Like it was for many people, 2021 didn’t start out great for 47-year-old Betsy Huffman of Bloomington, Illinois. Her new year began with a long recovery from a December 2020 hospital stay connected with complications from undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes.
Huffman then suffered a mild stroke earlier this year. Her follow-up treatment involved trips to a cardiologist and a pulmonologist. It’s difficult for her to discuss without crying. Huffman’s mother also had diabetes, so she knew the difficult lifestyle changes and new medications she faced. They are changes Huffman knew she’d have to stick to for the rest of her life. That’s also why, admittedly, she kept putting off yet another trip to a medical office to get a dilated eye exam to check for diabetic retinopathy – the number one cause of blindness in the U.S.