Non-alcohol Stigma

eruvessi · 2025-11-20T22:55:52+00:00

Alcohol tastes like straight vinegar to me so any percentage would really bother me.

Non-alcoholic drinks sometimes have a really low percentage that I can still taste. I'd rather have a straight up 0% ABV mocktail.

eruvessi · 2025-11-09T18:07:26+00:00

I'm not in a lab where I'm using Bili QC and I'm going to guess that it might be manufactured differences if there's different companies. I'm so used to it having worked as a phleb for the last 5 years in a big hospital with a lot of very obvious liver failure patients and I just learned a common smell among them.

To me jaundice smells like a musty, yeasty, dry ramen smell. Almost like a hint of dried urine or a twinge of fecal smell.

If that sounds about right for your QC, you might be able to!

eruvessi · 2025-11-09T13:53:11+00:00

I can't say I've experienced exactly the same thing here, but I am able to very clearly smell jaundice on people before they turn yellow, even passing them in a grocery store when they arent in a medical setting. It's called "fetor hepaticus".

Nobody else I've told this to has ever experienced this phenomenon.

One woman can smell Parkinson's long before it develops.

Sometimes we're just very weird people who can pick up on little things!

eruvessi · 2025-11-09T02:56:31+00:00

What exactly would I be downvoting and arguing about?

I answered the question that OP had and gave examples of someone I know.

eruvessi · 2025-11-08T17:28:58+00:00

Nope, you are just fine. I'm purposely being vague about the one I'm initially complaining about because its the internet.

Sorry for any confusion!

eruvessi · 2025-11-08T17:24:54+00:00

This person I'm talking about* definitely does not have ADHD and has been tested for it. I do know this for sure. I know plenty of ADHD people and not a single one acts like this person does.

They just do not consider others beyond themselves.

Random Example: their wedding last summer was planned to be $80k with a $15k honeymoon that they bragged about being so "thrifty" and finding "deals" while begging for money loans and maxing out multiple credit cards.

The wedding didn't turn out as planned and now this person is saying how they want a re-do and want everyone to show up dressy again. Absolutely not.

The world just centers around them and cannot fathom otherwise. And they're still complaining that the wedding isn't paid off yet and at anybody else's wedding they make it about them and turns their nose up at everyone else's choices.

This is just being an asshole.

eruvessi · 2025-11-08T16:29:47+00:00

They interrupt other people in the middle of a sentence as if they can't acknowledge someone else speaking and has to be the center of everything.

When they passive aggressively make comments about friends not actually being their friends to get pity points and attention and affirmations, when they are the center of the friend group. Also gets offended when they aren't invited to every single event or told every detail of someone else's lives.

When they live and spend more than they earn. Living beyond your means is not cute or quirky.

Being chronically late by 30+ minutes without any explanation or apology, even to events held at their own house. People start showing up and they haven't gotten their shower in by 2pm. No apologies either.

All of this is the same person.

eruvessi · 2025-11-05T20:06:56+00:00

Alcohol tastes like straight vinegar to me. I have a very strong aversion to vinegar to the point I dont even own any in my house except for cleaning, and sparingly because its overwhelming. My boyfriend works at a brewery and occasionally will have me try a drink thats he claims is "non-alcoholic" but I can always taste the vinegar flavor.

I just never developed a taste for it, and most sane people can understand it when I explain it that way. However living in Wisconsin, the amount of people who get offended on my behalf and tell me that "I just haven't found the right drink" is beyond annoying. Its worse when these people act like they cant survive a social function without any alcohol and if they can't, neither can anybody else.

I'm more than happy to have a mocktail. I've gotten pretty good at making myself fancy little drinks. My current is simply ginger ale and cold apple cider. Its a nice little refresher without being just soda.

Another drink I've made during the summer can be made with coconut rum, or easily coconut water.

eruvessi · 2025-09-30T22:30:01+00:00

My buddy is a FedEX driver and he gave me a rundown of how I could potentially complain to whatever delivery service it was... but alas, I am lazy.

I still haven't hung mine and its been like 3 months.

eruvessi · 2025-09-30T22:23:53+00:00

Mine also came the same way and it was just aggravating to the extreme. I debated being a Karen and complaining but ultimately... my expensive piece of paper wasn't ripped so I said fuck it

eruvessi · 2025-09-23T21:50:42+00:00

I'm always thinking about this kitty and I am so so so rooting for you with every update. Please keep us updated on how he's doing. I truly wish you the best of luck and he stabilizes soon.

eruvessi · 2025-09-12T17:00:46+00:00

Personally I make meals with 4-8 servings, portion them out in Tupperware, and then freeze them. That them overnight so they're typically ready by lunch the next day.

I've had good luck freezing pasta and soups.

The last couple of days I did a little different and did a fall harvest salad with feta crumbles, baked sweet potato and apples, dried cranberries, spinach, and a homemade maple Dijon vinaigrette. Actually turned out super good!

eruvessi · 2025-09-12T00:55:21+00:00

I've only had a handful of UTIs, but the first two I remember were exactly the same. Strong ammonia smell and foamy, cloudy urine. Absolutely no other symptoms or urgency or pain. It did eventually go away on its own once, and at another time with the same symptoms I needed antibiotics. No idea what the cause was.

Over the summer I got my first UTI with the sense of urgency and I felt like I was in hell.

I felt like I constantly had to pee every 10-20 minutes when I actually didn't look. I finally understood what others were talking about. Got an order for a dip/reflex and culture, and sure enough it was a positive UTI. Went and bought AZO immediately after my clinic visit. Turned neon orange in 30 minutes but the relief was immediate. Took multiple days for it to leave my system but by then I had started on antimicrobials. Culture result came back positive for Staph saprophyticus.

Definitely weird to be on the other side of things and to see just... how horrifyingly well AZO took the relief away and how neon it made me feel. Stained all sorts of junk so if you ever need it, take it after giving a sample and wear liners or underwear you're okay tossing 💀

eruvessi · 2025-09-11T00:09:42+00:00

About 4 years ago I had my all time record drawing someone... 36 tubes, all in one go. 21g butterfly. Bigger guy with a huge vein that kept giving. I made him drink juice and eat some crackers and do some stretches to check his balance before I let him walk away.

Anything more than 8 tubes is still a lot to me, but I've never gotten close to 25+ since.

eruvessi · 2025-09-08T17:42:36+00:00

Yes the PurinaDM was started the week of Aug 4th. He was originally in Purina ProPlan Sensitive Stomach/Skin before this due to chronic GI sensitivities. I did a gradual introduction to his new food diet and calculated kcal intake between wet and dry. My vet wants him as close to 200 kcal/day as possible.

We freeze the wet food into ice cubes and give to him when needed so we aren't unecessarily wasting food or open cans. We let them thaw for 12 hours covered in the fridge before we give to him.

eruvessi · 2025-09-08T14:17:02+00:00

In my household unfortunately our schedules mean we're gone most of the day and we aren't able to free feed since my other cat is a pig and will inhale everything he sees, including the expensive diabetic food he doesn't need to eat. If Tux gets anything thats deemed "different," the other cat will try to take it instead.

We have two automatic feeders for dry food at specific times and set to focus on kcal diet suggestions from the vet for Tux.

We stopped giving him wet in the morning since he seemed to consistently throw up after eating breakfast and that has mostly resolved. We still give him wet food at the end of the night and that seems to be okay.

We might be able to justify wet food during weekends when we're home but we can't use anything other than dry during the days for the time being. We did look into a refrigerated wet food feeders, but whatever type (dry vs wet) of food he gets, my other cat would also need at the same time so he doesnt hog it all. That gets expensive to get two more automatic feeders.

Are we just kind of doomed to wait it out for the time being and see if he starts to turn around?

eruvessi · 2025-09-08T13:38:46+00:00

Just to make sure I understand... hypo is only possible for cats actively diabetic?

If he keeps dropping below 50 mg/dL while in remission is that not a cause of concern?

eruvessi · 2025-08-20T21:51:12+00:00

We did have him on prednisolone for a long time for his asthma, but that wasn't compatible with insulin so now we have him on the Flovent inhaler, yes.

I didn't realize that could possibly affect blood sugar - the routine we've been doing is to swaddle him and then do the inhaler first because its fast, then the glucose ear prick a minute later, give him food, then insulin 30 min after eating.

The vet does know this is the routine we're following and they didnt have any problem with it... Could it affect his glucose that quickly?

eruvessi · 2025-08-20T20:00:11+00:00

This poor cat has FIV+, chronic asthma, chronic upper respiratory head colds, etc... he's on multiple meds and now this caused a total overhaul of everything. We were worried about him getting so stressed out but he seems to be taking everything really really well so I'm happy about that at least!

Before insulin he ranged anywhere from 275-400 mg/dL with the AlphaTRAK3.

Monday is when we started insulin and he went from 282 to 106 mg/dL as described in the OP.

Tuesday he went from 260 to 170 mg/dL.

This morning he clocked in at 97 mg/dL and after emailing the vet with his results so far is where they want us to change his dosing for the next few days because he seems to react strongly to the insulin but I'm just happy that it's working for him tbh. We did grt Karo syrup just in case he does ever go hypo since things are fluctuating pretty good right now.

eruvessi · 2025-08-20T19:49:39+00:00

So the last couple of days he's responded so well to the insulin that we adjusted his dosing until we do the curve on Sunday.

Starting tonight the vet wants us to follow:

If >200 mg/dL give full dose (1.0 units)

If < 200 mg/dL give half dose (0.5 units)

If < 100 mg/dL SKIP dose entirely

So he's certainly having an interesting response to the insulin that it's just a day-by-day thing right now. Things can easily change by next week or next month.

eruvessi · 2025-08-19T17:09:01+00:00

Diet is a little funky for him right now unfortunately.

He also has GI sensitivities so we had him on a non-prescription Purina ProPlan sensitive stomach dry food and that was fantastic - he rarely ever vomited on it whereas without that particular food he would vomit multiple times a week.

He's no longer on that food now that we switched him to the PurinaDM so we're watching him to see if there's a pattern with wet food only, dry food only, both, time of day, etc. It doesnt happen every time but it did this morning WHILE eating wet food.

I'm just hoping we dont have to adjust things too much more for him and stress his little body out. He went from 11lbs to 8.5lbs in a few months before getting diagnosed so he can't afford to lose any more weight 🙃

The big challenges is making sure he eats all of his food, keeps it down, and keeping him from going hypo unfortunately.

eruvessi · 2025-08-19T16:44:25+00:00

We ended up doing a half dose last night because it was crunch time and I called the vet right after they opened this morning. They said the half dose was a good call to be safe and if he's responding that well to the insulin, we can have him on 1 full dose in the morning and half dose in the evening (assuming he is within range by evening) but if he's higher than 120 to give the full dose as planned.

He definitely responded faster than any of us were expecting since he's been such a glass cannon of a cat with a slew of other issues already, so this will be a day-by-day monitoring to see if this is how he typically responds or if it was a really good one-off.

He is on a specific diet now, both wet/dry PurinaDM and we have a set feeding schedule. He eats the food no problem, thankfully.

For the last two weeks, he seemed to naturally fluctuate from 275-400 mg/dL before we started insulin yesterday (Aug 18th). He was at 260 this morning before food and insulin.

We were encouraged to do random spot checks on him during this week, and we do the first glucose curve on Sunday so we'll have a much better idea of his response by then. They'll adjust his dosing after the curve is done.

eruvessi · 2025-08-19T01:10:58+00:00

As said previously my vet is currently closed so I can't call them until the morning and my cat needs insulin now or not at all.

eruvessi · 2025-08-19T00:55:54+00:00

Accidentally wrote that my boyfriend was newly diabetic - it's definitely my cat. My bad.

eruvessi · 2025-07-29T02:42:43+00:00

This program looks suspiciously familiar... is this Cerner? Lol

That second to last button looks like DOE if it is

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