How much extra insulin do you typically use when you have the flu? Samson just tested positive for influenza A. Curious waht the ballpark increase in insulin is.
I recently had an unusually bad (for me) case of influenza; it went on for a couple of weeks. I didn’t need any change to my basal. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever had to change my basal for illness since I’ve been using a pump. On MDI, with Lantus, I would be worried about going low if I couldn’t eat so I would probably have dropped the basal, but since using the pump if I have to swap back to MDI I just use the pump basal (lower than what I used to use) and I think that is fine.
There’s a bunch of sick day posts floating around on FUD which have helped me a lot. Each time I’m sick is a little different on insulin needs, but I think when I had the flu last year I nearly had to double my TDD. YDMV!
Poor Samson! I hope this doesn’t last long for him or for you.
I don’t increase my basal when I’m sick. I do increase my boluses, or use corrections every 4 hours, 10% higher if BG is relatively in range and ketones aren’t worrying. If BG and ketones climb, then I increase boluses/corrections by another 5% at a time till I get the right balance. This assumes I can at least drink sweet fluids or keep down things like sweet applesauce. If not, ER can worry about it.
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Any sickness is usually double for us… Sometimes even more.
Hope you’re little trooper feels well soon!
20% increase both bolus and basal. It felt like it would be bad especially increasing breakfast bolus. It was flu, confirmed by doc with swab. Audrey was 3.5yo