The pain doctor stopped in...

And he was very concerned about Mary's heavy sleeping all day long.  So much so, he has reduced her next several MSContin doses from 60mg to 30mg.  Morphine is processed by the liver for removal from the body.  Given Mary's liver is not running on all cylinders, it is likely that Mary is building up morphine to an inappropriate level.  Thus, the pain doc first woke her up and then changed the pain order to half of the prior dose. 


They are planning the celiac plexus nerve block tomorrow, some time between 11AM and 2PM. This is actually a two part procedure, with tomorrow's procedure using anesthetics to prove that numbing the celiac plexus actually does help Mary.  If it does reduce pain over the next day or two, then they go back in an apply the drugs that are fatal to the nerves.  


Mary continues to be totally out of it 93.5% of the time (a compromise between myself at 90% and Reenie's 97%).  With the reduced MSContin, I hope she is more alert and awake tomorrow. 


Reenie flies home tomorrow on a 6:30AM flight.  I will certainly miss her and I am sure Mary will too.  But, she has a husband and a job and she wants to keep at least one of them--I don't remember which.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Reenie!