5/11/24 Mazi AMPS 120A/147L +4 80L PMPS 128A/154L +4 74A/76L +6.5 66L +7.5 55L +8.5 90L

Mazi's Mom

Mazi's Mom

Active Member
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-84l-11-130l-pmps-135a-126l-4-89a-86l.289844/

So about 3:30 am when I decided I was done studying my nursing books for the night and it was time to take a cat nap before I had to get up and take Mr. Mazi's BG, feed, and give him his shot he decided he wanted to have a little fun.

I checked his BG one last time before I thought I was going to rest my head on my comfy pillow but Mazi had other plans..

My little man didn't want me to go to sleep and decided to give me some excitement for an early Mother's Day surprise with a low blood sugar way past his normal nadir, gave him 1 tsp. of his normal low carb friskies, but he decided it wasn't enough and his BG continued to decrease to 55 mg/dl. till I brought out the friskies pate gravy. I gave him roughly 1.5 to 2 tbs (1/4 of a 5.5 oz can).

He was so happy to get some gravy and devoured it. I must say, I was a little excited to give him some gravy because I knew he was going to love it. Continued to monitor his BG's and he finally gave me a BG of 90 mg/dl at 5:30 am where I felt safe to fall asleep.

I woke up the boyfriend (Joey) at 5:30am and told him what happened. Joey gets up at 7:30am on the weekends so he said he would recheck him when he got up.

Joey was a sweetheart knowing I was exhausted from having no sleep. So he let me sleep in today and took care of Mazi all day.

With me having the medical background, I like to take full control of managing Mazi's diabetes. Joey is well trained on how to check BGs, what is considered safe, when to take action, when/how much to feed/snack times, Mazi's normal time pattern of nadir, Mazi's dose, when to shoot, and how to document.

Even thou I take most control, I like to give him report everyday so he can be apart of Mazi's treatment, know how he's doing and knows how to care for him when I can't.

I'm a little of a control freak when it comes to Mazi and his diabetes. But I knew a day would come that I wouldn't be able to care for Mazi due to work, being exhausted, or not being home. But I will say, Joey did a great job today and managed Mazi well and kept him safe. Sometimes, you just have to take a break and accept help from others.

I slept from 6am all the way till 6pm and it felt so good. I needed the recharge.

Also just wanted to add Mazi showed no signs of hypoglycemia. He seemed to be at his normal baseline at 55 mg/dl. Just hungry.

Late last nights and today's graph 5/12/24

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/qRork2phNnDv

Average glucose Graph by the hour over the past 6 days

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/eK3kRKWQpFoM
 
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Mazi is really begging for me to give him that reduction. I reminded him soon sugar baby!

@Wendy&Neko I'm going to send you a picture of Mazi's syringe that will show what I have been eyeballing at 0.25U. I will use a dark colored liquid so it will be easy to see.

But I was wondering if you could take a look at how I dose him and give some feedback if I'm giving more than 0.25U or less.

I've seen the pics on the links here, but still a little unsure of myself.

Should have that pic to you within the next hour to 1.5 hrs.

I use a U100 with 0.5 markings just to confirm.
 
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@Wendy&Neko

The first picture is what I consider 0.5U.

0.5 is under the bold black line and the black plunger touches the bottom of the bold black 0.5U line.

The 2nd picture is what I draw up for 0.25U

O.25U I cover up the entire bold black 0.5U line and the plunger is even with top of the 0.5U bold black line.

Wendy can you please take a peek and let me know how accurate my 0.25U dosing is and give me any feedback if I am not drawing up and dosing correctly?

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/otUAErCRNyZ6

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/yA5hTijkw0bI

Thank you in advance for your guidance!
 
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Being exactly on the 0.25 mark is not so important as consistency from shot to shot. However, the Sticky Note on Insulin Care and Syringe Info describes 0.25 units as the plunger being half way between the 0.0 and 0.5 units marks. Your 0.25 looks like what i did for 0.5 units. The plunger side closest to the needle is lined up with the bottom of the 0.5 unit mark. Some people chose to shoot with the plunger in the middle of the thick line. Some syringe brands have thicker lines than others too. In other words, look for consistency.

However, I do think your 0.25 units leaves quite a bit of insulin in the syringe. An interesting experiment might be to count drops in your doses. Fill a syringe with a coloured liquid (tea, juice, etc.). Practice twisting the plunger to get even sized drops. Then draw what you have been using as 0.5 units and count the number of drops. Do the same for 0.25 units. Is it half the number of drops of the 0.5 units?

Too bad you didn't check that 55 with the AT. I think he wants a smaller dose.
 
@Wendy&Neko

I know I'm kicking myself in the butt for not checking it against the AT. I just figured the AT was going to say he was low. I've noticed like with all Human meters compared to pet meters, the lower the BG the closer both meters will be in glucose readings. And the higher the BG is the farther the numbers will be when comparing meters. At least in my experience, the past week.

But you're 100% right it would have been nice to see what the Alphatrak would have measured.

I usually always compare at Preshot, nadirs, and low numbers. Last night was an off night, I know better.

Thanks for your feedback, that helps so much. So it sounds like, as I thought I was giving 0.25, I was prolly giving 0.5/0.4 units.

In nursing school they teach us to place plunger at the bottom of the thick line and no more than the middle of the thick line when drawing up insulin. So that's why I was using the bottom of the line to measure my plunger with a 0.5U dose. Where I was placing my plunger when I thought I was give 0.25U, I figured at the most I was giving him 0.3U.

But moving forward, I will just use the space between the 0.5U and the 0U to dose 0.25 and try my best to place the top of the plunger right in the middle. That makes the most sense. I had a gut feeling I was doing something wrong. I should have asked a week ago when my gut told my placement didn't seem right.

So, I just grabbed a syringe and was practicing drawing up 0.25U. I noticed that where my plunger was almost looks like what a 0.1U dose looks like based on the link that shows the picture examples. There's such a tiny space between the 0.5 and the 0U markings, it makes it difficult.

Moving forward I'll dose Mazi's 0.25U between the 0.5 and 0U marking. I'll worry about how to draw up 0.1U when the time comes. And in the mean time, I will practice the drop method like you suggested.

I feel terrible, this entire time I thought I was giving Mazi 0.25/0.3U I was really giving him 0.5U/0.4U. No wonder he was continuing to go a little low when we went from 0.5 to what I thought was 0.25/0.3U.

Again, lesson learned. I can't dwell on it, and Mazi wasn't harmed or didn't drop severely low, thank god. Moving forward, ill do better.

Tonight, ill monitor Mazi close bc he already got his nighttime dose. In which I gave him 0.5/0.4U. Tomorrow morning we'll start him on the 0.25U.

Thank you so much Wendy for your guidance! And thank you for all that you do for all us caregivers on here! And thank you for keeping all the kitties out here safe!
 
Don't worry yet about changing the spreadsheet. Let's see what the drop experiment tells you. As I mentioned, there are big differences between syringes too. At the end, I was dosing Neko what I called 0.25 units, but the top of the plunger was below the zero line. The lines were that so badly marked on the syringe there was a ton of room below the zero. I figured about 1/3 of a unit down there.
 
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