Prednisolone and high blood sugar

[pinkiepunksmummy]

I have been on Glimepiride 2mg per day for quite a while and things are going fine as long as I eat enough carbs to avoid hypos! (Carbs at every meal, on doctors orders)

But, I am having yet another allergic reaction and it is my brother's wedding next weekend, my face is swollen and red so the GP has prescribed me a course of Prednisolone, the usual reducing dose, 5mg x 8 for three days, 5mg x 7 for three days, etc. etc.

I'm on day four and 6 hours after dinner, BBQ sausages, roll and salad, 1 small scoop vanilla icecream and a Glimepiride!, and my BS is 17.6.......

It hasn't ever been as high as that, ever......2 hours and 1 & 1/2 pint of water later it is 16.4.

Am I correct in assuming it is the steroids?

And should I speak to GP tomorrow or just try reducing carbs?

TIA

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[Osidge]

Increases in blood glucose are common among people taking prednisolone and other steroids. Reducing your carb intake should help.

Take care

Doug

 

[AndBreathe]

I have been on Glimepiride 2mg per day for quite a while and things are going fine as long as I eat enough carbs to avoid hypos! (Carbs at every meal, on doctors orders)

But, I am having yet another allergic reaction and it is my brother's wedding next weekend, my face is swollen and red so the GP has prescribed me a course of Prednisolone, the usual reducing dose, 5mg x 8 for three days, 5mg x 7 for three days, etc. etc.

I'm on day four and 6 hours after dinner, BBQ sausages, roll and salad, 1 small scoop vanilla icecream and a Glimepiride!, and my BS is 17.6.......

It hasn't ever been as high as that, ever......2 hours and 1 & 1/2 pint of water later it is 16.4.

Am I correct in assuming it is the steroids?

And should I speak to GP tomorrow or just try reducing carbs?

TIA

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

I'd like to comment on two parts of your post.

The first, thing is your initial comment about getting along OK, provided you eat enough carbs. Personally, I'l not a fan of feeding to balance medication. I would far rather, for me, take less medication and not be having to eat, simply to satisfy my meter, or to be able to drive.

As you realise by your post, carbs drive your blood sugars up, and as diabetics, we're trying to bring our blood sugars down, so taking medication to bring it down, then having to bring it up seems bonkers to me. I'm no Doctor, but that's my personal logic.

Secondly, I think it would be worthwhile having a chat with whomever helps you look after your diabetes about how you should manage those higher numbers whilst taking your course of steroids.

My personal reaction would be to trim back the amount of carbs I was eating, in an effort to keep those numbers a bit lower, but your allergic reaction, plus steroids will also be impacting on your numbers.

Do you know how long you will be on this course of steroids? Do you know what your allergy is? If you know what your allergen is, are you able to avoid it? I appreciate allergies can be tricky to manage, and sometimes, despite our best efforts, even if we know what they are, a bit of what affects us creeps in without us realising.

Good luck with it all.

 

[Brunneria]

Tricky situation! I feel for you. Hope your allergy subsides in time for the wedding.

Good that you have a meter. I think in your place i would be busily trying to work out how much your steroid is affecting blood glucose. You may be able to work out that x number of g carbs raises it by x number of mmol/l?

But of course if you are only taking the steroids a very short time, that may be a lot of work for no return... Not really sure how many days you will be on them, but it looks like a couple of weeks, at least, from your dosage info.

Something else you may find interesting is that i recall someone once posted to say that their steroid medication caused raised blood glucose without carb ingestion, and the raised bg was predictable, each day, after each dose of steroid.

Don't know if that helps at all, and i am sorry i cannot recall the post and the poster. I do remember he had been on a several steroid treatments over time, and noticed the pattern repeating each time.

 

[azure]

Hi @pinkiepunksmummy Steroids are known to raise blood sugar. If it were me, I'd speak to a doctor and get advice about what you should do (if anything).

I hope your allergy calms down soon

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi @pinkiepunksmummy.
I sometimes have to have a course of steroids and find that no matter what I eat it raises my blood sugars. As the dose gets lower the blood sugars come into line again.
Sometimes it takes a few days to get back to normal when the course is finished.
There are Type2s who have steroid induced diabetes. It is sometimes a necessary but nuisance drug for diabetics.
Hope you soon feel better.

 

[JohnEGreen]

I spoke to my neurologist a while back about coming off steroids altogether I am on 15 mg a day he was not kean on the idea saying it could cause a flair up off my MG or cause endocrine insufficiency we had the nearest thing to an arument we ever had and it ended up with him snapping at me that the diabetes is not as important so I left it at that this time.