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#1358 Two Year Gap

Podcast Episodes

The Juicebox Podcast is from the writer of the popular diabetes parenting blog Arden's Day and the award winning parenting memoir, 'Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Dad'. Hosted by Scott Benner, the show features intimate conversations of living and parenting with type I diabetes.

#1358 Two Year Gap

Scott Benner

Kristen shares her journey managing type 1 diabetes in her family and finding support.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon MusicGoogle Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio PublicAmazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


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

Scott Benner 0:00
Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of The Juicebox podcast. Welcome.

My note says, Kristen has three dogs, something like 100 chickens, four kids, and she's pregnant, but if you need to know more, she's also the mother of a child with type one diabetes. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. 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/juicebox 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 Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com if you are the caregiver of someone with type one diabetes or have type one yourself, please go to T 1d exchange.org/juice, box and complete the survey. This should take you about 10 minutes, and will really help type one diabetes research. You can help right from your house at T 1d exchange.org/juice, box. You

the show you're about to listen to is sponsored by the ever since 365 the ever since 365 has exceptional accuracy over one year and is the most accurate CGM in the low range that you can get. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox, Arden started using a contour meter because of its accuracy, but she continues to use it because it's durable and trustworthy. If you have diabetes you want the contour next gen blood glucose meter. There's already so many decisions. Let me take this one off your plate. Contour next.com/juicebox Did you know if just one person in your family has type one diabetes, you're up to 15 times more likely to get it too. So screen it like you mean it one blood test can spot type one diabetes, early tap now talk to a doctor or visit screen for type one.com. For more info.

Kristen 2:29
My name is Kristen. I live in a small property in southern Idaho with what I like to call my feral children and all my little farm animals. I have four children. My third one is my type one, and we're just doing the best we can. I bet

Scott Benner 2:47
you are four kids. Yes, 1234, the third one's the type one. How old

Kristen 2:54
she is? Six, almost seven, next month. Oh, and

Scott Benner 2:57
diagnosed at four and a half. This is not very long for you. Then maybe two years, no two years in May. Okay. Did it come as a surprise? Yes,

Kristen 3:08
we have, as far as we know, no type one in either family. She has no antibodies, and she is not Modi,

Scott Benner 3:16
okay. Other kids are. How old start at the top 12,

Kristen 3:20
nine and four and a half.

Scott Benner 3:24
Kristen, you know, I have, do you listen to the podcast?

Unknown Speaker 3:27
Yes.

Scott Benner 3:28
Are you when I when I can fit in? So, you know, I'm going to ask you, are you building an army for God or a basketball team? What is it you're doing over there?

Kristen 3:35
I guess that's just the way the dice rolls. This is the part where I tell you that I just found out I'm pregnant after five years.

Scott Benner 3:43
Thank God. My intuition always pays off. Okay?

Kristen 3:48
It was very much in the loose term of, can you actually say it's a surprise? But it wasn't a surprise.

Scott Benner 3:54
Be honest with you. You walk in the room, you look at your husband, just the look on your face tells him you're pregnant, right? You don't even have to say anything, actually. No,

no. How'd it go? No.

Kristen 4:05
He was like, you've gotta, You're kidding, right? He asked if I paid my pregnant friend to take a test.

Unknown Speaker 4:11
How old are you guys?

Kristen 4:12
I am 35 almost 36 and he is 48 oh, yeah, he's old. How

Scott Benner 4:20
this happened? Kristen, what happened? Tell me you were running from your family the law. What happened?

Kristen 4:25
He looks really young. He tricked me. I was just kidding. It just happened. Our families go way back and

Scott Benner 4:33
I see Yeah, was there? Was there drinking involved in the beginning? No, no. How old were you when you got married

Unknown Speaker 4:41
1919,

Scott Benner 4:43
he did this. I think you're a victim. I

Kristen 4:47
think we can. I don't feel like a victim. People are always like, you gotta be kidding me, you know. And then you look at like, you know the olden days, and you're like, oh, oh, maybe it's not so bad. It's

Scott Benner 4:58
not crazy. Yeah, that's and. Wow. So you're going to have five kids. Do you think that'll be the end of it?

Kristen 5:03
Yes, we weren't really expecting to have five kids I have, I don't know, probably PCOS, I'm guessing, oh, and really messed up, like cycles. And apparently this one was not messed up. And what do you know?

Scott Benner 5:20
Let me ask you a question, and I hope this doesn't sound like I'm talking down to you, because I'm certainly not. But I just want to make sure about this. You know how this all works? Right?

Kristen 5:28
Yes, yes. I know how it happened. Our other kids. Like, it was not like, it was months of being like, okay, yeah, we're gonna have four kids, and it was like a process to get there. So this is the only time it's ever been like, oh, surprise. Surprise

Scott Benner 5:46
is that one of your kids or a dog?

Kristen 5:51
That's my dog, okay, bit of a ding bat. How many

Scott Benner 5:53
dogs do you have? Too many, three. Oh, my God, all right, Kristen, listen, what other animals are living things are on that property with you. We got three dogs, four kids, one cooking, a husband. Keep going, probably

Kristen 6:07
like 25 chickens, okay, three goats and a horse. What

Scott Benner 6:12
do you do with the goats? Well,

Kristen 6:13
here's the thing. The lady I bought the goats from was supposed to have castrated the mail, and she missed one, and so he reproduced with the female. And then I was like, where did that massive go piece come from? And then she popped out a baby. Yeah, apparently it's an epidemic around here, the pregnancy.

Scott Benner 6:37
You mean, yeah, surprise, yeah. When we get off later, I'm going to give you some sure fire tips to not get pregnant. Okay, yeah, I feel like, you

Kristen 6:46
know the problem is, is that I'm probably gonna get my tubes tied. Let's just be honest, because I throw up a lot when I'm pregnant. If I take birth control, it's like, I'm throwing up all day, every day, running birth control. Oh,

Scott Benner 6:59
I'm sorry, that sucks. Yeah. So it's a super

Kristen 7:02
weird like, apparently I must be sensitive to it, because I tried more than one kind, and if it has the hormones, I'm up trucking. Let's kind of ask

Scott Benner 7:12
a couple other questions before we dig into the kid with the diabetes thing. Do you have any other classic PCOS symptoms, hair, acne, weight, anything like that. Getting older means a world of change, but some things still stay the same, like being at risk for type one diabetes, because type one can happen at any age. So screen it like you mean it, if just one person in your family has type one, you're up to 15 times more likely to get it too, and 50% of type one diagnoses happen after the age of 18. So screen it like you mean it type one diabetes starts long before you need insulin, and one blood test could help you spot it early and lower the risk of serious complications like diabetic ketoacidosis, known as DKA. So don't get caught by surprise. Screen it like you mean it, because getting answers now can help you get prepared. The more you know, the more you can do. So don't wait. Talk to a doctor about how to get screened. Tap now or visit screen for type one.com to learn more. Again, that's screen for type one.com and screen it like you mean it. Why would you settle for changing your CGM every few weeks when you can have 365 days of reliable glucose data? Today's episode is sponsored by the ever since 365 it is the only CGM with a tiny sensor that lasts a full year sitting comfortably under your skin with no more frequent sensor changes and essentially no compression lows. For one year, you'll get your CGM data in real time on your phone, smart watch, Android or iOS, even an Apple Watch predictive high and low alerts let you know where your glucose is headed before it gets there. So there's no surprises, just confidence, and you can instantly share that data with your healthcare provider or your family. You're going to get one year of reliable data without all those sensor changes. That's the ever since 365 gentle on your skin, strong for your life. One sensor a year, that gives you one less thing to worry about, head now to ever sense, cgm.com/juicebox, to get started. I

Kristen 9:31
had, like as a teenager, super painful like, to the point of throwing up periods and just super irregular, always, never consistent, just all over the place, interesting

Scott Benner 9:45
weight. Still, I know you're pregnant now, but prior to being pregnant,

Kristen 9:49
oh yeah. Like, I not been able to not that I've tried super hard. But, like, I weigh what I weighed after I gave birth to my last kid five years ago. Have

Scott Benner 10:00
a question, Have you considered asking your doctor for the GLP for weight loss to see if it also helps with the PCOS symptoms?

Kristen 10:08
I haven't, because I don't. I'm not like I guess it doesn't matter what you weigh, though, does it?

Scott Benner 10:13
Well, here's why I'm asking, because you don't have type two diabetes, correct? No, right. So, for instance, running my family, there's always hope. So then my point is, is that for insurance coverage, there's two ways to get to a GLP medication. You can have type two. They'll just they'll give it to you if your insurance covers it. And if you have a BMI over 27 maybe, and so if your BMI is high enough, then you can get the same medication under a different name for weight loss, and insurance will cover it. And then you could get the benefit of the weight loss part. Hopefully also, there's a lot of people out in the world talking about the benefits of it for PCOS and inflammation in general, it's something to why, yeah, there's something that looked up my BMI, you went and looked it up. Yeah, did you really that quickly? Yeah, see people here Idaho, and they think not technically adept, but no, you were right on it. You

Kristen 11:16
know what? My husband works in technology. So maybe that's where am I? You born and raised there? Yes, I have lived here all except for two years.

Scott Benner 11:24
And for those two years you were on the run from the law, but then this man found you any marriage. Was this what happened? No,

Kristen 11:30
I was in Washington because I got married. Wait a minute to

Scott Benner 11:33
him, though, right? Yes, okay, you weren't like married when you were 17. No,

Kristen 11:37
just just one marriage, just 116 and a half years, just one marriage,

Scott Benner 11:42
75 living things in there. Yes,

Kristen 11:46
oh, yeah, no, Scott, at one point, I had a chicken farm, and I had like, 150 chickens. Now what? What

Scott Benner 11:53
do you do with 150 chickens?

Kristen 11:56
Some of them were meat chickens, and then I sold the eggs. Nice. Yeah. Listen,

Scott Benner 11:59
money is a perspective thing, but is, was that a good earner for you the eggs, or was, was it a lot of work? Or how does that go? It wasn't a

Kristen 12:07
lot of work. And I did pretty good. I wouldn't say it was probably like, I mean, if you really did the math, like in a spreadsheet, I probably broke even. Was about all I did, but it was fairly steady cash flow, yeah?

Scott Benner 12:19
But not enough to buy condoms. That was the problem. Yeah,

Kristen 12:23
well, you know,

Scott Benner 12:25
all right, I love you. So far, this is great. How pregnant are you?

Kristen 12:30
Like, nine weeks get out of so

Scott Benner 12:33
am I the first person you're telling? No, my dad took care of that. Oh, that's nice.

Speaker 1 12:38
He can't keep a secret when it comes to that, I

Scott Benner 12:42
thought you were gonna just say, people just assume I'm pregnant. Like,

Kristen 12:47
I had a couple people who found out who are like, Oh, I thought so. I was like, no, no, that was just my fat.

Scott Benner 12:52
Well, I don't mean that. I just meant because you're always pregnant. I meant, like,

Kristen 12:56
five years, Scott, over five years, but

Scott Benner 13:00
12 and nine, there's three years nine and six, three years six and seven and four, three years. You're on a three year schedule until this and you don't know what it was, a wedding. Wait,

Kristen 13:11
no, we talked about having four, five kids, and then she got diagnosed with type one, and we were like, and that's I spent the last two years surviving, I guess, you know? Yeah, let's talk out what we're doing and keeping her alive and keeping myself sane. Because there was a few moments where I was like, You know what? Maybe today she's gonna run a little higher so that I'm, I'm

Scott Benner 13:35
gonna go lay down with the goats. So tell me about it. Like, what'd you see first? How'd you figure out she had type one.

Kristen 13:41
We went on a road trip from my husband at the was working in Arizona for a company based in Arizona at the time, and we went from here to Arizona, and was going to be a 14 day trip, and it was cold here, like, in the 50s, and it was like, you know, 100 and something there already, and we get down, like, kind of on the way. She was, like, really thirsty, but we were all thirsty because the transition from cool to hot, and then we get down there, and we all pick up, like, this very bad stomach bug. I'm really sick. Other kids are pretty sick, and she'd had a UTI before. So then, like, we're had a bad stomach bug. We start coming home, and she's just off. But I was like, Okay, maybe this just lingering worse for her, the stomach bug. Yeah, we get home, and she's still not herself, and she's going, you know, she's frequently urination and just off. And when she potty trained, she never wet the bed. So the night before I took her in, she wet the bed. I get her cleaned up, like, 45 minutes later, she wets the bed again. And I'm like, That's really weird. Yeah, yeah. I get up in the morning to get ready to take her to the walk in clinic, and she comes in the bathroom with me, and she's standing in the bathroom, but then I have a scale on the floor, and she steps on it. She had lost like, eight pounds. Oh, geez. And she weighed like, she's tiny. She's always been tiny. And I was like, she's lost eight pounds. Like that is

Scott Benner 15:24
alarming for a small child. Very

Kristen 15:26
alarming. Yeah. And so I google weight loss and frequent urination, and I was like, no, no, no, because the first thing that pops up is type one. It's like, There's no way. But you know it's there in my mind now. So we go to the walk in clinic. They were like, there's no one in the waiting room, but they're like, all the clinic rooms are full, yeah, so get their rooms are full. The nurse comes out and he's chats with us for a second, and he's like, I don't think she has a UTI. I want to test her blood sugar. And I was like, okay, and it was too high for the walk in cleaners reader to read. Just said hi, and he's like, Listen, guys, this is probably what it is. I also work at the emergency room. I'm going to call them. Go straight there. They're going to know you're coming. When you get there, they're going to take you right back. So we drive over to the emergency room, exactly like you said. As soon as we said, who, why, who we were and why we were there, they took us straight in, you know, and got right to fluids, blood work, calling up to the endocrinology, the Children's Hospital, and, you know, they give her some long lasting, they didn't give her any fast acting, but they did give her a shot of Lantus. I think there that quickly, yeah, wow. Like, within, like, I don't know, probably that, like, the first hour

Scott Benner 17:01
and you in the walk in clinic, this is what you thought. But we're hoping it wasn't. Is that correct?

Kristen 17:07
Yeah, yeah, because I had Googled it, and then I was like, Yeah, you weren't shocked. My husband was, and it was a big shock to him, like he wasn't expect, you know, you know, you don't expect it. I don't think ever. No, of course, not something that, until it's on your radar. You don't, you know, not something you ever think about. Did

Scott Benner 17:28
you not share with him on the way there, when we

Kristen 17:31
pulled in the parking lot, he was like, Don't say that, which I totally, I mean, totally get Yeah, you don't want to think about it as being that way. She was not in DKA, but probably, if we had waited until the next day, her labs were really borderline, that she was very close to could

Scott Benner 17:52
have been it, yeah, well, it sounds like we were, yeah. It sounds like she was close, but then they'd get her in and out of there pretty quickly.

Kristen 17:58
No, so then we got transferred to the children's hospital by ambulance, and we stayed three days. I think it was there,

Scott Benner 18:09
okay, yeah, and what? And was there, like, education, there stuff like that,

Kristen 18:14
yeah. So then they had CDE, what do they call them? Now, I don't even know. CDE.

Scott Benner 18:19
CDC. CDE. E, C, S is, yeah, yeah. I got it

Kristen 18:24
something like that. You know who I mean there, my husband went home to the other kids, because it was like, at this point, we'd been at the other hospital all day, almost, and it was like, 10 o'clock, I think, when we got transferred, because they we had to wait for the ambulance. So I met the endocrinologist, and then the next day they came with the educator, started coming, and then she really perked up. And we were there for a couple days. And we left with a libre because at the time, our insurance was not super great. And so,

Scott Benner 18:56
oh, so, so you're listening. You left the hospital with a CGM. That's pretty terrific, honestly,

Kristen 19:02
right? Yes, and they would have the the endocrinologist office would have preferred Dexcom, but

Scott Benner 19:07
that's what your insurance covered. Yeah. Okay, and so now you're home and you have, Jesus, did you have? You did, right? One of your kids was barely two. Your youngest was like two at the time, right? Yes, okay. You have a four and a half year old with type one, a two year old back then, a seven year old and a 10 year old. And your husband, I assume, works all day, not home

Kristen 19:31
at the time. He was actually working from home only,

Scott Benner 19:35
okay. Oh, was this COVID Or No?

Kristen 19:39
No. This was that job that we went to Arizona for, it was a strictly work from home position, so he was home with me.

Scott Benner 19:47
You didn't mention that before. I heard Washington before, but not Arizona.

Kristen 19:50
When we took that trip to Arizona that we got back from that she was sick. I

Scott Benner 19:54
see, I see, okay. So you guys are at least in the house together. Are you guys handling it well? Did he stay shell shocked, or did he pull out of it?

Kristen 20:02
I feel like, just, I don't like, the first two months are just like a blur of terrible, no good. Feeling like, how am I gonna How am I gonna sustain this long term? And looking back, it's just the, like, the shock of it all. I don't know that people can be more sensitive, but she's on a she's on Omnipod five right now. Anytime that we've switched back to MDI, and you give her Landis, she gets really low all the time on it, like you can cut it back. And she's high during the day, but as soon as she goes to sleep, she gets really low.

Scott Benner 20:38
How come? You bounce back and forth last

Kristen 20:41
summer swimming every single day that the Omnipod fell off in the pool. She was like, I don't want to put a new one on. I want to go. I want to just take shots. And I was like, okay, okay. We did, like, a month, and it was horrible. And it was like, we're gonna go back on the pump.

Scott Benner 20:58
I didn't enjoy this, did you? No, let's go, yeah. But I want to go back through the more like, kind of like personal psychological stuff, really, because you said a couple times you felt like you just couldn't handle it. And I'd like to hear more about that. What happened in the beginning? How did it build? Where did you kind of come undone? The contour next gen blood glucose meter is the meter that we use here. Arden has one with her at all times. I have one downstairs in the kitchen, just in case I want to check my blood sugar. And Arden has them at school. They're everywhere that she is. Contour next.com/juicebox test strips and the meters themselves may be less expensive for you, in cash out of your pocket than you're paying currently through your insurance. For another meter. You can find out about that and much more at my link, contour next.com/juice, box contour makes a number of fantastic and accurate meters, and their second chance. Test strips are absolutely my favorite part. What does that mean? If you go to get some blood and maybe you touch it, and, I don't know, stumble with your hand and, like, slip off and go back, it doesn't impact the quality or accuracy of the test. So you can hit the blood, not get enough, come back, get the rest, without impacting the accuracy of the test. That's right, you can touch the blood, come back and get the rest, and you're going to get an absolutely accurate test contour next.com forward slash Juicebox. You're going to get a great reading without having to be perfect. This

Kristen 22:37
is where my husband, like says that I'm a rule follower, which I very much am. But I realized after a few months that the endocrinologist office, they're like, super well, exception of one person, are really nice people. They'll let your kid run like, 300 and be like, Oh, it's fine. And I realized that listening to you, I'm not saying I'm doing a great job right now. We're, like, living in a dumpster fire, but at the time, I was like, Oh, I don't have to call them every time I think something needs change. I don't have to tell them everything I'm doing, because their advice isn't always helpful.

Scott Benner 23:13
Because they'd be okay. They'd be okay with a 300 blood sugar. Yeah. So, okay, okay,

Kristen 23:19
it was only a little while, right? You know,

Scott Benner 23:23
so you you're listening to them in the beginning, yeah? And

Kristen 23:27
because you know that's what you think they know more than you, because you have no idea, and you've just been thrust into a situation that you like are totally blindsided by, right? And then one day, you wake up and you're like, I I'm gonna be okay. We're all gonna be okay. She hasn't died. We haven't killed her. Take a deep breath and, like, step back almost a little bit and look at the bigger picture of what's going on, and it's gonna be okay. And so

Scott Benner 23:57
that's what happened to you. You You gathered yourself, and you were like, there's got to be better information than what I have.

Kristen 24:03
Yeah, and I don't remember where I saw, you know, in what you know, you know, as Facebook, you find a group. I was like, mom's, I don't know, I won't name names, like, you know, some group, and then someone mentioned you and I was like, oh, that sounds interesting.

Unknown Speaker 24:17
Okay, so how

Scott Benner 24:19
long was that time? Kristen, like, between diagnosis and, like, coming out of the cloud at

Kristen 24:24
least a month or more,

Unknown Speaker 24:25
that's not bad at all. I

Kristen 24:26
think I found you, like, three weeks in maybe, okay, here's the hole where we circle to before she got diagnosed. We got back from that trip. We already had a trip where we're gonna pull our RV trailer, and my husband's family had moved to Texas, and we had this six week RV trip planned to drive to Texas and back, and we still ended up going, but we didn't take the RV and we stayed at hotels because it was like, the spacing of our trip to take the RV was a little funky. And we were like, We need to be able to just stop. Wherever we are if we need to, as opposed to making sure we get to our RV reservations. Okay, like a month, three, four weeks in diagnosis, we drove from Idaho to Texas, and it actually went pretty well. We were I was terrified, but I think it almost instead of being able to be like, at home wallowing in our Oh no, it forced me to, like, just deal with it in life and be like, okay, we can return to life, and we can have somewhat sense of normality if we just get back out there and do it right.

Scott Benner 25:38
So you just like, well, that's great. So you're like, I'm gonna go try something. It worked. Like, and you even went on the one trip and just kind of left out the RV part, but you still win. Yeah, all right. And then yeah, did it again. So you're building some confidence. You're like, okay, like, that worked. Let's try something else. And that works, so great, and we'll keep moving. Like, when you get to the Facebook group for the podcast, like, what is that like? Because you've only had it's only three weeks, but you've had this direction for three weeks now you're seeing people speak another way. Is it hard to take in new ideas, or are you looking for them and welcoming them? No,

Kristen 26:15
I was looking for them, and I was like, wow. Like, I can't remember what the first podcast I listened to us, but it was one that, like the beginning series once, and I was like, Oh, this makes so much more sense than what they told me at the doctor's office. Like, if your kid is eating and then eating more, that's not stacking, like, if you don't give them more insulin for the more food they eat, they're obviously going to go high.

Scott Benner 26:39
Okay, so that that's the first thing that threw you off was the don't stack insulin thing,

Kristen 26:45
yeah? And I was like, Well, you know, thinking, what if she's eating more? How is that stacking? You know? But I really came into it with no idea of any of it, you know. So the notes you take, what they tell you, and you're like, Okay, this is what they said. So it must be how it is. And then you're like, oh, but these other ideas make way more sense in reality. Does

Scott Benner 27:09
it help to see other people doing it too, so that you can kind of make the leap?

Speaker 1 27:14
Yeah, I think so. Okay, be under this is

Scott Benner 27:21
that the four year old? Yes, okay, I was hoping

Kristen 27:26
he's gonna go read a book under his blanket. Nice.

Scott Benner 27:28
That's a good plan, actually. Okay, so you you find other information. The first thing that strikes you maybe is like, just because we ate at 9am and I gave insulin, doesn't mean that at 1030 when more food comes, I don't need more insulin, right? That's something,

Kristen 27:47
you know, because they're Yeah, because, you know, they're very much like, Oh, if you gave insulin, don't but they those first couple weeks, they don't explain to you that, you know, food needs insulin. They're just like, Oh, if you gave food down, they wanted, like, a really set meal schedule, like, she could have breakfast and then, you know, a snack, and then lunch, and then a snack, and then dinner. And it's like, get her started on insulin the first week or two home, and she's just ravenous. Yeah, it's like, how are you I can't keep her too. Like, free solid meals and two snacks. She thinks she's dying. She's literally hysterically hungry,

Scott Benner 28:23
and you're telling her, no, no, no, we're not gonna eat for three more hours. Yeah. And

Kristen 28:27
then I was like, this is not gonna work. This is not working

Scott Benner 28:31
well then. But why does your husband call you a rule follower? Because it looks like you, you broke out of that pretty quickly.

Kristen 28:36
I mean, like in in general, in life, okay, yeah, in general, did

Scott Benner 28:41
he want you to go away from the rules from the doctor's office? No, no, I

Kristen 28:46
don't. Honestly, I'm the 90% primary caregiver of diabetes, right? Okay? Like he's a really heavy sleeper so he doesn't hear alarms at night. And you know, you should

Scott Benner 28:59
tell him you're a heavy sleeper. See if you can get him promise

Speaker 1 29:02
I am very much not no, no kidding. You very light sleepers pop right up. Yeah, yeah.

Kristen 29:08
I have to be, like, fully exhausted to not

Scott Benner 29:13
to sleep through, yeah, yeah. Tell you what, since the algorithms, I'm okay now I can sleep. Yeah, it doesn't feel the same to me anymore, like I don't sleep. Yeah, it'll feel like I'm sleeping through fear, if that makes sense,

Kristen 29:28
yeah, I totally understand that. Yeah, I've

Scott Benner 29:31
never been at war, but I imagine that people with diabetes, kids with diabetes, sleep like they're they think somebody's about to attack all the time. You know, I'm saying, so, yeah, okay. So I'm so sorry.

Kristen 29:43
I likened it to, like, having a newborn baby without the good sides, like you have it wakes you up at night. It, you know, like, I don't know. I had postpartum anxiety after the last one when I realized what it was, but it was also like, straight into COVID. And then I was like, oh. I feel like the bad anxiety. That's what's wrong with me.

Scott Benner 30:03
You had this after your after your last baby. Yeah, okay. I

Kristen 30:07
realized it was, like, postpartum anxiety. And then, I mean, not that I was immediately fine, but once I realized it was anxiety, like, I was like, Okay, I'm feeling anxious, like, deep breath and like, I could work through it, but I feel like that anxiety you get, like, I had that after she was diagnosed, too. It was like you're laying there, like, is she gonna go high? She's gonna go low?

Scott Benner 30:31
Yeah, just the unknown, constantly being on top of you, yes, yeah, yeah. I understand it's a

Kristen 30:39
parent you want the very best for your kids, and you're like, am I failing you? Am I doing the best I can? And, you know, I'm not always the best. Sometimes she's high. I'm pretty sure she had, like, a really long honeymoon, and as she's coming out of it, like

Scott Benner 30:56
you're starting to see the full impact of it. Now, yeah,

Kristen 31:00
we've, we've had some ugly numbers lately. But, you know,

Scott Benner 31:05
I just what's that look like when you say ugly numbers? What? What numbers you talking about?

Kristen 31:08
Like, running in the two hundreds for a day, an hour a week, a couple hours in the day, a couple hours like, you know, mostly post meal. And I've adjusted her carb ratios.

Scott Benner 31:23
What's your level of anxiety and comfort now? Like, do you feel better?

Kristen 31:28
Yes, yeah, I've calmed down. I guess you could say a little bit. And I realized, you know what? Like, I don't want her to run high long term, but I don't need to freak out. If she's running a little high, just give insulin, work through it. I have a love hate with the five. Sometimes think about changing, okay? Something else. Thought about looping, because my husband could handle the you know, if we needed to change stuff in I don't know. I haven't looked that much into

Scott Benner 31:59
it. What's everyone see last time it was 7.2 okay, she

Kristen 32:04
has an endo appointment tomorrow, and it's probably going to be right at that seven ish. When she was MDI, she was in the sixes, but she also had a lot of lows when we were MDI.

Scott Benner 32:16
And you think honeymoon as well.

Kristen 32:19
Yes, they she definitely, like, even the endocrinologist, because we see, like, a PA, and then once a year, she sees the actual endocrinologist. And he was like, in December even, he was like, wow, she's like, been honeymooning this whole time, off and on and out. You know? I was like, Yeah, six ish, once I feel like I'm homeschooling her because I don't trust the school nurse.

Scott Benner 32:46
Okay, all right, all right. So she so she'll still be with you, is my point. So now, as the as the as the honeymoon wanes and you get back into it like so you're pre Bolus in your meals. Yes,

Speaker 1 32:58
that's something we struggle with? Okay, well, that's

Scott Benner 33:02
probably where I'm working on, yeah, I would imagine that's where some of your issues are coming from. Most of our problems are coming from. Okay, what? What stops you just being busy with all the kids, yeah?

Kristen 33:13
Or she just, like, I give her insulin, and she, you know, they want to run outside. So they all just start scarping down their food and take off. So

Scott Benner 33:23
she eats it real quickly before the insulin can even get working, yeah? But then runs around, and then there's that to contend with as well. Yeah, all right, well, I'm sorry you were gonna get you were gonna just

Kristen 33:33
had our church camp, so like the first two days, so like the first night from all the activity just absolutely in the basement. The next day, I adjust her settings so that she would run a little higher, so she'd have like, a ton of lows. Because, I mean, like, I barely see her, she has her phone, like she was low. I'd call her and she'd be like, Oh, I'm eating glucose tab small. I'm fine and so, but then at night, when she laid down, like, just in the basement.

Scott Benner 34:01
She got really low. Then, after the running around all day, yeah, so

Kristen 34:06
then I just adjust, adjusted her targets to higher on the five and, you know, then the opposite happens, then

Speaker 1 34:13
she got high afterwards. Yeah, well, which, obviously, I

Kristen 34:17
mean, the lack of, you know, if it's cut the basal, then it's gonna gonna have

Scott Benner 34:21
highs later, yeah? Like, culturally, I it's not something I'm aware of. So let me make sure I understand it. There's a camp that goes on for a couple of days. You're there, but you really don't see her. Yes, she's just off messing around with the kids. My statement

Kristen 34:37
about children, children running feral, yeah, like 60 kids, and they're just this property is, you know, fenced essentially, and they're just everywhere. They're

Scott Benner 34:47
everywhere and there's food, and it's not timed and like, it's not like there's like, they can grab stuff if they need to, or, no,

Kristen 34:55
no, it was meals, okay, but they're just all over the. Place, right? So

Scott Benner 35:00
a lot of running around, yes,

Kristen 35:03
lots of running around Gaga ball, which some wild game that children love. Gaga ball, yeah, it's literally like an octagon for children. And they have a ball and they have like sides, and they like dodge ball, in an octagon is the closest thing I can

Scott Benner 35:24
use to describe it. You're describing MMA dodgeball to me, like a

Unknown Speaker 35:28
very wild Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:29
and where are you doing? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 35:31
during that like, they're

Kristen 35:32
like, Look mom. Look Mom. I got bloody knuckles, and my oldest daughter is great about checking on her.

Scott Benner 35:41
You guys are camp directors, yeah,

Kristen 35:43
so this is for our church. So it's not like, it's not random people we don't know or anything. It's all people we know,

Scott Benner 35:50
right? But you guys are all doing the things, and their kids are off, yeah, okay, and, but still, she makes it through the day, no problem. But then there's lows, like, late and lows later at night after she lays down, I imagine,

Kristen 36:02
yeah, yeah, that's where they're coming in. How long this is that? Like, 48

Scott Benner 36:08
Okay, have you tried giving her something before she goes to bed to help hold up her blood sugar? Yeah?

Kristen 36:14
But she doesn't always, you know, I don't know. Doesn't always. I don't at that point, the first night that she was low, I hadn't switched. Like, you know, it's one of those things, like, I laid down. I'm like, Oh, I made a run higher before bed, she had had a snack. But I think the algorithm responded to her rising blood sugar aggressively. And then, yeah,

Scott Benner 36:39
my point wouldn't be so much to, like, drive her blood sugar up, just maybe protein, yeah, protein, or something like, like, maybe with a little bit of fat in it, or something to slow her digestion down, to hold what's in her stomach there while she's sleeping, to get through that low part. Kristen, do you mind, like, some reflection from me? Oh, no,

Unknown Speaker 36:55
that's fine, okay, I'm good at that.

Scott Benner 36:57
It feels like everything's happening two beats ahead of you. Does that make sense, right? Yeah. And so you need to move your effort to where it's valuable, so that you're making decisions that impact instead of responding to problems. If that makes sense, does that make sense? No, that totally makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So your efforts there, I think it's just slightly misplaced on the timeline of events, if that makes, I mean, that's the way I think about it, exactly, totally okay, yeah. Like, how do you handle that with all I mean, Jesus, and you're gonna be pregnant now.

Unknown Speaker 37:35
Oh, it'll be fine, yeah,

Scott Benner 37:37
you're, you're like, I don't care. It'll be a none of this matters. No.

Kristen 37:39
So that was, like, the first day, and then the second day, I was like, oh, duh. Adjust her target so that it's not correcting, you know, 110 110 make it, you know, either 110 120 or 121 20, and then

Scott Benner 37:54
that kind of makes it less aggressive. She can run around more. Doesn't

Kristen 37:57
get the second day. During the day, I adjusted it, and then I adjusted it to, I think, 121 30 at night, and then she was running, like, in the 120s and I was like, Okay, it's gonna be, I can sleep, yeah, but it's like, sometimes, you know, my brain is like a lagging Windows computer. And it was like, oh, duh, I changed some things. We're not going to have these problems like you're saying, like reacting sooner, as opposed to reacting right?

Scott Benner 38:25
Well now, you know, though, I mean, the next time you went to a camp situation, I bet you would do it going into the first day, yes, yeah, yeah. Also, I mean, that's what it is, really. You just got to figure things out as it comes. And the 70 1c first of all, nothing wrong with it, no, if you could work on just meal timing, you could probably see a six, you know what I mean, yeah.

Kristen 38:49
And since last year, like, last year, she was averaging, I think, seven units a day, okay, like, that was her, that was her average on the five, like, seven to eight units a day. Yeah, she's little, she's Yeah. And now she's averaging like 10 to 15, or, I think she's been using like 13 to 14,

Scott Benner 39:09
yeah. It's gonna Yeah. She gains weight. You're gonna see it go up, yeah.

Kristen 39:13
And so, you know, slowly adjusting to those changes and realizing, okay, you know, when you go from like, both seeing a half a unit is a like a lot, to then, like, one, and, you know, like, for other people, these are tiny numbers, but like, she's so tiny. And now we're like, you know, I bowl this for a meal, and it's like, two units. Like, wow, that's so much. But in reality, it's

Scott Benner 39:37
takes you a little time, yeah, she grows. It takes you time to get accustomed to it, right?

Kristen 39:41
Yeah? Like my mom, she's like, Are you sure? Are you sure? Like, when she watches her, like, what the pump is saying now, she's like, Are you sure? And I'm like, That's not sure. Yeah, be okay.

Scott Benner 39:53
It's a common issue, yeah, especially when you start out with very young and very small and you. Know, honeymoon on top of all that. And then those numbers feel big and they're scary. And my

Kristen 40:05
dad has type two. So my mom, you know, her knowledge of it comes from the type two side. And so, you know, when she was first diagnosed, she's like, Oh, what about like, like, yeah, you can change it with diet. You can affect blood sugars with diet. But mom, it's not, it's not the same as type two. You're not gonna change at all with diet. Oh,

Scott Benner 40:24
doesn't work that way. Oh, you're getting the like, can't we make this go away if she eats differently from your mom? Yeah,

Kristen 40:30
yeah. And she made, you know, it's like, from a place of, like, misunderstanding and love, of course. That makes sense, right? Of course. Yeah. So, like, my dad lost, you know, 75 pounds or something, and he's really skinny now, and his numbers are better. And it's like, that's good, but she gotta, like, it's not the same might have the same name, but it is not the same thing, right?

Scott Benner 40:52
She's looking, she's looking at that. And how old is your mom, too?

Speaker 1 40:57
Um, 60. Okay, two. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 41:00
she she's trying to help, but she doesn't quite understand. Yeah,

Kristen 41:03
how old is she? Oh, you

Scott Benner 41:05
don't know how old she is. She's probably 59 actually. Okay, I love that. You don't know how old your mom is. It's fantastic. My

Kristen 41:13
dad is 62 that's where I'm confused. Okay?

Scott Benner 41:16
And how long did he have type two before he made some changes for himself and worked things out.

Kristen 41:23
He lost a lot of weight, probably, like, 10 or 12 years ago, and he was doing really good, like, with his diet. And then he's like, Well, I'm skinny, and he kind of slipped off the eating good wagon. And then his blood sugar's high, so he's still skinny, but then he had high blood sugar because he wasn't eating right. And then, I don't know what it is. Now, I tried to convince him to try CGM, but he was real stubborn about

Scott Benner 41:49
it. Yeah, it's a shame they're very helpful.

Kristen 41:53
Yeah, it runs in my dad's family. And my uncle, he was in denial for years, like quite large and he, in the last year and a half, he has a CGM, he started taking insulin, like, just long lasting, I don't know what kind he's, you know, doesn't communicate well, but, and he also got, I think I said that he got a CGM, and he actually is, like, losing weight. I haven't asked him. I think he might be on a GLP one too. Oh,

Scott Benner 42:20
good. Well, listen, I mean, with what you're talking about, with your dad's background, and you have PCOS, you you're on the lookout for yourself, I imagine too, yes,

Kristen 42:29
once this child comes forth, I will be losing the weight that has been lingering.

Scott Benner 42:37
Comes forth. Is that how? Yes, that will happen magically with with music and lighting and everything. No,

Kristen 42:45
no. I had my own other health struggles. My first child, I had preclaimed, sure, really bad and almost died, literally. The second one, I had very mildly and had no problems. After with my type one, I had postpartum hypertension, and with the fourth one I did, so also, so, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 43:04
yeah, you okay, yeah,

Kristen 43:06
I'm fine. Do you ever worried about it?

Scott Benner 43:08
Yeah, do you ever like stop and think about yourself a little bit? Yeah, I do. What do you come up with when you're thinking,

Kristen 43:16
Oh, I'm crazy? Totally obviously.

Scott Benner 43:20
Why do you think that I'm clearly

Kristen 43:21
crazy?

Unknown Speaker 43:25
Why do you think that I

Kristen 43:27
think people think that about me, I don't feel crazy. I mean, everybody feels a little crazy sometimes. I mean, there's days where I'm like, I am crazy. What am I doing to myself? But other days I'm like, You know what? Life is good, and life is what you make of it so,

Scott Benner 43:42
you know, no your best.

What would happen if another problem popped up? Would you be like? Do you think that would be too much? You think you could do it?

Kristen 43:53
I think I could do it. I mean, I might have a brief breakdown, definitely. You know, I think we're all entitled to a breakdown when life throws you major unexpected curves, but overall,

Scott Benner 44:05
gotta you try to pivot and move with it. Yeah, yeah. Go back a little bit for me, after you find the Facebook group, you listen to the podcast. I always wonder how people absorb it, like, because in my mind, like, I want you to listen through the bold beginning series in the beginning, and then I you know, if once it makes sense, I hope you move on to pro tip and other stuff like that. But did you actually do that, or what? How did you manage it?

Kristen 44:30
I'm pretty sure listen to all of bold beginnings on our long road trip. I think the one my husband was like, What are you listening to? And one that definitely stands out is that I played him, what is it? But whole adjacent, and he was then he was like, really, like, what are you listening to? But my kids were like, Mom, Mom, can we listen to that guy? That was great. And then the pro tips, and then I've jumped around all over, like, most of the time I listen when I'm mowing the. On. I think the last one I listened to was about, you're talking about, um, she like a child psychologist or something, uh, Erica, one of the last ones. Yes, I've listened to some of the ones with Erica

Scott Benner 45:16
resilience. Yes, yeah, we just put up that resilience series. It's only two episodes for now, but, Oh, see,

Kristen 45:23
whatever was right before that, I don't know, my brain is lagging. Stop.

Scott Benner 45:30
Let's stop all this for a second. Tell me about your day. What time does it start?

Kristen 45:34
Oh, we're not morning, people. Two of my kids are out of bed right now, and it's 950 in the morning, but we also, my husband took this morning are they're not really related to us, but our niece and nephew to the airport for them to go back to the East Coast. They were visiting for two weeks, so we've had a very off and jam packed schedule of them visiting and staying up late with them, but we are up and moving around 10. We do school because I homeschool them after breakfast. So we get up, we have breakfast, we do school. Lunch, they do their chores, then they get free time, and they're usually done with school by right after lunch. Then they run around and do their thing, which lately has been tadpoles. They got a bunch of tadpoles, and now they got little baby frogs, and they're super excited about that. With

Scott Benner 46:23
the kids spread out in age. Though, do you do kind of school them together? Or how do you accomplish that? The oldest

Kristen 46:28
one is fairly independent, so I just check her work and make sure that we're, you know, she's understanding everything. Well, the nine year old, I do school with him. I sit with them and we do it together. And then my little one's just in kindergarten, and her and I sit down together, and it's, you know, pretty basic math and language arts for her. So I sit with those two. That takes an hour, hour and a half the two of them. So three hours, right with both of them, and little guy just plays. Pretty happy little guy. I don't

Scott Benner 47:02
know anything about this. How do you know what to talk to them about At what ages? Is there like a curriculum online you can get or how does that work?

Kristen 47:09
There is the world of homeschooling is vast, and there is curriculum under every genre you can think of, from Christian to secular to like Charlotte Mason is like all book based, and you just living. You just education type, yeah, so you can buy there's online programs where it's all on the computer, just whatever is your favorite, I guess, whatever works for you. And I do a mix of three or four different things that I put together that you liked, or what? Yeah,

Scott Benner 47:45
did you go to college? How did you like? What? What was your schooling like?

Kristen 47:49
I did two years of college, okay,

Scott Benner 47:52
what were you working at?

Kristen 47:53
I was going to probably nursing school, and I got married, and then I dropped out, okay? And then I had kids. Gotcha, I actually right before, if I got diagnosed, I had signed up to go to school to be a surgical tech, and I obviously that didn't happen, because I was, like, staying home with her and making sure she's fine is going to be what I do.

Scott Benner 48:17
But when you thought about doing that, was it for like, enrichment? Like, you're like, you're like, Oh, I just want to learn something. I want to go do something. Was it for money? Was it like a calling? What? What had that in your head? I've

Kristen 48:28
always liked medical stuff. Like, I find it fascinating. A good friend of mine is actually a trauma surgeon, and so, like, you know, I just, I don't know. I always found medicine interesting. The human body is amazing, and just out of personal interest, I guess, like, I thought it would be, that would be interesting, something you

Scott Benner 48:47
would like, okay, but now your husband, he's independently wealthy, because he's paying for you those five kids and all those chickens, right? Like, or, what is like? What is he What kind of work does he do? Forget what he does exactly.

Kristen 48:59
He's in technology. He took the job he has now because, well, he's very happy there, so it wasn't the only reason, but they don't, they pay all your insurance premiums, and so we don't have to pay premiums. And that was a

Scott Benner 49:16
big weight loss, a big draw, yeah, no, I would imagine, right?

Kristen 49:21
Yeah, so, but he loves his job. It's great. He's very happy there. And I'm pretty sure they're happy with him, because cool, gets a lot of work done for him.

Scott Benner 49:32
Excellent. No, it's fantastic. And he's and he gets everyone works from home now. So, yeah, he doesn't, no, he goes, now, he goes in,

Kristen 49:39
now, he goes, he goes in. Now that's okay.

Scott Benner 49:44
When the kids get older, like, you keep doing this, like, through high school years and etc. Like, is your expectation? Like, that they'll be able to get a job in technology, go to college. Like, be homemakers themselves. Like, like, Do you have a feeling for what? Direction they're moving in, or you just, it's a wait and see. For me,

Kristen 50:02
it's a wait and see. Because I don't, you know, you got to find what's your passion in life. I grew up doing a mix of private school and home school, and so, like, I mean, my senior year of high school, I just went to college. Well, I didn't finish college. I, you know, it was, I got into college and I was going to college. You have to wait and see whatever. You know you want to go into the trades. Go into the trades. You want to go to college. Go to college. What? What do you want to do when you're old enough to know what you want to do? Right?

Scott Benner 50:34
Did you find college manageable coming out of homeschooling?

Speaker 1 50:38
Yes, you did very okay, yeah, and

Scott Benner 50:41
your mom not did this for you growing up. She did, yeah, yeah. How many brothers and sisters do you have? One brother and one sister? One, just three of you. I see. What can I ask? What they do now, like, vaguely, my

Kristen 50:55
brother owns a trucking company in my sister is finishing her degree in she had a double major, and I don't know what the other one was, but the one is in Spanish, and she was getting her teaching certificate

Scott Benner 51:11
for her. Good for all of you, that's fantastic. Yeah, really nice. She

Kristen 51:15
Yeah, she was working and going to school online, so she's been

Scott Benner 51:21
just getting that all together. Do they have any kids? Do any of their kids have auto immune issues? No.

Kristen 51:26
My sister has one daughter and just a peanut allergy that we know of. My brother has three children and not that we know of, but his sister in law has type one his wife's side.

Scott Benner 51:40
Okay, how about on your husband's side? Is there any auto immune over there? Not that we

Kristen 51:45
can think of. Okay, but my, my paternal grandfather, had Addison's disease.

Scott Benner 51:50
Okay, well, there's one, and they said

Kristen 51:53
that he's tight. He he passed away in like 2001 they said that he was type two. But all I remember from my childhood isn't being really low. A lot blood sugar is low. And yeah, so they said he was type two, but I remember him having lots of lows, and he took some kind of oral medication, but no one, I mean, nobody knows what it was. Now, no one can remember, remember

Scott Benner 52:15
to tell you. So do you see any thyroid, celiac, anything like that going on. Oh, my maternal

Kristen 52:22
grandmother has Hashimotos. Okay, yeah,

Scott Benner 52:26
well, yeah, a lot of it seems like it flows up your line then, and then the Yeah, and then PCOS for you, which sounds like it's been terrible. Did they do anything for that? By the way, have you ever gotten like, help with the PCOS stuff? Or they just tell you to tough it out. No,

Kristen 52:43
I guess I never asked like, I was never like, what can I do? I started taking, like, shortly, when I was in my early 20s, I started doing a lot of like, research, and I started taking, like, some supplements that helped a lot, like take NAC, and what is that other one? It's in that, oh, the stool, oh my word. What is that stuff called? It's in that stuff that you talk about Arden taking

Scott Benner 53:13
of acetal. In acetal, maybe, yes,

Speaker 1 53:16
that, and that helped a lot,

Scott Benner 53:21
but you stopped taking it.

Kristen 53:23
Well, you know, when I remember I've been taking it lately. You

Scott Benner 53:27
know what? I realized this whole conversation I had

Kristen 53:30
my last kid, since I had my last kid, it wasn't painful, it was just super irregular.

Scott Benner 53:34
I realized that your kids are all three years apart, except for this last pregnancy, that was five. But that the the but the diabetes came a couple years ago, so the diabetes paused. Your pattern is what I think happened, yeah, yeah,

Kristen 53:49
after the last one was born, I, you know, didn't I was breastfeeding, so it was, you know, I didn't have a period for a while. When it came back, it was actually fairly regular. She got diagnosed, and I didn't have one for like six months. Like, the stress just

Scott Benner 54:04
threw you off. Oh yeah. But it also probably threw off your relationship stuff too, right, with your husband,

Kristen 54:10
oh yeah. Like, she started, she was sleeping in our room, and just, you know, I feel like, for like that first year, just everything is out of whack, yeah, at least for us. And then, like, the second year, like, after her first diversity, then it was like, you know, we all felt like we were living again. I guess, you know, you can kind of turn your focus a little more to just back to life, and, like, you realize you're going to be okay, she's going to be okay. It's all going to be okay, right? And you just

Scott Benner 54:39
get back into it again. Yeah, yeah. Well, I am very happy that the Facebook group helped you and and all that other stuff happened that's fantastic. Are you still in the group? Yes, you are, okay, cool, yeah. Just, I'm thrilled for you, like, I'm so happy that something happened that helped you and, and you know that you you have. There is a resource, if you want to go back to whatever that you're pulling your way forward and getting through it and listen. The other thing is, I'll just tell you, from a person who's been through it, to you a four, five year old, three year old with type one diabetes, is it's hard, like it's really, really hard. It's overwhelming. It's not a time that I remember, even it does feel like you're constantly battling something, and there's a lot of other stuff that you're doing, but you don't quite know that if you're focused on anything, or all of it, or some of it, and it really does get better as time goes on. So I hope, I hope you can, you know, that. And

Kristen 55:40
like, yes. And it's like, at the two year mark, I was like, You know what, we're gonna be okay. We are gonna be okay. But she was, you know, she was four, and she didn't understand, like, why is my mom poking my finger and stabbing me? Like, you know, that's what's happening in her mind. And it's like, just trying to keep you alive.

Scott Benner 55:59
Yeah, it's not a thing. It's easy to explain to anybody.

Kristen 56:02
No, no, no. And then she had a that was the other thing I forgot. She ended up having to have an appendectomy, like, six months in an emergency one, like, thought it was the flu. She's throwing up, really can't keep anything down. She gets ketones, and my husband are like, You know what? We're just going to the emergency room because, like, she can't keep anything down. Obviously, we're not going to get anywhere here. Take her in, and it's her appendix. Same thing, we have to be transferred to the Children's Hospital. The best part of that was the on call pediatrician also was a patient at the same office, and she wrote the orders for admission that I gotta make all the decisions for the diabetes, because if they went off with the current, you know, ratios were at the from the Endo. I mean, she was just low for days like and if they'd given her as much insulin as, you know, the original order said, then she would have just it would have been horrible, but they let me make those decisions.

Scott Benner 57:05
Is it uncommon for kids to have an appendectomy at that age?

Kristen 57:09
I don't know. They didn't act like it was super unusual. They were just like, Oh no, it's definitely her appendix.

Unknown Speaker 57:18
Super interesting.

Kristen 57:22
Yeah, it was like, like, are they more prone? Like, I wouldn't think you'd be more prone to it because you have but I guess your body doesn't fight infection as well, maybe, if. But it's not like she had out of like, her blood sugars weren't out of control. Like, she had fairly good like, in that time frame, her numbers were pretty good.

Scott Benner 57:40
They don't know that. You could blame it on diabetes control, but I'm just appendicitis is less common in young children compared to older children adults, but it can still occur. Young children may not be Yeah, like,

Kristen 57:50
is this the flu? And then it was like, we get to the hospital, and the doctor's like, Huh? He pokes her stomach, and she starts, like, sobbing. He was like, Yeah, we're gonna do an ultrasound. And then when they popped the ultrasound on, it was, you could see it. It was like, Yeah, they did the contrast of, like, the blood flow colors. And it was like, Oh, yes, I see definitely, yeah, I

Scott Benner 58:15
don't, I guess I don't see how type one would have an impact on whether or not you're appendix one, yeah, but it's, I think it's just a random thing. Yeah, that's crazy, though, because I had mine out when I was, I think Cole was like two, so, like, 20 some years ago. But I don't have any, like, medical background to draw from, because I'm adopted, so I don't, I don't know if that's a thing that happened, a thing that happens to us or not, or something like that. You know,

Kristen 58:41
I think it could just be super random. My husband had his out in his 30s. Oh, okay. Oh. I mean, maybe it's a, I think it's just a random, yeah, very well could be all right, one last thing I got to worry about now, huh?

Scott Benner 58:54
Listen, I get if there's other organs I can get rid of, I'd like to know what they are too. I'm looking to slim down. Kristen. Is there anything we haven't talked about that we should

Kristen 59:02
have? I don't think so. Unless you got anything, got any more questions? I

Scott Benner 59:06
don't feel like I do. I'm pretty good with this. Actually, I think I got through what I wanted to pick through your story. It's kind of you to come on in the middle of, like, the summer with all the little kids and being pregnant, etc. You know, I know it's a lot, and it's much earlier there than it is here. So thank you very much. Thanks for having me. No, it's obviously Terrific. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 59:29
Can you hold from podcast? Wait, wait, I

Scott Benner 59:30
want you to hold on, but I don't want you to hang right up, but like when I stopped, but what were you gonna say? I'm sorry. Oh, I

Unknown Speaker 59:36
was just gonna

Kristen 59:37
say, I appreciate the podcast. And when I do listen, I always get something that I'm like, Oh, I if I apply that here, then

Scott Benner 59:45
gonna work better. That's cool. That's so that's my hope for it really. So that's fantastic. Okay, all right. Well, thank you so much. Hold on one second for me. Okay.

It a huge thanks to the contour next gen blood glucose meter for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Learn more and get started today at contour next.com/juice box. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the ever since 365 CGM, ever since cgm.com/juicebox one insertion a year, just one, and it has on body vibe alerts you're going to want to go figure out what that means. Your Kids mean everything to you, and you do anything for them, especially if they're at risk. So when it comes to type one diabetes, screen it like you mean it, because if even just one person in your family has type one, your child is up to 15 times more likely to get it. But just one blood test can help you spot it early. So don't wait. Talk to your doctor about screening, tap now or visit screen for type one.com to get more info and screen it like you mean it. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox podcast. Private Facebook group. Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome. Type one type two, gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me if you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort or community, check out Juicebox podcast. Type one diabetes on Facebook. Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong wayrecording.com. You.


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