Low blood sugars

[Ellie's mum]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone else suffers from low blood sugars when their poorly. All the info I have for my daughter suggests high blood sugars when ill but she's had a cold for the past few days and instead of high blood sugars she has several hypos a day!

Any advice welcome x

 

[catapillar]

Hi @Ellie's mum , unfortunately, like so much else with type 1, it's not as simple as illness makes you high. Or even, for some people, illness makes them low. Sometimes being ill won't have any impact on my blood sugar, usually it makes me run higher (being in pain or having an infection) and sometimes, but more rarely, it makes me run lower than usual - I've had some sort of ENT virus/cold thing the last couple of weeks and I'm pretty sure it has been making me run a lot lower than usual.

I think your daughter is quite newly diagnosed? So you should still be getting quite a bit of support from your DSN. They might be able to offer some advice on illness.

I would just suggest that it's always a good idea to test a bit more if you know you aren't very well, just so you can check if it's doing anything funny to your blood sugar.

If you have spotted that this illness is making your daughter run lower, then maybe think about "rounding down" the amount of insulin you are giving for the bolus. That's what I was doing last week anyway, but do try and talk to the DSN for proper advice!

Hope your daughter doesn't feel too poorly with the cold.

 

[Ellie's mum]

We have a hospital appointment tomorrow morning for a check up with the diabetic doctor so hopefully they will be able to advise us on the best course of action to take.

Like you said we are very new to it all its just so confusing when all the info your given suggest high blood sugar when your not feeling well.

As for feeling too poorly, she's as mardy as her backside but it's not effecting her appetite lol x

 

[azure]

@Ellie's mum I get low sugars when I'm ill. With a cold, I often get high sugars just before I get the cold, then lows when it arrives and for the first few days I have it. It's not totally predictable so all I do is test lots and eat extra if necessary. If I can see the lows are persisting, I sometimes use a temporary basal rate for a few hours (I'm on a pump).

I've always had this happen since I was first diagnosed. I like to think my immune system is too busy with fighting the cold to destroy any more islets, but as I've been diagnosed 20 years or so I'm not sure that's true. However, I do know other people experience similar lows so there must be a reason.

 

[pinewood]

I also experience much lower blood sugars when ill; I've posted about it on here before and didn't realise other people were in the same boat as I'd always been told it was strange and that everyone else goes high! My approach is to just reduce my basal; I usually take 10 units of Lantus but last time I had a cold I reduced down to 6 units and it did the trick. As azure says, best bet is to just do lots of testing.

Hope your daughter feels better soon.