Last night I was so sick of having rice for every single meal. Although I like rice, I was simply sick of it. There's an organic restaurant within walking distance, so Earl & I went there last night for night snack. I am supposedly allowed to eat there occassionally. We enjoyed some frozen yogurt. As you can tell I've got a hot water bottle on my lap. Last night I can some intense leg cramps. The knee that got hurt the other day really started bothering me and I was also experiencing a lot of pain in my foot and ankle. After some pain meds and hot compresses I finally had some relief. I struggled with it to some extent all evening and the night. This morning it was really bad in my thigh. The same area where I had a lot of pain after my hip surgery was really cramping up. I talked to the doctor and he gave me an anti-inflamatory drug and some pain meds. After awhile they really kicked in and I feel way, way better now! I'm not sure why I'm suddenly having this pain. I'm hoping positive things are happening inside my body and this is just part of the healing process.

This evening Earl & I went to an amazing spa that is within walking distance from the hospital. We got passes from the hospital and are able to go to the spa whenever the passes are available. This place is huge. The picture is of the hot tub. There were two other pools in the same room as well as a huge work-out area upstairs. It felt super good for my leg to get some heat in the hot tub. Prior to our time at the spa, Earl & I, the missionary couple here, as well as one other patient listened to one of the patient's companions share their story. This couple is maybe in their 30s. They have traveled the world searching for help and quite literally landed at Oasis of Hope's doorstep. The husband is a Christian while the wife is not. She is having intense pain and has numerous tumors. Listening to the husband share their story broke my heart. His love for her is so intense and he is totally at a loss. Each day he watches her suffer intensely. They just arrived here and hopefully the treatments will give some relief soon. We spent some time praying together for Sharon & Steve. I love this place in that we can meet with other Christians and share our stories, pain and fears and have people surround us who understand, who have gone through the same thing or are going through the same things. The reason I share this story is that I know many people read this blog and I know that many of you are Christians. Tonight Sharon & Steve are on my heart and I ask that you join me in bringing them to Jesus. Pray that God will not just give Sharon relief from her pain, but that through such a horrible experience, she could find God.
Thank you and good night
(Each morning at devotions we share what we're thanful for-this morning I was thankful that my stomach pain has almost completely disappeared. Thank you for praying about that.)
Ramona

Missing Pictures From Previous Post

This is what I chose for lunch. I was just thinking you might like another look at the food.

This specifically caught our attention. Good creativity (if you like the taste). This is a hardboiled egg with the yolk removed and filled with a rice mixture. The yolk is what is most unhealthy...I thought it was quite brilliant myself.

This represents a huge answer to prayer today. The Perftec caused a reaction for Ramona the previous time they attempted to administer it. As I'm writing, Ramona is half finished the bottle (imported from Russia, maybe that is why it looks like a bottle for juice) and has fallen asleep. Ramona's stomach is not quite right, but we talked to the doctor and he does not think it is anything too serious. A few other patients have been feeling queezy too. Maybe something with the food?? Anyway, another beautiful day here, but also a day filled with treatment, so Ramona may not be able to spend much time outside. A highlight of the day was a presentation and question and answer time with Dr. Francisco Contreras. He's the chief around here and an amazing communicator too.

Hey Lisa, Helmut and Gisela really like your work on Ramona's toes.

As you can see, the sun was definitely shining today.

This is the inside view of the church we went to tonight.

It was an evening of testimonies of healing and prayer for those with cancer

Earlier in the afternoon we walked past the church and the youth were putting up all these balloons outside. I was absolutely amazed with the youth. When cancer patients came forward to be prayed for, the youth group came up and were all praying. Because a few of us came from Oasis, they had someone on stage translating for us.

Here at Oasis they do a really good job of having activities for people to do if they are feeling well enough. This is a picture taken on Saturday. Whoever wanted to could jump on the Oasis vans and head out on a twenty minute ride to Rosarito Beach. Ramona's knee was still not right so we did the wheel chair thing (I'm impressed with how well Ramona is handling it, but it's sure not ideal to hurt her knee right now when she could be out walking and getting excercise and soaking up the sun). As you can see, the shops aren't exactly crowded with people during rainy season.

Bruce and Vicky Northy are the leaders of Amigos de Esperanza. Essentially, Bruce is the pastor of the hospital. Ten years ago, Bruce had cancer himself and came out here along with Vicky and a missionary couple whom they were working for/with at the time. They came out here expecting there to be music or devotions or something every night, but there wasn't. So, the four of them started something on their own. The missionary couple visited all the patients in their rooms and every evening they pulled out a guitar and sang songs together. Apparently they had six people out the first night and after two weeks when Bruce's treatment was over they had 42 people out to sing. Anyway, Bruce has since been healed and over time they developed a ministry here called Amigos de Esperenza. This means that a couple will come out here and live here for a month at a time as spiritual leaders and to organize some activities here. Every weekday morning we have devotions at 8 a.m. Whoever wants to and feels good enough meets to sing and pray. This morning there were six of us.
I also read on the board that there is a time of prayer for cancer patients at the San Pablo Church tonight at 7. This is a pink church about 400 feet from the hospital.

This was the weather yester. We stayed inside all day. Bruce was also the one who made the popcorn and made sure there was a Super Bowl Party here yesterday. Having mentioned all the above things it's actually felt quite....slow here yesterday and today...the rain kept us inside on Ramona's day off Sunday. And today is also a day off of treatment for Ramona but something is not quite right in her stomach and she has slept quite a bit and.....just doesn't feel very good. That is something that can definitely be prayed about.

This is Amos. He is one of the people we've met out here. He is here to be with his mother who will be a patient here for another week-ish. Oasis very intentionally does what they can to make it feel like we're one big family. There are people from Norway, U.S.A., Australia,U.K., Mexico, and Canada right now.

Have a good evening everyone,
Earl

Okay...one last question. Somebody please explain the Mexican culture to me. I think it's some sort of status symbol to have a car with an alarm. We probably hear car alarms 25 times a day. I mentioned this to someone out here and he said that he saw a group of people sitting in their car and simply....... they just set of off the alarm.....because??????...I don't know...maybe it's a new form of alarm therapy...anyway...maybe the alarms are just a bit to sensitive...Amos and I bought some firecrackers....who knew that setting one off in front of the hospital would set off a car alarm too...

Food

Food. For those of you who think it's impossible to live three days without any kind of beef. I've done it! Before we came, we heard that Oasis was going to have a quasi-vegetarian diet. I still haven't checked what quasi means but I'm pretty sure it means something like "Ha. No steak for you buddy" Anyway...to be totally honest with you I really love the food here. (I'll simply let Ramona tell you any of her opinions of the food herself.) You might not believe it, but one of the first things I'm noticing is that I don't have to eat as much. I'm used to eating my big plate of food, and then getting seconds and then finishing Ramona's food. It simply doesn't work that way here. It hurts my stomach to eat that much. This first picture is my food card. You can see that we've been here for 4 breakfasts and 3 lunches and dinners

This, I believe, may be a dish of some sort of green things. It is beside the potatoe salad. The edge of that plate may be the guacamole. They make absolutely delicious guacamole here with plenty of cilantro. Everyone else complains about the cilantro. Anyway, for breakfast there is is always toast and cereal that you somewhat have to mix and match on your own....plenty of every color of fresh fruit and if you want a certain type of fruit that isn't set out you simply ask the cooks to get it for you (or anything else for that matter)....they had a bean dish with tomato type sauce that that could go on the eggs or the beans I guess....I think I should just take more pictures...never mind this explaining (This green salad is probably beans, the other day we had cactus...it looks kind of like peas or beans too)

This is the eating area. This picture is taken from where the pulpit was set up this morning. I can't quite see if the juice is still on the table, but half way across the room on the left is the table of juices. Fresh squeezed juice: carrot, green juice(contains long list of ingredients), apple, papaya, pineapple, barley (personal favorite),strawberry, are some of the kinds they minght have. In the far right corner, someone is standing by the cappuchino machine. This you need to pay extra for. In fact, even to get a coffee you would need to extra go ask the cooks for one. Which they gladly give to you. It's not part of the diet out here.

These are the cooks cleaning up after the meal

Today was definitely more eventful-not just positive! The morning started off pretty decent. I woke up at 7:30-for those of you who know how late I get up at home that's pretty amazing! We went to the devotions and then had breakfast. We even had some kind of healthy pancakes with fruit syrup/jam. They were amazing! At 9:30 our time, I was called to my first treatment. I was walking down the hall when I slipped and fell. The leg that I hurt is my left leg-the one that doesn't have proper muscle control due to my surgery. I was in a lot of pain. The nurses were super nice and helped me up and everything. Right after I fell, I looked around me and saw that I had slipped on a green mushy grape. Can't believe how much pain a grape can cause. Well I am now using a wheelchair to get around(they don't have any crutches). My pain is a lot better thanks to some pain medication. The swelling is still pretty intense but I am able to hobble around a lot better than I was earlier this afternoon. I was really hoping to spend a lot of time walking and getting back in shape during my free time here. Hopefully this is just a little setback. Anyway....My first treatment including taking a little over a cup of blood out of me(calculated according to my weight), filling it with oxygen and then infusing it back into me while going through an ultraviolet light. The whole process took about 30-45 minutes. Earl is not allowed in the room with me and I am not allowed to take any pictures. The only pain involved is when the nurse(Tomas) puts the catheter(needle to draw out blood)in. It kind of reminds me of a blood transfusion, but just at a much faster rate.
The 1st picture shows my list of nutracueticals and my daily schedule. I take the first 6 pills on the list and 3 others. The schedule gives you an idea of what the medical part of my day looks like. Today was day 2. No, I haven't changed my name-here I'm just known by my maiden name since that's the name on my birth certificate.













The 2nd picture shows my 2nd treatment. First of all I am given the oxygen prongs and then connected to a liquid that is an oxygen carrier. The doctor and nurse came into my room to explain the procedure and the possible side effects. I was told that the side effects were rare and that some people are just more sensitive. Well, I'm one of the sensitive ones. They started the drip slowly to see if I'd react. I most definitely did. My chest felt tight, I felt like I'd faint, my face got warm, my stomach hurt and my heart was going crazy. The doctor checked me out instantly, cranked up the oxygen, stopped the infusion and the nurse quickly got some IV hydrocortizone. After a few minutes, I was fine but I definitely got scared. My doctor said I was just allergic to the drug and that instead she'd give me a pill. The pill is not as effective but should also 'do the job'. A little dissappointing but ...
Half an hour after I took my pill I was given a mega dose of Vitamin C through IV. After that I was given what they call Kemdalin. After the Kemdalin I was again given Vitamin C.
I had to wear the oxygen prongs the entire time which isn't my favorite thing. Atleast it made me drink a lot.
That was the end of my treatment. (Oh yeah, Earl wants me to mention the 'ice pack' they gave me for my knee. It's the round fabric thing lying on the bed beside me. It works but sure looks home-made!)


3rd picture is the back view of the hospital.
4th picture is the rooster we saw outside the hospital. (Earl was excited to see the rooster fighting with himself in the reflective windows)






Tonight we had Movie night and popcorn. We watched Princess Bride. Poor Earl-he didn't fall asleep though!

It's not even 9:30 but we're pretty tired so I guess we'll head off to bed. Once again I'm the youngest here in the Oasis program. There is a guy that is 16 who is doing a different program but he is around occassionally at mealtimes, etc.

Adios
Ramona

Today was kind of a relaxing day in some ways in that my treatment only starts tomorrow. We've felt pretty lost, trying to figure everything out, but we're getting there. In some ways it's felt like information overload. The hardest part for me today was learning about my diet. It's pretty much what I feared and I must say- a little worse. The food is mostly good-just different. We get fresh fruit and freshly squeezed juices every meal. However, very little meat-just occassionally chicken. Weird combos of veggies that are supposed to be salads, etc. Earl had barley juice for supper, apparently there's even oatmeal juice sometimes. I had hibiscus flower juice. Really it wasn't bad, just a little hard to fathom. From what I've read(they have not told me, therefore it's not confirmed)I am not allowed any sugar, white flour, regular salt or pepper, regular dairy products, pork, lean beef only once a week, etc. etc. Although it makes sense that I am trying to build up my body and give it fuel to heal, it's a little hard to realize that some of the normal foods I love, will not be normal in my life anymore. I'm sure with time, we'll figure out healthy options and variations that will be delicious.

The top picture is a view of the ocean. Earl & I walked down to the ocean in the afternoon. It's only 4 blocks away. How amazing to spend time on the beach watching the waves crashing. I hope to spend a lot of time there.


The 2nd picture is the view of the front of the hospital. This afternoon the gardener was planting flowers right outside the front door. It's a little mind boggling to see petunias, marigolds and pansies being planted in January!






The 3rd picture is the view from the beach facing the hospital. The three arches are the entrance to the steps down to the beach. From the arches you can see the hospital.


This evening Earl & I went to a sing along put on by missionaries at the hospital. There were maybe 12 people there, singing songs about cancer disappearing and being healthy, etc. to the tune of familiar songs. What a neat atmosphere to be with a group of Christians, who are fighting the same disease, trusting God to be glorified and praying that our cancer disappears. The man leading the sing along was a patient 10 years ago and now is healthy. How encouraging! I believe the same man and his wife lead devotions every morning, so I'm looking forward to checking that out (if I get out of bed on time)

So that's a run down on our day. Tomorrow all the treatments start. We're pretty tired and will head to bed early.
Thanks for all your prayers and support
Ramona

Well....I'm finally somewhat relaxed enough to sit down and write. Ramona is catching up on some sleep and we have atleast a slight idea of what is going on here. Maybe I should highlight the word slight. As I look at the picture of Michelle giving Ramona her last bag of chemo it's hard to believe that that is only two weeks ago. Since then we have been gathering our minds, belongings and paperwork (a special thanks to the special nurse who broke all the rules to get us what we needed for the trip out here).




















The night before we left, a fundraiser supper was held in the Morweena Church. We feel incredibly supported. Enough money was raised to make this trip happen (also a huge thank you to those who gave us money outside of this event or group of people). This is what Christian community is all about, people gathering together to pray and support and of course...eat.














Morweena is a place of love.......















Yesterday was flying day. The only real excitement of flying was that the toilet didn't work on our plane. Everyone had boarded the plane... we were sitting there....the airplane waitresses...whatever their called...had told us how to us our oxygen masks....and then we sat....for over an hour while they tried to fix the toilet....anyway...we switched airplanes...the new airplane had an excellent toilet and we landed in San Diego only about two hours late. I didn't realize it was this easy to get into Mexico. The light was green, so the only reason we slowed down for the border is that it is bumpy right there. Anyway...um...Ray, I'm sorry I didn't pay attention to your Spanish lessons at work...if you could quickly post all the spanish words you know...I'm excessively linguistically handicapped out here. Anyway, I think Ramona and I are the only ones out here not wearing jackets...the locals here have no idea how good their weather is

We're here! This is just a quick note to say that we arrived safely. Our orientation process is happening and we get to eat breakfast shortly. We have internet access in Ramona's room so we will have plenty of time to post pictures and all those good sorts of things.
I want to make sure I thank our community for supporting us. What an amazing, powerful sendoff on Tuesday.

The flights are booked and we leave one week from tomorrow! Earl & I are heading to the Oasis of Hope in Tijuana, Mexico for 18 days. The Oasis of Hope is a Christian hospital that has more of a nutritional approach towards health. The emphasis is more on the person as a whole instead of just treating the disease. For those of you who want to know more of the scientific information on what the treatments are about, feel free to go on to their website. I don't fully understand all the scientific information but Earl & I feel peace and have felt led to the hospital. I am being reminded again and again from different doctors that my condition is incurable and that are just treating me with chemo to lengthen my life. Of course God can prove this wrong. I'm excited to see how God will use my time at Oasis of Hope but also understand that it might not remove my cancer. It feels like a big deal to put lots of money and energy into something that my doctor does not approve of or support. However, I want to keep fighting for my life and so that's what we're doing.
I finished my last round of chemo a week ago Sunday. I had a fever on the weekend, but again was able to fight it and stay at home. Today is the first day that I am feeling quite good since chemo. From now on, it should just keep getting better.
I think that sums up the big things right now.
Thanks so much again for your prayers and support. Many times my doctor and nurses are amazed at how well I'm doing and I know that it's due to the thousands of prayers. I was told last week that when I was first diagnosed, Dr. Wong would have given me 3-6 months to live had the chemo not worked. It's quite sobering to realize that I have already lived an entire year longer than I 'should' have. Thanks to God for all the little miracles that are resulting in large miracles!
Ramona

Goodmorning everyone
I'll keep this brief since Ramona has a pass this morning and is able to head out to church.
Anyway, the meeting with Dr. Wong felt like it was covered in prayer. Thank you so much for praying. Dr. Wong was very blunt with us and told us the cold hard 'facts' of what he believes. He still doesn't believe chemo will be a cure and therefore it makes it much easier to ask that he stop chemo. This will be the last round of chemo (ending tomorrow morning!) and we are very seriously considering going to the Oasis of Hope as soon as we can.
Also, the meeting with Dr. Waddell also had some surprises for us. Dr. Waddell is very willing to experiment and has something for Ramona other than the RFA. I forget the name of it, but it is a focused beam of radiation that they have bean experimenting on tumors for two years. We have a telehealth appointment with the Toronto radiologist at lunch time on monday.
This all deserves many details and humanly speaking can be quite overwhelming.
More to come,
Earl

Since last time I wrote, most of you have probably gained atleast five pounds and are now trying to work those Christmas pounds off. I'm writing from the kiosks in the St. Boniface hospital on day two of chemo. Christmas included alot of fun for us and Ramona stayed out of the hospital (barely). Anyway, my mind is hardly on this blog right now. Tomorrow is a big day. We have a meeting with Dr. Wong to discuss the plans he has for Ramona's future and the possibility of alternative options. Also, we will be speaking to Dr. Waddell tomorrow regarding the RFA.
For now,
Earl

Ramona is sleeping upstairs in her room up in the 5th floor of St. B right now. I'm at this lovely kiosk so I'll keep it brief but when I've got more time, we have some nice pictures from this week. Anyway, in summary. Round 6 is almost done. A CT scan was done this week. It shows that there is only one tumore remaining in her lungs, and it has shrunk. It is now 8mm in diameter. The meaning of this is that Dr. Wong would like to do more chemo.....still going on indefinitely at this point.
Everything here at the hospital looks good to get out of here as scheduled and enjoy Christmas.
This blog looks incredibly boring compared to how the week has been.....I'll do better later...
We're incredibly thankful for the care we get in here. The nurses are amazing and came to wake us up this morning with a huge gift.
Thanks to those of you who continually pray for us,
Earl

Ramona is watching the Packers vs Raiders right now (aka. sleeping) (apparently she doesn't care much for the NFL) so I thought I'd keep everyone up to date with what is going on here. On Friday night Ramona was feeling pretty lousy and by the evening her temperature reached 38 degrees, meaning we headed in the direction of the St. Boniface emergency room. I promised Ramona that if her temperature was below 38 when we got to the hospital we wouldn't go in. A huge answer to prayer! Her temp showed at or near 38 until we got to the hospital. There her temperature showed 37.4 degrees.....so we went to McDonald's to kill a bit of time and check her temperature again to make sure this wasn't just a thermometer error. Sure enough, at McDonald's her temp. was 36 point ...something...degrees. So...we went to Kev and Jay's for the night. Although we're not in emerge, Ramona is still not feeling super good. Chemotherapy really destroys her digestive tract causing huge discomfort. It's hard for me not to get angry at the doctors or the pharmaceutical companies or find someone to blame for all the pain.
We spend alot of time thinking of how best to strengthen Ramona's body after the chemo is done. Please pray for the decision making process as well as Ramona's discomfort now.
(I reread this blog and it looks pretty vague...I'll try not to be as vague when you talk to me in person).
-Earl

Yes, it definitely was our anniversary. Two years and counting. It's like our wedding day, but with a PICC, a wig and many pounds (for the groom).
-Earl and Ramona

I'm finally home! Yes I did have a transfusion yesterday because of my low hemoglobin, so we only got out of the hospital around 3:30. It was great to sleep in my own bed again with my own blanket and pillow-way more comfy. Considering everything, I'm feeling quite good today. It's Earl & my 2nd anniversary today, so I'm hoping I'll have enough energy to make supper together when he comes home from work. Most couples would probably find it special to go out for supper, we on the other hand, much prefer being home and not eating restaurant food. I think we've had a bit too much of that in the last while.
Thanks for your prayers,
Ramona

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

Here's a picture of Earl & I at Donny & Cathy's wedding. Earl's all dressed up cause he was in the wedding party.
I'm doing really well considering all the chemo I've had. My biggest physical struggle is my fatigue. I usually feel like I wake up tired and go to bed tired. I'm heading in for my 4th round of chemo on Monday.
Thank you so much for your prayers, comments, emails, etc. We need you and appreciate you.
Ramona

What an encouraging bunch of comments you guys. Thanks so much. I'm not sure how to sum up three weeks of time here, but let me start with the news we heard this morning.

Ramona had her mugga and ct scans on Tuesday and we got the CT results today. This Morning Dr. Wong and Bonnie came into the room, flipped the lights on and smiling from ear to ear they asked if we were ready for the results...well to sum it all up the lung tumors have shrunk by 50% and there is no sign of tumor returning in the hip and auxilla. Dr. Wong gave Mony a big hug and one nurse told me she got goose bumps when she heard the news. I did the only thing I knew how to do and got a cheese cake from Double D's for breakfast to celebrate. This is the first really good news we've had in a while.

Also, the Mugga scan showed that Ramona's heart has remained stable which means we can keep on with the treatments. That is in fact all we really know right now. Ramona on Day 3 of the third round of chemo and we know another round of chemo is scheduled to begin on Nov. 5. After that we once again don't have much of a plan.

Speaking of plans, the doctors are once again making sure that our faith is on God and not in medicine. We had the Telehealth (webcam) appointment with Dr. Waddell in Toronto (although we were in Ashern of all places). This was merely a followup appointment to make sure there were no problems with the last lung surgery. We also asked about the RFA of the lungs. I really put put a bit of pressure on him to make sure he was doing everything he could do to have a long term plan for Ramona. I don't know how to describe his attitude except that it was obvious that in the long term this disease usually wins.

I talked with Dr. Wong about long term stuff as well. And I want to thank everyone who is praying. From his responses it seems that from the way he sees it, every day that Ramona has is already a gift, and because she keeps responding to everything, we'll just keep going and plan day by day almost.

Ramona has the good room again. Which we are incredibly thankful for

........For now,

Earl

You know, once again this is an exciting feeling. I'm sitting in our bedroom writing this blog and Mony is out in the kitchen making supper...that is awesome if you ask me. All things considered we have much to be thankful for from this week. As previously mentioned the room was a huge blessing. Also, the St. B. nurses fight for us. They were doing anything from bringing us junk food from the staff room, to talking the charge nurse out of having a student nurse with Ramona. It was also pretty sobering talking with Bonnie...and I need to interrupt this sentence to explain who Bonnie is in case I haven't in the previous posts.
Bonnie Johnson: Bonnie is the chemo nurse. Again, I forget her technical title, but she is in charge of the chemo on the wards. She is the one who occasionally gives the chemo and has taught pretty much every nurse on the ward how to give chemo. Also, she is the person I would phone if I had medical questions or concerns from home. Last time, when Ramona was in emergency Bonnie is the one who called us from her house at 11:30 p.m. to make sure everything was okay.
Anyway, about the talk with Bonnie. Ramona asked Bonnie about Dr. Wong's other patients. How many patients survived? The answer, I think, shocked both of us. (in this case, a survivor is someone who is "cancer-free" five years after their treatment) Bonnie told us that he has only one patient who is considered a survivor and he just recently noticed lung metasteses. That's pretty sobering. We're, of course, determined that Ramona will be survivor #2...we knew that odds weren't very good...but this is worse than we expected here.
I'm simply going to leave that thought there because there is really no good segway out of it. Ramona and I were talking about the purpose of our lives this afternoon.There is the traditional Christian answer of "to glorify God", but we're quite tired of cliches. For me, a large part of my purpose at this point is to take care of my wife...but for Ramona you would think it would be something like "getting better". Here's the problem, when your purpose is something that you have very little control of. That doesn't make for that great of a life. There is something defeating about having your purpose focused on yourself....
We think about these kinds of things, again, apart from the immediate health concerns, we think about purpose.
I guess I haven't mentioned yet that Ramona was released from the hospital on Saturday morning. Which was perfect, we got to attend Evan and Renita's wedding.
Ramona has a Telehealth(webcam) appointment with Dr. Waddell in Toronto on October 12 at 9 a.m. Central. Among other things, I hope we can talk about what surgical procedures need to happen after chemo. Also, at the beginning of next round (Oct. 15) they will do a CT Scan and a Mugga Scan. This determines whether the tumors are actually shrinking and whether Ramona's heart is handling this.
Thanks again,
Earl

I'm at my brother's house showering and then quickly getting breakfast to bring back to the hospital because Ramona is getting hungry. And then I found Jay's computer.......so I'm writing....quite quickly, I might add. Admitting into the hospital Sunday night had no major issues. Monday morning around 8 a.m. they told us that Ramona's hemoglobin was low (84). This would make perfect sense why she had no energy all week. Due to this...from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. it was a process of getting blood. All the procedures from taking blood to do a group and match to actually receiving the two units of blood. This always feels like a long process. Ramona's family was here with her all day, while I went back to Arborg in the morning for a day of work. Ramona slept fairly well this night, although last evening some of the medication made her pretty anxious. We're also incredibly privileged. Last Saturday I called the hospital to see if Ramona could have a quieter room at the far end of the hall. So, they surprised her and gave her the newly renovated 'comfy room'. Private bathroom, free tv and phone, new flooring etc.
For now,
Earl

Goodmorning to everyone who everyone who is awake before 11 a.m. on Saturday morning. Lately, again, for some reason, I've had many people tell me that the blog encourages them to pray. We appreciate that a lot. Medically speaking, the last few days haven't been very noteworthy. We were almost 'normal' for the last few days. I would come from work at supper time and Ramona would be making supper. That is a huge treat for me. During the day Ramona canned things with her mom a few days this week. This would also be a good time to thank the people who chipped in and tended our garden when we couldn't this year. All things considered, the garden did really well (I might also be writing now to procrastinate digging potatoes today). Ramona is incredibly tired though. She fell asleep yesterday evening at about 7 p.m. She woke up for about 45 minutes around 10 o'clock. Now, as I'm writing, she is still sleeping. There is no question that her body needs all the energy it can get.

We have been praying for peace. It's pretty easy for us to get scared that the cancer might win the battle. Worrying does not help the healing process.

-Earl

Earl & I participated in the Terry Fox Run today. I was asked to say something and so shared my story and shared with everyone why this event means so much to me. It was really neat to have this opportunity but also kind of terrifying!
It was a super gorgeous day and so Earl pushed me on the wheelchair while he rollerbladed. We had some family and friends also participate so they took turns pushing me.




This picture is taken moments before we go bald. (Due to my experience a year ago, I expected my hair to start to fall out today. This morning it wasn't really, but by the afternoon I was starting to lose it. It was so much easier to have my hair shaved seeing that it was starting to come out. I'm so grateful for that perfect timing!




There were 7 of us that shaved our heads to bring in more money. Four young girls also had their ponytails cut off. What a neat event with the community chearing you on. My brother Randy also decided to get his head shaved.






And this is us after.


I really enjoyed the event today. I felt such community support by hundreds that I don't even know. Arborg has an amazing reputation with bringing in lots of money. Today I know that over $10,000 was donated!!Wow.

Because Terry Fox and I both fought/are fighting sarcoma I know that I want to a part of this event as many years as possible.

Thursday night when I wrote Ramona was pretty tired. I guess she fell asleep around 8:15. That night she didn't have a fever but she was slightly warmer than what would be normal. Although I knew this was the time when she could get a fever I went to work friday morning anyway. Ramona called me at 8:30 telling me she temperature was in the upper 37's. This is still okay, but the magic number they gave us was 38. Then we need to head to emergency to make sure everything is okay. At 11:30 she called me to say her temperature was 38.2. To make a long story short I came home and pretty much had to force Ramona to go to St. B. At that point she wasn't feeling too sick, but her temperature showed a fever. By 3:30 when we got to Winnipeg, we were pretty glad to be there. Ramona was feeling much more sick.......I need to speed my story up since we're heading to my parents right away.......the fact that we're home is pretty amazing...last night the doctors told Ramona she would probably be stuck in the hospital for a few days. Her white blood count is currently 0.4. In the hospital they require you to be in isolation if you're under 1.0. Anyway, Ramona's doctor this morning decided she could go home. She is on antibiotics and she can drink water. This is all they would be doing for her in the hospital now anyway. Keep her hydrated and on antibiotics. This doctor encouraged us to still do the Terry Fox Run tomorrow, so we're excited about that.
The effects of chemo are bothersome for Ramona now. The lining of her digestive tract (throat, large intestine, etc...) are affected. Not fun.
Thanks for caring,
Earl

We're relaxing at home again tonight. Ramona fell asleep right beside me here. She's been resting/sleeping for a while already. This is the weekend where her white blood cell count will drop almost to zero. Dr. Wong didn't warn us as profusely as last summer, mainly because we've done this all before, but if Ramona gets a fever we need to head to emergency immediately. A body without blood cells doesn't fight very well.
This is just a note so that you know how to pray,
Earl

Ramona and I are sitting around enjoying an evening at home. Like Joanna mentioned in one of her comments. No news is probably good news. Our version of a normal day does not include much internet time. Anyway, I've confessed that many times before.
We had a bit of a scary incident last night. Ramona and I were laying in bed and I was reading a book. It was windy and raining out side and things were blowing around. We heard the sound of what seemed like people coming to our house and making noise on our deck. We had our lights all off. And so it all felt a little weird to me. I went to the door to see what was going on. About 12 feet in front of me, a bear ran in front of my deck and into the bush. I shone my flashlight at the bush. I had no gun. End of story.
I'm incredibly thankful that I can be writing about bears. Ramona has handled chemo incredibly well. In fact, if we hadn't spent last week in Winnipeg, we might not even know that Ramona had had chemo. Not quite, she is weaker and more tired....and yes, her hair will probably begin to fall out this next week.
Speaking of which, we are hoping to be part of the Terry Fox Run in Arborg this weekend. It sounds like a good event with the 10km run and head shaving. I guess I could push Ramona on the wheelchair with my rollerblades or something. Depending how everything works, I guess Ramona might shave her head there too, since that will happen shortly anyway.
Completely changing the topic, one of my friends had a good reminder for me about something to be thankful for. We were talking about how Ramona is in a life and death battle with cancer. There was something incredibly basic, yet noteworthy that he mentioned. Ramona is a Christian, and therefore the life and death battle is only on earth. After earth we will be in heaven. Imagine how frightening it would be if the battle was between life and eternal 'death' in hell. People all around us are battling with cancer and for many of them the battle ends in an eternity in hell. Ramona and I both often feel pretty hopeless and this was a much needed reminder that we do have hope.
Thanks for caring,
Earl

Hey...just a note that the last few days have gone amazingly well. Ramona has hardly even felt nauseous. She is on her last bag of ifosfamide right now. Everything is on pace to be out of here by tomorrow morning... I hate the pressure of these kiosk machines...i'm almost out of time....have an awesome day.
Earl

I guess it's high time to update this blog...and as usual no one likes to hear about good intentions. Anyway, Ramona is now beginning day 2 of chemo. When I left the room 10 minutes ago we were joking around with the nurses and Ramona was feeling fine. The drug dexoroxane (the heart protectant that was supposed to be super nauseating) has had no negative side effects so far. This is really awesome. Dr. Wong told Ramona this morning that if it causes nausea the effects are supposed to appear almost immediately after they inject the drug.
I sometimes get asked what people can do to help us/Ramona. This is a really tough question to answer.....we're just like everyone else in the world who absolutely love it when people show that they truly care. And most people have different ways of showing they care, so it's not a question that can be answered simply like. "we need food" or "if Ramona was given......something...then she would be happy"
One thing we wonder about is how much to dabble with alternative medicine. The complexities of the question are not something I want to discuss on the blog right now. I often almost go crazy trying to figure out what is wise and what is not wise. I think and stress out about this as if I actually have something to do with how Ramona will get better. If you could pray for peace as we battle through those decisions would be much appreciated too. God can as easily heal Ramona with a glass of water as with a bag of doxorubicin or anything else. I often forget that.
Anyway, I'll go bring the computer to Ramona so she can read previous comments (no Internet access in the room unfortunately)
Earl