Day 3169

I've stopped going to the library, but I certainly haven't stopped reading. I think one reason my head is filled with useless information is that on slow days like this, I can spend hours reading odd little articles I find on Google. When I click on the Google Discover tab, I'm always amazed that there seems to be an endless supply of things I've never heard about before. I'll read almost anything about astronomy and space. I like reading articles about how the human race is doomed and headed toward extinction. Most articles about Elon Musk catch my attention. I always read articles about the best diet to feed your dog. Sometimes I'll read articles about the pills I'm taking or the stocks my broker recommends. I like articles about exotic cars and vintage guitars. I'm not interested in politics at all, so I skip over a lot of stuff. Apparently, a lot of people are only interested in politics.

Today I read articles about what might have existed in the universe before the big bang, learned about a new mass extinction theory that says the dinosaurs all died in a single day, read about a Ferrari prototype that uses a "virtual" windshield made out of air, and did some research on several stocks my broker wants me to buy.

My broker and I don't agree on much. I like to contemplate large scale trends like young people preferring pets to children and ordering meal kits from Hello Fresh rather than going to the grocery store. I'm bored by technical analysis and usually could care less when a stock dips below its two hundred day moving average. My broker thinks Gilead Sciences is a good buy right now. What? I hate that company. They're the ones who charged me $1000 a pill for Sovaldi. OK. It is a revolutionary drug that cured my Hepatitis C, but $1000 a pill still seems a bit steep. I wish I'd just kept the first three stocks I'd ever bought: Apple, Boeing, and Southwest Airlines. If I'd kept adding to those positions over the years, I'd have done a lot better than decades of hit and miss trading.

Forget about stocks. What I should be researching is what's causing Dash's loose stools. According to everything we've read, what we're feeding Dash now should be very easy to digest and contribute to firm stools. It's just not happening. It's hard to get a definitive answer from the vets either. The older your dog gets, the more "old age" seems to be the cause of everything. I doubt that I'm going to find a cure for Dash's incontinence, but it does get tiring having a world centered around poop.

I've stopped carrying a camera on our walks because I really need to concentrate on keeping Dash upright. It's kind of a shame. This morning I missed a spectacular shot of a Great Egret. Yesterday evening the setting sun reflecting off the downtown skyscrapers was equally spectacular. I still carry my phone in my pocket, but I would have needed a telephoto lens to capture these images. It probably doesn't even matter. Everything I see in the park, I've already photographed dozens of times before. Just to prove my point, I took another picture of Jimson Weed flowers with my phone this morning.

Dash had a good day, but he still hasn't pooped yet. I'm nervous. I still can't decide whether to apply to join the Jet Propulsion Lab team for the InSight landing either. I guess I'm nervous about that too.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1778

I got the long awaited message from the liver center today, telling me that they considered me officially "cured" of Hepatitis C. My final viral load test showed that after six months, there was still no trace of the virus in my body. There will be no more tests. I'm done.

I'm relieved and happy to put all this behind me. It's ironic in a way that it took a deadly disease to get me healthy. Before Sovaldi came along, there really wasn't an effective cure for the disease. The previous interferon and ribavirin treatment only had a 50% success rate and many people experienced terrible side effects. I decided to wait until Sovaldi was approved and changed my entire diet and lifestyle to decrease the load on my liver. I quit drinking. I lost weight. And I exchanged my steady diet of cheeseburgers and beer for broccoli, kale salads, and other healthy fare. Healthy living kept my liver going while I was waiting and I ended up being one of the first people in the country to receive the new drug. It has been a long journey, but it definitely ended well.

I thought I'd watch a few YouTube videos and see if it were possible for me to install a new battery in my MacBook Pro laptop without going to the Apple Store. The process seemed simple enough. You just unscrew the bottom of the computer, unscrew a few more things inside, and them remove and replace the battery. Piece of cake. By doing this myself, I could cut the cost of a battery replacement in half. I gave the matter some serious thought and then decided I ought to make an appointment at the Genius Bar instead. I've had experience dealing with tiny little screws that have been tightened by machines before. It's incredibly easy to strip the threads, making it impossible to put everything back together again. I've ruined enough watches with tiny little screws that I proceed very cautiously when I see these things now. Just because you've got a small Philips screwdriver doesn't necessarily mean you can get the screws out. The Apple Store technicians are just as likely to destroy the computer as I am, but if they break it, they'll give me a new one. That's what happened when I had to get a new battery for my iPhone. The Apple folks ended up destroying the phone, but they were real nice about giving me a brand new one.

I watched a rocket explode carrying supplies to the space station when I was eating dinner tonight. I bet the astronauts on board the station are a little nervous right now. The 5,000 pounds of supplies included most of their food for the next six months. It's not exactly easy to get up to the space station anymore, with all our space shuttles sitting in museums. I did a little channel surfing to see if I could learn more about the story and was surprised to see how selective news coverage has become. All MSNBC was talking about were the upcoming mid-term elections, and Fox was still talking about Ebola. Apparently the only folks that initially thought this story was news was CNN.

Dot and Dash have their costumes ready for the Halloween party tomorrow. Once or twice we've won the costume contest, but typically the class don't even know what our costumes are. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Abi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1682

Dot is finally home again. After spending an entire week in intensive care being poked with needles, hooked up to IV tubes, and being cut open by a surgeon, I think she is very glad to be back on familiar turf. The cancer center officially released Dot late this afternoon, sending her home with a big sack of meds, and special instructions on how to care for her for the next few days. She still isn't eating well, but her doctors thought that being back in familiar surroundings would encourage her to resume eating normally. So far, the plan seems to be working. Within two hours after returning home Dot ate a small can of Hills A/D Critical Care. I'm glad she seems to tolerate this special prescription diet, because as much as dogs would prefer cheeseburgers, bacon and fried chicken to help them get well, people food just isn't a good long term solution.

Dot has been through a lot this week and is very tired. After eating her small special dinner and surveying the house and yard to make sure everything was still there, she settled in on top of a soft pile of her favorite blankets in the living room and went to sleep. We'll go back to the cancer center on Saturday to get her surgical bandages removed and then two weeks later to get her stitches out. I'm hoping that is all we'll need to go back for. Assuming that everything goes well with her convalescence, the next major milestone will be getting the pathology report on the tumor that was removed. If the growth is not malignant, all Dot needs to do is continue her recovery and get healthy again. If the growth turns out to be cancerous, we'll have to come up with a plan of action. That can be dealt with later. Right now, the important thing is recovering from some very major surgery. We'll take things one day at a time.

While Dot was being evaluated by her doctors this afternoon, I paid a visit to my own doctors. They wanted to do another series of tests to determine if my Hepatitis C treatment was still working as expected. I keep waiting for a final thumbs up from these guys, but it appears I may never get one. When I asked whether the disease ever returns after this type of treatment, my doctor essentially said that nobody knows yet. I was among the first large scale group of people in the world to receive the new Sovaldi drug and there are no historical records to compare. I am one of the test cases that will ultimately determine whether Sovaldi works as well long-term as it does during the initial treatment phase. So far, the drug appears to be a home run. "You were real lucky to be included in this first batch of patients," my doctor told me. "Insurance companies are starting to deny coverage already because of the high price, and there is talk of reserving the drug for the most serious cases." Rationing a drug that actually works exactly as promised seems like a stupid idea to me, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is what the government decides to do. Why would you want to ration a pill that costs a small fraction of the price of a liver transplant and has none of the rejection issues or transplant side effects? At any rate, I'm glad I got approved for treatment before Sovaldi got on the evening news as the world's most expensive pill. Insurance companies hate it now.

I won't be going out to my breakfast restaurant tomorrow. We have a new schedule now. I'll walk Dash very early in the morning, while Janet is still home and getting ready for work. We want to make sure that one of us is there to watch over her at all times. We'll see how tomorrow goes. So far, Dot seems to be improving a little bit every day. Today was a very good day.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1599

Little things can make a big difference. The oncologist went over Dash's treatment in detail with us today and was very reassuring. Even though Dash is very uncomfortable at this stage of his treatment and looks like he has a third degree burn on his neck, he is evidently still one of the lucky ones. The oncologist told us that the side effects from radiation treatment could be much, much worse. The radiation kills cancer cells, but it injures a lot of healthy cells in the process. Most of this injured tissue heals when the radiation is discontinued, but it can look pretty alarming when you're right in the middle of treatment.

Cancer treatment still seems pretty crude, compared to the high-tech pills I've been taking to combat my Hepatitis-C. The Sovaldi pills work directly at the DNA/RNA level to turn the reproductive mechanism of the virus on and off with minimal side effects. Chemotherapy medications by contrast are basically just poison. They are probably where that phrase "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" came from in the first place. The whole experience certainly seems to have made Dash stronger. Even though he is weak and tired now, he still seems to enjoy going to the cancer center, where he has made friends with the other sick dogs and continues to get lots of attention from all the nurses. When this is all over, I'm wondering if I might be able to bring him back occasionally, just to visit with the other dogs. He's going to enjoy being healthy again, but I think he's going to miss this place.

Work went smoothly today. There was a lot to do, but there were no meetings or phone calls, so I was able to quietly work my way through the day, one problem at a time. I'm more or less caught up with my writing assignments, but I've still got a website prototype to design and code by next Tuesday.  This is a very simple website, so it will probably only take me a day to put the whole thing together. Maybe I ought to get started this weekend though. It's never a good idea to begin a new website project a day before the deadline.

This is going to be a busy weekend. There are several animal rescue events on Saturday, lots of weekend errands and chores, and the dogs still can't be left alone for long stretches of time. I wish I had time to go to the big guitar show in Fair Park this weekend, but like I said, there's still a website that need to be designed. It would be nice to get back to the gym before I gain any more weight as well.

The Milkweed plants have returned for another year. The curious little green balls of tiny flowers are popping up all over the meadow behind our house. They call the plants Antelope Horn here in Texas, because of the small purple horn shaped flowers. They are basically just Milkweed though.

Bogart is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1596

I took my last Sovaldi pill this morning. There are still a few Ribavirin pills left, as a result of the time when they lowered my dosage to compensate for a low blood platelet count. I'll need to call my nurse at the liver center tomorrow and see what they want me to do with the remaining pills. Your guess is as good as mine on this one. Maybe the two pills are only meant to be used together, or just as plausibly, the Ribavirin may still be useful on its own. I'm just glad that I've just about put this segment of my life behind me.

Dash has some medication issues of his own. The cancer center gave him some Tramadol on Monday to alleviate pain associated with the radiation sore on his neck. He never seemed to be in pain though, and after only one day, the medication is making him wonky. One of the side effects of Tramadol is that it can make you very drowsy, or in rare cases even appear sedated. I'm not sure Dash was actually sedated, but he certainly seemed out of it for most of the day. I think I'll discontinue the medication. It would be one thing if he was really in pain, but I think this drug is making matters worse. When I told Dot's physical therapy vet what was happening with Dash, she said that she'd be more likely to prescribe an antibiotic to help prevent a secondary infection than to use a pain pill at this point. It's frustrating that vets, like my own human doctors, rarely agree on everything. All I know is that Dash acted perfectly normally before he started taking the pain medication. Now, he is acting loopy.

Dot wasn't as relaxed as she normally is at her acupuncture session. She appeared a bit stressed today. Maybe it was just that kind of day. Everyone I encountered today seemed a bit stressed. Sadly, I'd have to include myself in this category as well. We got slowed down by road construction on our way to the vet. One of my nagging website problems has reared its ugly head again. I'm even behind on my writing assignments. It's only Tuesday as well. At least there were no tornadoes here. The weather was beautiful again today. Lets hope these nice Spring days continue for a while.

I forgot to put a large black plastic bag full of garbage in the trash can yesterday evening and awoke this morning to discover that racoons had torn the bag apart and strewn garbage all over the back yard. I don't know why I left the bag at the back gate without actually placing it in the garbage can, but that's how your memory gets when you get older. I'll certainly remember to complete this chore now. Those racoons really made a mess of things. It took me forever to get everything cleaned up again so the dogs wouldn't go looking for stray chicken bones or other things they shouldn't be eating.

It's hard to believe that April is over already. Tomorrow is the last day of the month. Before long, I'll be complaining about the relentless Texas heat and wondering how to get rid of the wasp nests that appear every June. I seriously doubt that I could go a week without complaining if my life depended on it.

Parker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1570

Weird. After yesterday's dire warnings about high winds and damaging hail, it was sunny today. That's Texas weather for you. You never really know what's going to happen. It's just as well that I re-scheduled things so I could stay inside, however. As it turned out, there were a ton of vexing website problems that just couldn't wait. I couldn't even log-in to one of the sites I manage. Another had broken online forms. And a third was just slow as molasses. There are days when I would just as soon have nothing to do with the Internet, and today turned out to be one of those days.

My writing assignments went slower than expected today as well. I had a group of articles to write that were all essentially the same. They each had to appear very different though. I get this a lot. "Yeah, it's the same, but make it different." One of these days, I'll simply run out of adjectives and we'll all have to admit that I'm writing the same thing over and over again. It's actually not very easy to make the same thing seem fresh and different, but I do the best I can.

My liver doctors are starting to make me feel like a human pincushion. The keep experimenting with the dosage on the pills I'm taking. They'll lower the dosage after one series of blood tests and then raise the dosage again after the next series of tests. I was hoping that they'd keep the dosage lower, since this alleviated some of the irritating side effects, but now I'm right back to the initial rather high dosage I started with. Hey, I'll do whatever they want. I've only got one more month to go. Dash and I are going to have a big celebration when we complete our treatments.

Dash was poking his nose into some bushes by the side of the trail today, as he is often prone to do. Suddenly, a big snake slithered out right in front of us and disappeared in the underbrush. I guess it's that time of year again. I hate snakes. We've got tons of them around here and I can never remember which ones are safe and which ones are poisonous. Snakes pretty much curtailed my kayaking excursions in the lake. One day I had the kayak out and noticed a huge water moccasin swimming right along beside me. I haven't taken the kayak out since. Basically, I'm a city person who doesn't like people, which leaves me with very few places to go.

I'll probably go out to breakfast tomorrow after Dash goes for his radiation therapy.  Maybe I'll get today's balky websites to work properly tomorrow. Maybe I'll finally get caught up with my writing assignments. Who knows what will happen. It probably all depends on the weather.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1500

My visit with the hepatologist today was very encouraging. The new treatment for Hepatitis-C is far superior to the old interferon and ribavirin treatment. The new treatment only takes 12 weeks. It is almost always successful. And there are no horrible side effects. The old treatment could take up to a year, involved injecting yourself with very expensive interferon every week, and it almost always made you feel like you had a bad case of the flu. You also had to worry that the medicine would destroy your white blood cells.

Sovaldi, the major component of the new treatment, appears to be an amazing new drug. I'm glad someone finally invented it. The only downside is that I have to get approved before the pharmaceutical company will start sending it to me. The first part of the approval process involved getting new baseline blood work done. That part was a piece of cake. The next part involves getting insurance approval.  Lets see. A brand new advanced drug and an antiquated approval system that doesn't even understand some of the regular medication I take. What could possibly go wrong?

The best part of this new treatment is that my reluctance to inject myself with interferon has actually worked in my favor. Apparently Sovaldi works best if you have never had the interferon and ribavirin combo before.  We'll see what happens. My medical team wants to see me again in March. They say that I should be halfway through my treatment by then.

It was so cold today that the dogs and I were both reluctant to go outside. Nature calls though, so we had to bundle up and make the best of it. I found some new dog coats that are much easier to get on and off and the dogs seem to tolerate them pretty well. Getting them to wear their old sweaters was often an exercise in futility. Luckily, we didn't have to stay outside as long as we used to. Dash has finally learned to poop in the yard on cold days. Thank god! I don't know why it took him five years to learn this simple trick, but I'm glad he's finally acting sensible.

The tree service is supposed to come out and remove the tree from my roof tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the tree trimmers never show up. The tree has been sitting up there on the roof since well before Christmas, despite several promises of a speedy removal.  When the tree is finally gone, I'll move on to my next big project: doing my taxes.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day