Unexpected spike in blood sugar - could it be my medication?

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Hobbit

Hobbit

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I am on insulin (Novorapid + Levemir) and my diabetes is well controlled. Two weeks ago I was prescribed 5mg Amlodipine daily to bring my blood pressure back to normal. I've suffered no obvious side effects, and it appeared to have no effect on my diabetes.

Today I took my reading as normal before lunch and was shocked to see it was 17 mmol/L. I have not changed my diet, my activity levels, nothing. I am certain I took my Levemir last night and my shot before breakfast this morning. I increased the dose for my lunchtime shot to try and bring it down, and I just took my reading after 2 hours and it was 16 mmol/L. My lunch was only some chicken, veg, and a slice of bread. I do not eat or drink anything sugary, and do not add sugar to anything.

Even if I had forgotten either last night's Levemir or my morning's Novorapid, this afternoon's reading should still be lower than it was.

Suspecting maybe some dodgy insulin (although it shouldn't be, as I've already used most of the pen with no issues) I've taken another shot with a fresh pen to see if it has a greater effect.

From what I've read of Amlodipine it shouldn't have an effect like this on my diabetes, so I'm kind of stumped as to what might be causing this. Anyone have any ideas?
 
Did you have lunch after a reading of 17 mmol/L?
I would have taken a corrective dose of insulin and headed out for a brisk walk for about an hour to get that sorted. I certainly wouldn't have added more food.
Have I misunderstood?
 
You've not misunderstood. And sadly I can't go for brisk walks as I'm housebound with M.E.

I'm actually quite worried about this. My usual dose for the food I had is 6 units. Since midday I've had two doses totalling 15 units (the last one an hour ago) and my reading just now was 14.8 mmol/L. There's something really wrong here. It's not my meter or I would have had a major hypo already.

Edit: I'm going to tentatively work on the assumption that I forgot last night's Levemir even though I'm sure I took it. It's the most reasonable explanation. Just took a dose so I'll see what happens.
 
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Hobbit said:
You've not misunderstood. And sadly I can't go for brisk walks as I'm housebound with M.E.

I'm actually quite worried about this. My usual dose for the food I had is 6 units. Since midday I've had two doses totalling 15 units (the last one an hour ago) and my reading just now was 14.8 mmol/L. There's something really wrong here. It's not my meter or I would have had a major hypo already.

Edit: I'm going to tentatively work on the assumption that I forgot last night's Levemir even though I'm sure I took it. It's the most reasonable explanation. Just took a dose so I'll see what happens.
Click to expand...

The problem is that your blood has all the glucose it needs. Adding more isn't going to help. The problem is that you need insulin to get it into the cells to make you feel better and your cells need a reason to ask for glucose which is where exercise comes in.
If you are not exercising that will be a problem but I wonder if you are insulin resistant. Other Type 2s on insulin would be better advising.
 
Is it possible you are coming down with some illness. Sometimes the blood sugar can rise before the illness manifests itself.
 
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Are you a male Hobbit or a female one? - could be hormonal?
 
I wonder if perhaps you had a clogged needle in your Levemir pen last night and your dose didn't go in..... if you are sure you administered the injection. Did you do an air shot and make sure it worked and insulin came out. The reason I mention this is that I have had the odd needle that didn't allow insulin to pass, but I picked up on it at the air shot stage.
By the sound of it it does seem likely that the Levemir wasn't injected last night for whatever reason, so hopefully getting some basal insulin in along with corrections will see levels start to drop. Do make sure to do lots of testing with the extra corrections you have made, to keep you safe.
 
How did things work out @Hobbit?

How has the rest of your week been?
 
Hi @trophywench I'm a male hobbit so no hormones. Definitely not clogged pen, I always check first. Didn't come down with any new illness either (so far at least!)

@everydayupsanddowns Well, the next day after making sure I had my jabs the numbers started coming down, and the day after that it returned to normal. I'm still sure I did jab myself the night before with Levemir, but it was after I had the dose on the day I made this thread that my blood sugars started coming down, so maybe my memory is playing tricks, who knows.

That said, my numbers are high again today. Not as high, but higher than they should be. Reading before lunch was 11 mmol/L when it should have been around 5 or 6.

After a bit of searching I've discovered that hyperglycaemia is possibly a rare reaction to amlodipine. NICE have listed it here: AMLODIPINE | Drug | BNF content published by NICE

I also found a case report of possible amlodipine-induced hyperglycaemia CR-DeGeeter_P-lsw.pdf (practicaldiabetes.com)

It would be a shame I'm suffering a rare reaction, because otherwise it's actually working. My blood pressure yesterday was 123/80 which is nearly perfect. I'm going to see how my sugars do over the next day or so and if it's still unreasonably high I think I should call my GP.
 
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