Day 2419

I find going over lab results with my doctor a bit frustrating. Today, my A1c levels had improved, but my Creatine and Bun levels had gotten worse. When I asked the doctor why, he told me that the Metformin I have been taking to control blood sugar and A1c levels tended to be hard on the kidneys, which often elevates Creatine and Bun levels. This is what happens with just about every prescription medicine you take. The body is complex and everything is interrelated. When you make something better, you often make something else worse. This didn't really seem to bother the doctor, who seemed to think that preventing diabetes was more important than perfectly functioning kidneys. "Your kidneys are still working pretty well," he said.

Apparently, my big problem is stress. My Cortisol levels have been increasing for several years and are now pretty high. I think the doctor was expecting me to tell him that there had been a death in the family or a divorce to cause this much stress. Instead, he got a convoluted tale of sleep loss and dog poop. The doctor and his nurse both gave me an odd look when I described my daily life, but they had no suggestions. They like dogs too. I'm doing the right thing with Dot. I probably just don't have the right kind of personality to deal with her continuing deterioration in a calm, relaxed way. Actually, the conversation with the doctor was causing me stress, because it was taking too long. I knew that if I didn't get back home in time, there would be more poop to clean up. Sure enough, I was right. Not only did Dot poop in her bed while I was at the doctor, she ate the poop as well.

I'm always surprised when I have lab work done just how advanced medicine has become. It is amazing how much a simple blood test can reveal. Today, I was introduced to something new. They took a DNA sample and said they would be able to use it to predict my susceptibility to certain diseases and even if the medications I was taking were interfering with each other. I asked if this test would tell me who my ancestors were and the nurse said they didn't do genealogy. Too bad. Every time I see one of those 23 and Me commercials on TV, I'm curious if I'm actually as Norwegian as I think I am.

I didn't tell the doctor that I'd had pancakes topped with whipped cream and powdered sugar for breakfast. What the hell. I felt like pancakes this morning. After three years of eating nothing but steel cut oats, I've decided that breakfast needs to be a little more enjoyable. I think my morning smoothie is generally pretty healthy, but I need a break occasionally. At least once a month, I pig out on pancakes or waffles.

I'll need to clean the roof off this weekend, in preparation for the roofers promised return on Monday. They probably won't show up, but at least I'll have done my part. I'm glad that July is almost over. It's been a long, very hot month. If we can make it to Winter again, life with Dot might be a little easier.

Tink is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2192

I got the Christmas tree up today. It seems to go up a little later every year, but that's OK. Putting up the tree reminded me that I still hadn't sent my out of town presents yet, so I went on Amazon.com for ten minutes and did all my shopping. What did people do before Amazon? They take care of the shipping. They'll wrap the package for you. They'll even enclose a little note if you'd like. Amazon and gift cards have revolutionized holiday shopping for me. I'll never spend hours wandering aimlessly through a crowded shopping mall again.

When I was picking up prescriptions at the pharmacy today, I noticed that my doctor has increased the amount of Metformin I take. The pills are larger now. Ordinarily, this would have alarmed me, but I read an article recently saying that researchers now think Metformin can slow the aging process and increase lifespan. I'll go with that. I need to take these findings with a grain of salt however. So far, the researchers have only tested their hypothesis on worms.

Every Christmas I get a $50 gift card from my favorite clothing store. These guys used to be a client and I'm still pretty loyal to them. On my way back from the pharmacy I stopped by the store to see what I could find. You have to spend at least $100 to use the $50 card, but it's still the same as a 50% off sale if you choose wisely. I used to be able to get quite a few clothes this way, but times have changed. Prices have really gone up for clothing that's not made in China. I looked around and saw some nice things, but had a hard time finding anything under $200. Is a $200 shirt nicer than a $12 shirt from Sam's Club. Definitely. Did I buy anything? Nope. I don't think I can afford this store anymore.

I finally got some new work assignments today. I've got an article to write tomorrow and there were several website modifications that I worked on today. Some people send me layouts that they've done in Photoshop and want me to match them exactly on their websites. Whatever. I can match just about anything. Even layouts that are butt ugly. Clients who think they are designers used to infuriate me. I don't even care anymore. We live in a world where everybody thinks they're a designer.

I'll be glad when all the leaves are finally off the trees. There are so many leaves on the ground now that every time I open the back door to let the dogs out, a bunch of leaves blow in the house. The leaves are everywhere. It probably didn't help matters when I pushed a ton of dead leaves off the roof yesterday and now they are on the ground too. I got out the electric leaf blower to blow them all away, but the only long extension cord we have now is up on the roof to run the sump pump. I found a smaller extension cord and was able to get the leaves off the front porch, but that was about it. Ironically, I almost bought a heavy duty outdoor extension cord at Home Depot last week when I was shopping for mini-blinds. I didn't buy it though because it was more expensive than the blinds. Do you see a theme here? Everything is too expensive these days.

Dot pooped in the house again. So what else is new? At least I did a deft save and caught her before she stumbled and fell in the poop. I could write a book on the best ways to clean up poop by now. This is not something I was planning to become an expert on, but sometimes you don't have a choice.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1624

I got up early to walk the dogs before Dash's 8:30 AM vet appointment. Although the skies looked dark and foreboding during the entire walk, we hardly got wet at all. Just a few sprinkles. No rain during the trip to the vet either. We got lucky. Dash is now current on all his vaccinations and should only have to go to the vet once a month for routine chemotherapy blood tests.

Today was busier than I expected. I completed a big website revision and returned to writing again, completing my first new article in over a week. It's good to stay busy as long as you're not too busy. Today was just about right.

Sometimes I wonder whether the Internet is increasing knowledge and awareness at all. Lately, it seems that our interconnected world is just providing a forum for idiots to find their soulmates. Today, I followed two different threads on Facebook that would have been hard to take seriously if it weren't for the hundreds of people who fervently seemed to believe them. One thread was filled with people claiming that airplanes never crashed into the world trade center towers and that the entire event was an elaborate illusion created by the CIA using holographic projections of commercial aircraft coordinated by a nearby invisible B2 bomber. I'm not making this stuff up. Next was an old thread that resurfaces every once in a while, claiming that the moon landings were a hoax and that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin never went to the moon at all. Why do people love conspiracies so much?  It's been around forever. Kennedy was assassinated by the mafia. All new advances in technology have been reverse engineered from wreckage found in the Roswell flying saucer. I was shocked to read recently that almost 40% of the world's population don't even believe the Holocaust ever happened. I guess it's not surprising that Duck Dynasty, The Kardashians, and monster truck shows are so popular. We're doomed.

I try not to get involved in arguments about whether we went to the moon, or if there were dinosaurs on Noah's ark. It's just not worth it. If I can't even convince the dogs that the cat they're obsessed with had left the yard, how am I going to convince someone that there's nothing worth looking at in Area-51? The ironic thing is that conspiracies do exist. We just don't seem to care about the real ones. I'm sure that the NSA knows much, much more about all of us than we could ever imagine. We did go to the moon though.

If I don't make an appointment to go to the dentist within the next month, I need to have my head examined. Despite brushing several times a day and using a water pic, I've still got a tooth that bothers me. I've also got a persistent metallic taste in my mouth, but I don't think that has anything to do with dental hygiene. The metallic taste is probably a side effect of the Metformin I take to control blood sugar. I wonder if I even need to take Metformin anymore? I've dramatically cut back on my sugar intake during the past year. Who knows if I am even at risk for developing diabetes? My blood chemistry is close to perfect now. I am at risk for needing a root canal though. Remind me to make a dental appointment soon.

Libby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1316

Sometimes dealing with tech support is like Chinese water torture. I found myself locked out of my voicemail this morning and ended up spending hours talking to three different levels of tech support. When one technician couldn't solve my problem, they would escalate my call to the next level. I don't know why turning on my voicemail account again was so complicated, but it apparently was. At one point I was talking to one person on my cell phone, another person on the land line and had to put both phones on speakerphone and set them next to each other so the technicians could hear each other. Most of these folks spoke English as a second language, so I was constantly saying "Could you repeat that please." I did manage to talk to one native English speaker, but he had a terrible stutter, so I couldn't understand him either.

When the problem was eventually resolved, I listened to my new voicemail messages and they were all from telemarketers. Jeez! Why did I spend hours trying to listen to messages I didn't want to receive in the first place? On days like this technology hardly seems worth the effort. Everything seems to work for the moment though, so if an important call comes in tomorrow, I'm right on top of it.

While Dash was getting his antigen shot today, I talked to the vet about alternatives to Phenobarbital in case his seizures returned. She mentioned that she had success using Potassium Bromide and thought it was safer than Phenobarbital. I looked up the drug on the Internet when we got home and discovered that possible side effects include ataxia, increased urination, skin disorders, nausea and vomiting. Doesn't sound very safe to me. Potassium Bromide won't damage the liver like Phenobarbital though. Of course, the alternative I like best is not to put Dash on any drugs at all.

I routinely experience the same frustrations with my own meds. The devil is always in the details. I've been wondering why I've had this strong metallic taste in my mouth for the past several months. A quick Internet search revealed that the metallic taste was probably caused by the Metformin I take to control blood sugar levels. I have a feeling that my doctor didn't mention the metallic aftertaste because he was afraid I wouldn't take the drug if I knew about this common side effect.

After making a trip to the post office to pay some bills, I stopped by Home Depot to get some wasp spray to combat the growing number of wasps and hornets building nests near the house. After I got out my reading glasses and read the warning label on the side of the can, I took the spray back and exchanged it for a much milder organic product. It was amazing to me than anyone would even sell a product with so many potentially toxic side effects. I guess a bug spray that will kill a snake is too strong for normal use.

Getting to the gym several times a week is proving to be harder than I thought it would be. I only made it once last week and it looks like this week will be just as busy. Tomorrow Dot starts her water therapy and Thursday is when the garbage disposal gets repaired. Throw in an article or two each day, along with the usual website revisions and a dog walk and my day is gone. Maybe I can find some free time on Friday.

Jewel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1233

Whenever I bent down to work with the dogs at training class tonight, I felt light-headed when I stood up again. Since feeling faint when standing is a known side effect of two medications I take, I think it might be time to reevaluate my meds. Carvedilol slows down the heart rate and Metformin lowers blood sugar levels. With the radical changes I've made in my diet, I may not need these medications anymore. Getting a doctor to agree with this assessment might be difficult though. Once doctors starting seeing positive results from the pills they prescribe, they are loathe to discontinue them. I wish I could find someone with a comprehensive knowledge of both nutrition and medicine. It would be nice to know with some degree of certainty how diet, exercise, and medicine interact but I have yet to find a doctor who truly respects the opinions of a nutritionist. When you give a medical doctor a list of the medications you take, they don't even know what to do with the herbal supplements. It's frustrating to say the least. I really think the side effects of some of the medications I take are actually mimicking the symptioms of the diseases they are meant to treat.

Unexplained light-headedness wasn't my only frustration today. I was totally confused by my U-verse bill. It was supposed to go down this month, but it actually went up. When I called customer service to see if I could figure out what my bill was actually supposed to be, the customer service representative became equally confused. There are so many weird state and local taxes added to your phone bill every month that I'm not sure anyone knows what's going on. Phone companies continually offer incentives to keep you as a subscriber. Municipalities keep changing the tax rates. And as a result, your bill never seems to be the same. When I finally figured out what was going on, I was disappointed. Although my bill was higher than I thought it would be, it was lower than it could have been. Phone and Internet bills are kind of like the national deficit. They always keep going up.

One of the articles I wrote today was about the possibility of an Internet sales tax. I'd hate to see this happen, but it probably will. One of the main reasons I buy so much stuff online now is to avoid the sales tax. States and municipalities are hungry for additional revenue though and they see online retailers as a good place to find it. An Internet sales tax is coming, so if you've got your heart set on a new camera or computer, you'd better buy it now.

Dot was really peppy today. I'd like to think her surprising burst of energy was the result of her new heartworm medication. It's probably too early to tell though, since the dogs just got their monthly heartworm pills this morning. I'll hope for the best though, just like I do with my own condition.

Betsy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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