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T1 and recovering from surgery

L

lateonset

Member
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5
Hi there, I have just had a hip replacement operation and all went well, which is great. My blood sugar levels are all over the place, inexplicably high despite increasing my daily basal Lantus and the amount of rapid insulin I take with my usual low carb meals. I was wondering if this is the T1 monster reacting to the surgery and if anybody else out there has had a similar experience after surgery of this sort? Management of my T1 is usually pretty good based on keeping healthy and avoiding (mostly) carbs.
 
A trauma to our bodies such as surgery will raise our BG.
Our liver is releasing extra glucose to help with the stress and repair.
This may be more because, after surgery, you are resting so not moving around as much.

Last year, I had surgery and for the next 2 weeks, I increased my basal by 40%.
This came down to normal once I was feeling better.
 
@lateonset just a note, @helensaramay is on a pump. Not sure if you are? This may affect changes you make as not quite so straightforward with mdi.
 
Great that your surgery went well!
Are you on any new medicins because of the surgery?
I hope your levels will sort themselves shortly and that you recover from surgery quicly!
 
helensaramay said:
I don't see why not.
I used to change my basal (usually for 48 hours after work out) when I was on MDI.
Click to expand...
I was just worried that as usual mdi advice seems to be change by a couple of units and give it a dew days, that a change of 40% could be quite a lot of units at once.
 
Diakat said:
I was just worried that as usual mdi advice seems to be change by a couple of units and give it a dew days, that a change of 40% could be quite a lot of units at once.
Click to expand...
I meant that by gradual change, I worked out that 40% was the correct adjustment for me. It was not a 40% change in one go: it is a big change however you are taking your insulin.
The only way to find out what suits each of us is through trial and error and lots of testing.
 
Thanks for all the comments. I tend to make gradual changes to my basal dose when required and I’m confident it is the right thing to do - agreed that a 40% hike would be too much in one go! I’ll up it gently over the next few days and see what the response is. For completeness I’m on aspirin and paracetamol but nothing else that make an obvious difference.
 
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