Back in the day!!!!!!!!

Jaylee said:

That's the puppy!
It did have a "stainless steel?" Spring in the bottom... Reminded me of the battery compartment of a "classic" torch. But without the bulb or electrical contacts.

Alas @porl69 , I can't find any reference on the web either..

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Jaylee said:

That's the puppy!
It did have a "stainless steel?" Spring in the bottom... Reminded me of the battery compartment of a "classic" torch. But without the bulb or electrical contacts.
Alas @porl69 , I can't find any reference on the web either..

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Grant_Vicat said:

I think this is what you are looking for! Notice the earlier aluminium version on the left (early 70's). This might interest you all;

1978 I went InterRailing round Europe with Jonty Ward, a great friend from school. We stayed with some of his relatives in North-West Paris for three days and then progressed towards Florence. By the time the train had reached Novara I was not very well and we decided to leave the train and look for somewhere for me to do my injection, in relative privacy and hygiene. We found nothing useful. Later on we looked at the Michelin Guide in which the first entry stated “Novara is a grim town.” We proceeded to Milan Central. As expected, the station was enormous and we had little difficulty spotting the signs for “Gabinetti”(WC). Unfortunately these were all holes in the concrete with squatting slabs. Nothing would make me inject myself in there. We therefore crossed the street and headed towards a brand new Al Italia office. Jonty sat with the back packs against a bus stop, while I ventured inside a very plush office, hoping to spot the magic sign. They were downstairs, which meant passing the reception desk. Once downstairs I was able to wash my hands and find the first proper lavatory in Italy. Wouldn’t the Romans be proud? This meant that I had somewhere I could sit behind a locked door. Having injected myself in the thigh, the fact that somebody in heavy shoes had been constantly pacing backwards and forwards outside my cubicle suddenly took on an alarming significance, so I pretended to be in there for legitimate reasons. He tried the door handle. I sweated. After a few minutes I realised the futility of my acting and decided to brave it. A tall man in a very smart braided uniform allowed me to wash my hands and then walked slowly ahead of me towards the stairs. On the way up, he spun on his heel and curtly demanded “Documenti.” I handed him my brand new passport, which aroused suspicion. He snatched my syringe case, which was of the old type, with a double ended spirit-filled tube inside an aluminium box. He opened this and started to unscrew the tube. In the best English that flooded into my racing head, I advised “I shouldn’t do that if I were you.” Spirit sprang over his wrist and for some reason he took exception to this. He had found what he wanted and pulled me up to the reception, where two other men were seated. Their conversation reminded me of a million starlings. Eventually I uttered the only words of Italian which I knew (probably in a laughable accent) “Sono diabetico.” Blank stares. Help! Should I try French? “Je suis diabetique et en regime d’insuline.” Suddenly the smallest of the three brilliantly deduced “ah, e diabetico” I could have kissed him and happily shot the other two.

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Grant_Vicat said:

I have been having trouble uploading the following with a prototype Hypoguard case made of aluminium as well as the plastic one:

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rochari said:

Thank you for all the pics, porl69 and the memories that come with them. I started on insulin 55 years ago and I was the third in our house. My mother and grandmother were also type 1's. Every night the pot went onto the gas ring and three sets of syringes and needles were boiled up for 5 mins. My mum and I used the Clinitest tablets for testing urine but my gran wouldn't move to them and preferred Benedict's solution. She'd been using that for many years.

Another odd thing was the needle fittings in those days. Mines was always the 'luer' size but both my grandmother and mother had syringes that were much more 'pointy' and thinner at the end and their needles were, I think, the 'record' gauge. No matter what size the fittings were the needles were truly enormous in length as your pictures show.

Each of us had a small flat sweet tin with a lid. This is where we put each of our syringes and needles into after boiling, all resting on a bed of cotton wool. I vividly remember mine's have a red lid and I think it had Newberry Fruits stamped on it!

Bill

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Penquin47210 said:

Some real memory jerkers here having been through King's College Diabetic unit in 1962 aged 11 and still will not eat rabbit 'cos I had sat down to eat and was told "Can't eat that 'till you have done your injection."

Same meal was sat there stone cold 11/2 hours later after having been shown how to assemble glass syringe, draw up units of 80 strength soluble porcine (didn't know that at the time) and been shown how to use Clinitest kit to test pee..... Vigorous bubbling etc.

"You must eat it all as you have had your injection". Yuk as it had all congealed - sauce, mashed potato and unknown veg plus bony rabbit bits....... Talk about developing a phobia in an 11 year old - that was a major event.

Now on pump, with cgm and worried if deviates even a tad (which it does after meals - surprise, surprise).

Old needles (Rocket or Luer fitting) lasted for a MONTH then returned to chemist to be resharpened (like corkscrews and needed screwing into skin), developing lumps etc. in skin. Aluminium guard to put over thin slice of WHITE bread onlyand that was cut down to size = one portion and allowed 6 for breakfast, lunch and supper and 2 for mid-morning, mid-afternoon and bedtime plus one for waking up ! Aluminium screw top container to keep glass syringe in (in surgical spirit). Boil syringe in saucepan once a week to keep it sterile (!), managed to boil a couple dry, then melt the glass...

Getting a replacement rapidly was not easy as only allowed one at a time.

British Diabetic Association holiday for one week at school near site of Great Train Robbery and going to Whipsnade School. Many other memories from that time but have now survived 57 + years on insulin..........

Lots of memories of doing things that "you can't do that as you're Diabetic" - oh yes I can, and did and have the certificates to prove it..... some considerable changes in opinion, supported by some excellent Doctors in various places.

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Cltchris said:

Gee, that's a blast from the past! Haven't seen those clinitest strips for ages. Diagnosed 48 years ago and after many years of denial am back to proper management . My wee sticks in those days were either orange or blue.... never in between, and it was so degrading I wouldn't do it very often. Was very skinny throughout my teens....no wonder, I was ketoacidocic most of the time.

Boiling the syringes too and injecting surgical spirit before the insulin exited the syringe was painful.....and , no, you can't have a new needle yet, you only had a new one two weeks ago. How did we survive?

Thank you technology, Freestyle Libre and my pump, still excitingly new for me...but most of all to the lovely staff in the clinic i attend who rescued me.

BTW, has anybody added up how many times they have injected themselves throughout their life ?????

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Jaylee said:

Hi,

(Looking at your profile.) it's great to see another West country D.

Yep, been a long time since I've sampled these drinks. Most of the sugar free stuff squash/cordial was obtained from my local chemist during the formative years on a diabetic shelving rack..

We can probably thank the Jane Fonda explosion back in the day for the likes of Tab?

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Grant_Vicat said:

Schweppes Slimline Tonic Water came out in 1965. My parents always got me a glassful whenever they took us to the pub. I still drink it!

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rochari said:

JMK1954 in some ways I was lucky about MDI. I'd no idea what I was heading into that day at the clinic and I sat with the consultant who spent a lonnnng time praising me for everything, average sugar levels, no complications etc despite being on insulin so long. Then, he said he was changing my insulins and and injection regime and I asked him why especially after he'd just praised my control to high heaven on the existing regime. His reply was something like 'although your existing insulin is still being produced this is the the way ahead and everyone at this clinic is being moved onto it'. This was much the same reply I got when I questioned his decision to put me on statins. I refused those and I refused this proposed change. The choice should be mine unless there was a possibility my control would improve and it wasn't going to. It went even more quickly downhill when I asked if there would be financial gain for the hospital/his department by introducing this to ALL patients without discussion or agreement (as there had been with other changes to diabetic patients en masse over the years). The end result was, I remained on the twice-a-day regime (fortunately with the full support of my GP) and never saw that consultant again. I was told later I'd been removed from his list.

Over the years I have met very many wonderful doctors and consultants at the diabetic clinic and some who have, what I call, the God Syndrome. I bet you've met them too because they are averse to discussing or agreeing things with the patient and it's a case of 'just do what you are told'. Always a challenge and always one I am up for.

Bill

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JMK1954 said:

I was never told to eat potatoes of a particular size because we had been given a diet scale. 2ozs of boiled potato was 1 black line, ie. 10 g of carbohydrate. 2 thirds of an ounce of bread was 10g, or 8 ozs of carrot, or 2 ozs of peas. My parents and I could judge amounts accurately by eye after a few months, but I still weighed occasionally to check my estimates were remaining accurate, even as an adult. Anyone else remember Laurence's 'Line Ration Scheme' ? I was suddenly mocked by a doctor at my clinic after some years, for answering in terms of black lines when asked what I was eating. To be honest, I still think of carbs in 10 unit chunks. I find it easier. It doesn't mean I don't take the extra odd grams I need into account !
I had not thought about some of this stuff for years, but basically it did work. If I show my face at a hospital clinic now, because I have grey hair I am routinely treated as if I'm an idiot. I have been told by nurses at the clinic that I'm type 2. I laughed out loud at that. It's either that or cry. In the old-fashioned days, nurses were trained in how to deal with type 1 as a matter of routine. Things started to go wrong in the 1980s. It's back to the 1970s for me !

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