Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Nancy Schiffer vividly remembers Good Friday 1956, the day she found out she had type 1 diabetes.
Schiffer, who was 11 at the time, had been urinating more frequently than usual. Since she had a brother who had type 1 diabetes, her mother took one of his urine test strips and tested Schiffer.
"My mother ran one test on me and later came back down the stairs, white as a ghost," said Schiffer, 68. "She called the doctor and he said to keep a close eye on me over the weekend and he would see me on Monday."
Children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1956 were not expected to live long, healthy lives. The average life span on those diagnosed between 1950 and 1964 was just 53 years.
But 56 years after she was diagnosed, Schiffer is leading an active, healthy life. The McKean Township woman sings with a competitive chorus and quartet, exercises daily, spends time with her husband, Gene, and works as a volunteer with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
http://www.goerie.com/article/20121...oman-recalls-more-than-50-years-with-diabetes
Schiffer, who was 11 at the time, had been urinating more frequently than usual. Since she had a brother who had type 1 diabetes, her mother took one of his urine test strips and tested Schiffer.
"My mother ran one test on me and later came back down the stairs, white as a ghost," said Schiffer, 68. "She called the doctor and he said to keep a close eye on me over the weekend and he would see me on Monday."
Children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1956 were not expected to live long, healthy lives. The average life span on those diagnosed between 1950 and 1964 was just 53 years.
But 56 years after she was diagnosed, Schiffer is leading an active, healthy life. The McKean Township woman sings with a competitive chorus and quartet, exercises daily, spends time with her husband, Gene, and works as a volunteer with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
http://www.goerie.com/article/20121...oman-recalls-more-than-50-years-with-diabetes