Interview with Deb Leggett
Diabetes is common enough that people stop treating it as serious, and quiet enough that it does real damage before anyone notices. Dr. Mike Chua, who is diabetic himself, sat down with family nurse practitioner Deb Leggett to go through it plainly: what the disease actually is, how it gets caught, and what managing it looks like day to day.
I had such a great experience with the OT services here! The therapist was professional, caring and patient, and truly took the time to understand individual needs.
What Deb Leggett covered.
Deb Leggett is a family nurse practitioner who has been seeing patients in Jackson for years, and she opened with the simplest possible definition: diabetes is the pancreas failing to do its job. From there she separated the two types and made a point that surprises people who assume the condition can be reversed away. Type 1 stays type 1. Type 2 stays type 2. What changes is how well it is controlled, not which one you have.
Most of the conversation was about catching it. She described how a provider screens in ordinary practice, often starting with a routine urine sample, and named a fasting blood glucose under one hundred as the target. She explained the A1c the way we wish more people heard it, as a photograph of roughly three months of blood sugars rather than a single moment. She talked about the classic three symptoms, excessive thirst, excessive hunger and excessive urination, and then made the harder point: by the time those show up, the problem has usually been there a while. She compared it to high blood pressure, another condition that does its damage without announcing itself, and named diabetic ketoacidosis as the acute emergency that can follow.
On management she was practical. Medication is started at the level the patient is at, with metformin among the oral options she named. Continuous glucose monitors came up repeatedly, and her interest was less in the device than in teaching patients to download their own data and read it, so that a number becomes something you can act on the same afternoon rather than a report you hear about at the next visit. She said most commercial insurance covers this care well, and that patient assistance programs exist for people it does not. She also made the point that targets shift with age. A 94-year-old grandmother and a 34-year-old are not being managed toward the same number.
The last stretch was the part nobody enjoys: long-term complications, kidney damage and dialysis, and the weight families carry while they wait to find out. Dr. Chua talked about his own parents. Deb Leggett's closing advice was unglamorous and correct. If you think you may be diabetic or heading that way, go see a provider and let them check you.
How to reach Deb Leggett in Tennessee.
Deb Leggett practices with Family Medical Clinic and sees patients in Jackson. On air she gave her office at 1022 Greystone Square and the number 731-300-2001. She is not affiliated with GeriHab and we do not manage diabetes here. What we do see is what uncontrolled blood sugar eventually does to feet, balance and nerves, which is why this episode exists.
More from the Spotlight Series: