Glucose spike

[Joshrouse90]

Morning everyone,

Can anyone help me at all or suggest some advice for me. Currently on novo rapid and levemir insulins. Recently had a cold/flu, also my flu jab and covid booster jab. Noticing some serious spikes in sugar levels over the last two weeks. For instance… last night at 21.55 I was 6.9mmol. Perfect level. I take my level levemir at 10am and 10pm everyday. So took my normal dose of 10 units at 10pm before bed. And at 6.39am this morning I have a reading of 19.6mmol! I can’t understand how I’m spiking so high over night. Has anyone experienced this before?

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated! Thank you!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Firstly did you double check your morning reading. Unexpected readings should always be double checked as you can get the odd rogue test strip or contamination on fingers.... assuming these are finger prick tests and not Libre scan readings?

Secondly, what did you have for your evening meal? Some meals high in fat like pizza and pasta in a creamy sauce or high fibre foods like beans and lentils can release their glucose a long time after you expect them to and especially if it was a big meal.

Are you over your cold/flu illness? That can certainly push your BG levels up but generally it is more consistently higher levels and spikes, rather than odd spikes.

People here on the forum have reported the Covid vaccines causing erratic BG levels usually high spikes, sometimes low and occasionally a mixture so that might be the cause. When did you have the Covid booster and did you have the flu jab at the same time?

 

[Joshrouse90]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Firstly did you double check your morning reading. Unexpected readings should always be double checked as you can get the odd rogue test strip or contamination on fingers.... assuming these are finger prick tests and not Libre scan readings?

Secondly, what did you have for your evening meal? Some meals high in fat like pizza and pasta in a creamy sauce or high fibre foods like beans and lentils can release their glucose a long time after you expect them to and especially if it was a big meal.

Are you over your cold/flu illness? That can certainly push your BG levels up but generally it is more consistently higher levels and spikes, rather than odd spikes.

People here on the forum have reported the Covid vaccines causing erratic BG levels usually high spikes, sometimes low and occasionally a mixture so that might be the cause. When did you have the Covid booster and did you have the flu jab at the same time?

Morning

Many thanks for the reply. And I am on the Libre System, I did double check yes due to shock mainly! I took a correction dose of 4units (novorapid) and I’m currently at 11.1mmol. So the novorapid is working as it should.

My evening meal was Nando’s. So chicken, portion of chips and coleslaw. I carb count to the best of my ability and that’s never usually a problem. So starting to think maybe the coleslaw was a problem with the creamy sauce. But I took 7units of novo rapid for this and 3 hours after my evening meal I was at 6.9mmol. Could there have been a delay in releasing the glucose after that length of time do you think?

I’m feeling better in myself but I’m still a little bunged up from time to time so not sure my body is fully recovered from it. My levels have been sitting on the higher side over the last few weeks with 8-11mmol been average readings. But I put that down to being ill, but this spike this morning really had me concerned.

And yes I did have the jabs at the same time pretty much. Booster on a Friday and flu jab on the next day. I know BG can ride with a vaccine of any kind but I had these a week ago now so was just getting a little concerned.

Thank you so much for the reply

 

[rebrascora]

I can see how that would worry you. It does seem like an odd one but sometimes they just happen and you have to deal with the correction of it, try to figure it out and then just shrug and move on. The important thing is to look for patterns so that you can figure out a strategy to tackle a regularly occurring problem, but one offs can be really frustrating and you just have to do your best. Hopefully it is the vaccine and it will just settle down.

How long have you been diagnosed? It may be that you are coming to the end of your honeymoon period and it could even be that the vaccines have triggered that. I certainly had a significant and steady increase in basal needs after my first Covid jab which resulted in me gradually having to increase my Levemir by nearly 100% over a period of 3 months following the vaccine and the only thing I can think is that the vaccine perhaps triggered my immune system to kill off my remaining few beta cells.

 

[Joshrouse90]

I can see how that would worry you. It does seem like an odd one but sometimes they just happen and you have to deal with the correction of it, try to figure it out and then just shrug and move on. The important thing is to look for patterns so that you can figure out a strategy to tackle a regularly occurring problem, but one offs can be really frustrating and you just have to do your best. Hopefully it is the vaccine and it will just settle down.

How long have you been diagnosed? It may be that you are coming to the end of your honeymoon period and it could even be that the vaccines have triggered that. I certainly had a significant and steady increase in basal needs after my first Covid jab which resulted in me gradually having to increase my Levemir by nearly 100% over a period of 3 months following the vaccine and the only thing I can think is that the vaccine perhaps triggered my immune system to kill off my remaining few beta cells.

Yes that’s very true. I have taken correctional measures and I am now at 9.8 so coming down but slowly. But I can’t/havnt noticed any patterns yet so hopefully it’s just illness/vaccines messing me up.

I got diagnosed at 18 so 12 years ago now and have stayed on the same doses throughout the the 12 years really. But now starting to think I’ll have to adjust maybe. So maybe you are correct there and my honeymoon period is coming to an end. The Libre system helps massively in respects to keeping levels in range so hopefully soon I will get back to some good readings again. Thank you for your help

 

[Inka]

I had high sugar after my Covid booster @Joshrouse90 All you can do is monitor closely and correct. It sounds like you’ve dealt with it very well 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

Wow! It is very surprising that your doses have stayed the same for so long. I would imagine after that many years your beta cells might be long gone, but you never know. There are always surprises with diabetes no matter how long you have lived with it. Keeps you on your toes. Totally agree that Libre is revolutionary for managing it.

 

[Joshrouse90]

I had high sugar after my Covid booster @Joshrouse90 All you can do is monitor closely and correct. It sounds like you’ve dealt with it very well 🙂

Thank you. It’s just frustrating isn’t it sometimes and this morning it really got to me. Glad I’m not the only one experienced problems with the vaccine!

 

[Leadinglights]

Thank you. It’s just frustrating isn’t it sometimes and this morning it really got to me. Glad I’m not the only one experienced problems with the vaccine!

The information leaflet I was given after my jab had no mention of potential problems with blood glucose levels if diabetic. I specifically looked after people had been mentioning it. Just seems that it would have been useful instead of having people worry.
Hopefully it will settle down for you.

 

[helli]

The information leaflet I was given after my jab had no mention of potential problems with blood glucose levels if diabetic. I specifically looked after people had been mentioning it. Just seems that it would have been useful instead of having people worry.
Hopefully it will settle down for you.

When I was diagnosed, I was told any stress on my body including drugs (which includes vaccines) can affect my blood sugars. I would not expect raised blood glucose to be listed on all drugs unless the impact was specifically high. I think of it as something we should be aware of as diabetics.
If newly diagnosed diabetics are not made aware of this, that is a completely different problem.