12/19, Bell, AMPS 228 +2 234 +6 186 +8 116 +10 64 +11 89 PMPS 75 +1 83 +2 79 +4 70 +6 74 +7 83

Seth&Bell

Seth&Bell

Very Active Member
Yesterday

Phew, another stressful day that ended with some positives for once! Started off the day with hearing that the company I work for is going to require everyone to come back to office full time next year and cut off the remote work flexibility. I think this will make what I've been doing regarding Bell really difficult, especially if I can get her back to her good cycles. She really had the tendency to hug the 50-60 mark and I wouldn't be comfortable with that if I'm gone 7-5 everyday. I may have some wiggle room, but I most likely won't be much. I do think I have some leverage in my position and I may just be honest with my manager about what I am willing to do. That may end up with me looking for another remote job, though. Sigh. Need to make a gameplan for this one...

In addition to that, I noticed Blair's backend looked a bit inflamed and similar to how Bell's looked before her anal gland rupture. Got her in just a few minutes ago and the vet said it looked fine and Blair actually expressed the gland when she looked at it (yuck!!). The vet also was happy with how the sore on her stomach looked. So yay!

On top of that, Bell is in the bluessssssssssss!!!!. This is only the second cycle of this increase too!

That leads to my question. I mainly just wanted to check in and make sure I'm still good shooting the 6 units tonight if Bell continues to drop. Let's say she's in the green by PMPS time but still above 50, should I shoot into this sharp a drop? I'll be available all night if necessary.

Secondary question: Are reductions past 5 units of insulin still 0.25 units? Or do those change to 0.5 units like the increases do?

 
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@Wendy&Neko: You still got it! I wish I could give you a hug. And learn your powers.
 

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@Heike & BInie: Thank you for this, it makes perfect sense to me. I am sorry Binie gets so stressed out. Next time I'll check with my vet on it, I'm really new to the UTI stuff. I had no idea they could even get a sample with a syringe! When they took her back for a sample, I was like: how on earth are they going to make her pee?
 

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Bump for the +11 of 89. I’ll obviously get a PMBG to make sure that rise isn’t all food driven, but most likely shoot tonight.

I still am curious about my original question. I know stalling for half an hour is usually recommended, but I’m curious what y’all would do if you never see a nadir preshot but the cat remains above 50 throughout. Most likely will depend on your cat’s history, definitely a dicey situation.

Nice work, Bell, proud of you
 
bluesunshine said:
Yesterday

Phew, another stressful day that ended with some positives for once! Started off the day with hearing that the company I work for is going to require everyone to come back to office full time next year and cut off the remote work flexibility. I think this will make what I've been doing regarding Bell really difficult, especially if I can get her back to her good cycles. She really had the tendency to hug the 50-60 mark and I wouldn't be comfortable with that if I'm gone 7-5 everyday. I may have some wiggle room, but I most likely won't be much. I do think I have some leverage in my position and I may just be honest with my manager about what I am willing to do. That may end up with me looking for another remote job, though. Sigh. Need to make a gameplan for this one...

In addition to that, I noticed Blair's backend looked a bit inflamed and similar to how Bell's looked before her anal gland rupture. Got her in just a few minutes ago and the vet said it looked fine and Blair actually expressed the gland when she looked at it (yuck!!). The vet also was happy with how the sore on her stomach looked. So yay!

On top of that, Bell is in the bluessssssssssss!!!!. This is only the second cycle of this increase too!

That leads to my question. I mainly just wanted to check in and make sure I'm still good shooting the 6 units tonight if Bell continues to drop. Let's say she's in the green by PMPS time but still above 50, should I shoot into this sharp a drop? I'll be available all night if necessary.

Secondary question: Are reductions past 5 units of insulin still 0.25 units? Or do those change to 0.5 units like the increases do?
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Wow what a day, Seth! congrats on Bell back in greens! :D

I hope she stays steady tonight. Make sure you have carbs ready just in case:nailbiting:
That was a fast reaction to the increase!
Go easy Bell, safe surfing only!!
Very happy Blair was ok today at the vet:)

I’m sorry to hear about the work situation. That really does suck. And I hope you can make it work out with your current job.
I would be in the same situation as you. There’s no way I could leave Ivy all day. She’s way too volatile.

Sending you lots of support and best wishes for an easy resolution and hoping you can stay remote.

Have a very safe night :bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
Thanks Staci, means a lot. I know some folks here have managed full time work and doing this, but with the way Bell dives and sticks on these low greens, I just don’t see it happening. She often only eats when I’m there to encourage her and I haven’t been able to get her to eat higher carb food.

But I am extremely blessed to be in a position where I could take a break for a bit and not be in a dire situation. I’m confident I could find a remote position if need be. Still a lot of added stress on top of stress, but I’m really lucky to have some cushion and also some leverage in my current position. I would have not put “leaving my job because of my cat” on my bingo card a few years ago :D
 
bluesunshine said:
I still am curious about my original question. I know stalling for half an hour is usually recommended, but I’m curious what y’all would do if you never see a nadir preshot but the cat remains above 50 throughout.
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I didn't stall unless Neko was under 50 and then by 15 minutes. It's possible kitty will continue to fall further without food when you stall. Today is a classic bounce breaking cycle, which typically has a later nadir. It's possible the action will carry over a bit to the next cycle (or not). Hence the +1 to see if you need to prop her up a bit more.
 
Yeah makes perfect sense.

I know you don’t like to deal in hypotheticals, but they do help me learn. If say, the +11 was 59 and the stalled PMBG was 53, would you have shot? If you don’t feel comfortable answering that, absolutely no problem.
 
bluesunshine said:
Yeah makes perfect sense.

I know you don’t like to deal in hypotheticals, but they do help me learn. If say, the +11 was 59 and the stalled PMBG was 53, would you have shot? If you don’t feel comfortable answering that, absolutely no problem.
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The first time I shot a 51 without stalling I had Wendy's voice in my head telling me to shoot and shoot any number above 50. Then I would reread this link http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...combining-merging-protocols-good-idea.111088/ (see post#6).
 
Oh wow, thanks so much, Angela. This basically answers my question

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I think what concerned me about the drop today was how steep it was. I haven’t shot a drop like that before. My worry was that I could get Bell in a situation where the previous cycle and the new cycle were both still kicking and Bell could be in danger.

As this forum preaches, ECID, and this is a great data point for my specific cat
 

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Side note: I hope you never change your avatar. Cleo has the kindest face and I always feel calmer looking at it, even before I read your posts :cat:
 
I’ve had the same thoughts about the job situation. Will there come a time where I need to choose one or the other, because I know what I’m choosing :)

Nice work tonight :D
 
Hi Seth,

great, great news to see Bell has this long stretch of greens! And you are my hero today, to shoot 75. :nailbiting: To see this, it is almost funny, I stalled today because Binies AMPS was 205. :rolleyes:

Sorry for all the additional stress. Happy to read Blairs backend is o.k. and the sore on her stomach got better.

What is this stupid "coming back to the office"- trend about? I don't get it? They start in Germany as well. I thought most experiences are good. I am much more productive working from home. I think it is a good plan to talk to your manager. I am sure they don't want to loose you because of that. That would be ridiculous. I think you are in a good position to know your worth and that you can do without them. Good luck with that!

I really hope things become a bit more quiet the next days for you. So far your holidays didn't sound that much relaxing.... :bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
This is so awesome and inspiring to read! I wasn’t reading forum last night b/c of my anxiety focus on minner and testing hourly. Bell had a great night in those greens! Wow. Minner is aspiring to do the same while I may need anxiety meds soon since I’m barely able to deal with low blues right now. :cat: Also learning a lot from your line of thinking and questions. Great job tonight. Sending good vibes for naps.
 
MinnerPip said:
This is so awesome and inspiring to read! I wasn’t reading forum last night b/c of my anxiety focus on minner and testing hourly. Bell had a great night in those greens! Wow. Minner is aspiring to do the same while I may need anxiety meds soon since I’m barely able to deal with low blues right now. :cat: Also learning a lot from your line of thinking and questions. Great job tonight. Sending good vibes for naps.
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You are doing great!! It is really scary at first to deal with the low numbers. If you look back at September and October of Bell’s spreadsheet, you’ll see that I had a lot of practice before the nonsense of the last couple months.

Here’s the thread of the cycle where I shot my first green, @Bandit's Mom really helped me through that. I think your approach to all this depends on your goal for you and your cat. My goal has been from the start to push hard for remission, since Bell is a relatively young diabetic and I was hoping to sacrifice some stress and time in the present for some more freedom in the future. Now that we're 6 months into this, I'm sure her chances of a full remission are lower, but that is still my goal.

As the good folks here remind me constantly, Lantus is really good at maintaining a flat cycle. For Bell, and a lot of other cats here, once you find the dose that can break through all the bouncing, their cycles are nice and flat and predictable. Caveat of ECID. As you know as a data-driven person, data is your friend. The information you are getting now with Minner will just continue to boost your confidence and lessen your anxiety (I hope) in the future for similar scenarios. The first few times will be really stressful, but I promise it will get easier!

One last note, the TR protocol used here is really well thought out and has been tweaked based on loads of experiences with many, many cats. I am still learning the nuances from more experienced members, but it was designed to be safely aggressive. Those low blues and greens are a fantastic thing! They are taking a lot of stress of Minner's body and giving her a chance to heal. It is a weird catch-22, where the better your cat is doing with FD, the more stressed you get :p.

My big takeaway from this cycle is that the guardrails on dose increases are there for a reason. It is so amazing, and unpredictable to me, that a 0.5 units dose change from a base of 5-6 units can have such a drastic impact. For Bell, it was not a slow path down to those greens, it was a breakthrough. You can see my journey over the last 2 months from going from 3 units to 5.5 units and basically seeing no real impact on Bell's numbers. I get really impatient wanting to see Bell improve and was struggling with the time it took to see those improvements. Wendy reminded me over and over again that the guardrails on dose increases and length of time holding doses were there for a reason, and this cycle is good proof of that. FD is pretty wild. I hope these good numbers stick for Bell.
 
Heike & BInie said:
Hi Seth,

great, great news to see Bell has this long stretch of greens! And you are my hero today, to shoot 75. :nailbiting: To see this, it is almost funny, I stalled today because Binies AMPS was 205. :rolleyes:

Sorry for all the additional stress. Happy to read Blairs backend is o.k. and the sore on her stomach got better.

What is this stupid "coming back to the office"- trend about? I don't get it? They start in Germany as well. I thought most experiences are good. I am much more productive working from home. I think it is a good plan to talk to your manager. I am sure they don't want to loose you because of that. That would be ridiculous. I think you are in a good position to know your worth and that you can do without them. Good luck with that!

I really hope things become a bit more quiet the next days for you. So far your holidays didn't sound that much relaxing.... :bighug::bighug::bighug:
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Thank you, Heike! I hope Binie's rough skin patch heals up for you and her.

I have lots of thoughts on the work thing (:rolleyes:) but I'll keep it brief (for me). I work for a pretty large and traditional company, and I think a lot of the upper management still views butts in seats as doing work, even after the success of all the remote work over the last 5 years. I also think they intentionally plan for worker attrition with these broad mandates and schedule them in situations where they feel they need to cut workforce (i wish the world were a different place sometimes, ugh). I also feel I'm so much more productive remotely because I can control distractions and focus much better, which I know is not the case for everyone, especially new employees who need training and direction from more experienced folks. I do make a concerted effort with in person training, which my manager recognizes. I've been with my current team for around 13 years (yikes) and have a really good relationship with my current manager. He is understanding of my situation, but there is not a whole lot middle management can do with these mandates that come down from the Big Bosses :). We've got so much work coming down the pipes for next year that they really do need me. It should be an interesting situation. I plan to just be honest about the flexibility I require to keep working there. :nailbiting:
 
Wow Wow Wow. Yes that is a great read on your first shoot in green. Love the BOS award and @Bandit's Mom is a rock star. It gives me chills, how fortunate to have this group of caring people helping each other, for love of the kitty.

I appreciate the reassurance of the protocol. I am really going for it and also hope minner might have chance of remission, but it took me so long to get her off dry food and eating enough wet vs starving herself. Stubborn. She’ll be at 6 month mark in a week. It is what it is. We press on.

The IAA thing could throw a wrench in all of this. It adds a layer of uncertainty that makes me more nervous even if we have confidence in time tested solidity of TR protocol. But as you said, experience and data help for sure. We’re seeing more blue and doing better shooting even there. I look back at how I would delay or skip in the blue before TR, so there is progress!!!


bluesunshine said:
It is so amazing, and unpredictable to me, that a 0.5 units dose change from a base of 5-6 units can have such a drastic impact.
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100% wild! I have similar examples. The other wild thing that freaks me out is the size of the drop. She’ll drop 80 points sometimes over 2-3 hours from PS. So I think what if that happens with a lower PS value. I probably need to look at percent reductions. Gumung is an amazing sheet to look at …. And an example that defies my fears of equal drops in value at lower numbers. So learning from all these experiences is super helpful. While keeping mind of ecid to stay safe.

Go Bell!!!! Stay the course. :bighug:
 
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