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After being an RN for a long time, I thought I had seen alot. Was wondering what the lowest blood sugar level you have seen on a conscious patient. My little man from last week's was 12.
The lowest I've ever seen was a 22 - my type 2 non-compliant grandfather.
He was conscious, but not terribly lucid. 8oz of Sprite (he had no OJ in the house) and an EMS ride to the hospital took care of that incident, but he died two weeks later in the hospital, at 86 y/o, from complications of uncontrolled DM.
I thought my yesterday at work was impressive. BS 30. Recheck after 6 oz of oj and 6 sugar packets - BS 28. No order for glucagon, so had to keep on with the oj and sugar. MD was unable to be contacted after numerous attempts. She finally called back 4 hours later asking what the problem was. WTH?!?
Found out at the end of my shift that the resident's BS the previous morning was 29, verified by the lab. No mention in report or anything.
Gotta love LTC.
When I was working in primary care as a MA we had a pt come in with a BS of 15. She was pretty out of it & we were all stunned to find out she had driven herself to the office! When we finally got her BS back up to 85 she knew who & where she was, but couldn't remember how she got there !
DolphinRN84, MSN, RN, APRN, NP
1,326 Posts
I didn't have this patient, but a patient on my floor had a BS of 13 last week. That's the lowest I've seen so far.