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All I have is a cold but it's playing absolute havoc with my levels

RobertJ

Well-Known Member
Messages
259
Location
Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
I have a cold and it seems my requirements have increased between 50 and 100%. It's absolute madness. So far today I've given 26 units of Novorapid, 12 units of Levemir, and the lowest it went was 9.8, and that was for about ten minutes. I don't even know what strategy I'm adopting now as it seems all I can do is keep giving massive corrective doses until it goes back into the normal range.

Just to illustrate how little anything is working, I woke up at 5am with a reading of 16.0 and gave 5 units of Novorapid. I woke up again at 8:15 and it was at 14.3.

I don't remember a cold causing such problems. Having Covid-19 twice was a walk in the park compared with this. What are other people's experiences and strategies?

 
It’s not unusual for blood sugars to be elevated when you have colds or infections , it just means for me anyway to take more blood sugars and adjusting insulin to suit , a good idea is to take a ketone test as infections can result in +ve ketones , if it continues see your doc , they can take a blood test which will tell you if you have an infection and treat appropriately,
 
Have you checked these numbers with a finger prick test, as Libre isn't as accurate over 10, and takes a while to catch up with finger prick test?

While colds and illness spike blood glucose for me, and insulin takes longer to work the higher my numbers, if a correction dose doesn't work I'd use a new vial/cartridge of insulin (basal and bolus pre pump days). Check ketones as @Ushthetaff said, and adopt sick day rules, which your hospital diabetes team should have given you. If levels still not reducing, i'd try a new pen, and check my basal rate. Then I'd check carb ratio's.

So basically changing one thing at a time to eliminate it.

Hope your levels reduce soon, as it can make you feel pretty grotty with high numbers, on top of any illness.
 

Oh yes I did some finger-prick tests and it was just as bad. I think I should have increased the basal – that would have helped make things less extreme. Things finally got under control in late afternoon and I had a low-carb evening meal, which only resulted in a modest spike. I think the worst of it is behind me now.
 
The cold I had recently over the end of last week/the weekend caused absolute havoc with my levels even being on hybrid closed loop!!! At one point I went up to 15 and my blood sugar just really did not want to come down all day, I rarely went below 12 for a couple of days. Some illnesses are worse than others and can make your levels out of whack even when you’re doing everything you possibly can to get them to come down. I personally think you just have to ride it out and things will settle eventually.
 
I’ve experienced something similar before and it’s very concerning and frustrating. The last time it happened, I had no idea what caused it, as I wasn’t sick and felt fine. Maybe, a UTI….. I’ve learned to check for ketones, since that is very serious. Be aware of symptoms and alert another person you trust to be aware, in case you need help. I then change out supplies and open new insulin, if things aren’t improving. I pump, so complete set change and infusion site. Fortunately, last time it came down before bedtime,but I had already sent a message to my Endo and CDE. I hope things have improved for you.
 
Slight change of topic but I went to bed on a reading of 5.9 and I'd given 20% more basal than usual. I thought I was on course for the a nice, stable night but I woke up at 7am on a reading of 20.4, the highest reading of the year.

Apart from that fact that that's terrible, I don't understand why my high glucose alarm didn't go off.

I have a Libre 2. Normally it goes off quite regularly if my BG reaches the level I've set it too (9.5). I get woken up by it if it goes off in the night so it must have just not gone off at all. Has anyone experienced what seems to be an irregularity of the high glucose alarm?
 
I don‘t use Libre. Do you think you didn’t awake for the alert? Is there a way to check Notifications to see if it alerted?
 
Prancy said:
I don‘t use Libre. Do you think you didn’t awake for the alert? Is there a way to check Notifications to see if it alerted?
Click to expand...

Hmm, I just looked at the 'Logbook' on it. Apparently there was a reading of 9.8 at 23:54, so that would have been me testing it after the alarm went off. I must have done the test then gone straight back to sleep.

I think once the high glucose alarm goes off, it won't go off again until you've gone back down below the threshold and then rise again.
 
RobertJ said:
Slight change of topic but I went to bed on a reading of 5.9 and I'd given 20% more basal than usual. I thought I was on course for the a nice, stable night but I woke up at 7am on a reading of 20.4, the highest reading of the year.
Click to expand...
From what you said it sounds like you gave your basal insulin in the evening? It's unlikely to have all that much effect until the following day. It'll be interesting to hear what you blood sugars are like today and tonight.
 
SimonP78 said:
From what you said it sounds like you gave your basal insulin in the evening? It's unlikely to have all that much effect until the following day. It'll be interesting to hear what you blood sugars are like today and tonight.
Click to expand...

I give basal every twelve hours, so the evening one is for overnight. Therefore it is supposed to have an effect while I am asleep, not the following day.
 
RobertJ said:
I give basal every twelve hours, so the evening one is for overnight. Therefore it is supposed to have an effect while I am asleep, not the following day.
Click to expand...
One thing @RobertJ - what had you had for dinner ? Depending on what it was, it may have released havoc on your BG's later - or maybe your body is fighting something (edit - noticed you said you had a cold)? I'm telling you, sometimes why our BG's go funky wonky is beyond my imagination. I can't imagine what my levels would have been preCGM (I only started using technology in 2008 after 40+ years).
 
RobertJ said:
I give basal every twelve hours, so the evening one is for overnight. Therefore it is supposed to have an effect while I am asleep, not the following day.
Click to expand...
I do as well, it depends on the absorption and activity profiles. It was just a thought, you obviously know what your insulins do better than I do.
 

I think I had dinner too close to going to bed. I also wonder if my basal didn't all go in properly but I think the enormous rise is in part due to having a virus.

Saying that, I don't remember ever experiencing such disruption from any virus before. Even after several days the amounts of insulin I'm requiring are huge: I must be giving about double my daily dose per day.

All my good numbers have fallen apart. I've gone from 85% in target down to 62%, and my average glucose has gone from 7.4 to 9.3.
 
RobertJ said:
I think once the high glucose alarm goes off, it won't go off again until you've gone back down below the threshold and then rise again.
Click to expand...
I never used the official alarms, and this is one of the reasons why.

I use my sensor with DiaBox, when the alarm goes off I can choose to snooze it for whatever period of time I like, to make sure I'll get another alarm if I'm still too high after a while.
You're ill, and I think an average of 9.3 isn't that bad at all while fighting a virus!
You'll recover, and so will your TIR, don't let it get you down!
 
 
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