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Type 1 diabetic since 1968

robert72 said:
I had one of those blue boxes with the syringe tube. Certainly had in in 1975, if not before. It had a plastic part that held the syringe tube and was also a clip for 2 insulin vials
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I did too and it had a spring in the bottom to stop the needle from blunting, what was the solution we used back then to keep the syringe clean, we were told to use it to wipe the skin before injecting, it had a nice smell in a weird sort of way but was no good when you were out looking for a date, was it surgical spirit ?......the name just escapes me
 

Yes Nigel, surgical spirit

Edit: You might have got a date with a nurse
 
robert72 said:
Yes Nigel, surgical spirit
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I thought so. It's funny how they don't recommend cleaning the skin now prior to injecting, I use to buy those little disposable wipes that came in a white square wrapper that you tore off, I've seen them still used in a hospitals and gp surgeries..
 
Maybe the lemon-scented wipes from KFC would do... more pulling power than surgical spirit (but not much).
 
noblehead said:
I thought so. It's funny how they don't recommend cleaning the skin now prior to injecting, I use to buy those little disposable wipes that came in a white square wrapper that you tore off, I've seen them still used in a hospitals and gp surgeries..
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IIRC surgical spirit was a bit "greasy", and somehow my father got industrial meths prescribed for me instead when I was about 15. Apparently I was using such a lot of it, the doctor thought I might be drinking it LOL. What no-one knew was that sometimes, if I woke up hypo in the winter and went downstairs to get something to eat, when I got back to my bedroom I'd use the meths to keep warm LOL. I had a large tin lid, I'd pour some meths onto the lid, light it up, and warm up my hands and feet .....all on the NHS LOL
Those square strips are STERETS H. I found some of them in the box too. Pic to follow .....
 
Here is the pic of an ancient strip of STERETS that was also in the box in the loft.

I also noticed that on the back of the lid on the blue box, there are teeth marks. I had a hamster that got out of its cage in the bedroom one night, and it took a fancy to the blue box on the floor LOL

I've also now remembered the precursor to the blue box. It was an aluminium box with an aluminium tube, not as wide as the blue box. The little tray, in the previous pic of the blue box, came from that aluminium box. The trouble with the aluminium tube was that it "furred" up from the spirit, and the aluminium box itself started to suffer from aluminium corrosion.

 
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Hi Brian
I was diagnosed aged 10 in 1973. I had a blue case (stand up) with a sping in it for my glass syringes which was filled with surgical spirit. Mum used to take my syringe apart and boil it now and then in a saucepan!
I was on a diet of black lines and red lines. I tested my urine with clinitest and later as well the little tablets for keytones. Mum got me a Palmer Injector Gun which I never really liked cos when I pulled the trigger the needle end would go in my leg but seperate from the syringe!! I used to love the colour chart that came with the clinitest tablets, I used to fill it in for my diabetes Dr and there were a fair few made up ones. Mum always told on me!
Plastic syringes were great, think we paid for them at first? But they did have huge needles. My first glucose testing meter was massive. I remember being given one that you could also test yr BS using like your arm or leg, it made a lot of noise. I thought I had such super amazing technology!!!! X


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Do any of you lovely people have any photos of the old urine testers ? Was it 5 drops of urine and 10 of water , pop a brick of a tablet in it and let it go boiling hot to the touch . Diagnosed in 81 used the urine tester then went on to the guillotine , brings back painful memories


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Yeah I remember that! Was it
2% then 1% then half then quarter then trace then negative.?
2% orange
1% yellowish
Half greenish
Negative blue
Something like that. As a 11 yr old in high school and doing science for first time I used to experiment with the clinitest at home! Spit on it, watch it fizz and bubble! Tested pop, sugary tea!!! I used to drop the tablet in the sink ( not on purpose) and have to use another one in the test tube! The keytone tablets turned pink!


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I remember those sets. There was a warning not to let any moisture into the tablets in case of a 'bottle explosion'. Even moisture from dry hands. I was 12 and found it a very anxious experience! A junior doctor told my parents he couldn't see the point of urine testing when I was using finger pick tests but the consultant insisted on them.

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My sister was diagnosed with diabetes in 1982. i remember her first glucometer. It was the size of a brick. There was a flap at the top which she had to lift. She would then have to put a fairly huge drop of blood on a pad at the end of a stick, wait a few seconds then she had a special bottle which had water in it. she would have to spray water onto the strip, dab it with cotton wool then place the stip under the flap, close it and then wait about 1 minute for her reading. The process took about 5 minutes
 
Imagine one of these that you had to plug in..... Carry that in your bag
 

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I had the test tubes and pipette in another box in the loft, but had a bit of a clearout in 2006 and chucked that box because the box had loads of other glass junk too. I should have taken them out and put them in the other box
 

That's right, no way that I would have remembered that much detail. I took one of those tablets to school once and showed the chemistry teacher what happened when water was put on it. He told me how they worked, but I didn't understand a word of it LOL
 
clucker34 said:
Omg! Loving the pics, I was diagnosed in '81 at 18 mths old and I defiantly remember that awful contraption to test blood! Thanks for trip down memory lane x
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that must have been fearsome to have a parent doing that. I suppose I was lucky that aged 12 in 1968 I only had to learn how to inject.

In wasn't until aed 25 that I was introduced to that "Owen Mumford axe", I'd only ever urine tested before then The diabetic nurses were clever, they gave me one of the lancets and asked it I could get a finger prick of blood with it, so I had a go, and they were gob-smacked that I managed to do it to myself . When they showed me the axe, it obviously seemed a lot better than jabbing a lancet into my finger myself
 

That's amazing, I never knew anything like that ever existed. I think the first I got was the Glucometer 2, not sure when exactly, maybe 2001 or possibly a few years before, until then I'd been using the colour strips (if at all).

I've added that picture of yours into my photobucket folder, here it is

 
My mum use to inject and my dad would sit across my legs when I wasn't being very receptive to the twice daily torture! I did my first injection on my own on my 6th birthday, 29 yrs later I remember it like it was yesterday it took me nearly two hrs!


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