01/05 Brian AMPS 95. Just wanting some feedback on recent numbers

[Nate2021]

I might get in trouble here, I've slept in a few times... And reduced Brian down quite quickly (just went with my instinct on that one, he was more energetic when his numbers were higher).

Just wanting to know if I should be considering fatting the dose because of the scattered blues? Or just stay where I am? I also can't see anything on the tr protocol other than only reducing when going lime green, but on one of the pdf studies attached to the protocol it says reduction can be attempted based on clinical signs if nadir is between 54-72 and preshot 198-252... I ask this because Brian seems to be much more active when his nadirs are in the 70s vs 60s

Thanks! Hope everyone and their kitty's are well!

 

[tiffmaxee]

The ss is amazingly good even though you reduced without earned reductions. Stick with 1.0. If it’s all green with an occasional test between 100-110 you can reduce with TR as well as if there’s a drop under 50. Today would be day 5 of mostly greens.

 

[Nate2021]

The ss is amazingly good even though you reduced without earned reductions. Stick with 1.0. If it’s all green with an occasional test between 100-110 you can reduce with TR as well as if there’s a drop under 50. Today would be day 5 of mostly greens.

Awesome thanks! I definitely wanted to atleast get all greens and a full 7-10 days before making any other changes, just wasn't too sure where to go in terms of fine tuning it. And yeah.. really took a leap reducing down like that and was on the edge of my seat about it, but he kept holding nicely thankfully. (honestly I was getting slept deprived and wanted him in the 70s so I can relax a bit. (anyone new reading this dont copy me)

 

[JaxBenji]

Yay, so great to hear Brian is doing wonderful taking care of the caregiver is part of the sugar dance too

 

[Dyana]

I check on Brian often, because you are so new, and I wish you would post more.. if nothing else but to inspire others with his great spreadsheet. We like good news.
I think team Brian is doing a good job.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

I love how quickly Brian's spreadsheet changed to wonderful numbers. Here's a summary of Reminder: *earning* reductions and starting OTJ trials

 

[Nate2021]

I check on Brian often, because you are so new, and I wish you would post more.. if nothing else but to inspire others with his great spreadsheet. We like good news.
I think team Brian is doing a good job.

Oh! Thank you I will post more for sure in the case, thought you'd all be relieved to not have my daily questions haha

 

[Nate2021]

I love how quickly Brian's spreadsheet changed to wonderful numbers. Here's a summary of Reminder: *earning* reductions and starting OTJ trials

Yeah! I think the spreadsheet looks nice because it happened fast! Thanks for this link!

 

[Nate2021]

Yay, so great to hear Brian is doing wonderful taking care of the caregiver is part of the sugar dance too

Aw thank you for saying that, felt a bit guilty about it. Thank you !

 

[Dyana]

Hi Nate,
I hope you don't think I'm spying on you , but I am watching out for you and Brian.
I see on your spreadsheet, that yesterday he got a 50. When I had a test that was so close to 40s, I would test again in 30 minutes (and if he was dropping fast, I would test again in 20 minutes or less), but you know your cat and he is pretty steady.

By the remarks in your spreadsheet it says you found that the current dose had the plunger nearly under the line. Does that mean it looked more like a f1.00 or s1.00? Usually, as you know, we recommend changing the dose in 0.25 increments. I would just stick with what you started f0.50 this evening, and see how it goes, and I wish you good luck. I think you'll be fine. You're doing a great job!

Just so you know, I also see in your remarks that you are not using the calipers anymore. The syringes are mass produced and a teeny tiny change in a dose for a human doesn't mean much, but for a cat on little tiny doses it does. We find that the zero lines on the syringes vary how far down they are on the barrel of the syringe a lot. Some zero lines are at the top of the syringe (which you would expect) and some are as far down as 0.25 units, and everything in between. That's why we recommend using the calipers, especially when a cat is getting so close to micro-doses. The calipers help to keep the doses consistent when the zero lines are not. https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dosing-with-calipers-updated-w-videos.79851/

 

[Nate2021]

Hi Nate,
I hope you don't think I'm spying on you , but I am watching out for you and Brian.
I see on your spreadsheet, that yesterday he got a 50. When I had a test that was so close to 40s, I would test again in 30 minutes (and if he was dropping fast, I would test again in 20 minutes or less), but you know your cat and he is pretty steady.

By the remarks in your spreadsheet it says you found that the current dose had the plunger nearly under the line. Does that mean it looked more like a f1.00 or s1.00? Usually, as you know, we recommend changing the dose in 0.25 increments. I would just stick with what you started f0.50 this evening, and see how it goes, and I wish you good luck. I think you'll be fine. You're doing a great job!

Just so you know, I also see in your remarks that you are not using the calipers anymore. The syringes are mass produced and a teeny tiny change in a dose for a human doesn't mean much, but for a cat on little tiny doses it does. We find that the zero lines on the syringes vary how far down they are on the barrel of the syringe a lot. Some zero lines are at the top of the syringe (which you would expect) and some are as far down as 0.25 units, and everything in between. That's why we recommend using the calipers, especially when a cat is getting so close to micro-doses. The calipers help to keep the doses consistent when the zero lines are not. https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dosing-with-calipers-updated-w-videos.79851/

Hey Dyana thanks for checking in Brian! And cheers for the advice
I'll just let ya know because I know its probably really confusing with my notes I'm not good at making them haha. So brians 50 yesterday, I do test multiple times just haven't wrote it in as I use the world tab and it loses formatting for some reason. What I do with a 50 is feed a little MC and if I see him up rise in the first 30min it usually has meant he was going to hang in the 50s, but if I feed and he doesn't go up for Brian that usually means he is going down still. Yesterday he ended up having 75% of a 14carb ff can and 0.5 LC ff can between +4 and +5, to come up to 56 in an hour. He doesn't usually eat at that time of day at all. So I've just taken that as a sign he was still coming down. That's just my experience with him so far, trying to be cautious with it! Do you think I should change this method? Or my reasoning isn't too good here? I'm sorta just going instinctually but I don't know if I'm doing the right thing 100%

The plunger was sitting with the top only just touching the line, which I would say looks more like a 0.8/0.85iu, this was due to using calipers prior, I'd draw to the and mm and just write what it was closest to on my spreadsheet, the insulin amount was always the same but I didn't make an original reference point with my syringes. The calipers I got unfortunately were not the best quality and they broke, so I'm having to get some more and yeah definitely I can see so many discrepancies between the syringes, annoying!

Cheers for your help pls let me know if there is anything I should change. And cheers for keeping an eye on the SS!

 

[Dyana]

So brians 50 yesterday, I do test multiple times just haven't wrote it in as I use the world tab and it loses formatting for some reason. What I do with a 50 is feed a little MC and if I see him up rise in the first 30min it usually has meant he was going to hang in the 50s, but if I feed and he doesn't go up for Brian that usually means he is going down still. Yesterday he ended up having 75% of a 14carb ff can and 0.5 LC ff can between +4 and +5, to come up to 56 in an hour.

You are smart and sometimes I forget you are new to this and have to remind myself to go have a look at your spreadsheet. I think you are doing well.

I used to stack the number and times (and whether I fed MC or HC) in the column boxes like this:

If you try this, you would need to manually color code them and then copy and paste to the other spreadsheet.
J.D. was a bouncer, as you can see. You are so lucky that Brian is not. Oh, how I used to envy those kitties like Brian. Disregard my caliper numbers in the units column as the different brands of syringes have different sized barrels etc., I think. Refer to the link I sent you earlier, or measure a unit mark on the syringes you are using when you get the new calipers. I used these calipers as they were small and had the mechanism that locked them in place.

The plunger was sitting with the top only just touching the line, which I would say looks more like a 0.8/0.85iu

I had a feeling you were saying less than 1 unit, but wasn't sure because "under" and "top" would depend on whether the needle was pointing towards the ground, or the ceiling

Can you please change the month on the recent dates in your spreadsheet Thanks.

 

[Nate2021]

You are smart and sometimes I forget you are new to this and have to remind myself to go have a look at your spreadsheet. I think you are doing well.

I used to stack the number and times (and whether I fed MC or HC) in the column boxes like this: View attachment 60772
If you try this, you would need to manually color code them and then copy and paste to the other spreadsheet.
J.D. was a bouncer, as you can see. You are so lucky that Brian is not. Oh, how I used to envy those kitties like Brian. Disregard my caliper numbers in the units column as the different brands of syringes have different sized barrels etc., I think. Refer to the link I sent you earlier, or measure a unit mark on the syringes you are using when you get the new calipers. I used these calipers as they were small and had the mechanism that locked them in place.


I had a feeling you were saying less than 1 unit, but wasn't sure because "under" and "top" would depend on whether the needle was pointing towards the ground, or the ceiling

Can you please change the month on the recent dates in your spreadsheet Thanks.

Haha thank you, I honestly just think I asked so many questions here, and stared at his chart so much that I know what to do even though I don't always conceptually get it!

That is really good idea, I don't like popping it all in my notes section because it doesn't really give a good idea at a glance, I might try to create another SS for brian that has everything included like in the example you have given. In retrospect I was laaazy not to write my caliper measurements down tbh. https://www.justtools.com.au/supatool-metric-imperial-digital-vernier-caliper-150mm-s11016/ found these ones which I think may be exactly the same as yours by the looks. Ahhh I see what you mean, yup definitely under the line pointed down. I from my second day of 2iu I had started using the calipers, and I think all of those iu values from that point on are less by about 0.25iu ie 2iu was actually 1.75iu.

Sorry about my months being off, that is me first thing in the morning filling in my spreadsheet half asleep haha. I need to remember to double check that later in the day.

Looking at other spreadsheets I feel so happy brian is working with me for sure, I know how stressful it was at the start, bouncing would be rough.. looking at today brian is down from 94 to 61 at +2 so I am guessing that depot is still in play and the reduction was the right move. Ironically it feels unsettling now his dose is getting low running out of space to move, and really want to keep him on some insulin for a good amount of time so we don't ruin the process :/

Cheers for your responses that is super helpful and sorry for me loooong message

 

[Dyana]

Cheers for your responses that is super helpful and sorry for me loooong message

No problem. I tend to write long messages. I like all the words to me it's details.

I don't like popping it all in my notes section because it doesn't really give a good idea at a glance, I might try to create another SS for brian that has everything included like in the example you have given.

You can use the current spreadsheet and just start now forward, no need for all the work.

Sorry about my months being off, that is me first thing in the morning filling in my spreadsheet half asleep haha.

Haha, I have enough problems trying to figure out the non USA date structure
I'm like is that March 6th or June 3rd?

I know how stressful it was at the start, bouncing would be rough.

J.D. was a professional bouncer for 9 years. I often felt inept on this forum, like I wasn't doing something right.
But J.D. lived to be 20, and had a good life.

I from my second day of 2iu I had started using the calipers, and I think all of those iu values from that point on are less by about 0.25iu ie 2iu was actually 1.75iu.

I've been there. Sometimes, I would be like, all of those 0.75s you see were closer to 0.5, but I didn't know how to explain it on my spreadsheet when there were so many of them. I would just give up, and make a note in the remarks of my spreadsheet, like you did.

https://www.justtools.com.au/supatool-metric-imperial-digital-vernier-caliper-150mm-s11016/ found these ones which I think may be exactly the same as yours by the looks.

Yes, those look like the right ones.

looking at today brian is down from 94 to 61 at +2 so I am guessing that depot is still in play and the reduction was the right move.

See, you get it. I would feed him, and test again in 1 hour.

Ironically it feels unsettling now his dose is getting low running out of space to move, and really want to keep him on some insulin for a good amount of time so we don't ruin the process

You still have 0.25, 0.10, and a drop. Let us know when you get there.

When is your baby due?

 

[Nate2021]

No problem. I tend to write long messages. I like all the words to me it's details.


You can use the current spreadsheet and just start now forward, no need for all the work.


Haha, I have enough problems trying to figure out the non USA date structure
I'm like is that March 6th or June 3rd?


J.D. was a professional bouncer for 9 years. I often felt inept on this forum, like I wasn't doing something right.
But J.D. lived to be 20, and had a good life.


I've been there. Sometimes, I would be like, all of those 0.75s you see were closer to 0.5, but I didn't know how to explain it on my spreadsheet when there were so many of them. I would just give up, and make a note in the remarks of my spreadsheet, like you did.


Yes, those look like the right ones.


See, you get it. I would feed him, and test again in 1 hour.


You still have 0.25, 0.10, and a drop. Let us know when you get there.

When is your baby due?

Hello, sorry I didn't check this until now. I have started adding the caliper mm in from now, will rework it all when I get a chance. Yeah, haha, I feel like I am confusing everyone every time I put a date. Sorry that J.D. bounced so much, thats an awesome age to get to though. Yeah it gets really confusing sometimes, especially easy to second guess yourself, got my new calipers today though so at least I will have that reassurance again from now. And yup a little ways still left to move, seems like nothing going from 3.75iu though, crazy it took that much to break through the resistance for him to be needing so little now. Baby is due July so not too long to go. I will make a new thread for tomorrow, only just realised we are allowed to make threads daily without needing a reason to do it haha. cheers for ur time!