? sugar spike.. feed or not?

Charlie's sugar this a.m. was back in the 60's. Right now it's 231. It looks like he may have gotten into some fruit bagels... do I hold off on his dinner for now and see what his sugar does in a little bit, do I feed him and shoot him? AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!

If I do shoot him, how much?

 

Well, it dropped to 161 in an hour. So, I'm not going to shoot him. If anyone's here, what do you think? Feed him or wait another hour? I'm such an idiot leaving those bagels where he could get into them.

 

I would suggest that you change the subject line so your message sounds a little more urgent. I am still trying to figure this out myself so I won't be any help. If he is dropping I would not shoot but others with more experience will look at your spreadsheet and give better advice.

 

He's too low to shoot now. I'm just trying to figure out if it's safe to feed him or would feeding him make him spike again. What he got into is pure simple carbs and it was probably only shortly before I tested him; the bagel was still fresh. Of course his regular food is only about 5% (or less) so may be it's safe? He was doing so great, he hadn't had a number over 140 in forever!!!!!!!

 

I'm not sure there's much you can do about the carbs already in his system except wait for them to wear off - and they are doing looking at his numbers - he's coming down from the spike already which is great...he has to be producing his own insulin to be doing that. I don't think I'd shoot for a one off incident like that when you know what caused it - I think what you've done, which is wait and see what happens with his numbers first is safer...look how fast he got back under 200 - you wouldn't have wanted added insulin on board as those carbs started to wear off. And some of them will still be in his system yet - I think he'll keep dropping for a few hours now until he's back to normal as he's clearly handling the carb spike by himself.

I'd have thought giving him his regular low carb food would be OK - if he's hungry it's better he eats that than goes looking for more contraband!!

 

Well, he's had his din-din and is no longer making a nuisance of himself. I was kinda thinking that for him to drop 60 points in an hour had to be a good sign; I can't see how he'd do that if he weren't making his own insulin. And my family knows we need to make sure that anything high-carb has to be kept out of his reach!!!!!

 

These things happen - and now you know he can get his own levels back down when they do. I had Rosa spike after finding some crumbs of chips that had been dropped on the floor while she was still on insulin. All you can do really is make sure that everyone in the house knows so it doesn't happen too often, but mistakes do get made - there's no point getting too upset over it...tomorrow is another day.

 

I just tested him--at about +1.5, he's down to 69!!!!! I'm ECSTATIC!!

 

Awesome news!! That has to be his pancreas working - there isn't any other explanation for him coming back down that quickly! Looks like his usual low carb food might actually have helped him come back down a bit quicker in the end too.

 

I am really starting to breathe easy about my trip in a week and a half. Unless something goes really, really weird, I can just have my neighbor feed the cats and won't need to worry about getting an outsider to poke his poor sweet paws.

 

Isn't it great when kitty works with your plans like that? Finding someone to feed them is so much easier than finding someone who can give shots, take tests and maybe stick around for a few hours if their numbers aren't looking great. And I agree, if he carries on the way he's going, you won't have anything to worry about in another week and a half (anti-jinx)!

 

Actually, there is another explanation for a really unusual test number - a bad test. Whenever you get a really different test, re-test to confirm it. If wildly different, get a 3rd test for best 2 out of 3.

Your later tests suggest the high one might have been a wonky number or a food spike.

 

"Wonky"? Is that a scientific term?

Seriously, I'll remember that for the future. I assume you mean retest immediately?

 

Yes. For unusual tests, re-test immediately.
We also have a phrase "new dose wonkiness" when you increase the insulin dose and a paradoxical increase in glucose happens.

 

@BJM, I see what you mean about wonky... I checked his sugars and it was 152 and this time I knew he hadn't gotten into anything, so I re-did the test and lo and behold, it came in at 105. He's scarfing down his dinner as I type!