All is sweet in the house

A week on, and back to Dr. O we went, to check up on progress. I'd assumed this was to check how Cleo was doing, but it seemed he was keener to see how I was getting on with the daily shots. Truthfully, I'm fine. He'd been worried that I might have been nervous for kitty, not wanted to hurt her etc, but it has all gone well. The daily injections are simple, much helped by Cleo not even flinching with the shot. She gets her injection after her breakfast in the morning, so an hour after feeding (and when I'm done with my "getting ready for work" routine, a mixture of slacking and panic), she's curled up in the chair having a bit of a snooze. The preparing the insulin (carefully inverting it a couple of times) and prepping the syringe so the right measurement is withdrawn without bubbles of air is the simple bit really, there's no rush or pressure or worry, and so far there's been no technical issues at all. Then, finding kitty is easy enough, she's still curled up in the chair, comfy as anything. A little stroke on the head and she'll (sometimes) lift her head a bit, pinch the scruff of the neck to pull the skin up, easy again, no issue there. The only issue tends to be finding where the fur ends and the skin begins in the scruff lifted from the body, so just pushing the finger into the fur and smoothing the fur outwards a bit to "see" the pale skin below her black fur tends to help. Then, jab. And that's all it is, a slight jab sensation, Cleo isn't at all bothered and still doesn't lift her head or flinch. I think I'm really lucky with her, so laid back. The other two kitties would probably be more of a handful. Depress the plunger to release the insulin under the skin is barely a noticable act too, as the 2 units is soooo tiny it's hardly moving it at all. Then withdraw, and carefully dispose in the sharps bin. Easy-peasy.

Time prepping insulin, and syringe: 1-2 mins (probably quicker, but I don't like rushing this)
Time finding cat: 30 seconds (unless she's not in the chair, not happened yet...)
Time lifting scruff and injecting: 30 seconds.

Anyway, back to the plot, the vet was impressed, apparently he had a feeling I'd be quite calm with it all. I guess since Cleo is the one with the medical problem, and if she's dealing with it so well, there's no point me stressing about it. The action of injecting doesn't bother me either, I wanted to be a Vet when I was younger, then a Veterinary Nurse (wanted more interaction with the animals and the care, plus bonus of less study and exams! That said they still have years and years before qualifying), and I'd done work experience in a local vet which was fantastic, they'd seen my enthusiasm and were keen to show me all sides, so I'd watched operations, even helped out with minor bits like putting in a stitch, and developed x-rays, and I'm pretty sure, even done an injection back then. It's a shame I didn't follow that up. The enthusiasm is still there, circumstances changed though and years at University wasn't going to be an option for me, but hey ho, in the end if that means Cleo and me do well with injections now then all is good.

The vet gave Cleo a quick check over, no tests just yet. She looks well, so that's good. Still drinking a lot of water (more than the other 2 cats at least), but she's not hanging around the water bowl as much as she used to, a couple of months ago she'd lie often with her chin in the water bowl, occasionally lapping at it. We've another appointment on the 27th when they'll do a blood test to see how her levels are doing with the injections after 3 weeks of treatment. Depending on that result, Dr O said he'd like to try testing the levels every few hours throughout the day to plot a graph of how her body reacts to the insulin. Usually they keep them in for a day for this, but since it'd taken Cleo 24 hours to settle in during her 5 day vet visit at the start of the month he wasn't sure this would work for her, her stressing out would ruin her levels and spoil the work we'd done, so he did mention that we might do that at home - but either way, this wasn't confirmed yet so he didn't want to go into too much detail or planning or, as I believe, risk worrying me the owner out too much. I'm not worried, the home testing is something I'm still considering from having read up on the FDMB site, where it's highly recommended. I'm still looking at the different blood glucose meters, they all seem pretty much the same, some need more blood in the testing sample than others, so I'm weighing up small samples with ones that have most recommendation from other users, and those that will be easiest to find replacement strips for.

So, with the check up done, and another appointment in a while, all is well with us. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Visiting day!

Hurray!   At last, a visiting order (plus lesson in giving injections).  I've been completely rubbish this week in checking up on the fluffy princess.

Day 1: Called surgery after work at 6.30pm to find they'd shut at 6pm.

Day 2: Checked opening times, Tuesdays open till 7, so planned to call straight after work at 6.30pm.  Realised time at 7.15pm... 45mins unpaid overtime, d'oh!

Day 3: Determined! Open till 6pm. Must. Call. Before. 6pm.  Just needed to find 5 mins to myself at work.... realised time at 6.20pm....d'oh!

Felt guilty and ashamed, but ultimately know she's okay as if there was any trouble they'd contact me.  No matter, today I'd set myself as a half day to get there on time for 5pm to practise insulin injections.   Despite leaving work an hour and a half later than my "half day", it still left lots of time, so we got there about 20mins early and sat chatting in the waiting room.  Dr O passed by on his way to drop a letter in the postbox, and then kindly granted us "visiting rights" to sit in the examination room with Cleo.  Poor little girl!  Looked all small and slightly disheveled, her skin having gone a bit dry and flaky as it does when she's a bit stressed and hangs around with central heating too much.   Took a couple of mins but she did react to us and rubbed her face against hands and lay down on my arm - with her eagle eyes and ears trained on all the strange noises around.  You could almost see her planning "The Great Escape" with each glance towards the door to the exit.  That's my girl...!

Dr O then explained that her blood sugar levels were much improved from before Christmas, so the food she'd been on had done some good, but was still requiring the insulin injections daily.  We decided that morning injections would probably be better than evening ones, so we could regulate them to be around the same time each day.  That way if I was late home it wouldn't be an issue, with Dad being a bit iffy with needles and needing more than a couple of practise shots with purified water.

The Doc then explained how to handle the insulin (carefully), to keep it refridgerated, invert it gently a few times before use, and how to hold the needle and inject.   It all went very smoothly, despite being very calm about all this in a strangely detatched sort of way I half thought I'd feel a bit weird with the actual injecting of my own actual kitty (as opposed to when I'd done work experience in a vet and was shown how to do things), but it all went calmly, Cleo didn't even flinch or react.  She's always been good with meds, since we got her and her bro (now deceased) as cat flu ridden kittens from the RSPCA Rehoming Centre.   Quickly adapted to knowing that the uncomfortable med moments makes you better, so all was calm with her now.

Very pleased with her reaction to the insulin so far, the Doc even said that there's a possibity that her diabetes could end up being temporary, never to reappear, or to come back occasionally, or that it might stay for life, only time will tell.  That's okay, we have plenty of time, and regardless of cost or whatever Cleo comes first, and as long as neither Cleo nor me are unhappy with the insulin injections each day then it's all good so far.

Wow, that's actually a positive side to life.  Glad I'm writing this down, I doubt I'd believe myself as having said that.

Anyway, we eventually said bye to both Dr O and Cleo and were sent on our way with a sharps bin under one arm, and a box of syringes.  The cat and the insulin would follow tomorrow. :)