hi all

[Tim in WV]

hi all. My name in Tim and I have a brain tumor. my steroids I have been taking to control my inflammation ( Predinsone ) have given me diabetes. My problem is that my symptoms for my tumor often mimic my diabetic problem, and its been hard knowing whats going on.

my numbers are no that bad, I guess the highest I get with no meds of any kind ( for the sugar) is around 165. My lows are about 78 to 88.

when I was on much higher dose of steroid I was on insulin both lantus and humalog,
but now they said to take myself off insulin for 1 week ( endocrinlogist ) and keep a log of my numbers. I see the nurse again on Monday and the doctor on Friday. I get really sick feeling sometimes and my fingers turn cold. I use a one touch ultra meter. I didnt eat over about a 5 hour span today and when I finally did eat, I got a very sick feeling, my palms sweated, and I measured myself I was at 78 and went up to 134 within 5 minutes or so.

is this normal? Has anyone else been told to go cold turkey off off insulin this way? I was not using much, maybe 2 units at the most, and most of the time 1 unit did it.

I'm not feeling too great about this treatment.

[fizzgig_sh]

hi all. My name in Tim and I have a brain tumor. My steroids I have been taking to control my inflammation ( Predinsone ) have given me diabetes.
First, let me say I am sorry to here that you have a brain tumour.

Steroids are great at controlling inflammation but sometimes they can induce diabetes in some people. Weighing up the benefits with the risk is taken into account when starting any medication. In this case the inflammation is of great concern. The diabetes can be treated easily enough but I'm sure you are feeling that this is just another hassle.

My problem is that my symptoms for my tumor often mimic my diabetic problem, and its been hard knowing what’s going on.
Keeping an eye on your Blood Sugar Levels will give you the answer to that so you can take the appropriate action.

keep a log of my numbers.
This lets the whole team know exactly what is going on. You also need to keep details of what and when you eat, too, as this will also affect the numbers. There may be times when you don't want to eat, or what you eat comes back up again. Let your team know about this as they can take action to get around this if necessary.

I see the nurse again on Monday and the doctor on Friday.
I hope you have a contact number to call the nursing service at any time you need to ask them a question. I'm sure they will have told you that there are no silly questions and that you can call any time of the day or night to ask anything you want. They are there for you.

I'm not feeling too great about this treatment.
I can't help with the cold turkey question except to say that as your steroids settle maybe your need for the insulin is reduced. Keep an eye on your Blood Sugar Levels and if they go too high let your team know. Otherwise, I don't know why you would really need it so talk to your doctor, for clarity.

Do you have family support?

We, here at the forum, may know a little about diabetes and have all sorts of life experiences and are willing to chat about any aspect of dealing with diabetes in your life (from our point of view) but your nurses and doctors are the primary support team, they are the ones who know your whole medical situation and can answer your technical questions exactly.

Feel free to tell us more about yourself. Ask away, but know we may not be doctors but we are still happy to help.

[slipperyelm]

Hi, Tim. Welcome!

Well, it doesn't sound normal to me, but I do not have experience with coming off of insulin, and certainly no experience with coordinating insulin with prednisone.

The bad experience you had when you ate after five hours, sounds a lot like an adrenaline reaction. That quick increase in your blood sugar could be part of a classic adrenaline response. It is like your body has gotten you ready for the "fight or flight" response. You will read on this forum people speaking of a "liver dump" and this is what can happen when adrenaline cause the liver to expel its stores of glycogen (glucose strings) into your bloodstream. And I vaguely remember from my intro anatomy & physiology classes that cortisones will affect the adrenal glands. So I have a feeling your question is something your doctor or a good nurse will experience with.

In my personal experience, let me just say that I do occasionally have a little something peculiar that happens when I first eat or drink on a totally empty stomach. It especially used to happen back in the days when I still ate fruit. But today, it even happens with my first sips of plain water after waking some mornings. I get nauseated, sometimes have a single "twisting" pain in my stomach, feel dizzy, feel like my blood pressure just changed drastically. Then it goes away very quickly. (If it were adrenalines caused it would take a while to go away.) I don't think it ever affected my blood glucose level, though. Just wanted to mention it so you could be assured that what happened to you might not be terribly divergent from what can happen to others not in your situation.

[Tim in WV]

well, my meeting with the endo guy is fridy, but his nurse looked over my logbook for the week nd said I have numbers most diabetics would kill for. my highest I ever got with no pills and no insulin was 165.

I feel sure that my need for insulin was not addressed after a time, becuase this is the first time since my operation on march 10th 06 that I have not had any insulin in my system. I think I've been taking it far longer than I needed too. lab test showed I had more thna enough natural insulin - it was actually over the hi end of the range.

I think someone screwed up somewhere.

[slipperyelm]

If you have type 2 diabetes, I think that means you have insulin resistance. That means your cells don't respond properly to insulin to let glucose into the cells. Having a high level of insulin is your body's response ti insulin resistance. Your body is making lots of insulin in order to try and get glucose into your cells. Type 2s will usually have quite a bit more insulin than the non-diabetic, that is, until we reach the point where the tissue that produces insulin becomes "burned out" from overuse.

Did you have type 2 diabetes before your prednisone treatment? Or did you have a temporary diabetic state due to being on prednisone? I was thinking that as your prednisone was tapered off, your injected insulin would also be tapered off.