Question:
Surgery Cancellation Due To High Blood Sugar- How to avoid it?

I was told that if my blood sugar is too high on the day of surgery, they will cancel my surgery. What do I do when I have trouble keeping it down with over 200 units of insulin now?    — rhonda D. (posted on April 26, 2003)

April 26, 2003
Have you talked to your PCP about this? Has he/she tried other types of diabetes medication? What about different types of insulin? Are you getting any exercise? Even doing some walking pre-op will help to reduce your blood sugars some...JR
   — John Rushton

April 26, 2003
I could drop my blood sugar when really high almost 100 by exercising. It was amazing to see the effect 20 min of exercise would have.
   — Gail O.

April 26, 2003
I have diabetes and i have found that if you do vigerous activities such as yard work or rearranging furniture it brings your sugar down quick!! and dont forget to drink a lot of water and before you start eat something with a lot of protein in it. that always does it for me when my sugar gets way to high. hope it helps:)
   — harleigh2002

April 26, 2003
These are all good ideas. Be thankful that your surgeon is concerned about your blood sugars. Slow healing and infections can be directly linked to blood sugars that are out of control. While you will probably be able to decrease your meds greatly when you are post op it is very important to go into surgery with your blood sugars under the best control possible. If you aren't already doing so, check your sugars often and keep track of them. Also keep track of the time, what you have eaten, how much insulin/oral meds you are taking, how much exercise you have done, etc. By doing that, you can see patterns develop. That will also help you to see what needs to be done to get them down into normal ranges.
   — garw

April 26, 2003
I was taking 190 units a day of 70/30 when I had to get my sugars down from fasting in the 2-300s to a normal range quickly for my surgery last spring. I did the following: 1) increased my insulin 2)increased my water intake to the point of floating 3)went to a diet where I ate NO bread products, no pastas, no fruits, no tomatoe sauce, really limited milk. Pretty much it was a high protein diet combined with looking at every label for hidden sugars. I'd also contact your PCP and see if he can put you on an oral med, at least temporarily. There are many but metformin works well for me when combined with insulin. Also you might have luck using a sliding scale with a short acting regular insulin in addition to your usual. At my last surgery (an emergency one right before last Christmas) I found that even with eating the high carb hospital food and no exercise that the short acting insulin 4X a day on their scale along with my usual dose of 70/30 worked really well. I hope this helps.
   — Shelly S.