I had gum graft surgery on Wednesday and have had two days of my pump looking like this.
Cause A: oral steroid taper for 6 days, finished day 3 today (done with most of the pills). Hoping it’s easier to control tomorrow.
Cause B: gum graft surgery = several days of soft, non-crunchy foods; therefore lots of soft carby stuff for this vegetarian.
Cause C: periodontist says to take it easy so no hard exercise for a few days.
Cause D (possibly): stressful couple of weeks at work, haven’t slept great.
I’ve used DOUBLE my normal insulin and it still feels like I’m injecting water. Thankfully I feel ok and my mouth seems to be healing ok too (although it’s hard to tell since it looks so beat up). I’m pretty sure this is all from the steroids, which I haven’t taken in a few years so forgot this happens.
Just wanna whine to some people who will hopefully understand thanks for coming to my personal Ted talk.
I know it’s tough. Depending on the steroid dose, I sometimes have to bump my basal up by 30-50%.
I know with Tandem, you can also increase your basal amounts but remain on CIQ. Are you doing that, increasing your basal in addition to letting CIQ manage it?
Even 5 mg used to shoot me over a 300 level…and then it doesn’t go away for a few days after I stop, And at some point a sudden drop in my BG level announcing no more extra insulin please!
Although this last time, 5 mg wasn’t that bad. It didn’t take that much extra insulin, but I still had the sudden drop after I stopped that I didn’t know when it was going to happen. Unfortunately I have to take them for my thrashed back off and on.
Sorry you had to go thru this and hope you get back to semi normal soon with full recovery quickly. I’ve been thru an implant and bone graft gone wrong (pre dx) and can understand the frustration, you’ve got the added burden of trying to keep the BG in line! Good thoughts you’re way!
Hell on wheels – I see you, sister! Oral steroids suck, surgery sucks, not being able to work out (and not feeling well enough to do it) sucks… hoping you are starting to feel better and on the road to recovery! My blood sugar goes insane with steroids. Hoping you can get some good sleep and get out of these woods xoxo
Sorry you are going through this. Any sickness causes this for me where insulin just seems like water, so I feel your pain! Sending hugs and hoping your BGs are better today.
I just was reminded with how bad I get from steroids. I remembered I was bad, but gees. Usually it’s just pills, not a shot. I have a bad back that sometimes flares up nastily.This time I can’t think of anything that caused it. Usually I have a clue. The outside of my legs got numb and I lost some strength in them in the afternoon. I called my back doctor the next morning and I already knew the answer, head to the emergency room. And yes you need a steroid shot and follow up pills. I balk at taking them, but have always said I can when it’s an emergency.
First the injection, I automatically gave myself 2 units right away. Smart because within 30-60 minutes my BG level was at 198. This won’t be enough I’m still climbing, 2 more units. Insulin every 1-2 hours and 8 hours later without eating I can’t get my numbers to come down under 200. Sigh it doesn’t feel like the insulin is even working even though I know it is, otherwise I’d still be climbing. I finally drop to 150 and decide to eat, I can usually avoid eating when needed, but I’m sure the steroids are helping, but I’m starving so I have a bowl of lentil soup and double dose for it as a prebolus. Sure enough 1 hour after, I am climbing back up to 190, but at least it stopped there.
All told over 16 units of outright extra insulin for the day, not counting the double dose for the bowl of lentil soup. I woke up at 135, went to bed at 160. Of course with the first glass of soymilk and a 5 mg prednisone pill, even with prebolusing and taking extra, I shot back up to 190. I did also automatically take an extra dose when I drank it. But the second pill, with a meal (salad), not so bad, I only went to 160. I have given myself extra, double dosed for my meal of a large salad and a piece of dark chocolate. Third pill tonight of 5mg not so bad. I have taken extra for the day, around maybe 10 units extra. But tonight I’m staying at around 120-130. I’m supposed to have taken 6 of 5 mg pills, I only had 3, but past history when I’ve discussed it with my doctors I take less for longer. Since it wasn’t as bad by the third pill, I might try to add a 4th tomorrow.
It was scary to keep taking so much insulin. Just because I am not used to those high doses unless I eat. I kept waiting for a huge drop, which of course never happened. The weakness was gone when I woke up today, I’m left with a slight numbness, but it’s only the second day. I have always responded well to steroids. Luckily I don’t need them for years at a time. So it was worth it, scary, but obviously needed.
@Marie Sorry you’re having the issue (and I’ll learn from your experiences of what to look out for and one method of response). Have you tried, if possible, to change the type of insulin being used? Not only injectable, but perhaps Afrezza? If not on long acting, perhaps adding it to the mix? Just trying to help you think thru the alternatives, though I’m sure you’ve tried…
Ugh, so sorry to hear about this! But thanks for sharing. I may need a cortisone shot soon for a muscle strain that’s being very stubborn. I’ve never had one before but I’ll consider “prebolusing” a bit for it. Did the effect of just the shot last more than 1 day for you? My endo’s office says to expect 2-3. I can deal with that if necessary, but not looking forward to it…
@TomH A long acting shot idea might work. I was giving myself regular shots along with some pump doses because my pods seem to fail easier with large doses through it. I wasn’t taking larger doses but a lot of doses so trying to play it safer by doing shots. Especially since I wanted to rely on my pods basal to keep working. I love Afrezza, it works faster, but I usually need some regular insulin as I get a rebound effect when it leaves my system. I wasn’t eating but another possible factor to deal with so I stayed away from it.
@needlesandmath Before with pills the need for more insulin would last about 5 days after I stopped the pills. The higher the dose the worse the effect. Last winter I had 5 mg pills for 10 days and it didn’t bother me that much as it had years before. It seems to be the shot that really caused the issues this time, The day I got the shot was the worse, it was better the next day (yesterday), but still some heavy dosing was going on. By today I can tell I am better. But I still need more and now it’s harder to tell how much more and my insulin is starting to work faster. Today I dropped a little too much before shooting up from one of the steroid pills, so I have to pay more attention to how much and the timing. The last couple of days it felt there was never taking too much. I am taking about 20 mg in split doses the last couple of days so the pills still have some part in everything. I taper off slowly. I will probably be on it for 10 days again.
But I think the shot effects might be wearing off and the shot was Thursday and it’s Saturday now. I’ll let you know if I can tell, it’s just me still being on the pills might make it difficult to know. It was just scary to take so much insulin and not to be eating. You feel like a shoe will drop any minute. I dealt with it, but I did not like it one bit.
I do know peoples experiences have really varied, but that BG levels can be stubborn for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. It can just vary per person.
It’s been a week since the shot and I’m pretty sure the shot, at least the stronger effects were done by 3 days after. It’s a little hard to completely tell as I was still on some pills for 5 days. But take a pill and no matter how much insulin I would take beforehand in about 30-60 minutes watch my BG shoot straight up. It’s just it would come slowly back down. Not enough so I was always taking more insulin but at least go to the 140-150 range. I couldn’t handle the pills well either and only took half of what I was supposed to. The first couple of days because of trying to take even half of the higher doses it seemed like I was staying high all the time. I was getting very moody, not sleeping well and generally felt lousy. My BG level was all over the place.
I had to pull off my Dexcom for the MRI and even my new Dexcom seems to be complaining. I didn’t even try to calibrate it for about three days since I was in the upper 100’s and hitting 200’s so much. I tried to calibrate it when I hit a more normal number and knew it was quite off. But my BG level was up and down and very erratic. And even though I am off the steroids and more stable, my Dexcom is still all over the place. All of a sudden it will drop saying I’m low and going to be 55 when I’m not. IAnd it will say I am 50 points higher than I am. Losing it’s signal a lot. The graph is super choppy. It is still somewhat useful, but I am doing a lot of fingersticking. It feels like it learned the erratic part of my BG level those first few days, I would pull it, but they are trying to fit me in for another MRI and I will just have to pull it off again.
Update, I pulled the sensor off. It dropped again in the evening and I didn’t want to get woken up by false alarms all night.
thanks for coming to my personal Ted talk.