#566 Vikki Became a Diabetes Educator

October 26, 2021Scott Benner

Vikki is also the mom of a type 1.

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Scott Benner 0:00
You're listening to Episode 566 of the Juicebox Podcast.

The key is a diabetes care education specialist. She's also the mother of a child with Type One Diabetes. Today she comes on the show in an attempt to tell us about moving to that career. I say an attempt because you know, I'm going to think of a bunch of questions and then I mean, who knows what we end up really talking about, but that's not the point. You're gonna love the conversation. So don't be so judgmental. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast, please remember this please, please, that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. You do not have to consult a physician to follow me on tik tok at Juicebox Podcast on Instagram at Juicebox Podcast. The private Facebook group that's called Juicebox Podcast Type One Diabetes you don't have to ask a physician before you take the T one D survey at T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox these things are all those are free well things you can just do that. Alright? For this ham fisted, I don't want to tell you it's Sunday night I'm doing a bunch of ads and I'm a little I'm a little woozy. Not gonna lie to you. But don't worry, when I recorded the episode sharp is attack this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Learn more at Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox you're also sponsored we are also sponsored whose way we are also sponsored today we it's me I do the whole thing I do the booking the scheduling the editing, the social media, and then I say we as if there's some grand group of people here. I guess I can't say I I'm sponsored today. I mean, I could but that sounds terrible, right? That doesn't sound like me. Me Me. The whole thing's about me. Yeah. Oh, how about this, the podcast is also sponsored today. By touched by type one, go to touched by type one.org Ford slash juice box to learn more about them. And to see if they've got tickets to their big dance extravaganza that's coming up, which I bet they do. So go look touched by type one.org. fidget delivery. I'm sure you had. I'm recording By the way, but I'm sure you haven't read this. But there's a book about hitting a baseball. That says something to the effect of if I tell you, if I say Vicki, no matter what you do, the next thing you do should not be imagine a pink elephant with purple dots on it. The your brain immediately conjures a picture of a pink elephant. So that's why they tell you in sports, not the like you don't tell a kid you know, don't strike out. You tell them to hit the ball. That like real little ideas like that, because your brain manifests things anyway. Don't fidget. Don't fidget do not go ahead. Introduce yourself first.

Vikki 3:15
Okay, um, my name is Vikki. I am a certified diabetes educator or a now a Diabetes Care and Education Specialist, my nurse and a parent to three boys including 110 year old boy with Type One Diabetes.

Scott Benner 3:32
So my question I was gonna ask you is do any of those boys play baseball?

Vikki 3:35
They do not. They are not particularly athletic. There's just not ever enjoyed it or excelled at it. And so I have to coerce physical activity out of them.

Scott Benner 3:48
They're not particularly athletic. I gotcha. The reason I said because I'm gonna have to leave in what I said at the beginning. Because if you ever notice with a man on third in a child's baseball game, the coach feels encumbered and they have to walk out to the pitcher and say, Okay, now look, we got a man on third here, just make a good pitch. And inevitably, the next pitches in the dirt bounces behind the catcher and the man on third walks home. It's almost like you're taking time to point out to the pitcher, hey, don't forget the guy on third who you're trying desperately not to let score. And it just it makes it happen. I'm telling you, it's a it's the biggest mistake a youth coach could make. So that's from me to anybody listening who coaches kids playing baseball. Don't remind them there's a man on third make a good pitch, because you might as well just tell them roll the ball up there. Anyway, there's a lot of words you don't know because your kids don't play.

Vikki 4:40
Right? I knew it was labor intensive baseball in particular, that it was several nights a week, so I never really encouraged it. That seemed like a lot of work on my part.

Scott Benner 4:49
Yeah, I've said it here before but we actively made sure my son did not know what soccer was because my wife doesn't like it.

Vikki 4:57
That's smart. Yeah. It's

Scott Benner 4:59
the greatest thing I'll tell it in two seconds is that we were stopped at a red light. And there was a men's league at this park, where hundreds of men were playing on like three or four fields. My son's like, what are they doing? And my wife looks over and looks back, she goes, I have no idea. We just sat there quietly and drove away when the light turned green. That's so funny. If you've ever talked to her, she'll tell you about being drugged to soccer games for her sisters through her whole life. scarred her. She did not write again, she does not like soccer. Anyway. So Vicki, you are on the show, because I asked if somebody can remind me what I said,

Vikki 5:38
if someone had was a CTE, or had recently become one, and so I was certified, it's been a little over a year now I think at the time that it had been just that a year or something like that,

Scott Benner 5:48
yes, thank you. I need other people in my life to remind me of what I mean and what credibly handy, I have to tell you, like, it's way better than having to remember for yourself. So my, my reasoning behind that was that people ask about becoming CDs, a lot of nurses that listen, and people who are looking to educate themselves as an adult. And I thought we could walk through it now. My super secret, like, you know, secret for myself wanting to do it is because I'm trying to make a whole bunch of Juicebox Podcast thinking CDs in the world. And then one day I'll take over the world with with the chip that Bill Gates put in your vaccine. Well, March to victory anyway, that's a different thing. So when did you become a nurse?

Vikki 6:43
So I became a nurse in 2006. It was my second career. I was a teacher first, and then I got married and went to nursing school.

Scott Benner 6:53
Wow. So you were a teacher as a as a younger single person? Yes. What made you switch careers? Can I ask?

Vikki 7:01
Well, I had wanted to be a doctor. And then I discovered beer in college and didn't study as I should have. And teaching didn't require that GPA. So I was a science teacher for four years, and just always knew I wanted to be in medicine. And so when I got married, I had someone that could support me while I went back to school.

Scott Benner 7:27
So now Vicki, I have children who are almost through the education system, as far as at least High School goes, but are you trying to scare the living hell out of all the young parents in the world?

Vikki 7:35
No, we can edit that part out. I just, no, no, we're

Scott Benner 7:39
leaving it in. That's hilarious. Be careful when you're talking.

Vikki 7:46
Now, just high school was so easy in college. I went to Georgia Tech. And so it was very humbling. And my grades suffered because I didn't realize I was going to have to put a whole lot more effort into it. And then I just decided it was way more fun to not put effort into it.

Scott Benner 8:09
So it's not your It wasn't your intellect because you went back around and did it again. Was it maturity?

Vikki 8:14
It may have been Yeah, it was the first thing I was pretty sheltered, I guess. And

away from home and private, more so than I'd ever been. No, it was a public

Scott Benner 8:26
school. Your your high school was, was public.

Vikki 8:29
No, no, that yes, yes. Sorry. Yeah, that was public. I just was kind of a homebody and didn't go out much. College was different. I found my people, you know how you. I feel like sometimes, high school wasn't great. But college I found people I connected with more and have more fun.

Scott Benner 8:47
Gotcha. Would you have been up a more social person in high school? Do you think if you met more people that you jive with? Where do you know, it's funny This is your like, I've listened this podcast enough to know that we're never going to talk about how I became a CT. Don't worry, we will. I'm just fascinated because I've seen a number of people come out of the private high school system with these great grades and they get to college, and they go, Oh, I don't think I'm as smart as I thought I was. But sometimes their grades are bolstered by the private high schools desire for their parents to keep paying for private high school.

Vikki 9:26
Right, right, right.

Scott Benner 9:28
You know what I mean? It wasn't the case. No, it doesn't sound like it because once you went back and did it, you were fine.

Vikki 9:34
Yeah. But you know, oh, no, I probably shouldn't mention the other school. I feel like the other school that I got my my nursing degree from was it was just very different. And honestly, I found those classes way more enjoyable, the atmosphere more enjoyable. Georgia Tech is a it's an engineering school and it's it's just very rigorous.

Scott Benner 9:58
I guess. Gotcha. No I am interested to understand Okay, so you were a teacher. So everybody now when you go back back to school night, just look that person in the face and think I wonder if they're here because they want to be or because

this teacher was formed by myka Loeb

Vikki 10:20
with Miller Lite.

Scott Benner 10:25
Okay, I didn't expect that this much fun. Um, so, okay, so you go back to nursing to and then what kind of nursing Do you do and for how long do you do it?

Vikki 10:35
Okay, so I, my first nursing job was on a step down cardiac floor. And so I dealt with patients with heart failure. Patients a couple of days post heart attack, people that had had angioplasty had a stent placed. So I did that for how many years about five years, and then when my twins, so I have three boys, the oldest is 13, the youngest younger two are 1010 year old twins. And when they were born, it was too much work to go to work, if that makes sense. Like, their dad did the best he could. But I felt like I had to spend four more hours when I got home after a 12 hour shift to clean up the mess he made to be ready for the next day. And so I just stayed home for until they went to preschool. So about two and a half years after that,

Scott Benner 11:33
okay, I'm not this has anything to do with anything. But was your husband really messy? Or are you just type A and you didn't like it not being the way you wanted it?

Vikki 11:42
He what he's my ex husband now. Oh, um, he is very messy. Yes, it. And so now he's in his own house down the street. And he can be as messy as he wants with a maid once a week. And I don't have to deal with that my house stays clean for days. It's amazing.

Scott Benner 12:00
We figure out what's wrong with the house. So okay, so 13 and 210s are the 210s and everybody's a boy. What What age was your child diagnosed that

Vikki 12:15
he was diagnosed while we were on vacation? At five. He had started kindergarten that year.

So yeah, that was what does that make it? It'll be five years in September.

Scott Benner 12:30
Five years in September, so like, it's 21. So they go back to like, like, 1995 9696

Vikki 12:40
Wait, what? What? When he was diagnosed? Yeah.

Scott Benner 12:44
Oh, no. No, I mean, 2016 Yeah, I took that.

Vikki 12:50
What kind of mouth are you doing?

Scott Benner 12:52
They taught me in middle school. My my paid attention to it. Sorry. 2006 2016 is when he was diagnosed. Okay. And when did you become a nurse?

Vikki 13:05
I became a nurse in 2006. So I had been a nurse for 10 years, but I hadn't. I guess I had been back to work a year and a half before he was diagnosed, something like that.

Scott Benner 13:15
Okay. So what was the diagnosis process like in your house? Did you? Were you you were there the entire time? It was on you mostly.

Vikki 13:27
When before he was diagnosed? No. Right after I'm

Scott Benner 13:29
sorry. When he was diagnosed? Was it something that was kind of handled by the whole family or did it fall mostly to you? How did that go? In the beginning it

Vikki 13:36
was. So he had just started kindergarten and he started on a couple of months into it started wetting the bed again. And I thought it was just being in kindergarten schedule was different. We have fall break here in Georgia. And we had gone to visit my aunt moved Destin, Florida. And while we were getting ready to go to the beach, I noticed I got them all some ice water, he drank his and about 20 seconds and then asked for more. And then he had to go to the bathroom. And he asked to go to the bathroom like three more times the next hour. And it was the first time I'd had a chance to really sit down with that information. I was like at the beach with my boys. And he was being super fussy. And usually he's like my most easygoing child. And I just looked at it and I was like, Oh my goodness, that those are the totally the symptoms of type one diabetes, which in my mind, that was like a inherited thing. I guess I didn't know enough specifically, I just knew the signs. But I texted their dad. We were still married at the time and told them that I was like, I'm probably being crazy but called a pediatrician. You've got all these symptoms. Just find out what they say make an appointment, and so he made an appointment for like the next week because in my mind, it wasn't an emergency. But then, as the day goes by, I'm just thinking more about it. He's getting crappier and crappier. And we're staying with my aunt who is a vet. And so I asked her if she could check his urine. And it's the same dipstick they use for cats that for humans, so we went to her office, and she was like I was I was praying It was a UTI. And she said, there's no bacteria, but it's, what is it for plus glucose? And I was like, Well, what else could that be? because surely, it's still not diabetes. But I tried to talk myself out of doing anything about it until the next day, or until we got home. And then finally we're like, no, we're going to the urgent care, or no to the emergency room. And then they had to take us by ambulance to the Children's Hospital. And luckily, my niece was with us, and she could take my other two boys and watch them. So anyway, we went to Pensacola Children's Hospital, I believe. And I had to call their dad and he had to jump in the car and drive there. And it was just a whirlwind of education and

Scott Benner 16:12
insanity.

Vikki 16:13
insanity. Yeah. And we were out of state. So they couldn't make an appointment with an endo. In Georgia. And that was a big struggle, too. Because when I called them when I got back into town on Monday, or whatever, they were like, we can see you in December. And it was like September, when he got diagnosed, and he's five years old.

Scott Benner 16:37
Hey, we thought he had distemper, but it turns out this is diabetes. We're gonna need to see him a little sooner, please. Yeah. He's that fascinating when you're talking to the scheduler? I know they don't know all the time, right? Because it is really what you're doing. You're talking to a scheduling nurse, but they should still know. You're telling them your five year old has type one diabetes, they were diagnosed at a state and they're like, Oh, that's no problem. Can you come in three months from now?

Vikki 17:00
Real? I'm like, no. So we were about to go to the emergency room and just get admitted that way. Because, you know, they put you on, I think he was on like five units of levemir and was going low every single night. And we had no idea what a honeymoon period was, or any of those things. We just know, we were just constantly feeding the insulin that they were on, he has to have 45 grams of carbs per meal. And he has to take these five units of insulin. So I posted on Facebook, and several of my Facebook friends had suggested camp kudzu, which is a camp for children with type one diabetes, and coincidentally, their fall family camping was the next weekend. So we went and we met an endo there who gave us a you know, a number to get in like the next week. So it was awesome. It was meant to be

Scott Benner 17:53
to wander around that camp, just looking for anybody to help you at all. Yeah, so please, we're like come on, written on a piece of cardboard, like recently diagnosed, no one will help.

Vikki 18:03
Please. They, they had you raise your hand like who was the most recently diagnosed? And we of course one because it had been like three days. And so yeah, we got to talk to the doctor. And he gave us a number to call to get scheduled right away, and they fit us in. So that was great. That's fascinating, but it was still always turned.

Scott Benner 18:25
Aside from that. It's just like now in hindsight, right? It's fascinating, but that's what happened. Like, I know, you know, just imagine if somebody said to you now like, Hey, I think you have, I don't know cancer? Can you come back in three months? And we'll check to make sure. We'll just see. Fine. I mean, is your heart in arrhythmia? Try not to run out the steps too fast till we can get you in here. Such an interesting like, response from medical people. Mm hmm. You know, that's really fascinating. Okay, so started off with injections. You said this sounds like there was a bit of a honeymoon period? What were the what were your findings over the first like six months that was it completely overwhelming? Is he alive by luck? Did you start figuring it out? Did your nursing get in the way or help?

Vikki 19:12
I think it did. I found I had no idea how insulin worked. I thought somehow it was magic. And it just knew what it was supposed to do. It would do what it needed to do. And that's something I've learned in my professional experience since is it absolutely is not magic. You know, I heard a doctor say this once that insulin works until it's done. It's not smart. It works until it's done. And so that's what I have said almost every day of my career since is you have to be the smart one. You're the brain behind the operation, and it took several months to kind of get a better understanding of that. They pulled way back and he was off long acting for several months and just did a tiny bit of the rapid acting With me on

Scott Benner 20:02
how much do you weigh when is diagnosed, like

Vikki 20:05
40 something 4444

Scott Benner 20:09
foot weight on after he was diagnosed? You know, I

Vikki 20:12
don't think he had had it very long. I looked at pictures and I think I caught it pretty early. I like to think I did. Because I don't remember him being particularly thin. But he used to be taller than his twin and they are not identical. But he used to be taller than his twin and his twin shot up. And honestly, this may have happened anyway. But his twin has now been bigger ever since.

Scott Benner 20:35
It's possible. We're gonna call this episode diabetes made me short. So have you had his thyroid checked?

Vikki 20:44
But prior to that? We have since Yes. So his dad has both celiac and hypothyroidism. So yeah, they're, I mean, I think they would have been checking for those things anyway. But

Scott Benner 20:56
one day, a long time ago, a young Vicky met a man who gave her a messy house and a kid with diabetes. The reason I asked is because Arden was the smallest person in her school for the girls for a really, really long time. And then she got I guess we should probably like do a whole episode about this at some point. But she got make we thought she was dying. like she'd come home from school and lay her head on the countertop. And she'd fall asleep like facedown on the countertop. And she was just racked. And we eventually like okay, maybe this is her thyroid, and we got a checked in, you know, her labs were, you know, in range, I'm making air quotes. And the, in the, you know, the hospitals like Well, we're she's in range, we don't usually treat this and I was like, Oh, you're just gonna treat it. And so, so they gave her medicine and she stood right back up again. And then she and now today, Arden is 579 she's one of the tallest girls in high school.

Vikki 22:05
Oh, they caught up. Yeah, he's not shorter than me. He's still a good size kid. He is smaller than his brother. Right? Um, his. His dad and I are fairly tall and so

Scott Benner 22:19
either short compared to you guys, maybe. Yeah, that's funny. Arden talks about that. She's like, when I'm with my friends at school. I feel like a giant and as soon as I come home, even though we're not incredibly tall people, we are all taller than her. She's like, I feel short in the house. So but but my point is, is that if you get that test, and you know he's got a TSH of like, 2.1 Don't let Don't let them tell you that's in range. It's common is what that is. Okay. All right. Yeah,

Vikki 22:46
he gets his labs again this summer. We just went to the end of the day, actually. So next set. next appointment is the yearly lab. So I will Yeah, pay more attention to

Scott Benner 22:57
that episode that I did with Dr. Benito about thyroid is, it's absolutely, like, comprehensive. And she will treat anything, like anything over to like so.

Vikki 23:08
Yeah, well, I'm gonna make sure his dad listens to that, because honestly, I have not been invested in how well he manages his own. So

Scott Benner 23:16
well, you know, it's interesting to note that I'm trying to get you guys back together. I'm not doing that. But, you know, when you're unregulated, hypothyroid or hashimotos, you can be a bit of a jackass. And it's hard to not saying your husband was maybe Listen, maybe this is all your fault. I don't know. I'm just saying that. I'm just saying that. It really alters who you are. Okay. And it's not it's not. It's not in any way seen by the person that's happening to like, they don't know they're being jerky. Okay, we're short tempered or unreasonable. I like to tell people privately, I don't think I've ever said it here. But we couldn't get a doctor to give my wife a thyroid medication for seven years. And it really like ravaged her. And she was always in range. But you know, they'd be like, Oh, you're in range. And finally I threatened a doctor and I was just like, Look, just give me I said, is the medicine gonna hurt or if you're wrong, and he said no one I'm like, but then just give it to her. And I said, because I've already dug a hole on our property to put her into so because I'm gonna snap and kill her one day, because she's really unreasonable sometimes. So like, we're all laughing like, you know, like a bunch of married people laughing in a room. And and I'm like, but seriously give it to her. And I would say that within a week, she turned back into the person that I remembered

Vikki 24:35
was really amazing. That quick, yeah, it was

Scott Benner 24:39
very fast. So it's worth it's worth, it's worth looking into. And even if he are being medicated, you might not be being medicated enough. And the difference between just your GP giving you Synthroid and a doctor who really understands thyroid function that can look at those labs and say, we are not medicating the number we are medicating the symptoms until that until you find somebody that will do that you don't know where you're at. So that's my advice about thyroid All right, good luck would not be if you like turned back into like some great guy and you're like, damn it Oh No, I'm just kidding. Don't tell me about your life. I don't care. I don't try to do that. I want to find out how to be a CD. So at what point do you say and it's not a CD anymore I know but you're not going to get me to say the other thing. So we should you say it when it's your turn.

Vikki 25:36
When did I might get it wrong because they changed it like a month after I took the test.

Scott Benner 25:41
Okay, what point did you say to yourself, I'm gonna do this.

I'm going to keep going with what I did in Episode 565, which is read to you from the private Facebook group what people had to say about the advertisers. So today we're going to talk about the Contour Next One blood glucose meter which you can learn more about it Contour Next one.com forward slash juice box. Jess says she loves it because it's inexpensive and it's super accurate. She says I love how cheap the Contour Next One is for being so accurate. She got a couple of them so she keeps one upstairs by the bed downstairs and wonder purse gives her one less thing to think about because she knows she has a Contour Next One nearby. When he says that the second chance test strips or her farm. Her fervor are her favorite part about the Contour Next One. It's fantastic. She said if the first drop isn't enough, you get to do it over again without needing a new strip.

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Vikki 29:50
I kind of just looked into it. So after I went back to work when my twins went to preschool, I worked in a call center still as a nurse, but no longer at the bedside, like in a hospital, so I was working for a department called population health and our health system created it to help support our Medicare population. So I was making phone calls to them, after a hospital stay to try to make sure they could get their medication, they have transportation, they understood their disease, and weren't going to go back to the hospital as a result of what brought them there in the first place. So I was doing that and just peer in which is like a healthcare term for as needed. I was just filling in when my kids are at preschool, or I had childcare. There was somebody on my team that was diabetes specific, and only focused on diabetes on the Medicare patients on our list who had diabetes, I'm and I kind of would, would talk to that person all the time. And then as I learned more and more after Theo was diagnosed with kidney was I, that person started asking me questions like it was interesting. So that person who had the role prior to me, became pregnant and decided to quit. So that job was open. And so it was announced by my manager to the team that this role was open. She wanted to see if we had any internal candidates. And I reached out and I was like, well, I talked to my then husband and asked him how he felt about me going full time. And he was like, I think that's a great idea. And I emailed my manager, and within like two minutes, she was like, Oh, yes, you'd be my first choice. Can we talk right now. And so she was super excited about it. And then I was super excited about it, it was actually a friend at work that it said you should do this. Because before that, I was like, I don't work full time. I just take care of my boys mostly. So anyways, this friend that really pushed me into doing it. But she told me as part of the role, they wanted me to become a CDE. And so I really lucked out because it is hard. It's a challenge to get that number of hours, you need to be able to test for it. So you not only have to be certified or licensed in a particular discipline, you also have to have the experience so

Scott Benner 32:25
and that's hours at your job like so you need them to put you with diabetes patients over over and over how many hours do you need? I forget the number 1000. Right.

Vikki 32:35
And the majority of it had to be within the last calendar year, I think they may have changed things a little bit due to COVID. But most of it had to be fairly recent. All of it had to be within five years, and most of it I think within the last 12 months. So I was diabetes specifics on it. And all I did, but even you know, 40 hours a week, which you can't really count every hour. You don't count

Scott Benner 33:01
chart where when you?

Vikki 33:04
Yeah. So I didn't keep careful records. I was audited. I have another coworker that tested at the same time. And she did not keep the same records. She was not audited. And then luckily oh my goodness, I was not Luckily, I was audited. So I had to turn in my log time. But

Scott Benner 33:25
you had good specific records in that. Yeah. So that was

Vikki 33:29
the lucky part was that I had been keeping careful records. And with no patient information, but just like I don't know, I made up a number and would say what date and how much time I had spent with each of them. I diabetes specific education.

Scott Benner 33:46
I think I could turn in the podcast, I might be able to get through.

Vikki 33:48
I think you could I think you could if you have they're really particular about the disciplines. They're expanding that a little bit I think maybe like personal trainers can get it now and health coaches and social workers and they've kind of expanded who's able to get it, what disciplines they'll allow. But most people, in my experience have been either a nurse or a dietitian. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 34:11
don't really want to do that I was just being

Vikki 34:14
really there's not a lot of glory in it.

Scott Benner 34:16
I've had a lot of conversations, a lot of people diabetes, I might be able to get to 1000 hours I'm thinking Wait, tell me again, what year that was that that whole decision was made?

Vikki 34:27
So that's a really good question. Um, I think it took me When was that?

Scott Benner 34:37
I'm looking for like the day they were like, Who wants this job? And you're like, I'll do it.

Vikki 34:41
I think it was three years when I took the time the job full time. So I think I decided that in like January of what was three years ago.

Scott Benner 34:51
2018 2018. So your son, your son had had diabetes for a couple of years at that point.

Vikki 34:56
Yeah. A little over a year at that point. Yeah.

Scott Benner 34:58
Excellent. Okay. So So how much of what you were experiencing? Having a child with diabetes? Is? What's my question? How much of it did you see in the actual training? I guess?

Vikki 35:17
Well, that was something that I thought quite a lot about. So most of the training, I think, is geared toward patients with type two diabetes 95% of people diabetes have type two, and then they always err on the side of caution. So it's whatever they can, you can't really make a hard and fast rule that applies to everybody. So a lot of what I've learned, kind of hindered me a little in studying and I kind of had to have two different sides to my brain, like what, you know, the ADA recommends, and what I'm actually going to do with my child, like, cuz they're, they have to be very conservative, because not everyone is paying attention. Even me, like I've been, I have a new job now. And I don't have that same flexibility where I can look at his Dexcom every 10 minutes to see what's going on, I kind of have to trust that, that he and the school nurse are doing what they're supposed to be doing. So I want things there's not as much bumping and nudging lately. So it is it's very different.

Scott Benner 36:25
So there's what works. And there's what you need to know to pass the test,

Vikki 36:29
basically. Yes. And but a lot of the test was, I think, kind of subjective. Like, what would you do in this situation? You have to figure out what is the most important thing for the patient? And there's, you have to put on like a social worker hat for a minute and be like, well, what can they afford? What can they realistic, three, accomplish? Like, what can you like, safely? You know, because not everybody has the same home life, not everybody has the same resources, we are all coming from a different place. So

Scott Benner 36:57
plain English, do you have to assess people's intelligence? Yes. And their ability to understand what you're saying? Yes, very

Vikki 37:05
much, because I think I talked to, to most of the patients in my former Job had type two, but some had type one, and someone had it for a long time. And if they wouldn't have been on my list, had it been well managed. I only got people with a onesies overnight for most of the time I did this. So they were not very well controlled, not tightly controlled. And one of them flat out asked me, How often does your son go to the emergency room for higher low blood sugars. And I was like, well, he's never been since diagnosis, I've never had to take him for that. I mean, he's had to go for a stomach bug now. But when he was diagnosed, I was convinced we were going to be there all the time. My my ex actually moved out, he moved back in just because we thought every one of us was always going to have to be at the doctor with him. Anyway, you know,

Scott Benner 37:57
I met a child, once one at one of my speaking engagements. And the emergency room was a regular part of their monthly diabetes plan. Oh, like they knew they were going to be in the emergency room multiple times a month. And I was I was absolutely fascinated by it. And two parents who were trying really hard and seem to have Yeah,

Vikki 38:19
it's not for lack of effort. Yeah. And I felt Not always.

Scott Benner 38:23
Well, yeah, and there are some people, right, who were just like, I don't care, I'm not gonna take care of myself. Like that's with anything, I would imagine just diabetes. But I'm still fascinated about the idea that it's such a, it's such a bureaucrat, bag, bureaucratic feeling like that idea of like, you know, there's what you need to get through the test. And then there's what you could actually help people with. And these two things do not have to exactly correspond with each other.

Vikki 38:51
Yeah. But but I get it, I mean, it's not going to work for everyone. And not everyone has the time or inclination to manage it that closely. And they don't have two separate tests for type one and type two. So I kind of understand how it's set up the

Scott Benner 39:09
way it is. So then what happens? Do people get to people get through the examination, become an educator, and then either become like a buy the book, this is my job. And this is what I'm supposed to say to you person? Or there are some CDs who take the time to explain the intricacies is it just does that then become personal preference or personnel? I

Vikki 39:33
think so. And you got to do what your employer allows you to do. So.

Scott Benner 39:38
You can't say too much even if you want to in certain situations. Gotcha. So you can be looking at somebody and the answer might be, hey, just Pre-Bolus but the person you work for doesn't let you say that and then you're stuck and you can't say,

Vikki 39:53
Oh, well that one I I would push but the whole concept of bumping and dodging that I've learned from your I don't know there's no way, but most of them are type two. And really I'm like, I Another thing I always say is exercise is magic. It makes such a big difference, particularly with the type twos who are so insensitive to insulin. When you just get up and get a couple 1000 steps a day, everything works the way it's supposed to.

Scott Benner 40:19
You know, it's funny, when you hear people say that, first of all, you're 100,000,000%. Correct. But think of the first thing that you can think of that you can't get people to do generally. It's exercise. And then right, we're like, oh, now you have diabetes. You know what your answer is? I would just exercise visors. You'd be like, yeah, I haven't done it the first 37 years, but that's probably how I'm gonna handle it tomorrow. Thanks a lot. It's like, it's like, it's like saying that the answer to racism is telling people not to be racist. It's a very like, it's you know, you mean like,

Vikki 40:46
it's so simple that it would never work well, and

Scott Benner 40:49
you can't change the nature of people is what I'm saying is like, right? It's it's like, it's like when it's like, it's like, if you were to meet somebody who was grossly overweight, and you said to them, all you really need to do is eat better. Like, thanks. I didn't know that I really thought these Cheetos were good for me. I got you've really strike me up. I appreciate your time. Like, it's one of those weird things that your people do things the way they do them the answer to making it better can't be don't do the thing you do. I know that's, I mean, it's the obvious answer is the right thing to be told. It's an unreasonable thing to expect somebody to just magically pop up and do one day.

Vikki 41:28
Exactly. Yeah, well, I tried to create small goals with them just, you know, add little five minute walks, get up during commercials,

Scott Benner 41:37
you're actually giving them little ideas that might trick them into doing things that are better for them because the truth is, they're not just going to get up and be like, I'm going to walk two miles every day.

Vikki 41:48
Right? We'll just walk to the mailbox today.

Scott Benner 41:51
Well, it is it is like that at some for some people like that

Vikki 41:55
it is unfortunately especially I've worked with Medicare patients and most of them are older and a lot of them had you know, knee problems hip problems. So you work with what you got, I was like even if you're just lifting soup cans, some amount of activity. And then for the type twos, usually they tell you 30 to 50 grams of carbs per meal, you know, lower end if you're female, higher end if you're male and or you know, particularly active so it's different with type ones. We're, you know, doing carb ratios for type twos, you mostly they have a fixed amount of insulin. And we just tried to eat the same amount of carbs basically. So

Scott Benner 42:38
my mom's in her like mid to late 70s and she was very active like going to the gym, right? Right up till COVID and then as soon as COVID hit and she became more sedentary hurry once he started to go up. Oh, yeah, yeah, that activity and so then I just saw I think she was kind of staving off or rising or a one see just by being incredibly active, like she'd get up in the morning, go to the gym, you know what I mean? And then I finally said to her, I was like, Alright, well look, you're gonna end up on medication. You know, if this rolls around again and another quarter when he tests your blood sugar again, I said I would just go low carb if I was you. And she's waiting now to go back in here. But it's she lost weight with a low carb and I think it's gonna work for but it's specific. She lives in a small place. You don't mean like you just said like, lifting soup cans. Like there's part of me that's like, Oh, that's brilliant. And there's part of me that thinks like, trying to put myself in a 75 year old person's mind. And I'm trapped in a small apartment doing curls with some chunky soup. Would you not sit there thinking like, Oh my god, like what has become of my life? My life? Yeah, like yeah, I would just be like, oh, maybe I'm done. You know, like what am I doing? I've already seen the prices right? I'm doing curls with soup cans, it might be time to go. And you know, I just what I'm being serious though, is I'm saying like, it must be difficult to hear things like just walk to the mailbox because they're not. They're still people and they they're not stupid. They're like, Oh my God, that's my life. Like, that's gonna be exercise my knee, you know, and like you said, some people have real problems, hips, knees, stuff like that. Really is it's, I mean, it's obviously the progression of life. And it's not sad. I mean, like, I guess I'd rather have a bum knee at 78 and not make it to 78 but it's just it's the fact of all this. I feel like it gets overlooked sometimes. Like we're also quick. You know, people listen to the podcast or even people who you know online who were very specifically managing, you don't realize like you're, you're the small percentage of people. Like most people are not bumping a 130 blood sugar. You know, most people are like, my blood sugar only went to 190 day I had such a great day. You know, that's how, how it works for most people. Most people don't have glucose sensing technology, you know, they can't afford it. If they had it, they might not know how to use it. And, and the idea there is that you're looking for ways to help those people and then somebody like you or me rolls in and I'm like, hey, my kids Hey, one says five, nine, I really would like it to be five, five. Can you help me the CDs? Probably like what? you doing? Great. Shut up.

Vikki 45:22
Why don't you want to change anything?

Scott Benner 45:24
Leave me alone. You're my easy one.

Vikki 45:27
Yeah, I got told that today, the doctor was like, no, no. I've seen real problems. And I mean, I still feel like our control is nowhere near where I want it to be. But you know, I have three kids, I work full time. I do the best I can. And my kid, he will ignore every single alarm. So if I'm not like sitting in front of the phone, like he could be high for who knows how long and he won't tell me he's low until he's like in the 50s. So anyway,

Scott Benner 45:57
I there are times I've walked into orange room, and I go, you must hear the alarm should go real, and shall go. My phone's not making any noise. And I'm like, don't hear as I hear it from your room into my room. And you know, and so, then you're standing there looking at her, she's looking back, and then her phone beeps and she goes, Oh, it's starting to work now. And I was like, Uh huh. But I don't think she's ignoring it. I don't think she hears. Yeah, I really don't. And I think she's 16. And you know what I mean, like, all that other stuff. But you're right, like, people need help, and help. You know, when, when I say people need help, like, when kids need help, what they really need is a person who is willing to exercise some part of their life out of their life and fill it back in with helping you with your diabetes. Like that has to be part of my job. Once it's part of my job, then I look and I pay attention. Like, you know, Arden grabbed a snack this morning during school. And she like, didn't do a great job with the Bolus. And so I went in, and I was like, hey, that's not working. And she's like, I did everything I was supposed to. And I was like, Well, you didn't, are just waiting to happen. You know, and, and so, but she doesn't see it that way. And she will eventually like, eventually, she'll be through it enough and she'll care enough to see it. But for now, she's a kid and she's like, Look, man, I did I count the cars, and I put the insulin in, and I waited, and this is what happened. And, and now, but now the point is now she's sort of like, so what are you going to do about it? Because she's not 100% sure what to do after that sometimes? Yeah, you know, like the recurrent thing, I think, I think I think left on her own ardens a one c would probably be more like, six, seven. I'd be guessing 6567 on our own. You know what I mean? I'm the other point and a quarter. Basically, that's where you come in. Yeah, I'm like them. I'm like the guard that you know, I don't really score much, but I play a little defense. So anyway. I don't want to I don't know how to ask you this question. Okay, is it a valuable endeavor doing what you do? Or does it feel fruitless?

Vikki 48:11
No, I think it's very valuable. I I feel like I was in the position to help a lot of people have a better understanding of the importance of exercise of how insulin works in their bodies, the importance of nutrition. I mean, it fell on deaf ears a lot there are still people plenty of patients that would just stop answering my calls I think they felt like I was judging them if I if I didn't like their blood sugar's and I tried to be just you know, this is a number it's not a reflection of your character. It just gives me you know, it's a point in time it gives me an idea because I'm not there with you. And I thought it was it's been my favorite job it's been the most rewarding job that I've had and I think I've touched the most number of lives I don't think I've saved everyone but healthfully you know, all those studies they've done about Tiger control gives you you know, five more years of vision and however many more years of good kidney function so I think it did make a big difference and it had the potential for doing even more for a lot more people so

Scott Benner 49:28
I'm certain It was definitely rewarding. I'm certain it has I just wanted you to tell people I to be perfectly honest, if you would have said no, I've wasted my time and I shouldn't have done this I would have thought not expected to say that. I wanted you to tell people because this podcast makes CDs sometimes. So it is not uncommon for me to get a couple of notes a year from people who become CDs because of the podcast.

Vikki 49:51
That's awesome. And yeah, if you're able to and can get those that experience I mean, don't do it to be rich, because that's not gonna happen, but that's not the reason you will you have have the potential to help a lot of people it's and it's, you know, most people that you will touch has type two diabetes, but you know what? They're the ones that are suffering the most.

Scott Benner 50:14
And you could go to, like you could go to a children's hospital that and work in their division just for like type one if you I mean, if you could find a way into that that exists for some people, right where you don't actually talk. They have diabetes educators there of course, yeah. Right. But if you're just going to be one out in the wild, you're going to see people mostly with type two,

Vikki 50:32
yes, right? Yes. Because that's what most are? Yes.

Scott Benner 50:38
If If I said, How many out of 10 CDs? would be? What's my question? How many out of 10 CDs? If I type one diabetes? How many out of a random sampling of CDs would be valuable for me to have? And how many? How many of them? And how do I know the difference? If I'm the Gosh,

Vikki 50:59
well, I asked them really leading questions. So honestly, it depends on what room you're in, I think, but very few. We switch into practices, because nobody wants to try anything. Nobody was open to discussion. And they didn't seem like they wanted to learn they. And this was the doctor. And then the nurse practitioner we saw they just we don't we don't have any experience with that I wanted to try the iPod for my son. We don't have any experience with that. And I'm like, Well, can I find someone to come talk to you about it? No, no, we're not going to do that. And then finally, we went to the pump earlier than I thought we were going to because I just I wasn't satisfied with the control we have with MDI. And so I don't know one or two, it really, um, and all of them will have valuable things to say, but some more helpful than others. Because they are taught by the book, and the book tells us, you know, X, Y and Z, but we know in actuality unless this person has used insulin or cared for someone who uses it has to use inject insulin, they just they don't really understand how it works.

Scott Benner 52:15
Have you ever heard me say if a doctor says no, you ask why?

Vikki 52:20
I haven't. But that makes perfect sense. And it's why I left my last practice.

Scott Benner 52:24
So when people say no, what they're really saying is, I don't want to be involved in that. Or I don't understand it. Or we don't sell that pump here. Or whatever it ends up not sell. But we don't back that pump here. We don't we have no, you know, experience with iport. For example, like who would care it's important to like, inject through. Well, how much experience would you have almost cursed Vicki? How much experience? How much experience would you need with it to figure it out? Like could a YouTube video not do the same thing for me? You know, like, yeah, like, that's really some chicken stuff to say I don't have experience with iport. Exactly.

Vikki 53:01
Yeah. And How hard would it be? Yeah. So it was not the answer I wanted. And I, my ex wanted to give them like, I think we gave him like two more appointments. And I was like, I'm done.

Scott Benner 53:12
What Not only that, but two more appointments to six more months. Exactly. Right. It's not like you can email him a day later and go, Hey, you sure about what you said about the iPod. Give you another chance to change it. I'll tell you, I sometimes send like I can send Arden's ci, CD or or endo an email it says, Hey, I want to try fiasco. Send me a prescription. And they just go what pharmacy? Oh, that's amazing. It's that easy. And so, but I've built a rapport with them. And for those of you listening are like Oh, yeah, well, you're the guy from the podcast. I don't think they know me as the guy from the podcast. No, I don't think so. Like I they're aware of it, but I don't know that. I don't know that they're aware of the scope of it. Like I might just seem like a nice guy with a podcast. Do you know what I mean? And so which is fine I'm not looking for them to think of me any differently. I'm saying that I've proven to them enough times that the things I've said or asked or desired to do have made sense to them and and borne fruit so they're like, Oh, he's usually right about this stuff. Like what do we care? Let him have it. Even when we're dealing with Arden's like thyroid stuff or something. I'll send an email and I'll be like, I think we need to do a blood test for this and they'll be like okay, and that's it like Arden got an iron infusion yesterday that I'm telling you that if I would have waited for doctors, she'd never would have gotten like I got her that iron if you

Vikki 54:38
and for you for advocating that that's really important

Scott Benner 54:40
it and it's a need, you need to do it because it just no one's going to think outside of the box. Like those of you who are like oh my God, my endo is amazing. They have diabetes, and they know everything and they told me about the podcast like that is not most people. Yeah. Yeah. So you have to Everybody can't just change their endo is the other thing you don't mean,

Vikki 55:04
right? Sometimes you only have one choice, just gotta, you gotta go,

Scott Benner 55:09
you got it you at some point, you have to say, look, this is your, you have this job and you're agreeing with me. So this is good. Sometimes you need to, the way I think of it is sometimes you need to look at your doctor and go, that's the nice person with the prescription pad. And they give me the stuff I need. And I do a little smiling and waving while I'm there. And then I go figure things out for myself. So I guess. So there's a lot of value in your being on and I appreciate it very much. And I guess what I'm trying to get across to people is that there are different I hate to just be so blunt about it. But there are different levels of patience. As far as understanding and ability goes. And there are different levels of doctors as far as understanding and ability and desire goes I guess desire fits on both sides. Right? Right. You need to know who you are. And you need to know who you're dealing with. Right? And then you need to adjust and get what you need. That's how I think of it. I don't know how I would think of it if I didn't understand this stuff as well. Or if I would just be in there and feeling lost. And just hoping to God that somebody was going to help me or tell me to do the thing. I needed them to tell me. But right that is not how the world works, whether it's medicine or something else, honestly. So at some point you have to be what's the word I want? I think at some point, you have to be pragmatic about how things really are versus how you wish they were. Right. Okay. Yeah. Does that make sense? Because it does. Okay, so what are some? Can you give me any helpful tips for people listening? Like, how can they deal? Like, with an endo that's not on board, but they can't switch through? Switch?

Vikki 57:00
You just got to keep asking and reframing it. I mean, it always helps to be polite, and you know, come with evidence. And ultimately, I did have the flexibility where I could switch. I did give them several chances. But you just got to keep trying, I guess. My new boss says no, just means not today.

Scott Benner 57:27
Just keep asking. Yeah, basically, I have to admit, I've never once been told no about anything and thought, well, that means that I guess that's over. Always.

Vikki 57:38
And that's the attitude you have to have, especially in this world of diabetes. You can't. Yeah, you have to be very flexible

Scott Benner 57:47
to ever see that terrible movie called Fred Claus with Vince Vaughn. Right? And now for all of you. For everyone listening who's always been like, I thought Scott sounded like somebody and they're like, it's Vince one. I hear that a lot. So you don't you're not the first person to think. But um, so there's this part in the movie where his girlfriend has broken up with him, and she's hanging out a window. And she's like, we're done. He's like, I'm not done. It's the the idea of it always made me giggle. Like the idea of like, I'm not done, I still want to try like, and she's like, I don't want to try. And he's like I do and like, I know it's not a perfect apples to apples. You're talking about personal relationships when women tell you no, it's it's No. But I'm saying when you're when your endo tells you No, it's how can I get around this?

Vikki 58:33
Yeah, how can we reframe it come back to it? Because I mean, because there's no reason why they do want to help patients. And if you can kind of pry a little bit more and find out Oh, they just don't feel like learning

Scott Benner 58:49
where they don't want to be on the hook suddenly exposed. How much of it is that they don't want to be on the hook if something goes wrong.

Vikki 58:56
Oh, well, there's a liability factor as well. That's true,

Scott Benner 58:59
okay. So if you want to switch insulins, or anything like that, because it really doesn't matter, like you could give me every kind of insulin and I could, I could figure out how to use it. Like it's not a big deal like that. That's not a big deal. If you want to change meters, or pumps or stuff like that, there's nothing that your doctor should know or not know that would stop you. Like, if you don't like on the pod and you want to get something else. And your doctor is like no, no, you know, stay with the Omnipod you should be like, No, I don't want to I'm trying to switch or vice versa, or whatever I wouldn't want. I want to try and get an algorithm you don't they don't get just to tell you know, like, I don't know how else to frame it for people. They're not your parents, and you're not alive. You know what I mean? Like you're paying them and you'll want an insulin pump, get an insulin pump. You know, if you want to change insulin, I had people tell me all the time, my doctor said that wasn't a good idea. And I was like you're a one sees eight and a half your doctor doesn't know what a good idea around diabetes or you're a one c wouldn't be eight and a half like if you could try Then you wouldn't be talking to me. I'm a stranger, with no medical degree. Like imagine like how poorly things are going that you have sought me out is sometimes how I feel about it. You know, like, no one should make it to me, but yet, so many. Yeah, great, thanks. Well, thank you. That's your very kind. That was nice. Thank you. Let's just let that soak in for a second. He said, I appreciate that. I just think that it's important for people to know it's it's good to hear that a person like you who's already the parent of a child with Type One Diabetes still works for somebody who has guidelines, and there are certain things you can and can't say, and that you're going to run into doctors who are going to say no to things for reasons that have that are not based in any reality whatsoever. Just we don't do that here. And you know, I always try to joke through it on the show and say that, you know, usually, you know, the insulin your your practice uses has a lot to do with how pretty the salesgirl is for the insulin company you're practicing.

Vikki 1:01:02
I'm finding that Yeah, and that's

Scott Benner 1:01:04
not me trying to be funny. That's, you know, the most, you know the truth. Yeah, yeah. If If fiapf sends in a guy who's like six, four, and has steel blue eyes, and looks like he just lifts things all day long. Your doctor might be like, you know, what really handsome man told me to try fiasco. And here it is, give it a whirl. It's not that far off from how people like it's not. It's not like dirty, it's not um, it's not. It's not unseemly. It's just how people's minds

Vikki 1:01:34
work. And, you know, associate it with

Scott Benner 1:01:38
somebody pleasing to look at wanders in and tries to say to me, Hey, I try this meter, you're like, Alright, well, okay, I'll try it, like, you know, and if somebody you don't jive with says something that's really makes a ton of sense. You might ignore it. You know what I mean? Like he, right? It's just my favorite. My favorite reviews of the shows are from people were like, I hate that guy. But that podcast is so good. Like, I love that, because that means that the contents so good, that they're little, they're literally willing to overlook, they're

Vikki 1:02:08
willing to put up with your person, don't like me, I'm like that.

Scott Benner 1:02:12
But to me, that's a great, that's a great review. That's the content of this podcast is so good. I'm gonna listen to it, even though I don't particularly like the guy. And that's amazing, like, and so but I'm just saying most of the times people don't have the ability to do that if you know,

Vikki 1:02:29
right? That's not typically how things work, right?

Scott Benner 1:02:33
It's just like, you have to be a little realistic about how the world works. So be persistent, knows not no, nose, nose just means not today, that's very funny.

Vikki 1:02:43
Be kind Be patient. If that's your only option, then you just got to keep working it but yelling and screaming, and it's not gonna end well.

Scott Benner 1:02:53
It makes me wonder why, like, Jenny works at a place, right? That's very progressive. I'm sure. I wonder why more doctor's offices don't take that tactic. It's because they can't control the patient who the patients are.

Vikki 1:03:08
Right? I mean, they're not home with them. And they, yeah, they're just trying to be err on the side of caution for everybody. And so that just means that they're a whole lot more conservative. They will over Basal everybody. And anyway,

Scott Benner 1:03:24
so it's mass market. Its mass market. Yes, yes.

Vikki 1:03:27
They weren't good. I don't I don't know where I'm going with that.

Scott Benner 1:03:32
Let me let me see if what I'm thinking is right, then there are so many different kinds of people, and so little time to speak with them and interact with them, that we are just going to give them enough information that they're not going to drop dead today.

Vikki 1:03:47
Yeah, I mean, that's what they're trying to do. What's best for the most amount of people and that's what I tried to have my type twos understand is, this is supposed to work for your average day. But if you're, you know, not feeling well, or it's raining, and you're just sitting on the couch, or if you're running a marathon today, it's not going to, you're not going to get the same result. So your doctor can only treat your average day so that's what they're doing is trying to figure out what's going to be safest for the most amount of people

Scott Benner 1:04:19
knowing full well that that could mean that you might have a Thursday and a Friday where your blood sugar's in the four hundreds you can't get out of bed and you're knocked over and that's just the cost of doing business because I don't feel like we can do a better job and help as many people the same time

Vikki 1:04:34
unfortunately, but if that person I don't know every situation is different. But I mean we do encourage everyone to report those sorts of things. And so then hopefully they are paired with somebody that can talk to them and find more information and find out what led to that and

Scott Benner 1:04:53
you know, you just said that everybody listening is like yeah, I tried that once they call me back seven days later. By the way, you who were told come back in December when your kid was diagnosed or come back in December when you were diagnosed in September like yeah, so is there is there a sentence that gets you out of it? Like is there like again ardens 504 plan right? There's all these like, you know rules from the doctor's office and then at the bottom of it there's one sentence that says that the parents can override the 504 plan whenever they want

Vikki 1:05:31
Yeah, I think it we have with this medical management plan I have to look more closely at it all the nurses have been really helpful and flexible with me and they'll all call me before they do anything they don't like follow it to the letter or anything because every day is different and so honestly if we have the time for conversation we're going to have a conversation and think about because they keep changing when PE is and changing when recesses and what if they danced in music class and like every day is different

Scott Benner 1:06:05
and they're willing to stay flexible with you? Yes, so yeah, so my point is is that that sentence you know, the parents can override anything in this order that gives the nurse the freedom to think outside the block the outside of the box with me right even though I haven't spoken to a school nurse I quite literally since the end of second grade so I'm just using as an example but I'm saying as a as an educator as an endo isn't there a sentence that you could give people permission to think outside of the box instead of trapping them in the idea of I follow the rules that didn't work that's just diabetes I have to sit here and feel crappy.

Vikki 1:06:45
Gosh, there should be and they should have that in the in the office note and then when I read the office note I can go by that but it's not

Scott Benner 1:06:58
so there's there's no simple fix for this then.

Vikki 1:07:02
Oh, no. Okay. No, but and because then that could be used to someone could take it the wrong way and think oh, that means like I have all these patients that would hold their insulin my blood sugar was only 120 this morning, so I just didn't take my basil and anyway,

Scott Benner 1:07:23
so there are people who don't understand that enough and then they get fooled by something and make the wrong decision. Yeah, so

Vikki 1:07:28
yes, it's like you know, stopping your antibiotics when you feel better like they just think oh, well today I don't need it. Like well that's not how it works.

Scott Benner 1:07:36
Why this conversation is so interesting to me is because it mimics government in my mind the idea that you know, it's easy to sit back and look at a figurehead and say Oh, they made the wrong decision again, they made the wrong decision for you. And they might not be trying to make your life perfect or anyone's life perfect. They're just trying to keep everybody alive. And then if that really is what we're talking about here is that Yeah, when you're overseeing so many people there's no way to make them all happy or in our case all healthy or as healthy as they can be. So you're just going for keep the lights on keep the water running keep the heat on let the food show up at the stores some people are going to experience terrible crime some people are going to get sick and die some people are going to fall through the cracks that's the nice way of saying it in government right some people fall through

Vikki 1:08:27
most people

Scott Benner 1:08:28
and most people will be okay so that's why the podcast is valuable for people who want and have more better Yeah, better Yes, because it's a ecosystem where that's what's spoken about I go Okay, this was great. Oh, by the way, how do you become a CD?

Vikki 1:08:53
I saw the documentation Yeah, so

Scott Benner 1:08:55
you you get the hours and then

Vikki 1:08:57
you have an hour's anything then you apply for the test you have to be approved to apply for the test and then you go and take the test and it was oh gosh, how many questions was it? Now I can't remember I think I looked it up but then my computer just went to sleep on me. But it was one of those time tests and was better than I thought it was going to be.

Scott Benner 1:09:25
What's

Vikki 1:09:26
your score like right away even though they they still have to like officially recognize it so that takes a couple of days and then they send us a certificate to you a little bit later but you'll get the score right away?

Scott Benner 1:09:38
Well, is it expensive to take the test?

Vikki 1:09:41
My company paid for it but it was I want to say 175 so not cheap now so it's certainly not something you want to keep retaking.

Scott Benner 1:09:50
Somebody's got to get me a stolen copy that test I want to take it

Vikki 1:09:56
well they have in the study materials are so expensive. Because there's so little few resources, I guess, yeah, like the book, they'll tell you, you have this 500 page book you can study from. And it's like $250. And I didn't buy the

Scott Benner 1:10:11
book. I don't, I wouldn't have read it anyway, I know how to use manual

Vikki 1:10:14
for some from somebody. And then there's some apps you can use. Those are kind of helpful. The APA guidelines are always important. And so they tweak the test every year because the ADA updates their recommendations every year.

Scott Benner 1:10:28
Okay. I just want to take it cold turkey and see how I do on it. Well, if anybody's got one, Senator, that's all I'm saying. All right.

Vikki 1:10:37
Well, I mean, it's all computerized. So if they did, they did some wrong.

Scott Benner 1:10:41
A lot of people listen, if anybody's got that test on me. Okay. And so what? I want to give it a try and see how I do. But No, but seriously, it's this has been enlightening. You've been really honest. Are you okay, with your name being in this? Are you sure? Yeah, I

Vikki 1:10:57
didn't give you my last name, right. I was told just to not mention the current company I work for, and Otherwise, I'll be fine. I, I hope everything I said was,

Scott Benner 1:11:07
it was very honest. And it was your opinion, I appreciate it. And I and I, and here's why I think it's important to say, because people listening need to understand, not that not that doctors aren't on their side, right. And I don't want it to come off that way. Or that your endo doesn't care about you. But that there is a bigger game at play here. And this is overall the best most people can do. And I'll say it right now to your ask for people who do find and those who are willing to tell them more, you know, more secrets and tricks and stuff like that. That means that endo over time has sniffed you out as a person who's not going to screw up, right and hurt yourself. And so they're willing now they're going out on a limb by saying, Hey, listen, Jeff, or think about a Temp Basal right here. You know what I mean? Like, that's them. That's them going out on a limb. And they're not just they can't protect themselves by saying nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical, or otherwise, please always consult a physician to your doctor, can you imagine if they are the physician? Yeah. Can you imagine? You go to Dr. Smith, he could sit down and go, Hey, how are you? And you go, good. Dr. Smith, how are you? And he goes, Well, before we get started, I just want to let you know that nothing I say in this room should be considered medical advice. Now Pre-Bolus dammit, you're killing yourself. Like Yeah, like it just, they don't live in the same world. And it's just, it's too much. And you know, you can't, I just I'm trying to figure out how to mass reach people, and give them better, a better chance. And that's why this conversation I think, has been really valuable. And I think it's very valuable for people listening. So they understand that it's not in competence. Sometimes it this is designed, and it's it's not going to change. So you can sit around and hope and beg and yell at people if you want to. But this is not going to change. And it's not just in diabetes, it's in every form of healthcare. Yeah. So everybody just, you know, stop acting like you're 12 years old, and a unicorn is gonna fly in with, you know, balloons for you. It's not gonna happen. You got to take care.

Vikki 1:13:17
Yeah, I think they're doing the best they can with what they have. And most people do ultimately want to help people and improve their outcomes.

Scott Benner 1:13:27
But you got to help yourself to at some point.

Vikki 1:13:29
You really well, you got to make sure that you have a job.

Scott Benner 1:13:33
Well, no, yeah, I'm saying here to practice. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Not you. I mean, the other people, the people coming in, like, you've got to help yourself, like thinking about it as a patient. Like, at some point, if you're not seeing the outcomes, or living the life that you think is possible. It is not because it's not afforded to you and it's afforded to somebody else's, you don't know what to do, and you need to find out what to do. And if your doctors not going to tell you, or if anyone's not going to tell you go to somebody who will share that stuff with you. That's all Do you have you been through the pro tip episodes?

Vikki 1:14:07
And most of them I haven't been able to listen in a while but I know it's the I used to listen to them on walks when I work from home for a year. That's when I walked my dog I would always listen one gotcha. I'm gonna re listen to them and then I want my son to listen. I'm gonna try to anyway I might have to bribe them. But

Scott Benner 1:14:23
you know what? I'm seeing a lot of people doing that now and I gotta be honest with you. It's alright with me. Like I don't see like I see people are paying their kids to listen to the pro tip episodes.

Vikki 1:14:32
What's your currency? What do you want today? anyway?

Scott Benner 1:14:34
Exactly. Yeah. Is it Legos? Is it cash? Let's just talk turkey here.

Vikki 1:14:41
What does it take?

Scott Benner 1:14:42
What what I'll tell you there's gonna be a teenager on I probably won't record till the summer with him. You might not hear this for anyway you. It's gonna be a while, but the mom reaches out to me. I have a long conversation with the kid back when I think he's 16 or 17 I I feel like I straighten everything. He understands what's going on. I just got a text from him yesterday. And he said he finally pulled it all together. And he was texting to say thank you and all this stuff. I said, Do you want to come on the show and tell people about this? And he said, Yes. So you're going to get a real, really good conversation from a kid who is thoughtful and caring and loving and worried and worried about himself, but still just kind of couldn't pull it all together. And you know, and it was hard on him and his parents and everything. And he's gonna talk about what what Finally, you know, made it peak for him and got him over the hump, but that sounds great. Yeah, look forward to that. It's very cool. It really is. And I genuinely appreciate you doing this. taking the time out. Oh, it's been my pleasure. Seriously, you were you had a good time?

Vikki 1:15:47
I did. It was less scary than I thought it was gonna be. Are you nervous? I'm okay, now you're okay.

Scott Benner 1:15:53
Now, how long did it take you? I usually think it's about 15 minutes. Yeah, probably right in there. I can feel people changing around 20 minutes. At least send it up. Just so you know that around that same time, a voice in my head says I'll bleep this out, Vicki. Okay. So I start the episode and I pick through and I get enough information, I think, okay, these are the things I'm going to get through over the next hour. And then I can hear a voice in my head to say this up, make this good. And then I feel an incredible amount of pressure to put together a good show together, off the top of my head, cuz I don't have any notes about you here. I just, I just when we started, I was like, Oh, this is Vicki, she became a CD, she's going to talk to you about how to become a CD. And I was like, that's cool. And then that's how we started. So then I feel this immense pressure not to like waste your time or wasted people's time who are listening or anything like that. I might be more nervous than you are.

Vikki 1:16:45
But you did a great job coming up with questions because I was like, did he send me something initially that I forgot or lost or what?

Scott Benner 1:16:52
Now there's no prep, it's all whatever falls out of my head. That's all well, that's awesome. You have a gift. Well, everyone's gonna walk us wrong. Just Say No. Well, not today. But you hear me like really shucking and jiving and talking fast. I've lost the thread. I'm just trying to be entertaining at that point. Whether I fail or not, I'm not certain.

Well, a huge thanks to Vicki for coming on the show, and sharing everything that she shared with us, which was a lot as you can tell, because you heard it. Thanks also to the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, please head over to Contour Next one.com forward slash juice box. And you can learn more about touched by type one by finding them on Instagram, Facebook, or it touched by type one.org. Remember, if you're in the Orlando area, and you want to see a shindig and extravaganza dance party, right there in front of you on stage, go get some tickets touch by type one.org. Hit the program's tab, you're almost done. If you're enjoying the Juicebox Podcast, please do two things. First thing, tell someone else about the Juicebox Podcast. That's simple. I mean, I mean, it'd be nice if you open up their app and show them how to listen to a podcast to if they need help, because some people don't understand podcasts, but just telling them big deal for me. And I appreciate it. Second thing, go where you're listening and leave a beautiful five star rating and review write a beautiful rating. Like if they say your app allows three stars then get all three stars. If there's five stars, you get all five of them. And then after you do that you say something really thoughtful about the podcast that will help someone else decide to listen. That's pretty much it. The show grows because you tell people about it. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juicebox Podcast.