Neil & us vs. Cancer

Up until recently, Neil was successfully waging a valiant battle against melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, which had begun on his face and migrated to some lymph nodes in his neck. He had just finished an exhausting series of radiation treatments and was about to beginning "Immunotherapy", when the worst-case-scenario came to pass. In the ER on the night of August 12, we found out the cancer had spread to his brain in several places. Emergency brain surgery was required to remove the most significant tumor, which had already started bleeding. Neil has subsequently undergone more radiation to target the other tumors in his brain. Immunotherapy (which is basically the substitute for chemo in this case) is imminent. Despite his decreased cognition and motor skills (lots of stress on the brain recently!), Neil has kept his sense of humor and has relied heavily on his faith to make it thus far, but it is a difficult, uphill battle, and we are forced to simply live life one day at a time.

Connie is taking extended leave from work  to provide loving, 24/7 care for Neil (only God knows how long that will be necessary), but that means Leave Without Pay. In the face of already burdensome household expenses (i.e. already struggling to make ends meet), compounded by medical bills associated with Neil's treatment, keeping the Rodgers family's head above water is just not feasible without some assistance from the outside. Hence, we would be grateful primarily for your prayers and secondarily for any other assistance you could give us at this time. God bless you!

-The Rodgers Family