1/22 Mikey PMPS 558 +2 310

Yesterday: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/1-21-mikey-pmps-498.131828/#post-1356860

What the heck, Mikey?

 

Slow down Mikey - no rush! He sure has his Olympic diving gear on tonight.

 

Okay Mikey, slow and steady!!! He sure has been consistent the past 3 nights, could it be that the flat yellows might signal a change?!

 

yikes this little guy loves to dive. hope a little food will slow him down!

 

Hey Mary,

Are you feeling better today? I went back and read through some of your previous posts and saw that you had been battling a bug. Don't you love being a teacher? I teach at the college level, so my students should be "cleaner" than 2nd graders. They still manage to get me sick at least once a semester, though.

Mikey is definitely all over the place in terms of the numbers, isn't he? I know how frustrating that is. We first started out on just .10 unit of Lantus. When we increased the dose and gave Jersey what I think was .25 units, she went from over 400 at AMPS all the way down to 33. We dropped the dose back to .10 unit and ended up not making any progress. Up we went to .25 units. That didn't work, either, so up we went to .50 units. We would get a cycle or two of good numbers every now and then, and then we would get days and days of high numbers. I can't tell you how many times I cried, cussed, and threw my hands up in the air. And then it seemed that something would always go wrong - my husband accidentally feeding Jersey the high-carb food when she wasn't low, not being able to accurately measure .10 versus .25 doses (despite magnifying lamps and counting drops), me having bad dental work and my husband taking over (which meant we didn't increase as quickly as we should have). And the guilt was overwhelming - I blamed myself for making Jersey diabetic, for not starting the right treatment sooner, and for not being able to get her numbers down. We had previously lost one of our cats to diabetes years ago while he was boarded at the vet's office; that guilt ate away at me, too., I didn't want to fail another kitty yet again.

And then I simply couldn't wrap my head around the fact that .25 units took her too low and then ended up not being enough for her. And I couldn't wrap my head around all of the endless days of bad numbers. I was so confused and frustrated and angry. People here kept telling me to be patient - that cats will bounce until they don't. Truth be told, I thought they were just lying to me to keep me from going off the deep end. I did not believe, at all, that my bouncy cat would just stop bouncing. I can't tell you how many times I felt completely helpless and hopeless. I was working so hard to help Jersey, and I wasn't seeing any progress. And then we hit the ideal dose. We made it up to 1 unit, and that's when things clicked with Jersey. We started seeing green. Jersey still bounced, but the bounces started to get shorter and shorter. And then Jersey all of the sudden started barreling down the dosing ladder. Even with skipped and reduced shots, I couldn't keep her above 50 anymore. Within 10 days, we took her down from 1 unit to OTJ (and just 4 days before going OTJ, she gave me a stinky pinky). I had wanted those greens so badly. When I finally got them, I was terrified.

I don't know if our story will help you in any way, but I want you to know that I can definitely, absolutely, completely, totally relate to what it's like to have a bouncy kitty. We were very blessed that Jersey went into remission, and I truly believe that, if it could happen for us, it can happen for Mikey. Don't give up faith. We are living proof of how quickly the tides can turn.



Shelly

 

Thank you so much for this, Shelly. You've perfectly described everything I'm feeling. It's very overwhelming. I've about giving up hope of Mikey ever getting regulated, forget about OTJ. You've given me hope.