#1095 Over, Under or Around

Marsha is a social worker whose son has type 1 diabetes. 

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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 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to the last episode of 2023. This is episode 1095 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's show I'm going to be speaking with Marsha. She's a social worker at a community mental health agency who has a son with type one diabetes. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but everybody is welcomed type one type two gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes, and you're looking for support, comfort or community check out Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. Thanks to everyone who listens supports shares downloads follows me online Facebook Tik Tok Instagram, you make this possible. I hope you have a very happy new year. At the end of this episode, I'll give you a few highlights from what's coming in January. US med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well. Us med.com/juice box or call it 888-721-1514. Use the link or the number get your free benefits. Check it get started today with us med Marcia.

Marsha 2:01
Oh, thank you.

Scott Benner 2:02
Hey, how are you? Can you hear me? Yes, you were I don't know if you get the same messages I get but it was like Marsh is connecting to audio and that was going on for a while. So I was like I wonder if it's ever gonna happen. But there it is.

Marsha 2:15
I had to click a button. I think I just missed clicking it. That's

Scott Benner 2:20
interesting. I have to keep that in mind. Do you have any questions?

Marsha 2:23
I don't think so. I'm trying not to be nervous. I'm trying not to freak out.

Scott Benner 2:30
How does? We're recording already to see you know, okay. How does trying not to be nervous work?

Marsha 2:36
I've just been sitting here scrolling through Facebook trying to find my Zen space.

Scott Benner 2:42
So did you find it? Ah,

Marsha 2:45
I think I'm pretty okay. Right now.

Scott Benner 2:47
What? Okay, what on Facebook made? You said?

Marsha 2:50
I'm just scrolling. Something's not to think about this.

Scott Benner 2:56
Gotcha. Yeah, just the mindless.

Marsha 3:01
The no meanness of just scrolling

Scott Benner 3:02
by and going by and going by. It is really interesting. How scrolling through an app or playing a game of chance. Or like, you know, a game on your phone even that there is no like you can play and then lose and then play again and lose again and win again. It doesn't matter. It's all about like the beeps and bloops and the right colors and stuff like that. Yeah,

Marsha 3:29
yeah. Yeah. Like you did it or, you know, try again. Yeah, doesn't

Scott Benner 3:33
it feels like the three app developers could put us all into, like awake, awakened coma if they wanted to. Like they're just, they're just being kind enough not to turn us into like living zombies. Unless we already are.

Marsha 3:47
Every now and then I have to go through and just delete stuff, because I'll just get so focused or so like, I've got to play this game. I've got to play this game, and it's ridiculous. And so every now and then I'll just go through and delete all my apps on my phone. And I'm like, can't do it. But then one sneaks back on there, and then another sneaks back on there. So it's crazy. My son's

Scott Benner 4:06
only 23. And he was gone for maybe a month at his first job and sent him a link. I was like, check this out. It's hilarious. And he texted back and he goes, I don't have tick tock anymore. I took that off my phone. I was like, yeah, he goes, I was just wasting my time with it. I was like, All right, good for you. No, no, if he's put it back on or not. He's been there five months now. But, but, but he knew he was like, I gotta get rid of this. Anyway,

Marsha 4:30
my niece and nephew are probably about that age. They don't have any of that stuff. They're like, they just aren't into it. They're like, I'd rather just connect with people and I'm like, oh, good person. Maybe I need to be like that. Well, that

Scott Benner 4:45
would be amazing. I also don't know me my son's like maintaining a distance relationship with his college girlfriend too, because they both got job opportunities that were just nowhere near each other. But I was like cheese Well,

Marsha 5:01
those kids that age can do it. I don't know how I'm like, yeah,

Scott Benner 5:04
I gotta tell you right now, if Kelly wasn't here for a couple of months, I totally forget who she was.

Marsha 5:13
I've always laughed that I've been so low maintenance and relationships that people forgot they were in a relationship with me. Oh, we broke up, I guess maybe. Oh, no,

Scott Benner 5:24
you just don't demand anything of people. Yeah,

Marsha 5:27
yeah. Whatever. I'm totally fine by myself. Okay.

Scott Benner 5:33
All right. My last question before we get going is being How old are you?

Marsha 5:37
I am 58. Almost 59. I

Scott Benner 5:40
was gonna say I thought you were a little older than me. And I was gonna say being your age with them. I thought, let me just ask first. How much of your life was met with people referring to Marcia Brady? From the Brady Bunch.

Marsha 5:53
Oh, my God. If I have to hear Marsha Marsha Marsha, one more time, like I just want to throw something at people. And you know when this so I grew up in the Brady Bunch era. And then when the Brady movie came out, started over, and I'm like, Oh, my God, please.

Scott Benner 6:13
I can imagine that the trailer coming on television. You being like, no.

Marsha 6:21
Do not do it again. Don't punish me again.

Scott Benner 6:24
Yeah, a lot of young people have no idea what you're talking about. But no, I don't even think it's worth checking into to be perfectly honest. Anyway, yeah. Okay. So good morning. Let's get going. Where are you at in the country?

Marsha 6:39
I am in Kansas. Oh, well, it's

Scott Benner 6:42
early there.

Marsha 6:43
It's 830. Why

Scott Benner 6:45
do people not think that's early?

Marsha 6:48
Because I get up and go to the gym at five in the morning. Do you really already? Yeah, I've already had a workout in and everything. Oh, my, I'm good to go.

Scott Benner 6:55
I don't understand what's the rest of your day look like? I usually get to work

Marsha 6:59
by eight o'clock and work until five and then come home and take care of this little wild child that I have.

Scott Benner 7:05
What do you do for a living? Can you tell me?

Marsha 7:08
I'm a social worker. And I work at a community mental health agency. That's

Scott Benner 7:12
lovely to work. Okay, why are we on the podcast? What's your connection to diabetes?

Marsha 7:17
So my son is type one, he has been diagnosed for about two years and three months, five months, two years, four months, four months, I will say no, these 10 He'll be 11. In about 15 days,

Scott Benner 7:37
I've been diagnosed around nine. And you just reminded me of my favorite story about my uncle. We were used to work for my uncle. When I got out of high school, I had what you would call no prospects grew up in a very kind of like blue collar household, the idea was go to school, well, you don't really have to pay attention to it because you're just gonna get a job afterwards. And then I graduated, I was like, I don't know what to do. And my grandmother basically forced my uncle into giving me a job in his sheetmetal shop. I think she could cajoled him. And so there I was, and worked there for quite some time, I did not make very much money. But every morning, there was a coffee break 10am 15 minutes, like the whole place shut down for 15 minutes, you could just sit there and just collect yourself and get through this 15 minute break. And then you all you had to do is make it till noon. You'd have lunch and then all you had to do was live till five, you know, but one day, we're all sitting around. And once in a while the boss would come out and he's passed now. So I don't feel bad saying this. He came out. And we're all just trying to you know what I mean? Like just this, I guess, scroll Facebook in our heads for a couple of minutes because it's a hard, difficult job in a hot environment or a freezing cold environment depending on the time of year. And he starts telling a story. Now God bless him, the man was not a gifted storyteller. And he's five minutes into a story that you still don't understand where it's going, you don't care about and he mentions a pickup truck. And he goes, You know, it was a 63 No. 64 Yeah, so it was the 1960s Might it be? Was it a 65? No, no. It was read. It was a 6060 I think the truck was uh, said I'm sitting there going like you guys listen to this podcast for a while. I'm like, everyone shut it off already, man. Let's go. Everybody goes, and he just he fumbled around for what felt like forever trying to decide on the year of this pickup truck and the story eventually landed on the idea that he was not going to recall the year of the pickup Truck Moving on. And when the story ended, I had to stop myself from saying out loud. That truck and what year it was born had no bearing on this story whatsoever.

Marsha 10:16
But I bet if my husband were in the room, he could probably tell you exactly what year if he told them what color it was, I

Scott Benner 10:23
don't know, just when you were deciding how long your child had diabetes, you were like, I don't know, is like 14 and a half, or 15 or 16 months. And I was like, Oh, my God, Uncle Bob.

Marsha 10:35
Anyway, I was trying to do the math in my head and social work and math don't go together. That's why people become social workers. So they don't have to do math.

Scott Benner 10:42
I honestly wish that man was still alive. I'd call him right now and ask him what the hell was going through his head when that happened? Okay, so we'll get back to your I'm sorry, son right now. Yeah, yes. Get back to your son in a moment, I want to know a little bit about what you do. So what's, what's a day like in your job.

Marsha 10:59
So I don't know if you're familiar, but most of the community mental health agencies of all across the nation are becoming certified community behavioral health centers. And it's known as nationally as CCBHC. And my job is to bring that model into our agency and create changes. So community mental health agencies aren't just focused on mental health. They're focused on behavioral health, substance use, and the integration of physical health. So it's kind of integrating all that stuff into a mental health agency. And then I supervise managers of like our mobile response team, and we have a jail team and behavioral health court team and our children's services. I supervise a lot of people.

Scott Benner 11:53
So what's the desire of making the shift? Is it so that you can offer more services in the location.

Marsha 12:00
So it's really helping people to focus on all person well being and not just mental health? For a long time, you think, here's mental health in one spot, here's substance abuse, and another spot, here's my physical health, and they're not interrelated. But we all know that they are interrelated. And so it's just really kind of forcing community mental health centers to move out of that thinking that we're just providing mental health services, but we're really providing whole person care, to, you know, the people that we serve. And I think about this a lot when I think about my son with diabetes, right? Because when he is that when his blood sugars are high, that kid is cranky and nasty, and just, you know, he's just not fun to deal with, right? And so when you think about how we have some of our clients who have long standing physical ailments that aren't treated, and then are depressed, it's like, Why? Why aren't we paying attention to what's going on with their physical health, because that will impact their mental health, right? And so if we can make their physical health better, maybe their mental health will be better.

Scott Benner 13:11
Martin and I were having a conversation yesterday while we were in the car. And I was on a mad dash around New Jersey trying to get my next dose of wheat ov I'd be honest, while we were together, and we were trying to avoid the the fires right now. There's fires in Canada, I guess, the timestamp this, and somehow the smoke is blowing into America. I'm pretty sure they're attacking us. And the skies are really orange here. And, and the, the air quality is like in the four hundreds. It's terrible, right? So we're zipping around, and we're talking about all kinds of different things. And I want to preface what I'm gonna say, by being very clear that I'm not doubting anybody's problems, issues, ideas, nothing like that. But I began to wonder and we were talking back and forth about social contagions. And how sort of, there's a, it feels like, somebody says something out loud. And then later, I'm gonna sound like a right wing lunatic for a second, but I don't feel like that just so everybody understands. But, like, how much goes into? My friend says she's anxious. I'm anxious, or like, that kind of thing. Like, like, how much is it just almost learned behavior? Like, you know, like we, we say, oh, there's people online and they're sharing their blank with us, and that's great. But are they also indoctrinating or talking other people into believing that a very normal feeling that they're having is actually not normal? And like, do you see that like, in waves, I guess? Yeah, yes.

Marsha 14:57
Yes. I think there is. Truly some of that. And I think there's a lot of that that happens, probably more so like in the teens and 20s. Well, now I'm gonna say it happens all across the board. But like, we work with kids who are like, Oh, I have dissociative identity disorder, or like, really? How about that's really about you feeling sad and lonely here and then feeling really happy and chipper here. And that's just the normal range of emotions. And so, you know, it's, it's kind of like, you know, I'm going to diagnose myself on the computer, and then I have all these ailments, and I'm really anxious. And I'm like, You know what, that's probably just this. You're probably just having some normal emotions. And it's really, okay. Stop reading that. Yeah, what even diagnosing yourself by Google,

Scott Benner 15:50
I had somebody telling me about, like, I'm feeling a lot of anxiety, but they were in a really pressure filled situation. I was like, I believe this situation dictates anxiety. But, but why? I don't know why anxiety is bad in this scenario, like, Are you anxious? Constantly? You know what I mean? Like? Or are you? Are you in a situation that needed you to be at a heightened state? And you are, and then you a friend looks at you and goes, Oh, you're you're anxious? I know, because I'm anxious to, but I take medication for it. And then you're like, well, maybe I should take medication for it or like, give me like, not to say that there aren't some, I hope I'm being clear. Not to say there aren't some people who are ridden with anxiety and need medication. I'm just saying, I wonder how much the internet and the ability for everyone to just say something out loud. And for you to hear it over and over. And then the algorithm will tell you, Hey, you like listening to people talk about their XYZ? And then the next five videos are the same person? Oh, my God, every one has this, I must have it too. Like, you

Marsha 16:53
know, I could probably go on a tangent about social media, because you think about even what happens in social media. Everybody posts what looks good, right? Or bad? Yeah, or bad, one or the other? But like, do they ever? Do you ever see the range that happens? And you're so just so very, right? There are situations that are intense, and, you know, are anxiety provoking? And when you're out of that situation, you're able to come back to normal and center and all that kind of stuff. Just because you were anxious for you know, an hour or two hours doesn't mean that you have anxiety? And it doesn't mean that it's going to impact your life over the long term. May it impact your life, maybe in that day? Sure. In that week, maybe. But does that mean it goes on and on and on to the point where you need to be medicated, and you have all these symptoms, and you can't cope, you know, now. And again, not to discount those people that it really does happen to because it is very, very true. Otherwise, I wouldn't be in business. We all have bad things that happen to us and we get sad, and we get depressed about them. And we have coping skills that we learn how to manage them, and we're able to move forward. But that doesn't mean that we're depressed it means to be on 15 antidepressants, and

Scott Benner 18:13
yeah, yeah, that's when things get fashionable too. Yes. And Oh, gotcha. Right. And then they have been flow. What's the one is just the thought just popped in my head? Oh, there was a time. And I I say online, I guess, where everyone was calling everyone a narcissist. Yes. And I don't remember when it was and it went on for a couple of years. But it became very fashionable that if somebody showed any signs of narcissism that people were like, That girl's narcissistic, or I'm always dating narcissists, or bla bla, bla, and then all of a sudden, you don't hear about it anymore. What did everybody did everybody fix it and stop dating narcissists. Or, like, did you move on to a another? social contagion? Another there? You know,

Marsha 19:02
I 100% agree tons of trends about who is what and what we move on to and you get buzzwords that are out there and half the time people don't even know what the buzzwords really are. You know, I'm just gonna throw it out there.

Scott Benner 19:17
Listen, I've met a lot of people. I'm not sure they should be in charge of which foot goes and chart in front of the next one, but then suddenly, I'm letting them tell me what a narcissist is. I was like, last week, I wouldn't have taken lunch advice from you say that I'm brilliant. But and you know not to say that if you think you've worked with a narcissist once you're not but it just we don't we let people say very impactful things. Not that they can't say they can say whatever they want, but they say very impactful things. We don't know who they are. Right, right. Like I have no idea who you are, what your qualifications are to call your boyfriend a narcissist. Like how do you know like, what did you hear? I mean, I used diabetes, isn't it sample. I can't find every doctor who understands diabetes. But the lady up the street definitely understands mental health disorders. And she's for sure knows what's up with the other lady across the street from her like, I don't know, like, it just it's a weird. It's a weird thing, and then we all get sucked into it. And then you're on your way. Yes. So yeah, it's

Marsha 20:25
interesting too, because people will come to me, you know, like, I could diagnose you. I mean, I could, like, I have the license, I have the credentials. I could give someone a diagnosis. They're like, what do you think about this, and I'm like, I'm not going to do it, and I can play your little game. If you really need help, you'll know that you really need help. Don't like, again, don't google it.

Scott Benner 20:46
And when p&l really need help, they make it to you. Right, right. Like you're, I'm assuming this, the place you work is not full of a bunch of people having small existential crisis is like, you know, they're really in trouble. Yes. How much in Kansas is, is drug related. I used to hate ordering my daughter's diabetes supplies. I never had a good experience. And it was frustrating. But it hasn't been that way for a while, actually for about three years now. Because that's how long we've been using us med us med.com/juice box or call 888721151 for us med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash, the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide, the number one rated distributor index com customer satisfaction surveys. They have served over 1 million people with diabetes since 1996. And they always provide 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping. US med carries everything from insulin pumps, and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and Dexcom G seven. They accept Medicare nationwide, and over 800 private insurers find out why us med has an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau at us med.com/juicebox, or just call them at 888721151 for get started right now. And you'll be getting your supplies the same way we do.

Marsha 22:32
You know, it's interesting because I actually live in Lawrence, Kansas. And what happens is a lot of the drugs come from like Kansas City, then cross the state of Missouri, me from St. Louis, across the state of Missouri to Kansas City, and then keep going this way. So right now we're seeing a lot of meth related stuff. And then we actually had three fentanyl overdoses just in the past week, which is a little unique to Lawrence. But I had spent the last 25 years in Kansas City working in substance use services I ran for residential and outpatient programs and to methadone clinics. And so we saw a lot more of it there. And now it's like coming this way. And so we do I mean, I think that's part of why there's this big push to really integrate mental health to look at substance use because you know, that they're so intertwined. And meth is really big here in Kansas. So put that

Scott Benner 23:41
sign on the highway. Yeah, hey, what are some off the top of your head reasons that people find themselves amenable to drug use on that level?

Marsha 23:56
You know, I think it really starts after working for so many years. And I think what it really starts is, is a lot of people start to experiment with something. And they do it because they have some kind of lack of skills in their life. I want to say that in very broad terms, so like, I am really socially awkward. So I start smoking pot, and when I smoke pot, you know, I'm a little more able to engage with other people and I'm able to have better conversations, right? And then that pot becomes not enough. And I have my friend who says, Hey, have you ever tried this crack? Let me try this crack, or I moved to PCP or move to something else. And so I think really, when it kind of boils down to it, people have some kind of pain or not skills to cope with something that's kind of challenging in their life. So they turn to something that just really helps them feel better, and helps them be able to cope with that situation. And then that just keeps happening more and More and more, that's typically the pathway that people get to like the heavier drugs. The other way is, if I'm in an accident, and I have something and my doctors prescribe me some pills, and after a while I use more and more of those to, you know, take care of whatever's going on, which by that point is probably not the pain, it's probably I become addicted to it. And then my doctor says, No, I'm not going to do that, then I start searching for that out in my community, because my doctor is not going to give it to me, so I can get it on the street. And then so you see people becoming addicted, like one of those two ways, like the pain pathway, or, you know, some kind of lack of emotional skills that people have,

Scott Benner 25:45
how much is boredom involved? I

Marsha 25:47
think that's, that's huge. That's also a reason why people don't stop using because they're afraid they're going to be really bored in their life

Scott Benner 25:55
gives you something to do, right. Yeah. Yeah. And because it would be someone's inclination, I believe, to say, how about poverty, but it happens to people on all, all levels of, you know, their social,

Marsha 26:08
yeah, just people who are richer, able to hide it better, right? Because like, if I am having a really challenging year at work, say, and I'm burnout, and I'm crispy, I have the means that I can go on a little vacation and rejuvenate. But if I, and that helps me hide maybe what I'm doing, right? I have the means to kind of hide it better if I have money. But if I'm working in that cheap iron factory, right, and I'm making minimum wage, where do I get away from that? Where do I get away from? You know, what's going on with me, I just turned to drugs. So

Scott Benner 26:49
almost crazy that you just said that because in our drive around yesterday looking for this a pharmacy that had this dose that I needed, we ended up in a diner in a town that was pretty far from our house. And what do I want to say the town was rundown. And we go into the diner Arden and I to have lunch. And there's a family behind us daughter, high school age mother in her 50s 40s, late 40s 50s. And their grandmother. And they argued and yelled at each other, and just generally speaking, acted in a way, I would be mortified to act out in public at the very least. But when they weren't yelling at each other, they would switch back to fantasy full conversations about where they'd like to go on vacation. And they were big places like I think we should go to Bora Bora, and blah, blah, and I'm like Bora Bora. Like who's paying for that? You know, and then it went to well, if we're gonna go over a sea, then we're gonna go to Paris. And all I could think was, oh, they they're never gonna do that. And it actually struck me is, I mean, it was sad, right? Like, I mean, I don't want to like, I don't want to paint a different picture. I can't afford to go to Bora Bora either, right? They definitely can't. And they are not in a position that is one day going to magically say, This is it right. And what I came to understand, was that sitting in that diner and talking about going to Bora Bora, I think that was their vacation. Yeah, you don't I mean, yeah, like they just kind of, and I don't know, like it was just I can't believe that's the example you use, because I was sitting there yesterday thinking the same thing. Like if you make X amount of money a day or a week, and a plane ticket to Paris is whatever it is like you can't even you'll never be able to afford to fly there, let alone stay in a hotel or keep yourself going or and then you don't get that respite,

Marsha 28:55
right. Yeah. You don't get a break. And

Scott Benner 28:59
so also, I think close quarters, like smaller homes, or have or your home not being a hospitable place, like a place that you actually want to spend time, right, like because now you're outside with other people who are in a similar situation. And I guess then that snowball starts rolling downhill pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah. So how do you help people in that situation?

Marsha 29:23
If you look at like national average, not very many people, the first time that they tried to get clean and sober, get clean and sober. It's like 10%, right? Because you have to think about this. You're just like, you're asking somebody to change absolutely everything in their life, who they hang out with how they do things, so on and so forth. So part of it is it's really kind of twofold. You give them a lot of education about what the drugs do to their body and their brain and all of that kind of stuff. And then you start teaching them skills, like how do you manage stress? What is the skill does it take for you to manage stress? What's the skill that you need to learn to To set some good boundaries with your family that maybe every time that they have a holiday, they're drinking and smoking, and you can't be around them, you know. So it's, it's really doing a lot of education. And then the other part of that is a person has to be really, really motivated to change. You know, like, they have to say, it's enough. And you can think about that with everything like with a person who wants to lose weight, like why do people lose weight, you finally get motivated enough to make a change in what you're doing. And some people have that motivation, put upon them, they lose their kids, they lose some freedom, you know, they have a heart attack, or some kind of health scare, that really is a motivating factor for them. And some people just, you know, they kind of try and then they don't, and they try, and they don't, and eventually, it just kind of sticks. And for most people, they just get sick and tired of being sick and tired and want to do something different.

Scott Benner 30:58
I'm looking online here, it seems that around 20 million adult Americans aged 12 or older, battle sub sort of a substance abuse disorder.

Marsha 31:12
Yeah. Seven, the younger you start the The quicker you get to that addiction part where you're truly addicted. 74%

Scott Benner 31:21
of adults suffering from substance abuse disorders in 2017. Struggled with alcohol. 30% of adults in 2017 battled an illicit drug. Wow. It's really something it makes you feel it makes me feel on how it makes other people feel. But it makes me feel just lucky. That like, that didn't happen to me. Yeah, yeah. And because I grew up in I mean, poverty. And my home was in a hospital environment, hospitable environment. And there were plenty of reasons why I should have I never, Whenever anyone asks me, why, why don't you drink? Or why don't you do that? I honestly don't have an answer. I don't know. Like, it would make sense that I would have. And so I don't, I don't know, I wonder if I'm just so cheap.

Marsha 32:16
I don't want to spend my money that way. I can't give you money for that. It's kind of funny, because I grew up in a very rule. My dad was a hog farmer. My parents went to dance club once a month, and they took their bottle of cherry vodka and old charter whiskey with them. And they would have that bottle for like, five years, it would go every time with them to dance club once a month. So I didn't grow up in a household that drank or any of that kind of stuff. Now, when I went to college, I drank a lot. I was our pledge class chug champion, you know, I just, I drank a lot. And I think about that, and like, why didn't I continue to drink because there's, there's also addiction in my family. Right. And so that means that, you know, there's some genetics that play into that, too. But I think it's at the same time, it's like, I had different skills to cope with what was going on. So that alcohol wasn't my only coping skill, right? So I had friends and, and, you know, I had motivation to work and learn and play and hobbies, and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, for folks who don't have that you grew up in home, where you don't have anything else and your family drinks and uses. And you learn that that's the way to make it through life. You know? Yeah, it's, it's, it's tough.

Scott Benner 33:35
Questions. What is that? What if that is the way to make it through? What if you don't have another escape, and you're going to lose your mind? Or, I mean, if you went to a doctor, I mean, right? Like, I must live in a town with a lot of what I want to say, middle aged white ladies who are being medicated by their doctors. You know, like, they go in and they get a Xanax or they get something like that, or they it's a glass of wine at one o'clock in the afternoon, or they're doing something to manage themselves. My bigger question is, it just feels like, this is how people in our are wired. Like, like, after a while, don't you just get that feeling that you're fighting, a losing battle?

Marsha 34:21
I, so I did that work for 25 years, right. And I was able to see a lot of people make a lot of significant changes in their life, I mean, to really become very different people. And I think that was the part that kind of kept me going is that people really want to live their best life, right? No one wants to be a drug addict. No one wants to be an alcoholic. They really want to live their best life. And so for those who make it out of it, and are able to do that the changes they make in their life are just remarkable. Oh, yeah, I'll tell you this little story. So I went one time to an AAA meeting, one of our clients was celebrating a year. And a friend of mine who had worked with her from a different agency said, Hey, come with me. So I go to this AAA meeting, and they're celebrating her year, and I'm just sitting there, you know, just just to be there. It was an open meeting. So you know, they're in a, another person from that group gets up to start to talk, right? And she looks out of the audience, and she sees me and she's like, Yeah, and I'm like, Oh, my God, oh, my god, please. No, no, no. And I'm, like, go on. She's like, Oh, yeah, I have stories about Marsha. And she went on to say her things, and then came up to me afterwards and said, I remember being in treatment with you. And I remember how much of a, like, a I was to, because she was just, Oh, my God, oh, my God. And so, but here she was. Now, at this point in time, she had 14 years of sobriety, there was a woman that sat behind me that as soon as we get up to leave, she's like, I just want to thank you. She goes, I wasn't successful when I came through treatment with you. But I've been clean and sober for two years now. And it was just by some of the things that you said, that really made me think about that. And here I am. And it had been like nine years, and she had been out of treatment. But I've only been clean and sober for like two years. So I you think about this, as in the kind of work that I did is that you think about this as like, I'm not going to save everybody. But I'm going to plant enough seeds that when people really want to make that change, they know what they do, they can do to make that change. And so seeing that kind of success over the years, is what really motivated me to stay in that work. But it also is what motivates people to make changes, like once I start to know more about what I'm doing, and know that there are opportunities out there for me to do different and be different. You know, it takes hold at some point in time, we just don't know when you

Scott Benner 37:08
just perfectly described how I feel making this podcast? Exactly.

Marsha 37:12
Yes, yes, I get it. But yeah. And I'd never related the two but you know, I get it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 37:19
And I don't I don't ask the question. Because I think things are hopeless. I asked the question to get the answer. And so people can hear why it's not hopeless. But but to go backwards? Why does it keep happening? Like why don't we produce a generation of people who think math? No, thank you. Like, why doesn't that happen? And it doesn't, right? Like it's, through some decades talking about how things ebb and flow right? Through some decades, it's cocaine, and then through another decade, it's heroin. And then some people hold on to it. And then then like fashion, it comes back into style, again, like cocaine is huge right now, again, around here. And you know, and so it just feels like what we're saying is that a portion of the population needs to escape. And some of them need to escape with alcohol. And some of them need to escape with hard drugs. And some of them need to escape with a risky behavior and like, and they're on and online web gambling online, and, you know, pornography, etc. And over and over, like, there's so many different things. How crazy is it? That this, that this soup we all come into is somehow not hospitable for such a large portion of us?

Marsha 38:37
Well, I think that goes to even greater than that. drugs or alcohol. It's, it's also about, you know, how do we build and grow a generation of people who can tolerate not having instant gratification? Right? How do you raise your kids so that they don't get everything that they want? Or everything that they demand? And how do they work for that? And how do they delay some of that gratification? I think about it now, you know, like, even just raising my son, you know, he wants something like, how do you build the tolerance that I can say no, without you throwing a fit and having a meltdown? Yeah. Right. Because that's part of what drugs too, are their instant gratification. I want to feel good, I do this, I feel better, right? And so it's that whole generation of how, what are we doing with our kids? And what are we doing to raise them in a way that they have a good strong work ethic and that they, you know, learn that they have to, like, earn money to then buy things and get what they want, and that doesn't happen today. That doesn't happen in the next instant. But, you know, for many of our generation, I just get on Amazon and order what I want, right? or I say that I want this, and I'm in front of social media, and I'm in front of this, and I'm getting instant gratification continually. And I grew up on a hog farm. Like, think about that, out in the middle of the country, we were poor, dirt poor, right. And so to buy a pair of jeans meant probably that I had to work, you know, for three months to be able to save my $20 to go buy my pair of jeans, now I'm old. So that's how much they were in that in that time. But, you know, it's like, we had to work to get what we want. And so, you know, needing that instant gratification wasn't a part of what I grew up with, I had the tolerance to be able to say, you know, I'm gonna, if I want this, I have to work for it. Right?

Scott Benner 40:49
Well, and it's interesting and easy to say, oh, parenting, if the parents did a better job, which, I mean, obviously, everybody could do a better job, not just in parenting. But if that was the case, then, you know, the hard working hog farmers of the 50s wouldn't have raised the generation of kids who were drinking all the time, and etc. So it isn't just that either. I just think, like, I don't want to sound like I'm like, headed down some, like Hocus Pocus, like Boulevard here or something like that. But it just feels to me that a large swath of people are not wired correctly, not even correctly, but wired in a way that gives over to this existence, the way it's set up right now. Like they're fighting against it all the time. You know, you mean like, there's sometimes I see somebody who's living in a van, and doesn't have a real job. And I think you know, what, good for them. That's probably where they're comfortable. You know, and, and feeling like, and I don't know if this is the same in all parts of the country, using America as an example. But around here, like, there's a pressure, like, I don't know if you know what it costs to live here. But you got to make money if you want to stay here. And it's, and it's the second you're standing up, and you're in your 20s. And it doesn't stop until you drop dead. Like, right, like, so I can see people being like, I don't want this. And there are also people who thrive in it. You know, like, I didn't be honest with you, like, I told the story recently. So I don't want to go deep into it. But I, we went away for like nine days to see our kids. I worked like a dog for like two and a half, three weeks to prep myself. So I could leave so that you guys listening to the podcast would not notice that I was gone. Right? Right. And I'm talking about like, 12 hour days for like a solid week of editing and like, you know, stuff you just don't see behind the scenes. And somebody said to me, why don't you just like, not have the podcast for one week. And I was like, what I was like, I don't understand. And it was like, someone else might like, you know, I might lose, like, I might lose ground, I can't lose ground. I don't work at this for nine years, I'm gonna stop, right. Like, and I know, there's plenty of other people would be like, I don't care. You know, like, as a matter of fact, I, I've seen people say I'm going to start a podcast, and after talking to them for 15 minutes, I'm like, Oh, that's not going to work for you. Right? Like, you're you just don't have the personality to like, do the backend work that that needs to be done. I'm sure you could sit down and talk, but you're not going to do the other things that like you don't fit in that. And, and I'm sure there are people who grew up in parts of the country that had very slow, and they're not okay with that either. And they have that, like, I'm so bored. I gotta get out of here feeling they want to be up here fighting with the rats with me. You know, it just I don't know, like, it's a bigger thought. And of course, it's not your job to know the answer to it. But it just feels like people are sometimes incompatible with their life or their surrounding. And then on top of that, they get bad direction from parents who are probably in the same situation. And we try to boil it down to something simple, like, oh, they weren't parented Well, or she's anxious, or you don't I mean, like, I'm like, I don't think any of it's that easy. Or simple. I

Marsha 44:16
always used to say that if I had the answer to why people got addicted, or you know, were became or became an alcoholic, I would just bottle it up, sell it for $1,000 stamp, your forehead is cured and be the richest person in the world because there is no direct answer to why it's fast. It's just all Yeah, yeah. It's about what are you going to do with it? Right, like, now that you're there? What are you going to do with it? It's kind of like I was just actually I was listening to your podcast this morning. I'm talking about the myth of why people became diabetic. And it's like, does that really matter? Like does it matter? Like you're there now? What are you going to do? How are you going? have lived your life. Now, what's the choice that you're going to make about that? I

Scott Benner 45:04
honestly, like, again, does sound strange, but I don't obviously know the answer. But it seems to me that caring about other people having a goal. And feeling like the thing you're doing is helping the greater good is what keeps me straight and narrow, like, like, like, I just, I'll tell you that Jenny and I spent 20 minutes texting yesterday. And she sent me this letter that a listener of the podcast sent to her. And it's just a thank you. It's an eloquent thank you from a younger person. And she said, Scott, you know, I got permission to send this to you. I thought you should say it. And it's hard. It's hard enough to just come out and say, like, the letter says, Jenny, and Scott, like you saved my life. And it goes over how, and I texted Jenny knows, like I said, it's, today was the day I was looking at my online messages. So I'll spend, like, I get tagged and so much stuff online. And I'm trying to find as much of it as I can. It's very, if you guys have ever tagged me, and I haven't seen it, it's hard for me to see it all. But so I'm jumping through. And it's message after message with pictures of adults and children and like, look how healthy I am. And I'm doing great and look at my graph, and blah, blah, blah, and I get through it. And it's very emotional, I almost have to wall myself off from it a little bit to do it. Because if not, I just sit at my desk and cry the whole time, like just out of like happiness. And then Jenny sends this email. And now I'm sitting here, and I'm just wiping these tears running out of my eyes away. And I texted her, and I said, I said, Oh, you pushed me over the edge. I'm crying now. And I spent, you know, I spent this morning and already looking at these messages. And she said, I cried for a while after I read that. And then we just sort of commiserated about what it feels like to help a stranger, like a person whose face I literally don't don't know what it looks like. And I just wonder, I mean, how valuable that is. And if everybody couldn't find a way to I mean, you could start small, right? In your family, or, like on your street or something. And I know this sounds like, I don't know, it just sounds like it's the 70s and I live in Malibu, but I mean, it just, it's, it's so true. Like, I don't have any, I mean, there are problems in my life too. And, you know, concerns and worries, I have all those other things that people have, I am not in a house that is unpleasant to be in. But other than that, like I don't, my life's not that much different from anybody else's, I get up every morning, and I'm like, I'm gonna make that podcast, and somebody's going to be better off because of it. And I might leave a seat behind like you were talking about where maybe 10 years from now, people will still use this exact Yeah.

Marsha 47:58
So it's about finding that life worth living, you know, like that, that you found that value and meaning to what you have going on and, and that's a life worth living for you. And for folks that don't have that, you know, that's the challenge. But it's, I think we all want to find that right? I think everybody wants to find this life that they find meaning to and all of that. And I will say that I do attribute a lot of how I manage my son's diabetes to listening to your podcast. Like, I don't know that we would be where we were with our diabetes management. If I hadn't started listening, you you know, and I hadn't started like kind of taking, taking control of what was happening with my son. So I appreciate you and Jenny tremendously.

Scott Benner 48:50
I'm going to shift to that in one second, right after I let everybody in on the big secret of this episode, as we're 50 minutes into this, and people are like, great. And other times God has brought on the person and they haven't talked about diabetes. But let me just pull back the curtain on what I'm doing here. In case you're not following along. This is exactly about you taking care of your diabetes. That's what this conversation is about. Because the there's no difference. I have not been able to see a difference. Except for access, right? Like, you know, there are people who can't afford certain devices, but you can live well without those devices too. And so, after doing this for so long, I don't see a difference in people's health success with diabetes generally speaking, like I'm sure some of you have like extenuating circumstances, but it just comes down to a little bit of education. Some desire, getting up every morning, doing the thing, not feeling burdened by it. Right. Like you didn't hear me say I worked like a dog for 10 days to go to go away, and I hated it, it was great. That's what my life was for 10 days, I worked really hard on this podcast for 12 days, 12 hours a day, I never once walked out of this room complaining, oh my god, I was in there all day or bye bye. So you have to accept what your life is. And, and like you said, like, attack it like, this is the thing now like, alright, this is it. And I don't know, like, that's just how I see life. Like, I expect speed bumps, I drive overtop of them. You know what he means? Like, if if one of them stops me and it's a wall, then we stop and we find a way over, under around it. And then we just keep going. It's that it pops into my head constantly that old like country music song is like, I just No one promised you a rose garden. Right? Like, like, but everyone thinks life is gonna be this perfect thing. And then, you know, you don't see it. When people are throwing tacks in front of you little things like I don't seem to be able to find a girlfriend, you know, like, I don't jive with anybody. That's a small problem, like, and it could be a big problem if you're alone. But those little things, we don't step back ever and go, I can't win, like, like, you know, but then this diabetes thing comes. And listen, I'm right there with you. It happened to my daughter. And I was like, you have to be kidding me. Like, like, you know, you spend months and sometimes years in your head, like negotiating with nothingness about like, how do I get out of this? Like, how do I get her out of this. And then you just realize, like anything else. I mean, like, like, somebody was put in prison for 40 years for something they didn't do. Like you can either be a prisoner, or you can, you can find a way to live in your in your surroundings. And I kind of see diabetes like that. And I see a lot of people who just fight against it constantly, they won't stop fighting it. And you know, I understand how that can happen. But I'm telling you, the only path that I've seen is just to not give up. But you just have to accept like, this is the world I live in. How do I live in this world? The best way possible?

Marsha 52:03
You know, so true. I think that's one of the things that that I think about a lot. And I read a lot of the posts on Facebook and that kind of stuff. And, you know, there was one post that struck me just like to the core of this mama, the newly diagnosed that said, Okay, we're getting out of the house for the first time, like in three months, since his like my son's or daughter's diagnosis. And I'm like, Oh, my God. Like, you just have to live your life. Like you just live your life, like you just go. Because if your son gets low at home, or your son gets low at the grocery store, you're gonna treat it the same way. Right? You're not even

Scott Benner 52:45
talking about somebody who wanted to leave the child behind. They were just leaving that, hey, listen, walking out of the house together. I can't I can't tell you that. That didn't happen to me. I mean, Arden was too and she was small. But I would think, well, what if she gets low while I'm driving? And she's in the backseat in that car seat? And I don't notice it? Or like, you know, and then you just think, okay, like you set up ways to take care of that. You know, what if what if we don't have something, it's impossible. Now, there's always juice in my car. It's in every door pocket of every vehicle that any of us traveling, right? Like that just doesn't happen that way. And yes, and two days ago, Arden left to get her hair cut. And she's home from college right now. And she's almost 19 next month. She took care of herself. I mean, all year at college on her own. One of the Spanish she was gone for five solid months. Right? She's doing terrific. And as she walked past here yesterday, while I was sitting here editing, and I heard her like she was go down the hallway. I was like, Hey, you're leaving for your hair? And she's like, Yeah, and I couldn't stop myself. I was like, Do you have a juice? And she goes, Yes. And I was like, Okay. And then that was it. Like I just, I still pictured her sitting at that place, getting your hair cut, getting low and not having access to something. So I get why people feel that way. But you're not wrong. You just have to go do it. Like you'll come to that wall. And then you'll find a way over around it or under it and you'll keep going you just can't sit in your house. And just think, Oh, I'm stopping something bad from happening by not doing anything.

Marsha 54:23
Right, because the diabetes is not gonna go away. Yeah, it's not right. That's

Scott Benner 54:26
the point and your kids not going to live his life or life, whatever, in your house like that. That I'll tell you. I'm gonna. I'll give you a little secret here. Okay. One of the most asked questions of me for years, Marsha. Oh, yeah, you're good at it, and you're helping her but what happens when she leaves like that fear. And people talk about it. Like, it's not going to happen. It's two ways either people talk about like, it's never gonna happen. So I'll just keep you here and keep us save almost that, like, hey, when you grow up buy a house across the street from mommy thing that you hear, like literally every person, every woman who's ever pushed a baby through her loins or come out in any way, or adopted one or anything says like, Oh, they're not going to move to live across the street, you think that's a new thought I've heard everyone says that, right? That's not gonna happen either. And by the way, when that does happen, it's stifling for your kids, they should, right, spread their wings, right. And then you'll hear people say that, like, nobody's ever gonna go into it, where someone will say, Look, you got to figure this out, because they're going to leave. And I know, that's hard to wrap your head around. But that's my experience, like, it's coming, it's going to happen, you can be prepared for it, or you can pretend it's not going to happen, and then send them out into the world completely. Just ill aligned with their needs. And that's where problems come from. And I got, yeah,

Marsha 55:49
I've kind of taken the attitude that, like, I'm going to help my son as much as I can right now. And I, but I'm also going to afford him the opportunity to step in where he feels ready. For the longest time, you know, well, not for the longest time really for a pretty short amount of time when we were MDI. He would, we would give him his shots. And he goes to school one day, and I said something to the school nurse. Now I've had a fantastic school nurse. But I said something to the school nurse, like he's kind of interested in his shots. He came home that day. And he said, Miss Diane taught me how to do my shots. And I'm going to do him from here on so he did, I've never given him a shot since. And when we change his palm, he's like, I'm gonna put it on. And I'm like, on. Okay, and so, like, he doesn't do anything else to get it ready. He just puts it on that whatever he's ready for is what we're gonna do. I know, by the time he's 18, he'll be ready. I won't be but he will be. And so that's just how it's gonna go. But yeah, you just have to figure it out. Just live your life.

Scott Benner 56:55
It's going to happen. You can either be prepared to approach the law, or act like it's not going to come. And when you get there stand next to it for 50 years going, I can't believe this happened to me. I thought I was gonna get through this without running into a roadblock. And now I'm it's the roadblocks fault. You know, but it's not by the way, I've decided to call this episode over under or around. That's a good one. Thank you. I wrote that. Yeah. So write down where you said 3625. But now that I did that, I have to write down 5818 Where I said, and then again at 5822. Okay. Sorry about that. Oh, it was fun.

Marsha 57:37
I'm surprised I haven't said anything worse.

Scott Benner 57:39
I mean, if you grew up on a hog farm, I'm pretty surprised you're on just like MFM this whole thing?

Marsha 57:45
Yeah, my dad had a plethora of words for pigs. So

Scott Benner 57:53
I'm sorry, I don't want to hear any of them. So I also want to say that there's somebody's listening to this. And they're like, you know, call Scott like, it's, you know, I'm addicted to something or I can't get through a week without doing I'm not discounting that. I'm not saying that I'm, I'm making a like I'm asking the bigger question, honestly. Like, it just it's baffling to me that so many people find themselves in this situation. But if you want to talk about hope, there's an after dark episode called after dark sex worker, because that's how the person like classified themselves to me, but in the in the pylons of my time. She's a stripper, okay? Yep. Yep. In the course of that conversation, Mila said I asked about her diet, because she hadn't had diabetes that long. And she said, without any sense of irony, she wasn't joking. She said, mostly tequila and coke. And she didn't mean like to kill on soda. Right? And she said it so matter of factly. And that episode has been out for over a year now. And I can't tell you, I think about her a lot. Like I literally think about her saying that like a lot. And I wonder if she's okay. And later in the episode, she talked about her father passing from a fentanyl overdose, if I'm not mistaken. And she just said it in a way that it was. It was like she was telling me that there's a sofa in her living room. It was just so normal, right? And I worry about her constantly. I don't even know her. And a couple of days ago, she sent me a note and she said, I want you to know, I've been sober for two months. Oh, wow. That's awesome. And I don't know why she was telling me. But it was almost like it felt like oh, God, she knows him. You know, and I said, um, and I you know, we talked back and forth on I'm gonna tell you what we said to each other. She did tell me she's what I think the gentleman on California silver referred to as California silver, I think she's smoking pot still, which I have to be honest with you. I don't really see the issue with. But I was like, Well, congratulations. I said, Do this for a year. And I'd love to come back on the podcasts and tell me about the process. And then I shared with her, I worry about I know, it's weird that we don't know each other, but I worry about you a lot. And she said I was a real mess then. And but but why I'm telling you that is because when I was talking to her when we were recording that she did not think she had an issue of any kind whatsoever. And that's baffling to me not not about her specifically, but about people in general, like, not baffling. It's fascinating. It is fascinating that you're asked to be on fire, and you're just like, everything's fine. And you believe you really believe in? You know, I don't know.

Marsha 1:00:59
That's that whole education piece about addiction is like, people need to be able to see that there's a life beyond like that it that something can be different. But if I can't imagine my life being any different than why would I think what I'm doing is that bad? Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:01:17
I don't want to get too deep, but you're born and you die. That's your shot. If you want to believe in an afterlife, you can but I'm not putting money on anything I can't see hold or touch right now. So this is it right here. You're a you're a baby and a toddler and a young person and a preteen where you're all messed up with hormones. And then you're a teen where you're messed up with hormones. And then maybe if you're lucky things start to gel for you in your mid 20s. If you're lucky, right? And then I don't know how to tell you, but it's only 20 years till your knees start hurting.

Marsha 1:01:50
So are you getting a new one like me? Yeah. So

Scott Benner 1:01:53
you've got like, listen, I told my son on the way out the door, I said, you're gonna start figuring things out, that's going to take you five or six years to get a solid idea about what you're doing. And at that point, you're either going to have a baby, think about having a baby or not have a baby, but one way or the other. By the time you're 50. Your back's gonna hurt. A I said you played baseball, your whole life, your knees are gonna hurt, your arms are gonna hurt, like, your shoulders are gonna hurt. And you're gonna be, you're gonna come to that conclusion that everybody runs into at some point. The only thing that matters is my health. Yeah, it's the first thing. I don't have my health. Everything else is going to be a, you know, an uphill battle. And I said it rewires you, you think God, I wish I almost wished my knee hurt when I was 20. You know? And then and then it takes you back to like, why do people with diabetes so often have such clear? Like a clear understanding and perspective? Like, right, like, Don't you find the people that come on the show? The more problems they have, they either find themselves spinning out of control, or the most thoughtful people you've ever met in your life? Yeah, like how many, how many people on here have talked about like, serious health, like life altering, or possibly ending health issues. And they're the most Zen people in the world.

Marsha 1:03:19
Like, they just Yeah, they've like, it's almost like they've embraced what's going on with them, and have just figured out like, this is this is it and here we go, you know,

Scott Benner 1:03:31
again, it's it's like being in prison, and you didn't do anything wrong. But you can either let it ruin your life, or you can find the best way to live in your circumstance, right. And I just heard an interview with a with a person who had that twice stuck in my head and they were in prison for over 30 years, something they clearly did not do. And they're literally together person now they still have trauma from being imprisoned. And that's not to be discounted. And actually, in your note to me, you said that a diagnosis is traumatic. And you want to talk about that a little bit from a personal perspective and professional perspective.

Marsha 1:04:08
Sure. So, you know, my son was diagnosed, we just did what we had to do, right? Just to kind of make it through. And it wasn't till. Like I told you, I go to the gym every morning at five in the morning, and I was sitting on I found your podcast, and I was sitting there I was listening in is actually listening to Mark, what is it? He's the tight end for the Ravens his mom was on? Yes, his mom was on Mark answers. Right? Yeah. Mark Andrews, and she was talking about it. And the next thing I know, I'm just bawling. I'm just sitting there as she's telling her story, which she I think cried during the episode, but I'm just bawling because I'm reliving our son's diagnosis. My son was really really sick. He was in DKA A he had qu small breathing, you know, we go into urgent care because we thought he had the flu 10 minutes after walking into that door, they're like going your son's type one diabetic, he's going to the hospital, he's going to be an ICU, he's going to be on insulin the rest of his life, here, take him and go, you know, and we're like, we're gonna go get a diagnosis. But no, you know, and then we walk into the emergency room and four nurses and three doctors swarm him. And one doctor came over and said, Your son is really, really, really sick. You know. And so, you know, just hearing her talk about that just kind of brought that all up. And I'm like, You know what, that was very traumatic for us. And I think, you know, one of the ways through traumas, just being able to talk about it and share it and say, yes, that, that had some feelings associated it pretty strong feelings that I don't think I really recognized until I was listening to her tell about her son's diagnosis on the podcast, and I'm like, Yeah, I just, I see why some parents get really immobilized. And that's what I just want to say is like, here's what it is acknowledge it, talk about it, and move through it, like you've got to live your life, you can't change it. And so, you know, just acknowledge what's going on about it. So one of my things that I that happened after, which, you know, I'm a social worker, my life's not a secret, I tell everybody, anything, I'll tell everybody, anything. I guess that's what I say. So, you know, I just start talking about it, I started talking about it to the people that I work with, I started talking about it with my family, I started talking with about how scary it was, you know, what it felt like all of that. So I just think it's important that people understand that it is traumatic, it is difficult, it is a challenge, but it's, again, what you do with it, that's important. That really, you know, helps you kind of move forward and live with this, or just kind of get you stuck in that spot. And you're kind of immobilized, I

Scott Benner 1:07:11
always have the same thing pop into my head, I think about The Walking Dead, the TV show, for too ridiculous, but something shocking happens in the world that you can't possibly be prepared for. And the people who make it out, are the ones who don't stand around and wonder why are there zombies out there grabbing guns, and they're grabbing food, and they're grabbing water, and they're grabbing trucks, and they're the ones who are like, I, I'm gonna make it through all this, like, I used to say on the podcast a lot, just because it was it ended up being my life. Like if, like, if it gets sideways find me, like, I'm living through this, you know, and, and you could to, like, I know, you like, you might hear that and think, Oh, well, he's a special kind of person, or he has a special I don't have a special trait. I just, I don't give up. Like, I'm not, I'm not going down like that, like, whatever it is, like, if it's diabetes, or, you know, whatever. Like, I am not a person who's gonna give up. And I don't know why that is, I can't tell you exactly. Like maybe it's a set of circumstances and wiring and how I was raised or how I wasn't raised. Like, I know, it's all like, random and you can't You're not, you're not at fault if you don't have certain attributes, right? But, but you can what no matter what your attributes are, make a decision. I'm not going out like this, like, right, like, and then whatever that ends up being, you know, like, whatever that ends up being ends up being and if it's your story, if you do go out, okay, but at least like go down swinging. Like I mean, you know what I mean? Like, it's nothing more frustrating than watching somebody take strike three. Right?

Marsha 1:08:50
Yeah. You know, we were diagnosed right in the middle of a pandemic, right. And so I literally, I got my son on a CGM, and on a pump before we had our first in person, endocrinologist appointment. Like, we had one on telehealth and I'm like, Nope, I'm doing this. Like, this is what I hear. This is what he needs. This is what we're going with. And he was on a pump and on his Dexcom before we even went in and saw the endocrinologist in person, I'm like we're doing this is how we

Scott Benner 1:09:27
go. The first time somebody said to me, Oh, she can't have that. I was like, well, listen, let's get past that idea. Because that's not going to even yesterday, I will give you like a real world example of don't give up in a low stress situation. You guys by now if you're listening to the podcast, you recognize like I'm using weego V to lose weight, right? My wife is using it as well. I'm we're both down 20 pounds in about 10 weeks. It's really just terrific. I can't tell you how, how great it's been for us. But there's a bit of a show shortage of it right now. Right? Like they're just and it's with the lower doses more than the higher doses once you get up to like, I think, I think 1.7 or something that seems to be pretty readily available. People are having trouble starting on those those low doses, but to prescriptions go to our, our pharmacy, and I get a phone call that minds ready. And I call them up and I said, Hey, kind of weird. Like you said, my wife minds ready, but my wife isn't. And the girl on the phone says, oh, yeah, we don't have hers. I was like, Okay, why not? And she goes, Well, it's out of stock. And I said, Oh, okay, what will we do about that? And she said, we'll wait for it to come back in stock. And I said, Well, how will I know when it's back in stock? And she goes, you can call back and I was like, Well, what if somebody else calls back before me? Like, what if my prescription came today and their prescription comes in three days, but they call back before me? They get my weak ov? And she's like, Yeah. And I'm like, Well, I'm like, that's not going to be okay. And I said, so. Let's try to think this through for a second. And she's like, Okay, I said, What could we do to find me, we go v. And she was without an answer. Right? She stood there. And she's like, I don't know. And I'm like, Okay, well, can you take some suggestions for me? And she said, Sure. And I go, could there be some at another Walgreens? And she goes, Oh, yeah, there could be. And I was like, okay, then she stared at me. And I went, can you call them for me? And she goes, I can look in the computer. And I went great. And then she, she pulled it up, and she said, there's one box, like two miles from here, and I went, can you move my prescription to there? She goes, No. And I said, What would I do? And she goes, Well, you would have to call them. And I went, Okay. And then she starts looking over my shoulder, and I went, can I have the phone number, please? And she's and I'm being nicer than this right now. I'm just painting a picture of this girl was like, inept. And but at any point during this conversation, I know a lot of you would have just heard no, and gone. Oh, I guess I don't get it and then left. But I kept asking reasonable questions. So I was like, okay, so she gave me the phone number. I typed it right into my phone, now asked me, Did I wait to get home to call the phone number? No, I was calling walking out of the Walgreens. And then I got the pharmacist on the phone. And I said, I hear this, that you have this, I have a script at this pharmacy, can you please pull it over and fill it? And she goes, Yes, no problem. And I said, that's terrific. When will it be ready. And she goes in about a half an hour. And I said, I will be there in 30 minutes. And she's like, great. I did everyone's thinking for them. Because I needed this thing. I've done this with insulin. I've done it with pumps. I've done it with CGM I've been on Listen, I've been on the phone with Dexcom customer service, walking them through it because I recognize it's hard to get customer service people I don't care if your Dexcom or your tandem or who the hell you are. That's a hard job. Like, because they doesn't pay a lot. They don't get a lot of training. You know, mostly, generally speaking, sometimes you have to keep in mind. And I don't want to say be your own advocate because that's trite. Like, but I don't give up. That girl tried to shut me down six different times. And it turns out there was an answer. And even though I didn't know it in the moment, I found it. And I don't think that life is any different than that. You don't I mean? Yeah,

Marsha 1:13:46
I 100% agree. I 100% agree. I mean, that's like what I found when I was, you know, new to all of this and trying to figure out, you know, how do we get on a Dexcom? How do we get on we are on a tandem. So how do we get on that like, and then I'm on the phone to my insurance, which was a city funded, like city plan. So I'm like telling me what I need to do. And they're like, Well, if you can't do this, call us back. I don't. I was personal friends with that person. By the time I got on a pump. I'm like gone. Yeah, we're just gonna, we're just gonna keep doing it. And like, do I call the tandem? Rep? Do I call this person do I call this person? I called everybody because my son was going to have what he wanted, you know, and what I wanted him to. I wasn't going to let it stop. And I think that's, I think, I think that's probably like the key to life, right? Like, how do you get what you want? How do you advocate enough for yourself to do it, you can let it happen to or you can just go do it.

Scott Benner 1:14:45
I also want to point out that the girl at the first Walgreens is probably 20 years old. And she was just doing what she was told like nobody told her to, to, like problem solve. They she said what she knew. She was now out of decisions. All right, but I wasn't other questions yet. And it turned out she knew more, by the way, never yelled at her wasn't upset. I didn't like none of that. Like I was just like, oh, you had a lovely conversation. As a matter of fact, a month later, if I'm being honest, I just told you a story from a month ago, and acted like it happened yesterday. Sorry, that happens a podcast sometimes. But a month later, when I went back to pick up my next one, at the drive up, she like saw me and lit up and she waved, she's like, Hey, how are you? Because after we found it before I walked away and made the phone call. She said, What is this drug for? And I looked at it and I went, it's for weight loss. And she goes, does it work? And back then I was like, I've lost 15 pounds already. And she's like, Wow, good for you. And I was like, thank you. And we have like a little connection. And then a month later, of all the people that she sees face to face to face, she looked at me and she's like, Hey, how are you? How's it going? I said 20 pounds now. And she's like, that's incredible. And she digged it up and and gave me the next one, the one that they had. So anyway, I'm not saying people are idiots, I'm not saying that I'm saying that there are going to be speed bumps, and there are gonna be walls you run into. And you can't just bump your nose into them and turn around and go home. Like it just, it's not how things work. And especially with diabetes in a situation where you are going to have this traumatic thing. And then, at some point come to the realization of like, oh, hell, I'm not getting out of this. And then come to the realization of like, oh, it's going to try to kill me. I'm gonna have to stop it from doing that. And then you go, who will help me? Here you white coat. And then white coat goes, you know, or says I interviewed a guy yesterday, 35 years old. He's like your podcast, was given to me by my doctor, and included so much more information than the doctor was ever going to give me. And so now you're in that that doctor's office thinking? Well, they don't have the answer, either. That's where a lot of people give up right there. Or they accept? Well, this must be what it is. And I don't know how they would know differently. You know? Sorry. That's saturated.

Marsha 1:17:13
Think about that. Like about, oh, a month ago, I was just really frustrated with my son's numbers. He's had some growing going on. And he's a little sneaker, he sneaks food and candy. And I'm trying to figure out what's going on because he walks out the door for school and his blood sugar rises instantly, no matter what he has for breakfast, he just gets excited about that. And then he was going to bed and his blood sugar was rising after he went to bed. Right. And I kind of let it go on probably I kind of blamed myself for this, I'd let it go on a little longer than I wanted to. And I just finally said, Okay, stop it enough. I stepped back, I started looking at the graphs, I made all of these changes across all of his profiles. And he's had beautiful, like, two weeks after that we go into the doctor and she's like, um, I see you've made some changes. And I said, Yes, yes, I have just took ownership and said, Yep, I did it. Here's what I did. And she goes, You know what, I couldn't have made any better changes. And I'm like, yes, yes. Is that? Yeah, it's it's that just deciding that, like you, you can take control and charge or not. You know,

Scott Benner 1:18:29
I have to ask you a question. Like, that's an interesting, like, in my mind, I'd rather ask for forgiveness than permission. Right? And but at the end, I don't even think I would actually ask for forgiveness, if I'm being 100% honest. But like, what is it in people's minds? Do you think, where they go to a doctor, and the doctor is about to disagree with them, and they they turtle up? And they're like, oh, here it comes? I'm gonna get in trouble. I've never felt like that about anything in my entire life. And I wonder what that is?

Marsha 1:18:59
You know, I think it's because doctors have had this place in our like, in the hierarchy of our world, that they know everything and they know best. Right? I can even relate this back to addiction, you know, people getting addicted by the pills that the doctor actually gave him. Well, the doctor gave it to me, well, but if you really think about it, the doctors are just really doing the best that they can and they may not have all the information. And so like I started thinking about, you know, just partnering with our endocrinologist versus her being the lead that I'm just going to partner with her right? And she can teach me some things and she can tell me if I'm like off track or if I should make some tweaks but I wasn't going to wait for her to make some descent some decisions when I can see by looking at his graphs what was going on. Yeah, I've met other parents are like, Oh, I never make changes on that. I make them all with us.

Scott Benner 1:19:59
I think it would benefit everyone if they could meet people in professions that they think of is like, I don't know, like super important or anything because I know doctors personally. And you know, what's interesting about them is they're people who, who had enough fortitude to make it through eight years of college doesn't even necessarily make them any smarter than you. I've had Jenny say to me, I think of you as a colleague. And I barely got through high school. Right? i There's no pretense about me at all. As a matter of fact, lately I've been lately, Marsha, people have been recognizing me in public more and more. I gotta step up my game yesterday. My daughter's like, your shirt doesn't even match your shorts. And that lady knows who you are. And I was like, oh, yeah, I was like, damn. So like, no kidding. We were in and hi to the person that I met, I guess. But I took our into Ulta to get some makeup. And as we were going up the pay, I noticed the woman come through the front door, and the flashlight was on her phone. And she just stuck it in her pocket. And we intersected each other. So I said, Excuse me, I noticed when you were walking in the flashlight was on on your phone. And she goes, Oh, thank you. And I said, no trouble. And I walked away. And we got in line and paid for makeup. And by the way, whoever makes makeup, you're criminals and should not cost that much money. And we're walking out the door Arden's a little ahead of me. And this, this person is now back in like, in front of me again. And she goes, Do I know you? And I went, and I stopped and kind of backed up through the door. I'm like, I don't know, like, Do we know each other? And I, my first thought, I'm being honest, I was pretty close to home was is this like a person who's like, got a kid a year younger than me or older than me and I we kind of know each other. And I'm like, I'm not sure where from and she goes, Facebook. And my first thought was, I'm not on Facebook. Like, I have like a private I have a personal Facebook, I don't use it, you know? And I'm like, No, and she goes diabetes, and I went, Oh, well, that could be and, and then we started chatting, and she works at a local hospital and blah, blah and in diabetes. And we get outside and Arden's like, Yo, you're like internet famous now. And I was like, yeah, and she goes, dude, your shirt doesn't even match your shorts right now.

Marsha 1:22:22
Come on dad. Like she goes said,

Scott Benner 1:22:25
I look homeless. And I was like, she's like, this isn't okay. And I'm like, right. But that's on the heels of in the last seven days, I've met two other people in public who have recognized me. Wow. And so I was like, Alright, I guess I gotta do something about this. First of all, I'm not gonna stop using the week over, you know, I'm, I'm suddenly know why like, like, I'm making quotes around famous. But now I know why famous people are so worried about how they look, because you do have like, suddenly you're I wonder are people looking at me? Like, that be happening? And I'm like, oh, so I'm gonna not think about that. Anyway, I'm sorry. I don't know where I was headed with that. But you

Marsha 1:23:06
know, back to your point about if, if people could just see like doctors as as people, right? Yes. My next door neighbor's a doctor. Right? I see him picking up his dog poop. Like he's a real person. Yeah, yeah. He didn't know everything.

Scott Benner 1:23:20
Right. Nobody knows everything. But you get enamored, like, I mean, like, I met somebody the week before, and they were enamored with me. And I really wanted to say to them, like, this excitement you have is misplaced. Like, I'm a guy who has a kid with type one, I understand it maybe better than some people and I'm a good communicator. That's it. Like, like, I'm there's nothing beyond that. Like, it just this is it. I like doing this. It helps people. And it pays my bills. And so I do it every day. I can't tell you if I couldn't pay for my kids to, you know, eat, I wouldn't be able to do this. You know, they mean like, so like, there's an the doctors a doctor because he wanted to make money. And he maybe was like, Oh, I'm good at science. He might not even be like, I want to help people. You don't mean like, listen, I know a couple of different I know more than a few doctors and some nurses and they're all lovely people, and they go out and do a hard job and everything but they're not smarter than you. Right? Generally speaking, you know what I mean? So

Marsha 1:24:27
I think that's so true. Like, especially with like, I'm, like, clearly I'm around my son all the time, because I'm his mom, but like, I see what happens to his body. Right? My endocrinologist doesn't, she doesn't see what's happening to his body to what happens with what food he puts in his body and how that impacts him and all that kind of stuff. So I see that. So how is she going to be better at understanding the ins and outs of how diabetes affects him than I am who sees what he eats, how much he doses when he sneaks, and what it does to his blood sugar like, yeah, yeah, you

Scott Benner 1:25:09
know, anybody who's ever had their car make a noise, then they take it to a garage and it won't make the noise anymore. It's basically the same situation, you know, you're standing there going, No, you don't understand when I make a right turn, the wheels wobbling. And I know it's not happening right now. But it happens every day. Just because they can't make the wheel wobble doesn't mean that it's not happening to you, and you go into a doctor's office, you're like, here, these are my concerns. And they'll look at your graph, or do or they're your MLB. Like, they start turning dials and moving things. And I'm like, That is not a good way to do this. And, and, by the way, I'm not trying to give people the idea not to listen to their doctors, or that they're not valuable. I'm just saying they're not infallible. And right, and you shouldn't be cowering when you're explaining what you did. Right? You know,

Marsha 1:25:56
yeah, that's, that's the, that's the whole idea of me partnering with my doctor, instead of her bleeding. You know, I just need to be the partner in this. Yeah. And my opinion counts, and what I think counts, and what I see matters. And I should be able to say that. So, you know, I felt very proud when she said, You made the exact changes that you need to do and like, Yay, go me. And if she told me that I hadn't, I wouldn't have changed him back. Because what I saw was they were working. Yeah, right,

Scott Benner 1:26:30
Kelly, and a deal working. And by the way, a decent doctor will get to you with that. And a lot of you are not great communicators. And so like, it's that feeling right away of wanting to be adversarial, as soon as you're like, you know, like, oh, well, like you had one experience. But what if the doctor would have been like, Hey, you can't be making these changes. And then you have an opportunity to either say, Well, you know, we made them because of this. And this is the result. So we really do feel like this was was valuable. Or you could just be like, go to hell, and then get angry. And now you're in a fight. Like, I know, like, again, people think like, oh, they're professionals, or they shouldn't, like, you know, have an opinion about if they like me or not, or, but they're just people. And, you know, maybe, yeah, maybe you're crappy to them. And they're like, I hate Patti. Like, you know, I'm gonna help her because, you know, that oath I took and everything, but I don't like her. And then suddenly, you could be those, those people grew up poorly, too, just because they ended up being doctors doesn't mean they're great communicators, either. Right? It's just a lot going on. So I like to keep it simple. And I like to stand up and say what I did, right? This is what I did. This is why I did it. If you have input about it, give it to me. Because I'd love to know if there's more improvement to have here. Yeah, cuz

Marsha 1:27:52
there there have been times that I've made a change to like, Well, I think this is a little too strong. And this is why you're seeing that. And she, we talk about it, and she explains it to me. So that's why I you know, because we what ended in this two and a half years, right. And so that's why I felt like I was really happy that she agreed with what I was doing. However, the first couple of times, we were in there, it was a lot of me learning from her. And a lot of me saying I made this change, and I see why that wasn't good, too. So it's that whole just been really open to that communication. And really, like this idea of a partnership versus adversary or, you know, they're gonna tell me what to do there. You know, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:28:40
listen, Arden's been home from school for not even a week yet. And over the last couple of days, on my garden, you're getting low at like, 3am, like, over and over again. And not real low, but like, just at that, like 7069 ish, like, isn't gonna hold like that low. And I'm like, Okay, no more school food. So there was obviously something about her settings that was necessary at school. It's not necessary here. So I made her insulin sensitivity weaker overnight, I made her basil weaker overnight. And last night, I almost had it. And I was like, ah, and I went in, and I turned a couple more dials. And I think I'm good. I think tonight, it's not gonna happen, right? Yeah, yeah. But I don't know how long you'd have to talk to a doctor or how well they'd have to understand your situation for a PERT forget a doctor for a third party person to come in. And help me with that decision. I just don't know how I don't I don't know how it would be possible for them to know. Even if I had the mindset where I regurgitated all the information that would have led them to the answer. It's too much at once. You don't even know it, because where would that story start? Well, you know, she's a college and the food at college is bogus. You know, like the doctors gonna be like, I don't know. And then a lot of the problems like right now You're seeing a low at 3am. I had to make changes at midnight. Right, right. And often, doctors will see lows and take away far too much basil. Or they'll take it away at the wrong spots where they won't talk to you about what happened before, which in the end is the real answer to Ardens issue is that Arden is now not eating difficult to digest, processed crappy food at 11 o'clock, she still had a snack at 11 o'clock. But it was decent food. And therefore, the foods the is the culprit for the 3am low. Right? In a sense, like because it's not as difficult anymore. So you make adjustments to blah, blah, blah. I don't know, like it's, they never, I not never, never is unfair. But a lot of people I talked to they'll go in and they'll say, you know, we're having a low here. And they took away all the basil. And I'd be like, but yeah, but there was a big spike four hours before that, is that a meal? That's a meal. So you're not managing the meal? Well, we can't even tell what's going on four hours later, like you shouldn't be looking for hours later, we should fix the meal first. And once you fix the meal Bolus, if you're still getting low afterwards, okay, but but it's very possible you won't be. And so basically what I did was I fixed the meal Bolus and made a small adjustment to the overnight basil and insulin sensitivity. You know,

Marsha 1:31:29
it's good to hear you say that, because I just experienced that when my son it's like, when I was looking at some stuff on like, on Wait a minute, like, as I'm looking at, it dawned on me that what was happening around mealtimes was then impacting him later. And I'm like, he doesn't have his carb ratio was off, it was like way off. And so I changed that meal times went better. And then everything fell into line after that. I mean, it's good to hear you say that, that just gives me a little validation that my thinking is, see how you teach is working. We

Scott Benner 1:32:03
tend to look at something done is over. Instead of like, this is probably why I mean, you know, not for nothing. When you find yourself snorting heroin. It's not because you're bored. It's because of something that happened prior to this that gets you to this spot. And so you know, we are always looking at the wrong moment trying to decipher what's happening. And I the best way I've found to say it so far is that insulin for now, is for later. But more importantly, insulin from before is what's happening now. Like if the mind shift and how you think about it. You can't Yeah, you can't be looking. So micro in the moment, and trying to figure out why am I low at midnight? Because it's not about what's happening at midnight.

Marsha 1:32:54
It's about it's about what happened before that. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:32:58
Listen, the two of us are geniuses like I figured that out. Actually. I shouldn't joke, Marcia, you're a fantastic surprise this morning. You're well thank you very, very good at this. Thank you. Please don't start your own podcast.

Marsha 1:33:11
No, no, no, no, I It's funny. I'll tell you how I found you. I went to the pumpkin patch. And my son went low. And I gave him some Skittles. He went low. And I gave him something else. He went he was still going low. I was totally freaked out. Right. He finally started going up well, because I just given him a ton of uh, sorry, a ton of sugar. He shot right up, and we're waiting in the line for this little trainer, this pumpkin patch. And he goes off. And this lady whips her head around and she goes Dexcom. And I said, yeah, here, and she goes, there's mine. And she goes, You need to listen to the juicebox because I'm not afraid of lows anymore. It's the highs that scare me. And that was a shift in thinking for me. But it was the best pumpkin patch experience I ever had. Thank you to her for her leading me to you because how we have continued to manage what's going on with him has really changed by your podcast. So I really truly appreciate the work that you do.

Scott Benner 1:34:16
It was my pleasure. And you were Linus and she was the Great Pumpkin.

Marsha 1:34:19
She was yes yes, it was great. Doesn't

Scott Benner 1:34:24
line this this sister yell at him throughout that episode? I think so. Yeah, think of her name.

Marsha 1:34:30
Was it Lucy is Lucy Linus a sister?

Scott Benner 1:34:33
No Lucy's got the dark Carolina sister is the blonde she's she's not Peppermint Patty. Oh, come on. Hold on.

Marsha 1:34:39
Oh, the blonde. I can see you're

Scott Benner 1:34:46
not Oh no, wait, I'm gonna figure it out. It's

Marsha 1:34:48
not Marsha Marsha Marsha.

Scott Benner 1:34:51
All right, listen, Peanuts characters. Oh, Lucy Van Pelt that you said Lucy. And I said no. Who

Marsha 1:34:59
was I thinking? of who is the dark haired one?

Scott Benner 1:35:03
She's the one who's mean to Charlie Brown.

Marsha 1:35:04
Yeah, what?

Scott Benner 1:35:06
Not pepper patty. Oh my god.

Marsha 1:35:10
I don't know. That's yeah,

Scott Benner 1:35:13
Marcy. This is ridiculous. How come I can't? It's very upsetting. Is there? It's not Paddy, Paddy. Where's the

Marsha 1:35:23
Peppermint Patties? The kind of but there's a

Scott Benner 1:35:25
patty and there's a peppermint patty. By the way, were there no extra names? It's not violet. Violet was like the goth girl showed her played the piano. Oh, wait, no. Lucy Van Pelt? Is is Linus a sister, but not who I'm thinking of? I'm thinking of Sally. Oh, yes, Sally's like the girl that like thinks she's Linus, his girlfriend, but by the way, they're like all five. So it's weird, but, but she's not really and he doesn't really care about her that much. Sally yells at him unmercifully while he's in the pumpkin patch.

Marsha 1:36:01
Oh, that's funny. I'm gonna have to watch that again. You

Scott Benner 1:36:04
think Charles Schultz had a bad relationship with women?

Marsha 1:36:08
Ah, but you know, the women are just kind of rude. Ruthless to those little boys, aren't they? Yeah. Is

Scott Benner 1:36:13
she is she is he was he? Hey, you want to hear something crazy? He was in an old folks home that my mom worked in in her 20s Oh, really? Yeah. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. But I wonder if he was trying to write them as strong.

Marsha 1:36:29
And they came across as really aggressive for if

Scott Benner 1:36:32
he didn't like women, and was writing them as nasty. Because they're worth research. They're all nasty, right? Except for patty. She just seems like she's on mushrooms. But she does, right. Yeah, I'm not making that up.

Marsha 1:36:52
It's all full circle.

Scott Benner 1:36:53
Yeah, you gotta go. You got to actually, I mean, he clearly he's writing Marcy as a lesbian. Yeah, right. And Sally's nasty to Linus. But she likes him and wants him to like her. Pigpen I never understood. I mean, it's very dirty. would have been easy to hose them off. Schroeder was kind of a dork. Right? Like a, like a piano player. All right. That's all I got two people not like I used to love the peanuts. But again, your omega point? It was because you had no access to it. You said that you said this earlier about instant gratification. Right? Let me make this point. As a child, and even as a young adult, once a year, the Great Pumpkin would come on television. And if you were not seated when it came on, you would not see it again till the following October. That is true. One day, they put it on VHS tapes. And my mom went right out. And it's like here, we can now watch the Great Pumpkin whenever we want. And I never watched it again. Right? It was too easy. Right? And yeah, and it turns out, it's not that great.

Marsha 1:38:11
Well, you know, the other show that you probably watch once a year was the Wizard of Oz.

Scott Benner 1:38:16
Oh, yeah. Right. CBS once a year, right? We have a putt along, or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer that the claymation thing, which it was the scarcity of it that made it so attractive. Right, right. It wasn't that it was the greatest thing that ever happened. It was that I couldn't get to it. And then there was also a school, I have to watch it because it's here. Then they made it readily available and easy to get to. And I was like, Yeah, I don't want this anymore. It's not my thing too easy. And it's not as good as I thought. Yeah, although whatever. I might be looking too far into this. Marcia, you were terrific.

Marsha 1:38:53
Thank you, Scott. I enjoyed being on. Oh, you're

Scott Benner 1:38:57
very good at this. You can tell you talk to people all the time. Yeah, yeah. Anything we didn't cover that we should have?

Marsha 1:39:04
No, I think we did. covered it all.

Scott Benner 1:39:09
Yeah, what's the rest of the day, like, you're gonna get your tractor and go.

Marsha 1:39:15
I actually have to go to work. And I have a couple of meetings left today. So

Scott Benner 1:39:20
alright, my last question is, do you have chickens? Do you own chickens? No,

Marsha 1:39:24
but I am because I live in town here. And I don't know. I don't know that people have Lawrence with like chickens in the backyard. But I have a space for them. And I keep telling my husband we need to put some back there.

Scott Benner 1:39:36
Chickens are the thing I'm never going to do that I think about doing all the time. Like I'm gonna get a couple of chickens and I'm going to eat their eggs every day. Yeah. And then I'm like, my wife's like, who's gonna take care of them? I was like, guys a fair question.

Marsha 1:39:50
I have a co worker who has chickens and so I'm going to con her into bringing me her eggs. Well,

Scott Benner 1:39:58
that's even better. has probably tried to figure that out. That sounds a lot better. Thank you so much. Hold on one second for me

that was it. That was Marsha. She was the last episode of 2023. Thanks very much, Marsha. A huge thanks to us med for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget us med.com/juice box, this is where we get our diabetes supplies from you can as well use the link or call 888-721-1514 Use the link or call the number, get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med. But just say something that's gonna sound trite, but I feel really privileged to make this podcast for you. And every day that I see you all downloading it and sharing it fills my heart in a way that I don't know that I can quite describe. So thanks to Marsha, and thanks to all of you. And thanks so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode, who I'll be back very soon with another year of the Juicebox Podcast. If you want to hang on a second, I'll tell you about what's to come. In the beginning of January 2024, we're going to launch two new series one grand rounds. The other cold wind, cold wind is whistleblowers, people coming on the show taking on an anonymous name, having their voices changed, so they can tell us about what happens in their jobs as emergency room nurses, physicians, human resource professionals, and more. On Grand Rounds, Jenny Smith and I are going to lay out what doctors should know about helping people with diabetes. And we're not going to be how do I want to say this, we're going to be nice, but we're not going to be polite. Grand Rounds is there for doctors to learn from and for you. So that you can understand what you should expect. What doctors should do what you should expect Grand Rounds coming in 2024 to the Juicebox Podcast, you really have to check out the private Facebook group. It's not 44,000 members and it's called Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. And if you'll give me just one second I'm gonna turn my microphone away. I don't usually sit so that I can see my whiteboard. If you're enjoying the podcast, please understand that my time is supported by ads Omni pod, who've been advertisers since the very beginning in 2015. Dexcom came on second, I think in 2016. And since then, we have built a wonderful group of advertisers us med the contour next gen blood glucose meter, G voc hypo pen ag one cozy Earth BetterHelp touched by type one and coming in 2024 We're going to add somebody else Medtronic diabetes. These advertisers support the production of this podcast. If you ever have a need or a desire to learn about them, or to get started with them, using my links, lets them know that you came from me using Juicebox Podcast links keeps the show plentiful and free for listeners. So if you have the need or the desire, click the links. There are links in the show notes and links at juicebox podcast.com to all the sponsors that I've mentioned here. Once again, thank you so much for listening. Have a Happy New Year. I'll see you very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

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