npr:

Chains, saws and old logging equipment litter the back field of Wendy Norris’ family farm, near the county seat of Altamont, Tenn. Norris used to be part of the local timber industry, and the rusted tools are relics from a time when health woes didn’t hold her back from felling hardwoods.

“I was nine months pregnant,” Norris says. “Me and my husband stayed about 10 or 15 miles in the middle of nowhere, in a tent, for a long time.”

Those outdoor adventures are just a memory now. A few years ago, as Norris turned 40, her feet started going numb. She first assumed it was from standing all day at her job at a nursing home.

“But it wasn’t,” she recalls now. “It was that neuropathy, where my [blood] sugar was high and I didn’t know it.” Norris had developed Type 2 diabetes.

Grundy County, Tenn., has a long list of public health challenges, and Type 2 diabetes tops the list. The county is stunningly scenic; it also has one of the lowest life expectancy rates in the region.

Norris was relatively active. She also enjoyed sodas, sweets and frozen dinners. Meanwhile, diabetes runs in her family. So, when her diabetes diagnosis came down, her doctor prescribed insulin shots and told her to watch what she ate.

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