12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169, PMPS 344, +4: 211

Status
Not open for further replies.
Amy & Papaya (GA)

Amy & Papaya (GA)

Member Since 2012
Hi everyone. This is my first post on the Lantus TR board, but I think I'm going to need some help with Papaya in the coming days so I wanted to start posting here consistently BEFORE things get complicated!

As the spreadsheet shows, the vet started her at one unit and we kept increasing - too quickly, I believe now - to 3, and then working back down again. (Now I know to change more gradually!) I was recently starting to get good numbers at 1.5 units of Lantus, but her BG really tends to nose-dive. And she does NOT like low numbers - even if she technically hasn't been dangerously low, the fast drop seems to set her up for huge bounces. So I tried reducing the dose to 1.25, but it seemed quickly apparent that was just not going to be enough. She woke me up at 3:00 AM two days in a row, very insistent about being fed, and both times her BG was over 540. Yikes.

So I've gone back to 1.5, and happily she does come down quite quickly from the high numbers. My concern is that she is going to drop too quickly and start bouncing. I want to try to control things with food at appropriate times, possibly with varying levels of carbs, until things level out. I have the feeling that's going to need a lot of experimenting to get right, so any tips from those who have had to really play around with food to steer things will be welcome.

Maybe she's so much trouble because she's an "import" lol - she started life on the streets in Taiwan!

I look forward to getting to know everyone here better and benefiting from your experience.
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

Welcome to Lantus Land! I hope Papaya can find a way to smooth out those numbers - she's definitely keeping you on your toes!
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

Welcome to LantusLand.
Yes, you will find lots of help here. You will find that this is the best support you could ask for, this is the best community to have while
dealing with FD.

I don't have a lot of personal experience with having to "steer" with foods, I just have watched others having to do it.
My cat steered herself before I ever had to intervene.

But I wanted to welcome you here , and tell you to feel free to ask questions , even the same ones over and over.
And I look forward to watching your progress! :-D

Rhiannon cat_pet_icon
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

Welcome to Lantus Land!

Papaya is a very well traveled kitty!

First, and I hate to ask this, but there is a template that will automatically convert from mmol/L to the US format that we predominantly use. There are two tabs on the template, one for "world" values and one for US in the instructions I linked. Most of us can't read your SS and it's too timely to multiply all the numbers to do the conversions by hand. If you look under section A - Getting & Using the Template, you'll see the link to the World version. You just enter your data on the World tab and it will immediately convert to the US format.

I would not be concerned about bounces. Bounces are normal, especially in the early part of this process. For now, just ignore them. A bounce can take up to 72 hours to clear. Also, Lantus doses take several cycles to settle. If you rapidly change the dose, you'll end up with wonky numbers. Lantus is a depot-type of insulin. When you change the dose, you need to give the depot time to catch up with the change. One of the things you will quickly learn with Lantus is how to be patient and that you are likely to become very frustrated if you try to over control your cat's numbers.

What I would strongly encourage is for you to read through the starred sticky notes at the top of the Board. They will help you to better understand how Lantus works, what criteria we use to change the dose, etc. We're all here to lend a hand so if you have questions or are unsure of what to do, please let us know. People here are very generous with their time and knowledge and truly want to help.
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

OK I think I've got the international/US spreadsheet set up properly. I lost all the colour rules in my page (the international tab) when I cut and pasted, which is a minor annoyance I'll figure out later. Anyway thank you, that is useful for me too, since I really hated multiplying everything by 18 to figure out what the Americans were talking about!
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

Welcome to LL! Glad you found the site! There is so much info here and lots of people to help! Good luck!!! What are you feeding? Look forward to seeing your posts and helping out!
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

I'm feeding Fancy Feast pate, chicken flavour only - at least, that's the regular food. If BG goes low, I have a stash of Friskies with various carb %, from 13 to 22 % I believe.

I have used permanent marker to write the carb % on the side of the can of the other ones so I don't have to look through the list if I need to grab something quickly in a crisis.
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

THANK YOU!! I think that was record speed for getting the SS switched over.
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

Hi Amy,

I just wanted to welcome you and Papaya to Lantus Land! Papaya came down beautifully today.

Don't worry about the bounces. They all do it and sooner or later they get used to those numbers and stop bouncing at them. The only way they can get used to them is by being there. :smile:

The stickies will help you a lot.

Melanie & Racci
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

Thanks, Melanie (and Racci, fellow calico!). I really appreciate everyone's assurance that bounces are to be expected. My vet says Lantus is great and they call it "the peakless insulin" because it gives such flat numbers . . . and then he looks at my spreadsheet and falls silent with furrowed brow! Believe me, I'm reading every link I can find on this board and am so glad I found it.
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

Hi Amy, and welcome from another Canadian. My vet started Neko on Caninsulin, and after me asking all the time "are you sure it's the right insulin for cats?" and seeing a locum vet, I got her on Lantus. This place has been a life saver, literally. Some cats do like to bounce. Neko's been on insulin for a little over a year now, and still bouncing. I'm not saying your cat will do that, a lot get over it much quicker. The saying I've heard is "they keep bouncing until they stop". I get the same furrowed brow look from my vet too! Especially since Neko also has acromegaly, a rarer condition that causes feline diabetes.

It looks like you've got the SS figured out and colours in your World tab look good. I just enter on my World tab and it converts everything to the US tab. There is one exception you'll learn about. If you put anything in the SS cell that doesn't convert, you'll have to manually go to the US one to re-enter values there. For example, sometimes people put multiple entries in the same cell, if they do more than one test in an hour.

Give some extra scritches to your calico from me! She's had quite the life.
 
Re: 12/18 Papaya AMPS 554, +2: 410, +5: 169 (First post on T

Thanks for the spreadsheet tips, Wendy (and Neco). I just had a lightbulb moment a bit earlier looking at someone's half-hour notation on a spreadsheet - I hadn't been quite sure how to record that info in the cases where I'm testing more frequently than hourly, or at some non-round-hour point. Your point is excellent, I'll have to remember to enter those directly on the US sheet.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top