Shiro & Dr. Sylvester

I took Shiro to see his regular vet, Dr. Sylvester at The Cat Clinic, this morning; Curtis & I switched shifts and he stayed with Dad in the morning. Dr. Sylvester & I discussed the Feline CHOP protocol for treatment of lymphoma that Dr. McMillan from Veterinary Emergency + Referral Center (VERC) had proposed for him; it's the same one VERC started Xander on, he became nauseous & listless. The CHOP protocol is a 25 week series of 4 different chemotherapy drugs that are used; basically a cat that has only 5 to 7 months to live with treatment, is undergoing this treatment for a little over 6 months. I had asked that question when they proposed it for Xander, so I know this description is correct. I decided to go with a lower level of chemotherapy with only Prednisolone & Cyclophosphamide plus more palliative care for Shiro so he has a better quality of life for the remaining few months; that's what we ended up doing for Xander, too. That's also what Mom chose when she opted to only do transfusions and no chemotherapy.

Gourmeds Chicken flavored chewable prednisolone tablets.

Before I took Shiro to see Dr. Sylvester, I did my morning walk to the park. On my way back I saw Abby & Kelly as they were on their way down; Kelly said that wasn't him that I saw on the bike yesterday. So I guess I'll just call him Friendly Biker (with Hot Green Laces); the laces were the first thing I noticed yesterday. I'm pretty sure I will recognize him if I see him again. On the way back I found a flattened common house gecko; it's another introduced species. I don't know how invasive it is.


After Shiro & I got back from the vet, I hung out the laundry that I did last night. My routine for laundry is to do it the evening before, after I'm sure The Roommates won't be doing laundry; then hanging it out the next morning as soon as the sprinkler is finished. I can usually bring the dry laundry in before I leave in the early afternoon for Maunalani. Today was the same, except that I put the laundry out a little later since it started to drizzle when I tried to do it first thing in the morning.

After the laundry was hung out, I went back up to Maunalani for my mid-morning walk. I want to keep up the pace of my walks as much as possible so I can keep on track with increasing my mileage to 8.2 miles by the time I have to do the Great Aloha Run next February. Like the morning walk, I saw both Kolea at the park. But in the mid-morning they were a little more anxious than earlier; I think it was because of the surveyors who were doing a lot of work just on the other side of the fence. I found another little bird nest; it was in a bougainvillea on Matsonia. This time I put my keys in the photo for scale; I am pretty sure it is a mejiro nest.


My afternoon walk was supposed to be shorter than it was. I was originally only going to walk around Maunalani Circle, which is 0.4 miles, since I only needed 0.3 miles to reach today's goal. But they were still working on Maunalani Circle so I walked down to the park instead, which ended up being 0.7 miles because I left & returned to the upper parking lot. Due to my poor planning I did 3.78 miles today, which is the goal in 3 weeks. For the rest of the week I will be better about keeping to the 3.3 miles a day; I don't want to overdo it and have a setback because I have tired myself out too much before adjusting to a higher level of activity. Fibromyalgia sucks!

On most Mondays, Dad will get out of bed and go upstairs to listen to the ukulele & singing because his friend Walter's daughter, Lynn, is the ukulele player. Today was no exception, he really enjoys himself when he is there. I wish there were more things that made him want to get out of bed.

Dad (far left) watches Lynn & Gloria (far right).

While Dad was listening to Lynn, Gloria, & Myra, I helped CNA Susie string kukui nut lei; these are for the volunteer appreciation celebration this Saturday. I was able to make 3 lei in the hour that Dad was listening to Lynn, Gloria, & Myra play the ukulele and sing.

CNA Susie starting another kukui lei.

Each lei was made with 30 nuts.

Finished kukui nut lei.

Dad had dinner in the Orchid Dining Room on the 2nd floor and also watched the news on TV. He didn't eat any of the sandwich; he just drank the supplements.


I checked out the cat food a little more thoroughly this evening. All 3 of the Instinct cans are grain free; only 1 of the Open Nature cans is grain free. More interestingly all the Open Nature cans say to feed 1&1/4 cans per 7&1/2 pounds of body weight. The Instinct Beef says 1/4 can per 6 to 8 pounds; the other 2 are 1 can per 6 to 8 pounds.

I finished listening to the Harry Dresden short story Love Hurts while balancing checkbooks & folding some of the laundry today. I listened to Even Hand while finishing this post, and Bigfoot on Campus from the Working for Bigfoot collection of short stories while folding the rest of the laundry.



Happy Birthday to Aurolyn!