Odie's follow-up vet visit - good news!

We went in this morning for a check up on his heart. It is good news. He is responding really well to the digitalis. The vet said his heart is more regular, though it still has times it jumps around. He is also a good weight - apparently dogs with heart conditions frequently lose a lot of weight.
He is likely to suffer a stroke (just like anyone with a heart problem) because the blood pools in his heart instead of getting pumped out, and makes a clot. But it's hard to diagnose strokes in dogs - he most likely will have trouble breathing; he might have a dilated pupil; or he might tilt his head or show some muscle stuff.
He has been making a puffing noise at night, and Dr. W said that's probably not the breathing difficulty from his heart failing, but because his heart is so enlarged that when he's laying (lieing?) down, it presses on his trachea - I think that's what she said.
He is not likely to die any day now. Dr. W had a dog showing failure who came in, got on digitalis, and lived another year, and Odin is not officially showing failure yet. She said that she's likely to see us enough and I'll be alert enough that we'll catch it failing (congestive heart failure) and treat it. She said, again though, that if I'm lucky, he'll be playing in the yard and drop dead. About 70% of dogs respond to the digitalis, and he appears to be in that group.
I will not be able to predict the day he's going to die. It'll just happen. I didn't ask her if he'd be scared, since I've already subjected Mom and Judith to that.
They work with a pet mauseloum (sp) in Tacoma, and he can be sent there to be cremated and he'll come back in a nice cedar box with his name engraved on it. I don't have to arrange it ahead of time.
If it comes to it, which she doesn't think it will, and he has to be put to sleep, I can be feeding him a bacon cheeseburger while they inject him, so he dies happy as can be. That's how Dr. W did one of her dogs.
Interestingly, when we were talking about bacon cheeseburgers, Dr. W said "You're kind of a hippie aren't you?" and I just nodded, even though I don't think of myself as a hippie at all. I guess I could be seen that way. Then, oddly, at a red light on the way home, some lady in the car next to me started talking to me and said I looked just like her best friend. I asked her if her best friend had a big dog in the back of her car too, and she said no, but she would if she could. It was kind of weird. The lady did NOT look like my best friend (Kristen).
I am very relieved about this vet visit. Also, they accidentally charged me too much last time, so the next "few" vet visits are free. Dr. W said we might as well make a standing weekly appointment (jokingly).