Second thing, i can't really understand the days when Chico starts from low PS, goes to higher AS (which makes it look like a bounce) but then lowers again but not too much. I found in Chnoudi spreadsheet on the 30/11/2020 PM Cycle the same trend (sure, Chico gets it more often than that and higher as well), but again for now that kind of gives me peace of mind
So on 11/30
In the am cycle, the bounce started to clear somewhere midcycle, dipped to blue late in the cycle, but probably didn't clear completely, the duration of that cycle was maybe a bit short so you see the rise to yellow (low yellow), Chnoudi gets his shot, that takes about 2hrs to onset, in the meantime he has had his pmps meal and snacks, so of course the BG rises, onset maybe a bit later than +2 perhaps on this day, as the pm shot onsets you start to see the numbers come down and then go up.
The reason we see this pattern is that though the duration was good, there was not enough overlap of the cycles.
The lantus cycle can last longer than 12hrs, when this happens it 'covers' the time from insulin shot to it's onset, when we start to get duration and overlap that's when we see the cycles level out.
Chnoudi didn't bounce as much as Chico, and she did level out quite quickly.
Have a look at this other ss this is one of a bouncy cat called
Ivana, she went OTJ one week before George. She had a tendancy to dive into lime green, forcing a reduction and then the reduction would fail. She bounced all the way OTJ in 2016 it took 7months to get there, she only flattened a couple of weeks before she started her OTJ. Tara had to adopt a different approach to taking reductions to make them stick, and she also tried to mange the curve with food.
George took 6months to get to OTJ, he wasn't very bouncy, he got regulated and then earned his reductions quite slowly, by being a week in solid green numbers. In some ways more similar to chnoudi, but chnoudi just earned them much quicker.
I am very grateful that you are looking into Chico's trends and i really appreciate you questioning our methods, we don't want to waste his time for mistakes, so please if you think these or some other trends seem odd let us know and we will look into what could be the cause.
I just always question and sometimes their might be an obvious reason for some pattern we see on the SS, we have seen CG hand over shooting duties to a petsitter or other family member, and found something strange happened and it turned out a mistake was made with the dosing. I didn't think that was the case with you, but the thought popped into my head and that's why I asked the obvious question. Some people for instance find they get a difference in the cycle depending where on the cat they give the shot, scruff or side of body, I can't say I noticed a difference, I used to move the shot round so George wouldn't get sore.
I think that Chico is starting to see better duration, that's why you are now starting to see those lower PS on the PS following a nice active cycle, but I don't think he is getting a significant amount of overlap yet, so he starts of with a lower PS, like that blue yesterday 21/02, his numbers start to rise, from the food and lack of duration and he has also started a bounce so the shot onsets, he drops a little and settles into a yellow bounce cycle. PMPS on 21/02 he spikes to red then dips into flat yellow, some cats give you this spike (high) before they drop into flat yellows/blues signalling an active cycle coming up. When I saw that yellow this morning I suspected you would have an active am cycle, and he did, just when we are thinking 'is there anything different going on?'
What I hope will happen is that when he gets to a good dose you will see better duration and overlap, he will spend more time in low numbers and the bounces will reduce. But even if the bounces don't stop they are not something to worry about, it's his bodies physical reaction to the lower than normal numbers, just ignore those (I know it is hard) and keep looking at the nadirs.
BTW as he saw green on this dose and it's been a while you should hold on to this dose for at least 10cycles, he didn't make it back to green today, but lets give him some time to settle in and see if he gets there.
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.
- when your cat starts to see nadirs under 100, hold the dose for at least 10 cycles before increasing.
- if your cat is new to numbers under 200, it is recommended to hold the dose for at least 8-10 cycles before increasing.
- Increase by 0.25 unit after 3 days (6 consecutive cycles) if nadirs are greater than 200, but less than 300.
- Increase by 0.5 unit after 3 days (6 consecutive cycles) if nadirs are greater than 300.
