Day 3303

Filling the pothole in the driveway with rocks actually worked. The surface is stable now and it's easy to get the car in and out. The toilet is still working as well. That's a minor miracle. Let's hope that the roof repairs were successful as well. I went up to check on things this morning and it looks like the guys did a good job. I don't see how water could possibly get inside the house now. Of course, I've said this many times before. Somehow water always seems to win this perpetual battle. I'm definitely not going to attempt to repair the damaged sheetrock in the ceiling until we've survived a few heavy rains.

Dash was alert and full of energy this morning, but his legs still aren't working very well. He stumbles frequently now and is unable to get up. I've started leaving his harness on in the house so it is easier to lift him up after a fall. We've repositioned the rugs so he has better traction in strategic places, but there isn't much we can do medically. I guess we could give him steroid shots to reduce inflammation in his spine, but we're not even sure there is any inflammation. Steroids are not a good long-term solution anyway and neither of his vets have recommended them. Dash could be suffering from degenerative myelopathy, a ruptured or slipped disc in his spine, arthritis, or the weakness could still be a symptom of his vestibular disease. He still enjoys his daily walks, but they are becoming progressively slower. One of these days we'll have to see if he can learn to use Dot's doggie wheelchair.

I wrote another letter to my Luddite sister today. Every time I do something the old fashioned way, it makes me realize that I'm not really that dependent on the Internet and technology. I could go back to living like I did in the 1970's rather easily. Life was good then. I had an IBM Selectric typewriter and a little Sony Trinitron TV that received about eight channels using a built in antenna. I played my music on a reel-to-reel tape recorder and shot most of my pictures with a Nikon-F on Kodachrome film. We still picked up the phone when it rang. There were no telemarketers. I think even answering machines came a bit later. Has life really improved that much since then? I don't think so. We'd already been to the moon in the early 1970's. Houses were affordable. Music was great. People trusted each other more. What's not to like? I'd go back in a minute if I could.

I've had a low grade cold all week. It's not the flu, but it's still a nuisance. My nose is constantly dripping and I wake up with a sore throat. Nothing really seems to make a cold go away quickly. You've just got to let it run its course. Decongestants and antihistamines don't work well with me. I hate the way they make me feel, so I don't take them. As a result I'm blowing my nose all the time. Hopefully I'll be back to normal in a few days. I look like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer now.

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning. It was almost worth getting up early. I think we have to get up early tomorrow as well. Janet has plans and Dash won't walk anymore without both of us nearby. Hopefully Dash will be a little steadier on his feet for tomorrow's walk. I don't have any plans at all, but I'm sure that something will happen. It always does.as

Mack is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1887 - Valentines Day

After viewing Dot's MRI scans with the neurologist this morning, it became painfully clear why she is having problems. Several spinal discs were visibly deformed, but one in particular was pressing directly against the normally round spinal cord, squeezing it into a squashed oval shape. There was a tiny shard or fragment from this damaged disk that looked like it was poking into the spinal cord itself. I was going to show you the image this evening so you could see for yourself, but unfortunately the DVD the hospital burned for me was another damaged disc. When I got home, my computer said the DVD was blank.

I typed up a list of questions this morning before we drove up to the hospital to pick up Dot. The neurologist was very patient, answering every question and much more. The only thing that she wasn't able to do was promise me that Dot's problems could be resolved. Could the little shard that had broken off from the disc be successfully removed without damaging the spinal cord? It is very likely that it could. Could something go wrong during surgery, making her condition even worse? Yes that could happen too. Could steroids alone reduce the inflammation around the spinal cord enough to allow Dot to resume a reasonably normal life. Possibly. This appears to be one of those things that you just don't know until you try. One of the keys to non-surgical treatment is 100% bed rest for up to eight weeks. Nerves are very fragile, are easily damaged, and can take a very long time to regenerate.

I felt a little better about the possibility of surgery after talking to the neurologist today. I felt a little worse about the whole recovery process after I read a website that described in great detail the many ways that dogs can screw up their own recovery by just being dogs. Dogs don't understand the concept of 100% bed rest and will do everything they can to resume their old activities. You have to watch them like a hawk at all times to ensure that they don't injure themselves.

As bad as it is, there are small signs of hope. When we took Dot to the specialty hospital her rear legs were completely lifeless. This morning, I could see small signs that she was attempting to move them. As I used the Help 'Em Up Harness throughout the day to get her outside to pee, I would often notice that her legs were attempting to move. Dot is a long, long way from being to support her own weight without assistance, but the fact that there is still a little feedback between the nerves in her legs and her spinal cord was encouraging.

I had to be the legs for my first Dalmatian during the last year of his life and it just about killed me. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this is where all my current shoulder problems originated. Spot had a different problem than Dot has now, however. With Spot, a combination of hip dysplasia and a late in life cruciate ligament tear caused most of of the weakness in his rear legs. Spot was very weak but was never completely paralyzed. It was still possible to take him on walks using a supportive harness. Dot's condition is more serious.

Helping Dot recover will test the limits of my housebound lifestyle. Even I need to get out sometime. Janet and I will figure out a way to keep Dot under supervision at all times. It's not going to be easy though. Dot has already tried to get off her dog bed unassisted three times today. She is not a good candidate for being crated though, so I will always keep her nearby and be her legs when it looks like she needs to move. So far there have been no accidents. She is pretty good about letting me know when she needs to pee. She's even better about letting me know when she's hungry, which is almost all the time.

Tonight should be interesting. Dot has always slept in the bed, but the neurologist says that she absolutely must sleep on the floor and not get in the bed with us. There is just too much danger if she inadvertently tried to hop off the bed while we were asleep. I'm such a light sleeper that I almost always wake up whenever either dog moves during the night. I don't want to risk anything though, so maybe I'll sleep on the floor with her. Dot is today's Dalmatian of the day. I took this picture on Valentines Day several years ago when she was feeling much better.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1822

I finally went to the doctor today. I apparently don't have a high enough fever to have the flu, so the nurse told me I just had a nasty cold. I always feel slightly embarrassed when I go to the doctor with cold symptoms. Many of the nurses I deal with have young children and they are around sick people all day. It's not surprising that many of them seem to have perpetual colds themselves. When I come to them complaining about feeling lousy, I'm sure they just think I'm being a big baby. I still think people should stay out of circulation when they have a cold however. It would sure help keep me from getting one.

I asked the nurse if I could spread my cold to others when I do Santa photos this weekend.  Apparently not. I am already out of the infectious phase, although the feeling miserable phase could last for over a week. They said a steroid shot would make me feel better, but the cold itself would last just as long. I didn't take them up on their offer. There's no reason to take steroids unless it is absolutely necessary. I feel the same way about the dogs. Steroids are a powerful anti-inflammatory, but they are still basically bad news. I stay away from them.

Since I have my initial consultation with my new physical therapist tomorrow morning, I decided to go out for breakfast today. For the rest of the day, it seemed like Friday. I almost forgot about Dot's Thursday therapy session, but Dot seemed to remember. At the appointed time, she was standing by the door. Both dogs seem to have remarkably good biological clocks. They always seem to know when it's time to do something that involves them. They are especially accurate around dinner time. If I'm even five minutes late with their dinner, I never hear the end of it.

Dot did really well on the treadmill today. Hopefully, I will do equally well with my own therapy tomorrow. I've had physical therapy for my bad shoulder before. The therapy definitely helped, but it was quite uncomfortable. Basically, the whole idea is to slowly stretch the shoulder muscles until you eventually have a full range of motion again. It takes a long time, but I still prefer this option to rotator cuff surgery.

I had to re-write an instruction manual for one of my client's products today. They thought the manual was poorly written. I thought the product itself was poorly designed. I did the best I could to clarify things, but I don't think anybody is going to find this product easy to use. That's the way it goes in my business. You really don't get to pick your battles. Sometimes I wished that I did something genuinely useful like my veterinarian friends. Veterinarians have a lot of stress in their lives though. They deal with life and death issues almost every single day. My life is almost exactly the opposite. I just do silly, useless shit, but at least it isn't stressful. Wondering when this cold is going to end is about as stressful as it gets around here.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1211

I paid a visit to my watchmaker today. A lot of my clients are irritating, but I always enjoy talking with the watchmaker. He's a charter member of that dying breed of people who can actually fix things and understand how mechanical things work. When I was growing up, the United States was full of these clever, industrious men, but there are very few left. I tried to explain social media to the watchmaker while he repaired a beautiful old Angela Cummings watch of Janet's. The watchmaker and I both love cars, so we talked about exotic machines we've owned and would like to own. The watchmaker has a vintage Porsche and I have an old Maserati. At least his car runs. Mine doesn't. The watchmaker regaled me with stories about inept customers who destroyed their expensive Rolex by trying to fix it themselves. I told him about ad campaigns that failed miserably when the client refused to listen. It was a very pleasant afternoon.

I made an appointment to take Dot to see a neurologist next week. She's going to need a CAT scan to make sure she doesn't have a brain tumor. Apparently, the symptoms that she's been having could be caused by epilepsy, a tumor in the brain, or by something else entirely. A CAT scan, or possibly a MRI of her brain, will help pinpoint the cause of her recent seizures. It's too bad dogs have trouble staying still on their own. A CAT scan or MRI is a relatively simple procedure for humans. I've had many of these scans myself. Part of the procedure involves holding your breath for up to 20 seconds at a time while the image is being created. Not surprisingly, dogs have trouble holding their breath, so they have to be sedated under general anesthesia during the scan. Dot is not going to like all this, but it needs to be done.

My poison ivy is starting to get better. The steroid treatments really do work. There's a downside however. It's not a good idea to take steroids for this sort of thing more than once a year. It  looks like I'm going to have to be extra careful not to catch another case of poison ivy later this summer. This is going to be tough, because I'm seeing the stuff everywhere now. I see fresh, green little poison ivy plants on either side of the trail during our daily walks. I've told Dash to help me out on this, but I don't think he was listening.

There are supposed to be thunderstorms tomorrow, but I hope they don't materialize. I'm not sure if I was able to pinpoint the source of the latest roof leak during last week's round of storms. Not really looking forward to plastic buckets strategically placed all around the living room floor again. Dot is scared of storms too and I'm worried that thunder and lightning might trigger another seizure. Maybe the weather will surprise me and turn out to be nice. I think I deserve that.

Livy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1207

I got an enormous amount done today. Once again, I had to spend the day waiting for the FedEx man, and he was very, very late. I have one supplier who insists on marking all shipments direct signature required, while at the same time denying me the opportunity to re-direct the package to a nearby FedEx office for a more convenient delivery. I find this very annoying, but there is a hidden benefit. While I am waiting endlessly for an envelope that needs my signature, I tend to get lots, and lots accomplished around the office.

Today I re-configured an entire website and launched the new version. Ordinarily, this would have taken me three or four days, but what else did I have to do today? I was trapped.

Today's little exercise provides a good illustration of why I've never been fond of SEO types. My client had hired an SEO wizard to boost his Google rank and get his phone to ring more often. The SEO wizard didn't like the site I had designed. He said it had way too many pictures and not enough searchable text that could be indexed. There was plenty of text on the site, but unfortunately, it was all embedded inside pretty JPEG images. To fix the problem and get the SEO guy off my back, I needed to learn something new. To keep the layout intact, I belatedly learned how to create layers in Dreamweaver. I placed Google-friendly text in these new layers and then positioned the layers directly over the pictures I wanted to keep. Amazingly everything worked. After a day of coding confusing CSS scripts, I had a site that looked remarkably similar to the old site, while containing all the new information that the SEO guy said was missing. We'll see if this makes a difference. Probably not.

The temperature was back in the 70's by mid-afternoon. It's still not dry enough for me to determine where the water is getting in on the roof, but it was certainly warm enough for the dogs to enjoy a little sunbathing time in the back yard. I'm a little leery of doing any more gardening in the back yard, unfortunately. I'll probably never know if I got my Poison Ivy from inadvertently pulling up Poison Ivy plants hidden in the ground cover, or from Dash curling up with me at night after a day of running through a field of the stuff. Hopefully, the steroid shots will work their magic soon.

I used a Klout gift card to go out to dinner with Janet this evening. I like these Klout perks, although I have no idea why I keep getting them. So far, I've gotten dog blankets, gift cards, magazine subscriptions, and books. Maybe if I write a nice review about the restaurant, they'll send me more stuff. I wouldn't even have to lie. The food was actually very good.

Angel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1206

I had to go get a steroid shot for my Poison Ivy this morning. As luck would have it, the doctor who treated me was one of the same doctors I photographed several weeks ago. Luckily, she liked her picture. It's always awkward to get an injection from someone who hates the photo you took of them. Yeah, I know that I told you guys I don't like steroid and cortisone shots just yesterday. It's just about the only remedy I've been able to find that can clear up a bad case of Poison Ivy though. Hopefully, this will be the only case I get this season. I'm very susceptible to Poison Ivy, and the dogs run through patches of the stuff in the park all the time. I'm doomed.

I completed two difficult retrofits to client websites today. Whenever I get these type of assignments, I feel like blurting out "Why didn't you tell me you wanted this when I first designed the site? It would have been so much easier then." The client is always right though, and all of them are a lot more fond of change than I am. I don't think I've ever changed my own website.

I'll really be glad when this cold, wet weather we've been having this week runs its course. It's a constant chore to keep the water of the roof and the mud off the dogs. My boots are just as muddy as the dogs paws when we return from our walks, so I've got to clean those too. The only saving grace is that we've got brick floors. Brick is the most dog friendly surface you can have. Does your dog track mud in the house? No problem. Does your dog occasionally poop in the house? No problem there either. Even water dripping from a leaky roof does far less damage to a brick floor than it would to wood or carpet. I'm a big fan of brick floors.

Good news! I finally got one of the best architects in Dallas to tell me the name of his favorite roofer. Now we're talking! Maybe there's hope for my roof yet.

Dottie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1204

Today was full of questions with very few answers. I was on the phone for hours with roofers, insurance agents, equipment suppliers, and clients and ended the day just as confused as I started. Finding the answer to something over the phone is kind of like winning the lottery. Your chances of success are very, very small. Every once in a while you get lucky and end up talking to someone knowledgeable. Most of the time you just get shuffled from one person to another until you eventually give up. I think most of the customer service people I talk with on the phone are just reading from a prepared script they see on their computer screen. They can answer very simple questions, but that's about it. I'd like to tell these people that if my question was that easy, I'd have found the answer already on their company website.

I think I got bitten by a spider last night. That seems like a reasonable explanation for the two swollen lumps I found on my arm and leg this morning. I didn't even bother going to the doctor, since I knew they they would just give me a cortisone shot and send me on my way. I've been bitten by spiders before and the trouble with these type of bites is that unless you actually see the spider biting you, the reaction they produce could be caused by any number of things. So, why do I think I was bitten by a spider? Just a guess, actually. I did see a big spider on the bed a few days ago though. If it actually was a spider, I don't think it was a Brown Recluse, or anything serious. The reaction would have been more immediate and alarming. If the swelling doesn't subside tomorrow, I'll go see a doctor. I just don't like taking steroid shots for any and all types of inflammation. Steroids aren't good.

Dash almost got the wrong shot today. There was a new nurse who didn't know Dash's records well. Luckily, when he mentioned the medication he would be injecting, I noticed that it didn't sound right. He ended up getting the right shot, but it's another lesson that you always have to be on your guard. I wish this wasn't the case, but it is. I would like to just put my brain on automatic pilot for a while and coast. I don't think there would be a happy ending it I did this though. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a paranoid person and certainly don't think anyone is out to get me. I do think a lot of people are incompetent however. Incompetance is everywhere.

It rained today, but the weather radar app on my iPad allowed me to successfully navigate the storms and walk the dogs without any of us getting soaked. Since there isn't much to do on rainy days, I got some more articles written. By the time my client gets back from vacation, I'll probably be all caught up again.

Miracle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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