Hey everyone, I recently had a minor surgery and to help with swelling and pain I've been taken the prescription dose of Advil (800 mg ever 8 hours). I've only been doing this for about 3 days now and I'm noticing a HUGE increase in my blood sugar levels (I'm also calling my Doctor today to ask what he thinks as well but I wanted to know if any of you had some knowledge you'd like to share!).
So here's what the routine looks like, Wake up in the morning, eat 4 peanut butter crackers and then take the Advil. What 1 hour then take my blood sugar and my Lantus and have breakfast....although now that I'm writing that out I realize I should probably check my levels before both the crackers and the Advil...hmmm that could probably answer a lot of my questions. Whoops, OK I'll do that starting now.
I generally bolus for whatever I eat, including stuff like crackers to take meds with. I think that the trauma/ pain of surgery can also cause BG to rise, some kind of adrenaline response or something like that?
I was sort of nervous when I had surgery (October...) as it was sort of like going from a ton of running to no running overnight. I didn't want to lose control of my BG nor of my "pantsometer" and gain a bunch of weight.
The OR nurse suggested "walk, it will help your recovery" and our dog was not opposed to that. The day after the procedure, just going around the block, like 1/4 mile, I was like "OMG, if she poops, I'm in trouble b/c there's no way I'll be able to pick it up..." and then realizing I didn't have my cell phone to call MrsAcidRock to come get me was like "eeek" but fortunately the dog didn't go and I made it home and just kept at it. Sometimes it seemed to make the surgery (umbilical hernia...) feel better and sometimes it didn't but I figured that when it didn't feel so hot, it didn't feel that hot sitting around at home either. I had it done Friday and was back @ work Tuesday and a guy a couple levels up said "[former coworker] had that done and he was out for 6 weeks" which made me feel good.
That was right around when the Big Blue Test was going on and I did that to give me something to do until I could run again.
Advil (Ibuprofen) itself is not really identified as raising your blood sugar. It can however affect your liver since your liver must metabolize the Ibuprofen. This can increase or decrease the effectiveness of other medications (since they may stay in your body longer). And Ibuprofen may affect your blood pressure and kidney function, again having an effect on other medications. Hope that helps.
Hi Tara. It probably isn't the advil that's causing the high BG readings although the comment posted by bsc is correct in that drugs are metabolized in the liver and there is a potential for drug interaction. More than likely the cause of the rise in your BG is the increased stress on your body from the surgery. If you consider that your menstrual cycle can cause elevations in BG levels what more any minor procedure that causes an increase in cell turnover? Your body's natural response is to mount an immune response that causes a release of hormones several of which will cause your BG to increase. Let your HCP know who manages your diabetes so that adjustments can be made to your insulin regimen until the acute phase of your recovery is over. By that time your BG levels should return to what they were previous to the surgery. Here's to your speedy recovery!
For an upcoming biopsy, the recommendation is to avoid ibuprofen for its tendency to cause increased bleeding. (Seems counter-intuitive since ibuprofen is supposed to be an anti-inflammatory.) I'm with bsc insofar as the liver's role in metabolizing any medication, and Maria with respect to the stress effect of surgery (irrespective of "minor" or "major" qualifiers).
Hope it helps & doesn't cause more worry. Perhaps the trick is to take some that raise & some that lower BG to cancel each other out:) True, true about the pain meds.
