-
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.
-
Learn more about joining the Diabetes UK Support Forum team here: https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/volunteering-opportunities-why-dont-you-join-us.112862/
How to control BS after a steroid injection
- Thread starter Flossyk
- Start date
- Status
Lucyr
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
It’s normal for steroids to increase blood sugars.
Pumper_Sue
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The effect will last about 10 days, if on diet and exercise then reduce your carb intake and exercise as much as you can.
Meds no idea for type 2 unless on insulin then obviously increase it.
Yes metformin and glicazide. Thank you so much for your reply.
Thank you.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome.
Sorry to hear that firstly you needed a steroid injection (not fun) and secondly, that it has sent your levels into orbit, but unfortunately steroids are a bit naughty for that.
Have you been diagnosed long and if so, are your levels normally mostly in range? ie. Is your diabetes management effective ordinarily. If so, you might want to talk to your nurse about increasing your medication to deal with this hopefully temporary situation or you can drink plenty of low carb fluids (water particularly) to help flush the excess glucose out through your kidneys and be as active as possible to burn it off as well as reducing your carbohydrate intake as much as possible. I appreciate that if you have had a steroid injection in your knee then you may be limited regarding mobility but you can perhaps still do seated exercises. If you can do even just 5 mins every hour or two during the day, it all helps. Just something that raises your heart rate a bit and gets you breathing a bit deeper. There are videos of seated exercises on You Tube and the like if you are short of ideas. However, if you are able to walk then that is really great exercise for lowering levels.
Sorry to hear that firstly you needed a steroid injection (not fun) and secondly, that it has sent your levels into orbit, but unfortunately steroids are a bit naughty for that.
Have you been diagnosed long and if so, are your levels normally mostly in range? ie. Is your diabetes management effective ordinarily. If so, you might want to talk to your nurse about increasing your medication to deal with this hopefully temporary situation or you can drink plenty of low carb fluids (water particularly) to help flush the excess glucose out through your kidneys and be as active as possible to burn it off as well as reducing your carbohydrate intake as much as possible. I appreciate that if you have had a steroid injection in your knee then you may be limited regarding mobility but you can perhaps still do seated exercises. If you can do even just 5 mins every hour or two during the day, it all helps. Just something that raises your heart rate a bit and gets you breathing a bit deeper. There are videos of seated exercises on You Tube and the like if you are short of ideas. However, if you are able to walk then that is really great exercise for lowering levels.
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Ok, in that case I think you should speak to your GP/nurse to see if the Gliclazide needs to be increased temporarily. In the meantime, you could cautiously reduce the amount of carbs you have at each meal as this will help reduce your blood sugar. Drink plenty of water and keep active even if that’s only moving around the house.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome to the forum @Flossyk
Yes it is quite a common reaction to steroids - it’s unfortunate that your Dr didn’t let you know that this was likely to happen
It’s such a common effect that there is even a type of diabetes that can be caused by people needing to take steroids long-term
It does sound like it would be a good idea to chat to your GP or nurse to see if a temporary tweak to your meds might be helpful. Drinking lots of water can help your kidneys flush out some of the excess, and if you decide to reduce your carbohydrate intake do be careful, as you don’t want to end up with the gliclazide crashing you from high BGs down to too low!
Yes it is quite a common reaction to steroids - it’s unfortunate that your Dr didn’t let you know that this was likely to happen
It’s such a common effect that there is even a type of diabetes that can be caused by people needing to take steroids long-term
It does sound like it would be a good idea to chat to your GP or nurse to see if a temporary tweak to your meds might be helpful. Drinking lots of water can help your kidneys flush out some of the excess, and if you decide to reduce your carbohydrate intake do be careful, as you don’t want to end up with the gliclazide crashing you from high BGs down to too low!
- Status