Nico, finally some (short-lived, I’m sure..) decent numbers

Looking over his spreadsheet I think we are tracing a similar trajectory to 2/28 with a huge high(s) the previous day then yellow then longgggg recurrent string in Pinkalicious Prison.. like 5 cycles worth possibly.. :nailbiting::nailbiting::nailbiting::nailbiting:
 
There's 300 doses in my Lev pen, it must be the same for Lantus, and Nico is on a tiny dose and would probably start even lower. I always draw way too much up, and therefore a lot of waste, so mine lasted a bit more than a month. But Mauer is double Nico in dose, so one pen will last you a nice 3-4 months?
I'm terrible at math, and it's 4 in the morning so I'm probably wrong... I usually is :oops::D:D:D:D
But nice with the pen! Good catch :bighug:
 
Confirming that there are 300 units in a Lantus pen.
You still use the insulin needles to withdraw the insulin from the pen, just like you would with a vial. There is a little rubber stopper at the end of the pen.

BUT you need to use different insulin syringes.

Lantus is a U100 insulin, and it's dangerous/difficult to use U40 syringes with the U100 insulins. Because it's so difficult to measure those really tiny doses to begin with, and the wrong size syringes make it even harder to measure accurately.

So the recommendation is to use the U100 syringes with a U100 concentration insulin.

Nico, please get out of those pinks. Pink is really not your best color.

If you could record your feeding times in the + hour format, that would make more sense to us. We live in all different time zones, and 3 pm my time is likely to be really different from 3 pm your time. We also give our cats insulin at all different times during the day. So one person may dose at 5 am/5 pm and someone else might dose at 9 am/9 pm. So the + hour time format is what we have come up with to, so the times make sense to everyone.

Em, I hope things are going better for you these days.
 
@Deb & Wink @Shelley & Jess @SashaV Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA this week (and last week), or sporadic to say the least. Dealing with some new life challenges and some crazy awful side effects to a new medicine I was started on. Anyway, I’ll try to at least pop on once a day to catch everyone up if I can. Nico has been a bit all over the place lately, which could be my own stress transferring onto him or a missed low nadirs or two, or really anything (or nothing!) at all. I did want to ask one question for the next time you guys have a spare moment: we have been doing a 4 hour pre-test fast, both cycles, to see if food alone would alter his numbers at all. It’s been almost 8 cycles now, and I’ve come to the conclusion, “I don’t think so.” That is probably long enough to know one way or the other, right? I sorta promised him this would be the last one— plus the extra, uninterrupted sleep would be nice, I’m not gonna lie. :) Thoughts? Experiences? Patterns you see that maybe I don’t?

Happy Wednesday from a very relaxed and “blissed out” Nico. :cat:
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Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA this week (and last week), or sporadic to say the least. Dealing with some new life challenges and some crazy awful side effects to a new medicine I was started on.
No worries. Life gets busy and throws us curve balls all the time, so we have to make adjustments to what we are doing.
Sure do hope you are doing a bit better these days.
Please, take good care of yourself and catch up on your sleep.
We'll all be shorted on sleep this weekend, as the clocks change ahead this weekend.

f I can. Nico has been a bit all over the place lately, which could be my own stress transferring onto him or a missed low nadirs or two, or really anything (or nothing!) at all. I did want to ask one question for the next time you guys have a spare moment: we have been doing a 4 hour pre-test fast, both cycles, to see if food alone would alter his numbers at all. It’s been almost 8 cycles now, and I’ve come to the conclusion, “I don’t think so.” That is probably long enough to know one way or the other, right?
Yes, that should be plenty of time to see if your "Experiment" was having an impact.

Food and insulin work hand in hand, to manage the BG levels. They are not in lockstep though, and show their impacts at different times during the cycle. So you might see a "food bump" in the BG cycle anywhere in the first hour or two. Prozinc onsets or starts to work about 2 hours after the injection. So it's more normal to see the BG levels start to come down around +3 to +4. Food is digested over a period of time, not all at once. Think of how slow your own digestive system is.

Although it's good to not feed your cat much at all in the last half of the cycle, you might not see a big impact on the BG numbers from withholding the food. The reason is that the INSULIN is normally used up by that time, and what you are seeing is the natural rise later in the cycle because there is no more insulin to counteract any glucose that is in the bloodstream, as the food continues to be digested.

No more insulin to counteract the food, the BG levels go up.

There aren't many tests in that +8 to +11 time frame, so very difficult to say if the lack of food during that time is having any impact.
Remember, it's the intersection of the food being digested and hitting the bloodstream in conjunction with the insulin working that makes the difference.
 
@Emily Tuomey

Too many low BG’s lately. You need to reduce the dose more for Nico.

A bit worried with all those under 50 BG numbers you are getting.

Please lower the dose Em. Please, no more than 1U for Nico. Those neon green BG’s are the danger zone. Past time to lower the dose, even using the MPM dosing protocol.
 
@Emily Tuomey
Please lower the dose Em. Please, no more than 1U for Nico. Those neon green BG’s are the danger zone. Past time to lower the dose, even using the MPM dosing protocol.

YES. He is going down to 1.0u in just a few minutes. I have a watchful eye on him; he’s been full of *surprises* lately.. I don’t know where all the neon green is coming from all of a sudden. Thank you for looking out for him/us!
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I’ll be back with a pmps shortly ;)
 

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When shooting low like that, please get a +1 and +2 :oops:
Even when you're shooting yellow or pink, get some more mid cycle tests in..
 
He has been in the 50s the majority of the day (+6 50, +8 58), so I’m planning on a 0.75u dose this evening. He’s already had 0.90u, so it’s the next step, Hopefully he stays a little higher with that reduction. :confused: I do have a question though: Nico is still within his “healthy” weight range set by his vet, but he’s nearing the heaviest end and I fear with all this gravy/carb-laden food he will go above where he should be. How can I keep him healthy for both his blood glucose levels and his weight?? Anyone feel free to weigh in here...
 
No pun intended!?!

Fewer treats?
:joyful: Pun totally intended!! He doesn’t get treats except when he’s poked, but yes I reduced him to minimal after I weighed him. I’ll just see how it goes. I’m sure he will be fine, he’s never been an overweight or obese cat so odds are it’ll even out. Happy to see him under 1.0u!! :D:D:D
 
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