Reference no: EM133380808

Case Study: Carla is a 48 year old full-time working mother of three. She spends days at a desk working a demanding corporate job. On evenings and weekends she shuttles between kids' sporting events and theater rehearsals. She usually skips meals or grabs fast food on the run. With little time for exercise either, her weight has been steadily increasing over the past few years. Lately she complains of increased fatigue and blurry vision on her computer screen. Her skin feels dry and itchy and her feet feel tingly and numb sometimes. She scraped her foot in the yard a few weeks ago and the cut has not healed. At her company's annual health screening, her random blood glucose was 354mg/dl.

Questions:

1. Carla's symptoms are typical of what type of diabetes?

2. What complications of high blood glucose does Carla display?

3. What additional complications are possible if Carla does not make lifestyle changes to keep her blood glucose in a normal range?

34 year old Ruth is 6 months pregnant with her second child. She is concerned because she has gained more weight than she did with her first son, who weighed 9lb 5oz at birth. She reports snacking all day long while chasing her toddler around. To keep up her energy, she relies on coffee with cream and sugar in the morning and a can of Coke in the afternoon. At her last prenatal appointment, she fasted overnight then drank a syrupy solution. An hour later the nurse checked her blood glucose, which was 288mg/dl.

1. Is Carla's blood glucose indicative of diabetes? If so, what type?

2. What are the risks of high blood glucose levels during pregnancy?

3. What lifestyle interventions can Carla be educated about in order to keep her blood glucose in a normal range?