Covid and diabetes?

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jj10125

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Hello everyone,

New to being diabetic so forgive any dumb questions!

My partner has been diagnosed with covid-19, and has been unwell. I've been looking after her and hadn't really given a second thought to how being diabetic and covid might be? Should I be overly concerned? I'm not vaccinated, anyone who read my previous post will know I had bad needle phobia and when I finally tackled that the priority was sorting diabetes rather than covid-19 or at least I thought.

I'm on tablet medication at the moment, testing negative but so did she - more of a general question on anyone's experiences and if being diabetic drastically worsens it.

Thank you.
 
Hi @jj10125 - no dumb questions here, we are all learning all the time!

I don't think that being diabetic will make covid worse, but covid could send blood sugars up, well any type of infection or illness can, so keep an eye out for that.

From a personal perspective, I had very few symptoms when I had covid, but I'm a T2 and my BG is fairly well maintained with meds (metformin) and diet. Others may well have experienced it differently.
 
Diabetes can mean that your body struggles to fight off illnesses, either if your blood sugar is higher than ideal to start with, or if the Covid makes your blood sugars increase which can often happen. That means it could last longer or you could have more severe symptoms than if you didn’t have diabetes. You don’t know how you would be affected so it’s best to do whatever precautions you can to reduce the risk of catching it. If you have had close contact though it’s probably pretty likely you will get it, so keep an eye out for any symptoms, and call for medical advice if you have any concerning symptoms.

For me, when I had Covid (after 3x vaccinations) I was off work (work from home desk job) for a couple of weeks, unable to do normal activities for a month, slowly got back to normal activities over the next couple of months but still struggling with fatigue 3-4 months later.
 
Had it twice, no real issue apart from slightly higher readings for a few days.
 
With diabetes, we are all different.
I had Covid about 6 weeks ago and can honestly say I have had worse colds.
That said, I am vaccinated and boosted. I also closely manage my blood sugars (hba1c over 75 is said to be higher risk of severe Covid) and not overweight (another thing which reduces my risk).
My partner was at home with me all the time and my house is not big enough to stay apart. He did not catch it. I have heard other tales of people sharing homes and not catching it, including children who were not vaccinated so would definitely not say it is inevitable.
Fingers crossed you are one of the lucky ones but, if you do succumb, I hope it's not to bad.
That said, I would encourage you to get vaccinated if you can overcome your needle phobia.
 
I've currently go CovID, well, tested positive, as has my son. He hasn't felt a thing (He's had to stay away from school, and is driving me mad!). I've had a mild headache and a runny nose for a day. BG has been in the low 5s. I've had worse colds.

I think my wife and daughter had it a few weeks back, but it was so mild they didn't bother doing tests. I did a test when I felt a sore throat coming on (Sore throat never developed, neither did the cough.) as I was worried it would affect the Big D.

A few years back I had flu that we absolutely horrendous - I was so hot I was hallucinating and kept throwing up. The headache was so intense I couldn't sleep!
 
Whilst the risks are increased for people with health conditions including diabetes, the majority of people who contract COVID recover well, it can be like a bad cold or flu and some do get long COVID but the majority do not end up in hospital. I too am in your position, I have a wedding coming up with over 100 guests and as one in 24 people have the virus at the moment I am pretty well expecting to return home from Ireland with it.

One thing that did concern me though is what @helli said (hba1c over 75 is said to be higher risk of severe Covid) - Mine is 80 and although I have lost almost a stone I still have a BMI over 30. So a comfort for one person but not so reassuring for others 🙂

I hope if you do catch it that it is short lived and mild
x
 
As per the article below, we're no more likely to catch it, but our chance of a serious problem is higher. The article does also say that our chance of long Covid isn't increased. I'd say more of an issue at the moment is the amount of pressure the NHS is under with the numbers of infections and cases of long Covid across the general population and, in particular, NHS staff. In England we're now up to one person in 19 currently infected (up from 1 in 25 a week ago). Even with a small proportion of those needing hospital treatment we're still talking a very large number with the knock on effects to bed space, discharges, admission times, times to wait for ambulances (Newsnight reported that they'd seen waits of over 10 hours), and capacity for treating other conditions. This is the NHS right on the edge in the middle of summer. If nothing changes it's going to look far worse over the winter.

On the bright side, we've just seen the announcement that over 50s will get an Autumn booster, but surely something else needs to happen. It does seem that we're wandering into a catastrophic situation for health care.

www.diabetes.org.uk

Coronavirus and diabetes updates

All the coronavirus information below applies to the whole of the UK, unless specified. We've noted where are some differences in guidance and diabetes services across the UK.
www.diabetes.org.uk www.diabetes.org.uk
 
Rob Oldfield said:
As per the article below, we're no more likely to catch it, but our chance of a serious problem is higher. The article does also say that our chance of long Covid isn't increased. I'd say more of an issue at the moment is the amount of pressure the NHS is under with the numbers of infections and cases of long Covid across the general population and, in particular, NHS staff. In England we're now up to one person in 19 currently infected (up from 1 in 25 a week ago). Even with a small proportion of those needing hospital treatment we're still talking a very large number with the knock on effects to bed space, discharges, admission times, times to wait for ambulances (Newsnight reported that they'd seen waits of over 10 hours), and capacity for treating other conditions. This is the NHS right on the edge in the middle of summer. If nothing changes it's going to look far worse over the winter.

On the bright side, we've just seen the announcement that over 50s will get an Autumn booster, but surely something else needs to happen. It does seem that we're wandering into a catastrophic situation for health care.

www.diabetes.org.uk

Coronavirus and diabetes updates

All the coronavirus information below applies to the whole of the UK, unless specified. We've noted where are some differences in guidance and diabetes services across the UK.
www.diabetes.org.uk www.diabetes.org.uk
Click to expand...
I work for an Ambulance Trust and agree the pressure the NHS is under is ramping up again.
 
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