Nurses General Nursing
Published Apr 9, 2002
what are some of the labs that you have seen that are just totally out of whack?
the one that comes to my mind was a hgb of 2.1! i don't remember the hct...patient was a jehovah's witness. she was discharged with a hgb of 2.8.
NannaNurse
266 Posts
WOW:eek: I've never seen a Glucose, or heard of, one that high!! >1000? or even 1200? Man oh man! Took my mom to the ER before she passed away. Her glucose was 535....that was her diagnosis factor!
Had a patient with PT of 113.3 and one had INR of 35. I was afraid to touch him! (Doing Home Health at the time) The HHA had just finished shaving him.....with a non-electric razor!!!....before I got there w/results.
OMG.. are we crazy????
Agnus
2,719 Posts
ETOH .8
Sad thing she was one of our nurses. Known to be an alcoholic she claimed she doesn't drink. "Someone spiked the punch." She, "only had 4 cups of punch" She was vented. No longer works for us, (not over this incident). Still in denial.
RNforLongTime
1,577 Posts
Admitted a pt into ICU a few weeks ago with a K+ of 9.2--the lab ran it three times!!! Dialysis pt who hadn't skipped a treatment. Had to have emergency Dialysis though.
samrn32
19 Posts
platlets 4
sodium >190
wbc 0.0
glucose >1400
wbc 81
kids
1 Article; 2,334 Posts
CBG: 21-27 on 3 different machines...walking, talking and (gasp) passing meds...no sx except irritable.
Was me, learned the hard way not to forget to eat for 2-3 days!
P_RN, ADN, RN
6,011 Posts
Glucose of ONE!
I posted this on the sci.med.nursing newsgroup and got some nice replies.
In the past week we have had a patient who is an alcoholic. He was found by>EMS to be totally unresponsive. A fingerstick glucose did not register on>their glucometer so they drew a red top and then gave him 2 amps of D50. He>aroused somewhat but remained semi conscious. When they arrived at the ER>the red top was analysed and showed a glucose of 1 (one) !!>On the floor q 1 hour fsbs were in the 29-39 range on .45 saline and in the>60-90 range on D5 .45.>>No definite cause was determined but the patient developed a seizure>disorder and was discharged on Hosp. day 7 on Depakote for the seizures.>Any comments?Hopefully, someone thought to give the patient some thiamine somewherealong the way, otherwise the seizures would be complicated withWernicke's encephalopathy...Question 1: Were the seizures caused by the alcohol or by the lowblood sugar or both? Question 2: What was his blood alcohol on admission?Question 3: Why wasn't this chap on D10 or better? Lowest bloodglucose I've ever seen was in the low teens, and that's scary enough.ck
>EMS to be totally unresponsive. A fingerstick glucose did not register on
>their glucometer so they drew a red top and then gave him 2 amps of D50. He
>aroused somewhat but remained semi conscious. When they arrived at the ER
>the red top was analysed and showed a glucose of 1 (one) !!
>On the floor q 1 hour fsbs were in the 29-39 range on .45 saline and in the
>60-90 range on D5 .45.
>
>No definite cause was determined but the patient developed a seizure
>disorder and was discharged on Hosp. day 7 on Depakote for the seizures.
>Any comments?
Hopefully, someone thought to give the patient some thiamine somewhere
along the way, otherwise the seizures would be complicated with
Wernicke's encephalopathy...
Question 1: Were the seizures caused by the alcohol or by the low
blood sugar or both?
Question 2: What was his blood alcohol on admission?
Question 3: Why wasn't this chap on D10 or better? Lowest blood
glucose I've ever seen was in the low teens, and that's scary enough.
ck
kewlnurse
427 Posts
#1 Could be both
a
#3 D10 has to be tapered off like hyper al and i have noticed most md's hesitant to order it
bjpeace
33 Posts
Originally posted by misti_z H&h 3/6Creat 31Potassium 9.1Phos 15Glucose 19 and >1000 I work renal. We see alot of craziness!!!!
H&h 3/6
Creat 31
Potassium 9.1
Phos 15
Glucose 19 and >1000
I work renal. We see alot of craziness!!!!
I've worked in a renal unit also, yes craziness is abundant! We had a new admit walk in one evening with a creatine of 16 ! He denied any and all complaints. His wife told us he had been "a little off" that week....... a LITTLE ?!?!?!
one more quickie to add......
Hemodialysis patient last spun on a Friday, hit the ER on Sunday late evening with EMS pacing him. K+ was 9.9 , HR was in 30's before pacer applied. After 15 mins of emergent dialysis the pacer was able to be pulled off. The culprit of this episode in a usually compliant dialysis patient?...........He had ketchup on his french fries at an afternoon church social!!!!!! How much he never really told.
LasVegasRN
835 Posts
I was called back in to my doctor's office to repeat lab work. I asked what the problem was, they said my K+ was 9.1. The lab repeated it on the same sample, still came back the same. BUN & creat were normal, so was the liver panel.
I told the nurse who drew the second sample that I wouldn't be sitting here if my K+ was really that high, unless I'm dead and don't know it yet!!!???