8/6 Freya AMPS 367, +3.25 125

[Tim & Freya]

Previous Thread

Continuing the journey and still just unsure if I'm doing things correctly. Very strange last night I gave her shot and the numbers on the Libre actually went up over 400 at the midpoint and then started dropping a bit when it was about time for her morning shot. Did that and some of the dose leaked out after injection, and I figured we'd not be seeing much reaction this morning. Then an hour later her numbers started going down faster than they ever have yet. Got down to 125 a little after 3 hours and had me concerned she might go hypo, but it's bounced back up to 164 now (30 mins later).

I'll keep being patient hoping this all smooths out a bit. I do question whether I'm always injecting deep enough when many nights she has basically no reduction after her shot. I always sniff/pat her fur after to make sure it's not come out, and the only time I know it has was this morning. Contemplating whether I should switch to 12mm needles rather than 8mm. Can anyone confirm whether you definitely feel the resistance/poke through with the 31g needles? I used to feel that doing subq with the larger gauge on my other cat, but with these needles it's been a smooth push all the way in. Freya's also a little thicker girl, so I'm not sure if it's possible it's just injecting into a fat layer?

 

[Connie & Parker & Moonie]

I used to think I was injecting incorrectly all the time when I first started, because Moonie's numbers would bounce around so much. I later learned her numbers were just bouncing a lot because her body was so unused to seeing "low" numbers (anything under 300) that she'd constantly be in a cycle where the insulin would work, she'd see some lower numbers, and then her liver would dump a bunch of glycogen into her system. And during the bounces, her cycles tended to look very flat before it broke.

Every cat is different and has different patterns, but just sharing mine as an example.

If you don't smell any insulin or feel wetness, I would guess that the shot went in as intended. I use a 45 degree angle (whereas I went more parallel in the beginning and I think I wasn't going deep enough), and it's usually a pretty smooth push for me. 8mm needles were much easier for me, personally - we got 12mm from the shelter when we adopted Moonie, and she was less cooperative with the shots because she could feel the longer needle + the long needle meant I'd occasionally poke through the tent of skin and give myself the injection