Stage 4 Face&Throat cancer, Alan needs your help
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Fellow Service Academy graduates, Aviators, IT Professionals, and anyone else who can help - I need your help. My name is Alan Rodgers, and I am a married father of 1 son and a 1987 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. I realize that 2020 was a dumpster-fire year for most families, including mine as i was laid off due to Covid in May, and also had to put my beloved 13-year old German Shepherd down. Unfortunately, 2021 is starting off even worse for the Rodgers family as i was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic cancer of the face and throat in December and am now in my second week of chemotherapy. With the cancer and being unemployed i am out of options and now need your help to battle this disease and support my family.
"Help" - in looking back over my 57 years this is only the second time in my life that i have asked anyone for help - in 2009 when my father was only given a few months to live due to melanoma which metastasized to his brain. Ironically it is also the only other period in my 35 year career where i was unemployed, albeit a short period of time compared to 2020. Please don't follow in my footsteps when it comes to not asking for help as it has been a lifelong mistake on my part to not lean on my friends and family and one that i am trying to reconcile with now. I am learning now that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but rather one of strength - sadly it has taken this disease and the facing mortality to understand. God willing, i will not be making that mistake again.
The cancer started in my Parotid (salivary) Gland and has grown from there including secondary tumors (as seen in the picture). It is not just the diagnosis that has brought me here, but also the progression. The Parotid Gland is home to a major nerve center/cluster for the face and I now suffer from severe muscle weakness on the right side of my face. So much so that i no longer have muscle control over my right eye. As it takes more muscle to close the eye than keep open (recently learned), my right eye is now open 24/7 unless i close my left eye, which is my only relief. This is now causing some double vision which makes it almost impossible to be productive as i cannot look at anything for a period of time - including typing this text which will take 4x/5x longer than it should. In addition to the right eye, the tumors have pushed themselves against my vocal cords and i have lost my voice about 4 weeks ago. Lastly, with the tumors growing around my jawbone, I currently can barely stick 1 finger in my mouth opening - see how many you can, probably 3 to 4. This makes eating very difficult and i am basically reduced to consuming shakes. The best news that i can share is in late December i had a PET scan and as of then the cancer hotspots were isolated to my face and neck - so the cancer has not spread to my vital organs at this time. So there is HOPE.
It took about 3 months to finally be diagnosed in late December and I began treatment in early January of 2021. Unfortunately the tumors have wrapped around both by carotid artery and jugular vein so surgery is not an option at this point. I have started with a 9-week course of chemotherapy with 3 different but simultaneous chemotherapy drugs, administered for 1-week on and 2-weeks off. I am currently at end of week 2 of session 1 and i am not going to lie - it is tough! After the chemotherapy i am told i have radiation with smaller doses of chemo treatments and if all this goes well and the tumors shrink, then i face surgery. God willing we get here I will need quite a bit of rehab for my face as i probable have substantial nerve damage. So, we are probably talking about 12 months of treatment before i can get back on the playing field.
I have been the sole provider for my family over the last 20 years as my wife has focused on raising our son and dogs. As such there is no way for her to enter the workforce and replace my income. In addition - i need her to assist in my recovery - she is basically my full-time care giver at this point.
Being unemployed since May, I am now basically broke without the prospects of finding a new job anytime soon. I need to replace my income immediately to be able to pay my mortgage, utilities, car, and medical bills. I have Obamacare medical insurance but there are a lot of co-pays along the way as well. I borrowed $10,000 from a friend (thank you Mike!) to help me through short term but this will run out in short term.
While i undergo treatment and rehab, this money will be my families lifeline for the next 12 months. Thank you for taking the time to read this and anything you can provide is greatly appreciated. God willing, and we come out the other side, I will have the opportunity to pay this forward. God Bless!
"Help" - in looking back over my 57 years this is only the second time in my life that i have asked anyone for help - in 2009 when my father was only given a few months to live due to melanoma which metastasized to his brain. Ironically it is also the only other period in my 35 year career where i was unemployed, albeit a short period of time compared to 2020. Please don't follow in my footsteps when it comes to not asking for help as it has been a lifelong mistake on my part to not lean on my friends and family and one that i am trying to reconcile with now. I am learning now that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but rather one of strength - sadly it has taken this disease and the facing mortality to understand. God willing, i will not be making that mistake again.
The cancer started in my Parotid (salivary) Gland and has grown from there including secondary tumors (as seen in the picture). It is not just the diagnosis that has brought me here, but also the progression. The Parotid Gland is home to a major nerve center/cluster for the face and I now suffer from severe muscle weakness on the right side of my face. So much so that i no longer have muscle control over my right eye. As it takes more muscle to close the eye than keep open (recently learned), my right eye is now open 24/7 unless i close my left eye, which is my only relief. This is now causing some double vision which makes it almost impossible to be productive as i cannot look at anything for a period of time - including typing this text which will take 4x/5x longer than it should. In addition to the right eye, the tumors have pushed themselves against my vocal cords and i have lost my voice about 4 weeks ago. Lastly, with the tumors growing around my jawbone, I currently can barely stick 1 finger in my mouth opening - see how many you can, probably 3 to 4. This makes eating very difficult and i am basically reduced to consuming shakes. The best news that i can share is in late December i had a PET scan and as of then the cancer hotspots were isolated to my face and neck - so the cancer has not spread to my vital organs at this time. So there is HOPE.
It took about 3 months to finally be diagnosed in late December and I began treatment in early January of 2021. Unfortunately the tumors have wrapped around both by carotid artery and jugular vein so surgery is not an option at this point. I have started with a 9-week course of chemotherapy with 3 different but simultaneous chemotherapy drugs, administered for 1-week on and 2-weeks off. I am currently at end of week 2 of session 1 and i am not going to lie - it is tough! After the chemotherapy i am told i have radiation with smaller doses of chemo treatments and if all this goes well and the tumors shrink, then i face surgery. God willing we get here I will need quite a bit of rehab for my face as i probable have substantial nerve damage. So, we are probably talking about 12 months of treatment before i can get back on the playing field.
I have been the sole provider for my family over the last 20 years as my wife has focused on raising our son and dogs. As such there is no way for her to enter the workforce and replace my income. In addition - i need her to assist in my recovery - she is basically my full-time care giver at this point.
Being unemployed since May, I am now basically broke without the prospects of finding a new job anytime soon. I need to replace my income immediately to be able to pay my mortgage, utilities, car, and medical bills. I have Obamacare medical insurance but there are a lot of co-pays along the way as well. I borrowed $10,000 from a friend (thank you Mike!) to help me through short term but this will run out in short term.
While i undergo treatment and rehab, this money will be my families lifeline for the next 12 months. Thank you for taking the time to read this and anything you can provide is greatly appreciated. God willing, and we come out the other side, I will have the opportunity to pay this forward. God Bless!
Organizer
Alan Rodgers
Organizer
Las Vegas, NV