How did your parents take the fact that their little child has diabetes?

I didn't get diabetes until I was an old lady. Back around the time you were diagnosed, my friend was diagnosed and sadly she died blind and with complications when she was a teenager.

 

This was the reaction when I tracked down Kathleen:
Dear Grant, It gave me great pleasure to receive your Christmas card and the photograph [me with my wife and daughter]. I have never forgotten you and have often spoken of the night when your mother brought you into the Children's Ward so very ill. I have a ver nice photograph of you sitting up in your cot, laughing at the house physician and myself. I wondered if you would like a copy of it? She sent me two! We exchanged letters until 2011, when sadly she passed away. I'm so glad I wrote.
Maybe you could send her a card with a recent picture? The worst that could happen is that she throws it away. I would imagine you would get a similar result to mine, and you might make an old lady very happy!

 

"And there's always the other direction: a hospital can choose to send on a note to a retired employee, rather than giving information to a former patient."
That's exactly what King's College Hospital did, way before GPDR was even dreamt up!

 

I am not from the Uk as well and it is a great forum.
Welcome on board everyone
have a great day

 

I was 43 when I was diagnosed but, considering my mother went into deniability mode and kept thinking it was all a mistake or perhaps I should do the 800 calorie diet as a cure, then I dread to think what my childhood would have been like! She was never great with poorly kids and I got sent home from school with mumps (lopsided face), German measles (obvious rash) and multiple vomiting bugs. She was a stay at home mum in the 70s/80s too, but just didn't like sick people near her.

She's another who'll make a sugary dessert and try and push it on you then be hurt when you explain it's going to be 2 more hours until you can even think about trying it.

 

I’m glad you joined us, @Zhnyaka, @Yaya10_10 @EllieM, @Antje77, and all the other non-U.K. people on the forum. I’m glad all T1s feel welcomed here. T1 without borders.

 

Maybe we could add Diabetics Without Borders to the logo. Diabetes sans frontiere.

 

I'm so pleased. It will be fascinating, and I think highly rewarding, to see how she responds. For some reason I kept all records, cuttings, equipment and correspondence from very early on in my life, almost like a museum. Although we should aim not to let diabetes take over our lives, deep down I am conscious that it had a direct bearing on my philosophy and outlook in life. The longer I live, the more I owe to one hunch of Kathleen's back in 1959. Thus her letters and photographs are very important to me.