#1376 Heading to College with Type 1 - Accommodations
Part one of a three part series on going to college with type 1 diabetes. Featuring Andrea Lafleche.
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.
+ 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
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Today, I'm joined by Andrea. She has a specific set of skills that will help you understand sending your type one off to college. This is part one of her three part series. 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. Are you an adult living with type one or the caregiver of someone who is and a US resident, if you are, I'd love it if you would go to T 1d exchange.org/juice box and take the survey. When you complete that survey, your answers are used to move type one diabetes research of all kinds. So if you'd like to help with type one research, but don't have time to go to a doctor or an investigation and you want to do something right there from your sofa. This is the way t 1d exchange.org/juice, box. It should not take you more than about 10 minutes. 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 Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com
Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's bringing together caregivers and parents of children with type one diabetes. Later in this episode, I'll be speaking with Stacey, a mom of a 12 year old daughter with type one. Her experience is an all too familiar one. After losing a lot of weight and drinking more water than was considered normal, Avery was diagnosed. Stacey and her family were suddenly thrown into managing diabetes without any medical background, and Stacey had a chronic condition of her own to manage the Medtronic champions community really supported them during this uncertain and overwhelming time. Thanks to Medtronic Stacy and Avery, found the support they needed us. Med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well. Usmed.com/juice box, or call 888-721-1514, use the link or the number get your free benefits check and get started today with us. Med. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G vo hypo pen. Find out more at gvoke, glucagon. Com, forward slash Juicebox. Hello,
Andrea Lafleche 2:43
everyone. My name is Andrea lafleche. I have had type one diabetes for 28 years, and have worked as a higher education professional for about 10 prior to my time currently as the program manager at the diabetes link. During my time in higher ed, I worked at a variety of institutions, mostly in residence, life, Student Conduct and Title Nine, and now I focus my time on supporting the diabetes link college student chapters, bringing new members into our network and around education involving having diabetes, going to college, being in college and transitioning out of college. Awesome.
Scott Benner 3:21
How long you've been at this? For a decade more?
Andrea Lafleche 3:24
Yeah. So I started my first career, if you will, back, I say, in grad school in 2010 because I had an assistantship where I worked almost full time while doing grad work in Residence Life, and then continued until I left full time higher ed work in December of 2022 to come over to the link to kind of combine my two life and passions, if you will, having diabetes. My sister also has diabetes. So it's a family thing. Working with college students or young adults. I really love that age group. So this is kind of a nice transition to do both the
Scott Benner 4:01
family business. That's interesting. Yes. So you have some thoughts to share with people, we're going to break them up into categories and make them into smaller episodes. So where do you want to start? I
Andrea Lafleche 4:11
would love to start with accommodations. I think that most people are nervous about them. It's, you know, a confusing thing, in a way, especially if you have a 504 or some sort of accommodations in high school. How do you transition that over to college? Because, you know, once college happens, students are no longer just students. They're adults to the college world, whether they're 18 or not, once they're enrolled, FERPA covers them. Us as professionals in higher ed, we're not really allowed to talk to parents without your student's permission, so the accommodation piece kind of is the most confusing and concerning for people. So I think we should start there.
Scott Benner 4:50
Okay, FERPA is Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, yes,
Andrea Lafleche 4:54
okay, you kind of think about it a little bit kind of like HIPAA for higher education. Once a student either reaches 18 or attends an institution that's post secondary education no matter their age. So they can be 16, they can be 17, they become an eligible student, and their rights go under
Scott Benner 5:12
FERPA. Gotcha. So your kid cannot remember to take a vitamin and go to class at the same time, but they are in charge of everything else,
Andrea Lafleche 5:19
according to the government. Yes, perfect.
Scott Benner 5:22
I bring it up because I see how frustrated people become around that at times. I just worth mentioning. I understand it legally. I understand I mean, they're over 18, right? So, yep, yeah, okay, go ahead. Accommodations. Where does this begin? For me, my kids got type one diabetes. They're in high school still. I think they're going to go on to a college. When do I start thinking about this honestly
Andrea Lafleche 5:44
when you're starting the school search, a lot of this that I'll talk about is actually connected, I would say, to when you're thinking about and choosing a school, because accommodations under the ADA can vary between the schools, right? So an accommodation that would be approved has to be reasonable, it has to be necessary, and it has to be appropriate for the diagnosis or diagnoses that the student has now reasonable is going to be different based on each school okay, because of things like access to The funds to provide that accommodation the types of maybe building. So one example, some schools might be in a place where they have historic buildings, and those historic buildings
Scott Benner 6:30
are might not have an elevator, or something like that.
Andrea Lafleche 6:33
They might not have an elevator, they might not have a ramp, and they can't make any changes to that building because it is historical. So if, for example, your school, your student is in a wheelchair, they're not gonna have class in that building. So maybe the accommodation is to move the class to a different accessible building, but they're not gonna be able to put in a ramp, right? These are things to kind of think about as you're touring schools, what you need for your student, because not every accommodation is going to be able to be made in the way that it would at a different school.
Scott Benner 7:07
Just because your need is real doesn't mean they can meet it correct, not just because they don't want to. Right?
Andrea Lafleche 7:14
It has to be necessary, reasonable and appropriate, and the reasonableness comes down to the school in a lot of ways. Right? Is it reasonable for the school to do that, whether that's financially, the physical space that they're able to provide the student? So those are things to think about. While you're on campus, maybe touring or you're looking into schools, you can always go and talk to Disability Services. They may be called accommodation services at the institution before you're a student, and they can give you some general information, but these are things you want to think about prior to picking a school if you're able
Scott Benner 7:48
top of your mind something that you've seen that's not flexible, that applies to type one diabetes. Like, what have you seen them say, like, I need this and the school go, I can't do that.
Andrea Lafleche 7:59
I'm not sure with the and I have a list of kind of suggested things to think about. The only ones that would really potentially not be able to happen is really when it comes to housing. And not everybody asks for housing accommodations, especially in the sense of, like, single room versus whatever traditionally is given to students your first year, right? Typically, once you get up in age, you're picking your own room. But many of these that we kind of have a suggested to ask about, whether that's breaks during exams, minimally distracting environments, being able to use the restroom. The only thing is really, potentially, the housing and we'll get into like, why housing accommodations can get complicated. Definitely seen that firsthand. And then priority registration. That doesn't mean like, I'm a first year student and I get to go first above upperclassmen, but maybe priority in your class of students is if you're going into a program that's basically like pre selected and everybody's getting the same schedule right. So there really is no need for priority registration. But I think most of the accommodations that somebody with type one is going to be looking for should be accommodated in some way, because they're not really asking for a space to be changed or things of that nature. Yeah,
Scott Benner 9:20
we had a very unique thing, and I'll tell people how it worked out. So if you take insulin or Sulfonyl ureas, you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most, be ready with G vo hypo pen. My daughter carries G vo hypo pen everywhere she goes, because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar in people with diabetes ages two and above that. I trust low blood sugar emergencies can happen unexpectedly and they demand quick action. Luckily, jivo kypo pen can be administered in two simple steps. Even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you store GEVO kypo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use jivo kypo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why GEVO kypo Pen is in Arden's diabetes toolkit at gevok, glucagon.com/juicebox, gvoke shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma, or if you have a tumor in your pancreas called an insulin OMA, visit G VOQ, glucagon, com, slash, risk for safety information.
Speaker 1 10:36
Avery was diagnosed before Thanksgiving. I had scheduled what we hoped was my last surgery. They were making my colostomy permanent. We had scheduled the surgery when she was diagnosed. I was there the entire time. Her dad came up for one day of training. I was really the only one who could manage but I couldn't take care of her in the state that I currently was in. I never really took time to heal. I went right back into waking up every two hours to check her sugar. She was very inconsistent extreme lows and extreme highs. My mental health went downhill very quickly. Medtronic technology specifically gave us so much and took some of that burden. It allowed my mental health to truly start to get better. I was sleeping again. I was doing all the things I used to as was she What else did you find helpful? I became part of the Medtronic champion community. My daughter and I have gotten the opportunity to meet amazing people. My daughter now has friends all over the country that she communicates with. I now have people that I can truly just check in with, and I feel seen, and I feel understood, and I feel heard, I feel validated. I also just have friends that get it, having that camaraderie between children, but also between parents. It's wonderful. Once we were with Medtronic, it was like our world opened up.
Scott Benner 12:03
Visit Medtronic, diabetes.com/parents-caregivers, for more. Arden went to a school when she was a freshman, and the school was spread out across the city, basically, and you had to ride a bus to get from place to place. So we thought, God, is she gonna have to carry insulin with her all day, and an extra pump and everything, just in case. Because what if she's a bus ride away from, you know, we're in the middle of class, etc. So we asked the question, could we strategically put insulin in a couple of school buildings around the city and a couple of extra pumps so she'd never be too far from it if that happened, and because they were older buildings, they said, We don't have refrigeration like that, and we can't safeguard the insulin there. And so the question became, well, what do we do? And the school came back to us and said, Here's what we'll do. If Arden ever gets into a situation where she suddenly is without a working insulin pump, she can call this phone number. Campus Security will come pick her up and basically Uber her back to her building, wait for her to change her pump, and then take her back to class. We never did that like it never actually happened, but it was an example of how we worked around a limitation at the school anyway.
Andrea Lafleche 13:11
And that's an awesome example, Scott, because again, another thing to think about, what is the layout of your campus being across town? What does transportation look like? And I think that's a very, kind of very good compromise that the school came up with. Like, how can we work with this? We can't make sure that insulin is there, right? Like, you can't dedicate a staff person necessarily, if they even had refrigeration. But how can we mitigate the travel time, which is really, like, the issue, right? That was the issue you're dealing with. So how do we mitigate that campus safety, they're always available, perfect. It really reminded
Scott Benner 13:43
me of that experience when you were explaining all this. So okay, I'm sorry. I'm gonna let you jump into your no
Andrea Lafleche 13:48
no. This is good because you've had the lived experience of having that child go and kind of navigate this. I've been on somewhat of the other side, and this is why you want to think about these things when you're looking at your schools, what are some of these interesting situations that could come up, and how might we deal with them? And can we ask our school to kind of support us in dealing with those situations? This is also why we talk about registering as like as soon as you make the decision, start getting your stuff to or start before you decide because you need documentation from your providers. You know, even if you have a 504 in high school, that's not going to be taken as documentation that you need accommodations in college, you need actual letters and documentations from your provider about diabetes or any other diagnoses that you have that could require need accommodations and doing that process as soon as possible, especially if you're going to be asking for housing accommodations. And like you said, Arden never needed to use that accommodation, but you had it. And that's another important thing about why we always suggest students to register. They're not retroactive. So accommodations are not retroactive. So if I have midterms coming up. Yeah, and my blood sugar is 40 the morning that my exam is in 20 minutes, and I can't get there, and I don't have an accommodation for my diabetes. If I miss that exam, I miss that exam, I can't then go to my I mean, I can go to my professor, and they might be nice, but that's hit or miss, right? And it's not that they're not nice, it's they are teaching a class of 60 students, and,
Scott Benner 15:20
yeah, they can't accommodate your problem, right, right?
Andrea Lafleche 15:24
They can't make an exception for you. Yeah, right. You can't. Then go to the accommodation staff and be like, Hey, I missed my exam. I have diabetes. Can you get me to take the exam again? They're going to say, No, we're sorry. We don't have any accommodations on file for you, but we can start the process now. Yeah, and anything moving forward, you'll have these accommodations, but they're not retroactive. So really, like you said, we want to have them in place just in case.
Scott Benner 15:47
They're like, the in case of emergency, break glass box on the wall, which, now I'm maybe sold that people don't know what that is, but that's not the point. We put together all these accommodations for Arden, and we never touched any of them. Like, never even the thing about having security come, she's like, I think I'd be embarrassed to do that. So she just like, you don't even mean like, she's like, I'll do it if I have to, but I don't think I'm going to you do have to see, though, the balance between being prepared for a thing that might happen the school's perspective of some people coming in there and asking for way too much and them not knowing your situation well enough to know what is like a flight of fancy from you and what is really necessary, like they don't know if what you're asking for really is like, I'd like a Ferris wheel, because it makes my diabetes happy, you know. And there are going to be some families who take advantage of this system, and that might make your job of explaining what you need more difficult. I that was been my finding.
Andrea Lafleche 16:42
Yeah, I think that this is why I think it is required that the staff look at each case individually. Like, if you ever have you go to your school and the accommodation staff is like, Oh, you have diabetes, here's your list. Like, this is what you can have. It's not really how it should work. You should be sitting or the student. Really, parents know, I mean, if the student wants you there and they're allowing that's one thing, but they should be going through your individual documentation, working with you about what makes sense for you and your accommodations. It's not a this diagnosis gets these things. This diagnosis gets these things, and that's what you get. It's an individualized plan per person? Yeah, no, it's a good point. We obviously have some suggestions of things to ask for that we think makes sense. But you do know your diabetes, you do know your body, you know other diagnoses that you have and how those might interact.
Scott Benner 17:32
But be careful, because the school might have a cookie cutter list that's not really going to help you. And if you believe they know what they're talking about, just accept it, then you might be stuck.
Andrea Lafleche 17:41
I mean, I've only worked at a handful of institutions at this point, but I haven't come across that in my work. Most of our the programs I've been at are like, you send the students. They have an individualized meeting. They're going over the documentation and figuring out what makes sense again, what's necessary, reasonable and appropriate, and going through that way, you shouldn't be getting a list. I just want to kind of put that out there, because every school is different. That shouldn't that's not how it's supposed to work. You're supposed to get individualized accommodations. Because even though I have diabetes and Arden has diabetes, our diabetes are different in some ways, right? And what we need? So just be aware that that's what should be happening. But again, it's necessary, reasonable and appropriate. So you can come in with a giant list of wants. If you don't have the documentation to really say, like, why you need that and why that is necessary for your diagnosis, they're going to be like, we're not. That's not a thing that you need, right? So just be aware that that's, again, why you need to get the documentation from your care providers, whomever you're using, and you can you're seeing multiple people related to your diabetes bring in multiple sets of documentation about your diagnosis and what they suggest you would need. Yeah, awesome. Again, the sooner, the better. It's a lot. It can be a long process, right? Because you're having these individualized meetings. They're going through your documentation and figuring out what's best for your students. So the sooner you decide your school and you get that documentation, the better it's going to be. Especially, like I said, if you want housing accommodations, and we can kind of go over some of the things that we think are good things to ask for and why, but housing specifically. And as someone who worked in housing for at least half of her career. It's up to you what you think is appropriate. Housing wise, if you're looking for a single or a specific maybe you go to the school and you realize, okay, only one housing option is close to the dining hall, and that's important, because we want to have access to food as quickly as possible, just in case, right? The sooner you get your accommodations in and approved for those types of things, the more likely it is you're able to get your housing accommodation for your first semester, because you're not the only one asking Correct, right? There's limited spots depending on what kind of accommodation you're in need of and get approved for. And we're not moving other students, right? So as students register. And things fill up depending on the housing process. Once they're full, they'll they're full. If you get an accommodation approved, you'll go to the top of the wait list for sure. But we're not kicking out another student that either has that accommodation already. We might have given away all of those types of spaces or other accommodations to you might not be able to get it right away, which is why, again, doing this process as soon as possible, getting that documentation together ahead of time, even if you're doing it before your student decides which school they're going to because maybe they're picking between two or three, they're not sure. But getting that together so as soon as you're ready, you can drop that in and get the process going. That's really important. Why
Scott Benner 20:39
don't we go over the things that you unless you were going a different way. I'd love to hear about the things you suggest that people look into Sure.
Andrea Lafleche 20:45
So on the housing side, as well, outside of types of rooms you're looking for a single for certain reasons, look at what is their fridge policy. So if you're going into a traditional style residence hall that doesn't have any sort of kitchen in it that would come with a fridge, or maybe you're going into a suite, but it doesn't come with a fridge. Look at what their policy is, and is that going to work for your student? Right? If it's a one fridge policy, maybe you do think it's best for two because of the medicine you might need to be bringing in. Maybe you're on insulin, and maybe you're on a GLP one, and that needs to be refrigerated, right? So you have a bulk that needs its own space. Thinking about that as an accommodation, I would say air conditioning, my housing. Friends will hate me for this, but I know my blood sugar does not like to be hot. It does not love heat. So what is the climate of the place that you're going to and what is the air conditioning? Older buildings or just typically, more traditional style residence halls don't have AC so looking at is that an accommodation that you can get for your your diabetes? Because, again, we know there's so many factors that go into managing it, those are probably the two biggest ones, I would say, for housing outside of a specific type of space.
Scott Benner 22:01
Before you jump forward, let me add about the refrigerator thing. Arden has one of those soda can refrigerators, so it really is just built to hold like a six pack of cans. Basically. It's very, very tiny, and she keeps GLP in it and insulin. But we had to get an okay for that. You've probably heard me talk about us Med and how simple it is to reorder with us med using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you, but I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email, because I don't trust myself 100% so one time I didn't respond to the email, and the phone rings the house. It's like, ring. You know how it works. And I picked it up. I was like, hello, and it was just the recording was like, us, med doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. It said, Hey, you're I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, Hey, your order's ready. You want us to send it? Push this button if you want us to send it, or if you'd like to wait. I think it lets you put it off, like, a couple of weeks, or push this button for that. That's pretty much it. I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door. That's it us. Med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, get your free benefits checked now and get started with us. Med, Dexcom, Omnipod, tandem, freestyle, they've got all your favorites, even that new islet pump. Check them out now at usmed.com/juice box, or by calling 888-721-1514, there are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at Juicebox Podcast com, to us Med and to all the sponsors. And it's just like a little 110 like, plug into the wall, doesn't make any noise. I don't even think it has an air compressor in it, like, kind of thing, like, and we still had to get an okay for that. So, yeah, check. Because what you don't want, right, is for someone to do an inspection of the room and go, Oh, you can't have that. You'll work it out eventually, but in that time, you know what I mean, like, are they going to be like, unplug your insulin? I don't know, you know. So yes,
Andrea Lafleche 24:03
yes, we again, also an RA did all this when we do room inspections, if something's not allowed, especially an electrical device, we're unplugging that because it's a fire hazard. Again, some of these rules and regulations are in because of the types of buildings you're living in. So older buildings, the amount of capacity that they have for electrical things, wattage, all these things. These are all things that are taken into consideration when the school is putting in these policies. It's not just like, we don't want you to have extra fridges because it costs more money. It's like, No, you're going to overload the system potentially, and we're going to have no power. We're going to have a fire, or something bad is going to happen, right? So look at those things. Different buildings might have different policies again, because of age. So asking these questions of your residence, Life staff, of the accommodation staff, even before you're going to the school, we are very adept to handling these types of questions all the time, right? You're trying to make a decision call or send an email. How they're gonna respond to you, and they're gonna be happy that you're trying to do your due diligence so that they don't have more work on the back end. They'd much rather you ask and get things in place beforehand, right? Okay, so other things to think about that you can ask for, and most likely, the institution is going to tell you, could be an option, but it's always helpful if you come in with a wish list, rest breaks without penalty, or what we would call like stop the clock. So if your blood sugar is going low, it's a timed exam. You want to be able to not actually have more time to take it, but you want to be able to stop the test taking time until you are at a place where you can function back at your baseline, to function appropriately, to continue that test. Right? So some people get, like, time and a half because they maybe need more time based on their disability. This is more of a you get 90 minutes, but the time that I'm low or the time that I'm high doesn't count in that 90 minutes, yeah, you
Scott Benner 25:52
get a timeout. Yeah, yeah. Basically, yes, you're
Andrea Lafleche 25:55
taking a time out, right? Stop the clock is stopping taking a test in a they call it a minimally distracting environment, and not necessarily because the person with diabetes needs less distractions, but we can be distracting to others, yeah, the beeping, the vibrating, the snack wrappers, whatever it is, so kind of helping not distract other students, right? That also kind of helps with having the stop the clock, right? You're not in the classroom that only has 90 minutes, and then another class is coming in, right? If you had to stop that clock and you need 30 more minutes, because that's how long it took you to go from 50 to 100 and feel good to take the test, you then have another class coming in, right? So that's not going to help you either. So kind of putting those together is helpful. I'm
Scott Benner 26:40
even seeing a situation where maybe your kid's blood sugar is falling and they know, I can open this cliff bar and eat it if I wanted to, but it's going to be loud and I don't want to bother people, so the next thing you know, your kids low because they didn't want to be a problem. And, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Okay,
Andrea Lafleche 26:54
exactly. Yeah, this one's a big one, and can be nuanced depending on a few factors. So we'll go over those permission to keep electronic devices at all times. But I think the biggest thing we're seeing now is phones, right? Your phone is a medical device for many of us, whether that's because your CGM is on it, or now with new technologies such as the Moby through tandem, pretty much not the only way, but the way that you can do all of the features for your pump right? Andrea
Scott Benner 27:20
two days ago, Omnipod five, just their app, right? Yep, yeah. App just dropped on Apple. So iPhone, yeah, the phone really
Andrea Lafleche 27:29
is a medical device now and people, that's probably going to be the hardest thing to get people to understand, just
Scott Benner 27:34
the problems that the phone is also a cheating machine. Is that the problem?
Andrea Lafleche 27:39
Yeah, I think it's distracting, right? Like, how many of us have gone to this and they're like, please silence your phone, and then six minutes later, somebody's getting a phone call, and you're like, the guy just said it like, you didn't check, like, right? So it's distracting. It's definitely a way people that cheat, as someone who did academic dishonesty cases, students use it to cheat. So those are, like, the two biggest things. So helping, having your doctor help in the documentation, understand how your phone is a medical device and why it is necessary to keep it. Now, keeping it, I think, is where we get the variety of what does that mean, and coming up with what is acceptable and why. Keeping it doesn't necessarily mean that you have it on you. It's in my pocket, right? This might mean it's in the room with you. It's on the professor's desk, it's on the Proctor's desk, it's in the room that you're taking the exam, if you're doing it in a different place, but it might not be on you, right? But it's still within range where it's getting all of the signals that it needs to get. It still can alert you if there's any issues, things like that. So just because you're keeping it doesn't mean you're keeping it on you. And like, what does that look like? And that could differ depending on what the situation is. Right. Are you in a lab class where they don't allow phones, but you're not taking a test? So like, I can just have it in my pocket if I need to check it. Or is this during exams I need it, but it can't be like at my desk, or it needs to sit on my desk so the professor can see it and see that I'm not cheating on it, or it's sitting on the desk, whatever that looks like. So understanding there needs to be some conversation about what the permission to keep it actually means, like, what is the definition of that in certain situations? My
Scott Benner 29:18
finding with Arden's experience there is that eventually the teachers, they build a rhythm with you, and then one day, you bring the phone to put it on their desk, and I go, sorry, just keep it. You kind of get past that. But I've seen all that proctoring, you know. So Arden's taken proctor tests where she was so young still that she wasn't completely involved in her care all the time, like if she's taking a test and her blood sugar was rocketing up from adrenaline, for example, like she's got her phone silence, it's off to the side. So like sometimes I'd watch her blood sugar while she was taking a proctor test, and with an eye on not interfering, if not completely necessary, the phone stayed with the Proctor, and then if Arden needed something, diabetes. Diabetes wise, I'd send a text to the phone that would say, she needs to stop for a second to handle a diabetes thing. And then the proctor would stop the clock and say, hey, you need to do something. Hand her the phone, let her do the whole thing, or to hand the phone back. And then the clock restarted and went again. So it does work. It's just, you know, it sounds, probably sounds crazy to people when they're listening to it, like the phone's here and it's there and it's there and it can't be on my desk. But it really does work out. And I think at this point, people have been using phones for medical reasons for long enough, I don't think anybody's gonna be like, What are you saying? Like, I don't think they're gonna, you know, be taken by surprise by this anymore, right? It's
Andrea Lafleche 30:35
just figuring out what that accommodation looks like for the setting that you're in, right? Because the other thing will be smart watches, right? Like, I wear my smart watch, I have my blood sugar on there, but I also get texts, I get all these things. So what that's another thing to consider, if you're a smart watch, where they're probably not going to let that, that's going to be a rule in your exam as well. Like no smart watches. This will get also a little more complicated if you're going for standardized tests. So thinking about some of you might have already done that, a CT or the s, a t when you're going to college. But even more strict, I would say, than that, is if you're taking any exams to do
Scott Benner 31:12
graduate, l set stuff, those kinds of things. L
Andrea Lafleche 31:15
sat, MCATs, gmats, all of those are even stricter. So if you're a student listening to this, or a parent of a student that wants to do that, really start those accommodations through those test preparers way in advance to figure out what that looks like. And for your example, with watching and then texting the phone, that's not probably something that's going to be an accommodation, if you're thinking about that for your student in college, probably not something. That's
Scott Benner 31:41
a thing. Scott worked out Andrew, that's all. But let me say this, it is an example of having a really good relationship, because back then, I know that sounds crazy to people, but Arden was taking a big standardized testing when she was, like, in ninth grade, and like, all these algorithms didn't really exist yet, and you were still kind of bumping blood sugars around and doing stuff like doing stuff like that. They knew how this worked, that Arden and I kind of managed her blood sugar in tandem through texting. We didn't text often, and the fact of the matter was, there were times she took the asset. I never responded. I didn't have anything to say, but once I said, Hey, how do we work this out? Because we had a good relationship, it was easy in a quick email to work it out. You know what I mean, like? So my experience with all this has been that if you don't seem crazy at any point, that's really valuable to you. Because the minute the institution looks at you and goes, Oh my God, they are going to ask for a Ferris wheel, you kind of get put on, like another side of the ledger in people's minds. So I try avoiding that at all cost. But go ahead,
Andrea Lafleche 32:42
I want to help all of my students. I definitely dreaded some phone numbers that would pop up on my phone because I knew who it was. And like, we've had this conversation 12 times, and I can't say it any other way, or like, you need to talk to your student and yeah,
Scott Benner 32:59
all I'm saying is, don't be that phone number on Andrea's yes caller ID, where she goes, Oh no, no, no, yes, that's all I'm saying, right? We
Andrea Lafleche 33:07
can't, like, as a student affairs professional, we got into this job not for the money, but because we enjoy working with young adults, like, trust me, not the money, as many people in education know. And we want to help your young adults, we know the value of them being in this kind of middle gaining independence, figuring out who they are situation, and we want to support them in that. And sometimes parents are a lot and like, I'm not a parent, so I'm not gonna pretend that I understand what it's like to let your child go five miles down the road or 500 miles down the road, because I haven't had that experience yet in my life. But at the same time, they're not going to get any benefit from you trying to bulldoze whatever's going on. And I will definitely talk about some other ways I suggest supporting them.
Scott Benner 33:54
I think the words you just used there should reflect to people how serious this can be. On the other side, like bulldoze, you have literally felt knocked over by parents who are pushing Yeah?
Andrea Lafleche 34:04
It makes it difficult to continue helping. Right? You're taking it's almost like I get that you probably don't trust me. You don't know me outside of this situation. You don't know what I do on a regular basis. You don't know the other students I'm working with. But you're now taking five to 30 plus minutes of my day to repeat the same thing that we've talked about that could be using, working on supporting your students, right, and getting them the place that they need to be going. And so one the first phone call, okay, like I get it. You're stressed. You don't know what's going on. You're not here, potentially, you're not close. I'm trying to help you out as well. Second, third, fourth, like, okay, like, I'm working on it. Also, please talk to your student, because I can't one. I can't tell you because of FERPA, most likely, unless it's certain things and the school says I can, or they sign off to like, I can't force your student to tell you, so I need you You talk a lot about really. Relationship Building Scott, when it comes to you and Arden and her diabetes in general, like I need you to go work on your relationship with your student and figure out why they don't want to tell you
Scott Benner 35:08
these. Oh, see, because of how we have everything set up, that's not front of my mind, but now that you're saying it, I understand that there's a little bit of whisper down the lane here going on. And not everybody's always whispering everything completely, because you can't say everything that you know, the kid's not telling the parent. The parent might be out in the snow anyway, because they don't have the full community. Oh, I see, yeah. So yeah. Back to the answer of, When should I start working on this? The day the kids born? Is the answer? Is that? Right? Okay,
Andrea Lafleche 35:34
pretty much. All right. Try your darnedest to create a relationship where they feel like they can tell you things. Yeah, okay, so other accommodations that you could request, using the restroom as needed, or dependent, most times again, this is very school dependent. There's not going to be assigned seating. It's college for the most part, right? Maybe in a lab you might, because you have lab partners, this is your station. You're doing long term things. So maybe it's like, can I get preferential seating near the door so if I need to use the restroom, I'm not disturbing everybody as I'm making my exit, right? Permission, again, this comes a lot with, like, food not being allowed in classrooms, depending on what it is, what program you're in, but that permission or ability to treat high or low blood sugars, keeping food on you, or figuring out what that looks like depending on the situation, again, most of the time, you're going to find potential issues or, like the no food in lab related settings, right? You're doing experiments. You don't want to contaminate them. So if that's something you foresee your student being in, whether that's in their general education requirements, or they're going into the sciences, is that going to be an issue? How do we work around this? How do we figure this out? We talked a little bit about what might not be accommodative, and one of those was priority registration for very limited reasons. But a reason to ask for this is, you know your body best, you know your diabetes best. You know kind of what schedules work for you. So this can be helpful in kind of having the best chance to make a schedule that works best for you, especially thinking about it's not most likely going to look like in high school, where you're in school class eight to three and then the rest of the day, right? Monday, Wednesday, Friday might look the same and Tuesday, Thursday might look the same, but maybe we can try and get them a little bit similar, right? So that's another thing to kind of think about as an option to
Scott Benner 37:24
avoid problematic times a day, like, if your blood sugar is always low at 2pm like, don't have you walking across campus at 2pm if you can help that stuff like that, right?
Andrea Lafleche 37:33
Or if it's really helpful that you eat around that you actually have a lunch, make sure you have time to get lunch, right? And that's not just eating, but like, do I have time from where my classes to get to? Wherever I can get food again, depending on campuses, some have multiple dining halls. Some have one. Can I get there? Can I get food? Is that going to be rush hour? Can I then leave and get to my next class on time? Okay, so yeah, and there's many other things and they you can ask, what are some potential other options? But those are probably the top things that we think make the most sense around diabetes. Specifically, I'm
Scott Benner 38:11
going to add an experience here, just because I think it belongs in this somewhere you're going to find that the food at school is not conducive to stable in range blood sugars there. I don't mean your kid going to like a convenience store and buying a bag of chips or something like that. I'm talking about sitting down at the dining hall eating. You don't realize, you know, oh, everyone loves the broccoli. It's because it's cooked in a ton of salt and oil. You know, to go that kind of thing like you don't recognize the quality of the food until you get to college, until your kid gets to college, you do not recognize that the quality of the food, I didn't certainly is as poor as it is. And you know, by the time Martin went off to college, she had she was using, I think she was looping. When she left for college, she had an A, 1c in the, I think, in the high fives at that point. And she'd go have a what she thought was a reasonable dinner, and she's like that, I can't seem to give myself enough insulin for broccoli and chicken. I don't understand what's happening, right? So, yeah, we learned that along the way, and we fought it every which way we could, meaning like, you know, just changing our settings and being more aggressive. And it worked for the most part, but her a 1c drifted up into the mid sixes at college, and this isn't because she wasn't bolusing or anything like that, right? And now you're using a lot more insulin, and now you're walking around more with more insulin on board. You're getting, you know, you more chances for lows. There's a lot of reasons why you don't want to do that, but my takeaway was, and the only fix I could come up with was getting her housing with an actual kitchen or refrigerator situation, not like a tiny little refrigerator, a place where she could keep fresh food and make herself meals. And as soon as we got her into that scenario, everything went back to the way it was. So it's more impactful than you think. It's not just the food. My blood sugar, it starts to touch everything. It starts to touch definitely, three o'clock in the morning, like, why is she getting low all of a sudden in the middle of the night? That never happens. Oh, it's because the food she ate at 9pm crushed her she put a bunch of insulin on it. Now she you don't know how simply just that food choice can just it spins a lot of things out of control. So if you can get to good quality fresh food at college, I think you'll make the entire experience much easier. That's just my opinion. But no,
Andrea Lafleche 40:29
I definitely think we all know that nutrition plays a huge role in a bunch of things, some ways to not only mitigate but to kind of see what you're working with, is go on the dining website. Most schools are contracting out their dining services. A handful, I would say, have in house dining, which can potentially be better. But see again, when you're going on these tours, when you're thinking about schools, check out what their dining options are. Some it's just one dining hall and they're open for breakfast. They have limited things in between. They're open fully for lunch, limited things in between. Dinner. That's it. Some larger schools are going to have multiple dining halls. Some are going to have like, their dining halls are going to be like, known for certain things. They're tailored to maybe certain types of diets, depending on how large the school is. Go on the website, see what information they provide most places. Now, I would say online, you can get the nutrition information of what they're providing. I mean nutrition information in general, as we know, can be little hit or miss, depending on what's going on. But feel free to contact dining and see what the options are. See what's going on, how it works, because some schools might not have fully kitchened housing options, right,
Scott Benner 41:45
right? I'm saying beyond that, even if it says it's a piece of chicken, it could have preserved like it might not be the same breasted chicken you get at home if there's preservatives in it, if it's been frozen prior that, you know, I know that sounds like. I don't know if it sounds hippy dippy or not. I don't I honestly, I don't care what it sounds like. I'm telling you, it's harder to Bolus for processed food than non processed food, and some of it's going to look like it's not processed food, and yet still be so be careful. That's all, yeah,
Andrea Lafleche 42:12
yeah. And you should, and what I'm saying is you should be able to go and pull up exactly the nutrition facts of what that chicken breast is. Yeah, many schools, especially if you're going to a larger institution will have that option for you, and you can at least have a base to go off of, yeah. Also, you
Scott Benner 42:26
don't want to get involved in that situation where you finally are like, you know, now you're on the phone, you're like, Hey, what are you doing? Like, you know, like, your blood sugar's all over the place. Like, what's going on? Because there's a lot of other factors beyond food. I mean, we're not really talking about this here, but sending your kid off to college to take care of their diabetes, while all the other things that college is is happening is difficult. So I'm just saying, let's not make it more difficult in one area where you know it doesn't need to be if you can be a little def about but this is
Andrea Lafleche 42:55
why get your accommodation set up, because this is what we're trying to deal with when you get when your student gets there, and things might not go well, and you don't want their academics to unnecessarily suffer almost double, right? Because they're already feeling crappy. They're already feeling they might have missed class, so they're already missing information. Let's not have them then get a zero on an exam, right? Because they didn't have accommodations in place because something happened, yeah, the night before, because you're re figuring out your diabetes in college in a lot of ways, and
Scott Benner 43:28
you don't want that relationship piece to fall apart, because it's going to, it's getting into, like, parenting, but like, it's going to at some point, because as they get older, they're going to, like, it's very healthy, by the way, but they're going to test boundaries and try to pull away from you and make decisions, like, I can do this on my own, and then maybe they can't, or maybe they're not gonna do as good of whatever. Like, there's a lot of stuff that can now. I'm saying, don't make it harder in places where you don't have to, and no one thinks about the quality of the food when they send their kid off to college. It's not until you get there that you go, Oh, these are the stories I've heard from other people who have kids at school. Like, this food sucks. Like, so anyway, or
Andrea Lafleche 44:03
you don't realize that it's not open when you thought it would be right, going back to your class schedule, like, oh, I can't get lunch until 1130 but I only have 11 to 1130 to get lunch. What am I going to eat? Right? So these are all things that you want to think about when you're searching for schools, I
Scott Benner 44:22
see mail access on your list. I'm interested why that's something you brought up, sure. So
Andrea Lafleche 44:26
again, every school is different, but at when I went to college, we each residence hall had their own mail room, and that's where I would go, check my mailbox, buy a slip my packet, I would go get my package from the front desk. That's how it worked. But the mail that was sent to me didn't go from wherever is going to the mail in town, then to my residence hall. It went to the central receiving they sorted it, then, like the next day, it would get on their truck. To my building, and then that day, or the next day, the student staff that worked our mail room would sort it out. They'd write the slips, they'd put them in mailbox. So let's say my parents were overnighting me something. It might have overnighted from their house to central receiving, but then it took two to three more days, potentially, to get to my residence hall, learning how mail works, especially, and I say this especially if you're planning to receive medical supplies there, right? I didn't necessarily receive medical supplies because I went to school 30 minutes for my parents, so I was home every few months. Anyway, I'd pick up what I needed and bring it back with me. Or if there was some sort of emergency, I could get it in 30 minutes, but not everybody's doing that. So what does mail look like, and how do we set that up or make sure that it works for our medications? Or is it not going to work? I worked at a school and lived on campus where mail wasn't received on the weekends, so if my insurance was like, Oh, we're sending your insulin. And it had to be like, Friday into Saturday. Nobody's there to receive it. It's gonna get sent back. It's gonna do whatever. How am I getting that right? Also,
Scott Benner 46:10
where is the school? What's the temperature at the school? Like, like, Are you down south? Is it warmer? You know? Yep, somebody sent you off this medication on ice. It's meant to arrive at your door be opened, not arrive at your door and sit for three or four days before somebody sees it when it's 95 degrees outside. So, so what do you do? You set up a situation where, when they see your overnight come, they bring it right to you. Can you work that out?
Andrea Lafleche 46:33
I think that's one something you probably talked to. Start with your accommodation services team, right about like, this is what I need. How does that like, figure out who to talk to, some options that I discussed again when I was in that job and living on campus was our health care center was open every day. So could it go because there was a medical supply? Could I have it actually shipped to their address and they receive it for me. They were a fully functioning like medical doctor's office, right? They had refrigeration, all those things. Could they receive it for me and I'd pick it up there instead of at the mail? That was an option. And so talking about what could work if it's a situation where you're going to have to send medical supplies, yeah, what can we figure out? I'm positive that they'll be able to figure something out. It's just, you want to think about those things and have those questions answered before. It's like, oh, I shipped this. It got returned
Scott Benner 47:34
before. Right, right? I did two things with this. So first of all, when Arden leaves with dry goods that are medical supplies, she takes enough to cover her plus while she's there, right? It sucks, but she's got a plastic bin under her bed that looks like a CVS pharmacy that has everything in it. It's jammed away under her bed. But insulin, I was worried about what you were talking about, because we do get our insulin through mail order, so I changed her insulin prescription while she was at school to picking up at a pharmacy that was local to her. Now that's still not great. Like, nothing you come up with is going to be perfect, because, like, you know, sitting here in the house, you're like, oh well, she'll just go pick it up until you're like, art in your insulin center. And she goes, Listen, I'm going to school. I don't have time for this. Like, you don't even like, and you're like, Well, you got to go. And then a lot of stuff add stress. It's interesting. And I did have one example once where a GLP was being sent to her through overnight mail. And I wasn't prepared, because it wasn't a thing we were thinking of. We were a couple of years into it, and I thought, What do I do? So I called the mail center, I spoke to a person, and I said, Look, there's this thing coming in. It's on ice. It's medication. I'm not trying to cause you a big problem here, but if there's a way to get that from you to her without all the stops in between, and the person took me seriously and was lovely and took care of it, but I don't see how I could have had that set up to happen, like, on a monthly thing. Like, I mean, you can't expect this is the thing. I have this thing written down to ask you at the end, but I'm just going to say it here, and then you can get to the last couple of things that you want to talk about. Just because you set something up doesn't mean someone's not going to mess up down the line. That's going to it could not happen. You know what? I mean, like, so you have to be aware that it's still a human interaction. I hear people all the time want to be like, I have that my 504 plan, and they didn't do it. I'm going to call an attorney. I'm like, I mean, okay, I get that. They're supposed to do it. But you can also step back sometimes and see how that thing could be missed. The guy in the mail center, that's not a thing he does, and then all of a sudden you're putting in this very specific ask. They don't have a process for it, and so it could get missed. And I think that can happen along the lines with a lot of this stuff. And so, you know, it's tough, because you could put, I mean, am I far off? You put these things in place, but they don't always work the way you want them to, right? Yeah, I think
Andrea Lafleche 49:47
when it comes to some of this stuff that we're talking about, when we're talking about accommodations, they need to happen the way that they're supposed to, because that's under the ADA and a very legal thing. Yes, of course. Human error and different things like that can occur. But when it comes to your accommodations, like, I'm supposed to be able to stop the clock, the river is like, No, I don't. I don't know that's different. Like, no, but yes, the male, right? I think that's where the relationships come in, right? You talk a lot about, like, the relationships, and building relationships and encouraging your student to build relationships. Like every student is different when it comes to who they are, how they handle their diabetes, who they want to know. Like, are they outgoing? Are they introverted? Like, we're all different individuals, and the expectation that we should all be like, I have diabetes, here's my Dexcom. Like everybody true, but like encouraging, like building relationships with the people on your campus, your peers, but also the staff. Like, like I said, we want to support you, and I think knowing a face and knowing a name, and you know, even with your male staff, like being kind every time you go and be like, thank you so much. Like, I really appreciate you putting this aside for me, they'll get to know your name and like, Oh, this is Andrea's package. Like, she'll be here, yeah, like, tomorrow to get it, or whatever, like, and those things go a long way. Like, it's not a nitty gritty process, but it helps, right? And I think that's
Scott Benner 51:15
I completely agree with you. I'll tell you that Arden said to me in her like, halfway through her freshman year. In the beginning, she said, Guess what happened to me today? I was like, what? She goes, my professor came up to me and pulled me aside and said, Hey, I'm not supposed to ask you this, but what's wrong with you? And Arden was like, Oh, I have type one diabetes. And the professor was like, Oh, good. And so then they started having this real conversation, like a personal conversation, and the professor said, like, I'm not allowed to know what your medical condition is, and I'm not allowed to ask you, but I'm sitting here and I'm watching you, and I'm thinking, I don't see anything going on. And it started to worry her, right, that there was some really big thing happening that could just happen out of nowhere. And the professor was just looking for some like, is there a thing I should be looking for comfort or something, because you don't look like you have an accommodate? Like, that whole thing was happening. And Arden, at the end said, like, I wish all of my professors would just come up to me like that. That would be awesome. To your point, not everybody might want that, but the fact of the matter is, is, if you're not a person who wants that, and that happens, I can see people getting really angry about that, but I would always say again, like, just try to see the other side of it. Like the professor was not supposed to ask her that. And the way she asked her Andre was not, like, slick, like she literally, I'm not making up this. She said, Hey, can I ask you a question? What's wrong with you? So, like, not optimal, not great, yeah, but response then dictated how the rest of it went. Then she had a great relationship with the person after that, you know. And I
Andrea Lafleche 52:48
can't believe I didn't write this in my notes, but this, I'm so glad you brought this up. When a student is given accommodations, the professor is only notified of the accommodation, and that's either through the disability office, sending them the information of like this is what the student gets, or the student bringing a letter they're not given the why they're only given. The student gets stop time on their exams. They can have food, what they get, the list they don't get. Andrea has diabetes, so she might go low and she needs to treat her blood sugar they get Andrea can have food, she can have her phone. She can leave to use the restroom whenever she wants. So I'm sure that some faculty, especially seeing because a lot of us are like, I don't have a disability. Legally, we do. But is diabetes disability? That's a philosophical conversation, if you want for another time, we don't look sick or in need most of the time, unless we're, like, super low or something's going on. So I can imagine faculty being like, Ah, this person is totally normal. There are they're always focused. They're always paying attention. They get great grades. Not that people with disabilities don't get great grades, but like, there's no indication in their mind that they would need any of this. Exactly what
Scott Benner 54:00
was happening? Like, I think the teacher wanted to say, like, You're freaking me out, like, I have this list of things, like, you're allowed to just stand up and leave the room if you want to.
Andrea Lafleche 54:07
Why, right? Like, are you gonna pass out on me? Like, do I call someone? Like, what's gonna happen? Like, yeah, so they might be on edge. So, yeah, telling your faculty ahead of time. If you're comfortable with that, go for it. Please. Do.
Scott Benner 54:20
I think that the professor was confused too, because I think the professor was worried that it was a mental health thing and that they weren't like. So there's a lot like, again, I want to point out, if they thought it was a mental health thing, Hey, what's wrong with you? Probably, again, not the way to go, but that is just a very there's a thing you might not know. So that's why I wanted to bring it up. But go ahead, move on to transportation. I'm sorry, sure. I
Andrea Lafleche 54:39
think your example of this previously, when we're talking about accommodations, is great. Accommodations, is great. Like, Arden had to take a bus to get to a different classes, right? So, like, what does transportation look like around campus? Right? I went to a large state school. My residence hall was on the outskirts. My first class was all the way on the other side of campus, so I had a good 1520 minute walk. Walk, if that's what I decided to do in the morning, or there was a bus, right? So, like I had that option. What does that look like at your school? What does transportation look like on campus for you? Like, if your blood sugar is low, am I gonna be able to hop a bus to get back to my residence hall? Even if I brought my blood sugar up, maybe I don't want to walk and then risk going low again. Or would I have to walk? Do I have to wait and then walk to campus. I think the other thing, like you said, getting supplies at a CVS, maybe that's a great option. But do you have a car on campus? Are you allowed to have a car on campus? If you're not? Do they provide transportation to places off campus? Some schools do. Some schools don't. What do those things look like? So asking those questions so you can make decisions on some of these other things, like the mail or dining options. So Arden's
Scott Benner 55:45
been at two schools, and one of them, like I said, was spread out over a city, and we did get a car down to her eventually, and got her a parking permit. And that all made most things incredibly better there when she transferred to another institution. It's just not a school where people have cars. So we were like, hey, you know, can she have her car? Here's things that we were thinking like the first place. And the person I talked to was like, man, nobody has a car here. There's not even nowhere to park. Like, there's just, there's no need to have a car here at all. And I said, Well, I would like her to be able to access a car if she needs to go for medical help on her own, or even if we want her to come home or something, because she's closer now, that kind of thing. And it's funny, the best they could do is they gave her a parking spot, but it's so far from her the car's not accessible, like, it's basically like we're housing her car somewhere near where she sleeps, and then she basically has to take a 20 minute walk to get to the car, to get into it, and even the couple of times she's going out for supplies, she's like Dad, I had to go out for supplies, go back to my dorm, drop off the stuff, go park the car, and then it was late at night, so I had to Uber from the park, from my car to back to my dorm. So it's really not very valuable in situations like you'll see. But again, figure out where you're going, find out the lay of the land. Know those things first, save yourself a lot of hassle. Exactly,
Andrea Lafleche 57:08
yeah, which is kind of like, what are the other amenities like on campus or near campus? Do they have convenience stores? What does the health center look like? Don't assume that like, Oh, we're looking at a large public school. They're going to have, like, a robust health center. That's not always the case, right? I've worked at places where it's anything from, like, I'm basically going to, like, an urgent care semi, like, Nurse office situation. You have this here, you need to go do this to, like, it's basically its own hospital. I could get PT there, I can see the eye doctor. Like, they have all these specialties because they're so big, or they're attached to a hospital. See what that looks like. That often
Scott Benner 57:44
becomes the case too, like, because first time Arden got sick once I said, I need you to go to urgent care, she went, and she said, I'm here with seven people I'm sure are oding right now, and me, and I'm like, Oh, great, because there's just nowhere to go. And even when she ended up in a hospital once. This is something to consider. It was not the greatest institution of medicine that I had ever seen in my entire life. So it isn't not worth wondering if I have a choice between a few colleges, like, what is the medical care around the college like? In case something comes up, then the new place she went has exactly what you're talking about. Like they have medical care on site. It's insane how good it is. And they even have their own pharmacy. It's not even a for profit pharmacy. You just send your scripts there, and then whatever the pill costs. Like, you know what I mean? I'm like, wow, that's yeah, thought out. But that school is near a major health system, and I think that's part of how it's working. So anyway, definitely a bunch of stuff. I wouldn't have thought
Andrea Lafleche 58:41
of a lot of these. And I think the variety of types of higher higher education institutions that we have in this country is great because not every student is going to thrive in the same environment. I think about me and even my siblings. Both of my siblings went to, like, smaller, more intimate campuses, and that was great for them. And I went to a large public school because I was like, I don't want to feel like I'm in high school. I want options. I want to like, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Some people are like, I know exactly what I want to do. This is the life path I'm on. But you're going to find that the things that we're talking about now are most likely, in most situations, going to be easier at larger institutions. They're going to have more options. They're going to have more ways to navigate things, because they typically have more resources. They're serving more students, so they have to think about the diversity of students that they're getting and then the needs that they could have, right? They're
Scott Benner 59:37
almost forced to offer good services because of the large population, right?
Andrea Lafleche 59:42
It's kind of, they become like their own little town or city, yeah, especially because they're also usually, typically farther away from other resources. So they're like, we just need to have them on
Scott Benner 59:52
campus, right? Because what are we gonna do? We don't, if we don't provide this, there's nothing around here, so, correct, right?
Andrea Lafleche 59:57
Not that mid and small size of. Institutions aren't amazing and don't have great amenities and things to work with, but you're going to find, I would say, from my personal experience, that these things are going to be easier to navigate or have more options to determine what's best for you at some of those larger schools or schools that are closer to a metropolitan area,
Scott Benner 1:00:19
yeah. Well, it's been my finding Okay, so that's it. We got the by the way, this is hilarious. We were like, we'll probably get this done in like two hours. So that was one hour for the first time. So we're gonna probably need to put you back on the schedule a couple more times because I'm chatty and you have a lot of information in you, which is awesome, yeah, but did you like the way this went? We're still recording, but did you like the way this went? Yes, good,
Andrea Lafleche 1:00:39
yeah. I was a little worried when you were like, it's gonna be less conversation. I
Scott Benner 1:00:43
was like, Oh, I just met. Oh no, by the way, you don't understand this was less conversational. I stopped myself from talking like six times. Maybe that's what I should have said. I will stop talking as much as I normally do. Is probably what I should have said before we started. But I thought this was terrific. So thank you. Okay, good. Yeah, you
a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G VO, glucagon. Find out more about G vo hypo pen at G VO, glucagon.com, forward slash, Juicebox. You spell that, G, V, O, k, e, g, l, U, C, A, G, o, n.com, forward slash juice box. This episode of the juice box podcast was sponsored by us Med, US med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, get started today with us. Med links in the show notes. Links at Juicebox podcast.com our Juicebox community knows the importance of caregiver support so intimately, and Stacy's story was a great example of what caregivers go through on a daily basis, from helping managing the highs and the lows to juggling a full time job and putting dinner on the table. Life can be challenging at times. To learn more about the Medtronic champion community and to find helpful resources and tips for caregivers and families, visit Medtronic diabetes.com/parents caregivers, if you or a loved one was just diagnosed with type one diabetes and you're looking for some fresh perspective. The bowl beginning series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CD CES, a registered dietitian and a type one for over 35 years, and in the bowl beginning series, Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. The series begins at episode 698, in your podcast player. Or you can go to Juicebox podcast.com and click on bold beginnings in the menu. I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed, you're following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Hey, what's up, everybody? If you've noticed that the podcast sounds better, and you're thinking like, how does that happen? What you're hearing is Rob at wrong way, recording, doing his magic to these files. So if you want him to do his magic to you, wrong way. Recording.com, you got a podcast. You want somebody to edit it. You want rob you.
Please support the sponsors
The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!
