Diabetes

Diabetes Services in Beaumont

Helping Patients Thrive with Chronic Health Conditions

Diabetes is a chronic disease in which a person is no longer able to regulate their blood sugar levels. At Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas, we help people with diabetes to properly regulate the blood sugar by helping them understand how to eat, how to use their diabetic supplies, and how to be mindful of how they are feeling and know when to make changes to alter the blood sugar levels.

Types of Diabetes

The most common diabetes types are those which occur during adolescence and those which occur during adulthood. However, it is also possible to exhibit symptoms during pregnancy.

Diabetes types include:

  • Type 1 diabetes – This type most often occurs in young people when their immune system attacks their insulin producers in the pancreas. As a result, people with Type 1 diabetes need to exercise the most vigilance in staying on top of their blood sugar levels
  • Type 2 diabetes – When the body is no longer able to produce enough insulin to manage blood sugar levels, a person must begin taking medications or supplements that help to regulate this problem. These can be oral tablets, but may later have to be insulin shots just like Type 1
  • Gestational diabetes – Blood sugar levels can fall out of regularity during pregnancy as well. For this reason, it is important that pregnant women monitor their eating habits to ensure blood sugar levels are safe for both themselves and the fetus

Ways to Test for Diabetes

While diabetes symptoms can be mild, it is possible for them to become unmanageable within a short period of time.

You should undergo diabetes testing if you have experience symptoms like:

  • Frequent appetite or thirst, even following a meal
  • Severe fatigue
  • Frequent urination
  • Slow healing wounds
  • Tingling in the hands or feet
  • Blurred vision
  • Weight loss for no apparent reason

At Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas, our diabetes department has the tools to help you understand if you have diabetes and, if so, how to manage it. For more information contact our Diabetes Education Coordinator-Helen Simmons at (409) 212-7295 or Helen.simmons@bhset.net

Ways to test diabetes include:

  • Random plasma glucose test – Blood test to check glucose levels regardless of when you last ate
  • Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) – Tests blood sugar levels after ingesting nothing but water for at least 8 hours
  • Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) – A two-hour procedure that checks blood sugar levels before and after ingesting sugar
  • A1C – Long-term test that measures a person’s glucose levels over months by testing for how much blood sugar attaches to red blood cells in order to travel throughout the body