At eight months old, our son Kip was diagnosed with retinoblastoma in his right eye. Retinoblastoma is a fast-growing form of cancer that develops on the retina and can spread to the rest of the body if untreated. Knowing that one of us would need to take off a substantial amount of work to take care of Kip’s chemotherapy, medical appointments, and other therapies, I became a stay-at-home mom after ten years of teaching, while my husband Austin continued to work as a teacher and coach football and track.

While Kip’s cancer went into remission after three rounds of chemotherapy, we continue to go to the hospital at least once a month for operation room procedures such as eye exams and MRIs to monitor the tumors and watch for more to appear (with retinoblastoma, there may be cancer in both eyes and a rarer form, in the brain). Not only this, but pediatric appointments to monitor his conditions that developed from chemotherapy, including anemia and weakness on his right side.

As medical costs mount, we wait on Medicaid approval but in the meantime pay what we are able.

The strain of moving from two incomes to one along with continuous medical bills and unexpected expenses has not been easy. In the long term, he will continue to need exams and hospital days, and I may not be able to return to work until he is closer to milestones that indicate the cancer may not reappear (age 3, age 5).

With this in mind, we have been asked to create a GoFundMe to allow friends, family, and members of our church and local communities to ease our stress during this time.