A Diabetic Journey: Seventy-Nine Years with Type 1 Diabetes

By Donald Clifton Levy

I First Got The Idea To Write My Life Of 79 Years With Type 1 Diabetes About 1 1/2 Years Ago. My Family And Friends Have Always Encouraged Me Tell My Story. Diabetes Was A Very Grave And Deadly Disease, but I Was Blessed With Doctors
That Were Highly Qualified and A Family That Made Sure
That I Was Going To Succeed And Live A Very Normal And Progressive Life. After I Was Diagnosed, my Mother Became a Expert In Diabetes And Was Well Read On What I Could Do and How To Do It, In The Best And Healthiest Way. I Ran Into Many Difficult Diabetic Road Blocks, With Work And Sports, But I Have Always Found Ways To Compensate. My Book
Shows That If You Are Aware And Have The Disire To Do, You
Can Succeed. I Have Had Very Fulfilling Diabetic Life And I
Have Been Blessed With A Wonderful Wife, Family And Great Friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664152953

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Copyright © 2021 by Donald Clifton Levy.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 01/21/2021

Xlibris

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THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO

_________________________________________

THIS LIST OF PEOPLE THAT HELPED ME IN MY LIFE WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES!!

Alice V. (MacDonald) Levy (Mother)

Helped me to grow-up and Live with Diabetes

Marianne M. Levy (Loving Wife)

Stuck with me 50+ years and truly loved and helped

Mary B Olney (Diagnosing Doctor)

Who stuck with me as a Doctor and a great Friend

Ellen Simpson (Doctor that got me interested in Sports and Activity)

Outdoor Person

Gerald Minkoff (Kaiser Doctor)

Took over my Diabetes and became a great friend

Dave Loescher (Old Friend with Diabetes and I Met at Camp Whitaker

Diabetic Camp George MOSCONI Recreation Director and Mayor of SF Played in Basketball Leagues Alex Swartz)

My Football Coach at City College) First Coach I told about Diabetes

THESE FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE SOME OF THE PEOPLE THAT HELPED AND LIVED MY 79 YEARS WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES

Contents

The Journey Begins

The Real Start of my Journey

Prediagnosis

Alice Veronica (Macdonald) Levy

Dr. Mary Bellis Olney

A Diabetic Checkup Needed

A Reminder of Diabetic Problems

The Camping Experience Begins

A Normal Camping Day

Breakfast Time

Cleanup and Inspections

Free Time for Campers

Swim Time for Campers

Lunchtime at Camp

Cabin Rest Time

We’re Free Again

Outings Offered at Whitaker

Getting Ready for Dinner

Campfire and Entertainment

The Last Day of Camping Session and A Tournament

My Overall Diabetic Control

Friends and Playing at Home

Frederic Burke Elementary School

Family Vacations During the Summer Russian River

Clear Lake

A New Living Location

Music Lessons and Playing the Guitar

Columbus Middle School

J. P. Murphy Playground

Friends and I Playing Golf

Golf with Friends on Wednesday Afternoons

Learning Old-Time Tennis

Golden Gate Park Tennis Courts

George Mascone

A High School Named Lincoln

Studying and Getting My Driver’s Licence

Dominator’s Car Club

Marin Town and Country Club

A College Like City

A Rewarding Experience at City College

Howe Scale Company

University of San Francisco

The Birthday Boys

A Very Short Visit at City College

A Bad Night for the Russian River Cabin

Park and Recreation Department

San Francisco State College

A Special Girl in my Life and a Blind Date

La Honda Summer Cabin

A Big Surprise to Both of Us

Telling our Parents

The Hospital—Delivery—Birth

Wedding with Marianne Carson

Birth of Dawn Alicia Levy

My Wife of Fifty-Plus Years

285 Staples Street

Our New Home and New Neighbors

Back on Staples Street

Bob Mion and I Talking on Tuesday Night

Unions and Apprentice Programs

48Ers Football Season Tickets

The Actual Carpenter’s Apprentice Program

Cathedral Hill Construction

Still Living on Staples Street

Sean David Levy

2335 Vicente Street

2559 Vicente Street

Haas and Haynie Construction Company

Dinwidde Construction Company

#1 Market Street

Looking for a House to Buy

1295 Park Pacifica Drive

Remodeling the House at 1295 Park Pacifica Drive

The Pelican Liquor Store

Finishing Up Park Pacifica

A Problem with the Pacifica Area

Looking at a Different Area

Leaving Pacifica Going to Burlingame

255 Drake Street

A New Kitchen and Laundry Room

Living Room and Bedrooms

Bathroom

Front of House

Garage

Landscaping

New School at Our Lady of Angels

My Daughter Dawn Alicia

My Son, Sean David Levy

Williams and Burroughs Construction Company

Selling the Drake House and Moving to Adeline Drive

Newly Formed Partnership and Remodeling

Marianne Going to Work

Nel-Fit Construction Company

Carter Brothers Construction Company

Getting a State Contractor License

Prepared and Taking the Test

Dcl Construction Company

San Francisco Redevelopment Agency

San Francisco Building Department

San Francisco Building Department

The Tenderloin District

The Panhandle District

Buying Another Home in Burlingame

A New Program for Disabled Access

Commercial Tenant Improvement

Looking and Finding a Home in Sonoma

Moved to 275 Serres Drive in Sonoma

Remodeling of 275 Serres Drive

Difficulty in Selling Adeline House

The Loma Prieta Earthquake

Marianne and I Driving to San Francisco

Commercial Tenant Improvement Again

Marianne Hurt on her Job

We Loved Living in Sonoma

Easter Day at Serres Drive

Me Commuting on the Bus

A Final Trip to the Plan Check Division

Retirement Party at the Irish Cultural Center

The Real Retirement Times

Marianne and I Started Taking Vacations

A Special Group Cruise

Moving to 18118 Vassar Court

Marianne Diagnosed with Cancer

Marianne Margaret (Carson) Levy

A Wonderful Send Off

Moved to Cameron Park

Selling the Townhouse

Moving to Brookdale Senior Living

Modifying my Joints to Work

Living at Brookdale

A Final Thought

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

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To start this journey, I have to say that I was born on March 24, 1939, at Mary’s Help Hospital in San Francisco at 4:54 a.m. My mother was Alice V. MacDonald, born and raised in Eureka, California, on April 10, 1904, and my dad was Louis K. Levy, born and raised in San Francisco, California, on June 21, 1907. My mother went to school in Eureka and had an older sister named Helen. Later on in their lives they became semiprofessional dancers and performed on many stages throughout the country, especially in San Francisco. My dad graduated from Poly High School in San Francisco and went into clothing sales. He had three elder sisters, and they lived on Twenty-Sixth Avenue, also in San Francisco. While my dad was growing up, he got the idea to build a large boat in his parents’ garage. He spent a lot of time working on it, but when he finished the project and wanted to take it outside to launch it, he found that he couldn’t get it through the garage door. He tried everything, but eventually he had to destroy it.

My mother and father got married in May 1938 at the Grand Hotel in Reno, Nevada, and spent some time up there after the ceremony. When they returned to San Francisco, they moved into 245 Scott Street, a three-story apartment building that was owned by his parents. They wanted him to live there and take care of the building. After a while, my dad went to work for the city and county of San Francisco as a Muni bus driver and drove for them for over thirty-nine years. My mother was the real fireplug in my growth and development. She stayed at home after I was born and was a real caring mother. I always remember her being around to help me and show me new things. We would go all around on the city buses to look at the many interesting sites. We would drive out to my dad’s parents’ house at the Richmond District on Twenty-Sixth Avenue for Sunday dinners and have a good time. My dad’s father, my grandfather, was a Shakespearean actor for many years, and he would read plays he had performed in after dinner. My mother’s mom was not really liked by my father. I really never found out why, but she did move down to the city from Eureka to be close to us. She lived in an apartment on Fillmore Street, close to us, and we got to see her quite a bit without my dad knowing.

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During the summers the whole family would go up to the Russian River. My dad’s parents had a cabin at Forestville, and we always had a great time there. Some of his sisters would come up and stay for the weekends, and that would be a lot of fun. Almost every day we would get all our gear together, walk down the hill to the beach, and set up our area to picnic and go swimming. My dad even taught me to swim in the river. He just picked me up, walked down to the water, and threw me in. I quickly learned how to swim. To this day I’m still a very good swimmer, and I guess his lessons were all right because I learned.

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It always turned out to be a full afternoon because we always brought our food down and we would swim and eat all afternoon. Then when it started to cool down, we would pack up our gear and head back up the hill to the cabin. Later on, we would have a barbecue. One negative thing that I remember was one afternoon when I was chasing one of my cousins around the grounds. As I was chasing her up the back stairs, I slipped and went under the guardrail and fell about ten feet down and landed on my stomach on a water pipe. It really hurt and knocked the wind out of me, but after a few minutes I felt all right and we kept playing. All the parents who saw what happened were concerned, and eventually it did come up again later at UCSF when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. They thought it might have had some effect on my getting diabetes. Later on we talked to my doctor, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with it.

THE REAL START OF

MY JOURNEY

(A Real Adjustment to My Life)

My story began when I was in the third year of my life. At that time, I was getting many childhood diseases, such as measles and a mild case of mumps, which I recovered from very quickly.

PREDIAGNOSIS

(The Start of a Completely New Life)

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My mother was becoming more and more concerned about me. She felt that I wasn’t acting normal and looking well. I was continually wetting my bed, drinking a lot of water, and was unable to tell her what was wrong. My parents tried many different things to help me stop wetting the bed. They stopped giving me water a couple of hours before I went to bed, and then they would wake me up during the night and take me to the bathroom. Finally, they found a company that sold a mattress that sounded an alarm if any liquid touched it. Then they would get me up and take me to the bathroom. After a while they decided that this was only an aid and not a cure, and they stopped using it.

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My mother had been talking with a friend, and she had heard about a clinic at the University of California Hospital in San Francisco that treated children with all different types of health problems. She started calling the hospital and got the name of Dr. Mary B. Olney, who had been there for a few years and was very good with children. She called the next day and set up an appointment. On February 22, 1942, my mother and I got up, had some breakfast, walked down to the corner, caught the #6 Masonic Muni Bus, and headed for our appointment at the fifth-floor clinic at UC Hospital. After we got there, a receptionist came out and took us into another room, where a nurse asked us a lot more questions about me. Finally a woman in a white jacket came in and started talking to us. We surmised that this was Dr. Mary B. Olney. I really didn’t understand what was going on, but I tried. She asked us a whole lot of important questions, and when she was done, she told my mother that she wanted a complete workup done on me, including additional blood testing. She really didn’t mention the bed-wetting, but I did notice a troubled look on her face, which kind of scared me.

After all the tests that she wanted were completed, we went back to her office and waited for the results. Dr. Olney finally came back and told my mother that she had reviewed the tests but wanted some additional things done, and she wanted me to be admitted to the hospital for observation. Dr. Olney left, and a nice nurse came, took me to my hospital room, helped me change into a gown, and put me into the bed. I wasn’t a very happy camper, but my mother came in and sat with me until they started doing more tests on me. After they finished, they brought in some dinner, and my mom and I ate. We talked for a while, and then she left and went back to our house. She told me that she would be back early in the morning. It was a very long and lonesome night, but the nurses and staff tried to make me feel all right.

Early the next morning, more tests and more blood were drawn, and my mother was there bright and early, trying to find out what was going on. For the next four days, the routine was basically the same: up in the morning, urine and blood testing, and the nurses would take me with them on their rounds so I could get some exercise by walking all over the place. Dr. Olney would come in and talk to me every day, and she would ask me how I felt and what she thought. One day the routine changed a little bit. The nurses would wake me up and look at my urine and blood tests, but they started giving me a shot when my blood sugar was high. I later found out that the shot was insulin, and it was being used to keep my blood sugar in better control. Sometimes I would get another shot in the afternoon for the same reason. At that point in the game, I really didn’t care.

After about ten more days in the hospital, I saw my mother, Dr. Olney, and two other people talking, and I noticed that my mother was crying. I learned later that she was told I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. After that announcement, my mother’s attitude completely changed. She became very serious, and she started going through a lot of training about diabetes to learn about the proper way to deal with the problem. For the next few days, my mother was at the hospital early in the morning and stayed until late at night, trying to learn as much as she could. She told me that they were going to release me on March 10, 1943, and I got all of my stuff together and my mom and I left UC Hospital and headed back to our house on Scott Street to start a completely new life with diabetes.

ALICE VERONICA

(MACDONALD) LEVY

(My Mother and Caregiver)

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My mother completely took charge of my diabetes and never looked back. From the time I came home from UCSF Hospital, she was totally in charge of my diabetic control. From that time on she never let up, until I had grown up and moved out. She’s the total reason I am here today. She not only took over my care, but she also taught me to take responsibility and take care of myself. She went to the hospital clinic checkups with me to stay on top of any new procedures and got me to follow all of Dr. Olney’s guidelines for keeping good control. In order for me to come home from UC, my mother had to learn a lot about my diabetes and what she had to do each day. One of the most important tasks was to test my urine, mix my insulin, and give the shots. This skill was learned earlier at the hospital by mixing the dose in a syringe and injecting it into an orange over and over until you mastered it. My mother took this very seriously. It has to be noted that my mother was trying to learn what had to be done daily herself, but soon after she started teaching me what I needed to know and how to deal with it on a daily basis. At first I was too young to even think about what diabetes was even about, but slowly I started becoming more aware of what was happening or could happen to me if I didn’t pay attention. I knew that every morning I had to take my test after getting my insulin shot and eating some breakfast. I also learned that insulin came from the hooves of cattle and had to be kept in a refrigerator to keep it cool. I also started learning about how very important my insulin shots were in keeping my control each day. The foods that I ate each day and how much I ate were also very important (all that were consumed had to be weighed each day to conform to a predetermined diet). I also had to balance everything with the correct amounts of insulin. Finally, the amounts of exercise that I got during the day also had to be factored in. All this information was very confusing, and together with my mom’s explanations, would take a long time for me to learn.

Another thing that my mother had to deal with was that the syringes in those days were glass and had to be boiled with the needles each day to keep them sterile. There were two types of insulin at that time: regular, which only lasted