Patient Testimonials
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| Dave Maynard instructs students in the Basic Yoga course he teaches at a local church. |
Dave Maynard
While Dave Maynard readily admits he has diabetes, he doesn't think of himself as a diabetic.
"I have diabetes, but that's not who I am," he says. The 55-year-old Milton, W.Va., resident says the assistance of the Joslin Diabetes Center eduation affiliate at St. Mary's Medical Center has been vital to his healthy lifestyle and mindset. With the encouragement and expertise of its staff, not to mention the support of fellow Joslin patients, Maynard relearned how to eat.
"There were a lot of details I didn't quite understand," he says. "The Joslin educators were able to clear up a lot of things for me. They really fine tuned it. It really brought out a lot of points and details. You get more of a feeling that you're not alone rather than focusing internally on your own problems."
Diabetes is no stranger to Maynard's family. He says his father, a brother and some of his uncles have struggled with the illness. Maynard deals with Type 1 diabetes, the more serious form of the condition.
I was able to control it with diet and exercise, then it got to the point I couldn't do it," he says. "I started to try and educate myself."
Because Maynard also has celiac disease – a digestive intolerance to gluten, a protein found in wheat and rye and, to a lesser extent, in oats and barley – managing his diet became even more challenging.
"There were a lot of details I didn't quite understand," he says. I really cracked down after attending the Joslin education courses. My numbers were so good that my doctor reduced my medication. He told me, "I don't know what you're doing, but keep on doing it."
As a result, Maynard was able to reduce his diabetes medication from daily to twice weekly. An engineer at Aero Fab in Huntington, Maynard also has embraced the benefits of being fit. He says he exercises from 10 to 12 hours a week, including teaching yoga, Pilates and exercise ball classes.
Just as those forms of exercise benefit the mind, as well as the body, living with diabetes requires a certain mindset.
"A lot of people don't want to accept that their life is going to change," Maynard says. "You just have to accept it and not worry about, ‘Why me?' … I look forward to having many years of good health. A lot of it is due to the information and help I got at Joslin. I'm walking proof that if you work at it and pay attention to what you're doing, you can hold it at bay."
"When I run into someone who has just been diagnosed, I always recommend the Joslin course at St. Mary's."
