My First Wellness Poster: Diabetes

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My first brush with patient advocacy from the medical community standpoint came in the form of a project I did for a class during undergrad. I was mostly working on prerequisites for physical therapy, but they are intense classes (anatomy, physiology, physics, chemistry, biology, the works!) that most people only take one or two at a time to ensure they get high enough grades to get into PT school (which basically means all As all the time). One semester I decided to take a class called "The Pathophysiology of Human Disease," which was taught by Dr. Douglas Carr, MD.

Dr. Carr explained that medical training was undergoing some changes and that there was a big push toward empowering patients to maintain better health through education. The class covered three common medical conditions in detail -- diabetes, breast cancer, and heart disease. We talked about the history of the condition, how it was diagnosed, how it worked from a physiologic standpoint, what the complications were and how they developed over time, and how they were managed from a medical and patient standpoint. There were even patients with each of the conditions who came in to talk to us about their history and answer questions for us. All of this was in preparation for a project in which we were to design a poster intended to educate a patient newly diagnosed with one of the three conditions, and we could choose which one.

I selected diabetes, and along with my score Dr. Carr sent me an email that I still have, in which he said it was clear that I had a good understanding of how these things worked and recommended that if I ever thought about becoming a medical doctor, I should come and talk to him. That kind of reinforcement and encouragement has been scarce in my life, and I was deeply touched by his kind words. I later asked him to write a letter of recommendation for my applications to physical therapy school, to which he graciously agreed. All of that was four years ago now, and every time I work with a patient who has diabetes I think about that class and Dr. Carr and all the things I learned.

It is my hope that eventually as I continue to add content, this blog will become a valuable resource both for people who want to understand and improve their health and for healthcare providers who want to understand how they can better help their patients. In that spirit, here is the first original resource I'll add to PT For the People.

SOURCES

List of terms used on ingredient labels for sugar:

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/different-words-sugar-food-labels-8373.html

IU Health Diabetes Center:

http://iuhealth.org/bloomington/diabetes-center/

Insulin/Glucose Metabolism image modified from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Insulin_glucose_metabolism.jpg

Capillary bed:

http://highermeaning.org/Authors/Berridge/f01.jpg

Cross section of capillary modified from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Capillary.svg/2000px-Capillary.svg.png

Brain image modified from:

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--VQCwnqwV--/17phitxlpacecjpg.jpg

All other images sourced from public domain images available via office.com or created by poster author Kelly Clark.

All information sourced from text & class pack for MSCI M 485, Spring 2015 at Indiana University Bloomington.