• 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

How has the vaccine impacted your experience with diabetes?

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Diabetes is all about spotting trends and there was a clear and several months long trend for me from a few days after the vaccine. Yes it might be a coincidence but it was a very significant change for me and when other people are also noticing a similar trend, then the likelihood of it being a coincidence is less.

I should say that I have been very happy to have the vaccine and I am very grateful for it but the BG upheaval has been a right pain in the backside.
 
rebrascora said:
Diabetes is all about spotting trends and there was a clear and several months long trend for me from a few days after the vaccine. Yes it might be a coincidence but it was a very significant change for me and when other people are also noticing a similar trend, then the likelihood of it being a coincidence is less.

I should say that I have been very happy to have the vaccine and I am very grateful for it but the BG upheaval has been a right pain in the backside.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
Nobody is talking about individual readings really.
We're all talking about noticeable, and clearly in some cases, significant changes in the trend of our readings coinciding with us taking the vaccine doses. Some of us are seeing temporary changes and for others like you, it seems to be a longer period.
Annual boosters are going to be an absolute scream. 🙂

Actually, this could be a good subject for some proper research. Is the vaccine triggering the beta cells again in people like me for a short period (some kind of Honeymoon effect)? What's it doing to people like you who presumably have gone past your honeymoon phase? Is it triggering your liver to dump glucose or something like that?
That sounds like some legitimate research right there.
 
@pm133 It is possible that it has triggered a final stage to my honeymoon period. None of us really know how many remaining functioning beta cells we have left so it is difficult to ascertain when the honeymoon period really ends. I had 2 distinct phases about 4-5 months apart in my first year where my basal insulin needs notched up.... but it is possible that following a low carb way of eating has helped to preserve some until now. I am sure I read somewhere that even people with 20+years of Type 1 may still have some very minimal remaining insulin production. To me it would make sense that the vaccine may have triggered my immune system to have another go at my few remaining ones (if I have any) since the vaccine's purpose is to trigger the immune system and it was interesting to note that I also had a mild episode of hayfever a couple of days after each jab whereas I haven't had problems with hayfever for years. It is also plausible that, as you suggest, it may have caused some sort of response in my liver to increase gluconeogenesis.
 
@rebrascora I have read elsewhere that covid and the vaccine can increase allergies for things like hayfever.
The hairdressing salons around here are all insisting on allergy test before any hair colouring due to this.

As for end of honeymoon, we are all different. I never followed a low carb diet but my insulin requirements increased very slowly over the first 8 years after my diagnosis and settled after that. I have never heard of 20 years but I wouldn't be surprised.
I don't think anything specific triggered the end of my insulin producing cells. They just faded away.
To be honest, it was a relief that my insulin needs were stable ... or as stable as they ever can be. In hindsight, I am glad I did nothing to prolong it any further.
 
I had the Pfizer. The first vaccine was fine, the second caused almost 2 weeks of really high levels , into the 15s which is high for me. A correction would bring them down but within an hour they would bounce back up. It was draining! Not to mention the libre alarm constantly going off day and night, thereby disturbing sleep as well!
 
freesia said:
I had the Pfizer. The first vaccine was fine, the second caused almost 2 weeks of really high levels , into the 15s which is high for me. A correction would bring them down but within an hour they would bounce back up. It was draining! Not to mention the libre alarm constantly going off day and night, thereby disturbing sleep as well!
Click to expand...
Did you increase your basal to manage you increased insulin resistance?
 
rebrascora said:
@pm133 It is possible that it has triggered a final stage to my honeymoon period. None of us really know how many remaining functioning beta cells we have left so it is difficult to ascertain when the honeymoon period really ends. I had 2 distinct phases about 4-5 months apart in my first year where my basal insulin needs notched up.... but it is possible that following a low carb way of eating has helped to preserve some until now. I am sure I read somewhere that even people with 20+years of Type 1 may still have some very minimal remaining insulin production. To me it would make sense that the vaccine may have triggered my immune system to have another go at my few remaining ones (if I have any) since the vaccine's purpose is to trigger the immune system and it was interesting to note that I also had a mild episode of hayfever a couple of days after each jab whereas I haven't had problems with hayfever for years. It is also plausible that, as you suggest, it may have caused some sort of response in my liver to increase gluconeogenesis.
Click to expand...
Interestingly, I normally get bad hayfever for a few weeks at this time of year but despite doing a ton of weeding I've had absolutely nothing this year.

Beginning to think I am just weird to be honest. :-D
 
helli said:
Did you increase your basal to manage you increased insulin resistance?
Click to expand...
I didn't though i should have. I didn't realise it might be the vaccine causing it until after the first week. Its a learning curve, if we need boosters, i shall be looking out for it.
 
I'm t2 and for about 3 weeks after my first jab AZ (still waiting on 2nd) my bg was all over the place. I'm 'normally' around 6-7 and after the jab id be up to 10+ then down to 5 it wasn't the food/excerize as my diet/ exercise didn't change. Sadly I also got dizzy spells/vertigo from it badly about 3 days after which lasted a couple of days. I'm hoping that the 2nd will not effect me as bad but who knows.
 
I had not much in the way of symptoms following either AZ jab, and just a slight hike in BG numbers.

They have dive-bombed in recent days though, which I am putting down to the warmer weather. May not be that at all, bit it‘s nice to have a theory :D
 
1st vaccine just low BGL`s, 2nd one knocked me sideways done on the 17th March been ill ever since.
OK today but three trips to hospital is not good, unconscious on the last visit took paramedics two hours
to revive me then carted off to hospital, not a good experience @Cherrelle DUK .
 
@pm133 your not weird, definitely weird.
 
rebrascora said:
The first day after the first vaccine (Oxford AZ- 11th Feb) all was fine and then I had a few days of erratic levels both high and low and about day 5 my levels started to rise and I was having to inject corrections every couple of hours or so... regularly stacking to try to keep control. Eventually upped my basal but levels continued to rise and needed more corrections. This continued for 3 months and my basal needs doubled in that time (16 daily units up to 35 when they would normally have decreased at that time of year) They increased a little more after the second vaccine but thankfully started to decrease about 2 weeks ago. I am currently on 24 units and had to top up with carbs a few times yesterday and today with carbs so there may be another reduction in my morning basal depending upon what my Libre graph shows happening as a result of my evening reduction tonight.

I half wondered if the vaccine had triggered my immune system into another (possibly final) cull of my remaining beta cells ie an end stage of my honeymoon period (2 years in on a low carb diet that might be feasible), but it remains to be seen whether my basal doses eventually return to pre vaccine levels or remain elevated.
Click to expand...
That’s an interesting thought and something that needs an eye kept on. I do hope they return to normal following this ‘blip’.
 
KARNAK said:
1st vaccine just low BGL`s, 2nd one knocked me sideways done on the 17th March been ill ever since.
OK today but three trips to hospital is not good, unconscious on the last visit took paramedics two hours
to revive me then carted off to hospital, not a good experience @Cherrelle DUK .
Click to expand...
Oh gosh, I’m so sorry to hear this! Did they say it what led to this experience ie did it trigger something or was it just a bad reaction?
 
Hi @Cherrelle DUK no rhyme or reason, was unconscious when they arrived they have access to the key safe,
they managed to wake me up but BGL was only 1.4 better than low. Spent 7 hours in hospital but left on 10.2
can`t go much further Neuropathy gets worse in my feet, my Diabetes consultant has approved the Libre 2
because of the amount of hypos I have. Take care stay safe. xx
 
KARNAK said:
Hi @Cherrelle DUK no rhyme or reason, was unconscious when they arrived they have access to the key safe,
they managed to wake me up but BGL was only 1.4 better than low. Spent 7 hours in hospital but left on 10.2
can`t go much further Neuropathy gets worse in my feet, my Diabetes consultant has approved the Libre 2
because of the amount of hypos I have. Take care stay safe. xx
Click to expand...
Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear this. It's a good thing they have given you a Libre as that will help with managing things. Hope things improve for you.
 
pm133 said:
I'm both not weird and definitely weird am I?
There's something very Schrodinger about that which fairly tickles my inner quantum mechanics geek. 🙂
Click to expand...
Good man took it in the lightheartedness it was meant.
 
It's a while ago, I had Pfizer in December 2020 and for about a week after had had high BG and was unable to bring down, after that everything returned to normal. With the second I had about 24hrs of slightly higher but again everything returned to normal. Never felt ill with either dose.
 
That's my insulin requirements starting to return to normal.
If my arithmetic is correct, that was about 3-4 weeks.
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top