The Diagnosis

The results of the biopsy are in. We met with Dr. Wunder and his team today, and were told that Earl has osteosarcoma. This is infact the same type of cancer that Terry Fox had, but the good news is that medically we are much more advanced that we were back then. They want to do a few more tests here and they will make an appt. with the oncologist who will take care of Earl's treatment (chemo) in Winnipeg. We will come back to Toronto for the surgery, which will take place half way through the chemo therapy. There are 2 types of chemo ranging in the drugs and the length of treatment and we could be back here as early as 9 weeks or as long as 20 weeks. When we come back we will likely be here for about 3 weeks. Earl is doing well and is determined that he is going to beat this. Please please please keep him in your prayers.
Debbie

Toronto Update

Today is Monday and Earl has just had a biopsy. The team here is amazing and Earl is comfortable and making his way in to the hearts of everyone here. He is in recovery right now and will be coming down within the next 1-1 1/2 hours. Dr. Wunder has told me it is a sarcoma, but the specific type will not be known until we get the pathology report from the lab. That may or may not happen before we come back to Winnipeg. Earl will take a few days to recover and get back on his feet. He will probably have a few more tests before we come home, such as, a CT Scan and another Bone Scan. Take care and we would love to hear from you. Earl does have a phone in his room. Debbie & Earl

Well the day is drawing near. We will be heading to Toronto at 7pm on Saturday evening. Earl will be admitted on Sunday morning. I will be staying at the Chelsea Delta Hotel, which is only a 10 minute walk to the hospital.

To post to the BLOG, you will have to have a google account. Click on the work Comment and follow the instructions to set up an account. Alternately you can click on the little envelope and send us an email. The BLOG email address is dhopkins@pembinatrails.ca. If you have any questions, or problems you can email those to me at the above address.

Darby is also at home, so you can call him if you want, as he will know whats going on.

We are off to Toronto

Well, the time has come and we are off to Toronto on Saturday March 24,2007. Earl will be admitted to the Sarcoma Unit @ Mt Sinai Hospital on Sunday morning. The tests begin on Sunday with an MRI and other test's/procedures will start Monday. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he is obiviously upset and concerned.(to put it mildly)

We would love to here from you, and I know he will appreciate your posts to his blog.

We are planning on staying for the week, and hoping we can get out to a Leafs Game and to the Hockey Hall of fame. And who knows maybe we will take a trip to Niagara Falls.

Take Care,
Debbie, Darby & Earl

Earls BLOG

Welcome to Earls BLOG,
Earl has many friends and many many people in his life. In order to make sure that everyone who wishes to support him and be up to date on what is going on in his life, we have decided to try setting up a BLOG. (phoning all the time is just too time consuming)
As we continue the journey of his life together

• you can keep up with what is going on in his life and his treatment
  
• pray for him
• communicate with him
• send jokes
• send pictures

We hope that this will be the right tool to keep in touch with all of you.

Debbie, Darby and Earl