Injecting without testing?

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HelenR

HelenR

Member Since 2022
Hi all. So far, I've tested Footfoot before I inject insulin, and at various times in the day. I'll continue to do so; but I'm thinking ahead to when I have to ask someone else to cover for me. I have two possible events coming up, so I'd need someone to cover for me on the morning of Oct 1st and the evening of Oct 2nd.
The testing is much trickier than the injecting, and that's with me, Footfoot's most familiar human. I don't think my husband (who has spinal problems, and hand problems) could manage the testing, though I just *might* be able to train him to do the injections. (He would have to wait until she's finished eating, so he could lift her onto his lap to do it.)
My neighbour is a nurse, and he might be fine to do the injections if he's free, but the testing is another question.

I'm wondering how dangerous it would be for someone to administer the insulin injections without testing first? Assuming that the glucose curves are looking regular by then.
 
HelenR said:
Hi all. So far, I've tested Footfoot before I inject insulin, and at various times in the day. I'll continue to do so; but I'm thinking ahead to when I have to ask someone else to cover for me. I have two possible events coming up, so I'd need someone to cover for me on the morning of Oct 1st and the evening of Oct 2nd.
The testing is much trickier than the injecting, and that's with me, Footfoot's most familiar human. I don't think my husband (who has spinal problems, and hand problems) could manage the testing, though I just *might* be able to train him to do the injections. (He would have to wait until she's finished eating, so he could lift her onto his lap to do it.)
My neighbour is a nurse, and he might be fine to do the injections if he's free, but the testing is another question.

I'm wondering how dangerous it would be for someone to administer the insulin injections without testing first? Assuming that the glucose curves are looking regular by then.
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I am 2 months into my diabetic kitty Phoebe. I go OOT intermittently for 3-7 days at a time. The wonderful people who are teaching me about Phoebe's diabetes have given me great information.
they tell me to post 2 days before I leave, that I am leaving for # of days and that she will not get tested. She will just get her insulin. I ask they look at her SS and let me know the dose while I am gone.
they are great at responding. they are kind of all over the world so time lines are crossed and it takes a little bit to get responses.

In my case, I draw up the doses for the time I am gone. I have a lady who will give Phoebe her shots twice a day. There is no way I could teach her to draw up the insulin. Her hands shake to give the insulin, but she cares for all 8 of my cats.
I set up all the cat food for the time I am gone. I have rescue food with 14% carbs cans if Phoebe is acting weird, and I tell her just give her 1/4 can (which is a bit-but it will fixit and hold her)
do you know how to tag people?
I just learned.
 
As long as Footfoot's BGs are as high as presently shown in your SS, injecting w/o testing should be fine providing that Footfoot eats all of his food before injecting. Many caretakers here would reduce dose a little if the lowest BG was below 100 or so.
 
Thanks guys! I've been injecting Footfoot *while* she's eating, is that OK? She is absolutely ravenous at the moment and licks the plate clean, and I'm feeding her at 2 to 3 hr intervals!
She hasn't got anywhere near as low as 100 mm/dl (5.6 mmol/L) yet - if things are looking the same two weeks from now, we should be fine. I was thinking about drawing the shots up in advance, too; especially as she is now on 1.25U per shot, and the syringes don't have quarter-ml marks, only half-ml!
I'll do as you suggest, Eva, and check here a couple of days ahead, to check the dose will be OK.
 
HelenR said:
I was thinking about drawing the shots up in advance, too;
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That is OK with Prozinc. However, the prefilled syringes should be stored on their side and the insulin mixed the the syringe before injection, One way to mix is to roll the filled syringes between the palms of the hands a few times before injecting. Storing the prefilled syringe on the side makes it easier to mix that if stored upright.
 
Larry and Kitties said:
That is OK with Prozinc. However, the prefilled syringes should be stored on their side and the insulin mixed the the syringe before injection, One way to mix is to roll the filled syringes between the palms of the hands a few times before injecting. Storing the prefilled syringe on the side makes it easier to mix that if stored upright.
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Thanks for the info, Larry!
 
So, Saturday is approaching... when I have to leave the house early in the morning, and have my husband do the 10am insulin shot for Footfoot. He did his first shot this evening and is feeling quite confident about it.
Testing, though, I haven't trained him in yet, and I think he will find it challenging. So, as discussed earlier in the thread, he will have to shoot blind, without a test.
Are we OK to go ahead with the 1.5U she's been on since Sept 19th? Or should he give her a little less, like 1.25, to be on the safe side?
 
HelenR said:
So, Saturday is approaching... when I have to leave the house early in the morning, and have my husband do the 10am insulin shot for Footfoot. He did his first shot this evening and is feeling quite confident about it.
Testing, though, I haven't trained him in yet, and I think he will find it challenging. So, as discussed earlier in the thread, he will have to shoot blind, without a test.
Are we OK to go ahead with the 1.5U she's been on since Sept 19th? Or should he give her a little less, like 1.25, to be on the safe side?
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I am not well versed in the management I will tag others who are so much more smarter than I am
if you predraw the insulin up make sure he rolls the syringe in his fingers to mix the prozinc prior to giving the dose.


@Wendy&Neko
@Diane Tyler's Mom
@tiffmaxee
@Hendrick Cuddleclaw
 
I was under the impression you shouldn't pre-fill any type if insulin because the material the syringe is made of will alter the insulin. @JanetNJ can you confirm this? I'm not sure who else is a skilled Prozinc user atm.

Back to your original question, you could actually use a Libre meter if you felt it was necessary, though it might not be worth the cost for just a couple days' use.
 
Panic said:
I was under the impression you shouldn't pre-fill any type if insulin because the material the syringe is made of will alter the insulin. @JanetNJ can you confirm this? I'm not sure who else is a skilled Prozinc user atm.

Back to your original question, you could actually use a Libre meter if you felt it was necessary, though it might not be worth the cost for just a couple days' use.
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You are correct that prefilling is not the best but some have done it when their only option. As fur a Libre since it’s just two doses I would not get one. The option is to just skip a dose.
 
I wouldn't lower it. And going forward it's time for an increase. do 1.75. Hold it for 5 days or so. If you don't start seeing numbers dropping to under 120 we can reassess the dose. You don't want to hold an ineffective dose too long.
 
Thanks Janet.
Actually it's only one dose that I won't be able to do, I'll be back for the evening shot. So I'll have my husband give 1.5U on Saturday morning, and then on Sunday morning, I'll go up to 1.75.
 
*Reprieve!* I decided to cancel for the event I was going to tomorrow morning, for a few reasons. So, my husband doesn't have to do the shot in the morning, and also, I can raise the dose tomorrow morning instead of waiting till Sunday. The last few days she's been a bit off her food and her BG readings were much higher today - back into the reds, and some of her highest readings so far. Is that because I stopped at this dose too long?
She's been a bit off her food the last couple of days. Yesterday she suddenly seemed like she'd gone off the HiLife tuna/mackerel wet food. She threw up her (10pm) dinner, the one which accompanies her 2nd daily shot, so I had to give her some more at about 11.30pm. She didn't want to eat it till I sprinkled a little bit of chopped up Wainwright's salmon treats on the top. She was sick a few times in the past week - maybe she has now associated the HiLife with that? On 2 of those occasions I had experimented with giving her a larger portion, to see if she might leave a bit for later once she was full. Nope, she ate it all and then barfed it back up.
Yesterday she seemed, in spite of lost appetite, to be in great form; lots of zoomies and curiosity. Today she seems a bit low energy.
Of course, I just stocked up on HiLife tuna & mackerel. Doh. Tomorrow I'll have to find some other, non-fish options to try. Not so simple, due to her food allergies, but I think I'd better start varying the offerings.
Any thoughts on her BG readings and appetite?
 
I do have to keep training my husband, though; I have 2 full days of job briefings in mid-October, which will require me to be away for 2 nights. Eek.
 
HelenR said:
*Reprieve!* I decided to cancel for the event I was going to tomorrow morning, for a few reasons. So, my husband doesn't have to do the shot in the morning, and also, I can raise the dose tomorrow morning instead of waiting till Sunday. The last few days she's been a bit off her food and her BG readings were much higher today - back into the reds, and some of her highest readings so far. Is that because I stopped at this dose too long?
She's been a bit off her food the last couple of days. Yesterday she suddenly seemed like she'd gone off the HiLife tuna/mackerel wet food. She threw up her (10pm) dinner, the one which accompanies her 2nd daily shot, so I had to give her some more at about 11.30pm. She didn't want to eat it till I sprinkled a little bit of chopped up Wainwright's salmon treats on the top. She was sick a few times in the past week - maybe she has now associated the HiLife with that? On 2 of those occasions I had experimented with giving her a larger portion, to see if she might leave a bit for later once she was full. Nope, she ate it all and then barfed it back up.
Yesterday she seemed, in spite of lost appetite, to be in great form; lots of zoomies and curiosity. Today she seems a bit low energy.
Of course, I just stocked up on HiLife tuna & mackerel. Doh. Tomorrow I'll have to find some other, non-fish options to try. Not so simple, due to her food allergies, but I think I'd better start varying the offerings.
Any thoughts on her BG readings and appetite?
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@FrostD
 
My guess is, based on the +1 last night + vomiting, she dropped low/fast and then bounced. So today she's just high and flat from the bounce...it could last a few cycles.

How many times/days this week did she vomit? Twice? She probably does associate it with bring sick, but I'm more concerned with the vomiting itself. Does it seem like a "scarf and barf" sort.of thing?

Typically we try not to increase on a bounce breaking cycles as it gives extra downward momentum, but you have enough room to increase still. It's not always easy to tell when a bounce is going to break.
 
Thanks Melissa. Yes, it did seem like scarf n'barf - two of those times, she did it before she even finished eating. The third time I think it was probably immediately after eating, as it was by the food bowl. It was just those three times.
I did increase to 1.75 this morning. Fingers crossed. :)
 
Thanks Virginie! I hope there isn't going to be too much chaotic bouncing. Yesterday she was in the red every time I tested - though I didn't test as many times as usual, as I had 3 different appointments to take my husband to.
 
We are dealing with bouncing too - it’s frustrating, but nothing we can do but wait it out! Paws crossed that Footfoot has a good, safe day in the green today.
 
Did you by chance test again after that? That's a bigger drop than I'd usually expect form +4 to +6. When they break a bounce they often have later nadirs, so it's possible she might keep sliding down a bit from the 94.
 
> Did you by chance test again after that?
No, I meant to! But the afternoon ran away with me :-/ I'm a bit exhausted at the moment... starting a new job on Monday - it's all going on!
 
We've had 3 days in a row of beautiful blues on the BG chart! Hallelujah! What happens now, with the modified Prozinc method? Do I increase the dose again now? At what point are the numbers such that the increase stops happening?
Next week I'm going to be away for two days and two nights, so my husband will be doing the injections from Tuesday night to Thursday morning, but without testing; I haven't trained him to do that yet, and I'm not sure he'll ever be able to do it without trouble. (He has health problems including spinal issues and shaky hands). So, bearing in mind the couple of days without testing next week - raise, or no raise?

@Wendy&Neko
@Diane Tyler's Mom
@tiffmaxee
@Hendrick Cuddleclaw
 
Have a look at the directions. Looks to me like you hold the dose for 3-6 cycles. Tonight would be 6. You then could increase by .25 but see what Prozinc users say. Nice to see blue cycles.
 
Tuesday is plenty of time to see how she does with an increase. I would increase tomorrow. We can re-evaluate Monday to make sure it's a safe dose for while you're gone.
 
Also, it's a less extreme bounce than previously - a bit of pink, a bit of red, coming back down to a yellow. Her last bounce peak was mostly up in the reds.
 
How about starting a new thread? Just link this one. The subject no longer applies. It will also get more eyes on your condo.
 
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