4/13 Aria

Hey all! After fabulous computer problems of yesterday, I can actually get on here to check in.

Ari is improving at the same pace as last week, which is pretty darn rapid. After reducing her dose, she started going longer on that dose. She's about back to BID albeit unintentionally. That also means that in the last two weeks, her dosage has almost cut by 50%. Yesterday she went too low, but no rebound, which is nice. Today I'm sitting at +13 with a 94 reading. I'm going to switch back to BID for now but I have to say that the TID really did help me get her under control and gave me SO much more data to work with. As expensive and exhausting as it is, I don't think we would have had any idea her kidney's were having issues if I hadn't brought her in because of the fluctuating readings during the day.

As for her kidneys, the doc and I have a phone conversation coming up to find out what the nutritionist said. I've gotten some of the lower phosphorous canned food and am seriously considering at least trying a round of making my own. I'm going to see if he'll let me run with the lower phos foods and teach me how to do subQ's and then maybe let her ride for a few weeks and see if her creatinine levels improve.

All in all, I'm hoping we get back to normal 12/12 shots and I can get solid sleep. Obviously I have to keep testing every few hours midcycle to make sure she's not going too low. We have two weeks until her next I-Stat, so I'm staying positive

 

Hi Hope,
I'm glad to hear that Aria is doing so well. When you talk to the vet, you might ask him about Azodyl. It's a probiotic supplement that studies have shown can slow down kidney disease. I also give Blackie Renal Essentials which has herbs and b vitamins to help the kidneys. When the kidneys aren't working so well, vitamins get flushed out of their bodies before they can be absorbed. Thats why supplements can help.

I hope Aria's good numbers continue.
Ele

 

Thanks Ele. Do you know of any vitamin supplements that aren't in pill form. I'm not the best pill giver, but if that's what it takes, I'll go down that road.

 

I crush the renal essentials in a pill crusher and add it to Blackie's food. He doesn't mind the flavor. The Azodyl can be sprinkled on food, but it's supposed to work better if it stays in the capsule.

 

Excellent! I'll order some today and see if she'll mind them.

 

Here we are, lowering the dose again. She went from 1.6 to 1.5 yesterday for 2 cycles and now I'm heading down to 1.4 tonight. She hit a 35 at +4 which is unheard of. You can imagine the pile of food she had placed in front of her. 3 different kinds of FF and human food covered with Belly rubs. Had to finger feed her the first few bites, then she got up and went to eat. No real sign of hypo, just the bored Aria look which she gets at any BG. All in all, she's doing well. Glad to be back at BID. Don't have any problem with reducing doses, but I keep having these shocking numbers which make my eyes bulge. A week ago she was at 2 units TID and now she's at 1.4 BID. That's just mind boggling to me. That's about a 50% drop in a week! Her low duration (where she starts leveling in the low area around nadir) is now lasting from about +4 to +8 or +9 which is a great improvement. Still worried about those darn kidneys, but right now just focusing on getting her regulated Technically she's regulated, but since her dosage keeps dropping, I can't quite feel regulated. So maybe I should say that Ari is regulated, but Mama's not quite there yet.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

 

:RAHCAT (with a passing BOOOOO to that 35, no more of that stuff please Aria!!!)

That is great that she is doing so well. Her dose reduction sounds a lot like Bix's was back in the day - I had to go up to 1.8 to break through the high #s, but once he stayed in good ones for a couple cycles I was reducing almost every day or two by 0.1u or so. It was a little dicey, but thankfully cats seem pretty tolerant of it all. He finally stablized out around 0.8u, and then started getting duration well past 12 hours much of the time. Hopefully she will make even quicker progress than that, she's a lot newer to it I think so hopefully her pancreas is busy healing away. But even if not, at least you are seeing nice BID #s, and it looks like she is regulating nicely. :mrgreen:

 

Last night I read/posted to an inquiry about sub Q fluids. It might help you to read it before you get the vet to show you. It had a lot of people's good advice:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=11916

About the 12/12 vs TID. I found out that Cody seems better on 12/12, probably because I couldn't figure out the right TID dose (and I'm too old for the schedule :lol: ) I used it earlier this week again when he got into dog food, but quit again when we got an inverse curve, probably too much insulin?. On top of that the whole tumor thing means his insulin needs can change suddenly, so I'm always watching for that.

 

Nancy - 12/12 is great for my own sanity. TID was a blessing for us. Exhausting, but it was a relief for me to be able to give her a test at +6, see that she was nadir-ing in the high 100's/mid 200's and know I only had to wait 2 hours to be able to respond. I know if she goes through any kooky bout, we'll probably return to it. The one lucky thing I can say for Ari is that her finickyness results in me not having to panic over her eating something the kids have left out. Thanks for the link. I'm going to bring some notes from that thread with me to my next vet visit.

Joanna - It's been almost a year since Ari's diagnosis and what a year. 3 different insulins and a few vet visits with me a weepy Mama. Previously (and I'm knocking on wood to not jinx myself) she would get regulated, last about 3 weeks and then go wonky. I'm hoping we find just the right dose and I won't have to be such a nervous nelly with her

Tonight - 251 for her PS, no signs of it being a rebound #. Curve looked good. I lowered her dose to 1.4 and I'll be able to monitor her curve starting in the morning. I'll be able to get the 2nd half of the curve when I wake up then a full 12 hour after that. I really want to try and keep her in the blues or low yellows, since she turns into the pee-er (though thankfully no toasters) any time she hits the upper 200's but gotta toe the line between the higher PS's vs the super low nadir. Off to bed to get a full 6 hours of sleep before tomorrow madness begins. Thanks all!!