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Type 1 Constant high blood sugar

C

Claireball

Member
Hi I’m in T1D for over 22 yrs with Addison’s disease and recently are having having such high blood sugars in the 20’s and it seems it doesn’t matter what dose of insulin intake it makes no difference. It seems the insulin is just not working . Any advice would greatly be appreciated
 
Hi @Claireball and welcome to the forum :)

High blood glucose levels can be caused by many things, hormone inbalances, stress, illness, infection, dental and physical, bad injection sites, poor insulin, changes in weight etc etc so it would be very hard to really suggest anything here, have you spoken to your diabetic team to run through your readings with them ? They will be in a better position to review insulin, readings etc and see if anymore can be done there to help manage your high levels.

Personally I find that if i'm running high levels because of illness/infection that insulin can take the form of water and despite my standard corrections I cannot get my BG levels into single figures so I rage bolus until I can see them coming back down, however it's knowing the root cause that will determine my action, if it's just a blip then a walk or gentle exercise which can kick them back into touch, but it's vital to find out what's causing this and your team are better placed than us to help you there, best wishes J
 
Welcome to the forums @Claireball . As @Juicyj said, there are a lot of potential reasons for high blood sugars. Assuming you've tried the obvious ones like injection sites and bad insulin/pens then you really need medical help to see what's going on. eg It might be something like a urinary tract infection that doesn't even give you any symptoms or it might be something more complicated to do with your Addisons or having had covid. Given that the amount of insulin people need can vary by a factor of 50 (they make U300 and U500 insulins) it is very easy for your insulin needs to go up dramatically. Personally once I'm high I find my insulin resistance goes up so it can indeed feel like insulin is more like water than a life saving medication.

I strongly urge that you phone or email your medical team (or even call 111 for advice) as levels of 20 aren't great for a T1. Are you testing for ketones? (Apologies if I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs but it's easy to assume that DKAs happen to someone else if you're a long term T1 and haven't ever had one.)

Good luck, I hope you feel better soon.
 
Thankyou and yes I’m fighting an infection at the moment but coming to the end of antibiotics now and did spend last weekend in hospital with DKA but to be honest after a day and half on IV fluids and antibiotics they just sent me packing with the advice of increasing my insulin a few units and just keep an eye on yourself attitude ( Think they needed my bed ) but the antibiotics are coming to an end now but my blood sugars just don’t seem to be going down and I can’t say my appetite as been good as I’ve hardly eaten
 
Hi. I can't comment on Addisons. First do you have any excess weight? If you do you may have insulin resistance which makes any insulin less effective. If you do have excess weight then do have a low-carb diet if not already doing that. Have you balanced your Basal? You can do this by not eating for several hours and seeing if your BS goes up or down. If it goes up then increase the Basal and vice versa. I assume you are carb-counting your Bolus shots? Are you swapping injection areas? I've found recently that the areas I've been using no longer absorb insulin well so moving to new areas has helped. Note that antibiotics can increase BS for a while.
 
Thankyou for the reply . Yes I’m currently using the sick day rules but still so high . I have a ketones blood monitor and they are reading around 1.5 and 2 so keeping a close eye on them too
 
Daibell said:
Hi. I can't comment on Addisons. First do you have any excess weight? If you do you may have insulin resistance which makes any insulin less effective. If you do have excess weight then do have a low-carb diet if not already doing that. Have you balanced your Basal? You can do this by not eating for several hours and seeing if your BS goes up or down. If it goes up then increase the Basal and vice versa. I assume you are carb-counting your Bolus shots? Are you swapping injection areas? I've found recently that the areas I've been using no longer absorb insulin well so moving to new areas has helped. Note that antibiotics can increase BS for a while.
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I’m not carrying extra weight but not very mobile due to having a serious back condition so not being to exercise don’t help the matter on times
 
I am not T1 and I do not take insulin but I do know that blood sugar level of 11 or over coupled with Ketones between 1.5 and 2.9 puts you at a higher risk of DKA so please do take care..
 
Claireball said:
Thankyou and yes I’m fighting an infection at the moment but coming to the end of antibiotics now and did spend last weekend in hospital with DKA but to be honest after a day and half on IV fluids and antibiotics they just sent me packing with the advice of increasing my insulin a few units and just keep an eye on yourself attitude ( Think they needed my bed ) but the antibiotics are coming to an end now but my blood sugars just don’t seem to be going down and I can’t say my appetite as been good as I’ve hardly eaten
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I have similar problems when ill especially when on antibiotics. Changing the vials might help a bit. I usually find it takes best part of a week after finishing antibiotics to go back to normal. Stick with it, and wishing you a speedy recovery
 
Thankyou all for all your reply’s and advice it’s been very much appreciated. I’m going to just see how the next few days are like and if no different I will see my doctor or try once again to get hold of my diabetic team
 
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