February is nearly over and it's a month with a "heart". We started out with American Heart Association's "Wear Red Friday" to raise awareness of heart disease in women....quickly following is Valentine's Day with an emphasis on love and relationships.
As professional Diabetes Educators we are always "wearing red" on our educational sleeves as we teach the A-B-C's to patients...A1c, Blood Pressure, and Cholesterol/lipids. We strive to teach people with diabetes and pre-diabetes the love of healthy foods and being active. We teach people with diabetes about their medications and how to take them appropriately...many of the medications are to help keep their hearts healthy. We teach them about the risks of heart disease and the warning signs of heart disease. Our hearts are saddened as we are too often reminded that heart disease is the #1 cause of death for people with diabetes.
Most of all, we, as Diabetes Educators, love the joys of watching peple with diabetes grow in their self-management skills and overcoming obstacles and fears as they travel their own personal journey with diabetes.
I think back fondly on a wonderful, wise Native American Tribal Leader who planted the seed for my love of working with people with diabetes. He was elderly and had many complications of diabetes as self-blood glucose monitoring was still experimental when I was caring for this gentleman. His gracious acceptance of the health problems life had handed him along with his enormous faith that things would improve for people with diabetes touched my heart. How has your heart been touched as you care for people with diabetes?
Kari Hite, RN, MN, CDE