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The good old days, weren't.

Lazelle

Newbie
Just reading a post with Emshore's 14 year old son recently diagnosed as diabetic.
It brought back memories of "the state of the art" 1982 when I also was a newly diabetic 14 year old lad.

10ml bottles of Initard double acting insulin
(made from pig pancreas's harvested from the bacon factory somewhere)
one shot sorted two meals. (A recipe for hypo disasters)

Glass & stainless steel syringe, kept in a carry case of methylated spirit.
Disposable plastic syringes were not on the NHS.

Blood testing strips?
Not NHS.

Urine tests?
The NHS way
This was my favorite, pee in this test tube,
add a white tablet (with dry fingers!),
stand back whilst the exothermic tablet creates a tube of boiling p1ss,
wait a minute whilst it changes colour.
Can you see the issues doing this in a restaurant?

For the sake of dignity my parents got test strips privately.

Other things, when you tried to get car insurance, your premium automatically doubled.
The disability discrimination act stopped that scam when the insurers could not show proof of a raised risk.

Just to say, it stops me getting too frustrated at my Libre2.

Best of luck.
 
Hi,

I was diagnosed in 1976 on my 8th birthday..

I remember the clinitest test tube kits.
Wasn’t it 10 drops of water & 5 drops of pee using a pippette?
I used the clinitest case lid to hold the water & a tin cup to collect the pee.
Then drop the tab…

The gear I use now seems “Star Trek” by comparison.

I still have issue drinking out of a tin receptacle.
 
Have to agree 1980 for me , glad I went through it though makes me realise how far treatment and technology has come. I too appreciate the Libre system and I don’t complain if my Libre is a few points out as long as it’s below 9 I’m happy.If it reads 5 instead of 8 I’m not bothered that sort of difference isn’t going to be that detrimental . I do remember getting a list of what I could and couldn’t eat and being put on a calorie diet started on 1550 k which was basically was 155 g of carbs which equalled 15 ” portions “ a portion = 10 g of carbs had a list of what amount of carbs = 1 portion , I still use that system today old dog new tricks blah blah blah
 
1970 age 8. I still remember my blue book of proprietary foods (a penguin was 16g). Did you have to wait 2 minutes for the colour change in the test tube? I remember really hating to clean out said test tube and somehow get it dry.

I still think glucometers made the biggest change to my diabetic control, though if cgms had been available in my child bearing years I'd probably have had a third child. (Pregnancy hypos were grim.)

Yes, diabetes tech has come a long way. (Just started on a pump a year ago.)

And the only low carb squash in our hose was Rose's diabetic orange....
 
EllieM said:
Did you have to wait 2 minutes for the colour change in the test tube? I remember really hating to clean out said test tube and somehow get it dry.
Click to expand...
to my memory, after the urine mix I dropped the tab & it bubbled & fizzed throwing up what looked like “suds” like opening a fizzy coke?
Once it was settled, you got the coloured liquid in the bottom of the test tube..

There was also a ketone tabled you put drops (or a drop?) of undiluted urine on which (from memory) turned purple in the presence of ketones?
Which I guess registered any ketones over 2. Or possibly knowing how vague the system was even higher…
 
I remember the pee test was such a chore for me that I very rarely bothered to do it , it was great when the blood testing strips came along and it changed everything for me .
 
jaywak said:
I remember the pee test was such a chore for me that I very rarely bothered to do it , it was great when the blood testing strips came along and it changed everything for me .
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t disagree with you.

& filling out a log book that was bearly looked at by consultants..
 
Dunno, I was only about 9 or 10 (I think) when blood testing kits came in, and those things were more like guillotines for your fingers than anything else - I wonder what started my hatred of those finger prick tests ......... (I'm pretty sure my parents had aright fight trying to get me to do them - at least once I refused unless my brother did one as well - though interestingly thats how we found out he was also T1)
 
I didn’t bother with the “guillotine” devices in the early meter testing days.
I drove the lancet in by hand.
 
Jaylee said:
I wouldn’t disagree with you.

& filling out a log book that was bearly looked at by consultants..
Click to expand...
Yes I forgot about those log books , when you think about it the pee test was barely only just better than nothing anyway .
 
jaywak said:
Yes I forgot about those log books , when you think about it the pee test was barely only just better than nothing anyway .
Click to expand...
When the pee strip “Dulux” colour match happened. Chart on the side of the strip pot?
I’ve tried it whilst hypo.
Always seem to go a little colour blind low? Early sign.

I was glad when I was handed my first BG meter in the late 1980s..
 
I remember my mother buying me disposal syringes she asked why not on prescription was told cos they are a “ luxury” also with the old glass and metal syringes the needles in comparison to the 4mm ones we use today were like the Apollo 11 rocket and being told to change them when they were blunt. The only diet soft drinks were 1 cal and Tab cola both were rank. I do wonder how people today would manage they would of course as the alternative isn’t good but I wonder how
 
Diagnosed in '73 - remember pretty much all of the above

I 'love' the new tech over the last 10 years - yesterday was 100% in range on a FCL (no thinking above canula-change-time) - thats progress (even survived a very nice Full English breakfast without needing to touch my loop) stunning progress over peeing in a tube
 
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