PRIDE News is a quarterly newsletter published by the University of Pittsburgh Diabetes Institute with contributing authors from the PRIDE Program. Download current and archived issues in PDF format. The Adobe Reader plug-in is required to view the newsletters. Click the Acrobat icon below to download the plug-in.
Before being diagnosed with diabetes, Edmund Watson used to easily polish off 12 ears of corn in a single sitting. Ed, who has since turned his life around, now sitcks to the motto, "I only eat to live." Looking back, his old eating habits seem almost unthinkable.
Six year's ago, Ed's longtime girlfriend Peg noticed something was wrong. He wasn't acting like himself and he was constantly tired and lacked energy. Not one for going to the doctor, Ed finally gave in to Peg's urging and had his blood tested. To their surprise, Ed, at age 62 was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
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To Darryl Granata, 63, losing weight had become much more than just wanting to look good; it had literally become a matter of life and death.
"I've never been thin, but I really became heavy in the past 10-12 years," he said. "In late 2007, my weight was up to 368 pounds. My blood pressure was up, I had become diabetic, and I was at the point where my weight was making me an invalid."
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"It's always with you." That's how Abby Kroh describes the disease that she was diagnosed with in 1999. Abby, a graduate from Dickinson College, with a degree in Archaeology who is currently working at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, was just 15 when doctors diagnosed her with Type 1 diabetes.
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How would you react if your spouse was diagnosed with diabetes? Most of us would no doubt offer our loved one a support system based on taking an active part in managing his or her newly diagnosed diabetes. Unfortunately, I did not have this reaction.
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When you are homeless, making it through each day can be a challenge. But, when you also have Type 2 diabetes the situation can seem almost impossible. This was the case for one western Pennsylvania man.
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Henry Alexander (Kendall) Simmons was born in the small town of Ripley, Mississippi in 1979. He is a son, husband, father, All-State and PrepStar All-American, Auburn University graduate, first-round draft pick for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and a man living with diabetes.
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Ten years ago if you had asked me what my chances were of getting diabetes, I would have said, "None." That, of course, was before I saw a newspaper advertisement about the Diabetes Prevention Program at the University of Pittsburgh. The advertisement included information about the risk factors for diabetes. To my surprise and chagrin, I had most of them!
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I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1973, at age nine, at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. After more than three decades, some aspects of life with diabetes are pretty easy for me. Others, while not always easy, are at least routine. Then there's the stuff that remains downright difficult. Which things are which? You might be surprised.
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