Again, long post alert. Please read at leisure
I’m so glad I could help you in some small way. I just wish I had written to you sooner. I had a whole reply written out a few days back when Bhooma shared Shen’s SS with you as an example, but got occupied with a few cat things and now I can’t seem to find it. It was mostly to do with how I’ve changed feeding quantities and schedules for Shen since his insulin administration started. I stumbled quite a lot in the beginning, mostly because I was trying to apply my own stupid logic without really understanding how glargine and food react with each other
I have some of it typed out and will share it with you in a while so you can read it when you have a free, calm patch of time. As you might be able to tell, I suffer from oversharing
When I joined FDMB and made my intro post and received responses, it felt like a dam within me burst and I just had to word-vomit as much as I could
It sort of felt like therapy to me.
I kind of noticed that experienced members are more crisp with their responses (it’s actually great since when you’re in a pinch, you need brief, precise advice ) but that’s also because they do this day in and out and there’s so many sugar kitties on board here who need them too. With time, once you’ve settled down a bit more, those are the kind of responses you would come to appreciate even more.
I don’t know if this could be true, but we also start to mirror their practical (or emotional) approaches/responses. And after some time of being overwhelmed 24/7, being practical is better than being emotional for our own mental well-being
I honestly think it’s an art and a very smart way of calming newbies down, regardless of whether they do it knowingly or not
But because I was hungry for more assurances and data, like Wendy suggested, I would read the newcomer posts on the Main Health forum since they felt very relatable and I could feel like I was getting advised and comforted too. It also served as a recap on a lot of basics/beginner things. I would also go through a few SSs to see what I could possibly be in for. I didn’t want to delude myself into thinking we would get a remission outcome just because the diabetes was steroid-induced.
Obviously you don’t want to overload your brain too much with too much new info, so I just read a few threads at a time. Also a lot or most of the sugar kitties here have other stuff going on besides FD, so you don’t want to go down too many rabbit holes wondering if your kitty has / will have it too. You cross one hurdle at a time even if there’s always something.
Big disclaimer: I’m currently unemployed and taking care of Shen is my full-time job
There is no way I could have done whatever I’ve managed in the last couple of months had I been working in a 9-5 job. Somewhere down the line, I may switch to SLGS to make it work better once I resume working full-time.
I’m also have a tough time imagining how I’ll be able to manage Shen’s diabetes once I get back to work. For such times, I’ve noted what another FDMB member had to say (back in 2010) about sticking to a 12/12 schedule:
“It's important to keep in mind that some cats remain diabetic for years and trying to keep to a strict 12/12 schedule long term like that is going to be pretty much impossible. No matter how much you care about your cat (and we all do), you're allowed to have a life too. Your life doesn't stop the minute your cat is diagnosed with diabetes.”
Yep, especially if you’re managing it all on your own :’) I remember a friend’s mom, who knew about Shen’s situation, commented that I was doing a great job with him and I burst into tears, knowing that it was true that I have been doing a lot but still feeling strangely inadequate.
I think we all wish we had clones to help us out and who cared as much as we did about our kitties or that we had 12 more hours in a day.
I hope you can figure out what else is up with Jessi once you’ve settled into a more comfortable routine (comfortable for me means more rested, brain slightly less overworked).
My overactive imagination would go to work like nobody’s business. I’ve given myself a lot of unnecessary grief because I didn’t know where to stop.
You did the right thing and you’re in the right place
I was very nervous about TR because it says it’s an aggressive protocol compared to SLGS. I didn’t fully comprehend what that meant but just the word “aggressive” threw me off.
For me personally, after switching to TR, I didn’t have to do any
major ( I realize major is subjective) adjustments to what I had already been doing, apart from modifying the feeding frequencies and quantities once we realized a few things about Shen’s BG trends.
SLEEP: When I first started insulin, I slept for like 2-3 hours daily because I was afraid of hypos happening at night, even though his BG was in 300-400s. LOL. I actually started sleeping a few hours more once I switched to glargine.
Sleep is also subjective. I’ve been one of those kids who used to stay up all night on the night before an exam and that habit has followed me well into adulthood. So, while I’m perpetually tired and sore, I somehow manage. There’s also this thing called Revenge Procrastination because of which I don’t sleep even when I know Shen’s comfortable because now I want to do all those things which I couldn’t do during the day
Sometimes I take naps during the evening after the nadir till PMPS. I set hourly alarms, all the time.
It’s not a very sustainable habit, I know. Don’t be like me please.
LIFESTYLE: I don’t have a social life to speak of currently
I simply can’t imagine going out to chill unless I’m very sure someone’s looking after Shen while I’m gone. For a few months, I’ve also mentally not been in a place where I could interact socially/ with my friends with ease. It felt triggering to answer their questions about Shen, so I avoided doing that entirely.
More recently, since Shen’s BGs have been somewhat predictable, I’ve stepped out after his usual nadir and have been back by his PM shot times. There's also stuff like vacation dose, in case you need to be away from your kitty for a while. You could always seek inputs here to make temporary dosage adjustments in times of need.
I’ve still not learnt how to trust my family to take care of Shen and I have this weird feeling of not wanting to give them the responsibility of looking after Shen, in case something goes wrong then. It’s weird and I wish I could be more trusting and optimistic.
RISKS: To me, the risk has always been a hypo, regardless of which protocol I was following and regardless of where Shen’s BG lay, then and now. It took a few weeks to get used to the greens. I was told seeing greens is scary initially but they get addictive after a while of getting used to them. It is kind of true and once you see your kitty looking/acting better in lower BGs, you do feel that’s what you want more of too.
The downside is that you have to be on your toes all the time (
for some time) to bring their BG above 50, the few times it does happen. The plus side is that you get a dose reduction (T&C apply
)
Shen has always been a lazy, sleepy, grumpy, hungry cat. Whenever his BG has gone under 50, he has been sleeping like usual. Even if he came to me begging for food, I wouldn’t necessarily know it was because of a low BG. So in a way, I have less signs to go by, if I had to identify a hypo by symptoms alone.
So, if I feel paranoid for some reason, I just check his BG. If his BG is below 50, I do the hypo drill. If it’s between 60-70, I feed his LC snack. If it’s above a number I’m comfortable with now, I chill for some time before giving him his next snack. It all took some time and self-restraint to reach here.
Regardless of protocol type and time of the day, you could probably define such thresholds for yourself, now that you've seen all sorts of colors on Jessi's SS and how both she is and you are during those BGs.
Suzanne, Elise and Wendy have given great suggestions to you to decide if you want to try TR. You’ve to strike a balance between managing your own work/ lifestyle/ mental health and your kitty’s well-being. Some people have no choice but to opt for SLGS and keep their kitties in slightly higher numbers. Some people see higher numbers despite following TR.
Regardless of which protocol you opt for, everyone’s been there and no one’s judging. We all love our kitties too, too much
The sensor must feel like an asset and handicap both, so maybe you could put TR on hold till you feel like you could get the odd ear-poke test here and there, if at all. Or till you feel confident enough seeing and managing lower BGs (> 90) with food and want to move further down the greens.
I wish I could pass down some of my cat’s vibes to yours - he does not care about ear pokes and most of the time, I do them while he’s sleeping.
As I end this, I think the whole thing is about giving yourself more time to get used to the various aspects FD entails
It’s difficult in the beginning, but you’ll get there
. I took the opportunity to teach myself and my brat cat that testing was good for us both. 
Another one suggested different doses for the AM and PM shots. The 3rd one suggested that I shouldn’t give insulin if Shen’s BG was under 150 (which is actually not the worst advice out there, just conservative, I guess).
It's 11:09 pm here right now...