Chuck and Susan
Active Member
Chuck is an 18 year old previously diet controlled diabetic. He was first diagnosed in March, 2008, and, using Lantus, I was able to go OTJ about 2 months later. He remained diet controlled until February of this year.
Since February, his BG's have fluctuated wildly almost daily. He's been on a constant "roller coaster", except for one week when we withheld insulin to clear the depot and start fresh. During that week, he stayed in the mid 300-s consistently. Going back on insulin, he would be "HI" on the meter, then 6-10 hours later, he'd be below 50, all on the same unit of insulin (or half unit, or quarter unit -- it didn't make any difference).
Prior to switching insulins, the vet consulted with Texas A&M vets, and they suggested a TLI test as well as "routine" bloodwork to rule out any possible physical cause for the fluctuations. Heard back from the vet today regarding these tests. His white count is normal, his red count is normal, his hemoglobin is on the low end of normal, so the vet is thinking possibly mild anemia.
His BUN is a little high, but his creatinine is normal, so no kidney failure at this time. His BG at the draw was 431, not surprising with vet stress and the way he's been roller-coastering for the last 3 months.
His liver enzymes are normal; his T4 is low but normal, no ketones. No sign of infection or bacteria -- he had a UTI in December that took about 4 antibiotics to clear up, so they wanted to be sure he was still clear. His TLI came back at 77.5, which is in the normal range (12-82).
No pancreatitis (chronic or acute) or pancreas issues, no liver issues, no kidney issues -- it must be the insulin. He recommended either ProZinc or Vetsulin -- I'm leaning towards ProZinc. He doesn't think we need to clear out the Lantus depot, but doesn't want me to start him on the PZ and then go to work -- I should be around to monitor the first couple of days. So, we're going camping this weekend, and my plans were to sew a bunch of projects. Chuck has to go along anyway; I'll start him on the PZ Sunday morning. I have to work Saturday until 5, then we're headed to the campground; I don't want to feed him, give him a new insulin, and then put him in the truck for a 45 minute drive. My plan is to get to the camper, feed and give one last dose of Lantus Saturday night and start the PZ Sunday morning, depending on BG.
I've attached his Lantus spreadsheet. Please let me know if you do things differently in PZ-land.
Thanks for letting us "move in" for a while!
Since February, his BG's have fluctuated wildly almost daily. He's been on a constant "roller coaster", except for one week when we withheld insulin to clear the depot and start fresh. During that week, he stayed in the mid 300-s consistently. Going back on insulin, he would be "HI" on the meter, then 6-10 hours later, he'd be below 50, all on the same unit of insulin (or half unit, or quarter unit -- it didn't make any difference).
Prior to switching insulins, the vet consulted with Texas A&M vets, and they suggested a TLI test as well as "routine" bloodwork to rule out any possible physical cause for the fluctuations. Heard back from the vet today regarding these tests. His white count is normal, his red count is normal, his hemoglobin is on the low end of normal, so the vet is thinking possibly mild anemia.
His BUN is a little high, but his creatinine is normal, so no kidney failure at this time. His BG at the draw was 431, not surprising with vet stress and the way he's been roller-coastering for the last 3 months.
His liver enzymes are normal; his T4 is low but normal, no ketones. No sign of infection or bacteria -- he had a UTI in December that took about 4 antibiotics to clear up, so they wanted to be sure he was still clear. His TLI came back at 77.5, which is in the normal range (12-82).
No pancreatitis (chronic or acute) or pancreas issues, no liver issues, no kidney issues -- it must be the insulin. He recommended either ProZinc or Vetsulin -- I'm leaning towards ProZinc. He doesn't think we need to clear out the Lantus depot, but doesn't want me to start him on the PZ and then go to work -- I should be around to monitor the first couple of days. So, we're going camping this weekend, and my plans were to sew a bunch of projects. Chuck has to go along anyway; I'll start him on the PZ Sunday morning. I have to work Saturday until 5, then we're headed to the campground; I don't want to feed him, give him a new insulin, and then put him in the truck for a 45 minute drive. My plan is to get to the camper, feed and give one last dose of Lantus Saturday night and start the PZ Sunday morning, depending on BG.
I've attached his Lantus spreadsheet. Please let me know if you do things differently in PZ-land.
Thanks for letting us "move in" for a while!