10/5- Lucky

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all4mymarine

all4mymarine

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Been a little while since I've updated. Been trying not to stress over things. I'm still at a loss here with the PZI. There's no real pattern to any dose that I've tried. I can't get his numbers down to where I'd like them no matter if I raise dose or lower. We'll get a nice break through and then it's gone.

Can someone please look at his SS and let me know what you think? I'm really thinking we need to switch insulin. This one just doesn't seem to be working.
 
i agree your numbers are frustrating. Wondering if the dose is too high at this point. Barbara is having great success with Robin's scale dosing. If you still have some ProZinc and want to try it, you could send Robin a PM and see if she would put one together for you?

Nothing wrong with changing insulin. But if you aren't all out of the PZI and want to try a sliding scale, you could give it a shot.
 
I am sure you are frustrated by this, because when I look at Lucky's history, it frustrates me!
Here's what I see. Lucky has had great cycles on so many different doses, but then they seem to just disappear. When I look for blues and greens, I see some on .9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and skinny and fat doses as well.

I'm trying to concentrate on what's been happening lately however (using the theory that just because something worked in the past, it may not work today or tomorrow because Lucky isn't in the same place today as he was back then).

For the past 7-8 days you've been at or near 1.2u. The first couple of days, he had good AM cycles, not so great PM cycles. Then his daytime cycles became less than great. You've been getting drops, but not big ones. Today, pretty flat.

I look at his preshots, which I know you want to be lower. And I look at his nadirs, and it looks like there's lots of "safe" room for them to be lower.

Sometime in the past week or two, not sure whose thread it was, a couple of people were talking about a "BAM dose", a dose that would be high enough to push the nadir down significantly. In order to do that, you first have to be "on board" with trying it, and you have to be around to observe and test all day.

My thinking - and please everyone, feel free to disagree on this if you think I'm wrong - I think Lucky needs a BAM dose. Something that is going to push him down to low blues or high greens, give him a 300 point or 75% drop. I was thinking 1.6 or higher, maybe even 2.0. Not on a permanent or long-term basis. Just to see if it made his numbers better.

Your curves are "smiley" shaped, but shaped more like a "smirk" than a "BFG". You aren't seeing inverse curves that would indicate rebound or a too-high dose. Today, yes, flat. but you haven't seen "flat" since the 21st of September on 1.0 when you tried lower doses, and those didn't work well so you started back up. The increases on the 27th and 28th improved his curve, so it looked like you were heading in the right direction. Then things started to stay the same more or less.

Does anyone agree, or at least think my logic might make sense?

I agree with Sue that a sliding scale might make sense for Lucky. If you can find a dose that will give a nice curve with a PS of 400+, then you can figure out what sort of BG lines and dose increments might work with lower preshots and go from there.

Carl
 
I am willing to try anything!!!!

I wonder every day if the dose is too high. But really, the lower doses didn't do great things either. No more great things than a higher dose would do at first. It's so up and down. I have a 50/50 shot of good things happening no matter what dose I try. It's just the spike towards the end of the cycle that has me scratching my head. It happened again today, but I believe we had a partial fur shot. He tried to run away when I got the needle in and I smelled insulin on his fur. I forgot to put it in the remarks.

When you say I need to be around for the BAM dose, how often to I need to test? Can someone give opinions on doing this? Like I said, I'm willing to try anything at this point, especially before I give up and try another insulin. I know it can be hard waiting for the L's to kick in and Lucky is one TOUGH kitty to get a ketone test on. I think that was a big part of what was stressing me out!! I wanted soooo badly to test him and I tried sooo hard but I couldn't do it but those two times.

I would be more than happy to try the sliding scale and/or a BAM dose to see what happens. You guys just let me know what to do and I'll try it!!!
 
Carl,
Sue was talking about a BAM dose for Alex and me to try and I'm going to want to try that the weekend of Oct 15 when I know I'll be home.
So put your thinking caps on becuase I'll be asking for advice in a week or so.
 
Ginny..... thinking cap is on!

When you say I need to be around for the BAM dose, how often to I need to test?
Click to expand...

Basically just like a regular curve. Like test him at +2, +4, etc. Why you want to be around is to pay close attention say between +4 and +6 (assuming that's his regular time for nadir) so that you can see if his number is going uncomfortably low. I know Barbara has seen some low numbers (greens) a little earlier in the cycle than Thumper or she expected, and she's been concerned, but Thumper has cruised through some 50s and 60s without troubles. You don't expect a "hypo", but are ready for one just in case. Problem with Thumper is that she always decides to do this on the PM cycle, so Barbara is becoming sleep deprived! ;-)
Have some gravy food on hand, and make sure everyone knows you are planning to do something like a BAM dose beforehand, and there's going to be several of us online to advise/help all day long.

Carl
 
I have been having a really crazy week but after Friday things should settle down for me some.

I'd be happy to make a sliding scale for Lucky. I've promised to make one for Denis and Shakes too. I will do both this weekend.

Ginny, I havn't looked at your ss but if I remember correctly your BAM dose WAS the 1.6u.

Anyone here, you don't want to do a BAM dose unless you are going to be home to test thought it to make sure they don't go too low.
 
Let's see what everyone thinks. I would like the sliding scale better than the BAM dose. The scale will allow for bigger doses as needed, but also you would be ready when you get a lower number.

Robin, we are SO grateful that you can put these sliding scales together. Thanks so much for your hard work. Wouldn't it be interesting if ProZinc in general responded well to sliding scales?
 
I am a stay at home mom so my schedule is pretty flexible. As you can see from Lucky's SS, I have no problems with testing! Like I said, I will try whatever is suggested.

The only thing that concerns me about the sliding scale is the fact that he reacts so differently to different doses with different PS's. You just never know what a dose is going to do. Maybe I'm missing something or I just don't see what someone else would see.... But Robin, I would be SO grateful to you for coming up with a sliding scale. I would love to hear what you think about his SS.

I'm with Sue, let's see what others think and get a plan going!! Lucky's +4.5 was 321 today with a dose of 1.2 :YMSIGH:

By the way, my name is Emily. I keep forgetting to mention my name!
 
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