068 50 Years a Diabetic

My 50th Year of Diabetes

I am celebrating(?) my 50-year anniversary of being a type-1 diabetic this month.

Karen Adams, who is an excellent diabetes educator at Winchester’s Valley Health, submitted my name to Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical company that first made insulin in 1923. They sent a nice necklace to commemorate the date!

My diabetes is not something I talk about much—mostly because I have known a few diabetics who have used their chronic condition as a way to get sympathy or to get out of doing something. Plus, many people when they know you are a diabetic seem to want to give you advice about your diet, your exercise or to treat you like some sort of invalid. I was annoyed just yesterday when someone saw my medical bracelet and had to know why I was wearing it. She wasn’t anyone I would every see again—she was just nosy! Anyway, breaking away from my usual reticence, I am sharing my story today.

I was a 17-year-old college freshman when first diagnosed. Since I was living away from home, it was a big adjustment for me—and for my anxious parents. Being a Navy brat, I went to Bethesda Naval Hospital, where I had good training, using a syringe on an orange for practice. Then I was sent back to Radford to manage on my own. 






Things were a bit different then. I used glass syringes and re-usable needles that had to be sterilized after every use. Checking blood sugar levels was done by testing urine. I took one shot of long-lasting insulin a day. I was very excited the first time I was able to use disposable needles—much less painful.




Then came disposable syringes with needles attached. Twenty years after my diagnosis, new technology allowed me to determine blood sugar level by testing a drop of blood. More pricks, but much more accurate. Sometime around then, fast-acting insulin was added to the shot routine. 









For a long time, I consulted a list of exchange values to figure out how much to eat within a certain calorie diet to work with my insulin dosage.




It didn’t always work out right. I was never hospitalized with blood sugar too high, but made it to the emergency room several times with low blood sugar. And there were many other close low blood sugar episodes. Those who know me understood what it means when I ate piece of candy after piece of candy. 

One time I did not catch the low sugar onset fast enough and passed out, falling into the bar at a cocktail party. Fortunately, my husband Harry was able to bring me around with sugar. Very embarrassing!

In recent years, matching food to injections has become much more accurate. I count the carbs in each meal and then had an injection before each meal and at bedtime. That mean four to five shots per day!

Happily now, I am equipped with a new device—an insulin pump. It delivers a base dose every hour, which replaces the long-acting insulin with a more uniform delivery schedule. Then at meal-time, I pull the pump out of my pocket and input my current blood sugar level (still requires 4 pricks a day) and the carbs I will be eating. The pump calculates how much insulin is necessary and asks me if it should deliver it. Yes, please!

That the good side of it. The bad side is that a small needle is placed in the skin. The needle connects to the pump with thin plastic tubing. The site the needle in which the needle is sticking must be changed every three days, and the pump also needs to be refilled. This process is not yet routine to me but hope it will be with practice. 

Sleeping next to a dog while wearing the pump and tubing can also be exciting. I now pin a pocket to my bedclothes close to the needle site and place the pump inside. It may not be necessary, but I sleep much better!

That is my saga so far.  I am looking forward to pumps that can automatically determine blood sugar level.  This advance is close so I am hoping to embrace that change in a few years.  

Overall, I am very grateful for the advances in diabetes care and feel lucky that after 50 years, I am doing pretty well!