Support Christopher's Battle Against Cancer

I want to raise money to help with the IV treatments and financial aid for Christopher’s diagnosis . This is a beautiful family that grows nourishing food for our community . We help them so they can help us…here is a bit about their fight against cancer and their need to find a home.

Hello good people, my names is Emily Appelman…I am a mother to two beautifully wild, free, empathetic and imaginative young girls and best friend and wife to my incredible husband Christopher Appelman.

I woke this morning with a heavy but hopeful heart and the need to share with our community the medical, financial and housing crisis that we, and most importantly our courageous, strong, handsome Best Friend and implicitly incredible husband and papa have been battling for many months…and has been suffering from for far longer. Earlier this year Christopher was diagnosed with 3rd Stage Squamous cell carcinoma…cancer of the neck, throat and nose.

With a stage 3 diagnosis there was little room for option and a strong need for action…after listening to our team of doctors in Iowa City…making the many trips…calling and depending on friends and family to help get our girls to and from school to try and continue some normalcy in their lives…we were left with a terrifying treatment plan as well as a financial and housing crisis weighing down on us.

As Christopher and I scrambled to pick up the pieces and formulate a treatment plan that would support his body through the 24 weeks of chemotherapy and 6 weeks of radiation (when Christopher will be living in Iowa City at Hope Lodge) we fell upon intravenous IV therapy being done in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiation. At The.health.spa by Vive in Peosta Christopher receives Intravenous IV therapy to aid in the defense and rebuilding/ repair of his body while chemotherapy destroys the cancer…damaging healthy cells along the way.

To our disappointment but not surprise insurance does not cover intravenous IV therapy although it has undergone research and is the face of treatment in several other countries. Without the help of insurance we are unable to cover the necessary payments to continue Christopher’s treatment. We have made it through the first 9 weeks of treatment but have many more ahead.

As though this wasn’t enough…This last fall our family was given notice that we would need to find another place to live by September 1st of this year. Since then we have been diligently searching…reaching out to local realtors when we came up empty handed…but after an entire winter of searching we had little hope of finding a home or apartment to rent that would not displace us and our girls away from their school, the vineyard and gardens….after many restless nights worrying for our family Christopher started suffering from uncontrollable nasal hemorrhaging due to tumor growth (ending up in the emergency room after an all day nose bleed which lead to the cancer diagnosis)…when we first found out we were completely speechless…we felt as though someone had taken the ground from beneath our feet…not only were we worrying for our families housing situation…but now we were in fear for Christopher’s life!! The weeks that followed felt hollow…we did not know how to find ground to take hold of to balance ourselves…as we desperately made a treatment plan, not knowing how we were going to afford treatment, we were still left empty handed without a place to move.

As we furthered our search and began looking outside of the girls school zone we still came up empty handed time and again…with little hope left it seemed certain that we would be left without a place to live…but just as we were ready to give up…one…then two opportunities began to trickle our way…although we would LOVE to share more of our hopes and dreams tied to these different paths that have presented themselves to us…for now we must allow the river of change to set its course before we are able to share what is just over our horizon….for now what we ask is your positive thoughts, energy, prayers and in this financial family crisis…for your support in whatever capacity you are able to share. To ask for help is perhaps the most humbling action we have taken, but if there is a time when we would ask our community for help it is NOW. Christopher is strong and we are sure he has the strength to make it through treatment and the recovery to follow…if you are interested in helping please reach out via messenger or phone. As always, we thank you for your love and support!