08/14/17 Murray AMPS 104, +4 121, +10 103, PMPS 126

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Finn & Murray

Finn & Murray

Member Since 2017
First time posting one of these... I've seen others posting similar - is it something people do daily, usually? Still getting used to the rules of the forum, it seems!

This morning I tested Murray before going to work, and he was at 104/5.8. He had been at 128/7.1 last night, and I'd only given him half a dose to be cautious, and because I was going to be at work for a while today I only gave him a half a dose today as well.

Biked home from work around lunchtime to do his +4, and he had gone up to 121/6.7. As a comparison, yesterday his AMPS was 164/9.1 and with a full 1U dose he was down to 81/4.5 by his +5 test. So, I'm starting to think that the half unit doses aren't doing much for him - does that seem about right?

Anyways, by his +10 this evening he was at 103/5.7 again, and an even 126/7 for his PMPS. Knowing I had another 4-ish hours before going to bed to test, I gave him a full 1U shot about 45 minutes ago. Still in the midst of figuring out what these numbers mean, so any comments, advice, or anything like that is definitely appreciated! :P
 
Nice numbers so far. but no one knows what happened between today's AM +4 and +10. Definitely get a +2 to see which way the wind is blowing, and go from there. A similar number or a lower number at +2 (+3 for some cats) usually indicates an active cycle (= potentially big drop).

If it were me, with a cat responding so well to a small amount of insulin, I'd get as many tests in over the next few days as I can.

Holler if you see a big drop in numbers. Just in case the 1 unit is too much, do you have lots of strips, medium and high carb food, honey, karo (corn syrup to us Canucks)?

(I used to go to Winfield to visit my aunt.)
 
Yeah, I hate that I wasn't able to test more this morning... I live pretty close to work especially now that I'm biking (it takes me about 5 minutes to bike home now, two minutes extra if I don't catch the one light right), so if needed, I can definitely scoot home every once in a while to double check... Another nice thing is that everyone at work is an animal lover, so when I talk about my cat needing a bit of extra care, everyone is 100% okay with it! Now, just to be sure... do you mean a +2 this evening, or a +2 tomorrow morning? I miiiiiight be able to do a +2 in the morning, but not 100% sure if that would be doable... Tonight, though, I can absolutely do that!

I've done four tests today so far, and I plan on doing two more tonight before bed. I'm hoping to wake up a little earlier to get a +8 or +10 as well... I had an idea that his numbers were relatively good, but if numbers like this show that he's responding so well, as you said, and if more testing will help with that, I'll run on little sleep to get as many in as I can!

At the moment, I have about... 65 strips or so? I want to get more before I run out (which reminds me - is ebay a reliable place to buy strips? Out of curiosity, I had looked at them on there, and there are some incredible deals on them there... but I don't know if I should trust those deals either :P), but for now I have a lot still. Not a lot of variety food-wise, but I have tons of honey in the cupboard, and I do have some dry food which might count for the high carb stuff?

(Oh, no way! I go there all the time - they have that kangaroo farm there, and it's literally my favourite place to go in the Okanagan! :D)
 
I meant a +2 tonight.

There are some members that do buy on ebay. Also, if you are going to cross the border to the US, you can stock up. Strips are generally cheaper there.

There is a kangaroo farm in Winfield? My mom and my aunt never told me about that! They just held us captive in her tiny senior's apartment, drinking tea and eating not great cookies.
 
Oh good! Yep, I'm about to do his +2 in about... 15 minutes! Curious to see where he's at, it'll be the first full dose since Sunday morning which isn't a long time, but still!

I think I might try it, then. I mean, I'll pay whatever I have to to make sure I have strips on hand, but... I'm also not going to ignore a cheaper option if it's there. And, I won't be going to the states until January, but... I might just have to stock up if there's that much of a difference!

There absolutely is! It's pretty much right in town too, which is the strange thing - it's maybe a block off the main highway, and it's the coolest place. I don't know how long they've been running for, so maybe it wasn't there when you were? But, if you're ever back there, I would 100% suggest checking it out. You basically go out into a field with a bunch of kangaroos, wallabies, some capybaras, emus... and if they have any joeys that are out of the pouch, you're able to hold them. It's insanely adorable :cat:
 
Alright, results are in for Murray's +2! 1U seems to have brought him down to 99/5.5 - those results seem similar to his results Sunday morning? Not sure if there's any correlation there, but both +2s were down 1.5 with a 1U dose, which is interesting. Or, it could be not interesting at all and I could be making connections that aren't there. :P

Good to see him in the green again tonight, though! Will be doing a +4 around midnight, interested to see where he's at then!
 
With the +2 quite a bit lower than the preshot, there's a good chance he'll go lower tonight. If you haven't already, I'd feed him a couple of tsps of his regular low carb food. It can help them surf, or hang out in good numbers. Those green numbers are great for healing the pancreas.

The Lantus depot really likes consistent dosing. Since you've had to shoot a couple of lower doses. it means the Lantus depot is no longer at 1.0 units, which means it's harder to say what the 1.0 unit dose is doing.

Dry food is high carb, but it takes longer to work it's way out of their system, which is why we suggest high carb wet food, or adding honey/syrup.
 
I gave him a bit of food after doing the +2 test - my dad had given him a tiny bit maybe 10 minutes before I tested, but... I think even with what we gave him, I might give him another teaspoon just in case. If it helps him stay in the green, then it's worth it! I really can't wait until the automatic feeder I ordered comes in, it's going to be great to be able to set that for while I'm at work, especially if small spread out meals help keep them in the green numbers. And that's so good to hear, too! I mean... healing the pancreas is always a good thing, so. :P

So... with that, does that mean that after a few more days of giving him the 1U shots, his results will be more accurate to what the 1U dose is actually doing? His doses have been a little all over the place over the last week, simply because he had the first few green numbers he'd had since his diagnosis, and I freaked out and didn't know whether to give him his shot or not, so I erred on the side of caution and didn't. That was last week, so it's been a few days since, but I'm sure things like that are still affecting his numbers at least somewhat. I'm hoping I'll be able to stick to the 1U dose consistently from here on out for a little while at least, or something lower if needed... essentially, whatever the dose needs to be, but keeping it consistent day to day.

Sorry, I'm totally rambling again here - there really is a lot to learn, and a lot I feel I've done wrong here and there, but... in general, I feel like I'm starting to get more comfortable with this, and that's fantastic! Also, that makes a ton of sense - in that case, I'll continue to keep him off the dry food no matter what, and if it's necessary, I have lots of honey to add to make it work, so :)
 
Finn & Murray said:
So... with that, does that mean that after a few more days of giving him the 1U shots, his results will be more accurate to what the 1U dose is actually doing?
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Yes, it can take the depot up to six cycles to build. It could also mean that as the depot builds, his numbers may get lower, though hopefully not too low. But if they do, that means he would need a dose reduction. If he goes below 50 on this dose (I think you said you wanted to follow Tight Regulation), then he'd go down to 0.75 units.

And here is the link to yesterday's post, for people to follow that discussion. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...e-weeks-on-insulin-curious-what-to-do.182178/
 
Huh! That all makes perfect sense! See, I'm getting the hang of this slowly but surely! :D Just under an hour until I test for his +4, and I'll be sure keep things up to date in this thread once I see where he's at (it'll likely be a brief post, considering I'm probably going to go to sleep the second I'm done with it :p) But yeah, hopefully not too low... definitely don't want that. The lowest he's gone so far has been that 81/4.5, but that was after giving him 1U when he started out at 164/9.1. So hopefully he doesn't go too low tonight. I do want to follow Tight Regulation, so far it seems to be relatively easy to follow, so if adjusting the dose is what's needed, then we'll go with that!

And thank you so much for linking that! Probably should've included that myself in my original post, whoops! :joyful:
 
I about to head to bed myself. You might want to review the Sticky Note on handling low numbers, just in case you see Murray go below 50 at that next test. The board gets a little quiet around midnight, but if you add something like HELP to the subject line, that might get some eyes of those still up. We have a few night owls here.
 
Hi Finn! Welcome to Lantus & Levemir Land - the nicest place you never wanted to be!

Wendy asked me to look in on you as I am a night owl and usually up later than most people in the Western part of the US or Canada.

Finn & Murray said:
is ebay a reliable place to buy strips?
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Yes!! I always got mine there - much cheaper than in the stores. Generally the price is better because they are "close" to their expiration date - usually the ones I bought were about 6-9 months out. For humans, who don't test as often, that would make them iffy, but for us testaholics here, no problem using them up before they "go bad".

Finn & Murray said:
Probably should've included that myself in my original post, whoops!
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That's the norm. Don't worry. You'll get the hang of it. There is a LOT to learn here. On that note, here is a link to a post we put together to make it easier for new members to use this forum: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/updated-tips-for-new-members.173572/

It looks like you're off to a great start figuring things out, but don't hesitate to ask lots of questions - we love to help!
 
Hahaha, talk about a tagline! Hello, though - it's wonderful to meet you!

Thank you both (all of you, really) for stepping in and being so willing to help - I've only been posting here a few days, but goodness, this really does seem to be the nicest place full of some of the nicest people, so helpful and not minding all the newbie questions in the slightest :D

I'm so glad to hear that - I was wondering if maybe that was the case, if it was an expiry thing or just someone selling off extra boxes they ended up not needing, things like that. Good to know they're relatively reliable, because I saw some prices along the lines of 400 for $80, and even one person selling 5 100 strip boxes with the bidding starting at $0.99. So, you know... varied range of prices, but all quite good!

And I'm glad I'm not the first person to miss out on something like that - it's small and silly, but I suppose it comes with the territory of being new to things! I definitely don't mind learning, though, so we should be good here, I'd say :) I'm also not afraid to ask questions, so we're good on that front as well! I'll have to take a peek at that thread in the morning, just looking at it now it already looks quite helpful, so thank you for that! :D

Also, the main reason I'm meant to be posting right now... +4 ended up being 85/4.7. So, not ridiculously low - it's still higher than the lowest I've seen from him (81/4.5), but that was a +5 so he might still go lower. I'm going to give him a bit of food (I didn't give him much earlier after all), and then I'm going to get some sleep, and hopefully get myself to wake up to test him for a +8 or a +10, even if I go right back to sleep right after :joyful: Apparently when I set my mind to something, I become a little obsessed... oops. :D
 
That's not a big drop, at all - look like a nice, healthy cycle tonight. I would definitely give him some food if you're going to bed, to hopefully keep him surfing along.

Yes, the people here are very nice and very helpful. See, someone helped us (more than a few times), so we want to pay it forward. You'll find there are a few of us whose sugar cats are GA (Gone Ahead), but we stick around to keep helping because we haven't forgotten how it felt when we were new and worried and stressed, etc. So take advantage of us! We don't mind at all!
 
("I'm going to bed right after" I said. What a lie. :P)

It didn't seem like a huge drop, really, so I'm glad I was right in thinking it looked pretty alright! Oh, he's going to be so jazzed about getting a little more food tonight, no matter how much he gets he always thinks he needs more... But, if it's a good way to keep him surfing, then I'm pretty jazzed about it too!

And, that's such a wonderful way to look at it. Thinking like that fosters such wonderful communities, and you can really see that's the case here here right away, even if you've only been around a few days. It can be such a scary thing at first, too, especially when there's so much information out there, so the advice and support from so many people who've been through the same thing is greatly appreciated. :bighug:
 
Alright! Last results of this cycle... I didn't manage to get a +8 or a +10, but his +11 was 104/5.8. I'll be giving him his shot in an hour or so, and... well, I'm not quite sure where he'll be by then, so I'm not sure what I'll have to do shot-wise. I suppose we'll see soon!
 
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