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That's a new one on me.

Meady74

Meady74

Active Member
Messages
35
Location
St Leonards on Sea
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Tablets
I haven't been on here much of late and dont post much to be honest but, thought I'd share my recent experience.

I came out in a cold a week or so ago, kids had it, wife had it and then my turn. Nothing new here except being unwell is an asthma trigger for me. Felt it was turning into a chest infection so trotted off to my GP and was prescibed antibiotics and steroids (prednisalone) as early precautionary measure although my chest wasn't rattling.

Then, on Thursday night, bang have some of this, asthma went completely south, my chest (both sides) rattling like a pair of maracas so had a nice little trip to A & E. Managed to spend time in resus, aau and then onto a respiratory ward. Resus was because there was no beds in majors.

As it turned out, the diabetes also went south as well, blood sugar spike to 30 mmol/l and also had chest pains (I have angina too). Also had an echocardiogram, which was OK but need to have a follow up on the vavles and stuff.

Ive always been a little thirsty with my diabetes but, oh, my, god... the thirst was insatiable and the dry mouth, jee wiz! I'd had more drugs pumped through me than a !@#£ addict and needed to wee more times than I've had hot dinners.

I was injected with insulin to help bring the blood sugar levels down. Now, I have to inject insulin possibly on a permanent basis, but we'll see.

Can't thank the nurses and hospital staff enough, they have been fantastic.

So, now got follow up appointments and so on. Ironically, I'm due an HbA1c and diatetic review. Blood sugar levels are within my range and now stopped the glimiperide.
 
That sounds like a horrible experience @Meady74 , glad to hear you're on the mend.

Both steroids and infection are notorious for raising BG, and you got hit with both at the same time.
So keep a very close eye on your numbers once you start to feel better, and especially once you're off the steroids.

Recovering and getting the steroids out of your system may mean the the insulin dose is suddenly way too high, resulting in very nasty hypos.
Meady74 said:
Now, I have to inject insulin possibly on a permanent basis, but we'll see.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be too sure about that until after you've recovered. Although if you always felt thirsty with your diabetes already, your numbers may have been higher than you like them to be for a while.

Please make sure to ALWAYS have your glucose meter on you, and plenty of quick acting glucose to treat a hypo. Have it next to your bed as well, you do not want to have to navigate stairs and such when you need to treat a hypo.

Hope you'll feel better soon!
 
Thank you. It was a horrendous experience and one I hope not to repeat.

Always have a glucose thingy as my GP practice like to us to use it due to being on glamiperide. I generally test 3 times a day pre-meal. To be honest, not so convinced tablets were doing much, currently on 2g metformin, 10mg dapagliflozin and 6mg glimepiride. My body is quite stubborn with medication and quite often takes a combination to work.

Blood sugar has remained stubbornly higher than would like and maybe this incident was blessing in disguise. As I say, I am due a review with my GP, this has just made it a greater priority. The diabetes team at my local hospital have stopped the glimepiride and prescribed the insulin injections. This was mainly due to the steroids but that's now out of my system, it has been decided to continue with this as my glucose levels are within range. Prescribed the Humulin Kwikpen, 12 in the morning and 8 in the evening.

Have an HbA1c next week (last one was 73), Pharmacy review, general diabetes management review including review of the HbA1c results. The diabetes team at my local hospital also want a chat.
 
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