WW

I weighed in this morning at 131. Wow! That's a 5 lb loss since last week. My initial goal was a 10 lb loss (down to around 137), WW suggested a 10 % loss (133). I've surpassed them both.

The WW site tells me I've earned a gold star, and I should now maintain. It makes sense . . . the range for my height based on BMI is 130-150. Maintaining means I get a whopping 24 points a day (up from the 20 I've been at) plus the 35 flex points. If I continue with normal eating with a few splurges here and there, I'm sure I'll be fine.

This has been a really interesting experiment, and it has taught me just how much I was eating that I didn't need to eat (in terms of portion size), and where hidden calories can lie. I'm going to use the WW tools through the end of my 3 months since I've paid for them, but will cancel the membership so I don't get charged anymore. Its too bad that online members don't seem to get free support as the meeting folks do once meeting their goal and maintaining for a while, because the recipe lists and nutritional tools have been very cool to use. Yay!

Simple Pleasures

I had a ballet class last night for the first time in a week (off for Ozzfest last week anyway, and they canceled the class due to extreme weather) and it felt great! I'm definitely more creaky since I'm not dancing at least 2x a week, but the heat despite making me uncomfortable in terms of sweat and breathing does help the muscles stretch a bit more. I can feel myself making minor improvements, and I'm looking forward to the fall. Its scary how much more like her Mom Peggy Anne looks as she gets older.

After class I picked up Brian and we went to see Mal at Vescone's visiting hours. What a cutie! He was pretty heavily drugged (as we were expecting) since they are trying to keep the pain at bay and wean him back to normal life again. He sat on my lap and went in and out of consciousness, but seemed happy to see us. He would fall asleep on us, wake up and look up at us, and fall asleep again, but every time someone walked by outside of the room he'd wake up and look around (almost like he was comfortable with us, but not nuts about being there, or with any of the staff/doctors). We got to spend almost an hour with him, which was neat because the little form they gave us with info on the visiting hours lead us to believe we'd only get 10 to 15 minutes. On the way out one of the techs told us that he's been great with all of them, and hasn't fought them, caused problems or anything. Mal is working his flirty magic on all of the ladies! He seems really fascinated by his catheter (in his front paw, that's held in with a little cast). The tech said that most animals try to shake it off or bite it off, but Mal just holds his arm out and looks at it quizzically from time to time. They seem to be enjoying his company.

I never did get to talk with the doctor when I was at work yesterday, and they weren't available to talk with us last night (in the eve they are strictly dealing with emergencies) so I'll call again today and keep calling until I get a live person. Busy place!

Given the nice weather today I'm hoping to finish polying my bureau after work and then I'll make dinner. Then Brian and I have boring stuff to take care of (grocery shopping) and will visit Mal again. I can't wait to get him home! My guess is we'll need to have in him in a room away from Jayne for a bit so that he can heal, since the two of them are crazy wrestlers normally. Jayne has been very sweet and has been looking for more attention (probably because his companion hasn't been around) and was smelling and licking my shirt and shorts last night when we returned from our visit (where Mal had been curled up). Poor little guys, I can't wait until things are back to normal for them.

Mal update

I finally talked with the vet this morning. Mal is looking better today, and has eaten a bit of food without vomiting. I guess he had a mild fever last night for a while, so they gave him some antibiotics and anti-inflamatory drugs and the fever went away. Depending on how he does today there is a chance we can pick him up tonight - they just want to watch for further fevers. I need to call them at around 4:00/5:00 to see what's up.

As for follow-up care, they may or may not send him home with a couple of days of antibiotics (depending again on fever). They'll probably send him home with a couple of days of pain pills. We'll need to bring him back in 2 weeks to get the stitches removed (staples) and he can't have any roughhousing for "a few weeks". So, this means we'll probably need to keep him locked in a room and away from Jayne (unless we are there to supervise). That should be interesting. We decided that the Den would be Mal's new temporary home, since its comfy in there with the AC, he can nap on the couch if he wants, and the bunnies are there for company (he seems to really like being around them) when we're not around. Alternately, we could keep him in our bedroom but the space is small enough that I'm not sure how putting a litter box, food and water in there would work (and, it would mean Jayne was doubly punished - not able to see Mal, and not able to visit us in Bed).

This whole thing was so not a fun experience, but I can't speak highly enough of the care he's receiving at http://www.vescone.com/ - they made it as good as it could be . If you live in our area and need specialty vet care (either in an emergency 24/7 or for complicated illness) please consider using them.