• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

High blood sugar

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
G

grainger

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hey all,

Sorry I've not spoken recently and the first time I do it's yet another question. My sugar levels have been going up over the last couple of days (not sure if it's because I'm getting a cold?). Anyway tonight I took slightly more insulin than normal with my dinner... as was having a naughty night and chinese anyway.
Have just come to test before bed and i'm at 20.1.

I'm not entirely sure what I should do - I've never had a reading this high apart from when I was first diagnosed. I've tested for ketones and I'm at 0.6. Should I inject rapid before going to bed and test again in the morning? or just leave it, hope it's a one off and just test in the morning? or something completely different?!

Thanks for help!
 
Well, we aren't allowed to give medical advice but in your circumstances I would probably give myself a small correction dose. I'm always nervous about correcting before bed, so I would only give a dose that would bring levels down to about 8-10. For me that would be about 4 units of novorapid, but obviously may be different for you depending on your normal meal ratios etc. (1 unit reduces my levels by about 3 mmol/l)

It could be a cold, or it could be that and the meal too - Chinese food is notoriously difficult to judge, so your levels may well come down overnight anyway. Ketones aren't high. I think I would correct and set my alarm for three hours time and test to make sure I wasn't too low.
 
Hi Northener,
Sorry I completely understand that no-one hear can give medical advice, guess i was after what other people have done before really. Thanks for help, I figured I'd set my alarm for 3am and go from there.
Btw - out of curiosity, does you know a general helpline number that people can call out of normal working day hours should anything happen and guidance is needed. I know my hospital phone hours are until 4.30 and then I should contact my g.p but they shut at 6pm!
Thanks for advice, it's greatfully received.
 
I think that the general advice is to call NHS Direct, although by all accounts they can be a bit hit and miss. It's an area I have very little personal experience of as my levels have never been greater than 17 since diagnosis, and that was during the day at a forum meet! I think I've only ever done three corrections, I've met some people who do them every day! 😱

Hope your levels reduce to a nice number through the night, let us know how things go! 🙂
 
will do. thanks again 🙂
 
Hi grainger.

Only just seen this thread. How did you get on with bringing it down ?

And have you developed a cold or was it the notoriously late spike from the chinese ?

Hope all went well.🙂

Rob
 
Hey Rob, Northerner,

I'm still here 🙂 so that's always a good sign. My levels are still high - at 3am I was 20.9 still (even though i took 2 units of rapid before i finally slept. So i took another 2 units of rapid and this morning I'm 15.7.
So, have just left a message for my dsn to call me and hopefully she'll sort me out and get my levels back to normal! Feeling pretty out of control with it at the moment, but at least I'm learning more about it all i guess.

I think my body can't decide if i've got a cold or not - i'm still in the half way stage if that makes sense...

How are you both this morning?
 
Hi, sorry to hear it's hard at the moment.
Obviously I don't inject myself so this is a highly uninformed point, but didn't we have a case recently of someone who got a duff batch of insulin? Does the recent change coincide with a new batch? It might be worth trying some from somewhere else if you can get hold of it.
Good luck with it - don't want to feel lousy over Christmas!
Gary
 
GlucoseGary said:
Hi, sorry to hear it's hard at the moment.
Obviously I don't inject myself so this is a highly uninformed point, but didn't we have a case recently of someone who got a duff batch of insulin? Does the recent change coincide with a new batch? It might be worth trying some from somewhere else if you can get hold of it.
Good luck with it - don't want to feel lousy over Christmas!
Gary
Click to expand...

It's a good point and often overlooked Gary. Sorry you are still suffering the highs GB. I have discovered that sometimes I think I'm going down with a cold from observing my BG levels, but then it doesn't materialise. I think that I am actually fighting an infection, but the BGs are a very early warning, before the usual symptoms appear, and sometimes my immune system has fought off the infection before the symptoms appear - if I wasn't diabetic and testing my levels I would probably have been none the wiser! 🙂

Hope things settle down soon and that your DSN gets back to you 🙂
 
Grainger,

have you rechecked the keytone level at all?

I was told not to adjust for keytones unless they were over 1.5 mmol/l.

Where less the primary advice is to drink a minimum of 100ml / hour of sugar free fluid.

As Northener advise you should consider corrective doses like last night ie do not restrict corrections to meal times.

You may also want to consider increasing your "standard" mealtime BI if you continue to feel unwell.

You should continue to check BS every 4 hours or so.

And seek medical help if it continues more than 2 days (or sooner if you feel it is appropriate).
 
A couple of Sundays back I was 25.5, this can happen at the weekends if I am hungover and snack all day without bothering to inject for it.......

Anyway, I took 20 units correction to get my back on target, for me this works all the time. This is based on a higher resistance to insulin at higher blood sugar levels...............something to think about at least........
 
novorapidboi26 said:
A couple of Sundays back I was 25.5, this can happen at the weekends if I am hungover and snack all day without bothering to inject for it.......

Anyway, I took 20 units correction to get my back on target, for me this works all the time. This is based on a higher resistance to insulin at higher blood sugar levels...............something to think about at least........
Click to expand...

That's nearly my total daily dose! 😱
 
Northerner said:
That's nearly my total daily dose! 😱
Click to expand...

Fortunately I dont usually get to those numbers..........

Its all down to insulin resistance I suppose, I'm overweight and not as active as I should be.......no ratios below 1.5 units/10grams.....:(......reducing my carbs would be beneficial.....


I'm a big lad too I suppose..............😉
 
novorapidboi26 said:
Fortunately I dont usually get to those numbers..........

Its all down to insulin resistance I suppose, I'm overweight and not as active as I should be.......no ratios below 1.5 units/10grams.....:(......reducing my carbs would be beneficial.....


I'm a big lad too I suppose..............😉
Click to expand...

I feel a New Year's Resolution coming on for you! :D
 
Northerner said:
I feel a New Year's Resolution coming on for you! :D
Click to expand...

Me also, for a few days I reduced my carb intake at each meal to a maximum of 80g, I found this made it much easier to get the timing right and avoid spikes. The evidence is there, its just sticking to it that's tough.....
 
novorapidboi26 said:
Me also, for a few days I reduced my carb intake at each meal to a maximum of 80g, I found this made it much easier to get the timing right and avoid spikes. The evidence is there, its just sticking to it that's tough.....
Click to expand...

I still think the whole weekend off thing isn't such a good idea NRboi and will do damage in teh long run.

I've not been the best diabetic but I see it as a 24/7 condition. These things do catch up eventually. Please look after yourself. 🙂

Rob
 
Robster65 said:
I still think the whole weekend off thing isn't such a good idea NRboi and will do damage in teh long run.

I've not been the best diabetic but I see it as a 24/7 condition. These things do catch up eventually. Please look after yourself. 🙂

Rob
Click to expand...

Lol, neither do I, not intentionally anyway............I would say that the weekends are contributing to my less than perfect HbA1c............:(
 
Thanks all for words of advise - my DSN called me back this morning and has been great with advise and I've been armed with more information on what to do should it continue. She's also now saying that she wants to get me on basal/bolus first thing in the new year so I can have more control so i'm taking this all as positive.
My sugars are still higher than I'd like today but they are now dropping slightly (13's etc) so hopefully whatever is causing it is going away now - would rather not have to worry too much over christmas.
On that note - I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year and stays healthy!
Thanks again 🙂
 
grainger2b said:
Thanks all for words of advise - my DSN called me back this morning and has been great with advise and I've been armed with more information on what to do should it continue. She's also now saying that she wants to get me on basal/bolus first thing in the new year so I can have more control so i'm taking this all as positive.
My sugars are still higher than I'd like today but they are now dropping slightly (13's etc) so hopefully whatever is causing it is going away now - would rather not have to worry too much over christmas.
On that note - I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year and stays healthy!
Thanks again 🙂
Click to expand...

Ah, that's great news 🙂 You will be much better on basal/bolus 🙂 Glad to hear that the levels are coming down - I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! 🙂
 
You'll find basal/bolus so much better. Hope your BGs behave over christmas 🙂

Rob
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top