Diabetes Case Study

Disease is a change in organ function, this change causes alteration or failure of the organ to function for its original purpose. For example, declines or failure of major organs including; the heart, lungs, kidneys, or pancreas will cause detrimental effects on overall health. On the contrary, illness is subjective, it is the described state of health in which the person describes themselves. Most people say, “I don’t feel good today” or “I am under the weather today”, based on the response by the patient this subjective data is used by physicians as a tool to determine what interventions are needed to restore health. In my opinion, the perception of health is as important as actual health, however this belief holds only to illness. Disease states require a higher level of management and intervention.

At optimal functioning, the pancreas controls the amount of insulin secreted in order to regulate blood sugar. When the pancreas is no longer able to produce sufficient amounts of insulin to lower blood sugar a disease process begins to form (American diab). Diabetes mellitus or Type II diabetes, is a result of too much sugar in the blood, or high blood glucose. Diabetes is diagnosed with a blood glucose of > 180 mg/dl; an elevated blood sugar must be confirmed with repeated testing. Twenty- nine million Americans are living with diabetes, with approximately eight million undiagnosed (American diab). The disease is so prevalent that myself, an emergency department nurse does daily treatment or management of the condition. Those that suffer from diabetes mellitus have a variety of symptoms that are expressed when blood glucose goes unregulated. Patients complain of a variety of symptoms related to both hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia that include increase urination, increased thirst, fatigue, diaphoresis, and