MURPHY'S HOMECOMING FROM HOSPITAL TODAY

Hello to all. Well, after 5 days, Murphy will be coming home this morning. I saw her last night, she looked really sick still, but I believe her glucose levels have evened out some with the Lantus injections. I'm a mess, I have no idea where to begin. I want her to be comfortable and I wonder what I'm supposed to do at home to make her feel safe and feeling okay. Do I set up her own little bed for her and a safe place, am I supposed to pick her up like normal, I just have know idea. Scared to start this process, Lisa

 

Breathe, Lisa, breathe. She will be okay. I would just treat her as normal, unless she seems really frail. Then her bed in a safe quiet spot would be nice. Have you been over to the Lantus Support group and read the stickies about how Lantus works? viewforum.php?f=9 You can post over there too and ask for specific advice.

While she is a little subdued is a great time to start hometesting her. That will really help you feel more confident about this whole thing.

You can come on any time, day or night, and ask any question. There will be someone here to help or just listen. Remember, there are NO stupid questions. It is a scary, overwhelmed journey that is very doable. We will be here to help you and there are lots of people who have kittties with pancreatitis and diabetes.

 

great news that she gets to come home for the weekend.

fwiw, if you need help this weekend with testing or something, put a yell out. I think I'm pretty free this weekend except for a birthday party I might be going to tomorrow afternoon for a couple hours.

 

Hi Lisa, so glad ms murphy's coming home...that should make her feel so much better too.
I think just following her lead and your mama instincts will let you know just what she needs from you. you'll be fine. mommie's know best.
agree you should intro yourself in LL. if your shooting now it's good they should know you. Between health forum and Lantus forum you will always find someone on line.
i'm in the area as you know if you have trouble testing. or just a phone call away (sorry about last night, got into something unavoidable)
MS. MURPHY WELCOME HOME!!!!! WE'RE ALL YOUR NEW SUPPORT BUDDIES

 

Hi Lisa - Ten days ago I was a blubbering mess - I had no idea how I'd figure this out and get my Stinky well again. That seems like a lifetime ago. Now I poke his ear 10 times a day and he doesn't even feel it; I can measure and inject lantus, interpret his numbers, figure out the nadir cluster, and so much more - - because I decided to read this board top to bottom and sought ongoing consultation with Dr. Pierson. Trust me, I know precisely how you feel and I have a strong feeling that you (and Murphy) will both be feeling great about this very, very soon.

 

Murphy is home. She seems happier than she did earlier this week, and last week. She is getting digestive enzymes twice per day with her food, and I've got a little pain meds for her, the digestive enzymes are supposed to help with pancreatic pain and give her little pancreas a break. We are uncertain right now if she is chronic, or that was an acute attack. I did write a letter to my old vet from last year, and told him everything about the labs he missed, etc., but haven't heard back, but I truly believe that this could have been avoided or at least managed with not this many complications last year had he paid attention to her increasing lab values. My vet greatly dropped my bill to a somewhat manageable dollar amount for me. Today is somewhat of an emotional day for me, I haven't slept well all week, and need to calm down because they really feel your stress. Think I'll take a xanax and take a nap.

Lisa and Murphy

 

Well, she's been home for 4.5 hours, and so far, she's not chasing me into the kitchen to guard her food, she had pee'd two times, normal sound, a little tinkly sounding, and is acting as normal as she can, but definitely tons better than when I took her in. Interesting thing I learned today: did you know that when kitty litter gets stuck on a kitty's paws in a diabetic cat that has been untreated, the sugar actually comes out of their paws and that's why it clumps to their pads on their feet! Never knew that, but it makes total sense.

L

 

Just gave Murphy her first insulin injection alone, and it was easy, I was a little scared, but I got the skin right where it needed to be, and boom, it was over. I did check with my vet again, and one unit on a U-100 needle, is counting back from lines 5, 4, 3, 2, and there you have 1, which is where she's at right now.

She ate all of her wet food for dinner and she's just relaxing now. I'm pleased so far at how today has went, she is definitely suffering from neuropathy, which is a drag to see. I know how painful it is when it zaps you because I have it, and it's in her ears, and all fours. Poor baby. I'm just glad she's still with me.

Night night.

 

Try to relax and de-stress with Murphy and take this one step at a time. Remember to take care of *you* too.

 

Boy she must be exhausted too, because she's asleep right now, but I hate to see the twitching. It's like the neuropathy came on overnight. Actually, she started getting it last year, when of course, the labs were there, showing diabetes, and she began sort of gnawing at her little paws. She hasn't done that today so far, but now, she's sleeping, and I can hear her little snoring as we try to decrease her inhaled meds some. Poor girl. With all the twitching, she just can't get comfortable. when we get her stabilized, we will start B-12 methylcobolomin which tremendously helps with neuropathy. I use No-Shot B12 myself, but we aren't adding anything until the food change has happened.

 

OK everyone...is the 1st line on a U100 syringe 1 unit or .4 units.....it's Lantus folks and I'm pretty sure that is .4U
I spoke to Lisa tonight and I was out and kinda rushed but I told her you guys would figure this out....so...

 

depends on the syringe .
Are you using syringes with 1/2 u marks ? or just 1u marks? If the needle is pointing down away from you the 1u marks are on the right side (same side as the numbers) and the half u's are on the left and are usu smaller/shorter lines.
( FYI *most* lantus users prefer 1/2u mark syringes )
With the instructions your vet gave it sounds like you have 1u marked syringes and are at the 1u mark.
There is a *thick* zero line as bottom line on the syringe.
I hope you are not more confused then you need to be ;-)

eta -- I see cindy has offered some help in person. If you are at all unsure and need some support I'd take her up on it !

I'm glad your kitty is home and feeling better. sending wishes for continued healing.

----
hi lori !

 

NO

Each line on a U100 insulin syringe, with the exception of a 1cc one, equals 1 unit. There is no conversion to do if using U100 insulin (Lantus, Levemir, etc) with U100 insulin syringes.

Picture of a U100 3/10cc insulin syringe and the markings:


A 1/2 cc insulin syringe just for reference. Most diabetic cats won't ever need to use such a large capacity insulin syringe:


In both the pictures above (ignore the half unit marked one for now), 1 unit is the first short line at the very top. The actual first line, the longer bold one, is ZERO. Then it is 1 then 2 then 3, then 4 then the big bold 5 etc

-------------------------------------------


Lori, you are thinking of using U100 insulin syringes with U40 insulins. In that case, you would need the conversion chart and the first line would equal 0.4 units of the U40 insulin.

 

My vet was correct, as these syringes have half and whole lines, so I was correct. She's doing fine this morning. I do not think that my vet would not have told me something wrong. She is very thorough and I totally trust her. She seems better than her old 'what I call' her usual self. Very sweet, purring, and just as sweet as ever. So far, I'm very pleased. The neuropathy totally bugs the crap out of me though.

There are certain things I know I will learn on this forum, but I took some very bad advice on the feline asthma board about controlling her asthma better by increasing her dosage of flovent to an amount 3-4 times more than a human would get through someone I wholly trusted, so on these topics, I will question and then defer to my vet. Her high dosage of flovent is one of the reasons she is in this suppressed immunity situation. She is a very sick little girl, with a very, very compromised immunity. Flovent, no matter what they say now, I know, in higher dosages is systemic.

She's cleaning herself and just a little perky little girl this a.m. Thank God.

 

So sorry Lisa I gave you the wrong advice. I bow my head in shame. I have to talk to someone and understand the difference with my insulin in which syringe use is .4 on the same line and make sure i totally understand what I'm talking about.
Please forgive my bad advice and I will use that as a lesson to make CERTAIN i know what i'm talking about.
I really am embarrassed about that.

 

Hey, when I switched from Vetsulin to Levemir, I shot too much since I was using U100 syringes w/Vetsulin and automatically did the mental conversion. 1 U of Vetsulin = 2.5 small lines. Unfortunately, I did this with Levemir, so instead of shooting 1 U, I gave 2.5 U :shock: Luckily Donovan's PS at the time was 400-something so nothing bad happened, but I felt like a total idiot for doing it. Almost as bad as testing, loading up the syringe, and then somehow getting distracted and finding the un-shot syringe hours later :roll:.

Brainfarts happen.

MJ&Donovan

 

Lori, it's okay. I am so very careful with her, and since she's already goes through severe asthma, I listen to every single thing my vet tells me, and if I even question it, which I already did, I always get the information two or three times. I trust my vet with her life, and some may not, but she took incredible care of a crisis situation with her.

She is just not one of those kitties that I can afford to screw up on, although I know it happens. Today is a decent day, she's sleepy, just lounging and napping, but no poopies yet today. She ate terrifically this a.m., and goes and munches a few times, nothing like it was, ravenous before. One peepee so far today, so I think the sub q's are out of her system. How do I tell if she needs more fluids though? I've got water everywhere. Don't want her getting dehydrated.

L and M

 

MURPHY'S 2ND DAY HOME - STARTING NEW THREAD