We can all be thankful for the present day insulins, devices, and knowledge about diabetes.
This picture was taken in 1930, only nine years after the discovery of insulin. The girl is injecting the animal insulin near her knee, where there is muscle, and very little fatty tissue. There was no fast acting insulin back then, and injecting in the muscle caused the insulin to act much faster. I injected that way for many years, starting in 1945.
Wow…70 years. Can’t imagine all the changes you have seen in medication and care.
I have only been doing it for 42 years and I have seen so many changes. It is shocking how different things are today.
Just one year for me. So much to learn.
I always have to struggle to remind myself that the R/NPH regimen I was on for twenty years—and detested!—was actually state-of-the-art when I was dx’d in 1983 and a significant improvement over what had come before, even though I bad-mouth it pretty regularly around here. And the strips we used to test BG by peeing on them and matching the color to the bands on the vial were a vast improvement over boiling test tubes on the stove, even though they seem incredibly crude now. I’m slightly pleased to note that Diastix are still being sold but primarily marketed to people with diabetic pets. Much easier to get your cat’s pee on a strip than stick her ear with a lancet.
Man! Respect, Richard157! Respect! 71 years. Well done!
As a navy vet I’d like to offer a well earned “thanks for your service” to all who fought thru the rough early days of “treatment”. You are the reason we now have manageable tools - continue to blaze those trails folks!
That photo breaks my heart.
Agree, Rose. But at least the child is ALIVE!
My memories as a nurse in the 1960’s were of beef/pork insulin, then separate beef and pork to decrease risk of sensitivity to either type. Different concentrations per cc/ml of insulin–danger of confusing U40 and U80 and doubling (or halving) the dose! Comparatively huge syringes to measure small doses. Thankfully, plastic syringes were available…
Wow! Hard to believe how far the treatments for diabetes has come. I was on injections for 23 years before pumping.I will be going on my 12th year of pumping.
Never thought of myself as a vet. But, makes sense. I’ve been fighting the type 1 diabetes war for 55 years. Seen so many changes and must say for the good.
Hopefully I’ll be around to see the day we can all sleep thru the night without worry.
I was diagnosed in 1982. And for some bizarre reason the local hospital at that late date, gave me a U-40 BD glass syringe in a wooden box and trained me in how to sterilize the syringe and sharpen the removable needles.
I never once used it - I always used plastic syringes! Plastic syringes must’ve nearly taken over in the 70’s, am I right?
I do remember that insulin in the early 80’s was still available in both U-40 and U-100, the standard training back then was about the different color codes for the different concentrations and the dire consequences of mixing them up.
But for me the real revolution was home bg testing. I fought it bitterly as a kid but now I could not imagine life without it. It’d be like going outside without my clothes on, to leave the house without my bg meter.
JuneBugg, do you have the 50 year medal from the Joslin Diabetes Center? There is a medalist T1 support group on Facebook. You might enjoy joining that group.
Yow, glad I missed out on that. I was DX’d in 1983 and no one came after me with a wood box and needle sharpener. Plastic disposables all the way, deo gratias. Guess it’s like any bureaucracy: once a routine is established it never stops under its own volition just because said practice is totally obsolete. If no authority comes along and says “That’s stupid, you can stop doing it now,” it just goes on out of sheer bureaucratic inertia.
You could probably get some significant coinage for that on eBay…
Hi Richard. I have the 50 year medal from Lilly.
JuneBugg, you can also apply for a 50 year medal from the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. With that medal you could attend the Joslin Medalist meetings in odd numbered years. It is so nice to have discussions with fellow medalists. People attending have been type 1 for 50-80+ years.
There is also a Facebook group for Joslin Medalists. It is a wonderful group! Comparing problems with other long term type 1 people, is very interesting, and helpful.
Yea things change. I’ve been doing this since early 1969. To me besides the decrease in testing equipment size and it’s time to spit out results is the decrease in syringe size. My first syringe where 12GA and had to be cleaned before they became 1 time throw-a-ways.
Then we went from this .10"(2.6 mm) diameter to 18GA which were 5 times smaller and now 31GA needles are available which is 10 times smaller in diameter then the 11&12GA needles I started with. From 1"(25.4 mm) long (which was considered short at that time) to now less than 1/4" (6mm). Of course now we have the pump, the CGM (CGM is the best Diabetes tool available), home glucose meters, wrist BG meters, purse BG meters, wireless data transfer, etc.,
Yes we came a long way but with all the tools and info available it is still considered a non-curable disease, but it could be cured if there wasn’t as much money involved in all these supplies.