Reprinted from the Health District's quarterly publication mailed to district residents (Fall 2004)

When diabetes isn’t properly controlled, Joy Decker knows “bad things can happen.” Bad like when Decker went into diabetic convulsions and a Flight for Life helicopter was dispatched to her rural Larimer County home. “I wasn’t breathing,” she recalls.

Decker, who asked that her real name not be used, lives 45 minutes from the nearest hospital. Although she survived the event, Decker’s ordeal is a reminder that proper treatment of diabetes can be a matter of life or death for many local diabetics.

For 28 years, Decker has had Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes. Her body does not produce insulin, a hormone that maintains blood sugar at a healthy level. To keep her disease properly controlled, Decker needs daily injections of insulin. She also must use a special device to check her blood sugar level as often as five times a day. That hasn’t always been easy.

Decker, who is self-employed, has no health insurance, yet the supplies she uses to check her blood sugar can cost $150 a month or more. Insulin and syringes are an additional expense.

Like many local residents without health insurance, Decker gets her insulin through the Health District’s prescription assistance program. But the other necessary supplies like syringes and test strips, which help measure blood sugar levels, don’t require a prescription and usually aren’t covered by community programs that offer assistance for medical needs.

That poses a dangerous dilemma for many diabetics with limited incomes.

“We’ve seen some people who cut their test strips in half to make them last longer, or who test less frequently than they should,” says Laura Hannity, coordinator for the Health District’s prescription assistance program.

For the past two years, however, the Health District’s Diabetes Supply Assistance Program has helped Decker buy these nonprescription items. The program provides vouchers that help reduce the cost of essential diabetic supplies for qualifying people with low incomes.

The program is funded by the Health District and the Fort Collins Lions Club. Currently, though, the program only has enough funding to help individuals with the most severe financial needs. With more funding, the program could provide emergency and ongoing assistance to an additional 50 or more people each year.

For that reason, the Health District is seeking community support to expand the Diabetes Supply Assistance Program.

No one has to convince Joy Decker of the need. “If you guys weren’t there for me,” she says, “life would be very, very hard.”