Case Studies about Insulin Dependent Diabetes Hypertension



HISTORY
The patient is a 43-year-old female who carries a diagnosis of scleroderma, insulin-dependent diabetes, hypertension.  Her hypertension has been accelerated lately secondary to vomiting, unable to keep down meds.  She has been on nifedipine 30 milligrams a day and Toprol-XL 50 milligrams a day.  She has been throwing up daily and usually seeing her nifedipine in there.  She does not know if she is getting her prednisone down either, but her swelling has gotten progressively worse.  She is chronically fatigued and is having difficulty doing anything.  Her concern now is her blood pressure is so high.  She went to North Baldwin ER Friday evening or Friday and was worked up for accelerated hypertension.  They gave her some medicine for headache, gave her 40 mEq of p.o. potassium even though she is having some nausea and vomiting.  She said she went home and she threw all the pills back up.  She just has not felt good since, and she has been trying to take her medicine as prescribed.  Her sugar has been okay, but she has not been eating much because it is difficult to swallow.  I asked her if the food gets stuck in any particular position, and she said she is not sure; it just does not feel like it goes down right.  This probably goes along with her scleroderma.   

PAST MEDICAL HISTORY
She has been a diabetic since 1991, has been on insulin for approximately 10 years.  She says the diagnosis of scleroderma has been worked up by Dr. Sullivan and she has had dyspnea secondary to scleroderma or just multifactorial that has been worked up by Dr. Griffin.  She also has GERD.  

FAMILY HISTORY
At this time is noncontributory.

SOCIAL HISTORY
She does not smoke.  She has a 2-year-old child and she is single.  She is disabled.  

OBJECTIVE
GENERAL/VITAL SIGNS/HEENT:  When I see patient, her blood pressure is 200/120, her pulse is 100.  She is very anxious.  She is worried about having a stroke and just this inability to swallow.  She has depigmentation of a lot of her skin.  She is starting to get some tightening of the fingers as well and the skin general.  Face is very prominent.  I cannot get a pulse oximetry on our machine here in the office.  She does on fingernail polish; I just cannot pick it up.  She does have Raynaud phenomenon as well with her scleroderma. 
NECK:  Tight.
CHEST:  She has bilateral breath sounds, which sound pretty clear to me.  I do not hear any wheezes, any crackles.
CARDIAC:  Revealed a tachycardic rhythm right at 100 with a soft 1/6 murmur at the left sternal border.
ABDOMEN:  Benign.
EXTREMITIES:  She is not edematous. 

DATA
These are labs from North Baldwin:  Her potassium is 2.9 and she had some other mild electrolyte abnormalities; glucose and stuff, which would be expected, was 190, but it was a random glucose.   

ASSESSMENT
I talked to her about her swallowing and discussed with Dr. Sullivan, her rheumatologist, who said, you know she is probably going to need to be dilated.  So he talked with Dr. Ives and he is going to set up tomorrow, but with a potassium of 2.9, this lady needs to go into the hospital to get this corrected before they do any invasive procedures, and he is in agreement. 

ADMISSION DIAGNOSES
1.            Accelerated hypertension secondary to inability to keep down medications.
2.            Nausea and vomiting secondary to scleroderma.
3.            Scleroderma, moderate.
4.            Dyspnea; has been worked up with Dr. Griffin.  He evidently did a recent high resolution CT scan; I do not have the result back yet.
5.            Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

PLAN
Will admit to the hospital.  Will correct her potassium as needed.  Will consult Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Ives.  She is probably going to need at least and EGD and probably dilatation.  I put her on some p.r.n. clonidine.  I did get her to take an AZOR which is 5 of Norvasc and 20 of Benicar here in the office, and she was able to keep this down, but it is a very tiny pill.  She also will remain on her Toprol.  Will get an EKG.  Will get cardiac enzymes.  She had an echo that was reported as normal through Drs. Griffin and Sullivan's office, but I do not have that official report.  Will get Dr. Sullivan to consult so they can help.  

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