• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

High B.G levels

S

steele.c

Member
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi, this day last week I was diagnosed as T1D at 19 years old. I was admitted to hospital and held for 5 days as my body had gone into ketoacidosis. My blood sugars were 29 and ketones were over 5. I am insulin dependent (Apidra and Lantus). The doctor told me that due to how high my B.G levels have been the last year or so without me knowing, it is expected that they will stay high until my body is no longer resistant to the insulin. Does anyone know how long this will last as my B.G levels are quite high and it’s all very new to me still?
 
Welcome on the forum! I don't know the answer to your question, but this will bump up your thread.I hope someone will come along soon with more knowledge of ketoacidosis than I do.
 
steele.c said:
The doctor told me that due to how high my B.G levels have been the last year or so without me knowing, it is expected that they will stay high until my body is no longer resistant to the insulin. Does anyone know how long this will last as my B.G levels are quite high and it’s all very new to me still?
Click to expand...

High blood sugar causes insulin resistance, but this is very temporary insulin resistance. The job of insulin is to get sugar into the cells. It can only do that from within the cells. If you have high blood sugar the cells are surrounded by a crowd of sugar which the insulin has to battle through to get to the cells before it can start the work of letting the sugar into the cells. As soon as you're euglycaemic and the crowds of sugar are cleared out the insulin resistance will disappear. Instantly

How high are the quite high levels you are seeing at the moment? Have you been given guidance on correction doses?

Your HCPs might be trying to step you down gradually to target range because a sudden change from hyper to euglycaemic can feel pretty unpleasant, your body will have got used to the high blood sugar levels and will, wrongly, think that normal blood sugar is too low so you might get false hypos.

So even though you could give a correction and achieve euglycaemia pretty quickly, that is likely to make you feel rather rough and if you're recovering from DKA you probably already feel pretty rough without throwing a false hypo into the mix. So you're better off gradually stepping down blood sugars.
 
you should see it dropping rapidly if your insulin levels are right. dont worry your consultant will not want your bg to drop too fast the risk to you now is low bg. so be patient they will get you in range. but its down to you to follow there advice. if your maintain a healthy diet and keep your bg under control you will most likely have a healthy life. dont and well its not a choice i would recommend.
 
catapillar said:
High blood sugar causes insulin resistance, but this is very temporary insulin resistance. The job of insulin is to get sugar into the cells. It can only do that from within the cells. If you have high blood sugar the cells are surrounded by a crowd of sugar which the insulin has to battle through to get to the cells before it can start the work of letting the sugar into the cells. As soon as you're euglycaemic and the crowds of sugar are cleared out the insulin resistance will disappear. Instantly

How high are the quite high levels you are seeing at the moment? Have you been given guidance on correction doses?

Your HCPs might be trying to step you down gradually to target range because a sudden change from hyper to euglycaemic can feel pretty unpleasant, your body will have got used to the high blood sugar levels and will, wrongly, think that normal blood sugar is too low so you might get false hypos.

So even though you could give a correction and achieve euglycaemia pretty quickly, that is likely to make you feel rather rough and if you're recovering from DKA you probably already feel pretty rough without throwing a false hypo into the mix. So you're better off gradually stepping down blood sugars.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. Currently my blood sugars range between 11 and 20 mmol/L. I have been told that they will remain high until my body gets used to the insulin. I haven’t been introduced to a sliding scale yet but I think the doctor is trying to gradually lower them. Thanks again for the reply just needed some reassurance!
 
Hi! I was in exactly the same situation, in hospital for a week with ketoacidosis and now Type 1 Diabetes. I was diagnosed in October and have now been insulin dependent for about 4 months. Only now are my levels coming down (around 7-9) but took a lot of patience and experimenting! It changes for every person but hopefully it levels out after a few months?
 
imowink said:
Hi! I was in exactly the same situation, in hospital for a week with ketoacidosis and now Type 1 Diabetes. I was diagnosed in October and have now been insulin dependent for about 4 months. Only now are my levels coming down (around 7-9) but took a lot of patience and experimenting! It changes for every person but hopefully it levels out after a few months?
Click to expand...

Hi there! It’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only one who has been in this position... thanks for the response and for giving me some peace of mind!
 
steele.c said:
The doctor told me that due to how high my B.G levels have been the last year or so without me knowing, it is expected that they will stay high until my body is no longer resistant to the insulin.
Click to expand...

If you are Type 1 as indicated in your profile, you are less likely to have developed insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is more likely the result of chronic excessive insulin levels rather than just high glucose level.

Insulin resistance can develop for Type 1 just as they do for Type 2, but it takes time.
 
steele.c said:
Hi, this day last week I was diagnosed as T1D at 19 years old. I was admitted to hospital and held for 5 days as my body had gone into ketoacidosis. My blood sugars were 29 and ketones were over 5. I am insulin dependent (Apidra and Lantus). The doctor told me that due to how high my B.G levels have been the last year or so without me knowing, it is expected that they will stay high until my body is no longer resistant to the insulin. Does anyone know how long this will last as my B.G levels are quite high and it’s all very new to me still?
Click to expand...
Hiya and welcome to the pricking people's forum. I was quite similar to you but not admitted to hospital but stayed there 2 days, they let me go home to sleep. Weird!! ketones 4.8 and BG 15-19 when first diagnosed in Aug 2017. Since then my BGs went yo yo until about the end of Oct when they started to settle down between 6-7 but still with blips now. I've been through a shed load of emotions and I imagine you will too. I was initially unhappy with the diagnosis but positive I could cope. Then worried that I didn't know what I was doing in terms of insulin and how much to prick, then denial.... they've got it wrong, anger...why me? Now I'm in a great place, totally positive, working with the numbers my BG machine gives me and taking invigorating or rather invaluable insulin to keep happily on track. You'll get there but it won't be an instant fix, don't fixate too much on the numbers as numbers but rather as info to guide you on what to do. Smile and we all smile with you ..................... I won't finish the second part. Good luck
 
Back
Top