The summer of 1970. I can remember being at Disneyland; drinking water, going on a ride, drinking water, going on a ride, drinking water, going to the bathroom, drinking water, going on a ride, and my sisters always yelling at me, “Come on, Becky. Hurry up!” (NO, I don’t like to be called Becky anymore…As an adult I prefer Rebecca or Becka).
I was diagnosed the day before my Mother’s birthday, August 29, 1970. I can remember two families from the Los Angeles area visiting us in my hometown. On August 29, I remember pushing away my half eaten dinner and a few hours later, while all of us were sitting in the living room, I vomited in front of everyone!!! My parents called the doctor and my Mother said I had clammy hands while I my head was over a toilet bowl…
Next thing I know, I am in my Father’s Volvo lying down—I can’t remember if I was lying across their laps or in the back seat. At the hospital I did not feel well lying down or sitting up–just miserable. The next day, with an I.V. in my arm, (I hated I.V.'s, having been in the hospital several times before due to my Mother having German Measles/Rubella in her third week of pregnancy with me… I was born in 1962, the tail end of the HUGE Rubella outbreak in the U.S. from the mid 1950’s to the mid 1960’s…) my Mother came to the hospital room to open her birthday gift from me. At only age 7 and 3/4, I felt opening the gift in a hospital was the wrong place to do that…
I spent 11 days in two hospitals for that diagnosis, in two cities (yep, flew back to L.A. Stayed in that famous St. John’s Hospital; the front of the building used on the T.V. show, “Marcus Welby, M.D.” I was in the second floor “bay windowed” room, on the left!).
I remember once having to walk to the nurse’s station to say, I “thought” I was having an insulin reaction and needed food after having buzzed for a nurse several times with no response! I think the nurse even asked me what I needed for an insulin reaction and I told her what to get…
I remember my “Mickey” gift given to me by my Uncle Larry; the “Mickey” with a bell in his belly and a gold elastic band on his head to dangle him to make the bell sound… and the blow up seal balancing a ball on its nose from The Matthew Family who all stood, parents and six kids, on the grass lawn below the window to wave at me since kids were not allowed to visit…
“MIckey Bell” sits today on a shelf as a reminder/trophy of my days in that hospital while the blow-up seal sits flat in a chest tucked away with other childhood things…
I hadn’t expected myself to go down memory lane today, March 7, 2010, at 12:08 a.m., just to answer a question from a discussion board on how old we were when we were diagnosed… The short answer is: I was 7 and 3/4 years old and I have now had Type One diabetes for 40 years… =============== Rebecca [;D ==============================
Hello Rebecca: 
Thank you for going down memory lane. You are Very clear on many details. Ya, 1970. That was so long ago although it seems like a month ago. I had a similar car ride to the Hospital many years later only I was a Teenager and it was due to DKA. I’m Glad that you kept Mickey Bell and the seal.