Author: tinamcfarland

Donnie continues to have some good days and good moments, interlaced with some pretty rough days and challenging moments.  He is truly on a roller coaster with extremes of high’s and low’s.  Hospice is involved with us now.  The nursing and medical staff have been WONDERFUL to hear our concerns, and make decisions to improve Donnie’s comfort and quality of life.  The nurses are only one phone call away (we always get an RN, not an answering service or a litany of voice messages), which is very comforting.  They are always finding solutions for us collaboratively with the MD’s.

The last 2 days were pretty awful.  Donnie continues to battle nausea and vomiting.  Trust me, he has been on every anti-nausea regime known to man.  Many medications are a joke, and do not work for him at all.  Due to D’s continued difficulty fighting nausea, his Hospice MD wanted to try giving him his Reglan (a medication that increases bowel motility) around the clock instead of taking it as needed when he is nauseated.  This is a medication he takes when he is nauseated, along with steroids and Benadryl.  It sounded like a good plan and worth a try.  We would do anything to improve his nausea.

Donnie had taken 3 doses of Reglan (its every 6 hours), when he started to have severe, double-you-over, abdominal cramping at 5 am.  Oh, it was awful.  He said his pain was a 10 on a scale of 1-10.  During his entire journey, he has never had a pain level that high.  I was certainly paying attention and concerned!  After trying all the tricks we knew, we called the Hospice nurse.  We had a medication that Hospice gave us in our “Comfort Pack” (many medications needed by Hospice patients in an emergency that were given to us already by Hospice for such a time as this) called hyoscyamine.  It is given for bowel irritability.  It worked.  It has taken 3 days for him to get better.  He said he felt like someone had been gut punching him for days.  We both were thinking this was a new low for his journey, and it would be hard to recover.

Donnie took the hyoscyamine for 2 full days, and finally did not have to take any last night.  I am praying he is over this catastrophe.  His appetite remains good, even though he battles nausea and vomiting.

Our 4 grown children and Donnie’s Mom and siblings have been coming over routinely to help us.  Our family is such a huge blessing to us.  Joyce (D’s Mom) has been here for several days, helping with cooking, and giving love and hugs to Donnie, the best medicine ever!  We are always so glad when she is with us!!!!!  We have all been eating like southern royalty:  Corn bread, greens (Dad’s garden), butter peas, black-eyed peas (Dad’s garden), squash, mashed potatoes, limas, green beans, fried okra (Dad’s garden) and a little meat for a side dish!!!  That’s just the last 2 days!  LOL

Of course, we get to talk to Kaia and Liam (Jeff’s children in St. Augustine) via FaceTime several times a week, and we get to see Rachael’s 3 babies often.  Our grown children come by frequently.  All this love helps us both!

Thursday afternoon, I was sitting “Indian style” on the floor.  When I went to get up, my left knee had excruciating pain, and I could not straighten it out or walk on it.  OFS:  Old Folks Syndrome!!!!  David (son) took me to the ER.  They feel it is my meniscus giving me problems.  A steroid shot, steroid medication for 5 days, a knee brace and crutches, and I was on my way home.  Thank heaven Joyce is with us.  We are starting to feel like the Bad News Bears!  It made Donnie feel so bad that he couldn’t help me, he threw up while I was at the ER (I was not happy about that!!!).  His stomach is so sensitized, even emotions affect it.

Today, Donnie had a HOUSE VISIT from his Hospice doctor.  Yep!  You heard me.  A house visit.  She talked with us for about an hour, trouble shooting Donnie’s problems and coming up with solutions we have never had before.  We are BOTH SO GRATEFUL for this wonderful person who cares about her patients.  We have been so impressed with the level of care we have received from Hospice of the Comforter.  So grateful for angels that love their jobs and love on us in so many ways.

So we are expecting today (Friday) to be a better day.  I actually slept okay with my crazy knee, and Donnie slept well, too.  Joyce is staying with us to help us . . . over here at the bless your heart McFarland medical clinic . . . she is our captured “indentured servant!”  I am getting around with Mom’s old walker, which has been a life saver.

Please continue to pray for Donnie’s quality of life and nausea control.  He continues to have a positive attitude, despite all the significant challenges that have been thrown his way.  We all love him for that!

We are praising God for the good times Donnie has had over the past 10 weeks.  He said today, he is so glad he made the decision to stop chemo.  I am glad for him!  Now we praise God for the support we get from Hospice, as their focus is improving his quality of life.  Wow!  You just can’t ask for more than that.  We praise God for our AMAZING family that knows how to love us!  We praise God for our precious friends that “reach out and touch us” in so many ways.  I am also grateful for the fight that Donnie has for life . . . a life full of love due to his love from God, the love Donnie gives to others, and the love he gets back in return.

I read something recently.  A young man was asked by his teacher what he wanted to become in life.  He said he wanted to become happy.  What a very forsightful comment!  I feel Donnie has that in his life:  happiness.  All of us that love him are grateful he has that peace!

I have a small request:  If you leave a message on the blog, could you please sign it with your name at the bottom of the message?  We are not always able to tell who sends us these sweet messages.

Much love,  Donnie & Tina

 

 

As you can see through the last almost 2 years of blogging, Donnie grew up being close to his immediate family . . . and his very extended family.  When you wanted to have FUN, you were with your cousins . . . and I mean 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousins!!   This weekend we went to Wing and Andalusia, Alabama, to see all his “people” on his Mom’s (Joyce’s) side of the family.  It was great, because both Joyce’s Mom’s and Dad’s family reunions are over the same weekend:  The Davis and the Turner families 🙂

We borrowed a van from the Babbingtons (what a blessing for Donnie!!), and caravanned up to Alabama with Donnie’s brothers and their spouses.  The guys (Donnie, Ronnie and Rodger) drove up in the van, and the girls followed in the car.  You can only imagine how all the guys loved that precious time together.  Lots of good jamming music and talking.  With stops, the trip took us about 10 hours.

Donnie’s siblings and Mom (9 of us) stayed in Lorraine and Robert’s double-wide trailer in Evergreen, Alabama.  The “trailer” is 2,800 sq ft, and has 4 bedrooms.  It was very comfortable and quite beautiful.  It has a huge front porch with double stairways for access, and plenty of room in the kitchen and 2 living rooms for all of us to be together comfortably:  great for memory making!

Mary Jo and Jackie (Donnie’s 2nd cousin) came over the first night we arrived.  Mary Jo and Donnie cut up a lot (hard to believe!).  He had made fun of her wearing culottes around the house last year . . . so she brought him his own pair to wear!  I can’t post the video, but it was hilarious!  So great to laugh at Donnie!!!

We ate great food all weekend.  I wish I had taken a picture of the kitchen!  It was amazing!  Plenty of room for togetherness during meal time.  I love that!!  Of course, our lunch time meals were with family at the reunions.

It is always great to reconnect with loving family, especially when they have been praying for you for almost 2 years.  Words really cannot describe how loved we all felt.  Of course, we all came home with deep south Alabama accents!!!  I felt so at home 🙂

All “the boys” love their weapons.  Rodger introduced everyone to tannerite possibilities this trip.  It’s an explosive that responds to high impact ammo.  I think an AR-15 field trip is in their future 🙂

Linda Turner Carnley (1st cousin) was wonderful enough to use her professional camera to take some cherished family pics for us after lunch!  We are so grateful 🙂

I post lots of pictures of Donnie, and he is having wonderful times with family and friends.  Interspersed between those good times, are times of nausea, sleeping for 7 hours in the day, getting up and eating a bowl of cereal, and going back to sleep at night for 11 hours.  He’s really all over the map from one moment to the next.  He has a rough day, and then he has a really good day.  He has a bad morning, and a good afternoon.  He’s like a box of chocolates . . . you never know what you’re gonna get!!  It’s a real roller coaster ride.  We are so very grateful for the good moments and days, and thank God for His amazing grace throughout this journey!!!!

Donnie was nauseated the day we had to travel back home from Alabama.  He took his antiemetics, and slept the entire way back in the van with Ronnie and Rodger in the van with him.  Even though he felt crummy the whole day, and slept the whole trip (except for eating and pit stops), it was so wonderful for him to have his brothers in the van.  It just made him happy!  I’m sure you can understand.

It has been 9 weeks without chemo at this point.  Donnie has been taking 75 mg of ER morphine twice a day for over a week now (these are huge doses in case you are not aware).  We were getting to the point where we both felt we needed more wholistic support, so we decided to ask for Hospice to get involved with us.  They came out today and gathered all our information, and we are onboard.  I had said when the time came, I would like to be Donnie’s wife, and not the health care decision maker at the bedside.  This allows both of us to have the support we need.  Dr. Z will continue to be our attending physician, and we also have a Hospice physician that will manage Donnie’s pain and give him the medical palliative support he needs.  We are both relieved.

We will continue to “go” and “see” family as long as we are able.  Only God knows when that will change.  In the meantime, we will continue to fill our days with joy.  We both have a peace about the situation we are in, and are grateful for the love of family, friends, and especially God!!

Thank you so much for your prayers.  We cherish them.

Love,  Donnie & Tina

 

 

Isn’t it just wonderful to reconnect with your childhood friends??  The friends you spent the night with, the friends you played baseball with, the friends you worked with at Thriftway, the friends you sang with at Valrico Baptist Church and traveled all over the state putting on plays to lead others to the Lord, the friends you got in trouble with and stuck up for, the friends you went to Yates Elementary with, the friends you went to Brandon High School with . . . these are some of the people that came out to see Donnie Saturday night at the Elks Lodge in Brandon.  We are so grateful to Mark Vargo, our long time friend, for putting this together.  Donnie and I both were touched, but he was ESPECIALLY HAPPY to visit with everyone and catch up.  As one of his friends stated, “Our hearts were full!” Here are a few pics 🙂

It is so great making precious memories together! Words cannot express our gratitude to everyone that came!!

Donnie’s pain continues to increase.  He was pretty miserable riding in the car on Saturday to see his friends in Brandon.  He had pain every time we drove over the smallest bump in the road, or when he had hiccups, coughed, or breathed deeply.  His abdomen was hurting so bad, I was afraid we might not be able to go to the party.  He is taking 75 mg extended release morphine twice a day, and still has bouts of nausea and vomiting.  He is very tired most of the time.  He made the party, because love is a motivator, and he REALLY wanted to see that bunch!!

Today we went for our “second opinion” at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. Dr. Kim had a wonderful bedside manner, and explained to us that based on Donnie’s history, the only effective treatment for pancreatic cancer stage IV is chemo.  He has no other options. There are trials with chemo, there are different concoctions of chemo, there are different blends of chemo, but no other treatment is EFFECTIVE in treating pancreatic cancer stage IV except chemo.  He also stated that only 5% of patients with this cancer survive past 2 years.  Donnie is quite close to the 2 year mark.  All of this was no surprise to us, we simply wanted confirmation that we had left no rock unturned.  Donnie’s decision is the same:  No further treatment.

Donnie has been a ROCK STAR though all of this.  He has put up with the misery of chemo and the toxicity and side effects it has REEKED on his body.  He has remained faithful to God, believing in Him and trusting in him daily.  He has been kind and considerate throughout this unthinkable ordeal.  He has always tried to think of others, not himself, through this journey.  He has touched lives in special ways, and none of us will ever be the same again.  He is such a special soul.  Of course, I admit, I am terribly prejudiced, as he is the love of my life!!!!

Our family will continue to support Donnie with love, and give him the pain medications he needs to stay comfortable.  His pain is increasing fairly quickly.  We have planned to go to Alabama this coming weekend for Donnie’s Mom’s family reunions (both her Mom’s and her Dad’s sides of the family).  Donnie’s 2 brothers and sister and their spouses, and Donnie’s Mom, will get the opportunity to spend the weekend together near Op Alabama (Wing and Andalusia also).  It will be another great time of reconnecting.  Please pray for safe travels, and that Donnie will make the trip without getting terribly sick.  This is something he really wants to do to honor his Mom and his sister Lorraine.

As always, we cherish your prayers!  God is our strength!!

Love,  Donnie & Tina

 

We continue to enjoy family and friends every opportunity we have.  Donnie had a CT scan of his abdomen/pelvis on Saturday morning.  It was pretty challenging for him, due to extreme difficulty getting access to his veins.  This stress put him in a “rough place.”  The CT was completed successfully (through his port).  While we were at the hospital, Brianna (oldest grand child) was winning the indoor soccer championship (with her Daddy coaching her).  Lots of family was there cheering her on!!!!

Saturday evening, Jeff came from St. Augustine, and Ronnie and Darlene came from Brandon, so “the men” could enjoy some “guy time.”  They saw the new Bourne movie that night.  The best part was being together!

The next morning, more family came from Brandon to take Donnie to breakfast:  Leslie (niece), Lorraine (sister) and Celeste (cuz).  It was great seeing them all!!

Monday we hung out with Ronnie, Dar and Maegan, playing Apples to Apples.  It was fun, and a good distraction for D.  He really enjoyed it!  Monday evening, we ate dinner out, and then Ronnie and Darlene left for home.

Monday night, Donnie’s pain increased.  He was really uncomfortable and anxious.  He tossed and turned all night, and had a lot of chest discomfort.  He is now taking 60 mg extended release morphine twice a day, and still has breakthrough pain.  As you can imagine, he is very tired (due to sedation) most of his waking hours.

Tuesday we had an appointment with Dr. Z.  He gave us the results of the CT scan:  more small tumors near the splenectomy site, near the left adrenal gland,  and near the right kidney.  No recurrence of tumor on the pancreas.  All of this was no surprise to us.  Tumor markers were drawn.  We will get results later this week.  This will all be good information for us to take to Donnie’s second opinion appointment at Moffitt on Monday next week.

We continue to plan to see friends and family.  This coming weekend, Mark Vargo arranged for some of Donnie’s Brandon High School, work and baseball friends to meet at the Brandon Elk’s Lodge to see him.  We are trying our best to get there to see them.

In the meantime, please pray for pain control and enjoyable days for Donnie.  We appreciate all your prayers!!

Love,  Donnie & Tina

 

We continue to see lovely friends and family.  We spent Sunday worshiping God with our church family.  It is always so wonderful to have the opportunity to worship God in truth, and to see our church family, that encourage us so much in so many different ways!!  They hold us up when we are weary.  We praise God for the wonderful Christians that are in our lives!!

Monday, Jeff (son) and fam took us to the Orlando Aquarium and the Orlando Eye (the tallest ferris wheel in the U.S.).  Donnie walked all over the place that day, so he was worn out, but in his words, “It was worth it!”  It was great to have some FUN with Kaia and Liam!!  It was Liam’s 3rd BD!!  Where does time go??!!  They are all so precious to us!!!!!

 

Wednesday was David’s BD.  He is 37.  Oh my!  How did THAT happen!!  David just finished his prereqs for nursing school and has applied for the nursing program at Seminole State.  Lots of great things happening in our family.  David loves family time, so we got together for dinner.  David loves homegrown veggies, so  Dad prepared all the fresh veggies, and I cooked them.  We had creamed corn (Dad cuts half the corn off the cob, then scrapes the cob for the rest of the kernel), okra (fried of course) and black-eyed peas out of Dad’s garden (cut up and shelled by him), greens from Dad’s garden (cut up and cooked by him), cornbread (that Dad made!), and my famous mashed potatoes and beef roast with mushroom gravy.  It was a feast, and really, you should have seen the plate of food that David and DAD had!!!!  I should have taken pictures!!  We are so blessed, and Dad is still a part of everything we do!

Thursday, we had a breakfast date with Michael and Diana Bryan at the new location of the Townhouse Restaurant!!  We have a long history at the Townhouse together, not to mention the Townhouse is one of the special places where Donnie always studied during nursing school.  Leigh Ann is the owner, and if you know her, she is a HOOT!!!  She used to drill Donnie on critical thinking (she was a former ICU nurse herself).  We did get to visit with her that day, which was a treat.  She always makes us laugh!!  We love going there!  Its a little slice of home away from home 🙂

Thursday Donnie had a visit from 3 very special nurses.  All these girls were precepted in the ICU at FH East by Donnie.  They are GREAT nurses, and more than that, they are GREAT PEOPLE.  They told lots of hilarious ICU stories (you can only imagine!), and we solved all the problems of the nursing world 🙂  They are crazy about each other.  So great to see them!

Family and friends give us lots of encouragement, as you can imagine.  We are off to Winter Park Hospital today (Saturday) to get a CT scan in preparation for Donnie’s second opinion on August 15th at Moffitt in Tampa.  He has had some intermittent days of increased abdominal pain, followed by days of improvement.  He’s a tough cookie, and has lots of inner strength due to the Holy Spirit, so we continue each day to trust in God’s plan for his life.  Please continue to pray for him, and pray for the doctors that will be involved in his second opinion, that they will have clarity of mind, and give us good information for possible options for Donnie.

Love,  Donnie & Tina

After being off chemo for a month, Donnie says his head is getting clearer.  He feels like getting out for meals, and seeing friends and family.  He still has to be careful about getting nauseated, as it continues to lurk around unexpectedly.  Also, the heat is his enemy, so he has to avoid being outside at all costs.  There are still lots of fun things to do in the air conditioning!!  Hey, we are native Floridians, so air conditioning is where its at this time of year!!!!!!

We continue to “check off” Donnie’s bucket list, which included seeing his second cousins in Dade City, Florida.  Maybe you have to be part of the McFarland clan to understand that “close family” includes many generations.  I mean, doesn’t everyone spend EVERY WEEKEND with their family growing up, because those are the people you have all your fun with???!!!  A complication to this scenario is that one “leg” of the McFarland clan had 12 brothers and sisters.  To add to that complication, Donnie’s Mom (Joyce) married Lamar McFarland (who passed away at 52), and then she married Uncle Bo McFarland (one of the 12).  I’m laughing at myself trying to explain this!!!!!  So, Uncle Bo’s children were Donnie’s second cousins, but after Joyce married Uncle Bo, they became step brothers and sisters.  Donnie and Ronnie (twins) used to laugh and call themselves twin step cousins!!!!!!!!!!!  These cousins grew up playing ball together, going to high school together, and having lots of laughs together.  Lots of stories were told!  Sooo GREAT seeing them!!

 

Then we had the opportunity to catch Wendy (my sister) and Robin (husband) on their world tour 🙂  They just got back from a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska for 3 weeks, and made their way to our famous IHOP, before embarking on a month vacation to Michigan and Chicago to see family and friends.  It’s always so great to see them.  They are both hilarious and we enjoy their company!

When Donnie stopped taking chemo, Marissa (ICU RN) texted me, to let me know some of the ICU staff at East wanted to have breakfast with Donnie.  I didn’t really know how many were going to come.  Maybe 4 people?  Maybe 10?  It was such a wonderful surprise to see so many people on Saturday morning.  Donnie was totally surprised again, which is so fun!!!  Tina Bennett (former ICU educator) even Facetimed him during the party while on a boat in St. Augustine.  Others were in touch with us that could not attend, to schedule another day to see him.  Even the “Filipino Mafia” will be coming to see him!!  They signed t-shirts that they gave to both of us.  He was on cloud nine all day!  He felt so loved!  Best medicine in the world (for both of us)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  There is really nothing like the family of nurses that you work with . . . always got your back!

In the afternoon, we got to see our dear friend Sharon Evans Ramsey (who drove down to see us from South Carolina), along with Scott (her oldest son), Amy (Scott’s wife) and Abagail (Sharon’s 2 year old grand baby).  I am so irritated with myself for not taking a picture of us all.  I was too excited seeing Abby to remember to take a picture.  Bummed!  It’s always so special to see all of them!  They are family to us!

Of course, sprinkled between these wonderful events were special days with Ronnie and Darlene, Rodger and Terri, Mom and Lorraine, David and Beau, Rachael and the kids, FaceTime with Jeff’s clan, and an awesome day where Jim came over and did a days worth of electrical work for us!!  It is just a very good idea to have friends that are multi-talented!!!

We have planned another jam-packed week full of fun.  We are also planning on going to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for a second opinion in August.  We are not expecting any earth shattering news, just want to be evaluated by another pancreatic cancer specialist there, with Dr. Zehngebot’s blessing.

Please continue to pray for Donnie to be healed if it is God’s will.  Prayer has made all the difference thus far!  Please pray for comfort and peace for him and for his family that loves him so dearly.

Love,  Donnie & Tina

As long as Donnie is up to it, we are “on the road,” visiting family and friends.  This past weekend, we drove to St. Augustine to see Jeff (son), Flora, Kaia (6) and Liam (3).  Donnie played indoor frisbee with our grand babies, read books to them, built tinker toy contraptions, was generally silly with them (they love that!!), and ate DELICIOUS BBQ.  We also got to go to Jeff and Flora’s property (they are building a home in Ormond Beach), and walk on the cleared area where the house will be built.  Exciting times!!

Monday morning, we met the Ziolkowski’s for breakfast.  They are neighbors that are like family to us.  Oh my… we laughed our heads off.  Everyone in the restaurant was looking at us.  They need to have their own reality show.  John Ziolkowski (84) and wife Bobbie (78) had us cracking up!!  Just look at Donnie’s face 🙂  He’s still laughing at John (sitting across from him, taking the picture).  You can see the love on his face!

Then a sweet surprise, Clade and Sue Blackwell came and spent an evening with us.  So GREAT to see them!

Monday night, Donnie started having some difficulties with pain.  Normally he takes 15 mg of extended release (ER) morphine twice a day.  Monday night he had to take 60 mg of ER morphine for his abdominal pain, and he got very little sleep that night.  We were both sad, thinking this might be a new chapter in our journey.  After Monday night, he has required 30 mg ER morphine twice a day.  This is a praise, as he is able to still enjoy life, and his pain is under control.  His appetite continues to improve, along with his taste buds.  He says his head is clearer these days, too.  The chemo continues to clear his system.

We have to take activity in small doses, and factor in some sleep for him.  Wednesday, he was surprised at IHOP by many of his favorite people he worked with in the ICU at Florida Hospital Altamonte.  This is an amazing group of ICU staff!!  Donnie says they are the “ambulance” WITHIN the hospital.  If there is a code or a patient going bad, these are the people that respond, and take care of business.  In this group are managers, educators, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, charge nurses, rapid responders, and house supervisors.  I am so proud to know all of them!!  Lots of stories were told, lots of bursts of laughter, and then Donnie had an opportunity to tell them how much they all mean to him.  I was speechless and tearful.  So many amazing people that impact your life, and are special to you forever.

Then, off to pick up our 3 grand babies and Uncle Dave, for lunch at Gino’s.  We were all cracking up at Bradley (2 1/2 years old), because Donnie has taught him how to sneeze like Donald Duck.  You’d just have to see him do it!  Bradley also thinks he is hilarious and laughs at himself when he does it!!!!!

Donnie slept for 6 hours after that 🙂  He said he would do it all again, as it is worth the sacrifice to live a little!

We are off to see family in Brandon again this weekend while the gettin’ is good.  Please pray for pain control, and for his days to be full of love and happiness while he is still with us.  He continues to be trusting in God for His will to be done, and is leaning on “His everlasting arms.”  Such a blessing to be a Christian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With love,  Donnie & Tina

 

D is feeling a bit better without chemo.  He still has tiredness and occasional nausea, and will have, until the chemo gets out of his system.  Hopefully that will improve in the next 2 weeks.

In the meantime, he is making the most of his days by seeing his family and friends, which brings much joy into his life!  Here are just a couple of pics:

Yesterday, Mission Interact came to our home to mow our yard.  There was one adult and 6 teenagers.  Of course, only one of the kids mowed, so the rest came into our home (since it is scorching hot outside!!).  Guess what?  They liked to sing, so I pulled out some music, and they all sang to Donnie.  What a blessing to him and to me they were!!!!  I wish I had taken a picture of all of them!!  Youth doing the work of the Lord bring a joy to your spirit!!!  We all prayed before they left.  What an encouragement to all of our spirits.  They have no idea!

Also, while they were at our home,  Jimbo (Donnie’s close friend from ICU) came over and did some electrical work at our home.  WHAT A GUY!!!  Not only is he a great electrician, but he is a GREAT FRIEND!  Donnie really enjoyed visiting with him while he was here.

Donnie has some occasional pain in his abdomen requiring more pain medication.  We are praying for good days for a while, so he can enjoy his grand babies some in the next weeks.  Please pray for that.  Of course, he is enjoying visiting and seeing those he loves.

I want to apologize if you have difficulty replying on the blog.  We have tried to fix that.  It might be easier now.  If you continue to have difficulties, you can always send us a personal message.  We appreciate all the sweet comments of encouragement!

I promise to keep you updated on him.  He is happy and relieved not to be getting chemo, and he wants you to be happy for him.  Please continue to pray for God’s healing!  We are grateful for the many prayers sent to God on our behalf.  There are no words . . .

Love,  Donnie & Tina

 

Dear family and friends,

It has been with prayer and thoughtful consideration that Donnie has chosen to stop taking chemo.  I am truly grateful that he has the inner strength to make such a decision after all he has been through over the past year and half, and especially the last month.  Of course, our family supports his decision.  As all of us know that have loved ones with cancer, this fight is not for sissies for sure!  We have all seen how the medications that combat this disease are toxic to the good cells in the human body as well as the bad.  Donnie continues to fight valiantly through prayer, with the love of his family and friends and with God by his side.

It has been 13 days since his last chemo infusion.  We have had the tender discussions with individual family members about his decision, and now it is time to enjoy life to the fullest!!  Yesterday (Sunday) was the first day I have seen Donnie have a day when he is awake all day (usually he is awake 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening each day after this last round of chemo).  This is an indication that his body is recovering from the toxic effects of chemo.  We hope this is a trend for a while, so he can enjoy his family.

Please continue to pray for Donnie’s comfort during this new chapter of his journey.  He stated he is truly relieved he does not have to take chemo this week.  Pray for strength, energy, and peace for him, and for our family.  Pray he is able to comprehend the love we have for him on this earth, and that it is an overwhelming comfort to him.

I Corinthians 13:13 Three things will last forever–faith, hope and love–but the greatest of these is love.

We are so grateful for God’s unfathomable and unending love for us!!  We are grateful for your love and prayers through Donnie’s journey.  May God bless all of you for keeping us in your prayers!!

Love,  Donnie & Tina

 

It has been a week of nausea and exhaustion for Donnie after his second dose of chemo for two consecutive weeks.  We both remember it was like this for him when he started back months ago on the regime of getting Abraxane and Gemzar treatments 3 weeks on and then one week off.  These chemotherapeutic agents have a cumulative effect on the body, and they are pretty wicked agents to begin with.

Donnie’s white blood cell counts and ANC were so low a week ago, he had to come back to the clinic 3 days in a row for neupogen shots (these stimulate his bone marrow to make white cells).  This was challenging for him, as he gets nauseated at the drop of a hat these days, and traveling in the car is NOT his friend.  He vomited at the clinic on one of these trips, which made all the nurses jump through hoops to help him.  It was so comforting to him knowing they were all there taking care of his every need, without him having to ask for anything.  He got an IV that day, with 2 hours of IV hydration in the clinic along with IV Ativan.  We are so grateful they love us and take care of us!!

The neupogen shots gave him a feeling of the flu for several days.  This, on top of exhaustion from increased chemo, and the nausea that plagues him.  Poor guy.  It has been a rough week, with only one day that was decent . . . the day Jeff (son) decided to visit.  Donnie was very grateful for that!

Donnie has also been experiencing increasing abdominal pain.  He has increased his morphine to 30 mg twice a day, so he can be more comfortable.  Tumor markers were drawn today also.  Probably no results for a week at least.

So, here we are at the clinic again today, getting his 3rd treatment of chemo.  His ANC remains low, so he will get neupogen again this week.  His weight is down to 168 pounds.  He has outpatient surgery this Thursday morning for port placement.  Donnie decided last week that his chemo is getting painful through the peripheral IV’s they start each week on him at the clinic, so time for a port.

Please pray the chemo works for him, his pain diminishes, his nausea is better controlled, and his white cell count improves.  Pray the procedure to place his port on Thursday goes smoothly.  Pray for him to continue to have a positive attitude.  He continues to laugh and joke around, even at the most difficult times.  He is such a strength to our family in his own time of need.

Thank you for your love, concern, and prayers!

Love,  Donnie & Tina