A Small Positive
It took several years after I found out that I had diabetes before I read anything that impressed me in a positive way about my chances with the disease. That was the story of Elizabeth Hughes. She became a type 1 diabetic at the age of 11, 3 years before insulin was discovered.
The only treatment was a severely restricted diet. Most type 1s only survived days or months. She was unusually compliant about the diet. She had already been losing weight, but was 75 pounds when Dr Allen started treating her. By the time she got to Dr Banting he noted "extremely emaciated (about 45 pounds) condition." She was then too weak to stand from a chair or walk without assistance.
While everyone else that age was growing, she was shrinking. That was a situation with serious stress. She could not afford the urge to get to the refrigerator at night.
The production of insulin was crude at first. It sometimes had a muddy color and several of the early people on it had reactions to the impurities. Against all odds, she lived to 73, 12 years longer than the average female at that time. Even if it is a short story, it is nice when it has a happy ending, but this was a life time story, and it went beyond fiction.
It's nice to think that it could possibly happen for us. Any effort it might take would be worth it, wouldn't it?
Another bit of good news was finding out that amputations are much less likely to happen to non smoking diabetics. In fact smoking by itself increases the likelihood of amputations.
"One of the biggest threats to your feet is smoking. Smoking affects small blood vessels. It can cause decreased blood flow to the feet and make wounds heal slowly. A lot of people with diabetes who need amputations are smokers." Foot Complications
The links page has a couple more quotes with a bit more detail for those who appreciate it as much as I do.
The negatives are thick and serious, but most people know enough about them that it is a bad day when they find out they have diabetes. The surprising thing for me is that it gets down to a routine again with some adjustments and changes made, and it hardly even seems like a handicap anymore. Taking care of it carefully becomes just a routine part of your day.
