First curve coming up - any tips?

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phedre

Member Since 2012
I'm doing Salem's first blood curve in a few days and I was wondering if anyone had any tips. I've managed to get his blood with the slimmer lancet, and I'm using polysporin on his ears to make sure that he doesn't get too uncomfortable. I've also got the rice sock all ready to go! I'll be marking down his results and bringing them in to the vet either that evening or the following morning (depending on how the scheduling works out).

Salem's vet wants them done every 4 hours (so at 6AM, 10AM, 2PM, then again at 6PM), whereas the board recommendation is every 2 hours.

I'm a little nervous about it.
 
Hi Phedre

First off: Is this your condo for the day? If it is, it'd be better to rename to our usual LL format, ok? Here is Salem's 5th August Condo.

I'm pleased to read the slimmer lancet works well for you, and I'm sure the neosporin will help too. As for the rice sock - I know many here have used it successfully. We used it only twice (on our very first test and the one after that, in 2008) because we found it isn't really necessary for Karre and we found it cumbersome. But you should do what you feel makes it easier for you to test - if you like the sock, go ahead and use it :-D Given how sensitive Salem's ears are right now, the thing we do (rubbing/massaging the ear) may not work for you at present.

When we do a full curve, we test every 2 hours - here is the link about curves referenced in the LL sticky (2nd from the top, "Lantus & :Levemir - New to the group? Please read."). During what we call a mini-curve, we test every 3 hours.

There's no need to be nervous! Just think about it as a lot of spot checks in a row :mrgreen:
Any other queries?

Jane
 
There are, obviously, lots of ways to do curves. There's no one "right" way. We generally consider a full curve as tests every 2-hours. A mini-curve is testing every 3-hours. When I first had a vet do a curve on Gabby, they tested every 2-hours. I suspect your vet assumes that you will have trouble testing (or Salem doesn't like it) so the suggestion was to test every 4 hours. With Lantus, if Salem is following the rules and his nadir is at +6, if you test every 4-hours, you'll miss the nadir. Personally, I would suggest using either a 2-hour or 3-hour curve.
 
Hi Phedre,
Its great that you are getting Salems curve! We started home testing just a month ago tomorrow and it has made all the difference. The curves have been really helpful.
We didn't get into the warm rice sock either, rubbing Jasper's ear vigorously to warm it works better for us. He also acccepts the lancet device but resists freehand lancet, go figure. Every cat has their own ideas about things so try different things to see what works best for you.
Testing every 2 hrs will give you good idea how Salem responds, with Lantus its helpful to do hourly tests near the ends of the cycle when the doses overlap. I find it helpful to keep track of the actual time of each test, for when things happen and I end up testing in between the designated times. Good luck with your curve!
Leslie
 
Phedre,

I keep a magnetic dry erase board on my fridge door so that I can write test results down immediately after testing (we test in the kitchen), and I can see the daily progression every time I take Pumbaa into the kitchen for a test. Then I can just take the board with me into my office and enter his numbers in the SS all at once. This is a great convenience for me. Maybe it will help you, too.

Good luck on your first curve!

Suze
 
Another way to warm his ear (Celi calls it the white trash method) is to warm a wet cloth in a zip lock bag in the microwave. I am remembering that 10 to 15 sec was enough but you'll have to experiment. Make sure it's not too hot - test it on your ear. This worked a little better than the rice sock for us. But then I just started blowing on his ear and petting him a lot, along with the rubbing. That works pretty well and Zener loves the petting. Paws crossed!
Liz
 
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