Here’s the very latest (dated March 22) revision of CDC guidance on what constitutes high risk. Diabetes is called out with the “PARTICULARLY IF NOT WELL CONTROLLED”.
Based upon available information to date, those at high-risk for severe illness from COVID-19 include:
People aged 65 years and older
People who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility
Other high-risk conditions could include:
People with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
People who have heart disease with complications
People who are immunocompromised including cancer treatment
People of any age with severe obesity (body mass index [(BM]I)≥40) or certain underlying medical conditions, particularly if not well controlled , such as those with diabetes , renal failure, or liver disease might also be at risk
Without a doubt sick day management and especially avoiding DKA is going to be super hard for any T1 that ends up getting Covid-19.
I tried to relay to my endo, how hard it was for me 30+ years ago when I as a college-age T1 got Chicken Pox. I guess I had just been lucky in my younger years to have not gotten it - I wasn’t the world’s most social kid which is probably how I avoided it for so long… That illness which is minor for young kids, SERIOUSLY had me out of commission for a whole week and somehow I muddled through with massively increased insulin doses but still also having high bg’s the whole time. If I had fallen asleep for 24 hours though, there wasn’t anyone who could’ve helped me with the inevitable DKA (my longest acting insulin at the time was NPH which was maybe good for 12 hours).
My endo did point out that with newer technology like CGM’s I would be better able to handle something like that today. At same time, I’m no longer 19, I’m now AARP-eligible.
I have noticed they have “moved” the warning instead of just saying you are at high risk if you have diabetes to “particularly if not well controlled” diabetes. Hopefully if you are well controlled it drastically lowers your risk.
I know us type 1’s though can become pretty uncontrolled quickly when sick, it’s hard to want to pump enough insulin to keep those numbers down when normally those doses would crash you big time. And then you have to keep doing it and worry about crashing. Thank goodness for my Dexcom.
Luckily I don’t get sick often or maybe unluckily because I am not as used to what to do. But I know with a tooth infection or the one time I was sick it wasn’t just a 10-20% basal increase to control my BG levels. And in fact my BG shot up for a few days before I even knew it was a tooth infection causing it.
“If I had fallen asleep for 24 hours though, there wasn’t anyone who could’ve helped me with the inevitable DKA (my longest acting insulin at the time was NPH which was maybe good for 12 hours).”
This certainly points to the value of the “share” app option for CGMs. I don’t use it, but certainly would sign up fast on my and my wife’s iPhones if I thought I couldn’t respond to an alarm! It helps that she flat-out hates it if an alarm goes off at night! (A good incentive for maintaining good control…).
Did you really get chicken pox.
I thought with vaccine no one really gets it anymore.
I thought I had it as a kid, but clearly I never did because 20 years ago when the vaccine came out, I got tested and I never had it, so I got the vaccine in 1996. When I was 30.
I don’t think I know anyone who has been sick from chicken pox in a long time. I also don’t know if I can get shingles every doc I ask gives me a different answer.
Most kids since the 80’s? have been getting the chicken pox vaccine and people still get shingles. So mostly chicken pox vaccine has nothing to do with getting shingles or not. Technically once you’ve had the vaccine, you’ve had chicken pox? But I think there is some controversy about if the vaccine helps protect you some or it doesn’t help, hence your doctors not being able to give you an answer.
But you have to have had chicken pox (or the vaccine) to get shingles and you can get chicken pox from someone that has shingles. And there is a big theory that vaccines wear off after a certain time…
I’m older than you think :-). This was 1986. I recall Chicken Pox vaccine as being failry new when my kids were young in late 90’s/early 2000’s so I’m guessing it became available in the late 90’s.
I am just now getting over shingles on my face and in my eye. 48 days and counting. My whiskers hurt when I shave. I will be getting Shingrix as soon as I’m over it.
This seems interesting, that Type 2’s increased risk might have to to do with impaired clotting, coagulopathy, rather than acute cardiac injury or acute kidney injury. Also, impaired healing and clotting has long been part of the considered side effect of diabetes, and from loose reading, it seems related to both hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia.
I was born in 1991 and had the chicken pox - sounds like I was right at the cutoff there, though. I also had shingles last year. Just lucky I guess haha
