There's a really neat interview in Diabetes Health, in which two elderly brothers describe how they have lived with diabetes for decades, successfully managing the disease in the days when treatments were a lot less precise and a lot more inconvenient and painful. Bob Cleveland was just five years old when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1925 - just two years after the discovery of insulin as a treatment for the condition. His brother, Gerald, was later diagnosed at sixteen years of age. The brothers say that in general they have enjoyed better health than many people because diabetes forced them to live well, staying active and eating healthfully. They also say they have benefited greatly from the technological innovations that have come along during their lifetimes. The brothers describe the rudimentary techniques used by diabetics in "the old days." For one thing, glucose levels were evaluated by urine tests rather than blood tests. Insulin was, they say, about one hundred times the strength of current insulin, and was administered from large glass syringes. "One of these needles today would easily fit inside the needles my mother used to inject me," says Bob. (Yeesh.) Needless to say, this was in the days before disposable needles. When the brothers were younger, they say, their father would keep the syringes in working order by hand-sharpening them on a whetstone. Their  mother would keep the syringes clean by boiling them. This interview is so interesting and sure puts in perspective the "inconvenience" that today's diabetics have to endure!