Tybalt

After a rough few days with Tybalt he is finally back to his old self.  I must admit it was pretty scary over the weekend with him not eating, vomiting constantly, only wanting water or to go outside and try to eat snow.

I ended up taking him back to the vet Saturday morning, he had lost seven pounds in two days.  Two of those pounds were from the lipoma, but a five pound loss was quite a bit for him, he is down to 102 pounds.  He got a shot of anti nausea medication and thankfully that seemed to do the trick.

It took him until late Saturday night, but when my big boy walked over to his dish and ate the little bit of hamburger and rice, we could have had a party for how big that celebration was!  Slowly but surely he has gotten back to normal with his eating and drinking, we mix his antibiotic in with his food and it doesn't seem to be upsetting his tummy at all.  The vet is pretty sure he was so sick from the anesthesia, he had never been put under before.

He still has to wear his tube until the 21st when they take out the staples.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I can't wait until next weekend when we get out on our first walks, no big lump to worry about, and helping him to lose maybe a couple more pounds the healthy way :)

Bella has been a wonderful big sister, so worried about Tybalt, making him notes and staying by his side, we love our big boy!!!

Our Big Boy

Tybalt has had a growth on his side for over a year now.  We knew it would be costly to have it removed so we've had to wait, but we were finally able to do it.

We decided to go to a different vet because over the past couple years the vet we used before had just gotten rude and their service was terrible plus extremely expensive.  They told us Tybalt was overweight at 90 pounds and tried to have us buy their weight loss food, they told us Tybalt's teeth were terrible and he needed their expensive dental cleaning.  So we wanted another opinion.

The vet we are now using is wonderful, the staff is amazing, we just love them.  We didn't tell them anything about our previous experience, we wanted to know what they thought of Tybalt without knowing that.  Tybalt weighed in at 109 pounds, it is winter and he usually puts on some weight, but I was shocked he weighed that much.  We were told he isn't necessarily overweight, yes he could lose about 10 pounds but not much more than that, he is just an extremely large boxer.  We told them we wanted his teeth cleaned and they asked us why.  On a scale of 1 to 4 Tybalt is maybe a high 1, there is no need to have his teeth cleaned.

Can I tell you how happy I was we went somewhere else????

We made the appointment to get his lump removed, thankfully they are 99% positive it is not cancer.  He has never exhibited signs of being sick and would have by now if it was.  So he got that removed and another one that was on his front left leg, that one was much smaller but since he had to be put under anyway why not remove that one too?

When I picked him up yesterday, he was a sad site, he was pretty drugged up.  His neck is too big for the "cone of shame" so instead he got this inflatable tube.  Poor guy, I feel bad for him, he has to wear that for two weeks until he gets his staples out.

He was pretty wobbly last night, he has to stay upstairs because he isn't supposed to go on too many stairs, we have to take him out on a leash to make sure he is careful and doesn't mess anything up.  Bella has been very sweet and protective, she is very happy he doesn't have to wear the "cone of shame", that was her biggest concern :)

We love you Tybalt and can't wait for you to be back to normal!

Lifestyle Changes

Over the past couple of years life has seemed to be never ending bad news, shocking news, just so many bumps in the road.

We had decided that 2013 would NOT be like the past two years, we went into it with a positive outlook, knowing we would not take on others problems, and try to fix them, we would put more focus on each other, we would work hard to make it be OUR year.

I can report so far so good :)  I'm not saying there haven't been bumps, of course there have been, but we've gotten over them pretty smoothly, calmly and with a positive mind set.

We have changed our eating and are really trying to eat much more "cleanly". It is going well, thanks to Pinterest I am able to find recipes, yummy ones at that, and not run out of ideas.  I can say that for myself I have noticed a big difference, but I know that is also from my other lifestyle change.

Kyle is back in at a gym, he is loving it and I know this is the right place for him.  Personal training is what he truly loves, he will be doing that along with different classes and possibly have a big role at the gym once they open in their new location on April 1st :)

This is the year that will be competing in a figure competition in October.  In January and February I did the P90X dvds, which were great but I get bored easily with it so we began my training in the gym with Kyle.  Yes, my awesome husband will be my personal trainer on this journey, I will also have a posing coach but I won't start working with her until May/June.

This is a big deal for me and something I've been wanting to do for a long time, this year I was just ready to go and I've made amazing progress so far. Today was our first day with a 5am workout it, we did it and I need to continue to do that.  

From eating better, exercising daily, drinking a lot of fluids I can say that I have had NO dizzy spells, I never feel light headed, my heart feels great.  I knew the changes would have a positive impact, but it has been better than I could have anticipated!

The other night Kyle had me watch some YouTube videos of figure competitions and Bella was watching them with me.  She is very excited for mommy to be doing this, she was watching it and she said to me, "but mommy you are already really skinny so you don't have to work out."

Ahhhhhhhh, such a sweet little angel!!!!  I had to explain to her that mommy doesn't quite have the muscle tone yet to walk on stage in a bikini.  Watching that seemed to make it more real for Bella even, she now realizes what I will actually be doing and she can't wait to cheer me on :)

Bella the Tiger

There she is, the cutest little tiger ever!  Mindy, Evey and I headed to Newbo City Market to check it out.  I'm in LOVE.  So happy that Cedar Rapids has such a neat new place, we ate dinner there, watched a juggling show, listened to the band playing, Bella got the best face painting job ever (and now I think I know what we will be doing for her birthday party this year, can't pass up this awesome artist offering such a great deal for birthday parties) and saw some old friends.

Of course the best part for Bella was getting her face painted, seriously the woman that did it was AH-MAZING!!!!  Bella was a bit shy at first while we walked around and people tried talking to her about her cute tiger face, eventually she would growl a little and tell me she was a real tiger :)