It's Monday morning and time to leave the hospital......almost...last night we were praying that Ramona's hemoglobin would rise above 90...it was 88 yesterday...instead of going up by 2 it dropped 2 and her hemoglobin is 86 meaning she needs to stay here for a blood transfusion...the blood should be here by about 10:00 or 10:30 and then she'll have it all in her by about supper time and then...we're good to go...yes we were definitely at the Franklin Graham Festival last night...the volume and passion of the worship really makes a person wonder how awesome heaven will be...we enjoyed Casting Crowns alot...as it is for so many other people...the song 'Praise you in the Storm' is really special...we didn't realize until a few days ago that the song was written for a girl that had a Sarcoma...Ramona also had to drink a medicine that she usually gets in IV form...it says on the label to drink with a cola and one nurse told us that it smells like a mixture of urine and ammonia...anyway...it actually worked fine...and it was perfect that Wayne and Essie Herrod were right there praying for Mony as she was drinking her Mesna...our nurses and the Franklin Graham staff were really good in making the details of the little trip work....our 4 week break starts tonight...and as much as it seems like a break...it's not alot of fun to wait...i'm not sure how to explain it...we need to pray harder than ever...and we wish we could be physically doing something to fight cancer.............i guess the summary is that we're learning what it means to trust....later...earl

Ramona and I are sitting here at the kiosk watching our time and money slip away...wondering what we should be writing...this round of chemo has been "much like last round"...meaning that the nausea effects sure aren't fun...but they are bearable...Ramona is telling me now that the biggest thing for her is her attitude (imagine that...Ramona having an attitude)...okay....apparently if i am going to write all this i have to explain it...so never mind...all this to say that being here isn't exactly fun...we have the name for the cancer (thanks to the Mayo Clinic)...unfortunately i can't remember it...in english it is officially now a muscle sarcoma...it doesn't change much...it shows that dr. wong's 'guess' at the beginning to decide which treatment to use was the right decision...we really appreciate the people who stopped by this week...it makes it alot more 'fun' to be here...this week has been a big reminder...if you think you have any hope in this world placed anywhere but God...you are sure to be disappointed...thanks so much for praying....and if you're thinking of visiting on Sunday afternoon...you'll have to come to the MTS Centre...we're going to go see big Franky and Casting Crowns...(Ramona has a three hour pass between her bags of Mesna)...
With love, Sincerely, Yours Truly,
Earl and Ramona

we're back...and no...being in the hospital isn't that much easier than it was any other time...this is the beginning of round 5 of chemo...and we finally got to talk to Dr. Wong after his long vacation...the plan is to finish this round and then take a 4 week break...after that 4 week break we would do alot of testing to see what happens from there...they would need to do a heart test since the major side effect of doxyrubicin is heart damage...also at that point they would do more CT scans to see how the tumors are shrinking...if the chemo is still significantly shrinking the tumors...more chemo will be done, but a incredibly nauseating heart protecting drug will be added...i imagine if the tumors aren't responding anymore we would try a new approach...as dr. wong put it...surgery would still be a radical approach...for a little while, with that last positive CT scan, we almost forgot that God is ultimately in control of Ramona's health...this definitely reminds us again......anyway...chemo starts in about 20 minutes...thanks so much for praying...

For now,
Earl and Ramona

Uncle Ray & myself at the marathon. Uncle Ray is the one who organized the event and put countless hours into it. Thank you! 

Hey
For all of you who are wondering how I'm doing, here's a quick update. I am feeling really well and have a lot more energy than I have had in awhile. There are times when I almost feel 'normal' again. I love it. Yesterday I baked cookies for the first time in over 3 months and the day before that I helped my mom make pizza sauce. I'm absolutely loving feeling this good and at the same time trying to block out next week.
Thanks again for all your prayers, support and comments
Ramona

We're experimenting with pictures again, trying to make this all work...here goes.

This is us on Oct. 9, 2006 

We are having all kinds of trouble with the blog today...so if you are reading this...feel blessed...anyway...we were presented with the money from the tournament last night...and we were absolutely blown away......once again a giant thank-you to the hundreds of generous people out there...there are many stories coming out of this tournament of how God is working....once we figure out how all this computer stuff works we have all kinds of pictures from the tournament and from life in general....a quick answer to prayer today was the visit to emergency...about a week ago when i was packing Ramona's biopsy wound...a fuzzy cotton ball from the end of a Q-tip stayed stuck inside her somewhere...we were wondering all last weekend when this would get infected and cause all kinds of problems...we were encouraged by nurses to go to emerge as soon as possible but since we were trying to stay out of emerge this weekend we waited until today...we were expecting this to be a gruesome experience fishing around for a little cotton ball inside a wound that gets redressed every day.....and who knows how mushed up it would get inside a person's body for a week...anyway...today was the shortest emergency time yet...in a matter of minutes the doctor pulled out the cotton ball...still in the tear drop shape it has on a Q-tip.........in other news we saw dr. wong today...we have been waiting to ask him all kinds of questions about ramona's future......we saw he was wearing a purple shirt and he looked pretty frantic first day after coming back from holidays...there was no verbal communication...we'll try to snag him some time soon...thanksgiving supper at Grandma and grandpa's in 11 minutes...got to go
Keep looking to the Creator of the universe for inspiration,
Earl

it's been a pretty incredible weekend...the only time Ramona has been in emergency this weekend was to escort me to get my face glued back together (only a minor hockey injury)...obviously that hits the top of the list of things we are thankful for....Ramona isn't nearly perfectly healthy and this is actually a pretty tedious stage in chemotherapy...tiredness, mouthsores, stomach/esophagus pain...and stuff like that...but it is still awesome not to need to be in emerge...the hockey tournament this weekend was a surreal time...and a huge thank-you to Ray and Lori and the Petkau family for putting it together...i haven't been on the friendsoframona site since the tournament but i hope pictures and details are posted there....there are so many little special things that happened it almost brought me to tears sometimes....they deserve personal time...not a random/general blog thankyou...thanks so much for praying
-earl

i kept saying to everyone this week...unless something goes wrong we will definitely be out Monday morning...monday morning has come and gone...Ramona is in the process of beginning her transfusion as we speak...the doctor assured us this is 'normal'...chemo is not good for your bone marrow...so she'll get two units of blood we should be out of here in the evening sometime...my apologies for making everyone think i was frightened...sometimes it overwhelms me how many people read this...i know the world is looking for a feel good story and sometimes Ramona and I just don't feel good.....and we just want to be rude and we are rude and so many things that don't translate into a feel good story...we are thankful for a loving, forgiving God and so many good friends...this has been one of the most encouraging weeks for us with the many good chats we've had with people coming to visit...thanks so much....i am sitting here actually amazed why God chooses to use normal humans and why He would love us....i remember saying to my dad that i had blown my chance to connect with Ramona's roommate's husband...he, in my opinion is loud and rude to his wife and us and nurses...etc...this morning i was fairly direct and rude with him...and I Cor. 13 was running through my mind...and there are some thoughts on rudeness in there......i just wrote him a little note apologizing...i...don't know what to say...i met him now on my way down to the computers and he was broken up and telling me how his wife of 55 years is now dying of cancer...he only found out in the last day or two...and in Mony's guess she has a week or two to live....it is so incredibly hard not to let my our own rights...rights to quietness, fast nursing ....get in the way of opportunities to be a shining light
Keep fighting out there,
oh ya...James and Adrianna commented on the blog...so that is their names...keep praying for them...
Earl