I’m so jittery,” says a 77-year-old man with type 2 diabetes to his daughter as
he waits for a computed tomographic scan of his abdomen. It’s noon, and having
fasted at home since 10 PM last night in accordance with his physician’s
instructions, he appears apprehensive and uncomfortable. “My lips are so
dry,” he says. The man and his daughter have been in the waiting room for
almost two hours. When he is finally called into the examination room, the X-ray technician
struggles to find a vein for IV insertion because his veins are flattened.*