A Group Hug Proves Galvanizing
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.
Carol Prevost
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.
Carol Prevost (second from left) listens during a group visit at Providence St. Peter Hospital.
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).
St. Peter medical assistant Shari Gioimo (left) comforts Prevost.
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.
Prevost's daughter (right) attends group visits to learn more about her mother's disease.
“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.
