My warrior w/Addison’s Disease/ Type 1

In 1922, a group of scientists went to the Toronto General hospital where diabetic children were kept in wards, often 50 or more at a time. Most of them were comatose and dying from diabetic keto-acidosis. Others were being treated by being placed on an extremely strict diet, which inevitably led to starvation.

These children were essentially in their death beds, awaiting what was at that time, certain death. The scientists moved swiftly and proceeded to inject the children with a new purified extract of insulin.

As they began to inject the last comatose child, the first one to be injected began to wake up. Then one by one, all the children awoke from their diabetic comas. A room that was full of death and gloom, suddenly became a place of joy and hope.

In the early 1920s, Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin under John Macleod at the University of Toronto. With the help of James Collip, insulin was purified, making it available to successfully treat diabetes. Both Banting and Macleod earned Nobel Prizes for their work in 1923.

In the same year, Banting, Collip, and Best decided to sell the insulin patent to the University of Toronto for $1. Banting famously went on to say, “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.”

COPIE/SHARED: I have been a type 1 diabetic for 54 years. I was diagnosed when I was 8 years old. At that time my parents were told I wouldn't make it to see 40. Currently, I am 62 for a few months more. Yes, at times it has been a struggle but I'm like a cockroach - hard to kill.
I have written a memoir The Candy in My Pocket.
My story takes the reader on a roller coaster ride from the traumatic moment when as an 8-year-old I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, through numerous—sometimes death-defying—situations in the years to follow.
I have survived many of the most life-changing health issues that come with living with a disease that ravages every human body system, including blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, peripheral neuropathy, Charcot foot, cellulitis, osteomyelitis, amputation, pulmonary fibrosis, and a weakened immune system leading to various pneumonias and ultimately Covid 19 in early 2020 when the pandemic was most frightening.
I had the fantastic fortune, at a young age, to apprentice at a professional theater with the likes of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar. Encouragement from mentors such as these gave me the confidence to pursue dreams that would normally have been out of the reach for someone with my health situation.
After being kicked out of design school, my business partners had me arrested. When they engaged in a hostile take-over of our firm one would have thought my design career was over. I was 19. Twelve years later I was named the youngest expert to receive the Chicago Merchandise Mart’s “Outstanding Achievement in the Design Profession” award and continued to collect accolades during my 40-year career.
I have designed homes for celebrities, world leaders and other luminaries; vastly different from what was expected after going completely blind in my early twenties then regaining limited vision in one eye after countless surgeries. Some of my client’s include talk show host, writer, producer, and actor Steve Harvey; producer, director and actor John Cusack; Chicago Bulls general manager and NBA Hall of Famer Jerry Krause; and former Governor and First Lady of Lagos State (Nigeria) Mr. and Mrs. Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu (he is now running for President of Nigeria). My story also includes encounters with celebrities including Sean and Robyn Wright Penn, Jane Seymour, John Travolta, Timothy Hutton, Angelina Jolie, and Jesus.
This book is my way to raise awareness about the many complications of type 1 diabetes—a disease which takes the life of more than 4.2 million people worldwide each year. If you have type 1 diabetes or have a family member or friend who does, or you live with some other chronic, debilitating disease, I hope you will find inspiration from my successes despite my struggles.
The Candy in My Pocket is a testimony to the power of the human spirit to take risks and challenge yourself to do more than you thought possible. You can order your copy now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, the Book Depository, Walmart or over 40,000 retailers around the globe. Search the easy way "wiltgen".
If you enjoy the story, please tell your friends about it OR better yet, buy them a copy. And post it on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I need all the EXPOSURE I can get!
A portion of the profits resulting from the sale of this book will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Definitely

This is my page For my son and information to have it all In one place if you want to learn about these two diseases- Type 1 diabetes and Addison disease this is the place.