Need advice on yo-yo pattern

Status
Not open for further replies.
fearlessmom

fearlessmom

Member Since 2017
After 9 cycles w/out seeing green, Fearless rec'd an increase to 1.25u this morning and immediately dropped into the good zone. Kept him from going <50 with strategic feeding. Now he's bouncing again. Every time he hits green he bounces >300 or higher. Then we spend several days (at times up to a week) waiting for the bounce to clear. Look at the long stretches between green in the last month. At first I thought he was clearing bounces in 2-3 days, but now that I know that it's the time between greens that I should be looking at, I've noted the length of the bounces in the comments section of his SS.

Problem is, if I don't keep him above 50, he'll earn another reduction and we'll be back where we were for the last week before the dose increase this morning. I know it's only been 3 months but my patience pants are in a bunch. I feel we are doomed to keep repeating this pattern. Would someone care to look at Fearless's SS and give me your learned opinion. What am I missing? Should I change my approach? Any input will be appreciated.
 
Can you start getting a +2?? It can be helpful to start feeding earlier if he's dropping instead of letting him get all the way down to the 50's before acting.

If the +2 is lower than the PS, that's a pretty good indicator that he might be planning on going a lot lower later in the cycle, so if you feed a little sooner, you may be able to get him to surf instead of diving.

It's going to take time for his body to re-learn that it's OK to be in normal numbers again (and some cats never do and bounce all the way to OTJ) but experimenting with different carb percentages when you see him dropping quickly is a good start
 
I feed @ PS, +2, +3, and +4. The HC you see on the SS is in addition to those regular feedings. I wouldn't feed HC for any reading under 100 anyway. My goal is to reach green and stay there. If my goal were to keep him in the blues, my approach would be different, but I mentioned that (keeping him in the 100s) a few posts back and was informed it's not likely to work.

I don't understand how his current pattern will ever approach "bouncing all the way to OTJ." If he bounces off green to pink/red how will he ever get OTJ?
 
fearlessmom said:
If he bounces off green to pink/red how will he ever get OTJ?
Click to expand...

I didn't mean bouncing all the way to 300+, but we have had cats that continued to bounce....but they'd clear the bounce quickly and return to greens

What carb percentage are you feeding at +2, +3, +4? As I suggested above, you might want to try to test at +2 and if that number is lower than the PS, feed something a little higher carb to see if you can slow down the fast drops

Bounces can be caused by fast drops, not only by dropping too low

It can take a lot of experimenting with really bouncy cats to find something that works for them. I know it's frustrating, but you're still really new to the sugardance so just keep washing those patience pants!
 
I've been doing things the FDMB way for almost a year now, the first bit with ProZinc and now Lantus since February. I'm only just beginning to see less bouncing with Teasel. He was diagnosed 6 months before I came to FDMB. It's been a long, tough road and being patient is the only thing that has preserved my sanity. I will say, though, that I don't drive myself nuts trying to steer with food, tinker with different carb %, etc. I more or less let each cycle unfold as it wants and intervene only when I see he's dropping too low or too soon. That approach has helped me preserve my mental energy and keep going in a relatively calm way.

I never thought Teasel would settle down at all but he has - still bounces but they're less dramatic. There is hope. :bighug:
 
Babu dived and therefore he bounced since day one and until OTJ ( seriously his last shoot he dived pretty low and he was on a drop), just the bounces starting being less dramatic since his highs weren't so high, and he started clearing the bounces quicker.
 
What Chris is suggesting is the approach I used with Gabby. There's a lot of data on her spreadsheet to browse through but you're welcome to do so. Basically, what leveled out her numbers was trying to prevent her from earning a dose reduction by steering the cycle with food. The idea is to get the cat to spend as much time in normal range numbers as you can. In so doing, you are re-educating your kitty's pancreas as to what is normal so there isn't the overreaction to lower numbers. It does mean you may have to test a bit more and especially so if your cat is prone to drops early in the cycle. (Gabby's nadir was at around +3 or +4 so I had to stay on top of things early in the cycle.)

 
I did pretty much the same thing with Babu, he also started his dives between +3 and +5 so I used to give him a little MC around +3 to keep him from diving too much and avoid dose reductions, scary moments and bouncing ( still it does not always worked but helped) , as he aproched OTJ his patterns did changed but still I had to steer the cycle with food
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Basically, what leveled out her numbers was trying to prevent her from earning a dose reduction by steering the cycle with food.
Click to expand...
I do that, as you can see from Fearless's SS. BUT, and this is a big but, I do not steer higher with food if he is in the blue. Would never get to the greens if I did. Also, and this is a big issue right now with his bouncing, he spends more time bouncing than anything else and his bounces are not a consistent length of time, so I can't tell until he gets to blue whether or not he's going to drop. I can only hope that what Kris says about Teasel holds true for Fearless as well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top