How many shots in your lifetime?

[Jackets]

Estimating that I've taken about 4 shots a day since being diagnosed, I've taken about 17,520 shots, not including this year (I don't use the pump). Pretty interesting to sit back and look at that number.

How about you?

[gettingby]

I finally gave up trying to figure it out.
I was on 2 shots a day for approximately 12 or so years and 4+ a day over the remaining years. I've been diabetic for 22 years !!!!!!!

[lilituc]

I've been on insulin almost four months and so far I've taken almost 750.

[poodlebone]

Well, the first 10 1/2 years or so I was on 2 shots a day. There were days when I missed one of those shots but I was usually pretty good about taking them. I then went to 3 shots a day (adding a shot of Regular to my R/N and N shots) and then started Humalog doing MDI. Some days I'd take 5 shots, 3 Humalog and 2 NPH, and other days I could take 7 or 8. I then switched to Lantus instead of NPH and still took however many shots I needed - 2 Lantus (morning/night) and Humalog to cover meals, snacks and highs.

I like inserting one infusion set every 3 days so much more!

[lgvincent]

I was on one injection a day from 1968 to 1976, two a day from 1976 to 1996, and four a day since then, so I have no idea. I'd have to say . . . at least 10, and probably more.

[Funnygrl]

I only did 2.5 months of mdi, but I averaged more like 6 shots a day during that time, so maybe 150 shots. Yeah, pretty pathetic, I know.

[BriOnH]

oh man.

2-8 was 1 shot a day. 6*365 (not including leap years) = 2190.
8-13 was 2 shots a day. 5*2*365 = 3650
13-19 was 4 shots a day. 6*4*365 = 8760
19-32 average of 5 a day. 13*5*365 = 23725

38,325 injenctions.

[BriOnH]

I was on one injection a day from 1968 to 1976, two a day from 1976 to 1996, and four a day since then, so I have no idea. I'd have to say . . . at least 10, and probably more.

LOL :). I think 10 is a high estimate ;)

[Cyborg]

I was up to 50 a week before the pump. Not fun... :nurse:

[Dobson]

I gave myself around 3,000 before I went on the pump.

[aeromarv]

Lets see.....

Roughly 13,214 injections

-and-

Roughly 22,148 finger sticks

That doesn't include extras, just my normal routine. I was dxd in Nov 1991 and did two shots of R and NPH a day until roughly January 2004. Then I went to 2 shots a day of 70/30 mix until 2005. Now I'm on at least 3-4 shots of novolog a day and one more of Lantus. Soon to be on the pump though. Less than a Week!

[Tricia452008]

my calculations say roughly around 32,000 shots.....and i too was not counting all the extra shots i do!!!

[ProudNanaof5]

Well, it's amazing that since June I have had roughly 1200 injections. And I can't even count the finger sticks..... WHEWWWWWWWWWWW

[grace girl]

Well, all the wasted years on the mix I only took 2 shots a day, and now since May I'm at anywhere from 4 to 6 shots a day...so my rough estimate is around 4000. Mind boggling.

[RWIII]

1956 to 1979 1 shot a day NPH 1980 to 1987 3 shots a day 1988 to 2005 4 shots a day late 2005 to present Paradigm pump 712. And remembering back the shots I took as a kid using the old glass syringes and the old needle which felt like pencile leads going in most time,was very painful I do thank the advance of modern medicne.:)

[BriOnH]

1956 to 1979 1 shot a day NPH 1980 to 1987 3 shots a day 1988 to 2005 4 shots a day late 2005 to present Paradigm pump 712. And remembering back the shots I took as a kid using the old glass syringes and the old needle which felt like pencile leads going in most time,was very painful I do thank the advance of modern medicne.:)

RW, always a please to meet long timers of diabetes. May I ask how your health is? You have 20 years on me :).

[spike]

Estimating that I've taken about 4 shots a day since being diagnosed, I've taken about 17,520 shots, not including this year (I don't use the pump). Pretty interesting to sit back and look at that number.

How about you?

I've done over 20,000 shots.

[mark-TN]

Best estimate about 39,000. Man that's a lot of pokes...

Mark

[Jenn L]

I estimate 20,280 needle sticks between syringes and then a pump, but you might as well add up the finger sticks as well, which puts me at 56,280 needles of some type after 20 years. I can't imagime the numbers for you long timers.This made me realise that I don't really think of it as a needle anymore, just part of what I do.

[Lisa971]

~23,530 (not including the few given by the nurse)

I came straight home from the hospital after dx at age 9 and started my own injections -and have been accumulating them since.
Hopefully only <300 more to go with the syringes before I start the pump!

[Lisa971]

By the way, I would cry cry cry cry cry I get emotional) when I actually can go 2-3 days without a needle penetrating my skin, making it oh so sore and bruised and knotted up! I wouldn't know how to act without MDI, besides relieved.

[palefacegirl03]

Since that first day in 1990, it will be 16 years tommorow. I figure over 25,000 shots. :nurse: There are some days I feel like a pin cushion,LOL

[gettingby]

Best guess estimate would be over 30,000 !!!!!!!
Did anyone else think after diagnosis about all of those holes you are putting in your body? Between injections and finger pricks, that's a lotta holes. I have a friend who was diagnosed at a young age and she admitted that she worried about all of the insulin and bodily fluids coming out of all of those holes she put in her body. I was LMAO at that.

[Jackets]

hehe yeah, with numbers like these, it'd be easy to imagine injection sites being way more torn up than they actually get. The human body is pretty amazing.

[Tc99]

Oh man i am a newbie compared to you all, so 1 year at average 4 shots a day plus 1 Lantus, WOW thats nothing. You guys are pretty **** brave i gotta say

[Mick]

After 41 years--35 on 2 shots a day, and 6 on MDI, it's somewhere over 36,000 but less than 40,000, I'd have to guess!

Michael

[Mich]

I'd guess around 75,000, but probably more. Not counting fingersticks and blood drawn for various blood glucose testing methods.

I discovered MDI at about 16, but of course couldn't tell my Dr or my mom as it was TABU in those days for a diabetic (particularly a "teenager") to be in charge of their own treatment and MDI was not accepted treatment. All I knew is that I felt a lot healthier doing it. By then we had the disposable needles for our glass syringes and I had to reuse the needles so my mom wouldn't notice me injecting more than once a day. When I moved out, I began MDI in earnest, doing 5 or 6 injections per day or more. I LOVED it when humalog came out!

Yeah. We're strong folks, aren't we? M:beer:

[BriOnH]

I'd guess around 75,000, but probably more. Not counting fingersticks and blood drawn for various blood glucose testing methods.

I discovered MDI at about 16, but of course couldn't tell my Dr or my mom as it was TABU in those days for a diabetic (particularly a "teenager") to be in charge of their own treatment and MDI was not accepted treatment. All I knew is that I felt a lot healthier doing it. By then we had the disposable needles for our glass syringes and I had to reuse the needles so my mom wouldn't notice me injecting more than once a day. When I moved out, I began MDI in earnest, doing 5 or 6 injections per day or more. I LOVED it when humalog came out!

Yeah. We're strong folks, aren't we? M:beer:

What insulin did you begin MDI on? Werent the action profiles of the early insulins 12+ hours?

[Scratch]

R insulin was one of the first insulins and lasted 6 hours.

The History of Insulin (http://www.caerlas.demon.co.uk/insulin.htm)

[Mich]

Hi Brion,

I started out on mixed NPH and Regular Beef and Pork Iletin. About three years into it, I discovered I could take regular when I had eaten certain things that make me feel icky...uh...that would be high in pre-meter days, but you know that.

I took the NPH, which had a 36 hr duration with a peak at 8 hrs once a day in the morning, the added regular took care of breakfast. In those days I wasn't about to take more injections than I had to or common sense would have told me to somehow split up the dose. At the time, the peak came about an hour or two before dinner. How convenient.

Regular had a profile that began in about 1/2 hour and finished up (supposedly) in about 6 hours. My main objective at the time was just to compensate for that 50-50 bar I had at lunchtime. Later I noticed that it was the carbs ("bread exchanges") that seemed to affect me most and I began to compensate for them a bit too. It was a trial and error thing.

[sydneya]

I've been doing insulin for 15 years. All's I know is that insulin has saved my life and I will use it however I have to. But I don't want to do the multiplication. I am doing 4 fast acting and 1 Lantus now. I hope to change to Symelin one of these days. But that is still a needle. Figuring how many is depressing to me, even if it has saved my life.

[BriOnH]

Hi Brion,

I started out on mixed NPH and Regular Beef and Pork Iletin. About three years into it, I discovered I could take regular when I had eaten certain things that make me feel icky...uh...that would be high in pre-meter days, but you know that.

I took the NPH, which had a 36 hr duration with a peak at 8 hrs once a day in the morning, the added regular took care of breakfast. In those days I wasn't about to take more injections than I had to or common sense would have told me to somehow split up the dose. At the time, the peak came about an hour or two before dinner. How convenient.

Regular had a profile that began in about 1/2 hour and finished up (supposedly) in about 6 hours. My main objective at the time was just to compensate for that 50-50 bar I had at lunchtime. Later I noticed that it was the carbs ("bread exchanges") that seemed to affect me most and I began to compensate for them a bit too. It was a trial and error thing.

Wow! That is wild Mich. Did this ever cause you bad hypos? "Exchanges" - it's amazing how far we have come. I have a book at my parents house that explains the exchanges and how 8 oz of juice is better then 8 oz of coke(though today that doesn't make as much sense). They had to raise me on it. They did a great job given the tools of the time. I did not know R was the first insulin!

[Mich]

I've only had two bad hypos in my life. Even after all of these years, I can still feel one coming, even in the middle of the night, when it wakes me up. I've found that if I think I'm low, I usually am. I confirm by a test if I think I have time.

The first bad hypo was just after DX. I was DX'd in the Doctor's office with a blood sugar of 1200. (My mom still has the calendar of my first year where she recorded everything.) He had her go to the drugstore with two prescriptions for insulin, glass syringes, BD reusable needles and a clinitest kit for urine testing. He injected me (I felt to cruddy and sleepy to care) and sent us home. First he explained to my mom how to give me injections and gave her the ADA exchange pamphlet. Poor thing. Not much training or explanation. I have a special place in my heart for parents of diabetic children because of what I saw my mom dealing with.

The Doc evidently overestimated how much regular I should take, because I had a hypo the very next day. I was out of it and my parents took me to the hospital where we learned the part about what to do for insulin reactions. I stayed for a few days getting used to my insulin routine and learning that I couldn't eat anything I liked ever again. :frown: Waa waa waa. (As we all know, this part turned out not to be true.)

My second big hypo was my own fault. It was when they released Humalog and I read the enclosure, but didn't take them seriously for how quickly it worked. I felt it coming on and thought I would have my usual ten minutes or so to treat it. Surprise!! I barely got that one treated myself, but I did. I afford Humalog and Novalog a lot of respect now when I feel myself getting low.

[belyro]

Over 37,000.

Wow. I'm surprised I don't leak like a sieve when I drink a glass of water. :eek:

[spike]

Over 37,000.

Wow. I'm surprised I don't leak like a sieve when I drink a glass of water. :eek:

LOL. ON a related note, the other day when squeezing my fingertip to get a drop of blood for a bg test, 6 distinct droplets appeared! I guess that's to be expected, since I check on average, 18x a day.

[CycloneKitty]

Im guessing about 35,000 to 40,000. That was with the calculator too. Wow - that can't be right ... I want a refund!!! I want to give the diabetes back!!! Anyone know where I can take the D to for a good home?

[BriOnH]

How are people that have had diabetes almost a decade less than I coming up with calculations with more injections then I have? I think some fuzzy math is going on here. And I am a sore looser :). (YES its a competition!!!!!!)

[sofaraway]

about 450 i think,

4 injections a day since beginning of july,

i must be coming almost last

[momof6]

oh man.

2-8 was 1 shot a day. 6*365 (not including leap years) = 2190.
8-13 was 2 shots a day. 5*2*365 = 3650
13-19 was 4 shots a day. 6*4*365 = 8760
19-32 average of 5 a day. 13*5*365 = 23725

38,325 injenctions.

Wow, how'd you only make out with one shot a day from age 2-8. Were your parents really diet strict? Id like to know the secret LOL.

[BriOnH]

Wow, how'd you only make out with one shot a day from age 2-8. Were your parents really diet strict? Id like to know the secret LOL.


Ya know my mom was very strict and she wasn't. I think a lot of it was I had a super long honeymoon. We would never have any sugar cereals or much candy in the house. The candy was hidden, but us kids always could find it. When looking back on it it wasn't strict though in the sense that I couldn't eat much. I just had a very healthy intake of food. She used to bake awesome cookies but was only allowed 4 - that she knew of :) . My mom did an AWESOME job. God bless her.

[gettingby]

I think my mom still has the ADA Exchange list that the doctor gave her for me in 1984. LOL.

[CycloneKitty]

I think my mom still has the ADA Exchange list that the doctor gave her for me in 1984. LOL.

When i was dx it was the portion list (10g), then they thought exchanges were more convenient as a serve (15g). And now it seems to be eat what u like and the GI ... oh - now thats confusing. I have always really had what i like - but do a mental guess of the ... ummm ... dare i say it - how many exchanges i will have at each meal. Ok - Im old school:egg:

[andypoo]

I started out taking 1 inj. a day til around 1977 when I started about 2,then progressed to 3 at present. i am going to start taking symlin after nov. 16th.It's supposed to cut my insulin intake.It's funny,though,how I'm kind of nervous about starting new ways.Once I was going to go to the pump,but backed out.I got freaked out about it. Then,I was going to go to lantus,backed out of that,too. So I'm still on humulin nph and reg. I guess I'm waiting for a cure,but I know that's not the way to think. I should be more adventurous,huh!?