One of my best client interactions involved nothing more than patience on my part. The patient, an elderly male cat, had come in for an echocardiogram and we saw "smoke", or spontaneous contrast, in the left atrium. Fragmin was prescribed and the client, already overwhelmed by the thought of losing her sole companion, was frustrated by her inability to get the full number of doses from each bottle of this very expensive medicine. I had her come in with an empty bottle at a quiet time in our schedule, and spent 40 minutes with her. I filled the bottle with a measured amount of tap water, demonstrated how to read the insulin syringe used to give the Fragmin, and watched her practice drawing up doses until the bottle was empty, twice, and just listened. She poured out her fears of mishandling his illness and memories from kittenhood to the present day. In the end, a few days later, she did elect euthanasia, but also took time to thank me for allowing her to be able to hear his needs and to make the decision based on that rather than her own fears and confusion.
While this incident wound up being more about grief counseling for the client, the tap water practice would also be useful in teaching clients how to draw up accurate doses of insulin for newly diabetic patients.
Why the different treatment for the two patients?
The first is a Golden Retriever; the second is a Senior Citizen.
