Sep. 2--PLATTSBURGH -- Dianne Agnew had learned to live with diabetes.
It was not very easy, as she spent more than two decades on a daily regime of medicine and insulin shots and battling fluctuating blood-sugar levels that put her in the hospital several times and almost ending her life.
Now, after switching from the insulin shots to a pump that helps regulate the amount of insulin she needs to keep her blood-sugar levels constant, Agnew, 58, has become more upbeat and positive about her own health.
"I was up to five shots a day," she said. "I wanted to go on the pump, but it was only available over in Burlington and would be too expensive for me (to travel back and forth for support and education). I just never followed through with it."
But then Dr. Jonathan Beach of the Northeast Center for Diabetes Care and Education began offering the insulin pump for his diabetes patients at Urgicare in Plattsburgh.
"Oh my God, there have been so many improvements in my life," Agnew said as she and several other patients talked about their experience with diabetes. "My lifestyle is so much easier."
NOW NORMAL LEVELS
The insulin pump, about the size of a cell phone, delivers insulin to the body around the clock based on a plan that is unique for each individual.
The user has to monitor his or her blood-sugar levels with samples taken by a small prick to the finger and adjusted by the amount of carbs taken at each meal. But the pump adjusts the insulin flow based on those figures.
A tiny plastic tube connects from the pump to a small device called a cannula that is inserted just below the skin and allows for the steady flow of insulin.
"I was up to eight shots a day," said Susan Nolan, 49, who has had Type 2 diabetes since 1986. "I was very insulin resistant. My blood-sugar levels were so high they went off the charts. Now, they are consistent and within normal levels all the time."
Phil Goff, 77, has been diabetic for a quarter century and went from pill to insulin to pump. He said the new technique is "wonderful" and added that Beach and Certified Pump Trainer Bridget Sarazen have been like family at the clinic.
The Rev. Gilbert Boisvert, on insulin for the last 23 years, switched over to the pump a month ago and is glad he did.
"There are less peaks and valleys (with blood-sugar levels)," he said. "My objective in using the pump has been to level out everything."
REVERSING COMPLICATIONS
Cheryl Garrant of Plattsburgh has had Type 2 diabetes since the mid 1980s and praised the way the clinic has helped her feel more comfortable since switching from insulin shots to the pump recently.
Karen Marvel, 49, developed diabetes at 21 and started using the pump in February. She is especially excited about the clinic's educational services.
"I learned more about diabetes in the first two weeks (of using the pump) than I did the whole time I have been diabetic," she said.
Carol Kipp is also a new user, having switched to the pump a month ago. Already, her average blood-sugar levels have dropped 50 points, and she is feeling better than she has in a long time.
"We follow the patients pretty closely initially to make sure they're doing well with the system, but it becomes convenient for them quite easily," said Sarazen, who noted that the clinic has issued about 50 insulin pumps in the last year. "It has helped them become very independent."
Providing a service that helps regulate blood-sugar levels more effectively has plenty of health benefits as well, said Beach, who has Type 1 diabetes and is on the pump himself.
"It's been proven that tighter control of diabetics' glucose levels can help reverse complications from heart disease, kidney disease and eye disease," he said. "Whatever we can do to mimic the role of the pancreas (which monitors insulin levels in the body naturally) is going to be a benefit."
jmeyers@pressrepublican.com
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