Donnie continues to improve . . . and we feel sooooooooo BLESSED!!!  He weighs 175 pounds at the clinic today, the most he has weighed since January.  He continues to be COMPLETELY off his morphine.  He has struggled with withdrawal symptoms which are challenging for him, but they are slowly improving, too.  His tumor markers are 7.9, the lowest count to date.  He has no nausea.  He is sleeping better at night.  He has neuropathy in his feet (nerve tingling) when he stands or walks even for 5 minutes, which is a side-effect of his chemo, so please pray this will subside for him.  It is irritating, and causes him to be agitated.  We are getting a new prescription called Neurontin, to help with the neuropathy, and praying it works.

Dr. Z presented Donnie’s case to the tumor board this morning.  Dr. Sebastian de la Fuente, a surgical specialist in pancreatic oncology surgery, will be consulting with Donnie (and me and Beau) this Thursday regarding the possibility of surgery.  Dr. de la Fuente’s office called us this morning at 10 am to set the appointment.  We were shocked, as we had no idea about the possibility of surgery.  When we came to the clinic at 1:45 pm today, Dr. Z came to speak with us about his discussion with the tumor board this morning, and that he wanted to be sure we had an appointment with the surgeon before we left today  . . . ALREADY DONE.  Wow . . . already impressed with the surgeon’s office.

Dr. Sebastian de la Fuente (you can Google him) is a board-certified surgeon, certified in ADVANCED surgical oncology.  He focuses on the care of patients with pancreatic cancer, and specializes in performing minimally-invasive surgery to help achieve the most favorable outcomes for his patients.  He received his medical degree from University of Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina, followed by a research fellowship in GI surgery at Duke University (Chief resident in 2012), and completed a surgical onocology fellowship a H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.  If we wanted a second opinion, it would be from Moffitt.  We feel like we will be getting both at the same time with Dr. de la Fuentes.  His office is at Florida Hospital Orlando (or South as we call it).

Dr. Z said that Dr. de la Fuente will want to perform a laparoscopy on Donnie’s abdomen, to actually put “eyes” on his pancreas, and all the “questionable areas” seen on CT scan around and within his intestines.  There is a possibility, depending on what is seen, that the pancreas could be resected (remove the part with the cancer).  We won’t know that information, until the laparoscopy is done.

I am very, very pleased that a laparoscopy will be done.  Tests are great, but there is NOTHING like LOOKING at what you have under direct visualization. We will be glad to be getting more information about Donnie’s status, and how we move forward with treatment for him.

We continue to enjoy lots of wonderful family events, and live every single day to its fullest.  We are so grateful for our amazing families that help us and pray for us, and for all the prayer warriors out there praying.

Much love,  Donnie & Tina