Day 23

This is actually Friday's entry. I am writing it late because I had to deal with a major flea infestation.

This morning I had more energy than I knew what to do with! I took my morning dose of DE with my first cup of coffee and was practically bouncing off the walls before my second cup of coffee was finished. The energy lasted all the way through work today. I also had plenty of energy left over to do some cleaning in my room. My appetite is still decreasing, and I found that I was only able to eat one half of an egg and cheese sandwich and about 1/4 cup of cottage cheese. Before I started taking DE, I could easily have finished that breakfast and then some.

Lunch and dinner were the same in the respect that I did not eat nearly as much as usual.

Tonight I got an idea of how well DE works against fleas. I had quit using it on the animals as much as I should have because I was worried it was making the animals itch worse, but now I know they were scratching because of fleas. I hadn't seen a flea in the house until tonight when I found myself covered in them after walking on the large area rug in the middle of the living room floor. So I sprinkled DE all over the rug and used a broom to spread it out and brush it in where the fleas might be hiding. Then I covered the love seat where my dog lays when she comes in. A few minutes later, I saw over a hundred fleas crawling all over the love seat.

After seeing that, I went outside and thoroughly coated my dog in DE, then put some on the outside cat and went back inside to powder the indoor/outdoor cat who was scratching like crazy. At that point, it seemed that the fleas were going nuts! The cat was scratching worse than ever, and the fleas were jumping all over the love seat. I guess that maybe fleas really do hate DE.

After making sure the love seat and rug were completely covered in DE, I went in and took a shower to wash the DE off of me as my feet, legs, and hands had gotten a lot of the stuff on them. When I came back out, I noticed what looked like a few dead fleas around the edge of the rug. I checked out the love seat and found that there weren't as many fleas moving around, but found that they were jumping all over the floor next to the love seat. Some looked like they were still healthy, and some were obviously dying. I am hoping they will all be dead by tomorrow morning.

At least the cat looks like she is much more comfortable now. She is not biting or scratching at all, but is laying comfortably on the kitchen floor. I think the dog is more comfortable now too. Earlier I could hear her moving around underneath the window and scratching a lot, but she seems to be settled down too.

I just hope I don't wind up having to dust the rest of the house with DE. It's just too messy. Times like this make me grateful that I don't have carpeting.