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I got weighed on Tuesday and I have lost 10% of my bodyweight since joining WeightWatchers. They give you a keyring for that. I'm wondering now if they give you a second keyring when you manage it again, because I'm not quite 1/2 way to my goal weight (10st) yet. So that was pretty damn pleasing. I am not sure how I'm going to get on when I go down to see my parents this weekend, but I'll be trying my hardest. I discovered last night that I can now take my blue jeans off without undoing them, which felt pretty cool. It's possible I'll have to bend my "no clothes shopping before goal" rule and go out and buy a belt at some point :)
In other news, we've had a diagnosis back about Cassie. She's allergic to fleas and to dust mites, so effectivly, to dust. Honestly! So she's having extra goes of the spot on flea stuff and we're going to try immune therapy for the dust mites thing. She'll get a load of injections of small amounts of dust mite stuff in the hope that her body will just start to accept it. It's quite pricey to get started, but once the loading phase is complete we'll only have to inject every month and the vet will show me how to do it so we'll just have to get them to order the stuff in. Aparently, it only works for about 70% of cats, but it's worth a shot, I reckon. If that doesn't work out, we'll have to put her on steroids, which will help the symptoms but will shorten her life in the long term.
In other news, we've had a diagnosis back about Cassie. She's allergic to fleas and to dust mites, so effectivly, to dust. Honestly! So she's having extra goes of the spot on flea stuff and we're going to try immune therapy for the dust mites thing. She'll get a load of injections of small amounts of dust mite stuff in the hope that her body will just start to accept it. It's quite pricey to get started, but once the loading phase is complete we'll only have to inject every month and the vet will show me how to do it so we'll just have to get them to order the stuff in. Aparently, it only works for about 70% of cats, but it's worth a shot, I reckon. If that doesn't work out, we'll have to put her on steroids, which will help the symptoms but will shorten her life in the long term.
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Date: November 20th, 2003 09:02 am (UTC)From:Dust mites, etc
Date: November 23rd, 2003 02:52 am (UTC)From:Re Cassie, there are some other things you could try, varying in degrees of faff and money:
Wash her bedding (and yours, and all other textiles she frequents) at 60 degrees centigrade, as often as you can. Once a week is hyper-ideal. This temperature kills dust mites.
Get her a hypoallergenic pillow and a pillow cover.
Kill dust mites and keep dust down as well with an essential oil spray, as follows: use a new plant-spraying bottle (you know, cheap plastic jobbie) and to every 500 mls of warm water add a teaspoon of witch hazel, 5 to 8 drops of lavender oil and of tea tree oil. Shake well and spray on carpets (especially in the corners and behind doors), sofas, and so on. You can vary this with 5 drops of rosemary oil instead of the lavender oil; some people also like a combination of eucalyptus and citronella. All will help do the job.
If you have a halfway decent Hoover, then vacuum clean your mattress when you're changing the sheets anyway. You can also use the essential oil spray on the mattress to deter dust mites.
If you really want to go all Happy Homemaker, buy a domestic "dry-steam" (high temperature) steam cleaner: outstanding for allergy reduction; can also be used on the bathroom grouting, the oven, the horrible bits of the kitchen floor, and pretty well any other sick-making job you don't want to get your hands in. The initial outlay (anything from about 80 squids to 120) pays itself back in results.
But then again I love good tools. (VWG)
p.s.
Date: November 24th, 2003 07:37 am (UTC)From: