D.K. is an 18-year-old high school student who began to experience weight loss despite a ravenous appetite and resulting increased dietary intake. She has to make frequent trips to the bathroom to urinate and has difficulty concentrating on her work because of fatigue. She drinks large volumes of coffee to help with a constant dry mouth and to combat her fatigue. At a clinic appointment, it was noted that D.K.’s weight has dropped from 140 to 128 pounds. She is 5 feet 7 inches tall. Her urine specimen shows glycosuria and ketonuria. A chemstick blood glucose level is 412 mg/dl. D.K. had eaten breakfast 3 hours before the chemstick blood test.

Discussion Questions

1. Considering D.K.’s presenting history and physical data, what form of diabetes mellitus is indicated?
According to D.K.’s history and physical, the type of diabetes mellitus she has is IDDM or more commonly known as insulin dependent diabetes. The symptoms to support the type 1 diabetes are the increased hunger, thirst and urination, rapid weight loss, fatigue and the dry mouth. All of which could be a mechanism for the body compensating for the many symptoms, i.e, the increased thirst and fatigue/weakness is compensated by the onset of the large consumption of coffee. Her body is destroying her cells that produce insulin, which is disabling the body’s ability to absorb insulin to produce energy, hence her symptoms of fatigue and weakness. 2. What are the physiologic mechanisms involved with the polydipsia, polyuria, and polyphagia in diabetes mellitus?
The entire physiologic aspect from diabetes is that when insulin stops being produced in the body the blood glucose begins to raise. The body compensates by filtering out the glucose through the excretion of urine, thus this is why she is having frequent urination. In turn this causes dehydration, sometimes severe, leading to her increased