Prologue

My hopes for this writing are to give you an insight into my life with diabetes mellitus. Hopefully, you'll see developing trends in diabetes treatment, yet at the same time see that I might have a slight sense of humor. Maybe I won't even bore you to death as you continue reading. My attempt to keep chapters short has actually happened in most cases.

My scrapbook contains nearly fifty years of pictures, articles, newspaper clippings, and a whole lot of notes. Nearly two years have been spent formulating what and how my notes would be transformed to print. As I start this writing, Sept. 2001, I am four weeks short of my fifty-third birthday. In December, 2004, I'll look back over fifty years as a Type-1 insulin dependent diabeticˆ . The changes in treatment for this disease are dramatic, but none more so than in the past five years. I remember my first injection using a clear glass syringe with a cobalt blue plunger and a 25 gauge 5/8" stainless steel needle, boiling them every morning before use, even occasionally sharpening the needle for reuse when it dulled. Different types of insulinˆ were in different shaped bottles to tell them apart. Although I was too young to really complain about not being able to eat the candies and desserts, there were many times that envy of the other kids got me down. My mother trained as a dietician to give me a well balanced diet. For years I measured food quantity on a gramˆ scale. It seemed we never ate out. I can't remember where the nearest McDonalds was.

There have been numerous changes in insulinˆ types that I've had to get accustomed to. From U40 in 1954, changing to U80 in 1960, then to U100 in the mid 1970's and finally to Humulin in 1999. For the novice, names were created for the number of units of insulin per milliliter (ml). Example: U40 insulin had 40 units of insulin per ml. Insulin started from a beef source, then a combination of beef and pork, then pork by itself, and of course Humulin is a synthetic (man-made) insulin. The insulin pump I am now wearing uses U100 Humulin Humalog which is a very fast acting - short life span insulin. That's right; in 2000, after forty-six years I stopped injecting insulin.

In the early chapters I have attempted to write from the viewpoint of the youngster I was at the time. It will be clearly marked when I add comments as an adult.

Throughout the book you'll encounter words like hypoglycemiaˆ , hyperglycemiaˆ , retinopathyˆ , glucoseˆ , insulin reactionˆ , etc. For the sake of easy reading, there are no footnotes or emphasis on any of these words. Instead, I have done two things; first, created a glossary with real definitions, not just my slant on them and second, I reference these words to the glossary so that if you want to see a definition while you're reading you can.

Example - slide your mouse over this phraseˆ

I also have a living active faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ. My life, in my opinion, with its ups and downs, is made both liveable and enjoyable because I was, and still am, daily filled with the Spirit of God.

Hope you enjoy.

John Bennett