We met with the neurologist first thing this morning and both he and the other doctors agree that we need to get Dad off of the heavy narcotic pain killer. As long as he is on the narcotic, we will never truly be able to pinpoint the cause of his headache pain. So today they began the process of weaning him off of it by increasing the intervals at which he takes it. They will have to take it slowly so as not to cause withdrawals on top of everything else. This will not be an easy process and the next 2-3 days may be quite painful for Dad as the rebound headache are likely to be quite severe until the medicine is purged from his system.

Despite the change in the medication schedule, Dad had a couple of time during the day today (Saturday 10/27) when his pain was a more tolerable 8. During those times he was able to converse more and do some reading. However it didn’t take long for just that small amount of activity to do him in and the pain would spike again. Other than those couple of windows of more tolerable pain, Dad has been in the 9-10 range a good portion of the day. Overall, though, he does seem to be trending upward, albeit very slowly.

Another exciting progress is that Dad’s appetite is returning and he has eaten more today than he has in well over a week. He has even ordered a full scrambled egg breakfast for tomorrow and we are praying that he will feel well enough to eat it when morning comes.

Thank you for praying. Many have contacted me and told me that you are upholding Dad and our family in prayer. That means the world to us right now. We are compiling all of those notes, texts, comments and emails for Mom and Dad and will be giving it to them when they are able to read it. It has been a huge encouragement to me to read them, and I am sure it will be a huge encouragement to them. Again, please do not contact them directly, but feel free to contact me and I will be sure that it gets to them.

My email is info@northboundnorthcutts.com or you can text me at 207-385-7376