Dear Friends,

As some of you know, Joel and I left for the US suddenly on December 11. Joel’s cancer is back with a vengenance!  The end of September all of his tests were clear and then December 8th the tests were off the board.

Jonathan and Jennifer met us at the Atlanta airport and took us straight to the Veterans Hospital in Atlanta.  Joel is very, very jaundiced; the CT scan showed innumerable lesions in the lungs, multiple ones in the liver, and many scattered throughout the lymph nodes.  Wednesday morning (December 14) a stent was placed in the bile duct that flows from the liver to the large intestine (a tumor was pressing on the duct causing a blockage).  Friday morning a port was inserted in his upper left arm to accommodate the chemo drugs that will be administered every other week; Friday evening he was discharged from the hospital for the weekend.

Monday 19th, Joel had his first chemo treatment. The oncologist is working hard to keep him from having nausea like he experienced in 2001 when he had to be admitted to the hospital for 13 days.  Before the drips began yesterday he was given anti-nausea medication then the first chemo drug, Avastin, which dripped in for 90 minutes; the next drip was Oxaliplatin which took two hours to drip in; finally at 2 pm they attached a box to his belt which contained the chemo drug 5-FU (Fluorouracil)which dripped in over the next 48 hours.  On Wednesday we returned to the hospital to have the needle & box removed since the chemo is finished.  We will return in two weeks to begin the process all over again.  Presently we have been given NO time frame for this treatment. The oncologist is hoping the tumors will shrink giving him some relief.

We were so sad to make such a quick exit from South Africa but felt it was the thing we had to do since the chemo drug was not available there. We would ask you to keep Joel continually in your prayers for these coming days.

God Bless, Theresa