6/16 - Cooper PMPS 142

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Millie and Cooper

Millie and Cooper

Member Since 2015
Yesterday's condo

Sheesh. Yesterday we stalled because of the night we had before. So Cooper started out in the 500's today and I figured we'd be lucky if we made it to the yellows. But he dived today! He's now surfing in the greens around 85 (AT meter). My husband took the day off today, so he's been able to monitor closely.

I'm so nervous about shooting a low number tonight, which we have to do in 2 hours. I can't imagine he's going to go up a ton by then. I'm planning to feed a medium carb food (maybe 13%) at shot time to hopefully give us a little room tonight.

Any advice or encouragement? I'm so nervous! Guess it will be another pj party.
 
It looks like Cooper is having an awesome surf today. He could still rise up some before shot time. The thing about Levemir vs Lantus, is that you really do have to get used to shooting lower numbers. As long as he's on his way up or surfing, you'll still have at least three hours until onset and the numbers start going down again. With Neko it's more like 5 hours. And in that time, food will also bring them up. How is Cooper's appetite today?

Shooting lower numbers really does bring flatter cycles. My personal favorite is giving Neko insulin when she's in the 80's (human meter), cause for her on Levemir, that usually means a very flat cycle. I've seen her move all of 10 points when I do that. Last night was a wild one with a 40 point variance. :rolleyes: And once you have some experience shooting normal numbers, and hopefully seeing those flatter cycles, you'll learn that you can stretch out the tests. In the mean time, lots of healing time going on. :D
 
I think Cooper's gone for today's diving award! That's a huge, huge dive!!

If he's still low at pre-shot, you might find he'll surf for you tonight - if you look at his PM cycle on the 14th, he started off at 150 but never went under 90 even on the full dose. Of course you'll know more once you get his pre-shot test done - hopefully he'll come up a bit for you before then.
 
Rejoice!!! While it's hard on us beans when they do dives like that, the more time they spend in healing numbers, the better for them!

Things can really change in 2 hours though, so don't set yourself up for failure ....I wouldn't plan on feeding a higher carb food until you need to!

The great thing about the L insulins is that they work so much better when you're starting at lower numbers. They don't pull down high numbers that well. I know it looks crazy when you see them go from 400 to 100 and you think "oh no! If I shoot the same dose and he's only at 200, he'll drop to -100!"....Luckily it doesn't work that way...LOL

I think if you continue getting Preshots that are too low for you to feel comfortable shooting, then we might want to discuss lowering the dose so you can get those 2 shots in every time though
 
WTG Cooper!! Cooper is still in a good range to shoot if you are able to monitor. As Wendy said Lantus and Levemir seems to be better at keeping the numbers in a good range at lower numbers. That was a HUGE drop today. With my Tuxie I would be more concerned about the bouncing than about shooting lower numbers. Good luck with tonight! :)
 
Glad to see he's coming up a bit. You did great shooting and handling lower numbers the other night but I know you work tomorrow.

Do you think you're comfortable with it so you can shoot on time tonight?
 
Thank you guys! He did come up some, so we went ahead and shot the full dose on time. +2 and he's already dropping a little. So we'll see.

manxcat419 said:
if you look at his PM cycle on the 14th, he started off at 150 but never went under 90 even on the full dose.
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@manxcat419, he never went below 90 the other day but we fed him all night long, even HC stuff. I don't know where he would have gone if we hadn't.
 
How do you guys decide when to food manipulate and when to let them surf and see what they do? The other night, he never went below 68 for a reduction because we were feeding him every 30 mins to hour practically. Today though, we let him surf with no food manipulation to see what he did and he didn't go below 85.
 
Can't offer advice, as I'm still a relative newbie, but can offer encouragement :bighug::bighug:
I can see that lots of experienced beans have chimed in with their great suggestions. We're so fortunate we can draw on their knowledge, just for the asking :)
 
mstyles said:
he never went below 90 the other day but we fed him all night long, even HC stuff. I don't know where he would have gone if we hadn't.
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I wonder if he's trying for a reduction in that case. If you can, it might be worth seeing whether or not he can earn the reduction instead of intervening with carbs next time he starts dropping. If he'd recently earned a reduction, you might want to stop him getting 2 of them too close together, but I think it would be reasonable to see if he can earn one at this point. :)
 
I'm not sure that that's necessary - once a cat reaches the dose that starts them back down the scale, they tend to start staying in better numbers more of the time anyway. If you look at Rosa's spreadsheet, she was mostly in the 300s or above (and often in black numbers or even off the scale), then had just a couple of days with some blue and green numbers...then she earned her first reduction. It can go that quickly once they hit "that" dose. Given that he got close on both cycles on the 14th if you allow for the high carb food to have boosted his numbers on the PM cycle, and then he got back into green again today even after two 18 hour cycles, I wouldn't be surprised if Cooper has just hit the dose that's going to bring him back down the scale a bit. :)
 
manxcat419 said:
I'm not sure that that's necessary - once a cat reaches the dose that starts them back down the scale, they tend to start staying in better numbers more of the time anyway. If you look at Rosa's spreadsheet, she was mostly in the 300s or above (and often in black numbers or even off the scale), then had just a couple of days with some blue and green numbers...then she earned her first reduction. It can go that quickly once they hit "that" dose. Given that he got close on both cycles on the 14th if you allow for the high carb food to have boosted his numbers on the PM cycle, and then he got back into green again today even after two 18 hour cycles, I wouldn't be surprised if Cooper has just hit the dose that's going to bring him back down the scale a bit. :)
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Good counsel, thanks April!
 
OK, so no bounce from the greens earlier, and he's dropping nicely at +3. If you've got the testing supplies and carbs in case you need them, and you can stay up to monitor I'd see what he can do with this on this cycle. :) I'll be here for another few hours yet so just shout out if there's anything you're not sure about or if he starts giving you numbers that are making you nervous. :)
 
It'll also really help if you edit your subject line above and put in the PMPS ## and then as you get tests in, add those numbers....Like for China, her subject line has her whole day's worth of numbers so people on the board who are watching for problems can quickly see how everyone is doing. Hers looks like this:

AMPS 100,+1 111,+3.5 87,+6 84,+10 98, PMPS 131,+3 82

Each time I get a new test, I go back and edit that first subject line to add it
 
Sending surfing vines your way! :) Great to see him back into green for the second cycle in a row! I think I'd get another test yet before you decide he's going to surf for the night and we can see from there when you need to test next...he's still got a few hours to go yet, though he's looking great so far! :D :D
 
Chris & China said:
It'll also really help if you edit your subject line above and put in the PMPS ## and then as you get tests in, add those numbers....Like for China, her subject line has her whole day's worth of numbers so people on the board who are watching for problems can quickly see how everyone is doing. Hers looks like this:

AMPS 100,+1 111,+3.5 87,+6 84,+10 98, PMPS 131,+3 82

Each time I get a new test, I go back and edit that first subject line to add it
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Done!
 
manxcat419 said:
Sending surfing vines your way! :) Great to see him back into green for the second cycle in a row! I think I'd get another test yet before you decide he's going to surf for the night and we can see from there when you need to test next...he's still got a few hours to go yet, though he's looking great so far! :D :D
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Oh don't worry, I'm not going anywhere! Although I'm going to try and nap for 30 mins or so since this could be a long night.
 
Once kitties get into normal number range, it can be helpful to give them a couple tsps of their regular low carb food. That can help them surf, and spend lots of time in that healing zone.

mstyles said:
I'm leaning that way too, but you don't think it's too soon for us to let him earn that reduction? Do we need to have him in healthier numbers for longer?
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I would try to find a dose where he can spend lots of time in healthy numbers, but you don't have to fight to keep him there. If you can do it with regular LC or even medium carb food, that's great. If you find yourself having to giving lots of high carb food, then he's probably looking for a reduction.
 
manxcat419 said:
I'm not sure that that's necessary - once a cat reaches the dose that starts them back down the scale, they tend to start staying in better numbers more of the time anyway. If you look at Rosa's spreadsheet, she was mostly in the 300s or above (and often in black numbers or even off the scale), then had just a couple of days with some blue and green numbers...then she earned her first reduction. It can go that quickly once they hit "that" dose. Given that he got close on both cycles on the 14th if you allow for the high carb food to have boosted his numbers on the PM cycle, and then he got back into green again today even after two 18 hour cycles, I wouldn't be surprised if Cooper has just hit the dose that's going to bring him back down the scale a bit. :)
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This is true about only some cats. You were lucky with Rosa, April :). I see more SSs where the kitty earns a reduction, it doesn't hold, they have to go back up, then down, etc. one of the lost common comments I've heard in almost five years here is "one dose is too much and the next is too little" . I've said it myself :). So trying to get them in normal numbers and letting them stay there as long as they can will help with that. Gracie has hit the dose that starts her back down many, many times but she gets to a point where it's too little and she screeches to a halt. It's not uncommon to see a cat move up and down around a specific dose. The longer they stay in healing numbers (normal numbers), the better.

It can go quickly and they can come down the dosing scale fast if they suddenly snap. That's true. Let's hope Cooper is one of those.
 
Thank you for the information Marje. :) I really appreciate your input as always. :) I had the feeling that because Cooper seemed to be trying to keep dropping over the last few cycles that he was likely ready to try earning a decrease - I really hope he is! And yes, I do agree that once Rosa started back down she was very obliging about staying in good numbers for me the majority of the time and not having to go back up in dose at all. :)
 
Nice! :) Looks like he's planning to stay level for you tonight. :) I think you could get rather more than an hour's sleep at this point - it doesn't look as though he's planning anything too exciting tonight!
 
manxcat419 said:
Nice! :) Looks like he's planning to stay level for you tonight. :) I think you could get rather more than an hour's sleep at this point - it doesn't look as though he's planning anything too exciting tonight!
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He better not be! Gonna nap for maybe an hour and a half, then check again. Gave him a LC snack.
 
Beautiful surf there Cooper!!! Way to go!!
Surfing_Cat_by_nickmarino.png
 
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