August 4, 2014
It was the perfect day for a bike ride for me, and it was an embarrassing one for my wife. At 7 a.m. I clicked into the pedals on my dark blue Specialized Allez road bike and pushed off toward my friend Ed’s house. I looked up at the cloudless pastel blue sky with yellows and reds radiating from the east. Goosebumps appeared…
It all started innocently enough. The hospital nurses gave me a model car to put together, probably to keep me in my bed rather than romping through the hospital hallways with the other kids on the children’s floor. This was back in 1971, and hospitals were not yet in the practice of moving patients out as soon as possible. I had…
July 21, 2014
My wife and I were in the delivery room about to give birth to our first child. Now, before I get too far into this story, I need to explain that my wife, Heidi, is from New Jersey. If that fact means nothing to you, go to Netflix and watch a couple episodes of “Jersey Shore.” Or don’t and be…
July 13, 2014
Kim was my first real girlfriend, and by “real girlfriend,†I mean we made out in the front seat of my 1967 green Rambler, a car we called the Rolling Rock. Like me, Kim had type-1 diabetes. In fact, that’s what brought us together, besides the fact that she was really cute, and I had a car. When we first…
Many of my heroes as a teenager were athletes; Their Sports Illustrated covers plastered the walls of my room. Heroes like Pete Rose, David Thompson, and, well, Christie Brinkley. Oh, and Ron Santo, a Chicago Cub who, like me, lived and played baseball with Type-1 diabetes. And did I mention  Christie Brinkley, who, as far as I know, didn’t have Type-1 diabetes,…
June 25, 2014
1972 was a big year for me–the year of the Olympic Games, and I was participating. I was 12 years old and won 27 gold medals. At least I should have. The other competitors, Tim Ward, age 11, and Jeff Ward, age 10, competed too. The events all took place in my backyard, garage, basement, and around our neighborhood on…
June 23, 2014
Relying on your mom to give you your insulin injections has its disadvantages, especially when she’s mad at you and hasn’t taken (what she called) her “nerve pills.” Like the time when I was 13 and I got mud on her freshly cleaned kitchen floor, and later when she gave me my shot, she wiggled and twisted the needle around…
June 20, 2014
I could give a shot to an orange, a grapefruit, and a nurse, but I couldn’t inject myself. I was 11 years old and had just been diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes. I spent the next three weeks in the hospital, where the nurses schemed to teach me to give my own shot. After three weeks of trickery, deceit, and blackmail,…
June 19, 2014
When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11, Doctor Stagaman told my mom I probably wouldn’t live past 40 and definitely not past 50. He also told her there was a good chance I wouldn’t be able to have children. I don’t know what it is about me, but I really, really enjoy proving doctors wrong! I have had…