Sugar control with flu infection

[SunilG]

Hello,

My daugther, who has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, has unfortunately caught a nasty flu. She has high temperatures and coughs quite frequently. We have been supressing her fever with the usual medications, however, what we have noticed is that her sugar levels have been elevated and remain that way even with higher dosages of insulin.

Could anyone please advise if this is to be expected? Also, is there anything that can be done to bring down her levels?

Thank you in advance.
SunilG

[Steal]

Yes, yes. My sugars are always tough to control while being sick and has been this way since I was diagnosed at age 6. You will just need to do your best and try to help her get better. We all react differently to illness and medications, but I am always more insulin resistant while sick. Hope she gets better soon.

[Scratch]

It's just going to be more difficult to keep the sugars down. The last time I got severely ill with a stomach bug in 2008, I ended up bolusing as much Novolog as I typically use in a day when eating -- and I didn't eat anything that first day until late in the evening when I had a small bowl of chicken soup.

It might be a good idea to get some ketone strips, so if her sugars are staying high, you can check to make sure she isn't spilling too many ketones.

[TommyC1]

It's just going to be more difficult to keep the sugars down. The last time I got severely ill with a stomach bug in 2008, I ended up bolusing as much Novolog as I typically use in a day when eating -- and I didn't eat anything that first day until late in the evening when I had a small bowl of chicken soup.

It might be a good idea to get some ketone strips, so if her sugars are staying high, you can check to make sure she isn't spilling too many ketones.

Same here. When I'm sick and can not hold food down I generaly need as much insulin as I would for a normal day. I generaly use correction doses to figure my Novalog. I wish I had a better way to calculate the dose as only I'm chasing highs.
Having all of that insulin and no food in me I test more often. But I've never gone low from it.

[Gladtobehere]

When I get flu or a nasty cold bug or an ear/throat infection, I usually know a day or 2 in advance of the syptoms because my BG will go up by as much as 50% above a normal range. It stays that way until the infection is cleared or the flu/cold has run it's coarse. Again, I get a day or so warning on the good news because my BG returns to normal, prior to the symptoms completely clearing.

It has been that way for 30 years. I just check BG as much as possible, do the corrections and hydrated as much as possible. When food is hard to keep down try popsicles. (The good ones and get your favorite flavour.)

[arealgijoe]

When the diabetes center changed my routine from NPH plus Reg insulins to MDI w/Lantus and Humalog, they talked me into a flu shot. A couple days later my fasting shot up into the upper 190s...ouch! I felt sick and was chasing my BGs just trying to keep down to around 200 till I got over it.

Ketostix to test for keytones are a GREAT idea, you should have them handy for sick days. DKA is no fun, even when you are not sick, the risk of DKA is much higher when you are sick and even worse.

Gomer Sir Falls-a-alot