Day 2570

More pills to keep track of. The good news when I took Dash to the vet today was that the growth in his neck does not appear to be cancerous. There is something going on though. It turns out that the strange mass I discovered yesterday is a swollen lymph node. The cells the vet aspirated all seem normal, so it seems likely that this problem was caused by some sort of infection. Nothing seemed obvious, but the inflammation could be caused by almost anything. Ear infections often cause swollen lymph nodes in people. With dogs, it is often a problem with the gums or teeth. For the next two weeks, we'll be adding clavamox to the lengthy list of pills Dash takes each day. If antibiotics don't clear up the problem, I guess we'll do some more testing.

We're sleeping longer now, since there's no reason to get up early. Until Janet returns, the alarm stays off. My fitness tracker says that I'm getting almost an extra hour of sleep every night. Dot still needs to go outside and pee when she first wakes up unfortunately, but surprisingly, both dogs seem content to go back to bed until the sun comes up after this initial race to the back door. In theory, I should feel a lot more rested, but I don't. I seem to wake up more during the night, and once the dogs finally do decide to get up,  I'm on call for the rest of the day.

I made Dash's vet appointment for 11:30 AM, thinking that this would give me plenty of time to finish our lengthy morning routine. I was wrong. It took so long to get both dogs walked and fed, clean up the poop inside and out, and get the car ready for Dash, that by the time I finished my own breakfast, it was time to go. I was almost late. I didn't even turn on the computer or take a shower. Just taking care of the basic necessities took almost four hours.

The dogs seemed quieter than usual after dinner last night, so I thought I'd try to watch the Dr. Who Christmas Special I'd taped earlier. Everything seemed fine until I got Dot up during the closing credits to take her evening meds. Yuck. Dot was sitting in a big pile of very messy poo. How could this have happened? I'd been sitting right next to Dot throughout the movie and didn't smell a thing. Maybe my nose has become desensitized to the smell of poop. Dot didn't make any attempt to get up either, even though she wasn't asleep. It was a strange and very inconvenient way to end the day. My first thought was how do I get Dot outside without making the situation worse. Her harness, as well as the leash I use to hold up her rear end were covered in poo. Luckily the temperature had warmed up, because I had to use the hose again. Eventually, I got Dot clean, gave the dogs their evening meds, and we all went to bed.

It's so close to the end of the year that I keep thinking I must be forgetting something. Is there an outstanding bill I still need to pay in 2016? Are there software subscriptions or domain names that need to be renewed? There must be something. When my company was busier, I always used to buy new equipment at the end of the year so I could expense it using the Section 179 deduction. There is no need to buy any more gear though. I would just be fooling myself if I thought I was going to use it.

I think I've become a full time dog nanny. I don't think I accomplished a single thing today that wasn't directly related to the welfare of Dot or Dash. It was a busy day too. These are very high maintenance dogs. Maybe there will be a return to sanity tomorrow. Or maybe not.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1676

Dot took a turn for the worse today. We were really optimistic this morning. When we picked her up at the emergency clinic at 7 AM, her fever had subsided and she was a lot more steady on her feet. Dot looked like she was getting better. We had to take her back to our regular vet for the day, because the emergency clinic is only open at night. Dot's regular nurse called around noon to say that she was eating solid food again. This was encouraging too. It was only at the end of the day when our vet did new blood work that we realized her condition had actually gotten worse.

Dot's white blood cell count has significantly increased during the day, while her liver enzyme levels have gotten worse. This is not good! What it means is that the inflammation within her body that is causing all the problems is not being effectively controlled by the antibiotics or anti-inflammatory medications she's currently taking. Janet and I really thought we'd be able to take her home with us this evening, but since her condition was deteriorating, we went straight back to the emergency clinic instead.

She is spending the night hooked up to IV tubes again. Tomorrow morning, Dot will see an internal medicine specialist at the same cancer center where Dash is being treated. We stayed with her tonight at the emergency clinic until she got sleepy and was comfortably settled in for the night. I wish I could have just pulled up a cot and spent the night with her, but that was not allowed. I hope she sleeps peacefully and shows just as much improvement tonight as she did last night. One of the vets we talked to today told us that the anti-inflammatory steroids she was given today can cause a temporary increase in white blood cell levels. I hope that is all that's going on. Dot's escalating white blood cell levels could mean something far more serious.

It has been a very long day. I got a lot of website work done, but I was really just sitting by the phone all day waiting for updates from the vet. It is frustrating that nobody has been able to pin down the source of the inflammation so far. I've talked to a lot of people too. If we knew what was causing the problem, it would be much easier to treat it. I'm really hoping that the internal medicine specialist we're seeing tomorrow can shed some light on this mystery before Dot's condition becomes even worse.

Dot's sudden illness is the last thing I expected. Sure, she's old, but she is the healthiest Dalmatian we have ever had. I guess in some small, unrealistic corner of my mind, I kept thinking she would live forever. I"m hoping for the best this weekend, but things don't look good now.

Beemer is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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