Okay, so earlier I posted that Sarah seemed sick then got over it quickly. Well, I spoke too soon! This is her first illness since she was diagnosed about 3.5 months ago. Reading through the literature I have on sick days, everything seems to suggest that her bg will go way up, and she may start spilling ketones. Does anyone have an experience they could share with me? Sarah is 10, has had a fever for about 12 hours (about 100-101). She's eating and drinking normally but feels achy, has a headache and generally feels "miserable". Her bg has been pretty darn good all day. She started out at 137, had a low of 73 in the mid afternoon, and ended up at 127 before bed - so I'm thinking the illness isn't really affecting her - at least not yet.
Do some illnesses cause problems while others don't?
I've had d for 13 years so i have seen all 3 versions w/ bgs during sick days. This has happened to me where my bgs are just perfectly fine, and where they will not come down, and when i'm constantly low (due to not being able to keep anything down).
So i guess just take it as it comes, and be cautious?
Our endo also suggests we check for keytones on sick days even if the blood sugars are good.
I think the worst illness we have had that makes her blood sugars high is the stomache flu. She could not keep anything down thus went sky high and spilled keytones very quickly. She had only been diagosed for 3 months so we were unaware of what to do and it was awful. Luckily our endo talked us through it all and we made it through without a hospital stay. The cold does not do much to her numbers unless she is really uncomfortable from a cough then she gets stressed.
My 4 yo son came down with Lyme Disease about 3 weeks after he was dx'd. It took over 3 weeks to get that dx'd, but his BGs were pretty good throughout it. It could be that he was still in his honeymoon phase and so his body handled it better than it might later on, and this could be the case for your daughter too.
Our clinic said that some illnesses may cause BG to spike and some will not seem to affect it. The only thing they told us is to generally not worry about the sugar in Tylenol/ibuprofen or other meds, because there isn't that much (even if you can't figure out how much is in there.) It is better to have your kid more comfortable than withold meds because of it. Of course, I have asked whenever he has been on meds if it will affect is BGs.
I also have been more ready to get my son seen when he is sick, just in case.
I was diagnosed at age 6, and I never had the exact same experience twice when it came to being sick. Sometimes my numbers were better than when I wasn't sick, probably because my mom was making me test every hour. Other times I would spike, or stay relatively low. It is nowhere near an exact science. Just keep doing tests and try to stay on top of it. If they can't keep anything down, sucking on hard candy or popsicles helped me some sugar my system.
Like everyone else said it just depends. Keep checking every two hours especially while she has a temp and make her drinks lots of clear liquids. Even though your bg is fine if you don't keep hydrated that can cause ketones to spill. What I have done in the past when I've been sick and start spiking I call my endo and she tells me how much to increase my insulin and at times has even called an antibiotic in if she felt it was necessary. The best thing is to just keep on top of it because things can change in a blink of an eye.
Thanks everyone. I feel much better today. She kept the fever most of the night (around the doses of tylenol anyway). Her last dose of tylenol was about 6.5 hours ago and she's nice and cool now. Hopefully that means she's on the mend. Her bg stayed nice and stable, right were it usually is, so it looks like this illness didn't impact her diabetes. Whew!
It's good to hear that different illnesses have different effects. Her doctors kind of made it sound like any illness would mess with her diabetes, but it sounds like that's no the case.
Thanks again! I'm so glad for this community. It's amazing to be able to ask questions and hear answers from those who've lived this experience.
Nearly a week later and the poor kid is still sick! She felt better on Wednesday, then began losing her voice on Thursday night. A fever came on Friday and she was up and down (down for the 4-5 hours after tylenol, then up again) through yesterday. Now she's got some sort of rash around her mouth and has slept for 12 hours straight! Her sugars are still okay, she was 150 about 3 hours ago. I should probably check her again soon.
Poor kid! She has a vocal audition tomorrow. Hopefully we can postpone it. She's going to be really disappointed otherwise.
If you haven't taken her to a Dr, yet you might want to consider it. I think fevers with rashes can be serious. Strep or scarlet fever can cause a rash. Especially since it has been a week.