Don't have enough money to take her to the vet

[Punkincat]

Sarah, 7 units ago I was as freaked out as you. Punkin, my girl was diagnosed less than a week ago. I found this wonderful site and all these wonderful people. Listen to them, they are way smart, they are the best. My girl is my special girl too so it's hard, but gets better. I read ALL the post, I read ALL the stories, ALL the journals, I read everything. The freak-out level has greatly diminished for me, and being notoriously weak, I owe that to this board. Things will get better and all will be OK

 

[Mary and Stella]

Hello Sarah! I know exactly how you feel. Please don't give up!!! You are still in a state of 'shock' caused from the overwhelm of the situation. This feeling WILL disappear. With all of the support from this thread, you should already be feeling the fog lift. Next week will be easier, and the one following next will be even easier, and by then Baby should be getting better and the results will begin to give you more strength to continue and KNOW your continued care of Baby is and will continue to be the right thing to do. :mrgreen:

Do not solicit advise from that particular vet tech. They probably thought they were saying the right thing. No judgement here. I heard the same such advise from family who love and care for me (and know the love I have for my two kitties). The vet tech is simply unaware. My vet tech was aware, and solicited for 20 free syringes on my behalf, and when I went to pay my bill...a mysterious donor had left $250 to cover my over $1500 in climbing expenses. Since joining this board my expenses stopped. Literally. I now have the supplies I need to do all of the tests they were charging me an arm and a leg for. If you read my story, you would know I had a terrible time trying to get blood from Stella's ear. Be gentle, and keep trying.

Here is my advice on getting the BG test done....
I do it as a ritual. I spread a dark blue blanket in my living room (it is then taken up afterwards as a signal it is all over for the moment...no need to run and hide :lol: ). I bring out all of the supplies and lay them out like a picnic. I get everything ready on the blanket, meter, teststrip ready to push in, neosporin, lancet, cotton square, etc. I then go in and heat the wet washcloth for 25 seconds and put it into a ziplock to heat Stella's ear. I also prepare her lantus syringe if that is due at the time. I grab the 'heating device' pick up my Stella and sit on the blanket with the items surrounding me. I sit on my rear end with my legs stretched out in front of me, and place Stella in between my legs facing the same direction I am facing (the back of her head is to me and she is looking forward too). I then proceed to use the lancet, get the blood, get the reading. Then if it is time, give her the Lantus injection. Then we get up and give her her treat...sometimes she wants love and affection before the treat. And then I clean everything up so she knows our ritual is over. Somehow she likes being place in between my legs instead of me overpowering her and hovering over her in dominance. Maybe that dominance is scaring Baby. You will find what works for you...

Hang in there!!!

 

[Karen & Smokey(GA)]

I would just like to point out that when drawn properly, 300U of insulin is not going to provide 300 1U doses because you MUST overdraw each time to correctly measure the insulin and also you should not shoot excess back in to the pen with Lantus.

I gave Gandalf approximately 1.25U of Levemir for a long time - 1 300U pen always lasted us about 3 months. So that was about 230 doses.

I know it's a nitpicky point, but I don't want anyone to have too high of expectations on how long a pen's worth of insulin is going to last. They will last to the "last drop," but even that is inaccurate because you can't draw the last drop out no matter how hard you try :lol:

Good point. And you can't shoot insulin back into the pen after you've over-drawn the dose.

But it's still a lot better than throwing away a whole lot of a 10ml (1000 unit) vial.

 

[squeem3]

nm

 

[Karen & Smokey(GA)]

[ A box containing five 3 ml pens costs $150 or so which is $30 per pen. Most people use a new pen each month. So the box is basically at least a 5 month supply.

It's doable to get 2.5 months out of a pen, but maybe not 5 months (loses potency).

I didn't mean that an in-use pen will last 5 months. I meant that the entire box of pens will last you at least 5 months. Since you only use one pen at a time and each pen lasts a month, if not a little longer, your purchase of the the box of 5 pens can potentially last 6 or 7 months or more before you need to buy another box.

Yes, but *I* meant that some here report using each pen for up to 3 months.