Once a person is diagnosed with having diabetes by a physician, learning to control the diabetes with medication and lifestyle changes can be difficult. A primary care physician can help a patient with diabetes manage the disease. In addition, a primary care doctor can refer the patient to specialists and CentraState’s Novo Nordisk Diabetes Center for additional resources and support. The Novo Nordisk Diabetes Center is committed to providing people with diabetes with the latest diabetes treatments and management options available today.

Diabetes can't be cured, but specialists such as endocrinologists can help people with diabetes prevent most other medical problems that diabetes can cause. When a person suffers from diabetes, the body is not producing enough or any insulin and therefore cannot control its blood sugar level, causing the blood sugar level to become higher than normal.

Controlling your blood sugar is the key to preventing complications associated with diabetes. Blood sugar can be controlled with medication such as insulin and eating an appropriate diet. The Novo Nordisk Diabetes Center can help you control your blood sugar, whether you've had diabetes for many years, have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, or have just found out that you have diabetes.

The Novo Nordisk Diabetes Pump Program provides a special eight-hour class about the principles and use of the insulin pump, presented by experienced registered nurses and a registered dietitian.

Issues covered include: an in-depth discussion of diabetes, the function of insulin produced by the pancreas versus the insulin pump, the benefits and risks of the insulin pump, the signs, causes and treatment of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia, prevention of DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis, which is a bihormonal disorder in which insulin levels are too low and glucagen levels are too high), sick day management, and nutritional management including carbohydrate counting.

CentraState's Novo Nordisk Diabetes Center also offers special instruction for women who have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes—diabetes that occurs during pregnancy. This educational program includes instruction on self-blood-glucose monitoring and meal planning to ensure adequate nutrition for pregnancy and blood glucose control. Participants call in daily blood sugar results, which are forwarded to the patient's obstetrician/gynecologist. Insulin instruction is available for those women who require it during their pregnancy.

Triple nerve decompression surgery is a dynamic new treatment for diabetic neuropathy that can help re-establish nerve function throughout an arm or leg in order to relieve pain, restore feeling, and reduce the risk of amputation. It is an outpatient procedure that involves three small incisions and lasts approximately an hour and a half.

Postoperative discomfort typically is minimal, and the procedure has an approximately 90 percent success rate in reducing pain and increasing sensation in properly selected patients. The results are long-lasting, so a second surgery is rarely required, and triple nerve decompression surgery is covered by most insurance companies.

Diabetic neuropathy is a nerve disorder that affects approximately 60 percent of the nation’s 24 million people with diabetes. It results from a heightened blood sugar level, which, among other things, causes nerves to swell. The swelling pinches the nerves in the "tunnels" that the nerves pass through and results in weakness, numbness and pain in the hands and feet.

As a result of the numbness, patients tend to be unaware of blisters, cuts and abrasions on the skin, particularly on the feet. Without care, such wounds can worsen and become infected, and eventually amputation may be required. On average, nearly 100,000 amputations are performed annually on people with diabetes.

Triple nerve decompression surgery is performed at CentraState Medical Center by Michael Rose, MD, a board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon with a special interest in peripheral nerves. Dr. Rose is part of the team at the Plastic Surgery Center in Shrewsbury and is one of the few doctors in Monmouth County to perform triple nerve decompression surgery.

If you think you may be suffering from diabetes symptoms, please contact your CentraState primary care physician to make an appointment. To find a primary care physician, call 866-CENTRA7 (236-8727) or visit www.centrastate.com/primarycare.