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Felicitations and welcome to my
Web Site's Home Page
 |
This Page has been retrieved
Times Since June 14, 2000 I am Simon T. Novell Feline Diabetes |
Before I go any further let me explain something about this site - This introduction was written by me, but I let Bob (my "Dad") take care of all the other stuff. Really, as a cat I should not be bothered with such things as HTML code, JPG files, JavaScript, web page layouts and such. It's not that I don't know anything about them, it's just that is is quite beneath any Feline to perform such mundane manual chores.After this introduction, Bob will be doing all the talking -- well, most of it anyway. Whenever I feel a comment is needed, I will jump right in. We all know that humans really don't understand things the way a cat does. My comments will be in this Purple color - the color of Royalty, of course. I'll also sign most of my comments.
That said, here's the beginning of the story.
I was diagnosed on Saturday, February 26, 2000 at approximately 11:30 AM. (Bob refers to it now as Black Saturday) We would know the exact time, but when the vet said to Bob "He's Diabetic", Bob had better things to do than look at the clock.
Those "better things" were, quite appropriately, thoughts about my welfare. This is only proper and fitting because, as every Feline knows, humans, or as some of my friends say "beans", were put on our planet for one purpose and one purpose only, to care for we of the Feline species.
Well, yes, they have other purposes, but all of the myriad other purposes are. of course, secondary to and subordinate of their primary duty of caring for, feeding, pampering, and entertaining we of the cat persuasion.
Bob's first thought was "Did I hear that right, Diabetic?" This initial thought was quickly replaced by "Oh, we'll just test him and keep him regulated!"
Had you asked him to expand upon that thought, he would have replied "We will test his blood glucose levels at home and adjust his treatment as necessary. It's no big deal, human diabetics do it all the time. We can apply the same principle to Simon's treatment. Doesn't everyone with the diabetic cat do the same?"
Little did he know the strange world we were about to enter where many, if not most, vets don't suggest that their patient's humans home test the cat's Blood Glucose levels. There are even some out there who discourage it and even tell humans not to do it. Sadly there are too many like this.
My Web Site is dedicated to spreading the word that the home testing of a cat's Blood Glucose level is easy, accurate, and compared to vet bills, inexpensive AND IT CAN SAVE THE LIFE OF A DIABETIC CAT by providing the human with a way of monitoring the effectiveness of the treatment and detecting trouble, such as Hypoglycemia, before it becomes life threatening
I'll let Bob take over from here.
Up with Home Testing, down with Bad Vets! Head Bumps and Purrs to all the Sugarcats and their human helpers.
Simon T. Novell
Hi there, I'm Bob Novell, who as Simon said, is one of the humans who lives with him. Then there are Tom, Schuster, Marco, Rusty, Thomas, and Cleo (Dad, don't forget Sharon) who are, as I was about to say before I was interrupted, Simon's feline siblings. Rounding out the family is my wife Sharon.Yes, you read that right, we have a Tom and a Thomas. Tom moved in about 13 years ago and Thomas about 5 years ago. Thomas was about 8 years old at the time, so we did not even suggest that he change his name. We are just very careful to call Tom "Tom" and Thomas "Thomas", though it can be confusing at times.
But then my youngest sister, Pat, who's older than me, despite being my "youngest" sister (I have three sisters, all older than myself, but I've got the "looks" in the family?), (Don't believe him folks, if he were a cat, we'd put him in a paper a paper bag and toss im in the river. Heck, we'd just throw him in the river and play with the bag.)I am a computer programmer/analyst/consultant/jack of all trades, I've been doing battle with these things since 1972, long before we called them by size - Mini, Micro, Mainframe - it was just the Computer to us back thenAnyway, as I was saying - Pat always calls me Bobby - she's about the only person on the planet to do so - and her husband's name is Bob and one of her son's name is Bob and his new baby boy is named Bob, so when we call get together and she calls "Bob" or "Bobby" there are at least three heads that jerk around in her direction - soon to be four when the smallest Bobby gets old enough. So having a Tom and a Thomas around here really is not all that confusing compared to the "Bob" situation.
(Dad, they did not come here to hear about your illustrious career in computers, get on with the important stuff; you know, about diabetes, about home testing, about ME!)
Okay, Simon.
I was a rocked back, at first, when the vet said those two words "He's Diabetic"
(Dad, actually isn't that one contraction and one word?) Simon, please go pester someone else and let me get on with it, okay?
(Okay, can I go pester the dog next door?) No, it is not nice to pick on someone who is so much bigger than you, you'll give him an inferiority complex.
(Inferiority complex? He's a dog. He' already Inferior!) Right Simon, now go out on the porch and lay in the window and let the passers-by see how handsome you are.
(Yeah, great idea! I'll go do that.) Flattery will always get rid of him, now were was I?
When the vet told me he was diabetic I was shocked, at first. Simon's the first cat I've ever lived with and I'm quite attached to him - understatement of the century!
My shock did not last long because I know, or thought I knew, a bit about diabetes and how it is treatable and controlled.
One of my aunts had diabetes and she always seemed to have it under control, she lived up into her late eighties, so I thought we'd just monitor Simon's Blood Glucose (I'm going to shorten that to BG from now on) levels and adjust his insulin doses appropriately.
I had no idea at the time that the home testing of BG levels in diabetic cats was not wide spread, was not a standard, everyday, normal, and totally accepted practice.
IT IS NOT!
When Simon and I returned from the vets on Black Saturday, I first called Sharon at work and broke the news.
She reacted pretty much as I had, but perhaps not as optimistically because she had a diabetic cat in high school who died shortly after she graduated and started working. Pyewacket apparently died of compilations of the diabetes. I go into on the page where I discuss Hypoglycemia.
After calling Sharon, I got on the net and did a Yahoo search on "Feline Diabetes", I got hits on three sites and something over 300 web pages.
As I began reading through the sites I realized that I was not seeing many references to home testing of BG levels.
Then I found Feline Diabetes Web Site and the Feline Diabetes Message Board (there's a link to the message board on the Feline Diabetes Home Page We (the regular users of the message board) refer to the Feline Diabetes Message Board as the FDMB. It saves a lot of typing.
It's a great message board with a lot of members who have diabetic cats and a lot of information and advice to offer and shoulders to try on or at least lean on when things get a bit rough.
I also found Harry's Site about home testing and read it.
I had decided that we would be testing Simon at home from the moment I first found out he was diabetic. I had not discussed it with the vet because she had me make an appointment for the following Monday evening to come in and talk to her about Simon's treatment - I guess I assumed we'd cover testing Simon's BG levels at that time.
After reading through the various web sites which I had found (see the Links Page) I realized that the vet was probably not going to bring up home testing and that I'd better learn all I could before the Monday evening appointment.
Harry's Site gave me a great start to learning about home testing and a start on the search for an appropriate Glucometer (a device which measures the amount of glucose in blood). The meter I chose and the reasons for the choice can be found on the Home Testing Page.
By Sunday night I had decided on a meter and we ordered it on Monday morning and the drug store got it in on Tuesday.
We had a vet's appointment on Monday at 1800 (Folks, I need to explain - Bob prefers to use a 2400 clock a lot of the time. So, 1800 is 6:00 PM to we civilians and non computer folk. If it's over 1200, just subtract 1200 to get the PM time. Simon)
Ok Simon, I'll confine my use of a 2400 clock to data and such, when speaking english, I'll use a 12 hour clock as often as I can remember to do so. I thought you were out on the porch showing off??
(It started to rain and at least one drop came through the screen and hit me so I came in.) Wow, a WHOLE Drop?? (Okay, wise guy, I really came back in to make sure you were getting the details straight) Okay, but sit there and keep quiet. (I'll just sit here and look handsome, an easy job for one such as myself.)
As I said before, after Simon's diagnosis on Black Saturday the vet made an appointment for us on Monday evening at 6:00 PM to come back and "learn how to give injections and such". She also drew blood with which to have a full work-up done at an outside lab.
About 10:00 AM Monday, the vet called to tell us that the blood work had shown no other problems, his kidneys, in particular, looked find. She told us to get some Lilly Humulin Ultralente insulin for Simon and that she'd see us that evening.
Simon, Sharon and I journeyed at the vet's that evening and she went over the blood work with us. I then asked her what she thought of Home BG Testing.
Her initial reaction made me think that maybe we would be searching for a new vet. She folded her arms across her chest and leaned backwards, away from me.
"Well, you see, the thing about home testing is... " she muttered. "What is your target", she asked me.
I replied by asking what she meant by "target"
"Well, what number are you looking for?" was her answer.
I told her that we were not looking for any particular number, that we wanted to test Simon at home in order to provide the best possible treatment and that any "target" was in her area of expertise as the vet.
Sharon must have realized that I was beginning to react badly to her hesitance over the subject of Home Testing because she jumped in and said "We WILL be testing him at home!" You know, like a drill instructor tells a recruit "You WILL love the army"
The vet finally said "OK", but I could tell she was still somewhat hesitant.
She then "taught" us how to give injections, using a thick cloth on which to demonstrate. Sharon, having had Pyewacket, already knew how to do it and demonstrated that on the piece of coarse thick cloth the vet had brought for us to practice on.
I also "practiced" on the cloth and then I got to give Simon an injection of Saline - no big deal (Dad, it is a Big Deal to some people, please bear that in mind.)
You're absolutely correct Simon, I will bear in mind that what is easy for one person may be hard for another and vs vrs.
Anyway, the vet told us to start Simon on 3 units of the insulin on Tuesday morning. Sharon asked if he could have some tonight (Monday) and the vet said to give him one unit. We did so when we got home.
Tuesday Sharon picked up the Glucometer and I read the instructions and tried it on myself a couple of times to learn the procedure.
Sharon tested herself and then I tested Simon. The reading was 457 mg/dl - that's 457 milligrams per deciliter of Glucose.
I had already learned that the preferred range was between 100 and 250 (or 300) so I was alarmed at the high reading. I did another test on him to make sure I'd done it correctly and it came out as 442 (the 15 point difference is well within the acceptable range for testing accuracy, in this case the 15 points is only 3.337% of the average of the two readings/ Bayer, the maker of the Elite XL Glucometer we use, says that a 10% difference in tests done one after another is within the acceptable range of accuracy.)
I panicked because the two readings were so high. I called the vet's night number and left a message to have them call me. I then got on the Feline Diabetes Message Board (a link to the FDMB can be found in the Link List to the left of all pages on this site) asking if I should give him some more insulin.
Before the vet returned the call (actually it was returned by an other vet in the office), I received replies to my inquiry on the FDMB.
Here are some of them, as examples of the type of support you'll find on the FDMB.
| Bob, stop, breathe...
ok now, never give another dose without vet supervision. Especially since your cat is on the first day. It can take 3-5 days to adjust to a dose. High numbers are not nearly as dangerous as low numbers. You don't want the high numbers for long time but short term should be fine. You will want to test urine for ketones though. In the morn maybe you talk to vet about dosage or duration. Make sure Simon has plenty of fresh water. With higher numbers on the meter they can be a bit inaccurate. My one cat Tony often got Hi readings and was in the 400-500 range for over 2 weeks. In his case he needed different insulin type. hang in there. Joni |
I posted a reply
to Joni that I was breathing in deeply and relaxing and she posted this
further message:
Ok good your breathing :-) One other thing to remember, a cat's bg will raise due to stress. Even for the most complacent cat will not "like" being tested. If you choose to continue to test through the night take those numbers with a grain of that salt. Since you won't be responding to the results of those readings you may even opt to skip them. get some rest... Joni
|
| Bob - right now you are gathering
data to make a determination about whether you need to go to two shots
a day. As Joni says, it takes at least 5-7 days for a dose to settle in
before you see its full effects. It is very difficult to tolerate those
high bg's once you start home testing, I know. But the approach is slow
and steady and in consultation with your vet unless you think the vet is
totally off base. Those numbers could be higher. Asia used to test 'hi'
on the glucometer occasionally. If you repeatedly are at your pre shot
level again 12 hours later, that suggests the need for two shots. Keep
breathing...Mary and Josh(GA) taught us all the value of this; it helps
us to be deliberative and not as reactive as we might usually be.
You are just through the starting gate. During this part of the regulation process, it is very important to keep testing the urine for ketones. Hang in there...slow and steady wins the race. Let's see what tomorrow's numbers bring. Diane and Asia |
Bob, listen to Joni and go to bed
already! It takes 3-5 days for a dose of Humulin to settle with a cat.
So your vet waiting until Monday to do the curve so she can see the full
effect of this dose. Stop assaulting that poor cat's ears every two hours
for now. You might want to do one on Sunday, just so you can compare it
to the vet's Monday curve, but pre shot is fine until then. It took Simon
weeks or months to get up to the numbers he's got at the moment and you
don't want to rush trying to get him regulated, it could lead to disaster.
Take it slow, and test for ketones daily for now. Unless you see ketones,
Simon is not in any immediate danger except from you overreacting.
Diana, Rascal & Shaft |
All of these replies, and others, came within minutes of my posting my "panic" message. I did as they suggested and went to bed, it took a while for me to go to sleep, however.Oh, yes, one of the vets did return my call, but his advise was useless next to what I received from the FDMB members. Actually, during the entire conversation he seemed very condescending and acted like he were trying to calm "yet another, no nothing pet owner."
As I said, this vet is not the one we use, he's just one of the 3 in the office. You can bet that I won't be booking any appointments with him - his style is not something I can tolerate or condone.
A note about the text "Keep breathing...Mary and Josh(GA)..." in the reply from Diane and Asia.First, most of the FDMB members sign their messages with their name and the name of their diabetic cat. The (GA) after Josh's name stands for Guardian Angle which signifies that he has moved on to Rainbow Bridge and is no longer with us here on this ball of dirt we call the Earth. But he is with Mary as her Guardian Angel.
One of the members of the FDMB named Kathy signs her messages Kathy and Cashew(GA). Once she replied to a question I had asked and I thanked her and Cashew for the help. A bit latter I learned the meaning of (GA) and felt like a heel about it. When I apologized for thinking that Cashew was there with Kathy, she was gracious and said no apology was necessary but I wanted you to know from the start that (GA) after a cat's name on the FDMB does not stand for, as I had thought it might, the state of Georgia.
I wanted to pass that on so you don't make the mistake I once made.
Needless to say, we all hope all Sugarcats put off, as long as possible, joining the ranks of the Guardian Angels.
Well, that is how Simon's and my journey into Feline Diabetes began. Use the links on the left, beginning at the top of the page and repeated down the side, to learn more about Feline Diabetes, it's treatment and Home Testing and meet some of the other Sugarcats from the FDMB.