Absolutely! And that's something I wanted to talk about too.
I agree with Lisa, please don't increase the dose. If anything I'm suspecting Crushy is still too high and we're just seeing a lot of bouncing going on, but let's let Deb be the judge of that.
I have been slogging through this marathon since diagnosis in December. I have patience, but the stress is taking a serious toll on me and also on my marriage. Haven't gotten more than 3 hours of sleep at night for 10 days now -- keep waking up and seeing the Alphatrac over 500.
Your health is just as important as Crushy's, so give yourself some slack (and some sleep!). On July 30th that night you checked him at +3 and saw he was at 510, and then you checked again at +7 where he was at 456. Honestly, if you get a high number like that at +3, do yourself a favor and leave him for the night. It can take up to 6 cycles to clear a bounce (and a black number is usually a good indicator of one) so you're not typically going to see any relevant information 4 hours later. Call it a night and get some sleep. Just using that cycle as an example.
So the other thing. There's not much data to work with. Now not everyone is retired or working from home and has time to get mid-cycle tests in, but that data is extremely helpful into figuring out what's happening. Crushy could very well be dropping during the day when you're not testing, bouncing, and then when you check him later at PMPS it just looks like he's stayed in the reds and blacks all day. He could be earning a reduction that you don't have the data to see yet. Remember how I said bounces take up to 6 cycles to clear? That's up to 3 days of bad numbers - and then once a bounce clears they can drop again which sets off ANOTHER round of bounces. If you're not catching those numbers, it doesn't look like he's budging from the blacks at all.
On SLGS method, you have two options. You either do a full curve once a week, or you can do spot checks every day. Not including AM/PMPS, you'd ideally get at least 2-4 mid-cycle tests every cycle. Nighttime usually 1-2 if kitty's BG isn't doing anything "suspicious". A +2 every cycle is very helpful and indicative of what the cycle will be like. I would recommend testing at alternate times each day to fill in the gaps in your spreadsheet. One day you'll test at +2, +4, and +6, and the next day maybe at +3, +5, and +7. That way you're filling in the blanks and we can say "hmm okay he needs more juice" or "oh, he dropped too much in this cycle!".
A refresher on bouncing and how it's caused:
This phenomenon occurs when the body experiences (or at least thinks it does) hypoglycemia. Luckily the body uses bouncing as a defense mechanism against this where it attempts to compensate the low blood sugar by dumping excess glucose provided by the liver in an attempt to raise blood sugar back to “normal” numbers. Unfortunately, “normal” is a relative term according to the body. For a diabetic whose body has been untreated for so long that it considered very high numbers to be the new normal, lower numbers can often make the body overreact in attempt to save itself, even if it’s not in danger.
A cat who has been suffering from diabetes for some time may at the point of diagnosis have a new “normal” of 400. When insulin is introduced and brings it down, even to 200 (still diabetic levels), the body thinks it is in danger, dumps excess glucose, and thus the blood sugar skyrockets up to the 400-600s. After enough time has passed, the body will eventually realize that 200 isn’t such a bad number, and bouncing will happen less often. Note some cats are extremely bounce-prone and a switch to Lantus/Levemir are game-changers, as it was for my own bouncy girl.
There are three main causes of bouncing: when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), drops lower than the body is used too, or by dropping too much too quickly. Typically if a cat drops more than 50% of their blood sugar a bounce is likely to happen, or if they drop 100 points within an hour.
While bouncing can be considered as a safety net in the instances of hypoglycemia, it can look very confusing on paper (and even worse, a glucose curve).
