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Advice re my mum please

S

SuzieG

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Hello everyone

My mum is 75 years old with a lot of heart problems and she is on a lot of meds for this. She has not been diagnosed as having diabetes. She had been feeling rough for a couple of weeks and went to her GP last week who diagnosed a urine infection, put her on antibiotics and sent her for blood tests. On Friday he phoned her up and told her she needed to go to A&E urgently - he said it was a matter of 'life and death'. My mum said she had been feeling a bit better before the call, but once she put the phone down she was shaking and felt awful (she laughs about this :)).

On arrival at A&E (she got a friend to take her, she didn't call me!) her blood sugar was 29. They started her on an insulin sliding scale and fluids as she was dehydrated and had a 'small amount' of ketones in her urine. When her friend finally called me, I went to A&E straight away (this was about 3 hours later). Her blood sugar was then 24. She was moved to a ward and her blood sugar was 17. I left her for the night. She says they checked on her constantly throughout the night. Her blood sugar level came down during the night and the sliding scale was stopped. I went to visit her the next morning around 11ish and her blood sugar was 15. The nurse administered 2 units of insulin by injection (such a tiny amount, I couldn't really see how it even got into her blood stream!). Since then (yesterday) her blood sugar seems to have stayed around this level (15-17). While I was there yesterday the doctor drew up a regime for overnight - I've just spoken to my mum and she says they were checking on her throughout the night and giving her insulin.

My concerns are:
Why is her blood sugar level still so high? Why is the insulin they are giving her seemingly not making any difference?
Could this all have been caused by the urine infection? She has regular blood tests and check ups with various doctors for her heart issues, so if she has diabetes I'm a little surprised it hasn't been picked up before.
Could this have been caused by a cardiac event? She has had an ECG during this hospital stay, so I suppose any changes would have been picked up.
What effect will high blood sugars for this length of time have on her heart? Or the rest of her body?

I trained as a nurse and worked in HDU/ITU for several years, treating many patients in diabetic ketoacidosis so I have some knowledge of this though I gave it all up 5 years ago and am a little rusty! In some ways I wish I knew nothing! :)

Thanks for any advice/help.
 
I imagine they could be treating her cautiously to start with. Also, for people with diabetes (not saying that your mum has this as she's not been diagnosed) , an infection can put the blood sugar up. It's possible they might be hoping your mum's blood sugar will come down a bit naturally once she's better.

The important thing is that it seems like they're checking her frequently and reacting to her blood sugar readings.

Could you speak to the hospital and ask what the plan is for her care maybe?

Wishing her and you all the best :)
 
Thank you azure. I do plan to speak to the hospital but so far I haven't seen the same doctor twice and neither has she, and each of them seems to have a different plan! Her nurse yesterday was very good and hassled the doctor until he produced a proper plan for the night, but she has since been moved to a different ward. The joys of the NHS, who I have to say I am a actually a huge fan of :)
 
I had an ECG since I had been showing signs of minor autonomic neuropathy which is likely to have been caused by the high blood sugar levels. They discovered that something was disconnected but that it should not prove to be a problem since the heart has other ways of coping. I don't fully understand the ins and outs of that except for the bit where it shouldn't be a problem.
 
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