Last night PS, +13.5 from a shot of .5U, 151, .5U
AMPS, +11, 106, .5U, 25mg Clindamycin
+4, 76 <----a special spot check to celebrate our arrival in Lantus Land
I am going to start a daily condo for Ennis, a 17YO insulin-dependent diabetic using Levemir. Sometimes, I feel like I am one of those people termed "an outsider" because I don't do a condo for my boy in the Lantus forum. So I will start.
It's going to be a very boring condo because Ennis stays under the renal threshhold just about all the time. But it also might be somewhat controversial because I hardly ever do mid-cycle spot checks, I shoot PRN, anywhere from +10 to +15 to +24, depending on when I remember to do it. Ennis's BG is very forgiving.
Ennis has been seriously insulin-dependent since July 2006. Almost 4 years. He started on BCP PZI and was well regulated for a couple of months, but after a while the PZI just stopped working with him. I tried two new vials of PZI, higher insulin dosages, R boosters, testing for infections--nothing yielded improvement. I switched Ennis to Levemir in December 2006 and have been using it since.
Ennis has a trash mouth. Severe oral disease. Because the vet does not want to do a dental more frequently than annually, Ennis gets a course of Clindamycin about every four months. He is due for that treatment now because his BG numbers are starting to get higher and his duration is starting to get shorter in the last week or so. Ennis had his last dental in January, and that may be his last dental ever. He had alot of trouble coming out of the anesthesia, and I could not get him to accept the oral pain meds and antibiotics. He had to stay 3 days in the dog crate (Shady Pines) until he could walk without wobbling.
Other than his diabetes and his mouth, Ennis is extremely healthy. Stefani, who occasionally cat-sits him, says that he has the best bloodwork she has ever seen for a cat his age. (I can't really read blood work without a cheat sheet from the Internet.) He hasn't had a urinalysis for a couple of years because there's never anything in his bladder. (I should have had the vet do a cystocentesis when Ennis was there all day for his dental.) However, his bloodwork does not indicate any sort of renal problems.
When Ennis flirts with remission, I tend to take him to the vet for a cancer evaluation. That usually involves a physical exam and X-rays. Ennis also sees the vet for a checkup every 6 months, although sometimes it stretches to maybe 8 months. When Ennis was in for his last dental he had a heart ultrasound as a pre-anesthesia procedure. His heart was perfect. I also have his blood pressure taken at each checkup. Perfect.
Ennis is very inactive and is starting to get fragile. He lives for food, and actively seeks me out and paws my face when he's hungry. I open a can of FF maybe every 3 hours during the day and every 4 hours during the night for him and the other 2 kitties to munch on. Ennis eats maybe 4-5 cans of FF a day. Ennis has always eaten wet food. He is not a dry-food (or steroid) induced diabetic. He just is a diabetic. His brother Max was also diabetic, although Max was a dry food eater. I feel there is something genetic going on.
Ennis was a big cat--a longfellow--getting up at one point to a little over 18 pounds. He's shrinking some with his advanced age, he's down to about 16 pounds. He doesn't groom himself well anymore, but he's very good with the brush and comb. Alot of hair comes off every time I use them. He doesn't really tolerate the furminator.
Ennis came up in a group of four cats, but he is the last cat standing from his group. He now lives with two other cats, Casey (a male) who has been here about 1.5 years and Nellie who has been here just shy of one year. It took just a little amount of time, and some maturity on the part of the kittens, before Ennis trained the two new ones to give him appropriate personal space. But he will sometimes lay with Casey, and I have seen Nellie grooming Ennis's head. All in all, Ennis is a very laid back cat.
I can test him anytime without problems. He gets his shot in the side and never minds it. Right now he is on .25 to .5U of Levemir, depending on how long I would like his cycle to last. I have no desire for him to attain remission. His treatment is easy, not at all stressful for either of us, so we don't mind him just being a well regulated cat.
His preshot number last night around midnight was 151. That PS was at +13.5 from a shot of .5U. His 14 and 30 day averages on his OTU meter are both 119. A week ago, he would have gone 24 hours on that dose and ended up with a PS in the 100-120 range. That's how I know he's ready for a course of Clindamycin.
I will work on setting up a spreadsheet for Ennis. I haven't been a "logger" for a long while.
Now about me. I have been on the FDMB for almost 5 years. My first diabetic cat was Maxwell, DX in July 2005. With BCP PZI, and removing dry food about 3 months into treatment (I had been using Evo and Max was getting fat), Max went into remission within a month. It was a very interesting ride down in dose when I took Max's dry food away. He died 15 months later from pancreatic origin cancer, a huge, invasive tumor. Between the time of Max's remission and his cancer diagnosis I had the vet run an fPLI test, which came back higher than anyone on the Board had ever seen. Maybe that should have been my clue that it was not endogenous insulin that was controlling his blood sugars, but cancer. I'm smarter about that now.
I will be 58 in August. I am (or was) a Certified Public Account with a degree in journalism, had experience as an auditor and then a project manager for an accounting research organization, and had been working for about seven years running my own business primarily writing publications about governmental accounting and auditing for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. I received a stage 3A breast cancer diagnosis, invasive lobular carcinoma (which is very aggressive) early in 2006. I was treated to about 7 surgeries, including a double mastectomy, dose dense chemotherapy, and scarring radiation for the rest of that year. After finishing the chemotherapy, I was started on estrogen-suppressant medication, which I will continue for 6 more years. I had two more breast surgeries in 2008.
I want to thank everyone who supported me during that very difficult treatment and my husband's concurrent end-stage liver failure. You all did so much to hold me up. BTW, even though DH was on a DNR order in the ICU and then in hospice, he is now well with no evidence of disease, although at high risk for liver cancer.
My treatment led to medication- and surgery induced physical and cognitive disabilities. I am on Social Security disability because of it. Can you believe that at my Social Security arranged cognitive evaluation, I didn't know who the president before Bush 2 was? I have short-term memory loss, although I try to use various tricks to compensate for it. I am improving somewhat. I noticed this year while doing my taxes I could remember three digits when taking numbers from here to there. Last year, I could only retain 2 digits for the few seconds it took to take a number from here to there.
Most of my time is now spent on Diabetic Cats in Need. There's a link in my signature. If you don't know about DCIN, it's a project I run as an affiliate of Maureen's 501c3 (not-for-profit) Our Lady of Mercy's Catnip Cottage. DCIN is an Internet rescue for unwanted diabetic cats. I use this Board, the Diabetic Cat Care (DCC) Board, and various Yahoo groups to try to find these cats homes. Every DCIN-sponsored cat, it seems, is a different situation. There have been times DCIN has "snatched" a cat from certain death, and those are very rewarding experiences.
I have been trying to build the side of the project dealing with keeping diabetic cats in their original homes. DCIN's first success (to the best of my memory) on that side of the project was Mindy and Max. DCIN and its contributors and others on the Board offered Mindy financial and emotional support. She became a very active member of the Lantus community and this forum just had an OTJ party for Max on Monday. Congratulations again Mindy.
I have asked for help with the project as it is growing really fast, and Marvie and Tugger, Larry and Kitties, and Eva M (from DCC) have been the first to offer ongoing help. Many many others have offered help on single projects, like developing this flyer about DCIN, FDMB, and DCC that can be posted in vet clinics and pet stores to help get the word out that there is help for people with diabetic cats. There are still tasks looking for volunteers.
I want to thank everyone here who supports DCIN by adopting or fostering unwanted diabetic cats, by contributing cash or supplies to help treat sponsored cats, and by well wishes and prayers for the cats. It is really rewarding when DCIN hits a funding target, as it did just yesterday so that Jacob, a diet controlled diabetic that is FIV+, could have a cardio evaluation. Or when DCIN finds a foster or adoptive home for a diabetic cat, as it also did yesterday with Tawny (she's going to a foster home today and is available for adoption).
Well, that's enough of an introduction. Future condos for Fu Manchu Ennis, the King, will be very brief. Thanks for reading.
AMPS, +11, 106, .5U, 25mg Clindamycin
+4, 76 <----a special spot check to celebrate our arrival in Lantus Land
I am going to start a daily condo for Ennis, a 17YO insulin-dependent diabetic using Levemir. Sometimes, I feel like I am one of those people termed "an outsider" because I don't do a condo for my boy in the Lantus forum. So I will start.
It's going to be a very boring condo because Ennis stays under the renal threshhold just about all the time. But it also might be somewhat controversial because I hardly ever do mid-cycle spot checks, I shoot PRN, anywhere from +10 to +15 to +24, depending on when I remember to do it. Ennis's BG is very forgiving.
Ennis has been seriously insulin-dependent since July 2006. Almost 4 years. He started on BCP PZI and was well regulated for a couple of months, but after a while the PZI just stopped working with him. I tried two new vials of PZI, higher insulin dosages, R boosters, testing for infections--nothing yielded improvement. I switched Ennis to Levemir in December 2006 and have been using it since.
Ennis has a trash mouth. Severe oral disease. Because the vet does not want to do a dental more frequently than annually, Ennis gets a course of Clindamycin about every four months. He is due for that treatment now because his BG numbers are starting to get higher and his duration is starting to get shorter in the last week or so. Ennis had his last dental in January, and that may be his last dental ever. He had alot of trouble coming out of the anesthesia, and I could not get him to accept the oral pain meds and antibiotics. He had to stay 3 days in the dog crate (Shady Pines) until he could walk without wobbling.
Other than his diabetes and his mouth, Ennis is extremely healthy. Stefani, who occasionally cat-sits him, says that he has the best bloodwork she has ever seen for a cat his age. (I can't really read blood work without a cheat sheet from the Internet.) He hasn't had a urinalysis for a couple of years because there's never anything in his bladder. (I should have had the vet do a cystocentesis when Ennis was there all day for his dental.) However, his bloodwork does not indicate any sort of renal problems.
When Ennis flirts with remission, I tend to take him to the vet for a cancer evaluation. That usually involves a physical exam and X-rays. Ennis also sees the vet for a checkup every 6 months, although sometimes it stretches to maybe 8 months. When Ennis was in for his last dental he had a heart ultrasound as a pre-anesthesia procedure. His heart was perfect. I also have his blood pressure taken at each checkup. Perfect.
Ennis is very inactive and is starting to get fragile. He lives for food, and actively seeks me out and paws my face when he's hungry. I open a can of FF maybe every 3 hours during the day and every 4 hours during the night for him and the other 2 kitties to munch on. Ennis eats maybe 4-5 cans of FF a day. Ennis has always eaten wet food. He is not a dry-food (or steroid) induced diabetic. He just is a diabetic. His brother Max was also diabetic, although Max was a dry food eater. I feel there is something genetic going on.
Ennis was a big cat--a longfellow--getting up at one point to a little over 18 pounds. He's shrinking some with his advanced age, he's down to about 16 pounds. He doesn't groom himself well anymore, but he's very good with the brush and comb. Alot of hair comes off every time I use them. He doesn't really tolerate the furminator.
Ennis came up in a group of four cats, but he is the last cat standing from his group. He now lives with two other cats, Casey (a male) who has been here about 1.5 years and Nellie who has been here just shy of one year. It took just a little amount of time, and some maturity on the part of the kittens, before Ennis trained the two new ones to give him appropriate personal space. But he will sometimes lay with Casey, and I have seen Nellie grooming Ennis's head. All in all, Ennis is a very laid back cat.
I can test him anytime without problems. He gets his shot in the side and never minds it. Right now he is on .25 to .5U of Levemir, depending on how long I would like his cycle to last. I have no desire for him to attain remission. His treatment is easy, not at all stressful for either of us, so we don't mind him just being a well regulated cat.
His preshot number last night around midnight was 151. That PS was at +13.5 from a shot of .5U. His 14 and 30 day averages on his OTU meter are both 119. A week ago, he would have gone 24 hours on that dose and ended up with a PS in the 100-120 range. That's how I know he's ready for a course of Clindamycin.
I will work on setting up a spreadsheet for Ennis. I haven't been a "logger" for a long while.
Now about me. I have been on the FDMB for almost 5 years. My first diabetic cat was Maxwell, DX in July 2005. With BCP PZI, and removing dry food about 3 months into treatment (I had been using Evo and Max was getting fat), Max went into remission within a month. It was a very interesting ride down in dose when I took Max's dry food away. He died 15 months later from pancreatic origin cancer, a huge, invasive tumor. Between the time of Max's remission and his cancer diagnosis I had the vet run an fPLI test, which came back higher than anyone on the Board had ever seen. Maybe that should have been my clue that it was not endogenous insulin that was controlling his blood sugars, but cancer. I'm smarter about that now.
I will be 58 in August. I am (or was) a Certified Public Account with a degree in journalism, had experience as an auditor and then a project manager for an accounting research organization, and had been working for about seven years running my own business primarily writing publications about governmental accounting and auditing for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. I received a stage 3A breast cancer diagnosis, invasive lobular carcinoma (which is very aggressive) early in 2006. I was treated to about 7 surgeries, including a double mastectomy, dose dense chemotherapy, and scarring radiation for the rest of that year. After finishing the chemotherapy, I was started on estrogen-suppressant medication, which I will continue for 6 more years. I had two more breast surgeries in 2008.
I want to thank everyone who supported me during that very difficult treatment and my husband's concurrent end-stage liver failure. You all did so much to hold me up. BTW, even though DH was on a DNR order in the ICU and then in hospice, he is now well with no evidence of disease, although at high risk for liver cancer.
My treatment led to medication- and surgery induced physical and cognitive disabilities. I am on Social Security disability because of it. Can you believe that at my Social Security arranged cognitive evaluation, I didn't know who the president before Bush 2 was? I have short-term memory loss, although I try to use various tricks to compensate for it. I am improving somewhat. I noticed this year while doing my taxes I could remember three digits when taking numbers from here to there. Last year, I could only retain 2 digits for the few seconds it took to take a number from here to there.
Most of my time is now spent on Diabetic Cats in Need. There's a link in my signature. If you don't know about DCIN, it's a project I run as an affiliate of Maureen's 501c3 (not-for-profit) Our Lady of Mercy's Catnip Cottage. DCIN is an Internet rescue for unwanted diabetic cats. I use this Board, the Diabetic Cat Care (DCC) Board, and various Yahoo groups to try to find these cats homes. Every DCIN-sponsored cat, it seems, is a different situation. There have been times DCIN has "snatched" a cat from certain death, and those are very rewarding experiences.
I have been trying to build the side of the project dealing with keeping diabetic cats in their original homes. DCIN's first success (to the best of my memory) on that side of the project was Mindy and Max. DCIN and its contributors and others on the Board offered Mindy financial and emotional support. She became a very active member of the Lantus community and this forum just had an OTJ party for Max on Monday. Congratulations again Mindy.
I have asked for help with the project as it is growing really fast, and Marvie and Tugger, Larry and Kitties, and Eva M (from DCC) have been the first to offer ongoing help. Many many others have offered help on single projects, like developing this flyer about DCIN, FDMB, and DCC that can be posted in vet clinics and pet stores to help get the word out that there is help for people with diabetic cats. There are still tasks looking for volunteers.
I want to thank everyone here who supports DCIN by adopting or fostering unwanted diabetic cats, by contributing cash or supplies to help treat sponsored cats, and by well wishes and prayers for the cats. It is really rewarding when DCIN hits a funding target, as it did just yesterday so that Jacob, a diet controlled diabetic that is FIV+, could have a cardio evaluation. Or when DCIN finds a foster or adoptive home for a diabetic cat, as it also did yesterday with Tawny (she's going to a foster home today and is available for adoption).
Well, that's enough of an introduction. Future condos for Fu Manchu Ennis, the King, will be very brief. Thanks for reading.
