60 Years with Type 1 and still happy

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adamrit

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I got my Lawrence Medal from Diabetes UK today for surviving Type 1 for 60 years. I've still got all my bits and minimal retinopathy. I've used a Medtronic pump and sensors for the last few years, which have made life simpler if not simple. Just remember if you are a new Type 1, diabetes is different for every person, we each have a slightly different variation of the disease, so you need to learn the characteristics of your own variation. To keep your sight, limbs, kidneys and a full life, you have to take fairly continuous care of your diabetes. When I started in 1956, I injected with a glass syringe which had to be boiled before every injection and with a fat painful needle. There was no blood glucose testing, just urine sugar testing with a test tube and a tablet dropped in it. This told you your urine sugar levels from maybe two or three hours ago.
Whatever else, don't ignore it. Keep busy and active, eat good food and do positive things that occupy your mind and body.

For many years I used to deal with all my daily hypos by eating Mars bars, before we were told that this wasn't best practice, so now I've got quite severely blocked arteries, but now my wife and I grow most of our own vegetables and fruit on our allotment. We are in two choirs and go Irish Set Dancing every week. It is a recipe for long life and happiness. You have to concentrate, but it's worth it.
Nothing like as much money is spent on Type 1 research as on Type2 research because there are so many more Type 2s than Type 1s, but the pumps are slowly getting better, the meters are getting better and the likely new research on getting your own stem cells to manufacture insulin producing cells, so you can produce your own insulin without taking immuno-suppressing drugs, is looking increasingly possible. With luck and funding, Diabetes UK can soon stop giving out 60 year medals because we'll be cured of diabetes and no longer have to have diabetes for so long. Good luck to everyone
Adam
 
Thanks Adam, as a newbie (3 months in) it's reassuring to hear from a "veteran" 🙂
As you say, maybe in the future I won't ever get a Lawrence medal but in the meantime I'm going to do my utmost to learn about my condition just in case they don't find a cure...
 
Congratulations Adam and well done, it has not been so different for me over the years (53 years come the end of the year). Husband and I have a large garden front and rear and have always grown our own vegetables and enjoy them in some form every day of the year. I admire your thoughts on remaining fit and healthy and it is so good to hear someone who is still fit and active after 60 years of living with diabetes.

jusme
 
Wow many congratulations Adam what a great post and achievement reaching the 60 years with very minimal damage.
 
Amazing to hear such a positive story. Congratulations.🙂
 
Congratulations, Adam. Long may you hold onto your bits, as you put it and continue to enjoy fun things in life, like keeping active, dancing, singing, gardening, eating good food etc.
 
That's an amazing achievement, 10 x longer than me! Glad you're still relatively healthy and enjoying life. An inspiration to us all. 🙂
 
Gives me hope - a comparative baby at 44 years clocked up LOL - currently hoping to be upright enough to clock up and pass the 50 yrs milestone!
 
adamrit said:
I got my Lawrence Medal from Diabetes UK today for surviving Type 1 for 60 years. I've still got all my bits and minimal retinopathy. I've used a Medtronic pump and sensors for the last few years, which have made life simpler if not simple. Just remember if you are a new Type 1, diabetes is different for every person, we each have a slightly different variation of the disease, so you need to learn the characteristics of your own variation. To keep your sight, limbs, kidneys and a full life, you have to take fairly continuous care of your diabetes. When I started in 1956, I injected with a glass syringe which had to be boiled before every injection and with a fat painful needle. There was no blood glucose testing, just urine sugar testing with a test tube and a tablet dropped in it. This told you your urine sugar levels from maybe two or three hours ago.
Whatever else, don't ignore it. Keep busy and active, eat good food and do positive things that occupy your mind and body.

For many years I used to deal with all my daily hypos by eating Mars bars, before we were told that this wasn't best practice, so now I've got quite severely blocked arteries, but now my wife and I grow most of our own vegetables and fruit on our allotment. We are in two choirs and go Irish Set Dancing every week. It is a recipe for long life and happiness. You have to concentrate, but it's worth it.
Nothing like as much money is spent on Type 1 research as on Type2 research because there are so many more Type 2s than Type 1s, but the pumps are slowly getting better, the meters are getting better and the likely new research on getting your own stem cells to manufacture insulin producing cells, so you can produce your own insulin without taking immuno-suppressing drugs, is looking increasingly possible. With luck and funding, Diabetes UK can soon stop giving out 60 year medals because we'll be cured of diabetes and no longer have to have diabetes for so long. Good luck to everyone
Adam
Click to expand...
 
Very new to this..my son was diagnosed Type 1 a week past Thursday... i'm in awe at your story.. especially the part of urine testing and even I can see the medication has clearly come on leaps and bounds...
You've given me hope x
 
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Carol F said:
Very new to this..my son was diagnosed Type 1 a week past Thursday... i'm in awe at your story.. especially the part of urine testing and even I can see the medication has clearly come on leaps and bounds...
You've given me hope x
Click to expand...
Hi Carol, unfortunately in all walks of life you always hear the horror stories because the public loves them, so this means that people like Adam and all the other people with diabetes who live life to the full and achieve all they want in life are rarely heard. :( Rest assured though there are many people even on this forum who have gone 40 - 60 + years with diabetes and no problems.
 
Thanks for the uplifting and thoroughly optimistic post, Adam. 😛 Congratulations on your award - here's to 60 more!:D
 
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Congratulations Adam.
 
adamrit said:
I got my Lawrence Medal from Diabetes UK today for surviving Type 1 for 60 years.
Click to expand...

Great stuff Adam, well done on the 60 years. I'd rephrase what you put and call it thriving with T1, not surviving T1. We're bombarded with negative stories but you're proof that the doom and gloom merchants are not telling the only story.
 
What a great positive post Adam. Well done on your achievements!
Oh and welcome to the forum 🙂
 
I’ve had Type 1 for 66 years now, and the situation is different. Now I’m 82 and age is affecting me much more. My wife now does all the digging on the allotments . I get too dizzy and am not as strong.

I had a stroke a year ago which meant a year of frequent bouts of total fatigue. My speech is getting much better and my handwriting is not good but very readable. I joined the choir again (next concert, Bach’s St Johns Passion!), only occasional Irish Set Dancing, I’m making furniture to commission again. I haven’t had Covid.

I had a bit of a breakdown over Christmas, when my BG wouldn’t come down for about four hours in spite of over-dosing on insulin. We were watching “Some Like It Hot” for the tenth time, when the eight units of soluble insulin finally hit and my blood sugar went to about 2.5 Just as we were about to eat a very light dinner of salad and leftover veg. I felt paralysed and ate as fast as I could but I couldn’t stop and refuse the food on the table and demand glucose and sweet things. Diabetes sometimes stops you doing what you know you ought to do, though nothing like this for the last thirty years.

I’ve been taking care of my diabetes for 66 years and I suddenly couldn’t cope. Very slowly my BG went back to 5.0 but I was still filled with appalling despair at not being able to cope, and gradually less likely to be able to cope. As I said, it is what happens when you get old.

I am not due to get a Medtronic G780 replacement for my G640 for another year. That would have automatically evened out my insulin/BG response. It was frightenin, mainly because all diabetics have to keep this bloody blue balloon off the floor all the time, all of our lives And for a while I lost the resilience. It was the first total bout of despair in my life, which means I am unbelievably lucky not to feel it more often.

The experience will prepare me better and next time I will be more able and ready to cope. My wife and I love each other to bits, we grow lots of veg, fruit and flowers on our allotments, we sing every week and we dance as often as we can. Diabetes has got nothing to defeat that combination.

If you’ve got diabetes, just build as many defences against despair as you can. Love is sometimes difficult to find, but keep growing things, join a choir and go dancing. Things will be better
Adam
Type 1 since 1956 on GMedtronic 640 with CGM (thank God for NHS) Hba1C about 7.8. Height 6’ 12stone (183cms 78 kg). Quite irregular carb/insulin response, different every day. No hypoglycaemia awareness. Very varying high and low blood pressures (70/43 to 165/85.
Sorry for such a long piece
 
adamrit said:
The experience will prepare me better and next time I will be more able and ready to cope.
Click to expand...
Really sorry to hear that you had a nasty hypo experience over the Festive Season which knocked your confidence, but the above quote from your post is so true with diabetes. You learn from these bad experiences and next time you are better prepared, so don't lose faith in your ability to handle this. It was one occasion out of 66 years which is really remarkable and you are an absolute inspiration. Thank you so much for posting both your opening post in this thread which I hadn't seen until today and then this update which really just shows that we all have bad days/spells, even after 66yrs of experience. What is important is that you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep singing and dancing and loving life. Good on you! I feel really uplifted by your posts, so thank you for sharing them with us and good luck working your way back to a full recovery from your stroke.
 
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