A Life Lived Well, Post-Diagnosis

“The greatest challenges newly diagnosed diabetes patients encounter are the overwhelming amount of information they must process, and the requirement to learn new habits and maintain that changed behaviour,” says Dr. Ehud Ur, director of the Diabetes Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital. And newly diagnosed Joseph Darrigan was no different. After struggling to find a medication plan that worked well with his body, the 57-year old hair stylist’s doctor sent him to the Diabetes Centre. By that point, he was so fatigued from not being able to keep his blood sugar normal that he could “fall asleep pinned up on a clothesline.” But his time with the Diabetes Centre staff changed everything. Their thoroughness, hands-on teaching and ongoing support with menu planning and finding food that worked for Joseph – even for breakfast, his least favourite meal! – put Joseph back in the driver’s seat of his condition, and his life.