Day 1728

I received a letter from my sister today telling me that her dog had died. Apparently, it had an undetected tumor very similar to Dot's abdominal cancer and the tumor ruptured. Very sad. I wonder why so many dogs end up having cancer at some point in their life. I've heard that up to 50% of all dogs eventually have some sort of cancer. I wonder why? Is it the food we feed our dogs these days? Is it the environment? Or are dogs just naturally predisposed to develop cancer? We were lucky to have caught Dot and Dash's cancer in time, but Janet and I have lost pets to cancer too. Spot died of cancer and so did Greta. Spot lived an additional three years after having surgery to remove the tumor, but it had already metastasized, so the cancer eventually returned. Greta never recovered from the surgery and died in the hospital.

Today was definitely a Monday. The day got off to a slow start and never picked up speed. I paid some bills, made some appointments for later in the week, and answered my mail, but that was about it. I was disappointed to discover that one of Dot's protective sleeping pads was wet when we woke up this morning, but then she made it through the rest of the day without another accident. Go figure. Things are definitely better than they were three weeks ago, but the road to recovery is certainly a rocky one. I'm still not sure if Dot's new medication is having any effect yet.

I must have exerted myself a little more than I thought I did at the gym yesterday. My arm has felt sore all day. Lately, I've been feeling like I'm falling apart. I need to go to the dentist. I need to have physical therapy for my dislocated shoulder. And I'd really like to stop taking the Statins my general practitioner has me taking to lower my cholesterol. I was fine with Zetia and Welchol, but the combination of Statins and time-release Niacin is driving me nuts. Taking large amounts of Niacin causes the small blood vessels to dilate and creates a flushing sensation that makes you feel like you're on fire. You are supposed to be asleep when this happens, but since the dogs wake me up a lot, I often have to deal with flushing. I wish the doctor would switch me back to my old meds, but every time I tell him how much I hate Statins, he tries to scare me with heart attack stories. This usually works. I know too many people my age who have already had a heart attack.

I wonder if it's normal to think about food so much. I'm not gaining weight and I don't eat all that much, but lately I spend more time thinking about what I'm going to eat next than about what I'm going to do next. For much of my life I've always had a big editing, photography, or music project that consumed my thoughts and time. I just don't find myself as interested in these things as I used to be. I sure do think about what's for dinner and what's for breakfast though. My dreams have changed too. I know they've changed, but unfortunately I forget them about ten seconds after I wake up. One day, maybe I'll remember these dreams and all will be revealed.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1233

Whenever I bent down to work with the dogs at training class tonight, I felt light-headed when I stood up again. Since feeling faint when standing is a known side effect of two medications I take, I think it might be time to reevaluate my meds. Carvedilol slows down the heart rate and Metformin lowers blood sugar levels. With the radical changes I've made in my diet, I may not need these medications anymore. Getting a doctor to agree with this assessment might be difficult though. Once doctors starting seeing positive results from the pills they prescribe, they are loathe to discontinue them. I wish I could find someone with a comprehensive knowledge of both nutrition and medicine. It would be nice to know with some degree of certainty how diet, exercise, and medicine interact but I have yet to find a doctor who truly respects the opinions of a nutritionist. When you give a medical doctor a list of the medications you take, they don't even know what to do with the herbal supplements. It's frustrating to say the least. I really think the side effects of some of the medications I take are actually mimicking the symptioms of the diseases they are meant to treat.

Unexplained light-headedness wasn't my only frustration today. I was totally confused by my U-verse bill. It was supposed to go down this month, but it actually went up. When I called customer service to see if I could figure out what my bill was actually supposed to be, the customer service representative became equally confused. There are so many weird state and local taxes added to your phone bill every month that I'm not sure anyone knows what's going on. Phone companies continually offer incentives to keep you as a subscriber. Municipalities keep changing the tax rates. And as a result, your bill never seems to be the same. When I finally figured out what was going on, I was disappointed. Although my bill was higher than I thought it would be, it was lower than it could have been. Phone and Internet bills are kind of like the national deficit. They always keep going up.

One of the articles I wrote today was about the possibility of an Internet sales tax. I'd hate to see this happen, but it probably will. One of the main reasons I buy so much stuff online now is to avoid the sales tax. States and municipalities are hungry for additional revenue though and they see online retailers as a good place to find it. An Internet sales tax is coming, so if you've got your heart set on a new camera or computer, you'd better buy it now.

Dot was really peppy today. I'd like to think her surprising burst of energy was the result of her new heartworm medication. It's probably too early to tell though, since the dogs just got their monthly heartworm pills this morning. I'll hope for the best though, just like I do with my own condition.

Betsy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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