Living Long and Healthy with Diabetes - Part 2

Joslin medalists share their stories of a life with diabetes

By Daniel Trecroci

The Second of a Two-Part Series

In an effort to recognize people who have lived with insulin-dependent diabetes for 25, 50 and 75 years, Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston started its Medal Program to commemorate "dedication to lifelong diabetes management."

We caught up with four people who are recipients of the 50-year medal who share their then-and-now stories about living with diabetes, and offer their tips for living a long, healthy life with diabetes. The first two were profiled in an earlier article; the other two are profiled here.

Janis Nussbaum Senungetuk

Janis Nussbaum Senungetuk of Madison, Wisconsin, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1955 when she was eight years old.

"I remember hearing the doctors in the next room tell my parents, 'She has about 20 more years of life.' So that wasn't a very good way to start."

Nussbaum Senungetuk says that she was in the hospital at least once every year through her junior year in high school. She says this was because she lacked a home blood glucose monitor.

"Everything was such a guess back then," she says. "Urine specimens were taken before meals, but because of the time lag between creating the urine and the actual blood sugar, it was more of a guess."

Nussbaum Senungetuk says that the lack of home-blood-glucose monitoring technology also made pregnancy more difficult.

"When I was pregnant with my daughter, I would go to have a blood sugar drawn and then learn a week later what it was. That's really scary, because that's not just trying to care for yourself but trying to care for an unborn child. The fact that monitors are now available has made a tremendous difference."

Nussbaum Senungetuk tries to never go above 40 grams of carbohydrate per meal.

"My day cannot start without coffee!" she emphasizes. "Then, a two-ounce portion of fruit juice or—depending on the season—fresh fruit. Lunch is usually half a sandwich, toasted with mayonnaise and some sliced, smoked turkey. Dinner is usually a protein with a salad and low-calorie dressing.

She says she likes to have her blood glucose between 60 and 150 mg/dL. She tests before each meal and then at 9:00 pm (two hours after dinner). At 11:00 pm she tests again before taking her basal insulin. All told, she says she will test around six times per day.

Barbara Hudson

Barbara Hudson of Kingsport, Tennessee, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1951 when she was seven years old. Hudson, who was admitted to the hospital with a blood glucose reading of 600 mg/dL, was in a coma for one week. The doctors told her mother that if she lived she would lose her arms and legs.

"Well, I lived and I still have my arms and legs," says Hudson, who lived with Type 1 diabetes for 20 years before getting her first blood glucose meter. For the past 14 years, she has been on an insulin pump. Like the other medalists profiled, she once tested her blood sugar with urine. "My mother's favorite color was blue. If it was orange before supper, I would have to ride my bicycle around the house 10 times before I ate. Then my parents started thinking, well, how is she going to do that when it starts to get colder in the winter? So Dad brought cinder blocks home and made a little stand for the back wheel on my bike so it was supported, and we put that in my bedroom."

Hudson credits her parents for helping her live a healthy life with diabetes.

"My mother gave up a lot for me," she says. "My dad worked two jobs…I remember him traveling to Knoxville [Tennessee] and going to natural food stores and finding me these sugar-free cookies and mother would allow me to have one a week."

Today, even though there is a plethora of sugar-free foods for people with diabetes, Hudson says she usually eats regular foods like oatmeal for breakfast, salads for lunch and meat with two vegetables for dinner. She says she never goes above 20 grams of carbohydrate per meal.

For her exercise needs, Hudson works out three to four times per week for 45 minutes a day.

A pump wearer, Hudson tests between six and eight times per day and tries to keep her blood glucose between 100 and 180 mg/dL throughout the day.

How to Become a Medalist

The Joslin Medalist Program is open to everyone. Some form of documentation is required (e.g. records of the date of diagnosis with diabetes and the date of beginning insulin treatment).