Heading for remission!

I'm having to drop Hoss' insulin dose down nearly every day now. He keeps hitting the low 50's (yesterday he dropped to 51) on each new lower dose and he's now on only 1 unit of insulin which is the lowest he's been since his diagnosis. We started him at 2U BID and at his highest, he was at 4.5U BID. The 4.5 dose was what flipped the switch on his pancreas and we only kept him there for a couple of days before we had to start reducing doses. We've reduced doses something like 10 times in the past 13 days. My vet said today, at the rate he's going, she expects us to be in an OTJ trial by New Year's!!! WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! Go, Hoss, Go!!!

 

Wouldn't that be the perfect way to begin a new year? Here's to the OTJ trial and SUCCESS!

 

Fantastic! I actually have your spreadsheet open in a tab, and I look at it whenever I feel discouraged that Hogan's numbers aren't better. It reminds me to be patient!

 

I get it! I was really starting to worry that something else (like possibly acromegaly) was wrong with Hoss because at first, his numbers were swinging wildly. Then, he'd start to respond a bit to a new, higher dose, then he'd revert right back to the higher BG. It was like he had a "set point" up in the upper 300's. But when we got to 4.25, he started having a lot more numbers in the blue and then all of a sudden, when we raised him to 4.5, BAM! It's like somebody flipped the light switch on his pancreas! It was also just about the time I had him at 4.25 that I switched his dry food (which is only a small portion of his diet) from Glycobalance to Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein. The combination of getting his carbs way down and getting to that "magic dose" of 4.5 is what caused his pancreas to start working again. And his numbers have been falling ever since. It's just scary right now because I'm trying to support his pancreas and give him the best chance at a lasting remission by keeping him on insulin for as long as I can, but he's not making it easy. Each time I lower the dose, he drops down into the low 50's early in his cycle again and nearly scares me to death. He's never "hypo'd" on me yet, but if I wasn't being vigilant, he would have by now. So it's pretty dicey trying to stay ahead of his rapidly-INcreasing insulin production and his rapidly DEcreasing need for external insulin. He hit the 50's again today and I just lowered his insulin AGAIN yesterday to 3/4 of a unit. So I'll probably drop him again tonight or tomorrow to 1/2 a unit. So hang in there, Hogan! That ol' pancreas can wake up when you least expect it!

 

He's so lucky that you can monitor him so closely. You cannot have gotten very much sleep in the last two weeks! But that's a price we are all willing to pay if they can get to remission (or even just regulation).

I got Glycobalance from the vet, and quickly found out that it's too high in carbs, but it was better than what he was on before while I was waiting for the Dr. Elsey's and Young Again to be delivered. I'm trying to get him switched to wet, but that is going to take some time. As big is he is, he was never a particularly hungry cat, he only will eat a little bit here and there. So he has no problem turning down what I offer him - he seems to know he can wait me out!

 

I'm lucky I've been off work since last Thursday since he's decided he's going to take Christmas break to drop his need for insulin on a daily basis! Don't throw away your Glycobalance! I found the Glycobalance works great when Hoss has hit the low 50's and I was worried about him going hypo on me. I'd give him a handful of the dry Glycobalance (which he loves) and it would raise his blood sugar just enough to get him out of any danger and keep him steady for several hours instead of giving him a huge spike in blood sugar to deal with later. It actually worked beautifully for that purpose. So it's a really good "tool" to keep in your "hypo tool kit"!

 

Good job!!! Be proud mama, you done good. Congrats to Hoss too!