Glad to hear the doggy is treatable. $$$
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Also that the pinky is not broken. Ouch!!

My poor dog seems to be holding his own. I thought he wasn't eating enough but he seems that he is. I double checked the number of calories for his weight and it is lower than I initially thought it was. After getting slightly warmed rounds of egg foo young, hamburger and hot dogs, in addition to hand fed treats, I am not sure if he will ever eat kibble out of the bowl again. He is not quite himself. We are not too happy with the treatment options. Part of it is heavy doses of steroids. It worries us because it will suppress his immune system but he is prone to infections. The other part is an immunosuppressant. Option A is $700/month. Option B is $50/month but will likely cause bloody stools. We are not sure what we are going to do. There is very little information available for his condition.

For me, the better splint has helped my finger a lot. I was on-track today. Per my usual, tomorrow will be tough but I believe I will be able to hold my own.

So a half hour left and I think I will be able to make it. I am already over on calories by just a little bit. I am really fighting the all or nothing logic. Usually, when I am over a little bit, I throw in the towel and go over by a lot. I would like to do that now. Here I am typing instead. Part of me is quite angry about not giving into temptation. It is really trying to win and it may.

Well, I did stay on-track calorie wise yesterday after all. Today, I was really trying my hardest but my willpower abruptly failed at 3:15 pm. My new calorie window didn't open until 5:00 pm. I say it failed abruptly because I was literally having out loud conversations with myself that I needed to wait and listing all of the reasons why it was important. I moved on to an activity that was suppose to help distract me. It didn't and I quit in the middle to get a snack. I really did my best and failed.

I did put it on the tally for the new calorie window that ends at 5:00 pm tomorrow. If I can stay on-track, I will have a little redemption. My weight was not so great today. The other metabolic indicators were slightly improved today.

Okay- three hours left. It's really four hours but we are going to the rec center in three hours.

The last fifty minutes has been tough. I had a small breakfast this morning and was hungry afterwards. I waited it out until lunch time and was hungry the whole time. I had a lovely, reasonable lunch that should have filling. It wasn't. In fact, I was more hungry after I ate my lunch. I ate a little bit more but reached my calorie limit. My appetite continued to build until I felt ravenous.

I just don't understand it. There is nothing in the literature about this. If you are hungry and eat, you should be less hungry. That is suppose to be how it works. For me, it is the opposite and I am unable to manage it. I have a protocol, things to do, when this happens. I have gone through all of the steps and this is the last one, making a post.

One of the steps is to brush my teeth. While I was doing this, I found myself chewing on my toothbrush. It was quite bizarre! Once I became aware of this, I was consciously tried to make myself stop and it was difficult, weirdly difficult. It was like I was fighting some sort of instinct. The next step was to lay on my belly. I was thinking this would help my mind connect to my belly and realize that I have indeed recently eaten. Well, this does not work. It increases my appetite! Ugh! I have taken this step off of the list.

Where are we now? Well, it seems my appetite has peaked. Although I still feel very hungry, which is disproportionate to having eaten recently, I think I can manage it. I hope. I will continue to try. Two hours and thirty-five minutes left.

It was ugly but I made it through. It was actually a double victory because the calorie tally included the calories from the early start of my daily calorie window. Basically, that means I've been on-track for the last three days. It's looking good for tomorrow. The 2-5 window is consistently a tough one for me. Supposedly this gets easier at some point.

No reward on the scale and even the ketone test strips are unfavorable (shows no change/no fat burning).

My dog is doing better and is eating well. He has a follow up appointment next week. My finger is not great and I have an appointment this week for a specialist to look at it.

Looks like a small gain for the month. ~Sigh~

The cat got her check up today and got a clean bill of health. I will see the specialist about my finger tomorrow. The dog is doing well, not quite 100% but better.

My dog is eating better and still doing pretty well.

I will need an MRI on my finger. I am thinking surgery is likely. I am unable to make a fist and cannot straighten it.

Today was a terrible day for eating. I just don't know how to get and stay on-track. Also, I am not sleeping well.

I am quite discouraged, hence, the lack of posts in the last couple of days.

I just did the math and I have 644 days left. No improvement across the approximately 300 days this thread has been going.

I did take the time to plan out meals for the next four days. I've done this before and rarely stick to it. Maybe this time will be different for an unspecified reason.....

So my weight was four pounds less this week than last Sunday. Of course, it's not new weight loss; it is some bloating sloughing off. Still trying to better my health but not posting much.

My dog is stable for now and we are seeing if the recent medication addition will be enough.

Had to cancel a family camping trip because my husband needs to travel for work at the same time on late notice.

Work has been tough enough that I've started putting out feelers for a new job. I really like the job I have but am not thick skinned enough for the work politics. I hate job hunting and find it stressful. I also worry that I will either not find anything or I will be walking into a worse situation. The job itself that I have now is great aside from the bad fit with the governing clique. It is off putting enough that I feel happier when I think about moving on. It is just very difficult since I have put in over a decade with this company.

Went to see the doctor for my bum finger. The doctor was actually at the ER when my appointment was scheduled to start. The staff took 30 minutes to tell me. Then I was given the option to see the doctor later or her PA now. Between you, me and the lamp post, I found the PA smug and condescending. I am concerned that I need surgery for my finger and told the PA as much. She was responded that's not what's being recommended in your case. Just the way she said was so annoying. I opted to come back later to see the doctor.

The doctor spent twenty minutes telling me it was just a sprain and nothing is really wrong. She gave me a whole sheet of instructions on exercises to do which included moving my entire finger. At the end of it she asked if I had any questions. I told her, that still doesn't explain why I cannot straighten my finger from a bent position. She paused and said, it sounds like you have a boutonierre, let me look at your MRI again. She came back and told me the tendon on the top of my finger is completely torn.

I need a customized splint and the joint needs to remain completely immobile for the next 8 weeks with a check in two weeks. Really, the check in two weeks is to see if it is healing. If is not, surgery is warranted. It seems likely there was a bad hand off between the first PA (not the one mentioned above) and the doctor because the doctor didn't look at the actual area of concern. If I had seen the second PA instead of the doctor, I would have left with the exact wrong advice as the treatments were entirely opposite. I am so glad I saw the doctor. Unfortunately, this adds to my mistrust of the medical establishment. I was already having trouble seeing doctors for stuff that needs to be address and this is a step backwards for me.

The other part of it is when I saw the first PA between the bending and poking, it re-injured the finger. My finger has been much worse since that visit. Even worse than the initial injury. I had iced and splinted it immediately after the first injury and the urgent care triage did not ask me to bend it. I really wish I would have thought to ice after the visit with the PA. The doctor told me it was swollen and bruised because I had immobilized it which is simply not true.

Where does this leave me- looking forward to my trip in July with more anticipation than ever!

So the site lately has been working exactly as my diet plan has been. I take all of the right steps and it doesn't work.

Something has changed on the site as it will no longer allow me to login using my usual computer. I think it doesn't like my browser since it is not Microsoft or Google. I've been trying to post weekly but it takes forever to get to the login screen. Then after entering my information, it just sits there. I was able to login today using a small netbook that I have for travel. Generally, I do not use my phone for things like this. The amount of information corporations capture and keep on individuals is astounding. I always wonder what the founders of the country would think. Their primary concern was the government. However, these large corporations are now acting as a defacto government in some ways. I am hoping keeping different things on different devices will minimize their datasets.

I'm still working on my health which I tend to couch in terms of my weight. My weight is the easiest way to measure if I am successful or not. Everything is staying the same which is good. No dramatic weight increase, although, I am about four pounds above my sidebar weight.

My dog is doing okay and seems to be at a good steady state. We only have him on the steroid and a supplement.

My pinky is not great and will never be the same. It will always be a bit deformed and I may get 70-80% of function back. Splinting is still the course of action. Surgery would have the same outcome so not worth it.

My husband had to travel for work last week and came home sick. He tested positive for Covid after being home for two days and is now quarantined in the basement. The first test he took was negative. So far, I feel okay and have tested negative. To me it will be quite surprising if I don't get it and I am just waiting things out for now. So if he caught on the plane as he thinks since the lady in front of him had a very serious, nearly continuous cough, he got sick 2.5 days later. I've been exposed for 2.5 days now and am doing okay. It is reported the average incubation between exposure and symptoms is 5-6 days. If I am going to get it, I need to get is sooner rather than later because I am suppose to travel on the twelfth.

So between my slow netbook with memory issues and the site, it took me an hour to edit this post! Anyway the plan is to keep working at improving my health and posting at least weekly.

Glad to see you back, Pipsicle. The forum is misbehaving. Not sure if it will improve. I can no longer get in from my Kindle which is my favorite. I can get in from my desktop which is Microsoft or my IPad but it is very slow loading. Getting in seems to depend on the server. The slow loading is no matter what.

My weight loss is misbehaving, too!

So I got Covid but am feeling better and will be okay to travel. I lost 4.5 pounds. It is not true weight loss. I feel the bloat that has been plaguing me for several months final came off. I hope it stays away and I can actually start losing new weight. My FBS was also fabulous at 81.

I'm sorry to hear you have Covid, Pipsicle but it was probably inevitable since your husband had it. I'm knocking on wood because neither of us have had it. We are retired, though, so not around other people very often or for very long. Hope you're feeling better, soon! The weight loss might stick! Keep your fingers crossed.

The site has still been very slow for me on the tablet, but a little better today on the desktop, which I hate.

I’m a little concerned that you are still not back. Hope you’re ok. You mentioned having to travel. 3 people who recently had Covid 19 are experiencing problems with most foods tasting and smelling terrible. My DIL is having issues with chicken and eggs, two of my favorite foods. A guy can only eat boiled shrimp. Everything else tastes horrible. A woman constantly smells garbage burning. I somehow lost my sense of smell as a teen. It is now very weak. I have to make an effort to smell things if someone mentions it. Occasionally I smell things that no one else smells.