Sarah Howard
Sarah Howard has worked in the diabetes research field 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 Marketing Manager at T1D Exchange.
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If you (or your loved one) lived with T1D as a child, at what age did you start dosing insulin without help from an adult? Cancel reply
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In 1963 and 1964 I was 9 or 10 years old. Insulin dosing was pretty standard back then; one shot of NPH with breakfast and a shot of Regular or Lente with dinner. I had a lot of unpredictable hypoglycemia “insulin reactions” back then, especially before noon and during overnight sleep. The Internal Medicine MD took care of making insulin dose adjustments based on the pattern of the “insulin reactions” I was having. I did what he told me to do. Once I mastered drawing up insulin into the syringe and injecting myself, my mother stepped aside and only supervised for a day or two when the MD made a dosage change. However, from about age 12, I was pretty much on my own as far as giving myself injections based on what my diabetes MD told me to do.
I was diagnosed at 6 and I was 16 when I took over insulin dosing from my parents. I started trying when I was 11 but I was (and still am) terribly afraid of needles. I managed it when I was 11 and injected myself a few times over the course of a month but then my fear took hold again and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I continued to calculate my doses and draw up the insulin but couldn’t actually inject it myself. I kept freezing up. I missed out on a lot as a kid because of it. I couldn’t go anywhere without my parents or grandmother coming with me, so no 8th grade trip to Washington, for example. It took staying home while (almost) all my friends were competing in the annual high school drama guild festival sophomore year to finally push through my fear. To this day (I’m almost 35 now) I hesitate for a moment every time I need to take an injection or apply my Libre. And I don’t think I could inject my insulin at all without an Inject-ease. I have about 10 of them because I’m so worried mine will break and I won’t be able to replace it. And the only pump I’ve ever even considered using is the Omnipod because it’s automated, but the loud clicking it makes as it prepares to inject is torturous. I also can’t watch others take injections. I’m so grateful for the the Covid-19 vaccines, but the images on the news of people getting injected in the arm really need to stop.
if you are ever on pens ask for the auto sheild needles. you will never see the needle the entire time. Its worked great for all my needle phobic patients. most of the pump have inserters for their infusion sets as well.
Thanks, Kimberly! I have discussed that with my CDE, but I prefer the inject-ease for now. For some reason pushing a button to release a spring is much easier than inserting the needle myself, even if I can’t see it. I did try using a novolog pen about 12 years ago and got a spring-loaded assistive attachment for it (like the inject-ease but for pens) but the attachment made the pen so big that I could barely hold it! I remember telling my doctor I felt like I was using one of the hyposprays from Star Trek. I’m interested in trying the InPen, but it doesn’t seem like it comes with any assistive devices (yet) other than the i-port. Given I had such a bad reaction (redness, pain, swelling, etc) to the Omnipod, I’m not sure the i-port’s a great option for me.
I was diagnosed at age 11 (1993) I had to show that I could draw up and inject my own insulin before I could go home. My parents only did it every couple months so they didn’t forget how and I begged and plead for them not to do it… it always hurt when they did it.
I was DXd at 17 so that is when o started. No my mom did not do my insulin until I was 17.
Diagnosed at 15 in 1981 and always did on my own from that day forward.
Diagnosed at 4. I began giving my own shots at age 6.
Back in 1973 I was lucky number 13 when diagnosed with this wonderful dira disease known as T1D. I started dosing/injecting on my own at the same time. Fortunately for me at the time my older brother had been living with T1D for 6 years prior to my diagnoses, so that sure made things much easier for us all.
Diagnosed at 16 in 1978. Was admitted into hospital for 2 weeks where I was handed a beautiful ripe orange, saline solution and a syringe. Got to practice a few days under supervision until I spread my diabetic wings to start the lifelong journey 🙂
Similar to Jonathan Caplan, I was Dxed at 15 in 1964 but Dad was a LADA so I grew up watching him dose every morning.
This is for Britni and it may not help but I wanted to try: I had a root canal done in the 1990s by a dentist who didn’t believe in it or didn’t know how to do it without it being extremely painful. I was on Percocet and sobbing with the pain. I had to have another one later in life and was very frightened until my dentist explained he would not hurt me in that way. Whenever I am faced with something I think will be painful, I think of people who REALLY have to face pain: veterans, burn victims, amputees, and I tell myself that those people really have to endure pain. My pain is brief, has a start and a known end, and is nowhere near what those people are going through. It helps me to think in those terms. I pray it may help you.
Thanks for the advice, Patricia. The problem for me is that’s it’s never been about pain. It’s something about the needle itself. So thinking about other people having it worse won’t work because in my head there is literally nothing worse, even though the rational part of me knows that doesn’t make any sense. I’ve learned that I have to just not think about it and not thinking about something takes a lot of practice. For example, I have to meditate whenever I have blood drawn or I’ll get woozy. I was a veterinary technician for while and encountered a similar reaction to injecting the animals, too. Day one I was being trained to draw blood from rabbits’ ears and I almost fainted. The way I coped was a little like the memory palace technique. I had to sort of shove the part of my mind that’s scared of needles in a closet and lock the door. As long as I didn’t think too much about what I was doing I was fine. And I actually got to be pretty good at blood draws, but I have to be very careful when watching someone else do them. And the animals could always sense that I was nervous, no matter how many breathing exercises I did. For me in high school missing the drama festival was rock bottom. Drama club was my family and I had worked just as hard as everyone else on our competition piece. I wanted to be there so badly and was so depressed that they were all at the competition without me. So when I sat down to try injecting that night, like I had every other night that week, I was thinking about how sad I was instead of how scared I was and that did the trick.
I am LADA.
So am I.
Our son is technology savy, so when he got his first pump at age 14, he was on his own totally. I think the school nurse gave him the injections at school the year prior when he was diagnosed. Parents being both diabetic, gave him injections at first but he was 13 and ready to be independent.
So glad there was a response “Not diagnosed as a child, ” and I notice the largest percentage chose that response: 31%. This is important.
I started giving my own injections in the hospital at age 10 when I was diagnosed.
Ok you might consider this as a nit. However, the question is written in past tense. I think that implies the person’s life is also in past tense meaning they are no longer living. I’m likely wrong however it’s something to consider.
My diabetes onset was at age 14, and I never had an adult administer the doses.
What exactly is “dosing”? I gave myself shots at 9, when I was diagnosed. I started adjusting the amount that I took when I was about 13. This was in the early 60’s.
He’s 8 and not yet doing it alone — diagnosed 20 months ago
certainly can’t remember that far back, goodness, almost 70 yrs
Sutprised to see 32% not diagnosed as a child. Thought I was among the very few diagnosed as an adult at age 45.
I was diagnosed at 11 y/o in Jan. 1982, I started doing my own injections a few months later.
12
I was diagnosed at 12 and took full control. My parents rarely injected me. The doctor helped me out for about two weeks and then it was all me.
From dx. at 8 until I was 11 and proved I could draw the correct dose from the vial, my mother wouldn’t let me try. After I proved to her satisfaction that I was able to do it I was allowed to inject my daily dose of U-40 beef/pork Regular into my upper thigh. Her over the shoulder supervision of my diabetes management continued for decades.
I was diagnosed at 14. Dosing was Nph and regular twice daily. Not too difficult.
From the very start. The nurse handed me the syringe, told me what to do and that was it.
I was ABLE to give my injections (which at the time were 1 a day) at age 9, but if my Mom was there, I preferred she give them! My dad had promised me a new bike after I gave my injections for 2 weeks, so I did what I HAD to do!! : ) Also, at the time, home blood testing was not available (only urine testing), and we did not adjust the dosage.
From the time I was diagnosed (at 16) I have been responsible for my own injections and monitoring (so long ago now that it was shortly after I was diagnosed that the first ‘at home’ blood testing equipment became available (so archaic compared to what is available today!)).
I’m not sure exactly what age I started doing my own dosing, but it was probably when I switched from Novolin N and R (stayed the same unless I had a high for 3 days at the same time of day or a low for 2 days at the same time of day) to Novolin N and Humalog in my teen years. Humalog was on a sliding scale at meal times depending on my BG. My doctor gave me a chart to follow. Then I was allowed to adjust according to “big” vs “small” meals. I didn’t start carb counting until I was 20.
Diagnosed in clinic at age 12 in ‘62. Gave me the black plastic kit with glass syringe, bottle of NPH and vial of alcohol with cotton balls. Doc showed me how to do it and I did. Twice a day. Zip zop, that was it. My dad was t1d, so the family ate pretty much diabetic type diet. Sort of.
I was diagnosed when I was 15. I never had any help (other than my weekly doctor visits) with dosing.
I was diagnosed at 5 and tasked with doing my own shots from the get go. BUT, those were the days of no bs meters and when insulin doses didn’t change.
I was diagnosed in 1961 just around my 12th birthday. I was initially hospitalized for a week or two where the nurse showed me how to give injections using an orange and Celine solution. After a day or two of this they had me start giving my own injections. I always did my own injections except for having my parents do sites that I could not reach in order to rotate. I got severe atrophy of the tops of my thighs which was the only place they told me to inject at the time. It was only later that they started having me use my abdomen so my parents would inject in my back so that my thighs could rest and try to regenerate normal tissue. Eventually the tissue did return to normal. Initially I was only taking one injection a day of NPH insulin. This obviously did not do very good at controlling my diabetes. After the first year my parents sought out a diabetes clinic in Portland Oregon which was three hours from where we lived and they started me on NPH and regular twice a day. At that time we were not allowed to change our own insulin doses without checking with the doctor and later on by using a sliding scale. During times of illness we had directions to stop and PH insulin and take regular insulin on a sliding scale every four hours. Of course at this time the sliding scale did not involve blood sugar testing because that did not become available until around 1981. All we had to go on was urine test and hypoglycemia episodes to guide for dosage. I know many of you can relate to these good old times and we are all blessed to still be alive and pretty healthy.
I started with my first shot, parents never did. I remember practicing on an orange
I don’t recall this was something we officially did before the onset of home blood testing- (for me at age 29). However in my 20’s I did mess with my insulin all the time, including changing types and guessing at a correct does by looking in the medical library at the different graphs for release times. Wild days. (No Rx needed then, where I lived.) Only once did I end up in the hospital and when the ICU resident said, “who put you on PZI ????” I said, ummm, I did that myself. Fortunately he had a sense of humor. (Not his Attending, though, who was extremely nasty to me. “You are going to die young!!!!”) Ha ha, I’m 70 now. but of course I did straighten up not too long after that.
OH I thought this meant adjusting my own doses. I started giving my own shots on day 2, age 11. Sorry to goof up the answers graph, if I misunderstood.