Day 2765

We had to take Dash to an emergency vet last night. He had thrown up earlier in the evening and we'd hoped that giving him a Cerenia pill would settle his stomach so he could sleep. Unfortunately, things got worse. About 1 AM he woke up up drooling heavily while walking anxiously around the house. It seemed like he wanted to throw up again, but when we took him outside, he just froze in the back yard and couldn't seem to move. Something seemed very wrong. We thought he might be having another vestibular seizure, even though there were no rapid eye movements or head tilting. After about twenty minutes, he calmed down and tried to sleep on the bedroom floor. We were relieved that the episode seemed to be over, but then about an hour later it started all over again. This time the heavy drooling was even worse. We began to worry that he might have been poisoned and rushed him to the nearest emergency vet. His vital signs were good and the veterinarian who treated him said that there weren't any obvious signs of poisoning. We were at the vet for about an hour and around 4 AM, Dash began to stabilize. The vet agreed that this looked a lot like vestibular disease, but said the symptoms could also be caused by a half a dozen other things.

We took Dash home and tried to get a little sleep before Janet had to get up and go to the eye doctor. Poor Dash. We've been hoping that his vestibular seizures were over, but apparently not. There isn't a lot you can do about idiopathic vestibular disease. If you can determine the cause, you can sometimes eliminate the problem, but not always. We've already done an MRI of his brain and eliminated the possibility of a brain tumor. He doesn't seem to have an inner ear infection either. I'll have to check his thyroid levels again. Sometimes low thyroid levels can cause symptoms of vertigo and nausea very similar to vestibular disease. There really isn't a cure, so we may be dealing with these periodic episodes for the rest of his life.

Dash seemed fine today. We didn't walk him and fed him a very bland diet. So far, so good. I've started taking Niacin before bedtime again. My doctor say it helps with cholesterol problems, but the flushing it causes is uncomfortable, so I try to be asleep when all the little capillaries start to dilate. Last night when Dash woke us up, the Niacin flushing had begun and my skin was bright red. When we went to the emergency vet, I looked like I had a severe sunburn all over my body. The vet probably though I'd gotten confused and gone to the wrong hospital. I certainly looked worse than Dash.

By the time Dash's heavy drooling stopped, my skin had returned to it's normal color. The only good thing about the worrisome night was that on the way home from the vet, I got a chance to see a beautiful thin crescent moon in conjunction with Venus in the early morning sky. Today, we were all pretty tired and Dash and I spent a considerable amount of time napping.

I got a few things done today, but not much. I picked up some meds for Dash, bought a new sprinkler for the yard at Home Depot, and filled the car with gas. I received a new writing job this afternoon, so I'll probably be busy tomorrow. For some reason, I thought it was Wednesday for most of the day. Janet had to remind me to take out the trash this evening. I was going to wait until tomorrow evening. I hope that Dash sleeps well tonight. I hope we all sleep well.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2190

I spent the day trying to return the house to normal. The camera equipment was packed up and returned to its proper place. The large muslin photo backdrop was cleaned and folded. Some things went back to the office. Some things were hidden under the bed. The majority of the equipment was loaded into the car and returned to the storage warehouse. When the clutter was gone, the dust and dirt that had accumulated from three weeks of benign neglect became even more obvious. Out came the Dyson and the house was vacuumed from one end to the other. I had to clean bird poop off the car again too. The evil bird has returned with a vengeance.

Some things will have to wait until tomorrow. I need to get the water off the roof again. I know it's up there, but other things have been more important. I still need to put up a Christmas tree. I never got around to putting up the mini-blinds either. There just isn't enough time anymore. I hate to rush Dot when I take her outside. It takes a lot of patience to hold up her rear legs while she aimlessly wanders around and smells things. Dot still likes to smell things, so I let her stay outside as long as she wants. I can always catch up on whatever I'm doing later. Sometimes I think Dot forgets why she went outside in the first place. I understand. I often forget why I'm doing things.

When I went to the bank this morning I noticed that the skin on my arm was turning a bright red as I felt a flushing sensation on my face and extremities. Damn. I must have taken my nighttime meds in the morning again. I take Niacin to help control cholesterol, but I need to take it at bedtime. Niacin in high doses causes an uncomfortable flushing sensation, but you don't notice it when you are asleep. I seldom mix up my morning and evening meds, but when I do, the Niacin serves as a not so subtle reminder that I need to get my act together.

I started looking for a smaller dehumidifier for the back of the house today. Curiously, I found that most of the smaller capacity units were almost exactly the same physical size as the larger units. They were almost the same price too. Maybe this is why these smaller dehumidifiers don't sell very well. Why would you buy a 30 pint, or 50 pint model if the 70 pint model was the same size and only cost $50 more? These companies need some marketing help. I may need to rethink getting a second dehumidifier. These smaller units make no sense at all.

I'll probably continue cleaning tomorrow. I'd love to start the new year with a clean uncluttered office. Of course, I'll like to start the new year with a big bank account, healthy dogs, and five new clients too. Some things just aren't going to happen. I can't decide whether decluttering is feasible or completely hopeless. It is such a huge job and the rewards are somewhat minimal. It's not like I'd do anything differently if I had a clean office. It would be nice to be able to find things though.

Tomorrow is my Blogiversary. Kind of amazing to think I'll be starting my eighth year writing Some Assembly Required and I still haven't missed a single day. If I was this dedicated about everything, Lord knows what I could have accomplished.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2024

My unfocused Monday is rapidly turning into an unfocused week. I thought I'd get started on a new website project today, but ran into a major snag almost immediately. Instead of just using text for navigation buttons, I've always liked to use images instead. Having a photo that turns into a negative of the same photo when you roll your mouse over the link always looked kind of cool to me. This simple image swap behavior was always easy to do using Dreamweaver and Fireworks, but I still haven't figured out an effective way to accomplish the same thing using a responsive design framework like Webflow or Macaw. Basically, I wasted a lot of time experimenting with things that didn't work very well, and finally ended up erasing everything and starting over toward the end of the day. These trial and error exercises are usually how I learn things, but there are times when I think there's got to be an easier way.

I've created a monster by feeding the dogs a banana while I eat my breakfast. This worked well for a few days, but now both dogs start barking if I don't feed them a slice of banana every ten or fifteen seconds. Instead of training them to stay quiet and let me eat in peace, they've trained me to feed them the banana at regular intervals. Breakfast has become like a conditioned response experiment run amok. Dot and Dash have become Pavlov and I have become the dog. Now, they're starting to expect something at dinner too. I'm not sure how this is going to end.

I made a repeat trip to the park after sunset this evening to look for Venus and Jupiter and this time I was successful. The two planets weren't quite as close together as they would have been last night, but still it was a sight worth seeing. After walking about half a mile to find a good vantage point, I discovered on the way home that I could see the planetary conjunction just as well from my own backyard. This would actually be a good time to walk the dogs if it weren't so dark. The air cools down surprisingly quickly after the sun sets.

The Apple Health App has been sitting unused on my phone ever since I upgraded to IOS 8. I never really knew what it was for until I started wearing the Apple Watch. Now, I'm learning all sorts of interesting things. One thing I was completely unaware of is that my heart rate is higher than it should be when I'm sleeping. I supposed this has something to do with taking time release Niacin every night before I go to bed. Sometimes when I wake up at night the Niacin flushing drives me nuts. It probably also raises my heart rate. Since I'm taking another pill to slow down my heart rate, something is all wrong here. One more thing to ask my doctor about. I tried to do a little research on Google, but that is seldom a good idea. You can look up virtually any health condition on Google and find ten different plausible answers. If you keep reading long enough, you will inevitably conclude that you are going to die.

Sometimes ideas come to me in my sleep. I hope I discover a solution for my website dilemma while I'm sleeping. I certainly wasted enough time on this today. I guess I could just abandon using rollover images as navigation buttons, but I'm stubborn. I bet I'll find the answer I'm looking for tomorrow. I'll have to find the answer in the morning, because Thursdays are really Dot's day. I hope she does well at her physical therapy session. She seemed kind of shaky today. I'm hoping a good night's sleep will be good for all of us.

Bentley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2015

Hmm. Today's blog day is the same as the actual year. I wish there was some significance to this, but there probably isn't. If I'd started the blog three days earlier, this all would have happened on my birthday. Now, that would have been weird.

The only thing weird about today was my doctor's appointment. I had been hoping to convince my doctor to discontinue two of my meds, simply because they were becoming too expensive. I got my wish, but not in the way I expected. When the doctor was explaining how various medications worked to control cholesterol, A1C, blood pressure, and various other things, I noticed something odd. As he  explained what the expensive drug was supposed to do, I stopped him and pointed to a row of numbers. "This drug doesn't appear to be working," I said. "If it was, these numbers would be going in the opposite direction." "That bothers me too," the doctor said. "Lets just quit taking this for two months and see what happens." OK. That's what I've been wanting to do for the last two years anyway. Since I was on a roll, I decided to bring up another drug I've grown to dislike. "Do I really need to take this Niacin," I asked? I hate the timed release Niacin, because in addition to being expensive, it causes an uncomfortable flushing reaction that turns my skin bright red for an hour or so. The doctor said that the special version of Niacin was supposed to cause the flushing to occur while I was asleep, so I would never notice it. Nope, usually I'm wide awake. "Well, if the delay isn't working right," the doctor told me, "why don't you just take inexpensive over-the-counter Niacin instead?" Sounds good to me. Over-the-counter Niacin is about $5. The special prescription version of this drug is costing me $80 a month.

My numbers weren't really bad today, but it would have been nice if they were improving instead of getting worse. I'm pretty sure that everything can be explained by a slight relaxation of the strict diet I was following when I was being treated for Hepatitis-C. I still eat very healthy meals, but there are more comfort foods now. Instead of a strict plant-based diet with very little red meat, I'll have a steak now and then and typically enjoy some sausage or bacon with my morning eggs. I didn't used to do this during the year I was eating oatmeal in the morning and kale salads at night. I guess it makes a difference. Probably throwing a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream into my morning smoothie isn't helping matters either. It's a shame that almost everything delicious or fun is bad for you.

The doctor asked me if I was experiencing anything stressful in my life, since one of the tests apparently shows different results under stress. Naw, everything's normal I thought. Just dogs with cancer and spinal injuries, lots of expensive dental work, and a declining income. Today actually was pretty normal. I had one article to write, but I had that finished well before noon. The dogs seemed strong and in good spirits, even though the temperature was a lot warmer. Dot slept well and didn't poop in her bed. What's not to like?

I made an appointment to get a haircut later in the week and finally had a talk with my insurance agent about my homeowners policy. Maybe if it's still sunny tomorrow, I'll get the water off the roof. It's amazing how everything does get done eventually.  All in good time, I say.

Kirby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1815

I wonder how much more forgetful I'm going to become? When I was driving Dot to her physical therapy session today, I noticed my skin turning a beet red color as I felt an intense burning sensation. It only took me a few seconds to realize that I'd inadvertently taken my evening Niacin pill with my breakfast meds. You're always supposed to take Niacin just before you go to bed, because one of the common side effects of this drug is an intense flushing sensation caused by the dilatation of small capillaries under the skin. When the blood rushes to these small capillaries, you feel like you're on fire. It's best if you're asleep when this happens. Luckily, Niacin flushing only lasts a couple of hours, so I was almost back to normal by the time Dot and I returned home.

Dot did really well in the underwater treadmill today. Everyone agrees that it is important for her to continue the treadmill therapy, but some days are better than others. Dot tires easily now and if we walk too far in the morning, or if she overexerts herself, we have to take it easy during her therapy session. Today was a good day and I hope there are many more to come.

This time of year quickly becomes so busy that I often wonder how I'm ever going to get everything finished. I looked at my calendar today and noticed that I have something major planned for every single day from now through the 23rd of December. Most of the things I have to do aren't even related to Christmas, but they will keep me very busy nevertheless. Dash has another cancer re-check coming up. I have several dental appointments, plus an initial evaluation by my new physical therapist. The weekends are filled with Santa Paws pet photo events and I have an appointment to get a haircut as well. I'm really starting to slow down. The thought of something major on my to-do list every single day seems almost overwhelming. When I was younger, I would have tried to schedule all these things on the same day.

I might have mixed up my meds this morning, but I did remember to take out the trash this evening. The dogs got both their walks, even though there was a light mist in the air for most of the day. Dot and Dash don't seem to mind overcast, damp days like today. It's the thunder and lightning they really hate. I didn't get around to investigating dental insurance like I had planned, but I'd better not postpone this too long. It would be just my luck to have the insurance go into effect after all the dental work was completed and not get any benefit from the policy.

I'm glad it's Friday tomorrow. This has been a long week. I definitely need to go to the grocery store, since the refrigerator is almost empty. I'm going to get a haircut in the afternoon, but the most important thing is going out for breakfast in the morning. I've been eating cold Swedish Muesli cereal all week and it's definitely time for something delicious.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1735

Did you realize that while you were sleeping, U2 downloaded their entire new album to every iPhone in the entire world. I didn't believe this until I looked at my own phone and sure enough, there it was. I didn't buy or download the album myself. It just appeared on my phone. The same album was on Janet's phone and on every other iPhone in the world. I don't know how much it cost Apple to pull off this little stunt. I don't even know how it benefits them. I will admit though that this was pretty impressive.

Today got off to a slow start, which wasn't surprising since it was a Monday. By the time I had finished walking the dogs and eating breakfast, it was already 10:30 AM. It must have rained at some point during the night because Dash got exceptionally muddy walking through the soft ground. I usually clean the dogs paws with a damp rag before I let them inside. This mud was too much for a rag though. I had to hose him down. Since this is Texas, by the time I took the dogs out again for their evening walk, the ground was almost completely dry.

The lab work I had done at Baylor last week came back completely normal. My liver is doing just fine. Now I have no excuse to discontinue the Statins and Niacin. I'll be the first to admit these drugs are probably effective in controlling cholesterol. I just don't like the side effects of waking up with a dry mouth in the middle of the night feeling like I'm on fire as the Niacin dilates all the tiny blood vessels near the surface of my skin. Also, ever since I've been taking these new meds, my nose has been dripping like I've got a low level cold. It's irritating, but I guess it's better than a heart attack.

I only had one website to update today, so it was a good day to do some bookkeeping and pay bills. I don't know how economists can continue to say that we have low inflation. The cost of virtually everything I use on a daily basis has gone up. Often it has gone up a lot. Food costs more. Utility bills are higher. Gasoline is higher. Insurance is higher. I could go on and on. Just about the only thing that is cheaper are consumer electronics, but how many flat screen TV's do you need?

Dot really seems to have turned the corner. She has been accident free for almost a full week now. I'm starting to let her sleep wherever she wants now as long as I'm in the house. This is probably a mistake, since dogs are so unpredictable, but Dot is a lot happier having free rein of the house. Janet says I spoil these dogs. Of course I do.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1687

We got Dot's pathology report today. The growth that was removed one week ago today was a Low Grade Soft Tissue Sarcoma. Yes, this is cancer, but it's not quite as bad as it sounds. Most soft tissue sarcomas have a relatively low chance of spreading to other parts of the body. Since Dot's tumor was located in her intestines, it was not attached to surrounding tissue and it was possible to remove it completely with clean margins. This means that a healthy segment of the intestine was also removed on either side of the tumor to ensure that no cancer cells were left behind. The oncologist told me today that since Dot's tumor had clean margins, there will be no need for chemo or radiation treatments. With any luck, the surgery will be all that is needed.

I also found out that Dot's incontinence probably has nothing to do with the surgery itself. Her internal medicine specialist told me that incontinence is very common when a dog has been receiving IV fluids for an extended period of time. These fluids help prevent dehydration and are used to flush toxins out of the body, but they can also interrupt normal kidney function. "Sometimes it takes four to six weeks before the incontinence goes away," the doctor told me. At least we've got a plan now. Whenever she wakes up and starts looking around, we assume that she has to pee. I took her outside around 2:30 AM this morning, and she made it through the rest of the night without incident. I try to take her outside every three hours and that seems to do the trick. There were no major accidents today. I only had to wash two small baby crib liners, instead of all the bedding we own.

I'm starting to get cabin fever from watching Dot 24/7. Her condition continues to improve, but she's still not stable enough to leave on her own. She still has a bit of trouble getting up and down and needs to be kept off the bed and furniture. Usually, she follows me around anyway, so keeping her nearby is not a problem. Dot has clearly regained her appetite. I decided to fix myself a nice breakfast this morning, instead of just eating my regular oatmeal and both Dot and Dash wanted the sausages I fixed. Instead of a relaxing meal while watching old Dr. Who episodes, I had two dogs barking at me. It's good to see Dot active and engaged though. Slowly but surely, she's getting back to her old self.

Last night we made elaborate preparations to ensure that Dot wouldn't wet the bed.  In addition to the layer of waterproof baby crib liners, we placed a thin sheet of vinyl between the comforter and Dot's blankets. This might have been a mistake. The bedding didn't breathe anymore and I woke up about 3 AM in a pool of sweat. At first I thought that Dot had managed to get under the covers with me, but then I realized the problem was me. It was Niacin flushing. Live and learn. I guess taking a big dose of Niacin at night for cholesterol while laying under a sheet of vinyl isn't a good idea.

I hope Janet and I stay healthy. Having two dogs with cancer at the same time is just about all I can handle. We're doing pretty well though. Against some pretty long odds, Dash is making a spectacular recovery and Dot is doing her best to follow in his footsteps. For my part, I'm trying to take things one day at a time even though this doesn't come naturally to me. One way or another, we'll pull through this.

Tink is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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