Tuesday’s theme of #DiabetesBlogWeek involves aspects of diabetes that I choose to keep private.
This is difficult since there are things never wanted to reveal online, or in public. I will say, however, that diabetes at six years of age, in 1945, kept me from activities that would cause my blood sugar to drop so suddenly, when I was in school. My mother had our doctor write excuses every year in elementary school so I would not be allowed to participate during play periods, or gym. l sat on the sidelines and watched. I was ignored by the other kids, and I did not make many friends. This is not something I like to discuss.
When I got back to school after my 2 week stay in the hospital at age 13, they tried to do this to me too. I mean, the gym teacher said she didn’t think I should be participating. I fought this pretty hard and they gave in. I’m sorry this was your experience Richard. #BigHugs
I had an amazing mother. I was 10, so not always conscious of her feelings, but she fought long and hard to make me “regular.” Because of D, I was always the odd character out (shots, eating, etc.,) but it WAS the 60’s, so I was able to fit in. I had a ton of friends in high school and college–no boyfriends, really, because D scared them. It was fine, on 5/28 I celebrate a 39 year anniversary with the man of my dreams. I have actually lived a very charmed life as a T1 for 53 years.
Richard, I understand the displacement of being a T1 in a kids world. It must have been unimaginable in 1945. You are a prince! I enjoy knowing you.
Richard has survived for 70 years. Even when growing up is not easy, we T1s go on. I think it is a great testimony to the tenacity of T1s, as we ROCK! We embrace challenges, fight the problems, look for answers. And after 70 years, Richard is a winner
in 1980, I had to give up wrestling at age 14 as there was no way to account for massive amount of energy that is used up in just a few minutes on the mat but I never had a problem with most other sports. Pretty sure I’d have a hard candy available if needed but they never told me I could not do it. That must have been tough that they did not even let you try.
JC, I was very very brittle. It did not take much in my childhood for my BG to drop a lot. It was best for me to not participate in exercising at school. After getting home each day I would play with my favorite neighborhood friend. Some days I would drop very low, and the only way I could tell was by the way I felt. My mom kept a close watch on me, and I took breaks to drink sugar stirred in a glass with water. I could not test my BG, there was no device for that. It was all trial and error.
I understand after seeing how long you’ve been at it, I at least had the reagent urine test tablets and strips when I started to get some idea where my BG was when starting. Was there any testing back then or was it a constant guessing game?
You must have witnessed every breakthrough in testing and obviously got good at knowing your body.
I was dx’d at the tail end of the pee-on-a-strip era, too. It was crude but at least it was something. I can understand why extended hospital stays were routine back then given how bad the tech was for home BG monitoring. Especially for kids, whose BGs can hairpin so suddenly. The disease can kill you but the treatment can kill you even faster. You can see why they’d want to keep you in a controlled environment and play it super-cautious and conservative.
When I was diagnosed in the late '80’s we (my dad, brother, and I) used color coded “chem strips”. You’d put your big drop of blood on the strip and wait a minute then wipe it off and match the color to a chart that then told you what your blood sugar range was. Far from precise.
Thank goodness very soon after that we got meters.
JC, before pee strips there was Benedict’s solution, a blue liquid. With some of that in a test tube, about an inch deep, and several drops of urine added, the tube was placed in a container of water and heated to boiling. If the liquid remained blue, there was no urine sugar. Otherwise it would turn green, yellow, orange, or red. The colors compared with a chart indicated the approximate amount of urine sugar. This had to be done at home with a stove to do the heating. I used that technique for almost 20 years. I did not know about Clinitest, so I went from Benedict’s solution to Tes Tape, and nothing in between.
You have been a hero for me since I first met you on TU. I am not invested in the Joslin group. I had a wretched time there in the DOIT program and was not impressed, so I don’t participate. You are an ongoing inspiration. Thanks so much.
I was diagnosed in 1981, mine used a tablet that created some type of chemical reaction. No stove, but the test tube sure got hot while the reaction was taking place.
You know, I actually think I misremembered the pee-on-a-strip thing, because now that you mention these I remember that’s what I started out with in the 80s as well (must have been mixing them up with the Ketone test strips, which are pretty much the same as what we use now, and that I had to use a lot more often back then). The color chart was on the tube and each color corresponded to a range of like 20mg/dl. Not very precise. On the other hand, from what I’ve read those very specific numbers we get with our meters now are actually giving a false sense of precision. They can be off by, what, as much as 10 units or something?
Yep, I remember the color chart on the tube, the darker the higher your BG. I also remember my dad would cut the strips thinner so we wouldn’t go through them so quick. Always the frugal man, he was.
JC, before pee strips there was Benedict’s solution, a blue liquid. With some of that in a test tube, about an inch deep, and several drops of urine added, the tube was placed in a container of water and heated to boiling. If the liquid remained blue, there was no urine sugar. Otherwise it would turn green, yellow, orange, or red. The colors compared with a chart indicated the approximate amount of urine sugar. This had to be done at home with a stove to do the heating. I used that technique for almost 20 years. I did not know about Clinitest, so I went from Benedict’s solution to Tes Tape, and nothing in between.