Leigh Ann Pillsbury

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Check out our virtual edition for coverage on diabetes awareness. Read about Leigh Ann, who has type 2 diabetes, here and in print this month. https://bitly.com/Hs_Nov_2011

Leigh Ann Pillsbury knows the emotions of diabetes – denial, complacency, anger, embarrassment and shame. She also knows that they can be overcome with acceptance, education and action.
Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about five years ago, she had a fair bit of denial until her father died of diabetes complications. “The truth of what made me come to the decision to take care of myself was watching my dad,” says Pillsbury, age 40. “I got to the place where I couldn’t ignore diabetes anymore because I know how it ends.”

She also knows the mood swings that come with both high and low blood sugars. “I would feel an insane rage or an insane urge to cry – there was no in between and 99 percent of the time I didn’t even connect it to my blood sugar,” she admits. “I also didn’t realize how blood sugar levels affect my ability to make decisions. Denial is easy. Emotionally I was all over the place but after a while you can’t use grief as an excuse.”

She went to her doctor who wanted to start Pillsbury on insulin; Pillsbury asked for 30 days. “I started a food journal and I checked my blood sugar four times a day,” she remembers, following her doctor’s advice. After four weeks, her doctor was pleased with her results. Pillsbury stayed on her diabetes medications and also followed the South Beach Diet. “Once you start cutting certain foods out, others fall by the wayside too. I also drink more water and fewer diet drinks,” she says. She has cut alcohol out of her diet completely. She is now managing well and maintains a very low medication dosage.

Still she battles with shame and embarrassment – all too common emotions among those with this disease. “Few people really understand the way that I need to manage diabetes,” she says. She is thankful for those who quietly ask her about the disease and offer to be support.

Acceptance, she has found, is the first step. “This is how it will be for the rest of your life,” she says. “Once you accept it, it’s not so overwhelming, but you have to do it for yourself. I realized, after watching my dad, that unless I want to die young I’ve got to suck it up,” she says.