Wow many congratulations to you. Once you get your head around the pump I'm sure you will be fine. Take one day at a time and anything you don't understand ask. Smart thinking on buying the book as well.
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Has anyone here been a diabetic for more than 40 years?
- Thread starter BOHDE
- Start Date
rochari
Well-Known Member
Sitting here with a big smile. Today it was my turn to get the 50 year medal and very nice it is too. You know, it has really brought the memories back of all the changes (good and bad) over those many years and how the heck I managed it I'll never know. I should maybe take some time out to calculate just how many injections I've given myself or draw up a list of some of the daftest most ridiculous places and situations I've been in when trying to take the injections. Now I want to start a collection so it's time to begin working hard to get the one for 60 years!
Bill
Bill
Many congratulations Bill
I was unfortunately found by my husband in a diabetic coma in January this year, unfortunately this has left me with a brain injury, I am now under a diabetic team at GWH in swindon and the head injury team at GRH IN Gloucester so living half way between the 2 I spend a lot of my time travelling to either 1 hospital or the other. I do realise that I am 1 of the lucky ones though.
Ladybirdy75
Well-Known Member
Dodo
Well-Known Member
Congratulations. 50 years next year. Hoping to get my medal then.
philchap1
Well-Known Member
48 years this Christmas aged 7, remember the stainless steel and glass syringe with a needle as thick as your finger, remember practising injections on an orange while in hospital boiling needles and syringe for 20 minutes, 5 drops of urine to 10 of water drop in the tablet and watch it bubble and change colour, still working as a plasterer which keeps me active played rugby union until I was 40, have had some issues with eyes but all ok at the moment. I think diabetes has made me go through life pushing myself to be as good as a non diabetic x
RuthW
Well-Known Member
Philchap, we must have been diagnosed within months of each other (I was five). And I remember those old metal and glass syringes and those terrible, terrible needles. My Dad used to boil my syringe and needles every night in a stainless steel butter dish on the cooker ring to sterilize them. And those needles were tap-tap-tapping on that dish as they boiled. Every time I look at a modern pen needle, it cheers me up now. So tiny, so short, so fine!
diggerfrank
Member
diggerfrank
Member
WOW!!!!! you look fantastic indy51.. i presume that the photo was taken about a week ago?
Ladybirdy75
Well-Known Member
Ugh the dreaded glass and metal syringes 
. Needles the thickness of rope lol. I still can't stomach the smell of surgical spirit even now. My mum was always forgeting my syringes were boiling away in a saucepan and they'd end up black!!! I remember my mum sitting me at the table with a pack of coloured pencils the night before my childhood appointments and I'd literally have to colour in/make up my test tube log book results. Thinking about it, it's no wonder I've been a **** diabetic with my history 
. How am i not dead??? lol
. Needles the thickness of rope lol. I still can't stomach the smell of surgical spirit even now. My mum was always forgeting my syringes were boiling away in a saucepan and they'd end up black!!! I remember my mum sitting me at the table with a pack of coloured pencils the night before my childhood appointments and I'd literally have to colour in/make up my test tube log book results. Thinking about it, it's no wonder I've been a **** diabetic with my history 
. How am i not dead??? lol
rochari
Well-Known Member
Many thanks folks regarding my medal. Much appreciated. Ladybird, I remember all that so well. I grew up in a household with a type 1 mother and grandmother. Each had different glass syringes. My grandmother's was a 'record' fitting and I remember the base of the needles to be much narrower to fit on the end of her syringe. Both myself and mother had luer fitting syringes which seemed to be a bit wider at their top. Every night we had three pots boiling each of our syringes. How daft thinking about it, when we could have placed them all in the one bl**dy pot. Do you remember the little trays of needles? Each one having to also be boiled and expected to last around 10 days! Huge they were too. I remember my mother telling me that gran originally used benedicts solution to test her urine and that the test tube was held over one of the cooker's gas rings to heat it.
The one thing I also remember is the diet sheet I was given when I left hospital and which was used for years. Things like, '2 potatoes no larger than a hens egg', 2 oz of butter maximum, 2 digestives, which I could swop for 3 tea biscuits or nine (!) cream crackers. My sunday treat was always the 6d bars of Walls ice cream (without the wafers - perish the thought). I loved sundays! Oh, and the diabetic fruit cakes sealed up in a tin - access only with a can-opener.
Sadly my great grandmother died from the illness as there was no insulin. I think are all now very fortunate in what's available to help us with the condition.
Bill
The one thing I also remember is the diet sheet I was given when I left hospital and which was used for years. Things like, '2 potatoes no larger than a hens egg', 2 oz of butter maximum, 2 digestives, which I could swop for 3 tea biscuits or nine (!) cream crackers. My sunday treat was always the 6d bars of Walls ice cream (without the wafers - perish the thought). I loved sundays! Oh, and the diabetic fruit cakes sealed up in a tin - access only with a can-opener.
Sadly my great grandmother died from the illness as there was no insulin. I think are all now very fortunate in what's available to help us with the condition.
Bill
RuthW
Well-Known Member
LOL. I am your long-lost twin!Ugh the dreaded glass and metal syringes
It all seems so crazy in retrospect, doesn't it? Looking back, I think I was scared out of my wits till I was about 30!
Did any of you long-timers ever go to Diabetes Camp. I used to see the pictures in Balance Magazine sometimes and long to go. But you know, I never asked. Strange.
masonbason63
Well-Known Member
I'm 52 this July and type 1 40 years and extremely proud of it.
Ladybirdy75
Well-Known Member
Rochari!!!! I've found you!!!! I knew a couple of years ago I'd spoken to someone here and they'd told me there were 3 generations of diabetics in one house. What you told me about your grandmother really touched me and stayed with me. What a brave lady (and all those who did it without insulin - so tough for them).........it's you, i thought it was but couldn't be sure.
You know i never heard of this camp before yesterday. I feel like a deprived child lol. I remember well the diet sheet, ha ha there were some bizzare things on it. Oh and the ice cream.
I was terrible, any money i got I'd save in my pencil case and after school (juniors) my friends and i would buy all these sweets........it's much easier to convince 8year olds that you're allowed to eat giant candy lollies ha ha. My bg's must have been horrifically high. I remember getting up so many times in the night and drinking from the tap for minutes at a time
Ladybirdy75
Well-Known Member
RuthW, lol, it does seem crazy really. Like i said before i don't know how i managed 40 years with the condition when i remember how sneaky i was with sweets. Mind you our dog once ate a packet of biscuits and i got the blame lol.
RuthW
Well-Known Member
Yes, @Ladybirdy, I used to walk to school and home afterwards with my sisters, and we were "partners in crime". The whole family was "on rations" when it came to sweets because of my diabetes (way to make the siblings love you), but whenever we had a few pennies we used to go to the sweet shop together, and stock up on all kinds of horrendously sugary treats. When we went "officially" to the sweet shop with my mum, twice a week, we were each allowed a 2 ounce "ration" of whatever we chose. Except me, of course. I got peanuts. Every time. I never complained or whined (because it was all just a role play for me, I knew I'd be hitting the sweet shop again sooner or later with the band of sisters!). The funny thing, looking back, is wondering how the sweet shop owner kept a straight face in front of my mum. And of course, I lost count of how many times I was carried off to hospital in an ambulance when I was a kid. And my parents never, but never admitted that my diabetes was not well-controlled. Or that I was Queen of Liars.
