Before I say anything else, I'd like to say thanks to all of you who encourage us. What an incredible feeling to know that hundreds are praying and begging God to show His glory!
Yes, I had an appointment this last week with my oncologist in Winnipeg, Dr. Wong. He confirmed that I will be having surgery on my left lung on August 7th. He wasn't comfortable with doing more chemo unless we absolutely have to. All chemo would really do is buy me more time. We were really excited about not doing more chemo now, but the reality still is that my cancer is growing rapidly.
Earl & I were at camp most of this last week. We came home Tuesday night and rested at home and then I went to Physio on Wednesday. Physio doesn't seem to be doing a lot yet. The stretches that I do are pretty hard on the rest of my body, so it's hard to be disciplined.
Today begins the last week of camp. I still believe that God wants us there, but it has been incredibly hard. One of my big struggles has been not being able to physically do all the things that I would love to do. I've taken it pretty easy and haven't been very involved. Being such a 'doing' person, this has been quite stretching. I was able to share my testimony on the anniversary of my diagnosis. I was able to share with the campers how God can use the scariest thing in our lives for something beautiful. I can honestly say that I have become a better person due to my journey through cancer. There are things that I have learned that I never would have had I not gone through this. I shared with the campers my dream of using my experience to encourage others, especially children, who are going through cancer or other similar trials.
This has so far, been my highlight of camp.
I have to admit that the future is pretty scary. Knowing that medically speaking there isn't much hope, forces you to think about life and the gift that it is. Some days I get so tired of fighting and wonder when it will ever be over. I still believe God has a much bigger plan than I can even imagine, but the truth is-there is no guarantee that that will involve me living until I'm 70 or 80. He might be glorified more by my death than by my life.
And so these are some of my thoughts. Thank you for your prayers and please keep them coming. It's my desire that one day soon, we can announce that I'm cancer free, however, that is not best for me right now.
Those of you who are living not too far away....
Feel free to come visit us at camp on Wednesday night
Ramona

...so...how to cover two weeks of life in one short blog??...let me first write about the last Toronto appointment before I mention camp. On monday afternoon we flew into Toronto...we took the subway to the hospital and made it there an hour before Ramona's CT scan. The 8:40 p.m. CT Scan was uneventful except for the fact that it was a little late. And I appreciate the offer Marion to use the AIM appartment, but Ramona and I knew we would be tired and only around for one night....so we stayed downtown...Ramona's appointment at 9 a.m. the next morning with Dr. Waddell gave us some pretty discouraging and scary news. Ramona's lungs are not clear. The left lung has atleast 6 tumors the size of loonies and the right lung, the one they cleared out 4 weeks ago already has one more tumor about the size of a loonie. This means the cancer is once again growing fast....if no more tumors grow, Dr. Waddell said that these would be easy to remove...the problem is that we don't know how many more will grow. Surgery for the left lung is booked for August 7th.....i don't know how describe the doctor's expression...he was hinting that they may need to do chemo if the lungs look too bad...this part is up in the air right now. We have an appointment with Dr. Wong (Winnipeg) where we will, I'm sure, talk about this. Please pray hard. This is pretty scary news we're hearing. There is no proper segway to change topics now, but I wanted to end this blog on an encouraging note. While we were at camp (and I'm sure now too) a lot of good things were happening. Kids were not only having fun and getting hit with paintballs, but were becoming Christians as well. It was powerful for everyone to hear Ramona's testimony last week. Ramona is taking a break from camp this week and resting. I plan to return to camp for Thursday and Friday of this week and depending how things go, we'll probably both be at camp the last two weeks.

For now,
Earl

In the last week our lives have changed drastically. Last Monday, as Earl & I were sitting by the table and I was swallowing my herbs and eating a nectarine, I was reminded of Beaver Creek Bible Camp. I've volunteered there for 7 years and it's a well known fact that nectarines are served a lot. I asked Earl what he thought about BCBC and immediately he asked, "You mean being assistant directors?" Just that Sunday, Evan, the director of Beaver Creek mentioned the need for assistant directors. However, it never once crossed our minds that we could fill that role. When Earl mentioned assistant directors, we were both shocked. He hadn't been serious, but after the words popped out, we both realized that it would indeed be a possibility.
All day Monday, Earl & I had been amazed at how well I was feeling. We never, ever thought that a week after lung surgery we would be considering going to camp for 5 weeks. We both thought I'd be way too sick. Well God is a God of surprises and we definitely felt his direct leading that we head to camp. As soon as we realized the possibility, Earl & I were both filled with peace and a gut feeling that in a few days we would be at camp. There was no question in our hearts that God was leading us there.
So Earl & I arrived at Beaver Creek Bible Camp Sunday afternoon, knowing we should be there but not at all feeling prepared or adequate. The week has been going incredibly well. Earl & I have been so incredibly encouraged. Earl especially has had many opportunities to encourage campers and cousellers. I long to do many things, but my physical restrictions limit me. I have been involved in a lot of organizational things. God has also been drawing me closer to Him through some incredible staff members. I believe God wants us at camp, not just to encourage others but also to challenge us to draw closer to Him.
Today Earl & I are leaving for a wedding in Saskatoon. We'll be coming home on Sunday and heading back to camp. I have an appointment in Toronto with my lung surgeon & a CT scan to see what is going on in my left lung. This appointment is on the 17th of July. We will be at camp when we can but obviously work around my medical appointments.
Thanks so much for your continuing prayer.
A year ago today, the word 'cancer' was mentioned for the first time. My needlepoint biopsy was done, my first CT scan and my first IV. Hopefully this journey is almost over.
Ramona

A week ago at this moment I had still not seen Earl since surgery.
A week later, I am amazed at how well I am doing. I'm still on heavy pain medication but have already started to lessen the amount by about a third. I'm starting to slowly do things like washing dishes, sweeping the floor, laundry and other household chores. I never expected that I'd be able to do all that this soon. Yes, I still have constant pain but it doesn't limit me as much as I expected.
I have also started a new kind of herb products that I am really excited about. I really feel that God directed Earl & I to meet Daryl Robinson when we did.
We're praising God that I'm doing so well and praising Him for another miracle.
Ramona

Surprise! On Thursday evening when we talked to Dr. Waddell we asked him if there was any possibility we could fly home Saturday morning to be home for Randy's graduation. He told us it would probably work since the airleak in her lungs had closed up 12 hours after surgery. So...obviously that was pretty exciting for us since we hadn't let ourselves believe we could be home for grad. We decided it would be fun to surprise Randy and the rest of our families and our friends. So....if you look back at Thursday's and Friday's blogs it doesn't say much about when we would be coming home. Anyway, at 6:30 Saturday morning we picked up Ramona at the hospital.....by 10 a.m. we were in Winnipeg having just enjoyed a nice turbulent ride....by 1 p.m. we were in church saying 'hi' to Randy....it was definitely an exciting adrenaline filled day for us. We thoroughly enjoyed the grad and afterward we sat around with Petkau family for a few hours and then tried to write a blog for a long time....we are not thankful for viruses, but we sure are thankful that God allowed us to come home yesterday. We still appreciate prayer immensely, the next weeks when the adrenaline is gone, will will be much tougher than exciting, adrenaline filled days.
-Earl

Last night as I was winding down for bed in the lounge of the 10th floor of the Eaton wing of the Toronto General Hospital I put on the TV for a bit. Out of the blue a guy walks into my 'bedroom' and asks me if I play hockey. It turns out from our conversation that he was sure he recognized from his ball hockey league. He spent the night in emergency in St. B. after one of his ball hockey games in Winnipeg in the beginning of August of last summer, but I don't think that was a connection either......whatever the case we chatted for quite a while...and Daryl's story is truly quite amazing....He...now 29, was diagnosed with a stage 4 cancer at 18...he underwent the usual chemo...surgery...but then the doctors just sent him home...they didn't know what they would do if his cancer kept growing...he wasn't satisfied...he 'randomly' researched on the internet...got a hold of some herbs...his tumors shrunk...doctors were amazed...being a young zealous guy he told everyone he knew about this product that was healing him...to make a long story short he now owns a nutrition supplement business with 30,000 clients....anyway...i noticed earlier that whenever he walked around the hospital he walked pretty fast...i thought he must be doing pretty good...it turns out that on June 12 he had his chest opened 'like a suitcase' and benign tumors (formerly malignant) removed from his lungs and belly area...we could hardly argue about nutritional supplements with someone who is obviously doing so well. The doctors told him he would be in hospital atleast six weeks...he's flying home on Monday...he is such an encouraging guy to talk to...plus i had spent alot of time thinking about what kind of 'supplements' i would get for Ramona from now on. Those decisions have always felt huge to me...this seemed divinely inspired that Daryl and I talked last night....anyway...the day at the hospital wasn't incredibly eventful. Mony is now taking 1 percocet every two hours and two advil every 6 hours. That seems to sort of take care of the pain although she is never actually pain free. There are parts of wounds of the surgery that pain medication simply doesn't touch. I just mentioned to Ramona this evening that sometimes I don't get so excited about this blogging idea...to which she replied that the blog reminds people to pray...i appreciated that reminder from her...Thanks so much for continuing to pray for us.

'Til we meet again,
Earl

P.S. I can't remember if I blogged this earlier or not, but Dr. Waddell told Ramona that she wouldn't start feeling any better for about 3 weeks. That's kinda discouraging. 3 weeks is short relative to a lifetime, but in the moment....well you know

Toronto: the saga continues

hey everyone, this is Jason here...earl's staying the night at the hospital, so i get the honours of addressing the free world via this blog...i feel so powerful....anyways, i think what i was supposed to say was that things are (still) going basically as good as can be expected...apparently there was a bit of a hitch this morning when ramona was given a little too much pain medication (i think it was called Perkicet... Perceset? Perkeset? what am i, a doctor?)...i guess that happened cuz they took out her epidural, and were trying to compensate for the lack of pain relief (i hope there are no highly educated medical people reading this)...other than that, things seem okay...they took all the tubes out of her, which is obviously a praise item...i guess that's it...i think if there's a hidden message here it's that if there were more super-serious news or setbacks to share, i would not have been chosen to write this blog...if this has been too vague or the spelling too un-good, not to worry, i'm sure earl will write something much more coherent tomorrow sometime...

stay classy,

Jason Reimer

p.s. will somebody please tell my girlfriend she looks beautiful? thanks

For those of you who wonder why I don't blog as often as I did last surgery, my excuse is that we don't have proper internet access on the tenth floor. This is my bro Jay trying to get some sort of wireless connection from all the surrounding buildings. By the way it's nice for Ramona and I that my brother and mom are with us now. (My mom is currently sleeping in the lounge in the hospital. Like I said, the strict rules in Toronto General don't allow any 'visitor' to stay the night in a room that isn't private)















This is Mony openning a gift that her mom sent along with us (On the privacy of the blog, Mony was very thankful for the comfy pants and I forgot to tell you on the phone mom...oops) In the background you see her neighbor, she mostly sleeps, Ramona has had good people in the different rooms she's been in )














Part of the recovery process is this breathing incentive....thing...pretty much you have to inhale in this tube and it shows you how powerful you suck and it has this little blue thing that floats when you inhale...and....i give up...go to a hospital and ask to look at one of these breathing incentive devices...















This picture is merely to show you how good my wife looks with her new hat and glasses. The picture was taken the night before surgery














Now...trying to catch up on all the technical information and the thoughts and feelings attached to that. Ramona's pain is largely under control. When I got to the hospital at 11 this morning. Ramona began to have more pain. Coincidence I was told. With a few boosts of Morphine in her epidural and an ant-inflammatory plus two tylenol she began to feel better. Pain-wise the rest of the day was very bearable. She is beginning to be itchy from Morphine use.
Ever since Mony got to her room on the tenth floor yesterday there have been no airleaks in her lung or chest cavity (I'm forgetting all my technical terms in my sleep here). This is a good sign and they will likely take the tubes from her chest in the morning. I'm getting the impression that if possible they remove most of tubes all at once. If they remove the IV, catheter, epidural, and drainage tubes in the morning she'll be almost a free woman.
The physiotherapists in the TGH are concerned that Ramona isn't walking better. They are researching precisely what was cut and what was reattached in the hip surgery by Dr. Ferguson. To be continued. Hopefully physio has a better idea what is going on tomorrow.
Speaking of walking, Ramona walked out in the hallways three times today. I'm impressed. I don't know how to describe this and Ramona may look at me funny later when she reads this but I continue to be amazed at how flexible her upper body is after how damaged her rib cage must be. Modern pain relief techniques are amazing.
We continue to be concerned what the left lung (theoretically the good lung). If six or seven 'new' spots appeared on the right lung since the last CT, it's pretty hard to have faith that the left lung will show clear when they do a CT now in a few days. Much faith needed.
Concerning the scare last evening with Ramona's arm being immobile and potential blood clots and all that stuff. I'm incredible thankful that all seems to be well. Her left arm has as much mobility by now as it did before surgery. Conclusion is that the epidural probably wasn't placed perfectly and they slightly overdosed the amount of morphine through there.
So.....having said all this....Ramona will hopefully be out of the hospital by Friday and likely fly home a few days later. There are plenty of reasons they may want us there longer, but that was the nurses prediction today.
-Earl

When I wrote last time, I stopped at a computer lab between the surgical waiting room and the tenth floor to go wait for them to bring Ramona up to her room. I expected them to have her up by about 3:30. Finally at 4 o'clock I asked the nurses what was going on. They told me Ramona needed to have a CT Scan. This was all they told me right then. I found out the details slowly, but what happened over the next couple of hours scared us a lot. When Ramona woke up from surgery she had a severe headache and absolutely no movement in her right arm. This has potential to be a severe problem. The doctors quickly went to work to prove that Ramona did not have a blood clot in her spinal column from the epidural. Had there been a blood clot neurosurgeons would have had to do emergency surgery to remove the clot. (I'm not sure I want to ask what all the possibilities could have been)...anyway they did the CT Scan which was inconclusive so they needed to do an MRI. The doctors did not know whether or not they could do an MRI since they couldn't decide if the whole epidural system contained any metal. So Ramona had much time downstairs to be with the nurses. And Ramona had many good things to say about the nurses. By the time, I saw Ramona it was about 8:30. I was incredibly glad to see her, obviously. I am leaving out incredible amounts of information, but all I want to do is sleep right now. Ramona is by herself in the hospital, TGH is quite strict about visiting hours (although they did let us stay later since Ramona only got up half an hour before the end of visiting hours) Ramona talked about how much peace she had throughout the day. Pretty amazing for a day that had moments of wondering whether or not she would survive the complications of the surgery)

Later,
Earl

Ramona is out of surgery. I just finished talking to the resident doctor he said that they took ten spots out of the lungs. He said they got everything. This begs questions. Two months ago on the CT Scan they could only see three spots. I'll wait to talk to Dr. Waddell later to see what this means. The biggest spot wasn't attached to anything. That is good news. Ramona was incredibly relaxed before the surgery. We sat around in the pre-op holding room chatting and realizing the peace we had was because of all the people praying. Pretty neat feeling. Ramona should be getting up to the room in an hour or two.
Thanks for praying,
Earl

This is Ramona in her first room of the day. She is with the resident doctor signing the surgery consent form. Actually, I think it is the form that allows them to use what they take from her to do research
















In the evening after we had rested all afternoon we headed out to Nathan Philips Square (I hope that is spelled correctly).













This is where we bought our supper. What could be better than a big juicy German hot dog. To be honest we both couldn't think of anything we wanted to eat. Restaurant food is not exactly very entertaining. In all seriousness, the lung surgery is now eleven hours away. Ramona is in the hospital and Jay, myself and my mom are in the AIM apartment. We want everyone to be praying for a miracle. At the same time Ramona and I have been talking alot about how to accept it if this surgery isn't the final end to this cancer battle. It seems almost to good to be true that with this surgery the cancer could be gone forever. The surgery is scheduled for 11:55 a.m. Please pray hard. Everything that the doctors and nurses have told us is that the recovery from this surgery is incredibly painful. Ramona is think of getting an epidural for the first few days. I'm gonna go sleep.
For now,
Earl

Hey there... I found a few pictures to show what we've been doing instead of blogging. This first picture is kinda momentous actually. When we first came back from Toronto Ramona was having a hard time walking with her crutches. Here, five days before lung surgery she is cutting some grass. In all honesty it's been pretty frustrating. Ramona has only been off her pain medication for a few days and the limp is much worse than we expected it to be at this point.
This is me on my birthday. Ramona bought me some steaks to make on our new BBQ. I felt very full after my two T-bone steaks.
Yesterday we were camping out in Clear Lake with Ray and LaVissa and Elsie. This is our transportation. Ramona helped peddle occasionally, but made sure that any uphill cycling was on my own.










Today we're sitting back in our room back at the AIM Head Office in Scarborough, Ontario. It was about 10:30 by the time we got out of the airport (Thanks to Tim Brown for the ride) and we're getting settled in here as we write. Tomorrow at about quarter after ten Andrew is coming to pick us up to take us to the Toronto General Hospital (Thanks to Andrew and Eva for letting us use their car again). Ramona will be admitted then and the Hospital stay will begin. Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Thanks for praying ya'll.
For now,
Earl


P.S. Ramona has had quite a bit of trouble sleeping. That is definitely something to pray about.

Surgery Date Changed

Here's a little update...
This week I got a phone call from Dr. Wadell's (lung surgeon)secretary telling me that the date for my lung surgery had changed. For some reason Dr. Wadell would not be able to do my surgery on the 21st so instead of postponing it, they pushed the date forward 2 days. As of now, my surgery is scheduled for the 19th of June at 10:00 in the morning. As much as this is exciting-every day sooner towards getting me healthy-it's also a little frustrating as we had just barely booked all our flights. We still are working on getting all the flights changed.
I'm trying to remember when the last time is that I used my crutches. I believe it was on Saturday. Out of curiousity I tried to do stairs on my own with Earl right by my side and sure enough I was able to do it. Since then my crutches haven't been used. My walking still is quite unique. I have quite a severe limp and so my right hip ends up aching due to all the compensating. However, it's definitely improving. Earl & I played catch on Sunday trying to get my left arm to 'work properly'. Even though my arm is still far from where I wish it was, I was able to catch almost everything. (Yes they were slow throws).
I'm still using narcotic pain medication around the clock. However, I've been feeling that I need to slowly start getting off of it. That's been pretty tough. It's been hard to know if my body still needs the drugs or not. I find I'm way more tired and groggy when the effects of the pain meds have worn off. I guess we'll slowly keep expermenting.
Well that's what is going on these days. I'm hoping to go to the greenhouse with my mom today and buy some flowers.
For now
Ramona

So today I'm at my parent's again in the afternoon. Basically just like every other day for the past few weeks.
Yes, I am slowly improving and healing. The progress seems super, super slow. However, on Tuesday I stayed home alone while Earl went to work in the morning. I was able to get myself up and dressed and drove myself to my parent's for lunch. That was a pretty huge accomplishment. Since then the roads have been so awful so I haven't done much driving.
Another big accomplishment was washing dishes for the first time in a month! Earl had a bit of a misfortune the other day and ripped off his fingernail. So after supper I realized that there was no way Earl could do the dishes- it was up to me. I thought I'd give it a try knowing that every dish I got done was better than nothing. Well they all got washed.
I'm not really using crutches in the house anymore. I'm able to hobble around the house and do little things. Earl & I go for a walk every night. Each day we go about 100 feet farther than the day before. Earl has this goal that I should be walking half a mile one way by the time I go for lung surgery. I'm not sure if that's possible, but I'm trying to keep on pace for that. About half of the walk I use my crutches the way they're meant to be used and on the way back I either use them as canes or put my arm through Earl's and walk without crutches. I want to increase my ability to walk without crutches but my 'good' side gets affected because of how much it compensates for the other side.
That's pretty much an update on some of my accomplishments. Pain varies from day to day. When I lie down I usually don't have pain and when I'm sitting or walking there is usually just a dull ache. Sometimes I'm hit with severe muscle cramps. My pain meds keep most of the pain under control.
That's all for now,
Ramona

Pathology Report

Well, we got the pathology report back this week.....and....the news was absolutely as good as could be expected. Dr. Ferguson said that all the margins were clear in the hip and in the auxilla, the entire tumor was already dead before the surgery....(they removed what was dead anyway)...the bone pathology is not back yet, Dr. Ferguson told us that it takes longer to get that report back. We have no reason to expect bad news there. This news is a pretty big relief to us. Although the doctor told us he had taken out everything he could see, there was something about his choice of words that made us a little uneasy...and I remember talking about it with Ramona's parents after Dr. Ferguson talked to us after the surgery...we were all uneasy after talking to him...but.....now...the news is all good...we know for sure that God has his hand right in the middle of this....the lung surgery is currently scheduled for June 21st...as much as this is slightly frustrating that it once again takes about twice as long as the doctors were hoping...this also means that they don't consider Ramona an emergency (they told me a little about the people that are getting priority over her, I'm glad Mony's lungs only have 3 spots)...I was really wondering if I should fight for some other surgeon to do this immediately in case her cancer spreads....but I don't exactly want the Mt. Sinai janitorial staff doing the surgery...We trust God knows what He's doing here and we took Dr. Ferguson's advice and are just waiting for Dr. Waddell to do the surgery...having said that...Dr. Waddell did put Ramona on the cancellation list of another surgeon too...in general in the last two weeks since we've been home...Ramona and I are at home until lunch time....and then I work in the afternoon and she goes to her parents place...Pain was something Ramona was really struggling with...she was hoping to get off meds almost right away...but it seems wiser to be on pain meds all the time...it's harder to rehab when the pain is too excruciating...the staples came out last Monday...the wound looks very good....considering everything, the scars shouldn't be too bad (an incredibly relief that it isn't infected...that was no fun last time)....Mony still uses crutches...she's getting pretty good...at first she had trouble lifting her left leg into bed or into the car or anything like that...she's getting a little stronger and also better at compensating...I made her drive the car the other day...and she's good...at first it looked a little awkward with her gimpy left arm...but she's got the hang of driving again...the arm is still slowly healing...I know it often feels useless to her....but she has regained some control...not power....but control....the left shoulder is starting to stiffen up a bit...we need to move it around....anyway...in many ways this has been a refreshing week...we spent every evening with close friends or our families...anyway...i keep writing to procrastinate planting that garden...maybe if I wear my scarf and mittens and long red underwear I'll be fine...for now...earl

The flights are booked and we're coming home!!!!!
The lung surgeon came and spoke with Earl & I sometime after 6:00 this evening. He says that he's willing to do my lung surgery. It'll probably take 3-4 weeks until he's got an opening. That should give me some time to keep on recuperating after this surgery. Although the doctors are optimistic, they do acknowledge the fact that there's quite a big chance that the tumors will come back. Therefore, Dr. Waddell, the lung surgeon, is going to try to do the surgery in such a way that future surgeries, if necessary, will be possible. As of the last CT, I have 3 nodules on my right lung. It sounds like they will trust the CT and just operate on the right lung as opposed to both of them.
Right now Earl is at the AIM apartment packing up our stuff. Our flight leaves here at 12:55 tomorrow afternoon. We arrive in Winnipeg at 2:28.
Today I experienced quite a bit more pain than usual. Yesterday was quite an intense day for me physically. I walked a lot more than I had until that point. I also took a bit of a tumble yesterday so my knee is feeling sore due to that. Therefore today I lay around quite a bit and am resting up for a lot of movement tomorrow.
Thanks for your prayers
Definitely looking forward to coming home tomorrow
Ramona

I'll try to word this properly, but I'm actually lying beside my wife right now. The doctor gave us another day pass, so we decided to go to the place that most resembles home, the AIM apartment. I brought the laundry downstairs, and by the time I was back upstairs, Mony was sleeping. It's pretty hard work climbing two flights of stairs after hip surgery. As far as the hip drainage is concerned, it wasn't draining anymore. Ramona must have accidently pulled the draining tube out a little bit, so any drainage that came out was soaked up by her bandage, her leg, the floor, or her sandals. They took the hemovac out at lunch time today. Apparently it is very normal for the hemovac hose to accidently be pulled out a little too far. Anyway, the only thing we are really waiting for is to talk to the lung surgeon. We don't know which day that will be. Please keep praying, it is harder for Ramona to be in the hospital when she feels healthy than when she feels sick.

Waiting to see all the people in MB,
Earl

PS. When bone is removed it takes to 2-3 weeks to get the pathology report

It's a bit of a lazy Monday afternoon in the Mount Sinai hospital. We're gearing up to head out. Ramona learned how to use crutches today. That is the final physio step to be able to go home. We purchased the new crutches, so that's done too. The nurse's chart says that we leave tomorrow, from talking to the doctor's we don't believe that it is guaranteed yet. This morning the nurse told us the hip wound had drained over 150 cc in the previous 24 hours (sorry I think my previous statistics were skewed). The 'normal' amount of drainage before the hemovac is removed is 30 cc in 24 hours. They may just remove the hemovac anyway, we don't know. Also, the lung surgeon just returned from somewhere today, Dr. Wang (Dr. Ferguson's little helper) had no idea how many messages this surgeon would have on his machine and when we would be able to talk to him. They don't want us to go home until we have talked to the lung surgeon. Dr. Ferguson has 3 surgeries booked today. Once those surgeries are done, He will come do his rounds up here. We sort of need to wait around the hospital for whenever he comes. Also, Ramona's parent's flew home today. Whoever meets them today, give them each a big hug.

Mony is gaining back those nutrients. If you see the bruises on her arm, i promise it was not me. The needles that prevent blood clots are painful and cause bruising.












Lori is one of the answers to prayer, as far as nurses are concerned. She is a Mennonite from Winnipeg who has also ironically worked up in 5B in the St. Boniface Hospital. (This is them waiting for the taxi to pick us up)



The last few days has been a very refreshing mix of nurses. Anything from the loud, funny night nurse to Lori, who is more quiet and caring.













The taxi took us to the Blue Jays game.













Mony looks quite hot wearing all my clothes. We're really looking forward to being home and (like Tara said) sitting around campfires and being 'normal'. Thank you for praying about the drainage from the hip wound. It is improving. (If you look very carefully in the picture you can see her 'blood purse' hanging by her left leg)
















After the game we bounced Ramona on a wheelchair from the Roger's Centre to the Hospital. It was good to get out.
Have a peaceful Sunday afternoon everyone,
Earl

This last week here in Toronto was something John & I did not ever think we would experience. It has been very difficult to see Ramona in pain and discomfort and to see Earl and Ramona struggle with questions that we have no answers for. But God has always given us new strength for each day.
I want to thank all of you out there who have been praying for them and for us as a family. We appreciate that so much. Please keep on praying.
A big thank you to those of you who are commmenting on the blog. We definitely are encouraged by that. Just keep it up! We all read them here.
Here is a picture of Ramona reading the blog comments.
Love,
Carol (Ramona's Mom)