Your Incredible Neighbors: GETTING (AND STAYING) HEALTHY

Class helps diabetic find, maintain equilibrium

Local health-care providers are using a class to teach those suffering from diabetes how to lose weight and stay healthy.

One local resident, 76-year-old Betty Jones, has managed to lose 31 pounds and keep the weight off.

Jones said she has struggled with her weight for quite some time.

“I’ve always been a lifetime member of Weight Watchers, but you know, I never would keep the weight off,” said Jones, who lives in Rancho Resort.

The diabetic says she was driven to start turning her life around after her sister, who was heavily overweight, passed away.

“She was a severe diabetic, and also my mother was, so it runs in the family, and I just got really frightened.” So, she says, she “did something about it.”

What Jones did was talk to her physician, Dr. William Michael Cochran. Jones said that Dr. Cochran referred her to a class specifically tailored to diabetics at the Carondelet Medical Group building, where she began to learn about the disease and how to change her lifestyle to live healthier.

“I learned that I was eating wrong,” Jones said. A dietician was on hand to speak to each person that attended the class. “Talking with the nutritionist,” she said, “I got a lot out of that, and that’s what really got me going.”

Jacqueline Gomez, a registered nurse who teaches the class for the Carondelet Health Network, says that a lot of individual attention is paid to each patient attending the class.

“We go through all their history, their medication, how long they’ve been diabetic,” Gomez said. They also check each person for complications as a result of diabetes. “We do an assessment of their feet to see if they’re at risk. When we check their feet we check to see if there’s any type of ulcerations, any type of loss of sensation or tingling, anything like that.” If they notice anything, the nurses will write a letter to the patient’s doctor recommending that they be sent to a podiatrist.

“(Problems) can lead to amputation, so that’s why we try to prevent it,” Gomez said.

Teaching patients about proper diet and exercise make up the majority of the four-day class, Gomez said. “The dietitian will work with the patient to eat properly, especially carb counting,” she said. “Then there’s a menu set up for each person individually. They’re taught portions—serving sizes for foods—and sometimes they’ll want to lose weight, so that’s put into consideration.”

Jones said that since she took the class in December, she’s been exercising regularly every day.

“I walk two miles,” she said, “and when it gets too hot to walk, I swim.” Other habits have changed as well. Now that she’s eating healthier, Jones said she has had to give up some of her favorite snacks, like doughnuts.

“I could buy a dozen doughnuts and eat them alone,” she said. “Now I don’t even keep that stuff in the house anymore.” Now, she said, she sticks to popcorn and fruit. “I eat a lot of fruit that I’ve never had before,” she said, though she mainly eats apples and pears. Jones said that she was so pleased with the class that she encouraged her son and daughter in law to go and speak with the nutritionist as well. Now, “they’re both having success with weight loss,” she said.

The class, which requires a doctor’s referral and is covered by most insurances including Medicare, is once a week for four weeks, with a new class beginning every month, Gomez said. “I have approximately 10 to 11 every class,” she said.

Gomez said she was impressed with the eagerness to learn expressed by the resident of Green Valley that attend her class. “This population down here, they’re real interested. They really take anything you teach them to heart. They just want to know it all.”

Jones, who uses an oxygen tank full-time, said that her change in diet and exercise wasn’t too difficult thanks to the support from friends and family.

“A lot of people have really encouraged me and told me how proud they are, and that has boosted me even more,” she said.

Details

To learn more about classes and support groups offered in Green Valley by Carondelet Health Network, call 872-6055.