Nicole --
I'm sorry you're going through all of the stresses you've noted. I hope you're managing with all of the additional stress of coronavirus and keeping yourself safe.
When I open the link to your spreadsheet, the header is intact but lines 7 - 64 are blackened out. If you did this, I'm not sure why but if so, could you delete the blackened rows? You can always cut and paste the information for 2020 from the 2019 page. The spreadsheet is also not scrolling properly. I'm tagging
@Marje and Gracie who's our spreadsheet guru to take a look. If you didn't download the spreadsheet from our instructions, it may be a copy of our template that another group hijacked and it has formatting problems.
The spreadsheet also has a tab for lab values. It's impossible to read the pages you have pasted above. (Or it's impossible for me.) It would be much more helpful if you included the values (and please make sure the normal range values are correct for your print outs) on the spreadsheet. It's a handy way to keep everything in one place.
In looking over Mittens' spreadsheet, the numbers are not bad at all. You've been doing a good job! In case your vet didn't mention it, Lantus likes consistency. It's important to try to shoot as close to every 12 hours as possible. You have a max of about 30 minutes of wiggle room before you need to think about how to get your shot time back on schedule. With Lantus, a late shot acts like a dose reduction whereas an early shot acts like a dose increase. This is due to Lantus being a depot-type of insulin.
It looks to me like you're seeing nadirs in the 300 those times that numbers have dropped relatively low.. This is a normal response and we refer to the process when numbers drop and then zoom back up as a "bounce." Mitten's liver and pancreas panic because your kitty hasn't been spending all that much time in a normal blood glucose (BG) range and as a result, her liver and pancreas release a stored form of glucose and counterregulatory hormones that cause the spike in numbers. It can take several days for the bounce to clear.
You may want to take a look at the sticky notes at the top of the
Lantus Insulin Support Group (ISG). The sticky notes contain admittedly an overwhelming amount of information. However, the information will help you to better understand how Lantus works and you will have options with respect to how to manage Mittens' dosing.
You didn't mention what you're feeding your kitty. We strongly encourage members to switch their cats to a low carb, canned or raw food diet. If your vet suggested prescription food, it's not necessary (and it's expensive). Fancy Feast pate style foods are typically low carb and much more affordable. This is a link to a
chart that contains the nutritional values for most varieties of canned foods in the US. You want to choose foods that are less than 10% carb. Most people here feed their cats around 5% carb.
We can also direct you to a Canadian pharmacy the most Lantus users purchase their insulin from. The cost is a fraction of what we pay in the US.
One last link. This is a post on
how you can help us help you. In particular, there is information to include in your signature toward the end of the post. You signature gives us a snapshot of important information.
Please let us know if you have questions. We love questions!
