What do you guys do if you can't work from home?

How do you guys manage your diabetic kitties when you aren't at home during the day?

I currently work from home so it is very convenient. I wonder about the ability to do the tight regulation protocol if you can't be at home to catch the lows during the day. Do you manage the insulin differently when you work long hours out of the home?

I know Maverick has a much better shot at remission with the tight regulation protocol and I really want this for him. But if my situation were to change, I wonder how we would do it?

 

For us....DH!! :lol: :lol: We are lucky....I work at home on Mondays and in the office Tues, Wed, Thur..off Fri. Mike works Fri, Sat, Sun so he's home on the days I'm in the office. I am also blessed because, if he had to work on a T,W,Th, I can work from home. I really don't know how anyone does it and works...Eva did...maybe she'll check in sometime and say because she got Achilles OTJ pretty fast. She did a marvelous job.

 

for me the trick was to test, test, test when I *was* home, so I would know what was going on when I wasn't there. An out the door test in the morning might be +1 or +2, depending on your schedule. In the door might be +9 or +10. Occasionally I could dash home at lunch if I was worried. Then evenings and weekends I grabbed every test I could so I learned her patterns.

 

We juggled our am, pm times to a point that I could be here with Shadow until about +3 or 4. By that time, I have seen how she's trending and fed her drops and I feel pretty secure in heading to work. Right now, we are doing 10am, 10 pm because I have to be at work at 1 pm and by then, I have a good idea of where Shadow's numbers are heading and she has eaten enough that I'm not too worried when I leave the house. Often my work day is long but I usually am home in time to do the +9 snack. Tena has changed her times much the same way, except that I think her a.m. test time is about 4:30 so she can keep an eye on Curry until about +3 when she has to leave for work. Autofeeders come into play for lots of folks around here. Shadow has one but I have yet to successfully teach her to respond to it. We're still working on that.

It's a lot of trial and error and eventually you settle on a schedule that works.

 

I do pretty much the same as Kim. I've arranged shot time so I'm home until +3 or +4 then pack my appointments back-to-back and race home for PMPS. At one point, I had my schedule a little more spread out and I would try to dash home at lunch for a mid-cycle check.

 

Kim is right on target.....I do test early since Curry's nadir is +3...and fairly consistent.....I do run home and I mean run (drive) to check on her...more so at the beginning to make sure she was still alive (I'm a good worrier)....now to make sure she is getting her snack at +8 and Sidney isn't snagging it...I'm fortunate that I live fairly close to work...30 minutes w/traffic and 20 minutes no traffic....I have no idea how I would manage this if I lived further away......Next year, beginning in mid-January, I'll be supervising/teaching a graduate level student for 8 weeks......I've had a "wish" that life would be a bit different then as I'm not sure how this will play itself out......This poor student had broken her leg prior to last Fall semester and had to take some time off and Curry was just diagnosed....I was off the hook for the Fall semester..I feel so guilt....Glad I had more time to deal w/Curry and feeling bad for the student..It was a godsend for me as it gave me at least 3.5 months to help Curry w/out dealing w/another resposiblity at work.....I'm so fortunate....Ok..maybe this was too much info.....Sorry for the spewwing....venting...etc....And thanks for asking.....I feel better. :mrgreen:

 

I am gone pretty much between amps and pmps Monday thru Friday.That's just how it is, but we get by ok because we do our testing and curves on days when not working.

Once you have an idea how YOUR cat reacts, you don't really need to be there to know how it's likely working.

Just like that line: If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

I test a fair bit in the evenings and curves on the weekends, so I have an idea how my cats are reacting. Once you know your cat's pattern and usual nadir, you will know when it's OK to go out or go to sleep.

 

I too, am gone from AMPS +1 until PMPS everyday. I also go to bed right around +2 after PMPS time, so I set alarms during the night, to get up and test when I think his nadir is, and do curves on the weekends.

 

There have been beans on here who worked 12 hour shifts, and cats all did well--Auto feeder helps a lot--That's what we used before these timed feedings were done.
Know thy cat--Moonie wouldnt eat when I fed her, so I know she will eat within an hour and just as it was an hour, there she was eating!! Moonie knows to eat if she feels she is dropping..

 

Very cool. Everyone has found a way to make it work so it is possible then, that's a relief.
I'm so glad I work from home the past few years. I don't know how I would have managed if I didn't.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

Thankfully, I had DH to help tons. I work long hours and have a long commute to work - I'm often out of the house for 14 to 15 hours. DH has a 20 minute commute to work. It was tough at the beginning when we didn't know how Achilles would react to the insulin. During those early days, DH would run home at +3 or +4 to test and make sure food was available. We did most of our curves in the evening and into the wee hours of the morning and on the weekends.

When we first started shooting low blues and high greens (it's a miracle we got there so quickly) I was a nervous wreck. One day, I got all the way to work, turned right around and went back home because I had convinced myself that Achilles was going to have a hypo incident that day. Thankfully, he didn't, but I had built up all this anxiety that there was no way I would be able to function at work.

Once we had a sense of how Achilles reacted to the insulin and how to use feedings to manage his curves, our best friend became, and still is the automatic feeder. We would test, shoot and feed in the morning, give him a +1 snack and set up the feeder for his +3 and +8 meals. We didn't test again until his PMPS. But once we were settled in for the evening we would get a few tests and a before bed test to see how he was reacting to the insulin.

That was probably a bit more long-winded than you wanted, but I miss posting on these boards and it was nice to do so again.

Achilles says hello to all his LL buddies. He misses all the parties, but his mamabean checks in often and tells him all about how his pals are doing in LL.

 

Eva, I'm glad you came in and posted. The remission stories are what I'm finding most inspiring right now. We are wishing that Maverick will be there in short order. Achilles really got there quickly didn't he - great job!

 

I am so glad you asked this question...because i'm currently free to be me...but could not imagine how to work this out in a few months when i will be returning to TBP. i bookmarked this page, and thank you for soliciting the info!

celi & binks