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Permalink Reply by Ron Doyle on January 19, 2011 at 4:18pm

I've posted it here somewhere before but you young "whipper snappers" have no idea what old is...yet.

If I make it to March 15, 2011, I will have been on insulin as a Type 1 for 52 years. I am now 56 and the doctors in 1959 told my parents that I probably wouldn't live to see age six or 10 at the best. Ha - I got the last laugh, I outlived all of the docs!

Also, people have a strange look in the eyes when they find out I'm "D" and have been for so long. I always say something like, "Yes, I have all of my toes and I've never even seen a dialysis machine." Usually gets either a laugh or a stranger look.

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Permalink Reply by rick phillips on January 19, 2011 at 5:01pm

Chris:

In the past 30 years was a kind of high water mark. I know when I was diagnosed at 17, the doctor made a point of saying that I could probably expect a relatively normal life for about 30 years. Well it has now been 36 years, and I think if the doctor were still alive, he would be surprised at the technology differences.

To give a reference point, when my aunt was diagnosed at 10 she lived until she was 13. My mom was diagnosed at 24 and lived until she was 48, I was diagnosed at 17 and am here and typing (something my mom could never have done past her 40th birthday) at age 53.

It is not to say that being a 36 diabetic is special today. I admire the Joslin medal winners who have made it 50 years and more. I just believe the social understanding has not kept up with technoloigy.

rick phillips

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