Memory Lane

[Curdster]

Have we forgotten how far it has all come?
So for me it's 1979 when I first started out being IDD. It was glass syringes in light blue meths filled containers and elephant tranquilizer needles. Two part insulin of which one had to be shaken then mixed, and was animal not human. Urine testing with a test tube rack with tablets which changed the colour. Was it Blue being low and yellow was high, and it took 2 mins to change the colour. There was blood sugar testing but I remember seeing the lancet to slice your finger, and keeping far away from it.

Then it was disposable syringes and needles which were down from an elephant but would make a Labrador wince. Still mixing and two shots a day. Urine testing was out and long BM sticks were in, although the autolet was a huge device similar to a swinging arm and a click which made you jump. Still we were at a 2 minute development time but better than peeing in a test tube!!

Then came the pen. My first was a sleek steel Novo pen which I still have in the hope I can use it again. Much better than the Purple and Green plastic ones I use now. And Blood testing meters which test in seconds and are so cheap. My draw has loads of them, and now no chips are required.

We have come so far, and there is so much more to look forward to. Implanted linked CGM and pumps with glucose back up, stem cell success and roll outs.
For those who's chins are down, and for those who are struggling. There is a distant light and we all need to make sure we are here for when it is bright.

 

[Steff]

Hi Curster what a lovely end to the post thank you, theres a few at the moment who are feeling blue and reading things like this and another post someone posted last week gives hope they is positive things to come x

 

[Curdster]

Steffie. Pleased you liked it. Are you a Geordie? "Toon" in you location? If so me to, although I have lived in London now for 10 years and seem to have lost ther accent.

 

[Steff]

Steffie. Pleased you liked it. Are you a Geordie? "Toon" in you location? If so me to, although I have lived in London now for 10 years and seem to have lost ther accent.

I am yeah born in gateshead lived in durham, birtley, sacriston, pelton and esh winning lol, then went to live in west london now back home.ill never lose my accent lol x

 

[Flutterby]

I was diagnosed in 1977 and remember those pale blue industrial spirit filled containers and glass syringes. I had one jab per day for a while and each mark on the syringe actually represented 4 units of insulin - can't believe it now! I struggle with 1 unit increments! The bane of my life was what they called 24 hour blood tests where they would leave a needle in your wrist and try to take blood every hour or so - I hated it - I was only 11. I look back and feel sad for the 11 year old I was as there was no real support in those days, the doctor was a right cow who instilled fear into all her patients. The childrens ward was dreadful and I spent many weeks there from time to time due to poor control. Thank goodness things have changed, I never moan about checking my sugar with my neat little meter as I too remember the "clinitest" tablets - yes, blue for "negative" and orange for "2%" Totally inaccurate and really not nice at all.

Lets hope the future does bring leaps and bounds at least equal to those of the last 30 years or so.

 

[Robster65]

Can I join the oldies club too ?

The worst thing with the wee testing was that it told you what you were about 6 hours before !!

The smell of surgical spirit still takes me back to those days when you could get a bottle of spirit and cotton swabs on your script.

I was told next to nothing in the hopsital at diagnosis until 2 days in when the nurse told me I'd have to inject myself every day for life. Which was likely to be 10 years less than normal.
Progress has definitely been made and I would never go back to how it was.

ps. I'm from SW London originally. Admitted to West Middx hopsital in '78.

Rob

 

[Flutterby]

Always good to have another "oldie" Rob! I was just a year ahead of you with diagnosis, how old were you, if you don't mind telling! I'd forgotten that you could get cotton wool on the script in those days. I remember we had a great massive roll of it. I'm on Lantus and humalog as well.

 

[Twitchy]

Hello, another 'oldie' here!

I too was diagnosed in '79, but as I was only 11 months old at the time I don't remember any details - my earliest memories are of going hypo whilst eating breakfast before school one day (primary school, first year at a guess!)...sitting eating my boiled egg, bursting into tears & falling over sideways then coming round at the sink as mum poured undiluted ribena into me! (Still hate sugary ribena!) The other main early memory is the other kids at primary school being cross with me because I 'got to eat biscuits' when they weren't allowed to in school - they didn't get the whole hypo thing, and being made to wear a much hated medic alert bracelet by dad.

The next memories are of a brick sized blood test monitor, the injections being mixed & hating having to have them before baths as they hurt like bee stings (took years to figure I had a reaction to one of the preservatives!) & stang again in the bath.

The children's diabetic clinic was horrible - always being told off for 'poor control' without ever really understanding exactly the relationship between insulin & sugar levels... or figuring out that as an active child no 2 days would be the same anyway!

That said, my childhood was still very happy.

DAFNE was an epiphany for me - finally a scientific link between cause & effect that actually worked & took account of the variability of daily life. Injections have never been a big deal for me, the pens are much easier than syringes! 🙂 Hopefully now in a month or so I'll be on an insulin pump to deal with bad dawn phenomenon, so will enter my 'third age' of diabetes I guess! Really looking forward to it - things are definitely getting better in terms of the control that can be achieved in relation to impact on daily life - hurrah!

 

[Twitchy]

Ooh, yeah - alcohol swabs before injections - ouch!! Glad they got over that idea...!!! 😱

 

[am64]

robster ...you were in west mid ....thats where i had my son .... you a weeeest londoner then ?

 

[MCH]

This all takes me back as well. (Diagnosed a week before my 9th birthday in 1974)

I also remember boiling my syringe on top of the cooker once a fortnight. Do you remember the metal needle you got as well? If I remember rightly, we got disposable (extremely large and bright orange topped) needles till we were 16 and then you either bought them or had to use the metal needle supplied with your syringe.

And the clinitest: 5 drops of urine, 10 of water and the fizzy tablet! (Was I the only nine year old whose parents bought them a new potty 😱 )

My mum was apparently told by the dragon like dietician, that I could have ice cream once A YEAR 😱 as a treat on my birthday.

Things have certainly changed for the better.

(As an aside, I wonder how many injections we have all done over the years )

 

[Northerner]

I think a repost of my poem 'Diabetic Days of Yore' might be appropriate in this thread!

I won?t forget those wise old words my Daddy said to me
As he sat down in his chair one night and perched me on his knee.
He said, ?Son, diabetes wasn?t always so much fun,
So let me tell you how it was in 1931!?

Twice a day we?d drive to town, down to the abattoir,
Pick out a bovine pancreas and stow it in the car,
And when we got home Mum and Dad would mash that organ up,
And strain it through a muslin bag into a paper cup?

Then Dad would get some chemicals and boil them in a pan,
Adding bits of this and that with flourish and ?lan!
And meanwhile I would drink and drink until I had to pee,
And Mum would take a jar away, as swiftly as could be!

She?d add it to the chemicals, and if it turned bright red
Then I would have no supper and be sent off straight to bed.
But if it just turned yellowish, I?d have something to eat
Like carrots mashed in gravy, with sweet pickles for a treat!

I didn?t like the needles though, at least six inches long!
So Mum would jig around the room, distracting me with song!
And when he?d scraped the rust off, Dad would stick it in my butt,
I?d bite down on a leather strap to keep my mouth tight shut!

So, should you whinge and moan about how finger pricking?s bad,
Then pause to contemplate about the progress we have had.
We?ve gone from times when prospects for our future might seem poor,
To looking forward to the day that they announce the cure!

 

[Robster65]

Lol. That is an excellent poem Northerner !

The fizzing of the clinitest (and the smell ! 😱) was like something from a frankenstein film.

>am64 I was born in Teddington but grew up in Hanworth ( 'Annerff). Lived there until 1987.

>Flutterby I was just short of 14 when I was diagnosed. Feb 7th 1978. Not that any of us remember or anything. 🙄

I was made to get out of bed and help take the meal trolleys round because, basically, there was little wrong with me after a couple of days but as far as I was concerned, if I was in hospital, I was ILL !!!!!
They kept me in for about a week I think.

I remember they used to use the green needles (about an inch thick) to draw up then swapped for the orange. I used the metal/glass for a couple of years then my dad bought disposables until they made them available on script.

ROb

 

[Twitchy]

He he - the potty comment brought back a memory... presumably to check my urine my oarents would try & coax me to wee on the potty by running taps & more bizarrely whistling! Even to this day I get uncomfortable if people whistle around me...at least pavlov's dog only got hungry!! 😱

 

[am64]

re Robster ....hahaa hubbys a Weeeeeeessst ' lan..den..er'.. as well .. from the centre of the universe as it is often refered to ...Isleworth !!

 

[Robster65]

> am64 I used to drink in The Tankerville in the mid 80s occasionally.

I doubt it's still there on the corner of Hanworth Road and London Road. Used to work at Permutit behind the garage opposite Bridge Road.

Happy days.

 

[am64]

> am64 I used to drink in The Tankerville in the mid 80s occasionally.

I doubt it's still there on the corner of Hanworth Road and London Road. Used to work at Permutit behind the garage opposite Bridge Road.

Happy days.

hubby said the 'tankerville' was well dodgy always fighting !!! hahaha😉

 

[Curdster]

God I had forgotten about the school reaction and early hypos. The biscuit tin at the front of the class in primary school, and being made to wear an SOS Talisman round my neck which made me look like I was wearing a neckless, and which I took off at the earliest opportunity. Secondary school was slightly better although the class bully always stole my fun size emergency Mars Bars. I am sre thats why I keep the condition quite private, although not too fussed about other knowing now.
I remember my mum forcing Lucozade down me and to this day I can not drink it. I also ruined their best carpet, fighting to get away from the undiluted Ribeana!
The whole diagnosis was bad too. 2 weeks in hospital on my own as my parents worked, the hospital schooling and the melted ice cream. Mum & Dad practising injections with an Orange.
So I have now heard a lot about DAFNE, and those who have contribited here, do you recomend it? Would an oldie benefit? I did a BDA Camp in Lyme Regis when I was 11 and that was great, and my local hospital had a great team of Dr's who also took us all away to Yorkshire for weekends.
I sometimes look at these overweight programmes on TV and wonder if they had known how it has been for most of us in the 60's and 70's, would they have become overweight in the first place.

 

[MCH]

being made to wear an SOS Talisman round my neck

practising injections with an Orange.
QUOTE]

Sadly, I still have and wear my talisman (with a fresh bit of paper inside- it's still shiny because my dad had the foresight to get a stainless steel one - though I do remember that after I got it (for my birthday) the Head Teacher pulled me up about it because I was wearing it over my uniform - and I got away with wearing jewellery once I told her what it was 😉 .

I had forgotten about the poor oranges though.

 

[Freddie99]

Grumpy teenager here both in terms of diabetes and life. I was diagnosed in 1996. I didn't get a meter until about 1997. It was two injections a day of insulin that had to mixed in the syringes. I had some rudimentary blood glucose kit however, those were just the strips that you had which produced a colour change (BG kits still work on that principle). I got hold of pens in about 1998. By then test kits had shrunk to house brick size. By 1999 I was on a rudimentary form of MDI with the Novopens that contained cartridges with only 1.5 ml of insulin in. A few years later I moved to the Novorapid/Lantus combination which was useless. I recall the Lantus pens of 2003 ish were crap and nigh impossible to operate unless you had a degree in engineering (preferably a PhD). Then I went onto Levemir. There followed a few years of stab and pray that it'd work. Last summer was my carb counting course. Four months ago I went onto my Veo pump.