As most of you know, my older brother Robert has been battling an aggressive cancer since February, with tumors found on his lungs and liver. He finished his fourth round of chemotherapy in May and has been recovering for two months. While our family was together this summer, it had seemed like everything was going well.
In June, Robert was tested again for his “tumor marker count.” Most cancer cells produce specific proteins that can be tracked to find our whether any treatment is working. One specific marker was originally tracked in Robert’s blood tests at 2.4 million before he started chemotherapy in February. With each round of chemo, the marker continued to drop by about 95%. Things were looking really well, and June’s blood test showed the marker at 19.
The doctors decided allow Robert to rest for another month before they did another blood test. Unfortunately, Robert’s test last week was far from encouraging. The tumor marker had risen to over 900. So, doctors ran Robert through another battery of tests and scans in order to decide what the best method of treatment might be. They took another blood test and found that the tumor marker number had double to about 1800 in just four days. To add insult to injury, new tumors were found on his lungs as well.
As it stands now, Robert will be moving to Indiana for roughly 3 to 4 months for a new round of treatment. Robert’s wife, Aimee, and their two girls will be moving back to El Paso, from Austin. Aimee is due with their third child in about 2 months and will be staying with her parents until the baby is born. If and when she is able, she will join Robert in Indiana.
Robert’s new therapy regimen is something akin to dropping an atomic bomb. It’s not pleasant or pretty, but doctors seem convinced that this will remove any trace of cancer from his body.
Essentially, Robert’s stem cells will be harvested from his bone marrow and removed from his body. The doctors will put Robert through a potent and nasty form of chemotherapy that will more or less kill anything that’s alive in his body. After the chemicals have cleared his system, his stem cells will be placed back in his bone marrow and, ideally, quickly produce fresh white blood cells to help Robert fight off infection. Then, the whole procedure will be repeated until Robert is back in the clear.
Naturally, this isn’t what we were hoping to hear from the doctors today. After watching Robert recover wonderfully for the past two months, this news is an awful blow.
We’re looking for all the prayer support we can get for all the following:
1 – Robert’s complete healing.
2 – Safety for Aimee and their children.
3 – A smooth delivery for their third child.
4 – God’s favor and presence through all of this.
I was supposed to head back to Kansas City tomorrow morning, but that may be off the schedule as well. I’m making myself available to help my brother in whatever way I can. To be honest, I’m not sure what my plans are for the next few months anymore.
Thank you so much for your prayers. I love you all and I am so very grateful for your prayers and support.
I can say with certainty that we need to hear the voice of God now more than ever. If you have any words of encouragement or prophecies or anything else for Robert, Aimee, or anyone else in my family, please email me. I’ll be sure to get it to the correct person.
With all my love and gratitude,
Joe Feuille
“Robert’s new therapy regimen is something akin to dropping an atomic bomb. It’s not pleasant or pretty, but doctors seem convinced that this will remove any trace of cancer from his body.”
“Convinced” isn’t quite the right word. “20% chance” is more along the lines of the verbiage the doctor used.
Also… I had a feeling that picture would come back to bite me in the ass. I took that hat from questionable to downright offensive.
I’m convinced that 20% won’t do it for us. We’re asking God for 100% and nothing less.