HELP I'm scared! Steroids.

Hey Paula.
Steroids can cause mayhem with Bg levels and this should have been discussed with you.

Do you know what your pre-meal level was ?

What exactly did you have to eat ?

Erm...... what do you describe as a 'fairly normal low carb' meal please ? :?

I see. Personally sweet potato is a no no for me, in whatever quantity and it really all depends what sort of /veg you had ........root Veg is not advisable in quantity when low carbing.

Well, not an Insulin user Byetta is my jab. I was kind of hoping that somebody who does would be along .... Anyway when I was put on anti-Cancer drugs and treatment my Bg levels frequently went way above 24 etc.......after a chat with my Endo it was suggested that I take a Gliclazide when this happened as it would help to reduce the Bg levels. It did, quite successfully.

I think what you need to do is monitor your levels and if they are still going up then you probably need to do a correction dose, keep monitoring and see if it starts to level out. Do not inject too much. You could just sit it out as I did many times. Drink plenty of water and regular monitoring.

I f things start to go down because you have injected too much then small carby snacks should help keep the levels higher.

Cheers Paula.

That sounds good, at least now you have some actual help to hand. Hope it all settles down for you. Try to stay calm, stress will up the levels as well.

Let us know how you get on.......

I use insulin but didn't want to comment as it might be different for different people. personally, with readings like that I would defiantly take a correction dose.

Paula your profile mentions novorapid, what's the problem with using that for a correction dose? Do you only have Novomix? Actrapid is a fast acting insulin, I don't know how it compares to novorapid with speed.

Don't worry, the out of hours GP will be able to help. I had readings of ~30 once, just before I started insulin, and the out of hours doctor was very helpful.

Edit: NovoRapid acts quicker than Actrapid, so I assume it would be more suitable for a correction dose.

paula1974 said:

However, I have to take the steroids again in the morning and for another 6 days so am a bit worried.
BUT, the hosp was going to keep me in because of my chest infection!!! Luckily, didnt happen.

Click to expand...

Hi Paula it was long term prednisolone use that caused my diabetes but thankfully I was finally weaned off it around this time last year (I think), it probably took a good six weeks or more for my bg to stabilise after stopping taking the steroid which may have been because of the length of time I had been taking them but you should be aware that your bg may still run higher than normal for a period after stopping the steroid.

But don't worry they will come down and stabalise

Hi Paula.
Glad to see that things are being dealt with now. When I was having anti-Cancer drugs which also screwed up my Diabetes control for several months, my Endo said to me......"Sometimes Diabetes has to take a back seat. Once you are better then get back to that good control"

So, deal with what you have at the moment and don't worry too much because the numbers aren't perfect. You will get back to good numbers again, as I did. No harm done.

Good to see it is improving, good luck!

glad you are doing better

As well as raising blood glucose there are other well documented side effects of corticosteroids



Side effects of oral corticosteroids that are used on a short-term basis include:

* an increase in appetite,
* weight gain,
* insomnia,
* fluid retention, and
* mood changes, such as feeling irritable, or anxious.

Side effects of oral corticosteroids used on a long-term basis (longer than three months) include:

* osteoporosis (fragile bones),
* hypertension (high blood pressure),
* diabetes,
* weight gain,
* increased vulnerability to infection,
* cataracts and glaucoma (eye disorders),
* thinning of the skin,
* bruising easily, and
* muscle weakness.

Source http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Corticoste ... fects.aspx


Prednisolone is a wonder drug when used to combat respiratory problems and I have no doubt that it saved my life, and I am happy to view my diabetes as an acceptable trade off for the quality of life it has given me.

I found another side effect that I suffered whilst taking Pred was night cramps but they stopped after I was prescribed Quinine tablets, I also took Adcal-D3 to offset the possible osteoporosis risk which I seem to have evaded thankfully, obviously the osteoporosis risk is not a problem with short term steroid use.

Chin up Paula, you know there working for you and you will soon get your levels to stabilise when you finish the course