Dale Ledbetter
Dear Roberta:
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! The information you have been kind enough to share with me has been the key link enabling me to return to a normal life. Several months ago, I began growing faint and was, on about half a dozen occasions, taken to the emergency room of a local hospital. In every instance, I was told there was nothing wrong and that I was probably just hyperventilating. After consulting several doctors without any success at all, I was properly diagnosed by a local physician who recommended a glucose tolerance test. Once it was determined that I had hypoglycemia, I was referred to the Cleveland Clinic for dietary planning.
The staff at the Cleveland Clinic were enormously helpful but referred me to you and your organization for additional help. The materials you have supplied have helped me understand my problem and do what is necessary to return to a normal life. I am saddened by my own experience with the doctors who were unable to determine what was wrong with me. I am frightened for the many thousands of patients throughout the country with similar problems who are no doubt experiencing the same kind of difficulty with their diagnoses.
I hope for their sake that they will be as fortunate as I was to be directed to you and your wonderful, caring organization. Please let me know if there is anything I can ever do to repay the enormous debt I owe to you. – Dale Ledbetter
Tomey Sellars
I was 16 and all I could think of was that I didn’t want to make it past my next birthday. I was scared and had no idea what was happening to me except that I didn’t want to live anymore.
Instead of being out enjoying my friends and loving life, I was depressed and crying; I couldn’t eat or sleep. I was consumed with irrational fears, confusion, anxiety and paranoia. My health was failing and I remember praying to God to please help me or to just let me die because I certainly didn’t want to live my life being this sick. I remember thinking no one would ever want to marry me this way!
Fortunately God had other plans for me.
My sister Theresa called her former high school psychology teacher and asked his opinion. During the conversation he asked if I had ever had a GTT? She asked what that was and he told her “glucose tolerance test.” He told my sister that his wife had something called hypoglycemia and it can be the cause of some very severe symptoms like the ones I was experiencing. We immediately called the family physician and got an appointment. When the results came back positive for severe hypoglycemia and borderline diabetes I remember crying with relief because I now knew the name of what I had and that I really wasn’t going crazy.
My body just overproduced insulin to a point that I never had enough blood sugar in my system for my entire nervous system to run correctly. Knowing all I had to do eat healthier foods, stay away from sugars and refined foods plus eat more often throughout each day was the answer to my prayers.
While it took some time to really get my health back to 100 percent, I was grateful and willing to follow through and help others who were going through the same thing.
I am so grateful to Roberta and the HSF for being there for me in a time when no one else understood. Through proper education and support of my family and the foundation, I came through one of the worst and terrifying times of my life and you will, too. Don’t give up!
LETTERS FROM READERS
Dear Sirs,
I was thrilled to find Roberta Ruggiero’s book The Do’s and Don’ts of Low Blood Sugar, and find out about your organization! My symptoms of hypoglycemia began in 1984 after the birth of my daughter. I knew there was nothing physically wrong with me so I thought I must have been going crazy. My mood changes were too frequent and drastic to be normal. I knew we could not afford a psychiatrist so I made an effort to cope with the problems on my own. It may have been a blessing in disguise, however, because I was not given tranquilizers and other drugs and therapy about which I’ve heard horror stories.
My symptoms grew to include sudden hunger, weakness, dizziness nervousness, fatigue, confusion, depression, etc. I suffered for four and a half years until finally a sympathetic doctor agrees to give me a glucose tolerance test. It was then that my suspicions were confirmed and I discovered I was definitely hypoglycemic.
It has been almost a year since my GTT and I am finally beginning to feel I am making progress, My doctor, sympathetic though he was, gave me the wrong advice about my diet telling me that I needed more sugar. As a result, I spent about five months eating the wrong things and my symptoms got much worse instead of better. A friend recognized what was happening to me and put me on the right track. I am doing much better now, but am still not as well as I would like to be.
That is the reason I was so glad to find Mrs. Ruggiero’s book. I was beginning to lose ground and get depressed about my condition again, feeling that it was a never-ending battle. The book was a tremendous lift to my spirits and renewed my courage to keep up the pace on the road to recovery. I wish that every person who has hypoglycemia or is suffering the symptoms and doesn’t know the cause could read this book. It is a great support!
Thank you so much for such a helpful book and for letting me share my story with you, though I’m sure you’ve heard it hundreds of times from others! Thank you for all you are doing to help others with hypoglycemia.
Yours truly,
Selma, North Carolina
