Shout Out to Myself: 63 YEARS INSULIN DEPENDENT TYPE 1 DX'ED AGE 9

Congrats Kathlyn! I was diagnosed in 1982 so I’m a COMPLETE NEWBIE and I only know a little bit about the “olden days”.

In the local hospital after diagnosis they actually taught me with a glass insulin syringe - including disinfecting and boiling it - and even gave me one in a wooden case to take home even though I never used anything but plastic syringes at home.

Although initially taught to do urine testing by the local hospital and doctor, within the first year I got started on home bg testing by the state university research hospital.

Before home bg testing, wow, it was stone knives and bearskins!

Biggest congratulations to you Kathlyn! YOU ARE AMAZING! :slight_smile: Jessica

I wouldn’t call 1982 a complete newbie. We long termers had it a bit rougher in the ‘50’s and 60’s’. I recall one MD telling me when I was in my teens that most juvenile diabetics lived an average of 25 Years after their age of diagnosis. So, I was 9 yo + 25 = I should have died when I was 34. Hello 72!!!

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Well done Kaitlyn. Not one day is a gimme day. My diagnosis was at 9 years old and gosh how things have changed. Dr told my mom I probably would not make it to 30 so it freaked me out at first until it made me upset. I said “I will show you” . Now at 65 I look back and think of all the blessings from above for the opportunity I have had. So many have not had the longivety that we have. We all have a purpose. I am happy for you and hope you have many more years of success of living with Diabetes.

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That is amazing! Congratulations!

This month is my 30 year T1D anniversary. I am proud of that achievement, but it can be exhausting and discouraging at times, so it’s great to hear from people who have happy, healthy lives, and have had T1D a lot longer than me. It gives me hope that I will continue to be healthy. :slight_smile:

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If you’re on Facebook, there is a private Facebook group for seniors and Dexcom. Just ask to join. Lots of members and loads of posts. No one cares if you don’t post and are just there to read the messages.

I’ve had diabetes for almost 53 years and started on a glass syringe with a disposable needle which, at the time (1967), was an innovation. When I was diagnosed my doctor told me two things: most people live for 25 years after diagnosis and there will be a cure in five years. Neither were true!

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Congratulations! Your story gives us all. hope especially with you living with diabetes without the benefit of technology for a big chunk of that time. I am not too far behind you as my 40th “diaversary” happens this November.

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I was diagnosed in March 1969 when I was 8 years old. I had been sick with a stomach bug and went into a coma. My Dad rushed me to the hospital- it was the following day before they diagnosed me with “brittle sugar diabetes”! It’s been 51 years, the last 12 years on insulin pumps. Medicine has come a LONG way! I thank God for my health. I was blessed to have 3 beautiful children- my youngest was diagnosed with type 1 when he was 16 and is doing well. Joslin does give a nice medal for 50 years of diabetes.

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Welcome, @LindaCarrothers! Thanks for sharing your story :slight_smile:

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Hope you’re making progress with the CGM. I’m just a young pup with 44 years T1, 48 if you count the 4 years after doc told me, “You have a sugar problem, and here, take these pills.”

I have a Medicare Advantage Plan and had no issues getting on the CGM Dexcom G5 over a year ago, upgraded to G6 this year. Best wishes - it’s a breakthrough. You’ll still find yourself saying "What the…?!! about your blood glucose but you can see it much earlier, and track patterns with food & exercise.

I think my parents may have been told something like that when I was diagnosed at age 8 in 1969. Also when I was a teenager, my Mom, knowing I loved children, told me I’d have to enjoy others’ children because I could not have children of my own. I talked to my Dr. before I got married and she said if I was willing to do the work, I could. Not everyone with diabetes can, but she felt I could. I had 3 healthy children!

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Just had my 80th birthday, type 1 for 60 1/2 years.:grinning:

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:partying_face: Happy Birthday @Cattell :partying_face:

What’s life as a long time T1D look like from 80?

Scary!

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Happy birthday @Cattell!

Congratulations, Kathlyn! I passed the 65-year-mark since diagnosis a few months ago: I was 8 when diagnosed. Certainly didn’t think I would live this long, nor have children and grandchildren, from what I read and saw and was even told by some doctors back then (luckily not my regular doctor as a child). But here i am, and with both. Just received my Tandem pump with Control IQ, and have hopes for it making control a little easier, but have often been doing pretty well with control in recent years, particularly since CGM. Not always, of course. Yes, the home blood glucose monitor was the huge game changer for me, too, but pump and later CGM also made very big differences.

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Hi Linda, well done.
I have been type1 for 70 years, got it when I was 4.
Come through it all with downs and up’s. Still going strong but age is catching up. Never gone to pump still injecting don’t want to try it any rate, doing well.
At least you don’t have to sharpen my needles a big tick.
Take care

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Insulin has only been around 100 years so you made the cut, but not by a lot.
It’s difficult to believe how it was for us before insulin was manufactured. I’ve seen some old footage of kids in beds starving g to death. Uughh.
I’m glad to hear you have live a long life and still more to come.
It gives me hope

Hooray to all you really long-timers! I’ll be hitting year 60 since diagnosis in about a week. I remember my dad (who knew nothing about the disease, and my doctor not much more) trying to encourage me by telling me that with modern medicines and technology, I could well live until I was 45 or even 50. Thanks, Dad! Wish you could help me celebrate my 73rd birth-anniversary in a couple months!

–Keith

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