Patient was educated on precautions to be exercised while taking Tolbutamide as follows:
- If the blood sugar is too low, despite eating regularly and without skipping a meal, you can defer taking Tolbutamide for that dose and notify your doctor regarding the same.
- Keeping a track of frequency of episodes of low blood sugars, despite eating regularly, can help your physician revise your dose on the medication.
- Also, notify your doctor, if the blood sugar continues to be high, despite taking Tolbutamide as recommended, so that, your medication dose could be revised.
- Observe compliance with any regular lab work ordered, such as, blood count and hemoglobin A1c. As Tolbutamide is metabolized in the liver and eliminated in the urine, compliance with hepatic and renal function panel ordered periodically is highly recommended.
- If a dose is missed, it should be taken at the earliest notice of noncompliance, if it is within 2 hours of the scheduled missed dose time. Report the noncompliance to your physician. If it is time for the next dose, the missed dose can be skipped. Compensating for the missed dose by taking an extra dose can pose serious risk for an episode of extremely low blood sugars, thus precipitating an emergency.
