Day 3928

Dawn is sick. She was fine yesterday, but she woke up this morning very lethargic and didn't want to eat her breakfast. We initially thought she had an upset stomach and might have eaten something bad in the yard. When we went on our morning walk she walked about a block and then refused to go any further. We went back home and she immediately went back to the bedroom. When she still refused to eat anything at lunchtime, we began to get worried. She felt a little warm, so we took her temperature and were shocked when it was 105 degrees. This was serious. We called the vet and made an appointment. When we described our situation, they told us to come in immediately.

Dawn is still under observation. Her blood work looks good, but the vet initially thought that she might have had some sort of seizure. If she did have a seizure overnight, it wasn't like anything we've experienced before. We've had dogs who have had both epileptic and vestibular seizures and Dawn wasn't acting like this at all. She occasionally had a mild tremor in her body that appeared like she was having hiccups. She had some rapid eye movement as well. The thing that scares me is the last time we took a dog to the vet with a 105 degree fever, we discovered two days later that she had abdominal cancer and required immediate surgery.

Each of our dogs has had to deal with very serious health issues at some point during their life. After dealing with cancer, epilepsy, neurological and spinal cord problems, torn cruciate ligaments, and attacks by other dogs, we were worn out. The sadness that comes from dealing with serious and often incurable health issues was one of the reasons that we didn't think we'd get another dog after Dot and Dash passed away.

Dawn is such a sweet dog with such a troubled past that we were really hoping that we could offer her a happy, trouble free life where she could forget her former life. Hopefully we still can. The vet thinks she might have a neurological problem and wants to get an MRI done of her brain as soon as we get her fever under control. We've taken one of our dogs to see a neurosurgeon before. If there is a problem in the brain or spinal cord, it often doesn't end well. 

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Hopefully, we can bring Dawn home later tonight and the vet will be able to figure out exactly what is going on. In the best of worlds, we'll all wake up tomorrow morning and everything will be fine. Dawn has always had some muscle atrophy on the top of her head that you usually don't see until a dog become very old. I've always thought this was strange. Up until this morning she has seemed perfectly healthy though. She routinely gets a clean bill of health when we take her to the vet. This is 2020 though so anything could happen.

Well, it's two hours later now. We just returned from the vet with Dawn and a big bag of meds. They managed to get her fever down, but still don't really know what caused it. The vet suspects that Dawn had a mild seizure last night and might have brain lesions. This is just a guess though. We'd need to do an MRI to know for sure. Other things could have caused a sudden high fever as well. It could be a viral infection. It could be a wide variety of things at this point. From past experience I know that a conclusive diagnosis can be quite difficult. Dawn is eating again though. That's a good sign. Oops. Janet said she just threw up. That's not a good sign.

I'm glad I didn't go to Florida. I'd feel even worse if I was far away. We'll see how Dawn feels in the morning. She's resting calmly now. This is all very familiar territory that I was hoping to avoid for a while.

Rosie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3059

My friend who owns the train store is already promoting my collection. I read the description on his website and my first thought was "Wow, I used to own this stuff." If I were younger, had a good job and lots of space, this is definitely something I'd be interested in buying. I hope the collection finds a good home. I think I was a discriminating collector. Some of the items are quite rare. I spent a lot of time finding these things.

That's all in the past now. I've just begun downsizing, but I'd really like to get to the point where the house is clean and tidy again and Janet and I can spend our time traveling instead of acquiring stuff. There is nothing wrong with collecting. I'm still a big fan of collecting. Learning a lot of trivia about anything broadens the mind. You should only embark on a collecting odyssey if it brings you joy and you've got a group of like minded people to share your obsession with. A collection without other people who appreciate it is nothing.

Dash has been sleeping all night for the past week. I can't figure out what has changed. He's eating the same things and there has been no real change in his behavior. I appreciate the extra sleep, but I know that things could change overnight. I don't really know if Dash's new sleeping pattern is a sign that he's better or worse. You go through a lot of changes as you grow older and some of them are hard to explain. I monitor Dash closely, but there's only so much I can do. I've been taking things one day at a time for a long, long time.

Our morning walks take over an hour now, even though we don't go very far. I don't mind. Dash enjoys being outdoors and I don't have anything to do anyway. Today was pretty typical. I ate breakfast, did a load of laundry and cleaned the toilets while Dash was taking a nap. I did end up watching the new episode of The Expanse that I recorded yesterday. I think I enjoyed binge watching Season 1 and Season 2 better. There's a formula for episodic TV. There's always a cliffhanger at the end of each show to make sure you tune in for the next week's episode. I'd rather watch the entire series at once. The cliffhangers don't make much sense if you've already forgotten them by the time the next show airs.

I picked up some more meds for Dash today. Janet usually gives Dash his pills, but when she travels, I need to make sure he takes them myself. The older he gets the more complicated this becomes. Dash won't take pills in a dog food meatball or pill pocket anymore. He has lost interest in banana bread too. Janet says peanut butter still works. Before she goes somewhere, Janet packages morning and evening meds in separate zip lock bags and labels each one with the day they are supposed to be given. This may seem like overkill, but I appreciate it. I am becoming forgetful. I forgot my own meds last night.

I made an appointment to get my oil changed and the soonest they could work me in was May 19. When I used to need this sort of thing they would just tell me to come on up anytime. Everything is way too hectic now. I also found out that my regular service adviser no longer works at the dealership. Jeez. Why does everything always have to keep changing.

One thing that never changes is my quest for the perfect breakfast every Friday. I still don't know where I'm going tomorrow, but hopefully I'll find something delicious on the menu.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2611

Dash was released from the hospital today. He's still a little shaky, but he is much better than when we visited him on Saturday. Dash has never traveled well in the car and I definitely shouldn't have agreed to pick him up during the evening rush hour. It was a stressful drive home to say the least. Dash was causing such a commotion that I figured if he didn't have another stroke on the way home, he was cured. I still don't have a clear idea what caused the seizures. Three highly regarded specialists examined him during his stay at the cancer center and each had a slightly different opinion. Does Dash have vestibular disease? Did high blood pressure cause a capillary to burst in his cerebellum? Were these seizures new or have there been subtle signs that this was about to happen for a long, long time? We may never know the answer.

Dash came home with a big bag of meds.  Admittedly, some of these pills were the same ones he was already taking when he was admitted to the hospital, but it was still a bit sobering to see how much medication he needs to take every day. Hopefully, we'll never get these pills mixed up with the ones Dot needs to take, or with my own. Our kitchen is already starting to look like a pharmacy. Dash needs to stay calm for the next couple of weeks. That's a tall order to say the least. I couldn't even keep him calm on the way home from the hospital this evening.

I haven't been asked to do a complicated photo shoot for quite some time, but that's about to change. I was on the phone this afternoon, trying to work out the logistics for a photo session this weekend that involves teenagers, dogs in costumes, and a leftover set from Erykah Badu's latest music video. I kept trying to tell my client that I was getting too old for this sort of thing, but she kept insisting that she had faith in me and wanted me to do the job. Janet says she'll watch the dogs while I'm gone, so I guess the shoot is a go, whether I'm ready or not.

I finally got all the rugs cleaned that Dot peed on the other day. Every time I complete this task I feel a bit like Sisyphus, eternally pushing the rock up the hill. I know that within a day or two, I'll have to repeat the whole process all over again. I'm still trying to figure out how my complicated routine is going to change, now that Dash needs extra attention. If Dash would just stay calm, my job would be a lot easier, but calm is not a word you would normally associate with Dash. For most of his life, he has been high strung and nervous. Along with all his other problems, we discovered today on one of the new scans that Dash has an enlarged heart. I always knew he had a heart murmur, but there was no reason to assume that he automatically had heart disease. We rescued Dash and will never know his entire history, but I'm willing to bet he was a puppy mill dog. He has way too many health issues.

Dash was quite excited and very happy to be home this evening, but he wouldn't eat his dinner. I'll need to call the cancer center in the morning and find out what they were feeding him. Apparently, his appetite was quite good while he was away. Dash has always been a finicky eater. If he's decided he likes something new, it's going to be hell getting him to eat his old food again. Of course, I may be overthinking things. Dash could easily gobble down the same food he rejected tonight when we feed the dogs breakfast tomorrow morning.

I hope we all get a good night's sleep tonight. Dot seems happy that Dash has returned and our high strung boy has finally calmed down and is taking a nap on the bed. I'm more than ready for life to return to some semblance of normality. Picking up poop in the house is no big deal, but having two dogs that might drop dead at any minute is a bit stressful.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2283

It took forever to get home from Dot's therapy session today. There was an accident on the freeway that shut down all four Northbound lanes. I knew something was wrong when I got on the access road and a couple walking on the sidewalk kept passing me every time a stopped at a traffic light. The traffic was so backed up on the access road that pedestrians were going faster than I was. The access road was still better than the freeway though. At least we were moving. The freeway was completely gridlocked. Every time I get stuck in traffic like this, I wish I lived in a small rural town with a population of 300. Of course this little town would have to have high speed internet, dependable FedEx delivery, and a very good vet, so it only exists in my imagination.

Dot did very well on the treadmill today, considering the uncertain way we started the day. I woke up early this morning to the distinctive sound of a dog trying to throw up. I quickly got Dot in her harness and we took her outside. Once outside, she seemed to calm down. She didn't throw up at all and pooped and peed instead. After that, we all went back to bed. For the rest of the day she seemed completely normal. Odd little episodes like this are one reason I get very little sleep these days. There's always something unexpected going on.

Even work is full of unexpected surprises. A client wanted me to remove a page from his website because he said it contained a virus. The page was just a simple HTML document and nothing was wrong with it. I didn't argue though. It was much easier to remove the page than to explain why it couldn't possibly contain a virus. Was the website infected a virus? Nope. Did the client have a virus on his own computer? Probably.

I picked up Dash's blood pressure medication today. I was initially confused, because I could have sworn that I'd just picked up blood pressure meds two days ago. Janet reminded me that I'd picked up Dot's prescription and that the two pills were completely different. I still don't know why Dot and Dash are taking two different pills for exactly the same condition. The fact that I take a third medication to control my own high blood pressure makes things even more confusing. There are literally dozens of medications that have been approved to treat hypertension. Each doctor or vet has their favorites and nobody seems to agree on anything. I hope the dogs pills have fewer side effects than my own. I will say that all three pills work. Dot, Dash and I all have normal blood pressure now.

After several years of taking Dot to physical therapy on Thursday, I keep thinking that tomorrow is Friday. Nope. Eventually I'll get used to our schedule change. Sooner or later I'll get used to Daylight Savings Time too. I wish I could get used to rain. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow.

Ruthie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1739

Since most stores are already overflowing with an abundance of pumpkins, can Thanksgiving and Christmas be far behind? It still seems a little early to be thinking about Halloween to me, but apparently that's not how it works anymore. For the next three months we will be continually reminded that there is nothing more American than conspicuous consumption. I've already seen Christmas lights on sale in a few stores. These holidays come and go so quickly now that I already feel like 2014 is almost over. It has been an interesting year, but definitely not one of my favorites. I sincerely hope that the dogs stay healthy in the year ahead. There were way too many medical emergencies this year.

I must have gotten up early this morning. I had a leisurely breakfast at my favorite restaurant, retrieved some equipment from the storage warehouse, picked up groceries at Central Market, and was still home by 9:30 AM. It was good that I got an early start, because work was busy today. I finished my writing assignment first and then got started on a complex Photoshop job. The client loved the photo, except they wanted me to replace the eyes on one model with a different set of eyes, eliminate blemishes on another, and completely replace the head of a third model. It all had to look natural and believable too. I thought I did a good job, but the girl with the new head might be a bit surprised with the finished shot.

The new iPhone 6 went on sale today and I didn't buy one. That's a first. I haven't downloaded IOS 8 either. I must be slipping. Usually, I can't wait to try something shiny and new, but this time my old phone seems just fine. Truthfully, my interest in all types of gear is declining. I don't think I've purchased a new camera, lens, guitar or watch this entire year. It's just as well. I don't have any money anyway.

Today was a chemotherapy day for Dash. Dot is finishing her loading dose of the Incurin pills and we'll begin decreasing the dose this weekend. Between me and the dogs, it's amazing how much time is consumed dealing with meds. There is always something that needs to be renewed or reviewed. I picked up two prescriptions for myself this afternoon and am still trying to figure out which pill is giving me a runny nose. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when I took no meds at all. Then I remember that I am much healthier now. I tend to forget that before I made a concerted effort to get things under control, I had already had a minor stroke, a bleeding ulcer, and my blood pressure often hovered around 160 over 110. There is a reason for all these pills.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend. The weather is getting cooler. The dogs are getting healthier. Fall is finally here.

Rhett is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day