Hi. I was diagnosed at age 11 in 1963. That makes me 69! I was told then that my life expectancy was about 40 years of age. However they also said there would be a cure in 5 years’ time. I’m not sure how they worked that out! I’m still here and I still have diabetes.
Obviously so much has changed since then. I chose Marjoriebest as my username in honour of Charles Best and the dog Marjorie. I have such mixed feeling about Marjorie being instrumental in the discovery of insulin. Marjorie is definitely one of my heroes.
My diagnosis memories are of being in hospital for 6 weeks, metal syringes and needles boiling away in the corner of our kitchen, boiling urine over a Bunsen Burner to test for glucose, 1 injection a day of “Ultralente” then changes through 2 injections a day of a mixture of Actrapid and Protaphane, then 4 a day, then my first Medtronic pump in 1999. I got my first glucose meter in 1981. You had to put a huge drop of blood on the testing area, leave it for a full minute, wash the blood off with water, blot it dry, leave it for another minute, then put it in the meter. Oh wow, we thought this technology was amazing! My diet has almost come full circle. We counted carb’s, then that went out of favour and my mum was told I could eat whatever I wanted and he would tell her how much insulin I should take. I saw him once a year and all he had to go on were my largely fictitious urine test records. I am surprised I DID make it past 40 really. I reckon I must be bullet-proof as I suspect my blood glucose was constantly high for about 20 years, until I grew up a bit. My parents were going through a messy divorce at the time I was diagnosed. Mum got custody of my 3 sisters and me, but couldn’t cope and I was farmed out to a children’s home specifically for kids with diabetes. This was traumatic for me but they were wonderful people and I learned a lot about managing my own diabetes. I left school, trained as a nurse, emigrated to Australia in 1980, and became a diabetes educator. I was an educator for 23 years. I loved that job, and miss it but am enjoying retirement. I currently use a Tandem pump, G6 sensors, and a very low carb diet of about 20-30 grams a day.