5/21 Harry - AMPS=92, +3=59. Might need help steering.

[Ashley & Harry]

Happy numbers <3

Husband checked Harry this morning before shooting and leaving for work so I could sleep in and I checked him again as soon as I woke up. He's at 59, which is yay but still not my strongest number.

I also know that my dosing has been a bit weird, I posted a thread about it the other day... ultimately it's more important (to us) to keep Harry in safe numbers when we aren't home, and he's been doing well on the varied dosing. In the morning we've been giving him 1.75 and in the evenings we've been giving him 2, for the most part, except for some error on our side (aka my alarm not waking me up so we had to skip a dose).

He's looking good but I might need advice on keeping him in good ranges. Got plenty of test strips, lancets, dry food, raw food, wet food with gravy, and karo syrup available. Just going to keep an eye on him for now though.

 

[Nan & Amber (GA)]

Harry is looking good!

59 is a great number. If you give him a little low-carb snack now, it may help him to keep surfing in this range. I'm glad you'll be able to monitor today, it's a great chance to collect some data on how he behaves himself down here in these numbers .

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

If it were me, I'd give Harry a snack of LC food and retest in 30 min.

As for the dosing, you're basing your dosing on pre-shot values. This is not a particularly good approach with a depot-type of insulin like Lantus. The depot requires several cycles to stabilize after any change in dose. If you keep adjusting the dose, the depot never stabilizes. It's like you keep throwing rocks into a pond and expect that the surface with stay flat -- it won't; you'll keep getting ripples. When the depot isn't stable, you end up with wonky numbers.

If you're really nervous about the dose and don't feel like you have your feet underneath you with TR, you can always reduce the dose a bit. Harry's numbers may run a little higher but it will give you the confidence and the time to get used to TR. I used TR with Gabby for 6.5 years, was Gabby's sole caregiver, and I work full time. It's doable. You just have to get to know how your cat responds to Lantus.

 

[Dyana]

It's a little hard to give dosing advice when you have two different doses going. Right now, I am assuming his 59 is caused by the depot of the 2 units. I would feed him a LC snack and test again in about 30 minutes.

 

[Nan & Amber (GA)]

If you're really nervous about the dose and don't feel like you have your feet underneath you with TR, you can always reduce the dose a bit.

I like this idea... I didn't even want to attempt to interpret the spreadsheet with the different doses. If you can find a lower dose that you can shoot consistently, you're likely to get much more detailed feedback and advice here on Harry's progress.

 

[Ashley & Harry]

If you're really nervous about the dose and don't feel like you have your feet underneath you with TR, you can always reduce the dose a bit. Harry's numbers may run a little higher but it will give you the confidence and the time to get used to TR. I used TR with Gabby for 6.5 years, was Gabby's sole caregiver, and I work full time. It's doable. You just have to get to know how your cat responds to Lantus.

Okay. I just know that every time I've mentioned stuff like that, people say that he hasn't technically earned a reduction, and that stresses me out. I'll try dropping him to 1.75 again. I switched him off of Vetsulin a few weeks ago and it's a strange transition to go from basing it off of preshot numbers to not. I thought I had that back in check but it seems like I reverted to what I was used to early on. Thanks for the advice.

Gave him a snack and prepped a second one just in case, I'll test him again in 30 minutes.

 

[Nan & Amber (GA)]

Okay. I just know that every time I've mentioned stuff like that, people say that he hasn't technically earned a reduction, and that stresses me out.

It's always something, isn't it? Damned if you do, damned if you don't, but look at it this way: if you take an "unearned" reduction you'll hear about it maybe once or twice, but if you keep switching up doses morning and evening you'll hear about it every. single. time. you post .

 

[Ashley & Harry]

It's always something, isn't it? Damned if you do, damned if you don't, but look at it this way: if you take an "unearned" reduction you'll hear about it maybe once or twice, but if you keep switching up doses morning and evening you'll hear about it every. single. time. you post .

Fair enough!

He's at 69. Snack was given about 20 minutes ago, was mostly gravy from the friskies wet food. Little earlier than I planned on testing, but his numbers make me anxious sometimes.

I'll make sure my husband knows we are reducing to 1.75, and who knows! Maybe it'll turn out that that works for him.

Edit: Checked again at +3.75, he's at 79.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Keep an eye on the numbers. You may want to look over the Shooting & Handling Low Numbers sticky, It give you info on how to monitor/test/feed when you are running into lower numbers during the cycle.

If you are going to cut the dose back, remember to put a note in the "Comments" section of your spreadsheet. That way, hopefully people will see the not and not besiege you with questions about why you reduced. There's a difference between reducing when the numbers warrant a reduction vs getting numbers at pre-shot time you're too nervous to shoot. In the latter case, you want to find a dose where you can give the same amount of insulin twice a day. The strategy is a bit different.