Uncle Charlie's Updates

Suzanne & Darcy said:
But you didnā€™t shoot that day ā€” it was a skipped shot. So I think this is the lowest preshot that heā€™s ever received insulinā€¦ so all that is to say to watch him closelyā€” especially early in the cycle at 1.5 or at least +2 to see if heā€™s gone up or down or flat.
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Ohhhh, that's right. I'm watching him. šŸ‘€

** Edit: His +2 & 30 mins = 83.
 
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Emerie & Uncle Charlie said:
What is MC? Did you mean high carb? In that case, yes, I do. I have some FF gravy lovers, Karo, Lil gravies, and Nutri-cal. Full hypo kit. :)
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No. MC is medium carb food that is about 10-14/15 percent carb. A lot of the time you donā€™t even need HC. Save it for when itā€™s really needed. Of course you can always make a little MC by mixing some HC into some LC, but you probably donā€™t know exactly what amount of carbs youā€™re ending up with.
 
Anyway he is having a lovely cycle today. Small amount of LC will help him to surf in green without hopefully hijacking an otherwise nice cycle. And I would stop after +6 maybe sooner if heā€™s already flattening out which it looks like he is.
 
Your signature says you are following SLGS, but I can no longer remember if we had talked about switching to Modified Prozinc Method and if any decision had been made on that. There have been so many new people recently that I have talked to about it.
 
Well do you still want to do reductions at 90 and keep him in higher numbers or do you want to try to possibly go for remission and try to follow MPM. Right now following MPM would just mean holding at 3 units because he didnā€™t drop below 50.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Your signature says you are following SLGS, but I can no longer remember if we had talked about switching to Modified Prozinc Method and if any decision had been made on that. There have been so many new people recently that I have talked to about it.
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Yes, I bet it's overwhelming, so many new sugar babies! We are so lucky to have you. šŸ˜Œ

We hadn't talked at all about the MPM way. I've read about it, but to be honest it's all still a bit confusing to me. I don't really understand the difference in the cost/benefit between the two methods.

I am sure though that it makes me nervous trying to push him into remission too quickly, if that makes sense? So I think maybe I'll try just the reduction tonight first, to 2.75?
 
Emerie & Uncle Charlie said:
Yes, I bet it's overwhelming, so many new sugar babies! We are so lucky to have you. šŸ˜Œ

We hadn't talked at all about the MPM way. I've read about it, but to be honest it's all still a bit confusing to me. I don't really understand the difference in the cost/benefit between the two methods.

I am sure though that it makes me nervous trying to push him into remission too quickly, if that makes sense? So I think maybe I'll try just the reduction tonight first, to 2.75?
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Okay. 2.75 it is for tonight!
 
Well I understand about not wanting to push him. But green numbers where he was today are what we call the healing greens that give the pancreas a chance to heal. Most (but not all) cats who are going into remission will do so in the first several months after diagnosis. However, he has been doing so well lately with earning reductions that I am happy to reduce and see if he plans to earn even more reductions!
 
I was just recollecting that you use an Alpha Trak meter (I saw yesterday how expensive those strips are yesterday when Chewy.com seemed to think I should order them) but anyway we were talking about the Modified ProZinc Method and with the AT meter reductions are at 68 (not 50.)
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Oh, I see JL already mentioned this. I was just checking his SS for today to see how he was getting along and I remember your meter.
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Yes, he's doing well today, thanks for checking!

The strips are crazy expensive. I'm still waiting on his pet insurance to see if they will pay for some of it; he is only able to have accident insurance (due to his preexisting FIV), but there's a chance they may pay a portion, so they suggested I file a claim.

At least I can use one of the generic, less expensive lancets. That's helpful.
 
Emerie & Uncle Charlie said:
The strips are crazy expensive.
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Is there a reason you need to use the AlphaTrak? Most of us use a human meter and they are much more affordable.

The BG readings tend to run a bit lower on human meters but the reference ranges have been adjusted to accommodate that. Before companies started marketing pet meters, most clinics used a human meter to do curves and in-house spot checks. Some of the published studies used human meters as well. I used a human meter for years but had an AlphaTrak as a backup.

Just something to consider if you want to save some money.
 
Oh and I saw you shot 2.75u tonight on a 107 (AT reading). Iā€™m not surprised you saw a lime green. Are you doing ok getting and keeping the BG over 68? Youā€™ll want to monitor closely for awhile because insulin is still trying to drive the BG down even as youā€™re feeding med or high carb food to try to get the BG up. Unless you see a significant spike upward, itā€™s usually good idea to look for two hours of rising numbers with no food.

And I believe that would warrant a dose decease. @Suzanne & Darcy ?
 
Yes. Reduce Charlieā€™s dose to 2.5.

Also, if he is below 68 on your AT meter, please give some high carb food and test again in 20 minutes to make sure BG is rising. Then feed again. Test againā€¦. Etc. To keep him safe last night you need to keep testing at least until nadir and not stop because even if his numbers start to rise, that is no guarantee that they will stay up. They definitely can drop as you are app the peak action of the insulin.
 
JL and Chip said:
Is there a reason you need to use the AlphaTrak? Most of us use a human meter and they are much more affordable.

The BG readings tend to run a bit lower on human meters but the reference ranges have been adjusted to accommodate that. Before companies started marketing pet meters, most clinics used a human meter to do curves and in-house spot checks. Some of the published studies used human meters as well. I used a human meter for years but had an AlphaTrak as a backup.

Just something to consider if you want to save some money.
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Yes, I've considered it, but I'm comfortable with the Alpha Trax for now. I'm still new at this and don't want the added stress of trying to do a different something different. I can (mostly) afford it, I just don't like it. Medical costs are, in general, unreasonable in my opinion.
 
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JL and Chip said:
Oh and I saw you shot 2.75u tonight on a 107 (AT reading). Iā€™m not surprised you saw a lime green. Are you doing ok getting and keeping the BG over 68? Youā€™ll want to monitor closely for awhile because insulin is still trying to drive the BG down even as youā€™re feeding med or high carb food to try to get the BG up. Unless you see a significant spike upward, itā€™s usually good idea to look for two hours of rising numbers with no food.

And I believe that would warrant a dose decease. @Suzanne & Darcy ?
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Yes I'm doing OK with managing the low numbers with food to get it back up. This happened before the last dose reduction.
 
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Suzanne & Darcy said:
Yes. Reduce Charlieā€™s dose to 2.5.

Also, if he is below 68 on your AT meter, please give some high carb food and test again in 20 minutes to make sure BG is rising. Then feed again. Test againā€¦. Etc. To keep him safe last night you need to keep testing at least until nadir and not stop because even if his numbers start to rise, that is no guarantee that they will stay up. They definitely can drop as you are app the peak action of the insulin.
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OK I did reduce him to 2.5 this morning, his AMPS was 146. I'm not sure what his actual nadir is to be honest. Can you tell by looking at his chart?

I did mean to stay awake last night to test him again, I knew I needed to do that, but fell asleep. I thought I had set an alarm, but realized I didn't when I woke up this morning. I take medication that makes me sleep rather deeply. But I was aware I needed to test him further.
 
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Emerie & Uncle Charlie said:
OK I did reduce him to 2.5 this morning, his AMPS was 146. I'm not sure what his actual nadir is to be honest. Can you tell by looking at his chart?

I did mean to stay awake last night to test him again, I knew I needed to do that, but fell asleep. I thought I had set an alarm, but realized I didn't when I woke up this morning. I take medication that makes me sleep rather deeply. But I was aware I needed to test him further.
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It happens.
 
Emerie & Uncle Charlie said:
I'm not sure what his actual nadir is to be honest. Can you tell by looking at his chart?
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Some days he seems to nadir early at around +3 or +4. Although on quite a few of days we donā€™t have a +6 test so I canā€™t tell if he went down lower after that (just looking at the last couple of weeks during the daytime.) Unless we have a curve where you test every 2 hours, we canā€™t be sure. He is earning a lot of reductions. Itā€™s a bit hard on you (like last night) but itā€™s good!!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Some days he seems to nadir early at around +3 or +4. Although on quite a few of days we donā€™t have a +6 test so I canā€™t tell if he went down lower after that (just looking at the last couple of weeks during the daytime.) Unless we have a curve where you test every 2 hours, we canā€™t be sure. He is earning a lot of reductions. Itā€™s a bit hard on you (like last night) but itā€™s good!!
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When should I test, if I'm not doing an actual curve?

Also, right now at +3, he is reading at 70. I gave him an LC snack. Checking again in 1 hour.
 
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