Chip 8/11 - 8/17

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Dale 'n' Chip

Dale 'n' Chip

Member Since 2012
Today marks one month on Levemir, or one week depending on how I count it. I could probably just flip a coin on that one. It's still possible that nothing is wrong with the first pen and the anomalies in the numbers relate to the dosing.

If I ever get to the point that a pattern emerges from the chaos, I will sub in the first pen for 6 doses just to satisfy my curiosity about any differences. Surely limited harm in that. :?

It seems Chip did not respond *correctly* to standard dosing protocol on Lantus, and now in a totally different way, he may not be following many of the rules for Levemir either.

It's interesting that he still hasn't bounced much (or long?) on Levemir, but I might be able to pick out a pattern where he stalls by the 4th installment of any given dose.

So perhaps it was the aggressive increases (getting off protocol) with the new pen, when I thought I was revisiting tested doses, that precipitated the *appearance* of a breakthrough? @-)
 
Even though straight yellow is not what you want to see after yesterday's numbers, is still better than almost all of what else is on the SS page. Flat is better than swings.

I would hold the 2u for several more cycles, if not days, and see what happens. He has had "negative" responses the day after a row of greens before. I am inclined to think he needs more time to adjust to the dose.
 
For most of the morning, I was cheering Chip on 'cause his numbers were lower than Pumbaa's.

So where did that huge red turd come from tonight? :( Chip, didn't your daddy explain to you that you don't do black, red or pink anymore?

I really thought his bounce was going to be that 379 last night, which he cleared quickly.

Better days ahead!

Suze
 
Sorry that I have been absent. I am not sure why you dropped back to 1U on the new pen. You were seeing progress on the 2U and raised correctly to 2.25 and probably would have seen even more progress. Yes, some cats do need more than 2U and you were doing it right. Not sure why you thought the old pen was wonky.

What you're seeing now is a depot that's confused, if you ask me. It got almost completely dumped out and then got quickly filled and a huge delayed bounce appears to be what happened last night.

I agree with Sheila to stay the course with the 2U, you will probably see flattish 200's/300s for a while though, once he comes down off the 400.
 
You've gotten great guidance already, so I'm just popping in to say hello. ...and to remind you that flat yellows are MUCH better than "swimming in a sea of pinks" where Grayson stayed before we switched to Lev. Hang in there Chip... you're probably not that far away from the perfect dose!

..oh, and one more thing. I thought the same about an older ProZinc vial. I went back when I was shooting really high numbers, and there really wasn't much difference between the old and new vials. Sometimes, as has been said, it just takes a while to settle into the dose.
 
PapaDale,

Hey. So sorry to have disappeared on you completely! I've been using the TR forum almost exclusively since Max starting trying to run me into the ground with his dives. I didn't see your posts because I didn't look here for a while, but I didn't forget about you and Chip; I just didn't make the effort to search you out.

Straight yellow is good at this point. Not your preference, but he's definitely better, and he will start to heal with this, I just know it. Levemir is good for him. It did stop the bouncing, and you will get past this and see Greens again before you know it!

Purrs and hugs, and all that sappy stuff coming your way!!!!

To commiserate:
I have a Lantus pen sitting in the fridge that was given to me by the vet, and I used it in the beginning of Max's treatment. It was a donation by another cat's servant who gave it to the clinic for the greater good. Back then, I thought there might have been something wrong with it, too, and I've been using a box of 5 pens that I bought ever since. I never tried to use that old pen vial since except one night when I ran out of syringes unexpectedly, and I didn't want to put a used syringe into a "good" pen. I saw no difference at all in the immediate cycle, of course, and it's impossible to tell if any later cycle within 72 hours was affected because I had to skip a shot soon after. There was an out of the norm Yellow reading at the end of the 5th cycle. That vial was probably good way back when or there would have been more of an effect? Also, it had been 7 months since the pen vial was opened. Who knows, and it matters not as the pen vial is now not only expired, but contaminated. The sad part is that it has more than 180 units left in it! That's six months of Lantus for some cats. Pretty awful, huh? It happens.
 
max&emmasmommie said:
PapaDale,

Hey. So sorry to have disappeared on you completely! I've been using the TR forum almost exclusively since Max starting trying to run me into the ground with his dives. I didn't see your posts because I didn't look here for a while, but I didn't forget about you and Chip; I just didn't make the effort to search you out.
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Even though I've been adhering to TR rigorously (Roomp Rand) since I finally picked an insulin, I don't post in the TR ISG much because it's so easy to get lost in the shuffle. It's enough stress having to deal with an uncontrolled sugarcat, I don't want the added hassle of having to post asking for permission for something, or adhering to the bureaucracy.

So TR gets the fancy avatar and we couldn't get single pic of Max? ;-)

He's doing great but you'd better watch out. With all that "relaxed" lazy blue surfing and missed shots you're going to get Max kicked out of TR?

I'd be thrilled if Chip would surf blue like that on such a comparatively small dose. In the past that was all it took to get him OTJ. :smile:
 
Chip will be surfing blue and green before you know it, and you, too, will be using toothpicks to keep your eyes open at night! *LOL*

SuZzzzzzze
 
So, Chip went OTJ once before?

So TR gets the fancy avatar and we couldn't get single pic of Max? ;-)
Click to expand...

Would you believe I'm vp of marketing for a nascent internet company, and I can't put pictures on this website of my cat? I just don't have the time, and I get so annoyed that every website, every internet provider, every operating system, every program is somehow just a little bit different. It's partly that it's not my "thing" to actually do the nitty gritty of figuring out the nuts and bolts, and it's partly that it's so irritating that there is no standard for anything, and, of course, partly that I have to prioritize very carefully, and I will still have 100 things in my in-box when I die!

I want you guys to see some adorable pics of Max, and maybe my poor husband (who seems to be much less irritated by the difficulties of that sort of thing, but more irritated by the honey-dos piling up) will get another honey-do soon! He took a quick look at it and said that as far as the Profile it is concerned it appears to be required that I have a separate website, like Flicker, with pictures of Max on it first. Then, I can link to that website account. It's completely understandable for a non-profit website that is operating from donations almost exclusively to require that, but it's hard for me to find the time for the extra hoops.

By the way, Yahoo seems to be imploding. I have not been able to access my email for about 4 days. That is a very, very, VERY bad sign. Sell, sell, sell! LOL It's very sad. I liked Yahoo quite a bit, and I'm trying to find a way to save about 10 years of emails that have all kinds of info in them I didn't expect to lose suddenly. I should have known better.
 
Mammadale:

You can post a photo when you type in a new post like I'm doing now.

Below the box you are typing in is a box that says "upload attachment".
Click on the "browse" button and find the photo you want to upload on your computer.
Add any text you want in the "file comment" box.
Click "add the file".
Voila! You can even preview how the entire message will look in advance, just like normal.

Suze
 
max&emmasmommie said:
So, Chip went OTJ once before?
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Twice sort of. The first time the vet took Chip off NPH after a few months because the fructosamine tests were showing "extended periods of hypoglycemia". She only dosed in whole units and she said he needed to eat med carb Hills MD for the rest of his life to avoid needing insulin. That lasted another few months before the fructosamine test said he needed to be back on insulin. What she should have said was: "As soon as you give him his last shot switch him to low carb food" but I'm not sure she was aware there is low carb cat food since she didn't sell any.

So he was back on 2U NPH bid and he stopped eating right away and lost 2 pounds in a week. That really freaked me out, and I assumed the original insulin must be bad so I found this place and started home testing right away. Turns out he was going way too low. I reduced the dose on my own and he started eating again. I kept reducing and he was essentially OTJ in about three weeks. He was always too low to shoot and his pancreas was pulling him down. I switched him from the Hills MD to FF classics during those three weeks. He went on like that too low to shoot (with just a bead of humulin here and there) through last winter.

Do use Suze's trick to post a photo of Max. It's very simple but it does need to be "web ready" or below something like 200K before the forum software will upload it. You can use photoshop or any photo manager to compress your pictures so they are web ready.

As for Yahoo, it can be a mess. If you can't fix it on your end using a different machine or IP address, then you may need to subcribe to Yahoo tech support (not cheap) but they may be able to revive the account. Most of the time I've seen that problem it was a local virus or malware blocking access.
 
Vicky & Gandalf (GA) & Murrlin said:
...What you're seeing now is a depot that's confused, if you ask me. It got almost completely dumped out and then got quickly filled and a huge delayed bounce appears to be what happened last night.
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When you say dumped out, you mean at a faster than normal rate? So what I need to see more action is enough shed to output that amount sustainably?

Or in other words I'm still likely far below a "good" dose?
 
And I have total confidence that Chip will go OTJ once again!

May 2.25U be his breakthrough dose on Levemir, and may you soon join me and Mammadale in the sleepless nights of Mr. Green!

Suze
 
Dale, Vicky means that the drop to 1u with the new pen, emptied out his depot, but then you raised really fast and that "confused" things.

At least, that is my understanding of what she means.

I would say "yes" to needing a dose that sustains the "emptying" - I mean, that is the whole point of dosing, right?

I don't think you are "far below" the optimal dose. I do still think that you need to hold each increase for longer now that you are back where you were with the old pen. He has seemed to need long settle periods before.
 
Nothing to fear. It's a learning experience.

I know it's frustrating. When Beau had been on lev for about 6 weeks I was so frustrated I was feeling like going back to vetsulin! Some of these guys just do NOT follow the rules (or the protocol :roll: ). I had to figure out what the answer was and, at the time, there was no one to guide me into lowering the dose in order to make the high numbers go away, and then micro dosing. I hate to say it, but maybe you are having to chart new territory with Chip. Maybe he is the rare cat that needs MORE lev than lantus (comparably), but will end up in decent numbers with out bouncing or becoming crabby.

I think your answer lies in very small (percentage-wise) increases and long settle times. Maybe I am wrong, but that is what I would be trying.

BTW, I just spent an hour looking at Maine Coons for adoption on line, thanks to you! No. I just can't do this now. But for some reason it made me remember I wanted to add a few lines from a Carole King song in his book somewhere, so I did that - on the last page with his GA post. So it wasn't a total waste of time.
 
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