Just Thinking

On a hike today I dug deep into the memories of my past, some encouraging times, mixed in with some troubled, challenging times. Living with type 1 diabetes I can be ever thankful that my path through life happens to be now and not further back in history.

Insulin was discovered 100 years ago and I am alive due to this miraculous discovery by Sir Frederick G Banting, Charles H Best, and JJR Macleod at the University of Toronto.

I reflected on this and a number of other times where history has been on my side. I shared in the last blog that I had a total blockage in my urinary tract. A catheter relieved fierce pain and helped my body to cope with a difficult situation. The word “catheter” comes from Greek, meaning “to let or send down.” Catheters were used as early as 3,000 B.C. to relieve painful urinary retention. In those times, many materials were used to form a hollow catheter shape, including straw, rolled up palm leaves, hollow tops of onions, as well as, gold, silver, copper, brass, and lead.

I am certainly thankful that I did not have a ‘catheter’ moment had I grown up around 3,000 B.C. The materials used to form raw catheters is a little scary when you think about where they are being placed.

The reflective hike ended with the summation that I likely would have died from eight different events in my life, had I lived in the past, where medicine had not met with the ability to keep me alive.

Be thankful we live in this day and age (ok, we could have done without Covid 19). And looking back on history is was a wonderful moment to advance beyond the ketostix and $400 plug-in blood glucose machine that was in my T1 toolkit when I was first diagnosed.