The photo on the left was taken in March of 1972. The one the right; 2012. One on the way to Hawaii for the very first time (I was there for two years; 1972 - 74), the other while visiting in 2011.
Not long after the first photo, I married Joyce ...who took the second photo last fall.
At the age of 11, Joyce was told that she had Type One Diabetes; the worst one. At that young age, she was told she might not live past the age of 30. She was the wildest woman I'd every met, when I first met her in the fall of 1969, as an 18 year old, soon after my return from Viet Nam. She figured she might as well go all out, since she wasn't going to make it anyway. Whew!
After the birth of our only child, she began to focus on staying alive.....
Joyce was at the forefront of many medical and pharmaceutical developments that gave her the ability to continue to live a happy life. The early days of diabetes was much more difficult to manage than now; with the intricate measuring devices today that can tell instantly when the blood sugar is going up or down.
She was the recipient of a Kidney/Pancreas transplant in 1991; the 26th ever at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
We have met another hurdle in the last few weeks....just today; it was confirmed that she has some kind of mass at the base of her skull and in the upper lobe of her left lung....maybe in her vertebrae also. Next steps are a CT Scan of the chest and a biopsy.
Life is full of challenges.
May your challenges be met with a solid defense and an active offense!
