• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Type 1 Erratic blood sugars

Carl W

Carl W

Well-Known Member
Messages
122
Hi guys, been feeling a little under the weather past few days, ( first time since having diabetes) my question is what can I do to bring my glucose down? Ive put in what I needed for food. But it’s just been high for the past 3 days.
Thanks
 
Carl W said:
Hi guys, been feeling a little under the weather past few days, ( first time since having diabetes) my question is what can I do to bring my glucose down? Ive put in what I needed for food. But it’s just been high for the past 3 days.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Your profile doesn't say what type of diabetes you have or what medication you are on, so it's hard to give any kind of advice.
Carl W said:
it’s just been high for the past 3 days.
Click to expand...
Do you mean it's been higher than usually or do you mean your meter has said 'high' (Too high for it to give a number) for 3 days?
If the latter, too high too read, please call 111 now for advice.
This can be an emergency.
 
Hi @Carl W I'm assuming you are T1 as that is in the title of your post.

As @Antje77 said, if you readings have been HI for several days, you need urgent medical advice, but if they are just higher than normal you may just need more insulin, as it's not uncommon for illness to push up blood sugars. You also need access to ketone blood or urine testing strips, as DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) is a risk for T1s with high blood sugar.

In an ideal world, your diabetic team would have given you "sick day rules" for dosing insulin when unwell, but this link looks quite useful


I hope you feel better soon.
 
EllieM said:
Hi @Carl W I'm assuming you are T1 as that is in the title of your post.

As @Antje77 said, if you readings have been HI for several days, you need urgent medical advice, but if they are just higher than normal you may just need more insulin, as it's not uncommon for illness to push up blood sugars. You also need access to ketone blood or urine testing strips, as DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) is a risk for T1s with high blood sugar.

In an ideal world, your diabetic team would have given you "sick day rules" for dosing insulin when unwell, but this link looks quite useful


I hope you feel better soon.
Click to expand...

Hi, thank you, how would I get testing strips? Do the diabetic team give them to you, or do you have to purchase them yourself? I hardly see my team it’s all done over email for some reason,
The readings are just higher than normal, I’m dosing for the food I’m eating, but it still goes up to the 15’s, 16’s etc
 
Antje77 said:
Your profile doesn't say what type of diabetes you have or what medication you are on, so it's hard to give any kind of advice.

Do you mean it's been higher than usually or do you mean your meter has said 'high' (Too high for it to give a number) for 3 days?
If the latter, too high too read, please call 111 now for advice.
This can be an emergency.
Click to expand...

Sorry. I’m type 1 on fiasp and tresiba, and it’s just higher than what it normally is
 
Carl W said:
Hi, thank you, how would I get testing strips? Do the diabetic team give them to you, or do you have to purchase them yourself? I hardly see my team it’s all done over email for some reason,
The readings are just higher than normal, I’m dosing for the food I’m eating, but it still goes up to the 15’s, 16’s etc
Click to expand...

Is it going down to normal levels between meals? I'm in New Zealand, so it may be different where you are, but my team gave me a meter that reads ketones in blood (the strips are very expensive to buy so you really need them on prescription) and you can also buy (much cheaper) urine testing ketone strips from a pharmacy. But I would expect your team to give you a script for those too. Having said that, it might be worth getting some urine testing ones yourself just so that you don't have to wait till next week. (I am assuming you have no way to contact your team at a weekend?)

I am not impressed that your team have not given you a way to test for ketones.
 
EllieM said:
Is it going down to normal levels between meals? I'm in New Zealand, so it may be different where you are, but my team gave me a meter that reads ketones in blood (the strips are very expensive to buy so you really need them on prescription) and you can also buy (much cheaper) urine testing ketone strips from a pharmacy. But I would expect your team to give you a script for those too. Having said that, it might be worth getting some urine testing ones yourself just so that you don't have to wait till next week. (I am assuming you have no way to contact your team at a weekend?)

I am not impressed that your team have not given you a way to test for ketones.
Click to expand...

No, it usually went up for a little while then dropped down to normal between meals. But since not feeling too great 3-4 days ago it just keeps going up and up until I put in a correction dose, which at the minute can be anything from 8 plus units. I’ll have a look in the pharmacy today after work to see if there are any ketone strips there, and will email the diabetic “team” to see how I can get them on prescription. I was basically given my insulin and told to get on with it, had to learn how to carb count myself, and how much to dose etc so doesn’t really surprise me about the strips. Thank you for your answer.
 
Carl W said:
Sorry. I’m type 1 on fiasp and tresiba, and it’s just higher than what it normally is
Click to expand...
My apologies, I completely missed the rather obvious 'Type 1' part in your title. :bag:

Very happy to hear your meter isn't reading HI, although going up in the higher teens is frustrating enough by itself.
Most of us find we need more insulin when ill. The below is copied from @EllieM 's linked sick day rules:
1670067006342.png

However, adjusting your basal is very tricky because you're on Tresiba, which acts very long and changes in dosing take a few days to take full effect. So if you increase your basal, it might send you into hypos as soon as you start to feel better. Not what you want.
 
Antje77 said:
My apologies, I completely missed the rather obvious 'Type 1' part in your title. :bag:

Very happy to hear your meter isn't reading HI, although going up in the higher teens is frustrating enough by itself.
Most of us find we need more insulin when ill. The below is copied from @EllieM 's linked sick day rules:
View attachment 57866

However, adjusting your basal is very tricky because you're on Tresiba, which acts very long and changes in dosing take a few days to take full effect. So if you increase your basal, it might send you into hypos as soon as you start to feel better. Not what you want.
Click to expand...

Ok brilliant, thank you :)
 
Back
Top