I resolve to "DO more"

The first week of the new year seems to have been as oddly disjointed as was most of 2010. A short week at work still involved the usual craziness and some overtime already (though I did get to take Friday p.m. off to make up for it, so that's a good start) and much of the week was spent going back and forth to the vet - with both Mishka and Kramer - or else talking to various veterinary staff and technicians.

While I did manage to start off the New Year quite well with a visit to the gym and a 1-hour spin on my bike using the wonderfully snazzy "Elite Fluid Indoor Bike Trainer" (which looks a lot like this) that Lorne got me for Christmas, the rest of the week entailed much demolishing of leftover Christmas treats, too much great belgian beer and an amazing plate of chips and curry sauce at the local pub, The Three Lions. The pub (even though it's name says 'cafe') is literally a hop, skip and tuck'n'roll from our house and they serve THE best chips in Vancouver.....and by chips I mean the British version not to be confused with the North American counterpart to 'crisps'. Big, fat, freshly chipped spuds and an outstanding curry sauce poured over top - delicious, but really not the kind of thing for new year dietary improvement plans....oops!

As for the veterinary visits - well it all started when Mishka (left) decided to stop eating, stop poohing and began instantly barfing up even the tiniest amount of food (which we were having to force feed her using a syringe, just to get something into her). A certain amount of prodding, palpating and 2 x-rays later revealed a severely distended colon, aka megacolon, entirely packed with pooh. As you can see from the photo, she's a giant hairball. A black furry cushion with eyes, which is a big part of her problem. Even though we frequently trim her hair - which is never very pretty and makes the term 'had an argument with a lawnmower' seem like a compliment - she nonetheless still ingests a lot of it when she grooms and thereby gets all 'backed up'.

And then there's Kramer who was also due for a health check-up that would now include a couple of mystery lumps - one under his chin for which he's having a fine needle aspirate tomorrow) and a small black spot/lump on his hind quarters, which thankfully appears to be benign. Kramer's also still emotionally out of sorts since we lost Otto last month and frequently takes to the most woeful yowling and crying, like someone's pulling his legs off or something. (Heaven knows what our neighbour thinks we must do to the poor guy.) We're at a loss what to do to help him feel better, since he already gets an abundance of love and snuggles, but giving him a few drops of Rescue Remedy definitely seems to help....for a little while.

Anyhow, last Monday - our last day of the holidays - was spent mostly at the Animal Wellness Hospital just down the street from us - a fabulously well-run holistic veterinary practice. We've been back a few more times throughout the week with Mishka and she too is back there again tomorrow for an ultrasound to see just what might be causing her issues. It's certainly not been a cheap week (I might as well just hand over my Visa card and shout 'go nuts') but poor Mishka has always had a chronic problem with eating/digesting her food which was diagnosed 6 years ago as being motility issues in her digestive tract, although no one's ever offered a real solution or treatment for it. Now that I've followed Lorne's idea and have started taking her to the folks at Animal Wellness, I feel like she's getting the care she needs, and deserves, which will hopefully ease her ongoing discomfort. Naturally, after seeing a similar series of events with our late and beloved Lucy just over a year ago, I can't help the fearful part of my mind wondering if we might be looking at the same problem with Mishka, although I try to hold hope since her bloodwork came back looking good and her digestive problems have actually plagued the majority of her 13.5 years on this earth, so it's really nothing new. Unlike Lucy, who had a cast iron - and rather rotund - stomach prior to the devastating diagnosis of cancer.

So that was week one......and now I find myself still trying to figure out what targets/plans I should set for myself this year. I'm not one for making 'Resolutions' per se, since that always feels like I'm punishing myself - trying to set ambitious targets that I'll only end up beating myself up about when, come December 31st, I'll realize I failed miserably and am simply a sad, pothetic, slob after all. One thing that worked well for me a couple of years ago was to set myself an action plan - a list of courses & projects to do - which I broke down into quarterly instalments and felt good about when, at each 3-month review, realized I had, for once, actually done what I set out to do. Mostly anyway. In fact even seeing the things I did do, meant I was much easier on myself about the few things that I maybe hadn't got around to or hadn't fully completed.

I'm working on this year's plan, but for now my 2011 motto is 'do more'.....which will have to go hand-in-hand with 'drink less', since I'm prone to wanting a glass of wine/beer/scotch in the evenings which, once I've had one, makes me feel too relaxed/lethargic to actually get around to 'doing' much else...tut, tut, tut!....and often leads to a second drink instead. Which, while still being considerably less than your average character in a half-hour episode of Coronation Street, does no doubt have me marked - by Canadian standards - as an alcoholic. Hey, I'll drink to that! :-)