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Cortisone injection

Mep

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,461
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
Well today I got a cortisone injection for bursitis with impingement in my shoulder (one of my car accident injuries) and already my sugar is high. I only had the injection just over 5 hours ago.... last meter check was 15.4. hmm.

I'm just hoping this steroid works and doesn't keep my sugar high for too long. They mentioned it would affect sugar levels for a couple of days at least.

What are the experiences of others? For those on MDI of insulin how have you handled it? I've already increased my bolus dosage and not sure if I should increase my basal as well or just wait.
 
I had a cortisol injection in my hand a few years ago. This raised my BG for about a week.
I handled it with a small increase in my basal (not too large because I was guessing when the effect would wear off) with lots of testing and correction doses of bolus during the day.

I hope your shoulder is feeling better soon.
 
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thanks Did you wait a couple of days before increasing the basal or did you do that pretty much straight away? I hope your hand is better. As for my shoulder it is still hurting... but I believe I have to wait 2-3 days for the steroid to kick in if it's going to work.
 
Hi Mep. I am watching this thread with interest as I have had these sorts of injections in my back but that was before dx of T2. The injections that I have take up to two weeks to slowly kick in. I am not on insulin but no doubt the next round of injections will raise my bg and I suppose I have few options other than going zero carb for a few days or just waiting it out.
Hope you have the longest period of relief you can possibly have after your needles.
 
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This was a few years ago but, if I remember correctly, I increased my basal straight away. Although the soothing affect of the cortisol make take a few days, if you are seeing a BG increase now, I would increase the basal with the BG increase rather than the shoulder improvement.

As for my hand, it is much better now. I only had one round of injections but also had some physio as well as a splint and not sure which healed it in the end.
 
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Yes, will be interesting to see how you go. I may wind up needing the injections for my back also as I have 3 bulging discs but one is leaning on my sciatic nerve. At the moment I'm still getting physio for my car accident injuries and so far physio hasn't improved either my lower back or my shoulder and I've been going about 9 months or more now.
 
well the downside is it's causing insomnia on me.
 
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Yeh my BGL's have stayed in double digits all day regardless of how much insulin I've injected. I suspect it will be like this for the next couple of days or so. I don't feel crash hot from it. I don't like double digits. I just checked earlier and I was 17.4 and that's probably the highest I've seen on my meter for quite a while. I've got a faster heart rate and haven't hardly slept a wink last night. I feel quite hyped up. I got up at 2 am fed up with no sleep and took a nitrazepam and went to sleep for an hour with that and woke up again. Normally with just one pill of that it would knock me flat. I'm also on quite a few medications that would knock others out. So yeh this injection seems to be over-riding the other drugs. I gather it's just too much cortisol in my blood from the cortisone they injected.
 
Interesting reading. I have had annual steroid injections in my feet for several years, but have come to the point where they're not helping my right foot anymore. I haven't had any since my diabetic diagnosis. Later this year (waiting lists permitting) I'm having surgery on my right foot and another steroid injection in my left. I'm just on Metformin. Forewarned is forearmed I guess!
 
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I hope your foot operation is a success for you. If you have a steroid injection in your other foot and it affects your sugar levels it may be that your doc may change your treatment for you temporarily so you can manage. I'm not sure I'm keen on more injections, but I really don't want surgery either after one of my friends mentioned she's had 3 surgeries already for the same problem I've got and she's still having trouble. ugh. I'm still getting physio but not sure that is helping as much. It could be because I'm on baclofen which is a muscle relaxer and my physio is trying to build up muscle strength which is probably harder to do on someone taking muscle relaxers. lol. Oh dear. I can't please everything sadly.
 
I had surgery on my left foot ten years ago or so. It was partly successful hence still having the steroid injections. The surgery on my right they are going to do slightly differently in the hope it works better. My left foot is feeling a bit better now I've lost weight on the low carb diet so I'm optimistic about both feet now.
I hope your physio can improve your situation for you.
 
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oh boy I'm still dealing with side effects. I bumped up my basal the last 2 nights. Yesterday I was finally getting figures in the single digits on my meter. So I thought yay the basal dose must be right. So I give the same basal dosage last night and now I'm going too low. All this weekend I've had my BP fluctuating bad too and headaches. This morning I get in my car and drive to work and I don't feel too good at all when I get in. A colleague tells me my neck is bright red. I said yeh probably my BP. So I check my BP and it's 179/106 and heart rate over 100. I make the call to leave work after I realise I'm also having GI spasms. All this from the injection I think. I came home took painkillers, gastro stop, and nifedipine and lied down. I'm up again to eat as sugar a bit too low. On a good note I'm seeing a new specialist today for one of my conditions. I'm hoping at least he will be understanding, etc.
 
Oh I do hope you get a long time of pain releif after all that. Get better soon.
 
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Update - well my sugars finally came back to normal but not for long as I've come down sick with some respiratory virus now and sugars going nuts again. ugh. I can't catch a break.
 
Oh No, take care of yourself.
 
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