Working for the men....
Deanne is in Houston this week, and I'm sitting in our quiet living room listening to The Church on my old DSS laptop as I work my second job. We bought a new carpet for this room and it really makes it warm and inviting - we're still looking for a carpet for the other room.

Patch had another attack today, a full-blown fall to the floor howler. He'd been doing really well with no pain for three or four days, but today I walked into my office with my boss, Victor, and though I told Patch to stay on his bed three times, he still got up, walked around Victor's legs a few times and then got hit with the pain. I stroked his ear and petted him while the pain subsided, cleaned the floor where he'd peed a little and put a pillow under his head, but he didn't move from the corner for another three hours when it was time to go home. After this kind of pain if I ask him to stand, he trembles visibly and hangs his head as if he's upset that he's too scared to do what I ask. I always tell him it's OK and he can stay where he is, of course. He's taking 1.5 pills of Prednisone each night, which I stick inside some peanut butter between two small pieces of chocolate - a guaranteed pill delivery system for a Great Dane with sweet tooth :) This medication is supposed to be gradually tapered off though, but he's behind schedule by quite a way. We tried going down to 1 pill per day but his pain was more frequent, and to have an attack even after 1.5 pills is very worrying. I so hope that the inflammation recedes further.

I drive Patch to and from work in our PT Cruiser, which has lots of room in the back. He has seven dog beds now...one in the bedroom, one in the office at home, one downstairs, one in the Saturn, two in the Cruiser and one in the office downtown ! We just got too tired carrying his big beds from place to place, so whenever we found a new place he needed to be, we picked up another bed for him :)

OK, that's it for tonight. Hope you're all doing well !