Donnie has had a significant amount of improvement over the past 21 days.  Due to his pain level of 0 on a scale of 0-10 over the past 2 weeks, his pain medication is being weaned.  He was receiving 60 mg of morphine extended release (MS ER) twice a day, and now he is receiving 15 mg of MS ER twice a day.  If that continues to work for his pain control, we will wean him some more.  This is a pretty big praise.

Also, he has not had any nausea for many weeks, and we are in the process of weaning those medications.  It is a bit tricky when we are weaning to find a good balance.  I do not want him to have ANY NAUSEA at all, as that affects his ability to eat and gain strength.  Of course it would be IDEAL for him to be on NO MEDICATIONS for pain or for nausea, so please pray for that.

His appetite continues to be good, he is gaining weight slowly but surely, and his “silver fox” hair is growing back without any shedding.   He starts his second round of chemo this Friday, so please pray for no side effects for him.  So far, this chemo has not given him any side effects we can see.  Praise the Lord!

Lorraine (Donnie’s sister) and Robert (her husband) came to visit us on Monday.  Lorraine had been in El Salvador on a mission trip this past week, preaching and reaching out to abused women in this country.  This is her ministry calling.  Donnie was in good shape when she left the country, and was still improving when she returned.  What a blessing for her ministry, as it was difficult for her to leave the country worried about her brother.

She also brought him a treat from his Momma:  Deviled crabs.  YUM!!

A special childhood friend came to visit Donnie today:  Jeff Willis.  We are irritated that we did not take a picture of Donnie with him.  Jeff, you will just have to come visit us again!!  It’s so encouraging when Donnie gets to reconnect with old friends.  Also, a group of wonderful co-workers from the ICU at Florida Hospital East came to see Donnie for a few hours, and just made his day (and mine)!  We are both so fortunate to work with nurses that care so much for their patients and for each other.

Larry is an RN that was oriented to the ICU at East by Donnie.  He currently has both of his patellar tendons blown, and is going through extensive and painful rehab himself (and is improving).  He told us today that Donnie is his inspiration to get better.  He said if Donnie can fight, so can I.  What a great friend and person!

Also visiting today were several of the dayshift nurses from ICU.  Not only are these girls smart and caring, but they are all very beautiful inside and out!  It was a very uplifting morning for Donnie and for me!