I’m certainly glad we moved away from test tubes, urine testing strips and huge glass needles. I’m figuring right about mid-August 1970 is when I went into the hospital and had to stay for a whole 7 days. I think they drew blood every six hours for testing out insulin doses. Not fun. I was scared of needles.
All I know is, I wanted my home and my parents and my dog. Mom bribed me by saying if you go to the hospital we will get you ballet lessons as soon as you get out(the dance studio was across from our new house.) We had moved from Ohio just recently and she had noticed I wasn’t feeling well, and wounds were not healing well.
Well, anyway, I showed her! ! I stayed in dance through college and spent a whole lotta money on dance lessons and out of state tuition.
Lost her last year at the age of 96.
You did a good job Mom. Thank you for the dance lessons.
Congratulations to you… and your Mom… for a job well done.
Good for you and your Mom.
Reading this a song came into my head - “Is that all there is my friends, then let’s keep on dancing.” A rather cynical song sung by Peggy Lee, but in your case quite positive. Congratulations, Laura! 
Thank you!
LOL! Except my arthritis won’t let me do the dancing anymore 
Surely your spirit does what the body cannot.
Was diagnosed myself in April 1971. My sister and I were put into the hospital for 2 weeks and are still managing now 53 yrs later. It’s pretty exhausting but what can you do? Pharmaceutical companies are frequently public. They earn lots of money for many investors. Oh well, can’t do anything to stop this except stay strong and do our best. Bravo to you!
My sister is ten years older and also type I. Sadly she removed herself from my family and so I don’t even know how she is. Wasn’t my choice and hurt my Mom a lot. Sad.
Congratulations on your t1 anniversary. I, too, had a mom who made a huge difference in my health today. She set the groundwork for me. I was diagnosed in 1967 at age 4. I remember being restrained in the bed/crib because I’d make attempts at escape to go home!
I remember hearing the bottle of Lente insulin clicking against my mom’s wedding ring as she rolled it to mix it. I remember the glass syringes, the mini autoclaves (I think), the needles that seem huge by today’s standards. Oh, and I remember the urine test kits with a glass test tube, dropper, and tablets!
I’m glad for modern medicine and to have been born in this time.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you for sharing! My Mom always embarrassed me. She would tell me to go “check myself” because we sure didn’t use terms like check your BG. I was mortified when she did it in front of company! How silly of me.
Having spent my early years around horses, I would’ve stopped whatever I was doing if told to check myself.
It’s almost my 36 th anniversary on Labor Day.
When people ask my age I tell them 35 because that’s how long I’ve lived on borrowed time. In 6 years I will have lived twice as long with diabetes than without it.
Of course if you are diagnosed as a kid it’s easier to triple or quadruple but the earlier you get it the more complications are possible.
This past June was my 33rd anniversary.
Dance is also in my diagnosis story. I took dance classes when I was a child, and the recital was always in June. I had started having all of the classic T1 symptoms (thirst, urination, losing weight, etc.). My parents knew something was wrong, but not what, and called the dr. After getting a urine sample, they told my parents to bring me in right away. I had a recital that day and I begged my mom to let me dance. She let me and then took me to the dr immediately after. In the pictures from that recital, you can see that I was so skinny that my ribs were visible.
Since then I have taken many more dance classes.
In my case, even more than that.
Dx age 5 in 1965, so now 58 years T1D.
I was also put in a “crib” hospital bed and cried every night when parents left (to care for 6 siblings).
I squirmed for first injections, and nurses taught my mom. After going home (10 days later), a visiting nurse came to our house until mom was comfortable and my urine tests were improving.
My Mom was caring for 6 siblings, aged 1-9. But we had great neighbors and Grandma came to help so mom could be at hospital and learn how to care for me.
Several months later, we moved and had regular visits with pediatrician. Didn’t see endo until going to college.
Even though I was admitted with a BG over 700, I never felt really sick. So I was so bored in the hospital that they let me visit other kids on the floor and fill up their water pitchers etc. Then they sent me down to OT and I got to do weaving on a little loom. Boy I hated it in there. Years later they moved endocrinology to that old hospital building and I swear it was the same yucky gloomy place.
Congratulations on your 53 year milestone! It is so encouraging to read stories of those who have been down the same road. I was diagnosed in 1975 at age 7. My mom had just become a young widow a month earlier. I cannot imagine the stress she was under. She would not let me come home from the hospital until I could “take care of myself”. She never once gave me a shot or told me what to eat. Decades later she told me she was terrified of giving me insulin and she knew that I was “smarter” than her even at such a young age. She always worked to buy whatever I needed and send me to diabetes camp in the summers. She passed away 2 weeks ago at age 98 and the resilience and responsibility I learned at a young age sure came in handy these last 10 years as her caregiver. I too say, good job, mom!
Oh, I know. I was a caregiver too for my Mom. Your post brings tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing about her.
And oh, my Dad gave me my insulin until I was brave enough to try it…
LOL, Luis. Had to google that one. Hilarious song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9pS7iZzNgQ&t=90s
Me thinking of that song after reading @Laura_S post is proof of my twisted sense of humor that has served me well dealing with the foibles of life- diabetes including.
It’s really great. Sums it all up perfectly!