Question: I am a type II diabetic. I monitor my blood sugar 4 times a day. Since reading the results of the DCCT, I have chosen to take 4 insulin shots a day for tighter control. My control has been good until about 3 weeks ago. Now it seems that nothing I do will bring down my blood sugar levels ( over 300). What should I be doing?
Answer: The most important thing you should do is get in touch with your physician to let him know that your sugars are that high. As you know the DCCT study demonstrated that bringing the sugar average close to normal was very important in trying to prevent long term complications in type 1 diabetics. They also concluded this is probably true for type II diabetics.
If blood sugars remain elevated, patients should always check to be certain that the insulin has not expired or rendered ineffective by heat exposure. Sometimes it helps to administer insulin injections in the abdomen, which has been demonstrated to be the most reliable site of insulin absorption.
Another common cause of persistently elevated blood sugars are any types of infections. Most of these are obvious, such as upper respiratory infections or urinary tract infections. Some need to be checked out by your physician.
Also other medications (such as cortisone or certain diuretics) can cause elevated blood sugars. Other less common causes are other diseases such as thyroid or adrenal gland conditions, or a decrease in your own pancreatic insulin production. As you can see there are many reasons for persistently elevated blood sugars and it is impossible to list them all, which is why contacting and consulting your own physician is probably the most important thing you can do.