Diabetes

For my last semester of school I'm in Community Health nursing. We are assigned to different community health agencies throughout the city. I had my first clinical yesterday. It was at St. Vincent's Diabetes Education Center. I am also there next week.

Diabetes has long been a passion of mine. It's such a complicated and often times preventable disease. Where I work at the hospital we deal A LOT with diabetes patients. It truly frustrates me that people don't take it as seriously as it is. People don't understand that YOU CAN DIE  from this disease. They think ohhh it's no big deal I'll take medicine and possibly take insulin and be fine. The problem is that as we age and put on weight and all of that stuff, how we metabolize the medications and stuff changes. Along with a variety of other things.

What gets me the most is the patients that you sit down to talk about their disease and all they can talk about is getting out of the hospital and going to get some real candy or pudding or cake. They are tired of the limits of the hospital food. The problem is that you have a disease that is going to alter the course of your life, including your eating habits! Do you love the sweets so much you are willing to risk your health because of it? I half wonder if people like this shouldn't be required to go to a meeting on food addiction!

So anyways, clearly I have a passion for this and could bore you to death with all the details, so being assigned to the Diabetes Education Center was an awesome experience for me. I loved getting to watch first hand what they do to try and help those newly diagnosed or struggling with their diagnosis of diabetes.  They go through how to use the meters, and are open to any questions and concerns. But I felt that the most significant part of the whole thing was how the patient was able to meet with a Registered Dietician to discuss food options and how to help facilitate their diagnosis with food. It was remarkable what these women do for the community of people how have diabetes. I hope one day all insurance companies would pay for this service for those with diabetes!

I feel a calling to raise awareness about the significance of diabetes in our country. But first I must focus on school and this little one but I hope to do something in the future with the course of this disease because it affects so many people!