Day 13

I'm afraid most of today's entry is about Poppy, rather than this diet.

Poppy's been to the vets this morning as she has got very swollen again over the last week. Sadly, its not very good news. According to Malcolm, the vet, she is "on the highest dose of everything she can have" but all the meds still aren't helping her. Although we usually see another vet, Alison, Malcolm was ther when Poppy had the drain done before so had seen how she was then. Malcolm said that if he's being honest, he's surprised she's lasted this long and that although he is happy to do the drain, being realistic its putting off the inevitable. I've told Malcolm that I want everything possible done for Pops. She deserves more time than this so if it helps this time, he has agreed that we can look at draining the fluid every 3 weeks or so. There is the worry that the drain will take away protein that Pops needs and that her abdomen will just fill up again, but last time was a month ago and she did perk up for a couple of weeks, so I'm hoping against hope that we can keep her going a bit longer this way.

In herself, Pops is still bright and still waggy and happy around me. She can't manage the stairs on her own and she's leaking more, but while her eyes are still bright and her tail is wagging, I'm not giving up on her yet So, tomorrow morning I've got to take her in to be drained and then phone at lunchtime.

I know that Poppy, being a rescue and not having had a good start in life was never going to have any guarantee of a long life with me, but I get so bloody angry to think that people who run places like the one she came from are concerned more with money than the health and welfare of the dogs they breed from. Obviously if Poppy had never been a puppy farm bitch, I wouldn't have her now, but I just love this little girl so much I want her to have more time than she's had so far.

Getting back to the main reason for this blog, the diet, there's not much to report for today. Despite being upset today, I've not felt hungry not had any inclination whatsoever to eat as 'comfort'. It was 'curry day' in the cafe at work but luckily for me, I'm not keen on curry so that wasn't tempting. Tim ate a bag of crisps earlier and I could quite happily have eaten just one, to remind myself what I was missing, but he took himself off away so I didn't have to smell them or listen to him chomping away. Probably for the best.

Tomorrow is of course weigh-in night which I'm looking forward to. I've been drinking plenty of water and sticking to the foodpacks, although I'm rapidly going off the toffee bars. Hopefully my list that I wrote the other day will make the coming next week easier.