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High sugar Covid-23

T

TimLibre

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Since thursdaynight I have been ill, today turned out to be Covid. My bg has really been high that first night like around 17. Now still im struggling to get bgs doen, even if Im taking really crazy amounts of insulin. I already checked my insulin and took a new cartridge. I dont remember that I had this when I had covid for the first time, in january ‘22. Im feeling to ill to do workout or excersise to stimulate insulin uptake..have others experienced the same while having covid lately?
 
Maybe worth trying a new box of cartridges for both bolus and basal insulins. Have you checked for ketones?
If you can't get your blood sugar down, I'd ring 111 for advice.
Hope you feel better soon.
 
TimLibre said:
Since thursdaynight I have been ill, today turned out to be Covid. My bg has really been high that first night like around 17. Now still im struggling to get bgs doen, even if Im taking really crazy amounts of insulin. I already checked my insulin and took a new cartridge. I dont remember that I had this when I had covid for the first time, in january ‘22. Im feeling to ill to do workout or excersise to stimulate insulin uptake..have others experienced the same while having covid lately?
Click to expand...
Yes, same experience. It lasted for much longer than the Covid symptoms too. Hope you are feeling better soon.
 
Yes, this is what happened with me. Don't know what your regime is Tim so I'll share mine & what I did in the hope it helps you. I take metformin, Lantus & NovoRapid. Before Covid I was taking Lantus 6 units at night, NovoRapid 7/0/7 & metformin 1g with meals. During Covid infection I ended up doubling my Lantus & bolusing NovoRapid every 2 hours, as much as 25 units each time, which for me is huge amounts & was freaking me out. I was worried about having a deep hypo, which didn't happen. I did all of this in liaison with my diabetes nurse. My BGs shot up to 20s soon after symptoms started. Doing this helped me bring it down but still higher than normal.

I also thought my insulin might have gone off & changed pen but it hadn't. Covid is known to cause mayhem for diabetes. Hope this helped. Best of luck.
 
Hi,

Me too. Just turned a corner with blood sugars yesterday after a week of “sick day rules” and bolusing every 2 hours, and upping carb ratios and background.

I’m still on higher than normal background and wonder whether at some point I’ll just suddenly crash as it becomes too strong, or it will be a gradual process back to normal background and ratios. I’m on Tresiba so not easy to flip back to pre covid levels.

The covid symptoms themselves haven’t been that bad, but the blood sugars have been the worst I’ve ever had them. Highest reading 29.1 after vast amounts of insulin.

Happily I’m stable now ! Thanks goodness for the vaccines!
 
Thanks all for your kind replies and for sharing your experiences. Normally i take 20 lantus and 2 novorapid in the morning 3/4 novorapid at noon and 5/6 rapid in the evening plus correction dose over the day if necessary. If id be at 13 mmol id take 2/3 units extra to get back within range.

Now i was at 17 mmol and taking 6 units had no effect so took again 5 after 90 minutes..only getting bgs down to 15. So took again 5 units..getting bg down to 12..took again insulin and also was really afraid that i might had overdosed when bg was finally (and rapidly) falling towards 8..but did not lead to a hypo.

Now 4th day of infection, insulin becoming more effective again. Luckily i stayed careful not to automatically keep on taking higher doses, but monitoring closely before. But this whole covid all is very tricky. If i would simply have doubled doses today i would have ended up with a serious hypo and trouble. The thought crossed my mind that covid virus attacks insulin or something..but dont know if that is even practically possible.

Have to say that this time i kept on eating. When i had covid for the first time, 13 months ago, i was too ill to eat which might be the reason that i had less bg trouble back then (and lost 6 kg then, which i havent gained back until today; so always look on the bright side of life:))

I can give an update when im better whether the experienced insulin resistence disappeared in my case..

Stay safe✌️
 
Hi there,
I had Covid last August and my sugar levels went crazy, I used to walk everyday and I couldn’t walk 100m without my sugar dropping! It was awful so lots of extra eating and then the extra weight!!
So almost six months later things have settled, on treshiba now which has helped but has taken so long to get used to.
In essence, it might take a while to get your balance back so be kind to yourself and good luck!!
 
I think ive finally beaten the covid since friday, so 8 days after infection. Was hoping everyday that “hopefully tomorrow im better” but it was quite a sticky virus for me. Although the fever had disappeared already quite soon, i kelt on feeling like sh*t and lacking any energy. Really frustrating as some people just experience some very light symptoms, and people now tend to think ‘its just covid so dont complain about it’.
On the other hand, a lot of people have ended up in hospital or even dying, so i think i was somewhere in the middle.

So now 9 days after infection im managing to keep my bgs better regulated again. Still having to take some More units of novorapid than usually before. Luckily without gaining weight (yet).

Tomorrow i’ll try to restart with some workout and see hoe that goes. Thanks again all for your support and kindness!
 
Sorry you've had such a rough time @TimLibre . Hope the workout goes ok, and you're soon back to only needing your usual amount of Novorapid. Take care.
 
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