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Should I believe him or carry on worrying?

C

coco44

Well-Known Member
Messages
159
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi everyone. Rang my doctor today for some advice. My diabetes is usually very well controlled. I'm Type 1 diagnosed by way of DKA at 55 years old 4 and a bit years ago. Meter readings in the mid 5s last HbA1c 48. This past week my readings have been creeping up and have been in the 9s and today before lunch it was 11. No apparent reason, diet the same and no apparent illness, always stressed, but that's normal for me. Correction doses are not making much of an impact. I have changed from Sivastatin to Atorvastatin and started on Omeprazole so I asked the doctor if these could be the problem he thinks no, but did say if I was taking the Omeprazole within 2 hours of my Metformin this could prevent the Metformin being absorbed properly. I wasn't told this when prescribed and I am taking them together. What really bothered me was the doctor said not to worry about readings of 9-11 it's ok for a few weeks as no long term problems would develop, but only to worry and maybe test for ketones when my readings are at least 19 or into the 20s. Opinions, experience and thoughts from you lovely people would be very welcome as I'm not reassured. Thanks Carole x
 
Hmm.

Well, remembering that i am not a medical professional:

Any chance you have got a bug/infection brewing?

Does stress usually raise your bg this much? For so long?

Statins have been shown to raise bg levels so that may well be a factor.

Personally, i wouldn't expect malabsorption of metformin to raise bg by so much, but we are all different.

I think in your situation i might ask (insist) on going back on your previous statin (have you got any left?) as a trial. If your bg drops, you are likely to have found the culprit. But it is worth remembering that statins persist in the body for several days, so you would need to give it a week or so to see properly.
 
Thanks Brunneria I don't think I have a bug brewing but one never knows. Stress does usually raise my levels but not usually into double figures. I wasn't convinced by what he said about the metformin. I threw away my nova rapid pen and started a new one so I'll see if that helps. I feel it's a coincidence this is happening when my statin has been changed, but as you know this is such an unpredictable condition
 
If this was me my readings were creeping up i would first increase my basal insulin. Its not uncommon that our bodies may need more or less - for no apparent reason.
 

Like @Brunneria , I am not an HCP, so choose to disregard this response if you have concerns.

A potential risk of taking statins, if I recall correctly, is an increased chance of diabetes. Having never taken statins, I haven't dug any deeper to discover the mechanism (if known), but I do wonder if it is by virtue of an increased insulin resistance, which tends to be a major issue for T2s.
 
@coco44 I can't comment on the meds causing an increase in your bg levels, but if this has only been going on for a week have you tried changing your insulin cartridges seeing the correction dose are not bringing your bg levels down?
 
Hi. I wouldn't worry too much about those levels for a few weeks although not ideal. Has you weight been going up causing insulin resistance? Yes, statins do increase blood sugar so the change of type may have been the cause?
 
I've been on omeprazole for more than a decade and I have never heard that it affects the absorption of other meds, which I take at the same time of day as omeprazole. Omeprazole does affect the absorption of vitamin B12 after you take it for 3 years, but I think that is because of the way B12 is absorbed, and it's not related to the time of day that you take it. I didn't find any info about absorption problems with taking metformin as well as omeprazole at this site, which is usually pretty comprehensive:
http://www.drugs.com/omeprazole.html

I suspect it's the statin change that's caused this, or the other factors mentioned in the responses above.
 
Thank you all for those replies. It's amazing how just having contact and reading your thoughts, experiences and opinions makes me feel better and I can manage this. 1 dose of nova rapid from a new pen after lunch my reading before dinner tonight was 5.1 so fingers crossed things are moving in the right direction, but I still think it's the change of statin so will monitor carefully. I will also consider basal adjustment too Diamattic. The B12 aspect is certainly a factor to consider CatLadyNZ, appreciate that info link. Thanks again all x
 
Hmm, again.

You have some good advice here. But no, I would not think it's all right to have BGs of 9-11 for a few weeks. I would play with basal and bolus.
 
I would only play with one insulin at a time would be my advice.
If they are all round higher then I would start with basal.
 
I was prescribed Pravostatins when I was diagnosed and my hba1c increased from 48 to 54. I came off them due to other side affects and my hba1c dropped to 42 and my latest result taken in July is 36. On the graph of my readings there was a definate rise in BS when I started taking the statins.
 
I was put on atorvastatin a while back now. Actually convinced the Dr to do that instead of simvastatin since that is known to have interactions with levothyroxine which I also take.

That said the atorvastatin didn't seem to have any effect on my BG when I started taking it.
I'm with the thoughts others have already put out about a possible dud pen/cartridge or a change in your basal rates.

My basal requirements seem to change for no obvious reason a few times a year both up and down so probably worth watching your logs and seeing if you can spot a pattern where you are having to correct the same sort of rise regularly and then adjust basal if required.

/A
 
Hi Carole

Just wondering because of your age if Menopause could be a possible cause. Because of the effect of hormone changes it could affect your control. Also if there are any other symptoms as an underactive Thyroid can also cause problems with your control and this is something that affects more women than men at our age
 
I currently take simvastatin and omprezole and see no fluctuatuions in blood sugar control
however..............
back in september 2000 i was first prescribed atorvastatin and within about 3 weeks my blood sugars started behaving erratically ( though I did not put it down to the statin at the time)
throughout october and november my bloods were getting higher ( and I was correcting more )
resulting in me ending up yo-yoing quite badly.

christmas holiday things seemed to settle down a bit but I ended up on the first day back at work ( jan 5th )
getting up on a 5.3 having my normal breakfast and injection , testing again on the way out the door at 5.4 , driving to work ( about 25 minutes and then clocking on at work at 8:17am

that is the last thing i remember until waking up in an ambulance on the way to A&E at 10:20am with my wife sat beside me in the ambulance.

straight off atorvastatin and on to simvastatin -- and not had an episode like that ever since
 
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