Day 3087

I'm very disappointed. The blood clot in Dash's heart has returned. Actually, the doctors think that this is a brand new clot and aren't entirely sure why it has appeared. The current theory is that Dash has a heart valve problem that causes a vortex around the valve that lets clots start to form. We've known that Dash has had a heart murmur for a long time. It's possible that he has had periodic clots for a long time as well. There's not really much we can do. Since one clot actually did dissolve over time, we're hoping that this new one will as well. I was expecting a more favorable outcome after the good news we heard on our last visit. It wasn't meant to be.

Dash's early morning vet appointment caused the day to get off to a slow start. By the time we were ready for our morning walk, the sun was already high in the sky and Dash quickly got overheated. He just can't take the heat anymore. I cut our walk short and returned home. This was fine with Dash. I think the vet visit was all the activity he wanted to deal with today anyway.

The grass I thought was dead yesterday looks even worse today. I'll give it a little time, but I think I'm going to have to complain. I hear thunder in the distance, so maybe a good soaking rain will help. It won't help the roof, but it just might help to revive this pitiful looking St. Augustine grass.

I photographed some more art work for the auction house today. I'm still not quite sure what they're looking for. Some items they get excited about and others not so much. I still think that this is a good time to begin to simplify my life. I just wish it wasn't so complicated to simplify.

My pharmacy has been bugging me to pick up some prescriptions. An automated message calls me every day to remind me to pick these things up. I finally did go to the pharmacy today and the pharmacist told me that it was too early to get the pills. WTF? "Medicare won't pay for these renewals until June 30," he said. "Well, why to you keep asking me to pick them up," I asked? The pharmacist had no answer. We both knew that this was just one more example of a healthcare system out of control. I'm not out of pills anyway. I'll just go back and pick these up at the end of the month.

Dash currently is shivering under my desk again. There isn't a lot of rain, but there sure is a lot of wind and thunder. I don't know what Dash is worried about, but I'm worried about losing power. We definitely have had a lot of rain in the past several weeks. Every time I get ready to tell the roofer that there's going to be a long enough stretch of dry weather to finish the repairs, another storm pops up.

I forgot to record the new episode of The Expanse last night. It just goes to show that I can't even remember things that I want to remember. No great loss. I'm sure I can find this episode online anyway. If I had a little more patience, I could just buy the entire season on iTunes and avoid all the commercials.

The new syndication service that replaces NetworkedBlogs actually works. Yay. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting this. I'm always pleasantly surprised when something works.

Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2833

There are so many things wrong with Dash that we're going to have to go through a process of elimination to determine what is causing his eating disorder. The first step is to determine whether he really has nausea. We'll give him Cerenia for five days and see whether his appetite returns. Cerenia is a very effective anti-nausea medication, so if he still isn't eating this weekend, the cause probably isn't nausea. The vet discovered that his heart murmur had changed and suspects that it might be caused by fluid buildup around the heart. He does have an enlarged heart, so this is entirely possible. I've scheduled an echocardiogram for later this week. We'll check his heart and also his abdomen to see if there are any tumors evident.

On top of all this, the vet thinks that Dash may have partially torn a cruciate ligament in one of his knees. She suspects that this, rather than his vestibular disease, might be causing him to drag his rear legs on long walks. So many things are wrong that it impossible to know how to treat Dash until we learn more. The vestibular disease could be causing nausea. Poor appetite has many other causes too, so it might not be nausea at all. The agitation he often shows before he goes to bed at night could be caused by Pericardial Effusion. Evidently fluid buildup is worse at night while the dog is sleeping and over time they can become nervous about going to sleep. Maybe this explains why he gets upset about going to bed at night. It's also possible, but somewhat unlikely, that Dash has sundown syndrome, or even cushings disease.

It's all kind of sad. Dot and Dash used to love to run like the wind when they were young. I was hoping that after Dot passed away Dash would get another chance to be active again and really enjoy himself. He liked being around Dot so much that he had to slow down to her pace as she got sicker. Now, it appears he is sick as well. Dash has a really good team of doctors, so I'm hoping that they'll be able to return him to good health. He's not getting any younger though, so his days of running like the wind might be over.

The refrigerator repairman came back this afternoon and finished the job. When the repairman began taking things apart, I was surprised to see that the evaporator coil had already become frozen again. Jeez. It's only been a few days since I spent hours thawing everything out. Hopefully the new parts that were installed today will fix this ongoing problem. The repairman installed a new heater that periodically defrosts the coil when ice starts to form. He also installed a new thermostat that will tell the heater when it's time to start the defrost cycle. I can't decide whether refrigerators are crude simple machines, or hopelessly complex. I'm glad someone invented the refrigerator. Modern life would be pretty difficult without one.

I've got a dental appointment tomorrow morning. It's only a routine cleaning, so I shouldn't be long. It still makes me nervous to leave Dash, but sometimes it can't be helped. I'm hoping he'll just sleep while I'm away.

Suki is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2721

I'm sleeping longer now. I guess that's a good thing. I wish the extra sleep left me filled with energy and motivation, but that's not the case. I'm still kind of floundering around and searching for a direction. Fortunately, I'm so slow these days that it's not hard to fill up the day even with no plan whatsoever.

I've determined that the rat is still in the atrium. I haven't seen him since he escaped from the trap, but I know he's there. I placed several pieces of cheese outside the trap last night and they were gone in the morning. The rat avoided the larger piece of cheese inside the trap though. I think I'm dealing with a smart rat. I purchased some old fashioned rat traps that will kill the rat, but I am reluctant to use them. I'll give him one more chance. I added a big scoop of peanut butter to the bait in hopes of enticing him inside. I wish this rat knew that I had his best interests in mind. If he would just go inside the trap again, I'll take him down to the park in the morning.

Recently, I remember someone posting "Do you remember when Bluehost didn't suck" on Facebook. I laughed because I did remember. Bluehost used to be a great web hosting company. I recommended them to many of my clients. Unfortunately, things have changed. I don't know what happened. Maybe someone else bought the company. At any rate, calling technical support is a nightmare these days. You have to wait on hold forever and when someone finally picks up the phone, they don't know anything and always have to talk to their supervisor. I had a problem today and it drove me crazy trying to get a simple answer from the tech support people. I wanted to hang up on them several times but I knew that I'd be sitting on hold for another twenty minutes if I tried to start over. After spending an hour on the phone, I still didn't receive an answer to my question.

I wish I could get Dash to take long walks again. I think it would be good for both of us. He wants to stick close to home though. I've been having trouble getting him to walk all week. I noticed he was panting a bit this morning and it was still cool outside. This worried me a bit. We've known for a long time that Dash has an enlarged heart and a bit of a heart murmur. He's got to go to the vet to check his triglycerides again soon and I'll have the vet look at his heart. It's always hard to tell if Dash has a medical problem or is just being moody.

I'll try to cut Dash some slack because I'm feeling a bit moody myself. Hopefully, this will pass. I certainly didn't accomplish much today. I paid a few bills and took them to the post office. I picked up a bottle of rubbing alcohol at CVS and bought a couple of pair of anklet socks. I used to hate the idea of anklet socks, but they do make sense in the summer.

The sun has finally returned and the yard is drying out. Maybe I'll figure out how to use the new pressure washer tomorrow. There is certainly a lot that needs to be cleaned. I hope there is a rat in my trap in the morning. I'm not looking forward to resorting to Plan B.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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