Thursday, February 24, 2011

Bad Day

We've been using the same insulin bottle since Buzz was diagnosed back in December. There is a lot of differing information out there about how long the insulin is actually good for, but we decided that the date on the bottle (the expiration date) was the last date we would use the bottle. Luckily, our first bottle expired in May, 2013. We figured we'd use it until we ran out and then get a new bottle.


....until yesterday. Buzz's sugar has been very wonky (weird, strange, bizarre) lately. It has been really high everytime we test him, with a reading of 'Hi' last night - 'hi' meaning greater than 750. I really hate getting that reading - it stresses me out which then stresses Buzz out. It's just not a good reading. Buzz really wasn't acting any different than he would act when his sugar is in the 400-500s, so I just wasn't expecting it.

I couldn't think of anything that would account for the super high sugar. I guessed that the insulin was losing it's potency (or usefulness) and opened our new bottle last night. This morning, his sugar was 420. The  new (not really new, still the humulin-n, just a new bottle) insulin brought his sugar down, but obviously because diabetic dogs are HYPERglycemic in nature, his sugar was high this AM.

Anyways, I went to the fridge to get the new insulin (while this type of insulin - reli-on humulin-n from Wal-Mart - doesn't NEED refridgerated, I've read that keeping it refridgerated will make it last longer). I grabbed it, turned around and dropped it. For no good reason. Just fell out of my hand. I've dropped the old bottle before and never had a problem. But this bottle must've fell just right because it broke into a million tiny pieces and insulin was all over my kitchen floor (insulin smells awful - you definitely wouldn't go out a buy an insulin-smelling candle).

This was at 8AM. I called Buzz's internal specialist vet and asked if they could call me in a new prescription for insulin since they only gave me one refill and I just broke that refill into a million pieces. The pharmacy didn't open til 9 and I had a meeting with my boss at 10. There was no way I could go get it at 9, bring it home, give it to Buzz, then get to work before 10. Instead, I dug through our trash to find the old bottle. I went through furminated hair (gross), old food containers (double gross) and other random trash to FINALLY find the old bottle. Buzz got his insulin but who even knows if it will work.

The hubby and I are going to pick up his new bottle ($25 wasted on the broken bottle!) tonight and hopefully with this he will be a little more regulated. I'll keep you all updated!




2 comments:

  1. Oh no! That sucks that you dropped it. Hopefully the old stuff will work for him until you pick up the new prescription.

    Elyse and Riley

    ReplyDelete
  2. We are so sorry!
    We hope the old stuff works well :)

    Rudy's Raiser

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