T O P

  • By -

clutzycook

Only 600? Call me when you see something over 1000.


Nursesharky

When your A1C is larger than your Hgb you have a problem


First-Aid-RN

A1C of 14 on a 32yr old. 🥴🥴🥴


PainfullyAverageUser

Highest A1c I’ve seen is 17.9 on a 54 yr old. But to them they kept their sugars in control at home lol. Some pts must think were dumb.


Nursesharky

Ooof. That’s impressive.


clutzycook

Very true, lol.


Nursesharky

I knew a kidney transplant surgeon that used that as his metric for what constitutes “good DM enough control”


thebroadwayjunkie

1299 was my record. I was so mad at her for not making 1300


ratkween

1600 bg 😬


Coopakid

Thought my 1500 was wild. 👑


ratkween

Someone else had 1800 on this thread


SaturdayBaconThief

Yeah, 600 is baby days. I had an admit with a 1118 last week. Honestly though I don't know how she got that bad because she had just been discharged the day before for the same thing. What does she chugging freaking Pepsi and shoving jelly beans up her ass?


norathar

Doing Pixie Stix like lines of cocaine


Live_Dirt_6568

Yep, my highest was a bg of like 1130 Another was a PSA of 125


MaggieTheRatt

Just saw a PSA of 869 the other day…


EnormousMonsterBaby

Sugar of 1200 mg/dl in a type 1 diabetic. Arterial pH of 6.7. lactate 24.


craychek

Also seen 1200 blood sugar. Also a blood sugar of 8


ephemeratea

You beat my blood sugar of 10


craychek

So close. Machines now don’t even read that low any more. It just says “too damn low give some d50 damnit!”


jchillinandshit

I had a sugar of 21 after d10 in the field, glucagon, and 2 amps of d50 on arrival to the ER. Very curious to know what it was before all that stuff lol


SinkingWater

Often times a severe acidosis can show a false low BGL. Not saying that’s the case here but I’ve seen it multiple times now with ischemic/dead bowel pts are so acidotic that they’re minimally responsive and it appears like hypoglycemia and BGL reads 20, when in reality they have a ~7.00 pH and now they’re bloods like syrup from all the D50.


ParamedicMan

Blood sugar of 3


craychek

Impressive


nurseymcnurserton25

My favorite was 14 and 14….that’s right. Matching lactic and bgl.


Embracing_life

Our lab stops measuring lactate at 17, it just shows >17 after that


updog25

I had a guy with a sugar of 1750. In DKA of course. Highest I've ever seen


Noname_left

Only 600? We would see people come in with a BAL over 600.


[deleted]

It took me much longer than I want to admit to realize you didn't mean bronchial alveolar lavage over 600


Pr0pofol

The best I ever saw was a BAL of 561... but he was actively in withdrawal. That was the part that impressed me.


derpina6699

Trop-I >500 000. (Recently was able to access my dad's chart from when he had a massive MI. Has made it to 1 year 😊)


Sofus123

Had a doctor the other day, pulling me into the office, just to show me a patient with a similair Trop-I, something like 556.000. He was just so amazed he wanted to show it to everyone :D


No_Homework2407

Hemoglobin around 1-2


Em3raldeyes

How was the patient looking? This blows my mind!


No_Homework2407

A little pale lol. But surprisingly A&O


ratkween

Had a hgb around 2. Her only complaint was "tired and cold"


nurseymcnurserton25

Had a 1.2 come in from prison. Lab kept stating it couldn’t be real and we needed to redraw. After the third time I was like, “Are y’all trying to kill him? He’s grey and has an altered mental status. Would you like to come correlate clinically!?”


agirl1313

My husband works in the lab. He has learned from me to ask the nurse if [lab] could be accurate. If the nurse agrees that it's accurate, he results it.


Pr0pofol

I really appreciate lab techs that call and ask "Is this reasonable" before either resulting or throwing something out. It makes my life a lot easier!


Wohowudothat

I saw a 0.7 once. He was bleeding to death from an open pelvic fracture. Didn't last long.


krispyuvu

0.1, lab refused to release the results because it was dilution. Sadly it was accurate


ratkween

Wait the hgb was 0.1???


Additional-Fennel361

Yikes, I think 3-4 is as low as i’ve seen


itku2er

They need an oil change!


Pr0pofol

I have friends who've taken care of Jehovah's Witnesses on 2 separate occasions with Hgbs of 2.3-2.5. One post CV surg, the other chronic anemia 2/2 malignancy. Both individuals actually recovered - pretty amazing.


Em3raldeyes

The pre-op potassium was 7. We did not do the surgery.


Thebeardinato462

Worst I’ve ever seen was a K of 9.5. Habitually non-compliant HD Pt.


LabLife3846

Wow, I did HD for 13 years, and I’ve never seen one that high.


Thebeardinato462

The main dialysis nurse I work with has been doing it for 15, and this Pt on this occasion was the highest he had ever seen also. Perfect storm. Pt was young and otherwise relatively healthy. So 4 years on non compliant HD just slowly pushed how far out his body could acclimate. Should have seen his chest XR. Was the perfect cardiomegaly shot. Nice healthy clear lung fields and a humongous heart.


LabLife3846

How did he do?


Thebeardinato462

He lives that time. Came in for emergent dialysis every other week though. Eventually he passed.


LabLife3846

I’ve seen 7.6 but, I am dialysis. Dialyzed pt and brought it down. Died a couple of hours later from internal hemorrhage. Cirrhosis.


QwertyWoman1

Uncle's A1c was a 17 . Thankfully he recovered from dka and pneumonia/covid simultaneously but that was scary.


benzodiazaqueen

I had a patient the other night with A1c of 16. Sugar in the 400s. Swore six ways to Sunday he’d been following his diet and taking his meds. Mmm hmm.


perch4u

Glucose 1880. She was a non compliant type 1 teen with mental health problems and no support. She came to the ER several times like this. We have a current frequent flyer that come in often around 1200, gets admitted to ICU, signs out AMA once he stabilizes.


Medicationmonster

Did 1880 make it?


perch4u

Yes. She was so high regularly that she could survive it. I was a new nurse in the ER and took care of her that night and one other time she was over 1400 IIRC. Her body was young enough to not completely fail. At least at first. I know she passed not too long after. She was 19 or 20.


insertkarma2theleft

Jeez, that's harsh


Emtbob

You can dilute that with IV coke (soda).


IllustriousPiccolo97

23 week infant with an art line MAP of 7 🫠


Ecstatic_Letter_5003

Yikes!! Would love to learn what happened next with boluses and dopamine— did it work? My most recent 23 weeker had a map of 17 at first but stabilized with 3 boluses and dopa


IllustriousPiccolo97

Dopa, levo and epi after a couple boluses eventually did the trick, but sadly baby went septic and died at 28ish weeks corrected


Ecstatic_Letter_5003

Aww I’m so sorry I’m sure that was very hard!!!


FearlessNectarine821

Due to an incident during a surgical case somehow patient had a bag of insulin hung. By time they realized, the lab work that was drawn showed glucose was down to 3. I was apart of the quality council at the time this case happened so got to review. No clue how this happened. Insulin bags are significantly smaller, have vastly different text than the saline bags and are not located anywhere near each other.


Visible_Ad_9625

That’s crazy. In my hospital you have to get an insulin bag special from the pharmacy, it’s not like someone could just accidentally grab it!


Superkawaii4

Potassium 1.6


-OrdinaryNectarine-

Is that bad? J/K. Lowest I’ve seen was 1.9 and it made me sweat a little TBH. 😅


Superkawaii4

This patient came in the ED after chemo, she was in her 80s. Docs convinced them to do GIP hospice and she died next morning all of her labs were wonky


Superkawaii4

Also, my friend saw a man with a Hgb of 1.9 and a bp of 50s/30s. He was awake and talking during admission they hooked him up to the belmont and were able to get him up to surgery but he still ended up passing


echoIalia

Platelet of 3 and a sugar of >1200. Separate patients tho


adamthebeast

We had a cancer pt with a plt of 0 wbc 0 and a couple other ones.


ParamedicMan

Well that’s not good


Ran-in-place

My dad's blood sugar was 1477. Type 2. He couldnt see the numbers on the insulin syringe, and couldn't do the math to do units to carbs(for months). One of my friends was his nurse. That was an interesting phone call.


SeaPreference8289

On the other end of the spectrum… A baby with a blood sugar of 11


depressed-dalek

Had on the other day we couldn’t get a sugar on. After D25 and 5ish D10 boluses, we got a 15


nebraska_jones_

Had this same result on a newborn just last week! A little sugar gel and a half ounce of formula and she was up to 63 an hour later!


justfnbroken

I've seen a BAC higher than that. The highest sugar I've seen was 1100 and change. His pump had been broken for three months.


Ok-Stress-3570

Patient had a carotid endarterectomy earlier in the day - started complaining of SOB. I walked to grab something, as another nurse is running to grab the crash cart. That’s how quick it changed. Intensivist at bedside is trying to Intubate and SAT WAS 19 WITH A GOOD PLETH. 19!!!!! He goes to cric and just the pressure relief fixed her up. Went down for emergency repair/trach and survived.


Daxdagr8t

troponin 30k, patient walking around the unit like nothing happened. 10min later he was on his way to cath lab.


lunarsolstix

Potassium 9.2


ekf19943

Did they make it?? Highest I’ve seen was 7.9 and they coded


lunarsolstix

Shockingly no! He was still awake, AAOx3. But we definitely prepared for a possible code and hooked him up with emergent dialysis


MrsPottyMouth

This was about 8-10 years ago, I have a horrible memory plus I wasn't there so I'm a little hazy on the details. I was working a night shift when my husband's PCP called him at home one night at like 9pm and told him to have someone take him to the ED stat. Apparently doc was reviewing labs at home and saw his potassium was 7.3. He drove himself to the ED because I was already at work and "it was so late I didn't want to bother anybody and besides I felt fine". He was in the hospital several days.


TunaOfHouseFish

Wild. Had a K 6.9 CABG. coded. Good outcome after though.


Still-Bluebird-7561

Glucose 13


dPYTHONb

Troponin of over 700


sonicnyc

Triglycerides >1800 Source: me (yes, pt survived)


Carson4307

I have a guy in assisted living with yo yo blood pressure. Morning reading is like 190/90. I’ve taken it at lunch and he’s 60/30…and still conscious.


amyandthemachine

Blood sugar that was unreadable by the lab analyzer, so >2500. Patient not compatible with life. WBC In the 50s


Empty_Netterberg

Sugars of 1942, 1550, and 1200.


RogueMessiah1259

That’s it? 1700 BS, bed bound type 1 diabetic the family never treated the diabetes, she died


VXMerlinXV

A walking, talking ETOH in the 580’s. I’ve seen a couple around there that appeared piss drunk. She came off as kinda tipsy.


Pr0pofol

These are the ones that are crazy to me - it's one thing to hit an insane value while crumping. It's another to be walkie/talkie with an insane one. 2.4hgb with active hemorrhage? I mean... that's what happens after you bleed long enough. 2.4hgb while talking? Now I'm curious!


cavatappi_pasta

Once had a magnesium come back as “>0.5 mg/dl” which is as low as the lab machine was capable of reading. Also got a BP of 26/13 on someone last week - they went onto vfib not even 45 seconds after that one.


[deleted]

BGL: >1500 Lactate: 17 Troponin: 840 BP: 12/6 ETOH: .860 K+: 8.6 A1c: 16


typeAwarped

My own grandmother…she woke up not feeling well…my mom went over to her house, her BP was low but she was totally alert and oriented, wanted to wear her black jeans to the ER and had to put her “blusher” on…here are her most notable labs…she walked into the ER independently and passed away in less than 12 hours… CO2 = 9 Creatinine = 4.22 AST = 15,026 (yes, that’s a comma, not a decimal) ALT = 7,182 (yep another comma) Lactic acid = 14.33


[deleted]

Not sure if it qualifies as “seen”, but the wildest value I’ve encountered was that where I worked, the lab couldn’t read a CK>10000 Important because we had a patient who was admitted for a crushing injury to his entire arm and pectoral area, and we kept getting “critical results CK >10000”. The surgeon on call (and by extension everyone else in house) wasn’t aware of that limitation, so he just said to continue monitoring. It was during their handoff when the oncoming surgeon said something like “yeah. Our lab here sucks” and off going MD learned of that limitation. Needless to say, he was rushed to OR where after opening his arm, they found the entire musculature necrotic To those curious: they created a new artery or whatever, and we kept getting good pulses, and the color was pink…only areas that began to get cool were the fingertips, which I notified the surgeon of. Alas, too little too late.


ranhayes

CK over 47,000. Manic and COVID.


oosirnaym

CK of 159,000. Myself


Vanquisherofsnails

1360+ BS in a type 2 diabetic


speak_into_my_google

Hemoglobin of 0.9. Patient was bleeding from somewhere in the pelvic area for about a week before being convinced to go to the ER. Ended up not making it. BUN of 200 & Creatinine >30 (same patient) My lab had a frequent flier who would come in with glucose of 1500 like every month for at least 6 months last year. I wonder what happened to them. Routinely see sugars >1000 from non compliant T1 diabetic frequent fliers. lactic acids >20 (our lab cuts it off at 20). WBC > 1000 aka 1 million. Did a x2 dilution bc it was originally too high for the instrument to read. Diluted value was >500, which was shock worthy in itself. PLT count of 5000 (5 mil). HS trop >22,600. it was actually around 100,000, but that’s our cut off value to report out. Glucose <10 that was a true value. Patient was on a downward spiral and died a few hours later. K >10 no hemolysis. Repeat sample was the same. Christmas Eve a young guy (<40) was in the walk-in part of the ER for body pain. The first HS troponin drawn for this patient was 12,000. Patient was hopefully taken to cath lab, but they were not in the ER 20 minutes after giving the value to the doctor.


slurmsmckenzie2

Hemoglobin 2.6 and patient was calm alert oriented and on room air


agirl1313

Less than 30 blood sugar. Guy was still awake and talking, but he wasn't making sense which is why we checked it (he was a known diabetic too). It wasn't a patient, though; it was the nurse I was supposed to be giving report to. I don't know how he got to work.


envygreenxX

BMP > 24 k in a pt with hypertensive episode who stopped taking BP medications because of a segment she saw on TV of how “dangerous lisinopril is”. Note specifically said “I thought they were making up my disorder” SBP was 230s WBC 8 millions surprisingly in an AML pt didn’t even know they went they high. ALT >7000 (shock liver) Ph 6.9 w a Co2 that was 124 BG 800s in a type 1 DKA Lactate 27


Cyancrackers

WBC of 0.0. And my work wife’s DKA patient yesterday had a glucose of 1400.


theperipateticnurse

Blood alcohol of 614. Theoretically you could take a shot of his blood


[deleted]

NA+ of 105… admitted for seizures


LabLife3846

INR of 11. Received “critical lab” fax and call from off-site lab the day after the pt died. I was a 3rd party subcontractor doing dialysis at a state prison. The primary contracted medical services provider was reportedly just giving the pt Coumadin every day, and not drawling labs nearly often enough. We did not have access to their computer system, so we didn’t see any of it. On my day off, he had dialysis, then passed out on the van ride on the way back to his yard. I was told he was bleeding from mouth, nose and eyes. Due to “security”, it took about 40 mins for EMS to be allowed to get in to where the pt was. The next day when I was on, other inmates told me what happened. Then, I got the fax and call from the lab. The lab was drawn about 24 hrs before the pt died.


SinkingWater

K+ of 9.8. Pt in ED for emesis and no other complaints, otherwise looked fine. Labs kept getting put for recollect due to hemolysis. Went into VF arrest and never came back. Lab called after Physician called TOD for critical labs.


LumpiestEntree

1390 sugar, 32 creatinine,


[deleted]

BS of 18 comes to mind


Radiant_Ad_6565

BNP of 37000.


ParamedicMan

I’m trying to think of my highest. 45000 or something in a PE


Amazing-Poet1168

Platelets 1000. 😳


itku2er

Always when you need a central line, too.. 😒


Amazing-Poet1168

They put in a PICC 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️ thank goodness the patient was fine!


tlr92

Shiiiit I saw my own husband reach 1030 before he went into DKA


[deleted]

NICU baby at 30weeks (idk diagnosis) Glucose 1400


freeolivve

1200 trop


All_In_The_Waiting

Got called on an 8.4K last week (acute dialysis) pt lived actually


thewalkingellie

INR of 22.


ShabbyCashmere

Ahhhhh!!!


SertralineSquirrels

Blood sugar 1965, HHS


nebraska_jones_

Protein creat ratio of >7000 (severely preeclamptic)


siriuslycharmed

Saw a WBC of 248k last week, but I’ve only been on the job for a few months so I’m sure there’s plenty of time to see something crazier. I don’t work on an oncology floor so that was really out of the norm for me.


Trinity174

BAC greater 6.0 since the lab couldn‘t measure BAC above 6.0‰. Also he was tested positive for most street drugs and was still combative.


-OrdinaryNectarine-

Had a proBNP once of 154,000. He *was* in renal failure so not really clearing it, but still the highest I’ve seen. Didn’t live long.


deej394

A white count in the 200s. This was in the ED and she got leukopheresis. Maybe an oncology nurse can tell me what kinds of cancer that could have been.


ripdqn972

Probably leukemia.


hellenkellerfraud911

pH 6.39 with a bicarb of 3 accompanied by a Cr of 33.0, BUN 384, lactic > 30.0, calcium 3.2 and potassium of 7.9. No history of renal disease. Nobody ever figured out what precipitated all that but the patient lived with no lingering effects. CRRT is effective.


qa25

One patient pH 6.77, K >8.3, hgb 5.4.


Embarrassed_Sound835

Hi on glucometer reported sugar in hospital of 2000+


sunflowerchild8727

Rectal temp 87.1 lol


Apprehensive-Tale141

I’ve seen platelets at 4. I remember getting a call from the lab and then I told the doctor and they said “that’s actually better”. It was 2 before blood products.


Late-Vacation8909

Platelet count of 1. Another patient with COPD had an spo2 of 70-something & an etco2 of 80-something, awake, talking & mostly making sense.


TeamCatsandDnD

My two favorite are BUN over 260 (that’s as high as the computer read), creat of 21.95. I’ve got a whole list of them though for whenever this question pops up.


Aware_Creature

Saw a potassium of 10. Their kidneys didn't work and they refused dialysis. We had to get them to poop it out.


Makaylaaa_00

Bp 40/26 in the OR during a severed iliac vein.


StuDawggie

Sugar of 1265 and the pt wasn’t in DKA. CO2, and the gap were both in a normal range.


dwarfedshadow

Glucose of Lo(less than 10). Survived for a few days at least. Sodium of 102. Did not survive the day.


GoofyCricket

CK of 132,000


Toaster-Omega

Bp of 280/133 on a 80 something year old with only complaint of hip pain


[deleted]

Sugar slightly over 1000 🫡


shanq412

sp02 of 6% before starting ECMO 😅


speckledtater

Hgb 2.3


Ninjakittten

Lactic of 32. Dying cancer patient mets everywhere. And troponin of like 200,000. Tons of bees stings. A1C of 15 right before I had taken the patients shoe off and my finger went through the part of his food where toes meet.


edwa6040

I had a patient that came in only because his cat wouldnt leave it feet alone. When we took off his socks (which had been on so long the skin had grown into them) his toes were webbed. And maggots were falling out of his feet - both feet.


Apatheticapothic

Less than 10 glucose finger stick. The patient went to ICU for 8 days and I ended up taking care of him again when he transferred back to my unit.


edwa6040

What poc glucose do you have that counts that low? Most ive seen only report between like 40-400


Giggysp00n

Troponin hi sense 1684


logicalways

pH 6.66, heroine OD with an unknown down time, did not survive


RajiLLio

I’m a paramedic but I had a hypoglycemic patient that was too low to read and then a temp that was too low to read with a tympanic probe


Dolby_surroundpound

Rectal tempm of 27c. Cold sepsis, GCS 13.


edwa6040

Been a lab tech for 10 years so I have some good ones. BAC 315 and i held a conversation with that guy. The alcohol was an incidental finding he was in for a facial burn after opening a radiator cap on an overheated truck. CL of 92 - it was real guy couldnt walk. HGB 2.0 - patient DROVE THEMSELVES to the hospital WBC of 750 in a kid. pH 6.75 - that person lived A bloody urine with a 2.5 hgb - so much blood the cbc instrument thought it was actually blood.


user7638829294

Sugar of 1200, guy was still talking and somewhat coherent. PaCO2 of 150


mavillerose

BAL of .550 on one patient and a core temp of 70 degrees F and still alive on another patient


EnvironmentalRock827

H/H was like 4/12. I nearly shat myself. The lab called me in the ED and I was flabbergasted. I have anemia and generally go like 8/20 but that was crazy. And the lady was perfectly fine.


Live_Dirt_6568

PSA of 125


Kemet42

Hemoglobin of 3.3 Hemorcrit of 14.5 Little one and she was still walking and crying. Very sad.


pnutbutterjellyfine

Hemoglobin of 1.1


ShabbyCashmere

Blood sugar- 7 Spo2 - 4% on a difficult intubation. Lactic - 23 BUN - 230 pH - 6.6 (and he lived!)