Paper Example on Living with Diabetes Type 1: How to Manage & Live Healthily

Introduction

According to Atkinson and Eisenbarth (2001), Diabetes Type 1 is also known as Insulin-dependent Diabetes, which is a severe medical condition and is characterised by pancreas producing little insulin (American Diabetes Association, 2004). According to research, diabetes is one of the medical conditions that have no cure, but with proper care, a good diet, and living a healthy lifestyle, any patient can prevent complications and live healthy (Atkinson and Eisenbarth, 2001). It is essential for a patient to weigh all the risks and seek medical advice from medical professionals to benefit from the available treatment options. Below is a table that shows the data readings.

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Nancy has been diagnosed with diabetic 1, which is a severe condition that can be managed with proper and following all the advice from the nurses or doctors. The scales and readings of the critical elements show that the patient is in a central position and that is why it is essential to put her in the emergency unit for close supervision (Moore and Catalano, 2018). Nancy has exhibited some abnormalities in a heartbeat, body temperature, glass comma readings, respiratory rate, blood sugar range, pulse ratings, and others (American Diabetes Association, 2010). Nancy has high blood pressure, and her body temperature is quite high. The heart rate is also considerably high which a reason to worry is. Additionally, Nancy has low blood pressure, and blood oxygenation is also low. The patient has glass comma reading is 13, which is mild, but the blood glucose level is too high.

Process Information - Relate and Infer

Nancy has shown several abnormalities in the data readings, and this is a clear indication that she requires urgent medical care to help in the management and recovery. According to medical experts, diabetes type I is a chronic condition, which affects the insulin (American Diabetes Association, 2000). Mostly, this type of diabetes affects young people and adolescence, but also prevalent among adults. Because this disease has no cure, medical practitioners usually focus on managing the sugar levels to help the patient stabilise. From the data collected, Nancy has poor skin turgor, she frequently urinates, agitated, easily irritable, and she is speaking in a confused mixture.

In most cases, diabetes can leave someone to be more prone to contaminations of the skin. The imperfect skin turgor recorded from Nancy confirms that she has bacterial or fungal infections (Voltarelli et al., 2007). Nancy could also be having gum diseases and dry mouth. In addition to this, diabetes affects the kidney in various ways, which could cause damage to this vital organ. Majorly, diabetes type I can fail the kidney, and that is why patients are required to go for dialysis. Because Nancy has diabetes, she tends to have excess sugar in the blood, and when the kidney cannot keep up with the high level of diabetes, the body will react by frequent urination (Hagger, Hendrieckx, Sturt, Skinner, and Speight, 2016). That is precisely what is happening to Nancy, and it explains why she has frequent urination. Nancy has high blood pressure, which means she has a high risk of heart problems and other conditions such as kidney failure and stroke among others (Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications, 2005). The high blood pressure is prevalent because the blood vessels and the nervous system are damaged. The heart rate is high because Nancy's blood vessels are affected. Generally, diabetes type 1 comes with multiple complications, and that is why Nancy could be exhibiting a wide range of symptoms and complications (American Diabetes Association, 2010). The best option for Nancy is to be provided with the care possible so that she can manage the symptoms and stabilise for a healthy lifestyle.

Majorly, diabetes type 1 affects the body, and in most cases, it is hard to control blood sugar, and because of such complications, it becomes hard to eat and exercise. The body requires a lot of food during this critical stage, and a patient will also need exercise.

Three Nursing diagnoses and Management Plan

Many risks are involved in this stage. The first risk is imbalanced nutrition, which can cause blood glucose levels to go high or low (Chrvala, Sherr, and Lipman, 2016). Most of the time, patients will have issues with high blood sugar, which is evident with Nancy. The doctors must help her to stabilise the sugar levels until it is low. There is also a high risk of deficient and imbalance fluid volume. Nancy has high blood sugar at the moment, and because of this, the body may attempt to remove the excuse glucose, which is why we find that the patient is having frequent urination (American Diabetes Association, 2000). She is likely to have fluid imbalance volume because the body is trying to control the high sugar levels. Based on the situation that Nancy is currently, the best diagnosis is imbalanced fluid. The other significant risk that Nancy is facing now is the risk of thermal injury. At the current situation, Nancy has a high temperature of roughly 39.7 degrees. The patient is more likely to scold or burn even without realizing. Because of the burns, Nancy could have to get infections because the immune system is vulnerable.

Managing the risks and symptoms is critical at this stage.

Firstly, the priority is to manage the high body temperature and give Nancy fluid to create a balance and minimise any deficiency that may occur.

Secondly, the best option is to provide adequate education so that Nancy can know how to manage diabetes. A majority of the patients do not have education on how to manage the diabetes disease and that is why they suffer most on time. The nurse should educate Nancy and give her a few tips on the management of diabetes type 1.

Thirdly, it is crucial to help in managing chronic pain because a majority of diabetic patients suffer from chronic pain. According to research, most patients with diabetes type 1 experience severe pain (Ciechanowski, Katon, and Russo, 2000). The nurse can provide pain killers and advice the patient the management practices that can help to avoid and manage such pains.

The nurse can provide education to Nancy so that she knows how to take blood sugar and interpret the results (Ciechanowski, Katon, and Russo, 2000). Besides, the patient should be educated on how to give herself insulin injections, which is suitable for managing blood sugar levels. The nurse should also tell Nancy how she can check her sugar levels. Moreover, the nurse should provide diet recommendation to Nancy so that she can understand how to take care of herself when she is at home. More importantly, the nurse should educate Nancy on how to dispose of all the syringes after she has injected herself with insulin to avoid harm and infections to other people.

References

Atkinson, M. A., & Eisenbarth, G. S. (2001). Type 1 diabetes: new perspectives on disease pathogenesis and treatment. The Lancet, 358(9277), 221-229.

Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) Study Research Group. (2005). Intensive diabetes treatment and cardiovascular disease in patients with type 1 diabetes. New England Journal of Medicine, 353(25), 2643-2653.

American Diabetes Association. (2000). Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 105(3), 671-680.

American Diabetes Association. (2004). Gestational diabetes mellitus. Diabetes care, 27(suppl1), s88-s90.

American Diabetes Association. (2010). Diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes care, 33(Supplement 1), S62-S69.

Ciechanowski, P. S., Katon, W. J., & Russo, J. E. (2000). Depression and diabetes: impact of depressive symptoms on adherence, function, and costs. Archives of internal medicine, 160(21), 3278-3285.

Chrvala, C. A., Sherr, D., & Lipman, R. D. (2016). Diabetes self-management education for adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review of the effect on glycemic control. Patient education and counselling, 99(6), 926-943.

Hagger, V., Hendrieckx, C., Sturt, J., Skinner, T. C., & Speight, J. (2016). Diabetes distress among adolescents with type 1 diabetes: a systematic review. Current diabetes reports, 16(1), 9.

Moore, L. E., & Catalano, P. (2018). Diabetes in pregnancy. New York: Springer International Publishing AG.

Voltarelli, J. C., Couri, C. E., Stracieri, A. B., Oliveira, M. C., Moraes, D. A., Pieroni, F., ... &

Foss, M. C. (2007). Autologous nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes mellitus. Jama, 297(14), 1568-1576.