BG measurements unusual or okay?

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joanngold

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BG measurements unusual or okay?
Postby joanngold » Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:07 pm

My name is Jo Ann. My cat's name is Big Shot. FDMB is very helpful in learning to manage my cat's diabetes
I began charting for tight regulation recently. An eye opening experience. I believe that I am following
the protocol for TR but today's results are puzzling.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT TODAY'S CHART MEASURES ARE SAYING?

Big Shot was diagnosed in July, but I began charting for tight regulation only recently. He's on Lantus.
Big Shot is a 13 yr old Maine Coon, 19 lbs and the soul of my home.

I attached my spreadsheet. I am very uneasy seeing the BG readings jumping around.
Perhaps the readings are ordinary when attempting to lower insulin dosages.
But I don't know. I feel that I should hold the dosage course and the BG
readings will "settle down". BUT I DON'T KNOW.

I would appreciate comments about the attached spreadsheet.
Many Thanks, Jo Ann

JOGO.xlsx.xlsx
 
Hi Jo Ann and Big Shot - welcome to LantusLand! Unfortunately, I'm not able to open your spreadsheet....it's an excel sheet, right? Right now it's just appearing as a line of text in your post...
 
Amy,

I'm uploading the spreadsheet. I think it will open now.
Thank you very much for your interest.

Jo Ann
 
Actually, could you please add Big Shot's spread sheet to your signature? If you look at my signature, there is a line that says "Trixie's SS", and when you click on that, it opens her SS in the browser; this is the "preferred" approach.

Here's a link to the instructions that are in the Tech Forum:
Creating your spreadsheet and adding it to your signature

Thanks, Jo Ann!

(You can also include his numbers in the body of this thread, too, if you would like!)
 
Hi Jo Ann!!

Not everyone has Excel, so if you could use the Google Spreadsheet that we use, it would be much more helpful

What I'm seeing is it looks like Big Shot is "bouncing"....When our cats are new to treatment, they've already been diabetic for awhile, so their bodies have become used to living at higher blood glucose levels, so when Big Shot dropped low, his liver released stored sugar and hormones to bring him back up quickly. He "bounced". That's why you see the big swing from the 40's to the 400's. His liver "panicked" and sent those sugars and hormone into his bloodstream because it's used to living in those higher numbers and thinks something is wrong. The liver doesn't realize that we like those lower numbers (yet), but as he spends more time in better numbers, his body will re-learn to live in those more normal numbers

Also, when a new diabetic (less than a year) drops below 50, they "earn" a reduction, so you should have dropped him back .25 unit after he got into those 40's.

You've also jumped around in dose quite a bit, and Lantus really craves consistency, so it's important to stay on the same dose for at least 3 days (unless they drop below 50) and let the dose "settle" before making decisions on changing dose.

If he were my cat, I'd reduce his dose to 1.25 and hold it for at least 6 cycles (unless he drops below 50 again) and post here daily so we can help keep an eye on his numbers for you. There's lots of experience and help here for you and we love to help, so please let us!
 
Welcome to Lantus Land.

In addition to what others have already mentioned, I want to encourage you to review the starred, sticky note describing the Tight Regulation Protocol. The guidelines in the TR protocol are a bit different than what you've been doing.

One thing that immediately leaps out at me is that you need to get at the bare minimum, one test every night during the PM cycle. You've already seen Big Shot drop into low numbers during the AM cycle so there's a very good chance he's doing the same during the PM cycle. The TR protocol strongly encourages you to get spot checks in addition to your pre-shot tests during each cycle so you don't miss a dose reduction, you keep your kitty safe, and you don't lose half of your data.

It also looks like Big Shot may have been started on too high of a dose of insulin.While it certainly brought his numbers down, most of us find it less nerve wracking to start on a smaller dose and add more insulin than to start on a higher dose and have to worry about the numbers plummeting. You can always recalibrate the dose and start over using the weight based formula (initial dose = 0.25 x ideal weight in kilograms).

Otherwise, as Chris suggested, it looks like Big Shot's numbers bounce back up after he drops into low numbers. Bounces are annoying but a normal phenomenon in the process of getting your kitty regulated.
 
Hi Jo Ann.
I'm so glad you moved over here.
If you need better explanations for bounces... just ask.
What dose did you give last night?

I didn't mention that you will want to switch to a google spreadsheet because I didn't want to overwhelm you with too much at once.

How to get a SS
If you have trouble, there are folks here who can help you do it ( I'm not one of them) , just ask.



Here is Big Shot's 11/19 condo
 
Hi Jo Ann!

Just wanted to add my welcome! It's all very confusing and hard to interpret when you're learning how it all works. Stick around and we'll teach you how to interpret what you're seeing in his blood sugar tests, and how to look at the protocol and figure out when to change the dose.

Glad to have you here!

julie :-D
 
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