First shot ….test at +2

So… I did what I thought was going to be impossible. My first blood glucose test and insulin shot of 0.5. Yay! The shot was administered at 11:30pm central time.

Planning on doing my after insulin test at +2. In all likelihood it will be +3 because that seems to be how long it takes me to get a sample. It involves a lot of blood (all mine).

the BG was 284. He’s eaten some low carb food and now we wait, I guess?
I’m not sure how to interpret the numbers when I take them in a couple hours. Can somebody please help me with that?

I can’t imagine there being much of a change in his numbers. The dose was so small I had to squint to see it. And even then, it looked like nothing.

I know it’s late. I didn’t plan on this timeline. But it took me forever to get here. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here’s my background post.

 

Yay! Great job! I’ll tag @Bandit's Mom and @Bron and Sheba (GA) to see if they can check in as I’ll be in bed.

That’s not a bad BG….lower than I thought it might be.

 

Yes I will be around.
Congratulations on your first test and shot! You are on your way!

 

Thank you! So can you help me understand what my numbers mean? Is the next test supposed to be a similar number, lower or higher? And why? I just keep getting more and more confused when I read about glucose numbers and the ”curve” (whatever that is).

Is there any way you can dumb it down for me so I know what’s good, bad, normal, etc? I’ve read a couple links that were posted for me. I really appreciated those. But… even though I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, they were completely over my head. It’s like another I’m reading another language.

I need something a very young child would understand, basically. Because that’s how poorly I’m grasping this all. That might even be an insult to a child. LOL.

 

Also, does it matter how much he eats before his next test? He is eating a lot and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be letting him

 

It’s completely normal to feel it’s like another language and you are feeling a bit confused. We all felt like that in the beginning!

That is a good question.
The first number you get (the preshot blood glucose or BG) is the test we do before we give the insulin. We test then to check that the BG is high enough and safe for us to give the dose. If it is high enough we give the insulin.
We know with Lantus insulin, which you are giving, that the onset (or when the insulin starts to work) is around +2.
We also know that when we feed our cats at the preshot time, the BG often goes up a bit and we call that a ‘food bump’
So at +2 we are looking to see if Red has had a food bump and if the insulin has kicked in.
Sometimes the BG at +2 is higher and sometimes it is the same as the preshot and sometimes it is lower than the preshot. If it is the same or lower than the preshot we know that most likely the BG will continue to drop lower.
Lantus insulin is strongest in the first half of the cycle….that is.. +1 to +6 or +7 (there are 12 hours in a cycle) so depending what the +2 is, we will test again during that time.
I don’t want to give you too much information at once, so I’ll stop there for now.
But feel free to ask anything you like and I will try and answer it!

He will be hungry at the moment as he is unregulated and that is normal because his body can’t absorb all the nutrients in the food just yet, but once he is getting insulin and his BGs start to respond his hunger will start to slow down.
We don’t want him to eat too much too early in the cycle incase we need him to eat for us later if the BGs drop lower.
If you can not feed him again until you get the +2 that would be helpful. You can give him a small snack as you are testing the +2 though.
Bron

 

Not sure what to do. It’s now +3 and I can’t get him to come out from under the center of the huge heavy bed. If I try moving the bed he moves right along with it to stay in the center. I can’t reach him. It’s 2:30am. I’m so tired and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do… On top of it being really late for me, I’ve barely slept this week because I’ve been so stressed about all this.

I can feel myself getting sick. But I would never forgive myself if something happened.

He seems perfectly fine …just mad at me from the ear poking. It took many tries to get it right.

I don’t want to go to bed and not test if it’s not safe and there’s a chance something could go wrong. But I have been trying forever to get him out… nothing is working and I’m literally falling asleep as I write this. I’m trying so hard to stay awake. It’s painful

help! I don’t know what to do…

 

Can you get him out by putting some food down for him? Move away so he doesn’t feel threatened.

 

Hi @Lauren & Red
Have you managed to get Red out from under the bed?
If you could let me know what is happening, I might be able to help you. I know you must be exhausted.

 

I actually tried that a little bit ago and it wasn’t working. I walked away for literally five minutes to wash my face and brush my teeth. Trying to keep myself awake. I went right back after. But in that time… he ate the food and went back to the center of the bed. I’m being out-witted by a cat.

So what happens if I can’t test? Insulin was given 3 1/2 hours ago at 11:30pm.
He has access to water and low carb food all night. He usually doesn’t finish all the food and it drys out. Like clockwork he always wants a fresh meal at 9:00am.

So the plan was to feed him a fresh bowl at 9:00. And then take the food away until I can test again and give insulin at 11:30.

Of course, I was planning on testing tonight but it doesn’t look like that’s happening and I am out of ideas. He should be fine right?

It’s now 3:10 in the morning. I only got two hours of sleep last night and 3 the night before that. I’m literally
crashing and out of ideas.

How potentially serious is it if I go to sleep for less than 6 hours… when I have to feed him for breakfast.

One night with almost no sleep is doable. The third night in a row, I physically don’t know how much longer I can stay awake.

 

I can understand your exhaustion.
I can’t guarantee anything because I don’t know what the BG is.
But if you can leave some food out for him, he should hopefully eat it if his BG drops. Most cats get hungry when the BG drops.

Do you have any higher carb food at home? That is higher carb then the low carb you are currently feeding?
I’ll wait for your answer.

 

Also, keep in mind that with help from people on this site I decided to start at 0.5 units. My vet had prescribed 2 full units every 12 hours. Told me not to test at all. Horrible advice.

I almost couldn’t see anything in the syringe… it was such a tiny, barely there amount. So realistically what are the risks tonight? I just need to know if this is life or death. Obviously no one can say that with 100% certainty and I would never hold anyone on here accountable for trying to help me. I’m just asking for a better understanding of what I’m dealing with and what statistically my situation actually is.
There’s a difference between absolutely necessary and ideal. I’m hoping my situation falls in the category of the latter and that I’ll be ok if I don’t get “ideal” on my very first night

 

I have been feeding 5% or less carbs for the past 5 days. No dry food anymore either. It’s out all night so he can get food whenever.
I do have the food I was feeding before and had no idea how high the carbs were. I think they’re like 20% or something ridiculous. I also have fancy feast with gravy I’m no longer feeding that either .

 

I am certainly glad you didn’t give the 2 units as advised by the vet! It is far safer to start at 0.5 units as you did.
We don’t know yet how Red will react to the insulin but it was his first dose and the depot has to fill before we can see the full effect of the 0.5 unit dose. So that is good considering he is hiding under the bed and won’t come out.
I think if you can’t get him out from under the bed, I would leave some of the fancy feast and gravy out for him as a precaution. That will bump his BGs up a bit but it should keep him safe.
How does that sound?
Any of the FF and gravy left over, freeze in an ice cube container for later use.
Tomorrow, I would shut the bedroom door so he doesn’t have access to under the bed!

 

Sounds like a plan. Isn’t the gravy/food with carbs counterproductive tho? His levels may be fine on such a small dose. Especially since he just ate when I wasn’t looking. He did it just to get back at me for poking him.

it’s a little confusing but I’ll put it out if you think I should. Cuz I’m clueless over here.

 

The reason I am suggesting putting out some higher carb food is because we don’t know what his BG is and you are unable to test and you need to go to sleep.
While low carb food is the food to feed a diabetic cat., we also use the higher carb food at selected times to bring the BG up higher if needed, or to stop BG dropping too much. We normally do this in conjunction with testing but as you can’t get a test in now, it is ok to give him some of that food.
I would give him a couple of small teaspoons of the FF gravy now and then leave him out some ordinary Low carb food for a bit later. And go to bed.
How does that sound?

 

How is it going @Lauren & Red

 

I left out low carb food last night as well as some with gravy as suggested. To my surprise he didn’t eat any of the gravy one. Only the low carb. No clue why. Maybe because the gravy one was closer to the bed and therefore me. I’m not sure. I didn’t let my other cat in the room with us last night (sadly) because I was afraid he would eat all the food with gravy. He had his own food, water, litter box and free roam of the house so he was fine. He suffers from IBD and cannot eat food with gravy without getting sick. Although if given the chance, he will inhale the food.

Anyway, I’m supposed to give Red his next dose of insulin after his preshot in 2 hours. I tried feeding him just now because I know I need to take the food away for 2 hours before testing. He only had a couple bites though. This could mean he ate the other food recently or he’s not hungry… I don’t know.

So if he starts looking for food prior to 11:30am, I don’t give it to him. Right?

He seems fine and purrs when I pet him. He’s laying next to me and seems to have forgiven me. For now. I just need to get better at the blood testing and fast so he doesn’t always hide from me.

It’s the middle of summer, and I will be wearing long sleeves and pants for while. I’m scratched everywhere from last night.

Anyway, I don’t want to test until the preshot in 2 hours because that’s the most important one. And right now he’s trusting me again. And seems fine. I plan to try this time when he’s sleeping in his basket on my bed. If I get lucky, he won’t even know I’m doing it.

I have shoved a million bins and pillows under the bed so he can’t hide there again.

I will keep everyone posted on the new numbers today but please confirm that I shouldn’t feed him his wet LC food for 2 hours, even if he seems hungry?

 

You did it! Good job!

As tough as it may be sometimes, you shouldn't feed for 2 hours before you test because the blood glucose level could be higher because of a food bump. If that happens, you could wind up dosing him when, in actuality, his BG may not be high enough to give him his shot. Does that make sense?

 

Great job getting started with testing and shooting.

You don't want to feed 2 hours prior to shot time.