For someone with diabetes, both excessively high and excessively low blood sugar can represent an emergency. Hyperglycemia, or high-blood sugar, is typically defined as blood sugar at or above 240 mg per deciliter. The symptoms of hyperglycemia include nausea, irritability, difficulty concentrating, blurred vision, increased thirst and frequent urination. In severe cases of hyperglycemia, your body may enter ketoacidosis. If you have hyperglycemia, and ketones are present in your urine, you need to seek immediate medical attention from your doctor or the emergency room.
Step 1
Test your blood sugar, using a glucose meter and test strips and following the manufacturer's instructions.
Step 2
Test for ketones in your blood or urine if your blood sugar is above 240 mg per deciliter. Ketone tests are available either as a simple strip for testing urine or as finger-prick blood sample.
Step 3
Contact your doctor immediately or go directly to the emergency room if you have increased ketones in your blood or urine. A small increase in ketones is less than 20 mg per deciliter, medium is 30 to 40 mg per deciliter, and a large ketone increase is more than 80 mg per deciliter.
Step 4
Exercise to reduce hyperglycemia when there are no ketones in your urine or blood. You can often bring your blood sugar down to normal with about 30 minutes of low- to moderate-impact exercise like walking or jogging.
Step 5
Retest you blood sugar to see if exercise has corrected the problem. Ideally, your daytime blood sugar should stay between 70 to 100 mg per deciliter.
Step 6
Take additional insulin to correct your blood sugar. Hyperglycemia can sometimes be the result of eating more than you should. If your meal was too large for your normal insulin dose, you may need to supplement with additional insulin. Discuss with your doctor the proper supplemental dose of insulin for occasions where your normal dose is ineffective.
Things You'll Need
- Blood-sugar test strips
- Glucose meter
- Ketone test strips
- Insulin pen or syringe
References
- Wisconsin Department of Health Services; Students with Diabetes: A Resource Guide for Wisconsin Schools and Families, Section 6: Diabetes Emergencies; 2010
- American Diabetes Association; Living with Diabetes: Hyperglycemia
- Mayo Clinic; Type 1 Diabetes: Treatments and Drugs; May 2011
- Medline Plus; Ketones - Urine; David C. Dugdale, III, M.D.; November 2009
