Andrew Peabody Andy Peabody

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

From Andy (November 2018)

Thanks for visiting my CaringBridge website.  SO … how did we get here?  We'll go back a bit to the end of February as it's as good a place as any to begin. At the end of February and beginning of March, I experienced what I came to understand was an episode of congestive heart failure.  But after 120 days of working with my cardiologist and a heart failure clinic, we were able to raise my cardiac ejection fraction (the capacity of one’s heart muscle to pump blood to the rest of the body) from a dismal 35% to 59%. Since normal adult ejection fractions run from 60-65%, my cardiologist was elated and I ended the summer excited about the prospect of returning to work and ministry sooner rather than later.

However, as late summer turned to early autumn, I continued to have unusual feelings of exhaustion, bouts of nausea, and cycles of significant pain and major abdominal/intestinal distress.  I was generally sick 2-3 days a week.  So I began consulting with a gastroenterologist. On November 14, we got our answer as to "why" I have been so sick of late, and it is not at all what we had hoped for.

I have colon cancer. Specifically, I have a large tumor almost completely blocking my colon, along with at least one other confirmed mass. We are having more tests to determine if the cancer is present elsewhere, and we'll be meeting with an oncologist and a surgeon in the next week, with surgery expected before the holidays to remove the tumors and resect the intestine.

I covet your friendship and the life and love we share. Keep me in your heart in the coming days. And please hold my brother and father (Rev. Joe Peabody, Jr and Rev. Dr. Joe Peabody, Sr) close in your hearts if you will. Having lost Mom to colon/stomach cancer just two years ago, this diagnosis has shaken us.

We are still processing the news, and we will know more in the days to come. We don't have many answers yet. For the time being I have few ideas of how to respond to the mounting offers of help. (For instance, I'm on a strict liquid diet for the foreseeable future, so the beautiful tradition of providing meals to friends in need is off the table, as it were). When you are instructed to strain even tomato basil soup, you know the medicos are serious about eating a “no residue” diet.  (PLEASE SEE UPDATES UNDER "WAYS TO HELP" TAB).  But we are beginning to recognize ways we can say "yes" to some of these offers, and our CaringBridge site will be instrumental - we hope - in communicating with all those who have reached out to us. Hope and encouragement are, of course, always at the top of our wish list! 


Grace & Peace to all!
Andy