I guess there has been quite a bit going on since the last post. First, Jay and Lonita got married a couple of days ago. A huge congratulations to those kids...and I hope you guys are relaxing and enjoying your honeymoon. In the midst of the fun of a wedding we've also been talking to doctors.

Trying to summarize:
At the time of the last post Dr. Wong had essentially no hope of any good news for Ramona. A day or two later I had the reports of the scans sent to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, hoping that they might find some glimmer of hope. The email I got back from Mayo is likely the most discouraging five sentences ever written. There was no way to glean any hope from that email. Palliative chemo, is what he was talking about. Meanwhile, we have been talking to Oasis to see if they really knew what they are talking about. I seriously questioned them and the group of doctors saw her case again last Thursday. They called me on Thursday and stuck to their guns that Ramona is in good shape. And this has been our struggle, how can doctors look at the same scans and have such different interpretations.
Anyway, today we had a Telehealth appointment with Dr. Waddell (lung surgeon) in Toronto. To our surprise, he said that to him, all the tumors in the chest looked operable. Lung surgery is not exactly an appealing thought, but it was refreshing to talk to someone outside of Oasis who atleast had a small glimmer of hope too. He would need chemo to be done first. We asked him when he thought chemo would start. He figured chemo would need to start in 3-6 months. So this is where we are at, in the time before the doctors here think chemo would need to start, we hope it will become even more apparent that the Oasis treatment is working. We will do everything possible to boost Ramona's health during this time. We have asked Dr. Wong to have a scan done at the end of August to evaluate where everything is at.
One good thing that has happened is that medical uncertainty is a huge wake up call for us. The God who we often think doesn't care, is actually the same God who loves us enough to have sent Jesus to die for us. God does miracles, not doctors.
-Earl

This is absolutely ridiculous. If we both hadn't fallen off the emotional roller coaster earlier in the day I'd know how to write. I called Oasis this morning to make sure that they were sure that Ramona is doing good.....and...they're sure. We talked to Dr. Wong today and he looked at the same scans that Oasis has and says that there is nothing her can really do for Ramona. The cancer is back full force and chemo will only temporarily slow it down...............ya.......that was the same scans he was looking at...............I'm leaving out huge amounts of important information...but I rode home from Winnipeg with Ramona listening to her talk about how she should quickly clean the house and make extra food this week because maybe she'll be having chemo soon????!... There are many phone calls and decisions to make. Please pray that healing happens somehow.....
Earl

Just a quick note. I'm not sure how to explain this, but we have have test results in front of us from a CT scan taken June 26th. It is the weekend, and there is no doctor here to explain the results to us. I have tried contacting Oasis clinic, and will try to call there again tomorrow. The results we see seem a lot less positive than what we believed this last week. Please pray for us as we wait impatiently to talk to a doctor......and...I'm writing just so you might know a little better how we're actually feeling right now.
-earl

We have the results! Ramona's scan shows that there is no major cancer activity and that her immune system is doing it's job! It was a little scary for me, because as I mentioned previously, the technician at Glendale MRI let me hang out in his office. This meant that I got to see some of the PET results as they were coming up. I saw what to me looked like an area of activity where there formerly was cancer. This scared me quite a bit, but I didn't know exactly what this meant. And the technician didn't either. Obviously a doctor needed to explain this to me/us. But, I didn't mention anything to keep us from both being worried. Anyway...I have a lot left to understand about the complexities of PET scans, but the important part is that Ramona is doing well. We'll spend the next day and a half here in Tijuana, getting medications....and since everything seems to be good. We'll spend some time on the beach.




This was our hotel last night.

Glendale MRI institute.

Tom Cruise's garbage cans. Like all gullible tourists we bought the five dollar, find-a-celebrity's-house map. Tom lives in a jungle...not that unlike Madonna. I guess if I was famous I'd plant lots of trees too.

We walked the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

We are at Glendale MRI and Ramona has just had her radio-active injection and needs to sit quietly, moving as little as possible for the next hour while the injection goes to work. The scan and wrapping everything up here should take about 1.5 -2 hours. This is a nice clinic with amazing staff (I'm using his computer in a room with a few technicians and some other lady having her scan just in the room in front of me). I'm not sure how good Ramona will feel after the tests, but hopefully we can enjoy a scenic ride from here...maybe we'll detour through Santa Monica....
-Earl

Back to Mexico

I'm feeling a little smug about my good deal here. Ramona told me that she would do the dishes if I would blog..........I guess atleast something useful might get done while she does the dishes....anyway.
We are heading to Mexico next week. It is three months since the previous CT scan and it is time to find out where Ramona's health is at.......it would be relatively simple to insert a line here about how we have great faith that the results will show no cancer.....but...it's not exactly always that simple to just believe....especially with what we see around us (pray for our buddy Earl Cooke, hisnameisearl.blogspot.com).
We fly out Monday morning and land in Burbank, California in the afternoon. Ramona has a PET scan scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday morning at the Glendale MRI Institute. This means that not only is Ramona's diet difficult at the best of times, in the 24 hours prior to the scan, sugars (fruit included) and carbs are eliminated too. The scan will be done Tuesday afternoon and we'll drive down to San Diego and be ready to be picked up by the Oasis van Wednesday morning. On Wednesday and Thursday we will be at the Oasis of Hope discussing the results of the scan and planning where to go next with the treatment...........
......i think we may start writing again....maybe....
We appreciate those of you who have encouraged us despite the fact that we rarely write,
Earl