HOUSTON — Untreated diabetes can be extremely risky. In fact, a UT Physicians diabetes educator says it can even be a life or death situation.
Eating is widely considered one of the greatest joys of life.
"It's hard because there is a lot of limits that we have," Tala Dara, who has type 2 diabetes, said
Those limitations have changed the way Dara looks at food.
"I cannot eat whatever I want or whenever I like," Dara said.
Two years ago, during routine blood work, Dara tells me she had a feeling something was wrong.
"I had some symptoms, like my food was like burning," she said. "I feel it, but it was ignoring because I never thought that I can be diabetic."
It was a bitter pill to swallow, one Tala thought she could manage without medical care.
But now, Ann Redwine, a certified diabetes educator with UT Physicians, helps Dara manage her diabetes.
"Any time the blood sugars over 180, that is considered too high," Redwine said.
"And one time, it goes way up, very high," said Dara. "That time I said, 'Oh, no, you have to really stop. I don't want to die.'"
Dara, through trial and error, has found the blood glucose monitor that's painless. No more finger pricks or dealing with blood.
Tala has changed her eating habits with some leeway for celebrations.
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