End of Day 5- where to go from here?

Hello all,

I know it's a bit late, but I just took Pita's +6 number before I go to bed. I believe all his numbers are good, even though not staying in the 100-200 range for regulation yet. I'm still not quite able to look at his chart and figure things out so I'm hoping some experienced members can step in. I know I've asked before but couldn't find the answer- how long is a 'cycle'? A couple days? Either way, I'm wondering if I should possibly increase his dose tomorrow by .25 or.50? If so, I'll have 4 more days to look after him and take numerous tests before I'm back at work/gone for 12 hours. We're both doing well and I'm slooowlly starting to understand things more. I'm trying to not read into other posts too much because I get overwhelmed when I see people talk about stalling and changing doses because of the stall, etc. Just typing that made me confused. So, disregard that for now! Thank you in advance!

 

A cycle is the 12 hours between shots. So two cycles is one morning to the next. Yes, I think you should increase. If he were mine, I'd increase by 0.25, hold it six cycles (3days) and if he is still in yellows and pinks, increase by another 0.25

You are doing great!

 

Thank you! I'll eyeball it in the syringe, but will do 1.25 for his am shoot tomorrow. We shall see how it goes

 

Good advice from Sue.

 

Good morning! I won't lie-it would be SO much easier to do 1.5u since there are no lines. I really have no idea if I gave him .25 more! Any chance .5 is doable without being a bad thing? Or just go with my .25 approximation and see what happens for 3 days?

 

If you do 1.5u you may be skipping over his perfect dose at 1.25u. You don't know yet what his perfect dose is. If the 1.5u drops him lower than he is used to you might get more bouncing. Just approximate what 1.25u is. If it is really 1.3u for example that is fine.

 

You might try practicing with some colored water. Pull up a unit of water, then let it out a drop at a time and count the drops. Then when it's time for insulin, you could pull up 1.5 and let out half the number of drops to approximate 1.25.

Another thing is to maybe pick up some u100 syringes. When you get those it is SUPER IMPORTANT to only use them with our conversion chart. We can get that for you if you're interested in trying those.

 

Yes, you need some U100 syringes with half unit marks on them. Check out www.adwdiabetes.com.

 

Very true, I think I just need to be told again

I'll try that colored water thing! I've only used 10 of my 100 pack of needless so I'd rather not waste any- although it may be good to have both? I'll try the water and see if that helps. Cool idea!

 

Yes, you can use both HOWEVER it's critical that you keep them well separated (in a different room?) so you don't grab one and fill it with insulin thinking it's the other type.

 

I bought the U-100 syringes so I will make that switch tonight. Not super happy with his numbers so far today. Tomorrow will be the 'final' day at 1.25 and then I'll check in about upping it to 1.5. I am a bit nervous though since I would only have 1 days to test as many times as I want with that new dose. Thanks all!

 

Ok, I bought U100- 3/10 mL/cc (up to 30 unites), 29 gauge, 12.7 mm. I have this chart in front of me http://www.caninediabetes.org/pdorg/u40_conv.htm and can see that for 1.25 units of my U 40 insulin, I need to fill at 3.1 with the U 100syringes. I'm trying to look at pictures and I am SO confused as to where it needs to be! I see the whole unit on the right side-so 4 medium lines that ends with '5'. On the left side are smaller lines that I believe are the half unit markings. If I'm supposed to give him 1.25, is it supposed to go down to the '3' line and then also the little 1/2 unit mark- so the plunger ends up being between the 3 and 4 whole lines? Holy god this isn't going well . I can't even take a good pic of my needles because my camera won't focus. Help?

 

You will need to do 1.6 to convert. But that should be fine. I'd try to get a before bed test tonight and then plan on several tests tomorrow.

 

Where does the .6 come from? I may not have been the best at math growing up..

 

1.6 is 4.0 on a U100 syringe. 1.2 would be 3.0

https://www.felinediabetes.com/insulin-conversions.htm

Look on the right hand side of the chart. To give 1.6 units of U40 insulin, you'll need to draw up 4.0 on the U100 syringe. (I picked 1.6 because it was close to the 1.5 you were considering. If you want, you can do 1.4). Or since you are planning to 1.5, you could draw it up on your old U40 syringes as it is pretty easy to see. The difficult doses are when you are trying to guess where 1.25 or 1.75 on a U40'syringe. That is hard to eyeball. Easier to see on your U100 syringes)

Make sense?

 

A bit more yes. I'm going to finish his pm dose tonight at 1.25, so I'll fill to the 3 on the u100. When I switch to 1.5 I will go back to the u40 and fill to the 1.5 ::deep breath::

 

Ok. Just be sure to have the conversion chart with the U100s and keep them somewhere other than the U40s.

 

If you only had U100 syringes and wanted to give 1.25 u, you'd have to make a different choice, either 1.2 u or 1.4 u. That would allow you to read the marks on the U100 syringe barrel easily. I suggest you spend a little time with a U100 syringe, the conversion chart and maybe a little coloured water to practice measuring out different doses with a U100 until you understand it all better. Once you've done it enough you'll feel more confident. Trust the chart but do learn how to read the spaces on the U100 syringes. Each tiny space between any two marks on the U100 syringe stands for 0.2 u of U40 insulin.

 

Thank you both. I will definitely play around a bit with them to get more confident. As I said, I'm going to do 1.25 tonight and get at least 1 if not 2 more testings before bedtime. Should I plan to give 1.5 units starting tomorrow?

 

Re next dose: you now have choices because you have the U100 syringes. In my opinion it's safest to stick with them and learn how to dose with them instead of jumping back and forth between the two kinds of syringe. Put the U40s somewhere away from all your supplies so you don't accidentally grab one.

Your dose needs to increase. If you use the U100 syringes, you have two easy to measure choices - 1.4 u and 1.6 u.

 

Yes, you can give 1.5 u with a U40 syringe. Once you've practiced enough with coloured water try a U100 syringe to dose. It seems very confusing right now especially if math makes you uncomfortable. It's actually easier than you think once you've become familiar with the chart.

 

Any advice on which to do next?

 

You said you wanted to try 1.5 u. I think that would be fine. You're familiar with the U40 syringes so do that for now. Switch to the other syringes once you've figured them out to your own satisfaction.

 

OK, I'll start 1.5 tomorrow and do a ton of tests Saturday and Sunday. Then I'll only be able to do the AMPS/PMPS plus 1 more before bed. I'm planning to do his curve next Saturday. I'm guessing he'll start at the 1.5 all week.

 

See if this works for you @Caitlin M and hopefully @Kris & Teasel can check my accuracy. Also helps see why the U-40 insulin 0.25 doses are a little trickier on U-100 syringes.

 

I started him on 1.5 units this am and tested at 4.75. I'll test soon when I'm home but I think he's doing well so far?! It's been about a week since he started PZI

 

It's a chart I made with information I found. If it's correct let me know if you want me to send you the image

 

Yes, your chart is correct. However you can see that if you really want to stick to 0.25 or 0.75 u fractions you'll have to eyeball some very strange fractions on a U100 syringe. That's why it's so much easier to move to U100s and just stick with them. I realize it'll take you a little time to shift mentally away from 0.25, 0.75 fractions.

Here's an example of how versatile a U100 syringe is when used with U40 insulin:

Let's say you want a dose of 1 u of ProZinc. The chart tells you to draw up to the 2.50 mark on the U100 syringe. If you eyeball half way between the 2.00 and 2.50 marks on that syringe, you could measure a ProZinc dose of 0.90 u. If you eyeball half way between the 2.50 and 3.00 marks on the U100, you could measure out 1.10 u of ProZinc. That means you can measure out three doses by using the 2.50 mark directly, eyeballing half way under or eyeballing half way over:

• 2.50 on U100 = 1.00 u of U40 ProZinc
• half way between 2.00 and 2.50 on U100 = 0.90 u of U40 ProZinc
• half way between 2.50 and 3.00 on U100 = 1.10 u of U40 ProZinc.

This means you don't really need to use 0.25 u or 0.75 u dose fractions because you can come very, very close by just using the U100s.

 

Thank you all for the syringe help! I'm confident I'll figure it out quickly and get the hang of it. I'm hoping someone can take a look at his numbers today. I'm happy with where he is going since the increase to 1.5 but I've noticed that today, his AMPS was high and every test/PMPS since then have gone slowly down or slightly up. Is this a good thing? I'm going to test him at +7 before bed also. Thanks in advance!

 

Today looks like a good day to me. He did have a smile curve today, but he was still lower than the AMPS at PM. That's what we're looking for. Getting to the point where he gets lower preshots without going super low at nadir....yellows at preshots and high double digit numbers at nadir are the numbers of a well regulated cat!

 

Thank you! I love seeing the blue numbers and am trying to figure out how to get more of that! Good to know that it is all looking good though

 

Can take a look at MiCo's kitty, Cliff. I think he has lower PM cycles than AM like Pita because I commented that Maury is opposite