Luckyducky
Member Since 2012
I decided to bring Lucky to another vet today to schedule a new dental cleaning (the quote at their office was much less expensive than at the emergency hospital I'd been going to). Unfortunately though, it was another draining experience. When the vet saw Lucky's SS and I started explaining to him about tight regulation, he didn't recommend home-testing or the tight-regulation protocol (he seemed to be of the camp of doing in-office glucose curves). He went on to suggest that I should go see another veterinarian that would be more in tune with the idea of home-testing and doing the protocol, and it all just left me feeling exhausted and drained.
That said, Lucky's numbers seem to have shown some improvement in the last few days, and I think it might be because I recently changed his insulin shot location. The previous vet I visited had actually recommended it --- I was shooting at a location that (to me anyways) looked like the side of the chest, but the vet said it was more like the shoulder blades, and recommended that I shoot farther back towards the flank area. A long time ago when I started giving insulin shots, I had tried shooting the flank area but without much success, since Lucky's skin is very flexible in that area and it's difficult to form a tent. But since I had more experience now giving shots, I figured I might as well give it a try, which I started just a few days ago. I'm not sure if it's a contributing factor, but Lucky's glucose readings seem to be much better for the past few days (lots of blues and greens), and I wonder if it's because of the change.
Despite the better numbers, I'm also having some second thoughts about the Arkray Glucocard glucometer. I actually brought it in to the vet today to see if I could compare it to their machine. They drew blood from the neck (which they let me use for my glucometer) and their machine read 201, while my glucometer read 167. Is that sort of variation normal? A 30 point gap seems pretty significant to me, and it does seem to make a difference in how I'd interpret his readings. The doctor did mention though that 201 was actually a pretty good level considering the time of day (+10) and considering any stress Lucky might have been experiencing at the office.
Any thoughts or opinions as always are greatly appreciated. I feel like dropping dead from exhaustion and a heavy heart right about now.
That said, Lucky's numbers seem to have shown some improvement in the last few days, and I think it might be because I recently changed his insulin shot location. The previous vet I visited had actually recommended it --- I was shooting at a location that (to me anyways) looked like the side of the chest, but the vet said it was more like the shoulder blades, and recommended that I shoot farther back towards the flank area. A long time ago when I started giving insulin shots, I had tried shooting the flank area but without much success, since Lucky's skin is very flexible in that area and it's difficult to form a tent. But since I had more experience now giving shots, I figured I might as well give it a try, which I started just a few days ago. I'm not sure if it's a contributing factor, but Lucky's glucose readings seem to be much better for the past few days (lots of blues and greens), and I wonder if it's because of the change.
Despite the better numbers, I'm also having some second thoughts about the Arkray Glucocard glucometer. I actually brought it in to the vet today to see if I could compare it to their machine. They drew blood from the neck (which they let me use for my glucometer) and their machine read 201, while my glucometer read 167. Is that sort of variation normal? A 30 point gap seems pretty significant to me, and it does seem to make a difference in how I'd interpret his readings. The doctor did mention though that 201 was actually a pretty good level considering the time of day (+10) and considering any stress Lucky might have been experiencing at the office.
Any thoughts or opinions as always are greatly appreciated. I feel like dropping dead from exhaustion and a heavy heart right about now.