Any T1Ds triggered by Covid?

[Anomaly]

So I'm new here and newly diagnosed T1D (not entirely sure that's right) and I'm struggling a bit. I'm 31 and both type 1 and type 2 run in my family (type 1 on dad's side, type 2 on mom's side). I fell ill with Covid19 and was sick for about 6 weeks just feeling the worst I have ever felt. (Suspected at that time, confirmed later as I didn't want to ask someone else to pick me up and drive me to the hospital) Right at the end of it I finally was feeling better and had 2-3 good days when all the sudden I was just fatigued beyond anything I had experienced. I had been badly sick for weeks so during that time I didn't think too much about being really thirsty, urinating all the time, or the weight loss (I lost 48lbs in those 6 weeks).

The fatigue I had was so bad I only had about 3-4 hours of usable energy, before I was falling asleep. So I finally called for a ride for a friend to take me to an urgent care center. They ran a few tests on me and kinda freaked when they couldn't test my blood sugar. Tried it 3 times before the Nurse Practitioner sent me to the hospitals ER. BS was 770 and my A1C came back later as either 12.2 or 12.7 I don't remember exactly.

Turns out I was KDA and pretty severely dehydrated (apparently I was 3L low on fluid). Was in the hospital like 5 days and put on Lantus and Novolin. Because this was all during the heigth of all the Covid stuff in my area none of the doctors or staff seemed to want to spend any real time with me. Everything just felt really rushed like they were trying to minimize patient contact.

Due to not havin' health insurance I was prescribed a 70/30 mixed insulin and sent on my merry way.

I'm overwhelmed and honestly I'm a creature of habit, so I basically do the same meals over and over again. I measure out all my ingredients so my portions are all consistent and I try to eat at the same times to make everything easy on me. But with the same meals, same level of daily activity and basically the same daily regiment I keep getting these oddities.

For instance same breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Monday may leave me within' my blood sugar range, yet the exactly same meals and insulin amount on Wednesday puts me hypo in the 50s or 60s.

I've been tryin' to keep things consistent to keep me from gettin' too overwhelmed, but I keep having these hypo episodes I can't account for.

Is this normal for a newly diagnosed person?

Also the reason I mention the whole covod thing is I've had 2 doctors mention that covid19 is damaging the pancreas of alot of people. I know at least in Italy they're doin' a study as people are contracting Covid and then as a result no longer producing insulin or not enough.

Was anyone else here diagnosed after catching covid? Any similar experiences? I'm hearing that we may see a influx of new pseudo T1Ds that aren't autoimmune, but don't produce enough insulin and aren't insulin resistant.

Idk I'm just rambling and tired of goin' hypo for no discernible reason.

 

[Juicyj]

Hello and welcome @Anomaly

Wow what a roller coaster you've been on, it's great you've pulled through all of this considering what you've been through. I am not aware of t1 onset due to covid, but considering t1 can be both triggered and if already in latent form, accelerated by illness the fact that you now have your t1 diagnosis to me personally is no great surprise, your body has been through a very stressful event and this is something that plays into a t1 diagnosis from a weakened immune system.

The important part now for you is getting your insulin dose adjusted, the fact you're now having hypos indicates that your taking too much insulin, newly diagnosed t1's can enter a honeymoon phase after insulin therapy is started as your pancreas starts coming back to life, as a newly diagnosed you will need to discuss your insulin doses with your healthcare team and get this adjusted as soon as you can, make sure in the meantime you have some fast acting glucose, I use glucotabs otherwise orange/apple juice, anything that delivers quick sugar, avoid chocolate or anything with fat as that will delay the hypo as fat slows glucose absorption.

 

[urbanracer]

Was anyone else here diagnosed after catching covid? Any similar experiences? I'm hearing that we may see a influx of new pseudo T1Ds that aren't autoimmune, but don't produce enough insulin and aren't insulin resistant.

Idk I'm just rambling and tired of goin' hypo for no discernible reason.

I posted this up in another thread a couple of weeks back, but I'll stick it in here also.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...ger-onset-diabetes-previously-healthy-people/

It does seem to be something that the medical profession is aware of.

 

[NicoleC1971]

Hug to you because this is an emotional and physical shock.
To your point about CoVid, I'd say that it is known that diabetes type 1 can be triggered by exposure to a virus because the virus triggers an autoimmune response. The problem is that is not always the case therefore it is hard to know the mechanism but there is a known link generally.
Re the insulin, keeping meal consistency is a great idea for now whilst you tinker with meal doses. Be aware of the other factors that can make blood sugars rise and fall (stress, sleep levels, illness, female hormones). Be aware that you'll get used to not getting it right all the time and try not to feel angry or guilty about it although both those emotions are likely!

 

[Anomaly]

Yea, my older (half) brother is T1D diagnosted like 3 yrs ago. He thinks I'm in a "honeymoon" phase and that's why my BS drops when I spit out naturally a bit of insulin. He's the one who let me know about things like exhaustion, spending a day in the sun, and hot showers and how random things like that can affect your insulin sensitivity. I mean I'm sure it gets easier and I'm partly just venting, but I'm a very regimented person and I like what I can calculate. This whole disease seems like too many variables. Idk they talked about doin' a pump and my brother kinda talked me out of it as he kept banding his onto stuff. I do that with my wallet or phone in my pocket so the idea of a medical device sticking to me sounds worse. Idk. Just venting I guess.

 

[MrsA2]

Hi Anamoly and welcome
You might be our first covid-induced diabetic, but I dont think you will be the only one. It's just taking others longer to recover and find us. My personal opinion is there will be many.
There are huge variables, and what suits you brother may not be right for you. And something that is right for you now may not be in , say, a years time. Best to learn to roll with it, keep monitoring and keep informed

 

[EllieM]

Due to not havin' health insurance I was prescribed a 70/30 mixed insulin and sent on my merry way.

Do you still have access to a medical team for advice? (Am guessing you are in the US???). It's good (for you but not for him) that your brother has T1 and can advise, but most new T1s in countries where public health covers the illness get a phone number so that they can get advice on their changing insulin dose. Though there have been a number of new T1s on here posting that the COVID situation means that they have felt neglected by their medical team.

As a new diabetic you may well be in a honeymoon period, where your pancreas occasionally decides to produce some insulin, not helping your hypo situation. The goodish news about that is that the honeymoon period won't last forever.

In the long run, being a creature of habit may help you control your diabetes, because the more variables in your routine there are the harder it is to adapt your insulin doses to meet them. And a 70/30 mixed insulin dose assumes you are going to have set amounts of carbohydrate at set times of day.

I've been T1 for 50 years and hypos are the worst part of the condition for me, I just hate them. But though you have to be careful (always check your blood sugar before driving and never go out without glucose or equivalent) they can be lived with, and there are a number of warning systems that are now available that weren't when I was your age.

So sorry this has happened to you but @MrsA2 said, you won't be the only one. And folk have been theorising for years about the precise cause of T1, (genetics plus a triggering virus, stress, etc...?). They still haven't worked out a definite reason and, more importantly, they haven't worked out a prevention. But the treatment for T1s improves dramatically all the time - when I was diagnosed as a child there weren't even glucometers....

Good luck, and welcome to the forums.

 

[eshobabu]

So I'm new here and newly diagnosed T1D (not entirely sure that's right) and I'm struggling a bit. I'm 31 and both type 1 and type 2 run in my family (type 1 on dad's side, type 2 on mom's side). I fell ill with Covid19 and was sick for about 6 weeks just feeling the worst I have ever felt. (Suspected at that time, confirmed later as I didn't want to ask someone else to pick me up and drive me to the hospital) Right at the end of it I finally was feeling better and had 2-3 good days when all the sudden I was just fatigued beyond anything I had experienced. I had been badly sick for weeks so during that time I didn't think too much about being really thirsty, urinating all the time, or the weight loss (I lost 48lbs in those 6 weeks).

The fatigue I had was so bad I only had about 3-4 hours of usable energy, before I was falling asleep. So I finally called for a ride for a friend to take me to an urgent care center. They ran a few tests on me and kinda freaked when they couldn't test my blood sugar. Tried it 3 times before the Nurse Practitioner sent me to the hospitals ER. BS was 770 and my A1C came back later as either 12.2 or 12.7 I don't remember exactly.

Turns out I was KDA and pretty severely dehydrated (apparently I was 3L low on fluid). Was in the hospital like 5 days and put on Lantus and Novolin. Because this was all during the heigth of all the Covid stuff in my area none of the doctors or staff seemed to want to spend any real time with me. Everything just felt really rushed like they were trying to minimize patient contact.

Due to not havin' health insurance I was prescribed a 70/30 mixed insulin and sent on my merry way.

I'm overwhelmed and honestly I'm a creature of habit, so I basically do the same meals over and over again. I measure out all my ingredients so my portions are all consistent and I try to eat at the same times to make everything easy on me. But with the same meals, same level of daily activity and basically the same daily regiment I keep getting these oddities.

For instance same breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Monday may leave me within' my blood sugar range, yet the exactly same meals and insulin amount on Wednesday puts me hypo in the 50s or 60s.

I've been tryin' to keep things consistent to keep me from gettin' too overwhelmed, but I keep having these hypo episodes I can't account for.

Is this normal for a newly diagnosed person?

Also the reason I mention the whole covod thing is I've had 2 doctors mention that covid19 is damaging the pancreas of alot of people. I know at least in Italy they're doin' a study as people are contracting Covid and then as a result no longer producing insulin or not enough.

Was anyone else here diagnosed after catching covid? Any similar experiences? I'm hearing that we may see a influx of new pseudo T1Ds that aren't autoimmune, but don't produce enough insulin and aren't insulin resistant.

Idk I'm just rambling and tired of goin' hypo for no discernible reason.

My daughter is in the same situation as you are - COVID and then 4 months later type 1 D- and whats amazing is she is going hypo as well - every night I am waking her up to feed her because she is going low. Similar meals everyday. We have been gradually reducing the basal and are now down to 3 units from 6, still going hypo. AS I am typing this I am feeding her a banana and she is literally eating it with her eyes closed - I had no idea you could eat while asleep . I will talk to her endo again. We talked twice already and she asked us to go from 6 to 5 and then to 4 and to 3. God knows what is happening

 

[eshobabu]

Please let me know how things have progressed for you. You are about 3 months ahead of my daughter in terms of COVID induced diabetes, so it might be very helpful to learn about your experience.

 

[Anomaly]

Please let me know how things have progressed for you. You are about 3 months ahead of my daughter in terms of COVID induced diabetes, so it might be very helpful to learn about your experience.

I don't know that my story is all that different than anyone elses, but from what you have written about your daughter it seems very similar to what I've been going through.

Since my initial hospitalization my insulin requirements have kept dropping little by little while maintaining my weight and eating consistent meals. Currently I'm using about 1/5 of the insulin I was using when first diagnosed. Even now, my insulin sensitivity factor and carb-to-insulin ratio seems to still be slowly changing. I'm not sure if that's normal or not, but my endo didn't seem alarmed by it, so I just kinda went with it.

I did find initially since I was having so many issues going hypo at night that I'd eat extra carbs at night to help settle me which seemed to help. I think at the time I was comsuming about 2/3 of my daily carb intake at dinner. That seemed to work well, but her mileage may vary. That said, that was at the instruction of my endo, so
I wouldn't doubt it to be a "standard practice".

I've mostly stabilized now. Some days are off for reasons unknown to me, and unfortunately nights that wake me due to hypos usually throw off the whole next day as it messed with my sleep.

It may be wise to speak to her endo about Glucagon, and to buy some OTC Glutose-15 or a similar. It's perhaps obsessive, but I now keep apple juice (which I despise), peanut butter crackers, jolly ranchers, glucose tablets, and glucose gel within' about 200 feet of me always. I usually have a few glucose tabs and a few jolly ranchers in my pocket with my strips and meter as well.

I know it's a lot, and it is a lifestyle change, but you guys will find a level or normalcy in time. It won't be hands-off, and there will be days/meals that just don't make any sense, but in time things will settle a bit. Everyone told me that, and they were absolutely right.

 

[TypeZero.]

I may have possibly developed overt type 1 diabetes triggered by Covid-19.

Was diagnosed 20th April 2020 with a fasting glucose of 19mmol/L. I was losing weight from about July/August 2019 but I feel like COVID may have caused a autoimmune flare up which made me deteriorate.

My fasting C peptide was 113pmol/L whilst for a normal person it’s minimum 250pmol/L so I’m still producing around 40% of my basal insulin. Therefore I’m wondering whether I really was losing weight due to diabetes or just losing it naturally because my C peptide of 113pmol/L suggests I fairly new

 

[MillaRussian]

I believe that my type 1 diabetes had been triggered by covid, which I had in the beginning of September. I had been diagnosed in October with hbA1c of 13.8.

 

[eshobabu]

Can you please keep us posted? My daughter was diagnosed with T1D diabetes same time as you. Same thing - COVID in april everything normal in march (Blood urine) and september DKA with 400 sugar. We are 3 months into diagnosis and she is needing very little insulin (1 unit for every 30g carbs) and 1 unit basal. and if she runs/plays even less, so she is honeymooning.