Diana Humphries is a 45-year-old woman with chronic kidney disease stage III and diabetes mellitus type1 who checks her blood sugar daily, or whenever she feels like it. She has been feeling increasingly nauseated the past 12 hours. She has had a harsh, productive cough of yellow sputum the past three days.

She checked her blood glucose before going to bed last night and it was 382, but then she fell asleep early and missed her bedtime dose of glargine (Lantus) insulin. When she awoke this morning, she had generalized abdominal pain and continued to feel nauseated and had a large emesis. Her glucometer was unable to read her blood glucose because it was too high. She took 10 units of lispro (Humalog) insulin this morning.

Her nausea has increased all morning and she has been unable to eat or keep anything down despite having an increased thirst and appetite. She also has had increased frequency of urination. When her lunchtime glucometer gave no reading because it was too high and out of range, she called 9-1-1 to be evaluated in the emergency department (ED).