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

Man Flu - Do you adjust dosage ?

S

Spirit of Eden

Well-Known Member
Messages
50
Just wondering if you make adjustments for illness or do you just accept it ?

After having a fairly heavy cold for most of the week, my BS numbers went up significantly. Based on pre meal reading I have been making at least 1u corrections to doses accompanying most meals. From what I read, illness causes insulin resistance which would explain.

Today - BAM ! My body clearly agrees that i'm better, i've had 2 hypos (so far)
 
I always adjust... feeling grotty with a cold is bad enough without being hyper on top too.
I had tooth abscess recently and my bg readings went up into the 18s until I had some antibiotics from my dentist. I had to increase both basal and bolus dose amounts by a substantial amount until that time and even then my levels didnt drop by much untill the infection was dealt with. I was surprised how much more insulin I was taking with no apparent effect
I have dealt with colds in a similar way as you as antibiotics dont work all I did was check my bloods more often
 
If increasing insulin dosent make much difference (my experience also) it seems to suggest that illness kicks in a kind of brick wall insulin resistance, meaning that the extra insulin just hangs around in the bloodstream i.e. short term Double Diabetes ?

I would have thought taking Metformin might help more than hammering in loads of insulin. Also must note that I didn't do any exercise whilst I was ill as I felt so yuk which wont have helped my numbers either :crazy:
 
I recently had this wonderful stomach bug, couldn't keep anything down so missed my evening dose. I checked my levels on a regular basis and they never rose above 8. The reason for missing the evening dose was fear of a hypo - I felt ill enough without adding to my problems.

Next morning things had settled and I managed to eat a light breakfast, so took the normal dose of insulin.

My DSN informs me I should have taken the insulin and had a sweet drink to compensate - bearing in mind I couldn't keep anything down I thought this was rather daft. DSN is going to send me a leaflet through which should be full of useful advice, about what to do when you are ill.
 
Sue,
the reason you were told to take a sweet drink and to take insulin is that the body needs insulin. If you gave insulin without some sort of carb then you might become hypo.

One of the functions of insulin is to control the breakdown of fat in the fat cells. No insulin and fat cells would break leading to ketones. If the lack of insulin continued, the fat breakdown would continue and these ketones would rise leading to acidic blood ie diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a life threatening condition. (it often happens pre diagnosis)
If you are sick, eating nothing and don't take any insulin it is even possible to develop DKA with relatively normal glucose levels.

One of the 'folk' remedies that is supposed to work when you are vomitting is to drink flat cocacola +appropriate insulin. (I've never quite worked out why someone who has D is likely to have a stock of full sugar coca cola on hand!
 
Yes drinking something sweet just so you can take insulin does sound odd. Reminds me of my mum giving me Lucozade when I was ill as a kid except of course now it would require a Humalog "chaser"

Please share If you get any useful nuggets of info about dealing with illness
 
I understand about the ketones and did keep an eye on my bg and would have taken a small amount if they had risen much higher. I knew it was OK to miss one dose - the higher of my doses is the morning one and I knew that I had to take some insulin by then.

When I have a sickness bugs I find it hard to keep anything down or even look at foods and drinks. I take dioralyte and have some pills that will stop me from being sick - had Norovirus last year and the GP sent a prescription for both, plus instructions on what to do if sickness doesn't settle. I would have given it until the morning, taken the anti-sickness pills and then had a late breakfast and injected the insulin, plus contacted the DSN.

I'd appreciate any useful info on dealing with illness - Winter is a time for illness with me.
 
Back
Top