Earl is doing GREAT!!

I thought I should let you know that Earl is feeling great. He has been going out a little each day and is sleeping when he should. He went to the Delerious concert last night and out for lunch and a movie yesterday afternoon. He will be heading back to the hospital on June 4th for his next treatment.
That's all folks
Debbie

Round 2 or is it Round 3?

Hi Everyone,
Earl is taking his chemo treatment very well this time. Dr Wong has made some changes to his treatment, which will eliminate one whole round of chemo. This means that:
1) Earl has only 2 treatments of high dose methotrexate left before surgery,
2) Earl will be able to go to his Graduation and wear his fancy tuxedo,
3) We will get to Toronto 2 weeks earlier than we expected.
We are hoping that Earl will be coming home sometime today. I know some of you have been saying that you haven't heard from us, please understand that Earl is totally exhausted by this treatment. He misses all of the people that are special in his life and we really encourage you to call, visit, comment on the blog...in other words keep in touch with us!

Earl has decided that he would like to be baptized and would like to invite his friends and family to share this special event with him.

The Baptism will take place at the 10:30 service of Whyte Ridge Baptist Church on June 3rd, 2007 The church is located at 201 Scurfield Blvd in Whyte Ridge.

Take Care,
Debbie

Face-off Time: 2pm Sunday May 13, 2007

The "Face off for a Cure" dinner was great. What a great bunch of young men are represented here. Try and make it out on Sunday to see Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Botterill drop the puck or sometime this week! Earl had a great time!

Debbie

Face off for a cure

Hi Everyone,

Earl has another treatment behind him now and he is doing fantastic. What a strong young man he is. He is still at St. Boniface and hopefully will be coming home Friday morning. He has some exciting activities planned for the weekend and then will go back in on Monday evening (provided his blood work is good) to begin his 5-day treatment on Tuesday.

What is Face off for a cure, you may be asking?

On Sunday May 13, 2007 a group of forty passionate street hockey players will attempt to break the current Guinness World Record for the longest street hockey marathon in Winnipeg, Manitoba and in doing so have a goal of raising 30,000 dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society

Approximately six months ago we filed an application with the Guinness World Records in London, England that would enable us to officially attempt the record. Nearly four months of restlessness we were given the go ahead to official attempt the record. The current record for longest street hockey marathon belongs to Conroy Ross Partners and there 30 hours of street hockey madness. Their record has stood since 2004 when the event was held in Edmonton, Alberta. It is our hopes to successfully break and set the new Guinness World Record on May 13, 2007 on the outdoor rink facility at St. Norbert Community Center located at 3450 Pembina Hwy. The entire event will be open to the public.

The above statement was taken from www.faceoffforacure.blogspot.com. There is lots of info there if you are curious.

Earl has been asked to attend the dinner/kick-off on Saturday night as a guest. I am really impressed with the young men that are organizing this event, many of whom are from our community and hope that you will make it part of your planned activities next week.

Keep in touch,
Debbie

Cancer has touched us all and here is a great chance to get involved.

All is Well

Hi Everyone,
Earl completed his 2nd round of chemo, and made it through with flying colors. He is still in hospital waiting for the chemo med levels to come down. He has experienced very few side effects, the main one being just plain tired (jonked would be a better choice of words.) He will be able to go home once those levels come down (hopefully by Friday) and then will head back next Monday to take on round 3
Keep in Touch,
Debbie

HI Everyone
Earl went for his blood work today (which you would think should be an easy task! Well is was not!) Anyway, it did get done and the results are good, so Earl will be admitted tonight. The chemo will be done tomorrow and then they do follow up blood work every 24 hours until his methotrexate levels come down. Then he can come home...returning next Monday for the same treatment.
He had a great week full of energy and fun, even playing hockey and going to a movie with friends.
Take care and keep in touch
Debbie

Earl at the Maple Leafs Game

Thanks to the very special social workers at Mt Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Earl was able to go to a Leafs game ( and of course he needed an escort yipee, that was me) where he had the time of his life. This was his first ever NHL game and for those of you who know Earl that just made his day.

Earl is feeling GREAT!!!

Hello Everyone,
Earl has one more week at home before he heads back to the hospital for his next round.
He will be hospitalized for portions of the next 3 weeks (from April 30 to May 20) Hopefully he will respond well and will get to be at home for the latter part of each of the first 2 weeks. The third week will keep him in for 6 days, regardless of how well he responds.
He is having a great week this week, and has started having his TA from school come to the house to help him get his math credit. He went for his tuxedo fitting yesterday and watch out everyone, because he looks incredibly handsome. It is great that he is feeling good, because last week he landed in hospital after spiking a fever. It took a few days of antibiotics, but he is smiling once again.
Spring is in the air and Earl has been for a couple of bike rides and is trying to spend a little time in the sunshine each day.
Keep in touch!
Debbie

Home Now

Well Earl is home now, and very glad I might add. His new best friend is his bed. He did manage to go to Winnipeg Tech/Culinary Arts yesterday, but today he is spending the morning sleeping. He is hoping to get to Vincent Massey this afternoon.
Debbie

Round 1... and the winner is

Hi Everyone,
Well today is Earl's last chemo and then he gets to rest for 2 weeks. He is so ready to go home, although I know he will miss getting so spoiled. Earl will be trying to go to school, but the chemo makes him very tired so he will likely spend a lot of time sleeping....boo hoo....what young man does not like to sleep? He loves to hear from you so give us a call at home, and if he can't visit in person, I know he can talk on the phone.
Debbie

Earl has now completed his first day of chemo, and actually faired very well. He had a few boughts of nausea, but other than that he did great. He had lots of visitors and he said that they helped him be strong and courageous.....and also made him laugh which we believe is great medicine.
Earl will remain in hospital until Sunday and then will be home for 2 weeks. After that he will return to hospital for portions of the next 3 weeks.
Debbie

Treatment Begins

Hi Everyone,

Well we are back in Winnipeg. Earl saw his oncologist on Thursday and was admitted to St. Boniface Hospital yesterday. He is settled in and will begin his chemotherapy today. He is feeling a little (???) frightened but is easily encouraged. He loves to hear from the people who care about him, so if you have a minute to email, blog, or phone or if you have some time to visit he would love it. He does have a phone in his room and he is allowed visitors. He will be hospitalized for all his treatments and this one will keep him in for 6 days. This BLOG is to help communicate, but we still encourage you to phone and give us the pep talks needed to get through this tough time.
Take Care, and keep praying
Debbie, Darby and THE COOKER

Toronto Update

Hi Everyone,
Earl is still in hospital, and getting all his tests done. Becuase they are getting things done here he will be able to start his chemo quicker. He seems to be having some pain in his leg that they are concerned about, so they have ordered an ultra sound which will be done either later today or tomorrow. He is also scheduled to get his porta cath, put in tomorrow. This port which will be put in his chest is where they will give him his chemo.
Hopefully he will be discharged early on Tuesday, as he wants to have a hockey day. The day will start with a nice breakfast (not hospital food that is, although Earl does eat everything they put in front of him, plus what I bring), then we will find our way to the Hockey Hall of Fame after which we will go to Wayne Gretsky's Restaurant and finally to the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Philidelphia Flyers game. We will then return to our hotel, fall in to bed and hopefully have a good sleep. We will catch our flight back to Winnipeg at 11:55 arriving back after 2.
Earl is involved with the Musical at VMC "Anne of Green Gables" and so we will be off to the Pantages Theater that evening.
We sure miss all of you and it will be great to be back home, Maybe I might even get a great big hug from Darby....who knows.
Love Debbie & Earl

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