Joe’s Story

Site created on August 21, 2022

Joe Punda is the best kind of friend to have. He’s the guy who will be there for you whenever you need him, for help big or small, no questions asked, and will usually bring you a home-cooked meal on top of it.

He’s the best dad to Maddy (13) and Rylan (10), as well as any neighborhood kid who makes their way into the Punda house. He always feeds everyone and makes sure they’re having a great time.

Joe is the best husband and partner to Jen. After 20 years together including the highest of highs and lowest of lows, Joe is still the most loving spouse and strongest leader of the Punda household.

He’s the best football and softball teammate and leader you could have. He puts all that he has into the game, and will drink beers with you afterwards, win or lose. 

Now it’s our turn to give back. Joe would never ask for help like this from others, so that’s why we’re asking for him. No one deserves our help and support right now more than Joe Punda!

Joe got the worst news he could get on March 6, 2021, finding out after some testing for recurring stomach pain that he has Stage IV colon cancer. After meeting with teams at multiple medical centers across Chicago, they’ve decided to start the long road of chemotherapy, with the hopes of it reducing the cancer in his lymph nodes enough to be able to have surgery on his colon in the future.  

This is going to be a VERY long road to recovery, with countless tests, therapies, medications, and surgeries to help get Joe back on his feet. They could use all the help they can, whether it be monetarily or even just words of support and encouragement, like we all know Joe has given to us over the years!

Newest Update

March 08, 2023

Journal entry by Jen Punda —

Wow. It’s been four months since my last post, and I don’t know how I’m going to condense everything that’s happened in a paragraph or two but I’ll try my best! 🤞🏻😬

So back in December, Joe started in a clinical trial at University of Chicago. Unfortunately he was only able to receive two treatments before the toxicity of the drugs caused such horrible side effects (imagine skin painfully scabbing and peeling off your body 😥) that he had to stop the trial. In spite of all that, we managed to have a wonderful Christmas holiday and enjoyed valuable time with family and friends. 

We spent the month of January in and out of the hospital trying to get Joe’s stomach pain under control - the more his cancer progressed, (especially the disease around the pancreas and inside the lining of the gut), the more pain he was having. We also had to find another clinical trial and were lucky enough to have two options: one at Northwestern and one at University of Chicago. 

February was a month for decisions:
1) We decided to have a pain pump surgically implanted in Joe’s back/abdomen. It’s actually amazing - it gives him a 24/7 running dose of pain meds as well as the option for boluses (additional pain meds) throughout the day. It’s been a game changer and allowed him to wean off the oral opioids which was HUGE for his stomach health. 
2) We decided to go with the University of Chicago clinical trial. It starts in the next few weeks and our hope and prayer is that it slows the growth of the cancer or even shrinks it.
3) We decided that it was time for me to take a leave of absence from work. It was too difficult for me to try and manage our home life, Joe’s medical care, and my teaching job all at the same time. My work has been incredible and completely supportive of anything I’ve needed. And what I needed was to be home, with Joe. 

Okay so it was 4 paragraphs instead of 2, but I hit the main points! Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring about us and for checking in with us. Are we okay? No. But we’re “okay” and we are surrounded by love and prayers and family and friends and that’s all we can ask for. I’ll keep updating you as we move forward with Joe’s treatment! Love you all so very much. #teamjoeforever
Love always,
Jen P. ❤️




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