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60 YEARS ON INSULIN IS IT A SUCCES YEP

iHs said:
Snap.......there's loads of us about all well and not dead in our coffins. My brother thought it very entertaining watching my urine fizz up in a test tube and change colour. I was glad when Gillette did 5/8 in disposable luer needles so that I didn't have to re use the steel needles with my Rocket syringe.
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I remember my poor mother sterilizing the glass syringe on a regular basis and the old scale to measure the quantity of food - needless to say it was great when disposable syringes came along and most of us were treated with just one shot of insulin (basal) a day - I was on Lente made from Beef and Pork. But more importantly - I was lucky that my parents were intelligent responsible people :)
 
Well done Vic and the rest of the 'olde timers'!

This got me thinking, the changes in treatment, obviously pre-insulin diagnosis was a one way ticket, I guess in the 50's & 60's it was almost a suck it and see or rather inject it and see what colour your pee turns to, but prognosis probably wasn't great, obviously things have got better, 20 years ago when diagnosed I was told life expectancy was probably 10yrs off normal, complications were common and with a stern face told to look after yourself. Today with pumps, CGMs and modern insulin and techniques are the dire warnings I received and no doubt all the warnings you 'earlier adopters' received, how shall I say this, coming to fruition?

Obviously Vic has kidney problems, but is that as a direct result of T1D, and @fletchweb is incapable of putting sunglasses on properly, or is it that his thumb was permanently grafted on to his forehead (mind you I was never told about that complication!)

Seriously are the horror stories we were told many, many years ago not happening because of the advancement in treatment?
 
Well done you Vic! I've just reached 48 years and was diagnosed on holiday near Aberdeen with my new hubby. His father was a vet, took one look at me ( 6 stone and drinking water like a fish ) and dragged me off to the GP. Half an hour later I was in Aberdeen's ancient city general hospital in a ward full of old ladies who seemed to be always wandering around with little jugs of wee to test! Nightmare! I borrowed a little transistor radio from my in-laws and remember listening to Last Night of the Proms on it - I get reminded every year since. My lovely father-in-law kept coming in with little jars of Frank Cooper diabetic jam and armfuls of roses from his garden and the scent of roses always reminds me of him. Then I was introduced to the huge glass syringe, with a monster needle, which was kept suspended on a coiled spring in a metal tube of meths which you had to pump out before injections. It didn't half sting! After two weeks I was sent back on the long journey home by car to Manchester, absolutely terrified. I seem to have survived OK so must be doing something right :) My diabetic consultant said, just this afternoon, that I'm doing fine although I now have to test a lot as no longer have the same hypo awareness - downside!
 
fletchweb said:
I remember my poor mother sterilizing the glass syringe on a regular basis and the old scale to measure the quantity of food - needless to say it was great when disposable syringes came along and most of us were treated with just one shot of insulin (basal) a day - I was on Lente made from Beef and Pork. But more importantly - I was lucky that my parents were intelligent responsible people :)
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Lol my mum just boiled the syringe up in a saucepan of water every 7 days for about 10mins. That was the only sterilisation that was done. The syringe was kept in a tupperware container filled with industrial methylated spirit just to cover it. Every morning my mschoolsd the kettle and the syringe was lifted out of the tupperware and submerged in a Pyrex dish and boiled water poured over it. I just rinsed the syringe once assembled with the boiledwater and flushed it a few times. I then proceeded to fill the syringe from a vial of insulin. It took about 5mins and that included the injection which I did every morning sitting on our staircase. Eat breakfast .....2 weetabix and 30mins later, off to senior school doing a 1 mile walk carrying a heavy bag with text books, snacks to eat mid morning and then home at lunchtime to eat a sandwich or have some soup and then back to school again.
 
One of my earliest memories is of my aunt boiling my grandmother's syringes and being small.at the time absolutely fascinated by plopping a tablet in the pee and seeing it fizz! All these advances in treatment would have saved her life she only lived for 10 years past her adult onset type 1 diagnosis (or insulin dependent or whatever it was called then) and she was blind and I believe her kidneys failed fairly rapidly poor lady.
 
iHs said:
Lol my mum just boiled the syringe up in a saucepan of water every 7 days for about 10mins. That was the only sterilisation that was done. The syringe was kept in a tupperware container filled with industrial methylated spirit just to cover it. Every morning my mschoolsd the kettle and the syringe was lifted out of the tupperware and submerged in a Pyrex dish and boiled water poured over it. I just rinsed the syringe once assembled with the boiledwater and flushed it a few times. I then proceeded to fill the syringe from a vial of insulin. It took about 5mins and that included the injection which I did every morning sitting on our staircase. Eat breakfast .....2 weetabix and 30mins later, off to senior school doing a 1 mile walk carrying a heavy bag with text books, snacks to eat mid morning and then home at lunchtime to eat a sandwich or have some soup and then back to school again.
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great reply SCOTLADY
FUNNY HOW TIME FLYS but yes i do remember my odd thing this will make you smile a jug of saltwater the syringe just as you said the sting , the smell ..
a lad in the next bed who had been shot by a shotgun on the other side of hedge was told some pellets will have to stay in body MR SMITH took blood sample from ear with a pepet.
putting coke on the old fashion coke fires .
sugar testing 10 drops water 5 drops urine dad telling me off for he could smell actione . but we live to tell the tale but does it matter share does for our generation
its all very modern now i phones constance blood sugar s and new food ideas
keep well vic
 
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