Steroid injections

[francesk]

I had to have a trigger finger and a dodgy knee injected with steroids last Tuesday, and my blood sugars have gone very high! I'm T2 on insulin, so can compensate, but has anyone else found this, and how long do they take to return to normal? Thank you.

 

[Robbity]

Yes steroids can have an impact on glucose levels, and I've had a rise of several points after them for trigger fingers, etc, which have lasted for a few days. There have been a number of other threads about this effect too!

(I did some research after learning about this, as I wondered whether long term use of cortico steroid eye drops could have been implicated in causing my diabetes, but apparently use of steroids as eye drops DON'T affect glucose levels...Go figure! )

 

[JoKalsbeek]

I had to have a trigger finger and a dodgy knee injected with steroids last Tuesday, and my blood sugars have gone very high! I'm T2 on insulin, so can compensate, but has anyone else found this, and how long do they take to return to normal? Thank you.

It'll last a few days, then it'll come down. We produce steroids when stressed: it starts a fight-or-flight chain of events in our body. There's stress and thus, a release of corticosteroids, so we'll either have to fight for our lives or run like heck, and for that, you need extra energy. So the release of steroids lets our liver know we need extra energy (= glucose) in a hurry. And it dumps glucose accordingly. Now, if we get a steroid shot, the liver reads that as the exact same signal, so it dumps glucose... And that can last a few days: it merrily keeps on dumping. Just keep testing and correcting, it'll get better soon...! Hope you'll feel better quickly!

 

[Inchindown]

I had a steroid injection in one of my knees a few days ago.

On the day my blood levels almost doubled. A secondary effect was a very disturbed night's sleep and a rash.

My levels began to drop on day 2 and by the 3rd day my levels were back to normal. My sleep also returned to normal and the rash has disappeared.

The best thing that came out of it all was I can now walk without pain.

 

[Goonergal]

I had a steroid injection for trigger finger earlier this year. The highest my BG went was in the waiting room getting more and more anxious about the pain. I walked home from the hospital appointment and BG was back in it’s normal range, so I guess it all depends on how each person responds to the drug, and perhaps the amount administered.

 

[francesk]

Thank you, it's a relief to hear it's not just me - also it may be having the knee and finger done at the same time. I've had each done separately before, and don't remember massive jumps like this before.
Anyway, thank you all.