Bit by Bit

The back and forth battle with the sugar twins’ diabetes continues. With recent developments, though, I am optimistic. Parker’s numbers remain a little high for my liking, but his doctor and I are satisfied with them. Puck’s latest curve didn’t fall below 14 in his blood-sugar count, and we would like it to be, at most, ten. But clinically, he is behaving very well. There is no weakness in his rear legs (as his continued jumping onto kitchen counters, even while I am right there preparing food, demonstrates), his water-intake is reasonable and his wetting is not excessive. In other words, while his numbers are higher than they should be, he is dealing with his diabetes well.

The bigger development is in Tucker’s case. He was up and down for several weeks. I had taken blood readings from him just before his injections for more than a week and, at two units twice a day, he seemed to have been going from quite low numbers to quite high. This made sense to me if I considered that the roly poly was receiving too much insulin. Given too much in one injection, his numbers fell so low by the next time that he didn’t need an injection, so I refrained from giving him one. But he evidently needed some, because the next reading, twelve hours later, gave a reading that was very high.

I called his usual doctor but was able only to speak with another. She suggested taking a reading before every injection and not refraining from giving Tucker his shot if his numbers were around eleven or twelve, but, rather, injecting him with only one unit. Upon thought, I decided that this idea, though practicable, was not practical; he is a patient little creature but his ears are pin-cushions after just a day of readings, and poking him twice a day for the foreseeable future was an unappealing notion. I decided instead to reduce his insulin to one unit in the mornings, and to keep it at two in the evenings. That way, if he was low at the start of each day, he would not receive too much to be dangerous, with me not there to notice: better his numbers be too high without supervision than too low. In the evenings, he would receive two units, but not only would I be present to see the effects, but he would be eating more, which generally raises numbers.

The results after almost a month were pleasing. Tucker’s high numbers are not very high, and his lows are exactly where we want them. His regular doctor, with whom I spoke yesterday is very happy with the latest curve I performed on my sausage-cat. I must always regard curve numbers guardedly; diabetes, being unpredictable, could render a good curve null with the next set of readings. But considering Tucker’s behaviour, I think he is stable. He tends to drink more water than I would like, but his urination is reasonable. He is active - for Tucker - and alert. The longer he is on a stable dosage, the more stable his readings will be, I think. The next curve in a month’s time will provide more information.

But this represents another reduction in the roly poly’s insulin use. It’s a long, hard battle, but the day may come - paws crossed - when he won’t need the medicine at all. I never like to get ahead of myself - chickens before they hatch, horse before the cart, and various other farm metaphors may be inserted here - but I am optimistic. I think Tucker is, too.