Curing Diabetes

When you take the health history of a patient who has diabetes, you need to ask specific questions about her regimen-her medications, diet, exercise program, and glucose monitoring. If your patient uses insulin, ask her to demonstrate her injection technique. And have all patients with diabetes demonstrate their blood glucose monitoring technique., select the appropriate questions from this list:

Insulin

• What type of insulin do you use? How much? When?
• Into which part of your body do you inject the insulin?
• Do you rotate your injection sites?
• Do you inject your insulin or does someone do it for you?
• Have you missed any injections in the last 2 weeks? How many?
• Do you have any problem drawing up the correct amount of insulin?

Oral antidiabetic drugs

• What is the name of your antidiabetic drug?
• How many pills are you supposed to take each day? How many do you actually take?
• Have you missed any pills in the last 2 weeks? How many?

Diet and exercise

• Has your physician recommended that you follow a diet to control your diabetes or to lose weight?
• How many calories are you supposed to have each day? Do you stick to that limit?
• What time do you usually eat your meals? What about snacks?
• Have you skipped any meals in the last 2 weeks? How many? Which meals?
• Who shops for your food? Who prepares your food?
• What’s the hardest part of your diet?
• Has your weight changed in the last year? By how much?
• Is exercise part of your regimen?
• What kind of exercise do you do? How often? For how long?

Blood glucose control

• How often have you checked your blood glucose level in the last month?
• In the past 2 weeks, have you felt tired, very thirsty, confused, or shaky? Have you had to go to the bathroom two or more times during the night? Have you had nightmares or bad dreams?
• How do you feel when you have a reaction to low blood glucose levels? How often have you felt that way in the last 2 weeks?
• How do you treat a reaction from low blood glucose levels?

Filed under: Diabetes