Voice of the Diabetic

Voice of the Diabetic

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POSITIVE THINKER: ART LOCKHART'S

STORY

Photo: portrait. Caption: Art Lockhart

Mr. Art Lockhart, author of MY FIRST 22,000 DAYS WITH DIABETES,

is now 69 years old. He's had diabetes since 1940, and he is a survivor. He's

done extremely well, he has a lot to tell us, and what is most impressive, perhaps

even more than his long-term success in managing his diabetes, is the sense

of humor he's brought to it. But then again, maybe that's a good part of his

success? Let's listen:

I was eight years old, it was approximately January 1940. I celebrate it in

January. So I am 61 years with insulin dependent diabetes. I love to read the

stories of people who have done well with their diabetes. I think it's a lot

positive thinking on their part. And you know you have to accept your diabetes

and go on and live a full life. It's just a problem.

I have had some complications over the years, more in my later years. I stepped

on something while swimming with my grandkids. I think it was a piece of metal

from the pool. And I put my foot up and my daughter recognized the fact that

something had caused the swelling and infection. She rushed me to the emergency

room, and they gave me some antibiotic and all, and I stayed on antibiotics

for close to six months.

But it just wouldn't heal. I guess it is typical of older diabetics to have

slower healing, and the reason I didn't feel it was because I had neuropathy

in the feet, I had largely lost feeling. I didn't even know I had stepped on

whatever it was! Well I ended up having to have it amputated. It was my big

toe, so the big toe on my right foot got amputated and I remember all the worries

they told me about what might happen to my feet at the time this went on, and

I said, oh no, I will think positive about it, I will be back to my bowling

in three weeks -- and I did; I didn't bowl very well but I got back there. But

that is about the worst that has happen to me.

About three or four years ago I had part of another toe amputated on that same

foot, and for the same reason -- some kind of infection they couldn't cure it

with antibiotics. It truly doesn't bother me, I tell me grandkids that 8 1/3

toes are plenty to walk on. I exercise and I walk a lot.

I am living now in Asheville, NC. It's a beautiful town by the way, up in the

mountains. I have been here for 41 years now. I occasionally go back to New

Jersey. and to the Philadelphia area, where I grew up. Once a year I go back

to Philadelphia to see old friends and relatives.

When I was diagnosed, in 1940, it was really a relief to find out what was the

matter with me. I hadn't realized it, but I was feeling quite lethargic, I had

begun bed-wetting, I was thirsty all the time, and didn't feel very good. My

parents discovered it because they were doing regular check ups, there were

five of us kids, and my older sister had diabetes. They had been advised to

check the other kids every half year. They checked me, and my urine was filled

with sugar. They diagnosed and I remember my father turning to my mother and

saying, "He's got it too." They took me to the doctor the next day

or so, and confirmed the diagnosis.

My older sister Betty got it in 1932 or '33. Just after I was born, she was

the same way, she was feeling lethargic, had no energy, frequent urination,

all the typical things, we now realize, but the doctors didn't realize it back

then. My parents lived in a small town, where I was born, Mount Holly, New Jersey,

in the southern part of the state, about halfway between Philly and Atlantic

City. They took Betty to the family doctor who treated our various illnesses,

and he couldn't figure out what was the matter with her. So they took her back

two or three times, and he still couldn't figure it. Well, finally she was just

feeling terrible, and they went back, and he says: "I think I've figured

it out, I believe she has," (oh, he sent her in the other room first),

"diabetes, but unfortunately (to my parents only) I don't think she will

live more than three weeks."

My mother passed out on that office floor, and when she recovered, my parents

decided not to take his word for it. They went over to a near by Philadelphia

hospital, where the doctors declared her diabetic, put her on insulin, and instead

of just living three weeks, she lived 39 years more. So my mother loved to tell

the story.

She was my oldest sister. She was 13 when she got it and 52 when she died. It

was all over the family. My second sister was diagnosed as diabetic, I had four

sisters total, and my second sister was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic at about

age 45. She is still living today, she's 77 or 78, and she lives with her diabetes

successfully.

The oddballs in my family are the non-diabetics. And by the way, two of these

non-diabetics, my middle sister and my own daughter, married diabetics. Can

you believe that? It's so prevalent with us that they married into it when they

didn't get it themselves. My father ended up with diabetes too, but not until

about age 67 or 68. He was a very late type 1.

My father had a sister and a brother with diabetes. So three out of five of

his family were diabetics, and three out of five of us.

My wife Joan died of lung cancer in 1993. She was a the world's most wonderful

woman. I wrote a book about her too. It's called Immortal to Many, But Especially

to Me. Anyway, she was wonderful with my diabetes, she had a instinct for it.

She could hear it in my voice over the phone, she'd say "Art, get a snack,

right away." I'd say "Why? I feel fine." She'd say, "Believe

me, get a snack." She was always right.

I have two children, Vanessa is age 44, she has two girls, my lovely grandchildren.

I have an adopted son living in South Carolina now, and he has two children.

You know, diabetes never stopped me from anything. We had it in the family,

we accepted it, we lived with it, and it never interfered with education or

work, travel or any of it. It was just a extra little problem with all those

things. But I worked in the market research field for many, many years for a

large fiber company, headquartered in Europe. I went to Europe six or seven

times. When I went to Mexico, my wife usually traveled with me, the kids sometimes

as well. Foreign travel was probably the roughest part of it.

The time difference made it a challenge, with my diabetes. There was 6 hours

difference between here and Western Europe, largely where I went to, Holland,

Germany, England as well. We tried everything to adjust, continuing to eat on

American schedules and taking insulin accordingly. But they were all a little

bit difficult, so we learned to snack, instead of eating three times a day.

When I was in Europe, I'd eat six times a day -- very small meals, adjusting

the insulin accordingly. It took us a while, but we figured it out.

Well, I don't want this to be taken out of proportion either, a typical type

1 diabetic, has at least one insulin reaction, one shock, a week. Some of them

can turn serious, but most of them we defuse with a glass of orange juice or

food of some type, and it doesn't become anything serious. But I've had maybe

14 or 15 really serious, and some had a touch of humor to them, and some had

a real close call aspect to them. But still over 60 years with diabetes and

only having, say 15 that really turned serious, that's less than 1 %. That's

not so bad -- you take that many chances walking in traffic. Any of us, who

say we didn't, are not telling the truth. It just is a normal part of it; it's

not a deficiency on our part. It's a normal thing.

I guess the main thing that I feel about diabetes, other than the usual advice:

be careful with your diet, follow a good diet, exercise as much as you can,

test your glucose frequently, particularly with the type 1's, & take your

insulin and all. Now these are normal bits of advice. Having done those things,

think positively about your diabetes. I think about it as a problem, as something

to face, but not something to fear. It's a background thing with me, I know

it's there, and I test and take my insulin, the same way other people brush

their teeth & comb their hair. It becomes second nature to me. I go ahead

and live that life as full as I can. I was a bowler for 20 years, and a pretty

good one at that. I traveled, I worked, I was successful at business, and I

think the secret to it is positive thinking, it really is.

My mother used to quote Oliver Wendell Homes, who said: "If you want to

live a long life, get a treatable chronic disease & take good care of it."

It turned out to be good advice. She actually told me, and I can remember it

distinctly, she said, "Art, if you take care of yourself, you will live

a long life and probably outlive many of your peer group who won't be as careful

as you are." I have followed that advice, and unfortunately I have watched

many of my peers die off before me.

I have had some fun ones with the diabetic shock business. One I still laugh

about. I went into shock early one morning when I was going to my business office,

and I got on the elevator. I was on the third floor, and it had about six or

seven floors. I got on the elevator, as I hear this story afterwards, people

apparently spoke to me and I must have nodded my head or something but I didn't

speak back. A fellow got on the elevator about 25 -- 30 minutes later, and I

was still riding it, still going up and down in the elevator. He got off and

went and found one of my business associates and said: "There is something

a matter with Art, I saw him on the elevator 20 minutes ago and he's still riding

up and down!" So they got me off the elevator and gave me some orange juice

and I got kidded about it, I don't know how many times afterward, that Art couldn't

find his floor, the ups and downs of diabetes and all the rest of it, but it's

a lot of fun.

I had a good support network. My wife was wonderful, my mother, my sisters were

great and my business friends were great and even strangers helped me out on

many occasions. I tell a lot of those stories in my book. My publisher is RBI,

International Carpet Consultants in Dalton, Georgia. We have a web site if people

are interested in that, www.diabeticsurvivor.com . That will actually show them

some pages from the book and my picture & tell them how to order.

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