? Finally doing a curve this weekend

[shelaghc]

After a couple of weeks with trial and error BG testing Jester, I'm going to do a curve this weekend.
Left a message for the vet so he knows this will be happening and for his input.

Are there any rights and wrongs I should be aware of?

The only concern right now is that he'll be getting his PM shot today about an hour and a half early so it'll be longer between today's PM and tomorrow's AM.

Is that a big factor and should I wait until Sunday because of that?

Sunday is supposed to be my back-up day in case anything goes wrong tomorrow.

Thanks for all and any help.

 

[FurBabiesMama]

Hi. For a curve, make sure Jester does not have any food at least two hours before the pre-shot test which should be the first test in the curve. After that test, you will feed him and give his insulin. Then, you will test every two hours up until the next pre-shot test (no food two hours before). Assuming you are doing a 12-hour curve that second pre-shot test will be the end of it.

I am a bit confused by your spreadsheet. Have you been giving any PM shots? There are no PM doses recorded in column U. Also, have you never done a pre-shot test? I do not see any recorded. Based on the tests you have done, it looks like the lowest numbers are occurring very late in the cycle, +10. Is that the case?

With Prozinc, we supposedly have up to within about an hour of normal shot time to give the shot. An hour and a half is pushing it, but I guess you circumstances today make that necessary. As far as whether or not that would impact the curve tomorrow, I am not sure how much impact it would have. There is not enough test data yet to know what a 'normal' pre-shot looks like for Jester. If there was, I would probably say that if the AM pre-shot result tomorrow looked 'normal', you would be fine going ahead with the curve. If your dosing times will be normal tomorrow, and you have Sunday as an option, you might want to wait until Sunday morning to start your curve just so that it is as accurate as possible. Maybe others will have thoughts on that.

 

[shelaghc]

I couldn't figure out how to use the spreadsheet and just made it work for the info I have. Plus, the early numbers I have no data on times.

I had no clue was AMPS and PMPS meant. The "2" is just what Jester's regular shots all are - 2 Units.

If you look in the cell to the right of the BG numbers, I inserted the time of day that I did his testing from 11-17 on. I also included which meter - the OneTouch or the pet meter from the vet's office up until Nov. 22nd when all the testing has been done by me.

Now that I'm getting a better idea of how to use the spreadsheet, I'll try to do it that way now - particularly since I'm doing the curve tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I'm very low on test strips so if Saturday doesn't work out, I'll have to wait until next weekend instead. SarahNOLA is sending me her leftovers, but they won't arrive until next week.
Jester has a tendency to move when I try to get the blood for the monitor and I've used up a large chunk of the strips between that and the whole learning process.

 

[FurBabiesMama]

AMPS is the morning pre-shot test result, and PMPS is the evening pre-shot test results. U is the number of units of insulin you gave; there is a U column for both AM and PM. The +1, +2, +3, etc. is the number of hours after the insulin shot that you got the test result. When you record your results in the appropriate columns, you can see the impact the insulin is having. As you gain more data, you can see patterns. You can tell when in the cycle the nadir or lowest BG level occurs. It also helps everyone here should you ever post asking for help.

I hope your curve goes well!