Help Rob Recover

If you have found your way to this page, then you have some memorable history with Rob (Robbie) Creveling. Maybe it was growing up in Mountain Brook and Birmingham as friends from his youth, playing tennis, guitar, talking about music, conversing a deep thought or simply hanging out together, sharing good times. Or possibly you have known Rob through his work history or other places or times in life.

Thanks for taking a few minutes to read about Rob’s condition, his situation and the reason for this Go Fund Me need, as well as to acquaint you with Rob’s life in Jackson, MS.

Catching Up on Rob:

Rob moved from Birmingham, AL to Jackson, MS over 20 years ago and has a been tennis instructor (similar to his work at Pine Tree County Club and other tennis facilities in Birmingham), teaching both adults and children. It’s been a career he’s enjoyed and best described as organic to his nature. Extracurricular to this, he regularly is involved in coordinating tournament events and travels with his students to instruct them as they play in circuits and advance their amateur levels. He enjoys being a growth encourager to younger kids in developing their skill sets and love of the game.

Off the court, he owns a house in Jackson and has always had at least one pet as a close companion. After his soulmate dog, Frodo, passed away, he chose a cat that is somewhat less needy, but still a good resource for his affection.

He has never stopped playing guitar and it is as much a part of him as the air he breathes. A tennis racquet and guitar are just as comfortable as his own body parts to the point that I feel it would be strange to him if he would have to go more than a day or two without gripping one. Besides playing for the sheer joy it brings him, he has also been the guitarist for his church for many years where he learns new arrangements, practices and blends music with the rest of the band for Sunday Services and special events.

Along with his passion for guitar and tennis he enjoys reading, writing, science fiction and fantasy, four legged friends and good conversations. As you can tell, his interests he gravitated to as a young boy have never altered greatly, and if you were with him today, it would be as if you hadn’t lost a minute of time.

Rob’s Recent Journey:

Some time ago, Rob began experiencing throat symptoms and complications. For a period of time, he was treating it himself, as many self- reliant, stubborn people do. But it really became an issue when he began losing voice control and it became difficult to speak and modulate his vocal cords. It was impacting his ability to communicate effectively at work (as you can understand how important it is to raise your voice across the tennis court) to give instruction. At this point he knew he must get an examination, and he ran the tests that no one wants to do and received the results no one ever wants to hear.

In early 2023, Rob was diagnosed with Laryngeal cancer. He started treatment in March of 2023. It comprised a series of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, followed by inspections for results and then more treatments after the first phase did not gain satisfactory outcomes. To date this has comprised a total of two full rounds of chemotherapy and 39 radiation treatments. He described radiation therapy on the throat area as the worst experience he has ever had to deal with in his life and if he is ever advised to repeat it, he simply might not have it in him. He has recently completed the treatments prescribed at this juncture and the hope is that they were able to kill the cancer cells, although he does have a scan scheduled for June to re-examine his status.

Through this time, he did not have any ability to speak. He had to put his work on hiatus nearly completely. Notwithstanding his lack of voice, the treatments left him with almost no energy and with the chemo and radiation basically damaging his good cells as well, his body was pretty much atrophied, to a degree that it was hard to do much of anything. Driving became difficult, let alone swinging a tennis racquet. It got to the point where he was even unable to play guitar at home.

There are bright spots right now, that he is latching onto. There is a prospective chance they have been able to kill everything they were going after. The doctors have made him feel cautiously optimistic (emphasis on cautiously). His voice has come back to a certain degree, and he sounds pretty normal to my ear. He said that he is now finally able to play his guitar again, albeit for short intervals. All this is highly encouraging!

With that said, he is going to have months of recovery, doing slow but steady physical exercise in order to improve his strength and get back to a level that is adequate for things we consider light routine activities. His new normal will be different, in that so many things are adversely affected even with optimal results from radiotherapy treatment. Constant fatigue and weight loss will continue to be issues during recovery where exercise and diet will need to be continually addressed. The area impacted by cancer and radiation is complex and affects everything from taste, saliva, dental health, the tongue, food reflux and swallowing. The recovery process is different for everyone, but the expectation is that recovery could easily last 6 months and there are likely issues he will have to contend with long term and accommodate as best he can.

His Crucial Situation:

Cancer has a cruel way of hurting its victims in the body and in other harsh ways. Rob has battled cancer and is facing a second life challenge because of it.

Even before his illness, Covid restrictions put a huge damper on his income, as you can imagine being self-employed in an environment where otherwise normal social interactions like tennis lessons and clinics were effectively shut down. Everyone felt some pressure, but his definitely hit his bottom line. His business was gradually coming back to more steadiness when his illness started, and he was later diagnosed. For most of last year, during and after treatments, he was not physically able to keep a semblance of a steady routine or work schedule. Through all of this time battling for his body, his financial safety nets became more and more fragile until they were exhausted completely, and he has used every resource he had at his disposal.

The core and fundamental life issue he is forced to face is that his job, his livelihood, coaching tennis, is untenable, at least for the near term. His doctors have expressly instructed him to not get back on the court now and at least through the summer, due to his strength, the strain on his body and the heat factor. Rob did confide in me that he tried a few times to give some lessons (against doctor’s instructions) in order to put some money in his pocket to pay some bills, but that he scared himself when his legs went out from under him and he had a fall. He has since begun to understand that it's too high of a risk of an injury that could set him back further, to jump back in right now, regardless of how much he feels he needs the money.

So, he is currently in a personal financial crisis. It may be short term, through his recovery, but it is real, and it has the potential to derail his life and home in Jackson and damage his future, which given his proven resiliency, is a very bright one.

Asking For Support:

Please consider donating to support Rob’s recovery.

This fund’s goal is to provide recovery support to financially aid in Rob’s ability to mitigate and meet his basic living demands, currently and through the summer, while he is recuperating and physically unable to work with consistency.

His present and imminent primary financial threats revolve around meeting his mortgage obligations (lenders being less than empathetic), utilities and other basic expenses.

Help through this fund will give Rob the ability to keep life in working order while he puts his full mental strength and positive focus behind his physical recovery and future plans.

Specifically, his focus right now is to continue building his strength and stamina to a point where he is able to transitionally resume his tennis instruction career while also doing double duty by exploring other work/career paths. He is uncertain, regardless of his effort, if he will have the same level of energy and intensity to be 100% as a tennis coach, full time. That’s to be determined based on how far his progress takes him. Whatever course is best for him, I’m sure he will be able to chart it successfully.

Last thoughts:

Rob, as you may know, is a particularly private person. He can be a man of few words when HE is the subject. His lack of providing detail can be frustrating to a person that wants to know everything and the unabridged version. It took him the longest time before he opened up about the severity of his illness to his family, beyond him saying he had been having a rough time with some throat issues. When he did finally offer details and the nature of his ordeal, he had completed his treatments virtually on his own.

He is self-reliant and prefers it that way. It’s a great quality he manifests. This is one of those exceptions when singular life events are so uncontrollable and exhaustive that it becomes impossible to handle solo.

To be clear, this Go Fund Me for Rob was not his idea. It became an idea after a phone conversation revealed the nature of what he is dealing with and some subsequent dialogue with an old friend of Rob’s who thought it sounded like a good idea and felt convinced that other mutual friends would be receptive to Rob’s news and an outreach effort.

Only then was it revealed to Rob to get his thoughts and permission. Under most circumstances he would have probably declined. I’m glad he accepted the idea in the purposeful, well-meaning way this outreach is intended, involving friendships from the past and present who are able to relate with and respect his situation.

Thank you for reading this and for being a memorable person in his life.