Rising Sickness

Being sick stinks. Slowly feeling sick is especially stinky. But the stinkiest of stinks for me is dealing with diabetes while I'm sick.

The problem for diabetics is that being sick makes their blood sugar rise higher than normal. In fact, diabetics can tend to have higher blood sugar when their bodies are stressed from many things, not just the common cold. Simply put, all kinds of stress can cause blood sugar to rise. Such a short statement carries so many implications for the health of millions of people.


The complexity of stress is buried in the its definition.

Morning Highs

For the past week, my blood sugar seems to be very irregular in the morning and is followed by strange changes later in the day. For example, I could wake up a bit on the low side (70's) and by lunch it could be close to 300mg/dL. Even today I began at 95 and now at 11:30am, its at 244mg/dL.

I haven't been able to pinpoint the cause. As of late, I have been working quite a bit and not sleeping very well so it could very well be a lack of rest and possibly an illness coming on. What I do know is that times like these are very frustrating. Ever type 1 diabetic I know has had these periods of unexplanable changes in their blood sugars and every person I have talked to has the same advice... just monitor it and ride out the problem for at least a couple days.

I know that for myself, the transition from Winter to Spring is always really tough for me. The basal rate, correction and carb ratios tend to change a little bit between summer and winter, which requires a time to completely transition. I'm hoping these highs settle down soon.  I'm keeping tight control on my diet and monitor more frequently until the problems subside.
Wish me luck!

Sick and Tired

I've been feeling worn down and sick for a little over a week. Moreover, I've been staying up late and having trouble staying asleep. When I'm feeling sick and/or tired, I get unexpected high blood sugar readings. Many doctors will warn diabetics that illness can lead to extra bodily stress and cause elevated blood sugar in diabetics. Being under other kinds of stress can do the same and in some people, taking antibiotics also can make you go high (see comments http://www.tudiabetes.org/forum/topics/being-sick-high-blood-sugar).

The truth is, there's many more things that can raise your blood sugar than can lower it. The advice for diabetics that are feeling under the weather or super stressed is the monitor more frequently (maybe 6-8 times a day instead of the typical 4) and to correct as frequently as needed.

Another cautionary tale is to avoid making changes to basal rates, correction and bolus ratios until you are feeling well again. I know that I have felt the pain of being sick and having high blood sugar in the past and wanted to ignore the problem and hope that the sickness passes soon. Unfortunately, ignoring the high blood sugar can compound the problems of illness and actually make recovery time much longer.

Throughout most of the winter I have this on and off again sick feeling which really messes with my health for a couple months. I don't know that warmer climates would help me throughout the year, but staying inside for 3-4 days in a row because of massive Baltimore blizzards has certainly kept me feeling awful.