This is a great video! Even when you're willing to change, it's hard - I won't kid you! It will take a lot of work to "reverse" diabetes, especially if it's in your genes. But don't let this condition do what it's done to me or my dear father-in-law. Step out to help me fight diabetes. Ask me how!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Join me in the St. Louis Diabetes Leadership Institute
I need my friends to help me out on this one. This would be a perfect opportunity for all the St. Louis area diabetics or PWD to get involved personally in advocacy and diabetes awareness.
Thanks to Kaycee Connell, the St. Louis diabetes Examiner, I found out about this free program. It just so happens that my endo, Dr. Garry Tobin, also promoted this program to me in May when I went for my twice a year check up.
What Eric and Garry want to do is create a community of PWD's who will volunteer their time to be educated (ha - like we aren't already) and lead sessions of 6 awareness and education topics in their community. It could be at your church, your synagogue, your school, your sorority, anywhere you can muster up a small group of people. Eric and Garry don't care whether it is 2 people or 20.
This effort is lead by the St. Louis Diabetes Coalition, but is also supported by Wash U's Endocrinology Dept., of which Garry is the head.
I was able to get my husband, Joe, to attend with me - only because I think he felt guilty that he didn't meet me for a happy hour the evening before [:-)], and he tested his sugar on the free Accu-Check Aviva meter Roche was handing out at the event - YAY! He was 106 before eating, and 114 after eating some fruit (1 hour post-prandial). This is the first time Joe has ever tested himself, and he's lived with a diabetic for some 15 years!
With the event of his father's diabetes coming so close to him, I was able to finally get him to get a closer look at his health. And boy, did he ever. He was able to see the connection between his dad's possible loss of his leg and his cardiovascular disease to a less than aggressive treatment plan for his diabetes of 28 years.
Not surprisingly, all the attendees were T2's, with the exception of a couple of caregivers of and one CDE who were T1. We were the youngest in the room by 10 years.
My husband was educated on proper foot care, kidney disease, and nutrition. It was a wealthy bounty of information that was very helpful, sometimes the first time some of these diabetics had ever heard.
Of course, they were able to give us a free lunch, and there will be a free dinner at our next meeting.
Eric, the PhD side of the team, presented to us a nice slide show regarding the growing statistics of diabetes in the Metro area. We, of course, discussed the sensational statistics that T2 diabetes is becoming an epidemic of obese proportions.
Garry echoed that by far his practice was filled with more T2 diabetics than T1's. It was cited that there are over 150,000 people with diabetes in St. Louis - that's Busch Stadium filled during a triple-header.
Of those diabetics, 48% are of healthy weight, 21% are obese, and 31% are overweight. From a public health perspective, the better we manage diabetes, the less expensive the condition can be.
The St. Louis Diabetes Coalition's goal is to bring control up in order to lessen the cost and the burden on the system, as well as improve the quality of life for diabetics.
Only 49% of diabetics here in the area have a controlled bgs Hb A1c less than 7.0, 51% check the bgs at least once a day, and 44% have even taken a self-management class.
One thing Garry said that really rung true to me was the answer to many of the folks' questions about T2 guilt, blame placing and fault at our lifestyles. "I'm a lumper, not a splitter," he said while pointing out that all of us, T1's and T2's and Others face the same symptoms and consequences. "It's NOT which drugs define you," he said - pointing out that NONE of us deserve this diagnosis.
Won't you come with me to the next meeting and help facilitate more education and awareness to some of the hardest to reach people? I challenge you!
Come enjoy a free dinner and some great conversation!
Twitter me @MomsL8 0r leave a comment here, and I'll meet up with you before the meeting!
Click on the link of this blog title to learn more about the St. Louis Diabetes Leadership Institute.
Our next meeting will be in Eric Armprecht's office on the 1st floor of the Salus Center at 3545 Lafayette, (the old Incarnate Word Hospital), St. Louis, MO 63104, on Monday, July 27th, at 6 p.m.
Here's to our health!
Thanks to Kaycee Connell, the St. Louis diabetes Examiner, I found out about this free program. It just so happens that my endo, Dr. Garry Tobin, also promoted this program to me in May when I went for my twice a year check up.
What Eric and Garry want to do is create a community of PWD's who will volunteer their time to be educated (ha - like we aren't already) and lead sessions of 6 awareness and education topics in their community. It could be at your church, your synagogue, your school, your sorority, anywhere you can muster up a small group of people. Eric and Garry don't care whether it is 2 people or 20.
This effort is lead by the St. Louis Diabetes Coalition, but is also supported by Wash U's Endocrinology Dept., of which Garry is the head.
I was able to get my husband, Joe, to attend with me - only because I think he felt guilty that he didn't meet me for a happy hour the evening before [:-)], and he tested his sugar on the free Accu-Check Aviva meter Roche was handing out at the event - YAY! He was 106 before eating, and 114 after eating some fruit (1 hour post-prandial). This is the first time Joe has ever tested himself, and he's lived with a diabetic for some 15 years!
With the event of his father's diabetes coming so close to him, I was able to finally get him to get a closer look at his health. And boy, did he ever. He was able to see the connection between his dad's possible loss of his leg and his cardiovascular disease to a less than aggressive treatment plan for his diabetes of 28 years.
Not surprisingly, all the attendees were T2's, with the exception of a couple of caregivers of and one CDE who were T1. We were the youngest in the room by 10 years.
My husband was educated on proper foot care, kidney disease, and nutrition. It was a wealthy bounty of information that was very helpful, sometimes the first time some of these diabetics had ever heard.
Of course, they were able to give us a free lunch, and there will be a free dinner at our next meeting.
Eric, the PhD side of the team, presented to us a nice slide show regarding the growing statistics of diabetes in the Metro area. We, of course, discussed the sensational statistics that T2 diabetes is becoming an epidemic of obese proportions.
Garry echoed that by far his practice was filled with more T2 diabetics than T1's. It was cited that there are over 150,000 people with diabetes in St. Louis - that's Busch Stadium filled during a triple-header.
Of those diabetics, 48% are of healthy weight, 21% are obese, and 31% are overweight. From a public health perspective, the better we manage diabetes, the less expensive the condition can be.
The St. Louis Diabetes Coalition's goal is to bring control up in order to lessen the cost and the burden on the system, as well as improve the quality of life for diabetics.
Only 49% of diabetics here in the area have a controlled bgs Hb A1c less than 7.0, 51% check the bgs at least once a day, and 44% have even taken a self-management class.
One thing Garry said that really rung true to me was the answer to many of the folks' questions about T2 guilt, blame placing and fault at our lifestyles. "I'm a lumper, not a splitter," he said while pointing out that all of us, T1's and T2's and Others face the same symptoms and consequences. "It's NOT which drugs define you," he said - pointing out that NONE of us deserve this diagnosis.
Won't you come with me to the next meeting and help facilitate more education and awareness to some of the hardest to reach people? I challenge you!
Come enjoy a free dinner and some great conversation!
Twitter me @MomsL8 0r leave a comment here, and I'll meet up with you before the meeting!
Click on the link of this blog title to learn more about the St. Louis Diabetes Leadership Institute.
Our next meeting will be in Eric Armprecht's office on the 1st floor of the Salus Center at 3545 Lafayette, (the old Incarnate Word Hospital), St. Louis, MO 63104, on Monday, July 27th, at 6 p.m.
Here's to our health!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Wally's Funeral Mass Booklet
For those who aren't able to be at the funeral tomorrow, here is the booklet I produced. Enjoy - Dad loved Mass and loved singing, and he would be honored for you to sing along at his funeral mass.
Wally's Memorial Video Tribute
I've embedded the video played at Wally's visitation tonight. We hosted over 400 people who paid their respects to this gentleman's gentleman, who even suffered graciously in his last days. I believe it gave most people who didn't know Dad a glimpse into the kind of person he was and helped those who mourn the loss of his life to find comfort in these memories. He would have been proud.
Remembrances of Wally from Jill Proehl on Vimeo.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Rest in Peace, Wally
The link in the above title will take you to Wally's obituary in today's St. Louis Post Dispatch. The funeral arrangements are as follows:
Visitation - Kutis Funeral Home on Lemay Ferry http://tinyurl.com/l2sm4f
Thursday 6/11 3-9 pm
Friday 6/12 - 8:00 -11:30
Mass Friday 6/12 at St. Matthias the Apostle Church at Noon http://tinyurl.com/myg849
Burial Friday 6/12 at 1:15 pm at Jefferson Barracks
Thank you everyone for all your support during this difficult time during my life. Thank you for being there in Spirit with Wally.
For those of you who can't be there, I'll post his funeral mass booklet and perhaps the slide show of the presentation of his life in pictures, if it's not too large.
Visitation - Kutis Funeral Home on Lemay Ferry http://tinyurl.com/l2sm4f
Thursday 6/11 3-9 pm
Friday 6/12 - 8:00 -11:30
Mass Friday 6/12 at St. Matthias the Apostle Church at Noon http://tinyurl.com/myg849
Burial Friday 6/12 at 1:15 pm at Jefferson Barracks
Thank you everyone for all your support during this difficult time during my life. Thank you for being there in Spirit with Wally.
For those of you who can't be there, I'll post his funeral mass booklet and perhaps the slide show of the presentation of his life in pictures, if it's not too large.
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