B
BoldlyTheyRode
Guest
First of all, a little background. I'm 18 years old, male, type 1 and on a pump in the UK.
This might get a little vivid, diarrhoea story inbound.
For the last 7 days now I've been suffering through what is apparently a very persistent stomach bug. (stool sample finally sent out today and going to see Doctor in person tomorrow, will get proper confirmation soon)
The bug itself honestly hasn't been that bad, I had pretty rough diarrhoea and some minor pains + the usual general fatigue for the first few days, but nothing else. By day 3 the diarrhoea itself seems to have mainly cleared up, I've had a couple of episodes since, and my stools definitely aren't normal (usual paler color and smell horrific) by any means, but little real loose diarrhoea. However, by day 3 I began to notice my insulin requirements began to rapidly change, I was constantly dropping low with my usual insulin/carb rates and just generally seemed to need less insulin. I went low a couple of times but managed to prevent bad hypos, though I took a very long time to recover compared to usual.
Unfortunately my diabetic nurse is on leave right now, but I soon talked to some other local doctors and they have assured me this is normal with diabetics suffering diarrhoea/stomach bugs and the like, they recommended I just let my levels run slightly higher and keep an eye on it while I wait for the bug to settle down, which all makes sense as is exactly what I've been doing. However the thing I find interesting is somehow I can't find any good information online. All I can see is guides and posts about controlling illness related highs, no examples of how these symptoms could cause lowered insulin requirements, and certainly no advice. For example, last night I was 11, ate 2 slices of plain white toast, did 2 units over an hour split 50/50 and ended up 8 an hour later, only after drinking some juice did I go back up to a level where I felt safe. Again tonight, ate 200g of pasta (around 5 carbs), did 2 units split over 3 hours 50/50, and again within an hour had dropped from 11 to 9, then 15 minutes after that was 7.5. However I've also had occasional highs, a couple during the early hours of the morning when I'm about to sleep, and then again this afternoon. In this instance I had eaten a few hours before and eventually risen from 6.5 at waking to 11.5,after ~60+ carbs in total (some of which was admittedly quite long acting) and only doing .5 units, then hours later I had a very sudden rise to 16, which took some correcting down again. In general I seem to be needing around 10-30% of my normal insulin, but everything is also being digested much slower. When I've been higher I've been a little more generous with corrections, but am still not doing as much as usual, partially of course because I'm not aiming for as tighta results as usual.
So for the last 5 or so days I've been constantly monitoring, ensuring I only eat the usual diarrhoea friendly foods and just slaving away, but it's getting really tiresome. I'm generally have good control, but am very fearful of hypos, I get really strong hypo symptoms that are just worsened by my anxiety towards them, the added factor of any carbs I take right now being very ineffective and taking much longer just makes me more nervous. I've been dropping during the night, waking up 5-7 levels lower than when I go to sleep and so have been experimenting with dropping basals, and have generally been going to bed a little bit high, but I can't tell for sure because a couple of nights I've had to do some (small) corrections before sleep due to unrelated rises. I'm getting really sick of worrying about it, I really just want this to go away. 7, coming on 8 days in I feel like it's never going to happen.
Anyway, pardon my wall of text. I just wanted to ask if others have had similar experiences and if so have any guidance on how to deal with needing less insulin with similar situations? I was also wondering, if you have suffered similar things, did your requirements slowly return to normal or did you just wake one day with the bug gone and immediately needed your old insulin carb/rates back.
Thanks so much. Just hearing about others having the same issues at all would be a great consolation, browsing the web has made me feel like I'm the only one who's ever gone through this, despite what my Doctors are saying.
Thanks again, this is my first time here but the community looks very helpful. I hope to stick around.
edits
- sorry for any mistakes, typed in a bit of a rush.
- more context: for most of the day my usual insulin/carb rate is unit / 8 grabs.
- I've browsing here with the search function, and all I see is people reporting going high, just like everywhere else. I'm now getting quite concerned there is more to this.
This might get a little vivid, diarrhoea story inbound.
For the last 7 days now I've been suffering through what is apparently a very persistent stomach bug. (stool sample finally sent out today and going to see Doctor in person tomorrow, will get proper confirmation soon)
The bug itself honestly hasn't been that bad, I had pretty rough diarrhoea and some minor pains + the usual general fatigue for the first few days, but nothing else. By day 3 the diarrhoea itself seems to have mainly cleared up, I've had a couple of episodes since, and my stools definitely aren't normal (usual paler color and smell horrific) by any means, but little real loose diarrhoea. However, by day 3 I began to notice my insulin requirements began to rapidly change, I was constantly dropping low with my usual insulin/carb rates and just generally seemed to need less insulin. I went low a couple of times but managed to prevent bad hypos, though I took a very long time to recover compared to usual.
Unfortunately my diabetic nurse is on leave right now, but I soon talked to some other local doctors and they have assured me this is normal with diabetics suffering diarrhoea/stomach bugs and the like, they recommended I just let my levels run slightly higher and keep an eye on it while I wait for the bug to settle down, which all makes sense as is exactly what I've been doing. However the thing I find interesting is somehow I can't find any good information online. All I can see is guides and posts about controlling illness related highs, no examples of how these symptoms could cause lowered insulin requirements, and certainly no advice. For example, last night I was 11, ate 2 slices of plain white toast, did 2 units over an hour split 50/50 and ended up 8 an hour later, only after drinking some juice did I go back up to a level where I felt safe. Again tonight, ate 200g of pasta (around 5 carbs), did 2 units split over 3 hours 50/50, and again within an hour had dropped from 11 to 9, then 15 minutes after that was 7.5. However I've also had occasional highs, a couple during the early hours of the morning when I'm about to sleep, and then again this afternoon. In this instance I had eaten a few hours before and eventually risen from 6.5 at waking to 11.5,after ~60+ carbs in total (some of which was admittedly quite long acting) and only doing .5 units, then hours later I had a very sudden rise to 16, which took some correcting down again. In general I seem to be needing around 10-30% of my normal insulin, but everything is also being digested much slower. When I've been higher I've been a little more generous with corrections, but am still not doing as much as usual, partially of course because I'm not aiming for as tighta results as usual.
So for the last 5 or so days I've been constantly monitoring, ensuring I only eat the usual diarrhoea friendly foods and just slaving away, but it's getting really tiresome. I'm generally have good control, but am very fearful of hypos, I get really strong hypo symptoms that are just worsened by my anxiety towards them, the added factor of any carbs I take right now being very ineffective and taking much longer just makes me more nervous. I've been dropping during the night, waking up 5-7 levels lower than when I go to sleep and so have been experimenting with dropping basals, and have generally been going to bed a little bit high, but I can't tell for sure because a couple of nights I've had to do some (small) corrections before sleep due to unrelated rises. I'm getting really sick of worrying about it, I really just want this to go away. 7, coming on 8 days in I feel like it's never going to happen.
Anyway, pardon my wall of text. I just wanted to ask if others have had similar experiences and if so have any guidance on how to deal with needing less insulin with similar situations? I was also wondering, if you have suffered similar things, did your requirements slowly return to normal or did you just wake one day with the bug gone and immediately needed your old insulin carb/rates back.
Thanks so much. Just hearing about others having the same issues at all would be a great consolation, browsing the web has made me feel like I'm the only one who's ever gone through this, despite what my Doctors are saying.
Thanks again, this is my first time here but the community looks very helpful. I hope to stick around.
edits
- sorry for any mistakes, typed in a bit of a rush.
- more context: for most of the day my usual insulin/carb rate is unit / 8 grabs.
- I've browsing here with the search function, and all I see is people reporting going high, just like everywhere else. I'm now getting quite concerned there is more to this.
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