What’s most extraordinary, reading these accounts, is some doctors’ belligerent obduracy. For goodness’ sake, if there’s the slightest possibility of diabetes, just do a simple finger-prick test and work up from there. What’s to lose? I’d assumed things must have improved since I was diagnosed aged 3 in 1966, long before finger-prick tests, but apparently not. My mother was concerned, as I kept refusing to walk to the shops with her and had lost all energy. It still took weeks of visiting GP (which I remember) before I was finally referred when a new doctor spotted what was likely to be going on. I remember men in white coats (paramedics) turning up and chasing me round the kitchen table to take me by ambulance to hospital. I was there three weeks. I got put on glucose drip because I wouldn’t eat the meals – no wonder, as they didn’t make any provision for children’s portions in those days. I remember learning most about managing diabetes from a 13-year-old boy who was in the ward and showed me things (thanks, Russell); the doctors or nurses wouldn’t deign to speak directly to a child in those days. I also remember the nurse showing my mother how to do injections and measure food. We were presented with a glass syringe and a couple of needles (giant 5/8” ones, for a child! I never could manage to do injections with any ease, though I started aged 6), some urine test strips, and some scales to weigh food on. What strikes me about the ‘kit’, thinking back, is that it contained almost no plastic: compare that to the absolute mountain of plastic waste, a lot of it entirely unnecessary, produced by clinical items nowadays, in particular American ones. All foods had to be meticulously learnt for carb content in those days – I gradually absorbed this as I grew up. Later on, in 1980s or so, there was a fad for ‘eat what you like, don’t worry about carb counting’, then that was ditched and we returned to a more informed approach to management, and what I learnt as a child turned out to be useful again – so on the training for pump use, I found I already knew most carb content of foods, at least the ones that were around in the 1960s (that was eye-opening). I’m now weighing most of my food again, like when I was a child, to maintain good control.
