9/26 Angie pmps=266 +2=209 +3=203

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GraceAndAngie

GraceAndAngie

Member Since 2013
Good morning LL,

Yesterday's condo is here.

I had a hard time getting a blood sample again this morning. Angie has the ear flick, the ear swat and the ear jerk down pat. I ended up wrapping her in a towel with everything except one ear covered. It was the first time I had to use a towel and the first (muffled) testing growls that I've received. But it worked. I got her purring with her brush again afterwards to make up for it.

I don't like purple. I know a lot of you get purples regularly but Angie was such a blue kitty the last two times that yellows gave me a fright. Since home testing she's only ever had two yellows. Should really hold this dose for 6 cycles?

Lots of vines to the kitties and beans that need them. Thinking of J.D. this morning.

Grace
 
Re: 9/26 Angie amps=320

Phooey on the Stinky Pinkies, come on Angie, Tess promises to make you a special dessert to bring you down just like she did today! Uh, well, maybe not just like she did, a little slower would be better! :roll:

Have you just restarted insulin? Your SS shows only a couple of cycles. If so remember that the shed has to get built up and NDW can take numbers up before you start to see the actual effect of the insulin dose.
 
Re: 9/26 Angie amps=320

Thanks for the reassurance Ann.

Yes, we've just restarted. She's been in remission since July last year. She was only on insulin for 6 weeks last time, 3 weeks the time before that and about the same the first time around. With such long gaps in between, I have to relearn a lot each time. Angie, on the other hand, just gets better and better at avoiding that little plastic strip touching her ear!

Ooh yummies, thanks Tess
 
Re: 9/26 Angie amps=320

Hi Grace,
Sorry to see you back, but nice to see you! I agree with Ann: the shed needs to build and Angie needs the full 6 cycles to settle into the dose. Hang in there and see what happens!

Thanks for visiting Rusty' condo.

Ella & Rusty
 
Re: 9/26 Angie amps=320 +3=183

Dramas here this morning!

I tried to get Angie's +2 but all I could get was an E6 error message.

I called the help number on the back of the machine and apparently it needs to be replaced - they're sending me another one but it wont get here till Monday or Tuesday. Thankfully my neighbour/friend was at the shops and could pick up another one. My mum's in town all day and I don't drive any more because I've had eye troubles.

We got the new meter in time for Ang's +3 and little button's back in the blues. :)
 
Re: 9/26 Angie amps=320 +3=183

Hi Ella,

Angie's +3 shows me that you, Ann and the protocol are right (not surprising). It takes a little bit of time for the dose to have it's full effect.
 
Re: 9/26 Angie amps=320 +3=183

I've always like blue much better than pink/purple, and since FD it goes double. :twisted: Way to go Angie - we knew you had some nicer colours in their somewhere.

Have you tried putting a blood droplet on your fingernail, letting the cat go, then testing from the fingernail?
 
Re: 9/26 Angie amps=320 +3=183

just wanted to say welcome back - you must've been on TR while i was off for a while. Three remissions is pretty amazing!

Do you have any idea what's kicking Angie out of remission? Has she had a dental or been checked for teeth issues? Any chance she could have a bladder infection? Those are two common reasons for cats coming out of remission. Any chance she's gotten into dry food?

Do you have any more recent labs?
 
Re: 9/26 Angie amps=320 +3=183 +5=fail

I have decided that beans need post-testing treats too!

We had another fail at +5 today. I messed up with the new meter after poking her 4 times again. It's hard to get used to doing this. It's just so horrible. It's taking me 4 pokes to get a sample each time. She's so sweet and tolerant (except for when I cover her head with a towel). Her poor ears. I cant keep poking her this many times a day. She's only just finished three rounds of ear drops, after some topical anti-inflammatories that she reacted to and her ears scabbed up, her hair fell out and she scarred. It's awful to have to do something further to them. I've got to toughen up though and poke harder, otherwise I poke too many times and just make it worse.

I had a cry, made myself some lunch (beans need to eat, otherwise they don't cope so well), decided to let her go again and read my meter instruction booklet.

Wendy - thanks for the tip on putting the blood on your finger nail. I'll try it.

I'm going to try Vaseline (after the tips from Geogette's thread). Maybe that will stop the blood from wicking away onto her ear. The test strip can't pick up enough that way. I'll also use her calendula cream to help heal the ears up after all my jabbing.

Julie - thanks for the welcome :) Angie came out of remission the first time while still on dry food and before I was home testing. The second time was after one accidental high carb meal - she got into the gravy! This time the vet thinks it's from new anti-inflammatory/anti-bacterial drops that she was on over the last week for ear infection. This was her third topical anti-inflammatory med, the first one gave her a bad skin reaction by didn't aggravate her diabetes, the second one didn't work and the third one did it's job but here we are again. She has recent labs, that all came out well. I've got to get a copy of them from the vet. She had a dental earlier this year and her teeth were great, but needed a clean. I don't know about the bladder infection but I haven't seen any symptoms.
 
Re: 9/26 Angie amps=320 +3=183

The Vaseline works well for me when I'm testing. What size lancets are you using? Maybe try a 26-28 which is larger, at least for a while.
 
Hello,

I have a couple of questions - highlighted blue because I like blue today.

At what point do keytones become a worry? She's never had them before. I'll test if you think I should - I have some test strips but it's hard to get a big enough blood sample so I don't like testing more often than necessary.

Angie got four breakfast this morning. Mum tried to give me a sleep in by feeding Angie early. Unbeknownst to me, she ate at +10. Would that have given her a higher amps? We used to do that for her to bring her pre-shot numbers down but was that because she was close to going OTJ? I didn't know about the extra meal until I wondered why she didn't seem as interested in her third breakfast as normal. Mum promised not to give her any more meals, especially without telling me about them.

Thanks so much for all your help again,
Grace


Recap on today:
sneaky breakfast at +10
amps=320
+3=184
+5=fail (but now we have vasoline and new tricks up our sleeves)
+10=319
pmps=266
+2=209
+3=203


Wendy - vasoline worked a charm. I'm using size 28 lancets. After the last few tests with vasoline, I think I've sorted the issue anyway. Thanks for your-always-helpful help :)

Little Angie's world was turned upside down tonight. First dinner was three hours late!!! :o She's used to first dinner at 5 but I had to wait till 8 pm to feed her because I could only move her shot forward half an hour per day. She was confused - why are you cooking dinner but not feeding me? She went through a few of the stages of grieving (pleading, anger, disbelief, and then finally resignation). She curled up on the bed and purred when I patted her but looked up at me with anxious eyes. Don't worry kitty, in 6 day's first dinner will be on time again - but first breakfast will be three hours early!
 
Can you get ketone strips for measuring her pee stream? The should be available wherever regular diabetic supplies are sold. Those are much cheaper and are a good first hint about ketones. There is no magic number where you start to worry about ketones - it's just a good practice to get into. However, having said that, ketones come about because of infection, not enough calories and not enough insulin.

We do try to feed before +10 if possible, as the carbs can last a couple of hours. Actually, feeding most of the meal before nadir is best as that's when the effect of the insulin is stronger. Feeding after nadir can have the effect of slamming on the brakes. As kitties get close to OTJ and tiny doses, that's when we suggest a +9 or +10 snack to encourage the pancreas to kick in and lower the preshot numbers.
 
i wouldn't tell if someone gave me a sneaky breakfast either! ;-) :lol:

sure, it could've driven up her amps. the snack you were giving her when she was on her way OTJ was probably just a teaspoon of low carb food. that's just enough to stimulate the healing-pancreas to put out some insulin without driving up the BGs. That's pretty different from giving a meal at +10.

Do you know that it takes a couple of weeks of poking to stimulate capillary growth in the ears? I'm guessing that she may need to go through that phase again, and that might be why you aren't getting blood with every poke. In a couple of weeks, I suspect you will.

If you have a lancet device, one trick to help get a blood drop to well up is to press the cap firmly against the ear for about 5 seconds before you release the lancet to poke. Then continue to hold it in the same spot without moving for another 5 seconds. That works wonders for getting the blood to form a bead. Then you can get it on your fingernail, but you still want to staunch her ear so that she doesn't continue to bleed and bruise where you poked. That also prevents scarring, and scar tissue doesn't bleed well at all, so it's really important.

Not sure if you have an antibiotic ointment with pain relief available, but we have Neosporin (or polysporin) with pain relief available here. The pain relief part is what is great - if you use the ointment, it can be a replacement for the vaseline, and the pain relief works wonders on helping take the owie out of the ear. I tried it on myself once - the stuff is fantastic. I put it on punkin's ears every night, and they would heal by morning. If we had to poke a lot during one day, i'd put it on during the day as well. With both that and the vaseline, you want to wipe off the excess before poking or the greasiness will goo up your strip.

Do her ear drops have steroid ingredients in them? I'm guessing that may have been the trigger.
 
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