Key points from today’s guests:

Linda Tagge, Living with Type 2 Diabetes

• During a hospital visit for an unrelated issue, they told Linda she was diabetic, which surprised her because that did not run in her family.
• She realized that she had symptoms – clouded thinking, fatigue – that were related to diabetes and not just normal life.
• She went to the Cray Diabetes Center and was impressed with how they listened to her to design a plan that was specifically for her needs.
• It wasn’t WHAT to eat, it was HOW to eat it. For example, she was taught to eat her vegetables and salads first, then the proteins.
• Linda has a binder that guides her through everything and she has access to her team if she has any questions.
• She is grateful for all of the resources provided to her and the support she has gotten from her team. She recommends people get checkups and follow the guidelines provided.

Dr. Kristin Grdinovac, endocrinologist, The University of Kansas Health System; director, Cray Diabetes Self-Management Center

• Diabetes can be really overwhelming – remembering to check blood sugar, what to eat, when to eat, how to exercise.
• About one in 10 people in the United States has diabetes. Diabetes management is really started in primary care. Internal medicine and family medicine are terrific at screening for diabetes counseling and trying to prevent diabetes. If someone has impaired glucose tolerance when initially treating diabetes, patients are typically referred to an endocrinologist.
• We gave Linda many resources through the Cray Diabetes Center. It really is first and foremost lifestyle management, and that's what we try to teach patients to give them empowerment tools.
• It's really important to keep our blood sugars within a certain range for most of the time. We're also working on controlling other aspects of the body because diabetes affects more than just the blood sugar. We really want to focus on cardiovascular health, keeping blood pressure and cholesterol at goal and those regular routine visits for eye checkups and monitoring kidneys.
• Through the generosity of the Cray family, the Fresh Start Program is a 24-week intensive program where patients can have intensive visits with a diabetes educator, a nurse practitioner, as well as really targeted group classes.
• Patients can have continuous glucose monitors, and we keep track of them for 24 weeks providing that encouragement. The goal is to really just give them the right tools to kind of get on a fresh start for managing their diabetes for long-term success.

Pattie Lueyot, registered dietician, Cray Diabetes Self-Management Center

• In addition to the Fresh Start program, we also have a full team of registered dietitian and certified diabetes educators offering one on one as well as a group classes.
• These classes help patients navigate through diabetes plans. We sit down and talk about how they monitor blood sugar, how they take medication, and eating habits like snacking before bedtime.  
• On CookingWithCray.com, there are a number of recipes available and people can sign up for cooking classes.
• With diabetes, it really is about lifestyle modification and it takes sometimes a village to help with that. Our dietitians or nutritionists or advanced practice providers provide individualized plans because one program doesn't necessarily work for the next person.
• That's actually a really fun thing because you can you don't have to eat a certain specific diet or you don't have to do this certain specific exercise to be successful. You can modify these lifestyle adaptations to what fits your diet and your schedule.
  
  

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, director of infection prevention & control, The University of Kansas Health System

• Active COVID patients in the Health System this week are at 20, which is up from 19 last week.
• There have been headlines about the nipah virus in India.
• This is a virus that is likely transmitted via bats to intermediate hosts like pigs. It does have concerning mortality rates, but it spreads differently than COVID and is unlikely to reach pandemic levels.
• There have been no reported cases in the U.S.

Tuesday, September 26 at 8 a.m. CT is the next Morning Medical Update.  Talk about being at the right place and the right time. A jogger who collapsed was treated immediately by a stranger who works in the medical field. We’ll reunite this man with the stranger who saved his life using CPR.

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