Well, it's quite a day to be posting. I don't even know where to start.
This morning we went to Cancer Care to talk to Dr. Wong about the CT scan that was done during the last round of chemo. There are two parts to the results. The first part is awesome. Ramona's right leg, the one that's been causing all the pain lately, shows a big liquid mess. Although, 'liquid mess' is not usually great news, the exciting part is that the CT shows that this liquid is not malignant. So...right now she's left with a big wound that definitely isn't fun....but at least there's nothing growing (I believe we refer to that as answered prayer!).
The lungs showed a dis coordinate (I think that's the word he used??? it started with dis...) response. The biggest tumors in the lungs shrunk, some tumors stayed the same and two small tumors in the lungs grew a bit (since February). There are no new tumors! So...I guess that is a high percentage of good news. The two small tumors that aren't responding to chemo may result in an adjustment to treatment plans (We talked about all kinds of options and will wait for Dr. Wong to talk to his people). Feel free to aim specific prayers at those two tumors.

This afternoon we heard that our friend Kendra is now hanging out with Jesus in heaven. (I haven't looked back to see if we've mentioned Kendra. She was fighting a sarcoma too.) I'm sure Kendra must love being in the pain free presence of Jesus. Lorlie, we're praying you have peace tonight. It's been a long battle for you guys.

I will admit, this makes me a little scared and little bit angry, and I'm really in the middle of processing everything. I don't know why Kendra was not healed, yet I refuse to believe that Jesus didn't want to heal her. Jesus taught us to pray "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" Remember, Kendra is now in heaven, which is awesome for her, but what about "on earth as it is in heaven".
Those of you who have ever played sports with me know that I get mad a little too easy. When I'm playing hockey, if I see some cocky guy get all excited when he scores a goal, I'd like nothing more than to stretch him out on the ice. If I'm watching TV, I get mad when the the team I'm cheering for doesn't win. I, for some reason, always think my team deserves to win.
I feel like I'm stuck watching Satan win. Jesus has come to "give us life to the full" and Satan has come to "steal, kill, and destroy". Excuse me, but Satan is not more powerful.....
I think I'll just leave my online processing there for now....

We received a gift a few months back, that I have not mentioned until now. We've received many gifts in the last few years and are thankful for them all, but this is neat. I love when people who are hungry to know God and know what He's doing help us out.
Thank you to Rick and Elaine and everyone else who contributed money to pay for our next trip to Redding, California. The weekend we spent in Redding in February was probably the three days of most accelerated spiritual growth of our lives. The teaching coming from there as well as the testimonies continue to be incredible (www.ibethel.org). We have our flights booked for May 22nd. Our stay will include a healing conference May 27,28, and 29th. We're really excited.

....I think it's time to give Ramona her needle. (Not fun for her) (What's with all these (ridiculous)brackets today?)

Ramona's also having alot of stomach discomfort that can be prayed for.

-Earl

Ramona's out of the hospital. I'll tell you all the things we're thankful for shortly. Right now, I'm thankful for a bed.
-Earl

A quick note from the St. B kiosk.
According to the time on Ramona's chemo pump there was 52 minutes left of chemo today. There will be a few little things to do after that and then we're heading home. Round number 20 is almost done.
Ramona has essentially slept through this round of chemo. She actually threw up today too. For some reason she's not feeling good. This, as well as her infected right leg, give a few specifics to pray for.
...time almost up...
-Earl

What a beautiful day. Ramona is here giving herself her IV antibiotics out on the deck. Taking this picture helped me to procrastinate studying for a few seconds (I learned in church that right brained people think best laying down...I think it's working). Tomorrow morning we're heading to St. B to have Ramona's platelets checked. We're a little suspicious that they're really low.

Here's Ramona with her new blanket. The credit for it goes to her Petkau family. Thanks

The easter egg in question is actually visible on this picture. Can you find it?

I think we're playing Buzzword here.
Ramona's leg is still her biggest source of pain.

Ramona is again at the point where her blood counts drop out. Hemoglobin is 90. We'll head in to Cancer Care tomorrow morning to get two units of blood. The white count is 0.2. This, again, essentially means that she has no immune system right now. If you were a nurse you would probably either tell Ramona to stay home or wear a mask or have any sick people around her wear a mask. Ramona is extremely tired today, hopefully she'll have energy by the weekend. We definitely plan on enjoying Easter.
-Earl

Okay, so we have some good news that we kind of forgot about, but while we were having coffee with Mark & Raelynn tonight we remembered, but I'll show you a bunch of random pictures first. This first picture is my view from the laptop now. Ramona is heating up the cheese sauce for our usual 10 p.m. 'meal'




This is us on Valentines Day. We're at Don Pedro's. I'm very glad the tumors are smaller now than they were then.

This is Ramona's fourth set of hair. It is now unfortunately in the garbage or clogging our sink. It actually disappeared a month ago already.

This is us at Celebrations in early January. Rick and Elaine took us here for our anniversary. I can't remember what Rick was wearing that night, this is either him or our server :)

Anyway, Ramona had a MUGA scan last week.
A quick re-cap of MUGA scans.
Three years ago when this all started, Ramona's heart had a 75%....fraction....thing...meaning her heart was healthy (if you're going to bother with a science degree, I would recommend learning a few scientific words). After a few rounds of chemo (three years ago), her fraction was down to 51% which is the very bottom of normal and indicates that heart damage had happened. So anyway, this apparently irreparable heart damage had improved in the last few scans (the scans have showed numbers in the upper 50's)
The scan last week showed her heart was at 61%! That's pretty ridiculous.

IV antibiotics should be starting for her leg tomorrow.
We'll also hopefully get Ramona's hemoglobin checked tomorrow so she can get fueled up for the weekend if needed.
-Earl

This is Ramona's leg. It could definitely use some prayer. It is apparent that chemotherapy does not aid the healing process of radiation wounds.

Um...Thursday afternoon Ramona was released from St. B. This last chemo round has been better than the previous two rounds. Although Ramona still has relatively little energy, she's up walking around and searching for bread in the freezer as I'm writing this.



I need to run to class,
Earl