LEXINGTON — Hillary Diehl of Lexington doesn’t let diabetes hold her back.
At 14, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a chronic disease in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin. Fast forward 23 years and she’s leading a healthy life without experiencing any complications of diabetes.
“I think she sets a good example for patients,” said Dr. Cynthia Dorsey, an endocrinology physician at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital.
Diehl has been one of Dorsey’s patients for the last several years.
“I think she accepted her diagnosis,” Dorsey said. “I don’t think in all the years I’ve worked with Hillary that she’s ever tried to do anything less than take good care of herself.”
Diagnosis
It started during her freshman year of high school when her weight dropped mysteriously. She underwent various tests, but doctors weren’t able to identify the cause.
One night she ended up in the emergency room, and it was there that doctors discovered she had Type 1 diabetes. She was there for a week.
“The nurse would come in to give me my (insulin) shot, but I would always be looking the other way,” she remembered. “The nurse told me I’d have to learn to take injections, and I was like, ‘There’s not just a pill that I can take or something?”
Aside from watching her grandfather take insulin injections to help manage his Type 2 diabetes when she was young, Diehl wasn’t familiar with how it was treated before she was diagnosed.
She didn’t stay uninformed for long, though. As her understanding grew, so did her resolve to not let diabetes keep her from living a happy, healthy life.
“I remember sitting with my mom, and my mom was very, very concerned,” she said. “I looked at her and just said, ‘This is what I have to do to save my life.’ And we just went on from there.”
Chronic disease
“(Diabetes) is a chronic disease,” Dorsey said. “There’s no cure for diabetes, but there’s treatment, and fortunately along the way over the past 20 years, there have been a lot of advances in treatment.”
Education is imperative in helping an individual successfully manage diabetes.
“Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics need to go through a diabetic education course when they’re first diagnosed, and then they need continuing education and support along the way,” Dorsey said.
Other best practices include maintaining a healthy diet, exercising, complying with one’s medication regimen, and monitoring blood sugar levels.
Initially, Diehl managed her diabetes with daily insulin shots. She now uses an insulin pump instead, taking insulin injections only on rare occasions.
“Both require a lot of management, but an insulin pump is more intensive therapy,” Dorsey said. “What the pump does for a person is it gives them more stable blood sugar control because there’s this continuous insulin infusion.”
Diehl was around 22 years old when she made the switch to the insulin pump.
“It’s more intense therapy, but it gives me a ton more flexibility with my lifestyle,” Diehl said.
Manageable disease
Diehl is a firm believer that diabetes is a “manageable” disease.
Despite her condition, she’s been able to enjoy many feats and milestones, having recently wed and become the owner of her business, Salon Vivace, for the last seven years.
“I am by no means perfect, but I have to get up every day and say, ‘Okay, this is a new day and I’m going to do my best to manage this, she said. “And I don’t let it hold me back.”
D-Feet Diabetes 5K
The D-Feet Diabetes 5K Run/Walk and 1-Mile Walk will be held Sunday, April 24 at Ontario High School, located at 467 Shelby-Ontario Rd.
A pre-race performance by the DeVault Ridge Band will take place from 12:30 to 2 p.m. The race will begin at 2 p.m.
Registration costs $20.
Dorsey said the race started five years ago as a way to encourage diabetic patients to become more active through exercise and to provide an opportunity for friends and family to show their support for those with diabetes.
Proceeds go toward the OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital Diabetes Education Scholarship Fund, which is awarded to newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetics who are in need of diabetic education.
To register, go to OhioRaceDay.com, or call 419-522-2734 for registration forms.
