Diabetes and urology problems?

[mrlukep94]

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked/posted before but something that's starting to bug me.

So I was diagnosed as T1 recently after months of being treated as T2 with query of T1. I've been injecting insulin on an evening and now been increased to meal times if needed.

I've noticed that when my sugars have been persistently high, I've been experiencing urological problems. This includes thrush, itching of the area and splitting of the head (tried to keep this as PG as possible).

Is there a link between what I'm experiencing and diabetes? I have been referred to urology but as with the current NHS status, I've been waiting ages and the issue has come back. It's frustrating as the itching is driving me nuts but then I can't stand there scratching all day, plus with it split, it's sore and don't want people thinking I'm some sort of crazy person constantly scratching lol.

Any help will be appreciated

 

[Inka]

Welcome @mrlukep94 I can’t help with your anatomical questions as I’m female, but, in general, high sugars can cause thrush. They can also cause drying of membranes which then make them more prone to damage. Moreover, high sugars can cause unpleasant feelings in the bladder and external areas which feel stinging and uncomfortable even if no urinary infection is present.

So my advice would be to get the thrush treated, don’t scratch or touch the area, and get some cream to heal it if needed. Longterm, keeping your blood sugar controlled should help enormously. I see you were only taking basal (long-acting) insulin initially. That probably wasn’t enough to control your blood sugar adequately, hence the thrush. Now you have bolus/fast/meal insulin that should help a lot, especially as you perfect your doses. Are you carb counting and adjusting your mealtime insulin?

 

[helli]

When our blood sugars are high, our body needs to flush out the excess sugar. The most common way it does this is through our urine. Sugary urine has a different PH which can cause more infections and thrush.
Lowering of BG will help with this.

 

[mrlukep94]

Welcome @mrlukep94 I can’t help with your anatomical questions as I’m female, but, in general, high sugars can cause thrush. They can also cause drying of membranes which then make them more prone to damage. Moreover, high sugars can cause unpleasant feelings in the bladder and external areas which feel stinging and uncomfortable even if no urinary infection is present.

So my advice would be to get the thrush treated, don’t scratch or touch the area, and get some cream to heal it if needed. Longterm, keeping your blood sugar controlled should help enormously. I see you were only taking basal (long-acting) insulin initially. That probably wasn’t enough to control your blood sugar adequately, hence the thrush. Now you have bolus/fast/meal insulin that should help a lot, especially as you perfect your doses. Are you carb counting and adjusting your mealtime insulin?

Thankyou for your reply.

In terms of carb courting and adjusting, my consultant wants me to use the fast acting if my BG is above 12mmol before meals. I've got to see how I get on with it for a week and then adjust with the help of the diabetic nurse at the hospital. So it's kind of trial thing at the moment.

When I started the long lasting I managed to get my sugars down but overtime they've peaked again and I'm struggling to get them lower. I've altered my diet been more active etc yet can only get them to a lowest of 10.

 

[Inka]

That’s probably the answer then - you need help with your mealtime insulin to get your sugars down. Type 1 needs both slow and fast insulin, and it looks like you’ve been left to struggle on far too long without the fast insulin you need. I would push very hard to get more support. Stress how the high sugar is affecting you.

The target blood sugar for Type 1s before meals is 4 - 7mmol.

You could also look at BERTIE to get the idea of carb counting. Here’s a link:

https://www.bertieonline.org.uk/

And here’s a useful video:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-t...-and-diabetes/nuts-and-bolts-of-carb-counting

.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

yet can only get them to a lowest of 10.

The renal threshold, where the kidneys try to flush out excess glucose in urine varies from person to person, but is often about 10mmol/L, so that would explain the thrush you have unfortunately been experiencing

Hopefully with cautious addition of rapid-acting insulin doses to help with meals, and help combat high BG levels, you should be able to gently coast down into single figures without lurching suddenly from teens to 6s (which can sometimes put the fine blood vessels in the eyes and feeding nerve endings under a lot of stress, and some short term damage can occur).