This week is my 35th Diaversary of being diagnosed with T1 diabetes! Also next week is my 50th birthday so soon I will be AARP-eligible! I was in the local hospital recovering from DKA for a week after my diagnosis and the week after that had my 15th birthday while I was in the state university research hospital learning about taking insulin etc.
I saw so many rapid changes in the year after my diagnosis (1982-1983). Amazingly enough they gave me a glass syringe at the time of my diagnosis (although other than being taught how to use it in the hospital, I only ever used plastic syringes). Even in 1982 the glass syringe mustāve been a throwback. I transitioned in my first year after diagnosis from urine testing to bg fingerstick testing, in particular. I remember hating hating hating the fingersticks, as a kid that felt worse than just having to take insulin shots. But of course for 30+ years now I canāt imagine leaving the house without test strips.
Also talking about anniversariesā¦ next year will be my 25th anniversary as a member of the DOC (Diabetes Online Community) as a founding member of the Usenet group misc.health.diabetes. I believe that Nico from the Usenet days still shows up here or in the JDRF or ADA bulletin boards. My first post to misc.health.diabetes was May 6 1993 and Nicoās was May 7 1993. I was earlier - 1991, 1992? - on the Lehigh University Diabetes (or was it Diabetic) Listserv but I find few online records of its existence a quarter century ago.
Congratulations on ALL these milestones! We all probably know the history of diabetes therapy to some extent, but to hear about the evolution first hand from you really drives home how far weāve come!! 25 years in the DOC?? Thatās remarkable! Iām trying to think what I had in terms of a computer back thenā¦
PS: I love, love, your profile pic. Fisher Price was my thing when I was little. I remember that little guy and a matching girl coming with a snow-mobile, or something along those lines. I cherished all my Little People and still have them - the house, the barn, the garage, the village, the school, the camperā¦ The big Little People of today just arenāt the same.
Happy Diaversary, @Tim12! I was diagnosed a few years after you.
Diabetes treatment and computer technology have certainly changed a lot during that time! I remember in the late '80s and early '90s participating in an interactive online environment called Prodigy, a precursor to the internet we now know. They had various interest groups where you could discuss common interests with other members. I donāt remember joining any diabetes groups back then but Iām sure they were around. I do remember posting to the travel groups on Prodigy. Prodigyās big competitor was AOL.
I accessed it through a VT220 terminal and the departmental mainframe at my school
OMG, you remember what they came originally packaged as! While we got some of our stuff used at yard sales Iām pretty sure a lot of my Little People stuff my parents bought for me new - but it got mixed in with all the other Little People stuff so quickly that I do not remember what came packaged with what. My prize possession for years and years was the original Little People Parking Garage with the auto-elevator that goes ādingā. Oh I loved that.
I was OCD about my Little People. I knew which green dad went with each set up even though other people thought they were exactly alike. I have that garage! My yellow guy had a frown face for that piece! Lol. The yellow guys for the camper and boat and village were all smiling.
I was diagnosed in 1966 and had a glass syringe kept in a bottle of alcohol. I actually had to file down the needle of the syringe to keep it sharp, since it was not replaceable like the ānewā plastic syringes, which first came out in the late 1960s, as I remember. The barrel of the glass syringe would turn green after a while, but the clinic said that was not a problem. The only way to test blood sugar at home was quite indirectly, by measuring urine sugar, which would give a low or a high reading according to how much water you had drunk rather than according to the blood sugar. My hands would often be shaking from hypoglycemia when the urine sugar test was showing high blood sugar, simply because the urine had been formed many hours before, when the blood sugar really was high. It was thus an utterly useless test, but just out of their natural instinct to punish the patient, doctors insisted on five urine sugar tests a day.
Happy 35th Tim and hereās to 35 more! Or maybe a cure before then.
I still have a lot of the Little People but unfortunately didnāt save things like the barn and Sesame Street House. Is your guy the one with the hat on sideways or is it a pot? Of course my grandchildren are protected from these small swallable little people and have much bigger ones.
I was diagnosed in 1976 and never saw a glass syringe.
Yes! Sesame Street! Mr. Hooper, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie! Another of my favorites!! Oscar in the garbage can. Iām gonna end up pulling this all out of the closet and start playing!
Congratulations not on having diabetes for 35 years, but rather on treating your condition and adapting to the many changes in the past 35 years. (I am at 51 years, so I DO remember those glass syringes with the quickly dulling needles.) I would guess that your health has actually improved with each decade of new and better techniques to deal with diabetes. Letās hope we both can someday celebrate the cure or at least permanent treatment of this devastating condition. Keep up the good fight.
Congrats Tim!
I just started year 56 of type 1 and just had my 67th birthday.
Back in 1962 when I was diagnosed it was only glass syringes and stainless steel needles that had to be sharpened on a stone. I feel like I am from the dark ages
Again best wishes in the future to you and your family.
