35 years ago July 1976 seems like another lifetime ago. I was 12 years old at the time and just like any other kid glad that summer vacation was finally here. At that point in time there was a bad strain of flu going around called the hong kong flu or what we know today at the swine flu. I remember my mother begin so sick from this flu I was scared she was not going to make it through.
This summer vacation from school was one that not only changed my life but my parents. I was an active 12 year old and no we did not have video games in those days. I went outside to play. My favorite activity was riding motorcycles with my dad during the summer as we would go camping and explore ghost towns.
It took a good month to recover from this flu. I remember going to the doctor’s office about once a week and getting penicillin shots. I also remember sitting in a waiting room of sick individuals coughing, chilled, sweating, and down right miserable as I waited my turn to see the doctor.
After the flu had finally passed I became tired all the time wanting to sleep, thirsty, constantly going to the bathroom and losing weight. Sound familiar ?
My father took me to a doctor he was seeing and a blood and urine test was done. According to this doctor everything was fine. He blamed it on the hot weather and said it would pass. Well a week later I was getting worse so again my father took me to the doctor who brought me into this world. Once again a blood and urine test was done. You see she had a small lab that was right across from the exam room that I was in. The door was open and I could see her performing the urine test then she dropped her head and shook it. I knew something was wrong.
What seemed to take forever she finally came back into the room where my father and I where at. She looked at me and said you have diabetes. Well at the age of 12 the word diabetes was not in my vocabulary all I heard was the word “di”. She asked me to go wait out in the waiting room while she talked to my father. From the examining room to the waiting room was the longest walk of my life for a 12 year old kid.
That’s an interesting story about what sounds like entirely unsuccessful “marketing” of diabetes? At the same time, if you went from “die” to “diabetes” it may have been a significant improvement for you? Congrats on 35 years though! That’s a great achievement!
Hi Joanna. I was badly burned when I was 12 y.o. Right after it finally healed, I got Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. I guess the moral of our stories is: Never ever have a medical crisis! I look forward to your story, Part 2.
Joanna, thanks for part 1 of your story. About 70% of type 1 diabetics do not have any relatives with type 1. They are the ones whose pancreas stopped producing insulin because of a disease, a virus, or some other external means. Mine was chicken pox and mumps, when I was 5. Yours was apparently your flu. There is a discussion here on TuD in the type 1 forum asking people what caused their type 1 diabetes. Most replies indicated diseases were responsible. Keep your story going, it is interesting reading!
Sounds very familiar…I think i was 8 Years old and remember hearing the word di too. Scary for such a young kid. I believe my diagnosis year was 1979 and I believe there was a flu going around then too.