#1698 Dr. Beachgem
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Dr. Beachgem (@Beachgem10) is a board-certified pediatric emergency medicine physician and a massive, trusted voice on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. She translates real ER experience into simple, actionable advice for parents—helping families decide what’s normal, what’s urgent, and what to do next.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner (0:0) As the holidays approach, I wanna say welcome and thank all of my good friends for coming back to the Juice Box podcast over and over again. (0:18) I guess I have to be careful about what I say on the Internet because a couple of weeks ago, I said, I'd like to see doctor Beach Jim on the podcast, and here she is. (0:29) You all went and told her on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, everywhere you could find her. (0:34) You tagged her. (0:35) You tagged me, and you said we'd love to hear you on the juice box podcast.
Scott Benner (0:38) And you guys did it. (0:39) You're the producer of the podcast today. (0:41) You got us doctor Beach Jem, and she is every bit as amazing as you think she is. (0:47) She's known all over the Internet as doctor Beach Jem or doctor Beach Jem ten and is a board certified pediatric emergency medicine physician. (0:56) She's a wife and a mom.
Scott Benner (0:57) I had such a fantastic time making this recording with her that after we got done recording, I asked if she would be interested in coming back and putting together a series with me about how type ones could have better success in the emergency room. (1:10) And guess what? (1:11) She is so lovely. (1:13) She said yes. (1:14) So you'll see doctor Beach Gem back on the podcast in 2026, maybe for a number of episodes.
Scott Benner (1:19) If you're here today because you're a big fan of doctor Beach Gem and you have no idea who I am, my name is Scott. (1:25) I make this podcast, the Juice Box podcast. (1:27) It's eleven years old. (1:28) We have 1,700 episodes. (1:30) An episode goes up every day.
Scott Benner (1:31) Most of them are conversations with people who live with type one diabetes or love somebody who does, some people with type two, and a lot of other autoimmune issues, Hashimoto's, celiac, stuff like that. (1:44) If you like to hear people sit down and really openly and honestly talk about their life with their condition, I think you'll really like this podcast. (1:53) It's not super serious. (1:54) It's not super jokey. (1:56) It is entertaining, and I think you'll love it.
Scott Benner (1:59) Subscribe and follow. (2:00) Give us a shot, and at the very least, you'll get more doctor beach gem in the future. (2:04) And please don't forget that nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. (2:09) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. (2:21) The episode you're about to listen to is sponsored by Tandem Moby, the impressively small insulin pump.
Scott Benner (2:26) Tandem Moby features Tandem's newest algorithm, Control IQ Plus technology. (2:31) It's designed for greater discretion, more freedom, and improved time and range. (2:36) Learn more and get started today at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. (2:41) Today's episode is also sponsored by US Med. (2:45) Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514.
Scott Benner (2:52) You can get your diabetes testing supplies the same way we do from US Med. (2:57) The podcast is also sponsored today by the Eversense three sixty five, the one year wear CGM. (3:04) That's one insertion a year. (3:06) That's it. (3:07) And here's a little bonus for you.
Scott Benner (3:09) How about there's no limit on how many friends and family you can share your data with with the Eversense Now app? (3:14) No limits. (3:16) Eversense. (3:17) So you're being recorded already, just so you know.
Dr. Beachgem (3:21) Awesome.
Scott Benner (3:21) But so okay. (3:23) It's not and there's no video. (3:24) If you wanna pick your nose, it's cool with me. (3:27) No one's ever gonna know. (3:28) Although, I get Priorities.
Scott Benner (3:29) Priorities. (3:29) People are like, you should do a screenshot so you can do the social media. (3:32) I'm like, I'm not good at social media. (3:33) I'm gonna just hope that she enjoyed herself and posts about it. (3:37) Yep.
Scott Benner (3:37) It's like, I I'm not gonna be good at cajoling people. (3:40) We'll just jump right in. (3:41) How do you want me to refer to you? (3:43) What do I call you?
Dr. Beachgem (3:44) Doctor Beach or doctor Beach Jem.
Scott Benner (3:45) Doctor Beach or doctor Beach Jem. (3:47) Okay. (3:47) You can call me Scott.
Dr. Beachgem (3:48) Jem is Meg backwards, my maiden name was Meg Beach. (3:51) So Beach Jem is Meg Beach. (3:53) It's a play on my name, which, again, I'm not allowed to use, but that's yeah.
Scott Benner (3:57) People have got it figured out pretty well.
Dr. Beachgem (3:59) A little bit. (3:59) There's a couple people that are like, I'm on to you.
Scott Benner (4:02) I just figured that you loved the beach when I saw it.
Dr. Beachgem (4:05) And I live in Florida. (4:05) Like, it makes sense.
Scott Benner (4:07) People are confused and want me to ask you why you live in Florida, but you wear Bills gear.
Dr. Beachgem (4:12) So I did training in Buffalo. (4:14) So I spent three years. (4:15) We my husband and I packed up everything we owned. (4:18) We sold our house. (4:19) We bought two new cars that had four wheel drive, and we moved to Buffalo.
Dr. Beachgem (4:22) We didn't know a soul with our two tiny babies. (4:25) We lived there for three years. (4:26) It's I don't know. (4:27) The people who don't know Buffalo is an incredible community. (4:30) Very, very, like, welcoming and supportive.
Dr. Beachgem (4:33) And, yeah, there's snow, but, like, the people, the festivals, everything is just amazing.
Scott Benner (4:38) That's good to hear. (4:38) My daughter's friend just graduated from college, and she got her first job in Buffalo, and she's leaving in a couple of weeks.
Dr. Beachgem (4:43) She's gonna have a blast.
Scott Benner (4:44) Awesome. (4:45) I'm gonna tell her that because I think she's worried. (4:46) I think she just thought snow.
Dr. Beachgem (4:48) Yeah. (4:48) There's there is snow. (4:49) Mhmm. (4:50) If you live north of downtown, it's actually you don't get as much lake effect as, like, just south of downtown.
Scott Benner (4:55) I'll tell her that. (4:56) Yeah. (4:56) That's good advice. (4:57) Okay. (4:57) So you went to school there.
Scott Benner (4:58) Did you go to undergrad, med school? (5:02) What did you do there?
Dr. Beachgem (5:03) I did my fellowship training. (5:04) So my pediatric emergency medicine fellowship after my general pediatric residency. (5:09) I spent a lot of time in school.
Scott Benner (5:11) Did you start out thinking, like, you'd be a pediatrician in an office and then kind of expand, or did you always have this as a path?
Dr. Beachgem (5:19) You know, I wasn't sure. (5:21) There were three things that I was interested in. (5:23) I liked pediatric emergency medicine, pediatric ICU, and pediatric endocrinology because when I was in med school, I did this summer camp just outside of Tallahassee for kids that have diabetes. (5:35) And it's a one week summer camp, and they bring med students and people who are a little bit more savvy with medicine so that we're doing blood sugar checks and that kind of stuff in the middle of the night in these kids and can alert camp staff if there is something awry. (5:49) So I fell in love with die like, as much as you can, fall in love with diabetes and the management while I was still in medical school.
Scott Benner (5:56) So a lot of doctors tell me that they they make their students go to diabetes camp to really get a feeling for what happened to you? (6:03) Can you tell me, like, what you didn't know that you left understanding?
Dr. Beachgem (6:07) I think, like, the glucose is still fuel. (6:11) You still need the sugar. (6:12) Even though sugar is, like, kind of the enemy, like, we wanna keep it manageable, it is still fuel. (6:17) And so when kids come into camp, one of the first things that they do is they adjust everyone's regimens. (6:22) Like, they go rogue because the kids are gonna be much more physically active than normal.
Dr. Beachgem (6:26) Mhmm. (6:27) And so we need to make sure that they have a little bit more of that fuel accessible for what they're doing. (6:33) And we actually had a kid have a really kinda scary low at one point. (6:37) And so just to see that, like, this is what parents are worried about when they tend to want their kid's blood sugar a little on the higher side and doctors want it a little on the lower side, but this is the scary part that doctors don't always get to see that parents get worried about.
Scott Benner (6:50) Okay. (6:50) So the reason I'm super interested to have you here is because I want your perspective, but I do first want to understand, like, you know, a little bit about you and how you got to where you are. (6:59) Can we start with why you're famous? (7:01) Like, how did that begin?
Dr. Beachgem (7:03) Yeah. (7:04) It's a great question. (7:05) I because
Scott Benner (7:06) you are. (7:06) Because but I I told you before we started recording, my wife has been cajoling me for two years to try to ask you on the podcast. (7:13) I now watch you online. (7:15) And then I was telling doctor Beacham this story before we started recording, but she did a diabetes awareness video that a lot of people who listened to me must have seen, and then I kind of sicced them on her. (7:25) I was like, hey.
Scott Benner (7:26) I'd love to get her on the podcast. (7:27) Can you go tell her? (7:28) And then they tagged you a lot and me. (7:30) Appreciate you not thinking we were crazy and coming on. (7:32) Like, no one doesn't know who you are who has social media.
Scott Benner (7:36) But did you set out for that to happen? (7:38) Because it doesn't feel that way.
Dr. Beachgem (7:39) No. (7:40) I this was an accident. (7:41) A kind of a happy accident, but this was never my intention at all. (7:45) I started making content during the pandemic. (7:48) I think everyone had a million activities.
Dr. Beachgem (7:50) Life is busy. (7:50) I had four kids, and then all of a sudden, all that's gone.
Scott Benner (7:53) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (7:54) I go to work, I come home, and I look at everyone. (7:56) So I downloaded TikTok, and then I started creating videos that kind of broke down science a little bit, you know, talked did some myth busting, discussed some of the misinformation, and talked about real science based stuff. (8:08) Mhmm. (8:09) And I guess I did it in a way that was authentic and accessible, and so people really were drawn to that, I guess.
Scott Benner (8:17) Do you find yourself thinking about that? (8:18) Because this is not a thing a lot of people didn't try. (8:21) I don't wanna get, like, down a wormhole that's only for you and I, but I don't understand why my thing's popular and other people tried it and it didn't work. (8:28) It's hard to pull out far enough macro enough to see yourself like that. (8:32) Do you have any feelings?
Dr. Beachgem (8:34) I a 100 a 100% agree. (8:35) I don't really know why that social media kind of chose me because I there's so many people that come out. (8:42) There's and I have a bunch of colleagues who do very similar stuff that I do, but don't have the same degree of following. (8:49) And arguably, they're smarter than me, most of them. (8:52) You know?
Dr. Beachgem (8:52) But I think that one of the things that I do is I do share a little bit more of, like, my personal life and my flaws and my messy house. (9:01) And I think getting to know someone, you trust them more. (9:05) Yeah. (9:05) They know that I've got the ADHD and that my house is messy. (9:08) And I get anxious when I do public speaking.
Dr. Beachgem (9:10) And they say, now she's gonna talk to me about this, but I can trust her because I know that she's a real human. (9:14) Yeah. (9:15) And I think that letting people in a little bit keeps them here.
Scott Benner (9:18) I said something on a recording that isn't out yet that I still can't believe I even admitted about myself. (9:23) I always think, like, maybe I'll just message the editor and be like, take that out. (9:26) I don't think I should have said that. (9:28) Even the, just two days ago, I was recording with a lady, and she was talking about her antibodies for type one. (9:34) And she goes, there's three.
Scott Benner (9:35) And I went, I think there's five. (9:37) And there is five, by the way. (9:38) I was right, but I wasn't sure. (9:40) And I've been doing this a really, really long time. (9:42) And it does give you a moment where you're like, am I not the right person to have this, whatever this is?
Scott Benner (9:47) You know what I mean? (9:48) Like, I what do they talk about? (9:49) Imposter don't feel don't feel that way. (9:52) I just I'm worried that I'm not doing as well as I could be sometimes for people. (9:56) I don't if that makes sense or not.
Scott Benner (9:57) But, anyway, it seems to be going okay. (9:58) So, okay. (9:59) You did not do this on purpose. (10:00) You started making videos No. (10:01) People like you.
Scott Benner (10:02) And then when does it occur to you that you're a slave to the machine now? (10:07) Because at some point, you have to make content. (10:09) Right?
Dr. Beachgem (10:10) Yeah. (10:10) I do feel like I kind of have to make content. (10:12) There is a certain degree of pressure there. (10:14) But at the same time, I don't really feel like a slave to the machine because it's still something that I really enjoy. (10:20) I really enjoy making the content, deciding on what to talk about that day.
Dr. Beachgem (10:24) Like, this is still something that is my coping mechanism for what I deal with, what I consider the real world at my real job. (10:30) Mhmm. (10:31) This is still something that I really enjoy, so it doesn't really feel like work. (10:34) You mentioned before we got on that you work seven days a week. (10:37) And I was like, oh, I guess I also work seven days a week on this, but I I just don't look at it like that because it's still something that's really fun.
Scott Benner (10:43) Yeah. (10:44) It doesn't feel that way to me, but it's true. (10:46) And, actually, like, we're just gonna get up and exist in this house again tomorrow. (11:06) I might as well do something, you know? (11:07) That's really interesting.
Scott Benner (11:08) Okay. (11:09) So I would also tell you that when I first started doing this, there was a person who told me, well, you won't be able to do it long because you'll run out of topics. (11:17) And I have found that to be the most untrue thing that anyone has ever said to me. (11:21) Yeah. (11:21) I think that there is a way to continue to help people and be thoughtful about it infinity, just just to keep going.
Scott Benner (11:28) Like, there's so many things to talk about that people don't understand or have context for. (11:33) My question is, what do you see that you talk about that really helps people that you didn't believe? (11:39) Like, you just thought, oh, I'll just talk about this today, then you realized how impactful it was.
Dr. Beachgem (11:43) You know, probably honestly, some of the diabetes stuff that I've talked about, like, that I diagnosed a friend's child with DKA in Carline, and I tell that story every year. (11:54) Throughout the year, I get tons and tons of comments still on those videos, and then people sending me messages like, Hey, I knew what to look for. (12:03) I was able to get my child or a friend's child early diagnosed. (12:06) They didn't go into DKA because, you know, we knew the symptoms ahead of time. (12:10) So some of that content, I feel like, has been among the more impactful stuff that I've done.
Scott Benner (12:15) You might not know this, but type one diabetes is one of the best represented disease states as a community online. (12:21) It has been like that since I started blogging in 2007. (12:25) And, you know, it's interesting because back in the day, like, I'd have people come to me and say, we'd really like to start a community for type two. (12:32) There's so many more people with type two, but they don't seem as interested as being in a community. (12:36) And then and do you realize, like, there's something about type one that makes people they can't hide it.
Scott Benner (12:43) Right? (12:43) You can't ignore it, and you need support. (12:46) I didn't realize even when I started doing this, this will maybe make you laugh. (12:49) When I started making the podcast, I actually just thought I would take my most popular blog posts and read them into the podcast because I knew they helped people. (12:57) I didn't realize it was gonna go like this.
Scott Benner (12:58) And people were like, Nick, like, please don't do that. (13:01) I pivoted a little bit. (13:02) But as I started growing, I kept thinking all I was doing was sharing tools. (13:06) And then when I started seeing the tools I think tools and foundation are really important. (13:11) I think the confidence to make decisions about setting changes is a huge thing for type ones.
Scott Benner (13:17) But community and support from people who understand I don't wanna sound silly because maybe I maybe I feel old, but I didn't realize that was a big deal. (13:26) And now I see it as, like, half of it. (13:28) Yeah. (13:29) You know? (13:29) So maybe that's one of the reasons why you're seeing back from people with type one because they are engaged because they need to be.
Scott Benner (13:35) And I think when you talk about it, they're like, oh, there's somebody who's outside of diabetes a little bit who's willing to, like, talk about this. (13:41) It must just be exciting to hear somebody speak about it thoughtfully. (13:44) Yeah. (13:45) Yeah. (13:46) So now we understand how you got here.
Scott Benner (13:48) Now I'm gonna ask you my difficult question.
Dr. Beachgem (13:50) Oh, boy.
Scott Benner (13:52) I hate the word advocate for myself. (13:54) I hate to think that you like, here's how I think about it. (13:57) When I go to the to get tires on my car, I don't go, hey. (14:01) Get me four new tires. (14:03) Let me watch and make sure you pick the right ones.
Scott Benner (14:05) Let me watch and make sure you put them on the right way. (14:07) Did you balance them? (14:07) Did you fill them up with air? (14:08) Did you tighten the lug nuts? (14:09) I gotta advocate for myself to make sure you do your job right.
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Dr. Beachgem (16:40) Oh, you know, health care is tough. (16:42) Mhmm. (16:42) And health care is not your car. (16:44) It's not as easy as putting tires on something. (16:47) You know, disease states are complicated, people make them individual.
Dr. Beachgem (16:52) I work in emergency medicine so my job is looking for emergencies. (16:57) I may say to someone, I don't know what this is, but this isn't something that's going to kill you tonight and this is the plan for follow-up. (17:06) It can be complicated because, you know, what's your insurance status? (17:10) What can you guys get approved as an outpatient? (17:12) There's so much more that goes into decision making in health care than just let's throw some tires on.
Scott Benner (17:18) Mhmm.
Dr. Beachgem (17:18) So, you know, I have to think, is this person doesn't have an emergency going to be able to get this test done? (17:25) Can they get into their pediatrician? (17:27) Can they get into this test done as an outpatient? (17:30) And so I think when we talk about the decisions that we have to make, it's just so it's not even three-dimensional. (17:37) It's four dimensional.
Dr. Beachgem (17:38) And I think there are a million different ways to approach conditions and decisions. (17:44) And I think when we're advocating, we're trying to bring everyone to the table to the same table.
Scott Benner (17:50) Okay.
Dr. Beachgem (17:51) Because a lot of times and and granted, there are great providers out there and not so great providers out there, but I'm sitting at my emergency medicine table, and they're sitting at their parent table. (18:00) And we need to be sitting at the same table, and I don't understand their insurance and their, you know, transportation and all of this other stuff. (18:06) And so I think advocating is really trying to get us all on the same table so that we're understanding all of the same things.
Scott Benner (18:12) Okay.
Dr. Beachgem (18:12) I don't wanna defend the not great decisions that happen out there, but I think some of the decisions that are made in medicine are decent decisions, just not made for the right person.
Scott Benner (18:21) And is it different for people with type one because they often have such a deeper understanding of their illness than other people do? (18:29) Right? (18:29) So when you say something that smells a little wrong in the ER for me, I'm like, oh, that ain't right. (18:34) And then, like, suddenly there's a a chasm there. (18:37) Like, oh, we're gonna take your pump off.
Scott Benner (18:38) You're like, dude, don't do that. (18:39) Yeah. (18:40) Or, you know, when somebody finger sticks you every hour when you're wearing a CGM and you think, like, you're just doing this so you can charge me for the finger stick? (18:46) Like, what is happening right now? (18:47) And, like so I ask you the question.
Scott Benner (18:49) It's a bit of a trick question because Mhmm. (18:51) People feel all the time like medicine doesn't understand diabetes. (18:56) But I've been doing this for so long, and I've spoken to so many different doctors that I think it's kind of a, like, a multipronged problem. (19:03) Like, you are you said and you said something I feel like. (19:05) Like, you as the patient, you're the variable because you don't know, am I on the ball?
Scott Benner (19:10) Do I not understand this at all? (19:11) Like, where's my diabetes understanding? (19:13) Like, so you have to treat us all like we don't know what we're doing because that is probably what you see most frequently. (19:18) Right? (19:19) People with higher a one c's who aren't quite sure about how to do what they're doing.
Scott Benner (19:23) And then there's your level of education, your level of experience, like, how tired are you? (19:27) Are you fighting with your husband? (19:29) All this is happening at the same time. (19:31) And then there's the insurance piece. (19:33) So can I even run this test?
Scott Benner (19:35) Am I right to say that, like, there's basically a checklist and if you don't meet everything, then there's a test you can't run even if you wanted to?
Dr. Beachgem (19:42) Not necessarily a check list in all situations. (19:44) Okay. (19:45) Especially, again, I'm in I'm in the emergency department. (19:47) I have relative free rein as long as I can justify it.
Scott Benner (19:51) Got it. (19:51) Okay.
Dr. Beachgem (19:52) So I can't order, you know, a random outpatient send out test that has nothing to do with your visit today. (19:57) Mhmm. (19:57) But I can order an a one c if we're concerned about x, y, and z, and it makes sense with your visit. (20:04) I do have more leeway than a lot of outpatient providers, which is cool, which is really cool.
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Dr. Beachgem (21:16) Yep. (21:17) Like, if I can justify it with the visit today, like, we could probably make it happen. (21:22) But I think one of the things that gets complicated is that, like you said, there are a lot of situations where people have higher A1Cs, maybe not managing quite as well for whatever reason. (21:34) And so we have all of these protocols and checklists that we have for new onset diabetes or maybe hyperglycemia. (21:41) And so we click these check boxes for orders, and now it's saying everybody that comes in with hyperglycemia is going to get a blood sugar every hour.
Dr. Beachgem (21:51) And what if your CGM is not working? (21:53) So I think that we are in this super cautious over here phase where you're like, I got out my CGM, we're good. (21:59) My blood sugar is 10 points different than it was an hour ago, but we have to function in this more conservative space, and we use these protocols to do that. (22:09) And it's nice because we can override these protocols in certain situations, but a lot of times the default setting is gonna be going by these protocols.
Scott Benner (22:16) Okay. (22:16) People also want me to ask you, how can it be possible that when a kid comes into a pediatrician's office with flu like symptoms that a finger stick is part of the diagnostic? (22:25) Because that's usually where people are misdiagn like, could be diagnosed and and aren't. (22:30) Right? (22:30) Is that what like, is that a money thing?
Scott Benner (22:33) Like, like, it's such a strange idea that it's not just part of it.
Dr. Beachgem (22:37) I don't know if it's as much as a money thing as a resource thing because you have to make sure that that blood sugar meter every day has to be like you have to check it to make sure that it's working. (22:47) I forget what the thing's You have to calibrate it every day, so you have to have the person to do it, and then if it's not done, you have to calibrate it. (22:54) That takes time. (22:54) That takes you know, your nurse that's busy that you guys have 40 appointments today, and instead of doing this, now she's calibrating and then checking her blood sugar, which takes time. (23:03) So I think it's more of a resource thing.
Dr. Beachgem (23:05) I will say that's one of the more commonly missed things is gastro or flu like illness and it's actually new onset or DKA. (23:14) We do our best to check blood sugars frequently in the ER, but it is something that could easily be missed. (23:21) I would say in the ER, that's all we see all day long, and so it goes back to the resources. (23:26) We calibrate every day anyway because we check enough of them, but that's probably the biggest barrier I would say is doing it.
Scott Benner (23:32) So I often I sit around and I think sometimes doctors' jobs are really unfair. (23:38) Right? (23:38) Like, you expect them to like, first of you go to if you really were gonna go to medical school and come out with a complete understanding, you'd have to go to medical school for a hundred years. (23:46) Mhmm. (23:46) Right?
Scott Benner (23:46) Like, so you get a little bit of everything, and then you're left to just remember, oh, did I hear a thing one time about that, or have I ever had this experiences? (23:54) There's times when I think when you come into an ER, should just be talking and an AI should be listening to you. (24:00) And then it should say, here are the possibilities in case you miss something, and then layer the human side on top of it because that is what we're asking you to do. (24:08) And there's there's no way you're gonna be able to do that. (24:10) Like, even the sharpest, brightest, most focused person isn't gonna have access to everything they've ever encountered in the world, every thought and every teaching, and they might have missed one.
Scott Benner (24:20) And so I mean, your job must feel like rooting around in the closet without a flashlight in the dark. (24:26) Right? (24:26) Like, is that am I getting close?
Dr. Beachgem (24:28) Yeah. (24:29) The saying that we have is you're walking through a minefield in clown shoes because it's four years. (24:34) And in that four years, you're supposed to learn, everything that you need to have to go start practicing, and then you've got three to six years of residency where you're supposed to learn everything else. (24:44) I can tell I learned a lot during that time, but I certainly didn't learn everything that there is to know, especially when there's getting into these really rare genetic conditions and stuff like that. (24:53) It is hard, and we have to be perfect a 100% of the time or else somebody's life could be in danger.
Dr. Beachgem (24:59) As a human, being right a 100% of the time is just it's impossible. (25:03) I will a 100% agree that I think that bringing things in like AI, to help us not miss things and to help give us ideas. (25:12) I think that we're gonna see all types of new things coming onto the horizon and hopefully not missing things
Scott Benner (25:17) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (25:18) To say like check a blood sugar. (25:19) Do this. (25:20) I feel like my other response was a little more defensive. (25:23) I am all about checking a blood sugar in literally anyone I can order it on.
Scott Benner (25:28) Right.
Dr. Beachgem (25:29) In a kid that's vomiting, I'm asking the questions. (25:31) How are they drinking? (25:32) How are they peeing? (25:33) You know, some screening things in addition as well. (25:35) But it's not an easy job, and it's a it's a heavy lift sometimes.
Scott Benner (25:38) Yeah. (25:39) It's interesting that you said you felt like you might be being defensive. (25:42) I pay attention to your content, and I know that you're having some sort of a medical issue. (25:47) I'm sorry to say this with discharge from your breast. (25:49) Right?
Dr. Beachgem (25:49) Yes.
Scott Benner (25:50) And I watched a couple of videos where it was interesting because, like, what you do professionally as a doctor, what you do professionally on social media, like, social media, you know that, like, people go to the hospital and have outcomes that aren't great and that they could be But yet, when you it was you personally, you were like, I have a good doctor and I'm gonna listen to what they say even if I don't agree with what's happening. (26:11) And I was like, well, that was such an interesting separation for me because you're a doctor and you know what it feels like to be your doctor. (26:19) Can you untwine all that for me? (26:21) Because you know what I'm talking about. (26:22) Right?
Dr. Beachgem (26:22) I do.
Scott Benner (26:23) Okay.
Dr. Beachgem (26:23) So I I had an experience where I was supposed to have a test performed and I didn't have a great experience having that test performed. (26:30) They actually weren't able to do it. (26:31) It felt to me that they were being kind of condescending and, you know, I'm not dumb. (26:36) I have an OBGYN who I trust because of other things that I can't really talk about, but I I trust her.
Scott Benner (26:42) Right.
Dr. Beachgem (26:42) She knows the system and she's she knows the stuff. (26:45) And so if she tells me, hey. (26:47) You need to do this test, like, I trust her. (26:49) It's not the answer that I wanna hear, but I will go and do it. (26:52) And she recommended that I see a specialist and in the end we're going to end up skipping the test and move right towards surgery, which is kind of what the evidence based stuff shows.
Dr. Beachgem (27:01) And I'm a big fan of evidence. (27:02) You've probably seen that in my videos. (27:03) Show me the evidence and we'll follow it. (27:06) So I know as a patient, there are things that I don't wanna do because it's uncomfortable or unpleasant, or I don't wanna go back into that situation again. (27:14) But I do trust my doctor and what she says, especially when she can provide me with the evidence to back it up.
Scott Benner (27:18) So how do you make that leap when you know I'm just guessing, but you've made mistakes as a doctor. (27:23) Right? (27:24) So when you're sitting there sick, having this problem that people are like, I don't see. (27:28) Like, I heard you say this one thing that you went in for a test, they couldn't produce the result to prove what you were seeing. (27:34) Then I think you went out into the the waiting room and, like, were having it and you kinda ran back in.
Scott Benner (27:39) You were like, it's happening now. (27:40) And they're like, don't worry. (27:41) We'll look another day. (27:42) Like, when you know you've been wrong before, how do you still say I'm gonna trust the process when you've seen the process be wrong and now you're the one who's in jeopardy?
Dr. Beachgem (27:52) Yeah. (27:52) So I was trusting my doctor who ordered the test. (27:56) Not necessarily I and I had some frustration with that situation.
Scott Benner (28:00) Mhmm.
Dr. Beachgem (28:00) And I know based on lots of things that that facility actually does really good work. (28:05) And I I go back to we're all human and we all have bad days sometimes. (28:09) Using your word, I I had to advocate for myself in the next step, and I usually don't advocate for myself. (28:15) I'm actually really bad at that for lots of reasons. (28:17) That's
Scott Benner (28:17) interesting. (28:18) Okay.
Dr. Beachgem (28:18) But I did that day, I I stepped back out and I said, look. (28:22) Here's my symptom, and they said, no. (28:24) Thank you. (28:24) I go back to the doctor that I trust, and and I she called me the next day and said, you know, what do we think about next steps? (28:31) And we talked we had a really great talk about it.
Dr. Beachgem (28:33) We kind of went over, you know, the next plan. (28:36) But I I think it's it's hard because I wanna trust my medical colleagues. (28:40) Like, this is a system that I work in. (28:42) This is these are my people, and it is maybe more disappointing for me than for others. (28:47) I'm not sure about that, but it feels more disappointing to me because, like, these are the people this is me.
Dr. Beachgem (28:52) And, like, when I'm disappointing myself, that's hard. (28:54) So I feel like like, if they're gonna do anything, like like, let's fight for the same team, and it's just, you know, sometimes it all falls apart.
Scott Benner (29:02) I just found it kinda fascinating because, like, you don't have white coat. (29:05) Right? (29:05) You that doesn't happen to you. (29:06) You don't
Dr. Beachgem (29:06) No.
Scott Benner (29:07) Know. (29:07) Right. (29:07) So you have other reasons. (29:08) So you're a people pleaser or something like that.
Dr. Beachgem (29:11) Yeah.
Scott Benner (29:11) Gotcha. (29:12) Okay. (29:12) Okay.
Dr. Beachgem (29:12) I don't wanna go against the grain. (29:14) Right? (29:15) Because this is my team. (29:16) So, like, we should all be in it together and doing the same thing. (29:18) So I don't wanna go against the grain.
Scott Benner (29:20) See, that's what I was wondering. (29:21) Like, if you're not, like, a wide receiver on television, like, not wanting to say something bad about the offensive line. (29:26) Like right. (29:27) Yeah. (29:27) Yeah.
Scott Benner (29:27) Because why? (29:29) Because you have a respect for them or because you believe that you could be in their position quite easily in another situation?
Dr. Beachgem (29:36) Probably. (29:37) Yeah. (29:38) Probably that.
Scott Benner (29:38) There's a lack of confidence underneath all of it. (29:42) So it's interesting because I think people see doctor I think doctors, teachers, and cops, right, get, like, a pass because you're brought up. (29:49) Like, be kind to the police officer, listen to your teacher, listen to your doctor. (29:53) And most of your life, that works. (29:55) And then usually, even if you get sick, it works right.
Scott Benner (29:58) I say all the time, like, break your arm. (29:59) Go somewhere. (30:00) Right away. (30:00) Like, I I've had my shoulder repaired. (30:02) I've had my ankle repaired.
Scott Benner (30:03) Like, there are things medicine is awesome at. (30:06) And then when you get into type one diabetes, it very quickly becomes, how strange is it that endocrinologists all over this country will get you in a corner and go, hey, listen. (30:18) You should go listen to the Juice Box podcast. (30:20) Do you know what I mean? (30:21) Like, how strange that is?
Scott Benner (30:22) The endo is like, you know what your best bet would be here? (30:26) Go do this, like, because I can't help you as much as you want to be helped. (30:31) I can't figure that part out for my life. (30:33) Like, I can't figure that like, how am I a better resource than your nurse practitioner?
Dr. Beachgem (30:38) Oh, I think part of it is going back to the resource. (30:41) You know, time is one of the biggest resources that we have in medicine. (30:45) And the way that insurance reimbursement goes, we have to see a certain number of patients to keep the lights on.
Scott Benner (30:52) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (30:52) And when you look at medicine and the way that doctor's salaries are going up, there's a lot of other people that are going up way faster than doctor's salaries. (30:59) Like, we're not really keeping up with keeping up with that. (31:01) I mean, we're doing okay. (31:02) No no complaints. (31:03) But The resource is the time because we've got to get in and get out and see the patients.
Dr. Beachgem (31:06) And so we tend to refer to resources that are going to be supportive resources, are going to be educational resources, that are going be giving great life tips. (31:15) I think that finding community is also important where you can share, and community that's gonna be giving good information is vital.
Scott Benner (31:22) Yeah. (31:23) I have such a great idea that nobody takes seriously because I I think they don't know how to bill it. (31:27) But Mhmm. (31:27) I think that instead of coming in and having a an appointment once every four every three or four months, right, and for fifteen minutes, I think a huge group of people should come to an auditorium three or four times a year and have a group experience. (31:44) Because I've gone and spoken at events where people come in, don't know what they're doing, and an hour later, they're better off.
Scott Benner (31:52) And then six months later, they send me a note. (31:53) Oh my god. (31:54) My a one c went down two points because of that thing you said. (31:56) Right? (31:56) Which is a wonderful feeling, but, like, we should find a way to do that for people.
Scott Benner (32:01) I know that that's Yeah. (32:01) Not the system. (32:02) But, like, if fifteen minutes isn't enough, then give them more time. (32:06) And who cares, like, in the end, like, my opinion is, like, who cares? (32:11) Like, just bill it the same way, but give them different tools.
Scott Benner (32:14) Like right? (32:14) Like, you could do that a few times. (32:16) I could give that talk every day. (32:18) Like right? (32:18) Like and and so could other people.
Scott Benner (32:20) And I I also think it would help the physicians at some point too because so much about type one is timing and amount. (32:25) Doctor. (32:26) Beecham, I tell people all the time, I'm like, if I if you pushed me off a cliff and said, teach people about diabetes as you were falling, I'd say, it's all timing and amount. (32:33) Like, just use the right amount of insulin at the right time. (32:35) It'll all be okay.
Scott Benner (32:36) And there's obviously more to it than that, but that really is that's the seed of the idea. (32:41) And then you have to understand how food impacts your blood sugar, how your blood sugar impacts your food, about activity. (32:47) Like, there's other stuff obviously to layer on. (32:50) But every time you look at one of those layers, the truth of it is at its distilled end, it's timing and amount. (32:57) Very few people are told to pre bolus their meals.
Scott Benner (33:00) Very few people are told that fat and protein impacts their blood sugar later. (33:04) Like, really simple things that have such a huge impact. (33:08) What I ended up saying at some point on the podcast is that you will leave your doctor with what I consider to be don't die advice. (33:14) Like, it's enough to keep you alive, not really enough to keep you healthy. (33:19) And to your point, you need more time to absorb all that.
Scott Benner (33:23) So you're telling me that what doctors need is they need to get paid by the download the way I do. (33:28) And I wonder how to fix that. (33:29) And I and I don't know because I can step back and look at it like big picture in the world and go, like, this is how insurance works. (33:35) We're not gonna fix any of this. (33:37) This is bigger than all of us.
Scott Benner (33:38) Right? (33:39) And then I can also look at people's lives one at a time when I interview them and see the incredible impact it has on them just to not be told that. (33:47) Like, as you have a million stories, I will tell you one. (33:51) Alright. (33:51) So I'm put in touch with a person who has type one diabetes and a lot of kids.
Scott Benner (33:56) She's got, like, six or seven kids, and she's in her mid forties. (34:00) And she's online looking for help. (34:02) Nobody can help her. (34:03) Somebody points her to me. (34:04) She sends me a message, and I'm just like, just call me.
Scott Benner (34:07) She gets on the phone. (34:09) I give her the talk, basically. (34:11) And the next day, I get a text back from her. (34:13) She wants to know if she can call me back. (34:15) I get on the phone, and she's angry.
Scott Benner (34:17) Not at me, I realize. (34:19) And she's like, my blood sugar was so stable overnight. (34:22) She's like, it was, like, 90 all night long. (34:25) I slept. (34:26) I feel so much better.
Scott Benner (34:28) Why didn't anyone tell me this? (34:31) That was what she was angry about. (34:32) She was angry about lost time. (34:34) And then she started talking about she has complications, and someone could have just told me this thirty years ago. (34:41) And, like, the desperation in her voice about, like, not knowing where her health was going to go, the recognition that she had lost time to a struggle that she did not need to be involved in was heartbreaking.
Scott Benner (34:52) It sticks with me to this day, you know. (34:54) I don't know. (34:54) Like, I want there to be a better way. (34:57) I don't think there is. (34:58) And but if that's the case, then how do we make it so that where people with type one or type two touch doctors, there's more understanding?
Scott Benner (35:10) Because if you ask a type one what they're most scared of, it's going to the ER or being admitted to the hospital. (35:17) So I kind of would like to shift into that now, and and I'd like you to help me help them have a better experience when they if they end up in the hospital.
Dr. Beachgem (35:25) Yeah. (35:26) That's tough. (35:26) I think especially for pediatrics, go to a pediatric facility. (35:32) The way that DKA and type one diabetes is managed in adult facilities or community hospitals is quite different than a pediatric facility. (35:42) I'll be honest, we manage a little bit of type two, a little bit of insulin resistance, but we manage so much type one.
Dr. Beachgem (35:50) I feel very comfortable with type one management and I, as much as I can, defer to the family's kind of expertise about their kid in that situation. (35:59) And and you can tell pretty quickly talking to a parent. (36:02) I could almost guess their a one c after that first discussion
Scott Benner (36:05) Mhmm.
Dr. Beachgem (36:06) With the family and kind of the way that they're managing things at home. (36:09) I think it's really important to stay on top of things as much as possible. (36:13) We do a lot of protocols. (36:15) We'll ask you to remove the pump if we are in DKA just because we're trying to you know, we're gonna end up putting on an insulin drip and stuff like that, so it helps manage a little bit more cleanly so we know how much insulin is going in. (36:27) But these times can be very tough and I do think it is really important to be at bedside and ask when they're checking the blood sugar, and what was it, and how much insulin are you giving?
Dr. Beachgem (36:37) Because, obviously, those are it's pretty big deal making sure that they're getting what they need to get.
Scott Benner (36:43) Yeah. (36:43) It's interesting to hear you talk about it because I trust you, and I know you're smart, and I know you understand this, and your answer still seems a little like, I don't know. (36:51) And I appreciate that, by the way, that you're not bullshitting me. (36:53) Like, I really do appreciate that. (36:55) My daughter has a friend who ended up in she had ketones.
Scott Benner (36:58) She got sick. (36:59) She got ketones, and she couldn't get them to go away. (37:02) She got panicked. (37:02) She went to the hospital, and then she called me 34 later, and she was exhausted. (37:07) And I was like, what's going on?
Scott Benner (37:08) She goes, I just I shouldn't have gone to the hospital. (37:11) She said it did not take long for me to realize that I knew more about this than they did, and I don't know a ton about it. (37:17) Like, she's a young girl. (37:18) Like, she's still understanding her diabetes. (37:20) You know?
Scott Benner (37:21) I asked, like, different questions. (37:22) She said they kept my blood sugar really high. (37:24) They wouldn't, like, give me insulin for food. (37:27) Like, they she's like, they kept bringing me things that were, like, really heavy in carbs to eat and then not giving me insulin for it. (37:33) And as my blood sugar got higher, I felt sicker.
Scott Benner (37:36) I was trying to, like she's trying to convalesce from some sort of an infection with a high blood sugar, which I'm not wrong. (37:42) Right? (37:42) That makes that more difficult.
Dr. Beachgem (37:44) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (37:44) So what happens in that situation? (37:46) She's there. (37:47) Is it what you said earlier? (37:49) Like, you come into the emergency room. (37:50) If it's not killing you, then I'm not focused on it.
Scott Benner (37:52) So in the hospital, if it's not the thing you're there for, is it background then?
Dr. Beachgem (37:57) No. (37:57) I I
Scott Benner (37:59) because it shouldn't be. (38:00) You're
Dr. Beachgem (38:00) No. (38:00) It shouldn't. (38:01) It shouldn't be. (38:01) Right. (38:02) And I think that my ER DKA and my ER type one diabetes with a viral illness pathways in my head are very different.
Scott Benner (38:10) Okay.
Dr. Beachgem (38:10) In which case, like, I know I'm gonna give you a fluid bolus, and I know that's gonna bring down your blood sugar automatically. (38:17) I might not wanna treat, you know, the couple sips of Gatorade that you just took. (38:21) I might wanna let you roll a little higher because I know your blood sugar is gonna come down with fluids. (38:26) Mhmm. (38:26) And I'll be honest, I may not verbalize that as well to a family.
Dr. Beachgem (38:31) I'm I may just, like, give the bolus and, like, hey. (38:33) We'll check blood sugar again in sixty minutes and see where we're at, then we can make some plans. (38:38) I may not verbalize always my thought process behind that. (38:41) And maybe I need to get better at that, and especially with families that are, like, really on top of their stuff. (38:46) They know it, and they're starting to get anxious as they see that CGM creeping up a little bit.
Scott Benner (38:50) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (38:50) And again, DKA management for me, it took different different pathway.
Scott Benner (38:55) Is there another side to this? (38:56) Would ignorance be bliss for me? (38:58) Would you get me through my hospital experience better if I shut up and didn't have opinions? (39:02) And then I could go home and get my blood sugar back down again, or is that not the right answer either?
Dr. Beachgem (39:07) I don't know. (39:08) I don't think that's the right answer either because I you know, sitting on the floor with a high blood sugar, like, you getting DKA in the hospital is not good for anyone. (39:16) Right? (39:17) So I think we need to be managing it, and I think sometimes there could be some oversight potentially. (39:22) I know my people in my hospital are again, we're following protocols.
Dr. Beachgem (39:26) We're checking blood sugars at these certain intervals because we wanna avoid all of that happening. (39:31) And I think, again, finding a facility that knows what they're doing, so a pediatric facility, and ask what their protocol is. (39:37) Like, can print it out and hand it to you, and I can say this is our protocol. (39:40) This is what we're gonna be following while you're an inpatient. (39:42) We're gonna be doing insulin this like this.
Dr. Beachgem (39:45) We're gonna be doing blood sugars like this. (39:47) So I I think it's reasonable to ask, you know, could you show me your protocol for, you know, patients that are admitted with diabetes and a gastroenteritis? (39:55) Okay. (39:55) Show me what you're gonna be doing. (39:56) Show me that protocol.
Dr. Beachgem (39:57) And then if they're not following it, you can hold them accountable there.
Scott Benner (39:59) So expectations should be that you're gonna be a part hopefully, they'll allow you to be, but you should be a part of the process if you wanted to go
Dr. Beachgem (40:05) more smoothly. (40:06) Okay. (40:06) Really, medicine should really be a partnership between the patient and family and the providers, the nurses, the doctors, the RTs, whoever's taking care of them.
Scott Benner (40:13) No matter what. (40:14) So would it surprise you to know that mothers who are nurses who end up with kids with type one often seem the most confused to me when I'm talking to them. (40:24) Why would that be? (40:25) Because it used to freak me out. (40:27) But you know what stopped freaking me out?
Scott Benner (40:28) When a a Hopkins brain surgeon contacted me privately and asked me to explain to him how to take care of his kid. (40:35) That's when I was like, oh, okay. (40:37) And here's my last little piece. (40:38) One of my daughter's best friends is in nursing school right now. (40:41) She's probably three or almost four years down.
Scott Benner (40:43) I think she's almost done with her first four years, her undergrad. (40:45) Right? (40:46) And she came to me a few months ago, and she's obviously grown up with Arden. (40:51) And so, you know, has a a a pretty tight understanding of what's going on. (40:54) And she said, Scott, we just went over diabetes in class.
Scott Benner (40:57) And I said, yeah. (40:58) And she goes, and I sat there, all I thought was, wait. (41:01) Is that all you're gonna teach us? (41:02) Because that would that's not enough to keep Arden alive. (41:05) And then she said she had a stark moment where she thought, what else did I now believe that I have full understanding of that I don't have an understanding of?
Scott Benner (41:13) It was, like, a real interesting moment for her. (41:15) So, anyway, I I'm not asking you say anything bad about the nursing profession. (41:19) I'm wondering, like, what happens between because when you're in the hospital, like, I I don't wanna say who, but I know somebody who was just in the hospital who tried to advocate for their diabetes. (41:28) The nurse was like, I know better than you. (41:30) Like, shut up, basically.
Scott Benner (41:32) And it that was not the case. (41:34) So Yeah. (41:34) Like but she really believed it. (41:37) Does that all make sense?
Dr. Beachgem (41:38) Yeah. (41:39) And, again, diabetes type one diabetes, I think, again and you know this traditionally looked at as a pediatric disease, and those kids do grow up and become adults, which is awesome. (41:49) So I think that there are people that can manage type one diabetes well, but I think as kids are growing up and you're seeing this more in the adult population, a lot of the people that are taking care of the adults are thinking about type two diabetes management and not necessarily having that stronger experience with the type one where you need the insulin, you need to be monitoring the ketones, you need to be getting insulin, you need to be carb counting, you need to be monitoring what you're eating, your nutrition. (42:21) It's complicated. (42:22) And I think the thing about coming in as parent without medical knowledge or a medical background, you're coming in like, I just need to learn it all.
Dr. Beachgem (42:31) Mhmm. (42:31) I need to learn it all. (42:32) I'm gonna start at the beginning, and I'm just gonna learn as much as I can possibly learn. (42:36) Or I think sometimes us as medical professionals, can go, I know a little bit about that. (42:41) Let's just go with this.
Dr. Beachgem (42:42) Let's see what we can do, or maybe we nitpick what we can learn about this or that. (42:47) So we have this baseline knowledge that sometimes we rely too heavily on, but I think if you had a nurse that had more specific, like one of my floor nurses manages type one diabetes all the time. (42:59) And I think that if you if one of their kids ended up with it, I think they would probably feel more comfortable managing it.
Scott Benner (43:05) Yeah. (43:05) I also wanna point out that I've also heard countless conversations and and stories from people who had fantastic doctors and fantastic nurses. (43:13) Right? (43:13) Like, it's not I'm not trying to say that everybody is lost. (43:16) I always say it's interesting because when you get a doctor, you don't know which one you're getting.
Scott Benner (43:20) Yeah. (43:20) And you're gonna believe them no matter what. (43:22) What if I got the one that doesn't know? (43:24) And what if I got the that's what made made me think about with your situation earlier too. (43:28) Like, you don't always know who you're getting.
Scott Benner (43:30) And then there's Yeah. (43:31) There can be ego involved too. (43:32) And I don't mean, like, in a, like, a god complex way. (43:35) I mean, like, I went to undergrad. (43:37) I went to school.
Scott Benner (43:38) I did this. (43:38) I did all that. (43:39) I got a guy now telling me what to do. (43:41) Like, you know what I mean? (43:42) Like, he's he's sitting in a room being like, no.
Scott Benner (43:44) You don't understand. (43:44) Like, I don't understand. (43:46) I mean, imagine me. (43:47) I'm a podcaster. (43:48) Like right?
Scott Benner (43:49) So imagine if I was in a room going, no. (43:51) I think this is what you should do. (43:53) I can see where that could be difficult too. (43:55) Plus, there's a ton of pressure and stress. (43:57) I mean, I can't imagine being a doctor, to be perfectly honest with you.
Scott Benner (44:00) Like, it must feel like your hair's on fire all the time. (44:04) No?
Dr. Beachgem (44:05) You know, we have days I can't imagine doing anything other than this. (44:08) This is what I was I was made to do. (44:10) And so, you know, to me doing air conditioning seems really stressful. (44:14) Mhmm. (44:15) But doing this feels very natural.
Dr. Beachgem (44:16) But there are days that I, you know, I second guess my decisions or, you know, I go to bed thinking about that one patient. (44:23) You know, did we do the right thing? (44:24) You know, did I did I do this right or, you know, wonder how they're doing, you know, now kind of thing. (44:29) Like, we second guess ourselves a lot.
Scott Benner (44:31) What do you think it is about your personality that lends itself to the job?
Dr. Beachgem (44:35) I have no idea.
Scott Benner (44:36) No. (44:36) It just works for you.
Dr. Beachgem (44:37) It just does. (44:38) It's the ADHD, and it's the seeking adrenaline and wanting to help people. (44:43) But I I don't know. (44:44) Yeah. (44:44) It's just it's just we're all made to do something, and I think I just found what I was made to do.
Scott Benner (44:50) When you put yourself out there online because I've gone through this. (44:54) I imagine you have too. (44:55) Right? (44:55) Like, at some point, somebody says, oh, you're busy telling me what to do, but look at you. (45:00) I'm sitting in front of you today, two and a half years removed from starting GLPs.
Scott Benner (45:05) I'm seventy pounds lighter than I was. (45:08) And there were times where I didn't put myself on video because I thought, know my stuff is rock solid about type one, but I don't want somebody to look at me and go, oh, there's an overweight guy trying to tell me about my health. (45:19) Right? (45:20) Like, I actually had that feeling. (45:21) I was like, I shouldn't probably do that.
Scott Benner (45:22) Right? (45:23) Have you had any experience with the people being shitty to you? (45:27) How do you deal with that? (45:29) And does it slow you down at all with the things you talk about?
Dr. Beachgem (45:33) Yeah. (45:34) You know, emergency medicine and the lifestyle for emergency medicine does not lend itself well to physical health. (45:40) The late nights, early mornings, eating on the go, not necessarily the healthiest food. (45:47) I'm sitting a couple pounds heavier than I would like, especially with the hurricanes and all the moves and stuff like that. (45:52) I do get comments occasionally like, Oh, look at this fat person telling me you know, to be healthy.
Dr. Beachgem (45:58) And for the most part, I'm not really talking about, you know, weight loss and nutrition. (46:01) I'm talking about ways to keep your kid from getting in a ebike crash.
Scott Benner (46:05) Right.
Dr. Beachgem (46:06) And realistically, people don't get to choose their provider in the emergency department. (46:10) Like you said, you kinda get stuck with whoever walks into the room. (46:13) There might not be an alternative. (46:15) I might be the only one there. (46:16) People tend not to, in real practice, say, like, hey.
Dr. Beachgem (46:19) I'd like another doctor that could is there somebody skinnier that could come in and see me? (46:23) No. (46:23) I mean,
Scott Benner (46:23) it's obviously on are people that directly horrible?
Dr. Beachgem (46:27) Yeah. (46:27) Online, are. (46:28) You know, and it's social media. (46:29) Like, everyone has an opinion. (46:31) And I I have like I said earlier, I have really good social media boundaries, and I do a lot of, like, just delete and block.
Dr. Beachgem (46:37) Like, I don't need someone Yeah. (46:39) Like that in my comment section for my own mental health and sanity.
Scott Benner (46:43) Good for you. (46:44) I brought it up because my wife is very impressed with how you manage that. (46:47) That she said to me, she's like, I really like the way she takes care of that. (46:50) And I was like, okay. (46:51) Yeah.
Scott Benner (46:51) Well, I'll bring it
Dr. Beachgem (46:52) to house. (46:52) I try to eat pretty healthy and I do work out and exercise, so I and I'm strong. (46:57) Like, I could bench press some I can bench press some stuff. (47:00) Yeah. (47:01) But, I'm like I'm like one forty.
Dr. Beachgem (47:03) I could bench press. (47:03) I'm doing alright. (47:04) Yeah. (47:04) Good. (47:05) You know?
Scott Benner (47:06) I well, listen. (47:06) I hear you. (47:07) I sit still a lot. (47:08) And also, in truth, I do not eat much differently today than I did two and a half years ago. (47:13) I am a pretty much a fan of the idea that there might be some metabolic help that's coming from GLP ones for some people because it hasn't really changed a lot about I mean, it's true.
Scott Benner (47:23) You're not hungry ever. (47:25) Like, you know, like, I ate breakfast this morning because I know I needed to. (47:28) So I'm not saying that it isn't benefiting me in that way, but I had an instant, like, an a very instant impact from I lost 14 pounds, like, the first five days.
Dr. Beachgem (47:38) Wow.
Scott Benner (47:38) Yeah. (47:39) It was crazy. (47:40) I used to be anemic. (47:41) Like, I had to get iron infusions three times a year. (47:44) I don't have to do that anymore.
Scott Benner (47:46) So I don't know if maybe I'm just digesting my food better now or I'm holding on to it long enough to extract it. (47:51) I don't even care. (47:52) I've never been in a situation before where was like, actually don't care. (47:55) I just I'm happy it's working. (47:56) So I've seen it with other type ones too.
Scott Benner (47:59) I've seen it with type twos. (48:00) I know plenty of type twos who've lost weight, a one c, like, their variability is better, everything. (48:05) But more and more type ones are getting a hold of it now. (48:08) And it really is interesting to see their insulin needs sometimes go down 30%. (48:13) And their spikes get lesser, and I'm like, wow.
Scott Benner (48:16) I wonder where this is all going. (48:17) Like, it seems like so new. (48:20) But I would imagine the only probably the only intersection you have with is probably the people who don't do well with it. (48:25) Right? (48:25) Because in the ER, you're just coming in because what?
Scott Benner (48:28) Have gastroparesis from it or low motility or something. (48:30) Right?
Dr. Beachgem (48:30) Pancreatitis, vomiting, dehydration, chronic abdominal pain, gastritis. (48:35) But, you know, in pediatrics, I think Wegovy has been approved for 12 and older, but for, like, just obesity and not diabetes. (48:43) Mhmm. (48:44) So there's we've only seen a handful in the pediatric population so far, and I don't really treat adults when I can manage it. (48:51) But I think we are going to see more and more of the kids that have the type one and type two diabetes on these medications and the kids that are struggling with obesity on these medications to avoid the longer term complications.
Dr. Beachgem (49:05) The research that's coming out about the GLP-1s is really cool. (49:08) I mean, some of these conditions that you wouldn't even think are related. (49:12) I saw something the other day on pseudotumor cerebri, which is extra CSF fluid that's produced creating pressure, and it can create, you know, injury to the eyes and really bad headaches. (49:22) They're seeing improvements on GLP ones. (49:24) Just some really cool stuff coming down the line with these medications.
Scott Benner (49:27) Yeah. (49:27) I would have kissed the Gila monster twenty years ago if I knew about this, I'll tell you. (49:31) Ladies with PCOS getting pregnant out of nowhere Wow. (49:34) That's crazy. (49:35) Right?
Scott Benner (49:35) My wife swears that it helps with inflammation so much so that she thinks that, her perimenopause was easier because of it. (49:42) You know, I've seen people say that it's lessened, impacts of long COVID. (49:46) Oh, that's something I wanted to ask you about. (49:48) That's real. (49:48) Right?
Scott Benner (49:49) Long COVID? (49:50) Yeah. (49:51) Okay. (49:51) Alright. (49:52) So if I told you please don't disconnect.
Scott Benner (49:56) If I told you that, I don't know, eight months ago, I was listening to a podcast and I randomly heard some guy say, like, nicotine helps with long COVID, and I didn't really register it. (50:05) Right? (50:05) And then two months ago, I had a lady on the podcast, and she said just kind of offhandedly, I've had long COVID for a while, but it's really getting better. (50:13) And I just said, oh, what did you do? (50:15) Because my wife has it, suffers with it pretty badly.
Scott Benner (50:17) She said I did a twenty one day nicotine patch protocol. (50:21) And I was like, googled that, And there was a website, and I was like, well, this doesn't look like it was made by a serial killer. (50:26) So I read it, and I said to my wife, I'm like, I don't think a nicotine patch is gonna hurt you one way or the other. (50:32) Right? (50:32) Like, so she was in the middle of a bad flare to real foggy.
Scott Benner (50:36) She couldn't get rest and everything. (50:38) And my you don't know my wife, but this was not a thing she was up for. (50:41) Right? (50:41) Like, she and I just I caught her in a day where she was so bad off. (50:44) I'm like, look.
Scott Benner (50:45) I'm just gonna stick this on you. (50:47) Then I was like, and we'll stick another one on in twenty four hours. (50:50) And about seven days later, goes, hey. (50:52) You know, I feel better. (50:53) And fourteen days later, she's like, telling other people about it.
Scott Benner (50:56) Now, teach them, I don't know how how long you've been married, but I've been married thirty years. (51:00) My wife doesn't run around saying nice things about me out of hand. (51:03) So she's now telling other people, I think Scott saved me with this nicotine patch thing. (51:07) Now when I know that's happening, I know something's really going on. (51:10) Okay?
Scott Benner (51:10) And now it's been a month later and she's a different person.
Dr. Beachgem (51:14) Oh.
Scott Benner (51:14) Something about, like, receptors that nicotine sticks to I don't even again, I can't believe I'm saying this. (51:21) Don't care. (51:22) Like, she's so much better off, and she's not using the patches anymore.
Dr. Beachgem (51:25) That's pretty crazy. (51:26) Nicotine is interesting. (51:28) Mhmm. (51:28) There's a couple different disease processes that nicotine influences in a positive way. (51:33) And, again, no, not to encourage people to go out smoke or use at any but there are it it is something that works in your body and and can do certain things.
Dr. Beachgem (51:43) And I I think it deserves continued research, especially with things like that when we're seeing positive effects.
Scott Benner (51:50) Okay. (51:50) How willing are you to talk about, like, what's happened over the past ten years about people's concepts about vaccines? (51:58) Are you comfortable talking about that?
Dr. Beachgem (52:00) Yes. (52:00) I can't get too controversial.
Scott Benner (52:02) I don't want you to get controversial. (52:03) I want you to tell me your opinion.
Dr. Beachgem (52:04) I think that we have tremendous evidence for at least the childhood vaccines and influenza vaccines that they are low risk, extremely effective, and I think we're already starting to see the impact of decreased vaccine uptake.
Scott Benner (52:22) Yeah. (52:22) You think the population is getting sicker in ways that it doesn't need to be?
Dr. Beachgem (52:26) I mean, we're about to lose our measles elimination status because we've had, you know, a pretty significant measles outbreak since I don't think we've had this many measles cases since 1992. (52:36) I believe we've had three deaths this year from measles, one in an adult, two in previously healthy kids, all unvaccinated, unfortunately. (52:44) We've seen polio in wastewater in up in New York. (52:47) I think that we should have a level of concern that some of these, like, really bad things are gonna come back.
Scott Benner (52:54) How frequently do you find yourself talking to a patient where you think, oh, gosh. (52:59) They've been radicalized by some sort of online thing, they have a belief that is completely just bull Do you find yourself standing in front of people who you're like, oh my god. (53:08) I can't believe I have to explain this to you, but here we go?
Dr. Beachgem (53:11) Yeah. (53:12) So, you know, online all the time.
Scott Benner (53:15) Oh, sure. (53:15) Sure.
Dr. Beachgem (53:16) All the time. (53:16) In my practice, about two to three in ten kids under two years old are not vaccinated. (53:22) The younger kids, it's it's between seventy five and eighty percent are vaccinated. (53:26) Mhmm. (53:27) But when kids are not vaccinated in under three years of age, there are increased risks for bacteria in the bloodstream, something called epiglottitis, which is an airway blockage, meningitis.
Dr. Beachgem (53:37) And so I have to talk about the risks and potentially an increased workup because they have these additional risk factors or at least don't have the protective factors of vaccines. (53:46) And I try not to ask why they are not vaccinated. (53:51) I really just wanna present it in a nonjudgmental way because the most important thing is creating that partnership that they're willing to trust me. (53:58) And if I start
Scott Benner (53:59) Sure.
Dr. Beachgem (53:59) Asking too many of those questions, I don't wanna alienate them. (54:02) I wanna be able to really have that discussion about, these are the things I'm concerned about. (54:05) This is what I like to do, and this is why. (54:07) Yeah. (54:08) I try to limit anything that could be interpreted as judgment.
Scott Benner (54:12) Right. (54:12) I appreciate you being willing to talk about it. (54:15) Can you please take me back to the day that you got really famous online and somebody had to have pulled you into an office at your job and went, hey. (54:21) What the hell are you doing? (54:22) Did that not happen?
Scott Benner (54:24) I mean, did. (54:24) Right? (54:24) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (54:26) Yeah. (54:26) So, you know, I started making content. (54:28) It it was kind of in the 2020, and I had a video actually about vitamin k deficiency bleeding, so a baby that hadn't received vitamin k Mhmm. (54:37) At birth. (54:38) And I presented, like, a Google article.
Dr. Beachgem (54:40) Like, I googled an article. (54:42) So it was a research paper, and I I put it up. (54:45) Someone told my job that I had used a patient picture and a patient case, which I, again, I'd used. (54:52) You could clearly see the Google. (54:54) And so that's kind of that was my job's introduction to, I'm putting stuff online now.
Dr. Beachgem (54:59) And I obviously, like, they were like, You know what? (55:01) Don't you're good. (55:02) Obviously, be careful. (55:03) But I've had many a discussion with HR and vice presidents of things. (55:08) Again, open communication, partnership, they're fine with me doing what I do as long as we have certain boundaries and obviously protecting patient privacy and stuff like that.
Dr. Beachgem (55:18) So we have some rules and boundaries in place. (55:20) I'm very appreciative that they're letting me do all of this.
Scott Benner (55:23) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (55:23) And they I think, you know, they appreciate me putting, you know, evidence based information out widely.
Scott Benner (55:29) I was gonna say it's gotta be good for them too. (55:31) Right? (55:32) Maybe you're really well liked.
Dr. Beachgem (55:34) Yeah. (55:34) You know, I don't know.
Scott Benner (55:36) You don't know?
Dr. Beachgem (55:37) Like, you know, because I think any anything you do on social media, there's gonna be someone that is upset. (55:41) Like, even if you just say, like, have a great day, there's gonna be someone that's like, I don't wanna have a great day. (55:49) I think that a hospital that really is focused on taking care of kids in the best way possible, and all of a sudden you've got someone on social media and it's like, focus is really trying to do this and you're over here, you know, making these little videos. (56:03) I I think that they're they are really supportive, but I I think that, you know, they're really focused on their mission of trying to help kids.
Scott Benner (56:09) Do you have people that hate listen or hate watch you?
Dr. Beachgem (56:12) All the time. (56:13) Yeah. (56:13) Of course.
Scott Benner (56:13) I I have a small band of, people who I think maybe are unwell who, enjoy listening to me, but don't seem to like me or anything that I say. (56:22) Yeah. (56:22) I always explain to them when they're listening, your downloads sell to the advertisers just like everybody else's, so thank you very much. (56:29) What about being, like, this person online? (56:33) Is there anything about it you don't like?
Dr. Beachgem (56:36) No. (56:36) No? (56:36) I I the negativity that comes with it sometimes, I think that gets a little frustrating. (56:41) But my main goal of, like, I wanna educate people. (56:44) You know, I wanna use this as a coping mechanism to avoid burnout at work.
Dr. Beachgem (56:48) Like, I think it's functioning well in those aspects. (56:50) So
Scott Benner (56:51) Good. (56:51) That's awesome. (56:52) I I I'm glad to hear that. (56:53) I don't have a lot of downside to what I do either. (56:55) I just I was wondering if there was, like, how's the business y side of it?
Scott Benner (56:59) Like, you have like, obviously, you guys listening reached out to doctor Beach Jem and she she gave up and and and messaged me, like, so thank you. (57:07) At the same time, like, then you passed me off to, like, a management company or something like that. (57:11) Like, the day you did that, were you like, oh my god. (57:13) I have a management company? (57:14) Like, that's gotta be crazy.
Scott Benner (57:16) Right? (57:16) No?
Dr. Beachgem (57:17) Yeah. (57:17) Yeah. (57:17) I am really bad at answering emails as it turns out. (57:22) Mhmm. (57:22) And so when I was doing brand deals and they were trying to do, like, onboarding stuff and I had to answer emails to get paid, like, I I wasn't doing well with that just because I wanna focus on the the good stuff.
Dr. Beachgem (57:31) And so I hired a management team or I kind of was approached By somebody. (57:36) That encouraged me to find a management team. (57:38) I am absolutely in love with the the group that I have. (57:41) Lanea is amazing. (57:42) They really just help get everything organized and on board, and she kind of knows when I'm awake and when I'm sleeping and can just make things happen when it needs to happen.
Scott Benner (57:51) No kidding. (57:52) I don't have anything like that. (57:53) Like, so but there's something that sounds incredibly attractive about it. (57:57) I don't I don't wanna ask you this question because I feel like I'm gonna ask you, do you make enough money that that makes sense financially? (58:02) But I don't wanna ask you that.
Scott Benner (58:03) Like, so
Dr. Beachgem (58:04) I think the thing that most influencers or creators will tell you about a management company is that they will sift through the deals and find the ones that work for you. (58:12) They will also go out and find deals if that's something you're interested in.
Scott Benner (58:17) Mhmm.
Dr. Beachgem (58:18) And most of the time, they will ask for more money from whatever brand deal you're gonna be working with enough that it more than covers their portion of it.
Scott Benner (58:27) Are you saying I'm not charging enough? (58:29) Okay.
Dr. Beachgem (58:29) It could be. (58:29) And
Scott Benner (58:30) Alright. (58:30) No.
Dr. Beachgem (58:30) A lot of times, we undervalue ourselves. (58:32) Like, we talked about this. (58:33) Like, we're Yeah. (58:34) We're in it to educate. (58:35) We're in it to talk to people and and help people be better be their better selves.
Scott Benner (58:40) Mhmm.
Dr. Beachgem (58:40) And so we undervalue ourselves, kind of as it is, and I never would have thought, you know, this brand deal would have brought in, you know, near what it did. (58:50) Yeah. (58:50) But I have someone who believes in me that said, you know, this is what you're worth.
Scott Benner (58:54) Is there ever been a moment where you wondered if you're gonna keep practicing? (58:59) No. (58:59) It's not gotten that. (59:00) And you love it too much to stop doing that anyway is what I'm hearing. (59:03) Yeah.
Scott Benner (59:03) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (59:03) And if I stopped, I think I would have a hard time restarting just because you can lose skills. (59:08) So I this is not something that I would change.
Scott Benner (59:11) Oh, so you do see this as something that could possibly flare out, the social media thing?
Dr. Beachgem (59:15) Everyone asks my five year plan, and there is no plan. (59:18) I'm just, you know, one day at a time, and whatever happens happens. (59:21) And if I can work for another fifteen years and keep doing it, we'll keep doing it.
Scott Benner (59:26) Yeah. (59:27) You you would probably connect much with the idea that every year, I think this is the last year I'm making the podcast. (59:32) Anybody who works with me on a professional side, I'm like, well, I mean, obviously, it'll be over after this year. (59:37) And then, you know, we'll all go on our way. (59:38) And they're like, why do you think that?
Scott Benner (59:39) I'm like, well, I mean, because this is ridiculous. (59:42) That's why. (59:43) Like, it's not a real thing. (59:45) I keep thinking I'm just gonna end up being, a really popular Walmart reader. (59:49) Because unlike you, I can't fall back on being a doctor when I think it was bad.
Scott Benner (59:52) Like, I'm a I was a stay at home dad who became a popular podcaster. (59:57) Like, I don't have a there's nowhere for me to go exactly. (1:00:00) I I don't it's funny you said the same thing that I always think is that I don't have even the life skills I had before this, I don't even think they're transferrable to now. (1:00:08) And I don't know that I really remember what I was doing before that, actually. (1:00:12) It's really interesting.
Scott Benner (1:00:13) Your family at all. (1:00:14) Do your kids I heard you say you have kids. (1:00:16) Kids or your husband, do they mind any of this, or they're good with it?
Dr. Beachgem (1:00:19) They don't seem to mind very much. (1:00:21) I think I've been doing it so long. (1:00:23) They've just gotten kind of accustomed to it, and it's been kind of slow growth. (1:00:26) Like, it hasn't just jumped very quickly. (1:00:28) It's really just kind of been a slow growth over time.
Scott Benner (1:00:30) Mhmm.
Dr. Beachgem (1:00:31) You know, I think we've created some, like, safety things for them, like, when we're out in public. (1:00:35) I get approached quite often by people that just wanna say hi or selfie, but, you know, there have been times where they've been more interested in the kids, and so we've had to create good boundaries there. (1:00:46) The kids, I don't think it registers as much for them
Scott Benner (1:00:49) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (1:00:50) You know, what this actually
Scott Benner (1:00:51) is. (1:00:51) I have to tell you the coolest part about you besides the fact that you're incredibly normal and yet lovely to speak to and knowledgeable is that you don't have any of that, like, influencer vibe. (1:01:01) Like, I've never felt that once from you. (1:01:03) I've never felt like you've turned the camera on and willed yourself to be excited. (1:01:06) Do you know what I mean?
Scott Benner (1:01:08) Like, everybody. (1:01:09) Like, you know, like, that kind of thing or, like or ask one of those leading, like, social media questions that, like, they they know the algorithm. (1:01:15) You don't think about any of that, do you?
Dr. Beachgem (1:01:17) I do try to, you know, sometimes bring a hook.
Scott Benner (1:01:20) Okay.
Dr. Beachgem (1:01:20) Like, a little something to bring it in, and maybe it's, like, the top of the screen or the bottom of the screen because I want you to hear what I have to say. (1:01:27) Like, I think what I have to say is important, but I try not to do the, like, the cringey hooks as much as I can. (1:01:33) Yeah. (1:01:33) Like, I made a Christmas one yesterday where I very quickly said something that would catch someone's attention, and I'll avoid saying it out loud at this point. (1:01:41) But you can go see that Christmas video if you wanna find that out.
Scott Benner (1:01:45) Follow and subscribe. (1:01:46) I
Dr. Beachgem (1:01:48) I just I I don't know if there's kids listening, and so I just
Scott Benner (1:01:51) Oh. (1:01:51) Oh, no. (1:01:52) I saw that one. (1:01:53) That one's awesome. (1:01:53) Yeah.
Scott Benner (1:01:54) And there might be kids listening. (1:01:55) Yeah. (1:01:56) It's so funny you said that because the way you did it with the visual, I thought that's what everyone wants to know from an ER doctor. (1:02:02) What have you found in people's butts? (1:02:04) And you have to go home and tell people.
Scott Benner (1:02:06) Right? (1:02:06) I mean, you keep their details out of it. (1:02:07) You don't not go home and say to your husband, I found a Christmas tree candle and how would you not?
Dr. Beachgem (1:02:12) Yeah. (1:02:12) You know, people always ask, like, what's the most interesting case you've ever seen? (1:02:16) And they actually don't wanna hear about the most interesting case. (1:02:18) They wanna hear about the butt stuff. (1:02:20) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (1:02:22) And, you know, I don't know. (1:02:23) Maybe, like, the first couple cases that I saw, you know, like, someone put something somewhere up. (1:02:28) But at this point, like, working in pediatrics, like, we see it pretty commonly and Wait.
Scott Benner (1:02:32) Kids put stuff in their butts?
Dr. Beachgem (1:02:34) Yeah. (1:02:34) And I see up to the age of about 21, and so some of our teenagers or some of our young adults.
Scott Benner (1:02:38) Gotcha.
Dr. Beachgem (1:02:39) I don't know how to say this in a way. (1:02:41) You know, I think it's important to talk to kids about their bodies. (1:02:44) Mhmm. (1:02:44) And sometimes kids experiment with their bodies in in ways that we wouldn't necessarily expect, and kids are way, way more honest than adults are about that situation. (1:02:54) Like
Scott Benner (1:02:55) Yeah.
Dr. Beachgem (1:02:55) They'll tell you, you know, what happened and, you know, they're kinda like, yeah. (1:02:58) Okay.
Scott Benner (1:02:58) Uh-huh. (1:02:59) Well, listen. (1:03:00) I I think it's when people are honest and and communicate well, I think everything seems to go better. (1:03:05) Did you enjoy doing this with me? (1:03:06) Was this okay for you?
Dr. Beachgem (1:03:07) Did. (1:03:07) I did. (1:03:08) This was good.
Scott Benner (1:03:08) This was good. (1:03:09) I will thank you very much for doing this and ask you just to hold on one second for me. (1:03:13) But please, first, before you go, tell people how to find you. (1:03:16) Mean, I don't think they need my help, but are you everywhere? (1:03:19) Or
Dr. Beachgem (1:03:19) I'm on TikTok at Beach Gem 10 and YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram at doctor period beach gem ten, or just Google beach gem, and you could probably find me.
Scott Benner (1:03:28) Wow. (1:03:29) That's awesome. (1:03:29) Alright. (1:03:30) Well, doctor Beach Gem, thank you so much for doing this. (1:03:32) I really do appreciate your time.
Dr. Beachgem (1:03:34) Appreciate your time as well. (1:03:35) Thank you.
Scott Benner (1:03:41) Thank you so much for listening. (1:03:43) I hope you enjoyed my conversation with doctor Beach Jam. (1:03:45) Don't forget, she'll be back soon, so subscribe and follow not to miss any of that. (1:03:49) And in the meantime, if you have type one diabetes or you know somebody who does, please don't forget to suggest this podcast to them. (1:03:56) If they need management help, we have the bold beginnings series, the diabetes pro tip series, and much more.
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#1697 Que Dallara, EVP & President at Medtronic Diabetes
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.
Scott talks with MiniMed leader Que Dallara about her refugee-to-CEO story, Medtronic’s spin-off, new MiniMed name, 780G automation, upcoming sensors and pumps, and the dream of hands-free diabetes tech.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Que Dallara, President of Medtronic Diabetes, joins Scott to discuss the rebrand to MiniMed and the company's turnaround. They explore the 780G system, the Abbott partnership for the Instinct sensor, and the new Simplera Sync. Que shares her inspiring refugee story and reveals future plans for patch pumps, tubeless options, and next-gen algorithms to achieve "hands-free" diabetes management.
Scott Benner (0:00) Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Juice Box podcast. (0:16) Today's podcast episode is sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the MiniMed seven eighty g system and their new sensor options, which include the instinct sensor made by Abbott. (0:31) Would you like to unleash the full potential of the MiniMed seven eighty g system? (0:35) You can do that at my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox. (0:42) While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise.
Scott Benner (0:50) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. (1:06) Welcome, Hugh. (1:07) How are you?
Que Dallara (1:09) I would be better. (1:10) How
Scott Benner (1:10) are you? (1:11) I this has been a good morning for me so far. (1:13) I appreciate you asking.
Que Dallara (1:14) It's Friday. (1:15) So
Scott Benner (1:15) That that is why it's Yes. (1:16) Been a good Exactly. (1:18) I'm just I'm doing this and one other thing, getting my passport renewed. (1:22) I can't imagine a more boring afternoon, but at least I won't be sitting at my desk for a couple hours. (1:26) I thought it'd be cool to have you on and get to know you and to find out a little bit about what's going on at what we're, I guess, not gonna be calling Medtronic diabetes anymore.
Scott Benner (1:36) Can you first let me know a little bit about yourself and maybe how you got into this position?
Que Dallara (1:41) Absolutely. (1:42) Well, since you asked, I'm gonna bore you a little bit about myself.
Scott Benner (1:46) Please.
Que Dallara (1:47) I don't know if you remember the, you know, the pictures of boat people in the late seventies, you know, escaping Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. (1:54) Mhmm. (1:55) Well, I was one of those bird people. (1:56) I was five years old, and our family was making this, you know, grand escape on really a rickety riverboat in the South China Sea, so not really a seaworthy boat at all. (2:07) And we got shipwrecked.
Que Dallara (2:09) We got rescued by on this tiny island in the Filipino archipelago. (2:14) And my parents and my my three year old sister were on this journey. (2:18) So we were in this refugee camp for, I don't know, eight months, something like that. (2:22) And then luckily, we got granted asylum in Australia, so that's why, you know, you hear the speech impediment that I have now. (2:29) But we grew up super poor in Sydney.
Que Dallara (2:32) Character defining moment, if you like. (2:34) And, you know, I really believe that, you know, life gives you the tools depending on how you, you know, you you get brought up. (2:40) And when you grow up really poor, you get a lot of tools. (2:44) Yeah. (2:44) So, you know, what Ben followed was kind of, you know, twenty years of, you know, poverty in Australia, and my mom was she was a single mom.
Que Dallara (2:54) She actually was pregnant during this whole time. (2:56) And when we arrived in Australia, like, two weeks later, my my younger sister was born. (3:01) Wow. (3:01) So we have four kids, newborn baby. (3:05) You know, even though she was a trained lawyer, spoke three languages, you know, she worked as a postal worker on the night shift.
Que Dallara (3:12) So I work you know, grew up taking care of my three younger siblings.
Scott Benner (3:16) Right.
Que Dallara (3:16) So we couldn't afford a lot. (3:17) It was really rough. (3:18) I worked on you know, I sewed things for a dollar apiece for a T shirt, and, you know, I I learned to cook, you know, even woodworking, becoming really self reliant. (3:29) So so I have a, I guess, a lot of deep empathy for people who struggle, you know, trying to get out of poverty for really half my life. (3:37) And, you know, that's kinda how I started, and I worked for everything.
Que Dallara (3:41) So how I got to Medtronic, it was really happenstance, you know, kind of it's never a straight line, Scott, and I don't have diabetes, but I have a lot of people in my life that do. (3:52) I mean, frankly speaking, you really can't go very far to find people who know someone who really suffers from the disease. (4:00) And so my background's in software and tech. (4:03) You know, previously, I was at Honeywell, and Honeywell works on a lot of things that kinda control problems. (4:09) Mhmm.
Que Dallara (4:09) Like, you can have, you know, how you regulate temperature in a building or autopilot in an air aircraft. (4:17) That's a controls problem. (4:18) And actually, what diabetes is is a controls problem because you're sensing glucose, and then you gotta do something about that. (4:25) And so there's actually a lot of software in it. (4:27) So given my software background and manufacturing background and sort of consumer background, and given that I knew a lot of people in my life that had it, it just was a perfect marriage to, you know, to to join Medtronic and and lead the diabetes business.
Que Dallara (4:42) So that's how I kinda randomly got here. (4:45) Obviously, it was not very planned.
Scott Benner (4:47) So with your background and what you just explained about control, what do you think the people who hired you were thinking when they hired you? (4:55) What do you think they thought the future was, and how could you shepherd towards it?
Que Dallara (4:59) I think it was largely driven by the consumer experience I had with software, software and services. (5:06) Because a lot of this is, yes, you've got the medical device, but there's a lot that gets involved you know, that is involved in managing diabetes. (5:13) It's like how you get supplies, how you manage all the admin associated with, all the software tools for the caregivers. (5:21) And so I think they were probably attracted by that in my background. (5:24) And I've always been worked in areas where I love building things, building products.
Que Dallara (5:29) I've worked in launching a lot of products. (5:32) And so given the innovation cycles in diabetes technology, I think the people at Medtronic felt that that was a that was a good fit. (5:40) It was a it was probably a bit of a, if I'm honest, a very unorthodox selection. (5:48) But in some ways, given the state of where the business was when I joined with, you know, some of the challenges, especially in The US, having fresh legs and fresh eyes are probably a good thing.
Scott Benner (6:00) Yeah. (6:00) Where would you assess Medtronic as as being in this landscape before you got here, and where is it that you're trying to take it to?
Que Dallara (6:10) Well, I think to be candid, I think it you know, the business lost its leadership position in The US and, you know, fell behind. (6:17) And I think at the time, there was the the warning letter had just, you know, landed on the doorstep. (6:22) And so while there's a 41 history in the business of many firsts, the first portable sized pump, the first CGM that physicians use, the first seven day infusion set, the first CareLink, and the first AID system. (6:38) There's a lot of firsts. (6:39) That's the heritage of the business.
Que Dallara (6:41) That was always there, but the business hit some troubles, to be fair. (6:46) And so I think I don't mind struggle. (6:49) Like, you know, that's a bit of my background, and I saw something that was so important. (6:55) And if we care about choice for people living with diabetes, you know, and all the innovations that came out of MiniMed, I saw that there, and and so I was very energised to be part of restoring that heritage.
Scott Benner (7:09) Mhmm.
Que Dallara (7:09) And I think you've seen some of the innovations coming out that we are thinking differently, we are moving faster, and, you know, it just was a shame to not, you know, to let it sort of atrophy. (7:20) So that's so despite the fact that there was a warning letter, I saw a waterfront property.
Scott Benner (7:25) It's interesting the way you're talking about it because I didn't expect this today when I got on with you, but I see a a lot of similarities between what I do and what you just said because I I struggle every day with this idea that I've built this thing that I know helps people. (7:39) I watch it happen all the time, but then how do you talk another person into giving it a try or get it into their attention, like, so they can even consider it? (7:48) Like, that's most of my life. (7:49) Most of my life is spent, like, trying to serve it to people. (7:53) And it's a very, very frustrating aspect.
Scott Benner (7:55) And you don't have the same you were candid earlier. (7:58) Like, Medtronic had a stranglehold for a long time. (8:00) Right? (8:01) Like, doctors just prescribed Medtronic. (8:03) So, like, you were ahead.
Scott Benner (8:04) You probably had first movers on a lot of things, and that doesn't exist anymore. (8:08) So now, I'm I'm excited because now what I'm hearing is you're gonna have to deliver stuff that helps people that works because that's gonna be your only growth opportunity, I would imagine.
Que Dallara (8:18) Absolutely. (8:18) And look. (8:19) We wanna earn it. (8:19) Like, it's not gonna it's not an entitlement. (8:21) We wanna earn it, and we're gonna do that because we listen to patients, and we're gonna work on great ideas.
Que Dallara (8:28) We have unbelievable a great team at MiniMed. (8:32) I mean, about roughly twenty percent of our employees live with the disease, and more than seventy percent have a personal connection. (8:39) So they're related to someone that has the disease. (8:42) And so it's very personal for us. (8:44) Like, we don't like not being number one.
Que Dallara (8:46) We think we have the best therapy on the market, and we have hundreds of thousands of people in over 80 countries who use our solutions here. (8:55) And so we absolutely wanna earn it. (8:58) Actually, the first thing that I did when I joined Medtronic was I met with employees that have diabetes. (9:04) And I wanted to understand, like, you know, what were we doing well, what weren't we doing well. (9:09) And so they gave me a lot of insight, I think, you know, we've been on the path now to you know, obviously we got out of the warning letter in fourteen months.
Que Dallara (9:17) We've got an unbelievable quality system. (9:19) Obviously, that's in the news too. (9:21) It's important that that's a core foundation. (9:24) We didn't cut any corners. (9:26) We've also rejuvenated our innovation pipeline, which I'm sure we'll get to talking about.
Que Dallara (9:30) Yeah. (9:31) Which just leads to awesome senses into the market. (9:34) And so, hopefully, the other signs that we are, you know, on that trajectory, we're not there yet, but we are absolutely gonna win back, the hearts and minds of people with diabetes.
Scott Benner (9:45) How long have you been in the position?
Que Dallara (9:47) Three and a half years.
Scott Benner (9:48) Three and a half years. (9:49) Okay.
Que Dallara (9:49) Seems longer, though.
Scott Benner (9:50) What led to the name shift? (9:52) Right? (9:52) I mean, I've been saying Medtronic diabetes forever, but now that's not the case anymore. (9:57) Tell me what the shift how did it come to be, and why do you think it's important?
Que Dallara (10:01) As you know, we've announced that we're going to we're in the process of separating from Medtronic. (10:07) And while our products were still called MiniMeds, it's MiniMed seven eighty g and so forth, we need to have our own name so we can't be called Medtronic diabetes anymore. (10:16) And so it made perfect sense to go back to the original mission of MiniMed, which really was the original category creator of diabetes technology with the five zero two pump that was portable and small versus what was there at the time back in 1983, actually. (10:33) You know, we picked MiniMed because we wanted to recommit ourselves to the original mission. (10:38) I mean, we we only serve intensive insulin users in type one and type two.
Que Dallara (10:43) We're not going after wellness. (10:45) We're not going after prediabetes and things like that. (10:47) This is our sole focus. (10:50) And when you look at the history of the business, it's been the pioneer of many, many firsts in setting the standard for that. (10:58) And so while in recent years, you know, we lost a little bit of our footing in The US, we continue to be super strong outside The US, and we're regaining a following back in The US as well.
Que Dallara (11:08) Mhmm. (11:09) And so that's what that's what's behind the name MiniMed, and we wanna live up to the forty one, forty two year heritage for the next forty one, forty two years or until until old cure is found.
Scott Benner (11:21) Being a a smaller unit now, how is that gonna help you accomplish that, or or is it gonna make it more difficult? (11:29) Because I know sometimes when this happens when companies, you know, kinda sell off or separate a little bit, it's not always easy to take the I hate to say it like this, but sometimes the good the good talent doesn't go with you, And sometimes it does, like, right? (11:42) So you've gotta look at the entire reporting tree again and start over. (11:46) Right? (11:46) So I it's a great opportunity if you can put it in place.
Scott Benner (11:50) So I imagine you've been doing that for a while. (11:52) Like, do you feel like that kind of structure exists now, and and how do you think being leaner will help you?
Que Dallara (11:58) Well, a couple of things. (11:59) From a talent standpoint, the good news is we have had no trouble attracting talent into the business because people are very motivated and energized by the mission Mhmm. (12:09) To help people. (12:10) Because, as I said, most of our employee a lot of our employees have a personal connection. (12:16) So it's very personal.
Que Dallara (12:17) Like, we we hear the feedback. (12:19) We respond to it. (12:20) I mean, we're not we're not very far away from the the patient. (12:25) So that's not been an issue. (12:27) The other thing I would say is the leadership team that's gone through a lot of adversity together, restoring the business back to growth, are part of are going as part of this separation of with Medtronic.
Que Dallara (12:39) So with it's not like we have a brand new team. (12:41) We have the same team that have been executing this. (12:44) You know, there's a lot of IPOs in medtech, but one other thing that people don't realize is we're almost a $3,000,000,000 business in revenue, and that puts us as a top 20 med tech company by revenue.
Scott Benner (12:54) Okay.
Que Dallara (12:55) So we actually have a lot of scale. (12:57) And I would also say that we are in over 80 countries around the world. (13:01) We support 26 languages. (13:03) Yeah. (13:03) We have twenty four seven, you know, tech support, and we have hundreds of thousands of people in our therapy globally.
Que Dallara (13:10) So we are really not that small.
Scott Benner (13:13) Mhmm.
Que Dallara (13:13) We have a lot of scale behind I know of 8,000 people. (13:18) So we have a lot of scale behind our product and our innovation. (13:21) I'm actually excited because Medtronic is huge. (13:25) Part of being huge, one of the downsides is you can be a bit slower in places, and we're gonna have the opportunity to move even faster than we are at the moment.
Scott Benner (13:35) Right. (13:35) No more turning the Titanic when you wanna make a decision. (13:38) Right?
Que Dallara (13:38) Exactly. (13:39) Exactly.
Scott Benner (13:40) I might be wrong. (13:40) Right? (13:41) But I'm an outsider who pays a bit of attention. (13:43) So but I'm trying to understand, like, with what's going on now, new sensors, new systems, you know, thinking about algorithms, getting that all set. (13:50) What happened in there?
Scott Benner (13:51) How did you, like I don't know. (13:53) It feels like you went out to, like, a first place lead and then coasted. (13:58) Like, what happened to Medtronic? (13:59) Like, how did you get how did they start so strong? (14:01) Here's a sensor.
Scott Benner (14:02) Nobody's ever had one before. (14:03) You just got it. (14:04) You start selling it. (14:05) That becomes the the business instead of the innovation. (14:08) Like, how does that gap happen, I guess?
Scott Benner (14:10) Because you're would you describe yourself as as catching up? (14:14) Or, like, where do you think of yourself as I guess, there's two questions here. (14:17) Like, how does that gap happen, and where do you see yourself in the moment? (14:23) Unlike other systems that will wait until your blood sugar is a 180 before delivering corrections, The MiniMed seven eighty g system is the only system with meal detection technology that automatically detects rising sugar levels and delivers more insulin as needed to help keep your sugar levels in range even if you're not a perfect carb counter. (14:44) Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes and their MiniMed seven eighty g system, which gives you real choices because the MiniMed seven eighty g system works with the Instinct sensor made by Avid, as well as the Simplera Sync and Guardian Force sensors, giving you options.
Scott Benner (15:04) The Instinct sensor is the longest wear sensor yet, lasting fifteen days and designed exclusively for the MiniMed seven eighty g. (15:13) And don't forget, Medtronic Diabetes makes technology accessible for you with comprehensive insurance support, programs to help you with your out of pocket costs or switching from other pump and CGM systems. (15:26) Learn more and get started today with my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Que Dallara (15:33) I think, honestly, lots of companies go through it. (15:35) I think it's called the innovator's dilemma. (15:37) Right? (15:37) You kind of you you're the innovator. (15:39) You get to a position, and what's very natural is you lose sight of why you exist.
Que Dallara (15:45) Mhmm. (15:45) And, you know, hubris sets in, you don't think you're touchable. (15:51) That's a very common cycle a lot of people a lot of companies go through, to be honest. (15:56) I mean, there's many, many stories of that. (15:57) Right.
Que Dallara (15:58) Kodak, Intel. (15:59) I mean, there's a lot of examples. (16:00) So I'm sure we went through a little bit of that. (16:03) I think the other part of it is when you're part of a big company, you fight for capital. (16:07) Like, you you've gotta, you know, you've gotta be a better business case than another business.
Que Dallara (16:12) And so, you know, when that happens, sometimes the investment moves in different parts of the portfolio. (16:19) I mean, that's a bit of the focus thing. (16:20) Now Medtronic gets to focus more. (16:22) We get to focus more. (16:23) And all we do is serve people on who need it, you know, in in need insulin.
Que Dallara (16:28) So those two things, I think, contributed to, I would say, choices that were not optimal. (16:34) And so, you know, and so you see some missteps, you know, especially in The US. (16:40) But for us, I think I'm super excited by our innovation that we have in the pipeline. (16:46) And, I mean, we we see ourselves as an AID company. (16:49) We don't just do CGM.
Que Dallara (16:51) We don't just do pumps. (16:52) It's really about the automation that brings all of that together.
Scott Benner (16:54) Okay.
Que Dallara (16:55) And I think, you know, we are leaders in AID.
Scott Benner (16:58) Why do you think that? (16:59) What is it something special about your algorithm or your hardware coupled with it? (17:04) What what do you think puts you in that position?
Que Dallara (17:06) We invented AID. (17:07) We were the first closed loop system with six seventy g back in 2016.
Scott Benner (17:12) Mhmm.
Que Dallara (17:13) We are with seven eighty, we are now in our second generation algorithm. (17:17) It's really the only system on the market with, order corrections every five minutes. (17:21) So if you miss at your bolus or you sometimes forget to bolus, the system can detect that you're eating and can give you the corrections and bring you back in range. (17:32) And so we perform very well in the hyper range because we're able to bring you back in range a lot faster. (17:39) It's a very aggressive algorithm and it's the lowest commercially available set point at one hundred milligrams per decilitre.
Que Dallara (17:44) And we can do that and be aggressive without increasing risk of hyper. (17:49) And that's why we have several hundreds of thousands of people in seven eighty around the world, and we've got incredible clinical data that says seven eighty is for many people, whether you're young or old, whether you're good at technology, whether you can good at math, if you're coming from different therapies. (18:07) I mean, it is really a democratizing therapy. (18:10) And we're working now on our third generation algorithm, which is gonna, you know, push the envelope even further on that front. (18:18) So
Scott Benner (18:18) How much can you talk about that? (18:19) What are the goals for that algorithm?
Que Dallara (18:21) Well, we we we really believe that the promise of AID is freedom, peace of mind, and safety. (18:29) And so the goal is to have the automation take over the work so you don't have to. (18:35) Mhmm. (18:36) Today, to be honest, well, you know, we like our technology, and there's a lot of AID systems on the market. (18:43) It's still work.
Que Dallara (18:43) You still have to put in a lot of work. (18:45) Seven eighty does push the envelope where you don't have to put in as much work, but the holy grail, I think, is not to actually do very much at all, and yet you can get above 70% time in range. (18:58) I think that's really our goal. (19:00) Can we help people who live with diabetes have more freedom? (19:05) They don't have to make a trade off between glucose control and lifestyle choices and therapy burden.
Que Dallara (19:12) We wanna solve all three.
Scott Benner (19:14) Does that answer lie in the hardware or in the data or in how the data is interpreted? (19:20) Where do you think holds us back from having more freedom?
Que Dallara (19:24) It's actually in the system. (19:26) So we are the only company that is commercializing CGMs, pump, or insulin dosing devices, and the algorithm around all of that. (19:37) Mhmm. (19:38) And so, you know, similar to if you use an iPhone, it just works, you know, because Apple tightly integrates the software and the hardware together. (19:48) And we're not a company that has CGM data and insulin data.
Que Dallara (19:51) And so and we've been more than ten years at algorithmic development. (19:55) We have a lot of data with both, and so that allows us to innovate very fast on how the automation algorithm. (20:03) And so now we're now third generation system in development, plus we've got two new CGMs and new form factors on the pump. (20:11) So when you think about this the trifecta of are you getting the clinical outcomes you want, like, don't want hypo, you don't want DKA, you don't want complications, Our timing range is, you know, the highest amongst all the AID systems, and you can see that in over 200 publications in in peer reviewed journals. (20:32) So then it's the second part of the trifecta is you got therapy burden.
Que Dallara (20:35) So how much interaction do you have to do to deal with alarms, to deal with imports into the devices? (20:42) Every AI distance has therapy burdens. (20:45) And then you've got lifestyle. (20:46) You know, what does it look like? (20:48) You know, how does it affect food, sleep, you know, social, you know, embarrassment if your alarms are going off and things like that.
Que Dallara (20:54) So we we want to solve we wanna solve for a very tightly integrated system that is kinda like self driving cars. (21:02) You don't have to do very much, but you're getting outcomes. (21:05) We don't want people to have to trade off. (21:07) Hey. (21:08) Lifestyle is very important to me.
Que Dallara (21:09) Like, let's say, you're a teenager, and so I'm willing to give up on safety Mhmm. (21:14) And glucose control. (21:15) Or I don't wanna do the therapy burdens too much, and so I'm gonna give up on that and, again, not get the outcomes. (21:22) We intend to solve for all three so that so you don't have to do very much. (21:28) Put insulin in, wear the device, respond to alarms if there are any, and live your life.
Scott Benner (21:35) So I'm what I'm hearing, I think, is that I shouldn't be expecting a mini med pump to work with a Libre ever since Dexcom, anything like that. (21:43) You're gonna keep it your stuff is gonna just work with itself, or do you think you'll ever have interoperability with other CGMs?
Que Dallara (21:49) We have a partnership with Abbott for instinct, so it's not interoperable in the sense of, you know, mix and match. (21:57) And the reason why we do that is we're not stubborn ups, and we've heard the feedback around our senses, and that's why we're excited with Simplera coming out as well as Instinct. (22:07) Mhmm. (22:08) Because we really believe in not having technology be yet another thing you have to do.
Scott Benner (22:14) Right.
Que Dallara (22:14) Right? (22:14) So and just as a very silly example, the Libre sensor doesn't have Apple Watch functionality.
Scott Benner (22:21) Mhmm.
Que Dallara (22:21) Right? (22:22) But the instinct in our system does. (22:24) Right? (22:24) And so we want to curate a system that just works. (22:28) You don't have to think about, does it work together, two phone numbers to call, companies pointing fingers at each other when you're troubleshooting.
Que Dallara (22:35) Mhmm. (22:36) We wanna be able to just keep it very simple. (22:39) Yeah. (22:39) The technology just works. (22:41) The automation is seamless.
Que Dallara (22:43) The devices look, you know, sexy and have a lot of appeal, and they're very designed with modern consumer electronics in mind. (22:51) And you have one phone number to call if you're you know, you need support in whatever country around the world, in whatever language. (22:58) Mhmm. (22:58) The burden of diabetes isn't just a device. (23:01) It's all the other things around it too that we wanna solve for.
Que Dallara (23:03) Like, that's part of the peace of mind. (23:05) If you happen to be on a holiday and your pump breaks or something goes wrong and you forgot to bring such and such, we'll airship it to you. (23:12) And so we can do that with our presence and scale that we have around the world, and that's one of the reasons why people value the service we provide. (23:20) That's why, I mean, it's a kind of a tidy cliche a little bit to compare ourselves to Apple. (23:24) That's the experience that we're going for.
Scott Benner (23:26) Yeah. (23:26) And want it
Que Dallara (23:27) to work. (23:27) I think that's only possible when you tightly couple all the elements of an AID system with one eight hundred MiniMed.
Scott Benner (23:36) Right. (23:37) It just occurred to me that we should be a little clear about this. (23:39) You're introducing two new CGMs, but one of them Mhmm. (23:42) Is a MiniMed CGM, and one of them is an Abbott CGM. (23:48) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (23:48) They're both gonna work with your pump. (23:50) That's right?
Que Dallara (23:50) Correct.
Scott Benner (23:51) Okay.
Que Dallara (23:51) Correct.
Scott Benner (23:52) Will the Abbott CGM work with anybody else's pump?
Que Dallara (23:55) The Instinct, no. (23:56) No. (23:57) It wouldn't be it only works with our it only works with our system.
Scott Benner (23:59) Same with the Simplera?
Que Dallara (24:01) Same with the Simplera. (24:02) Okay.
Scott Benner (24:03) And where do they stack up as far as marred and lasting the full amount of time that you say? (24:10) Like, how how do how have you seen that? (24:11) Why did it and why did it takes it feels like it took long. (24:14) Why did it take long? (24:16) What were you doing?
Que Dallara (24:17) Yeah. (24:17) It's fair. (24:18) It's no. (24:18) It's a it's very fair. (24:19) It's it's hard.
Que Dallara (24:20) Look. (24:21) Sensors are hard. (24:22) CGM is hard to do. (24:23) Mhmm. (24:23) I can't even tell you how much we've invested to do this.
Que Dallara (24:27) But, yes, it takes a long time because it it's actually technically a very sophisticated device. (24:32) Mhmm. (24:32) You gotta lot bring a lot of things together, not to mention going through clinicals and the FDA process, getting coverage. (24:42) I mean, there's there's a lot I mean, I'm not making excuses. (24:44) No.
Que Dallara (24:44) It's it's way too long.
Scott Benner (24:45) Yeah.
Que Dallara (24:46) And it is a new platform for us, but future iterations will not take as long. (24:51) But, look, SimpleraSync, the mod's about 10.2. (24:55) It's pretty accurate, and it's very accurate when it comes to dosing. (24:58) So, again, we're an AID company. (25:00) We're really not in the standalone CGM business.
Que Dallara (25:03) And so when it comes to dosing when you need to at the low and the high range, we are extremely accurate. (25:11) It's in the middle where, frankly speaking, we tune the algorithm to it doesn't really matter because you're not gonna take a different action in in the euglycemic range. (25:22) And that's, you know, you know, up to seven day sensor of with Simplirosync, and people really like pairing that with their weekly routine. (25:31) So we have a seven day infusion set, and so people like sort of the weekly, you know, site set change and site change that they have to do there. (25:40) Right.
Que Dallara (25:40) The instinct is fifteen days, and it's got a mod of, you know, sim and it has a very similar experience to a Libre a three.
Scott Benner (25:47) Okay. (25:48) I'm gonna fumfer through this because I don't have the wording. (25:50) But there's a thing with the FDA with devices. (25:53) Right? (25:53) Like, if somebody already has something similar on the market, isn't there, like, a, like, a a fast forward that you can use off of that, like, when you're bringing something else?
Scott Benner (26:02) Am I out of my mind, or what am I thinking of that or maybe I'm maybe I'm crazy. (26:07) You know what I'm talking about?
Que Dallara (26:08) Yeah. (26:08) Yeah. (26:09) No. (26:09) Understand what you mean. (26:10) I think, look, I think there's a myth that, you know, at least in The US, the the regulatory pathway with ICGM and the special controls Mhmm.
Que Dallara (26:21) Means it's fast. (26:22) It's not like a USB stick where you can just plug and play. (26:26) Because, look, we dose insulin, and you dose wrong, it's dangerous. (26:30) Sure. (26:31) So the regulatory process was actually not not long.
Que Dallara (26:35) I mean, we announced Abbott the deal with Abbott in August 2024, and we we started taking preorders in, you know, kind of late September. (26:44) It's thirteen months. (26:46) If you look at the other integrations that have happened, it's taken years. (26:49) We took thirteen months.
Scott Benner (26:50) Let's let you do this quick. (26:52) People have been telling me about how great their Medtronic pumps have have been for, like it it feels like I've I've been hearing it for a couple of years where people are like, but this new algorithm is great and you blah blah blah, but I it's always somebody from overseas. (27:04) And I maybe that is why it feels a little longer to me, if I'm being honest.
Que Dallara (27:07) You know, having a warning letter warning letter didn't help us get $7.80 in the market. (27:12) It probably was late by a couple of years.
Scott Benner (27:14) Okay.
Que Dallara (27:15) So I know how, you know, a lot of people were frustrated by that. (27:18) But since it's been here, and we've got hundreds of thousands of people on the system. (27:23) Mhmm. (27:23) And so I mean, you can look at social media, but, you know, it's for a lot of people, it's changed their life because they have to do less.
Scott Benner (27:29) Right.
Que Dallara (27:30) But, yes, I I I wouldn't fault the regulators here. (27:33) I think FDA has really made it easier to get new innovations out. (27:36) But to make it work, say, integration with with Instinct and Abbott, it takes work. (27:42) And what's what we're really proud of is whether it's our own sensor, Simpler, or with Instinct, you're still gonna get the great outcomes. (27:50) You're still gonna get the minimum work needed.
Que Dallara (27:53) The meal detection technology still works. (27:56) Yeah. (27:56) So while there are different slight differences in CGM experience, the same easy insertion process, it's actually the algorithm that delivers the ease of use and the outcomes.
Scott Benner (28:07) Right. (28:07) Right. (28:08) How do you get over so my daughter's 21. (28:11) She's been wearing an Omnipod since she was four. (28:13) If I came to her today with a tube pump and I said, hey.
Scott Benner (28:16) This will be better for you. (28:17) It'll be easier. (28:18) She'd say, no. (28:19) Thank you. (28:20) I I mean, how do you deal with that?
Scott Benner (28:21) That it's a it seems like a real issue. (28:23) Like, I can see in the in the community, there are people who are like, I don't want tubing. (28:29) There are people who are like, I don't care about it either. (28:31) But, like, how do you, you know I mean, how do you broach the subject with those different groups?
Que Dallara (28:36) Well, I think there's a couple ways.
Scott Benner (28:37) Mhmm.
Que Dallara (28:38) I think look. (28:38) There's preferences. (28:39) And so we believe in choice. (28:41) Not it's not gonna be one side, one thing for everyone, and that's why we have the broadest portfolio. (28:48) So we have two CGMs to choose from depending on your preference Right.
Que Dallara (28:53) With Sinclair and Instinct. (28:55) We have a tubeless option today. (28:56) It's called InPen. (28:57) So if you don't even wanna wear a pump at all, but you can have a bit of help with technology, we have InPen with our CGM. (29:04) We're working on our next generation tube pump called flex, MiniMed Flex, and then we also have a patch pump in development that we call MiniMed Fit.
Que Dallara (29:13) So some people are gonna want a patch pump, and some people are gonna want a a tube pump, they they like being able to detach from their pump or not having such a large surface area. (29:24) If you look at the size of the infusion set versus size of a patch, infusion set's tinier on your body. (29:30) Mhmm. (29:30) So there's gonna be preferences. (29:31) So we believe in in actually having a portfolio so people can maybe want a pump holiday or they can pick the pen the impen for that.
Que Dallara (29:41) But we actually do get a lot of people who who aren't in good control. (29:45) They're not doing well with the patch pump or our competitors' systems. (29:51) And so we offer trials, and people can trial our system, and it is a different experience. (29:55) It it's a bit like until you really get on our system, it's hard to you you go, well, it must all be the same, but it isn't. (30:03) We don't think AI systems the systems are the same.
Que Dallara (30:06) No. (30:06) And so we encourage people to try our system, and we actually get a lot of people converting from patch and seeing, actually, the algorithm, how the system work makes it worth it. (30:17) But some people won't, and that's okay. (30:19) And that's why we have a patch in development.
Scott Benner (30:21) I want people to have choice. (30:22) I think it's incredibly important. (30:23) So you see the space as tubed, patch, and tubeless? (30:27) Like, is that are those kind of the options there, and you're gonna jump into the other spaces? (30:32) I mean, what's the time frame on that?
Que Dallara (30:34) Today, again, we serve people who are on intensive insulin therapy. (30:39) Mhmm. (30:39) And if you look at that cohort, say, in the developed world, there's about ten million people. (30:46) So one and a half million of those are on tube pumps today. (30:50) They like it.
Que Dallara (30:52) And you've got about half a million who are on patch pumps. (30:55) But then the the vast majority are on MDI. (30:58) Yeah. (30:59) And we think those people should have the benefit of a bridge between just pretty low tech where they've gotta do all the work Mhmm. (31:08) And a bit more software to help them do better.
Que Dallara (31:13) And so that's where the InPen system we call it MiniMed Go. (31:16) The InPen system comes in. (31:18) It helps you not stack insulin. (31:21) You know, if you don't maybe you forget when you when you dosed insulin last time. (31:25) Yeah.
Que Dallara (31:25) It gives you data that your doctors have so you can have, you know, more a better discussion about your therapy and how you're doing things that you can do to be better. (31:34) It helps time your doses more accurately. (31:37) And so InPen has a lot of value for the, call it, six million people on MDI that don't have the benefit of technology, and we wanna help them too. (31:46) Yeah. (31:46) So we actually have a solution for all three cohorts.
Que Dallara (31:50) And our goal is, again, the the trifecta of we want you to have if you're below 70% time in range and your a one c isn't good, we have the solution for you. (32:00) Mhmm. (32:00) And that isn't gonna raise your therapy burden and isn't gonna make you compromise on your lifestyle. (32:05) Right.
Scott Benner (32:06) Oh, it's awesome. (32:07) Gosh. (32:07) I've talked to a lot of people about Impens over the years, and I know a lot of people that use them and find them really valuable. (32:13) They talk about it as having, like, a lot of the data functionality of a pump Mhmm. (32:17) Without the pump itself.
Scott Benner (32:18) I wonder about this all the time. (32:19) Those numbers you just said about there's certain amount of people on pumps, certain amount of people a lot of people just shooting MDI still. (32:26) Mhmm. (32:26) Are those people reachable? (32:28) Are they missing it because they have bad advice from physicians, insurance, because they don't have education?
Scott Benner (32:36) Like, what do you think is keeping them from pump therapy?
Que Dallara (32:39) I mean, you said it. (32:40) It's it's a lot the lot of it is just knowledge and education of what's out there. (32:45) And, you know, people may be comfortable. (32:48) Like, they may say, I don't wanna wear a pump because they don't have experience of wearing one, and so they think it's it's yet another thing you have to do. (32:54) That's why there's so much to do in a day.
Que Dallara (32:57) If you have diabetes, it's hundreds of decisions. (33:00) We don't want technology to be yet another thing you've gotta
Scott Benner (33:02) do. (33:02) Right.
Que Dallara (33:03) So if you take seven eighty g with Instinct as an example and our seven day infusion set, it's six perks a month compared to 12 to 16 with other AID systems. (33:15) Mhmm. (33:15) People used to care about finger sticks. (33:17) You don't have to do that anymore. (33:18) We got six perks, and so that matters.
Que Dallara (33:21) And that's why our male detection technology is important. (33:23) The automation is important because we don't hey. (33:25) You don't you know, perfect at bolusing? (33:27) No problem.
Scott Benner (33:28) Right.
Que Dallara (33:28) Seven eighty g has these auto corrections. (33:30) It's really the only system on the market with this meal detection, and so people find that liberating. (33:35) You know, I had patients tell me I you know, I was that they had a day where they were doing graduations. (33:40) Meals were all over the place. (33:41) It wasn't their regular routine.
Que Dallara (33:43) At seven a, the automation just kicks in and delivers that the insulin they need. (33:47) You know? (33:48) And so I think education is part of it. (33:50) I think it's also people's preferences. (33:52) And so we wanna make people where they are.
Que Dallara (33:54) We don't wanna go, well, you should be on a pump if you don't want to be. (33:57) That's why we have InPen. (33:59) Yeah. (33:59) But we do believe that we can help you and get you a little bit better. (34:03) So you have to do less work.
Que Dallara (34:05) And, actually, a lot of time when people come into our ecosystem, say, on on MiniMed Go, they then say, actually, this is good. (34:12) Maybe I'll I'm willing to try a pump now. (34:14) Mhmm. (34:15) Maybe I want more automation. (34:17) It's education.
Que Dallara (34:18) And then, you know, as you know, there's a shortage of endos around the world. (34:21) Yeah. (34:21) So a lot of it is primary care. (34:22) They don't always have the latest and greatest in terms of what's available. (34:26) And so we have to do a better job, honestly, you know, the industry to, you know, get the word out.
Scott Benner (34:32) You gotta educate the educators and make the
Que Dallara (34:35) Exactly.
Scott Benner (34:35) I think too, making the algorithm such that a doctor can feel comfortable not understanding it, but still prescribing it. (34:43) Yeah. (34:44) I mean, how do you decide then? (34:45) Like, there's only so many hours in a day. (34:47) Right?
Scott Benner (34:47) Like, there's and there's a lot of things to do. (34:49) You've gotta get your pumps and your CGMs around the world. (34:53) You've gotta improve algorithm. (34:55) You try to make your hardware smaller. (34:57) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (34:57) How do you prioritize what to do next and what's most important? (35:01) I mean, there's gotta be a big road map. (35:03) Right? (35:03) But how do you figure out which is which?
Que Dallara (35:06) Well, we think of it in generations. (35:08) So, you know, we were first with the six seventy g system. (35:12) Mhmm. (35:12) Seven eighty was a second gen system that's really five years now in the market, and we're very, very close in getting our third generation system out. (35:21) So that's come from a lot of feedback and interactions with all of our with our customers.
Que Dallara (35:27) I mean, it's hundreds of videotaped videos to figure out features that we wanna invest in, and so we've been hard at work. (35:35) Like, we can't always talk about what we do, but we've been hard at work every day getting this third generation system out, starting with the CGMs last month with new form factors on the hardware, and then, of course, our next generation algorithm, which we're super excited about. (35:50) I think really, Scott, if I reflect on how we as an industry are doing, I think the fact that the penetration of AID, which is superior to MDI, it has such low penetration in The United States and around the world is because technology is a burden. (36:08) Mhmm. (36:08) That's our goal.
Que Dallara (36:09) We got to make technology not a burden so you actually don't have to do much, and not a burden also on busy clinics, you know? (36:18) And so with seven eighty g, a clinician just has to really know the insulin to carb ratio. (36:24) That's really it. (36:25) We don't have a lot of dials you need to turn. (36:27) If you go with our recommended settings of two hours and a set target of 100 or 110, All you have to figure out is the person's individual insulin to carb ratio, and you're off to the races.
Que Dallara (36:40) That's seven eighty g. (36:41) In the future, it's gonna be even less than that.
Scott Benner (36:44) You said something a minute ago that I just got back from I don't wanna say the company, but I just went out and gave a talk to a a a pretty big organization. (36:52) Right? (36:52) Because they help people with diabetes all day long. (36:55) Mhmm. (36:55) But a very small percentage of the people that work there have diabetes or know somebody with it.
Scott Benner (36:59) Mhmm. (37:00) In their minds, it's a, you know, it's a widget. (37:02) Right? (37:03) It's a thing I do every day. (37:04) I cut I get to work.
Scott Benner (37:05) I work on code. (37:06) I don't know. (37:06) The code says this about that. (37:07) Like, it doesn't matter to me as long as it works in the end. (37:10) I've heard you say a couple of times, like, we brought people together and we asked them, like, what are we doing?
Scott Benner (37:14) Where are we missing and everything? (37:16) Can you talk about some of the things that those conversations brought to light? (37:20) What did you say to yourself, this is what's important? (37:23) Because I know what I think is important. (37:24) I think that meal detection technology is a huge thing for me.
Que Dallara (37:28) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (37:29) Right? (37:29) Like, you should be able to miscount a carb or forget for five seconds and not end up with a blood sugar of two fifty. (37:36) Mhmm. (37:37) You should be able to fall asleep without waking up at 300, like, that kind of stuff. (37:41) I think that's huge.
Scott Benner (37:42) I think sets working well, not having to be changed all the time, really great sensors that don't fail, that report accurately, that make people actually comfortable using AID. (37:52) Like, that stuff's really important. (37:54) Like, the I don't know what I wanna call, like, on the ground, like, actual lived experience stuff, I think, is what's most important. (38:00) But I'm wondering, you coming from an outside perspective and then hearing those people talk, like, what struck you in those conversations?
Que Dallara (38:07) Well, typically, our process is we always involve our customers. (38:11) We always. (38:12) And we don't go to them and say, would you like this feature? (38:15) We ask them what problem would they like to solve in their life. (38:19) And it's based on that that then we go through a very complicated process to figure out how do we innovate to solve that problem.
Que Dallara (38:27) So it's not about, hey. (38:28) Here's 10 features. (38:29) Pick the ones you like the
Scott Benner (38:30) best. (38:31) Right.
Que Dallara (38:31) And so that's how we came up with meal detection technology. (38:34) Like, it we have that with seven eighty g because no one counts carbs correctly. (38:39) Nobody. (38:39) Actually, it's estimation. (38:41) It's no one actually counts carbs.
Que Dallara (38:43) Sure. (38:43) And so that's why this was being very liberating because you don't have to be exact at all and feel bad about that. (38:50) And so you described seven eighty exactly. (38:52) That's why in our portfolio, we think about the different preferences people have. (38:57) So I'll give you an example.
Que Dallara (38:58) Let's say with Instinct, why do we have Instinct and Sinclair? (39:01) When we developed our sensor, we did that with insulin dosing in mind. (39:06) One of the things that our loyal install base likes to do is they like to be in tight control. (39:13) Right? (39:13) They they we're known for, you know, very superior clinical outcomes and really tight control.
Que Dallara (39:20) So they like to occasionally calibrate their sensor, right, because it just helps them just they wanna manage it more. (39:29) And so it with Simplera, you can do that. (39:31) You can if you want to, you can calibrate your sensor, get tighter control. (39:36) With how Libre started, they started with as a diagnostic. (39:41) It wasn't built with AID in mind in the very beginning.
Que Dallara (39:45) And so now, you know, it's a great sensor, and it's can it be integrated into AID, but you can't do that. (39:50) Now for some people, they don't care. (39:51) Right. (39:52) That's not important to them. (39:53) But for certain people who want eye control, they do care.
Que Dallara (39:56) And so that's what's behind the choice and why we have different sensor options and why we have different dosing options. (40:03) We wanna be able to meet people where they are and not force people to, well, you need to do this. (40:10) And that's what's behind all the investments we've made. (40:13) We don't want technology to be a burden. (40:15) We want it to be a companion, an aid, a tool, and the holy grail for us is if we can take away all that work and still give you the health outcomes you want, no fear of hypo, get your hyper back in range very aggressively and help you deal with long term complications.
Que Dallara (40:32) If we can deliver that but not add to the burden but help you live your life
Scott Benner (40:36) Right.
Que Dallara (40:37) That's what we work on.
Scott Benner (40:38) So how much ceiling is left in that algorithm? (40:41) Like, how many more dials can you turn until it it's giving you that kind of like, is there a world in your mind where people could be 90% in range and never low for days at a time? (40:52) Like, is there you know what I'm saying? (40:54) Like, is there room in that algorithm for improvement, or does something have to be I don't know what I'm asking. (41:00) Like, does something have to be invented before that's gonna happen next?
Scott Benner (41:04) Like, are we at a at a peak right now, or are we still in a a version of learning about it?
Que Dallara (41:09) Well, with seven eighty, I mean, in the real world, you know, we've got a lot of studies in the real world evidence of, you know, over 350,000 patients on seven eighty in this particular study, I can actually send you the the publication. (41:23) If you're on our recommended settings on seven eighty, you're getting an 80% time in range without doing a lot to get that.
Scott Benner (41:32) What's the range you're using?
Que Dallara (41:33) 7070% 80% time in range using our recommended settings.
Scott Benner (41:37) What is that range? (41:38) Like, seven 70 to one eighty, or, like, where where do you set the range to do the measurement?
Que Dallara (41:42) The range is 70 to one eighty, or the the, you know, consensus driven range. (41:46) And then if you're talking about 70 to one forty, which is where Yeah. (41:51) People who don't die have diabetes spend most of their time in, we're at 55%, what we call timing tight range.
Scott Benner (41:58) Right.
Que Dallara (41:58) So $7.80 already gets there, but we absolutely believe that where this is going is we shouldn't have any buttons at all, and you're getting above 70% time in range. (42:08) That's really, you know, where we wanna push the envelope. (42:12) But if you want to have even tighter control, because we have people in Facebook with seven eighty saying, I got a 100% time in range. (42:20) And, you know, they're they're proud of, you know, you know, hitting sort of goals like that. (42:25) Mhmm.
Que Dallara (42:25) For people who do want even tighter control, we wanna be able to give them the option that if you wanna engage get more to control, you can do that. (42:32) But you don't have to. (42:33) If you don't wanna do anything, we wanna help get you above 70% time in range. (42:38) That's that's where the future of the algorithm is gonna go.
Scott Benner (42:40) Does that algorithm need to include some AI? (42:44) At some point, I'm gonna be very, like, ham fisted about this. (42:46) But are you gonna have, like, your own little AI agent inside your pump that's, like, looking at your food and decisions and helping adjust more than just what the math tells it?
Que Dallara (42:54) We don't need to do that, Scott. (42:56) We use a lot of AI in the development of our products, but think of it as a lot of AI requires you going to the cloud and having a lot of compute. (43:06) Mhmm. (43:06) And if you think about the pumps, we have our algorithms on the pump because you're not always gonna be connected. (43:11) Like, you could be hiking in the mountains, in the wilderness Sure.
Que Dallara (43:14) And not have an Internet connection. (43:16) Our pump's gonna work. (43:17) The algorithm's still gonna work. (43:18) Right? (43:19) It's not dependent on all this infrastructure.
Que Dallara (43:22) So from a safety standpoint, we have to be extremely efficient how the algorithm works on the pump because it's not a supercomputer. (43:29) You know? (43:29) Right. (43:29) It's a pretty smart device, but AI isn't used in the development. (43:33) But we don't need you know, our algorithm is very good because we have had hundreds of millions of points of data on CGM and insulin over the last, you know, call it decade of algorithmic development that we don't need to have, you know, Gen AI working in the pump for us to deliver Mhmm.
Que Dallara (43:50) An even better algorithm in the future.
Scott Benner (43:52) So the math will handle it at some point better than I imagine it can. (43:57) Yes. (43:57) I've heard you say a couple of times no buttons. (44:00) So right now, when I hear people talk about that, they'll say, well, that was great until I got my period, or that was great till my Mhmm. (44:07) My kid hit a growth spurt, or, yeah, that was great until until until and then I need to set a temp basal.
Scott Benner (44:12) I need to do this, like, etcetera. (44:13) Is that a a long in the future idea to you? (44:16) Like, we have a couple of stops to go before it's buttonless, or is that more of a way of thinking about, like, there'll still be buttons. (44:22) I can make adjustments, but I just probably won't have to touch them very often.
Que Dallara (44:25) We wanna be able to serve people who don't wanna do anything because you got a lot of those. (44:30) Mhmm. (44:31) But if you want to do something, we will provide options if you want to engage more. (44:36) But that engagement isn't like many dials and buttons. (44:38) It's super simple, but you're always gonna have a spectrum of people who they wanna be more active in managing their diabetes, and they like doing that because they wanna be super tight.
Que Dallara (44:49) But for other people, they don't wanna do anything at all. (44:53) Right. (44:53) And so we wanna accommodate both. (44:55) But, yeah, the I think the holy grail is just not having to do Not having to do anything other than put insulin
Scott Benner (45:02) And in your mind, is that the thing that opens you up to find those other millions of people?
Que Dallara (45:06) Yeah. (45:07) I think it will attract a lot of people and, you know, probably a lot of type twos Right. (45:12) Because, you know, typically, they they're willing to do less. (45:16) Mhmm. (45:17) If technology is just in the background, you know, just imagine, like, a self driving car Yeah.
Que Dallara (45:22) And you don't have to drive it, I think the adoption will go up. (45:25) But if you still have to do a little bit of something, you know, for some people, it's not worth doing that versus what they're doing at the moment. (45:32) So we wanna make it easy because we think that people will be healthier if they are on AID. (45:37) Look at a one c's in The US. (45:40) It's above eight despite the fact that CGM penetration is 80%.
Que Dallara (45:46) Yeah. (45:47) Pretty much if you need a CGM and you're, you know, you're on diabetes, you need CGM, you're get one. (45:51) It's not good. (45:53) So people need help with insulin dosing and diabetes management. (45:58) Yeah.
Que Dallara (45:58) But it's still too much work.
Scott Benner (45:59) I talk about this a lot that it it could get easy to get into this ecosystem that I've created here and think like, oh, everybody's got, like, a six and a half or a five a one c or something like that. (46:09) But the vast majority of people that are on insulin And eight I've interviewed people all day long that, you know, they have twelves they live with. (46:17) They have complications in their thirties. (46:19) Right? (46:19) And they're not when you talk to them, what always strikes me over and over again that it is not a lack of they're they're not not concerned.
Scott Benner (46:26) They're not not trying. (46:27) It's just Mhmm. (46:28) For reasons that are hard to kind of, like, compute, like, human reasons, just not working out for them well. (46:34) Mhmm. (46:34) And those are the people I think about all the time.
Scott Benner (46:37) Also, those people often see their general practitioners about their diabetes on top of everything else. (46:41) They need a thing that you can just go, look. (46:44) Take this. (46:44) This is how it goes on. (46:46) This is how where you put the insulin.
Scott Benner (46:48) Here's your a one c in the sevens. (46:50) Like, that's life saving for a a huge swath of people who who need insulin every day. (46:55) Anyway Scott,
Que Dallara (46:56) I'm I'm with you. (46:56) It's so sad.
Scott Benner (46:57) Yeah.
Que Dallara (46:58) Yeah. (46:58) And that's why we really believe seven eighty can help people like that. (47:02) Wow. (47:02) Because, look, people try, and life gets in the way. (47:06) And you got kids, you got a job.
Que Dallara (47:08) I mean, it's not it's not easy. (47:10) Yeah. (47:10) So that's why we really believe if you're not doing well and, you know, if you're not in control and it's a lot of work, you're not getting the return on the effort. (47:19) Mhmm. (47:20) We think seven eighty.
Que Dallara (47:21) Try seven eighty because it's we think it's for very little effort. (47:26) You're gonna get great outcomes and feel better
Scott Benner (47:29) Okay.
Que Dallara (47:30) Every day.
Scott Benner (47:31) So my last kind of question, it's gonna be a little jumble here. (47:34) Seven eighty g, ready to go now. (47:37) Lots of CGM options. (47:38) You're gonna like it. (47:40) Go give it a shot.
Scott Benner (47:41) But you're working on other stuff too. (47:43) Patch pump, tubeless option.
Que Dallara (47:45) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (47:45) I'm gonna ask you, how long do you think until people see those? (47:49) And then my last last question, which I think you can dovetail into is, if you come back here five years from now Mhmm. (47:55) We started by talking about, like, you know, where Medtronic started, you know, like, that old CGM people you know, people used to call that CGM a harpoon. (48:03) Right? (48:03) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (48:04) So you've gone from there to, like, where you are now to where you're trying to go. (48:08) So five years from now, I get you back on here and we're talking. (48:12) What are we talking about? (48:13) Where are you at at that point?
Que Dallara (48:15) Great question. (48:16) So for the first part, we got seven eighty g, two new sensors, give it a go. (48:22) And on the new the new durable pump, the new patch pump, and then the new algorithm, for the durable pump, we said that we're gonna submit very soon on that in our fiscal year. (48:32) Mhmm. (48:33) In a month or so, I'll be able to share a bit more timelines on a bit squeezed with our process at the moment, from Medtronic to reveal too much.
Que Dallara (48:42) In a in a month or so, we'll be able to say the timelines on those, but it's very we're getting to the tail end of those new products. (48:48) So we're really excited to introduce that to everyone. (48:51) But in five years' time, you know, I hope people will be saying that MiniMed just works. (48:58) That's our goal and that it just fits into their lifestyle. (49:03) They don't have to do anything.
Que Dallara (49:04) They just live their life. (49:05) That's what we want to be able to contribute to and that we've truly entered a hands free era, that you just put insulin in, it just works, you don't have to think about it. (49:14) And so that's where we think our third generation system is gonna be there. (49:18) And life was like diabetes is a little simpler, you can move on to other things. (49:22) So that's what we hope.
Que Dallara (49:23) And, you know, but I tell you what, Scott, I'll come back in five years' time on your podcast, and we'll have a discussion about it. (49:31) Awesome. (49:32) But that's what we hope. (49:33) A free, a hands free era with MiniMed.
Scott Benner (49:36) I hope too. (49:36) Maybe you can come back a little sooner and tell me a little more about these new pumps when you're more free to talk about
Que Dallara (49:40) the details. (49:41) Do this.
Scott Benner (49:41) Help you get. (49:42) Also, I'd like to ask if you've ever owned a bearded dragon because you lived in Australia, but we don't have time for that.
Que Dallara (49:47) I do. (49:47) I do have a Rankin's bearded dragon.
Scott Benner (49:50) You do? (49:51) I do. (49:51) Oh, they're the small
Que Dallara (49:52) sort of Fizz.
Scott Benner (49:53) Yeah. (49:53) The smaller How old how old is it?
Que Dallara (49:56) One year, actually. (49:57) One year on Veterans Day.
Scott Benner (49:58) Oh, wow. (49:59) We don't have time now, but the reason you're there's a a green screen background behind me because behind me is my Parsons chameleon and, like, some other little things I keep in my office. (50:08) So we'll find more time later. (50:10) I'd love to know about your Rankin's Dragon. (50:12) I'm not kidding.
Scott Benner (50:13) Thank you very much for doing this. (50:14) I really do appreciate your time. (50:15) Thank you.
Que Dallara (50:16) Yeah. (50:16) It was fun. (50:16) Thanks, Scott.
Scott Benner (50:17) Awesome. (50:24) I'd like to remind you again about the MiniMed seven eighty g automated insulin delivery system, which, of course, anticipates, adjusts, and corrects every five minutes twenty four seven. (50:34) It works around the clock so you can focus on what matters. (50:39) The juice box community knows the importance of using technology to simplify managing diabetes. (50:44) To learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes, visit my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner (50:55) If you've listened to any number of podcasts or maybe watched a YouTube video, you're very accustomed to listening to the creator of that content ask you and sometimes just outright beg you without any feeling of self respect for you to follow, subscribe, share an episode. (51:15) The reason that happens in podcasting specifically is because podcast players don't have a sophisticated recommendation engine like YouTube or TikTok does. (51:24) They can't watch listener behavior and then give you content that you might like. (51:30) Word-of-mouth skips that line completely. (51:33) It's an instantly expanding reach engine and really the only thing I've ever found that helps to keep the Juice Box podcast growing.
Scott Benner (51:42) So subscribe and follow because that the algorithm understands. (51:45) Set up automatic downloads, listen to the show, but share it with somebody else. (51:50) Leave a five star review. (51:52) Make it a thoughtful review that the algorithm can understand. (51:56) I really appreciate the time it takes you to do those things, and I hate that I have to say this to you because I feel like an idiot.
Scott Benner (52:02) But subscribe and follow. (52:04) Tell a friend. (52:05) Please and thank you. (52:06) Have a podcast? (52:07) Want it to sound fantastic?
Scott Benner (52:09) Wrongwayrecording.com.
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#1696 Down On My Knees
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.
Cecilia discusses fighting for a Dexcom immediately after her daughter’s diagnosis and using podcast education to achieve a 5.4 A1C despite limited medical guidance.
+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner (0:00) As the holidays approach, I wanna say welcome and thank all of my good friends for coming back to the Juice Box podcast over and over again. (0:18) This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by Skin Grip, durable, skin safe adhesive that lasts. (0:25) Your diabetes devices, they can fall off easily sometimes, especially when you're bathing or very active. (0:32) When those devices fall off, your life is disrupted, and it costs you money. (0:35) But Skin Grip patches, they keep your devices secure.
Scott Benner (0:39) Skin Grip was founded by a family directly impacted by type one, and it's trusted by hundreds of thousands of individuals living with diabetes. (0:47) Juice Box podcast listeners are gonna get 20% off of their first order by visiting skingrip.com/juicebox. (0:56) Nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. (1:00) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. (1:09) The episode you're about to enjoy was brought to you by Dexcom, the Dexcom g seven, the same CGM that my daughter wears.
Scott Benner (1:18) You can learn more and get started today at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox. (1:24) Today's episode is also sponsored by Omnipod five. (1:28) Omnipod five is a tube free automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a one c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. (1:39) Learn more and get started today at omnipod dot com slash juice box. (1:43) At my link, you can get a free starter kit right now.
Scott Benner (1:46) Terms and conditions apply. (1:47) Eligibility may vary. (1:49) Full terms and conditions could be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. (1:53) I am not gonna stop you.
Cecilia (1:55) Okay. (1:56) I'm not great at that kind of thing. (1:57) Is there, like, a template for introductions?
Scott Benner (2:00) Oh, that's so interesting. (2:01) This is now your introduction.
Cecilia (2:03) Okay. (2:03) Great.
Scott Benner (2:04) What's your name?
Cecilia (2:06) Cecilia.
Scott Benner (2:07) Oh, yeah. (2:08) You're the reason I've been singing that song all morning.
Cecilia (2:11) Yep. (2:11) I get that all the time.
Scott Benner (2:12) Sorry about that.
Cecilia (2:14) That's okay.
Scott Benner (2:14) I know it probably happens to you all the time, but it a 100% has happened to me today.
Cecilia (2:19) That's quite alright.
Scott Benner (2:20) Maybe because, oddly enough, when my son was a baby, it was one of the songs that made him comfortable when he couldn't sleep.
Cecilia (2:27) That's funny. (2:28) You gotta do what you gotta do.
Scott Benner (2:29) That one and the other one was a Beatles song. (2:31) I'd let you guess, but that would be boring. (2:33) It was Blackbird.
Cecilia (2:35) Oh. (2:35) Yeah. (2:36) Well, that's a good one.
Scott Benner (2:37) I used to sit with him when we first moved into our place, we didn't have a lot of stuff yet. (2:43) And so I would take him to this quiet room. (2:46) It was kind of like a loft, and that's being generous. (2:49) There was a small loft in a condo that we got that we never used because it was so small, was unusable. (2:56) And on the other side of it was a storage room, like, literally a storage room that I made my office in.
Scott Benner (3:02) So I would basically go upstairs, go into a large closet where my computer was. (3:07) I'd lay him across my lap, rub his back, and play Blackbird until he fell asleep.
Cecilia (3:13) Oh.
Scott Benner (3:13) And now it makes me cry every time I hear it.
Cecilia (3:16) Oh, I would be the same way.
Scott Benner (3:17) Yeah. (3:17) So I can't even listen to the song. (3:19) It's, ruined the song for me.
Cecilia (3:20) Alright.
Scott Benner (3:21) Anyway, Cecilia, what are you doing here? (3:24) You have a kid with type one? (3:25) You have type one yourself? (3:26) What are we finding out today?
Cecilia (3:28) My daughter has type one. (3:29) She is nine, and she was diagnosed almost a year ago. (3:33) Was October 9.
Scott Benner (3:34) Oh, very recently. (3:35) Mhmm. (3:36) Oh, gosh. (3:37) Just a year and a couple of weeks.
Cecilia (3:39) Yeah. (3:39) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (3:40) Alright. (3:41) Other kids?
Cecilia (3:42) I have a son. (3:43) He is a couple years older than her.
Scott Benner (3:45) Okay. (3:45) You're still married? (3:46) No? (3:46) Yes? (3:46) Who ever was?
Cecilia (3:47) We've been married for oh, wow. (3:49) It's too early for math. (3:50) Since 2012.
Scott Benner (3:51) Oh, that's fun. (3:52) At least well, at least you knew the year.
Cecilia (3:54) Yeah. (3:55) Yeah. (3:55) Yeah. (3:55) He's deployed right now, so my brain's all over the place.
Scott Benner (3:59) What does your husband do for us?
Cecilia (4:01) He's in the army.
Scott Benner (4:02) Yeah. (4:03) How long has he been in?
Cecilia (4:04) Fifteen years. (4:05) Oh, wow. (4:06) Yeah. (4:06) We're at we're at getting to the end.
Scott Benner (4:08) I was gonna say, is he, looking for a job?
Cecilia (4:10) Not yet. (4:11) No. (4:11) He's got he's got his last couple I think we have one duty station after this and then retirement from the army.
Scott Benner (4:18) What's he gonna retire as?
Cecilia (4:20) Right now, he's a master sergeant. (4:22) So he doesn't think he'll make sergeant major, but we'll see. (4:26) Oh. (4:26) We'll see.
Scott Benner (4:26) Sounds like you think he will.
Cecilia (4:28) I think he's pretty good at his job. (4:29) I I always think he's gonna do better than he does, but he's pretty humble.
Scott Benner (4:33) Oh, that's very nice. (4:34) Okay. (4:35) So how long has he been gone? (4:37) Like, what kind of chunks does he leave for, I guess, is my question.
Cecilia (4:40) It depends. (4:41) This time is a long a longer time, about a year. (4:43) So
Scott Benner (4:44) He's been gone a year. (4:45) Wait. (4:45) Was
Cecilia (4:45) No. (4:46) No. (4:46) No. (4:46) He's going to be gone about a year. (4:48) We're not even halfway yet.
Scott Benner (4:49) Ah, so he was around when your daughter was diagnosed?
Cecilia (4:52) Absolutely.
Scott Benner (4:53) Okay. (4:53) Mhmm. (4:53) Tell me about that a little bit.
Cecilia (4:56) Well, do you want me to talk about how we figured it out? (4:59) Or
Scott Benner (5:00) What do you wanna talk about?
Cecilia (5:01) I mean, we can talk about how she got diagnosed because I don't know. (5:06) I I I didn't know a whole lot about it.
Scott Benner (5:08) You're so amenable. (5:09) This is this is I'm I'm not accustomed to this. (5:11) I will, I say to my wife all the time, I should have married a more amenable person.
Cecilia (5:16) Well, it's you know, I don't know what I'm doing.
Scott Benner (5:19) No. (5:20) You but you're like, what would you like? (5:21) And I was and then that froze me because I was like, oh gosh. (5:23) No one ever asked me that.
Cecilia (5:26) No. (5:26) I don't know what I'm doing. (5:27) So you're the pro. (5:28) But, no, she was
Scott Benner (5:30) Yeah. (5:31) Tell me about it. (5:31) Like that.
Cecilia (5:32) Looking back now, I know what all of these things were.
Scott Benner (5:35) Okay.
Cecilia (5:35) But she started getting really agitated just randomly or what I thought was randomly. (5:41) And I'm talking like I don't know. (5:43) We it was like she was suddenly uncontrollable, but it wasn't all day every day. (5:47) And I thought, well, maybe she's just hanging out with some kids at school that maybe she shouldn't be hanging out with, or maybe she's just really frustrated. (5:54) We couldn't figure it out.
Cecilia (5:56) And then it turned into every night. (5:58) Oh, my stomach really hurts. (5:59) My stomach really hurts. (6:00) Well, she's always been my kid that's had a little bit of anxiety, and I thought she was just trying to get out of bedtime. (6:05) Mhmm.
Cecilia (6:06) And then it turned into one day, she got home from school. (6:10) We were picking her up in the car line, and she said, I really need you to start packing me some more water. (6:15) I was like, what? (6:16) You don't you're not my water drinker. (6:18) Like, we had just moved to South Carolina.
Cecilia (6:20) It's a lot hotter here than where we came from, and I thought, oh, well, you're finally listening to us. (6:25) You know? (6:25) My kids don't wanna drink water.
Scott Benner (6:26) Mhmm.
Cecilia (6:27) So I thought, oh, maybe you're finally listening to us and you're just thirsty. (6:31) Mind you, the water bottle that she brings to school is, I think it's 24 ounces. (6:35) Traditionally, she'd maybe drink half of it all day. (6:38) She started going through two, three, four of them a day, and I thought, that's kinda weird. (6:44) My husband and I looked at each other like, And now it should be noted that I have bad anxiety myself, and I have OCD, and I'm always like, oh my gosh.
Cecilia (6:53) The sky is falling. (6:54) This is the worst case possible. (6:57) And so I thought, well, you're just being weird about it. (6:59) Don't overthink it. (7:00) And it just started tumbling into one thing to the next, and she would again, she was my kid that didn't eat much either and started, you could not get enough chicken nuggets into this girl.
Cecilia (7:10) You couldn't get enough cereal. (7:11) Whatever it was, it wasn't enough. (7:13) And I told my husband, I was like, do you think this is weird? (7:17) He was like, yeah. (7:18) A little bit, but maybe she's growing.
Cecilia (7:20) And I started comparing pictures, and I was like, well, it looks like she's lost a little weight. (7:24) But, again, I just chalked it up to a growth spurt.
Scott Benner (7:27) Mhmm.
Cecilia (7:28) Didn't think anything of it. (7:29) And then there was a couple of times that she had a couple of accidents, and I'm like she go, oh, I just laughed too hard. (7:35) And, again, she's my kid that has always waited till the last second to go to the bathroom. (7:39) So all these things I wrote off to just being something else, not really thinking about diabetes. (7:45) And then one day, it just hit me in my gut, I was like, I think this is what this is.
Cecilia (7:49) And so I went on TikTok, and I started looking, well, how much water is too much water? (7:53) Trying to find anything I could to, like, I don't know, talk myself out of it being what it was. (7:58) Yeah. (7:59) I have two autoimmune diseases myself, and my husband's side of the family does have type one.
Scott Benner (8:05) Okay.
Cecilia (8:06) Should I have been surprised? (8:07) No. (8:08) And so I, you know, I remember calling my dad. (8:10) He was a firefighter for years and years and years, and so he's been to people's houses who have low blood sugar or whatever. (8:17) And I was like, hey.
Cecilia (8:17) Do you know anything about this? (8:19) He said, no. (8:19) But you should take her to get her checked. (8:22) Okay? (8:22) Smart.
Cecilia (8:23) We go to the primary care. (8:25) I tell her what my concerns are, and she's kinda, like, waving me off a little bit, probably thinking that I'm just, you know, crazy mom. (8:32) She was like, but it's no problem. (8:33) We'll check her finger. (8:33) No big deal.
Cecilia (8:34) She leaves. (8:35) The, medical assistant comes in, and I'm standing next to my daughter. (8:38) She pokes her finger. (8:39) My daughter, by the way, is, like, an anxious mess at this point because I don't we don't go to the doctor in this house. (8:45) So we're going.
Cecilia (8:47) Something is wrong. (8:48) She checks her finger and the meter just reads hi. (8:51) And I look at my husband like, oh
Scott Benner (8:54) Yeah.
Cecilia (8:54) And we went to the emergency room.
Scott Benner (8:57) I have a bunch of questions.
Cecilia (8:58) Sure.
Scott Benner (8:59) How old are you?
Cecilia (9:00) How old? (9:00) 37.
Scott Benner (9:01) 37. (9:02) Mhmm. (9:02) When you wanted information about drinking water, you went to TikTok?
Cecilia (9:06) Yeah. (9:06) Isn't that weird?
Scott Benner (9:07) No. (9:07) I I I don't know that it is. (9:09) I'm trying to but it's not what I would occur to me. (9:11) So how do you search TikTok for that information?
Cecilia (9:14) You know, I don't remember exactly what I did, but I think I put in, like, signs of type one diabetes, and I tried to figure out I was going through people's videos to try and see, you know, when they were saying, this is how I got diagnosed. (9:26) I was hoping to find, like, a concrete amount of water that people were drinking to say, okay. (9:31) That's an excessive amount. (9:32) I didn't know what that was.
Scott Benner (9:34) Okay.
Cecilia (9:34) And I thought, well, this is an excessive amount for her, but is it so excessive that I should be worried? (9:39) I was just trying to find and I went I went to Facebook. (9:42) I I searched everything.
Scott Benner (9:44) You were all over the place. (9:45) Okay.
Cecilia (9:45) All over the place. (9:46) And she had had a friend in her first grade class who was type one. (9:50) And I messaged his mom, and I said, hey. (9:53) When he got diagnosed, how much water was he drinking? (9:56) And she I mean, she didn't remember anymore at that point.
Cecilia (9:58) It had been a year or two for her, but I was everywhere and anywhere looking for something.
Scott Benner (10:04) Okay. (10:05) What made you think diabetes initially? (10:07) Just because it was in the family? (10:08) Or did something about the peeing bring it up for you?
Cecilia (10:12) The water and the hunger. (10:14) And then I started putting all of the little sides together.
Scott Benner (10:17) Together.
Cecilia (10:17) You know, I tell people all the time, I'm an anxious mess about everything, but this was different. (10:21) Like, once I knew, I knew. (10:24) And when they told me, I was not surprised.
Scott Benner (10:26) You have other autoimmune issues. (10:28) So what do you have? (10:29) Yes. (10:29) Hypothyroidism?
Cecilia (10:30) Yes. (10:31) I have Hashimoto's and celiac.
Scott Benner (10:32) Celiac. (10:33) Oh, this is gonna be my guess as you ruined it. (10:35) I was gonna look awesome. (10:36) And you have anxiety?
Cecilia (10:38) Yes.
Scott Benner (10:39) Like, diagnosed?
Cecilia (10:40) Yes.
Scott Benner (10:41) Do you do something about it?
Cecilia (10:42) I have Zoloft and therapy.
Scott Benner (10:44) Okay. (10:45) Is it helping?
Cecilia (10:46) A 100%.
Scott Benner (10:47) When you said you have OCD, do you meant diagnosed? (10:49) Or you just meant your Yes. (10:50) Your oh, okay. (10:51) Your and how does it manifest mostly? (10:54) A
Cecilia (10:54) lot of rumination and, like, worst case scenario, what if. (10:57) And then in my head, I'm like, okay. (10:59) Well, you know that you're doing this kinda knock it off thing. (11:02) It's not like an outward, I have to lock the car four times or
Scott Benner (11:06) You're not counting or taking steps or retracing your steps or something like that. (11:09) Okay. (11:10) Well, perfect for your husband to be in a war zone. (11:12) That's a great thing for you.
Cecilia (11:13) True. (11:13) Well, luckily, he's not in a dangerous spot right
Scott Benner (11:16) now. (11:16) Okay.
Cecilia (11:16) So thank God for that.
Scott Benner (11:17) I mean, really.
Cecilia (11:19) I know. (11:20) I know.
Scott Benner (11:20) All your life?
Cecilia (11:22) Yeah.
Scott Benner (11:23) Okay. (11:23) Anybody else in your family have that going on? (11:26) Your mom, your dad, your sisters, brothers? (11:28) No. (11:29) No.
Scott Benner (11:29) Just you. (11:30) Did they have any autoimmune stuff? (11:32) Your mom have high Hashimoto's?
Cecilia (11:35) No. (11:35) No. (11:36) Okay. (11:36) Well, I should say neither of them have anything that they ever knew about.
Scott Benner (11:39) No. (11:40) Fair enough. (11:40) Anybody pooping a lot after Thanksgiving dinner?
Cecilia (11:42) You know, I don't know. (11:43) I couldn't tell you that.
Scott Benner (11:44) You don't see people running off to the bathroom after food?
Cecilia (11:46) No.
Scott Benner (11:47) No. (11:47) Okay. (11:48) I'm gonna take a big swing here. (11:49) Is there any bipolar in your extended family?
Cecilia (11:53) Yes.
Scott Benner (11:54) Okay. (11:54) And on your husband's side, there's type one. (11:56) So you guys have, like, a perfect mix to make a baby with type one diabetes.
Cecilia (11:59) Yeah. (12:00) Yeah. (12:00) And it's it's funny because, you know, as they were growing up, when we went to the pediatrician and got their vaccines or whatever, and I would say, hey. (12:08) Is this something I need to worry about? (12:10) No.
Cecilia (12:11) Don't worry about
Scott Benner (12:12) it. (12:12) Okay. (12:13) Okay. (12:13) Any PCOS in your family?
Cecilia (12:16) No. (12:16) Not that I know
Scott Benner (12:16) of. (12:17) Not that you know of. (12:17) Have had any trouble making those babies or anything like that?
Cecilia (12:19) No. (12:20) We've all I mean, I only have two kids, but the rest of them mm-mm.
Scott Benner (12:23) Gotcha.
Cecilia (12:24) They're doing fine. (12:25) Alright.
Scott Benner (12:25) Okay. (12:25) I got it. (12:26) So I have all the information I was, interested in from that part. (12:29) So you're the meter high blood sugar sorry. (12:32) I'm gonna get you back on track.
Cecilia (12:33) That's okay.
Scott Benner (12:34) And then you end up at the emergency room?
Cecilia (12:37) Yeah. (12:37) We went to Children's.
Scott Benner (12:39) What was that blood sugar like? (12:40) Were you there for days, or was it a quick one?
Cecilia (12:43) We got there around 03:00, and we got they got her upstairs by of course, we were coming in at shift change, so it took a little bit longer. (12:53) She was admitted around 08:30 to the floor.
Scott Benner (12:57) Mhmm. (12:57) The keeper for how long?
Cecilia (12:59) We were discharged the next morning straight to endocrinology, which was across the parking lot.
Scott Benner (13:05) Oh, okay. (13:06) So not much in the way of, like, her blood sugars weren't too high. (13:10) She wasn't in DK, obviously, like, that kind of stuff you
Cecilia (13:12) would have gotten ahead of. (13:13) I couldn't tell you. (13:14) I'm assuming no. (13:15) Her blood sugar was six thirty six, and her a one c was 10 something.
Scott Benner (13:19) Mhmm.
Cecilia (13:20) But she hadn't been throwing up. (13:21) She wasn't breathing weird. (13:23) The doctors didn't say a whole lot to me. (13:25) That's a whole other thing.
Scott Benner (13:26) So go dig into that for a second. (13:28) What do you mean the doctors didn't say a whole lot to you?
Cecilia (13:30) We had one resident come in, and she talked to my daughter. (13:33) She was a type one as well, and she was showing her pump and everything. (13:37) But nobody said anything about DKA. (13:39) Nobody said anything about how long to expect to be there. (13:42) None of that.
Cecilia (13:43) And, you know, my husband was kind of in denial. (13:46) I was, like, just a mess on another planet. (13:49) I was keeping it together outwardly, but inwardly, it was like, oh my god. (13:53) And so we didn't really know what was going on or what to expect. (13:56) They didn't give her insulin for quite some time, which was insane to me.
Cecilia (14:00) But, again, I didn't know how it worked. (14:02) Mhmm. (14:03) And so I went back and read through the notes, and one of the doctors said she was in DKA, and one of the other ones didn't. (14:09) So
Scott Benner (14:09) I guess the one that said that she wasn't one because I don't think they would have let her out of there that quickly.
Cecilia (14:15) I don't either.
Scott Benner (14:16) Without my worry.
Cecilia (14:16) Fine. (14:17) It's I I don't want her to have been that sick, obviously. (14:19) No.
Scott Benner (14:20) Of course. (14:20) It's just interesting to to not get
Cecilia (14:22) Right.
Scott Benner (14:23) Yeah, agreement on it. (14:24) What what are you what you mean about your husband being in denial? (14:26) Was he, like, just talking about the football game and be like, we're almost out of here? (14:29) Or was like, what do you mean by that?
Cecilia (14:31) He's very protective over her and rightfully so. (14:34) And those were his words that he was in denial for quite some time. (14:37) Like, we were not the best team together for a few months thereafter.
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Cecilia (16:49) I wouldn't say in a panic so much. (16:52) I was just like and with everything, I wanna know as much as I can know about this, figure out how to start to live normally with it, move on to the next thing. (17:01) And he was kind of like I mean, not to speak for him, but from my perspective, I wish that this didn't happen. (17:08) She's still a normal kid, which, of course, she was. (17:10) But I don't know how to explain what I
Scott Benner (17:12) mean. (17:13) No. (17:13) You are explaining it. (17:14) Keep going.
Cecilia (17:15) He was just like, well, we don't need to. (17:16) I was big on, okay, we need to check her finger, see what she is before she eats because they wouldn't give us a Dexcom.
Scott Benner (17:22) Mhmm. (17:22) His take on that was what?
Cecilia (17:24) What was that?
Scott Benner (17:25) When you said you wanted to be checking your finger a lot, but he
Cecilia (17:28) He thought I was doing too much and I thought he wasn't doing enough. (17:32) I guess that's a good way to explain it all.
Scott Benner (17:33) Okay. (17:34) A year later, what was the truth?
Cecilia (17:36) Somewhere in the middle.
Scott Benner (17:37) Did he come around? (17:38) I mean, by that, I mean, did you yell at him and then make him do what he wanted? (17:43) How did that work?
Cecilia (17:44) You know? (17:47) Yeah. (17:49) I'm not even gonna lie. (17:51) I you know, I'm working on it. (17:52) I have a really big control problem, which kinda works out
Scott Benner (17:56) For this?
Cecilia (17:57) With managing this. (17:58) But, you know, in other areas of my life, it's not always served me well. (18:01) But we're we've we're so much better at it now a year later.
Scott Benner (18:05) Why do you think? (18:06) What do you think happened that made you better at it?
Cecilia (18:08) This podcast. (18:09) Oh. (18:10) And that's part of why I had emailed you a few months ago is because our education from the office I'm so torn on this because I feel like it wasn't enough. (18:19) And I had posted about this in the Facebook group, and somebody pointed out, you know, they don't have the time, and people don't all have the want to know.
Scott Benner (18:26) Mhmm.
Cecilia (18:27) They don't want to necessarily understand all this. (18:30) And so they just kind of, for lack of better words, dumb it down and simplify it just to get people out the door and start it. (18:37) Like, they just told us about carb counting. (18:39) We didn't get anything about proteins. (18:41) We didn't get anything about fats.
Cecilia (18:43) We didn't get anything about how basil could be different at different times of the day. (18:47) None of it. (18:48) Just straight carb counting.
Scott Benner (18:49) I have to say that after a a a fair amount of time being involved in this, I agree with that sentiment that it's possible there's no good way to attack it. (18:59) Yeah. (19:00) Right? (19:00) And but still, I don't think that's an excuse for not doing it.
Cecilia (19:05) Right.
Scott Benner (19:05) You know what I mean? (19:06) Like, I think you have to lay it out in a way that is, know, something that people can absorb in those first couple days, which is obviously already like, a crazy time to begin with. (19:16) They still deserve to hear they they deserve to know whether they can do something with it or not. (19:21) That's another story altogether.
Cecilia (19:23) Right.
Scott Benner (19:23) If I was on a cliff and there were a thousand lemmings walking off the cliff, I think it's still being incumbent upon me to go, hey, guys. (19:32) You are about to fall to your death. (19:34) Even though that's what they're there to do and that's probably what they're going to do. (19:38) And this might be a weird dislike like, maybe I'm not doing a a good job here. (19:42) But you know I mean?
Scott Benner (19:42) Like, there's a way this is gonna be handled by a certain number of people, a different way by another number. (19:48) I still think you should explain to them what's ahead of them. (19:51) And then you know what mean?
Cecilia (19:52) To their defense, they could have told me all of this information that I learned on the podcast in that day. (19:56) I mean, we were there for two hours, and then we were sent home. (20:00) I wouldn't have processed any of it. (20:02) So
Scott Benner (20:02) I believe that too. (20:03) I I I completely understand what you're saying. (20:05) And I I so it's a but that's a weird thing to me. (20:09) Like, if they would have done it, I don't know if it would have helped.
Cecilia (20:12) No. (20:12) It probably wouldn't have. (20:14) And since then, you know, we're a year into it now. (20:16) We still I've made adjustments myself. (20:19) Mhmm.
Cecilia (20:19) And it's worked out great. (20:22) It's been fine. (20:23) They would still have us at a 70 to $2.50 range. (20:26) We don't we don't do that. (20:28) There's been no other education given Yeah.
Cecilia (20:31) Besides we went to one pump class, which was just different reps there saying, hey. (20:37) This is what we have. (20:38) Mhmm. (20:38) Pick one kind of thing.
Scott Benner (20:39) Then this is the extension of that conversation then. (20:42) Like, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that telling you if they knew wouldn't be that valuable, maybe.
Cecilia (20:47) Yes.
Scott Benner (20:48) But now it's starting to sound like they didn't tell you because they didn't know.
Cecilia (20:52) And they might yeah. (20:54) I don't know.
Scott Benner (20:55) This is very interesting. (20:56) How are you supposed to know that coming in cold? (20:58) Right.
Cecilia (20:59) That was my biggest thing, and that's how I ended up I was in a different Facebook group. (21:03) It's like the mom t one d group or whatever, and a bunch of people said, oh, you gotta listen to the podcast. (21:09) And I already listened to podcasts, so that was fine with me. (21:12) And I drank it all up, and I was like, oh, okay. (21:17) This is why this is happening after she's having, say, pizza.
Scott Benner (21:20) Okay.
Cecilia (21:21) If I can understand why and there's not always an understanding of why something is happening. (21:27) But I learned so much more that I wasn't getting otherwise, and things started making sense, and it made it I don't wanna say easier because it's not easy. (21:35) When you understand it, it's a lit it's, for lack of a better word, a little easier to understand what to do and where to go.
Scott Benner (21:41) Yeah. (21:42) I I have to tell you, quite honestly, I didn't think you were gonna say the podcast when I asked you what changed things for you. (21:48) I I thought maybe you and your husband just came to an agreement or he started seeing something differently or you backed off a little. (21:54) I thought there was the story in there like that.
Cecilia (21:57) Oh, no. (21:57) I'm dead serious. (21:58) I listened to all of it. (22:02) The bold beginnings, the the math behind, I've listened to I couldn't tell you how many times. (22:08) The protein and fats, the one specific episode with Jeremy, the Control IQ Ninja, I've listened to that probably 10 times, I've taken notes each time to try and get her settings just right.
Cecilia (22:19) And we're a year in, and she's got 5.4 a one c.
Scott Benner (22:23) So Wow. (22:23) That was that's great. (22:24) Good for you. (22:25) That's
Cecilia (22:25) awesome. (22:25) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (22:26) Yeah. (22:27) Jeremy's episode is he's a great example of, like, right place, right time found the podcast, and I got to, like, like, get his his story out of him. (22:38) Because you come to realize like, I haven't talked to Jeremy in a while. (22:41) Right? (22:42) But I don't imagine that his level of involvement with diabetes is the same as it was back then.
Scott Benner (22:46) But in that moment, he found himself digging in. (22:51) He came to some great understanding. (22:52) He knew how to explain it. (22:54) It was really accessible. (22:56) I as far as his style of communication, you know?
Scott Benner (22:59) And there was. (23:00) Like, we were able to record it and put it down for somebody. (23:02) And awesome. (23:03) I can't tell you how many people have been helped by that one. (23:05) I actually wanna tell you that I am currently working with Tandem to build out a pro tip series for their pump.
Cecilia (23:12) So Even better. (23:13) Hopefully, that'll help.
Scott Benner (23:15) That'll help.
Cecilia (23:15) Absolutely. (23:16) I've learned between the podcast and a few different creators on TikTok
Scott Benner (23:20) Yeah.
Cecilia (23:21) I have learned so much. (23:22) And there is no way based off of the information we are getting from our endocrinologist and what I had known, had I not listened to anything, there is not a doubt in my mind that she would be doing as well as she is now.
Scott Benner (23:35) Yeah. (23:36) No. (23:36) It's awesome. (23:36) And it's awesome that you went and looked for it as well because you could have just said, hey. (23:41) It was 70 to two fifty.
Scott Benner (23:42) Right on. (23:42) I got it. (23:43) And no shade on him, but if you and your husband were thinking the same way, this sounds like what you'd be doing right now. (23:49) Mhmm. (23:50) You know?
Scott Benner (23:50) Because he was some people are just more ready to it's funny I called you amenable earlier, but you weren't amenable to any of that. (23:57) You were like, no. (23:57) No. (23:58) That's bullshit. (23:58) We're fixing this.
Cecilia (23:59) I don't want it to sound like I'm saying he didn't care about her and he was No. (24:03) Making dangerous decisions. (24:04) He absolutely was not. (24:06) He was more focused on, she's still an eight year old, let her be an eight year old.
Scott Benner (24:09) Oh, yeah.
Cecilia (24:10) And I was more like, she is an eight year old, we need to figure out how to make this adapt to her and try and keep her a little steady instead of up, down, up, down, up, down.
Scott Benner (24:19) Right. (24:20) I didn't take you that way. (24:21) Don't think anybody else did did either.
Cecilia (24:22) Okay. (24:22) Good.
Scott Benner (24:23) I'm just trying to say that, like, for somebody who's more floating in that direction, if someone tells you 70 to two fifty is good, you're gonna why would you question it? (24:32) You're like, oh, yeah. (24:33) I mean And
Cecilia (24:33) I didn't Man. (24:34) For about a month.
Scott Benner (24:35) I didn't question it for, like, a year. (24:37) And then I started thinking, like I I actually found myself telling this story the other day. (24:42) You know, I I finally started worrying about the higher blood sugars and the bouncing and everything. (24:46) And I said to the the nurse practitioner, like, you know, like, I don't know. (24:51) I feel like this is bad.
Scott Benner (24:52) Her blood sugars are high a lot. (24:54) And she said, oh, high blood sugars aren't a problem for young kids.
Cecilia (24:58) Oof.
Scott Benner (24:59) And I was like in the beginning, I went, oh, okay. (25:02) That's good news. (25:03) Like, there must be a physiological reason why high blood sugars aren't bad for kids. (25:08) And then it finally, like, it just stuck with me, I pushed. (25:11) And then I back to them again, I was like, what do you mean by that exactly?
Scott Benner (25:15) You know? (25:16) She just said, well, you know, like, dire circumstances from type one diabetes don't come for, like, thirty years. (25:21) And I was like, oh, she just means she's young. (25:25) I said, you know thirty years from now should be 32. (25:27) Right?
Cecilia (25:28) Right.
Scott Benner (25:28) Not really even, like, your life going yet. (25:30) Like, you you're telling me my daughter's gonna have, like, dire circumstances from her diabetes when she's 32?
Cecilia (25:36) Right.
Scott Benner (25:37) And you feel like that's comforting? (25:39) You might completely misunderstand this whole thing. (25:42) And I don't know where you're at in the country. (25:43) I'm not even asking you. (25:44) But we were going to a pretty popular mainstream, you know, children's hospital.
Scott Benner (25:50) So
Cecilia (25:50) We're in South Carolina. (25:52) I had to learn really quick to advocate for her and which is not a problem for me. (25:58) I don't have a problem doing that. (25:59) Mhmm. (25:59) You know, like I said earlier, they didn't even wanna give us a Dexcom.
Cecilia (26:02) I'm sure they have some sort of equation where they figure out, you know, basal rates and all that. (26:06) And, you know, they said, okay. (26:08) Well, let's see. (26:09) She was discharged. (26:11) We went in on a Wednesday night.
Cecilia (26:12) She was discharged Thursday morning. (26:14) Friday night, she's they said, okay. (26:17) Well, you don't need to check her her finger overnight after this weekend or after Friday.
Scott Benner (26:22) Okay.
Cecilia (26:22) I was like, okay. (26:23) That's weird. (26:23) I'm not doing that. (26:24) But okay. (26:25) And so I set an alarm for I don't know.
Cecilia (26:27) I think it was, like, every three hours or something overnight. (26:30) And, you know, I'm reading in these groups, get a Dexcom. (26:33) Get a Dexcom. (26:34) Get a Dexcom. (26:35) Because she was also nervous, and she was wanting to poke her finger way more than she probably needed to.
Cecilia (26:40) But I was like, you know what? (26:41) This is for you. (26:42) If this is gonna make you feel better, go right on ahead. (26:45) So And it was, like, two in the morning, and her blood sugar was 31. (26:48) And I was like, oh, you know, I feel like that's not great.
Cecilia (26:52) So and she was a little combative. (26:55) It was hard to get her to get some juice in. (26:57) We got it we got it handled, and I called them the next day, and I said, can you give me a reason why you won't give me a Dexcom other than you wanting us to learn the traditional way in case the Dexcom were to fail?
Scott Benner (27:07) Yeah.
Cecilia (27:08) And which whatever. (27:09) I kind of understand. (27:10) But I said, there's no good reason you can't just give her a Dexcom. (27:14) So can we come get one, please? (27:17) And we did.
Scott Benner (27:17) And they said yes?
Cecilia (27:19) Yeah. (27:19) And to be fair though, I wasn't really gonna let them tell me no. (27:23) So
Scott Benner (27:23) Yeah. (27:24) Okay. (27:24) So you they pushed back. (27:25) You pushed harder.
Cecilia (27:26) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (27:27) I see. (27:28) Interesting because the guy I interviewed yesterday said that they told him a year. (27:33) Yeah. (27:34) You can't have a CGM for a year.
Cecilia (27:36) Yeah. (27:36) They tried that, and I said no.
Scott Benner (27:39) A year? (27:40) Don't you think? (27:40) Wait. (27:41) I'll tell you anybody who has diabetes could tell you that in about three days, you figured out all the stuff that can go wrong.
Cecilia (27:46) Right. (27:47) That then that was my thing. (27:48) I'm like, okay. (27:49) Well, we understand how to do this. (27:50) This part isn't rocket science.
Cecilia (27:52) I said, it's going to improve her quality of life. (27:54) Well, can't you just give it to me? (27:56) I said, cause they just said, oh, well, insurance this and that. (27:59) I had already looked up my insurance. (28:01) It wasn't that.
Cecilia (28:01) So
Scott Benner (28:02) Right.
Cecilia (28:02) We got one and it's been fine.
Scott Benner (28:04) Boy, I'll tell you, a lot of overlap this week with the the episodes and and the stuff that I said when I was away giving my talk because, I mean, thousand six, Arden's diagnosed. (28:14) We started looking for a pump for her before kindergarten. (28:18) So she was around four. (28:19) So this is 2009, February. (28:22) Right?
Scott Benner (28:23) And Mhmm. (28:23) You know, we decided we wanted to have her pump before she went to school. (28:27) We went to the, you know, the pump fair at the hospital. (28:30) Yeah. (28:31) This is very early on.
Scott Benner (28:32) Like, I believe that Omnipod was just getting going or had only been going for, you know, a short amount of time. (28:39) And they had all these pot pumps laid out on tables. (28:42) Right? (28:42) Just beautiful Mhmm. (28:43) Everywhere.
Scott Benner (28:44) I should point out that I think that every one of those pumps that was there probably doesn't exist anymore except for
Cecilia (28:48) I was gonna say probably not.
Scott Benner (28:49) Yeah. (28:49) Except for the Omnipod. (28:50) Right? (28:51) It was kind of a conference room, but it was pretty big. (28:53) There were a lot of tables in the middle, a lot of people milling around, probably fifty, seventy people in there looking at pumps.
Scott Benner (28:58) The back of the room had this kind of weird cutout. (29:01) It was sort of triangular in the corner for some reason. (29:03) There was a table in it. (29:04) And as I was looking around, my wife was looking around, I looked up and I saw this table on the other side of the room. (29:09) There was something on it.
Scott Benner (29:10) I started walking towards it. (29:12) But as I got closer and closer to it, I realized this is not part of the display. (29:16) This is like the crap table at the event where they threw all the stuff. (29:19) But I kept Sure. (29:20) I kept walking to it for some reason.
Scott Benner (29:22) And as I got closer, I saw you know, honestly, I saw an Omnipod that it looked like somebody threw on the table. (29:29) It was the Omnipod box and a, you know, a dummy controller and, you you see there for demo reasons and a pod. (29:35) The best I can explain is it looked like somebody was tasked to put it on the table, got about five or six feet from the corner and was like, screw it, and just pitched it into the corner. (29:43) You know what I mean? (29:44) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (29:44) I walked over and I picked through it and I looked at it and I took it back to my wife and I was like, hey, yo, check this out. (29:50) You know, this is not a tubed, first of all. (29:54) I think that's a big deal. (29:55) And I was like, and it's disposable. (29:57) I kinda stood there and, you know, philosophized with my wife for a second.
Scott Benner (30:00) I was like, well, they'll update this one day and we'll just get the updates. (30:03) Like, there won't be any, like, oh, no. (30:05) That's the one you bought. (30:06) You're stuck with it for a while. (30:08) And then we took it to the the practitioner and we're like, this is we've found ours.
Scott Benner (30:12) We're getting this one. (30:13) Oh, Arden can't use that. (30:15) She's too lean. (30:16) She's too young. (30:16) She doesn't use enough insulin.
Scott Benner (30:17) And we pushed back and said, like, no. (30:21) You know what? (30:22) Like, we're gonna do this. (30:23) You know? (30:23) Like, this is the one we're gonna we're gonna try.
Scott Benner (30:26) And she pushed harder, then she went and got, like, you know, somebody above her to push on us. (30:31) That person looked us in the face and gave us like, just looked at us almost like four years. (30:35) And I was like, what? (30:36) She goes, you're stuck with this for four years if you pick it. (30:40) Your insurance won't let you switch.
Scott Benner (30:42) You're stuck. (30:42) Now I realize everything's different now. (30:44) But, like, this is this is the level that they were, like, leaning into it with. (30:48) You know, it comes out later. (30:49) They just didn't they didn't know anything about it.
Scott Benner (30:51) They didn't wanna look like they didn't know what they were doing.
Cecilia (30:54) Yep. (30:55) I figured that out real fast myself.
Scott Benner (30:57) I was like, you are kidding me. (30:59) Then meanwhile, you're at home with a 31 blood sugar and your nine year old, like, being like, is this gonna be every day of my life?
Cecilia (31:07) Yeah. (31:07) That was my thought. (31:08) I'm like, I'm never gonna sleep again.
Scott Benner (31:10) Yeah. (31:10) Oh, yeah. (31:11) Oh, no. (31:11) No. (31:11) Plus, you got other, impediments on top of you.
Scott Benner (31:14) DOCD stuff and, like, that must have hit you really hard.
Cecilia (31:17) Yeah. (31:18) Yeah. (31:18) I mean, we got it figured out though, and then we got her on the Moby mid December, so she was chugging along less than two months after diagnosis.
Scott Benner (31:27) So Yeah. (31:27) It's crazy that the people who you believe are there to help you are the ones
Cecilia (31:34) And you have to fight the hardest against.
Scott Benner (31:36) Yeah.
Cecilia (31:36) Truly.
Scott Benner (31:36) They're you from getting to the help. (31:39) Yeah. (31:39) And then for some reason that if you ask them to contextualize that they have none. (31:43) Like, why do I have to wait a year? (31:45) You know?
Cecilia (31:46) That's yeah. (31:47) And I'm yeah. (31:48) That was my strategy, honestly, because I knew what were they gonna say.
Scott Benner (31:53) Alright. (31:53) How's your daughter doing with all this?
Cecilia (31:56) Really good. (31:56) I mean, she has her days, obviously. (31:59) We just had she changed her pump site the other day, and it I don't know. (32:02) It ended up being a really sore spot. (32:04) She hadn't she wanted to change it, but she didn't wanna change it because it hurts.
Cecilia (32:08) And we have moments like that. (32:09) But for the most part, she does really, really well. (32:12) When she got diagnosed, it was actually during fall break, so we weren't even in school. (32:16) And that Monday, so what? (32:19) Thursday, Friday, Saturday, five days after diagnosis, she was back to school.
Cecilia (32:23) And I had never met a school nurse before. (32:25) And I just I walked into her office with a bag of supplies and was like, I don't know what I'm doing. (32:31) Please help me.
Scott Benner (32:32) And But she said
Cecilia (32:36) She just kinda looked at me, because then, of course, I had started crying. (32:40) My husband was going into what he thought he should say, and I was we were still not on the same page. (32:45) It had been five days. (32:46) And this poor nurse, I love her to death. (32:48) She's amazing.
Cecilia (32:49) Was just kinda looking at us like, what the hell? (32:51) It's 7AM on a Monday morning. (32:53) Can we take a minute? (32:55) But, you know, she did she's been great.
Scott Benner (32:59) You were like, no. (33:00) I don't have a minute. (33:01) I'm in a panic. (33:02) Thank you.
Cecilia (33:02) Correct.
Scott Benner (33:03) Mhmm. (33:04) What did it feel like? (33:05) Because when I dropped Arden off, I felt like for sure she was gonna die there.
Cecilia (33:09) Yeah. (33:09) I was sobbing, walking out, and I said, I don't even know how to take care of her. (33:13) How am I supposed to trust this stranger to take care of her?
Scott Benner (33:16) Oh, I had that exact same exact thought. (33:18) I can't do this right.
Cecilia (33:19) Yeah.
Scott Benner (33:19) I've been at it for four years, and I'm still figuring out or I don't know how long it had been then. (33:24) Maybe three three years. (33:25) And I was like, I still don't really know what I'm doing. (33:27) You're gonna do it? (33:28) You know, that's Right.
Cecilia (33:30) Yeah. (33:30) Yeah.
Scott Benner (33:31) You're not gonna care like the way I
Cecilia (33:33) do. (33:33) She's right. (33:34) And and not that I knew what I was doing either, especially five days later, but she has turned out to be I could cry talking about her. (33:41) She's also an ER nurse. (33:42) She was just I don't know.
Cecilia (33:44) She's the best.
Scott Benner (33:45) That's awesome. (33:46) Mhmm. (33:46) What do you think about her maid or grave? (33:49) Is it empathy? (33:50) Is it her understanding?
Scott Benner (33:52) Her willingness to communicate?
Cecilia (33:53) All of it. (33:54) Really? (33:54) All of it. (33:55) She has the same sense of dark humor that I have. (33:58) She added the Follow app onto her personal phone, kept an eye on her, and she was like, you know, I wanna learn what she looks like when she's low.
Cecilia (34:06) Because this school, I think, has seven, eight hundred kids, and my daughter is I think she was the third the second diabetic at this point, and then two weeks later, they got another one, which is strange. (34:18) But she just she was she did whatever I asked. (34:22) I didn't have to fight her. (34:23) We worked together on some things, especially for gym class. (34:27) We were like, oh, well, this didn't work last week.
Cecilia (34:28) What if we tried this this week? (34:30) And she was just great.
Scott Benner (34:32) She's one nurse for 700 kids? (34:35) Yeah. (34:36) And and she still put this kind of effort into it. (34:38) Yeah. (34:39) And yet I hear stories from other people, they can't get their nurses to do anything.
Cecilia (34:43) Yeah. (34:43) She I mean, there is a health room assistant too, but she's not she's not a nurse. (34:47) She's great too. (34:48) I love her to pieces. (34:50) Yeah.
Cecilia (34:50) Emily is just she's something else.
Scott Benner (34:53) That's extra special. (34:54) That's awesome. (34:55) Mhmm. (34:56) Would you say that there's gonna be some education when your husband comes back for him? (35:01) Because he's he left six months after her diagnosis.
Scott Benner (35:04) Right? (35:04) Ish? (35:05) Am I about right on that?
Cecilia (35:07) About ten ish months. (35:07) No. (35:08) He's he's good now.
Scott Benner (35:09) He's good. (35:09) He knows what to do now.
Cecilia (35:10) Oh, yeah. (35:10) Okay. (35:10) Yeah.
Scott Benner (35:11) Be fine when he gets back. (35:13) What about her? (35:14) Like, what level of I guess, what percentage do you think she's taking care of things, and what percentage are you helping?
Cecilia (35:20) That's a good question, and maybe you'll be able to help answer it. (35:23) So we had a little incident with a sub nurse at school. (35:26) So we had her paperwork actually changed to self management. (35:31) That being said, she's not out there winging it on her own. (35:34) I text her at snack time.
Cecilia (35:36) I text her at lunchtime. (35:36) I we text all the time. (35:38) For a while, she was not feeling her lows, and she's starting to really get pretty good at that. (35:45) So she carries, like, her stuff with her, and usually after recess, she knows to have a little a little treat. (35:51) She knows how to carb count.
Cecilia (35:53) If I forget to text, you know, fifteen minutes before lunch, she's texting me, hey. (35:57) We forgot to do pre bolus. (35:59) So she's doing great. (36:02) She does all her own site changes. (36:03) She was doing all of that even with the injections Yeah.
Cecilia (36:06) The day we got home.
Scott Benner (36:07) Well, she sounds like she's doing well for a year. (36:09) And
Cecilia (36:10) Yeah.
Scott Benner (36:10) Yeah. (36:10) Honestly. (36:11) How are her friends handling it? (36:13) Is she having any trouble with, you know, classmates, people being crappy to her? (36:17) Or
Cecilia (36:18) No. (36:19) Luckily, she actually made a little PowerPoint presentation last year and and, you know, told her taught her class about it because, you know, her stuff was beeping occasionally, and they've all been really receptive. (36:30) There was one little boy this year who brought in brownies, and he his mom stopped me in the car line, and she was like, you know, he wanted me to tell tell you that, you know, we need to make sure that we have the carb count because Alan has to have insulin, and she could still have it. (36:44) We just have to know, you know, the carb count and give her some insulin ahead of time. (36:47) And I'm like, oh, that's so sweet.
Scott Benner (36:49) Yeah. (36:49) And he knew he had it right too.
Cecilia (36:51) He did.
Scott Benner (36:52) Yeah. (36:52) Mhmm. (36:52) I saw his panic attack. (36:53) It must have been a hell of a PowerPoint.
Cecilia (36:55) I guess so. (36:57) I don't know how to make those, so she was on her own.
Scott Benner (36:59) I don't know how to make. (37:01) What do you do? (37:01) Are you stay home or you have a job? (37:03) What do you do during the day?
Cecilia (37:04) I stay while I work from home.
Scott Benner (37:06) Okay. (37:07) And so it's not trouble for you to kinda keep abreast of what's happening with her blood sugar?
Cecilia (37:11) Not at all.
Scott Benner (37:12) Do you find yourself communicating with her while she's at school? (37:16) Yeah. (37:17) Texting?
Cecilia (37:17) Well, yes. (37:19) Only I I mean, I'm not texting her to say, hey. (37:21) How's science class going? (37:22) But Right. (37:23) You know, I have my alerts set.
Cecilia (37:24) I know what time she goes to lunch or recess or gym class, and I just I glance at it before she has one of those things, see if we need to be doing anything, and we kinda handle it through there.
Scott Benner (37:34) What's your backup? (37:35) Like, is your if something goes wrong, how do you have it set up? (37:38) Do you do you call directly to the nurse? (37:40) The nurse is obviously following as well, but doesn't mean they see it right away. (37:44) How do you do all that?
Scott Benner (37:46) Have you not needed it yet?
Cecilia (37:47) No. (37:47) We haven't really needed it yet, luckily. (37:50) Emily is really good. (37:51) Like, she's I have her personal phone number, and I've kinda made her my best friend now. (37:55) So Mhmm.
Cecilia (37:56) She's always really responsive. (37:58) I've never had the only issue we had was that one day when she was out sick and there was a sub that didn't want to give her insulin for her lunch because she had already had insulin that morning.
Scott Benner (38:08) Oh, one time? (38:09) Good enough?
Cecilia (38:10) Yeah. (38:10) I said, that's not how it works.
Scott Benner (38:12) Was she older? (38:14) No. (38:15) No. (38:16) Okay. (38:16) Mm-mm.
Scott Benner (38:16) Misinformed a bit.
Cecilia (38:18) Yeah.
Scott Benner (38:18) Did she work in a hospital previously?
Cecilia (38:21) I have no idea.
Scott Benner (38:22) You know
Cecilia (38:22) what mean?
Scott Benner (38:22) Would Try to
Cecilia (38:23) I don't think so.
Scott Benner (38:24) Trying to think where that that idea came from.
Cecilia (38:27) I don't know, but I was we fixed that real quick.
Scott Benner (38:30) We fixed that real quick.
Cecilia (38:31) Because we we kinda got into it a little bit, and I was like, no. (38:35) We we're not playing this game.
Scott Benner (38:36) I don't know if I'm proud of this or not or if I'm ashamed, but in high school, I mean, Arden used the nurse's office as a place to, like, go swap a pot if she needed to. (38:46) You know what
Cecilia (38:46) I mean?
Scott Benner (38:46) Yeah. (38:46) Like, she was not not involved with these people at all. (38:50) Yeah. (38:50) One day, I realized that one of the nurses called Arden's endocrinologist for something.
Cecilia (38:57) Oh, I feel like did you do an episode about this? (38:59) Because I feel like I listened to it and was yelling along and
Scott Benner (39:01) I don't know. (39:02) But that lady might still be afraid of the telephone because I lost my head, you know?
Cecilia (39:08) Yep. (39:09) I did too. (39:09) To we had an emergency 504 meeting with the nursing director for the district, everybody. (39:15) And I was like, you guys aren't touching her anymore. (39:17) It's Emily or it's nobody.
Scott Benner (39:19) I was like, you gotta mind your own fucking business. (39:21) You know what I mean? (39:22) Like
Cecilia (39:22) Yes. (39:24) A 100%.
Scott Benner (39:24) I was like, I don't care. (39:26) I really don't. (39:26) I I have absolutely no care at all in the world why you thought it was okay to contact her doctor without telling talking to me first.
Cecilia (39:33) And No. (39:34) Not.
Scott Benner (39:35) It's crazy. (39:36) And then, by the way, I've heard other people like, oh, it's nice. (39:38) They got ahold of the doctor. (39:38) And then I'm like, I maybe it's just the way I think of it, but, like, that seemed like a line to me. (39:43) You know?
Cecilia (39:43) You know, I don't even really trust the doctor at this point. (39:46) So that would be a hard no for me.
Scott Benner (39:48) Well, yeah. (39:49) I mean, that's it's a good point. (39:50) The doctor, if I line all the years up and really look through it, didn't wanna increase Arden's thyroid medication when she needed it, misdiagnosed her thyroid thing as a heart problem, told us her eight A one C was okay when she was younger, you know, on and on and on and on. (40:08) And by the way, lovely people. (40:09) If I met them right now, I'd sit down at dinner with them.
Cecilia (40:11) Awesome people. (40:11) Percent.
Scott Benner (40:12) Yeah. (40:12) Yeah. (40:12) Yeah.
Cecilia (40:12) 100%.
Scott Benner (40:13) But so now I got those people and the school nurse, and they're gonna autonomously make decisions about Arden without talking to me even? (40:20) Yeah. (40:20) Yeah. (40:21) Of your mind.
Cecilia (40:21) My mind.
Scott Benner (40:22) Yeah. (40:22) Yeah. (40:23) I wouldn't what? (40:25) Snow. (40:26) And, you know what, I think I started out okay on the call.
Scott Benner (40:29) I wanna be clear. (40:30) I don't think I jumped on the call. (40:31) I don't think I was yelling while the phone was being
Cecilia (40:33) I started out that way too. (40:35) I did not finish that way.
Scott Benner (40:37) Well, I thought and then I was just like, oh, good. (40:40) You thought. (40:41) It's great. (40:41) Go make your own goddamn baby.
Cecilia (40:43) Yeah. (40:44) Yeah. (40:45) Uh-huh.
Scott Benner (40:47) You want something to take care of? (40:48) Get a puppy. (40:49) Leave my kid alone.
Cecilia (40:50) Oh, yeah.
Scott Benner (40:51) Here's what I need you to do. (40:52) It's all written down right here. (40:53) It's very simple. (40:54) Just do
Cecilia (40:55) And that was my thing. (40:56) I said you it was made clear to me that you did not even read the orders that are there. (41:01) And it just snowballed from there.
Scott Benner (41:03) I have to tell you, not only that, at this point, nor does Kara at school, these people were not involved with her at all.
Cecilia (41:10) Yeah. (41:10) That's even weirder.
Scott Benner (41:11) Like, how did I get in your crosshairs today?
Cecilia (41:14) Right.
Scott Benner (41:14) You know what I mean? (41:15) Like, what? (41:16) You're bored? (41:17) Like, was this before they put games on your phone? (41:19) Like, what's happening exactly?
Scott Benner (41:21) Oh my gosh. (41:22) Anyway. (41:23) Alright. (41:23) She has I'm sorry. (41:23) She has TandemObi.
Scott Benner (41:24) I wanna just say tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox if you'd like to learn more about that. (41:28) We should use Dexcom with that. (41:29) Right?
Cecilia (41:30) Yeah. (41:30) The g seven.
Scott Benner (41:31) Dexcom.com/juicebox. (41:33) And where are you at with the technology? (41:35) You love it? (41:36) You hate it?
Cecilia (41:37) Oh, I love it.
Scott Benner (41:38) You see room for improvement? (41:39) Like, what what's your feedback on all of it?
Cecilia (41:41) You know, the Dexcom, we've had some fights.
Scott Benner (41:45) Mhmm.
Cecilia (41:45) But overall, it's great. (41:49) I can't complain. (41:49) It's better than not having it.
Scott Benner (41:51) Well, yeah. (41:52) That's for sure. (41:53) You know, it feels like you're only in it for a year, so it'd be real it's interesting to hear from you on that because you had enough of an experience in the beginning to know that not having a CGM is tough. (42:05) Right? (42:05) And then Mhmm.
Scott Benner (42:06) And you've only been using it for, you know, I would imagine, like, eleven months now. (42:10) Yeah. (42:11) Right? (42:11) And Mhmm. (42:12) Not I mean, technology.
Scott Benner (42:14) Nothing's perfect. (42:15) It's got its limitations. (42:16) It, you know, probably fails sometimes or whatnot. (42:19) But it's interesting to hear your feedback on it because you're so new. (42:23) You're not, like, entrenched.
Scott Benner (42:24) You don't have a ton of, you know
Cecilia (42:26) Yeah. (42:26) Bias. (42:27) Mean, I really don't know what I'm doing. (42:30) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (42:32) I don't know what I'm doing.
Cecilia (42:33) We're doing the best we can every day.
Scott Benner (42:36) No. (42:36) It sounds like you're doing pretty well. (42:39) You know? (42:39) Don't you do you not feel that way?
Cecilia (42:41) Figuring it out.
Scott Benner (42:42) Do you do you feel accomplished at this point with it?
Cecilia (42:45) Yeah. (42:45) I don't feel, panicked about it anymore. (42:48) Even, you know, this summer, we have a trampoline in our backyard. (42:51) And that proved to be quite challenging over the summer, and I got to a point where I'm like, have tried this. (42:57) I've tried that.
Cecilia (42:58) I'm I'm not getting it right, but there's gotta be a way we can make this work. (43:02) And we had an appointment over the summer because they still have a score every three months. (43:07) And I you know, I was talking to the endocrinologist. (43:09) I'm like, you have any suggestions? (43:10) She was like, oh, well, have you tried doing this with basil, doing that with basil?
Cecilia (43:14) And I'm like, yes. (43:15) I've tried all of that. (43:16) And she kinda just stared at me. (43:17) And I'm like, oh, okay.
Scott Benner (43:19) That was the end?
Cecilia (43:20) I'm I'm on my own with this again. (43:22) And
Scott Benner (43:22) Sorry. (43:23) I'm not lit. (43:23) It is. (43:23) I'm just imagining It was I
Cecilia (43:25) was just like, are you for real? (43:26) Have
Scott Benner (43:28) you tried to tempt Basil? (43:29) I have. (43:30) Okay. (43:31) Well, we're done, I guess.
Cecilia (43:32) We kinda got into, like I don't wanna call it an argument, but she was trying to tell me the pump couldn't do something that I knew that it could. (43:40) And it got to the point where she took my daughter's phone, left the room with the diabetes educator. (43:47) They had a little powwow somewhere and came back and basically had to be like, oh, yeah. (43:50) You're right. (43:51) I know.
Cecilia (43:52) We left the appointment and my husband goes, cool. (43:54) You do not like her, do you? (43:56) I said, oh, was it that obvious?
Scott Benner (43:58) We googled it and figured out you were right. (44:00) Thank you.
Cecilia (44:00) Right. (44:00) Like, sorry.
Scott Benner (44:02) What were you trying to tell them the phone did you or the the app did? (44:05) Do you remember?
Cecilia (44:06) That you could set a temp basal for however long or?
Scott Benner (44:09) Wait. (44:09) Your diabetes educator didn't think you could set a temp basal for a certain amount of time?
Cecilia (44:14) Yeah. (44:15) They thought you could only do it I don't know. (44:17) It was right after Tandem came out with a Mobi that you could Oh. (44:20) They did the Control IQ Plus update or something. (44:23) I don't remember exactly what it was called.
Scott Benner (44:25) But In fairness to her, they had just updated the software to do that. (44:28) It didn't do it before.
Cecilia (44:29) No. (44:30) It did. (44:30) It just did it for longer now, and she thought it didn't do it at all. (44:33) And so I was just I thought, okay. (44:35) Well
Scott Benner (44:35) Again, like, doesn't fill you with confidence. (44:38) Forget the Tempezil thing and the and the bouncing and the trampoline. (44:41) Put all that aside. (44:42) It makes you feel like, oh my god. (44:45) I'm alone in this.
Cecilia (44:46) Yeah. (44:47) Yeah. (44:47) That's the very couldn't problem. (44:48) Even print out the right they can look up the pump settings on however they do it. (44:54) They couldn't even print out the right ones to give to school, and so I was having to call back and get the new ones mailed.
Cecilia (45:00) And it was just, I don't know. (45:01) I mean, I guess it's kind of fine that I've figured it out on my own and I make the settings, you know, I adjust them myself. (45:08) She doesn't seem to care. (45:09) I mean, how what is she gonna argue with me? (45:11) She has a 5.4 a one c.
Cecilia (45:12) What is there to argue? (45:13) Right. (45:13) She doesn't have a bunch of lows. (45:15) So
Scott Benner (45:15) Yeah. (45:15) You're not getting to that a one c dishonestly with
Cecilia (45:18) And I Yeah. (45:19) Know. (45:19) And I just I feel bad for the new families that go in there who don't know what they're doing, who don't know to look for the podcast. (45:27) They're out there drowning, I feel.
Scott Benner (45:29) Yeah. (45:29) Well, I'm pretty sure they are. (45:30) I I there's a lot of people and I don't mean just because they haven't found me, but, like, there are a lot of people struggling with this.
Cecilia (45:36) Yeah.
Scott Benner (45:37) Yeah. (45:38) Much more than you think. (45:39) And it all you can really do is, like, tell people and and hope they are able to put put it together. (45:46) You know?
Cecilia (45:46) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (45:47) Yeah. (45:47) Just it's important to remember, I think. (45:50) The limitations of most things in life come down to humans at some point. (45:55) Like, at some point or another, you're gonna bump into the chain where you're counting on a person to know a thing, to care, to have the communication skills to, you know, get it out to you if they do know and care. (46:07) But you're also gonna bump into people who are just at work, couldn't possibly care less, don't have the knowledge at all or misguided somehow, are just poor communicators and don't know what they're talking about.
Scott Benner (46:18) And then they kinda turn that on you and they're like, oh, it's your fault. (46:22) You know, like, imagine imagine this has only been eleven, ten, you know, ten excuse me, eleven, twelve months for you. (46:28) But imagine if you never found any of this information out. (46:31) In a decade from now, your daughter's struggling and someone turns to you and says, well, you guys are noncompliant. (46:36) You're not doing what we're telling you to do.
Cecilia (46:38) Oh, I'd be so pissed off.
Scott Benner (46:39) Right. (46:39) But you might also believe it.
Cecilia (46:41) Right.
Scott Benner (46:42) Yep. (46:43) So Mhmm. (46:44) I don't know. (46:44) There's part of me that thinks the machines are gonna save us sometimes. (46:47) If it hasn't become obvious already listening to the podcast for a year, it's become obvious to me after making it for eleven years that it's completely random who's gonna be good at this and who's not going to be.
Scott Benner (46:58) And I mean on a professional side of it. (47:00) And you can't like, imagine you're diagnosed, for everybody listening, you or your kid are diagnosed. (47:06) Right? (47:07) And the hospital you go to, what they tell you, where they send you, what the people at that place understand. (47:15) Are they gonna tell you, here's a CGM, go home?
Scott Benner (47:19) Are they gonna tell you, you can't have a CGM for a year? (47:21) Anywhere in between on their understanding and their compassion and their capacity to educate, there's a spectrum of that. (47:29) And you are not in charge of which person you land on that gives you that information.
Cecilia (47:34) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (47:34) And so it is literally like a lottery whether you end up with a good endo or not.
Cecilia (47:41) Yeah. (47:41) And I wish people, and I say this outside of diabetes too, weren't afraid to question things.
Scott Benner (47:49) Yeah. (47:49) Well, that's another human limitation. (47:52) Some people can't speak up. (47:53) I'm not saying, like, they're you know, they don't have the juice or whatever. (47:57) Like, it's just some people are not wired for that.
Cecilia (48:00) No. (48:01) Mm-mm.
Scott Benner (48:01) Like like I said, like, there are just some people who are told what to do, and they're rule followers. (48:07) I think it's a pretty simple way to say it. (48:08) Which
Cecilia (48:08) I outside of my kids
Scott Benner (48:11) You are.
Cecilia (48:12) I'm kind of one of those people. (48:13) But Yeah. (48:13) When it comes to my kids, no.
Scott Benner (48:15) Yeah. (48:16) It just it doesn't happen for everybody. (48:17) No. (48:18) And and by the way, if they're listening, this is not a judgment on you either. (48:23) I just think this is how it goes.
Scott Benner (48:24) It's like, you know, it's like that thing where they hold up the picture of the dress and it's purple or it's yellow or something. (48:29) And, like, sometimes you see one and sometimes you see the other. (48:32) Sometimes you react a certain way and sometimes you don't. (48:34) I don't think it's because you're not paying attention or you don't I don't think it's any of that. (48:38) I think it's just, you know, people's personalities.
Scott Benner (48:40) So imagine what happens when a very get along to get along person bumps into an endocrinologist who doesn't know what they're doing. (48:50) That ends up with ten years from now, your a one c is, like, eight, and you're like, I'm doing good. (48:55) They told me I was doing good. (48:56) Yeah. (48:56) You don't know any better, and they don't know any better.
Scott Benner (48:59) And then your two year old is thirty two one day and says, hey. (49:03) Why are there clouds floating in front of my eyes?
Cecilia (49:05) Right. (49:05) Well, and that's why I was getting so frustrated once I started listening to more episodes. (49:09) I'm like, why are we not telling people this?
Scott Benner (49:11) That's why I'm making the podcast, honestly.
Cecilia (49:13) Yeah. (49:14) I appreciate it.
Scott Benner (49:15) Yeah. (49:15) Very beginning, my wife was like, I don't know about all this. (49:18) And I was like, are you comfortable knowing this and not telling other people?
Cecilia (49:21) Right.
Scott Benner (49:21) I was like, because I'm just not we got lucky and figured it out. (49:26) And what now we're gonna go, like, just off and live our lives and and know all those people are still, like, being diagnosed or or forgetting even being diagnosed at this point, like, plenty of people. (49:38) I found myself telling a story this weekend, and I think it fits here. (49:43) So give me give me a second if you don't mind. (49:45) Mm-mm.
Scott Benner (49:46) Before the podcast was, I guess, somehow online known as a person that if you got in contact with, I had this kind of sharp forty five minute chat I could give you on the phone. (49:55) It would kind of put you in the right direction. (49:57) Right?
Cecilia (49:58) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (49:58) And so people would often say you know, see someone online struggling and say, oh, you should reach out to this guy. (50:04) He might help you. (50:05) And I I ended up on the phone one day with a woman, best of my recollection, was kind of in her mid forties, but she was a single mom with, like, seven kids, like, a lot of kids. (50:15) And, she had type one. (50:18) So she had type one, and she gets on the phone and says, hey.
Scott Benner (50:22) Like, I struggle all the time. (50:24) People said you might be able to help. (50:25) I gave her the talk. (50:27) You know? (50:27) Next day, she reaches back to me and asks if she can text me.
Scott Benner (50:31) I say yes. (50:32) She sends me a graph. (50:34) It's super like, looks so much better. (50:36) Asks if she can call for a second, and I say, sure. (50:39) She gets on the phone.
Scott Benner (50:41) We're chatting a little bit. (50:42) She tells me what she did, how it worked, you know, she was happy. (50:46) And then she just got angry, like, really, like, viscerally angry.
Cecilia (50:50) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (50:51) And I was like, hey. (50:52) You alright? (50:53) And she goes, why didn't anybody tell me this? (50:55) Yeah. (50:56) And then she kinda started to repeat it.
Scott Benner (50:58) Yeah. (50:58) Like, why didn't anyone tell me? (51:00) She goes, I have complications. (51:02) The part I'm not telling you is that, like, during the conversation she she shared with me, she was worried not that she wasn't gonna see her kids grow up and have grandchildren. (51:11) Like, she wasn't sure she was gonna get them out of high school.
Scott Benner (51:14) Like, Jake, she was worried about dying. (51:16) Yeah. (51:16) You know what I mean? (51:17) And over and over again, the part that stuck with me, that one sentence, why didn't anyone tell me this?
Cecilia (51:23) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (51:24) And that's kinda how I feel about it now. (51:26) Like, I sort of feel like with diabetes information, I feel like this. (51:32) There's a volcano in town, and it's about to erupt. (51:36) And if I don't tell you all, you're definitely gonna get hit by the lava.
Cecilia (51:39) Yes.
Scott Benner (51:40) And if I tell you, some of you are gonna get away and some of you are gonna decide to stay and some of you might trample each other in the street, but at least you've all got a fair shake to get away from the lava. (51:51) Yes. (51:51) That's how I feel about this now. (51:53) So Yeah. (51:54) Because that woman's tone in her voice, she was crying.
Scott Benner (51:57) Why didn't anyone tell me? (51:58) I've lived with this for thirty years or more. (52:01) You only talked to me for forty five minutes on the phone. (52:04) Yeah. (52:05) Yeah.
Scott Benner (52:05) Anyway, wasted time, I find I find that deplorable. (52:09) I find it deplorable wasting people's time. (52:11) So Mhmm.
Cecilia (52:12) And that's how I felt listening to the episodes. (52:14) I would tell my husband, you know, I'd listen to them on the way to the grocery store. (52:17) I'm like, how, you know, are all these people not knowing this information? (52:20) Like, this can change everything. (52:22) It changed our whole way of how we helped her deal with it.
Scott Benner (52:25) And it's super simple too. (52:26) Like, I'll go
Cecilia (52:27) It really is.
Scott Benner (52:28) Yeah. (52:28) Let me go on to make this point. (52:29) I am not some genius telling you some super difficult thing to understand that I just happen to know and no one else knows. (52:36) And it's it's I mean, it's really it's basically diabetes common sense. (52:41) You just have to know enough of it to make sense of it to put it together before you can regurgitate it.
Scott Benner (52:46) But, like, to be a diabetes educator or anywhere in between, to be somebody at a at a clinician's office who says, come here, and we'll help you with your diabetes, who doesn't know at least as much as my dumbass does.
Cecilia (53:00) Right.
Scott Benner (53:01) It's really disgusting. (53:02) Yeah. (53:02) Yeah. (53:03) Really is. (53:04) Anyway, I'm glad you found the information.
Scott Benner (53:06) It was helpful.
Cecilia (53:07) Yeah. (53:07) Me too.
Scott Benner (53:07) Seriously. (53:08) If there's any other nice things you wanna say about me, now would be a good time. (53:11) Just kidding. (53:12) Is there anything else
Cecilia (53:12) you I mean, I just really like the podcast, and I to everybody, you know, every new mom that comes on the Facebook group, oh, we just got diagnosed. (53:19) Tag the podcast. (53:21) Tag it in TikToks. (53:22) There's a really fun girl that I follow on TikTok. (53:24) I've been telling her she needs to come on here.
Cecilia (53:26) Addie Taylor, I think her last name is. (53:30) I know Marley has tried to tell her to go on there.
Scott Benner (53:33) Marley's on it last week.
Cecilia (53:34) I was yep. (53:35) I was just listening to part two this morning, actually. (53:37) Wait.
Scott Benner (53:39) Is Addie the one who does the she have dark hair and she puts her devices on a lot? (53:43) Is that her? (53:44) Yes. (53:44) Oh, I like her. (53:45) I feel like I've been in contact with her.
Scott Benner (53:46) I don't know.
Cecilia (53:47) Well, I tagged you and she was like, no. (53:49) I can't do that. (53:50) And you said, why not?
Scott Benner (53:52) Oh, I
Cecilia (53:52) said, yeah, Addy. (53:53) Why not? (53:54) She's about to run the New York City Marathon too. (53:56) So
Scott Benner (53:57) Yeah. (53:57) Some people don't have the, I don't know, long form. (54:00) They don't wanna sit and talk or whatever. (54:02) Maybe she may listen. (54:03) Let's be honest.
Scott Benner (54:04) Maybe she thinks I'm an asshole, and she's trying to be polite. (54:08) You know that. (54:08) Maybe. (54:09) Who knows? (54:09) You have no idea.
Cecilia (54:10) But we've learned so much from her too. (54:12) And so it's, you know, it's great.
Scott Benner (54:15) Yeah.
Cecilia (54:15) It's a really good con I hate to say it's a really good community to be a part of, but I have not met one person, whether it be through a TikTok, a Facebook group, whatever, that has not been willing to help.
Scott Benner (54:28) Yeah. (54:28) No. (54:29) I hear you. (54:30) I think that the community part is super important.
Cecilia (54:32) Mhmm. (54:33) So, you know
Scott Benner (54:34) Can I ask one more question then before I Absolutely? (54:36) Yeah. (54:37) Are you more comfortable in chaos?
Cecilia (54:40) Yes.
Scott Benner (54:41) And does calm feel like something bad's about to happen?
Cecilia (54:45) Yes. (54:46) I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Scott Benner (54:48) Mhmm. (54:49) Mhmm. (54:50) Mhmm. (54:50) Catholic, by any chance? (54:52) No.
Scott Benner (54:53) No? (54:53) Okay. (54:54) So this is just the divorce thing?
Cecilia (54:56) I mean, yeah. (54:57) It's probably yeah.
Scott Benner (54:58) Any drinkers in the family growing up?
Cecilia (55:01) Yes.
Scott Benner (55:02) Have you ever looked at the Aces list?
Cecilia (55:04) Oh, I score high on that.
Scott Benner (55:05) Yeah. (55:06) Yeah. (55:06) You've already already checked that out?
Cecilia (55:07) Yeah. (55:08) Yeah. (55:08) I have. (55:09) My therapist had me do that. (55:10) Uh-huh.
Cecilia (55:11) Here it Yep.
Scott Benner (55:12) It's weird because it feels like you're playing an online game where you're winning because you're like, oh, yeah. (55:15) That's me. (55:15) That's me. (55:16) That's me. (55:16) Then you realize
Cecilia (55:17) I was like, oh, I scored so good. (55:19) And my therapist was like, no. (55:21) That's weren't this is not as funny as you think it is. (55:24) Yeah. (55:24) But, you know, you gotta laugh.
Scott Benner (55:26) Yeah. (55:27) So you have that going on. (55:29) Blah blah blah. (55:29) So how has that tran how has that translated into your parenting? (55:33) Are you are do you look
Cecilia (55:35) into I joke now that my kids are gonna have to go to therapy because I'm too involved.
Scott Benner (55:39) Oh, okay. (55:41) Way too nice to them. (55:42) Yeah. (55:43) We never had anything bad happen. (55:45) One time, I almost fell, but my mom threw herself under me before I hit the ground.
Cecilia (55:49) A 100%. (55:50) Yes. (55:51) Yeah. (55:51) I just
Scott Benner (55:52) bounced off my mom and came right back up again from my feet.
Cecilia (55:54) Yeah. (55:55) Yep. (55:56) Absolutely.
Scott Benner (55:57) It's interesting to know that. (55:58) Okay. (55:58) Alright. (55:58) I appreciate you sharing that with me here at the end. (56:00) Thank you so much.
Cecilia (56:01) You're welcome.
Scott Benner (56:02) Hold on one second for me. (56:03) I wish you would have been horrible because I could've I could have called this episode, Cecile, you're break you're breaking my heart or something like that.
Cecilia (56:10) Oh, sorry to disappoint.
Scott Benner (56:11) No. (56:12) I don't think it's I don't think you should apologize for it. (56:15) But, really, if you were just a dick one time, it would have been awesome for the title.
Cecilia (56:19) Do you know? (56:21) Didn't happen in
Scott Benner (56:22) day. (56:22) Say something terrible if you no. (56:23) I'm just kidding.
Cecilia (56:24) It's too early in the morning.
Scott Benner (56:26) It is, isn't it? (56:26) Alright. (56:27) Hold on one second. (56:34) Dexcom sponsored this episode of the Juice Box podcast. (56:37) Learn more about the Dexcom g seven at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox.
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