#1186 Hey Jude

Mary Kate's pregnancy was completely normal, until it wasnt. 

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 1186 of the Juicebox Podcast.

When Mary Kate was 23 years old she was pregnant experienced a kinked cannula. That cannula put her into DKA and it caused her to go into labor early, almost killing her and her unborn son. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com. All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout that's juice box at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com. If you have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone with type one, and you'd like to help with T one D research right from your home, you can by going to T one d exchange.org/juicebox and completing the survey. That's it. It'll take you about 10 minutes. You can do it from wherever you're sitting right now on your laptop, your phone, tablet doesn't matter. T one D exchange.org/juicebox need to be a US resident who has type one, or is the caregiver of one. And just like that you're helping

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by touched by type one touched by type one.org and find them on Facebook and Instagram touched by type one is an organization dedicated to helping people living with type one diabetes. And they have so many different programs that are doing just that check them out at touched by type one.org. Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G seven and G six continuous glucose monitoring systems. dexcom.com/juicebox Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's bringing people together to redefine what it means to live with diabetes. Later in this episode, I'll be speaking with Jalen, he was diagnosed with type one diabetes at 14. He's 29. Now he's going to tell you a little bit about his story. And then later at the end of this episode, you can hear my entire conversation with Jalen to hear more stories with Medtronic champions. Go to Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox or search the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform.

Mary Kate 2:43
My name is Mary Kate. I've had diabetes since I was 12, which means about 13 years, and I had my first baby in November of last year of 2022. And it was kind of a disaster because of diabetes. So that's why I'm here. Yeah,

Scott Benner 3:06
you're here to tell your baby making disaster. Yep. It wasn't going poorly for a while, right? No,

Speaker 1 3:13
it was like, perfect. Perfect until the day he was born. Literally.

Scott Benner 3:20
We'll get to that first Medicaid. Let's figure out a little more about you. So you're 25 years old?

Unknown Speaker 3:26
Yeah, my birthday is coming up. 24. Now, but yeah.

Scott Benner 3:30
This is my favorite part of what it happens. Like when people are like, Well, no. In a month, I'm going to bed I'm like, Oh, God, nobody cares. So you're diagnosed 12 years old? Was that? Puberty or pre puberty? Or right as it was happening? Right as

Unknown Speaker 3:50
it was happening? Yeah. A

Scott Benner 3:51
mitzvah? Yes. Yeah. Any diabetes in the family? Other autoimmune in the family? No, nothing. Nothing to say you were surprised that diagnosis would be fair. Ah,

Speaker 1 4:06
yeah. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I had been feeling poorly for a while. So it wasn't surprised that something was wrong with me. But you know, being like, just a little girl. All you think about diabetes is you know, that commercial of the guy saying diabeetus so definitely had no idea what was coming for me. Yeah,

Scott Benner 4:25
well, for Burnley people have forgotten his name. It's okay. There you go. Yeah. So that you know, you weren't feeling well for a while. What did that look like? Um,

Speaker 1 4:35
I mean, all the textbook stuff like we should have caught it even sooner than we did, honestly, because it was a ping like crazy eating like crazy drinking like crazy. I was in band at the time at school, and I played the saxophone. So that's a reeded instrument and you have to keep the reed wet in order to play. And I was like, I'm unable to play my saxophone for the hour period at school, because my mouth is so dry. I keep having to go out to the hall to get drinks of water from the fountain because it's just like, so dehydrated.

Scott Benner 5:11
You think you had a very absorbent read in your saxophone?

Speaker 1 5:14
I mean, I just, I was thirsty, I guess 12 You know, you're 12 You don't think something's wrong with you? You're just

Scott Benner 5:23
listen. 12 2060 Most people are like, I didn't think anything was wrong with me. I just thought, you know, blah, blah, blah, whatever, whatever was happening to them. So, how long does all this go on for before you end up at a doctor?

Speaker 1 5:35
Well, my dad's a doctor. So not very long.

Scott Benner 5:38
What kind of doctor is your dad? He's like a,

Speaker 1 5:41
like a family doctor, just general general practitioner. So not not too long. I ended up going on vacation with my mom and sisters and my dad and brother stayed behind. And that, like close one on one time between my mom and I is when she was finally like, okay, that, you know, she's not being dramatic. There's something really weird going on here. So the day after we came back from that trip, I was in his office getting, you know, all the labs done? Yeah. China.

Scott Benner 6:14
He found it that way. Hey, how many brothers and sisters do you have? Straight? Okay. Are you the youngest?

Unknown Speaker 6:19
I am.

Scott Benner 6:20
I could tell. All right. Well, I just could tell because your mom was like she's not being dramatic, which means that your mom had lived through a couple of kids already. Why did you why did you think I could tell?

Speaker 1 6:33
I don't know. It's just usually a negative connotation when you're the youngest, like you're, you know, whiny or annoying or spoiled or

Scott Benner 6:40
do you feel like you've been whining for the first six minutes of this? Not enough. You've been terrific. I know, I just thought if that was your mom's response, then you must be one of the younger kids. Yeah, yeah, that's all. Okay. So your dad, that's weird. So you were diagnosed by your dad? Yes. How do you remember that? Like, was he? Is he the one that told you? Yes. Yes. Was it a weird experience? Like your dad being your is your was your dad always your doctor Dexcom G seven offers an easier way to manage diabetes without finger sticks. It is a simple CGM system that delivers real time glucose numbers to your smartphone, your smartwatch. And it effortlessly allows you to see your glucose levels and where they're headed. My daughter is wearing a Dexcom g7 Right now, and I can't recommend it enough. Whether you have commercial insurance, Medicare coverage, or no CGM coverage at all Dexcom can help you go to my link dexcom.com/juice box and look for that button that says Get a free benefits check. That'll get you going with Dexcom. When you're there, check out the Dexcom clarity app where the follow Did you know that people can follow your Dexcom up to 10 people can follow you. Right now I'm following my daughter, but my wife is also following her. Her roommates at school are following her. So I guess Arden is being followed right now by five people who are concerned for her health and welfare. And you can do the same thing. School Nurses, your neighbor, people in your family, everyone can have access to that information, if you want them to have it. Or if you're an adult, and you don't want anyone to know, you don't have to share with anybody. It's completely up to you. dexcom.com slashed use Box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. And when you use my link to learn about Dexcom you're supporting the podcast.

Speaker 1 8:35
Yeah, like, you know, on paper, we would put one of his partners, one of his business partners. And if it was anything serious, he was very hands off, because he's like, you know, he didn't want his emotions or anything to get in the way. But for all the routine, you know, kids stuff, we always just, you know,

Scott Benner 8:53
you take care of it.

Speaker 1 8:54
Yeah, he'd do it at home, whatever. I don't know, it wasn't that big of a deal, just because I had no idea what it meant. They had told me prior to the testing, like you might have diabetes, and that might mean that you have to take shots, you know, for a while, but they were very like, vague. They didn't Yeah, they did not explain like the severity of the situation, or that it would change my life forever. Or, you know, they didn't want to scare me, I guess until they knew for sure. I

Scott Benner 9:22
was just wondering if your dad wanted to be the one to say those things to you. Or if it's not nice to have a more removed person tell you something like that? No,

Speaker 1 9:32
I don't think he wanted to be the one because even that day, I was sitting in his office and he was like, well, all he said was, well, you do have it. He didn't say you know, you do have diabetes. And here's what's going to happen to you. He just said you do have it. You didn't even call it what it was.

Scott Benner 9:50
But Mary Kate, you can imagine from listening to all these episodes that he was he was probably incredibly upset.

Speaker 1 9:56
Oh yeah, definitely. But he's You know, stoic and quiet. So,

Scott Benner 10:03
gotcha. Well still, though inside, he must have been devastated. And now he's like, now he's probably stuck between Am I a doctor? Or am I her dad? Like, I don't want to be the one like, I don't want her to think back on this moment. It's her father telling her like, I bet you there was a lot going through his mind. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you find out you actually have diabetes? Didn't go to the hospital? No.

Speaker 1 10:27
So he that was a Friday. So he managed me. Over the weekend. He got me into an endocrinologist in a larger city that falling Monday, and they they took over my

Scott Benner 10:39
care. Okay. You remember, I mean, 13 years ago, doing the math? Did you get a pump?

Speaker 1 10:47
Yeah, actually, the insurance required six months of injections. So I did the bare minimum. And then I jumped over to animus actually,

Scott Benner 10:56
yeah, the ping? Yeah, you miss it. And that was better. So okay, good. I'm not good. But like, most people are always like, I miss my, my animus ping, either. I don't know what the hell they're talking about. I've never even I've never used one. You know, it wasn't great.

Speaker 1 11:11
But, I mean, the pumps today are great, too. So we've got algorithms. So

Scott Benner 11:17
yeah, I completely agree. Okay, so you got on a pump pretty quickly. was living with diabetes 1314 15 through high school? Was it problematic for you? Did it go pretty smoothly,

Speaker 1 11:29
it went, as well as it could have gone honestly, for the first, well, through middle school, I had a difficult time as far as just like, self esteem. And, you know, I tried to hide it from everybody. So that part was hard. But as far as actually managing the disease, I, I was super independent with it. I really didn't want help, and honestly did a great job, even as a middle schooler, and then in high school, probably later, high school more like junior year senior year, is whenever I started, like actually trying to educate myself on my own. And that's when I figured out like, oh, you know, you can actually have an agency lower than six, and you know, those sort of concepts. My endocrinologist, she was fine, but she had pretty low standards for what was successful. So, you know, I, I rode in between six, five and seven, probably like, all the way up until senior year of high school, before I figured out like that it was achievable, and necessary to do better. through college, I really got things under control. So what

Scott Benner 12:45
led you to wonder if what you were doing wasn't enough?

Speaker 1 12:50
I don't know. And I don't know if I even did wonder or if I just stumbled into that. I'll tell you what, what really like, got me? Well, Dexcom made a big difference in my life, obviously. And then the first thing that I stumbled across was like, you know, low carb lifestyle. And then from there, I found myself in a Bernstein Facebook group. Do you know about that guy? Yes.

Scott Benner 13:16
A little bit. Yes.

Speaker 1 13:19
Yes. So he's huge on the low carb thing. But anyway, he's got a YouTube channel. So I found myself down that rabbit hole, I read his book. And his whole thing is, he's very pro low carb. But he's also pro bold with insulin and teaches you you know, how to Bolus for proteins and fats in a way that nobody ever had. And he's like, ancient like in his 80s, or 90s. And, you know, has always has always been in the fives. It went C was his big thing is to try to be to try to keep your blood sugar at 83. So that made me kind of have a light bulb moment of like, oh, the goal blood sugar doesn't have to be 120. Right? It can literally be

Scott Benner 14:04
at three your goal. Can you make your goal?

Speaker 1 14:07
Right, yeah, right. So somehow I found myself there and that that's whenever I started striving for Lower, lower.

Scott Benner 14:15
Did that experience make you eat low carb? Or did it just make you shoot for lower numbers? Yeah,

Speaker 1 14:23
I ate low carb for couple of years. Like, yeah, couple years.

Scott Benner 14:27
It worked for you.

Speaker 1 14:29
It did. Yeah. Why did you start as I like bread,

Scott Benner 14:34
like bread? That's a fair enough reason. This is a weird conversation for me because I'm of the opinion that people need to know how to use insulin. And then after they know how to use it, they should go forth and live their life anyway, they decide to if it's right, you know, four carbs a day or I don't know 40 or 100 whatever they I don't care. I honestly don't care how people eat. But if you get too involved in conversations about How people eat, you will find extreme people on, you know, sides, like with anything else who are ravenously upset with you. And I try not to have people ravenously upset with me, especially when I wish I could explain to them, I am very happy for them that what they do works for them, I just don't want them. I'm in a weird position. I don't just make a podcast, I also have an incredibly like, huge Facebook group. And so my concern always is, is that if a brand new diagnosed person comes in, and it's like, I don't know what I'm doing Oh, right, yeah. And someone comes in and says you if you just don't eat carbs, then this will be fine. Okay, fair enough. But it doesn't allow that person the opportunity to learn how to use insulin, or what will happen if they have a piece of bread, which they are probably going to do at some point or, you know, what would happen if your five year old, you know, was low carb by you're doing and which would be fine. And then they leave for college one day and wonder what pizza is. And exactly, now they have no idea how to Bolus for for these cars. And so, again, to be very sincere. Sorry, very Kate, you don't know the extraneous problems I have in my life. But you're probably starting to figure him out right now while I'm talking. Yeah, to be very clear, I do not care how people eat. I think if you eat low carb, and that works for you. That's amazing. Fantastic. Congratulations, whoo, good, sincerely. But from a macro position, which is one, I find myself in having seen 10s of 1000s of people with diabetes, start their journey or be lost in their journey or whatever. I can tell you that it's my opinion that understanding Insulin is the first step not removing carbs, because then you can sort of falsely make your way through, which is fine if you do it forever. But look at you, you're 25 and you're like, look, I'm I want to have bread again. I can't do this anymore. Anyway, that's my point about that. I don't know why. I do know why I had to say that. But But I think it's cool that you found that I think it's cool that you gave it gave you the idea. And it's you know, are you able to live in a way that you think is healthy now not being low carb? Oh,

Speaker 1 17:14
yeah, absolutely. I'm, I'm, I'm fully bought into the juice box method at this point. And I, I do what I want, and I'm still successful with my diabetes, which is for me, that's that's the best way

Scott Benner 17:28
to do it. Well, congratulations on finding your way to it. I think that's fantastic. Do you think if you would have found the podcast before hearing about low carb, do you think you'd still be in the same spot right now? I don't know. That's a good question.

Speaker 1 17:44
I might have tried out low carb anyways, because at the time that I did it is when keto was like the biggest fad. Huge. Yeah. So I Yeah, you know, might have just done it anyway, just to see what it was like, I

Scott Benner 17:56
think I should be clear. I don't eat a ton of carbs. You know, like, I don't have diabetes, but I also like, I mean, I went to dinner the other night, I had beef, I had a little fish. I there was a piece of bread on the table like flatbread. I had one or two of them. But I think if I buy I mean, there's no sugar in what I drank. I had a bit. I'm gonna guess that at a dinner. I had, I don't know, maybe 25 carbs at dinner. You know, and probably the rest of the day. I probably didn't have 100 carbs that day. So you know, probably I mean, I think I definitely didn't have 100 carbs that day, and I don't most days. Tough, but I think processed foods a big problem. Especially if you use Yeah, totally agree. Right. So anyway, okay, so you're making it through? Everything's going well, you get married at some point?

Speaker 1 18:45
I do. Yeah. When I graduated college, I got married.

Scott Benner 18:49
And you've just recently decided we're going to make a baby. So that's the rest of this conversation. So you're married? You want to have a kid? Is your agency already in a place where they're comfortable with you being pregnant? Or was that something you had to work towards?

Speaker 1 19:04
No, it was already there. So I had been in the fives for a couple of years at the point when I got pregnant.

Scott Benner 19:10
Oh, fantastic. Okay, so you were well on your way to knowing what you were doing and having success over and over again? Yes, gotcha. Okay. So we decide to make the baby and here it comes. Tell me about the pregnancy. How did the first trimester go?

Speaker 1 19:24
I'm pretty much textbook. I bought Jenny's books, so shout out to her. And that helped out a lot. I kind of knew what to expect. So a lot of lows first trimester but nothing too crazy because I was well prepared. I yeah, I have a great endo as well, who actually, whenever I found him initially, he was like my favorite. He was like, Do you want to have a baby? Eventually? I'm like, yes, he's like, my favorite patients are pregnant women. He's like, here's what you're gonna do when you get pregnant. You're gonna tell you Your husband, you're gonna tell your mom and then you're gonna tell me. So he was you were very very hands on and super helpful throughout the whole thing. So

Scott Benner 20:09
that helped a lot. And what he said about they're my favorite patients is because you're not gonna see a woman with type one trying harder than when they're pregnant normally, is that what his opinion was? I think

Speaker 1 20:18
he meant from a more clinical side like he's, he's, he's obsessed with diabetes, he only does type one. So I think he likes the challenge of managing a pregnant woman and likes you know, all that he gets to educate and all that he gets to do that's that's really what I think he meant gets a

Scott Benner 20:37
little game day adrenaline from it. It sounds like Yeah, I think so. Alright, so. So you're saying first trimester went about as you expected, you took a little while to dial in insulin, get it? Right. So you didn't have lows? And, but other than that pregnancy wise, nothing out of the ordinary diabetes wise, you were, you were happy with where everything was. This episode is sponsored by Medtronic. diabetes, Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. And now we're going to hear from Medtronic champion. Jalen. I

Speaker 2 21:10
was going straight into high school. So it was a summer heading into high school was that particularly difficult, unimaginable, you know, I missed my entire summer. So I went, I was going to a brand new school, I was around a bunch of new people that I had not been going to school with. So it was hard trying to balance that while also explaining to people what type one diabetes was, my hometown did not have an endocrinologist. So I was traveling over an hour to the nearest endocrinologist for children. So you know, outside of that I didn't have any type of support in my hometown.

Scott Benner 21:43
Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 2 21:48
I honestly I just held back I didn't really like talking about it. It was just it felt like it was just an repeating record where I was saying things and people weren't understanding it. And I also was still in the process of learning it. So I just kept it to myself didn't really talk about it. Did

Scott Benner 22:03
you eventually find people in real life that you could confide in. I

Speaker 2 22:07
never really got the experience until after getting to college. And then once I graduated college, it's all I see. You know, you can easily search Medtronic champions, you see people that pop up, and you're like, wow, look at all this content. And I think that's something that motivates me started embracing more. You know, how I'm able to type one diabetes? To

Scott Benner 22:28
hear Jay Lin's entire conversation. stay till the very end. Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community.

Speaker 1 22:40
Yeah, it was it was great. I mean, you're making changes constantly, like, at least every week, if not more. And all throughout pregnancy, I was in the 5.0 range. I think I started pregnancy at like, five, three pretty low. Now as things went on, I did through second and third trimester, I was gradually getting higher and higher and higher, but I had not made it to a 6.0 a one C yet even at even before delivery. So it was I mean, yeah, I was getting higher as as I went on, as you expect, but nothing dangerous. Everybody was happy with me. So it was all going really really well.

Scott Benner 23:20
Were you employing any of your low carb ideas to help.

Speaker 1 23:23
I cut out all sugar, basically. But I mean, I was I was still eating bread.

Scott Benner 23:30
Like the breads that the crux of this right here like what's your favorite bread? Do you have if I said that to you? Would you like blurt something out? Yes,

Unknown Speaker 23:38
I would blurt out sourdough.

Scott Benner 23:42
Pardon me once they ask you what the second favorite bread is. I wonder if we can't make an incredible list?

Speaker 1 23:49
No, no, I'm not that obsessed. But it's just, I mean, it's just delicious. Yeah.

Scott Benner 23:54
I mean, I can't say otherwise. It's fantastic. I swear to you, like even just like a thin, like anything really? Like I'm like, oh, like at dinner go there. And I'm like, What is this? And I opened the basket up and I'm like, Well, I'll try that. There was little Ribery there. I was, like, I'll take a little rye bread. It's like kind of it's fantastic. So you're not low carb. And but you did cut out sugar. What did that mean for you? Like what what had to leave your your life for you to get rid of sugar.

Speaker 1 24:20
My creative outlet is baking. And so I for a long time I've baked like, only about once a week just for fun. So I completely let that go because I've never had the self control to bake and then not eat what I've made. So for for my whole pregnancy. I was just like, forget it. Like I'm not going to be making any desserts because I just knew it would be you know, not good

Scott Benner 24:50
for me. Pretty much the only place you're getting sugar from to begin with. Yeah,

Speaker 1 24:53
no, I'm not a I'm not. Yeah, that was it. I don't I'm not a candy eater or anything like that. Gotcha. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 24:59
So you thought if I cut out baking, did you find um, I'm changing my thought midstream. But did you find like a black hole for your creative this? Like, did you do something else you could do with your creativity? Or what did you do to replace?

Speaker 1 25:16
Oh, I, I guess I just I'm not a very creative person anyway, so it's not really that, like, big of a deal for me to just kind of turn that off. Okay. So yeah, didn't really replace it. Did

Scott Benner 25:27
your husband lose weight during your baking? Shutdown?

Unknown Speaker 25:31
I don't. I don't think so. Actually,

Scott Benner 25:33
I would probably have been grateful if I was like, oh my god, I'm always eating that bass stuff she

Speaker 1 25:38
makes. No, he gave me a really hard time the whole time because I always do a really big birthday cake for him. And he didn't get his. Oh

Scott Benner 25:47
my gosh, you were serious about it. Oh, I see. Okay. All right. Are you are you a rule follower in general?

Unknown Speaker 25:54
For good rules for stupid rules?

Scott Benner 25:57
I gotcha. But once you decided that, was it you're not there was no like, well, I'll make you a birthday cake.

Speaker 1 26:02
No, no, because I it was just it was about me. I wouldn't have had the self control

Scott Benner 26:07
not to eat that birthday cake. Yeah, good for you good for knowing. And, and well done, like actually following through on it. That's pretty impressive, actually. Alright, so second, you're welcome. second trimester, do things start to change? Not

Speaker 1 26:21
really. I mean, they changed by the book where, you know, you're slowly needing more and more and more insulin every single week. But, you know, it was manageable. What

Scott Benner 26:30
was your Basal rate when you started your pregnancy? And how did it move up?

Speaker 1 26:34
I would say my average Basal rate pre pregnancy was probably like 0.6 0.7. And then by the end of pregnancy, my average, which I only made it to 33 weeks. So when I say the end, that's what I mean. By the end, my Basal average was probably like, 1.5 1.6.

Scott Benner 26:56
Would you mind telling me what you weighed when you got pregnant? When

Speaker 1 27:00
I got pregnant? Somewhere between 125 and 130?

Scott Benner 27:04
Okay. How much did you gain while you're pregnant? Shane pounds? We'll get you showing off. Okay. Hold on a second point 6.7. Up to about 1.5. Well, that is interesting. Because it's not it's not about your weight. It's about it's about the hormones and everything that's happening inside of your body where the need goes up like a full unit an hour. That's something isn't 24. That's 24 more. Yes, yeah, units a day, a lot

Speaker 1 27:33
of extra insulin, and I affected my carb ratio as well, by the end of it. That was actually the bigger impact by the end of pregnancy. Like, my breakfast carb ratio was 123. What was even as crazy. What

Scott Benner 27:47
was it when you started

Speaker 1 27:48
one this? Well, either one to six or one to five? They're different for meals for me, but it

Scott Benner 27:54
doubled. Hmm. About that. So you, you probably added 30 or 40 more units a day being pregnant?

Unknown Speaker 28:03
A lot. I don't know. But a lot.

Scott Benner 28:05
That's so interesting. I mean, I mean, I know what happens, but it's still it's still incredibly interesting. You know, okay, but you managed it and you expected it and stayed with it. Jenny's book helped with that. Definitely good. Yes. Good. Did you listen to any of the pregnancy episodes of the podcast? Yes.

Speaker 1 28:22
Yes. All of them actually. Which is that also helps. I kind of had a roadmap. Okay,

Scott Benner 28:27
great. Oh, that's good to know. Okay. So, things are going along. You're cruising. Let's just be honest here. It's a humble brag, but you're cruising through pregnancy doing a fantastic job. And can this baby? And are you working during the pregnancy?

Unknown Speaker 28:41
Unfortunately, I was yes.

Scott Benner 28:43
I think that every day when I'm working to unfortunately, I'm working. And I've never wanted to carry a baby, except in my hands. Okay, so you're working. You're you're pregnant, it's going really well. And you get to 33 weeks and it sounds like that's when the train comes off the track. So what happened? What

Speaker 1 29:01
happened? Okay, so I got the flu. Okay,

Scott Benner 29:06
you're not supposed to get sick. When you're pregnant. You're like, have like, super immune system when you're pregnant. It's someone licky with this. Is that your husband's fault? This is what I'm trying to get at. i

Unknown Speaker 29:15
It's not his Okay. Unfortunately.

Scott Benner 29:19
It would be so much better if you could hold it over his head for the rest of time and mourn, but Okay, so you get the flu. I'm sorry. Keep going.

Speaker 1 29:25
I apologize. Yes, I get the flu probably. So my baby was born on a Wednesday I started feeling sick on the previous like, Saturday or Sunday. I know I didn't go to church on that Sunday, because I was under the weather. So yeah, I mean, I I was just kind of managing at home. I was feeling bad enough that I I knew it was either blue or COVID Probably. But with both of those, it's kind of like well, that you know, there's no treatment. I mean Tamiflu if you get there early enough, but maybe that'll help. Maybe it won't. And maybe they'll give it to you if you're pregnant, and maybe they won't. So I was just kind of hanging low resting a lot. And then actually, I started getting worried like, Okay, I diabetes, I probably have the flu or COVID. And I've got a baby. Yeah, at this point, all I'm concerned about is the baby. I had a maternal fetal medicine appointment on that Tuesday, and I like, pretended not to be sick. Because this was back when like, if you had any sickness symptoms, they wouldn't let you come to any appointments, because I thought you would have COVID or whatever.

Scott Benner 30:39
You pretended to have the flu? Yes, you just think you look like you were on heroin when you walked in maybe or something? Because I guess it's hard to pretend not to have the flu. How did you accomplish that? I'm interested what?

Speaker 1 30:50
Well, I like I managed to do my hair and do my makeup. So I would look a little little better. Yeah. And they required you to wear masks anyways. So that was really the saving grace. So I wore a mask. I took like a hot tea with me. So I'm gonna try to keep the cough like at bay, because I'm just thinking, like, I have to check on my baby, or I'm gonna go crazy, you know, worrying about him, right? So I fill out the questionnaire and say, you know, no, I don't have any sick symptoms and all that. And he was perfect. So make it to the appointment. They're like, amazing, you know, they did an ultrasound, everything. Everything was great. They said, Get out of here. The next day is when crap hit

Scott Benner 31:35
the fan. Wow. And it happened very quickly. Is that correct?

Unknown Speaker 31:39
I would say it was very quick.

Scott Benner 31:41
So did you think because I know what happened, right? I know how but what did you think was happening? At first, like, were you blaming the illness is what I'm getting at. I

Speaker 1 31:53
thought that it was. So what happened? I'm by myself all day, the day. So it's a Wednesday the 16th I'm at home alone all day. So I'm just like, veg and now watching movies, feeling like crap, whatever. And then around like, I don't know, 6pm I started having cramping. And so I think this is Braxton Hicks. Right? I'm 33 weeks. So Braxton Hicks would be totally normal for that to start happening to me. So that's that's all I thought once I started having this cramping I just associated with the pregnancy and I think must be Braxton Hicks. Everything must be fine. This must be normal. It's kind of where my head starts out.

Scott Benner 32:34
And you call your dad, I always wonder every time you have you mentioned something, I wonder if you call your dad? No, I did not call my dad. Okay. No reason just, it's not what you do? Well,

Speaker 1 32:44
I guess I just didn't want to freak anybody out. I'm always afraid of making something into a bigger deal than it needs to be. So I was afraid that either, you know, I would be dramatic. And it would become a whole thing when it didn't need to be or that he will be dramatic and told me to, you know, the ER, which was what I should have done, but you know,

Scott Benner 33:06
right. So to you're sitting here, you're watching your movies, you're having your cramping, and you think it's normal? How long do you believe it's not like, how long did you live in that before you thought, oh, I should do something.

Speaker 1 33:17
Maybe only like 15 or 20 minutes before I text a friend who had recently had a baby. And I'm like, because they're getting progressively more painful. And I'm just like, How bad are Braxton Hicks supposed to hurt because, you know, like, what the heck, this is hurting really bad at this point. And of course, you know, this is texting and she can't see me. You know, whatever. Basically, she's like, Yeah, they can hurt pretty bad. So I'm like, Alright, I guess this is just how much pregnancy and labor and Braxton Hicks sucks. So I just get in the bath and like try to you know, manage the pain basically. And so as I mentioned, I was home alone. So my husband was actually an hour away. And he was at the time he was in professional school. And he was going to be getting out of class in 30 minutes. And I was like, I can ride this out for 30 minutes. And like, you know, see how I am see if it gets worse. Again, like not be dramatic. And wait till it gets out of class calm. So that's what I did.

Scott Benner 34:26
Let me ask you a question. How much of that is growing up with a physician hearing stories about people are always running to the doctor when they don't need to or like you program that like, you don't go unless you have to.

Speaker 1 34:36
I'm also a nurse myself. Now

Scott Benner 34:40
we're getting to it. So okay. Yeah,

Speaker 1 34:42
yeah, I was trying not to admit that I guess. But yeah, so I'm definitely programmed to, you know, I don't know not make a big deal about everything. Right. And I also feel like whether or not it's true, I've always been told that have a low pain tolerance. So I'm thinking like, well, maybe I'm just literally the world's biggest wind. And you know, so I need to wait until this really hurts. You got

Scott Benner 35:06
to be careful about that stuff. My wife grew up being told she had terrible sense of direction. And of all the people I know, she has the best sense of direction of anybody. So I think she just got lost one time when she was 16 in the car and people like tagged are with, you have a bad sense of direction.

Speaker 1 35:21
Right? Yeah, the things people tell you can really get in the way of your thinking.

Scott Benner 35:28
Okay, so you're like Mary Kay, you're a baby. You know, you're a baby. Everybody tells you that. So just stick it out. This doesn't hurt other people wouldn't mean wow, who cares? Pain is pain. It is whatever it is to you. But I take your point. Exactly. Okay. I'm sorry. So moving forward, we, what do we do 730

Speaker 1 35:44
hits, apparently, is when he got out of the class. So that's when I called him. And I'm like, at this point, I think I'm in labor, because the pain is just like through the roof. Like, I'm not able to be quiet anymore. I'm like, in a lot, a lot of pain. And I as I call him in a big tizzy. Like, I don't know what's going on. Maybe I'm in labor, this hurts so bad, like, you gotta get here or whatever. And he's like, What the heck are you doing? Why haven't you called 911? Basically, you're

Scott Benner 36:16
calling me for I'm in grad school? I don't know anything.

Speaker 1 36:20
Yeah. And so he's like, I'm going to call me and they'll tell me to call an ambulance. And I'm like, don't do that. Don't do that. Call the OB emergency line. So I convinced him to call the OB emergency line and Shaddam 911. So he hangs up with me calls them and lo and behold, they don't answer. So he calls me back. And it's like, I mean, this is all much more dramatic than I'm replaying it for everybody. But

Scott Benner 36:48
just so you all know, there's screaming and yelling, and you guys were yelling at each other. And there's high pitches. Yeah, I gotcha. Go ahead.

Unknown Speaker 36:55
Exactly.

Scott Benner 36:58
What are you doing? You like I just thought that it was like, like that kind of,

Speaker 1 37:02
right. Pretty much. Okay, gotcha. So he called back and he's like, they didn't answer I'm calling 911. Forget it. Basically, he's pretty cool under pressure. And obviously, with the way that I was freaking out, it was, like, obvious that that's what needed to happen. So he calls 911 to come pick me up. Meanwhile, he's like, you know, trying to fly. He's an hour away. So he's trying to fly back to where I am as fast as possible, because we don't, you know, we don't know what's going on. His side of the story is he thought with when I called that the baby had already died. He was like, I thought that I don't know. Like he just died inside of you. And your body was trying to, you know, give birth to our dead kids. So he's freaking out.

Scott Benner 37:49
Oh my god. Geez. Yeah, he took a leap. Ah, that sounds good. Yeah,

Speaker 1 37:55
yeah. Yeah. So called the ambulance ambulance gets to my house. Probably around like, eight or so he called 911. Around 745. And the ambulance takes me to the nearest hospital.

Scott Benner 38:08
Not the hospital you work at though, right? No,

Unknown Speaker 38:11
thank God. No.

Scott Benner 38:12
Okay. All right. I was wondering if that was part of the reason you didn't want to call or not?

Speaker 1 38:15
No, no, I commute to work. So that was okay. Okay.

Scott Benner 38:19
Not the issue. He must come in like hair on fire when he gets there. Well,

Speaker 1 38:24
he doesn't get there in time.

Scott Benner 38:27
Oh my gosh. Okay. Keep going. Look at you. Very key. Look at you tell on a story. Good job. Keep it going.

Speaker 1 38:35
So, yes, ambulance takes me to the nearest hospital which thank God I live in a big city. So it's a very, very good hospital and it's a hospital that has a NICU and a like a level four NICU thank God. So anyway, but I get there I'm, but whenever the ambulance gets here, I'm like, at this point, I'm, I think probably having a panic attack. Like I'm just screaming, like freaking out about everything. Everything hurts. But I think in my mind, I'm also like, really multiplying the pain because I'm so terrified about like, what's happening to me right now. So I get wheeled in to like labor and delivery, er or whatever. And I was in too much pain to lay on the stretcher or the gurney or whatever. So I got on it on my hands and knees that was more comfortable. So I can't see anything. And I like can't move out of this position either. So I'm like, just looking at the floor. But there's a million people running all around me. Everyone's everyone's freaking out, probably because I'm freaking out. But eventually they like, you know, they flipped me over and they everybody's poking me for labs and IVs and they're putting the contraction monitor on me and they're trying like how Oh, to get a Doppler on my baby to see how the baby's doing. That's whenever I hear somebody yell out, the heart rates only 60. And if you don't know anything about babies, a baby in utero, heart rates, like very, very high 151 60, something like that. So then I really start freaking out, because I think my baby's gonna die.

Scott Benner 40:26
You actually know what that number means. So yeah, a lot of people wouldn't, wouldn't know. But you did about that. Okay, so now you're flipping out more.

Speaker 1 40:35
Now I'm flipping out more, and I'm literally screaming at the top of my lungs. Where's my husband? Where's my husband? And nobody, which I've been on the other side as a as a health care provider and like a life or death emergency and it's, I understand why it's like, you really don't have the capacity or the time to address the patient's needs. But oh, my God, nobody would talk to me. They're all just like, doing things to me. But no one is talking to me. Nobody would answer me where my husband was, or tell me what was happening or what they were going to do to me. It's just horrible, horrible, like mad, panic, chaos. They do a cervical check. And I'm not very dilated. Yeah, she was like, she well, the OB yells at me, she's like, I need to do a search for cervical check on you. Because if you're dilated, you need to push right now and deliver this baby. Otherwise, we're going to the LR and so I'm like, okay, okay. Okay. And you know, she does it whatever. I was dilated to like a two or something. So, that was it. They pretty much immediately wheeled me off to the O R. And next thing I remember is finally a nurse. I'm still screaming, where's my husband? Because like, I just needed so badly for somebody to like, speak to me, like a human being to calm me down. And of course, I wanted him to do that.

Scott Benner 42:02
Yeah. Also, Medicaid, I think it's important to point out, you're a really mature person. I don't know if you know that about yourself. And but you're not that old. So like, it's all well and good to be mature. And like, you know, have your head about you because you have a job where you have to and stuff like that. But once it happens to you, you're 20 How old? Are you at that moment? You? 23?

Unknown Speaker 42:25
Yeah, yeah, I was 23 You're

Scott Benner 42:27
like a baby yourself? Yeah. Like, yeah, and you don't I know, listen, I've only been talking to you for 45 minutes. But I would definitely come get you if there was a problem that didn't involve you. Because that I think you'd be really, I think you'd be really rock solid. And it sounds like you grew up in a serious household with, you know, doctors, and, and, you know, you went on to be a nurse, etc. But like, it's the whole time you're talking. All I could think is you're my son's age. And he almost not qualified to deal with anything. So. So you know, and I remember being young too, when When Kelly was having a bit when Kelly was having cold, she was pretty young. And I look back now and I, I see myself through my eyes now. And I can see myself through how I thought of myself back then. Like we thought we knew what was going on and that we were handling things. And I'm sure we were but like as I look back on myself now I didn't know what the hell I was doing. So anyway, that just it's been ringing in my head the whole time. You're talking like How old were you when this was happening? So anyway, I'm sorry. So you they knock you out and give you a C section or you go out from the pain? How does that work? Yeah,

Speaker 1 43:38
they knocked me out. So I feel like the, you know, oh, ours are so freakin cold. So I remember. Well, finally, as we're running to the O R, a nurse comes right up to my face. And she's like, what's your husband's phone number. And in that moment, somehow I remember. I remember its phone number. So I recited off to her. And then the next thing I feel is just like that cool blast of air of being in the O R. And so I'm like, okay, like, I know what's going on. And then the OB, again, like, is screaming and she's like, we're going to do a lot of things that are going to be really uncomfortable, but I'm trying to save you and your baby's life. And then I just feel like this big dump of cold liquid on my belly, which I think was them literally just dumping beta dine on me as opposed to like doing the proper, right you know. And then the anesthesiologist comes over my head and he's like, this is gonna burn and then he just slams in whatever anesthetic he used into my IV.

Scott Benner 44:46
propofol, that stuff burns. I've had it before. Probably the Jacksons. Yeah, there's an by the way, for anybody who's wondering, I didn't know you're like, please let Mary Kate keep telling her story. But if you ever have to have it in a non emergency situation If they can cut your arm and put, they can put in something else that numbs it and takes the sting away. I can't think of what it is like Benadryl or something like that. It's probably not Benadryl. You probably shouldn't listen to me for medical stuff. But ask the anesthesiologist, isn't there something you could put in there to stop the burning? Because there is so yeah, burned like, Oh, I've had it. I've it feels like fire rolling up your arm and across your chest and it feels like your heart is gonna burst when it gets to it. Yeah. And the the issue is, is the rightest you think your heart's gonna burst? You just fall asleep? But anyway, keep going. So the burning comes, you're soaked in beta Dine, someone's talking to you about saving your life and the baby's life. And you and

Speaker 1 45:44
I go out he I remember the horrible burning and screaming from the burning and then he slaps the face mask over my screaming face. And that's that slides out from

Scott Benner 45:56
there. Wow. Oh, my God. Well, they saved your life. Obviously. Yes. Yeah. And we've already talked about your son. So I feel like everyone knows this was like the Titanic where you're like, I wonder what's gonna happen in this movie? Like the boats gonna say for sure. But we knew you guys were gonna be okay. So what? What happened? Like, why were you suddenly from months and months and 33 weeks of this is easy. My onesies are terrific. My blood sugar's are great. I'm cruising to Holy hell, I should call an ambulance. What the hell happened that day.

Speaker 1 46:27
So as I already told you, I got the flu. And as every good little diabetic knows, the flu predisposes you to DKA or, you know, any sickness. So I had that going against me and wasn't really thinking about that properly. And the day of my son's birth, I changed my pump site around like noon or one. So I did that. And then basically laid on the couch doing nothing. I was snacking. Like, I don't, I didn't, I don't think I'd even really eaten for the entire day. I was just sort of nibbling on some Wheat Thins and drinking like some Gatorade zero. So I looked back at my CGM graph in preparation for this and up until the birth my my blood sugar, I didn't even go over 150 for the day, because I was basically just laying there not even really eating but change my website around noon or one. Then if you look at my CGM graph, around 5pm, I go over 180. And then as I said, I kind of started all this cramping around like 6pm. And by 6pm, I was, let's see, by 6pm I was over 250. And by 7pm, I was over 307 pm is when I called my husband and the ambulance got there sometime around eight. My son was born at 844. And at 844 My blood sugar was 297 Were you bolusing

Scott Benner 48:11
in the afternoon while you were going up, or were you too sick to think about it? Yeah,

Speaker 1 48:16
I was. I was bolusing. But like, so I changed my site around noon or one. And I didn't even go over 130 until 415 didn't go over 180 until 505. So it's just like it happened. At Well, it happened slowly until it until I got you know, like a double arrow up but so from like noon or one till four, I mean, I wouldn't correct for anything until I go over 130 So from then I'm not doing anything about it. And then yeah, once the pain got so bad i i totally wasn't even thinking about diabetes anymore, right? I forgot about diabetes.

Scott Benner 48:53
So I mean, I'm assuming most people have figured out what happened by now but just say it.

Speaker 1 49:00
So my frickin cannula was kinked you had

Scott Benner 49:05
a king cannula you're in DKA I was in DK you had not had nearly enough insulin since noon. Yeah,

Speaker 1 49:12
yeah, exactly. So I wasn't I wasn't eating properly which I should have been because Hello you have the flu like you should be. You should be doing those boluses I should have been drinking a regular Gatorade, Gatorade zero and been doing Bolus is for that or something. But I wasn't I wasn't taking good care of myself from like a sick day perspective. And then my my fatal flaw is I put my pump site on like my love handle area. And by then my belly was so big that I couldn't like twist around to to look at which I'm using auto soft 30 So it's not a perfect view anyways, but you could at least see condensation kind of collecting if you had a bit cannula. I do remember looking in the mirror Before I called my husband trying to see like, is there condensation there because I had had that thought, because by that point I was pretty high. But yeah, so yeah, too little too late.

Scott Benner 50:11
I just want to mention for people that you can be in decay without a high blood sugar. Like just yeah, not having insulin can put you in DKA. So if you're not pregnant, and that happens, maybe you're, you'll eventually think, Oh, my, this is the cannula you might reintroduce insulin to yourself and then a couple of hours later feel okay again, like you might have been able to hydrate and Bolus your way out of that. Like it's just right, but the DEA threw it threw you into labor? Is that what you think happened? They're not sure. That's kind of what I mean. No one's gonna know.

Speaker 1 50:45
Right? Yeah, yeah, that's kind of what it seems like another theory my so it wasn't even my OB who ended up delivering the so my, my actual OB, whenever I tell her the whole story, another theory she had is maybe the dka put me in such severe dehydration that like I had lost so much amniotic fluid, but I was having horrible cramping. She said she's seen that happen before or maybe it was Labor it's kind of weird that I was only dilated to a two if it were labor and the pain was so bad, but you know, who knows?

Scott Benner 51:21
I mean, you can Google DKA causes early labor and get a number of different things that are interesting to read. But we're not going to do them now. But that's that's crazy like a kinked cannula. You are on the the cruise of all cruise pregnancy you get you get the flu, which you probably would have been okay with if the cannula didn't kink? Yep. And then yeah, back quickly all that happened.

Speaker 1 51:45
One mistake is sometimes all it takes to literally ruin your life.

Scott Benner 51:50
Yeah, I thought you were gonna say ruin the cake. Gather you're gonna go back to the baking thing, which would have been amazing, but I ruin your life is much easier because you were close to being dead. Do you think that's true?

Speaker 1 51:59
I don't know. I I think I would have been okay. I was when I got there. I was like, I mean, I was not doing well. I was I kind of like looking septic. i My heart rates was like what my babies should have been, I was like, way up 131 40s 150s. And my blood pressure was super low. So I wasn't doing well. But in terms of like, acidosis, I wasn't actually doing that bad. My Ph wasn't horribly low.

Scott Benner 52:30
When did they start managing your your blood sugar's after the the emergency C section? Because it's not like you didn't roll in there going, Hey, guys, by the way, I have the flu. And I changed my sight today. So God knows maybe that cannulas like you didn't have those conversations with anybody. So how long did it take them to figure all that out? Well,

Speaker 1 52:47
in I actually did tell them I did manage to get because you know, they're asking you questions. So I managed to get out. You know, I'm 3333 weeks, three days pregnant. I do have an OB because if when they see like a horrible situation like this, they kind of just assume that you're an idiot. And maybe you haven't even had any OB care so that I was able to get that out. I was able to get out that I had to have type one diabetes, and I was able to get out. I think I have the flu. That's like all the personal information that I gave them. Good

Scott Benner 53:18
for you. Mary Kate, is that because you're a nurse that you thought to make sure to squeeze that all out? Do you think?

Speaker 1 53:25
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Like, they've got to know all this.

Scott Benner 53:28
Right. That's well done. Are you a different person professionally now because of your experience? I

Speaker 1 53:34
don't know. I think about that a lot. I'm sure her I'm sure it's affected the way that I treat my patients, but I don't I'm not sure in what ways? Yeah.

Scott Benner 53:44
Do you know Artem was in the emergency room last weekend? Twice? Oh, no. She had lower stomach pain that we couldn't figure out it looked like appendix at first. Anyway, she's at school, she ends up in an emergency room. They had her there for 12 hours and help her they knew they just they were like this isn't your appendix thing. Like they booted her Yeah. Then she ended up back there the next day because it it looked like okay, maybe it wasn't an appendix. But it feels like it could be gallbladder now because some other symptoms arose. And she finds herself back in the emergency room for 12 more hours sorry and spent 24 hours in the emergency room over 48 hours. And I would like you to guess how many times someone checked her blood sugar?

Speaker 1 54:25
Oh, God. Maybe? Like I would say at most twice on each occasion.

Scott Benner 54:34
Yeah would never surprise you. Wow, Never Never. No one ever checked to see what her blood sugar was the entire time she was in either time.

Speaker 1 54:43
Wow. They even asked her where they like Do you have a CGM?

Scott Benner 54:47
No they never talked about her diabetes. She was managing it. I was managing it remotely. What

Speaker 1 54:51
a disaster. Yeah, I mean, it's it's most of my colleagues have no idea how to manage it or have no idea what type Mine is for dang sure.

Scott Benner 55:00
Also keep in mind she was rocked on morphine both times. So if something did go wrong, she wasn't in the, in the right mind to take care of it either right? Arden's arm doesn't drink. She didn't do anything. So you hit her with morphine. She's, she's over pretty much, you know. And so I was managing it the first time, remotely. The second time I got on a plane and flew to where she was because of how bad the first time went. Yeah, I don't blame you. Yeah. So anyway, she's doing better now. But that's not that's not the point of me bringing this up. The point of me bringing it up is she was 19. Clearly scared, had something she couldn't figure out. They didn't know. She got there said I have type one diabetes, like, you know, told them the whole thing no one ever once looked. It's just embarrassing. Like, I didn't yell at anybody when I got there. But I wasn't nice. And I finally got them to do the testing they needed to do so we could rule out the things that needed to be rolled out. They were trying to street her the second time without checking her gallbladder after having her there for 10 hours.

Speaker 1 56:02
She's ers are just so dumb. Yeah.

Scott Benner 56:07
When I got there, a man was standing over top of her and her roommates, and he was badgering them to leave. Wow. And art in about 15 minutes before I was able to get there. She said to him, I demand that you admit me? Yeah, yeah. And that's the only thing that froze him long enough for me to get there. Like she didn't really want to be admitted. But she's like, she's like, I knew they were kicking me out. And then if I asked to be admitted he wouldn't be able to kick me out anymore. Right. So she froze him. And she was like, I demand to be admitted. And that that was it. Like it gave me enough time to Uber from the airport to where she was. Oh, that's crazy. Anyway, it went great. Good job. I'm not gonna say the name of the hospital, but your disaster. So anyway. Yeah, so cool. What's your name? The baby. Jude. Nice. You call for him? Hey, Jude.

Unknown Speaker 57:02
Yeah, yeah,

Scott Benner 57:03
I mean, I would does it make you sing after you call for him? Of course, I was gonna say is your brain not as simple as mine? Because I'd be like, hey, now that I've been told that I would start singing.

Unknown Speaker 57:15
Pretty simple. Yeah. So wonderful.

Scott Benner 57:17
And he's fine, obviously. But he was early. He was seven weeks early. And so he was definitely not done cooking. What did did he have to be in the NICU for a while?

Speaker 1 57:26
Oh, yeah, you're just getting to the well, I guess for me, it's the worst part of the story, maybe not objectively, the worst part of the story. I was, you know, they put me to sleep for the C section. And the last thing that I had heard about him was that his heart rate was 60. But by the time they got him out, he actually had no heartbeat. So they resuscitated him there and the O R, and were able to bring him back the resuscitative and intubated him, and then he was in the NICU for six weeks. Wow.

Scott Benner 57:59
That's a long time. Did you? Was it touching go at any point? Or was he just too small to come out?

Speaker 1 58:05
Like they were, they were pretty confident with us that he was going to survive. They were really scared that he was going to have like severe brain damage. And they were very upfront with us about that. Just because they didn't nobody knew like how long. I mean, frankly, he was dead. Nobody knew for how long was he dead? Before they brought him back? In a baby. That's, I mean, that's a big deal to not have oxygen to your brain for any amount of time. That was that was the main concern. We were pretty sure he was gonna make it. But yeah, he took a really long time to recover, just respiratory wise, took a long time to get off the ventilator. And then, you know, I recovered from my acidosis within like, 24 hours, but it took him like, oh, my gosh, like, six or six or seven days. So yeah, so my DKA like, put him in metabolic acidosis. My blood was so toxic and tainted, and he's just getting all of it, obviously. So when they got to him, his his blood gas was just a disaster. So that was kind of the main thing that took so long. And then once they had all that correct, and it was just kind of your normal NICU stuff of getting him big and getting him able to eat and breathe on his own and everything.

Scott Benner 59:30
Do you feel like there's any deficits?

Speaker 1 59:33
No, oh, my God. No, he is. He's right on track. He's doing amazing like, and he's huge. People have no idea ever that he was a NICU baby.

Scott Benner 59:46
How old is he now?

Speaker 1 59:47
He is almost a year. He's 11 and a half months old.

Scott Benner 59:52
Congratulations. That's lovely. Thank you. Did you name him after St. Jude?

Speaker 1 59:56
No, but we did learn after the fact We're not Catholic, but we are we are Christian. And we learned after the fact that St. Jude is the Saint of impossible prayers, desperately

Scott Benner 1:00:08
cases and lost cases, right? Or lost desperate cases and lost causes maybe.

Speaker 1 1:00:14
Yes, yes. Something like that. And that was just like, Wow, what a God thing because we, I mean, for us the only way the only way we survived the only way he survived is just the flooding of prayers that we had from our community going out for him and just the way that he's completely fine now is kind of mind blowing. So he's definitely definitely was an impossible prayer.

Scott Benner 1:00:38
I'm risking freaking myself out here. Did you pick that name before the day? Or after?

Speaker 1 1:00:43
No, he's it was like three days after, actually. Because if you

Scott Benner 1:00:46
were like, we were gonna call them do the whole time, then I'm freaking out. But then Yeah, I'm okay with that. Well, you made a sad song and you made it better is that the line took a sad song and made it. So what are we gonna call the episode? Hey, Jude, probably right.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:01
I mean, that's pretty cute.

Scott Benner 1:01:03
I think that's what we got to do. Well, there's a lot there, Kate. Like I'm now I'm emotionally spent from having this conversation. I now I'm sorry. No, no, seriously, though. It really is crazy. That. It just that one moment, like, Listen, I've I've had that happen. Right. Arden had a pod that had to be changed while she was swimming. And sort of there'd been all this activity during the day. And so we expect them to have like lower blood sugars in the evening because of the of the all the activity and the swimming people know this. Right. So we changed the pump. It is literally in Gosh, Arden's been using Omnipod. Since she was four, she's 19. That's 15 years in 15 years of using on the pot that's changing one every three days. She's only ever had one king to cannula. Oh, wow. happened after that? Swimming. And so she wakes up the next morning. She's in DKA the next morning, just from that King cannula overnight. So Right. I don't even know how many pods. That is. It's insane. Right? We can figure it out. But 15 years, 365 days, probably 100. And some pods a year should probably wear. I mean, just crazy bow over 1200 pods maybe happen one time. And the one time it happened. It happened while she was asleep. Right didn't happen in the middle of the day where we would have noticed or something like that it didn't happen in a situation where we would have noticed quicker because her blood sugar would have shot up because it didn't shoot up because of all the swimming. Like just these little happenstance variables that kept it from being discovered right away. And it was you know, anyway, look, I always

Speaker 1 1:02:48
say it was just the perfect storm. Like everything lined up for a horrible disaster, right? Just was. And I feel so long. I was so angry because it's like, one tiny mistake one lapse in. You know, I don't know

Scott Benner 1:03:07
what I don't even you can't even blame yourself. Really? I mean, the cannula just kinked when you put it in? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:03:12
but you know, it's like, well, I should have made sure that it was working and all that. And I should have been doing like real sick day management that would have helped. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:03:23
but you know how many times people in your like with diabetes? get by? You know what I mean? Like, they just go like, I know what I should be doing. But it's going to be okay. And nine times out of 10. It is okay. And then

Speaker 1 1:03:36
that's been me my whole life. I've never I've never passed out from a low. I've never gone into DKA. So I kind of had this attitude of like, no, I got it. I got it. I always got it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:03:47
I'm telling you. I raised a little girl with diabetes. That's the biggest problem that is the most difficult to address is that it's difficult day today to have the same. Oh gosh, what's the word like sense of like, sense of like, we have to be on top of this that you have when you're parenting someone with type one, like when you're doing it as an adult? It doesn't make sense, right? You'd make yourself crazy. But yet, something's going to happen at some point. But look, you know, this could happen that can you could have kinked three days before before you were sick. And you probably would have figured it out. Your blood sugar would have started going up you haven't I know what the hell Oh, I just changed my site and blah, blah. But the cannulas being sick, blah, blah, blah. And you just you're trying to get through it. I'm telling you, that's crazy. Well, well, I'm happy obviously that it all worked out. And really nice of you to come on the podcast and tell everybody about it. Thank you so

Speaker 1 1:04:40
much. Oh, absolutely. It's like a dream come true. Kinda.

Scott Benner 1:04:45
Oh, do tell. I have a couple of minutes. Why am I fantastic? Now's the time.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:53
Oh, I think you know,

Scott Benner 1:04:55
it's fine. I'm very happy that the podcast is here. been invaluable for you through a lot, you know, through this time. So I really do appreciate you adding your story to it, because this is the kind of thing people need to hear. Like, you know, it's all well and good when nothing bad happens at the other side. But, you know, this is a great, it's a great experience to share to give people the idea that you do have to be diligent, you know, like, you can't just keep letting it go over and over again, it's gonna catch up at some point. And, man, I'm just glad that it all worked out. And so your husband, he, he gets there. I just this is the last little Yeah, he's there while you're in surgery already, is when he arrives. So

Speaker 1 1:05:39
it turns out well, I, I didn't ever see him. When I woke up. I wake up and I see him. So I'm gonna go thank God. But what actually happened is he he was there. And this is just perfect storm. It's hilarious. They took me to labor and delivery er, the ambulance did and he shows up to the hospital and goes to main er, and is at the ER front desk, like where's my wife? Where's my wife? Benedetta. And by the time, you know, the ER locates me and is like, Oh, she's over in lnd. Er, I was already back in the or so. That's, that's how we missed each other just

Scott Benner 1:06:17
like that. Oh my gosh, does he know? When do you to find out together the baby situation? Where does he find out before you wake up?

Speaker 1 1:06:28
Together, but I was like, kind of, you know, half there. I remember the doctor standing there and being like, he's alive. But we don't know if he's gonna be you know, fully functioning basically. I remember her being like, you know, just very direct about it.

Scott Benner 1:06:47
And tempering your expectations. Yes, yes. But

Speaker 1 1:06:52
he, you know, obviously went to meet him without me and everything like that. So

Scott Benner 1:06:57
did you were you with it enough to know how bad it was? Or were you kind of really out of it?

Speaker 1 1:07:01
I was really out of it. I thought I was with it. But then looking back I didn't really come to for for like two days because they had me on a you know, a lot of pain medicine and then I was still in DKA and yada

Scott Benner 1:07:16
yada. Sure. No, no, no, I imagine. Oh, wow. Okay. All right. Well, if it's okay with you, I'm definitely calling this one. Hey, Jude. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, I'm thrilled that, uh, that everything's okay. I seriously it's very kind of you. I would stay on with you a little longer, and talk about other stuff. But the truth is, I'm looking back on our conversation. I think this is about as much as people can take from whatever.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:39
I'm, I'm sad that I'm such a depressing. No,

Scott Benner 1:07:41
not depressing if it feels like I'm on a roller coaster.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:45
Yeah, I mean, well,

Scott Benner 1:07:48
yeah, I just feel like I feel like we've been on the Tilton world long enough. Now we all need to get off.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:54
Everybody needs to go listen to something happy.

Scott Benner 1:07:56
Yeah, I'm sure there's an after dark or someone's doing something absolutely insane. You can go listen to that. It'll probably pop you right up. Although I'm told by some people they don't like the after darks because they find them sad, but I find them incredibly interesting. So I don't know. Do you like them?

Speaker 1 1:08:11
Yeah, not. They're not really my style. I've I've only listened to one I think to me, to be honest with you.

Scott Benner 1:08:17
It's too much when people's like, have so much like distress in their life.

Speaker 1 1:08:22
Yeah, basically, I'm like, my life's crazy enough. Like, I don't want to I feel the same way about like sad movies or scary movies. It's just like, I don't want to consume, you know, negativity, I guess like life is. Life is crazy enough. It

Scott Benner 1:08:35
certainly is. Hey, here's my last question for you. Are you planning on having more kids?

Speaker 1 1:08:41
I am. Yeah. Yeah, you think it'd be okay. All I can do is pray. Did

Scott Benner 1:08:47
you ever figure out who gave you the flu?

Speaker 1 1:08:51
No, I don't know. Is probably at work. Realistically, it was flu season. I didn't care for anyone directly that had the flu. But we did have patients there that that were flu positive. Around.

Scott Benner 1:09:02
Yeah, I take it all right. I just like it because I there's part of music. I hope it's not somebody in their family. Like, like, you know what I mean? Like, like,

Speaker 1 1:09:11
that'd be horrible. I would not be able to get over that one. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:09:15
How did your dad handle the story afterwards? Because he understands it too. Like, is it hard for him to hear? Ah,

Speaker 1 1:09:23
yeah, definitely. He's like, he's really emotional, but like, keeps it on the DL. So I don't know. I know, like my parents came down, you know, the next morning and my husband's parents and I know everybody was kind of a mess. But I didn't. Everybody put on a brave face for me, I guess is the point. And I didn't really wake up out of all my craziness until like day two or three. So until

Scott Benner 1:09:49
you've been in a situation where a loved one is in a desperate that way. You don't realize how everyone just gets very like, Oh, it's fine. You'll look great. This is going to be okay. A Don't worry, I told my mom not to worry three hours before she was going to I knew she was going to die. And I was pretty sure it was going badly. I like Mom, it's gonna be alright. Like, there's nothing left to say. You know what I mean? Yeah. What are you going to? What are you going to do? Go? Oh, looks bad man. You better talk to Jesus because I think he's coming. So like, you know, it's so everyone does that thing, because they're just trying to get you back to a good place, you know? And exactly, yeah, it's wonderful. Well, listen, I'm glad you had people around you. And the law worked out. If you hold on just one second. I just need to talk to you for a second after we're done. But thank you so much for doing this. Of course, I

was happy to Oh, great. I don't one second.

A huge thanks to touched by type one for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Check them out on their website touched by type one.org or on Facebook and Instagram. A huge thanks to Dexcom for being longtime sponsors of the Juicebox Podcast dexcom.com/juice box head over there now. Get started today. Jalen is an incredible example of what so many experienced living with diabetes, you show up for yourself and others every day, never letting diabetes to find you. And that is what the Medtronic champion community is all about. Each of us is strong and together, we're even stronger. To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox And look out online for the hashtag Medtronic champion. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoy my full conversation with Jalen coming up in just a moment. A diabetes diagnosis comes with a lot of new terms, and you're not going to understand most of them. That's why we made the finding diabetes, go to juicebox podcast.com up into the menu and click on defining diabetes, to find the series that will tell you what all of those words mean. Short, fun and informative. That's the finding diabetes. Thanks for hanging out until the end. Now you're gonna hear my entire conversation with Jalen don't forget Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box or the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform.

Speaker 2 1:12:22
My name is Jalen Mayfield. I am 29 years old. I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I am originally from Waynesboro, Mississippi. So I've kind of traveled all over. I've just landed here in the Midwest and haven't left since.

Scott Benner 1:12:37
Nice. How old? were you when you were diagnosed with type one diabetes?

Speaker 2 1:12:39
I was 14 years old when I was diagnosed with type one diabetes

Scott Benner 1:12:44
15 years ago. Wow. Yes. Okay. 14 years old. What do you like? Do you remember what grade you were in?

Speaker 2 1:12:49
I actually do because we we have like an eighth grade promotion. So I had just had a great promotion. So I was going straight into high school. So it was a summer, heading into high school

Scott Benner 1:12:58
was that particularly difficult going into high school with this new thing?

Speaker 2 1:13:01
I was unimaginable. You know, I missed my entire summer. So I went, I was going to a brand new school with, you know, our community, we brought three different schools together. So I was around a bunch of new people that I had not been going to school with. So it was hard trying to balance that while also explaining to people what type one diabetes was,

Scott Benner 1:13:22
did you even know? Or were you just learning at the same time? I

Speaker 2 1:13:25
honestly was learning at the same time, my hometown did not have an endocrinologist. So I was traveling almost over an hour to the nearest you know, pediatrician, like endocrinologist for children. So you know, I outside of that I didn't have any type of support in my hometown.

Scott Benner 1:13:43
Was there any expectation of diabetes? Is somebody else in your family have type one? No,

Unknown Speaker 1:13:47
I was the first one to have type one in my family.

Scott Benner 1:13:49
And do you have children? Now? I do not know. Do you think you will one day, still

Speaker 2 1:13:54
thinking about it? But right now, I've just been traveling books at all my career myself. So

Scott Benner 1:13:59
what do you do? What's your career? Yeah, so

Speaker 2 1:14:02
I am a marketing leasing specialist for a student housing company. So we oversee about 90 properties throughout the US. So I've been working for them for about

Scott Benner 1:14:10
eight years now. And you get to travel a lot in that job. Yes, I

Speaker 2 1:14:14
experience a lot of travel. It's fun, but also difficult, especially with all your type one diabetes supplies, and all your electronics. So it's a bit of a hassle sometimes. What

Scott Benner 1:14:24
do you find that you absolutely need with you while you're traveling? diabetes wise,

Speaker 2 1:14:28
I have learned my biggest thing I need is some type of glucose. I have experienced lows, whether that's on a flight traveling, walking through the airport, and I used to always experience just being nervous to ask for some type of snack or anything. So I just felt I felt like I needed to always have something on me and that has made it my travel a lot easier.

Scott Benner 1:14:50
So growing up in the small town. What was your initial challenge during diagnosis, and what other challenges did you find? along the way.

Speaker 2 1:15:00
Yeah, I think the initial one, I felt isolated, I had no one to talk to that it was experiencing what I was going through. You know, they were people would say, Oh, I know, this is like hard for you. But I was like, you really don't like I, I just felt lonely. I didn't know, you know, people were watching everything I did. He was like, You can't eat this, you can't eat that. I felt like all of my childhood had been, you know, I don't even remember what it was like, for life before diabetes at this point, because I felt like that's the only thing I could focus on was trying to do a life with type one diabetes,

Scott Benner 1:15:34
when you found yourself misunderstood? Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 2 1:15:42
I honestly I just held back I didn't really like talking about it. It was just, it felt like it was just an repeating record where I was saying things and people weren't understanding it. And I also was still in the process of learning. So I just, you know, kept it to myself didn't really talk about it, which I absolutely had to,

Scott Benner 1:15:59
did you eventually find people in real life that you could confide in.

Speaker 2 1:16:03
I think I never really got the experience until after getting to college. And then once I graduated college, and moving to an even bigger town, that's what I finally found out was people were I was like, Okay, there's a lot of other people that have type one diabetes. And you know, there's a community out there, which I had never experienced before, is

Scott Benner 1:16:25
college where you met somebody with diabetes for the first time, or just where you met more people with different ways of thinking. So

Speaker 2 1:16:31
I met my first person with diabetes, actually, my freshman year of high school, there was only one other person. And he had had it since he was a kid like young once this was like, maybe born, or like, right after that timeframe. So that was the only other person I knew until I got to college. And I started meeting other people, I was a member of the band, and I was an RA. So I was like, Okay, there's, you know, there's a small handful of people also at my university. But then, once I moved to, I moved to St. Louis. And a lot of my friends I met were like med students, and they were young professionals. And that's where I started really getting involved with one of my really close friends to this day. He was also type one diabetic. And I was like, that's who introduced me to all these different types of communities and technologies, and which is really what helped jumpstart my learning more. And with type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:17:23
Do you think I mean, there was that one person in high school, but you were young? Do you really think you were ready to build a relationship and around diabetes? Or did you even know the reason why that would be important at the time?

Speaker 2 1:17:34
I didn't, you know, I honestly didn't think about it, I just was i Oh, there's another person in my class that's kind of going through the same thing as I am. But they've also had it a lot longer than I have. So they kind of got it down. They don't really talk about it. And I was like, Well, I don't really have much to, like, connect with them. So sorry, connect with them all. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:17:54
no. So now once your world expands as far as different people, different backgrounds, different places in college, you see the need to connect in real life, but there's still only a few people, but there's still value in that. Right?

Unknown Speaker 1:18:06
Correct.

Scott Benner 1:18:07
What do you think that value was at the time?

Speaker 2 1:18:09
I think it was just what making me feel like I was just a normal person. I just wanted that. And I just, I needed to know that. Like, you know, there was other people out there with type one diabetes experiencing the same type of, you know, thoughts that I was having.

Scott Benner 1:18:25
When were you first introduced to the Medtronic champions community? Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:18:29
So about two years ago, I was, you know, becoming more I was looking around, and I noticed stumbled upon the patriotic community. And I was like, this is something I really, really, I kind of need, you know, I said, I, all throughout these years, I was, you know, afraid to show my punk you couldn't, I would wear long sleeves, like, didn't want people to see my CGM, because I didn't want people to ask me questions. And you know, I just felt so uncomfortable. And I noticed seeing these people really, in the Medtronic community, just, they embraced it, you can see and they weren't afraid to show it. And that was something I was really looking forward to.

Scott Benner 1:19:04
How is it knowing that your diabetes technology is such an important part of your health and your care? And having to hide it? What did it feel like to have to hide that diabetes technology? And how did it feel to be able to kind of let it go,

Speaker 2 1:19:17
I will refuse to go anywhere. Like, I would run to the bathroom. I just didn't want to do it in public because I felt like people were watching me. And that was just one of the hardest things I was trying to overcome. You know, I was fresh out of college, going into the professional world. So you know, going out on work events and things like that. I just, I just didn't think I just didn't think to have it out because I was so afraid. But then once I did start, you know, embracing again and showing it that's when the curiosity came and it was actually genuine questions and people wanting to know more about the equipment that I'm on and how does this work and what does this mean and things like that, which made it kind of inspired me because I was like, Okay, people actually do want to understand And what I'm experiencing with type one diabetes,

Scott Benner 1:20:02
what did you experience when, when the internet came into play? And now suddenly as easy as a hashtag, and you can meet all these other people who are living with diabetes as well? Can you tell me how that is either different or valuable? I guess compared to meeting a few people in real life?

Speaker 2 1:20:19
Absolutely. I think if you look back from when I was first diagnosed to now, you, I would have never thought of like, you know, searching anything for someone with, you know, type one diabetes. And now it's like, it's all I see, you know, you can easily search Medtronic champions, and you see people that pop up, and you're like, wow, look at all this content. And I think that's something that, that kind of just motivates me, and which is how I've kind of came out of my shell and started embracing more and posting more on my social media with about, you know, how I live with type one diabetes. And I think that's something that I hope can inspire everyone else. What

Scott Benner 1:20:54
was it like having more personal intimate relationships in college with type one?

Speaker 2 1:20:58
I think it was kind of hard to explain, you know, just, for example, like, no one really knows, it understands, like what alo is. And I think that was a very hard thing for me to explain, like I, you know, it can happen in any moment. And I'm sweating. I'm just really like, not all there. And I'm trying to explain, like, Hey, this is what's going on, I need your help. And I think that was something that was hard for me to, you know, I did talk to people about it. So when this happened, they were like, oh, you know, what's going on with your mic? I'm actually a type one diabetic? This is what's going on? I need your help. What about?

Scott Benner 1:21:36
Once you've had an experience like that in front of someone? Was it always bonding? Or did it ever have people kind of step back and be maybe more leery of your relationship? After

Speaker 2 1:21:49
I would tell someone I had type one diabetes after some type of event or anything like they were kind of more upset with me that I didn't tell them up front? Because they were like, you know, I care about you, as a person I would have loved to knowing this about you. It's not anything you should have to hide from me. And that was a lot of the realization that I was going through with a lot of people.

Scott Benner 1:22:06
Okay, let me ask you this. So now we talked about what it was like to be low, and to have that more kind of emergent situation. But what about when your blood sugar has been high or stubborn? And you're not thinking correctly, but it's not as obvious maybe to you or to them? Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:22:21
So I also I go through my same experiences when I have high blood sugars, you know, I can tell like, for my co workers, for example, I didn't really talk to you know, when I go out backtrack, when I visit multiple sites for work, I usually don't announce it. And and so sometimes, I'm working throughout the day, I might have snacks, we got to take some insulin, and my blood sugar is running high, and I'm a little bit more irritable, I'm all over the place. And I'm like, let me stop. Hey, guys, I need to like take some insulin, and I'm sorry, I'm not I didn't tell you guys. I'm a diabetic. So you may be wondering why I'm kind of just a little bit snippy, you know, so I like to make sure I do that now going forward, because that's something I noticed. And it was kind of hindering me in my career, because I was, you know, getting irritable, because I'm working nonstop. And I'm forgetting to take a step back and focus on my diabetes,

Scott Benner 1:23:12
right? Hey, with the advent of new technologies, like Medtronic, CGM, and other diabetes technology, can you tell me how that's improved your life and those interactions with people? Yeah, I

Speaker 2 1:23:23
can. I feel confident knowing that it's working in the background, as someone and I always at least said it, I have been showing that's really bad with counting my carbs. So sometimes I kind of understood it, because I'm scared, but it allows me to just know that, hey, it's gonna it's got my back if I forget something, and I think that allows me to have a quick, have a quick lunch. And then I'm able to get back into the work day because it's such a fast paced industry that I work in. So sometimes it is easy to forget. And so I love that I have that system that's keeping track of everything for me.

Scott Benner 1:23:56
Let me ask you one last question. When you have interactions online with other people who have type one diabetes, what social media do you find the most valuable for you personally? Like? What platforms do you see the most people and have the most good interactions on?

Speaker 2 1:24:12
Yeah, I've honestly, I've had tremendous interactions on Instagram. That's where I've kind of seen a lot of other diabetics reach out to me and ask me questions, or comment and be like, Hey, you're experiencing this too. But I've recently also been seeing tic TOCs. And, you know, finding on that side of it, I didn't, you know, see the videos and upload videos, and I'm like, I would love to do stuff like that, but I just never had the courage. So I'm seeing people make like just the fun engagement videos now, which I love, you know, really bringing that awareness to diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:24:42
Isn't it interesting? Maybe you don't know this, but there's some sort of an age cut off somewhere where there is an entire world of people with type one diabetes existing on Facebook that don't go into Tik Tok or Instagram and vice versa. Yeah. And I do think it's pretty broken down by you know, when that platform was most popular for those people by age, but your younger people, I'm acting like I'm 100 years old, but younger people seem to enjoy video more.

Speaker 2 1:25:09
Yes, I think it's just because it's something you see. And so it's like, and I think that one thing, and obviously, it's a big stereotype of our diabetes is you don't feel like you have diabetes. And that's something I always face. And so when I see other people that are just, you know, normal, everyday people, and I'm like, they have type one diabetes, just like me, they're literally living their life having fun. That's just something you want to see it because you don't get to see people living their everyday lives with diabetes. I think that's something I've really enjoyed.

Scott Benner 1:25:38
What are your health goals? When you go to the endocrinologist, and you make a plan for the next few months? What are you hoping to achieve? And where do you struggle? And where do you see your successes, I'll

Speaker 2 1:25:49
be honest, I was not someone who is you know, involved with my diabetes, I wasn't really focused on my health. And that was something that, you know, you go into an endocrinologist and you get these results back. And it's not what you want to hear. It gets, it makes you nervous, it makes you scared. And so I have personally for myself, you know, I was like, This is my chance, this is my chance to change. I know, there's people that are living just like me, everyday lives, and they can keep their agencies and their blood sugar's under control. How can I do this? So I go in with, you know, I would like to see it down a certain number of points each time I would love for my doctor to be like, Hey, I see you're entering your carbs, I see your, you know, you're not having lows. You're not running high, too often. That's my goal. And I've been seeing that. And that's what motivates me, every time I go to the endocrinologist where I don't dread going. It's like an exciting visit for me.

Scott Benner 1:26:37
So you'd like to set a goal for yourself. And then for someone to acknowledge it to give you kind of that energy to keep going for the next goal.

Speaker 2 1:26:44
Yeah, I feel as a type one diabetic for me, and it's just a lot to balance. It's a hard our journey. And so I want someone when I go in, I want to be able to know like, Hey, I see what you're doing. Let's work together to do this. Let's you don't want to be put down like you know, you're doing horrible you're doing it's just, it's not going to motivate you because it's you're already fighting a tough battle. So just having that motivation and acknowledging the goods and also how we can improve. That's what really has been the game changer for me in the past two years. Jalen,

Scott Benner 1:27:22
I appreciate you spending this time with me. This was terrific. Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:25
Absolutely. Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:27:27
If you enjoy Jalen story, check out Medtronic. diabetes.com/juicebox Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way. recording.com

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