Today’s prompt is to “open a book.” I chose my “Diabetic (sic) Manual for Doctor and Patient” by E.P. Joslin. How could I not? This book, copyright 1949, was given to me by my father. It belonged to his mother’s aunt (his great-aunt and my great-great-aunt), who was a patient of Dr. Joslin.
I love Dr. Joslin and I never even met him. I love everything I’ve ever heard about him, so if you know something bad about the man, please don’t tell me.
Anyway, I randomly opened to page 17 (probably because there is a very old return address label stuck inside that page), and at the top it says, “The simplification of the blood sugar test which will make it available for doctor and patient alike will mark a tremendous advance in treatment.”
This is fascinating since just tonight I participated in the Diabetes Social Media Advocacy twitterchat, which was largely about technology and diabetes. Here we are itching for more and better diabetes technology, while back then Dr. Joslin was dreaming about a time when home blood glucose monitoring would be a reality.
I received my first blood glucose meter in 1985, which I realize was a little late, but still. Dr. Joslin was a man ahead of his time in so many ways, yet here he was envisioning home blood glucose monitoring twenty-plus years before it became a reality.
When I was a kid we were still checking urine for glucose, and I have vivid memories of being at diabetes camp, where, once during the two-week session, we lined up and had our earlobes poked (with the old-fashioned blue lancets) for a “blood test.” Since Dr. Joslin started the camp, I know it was his influence that led to that practice.
Thanks, Dr. Joslin, for your foresight and your commitment to healthy people with diabetes.