Episode 8: Tim talks about his father's enthusiasm for sharing a malady with Tim's dog, Winifred. For even when death is the likely outcome, it's nice to have company on the way.
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“That’s what I have!” my dad said. “Pulmonary hypertension? Exactly. Exactly. The right side of my heart is also enlarged. They put Winnie on a beta blocker? That’s what I take!”

Winnie is my dog. And Winnie, like my dad, has pulmonary hypertension. Winnie, however, is not as excited about sharing an illness with my dad as my dad is about sharing an illness with her. That might only be because Winnie does not know she has the same illness as my dad, because Winnie is a dog. Or maybe she does know. And maybe she is excited. But even if she is, Winnie has no means of expressing this excitement in a focused manner. Because she doesn’t know how to talk. Because Winnie is a dog.

My dad, however, is not a dog, and he does know how to talk. And when he gets talking about his medical issues, my dad talks plenty for both Winnie and himself.

“My cardiologist has me on Amlodipine,” my dad said. “It’s a calcium channel blocker that reduces the pressure in my pulmonary artery. You should ask the vet if that might work for Winnie.”
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