Hi Kathy, and welcome to FDMB. You've come to the right place to learn about caring for a diabetic cat.
Praise for Splitzie and you - both.
We use a "3 strikes and you're out" approach to testing to keep the stress level down. If we can't get a good reading in 3 tries - we praise and stop and relax. Usually we go ahead and give the injection - based on experience with Tiggy, for example, we know he has only been too low to inject about 3 times in 2 years.
Don't know if people have mentioned diet yet -- but diabetic cats (and all cats, really) benefit from a high protein, low carbohydrate diet of moist food. Most vets are out of date, so don't be shocked if your vet says something different. In their 8 years of education, vets typically spend about 3-4 hours studying diabetes in SEVERAL animal species.
read
www.catinfo.org for excellent information on Feline Nutrition published by a vet, Dr. Lisa Pierson.
Janet & Binky's food charts contain protein, fat and carbohydrate content for many foods. The lists are very long and a bit daunting. A quick start is to avoid ALL dry food and all canned food containing GRAIN or gravy. (keep some in your "hypo" kit)
post your questions - this forum has world-wide membership, so someone is nearly always online.