Living with type 1 diabetes can be a daily grind that sometimes can turn into a real health-care adventure.

Which describes the past 63 years for Joseph L. Lafferty -- surely one of the region's longest living people with type 1.

Mr. Lafferty, 84, defers credit for longevity to his late wife, Patricia Ann Shaughnessy Lafferty, who put him on track 57 years ago to keep his blood sugar under reasonable control.

Since her death in 2001, he said, his children -- and particularly his son Tim, 51, with whom he lives in Brookline -- have helped him keep control of his blood sugar and provide assistance when it isn't.

"I've lived seven years past the normal life span," he said. "That's an accomplishment for me."

The former mail carrier said daily exercise, attention to diet and help from doctors and family have allowed him to survive diabetes since 1944.

Temptations are many, including all the unhealthy food available nowadays. Getting good health care also is a challenge for anyone needing information or advice about diabetes.

"Doctors today have too many patients and don't have the time to take care of the individual," he said. "Everyone is a personality and you have to treat the personality."

There are diabetes education classes available, but people with diabetes need someone to push them to attend and even accompany them to the classes, he said.

As a child, Mr. Lafferty lived in Springdale. His mother, Anna Demharter Lafferty, died Dec. 31, 1931, when he was only 8.

In 1945, while in the Navy in San Francisco, where he demagnetized ships, the 6-foot, 220-pound man lost 55 pounds in six weeks and was diagnosed with type 1, which occurs when an autoimmune response damages insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin is the hormone that allows glucose to enter cells. Without sufficient insulin, blood glucose builds up in the blood to dangerous and eventually deadly levels.

When discharged, he received two vials of insulin, two glass syringes and three stainless steel needles for the three-day train trip home. He was told not to eat sweets or fried foods and boil the needles and syringes before using them.

Prior to the 1980s, testing one's blood sugar could not be done at home. The only way to monitor general sugar levels involved putting urine in a test tube and dissolving a special tablet in it that changed colors depending on sugar levels.

Mr. Lafferty faced many diabetes-related problems.

"For the first six years I was an irresponsible jerk," he said, noting he lived by himself and had little knowledge about controlling his diabetes or understanding the consequences of poor control.

"I drank and worked and took insulin," he said. "I would eat but not the best food."

His wife-to-be rescued him. And once they were married, Mrs. Lafferty cooked healthy food and eliminated ice cream, pie, cake and cookies from the menu. She also remembered precisely what the doctor advised.

In the early 1950s, she convinced her husband to attend a Veterans Administration class on diabetes, where he learned how to achieve better control.

In time, Mr. Lafferty landed a post-office job as a mail carrier -- a job that provided him years of exercise that helped him keep better control of blood sugar.

But he encountered many bumps in his road to long life.

Mr. Lafferty said he's suffered from serious low blood sugar, known as hypoglycemia, "a hundred times," many of them while delivering mail. People along his route would give him sugar when he was low. Even a dairy-truck driver would give him a carton of chocolate milk when he saw Mr. Lafferty wobbling or disoriented on the sidewalk. With low blood sugar resembling inebriation, police once stopped him on suspicion of public drunkenness.

In later years, he crashed his car into a door, then backed into a tree during an episode of low blood sugar. After crashing his car into a vehicle driven by a nun, he quit driving.

"Many, many times I've been caught unexpected with low blood sugar," he said.

Long retired, Mr. Lafferty still suffers episodes of low blood sugar. His son Tim sometimes must come home from work if Mr. Lafferty doesn't answer the phone and use an injectable supply of glucose to bring his father out of insulin shock.

He's suffered from diabetes complications that include capillary damage in the retina, which required laser treatments to prevent blindness. He also has glaucoma, numbness of the legs and feet and received angioplasty and a stent to correct heart problems.

On insulin now for 63 years, Mr. Lafferty maintains an HgA1c reading, or a long-term blood-sugar average, at 5.8 -- the upper end of the normal range of 4 to 6. Most doctors recommend 7 or lower. He also tries to keep his daily blood-sugar readings between 100 and 120, with a normal range of 70 to 100.

Mr. Lafferty also survived health problems unrelated to diabetes, including colon problems and cancer requiring chemotherapy.

His longevity is notable. Since 1970, Joslin has presented 2,632 50-year medals nationwide, according to its Web site, www.joslin.org, and since 1996 has awarded only 23 people nationwide with 75-year medals.

"I credit my wife for my living as long as I have," he said, also acknowledging his son's assistance. "I couldn't pay $5,000 a month and get the care he's given me."