Bouncy Alfie - Week 7

My poor bouncy boy seems determined to keep going from one extreme to the other

We had our lowest number yet last night, almost a lime green! I had a slight panic and shovelled some pate food down him, which was probably unnecessary but I'm still learning to be chilled about those greens!

Then this morning, he really surprised me with a blue! Only just a blue, but still. I stalled for 25 mins and he was higher on his retest. I won't be around to monitor today so went with 1U so he has a little bit of insulin. That worked well on a previous PM cycle, and he seems to be running much higher in the mornings, so I'm hoping he'll be safe. I'll get a +2 before I head to work.

Loving the better looking numbers from last night. Maybe this will be his breakthrough week

 

Oh wow! Look at Alfie go! I know those greens are really scary when you first see them, but you'll learn to be calmer about them over time. It just takes some time to get more used to them!

Hopefully this will be a breakthrough week for sure!

 

This is great, Jen! You handled it well. He's making progress for sure.

 

When his numbers are getting down into the blues and greens, should I be giving him food to try and slow them down or should I just be letting them run their course?

When he had his green numbers last week, I gave him some pate food (Gourmet Gold, that's low carb but I know brings his numbers up a bit) when he got into the low blues, before he actually hit the greens to try and slow him down. Last night I gave him his normal low carb wet food (Sheeba Fine Flakes) at +5 instead, but then when I got his +6 reading I gave him the pate food. I don't know if that's why he dropped further between +5 and +6 this time round.

I hope that makes sense?! Any advice on what I should be doing would be very welcome!

Looking at his +2 this morning I maybe could have been braver with his AM shot after his low AMPS, but better safe than sorry!

 

The food steering is best done early in a cycle - around +2 or +3. That's why a BG test at +2 is a good idea if you've seen recent action and you're at home to do it. I'd start with a small snack of regular LC food if the +2 is lower then monitor at +3. If the drop continues at a moderate rate you can give another LC snack then. If you're getting too close to lime green you can up the % carbs with MC or HC food. All I do is add a little honey to Teasel's LC food. The gravy foods don't agree with him.

Food steering is an art and it has to be tailored to the individual kitty and fit within the human's time constraints, etc. There are people here who do it a lot to keep their kitty just skimming above lime green in the hope of healing the pancreas as much as possible. If you work away from home ot have other things that prevent you from being this hands on you might have to settle for slightly higher BGs.

 

Thanks Kris. I always tend to give him a snack at +2 both morning and evening. I guess it's something I'll get a better idea of once I've got a lot more data. At the minute, there doesn't seem to be that much correlation between his pre shot, +2 or +3 numbers and his nadir, obviosuly not helped by all his bouncing. And I'm still learning what a moderate rate looks like. I understand they ideally shouldn't drop more than 50% from pre shot to nadir, so for example from 15 to 7.5? By that measure some of Alfie's drops have been plummets!

I'm sure we'll get the hang of it once I've seen lots more lovely blues and greens, which I'm sure he's about to give me

 

Yes, it's a lot harder with a bouncy cat. ProZinc should give a smile-shaped curve so a nadir of 7.5 after a PS of 15 is ideal. However, my bouncy guy rarely followed that. Have a look at my SS for January of this year when he was still on ProZinc.

 

Yes, some similar numbers there! Interesting to see you shot full, or close to full doses on blue pre shots if numbers were rising after stalling. I guess that's something you get braver with when you've got more data? In an ideal world I want to be seeing his preshot numbers gradually getting lower over time right? Though I see from Teasel's chart that isn't always how they respond! (You're getting some great number on Lantus though! )

 

Almost got how to do quotes right, not quite!

 

Yes, Teasel is a prime example of a bouncy and very unpredictable cat. I've had to learn how to stay calm, steel my nerves and just keep going. Lantus has helped. He's still not easy and won't allow me to follow the Lantus protocol closely. I've adapted it to suit him and me.

 

Sam is a pretty textbook Prozinc kitty. It's rare to have a cat who is quite as predictable as he is, but if you look at 3/11 and 4/1 you can see the "typical" Prozinc curve. Which is not actually typical since ECID. You can also see his pre-shot numbers coming down from 2/7 when we started until around mid-April. Because he was consistent I didn't do a lot of curves and could get by with just grabbing something around his nadir most of the time, but there are a few curves or partial curves that can give an idea. Just ignore the 2 1/2 months since the middle of April where we've been stuck at the same numbers for...ev...er

Disclaimer: because of Sam's consistency/patterns/data/etc. I have given him insulin on some rather low numbers. Please do not try that at this point! If you gave Alfie a regular dose on a low number it would have a very different outcome since his "normal" numbers are still pretty high! The rules for dosing change as the pre-shots and responses change.

 

It's good to have examples of two very different cats to study.

 

They are pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum!

 

I think Alfie is more at Teasel's end of the spectrum! It's great to be able to compare very different charts though.

Don't worry Djamila, there's no danger of me shooting Alfie on low numbers yet. They make me nervous enough mid cycle, let alone at pre shot! Every week is a learning curve at the minute! But I've got a good feeling about this week (that'll jinx it )

 

To do quotes with the user name hit reply on a post. You can edit whatever is between the brackets then and just type your message under the /QUOTE.

 

Ah ha, thanks Rachel! I managed to do it accidentally once a while ago and haven't been able to figure it out since!