RE: NEWBIE KITS

believe it or not i am as of today hitting my prudent reserve or $50.
altho we recieved monetary donations at the beginning, they have been used primarily for the following.
1. strips
2. pms to me requesting free postage

2 things that came up that i did'nt foresee was that some lucky newbie's recieved 50 and one even got 100 strips becuase the accu-check does not allow for breaking up the strips. a widget comes with the box of strips that must be used to code for all of those strips.

and then there is the fact that i never thought (and cindy the same) that sending out 10 strips was enough. it must be at least 20. gosh, a newbie could burn thru 5 or more before getting a successful test. a person on lantus will use all 20 in 2 days!

also i did recieve a few batches of expired strips (not complaining, i would probably use them but not send them out)

one thing that may be my fault is offering up a kit everytime i see a newbie. should i wait for them to ask???? i don't know. maybe i was overzeolous.

as i stand now i have enough of everything except strips. the reason i set a prudent reserve was so i would know when i was dipping into the bottom of the barrel.
when i took this on i told you all i was in no position to carry it financially but i could enthusiastically carry it hands on. perhaps too enthusiastic?

well strips or $ is needed. one touch, contour, and yes i still have a couple of accu-check meters if you want to use up most of the strips in your vial and send the 20 remaining along with the widget.

thank you for helping me keep this going.
advise or suggestions welcome too, if you think i am overdoing pushing newbie kits.
actually the other thing i can imagine running low on in the not too distant future but not urgent is rice socks. and oh how people love their rice socks.

 

Do you need rice or socks or rice-socks?

If you need socks then maybe do a specific donation drive for any underutilized [but still good condition - and hopefully clean lol] athletic-style socks? Shipping on rice is $$ [I know because I just sent a friend some organic koshihikari]. It probably makes more sense to pay $ for cheap rice at Wal-Mart than ship it. I just disposed of a bunch of socks - had I known I would have sent :roll: oops.

Hope you are stayin' cool today - it's a hot one in SoCal.

Not sure how the board would feel about sending out email asking for donations??

 

I sort of feel akward chiming in on this because ideally you would want to give everyone a free kit, but maybe it should be offered on an financial/access need basis. Alternatively, if someone would rather have a kit sent because they find the options confusing, perhaps a donation should be suggested.

Good luck and keep up the good work! You may be short on dough, but you've helped a lot of people.

 

:lol: :lol: gator i don't really mean 'socks' i mean a sewn up whatever with enough rice in it to be soft yet firm and small enough to handle easily...and i don't sew so i count on the peeps here to make them. karen in washington sent a bunch that were great...only problem is i don't remember her screen name here.
it's so nice to be able to connect packages to peeps!

 

amanda i usually do say it's free but for shipping and if you can a small donation.
it's kind of hard to weed out the ones who need it for financial reasons from those who need it for simplicity.
i also get a surprising # from folks i've NEVER seen on the board. If I am able to find them on the members link i see they've never posted.

 

Yeah, it's a pickle. But generally speaking, people are pretty honest about that kind of stuff, more so when it comes to animals and donations. Or maybe I'm just totally delusional.

I wonder if being more explicit about them being need-based wouldn't make the numbers more managable. Or maybe I'm just totally delusional.

 

karen & smokey (GA) is the karen you are thinking of Lori. she did a bunch for me and offered to do more when needed.

without my logbook here i want to say that carol & yoshi also did some rice socks for me and squeem3 made up a bunch but unstuffed, to cut down on shipping, and then all you have to do is stuff them and sew them shut. easy enough but make sure to keep the needles away from tomtom

and for others, something i used was baby socks. like toddler size. not the smallest ones but one up from that. you can get a pack at walmart or target type places and i think they cost me about $5 for 10 pairs, which makes 20 rice socks. i'd stuff about 3tbsps of rice in one and tie it up in a knot. easily emptied and washed i figured if one got too much blood on them

i tried to do the whole thing by hand at one point, cutting pieces of fabric and handsewing them and i sincerely apologize to those who received those pitiful attempts by me of being crafty. :lol:

 

WOW! I should have asked for a newbie kit when I arrived. Poor H had to suffer with the ghetto rice sock I guess. I just dumped enough rice in a ball into the bottom of a athletic-style sock and tied a knot with the end of the sock tight up against the ball of rice. When the sock needed washing I just dumped out the rice. Eventually too the rice breaks down and needs replacing, and again my ghetto rice sock was good at this. These hand sewn ones sound like a labor of love [and kind of dirty eventually - ick].

There was a discussion I remember on the old board about not giving newbie kits to anyone who had not completed a profile at least. And that people do unfortunately take advantage of the newbie kits. If I remember correctly a certain individual was upset over having to do this?? I think that is a very small and completely reasonable hurdle for anyone to jump if they would like a kit. And IMHO an appropriate demonstrator of "need."

 

That would be me, as Cindy mentioned.
Very pressed for time right now (tail end of a kitchen remodel).
Not sure when I can get more to you.

But I haven't forgotten you. I'm still collecting appropriate fabrics and will
get to it when I can.

 

cindy you did give me a bunch of baby socks and a bag of rice...i do not sew. sounds funny i know but i do not sew...the very thought of sewing gives me a headache. :lol: does that make me a bad person? :twisted: i do however cook!

 

thanks karen, and they are fabulous "socks"
like i hope i said they will last for awhile barring any unforeseen mad rush of newbies.
i have others too.
hope you read this. i'll pm you too.

 

How exactly does one make a rice sock? Just asking because I quilt in my spare time and could probably sew something plausible together...do you just make them out of regular cotton or flannel?

 

You can make it any way you want :smile:

To use a sock, fill the toe end with rice (or dried beans/lentils or uncooked oatmeal). How much to use depends on how big the sock is. A few tablespoons is usually enough. Cut off the extra sock material and knot or sew close.

If you want to make a "sock" from fabric, you basically cut two pieces of fabric squares, sew 3 sides of both squares to each other, fill with rice or whatever, and sew the last side together. Like making a catnip square toy :smile: I've only used cotton fabric. Flannel would probably work, too.

 

So it's essentially like an oblong bean bag.

If you need some, let me know. I'd be shipping them across the border, so I'm not sure I can put the rice in, but I can do up un-stuffed socks if you'd like. I wonder if it would work to velcro the 4th side so that the rice can be changed... :?:

 

You can but sometimes the fabric gets dirty (from blood) and the rice gets old so it's probably best to toss the whole thing.

I've made sqaures similar to these but rice instead of catnip :smile:

 

I like to use knit fabric....from old T-shirts for example.
My last batch I sent to Lori was from a pair of Land's End Sport Knit Pants.

I fold or layer two pieces of fabric. Sew an over sized "U" shape about 2-1/2 inches wide by 5-inches long
I sew several on the fabric before I cut each one apart from the others. Use about a 2mm stitch length (short).

After cutting them apart, I turn them inside out (seams to the inside). Then put about 1/3c raw white rice in there...
I use a funnel to make it easier.

Pinch the open end pin in 3-4 places, as close to the rice as possible....in a curve. Then sew close to the pins.
I usually sew two rows of stitching. I can get closer to the rice after the first line of stitching and the pins removed.
Cut off the excess fabric close to the stitching.

Makes a soft pliable rice bag that is easy to mold around the cat's body for a warm rice sock massage as well
as warming the ear.

 

i'm liking all this sock talk as it is bumping my thread :mrgreen:

 

Hmm, funny none of the ladies here like my old, used ghetto-sock idea. :roll:

Thanks for posting the pic of the proper "sock." The kitty prints are cute [even if they lack a certain masculine/utilitarian quality ].

 

yeah gator, once again behaving just like a guy! you can't really use an old beat up smelly ghetto sock for a rice sock. remember i told you...your amoungst women...if you can't think like a woman at least pretend :lol: :lol: :lol:

really truly only kidding...we've been down this road before.

 

Well, gym socks are not just a man thing. I tried the athletic sock, but Danny did not like it at all. Funny, I had completely forgotten that. His sock aversion was one of the problems that made hometesting him so hard. I failed and failed and failed for ages. The nice board member who met with me and showed me how to do it used a little silky baby sock knotted shut -- Danny liked that much better. I don't know if it was the too-large size or the rougher feel that put him off. Now I use old ladies trouser socks which are also very soft and easily knotted.

laur

 

I make such socks for the cats I test and for the cats I send socks to. No problem with making a knot in the end of the sock. Works the same. And much much easier.

 

Don't pantyhose work really well too?? Way easy to knot too. Or do those fall apart too fast?

 

Personally, I think newbie kits are a valuable resource but that they shouldn't be "pushed," per se. Many people are willing and capable of getting their own supplies and it seems reasonable that they should be given the opportunity to do so before we shove one at them.

Furthermore, I don't think they should be sent indiscriminately. At minimum, the requestor should have posted to the board and introduced himself/herself and his/her cat. Anything else is just a recipe for abuse, IMHO.

I've seen numerous posters indicate that they moved on from the "free" kit they received to a meter for which the strips are more affordable or that took less blood or that they trusted more. I hope by including a certain meter we're not implying that it's a "good" one to use -- I've used multiple meters over the years and there's one that is often sent (due to ease acquiring, no other reason) that I'd never recommend.

I guess the bottom line is that I think posters should indicate a need for help before we rush to give them something they can provide for themselves.

 

no JL, i am inclined to agree. i think i have been overzeolous. i am concerned that unless i mention it that peeps won't know it's available. i must be more conservative as resources are limited. i did start with a whole lotta stuff and a good chunk of change. my bad...i hope to do better.
:sad: , cindy perhaps managed this better than i. durn it. i am starting with a new notion tho. not pushing newbie kits.