Meet Charles

I was a sophomore in college, it was late October of 1967. I discovered I was thirsty all the time and could not sit through a 50-minute lecture at any point in the day. I had to run out to any close-by restroom and empty my bladder. On the way back to the lecture, I always had to stop by a water fountain and get a large drink of water.

I headed home for Thanksgiving and shared my health issues with the entire family. My sister pulled out several volumes of our family encyclopedia set and went into her bedroom.

About 40 minutes out, she came running into our front room, yelling, “I think I know what is wrong.”

“You’re diabetic,” is what she was yelling! It was like an axe being plunged into my head, since I knew nothing about type 1 diabetes.

The next day I got back to college at the University of Wisconsin, Madison campus. I got a doctor’s appointment and saw the doctor within 48 hours. He quickly had me provide a urine sample and used a urine test strip and I was very clearly spilling sugar—big time. He said I needed to go into the hospital right now. My response was I had assignments due and upcoming exams, I had to get my books first. After a short argument, I went to my dorm, loaded up the books, and checked into the university hospital.

I was at the hospital for two weeks and was quickly put on one daily dose of five units of NPH insulin. 

The third day, I apparently had an insulin reaction due to low blood sugar. I was still in the hospital, sitting on the edge of my bed, just sure something really strange was going on. My very young doctor walked by my room and after a short discussion he gave me some Life Savers.

Over the years I switched to multiple injections of regular insulin, four to five shots per day. I then read about insulin pumps and told my doctor I was interested in getting a pump. He stated I would be an excellent candidate and off I went with an insulin pump in 1999. Currently I am now switching to a Tandem Mobi that just arrived in July.

I feel very fortunate that the medical community has now developed pumps. I started with pumps in 1999 and am now getting 6.1–6.4 A1C readings all the time.