Home » Health & Wellness » Juvenile Diabetes » My Personal Journey

My Personal Journey

© Angela Lantzy

My journey with Juvenile Diabetes is personal. The experience began, I believe, the last week of October 1983. I went to the doctor for an earache. The doctor gave my mom a prescription for that great bubble gum flavored penicillin and we went home. A week later though, my ear still hurt so back to the doctor's office we went. As far as I can recall, the infection was gone but the doctor asked many bizarre questions.

Was I drinking a lot? Was I going to the bathroom frequently? Was I tired? I nodded to his questions wondering what in the world any of that had to do with my ear. The nurse drew some blood and my mom and I again went home. The next day was November 7, 1983 and the school nurse called me out of class. My mother was on her way to pick me up for a doctor's appointment.

When we arrived, the doc sat us down and told us I had Juvenile Diabetes. I was two months shy of my thirteenth birthday. My mom cried while I sat on the table horrified. Not of the disease though, I had very little understanding of it other than people with it had to take shots. Not more than a month earlier, I had ordered a cookbook containing recipes of the stars on Days of Our Lives and all the proceeds benefited the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. The doctor reassured me the book had nothing to do with my diagnosis.

I stayed in the hospital for a few days. I practiced injecting oranges then on myself. My mom learned how to give me shots. I was told about the exchange list, how to work it and the importance of controlling my blood sugars. A day after I was started on insulin though, I still remember how good I felt.

Back then, I went home with a urine testing kit, a list of exchanges, pork insulin and the number to the local Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Every morning I peed in a cup and dipped a strip in it then measured the color on the strip to the color on the bottle to guess where my sugar level was. My mom handled the exchange list because for the life of me I just couldn't get it. I learned to mix my Regular and NPH and I rotated my shots between my legs, arms and stomach.

It didn't take me long to figure out what a low blood sugar felt like or a high one. As far as I can remember, I think it was about four months before I got my first home blood testing kit. I do remember it cost over three hundred dollars and took five minutes (I think) for the reading. Though I thought my bathroom being my own personal lab was somewhat cool, the blood testing was even neater.