Managing the D while sick?

I got a cold.

My sugar found its way up to 427 this morning… and that was after taking nearly 20 units of Novolog over the course of about two hours. At the beginning of this two hours i was 381. I finally got it to start coming down about a half hour later after a TON of water, close to 20 MORE units of insulin, and +70% of my usual basal rate. I checked my BG every 15 minutes until i was sure it was coming down, then went to half an hour, an hour, and then my regular schedule. I got down to 237, and then it started rising again, so i took another bolus for that and left my temp basal active… my pod was EMPTY by the end of the day (it was my 3rd day anyway, had 200 units in it). The lowest that i went all day was 97, so i didn’t over correct as far as i know.

I have a feeling i didn't really manage this right... i just did my best to get it down, but i feel that i had to use WAAYYYY too much insulin to do so. When i'm sick, should i expect my insulin needs to be this high? Or is there another way to keep my BG under control while not starving?

Thanks for any input :) You guys have been a ton of help!

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I haven’t been sick since I was diagnosed in September so your numbers scare me! I know our numbers rise when we are sick I’m just not sure what to do. I think I would call my doctor, but then I’m a newbie and my boluses are usually 2-5 units of humalog. I’m interested in what advice veteran betics will give you.

Sometimes I have a cold and I have NO problems with my blood sugar, but when I am really sick (with fever and all), I often require more than twice the amount of insulin. Once I see my first high above 300 when I am sick, I turn my pump up to 200% (so that would be +100%) and check often to make sure that I don’t go low.

Increasing the basal is the way to go, but you do need to check often to make sure that you don’t over do it!

when i am sick I to sky rocket. I have to increase my basal by at least 75% or more. also I know that when I am sick my sensitivty factor needs to come down so instead of my normal 45 it goes down to 35 or 40 till the sickness is gone. I also get better results when I stay hydrated qith water so in answer to your question yep

Amazing how high we go when sick. I injured my back & went super high from that also.

On MDI, but basically I do is the same as you–test a lot, lots of water & increase insulin. I’ve been stunned how much insulin I need to start getting BG down. It’s usually about double what I’d usually need. I also open a new vial of Apidra.

Hope you’re feeling better soon!

Thanks guys! I feel alot better about this now. This is my first time sick on the pump, and my body doesn’t respond to Novolog well when i’m sick, so i was just wondering if this was right. I’m still sick, but i started running real low this morning, so i backed the temp basal off to 40% and all seems well now.

I used 90 units of insulin yesterday, and my usual amount is 45units, so it was exactly twice what i usually need.

Wow thats high. When I had the H1N1 last august I injected so much insulin I expected to die but no the BG was still high.

Same. The first time i was high that morning, i cut about half a unit off the suggested dose cause i still had my breakfast working on me… ended up throwing that back in plus 20 units more, and was STILL through the roof. The chart for the day starts at like 250, climbs pretty rapidly to 427, then slowly works its way down to 97, where it made a u-turn and started a nice uphill climb again.
Not a fun day. Today was much better since i figured my basal rate out.