Home At Last!!!

Wow! I feel like there are no words to describe all the emotions and feelings I have felt in the last hour as I've been lying on my couch reading the blog for the first time in a week. Tears were streaming down my face most of the time as I am just in awe of how God is working. There are so many who are encouraging Earl & I, so many that we don't even know. God is absolutely incredible. To know that God is using such a terrible thing and making good happen is so exciting. It's so much easier to truly say that so far it's been worth it.Yes, Earl & I are home and I am feeling SO good. There are times when I almost forget that I just went through chemo. No, I still don't have tons of energy but I'm not in pain. Thank God for that
I guess the next few days are going to consist of doctor appointments and tests as well planning & preparation as we plan to head to the Mayo Clinic by Mon. Aug. 7. Please pray with us that God guides our plans and preparations as well as the doctors there.
Ramona

In some ways Mony felt alot better today, but she is incredibly tired now. I hope she has energy to chat with me in a few minutes. I sleep in the bed beside her in our little honeymoon sweet. There are huge decisions to be made in the next few days. Our meeting with Dr. Wong tomorrow morning feels like it could use an excessive amount of prayer. I'm out of time at my kiosk
earl

A new day

Ramona is still stuck in that room so I am writing the blog, but don't worry soon you'll have words from her. In case anyone wonders if God is awesome, let me tell you a story. Last night at about 9:30 My father-in-law and myself went for a cruise to go pick up some supper and get my belongings from Al and Laura Friesen's house. And Al told me what had happened to him during the day. Someone had asked him how they could pray for him. His response was, pray for Ramona. She has cancer in her arm, lungs, hip and who knows where else. At this point in Al's story I looked at him kind of funny because I didn't think he knew about the cancer in Ramona's hip. And sure enough Al told me he had dreamed about the cancer in the hip. As could be expected, my eyes open a little wider when someone tells me about prophetic dreams. Anyway, I asked Al if he had dreamed about anything else and in his dreams he had conscience pangs about not anointing Ramona with oil when he had prayed over her. So I told him to come on down. And no, God didn't instantaneously heal Ramona yet (that we know of), but after Al anointed Ramona I pulled Al aside and we had our own little revival service right there in the lobby of the 5th floor and we prayed and Al anointed me with oil as well. A giant step toward peace for me. A few hours ago I was made aware of something else. Al felt compelled to look at our wedding invitation. And check it out for yourself (if you were invited, and sorry if you weren't invited). Here is a quote that God obviously knew the importance of. "Where there is great love there is always miracles" - Willa Cather. There you have it. I guess for me that means love Ramona and love God and then see what happens. If there is lip shaped bruises on her neck do her a favor and ask Ramona if the chemo did that to her. In the process of trusting God here is the list of things that need praying for:
1. God to be glorified through this (never ever forget that)
2. Ramona's miraculous healing
3. We are having a meeting with Dr. Wong Sunday morning at 9:30 discussing many different things about what steps to take next
4. We are Very seriously looking at going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota very soon. A million things need to come into place before that happens.
Enjoy your day,
Earl

I want to write a nice professional sounding post, but i can't right now. Everything is confused and messed up in my head. The bone scan previously mentioned showed that Ramona has a large tumor on her left hip, this will have been the original tumor. The new scan also showed that the cancer has significantly grown in the last week. The tumors in her lungs are bigger. The chemo will not cure the Sarcoma. And as i write right now, they won't even attempt surgery. Obviously, I will now research as to what else can be done. Winnipeg considers Ramona's cancer to have no cure. I want to kick and scream and say "Look what praying has done so far". Right after the doctor told us his new findings Ramona and I were talking about different Bible stories where God allows peoples backs to be right against the wall before he delivers them. God didn't stop Daniel from being thrown into the lions den. He just closed the lions' mouths. The thing about people coming to visit. If I think of the option of having to tell people to sit in the waiting room or of sitting alone in the hospital. I prefer telling people to leave Ramona's room when she gets tired. I don't know what else to say. If my name was Gideon, I would think that God has trimmed my army well below 300 people already. PRAY HARD.
Earl

Tim for Earl & Ramona

Hi this is Tim, Earl's dad.
Ramona and Earl had a full day today. The chemo treatment is taking its tiring toll on Ramona. She appreciates all the thoughtfulnesses and prayers of friends. Energetic visiting is however a little too much to ask right now. Friends who drop by are advised to be sensitive to her need for rest. One of the features of today was a bone scan, the hope and prayer of course is that no cancer will be found in Ramona's bones. Good night to all.

I sit here and don't know what to write. The morning seems like a lifetime ago. Today the chemo hit. Suddenly around 3 o'clock this afternoon Ramona was feeling really sick and light headed. The nausea was bad at some points but she never actually threw up. Essentially she's been sleeping since then, she wakes up many times but doesn't quite participate in conversation, she just falls asleep. It's a little unnerving for me in a way. She wasn't in much pain when I left the hospital. If Ramona feels the same way tomorrow as she does today, it doesn't really make sense to come visit her. Interacting with people tires her out. You guys have an amazing idea with the hair. Apparently, there is an 'Angel room' downstairs in the hospital where you can borrow wigs for free, but what Carissa, Becki, and Tobi are talking about seems incredible. And by the way, the incredible things the God is doing at camp is very encouraging for both of us. Everyone at camp, just keep going crazy. Thank you for the people buying me food. That pizza I have for lunch is about the healthiest thing I've had this week.
Ramona was writing a list of the many things she was thankful for, but that list is on our other computer. All the things in life that I was going to learn at my own convenience God is now forcing me to learn. On the privacy of this blog I really want to thank my dad for chatting for a long time and praying with me. I'm also incredibly encouraged after praying with Al Friesen tonight. Pray for Mony! Smiles, hugs, jokes, etc. and everything else that you and I wish we could do to magical make chemo okay, just don't quite cut it. It feels so incredibly helpless. It requires a powerful God. Please keep talking to Him. He is the healer....i guess i'll go to bed soon
Earl

Well, here goes. Thank you so much for praying. It seems kinda weird but I think I spend more time thanking people for praying than I spend praying myself. Life can only go on like that for so long. we feel like God is carrying us right now. Ramona's chemo started today. Physically I don't think she can tell much of a difference so far. She is tired and her back hurts a bit. But the full effect of what chemo does is not evident yet. I tugged on her hair, i guess that doesn't come out first day. The food: Mony is Mennonite to the core. It takes a little convincing to get her to let her hospital food go to waste and just eat some restaurant food. About the puss (sorry about my previous spelling error), it sounds like the dressings will need to be changed in the wound for the next month, but it is healing. Note to all computer geeks: we have no way to get internet access in Ramona's room and she is stuck on the fifth floor till we leave. Any legal yet crazy ideas accepted. The doctor said we would be here til Sunday-ISH, take note of the bold letters. We appreciate the encouragement from all you who came by. Becki and I have a little plan which needs some support so we can talk Ramona into it. We figure since she is losing her hair anyway, she should color it blue and make it all spiky or something......anyway...part of me realizes (as i sit here by myself with my head in my hands) that this is not something i can joke my way through. God is in the process of doing some serious internal rearrangement in myself and Mony. Keep seeking God. Mony's faith continues to be an amazing example to me.
Never give up on the Almighty,
Earl

We love pus

We just arrived in the hospital. Ramona is sitting beside me and i'm doing most of the writing (it is hard on her arms and body to be typing right now). Because some sort of substance was leaking from Ramona' s incisional biopsy yesterday, our doctor asked us to come in early. We were both afraid that it was the tumor leaking from the wound. It is a little frightening to see the tumor visibly grow in a matter of a day or two. Anyway, it turns out that the incision is infected and therefore is growing. The surgeons will likely have to open up the wound again tonight or tomorrow morning and remove the pus. Thank God it wasn't the tumor growing so rapidly. That might be some of the reason Ramona was in so much pain the last few days. Chemo is still scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Helpful Information:
Ramona is on the fifth floor of the St. Boniface hospital in the B Wing, Room #1
Visiting hours are :8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The cell phone I am using has a number equalling 641-4017
Humans are welcome to come and visit.
We love you all, thank you so much for the encouragement and prayers
Mony is really looking forward to a delicious supper in a few minutes (cough, cough)
The end
Earl (and Mony who is sitting right beside me)

Encouragement for the prayerful

Right now, I feel the most peaceful I've felt in the last two days. Let me see if I can sum up what has happened in the last 48ish hours. On Wednesday morning the doctors threw the information at us that Ramona has a really fast growing Sarcoma. They didn't know exactly what kind of Sarcoma it is but since it is growing fast they recommend that we start chemo as fast as possible. This is a bit of an act of faith since only certain types of Sarcomas respond well to chemo. The other part of this is that sarcomas aren't very common and that affects the amount of information available. We went into St. Boniface yesterday to have a PICC line put in. (so the chemo can be put straight to her heart). This mini procedure took two hours, but we were at the clinic for about 7 hours. We have nearly talked to all the dieticians, nurses, doctors and pharmacists working at St. B. It is amazing, we dealt with about 7 or 8 different professionals and they were all really amazing people. Ramona's pain has increased in the last two days and is therefore on more morphine and other drugs. It is kinda frightening how fast this cancer seems to be hitting her. It was only a week or two ago that she was running most of the Beaver Creek Bible Camp and in the last two days, anything other than lying, really still seems to cause alot of pain. A combination of the cancer itself and beginning the morphine has made her really tired today.
I am inspired by the peace God has given Ramona. When we came to camp last night it was incredibly encouraging to hear that some of the campers had the idea to fast and pray for us. They had seen some of the counsellors fasting earlier. I should let Ramona tell the story later on when she feels up to being at the computer, but it blew us away. Ramona pulled those campers into our room to chat and pray with them and they were incredibly sincere. One of the campers was in my cabin two years ago and became a Christian. Now he is fasting and praying for Ramona. God must be doing alot of smiling.
Keep seeking God,
Earl

quick update

Thankyou for praying. I wanted to post something, but we need to head to winnipeg in a few minutes. Hopefully i can fill you in on what the doctors told us when we get back. When we don't know when or how God will heal Ramona we call it faith I guess. Her pain is increasing, please keep praying hard

Later earl

Thoughts on a Tuesday Afternoon

It's tuck time at camp. Mony is doing tuck, which i'm excited about and Judy is actually here to help her out which Mony was also pumped about. Today is waiting and pondering day. This may be our last 'normal' day in a while. We have an appointment in Winnipeg tommorow morning where they give us the low down on what is actually happening in Mony's body and what we should do about it. That's a scary appointment if you ask me. We may or may not come back to camp. Also, we have faxed some information to the Mayo Clinic, and we are waiting for them. Although my world has been kinda surreal, like this is all some nightmare. God still has ways of encouraging us. I'm still blown away at how many people are praying for us. I find that I really need to know who God is. This God has my wife's life in His hands. These all make good cliches, but somehow it's a struggle to truly have peace about this.
As has been firmly pressed into my brain lately, Go nuts, our purpose in life is to glorify God,
Earl

Hello

Hey everybody,
Thanks so much for all of your prayers. I know I emailed a bunch of you informing you of this website and so here I am attempting to fill you in on my life.
Today has been a pretty difficult day for me. I have not had a lot of energy and my bed is where I feel like being most of the time. It's hard for me to not interact with the campers and instead sleep.
Earl & I are still in touch with the Mayo Clinic and hope to find out some more information on that tomorrow.
God has been very real to me in the last few days. One of my distant relatives whom I have never met phoned me the other day and told me her story of how she battled through cancer. Her story was quite similar to mine and today she is completely healed. She is an incredible woman of God and was so encouraging to me. I am so in awe of how she listened to the Holy Spirit and tracked me down, shared her story with me and encouraged me. I truly feel that that was one way of God showing me that He cares for me even during this super hard time.
Thanks for all of your prayers. Please not only pray for my healing but also pray that God be honored and glorified through this whole experience. It is my prayer that his will and purpose be accomplished, not only in my life but however and wherever else he wants.
Ramona

Goodmorning everyone

Well just a huge thank-you to everyone who is praying for us. We certainly sense the prayers. Ramona is feeling a bit better today. The biopsy has been cause for many T3's. We are just getting the hang of this whole blog idea, so hopefully we can keep people in touch through this. Our tentative plan for this afternoon is to go to Winnipeg so Ramona can sign her name on an information release form. We want an opinion from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
For now,
Earl

A note from the techno-not so-geek!

Hi everyone! Andrew just got this up and running for us and now we have to figure out how to use it! Check back soon!