How do you do this? Not just function on no sleep
but shoot with such low numbers (which I know you have to but still
) What is your secret? How do you stay calm or do you?
Hi,
Yes, I feel 100% confident and calm about shooting such low numbers. I was terrified in the beginning. Proof: The very first time I was faced with a 50 pre-shot, I actually chickened out and shot a half-dose instead. That was on 09/09/2020 if you want to have a look and see what happened as a result (hint: butters' numbers went higher, although she may also have bounced a little). I vowed I wouldn't balk at shooting a low number again and I haven't. "Shoot low to stay low" is a phrase often used on the board, and it's true.
I had/have a lot of support from a great many people on the board to get to this point, as will you. And once I did it a few times and saw how it kept butters' numbers flat, I became excited about shooting low numbers! And now I encourage others to do it.
In addition to looking at other kitties' spreadsheets to learn what happened when other caregivers would shoot low numbers, I found that these two posts,
becoming ready to shoot lower numbers and
why you want to shoot a low number, were particularly helpful in working up the nerve.
I've been contemplating TR but looking at Butters spreadsheet I don't know if I can keep up to that. Is this a typical looking spreadsheet for Butters and have you been doing this since May 2020.? You're amazing Butters soooo lucky to have you on her side.
check out her 2020 spreadsheet when you have time. It took around four months before she became tightly regulated (around 09/09/2020). Then she got a pancreatitis attack in mid-October and that deregulated her until very recently, around 12/20/2020, when she became more tightly regulated again. So she and I haven't been doing this tight regulation for very long at all.
I suggest that butters' spreadsheet isn't the one you should be looking at. Check out
@JaxBenji Susanne's spreadsheet for Jax. He has beautiful, flat lantus cycles. Or even
@Diane Tyler's Mom Diane's spreadsheet for Tyler. He is doing an OTJ trial right now and had beautiful, flat lantus cycles as well. I personally think their cats' cycles are more indicative of what it is like to do TR with a cat once they are used to being tightly regulated. But Every Cat is Different (ECID). I had to chase butters up the dosing ladder a lot after her hospital stay and lately she has been on a tear down the ladder, so I believe it is a bit different for us.
So keep thinking about what you want to do, but I'd like to offer you one piece of advice: try it before you decide you can't do it. There is no shame at all in giving it a go and deciding later on that it isn't for you and Missy.
