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Pua relaxing in the little hammock
Got the new pet track meter yesterday but I didn't cooperate with a morning check and mom got no reading after two pokes. After a second poke on evening wake up she got a reading of 363 on cat setting but mom doesn't believe it as that's unreasonable for just woken up and not eating all day. The most likely issue was that she touched it to some blood but it wasn't enough but then it got the reading after getting a bit more blood. The first may have started to clot already and affected the reading.
However mom may have found a solution. The human strips use less blood
so was always easier to get a reading. Turns out they work in the pet
meter. Some people even use the human strips in the pet meter by coding
it to read as the pet strip would on the control fluid. Well mom used a
pet strip and the control on dog setting and the control fluid was 150.
Mom stuck a human strip in and the control fluid read 162. Now the dog
meter was 11 points lower than my lab value when the vet did it so it
would seem the meter set on dog with a human strip might be right for me
since it's just 12 points above dog.
Man this is complicated. They should just make a tamandua meter.
Man this is complicated. They should just make a tamandua meter.
In happier news I got a fresh rotten log last night and got to play with the jack-o-lantern. Mom came to give me my morning supplements in the washer. Aurora was not pleased and I didn't accept. So mom backed off and when she came back we had switched places and I was laying on my back so mom put the cup on my belly. I decided this would be a fine way to have a treat.
Mom came to test my blood in the washer. This was much less stressful for me but Aurora freaked out and fled to the closet. I didn't like getting poked but then I just let mom hold my foot. She did have to poke me twice though. Seems I bleed better from my heal. Anyway it was 256 using dog with human strip, which we hope is the most accurate. Guessing it is as 252 or so was my first value at the vet when we found out.
But I'm on turmeric temporarily as we ran out of curcumin(we'll make sure this doesn't happen again) but it should be here in a day or two. Curcumin had me at 107 at the vet but it had been a few hours rather than all day since taking it. If I keep testing high maybe we'll need to work on breaking the amounts up and taking it more often.
I wasn't wanting to take my morning supplements so mom added a tiny touch of ketchup. Ketchup flavored blue cheese and chia isn't your typical fare but I've not been allowed ketchup in so long I'm eating it but slowly.
Oh interesting green tea extract helps keep blood sugar down during exercise. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18326618
Had a nice snuggle and play season with mom in the big play hammock. That was nice. She likes to cheat by pinching me through the hammock. It's funny.
Pua's mommy(playing the role of mad scientist): Ugh Pua tested 333 in an afternoon test. I'm kind of doubting the new meter's accuracy. Though if it is high maybe the addition of oatmeal(hoped it would help her cholesterol) is just too much carbs for an anteater. I did use a couple drops of ketchup to get her to take her morning supplements as well but she had already refused her evening dose the night before. I had left it out to let her eat it in her own time as she always has before but didn't this time. I don't think the ketchup spiked her though as a fasting value the other night with no ketchup was actually higher.
Think it's time to
reboot and take little logical steps. First will be to test her tomorrow
and try to get enough blood to test both the dog meter and the human
meter. This will help to judge if it's giving accurate readings. It just
seems odd that she tested 107 lab work/99 dog meter/75 human meter at
the vet but am getting 300+ dog meter now. Then if it does seem accurate
start over using one supplement at a time and see which are working and
stop using oatmeal since that's the only change made(aside from adding
some insects) that was made since the vet test.
Got up and had a snuggle and play with mom in the baby hammock. Then I had my supplements.
Also I got my first old lady bump. It's on my knee.
Okay dog meter 311 human meter 192 That's too big a difference. The human meter was only 30 points lower than the lab work so going by that today's test was 222 but I was being reluctant about supplements this morning so just had curcumin we will add cinnamon again. It may turn out that was helping more than the curcumin.
Pua's
mommy as mad scientist: A few hours and 65 test strips(1$ each!) later I
may have a metering solution and a nifty graph. I had 3 coding
solutions and 2 meters and two types of strips to try in combination.
After testing each fluid with each combination I came to the conclusion none of them are going to be accurate for Pua. Then the light bulb went off. I tried to recode the freestyle meter, oops it's code free. So I stuck a freestyle strip in the alphatrack pet meter and began coding. Dog code is 36 cat code is 38 so I began working my way down.
After testing each fluid with each combination I came to the conclusion none of them are going to be accurate for Pua. Then the light bulb went off. I tried to recode the freestyle meter, oops it's code free. So I stuck a freestyle strip in the alphatrack pet meter and began coding. Dog code is 36 cat code is 38 so I began working my way down.
My aim was to get the freestyle and alpha fluids to test at about
123-127. Pua tested 99 on the alpha track at the vet 75 on the freestyle
and 107 via the lab. So the freestyle was 32 points lower than the lab.
The plain freestyle test on the fluids was 91-95 so add 32 is 123-127.
So with that in mind I get the control fluid to test in those ranges within about 5 points set on 24. So using the alpha meter with a freestyle strip set at 24 should be a fairly reasonably accurate result but feel free to poke any holes in my logic.
This was discounting the contour fluid readings since it is long expired which probably explains the odd readings with it. However it does show that it may still be less accurate the higher her glucose gets no matter the setting.
PS the odd symbols on the graph where Pua's blood values were tested indicate when each was done, meaning if same symbols was tasted at same time.
So with that in mind I get the control fluid to test in those ranges within about 5 points set on 24. So using the alpha meter with a freestyle strip set at 24 should be a fairly reasonably accurate result but feel free to poke any holes in my logic.
This was discounting the contour fluid readings since it is long expired which probably explains the odd readings with it. However it does show that it may still be less accurate the higher her glucose gets no matter the setting.
PS the odd symbols on the graph where Pua's blood values were tested indicate when each was done, meaning if same symbols was tasted at same time.
Mom woke to a lot of crashing and banging and said "What are you doing Pua" But when she turned the light on it was Aurora tossing books off the shelf again. Aurora also found the butter milk mom was fermenting and ripped into the container and spilled it all and left incriminating buttermilk foot prints leading away in the direction she likes to go.
So I was a good girl all I did was raid the fridge.
Mom had to stick me 3 times to get enough blood to test cuz my foot didn't want to bleed, but 259 but this is pre-morning-supplements. So she may test me in a couple hours to see how they effect the reading. Also it's advised to do a glucose curve and test me every 2 hours for 24 hours but since I'm not on insulin maybe ever 4 would work. It would give a good idea of how my body is reacting to food and sleep ect.
Aurora: I got lonely so started peeking out of the washer. Then the human started groping me, she called it petting though. After that I have gone to the closet nest to be with Pua.
290 and a perturbed Aurora but she settled back in once mom left. Also only one poke this time. Mom looked for the pinkest part of my foot. Maybe my sugar tends to climb during the day for similar reasons to exercise. 15 hours or so sleeping mean my cells go crying for fuel due to not eating so sugar is released but due to insulin resistance doesn't get used so keeps climbing, maybe. Mom tried giving me a protein snack of blue cheese.
She has also tried ordering ants again leaving the seller a note to please be sure to send the red/black and not the black because no one likes the black. Hopefully it doesn't seem too rude but he did send the wrong kind last time.
in addition mom has found numerous studies showing
DIM(diindolylmethane) is comparable to metformin in lowering glucose.
Only for a dose my size mom would have to cut the pills she has up for
herself(for other reasons) into 20ths so she has ordered a lower dose
variety for me. Claws crossed.
Also and in addition too, I think mom needs to try making a new batch of food minus the oatmeal and see if that brings it down again cuz it was a nice level before that was added.
Also and in addition too, I think mom needs to try making a new batch of food minus the oatmeal and see if that brings it down again cuz it was a nice level before that was added.
319 ugh so snack didn't help. I wanted mom to stay and snuggle after she did for a bit but Aurora was not pleased.
Next test. Aurora was not pleased but at first she stood her ground, sitting on my feet and growling at mom. I wasn't sure who she was growling at so I gently slapped her a few times to try and get her to chill, plus once mom did poke my foot I thought it was her and maybe Aurora was trying to play.
Mom had to poke me again once Aurora gave up and fled. So I batted at her and grabbed her hand to stop the crazy poking and hugged her tight instead. After a few seconds rest she got her sample. Then she snuggled with me. At one point Aurora got real brave and marched past mom and tried to settle in but I was in Aurora's spot and after trying and failing to get under the blanket she decided she simple could not sleep next to the human so left to pace. After awhile mom left and Aurora settled back in.
Oh and mom started with a treat though she barely put any blue cheese
in the cup I licked a long time. Turns out the DIM pills are soft and
mom is pretty skilled with a razor so she gave me the 20th of a pill.
Oh just noticed I forgot to put the result of the last test it was a fasting for 4 hours value of 250 at that point it is now 237 which is probably the same amount of drop to be expected from not eating for 4 more hours though there was that tiny bit of blue cheese last time to try the DIM. Since the DIM is comparable with metformin we can expect it to take time to see results.
Mom said she wont poke me any more as I'm getting a bit depressed about it and we learned quite a bit and can expect it to just go back up from eating now once I get up. For now mom will go back to testing my wake up value to see how things are trending.
To complain about all the poking I have peed on the drier. So there.
I got up and had my supplements willingly today.
Mom changed the sink drain tube to a new poke proof and unplug proof one(she hopes). I shoved my way back there and peeled the foil but didn't unplug or poke it for now.
She did leave the old tube on the drier for me. I peed on the drier to let her know how I felt about that.
I did however have a successfully messy fridge raid.
Aurora is up having a treat too because she was jealous of me having a treat.
Aurora is up having a treat too because she was jealous of me having a treat.
Since I could not poke holes int he sink drain tube I unplugged the washer drain tube but mom noticed before running a load so there was no flood.
Since I can't poke holes in the sink drain tube now I'll just keep unplugging the washer drain but It's not as exciting. And Aurora unplugged the fridge.
I woke up scratching and went to the washer so mom poured me some vinegar and I'm having a bath.
Mom bought herself some coconut water and I found them and poked holes in them. She had 6 and I poked holes in all but one. It's called sharing, mom
Since I was bathing mom took some of the leftover no rinse shampoo and gave Aurora a sponge bath in the washer. She sat in poop or something last night though it was gone from her fur already. She's also been a bit rashy again. Maybe she's allergic to silkworms. She is not happy and is pacing now but that was less traumatic than the tub.
So much pacing from one little sponge bath. I mean Aurora was dry in minutes again anyway. On the plus side her rash looks a lot better already(shampoo has aloe and other healing oils), and she has gotten tons of exorcise.
Evening fasting blood sugar 189 better than 300. I'm on DIM, Curcumin and Chitosan. I would be lower but the chitosan made my poops real soft so mom cut back but she may try slowly upping me again as my body gets used to it. It helps with glucose levels and helps keep fat from being digested so it leaves the body(so can result in the loose poops but also lower cholesterol).
Mom was super busy but will be making me a new batch of food minus the oatmeal in the next couple days then I think I will get much lower readings but we are working our way down.
Played with mom some last night and tried snuggling under the covers but I could smell a Beaker.
Am up and having my supplements now.
Played with mom on the feeding shelf for a awhile and snuggled too.
Aurora: Pua always gets treats so I peeked out of the washer wondering where's mine so the servant brought me some buttermilk since Pua was in the closet nest so she wouldn't get any.
I went outside and took a couple strolls around the yard in the rain and sniffed out the back window a few times. Then I woke Aurora and we played while mom was off making breakfast for everyone else.
Beaker by a boulder
Hyzzie by a boulder
Shaggy Manes gone wild!
Hyzzie in the sun
I went outside today and ran around in the rain and climbed on the gazebo. Mom didn't bring the camera but here's a photo of me getting into mischief last night. My fur is yellower than normal due to the curcumin supplements and my tendency to get it all over my claws and then scratch myself.
Darn insomnia. It's back and forth between the closet nest and the washer all day.