I'm following your cat's progress because mine was diagnosed in July at the same time
and I love how well she's doing. I unfortunately didn't start home testing until Sept. I'd love to know why you held the 4u for as long as you did? Was it because she was stable in the greens and blues and you wanted to avoid limes? Thanks!!
Hello! Yes, that's exactly right -- her nadirs were in the normal cat range (50-80) and holding steady. I could have taken a reduction sooner if she had stayed under 100 overall, but her preshots were still blue. Didn't want to increase for fear of limes, as you said. Bhooma gave me permission to try a reduction after I tried for several hours one day to get her above the 50s by feeding her MC/HC snacks, unsuccessfully, until the insulin started wearing off later in the day. So far the lower dose seems to be working (fingers crossed) ...
FWIW, I found the increase/decrease dosing sticky to be somewhat confusing. There's so much great information there, but it's full of nuance and detail, and I really wanted a quick-reference. by-the-numbers cheat sheet, so I ended up making my own. I'm cutting and pasting it below in case it's helpful. (Bhooma read it over and helped me tweak it
.
Good luck -- it looks like you are making great progress already!
Increasing the dose
Nadirs 300+: Increase dose by 0.5 unit after 3 days (6 consecutive cycles).
Nadirs 200 to 299: Increase dose by 0.25 unit after 3 days (6 consecutive cycles).
Nadirs 100 to 199 (if new to cat): Increase dose by 0.25 after 4-5 days (8–10 consecutive cycles)
Nadirs 100 to 199 (not new): Increase dose by 0.25 after 3–5 days (6–10 consecutive cycles)
Nadirs 80 to 100 (if new to cat): Increase by 0.25 after 5 days or more (10+ consecutive cycles).
Caveat: If the green shows up toward the end of the 10 cycles, hold longer to see if greens return after any bounce clears.
Nadirs 80 to 100 (not new): Increase by 0.25 after 3–5 days (6–10 consecutive cycles). If some nadirs are blue, increase dose by 0.25 after 3–4 days (6–8 cycles).
Nadirs 50 to 80 (=normal cat range): Hold the dose and watch the numbers. Increase by 0.25 if they start trending above normal cat range after any bounce has cleared.
Reducing the dose
Nadirs 50 to 80 (normal cat range) AND under 100 overall: Attempt a reduction when the cat regularly has its lowest BGs in the normal range of a non-diabetic healthy cat (50 - 80 mg/dL) while staying under 100 mg/dl overall for at least one week.
Nadirs below 50: After a single drop below 50, reduce the dose
immediately by 0.25 unit.
(If kitty has a history of not holding reductions well, reduction is earned after 3 drops between 40–50 on three separate days, or if reductions are close together, take a partial reduction (sneak the dose down by shaving the dose rather than reducing by a full quarter unit)).
Please do not let yourself become complacent about drops into the 20s or 30s.
Please ask for advice immediately.
