It is cold. Anyone here in Manitoba already knows this. Actually, at the time of this picture it was only about -25 C. Anyway, Ramona loves to go for a walk anytime they let her out. The pump freezes in the cold weather and needs to be reset when we get inside. Today was good news day. A MUGA scan was done on Tuesday morning, and we were only given the results today. Dr. Wong told us that her heart was 62%. Once again, to put this in context, 62% is the difference between the expanded and contracted heart muscle. 50% is considered the bottom of the normal range and the point at which a new chemo would need to be found. I'm just going by memory, but I believe that the previous MUGA showed 55ish %. This may just be a blip in the numbers from this scan......but atleast the numbers went up. Instead of crediting this to chance let me just thank you for continuing to pray.
Ramona and I have been reading a bit about the long term heart damage that doxyrubicin does......it's not too pretty. The safety of Ramona's heart is a good thing to pray about.
...oh ya...Dr. Wong made no mention of Ramona's hemoglobin this morning, but yesterday it was 90...meaning that unless it improves Ramona will likely need a transfusion before heading home...
shower time....
Earl

It's obvious from this picture that Ramona's family loves her....anyway....we'll watch the Bombers win today...and then tomorrow we'll head to Winnipeg for chemo round number 5.......in all seriousness....Ramona is still constantly tired...often making it hard to enjoy the regular activities of the day...thanks for praying....earl

I am sitting here at Jay and Kev's house. As I was writing this first sentence here Dr. Gingerich called me from St. B to make sure that Ramona is doing fine. I am very impressed that the doctor himself calls me to make sure that everything is good. So...back to what is actually going on. Yesterday morning we thought that Ramona would be released from the hospital in the morning and then we would go on and try to live life 'normally'. When the doctor came in in the morning he told us that Ramona's Neutrophils were 0.1 and that she would have to be in the hospital longer. So...realizing that we would need to make the most of the day stuck in the hospital, I left to go buy a Tim Horton's chicken salad sandwich for Ramona. Forty minutes later, when I returned to St. B with a Beef Barley soaked chicken salad sandwich Ramona told me that she was released from the hospital.....on the condition that we stay in Winnipeg overnight. So...we got out of the hospital just in time to see the replay of Stegall's touchdown. That was a new deal to me. I guess that doctor didn't think it was safe to be 2 hours away from the hospital if Ramona's fever were to return. The way the roads are, I think he made a good call. Anyway, we watched football and movies and relaxed away the day yesterday. Although Ramona didn't feel energetic, her fever still hasn't return, which we are super thankful for. As we speak, I was planning to wait a few more minutes before waking Ramona up to go home. Now that the doctor called to check on her and order a blood test, I guess I'll wait until I have this blood test thing figured out so she can get a little more sleep. Ray, if you're reading this, I'll be at work.......um....later...(This is a plug for all the great people at Countryside Lumber, thanks for understanding)
Thanks everyone for caring and praying,
Earl

Another note: This afternoon Ramona's temperature hit 38.4 degrees. So...we left for Winnipeg around 3 p.m. On the way, Ramona's temperature hit 39.0 degrees. I broke the speed limit. In Winnipeg, all the streets were blocked downtown and it took us and hour to get from the north perimeter to St. B. This is a horrible feeling when trying to get to the hospital ASAP. We sat in the waiting room 1.75 hours before Ramona got a room. Things seem to be stable now. Ramona's white blood count is 0.5 and her platelets are low as well, but since she feels okay, the doctor was going to let her out tonight. He phoned the oncologist on call for a second opinion. This second opinion leaves Ramona in the hospital for the night. I am at Jay and Kev's for night now and will head to the hospital in the morning. She should be out sometime in the morning. At 12:25 when I left the hospital, they still hadn't given her antibiotics.
-Earl

After that last post, I came to the hospital in the morning to find out that Ramona's hemoglobin was low...meaning she spent the next day receiving 3 units of blood. Almost the worst part of that is that the chemo schedule is thrown off. Ramona had the option of postponing the chemo for a day but chose not to. We had big plans for Sunday. Anyway, by the time Sunday came around, Ramona was back on schedule and we went to Soul Sanctuary for the morning service. Then we hung out with friends all afternoon, and by the time we were both exhausted we headed to the MTS Centre for the Newsboys show. It was definitely an awesome show. Thanks to Rick and Elaine for the tickets.
This is the weekend of potential emergency room time. Yesterday, Ramona wasn't feeling good and by the evening her temperature got to 38.1 by around 8 o'clock. 38.0 is the magic number to head to emergency, so we went home to pack up to head to the city. At home, we checked again and her temp. was just 37.6...so...we hung around and kept checking...37.8 and 37.9 for most of the evening...I fell asleep and Ramona told me that she woke up often in the night and her temp. was usually 37.9. And so far today she has mostly been in bed and either she is sleeping right now or just pretending to...but last temp check half an hour ago was still 37.7...her body has little strength to fight with right now and any 'little' pains become much bigger...her teeth and ear are giving her problems.
So....that's life right now,
Earl

Hey there, I've been trying to post a video clip of Ramona's birthday party for the last few days but it hasn't worked. Anyway, Ramona was in admitted into St. B last night and chemo will begin this morning. I'm not sure who has all been praying hard last night, but it was probably one of the most fun times we've had going into the hospital....nothing very special special happened we just hung out and watched an episode of Prison Break...Ramona has a private room. It's not the 'comfy' room, but atleast it's private.....
for now,
Earl