It’s never fun having a cold. Things you usually find easy, like breathing and moving, suddenly become a challenge, and you’re tired but can’t sleep because you’re afraid you’ll run out of oxygen.
When you’re type 1 diabetic, other challenges also present themselves. Yep, you guessed it - life for you isn’t fair, and this isn’t fair either.
Here are a few ways a cold can mess you up, and how I’ve learnt how to deal with them.
Problem 1: Your blood sugar will run higher
This is the main issue you’ll encounter when diabetes mixes with a cold. Your body is trying to help you get over your illness, so it will pump more glucose around your system to fill you with energy and power you through the day. For non-diabetics, this is very handy. For you, it’s shit. You’ll find your levels run higher naturally and react more to the food you eat, knocking your routine out of whack and potentially making you feel even worse.
The solution: Adjust your dosage
Give yourself an extra couple of units every time you take insulin for a meal, and check your levels regularly throughout the day. You’ll probably find things still run a little high, but if you make a little adjustment you should be able to stop the wild leaps. I make no guarantees on this - my sugar went up to 21 (yes, twenty one) the other day after eating two slices of toast, so logic might be out the window for a few days until your body is back to normal.
Problem 2: Medicine is your enemy
A lot of cold and flu meds contain sugar and caffeine. This is to give you the extra energy you need, but obviously all it does for you is RUIN THINGS, AGAIN, OH MY GOD.
The solution: Shop around
More meds are becoming sugar free for health reasons, but some have replaced the sugar with other sweeteners which can be bad for your stomach if you take too much. Ask your pharmacist for a good alternative, and they’ll likely present you with the worst tasting syrup you’ve ever encountered. As a general rule of thumb, the worse a medicine tastes, the better it will work.
Problem 3: Your appetite is gone
Eating is important for a diabetic, but a cold makes that hard. It gets even more complicated when you give yourself insulin for a meal that you struggle to finish, as you can find you’ve taken more units than you really needed.
The solution: Smaller portions, smaller doses.
Don’t challenge yourself with a huge portion, ‘cos you ain’t gonna finish it. As I said earlier, upping your insulin will probably do you a favour while you’re ill, but taking too much will still cause problems. So make reasonable adjustments to gently ease your body back into its natural routine and avoid going low.
You’ll notice loads of other stuff too, like how your glucose tablets start tasting weird, and how it takes your body longer to react to insulin because your circulation isn’t great, and how it feels like far too much effort to physically move. I can’t help you fix these things, but they will pass with time.
I wish you luck and good health. You’ll get through this, and you’ll never fail to appreciate how good it feels to breathe freely again.