One year of diabetes --- by the numbers

Today marks the one year anniversary of Isabella’s diabetes diagnosis. We’ve gone through a lot in the past year, that cat and I. She has shown enormous patience and adaptability (plus a good measure of her usual snarkiness) and I have learned to let go of the idea that I can bend this disease (or this cat) to my will.

The past year breaks down like this:

739 injections (plus 16 more from the pet sitter). Miraculously, I’ve only been bitten a couple times – when I tried to shoot without having Isabella’s face firmly planted in a food bowl. Every once in a while I forget who I’m dealing with, but she reminds me.

773 blood glucose tests (requiring far more ear pokes!). Oh, the horrors Isabella endured. One day I chased her frantically around the house with a lancet and the meter. If anyone had witnessed that, the cat would have been removed from my care and I would be under psychiatric observation.

3 vials of insulin (we’re working on number four). The first one cost $150. The second and third, about $100 each. Number four? $41. Yippee!

2 fur shots. That’s not bad, actually. Shots, I can handle. It’s all the other stuff that’s a crap shoot.

Highest blood sugar reading: 487 (July 19th). That’s even higher than the vet’s reading when she was diagnosed. I’m doing a great job, aren’t I??

Lowest: 38 (September 3rd). Isabella does this just to show she can. Or to highlight my incompetence, one or the other.

6 vet appointments. I’ve already tallied up those costs. Let’s not revisit that just now.

2 vets. The first one, I firmly believe, thinks I’m a complete nut case. The current vet may share that opinion, but she hides it better.

1000+ cans of cat food (for both cats). How many of you carry a teeny, tiny shortened version of Janet’s food list with you at all times? I deleted the brands that cost too much and the varieties too high in carbs, eliminated extraneous columns, printed the resulting much-smaller list doubled-sided, and shrunk it down so it fits in my wallet. You’ve all done that, right? It’s not just me?

1 time Isabella yanked the strip out of the meter with her teeth. Now I can say for sure that kitty saliva on a test strip causes an error message on the meter. I’m going to start charging her for the strips when she pulls stunts that wreck a test strip. It’s coming out of her college fund.

One year. In the early days I was convinced I could get Isabella regulated and off insulin. Now I’m only convinced that I don’t know what I’m doing. Sometimes I’m discouraged, sometimes realistic, sometimes resigned. A month ago my cousin asked Isabella’s age. When I told him twelve, he replied “She could live for years.”

If I do my kitty pancreas routine adequately, she will. Yep, she will.