I became a type 1 diabetic a couple of years after Neil Amstrong walked on the moon. Control was by clinictest and ketone tablets. I don't know how my family got me to do 1st void and then second void a 1/2 hr later!!!! It was 5 drops of urine to 10 drops of water. This was done 4 times a day. Ketones was simple just 1 drop of urine on the tablet on the special little blocks of paper you got with the bottle.
Next was the needle So once a week the glass and steel syringe and the needles used to draw up and inject would be put into a saucepan with water and boiled for 10 minutes. The containers they were kept in were washed by hand with dis washing liquid. Metho was put into one container and syringes and needles were place in there with a lid on I, til they were once afain boiled up a week later. Each morning and night we would have to boil water to put into second container to rinse the metho off. On a tea towel the needle and syringes would be placed to air dry before I got the insulin out of the fridge to draw it up. No 100 unit insulin 20 and 40 unit insulin only so was pretty good at dividing back in those days. Never ever got infection and when disposable needles came out due to expense we would place syringe back in their wrapper and place them in the fridge to use for 2 weeks
We didn't count carbs but went with portions mine was 5 2 5 2 5 2. Extra portions before sport. Diet was very strict. I breed and ride horses live in the bush, do everything the same as someone without diabetes. I was never given any special treatment nor did my family spend sleepless nights worrying I could have a hypo in my sleep. So you really have it easy nowadays. How is it a struggle???? I've got through with out any hassles for 45 yrs
Queensland, Australia
