4/7 Buffy AMPS 365 - Opinions please on regulation

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Buffy-&-Cindee

Buffy-&-Cindee

Member Since 2014
I'm stumped. Buffy was doing pretty good until the beginning of March and now her numbers are all over the place. We were at a point where I was actually reducing the amount of insulin to now where I'm increasing it every week. I'm seeing the same pattern...increase the dose, her +6 starts coming down then +12 she starts going up again.

Her AMPS is always high because my husband feeds her about 2 hours before her AMPS (he's up way before me in the AM). However they're higher than they've ever been. Today was really high, for her. I don't know if I should keep on this path of increasing the Lantus and hope that her numbers will start to fall or if maybe she's just become resistant to Lantus.

I'd appreciate it if you guys would take a look at her SS and give me your opinion. Note: I use the Alpha Tracker and my spread sheet colors are little different than your used to but I have listed the ranges at the top of the SS.

Thanks!
Cindee
 
When was the last time she had a blood panel and urinalysis? It sounds like her appetite is good but I wonder if her labs might give a clue as to what is going on with her?
 
In December. Her behavior is normal, not even acting like she's starving when her numbers are high. No other typical symptoms. I just tested her for Ketones and that was good 0.1. :-)
 
Buffy-&-Cindee said:
In December. Her behavior is normal, not even acting like she's starving when her numbers are high. No other typical symptoms. I just tested her for Ketones and that was good 0.1. :)
Click to expand...

Well that's good news. I'm fresh out of ideas so perhaps someone smarter will be able to help out here.
 
Hmmm...that's very interesting!! It looks like all the sudden something changed about a month ago, so if her last checkup was in December, it might be worth the trip to have the vet give her a good once over.

Other than that, what I can suggest is that you really need to get some more tests on the PM cycle...even just getting a quick test right before you go to bed will help. It's possible that she's going lower at night and then bouncing high by morning
 
It is odd isn't it? I'll start testing her before I go to bed. I've been working 16-18 hours for the past few weeks and I seem to fall asleep the minute I sit down and if I don't go straight to bed, I wind up waking up and then I can't get back to sleep. It's a vicious cycle. I'll test her before I even sit down, that will take care of that problem. :-)

I'm wondering if she's just become resistant to the Lantus. It's strange how it happened all of a sudden. As soon as I can get away from work, I'll make an appointment with the vet.
 
I know this probably won't be the popular opinion and I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but if your gut is telling you that something just isn't right then you need to do something.

Now, I am not saying that this is the route you should take, but I am throwing it out there for you to consider. If it were me (and understand that I am a bit of a rebel) I would probably consider going back to the last good dose. I know it means that you could possibly lose a month, and Buffy's numbers might just go up because it might not be the right thing and in another month you might be right back to where you are right now.

I do agree with @Chris & China that it is important to get more tests and a full curve every now and then.
 
I was thinking along those lines as well. Although, that 's what the vet had me do when this started and the numbers came down but only for a couple of days and they've haven't been decent since this started. However, the higher doses don't seem to be really helping either.
 
I think of the spreadsheet as being like a jigsaw puzzle. When you're doing a puzzle, you don't need every piece to see what the picture looks like. If you have a sprinkling of pieces all over the puzzle you can get a pretty good idea of what is going on. In Buffy's case, you're missing nearly all of the picture on the right side of your puzzle.

If I were you, I'd get something in the mid-cycle of the pm cycle every night. I can relate to your woes about falling asleep - I have the same problem. But I think if you could get a pm cycle test at some point in every pm cycle it would probably help you know what's going on. I'd also vary the times you're getting during the day cycle. You've got plenty of tests - i'm not meaning that you need more tests - but i'd just mix up the times you check. Think of that jigsaw puzzle model and you'll get what i mean!

One question that i'm wondering - how old is your insulin? Have you replaced it since diagnosis, or is this still your first vial/pen?
 
Mid-cycle PM would be at 3:30AM. I love my cat but I'll wind up being worthless during the day if I have to set the alarm for that time. Once I'm awake, I won't be able to fall back asleep and if I'm suffering, so will my family and my business. The best I can do to keep a happy medium is to test her before I go to bed. If I push it, I can stay awake until midnight. I'll do the best I can.

The insulin is fairly new. I got it on March 8th. That's what I thought was the problem to begin with. Obviously not.

I think what I'm going to do is what Tina suggested and lower the dosage. That's exactly what my vet had me do when this started. I'll try that for a few cycles and see how she reacts. If her numbers really shoot up...off to the vet we go.
 
You don't have to get a mid-cycle in every night....If you can just get a test in before you go to bed at night, it'll help fill in some of the blanks....at least if you grab that "before bed" test each night, if it looks like she might be going TOO low, you can save your "extra" night-time tests for those nights....Hopefully she won't force you to watch him all night very often! But knowing that might be happening is the best way to know where to go from here.

By reducing the dose, you risk having Glucose Toxicity set in....then you just have to go to even higher doses to get ahead of it again

Here are several links that help to understand Glucose Toxicity for you to look over

As quickly as her numbers changed, I really thing the trip to the vet is your first order of business...."Something" has changed, so we need to make sure there's nothing else going on with her that could be effecting her numbers.
 
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Midcycle just means anything between preshot tests. I'd get a before bed, or if you're up sometime early in the morning, grab one then. I wouldn't test at 330am unless I was up anyway or worried about low numbers.

When you have more info you don't have to guess what's going on.
 
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