Anemic

This is what I look like as of yesterday March 12, 2008. I'm blond again. Cute, huh?


Went to the doctor last week for my 15 month check up. I am down 88 pounds! Very pleased with my progress. The not so good news is that I am incredibly deficient in iron. He said I am one point away from being anemic. The doctor advised me to take an iron pill three times a day! Yikes!!! If you know anything about iron supplements you know that they can constipate you. He advised three times a day so that my body can catch up and so I bought iron pills at GNC that claim to be non-constipating...we'll see about that. I will also step up my fiber intake as I think I am going to need it.

I know part of the problem is that I do NOT take my vitamins every day. I know it is silly, but on some level I resent having to take these pills. I mean, I'm not 70 years old and yet I have this ridiculous pill box laid out with all my vitamins in it. How can I forget when the pill box is right there on the table, right? So I think there is some deep-rooted psychological reason for my "forgetting" to take my meds every day. I'm hoping that the doctor visit will be the wake up call that I need.

Oh, and of course he told me to exercise more because, as he put it, "you can still lose more weight." Ouch! Yeah, I know! I want to lose 30 more pounds and it has been hard the last 10 pounds or so. Hubby and I joined a gym together and I think we went about 10 times at 5 am together. After that we split up and go on our own time. Still, I haven't been going often enough and I need to. Yeah, there were some good excuses I've had recently for not going, but even if it is just for a practical reason. I'm paying for this so I better get my fat ass over there! hee hee.

Not Another Blog!

Okay, I admit that when I first started blogging that I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I started off writing my adoption blog about my trip to China to adopt my daughter. Then I wanted to write about my chihuahuas, so I started another blog to write about them. Then I started a third blog about my fat surgery. Attempting to keep up with all three was nutso, but even more nutso was that I was contemplating a fourth blog to blog about my dissatisfaction with my job and my life. I knew it had to stop so I decided to create one blog that will encopass all of them. This way I have just one place to go to and I can blog away. If you only wanna read about my fat surgery, just do a seach on fat to pull up those posts. If you only care about my chihuahua antics, search chihuahuas. Okay?

Pinky is Home

Pinky is home and resting comfortably. Actually, she isn't resting at all! She is back to her normal self and is chasing Chi-Chi all over the house. Chi-Chi chasing is one of Pinky's favorite games. Chi-Chi is so happy to have her big sister home that she doesn't mind a bit.

The second that Pinky walked through the door, Chi-Chi was all over her. The hospital gave her a bath and she smells wonderful, but I think that Chi-Chi doesn't like the new Pinky scent. She's looking for her old smelly self. Just wait a few days Chi-Chi and she'll be back!

Pinky is in the Hospital

Poor girl. She woke up two weeks ago and the left side of her face was swollen so much that she looked like an Akita! I took her to the hospital for an emergency vet visit on a Sunday morning. She was in SO much pain that she would not even let the vet look inside her mouth. The vet suspected an abscessed tooth was the culprit.

We were sent home with pain killers and anti-biotic. The swelling went down after a few days and I made an appointment to go back so that they could get a look at her mouth. It appeared to be an tooth abscess, so Pinky was scheduled for dental surgery. They were pretty booked, but we managed to squeeze in. I didn't want to wait until the end of March which was when they originally booked her appointment.

I brought her in early this morning and she was not happy. She was not happy that she could not eat her normal breakfast (but she was absolutely gleeful when I gave her a bonus meal last night at 10:30 pm!). She conveniently forgot about the bonus meal. I thought it would make skipping breakfast less devastating, but I was wrong. However, Chi-Chi was able to gloat that she was eating a meal that Pinky had to skip!

The vet called and told me that Pinky was already awake. They had to pull five teeth, one of them was here canine (the big fang) that was the one with the abscess. She is resting and they will try to feed her later tonight. I won't be able to take her home until tomorrow sometime. They want to monitor her overnight and I think that is a

Happy Anniversary

My labs last doctor visit indicated that I have a vitamin d deficiency. I didn't tell the doctor, but I haven't been taking my vitamins regularly. I know I have to, but I hate taking these horsepills! I get on a roll taking them religiously and then I just forget one day and that sets the slide into motion where I go a whole week without taking a vitamin. Not good, so NO lectures please. I need to find a solution to this madness.

This doctor visit in November marked my one year anniversary. I lost 80 pounds in the year and that is great for me. The doctor thinks that I need to exercise more now because this is the critical juncture for me. He loses (no pun intended) many patients at this point because they know by now what they can and cannot "get away" with eating. Those who continue seeing him have a better weight loss than those who stop. I need to boost the exercise to keep the weight loss going, so that means hitting the gym more than twice a week. Ugh! I can do it and I will.

I will see him later this month for my 13 month post-op check-up and will let you know how it went at that time.

I Must Be Insane

I am participating in NaNoWriMo. Do you know hwat this is? A bunch of lunatics get together and decide that they will attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days starting November 1st and ending November 30th. Yes, I decided to do it this year. I'm tired of saying that I will write a noel one day. Forget it. That day is here. AFter one week I have written over 11,000 words so i am definitely on my way to completing the task, but the month is not over yet. Wish me luck!

If you want to follow my progess, here is my nano site complete with novel excerpt and word count: http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/232353

Pinky is Home

Pinky came home last night and Chi-Chi was all over her the second she walked through the front door. Chi-Chi really missed her sister and was sniffing Pinky and licking her and trailed her all over the house. Pinky didn't even seem to mind. Pinky walked all through the house. I guess she just wanted to know that everything was the way she had left it. She immediately went to her water bowl and drank some water. She ran around a little with Chi-Chi and then curled up on my lap for the night.

This morning I attempted to give Pinky the new food. It definitely smelled different from the other food. Pinky ran to the bowl, but didn't like what was in there. I tried several times in the morning to get her to eat, but she wouldn't have any of it. One of her meds has to be given with food, so I had to get some food into her stomach. I poured her some Cheerios. She devoured them! At least I was able to get her to eat something. I left food for my dad to give her for dinner.

She refused the dog food for dinner. I called the vet, but had to leave a message. I decided to feed Pinky some egg beaters. I figured they were low in fat so it should be okay for her. I cooked them up and let them cool down a bit. Pinky gobbled up the eggs. She seemed fine and there was no vomiting. The vet called me back and I explained what had happened with the food.

She recommended boiled chicken with some rice for Pinky. In the meantime, she was putting together a bag of various dog foods for me to try on Pinky to see what she likes. Pinky is a fussy eater. I don't know how easy it will be to transition her to another new food. I think I will try here and there, but I will not make a real effort until she is done with her meds. The vet will work with the nutritionist to come up with a diet for Pinky that will meet all of her nutritional needs from her pancreatitis and her bladder stones.