“If I can get one person to commit…”
Roger Chui was diagnosed with diabetes when he was in college. For a few years, he was able to control his condition with diet, exercise, and medications—but life got more stressful and Roger’s condition began to spiral, requiring more medications and impacting his ability to do everyday activities.
Several years later, Roger began working with a nurse practitioner, Karla Mullins, at Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center. “She asked, ‘Has anyone ever sent to you to a diabetes education class?’ I had never been to one, and I figured it couldn't hurt, so I went.”
Roger’s class, taught by diabetes educator Shana Cunningham, was one of the offerings at UK HealthCare’s Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center. The wide-ranging course focuses on everything from nutrition and exercise to how to build a healthy, sustainable lifestyle while living with diabetes.
The class gave Roger the resources he needed to start and maintain a healthier lifestyle. He changed how he ate, how he exercised, and how he structured his day-to-day life. And the small successes he saw early on helped motivate him to stay committed to those changes.
Roger’s successes didn’t go unnoticed by his medical team. His A1c percentage—a marker of blood glucose levels—began dropping from dangerous levels down to a healthier percentage almost immediately. He’s been able to eliminate one blood pressure medication entirely, and decrease the amount of other medications he’s taking. “It’s just been one success after another instead of one step back after another like it was before.”
