- Messages
- 6
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
Things have changed a lot with diabeties.
My mum told me lots of stories about her when I was growing up.
Mum was diagnosed with Type 1 diabeties after she fell off a ladder (although the gene runs in our family, the trauma might have set it off).
Dad thought she was going to die and proposed to her in hospital. I always thought it was romantic (the ward cheered when he did it). She said yes (otherwise I wouldn't be here or writing this).
Her hair went from blond to dark brown and was sticky. She was ill for a while until it was diagnosed. This was in the early 1960s. Mum was about 16. She's now 78 and has lived with it for 62 years.
Initially she was told she can never eat sweet things, must NEVER touch pineapple and probably wouldn't live that long. I remeber Mum doing her two injections a day with a glass needle and all the litttle glass bottles in the fridge. Then there was a panic if we went. out to dinner and they took too long to serve after Mum had disappeared to the loo to do her injection. But that was the old Bovine insulin. Doctors in hospitals seemed a lot sterner then (especially matrons).
Growing up, Mum rarely gave me dessert as she was worried it might make me diabetic, although we chugged bucket loads of colourful Corona! Did anyone drink water in the 1970s? But I managed to avoid being type 1 or 2.
Mum (and Dad) would often say in the 70s and 80s that there was a cure for it but companies made too much money out of the disease to bring it to market. But without the internet these opinions weren't amplified like they are today. But somehow a chance meeting with someone seemed to make whatever they said like it was dictated by the words wisest sage back then.
Mum would carry orange glucose tablets in her bag in case of a hypo. There were many of those. Sometimes at night our dog would whine if mum had a hypo. It was strange but I'm sure both our dogs saved Mums life more than once. I remember sitting in Boots by the brightly coloured strangely shaped glass jars with Mum waiting for her to pick up her latest batch of glass vials and syringes. She'd be flicking the syringes for ages trying to get the air bubbles out. Sometimes I'd help, trying to avoid the quirt of insulin as it rose into the air.
The glucose tablets changed to jelly babies (she was told they were better by the diabetic specialist). Then Dates were added to the mix, then orange juice. Tests seemed to be more comprehensive these days and the understanding of diabeties is far better than it ever has been.
Later Mum moved to porcine insulin. She was adamant that Humulin wasn't for her (she tried it once and had an adverse reaction to it, but I think the levels weren't right). But her blood sugars were all over the place. When Dad passed away a few years ago Mum's eating became erratic, she had deep depression and ended up with delirium. She forgot to do her injection. Her blood sugars would drop to 1.7 or leap to HI on the accucheck, which only goes up to 33.
It was scary.
After a spell in hospital shes now on Humulin and despite her erratic eating, her bloods are far more consistent. The district nurses come in and look after her and they are fantastic.
Growing up you never heard of anyone who had it. It was something you didn't talk about. Now the taboo has gone, thankfully. Sports people, olympic champions and even Prime Ministers have disclosed that they have diabeties.
After Dad passed away in 2021, Mum would often say she should have gone first, that she was told that she wouldn't live that long. It was difficult to deal with. This got repeated more and more and Mums depression deepened and her memory got worse.
She's now using disposable needles (the glass ones are long gone) but she never transitioned to pumps or other fancy diabeties tech. But it's interesting how much things have changed over the years.
What are your stories?
What's the longest anyone has lived with type 1 diabeties?
My mum told me lots of stories about her when I was growing up.
Mum was diagnosed with Type 1 diabeties after she fell off a ladder (although the gene runs in our family, the trauma might have set it off).
Dad thought she was going to die and proposed to her in hospital. I always thought it was romantic (the ward cheered when he did it). She said yes (otherwise I wouldn't be here or writing this).
Her hair went from blond to dark brown and was sticky. She was ill for a while until it was diagnosed. This was in the early 1960s. Mum was about 16. She's now 78 and has lived with it for 62 years.
Initially she was told she can never eat sweet things, must NEVER touch pineapple and probably wouldn't live that long. I remeber Mum doing her two injections a day with a glass needle and all the litttle glass bottles in the fridge. Then there was a panic if we went. out to dinner and they took too long to serve after Mum had disappeared to the loo to do her injection. But that was the old Bovine insulin. Doctors in hospitals seemed a lot sterner then (especially matrons).
Growing up, Mum rarely gave me dessert as she was worried it might make me diabetic, although we chugged bucket loads of colourful Corona! Did anyone drink water in the 1970s? But I managed to avoid being type 1 or 2.
Mum (and Dad) would often say in the 70s and 80s that there was a cure for it but companies made too much money out of the disease to bring it to market. But without the internet these opinions weren't amplified like they are today. But somehow a chance meeting with someone seemed to make whatever they said like it was dictated by the words wisest sage back then.
Mum would carry orange glucose tablets in her bag in case of a hypo. There were many of those. Sometimes at night our dog would whine if mum had a hypo. It was strange but I'm sure both our dogs saved Mums life more than once. I remember sitting in Boots by the brightly coloured strangely shaped glass jars with Mum waiting for her to pick up her latest batch of glass vials and syringes. She'd be flicking the syringes for ages trying to get the air bubbles out. Sometimes I'd help, trying to avoid the quirt of insulin as it rose into the air.
The glucose tablets changed to jelly babies (she was told they were better by the diabetic specialist). Then Dates were added to the mix, then orange juice. Tests seemed to be more comprehensive these days and the understanding of diabeties is far better than it ever has been.
Later Mum moved to porcine insulin. She was adamant that Humulin wasn't for her (she tried it once and had an adverse reaction to it, but I think the levels weren't right). But her blood sugars were all over the place. When Dad passed away a few years ago Mum's eating became erratic, she had deep depression and ended up with delirium. She forgot to do her injection. Her blood sugars would drop to 1.7 or leap to HI on the accucheck, which only goes up to 33.
It was scary.
After a spell in hospital shes now on Humulin and despite her erratic eating, her bloods are far more consistent. The district nurses come in and look after her and they are fantastic.
Growing up you never heard of anyone who had it. It was something you didn't talk about. Now the taboo has gone, thankfully. Sports people, olympic champions and even Prime Ministers have disclosed that they have diabeties.
After Dad passed away in 2021, Mum would often say she should have gone first, that she was told that she wouldn't live that long. It was difficult to deal with. This got repeated more and more and Mums depression deepened and her memory got worse.
She's now using disposable needles (the glass ones are long gone) but she never transitioned to pumps or other fancy diabeties tech. But it's interesting how much things have changed over the years.
What are your stories?
What's the longest anyone has lived with type 1 diabeties?