Diabetes

The Diabetes Support Group meets each month on the second Monday at 6:30 p.m., and the second Tuesday at 2 p.m. The meetings are held in the Medical Office Building located at 2602 St. Michael Drive, Pre-Admissions entrance, in Texarkana, Texas.  No reservations are needed, and everyone is welcome to attend.

For more information about enrollment in the Diabetes Management Program or the monthly support group meetings, please call Debbie Richardson, RN, Diabetes Educator, at 903-614-2034 for details.

Diabetes Care and Education

At CHRISTUS we offer expert diabetes care and education to your and your families. Our family nurse practitioners specialize in diabetes management and is available to assist in improving blood glucose control during hospitalization. While hospitalized, one-to-one educational sessions are available from our certified diabetes educators to assist patients and their families to:

• Understand how illness affects your blood glucose levels
• Learn how to monitor your blood glucose at home
• Understand how to select foods to assist in controlling your blood glucose levels
• Prevent low blood glucose levels

We teach you how to manage your diabetes on a daily basis. Understanding the relationship between medical nutritional therapy, exercise, medications, emotional and physical health, and blood glucose levels helps you achieve and maintain optimal glucose control.

The high-risk diabetic population includes people who are newly diagnosed, have uncontrolled diabetes, have gestational diabetes, recently started taking insulin. Learn how to live a healthier life with diabetes while making sense of your blood sugar numbers and finding out how diabetes affects your body. Also see wound care.

Our teams include certified diabetes educators who are also certified insulin pump trainers who can assist patients with insulin pump therapy or those individuals with other insulin therapy needs. If you would like to meet with one of our team while hospitalized, please let your nurse know, or ask the Operator to connect you with Diabetes Services.

Type 1 Diabetes Symptoms

• Frequent urination
• Sudden weight gain or weight loss
• Excessive thirst
• Extreme hunger
• Weakness and fatigue
• Unexplained tiredness or drowsiness
• Blurred vision or any change in sight
• Slow healing
• Numbness or tingling in legs, feet, or fingers
• Frequent skin infections or dry skin

If you experience any of these symptoms, see your doctor for a diabetes screening.

Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes

Obese individuals develop a resistance to insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels. Over time, the resulting high blood sugar can cause serious damage to the body.

We have an elite team of highly trained specialists dedicated to saving your at-risk limbs from amputation through a comprehensive approach. This does more than save a limb; it restores your quality of life.

Preventing limb loss

Most of our limb salvage patients are diabetic. The epidemic of diabetes has led to a dramatic increase in the number of foot and leg amputations across the United States. Most can be avoided with good preventive care. Patients who undergo below-the-knee amputation have a 50 percent chance they will need another amputation, or even die, within the next five years¹.  We have developed a proven method to prevent limb loss, thereby stabilizing against further complications. The key is timely recognition of limb threatening conditions and rapid referral to the wound and hyperbaric center.

Multi-disciplinary care

Our limb salvage team is comprised of advanced specialists. By working in concert, we can effectively determine the precise nature and severity of your affected limb and proceed with treatment. Our team includes specialists in:

• Wound care
• Diabetes care
• Primary care
• Orthopedic and podiatric surgery
• Vascular surgery
• Nephrology
• Interventional cardiology
• Hyperbaric medicine
• Interventional radiology
• Specialized nursing

Patient-centered care

The prospect of losing a limb is frightening, and can be very unsettling. We believe a well-informed patient is an empowered patient. The care we provide is complex and time is very much of the essence. Yet our team approach means your aren't shuffled from one specialist to the next. Instead, we can provide faster treatment while keeping you and your family informed and comfortable throughout. We know from experience that patients who feel a strong sense of involvement in their care tend to see better results.

Measuring success

When a limb is salvaged and a foot is preserved, patients are immediately relieved of a great anxiety. We don't lose sight of your ultimate goal—a full return to normal activity. Monitoring recovery for the first few weeks is critical, and we work closely with referring physicians for your follow-up care. The limb salvage team practices some of the most advanced care in modern medicine, yet our measure of success remains simple: save the foot, save the hand.

¹ Georgetown Physician Update, 2007