Pet sitter convention? Sue, have you ever considered moving to Arlington?
Although seriously, my pet sitter is awesome and I owe her big for this. Not only has she had to take Mojo to the vet three times already, plus deal with the bandages and the chewed-up shoe and everything, I just called to make sure she could stay longer, and she said it's no problem. I'm planning to replace her shoes and pay her a whole lot extra for this (and then hopefully she'll be OK with staying again in February, when I'm supposed to go to Denver and San Antonio; I can't believe I'm going to be going away again so soon).
He definitely appreciates it, as does my aunt. Through all this, he's totally aware and alert again, thankfully. No craziness since the morphine and the neurosurgery. He can be a little hard to understand because of the slurring and the weakness in his voice (although oddly, I seem to understand him better than anyone else, so I'm doing a lot of interpreting for my aunt and the nurse and the docs at the ER), and he seems far more forgetful than he used to be (asking a million times what time he took his anti-nausea medication and what time he should take it again; at the same time, he knows exactly when to take his regular meds and how much to take).
And my aunt has been enjoying my cooking, so I'm happy about that. He was, too, till he got this digestive issue.
So yeah, I'm very hopeful about my long-term success at this point. Even with everything so crazy, I'm not eating anything nuts or reaching for sugar or junk food to drown my sorrows. I've only even THOUGHT about reaching for it a couple of times. And my workouts are suffering, but I miss them tremendously and can't wait to resume the running as soon as I get home. At first I was at least walking the dog (and taking hills as much as possible), but right now he's staying with a friend because he was getting neglected when we've been so focused on my uncle. And I used the treadmill once, but it's ancient, so it's kind of pain to use (figuratively AND literally - it's not as cushioned as the new ones, so I was feeling some pain in my ankles and decided I'd be better off just taking a few days off).
But this is certainly the kind of circumstance that would normally have me diving into the fast-food bag for junk and ice cream and chocolate and whatever else I could find. And all that stuff is certainly readily available here. But the worst I've had is the extra olive oil, or a little pasta (but truly just a little), or some nonfat Greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of walnuts. Nothing crazy at all. I'm not always eating six times a day, either, but I try to get at least four or five little meals in, along with my usual water intake. I'm a little low on veggies, but I've been getting better about that, too.