Subcutaneous fluid injections for Pandora-blob

Our oldest kitty, Pandora, is 17 now and has a wide assortment of medical problems. She's taken to whizzing all over the place in one of the rooms in our basement. Thank goodness the room has concrete flooring so it's easy to clean. My hubby has been on mop duty to clean it up.  Earlier this week I took her to the vet to make sure nothing more is wrong. The vet called yesterday with the results. Her thyroid numbers are a little high and her kidney disease is a little worse. The vet wanted me to start giving her fluids under her skin for her kidneys so she won't get dehydrated. She also changed Pandy's meds up a little.

I was very nervous when I went to learn how to do it. We had a kitty, Tabasco, pass away a year and a half ago and the vets had talked to me about doing the the same procedure on him. He had kidney disease as well. I was never able to do it though because he took a turn for the worse. So, I have some negative associations with injecting the fluids. I cried before taking her because I cannot imagine her not being here. I have been very lucky and have only had to deal with death a few times in my life. So the whole thing scares me something awful. I have had Pandora since 1995. I've had her longer than I've known my husband! I'm one of those people who treats her cats like kids. 

So I nervously went to the vet today to learn how to do it. Luckily Pandy has had the same vet techs for about 6 years. She acts very comfortable around them. One of them even cat-sits for us if we go out of town. They laid a towel for her to sit on. It took two of us to get her out of the carrier. Once we got her out, she did not seem uncomfortable at all. She has a big iv bag like they give people. They showed me how to clamp the line so it wouldn't squirt everywhere. I have to be careful not to inject her with air.  I just clean the needle, pinch her shoulder skin--making it kind of like a tent, and insert the needle. Then my hubby will squeeze the bag to get the fluid running. She gets one notch of the iv bag a day. The whole process takes about 3 min! She did great! At one point, I didn't hold her needle so it fell out and squirted everywhere. She did not seem to mind the process at all! I was glad the whole thing sounded scarier that it actually was. It's funny feeling the fluid blob in her shoulder. So maybe it won't be so bad after all!