[Mick]

Good question, Michelle--I guess a lot of younger, or more recently-diagnosed diabetics, might want a teeny peek into their potential futures. It's a bit hard to campare my first 25 years with diabetes with today. We had no blood test metyers--we got our blood sugars read TWICE A YEAR! We did have urine tests--a tape that you peed on, and before that, a chemical that you added to a test tube with urine in it, and boiled. For both the test tube and the tape, you compared color changes--it was very approximate and subjective, and only told you if there was so much sugar in your blood, it was spilling out your kidneys. and, that was for several hours earlier--so our "control" was very wide. We didn't count carbs, we used these HUGE needles (when I started, I still used a glass syringe that I boiled before each injection--once a month, my dad took it into his workroom and sharpened the needle on his whetstone...!), and we used pork and/or beef insulin, which, together with the large gauge needles, caused damage to the tissues we injected in. I still have absorption problems because of that. When they invented "Human" insulin, those of us who switched from the animal stuff had a very hard adjustment--we basically lost our hypo symptoms. I spent much of the 1990s in a fog of hypoglycemia... But that's another, long story--I've recovered my hypo awareness, so that's no longer an issue.

After 38 years, I suffer from "Lipodystrophy", which is damage to or atrophy of the subcutaneous layer of fat from years of injecting impure insulin with large gauge needles. I also suffer from "Cheiroarthropathy", formerly known as "Diabetic stiff hand syndrome" or "Limited joint mobility", which is a stiffness in my hands due to hardening of the collagen layer and thickening of my skin, as well as some other connective tissue issues. I cope with that...

I have no sign whatsoever of the "big 3" complications--Eye, kidney and nerves. Nada, nothing, no involvement with any of that at all. 4 years ago, I had a heart attack, at the age of 47, and needed triple by-pass surgery. The doctors all insisted it was related to the (then) 34 years of diabetes, but who can really know that? Especially without any other complications (meaning I've taken reasonably decent care and maintained reasonably decent control over the decades), it doesn't make a lot of sense--I tend to blame the Coronary Artery Disease on bad genetics as much as anything...

I maintain, at the age of 51, (blush...) full (vigorous) sexual functioning, and can keep up physically with most people half my age. Since my heart attack, I have not missed a single day of work due to illness, and, in fact, before that, had been out sick less that 10 days in 20 years. I weigh 135 lbs (same as I did in High School), I eat about 900 calories a day, I inject a total of about 28-30 units of insulin per day, and exercise 3-4 times per week--either run 5 miles or cycle 15. I get by on 5-6 hours of sleep a night, and except for the normal dulling of memory by age, I don't feel I've lost any mental functioning. I feel living my life with diabetes has made me a stubborn, obsessive, controlling person--but also endlessly joyous, hopeful and optimistic. I've raised 2 children and been married for 29 years to my high school sweetheart.

Life, even WITH diabetes, IS good...
Michael
(Living well is the best revenge...)