riva: Tell me your diagnosis story.

Judith: I was a college student living on Long Island and I would surf. I developed a cold that just wouldn’t go away, so I went to stay at my sister’s home to recover. One night I went upstairs to sleep. Next thing I know I wake up and see a metal bar in front of me. I looked down and realized I was in a hospital bed. I thought I’d developed pneumonia from the cold. But I had been in ketoacidosis, in a coma basically, for hours. I stayed in the hospital for weeks while they managed my diabetes. Before being released my doctor asked if I had any questions. I only had one: “Can I still have hot fudge sundaes?” The doctor said, “Oh, no, no, no.”  Once he left the room I burst out in tears. I felt why live if I couldn’t have hot fudge sundaes?

When I got home I remember carrying a little scale around with me everywhere. I would weigh my carrot and celery sticks — and every once in a while I’d have a hot fudge sundae!

riva: What else do you remember about that time?

Judith: I remember when my mother turned our kitchen into a laboratory with the exchange diet. There were exchange lists pasted on all the cabinet walls. And oh, my, the glass syringes and 23-inch gauge stainless steel needles to sharpen on a whet stone! When plastic disposable syringes were introduced it seemed like a miracle.

Then the first glucometer came out. It was the size of a shoebox! I remember using test tubes with Benedict Solution to check my sugar levels. We didn’t know then that it only tested your urine. Your glucose had to be over 180 before you would see a color register. It was the dark ages of diabetes, the stone age.

In the late 1970’s I heard that the American Diabetes Association was giving a diabetes education program at Brooklyn Hospital. The speaker was a diabetologist named Sheldon Bleischer, MD. I went. While at this program I felt the sky open up. Dr. B gave such great information and explained type 1 so well. He was brilliant. So I wanted to make an appointment to see him.

I called Brooklyn Hospital and tried, but it was impossible. Then Danny, my husband, called and spoke to his assistant, a woman named Pearl. Somehow, through magic or trickery, I don’t know, he insisted the doctor had to see his wife and I got an appointment!

Dr Bleicher was a wizard. And he was not only a brilliant doctor, but a healer. I have not met a doctor like him since. I really feel if it wasn’t for Dr. Bleicher I wouldn’t be here today.

riva: Really? What was it about him?

Judith: He understood all the nuances of type 1 diabetes. He convinced me to try an insulin pump when I was very resistant to it. Once I did, though, I remember having a snapshot in my mind of crossing an abyss. It was a metaphor I think of going from syringes to the pump.

riva: Yes, I remember to this day how you told me MDI (multiple daily injections) was the “poor man’s pump,” and you were so adamant about it.

Judith: Well, it changed my life. And Dr. Bleicher was also a healer. While I was being transferred onto a pump, I stayed in the hospital for several days. Dr. Bleicher and his wife brought me food every night! He knew I wouldn’t eat the hospital food. He also told me to wear my exercise sweats and walk in the hospital hallways to mimic my exercise routine. After many years of practice in New York he retired and moved to Boston. I went through several endocrinologists over the years, going from one to another, but I could never find another like him.

riva: You mentioned your husband got Dr. Bleicher to see you, so I imagine he’s one of your biggest supporters?

Judith: Always, in fact Danny proposed many times and I was the one who kept saying “no.” I’d been married before, it was a terrible marriage, and I swore when I got divorced that I’d never marry again. I told Danny things were fine the way they were. But he finally won me over. He said, “Look, you have type 1 diabetes and I have great health insurance. You’ve got to marry me.” We laughed about it but he was right.

Judith and her husband, Danny.

riva: I know you were really involved in eating healthy, once you got past the hot fudge sundaes, you even taught cooking classes and wrote about nutrition. And you were an active exerciser before you even knew exercise’s positive impact on blood sugar. In fact you were a long distance walker in Manhattan and ran a marathon. Have decades of good management staved off complications?

Judith: I have to think it’s helped a lot. Mostly diabetes has affected my eyes. In the mid 1970’s I was diagnosed with peripheral retinopathy. Luckily, they’d just invented lasers. The early lasers were the size of a baby elephant; it filled the treatment room. And the treatments were really noisy and painful but they saved my central vision. Mostly I can’t drive because I have no peripheral vision or depth perception.

riva: Has diabetes affected your health in any other ways?

Judith: I’ve had a couple of hypoglycemic unawareness episodes that were pretty scary. One time I was in the kitchen cooking and the next thing I remember was opening my eyes and I was on a gurney being wheeled out of the house to the hospital.

I had another event that now seems almost funny. It happened when the ADA was expanding their programs to the national level. So they scaled down local chapters, in particular the New York City chapter, which I was very active in.

The ADA national threw a fancy lunch meeting at a hotel in New York City. I sat listening to the national people talk and thought about all our programs that would shut down – the walks we’d done, symposiums, so many wonderful things. I was livid, saying to myself, “They think they’re going to ply us with a fancy lunch while they shut us down! I’m not going to touch their lunch!!” But at this time I was taking shots and I’d already taken my shot for lunch, before I’d gotten riled up.

The meeting finished and our group went storming out. There were three or four of us. We went to the McDonald’s downstairs to have coffee and talk about how awful the situation was. Afterwards I walked to the subway. I remember walking down the subway stairs. The next thing I knew I was sitting in my apartment and Danny was spilling orange juice down my throat. I don’t know how I got home, and the most mysterious thing was what I brought home with me — a five pound butternut squash! Did I buy it? Did I take it from the greengrocer? I have no idea, but somehow I got from the McDonald’s to the subway to my apartment and picked up a squash along the way! And you know, with that squash I created a delicious curried butternut squash soup! [Laughs].

riva: I have to admit that’s funny. I’m curious, now that you’re in your ninth decade, have things changed with your diabetes management?

Judith: Well a few things. This is not directly related to diabetes, but I have osteoporosis and I’ve had some bad falls so I don’t go for the long distance walks I used to. Of course that meant making some adjustments to my insulin. But we spend a lot of time in a small beach town on the Jersey Shore where I belong to a wonderful gym for people over fifty-five. They offer classes in balance, strength, flexibility, Zumba and chair yoga and I go five times a week.

But I will tell you what I noticed in my Dexcom Clarity report … that little weekly report card we get, sometimes I’m 90% in range, and other times I’ll have a week where I’m only 75% in range. I know it’s my own doing. Back to the hot fudge sundae syndrome … but who can’t resist a couple of scoops of cherry vanilla ice cream from time to time? I know I’m eating things I shouldn’t be eating; I’ve gotten a little too relaxed about my discipline.

riva: Why do you think that is?

Judith:  My house is filled with goodies. Danny had stomach cancer and he’s trying to gain back some of the weight he lost. So there’s food in the house that never used to be here. Right now in the kitchen there’s a cheese babka and apple turnovers and a few breads! When this stuff wasn’t in the house I didn’t have the temptation, but now it’s here, and it’s SO good!

riva: I know exactly about that. If it’s not in the house I don’t see it, I don’t think about it. But if it is in the house, I know it can’t last forever so I feel impelled to eat it. I’m curious too about the mental and emotional toll of living with diabetes for sixty five years. Does it get to you at times?

Judith: You know I have a snapshot moment in my mind of the early days. I remember very clearly one night going to bed saying to myself, “Oh, shit, it’s still here. I’ve still got this.” And I knew I would wake up in the morning, and it would still be there. So, I tried to come up with a strategy. Aha I thought, I’m going to make friends with it. I decided that I want to live my life and I will keep diabetes in my back pocket. It will come with me wherever I go. Anywhere I go, we’ll go together. And we do. That’s really been my philosophy ever since.

Judith with her 50 year medal from Joslin Diabetes Center.

I take good care of myself. I eat healthy, most of the time, I exercise, I keep up with the technology, but I think the most important thing is attitude. I don’t want to sound Pollyanna-ish, but I think a positive attitude is a big factor in keeping us healthy no matter our age. Of course every once in a while one might say, “I want a vacation!”

riva: As we wrap up, is there anything I haven’t asked you that you’d like to share?

Judith: Well you’ve inspired me and I’m going to put those turnovers and babka in a cabinet where I can’t see them! [Laughs].

Maybe one other thing. I remember when I was working on a book about diabetes and sisterhood. I adored that project. I was interviewing  incredible women and girls who live with diabetes. I marveled at how some people live with this and face so many challenges.

There was one girl about twelve years old. I asked her if she felt different from the other girls at school. Right away, she said, “Yes. I’m smarter than all of them!” I said, “What do you mean?” And she said, “I’m smarter because I have diabetes. I have a sense of responsibility they don’t have.” I thought to myself she’s right, it’s true, and it’s pretty profound for a twelve-year old. Don’t you think?

riva greenberg is the author of three books, hundreds of articles and the long-running blog, Diabetes Stories. She’s globally recognized for her Flourishing Approach, was an “A1C Champion” peer-mentor, and has lived successfully with type 1 diabetes for 54 years.