Photo included: Caption: Evelyn Engelhardt
Evelyn Engelhardt, now 81, has had diabetes for more than 70 years. In September 1931, she began to show the classic symptoms of the condition: the thirst, the weight loss... She dropped to 86 pounds, and her parents thought she had a tapeworm.
Her old family doctor figured it out. He checked her urine, and "said she had sugar." But he hadn't ever heard of insulin (it had been out ten years), so he put her on "a real strict diet of gluten bread."
It didn't help, of course. About a year later, in 1932, she went into a "diabetic
coma," from the untreated high blood sugars. She was "out cold"
for 72 hours. She could have died. Her mother told her they used to call her
condition "consumption."
But her aunt knew a doctor at Good Samaritan Hospital, there in Cincinnati, who "knew something about diabetes." Into hospital Evelyn went -- and they kept her there a month. "I got to know the nurses really well," she says.
Evelyn didn't think what she had was all that bad, but her mother did -- and kept her out of school for the next year. During that year, her mother made sure that Evelyn took her three shots of regular insulin (the only kind they had) on time, every day. Evelyn also learned to weigh her food, and to test her urine for sugar, using a test tube and Bunsen burner.
Evelyn notes that once her diabetes was under control, her personality changed. She became president of her high school freshman class. "I was outgoing; I was in all the best groups, you know!"
Now the "gloom and doom" folks, the ones who'd have you wondering how anyone survives the onset of diabetes, would have you certain that a diabetic child in the 1930s would have had a miserable time of it. Not so.
"A bunch of us girls were going to Coney Island (Cincinnati's amusement park), and, while we were there, I went into insulin shock," says Evelyn. "The other girls didn't know about me having diabetes, what it really meant. I said to one friend, 'Do you have a candy bar?' I ate the whole thing, and I came out of it. To this day, she'll say to me: 'I can remember that day, when you had that insulin shock.' She always reminds me of that.
"When I was in high school," Evelyn reports, "I'd love to dance, but when I'd go out on dates, I was a cheap date. I'd have just one highball, and I'd dance away. I remember one night we went out, we went out and had a big eggs and chicken, and I thought 'boy, I'm off my diet," and well, the next morning, I was in trouble -- I had insulin shock."
Like many of us, Evelyn had discovered the power of physical exercise to burn blood sugars. We still face the same risks, but nowadays, we have blood glucose monitors, and if we test regularly, we can see those "lows" coming, and take the necessary action.
Those were the early days; folks didn't know anything like what we do now about taking care of diabetes. Still, Evelyn kept up her diet, her exercise (she loved dancing!) and she prospered. As self-care improved, she adopted the new techniques, like regular blood glucose monitoring.
Evelyn and husband Robby have been married for 56 years, and they have two daughters,
now 50 and 46 years old. They have four healthy grandchildren. "It's not
the easiest thing in the world to have children when you're diabetic, but it's
certainly worth everything I went through," she says.
Now she wants to help children who develop the condition, like she did. "I want to give them hope," she says. They don't seem to have much hope that they're going to live very long. It IS possible, if you take care of yourself."
It hasn't been completely smooth sailing. Lately, she's had some problems with hypoglycemia. "I don't know if it's on account of my age, or what, but I'm having a heck of a time getting that cleared up now. The doctor I have now took me down to almost nothing as far as my insulin's concerned. He is gradually building it up again. I'm taking about eight units less than I was, and it works."
And Evelyn knows how important it is to find a good doctor, someone who fully understands diabetes. "It's working pretty good right now. Finally, I'm not getting these shocks."
She is upset that diabetes researchers have isolated neither cure nor cause for type 1 diabetes. "For as long as it's been known, you'd think they'd have more information. And, they haven't found a cure for it after all these years."
There are many veteran diabetics like Evelyn Engelhardt, and if you ask them how they made it 50, 60, or more years without significant complications, they all seem to say the same thing. Evelyn quotes her daughter, who owns a restaurant: "Mom, you really do take care of yourself. I wish you'd see the people who come to this restaurant, who are diabetic, and think nothing of ordering pie, cake, you know..."
But she never slipped up, and she's gone the distance: more than 70 years with type 1 diabetes. Evelyn Engelhardt is living proof that with diligence, diabetes can be conquered. She is an inspiring example to us all.
She would like to correspond with others interested in diabetes. Write to her: Evelyn Engelhardt, 9191 Round Top Road, Apt. 234, Cincinnati, Ohio 45251-2492.