Newbie Kivi

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Kivi

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Steroid Induced Diabetes
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Hello, Glad I've found this forum, I'm Kivi and am looking forward to learning from some new friends here. Good to share with knowledgeable fellow sufferers, I've got lots to learn!
 
Hi Kivi and welcome.

Sorry to read you have steroid induced diabetes. What sort of support are you getting from the medical professionals? Are you on any medication for your diabetes and if so, would you like to tell us which?
Have you had diabetes long? How are you managing with it? We all know it can be hard going at times and very overwhelming at first, but I am guessing from your post that you are, hopefully, over that initial stage.

The forum is a gold mine of practical experience and support from people who have been there and got the T-shirt so I hope you find being a member her beneficial as well as us hopefully also learning from your experience.
 
I've been on slow-release Metformin since June, one 500mg dose at supper and to be frank I am having a hard time with this, causing my IBS to go haywire (I have a few other health issues which have to be taken into consideration, the steroids are for an auto-immune disease, and statins..) I was prediabetic and managing it with diet and excercise until I had several skin lesions on legs removed last year and had stitches. Hence no excercise. I had good follow-up from my GP but lately it's mostly the in-surgery pharmacist who comes on the phone, I've never met him F2F. I'm a bit worried after last night, I had an oxygen reading down to 85 and spent time doing prone breathing to try and raise the level, it did work in the end.

Mostly a bit bewildered at juggling all the pills and feeling very fatigued but hopefully I'll get better at it!
 
Sorry to hear you are struggling a bit both with your diabetes and other conditions.
500mg of SR Metformin is a minimal dose and normally they gradually step that up 2g ie 4x500mg. If you are still just on one after several months then it suggests that your diabetes is reasonably well managed.... Do you know your most recent HbA1c result?

Do you test your BG (Blood Glucose) levels as well as oxygen at home. Self monitoring can be really helpful in managing diabetes even though many health care professionals try to discourage people. It enables you to "see" your diabetes meal by meal and learn which foods cause you problems and which you can get away with. By doing this you can adjust the meal which give you too much of a spike by reducing the carb rich components next time you have it, of any which raise your levels too high and it can be quite individual. For instance, many doctors and nurses recommend porridge for breakfast, because it has a reputation for being slow release, but for some of us, porridge is like rocket fuel to our BG levels and sends them sky high almost as quickly as eating sugar, whereas others find it lives up to it's slow release image. If you blindly follow NHS dietary advice, you will likely end up needing increasingly stronger medication because it is simply not suitable for all diabetics, whereas home testing shows you what is suitable for you as an individual.

Interesting that you have an autoimmune condition and it is worth bearing in mind that autoimmune conditions often congregate in the same body and wreak havoc. Whilst I appreciate that you are on steroids and it has therefore perhaps been assumed that your diabetes is steroid induced, it is also possible that you have a slow developing autoimmune diabetes called LADA... Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults. If this is the case you will likely need insulin at some point and you may find it increasingly difficult to manage your diabetes through diet and oral meds, so don't feel like a failure if your diabetes doesn't play ball despite you doing your best, because it could be your immune system targeting your beta cells in your pancreas and killing them, rather than the steroids inflating your BG levels.

As regards IBS, many people find that a low carb diet improves their gut health significantly although there can be a period of constipation when you reduce/stop eating grains which are a major source of our fibre intake. I use fibre supplements (psyllium husk... the raw material that Fibogel is made from) and chia seeds and similar to Fibogel, I add them to a glass of water with whatever flavourings I like and drink it down. Neither of them taste of anything so it isn't unpleasant to drink and makes a huge difference to my bowel movements. Both of these things are high in soluble fibre so they absorb the water to form a gelatinous bulk which passes through the gut carrying and binding everything else with it, but maintaining it's water content and soft consistency.

Anyway, just a few things that I wanted to mention in response to your post. Hope we can help you find a way forward with managing your diabetes well. It can be really challenging when you have more than one condition.
 
Sorry to hear what a tough time you have been having @Kivi :(

Welcome to the forum!
 
rebrascora said:
Sorry to hear you are struggling a bit both with your diabetes and other conditions.
500mg of SR Metformin is a minimal dose and normally they gradually step that up 2g ie 4x500mg. If you are still just on one after several months then it suggests that your diabetes is reasonably well managed.... Do you know your most recent HbA1c result?

Do you test your BG (Blood Glucose) levels as well as oxygen at home. Self monitoring can be really helpful in managing diabetes even though many health care professionals try to discourage people. It enables you to "see" your diabetes meal by meal and learn which foods cause you problems and which you can get away with. By doing this you can adjust the meal which give you too much of a spike by reducing the carb rich components next time you have it, of any which raise your levels too high and it can be quite individual. For instance, many doctors and nurses recommend porridge for breakfast, because it has a reputation for being slow release, but for some of us, porridge is like rocket fuel to our BG levels and sends them sky high almost as quickly as eating sugar, whereas others find it lives up to it's slow release image. If you blindly follow NHS dietary advice, you will likely end up needing increasingly stronger medication because it is simply not suitable for all diabetics, whereas home testing shows you what is suitable for you as an individual.

Interesting that you have an autoimmune condition and it is worth bearing in mind that autoimmune conditions often congregate in the same body and wreak havoc. Whilst I appreciate that you are on steroids and it has therefore perhaps been assumed that your diabetes is steroid induced, it is also possible that you have a slow developing autoimmune diabetes called LADA... Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults. If this is the case you will likely need insulin at some point and you may find it increasingly difficult to manage your diabetes through diet and oral meds, so don't feel like a failure if your diabetes doesn't play ball despite you doing your best, because it could be your immune system targeting your beta cells in your pancreas and killing them, rather than the steroids inflating your BG levels.

As regards IBS, many people find that a low carb diet improves their gut health significantly although there can be a period of constipation when you reduce/stop eating grains which are a major source of our fibre intake. I use fibre supplements (psyllium husk... the raw material that Fibogel is made from) and chia seeds and similar to Fibogel, I add them to a glass of water with whatever flavourings I like and drink it down. Neither of them taste of anything so it isn't unpleasant to drink and makes a huge difference to my bowel movements. Both of these things are high in soluble fibre so they absorb the water to form a gelatinous bulk which passes through the gut carrying and binding everything else with it, but maintaining it's water content and soft consistency.

Anyway, just a few things that I wanted to mention in response to your post. Hope we can help you find a way forward with managing your diabetes well. It can be really challenging when you have more than one condition.
Click to expand...
Thanks for so much interesting. partly alarming (LADA) info which hasn't been mentioned at all by medical professionals. When I was first given steroids for auto-immune disease I was told it would go into remission in around 2 years.. haha, 8 years down the line no wonder my poor old body is falling to bits! Forewarned is forearmed; I feel as though I have several years of a new career in research ahead...

I'll be self-monitoring BG levels at home from now on, another gadget to engage with. Latest HbA1c result last October was 51.
 
It may be purely the steroids causing your diabetes, but it is well known that if you have one autoimmune condition, you are more prone to others, so it is just worth keeping it in the back of your mind, particularly if your HbA1c starts to go higher despite your best efforts.
Is it Polymyalgia Rheumatica that you have? My sister got that about the same time I was diagnosed with diabetes. My sister and I share a lot of interests and are very close and looks like we are also sharing the autoimmune conditions. My gut feeling is that we both inherited a predisposition for autoimmune conditions from our mother and that menopause may well have been the trigger for both of us. I feel that in many respects I came out of it with the lesser evil, with diabetes, although I may revise that if/when her PMR eventually subsides, but she is well beyond the 2 year mark (nearer 5 I think) with no sign of it abating. Thankfully she is so far not showing any sign of diabetes (finger crossed) but obviously with long term steroid use it is a worry along with other issues like bone density and hair loss was one of the things which most upset her, although thankfully that seemed to be temporary and she is on a relatively low dose of steroids now and trying to reduce but her body complains even at the slightest reduction.
 
rebrascora said:
It may be purely the steroids causing your diabetes, but it is well known that if you have one autoimmune condition, you are more prone to others, so it is just worth keeping it in the back of your mind, particularly if your HbA1c starts to go higher despite your best efforts.
Is it Polymyalgia Rheumatica that you have? My sister got that about the same time I was diagnosed with diabetes. My sister and I share a lot of interests and are very close and looks like we are also sharing the autoimmune conditions. My gut feeling is that we both inherited a predisposition for autoimmune conditions from our mother and that menopause may well have been the trigger for both of us. I feel that in many respects I came out of it with the lesser evil, with diabetes, although I may revise that if/when her PMR eventually subsides, but she is well beyond the 2 year mark (nearer 5 I think) with no sign of it abating. Thankfully she is so far not showing any sign of diabetes (finger crossed) but obviously with long term steroid use it is a worry along with other issues like bone density and hair loss was one of the things which most upset her, although thankfully that seemed to be temporary and she is on a relatively low dose of steroids now and trying to reduce but her body complains even at the slightest reduction.
Click to expand...
Yes, PMR and looking back I think my mother also had it, she used to sit and rub her thighs to ease the 'rheumatics' - it wasn't diagnosed or well researched in those days. Trying to reduce can be a nightmare as I'm sure you've seen with your sister, as mental and physical stress and anxiety are meat and drink to PMR. I wish her all success. As indeed to all of us here!
 
Yes, looking back our mother went through a really bad spell of what was considered rheumatism in those days which lasted several years about the same age as my sister developed it, but I now suspect it was likely PMR. Interestingly what helped hers were injections of pantothenic acid which is a B vitamin.
Thankfully, unlike me, my sister is pretty chilled, so I don't think she has too much anxiety about it, although I think she was pushed too hard by her consultant to reduce the steroids quicker than her body could cope with. Her GP is actually pretty knowledgeable about it and more sympathetic to the situation which helps her to be less anxious, plus like me, she uses a forum to share experiences and knowledge with other PMR sufferers which I know from my own experience here is incredibly beneficial. I think she is now more chilled about reducing her doses over a much longer term and knows that it has to be done incredibly slowly so as not to aggravate the condition into a flare up, which of course then needs more steroids. Like diabetes, it is a balancing act. I think she is just under 5mg a day which I don't believe is a concerning dose long term but obvious less or none is better.
 
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