Donta

After experiencing blurred vision at work followed by a restless night’s sleep like nothing he had ever known, along with abdominal pain and “feeling pretty much out of it” – Donta Moore, 34, of Florissant, Missouri, knew along with his wife’s insistence that he needed to get to Christian Hospital.

“It was a blessing coming here,” recalls Donta, who had no clue he had developed diabetes, which was causing all his symptoms. He arrived at the Christian Hospital emergency department with a glucose reading of almost 1,200 (70-120 is considered normal).

“I don’t really remember almost the first two days at the hospital,” says Donta, “The great thing is I felt very cared for, and everyone moved quick and whenever I needed something they were there for me.” During his five-day hospital stay, Donta went from the ER to the acute intensive care unit and then to the fifth floor, designated for general medical care.

“Donta is the sweetest guy, and he was unaware that he was diabetic,” says Jan Krug, diabetes educator at Christian who stepped in to get Donta’s health on track, “so I had a lot of teaching to do and connected with him on his second day once he was alert. I started my education process by reassuring him that he can get this under control, and he has the opportunity to turn this around by managing his health, especially because he’s so young.”

Jan notes that almost 60% of the patient population in north St. Louis County is diabetic or pre-diabetic and she emphasized to Donta that his diabetes didn't happen overnight, and it can't be managed overnight as well. “I told him to give himself some time to get to the happy place of being able to manage this and I went through everything that I do for anybody in his condition. He was discharged and went straight to insulin injections, which is the normal practice for someone with an A1C around an 11 or 12.”

Donta took Jan’s diabetic education to heart and after being discharged he was determined to manage his health and get his diabetes under control. His body was responded well to the insulin, and he worked closely with his primary provider to manage his glucose readings. Jan was able to provide Donta with a glucose monitor and supplies to regularly check his glucose readings, thanks to a grant from the Christian Hospital Foundation.

Once out of the hospital, Donta also began exercising and changed his diet to include more healthy foods. Within a few weeks from discharge Donta had lost 15 pounds and reported to Jan that his provider discontinued some of the insulin and changed the dosage.

“He called me a few weeks after that and said, ‘Jan you’re not going to believe this, but they’ve taken me completely off of insulin injections and I’m just on oral medicine now!’” recalls Jan. “I was so proud of him telling me his great news!” By that time Donta had lost a total of more than 30 pounds since his hospital visit.

“Jan is awesome and really changed my life,” says Donta. “And I told her I wanted to share my story to help others like me have awareness of diabetes. I didn’t know when I went through all this, but I have a lot of people around me that are diabetic, and them seeing me now really gives them hope and I get calls from friends asking me how i did it and what did I do, so by me sharing my story I can give others hope, too.”