Category: Uncategorized

Here’s some Christmas cheer for all of us!!  Ronnie Mac asked me to post this pic on the blog.  The whole family gets a kick out of this picture.  The best part is, NO ONE, can tell which one is which FOR SURE.

Lorraine (big sis who can always tell them apart …. except this time),  Momma (who can’t tell them apart here either)                                     Darlene (Ronnie’s wife who can tell them apart MOST of the time),       Tina (who can tell them apart a significant part of the time), and of course Donnie or Ronnie are not sure either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Be sure to note the jeans rolled up to the knees.  Ronnie told me that was so when they grew, the jeans would still fit…hmmmm

Personally, I think identical twins are simply amazing!  These two are best buds FOREVER.  With all of our heads together, our best GUESS is that Donnie is on the left, and Ronnie is on the right.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family to yours!!!!!!

Donnie had a restful night in his own bed.  I think we both had the first restful night in 2 weeks.  He is still nauseated slightly all the time.  This morning, he took a shower.  When he brushed his teeth, it made him throw up, and it was a pretty rough moment for him.  He is just very sensitive.  He is also exhausted.  Any movement just wears him out.

This morning we go to the oncology outpatient clinic for him to get his Neupogen shot.  This increases his white blood cell count.  His count has never dropped, but I think Dr. Z is being proactive with him since this is his first round of chemo, and it is Christmas.  Donnie is going to be around our immediate family, and can’t afford to “catch” anything.  It is flu and RSV season after all.

Today is Bradley’s first birthday (our youngest grandson).  We will not be able to attend his birthday due to his Daddy being sick.  We are sad, as we have never missed a first birthday of any of our grandchildren, but we will get to skype … yay!

Donnie is very tired. Tired from being sick, and then slammed with chemo. He has a little gnawing nausea, but has powerful meds on board. So……even though he has some recuperating to do, we are getting to go home today. YAY!

David came to the hospital to help me take him home. He will stay with Donnie and care for his needs while I unpack. Connie is bringing homemade chicken soup for dinner…Yummy! This is so much easier to handle with help.

Keep praying for his recovery. He has to go to the oncologists office on Wed and Fri for his Neupogen shot. This can potentially give him bone pain. Pray he doesn’t get that side effect.

Thank you for your prayers and support!!!      

Sharon Evans found these great pics in her “archives”, and wanted me to post them.  Carlton “recruited” Donnie many years ago to sing special duets at churches and in the prison ministry.  They have many wonderful memories in the ministry, and many wonderful memories being “boys”.  Carlton and Donnie especially loved (and Donnie still does) to sing many of the Phillips, Craig and Dean songs.  They seem to write songs that have great meaning to Donnie.  They got the amazing opportunity to meet the group, and PCD was glad to pose with these guys who loved to sing their music.  By the way, Carlton, Donnie and Jimmy are truly awesome when they sing together!!  To God be all the glory!!  Carlton has since passed away, but of course, the awesome memories are still in our hearts.  The pictures are self explanatory 🙂

Tina asked me yesterday if there was a way people could put pictures into their comments.  The answer is “yes and no”.  If you’re tech-savvy enough to upload your pictures to someplace on the Internet and copy the URL of the picture, then yes — you can put a picture into your comment (more on that in a minute).  Otherwise, you can’t.  It’s a security thing.  Not my restriction, but built into the blog’s platform (WordPress).

While I was trying different things, one of them added some formatting features to the comment entry box, so I left them there:

1. Undo
2. Redo
3. Insert horizontal line
4. Bold selected text
5. Italicize selected text
6. Underline selected text
7. Make selected text or picture a link to some URL
8. Break the link assigned to selected text or picture
9. Insert a YouTube video
10. Insert image from URL (that’s what I was talking about above)
11. Check your spelling
12. Make a bullet list
13. Make a numbered list (like this one)
14. Center selected text or image
15. Outdent (not a word, but the opposite of…)
16. Indent
17. Change the color of selected text

So be creative & colorful!  It’s more fun to read 😉

Any other requests, please let me know!  🙂

Good morning.  Donnie slept well all night.  He got up at 6am without support from me, pooped without any medicinal help, and got back in the bed.  He said there is always a little “underlying nausea” still, so he took Ativan IV for that, and he is sleeping soundly now.

The charge nurse feels his nausea will probably subside completely in the next day.  That will be a praise for him, as he hates that feeling.  Typically, on Tuesdays, Dr. Z will not come in to see him until the late afternoon.  The nursing staff and I are thinking he may go home.  I’ll post it on the blog if he does.

He is still receiving his Neupogen to build up his white cell count (the chemo depletes it).  So far, his white cell count has been normal, but it will drop about 7 days from the start of his chemo, so Dr. Z is being proactive.

He may be up for some short visits today if you would like to come.  I know I kept some very important people from coming yesterday (special cousins from out of town), but he was too ill.  I know you understand.

Thank you for all your kind words and all the love you have showered on Donnie.  At this point, love and prayer make ALL the difference!          Much love, Donnie & Tina

This is a sweet family picture of Donnie’s Mom, Joyce McFarland, at her wedding (married Bo McFarland).  Left to right is Donnie, Lorraine (the oldest), Joyce (the Momma), Rodger (the baby) and Ronnie (his identical twin).  They were all laughing about it … wow … brown hair.  Now you can all see where Donnie gets his “silver fox” hair from … his Momma!  That’s 4 kids that all favor their Mom 🙂  Such a close-knit family.  They really love each other!!!

The past day has been a rough one.  Last night was the worst of it.  This morning the new medication they added to his nausea regimen worked, praise God!!  So, today was spent resting (and nauseated).  He needed to rest from the nausea, but also from the chemo, as it wipes him out.

Jim Giordano (Donnie’s close friend from ICU), relieved me this morning, so I could go home and take a break.  Beau (our son) relieved him around 1pm, and stayed until I came back tonight around 7pm.  I am so grateful, and they give such great care to Donnie!  It gives me great peace of mind.

At approximately 7pm tonight, I walked into Donnie’s room with egg drop soup and shrimp fried rice.  He was sleeping.  I gently told him what I brought him, and he said, “Thank God!”  He ate 1/2 cup of egg drop soup, and a full cup of shrimp fried rice with at least 8 shrimp.  He kept it down, and is sleeping soundly.  What a relief for him and for me!!

The oncology charge nurse said he is probably turning the corner on his nausea.  They said he should be much better tomorrow.  I am very hopeful that she is correct!  Please check the blog or text before coming, in case he is still crummy.  Thank you for your outpouring of love on us!!

If you would like to post any special pictures on the blog, you can send them to me, and I will be glad to post them for you.  I know there are a lot of special pics out there (as I have seen quite a few of them).  If you would like to have them on the blog, I need to post them for you, to prevent security breeches of this site.  Thank you for your understanding.

So I might as well be honest and tell you he had a pretty horrible night.He was writhing from nausea, and vomited once. He has been absolutely miserable. He is still miserable. His nurses say the nausea will improve today.  Pray for that pleeeeeease.

Dr Z came in this morning. He is adding Ativan to Donnie’s nausea regime. Donnie finished his chemo, but remains on IV fluids which keep him hydrated (thankfully!!). He has not eaten anything since breakfast on Sunday, due to nausea. He did drink a cup of soup last night…that didn’t stay down long.

On a positive note, he has had no short acting pain meds since 5pm Tuesday. This is a big praise, as pain meds add to his constipation. Of course, the BIG praise is that he is not in as much pain.

So, just need to get the nausea under control today. Please, no visitors today. He’s really rough. He will be recovering today.

Much love to our precious family and friends, Tina