Need advise on doses

[Jajsmom]

Can someone look at Japsers's SS please? Trying to determine if I should dose at 2 or 2.5. On Novolin. Maybe something else. His numbers just look all over the place and I want to get them more consistant. Hoping there's enough data now to see. Thanks

 

[Nan & Amber (GA)]

Hello!

Not a Novalin user, so I hesitate to comment on dosing, but I looked at your spreadsheet and wanted to throw out an observation.

Jasper seems to be getting a lot of action out of Novalin. Almost every cycle, he drops a couple hundred points in the first two hours. He may also be dropping low at night when you don't have tests (I'm suspicious of all the high black AMPS numbers you have, but then again he is often there at PMPS too, so he may not be doing much different at night than day).

In any case, just dropping that fast (even if he never goes really low) can trigger a bounce, and I think that, along with Novalin's short duration, explains a lot of what you're seeing. Look at yesterday's daytime cycle, for example-- he dropped to (at least) yellow, then zoomed up to black by mid-cycle before returning back down by PMPS. The good news there is that he doesn't seem like a long-duration bouncer, but he's definitely reacting to the rapid swings. This kind of effect is one of the things that makes Novalin really hard to work with in kitties-- you can't get around the strong immediate effect it has. It might be possible to tamp things down a little by timing snacks or mini-meals at +1 and +2 (in addition to the pre-shot meal, which is crucial with Novalin).

Is there any chance of changing insulin to one of the "gentler" and long lasting insulins, such as Lantus or Prozinc?

 

[Jajsmom]

Hello!

Not a Novalin user, so I hesitate to comment on dosing, but I looked at your spreadsheet and wanted to throw out an observation.

Jasper seems to be getting a lot of action out of Novalin. Almost every cycle, he drops a couple hundred points in the first two hours. He may also be dropping low at night when you don't have tests (I'm suspicious of all the high black AMPS numbers you have, but then again he is often there at PMPS too, so he may not be doing much different at night than day).

In any case, just dropping that fast (even if he never goes really low) can trigger a bounce, and I think that, along with Novalin's short duration, explains a lot of what you're seeing. Look at yesterday's daytime cycle, for example-- he dropped to (at least) yellow, then zoomed up to black by mid-cycle before returning back down by PMPS. The good news there is that he doesn't seem like a long-duration bouncer, but he's definitely reacting to the rapid swings. This kind of effect is one of the things that makes Novalin really hard to work with in kitties-- you can't get around the strong immediate effect it has. It might be possible to tamp things down a little by timing snacks or mini-meals at +1 and +2 (in addition to the pre-shot meal, which is crucial with Novalin).

Is there any chance of changing insulin to one of the "gentler" and long lasting insulins, such as Lantus or Prozinc?

I was trying to see how he would do on Novolin for about a month before switching. I'm going to be making an appointment soon and see if I can switch him to Lantus. I do snack him with pate around 1pm and sometimes leave a little dry if he still appears hungry after . That high yesterday didn't make sense mid-day.