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