Joey + Rory’s Joey Feek Stops Cancer Treatment After Devastating Diagnosis
Joey and Rory Feek, who make up the duo Joey + Rory, have received some absolutely devastating news: Although Joey Feek recently completed chemotherapy to help fight her Stage IV cervical cancer, her cancer has returned again ... and they have decided to cease additional treatments.
"Sometimes there just aren’t enough surgeries -- or doctors -- or chemotherapies -- or prayers," Rory Feek writes on the couple's blog, This Life I Live. "And you have to wipe the tears from your cheeks and say the words that you were hoping to never have to say … 'Enough.'
"Joey had been feeling pretty good overall the last week or two and was ready to start the next phase of treatment," Rory Feek continues. "This whole thing has been very hard on her, but she knows it’s all part of getting better, so she’s been a trooper and has stayed incredibly positive through it all. She’d done everything she was supposed to do. Followed every instruction that she’d been given and has taken every hard knock that has come her way, and got back up and kept fighting."
However, recent tests revealed that the results of Joey Feek's first round of chemo were not good.
"Before the next round of chemo was to start on this past Thursday [Oct. 22] in Atlanta, the doctors scheduled a CT scan to be done the day before," Rory Feek explains. "This was her first major scan since before she had the big surgery in July. So the goal was to see how her body has responded, after the removal of the all the cancer and the first five weeks of treatment. To make sure that there were no signs of the cancer still around.
"But there was ... 'I’m sorry to have to tell you this…' That’s how the conversation began."
According to Joey Feek's recent tests, two quarter-sized tumors have already appeared in the same area that the doctors had been treating aggressively with chemotherapy and radiation. Additionally, several more tumors have appeared in her abdomen.
The sad news has caused the couple to stop all medical treatments and instead return to their Tennessee farm.
"We came home," Rory Feek writes. "Not to die. But to live. To put our hands in each other's and sit out on the back porch and watch the sun set as our sweet little baby girl plays on a blanket in front of us. To bask in the glory of the beautiful life He’s blessed us with and try not to question why we can’t have more of it together. And why He is allowing this to happen."
The Feeks, who are parents to a one-year-old daughter, Indiana, admit that they are devastated by the latest development.
"To say my wife is broken-hearted is an understatement," Rory Feek acknowledges. "And to tell you that we’re not scared would be a lie. This is the kind of thing that happens to somebody else, not us. But then I have to remember ... we are somebody else to somebody else."
The singer-songwriter concludes by asking for the prayers of their fans and friends who have walked this journey with them.
"One of the mantras that I always try to live by is to have incredibly 'high hopes, but low expectations,'" he says. "So, even though we know we’ve reached the end of what medicine can do -- and while we prepare for what God has put in front of us ... Joey and I will continue to pray for a miracle.
"We ask for your prayers, too. For a miracle," Rory Feek closes. "And even more so, for peace with His decision. That is enough."
In light of this news, Joey + Rory have canceled their remaining 2015 Farmhouse Concerts.
The Boot continues to extend our heartfelt prayers to the couple.
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