Started Typing: 10:23 AM ET
Clicked Reply: 11:46 AM ET
It was only 56°F when I woke up and took Bailey outside (at around 7:40am), and it was actually chilly out there! Enough that I wore a fleece and closed-toe shoes (vs my usual sandals). And it’s been too cool to open the windows yet! Like FCM said, I never would have imagined that an August morning could be so cold…but I love it. Right now it’s 67, on the way to a high of 79. I hope to open the windows around lunchtime.
When I picked Bailey up yesterday, the vet already had early ultrasound results: the indications are that my girl has inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)*. The only conclusive test is a biopsy, but the doc said he didn’t recommend that kind of surgery for a dog her age and he’d rather just presume an IBD diagnosis. I agreed. She’s already on a low dose of prednisone for atypical Addison’s disease, and Plan A is to increase that dosage while adding another med and switching her to a prescription dog food (I’m starting with Hill’s z/d). I began all of the new stuff this morning: over the course of the week I’ll gradually introduce more and more of the prescription food, and by Saturday she should be switched over.
*What’s the difference between IBD and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you ask? I wondered that, too! Symptoms can be similar, but IBD is a structural disease (i.e., physical damage causes the symptoms, and doctors can see inflammation or ulcers via x-ray, surgery, etc.) while IBS – where contents move too fast or too slow through the intestines – is a functional disease; tests won’t show any physical cause.
The next vet appointment is scheduled for October 3. Bailey will be due for another Librela injection (for arthritis pain), and that’s also when she’s due for her annual exam and vaccinations; we’ll check her weight progress then. There is no cure for IBD, and I watched my BFFs’ cat become skeletal and have to be put down earlier this year because of it, but all indications are that treatment can be very effective. WifeBFF told me that their cat was fine for about two years after his diagnosis. So I’m low-key-worried but not scared…yet. Getting another year out of this dog could be kind of a miracle no matter what, and right now that’s all I’m hoping for. I want to be seriously tempted to register her to vote in July. 
My only plans today are to do my laundry at some point, but that could wait until tomorrow if I’m overcome by sloth. Which is a distinct possibility. There is a lot of TV that needs watching, and no one else around here is gonna do it!
OMG that makes complete sense…and now I feel like an idiot. 
Oh no!! I hope you aren’t in a lot of pain today…?
Pink, of course!
…though I actually quite like the purple.
Excellent! 
One of my direct reports just started grad school: I had a similar reaction when he told me he had an assignment due before the first day!
I need to be warm – mostly from the waist down – but the room needs to be cool so I don’t overheat in the middle of the night.