Monthly Archives: September 2015
And That Makes Three . . .
Well, now it’s official. All three of us, me, Jan, and now Mister, have some form of diabetes. I pretty much keep mine under control with diet, Jan takes Metformin, but Mister is now insulin dependent.
Mister had been losing weight recently, something he did once before when we had a bad flea infestation, but he gained it back after that. This time however, no fleas, and no weight re-gain.
And in the last few weeks, he’s been always hungry and always thirsty, all signs of diabetes. So this morning I called a local vet and made an appointment for noon. Mister, his usual mellow self, curled up on the seat and went to sleep on the ride over.
The vet tech mentioned that his problem could also be hyperthyroidism, which I ended up hoping for, because it’s usually treatable with medication alone. But as it turned out my first thought was correct, and he does have diabetes.
Cats have pretty much the same normal blood sugar range as humans, i.e. 90 to 150. Mister’s blood sugar was 475.
Yikes!
So Mister and I came home with this.
The big container is a combination needle supply/needle disposal unit. It holds a hundred needles in the base, in 10 packs of 10 needles.
The top is a rotating sharps disposal container that holds the used needles.
Not sure yet if I can just toss it in the garbage when I’m done. I’ll have to check.
The small bottle is his insulin, and it has to be refrigerated. Unfortunately, although Mister kind of thinks he’s a dog, i.e. walks on a leash, comes when I call him, etc., he’s not. Which means he needs the more expensive cat insulin. Dogs, however, can use human insulin, which is much cheaper. Much, much cheaper.
Since Jan can’t stand the sight of needles or blood, it’s why she went into Medical Records instead of Nursing, I’m the designated shot-giver. And I don’t have a problem with it. I spent one summer during high school working as a vet assistant, so I’ve given a lot of shots.
Mister gets two shots a day, at 11 in the morning and 11 at night, and he doesn’t seem to mind. He just lays there and lets me do it. The needle is only about 1/2 long and a really small gauge. I’ll rotate the injections, the skin on both shoulders and both hips, so he won’t get sore.
He’s now had two shots today and I noticed he’s not as hungry as he was. Hope this is a good sign.
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Thought for the Day:
The latest from the UK Met Office, Britain’s weather bureau, trying to explain why there’s been no global warming in 15 years.
The AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, the Atlantic’s version of El Nino) has actually been heating the world up since the mid-1990s, though not strongly enough to raise temperatures,
Huh?
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Brrrrr!
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Last night turned out to be kind of chilly. Actually, at 55 degrees with a slight wind, it was down right cold. I kept adding layers until I ended up with a T-shirt, a long-sleeve FRC shirt, and a windbreaker and my orange vest, along with my pull-over knit cap. And still my hands were cold. It supposed to be about the same tomorrow night, so I’ll dig out my gloves. And maybe it’s time to start digging out the two small heaters we have for outside.
Today was another 85 degree day with a lot of sun and a light breeze. Very nice. It is supposed to warm up a little over the next few days, back in the high 80’s and low 90’s, with mid 60’s at night. Again, nice.
We’re always looking for ways to make our life a little easier on the gate so one of the things I do is preprint our log sheets with all the info except for the date and page number.
This saves us a lot of time writing the same things over and over. The log sheets come in pads, so I tear them off, stack the sheets in the printer, and then print them out using a template I made a couple of years ago. So at each new gate I just add the new info to the template and we’re ready to go.
Our vehicle count jumped a bit today, up to 125 over yesterday’s 108. Most of the increase seemed to be sand trucks. But, unlike other years, they come through the gate in smaller numbers, spread out over the day, rather than just one big gob like in previous years. Much nicer.
The new thermostat to fix my water heater should be here Tuesday in my Amazon order.
The repair kit comes with both a new thermostat and a new ECO, so I’ll go ahead and replace both. From the online instructions, it looks like both units are stuck to the side of the tank with some sort of adhesive. So you pull the old ones off, clean off the old adhesive, and stick on the new ones. Easy Peezy.
I hope.
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Thought for the Day:
“The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.” – A. E. van Vogt
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