My granddaughter had a stomach virus on Monday, March 20. We had to take her to the hospital because her sugar was 42 mg/dl [2.3 mmol/L] and she could not keep anything down, including water or glucose tablets. She received an I.V. that night, had blood tests taken and was sent home. She has not had an insulin shot since Monday morning. Here it is, Sunday already. Her ketones are normal. Is this a common scene? My daughter thinks maybe her diabetes is gone. Her doctor said, “Don’t complain.” It was not the right answer, I think. If juvenile diabetes does not go away, he should have said that. We just don’t want to get our hopes up.

Type 1 diabetes (older term juvenile diabetes) does not go away. However, with some viral illnesses, insulin doses sometimes need to be drastically reduced and I suspect this is what you are describing. Keep a close watch on the blood glucose levels, ketone levels and her weight. As she recovers from this illness, she will likely return to her usual insulin and food needs. If you have further questions, please stay in close contact with your diabetes team so that they can give you more specific advice about insulin and food needs. Sometimes with such illnesses (usually gastrointestinal and not respiratory illnesses), there is hypoglycemia that does not respond to cutting back insulin and Mini-Dose Glucagon Rescue can also be very helpful.

SB