Corps (MVC). Per her own words she wanted to serve those in their most vulnerable state and maintain that mindset throughout her nursing career. She served at a free health clinic that aided individuals living below the poverty line, from all walks of life. Following, she worked on the medical surgical unit at Rush University Medical Center (her dream hospital) in Chicago for about a year. She finally made it to her dream nursing job as a circulating nurse at Troy Beaumont Hospital where she has been there for a decade this coming January. After she had Ziggy she dropped to a contingent status to raise her boys at home while working midnight weekend hours. She was able to pick up full time midnight hours (36hrs a week) with a set schedule for almost a year but due to be erroneous circumstances she was cut back down to her contingent hours. She constantly tries to be an understanding, compassionate, and advocating nurse to her patients. She can’t ever share the specifics of her patients with me, but you can absolutely tell that she has this unwavering responsibility and utmost regard for each and every patient she has ever attended to. She’s an unforgivably compassionate, loving human being. I am lucky to call her my life partner, my wife, and an amazing mother to our sons, Oliver (11) and Ziggy (6).

To say her diagnoses came as a shock to us is a complete understatement. She’s the heart of the family and the literal light of our lives. She’s been through a grueling hospital stay mentally and physically and she continues to look at each day with shinning positivity and will find at least one thing to be grateful for every single day despite her difficult road ahead.

As Tara has built such a strong foundation for our family filled with love, honor, peace, and respect. She has taken care of her boys, myself included, and has given so much of herself to serve others in her career. Please help us take care of Tara for a change. Please, consider donating while Tara is going through a vigorous chemotherapy course to battle this aggressive cancer. We would like to extend a special thanks to the overwhelming support we have since received from our parents, family, friends, co-workers, and incredible health care team. This village has showed up like never before and we are forever in your debt with gratitude.