Kelli Carr Haynes spent part of her college years trying to control seizures caused by low blood sugar.
“I felt like a freak,” the Bowling Green woman said. “Sometimes you lose the ability to feel low blood sugar.”
Haynes’ hypoglycemia unawareness was a result of having Type 1 diabetes, in which the body doesn’t make insulin. She was diagnosed at age 7 and has been living with the illness for nearly 30 years.
“I had been perfectly healthy. Then I started feeling bad and lost a lot of weight,” she said. “No one else in my family had (diabetes) that we could trace back.”
One day, she got sick after eating various treats at a school Christmas party at school.
“My blood sugar was over 800,” she said. “They said it was a wonder I wasn’t in a coma. They put me in the hospital that night.”
Haynes has used a variety of products – including urine strips, which she kept in the office at school when she was a youngster – over the years to check her blood sugar and used to give herself insulin shots. While fulfilling an internship requirement for a bachelor’s degree in public health at Western Kentucky University, she found out about an insulin pump for people with Type 1 diabetes that could help keep her blood sugar regulated.
“I interned at the (Barren River District) health department with the diabetes education team,” she said. “I got my insulin pump in the summer of 1997.”
Last summer, she found out about a real-time glucose monitoring transmitter that works in conjunction with the insulin pump. The device reads her blood sugar levels every few minutes, and the information is transmitted to the screen of her insulin pump. An alarm sounds if blood sugars are too low or too high.
“The sensor alarm goes off before I get in that bad of shape,” she said. “It has prevented a lot of seizures since the summer. I’ve got better control of blood sugars and less seizures.”
Preventing seizures has meant more freedom for Haynes.
“The sensor is the most exciting thing for me. With the seizures, I couldn’t sleep alone,” she said. “I had to have a baby sitter. My mother would have to come baby-sit me and the kids when my husband was out of town.”
Monitoring blood sugar is very important for people with diabetes, whether it’s Type 1 or Type 2, in which the body makes insulin but isn’t using it properly.
“Some symptoms cross over. With both types there is an increased thirst and hunger, frequent urination, blurred vision, dry itchy skin and fatigue,” said Marissa Hesson, certified diabetes educator at The Medical Center’s Health and Wellness Center. “The big difference is that with Type 1, there is weight loss – usually rapid even though they’re eating normally. It’s usually diagnosed in people under 25.”
Although no one knows what causes diabetes, some people are at high risk for developing Type 2, including people who are overweight or inactive and women who had gestational diabetes during pregnancies or gave birth to babies who weighed more than 9 pounds, Hesson said. The risk also goes up as people age. Diabetes can cause complications, including heart disease, stroke and vision problems.
While those with Type 1 will need to take insulin, not all with Type 2 will need medication, Hesson said.
“Some can control it with regular exercise, following a meal plan and maintaining a healthy weight,” she said. “Monitoring blood sugar at home and following up regularly with a physician is important.”
The current goal for blood sugars is less than 110 for fasting levels and 140 or less if it’s after a meal, Hesson said.
“If you check it after a meal, make sure it’s two hours after the meal,” she said.
Diabetes is not all about sugar, Hesson said.
“We teach patients to count carbohydrates because the body turns carbohydrates into sugar. People are surprised when they come out to meet with us and find out how much they can eat,” she said. “It’s all about moderation. These are your energy foods. The body needs some amount of carbohydrates.”
Regularly scheduled meals can help keep blood sugars regulated, Hesson said.
“Make sure they’re eating three balanced meals a day at the same time every day, and make sure they don’t go more than four to five hours between meals,” she said. “Learning how to eat well is essential in controlling diabetes.”
Haynes agreed.
“Life is routine. I eat at the same time, and I check my blood sugar before I eat,” she said. “It’s all about the routine.”
Although she doesn’t have to give herself any more insulin shots, she does have to change out her pump and transmitter regularly. She also checks her blood sugar because she has to calibrate her monitoring system twice daily.
“I look at it, then I check my blood. If it’s low and I’m at home, I drink milk or orange juice,” she said. “If I’m out, I carry raisins or peanut butter and crackers.”
Haynes said she highly recommends using a pump and transmitter to those with Type 1 diabetes and credits it for helping her live a more normal life and deliver three healthy children.
“You control it or it controls you,” she said of diabetes. “Growing up, it controlled me. I missed a lot of school.”
Now she feels more in control.
“You can’t just be a diabetic and not educate yourself,” she said.
— The Medical Center’s Health and Wellness Center at Greenwood Mall and the Barren River District Health Department offer classes for people with diabetes and pre-diabetes. For more information about classes at the Health and Wellness Center, call 745-0942 or toll-free at 877-800-3824. For more information about the health department’s class, call 781-8039, ext. 119.
