steroids and high BS

Hi, i hope someone is here to help me. as of now... i saw a doctor this morning. my Hb1Ac has been pretty high since august. at 69mmol. my diabetic nurse practitioner and diabetic dr dont seem too worried about it as i had a lot of stress last year . its the same again as of last blood test last week/ no change no matter what i try n do,however, fate has taken a hand and after a few years with no chest infections(i am diabetic type2, with asthma, COPD and spinal spondylosis, among other more minor things). i have a mild chest infection. my diabetic dr knows about it, madeappointment for me to see another dr yesterday morning (tuesady) which i attended. she told me to take my steroids but not antibiotics as she thinks a 5 day dose is enough. i take daplaglifloxin(Foexiga) 1 a day. highest dose.i test morning and night. i took first dose of prednisolone gastro resistant at lunchtime and must say feel much better alresdy /unfortunately, i forgot to cut down on what i eat so ate same as usual for supper. result bs went up to 29.8. knowing about the stress, my already high Hb1Ac, plus the fact steroids do tend to push my BS up into the high teens to 20 i would not have been worried but 29.8 is exceptionally high n im scared to go to bed as not sure what might happen.
any ideas please?

ME_Valentijn said:

It's a good idea to at least call your doctor to see what they want you to do about the high blood sugar. Are you able to test your ketones?

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hi.ythank you for replying. theres nothing can be done apparently except watch what i eat in an attempt to keep BS as low as i can.so ive changed my meals slightly. reason for this is that my Hb1Ac ws high due to (my doc thinks) stress from last year a whole year of it.so as i already know (as do my diabetic team) that i am prone to this rise whenever i take steroids now, it is bound to rise higher than usual. i did talk to my diabetic doctor yesterday morning about the possibility of this happening but its a case of which is worse? as an asthmatic with COPD its essential i take either or both of my rescue meds(antibiotics and steroids whenever i feel like im starting with a chest infection and you usually know the signs of that, while its equally important to keep blood sugars down. they seem to think its a catch 22 situation so take the steroids if you need them.so far today my bloods were 7.8 on waking up. so not too bad to say i ate a slice of bread and marmite and had decaf coffee with it. made with water not milk. at 3am, i had been taking it at roughly half hourly intervals until it got down to 13.1 by then i hadnt eaten for 5 hrs so had the bread n marmite n coffee.2 hrs after breakfast it was 18 and was 12.6 at 1.30pm so had lunch 5.28pm it was 15.1, but b4 tea at 6pm was 13.1,,,ill just keep monitoring it and decide what to have for meals according to results. think thats all i can do really. case of waiting it out. 2 days down 3 to go, fingers crossed the steroids have stopped whatever it was chest infection or whatever. so i dont need more. then its a case of waiting for them to get out of my system. i have written all this down and will be giving it to my diabetic team when i have my review . thank you again for answering,.

Catsymoo said:

I was put on steroids (Prednisone) for just 4 days Christmas week. It is now March and my insulin doses are still double what they were. While I was on the steroids, I had no appetite and my BG was still 28-30 without food. I'm type 1, though. Your doctor should have advised you about sugar levels with steroids... mine didn't. And I honestly regret being put on them as my BG levels have not been the same since. They are supposed to even out after you stop the steroids, but it CAN effect them afterwards in my personal experience. I cannot advise you on when it will come down, as it is different for everybody. I would call your diabetic nurse if you have one, and depending on the length of your steroid dose, you might have to either stop them or go on insulin for a while. It's ridiculous how badly steroids mess with your BG and I couldn't believe my doctor did not tell me to adjust my doses.

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hi. thanks for replying... seems you have had similar experiences. this happened before a few years ago after i had 4 lots of steroids in as many months for 3 different reasons.they got to asround 18-20 highest.and that was bad enough.took 6 months to come down again but wasn't given chance to try n keep it stable by diet,which i had been on for about a year from diagnoses. i was slapped onto metformin, which affected my IBS somewhat, then they put it up to 2 tablets daily 6 months later for no reason that i could understand, of course my IBS then got really bad and had to come off them onto Daplagliflozin (forxiga) with accompanying side effects of constipation and thrush. both seem never ending.also got a lot of cystitis with it too but not since i started eating a handful of grapes after most meals(about 3 handfuls a day.they act like diuretics,. leg oedema has gone as well so swings n roundabouts.some good some bad things including losing a bit more weight.probably fluid i was retaining as im still just over the benchmark for obesity at 11 stone 2lbs.
ill see what my 10 pm result is tonight and if it goes that far up again ill definitely be ringing my doc again./ but think i just will have to adjust my eating for the next few days.trouble is, evening is the time i get hungriest.for some strange reason. and steroids make me hungrier.