The effect of COVID on blood glucose

Yes, any stress on our bodies, especially in terms of illness, push our blood sugar levels up.
Keep an eye on your level @t1dluke. They may rise further. If they do, make sure you test your ketones, too and correct your highs.

In November I had my booster, and within a week I got high figures, from 7 up to 15, this continued, through an operation in January and later Covid itself in April. When discussing it with a Diabetic nurse, I was told off for testing, made to feel I was wasting her time and told I shouldn’t be testing at all. At the time I was not on meds. My Hba1c has gone up from 50 to 109 in 5 months and I’m now on Metformin. Although I am sure my recent health issues have contributed to my high levels I am sure the stress of not being taken seriously by this nurse has also contributed.

I started feeling rough Monday day during work, got home at 01:30 Tuesday morning feeling pretty ropey, got a negative covid test.
By Tuesday afternoon I had a positive covid result, and just feel washed out with cold like symptoms.
My time in range has gone from 90% to 45%.
And my blood glucose has peaked at 15mmol/L. Interestingly if my blood sugar goes high for other reasons, moderate exercise (on bike trainer) will lower it nicely, doesn't seem to affect my covid high, maybe it was going uphill and my time on bike trainer just stopped it from going even higher.
Ive increased my bolus, but obviously not by enough, I'm worried about going low once things start to resume.
My blood sugar is at 9.2 mmol/L at present and I feel horrible.

And yep, checking for ketones and plenty of fluid.

Hi everyone, I had Covid just over a month ago, mild cold symptoms and exhaustion, sugars were high but managed through. However now I am having regular low sugars and can’t even go for a walk without my sugars plummeting!! I have cut my nightly basal from 9 units to 6 and my pre-meal from 6/7 units to 4 however still having sudden drops usually after 11.30am and mid afternoon/ evening. I am very insulin resistant in the morning and my overnight levels are constant so don’t want to reduce any further. It is so frustrating and worrying, I am self funding a Dexcom and guess that is all I can do. Would be interested to hear if anyone else is experiencing this ?

Each time I’ve had the booster my measurements have zoomed up, each time I’ve had covid they have also zoomed up, each time they’ve gone up like this it’s been an even bigger struggle to get them down again (I’m talking months)

Numan said:

Each time I’ve had the booster my measurements have zoomed up, each time I’ve had covid they have also zoomed up, each time they’ve gone up like this it’s been an even bigger struggle to get them down again (I’m talking months)

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Yet another reason why this isn’t just a cold
Hope you avoid too many more infections as for some the effects seem cumulative

t1dluke said:

, in the last image between those same hours my blood glucose was slightly raised overnight.

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That's pretty well managed. This was my first day sick (and it wasn't even covid) and despite taking about 13 extra units of insulin.




Contrast against the last 24 hours which is more like my usual profile.



What I found interesting was that I would have said I was felt better after a week, but my blood sugars told me it was two weeks before I had fully recovered.