Blood Glucose going up due to chemotherapy steroids, when do I need to worry?

[happydog]

My BG has shot up from 6.5 yesterday to 13.0 today due I think because of the steroids that I am having as part of my chemotherapy. (First session of 6 yesterday). When do I need to be concerned? I asked at the hospital and they said "just keep and eye on them". When I asked the oncologist a couple of weeks ago she was dismissive and said that I could expect them to go up but did not really need to be concerned as my BG is well controlled. Any ideas?

 

[rebrascora]

Hi.
Sorry to hear that your levels have risen due to chemo but I guess to be expected. Hope you aren't feeling too grim today after your first dose.
I think the concern might be if they stay up in the teens rather than hopefully dropping through the day. Whilst trips up to 13 aren't desperately concerning and many of us who were newly diagnosed with Type 1 had such readings on a regular basis until we slowly got down into range and most of us are likely to stray back up into the teens very occasionally, it is not a good idea to be running that high all the time. I wonder if you could ask to be referred to a diabetes specialist clinic to give you some support and reassurance during this period of treatment and potentially high BG levels or at least ask for an appointment with a diabetes trained nurse at your surgery if there is one.
If levels remain high like that throughout the day.... and weeks of treatment.... then I wonder if some short term insulin might be possible to help you manage your levels through this period of treatment.... No harm in asking.

I believe that you have worked really hard on your diet to control things so I doubt there is much room for manoeuvre in that respect to effect a reduction, so a bit of insulin might be beneficial if you can persuade your health care professionals, but it may be that they are so used to seeing poorly controlled diabetes that they don't see persistent levels in the teens as concerning.
If you drop back down into single figures during the day or perhaps the next few days between treatments, then I would maybe suggest you try to be a bit more relaxed about it and just accept this period of disruption as a necessary evil.

I should say that I am not speaking from any personal experience of chemo and I imagine everyone will react slightly differently anyway, but hopefully levels will peak after treatment and then drop before the next treatment.

 

[happydog]

Thank you Rebrascora. When I was first diagnosed in September 2012 I was told that I had to go onto insulin immediately. I am needle phobic (although improving, I can prick my fingers now and just gave myself and injection as part of the chemo.) I will keep an eye on things for a few days. Sadly they have not improved today and have gone from 8 to 14 since yesterday. I am taking steroids today and tomorrow.so maybe I should just give things a chance to settle. Thank you for your reassurance 🙂