Diabetes Center

The Diabetes Center at KMC works with your doctor to identify your needs and develop a personalized plan of education that will help you understand and manage your diabetes. Educational classes and one-on-one counseling are provided in both English and Spanish.

The diabetes educators will conduct classes for patients who have recently been diagnosed with diabetes and for those who have had diabetes for some time but need to learn how to manage their disease. Education topics for adults and children may include:

• The disease
• Medications
• Nutrition counseling that includes a personalized meal plan
• How to grocery shop, dine out
• Prevention, recognition, and treatment of diabetic emergencies
• How the disease affects other parts of the body
• Managing diabetes at home
• Importance of exercise
• Stress management
• Personal and family adjustments
• Long-term complications
• Compliance with treatment program
• Managing diabetes during pregnancy
• Insulin Pump Therapy
• When to call the doctor

Patients must be referred to the Diabetes Center by their doctor. The patient's participation in this program does not replace the patient's ongoing treatment plan by his or her doctor. For information, call 956-969-5568.

Diabetes Support Group top

Patients and their family are invited to attend the free diabetes support group classes that meet monthly.

• 6:30 p.m. second Monday in English and fourth Tuesday in Spanish
• Call 969-5568 for location

Diabetes Information top

Diabetes can affect anyone, young children to great grandparents.
The disease exists in all countries, all races, all age groups, and affects males and females. Hispanic Americans are two times more at risk of developing diabetes than non-Hispanic whites of the same age..

An estimated 17 million Americans are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, formerly known as non insulin dependent diabetes, and 6 million do not even know they have the disease. As a result, they are vulnerable to the damage high blood sugar can cause to blood vessels, the heart, kidneys, eyes and extremities.

Annual blood sugar screening as part of a routine medical examination can identify diabetes early, before serious damage occurs.
Some of the signs and symptoms of diabetes:

• Always tired
• Crave extra liquids (more than 10 glasses a day)
• Frequent urination (especially during the night)
• Always hungry (especially after eating)
• Unexplained weight loss
• Blurred vision
• Numbness and tingling of feet
• Wounds that won't heal
• Infections (vaginal itching in females)
• Sexual dysfunction (difficulty with erection)

• Increasing Age
• Family member has diabetes
• Overweight
• Member of a high risk ethnic group (African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Asian American, Pacific Islander
• High blood pressure
• Having diabetes during pregnancy or having a baby weighing more than nine pounds at birth