Living through Covid with diabetes: Ania
Living with type 1 diabetes, Ania* took to social media when she was diagnosed with Covid, sharing her story for the benefit of others living with diabetes.
Unfortunately I managed to contract COVID-19 last week. I’ve got a bit of time up my hands since I’m still in isolation so I thought I would share my experience with it (and maybe hear some other stories) given how infectious omicron is meant to be and the likelihood of those of us withh diabetes catching it.
When I got COVID there was nothing on the New Zealand pages about people's experiences of it, and it’s a bit daunting given how much we Kiwis have been trying to avoid it, so I thought it would be good to share my experience with COVID to hopefully reduce any anxiety people might be having about how they feel getting COVID when they have diabetes.
To give some background, I’m in my mid 20s and my HbA1c is a little on the higher side (61%), but aside from that, I’m fairly fit and active. I’ve had diabetes for a number of years now so have gotten colds a fair amount of times now to know how my body reacts. I’m double vaxxed and when I contracted COVID, I had had my third jab a week prior to developing symptoms. I was isolating due to being a close contact of someone who tested positive, and started getting symptoms on the Monday and then a few days later received the call that I was positive.
At first, I was pretty scared because I knew my diabetes would make it harder, but by the time I received the call, I was pretty much 100% sure I had it.
I had all the usual symptoms such as a fever (although I live in Auckland and during this humid weather it’s hard to tell which is which), cough, sore throat, headache, fatigued, congestion, shortness of breath and a slightly runny nose. By day three I was feeling extremely congested and phlegmy, with what felt like daggers going through my throat every time I swallowed. This lasted for about two days and was a mix of trying to cough to reduce the congestion but being in wincing pain with the throat. Ultimately, it felt like it was just a really bad cold. When I began getting mild symptoms, I started my usual routine that I do whenever I get a cold which really helped me, and I only had severe symptoms for about two days in total, but it’s been a week now and the other symptoms have mostly gone except for the shortness of breath which continued for much longer and its only really reduced a week later.
In terms of diabetes, my blood sugars definitely did the usual sick day thing and kept being high. I was also taking a lot of Vitamin C and drinking lemon, ginger and honey (part of my usual cold routine) which elevated them even more. This meant I was constantly correcting as best as I could in addition to taking my usual meal dose, but making sure I kept an eye out on things as I struggled to have anything sugary like juice (because it would quite literally feel like my throat was burning). I fortunately didn’t loose my appetite, but I can imagine corrections would still be needed if I wasn’t eating. The lowest I tested when my symptoms were severe was 12 despite doing a multitude of corrections. I made sure I was taking heaps of Novorapid (based on how I usually correct myself) but kept my Lantus at the same rates.
There were definitely moments in there that I thought if this gets any worse I’ll need to go to hospital, but I was very fortunate to have someone with me who looked after when I was feeling my worst. I also had family members and friends outside my bubble who could pick up prescriptions and grab my necessities, so I consider myself very lucky.
All I can say is treat it seriously and listen to your body. Don’t be hard on yourself but do what you can do manage your diabetes, because it really does make all the difference. Make sure you test!! And if you feel like it’s all a little bit too much, get in touch with the professionals or call 111.