9/6 Grandpa 78 @7AM, 103@8AM, 118@9AM 268@11AM, 127@4PM on AT.

Yesterday

The old guy vomited around midnight after eating dinner at 8pm and a 10:30pm snack. Afterwards he was playful and seemed to feel pretty good.

He woke me at 5:15 biting my fingers. He wanted food even though it was 2 hours before insulin time. I gave him one side of a Crave twin pack. Not his favorite food, but he ate some.

Now at 7 am, he tested at 78 on the AlphaTrak. That's a real low morning number for him. He ate 1/2 cup of rehydrated Stella & Chewy nuggets.

I've shot numbers in the mid 100s, but not under 150. I guess this will be his first missed dose.

Thoughts welcome.

 

You could skip. You could also try an itty bitty dose like 0.5 u or 1 u. That would likely be safe and he might well be on his way up in a short time. With Grandpa's situation I'd be more cautious with dosing rather than trying to shave off "just enough" insulin. It's hard to know what to do in these situations.

 

He's 103 at 8AM so I'm tempted to give him something, but not sure how much. I hate to mess up the depot.

 

He was slowly going up and it was getting later so I gave him 1.5 along with a small can of MC Fussie Cat.

 

Did you think to test at 5:15 when Grandpa was asking for food? If you didn't, try to do that next time.

 

I didn't. Now I wish I had. His morning numbers have been high, so his hunger made me assume he was in the 400s.

 

And prayers to you and Grandpa today , Beck ❤️

 

Looks like I could've shot the regular dose. He's up to 268 at +2.

 

It's all a learning curve for sure. The lower numbers this AM were likely because he lost 2 of his meals last night.

If it ever happens again, you could feed him a little bit of his normal breakfast and then test in 30 minutes and as soon as he is at a safe number to shoot, go ahead and shoot. You want to catch it before he bounces to the moon from being in lower numbers.

 

Thanks. I do want a plan for next time. Let me put down what we did today and please suggest what we could do better.

5:00 am "snack" of Crave since he woke me up

7:00 am test (78) and full breakfast (1/2 cup rehydrated S&C nuggets)
7:30 am test (80)
8:00 am test (103)
9:00 am test (118) and MC can of FussyCat
Gave 1.5u at 9:00 (normal dose is 2.25)

Things I don't know...
How late can I wait and still shoot vs skip until evening shot?
When do I reduce vs skip?
What does skipping and reducing do to the depot?

 

That depends on how flexible your schedule is. When you stall and shoot later, let's say it was 1 hour late. You would have to shoot 12 hours later. It is okay to shoot as early as 30 minutes in one cycle if the numbers are not too low for you to do that, as shooting earlier acts like a dose increase and shooting later acts like a dose decrease. So, if you are okay with changing up the shot times temporarily, you can shoot as late as you feel you need to if you are okay with the next shot 12 hours later. As I said, you can regain your schedule by shooting as early as 30 minutes once day or you can shoot 15 minutes earlier in both cycles.

You are using an Alpha Track meter so your number to reduce is a number under 68.
Skipping is advisable when the number is too low and you can not monitor at all. Or when your schedule with not allow you to wait and stall any. Safety first.

When you skip or reduce the dose like you did today, it depletes the depot some and the count for 6 cycles starts over. Even when you reduce the depot, it is not a guarantee that the numbers won't go down because the higher depot will still be at play. For that reason, I think it can sometimes give you a false sense of security. I would rather stall and not feed , retest in 20 minutes. If the number is still not coming up and or actually dropping more, I would feed a small amount of his meal and retest in 30 minutes and by then the number is likely to have come up. If it is a number high enough to shoot, then shoot to get control of the cycle before he starts zooming up from being in a lower number than he is used to being in.

Looks like you shot a 148 with 2 units back on 8/14. As you get more comfortable, you will start to lower the number that you are comfortable shooting. He is looking good when you look at his SS there is more yellow and blues and less reds and blacks. And you are doing a great job taking care of Grandpa!

 

Thanks! I just tested and was surprised to see a 127 at +7. He's having his afternoon snack right now so it may go up some, but I'm thinking we may be shooting a lower than usual number again tonight.

Luckily for now I work from home so my schedule is very flexible. I may have a job change on the horizon that would change things, but for now I'm always here.

 

The power of the depot!

 

Just when I think I couldn't love this guy any more. I guess he fell asleep waiting for dinner.

 

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Makes my heart about burst ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️. Love you , sweet Grandpa man

 

!!!

 

I think every time I see a pic of Grandpa my heart melts a bit more. Whenever I see one, I always make a point to show Caleb too. Sweet old man you've got there!

 

I keep coming back to look at that photo of him ❤️ I think it’s his head on the towel that has done me in ❤️

 

Oh he's not sleeping, he's posing. What a manipulator you are Grandpa.

 

Awww thanks! I feel the same way. His favorite thing to do at night is to lay close to me and put his paw on my hand. We go to sleep that way most nights. It's becoming my favorite part of the day.

 

Me too!

 

Granpa’s starting to show blues and greens pretty often! Congratulations, you’re doing a great job with him!

 

Wow! Thank you! I needed to hear that.

 

Oh man. I've been so busy smoozing at Grandpas pics , I have been forgetting to look in on his spreadsheet to see how he is a-doing of.

His numbers are looking better. Well done Beck.

 

Thanks! I don't like freezing up like I did this morning not knowing what to do. He's such a gentle walking miracle sometimes it's a little overwhelming. You all make it much more possible. Thank you.

 

Darn! Midnight vomit two nights in a row. Gotta look at what we're doing differently.