1/15 Frank PMPS 229/+2 387/4 345

[Tina and Boozle]

Yesterday

We dipped our toes into the blue last night so hopefully that is a good sign his body is repairing. He looks pretty good this morning. He was starting to look a little ratty. I hope everyone is having a good morning/day...wherever you are. I think I may get some btb action in this morning. I am exausted!

 

[carfurby (GA)]

Re: 1/15 Frank AMPS 313

I hope Frank slides back down and gives you some more blue soon. It's always good when they start looking better and feeling better.

 

[PeterDevonMocha]

Re: 1/15 Frank AMPS 313/+3 352

Hi guys .. well I hope frank turns it around and heads back down to some blues for you .. it's such a good feeling to start seeing positive changes in our kitties isn't it? have a great day!

 

[Tina and Boozle]

Re: 1/15 Frank AMPS 313/+3 352/+7 259/+11 145

Dipping our toes in the blue again. Can we have a little more of that, Frank?

 

[Rachel & Chyna (GA)]

Re: 1/15 Frank AMPS 313/+3 352/+7 259/+11 145

Woo hoo, more blue! I hope he continues to hang out there, and maybe to the green? It's nice when they start feeling/looking better Hope you had a nice BTB, I'm jealous! ;-)

 

[Tina and Boozle]

So...I am still kind of confused about something. When we talk about nadirs, I have understood this to be the lowest point in the cycle. Frank's low points are rather inconsistent, at this point. I have counted 24 cycles, in three months, where his lowest number is at PMPS. The rest are fairly scattered, ranging from 1-7 being the lowest in each time frame. I am not counting cycles where I have not taken tests at least every three hours during the cycle or evenings, since I don't test as much then.

I am wondering:

A. Am I understanding this incorrectly
B. Do I demonstrate understanding, but perhaps this is part of not being well regulated?
C. Is there something else I am not understanding?

I'm thinking of bumping his dose up by .25 Friday morning based on what I see. I can't monitor an increase tomorrow, or I would do it then. Do some of you more experienced people agree with this plan? Marje was saying that anything the ABS could change should have changed by now, so do I still need to wait until he is over it or go ahead and give an increase a go while I can monitor him over the weekend?

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

Re: 1/15 Frank PMPS 229/+2 387/4 345 nadir/dosing question

you've got a good grasp of it, tina.

basically the question you ask is "are the nadirs where i want them to be? have i given the dose an appropriate amount of time to see what this dose can do?"

and don't hesitate to ask for advice - but it's great to hear you thinking it through and having ideas about what direction you think you should go. you're on the right track.

Here's the part of the protocol about increasing the dose:

Increasing the dose:
Hold the dose for 3 - 5 days (6 - 10 consecutive cycles) if nadirs are less than 200 before increasing the dose by 0.25 unit.
if your cat is new to numbers under 200, it is recommended to hold the dose for at least 8-10 cycles before increasing.
when your cat starts to see nadirs under 100, hold the dose for at least 10 cycles before increasing.
After 3 days (6 consecutive cycles)... if nadirs are greater than 200, but less than 300 increase the dose by 0.25 unit.
After 3 days (6 consecutive cycles)... if nadirs are greater than 300 increase the dose by 0.5 unit.

we really only look back the previous week, MAYBE 2 weeks. so you don't have to go back farther than that when you're analyzing what to do next. FD is a constantly changing game and the past 5 days are the most important.

Frank is seeing blues pretty consistently. You've had 11 doses at 2.5u - that's more than long enough to see what the dose will do. Sometimes holding doses for too long can cause the cat to get used to higher numbers and kinda slow down progress, but you do have to fit in the monitoring, so you just do the best you can. i would increase by 0.25u as soon as you safely can.

 

[Tina and Boozle]

Re: 1/15 Frank PMPS 229/+2 387/4 345 nadir/dosing question

Thank you for the feedback, Julie. I was comparing this month's numbers and his overall health to the previous two and I feel like he is making some pretty good progress given his challenges. I am not always confident that I understand what I am seeing yet, however. I appreciate you following up with me. Unless the threat pushes him down into lower numbers, I will do that increase Friday morning.

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

Re: 1/15 Frank PMPS 229/+2 387/4 345 nadir/dosing question

that's a very good point. sometimes it does help to stand back and look to see if he feels and acts better than he did a month or two ago. punkin's fur was a telling point for us - when he got in high numbers his hair was icky and oily, but when he was in good numbers it would be soft and fluffy.