Food spikes

The results are in. (Drumroll, please.)

Serving Isabella the same food at the same times every day did not smooth out her blood glucose numbers. She's still up, then down. Up, then up again, then down. I have to admit to feeling smug about this. I gave the report to the vet, along with a 12-hour BG curve, and said I thought a dose increase was in order. The curve (in which the poor cat’s blood glucose is tested every two hours for twelve hours to see how the insulin works) was intended as evidence that her overall numbers are still too high.

The vet’s response? He wants to run an expensive blood test. Which will tell him … (dramatic pause) …that her overall blood glucose is still too high. Not on my dime, darlin’. He also wants me to test her urine glucose.

Now, here I’ve presented him with the BEST information you can get, short of continuous glucose monitoring, and he wants info from less-revealing testing methods. I give up. Obviously he is just not interested in learning from the blood glucose numbers.

To that end I collected the phone numbers of three veterinarians recommended by friends. All have (or had) cats. None diabetic, but I’ve got to start somewhere.

Vet number one is not taking new clients. Vet number two is taking new clients and has a huge diabetic clientele. Further, they encourage it and teach owners to test blood glucose at home. This information I got from the front office gal. The vet was (is?) supposed to call me so I can ask more specific questions. Alas, she has not called. So …. I’m not impressed with that. Perhaps I need to make an appointment. I haven’t called vet number three, since the second sounded so promising.

I’m changing vets regardless. If I can’t get Isabella’s glucose down with insulin, she’s going to need other tests to figure out what’s going on and I’d like those tests to be done by someone I have more confidence in. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my current vet, who removed Isabella’s cancer two years ago, but he’s not cutting it with the endocrine disease. We all have our strengths.

Que sera, sera.