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Somonauk woman shares her cancer fight
By Louise Brass
Observer Correspondent
Doctors thought she would be dead by the end of the week when the young mother of three, Joan Aubele, 29, was admitted to the hospital with stage-four acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
“My cancer was actually so advanced upon admission to the hospital that my chemo was postponed until the end of the week, assuming I would probably be dead by then,” Aubele said.
It seemed pointless to give her chemo at this stage — that was in March 1990.
Despite the diagnosis, and the anger and fear she was experiencing, she prayed and believed that somehow, someway her prayers would be answered.
“I was actually in constant prayer, begging God to let me live for the sake of my husband, and for my three little girls,” she recalled.
And she wasn’t the only one petitioning God. Friends, relatives, parishioners of eight churches, her priest, her own children and her husband Carl, a correctional officer, were all praying for her.
Then the doctors decided that chemo therapy was worth a try. It could rid her body of cancerous cells. “But in doing so, it wiped out all my good white blood cells,” she said. She needed at least 200 white blood cells to stay alive.
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As she spoke, she fingered her medal of Our Lady of Medjugorje, who became important to her during her cancer struggle.
On eight occasions, Carl was summoned to her bedside to say his goodbyes. “The doctors believed I wouldn’t make it through the day,” she recalled.
She had endured three separate port surgeries, seizures, then tremors, a liver biopsy, numerous blood transfusions and sustained countless bone marrow aspirations. Additionally, fungus was detected in her lungs and around her heart, requiring more surgery.
Her doctors believed she wouldn’t make it through the dangerous surgery to remove the fungus, especially with zero white blood cells.
“But I clung to prayer, and I was alive. A miracle had transpired.”
Still, there were more struggles ahead.
“Each time my fevers spiked, which was quite often, I required a cooling mat to prevent me from sizzling,” she said.
And, she had become allergic to most antibiotics.
The hospital chaplain, a priest, became a vital part of her recovery. He visited her almost daily, speaking of God’s love, and reminding her to trust in Our Lord.
“On rare occasions that I was not nauseous, I received holy Communion. Whenever Father Bob touched my forehead to pray over me, I envisioned Jesus himself, laying his healing hands on me. Tears streamed down my cheeks for I was definitely feeling his mighty presence,” she recalled.
Doctors then discovered cancerous cells had reached her brain and they increased the chemo 10-fold to break through the protective brain barrier, “which, by all accounts should have killed me,” she said.
“But God decided to carry me instead,” she said, even though she was now in a “zombie state.”
“I looked like an alien. Bald as can be, glasses much too big for my thin face, no eyebrows nor eye lashes, just staring up at the ceiling. I was physically a weak shell of a woman weighing less than my 11-year-old daughter, Theresa.”
Aubele recalled that her doctor, Chitra Madhaven, who was also a prayerful woman and a Hindu, brought a medal of Our Lady of Medjugorje and placed it over Aubele’s bed. On that same day, friends of her mother had arrived in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, then a part of the former Yugoslavia, to pray for her.
As Aubele began to regain her health, she was in constant thankfulness to God.
“I rejoiced each time I saw another morning,” she recalled.
Three months later, she was released from the hospital and finally sent home.
“I began appreciating everyone and everything in life. I had a long road ahead of me but felt so much love from so many,” she said, urging everyone hearing her story to make prayer a priority in their lives.
As soon as she was able, Aubele began writing her memoir. Although still with some disabilities and speech difficulties and requiring help walking, she completed her memoir “The Dance,” which debuted on Amazon last summer.
Within four days, “The Dance” climbed to the number one “Hot New Release” spot. Her book has generally remained in the top 100 in the “Women Authors-Drama” category since its release. Her next book is titled “Hearts Ablaze.”
A resident of Somonauk and member of St. John the Baptist Parish there, she wrote to The Observer, “The sole intention of the book is to spread the news that miracles aren’t a thing of the past — that they happen today, every day.”
She gives God the credit for her health and her book's success.
“The more we pray, the more God is present and we are aware of his many miracles in all our lives,” Aubele said. “Prayer is the greatest gift you can give yourself.”
Available on Amanzon:
“The Dance: A Story of Love, Faith, and Survival” by Joan Aubele. (Self-published, paperback, 2015) 123 pp., $14.95
Enter by Oct. 17, 2016, to win both books from The Observer Book Club.
