by binkman71

Plague Isolation: Day 5

It has been five days since my company ordered everyone to work from home in order to help stop the spread of the insidious virus known as COVID-19. Then, two days later, the governor ordered the entire state to stay home, unless working in an “essential” industry. I will certainly do my duty and remain in isolation (with a housemate) as much as possible, only going to the store to replenish food when absolutely necessary.

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by binkman71

Happy Everything

Happy Solstice

Merry Christmas

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Kwanzaa

Gruß vom Krampus

Happy New Calendar

And everything else celebrated at this time of year.

After a rocky start, Dax finally got his first round of chemotherapy treatment for his cancer.  It kept getting postponed due to the doctor determining his blood tests revealed he wasn’t healthy enough for it.  Which seems like an oxymoron of sorts to me, but I’ll defer to the experts.  He’ll start his second round of treatments on Saturday, the 28th of December.  Provided, of course, he’s still “healthy” enough to receive the treatment.  I’m trying to remain positive about all this; the initial prognosis was good, but the delay in starting treatment may have given the cancer time to screw more things up.  Time will tell.

I also celebrated my birthday this year by attending PAX Unplugged 2019.  While I have attended in the past to celebrate all things gaming without video, this year was a slight bust for me.  Aside from having too much on my mind, I just kept running into road blocks on the convention floor.

This game seems cool, I’ll take it!  “Um, we didn’t bring any to actually sell…just demo.”

This looks interesting!  “Thanks!  We’ll be putting up a Kickstarter soon!”

Your sign says the game creator will be signing copies during this hour?  “Yeah, about that, we’re not sure where he is…”

And on and on.  While others went and had a blast, I just kept running into frustration after frustration.  Wasn’t a good convention for me, but was decent enough I will likely still attend next year if possible.

My puppy, Kira, continues to struggle with housebreaking.  She is five months old now, and still not grasping the concept.  It is getting better, with fewer incidents, but I long for the day when the count goes to zero.  She manages to hold it all night, so I’m not sure why she can’t when she isn’t in her crate.  I’m also a bit out of practice on this front, though, as she is the youngest dog I’ve brought home in like 20 years.  (My other rescues through the years have been 6 months or older when I adopted them…Kira was just over 2 months old when she came home with me…)

Oh, and remember my previous post on crafting machines?  I got my Silhouette Cameo 4…and also ended up with a Cricut Explore Air 2.  There are some things they both do very well, and some things they don’t.  If anyone wants to know what those things are, or why I decided on getting both, let me know and we can discuss.

Anyway, I suppose that’s it for now.  The year is drawing to its close, governments everywhere are just a mess, family members and my dog are battling health issues, I’m getting older, and time continues its inevitable march forward.

 

by binkman71

A Bad Year for Pets

I haven’t posted much lately, I know.  I still see lots of movies (thanks to Regal Unlimited), but I haven’t been posting reviews much (go see Knives Out).  I’ve also been playing some video games (Jedi: Fallen Order is excellent), but also not posting about them.

See, after my dog Simon died, my oldest dog, Dax, mourned him pretty heavily.  Then, around September, Dax got sick with some nasty digestive problems.  We medicated him, and all seemed well.  I took my yearly vacation to Orlando, Florida for Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights, and had a blast.  I even took a slight detour to Disney World and Hollywood Studios to see the new Galaxy’s Edge attractions and geeked out to some Star Wars stuff.

Shortly after returning home my employer hosted its yearly picnic.  As a charity this year they welcomed a local SPCA chapter, who brought along a litter of adorable dachshund mix puppies for adoption.  I decided to give one a home, as she was very sweet and seemed to take a liking to me.  Thus, my pack returned to having three dogs.

By October, however, Dax stopped eating as much as he used to.  Of course this lead to some weight loss.  Then his digestive issues came back.  We went back to the vet, and I assumed it was the stress induced by the puppy being in the house.  Dax is 9 years old, so while he is by no means elderly, he isn’t as spry as he used to be.  We medicated again, and hoped for the best.

Things only got worse.

To cut to the chase, by mid-November Dax had lost nearly 20 pounds from his former 65 pound self.  Fur and bones, my vet ran various tests, all of which kept coming back negative.  It was then that, being as thin as he was, they noticed some swelling in his lymph nodes.  One very expensive biopsy later and Dax is diagnosed with lymphoma.

I am referred to a veterinary oncologist who runs another battery of tests.  The good news: the cancer doesn’t appear to have spread to any other organs or systems.  A round of various meds and chemotherapy should help put him into remission.  The oncologist puts his odds at around 80% or more that remission will happen, so we are going forward with the treatment plan.  It’ll take about 10 weeks to complete.

Needless to say, this has been a worrisome preoccupation lately.  I am trying to remain hopeful that the treatment will work.  I’m not sure I can handle losing two dogs in less than a year very well.  I’m also having to try to keep up with the puppy during all this.  A puppy, might I add, who really isn’t grasping the concept of house training.

*sigh*

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends and family.