Counting down the days.

Not only are we counting down the days until Christmas & enjoying all the fun that goes along with the season of giving & good will, we're unfortunately counting down the days that we'll have Diggitty with us.

Unfortunately he's in bad shape & is on palliative care with us at the moment. It seems he has two large masses in his tummy which appear to be on his liver & probably his spleen. I've known his health has been in decline for the past 12 months & especially in the last 6 months. He's dropped a lot of muscle tone on his hips & lost weight - his ribs & backbone are sticking out & you can feel them when you pat him, however he has a distended belly further back.

We took him to the vet on Friday arvo & determined all of this. The vet explained that what often happens is a dog will develop a tumour on the spleen & this will have bleeds occasionally which cause the dog to exhibit the types of symptoms that our Diggitty is having - weak, listless, nauseous, shallow breathing, etc. If it is a minor bleed, it may repair & the dog will recover - this must be what happened in September when we were camping. Eventually, without intervention, the dog will suffer a major bleed which will kill it.

We could ultrasound & biopsy to see if the tumours are benign or malignant. If they're malignant, chances are they've already spread. If they're benign, they could be surgically removed, however they're large & he's almost 13 so the stress on his body would probably be too much for him to survive the operation anyway.

Aside from that his hips are weak & painful, and he has a nasty cough which is indicative of a cardio/pulmonary disease.

So palliative care it is. If he recovers in the next few days, well & good, & we'll have him around to love a bit longer. But so far he's not much improved, despite the painkillers, so chances are we'll be taking him in for a gentle release between now & Christmas. It's very hard to know if we're being selfish in keeping him here, or if we are not giving him enough opportunity to recover. This is all made more difficult with the public holidays upon us & knowing that veterinary assistance is not readily available throughout.

He's being spoilt rotten with lots of hugs, kisses, pats, chicken breast, ham, cuddles and generally given a lot more attention than he's used to over the last few years. He even slept inside last night, which turned out to be a mistake as I woke every 2 hours to see if he was okay & then he had a wee accident because he can't stand up on our floors unless he's on a mat as they're too slippery. But he did love being inside & slept right next to my side of the bed.

This end of pet ownership truly sucks. It's the hardest thing ever. However, I know I can be strong for him when the time comes. I'll release him from his pain with peace, dignity, love & security.

Couple of scraps - again

Just a couple of pages I've completed in the last week. Neither are particularly faves of mine, but I'm going with the theory that if I just keep plugging away, I'm learning, creating, exploring and finding my scrapping style. LOL. Sounds like a load of BS, but I've seen it work for others.

And really with the pile of stuff I have sitting here, I need to pull my finger out & get using it up!!

Toot for me!!

Weigh-in today - total loss to date 5.6kg. Next goal will be 10% body weight loss - then I should really be feeling some difference in my clothing!!

Finding the Cross Trainer hard work at the moment. I guess the novelty has worn off. The last 5 minutes can be really tough as my toes go numb & it's really uncomfortable. It's heaps easier to do if there's something interesting on TV, so taped the Kath & Kim movie last night so I should be set for the rest of the week pretty much.

Started painting skirting boards again yesterday. I had refused to paint any more until David finished attaching the ones that I'd last done. He was so slow. Only took him about 3.5 YEARS!! lol So now I'd like to get the ones done in the entry/lounge/dining area so he can attach them when he gets home this stint. He has been busy though with a couple of other things lately around the house, so I can't complain too much.

Anyway, must be off to shower. Then taking Sasha swimming. Nikita will have to watch from the sidelines as she has a nasty cough/cold. Then home again for weed spraying and skirting board painting. And maybe if I'm lucky & organised, I might even get started on washing the windows & blinds. It's all in a good cause - we're having Christmas lunch here. So looking forward to it!

WW - 4 weeks in

Wow, I was so surprised to see that I'd lost another 1.3kg this week when I stepped on the scales. I'm so just waiting to see a gain at some stage. I feel it's almost inevitable. All up I've lost 4.7kg in 4 weeks, so I'm really stoked with that. May there be many many more kilos lost this year!!!

In particular to have lost that amount at this time of year with a few social events has made it all the more encouraging. I think I'll be making an effort to use my X-Trainer every day this week though to make up for the truffles & other goodies consumed at Larissa's yesterday.

David's so funny. Everytime we go to Larissa's for an event, he always comments on how she knows how to put on a good Do. (despite getting home at 3am from a school reunion!!).

Dad's coming to visit in a week's time. I'm a bit nervous about hosting him at my house for a couple of nights - so different to the plush hotels, etc. But hopefully will give a chance for a better catch-up - if the girls let me get a word in edgeways.

David's heading offshore in the morning for three weeks. He arrives home on the evening of Sasha's last day of Kindy. It's a shame really as her class is doing a concert on that last day, and it will be a really special day, that he's going to miss. But I'll have the DVC charged up ready to record her performance. Hopefully he'll be home in time to go out for a special celebration dinner, and he'll definitely be here for Christmas.

We put our decorations up yesterday as we didn't want to wait until 11 Dec to put them up. So we're all set. Now I just have a truck-load of extra special house cleaning that I'd like to get done. (cleaning blinds & windows in particular!!)

The girls visited Santa at Myers in Garden City yesterday. His first day in the store, so nice & fresh & happy to have a chat. Just as well as the girls just wanted to talk & talk & talk some more. Really funny when Santa asked Sasha her name & she said "My name is Sasha. You've met me before!!"

We're hoping that the new train line is open before Christmas & we'll catch the train to the City so the girls can have another talk with Santa at Myers in the City. I just love the magic of Christmas!!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Here's our tree this year. I was inspired by Belinda's Blog to show off my tree. You can't really see it in this pic as I was trying to show off the beauty of the lights, but we have gone for pink & silver decorations this year. The girls have been really good with it though & haven't destroyed it or pulled things off it, like I thought they would. The reindeer underneath gets a bit of a play & I think he's also slept in Sasha's room a couple of times.

Uncle Graham's presents for the family arrived last week & I have put them under our tree. They're all books wrapped in brown paper, as per Uncle Graham's tradition, so my girls have had a lovely time lining them up in a row. I think they're building roads with them. Luckily, being books, they're pretty indestructible.

I also have told the girls that my bedroom is Out Of Bounds until after Christmas as I've bought them a new bike each. We have one small pavement bike which Sasha received last year for Christmas. It has fixed wheels though, so really only good for flat land & if you go down a hill, you either need to pedal reeeeeeeeally quickly, or you take your feet off the pedals and have no speed control (they both choose the latter which is quite dangerous). So I (impulse) purchased a couple of bikes with back-pedal brakes today & have 'hidden' them in my bedroom under a sheet. Will see how long the secret lasts & who is the one to break it!! I hope Nikita's bike isn't going to be too small & not last very long. We might try her on Sasha's first and see how she handles it & possibly swap it for that size too.