Our Services
Diabetes Success Story
Successfully Managing Diabetes
Joel Salter—A Stevens Success Story
When Joel Salter went to get his blood work done at Stevens Hospital before a routine knee surgery last September, he had no idea it would result in a week’s stay in the intensive care unit. Fortunately, preoperative blood work saved his life. Salter had diabetes and did not know it.
Salter received a call from Jeffrey Remington, MD, the Sunday night before his surgery asking him if he had diabetes. Salter told Dr. Remington that he did not, but his blood sugar level was so high that Dr. Remington ordered a second blood test to be sure. Salter went directly to the hospital that night. His blood sugar was so high that he should have been in a coma. Stevens emergency physicians determined that not only did he have diabetes, but he needed to be admitted to intensive care immediately.
That night was the beginning of a whole new life for Salter. He had to face the reality of his situation and deal with it if he wanted to continue to live. “My choice was either fix it or die,” he says.
So the journey to health began. After Salter was stabilized, he was released, but he had to give himself 60 units of insulin twice a day. He received information about the Stevens Hospital diabetes program that helped him change his lifestyle.
“The hospital set my wife and me up with the diabetes education program," he says. "It was great to have her attend the classes so she could help me manage all the changes.”
The program also got Salter exercising. He started out slowly by walking a mile a day, and he gradually increased his exercise program to 5 to 10 miles a day, seven days a week.
Salter remembers, “I used to be so big I couldn’t even fit in a regular chair, so when I first started walking it nearly killed me, but I stuck to it.”
Within three months of diagnosis, Salter was off insulin and his blood sugar was under control. “Living with diabetes is pretty easy, once you decide to deal with it,” he says.
To learn more about diabetes, call 425.640.4395.
