When Sonja Fuller and her husband, Bill moved back to Dallas in 1990 after living in Austin, Texas, her diabetes got out of control. "It seems like every three months we had a death in our family, and my husband lost his job," she recalls. "Everything was stress, stress, stress, and my blood sugars just skyrocketed."
Almost 20 years ago Fuller, now 59, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. At first she was able to control her blood sugar with diet and exercise alone. Then her doctor prescribed oral drugs.
‘Insulin changed my life.’
Eventually, she was taking three kinds of pills for diabetes. "I felt terrible," she says. "I couldn't do anything but sit in a chair and fall asleep."
Her fasting blood sugars were far too high—195 to 200 milligrams per deciliter. To maintain good control they shouldn't have been more than 115 or 120.
A friend of hers who works at Baylor University Medical Center was concerned. Her friend showed her an employee newsletter that told about a new "Team Diabetes Self-Management Training Program" at Baylor Health Care System.
"It is a program of diabetic education," Fuller says. "You work with dietitians and nurses. They recommended that I see an endo and go on insulin."
An endo is an endocrinologist, a specialist in the treatment of diabetes. Like many people with diabetes, Fuller had previously been seeing a doctor who did not specialize in the disease.
The endocrinologist, Priscilla Hollander, M.D., immediately switched Fuller to insulin. "It absolutely changed my life," she exclaims. "My attitude is so different that I am not even the same human being. I am so full of energy!"
This article appeared originally on the DiabetesWebSite.com, which is no longer on-line.
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