Luna update for Dec 1

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fredrika

fredrika

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Morning everybody!

got a small jump in Luna's number this morning, a 347 this morning, after some lower numbers. not terrible i guess. what happened last night you ask? not much different, more on that in a second. this morning the meter battery died right after the test so maybe that didn't help. since it has to charge anyway i just gave her brkfst.

Last night i came home with a new cat bed for Luna and left it in the living room. My cat Rocky who has never used ONE cat bed i've ever brought home was laying in it in about 2 seconds so i left it for him to see if he really takes to it or if he's just being childish (grin). After sharing 'scents' for a few days and a few peeks through the door, after dinner i put Luna in a crate and let my two boys in to say hi. i think it went very well. Luna hissed one time at Harry, the cat who is afraid of dust balls. but that was it. many freeze dried chicken treats were enjoyed by all. Then i put the crate in the next room so they could smell her scent again. when i came back, who do you think was laying in the crate... for the rest of the entire night? oh yes, Rocky.

fyi, Luna is a petite, all black 7# cat. this is not Luna....(see pic)



this is Luna



long story short, riding with the same .25u shot for now. hoping for better tonight.
 

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Hi Jen,
Cute pics, and happy that the meet and great is going well! Is there any way you would be able to get some mid cycle tests in today? I think the dose might need adjusting but it would be easier to tell if we could see what is going on between shots.
Carl
 
carlinsc said:
Hi Jen,
Cute pics, and happy that the meet and great is going well! Is there any way you would be able to get some mid cycle tests in today? I think the dose might need adjusting but it would be easier to tell if we could see what is going on between shots.
Carl
Click to expand...

nope. gotta work, but i promise this weekend to do a curve. i had company last weekend and the ear pricks were not going well. using the freeze dried chicken treat as an instant reward has helped tremendously! we're all business now and it's nice and quick. so for the curve, should i do sat and sunday? every 2hrs or every 3 hrs? or just 2hrs after and 2 hrs before???? right ear or left? so confusing!

also, i read another post the other day about belly shots vs. scruff? it said belly shots are better but does it matter which insulin is used ie: is Lantus best in a belly or a scruff? number is back down to 236 tonight. I'm not going to try any introductions tonight, maybe just have them swap recipes, or hairbrushes or something and i think tomorrow should be in the low 200's again.

how is SC? is it warm?

thanks!
J n L
 
Hi Jen,

I know you can't get daytime spot checks but tonight after Luna's shot, can you get a BG at about 2 or 3 hours after? That would help us see how she's doing. I do think maybe a smidge more insulin but she was on too high of a dose for a while without being given that on a regular basis. I'd much rather see how she does with this, given on a regular schedule with the good food she now gets.

I know we talked about a back up meter and maybe getting that when you're in my area, but do you want me to send one out now?

I shoot my kitties in the flank (side) but now that you've mentioned the shot areas, I may try some scruff shots on Kiki when she's a little lower for preshot. Lately she's playing games on me, well not lately, she's been playing games on me for a while. ;-)
 
ok, i just got, this and ran over and did an ear stick at four hours post shot but then it dawned on me that i had just given her a bedtime snack of some wet food and we got a 231. is this now a useless number and i gave her a poke for nothing?

scruff shots absorb slower is that what you're saying? i've been trying for just behind the shoulder blades and off the spine. so the type of insulin doesn't matter as much as where she is in the curve...on the way up or down?

J n L
 
ok, more numbers

down and dirty from the chart is

yesterday
5pm 236 gave .25
9pm 231 (right after a snack of wet food)
3am 309
5am 309 - and i say 309 her because this is what i got --
within about 3 minutes i got 309 and thought it was a mistake b/c the prior one at 3am was a 309, then i did another 309 and then a 315. i'm guessing that the rise to 315 was because she was about to have a hit put out on me for sticking her 3 times in a row? nevertheless it still went up to 315 so maybe i should put that on the chart?
anyway, still 5 am - gave .25 and hugs. distracted with feathery objects.
7am 327 but the meter turned off before it calculated the first time, so it's definitely wonky!!! i did a test strip with the control solution and it was in the proper range, so maybe the number is ok???

can i just get a new battery first???

and how the heck do you make the google spreadsheet turn into a chart
 
Jen,

I'm not sure I want to recommend a dose increase until we know your meter is good. In case you don't see this until after work I'm going to email you to let you know I will be overnighting supplies. Once we get some fresh numbers with the new USB meter which you can plug into your computer and it will download information for you, we can look at the data and make a decision.
 
Jen
I'm sorry I didn't see this last night. I was out, and then got tied up with a couple of "crisis"....

Jennifer,
Thanks for hopping in!

I'm not going to try any introductions tonight, maybe just have them swap recipes, or hairbrushes or something and i think tomorrow should be in the low 200's again.
how is SC? is it warm?
Click to expand...

lol. yes, well, you would think "warm", for us this is almost "winter".....60's in daylight, 40ish at night! I had to run the heater!

On the whole "curve thing" this weekend. It depends really on what works best for you. You could do every 2 hours between the AMPS and PMPS on one day or the other. Or you could do "every two" one day, and "every 3" the other day. The important thing is to fill in as many of the blanks in a 12 hour cycle as you can. All those numbers will help make sense of what is going on during her days. Either ear works, assuming they bleed equally well. Some kitties, like Bob, are "left-eared" and I always had more success with that than his other ear. ECID. It helps if both ears are used so there's less chance of "soreness" from all that poking!
Shot location. Flank or scruff works. Some people see better results with the flank area. Sometimes a change in location seems to help. It's that ECID thing again. They really are all "different".

I see Jennifer is sending you a new meter. Better to know for sure the meter is good when you do that curve. Also even more important, that the numbers you are getting are "right" before thinking about a dose adjustment. We can figure that out AFTER the curve.
and how the heck do you make the google spreadsheet turn into a chart
Click to expand...

Good question, I've never tried. I'll try to figure it out tonight. I noticed yesterday that the "googledocs" spreadsheet sure does look like an excel spreadsheet, but it doesn't "act" like one. Doing something simple like automatically extending a range of numbers is so much easier with Excel. One simple "click and grab". I had to read the "help" file to figure out the procedure on googledocs. And they also changed the "publish to the web" process which many people haven't realized yet. Pain in the butt, but I guess it's what works for the geeks at google!
Carl
 
I did check with Jen and I'm sending a package to arrive tomorrow. Jen, once you get it the USB meter needs to charge for about 10 minutes.
 
Hi all,

still plugging away....

i turned the meter on several times during the day and it seemed to stay on the allotted amount of time. and the numbers it has given me appear in the range they are supposed to.

i just did a 3:30 check (1.5 hrs before her 12 hr / 5 pm dinner dose) the BG was 314, appears in line with what we have seen.

Question is:

if i do my 5pm check and the number appears in the ballpark do i still shoot her .25. i understand i shouldn't increase the dose, i'm saying should i shoot at all given the meter weirdness. i really just thought it was the battery. no one at the pharmacy knew anything about them and i never heard back from my email to Bayer customer service (shocking, i know.) on the other hand i have no experience with any of this, i have now had the meter for 2 weeks and i don't know how old it is or how good of a life it had before my house. meh.

thanks so much all!

ps: Carl, it was 30 here when i got up, but went up to 50 during the day. won't be long now and we'll be shoveling.
 
You'll have fresh supplies tomorrow morning. If you feel confident that the meter is working a dose increase to 1/2 unit would be fine. I say this because Luna was on at least 1 Unit BID for a while. We're not too sure it may have been even more, her foster person was fantastic but after the family crisis which breaks my heart I can understand why it wasn't so easy to keep the information coming.

So... all that said, she's used to higher doses so give the 1/2 u tonight if her number is still high, and if you feel comfortable with that, you could even do a skinny 1/2 unit if you wanted to, have the plunger land just under the hash mark on the syringe.

However, feel free to stick with 1/4 unit since you'll have the new meter tomorrow. The meter that you have was new when Luna first went to foster care, late July of this year. She had been on insulin for some time before coming to DCIN, she was getting a much higher dose before that.
 
Prior Foster Mom told me she was giving 1 u.

also please note: tonights 5pm # is 329 and i have four extra BG's in there = assuming the meter is right. also, i gave the freeze dried chicken just a few pieces after the 3:30 test.

i will do a skinny .5 esp. pending the new meter.
 
oh BOY! two yesses! yeah!

i retested the test strips with the control today and according to that number it's spot on.

thanks again guys! happy friday!
 
I love that you are thanking us, but we really are the ones that are so thankful to you for offering your home and your heart to sweet Luna and fostering her.
 
Yes,
you are welcome, Jen, but it's you who's being the hero with this. Luna is the lucky one. We're just along for the ride!
Kudo's to you!
Carl
 
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