In 2000 I was diagnosed with having type 2 diabetes. When I got the news I thought it was a death sentence especially since I was not educated in the field of Diabetes. During the next 12 years I continued to live an unhealthy lifestyle not really taking my condition seriously. At the end of 2012, I met Nurse Cates at an office program and after revealing to her about my condition she took me under her care in order to educate me about Diabetes. Through the next 2 years the goal was to control the Diabetes and bring my weight down. Seeing that I was 330 plus pounds my blood glucose level was out of control. For more than a year I was placed on insulin injections, and even though it was painful giving myself an injection I was able to bring my Glucose level to some normalcy. Now it was time to tackle the weight! All of my life I was considered obese.
I knew at this point in my life I would have to do something drastic in order to meet this goal. Through the consultation with Dr Cates and Nurse Cates I was introduced to Dr. Diggiss and his weight loss procedure. For me there was no hesitation in the matter, I knew that If I wanted to stop the insulin I had to do the surgery. After consultation with Dr. Diggiss and his team I made the decision to have the “gastric sleeve” procedure done in November 2014. I can honestly say that this was the best decision made. In less than 3 months after the surgery I was taken off the insulin and after 2.5 years my weight has dropped by 100 pounds. It was tough getting used to my new eating habits however, it was all worth it. What keeps pushing me everyday is to know that my health is much better and for me that was the number one goal.
