Patient Stories

Roberta knows the health care system from both sides – as a patient and a health professional.

She is a nurse at University Hospitals Case Medical Center who has lived with diabetes for three years. So Roberta speaks as an authority when she gives advice on how to get the most from her visits with doctors.

Schedule your appointments well in advance, said Roberta, 44, and know what you want to ask them.

“If you have your questions written down, you can address them before the doctor is out the door to help someone else,” she said.

Roberta was diagnosed with diabetes in 2005. She was feeling tired all the time and went to the doctor to be tested for a thyroid problem. She was surprised when the doctor told her she had diabetes. Roberta had experienced high blood sugar a few years earlier and regrets that she and her doctor hadn’t pursued it more at the time.

After the diagnosis, Roberta set out to learn about diabetes. She found that being a nurse didn’t make the education any easier.

“Maybe I understood the classes a little better, but it was still stuff that I needed to hear,” she said. “It’s different when it’s someone else’s issues, but now that it’s your issue, you’re trying to put it into your life. It’s a challenge.”

Roberta, who lives in Eastlake, has adopted a simple strategy to stay on top of her diet and the other things she has to manage every day. She writes down what she eats, how much she exercised and her daily blood sugar levels in a pocket-sized notebook she carries with her.

“The book makes you more mindful of what you’re eating,” she said. “It’s easy to just eat a handful of food here and there and snack, but when you have to start writing it down, you’re more conscious of what you’re eating.”

Roberta’s journal has helped her stay in control. And she knows that keeping control is her responsibility -- and hers alone.

“Everything falls back on me: trying to exercise, the food choices, it’s all on me,” she said. “We make the choice to take control or let it have its way.”