Diet change working wonders! Now concerned about high insulin dose

Thinking maybe I got a bad reading at AMPS. I tried to get it again when I did but he kept squirming and I would lose the blood. Could feel myself about to get frustrated after a couple more tries so I didn't want to push it. Frustrating, but I can't fix it now. If his numbers are back to normal at PMPS I'll get back to the planned 3.5 dose and test a couple times over night.
 
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I can see it being a good reading. We expect the preshots to come down and that's why there's guidance in the protocols for shooting lower than you're used to for the first few times :).

Don't beat yourself up, it's only one cycle and you collected some good data. Next time he's a little lower than expected you can look at that cycle to help determine what you'd be comfortable shooting.
 
Just tested at 61 @+4 so giving 3 teaspoons of HC wet food. no symptoms

Edit 1: 20 mins later at 74 / gave 1 more teaspoon HC wet food. Will follow up at his normal +5 in approx 30 minutes

Edit 2: 82 at +5. I think HC wet did it's job well
 
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Shelley & Jess said:
Well done YOU :)
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Thank you, I knew eventually that was a bridge I'd have to cross so being able to get it done without too much trouble and seeing the effect the HC wet had gives me confidence for the future.

I would've liked to get a +6 reading but he went to go sleep under the bed and the last time he got really upset was when I tried to get him out of there. I'll let him rest and get ready for the PM cycle.
 
FluffyP said:
Just tested at 61 @+4 so giving 3 teaspoons of HC wet food. no symptoms

Edit 1: 20 mins later at 74 / gave 1 more teaspoon HC wet food. Will follow up at his normal +5 in approx 30 minutes

Edit 2: 82 at +5. I think HC wet did it's job well
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Just a note, when managing low numbers like that, just give small amounts of HC food. 3 spoons is too much at once. One spoon is good (or often just a little gravy from some FF gravy lover’s). Then retest in 20/30 minutes and keep giving one teaspoon at a time. In the event of a prolonged period of steering low numbers with food, it’s best to keep them hungry (makes things easier because if they stop eating then you will have to move to giving Karo/corn syrup or honey.
 
Oh, and I would like to add…. well done catching those greens. You did better than I did when seeing my first low number. I gave an entire can of Fancy Feast gravy lovers. At that point in my feline diabetes journey, I knew nothing except someone told me that my ReliOn Premier meter read like a pet meter (not true) and I should “take action” at 68. I also knew nothing except that I should give HC food to bring his numbers up. (Later in our journey, of course, all I wanted to see was green, green, green!) Darcy certainly enjoyed the can of gravy lover's, though, and ate the whole thing. I hadn’t joined this Board yet and was actually getting a lot of really bad advice from a Facebook group (not this group.)
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Oh, and I would like to add…. well done catching those greens. You did better than I did when seeing my first low number. I gave an entire can of Fancy Feast gravy lovers. At that point in my feline diabetes journey, I knew nothing except someone told me that my ReliOn Premier meter read like a pet meter (not true) and I should “take action” at 68. I also knew nothing except that I should give HC food to bring his numbers up. (Later in our journey, of course, all I wanted to see was green, green, green!) Darcy certainly enjoyed the can of gravy lover's, though, and ate the whole thing. I hadn’t joined this Board yet and was actually getting a lot of really bad advice from a Facebook group (not this group.)
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Without this group I would never have made it to this point that's for sure. And noted about the amount, it definitely was a question mark in my head. 3 felt like too much but I was sweating inside a little bit so I ended up going a little heavy on it, he definitely appreciated it that's for sure:cat:

He does keep surprising me with these low AMPS numbers. I can never figure out a dose, surely 3 units would be too much at a 144 preshoot even though he didn't go under 90 last night...
 
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This is good. He’s making some fast progress. It’s a guessing game at this point as to how much to give with these lower preshots. I hope you are home to test this cycle. We know that the .5 dose was too low with a similar preshot recently, but we don’t have enough data yet on it because everything is happening so fast. I am pretty excited about the preshots coming down. It’s a good sign.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
This is good. He’s making some fast progress. It’s a guessing game at this point as to how much to give with these lower preshots. I hope you are home to test this cycle. We know that the .5 dose was too low with a similar preshot recently, but we don’t have enough data yet on it because everything is happening so fast. I am pretty excited about the preshots coming down. It’s a good sign.
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Yeah I agree. A little stressful in the short term but I think it'll pay off in the long run for sure. I am home to test today so I'll be ready to take action if needed like yesterday.

I go back to work starting tomorrow so may have to be really conservative after today but at least these next two cycles I can try and gather some good data.
 
Lovely cycle today. You hit that dose right on the money today. I hate to see another reduction with gorgeous numbers like his nadir today, but if you are following SLGS then a reduction has been earned. New dose going forward would be 2.5. Okay?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Lovely cycle today. You hit that dose right on the money today. I hate to see another reduction with gorgeous numbers like his nadir today, but if you are following SLGS then a reduction has been earned. New dose going forward would be 2.5. Okay?
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Yep, I'll do 2.5 tonight and see how that goes. My number one priority is finding a safe dose while I'm at work tomorrow. It sucks having to keep messing with the dosage from one cycle to the next and then to the next but with no one here to test during the day i can't risk it too much. But at least during the pm cycles I can get a better idea of where he's at.
 
At least that nadir today was safe - a very good green - and well above the 68 on your AT meter. I feel pretty good about it. But I do hope the 2.5 will be a good dose for when you are at work. The thing is that Fluffy has ideas of his own and keeps wanting more reductions! Has he learned to eat from the automatic feeder yet?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
At least that nadir today was safe - a very good green - and well above the 68 on your AT meter. I feel pretty good about it. But I do hope the 2.5 will be a good dose for when you are at work. The thing is that Fluffy has ideas of his own and keeps wanting more reductions! Has he learned to eat from the automatic feeder yet?
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Unfortunately he has not, I put bells on the feeder so that he could hear when the compartment opens but he hasn't made the connection yet. I keep trying to show him, and it feels like it's close, but hasn't clicked quite yet.
 
Okay so that is another consideration; we don’t know if he will eat tomorrow. I guess we will wait and see how tonight’s cycle goes, but until he starts eating out of it you may want to cut another .25 from the dose …. but let’s see.
 
"All snacks as normal. not sure about source of high PM +6 number"

We can look at 183 & 217 as the same number, within the allowable 20% meter variance, so basically a flat cycle.

You haven't really seen a true bounce yet that can last for days (I think that's partly due to your dose being too high) Bounces usually start at the beginning of the following cycle after a low, a lower than he's used to or a fast drop and then they can stay high and flat for up to 3 days (6 cycles) Bouncing to barely yellow at this point in your journey is progress - we don't know how long he spent getting used to hanging out in black and that's what a bounce is, his body responding to a low and/or fast drop and sending him back to levels he (his body) is used to and thinks is safe. Don't let this tempt you into thinking he needs more insulin. Now that he's getting closer to the proper dose, we need to wait and see and give it time to clear.
 
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Agree - there’s not much difference between 183 and 217 (meter variance- so it’s considered flat.) He had excellent numbers yesterday.
 
@FluffyP would you please start a new thread (and copy and paste the url for this thread in the first post of the thread.) We try not to let threads get much longer than 50 and this one is way over that. We will all be glad to do less scrolling. :)
 
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