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Ketones so going to A & E?

conniecar

Well-Known Member
Messages
299
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I think my insulin was accidentally frosty as we'd nudged the fridge dial, that was 2 days ago and also when I got new cartridges from the fridge. Since then my levels have been 17/18 and I'm injecting loads of extra insulin ( threw the frosty ones away today ). I've moderate ketones, stomach pain, hot skin and am tired. I rang the doctor and he said to admit myself to hospital. It's going down extremely slowly but then seems to stop at 15 no matter what. I have my basal split so will have a new cartridge jab at tea time. Any ideas? Should I go in or just monitor at home? X
 
They've been moderate for two days. I've just done another and it looks less pink but it's still showing them.
 
You'd think I'd have encountered this little joy after 40 years wouldn't you? #bloodyborednow
 
If in doubt, always speak to a doctor. I phoned 111 last time I had ketones and they were helpful

Drink plenty of water and remember you may need extra insulin for corrections. Also bear in mind it may not be the frosty insulin, it could be an illness so watch out for that too.
 
It sounds like you might have something else going on, fever illness can make you insulin resistant. I woukd change injection site completely and maybe double my correction ratio to try make it shift (check BGs at 60 mins/90 mins) and have some carbs handy in case the correction works too well.
 
If OP has frozen her insulin then it's no good and will not lower numbers.
OP needs some new insulin by the sounds of it.
 
She said she had disposed of the affected insulin.
 
steve_p6 said:
She said she had disposed of the affected insulin.
Click to expand...
She said the frosted insulin, if she has other insulin in the fridge and that's what she's using then she has the same problem still.
There's no mention that a new batch of insulin has been collected from the pharmacy. It also takes a fair while to get numbers back to normal after being deprived of insulin like that.
 
I would certainly keep injecting to bring it down, but if you can get out and do a 15-20 min walk it always brings me right down.

Get new insulin, and keep checking - but becuase you were high for a while it likely has caused your body to treat you like there is something wrong / your sick, so your sugars will go up as if you had a cold so bringing them down and keeping them down will be tricky.

Just to illustrate the 'walk' idea - last night, for whatever reason my sugars went up after dinner and just kept rising and didnt want to come down. I was bolusing all night and when they hit 15.5mmol/l I decided I had enough and put on all my winter gear at midnight in the snow, at -10C and did a 20min walk of about 3km, as fast as i could lol and by the time i got home my BS had dropped from 15.5 down to 9mmol/l and 20 minutes after that they were down below 7mmol/l.

Moral here is - I find excercising brings sugars down much faster then insulin ever does, so if you can do anything its better then nothing, especially if the insulin isn't working well. just make sure you bring a snack and your meter, and a phone.
 

Hello Diamattic,

I am wondering about this approach because, my doctor insisted that I should not engage in any activity if my BG is above 13 mmols. He told me that I should wait for my BG to “calm down” a bit and then go for a walk.
 
There is a theory that when your blood sugar is high intensive exercise can increasing it. It may be different for everyone. Personally i've only seen it once when i did a zumba vlass starting atound 18 expecting it to drop me my normal 10 but i ended on 20. So then i injected and iy came down. Personally i usually find a walk or going up and down the stairs 10 times helpful. Also trying not to think about it as stress raises my levels. So a nap can be good too.
 
Bluemarine Josephine said:
Hello Diamattic,

I am wondering about this approach because, my doctor insisted that I should not engage in any activity if my BG is above 13 mmols. He told me that I should wait for my BG to “calm down” a bit and then go for a walk.
Click to expand...

I was told the same - don't exercise if your BS is higher than the 12s as it's bad for you. Wait till they'd come down.
 
Bluemarine Josephine said:
Hello Diamattic,

I am wondering about this approach because, my doctor insisted that I should not engage in any activity if my BG is above 13 mmols. He told me that I should wait for my BG to “calm down” a bit and then go for a walk.
Click to expand...


A walk is not an 'intensive' exercise.

Studies have shown that exercise where you use >80% of your max heart rate for extended periods or engage in intensive heavy lifting that pushes your muscles oxygen demand will raise your BS, but this activity is usually limited to exercises like heavy weight training, sprinting, certain lengthy and intense classes (like Zumba). But any exercise that does not meet this, or falls far short (like a spirited walk) will act to lower your BS fairly quickly.

Dr. Ridell is a Canadian researcher at York University here in Ontario, and has published many papers on exercise and Type 1 Diabetes. The best part is he himself is a Type 1 Diabetic, and a very active individual so he really is answering all of the questions we actually to know!

Check out these papers here - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22374639, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03262312

It is titled " Effects of performing resistance exercise before versus after aerobic exercise on glycemia in type 1 diabetes."
It discuses what happens to the body during various types of exercises and how each affects your BS.

His profile and other papers can be found here - http://www.yorku.ca/mriddell/publications.htm, https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q...ved=0ahUKEwjDuOP-yITLAhUHKx4KHUsrCC0QgQMIGTAA - I advise anyone with an interest in being active to skim through some - at least the conclusions/discussion, and methodology section to get a feel for what he is doing and the results.
 
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