6/10 Peyton, PMPS 385, +2 306

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jcc1531

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Peyton and I had a rough night, or I should say morning, dealing with low numbers. HUGE thank you to Wendy, Julie and Elise for being there and helping us thru. Big thanks to Elise who stayed up and was helping me while dealing with low numbers herself. I hope you got a little rest Elise :)
Since Peyton dropped below 50 we are starting 0.75u this morning and seeing how he does. Hopefully this will keep him from dropping so low. It was a scary night but knowing you all were just a click away was very comforting and calming. THANK YOU!!!
Julie and Peyton
btw, I believe I have become a professional ear sticker...Peyton is not pleased :)
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, starting 0.75u

Good morning Julie!

Wow, what a night! (morning) but you did great! The first time is always scary but the important thing is to just stay calm and do what needs to be done!

It does get easier, and as you learn more about Peyton, each time it'll be less frightening. The important thing to remember is as long as you are home testing often and have the supplies you need, you can control his blood glucose numbers

Just a tip on your spreadsheet....IF you want to put results in a cell (like at 5.5 hours), you can type the ## space @ space 5.5 .....the cell will expand. You will have to "color" it yourself though using the little paint can icon. (if you look at China's spreadsheet, you'll see lots of times where I've entered numbers at half hours)

Peyton is bouncing this morning (which we'd expect) from dropping so low last night. It could take up to 72 hours to clear, so for now, you just hold the .75 and we'll see how quickly he clears the bounce.

Bouncing---When we first start giving insulin, our cats have already been diabetic for an unknown amount of time, and their body has gotten used to living at those higher numbers, so when the insulin brings them lower than they're used to, or they drop a big amount quickly (like from 400-250 in 2 hours), the liver thinks it's an emergency and releases hormones and sugars it's stored just in case. It's a leftover survival mechanism from when our cats were wild, and times were tough. If their blood sugar got too low, those stored sugars and hormones kept them alive until they could find food. Unfortunately, Mr. Liver doesn't understand that times aren't tough! We want those lower numbers! So he does his job, and sends the numbers back up fast (BOUNCE!!)

The more time we can keep them in "normal" numbers, the more used to it Mr. Liver will be. He has to re-learn what it's like to live at those lower numbers.

When they first start, they can bounce really high, and it can take up to 72 hours for the bounce to "clear", so it's important to know when they're bouncing, and when their numbers are just too high due to not enough insulin. As they spend more time in lower numbers, the bounces won't be as high, and will clear faster.

Congratulations on making through your first PJ party! ~O)
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, starting 0.75u

You were great last night. You remained quite calm, at least on the outside. :lol: I hope the bounce is a short one an Peyton does well with the dosecrease. He will definitely like the reprieve from extra sticks!! I hope work isn't too tough without sleep.
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, starting 0.75u

great job last night - i'm so glad Elise was up anyway and able to coach you through! Don't worry that Peyton is high - he'll come down, but it might last as long as 3 days. As cats get used to lower numbers the bounces go lower and resolve more quickly, but in the beginning some cats will take the full 3 days.

glad you had the neosporin with pain relief - the stuff is so helpful for our kitty's ears. you want to wipe off any excess before you test or it will goo up your test strip.
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, starting 0.75u

Thank you all! Chris I love your reference to the PJ party! Lol
I had one quick cry away from Peyton and then said "let's do this." A putty party wasn't going to fix anything. I kept telling myself what Julie said, "you are doing it to keep him alive." With the help from you all we did it!!! Woohoo!
I was happy to not see a 600+ number this morning. We are used to hi numbers then.
I am just getting home to test him so I will update soon.
MANY THANKS!!!!!
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, +3 309, starting 0.75u

We have gone down a little. After being poked so many times last night he is starting to resist me. When do I get to start sticking less? We both look forward to that day! Do their ears not start to get tough on the edges from multiple sticks? He has light ears and I can see all the places we have poked :(
I know their are supposedly not many nerve receptors there but he definitely feels it. Am I doing something wrong? Do you poke right on the very edge or in some? I feel like I'm piercing his ears over and over again.
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, +3 309, starting 0.75u

You can poke anywhere along the edge....On the furry side or the inside....and although the pictures we show you of the "sweet spot" indicate only a small area, you can actually poke anywhere along either edge (but if you continue to poke mainly in the same smaller area, that area will grow new capillaries and will begin to bleed easier)

It's normal for their ears to look a little rough at the beginning, but they'll heal up and get used to it. China, being an all white cat, has those almost transparent ears and although if you look, you'll see a small area where she's been poked, it's really amazing how good her ears look. Even my vet said he was surprised at how good they looked considering how much I test.

As you get more data, and learn more about how Peyton responds, you'll get to the point where you'll know when you need to test more often, and when you can give his ears a pokey break.

With him sliding slowly down today for example, I'd probably try to get a +6 to +8 (because we are trying to get an idea of where his nadir is) and unless there's something shocking going on, give his ears a break until PMPS time if you want to.
 

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Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, +3 309, starting 0.75u

I'll start sticking further up. I've been doing it closer to that flap or open skin area (not sure what that's called). When I have poked further up I haven't gotten much blood but I would like to have more of an area. I'll get another reading before PMPS I'm going to keep neosporin in business!!!
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, +3 309, +8.5 337

I got home late from work today and missed the +6 or plus +8. I did get an +8.5 reading of 337. I hope I didn't mess up on the 0.75u this morning. It was very hard to see if I was getting it between the 0.5 and 1.0. Tomorrow I will aim to get a +6 reading and see if it's lower then.
Thank you Chris for the graph showing the sweat spot. I have been doing it right according to the graph.
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, +3 309, +8.5 337

You don't always want to get your tests at the same time anyway. Cat's don't always nadir exactly at +6, and as soon as you think you've figured out where Peyton is going to usually nadir, he'll change it anyway :lol:

There's a picture of .75 at the bottom of this page of Fine dosing pics, but getting exactly .75 isn't the important part...It's getting what you think is .75 consistently. (so if your .75 is really .65, it doesn't really matter...it's just important that it's always as close to the same dose as you can get it)
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346, +3 309, +8.5 337

Oh Dear! I think I need to get on anxiety medication! LOL
I looked at that link this morning and tried to get mine as close as I could to that. I thought my eyes were good but I may need a magnifier :shock:
So now that he went below 50 last night I will continue with 0.75u for a while?
One more question...I found out today I have to be at a meeting Friday morning that I cannot miss and will have to leave my house at the latest 7:30 and I normally don't shoot until 8:30. How do you handle situations like that? I wish there were a way I could get out of it but there's not :(
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346,+3 309,+8.5 337,PMPS 385

After going back and reading all the post from today and understanding bouncing I gave him 0.75u. I tried to poke further up on his ear and barely got anything. I just hope when I'm poking lower down that I'm not hitting the same spot.
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346,+3 309,+8.5 337,PMPS 385

Hi Julie. You seemed to have recovered nicely from our pj party! If you need to shoot a little over an hour early for your meeting, you can either shoot half hour early each day until you get to the time you need or 15 minutes early each shot. I like to do the latter. So it would look like this:
Wed. morning 8:15
Wed. night 8:00
Thurs morning 7:45
Thurs night 7:30
Friday morning 7:15 or:

Wed. morning 8:00
Wed night 8:00
Thurs morning 7:30
Thurs night 7:30
Fri. morning 7:15

I had to do this a few times so far. We all did it for the daylight savings change. You have a 30 minute cushion every 24 hours.

i see Peyton is bouncing just like Max!! I hope they both come down to yellow or blue tonight.
 
Re: 6/10 Peyton AMPS 346,+3 309,+8.5 337,PMPS 385

So glad our babies did so good last night. I don't think they had much fun at our PJ party. I think their party started after we went to bed. Ha! Hopefully we won't have to have one of those parties again anytime soon! Thanks again for being there for us!
 
Hi Julie and Peyton

I'm glad the SS is working for you. You did fantastic last night with Elise helping you. That is the great thing about LL....new members learn how to deal with low numbers from experienced members and before you know it, they are paying it forward and helping newer members. :-D :-D

Here is a post on Testing and Shooting Tips which might give you a few other ideas. Yes, over time, the capillaries from a little better and you may get to where you barely have to touch his ear with a lancet and it will bleed.

I know Elise gave you my video on calipers, but you might find the entire post on Dosing with calipers helpful. Calipers are not required but it does help with dose consistency.

Last important thing to pass on is when he bounces like this at night....sleep. Take advantage of high numbers as much as you can. I know you have another kitty with health issues but grab what time you can to rest. :-D
 
when i started with punkin, i had to drag him out from under furniture to test him. i'd be pulling on his arms and hoping i didn't dislocate anything. then i had to "burrito" wrap him with a beach towel to keep him still so i could figure out what the heck i was doing in poking him. but through it all, i kept thinking "i can do this. it's going to save his life." After 2 weeks of all the hoopla he surrendered and it was never as hard after that. I have kids and there are lots of times that you have to make your kids do things because it's good for them. my youngest daughter is shot-phobic and one time i was prying her fingers off of the car handle to get her into the doc to get vaccinated before she was excluded from school. i probably permanently damaged her psyche, but i did it. i told her she was going in, or the nurse was coming out, but the shot was going to happen one way or the other.

of course, now she is completely anti-vaccines and i'll probably end up with unvaccinated grandchildren at some point! :lol:

but knowing you're helping peyton will help you get through this. and he will get used to the routine and it will all get infinitely easier. his ears will grow more capillaries from getting poked, then you won't need to have the lancet set so deeply that you're piercing through his ear. i used punkin's left ear at the beginning, but we scarred it. i'm not sure how. we switched to his right ear and used it for the rest of his life - about 2+ more years. if you staunch the blood after the test, it won't bruise or scar. using the neosporin with pain relief definitely helps, and giving a treat every single time will help him stop fighting it.

you did the right thing dropping to 0.75u this morning and holding it tonight. give it 6 cycles to see where he gets to when the bounce clears from last night's low numbers.

How long will you be gone Friday morning? If it's not too long, you could also shoot after your meeting, that way you're not shooting and leaving. That would mean shooting 12 hrs after you gave the friday am shot.

If he's low Friday morning and you're not going to be back for several hours, keep in mind that you can always skip.
 
I can't believe I'm still awake! What is wrong with me?! I think I have some crazy burst of energy. Thank you both for the words of encouragement and a good laugh. Your daughter sounds like me as a child! I hated going to the doctor and especially the dentist. I'm still scared to death of the dentist. Recently my 8 year old niece went back with me for moral support and to hold my hand :lol:
My liver shunt kitty is having another rough night. It's either because of the capstar I gave him a few days ago OR the opened bag of crumbled graham crackers I found. He hasn't quite learned that he can't eat junk. I've had to child lock all the cabinets because of him. He's my crazy child :)
My sweet Peyton is resting comfortably and getting a break from ear pokes. This is a good night!
 
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