The Sweet Life
Stella Weathersby is proof that you are never too old to improve your health and quality of life.
Stella was diagnosed with diabetes in 1985. “I thought I had the flu,” says the 84-year-old Belden resident “I just didn’t feel good. So, I left work on my lunch break and went to the doctor’s office. They did some bloodwork, and my blood sugar was 365.”
The diagnosis did not come as a total shock to Stella, who had several grandparents and siblings with diabetes. “It’s pretty strong in my family,” she says.
Stella had experienced gestational diabetes with both her sons. “I delivered two large babies—one weighing 10 pounds and one weighing 11 pounds—and my blood sugar went up with both of them,” she says. “But as soon as they were born, it went back to normal.”
When she was diagnosed 39 years ago, Stella’s doctor prescribed oral medication to lower her blood sugar. Unfortunately, it was not enough to do the trick, so she started taking insulin shots three years later.
Over the years, Stella says her blood sugar “wasn’t very well controlled,” so her medication and insulin were continually being tweaked and increased.
In 2020, Stella became a patient of North Mississippi Medical Center’s Diabetes Treatment Center. When she started, her nurse practitioner recommended an insulin pump to deliver continuous insulin to her body.
“The insulin pump is what really helped me start improving,” Stella says. “We kept gradually reducing the amount of insulin until eventually, I was able to come off the pump completely.”
Now, Stella’s blood sugar is well under control with only oral medication and a low dose of daily insulin.
As an added bonus, Stella has lost almost 100 pounds over the past few years. “I met with a dietitian at the hospital (for nutrition counseling), and I pretty well try to stick to it,” she says. She has also been able to cut her blood pressure medication from three pills every day to one.
Stella offers high praise for the Diabetes Treatment Center team. “They treat me like I’m special—they always try to work with me and help me,” she says. “If I have a problem, I know I can call them. It’s just the idea that I feel like I’ve got a friend.”
Stella Weathersby is finally showing her diabetes who's boss.
