#1165 Cold Wind: Healthcare Whistleblower E.M.T.

"David" has type 1 diabetes and is an EMT.

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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 episode 1165 of the Juicebox Podcast

we're calling today's guest David he has type one diabetes. He also has a child with type one diabetes. And David is an emergency medical technician so we're going to talk about the things he sees as an EMT. 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. US residents who are type one or have a child with type one can help the T one D exchange by completing a short survey T one D exchange.org/juice. box you can help type one diabetes research by completing that survey AT T one D exchange.org/juice box. When you place your first order for ag one with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D. Drink ag one.com/juice box. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout that's juice box at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com 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. Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's bringing together people who are redefining what it means to live with diabetes. Later in this episode, I'll be speaking with Mark, he was diagnosed with type one diabetes at 28. He's 47. Now he's going to tell you a little bit about his story. And then at the very end of the episode, you can hear my entire mini interview with Mark. To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story, visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox and check out the Medtronic champion hashtag on social media. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the ever since CGM. Ever since it's gonna let you break away from some of the CGM norms you may be accustomed to no more weekly or bi weekly hassles of sensor changes. Never again, will you be able to accidentally bump your sensor off. You won't have to carry around CGM supplies and worrying about your adhesive lasting. Well, that's the thing of the past. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox.

"David" 3:01
Podcast Hi. So I'm David. And I was diagnosed with type one diabetes. When I was 16. I was diagnosed I was actually in the UK. So I'm 38 now and that was when I was 16. So we're looking at 22 years ago, no family history at that time of type one at all. And, you know, since then, I have actually a brother in law on either side of the family, like one of my side or one of my wife's side of the family who's married into the family and gotten type one. But nobody at the time when I was diagnosed, but they're not blood relatives, you know, that married into the family. They were not blood relatives at the time. Sure. And since then, one of my nephews was actually diagnosed. He was about 14 when he was diagnosed and my son, which we'll talk about later, it was also diagnosed recently, okay,

Scott Benner 3:54
I was gonna say what next, the next generation is gonna get hit.

"David" 3:58
Yeah, unfortunately.

Scott Benner 4:00
David, how much of your cultural background are we going to talk about?

"David" 4:04
So I'm from the religious Jewish community can talk about as much as you want to talk about it, or as little as you want to talk about it. I

Scott Benner 4:12
just wondered if this was the common thing throughout your community that the autoimmune

"David" 4:18
so that definitely is certain things that run throughout the community, I'm gonna be honest, it might upset some people. I don't think that eating habits are the healthiest. You know, you're going, you've been to that weekend, and you're gonna be going can you see how you eat on the weekend, and it's not like one Thanksgiving dinner a year or something? You know, that's like three times every weekend. You know, and during the week at every party, we're very big into community. So there's always events and parties, and I cannot say that the eating is the healthiest. Definitely a lot of type two diabetes that's prevalent within the Jewish community. Even I have friends that are 45 that already have type two, or they've been told the II diabetes. So there's definitely a huge type two factor type one, again to blame, those types of things wouldn't be first I'm not gonna say, I don't know, you know, just from being around. I've been around for 38 years, there's not a huge surge, you know, of type one. Okay, that, in my opinion, um, from my experience,

Scott Benner 5:21
I have a question about the food, but I want to I made you switch to a corded headset, but the court might be touching your clothing. So if you could be careful about that. Oh, no, no, no, don't be sorry. So this is maybe a loaded question. Do you guys eat that food on the weekends? Because you like it? Because it's what you do?

"David" 5:38
So good question. There's a few answers. Answer number one is, it's good food. We don't eat it because we're hit you know, we're forced to and we had it's definitely good. It has cultural history, you know, it comes a lot of it. It's like Eastern European. And a lot of it was made at the time, because that's what they had available. You know, so oil, and some potatoes, you can make something beautiful. Obviously, it's loaded in oil, but that you know, that fit a family didn't need me. When I actually saw into meat. That's more of a recent thing, a modern thing that the Jewish community got into these meat boards and things like that. Much more into like the carbs, potatoes to that type of stuff. A lot of that is culturally there's no. And it turns out, it's good. I mean, an oil on potatoes. For most people. It's like the good, warm and comforting type of food. Yeah,

Scott Benner 6:26
I understand. I was just wondering, because it's so different than what I've what I eat that when it was presented to me, I was like, I'm gonna go get a sandwich when you guys aren't looking.

"David" 6:35
One of my highlights was hearing it on the podcast describe that food. It was it was great. That was

Scott Benner 6:42
I really did sneak out to a deli. Saturday afternoon, I was like, I'll be back. Oh, great experience. Okay, so you're on the show today, because of something you experienced in your professional life. Is that right? What were you doing?

"David" 6:55
Yeah, so I have volunteered on an ambulance for the last 10 years. And to talk about how I got into that, actually. And then we can go back, you know, which it's all connected. So I was actually wanting one night, I was out with my wife. And we were at this location, it was late at night, it was like 11pm. And some lady came running inside, you know, screaming for an ambulance, her husband had passed now husband has passed out screaming was as much of foreigners then nobody had the right. You know, I called and I didn't know the guy could have been dead, I wouldn't have known the difference. I didn't know he was dead, alive, breathing, not breathing here. Yeah, he's out there. And he's alcohol on the floor. I'm calling the ambulance and they're not there five minutes, 10 minutes 50. I call them back. And I must call them about six times. And they started getting impatient with me how many times when calling, I didn't understand how it works, you know, they have to dispatch someone and someone has to be close by eventually they show up, you know, the paramedics came about 20 minutes later, turns out that this guy actually had diabetes. And his sugars were extremely, extremely low to the degree that he'd gone unresponsive. You know, they gave him an IV of whatever they gave him and some juice. And he after that he was fine. And he was on his way. But it really bothered me the fact that I didn't know anything. And like I could have had I mean, how stupid of me not to think given to check your sugar's you know, in hindsight, I should have that should have been one of the first things I checked. But I didn't. David, I

Scott Benner 8:25
have to say, I don't know about that. I don't know why you would transpose your medical condition on to somebody else's in an emergency situation. You don't I mean,

"David" 8:33
true, I guess now as a medical professional, that would have been one of the first things I would have thought of, especially as someone with type one diabetes, then I didn't, I didn't connect it. But it gave me a strong feeling of I need to know what to do. God forbid a situation like this happens again, I need to know what to do. I'm not the type of guy to stand by iral and watch your burning, building in I'm going to jump in there and help out, right. So right after that I signed up for EMT course, you know, it took about six months. And ever since then, I've been volunteering in emergency medicine for 10 years. And, you know, we'll get to see all sorts of things from delivered multiple babies to midflight emergencies and obviously a lot of diabetes and associated emergencies and illnesses that happen with it. Right. So I do have an inside view of the medical world and I interact with doctors, nurses, hospitals, you know, the gamut. Yeah. in a professional manner, and obviously on a personal manner. Well,

Scott Benner 9:35
it's first of all, it's wonderful. You donate your time like that that's really something that you removed and you actually did something about it and if stuck with it for a decade is is really inspiring, but I don't know, but it's my pleasure. I volunteered for three years as a fireman when I was a kid 16 to 19. And I did it because my father had done it. I you know, I think that's why I started and I just kind of grown up around it. And it's very rewarding. It's a lot of work to the training and the time and time away from your family. All that stuff is very serious. So

"David" 10:06
yeah, I mean, we have to go for monthly trainings in addition to obviously the time we spend on calls. And legally, you know, we have to keep up with the state requirements. And there's tests and every month, we've got to do an evening of training and as practical skills and learning skills and online. So yeah, it's a lot of time, but it's very rewarding being able to help somebody and then a time of need certainly is.

Scott Benner 10:29
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Speaker 1 12:04
I use injections for about six months. And then my endocrinologist and a navy recommended a pump.

Scott Benner 12:10
How long had you been in the Navy? Eight years up to that point? I've interviewed a number of people who have been diagnosed during service and most of the time they're discharged. What happened to you?

Speaker 1 12:20
I was medically discharged. Yeah, six months after my diagnosis. Was

Scott Benner 12:24
it your goal to stay in the Navy for your whole life? Your Career? That was Yeah,

Speaker 1 12:27
yeah. In fact, I think a few months before my diagnosis, my wife and I had that discussion about, you know, staying in for the long term. And, you know, we've made the decision despite all the hardships and time away from home, that was what we loved the most.

Scott Benner 12:41
Was the Navy, like a lifetime goal of yours?

Speaker 1 12:44
lifetime goal. I mean, as my earliest childhood memories, were flying, being a fighter pilot,

Scott Benner 12:50
how did your diagnosis impact your lifelong dream?

Speaker 1 12:53
It was devastating. Everything I had done in life, everything I'd worked up to up to that point was just taken away in an instant. I was not prepared for that at all. What does your support system look like? friends, your family caregivers, you know, for me to Medtronic, champions, community, you know, all those resources that are out there to help guide the way but then help keep abreast on you know, the new things that are coming down the pike, and to give you hope for eventually that we can find a cure.

Scott Benner 13:18
Stick around at the end of this episode to hear my entire conversation with Mark. And you can hear more stories from Medtronic champions and share your own story at Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox. What have you seen over the years that made you reach out about this specific series about being on this cold wind series?

"David" 13:38
Let me go back to my diagnosis. Because I think I already started seeing things that I don't even know that was 22 years ago, I already started seeing things then. And I'm still seeing the same things now. So let me just go a bit back to that story and give you there's been some improvement. So I was I was 16 I was paying like, you know, by the bucket. Tons of way everyone was telling me I remember I went to a family wedding. Everyone was telling me how good I looked at my suit fit me so perfectly. I had no idea. I wasn't trying to lose weight. I just you know last way as as happens, I had unbearable first I was drinking like insane. Now I happen to be in a school I was in at a time. They had a vending machine right near one of the study halls. And so that Fanta was my favorite drink at the time so that I was thirsty as anything. Just I was going through a place six bottles of Fanta eight bottles of Fanta a day. Now in hindsight, I know what that was doing to me but at the time, you know, I had no idea. This whole process wasn't stopping. So I just thought you know it's time to go to the doctor. I called my mom and she made an appointment a couple of days later. As I'm actually sitting in the doctor's waiting room. There's a sign on the wall like one of these ads. I don't know what company it was, whatever it Was it just said, paying a lot. And firstly, I'm paying a lot, you may have type one diabetes. So on the spa, I diagnosed myself, I said, I know exactly what I have. So I walked into the doctor's office. And you know, when they called us and I said, I have type one diabetes. So I had, you know, I said, Well, I'm drinking and I'm peeing in a sign out this is that I have it. Now at the time, they didn't even have a glucose meter in the doctor's office. So he said, Okay, let me do some blood work. I mean, he checked out some other things. I don't even remember why. He said, let me do some blood work. That was it. We left, nothing happened from that we weren't home. It was actually it was in the middle of the summer. I was I was a junior counselor in a camp at the time. Two days later, I get a call from the camp office, you know, we were out in there. Whatever activity we were doing that I needed to come in middle to the camp office, my mother's on the way to pick me up. So she comes and she says, We just got a call from doctors. And at first the blood work came back. I don't even remember what number it was, it was some crazy number. We're heading straight to the hospital. So I was like, Okay, no problem straight to the hospital. So I was there for three, four days. And that's where I really started seeing. I mean, the fact that the doctor didn't have a blood glucose meter is ridiculous. I hope that's changed nowadays. I get to the hospital, and they put me on a drip right away. They told me I have type one diabetes to confirm with blood work. They put me on a drip, you know, insulin and sugar to balance things out for the first few days. Yeah. And then they started teaching me and said, You know, I have to know how to use the shots to, you know, to be able to go home. So I started practicing by males taking insulin. I remember like, the first day I'm taking the shots, it's about you know, I don't care. Let's say it's 5pm. The nurse comes with the with the insulin, and she says you need to take five units. I said, this is the quick acting, I said, Where's the meal? She's like the meals coming soon. I'm like, now get my I've been diagnosed like three days at this point. I know nothing, right? And she's like, No, just just bowlers. Now the meals coming soon. I'm like, no, no, no, that doesn't how it works. They told me it's fine. It's acting, not bolusing unless I have the food in front of me, because I don't know what's gonna happen back and forth this all along. When she goes to check that she's like, Listen, this is what the chart says. The chart says 5pm. I like Dude, I'm not bolusing I don't care. Now. I'm a 16 year old kid. And I didn't know anything. But it just didn't sound right to me. Turns out, well, I'm like, I'm not doing it. And you're not exactly gonna hold me down and eject me. So I didn't take it. Well, the mail didn't actually come till 90 minutes later. Now, that would have been obviously a disaster. bolusing five units newly diagnosed, I don't remember exactly what my ratios were then. But I'm assuming they were very, you know, very low. That would have been an absolute disaster that's already there. And I was ready arguing with medical stuff, which is not good. It's not another good to be in an argument with them. But you know, just because the medical authority, and there were a nurse in the hospital, it doesn't mean anything to me. It doesn't mean they know what they're talking about. Yeah. And that was that. And then basically that night, I went home with just about the same amount of info, I knew nothing. So my first few years was pretty much just nothing going on, like no information, nothing. Just Basal Bolus NMD, I have no idea. I didn't even know the concept of a carb ratio. Because they never told me they just said by meals, I didn't know which foods didn't have carbs didn't I started guessing. And this goes on for the first few years. And then one day and the doctor's visits were a complete waste of time, you know, you go into the doctor, and they're like, Oh, well, why don't you just eat better and exercise? I'm like, what I didn't like, like

Scott Benner 18:42
I have type type one diabetes. Do you know the difference between the two? Also, let me ask you, David, that that interaction in that hospital at that first moment, it's funny because the nurse was right and wrong, like it would have been great for you to inject a little sooner before the food came, but not 90 minutes sooner, obviously. But then Did that scare you off or make you very specific about injecting and eating right away.

"David" 19:05
So I was always a little scared of insulin as a general role. And I actually told this to my son who's actually very into Pre-Bolus. And now, but you know, especially in school and things where if you have an unknown, you know, let's say you're in school in your regular schedule, and it's lunch every day at two o'clock, and that doesn't change the whole year. No prom Bolus while you're in class 15 minutes before but if you're in camp, and it's a topsy turvy schedule, and you don't know what's going on, and you don't have lunch is going to be a two to 30 to 45. Don't Bolus till at least you see some food trays and you know that it's actually lunch coming out happened here. So I wouldn't say I was I was scared, but I immediately got the feeling that I was on my arm and I couldn't trust what I was being told by the medical staff around me. And that pretty much didn't change when I got you know, some of my appointments. It was like the silly appointments. They didn't really give me any tools to tell me anything. It was just like okay, let's do some blood work. Let's Whatever, I pretty much went on for a few years. And then and Kim, I didn't have a Dexcom at this time or a pump anything. I always was into checking my sugars a lot, you know, I had this argument with I mean, the only other person I knew at the time had type one diabetes, I had a classmate who had it since he was like four. And I have memories of like being in his house and he had to pee on a on a stick to go get his sugars. Yeah, that was my, that was the only thing I knew about it at the time. And that's it. So I just had this feeling that I was on my own and gotta figure things out myself. And then they it was a few years later, the hospital started offering this thing that was called a Daphne course they call it a dose adjustment for normal eating. And I was it was like a trial pilot program. David, were you in you?

Scott Benner 20:43
Were you in the UK, then?

"David" 20:44
This is the UK.

Scott Benner 20:46
I've heard of Daphne before, but I thought it was still UK. Okay. All right. I'm still

"David" 20:50
in the UK at the time. This is this was like the pilot of Daphne. I was one of the first participants in the Daphne costs locator. And they offered it to me, I actually changed hospitals, because I realized also that the hospital I was seeing were really useless, which is another thing I see people stuck with the same hospital, same doctor for years. Like if you're not happy, find somebody else, find somebody else who's better. So I changed this other hospital that was offering and then they asked me to staff because I went there was a group of I think we were eight or 10. And they taught us the basics. Like when I say Basics, I'm talking about what Basal insulin does, but Bolus insulin does. What carbs are carb ratio, just literally the basics. And I was like, it was mind blowing. I was like, Oh my gosh, this there's a science that is this actually makes sense. And I got really into it. Now even though I didn't have a Dexcom I was checking my sugar's probably 1014 times a day. And I made my own graph, like I, you know, I put what I wrote down literally on a spreadsheet, what it was in the morning, two hours later, four hours later, six hours later. And together with that, and MDI, I managed to regulate myself together with that knowledge that I had gotten him then. And I got very, very good on MDI, to the point that you know, I had it down to a science. But I also got ticked off because I realized, like, they were sitting on this information for you, like, what would they expecting me to without this information. And then I got upset at myself as I'm like, I could have just google this five years ago, I've found out this information. I don't know if your podcast was around them. But I'm sure I could have found something that you know, this that had the basics. So I really realized at that point that there's nobody going to take care of you, you know, you got to be your own doctor, and you got to get on top of it yourself. Nobody's gonna do it for you, you'll go to every appointment. And they'll just make a comment, like, why don't eat healthy and exercise? Or why don't you just this and why is this that or they'll give you an adjustment, and then I can see you again for another six months. So that's really the, that's really

Scott Benner 22:45
put you in that mindset that I have to take care of myself. And I realized

"David" 22:49
that I mean, I was about 1920. At that time, I was like, there's nobody going to take care of me. Nobody. You know, obviously my parents were willing to help if I needed help with anything. But at that point, I was pretty independent. I didn't I actually didn't want my parents with old I never let them get involved from day one. I'm just more of a private person, that there was nobody going to help me nobody's going to work on my car ratios. Nobody's going to tell me how to adjust Bezos and test and you know, all these things. I realized then that, that I've really got to get into it myself and take my own responsibility and that my opinion hasn't changed. It's only gotten stronger over the years being in the medical field. Yeah. Did

Scott Benner 23:26
you rely on your parents for other things? Was it? Was it specific to diabetes that you wanted to be on your own? Or was that kind of Yeah, so

"David" 23:33
I relied on him for everything else. I mean, I was living at home, I was eating at home, I was sleeping at home and they paid for everything to pay for my tuition. They paid for any extracurricular activities I was doing, they paid. They were pretty much doing everything but specifically with this, I don't know what it is. I just I'm like, you know, I guess it's like, a personal thing on your own body. It's like with somebody else being involved. Definitely at that time. That's how I felt. I'm not gonna say I've changed drastically since then. Yeah, I did not let them get involved.

Scott Benner 24:01
How involved is your is your wife with your care if at all? Oh,

"David" 24:06
so that's a great question. So it's changed actually, since my son was diagnosed I would send in the in the first years of our marriage versus the first 11 years before the son was diagnosed. She wasn't involved in anything she didn't follow my share. I didn't I didn't tell her anything about it. Hi, lol. Because I'm also the opinion that don't use diabetes as an excuse you gotta live you every day to the fullest family time whatever it is like there's no like excuses. Oh, I'm low now I can't do this. I'm high now I can't do that. So I almost consciously didn't get her involved because I'm not like oh now I'm high now I'm low now I'm this now I'm that I can't do this. I can't do that. Like it was a family trip. It's a family trip. Doesn't matter what I am I got to work it out around that. Yeah. And she didn't know much because of that she was very good at doing anything that she knew would help me so like she knew like certain types of food that I stay away from or I have preferences on food she would cook any you know, family meals appropriately. Always make us She had, she wasn't not involved because she didn't care. She wasn't involved because I didn't let her get involved in it not in a bad way. It just I just didn't get her involved. Now that changed a little bit since her son was diagnosed. And I have to say, even though I'm the one with type one, she's taken on most of the brunt of it. You know, she's the one that wakes up at night, I go to sleep, you can hurt a bomb, I won't hear a thing. So like, if he goes low in the middle of the night, she's the one that gets up. She's the one that deals with it. And also during the day a lot, I work I can deal with things. You know, he's got questions, he's texting or whatever she's, she's, she's on top of the game with it, right. And then since then, I realized like, it's also stupid, like, it's actually scary. I've never had a low that I needed somebody else's assistance. But I realized that after that, I should probably have somebody following me, God forbid, if something didn't happen. So since then, I've added her to my fall, but nothing much else. But now she understands that she's an avid listener of your podcast now. And she understands a lot more from you than she got from me. You know, in the last two years,

Scott Benner 26:01
I asked a little because it's okay that I talked about the event last year, is that alright? So I know we're keeping you anonymous, but there's no way that people who don't know you know, you wouldn't know this was you by your story, though, right? You're just worried about the larger audience not being able to figure out who you are. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. I don't know if I talked about this in the podcast or not, but I did a caregiver, excuse me a spouse talk. And I scared the Holy hell out of everybody. And I did not mean to, like, I was just going over what I just thought were like some, you know, obvious things to say about like glucagon. And I could see, like, There's horror on a lot of the wives faces. And I was like, you know, everybody should know how to use glucagon. And maybe once the kids are older, we would tell them, like when we would call 911. If like mom or dad, like, you know, couldn't do it themselves. And I saw the looks on their face. They're like, couldn't do what themselves? Why wouldn't they be able to do that? Then I looked at now, I'm not sure how many people have ever been in this situation. But I was in a room where, you know, the women and the children were on one side, the men were on the other. And they were it's a it's a divided room. So you guys can't see each other. So I see the horror on the wives faces. And then I look to the men, and a lot of them are looking at me like, Hey, buddy, what do you tell them that for? And I thought, oh, gosh, did they not talk about this? It's not for religious reasons. No, I

"David" 27:19
didn't think so. By the way, yeah, it's not and you did the right thing. And it is the right thing. And I myself changed my I actually was not by the event. But I heard feedback from it and changed my attitude as a result that actually from that, you're talking at that event. That's when my wife even though I didn't hear the talk, I heard feedback from friends, and other people with it. And I changed my changed my opinion on it.

Scott Benner 27:41
I'm glad because I was, I'll tell you what, for a minute, I felt like I was I wasn't getting out of the room alive. And then, and then everybody was really kind about actually I spoke to the to the Rabbi's wife later in the afternoon. And I said, I'm so sorry, I never would have imagined and she said no, you did the right thing. She was some people she was some people are upset, but but I think they're just upset with this new knowledge they have not necessarily with you for bringing it. And, and it was fine, actually. But it's nice to hear that that was valuable for people. Very, very valuable. Okay. So when you're out when you're out on that rig, and you're interacting with imagining a lot of emergency rooms, what would we be shocked by to learn about medical staff in a hospital?

"David" 28:26
So you'd be shocked by unfortunate I'm not shocked by it anymore. And I don't want to put a bad name on medical staff. No, no, very good people out there. And these people are dedicating their lives to helping other people. But the knowledge and sometimes their stupidity is at a whole new level that sometimes it's just like, now you have good people out there. And I don't think you have bad actors. You know, I don't want to say in that way, people are intentionally, but just because they have a medical badge and a medical title doesn't mean they know what they're talking about. Yeah. And I saw this 22 years ago when I was diagnosed, and the nurse is trying to force me to take a shot when the food is coming 1990 minutes later. And I see this now, you know, and I see the other side as well, I see patients that that just don't take care of themselves. And I've seen patients over the years who would go one time and the sugars are 202 51. Like did you take your insulin No, like, well, what are you waiting for? And then few years later, you know, come back one day and the leg is amputated. And they just you know, they have the attitude that somebody in the medical field is going to take care of them. They're not going to take care of itself and that's not true. It's never gonna happen. And sometimes the adherence to protocol you know, I give an example we got a cold one night this kid equals we don't always get a lot of information when the calls come over, but it came through as something that you know, diabetes related, became then is Dexcom had done this weird thing. It had shown like he was high and not done back to you know, I don't know We're gonna call it range, but relatively, it wasn't showing high and what was showing like 200 to 300 range. And so we did a finger stick, which, by the way, even that it's only a recent thing that we're allowed to do with finger sticks.

Scott Benner 30:10
I know the I've heard that recently. Okay, shocking.

"David" 30:13
Anyway, we do a finger stick, and I don't remember what it was was 250 or 300. But his doctor, they had been in touch with a doctor and the doctor said, they gotta go to the emergency room. I'm like, what the hell this doctor obviously doesn't have diabetes. Why does he need to go to the emergency room? His sugars are 300 Take a bit of insulin, see what happens in the taxi? No, no, now we can argue with doctors because of the level of hierarchy and authority and ambulance is lower than a doctor. Like if a doctor gives orders for somebody to go to hospital, we cannot argue with the with those orders. If we will deliver the patient home, we will need a doctor's permission to leave the patient, especially a minor. So you know, we took that kid to the emergency room, even though in my heart like this kid doesn't need emergency room, he needs a bit of knowledge, the mother needs to know how to Bolus a lot better. Right. And but on the flip side after the mic, you know, I sort of blame them. Because why do you even call the doctor? I mean, I can I have not called the doctor in 22 years? I'm not I'm not here to show up because I don't think they're going to what exactly are they going to tell you? You call it that these people every two minutes that they're on the phone with the doctor's office? I added this how do i Bolus this? I added that should I split it should I Bolus or should I extend it. If your care plan is to rely on your doctor's office, you gotta get a new care plan. That's not a good plan. Just think, you know, your doctor went to medical school 1015 years ago, and when they were in medical school, they learned knowledge that was probably at the time 1015 years old. Half of them have information that's just ancient, and you're calling them in 2024, when he got pumps, algorithms, and all sorts of things that the better ones keep up with it, you know, they sort of get an update from their local reps as to new features and things like that, yes, but they're giving you information on 2005. And you're calling them out of dollars. I mean, that's not a good care plan, you've got to get a better care plan than that, which is really understanding yourself, listen to the prototypes, just understand it yourself and get a handle of it. Otherwise, you're going to spend your life calling doctors and and being whisked off to the emergency room.

Scott Benner 32:10
And it happens more than we think right? Like more than the even I believe type ones that end up at the hospital for some sort of care happens

"David" 32:20
the whole time. I mean, we have a patient, there's actually two patients in the same area, there was a point they were calling every day One day is like, can you check my sugars and like you don't have a machine. But yeah, but whatever, I just call the ambulance to check my sugars. And then the next one, like, was calling every time he needed an injection, he was calling us, you know, so every night it was like almost the same time consistently 11pm. And then you're at the back, that is when the doctor just says that factor between manual for the most part, I just worried about a lawsuit that's that's in the way they think so the way they think about it is if they give directions for this patient to stay home, and then something happens during the night, they've got a bit of problem on their hands,

Scott Benner 33:01
that person is gonna say the doctor told me to do this and put me in a doctor's

"David" 33:05
much better say You know what, put them on ambulance, take them to the emergency room. And then the emergency room does all their due diligence, they normally just throw them on the side somewhere for six, eight hours, give them a bit of insulin Dong given a bit of insulin, and but that way everyone's covered, they call it Cya in, in the medical field.

Scott Benner 33:22
They call it cya everywhere. But yeah. But

"David" 33:25
it's well used in the medical field. And I think there's a big difference than, you know, knowing when you're dealing with a patient I actually dealing with medical information or you see why. And it really depends with the patient, which is, which is why you know, you can always know some people, you can give them a piece of information and say, You know what, instead of calling the ambulance, why don't you just Bolus and see what happens in two hours. Some people wouldn't know what to do with that information. And they have no idea they'd follow us. And then they call you back in two hours, because they don't know now why now I'm dropping, I'm dropping, I'm dropping, I'm dropping. I mean, I like that like 196 Double down like 196 Double Down is great. That's exactly where you want to be. Call me back when you hit 60 double down and you take in juice and it's not working. That's a different story. But yeah, so So this, you know, we see this the whole time.

Scott Benner 34:09
Now I want to go back to something you said at the very beginning, because I've now made a number of these episodes, and I want to make sure people understand. I'm not saying not to go to the hospital, if you have an emergency. I'm not saying that there aren't wonderful nurses and doctors and even hospitals and you know, any number of health care professionals, I'm just saying that when you don't mean you can't be sure that every time you flip the coin, it's gonna land on heads, you have to know that sometimes it might land on tails and what to do. If you're running to a doctor for an answer to kind of echo your thought, and the doctors only going to do cya that's not going to put you on a good path and you're going to cycle over and over again. Then this is your life then this becomes your entire existence. I don't really know what I'm doing. Nobody's telling me what to do. I wouldn't think to go look for this information because I I'm talking to a doctor and they're telling me what to do. If if the right thing to do you know, the thing that doctor told me, puts me in the hospital every couple of months, well, that just must be diabetes. And so they don't believe there's something better for them. And then they run back to the physician, or the ER thinking, well, here's these are the magic people will put me right back again. And you're telling me that those people are thinking, let's just shelf this person for a few hours, get him stable and get him the hell out of here? Exactly.

"David" 35:27
And you'd be shocked. I mean, you wouldn't be because you hear this, you know, more than me how long people you know, people live their whole life like this, like this is their life. Yeah. It's the difference between not dying and living. I think those are the two extremes, meaning you might not die yet. But that's not alive. I know how I felt when I was, you know, out of control in that the way you fit. Like, I don't know, my last a one study, I just actually got it done last week was 6.20. Good, good job. That doesn't really motivate me a bit to manual, the number. Yeah, then what motivates me is how I feel every single day. Yeah, if I'm high, I'm not living a day. I'm not. I'm not a father, I'm not a husband. I'm not I get very pissed off and stressed when I'm high. I already feel when I'm high of 141 160, I already feel started getting frustrated. If I'm 250. You don't want to talk to me, that motivates me much more than than a one see that I see every six months or something, I could leave it I could be 250 every day, and probably wouldn't die or just not yet. But that's not living. To me. That's not living. And I think that's also the big difference between the different attitudes that people take between Are they are they just, you know, gone to the doctor and doing what they needed to do. And I did that I was in that process for years until I till I took care of myself and realized that no doctor, by the doctor is just gonna keep doing and when it comes to time, like, Okay, now it's time for an amputation, you know, today's like, there's no difference for the doctor like today's. Again, I don't want to sound like I'm putting them down. But in that field today, the putting someone on the pump today to amputate in the other person's leg because they didn't take care of themselves for 30 years. They're not going to take responsibility for that person, and the person doesn't take responsibility himself. So I think that's also the big difference. You got to decide, you know how you want to live your life if you want to just not die, but you actually want to be living and feeling normal on a daily basis. Yeah, David, I

Scott Benner 37:18
think I stopped saying don't die advice on the podcast, because I even thought it sounded harsh. But I used to say it a lot like usually the advice you get from a doctor's don't die advice. It's enough to keep you from dying, not enough to help you live well. Correct. I think I brought it up at the talk. And I every time I speak somewhere, I say, you know, you deserve to be who you would be without fluctuating blood sugars. And like you just said, like, you don't want to be around me when my blood sugar's over 250. The other thing is, is that in the middle of that turmoil, you don't really know that about yourself. I don't know if that's something that people can really wrap their heads around like you're altered, and you're acting away that you would not normally, and that if you could see yourself out of body you'd be disappointed with. And yet you don't know what's happening while it's happening. And now you're impacting all the relationships in your life. And like you said, Who else who knows what else? Like, if you're watching a television show with a 250 blood sugar, you may not enjoy it the same way as you would with a 95 Blood shirt. And that might sound trivial, but I don't think it is I think you're experiencing the world differently. And then in turn, the world gets a different version of you one that I don't think you really want to be out there.

"David" 38:28
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I've experienced this myself. And you know, so I didn't really talk about my son yet. But he, you know, he went through various stages, there was a stage actually, unfortunately started in summer camp, where I wasn't he didn't give up. But it was very tough. It was his first time going first, it was first time going away from home at all. And then definitely with type one diabetes and dealing with all different foods and his sugars just started getting into 3d for hundreds every single day. And he sort of gave up he didn't he was still bolusing that's why I don't want to use the word get gave up. But he was not me, I would say model like he was more careless. And this went on for a few months. And and he was just, you know, you don't even realize it as a parent because you see them every day. And then thank God, he calmed down. And there was a few things that I think it was attribute it to, and I kind of talk about him more in a minute. But once just to go back to your previous point, once his sugars got back to a normal level. He was so pleasant. We didn't even realize my wife was like, Oh my gosh, do you realize that he's been so pleasant? He's been nice to siblings. He's been participating in family things. He's been doing amazing at school, and we didn't even realize while we're going through it. So it's it's almost like this subconscious effect. And we didn't even realize till he calmed down and it took us about a normal level. Like he's such a pleasure. He's helping around the house. He's offering to do things. So I couldn't agree more. Yeah,

Scott Benner 39:52
I kicked myself sometimes, because I think I saw my son's Hashimotos before I let it register in my head that that is what it would be. And it was all about his behavior. When his thyroids, not well moderated. He has a short fuse. Yeah. And you think, Oh, he's, he's a teenager or he's upset about something. But then I look back. And I think I wonder how many of his life events, did he not traverse as well as he could have? If we would have, like known about this sooner? And I mean, I know there's not much you can do about it. And I don't I don't dwell on it. But it makes the point that when you're altered, you're altered,

"David" 40:31
right? And I think also parents don't realize things sometimes, you know, when you're with your kids every day, because sometimes that gradual changes, and you don't notice them as extreme as, obviously, somebody who, you know, so and I'll give you an example. It's an unfortunate example of this. I had a good friend, who, when he was eight, he was diagnosed with cancer. That was actually my mother that diagnosed and what I mean by that is, he can, you know, we used to have playdates all time, and he came over to my house. And my mother said, no, no, he doesn't look good. And she called, she called his mother right away. And the mother was like, no, no, he's fine. This is, you know, nothing. They're like, Oh, they took him to the doctor that turns out he actually had cancer. But, you know, thank God, he recovered, it wasn't long, there was a long story. It wasn't just, you know, went on for a while, you can imagine all the treatments and everything. But my point being that his own mother didn't realize that because you know, sometimes you're with the kids every day, or you're with people around you every day, and you think you know what, this is how they are, they're just more rough around the edges. But then you realize, they're actually this is how they are when the sugars are 250 100%.

Scott Benner 41:37
Every day, I've lost like 45 pounds this year. So actually, if we see each other soon, I'm literally 45 pounds lighter than I was when you saw me before. Good for you. No, thank you. But if you asked my son two months into the journey, when I was down in the first 15 pounds, I said, Hey, you know, do you notice anything? I didn't notice a damn thing. And he was living away from home. Then I saw him a couple months later, and I walked in now I was like, 25 pounds lighter. I thought for sure he'll notice something now. Nothing really. And then when I asked him, I said, Do you see that? I've lost weight? He goes, Yeah, I guess I can. And now a year later, if you show him a photo from last year, and now he goes, Oh, my God, I didn't realize, right. Like he didn't know he actually said to me one time, one of the kinds of things he's ever said to me, I don't think of you as a fat person. But I looked at the picture. And I was like, I don't know how you couldn't. But the same thing with the mother, like the mothers with a kid with cancer. Your mom sees him in five seconds goes, Hey, what are we doing here? You don't I mean, and the other person like What do you mean? It's that slow drip transition, I'm telling you that can happen slowly. Over years with weight. It could happen slowly over months with your attitude, and it could happen day to day. If if your blood sugars are bouncing around. You turn into this. I had a friend when we were growing up and he's not with us anymore, but I knew him to be very sweet, lovely person, but I knew some people who met him we thought he was cantankerous and unpleasant. But he wasn't he just he was on regular an MPH and his blood sugar's were high all the time, and then not and you know, like, and he got to live his whole life that way people met him and thought his kids a dick. You know, and, and he really wasn't he was lovely. And and now I don't know, I look back in his life was shortened because of it. And now what did he miss out on even in a shortened life? So I you know, it's very important. So

"David" 43:27
like when our when our son was diagnosed, so we didn't even realize till we looked back at pictures, how much weight he had lost. He was stick thin. Like we didn't even notice. Yeah, it was only afterwards once he was diagnosed and started looking back. But seeing him on a daily basis. We didn't you know, we didn't notice anything, right?

Scott Benner 43:47
No, it's something. Okay, what else do we need to know about? I guess maybe why don't we dig into your expertise for a second type one's call an ambulance. What should we be telling people when they arrive? You know, what's on us? You know, I know I've done an episode where I told people, we had an EMT on I think, who said like, you know, don't count on your diabetes tattoos. You know, you have to be wearing the jewelry. Nobody

"David" 44:14
looks at those. I hate to break the news. But now, there is a difference. If you're out called in a car crash and you're completely gone and they cut all your clothes off. Yeah, then somebody's going to notice you're yet to to but on a regular on a regular call. Don't Don't count on that. Make sure you tell someone what's going on? Yeah,

Scott Benner 44:34
so I call right away. Do I want to say to the dispatcher, I'm calling for someone who has type one diabetes, they're unconscious, they're having a seizure, or I'm calling for myself, I think I'm going to become unconscious soon. I've taken too much insulin. I have type one diabetes. Do you try to tell them I'm wearing a glucose monitor I'm wearing like, do you give them as much as you can? So

"David" 44:53
I wouldn't I would definitely go with the first part I wouldn't get into I'm wearing a glucose monitor and I'm wearing a pump chances are That information is not going to convey over to the actual units that dispatch, but the more information about what's going on for sure, because there's different level priorities and emergencies. And based on the priority that it sounds like when it comes through, they'll dispatch accordingly, which means they'll dispatch you know, priority resources, additional resources, more advanced resources, like in most areas, there's EMTs. And as medics, if you are out called unresponsive, you want medics you don't want to just empty is not by default, they only dispatch EMTs. Even, you know, so if somebody calls on the phone and says, I'm diabetic, and I'm having an issue, they'll just send you to EMTs. Now, that's a big difference between saying, I'm diabetic, and I think I'm going into a coma by default, you're rarely going to get medics in most cases, you know, it's not a guarantee. But in most cases, a good dispatcher will hear that and they'll already dispatch medics. So you definitely want to be giving, you know, the most information as you can over there and always open a lot, you know, we had cases where we can't get in the front door, and then there's a delay, because you gotta get the fire department to take the door down. Yeah. And meanwhile, this person's, you know, that triggers a 1020, or whatever, they're down there on the floor by themselves in the bedroom. So you definitely want to make sure to have a plan for that. And this also goes back to you know, what I was saying before, we've had calls, I got a call one night, for, you know, it was diabetes related. It was 3am. And turns out that this girl, she was fast asleep, and we were bashing, knocking, pounding. Eventually, the husband heard us open up the door. Well, her sugars were low, like the Dexcom was just reading low. She was fast asleep, her mother was following her in a different state. And her mother was following her. This goes into what you were saying before about always making sure you have somebody following you. And she called us and you know, thank God, we got there on time, and we woke her up. You know, the husband heard the dog, we woke her up. And you know, she she took sugar, and she was fine. Yeah.

Scott Benner 46:54
I stopped the load for Arden last night that she didn't hear at 3am. My Dexcom alerted me, I woke up. And I waited one revolution of the Dexcom to make sure she didn't like because it was a weird, it was a weird thing. Like she looked like she went from 80 to like 50 real quickly. And I thought maybe she's laying on a lot. Give her a second. And then it held. So I called her. And she didn't answer but she called me right back. She was hey, what's up, and you could tell she had been asleep for a while. It's funny, I was more aggressive about it last night than I might have been because I spoke to her earlier in the evening. And at dinnertime, she said I'm not very hungry. So I thought, Oh, she's not going to eat much tonight. And that actually stuck in my head. I'll be aware of Lows tonight because her algorithms still going to do what it always does. And she's been eating more the last couple of weeks. And so I thought, Oh, the algorithms being aggressive. And then she more recently moved her GLP up a little bit. And so now she's eating a little less, but the algorithm still getting the vibe. So anyway, I was thinking about Alo, I woke her up. I said, Hey, I think you're low. And she stopped. I could hear her focus herself. And she goes, Yeah, I think I am too. And I was like, Okay, I'm like, Are you going to drink a juice? I said, I could stay on the phone with you to make sure you drink it because then I'll I'll do it. And she hung up. Right? So then of course, David, I lose her data almost as soon as she hangs up. So now, so now I'm like, I swapped over to like Nightscout real quick. Nightscout thought her blood sugar was 40. And I know she drank the juice, right? I believe that she did. I spoke to her. She was clear headed. And I waited one revolution five minutes, it didn't come back. I waited another revolution, five minutes, it didn't come back. And I thought okay, like this is the moment here like she either drank the juice, and she's okay. Or she fell back asleep and didn't drink the juice. And she's in trouble. And I did this thing that I don't know if people know, like I sent her a text to reestablish her connection to the internet. So I don't know if you've ever seen this. But if you lose data sometimes coming from someone else. If you ping their phone, then their phone pings a tower. And that's something and then sometimes you get the data back. So I sent a text it just said, Hey, I can't see your data. Are you okay? I'd never thought she was gonna see that. I figured she was asleep still. And as soon as I did that, I swear to you as soon as I did that, boom, she was 95. And she had and I was like and she had an arrow up and I was like okay, go

"David" 49:16
out. Yeah, it was fun. It was now it's fall he it's actually a little scary. I mean, I myself I don't hear a lot during the night like as I sleep like a log. I don't hear nothing. But I do wake up when I feel low. So even I never wake up from the Dexcom and I have sugar may set to call me. I still don't hear it. My wife is it she she wakes me up. But I like if I'm by myself. I don't hear I wake up from a law like I'm feeling low. My son doesn't. It's actually pretty scary. We wake him up when he's low and we give him juice and he normally doesn't know a thing in the morning. Like, you know you're low last night at 2am. And I'll remember oh yeah, really? Yeah. Yeah, as neither Martin

Scott Benner 49:59
was like kicked out, right until she went to college. And then it was like, once she knew it was on her, she started to wake up. Right? Like, I don't know why she didn't last night, or maybe she would have in a couple of minutes more. I don't know. She's been very, very good about it. And she's almost on her second year of college. She's been very good about it. I'm assuming

"David" 50:16
as he gets all the it's something that he'll just write. And I just said, once you have to take more responsibility than it's just something that will, you know, I'll just get into

Scott Benner 50:25
also when she comes home for her breaks, like she announces to me coming through the door, like, Hey, I'm not waking up for Lowe's. Like, like, this is on you. I need to I need to sign Yeah,

"David" 50:35
yeah. So yeah. So we actually had that with our son. Not not not with that. But without, you know, there was a time he was let me I never went through his full story. Let me tell you the basics of his thing. So he was he was nine, and it just was not feeling well. He was looking like, like I said, the weight we didn't notice, but he just was not feeling well. Every day. He was telling me I'm just not doing good. I'm not doing good. And then it was one morning he woke up and started vomiting. And I'm like, okay, something. I don't know what, oh, I know what actually not only did he not he peed in his bed. So I'm like, okay, something's off. He's not and he wasn't doing that for years already. Something is off. He's vomiting. He doesn't look good. I said, let me check your sugars. I check. And they're like, 250 my heart went through the floor. You can't even imagine. And then I'm like, in my head like, this is all in like five seconds. I'm telling you. Maybe he just as virus maybe it says maybe it's that maybe it's that, you know, I went through 1400 maybes not wanting to believe the truth. So immediately, literally still in the hallway right after I just pulled out a Dexcom from my closet. I had a spurt was a G six at a time transmitter. I just stuck it on him. So yeah, the Dexcom running before we even got to the doctor. You know, I called it the I woke up my wife was early in the morning. We went to the doctor and and you know, they sent us into into the Windows Office and we were there. They thank God we managed to avoid the hospital. He wasn't in DKA. We spent all day in Andrews office getting now but of course I had the experience. They weren't so scared to let me home because they saw right away that I knew, you know how to Bolus and what to do. So they weren't. They weren't too scared. He was extremely sensitive to insulin. In the beginning when I say like his Bezos were like point 10 Like an hour point one and like it was impossible on MDI, impossible. He had such swings, like, give him a tiny Bolus, and he went flying down flying in minutes, right. So I got I couldn't handle it. After a week I called the end though I didn't really I didn't need the permission. But it's always better if you can be not to be in a fight with your medical team. At the end of the day, you know, it's better if you're on the same page. And it's not always possible. But if you can be it's always better to be on the same page. So this is only a week after he's diagnosed, I had a spare tandem with control IQ sitting in my closet. I'm like, guys, you know what's going on over here? You see what's going on? Do you mind if I just stick the pump on him? And I'm not waiting six months for insurance, bureaucracy, and whatever, I'm watching these swings, we're not sleeping, you can imagine what every night it was like, Yeah, you know what you're doing, just stick the pump on him. So a week after he was diagnosed, he was already on the pump. And and then, you know, eventually his pump came through I don't even remember didn't you know, however many months later, but you know, once insurance sorted everything out. And that we saw he was like, in the beginning was actually scared to eat. Like he just we realized after a few weeks that he's barely eating and like you were like, he didn't want to get into the, you know, the Bolus thing and the the highs, the lows and dealing with all of that. And then there was a time when he basically just said to us like, even though we never put it on him. He did like voluntarily offer to like, he's like, Oh, I think I can change my pump myself. So I'm like, okay, sure, change your pump yourself. It's a great thing. And the same with a Dexcom. But then there was a stage where he, I want to call it denial. So he got a little fed up. And he's like, okay, it's just on you. Like, I'm not doing this anymore. So no problem. We're gonna change it pumps, we're gonna change it that sounds we're gonna monitor that we're gonna text you if you need to take something. It's not as there should be no worry on your head. When you're ready. You'll let me know if you want to take over any more responsibility. Right. So I think it's definitely important that kids know that, you know, parents are willing to take whatever responsibility they can after her.

Scott Benner 54:25
Has he done that? How long has he had type one.

"David" 54:27
So now he's 12. So it's about two and a half years now.

Scott Benner 54:30
Has he come to you and said, Hey, I'd like to do a little more or not yet, say yes. And

"David" 54:34
interestingly, you'll find it interesting what I attribute this to he's a competitive type. And he's a bit of a perfectionist. Like I'm a perfectionist, which is not always a great a great thing with type one because you know, like, I get frustrated, like, it's like, you know, if I look back like last 90 days, I'm like 80% and rage. I don't like that because I'm like 80 It should be like 98 Interestingly, you started the gees Seven, which I happen to hate. I'll give you my opinion on that in a minute. So personally, I'm still on the GS six, he started the g7. And what I found out about it, interestingly is that, you know, clarity in the g7 is in the same app, like it's not a separate app, even though he had clarity before on his phone, he never actually would go and check it. But now your timing range, and you know, how much a high and how much you love. It's all right there. So when you're checking your tracks now, now that that's the only thing I attribute it to, cause he started coming to me and saying, like, hey, look, this is how much time whenever you don't have those conversations before, it wasn't even like he's gotten really into this and I hope it lasts. I mean, when I say into this, I'm talking about 7:13am This morning, he texts me and my wife a picture showing 96% time in range over the last three days. He's proud of himself, very proud of himself. And we didn't do a thing for this. You know, we've never told him off before we let them eat whatever he wants to eat. I always just want to eat you got to Bolus I can't you know, Tom, I kind of in my right conscious Tom. He can eat without bolusing. But he got into this himself. And I think it's because of the g7 Seeing because there's nothing else I can attribute it

Scott Benner 56:08
to like a video game to him almost. Yeah, yeah.

"David" 56:11
So I think that's been a game changer. And to degree I mean, here's put it this way. When we came back from the summer from campus a once he was eight, when we went to the doctor's office three weeks ago is everyone see was 6.5 Wow, look at him. That's a huge change. And actually before it was, this was actually a nice thing. Before we actually went into the appointment, I went to speak to one of the CDs she She's amazing. They have have some really, really not everyone over there is but they have you know, we've changed around doctors a few times till we got one that we like and the CD and and I told her I said listen, he has been working really hard. Make sure you guys make a big deal out of it. So she and the doctor came in the room singing celebrating like, oh my god, he wants the 6.5 Who is this kid? I made a whole big deal out of it. And his smile, but he you know, he was brimming from from cheek to cheek. So that was really nice. You know, that was nice to see. And it was nice that they got on board. And we have we didn't do anything like he, you know, he talked us online, he started Pre-Bolus thing. And he started he started you know, just taking note of things. And so that's been Yeah, the last few months have been he's definitely get taken on much more on himself.

Scott Benner 57:22
I'm happy for him. That's wonderful. Because they what it means is that he's in an endeavor to get that time and range better. He's bolusing. He's looking at numbers and going I don't want to let this high blood sugar sit here. I'll knock it down a little bit. Correct. Has to be you know what it means to me. It's made him more involved in his in his Bolus. 100%.

"David" 57:40
Yeah. And he has the, you know, we got him, we didn't have it right away. And this one piece of advice. I mean, we'd gotten him the Apple Watch. That was a game changer. I mean, before that we were paying, like $400 out of pocket a week, because we couldn't get it covered through insurance. For somebody to be in school with him just to basically pass on my messages. They weren't like a CD or something. They were just like a messenger we would take because he doesn't want to take out his phone during class. So he can't see what was going on, like cans of water sugars. He can't see if he's supposed to, you know, take sugar or what he's supposed to do to be paying 40 hours a week for some guy to stand there. And basically just pass in my messages. And we didn't have a choice, you know, no kidding. So what why don't we got him an Apple watch that was a game changer, a game changer. I mean, he sees his texture and class, you know, so if he's low, we'll text him, you know, little bit of juice, who responds right? Also, even if he was low, we had no idea if he dealt with it, because he wasn't going to take out his phone in the middle of class and start texting. Now right away, he just sends a thumbs up. So that's, that's also been a game changer. I

Scott Benner 58:44
have a couple of questions before I let you go. Going back to to the rescue squad to ambulance. First of all, can I pass out type one look like an OD? Yes,

"David" 58:54
yes. And they can also look like drunk. So which is why we never had the protocol to test blood sugars. Like I said before, we weren't even allowed to test for sugars. But because of multiple incidents in the last two years where a type one diabetic was passed out was taken as a drunk or taken as an OD. And meanwhile, the shooting would not combat you know, that's the last thing they need. That's why they brought in the blood sugar protocol. And it's pretty much protocol now that anyone that passes it out, or is obviously unresponsive. First thing is check the blood sugar. That's definitely been a you know, a huge improvement that

Scott Benner 59:35
a nationwide thing. How do they communicate that stuff, too?

"David" 59:38
So it's not that's the silly thing, you know, as much as America is, is one country. It's like every state has its own rules and regulations. It's not a nationwide thing. It goes state by state. So I don't know I can't promise that that's in every state. But I know on the East Coast, that's definitely been a recent change in the last few years.

Scott Benner 59:59
My Last question that I'm not sure how long can articulate it, but I keep having this feeling. So let me see if I can get through it with you. Sometimes I feel like the people who listen to the podcast are either people who are taking very good care of themselves or are on their way to doing that, about the person who's struggling every day, who doesn't understand their insulin well, and all the things that we've talked about. But both people are going to end up calling an ambulance at some point with diabetes likely like the the ones who feel like they have it together and know what they're doing and the ones who are completely lost. What is the ambulance crew expect when they get there? Like, who are you being categorized as when someone's coming through the door? Is that or maybe you're not, I'm just being you know, what I'm asking.

"David" 1:00:40
It depends on the crew that you're getting. It's obviously person to person, there's like a personal attitude thing we try not to. And I'm not just saying that to be PC, we really try not to there's always a human being behind that there's always a story. I'm not blaming somebody, because the sugars are out of control, and they don't know what to do, and they don't know how to Bolus I'm not you know, I will never judge them for being in that situation. I have pity on them. Most times, it's pity more than anything else. Now, I'm not talking about people who are abusive and call us every single day and just don't touch the blood sugar. That's ridiculous. It's just not nice. You using public resources, like just just, you know, work that out. But generally, it's much more of a feeling of pity than anything else.

Scott Benner 1:01:23
I don't get a crew of people coming through the door thinking, Oh, this is diabetes, here's another person that doesn't take care of themselves. No,

"David" 1:01:31
I've never seen that. I've never seen that in my 10 years. I haven't seen I'm not saying it doesn't happen again. This shawanna I haven't seen that for the most part.

Scott Benner 1:01:39
Okay. You know, I mean, I think most things go as people go. So if you get thoughtful, open minded people, you get thoughtful, open minded experience. Because sometimes I think about doctors to like, you know, did did that endocrinologist start off in the first couple of years, just with a lot of enthusiasm sitting down in every you know, every meeting with every patient going, alright, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna Bolus we're gonna do this, we're gonna get your settings, right. And then one day, it just was like it just too many. Too many people didn't do it. And they just gave up, you know what I mean? or lost their ability to be enthusiastic about something they thought wasn't going to go well. And how much of that? I mean, I think that's another thing that people should try to read through with their doctors. It's like, do I have a hopeful doctor? Somebody who thinks we're going to get to a, you know, a great answer for me, or am I sitting with somebody who's been beaten up by the world? And

"David" 1:02:33
I'll never forget, like, I had a doc. You know, this was back in the UK. He was like, 65 350 pounds, and he's lecturing me about cholesterol, something like, are you serious? I think you gotta change your doctors. I mean, I'm not you know, sometimes it's harder when you're out of town. And you're, you know, there's many options, especially within, but if you're living in any big city, chances are there's not the end or down the road. I mean, just within the practice, that's normally all that it does. I changed my son's Endo. I read from the first point, we were not happy. She wasn't going through this appointment. She wasn't talking about diabetes, or struggles or anything. It was always about something else. And this vaccine and that vaccine, I'm not against vaccines, but she was like, every time I'm like, is this diabetes meeting? Or is this vaccine meeting? Yeah. So I went, I actually changed at the head of the department who was much better. And on my personal doctor, also, she used to be in one hospital, I went through three, four doctors till I found. And then I moved over, she actually moved out to another hospital. So I moved over with her. She's amazing. But like, don't sit on stuff if your doctors burned out and not giving you what you need. Don't sit on them, right changes them. Yeah. Now, I know, there's insurance issues and things like that. But most times, you can work that out. I

Scott Benner 1:03:46
mean, sometimes you have to give more to get more, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? Like, you get stuck with a bad doctor, it's easy to say, I don't have time to work this out. Or I can't go find somebody else. But yummy. You can't afford not to honestly, yeah,

"David" 1:03:58
I just saw this very interesting thing this week. It's called functional fixation. And it's essentially the way human beings just take things as they are. And you know, they gave a lot of examples for but one of the examples they gave is that freezes we're always on top of fridges, for the simple reason that it used to be an ice box on top and the ice used to drip down into the freezer into the fridge to keep things you know, now, once they came out with electronic freezes, nobody thought for years, like hey, maybe we should flip it and and put freezes at the bottom. It just kept it like that. Because that's how it's been. And that's how people are with a lot of things. They're just like, This is how it is, you know, this would be my doctor for 20 years. But like if this is your doctor for 20 years, and you're not getting what you need, nothing's going to like you got to change something. Yeah. If you're fixated on that, you know, the one that's going to suffer at the end of the day. Functional

Scott Benner 1:04:51
fixation is a cognitive bias that limits a person's ability to use an object in more ways than it's traditionally used and it affects in in individual's ability to innovate and be creative when solving challenges about that. There you go. That's something, David. Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this with me. Sure. I hope you had a good time. Thank

"David" 1:05:12
you so much for what you do. And I can say my control is much better thanks to you. You perhaps even recently, I changed my high alert to 130. I'm not at 120 yet, we'll get there. But that's, that's thanks to you and most of the things that I've learned on your podcast, so I really thank you for what you're doing. And you're reaching out, you have no idea how many people you're reaching. I mean, I dealt with a new family that was just diagnosed a few weeks ago, in other states, some right, they knew right away. But as soon as I said something about the podcast has already been told about it. They're already listening to it. You know, that's a far cry from when I was diagnosed. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:05:45
no, I appreciate that. I have to tell you, I've, I've only been really stung twice, like, the first time when somebody told me you're huge in the Mormon community, I was like, Get out of here, really. And then this, this, when I got the invite to come to the, you know, somebody said, you know, you come and speak at our event, it's very private and everything. And I was like, sure, like, I don't understand how do you know me? You know, because I, I actually, you know, before I got there, I have very closely tied your religious beliefs with like, no technology. And, and then I was like, like, how are they listening to the podcast even. And, but But you guys are really great. Like, if, you know, I don't know, if I mentioned it here ever. But on the last day of the event, I was asked to come up and tell people what I learned while I was there, and, and I said, you know, despite the fact that you dress much differently than I'm accustomed to, and, you know, your religious beliefs are, you know, different than I've heard, you guys are all exactly the same as every other person I've ever met my entire life. And it really was my, my, my experience, you know?

"David" 1:06:46
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of stereotypes. And like, for example, you mentioned about technology. I hear that the whole time. It's not true. It's completely not true. It isn't a version to you know, the healthiness of children having open Internet access, with no filters and you know, accessing things that are completely inappropriate for their age, but the kinds of technology and especially when it comes to life saving and health, you know, we don't use technology on the weekends generally as a as a community as the religious community. That is not when it comes to health. You know, for example, text comes in pumps, and anything like that is excluded. Right

Scott Benner 1:07:22
from that Sunday. Sundown on Friday doesn't take away your Dexcom Correct, yeah. 100%.

"David" 1:07:27
Excellent. And, you know, I have my phone with me on Saturday, and my son has his phone. But yeah, when it comes to the health, so yeah, there is a bit of a misnomer out there about that. But 100% Yeah, that

Scott Benner 1:07:37
was a really it was, I mean, obviously, I said yes to coming back. I had a great time. So it's a you guys are very energetic. I felt like I didn't have a voice by the time I left, because that was the one downside is that there's no microphone from? Yeah, you're projecting your voice. And you guys are so I don't know if this is a like, I actually found there was a Shusher there. Like there was literally someone there. Like if the crowd got loud, that she'd step up and say show everybody she's talking. And I just realized it was so it was kind of interesting, because at first it's off putting because it's not something you're accustomed to it. Yeah. But then you see, like it like I said something, it got people excited, and they kind of broke off into these little coffee clutches and started talking. And they were just really excited to talk about a new idea. I did okay, I thought the guy that I did, I did it with he did well, but he didn't have the personality to be loud for like, 36 hours in a row. He looked a little.

"David" 1:08:32
You have a huge following. Yeah, I said the whole time. So

Scott Benner 1:08:37
nice. Alright, well, thanks so much. Let me say goodbye. I appreciate that. Hold on. Oh, my pleasure.

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. Mark is an incredible example of what so many experience living with diabetes, you show up for yourself and others every day, never letting diabetes to find you. And that is what the Medtronic champion community is all about. Each of us is strong, and together, we're even stronger. To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community where to share your own story, visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. Don't forget, we still have marks conversation at the very end. It's a terrific kind of mini episode about 10 minutes long, that goes deeper into some of the things that you heard Mark talking about earlier in the show. I want to thank the ever since CGM for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and invite you to go to ever since cgm.com/juicebox, to learn more about this terrific device. You can head over now and just absorb everything that the website has to offer. And that way you'll know if ever sent to feels right for you, ever since cgm.com/juicebox. A diabetes diagnosis comes with a lot of new terms, and you're not going to understand most of them. That's why we made defining diabetes, go to juicebox podcast.com up into the menu and click on defining diabetes, to find the series that will tell you what all of those words mean, short, fun and informative. That's the finding diabetes. 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. And now my full conversation with Medtronic champion, Mark. Mark, how old were you when you were diagnosed with type one diabetes? I was 2828. How old are you now? 4747. So just about 20 years?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:01
Yeah, 19 years?

Scott Benner 1:11:03
What was your management style when you were diagnosed?

Speaker 1 1:11:05
I use injections for about six months. And then my endocrinologist at the Navy recommended a pump. How

Scott Benner 1:11:11
long had you been in the Navy? See eight years up to that point? Eight years? Yeah, I've interviewed a number of people who have been diagnosed during service. And most of the time they're discharged. What happened to you?

Speaker 1 1:11:23
I was medically discharged. Yeah, six months after my diagnosis.

Scott Benner 1:11:26
I don't understand the whole system. Is that like, honorable?

Speaker 1 1:11:29
Yeah. I mean, essentially, if you get a medical discharge, you get a commensurate honorable discharge. I guess there could be cases where something other than that, but that's that's really how it happens. So it's an honorably discharged with but because of

Scott Benner 1:11:41
medical reason, and that still gives you access to the VA for the rest of your life. Right?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:45
Correct. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 1:11:46
Do you use the VA for your management? Yeah, I

Speaker 1 1:11:48
used to up until a few years ago, when we moved to North Carolina, it just became untenable, just the rigmarole and process to kind of get all the things I needed. You know, for diabetes management, it was far easier just to go through a private practice.

Scott Benner 1:12:02
Was it your goal to stay in the Navy for your whole life, your career? It was? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:12:05
in fact, I think a few months before my diagnosis, my wife and I had that discussion about, you know, staying in for the long term. And, you know, we made the decision despite all the hardships and time away from home, that was what we loved the most. So that's what made it that much more difficult

Scott Benner 1:12:21
was the Navy, like a lifetime goal of yours or something you came to as an adult,

Speaker 1 1:12:26
lifetime goal. I mean, as my earliest childhood memories were flying being a fighter pilot and specifically being flying on and off aircraft carriers. So, you know, watching Top Gun in the 80s certainly was a catalyst for

Scott Benner 1:12:40
that you've taken off and landed a jet on an aircraft carrier,

Unknown Speaker 1:12:43
hundreds of times.

Scott Benner 1:12:44
Is there anything in life as exhilarating as that?

Speaker 1 1:12:47
No, but there there's a roller coaster I rode at. I think it was at Cedar Rapids up in Cleveland Sandusky, and they've got this roller coaster that takes you from zero to like, it's like 80 or something, you go up a big hill and he come right back down. So the acceleration is pretty similar. I would say to catapult shot,

Scott Benner 1:13:06
I'm gonna guess you own a Tesla.

Speaker 1 1:13:08
I don't I I'm a boring guy. I got a hybrid rav4 I get made fun of I get called. You know, my wife says I drive like a grandpa on the five miles per hour over the speed limit person. No more than that. So yeah, in the car. I'm boring guy.

Scott Benner 1:13:23
So you've never felt a need to try to replace that with something else.

Speaker 1 1:13:26
You can't replace it. It's irreplaceable. That's what I thought. So up until the point where someone you know, buys me an F 18 or allows me to get inside a two seater and fly it you can't replace it. How

Scott Benner 1:13:37
did it make you feel when you saw or maybe you haven't seen? gentleman named Pietro has his large aircraft license. He's flying for a major carrier. Now he has type one diabetes. Does that feel hopeful to you?

Speaker 1 1:13:48
Yeah, it does. You know, when I when I was diagnosed, that wasn't a possibility. The FAA prohibited commercial pilots who had type one diabetes, but I think it was 2017 when they changed their rules to allow type one diabetics to be commercial pilots. And part of the reason I did that was because of the technology advancements, specifically in pump therapy, and pump management. So I don't have any aspirations of going to the commercial airlines, but one of my sons who has type one diabetes very much wants to be a commercial pilot. So you know, in that respect, I'm very hopeful and thankful. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:14:20
Do you fly privately now for pleasure?

Speaker 1 1:14:23
I do. Yeah. One of my favorite things to do is fly my kids to different soccer tournaments they have all over the southeast us so last week, my wife and I and two of our boys flipped to Richmond for their soccer tournaments up there and Charlie who's my middle child has type one diabetes so you know if I can combine flying family and football and one weekend to me that's I think I've just achieved Valhalla. So then

Scott Benner 1:14:47
it sounds to me like this diagnosis was a significant course correction for you. Can you tell me how it affected your dream?

Speaker 1 1:14:54
Well, I you know, if I guess three words come to mind first, it was devastating. Everything I had done in life Everything I've worked up to up to that point was just taken away in an instant. And I was not prepared for that at all. The second emotion was, it was scary. I hadn't thought much about life outside the Navy, certainly not life as anything else, but a fighter pilot. And Heather and I were getting ready to move to France, I was going to do an exchange tour with with the French naval air force. So we're taking French classes. So pretty quickly, I had to reinvent myself. And then probably the most important thing at the same time that all that was going on, I had to learn how to how to deal with type one diabetes and how to manage it effectively. The third thing that pops into my mind, I guess, is challenging, you know, new daily routines, I had to establish first with injections, and then eventually, you know, through pump management, and then learning how to count carbs and recognize highs and lows, how my body reacts to blood sugar trends based on exercise and stress and those types of things. And my goal at that time, and it still is today is to leverage technology and make sure my habit patterns are effective so that I take diabetes management from the forefront to the background.

Scott Benner 1:16:01
Have you had success with that? Do you feel like you've made the transition? Well, I

Speaker 1 1:16:05
have I mean, I believe in continuous improvement. So there's always more to do. I will say the technology since I was diagnosed specifically with pump management, it's just, it's just incredible. It takes less of me intervening. And it's really done by the pump itself and by the algorithms through the CGM EMS. And to me again, that that should be the goal for everybody is to not have to focus so much on the daily aspects of type one, diabetes management, you know, we should let technology do that for us.

Scott Benner 1:16:34
What else have you found valuable? I've spoken to 1000s of people with type one diabetes, the one thing that took me by surprise, because I don't have type one, myself, and my daughter was very young when she was diagnosed. I didn't really understand until I launched this podcast, and then it grew into this kind of big Facebook presence. I heard people say, I don't know anybody else who has type one diabetes, I wish I knew more people. But until I saw them come together, I didn't recognize how important it was. Yeah, I

Speaker 1 1:17:03
think similarly, I didn't know anyone with type one diabetes growing up as an adult up until when I was diagnosed. And then all of a sudden, people just came out of the woodwork. And when CGM is first hit the market, certainly within the last five years. It's amazing to me and my family, how many people we've noticed with type one diabetes simply because you can see the CGM on their arm. I mean, I would say, a month does not go by where we don't run into someone at a restaurant or an amusement park or a sporting event or somewhere where we see somebody else with type one diabetes. And the other surprising aspect of that is just how quickly you make friends. And I'll give an example. We're at a soccer tournament up in Raleigh, this past Saturday and Sunday. And the referee came over to my son Charlie at the end of the game and said, Hey, I noticed you're wearing pomp. And he lifted up a shirt and showed his pump as well and said, I've had type one diabetes since I was nine years old. I played soccer in college, I'm sure that's your aspiration. And I just want to tell you don't let type one diabetes ever stop you from achieving your dreams of what you want to do. And it's the other man was probably in his late 50s or 60s. So just having that connection and seeing, you know, the outreach and people's willingness to share their experiences. It just means the world to us and just makes us feel like we're part of a strong community.

Scott Benner 1:18:23
So would you say that the most important things are strong technology tools, understanding how to manage yourself and a connection to others. Yeah, technology

Speaker 1 1:18:33
for sure. And knowing how to leverage it, and then the community and that community is your friends, your family caregivers, you know, for me to Medtronic champions, community, you know, all those resources that are out there to, you know, help guide away, but then help help you keep abreast on you know, the new things that are coming down the pipe, and to give you hope for eventually, you know, that we can find a cure.

Scott Benner 1:18:53
You mentioned that your son wanted to be a pilot. He also has type one diabetes, how old was he when he was diagnosed.

Speaker 1 1:18:59
So Henry was diagnosed when he was 12 years old, was just at the start of COVID. We are actually visiting my in laws in Tennessee, we woke up in the morning and he had his bed. And several years before that we had all four of our boys tested for trial net. So you know, predictor of whether or not they're going to develop type one diabetes, and Heather or Henry and one of those brothers tested positive for a lot of the indicators. So we always kind of had an inclination that there was a high degree of possibility he would develop it, but we always had at the back of our mind as well. And so when that event happened, at the beginning of COVID, we had him take his blood sugar on my glucometer and it was over 400 And so right away, we knew that without even being diagnosed properly by endocrinologist that he was a type one diabetic, so we hurried home to get him probably diagnosed in Charlottesville. And then we just started the process first grieving, but then acceptance and you know, his eventual becoming part of the team that nobody wants to join. How old is he now? He's 15 years old. Now,

Scott Benner 1:20:05
when's the first time he came to you? And said, Is this going to stop me from flying?

Speaker 1 1:20:11
Almost immediately. So like me, he always had aspirations of flying. In fact, he out of all four boys wanted to be in the military, that was a difficult part of the conversation, and maybe something that we don't talk about as a community. But there are some things you cannot do as a type one diabetic, and that's a hard fact of life. And unfortunately, joining the military is one of those hard and fast things you cannot be, you cannot join the military as a type one diabetic. So it was very difficult for him and for me and my wife to get over. Then we also started talking about being a commercial pilot. And so I saw that same excitement in his eyes because like me, you know, he can be an NFA teen or a 737 or a Cirrus SR 20 That I fly and be just as happy. So he still has that passion today and still very much plans to eventually become a commercial pilot.

Scott Benner 1:20:57
I appreciate your sharing that with me. Thank you. You have four children do any others have type one?

Speaker 1 1:21:02
They do? My oldest twin Henry has type one diabetes, and my middle son Charlie has type one diabetes as well. The boys are twins. The oldest two are twins. One has type one diabetes. My middle son, who is not a twin has type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:21:15
I see. Is there any other autoimmune in your family? There isn't

Speaker 1 1:21:19
I'm really the only person in my family or my wife's family that we know of with any sort of autoimmune disease, certainly type one diabetes. So unfortunately, I was the first to strike it rich and unfortunately, pass it along to to my sons with celiac thyroid, anything like that. Not about nothing. We're really a pretty healthy family. So this came out of nowhere for myself and for my two sons.

Scott Benner 1:21:43
That's really something. I appreciate your time very much. I appreciate you sharing this with me. Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:48
Anytime Scott.

Scott Benner 1:21:49
Learn more about the Medtronic champion community at Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box or by searching the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way. recording.com

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