My Interview with Ryan Reed

Fresh from his first NASCAR victory, 21 year old Ryan Reed sits down with me to talk about his type 1 diabetes diagnosis, racing with diabetes and what it feels like to win his first race. 

You really do not want to miss a second of my conversation with Ryan. You'll learn everything from how he reacted when a doctor told him that he couldn't drive a race car after his diagnosis, to what 190 M.P.H. feels like - and just how does he keep his blood sugar from crashing in a 150º race car?

Seriously, if you haven't tried my new podcast yet, this is definitely the week to jump in.

One your mark...

Get set...

GO! listen to the podcast

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The Art of Dana Lechtenberg

The internet is a magical place for so many reasons, here's one of them...

I listen to a number of podcasts and one day I was drawn to purchase a t-shirt from one of them, a show called FEaB (Four Eyes and a Beard) starring Matt Mira from the Nerdist Podcast and Scott Mosier from Smodcast with director Kevin Smith.

Hold tight this gets interesting quickly.

So I buy this t-shirt and wear it at least once a week because I love the design. Months later on a Friday evening I see a tweet from Scott Mosier congratulating someone named Dana Lechtenberg for winning an award for his art, the accompanying image in the tweet reminds me of stuff I've seen elsewhere online. 

I click...

It turns out that Dana's album design has won an American Advertising Award, and with that I fall a little bit further down the digital rabbit hole that is the art of Dana Lechtenberg. It isn't long before I realize that this might be the person who designed my beloved FEaB t-shirt. My interest is thoroughly peaked, and I begin to devour Dana's art on his website. 

I soon find that aside from creating art for podcasts like FEab and Nerdist, Dana is an accomplished artist and advertising designer and I just can't get enough of what he does. Before I know it my family is in bed and I'm about to do something a bit crazy.

Somewhere between being enveloped by the warmth of his Fantastic Four piece and my instant love of his use of color, shading and dimension - it hits me why I'm so drawn to Dana's art... 

 

It reminds me of my banner image on Arden's Day...

Arden is good sport about having her picture on the top of a website that a lot of people see but once in a while she makes a request for me to find a new image - seems that she doesn't like that she is so young in the picture. I've been promising her for months that I will find a way to replace the image but have asked her to understand that after eight years, it's become more of a symbol than that of a picture. She understands. If I'm being honest I've been in a small, but constant panic about how to replace the image, stuck between wanting to honor Arden's request and not knowing how to do that. 

My love for Arden and desire to fulfill her desire led me to do something that I wouldn't normally do, I wrote to Dana and asked him if he would consider designing new images for Arden's Day and the Juicebox Podcast - here's where the Internet can be magical... he said yes!

Very soon the man behind all of the images that you see here and more that you could see on his website, will be creating original artwork for my type I parenting blog and podcast. I could not be more excited to see what he comes up with! I told Dana that I feel like my image of Arden is what one of his pieces would look like if it came to life. His use of color, warmth, perspective and the feeling of texture that his work evokes - well, I am just beyond grateful for his kindness and simply can not wait to rebrand Arden's Day and Juicebox with his work. 

How can it be possible that my blog and podcast will soon be adorned with the art from the same artist who designs for some of the biggest podcasts in the world? Easy answer, sometimes the Internet can be used for good. But I don't need to tell that to a bunch of people who use it in the way that we do. People living with type 1 diabetes know all about supporting strangers in need.

A huge thank you to Dana for his good will, Scott Mosier for his tweet and Kevin Smith for always encouraging folks like me to start a podcast. 

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The next episode of the Juicebox Podcast goes up tomorrow (Ep4. Texting Diabetes) and then there will be a special episode going up later in the week (instead of the following Tuesday), my interview with Ryan Reed, the 21 year old NASCAR driver with type 1 diabetes who just won the Xfinity race in Daytona. To not miss a minute, go to JuiceboxPodcast.com and subscribe now.

Helping Children with Diabetes Gain Independence

This is the finale of the series. Links to previous posts are below, if you'd like to read it in order.

I was asked recently on my blog if I had any tips for a family that was considering Arden’s school day diabetes management plan. Anything that I hadn’t mentioned – perhaps a tip that would make the transition smoother. I responded in part by saying, “I didn’t know what I was doing when I started either.” I think that’s the most powerful message of support I could offer anyone. None of us know what to expect when we forge our own way with type 1 diabetes. All we have is the knowledge that we’ve been able to accumulate, but I think that’s a lot.

Consider how little you knew on the day that your child was diagnosed and remember how your doctors only began to scratch the surface when they explained diabetes care. Now, you probably have more diabetes knowledge than three doctors combined. I know that I am the foremost expert on my daughter’s physiology. I can, with great accuracy, predict how her body will react to insulin, exercise, stress and all of the factors that we pay attention to. I didn’t learn these things in school or at a doctor’s office, I learned them by experiencing diabetes – and that’s how our kids are going to learn.*

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I want to caution you to not get too comfortable and to always keep a watchful eye as our children take over more and more control of their day-to-day diabetes health considerations. Because even though they are some of the most courageous and levelheaded kids a person will ever meet, they are still kids. I think they want and need to know that we are here. “We” doesn’t have to mean just parents. If you end up trying Arden’s plan in school, please remind the teacher that your child’s diabetes independence doesn’t mean that they don’t need an adult to be concerned and watchful at times. My friend’s new book reminded me recently that sometimes the most responsible children tend to get forgotten and that space can lead to apathy for them. Sometimes the trust is easy to take advantage of, especially if the child is experiencing diabetes burnout. It can happen to anyone and it will, so always remember to be a presence during those formable years.

It’s my sincere wish that this series has helped you to feel powerful and more in control. I hope that something I’ve shared has given you a new perspective and made you feel like the idea of anything being possible isn’t just something you read on an Internet meme. I also want to thank you, because I learned something from writing these pieces. I learned that I was getting too complacent and that we should be taking what we’ve learned from the last year of managing Arden’s diabetes from school and make something new happen.

I’m very excited to share that by the time you read this Arden will have gone to a concert with her best friend and her friend’s mother, without me or my wife in attendance. I’m going to take the things that I’ve learned from Arden’s diabetes management at school and use them to let go a little more. I’m going to use them to give Arden more freedom, so that diabetes can be a smaller part of her life. It may take a lot of self-control not to drive up the interstate behind our friend’s car and sit in the parking lot of the stadium, but I’m going to use the same courage I felt in an e-mail one of you sent me recently. If you can read about what I do and find the strength to try… so can I.

Thank you so much for reading!

My best,
Scott

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READ THE SERIES

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
Currently reading

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The Importance of the Diabetes Community

For those of you who are new to Arden's Day...

I do a little freelance writing some times. Once a year I write a series for Insulet, the company that makes the Omnipod insulin pump. It is no secret that when I'm paid to contribute articles the company paying me is hoping that my blog readers will checkout their blog, site, products etc. Hopefully they also like my writing, but I digress. 

When I negotiate my writing contracts I always push to be able to repost what I've written here on Arden's Day. There are two reasons for that. 1. I don't want you to feel pressure to visit another site and 2. I don't want to hand in less than my best work in an effort to keep the 'good stuff' for Arden's Day, and for you. This way it's all the 'good stuff' and you can read it where you'd like. Alllllllll that said, this is the first in my five part series on the Diabetes Community. It ran on Insulet's Suite D blog one month ago (I have to wait a month to post here). Part 2 is up now on their blog as well, you can read it on Suite D or wait until next month and I'll repost it on Arden's Day. One last word on this. While I am paid to write for Insulet, it's not nearly as much money as you may be imagining and besides, there is no amount of money that could make me pass information or sentiments to you that are anything less than my 100% real feelings and experiences. This blog, our community and the responsibility that I feel toward you all means too much to me for anything like that to every happen. I just love the Omnipod and am happy to tell people about it. And you know what? Good on Insulet for letting me repost here, they couldn't have been thrilled when I made that request. 

Part 1: How it Saved Our Family

When my daughter Arden was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2006, our family was violently thrown into a world that we didn’t understand. The days, weeks and months that followed were full of endless sadness, fear and moments that hindsight would later tell us we could have handled much better.

I’m choosing to share my largest diabetes misstep from that time in our lives, because it led me to what may be the most valuable discovery of my adult life. This is part one of my five-part series about community and how it will save, support, teach, improve and transform your life with diabetes.

I should have sought out other people who understood our struggles, I should have found community. Too many of the decisions I was making were informed by speculation that was fed by an often self-imposed and largely unnecessary fear.

What I needed was support and wisdom, but instead I hid from the world and, in doing so, created a vacuum that was not conducive to living well. Had I found other people living with diabetes sooner, they could have shown me what I now know, but took much too long to discover.

Arden and Kelly at our first JDRF walk, two months after diagnosis.

My first experience meeting other people from the diabetes community was at our local JDRF walk. The walk we attend goes through a park full of winding paths, steep hills and majestic scenery – countless thousands of people all moving forward in love and support of one another.

At some point during the morning Arden needed insulin. We had just stepped off the path so others could pass when I realized that pausing our life to give Arden insulin didn’t seem in any way noteworthy to the people passing by. And then it hit me.

Everyone here has or loves someone who has diabetes. They don’t look scared and their faces don’t reflect the sadness that I feel. We were suddenly and beautifully surrounded by people whose lives weren’t being defined by diabetes. It was right then that I began to believe that diabetes wasn’t always going to permeate every second of our lives.

To this day I believe that the most beneficial aspect of what the JDRF provides is the opportunity to find sameness. If those walks didn’t produce a dime for research, I would still be there each year just to spend a little time around people who understand. Each year when I walk, my greatest hope is that someone who is feeling as I once did will see our faces and think, “I’m not alone. Those people look happy – we can be happy too.”

Community can take many forms and often the support you need can’t wait for a moment that can be found in real life – you may need the community to come to you. Luckily, the diabetes community is one of the most well-represented patient communities online. There are so many different ways to find kind, helpful and present people who would love nothing more than to help you believe that living well with diabetes is a tangible goal. These people have walked the path that you are on – they know the shortcuts. They write blogs, take the time to lend an ear on forums and give their best advice on Facebook pages. You haven’t been hugged until you’ve been hugged virtually by a stranger whose only desire is for you to not feel alone. Now that’s support!

Read 'The Importance of the Diabetes Community' Series
Part 1: Currently Reading
Part 2: Finding Support
Part 3: Coming in April
Part 4: Coming in May
Part 5: Coming in June
 

Feel what it’s like to wear the OmniPod – with no obligations. Click here to order a free Demo today.

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What is the Juicebox Podcast

Many months ago I tried to write about a topic here on Arden's Day and no matter how many times I wrote the piece, it never came out in a way that I was comfortable with.

One time the message was muddled, the next pass lost the tone and once I actually thought I had it but used so many words that I genuinely felt concerned that you wouldn't read it all.

Eventually I gave up and never published my thoughts on the topic even though I believe them to be cogent, important and clear - just never could write them down. Then one day as I was lamenting my failure of communication to my wife Kelly I said, "If I could only tell them (you are 'them'), if we could only talk... I know I could be clear on the topic".

That statement gave birth to the Juicebox Podcast!

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What is a podcast? A podcast is basically a radio show that isn't on the radio, instead it is captured on an Mp3 and made available for streaming or download. My sound files are being distributed through iTunes, Soundcloud, my blog and Stitcher. Though there are many other podcasting platforms, these are the ones that I've opted to start with. When the listener subscribes on the platform of their choice they will be notified each time a new episode arrives. I listen to many podcasts and my hope is to add to the landscape in a positive way.

I began planning my podcast by imagining that I would only record a show when I "needed" to for clarity sake but then I thought about the interviews that I write and how interesting the conversations are with the subjects and wanted to share them as well. As I pondered how to structure the show it occurred to me that I could use the audio format to finally accomplish something that I've been wanting to do for some years - revisit the journey that I've taken while writing Arden's Day so that I could make sense of the things I was going through and relate them to you in a way that you would find helpful. And so that's what I'm going to do. 

I wanted episode one to be an explanation of the show's intended path but I was surprised with the opportunity to interview Adam Lasher from American Idol and needed to adjust my plan. So episode 2 is really episode 1... but you'll figure it out.

So far I've interviewed Ryan Reed the 21 year old NASCAR driver and person with type 1 about his first NASCAR win, his diagnosis and how he overcame a doctor telling him that he couldn't race with type 1.

I spoke about how texting with Arden led to lowering her A1c (it's currently 5.9!).

Had a conversation with Adam Lasher from this season's American Idol (He's the guy who performed with his Dexcom receiver clipped to his guitar).

and more...

I'm hoping that you'll give it a try...

I'll be talking with you about type 1 diabetes, parenting, diabetes technology and have interviews with cool people that live with type 1. In addition, I'm very excited to explore Arden's Day from the beginning and find out what worked, what didn't and what I could have done better (plenty I'm betting). Oh and my super not-so-secret other hope is that you'll want to come on the show and talk about type 1 parenting with me. Email if that sounds like something you are up for!

Okay, if you are a podcast enthusiast please subscribe on your favorite platform, new shows are  weekly on Tuesdays.  If you are still wondering what a podcast is... give it a try. You can listen in the car, at the grocery store or in the kitchen (I listen to mine in the shower). Any questions, just ask!

Follow Juicebox Podcast on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @JuiceboxPodcast and online www.JuiceboxPodcast.com. RSS feed for the podcast is here.

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