Infection and high blood sugar

Hi there! I have had type 1 for about 20 years (I’m 29), and had a day or so of consistently high blood sugars that are very insulin resistant, with really no reason. Typically when this happens, it is because of an impeding illness, however, so far I haven’t gotten sick. The two possible reasons that I can think of are because of a large amount of stress several days ago (at the time my numbers were fine, and these bad numbers happened after), or the fact that I had a pedicure and one of my toes is now quite sore. No redness, swelling, or real signs of infection, but it does throb with pain at times. I have had also been very tired, and at times have chills, but no fever. My numbers are a bit better today, but I am wondering if anyone has had either of these two situations happen to them, and if they caused high blood sugars as a result. My toe could be infected, or somehow my stress has affected me several days after its onset.

Infection is a known cause of high and resistant BGs. How are you delivering the corrections? If you use a pump, the onset of a bad site can act similar (resistant to insulin delivered) to an infection or just garden variety insulin resistance. If you do use a pump and a site has been absorbing poorly, your aggregate insulin deficit will come from both missed bolus and basal. Restoring that deficit, once you take other measures, will take more insulin than you think it might. If you use a pen or syringe and vial, you could also get poor absorption from using a favorite and over-used injection site.

For me, a low grade fever, 99.5-101.5 degrees F is often the tell-tale sign of an infection.