Yorkieiron
New Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi
Primarily my biggest health issue is that I suffer from severe asthma for which I take a cocktail of medication including steroids which I have taken continuously for 7 years. About 3 years ago I was told that the steroids had given me diabetes and I was given metformin, then glimepiride but neither helped get things under control and was finally given an insulin pen, humalog, which I take at the same time as my evening meal, it was found that a daily low dose of 8 kept things pretty much under control despite my steroids ranging from 20 to 40 mg daily.
However I recently suffered a bad asthma attack which resulted in an hospital admission onto HDU for a few weeks which resulted in my steroids (prenisolone) increasing to 60mg and salbutamol nebs every 2 hours. This resulted in my bloods going all over the place, suffering from hypo's (readings circa 2.5 to 3.5) over night and early morning, then increasing rapidly throughout the day and by mid afternoon / early evening to circa 20, probably due to taking the steroids in the morning. I then took the insulin with my evening meal and it dropped back to something like normal. The diabetes team came to see me in hospital and intended to put me on a slower acting insulin and take it once with my steroids and then depending on what my readings were in the evening take it again or if the readings were high to take the humalog. However before this happened I was discharged.
Two weeks have passed and despite seeing my GP who was not prepared to alter anything and made he an appointment for March with my diabetes nurse (she is currently on leave and there is nobody covering for her).
My asthma is steadily improving and the steroids are down to 40 but the diabetes is still a mess, predominantly following the same pattern with the odd hypo thrown in during the day which I can't explain.
Hardly a day has gone by without at least 1 hypo / low readings per day and at least 1 reading over 20 per day. This is really taking its toll now, I am struggling to concentrate, totally shattered, not sleeping well, headaches and always feeling light headed (probably a combination of the salbutamol nebs and the blood sugar)
Sorry for the moan but I getting very down with everything, even when my asthma is bad I feel in control, I consider myself a bit of an asthma expert and also have good support from my asthma consultant and nurses at the hospital. However I am out of my comfort zone with the diabetes and don't know where to turn. Any help / advice would be appreciated and I apologise if any of the phrases or terms that I have used aren't correct.
Moan over!
Mark
Primarily my biggest health issue is that I suffer from severe asthma for which I take a cocktail of medication including steroids which I have taken continuously for 7 years. About 3 years ago I was told that the steroids had given me diabetes and I was given metformin, then glimepiride but neither helped get things under control and was finally given an insulin pen, humalog, which I take at the same time as my evening meal, it was found that a daily low dose of 8 kept things pretty much under control despite my steroids ranging from 20 to 40 mg daily.
However I recently suffered a bad asthma attack which resulted in an hospital admission onto HDU for a few weeks which resulted in my steroids (prenisolone) increasing to 60mg and salbutamol nebs every 2 hours. This resulted in my bloods going all over the place, suffering from hypo's (readings circa 2.5 to 3.5) over night and early morning, then increasing rapidly throughout the day and by mid afternoon / early evening to circa 20, probably due to taking the steroids in the morning. I then took the insulin with my evening meal and it dropped back to something like normal. The diabetes team came to see me in hospital and intended to put me on a slower acting insulin and take it once with my steroids and then depending on what my readings were in the evening take it again or if the readings were high to take the humalog. However before this happened I was discharged.
Two weeks have passed and despite seeing my GP who was not prepared to alter anything and made he an appointment for March with my diabetes nurse (she is currently on leave and there is nobody covering for her).
My asthma is steadily improving and the steroids are down to 40 but the diabetes is still a mess, predominantly following the same pattern with the odd hypo thrown in during the day which I can't explain.
Hardly a day has gone by without at least 1 hypo / low readings per day and at least 1 reading over 20 per day. This is really taking its toll now, I am struggling to concentrate, totally shattered, not sleeping well, headaches and always feeling light headed (probably a combination of the salbutamol nebs and the blood sugar)
Sorry for the moan but I getting very down with everything, even when my asthma is bad I feel in control, I consider myself a bit of an asthma expert and also have good support from my asthma consultant and nurses at the hospital. However I am out of my comfort zone with the diabetes and don't know where to turn. Any help / advice would be appreciated and I apologise if any of the phrases or terms that I have used aren't correct.
Moan over!
Mark
