Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Riding Shotgun with a Rhino

I suppose I should explain the title.

To say "to ride shotgun" means riding in the passenger seat of a vehicle.

I know what your thinking, he is riding in the front seat of a vehicle with a rhino, what the heck is this guy talking about.

I have come down with the "Common Cold" also known as the Rhino-virus. Catchy eh!

I haven't confirmed it to be the Rhino as there are a few other nasty organisms that can also create a snotty, congested nose, headache, scratchy throat, mild fever, and absolutely crazy blood sugars.

But this isn't an infectious disease blog, I wonder if one exists? This is indeed still a diabetes blog.

Stress in all it's forms can wreak havoc on your blood sugars, as most of you readers can attest.  It really messes up the way our body uses insulin. Once again the body is less sensitive to the insulin on board and this causes a subsequent increase in blood glucose. Unless of course we increase our dose or give regular correction shots/boluses we are "hooped"

Diabetes organizations and researchers have gone to great lengths to educate PWD by providing the so called "Sick Day Rules"

Some tricks I've learned a long my journey:

-If you are getting sick or are sick, test, test, test.
-Taking more insulin is not always necessary as you may not have the appetite to support the increased dose. I prefer to rely on correction doses for the kids as it is safer.
-Pumps are great to have during illness as I have found that increasing the basal rate helps for me
-the most challenging illness are the high fever ones, and the vomiting ones.

The higher the fever the higher the insulin resistance. Vomiting, is tricky for obvious reasons. No food, or inconsistent food/carb intake makes the big D almost impossible to control. Thankfully I don't have either of the above today.

I can't wait until this damn Rhino drops me off!

Trev

3 comments:

Valerie said...

Hope you feel better asap!

Lora said...

Nothing like a good title to make you jump in :)
Hope you feel better soon!

Amy said...

You need an elephant to come stomp on your foot. Then you wouldn't be feel so bad about the Rhino (virus).

Get better soon, Trev.

It takes a jungle to raise a sick Diabetic????? Hehehehehe