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

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

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

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

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

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

-Earl

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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



I need to run to class,
Earl

So...I can't sleep. And instead of counting sheep I might as well post all the blog-ish thoughts that are going through my mind. For those of you who know me at all, it's fairly significant that I can't sleep. And, Ramona, I apologize that on the night when you're not home I'm wide awake in the middle of night, instead of my usual complete grogginess when you're in pain.
The reason I'm awake is likely one of two reasons. On the way to the hospital, Becki was with us (and is actually in the hospital with Ramona right now too) and I thought it would be wise to show her how dumb Ramona and I were while we were dating. So, we're taking a different route to the hospital to pick up our nachos from Carlos and Murphy's on the way. We stop at the parliament buildings on the way to do what we like to call "purple city". You would think I could come up with better dating ideas in this wonderful city of ours. Anyway, this involves first staring into the lights shining up at the parliament building for a minute or so...then just looking around at the city lights. As you might have guessed, the whole city looks purple.
As I'm noticing right now, the temporary thrill or purple lights seems to be overshadowed by this floating feeling I've had since.
The other reason I'm awake may be the absolutely amazing sermon I just got to listen to. It would be easiest to just post the link instead of explaining the sermon. Since I'm not sure how to do that, just go to the website http://www.ibethel.org/ . There are innumerable good sermons, but the one I just listened to was called Spoil! (All the youth that I was speaking with on Friday, this sermon would be the perfect addition to give you countless examples of how amazing God is).
We live in an amazing time, with such a wealth of information available. There is such revival going on world-wide. If you're ever discouraged with what's happening in your own life, there are countless stories online of what God is up to. The fact that you're reading this means you have access to it. For me, even doing something as simple as googling "sarcoma miracle prayer" gives me stories. The Bible is filled with miracles, but for myself, it's taken months of time just listening to other stories of what's happening in the world right now, to bring back my fascination for the Bible.
This Sunday morning, I heard a message including that Jesus' body was broken for our healing. Then Sunday evening I go to church and my friend who was ushering starts talking to me and telling me that the night before he was coughing blood and then he invited his friends over to pray and now he's in church ushering.
I still don't fully understand communion, but I knew that Jesus' blood was for the forgiveness of sins and his body was broken for....ya...maybe forgiveness too??? Jesus' body was broken for our healing, which includes physical healing. It's amazing to hear just a few accounts of the hundreds or thousands of healings that are happening here and around the world every week.

These last few weeks, were in some ways pretty tough. Ramona has had significantly less energy and the middle few days of this time away from the hospital were very pain filled days. Ramona had a transfusion a few days ago, which may have slightly improved her energy, but slight at best.
Interesting story from about a week ago that made for big encouragement in the tiredness.

I went to work one morning and, as often happens, there are new guys in my area (Teen Challenge guys rotate through there). So, I said my introductions to the guys I hadn't met and went to work. I was working outside by myself half an hour later when this new guy, Linden, comes to me with fresh recollection " Hey, I know you, you're the one from Beyond with the beautiful wife". Although I'm not used to the direct approach of my friend from the Bahamas, it sure is nice to meet another person who sees things the way I do. Anyway, I agree with him and he continues ".....the lady with the short haircut that looks like a model".
Anyway....eventually he got off the topic of how beautiful Ramona is and he began to talk about cancer. He began to tell me that two of his brothers had died of cancer and his dad had died of cancer. Cancer is a topic that we could relate to on some level.....but let me try to explain this correctly. This is the point of the conversation where I naturally was beginning to brace myself for what I knew was coming. I was expecting him to speak about our situation as if the inevitable doom was coming and he could empathize with me and all that kind of.....stuff.
Anyway, thank God, I was wrong. Like before, I can't remember his exact words but he told me that when saw Ramona he knew in his heart that she was going to live. This is awesome and very encouraging for us.
I wish we kept track of this from the beginning just how many times people have heard from God and it's been spoken over Ramona that she will live.

....I think I'm starting to get tired.

Ramona needs a miracle more than ever. Thanks so much for praying.
I really don't know how to sum up the presence of God...I'll just paste a little piece of an email I received.



Keep trusting in Jesus and hold onto His perfect promises over your lives! I understand it must be a time of great trial you are going through, but our precious Lord Jesus is there to comfort and sustain you through the very hardest of times...bringing hope and joy where there seems to be only despair and sadness. Jesus, we believe in Your power to heal and we declare Supernatural healing over Earl's wife today. Touch her with your mighty hand and breath life into her body! Nothing is impossible for You! There is Power in your precious Blood. May His Presence touch your very being today and fill you with peace as you trust in Him



ps. This email was written from a place where it's not unusual to see people raised from the dead

99,100. There we go, that's all the sheep, Good night,
Earl

There is an incredible amount of information that should be added to this blog. For now, thanks so much for being in this fight with us. Ramona is going in for chemo round number 19 tonight........

Round 18 is finished.
We got home today around 6:30 p.m.
Although Ramona has essentially been in bed ever since we got home, she is doing better than last round. The stomach pain is more bearable and her methadone dosage is lower, meaning that her mental state is better too.
Often after a time in the hospital, Ramona will have been on so much medication that although we've spent countless hours together, we're in very different worlds by the time we get home.
Our spiritual journey feels like it needs a minute by minute update, instead of every few days. In the last little while we've had some time to reflect on our last half year as we've either catching up with people we haven't seen in a while, or we're just thinking.
It's interesting on a week like this. The person two doors down the hall on 5B is Biship van Johnson. (His and Gloria's pictures can be found on powerformiracles.com). It makes for amazing conversations at we get to here so many stories of what God has done through some of these people.
I even bought Father Rolland (St. B priest) a coffee and got him to tell me stories of some of the awesome things happening in St. B.
I really have no idea how to organize my thoughts right now. I'm tempted to delete this whole thing and go to bed, but I really want to thank the multitudes of people that are sticking with us.
.....thanks,
Earl

We're hanging out at home and having fun. Ramona just fixed up some chai lattes, and in her own words she's "eating like a pig again". We just came back from watching the Bison's men's hockey team play their last game of the year.
Ramona's leg hurts....lots. It's red. It's hot. Um...and swollen. I guess that kind of bites.
Ramona's new blood seems to be working great (meaning our house got cleaned thoroughly).
Chemo starts Tuesday morning (Admission Monday night)
The chai lattes taste very good.
Remember to change your clocks tomorrow after church :)
The chai lattes are actually a little too strong.
Um...I guess I'll go boil some extra milk and quit writing.
Sleep well,
Earl

Ramona's leg (the one that just got radiated) was starting to look pretty normal. In fact, we were just noticing that the radiated leg was actually thinner than the other one.
Anyway, these last two days, the radiation spot started turning kinda purple-ish again. Spotted and purple-ish is rarely good news in any situation, so we went to cancer care to get things checked out. Ramona has also been having slight nosebleeds through out these last couple of days.
Anyway, the blood work came back and Ramona's platelets are 11 and her hemoglobin is 73.
I'm not exactly sure physically how to explain the energy, but Ramona made supper after the appointments. Then we went to cheaps to catch a movie......and we're back home eating popcorn....
So, tomorrow Ramona needs to be at Cancer Care to get the platelets topped up and friday go back to St. B for packed red cells.
Oh ya, the doctors are also adding antibiotics, because the leg appears infected again.
Have a good night,
Earl

...I simply won't take the time to try and explain everything that's happening in the emotional and spiritual realms right now......I don't really think I'm absorbing half of what's going on....our brains are much slower than our spirits....anyway....
Just a quick note on how Ramona is doing physically.
Ramona has been exhausted and feeling sick (dealing with stomach cramps and things like that) for the early part of this last week. Saturday afternoon was probably the first time during the week that she had a few minutes of energy to get off the couch and do some 'normal' house cleaning things
We're thankful Ramona's starting to feel a little better. By Thursday night we were beginning to be concerned that she had some kind of hospital infection (C. diff or one of those crazy things). As far as we know, she has nothing like that.
It was a pleasure to be able to attend church today...Ramona missed both services last Sunday and I missed one.
It's been almost frightening these last few weeks how much time, money, food and prayers are being invested in us....Thank you.
To be continued,
Earl

Well... I was going to post last night but, at the time when I was going to write Ramona woke up....it's been a long time since I had seen her as nauseous as she was these last few days...
I was going post this morning too, but in the middle of talking to nurses and trying to get the meds Ramona needs and getting to school on time...it just didn't happen.
Ramona didn't have a good night at all. Stomach cramps kept her up quite a while . We appreciate all the prayers that are happening. Somehow the spiritual battles intensify when you're physically beaten up. Jesus' promises of healing are no less true right now than they were two weeks ago in Redding.

Although Ramona is not feeling good, she's feeling a little better this afternoon. She's actually starting to want to eat a bit.

Ramona was eating some angel soup this afternoon. Thanks for the soup Melissa. Here is the story she emailed to me about the soup:

So I pulled up to my garage last Thursday afternoon, after a grocery shopping spree with Katrina. A group of people were standing in the empty lot beside the garage. I felt a little bit uncomfortable with it, but figured I would just pull in and close the door, and all would be well. I proceded to do just that, but as I was driving in, a 30ish year old native guy from the group, sauntered up behind the car, and just stood there. I sat in the car, pretty sure it would be really rude to close the door in his face. So I waited a few seconds, hoping he'd leave, but finally I just got out of the car and went to talk to him. He held out a bag of groceries that he wanted me to have, to which I replied, 'I think you need them more than I do, but thanks!'...to which he responded, 'NO, take them.' ....to which I replied, 'No, seriously, I just bought a TON of groceries. You keep them.' ... At that point, he practically shoved the bag into my hand, determined I would take them. So, there I stood with a bag of groceries (mostly canned goods), and my car FULL of groceries, and he walked away. I closed the door, and put the bag down, thinking that if there was a bomb waiting to go off, better in the garage than in the house, and 'moved' into my house, forgetting about the incident. I went out again later on, and when I got back home, I took the bag inside, and went on to other things yet again. When I finally went through the donation, slowly at first, I started catching on to a theme...beans, diced tomatoes, more beans, tomato soup, a second tin of diced tomatoes, more beans (a chili version), corn, and another tin of tomato soup...Absolutely tin for tin (plus several random ones, namely condensed consomme soup and a tin of chick peas, as well as a small box of pasta) the exact ingredients I needed for a chili soup I had thought of making for Earl & Ramona, the night before!!!!!! I just stood there, as it was beginning to soak in. There were several other neat things...The recipe my Mom had sent me just a few weeks earlier, called for a tin of tomato sauce, but my Mom's revised version said 'or tomato soup'. According to the recipe, I was short a tin of corn, but I had put in less last time I had made it. And then the beans, as well as the soups, were ALL random brands, none of them matching up, obviously not a bag of stuff this guy had gone out to buy just for me. And No, the stuff was not expired. I had to wonder, did I meet an angel??? A native angel...in my backyard?? Cause the groceries were definitely sent by God! Hope you guys enjoy the 'Angel Soup!' Needless to say, I won't ever make it again without being reminded of you, and of my great big, PERSONAL GOD!!!!!
melissa


Later,
Earl

Just a note that we're home. Ramona has slept a large portion of the last day and a half. She really doesn't feel good when she wakes up, so, for now, all rest seems like a really good thing.
-Earl

Well...back to the old St. B kiosks here again.
Ramona is upstairs either sleeping or having the chemo pushed in. The chemo plan is a huge answer to prayer. The whole regime has pretty much changed. What used to be a 5 day plan is now a three day plan. The chemo used to run 19-20 hours a day, now it runs about 7 hours a day. The plan for next round (should it be needed) would be to have the chemo as an outpatient and come into cancer care for three days in a row to get the chemo. What an amazing improvement. Prayer answered.
We're still kind of in the process of getting Ramona's pain under control. The last few nights haven't been a lot of fun. The sleep that happens is kind of a chemical sleep....
Anyway, we expect to be out of here by Saturday afternoon/evening.
Thank you for believing with us,
Earl

As I'm scanning back and seeing the last time we posted was eight days ago I realize I'd have to sit here forever to properly fill everyone in on what's been happening in the last two weeks. The experience in Redding continued to get better the days following our return. We absorbed so much in so few days that it's taking a while to soak in.
Ramona's been having more pain, as it seems that the tumors haven't yet realized they aren't welcomed in her body. It was almost...weird...last week as we spent a lot of time awake in the night praying...and look back on those pain filled nights as.......fun isn't the right word...maybe powerful is a better word.
Within...I would say the last 3-4 days-ish, Ramona's pain has significantly increased and mobility has decreased. The left leg tumor is as big as I have ever seen it. Lung tumors are now causing constant pain again.
Yesterday, I went to Cancer care and told them we needed to do some chemo. So, tonight we are heading back to St. B, to begin what is chemo round number 17.
This is obviously not a fun day. Ramona has told herself countless times that "this is my last round of chemo ever".
Many people are praying for us all the time and thank you. When I asked Ramona what to write she said to "beg people to pray more".
....I'm really searching for my encouraging thought of the day here...
Ramona has been without chemo now for two months. As we looked back on these two months, they are probably the most fun we've had since we've been married.
There are two things that have changed.
1. We go to Starbucks together atleast once a week.
2. We're starting to see that God likes to hang around with us too.
Thank you for your prayers,
Earl

We're back safely in Manitoba......I have no idea how to start writing. We just got back from one of the most amazing weekends ever. Although Ramona's healing didn't happen as we were hoping, there is still....such an incredibly momentum that comes from this weekend. People were healed all around us...people were prophetically "reading our mail"...just such an incredible atmosphere of faith. Jesus is everywhere but such a large collection of Spirit filled people is unbelievable. Thanks Jake and Lillie for hosting us and pouring into us for the weekend....I don't feel like I can do justice to portraying what all happened...in fact Ramona and I just spent a bunch of time this evening writing together just trying to collect our minds on everything that happened.
In addition to all this, Ramona had an appointment with Dr. Wong this morning. In general, the tumors have doubled in size since early December and Ramona is dealing with pain, especially in the night. The medical options available continue to be temporary at best.
Thanks so much for praying....
Earl

So what should I say? It feels like so much has happened in the last while that I don't know where to start.

Thursday night I was really cold and had chills; Friday morning I had a super bad headache and in the evening I also was really cold with chills; Saturday morning I had a fever of 38.8 and by 3:00ish we were in emergency. I knew that with the open wound on my leg and with the way I was feeling I had to get things checked out. We were out of there within a few hours, but now having to go to a clinic daily for IV antibiotics. So, since then we've been traveling to get my antibiotics done. On Monday the doctor at the IV clinic told me to go through emergency to get an ultrasound done. This was to make sure that there wasn't an abcess and that the lump was dying tumor instead. So after 3 medical appointments on Monday, we went to emerg around 8 in the evening. They couldn't do an ultrasound then, but I hung around in emerg until 1 in the morning and had a CT done of my lungs to make sure there was no blood clot. Tuesday at 9 I was back at St. B for my ultrasound. Since then I've had all kinds of appointments. All in all-I have an infection on my right leg that I am on antibiotics for. Everything else is "okay".

On Sunday, Earl & I were at Beyond like usual and someone came up to me and made a comment that suggested just a little bit of doubt for my healing on earth. I tried to immediately push it out of my mind but Satan kept trying to make me doubt. So I prayed about it and asked God to confirm my healing by having someone come up to me and somehow in their comments say that I would be healed. I thanked Him that He would do it and left it at that. At the end of the service we were getting ready to go and literally less than a minute before we were going to leave our seats, a friend came and chatted with me and almost immediately stated that I would be healed! Thank you Jesus! I don't think she has a clue how much her chat with me meant!

This is what I read in my devotions yesterday. It's an excerpt by Bill Johnson from the book, "When Heaven Invades Earth".
"...I must passionately desire life-changing encounters with God, over and over again. I must cry out day and night for them..and be specific. I must be willing to travel to get what I need. If God is moving somewhere else more than where I live, I must go! If He is using someone more than He is using me, I must humbly go to them and ask them to pray for me with the laying on of hands.
Some may ask, "Why can't God touch me where I am?" He can. But He usually moves in ways that emphasize our need for others, rather than adding to our independence. Wise men have always been willing to travel."

.....and this is where Ramona quit writing, leaving me to explain the significance of what she read.

For the last few months it feels like we've been learning at break-neck speed just a little bit of who God is and what He's doing and His healing power etc...etc.. We were also introduced to the ministry of Bill Johnson and some of the things going on in Redding, California. I wrote an email to someone out there saying that when the time is right, we'll come.
....and, now the tickets are booked for this weekend. We fly to Redding tomorrow morning.
It was a neat affirmation to Ramona to read that section from her book. Sometimes it feels like you need to fight for peace.
We're in the middle of an incredible battle and we appreciate your prayers a lot, especially this weekend.
I really can't sum up the thoughts as we are about to go to a place where the people actually seem to live their purpose "out of intimacy with God, to destroy the works of the devil" There seems to be incredible sensitivity to the Holy Spirit there. We continue to trust God for healing and are expecting amazing things.
I think I'll just leave it at that for now.
Sleep well,
Earl