Hi, my name is Matt Robinson, and as many of you know, I’ve been dealing with Neurofibromatosis my entire life. But in the last 10 years, the symptoms have gotten much worse. I’ve needed two spinal surgeries to remove tumors on/in my spinal cord, both in the last 4 years. Both caused me to have to relearn how to walk and move, and both needed months of recovery time.

My last surgery was early last year, and recovery has gone well, but a relatively new problem has come up. In the last year or two, we discovered that a tumor in my left arm has been growing pretty aggressively and is starting to concern doctors enough that they are planning surgery. Hopefully, by the end of January or early February, this time surgery is slightly more risky than my previous ones due to the number of nerves that are running through the tumor. They are predicting about a 10% chance of losing feeling in parts of my arm and a slight chance I lose the ability to use my arm at all.

Though I’m less worried about the surgery due to my history, my biggest worry is my recovery time. I’ll have to be out of work for about 8 weeks, maybe longer, because of the physical nature of my job. Being able to not worry about financial matters during this healing time will greatly help me just focus on healing. Anything helps, including messages and prayers. Thank you, everyone.