Flynn Family Medical Journey and Expenses

Hi everyone, thank you for taking the time to read this. My name is Kim Gonzales, and I consider myself one of Rose's best friends. We've been through a lot of life together in the past 7 years or so but this year has really laid a heavy weight on them.

Even when they thought they had planned for all possibilities, you can’t be prepared for everything. For Rose and Mike, this past year has been a roller coaster. They made it through a difficult pregnancy, excited about their beautiful baby, Apollo, and ready to meet the challenges of caring for a baby with a cleft lip and palate. Rose and Mike found a great team of specialists and worked hard to organize the prosthetics that Apollo needs for eating, as well as the series of painful surgeries to repair the palate.

And then, Rose got diagnosed with Stage Three B metastatic melanoma.

She immediately underwent surgery to take a large swath of skin off of her back and remove a fully infected lymph node. Melanoma is a very aggressive form of cancer and her oncologist is fighting back with immunotherapy, which though not supposed to be as intensive and life upheaving as chemo, it is not without its life altering side effects. It was clear after the surgery and first treatment that Mike would need to find something flexible and work from home as Rose could not navigate the side effects and baby alone. Rose will be receiving this treatment once every three weeks for the next year. All of this is happening at the same time as the ongoing appointments, therapies, and surgeries for sweet Apollo.

As you can imagine, this is all putting them under enormous financial strain. They need appropriate medically qualified childcare for Apollo while Rose is undergoing treatment. They need to keep up with day to day living expenses as well as unexpected medical costs and bills while their ability to work is compromised.

Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated. As you may know, Rose and Mike are fiercely independent people who prefer to be self-reliant. They were reluctant about letting me start this go fund me, but the situation they are facing is frightening, emotionally exhausting, physically depleting, and expensive—and simply too much for this small family to walk through alone.

If you feel you want further information or resources on melanoma or cleft lip and palate please feel free to visit the following sites:

https://acpacares.org/

https://www.aimatmelanoma.org/stages-of-melanoma/stage-iii/

Thank you so much! All our love to Mike, Rose, and Apollo Flynn (and Aspen and Gambit, too!)