+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

---

DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 1147 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's show, I'll be speaking with Melissa she's 46 years old and she's had type one diabetes for two years. Today we're going to talk about all kinds of stuff on the pod five learning how to take care of yourself having to pay for your own C peptide test, and some personal tragedies. While you're listening, please remember 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 have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone with type one, please go to T one D exchange.org/juicebox. and complete the survey when you do this. You'll be helping with diabetes research, you'll be helping the podcast and you may be helping yourself T one D exchange.org/juicebox. The T one D exchange is looking for anyone who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, as long as they are a US resident. It is particularly hard to get data from males and males of color. So if you fall into that category, please do go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G seven made for all types of diabetes Dexcom G seven can be used to manage type one, type two, and gestational diabetes, you're going to see the speed, direction and number of your blood sugar right on your receiver or smartphone device. dexcom.com/juicebox This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by touched by type one touched by type one.org. And find them on Facebook and Instagram touched by type one is an organization dedicated to helping people living with type one diabetes. And they have so many different programs that are doing just that. Check them out at touched by type one.org.

Melissa 2:19
Hi, Scott. My name is Melissa. I am a type one diabetic. I just turned 46 I think we would refer to ourselves as ladder. So I was diagnosed when I was 44.

Scott Benner 2:30
So did your was your onset very slow.

Melissa 2:35
No, it was not.

Scott Benner 2:36
I don't know that you're a lot of like to me Lata is about the onset. The very like slow, methodical way that the pancreas just stops working very gently, but yours just kind of shut off.

Melissa 2:48
It seems to have given us two weeks notice pretty quick.

Scott Benner 2:52
I think you just have type one diabetes, then.

Melissa 2:54
That's what my endocrinologist, he just calls me type one.

Scott Benner 2:59
Yeah, I mean, honestly. So a lot of it is latent autoimmune diabetes in adults, right? That's correct. But the latent is the is the part that we want to hold on a second. I just don't want to talk wrong about it. And the last time Jenny made me say it out loud. I was pulling it so far out of my butt that I was like, I think I'm saying this right. Yeah, I that really is just about the very slow onset. I'm going to just say you have type one, and we're going to be done with it.

Melissa 3:28
Well go with type one.

Scott Benner 3:29
Why not? Any other type one in your family?

Melissa 3:32
I have no family history on mom or dad side. The only person that has diabetes is type two was my grandmother. She was diagnosed in her 60s and managed it with diet and exercise for 15 odd years.

Scott Benner 3:47
About that. How about other autoimmune stuff in your family? Not that I know of. Do you have anything else? Thyroid celiac stuff like that? Nope.

Melissa 3:56
No. Okay. Well, just the lucky type one, just

Scott Benner 4:00
just this little thing. Are you married? Do you have children?

Melissa 4:02
I am widowed. I have five children.

Scott Benner 4:05
Holy hell five.

Melissa 4:07
Yes, I do. I have five children. I haven't locked them in the basement right now. That's why it's so quiet.

Scott Benner 4:12
Melissa, I'm gonna say something we're gonna get off to a start where either you're gonna love me or not love me. But is that what killed your husband? Or?

Melissa 4:20
Well, it was me or it was the children or actually he did pass with cancer.

Scott Benner 4:24
Oh, I'm so sorry. That's terrible. Yeah, so then it wasn't you or the kids? Luckily, no, not an unreasonable question though. For 5g Even just the the effort to make the five children and keep them alive. Good. Well,

Melissa 4:36
I'm pretty sure he had a good time. Me. It was a little rough.

Scott Benner 4:41
Why was it rough for you?

Melissa 4:44
Five pregnancies doesn't number on your body. Maybe that's what caused day one.

Scott Benner 4:47
You think so?

Melissa 4:48
He just No, actually, I don't know. I wish we had a cause. Yeah.

Scott Benner 4:53
Wow. How long has he been gone?

Melissa 4:55
Five years.

Scott Benner 4:56
Oh, I'm so sorry. That's crazy. Well, you guys similarly aged Yes,

Melissa 5:00
he was one year older than me. Wow. How

Scott Benner 5:02
old are your kids?

Melissa 5:03
My oldest is 19. I have 1918 1614. And my little guy is 11. Wow. How

Scott Benner 5:10
about that? Do you ever consider sending their bloodwork in for trial that or anything like that to see if they have any markers for Taiwan?

Melissa 5:18
I have. I have not yet acted upon it. I am much more concerned about the cancer through their father's side,

Scott Benner 5:25
which tell me what kind of cancer it was. It was colon

Melissa 5:29
cancer. And so his colonoscopy at the time was it's not it wasn't indicated until 50. He was diagnosed at 37. They've now moved it to 45. So I just had my colonoscopy came back nice and clear. But he was diagnosed at 37 with stage four. Wow. Oh, geez. All at once. All at once. Was that our anniversary as well? I should add.

Scott Benner 5:50
Oh my god, what are you trying to make me crazy? She's Melissa. I'm gonna cry in a second. My mom just died of cancer like a month and a half ago.

Melissa 6:00
So sorry, that it's difficult. I'll give you a virtual tissue.

Scott Benner 6:04
Thank you. I appreciate it. Wow, he was so young. And he and he lived with it for a couple of

Melissa 6:11
years. Not hard. Yes, he passed. He actually lasted five years. He fought very hard, very valiantly.

Scott Benner 6:18
That's crazy. Do you get the feeling looking back? Was he doing it? Because he thought it was gonna work out or was he just trying to hang around for you guys? I think it was a little bit of both. Yeah. I mean, your youngest would have been like

Melissa 6:33
he was 12 months old. At diagnosis.

Scott Benner 6:36
Jesus. Yeah. You're gonna make me cry. Melissa. Okay. Wow, it does that kind of cancer run in your husband's side of the family?

Melissa 6:43
No, there was no family history on his mom or dad side. Oh, geez. Does He have brothers and sisters? He has one sister and one brother.

Scott Benner 6:51
Are they very careful now? Yes.

Melissa 6:55
I think we all are after that. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 6:57
would think so too. All right. I'm gonna try to shift this a second. Do my best here. What's the you're in a very unique situation. So do you think about dating ever?

Melissa 7:09
I'm currently in a relationship with my running shoes. And I have been for about 10 years. Well,

Scott Benner 7:15
let's say you sound like you set your voice you have such a lovely voice. The I don't know if you know that or not. And when you think you and you said that or like seriously, are you doing voiceover work on the side? What are you doing?

Melissa 7:25
I wish I'm just one of those pesky attorneys. You're

Scott Benner 7:29
an attorney. I am. No kidding. What kind of law do you practice?

Melissa 7:33
I do corporate law. And I also work for veterans. Disabled Veterans. Nice.

Scott Benner 7:39
Let's see. Five kids. No diabetes, yours is late. You didn't expect it? I guess my big question is is that after what happens to your family? It's only a few years later that you get type one. Is your first thought this isn't fair.

Melissa 7:58
Absolutely. Oh, 110%. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 8:01
feel like that's what I would think to. How long did it take you to process all of that Dexcom G seven offers an easier way to manage diabetes without finger sticks. It is a simple CGM system that delivers real time glucose numbers to your smartphone, your smartwatch. And it effortlessly allows you to see your glucose levels and where they're headed. My daughter is wearing a Dexcom g7 Right now, and I can't recommend it enough. Whether you have commercial insurance, Medicare coverage, or no CGM coverage at all Dexcom can help you go to my link dexcom.com/juice box and look for that button that says Get a free benefits check. That'll get you going with Dexcom. When you're there, check out the Dexcom clarity app where the follow Did you know that people can follow your Dexcom up to 10 people can follow you. Right now I'm following my daughter, but my wife is also following her. Her roommates at school are following her. So I guess Arden is being followed right now by five people who are concerned for her health and welfare. And you can do the same thing. School Nurses, your neighbor, people in your family. Everyone can have access to that information if you want them to have it. Or if you're an adult, and you don't want anyone to know, you don't have to share with anybody. It's completely up to you. dexcom.com/juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. And when you use my link to learn about Dexcom you're supporting the podcast.

Melissa 9:32
Well, I was originally diagnosed as type two. So when I was 44, they had diagnosed me as type two kind of an interesting story. The insulin Gods nudged me a little bit. So I went on to Amazon Believe it or not, and I got a glucose meter. So I didn't have any symptoms that sort of classic symptoms going to the bathroom. You know very frequently I had actually gained a couple of pounds. So I just felt like something might have been off So I bought a meter, my blood sugar was 531. So I make a visit to the doctor. He asked me the list of questions, I say no to everyone and he said your meter is incorrect. Here is a prescription for a meter. And so I get that meter. And sure enough, was roughly the same.

Scott Benner 10:20
That I figured it out. It's the meter you bought

Melissa 10:24
an interest? I wish it were the meter. Unfortunately, it was not Was

Scott Benner 10:27
there some time after he, the doctor said that you thought, oh, I don't have diabetes. I just bought a junky meter.

Melissa 10:33
Absolutely. And I so wished that was the case. Oh,

Scott Benner 10:37
and then you find out that it's not the case? Do they start treating you like a type two? Initially, they

Melissa 10:42
did. My my agency was 11. I was put on Metformin and Jardiance, a combination pill called sin Gerety. So I took that daily, and he said, You can take it what a once weekly injection, and I thought, Oh, no way. I will never inject myself. That is the scariest thing on the planet. And, of course, here we are.

Scott Benner 11:02
Yeah, now you're doing it. Like it's like it's nothing like

Melissa 11:06
it's going out of style. Exactly.

Scott Benner 11:09
Okay. I just had a thought. I don't usually do this at night. By the way, I'm a little thrown off by this. Getting myself gathered, okay, so that the doctor sees you like any type to a mum. Okay. Did you have any big illnesses or viruses prior to your diagnosis?

Melissa 11:31
I didn't.

Scott Benner 11:33
So they say sometimes, that stressors can also be like kind of things. Like the my assumption would be that you've been living with markers for type one diabetes, most of your if not all of your life. And I'm wondering if the passing of your husband wasn't so stressful that it didn't put your body in a in a unique situation?

Melissa 11:56
It may have it very well may have i That's something that I have thought of.

Scott Benner 12:01
Me, there's no way to know. It's just right. Yeah. Interesting to wonder about. So okay, so you. So you have the quick onset? How long did they treat you like a type two, it was

Melissa 12:15
about four or so months, I bought every single book that I could get my hands on thinking if I work hard enough, I could put this into remission. So I read a bunch. I actually ordered my own C peptide and antibodies tests. And that revealed that I my C peptide was terribly low. And I tested positive for the GAD antibodies.

Scott Benner 12:37
You did that on your own?

Melissa 12:38
I did.

Scott Benner 12:39
Is that something that Dr. Fight you want it? Or was it pretty harmonious when you asked?

Melissa 12:45
It was a self test that you I purchased on my own? How much of it was a pretty penny? It was several $100 out of pocket. But I wanted to know, from all of the literature that I had read if I was indeed type one.

Scott Benner 13:00
Did you not think mom trying to figure out why did you not go to the doctor and ask for the that testing, like through your insurance?

Melissa 13:07
I had switched physicians at that point.

Scott Benner 13:12
You didn't like the last one did not like the last one. Does the cancer battle teach you not to put up with bad doctors?

Melissa 13:19
I think it teaches you to be a strong self advocate.

Scott Benner 13:24
Yeah, I agree. I often think that my mom stole a couple of years. And it's because I this is gonna sound strange. But it's because I have all this experience raising a child with diabetes, right? Because there was a moment where doctors told my mom like this is it like, you know, just get your affairs in order a couple of months. And, and it's gonna be over. And I was the one who was like, No, I we could figure this out. Like if we try hard enough. And we got a doctor to perform her surgery, which led to two more years. And but doc, but the doctor we were at and even the institution she was at was not interested in helping her. Right. And so, you know, I really believe in that strongly. Well, it'll serve you well moving forward, I think. I think so. I hope so. Yeah, absolutely. How are your kids?

Melissa 14:20
Oh, they're doing just fine. I've got two in college two in high school for this upcoming school year and one in middle school. Wow.

Scott Benner 14:26
Is it exhausting raising five children by yourself?

Melissa 14:29
Oh, being mom and dad has me very tired. Yes. And then I worked full time as well.

Scott Benner 14:34
What did you find? What did you find the slack that needed to be picked up? Like what did you look at and say this is an important thing my husband would have done? It needs to get done. I'm gonna have to jump into unfamiliar territory here and do this thing.

Melissa 14:53
Really showing up for myself? Because kind of like the airplane analogy you have to put on Your own mask first and then save the littles that is so incredibly important. And then ditch the mom guilt that is so strong and so important. So if I don't take proper care of myself, especially now as the only living parent, my kids will have no one. And that's not acceptable.

Scott Benner 15:17
How did you do that? How did you get rid of the guilt?

Melissa 15:20
I don't know that I've gotten rid of it entirely. But finding moments of gratitude daily is really important. And something that I cherish.

Scott Benner 15:28
It really is a situation where you're owed your feelings as well. As certainly, yeah, and I'm assuming you've, you know, made five children with a person you really cared for. So, and it's such a, I mean, you probably really started. I'm so sorry. I feel like I'm bumming you out. But like, worries. I mean, that really is just, I mean, it's still the beginning of your life. You know, 37 years old, honestly. Right. Yeah. Right. Wow. That's a lot of kids that 37 You've been like, do you guys start early or go fast?

Melissa 16:01
Started in law school.

Scott Benner 16:04
Really? Law school? Not hard enough for you?

Melissa 16:09
Yes, like she's my Christmas break, baby.

Scott Benner 16:13
We've got to do something to get rid of all this tension. Why don't we make more tension?

Melissa 16:20
Simply get out there. They're cute and squishy. So you know what's for more? How

Scott Benner 16:24
do you make it through law school with a baby? Like that's interesting.

Melissa 16:29
Just a day at a time, kind of like, like today?

Scott Benner 16:33
So you've kind of always operated this way. Yes, yes. Yeah. Did you have like family help with the baby and everything? Do you guys get mad? I have so many questions. Do you guys get married right away once you got pregnant and what did you do?

Melissa 16:45
We met in college. And so we got married a year and a half later. And then he went to law school, then I went to law school. Wow.

Scott Benner 16:55
That's really something hey, most Mormon.

Melissa 16:59
We're not Mormon and we're not Catholic. I do get those quite often. Yeah, no

Scott Benner 17:03
kidding. Well, they're obvious. Like you know, generalizations to make. I like how you answer everything like an attorney. Do you know that about yourself? Now I do your questions or like your answers or like you pause, you think your direct you don't say more than I asked, which is interesting.

Melissa 17:25
Like, we don't want to know how many listeners you have. So

Scott Benner 17:28
I just always think of attorneys as people were like, I don't say anything extra because extra stuff gets us in trouble. So we just keep it to what we're doing. Anyway. That's lovely. I on point, I'm also enamored by your voice, by the way, definitely think you could be a mom in a sitcom or something like that. Oh, thank you. Now you, um, you're like, thank you. I'm an attorney. I don't need to be in a sitcom.

Melissa 17:51
Might be a little more fun, a little less stressful. Actually, I love what I do. I've only wanted to be an attorney. So I'm, I'm grateful that I get to do that.

Scott Benner 17:58
Okay, good for you. That's excellent. You talked about having to be there for your kids. So I'm going to try to piece together a little timeline here. Your husband passes. Your your health is how at that point, I mean, your mental health is probably shaky. But how was your physical health?

Melissa 18:14
I was running a lot. So it was I was in pretty good shape. I still am, hopefully in decent shape. I saw Ron, I did a lot of rock climbing. I have yet to do outdoor rock climbing since being diagnosed. So mainly indoor rock climbing. So I've always been pretty athletic. And type line is definitely not slowing me down. If anything, it's helping me to get out there and sort of show the world that you can run a 50k or climb a mountain with type one.

Scott Benner 18:43
I don't know the metric system but 50k Sounds far.

Melissa 18:46
It's a little farther than a marathon. So it's it's not too terrible.

Scott Benner 18:50
So to you. I jogged up the stairs to do this with you. And I was like great. Now I'm out of breath. Wow, that's something so how do you? How are you managing right now? Are you on a pump? Do you use injections? What do you do?

Melissa 19:04
I am now on? Luckily I love it the Omnipod five and the Dexcom G six.

Scott Benner 19:10
Nice. What did you start with?

Melissa 19:12
I started on MDI with Joseba and human log.

Scott Benner 19:17
And what were your needs? Huh? What is the question I want to ask? I'm looking at your age. You're still so sorry. You're getting your period still is what I want to say. Right? So do you see fluctuations? Did you see fluctuations right away with hormones? Well,

Melissa 19:33
it's interesting. I I'm actually on an IUD. Once my husband was diagnosed with cancer, we put a stop to the baby making for obvious reasons. So I had an IUD. So the IUD that I have is the marina and the Marina means I don't get a period so I don't actually get the monthly cyclical changes. So I believe that I'm actually Peri menopausal at this point, just from some other types of symptoms, but I have not no Just my insulin needs varying within the weeks of a given month.

Scott Benner 20:04
Can you spell the name of the IUD? It's

Melissa 20:07
Marina and I Rena.

Scott Benner 20:11
Oh, okay, so you don't see the fluctuations? But what are the things you're seeing that make you think you might be perimenopausal is the

Melissa 20:18
temperature stuff? Temperature? Oh, the temperature? My wife

Scott Benner 20:22
takes something. Are you do you get the sweat ease? The sweats? Yes,

Melissa 20:26
I do. Wait, hold

Scott Benner 20:27
on. I'm gonna text somebody in another part of my house and get you the name of something that stopped it for my wife. Yes, please. What? This is, by the way. Sorry, Kelly. All right. I'll get the name back of that for you. Wow, look at us. Old. Oh, my gosh. All right. So your, how long on MDI before you move to Omnipod five.

Melissa 20:57
I was on MDI for about six months. It was grueling work, I maintained an A one C of 5.4. I counted my injections, because I really wanted to figure out what I ate, how it affected my body, my running my climbing, how that affected. So I kept meticulous records for about the first six months. So I was doing in order to keep that line from shooting up or going too low. I was doing on average, about 10 to 13 injections a day, I had the human log Jr. So I was able to Bolus in half unit increments. I have now a wonderful endocrinologist who writes me the best prescriptions ever. And after six months, I said I'm I think I'm ready to start pumping. And it was the best decision ever.

Scott Benner 21:43
Did you take to it all very quickly. It sounds like you figured diabetes out.

Melissa 21:49
I had done a lot of research. And in fact, when I was diagnosed as type one, I did a search. And it led me to one of your podcasts with a physician herself who was diagnosed as type one. She was loud as well. And that was such an encouraging, encouraging episode to know that I wasn't alone, because I didn't know anybody that was type line. I do have one friend in person to actually that are that I can receive support from that are here in real life. But that was I just recall, and I don't remember her name. But that was just the best episode ever. It gave me so much hope. Wow,

Scott Benner 22:27
that's really something I I have to tell you that. Even though I understand that that happens when somebody says it to me, it still takes me by surprise a little bit. It feels lovely that that, that that all worked out like that. But absolutely,

Melissa 22:41
it was just a godsend. I wish I could remember her name, or had some way to contact her just to say thank you.

Scott Benner 22:48
Yeah. Oh, well, let's just assume that I invited her on. So thank you. Me. It's enough. Do you want to figure out so this stuff is over the counter? It's called estrogen. e s t r o v e n? O yes.

Melissa 23:04
I've heard of that. I have yet to try it complete

Scott Benner 23:06
MultiSymptom menopause relief? My wife says that made her stop

Melissa 23:11
sweating. So I will try that out. No, tell her thank you. Oh,

Scott Benner 23:14
please, I will absolutely pass it on. She'd be thrilled if it helps somebody else. And by the way, if you so if you don't have you don't have any thyroid stuff. So you probably wouldn't have listened to the thyroid episodes. But the doctor that was on to discuss thyroid stuff. Dr. BENITO is the one who told my wife about estrogen. So okay, yeah. Good luck with that. I think it's just like, I think you're probably grabbing it at Amazon to be perfectly honest. Oh, beautiful. Perfect. Good luck. Let me know by the way, seriously, if you stopped sweating, send me an email. I definitely

Melissa 23:42
will stop sweating. I just hope you remember me and

Scott Benner 23:47
please don't give it any context. I just want to get an email like in three months it says I stopped sweating and see how long it takes me to go. What the hell is this about? Right? I really have the worst memory for things like this. I got a note today. Hold on. I wish I could get it up for you. So I'm now I'm using an editor for the podcast now. So like you and I will talk we'll do our whole thing. At the end of this episode after you and I are done. I'll leave myself like a voice note like listen I talked about this and that and blah blah blah and maybe think about naming the episode this like that's pretty much it right? And then I'll upload the file and someone else will go clean it up. Although I gotta be honest, your microphone sounds so good that if we don't curse I probably can save the money on this one. Anyway goes up to an editor and that person like takes like leave some notes for me at the end. And the note I got today was something about like reconstructive surgery on somebody's i don't know I'm sorry most I'm not a doctor, but you know,

Melissa 24:51
they're telling you just play one on TV Exactly.

Scott Benner 24:54
The part between their button their vagina, and then and all this stuff and so Um, and he sent me a note, he goes, Hey, you're gonna want to listen to this and hear and make sure you're okay and comfortable with this and this and this. And I was like, Okay, I don't remember this at all. I said, I can't wait to put it on and remember what the hell you're talking about.

Melissa 25:17
It's like opening a Christmas gift twice. You forget the first time, you know, I'd double gifts

Scott Benner 25:21
or by gosh, I swear to you. I mean, honestly, though, with that set up, don't you think your brain would go? Oh, yeah, well, that's this not I can't, I've just recorded too much. But you you joked a minute ago about I said, I'm not a doctor. I'm certainly not. But I just got surgery on my foot. During the initial consultation with the doctor, we were having a conversation. And I started saying some things. And there's a pause. And he goes, Hey, I'm sorry. Are you a medical professional? And I said, I got embarrassed. And I said, I have a podcast

Melissa 25:56
that is under the medical category. Does that count for something?

Scott Benner 26:00
What is the budget so that I started telling me about it? And he said, Oh, you're you're incredibly knowledgeable. And I said, Oh, thanks. And like, let go of it. Like not a thing that we kept talking about. But then weeks go by and then you get the surgery and then you know, little time goes by and you visit with the doctor and I and I had to come see him because the dressing was just not holding up. And I called them and I was like, I can just rewrap this and they were like, no, no, come in, we'll rewrap it. And I was like, All right, whatever. So I rewrapped it. But I kept the appointment. I think I just wanted to get out of the house for an hour. I was like, Oh, I can still go somewhere. And so I kept the appointment. I walked in, he goes, That looks fine. I said, I rewrapped it and he goes, Oh, that makes sense. You're a doctor. And

Melissa 26:45
I was like, Well, it matters into your own hands. Quite literally.

Scott Benner 26:48
He said that podcast is really coming through. So he looks at my foot and he goes did a really nice job. And I said I all I did was wrap it with gauze and tape. I'm like, I don't know that there's a like a high ceiling here for this. Anyway, it's ridiculous. Okay, so you move from MDI to Omni pod five, after not a long time, but not a short time using MDI, either. You were very diligent about your MDI. I mean, it's a lot of shooting to maintain a number, I guess. So during the MDI time, what was your a one see, like,

Melissa 27:20
it was 5.4. I kept a 5.4 a one C, I'll choose Milissa. So it was a tremendous amount of work. Yeah,

Scott Benner 27:29
no kidding. So you're making small bumps with injections? When you see blood sugar's rising, that kind of stuff. Right, exactly. After CGM. At that point. Are you MDI with the CGM ever?

Melissa 27:40
Yes, yes, I went to my endocrinologist, he gave me the libre, I prefer the Dexcom, it was just a little bit more accurate for my body. So I just actually got insurance coverage, I was paying out of pocket. Okay, but it was well worth it. For

Scott Benner 27:55
you. I liked the way you, you attack this, for the lack of a better word, I enjoy your perspective and how you like you're like, I couldn't get a I couldn't get an antibody test. So I bought one. I didn't like that. So I paid cash. Like it's pretty cool. Okay, so now you what makes you well hold on a second, let me go back a little bit. When you're managing that tightly with MDI. Is that a thing you figured out on your own? Did you hear it through the podcast? Or read it in a book? Like, how did you decide to go after it like that? It

Melissa 28:27
was a lot of being part of the Facebook group, the juicebox Facebook group, there's a huge amount of support there. So that also being just a solid advocate. And then being of course, my kids only living parent, I felt like I didn't really have a choice but to maintain nondiabetic numbers or at least really try put in a solid effort. Wow,

Scott Benner 28:50
I was going to ask you about that earlier, but I just decided to wait to see if it came up. The idea of I gotta stay alive. Right? Right. Absolutely. Yeah. Me. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know another way to think about I think of it like that. And I didn't have anything happen, like you had happened. So it's

Melissa 29:09
really something to be faced with your own mortality or to watch the my husband pass. It's it brings a lot of things to the forefront. So it's important to be strong to be healthy, you know, mentally, physically, emotionally. Just the whole gamut. Yeah,

Scott Benner 29:24
I mean, and the five children, right. So add them to Yeah, well throw them in. Well, here's the question. If, let's say you just disappear, you float away like a balloon. We don't want to kill you. In my scenario, we'll just let you float away. Did they all go to the same person? Although under 18, like who?

Melissa 29:42
Oh, as an attorney, I have that under lock and key and it is well thought out. Yes. Yeah. But my husband was an attorney as well. So we had plans upon plans upon plans.

Scott Benner 29:52
When you told me you had five kids I knew you were both attorneys. Yes. You were guys are like I can afford this. Don't worry. As everyone else gets to and goes, we're in trouble. We got to stop. But do they go to? Like, was that a thought? Like, they have to keep them together? Where was the thought I need to put them where they fit best? Or how do you

Melissa 30:19
stay together? Yeah, they're all provided for. And luckily, I was able to get life insurance pre type one. So there said, I worry about them killing me in my sleep more than I worried about me dying from type one.

Scott Benner 30:33
Son, my son started an IRA the other day, I was very proud of him. He's just out of college. And he's talking to me about like, he started talking to me about like, you know, what am I gonna do when I'm 50? I'm like, wow, okay. We'll talk about this. So we sat down, and we talked, and I said, I think you could probably start, like opening up a simple IRA somewhere and putting an amount of money in every month and having a goal for maybe buying a home or something like that, and then a more long term goal. And so he was he was like handling all that. And I said, I want to give you the first bit of money to put in it to get you started. And he was like, Oh, great. And I told him the number which, by the way, it's not a lot of money. And I'm, you know, it's just a reasonable amount of money to get them going. And we get on the phone that day. And he said, I got the whole thing set up. I gotta sign the paperwork and everything. That guy is gonna get it to me. And I was like, great, that's all great. And he goes, How much money did you say? You were gonna give me again? And I could see that he had a number in his head. But he didn't want to say it out loud in case he was low balling it. And I watched him go, did you say, Uh huh, what did you say? is amazing. He's like, he's afraid he's gonna say five. And I said six. One and two, whatever. He doesn't want to screw himself out of it.

Melissa 31:54
You got to read the room. You got to read dad.

Scott Benner 31:57
Just for fun. Anyway, okay, so you I mean, you're doing a five four MDI. Lot of work by a lot of work. You're injecting a lot. You're watching closely. What kind of Jenny told me to say fuelling plan. Well, but it doesn't sound right to me. How do you eat? I guess, like, what's the style of food?

Melissa 32:18
I love food. I will eat anything and everything. There's two things on this planet I won't eat. That's about it. I will eat anything and everything. I love eating. In fact, my endurance running allows me to really enjoy food. So I'm certainly glad that that hasn't the type one hasn't stopped me from just eating. Yeah,

Scott Benner 32:37
you know, people aren't going to be okay with it. If I don't ask the two things you only

Melissa 32:41
oysters on the half shell And Rob Bell peppers. I just can't. Oh,

Scott Benner 32:45
interesting. The oysters I'm with you. I can't I can do mussels in a pinch. Like if I had to. If

Melissa 32:54
you were on a desert island, talking to you know, Wilson that's

Scott Benner 32:57
been in the bar and had a couple of mussels and gone. That's enough. I don't know what everyone else is going crazy on. I had three um, good. Oysters. I can't do though. That's interesting. But to just things that do not like the way they feel in your mouth or the way they taste.

Melissa 33:14
It's disgusting. It looks like a big pile. It's not I'm sorry. That's just so gross to me.

Scott Benner 33:20
What about the peppers, though?

Melissa 33:21
I don't know, they have such a strong flavor roasted I can do. But I just can't do RAW. Okay.

Scott Benner 33:26
Okay. So you're eating an eclectic mix of food. It sounds like and you're still managing that five, four. So when you decide to go to a pump, is that a difficult decision to make? Because you're doing so well? Or did you just feel feel like you needed the brake.

Melissa 33:42
I felt like I needed the brake. I knew in my gut that it was the right thing. And in fact, it had my insurance had denied it. And my doctor appealed it. And when I got the letter, I just broke down. I was picking up my son from the bus stop. And I started to cry. I showed him the letter, I knew that life was going to be so much easier, which it absolutely has. I wear a Garmin watch. And so I'm able to get my blood sugar on my watch. I'm able to Bolus through my phone, I have an Android, it could not be easier. This is a great time to be a type one if you happen to have the unfortunate fortune to be a type one. Oh, I

Scott Benner 34:18
agree. Jenny and I were talking about the other day. Well, I thought we were recording something. I don't know when you'll hear it. I can't keep track of everything. I were just talking about that. Like just you know, you just go back 100 And some years 100 And some years and Melissa you'd be gone. You don't I mean, like you would have got diabetes and you just would cease to exist. And then somebody comes up with insulin and then you know that's a miracle. And and you think well how can you get better and then it does and then the insulin gets better and then pumping and then the continuous glucose monitors are just they really are the rest of it. As far as I can tell right now. It just it's a it's a hell of a leap and I will tell you if you even go back to when Arden was diagnosed like when Arden was diagnosed it was a meter and syringes. And that was it. That's what you got. So it was just 20 years ago, right? Not even. Let me do the math. She's 19 She was diagnosed when she was two sounds like it was 17 years ago. Yeah. So Yeah. And, you know, it's funny, I really don't even know 2006 She was diagnosed. I really don't. It's not a thing I track. As a matter of fact, I think she was diagnosed in August, but I'm not even 100% sure of that. I really don't like, I don't know, I'm not that person on that stuff. But yeah, it's just it's come so far, so fast. And, and I mean, because the leaps that have happened in the last 10 years are, are really astonishing. Like, you know, really wonderful. The podcast, the Facebook group, gave you all that stuff. Did you use that to transfer your knowledge to pumping? Did you lean on this again? Or did you have it pretty solid by them? I

Melissa 35:54
did. In fact, I listened to the pro tip for the Omni pod. And that helps so much to make sure that I had my settings appropriate that I was able to Bolus in at the appropriate time Pre-Bolus seeing all of that everything is encapsulated in those I think it's four or five episodes. It is it's it's gold. Well, let's

Scott Benner 36:16
go. The diabetes Pro Tip series for Omni pod five is three episodes long. And it is available at juicebox podcast.com, forward slash Omni pod five, or it's in your player, etc, and so on. That was I'm going to take a little bit of credit here. People listening for a long time are laughing It's fine, you gotta laugh at me, I'm just gonna take credit here a number of years ago, when the idea of on the pod five G's back then they were going to call it horizon, it was going to be called Omni pod horizon. And it was in the very early stages, even nowhere near being, you know, even sent to the FDA years away from that happening. But the conversations are happening behind the scenes, we're working on this thing, here's what it's going to be. And I started advocating back then between me and the person that I do business with it on the pod, I was like, we have to make like a pro tip series to help people transition to an algorithm because it's not a thing people understand generally. And when it goes wrong, when they have their settings wrong, or when they fight with the algorithm or something like that, it's gonna go wrong, and they're gonna blame the pump. And not only is that going to be bad for you, as the company, but it's going to be bad for them. Because a number of them are going to, they're going to give up, they're going to think, oh, I tried the thing, the thing doesn't work. And that's not what we want. And I don't mean from a sales perspective. I mean, from like, a health perspective, and, you know, an ease of use and all the other good things that come out. I mean, how much do you love sleeping? Now? You know,

Melissa 37:43
it's beautiful. I love sleeping. I did my do with all of my kids waking up in the middle of the night.

Scott Benner 37:49
You didn't want a six go around with diabetes? No, thank

Melissa 37:53
you. No, thank you.

Scott Benner 37:55
I agree. But it's a different way of it's a slightly different way of thinking not just Omnipod five, by the way, but if you were going to use the tandem control IQ, or probably even the new Medtronic 780 You know, if you're going to loop if we're going to do do it yourself loop, it's all just it's a slightly different way of thinking about it. You want, you don't want to be fighting it, you want to be working with it. You know, right. That's very cool. Beautiful thing. I love it. How do you make out? I mean, it sounds like you're incredibly active. So how do you manage your activity with only about five

Melissa 38:27
if it depends on the time that I exercise during the day. So as is common, I tend to be a little bit more insulin resistant in the morning. So when I run fasted, I don't put it on activity mode, but any other time like after 10 Like today, I I hit the gym during my lunch, and I ran a couple of miles on the treadmill, I made sure to put an activity mode about an hour before to suspend the insulin. And I still actually ended up needing a little bit of sugar. So it's I always carry sugar with me always, always always, especially when I run back country. Yeah. And I of course have a little meter that I take and I do take my boxing as well. That's

Scott Benner 39:07
excellent good for you. Like just being prepared. I just got done making a couple of short episodes with people telling their experiences of using glucagon. And you know the amount of people who are not prepared or don't even didn't prior to it happening even understand why they needed to be prepared was interesting and there's that episode from not long ago. What is it the wife is telling the story of the husband going on a hike with their child he the husband gets low and starts to explain to his I think is pretty young daughter how to get back down the mountain they're on to find their grant her grandfather and have him come back and while the husband was explaining this to the child, he believed he was explaining to his kid how to go find somebody to come back and find his body like he thought he was like he He thought he was really in trouble. And then and then he found berries that he took to help bring his blood sugar back up. That is so scary, isn't it? Yeah, so scary. So if you're gonna carry your glucagon, then you know, you won't have to. You want to think give your children a map to bring back the the people who are going to drag your carcass back. You know what I mean? Right?

Melissa 40:18
Yeah, well, my kids would drive up in a Ferrari. But I have, I have definitely briefed the kids on where everything is located in the house, in my purse in my bathroom, I have the locations listed on my fridge, just in case step by step instructions. I've actually alerted my local police department and fire department. So I have a key so they don't have to do force entry in case I need to call 911. I've really thought about this. Because at some point, I will be living alone. The kids will fly the coop. So I want to make sure that I give myself I sort of stacked the deck in my favor. That's so

Scott Benner 40:58
smart. What it was that like when you contacted like your local municipality, I

Melissa 41:02
am lucky to know a couple of first responders. And so I asked them, what would be the situation if I called I knew I was going low. I just needed emergency services, but I couldn't make it to the door. And they said two options, forced entry. And I thought, well, I like my door. And they said second option is to have a lockbox with a key and then have kind of what realtors have when you do your open house and then have a code and so you can let them know the code. So no problem. They're

Scott Benner 41:34
smart. Hey, the joke earlier about the Ferrari that was that your kids were going to spend the money from the life insurance. Oh, the little stinkers Of course they did this they heard of your past and then come get you. Exactly. It was wonderful. I think this is what she said. I mean, sad.

Melissa 41:58
If you can't laugh at it, you can't laugh at it. You got to be able to take life with a grain of salt sometimes.

Scott Benner 42:03
No kidding. It does. I mean, listen, you've been offered, in my opinion, you've been offered two of the most significant perspectives that a person can have. I mean, the loss of a spouse at a younger age. And then your diagnosis, I think are two things that if you weren't already a person rich with perspective, I would imagine you you leveled up about 1000 times.

Melissa 42:32
I would hope so I think so. I really think as I mentioned earlier that taking moments for yourself doing if you're the meditative type to do some deep breathing or meditation or just revel in those moments of gratitude. The other day, I had my little guy and he brought me a flower. He goes on a walk with my oldest after dinner sometimes, and especially during summer break. And so he brought me back a flower and he said, I love you, Mommy. And so I put that flower in that's on my nightstand. And it's just those little moments. It's the last thing I see before bed. It's the first thing I see in the morning, that keep me I think in a good headspace.

Scott Benner 43:07
Is it possible that without that effort, you could have gone the wrong way?

Melissa 43:12
Oh, 100% 100% Is

Scott Benner 43:16
it? Is it something that you did you feel the draw of it and resist it? Or did you get ahead of the draw? Does that make sense? It's something

Melissa 43:26
that you're faced with, I think when anybody is faced with any difficulty or any hardship in life, it's your choice. There's a everybody faces this, whether it's type one, it's a passing of a family member, it's a loss of a job, but whatever it is, you are faced with a choice, how am I going to handle this, and I was faced with that choice. And instead of picking up something that was going to be detrimental to my health, I laced up my running shoes, I put on my climbing harness, and I just went for it. And so I ran long and I run hard I climb. And I then that's kind of really what keeps me sane. It also helps with blood sugar, a great deal as well.

Scott Benner 44:02
You're getting the double bonus there. You've beaten up absolutely up the road and getting the exercise. Oh,

Melissa 44:08
the best thing today is I didn't have to Bolus for my lunch after my run. So I got to be sort of a non diabetic for one meal. Oh, wow,

Scott Benner 44:16
that's cool. You said something earlier that I want to loop back to oh, that you can run in the morning fasted. I think that's something that you really learn with an algorithm. Because you know, you're not going to be in that situation where your Basal was too heavy overnight, and you wake up and you get low or something like that. If you don't need like, I really don't have a ton of time with this. But you know, when Arden was injecting or even when we were just using pumping, you know without an algorithm of any kind. There are times where you'd be like, well I managed this overnight. I have a nice blood sugar overnight, but you wake up in the morning and then you don't want to eat right away and hours go by If you end up getting low, then with an algorithm taking away basil and with it guessing that in the future you're gonna get low and taking taking away. You really can go. I mean, I don't know how to tell people like Arden didn't eat today. Today's an example she did not eat today until five in the afternoon. That's it. She went to bed really late at night, three, four o'clock in the morning, she got up at noon. And then she wanted to go to lunch with her friend, but her friend wasn't available. So they just she just waited, and then they went to dinner instead. And her blood sugar was super stable the entire day. Oh, I bet yeah, yeah. So no act of insulin on board and runnings not the same as active insulin and running, even if that active insulin is only just like your normal Basal, for example. Absolutely,

Melissa 45:44
the ability to suspend insulin is, is one of the hallmarks of what makes a pump I think, in my opinion, it or at least for me a little bit better than MDI, so that I can make those gameday decisions to go bang out those few miles on my lunch break, because that's the only time I have because I have to get up take the kids here their school work whatnot. So that's the only time and that's my, my sort of me time. And I'm able to fit that in, of course, always have the sugar, but the ability to suspend is something that I think is unique to pumping. Yeah,

Scott Benner 46:18
no, it's one of my favorite. I mean, honestly, I, if people may have heard me say it in, like the Pro Tip series, but being able to start and stop your basil, this is one of the first things that I thought of when we were at a pump class all those years ago for the first time. And because that that feeling of like I put the I put the Bazelon it's in there now. If it's too much or too little, it's too late. Like I already injected, you know, back then it was love Amir for Arden. But that idea, like I remember standing at that pump class and saying to my wife, look, we could like tempt the Basal, like, make it stronger, weaker, we could shut it off. I was like, I think this is like, like, it was like, mind numbing at the moment was like, what that sounds like so much control that we don't have right now. Absolutely.

Melissa 47:07
And it also means that you're not having to ingest extra fuel extra calories if you're on a weight management plan, which is important for a lot of people as well, to stay in that healthy range. I know with running extra weight is extra pressure on your joints. So it's it's definitely something that I'm aware of. And that matters. Yeah,

Scott Benner 47:31
no, it's um, it's astonishing. It's just one of the most important things I can't even say. So what I'm sorry, we're 47 minutes into this, but are we getting to the things you wanted to come on for? Or is there other stuff you want to talk about?

Melissa 47:44
I just am, I just passed my year, my first year. So I'm in year two, I think if there's one thing that I wanted to say is that there's hope this is not a death sentence, you can continue to exercise, you can eat the cupcake that you wanted to eat it, it is not an end of life type of a situation where you have to do this, that and the other, of course, you have to check your blood sugar, you have to maintain good health, but you can live and you can live quite successfully. So it's something that given the current technology today is something that is absolutely doable. You can thrive with this. I've seen it I'm living it and and the listeners can as well. Good for you.

Scott Benner 48:29
I appreciate that message. Honestly, if I can loop back around a little bit, there's this. So there's this thing that happens blesses that people say nice stuff to me. And then if you listen, you know, I get embarrassed, and then I act like an idiot because I'm not good with it. And I say stupid stuff all the time. But there's this one thing, I'm always afraid I'm not giving the right weight to. And it is that Facebook group. It's it's got so much value, but I can't like I can't bring myself to be the one to say it too much. Because I feel like it'll just sound like I'm trying to get people to join my Facebook group. That makes sense. But I wondered if you wouldn't talk a little bit about as it like an adult like a person who's just diagnosed that how was that valuable to you? Yeah, it

Melissa 49:13
was actually a lot more valuable than I was thinking because I was thinking this is probably comprised of a lot of parents, their children, their cute little babies. They're the ones with type one. So maybe this is more parent focused. But when I started becoming more active, there is a ton of adults in there that are just like me that were not diagnosed when they were two. They're diagnosed in their 40s or their 30s or 20s 18. up so there's a there's a lot of support for adults. And then when I ran the LA Marathon this last year, I think I had something like 500 comments saying a great job and almost 2000 thumbs up I mean it was it made me feel so warm and fuzzy and like I had just done something amazing. It the sub chord is there, it's there.

Scott Benner 50:01
I'm glad that I just you know what I mean? Like, it's hard for me to just say, you know, for those of you who wouldn't consider joining a Facebook group, there's

Melissa 50:10
no one to join. Yes, there's, it's

Scott Benner 50:13
there's just a ton of value in it in ways that I mean, you said you didn't expect, I didn't expect. I tried saying it over and over again, I only made the Facebook group because people, people bothered me for it. And, you know, and it was, we needed a group where we can talk about the podcast, and I was like, my first thought was, oh, no, no, no, like, I don't I very much don't want to be involved in that. But then that kind of kept coming, you know, that that pressure kept coming? And I thought, oh, will it hurt? I'll open it up. And I don't know if anybody like, like, now knows this. But I started that Facebook group, I had one rule. And the rule was, it said, Don't be an oral closed this whole thing. I don't need this problem. It was something,

Melissa 50:53
something that's funny. That's what I tell my kids. That's our family motto.

Scott Benner 50:58
You know, my wife and I, when we had kids, we, we really did settle on that as our goal. Like, we just don't want to raise kids who like when they're out and about when they leave a social setting, that they're the ones that people go. Like, exactly, yeah, that was really, that was really the only like, marching orders we gave ourselves and that we were pretty young in the beginning, although you were in college still. So I'm pretty young. So

Melissa 51:23
that's like the one thing that you learned in kindergarten that that should stick with you forever. Yeah,

Scott Benner 51:28
no kidding. Like, just anyway, that's that. If you've if you've ever thought Scott's kids sound like they came out, okay, that was really our marching orders. You're like, we just don't want that to be like, we'd make the joke about like, keeping Arden off the pole, I think because Chris rocks stand up was very popular around that time. And I think that was the joke that really, like right rang out of his standup at the time. But I mean, we really like between the two of us. That's what we said, like, just want them to be nice people. And we'll see good humans. Yeah, yeah. And the rest should work. And so I started the Facebook group, not wanting to be the person running a Facebook group. And now the joke's on me, of course, because there's, there's over 40,000 people in there, and it's like, part of my job, you know, like, a reasonable amount of my day goes to making sure that that place is somewhere you can go and have a reasonable conversation, you know, get other people's opinions without being treated poorly, and, and hopefully come out of it enrich somehow, you know, and that's

Melissa 52:25
exactly what it was. for me. That's exactly what it was. for me. I can't say enough good things about the podcast or the group, the amount of support that is needed, especially in that first year can be astronomical, especially if you don't know anyone, or you are just you're blindsided by this and all of a sudden, you're on Bolus and Basal insulin overnight, like I was, you have so many questions, and you don't know where to turn. You don't know what is credible information, what is not. You need real time feedback from people. And because we're all located in different areas of really the globe, you're going to have a question answered in minutes. It's

Scott Benner 53:04
fascinating, isn't it, like, in the middle of the night, it just like Europe just takes over for the Facebook, or Australia or New Zealand, you know, people just pop in and I that never forget the first time that happened to me that somebody was messaging me from like a South Pacific Island. And, like, it was like three in the morning. And I picked my phone up. And I'm like, You know how some people message in long messages. And some people I say, I can't Oh, if I say this, it's gonna make somebody upset that I correspond with everyday. But some people text like 14 year old girls, like one thought at a time they send sense. And that makes sense or not. But this person was doing that. And so it was ding, ding. And I just I got on, I was like, Hey, this is so nice. But it's like 330 in the morning, I need you to like, just send your whole thought, please. And I'll answer you tomorrow. My wife's like, put your phone on Do Not Disturb. I'm like I can't because Arden has diabetes at all. So you know, anyway, that's a big sales pitch for it. It's probably what it sounds like to some people. But I swear it's the value. I've gotten value out of it. Like, like even some of the things that you've heard on the podcast like ideas about a series or like sometimes I see people talking and I think that we haven't covered that yet. Or that obviously needs to be drilled down on more because look how many people bring this up, and it's just been really valuable. So anyway,

Melissa 54:32
absolutely. Especially just for plain old garden variety, encouragement when you're having a terrible day, or you've been on that roller coaster. You know that you're not alone. And I think that's the main thing that helped me is I I wasn't alone when I felt so alone.

Scott Benner 54:47
Okay, hey, so unfairly. I know what you look like because of all this. And earlier you said having babies was hard on your body, but let's be honest, you have the stomach of an 18 year old girl at this So what did you mean by that? Exactly?

Melissa 55:03
I had. My third was I have big babies. They my third was 10 and a half pounds. So my smallest one, I think was eight, three, and he was a month early. So it just, it was rough. And then, of course, they never sleep. And I nursed them for the first year. So of course, you're up every two hours. So I don't remember it. There's a gap of about 10 years that I it's just, it's all dark. I really don't remember the 10 years of my life.

Scott Benner 55:34
Just making babies and getting them bigger. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it is. It is really true, isn't it that that time is so like, I don't know, fraught with things to do and decisions to make? And I don't know, the only thing that even compares to it is when they get older, and they have to start going places. And you're you've just basically turned into an Uber driver for children.

Melissa 55:58
Right? Yeah, that's me right now. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 56:01
was gonna say you, you've probably hold on to your kids play sports.

Melissa 56:04
I have a couple that do basketball. My son did play basketball. My other son, I have two girls and three boys played baseball. So they've sort of kind of round robin all the different sports tennis. Wow,

Scott Benner 56:18
geez, it's a lot. It's just a lot of running and being places and how do you make decisions about where you park yourself and stay and where you're like, drop and go and come back?

Melissa 56:28
Well, it has become so much easier now that I have other drivers in the house. And I still have all five living with me. So I offer them free college tuition, if they stay home, and they can live here for free, I will pay for their college. And so it's really the only way that I'm going to be able to pay for five kids and college. So they do that they live at home. So we really do a cost reduction that way. And they help out and my girls help out a whole lot with driving and picking up groceries so on and so forth. So it does get easier. In some ways. You just worry a little bit more because they're out doing God knows what sometimes

Scott Benner 57:06
to try not to figure out what they're doing. I do my only like proviso is I'm I'm always like, if you want a cell phone and you want me to pay for it, I get to know where the phone is. Right? That's one of my things. I just like I get it, I get to know where your phone is. I'm not tracking you. I'm not sitting here watching you constantly or anything like that. But if I get worried, I want to know where your money comes in handy. A little bit I've talked about before, like, like I've seen art and below while she's a college. But But before I've stepped in to say hey, are you okay? I'll look at where she's at. And if she's in the dining hall, for example, I go, okay, she's taking care of this. And then that saves her from one of me pinging her about it, which I think is a big deal. But I liked that also. Yeah, I may or may not have once watched my son on a map drive to work one day. I really missed him one morning. And I picked up my phone and I realized oh Cole must be on his way to work. I have like a widget on my phone like a find my widget. And it seems to randomly show you one person that the other in on the widget screen and it was him and I touched it and it opened up. And his like the picture I use for him in my contacts is him like he's like four years old at a baseball game like running like running to first base. So I watched little four year old him run through Atlanta for like four or five minutes. And I thought I'll never ever tell him I did this.

Melissa 58:39
Well, Your secret's safe with me and 12 million other listeners.

Scott Benner 58:43
Everybody knows what I did that one morning. And meanwhile, there's no way these kids are ever listening. i My assumption is the only way my kids ever listen to this podcast is if I if I die and they get sad. They're like, oh, I want to hear my dad's voice. Because Oh, Melissa, Let's bomb each other out again. Did you keep voicemails?

Melissa 59:01
Yes. Oh, yes. And videos and all of that. Oh, yeah. You have to have that for the for the kids. So

Scott Benner 59:07
once my mom was diagnosed, I stopped deleting her voicemails. And I would even is more but I think but sometimes she'd leave me a voicemail, but I knew I was going to call her right back. So I wouldn't listen to the voicemail. So I still have some I've never heard before. And I do go listen to them once in a while. Yeah,

Melissa 59:32
I don't think there's any wrong way to grieve. Yeah, there's no timeline. There's no way there's no map. It's just you go with sort of your your heart and your heart will always lead you toward healing. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:48
I get blindsided once in a while. But I feel a little grateful to be the age I am that my mom lived as long as she did too. Because it does feel I mean the thing that I mean, obviously, it's not a spouse but I at least had the feeling that she lived a long life, which is something you don't get to think. But anyway, I anyway, once in a while I opened up a voicemail I've never heard before, and I listened to it. And it's I don't know, it's comforting for some reason. Oh, for sure. Absolutely. Christ now I'm gonna make myself cry. And then I earlier I said, If I don't curse, there won't be any problems. So now I cursed the basically cost me money to curse today, because now I have to send this out for editing. And the guy who's editing it is hearing this right now and go and chit Ching. Right, Rob? Sorry. If

Melissa 1:00:44
he wants to talk about my pole dancing class, it needs to be edited out either.

Scott Benner 1:00:48
Well, wait a minute. We're at the end, Melissa.

Melissa 1:00:53
What's the word on that? Don't

Scott Benner 1:00:54
stop now. Okay, I'm gonna circle back around to one of my earlier questions. Do you think you'll like bait again, to

Melissa 1:01:03
be determined right now it is just really being here for my kids. And it's managing my diabetes and making sure that I can hit that LA with a better mileage time than I did last year. So that's an obviously I want to just do great work too, especially for the disabled vets that I that I represent.

Scott Benner 1:01:24
The disabled vets thing. Is that something you do through you're like, do I don't know how to ask this question. Do you work for a company? Or do you?

Melissa 1:01:30
Are you a nonprofit? nonprofit law firm? Wow.

Scott Benner 1:01:34
Oh, that's you've been doing nonprofit your whole life.

Melissa 1:01:37
I have here in there on a volunteer basis. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:01:41
That's excellent. So you work for a private company where you do something for yourself, and then you do the work for the nonprofit as well. Yes. That's nice. That's a lovely use of your time.

Melissa 1:01:51
It feels fantastic. It's there's just when they look at you, and they say thank you, it means the world. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:01:58
I never thought. I guess I didn't wonder about it when I was younger. But helping people is really a large part of my life. Which I mean, I guess if people are listening, they think yeah, obviously. But it wasn't that obvious to me. So I didn't know. Like, I started the blog. To try to chase I started my blog because I tried to raise money for the JDRF. And it didn't go well. And the internet was just becoming a thing. Like, I know that sounds weird. And I thought I could use this blogging thing, maybe to tell more people about diabetes. And again, I know that sounds ridiculous. But in 90, munchies, when was it? 2006. Blogs weren't even a thing people exactly knew what they were like, it was all kind of new. And then that worked. And then then there's that drive for like, Oh, what do I put on here? Like, if I'm going to keep doing it, I have to keep doing things. And I went the route of like sharing very, like raw, like feelings. And after doing that for a while, I thought, Well, that's nice. But I mean, I've got people's attention now. Like I should help them. And that's where that all started. Because I was not a person running around helping people prior to that. But it's been one of the most valuable parts of my adult life. And certainly,

Melissa 1:03:17
and it kind of gets you out of your own life. It allows you to connect with other people in a different way that you wouldn't ordinarily connect that connection so important just to being a human were meant for connection. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:03:32
million percent. I'm sorry, I cut you off. I didn't mean to. Oh,

Melissa 1:03:37
yeah. And so that's it. It allows the feelings of the good feelings, the good vibes to come coursing through. So you just it just everybody wins. And

Scott Benner 1:03:47
if you're like me, and you're like a resolution oriented mind, like, like me, you can hear it earlier, like such a ridiculous thing. My mom got cancer, and I was like, there's a way around this. I can't fix enough problems to properly make whatever's wrong with me feel better. So being able to help more people, actually is more helpful for me.

Melissa 1:04:13
Like certainly, yeah, yeah, I've tried great way to help yourself is to help others. Yeah, yeah, I get that. I

Scott Benner 1:04:19
used to say that the podcast helps me more than it helps you. You just don't realize it. So right. Yeah, I love watching. Like, I can't tell you it seems. I don't know. I'm not boasting, but I probably hear from a dozen people a day. You know, in different different ways. Instagram, Facebook, email. Some people who I've made the mistake in the past of texting. If any of you heard that, it's fine. We're all good. Don't worry about it. But a lot of people will text me. I used to be for the podcast. I used to have conversations like like, the podcast is probably just the recording of conversations I used to have with people probably Lily about diabetes. And so I hear from people a lot of different ways over and over again every day. And every time I see them have like a resolution or like an aha moment or something happens for them where their life gets better or easier or healthier or something like that. There's like a small part of me. That just feels like oh, I helped with that. Oh, absolutely. So it helps me a lot. I didn't know this. Absolutely. Gonna go like this when we got on tonight, but thank you. Anyway, is there anything we haven't talked about that we should have?

Melissa 1:05:38
I don't think so. I think we covered quite a bit.

Scott Benner 1:05:41
We did. Okay.

Melissa 1:05:42
I think we did fantastic. Why

Scott Benner 1:05:44
did we move this so many times? Was it for work? I can't even remember for you. It was my work. Yeah. I'm gonna put a couple of nighttimes on the calendar next year. This is I found this nice after I relaxed

Melissa 1:05:56
I certainly hope there's no storms next time. No, no,

Scott Benner 1:06:00
it actually it was crazy. It was supposed to storm the entire time you and I were on but it just it came a little earlier was really violent. And it stopped just as you and I were getting started so

Melissa 1:06:09
I was pretty excited when God's are favoring tonight. Finally,

Scott Benner 1:06:13
finally. Thank you. Alright, well, let's I appreciate you taking the time and doing this. Oh, thank you. Of course. Yeah. What can you hold for me for a minute? Yep, great.

A huge thanks to touched by type one for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Check them out on their website touched by type one.org or on Facebook and Instagram. You can use the same continuous glucose monitor that Arden uses. All you have to do is go to dexcom.com/juicebox and get started today. That's right, the Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com.

If you are a loved one has been diagnosed with type one diabetes. The bold beginnings series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to begin listening. In this series, Jenny Smith and I will go over the questions most often asked at the beginning of type one. Jenny is a certified diabetes care and education specialist who is also a registered and licensed dietitian and Jenny has had type one diabetes for 35 years. My name is Scott Benner and I am the father of a child who has type one diabetes. Our daughter Arden was diagnosed in 2006 at the age of two. I believe that at the core of diabetes management, understanding how insulin works, and how food and other variables impact your system is of the utmost importance. The bowl beginning series will lead you down the path of understanding. This series is made up of 24 episodes. And it begins that episode 698 In your podcast, or audio player. I'll list those episodes at the end of this to listen, you can go to juicebox podcast.com. Go up to the menu at the top and choose bold beginnings. Or go into any audio app like Apple podcasts, or Spotify. And then find the episodes that correspond with the series. Those lists again are at Juicebox Podcast up in the menu or if you're in the private Facebook group. In the featured tab. The private Facebook group has over 40,000 members. There are conversations happening right now and 24 hours a day that you'd be incredibly interested in. So don't wait. So don't wait. Check out the bold beginning series today and get started on your journey. Episode 698 defines the bold beginning series 702, honeymooning 706 adult diagnosis 711 and 712 go over diabetes terminologies in Episode 715 We talked about fear of insulin in 719 the 1515 rule episode 723 long acting insulin 727 target range 731 food choices 735 Pre-Bolus 739 carbs 743 stacking 747 flexibility in Episode 751 We discussed school in Episode 755 Exercise 759 guilt, fears hope and expectations. In episode 763 of the bold beginning series. We talk about community 772 journaling 776 technology and medical supplies. Episode Seven at treating low blood blue ghosts, Episode 784 dealing with insurance 788 talking to your family and episode 805 illness and ketone management. Check it out, it will change your life. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that it really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.