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Asked by MegaAlpaca2894
My dtr and I met for lunch one Friday afternoon. During lunch I noticed that she was breathing fast, almost rhythmically. She has anxiety, so I kept encouraging her to slow her breathing. She seemed unable to. It seemed strange, but she was undergoing some stress in her life, and I chalked it up to anxiety.
The next morning, I called to check in. She didn’t sound like herself. I called her husband and he said she didn’t seem well at all. She seemed confused and “out of it”. I dropped everything and drove over to her house. As soon as I walked in I knew something was terribly wrong. Her eyes were rolling back in her head, and she was incoherent, though still walking around. We called 911.
The paramedics assessed her. VSS, afebrile. Then they checked her blood sugar. It was 358. A few minutes later it was >500. By the time she got to the hospital it was >700. She was in DKA and at age 33 she got her initial diagnosis of DM Type 1. She spent a week in the ICU and we came close to losing her.
As she did not seem sick and we were out to lunch relaxing, I did not recognize one of the signs of DKA the day before, Kussmaul breathing. You can click on this link posted by Augusta University Medical College of Georgia to get more information and listen to a child with Kussmaul respirations. Kussmaul Respirations
What are some other s/s of diabetes that you might see in your patients?
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NURS 6050
