Yesterday at lunch we had a pretty neat surprise. The patient representatives had decorated the dining room in a Mexican theme. They also had hired a 'band' to serenade us while we ate. It was pretty neat having 3 Mexican men sing to the patients during lunch.
Becki & I are learning how to take pictures of ourselves with the use of the reflections from the windows.












Becki's fabulous shot of a Mexican bee.

Having treatments in the sun.

!Hola!
No, I'm not really learning Spanish but since we are surrounded by so many people with different accents, my words are starting to come out rather weird. There are people here from Germany, England, South Africa, Australia, the US and so many other places. It creates an awesome atmosphere.
Treatments are going well. Today I feel a little more tired-not too bad though. Today it was a little warmer. Becki & I tried to soak up a little sun and whenever I wasn't on oxygen we went outside. It's been colder than we expected but today was nice. In a few minutes we want to go to the beach and watch the sunset.
This afternoon I took Becki to El Yogurt Place and she had some delicious frozen yogurt. Last night we walked to the theatre and watched August Rush. We were fortunate to have it in English. We've also done a little shopping and spent some time on the beach.
Right now I'm distracted by a 5 year old boy who's father is having treatment. He's trying to figure out where our room is so he can visit us. Really cute!
Have a good evening
Ramona

All credit for the creative pictures goes to Becki. She's having a blast taking pictures of anything and everything. :)

Here in Mexico

Becki & I are so glad to have escaped the snow and instead are looking at palm trees!
This is the view of Earl & my driveway yesterday morning. We had a big storm that resulted in my parent's being out of power for 40 hours and us leaving for the airport hours earlier.

Flying went really well. Nothing too exciting. We got pretty tired from 3 flights and the time changes. We're 3 hours earlier here than at home.
Today has been a day of relaxing and showing Becki around. I met with my doctor this morning and he says that we'll continue with the same treatment as previous. I got the results from my CT scan that was done a few weeks ago. I'm only hearing the results officially from Dr. Wong on April 8th, but I found out earlier because my doctor in Mexico got the results. My tumor has shrunk from 8 mm to 6 mm. The scan showing 8 mm was done in December and I had 2 rounds of chemo & treatment here in Mexico since then. I'm happy it's shrinking but obviously wishing that it had disappeared completely. However, my doctor here is happy with the results and with the nutraceuticals that I'm taking at home we should keep getting good results!
Tomorrow my treatments begin.
-Ramona

Last winter while Ramona was recovering from radiation she began making her jean blanket. It was a nice project to work on in her spare time when she felt good enough to work. The project was set aside during the summer as well as during chemotherapy. This picture is taken during family sewing circle.

Here is Ramona with this week's finished product. If you look carefully you can see her emerging hairline. (which she is incredibly proud of....I try not to smile too much)

This was one of the first meals we made when we came back from Mexico. The thing on the right side of the plate is a double. (Chick peas...curry..etc...absolutely delicious). The yellow stuff in the front of the plate is hummus.

The best learning is done by trial and error. We made some unleavened pitas. That was probably the low point of new recipes. Even the unburnt ones....you weren't sure if you were eating the pita or if you had accidently put your plate in your mouth. Ramona puts an amazing amount of time into finding new recipes and making good food. She has quite a collection already. It is a huge treat to come home from work to try some new kind of organic food. This food thing is a lot more fun for me than it is for Ramona. Green salad gets boring...especially if you see other people eating food you want.
Ramona's energy seems to be back. At the end of last week we were concerned why she was feeling so rotten.
-earl

The tickets are booked and my 16year old sister, Becki and I are flying to Mexico on March 30th. Earl will be staying home this time, making some money and so I asked my sister to be my companion. We'll be gone just under a week, flying home on April 5th. We're both really excited, I'm a little more apprehensive, realizing I'll be gone from Earl for such a long time. He's been with me this entire journey and I've grown really attached so I know that it is only healthy for me to be a bit more independent.
I had a CT scan this morning. My prayer is that it'll show that the cancer has disappeared completely. I only get the results sometime in April as my doctor is on holidays.
This last week I felt a lot more tired and fatigued than I did the previous week. I was on anti-inflammatories for my knee which caused some stomach discomfort. I stopped the anti-inflammatories and the stomach pain disappeared. I'm wondering if it also made me more tired?? Whatever the case, I'm hoping this week I'll have more energy.
Exciting news!!! I just officially decided that my hair is growing back. Last week the last scraggly eyebrow and eyelash hair fell out. I must admit I looked hilarious with no eyebrows or eyelashes. However, as soon as they fell out, new ones started coming. Now I have teeny, tiny, short eyelashes! My head hair...well, that's only a hairline. Half an hour ago when I looked in the mirror I could distinctly see my hairline so to me that's the first sign. It looks like it'll be dark again. Not sure if that's good or not-I'm thinking my 3rd hair could be something different-we'll see.
That's all for now
Ramona

Back Home

Yes, we are back at home! I know many of you have been wondering and telling us that we need to blog. Well here I finally am.
I am feeling significantly better than I have in months. I have so much more energy. It's exciting and fun to be able to work harder and do more things than I've been able to do in a long time. My limp slows me down a lot and is frustrating at times. It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since my hip surgery. Anyway... My knee is feeling a lot better. I went to a Sports Clinic on Thursday just to make sure that everything was okay. After chatting with the Doctor there and with Dr.Wong we came to the conclusion that I had banged my knee really hard and with time the fluid around the knee should disappear. The Doctor at the Sports Clinic scared me a bit as she was concerned that my swollen knee might be related to my cancer. I had an x-ray done yesterday and had Dr. Wong look at my knee and he wasn't at all concerned. His attitude was "I don't know why they sent you here." That was exactly what I wanted to hear.
Earl is back at work full-time and worked this morning as well. I'm having fun experimenting with my cooking. I'm making many recipes that I've never made before and usually Earl & I enjoy them.
We're still not sure when I'm going back to Mexico but we're expecting at the end of this month. We're waiting on Oasis of Hope to clarify. This time I'd only be there for a week.
Thanks for all your prayers and support and for helping to make the Oasis of Hope a reality.
Ramona

I guess it saves me the effort of posting pictures. If anyone at Oasis reads this...if you could keep the cord that connects our camera to our computer in a nice safe place until we come back....anyway...we have found an organic food coop in San Diego which seems amazing...I never thought we would find relatively cheap organic food so easily...for dessert yesterday we shared a piece of organic blueberry soy cheezecake for under 3 dollars...(notice how a picture would have been nice here)...anyway...have a good day everyone

Well...it's nice to have my 'sign in' option in English instead of Spanish. Just a note to say that we are now in San Diego. I'll go do some research on the San Diego Transit System while Ramona sleeps.
Thanks so much to those of you who prayed for us during this trip,
Earl

This picture was taken yesterday. This is facing north from the hospital. Those of you in colder climates may appreciate the fact that snow shut down roads in southern California yesterday. As well, there is a risk of frost in San Diego tonight....

We watched a movie last night.

This is some of our supplements. The great thing is, that if you buy as much as we do, they give you a complimentary suitcase.

This is our last movie night. Popcorn covered in olive oil and veggie salt actually tastes amazing.(Dayna, take note of the blanket.)

Olive oil and veggie salt provides an excellent segway into the world of food. We are a few days from entering the world of health food on our own. We have learned a lot in the last two weeks about what is healthy and what is not and it's time to put that into practice in reality.
Nutrition in the realm of cancer treatment/prevention is an interesting subject. We have been told here that nutrition is only about 10-17% of what affects your cancer. Making up the other 80+% would be things such as stress or getting plenty of rest. Having said that. Studies here have shown that those who maintain their diet, live longer. Disciplined eating habits seem to be a pretty big key to living in such a way as to keep the cancer away. When your eating habits deteriorate, other good lifestyle habits seem to follow. Anyway...we haven't entirely figured out all the details of what we (especially Ramona) will be eating...but...we need to eliminate or nearly eliminate dairy (some organic dairy may be okay) and continue without white sugar and white flour. Meats can include some fish and chicken, eliminate or nearly eliminate red meat. And...as much as possible....eat organic. This will be quite a challenge and....will obviously have exceptions. All of these changes have reasons...which you can likely research on your own....if you want... At first when we get home we will have incredibly many judgement calls to make and it feels like we need to relearn how to eat. We want to create good habits without going overboard. For example...it is much better to eat pesticide covered fruit than to eat no fruit...
Anyway, we're trying to bring openness to the topic of food...and....
to those of you who eat with us....just ask...
One of our next steps is to get beyond a life that focuses on cancer....to focus purely on food now would be quite a defeat too.
Sleep good ya'll,
Earl

Things are starting to wrap up here. It almost feels scary....we just got here and now were getting ready to go home. This is the prescription that was given to Ramona today. Some treatments end tomorrow and by Sunday, we head to San Diego. Tuesday....Home. Have a good evening,
Earl

Every morning, I get up early and go down to the 2nd floor to get my makeup done. It's part of the routine here. Good looks equals good health. Whatever...not funny....anyway...this picture was taken last Friday. We were asked to be part of the Oasis photo shoot. Since it is the 45th anniversary of the hospital and they haven't taken decent pictures of the hospital in a decade they decided it was time. Pictures were taken all over the hospital...and we were chosen to be on a few of them in the chapel.

On Friday....the pictures never happened. Daniel Kennedy the CEO "lost faith" in the photographer early in the day and everything was cancelled....so today they had a new photographer and we did the makeup all over again. Daniella was the makeup artist. She has some type of head position in finances but she formerly worked in a salon...so...she did the makeup today.

The picture that you will likely find in the promotional material in the future will be somewhat like this I assume. Dr. Contreras (head oncologist) is an amazing man. This is a posed praying position, but after we finished the pose he told Ramona he had actually been praying for her.

I love this picture.

One last note is regarding Sharon. She passed away early this morning. She miraculously regained kidney function when they thought she wouldn't make it, but then she developed pneumonia and that was too much. Pray for Steve and their families.

-earl

I'm not sure what's up with the photography. We went out for supper with Ramona's parent's and other than a picture of the menu this is the only shot we have. I'm eating ostrich burritos with nopalitos (cactus). Speaking of Ramona's parents, they should be landing in Winnipeg anytime.

Today was a day off of treatment. This was good because Ramona spent much of the day sleeping. We also went to the beach late in the afternoon.

I once heard some great relationship advice. "Everyday, you need to kiss for 10 seconds." Which I find to be great advice, I mean, you try kissing someone on the lips for 10 seconds while you're angry. It is possible to give a quick little forehead kiss....but...anyway..you get the picture. So part of the strategy is to get a camera with a 10 second timer and then use it on a beach where due to the waves you can't even hear the camera. And you just go and....well...anyway on another note....
(a quick note that upon review of my writing Ramona says we don't follow the rule so...ya...we'll work on it I guess)

e

Mom and Ramona "swimming" at Rosarito Beach on Saturday. Ramona needs a lot of encouragement to go swimming. Please help me.

Church this morning. Dr. Ernesto Contreras had the sermon. It's absolutely amazing to have an M.D., the son of the founder of the hospital talking to us.

We can't find anyone named Pedro, but we found this.

Today the Oasis trip took us to downtown Tijuana.

Some visitors dropped by last night :)

CT Results

It's hard for me to stop from snickering to myself as I post this. If you are like Ramona and myself you will think you are some kind of genius doctor and be concerned about "what does this mean or what does that mean?". So anyway, while you are analyzing on your own the picture of a photocopy of a CT scan, you probably see the white dots on the lungs. Those dots apparently are NOT cancer. That is simply the way the lungs are. We told Dr. Carbajal that the previous CT scan showed one 8mm tumor on the right side. So.....he went downstairs to look again and invited me down so I could see the full CT Scan together with him. (The CT report in Spanish would have been a little difficult). Upon further investigation, there was still no indication of tumor in the lungs. Although it is definitely worth a few high fives around here, we try to keep it all in perspective. The Dec. '06 CT scan also showed the lungs to be clear, but it was only a few months later before tumors were again growing and visible on the scans. The news is absolutely as good as could be expected, but only time will tell whether the tumors will stay away. This continues to be the purpose of the Oasis of Hope. The treatment should destroy any microscopic tumor as well as strengthen Ramona's body enough to keep anything from growing again. Thanks for praying.
-Earl

Today Ramona had fewer treatments. This means we had more time to actually relax outside today. The treatment is designed well. These treatments do exhaust her body and she needs a day like this to recooperate.
This is me running in the water. Also, you can't see it clearly, but there is a huge ship in the background. I guess it must be from the U.S. Navy.

Notice two things in this picture. 1- The green truck. These coastguard guys came and yelled at Amos and I. Spanish yelling sounds kinda neat. Anyway, we came to understand that they were warning us of the big waves and riptides. 2- That rickety looking fence is the U.S.-Mexico border. Due to the battleships and circling helicopters, we tried to keep most of our parts in Mexico.

We are in the northwest corner of Mexico.
Things you could pray about:
-Ramona's knee still is causing much discomfort
- Sharon's (mentioned yesterday) health is noticably declining.
-earl