I'm really stumped.

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Djamila

Djamila

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Okay, this morning I gave him just the tiniest amount of insulin and PMPS is STILL too low. And we're at +13 right now. I don't know what to do. We need lower AM numbers, but I can't get those without a PM shot, right? And I can't shoot below 200. So now what? I don't think I can really give him less in the morning. Should I try just a drop tonight and monitor him? I hate to monitor during the night, because I'm afraid I won't wake up when I need to. But I don't know what else to do right now.
 
Well, actually you probably can shoot below 200 - & monitor, of course - with just that tiny bit of insulin, as you are already above 180 now. It gets to where you sometimes need to lower the shot limit just a little when you're at this point in the game. (I often have set two alarms, 5 min apart, when I've had to monitor at night.)
 
And right now we're at +13.5. Should I go ahead and shoot now? Or try it tomorrow if he's still around 180?
 
You might want to take a look at Bat-Bat's SS - we're in that dinky-dose land, too (0.10U). She hit 182 tonight, so I dosed her - and I'll be checking her @ around +3.5, which is when she usually drops.
 
I would check him at +3 (am referencing your pm cycle on 8/31). You'll note that once they get into mini-dose land, our kitties can still drop just as much as when they were on a larger dose weeks back. (Bat sure does.) What I often do at night: When she drops around 90-100, I just go ahead & give her a little bit of her low-carb FF (like 2/8ths of a can - about 0.75 oz.); then I'm able to get some decent sleep for the balance of the night. (We're using an AT meter, too. though.)
 
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I can definitely get a +3.5 test in and intervene if he's dropping too much at that point. Also, I'm a teacher and just found out that we are on strike starting tomorrow, so it won't matter as much if I need to wake up and test during the night. Boo. He ate when I tested him at +13, and he usually eats a good meal at bedtime which is +3, so he should be okay. I gave him just one drop since it makes me nervous and I haven't shot below 200 before. Keeping my fingers crossed that this goes okay...:nailbiting:
 
Yeah, I know - it's a little bit scary the first time you go there. I think you'll do fine tonight, though!:bighug:
(I'm sorry, but I don't know your first name ...:oops:)
 
Djamila is my first name, but sometimes it's easier to see it without the "D" -- Jamila. It's Arabic. It's pronounced like Juh - MEE - luh. Sam is my cat. His name "Samir" is also Arabic. I'm not Arab, but grew up in an Arabic speaking country. When it came time to name my cat, I just chose the name that I thought best described him. Samir means "a friend who stops by for a conversation". I named him that because he is super vocal and walks around and meows CONSTANTLY and has tons of different vocalizations so it's really easy to understand what he's saying. He has distinctly different sounds for being excited, being nervous, seeing a bird or squirrel, being happy or unhappy, wanting to play, wanting food, wanting treats and on and on. He's quite the conversationalist!

Thanks so much for your help tonight. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!
 
Thanks, Djamila, for giving me the pronunciation of your name! I love the meaning of Samir's name :cool: ... and how perfect, as he's such a talker! (Have you ever made recordings of his conversational styles?)

It's interesting, isn't it, how some cats vocalize and teach us their own "language." Bat-Bat has a very unique "chirp" that she reserves only for those times when she sees a spider inside the house. She's my personal spider-alert alarm system: She'll sit as still as a statue - staring straight at it - and make that unique sound.

She will not, however, chase after a spider. She'll go after a fly, play shuffleboard with an ant, or catch & eat a big, fuzzy moth in a heartbeat, but a spider? Nope, never! (Does she realize that spiders creep me out? I don't know, but I think they creep her out, too.:eek:)
 
We are at +3, and he's at 75. I think I'll set an alarm to wake up and check him again in a bit to make sure that was the nadir.

Recording his sounds could be really interesting! I never though of that! I definitely think our cats can read our minds (thinking of your spider story).

It'll be interesting to see his AMPS in the morning. It would be lovely to be able to get two blue numbers!
 
Okay, I have to jump in and share my spider story. Spiders completely freak me out. I cannot deal with them. I have given the kitchen to one before until my BF came home hours later to deal with it. One time, we were in the kitchen, standing by the fridge and talking. Gypsy ambled in, stopped in front of us, sniffed at something on the ground, looked right at him and walked out. I look down and there's a giant spider RIGHT THERE. Of course, the next thing I knew, I'm in the living room with no memory of deciding to run LOL. Gypsy must have known that NO WAY was I dealing with it....she looked at him like "Dude, you have to take care of this. You know she won't".
 
Lol! Ah, spiders. My best friend is so afraid of them that she once managed to throw a container over one in the middle of her living room and left it there for an entire WEEK until I got to her house to kill it for her! She just piled a couple of books on top of it and walked around it. It wasn't even that big. Not that I love them, but I'm not particularly afraid of them. Unless they are big enough that I can see their face. Those do scare me a little!

And THIS is predictable: Sam is too low to shoot this morning. Not by much, and if I had time to wait and retest he would probably be fine, but unfortunately in the mornings I don't have time to delay since I have to leave for work. I think if I can give him a drop on time tonight we should be back on track. The shot was probably just too late last night.
 
It is clear that Sam sure likes to run lower at night than during the day. Sure is nice to see a blue number this morning. Who knows, he may surf today and give you a shootable number tonight or better yet just stay in the blue.

I like all insects including spiders. I always capture them and throw them back outside if I see them first. We get these really big wolf spiders in the house. Sometimes, I just let them stay but eventually, they are set free. All my cats eat all insects that are on the floor including scorpions so we are pretty much insect free inside the house except for an occasional spider. :)
 
Two ideas.

I don't think I have ever said this, but maybe you should just look at dosing once daily and see if he stays low enough. Right now, it looks like he drops for 12 hours and then longer before coming up for amps. I would consider this on a day when you can get a curve. Maybe up the am dose by a drop and then see if he just drops continually and for how long, getting some numbers in that pm cycle too. If he'd stay under 200 most of the time, maybe it's worth it to see if he eventually starts dropping.

The other approach is to chase the number, if you can make it work with your schedule. So when he is too low, just wait 2 hours to get the food out of his system and when he is up to 180/200, give him a drop. Then try again 12 hours later. If he is too low to shoot, feed, wait 2 hours for the food to clear and then when he rises enough, shoot. This will throw off your 12/12 schedule but could work on a weekend? Usually it is a short term process before they are OTJ. (Anti jinx)

Another thing you can try. Test before food. And then test 30 -45 minutes after. Did he rise or drop? If his numbers fell, his pancreas is helping things out.
 
I like new ideas and again, that is the beauty of Prozinc...it is so flexible. You never knows what will work until you have tried it!
 
Merlin said:
It is clear that Sam sure likes to run lower at night than during the day. Sure is nice to see a blue number this morning. Who knows, he may surf today and give you a shootable number tonight or better yet just stay in the blue.
I like all insects including spiders. I always capture them and throw them back outside if I see them first. We get these really big wolf spiders in the house. Sometimes, I just let them stay but eventually, they are set free. All my cats eat all insects that are on the floor including scorpions so we are pretty much insect free inside the house except for an occasional spider. :)
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Your cats eat scorpions!??? I thought they were deadly? I would freak out !
 
Last night he got his little drop of insulin at +13.5, so I was kind of expecting him to still be too low this morning. And it was close, he was only a little bit too low, if it really is okay to shoot at 180 for the tiny doses. I'm hoping when I shoot him at regular time tonight, that I can give him another little dose in the morning and we'll be in a schedule that will allow for two shots.

If that doesn't work though, then it does seem like he's putting himself on a one shot schedule, huh? Looking back at his SS, I can't believe how quickly we've gone from one full unit, to one tenth of a unit! Through this whole process I've been so scared of him going hypo, and with his numbers dropping, that fear is increasing. Honestly, I love that I'm at work today and not worried about him at all. I really do hope his little pancreas is revving back up.

If getting back on schedule doesn't work, I can try chasing the number over the weekend.

And not all scorpions are deadly. Some of them just hurt really really badly if they sting you. I still can't imagine how your little hunter manages to kill one without getting stung though! That's some serious skill!!! I was stung once growing up and that was more than enough!
 
Okay, let me get this right. You let wolf spiders just hang out in your house?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?! I would freak out!

Djamila, Samir is certainly throwing some interesting numbers at you! I'll be interested to see what happens next. Sometimes chasing the numbers is the best thing you can do. It can be tough, but there are people who have successfully managed to do that.
 
Rachel said:
Okay, let me get this right. You let wolf spiders just hang out in your house?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?! I would freak out!

Djamila, Samir is certainly throwing some interesting numbers at you! I'll be interested to see what happens next. Sometimes chasing the numbers is the best thing you can do. It can be tough, but there are people who have successfully managed to do that.
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What does chasing the numbers mean exactly? Just shooting when necessary?
 
Basically. You just "chase" the preshot number you want and give the insulin when you get it from what I understand.
 
Djamila said:
Okay, little party over. Now what?
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Enjoy your night...get a good night sleep. I won't tell Sam if nobody else does. ;)

Edit Update: Oh yeah, all my cats love scorpions. We don't get too many but when we do, they don't stand a chance. I read somewhere that cats are immune to them (what ever that means).
 
Well, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to tell him, so we did a big happy dance around the living room. Oops. :oops::oops::oops:

Turns out it was okay so far. Still too low to shoot (shouldn't we have an acronym for that? TLTS?)

Thank you all for your help trying to figure this all out! Now I just bite my nails, keep testing, and keep giving his pancreas a little pep talk every day, right? :nailbiting:
 
Yep those pep talks seem to be working. Even though you are not shooting, any chance you can still get a couple of nadir tests? The reason is that it would be good to know if he is surfing in the blues or getting into those greens. You never know when just a drop of insulin might help.
 
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