already late on dose, worried about giving insulin. Need advice

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fbrunner6

fbrunner6

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I just want to quit! I don't understand ANY of this like I should. If it weren't for people talking me through, none of this would be done right. I did all of the testing, I did the curve (every 2hrs for 24hrs). The numbers were in the high 200's averaging right before her doses. She seams to hit her lowest number (I believe you call this the "peak"?) at about 4 hours after insulin. The 1st 3 days, her lowest average on the 4hr marks were about 150. Then the next 2 days, we made progresss and it was in the 80's. BUT, it ALSO jumped over 350 before the past 2 doses were about to be due. I totally messed up and forgot to give her the insulin yesterday (you will see notes on my spreadsheet explaining). Today was a new day. I took her BG this morning and it was 267 (seamed in her average), so i gave her insulin. She dropped to 76. I wasnt too concerned but wondered if we were going to keep dropping lower each day at the 4hour mark, since every day seams to get lower. Now she is due for food and then insulin and her # is only 161. Do i still give her a full unit? Is this what is SUPPOSE to be happening with her numbers? Or does this means i could hurt her and send her too low if i dose her with a full unit.
 
The jumps after the green numbers are probably a bit of bouncing...though from her spreadsheet, she's really not bouncing much or badly - cats can bounce for up to 3 DAYS where it looks as though she's only bouncing for a few hours each time.

Ultimately, what's going to earn her a dose reduction is for her nadir numbers to reduce gradually until she goes below 50 (on a human glucometer). Once that happens, she will earn a 0.25U reduction in her dose. But for now, you might want to 'feed the curve' (manage her numbers with small amounts of food - maybe even a little food with slightly more carbs) until she levels out. I'm no expert on doing that - my Rosa had a tendency to dive regardless of food when she wanted a reduction - but I know others here do that regularly so I hope someone can give you some guidance on whether they think that's a good idea and, if so, how to get started on doing it.

And, by the way, you are doing GREAT! Look at you, only just over a week into testing and already you've found out when her nadir is AND run a full curve. We all rely on help from other people talking us through things, especially when everything is so new so don't worry about that - I know you'll probably think I'm just saying it to make you feel better (I'm not, but I didn't believe anyone who told me so to begin with either) but it DOES get better! I know it all seems confusing and frightening at the moment, but you really are doing amazingly well with getting to grips with all of this. :) :bighug:
 
manxcat419 said:
The jumps after the green numbers are probably a bit of bouncing...though from her spreadsheet, she's really not bouncing much or badly - cats can bounce for up to 3 DAYS where it looks as though she's only bouncing for a few hours each time.

Ultimately, what's going to earn her a dose reduction is for her nadir numbers to reduce gradually until she goes below 50 (on a human glucometer). Once that happens, she will earn a 0.25U reduction in her dose. But for now, you might want to 'feed the curve' (manage her numbers with small amounts of food - maybe even a little food with slightly more carbs) until she levels out. I'm no expert on doing that - my Rosa had a tendency to dive regardless of food when she wanted a reduction - but I know others here do that regularly so I hope someone can give you some guidance on whether they think that's a good idea and, if so, how to get started on doing it.

And, by the way, you are doing GREAT! Look at you, only just over a week into testing and already you've found out when her nadir is AND run a full curve. We all rely on help from other people talking us through things, especially when everything is so new so don't worry about that - I know you'll probably think I'm just saying it to make you feel better (I'm not, but I didn't believe anyone who told me so to begin with either) but it DOES get better! I know it all seems confusing and frightening at the moment, but you really are doing amazingly well with getting to grips with all of this. :) :bighug:
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This is great info and I plan to print this out for my own knowledge. @ Fbrunner6, hang in there. I am a newbie too and I have felt all those confusing feelings and nervousness too. Still do sometimes. I am still trying to wrap my head around all this information too. I haven't done a full curve yet but plan to do one this weekend. So bravo to you that you have done that already. Just keep asking questions. I do.......
 
I just feel helpless. I don't even know if she is ok. We still havent had a urine test to see if her kidneys were affect and that isnt being done till next Friday. It's so hard to know that im giving more than I have to give, tiring myself endlessly to save her, when there may be no hope anyways. The unknowing is killing me. If I were to find out next week that her kidneys were affect and she isnt going to make it, that means I spent 2 weeks fighting for something that I got my hopes up for nothing for :(
 
Bobbie And Bubba said:
This is great info and I plan to print this out for my own knowledge. @ Fbrunner6, hang in there. I am a newbie too and I have felt all those confusing feelings and nervousness too. Still do sometimes. I am still trying to wrap my head around all this information too. I haven't done a full curve yet but plan to do one this weekend. So bravo to you that you have done that already. Just keep asking questions. I do.......
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PS. My no shoot number is 160. My cat is on prozinc. Hopefully someone who knows the answer to your question as to should you give a whole unit will jump in and guide you on that .
 
fbrunner6 said:
I did go ahead and give her a half of a dose a few minutes ago. I didnt want to hold out off schedule too much
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Hang in there. I know how frightening this all is. I spend hours at night reading the questions and answers posted to gain more knowledge. Your cats numbers look great. Just keep doing what you're doing. All our fingers are crossed for our kitties. :cat:
 
With NPH lasting roughly 6-8 hours in the cat, better control of the glucose may require testing and shooting every 8 hours. Is that something you can do? I know it really ties up one's schedule.

As you get the glucose controlled, the excessive urination should calm down. The kidneys may have been stressed by trying to dump the extra glucose out through the urine, so they may need to recover a bit from the extra workload. Also, there is a lot you can do for a cat with impaired kidneys and Tanya's Feline CRF web site is a terrific resource.
 
@fbrunner6, you're doing just great. If you think we all starting out knowing exactly what we were doing, you'd be very wrong. For verification on this, just click on my avatar and look at my first month worth of posts! When I read them now, I cringe! Lol

Welcome to the feline diabetes roller coaster! :):banghead::):banghead::) We're happy to help!
 
It'll get easier. We had trouble at first and Luna went into remission, and now she's (relapsed?) and we're having trouble again. You almost have to treat it like a (very, very hard game) that yields the benefit of you effectively saving a life. I try to embrace the challenge as much as I can, so that I can make our cat healthy, and I (enjoy it?) as much as I can.
 
You are doing a great job, fbrunner6! Great numbers! Not many cats are as well regulated as yours is on NPH. I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing when I started out here with CJ. Now CJ is in remission after going hypo on Novolin. Remission would never have happened if I hadn't followed advice from people here.

There's a lot to learn here but there's always people to help. It seems hard now but it will get easier.
 
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