Donnie decided Thursday night, he wanted to try to wean his extended release (ER) morphine.  The highest dose of ER morphine he has taken after his diagnosis was 60 mg twice a day.  We were able to wean that dose several months ago, and he has been taking 30 mg twice a day for approximately 2 months now.  On Thursday night, he weaned himself to 15 mg ER morphine, and so far he has not had any breakthrough pain (important).  He does wake up with headaches (a withdrawal symptom for him), and he takes Advil for those.  Hopefully after a few days, the headaches will subside.  This is his most common side effect when he weans any of his medications.

With his ER morphine at a lower dose, Donnie is awake a bit more already.  Some of the side effects from the morphine are a bit less, and that is always good.  It is encouraging that he even WANTS to wean his medications.

His nausea is back under control.  He continues to be on half the dose of medications to control that, another praise.

Tuesday he gets his last dose of chemo for round 4.  On Thursday, he is scheduled to have his CT scan of his chest, abdomen and pelvis.  This will be to evaluate the efficacy of the chemo on the pancreatic tumor.  We will not find out results or Dr. Z’s next plan of action until we have an appointment with him on May 5th.

Please pray for Donnie’s continued improvement, even in the smallest of ways. Pray he will be able to tolerate less pain medication.  Pray the chemo is effective. In all of it, may God’s will be done!  Donnie and I continue to be amazed that God has allowed such a turn around physically in Donnie’s life.  We pray, and wait on God to answer.  We feel very, very blessed indeed!!!

Once we get results from Dr. Z and the next plan of care, we are hopeful to be able to make a trip to Memphis to see my brother’s family (Don is my brother’s name, so it keeps it simple for me!).  We love to see them (including their children and the 4 grandbabies that aren’t so “baby” any more!), and have many wonderful years of memories boating with my brother and his family on Pickwick Lake.  He is an amazing captain, and Elaine (my sister-in-love) is the best hostess ever!!

This is an old picture of a great day boating with Don & Elaine and our families. All the boats are tied together out in the water for a few days, and every one cooks amazing food (I’m not kidding), and plays in the water with jet skis, ski boats, etc.  It’s a blast!!!!!  Hopefully we will get to Memphis soon 🙂