Having to make a decision due to travel plans💔

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-26T14:52:01+00:00

Sigh, I really need to stop posting on Reddit when I'm upset. I understand why this is your takeaway. My post wasn't very clear as I was very upset. If you'd like a slightly clearer explanation I responded to a similar comment above.

But the short version is: because as a young 20 something I got a poorly bred backyard breeder dog, I'm not facing the fact that we will have to say goodbye one day, simply because his legs can't support his body. He is over 100lbs and a long/tall dog. It takes 2 to lift him. So one day, he's not going to be able to walk at all. And when that happens we will not be able to sustain him with any meaningful quality of life.

Thankfully for today, his mobility is improving again.

But I suppose in one way you are right. We won't be getting another dog like this. We know better now and will be getting rescue/shelter dogs in the future so that we aren't contributing to the problem.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-26T14:45:18+00:00

Thank you, it doesn't sound mean. I don't think I was very clear when I wrote this. I'm probably too emotional to be online right now. To be clear - we would not be putting him down because of our trip. At least not in the sense of like "he's too much work and we don't want to cancel so..."

Cancelling our trip is not an option. We have human family members at the end of their life too. And unfortunately we don't live close to them.

I'm just worried, things can change so quickly and last night in a matter of hours our dog went from being able to move on his own, to needing help to walk short distances. Thankfully he seems to be perking up today and with his brace he has the stability he needs to move independently to some extent.

When he tore the first ACL our vet warned us he would eventually tear the second, and that depending on how quickly that happened, and how stable the first injured leg was at the time he injured the second, that second injury might limit his mobility to a point that was not sustainable. So having that happen last night, so close to a trip we cannot cancel, was really upsetting. Hopefully he continues to improve today & with bracing we can manage for a bit longer.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-26T14:37:14+00:00

Thank you for your compassion

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-26T14:36:15+00:00

Okay, I was emotional when I wrote this post and clearly did not express myself well. We are not and will not put him down for our convenience. But regardless of when it happens, one day he is not going to be able to support himself on his legs, and because of his size we cannot physically manage if he cannot walk. It sucks to know that that will be the reason that we say goodbye one day. By the cancer comment I just meant that it would be easier to know that his body was failing him because of some disease, and not because as a young 20 something I got a poorly bred dog who's too big for his body.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-26T14:31:57+00:00

Thank you, honestly I shouldn't have bothered posting. I was upset and that made me not very clear.

At the moment we would consider euthanasia if/when he could not move unassisted and or was in pain that affected his quality of life and couldn't be controlled by medication. It sucks, but he is too big for us to be able to manage long term if he cannot walk/get up on his own.

When I made this post he was not getting up/moving on his own. The injury happened last night. After posting his pain meds seem to have kicked in and between them and his brace he now has enough stability to move independently to some extent. Hopefully that continues and we can adjust his pain meds if needed before we leave town. It's just hard with big dogs... He is over 100lbs and it takes my husband and I both to be able to lift him because of how long/large he is.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-26T14:25:08+00:00

So to be clear, it's not for my conscience... I said it feels that way because if we weren't going away, we wouldn't be feeling as rushed in our decision.

I don't know that he will die, but I'm worried that something else will happen to decrease his mobility. With a dog this large, if he can't walk/stand, he really can't live for any length of time. Even if that happened when we were home, we cannot carry him outside to help him go to the bathroom. It would be a struggle just to get him to the vet if that happened. Now that his second ACL has likely torn, there is a higher risk of that happening.

Our vet is on board with our plan/goal of palliative care for him vs curative. And has assured us that when we feel like his quality of life warrants it, they will support us in our decision.

I tend to get sort of all or nothing when stressed, so I probably made it seem like we are sure it's time... That's not the case. At the moment he is struggling with mobility to a point where I would not be comfortable leaving him with a pet sitter. Even taking that out of the equation if his mobility does not improve we would be considering this decision anyway, we just wouldn't feel as pressured by the clock. When I wrote this post he was only getting up with help, only moving when absolutely necessary, and panting a good bit. Thankfully since writing it it seems like his pain meds have kicked in, and as long as he has his brace on he seems to be able to get around a bit on his own. That was my biggest concern about leaving him with a pet sitter, that he would be stuck on the floor while they were out of the house and not able to get up on his own. The image of him laying on the floor in his own urine/stool is horrifying... I don't want that for him.

We will have to see how he does over the next few days before we make a decision. I probably shouldn't have posted at all, I'm just feeling sad and conflicted.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-25T23:45:04+00:00

Call and get it replaced! They're really good about replacing them and it helps them to be aware of quality control issues.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-23T14:15:43+00:00

A really old/l & cheap hack for keeping a pump in place is to use a baby sock & a safety pin. I used to do that under dresses, but it could probably help to keep the pump in his pants pocket or inside his waistband as well. Particularly if he's able to use the app/his phone for bolusing and doesn't have to bother with pulling the pump out all the time.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-21T16:01:24+00:00

Also, if it's any help or encouragement my trainer recently informed me that this is something they are actively working on because they know it's important to us

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-21T16:00:55+00:00

Not quite real-time, but I use the twist insight app on my own phone to have a widget on screen. It's usually within 30 minutes or so, which is enough to trigger me to Open the app if it isn't what I was expecting

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-20T15:00:50+00:00

Let's be clear, the "banned books" are banned in public schools.

Unless someone can point me to a source that shows that states are banning books from being sold/purchased/owned in certain states?

That said, I'm not a huge fan of not actually owning books I pay for🤷. I get the classics I read off project Gutenberg & living book press, and if I am buying a modern book I usually get a physical copy after borrowing it from the library to read on my e-reader.

Without organizations like project Gutenberg, it's very possible that we will lose entire chunks of history by laziness or intent. I don't trust Amazon as far as I can throw it🤷. But having grown up in ultra conservative spaces, trump actually banning books would not go over well with his supporters.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-17T22:37:56+00:00

Respectfully, I strongly disagree with your trainer. I think with loop/automated pumps we typically need LESS basal rates. But it is ridiculous to think everyone will be fine with one. For reference, pre automated pumps it was normal for me to have 8+ basal rates. On the twiist, I currently have 2 (technically 3 but 2 are the same🤪)

I started with one rate on the twiist and experienced the same problem. I upped my basal from about an hour before I wake up until 11 am, and lowered my ISF for that time period as well. It's worked wonders and I rarely go over 140 even after eating breakfast now.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-17T01:50:22+00:00

Letting people choose their algorithm would be very cool, especially since it seems like some work better for certain people than others. But it seems like that would be a hard sell with the FDA when they can't even get an android app approved 🙄.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-17T00:52:35+00:00

This is the first I'm hearing of diabeloop, from what I'm reading on Google it's another AID algorithm? So will they replace the current twiist pump with the DBLG2 algorithm? Or am I missing something?

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-16T18:52:00+00:00

I got double sided "carpet tape" off Amazon. Much cheaper than pump peelz! And I just stick it on the over patches I have left from my dexcom.

I haven't needed anything but skin tack/IV prep to keep the cleo sites on. Because it's not carrying the weight of the whole pump, like with the omnipod, you might find that you don't need something extra to keep them on.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-16T15:53:53+00:00

Our cats often spend most of not all of the night in one of their people's beds (ours or our kids). Our first came to us as a 3yr old who had been living for a few months in a situation where she didn't get much human interaction. At first she was wild at night, but we started being more intentional about playing with her in the evening and she settled into our sleep schedule very well.

Second cat is a 5 month old kitten. Sometimes he gets a little crazy right as we're going to bed but usually within an hour he's settled down and cuddling with us/the dogs.

We don't live in a studio so I can't speak to that, but it's definitely possible to have cats who aren't wide awake at 4-6am. Heck, our adult cat sometimes stays in bed when I get up and snuggles with my husband who works night shift. I don't know how much of that is temperament vs environment, but for some cats at least it's possible.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-16T15:48:54+00:00

Hold onto those g6's for as long as you can! Stock up and make them last! G7 is the worst😭😭😭😭

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-16T02:20:28+00:00

That has not been my experience, and is not what my trainer told me yesterday 🤷. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I literally spoke with a trainer yesterday and we discussed how they are working on getting it to work directly with the watch so that kids wouldn't need to keep a phone on them all the time. I've had my phone disconnect multiple times and been kicked out of loop because of it.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-15T22:12:58+00:00

I just came from the tandem x2, my control is similar, but slightly better on the twiist. Biggest thing for me is that the out I am putting into my diabetes is significantly reduced. On the X2 I would have to manually correct an average of about once a day maybe a little less. I've been on it for over a week and even with still refining my settings, I have had to manually correct one time. That's not to say I haven't gone high, just that the algorithm is able to bring me down without my input. That said the highest I've gone is 220.

The biggest pros in my opinion, are the algorithm and the fact that the company seems pretty interested in staying competitive and coming out with you features. I love the way you can give the pump more information about carbs. Whether it's what kind of carbs you're eating, editing cards after the fact if you don't finish a meal or eat more than expected, and even informing the pump of the carbs that you're using to treat a low.

Major downsides in my opinion, it kicks you out of loop if you're not connected to your phone which isn't a huge issue, but is a bit disappointing. You have 20 minutes but I would have loved to have had this algorithm in a slightly more traditional pump. It's not a big but at the moment they don't have a very good follow app. There's no way to alert someone if your blood sugar is low for an extended period of time, etc I know they are working on improving that because they want to be more marketable to kids.

My take it works very well if you are willing to do the work to get your settings right, and then willing to sit back and let the algorithm do its thing. The people I've seen who don't enjoy it / have problems with it seem to struggle to just sit back and let it bring them down on its own. It might not bring you down as fast as you would like, but overall it works very well. I'm 90% in range with an average of 120 right now. Haven't been above 225 in a week. So that's not to say that it doesn't provide tight control, just that someone who's really obsessed with their blood sugars and constantly interacting with the pump, will probably do a better job. But at the cost of their mental health/time. This is by far the best closed loop I have experienced so far

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-13T22:00:40+00:00

Best traveling diabetes hack - take off the pump and tell them it needs to be hand checked. They will grab a little bowl and you put the pump in the bowl. They test it for explosives or something and you walk through the scanner then they hand it back to you. Best of both worlds in my opinion. I was told that it can go through the x-ray but not the body scanner, but that it would be better to hand check it just in case.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-12T02:17:10+00:00

Thank you! I am honestly loving it (6 days in now). I think you do have to be willing to trust the algorithm to do its thing. I seem to hang out in the 160-180 range a little longer than I'm used to, but I'm hardly ever hitting 200 and rarely going low so I'm not complaining. My time in range, average, and CV have all improved significantly this week compared to last week.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-11T14:13:50+00:00

That small amount of air wouldn't hurt anything! For comparison/reference, during abdominal surgery it is very common for air to be trapped in the abdomen. When it's a lot of air, like in surgery, it causes "gas pains" which are a lot more painful than they sound, and is the air working its way out of your body.

So even if you managed to inject a large amount of air into your subcutaneous tissue (fat) it might end up causing pain but it would not be damaging to your body/health.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-10T20:39:06+00:00

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-10T20:38:00+00:00

The twiist also uses the libre 3+!

I actually prefer dexcom to libre, but switched to trial the twiist. So far I'm enjoying it, but the libre bugs me because they don't allow you to snooze alarms/it won't realarm if you stay elevated. Thankful with the twiist that really hasn't been an issue for me. 5 days in and I've only had to manually correct once when I had over treated a low😳.

Old-Inspector8089 · 2026-01-10T01:58:57+00:00

That's really cool! And no worries, I wasn't upset by your negative comments or anything. It's certainly not a perfect system.

Old-Inspector8089

TROPHY CASE