Frustrating levels

[KesLouise]

Hello all hope you have had a good Christmas and looking forward to a great new year.

I’m a bit frustrated with my levels they seem to be all over the place at the moment, today for example struggling to get anywhere below 10. Highest has been 16.7 over the last couple of days. I’d say it’s seen since the 27/12/19 that it’s been like this.

I’m thinking this may be because I’ve got this dreaded cold type illness that’s going around.

Just looking for some advice around how to manage this better

 

[Oldvatr]

Hi I'm a T2D and not an insulin user, but Feel for you not getting much response on NYE.

I believe there is something called Sick Day rules that may be applicable, but as I say I have no experience of how to apply them. Just goimg to run through some obvious checklist things. Have you changed meter or strip batch recently? What meter are you using? My meters can play up when the battery gets low so check that out.

Did you feel like a 15.6? Are you sensitive to high bgl levels? in other words can you tell its out of kilter without relying on the meter.

If meter checks out then obviously a change of diet could be a suspect. Make sure it is not a box of choccies creeping in under the radar. I know someone who took up TicTacs and fooled themselves since they assumed that this was not a diet matter. I assume you were stable before 27/12/19 so it is unlikely to be a basal /bolus matter.

Thats about the limit of my offering. Have a Happy New Year and if probs continue then ring your health care team when they are open. Keep an eye on those levels to make sure they don't climb higher into the ketones section,

 

[Diakat]

Sickness is likely contributing. You could up your basal a bit and see if that helps.

 

[KesLouise]

My meter seems to be ok, I have a spare or I could change the battery and see if that makes a difference?

I have felt really off and unwell and I think that’s might be linked to being unwell and also to the higher levels.

I checked for ketones yesterday and they were 0.1 but fell to 0 after that.

Could it just be Christmas catching up with me as well as the illness?

 

[KesLouise]

That makes sense thank you, I wondered why nothing was happening I’ll keep that in mind!

If I’m not feeling any better and continuing to rise I’ll get some advice

 

[Oldvatr]

My meter seems to be ok, I have a spare or I could change the battery and see if that makes a difference?

I have felt really off and unwell and I think that’s might be linked to being unwell and also to the higher levels.

I checked for ketones yesterday and they were 0.1 but fell to 0 after that.

Could it just be Christmas catching up with me as well as the illness?

Probably difficult to seperate the two. I find my bgl is fairly stable through a cold, but that is my good luck,. I did have very high BGL when I was in hospital recently, but I put that down to diet matters. I see you are a LADA, so it is probably not sensible for me to suggest dropping carb intake for a while since you should be bolussing for it anyway. It may reduce the swings though.

Just one thought, thnking of another conversation in another thread here on meters, if your diet changed significantly over christmas, then it may have altered your blood composition so that the haematocrit ratio has changed, and this is definitely one thing meters get upset over. Only a full blood test would diagnose this, but when you return to your normal fare, then it should settle down if by any faint chance it had been affected. A sudden influx of rich foods can do this, I believe. It should be a temporary thing, and probably fade out at the same time as the cold infection, so you will be none the wiser.

Just thinking about it: the haematocrit is the ration of red to white blood cells, Having an infection will change the number of white cells as they fight the invaders, so yes, a cold could throw the meters out of kilter.