I felt I had a near-death experience and I became
driven to improve my health.

—Corey Bodiford

A family vacation to Disneyland wasn’t a trip to the happiest place on earth for Corey Bodiford, 36, of Fairfield. In the days before the trip, on the drive to Southern California and at the Magic Kingdom, he felt sick and was getting sicker.

“I was extremely thirsty and had been drinking huge amounts of liquids,” he says. “I just could not quench my thirst. Then my vision started getting blurry. The drive was torture. No, it was not a fun trip, it was a struggle.”

As soon as he got home, he went to see his doctor, Douglas Freeman, M.D., a family practitioner at NorthBay Center for Primary Care in Fairfield. Lab tests revealed dangerously elevated blood sugar levels.

“My blood sugar was over 500 and Dr. Freeman told me to head to the emergency room immediately,” Corey recalls. It took four days in the hospital for his system to settle and to get a diagnosis: Type II diabetes, so dangerously out of control that it required him to start taking insulin immediately.

During his hospitalization, Corey realized a serious life change was in order. “I felt I had a near-death experience and I became driven to improve my health.”

Dr. Freeman referred him to Endocrinologist Deborah Murray, M.D., of the NorthBay Center for Endocrinology and Diabetes. Corey worked with Dr. Murray and Collette DaCruz, certified diabetes educator, who taught him how to control his blood sugar, and the importance of exercise and diet.

“Before my diagnosis I would eat whatever and whenever,” he says. “Now I eat lots of lean meats and veggies and few carbohydrates, and
I exercise every day.”

In the year since his diagnosis, he has lost about 40 pounds, and his other numbers are remarkable, as well.

“He has seen his hemoglobin A1C go from 12.5 percent to 5.8 percent and his average blood glucose drop from more than 300 mg/dl to less than 100,” Collette says. He is no longer on insulin.

“It is seeing people like Corey succeed that makes my job so rewarding. His amazing lifestyle efforts allowed him to reduce his insulin slowly and then stop entirely,” says Dr. Murray.

Corey’s lifestyle change followed him to work where, ironically, he is surrounded by food all day. His job in Nutrition Services at NorthBay Medical Center has him preparing patient meals and also filling the vending machines. “It’s a temptation, definitely, but I see food differently now.” he says.

His family is delighted with his resolve, he reports. “This is life and death. I’ve never felt as good in my whole life as I do now.”