| Abstract: |
This article presents a case of a 54-year-old Hispanic woman who presented to the emergency room with acute cholecystitis. She is 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 186 pounds; she has had annual medical care but was never told her blood glucose levels were high. Both her parents died from complications of type 2 diabetes. The author describes the health care that the patient received at the time of the emergency, 10 days later at her appointment for outpatient cholecystectomy, and a second emergency visit 6 days postoperatively. The patient was placed on varying diabetes care by the hospital team, an endocrinologist, and her primary care physician. Eventually, the case patient completed 10 hours of diabetes education and lost 45 pounds. One year later, her diabetes was controlled with oral drugs, and her glycosylated hemoglobin was 6.8 percent. The author comments on this case, discussing the initial presentation, the lack of adequate insulin during the first hospital stay, when to call in a diabetes education team, the need to control blood glucose levels before surgery, and how a follow-up visit from the diabetes education team could have improved this patient’s care. 5 references. |