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Type 1 and Glandular Fever

C

chocoholic

Well-Known Member
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831
Location
United Kingdom
Hi All,
I know I've not posted for so long but I have been quite unwell this past year. Was referred to a neurologist after some months of all sorts of pains plus problems with forgetting things mid sentence, dropping things etc and neurologist diagnosed me with blocked nerves in the brain earlier this year,due to stress overload and put me on Pregabalin for 6 months. I was slowly weaning myself off those when I had a nasty fall downstairs, three weeks ago today. I never got checked out because I didn't think I'd broken anything and I didn't bang my head. I just felt bruised and badly shaken.
Well, within a couple of days, I started to feel unwell...nauseous,pain behind my eyes,really tired, lost my appetite etc. my blood sugars went through the roof and even with correction doses, I could not get readings down. i finally staggered into my G.P. Who took one look at me and phoned the hospital direct to get me admitted immediately. I am eternally grateful to my G.P. At the hospital they pretty soon picked up my liver profile was deranged and I had many, many tests. Some of the more specialised test results are still outstanding but a couple of days ago I showed positive in a blood test for glandular fever. Quite a surprise to me but the week I had in hospital was very distressing because they didn't seem to give a **** about my high blood sugars. I was constantly on reading of 14- 23.4 Having never been so ill before,since being diagnosed as diabetic 11 years ago (I am 56) I had no clue how to bring my sugars down other than to up my insulin and that didn't seem to work.nurses openly admitted they didn't understand insulin dosaging, so I was glad to come home and now I've been able to get my readings down a bit but they still climb high in the evening. I am now on about 150% more Lantus but am scared to overdo it in case I send myself hypo.
Has anyone else ever had Glandular Fever and Type 1 diabetes? If so, how did you manage things and how long did it take you to make a full recovery? I know there is no treatment for glandular fever and doc warned me I could feel poorly for months but I've just read the virus stays in your body for life and I want some positive feedback. All the chat forums I've looked at seem a bit 'doom and gloom' and I can find nothing about diabetics coping with G.F.
Any feedback or advice would be so much appreciated.
Thank you for reading.
 
Welcome back and so sorry you've had such a rough time of late. Not had GF before but can only advise on your bg levels, in times of sickness you have to apply the Sick Day Rules and increase your insulin in response to your bg levels, there's a good explanation of the rules in the following:

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=141

Hope your feeling better soon.
 
Thank you for that,noble head. I wish I'd had access to that info in hospital. With readings so high and extra insulin just not bringing them down and ketones only on the next colour up from a trace, I had no clue what to do in hospital. One night I was at 23.4 and pleaded with a nurse to get me advice to bring them down but she just said the diabetes nurse doesn't work on a Friday night, you'll have to wait until Monday. When she asked me how much insulin I take I explained about basal/bolus insulin and explained I was on a 1/10 ratio for carbs and she just shrugged and said she didn't understand. Because my readings were so high my brain was so muddled,vision so blurred I couldn't even see straight to self medicate and felt so distressed.
 
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/thr...s-have-a-virus-before-you-got-diabetes.34555/
Here is a thread we had here yonks ago .
Am sure Glandular Fever gets a mention !
Check out the posts to see .

I found this extremely helpful even for myself too .
It took me - 10months to get over pneumonia and septis infections.
Knocked the stuffing out of me !
Then was diagnosed ruddy Diabetes
Took me a further 6 months to accept this news - I can tell you ...
 
The first part of your post indicates hypothyroidism. Memory problems, butterfingeredness, memory problems if fatigue is included are sure signs of hypothyroidism as is pain in joints and muscles, hair loss, constipation, loss of libido and a lot more, Weight gain, loss of outer part of eye brows, low pulse, low body temp and non-pitting oedema on upper arms and lower legs are common too.
 
Hi, so sorry to hear you have been so poorly. My neighbours boy had Glandular fever years ago and he really was quite unwell, but didn't have diabetes. So double problems for you. I have recently had high blood sugars and sometimes the correction dose of Insulin actually put the BS up, so worrying.

Take care and I hope all goes well for you soon. With best wishes RRB
 
Wow. That is so interesting, Totto. I never really had any proper tests until now and the neurologist just did a few tests to rule out diabetic neuropathy but no investigative tests were done. However, when I had my yearly check up with the diabetologist a few weeks back he said I was on the very borderline of hyperthyroidism. Thank you for your input. Much appreciated.
 
Hypothyroidism is an autoimmune thing too, you know, Once you have one you are at risk for more, And hypothyroidism is common indeed,
 

Hi my daughter was borderline too. When she was 7, she kept saying she was tired a lot and her school report in the last year of Infant School was no where near as good as the previous two. So went to our GP and she had her first blood test But thankfully nothing has developed further
Good luck.
 
Totto said:
Hypothyroidism is an autoimmune thing too, you know, Once you have one you are at risk for more, And hypothyroidism is common indeed,
Click to expand...

I haven't got that one, but daughter was borderline at aged 7 .
 
Yes, I have a small collection of autoimmune things already.Besides Type 1 Diebetes,I have the start of vitiligo and Alopecia Areata,so I did mention this in hospital in case it was another one in my 'group' raising its head.
 

At a guess most ward nurses won't have been trained on basal/bolus techniques so their knowledge will be vague. The Sick Day Rules is one of many things taught on the DAFNE course, they dedicate a whole afternoon discussing it and partners, family & friends can attend the session and learn how to help someone when they are too ill to help themselves, if you've not done the course already you should ask your DSN to put your name down for the next available course.

To get an idea of what it involves take a look at the following, it's an on-line version of DAFNE and by all accounts it's very good:

http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/
 

This raises the question as to why basal/bolus is being recommended so much. Its like the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
 
I have done the BERTIE course,which I believe is similar to DAFNE and funnily enough,dug all that info out last night when I suddenly remembered it but the sick day rules bit was very vague and I found a small leaflet that basically said you should speak to your 'diabetes care team' to put in place a sick day rules plan. I did miss one session of BERTIE because my brother was in a life or death situation and I had to jump in the ambulance with him and I seem to recall my mind focusing on him after that and don't remember much about any sick day rules in the BERTIE course.
I think I shall ask for an appointment with the diabetologist, so that I can discuss a sick day plan for myself,so that I am never in this situation again.
I am a normally well controlled diabetic and am confident about looking after myself but this experience in hospital left me feeling I had lost total control and it was very frightening. A lesson learned!
My advice to anyone who is diabetic but never had to deal with being very ill.....don't wait until you are in hospital.........make sure you know how to adjust your insulin in such a situation, NOW!
 

Wise words I think. The IDDT did a take into hospital sick day leaflet card some time ago that was sent out to people in the post. I got one so will have to find it!
 
iHs said:
This raises the question as to why basal/bolus is being recommended so much. Its like the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
Click to expand...


Well personally speaking it's a better insulin regime than others, but there does seem to be a lack of knowledge on the wards on how best to dose adjust............or indeed the Sick Day Rules as the OP has found out.

The IDDT leaflet sounds like a great idea, when I was last in hospital 3 years ago I just told nurses that I would do my own injections and bg checks, they were fine with this but they had to record it all in my notes, which was fair enough.
 


Sounds like a good idea, I'm sure you can do a BERTIE/DAFNE course again, might be worth asking about it just to refresh your mind. Hope your brother made a full recovery.
 
Robinredbreast said:
I haven't got that one, but daughter was borderline at aged 7 .
Click to expand...
I have this one Hypo thyroidism - got it straight after my one and only pregnancy !
Hormones didnt re-regulate after pregnancy - Doc's said .
Been on thyroxine 29years now .
 
Totto said:
Hypothyroidism is an autoimmune thing too, you know, Once you have one you are at risk for more, And hypothyroidism is common indeed,
Click to expand...
So true as I have personally discovered !
 
Phew. Finally managed to get my readings stabilised and back into single figures. Yes, I still feel like I've been hit by a truck and just swallowing water hurts my throat massively BUT feeling in control of my diabetes again is such a good feeling.
 
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