Yesterday I got the second AMS unit installed on my big H2S printer on the right to match the same set up on the smaller P2S. Adding the unit was straightforward and easy. The end result is I now have access to up to eight colors on each printer which gives me a lot of flexibility. I love it.
Yesterday my cleaning lady was scheduled to come. Since I had the day off I had to plan around their visit. I took Elsa with me while I went to the gym and then met my GF for lunch. I wound up sitting in the park for 45 minutes later than I needed to because I did not see the garage activity indicating the crew had left, oh well it was nice outside so it was not bad hanging in the truck.
I got an email from my pet insurance company that they did reevaluate my initial claim based on my vet providing detailed justification for why that visit was initiated by GI distress not kidney disorder. They agreed to “pay” a portion of the massive bill but all they did was apply $800 towards my $1000 annual deductible so I received no actual reimbursement but hey, it’s better than nothing. Regardless I really appreciate the way my vet office has extended themselves on my behalf more than once.
We have had a run of extreme cold by Florida standards the last few days. Of course compared to the blizzard that just hit NYC this is a walk in the park. Elsa does not like being cold as demonstrated by her fuzzy blanket cocoon she was in this morning.
Elsa continues to be holding up ok. Since bringing home the FreshPet food from Costco she has been eating it all, immediately. We no longer have to play these games where we feed her by hand or try to trick her into eating. She just cleans the bowl. If she was not walking around wearing a diaper I would say that she is acting pretty much how she was prior to her week long visits to the vet. She is eating well, pooping well and seems to be normal Elsa. She drinks a lot of water but she has been doing that for quite awhile. Does this mean that everything is fine? I guess the next blood test she gets will tell more of the story.
I gave myself an extended four day weekend by taking Monday and Tuesday off. I wanted it to be of the productive variety so I made a list of things I wanted to get done. I used to rely on lists consistently to get things done at the old house but sort of stopped using them once I moved. The list had 6 items on it, only one item remains crossed off as of this morning.
One of the tasks was cleaning the gutters which routinely fill up with branches and leaves from the nearby oak trees. It only takes me about an hour to clear them but I had bought 100 feet of gutter screen months ago that I had intended to install to cut down on the issue. Once I tried to install a section I shit canned the idea. Trying to get the screening slid far enough under shingles so they sat properly was nearly impossible so I said f it. I can spend an hour three times a year cleaning the gutters, it won’t kill me.
I shot video of two of the list items, replacing a bunch of maintenance items on my Shark robot and a review of my new SnapMaker U1 printer, which I love.
Another list item put my rigging skills to the test. I have always been adept at figuring out ways to come up with solutions/fixes to issues which may not be conventional. I have not had to dust those skills off in a while.
During last weeks yard sale my girlfriend grabbed this elliptical machine ridiculously cheap. Supposedly the only issue was the plastic door that held in the batteries was broken which the prior owner addressed with duct tape, not a huge deal.
Well when I got the machine into the house and tried it the resistance felt stupid high, even with it being set to the lowest level. My girlfriend was ready to walk away from it since it was only $10 but I wanted to see if I could fix it with no prior elliptical machine repair knowledge.
I found the manual online which didnt give any tear down advice but taking it apart was pretty straight forward. At first my “fix” was to disconnect the wheel the pedals were attached to from the heavy flywheel but that gave no resistance at all which was bad, just in another way. As I observed the guts of the machine I saw that it sort of worked like a drum brake. There was a small servo that appeared to control a pad that presses against the flywheel. That pad appeared to be making significant contact.
My theory is the servo that controls that pad was bad however I realized that I could slide it’s connection point manually to retract the pad. Now I just needed to find a way to keep it that way. A small sheet metal screw did the trick, I was able to anchor the slide permanently in the retracted position. Even with the pad retracted the machine gives enough resistance to be challenging so I called it good to go. I even addressed the battery door problem with a small ratchet strap that kept the door in place and the electronics functioning. I mentally patted myself on the back as my girlfriend used the machine yesterday. I can still be McGyver when needed.
During my last trip to Costco I bought a big 6 pound bag of FreshPet dog food. Elsa seems to love it. The healthy chicken recipe doesn’t require me to do any song and dance for her to eat it. She cleans her bowl every time. Is it a renal specific diet, nope. However for now I am just happy she is eating well and as a result feeling well. She has adapted to wearing the diapers and doesn’t seem to care much. It also cuts down dramatically on the amount of laundry I have to do.
I got some unexpected great news on Friday. My vet actually applied for a grant to help for some of Elsa’s bills based on my insurance company denials. They actually got a $1000 grant which will get credited right back to my credit card when they receive it. I was touched that they went ahead and did that for me. It was very kind and appreciated.
The Olympics are done which always makes me a bit sad. I caught a decent amount of the events over the last two weeks. It was nice to see the world community coexisting happily for at least a short while without some old, fat, angry, ignorant man calling somebody a loser while naming whatever monument he can after himself.
Last night’s sleep was the highly interrupted variety. I heard Elsa get up and walk out into the living space which is always a sign of trouble. I took her outside all three times. The first time she threw up a little bit and then squatted like she was pooping. I couldn’t actually see anything although I heard some nasty sounding gas going on. The other two times she got up there was no more puking but more phantom pooping with fireworks. Before the first trip I removed the diaper and just counted on my waterproof bedding cover to do the job if needed, which it did.
I’m not sure what brought on the issues although nausea is a side effect of kidney disease as well. It has not been easy to feed her, even on the appetite stimulant. My girlfriend made her some egg whites to add to her dinner last night which is a clean low phosphorus protein. I wouldn’t think it would have caused any GI distress but who knows, that is the only thing different that she ate yesterday.
As you can imagine having my sleep interrupted three times and the subsequent time it takes for me to fall back asleep left me in just a tick above zombie mode this morning. It’s the new reality, I just have to suck it up and manage things as well as I can.
Yesterday was Elsa’s 11th birthday. My girlfriend, her dog Mia and I had a cute little celebration for Elsa complete with a vanilla cupcake, a candle, balloons, a fresh bone to chew on and even a birthday hat. We gave her a little of the cupcake which she enjoyed and tried to spoil Elsa with love all evening. She ate a decent amount of food for dinner, assisted by the appetite stimulant I now am giving her daily. It was a good night although the reality of her health situation was always just under the surface for me, tempering what would normally be happy feelings.
Earlier in the day Elsa gave me a birthday surprise when I came home at lunch to see she pooped on her one dog bed. She also reaffirmed that she can not be trusted in my office alone. When we walked in there later in the night we saw some chewed up card board and a HDMI cable that had the end gnawed on. It sure seems like she has some sort of dog dementia going on with this nonsensical compulsion to chew on/eat things that she knows she shouldn’t.
Last night the wetness protection I have in place did it’s thing. I did not have to wash any of the underlying bedding. I did once again get up in the middle of the night to let her outside to relieve herself. What sucks is I often struggle to fall back asleep once I get up. I have been walking around in a pretty much constant state of feeling tired.
This morning after a good night with Elsa I had a hard time getting her to eat much of anything. The renal food is a hard no and even the stuff she has been eating consistently she did not show much interest in. This is another symptom of dogs with kidney disease. Unfortunately I do not expect this roller coaster of good days and bad days to go away any time soon.
Saturday morning I participated in our community yard sale with my girlfriend. We went from about 8am until noon although it only took me about 15 minutes to remember why my last yard sale was well over 10 years ago, they suck. You invest all of the time collecting, organizing and putting out stuff that results in you generating a few pennies on the dollar. I think our grand total was a little over $50, big whoop. I will now return to my strategy of giving away, donating or throwing out anything that has outlived it’s usefulness for me.
On Saturday I also purchased a new carpet cleaner. My old unit sounded like it had a bearing that was ready to blow up and it did a shitty job. The carpet in the bedrooms had a series of crop circles on them from running my SpotBot to pick up various Elsa accidents. The new cleaner worked well, well enough that the circles have more or less faded after cleaning.
The rest of my Valentines Day was spent home with my girlfriend. Neither of us felt like fighting crowds for a fancy dinner. Instead we cooked in and had a really nice meal. It was a chill but enjoyable way to celebrate.
I had another excrement nightmare this weekend however. Yesterday my girlfriends dog pooped in the house and my Shark vacuum robot ran over it, spreading it around the living area. The only saving grace is everything was on hard surfaces. I had the same happen in the bedroom once and that was horrid.
Sunday I got out for my first ride on a wheel in over a month. I just have a had a hard time finding the time and motivation to ride, especially since Elsa has become sick. It did feel good to get out there however. I have a lengthy recap of the entire Elsa situation in the video. I also noted how I don’t like the tire on the V12S. I ordered a new tire for it. I don’t know of anyone else that has tried replacing a tire on this wheel yet so it will be a good opportunity for content.
I also accomplished my silly goal of getting all 12 or 13 of my WoW characters to level 80. By the end of it I had fine tuned my methods so much that I was doing it in about an hour per class, pretty crazy.
So on Friday night Elsa basically emptied her bladder on the bed while she slept. She woke up soaked in urine which is no good. After cleaning her up I started putting diapers on her which she surprisingly is pretty good about. The issue is they will not stay on throughout an entire night of her tossing and turning. I had the diaper on her last night as well as the full bedspread waterproof cover. I even got up at 3:30 in the morning to let her pee. Somehow, when I pulled back the bedspread at 6AM there was still a small spot of urine that was on the sheets requiring me to initiate yet another full bedding swap. Yes, it’s frustrating as you can imagine and my sleep is pretty lousy as I am on a hair trigger if I detect her moving during the night.
She also is still not willing to eat hardly any of the kidney friendly food. She will eat the other high quality food I have but it does not have the low protein and phosphorus content she is supposed to be getting. My only win is she appears to like the special kidney friendly treats I bought for her. I expect be having more conversations with my vet this week.
Today is Elsa’s 11th birthday. It seems crazy to me that she is now 11 after adopting her at a young age of 9 months. The idea that a decade has already flown by since she became an instant source of happiness and love in my household is hard to comprehend.
It’s difficult to feel celebratory when she is dealing with the issues that have presented themselves in the last month. The reality that I don’t know how many more of her birthdays will be celebrated is very sobering and sad.
Yesterday I picked up a bottle of appetite stimulant for Elsa. The charge was around $70 which seemed steep, especially when the bottle only contained 7 pills. When I got home I looked up the med online and almost fell over when I saw on Chewy.com that I could get the same medicine in a 90 pill bottle for $13.50. Wow, I was annoyed. I ordered the bottle from Chewy but it still required a vet prescription so I reached out to my vet asking for them to approve it as well as letting them know the insane mark up on the pills they gave me.
They approved the prescription and then told me there was an error. The bottle they gave me was supposed to be $7, not $70. A big improvement but still massively more than what I will be paying. It made me wonder how many more mistakes I would find if I go line item by line item. They did go back in and credit my bill for the two bottles of the stimulant they sold me.
Despite the massive pill overcharging I still overall really like my vet. They called me yesterday to tell me how they did actually reach out to my pet insurance company. They were surprised that the company has no medical professional available to speak to them about the details of the case. She said most should. They pushed the phone rep pretty hard and were frustrated that they were not allowed to speak to the claim adjuster directly, only via email. They wound up submitting their own appeal on my behalf as they are 100% convinced that the initial visit which was from her ingesting a sock should absolutely be covered. I really appreciate them advocating on my behalf which is why I can’t be too upset about the pill pricing issue.
I gave Elsa the appetite stimulant and had almost instant results when we fed her dinner a couple hours later. She cleaned her plate of everything that was on it, including the new renal friendly food. She also has been liking the kidney friendly treats I have been giving her as well. My girlfriend’s dog came over last night and you would never know Elsa was sick. They were running around and playing, Elsa seemed very happy which warmed my heart. I had not seen her that way in awhile.
I received my new full king size waterproof bed cover yesterday. It gives complete edge to edge coverage so there is no way for a middle seam leak to happen like what occurred Wednesday night. It seemed to do it’s job. This morning the main bedding was dry. I simply threw the protector and a fuzzy blanket in the wash which was very light lifting compared to what I had been doing. Elsa once again ate her entire breakfast without issue.
The one negative which is something that has gotten progressively worse over the last year or so is Elsa’s obsession with chewing/ingesting non-food objects. I have gone around the house trying to Elsa proof the place. She is only allowed certain toys and I have relocated most anything down low that could be a chew target. Well last night she exposed two things I missed. I first caught her in my office with the box I have my EUC Army stickers in. I had it tucked back behind a couple things by the wall but on the floor. She pulled the box out and was about to have it for a snack. Thankfully I caught her before she made much headway. That box now is in my closet.
Before I went to bed I found she was also busy in my bedroom closet. She found another box that was tucked in a corner and pulled it out. Again she didn’t actually tear it apart or ingest anything but she definitely had intent. We also had to take a way a toy from her last night as she managed to rip it open. I’m not sure why she is so interested in destroying/eating things she shouldn’t at her age but we now are on constant alert to make sure it doesn’t happen again under our watch since her eating a sock opened up this Pandora’s box.
Last night I got the last character on my main WoW account to level 80, the maximum for the expansion that is current. Of course when the new expansion releases in a few weeks this will be the starting point. I never thought I would be able to get so many characters caught up in this amount of time but it’s been fun to do so. I do still have three characters to level on my SECOND WoW account. Yes I have had two for quite awhile. Back when I was very into WoW having a second account used to give me the ability to power level in certain situations. It also was used briefly by Cindy when she was playing the game with me early in the relationship. I have continued to keep this account active for no good reason other than it has the last two classes, mage and shaman, that I do not have on my main account. I expect to have them all to 80 by the end of the extended 3 day weekend, not that you care.
This extended Valentines Day weekend will include my participation in our community yard sale. I have not done a yard sale for many years. When I did put one on it was at the old house where I always had a big pile of things I needed to get rid of. After the last yard sale I changed to just giving stuff away, not caring about the money I could be getting for things.
Once I moved I had already pretty much thrown out or given away anything that was not needed. Since moving in I have continued with that less is more mindset so I really do not have anything significant to sell at a yard sale. Luckily my girlfriend does have a number of things she can try to sell so hopefully we can make a nice dent in that tomorrow.
Otherwise I’m hoping for a good three days this weekend which includes an abundance of Elsa being happy and enjoying life.
As I have described I have been enlisting multiple layers of Elsa incontinence protection at the house. Part of that is putting two large absorbent but waterproof pads on top of the bedspread at night with the thought being I just can throw them in the laundry each morning without collateral damage. Well I woke up this morning with a massive wet spot in the middle of the bed. I think she somehow got positioned right where the pads overlap and managed to bypass them. The end result was a 6:15 AM stripping of the bed and beginning yet another massive laundry cycle while I swapped in my secondary bedding. I have been doing so much laundry that I exhausted my detergent in about a quarter of the time I normally would. I hope my 10 year old washer and dryer hold up to the extended duty cycles.
It isn’t just bedding that is getting washed. I also have to wash another pad that I use on the sofa where she lays on a regular basis as well as her dog beds. It’s a lot.
So I made yet another purchase in my war against incontinence, two more bed covers but these are king size so there will be no seam that can be exploited. I am hoping this will at least simplify my morning routine if I can just throw this one item into the laundry in the morning instead of a complete bedding set.
Elsa has not been very willing to eat the new kidney friendly food which does not surprise me. Last night my girlfriend had some luck getting her to eat some of it but this morning she refused and would only eat the FreshPet and Nutracomplete food which are both very high quality but not designed for dogs with kidney problems.
I sent my email to my vet yesterday updating her on Elsa’s condition but also letting her know I was not all that happy with what the insurance adjuster told me regarding what they saw in the medical notes. In a nutshell the incontinence med Elsa was on seemed to be connected to both her hyper tension and elevated kidney numbers. I said that from what I saw it seemed like as soon as we saw any elevation in these numbers that medicine should have been discontinued, which we started giving her in 2024. I was nice about it as I do like my vet but I think this was an oversight that contributed to the situation Elsa is in now. I also shared how my pet insurance company has rejected all of my claims, utilizing her medical notes as a reason. I wasn’t sure how she would respond.
She did respond with a very long email that was really nice. She even admitted that in retrospect she should have stopped that med earlier than we did but she thought the high blood pressure readings she was seeing were more from Elsa being very nervous at the vet more than anything else. She also was very upset that the insurance company was using her very detailed and complete notes as a tool to reject payment. She made it clear that she sees this sort of behavior from pet insurance companies on a routine basis and as a result dislikes them greatly. She even offered to advocate on my behalf to my company. I told her she was welcome to but I didn’t expect any significant change of heart from them.
I requested to get a refill on the appetite stimulant as it doesn’t have any significant side effects that would make Elsa’s condition worse. The vet said that was fine. My hope is the stimulant will help get us over the hump with the new food. When she was on this for 5-6 days she was cleaning the plate of pretty much whatever we gave her.
So yea, my focus has been mostly on Elsa’s health and coming up with solutions to her incontinence that I may just have to deal with long term. It’s not convenient or fun, but it’s doable.
So after supplying some additional information from the vet for my pet insurance claim I received a 100% denial of payment on everything submitted due to pre-existing conditions. Towards the end of last year I switched pet insurance companies because my old carrier had greatly reduced benefits while increasing costs, something I believe insurance companies intentionally do to get higher risk subjects off their books. Elsa is at the age when medical issues become more commonplace.
So I signed on with a new carrier that I heard good things about however when I did so I gave no thought to how that would open me up to potential issues with pre-existing conditions not being covered. When I signed on part of the requirement was to submit a health history which was provided by my vet. In that history there was documentation regarding how some of her kidney numbers were elevated but not to a dangerous level. That was all that is necessary for the insurance company to blanket deny everything associated with the claims which total several thousand dollars at this point.
I called in and talked to a customer service rep making the point that Elsa had never had any sort of treatment or suggestion of treatment for kidney issues prior to the weekend where she threw up repeatedly after eating a sock. She suggested I submit a written appeal to the claim adjusters, which I did. Last night I received a very detailed explanation of everything they saw in the vets medical notes, some of which I had not seen nor was aware of. It’s very clear that they will not be paying out any medical expenses related to this issue, great.
I feel like it’s partly my fault for not thinking the conversations I had with the vet last year about her elevated values would escalate into something this serious. If I did I would have been better off staying with the old insurance company so I would at least be eligible for partial reimbursement. Instead I am left holding the tab for everything. This is the exact scenario I have carried health insurance on her for and now it was basically wasted.
As another part of her treatment I ordered expensive special dog food that is low in protein and phosphorus, something that is designed to be easier on the kidneys. I gave her some in addition to the grilled chicken we make for her last night. She ate some of it but was not crazy about it. This morning I tried using it as a condiment on the FreshPet roll I cut up and warmed for her. She mostly turned up her nose at it. You can imagine the frustration I am experiencing on multiple levels.
I am going to contact the vet today and ask if the appetite stimulant is ok to give her long term. Since we stopped giving her that she has been definitely consuming less calories and become more difficult to get to eat anything other than chicken, treats or the Fresh Pet but all of these have to be fed to her by hand one piece at a time. I am also going to ask the vet about some of the information the insurance adjuster provided me as it raises questions for me about some of the decisions that have been made regarding her care along the way.
This weekend I finally got around to setting up my SnapMaker U1 printer which was sitting in it’s box for most of the week. The set up process for this printer is significantly more involved then what I have been accustomed to with my last three Bambu Lab printers. If I were to guess I probably spent double the time getting the U1 up and printing compared to my Bambu’s.
That being said, the process was not difficult. It was made very straightforward by the excellent manual that they include with the printer. The U1 takes a very different approach to multicolor printing utilizing four print heads instead of one as the Bambu Lab printers do. The advantage to this is two fold. There is significantly less waste material when doing multi-color printing. When I say less, it’s a minute fraction, especially with a print that has a lot of color changes.
The other advantage is speed. I loaded up a multi-color print on one of the Bambu printers and the U1. On the Bambu the print was estimated to take over 14 hours. On the U1 the estimate was 5 hours, that’s crazy how much faster it is because of the multiple print heads which have their own color assigned to them instead of one print head servicing all filament colors which requires tons of time purging and priming with every color change.
On the negative side the printer is louder than my Bambu printers, mostly due to it’s open top construction. It’s touch screen is nice but not moveable. I would say the overall fit, finish and quality doesn’t seem like it matches Bambu either but it’s less money while delivering much faster prints with almost no waste so that is a trade off that most will be willing to make. The U1 branded version of Orca Slicer is not as polished as the Bambu Studio version but it is fine. So far I am very happy with the U1 and plan to be putting it through a bunch of testing.
I spent a little more time in WoW over the weekend, speed leveling more characters to 80. At this point I have a system in place that seems to work great. My goal is to get all of my characters to 80 before the expansion launches, it might be doable if I get enough free time to do so.
I played pickleball Saturday morning but didn’t enjoy myself as much as I normally would for several reasons. They had 5 courts closed because they were a bit wet with dew which I thought was stupid. In the 4+ years I have been going there they never did this. It’s pretty simple, if the court is a little wet you take a little extra care with your footing. It was like they were treating the players like kids in my mind.
With less courts available it made the wait between games even longer than normal. I was waiting at least a half hour in between playing which sucks. By the time I got back on the court again my body had already cooled down significantly which is not great for my problematic knees/IT Band. Despite being there two hours I only got three games in and I had a sore IT band as a prize. I was not happy.
Elsa had a pretty normal weekend. She is now off the appetite stimulant and diarrhea meds. I have noticed she is not eating as much and requires either myself or my girlfriend to get her started eating by hand feeding her which is frustrating. She still has issues with “leaking” although my system of big absorbent pads that I can throw in the wash seem to mitigate the damage. I did not have to wash the bedding all weekend which was progress. She was acting more or less normal otherwise except for drinking a lot of water.
The next hurdle will be trying to transition her to kidney friendly food. I have a box of it coming. It is expensive as you can imagine since it requires a vet prescription. The food is lower in protein and phosphorus content. If she does not like the way it smells she won’t eat it, period so I am crossing my fingers she actually likes the stuff. It’s supposed to be human grade food. The stuff we are giving is high quality but has more protein then it should with her kidney numbers.
The Winter Olympics opened this weekend. I saw some of the opening ceremony which I thought was well done. The venue and backdrop in northern Italy seems absolutely beautiful. I caught a few events on TV over the weekend as well. I have always been a big fan of the Olympics. The idea of competing against the best of the entire world has always fascinated me. I also find myself amazed at the amount of planning and preparation that has to go on while hosting the Olympic games. It must take a team of thousands to get all of the details handled.
I watched the Super Bowl last night and although I had no significant rooting interest I preferred if the Seahawks won, which they did on the back of a crazy good defense that made the Patriots look clueless for most of the game. I did not pay close attention to most of the commercials although the one that I did see and like the most was the Dunkin Donuts spot which had a ton of famous actors in it from the Friends cast, Ben Affleck, Ted Danson from Cheers and more.
There was a lot of anticipation about the halftime show featuring Bad Bunny. Trump has been very active criticizing the singer who is very well known in the hispanic community. Bad Bunny has been vocal criticizing the activities of ICE and what it represents. So everyone was curious exactly what the halftime performance would be like. I was not impressed.
I understand the point he was trying to make but doing every song in Spanish on a Super Bowl stage was lame in my opinion. If this was a soccer game, sure, but this is American football, doing the entire performance in spanish just was not cool nor necessary IMO. Even my girlfriend who is hispanic didn’t like the show and said even she had a hard time making out the words because of the way Bad Bunny performs/sings which is very fast and poorly enunciated. It was probably the least enjoyable SB halftime show I ever witnessed. As a throw in they had Lady Gaga sing a quick song in English but other than that it was todo espanol. There are plenty of ways to make the world aware of the outrage over current day events. I don’t think taking the Super bowl halftime show hostage was a good way to do it, IMO.
Yesterday I had an opportunity to talk to a co-worker who also is an ex-neighbor of mine. We were talking about my old house and how it has been sitting empty for sale for months. He then described just how bad the traffic situation has become since I moved due to the crush of housing and retail they are building in the area now. He said just to make the left turn off our street onto the main road takes around 25 minutes. There is no stop light and a near constant flow of traffic to try to cut into so it is an absolute nightmare. It sounds almost as bad as the early days when Immokalee was a two lane road filled with dump trucks. Back then the commute of 25 miles could take 90 minutes. It’s not back to that level yet but it’s getting there. After hearing the story I felt even more happy that I got out of there just in time.
Elsa had her return visit to the vet yesterday. They checked her heart, blood pressure and did another blood test. The roughly 30 minutes in the office rung up another $400 on my credit card. The news was a mix of good and less than good. Because she has been eating so well she is back up to her normal weight, she had lost a couple pounds when this ordeal started. Her pancreas numbers which were elevated are back to normal as well. However she still has a heart murmur, elevated blood pressure and her kidney values have gone back up a little which were already in the bad zone.
So I talked through the scenarios with my vet. Although Elsa has been eating great for us, the food she is eating is not ideal for a dog with kidney issues. High protein and phosphorus are the enemy of weak kidneys. She wants me to try starting her on a renal support diet. The catch is it has to be something she will actually eat. Food for Dogs has human grade meals that support the kidneys so I am going to get some of it and see if Elsa will eat it. In addition the vet is considering putting her on some meds for the blood pressure because elevated blood pressure is not good for kidneys either.
I would like to make one change at a time to see how she reacts. Get her on the renal food first and see where the numbers fall. That is a big if just because Elsa is so fussy normally with what she eats. We are still initializing her food sessions by feeding her by hand. I told the vet that it’s difficult to change things when she finally is more or less back to normal other than her incontinence returning due to us removing the med to control it. Speaking of that…
As I mentioned in the last entry I sprung into action with multiple layers of leak protection buying in addition to running my washer and dryer nearly non-stop when I am home. Last night I had the two big leak pads on the bed which Elsa was laying on when I fell asleep. Well during the night she must have gotten up and shifted to the point where she was on the edge of the pad, pressed right up against me. She had another accident which resulted with me waking up with a wet pair of shorts and inciting an early morning round of laundry and bedding rotation. Of course it is frustrating but I can’t get mad at her, I just have to keep trying to mitigate the impact. I might try to get her more accustomed to the diapers this weekend.
Last night I shot a quick 5 minute video talking about the ITC filing one of the prominent EUC dealers in the US is involved with. It has created an absolute uproar in the community because it is basically a cash/money grab over a seemingly frivolous patent claim. If you want to find out more details about take a look.
This weekend we will continue focusing on Elsa’s wellness as well as taking in the Super Bowl although I have no rooting interest. I also have my Snapmaker U1 3D printer that needs to be integrated into my office. If I wasn’t focused on Elsa’s health I would have had the printer up and running the day after I received it normally. Oh well, you have to be able to roll with not normal periods of life as they will never stop coming.
Speaking of not normal, I received a notification that 5 years have already passed since my last colonoscopy and I need to schedule another one. I will be procrastinating on that call back for a little while.
