I know the side effects of taking Cortisone being a Diabetic and sometimes I have been prescribed these but never used them so I had some Cortisone tablets on hand this weekend. Some other Dr told me I had to be dying before he gave me Cortisone so that kind of stuck with me.
I could not sleep, I could not eat or basically do anything with out coughing.
On Sunday morning my Husband now playing the part of Dr. P said I should take the dreaded Cortisone. I think he was trying to shut me up, but when I asked very sweetly what about my blood sugars he said we would just have to monitor them better.
I looked at the label on the tablets and it said 2 tablets 3 times a day. Very well that seems a bit high but it was prescribed to me with full knowledge of my Diabetes.
I took two with breakfast ,two with lunch and two with dinner:
These where my readings and I was still coughing but maybe not as bad:
7.2 mmol/l (130 mg/dl)before breakfast
7.2 mmol/l (130 mg/dl) before lunch
3.9 mmol/l (70 mg/dl) before supper
My reaction when I went to bed was (Oh these are not too bad for me)
This Morning before breakfast my reading was 15.1 mmol/l (272 mg/dl) what the hell you got to be joking (I was still coughing, not as bad I have to admit.)
I took 20 units of short acting insulin with my Breakfast.
At 10:25am this had only brought my blood sugar down to 8.2 mmol/l (148 mg/dl)
Update - 9.7 mmol/l (175 mg/dl) Before Lunch - Injected 15 units short acting for something I would have normally injected 11 units.
Update - Before I left work - 5.4 mmol/l (97 mg/dl) Looking better still coughing though.
This side effect is not widely shown on the internet but after many clicks I did find this:
" If you have diabetes prior to starting on oral corticosteroids, you need to be aware that your blood glucose levels may rise whilst you are taking steroids. This is more likely to be the case if you are taking steroids orally."
How do I know about the side effects of Cortisone , you may ask.
When I was pregnant with my first born child, my Obstetrician told me he was going to climb Kilimanjaro a week before I was scheduled to go into hospital and have my C Section, He said don't worry you will be fine and I do have a locum on duty, I believed him so I smiled and waved him goodbye.
I think it must have been the day he flew out of Johannesburg, I swell up like a balloon, My husband and parents in law took me for dinner at Er Buco restaurant very yummy food in Linksfield Johannesburg. Despite the wonderful comforting Italian food my ankles, wrists, nearly everything swelled up.
We left the restaurant while I was still salivating over the Tiramisu in the display cabinet and went to the hospital.
They plugged me on to machines and we waited for the doctor who seemed to take forever to arrive.(Bloody Locum.) to cut a long story short this Doctor breezed in and I do not recall him even looking at my file, he told the nurses to give me Cortisone for the babies lungs as a precautionary method and then I could go home.
The next morning when I tested my blood sugar it was something like 25. I found out later that this was due to the Cortisone and I probably did not need to have had it.
I went in for a C-Section with this Locum Doctor.
Out of the 6 Mothers and myself that had a C-section while our Doctor was climbing Kilimanjaro probably only 1% of us where a really emergency that could not have wait to the next week,
when our chosen fantastic Dr who was fully aware of all our other problems was back in Johannesburg.
So that is how I got to know about the effects of Cortisone on a Diabetic.
I have stopped taking the Cortisone and the question is how long will it take to get my blood sugar under control again and how long will it take to get rid of the cough?
Time will tell, I will update this post with the readings and symptoms regularly until I am all fixed.
Bye for now,
Kim
My conclusion-
1. If you are a Diabetic go to the Doctor when you get sick , even if your medical savings have finished and you think you are a super hero, you are still after all a Diabetic that puts you into a higher risk group.
2. Do not take oral cortisone , firstly you will not take it for the full 5 days they recommend as you will see the high blood sugars and eliminate what is causing them. (That is what we are trained to do.)
Secondly having Diabetes and an infection and taking medication that ups your blood sugar is not recommended. If there is no other alternative ask to be hospitalized so you have medical help.
3. If your doctor wants to give you oral Cortisone question it , maybe they can give you inhaled cortisone for your lungs that does not effect the blood sugar.
Keep well and have a great weekend I have an active weekend with a not so healthy kids party to enjoy. My youngest son is turning 8.
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