It's with great sadness that I post this update: Joe passed away earlier this morning and entered our Lord's heavenly home. Joe had been too sick/in too much pain to get out of bed lately and his goal was to get Katie and their kids moved to her hometown surrounded by family. They moved a week ago and Joe got a huge smile on his face and told Katie, "We did it!" Katie says: "I won't forget that smile he gave me. It brought him peace knowing we were all together by family. And everyone who helped us move also brought Joe that peace. Truly, Truly Thank You!" Recently, Joe made this comment during a Faithwire interview and it sums up his life journey: “God doesn’t promise us an easy road. He just promises to be there for us when we go on these roads.” ––Joe Wurzelbacher 

Last week was a whirlwind of activity for Joe, Katie & kids! Joe & Katie have been praying about what is best for their family and they decided to move back to Katie’s hometown. Although this move was unexpected and several states away, it will allow Katie and Joe to have support from Katie's parents and sisters during this difficult time. (Joe’s dad was able to move with them as well so Katie can continue to care for him.) Katie and Joe would like to express their heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has helped them during this transition, including: Joe's Toledo family, Toledo friends Dan Silvers, Dave Dixon, Jeremy Johnson who helped with basement/house work, NOCA school families, Redemption Church, Klumm Brothers Construction, Sandman Sales Yard, Bayer Tree Service, Shank/Key Realty, Perron Trucking, Mastin Site Services, Four Horseman Cleaning, Perron Trucking Inc, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Drexel Building Supply, Roberts Homes, Mueller Excavating, and many individual families & friends who helped on move-in day. Katie would also like to thank her NOCA school mom friends: "I just can't find words big enough to express my gratitude to you all! Your prayers, love and support have helped carry me this far and I appreciate all of you and will miss the heck out of this group of mom's! From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything!" Continued prayers of healing and hope for Joe & Katie. 

As many of you know, Joe was interviewed last week by national conservative radio host, Glenn Beck. It was a powerful and emtional conversation. After the interview, this headline appeared on The Blaze: "Glenn Beck’s audience blows past $50K fundraising goal for Joe the Plumber's cancer treatment in just 30 minutes!” Thanks to the outpouring of generosity from around the country, the “Goal" for Joe & his family has been raised! You can watch the interview here: Legendary Obama Challenger "Joe the Plumber" Fighting for His Life

From Katie Wurzelbacher:  "I find it hard to write this update, as I'm not even sure how to begin to convey our gratitude to you all. We're sitting here in awe and just speechless by the outpouring of support from everyone. The prayers, the encouragement, the donations- they just mean so much to us. We truly feel a community behind us, supporting us along this journey. You all are wonderful, kind, and generous people. We've been praying that God blesses every one of you, as you all have blessed us! The words just don't seem big enough to show what your support means to us, but Thank You!!"

From Katie: Where to begin? It feels like so much has happened in such a short amount of time that I don't know where to start. After we learned of the lesions on Joe's liver, we honestly felt pretty defeated. The folfirinox chemo had taken such a toll on him, that it was hard to believe it could all be for naught. This got me thinking that maybe he was already a stage 4 at diagnosis.

When you first get that kind of news, it feels like it's taking so long to get things started, but in reality things moved very quickly. It was only about 2 weeks from official diagnosis, to having a port put in place, to his first chemo treatment. Well the first treatment knocked him down pretty hard, and he was unable to do his "proper staging scans" that week up to Ann Arbor. Unfortunately, the scans never got rescheduled leaving us without a good baseline report. Add in the fact that his pain was pretty much non-existent after 4 rounds of treatment (the doctor told us this was a positive sign that it was working because of the way pancreatic cancer wraps around blood cells causing significant pain), and that helped solidify my thinking that he was at stage 4.

Fast forward a little, Joe’s Dr at the VA put in a referral to their program "Community Cares" so we could seek a second opinion/other treatment at City of Hope (formerly Cancer Treatment Centers of America). She honestly didn't have much faith that it would happen because the VA could provide the same kind of treatment that they would. The only difference was that we have the potential opportunity to get on a trial through City of Hope.

We were assigned a care manager through the VA and from the way they made it sound, they roped in a lot of people to try and get us this approval! Once we heard the approval went through, we definitely felt this was the door opening for us. Now we just had to get an evaluation. 

After doing more scans at City of Hope in IL, the new doctor shared my opinion that he was likely stage 4 at diagnosis. This was a little frustrating because that likely meant the folfirinox chemo had been working! But, Joe took 6 weeks off from the chemo (equivalent of 3 treatments) which had caused his cancer to progress further. We wondered if his cancer was progressing because the pain was intensely returning. 

So, onto the new plan! The new doctor put him on another chemo combination Gemcitabine/Abraxane as this has been shown to be better tolerated (we are trying to build him back up since he's down about 100lbs). We are also on the waiting list for a Phase 1 Clinical Trial that will target the KRAS gene mutation. Additionally, we are adding in our own "treatment plan" with high dose Vitamin C, mistletoe infusions, and many natural supplements. These are common treatments used in Europe and many people who have used them have seen positive results. We are trying to attack this from every possible angle! 

As we have to constantly remind ourselves with the ups and downs that come along, this is a marathon, not a sprint! And we have to take it day by day. We can't possibly thank you all enough for the love, prayers and support sent our way. You all have helped make this a little easier to get through. It's not as lonely with a community like you all behind us! Thank you!

Wow! Our campaign to help Joe & Katie has officially surpassed the half-way mark! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated and shared Joe's page. Let's keep the momentum going and continue blessing them with gifts of healing/guidance prayer, love and monetary support!:) 

Joe & Katie would like to share some positive news with you about a door that has been opened for Joe and it surely is due to so many faithful prayers from around the country! "The VA has approved us to go to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Zion, Illinois for a year! I’ve been praying for guidance and for God to open or close doors and our case manager was so happy because she had to enlist lots of help to get it through. We have an evaluation appointment set for the City of Hope hospital already on May 16th! At that time, we’ll meet with a team of different doctors and they’ll decide what tests/scans they want to run. Once the results are reviewed they’ll recommend a treatment plan for us moving forward. There is also a hotel connected where patients can stay. It's already given us some hope for more options! It's also only 2 hours from Katie's parents/family in WI so we're planning on summer fun with cousins.”