| By Mariko Hewitt
If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, your health care provider has given you
some information and advice, a glucometer, as well as one or more prescriptions.
You may have been told to "make a schedule" or "self monitor," but the reality of
scheduling meals, activities and medication, and then self-monitoring this disease
may take some time to really sink in. You may find yourself wondering, what
am I going to do? How am I going to manage? Family members may wonder how
they can support the person they care about who has diabetes.
The routines you establish for taking care of yourself every day will include
diet/nutrition, physical activity, blood glucose monitoring, and medication.
Each of these play an important role in making sure your blood glucose levels are
in control and you feel your best every day.
Maybe someone has already asked you, "What's the hardest thing for you right now
about living with diabetes?" If you have responded, "Everything!" then you have
probably felt overwhelmed by how much there is to know and do. You are not
alone.
"I've Got Diabetes. What Do I Do Next?" is the theme of the next Diabetes
Education and Support Group. Physician Assistant Mark Hewitt will discuss some
basic scheduling and monitoring issues. Please bring all of your diabetic
medicines.
The Diabetes Education and Support Group meets on the first Thursday of each
month. Because January 1 is a holiday, the group will meet on Thursday, January
8 at 6:00 p.m.
The meeting will take place at Minnie Hamilton Health Care Center in the
Education Room, located in the annex and upstairs from the Health Department.
There is no charge for attending the support group.
Refreshments will be provided and there will be drawings for door prizes.
If you have questions or need additional information, contact Mariko Hewitt,
Outreach Coordinator, at 354-9244, ext. 235. If the weather is very bad on January
8, please call to confirm that the meeting has not been canceled.
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