Flu, Cold and Diabetes: Show of Hands

OK, doing a show of hands here:
Who else is going through the flu, a cold or an infection now (or recently)?

Any tales of freaky blood sugar values? I have seen more than I am happy with in the past few days. :S
(after I finished an antibiotic, I picked up some crazy cold that has been on my tail since late Wednesday).

That would be me! I’ve had a stupid head cold that turned into a chest cold and coughed my but off finally my dr gave one cough med that didn’t work after that I got to go see him and I got the anibotic Levaquin and another cough med Anaplx Hd Syrup. As for freaky bs Yep well this morning at 7:00 am it was 405, at lunch after eating a very rich peice of Pecan pie and not to mention homemade chili it was down to 155, then before supper it was at 75! Guess the Pecan pie didn’t bring it up! HA! But that stupid cough syrup last night did! Haven’t taken it since!

I’ve had a cold for a month. Finally figured out it’s a sinus infection and am starting to feel better after 2 days on antibiotics. I’ve been having wierd numbers (for me) such as 3 hours at 160 the other night after a low carb meal, and down at 74 on a day when I hadn’t taken any insulin. Go figure…

I have sinus infection woke up Wed morning seeing double and had to stumble around to find meter, put the strip in, prick my finger, put blood on strip and then squint to see reading. Had to wake roommate up at 4 a.m. to draw me up some insulin as I couldn’t see. Sugar was so high it wouldn’t register. My meter goes to 600. Been on Ceftin and Norel since Wed for it.

I have a cold ]: woke up this morning at 9.5 with ketones and totally exhausted. sigh I had a 6.0 before bed as well! today I’ve actually had to cut my insulin though, 'cause since then I’ve been battling lows. and then I just went high again!!!

I had a cold two weeks ago. Is this a global cold/flu epidemic? I felt terrible, just coughing and sneezy all the time, but I had no elevated blood sugar. At all! And no fever, so I decided my body would shake it off. One difference though, is that I felt it took longer to shake off than when my pancreas was still cooperative. So I had lots of warm fluids (water, chicken soup) and a couple of lozenges and I was fine within a week. It was horrid though, I thought I would go into DKA and end up in ICU again!!

I used to get more illnesses when I was in my 20’s and 30’s.
The last flu//bronchitis I had was in 2003. I also had an infection
that ended up in my blood last Fall. Got to watch out for those vague
symptoms. Both were Very bad and caused me to have high fevers//
chills so I had to be hospitalized.

If I get a minor cold it doesn’t seem to bother my sugars but if I get an
illness that gives me a higher fever my sugars go high and are hard
to get under control. I hope that you feel better soon Manny. :o)

I am almost out of the cold (knock on wood!)

I dedicated this month’s Hola Diabetes colum to this very topic:
Flu, Common Cold and Diabetes

Tony was hospitalized for a week last week with a stomach bug. He tested negative for the flu. But couldn’t keep anything down-which isn’t that fun! He was experiencing tons of lows and had ketones, close to dka. He spent two days in the PICU on an insulin and glucose drip, one in each arm. He’s all good now, just bruised up from the multiple i.v.'s.