Romeo Update

I know it's been a long time since I've been here. I cannot even begin to tell you how hectic things have been here, though I'm sure everyone is in a full preparing for the holiday tizzy themselves. I just wanted to stop by and give a Romeo update.

As you guys might remember, when we started back in September, Romeo was testing 495 and higher consistently, high enough that it wouldn't register on the vet's meter. Since then, we've changed vets, let them done additional fructosamine tests, got some curves done, and more. At his highest, Romeo was up to 5 units of Lantus 2x a day. In the meantime, we've battled loose stools (corrected by Fortiflora), a bad neuropathy (still being treated), and about a zillion UTI's (mostly stress-introduced, per the vet).

We went from September well into October still getting 400's. I switched him off the prescription foods (wet and dry) to Purina Pro Plan wet and Evo dry. This brought his numbers down to the 300's through into November.

On Dec. 1st, we finally had a test at the vet that was in the 200's - 283 to be exact. That day, after consulting with the vet and making sure my glucose meter was pretty close to theirs for results, I switched Romeo and his sisters to an all wet-food diet. 2 weeks later, at his next appointment, Romeo's blood sugar was 86. His dosage was dropped to 4units 2x a day and I went home with the Purina Glucose test strips for his litter box - the vet and I are trying to do more at home than in the office, since Romeo works himself up into quite the lather on the way to the vet.

Two days straight of negative results on the glucose strips (meaning, no sugar present in the urine), and he's now down to 3 units 2x a day. And when I did his blood glucose this AM, it was 76. With two more negatives in a row, he'll drop down again. Both the vet and I are confident that he'll be off the juice, or, on a very low dosage. He still has the neuropathy present, but I'm expecting that with the weight loss plus the B12, we can correct that quite a bit.

I just wanted to post so that those of you who are new can see there's a light at the end of the tunnel (and no, it's not a train). And so that those of you who were so FREAKING awesome to me when I came here in tears as I typed could see how much better we're both doing. If you are curious as to where we've been and where we are, Romeo keeps up an online journal that has been documenting his progress.

Love you guys! The information that you provided me -- with regards to diet, insulins, testing, etc -- has saved his life and empowered me to take a much more involved role in his life. Thank you so much! I can't wait to let you know when he's OTJ!!

And seriously. Get your cats off dry food. Now. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. They will thank you for this!

-Stacy & Romeo

 

Great news!

And ver encouraging for new folk