Frodo's Hypo Again

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heidi

Member Since 2012
Frodo had a BG of 42 when I tested him for his evening pre-shot (tested twice on separate drops of blood and second test got a 44). I just got home from work an hour ago, so I haven't tested during the day today. It makes me sick to think how low he may have gone during the day and that I ignored his food begging when I got home. He is not showing any other signs of hypo besides being really hungry. I gave him a little high carb food. I need to put my twins to bed, then I'll be able to test again (in about a half hour.) No shot again tonight!!

Thoughts? This is starting to scare me.

Heidi
 
Hi Heidi,

Unfortunately I can't give you any dosing advice as i am still pretty new myself...but I just wanted to say hi and awesome for getting the testing down so well (took me sooooo much longer, and sooo many more tears lol). It's so good that you are that way you're able to catch and track these low numbers. I'm sure someone will be by soon to give you some better advice.

I'm sending you a calming hug for a more relaxing evening. I'm sure this is all overwhelming, especially with little ones to take care of too. Now that you have a spreadsheet going and tracking Frodo's numbers, I'm sure that things will calm down a bit soon.

Hope you and Frodo manage to have a nice evening (night)!

EDITED TO ADD: Just saw your other thread about dosing advice....Mel and Eva are just wonderful and always ready to share their wisdom :)
 
Just got a 97 BG reading, so I'm relaxing a little. :smile: I read back through the responses people gave me when Frodo's BG was really low on Tuesday, plus the other info on hypo posted in various parts of the site. As I understand it, I need to test again in an hour and if I get a rising number, then I'm okay to go to bed? Hope so. It's been a long day and a long week.
Lil, if you had read my posts on the main health board just two days ago you'd have thought I was ready to quit testing. We had a horrible time over here and still are poking 2-3 times to get blood, except this last test was a gusher. Oy! Hang in there. It has gotten so much better in just the last 24 hours!
Thanks,
Heidi
 
I would love to be able to tell you how many more times you should test before going to sleep. I have yet to see a green number! I freaked out the first time I saw blue lol. Definitely test in an hour and see where things are going.

You said how things turned around in 24 hours...amazing isnt it? Sometimes I think back at how wacko I was when I first started. I swear, I nearly bit my husbands head off daily b/c I was so frustrated. We still have our bad tests, but its a matter of changing positions and trying again. Nothing like before.

I hope you can get some sleep soon. I can only imagine how exhausted you are. I am a walking zombie and only from work and marking exams...I can't even imagine having little ones to take care of too! You're doing great.
 
Heidi,
Yes, test again in an hour and post the number. I'll see if I can find some "lantus eyes" to take a look. It isn't likely Frodo will continue to drop when he hasn't had any more insulin since this morning, but I'll be back (hopefully bringing others with me!)

Carl
 
Good Morning, Heidi ~

What a stressful evening for you with Frodo. I'm so sorry you had to go through that again, Heidi. Glad you had Carl and LIL there with you. As scary as that was for you, I think there's good news, too. Frodo is responding so well to Lantus...well, too well on that 1.0U dose. Backing off to .5U AM and PM might give you less harrowing numbers, Heidi. Are you going to be around this weekend to check how Frodo's doing on the .5U dose? It's possible that even .5U could be too much for Frodo so you'll need to watch how he responds to the .5U dose.

I'm excited for you and Frodo, Heidi. I think you're headed for a very low dose kitty, if not a diet controlled one. You go, Frodo!

Eva
 
Wow, that is a lot of really low numbers. Backing off to .5u is definitely good. However, if you continue to see him sink like that and spend that much time in the bottom range, I would frankly be tempted to back off and reset completely. I know this sounds freaky, but, I'd consider a "zero" dose. Drawing back just to the first line, which basically only gives you a drop of lantus. If you also changed to low carb food when starting insulin, I honestly wonder if those times when he goes high enough that you shoot (which appears to be like once a day) isn't a bit of rebound if Mr. P (the pancreas) has begun to make some of it's own. We have seen cats that went in to remission on a couple of shots of insulin and a food change. I don't think you can tell for sure at this point but that is a LOT of normal range numbers you are seeing and very low. Again, keep testing but if you see him sinking again, I'd back off completely to a bare drop, even though you haven't sat on that .5u for the usual 5 or so days.
 
Thanks, everyone.
I did drop him to the 0.5 unit dose this morning and plan to run as much of a curve as I can today (I have be out a couple times, but should be able to do something every 2 or 3 hours). I'll also be able to monitor him reasonably well tomorrow.
Here's hoping today goes better!
Heidi
 
Hi, Heidi ~

It's good you're going to try that .5U dose for Frodo. And I'm glad you're going to be around this weekend to see how that dose is working for him, Heidi. As startling and scary as those lower numbers can be for you (and you're handling them so well, by the way), I think they're showing you that Frodo is responding extremely well to Lantus early on, something we all wish for our kitties.

We'll check in later to see how you and Frodo are doing, Heidi.

Eva
 
Heidi,

My Maxwell only had 13 shots total after he was dxed as a diabetic and went through a diet change, so it is possible that Frodo is well on his way to OTJ and diet controlled already :-D If you see he is still sinking pretty low on that .5u you may want to either go with the 'zero' shot like Karen suggested or .25u which every you are more comfortable with, since it sounds like your going to be around this weekend to test him and keep an eye on him.

Sorry none of us were around last night, if that happens again and you don't get a quick answer here, jump over to Health or The TR Group, this is still a pretty new forum on here so isn't nearly as busy 24/7 as those other two. Or you can even post over on community with something like "Need Eyes in Relaxed Lantus Please!" and give them a link to your post here. Alot of times in the evening and weekends especially there will be several oldies but goodies hanging out over in Community chatting.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang.
 
Hi, Heidi ~

How's Frodo doing today on that .5U dose? What kind of numbers are you seeing for him so far, Heidi? Hope things are a bit calmer for you both.

Eva
 
Frodo's numbers looked much better today with the 0.5 dose. Some low numbers but nothing dangerous and I was able to give him the evening shot. I'll continue to monitor him closely tomorrow.
The really unbelievable thing is he came to me when I was getting ready to test him this afternoon. Hard to believe he's the same cat that was hiding under the bed then biting, scratching and hissing at me during the tests just three days ago. WOW!

Heidi
 
Crazy eh? And it's so hard to believe that it will actually happen! At the beginning I was a disaster...and one day, the calm after the storm arrives. Since its only been a couple weeks for me, I still pinch myself after every shot and ask, "wait, did it actually work? no tears? no angry cat? woahhh" lol.

Looks like this dose worked out better today...remember it takes 3-6 cycles for the dose to settle, so hopefully everything goes well and you can begin to relax.

Hope you have a great weekend!

PS. Send me some green numbers please!
 
heidi said:
Frodo's numbers looked much better today with the 0.5 dose. Some low numbers but nothing dangerous and I was able to give him the evening shot. I'll continue to monitor him closely tomorrow.
The really unbelievable thing is he came to me when I was getting ready to test him this afternoon. Hard to believe he's the same cat that was hiding under the bed then biting, scratching and hissing at me during the tests just three days ago. WOW!

Heidi
Click to expand...

Those do look better. Still a little low in the middle (I am not one of those comfortable below 80s) but definitely better! Definitely get some tests tonight if you can since that was a fairly lowish preshot.
 
Good Morning, Heidi ~

"The really unbelievable thing is he came to me when I was getting ready to test him this afternoon." -- Happy to hear Frodo's getting with the program, Heidi! :-D That makes it SO much easier, doesn't it?

Those numbers for Frodo are so much better at the .5U dose. Glad you're going to be around to monitor him closely today to watch out for those really low numbers, Heidi. Frodo's responding so well to Lantus. As that .5U dose settles in, you'll be able to see how it's working for him. Of course, if you're getting numbers too low at nadir (mid-point in the cycle) or too low to shoot at preshot, then you may need to lower the dose again. Too early to tell that, but keep monitoring, Heidi.

For many of us, we've learned to watch out for early action of the Lantus at +2 or +3. In a typical Lantus curve, the +2 is often close to the preshot number and the +3 would be only slightly lower. If you're seeing a large drop in numbers at +2 or +3 as you did for Frodo yesterday, dropping from 400 AMPS to 241 at +2, then that's a good indicator of an action packed day ahead. And that's what you got for him with that +4 of 63 and +6 of 86. Some of us (and I'm bad about it...) try to get a PM +2 to give us an idea of how the night might go. If we see a large drop then, we know we need to do more testing that night.

Example of a typical Lantus curve:
+0 - PreShot number.
+1 - Usually higher than PreShot number because of the last shot wearing off. May see a food spike in this number.
+2 - Often similar to the PreShot number.
+3 - Lower than the PreShot number, onset has started.
+4 - Lower.
+5 - Lower.
+6 - Nadir/Peak (the lowest number of cycle).
+7 - Surf (hang around the nadir number).
+8 - Slight rise.
+9 - Slight rise.
+10 - Rising.
+11 - Rising (may dip around +10 or +11).
+12 - PreShot number.

Hope you have a pleasant day with Frodo.

Eva
 
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