Allergy and Diabetes

Hi

My daughter, Amy, was diagnosed T1 three years ago when she was 11, she was previously diagnosed with a peanut allergy when she was 3.

She has been admitted to the children's ward 5 times since September with high blood sugars and high ketones, the last time - a fortnight ago - she had DKA and was put on a heart monitor and potassium drip along with sliding scale insulin which was scary for both of us.

She has been complaining intermittently of her throat feeling tight and being unable to swallow, we saw a GP the day after she was discharged for the DKA and the GP suggested that this throat problem may be another allergy and that Amy should take antihistamines for a month to see if that makes a difference.

Today Amy's eye swelled up, it was stinging and itching and I took her to A & E in case it was an allergic reaction (this was just before teatime and she'd not eaten anything since lunchtime). The dr confirmed that it was an allergic reaction and prescribed prednisolone which she took in tablet form on the department. (Having been on IV steroids and being T1 myself I am aware that they can cause your blood sugars to rise).

Does anyone have any experience of allergies and the effect it has on diabetes, could this be the reason that her blood sugars have gone haywire? The doctor on the children's ward said that the only reason for her high bloods is either overeating or not injecting her insulin and I really don't think that is the case (but of course I may just be being hoodwinked by Amy).

Hope someone can help, thanks for reading.

Caroline

Hi, the 'doctor' on the childrens ward was he a Diabetes Consultant ? If not on what basis is he deciding it is NOT related to her allergy problems. I would get an appointment to see a Diabetes consultant and go through the issues Amy is having. Everyone is different and anything is possible. I have not heard of allergies causing high BG's but thats not to say it doesn't happen OR the allegry is causing some secondary issue that is causing the high BG's. A lot of non-diabetes HCP's make assumptions about you when you are a diabetic.
Two years ago, I was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome which is basically an auto-immune issue like allegries and Diabetes. Of course my GP said 'oh you're a diabetic and this must be the cause of your kidney problem'. Fortunately my Diabetes Consultant dismissed this out of hand and said it was definately NOT diabetes. It has since been confirmed its just my immune system in general. During my problems I have had both low and high BG's that are not clearly connected to my diabetes.
So find someone who can give you good advice about this, I appreciate you might be constrained to pediatrics, I'm not sure at what age Amy moves to 'general' medicine. It sounds like you are being given generic stock answers rather than necessarily getting to the root of the issue.