I hate to admit it but I LOVE LOLCats!  The funny pictures and captions of cats makes me smile no matter how stressed out my day is!  I love the terrible grammar and silly sentiments!  Who would have guessed that I would have my own crazy LOLCats story?

Some of you may remember my cat from one of my early blog posts before I joined Bill on 1happydiabetic.com.  My cat can be pretty tolerant of me as you can tell!

On Friday, October 21, I received some scary news.  My cat, China, has Type II diabetes.  She is 13 years old and had started peeing on the carpet in our living room, drinking lots of water and scarfing all of the dog’s hard food. Because she didn’t lose weight, I didn’t put it together that she was showing me diabetic symptoms.  Part of me feels guilty for not seeing that she was feeling sick and part of me realizes that sometimes you just don’t see stuff like this coming.

As my husband picked China up from the veterinarian and he was given the news of the diagnosis.  Her blood sugar was 380!  He was sent home with a prescription for Humulin N insulin and syringes.  He was told she needs to be tested 1-2 times a day from her EAR!  We were going to have to stick a lancet in her ear to test her!  We were both reeling!

I have to be honest, it has been really hard for me to be positive about my cat having diabetes.  I am usually the most positive person you will ever find!  I went to Twitter to talk to the DOC Friday night about my feelings and I got so much support! 

So the first 2 days into the I haz diabeetus adventure we have failed miserably at testing China’s blood sugar.  Getting a drop of blood from the ears of a cat is really, really hard!  We have successfully given the cat some shots of Humulin N.  The cat is on an expensive diabetes meal planfrom the vet that is high protein, low carb. See a pic below of all of the cat’s diabeetus supplies and food:

I have to be real, I am struggling with this diagnosis.  My vet said as we get the insulin regiment tuned in for China she may have hypoglycemic episodes.  How in the world will my cat be able to tell me she feels funny and she might be having a low blood sugar?  Sure, I have a big bottle of Karo syrup to use if she goes low but how will I know?  I can’t test her as often as I test myself and the vet says I don’t need to.   So lots of guessing on where the cat’s blood sugar is which makes me really uncomfortable. The truth is, I am scared.  Rationally I know I am one of the best people on the planet to deal with what a cat with diabetes needs.  Emotionally I am not there yet.

So how am I keeping a good attitude through this stress?  Well, I am celebrating the little victories.  My cat doesn’t flinch when I give her a shot. Our first successful blood glucose test tonight yielded a wonderful 126 after 3 insulin shots since the diagnosis.  She loves her new special diabetes diet.  The cat seems happier and has not peed on my carpet again since the insulin started.    This is how I am staying positive and keeping an upbeat attitude, being realistic in my expectations of what I can do and what I can control.

And now, my new LOLCats picture:

I thought I had learned my lesson with spoiled insulin. But I had a second incident while on a motorcycle road trip across the USA, from Texas to Connecticut. The hottest part of my journey was between El Paso Texas and Midland Texas with tempertures over 110 degrees! I thought I was prepared, as my little blue cooler had 2 blue ices and a ziplock bag filled with ice cubes. Within an hour or two the 110 tempertures, plus the heat from the bike's engine melted all my ice! When I was finally able to stop at a place that had ice to refill my bag, my insuiln was HOT to the touch!

I was sure these pens would be spoiled, but I tried them anyway and again experienced the same poor blood sugar control. Since I was in the USA this time, it was a quick fix. I went to Walgreens and got some new pens (I had to let my insurance company know it was an early, emergency renewel).

I’ve had 2 incidents of insulin going bad on me in the past few months during my travels. I’d like to share my experiences with this.

Expired insulin is sometimes hard to notice because it wont stop working completely. It will still work, but depending on how spoiled it is, it will be less potent. So it is tough to know if your insulin is bad, or if you just had a bit too much at your last meal.

The first time my insulin went bad I was in Bolivia (see my previous post with my videos from the Puma and Jaguar refuge). The camp I was living on while working here had no electricity, and therefore no refrigeration. I found a small village about 20 minutes away and a nice lady agreed to let me keep my little blue cooler (see above) in her refrigerator which she uses for soft drinks. After a month and a half of working at the camp I left and I retrieved my cooler and a fresh pen. The next couple of days I noticed really bad blood sugar control. A meal that would take 3-5 units of insulin was taking 6-8 units or more, and wasn't very predictable.

I’m guessing this soft drink refrigerator was not kept on all the time. The village was very remote and I imagine they only turned it on when they knew they’d have some business. Also, electricity was very unpredictable, so I’m sure they lost power a few times while my bag was there.

The shop where my insulin was stored

My next stop after Bolivia was Mexico. I decided to stock back up on my supplies there. Buying insulin in Mexico was surprisingly easy. I was able to find cartiriges of humalog at several pharmacies (no prescription needed and pretty cheap. I had a generic reusable pen that fit the cartiges, but I went to the Lilly office in Mexico City and they gave me a new pen for free. I had heard about pens that administer half units (usually aimed for children), I asked for one of these, since it gives me much tighter control of my doses. They had one and gave it to me!