What did we do before finger pricking?

[atoll]

you all had it too easy,we had to pee on a rock and wait to see if bees came and drank it,if they did then your sugar was too high...............

 

[Madeline]

you all had it too easy,we had to pee on a rock and wait to see if bees came and drank it,if they did then your sugar was too high...............

Friends, Romans, erm pissy bees?

 

[leonS]

Actually, I think that it was the Greeks who noticed that insects (not bees) favoured the urine of diabetics. Not that it mattered much back then, there was no effective treatment for type 1.

 

[trophywench]

What ever do you mean no effective treatment? You always had the choice to either die quickly or effectively starve yourself to death more slowly .....

Thank goodness Robin Lawrence chose the latter when he did, eh?

If it hadn't been for him and his mate HG Wells, we wouldn't all be typing things right here, would we!!!!

 

[Madeline]

Diabetes is from the Greek ‘diabainein’ meaning to pass (through), mellitus is from the Latin and means sweetened with honey.

It’s the sort of useless information I like to retain.

 

[leonS]

First an appology to any acient Hindus on this site, for it was them in about 1500 bc who wrote of the insects.

I wa asked by a Dr. just after diagnosis how many lines I was on. I had to confess that I had no idea what he was talkig about. Lawrence lines (a sort diet system) had never been mentioned to me.

The maximum time from diagnosis for children diagnosed wjth type 1 to death was about three years. So perhaps a mention of Banting and Best?

And no good will come of anything which like "television" is a mixture of both Latin and Greek!

 

[trophywench]

A 'line' 'portion' 'exchange' or 'ration' equalled 10g CHO each - so I was on originally 11 marks of Porcine Ultralente (with it's shocking pink and lime green colour code)a day - courtesy of the Wellcome Foundation (but it wasn't u100, think it was u80) and 12 exchanges, one glass syringe and ONE needle, One Clinitest Kit, so that was one little test tube, one little wooden test tube stand, (that looked really cute and so nicely made and finished - later stands were nasty (cheap looking) grey plastic) and one pipette/dropper - so after decanting the 5 of wee and 10 of water into said tube, you stood it in/on the stand before drying your hands and unscrewing the tube of boiling tablets, tipping one tablet out, popping it into the test tube and standing back to see if it turned anything other than the usual fluorescent orange) It all went rather nicely with my primrose bathroom suite in 1972! The 'in between royal blue and orange' colours were a sort of sickly khaki colour - not nice at all! (and if you were a lad, nothing whatever like 'camo' khaki either)

The music was brill - but diabetes wise, they weren't the good old days at all.

 

[Madeline]

Ok I need to stop whining, it all sounds horrifically complicated and scary, and I’m v grateful to be living right now, despite the dumpster fire going on everywhere.

 

[trophywench]

Well the testing as well as the treatment, was the medical equivalent of the efficiency displayed when one uses a sledge hammer to crack a hazelnut! But - it kept us lot alive quite well in the finish, however c**p it was in comparison.

 

[Lilmssquirrel]

Diabetes is from the Greek ‘diabainein’ meaning to pass (through), mellitus is from the Latin and means sweetened with honey.

It’s the sort of useless information I like to retain.

She will like this little factoid!

 

[Lilmssquirrel]

Thanks everyone, I feel enlightened. Sounds like an interesting topic for home school research should I have to ever do that again...