Since this running and training are related to and hopefully good medicine for my diabetes, I’ll write a bit here and there of my experiences dealing with the big “D”.

This Halloween will actually quiety mark a milestone of my 35th year since being diagnosed. The story goes back to a day in 1970, when for some reason I decided I wanted a day off from school. So I told my Mom I was not feeling well.

I did not know it, but for some time she had been noting some behaviors and symptoms- the thirst, stomach aches, irregular eating patterns, mood swings (though I always that that was normal at age 7), some bedwetting. So she rather surprised me, and ruined my plan, when she told me she was taking me to the doctor.

So off we went– I forget exactly what Dr Kramer did during his examination, but I ended up out on the hall, while he talked to Mom behind a closed door.

Then he called me in and started explaing that I had a serious condition and needed to spend some time in the hospital and… I did not even hear it, I busted out crying, confessing I had lied to get out of school, and I really was okay… They were not even caring, and seemed intent on this hospital thing.

So off I went, spenidng 10 days at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. The memories are blurred, there was a frug nurse shoving the IC in my arm, ordering food from a menu (ordering was fun, but the portions small), watching TV, getting get well cards from my second grade school mates. The hard part was missing Halloween, and then finding out I had this thing that meant I should not each much candy ever again! I think there was some sort of Halloween party for the sick kids. Then there were some visits from nurses, and having me practice give injections to an orange.

Upon my release, my parents and I went to a few weeks of out-patietent education to learn how to take care of my new condition. There were the daily insulin injections that my Dad did, and having to test the sugar in my urine with a test kit (10 drops of water + 2 drops of urine + a “Clnitest” tablet and hope you get blue, not orange).

The thing that really changed it all for me was attending Camp Glyndon that summer– it was its first year as a summer camp just for diabetic kids. What a great thing it was not to be the only kid with this condition, but surrounded by 100 others! They stressed tremendously that even us little kids could learn to manage our diets, testing, and injections…. I think there was a tradition that they wouldnot raise the green and while camp flag until every kid in camp did their own shots.

From then on, my camp experience enabled me to handle all the diabetic care myself. There was a lot fo power in that.