6/17 Frosty AMPS 571, +3 462. Kibble raid. Need new pet sitter. Overnight walk pics

Yesterday’s post.

Dan couldn’t figure out why the sugar was so high this morning, until I got home and found Frosty eating out of the torn dry food bag. Dan said the food closet door was open when he got home last night, and the other cats didn’t wanna eat this morning... now we know why! But now we are officially out of kitty kibble, so unless they can open the plastic bin that holds the dog kibble, there won’t be any more raids. Jerks!

Apparently our pet sitter also didn’t show up last night, and the pets didn’t get fed and Frosty didn’t get his insulin until Dan got home 45 minutes after their normal time. Her flight got delayed apparently, and she didn’t let us know until I texted her to confront her (during the opening ceremony for my walk, none the less... I was pissed). I didn’t even know she was away and was catching a flight this close to her visit, otherwise we would have made other arrangements. Dan could have come home earlier too... she’s been taking care of our pets for a year, but she didn’t call or text us to even let us know.

Is anyone from northern NJ and has a good pet sitter who is responsible and can give insulin? If they can check blood sugar,it’s a plus (mine can’t, and can’t draw insulin. I pre-draw for her... yes, I know all about how horrible it is, but I don’t have a choice.) I guess I’ll post about this in the main or community forum... I was really pissed off about all of this yesterday.

So, for the above reasons, the curve today won’t be very useful. But I’ll still check to see how low he can go with the kibble and the new dose ...

The walk for suicide prevention went well. I walked by myself, but met a girl who was also walking alone during the first mile, and we walked the whole thing together. (She lost her dad to suicide when she was 4 years old). It was definitely 19 miles though according to my Fitbit, and not the 16.8 they said. I have 2 blisters on my right foot, and I’m just exhausted from being up all night, but otherwise it was good. Very emotional at the end when we got to the finish line and it was still dark, and all the luminaria was lit up and lit our way to the finish line, and spelled out the words “hope” and a heart on the steps of the museum. Maybe it was the exhaustion, but I cried as I sat next to my luminaria waiting for the sun to rise to watch the closing ceremony. It’s hard to imagine the kind of pain people who lost loved ones to mental illness are going through, when I was this affected by the death of a celebrity. But I raised $1755 for this important cause, and i hope that by doing so, as well as talking about it, i can help save even one life. And I want to let you guys know that I am always here if anyone needs to talk! It’s ok not to be ok, and it’s ok to ask for help if you need it. It is not easy to be a parent of a sick kitty.

Hope everyone has a good Sunday. I uploaded pics below from my walk.

 

That is too bad your kittehs raided the cookie jar. Our kittehs are the same way. We have dry kibble for Little Dude, and it is kept up on a high shelf in a plastic bin.

It looks like Frosty is happier on 3.0 units. Leo gets less insulin at night because he doesn't eat much then.

Just looked at the updated Instagram. Frosty is such a loverboy. And it looks like he is getting used to his new clothes.

I have known and also been related to multiple suicides. You are always left wondering what you could have done, and you feel guilty. In cases of real bad health, I think it should be legal to do self-euthanasia. My Dad got real bad with Parkinsons before he died. We could see his mind slipping away with his body, and he knew it. His quality of life was worse than any of the 15 cats he had through the years. Anyhow, I still think about the people I knew and what could have been done.

 

I’m really sorry to hear about your dad and other friends. There is a really good program on the subject that I watched a few months ago - it done by Chester’s wife, his bandmate’s wife, their band’s manager, and a few mental health professionals. It addresses the question of what anyone could have done (in short, it is not yours or anyone else’s fault, and they explain why). I’m sharing the link to it below. It’s an excellent discussion on the topic of mental health. Feel free to share it with anyone else who may benefit. It’s a video on Facebook, but i believe it’s public so anyone can watch. https://www.facebook.com/CanEventSafety/videos/1995818383973764/?_ga=2.53633249.892730979.1529262611-1660144599.152926261

Looks like Frosty is gonna hang out In the 400s today. Hopefully the sugars will improve tomorrow. I will post updates once I get his ACTH results back towards the end of the week.

 

Oh that's absolutely awful about the pet sitter... after a year you'd definitely think she would have been more forthcoming in her plans. I would have been pretty irate too. Best of luck to you finding a new sitter. I would love to find someone who could take care of Lou's needs as well as give food to my civvie Bella... it's on my FD bucket list, haha.

I appreciate you participating in the walk last night. I am thankful I haven't personally known a lot of people who have lost their lives to mental illness (it seems to be brain aneurysms for me ), but whether it's one or many, it never gets any easier.

 

What's the longest time you've been away and your sitter has given prefilled insulin without testing? Curious as I am facing similar situation.

 

Honestly? 10 days. It may go bad after like 3 days in the syringe based on an article that’s circulating here. But I had no choice (at the time he was also only on 0.5 u with excellent sugars) . But there was no way she was gonna be able to draw 0.5u and I was so afraid she would overdose him, that I just prefilled 22 syringes (2 extra in case she dropped one or something). I know you’re not supposed to do that, but we did.i kept them in the fridge, and when we got back his sugars were good.

Concidentally, his sugars started trending up AFTER we got back, but now we know he has Cushing’s, so it definitely has nothing to do with the pre-filled syringes. (His pituitary adenoma just started to cause him to produce more cortisol, which made the sugars go up.) I use Ulticare u-100 pet insulin syringes . It worked for us. so I don’t usually worry if I’m prefulling in the morning for a pm shot or something.

 

I don't think it is good to pre-fill syringes. I don't have the science article to show about it. But there is lubricant in the syringes, and they are not meant as storage vehicles.

However you are right to be concerned about - caretakers giving the wrong dose. I know someone who was inexperience and did cat sitting. They gave 5 units instead of 1 unit. I was surprised to hear the cat lived. That was just plain stupid on the part of the owner and the sitter.

 

It isnt good - and we both know that - but sometimes there is just NO alternative.

 

I've done 8 days with no adverse effects. I am going away for 2.5 weeks soon and plan to fill a week and half then have a friend drop off another week's worth when I am gone. You do what you must in difficult circumstances.

 

It was someone else's idea to prefill a syringe with Koolaid or food coloring to show a sitter what a certain amount looked like. Or maybe "This is 1 unit, this is 2 units".

You rock Ana. You too Jeff. I've always been kind of vague about how Andy and Lewis ended up with us and at the very worst time in our lives. She was unsuccessful but she can never have her cats back.

Here you can do something called soft euthanasia, the denial of antibiotics. I learned to deal with it, my sisters have not.
We need to stick together. That was hard, gotta go.

 

I am sorry if I missed a conversation about this in the past, but... you said that you use "BD pet insulin syringes"? I believe that they are only available in U-40, but if you are using Lantus then it is U-100 insulin not U-40 (and based on your dosage unit # in your SS, it doesn't look like you are doing the U-100 to U-40 conversion).

Just want to be sure, both for you and other newer folks that might be reading this. Better safe than sorry!

Sandi.

 

Apparently I stand corrected. No clue where I got the BD. ulticare syringes is what I meant. I’ll fix that in my previous post for the new folks.

Here is the link to the ones I use. The nice thing is they have 1/2 markings!!

https://www.adwdiabetes.com/product...dCqhqRRS_VW5WLU65-KRB5chK4ZsFMCRoCVkQQAvD_BwE

 

It is always good to check the little things. Chris and China found that a member was using the wrong dosage on a syringe because a pharmacist had improperly instructed them. This was just in the past 2 weeks. We were all surprised at the pharmacist error. The kitteh was having hypos...that is what triggered the detailed eval.

 

She was also reshooting after furshots. Three of us begged her not to.
After that I had to look up what it takes to be a pharmacist, just so stupid someone with an education would have told her that. I'm always on my own at the pharmacy, they snicker behind the counter that I'm doing this for a cat. Bite me!

 

...on the other hand, several pharmacists in Austin had their eyes and smiles light up when I told them that the syringes were for my diabetic kitteh! They thought it was great.

 

The pharmacist I order my syringes from is fascinated by the whole thing. She had no idea there were pet meters, different insulins, how we test etc. Next thing you know she'll want to see photos.

 

I mean, I know I’m new-ish to this forum, but not to medicine, guys 10 years working in a hospital this year (3 as a PA, not counting my PA student year).

 

That’s probably why all the syringe brands are mixed up in my head. I think my dog used BD syringes for his allergy shots.Wahhh

 

Glad that all is well. It wouldn't have been the first time that someone used the wrong syringe for the insulin formulation being used, so I wanted to be sure.

Best,
Sandi.