Blood sugar question

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I am new to nursing homes and today one of the resident went out to lunch without my knowing to lunch with her son. No big deal, except I hadn't checked her blood sugar ( since I did not know she was going) before her leaving...thus no sliding scale insulin. She came back from lunch, I thought pointless to check her blood sugar then and let it go till it was checked at 4pm.

What do you all think? She came back and seemed ok when I saw her go to her room.

thanks.

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Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.
I am new to nursing homes and today one of the resident went out to lunch without my knowing to lunch with her son. No big deal, except I hadn't checked her blood sugar ( since I did not know she was going) before her leaving...thus no sliding scale insulin. She came back from lunch, I thought pointless to check her blood sugar then and let it go till it was checked at 4pm.

What do you all think? She came back and seemed ok when I saw her go to her room.

thanks.

But how would you KNOW she was ok without checking her BG?? What was her BG at 4 pm??

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Yeah, you're right. I went off duty shortly after she came back. I feel like I should have done more, and that's where all this comes from I suppose. I wished I would have known she was leaving to begin with. I looked for her when it was time to check her on my shift, but could not find her and was told she left the building while I was off my unit briefly.

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Specializes in Gerontology.

Would you normally check her sugar after lunch?

Does she know to follow her diet - you can eat out and still follow your diabetic diet.

Is this women known to cheat at any opportunity, or does she follow the rules?

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she gets scheduled insulin, then is covered by sliding scale, before meals. That's why I didn't check it after her meal. It would seem uncertain then exactly how much sliding scale to give.....Am I right? To check her after her meal with a sliding scale doesn't make sense??????

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

If she was high (as she may have been) she would have "looked" ok. Normally patient's don't "look" bad as far as blood sugar issues unless they are low. However, I probably would have checked her as soon as you realized she was back, but I would not have given her any sliding scale insulin. Since she was not going to be eating right away (I'm assuming here), the insulin would drop her too quickly. I would wait and give her her sliding scale coverage prior to eating her dinner, as usual.

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Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.
Would you normally check her sugar after lunch?

Does she know to follow her diet - you can eat out and still follow your diabetic diet.

Is this women known to cheat at any opportunity, or does she follow the rules?

Why, I'm offended....oh, this was about the patient, not me :D

Sorry, just being silly after two days of chasing BGs all over the place. Yesterday I had a bowl of Total cereal and 2 small slices of cheddar cheese and my BG was 274 :(

Today I haven't put a carb in my mouth!!

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What you did sounds fine to me.

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