DOC News December 1, 2007
Volume 4 Number 12 p. 9
© 2007 American Diabetes Association
A Group Hug Proves Galvanizing
B. Murray Law
When Carol Prevost was first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, she hoped it
would just go away. It was 1990, after the birth of her first child. Already
balancing the demands of a newborn with those of her financial planning job,
she had no time for
diabetes.
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Carol Prevost
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Inevitably, the unchecked disease got worse. Peripheral neuropathy, then
high blood pressure and heart failure set in; Prevost's feet were so sore she
couldn't walk or work, forcing her onto disability pay and into depression and
loneliness.
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Carol Prevost (second from left) listens during a group visit at
Providence St. Peter Hospital.
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That's when her physician, Devin Sawyer, MD, suggested she attend a group
medical visit program Prevost, now 50, credits for literally putting her back
on her feet. Run by Sawyer at St. Peter Family Medicine Residency Program in
Olympia, Wash., the sessions provide both a medical checkup and support from
other patients (see main
story).
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St. Peter medical assistant Shari Gioimo (left) comforts
Prevost.
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At a 1-hour session, held 3–4 p.m. every 3 months, Prevost forged
friendships with two other diabetes patients. Through them, Sawyer, and his
medical assistant, Shari Gioimo, Prevost has learned to monitor her blood
glucose and stick to an insulin regimen. The trick for her: switching from
insulin injections, which she found cumbersome, to an insulin pen, which she
found to be much more manageable. (Prevost is also taking glyburide and
receiving cortisone shots for her neuropathy.)
The session's late-afternoon time slot means Prevost's 17-year-old daughter
can also attend after school. Along with her mother, she's learned to eat
better, trading meat and bread for vegetables such as kale, broccoli, green
beans, and cabbage from Prevost's backyard garden.
"I make a nice cleansing soup with the vegetables I grow,"
Prevost says.
Proof of the group's benefits are in her health readings: Her weight has
dropped from 90.72 kg (200 lb) to 72.57 kg (160 lb), her glycated hemoglobin
from 12% to 7.5%, and her LDL cholesterol from 150 to
130.
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Prevost's daughter (right) attends group visits to learn more about her
mother's disease.
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"It's been a hard road for me getting healthier," says Prevost.
"If it hadn't been for the group, I'd be in big trouble." It still
takes a while to get out of bed in the mornings, she says. But now that she
can walk again, she's looking to return to work part-time.
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