Henry Feeser's Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) journey

More On Dialysis & Investments

October 21, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

This past Monday, October 20, 2025, The Wall Street Journal ran an article on page A18 titled “Global Startups Race to Develop Systems to Fight Drone Threats,” which got my attention. Up to now, my investments have been on the delivery side in such companies as AIRO, DPRO, SPAI, RCAT, & UMAC. Overall, in a short period, these stocks have produced decent market returns. The lead sentence in the cited article states, “Startups from Silicon Valley to Europe and beyond are racing to develop cheap, reliable systems to counter hostile drones (that) appear over airports and global shipping lanes far from the battlefield in Ukraine.”

Can you smell the investment opportunities? I can and did. I turned to Perplexity with the following prompt and results:

Prompt: Small new startups publicly traded in the anti-drone sector.

Several small, publicly traded startups are emerging in the anti-drone (counter-UAS) sector in 2025, focusing on detection, jamming, and AI-driven defense solutions for both military and civilian markets. These firms stand out for their niche technologies and relatively low market capitalization compared to major primes.

Small Publicly Traded Anti-Drone Companies

Company	Exchange / Ticker	Headquarters	Key Technology Focus	Notable Developments
DroneShield Ltd	OTCMKTS: DRSHF	Sydney, Australia	RF and radar-based detection, jamming rifles (DroneGun Mk4), AI-driven DroneSentry fusion system	Recent $32 million Asia-Pacific defense contract; active field use in Ukraine exoswan+1
Dedrone Holdings	Private (seeking listing)	U.S. / Germany	AI-based and sensor fusion counter-UAS networks	Recently integrated with U.S. federal and airport defense systems; potential IPO candidate marketsandmarkets+1
Ondas Holdings	NASDAQ: ONDS	U.S.	Wireless data and counter-drone communications tech via subsidiary Airobotics	Expanding presence in Israel’s anti-drone urban defense systems theglobeandmail
Red Cat Holdings	NASDAQ: RCAT	Puerto Rico, USA	Small tactical drones and anti-UAS integration	Works with U.S. DoD and public safety clients, expanding into counter-UAS software fusion theglobeandmail
ZenaTech	NASDAQ: ZENA	U.S. (Defense startup)	AI-based radar and jamming solutions for battlefield use	Identified as one of the fastest-growing drone-defense equities in 2025 theglobeandmail

Private Startups Poised to Go Public

Some defense-focused startups are not yet listed but are considered potential IPO candidates or acquisition targets:

Aurelius Systems – specializes in smart radar for small UAV interception.militarystartups
BlueHalo – works on directed-energy and C-UAS systems; may pursue public listing after latest funding round.militarystartups
Epirus – developer of high-power microwave counter-drone systems, noted for rapid DoD prototype adoption.militarystartups
Guardian RF – passive RF-based detection, funded through Y Combinator, potentially seeking future listing.ycombinator

Market Drivers

According to MarketsandMarkets, the anti-drone sector will grow from $4.48 billion in 2025 to $14.5 billion by 2030, a 26.5% CAGR, driven by AI-enabled tracking, radar fusion systems, and increased defense spending in the Americas region.marketsandmarkets

For investors, DroneShield (DRSHF) and Ondas (ONDS) are the leading small-cap public equities in this niche, while Dedrone, Epirus, and BlueHalo remain top private contenders likely to influence the market soon.

Based on this analysis, I bought 500 shares of DRSHF & 100 shares of ONDS. Wish me luck!

On Dialysis and Investing

October 20, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

One of the “pleasures” we can enjoy while on dialysis is analyzing our stock portfolios, given that we hold such securities. We can do it all alone, with help from our friends (always someone around who thinks they have a hot tip), with the aid and attendance of professionals, or a combination of all of the above. Personally, we have professionals manage about 90% of our portfolio of investments, and we manage the remaining 10%.

At our point in life, we are interested in stocks that throw off great dividends and are relatively lower risk. There is a not well-known segment of stocks named Business Development Companies, or BDCs for short. By law they pay a major portion of their profits in dividends. Suggest doing a Google search on BDCs for more information.

I used Perplexity to map out the 15 highest dividend-paying BDCs to provide insight into expected returns. BTW, some pay monthly and some quarterly dividends. See table below:

Here is the updated table of major Business Development Companies (BDCs) sorted by highest total return or dividend yield as of October 2025. The returns reflect annualized yields and current prices from the most recent SureDividend and Fidelity data.

Rank	Ticker	Company Name	Sector	Price (USD)	Dividend/Return (%)
1	OXSQ	Oxford Square Capital Corp.	CLOs / Secured Debt	1.75	19.09 suredividend+1
2	HRZN	Horizon Technology Finance Corp.	Venture Lending	5.85	18.97 suredividend+1
3	PSEC	Prospect Capital Corp.	Diversified Credit	2.73	18.75 suredividend+1
4	TPVG	TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp.	Growth Lending	5.58	17.8 kiplinger+1
5	WHF	WhiteHorse Finance Inc.	Middle Market Lending	6.96	17.72 fidelity
6	ICMB	Investcorp Credit Management BDC Inc.	Corporate Loans	2.87	16.44 fidelity
7	OFS	OFS Capital Corp.	Senior Secured / Private Credit	6.95	15.70 fidelity
8	FSK	FS KKR Capital Corp.	Leveraged Lending	14.84	15.53 fidelity
9	TCPC	BlackRock TCP Capital Corp.	Corporate Lending	5.58	13.93 fidelity
10	CION	CION Investment Corp.	Private Credit	9.16	13.85 stockanalysis
11	SAR	Saratoga Investment Corp.	Private Credit	21.72	13.81 stockanalysis
12	RWAY	Runway Growth Finance Corp.	Venture Debt	9.90	14.14 stockanalysis
13	BBDC	Barings BDC, Inc.	Middle Market Lending	8.59	12.11 stockanalysis
14	CSWC	Capital Southwest Corp.	Lower Middle Market	20.40	12.50 stockanalysis
15	OBDC	Blue Owl Capital Corp.	Private Credit	12.60	9.9 suredividend
16	BXSL	Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	Direct Lending	25.96	11.86 stockanalysis
17	MAIN	Main Street Capital Corp.	Lower Middle Market	58.14	7.33 suredividend

Of the 15 listed above, we own shares of HRZN and OBDC.

Disclaimer: The above is only provided for example and in no way constitutes investment advice.

SCS Working Well

October 17, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

The recently installed Spinal Cord Stimulator is doing a great job. I was having recurring leg cramps at night, but turning the stimulator power to 4 from 5 at night has really worked well to mitigate this problem. I have been able to drive our truck over 100 miles without my feet going to sleep, my walking gait has improved, and I have feeling in my legs once again. What’s not to like about it? I am going two weeks between battery charging, FYI,

Had our new all-around domestic person in yesterday to do yard work for us. She is fast, efficient, and accomplished, completing in four hours what would have taken me several days. Well worth it. For instance, I’m not allowed on ladders anymore, so I had her change a burned-out LED flood light on our garage corner. I barely took a breath, and she had it done. Same with weeding and other chores I presented her with. We’re lucky to have her. She also walks Dickens three times a week.

Still just “rollin’ on the river.”

MidEast

October 13, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

The recent resolution in the MidEast raises a somewhat crass situation: what US companies’ business and by association stock prices will profit greatly? Will such companies be largely nonUS companies, or is the “pie” large enough to include us? What will happen to oil prices as MidEast countries band together. (This hasn’t happened yet but is predicted.) Where are the food supplies, construction, and labor coming from to rebuild? Who and how will it be paid for?

The above doesn’t even scratch the surface. But keep in mind, opportunity often lurks behind uncertainty.

Couple Dialysis Related Things:

October 9, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

As previously scheduled, we had our Dialysis Team meeting this morning. During the meeting, it was decided that I would no longer be using IPN (yea!), that I did indeed up my phosphate binder in response to my phosphorus lab reading going up (I have), and that the team would move forward on getting a Fistula installed should I have/need to go on hemo.

I provided the team dietitian with my food intake for the last three + days, and she calculated my daily protein intake. My goal is 90 grams per day based on my dry weight. This past Tuesday, I came close to my goal at 87 grams, but not so much the other two days. She mentioned, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that she expected me to provide the data already massaged by my favorite AI.

I wrote the following prompt for Perplexity with the stated results:

Prompt: Can I input my meals and ask for the total protein in table format?

Yes, meal input and total protein calculation in table format is fully supported. Please provide the details of each meal—including food items and approximate portions (e.g., grams, ounces, cups)—and a table will be provided.

To try Perplexity out, I ran the following data:

1/3 pound hamburger grilled Pattie on a large bun, 30-gram protein drink. Provide total protein consumed in table format.

Here is a table summarizing the protein content for each item you provided, along with the total protein consumed:

Food Item	Protein (g)
1/3 pound hamburger patty (grilled)	32
Large hamburger bun	8
Protein drink (30 grams protein)	30
Total Protein	70

The hamburger patty (1/3 pound, cooked) typically provides about 32 grams of protein.
A large hamburger bun generally contains about 8 grams of protein.
The protein drink provides 30 grams, as stated.

Your total protein intake for this meal is approximately 70 grams.

Leg Cranps & Spinal Cord Stimulator

October 9, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

For the past week or so, I have been experiencing pretty bad leg cramps at night. Bad enough they wake me up, and on more than one occasion, I have to get up and walk around. Obviously, this is not a good thing.

The HDX team tends to call me every week or so to check in on how it’s going. I received such a call yesterday and related the leg cramp issue. It was suggested that I turn down the power/intensity of the treatment at night and see how it goes. This is easy enough to do using the iPhone app, which I did last night and experienced no cramps. While one night does not make a trend, it is a start in the right direction.

I spent about five hours yesterday troubleshooting my wife’s email issues. Recall, I have her set up using Thunderbird. It worked fine for years, then all of a sudden did not. I previously had her set up on a Gmail account, which she does not use. I set this account up to also use the account previously on Thunderbird, and got it to send and receive both accounts. The last thing I am working on is migrating all of her Thunderbird emails and contacts over to Gmail. I’m attempting to accomplish this with a piece of software, but I haven’t gotten it to work yet either. Good thing I have time on my hands.

One of our son’s business partners, who runs a construction company, is to stop by today and look at repairing our front door. Standby

Two Steps Back Day

October 8, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

I’m having one of those two steps back days when all around me things are breaking or need fixing. Some examples: I’m trying to intake more protein, so last night I started to cook hamburgers on the grill outside. The grill has never presented any problems, but last night, while it was lit, it was not heating up enough to cook the burgers. I was tired and it was late, so I brought them inside where we finished cooking them in our little oven. Luckily, they were precooked Angus burgers so all we had to do was essentially reheat them. I tore the grill down after checking for gas, which was ok, fired it up again, and it was good to go.

I’m keeping a log of all food intake for three days in prep for our dialysis team meeting on Thursday. During this meeting, the subject of discontinuing IPN will be at the forefront, and what to do in its demise. The team dietitian has requested the data on meals and provided me with a rich source of protein-rich foods for those of us on dialysis. This listing is provided below in PDF format.

My wife’s email stopped working all of a sudden. We use a source named bananic.com and “own” the domain names feeser.net, along with feeser.me. Our email addresses are our first names followed by feeser.net. Mine, running off of Gmail as a front end, never has any problems. I’m running hers out of Thunderbird, and therein lies the problem. I finally got the server settings tweaked so that she can receive emails, but not send them. I’ll keep plugging away at it.

My wife has several projects that she has brought to the fore as follows:

Our front door leaks air around the top. We had a replacement door estimate, and it was $29,906. Ha to that. We have a builder friend of our son coming in tomorrow to do a look-see and possibly rehang the door or replace it.
Our front porch is developing small cracks, and our driveway has several large ones. We are still seeking estimates to recoat both of these.
We have funkey gates across the front of our single garage roll-up door because HOA restrictions in Pecan don’t allow garage doors to be seen from the street. The gates are sagging and need to be replaced.
We have a brick extension installed off our back patio, which is starting to settle in places. We have the guy who installed them under contract to come back, remove the brick and necessary materials, and relevel the entire extension.

And that’s just a start!

Protein-Guide Download

Hobbies: Raising Tomatoes

October 7, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

Here in North Texas, we tend to have warm weather well into the Fall. I first planted tomato plants outside on Feb 28, and we had our first ripe tomato in May. The last of these tomatoes ripened in September, and I then pulled the plants.

About the sixth of September, I planted two new plant starts of the Roma variety. As I write this one month later, we have a nice-sized tomato on one of the plants that also has several additional blossoms.

It appears that we can safely double-crop tomatoes here in Pecan Plantation.

Dropping IPN

October 6, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

From left to right, the Albumin values are 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 3.5, 3.2, and 3.4, being the most recent. The rationale for stopping IPN treatment should jump out of the above graph. When I started IPN on July 11, my nearest lab had albumin at 3.5. It was 3.5 in Aug, then 3.2 in Sep, with Oct 3.4, lower than when we started.

We are getting nowhere except expending lots of energy and funds.

Not a way to run a railroad. My dialysis nurse has asked me to stop by and has something else in a bottle for me to try, perhaps LiquaCel. This is what Perplexity has to say about this magic in a bottle:

LiquaCel is a liquid protein supplement composed mainly of hydrolyzed collagen. It provides 16 grams of high-quality liquid collagen protein and 2.5 grams of arginine per 1 oz serving. It is designed for individuals who have difficulty swallowing or digesting solid foods, such as renal, bariatric, wound healing, or dialysis patients. LiquaCel is available in various flavors and can be taken straight or mixed with beverages. It offers flexible administration options, including oral intake or via enteral feeding, and is beneficial for muscle preservation, wound healing, and addressing malnutrition. It is low in potassium and phosphorus, sugar and gluten-free, and has a moderately thick consistency according to IDDSI standards.mckinhealth+4

Here is the Amazon link to LiquaCel: https://www.amazon.com/LiquaCel-Concentrated-Protein-Packets-Variety/dp/B0B5FBQYTB/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1330409643026272&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bG4g9FjNJMC50cUJmxNeaC6Po09D6C9vGbbrh747JqYpcy1iKkvOZgEAombLa0dYJpmGhTNTQss-Ug3XjMcseOGHxBx95lg16eZ_VOBocstEilkbecjPBnKracOM2FzgYGp8Y4dBYz7HFqyTBTnerHi8uIDGrpzST0rF-eRRebJJatYnZ31nOz0Zl36QYW-FAJG1eJ1jswhm4R-ZR78QtvDDr4mssophSTIQ_G9iUtBs01hXYvXQdEFBDTWCAi5nMM7Fpx1Irt7NYnzufVpNOQU8hv0hofrHzLt8YiieiOY.EG-3Tm0RgAeQXHs18Mf_f6jhAc-fldYm77MYuWgyq6M&dib_tag=se&hvadid=83150841222992&hvbmt=bb&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=65300&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=b&hvtargid=kwd-83150967505093%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=21881_13321961&keywords=liquacel+protein+packets&mcid=c7f4f7c5fe9a32678d769519cd035607&msclkid=bf75e8d1ab9a1afd1bfb80336842c4c3&qid=1759691742&sr=8-1

Labs In

October 3, 2025 / Henry Feeser / 0 Comments

Most recent labs for October 2025 are in. My Albumin increased to 3.4 from 3.2. Since I am taking IPN with my dialysis, this is much less than expected. It has been bouncing around, up and down by 0.2. There is a very good chance that I will stop staking IPN in due course.

Another anomaly was Phosphate. Last month’s reading indicated that the trend was too low, so we reduced Velepro to one tab. This lab showed a big jump over the maximum, so I’m back on two tabs each morning.

The third reading of interest my A1c up to 5.4 from 4.7. This is a desired increase as both my nephrologist and GP suggest it could be higher.