Case study:
A pregnant woman who is 28 weeks gestation has come to the blood collection area for a two-hour oral glucose tolerance test to confirm a diagnosis of gestational diabetes. The procedure requires the collection of a fasting blood sample followed by administering a 75-gram load of glucose, administered in an orange-flavored beverage. Blood specimens will then be collected in one to two hours. The woman has finished drinking the beverage, which she had difficulty finishing, and you instruct her to sit in the waiting room until you come to get her to collect the one-hour post-glucose blood sample. After 30 minutes, she comes to tell you that she has just vomited.
Suggested plan of action:
The best thing to do in this situation is to contact the patient's physician. The test may need to be terminated. It may not be appropriate to continue the test under these circumstances, as the glucose test results may not be accurate. The physician would need to make this determination.
