Hello, my name is Issi and this is the first time I have posted onto this forum, so apologies if I'm not doing it right...!
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to this forum, especially this thread for the help and advice I have read generally, and specifically over the last week.
I've been asthmatic since I was 13, but was diagnosed with Type 1 a couple of years ago when I was 39. Which I've been told several times is quite old. Talk about adding insult to injury!
NYE morning I came down with my first proper chest infection in 5 years. I was taken to A&E by some lovely ambulancemen. The Doctors went through my medical history a few times (noting that this was my first bout of serious asthma in 5 years, AND marvelling at how someone of 'my age' developed Type 1 Diabetes only 2 years ago). They prescribed a week-long course of 40mg prednisolone per day. And didn't mention anything else about the diabetes. The pharmacist confirmed with me that I was taking insulin. And didn't say anything else.
Now this will come as no surprise to most of you, but I was completely shocked by how thirsty, tired, dying for the loo, sick and shaky I was feeling. That's got nothing to do with asthma. But felt a bit like when I was first diagnosed with Type 1 (via a nice dose of ketoacidosis). So measured my blood sugar. My nice posh machine (thanks Ms Diabetes Nurse!) said Hi. I thought it was being polite, but it turned out my sugar was off the charts. I panicked. It was now NYE night and I didn't know what to do. So I turned to this Diabetes forum and entered the search term 'type 1' and 'steroids'. I'm so pleased I did.
Thanks to you and your advice, I managed to bring my sugars down to almost acceptable levels, and keep them down, through a combination of slightly increasing my rapid insulin, then measuring blood sugars, adjusting etc (sometimes every hour). I also increased my basal insulin.
Of course everyone's insulin use is completely personal, unique to them and their situation,it isn't an exact science, and what works for one person could cause all sorts of problems for other people. So I'll just say that in order to keep MY blood sugars down to reasonable levels, I had to use anything between 1.5 to 3 times my usual insulin doses. I'm not even beginning to hint at suggesting that anyone should do the same.
Anyway, I'm now through the worst of the infection, and have come through it a lot better as a result of the discussions on this forum. I will also be extremely careful with deciding on my next basal injection.
Thank you so much for sharing!