Work schedule changing; Presently Lantus considering PZI

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Mike&Buddy

Mike&Buddy

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Hello all,

Need some advice and input. For sometime Buddy has been on Lantus for almost over a year. The schedule was balanced according to my job, which was always mostly 4pm to 12 am and his shoots were about two hours before leaving for work, then returning home doing the PMPS in the 12 hour range.

I will be working days for a while (7a to 3p); at least that is what I have been advised. However that too could change. I also will be working possibly an on call position which could be at at any time day or night.

Can PZI or another insulin be the answer for Buddy? If so would the change cause any issues, side effects and etc. during the transition?

I would greatly appreciate the input for the sake of my Buddy.

Thank you,

Mike and Buddy
 
Hi Mike (and Buddy too!) -

I'm not that familiar with the other insulins, have only been using ProZinc since January, but it is extremely flexible. From what I've heard, I would not have been able to keep with the "tight regulation" or other qualities of the other insulins, as my schedule has to be somewhat flexible for work as well. I've had to shoot as early as +9, as well as some cycles when Grayson was marathoning, and it was 24 hours.

I'm sure those w/ more knowledge of the other insulins will be around soon, if they haven't already responded, and perhaps they can give you additional insight.

Good luck and we'll welcome you to PZI if you decide to try it out!

Lu-Ann
 
Hi Mike and Buddy, welcome to PZI. I am Donna and my sugar cat is Asher.

PZI is a flexible insulin, but I haven’t moved our shots around more than an hour or two. I try to move our cat Asher by 15 minutes a day if I can plan ahead to change a shot time for something in the future. I am lucky that my partner Tom and I are self employed so we usually can work out a schedule where one of us is home every 12 hours. But work and life happens, so sometimes we shoot early or late and have been ok with that.
That being said, we don’t leave the house together anymore for over 12 hours.

There are folks here who shoot on a sliding scale, folks who hold doses as long as possible, folks who shoot a different dose for day and night, so yes PZI is flexible within reason.
Also my understanding is that we get more of a curve than Lantus users. So a perfect day might be 200 preshots and 100 nadir. I think Lantus creates less of a smile curve if I understand correctly.

I am sure more people will be along to give you their thoughts. Good luck with whatever you decide. We are happy to try to help if you make the switch! :-D
 
Hi Mike,

Wow, Buddy is really well regulated on Lantus. For that reason alone I would not change insulin, the kind of regulation you have right now is much harder/nearly impossible on Prozinc/PZI.

Also, from my little knowledge of Lantus, your insulin works the way it does because of shed. The dose builds up in a depot and is released really consistently. I believe this gives better coverage if you have to delay a shot. We don't have that with PZI, insulin starts declining around +8 and is completely gone at +12 so we have no carry over. Because of this a delayed shot can lead to much higher BG, and our PS tend to be much higher (ps numbers in the yellow are really amazing on PZI, many people have pinks). Also, PZI insulin has a much much deeper curve, the drop to nadir is supposed to be 50-65%. A "perfect cycle" was mentioned above, cycles like this aren't common. On Lantus you shoot the same dose every cycle, here most people dose on a sliding scale according to PS numbers so many change doses nearly every cycle.

I would instead ask people on your side of the fence how to adjust your schedule as needed. I believe Lantus is more forgiving in shooting early and late since the dose you are actually shooting really only goes into effect after the cycle you are shooting it into. For this reason I believe you can shoot late, and shoot an early reduced dose. Some people on PZI do shoot TID on 8 hour schedules, but not many. If this is the only option kse is someone to talk to, but she's busy with a sick kitty right now.

I hope you can work something out and stay with what's best for buddy, and his ss is a beautiful thing!

Cathy
 
Hi Mike and Buddy,
You might want to post on the Levemir ISG asking for help with schedule changes while staying on Lantus. There are a few Lev users that work different shifts that change weekly and they have been able to figure out how to make that work.
Just an idea....
Marcy & Klinger
 
You've gotten some great info already. Just thought of one other thing to add to what Donna said:

donnahc said:
There are folks here who shoot on a sliding scale, folks who hold doses as long as possible, folks who shoot a different dose for day and night, so yes PZI is flexible within reason.
Also my understanding is that we get more of a curve than Lantus users. So a perfect day might be 200 preshots and 100 nadir. I think Lantus creates less of a smile curve if I understand correctly.
Click to expand...

We also have at least one person that shoots a 10/14 schedule instead of 12/12.

Hopefully something - either there or here - will work for you.

Lu-Ann
 
I was going to suggest the same thing that Marcy & Klinger did. The Lev ladies are experts at figuring out how to shoot changing shift schedules. I think I would ask there before considering an insulin change. Your ss looks pretty nice.
 
If you have been using the lantus "tight regulation" protocol and you find it impossible to shoot on a precise 12/12 schedule, then you can keep using lantus, but you wouldn't be able to follow TR. In that case, post on Lev, or Relaxed Lantus and ask them how they deal with it. If you have achieved a good level of regulation on lantus, I wouldn't switch. Prozinc acts very differently, it'd be like learning a 2nd insulin language! If your kitty wasn't reacting so well to Lantus, I might recommend a change, but if he is, I'd try to stick with it with help from people who have experience doing the same thing. The "Best Insulin" is the one that works well for YOUR kitty.

To Cathy - lantus itself might be "flexible" (I don't know, never used it) but the TR protocol isn't flexible in terms of shot timing. At most, you can only adjust by 15 minutes per cycle. I know there are people who have to adjust around their schedule that can't maintain that 12/12 routine, but they have to do so "outside" of the TR protocol. They can (and do) still post in TR (or Lev, or RL).

It doesn't matter where you post, as long as the eyes on your threads can advise on what you specifically are trying to do.

Carl
 
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