sharing typedefs between C and esqlc

Hello all: In my project (90% c, 10% esql), I have a typedef'd struct declared in an include file which I would like to be able to use (a small amount of the time) as a host variable. I do not wish to declare these typedefs in 2 places. I do not wish to compile my whole project using the esqlc preprocessor. I have done various tests with the c and esqlc preprocessors and cant seem to get this to work. It is marvelously inefficient to get a pointer to a structure into a database update routine and have to pull out its members one by one into local host variables. If anyone has any suggestions, I would gratefully accept them. TIA, tom.