Help figure out when it's ok to go to sleep.

After pmps when do you know it's okay to go to sleep?

When the +2 is higher than the preshot...but then after that? When you get a number higher? Last night she kept testing lower so I set timers through the nignt but she never went super low...so could I have slept?
And again tonight..+2 was lower again and I'm struggling to stay awake till 1 am to test again....?
Idk if I can do it again tonight.

 

I think it was wise last night to check on Sissy like you did. You're still learning about her cycles.

I would check her at +4 since she's dipped a good bit. Leave food out for her, set a timer and catch some winks until then.
If you don't think you can stay up any I would leave some medium carb food out to be safe.

 

Thank you, I just did her +3 and it was 162.
Should I still get a +4 or go to +5?

 

Hmm. I would think she'd be fine to wait until +5 but the morning cycle of 8/28 is very similar to tonight (so far) so I can't say for certain she won't dip a considerable amount by +4. Safe thing to do would be to check, sigh. I'm sure you're tired though. I'd give her another snack to help her out. Are you using a timed feeder by chance?

 

Her nadir seems to run about +4 so unless she drops a lot more, I think you could call it a night after that.

It's always fine to leave some food out in case she needs it. Most cats will go looking for food if their glucose drops too low.

I always knew when China's was too low...she would come begging for food with a whole new level of "desperation" to it....like she literally would starve to death if I didn't feed her right then instead of the usual "hey, it's 10 minutes past dinner and I'm going to starve if you don't feed me now" kind of attitude.

 

I set an alarm for the pmps test beside the +2
Then if she drops too low I'd at least had some sleep..

 

It’s so hard to stay up all night. Alice and I have done it a lot too. I’m not familiar with your cat, so I don’t want to dispense any real advice, just a hug and a little commiserating. I see where you tested at +8 last night. For quite a period of time I had to look for the best window to get a solid four hours of sleep in. Allowing 3-5 hours of actual sleep *somewhere* is crucial so you can get one whole sleep cycle in. You’ll feel better that way, more refreshed. If Sissy showed blood glucose was coming back up sometime between +6 and +8, for me personally I’d take that as my window. After that test, put a snack out, and head straight to bed. For my convenience these days, all my diabetic supplies and my diabetic cat and her snacks stay next to my bed so I can wake up and feed, test, and snooze again without much thought.

You’re doing great. It’s awesome to see the progress on the spreadsheet and how much testing data you are getting in. Sissy is lucky to have you!

 

@Panic , I do have an auto feeder but it's only 2 bowls, I'm going to get one that has more so it will be easier to leave food out for her for longer periods of time.

@Chris & China (GA), @AliceMeowliss&Cassandra , she kept dropping every time I tested her last night...I wasn't sure when to call it a night. I did set alarms and sleep in between tests...I had kept my grandkids for a long time yesterday so I was pretty beat by the pmps (10pm)...it wasn't hard to sleep in between the tests like it usually is. :/ +7 she had dropped a little more...but I figured she would be on the way back up soon....so at that point it wouldn't be long before my alarm went off so I just slept til then and she had started up...but yeah, her low point wasn't till +7(5am). I do leave food out for her all night..she usually eats most of it.
I definitely need to get more solid straight sleep...just not sure when to call it a night and don't want to miss something with her.
I am getting a lot of data, I just don't know for sure how to interpret it. That's what's frustrating.

 

Hey Mandy?

 

Thank you

 

Hi Mandy. You are testing more than needed, even with TR. Let me be a tad controversial. I’m talking as a former owner of a FD cat. If I had it to do over again, and I hope that never happens, I would follow TR the first year, but probably take reductions at a higher number so I could have a life. Make the method work for you. I’ve seen others write the number where they take reductions as slightly higher or lower. This is NOT the FDMB talking. I just want you to be comfortable with your decisions. You could also follow SLGS with modifications that work for you as well provided you don’t feed dry food.

 

I know I'm testing too much and part of that is my tendency to want to learn as much as possible as soon as possible so I can figure things out...but with this that's just not going to work with this, because obviously I have a whole bunch of numbers and I still don't see any rhyme or reason to just about any of it.
I think the best thing for me to do is go back to the SLGS...but I'm not sure what the modifications would be or how to make them. I still feel like I know basically nothing. If I didn't come here and ask questions I'd be totally lost. lol

 

Well Mandy you are learning your limits. Thats a good thing.
KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT!

 

For the first several months I didn’t even try to figure much out. Either my vet or someone here would tell me to increase or decrease and so I would. Well at first I wondered why folks here would tell me. Wasn’t that up to my vet? He’s great but not so easy to reach. I soon trusted a few people here. I’d have to go back and reread my condos to see when I took charge. I know so much more now than back then. I don’t remember it being as hectic here back then as my personal life was difficult between Max and an elderly mom in and out of the hospital.

 

I just threw all my trust in the people here. My vet admitted she didnt know enough about feline diabetes and HER cat was diabetic.
I gave her the link to FDMB . She came she read and she said this was an excellent source of information...We learned together.

 

Re: @tiffmaxee ’s recommendation,
I’m not personally against modified TR. I think once you learn what works best for you, that’s when you decide how you’re going to handle your life and your cat. Lately with some of the issues my cat is facing, I’ve thought about changing what lows I will use to determine a decrease. Example: Normally under TR one would decrease anytime under 50 unless you’re dealing with a long term diabetic (I am), in which case you decrease if you get 40-50 three times, or always decrease if you get numbers 30-40 (human meter values* not pet meter!).... but my girl’s appetite is low, and I need sleep too. So I’m taking reductions a little more easily.
You could effectively do TR and take reductions at 60 or 70 instead, for example.

Early on after her DKA I tested Alice a lot! I don’t regret it but .... on your SS in some places recently you’re practically doing a glucose curve most AM cycles, and you will not always need that much data. If you find yourself inching towards some caregiver fatigue, you may need to let a bit of the testing go for even just a couple days. Test before shots, spot check a couple times between cycles. Barring emergency lows, that can often be enough. As far as understanding the patterns, that takes time.
I realized my vet couldn’t be available 24/7 and to trust this group to give me the best, peer-reviewed advice. In fact, it is highly discouraged that we give any advice on dosing through private messages, just so that others can weigh in and make corrections where necessary. My favorite adviceI ever received: FD is a marathon, not a sprint. -I wanted to fix everything right away and understand everything right away, and I had to step back and slow down a little so that I could pace myself.

If she will eat at night whatever food you leave out, as long as her appetite is good, and the numbers aren’t showing anything too crazy, it’s typically okay to get some rest. Do you keep her in your room at night near you? I know not everyone can do that with with every cat, but that helps me a lot. Keeping a snack by the bed in a storage container so I can roll over in the middle of night and feed it and go back to sleep, even making the test/feed/shoot process all set up and easy so I can go back to sleep for a little while after her shots, it helps.

You’re doing a great job.

 

That’s awesome y’all learned together!
I love my vet and respect her general diabetes knowledge as being better than a lot of vets, but my gosh I wish she would come and read here too! I keep trying to tell my vet’s office I will help anyone with a newly diagnosed diabetic cat, if they need it. I even posted on a neighborhood group offering support.
FDMB saves lives. I wish I’d known it was here many years ago when I helped a friend take her sick cat to the vet. The cat was diagnosed diabetic, insulin and syringes thrown at him, no mention of diet, no more help or support. I hate thinking of how he passed, knowing we could have helped him live a longer and healthier life.

 

I too offered my assistance if anything for just support. She left the practice to get married and I never heard for her again. After that, the practice was sold to VCA .

 

I don't know if this is helpful at all but I've found that making sure that my AMPS and PMPS /shot times are at reasonable hours for me really helps. I shoot at 6am and 6pm. This means that when I shoot at 6 I can easily monitor until 10 when I go to bed. I usually set an alarm for 11pm or 12am depending on how she's doing that day to check again. If she's higher or its obvious that she's on the upswing by 11/12 or so and I feel like I can safely go to bed for the night. Then, I'm back up at 6am to shoot again and unless she's super low already I know that she'll be fine for an hour or two if I want to go back to bed for a bit.

Obviously, don't take me for gospel here, I'm only about 2 weeks in. But I quickly learned that a later shoot time wasn't going to work for me.

 

I did the same, shooting at 6. For the day I could shoot and head to the gym to be back by +3-4. At night Max would tank but at least I could go out to dinner and get to sleep often at an ok time for me.

 

I wish my vet would do this...I told her about it, printed quite a bit off of the methods used here, and she said I can find anything on the internet and she was amused that we use an outdated study...or something along those lines. It's been a couple weeks now. But even after telling me she was fin if I wanted to go slow, she said to shoot 2 units in the morning and one at night. She'd had high morning numbers. Next morning I shot 1.25 instead and I'm glad because her numbers weren't so high that day. I haven't talked to her since and I switched spreadsheets so she doesn't have access anymore. :/ I need a new vet. I have a couple different comments in threads here talking about her.

Right now she will eat. She's been eating again since starting insulin and generally feeling better. I need to get another auto feeder. Mine is only 2 cups.
My problem is like last night...her numbers were lower each time so I was unsure when to cut it off and be like okay. The numbers weren't that low I know, but I have no idea what is normal for her. I think another reason I've been so stressed about her at night is because I can monitor her through the day, but at night it just seems so different. One of the first days I joined the fb page there were several cat losses, not necessarily at night, but when they weren't home and it scared me a bit. I'm trying to chill out. lol

We started doing the 10 pm time anticipating my 13 year old's evening activities starting back up and not being here to monitor. Sometimes we get home after 9 and chose 10 to be safe. I'm not sure how to remedy this issue at the moment...but believe me...I hate it.

 

FDMB has OVER 26,000 Members world wide. We must be doing something right.

 

And thats why I'm only in the forum.
Less likely to be confronted with losses, and I'm able to stay out of that specific forum.
Im nervous enough as it is, I don't need it, I'm not comfortable in this relatively new situation. I don't need anything pushing to the fears I'm already fighting with. Maybe one day, but most definitely not now or anytime soon.

 

I agree. It was all about the ego.

 

So, what do you all think I should do with Sissy...leave her at her dose awhile longer or ?

 

I cannot give dosing advice. I do see you have held this dose for 6 days. ...I cant remember the Lantus protocol on holding a dose.
I think maybe you should ask in the Lantus board or tag one of the lantus helpers.
I'm sorry I'm not much help in this respect.
j

 

Lantus TR is 6 cycles

I agree the Facebook group for FD (and IBD too) is hard to handle when you see a lot of losses. it’s good for a quick “hey anyone around!!!!?” and to help guide others who are new to FD though.


Sorry I’m sure there was a new thread for today but I was catching up.

 

thank you