Sarah Howard
Sarah Howard (nee Tackett) has dedicated her career to supporting the T1D community ever since she was diagnosed with T1D while in college in May 2013. Since then, she has worked for various diabetes organizations, focusing on research, advocacy, and community-building efforts for people with T1D and their loved ones. Sarah is currently the Senior Manager of Marketing at T1D Exchange.
Sarah and her husband live in NYC with their cat Gracie. In her spare time, she enjoys doing comedy, taking dance classes, visiting art museums, and exploring different neighborhoods in NYC.
My pre-school age granddaughter uses Dexcom Follow, so we can track her BGs all the time. Most helpful.
My child attends a small private school w/o a nurse, so I manage most of his care from home (texting diabetes).He just finished fifth grade, so he is much more independent than when he started there at three. He has a robust 504 plan, but, that said, I do not make unrealistic requests of them. We could not feel more satisfied, and our son feels safe at school.
When I was a grade school age child with T1D the accommodations were:
(1) I could keep sugar cubes wrapped in tin foil at my desk
(2) each year my mom sent a bottle of Karo syrup with a tablespoon to be kept in the art supply closet in case I had an “insulin reaction”
(3) I could eat a snack of an apple or graham crackers at 10 o’clock recess
(4) the kind hearted teaching nuns who led us in saying prayers prayed for me and “all children afflicted with chronic diseases” every morning during the school year
It was 1962 to 1968 and life with diabetes was fairly primitive compared to how we live today. Perhaps those prayers worked in my favor because I am still here, quite lively and doing fairly well, after 60 plus years of living with T1D!
I do not have any school age children now, but when I did I was very pleased with the way our schools handled both my son’s T1D ! That was over 25 + years ago!