My bg has been higher with a cold the past 10 days or so. I see the endo finally tomorrow. Moved here 5 months ago and it took 5 months to get an appointment.
Wondering how much the cold will raise my glucose. Understand it varies and depends on how sick. I only get a cold every year or two. This one is hanging on. Cough congestion, etc.
Can people post how much it raises their bg and how much they increase their basal insulin with a bad cold? Thanks
It’s hard to say really… it’s not that I have an exact number that it raises my levels as much as some viruses might generally raise my fasting levels from well controlled, say 70-90 with relative ease and well controlled trends throughout the day to less controlled trends, say fasting levels of 130+ seemingly no matter what I do to control them and more work to maintain control throughout the day. Sometimes basal increases don’t seem to have the effect they should…
Other times colds seem to have very little impact. Every virus seems to be different for me. I just try to react accordingly and do the best I can. Being sick sucks whether you have diabetes or not…
I just got over a 2 week cold that was pretty bad (I actually took a couple of days off work). I slow bumped the basal rate up to 140% of normal for about a week of that time. I raised the basal slowly while doing bolus corrections to keep the BG in line. When the cold was over I quickly dropped the basal quickly back to the pre-cold level. I am on MDI so quick basal changes are not as easy as with a pump 
Even though I did this, BG control during the cold was pretty bad and unpredictable. I would flatline around 140-180 (8-10 mmol/l) and no matter how much insulin I gave (or so it seemed) the BG would not drop below 140 (8 mmol/l).
Before the cold, I had a few weeks of great control. The cold probably bumped my CGM daily average up by 1.5 mmol/l (30 mg/dl) which made me unhappy. I kept reminding myself that it is just a cold and is a pretty good reason not to get too excited about the less than stellar BG numbers.
My toddler has a cold roughly every three weeks and is currently sick now. 
TDD may be between 9 and 11 units; with a cold the day before he gets sick it’s more like 15. So almost a 50 percent bump in insulin needs. On his pump I set a pre-programmed “sick” basal which is about 25-30 percent higher than usual at most time periods, then use more frequent corrections to nudge things the way I want. He still has highs and lows this way, but today (day two of a cold) and he hasn’t gone above 200 yet, fingers crossed. He did need some fast-acting carbs to prevent a low this morning, so it’s not perfect.
Most of the time being sick doesn’t seem to raise my bg at all. I did end up in the hospital in June with near dka high ketones and high bg with gastorenteritis/dehydration. I was sick again 3 weeks ago with vomiting- I think it was a 24 hour bug or mild food poisoning but bg was nearly perfect. Then there are other times where I feel a bit off and bg is much higher.
I usually crank my pump basal up by 20-30 percent; it really depends on the illness. If I have a stomach bug I usually have to cut my insulin back 20%. But if its a common cold my insulin resistance soars. If you are on a pump you can play with your temp basal rates until you get a feel for it.
I usually notice that my resistance increases before i am actually feeling sick.
Good luck!!