Ok, this touches on the slightly unpleasant part of the diabeetus, but I seem to be spilling a lot of sugar into my urine. How do I know? Because my entire bathroom smells like candy every time I pee. For the last few days I've had high numbers due to being sick, so of course I'm going to have sugar in my urine. Now I'm still sick, but my counts are lingering in the 150's and I still have sugar in my urine. I'm drinking a ton of water to try and flush my system, also eating almost only veggies and no juice or fruit or any simple carbs. What's the delio? Should I be doing something more? Should I just wait longer? On a scale of 1 to 10, how much should I freak out?
Have you actually got some glucose sticks to check your urine? I don't know, but smell alone doesn't seem like a very accurate way of measuring sugar in the urine. Especially if you are sick and your sense of smell might be affected.
If your blood sugar goes above 160-180 or so for any length of time (it varies by person), your body spills sugar into the urine. Spilling sugar into your urine isn't like spilling ketones where it means something serious could be developing; all it means is that your blood sugar is high. I don't think there is anything you can do about it except get your blood sugar down.
I agree with Jen, but would also suggest an immediate test for Ketones. The sticks are available OTC. Your urine will smell very unusual if ketones are high and have been for some time. The smell is often called "fruity." Also, 150 is not an awfully high number, but it still out of normal range.
I agree with Jen. I think if you just trust your meter and urine stips and get better you will be fine. If you clean the bathroom that may fix that smell.
I don't have glucose sticks, but I totally didn't know you could get them OTC. I'm going to pick some up today. I've been diabetic 15years and the smell is just something I've noticed, so I usually identify it with sugar in my urine. (why I did not know that the strips are available OTC when I've been T1 for 15 yrs? Because I'm a horrible diabetic, of course...)
Addressing the cleaning of the bathroom (because the OCD in me MUST address that) I just finished moving out of an apartment because my roommates didn't keep the bathroom clean. I'm a clean FREAK!! I think what I'm smelling is the "fruity" smell.
Today my counts went up a little bit, as I'm still sick. Woke up with a 285 and it keeps wanting to hang out in the higher range despite all 9,000,000 corrections I've done. Going to keep up with the corrections, the water guzzling, and probably up my long acting by a few units tomorrow. I'll see what happens! Thanks guys!
OK, I thought the "clean your bathroom" comment was harsh.
Again, please check ketones. The fruity smell is very indicative. Lots of ketones are a huge problem.
As to the 9,000,000 corrections...if they are not lowering your blood glucose readings, be very careful not to overdose. I have done that, being obsessive with lowering the numbers and had some problems. Let things ride once to see what happens over a 4 hour period. Are you on MDI or pumping? If pumping, try a temporary bolus for a few (2-3) hours. I often find that works.
And 285 is problematic. Do you have a doctor you could consult? Might be tome.
Really dude, because I just go around my bathroom sprinkling sugar everywhere all willy nilly. A dirty bathroom smelling like sugar doesn't even make SENSE.
OK for serious.
I do have a doctor and put in a call to her. She also works out of the hospital that I work at, so I'm going to try and catch her when I go into work. My count is lower, but I have to keep a close eye. I'm on MDI. I've been having trouble with UTI's lately (two in the past 2 months) and I'm waiting to see if I just didn't respond to the first antibiotic, or if this is something else.Maybe I have another UTI? With the bloodsugars being high because of being sick, I just can't tell. It's probably time to make an appointment or see what my doc recommends.
OK so the Ketone strips- I went to a walgreens in my area and the ONE box of ketone strips they had was opened. So I check to see if the tube is sealed. If it's just the box that's open, no big deal if they're sealed, right? NOPE. Someone had USED some of them and returned them. (Only in Florida, I swear.) So after bleaching my hands, I left with nothing, and am going to travel a bit further before work tomorrow.
I'd like to apologize for my comment. It had been intended to be what they call "tongue-in-cheek" but even in hindsight it didn't come off that way. I hadn't intended it to be unhelpful or hurtful and I'm sorry.
And to try and be helpful, both ketone and glucose urine strips age and expire, but they both generally become less reactive. Thus if you show ketones or glucose on either for expired stripes, you do have ketones or glucose. If you show nothing, it could just be that they no longer react.
That's a GOOD point, Brian. I think I have had my jar of ketone strips forever. Will check the expiration immediately. Thanks.
No worries, Brian, I had a good laugh over it! Thanks for the tip- I do tend to hang on to supplies forever, especially if I think I’ll need it eventually!
Thanks for being understanding. And I'm with you on the supplies thing. I just checked my glucose sticks and they expired in 2011. I didn't thrown them out tho, they could still be good. And they would go with my box of lancets from 2006.
Got you beat there- I have a box of lancets from 2000! I don't think those can actually expire though, however if they've been hanging around for that long I'm sure there's a certain amount of bacteria that can accumulate on them, unless they're completely sealed. Even then I question there sterility!
As far as speaking to my doctor- Got a call back and spoke to her a little. She wants me to drop by the office tomorrow or Monday so they can test to see if the UTI came back. She said we'll go from there. She also said to bump up my Lantus by 2 units and keep checking as often as I can. She said that I could keep getting reinfected because my sugars have been higher lately, or I could just be spilling sugar. Either way, I think I'll eat a bag of cranberries tonight while I tour my county in search of Ketone strips.
Now that would be the most obvious, naked, unapologetic attempt to squeeze us for every penny possible, wouldn't it?
I'm talking lancets that expire. Imagine!
You really don't appreciate how cheap I am. I use so many coupons at the grocery store that they have flagged me for audits.
Hey, with the average yearly cost of having diabetes, who could blame you?
Naaahhhh, each lancet is completely sealed and sterile. Yeah, the surface of the plastic carrier for the stainless steel lancet can get contaminated on the outside, but that won't affect the actual lancet unless the seal is compromised.
Expiration on lancets is just another way to extort those not in the know -- unless there's something I'm missing.