For two weeks now I have been running shocking highs of late 20s and even once hit 32.1. Went to the hospital last Wednesday in A&E because I was testing every 15 minutes and going up 2 points. Diagnosed chest infection. Been on increased pork insulin, slow and fast acting and if I get down 2 points I am lucky! Am 20 at the moment and am desparate! Any advice? I have not been this high since being diagnosed in 2004. Control reasonably tight, though brittle. Last average was 10.2. Dread to think what it is like now!
Sorry! It’s so difficult to keep BG down with infection. Other than taking additional insulin, what I do when sick is drink lots of water & eat virtually no carbs. Broth & protein make up meals until I get numbers tamed.
Can you call your doctor?
Doctor on Tuesday. Looots of additional insulin to little effect. Got down to 9.2 this morning and had a piece of toast for breakfast and lots more insulin than I should - and shot to 24! Broth and protein meals sound like an interesting idea. Never thought about that. Thanks. Will try it.
Am very reluctant to go into hospital before February! Am going to San Francisco in January and am struggling to find insurance - and my sister is now saying that she does not want me to come if I might get ill - she would not cope! Some sympathy! Like I said, this is the worst I have been since diagnosis. I would welcome a hypo!
I’m assuming you are on antibiotics for the infection? Meanwhile be sure and stay well hydrated.
It sounds like you struggle with high numbers even without infection.I don’t know anything about pork insulin but I know that the standard of care is a basal/bolus regimen of a fast acting bolus for meals and a long acting such as Lantus or Levemir for background insulin. I think pork insulin is an older type such as Regular or NPH. Many people on here who were on such regimens years ago are doing better on more updated insulins. Also people who switch to pump get much better numbers frequently so that might be an option when you get insurance.
I find eating no carbs helps tremendously when I’m sick. I eat very few to begin with. No more toast:) When we’re ill, protein helps. I rarely feel like eating much when sick anyway.
Geesh, not much empathy from your sister. That hurts.
If your numbers don’t come down, please go back to the hospital. Aside from the other dangers, you can’t heal from the infection with high BG & are at risk for DKA.
I am hyper sensitive to the newer Lantus and Levimir and fought tooth and nail for four years to get pork as doctors put people on L and L straight away. I would take it and would be hypo within the hour and would hypo between five and seven times a day!
Also, being unemployed and there being no funding I cannot get a pump! I am on antibotics.
Thanks. The risk of DKA is foremost in my mind. When I went to A&E on Wednesday, despite the high levels of glucose there was nothing else in my sample. Chest was crackly so they put me straight on antibiotics and I have been taking them regularly since.
Re my sister! Yes, it hurts like nobody’s business! She would not talk to me for five years because she thought I was drinking - in fact I was diabetic though undiagonsed for ten years! We got back together last year and then moved to San Francisco. I have noticed she does not have much empathy for sick people and has dropped several of her friends who were sick. And she has not spoken to my mother for 8 years because she DOES drink!
Understand about your sister. Mine has no patience or tolerance either. She’s lead a life getting everything she’s wanted with no strife, no problems. Never asked me how I felt being diagnosed. Made the mistake of telling her in a factual way what it was like. She shrugged her shoulders, made a comment how no one wanted to hear. I cried.
Try a new vial of insulin?
Scott been through 3 fast acting and 2 slow acting since Wednesday! Not much change, a couple of degrees maybe but shoots up again!
Sounds like we are burdened with similar sisters! I could weep for you.
And my mother cannot take it in! When I am high she offers me sugar and asks if I should take insulin when I am hypo! Some people just do not get it, do they!?
I’m also on pork insulin (have been since I was diagnosed at age 3 in 1979) so maybe I can help a little… With pork insulin (self mixing regular and nph - in my case this is Hypurin Neutral and Hypurin Isophane), it’s important to remember that you have to wait at least 15-20 minutes for the insulin to start working before you eat any carbohydrates. I tend to make sure I’m around 4.5 to 5.5 mmol/l before having a meal/snack with any carbohydrate in it. Sorry if you already know all this by the way!
I follow a low glycaemic index diet as a general rule as the slow acting carbs seem to work better with my insulin regime (3 times per day). It’s also important to remember that the more you weigh, the more insulin you’ll need so (and apologies if this doesn’t apply to you!!) if you can lose weight it’ll mean the insulin’s able to work better for you and you’ll need less of it. I’ve lost 6 stone (40kgs) over the last 2 years and I’m now on a third of the insulin that I used to use.
Also, don’t forget to keep your insulin cool - the insulin you’re not using should be kept in the fridge and the stuff you’re using can be kept at room temperature (so long as it’s not too hot that is!!).
It might also be worth increasing your slow acting dosage as that’ll help deal with the glucose your liver kicks out during the day/night (this is your basal insulin’s job).
Everyone’s different, but the low G.I. diet definitely works for a lot of us (me included) - don’t worry though, if you do fancy a high GI treat every now and then you can, but just give yourself more short-acting insulin to cover it before you have it. My last HBA1c was 5.1 and my BGs are pretty stable (although I do have the odd hypo normally after playing sport) on this diet.
Good luck and I hope things work out for you 
Thanks for that Sam! Some of it I do know. Have lost about 2 stone in the last 3 weeks! Was not overly big before, but now I look like something out of Belsen!
I have just upped the Isophane - base is 4, am and pm but have just put in 8 in the hope that it will work. I too am a lot less than I was because of hypos. I do not have a big appetite anyway so stopping carbs will not be too much of an ordeal!
I have been very poorly cared for in the last few years so am relearning. 2 1/2 years without care at all from a DN - she kept cancelling appointments, being very cross with me when she did see me and absolutely adamant that I should not go on pork insulin, even though I was hypoing 5-7 times a day!
Now have been on both the pork ones for about two years and have been much better - up untill now!
Let’s give our sisters to each other & trade! We can be sisters instead. My sister thinks it’s just taking a shot & no big deal. My newphews are put off entirely because of my sister’s attitude. Nope, some people don’t get it at all. They don’t want to either. My mother understands to a certain degree.
Ha ha! I get it from people at church, my sister … if only I did it right then it would all come good! My sister’s attitude to people with any long term illness quite frankly is er “aromatic”!
No, I love my sister, much more than she loves me and I want to get to know my nephews! I have only seen them a handful of times - met my youngest nephew for the first time when he was 6 and they still lived in the UK!
You will be pleased to know that I woke up hypo this morning! Down to 3.5! Suspect that is more a reaction to all the extra insulin and that I will go up again but I am pretty pleased! It gives me some hope! I CAN still get down and I might get to stay out of hospital!
You said that u experience hypos with Lantus. You will not like this idea but i still root for Aphidra and Lantus. Having hypos with these medicines is a good sign. I mean your body is responding to the insulin.
All you need to do is get the ISF and I:C numbers right.
Aphidra is a SUPER fast acting insulin and bring you to hypo with in 10 mins. take it either 10 mins before a meal or with in 15 mins after u have ur meal.
1 unit of aphidra for 16gms of carbs is a good I:C ratio to start with.
Now u need to fix ISF. a correction of 1 unit aphidra for every 60(i am following the units in US standard…mmol/L) above normal range(a decent estimate
). e.d if ur BS reads 180 which is 60 above normal. to get back into the game u need 1unit of aphidra.
For lantus u can start with 1 shot a day (like 10:00PM) u can start with 15 units of lantus. of course this depends on ur body weight.
Finally when u get highs…try to figure out if u are experiencing a hypo at some point in the day. Hypo many a times go unnoticed. Fix the Lows first and the highs will follow accordingly!!!
Sorry Chris, but hypo is equally dangerous as highs, especially that often - 5-7 times a day! It is way too strong for me as it is all a chemical cosh! I am much happier on pork insulin thank you very much! I have been there, done that, worn the tee shirt and I am not going back there again!
I hope you are feeling better! I ditto Gerri’s suggestion of testing periodically for ketones/DKA. Lung infections are actually one of the worst in terms of glycemic control. So much so that some ERs around here give DKA patients chest x-rays even if asymptomatic.
I’m really sorry. It’s very difficult to get anyone to understand what we go through!!! I don’t have much to add other than I hope this goes away quickly.
I have never heard hypos referred to as a target. Chris we all have radically different I:C ratios and ISFs, based on a number of factors beyond weight such as insulin sensitivity and whether we produce any of our own. You can’t say “take this many units”.
latvianchick you are just one more proof that we are all different. Most people seem to do better with newer forms of insulin, but if you do better with another type, then that is what works for you! However, once you recover from the infection if you are still experiencing highs (10.2 average - 183 is too high) then you might consider other alternatives - it sounds like you were on too high a dose of Lantus, or perhaps Levemir would work better. Whatever works.
Thanks Zoe. I too have never heard of hypos as targets and if they were I would say bother to that, I will run higher. It took me four years of frequent hypos to persuade a different hospital that analogue insulins, Levemir, Lantus were not the right thing for me. If I took too little I ran way to high, if I took even a little more I went hypo and it was up, down, up, down … all the time. Quite frankly, at one point I was suicidal!
I certainly am too sensitve to those kinds of insulin.
When they finally told me I could have pork insulin I wanted to shout it out! And then thought better of it! I might get arrested on the bus! So I texted a friend instead!
When I am well I am still a bit up and down but not so violently. Just at the moment the highs are scary and there are no lows! Much higher than they normally are! I did manage a hypo this morning and a piece of toast with marmite took me to 18.8! Hey ho. Guess I am sitll poorly and am going to the clinic tomorrow to get it tweeked. Certainly better than I was a few days ago!