When I was diagnosed with Type 1 back in 1989 (21 years ago) I was told there would be a cure in 5 years. I'm still waiting. ;) Recently at a support group we all realized that no matter what year we were diagnosed, every one of our doctors had told us there would be a cure in 5 years. (It's become a running joke now in the group.)
What did your doctor tell you?
hahahahahahahahaha...he told me, once there is a cure, it will take 7 years for the general public to have access to it...soooooooooooooo, we got a bit, but thats ok
I am going on almost 12 years of beiong a diabetic but i dont really rember what i was told 12 years ago.
I was diagnosed in 1965. I was told that the cure was already discovered (an articial pancreas) but that it was really big and had to be made smaller. It would take (you guessed it) five years!
I was told the same thing in 1993. Every checkup my dad would ask if they were close to a cure, but that probably stopped a decade later when there still wasn't. I don't have my hopes up too high, it just seems like it would be too good to be true!
I've had diabetes for 67 years, so you can guess how long I've been hearing the "cure in 5 years" line. Sorry to be throwing cold water on your hopes, but it really is a complicated problem for the researchers, and I know it's getting a lot of attention.
Tom
my mom and i were always told "they are so close, in 5 or 10 years we'll have a cure" but i stopped believing it when I became a teenager. haha. my mom still holds hope.
i can't really blame them for saying it, i mean..i dont believe it, but some people need to hear that. for those of us who've grown up with diabetes, it's not such a big deal after a while(at least for me)..but for those recently diagnosed whether young or old..it's scary. i think they do it to try and keep people's spirits up that one day all we have to do now will have been worth it.
either way, i stopped listening a long time ago.
@timr25 I don't expect to see a cure in my lifetime (and I plan on living a long time). And that is O.K. with me. :)
@Jaimie Rose Chaffin Congratulations on the 12 years! I remember every little detail about my diagnosis, but then I was an impressionable 14 year old. :)
@Barbara S Ha! I wonder if they were talking about the pump? I bow to you and your 45 years of diabetes, well done. :)
@Kelly Jones Your poor Dad. Feeling so helpless. :( I'm not sure what I would do with myself if there was a cure.
@Tom First off, hooray for you and your 67 years (and thanks for being here, I really think it is important to see that Type 1 effect all ages and stages). Secondly, I have no hope for a cure, and I'm fine with that. I just think it is funny that the doctor's always say 5 years.
@Batts I don't remember if hearing the "cure in 5 years" actually helped myself or my parents. I get the feeling it actually made it worse. Sort of like, "This is the most horrible thing ever to happen, but don't worry it will be over in 5 years."
I was just told that there is a cure in the near future....researchers are very close to finding a cure. That was 25 years ago............
ha, funny. my doctor's were always the opposite. i was diagnosed in '89 too. they were always the doomsayers "you can't do this, this, or this. don't plan on ever having kids. and you'll probably die of complications before 40."
now, i was a very sick kid. always in and out of the hospital. so, of course, for a long time i just believed them. then i just kind of thought, my health is in my own hands. i don't HAVE to live up to their very low expectations. so now i've done a pretty good job at showing them i can do whatever i damn well please despite having diabetes :o)
I have never heard the "5" year thing. I've always heard the "10" year thing. I guess that's progress. My friend was diagnosed in 1956 and her Mom was told there would be a cure in 10 years. I was dxd in 1966 and my Mom was told the same thing. Another friend was told in about 1977 that she would see a cure in about.....you guessed it.....10 years. And then in 2000 they the major breakthrough with the Edmonton Protocol and islet cell transplants. They predicted that within about 5 or 10 years this would be available to most T1s. Well, about 3 years ago the Edmonton center stopped taking new patients (although they continue to follow existing ones).
In my opinion, anything predicted for further out than a couple of years is basically just wishful thinking. They've been saying "just around the corner" for over half a century.
Cora
5-7 years, if not I’d be dead before I was 40.
That was 1977 (hats off to Tom, btw, I am thankful that at least I didn’t have to sharpen my own needles)
But you’ve caught me in a mood, and I'm sorry but the rest of this is long.
I spent all day in a design meeting for a new vaccine facility to be built in NC. I am working on another one in Va. I am flying to San Diego tomorrow AM for a meeting on a 3rd facility in Colorado. It’s very easy for me to see why doctors would say 7 years, and then shorten it to 5 years, etc. They as a group would have absolutely no idea how hard it is to manufacture medicines in general, and specifically how hard it is to make vaccines.
Even if you had a genius actual product, perfect in every way, today, right now, it would take 3 more years for the safety data to be gathered and evaluated, there’s no guarantee that the FDA would allow you to make it, and it would take (back in the day) 4 more years to build and license a facility to make it. 7 years
The best of the best people found improvements in the data evaluations and construction methods most notably to take the best-of-the best products and actually start building the factories BEFORE actual approval… the benchmark most often referred to today is 5 years. 5 years… and with significant risk.
The folks I worked with today shortened that facility build-license-produce time. We can take that same genius idea, once the data is evaluated and the “go ahead” is granted, and start to make stuff in 2 years. So if it’s any consolation to anyone… they’ll be telling the new T1’s that the cure is a mere 3 years away limited only by safety and Phase II and III clinical trial evaluations. 3 years – best (and final so far) for 2010 and it’s only because of the lubrication of blood and tears from the engineering and construction groups and people who will never ever be remembered for their effort to do something positive, and to stop complaining, and if they are unsatisfied with something to go and do something about it.
I have three boys that are type 1. With the first two, I was told in 10 years...by the time the third came around I warned the nurse not to say it, or they would have a "situation" on their hands!
I was diagnosed when I was 4, in 1998, and I'm pretty sure something about a cure when I was a teenager was mentioned. Ha. If they come up with a cure anytime in my lifetime I will be extremely pleased.
Bless you... just joined today and loved your post. Stay Healthy and keep smiling that awesome smile :)
I was dx'ed in 1982 and told "There will be a cure in your lifetime." I hope to live a long time, and hopefully that will be true! But, I agree that's it's very frustrating to hear year after year about potential cure and then ... nothing. I've tried to stop getting my hopes up for that reason.
I was diagnosed in 1980, I think. I was told by the time I was a teenager, then I was a teenager. Then it was by the time I was 21, then I was 21. Then it was by your 30th birthday, then came my 30th birthday. I am almost 40 now and still waiting :) I really don't have anyone else around me, besides my 5 year old daughter, that has T1 so it is always a joke in my head. My parents always tell my daughter that there will be a cure by the time she is a teenager and I always chuckle on the inside. I see how much things have improved in the last 30 years and am grateful for that, but a cure would be great wouldn't it?
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@Batts I don't remember if hearing the "cure in 5 years" actually helped myself or my parents. I get the feeling it actually made it worse. Sort of like, "This is the most horrible thing ever to happen, but don't worry it will be over in 5 years."
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a lot of people need to have hope that diabetes, which to them being newly diagnosed is horrible, might not be something to deal with their whole life. i'm sure for other illnesses, doctors say the same thing. it's false hope for the most part, but sometimes people need to hear it. and i honestly believe that some doctors think it's true, with a lot of the "advantages" that seem promising. it's not their fault they don't work out.
i think hearing that there's even a chance there will be a cure is comforting to some people. i would imagine "there will never be a cure in your lifetime" is something that would have the opposite effect on a newly diagnosed person or the parent of a newly diagnosed child. what would stop most of those people from deciding not to take care of themselves? if they don't believe or have hope there will be a cure, don't you think they'd wonder what the point of trying to stay in control, trying to avoid complications and dealing with the stress would be?
Maybe the cure has already been developed, but they just couldn't make as much money off of us as they can by simply "managing" the disease!
My daughter was diagnosed in August of this year and they told us within 10 years. That made me feel better until I realized that they have been telling people that for years and years. Hopefully atleast we will have some amazing technology that will make it easier. :)