I was referred for an MRI Enterography to get images of my small bowel done. I went yesterday, and was really surprised to hear right beforehand that they would be injecting me with glucagon to "slow the contractions of the bowels and get more clear images."
I told them I have type 1 diabetes and that this injection would likely be a bad idea, but they said I would be fine as long as I ate regularly throughout the day and checked my blood sugars carefully.
Well guess what: I went into DKA overnight even though I had checked BG and raised my basals significantly. I knew this would happen if I let them give me that injection of glucagon! But I just let myself be talked into it because they sounded like they knew what they were talking about.
Type 1 peoples (and probably even type 2), don't let them do this to you! My endo was pretty upset when I called him at 4 AM to tell him I was feeling sick and why, and that my blood sugar was 475. He said that glucagon definitely was still driving BG up and that I should go the ED. So here I am...until tomorrow.
If anyone wants any of you to do this study (they might call it and MRE, too) tell them you want an alternative imaging study. There's barium swallow study (aka small bowel study, it's an xray), there's internal camera capsule, and a few others. Just avoid this one!