Claudia Leighton learned she had diabetes one night about 19 years ago while driving her sick son to the emergency department. After she missed a turn, she realized she could barely see the road.

“I didn’t know what was going on with my eyes,” she said. The doctor in the emergency department, who happened to be her own doctor, took a blood test and confirmed that her blood glucose level was far too high.

Problems with vision are often one of the first signs of diabetes, and for Leighton, whose mother and grandmother had diabetes, the diagnosis was not a shock. She began taking medication to regulate her blood sugar, but she didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the disease.

Over the years, however, as diabetes continued to take a toll on her eyes and her overall health, she realized that she needed to do more. That realization brought her eventually to LincolnHealth and Karen Lane, a registered nurse and certified diabetes educator.

LincolnHealth offers a wide range of diabetes services, including classes on diabetes self-management, insulin pump therapy, continuous glucose monitoring, a gestational diabetes program and nutrition classes. All of the services are available in Boothbay Harbor if there is sufficient demand.

The classes were helpful, but Leighton said the most important part of the program is the relationship she has with Lane.

Lane is somebody she can depend on, someone who will take the time to help her understand how her blood sugar fluctuates over the course of a day and what she has to do to keep it in under control.

Working with Lane over the past year, she has learned how to use her insulin pump more precisely. That helps Leighton feels better in the short term and avoid the long-term effects of diabetes, which can include heart disease, neuropathy and vision problems.

Lane, who is a type 1 diabetic herself, has been using an insulin pump for about 24 years. She not only understands the technology of modern insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors (small devices that take minute by minute readings of blood glucose) she also understands on a personal level what it means to have diabetes.

But what’s most important, said Leighton, is that Lane is there for her when she needs her.

When she was receiving diabetes care in a larger facility about two hours away, Leighton said she often felt like a number. She liked her doctor but her time with him was so limited and the drive was so long she couldn’t get all the answers she needed. With Lane that isn’t a problem

“When I have a problem with my insulin pump or my meter she can get me in with no problem,” said Leighton. “It is just more comfortable. It is a support system, I feel really supported.”

Knowing she has the help she needs if she runs into a problem is a great feeling, said Leighton.

“It makes you feel a little more secure, and when things are going well, it makes you feel really nice,” she said.

For more information about insulin pump therapy on either the St. Andrews or the Miles Campus of LincolnHealth Hospital, please call 207-563-4442.