Is there any context in which a blood sugar reading of “38.1” would be too high? I’m familiar with a standard that says “normal” is somewhere between 80 and 120, but my wife received a telephone call from a doctor’s office to make a follow-up appointment after getting the “38.1” reading, and she said it was high. I can’t find anything on the internet about a blood sugar reading standard in which 38.1 makes sense as a high reading.
Of course I’m not asking for advice, and if you offer it we won’t take it. She’s seeing her doctor for advice tomorrow.
Question answered, so here’s an aside: up here in Canada we measure it as g/dL, so I’ve seen readings of 38 in very sick people and in long-term uncontrolled diabetics.
What units is she quoting ? In the US its is common to use mg/dl in which case 38.1 would be very low indeed (a normal reading before eating should be 70–130mg/dl). However the rest of the world uses mmol/l in which case 38.1 would be very high indeed (the normal prior to a meal would be 5.0–7.2 mmol/l).
I have heard that meters can be accidentally changed from one mode to the other, and so read back in mols. Though I think the missing a “1” explanation is more likely.
Alternatively, it’s an A1c and not a glucose reading, and it was really 8.1 instead of 38.1. Usually straight glucose (fasting or random) readings are given as whole numbers and A1c readings may go out one decimal point, which makes me wonder here. An A1c of 8.1 would be high.
Agreed. I am used to the SI system and I went… hell yeah if her blood sugar was 38 she’d be very sick, she wouldn’t be waiting for a doctor’s phone call she would be in the ER. Unless…
I had a patient, long term diabetic, long term in patient in a psych hospital who’s blood glucose could go from 1.2 to 41. I took both those readings twice and did a QA on that glucometer, thats for sure. Her glycemic control followed no rhyme or reason, and the best control was always basic Humulin R and insulin by reaction. She would refuse to eat for days on end, and her sugars would be normal, she would eat and drop, or spike. Her low sugars never worried us until they went under about 2.2. We had no glucagon in the hospital when her sugars went that low, she wasn’t comatose but very groggy and I ended up slowly swabbing her lips and mouth with pancake syrup until she kinda woke up enough to eat six ice creams (her favourite food)
I also remember calling a nurse from across the hall to check the order for 60 units of R for her when she was above 40. Scared the heck out of me. I wanted to send her out, but family and doctors and everyone said she was better off at our place not in an ER. (Later that night she put someone off on workmans comp for broken teeth, so Im still not sure what my call should have been)
I once tried an experiment where I plotted her moods vs her blood sugars for a few weeks… no correlations. Except that getting her finger stuck was ALWAYS going to make her angry.