My mom made it to 94 and a great aunt on my dad’s side lived to 111. My dad passed at 84 but I’m sure he would have had several additional years if he had not developed a lung condition. It’s not unheard of - you never know!
@wadawabbit Similar to your mom, my dad made it to 96 with most of his abilities intact. Mom suffered a stroke that took out her right side in her 80’s but survived 6 years with Alzheimer’s/dementia taking hold the last 2-3. I think I’ve taken after Mom for most things, hoping for taking after Dad for older age, we’ll see…as you say, we never know what tomorrow holds…
I received mine a bit late. I was diagnosed in 1969, and lived in the UK at the time I would have qualified for the 25-year medal. I knew about the medal, but only remembered it being for 50 years. I remembered about it when I’d had diabetes 52 years, and looked into applying. I have absolutely no records from 1969. I was diagnosed at the health center where I was attending college. But my sisters remembered, and I met my husband 8 months later, and he contributed his recollection of my history of diabetes. They sent attestations. I knew the name of my family doctor at the time, but since I was at college with some sort of health plan there, my family doctor (who would be long deceased) would not have known. Aside from the university health center, all my records were in England, where I moved 8 months later. And getting records from the health service is hard. I had had to request it when we moved back to the United States, and it was quite a hassle.
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Congratulations @ksannie - you worked through the chore of gathering sufficient information. Wear your Medal with distinction.
I’m not surprised that you don’t remember the 25 year medal. The first longevity given by Dr. Elliott Joslin was a 10-year Certificate presented in 1947; upgraded to a 25-year Certificate in the 1950s. Yes, surviving 10 or 25 years was a big deal in that era.
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Think you may mean age 7, cause if you got your 50 yr medal at age 70 you’d be 120 yrs old! Am personally at 54 yrs myself. Am lucky to still be here!
Hi Dorie,
I tried to apply for the medal, but the endocrinologist’s office that diagnosed and provided my medical care purged their medical records after seven years. It’s hard if you relocate and try and go back and recapture medical records. I was so disappointed as I definitely qualify, but I don’t qualify without the record! Imagine an award for having diabetes! Something to look forward to.
@savejf don’t despair.There are options - I was diagnosed in 1963 so my records had probably disintegrated when I applied for my 50 year medal a few years ago. But I got my cousin and I think a family friend of my mom’s write statements recalling my having diabetes from a very young age; and I believe I had my endo at the time I applied, write a letter stating when I was diagnosed (based on medical forms I had filed out). I suppose it’s honor system, but who’s going to lie about their diagnosis date in order to get an award?
Here is info about the alternatives: https://joslin-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/www.joslin.org/assets/2020-09/medalist-application-2020-editable.pdf
Hi Dorie,
I wouldn’t value the medal if I asked someone to falsely remember my diagnosis date. This endocrinologist office underwent major changes since I was their patient and part of that was disposing of my records. It could also be part of the move to eliminate paper records. I am happy to still be around!
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@savejf - my cousin didn’t mention my exact dx date (I don’t know it myself) but just recalled that I was about 3 years old at the time. She shared some things from childhood such as the fact that she had hoped to babysit me but my mom didn’t want to let her because she was scared. No lying involved!
The instructions in the link say you can share three statements like that, or a statement from your current doctor, and I did a “mix and match” with a statement from my the doctor who was treating me at the time (she took the diagnosis info from my intake forms). Actually, looking at the instructions I think the statement from that doctor might have been enough on its own.
I contacted Joslin when I was preparing my package and explained the challenges considering the length of time - they were quite helpful.