Self Diagnosis

I have Raynaud's phenomenon/disease. Self diagnosed of course.

I can say I am 99% sure that is what I have. The reason I'm so sure is because my grandmother has it and it is hereditary often skipping generations. My sister has the same thing, I think she was diagnosed with it though and has a worse case with it than I.

What is Raynaud's you ask? It is is a vasospastic disorder causing discoloration of the fingers, toes, and occasionally other extremities. Here is a picture of my Raynaud's acting up. It is the toe next to my big toe (is that called your pointer toe?). I can tell without looking that it is happening because it feels like the tip of my toe is a rock. Not heavy, hurting or unresponsive. I can still move it around as normal and walk like normal.

Looking at Wikipedia it tells me that I should avoid caffeine as general care. Just one more reason I should quit drinking coke...

Hairloss...

My poor daughter has a hairloss issue. It is the result of food allergies. Do you know how hard it is to determine what your dog is allergic to? Every dog food has about 100 different ingredients and finding what the one thing is in that list is practically impossible.

It all started about 7 months ago when we took her to the vet to see why her ears get dirty so fast. We had noticed her hairloss but thought she was just getting her summer coat. The vet gave her a specific diet food and in 2 weeks we noticed her hair was getting thicker again. So we kept her on that food for a while (costs 2x the amount of regular dog food), trying to reintroduce other things into her diet. It seemed to be going well. I heard somewhere that dogs are often allergic to corn meal, grains, things like that. I checked her old food and sure enough all those wonderful things were in it. With that bit of knowledge I called around and asked pet stores/vets of food they recommend for dogs with food allergies. I was looking for something that fit the limited ingredients but didn't cost us twice as much as normal.

I was told that Eagle Pack Holistic food was ideal for this. So, I bought a bag for the pooch. We have gotten through about half of the bag of food and... her hair has thinned out again. So, I'm going back to the vet tonight to get the expensive special food. I am taking a list of the ingredients up with me. Hopefully the vet can determine what it is that she is allergic to!

Taste the rainbow...

No, no, no. That's for Skittles.

I was told that I look like a pack of Lifesavers.

Yes, I took my picture in the bathroom. I felt funny asking someone to take my picture.