Started Musette on Lev with pm dose last night.

[MommaOfMuse]

Well as of Musette's pm shot I needed to decide if I wanted to give the Lev that I have sitting here a shot, especially since she has her pre-dental exam coming up this thursday. i want to kill two birds with one stone, while I'm getting the estimate on hers and Maxwell's dentals I want to go ahead and get a new script for insulin. So I need to figure out what that is going to be...Lantus or Levemir. So since I just finished the pen of Lantus I was using I decide to give the Lev a shot.

Now I'm figuring she is gonna have some squirrely numbers for the next couple of days as her Lantus shed drains and her Lev shed builds. I'm I right in assuming this? But so far with just two shots of the Lev I'm already seeing better numbers and she seems to be way less tense and grumpy right after her shots. So I'm taking both those things as good signs.

Now of course the better numbers could be her just finally clearing the bounce off her 36 the other day, but I honestly think that Lantus and her are just not a good fit, she reacts too hard to it. If I get her on a dose that gives her decent preshot numbers than she tries to hypo on me, then rebounds for days, but if I reduce the dose she doesn't hold it. So far it has been just too much of a roller coaster ride for her. But so far it does look like the Lev is giving her a much gentler curve.

Really hoping this all makes sense.. :lol: Jon's band played last night and I got home in time to catch her +6 at 1am and finally got to bed at 3am to get back up long enough to test, feed and shot at 6:30 am. :roll: So I'm just a little tired and the brain is still mostly a nerf. ohmygod_smile

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang.

 

[Blue]

I think you may find that Lev is more suitable; I found that my Shadoe was more tense on Lantus, but she did better and was more relaxed on Lev.

I recently moved to a city and was looking for a new vet. I have found that the Canadian vet mentioned in Tilly protocol who was consulted, is practising in this city, and so I am thrilled ... while looking at her site, she is against the dry foods and treats, plus she is recommending Levemir now for diabetics. I am double thrilled.
http://aesopsvetcare.wordpress.com/products/

The scales may be adjusting as levemir gets more exposure.

 

[Vicky & Gandalf (GA) & Murrlin]

I think you may find that Lev is more suitable; I found that my Shadoe was more tense on Lantus, but she did better and was more relaxed on Lev.

I recently moved to a city and was looking for a new vet. I have found that the Canadian vet mentioned in Tilly protocol who was consulted, is practising in this city, and so I am thrilled ... while looking at her site, she is against the dry foods and treats, plus she is recommending Levemir now for diabetics. I am double thrilled.
http://aesopsvetcare.wordpress.com/products/

The scales may be adjusting as levemir gets more exposure.

That is fantastic news!! Thanks for sharing that, Gayle.

And Mel, wha??? You're trying Levemir for Musette?? Lucky girl. Musette, I mean. I hope she continues to show the improvements you mention and that it's not a fluke of her personality.

Just remember that I call Levemir the Gentle Giant for a reason. Be ready for her numbers to come down and for preshots you may not be comfortable with. I have to check her spreadsheet. BRB.

 

[MommaOfMuse]

Thanks ladies,

So far Musette looks much better numberswise on the Lev. While it is still mostly yellows with an early pink that was soooo close to yellow it doesn't really count as a pink, she isn't getting the steep drops and the rapid rise again. Much gentler which even though right now it is higher than I would like its got to feel better to her. With the Lantus she looked very much like she was on Humilin N just with a longer duration, she would drop rapidly and shoot back up rapidly.

I started her at the same dose she was at with the Lantus just a fat .5 (being defined as the bottom of the plunger resting on top of the .5u mark). While between now and her vet appointment won't give me a lot of time to collect data on how the Lev is working for her, it should at least let me know IF it is going to work better for her than the Lantus was. I am pretty blessed with my vets as while they don't know diddly squat about FD they readily admit they don't know diddly squat about FD, so about all I have to do is present a reasonable arguement on why I want to change something and they are pretty good about letting me have my way.. :lol:

I've shot some pretty low pre-shots with Lantus (mostly to have them bite me in the hind end) so I'm sure I can deal with those lower preshots when they occur with the Lev. But if she has any chance of going OTJ its not going to be on Lantus, she just can't retain normal numbers long enough during a 12 hour period to let her pancreas heal, and if she is going to live as an insulin dependent the rest of her life I would rather have her on Lev anyhow. I figure I have pretty close to a month's worth of Lev here and by then our weather should be warm enough that I can ship out DCIN's Lantus to another cat and be able to safely get Lev shipped in here, and if not...go bug my mom to sell me a couple of her pens.

Just with summer coming up and Jon's band getting busier, I need to get her at least predictable on where she is going to head on a dose so I'm not spending the whole evening out worrying over if I'm going to come home to a hypoed kitty, and right now I can't predict that with her on Lantus.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

 

[Sheila & Beau GA & Jeddie GA]

If I get her on a dose that gives her decent preshot numbers than she tries to hypo on me, then rebounds for days, but if I reduce the dose she doesn't hold it.

That reminds me of Beau right before I figured out he was rebounding and started reducing his dose. On .5u he dropped too low, but on .4u he barely budged. Once I figured it out it lead me to this theory (that I posted on Mary's thread before Klinger's crisis):

I have a "theory" on why a little too much insulin causes higher numbers and even more insulin causes a few decent numbers, but then reducing the dose causes high numbers again. I will try to explain it. If the body is experiencing too much insulin it "fights" back with the rebound response and releases stored glucose and hormones like cortisol to prevent a hypo. Over a long enough time this becomes the "normal" response. It is like the insulin is exerting pressure on one side and the body sets up an equal pressure on the other side to neutralize it. Add more insulin and there is increased pressure on the insulin side that overpowers the body's defense (and you get a few lower numbers). Usually, balance is restored after a few cycles until the next dose increase. Eventually there may be a collapse of the defenses and the BG plummets before the body's defense can be restored (hypo). Now, take the same pressure to pressure balance and reduce the insulin and there is overpowering of the defensive forces (outputting cortisol and glucose) and the numbers rise - until the body figures out it can back off and a balance is restored along with lower numbers. But as long as there is even a little too much insulin, the body will be pushing back with cortisol and glucose and raising the numbers to some degree.

Don't know if that makes any sense to anyone but me. It's just my attempt to explain, in a simple way, why too much insulin causes higher numbers.

I guess, as she settles on lev, if you see the same patterns you might consider dropping the dose until she has better numbers. I went from .5u to .3u (I already knew .4u didn't work) with Beau and he started having better numbers.

 

[MommaOfMuse]

amps 280 tonight's pmps.....drum roll......223 Today has been the prettiest day she has had in the last 7 months while mostly yellow, nice and gentle with a slight food spike when she ate at +6 but dropped right back down again...so far I'm loving what I'm seeing with her response to the Lev.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

 

[Vicky & Gandalf (GA) & Murrlin]

amps 280 tonight's pmps.....drum roll......223 Today has been the prettiest day she has had in the last 7 months while mostly yellow, nice and gentle with a slight food spike when she ate at +6 but dropped right back down again...so far I'm loving what I'm seeing with her response to the Lev.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

That is wonderful Can we have a picture? I bet her hair is all grown out now and she is the cutest purrball. dancing_cat