Lynette Bush sees the long-term results of diabetes in the nursing facility where she works. She doesn’t want any part of that, so when she was diagnosed with diabetes herself, she started making changes immediately.
“I didn’t feel sick or anything, so I didn’t know I even had diabetes until I had an injury,” said Bush, 60, of Albany. “They diagnosed me with it and put me on Metformin, but it made me sick so I said I’d do this on my own.”
Bush received her diagnosis in January and started meeting with Jennifer Sylvester, a diabetes educator with the team at Samaritan Albany General Hospital. “They’re very sweet at the hospital, and they’re ecstatic about how well I’m doing,” she said.
She used to love her sweets, and she liked to drink. She’s done with both, and she’s gotten her hemoglobin A1C down from nearly 7 at diagnosis to 5.8 today.
“I really don’t do anything special,” she said. “I just watch my carbohydrates and I don’t drink anymore. I know some people have vices they fight with, but I don’t have anything I need to conquer. I don’t have any urges to go back to any of it.”
“When my doctor tells me I need to do something, I try my darndest to do it.”
On her job, she helps take care of patients with long-term diabetes complications, including amputated limbs. “Diabetes can really screw you up, and I don’t want to take any chances because I want to keep living.”
She’s glad that she doesn’t have to take medications for her diabetes, and her family is as well.
“My daughter and grandchildren, they keep me pretty grounded,” she said. “They give me enough excitement.”
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