Alrighty. First and foremost-I plan to email the vet tomorrow or Thursday (crazy busy with work unfortunately) to follow up on a couple things, so some of this is still a bit perplexing to me. I do, however LOVE this vet that we brought him to. She spent nearly 45 minutes speaking with Matt and I, and when we left, Matt said "I feel like she challenged you in a good way." I agree. First, she has treated diabetic cats before and has had many go into remission. The recipe she believes helps with remission: Lantus and Purina DM wet food. Now, I believe she prefers Lantus just as most doctors prefer one drug over the other- it's just what she's used to. I told her I would think about it and look into possibly switching in the future, but I was hesitant because I also thought Lantus requires a pretty strict schedule. Right now with Matt unemployed, we're able to have a tight schedule, but that may all change once he works (meaning maybe 11/13 again). Unknown for now. She wasn't terribly worried about keeping a super strict 12/12 schedule with Lantus and said she's had clients who obviously for one reason or another aren't 100% able to do that schedule every single day. Well, yes but that just sounds like life. Either way- I just don't quite see the need to switch since Pita's always responded to ProZinc, but I'm always willing to keep options open and learn about a different way.
She was impressed and totally on board with me home testing, although she doesn't know how to interpret a human meter accordingly. I believe I read a thing one time somewhere on here about the variance between pet and human meters (or as much as possible), does anyone know where I could find that to maybe show her? She was a bit concerned when I mentioned that he's gotten as low as 50/60, but again, she isn't used to a human meter. As I write this, I feel a bit dumb, because I mentioned that a regulated cat stays between 50-120 and I think she was still a bit confused/uneasy. Oh well? She mentioned the AlphaTrak (Djamila I do not have one, but am thinking of maybe buying one to test with maybe once a week?!) and I told her that cost wasn't possible for me and since I knew how to read the human meter, I'd be sticking with it. She didn't mind, but it was a bit difficult speaking about numbers. She is 100% with me about never doing a curve at the vet and again, was impressed by how much I test and also that he's good with it.
Now, here's where this 'experiment' comes in. Looking at his numbers, she believes that he may be close or technically in remission because his numbers are usually relatively low. She knew that even though some of his numbers were higher, it could be so many things, so she wasn't too concerned. He does need 4-5 teeth removed and some are being resorbed.

We're trying to figure out a way to pay for this ASAP because she said that was also a possible reason for higher numbers. At any rate, she suggested I go 3-5 days without insulin to see where he naturally goes. She said as long as he stays around 180 or below (again though, which meter?) she believes he could come off insulin. So, per her suggestion, we have gone about two days, with AMPS, +#, PMPS. If at the end he starts rising and not going back down, she suggested we start easy again at 1 unit. I did mention that I was taught that between 60-120 without insulin was considered remission, but she didn't seem too concerned with slightly higher numbers, yet below 180. Ugh, I'm not feeling so great about this as I type it all out but it really did go so well with her and I felt supported in my decisions.
As far as food goes-I can't spend almost $50 on a case of 24 cans of DM. Even though they share one can a day, I can't do it. At least not right now. To see the carbs that he is eating, I grabbed Dr. Lisa's chart and now am very confused! He eats Friskies pate in Poultry Platter and Turkey & Giblets. According to the chart, there are 4 and 5 carbs respectively in those flavors. However, when I do the math myself from using a carb calculator, I get nearly 11.36% carbs in the Poultry Platter alone! Then I get 15.91% carbs in the Purina DM, compared to 6 on that chart. I'm so confused! I just wanted to compare what I'm feeding him to what she recommended.
Overall, I do believe I've found a great vet, I just want to share with her some stuff to help us get on the same page as far as numbers go, as well and food.

This is how I feel now though. And now, dear friends, I leave this all out there for you
