#1443 Tattletale Nurse
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A vivid dream, two T1D diagnoses, bad doctors, and a school nurse who crossed the line—ShaNeil’s story is unbelievable.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 00:00 Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Chanel 00:14 My name is Chanel. Two of our kids were diagnosed with type one in 2022 our daughter, Cate, was diagnosed first when she was four and a half, and she is seven. Now, our son was diagnosed 85 days later, just two days after his seventh birthday.
Scott Benner 00:33 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. I know this is gonna sound crazy, but blue circle health is a non profit that's offering a totally free virtual type one diabetes clinical care education and support program for adults 18 and up. You heard me right free. No strings attached, just free. Currently, if you live in Florida, Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Delaware, Alabama or Missouri, you're eligible for blue circle health right now, but they are adding states quickly in 2025 so make sure to follow them at Blue circle health on social media and make yourself familiar with blue circle health.org, blue circle health is free. It is without cost. There are no strings attached. I am not hiding anything from you. Blue circle health.org, you know why they had to buy an ad. No one believes it's free. Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the ever since 365 the one year where CGM, that's one insertion a year. That's it. And here's a little bonus for you. How about there's no limit on how many friends and family you can share your data with with the ever since now app no limits. Ever since friends touched by type one's walk is coming up quickly on March 8. That's a Saturday at Lake Eola Park in Orlando, Florida. Go now to touched by type one to sign up and register. It's completely free. You're gonna have a wonderful time touched by type one.org Go to the Programs tab, click on Steps to a cure.
Chanel 02:15 Hi. My name is Chanel. I have been married for 15 years. My husband and I have five kids. Two of our kids were diagnosed with type one in 2022 our daughter, Cate, was diagnosed first when she was four and a half, and she is seven. Now, our son was diagnosed 85 days later, just just two days after his seventh
Scott Benner 02:42 birthday. How old are your kids? Top to bottom,
Chanel 02:45 my oldest is 11, so I have 11, 975, and three. Wow. Will
Scott Benner 02:53 there be more?
Chanel 02:54 I don't think so. No more planned. Don't think so. How old are you? I am 36
Scott Benner 02:59 so listen, you're 36 you've got five kids, two of them have type one diabetes. In earlier, you asked me if we talk about locations, like, I should stay vague, right? Like, I could say I live just in Utah. So Mormon, you're Mormon, yes. I mean, if you weren't, I'd be like, Wow, what a coincidence.
Chanel 03:18 No, I am. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints. Thank
Scott Benner 03:23 you. And I, and I never remember how to say it exactly right, which is why I say Mormon, because I'm not sure. And we haven't had an opportunity to say this recently on the podcast, and that my friends are in Utah are letting me down. But I am huge. This podcast is huge in the church, is it not?
Chanel 03:38 I have heard you say that it is lovely. Okay,
Scott Benner 03:42 I would like to be bigger in a couple of other churches too, maybe one day to get outside of Utah, would be nice. Okay, so, do you have any autoimmune in your family besides your children? Yes,
Chanel 03:54 my father in law has Crohn's disease. My mom has crest syndrome. Okay, so that one's pretty rare. I think I've only heard it mentioned on here once or twice, but she has that. And then my sister has Graves disease. Graves. Anything for you? Nothing for me. I take a thyroid pill, but there's nothing like diagnosed or anything.
Scott Benner 04:23 Well, you but you have hypothyroidism, I do, but you haven't gotten tested to see if it's Hashimotos. Yeah,
Chanel 04:29 they've never told me that. They've never told me it is, it just
Scott Benner 04:34 snow. You want to go out on a limb and say it probably is, because I'm willing to do that. It's possible. Yeah. What is it? The thing your mom has this here,
Chanel 04:42 crest crest syndrome.
Scott Benner 04:46 I So you're saying you've heard about that on here.
Chanel 04:50 I've heard about it. I know once for sure, like scler Derma
Scott Benner 04:56 press syndrome is a sub type of scar DOMA, a chronic auto. Immune disease that causes hardening and tightening of the skin and connective tissue. People have talked about this on here. Okay, crest stands for the five primary features of the condition calcinosis, Raynaud's phenomenon, esophageal dysmo, motility. Oh, that sounds not good. What is sclerodactyly?
Chanel 05:20 I'm not sure that that woman has come up with my mom, yet tight, thick
Scott Benner 05:24 in skin on the fingers and toes and, oh, my god, telecy, what the hell
Chanel 05:30 that's why we just call it crest because, yeah, no
Scott Benner 05:34 small red spots on the skin caused by widening blood vessels. How about that? Yeah, and it's considered a milder form of systematic sclerosis. How about that? Okay, I was gonna say, Cool. I don't know why. Sorry. I apologize. I was almost like, I think I just meant, let's move on. Okay, so there's auto immune happening.
Chanel 05:53 There's one other thing. When we were about a year into my kids being diagnosed, we found out that my husband's uncle is type one. Nobody really knew that to tell us when we were trying to figure out with our kids what was going on. There's him. And then my husband's grandma had a brother who died in his early 20s, and they think that he was probably type one as well. Oh, there's a fair amount then. So there's, there's lots of stuff going on, yeah, and on both sides too. So, Mm, hmm, gotcha things that we never knew until, yeah, until all this hit
Scott Benner 06:32 and so, and your daughter was first. You said she was four, yes. How did it present?
Chanel 06:38 I kind of feel like a crazy person when I tell the story, but I did not know anything about diabetes, like nothing. My dad's type two, but yes, I didn't even know there were different types. I didn't know anything. Yeah. So one night, everything was normal. I went to bed. My baby was six months old at the time, and I had a dream, and in my dream, Kate, that's my daughter. Kate, had diabetes, and I wasn't doing anything about it. In my dream, I just knew that she had it, and then it was just a list of symptoms, I guess, a list of words going through my head all night, really,
Scott Benner 07:22 that's insane. I had a dream a few minutes ago that I had to pee, and when I woke up I actually had to pee, but that that's not the same that's not the same thing. Wait, so you're having a dream that's telling you your kid has diabetes. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 and just as the name says, it lasts for a full year, imagine for a second a CGM with just one sensor placement and one warm up period every year. Imagine a sensor that has exceptional accuracy over that year and is actually the most accurate CGM in the low range that you can get. What if I told you that this sensor had no risk of falling off or being knocked off? That may seem too good to be true, but I'm not even done telling you about it, yet, the Eversense 365 has essentially no compression lows. It features incredibly gentle adhesive for its transmitter. You can take the transmitter off when you don't want to wear your CGM and put it right back on without having to waste a sensor or go through another warm up period. The app works with iOS and Android, even Apple Watch. You can manage your diabetes instead of your CGM with the ever since 365 learn more and get started today at Eversense cgm.com/juicebox, one year, one CGM,
Chanel 08:43 yes, this is why I feel like a crazy person when I tell the story. But it was just the things going through my head, constant, snacking, fatigue, thirsty, frequent urination, blurry vision, like just over and over these things. And so my baby woke up in the night and I went to feed him, and I was like, Well, this is the weirdest dream I've ever had. I don't know what's happening. So while I'm feeding my baby, I'm just Googling some things, and I'm like, type one, type one diabetes. I don't even know what that is, but that's interesting, because in my dream, Kate had diabetes,
Scott Benner 09:23 and so you're freaking me out. You know, hold on a second. No, I know. I know, prior to falling asleep that night, were you noticing that she was sick? Did you see symptoms anything like that? No,
Chanel 09:35 no. And so looking back, she was thirsty, but she had just gotten a new water bottle for Christmas that she was really excited about. So
Scott Benner 09:46 yeah, I hear you. I'm just trying to decide, like, Were you on the scent of this subconsciously, and then you went to sleep, and things you know, and that you didn't even know you knew, kind of popped into your consciousness or but you don't think that. What happened? I
Chanel 10:00 don't think so. It was just a regular day, regular everything was fine. I woke up to feed my baby, googled the things, saw the diabetes stuff, and then went back to bed, and the dream started again, just the same thing, replaying through my head all night, and
Scott Benner 10:19 you couldn't stop it, even when you were saying to yourself, lottery numbers, lottery numbers, go back to nothing like that.
Chanel 10:26 I wish that worked. It just kept going, and I didn't it was it was just really weird. No
Scott Benner 10:33 kidding. Okay, so you wake up, you think you're crazy, or you look into it. I
Chanel 10:38 didn't think too much of it, but I kind of couldn't just shake the filling. I told my husband while he's getting ready to work, like I had the weirdest dream. This is what happened. This is what it was. And he's like, Well, good thing. That was just a dream. And then he went off to work, and I was here with the kids. Took my two oldest people to school, and then we went to Walmart, and I was printing pictures of the baby for Grandma, you know, and I'm sitting there at the computer in Walmart waiting for the pictures to print, and I turn and I look over, and Kate was just sitting in the big part of the cart, and kind of had her arm up on the edge, and kind of leaning her head on the arm, she looked really pale. And I asked if she was okay, okay? And she said, not really. I'm hungry and I'm really thirsty and I need to potty. And then she took her classes off, and she said, Are these dirty? Because everything looks blurry. Wow.
Scott Benner 11:40 And you were like, This is just like, the drink. Did you think?
Chanel 11:44 Yeah, I just like, Oh crap. And I just stared at her for a minute,
Scott Benner 11:49 and then you said, Honey, what are the lottery numbers? Go slow. Go slow. Five. Then what?
Chanel 11:54 Yeah, right. And so I was like, Well, okay, let's go to the bathroom and get a drink, and I got this fruit snack in my purse. I can give you that, I guess. I mean, I didn't, yeah, I didn't know anything. And so I'm trying to take care of all these things that she said she needed, and while she's in the bathroom, I'm really lucky. I have a pediatrician who will text me. I just sent him a quick text. I didn't tell him I was a crazy mom who had a dream.
Scott Benner 12:25 I bet you left that out. These are some
Chanel 12:27 things I've noticed. He texted right? And I said, Can this wait for her well child check, or is this something I need to make an appointment for? And he texted back and said, Can you be here in 15 minutes? And then he's like, Oh yeah,
Scott Benner 12:43 if any halfway decent doctor would have heard, you know, frequent urination, the blurry vision really pushes it over the edge too, I think,
Chanel 12:52 yeah, and I don't know if her glasses were just dirty. I mean, she was four, they were always dirty. But just that, she said that,
Scott Benner 13:01 well, in the dream where her glass is dirty or would she it was just words. It's just words
Chanel 13:06 going through my head
Scott Benner 13:08 being serious. Have you had any other meaningful dreams that have resonated in real life? I
Chanel 13:16 have had some cool things happen before, but nothing that was quite like this. All right, we're
Scott Benner 13:23 gonna, I'm gonna ask you about that at the end of the episode. I want to hear what else has happened in your dreams. Okay, I mean, does this put you in a bit of a panic? Can you be here in 15 minutes? Yeah,
Chanel 13:32 totally. And so I was like, Okay, I I'm coming. So pack up these three little kids. Drive straight to the doctor. We go in, and he's like, this looks like diabetes. He said, We're gonna test her urine, I'm gonna do a finger poke, and I'm gonna send you over for a blood draw. And I was like,
Scott Benner 13:54 what? Yeah, How old's your baby at that point? Six months oh, she have a six month old. You have your daughter, and there's another one with you, right? Only two kids,
Chanel 14:02 yeah, there's there's one in between there, right? So four year old, two year old baby, and so I kind of was just sitting there, and everything was just surreal, I guess, like slow motion. Did this? That did the urine test. There was sugar, showed sugar in it. Her finger poke was only 256 but, like, I didn't even know what that meant when he told me what her number was, and so he was like, well, you're gonna go over across the parking lot, get this blood draw and then plan on going down to the Children's Hospital. Wow,
Scott Benner 14:38 hey, did you call your husband and go? I told you that our
Chanel 14:45 size like, she has been using the bathroom a lot, but like, maybe she has some sort of infection, like she hadn't been potty trained for that long, and so I was kind of, maybe I'll take her to the doctor and we'll find out she's got, like. Of what UTI or something, I'm not sure. And so I was kind of texting him, and he's like, well, hopefully that's not what it is. Just go get the blood draw. Let's see. And so I was like, Okay. And at that point, I was I told my doctor. I was like, This is too crazy. Like, this doesn't happen. And I at that point, I told him about my dream, did you really? I did. And I was like, I dreamt about this last night, and these were the symptoms, and this is what happened. And he was just kind of staring at me, like, what?
Scott Benner 15:34 And at the end of the dream, you said you felt so bad for me that this visit was going to be free. They just stare until he talks again,
Chanel 15:45 and he was like, you know, this is why I always trust a mom's gut. If a mom has a gut feeling that something's off with one of her kids, it doesn't hurt me at all to run the test so I can run the test, even if it's just to make the mom feel better. So if a mom thinks something's up, something usually is and and I was like, Well, okay, so I just felt kind of weird. I dragged these three kids across the parking lot to go to this other building where we were supposed to get the blood draw he had sent me with the paperwork to the paper to show them what they needed to do. And the lady over there was so mean. She like, I don't even know I'm I'm there with these three little kids. I'm kind of in shock, and don't really know what's happening. Um, it was just supposed to be a quick trip to Walmart, you know. And this lady grabs the paper, looks at it, and then she's just so irritated and angry, and she's like, there is no reason they should be having me do this to a child. And so at that point, Kate's scared. She doesn't know what's happening either. The Lady grabs her arm. Isn't gentle with her at all. Kate starts crying, and the lady just yells at the four year old, like, you need to hold still and shut up and let me do this. And what was she
Scott Benner 17:14 doing? She's doing a blood draw.
Chanel 17:15 Yeah, she's doing a blood draw. And I was just,
Scott Benner 17:21 that's bizarre, that's weirder than your dream. I was
Chanel 17:25 like, can you just give us a minute? She's scared. I'm scared. We don't know what's happening. Yeah, you're
Scott Benner 17:30 kind of a bitch. So like, let's maybe you're polite. You're like, give us a minute. What you mean is, maybe you should take a minute, like, and get away from everything for a second. Did you let her do it? Or did you ask for someone else?
Chanel 17:43 And she was like, Well, I have to get this done, and it's not gonna work if she can't hold still. And she had someone come in, and Kate was sitting on my lap, and this lady just grabbed her arm, pulled it straight, and just jabbed a needle in there and got the blood draw, and I was so angry, like, if that would have happened now, I would have handled it differently, but I was in shock and I was scared and I didn't know what was going on. Yeah, my whole world was being flipped upside down.
Scott Benner 18:15 Are you different now, or do you just, do you mean just now, like when you weren't in that
Chanel 18:20 situation? No, I would have been more vocal about it now, yeah, because
Scott Benner 18:24 you've been through some stuff now, and you because,
Chanel 18:28 yeah, because I've been through some stuff, and I've had to advocate for my kids, and I've had to to teach people things. And, yeah, you know, yeah, I understand. I've just been through the things now,
Scott Benner 18:40 so after Cruella gets the blood out, by the way, I'm gonna It's the strangest thing, this is gonna seem like a left turn for a second, but you said I drug those three kids across the parking lot, and I swear to you, you almost the next thing you heard from me was almost me crying, because I has popped in my head, but I I remember taking my mom to her oncology appointment to see if this oncologist would do surgery on her, and then after he agreed, we had to go across the parking lot for blood work. And my mom was in a in a wheelchair at that point because she was so sick. And I swear to you, it took me right back to that spot, and I was so, like, I was so happy you were talking and filling the space, because I couldn't think for a minute so interesting how it like those words, like I drug them across the parking lot and we were talking about a medical thing, and it took me like, I felt like I was standing there for a second. I'm okay now, by the way, because the story about the horrible nurse, like, snap me right out of it. But, but anyway, I just, I thought I would share that, like it just, it really took me to another place. I'm sorry. Go ahead, I apologize. No, that's great, great, great, great that my mom had cancer or great that I started. No, okay, good.
Chanel 19:57 Yeah. So I. We got the blood jaw, they sent us back over to the pediatrician. He kind of just said, go, go down to the Children's Hospital. Pack a bag. I'll let him know you're coming. And so I didn't really know that I was supposed to go right then. So I kind of went
Scott Benner 20:19 back to Walmart to pick up your pictures. I God, if you did, don't tell me. I don't think it sounds good, if that's what
Chanel 20:29 happened. No, I didn't do that, but I went home and I was kind of trying to wrap my head around things. I was trying to Google some stuff. I was talking to my husband. My mom lives a couple hours away, so I was trying to get her to come up to take care of my other kids. I was just trying to get things figured out. So some time passes, the doctor calls me and he's like, Hey, Chenille, I got a call from them. They told me, You're not. There is everything okay? And I was like, Well, I'm waiting for my mom to get here. We'll go after my husband gets off work and I pick up the kids from school, and he's like, no, no, no, you need to go. You need to put Kate in the car, and you need to get down there. Yeah, they're expecting you. And I was like, oh, because somewhere in my head he hadn't actually said, this is type one diabetes. He said, This looks like type one, right? And so I guess I kind of thought we were going down there for more tests, and I didn't know that it was an urgent thing that we needed to to get down there quicker. Yeah,
Scott Benner 21:32 this moment. Do you think of this as the the first big, like, life changing event that had happened in your family, or had other stuff happen prior to this?
Chanel 21:42 No, this was the this was the biggest thing. The first big thing
Scott Benner 21:46 levels up your perspective pretty quickly. Yeah,
Chanel 21:49 for sure. Yeah. The hospital called me and they were like, are you coming? What's what's going on? And I was like, Well, I'm trying to figure out what to do with my baby. He was breastfeeding at the time, so can he come with me? And no, no, no, absolutely not. They still had COVID rules. They said that both my husband and I could be there, but we had to check in together at the same time. And once we were there, we couldn't come and go. Once we were there, we were both there, if one of us left, we couldn't come back, and so I just trying to figure things out. But it's funny because when the pediatrician called me and asked, like, why aren't you there? And I told him that I'm trying to figure stuff out and I'm go when my husband gets off, and he was like, Have you packed a bag. And I was like, Well, no, not yet. He's like, I need a bag. And he's like, you're there for the weekend. You're gonna be there for at least a few days, yeah? And I was like, Oh, I didn't realize. I didn't know, yeah,
Scott Benner 22:52 there's a gravity to the situation that just hadn't struck you. Right, right? Yeah.
Chanel 22:57 And so he's like, grab a paper, write this down, and he, step by step, told me the things to pack. And I feel so stupid now, looking back, looking back on that, generally
Scott Benner 23:10 speaking, are you a person who, gosh, I don't mean this in a certain way, but I don't know. Do you need leadership or generally, no,
Chanel 23:19 no, no, no, no, not. Usually, this situation
Scott Benner 23:22 just kind of like really did just mix you up inside. It
Chanel 23:26 was just weird, and everything was hitting, and I didn't understand what was happening. And
Scott Benner 23:35 you're by yourself, anything. You have three kids with you, and you're by yourself too. I'm
Chanel 23:39 by myself. I'm thinking about how I'm gonna get my other kids from school. Like, what do I even say to the other kids? I don't know that
Scott Benner 23:47 started to go through your head right away. Yeah, all the stuff, yeah, all
Chanel 23:51 the things. It was just I couldn't shut my mind off, and everything was just going through my head at a million miles an hour, and I just couldn't focus on packing that bag. Yeah, you know, did
Scott Benner 24:04 you call people and speed them up after that, or did you just let the day unfold? Still? I
Chanel 24:08 just let the day unfold. I sent a message to like my family group, like this is happening with Kate. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I don't know what's going to happen. I'll let you know when I know more. So I sent a message to my family. I sent a message to my husband's family. It took my mom two hours to get up here to we don't live super close. I was going
Scott Benner 24:33 to say, is she far away or does she have your level of motivation in these situations?
Chanel 24:38 No, she left immediately. They didn't know anything about diabetes either, but she knew that it was serious that I was being sent to the Children's Hospital. She left right away. It just took time to drive here. I called my husband, and I was like, well, they said, We need to go now. We can't wait till you get off work. And he was like, Oh, okay. He came. We loaded Kate up in the car. We went down there, and everything from my dream became a real life nightmare, and we got thrown into it real quick.
Scott Benner 25:11 Well, you know what her blood sugar was when she got to the hospital? It
Chanel 25:15 was in the three hundreds. I don't know the exact number, but at that point, I still didn't even know what those numbers meant? Like, I understood that it was a little higher than usual, but I didn't know. And so they tell me the numbers, and I was like, Oh, okay. And so then they're like, Well, we're gonna get give her a little insulin to get her number down and see how she responds to it. And so they didn't really explain how it worked. They didn't really explain things. They said you're going to need to poke her finger every three hours. Every two to three hours, poke her finger see what the number is. If it's high, you'll give her insulin. If it's been three hours since the last dose. If it's low, she needs a snack. That's 15 carbs. That's what you were getting in the hospital. That's what they told us. And then they gave us a little booklet to teach us how to count carbs. And I mean, they didn't teach us how insulin works. They didn't teach us much else, right? They didn't teach us much else, yeah. And so I was just so focused on learning to count these carbs that I was like, Well, this is what we need to do. And then I'm setting timers to remember to poke her finger at certain times, because they said every two to three hours, right? And so, like, I just didn't understand even the basics. Yep, I've
Scott Benner 26:40 been through it. I know what you're talking about, but at the very least, can commiserate with you on that part, like it's just not a lot of I mean, you're so confused and upset and sad and all the things you just did such a good job explaining those things are all happening at the same time. And then, even if they were, I've come to believe that even if they were giving you good information, you probably wouldn't retain much of it to begin with, right? You know. And they don't know anyway. Like, that whole like, 15 carbs, 15 minutes test, every three that's the extent of what that nurse probably knows about it. Yeah, you know. So it's not even like, they're not telling you, she just doesn't know. They say things like, we're gonna get you an endocrinologist, and they're gonna, but they're going to teach you everything, and be like, oh, right, how long did they let you stay in the hospital?
Chanel 27:25 So we were in there from Friday evening ish to Sunday afternoon. That's pretty cool. We were in there couple days. I mean, I didn't feel any more prepared leaving the hospital than I did going in, it was just all chaos and crazy, and set the timer so I know when to poke her finger, set the timer so I know when to give her her insulin. And it was all just timers.
Scott Benner 27:55 We ate in the hospital cafeteria as we were leaving the hospital, because I think we were afraid to experience a meal and not be at the hospital. So, like, we left her room, went downstairs and went right into the cafeteria of the hospital to eat. It was just like, it seemed like the safest thing to do, you know. And then I remember getting out to the car and already being confused about something, and I was like, Oh my God. Like, this is the disaster, you know. Like, we have no idea what we're doing. And I even look back on that now, and I don't know how safe she was in that car. Like, I mean, what did we do for that food? I had no idea. You know, just for it was the worst. So I want to kind of jump ahead and come back. So, okay, to jump ahead once you're home, what makes you get your other kids tested?
Chanel 28:46 We didn't do it right away. After a few weeks, I'm trying to figure out, like all the supplies are driving me crazy. I gotta have a way to organize everything. So I'm trying to figure out what to do with the supplies. I'm trying to figure out what to do with this binder of you know, information that they gave us that I don't know really wasn't that helpful. And I saw a thing for trial net that kind of explained about if you have other kids, you can have them tested. And I was like, Oh, well, this came out of nowhere. So chances are they're all fine, right? Chances are it's nothing, but it was kind of in the back of my head like we should probably, we should probably do this, since we have five kids, yeah. So when things settled down a few weeks later, I made the phone call to set that up.
Scott Benner 29:38 Did you do that in a lab, or did you have them send out the kids? We went
Chanel 29:42 to a lab. We scheduled the appointment. Took all five kids with us. My husband and I were also tested. Since we were both under the 45 I think it is that they'll test that too. Did
Scott Benner 29:55 anybody besides your son come back with auto antibodies? Yes.
Chanel 29:59 Yes, so my son came back with two, and our other daughter, who was two at the time, came back with four. Our baby was too little to test, and my oldest daughter didn't have any at that time. Okay, we've retested. We retested a couple months ago and found out that our oldest daughter now has one of the auto antibodies, so she has developed one in the last two years. And our baby, we he's now three, so he was tested for the first time, and so far, he doesn't have any. Oh
Scott Benner 30:39 my gosh. So so so 85 days after this happens to you, you get another diagnosis. But how long between the information coming from child net and the diagnosis happening like, what was the gap of time there?
Chanel 30:52 So it took a few weeks, probably maybe about a month. We did the test. We figured that our daughter, since she had four, we figured that she would be next, and then they had us come back for the glucose tolerance test for the two kids who had the markers, and my son, Ryan, who had two of the markers, he failed that glucose tolerance test and was diagnosed then he was diagnosed at that time,
Scott Benner 31:23 right then. And there they were like, Yeah,
Chanel 31:26 we had to wait for the official paperwork to come back. But after they did the finger poke, the lady was kind of like, oh, we'll just have to see what the lab says. This doesn't look great. And so we didn't, we didn't really realize that they were telling us he had it. We were waiting for the official results. But then our daughter, who had the four, she passed her glucose tolerance test and has passed two cents on so it's kind of just the waiting game for her.
Scott Benner 31:58 Yeah, my gosh, so you're gonna have three with type one at some point.
Chanel 32:03 Yep, at least three of them will have type one. How
Scott Benner 32:07 is that knowledge for you, knowing that it's coming? What does that
Chanel 32:10 feel like? Oh, it is scary. It terrifies me. I hate it, but I think that it's actually kind of good for her, because things she'll say, she's mentally preparing for the day that it happens. So she'll say things like, when I have diabetes, I'm going to be so brave when I have diabetes, really, can my purse be pink when I have diabetes? And I'm like, Oh, it breaks my heart to hear her say those things, yeah. But also, I think it's good that she knows that it's a real possibility for her.
Scott Benner 32:56 Has she ever had her finger tested or anything like that? Yes, we,
Chanel 33:00 we will do random, random finger pokes on all the kids, really. And she has worn a Dexcom. We used the last 10 days of our transmitter one time to just see what hers was doing,
Scott Benner 33:14 and she seems to handle it all pretty well. Yeah, that didn't sound that didn't sound very comforting. Go ahead
Chanel 33:23 as well as she can when Kate is thrown into it, and she had that terrible blood draw experience, and then all of a sudden, everyone's poking her and, you know, giving her insulin and testing her blood. And it was so terrible, we had to literally wrestle her down to even poke her finger. She was so scared and so confused and just didn't understand what was happening. And so I know that it won't be like that when it happens with my other daughter, with Carissa, yeah, wow, because she's she's got it in her head and she's seen the things happening, and how much
Scott Benner 34:02 of their care is you and how much is your husband? Do you guys split it? Or is it one of those things where you know you're like, I do it, or he does it. It's
Chanel 34:10 mostly me. He's done all the same classes and been to the appointments, and he knows how to do all the things, but I, I stay home and he works. So okay, mostly fall off on me. How are you handling all that? Not well, most of the time, I don't think outside people are like, you're handling this so amazing. And I'm like, I am a mess. I am not. What makes you feel like you're a mess? My brain never shuts off. I'm always thinking about it. I'm always checking it. Someone always needs something like someone's always beeping, someone's someone needs a correction, someone needs a juice box, someone you know, yeah,
Scott Benner 34:50 someone's always beeping. So so people are telling you you're doing great. You don't feel. You're doing great, right? Is it you being hard on yourself? Is it psychological? Do you feel what's the level of of the impact on you? I handle
Chanel 35:10 it better now than I did in the beginning, for sure, because, you know, I've learned a lot, and I've had experiences, and so I know that I handle it better now than I was at first. I cried every day, and I'm not usually, I'm not usually a crier, so I just go in my room and just cry, and then I kind of wipe my tears away and pretend like everything was okay. And then I'd go do it again. Go do it again.
Scott Benner 35:40 Yeah, I was like the game, do you have any support? I mean, you got five kids, and you're, you're stay at home, mom, right, yeah, right. So do you have any support for you?
Chanel 35:50 My family, they're far away, but they're supportive. They've tried to learn. They've tried to, like the last question, see how things are going, I can leave them for a short time. My oldest daughter is actually pretty amazing. She after, after Ryan was diagnosed, she was kind of just watching things and how everything unfolded. And she came to me one day and she was like, Mommy, I want, I want to learn how to help you take care of them. Oh, wow. And I was like, Well, this is a lot. This is a lot for a nine year old. She was only nine at the time, right? She started to learn. And she I would, I would draw, I would like count the carbs and drop the insulin, and, you know, do all that,
Scott Benner 36:44 just let her feel like she's part of it. But yeah,
Chanel 36:47 she she would be there, and she'd be part of it. And I taught her how to do the finger pokes. And Ryan was more open to having having her help than than Kate was okay. And so that first time i i took a picture of it. It was so tender. She gave him a shot, and, like, I took a picture, and it was just like these two little kids, and they just looking at each other, and she was trying to be brave, and he was trying to be brave. And, you know,
Scott Benner 37:22 geez, that's kind of lovely, isn't that nice? And
Chanel 37:25 I was just sitting there watching, like, trying not to cry again, because crying is what I what I would do. And since then, she my oldest daughter. Her name is kiersly, and curiously, has totally stepped up. I don't even hesitate to leave my kids with her in charge, even as an 11 year old, she understands it. She can count carbs, she can give insulin. I found out by accident that she can change their pumps. I we went on a family date that my parents had given us for Christmas, and I we had to leave the kids. And so we left with my older nephew, who's in his 20s, and his girlfriend, and we were like, at least I'll have an adult there in case they need it, right? And so they had pumps, they had Dexcom, so we could see their numbers, we could text them. So it was fine, but we were gone for, I don't know, five hours, and when we came back, my nephew's girlfriend was like, Oh, by the way, Ryan's thing came off. And I was like, his thing came off. Like, what came off? Yeah, because I could still see his number, his pump came off. So I was like, Ryan, let's get this. Let's get this back on you. I pull out our bag. I'm, like, starting to get stuff set up to replace his pump site. And he's just looking at me, like, getting crazy. And I was like, what came off? Do you need a new pump site? And curiously, my oldest like, Oh, Mom, I already changed that. And I was like, awesome. You did like, she had never done one, but I had, she had never done it. She'd only watched me. I said, You changed it. And she said, Well, yeah, it fell off, and I knew that he needed insulin, so I changed it, wow. And I was like, oh, cool, okay, I'm
Scott Benner 39:24 gonna go back to what I was doing. Thanks. Like,
Chanel 39:27 you got new insulin, and you put it in the cartridge and, and she's like, Yeah, I got I put it in the cartridge, I took a few bubbles out, I got the air out of the syringe, I put it back in, I build the tubing. Like she went through the whole thing. And she was like, I handled it, Mom, because I knew he needed that. Geez. And I was like, this girl is like, awesome. Let's
Scott Benner 39:50 also get her in charge of other stuff, because it sounds like she could handle more. Oh, she
Chanel 39:56 She's so great. She's She might
Scott Benner 39:58 not be doing enough around the house. Else, this kid's got a ceiling, you know, he's pretty high. Oh, that's awesome. Wow, isn't that great? How old was she again?
Chanel 40:06 So she was 10 at that time, by the time name. Oh, that's awesome, by the time that happened, but
Scott Benner 40:12 there's a heartwarming part of your story. So yeah,
Chanel 40:15 I was like, she's got this. She knows how to help me. Oh, it's so
Scott Benner 40:20 nice, but she doesn't feel a lot of pressure about it. She just, she knows how to jump in if she needs to, like, you don't think she's running around thinking like, this is her job, right?
Chanel 40:27 No, I don't think that. But if she hears something and she thinks that I'm like, in the other room, I've heard her like I heard that beep, what was the number? And she'll check in with them, and she'll be like, I think you should probably have four Skittles. What if
Scott Benner 40:46 you said to her, the dishes need to be done? Would she be like,
Chanel 40:50 Oh, no, she would do that. She would do that. Look at that. Yeah, she she does jobs around the house, my kids,
Scott Benner 40:57 my kids help her. Very easy. Here is what I'm realizing very easy. My gosh, when you asked to come on the podcast, did you have a reason, like, or were you just, like, I want to chat, or, like, Was there something that you really wanted to make sure you got out? I don't really
Chanel 41:10 know why. I just saw a post on your Facebook page and you had said something like, see if you can catch my interest. And I was like, just curious, wonder if I could catch his interest. So I wrote a couple sentences, and you sent me the link to sign up. So I was like, Oh, I
Scott Benner 41:28 did, all right. I just, I just wanted to make sure, like, Minister, I don't want to, like, get me, we're not done. But I I want to leave time here, because there you have notes, like, you send a little note here. I
Chanel 41:38 don't even remember what I put and not, I'm not gonna lie. You said there
Scott Benner 41:43 were some frustration you had with the doctor telling you to aim for an A, 1c, over seven. I was wondering if you'd tell me more about that. Oh, yeah. Also, there's no chance you're from Canada, right? Originally? No, no, because you owe ya a lot. Did you know that? You didn't know that not from Minnesota. Haven't spent time in Wisconsin, nothing like that. Nope, just Utah my whole life. No kidding, I've enjoyed your accent the whole time. So I'm sorry. Go ahead. We didn't even know I had an accent. Everyone does, and no one hears it. I sound like a trash person, from what I understand from the people who write in. So go ahead, please. About the this 71
Chanel 42:19 say, okay, so we were, I don't know, a few appointments in to both kids being diagnosed. We usually try to schedule them so they can go at the same time, because just easier for me. So they took both kids, a one, CS, and we had them they were at like, 6.1 and 6.2 and Kate had been up in the eight, and then, like, gradually come down a little bit, but not, not really. And so finally, I felt like I was doing something right, because, you know, they're in the low sixes now, yeah, so I'm, I'm improving on something. And the lady came in, and I was feeling pretty good, and she came in and lectured me and told me that it was unrealistic to expect a one CS under seven, and that I needed to come to terms with that. And she wanted me to change what I was doing, and aim to get their a one, CS up into the seven to eight range.
Scott Benner 43:24 She wanted you to go up two points, yeah,
Chanel 43:28 like somewhere in the sevens, high sevens, close to eight, try to keep it under eight. And I was like, why would I do that? That makes no sense to me. Why would I change what I'm doing if it's working and if it's lowering their A, 1c, why would I try to keep them in the
Scott Benner 43:45 seven? Did you ask the question? Yeah, what was the answer? She just told
Chanel 43:49 me that it wasn't realistic and I was going to kill myself trying to keep them that low, that I couldn't maintain it like it was going to be too stressful for me
Scott Benner 43:58 at that time. Did you feel like it was too much for you? No, I felt
Chanel 44:03 less stressed knowing that they were coming down, knowing that I was doing something better than before.
Scott Benner 44:10 How do you handle that then when, when it said to you,
Chanel 44:14 I said, like, What are you talking about? Like, this is working. And she's like, well, you must be having lots of lows. And I said, you can see their Dexcom charts show me where the significant lows are. Like, why would I aim to keep it higher? Why wouldn't I try to keep their numbers as close to normal range as I could? And her answer was that long term complications don't start for at least 30 years. Did you tell her your kid was four? And I was like, So you're telling me that I'm gonna have my 35 year old daughter coming to me with these complications, like, I can't see I have neuropathy, I, you know, kidney stuff, like, I don't want my kids in their 30s coming to me saying. Why didn't you do more for us when we were younger? Because now we're having to deal with this. Yeah, and so I said thinking about that for their future is more stressful to me than trying to keep their numbers in range. Now sure,
Scott Benner 45:15 what brilliant thing did they say to that?
Chanel 45:20 And they were like, well, it's really the long term complications are unknown, and they're not likely that's not going to happen with your kids, because it would have to be really high numbers for a really long time, and so that won't happen. And I was like, but you don't know that that won't happen. You're here now. You're telling me this crap that like, I don't think that's true. You don't know that they're not going to have complications. And I said you're not going to be here in their 30s when this stuff starts popping up, if I don't get a hold of this right now,
Scott Benner 45:56 also, I'm doing a good job. Why are you not being supportive of me? Do I'm doing it like you're telling me it's impossible, by the way, it's every cliche that's gonna burn you out. You must be having a lot of lows. You're not having a lot of lows. Oh, you don't feel burned out. Okay. Well, you know what? It's gonna take 30 years for there to be any problems anyway. Oh, you don't like that answer. Well, what about this answer? Like, at what point would the person not say, Hey, let me see. I wonder how you're accomplishing this. Why don't you tell me what you're doing? Maybe I'm thinking incorrectly. No, just hammer away at all the all the standards. How old was this doctor? I'm assuming that you fired and don't go to anymore.
Chanel 46:34 We have switched doctors a couple times. I still don't have one that I'm happy with. I still don't feel like they help me with pump settings or anything, and I don't feel confident completely. I just try things right, but I don't feel like the doctors help me. And at that point when I said that, she was like, Oh, well, I can see you're really stressed about this. And I was oh, and I was like, wait, wait a minute. So I'm just getting angry with her, yeah,
Scott Benner 47:02 because, oh, you just made me mad. Go ahead, Keith. I'm sorry.
Chanel 47:06 And so I had said these things like, show me the lows. Show me this. Like, why would I do that? And she's like, I'm gonna send a social worker in to talk to you, because I can tell that this is just too much.
Scott Benner 47:18 Oh, you Can I curse in the church her? You guys don't curse, right? We don't. Okay. Can I do it for you? Would you mind? Would it bother you? If it'll bother you? I won't do it, but if you want, I can speak for you in this moment and let it be cathartic for you. Because what that all right, I won't do it. But my what in the hell is she thinking, right?
Chanel 47:41 And so I was just angry. And I was like, I don't need to talk to a social worker. I need a doctor who will help me and who cares about the well being of my kids. Like, I don't need to talk to anyone about this. I need you to help me. Yeah. And she was like, well, just talk to her for a minute, and we'll see how you're feeling after that. And I was just no mad, and I don't want to talk to you. I don't I'm not talking to them. Like, just help me.
Scott Benner 48:12 Was this a can? I just have the age of the person,
Chanel 48:15 probably 40s, not like a married person married? Yeah, do you think they're married? I have no idea man or a woman. It was a woman, really.
Scott Benner 48:27 I don't understand if I spoke to my wife like that. She kicked me out of the house. First of all, so I assumed a married woman would never talk to anybody like that. That was my point. Oh, my God, I would never. I gotta tell you something. I'm not a huge fan of this word, because I think it's overused, but I think she was gaslighting you, like, when you're telling her how you feel, and she's like, that's not how you feel. Yeah, I'll send in a social worker now to let you know how upset you are and why you're upset. You're like, I'm I'm not upset. I'm disappointed in your lack of direction. Oh, and then she goes, No, you are let me send in another professional to let you know how upset you
Chanel 49:05 are. It totally felt that way, and I was just so frustrated because I went from being happy I'm proud of myself for doing something right, to just being so angry and frustrated, and I didn't even want to talk to any of them. Like, obviously they don't care about helping my kids with this. Or you, yeah, or me. Like, they don't care about them. They're just trying to scoot me through and, you
Scott Benner 49:35 know, and make a little more money sending in another doctor they can bill you for too, right? There's another spot I would have cursed right there, Shanel, if you would have let me. Whoa. What about that boy? That's that's really interesting and frustrating and not surprising. At the same time, that was the day
Chanel 49:53 where I was like, they're clearly not going to help me. I've got to figure this out. Yeah, I've got to help my kids the best I can, and I can't depend on the medical professionals to be there for us, at least not that lady,
Scott Benner 50:09 geez. Yeah, wow, wow, that's really, I don't know. You know, after hearing these stories so many times, I don't know why, I'm shocked, but there's something about that specific back and forth that I found particularly nauseating me too. Yeah, no kidding. And look at you sticking up for yourself. That was that was well done too. Did you look back on that after and be like, Wow, I did not take any crap from her at all,
Chanel 50:35 not really. I just didn't even know. I didn't know what to say, and so I just said exactly what I was thinking. Why?
Scott Benner 50:45 Yeah, if you, if you weren't in the church, you would have cursed at her, for sure, because I was gonna curse at her, I swear to you, like I don't know why nobody ever says stuff like that to me. I'd be thrilled to hear about that. I would have enjoyed that argument very, very well. I sent the kid out of the room first, said, Hey, go outside for a second, and then I would have said, You taking this job seriously at all, like, what is wrong with you? I'm in here with a major accomplishment. I'm looking for a little more help. You're telling me I'm doing it wrong. I'm clearly doing it and, oh my god, I can't go back out. You've made me very upset. Not you personally the story. I'm sorry. No, don't, please. Don't apologize.
Chanel 51:22 How long ago was this? A little over a year ago, 2023
Scott Benner 51:27 look how far we've come, everyone, look how far we've come. You know, it's funny, may I say I made that cold wind series? Yeah, I got some notes from people. They were like, you know, is he shining a bad light on doctors. You don't, you know people need to be able to trust their doctors, and you know you shouldn't be doing that. One person told me it was like, it's dangerous that you're making this series. I'm like, I'm letting people come on and tell me about their work environment. And you think that's the dangerous part. Talking about, it's the dangerous part, not that they're doing it, the talking about it's the dangerous part, and I didn't even know how to respond to that email. And so if that person's listening, that's why you didn't hear back from me, because I thought you were an idiot, and I just didn't know how to respond back. But I did get that sentiment a few times, like you shouldn't shine. Like one person wrote me and said in this episode, the doctors came off very poorly in that episode. And I think it's dangerous for people to hear that what like, I don't understand like, I don't understand how things like this. I don't understand how people's minds work. You know what I mean, like, these people are out there. Some of them are doing a great job. I know plenty of great doctors. I know of 1000 endos you could have gone to where you wouldn't have had that experience. But the truth is, is you did have that experience, and that person is meeting people every day and using that level of ineptitude to practice their their craft. And in a world where I just interviewed a woman a couple days ago who, by the way, has someone else's kidney in her now and then goes back and tells a story about how she was mistreated by doctors as a child. And you think, Well, I hope they hear that story. I hope they hear that the way you treat a kid when she's 10. It could be the beginning of a long, winding, sad, dark path that ends with her with her sister's kidney. You know what I mean, and I'm not being ham fisted about it, like I the story it relates. She got bad advice from doctors, then they didn't help her, then they treated her poorly. She spiraled, and this is where she ended up. And you could that same thing. Can you imagine if you would have just said, oh, a seven or eight is okay, okay, cool. And then you just left, and then that's what you started doing instead. And then, 30 years from now, one of those things that you're worried about actually does happen to one of your children, like, it's too late now, like, oh, it's very upsetting. Seriously,
Chanel 53:59 I don't know well. In the first few months, the first couple appointments, I did do that, I just went with what the doctor said and didn't question it.
Scott Benner 54:09 But then you're on your own, you brought it down, and then they came after you. Yeah, yeah. There's a post like this in the Facebook group at least a couple of times a week. Yeah. People are just like, I finally found my success. I know what I'm doing. Look at this charts. Look at these graphs. Oh, by the way, today I got yelled at by my doctor, Yep, yeah, good for them. Everybody should be real proud anyway. And then, you know, who's the bad guy in all this? By the way, when it's over, it's me. I'm the bad guy for pointing it out. Like, you know, like you don't want, you don't want people to speak ill of you do a decent job. Like, now, everyone's not looking for perfection, but you got to be able to hit the big points. You know what? I mean, right?
Chanel 54:53 Oh my gosh. I mean, I have learned so much from from listening to the podcast. Us and from the different series, and I appreciate it so much. Thank you made such a difference for us and for my kids and I, I will listen to it in the car, or, like, doing pickups or while I'm cleaning stuff. And it's really interesting to see that, to see my kids pick up on things they hear when I don't even think they're listening really uh huh and stuff I say, or the good stuff, mostly the good stuff. But they'll, I'll kind of look at him, like, where did you learn that? And, well, we heard it on the podcast nice, like, oh, well, there you go. That's
Scott Benner 55:43 awesome. Wow, I should pay closer attention to what I'm saying. I'm just kidding. I'm pretty I pay pretty close attention to what I'm saying. Oh, that's lovely. I know there are people whose kids hear it, and I try not to think about it while I'm making it, because I think it would turn into a Mr. Rogers podcast, and I think most people would be upset. But, you know, I like that. You've got your, you know, you can make your own decisions about what your kids hear. I'm assuming they didn't listen to, like the like some of the after dark ones and stuff like that.
Chanel 56:10 Well, that's actually funny, because pretty early on, a stranger off Facebook who lives in my area gave me something. I don't remember what she was giving away, but something I thought I needed. I went to her house, picked it up, we talked for a little bit, and she gave me a little note card that said Juicebox Podcast, and, like, Pro Tip series, you know, yeah. And it was just kind of sticking there in my binder and so. And then I heard about other places. I read a little bit about it online, and I wasn't I never listened to podcasts. I didn't even know how to listen to podcasts. And so I was like, well, maybe I'll give this a shot. And I just opened it and clicked one, and it happened to be an after dark one, and I didn't know.
Scott Benner 57:03 Sorry. You know, that's one of the things I work. I do have all these conversations with people sometimes, like in my private life, and they'll be like, can you imagine if this is the first episode somebody heard?
Chanel 57:13 And it was definitely the first one. I always say, like, Yeah, I wish
Scott Benner 57:17 there was a way around that, but I mean, it is what it is. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I can't like, hopefully you heard it and you were like, oh, maybe I'll just switch to a different episode and try again. But I thought about that. I do wish there was, like, there's part of me that wishes there was a way to segment it up differently in but podcast players just don't let you do stuff like that. So which one do you remember what you heard? Like, what the story? I don't even
Chanel 57:40 remember what it was, but right away I was like, Oh, I can't play this with the kids around. I'm gonna have to wait. I don't know. And so I kind of didn't go back for a little bit. But then I was feeling so desperate, and I needed help, and none of the doctors were helping me. And I was like, I'm gonna go back to that podcast and see if I can learn stuff. And at that point I was
Scott Benner 58:02 like, oh, okay, they're not all like that one. Yeah, I
Chanel 58:06 just clicked on one that happened to be one I shouldn't listen to with
Scott Benner 58:10 the kids, right? Have you ever heard butt hole adjacent? I have
Chanel 58:14 heard that one I actually I went through. Listen to pro tips. Listen to defining diabetes. Then I listened to, like, runs in the family.
Scott Benner 58:28 So I not stuff that really pertains to what you're going through,
Chanel 58:30 uh huh. So I knocked a whole bunch of those out. And then I started listening at the beginning. Did you really listen to, like, a few 100 episodes? And then I was like, well, I should listen to the more recent ones. So it's like a chunk in the middle, there's like 500 or so that I haven't gotten to. I'll get to them. Take your time. I'm working on it. We're racing. We're working through them. You have,
Scott Benner 58:54 you have no time and plenty of time at the same time. So, right? So listen, what about other dreams you've had? What are, what are the other dreams you've had that have sort of come true in in the real world?
Chanel 59:07 Well, pertaining to the diabetes thing. Well, that,
Scott Benner 59:11 yeah, we know that one. But has there been anything else? There
Chanel 59:15 was one more that was kind of, well, diabetes related. We didn't have a Dexcom for, what, just over a month before Kate was able to get on a Dexcom. So we were doing it the old school way, finger poking all that one of the first nights that she had a Dexcom, we were just using the receiver. She didn't have a phone yet. We couldn't just look at our phone in the night and and see where she was at. I heard like clear as bells, I'm asleep in the middle of the night, and I hear her voice saying, Mommy, I'm low. I need a finger poke. And she said it twice. I sat up, I turned on my one. On my phone, and she was not there. She was not in my room. So I'm like, What in the world? So I like, woke up my husband, Russell, did you hear Kate? Like, is she over there? And he's like, she's not here. You're crazy. You didn't hear anything. You'd be
Scott Benner 1:00:20 like, buddy, do you not remember the dream about the diabetes? How could you dismiss me like this? And so I
Chanel 1:00:26 was like, well, she just told me that she's low. And he kind of like, rolled over and pulled the blanket up. And so I got up and went into her room and go look at the Dexcom receiver. And it says signal loss, and we had never seen that message yet. We were pretty new to Dexcom, right? So I grabbed the bag, and I was like, well, I'll just do a finger poke so I can see my husband comes in the doorway, totally confused, and he's like, What are you doing? And I was like, Well, Kate told me she was low. She told me she needed a finger poke. And he's kind of like, asleep and tired, and, you know, half asleep, and he's annoyed, and he's like, No, she didn't Chanel. She's been sleeping here the whole time. She hasn't gotten up, she hasn't moved. You're crazy. Like, he's
Scott Benner 1:01:18 like, I picked the wrong lady. I'm stuck now. I got five kids with her, but she's she had a lot of crazy stuff. No, no, no. I'm sure that thought has crossed
Chanel 1:01:26 his neck. I went ahead and poked her finger, and she was in the 30s. Look at you. She was low and with things like that. I'm, I'm really trying to learn to trust myself more if I have one of those thoughts or one of my feelings, maybe I'm not a crazy person. Maybe I want
Scott Benner 1:01:49 you sleeping with those little lottery cards and a golf pencil. I seriously. I want you sleeping with a golf pencil and those lottery cards. You wake up with any numbers in your head. I want you jotting them right down. You go right down to the the 711 or whatever they got out there in Utah, and I want you buying tickets. That's so CR i I've had deja vu once. That was so incredibly accurate. It freaks me out, like 50 years, like 40 years later, but we were in the backyard of like a person my dad worked with. We'd never been to their home before, and it was like this big party, and all the kids were outside. We were all sitting around these chairs, and one kid was sitting up on the back of the chair. You know what I mean? Like he had his feet where your butt goes, and his ass was up on the butt on the back of the chair. And you know, there's all these people around that I don't really know. You're trying to be social a little bit. And there's one kid who has snuck a beer outside, and he's got it and he's talking to somebody, and in my mind, I watched the kid sitting on the chair fall off the chair. The beer got knocked over. Everything got tussled around, people moved in a certain way, and a split second later, it all happened. Oh, man, it was just the strangest thing that I've ever experienced in my life. Yeah, I have no idea. I'm sure there's an explanation for it. Like it happened and I froze, maybe, and then it felt like I saw it like I have no idea what the actual explanation is, but that that stuck with me. I don't remember much about being a kid, but that whole thing, that scenario, just sticks in my mind. Like, if you gave me the furniture right now, I could settle up and put all the people in the space. It's it's stuck to me so much. Wow. Anyway, that's very cool. Anything else, no lottery numbers. Nothing like where we can make a couple bucks, nothing,
Chanel 1:03:38 I know. I wish, I wish I had the lottery numbers, it would really, really come in handy five
Scott Benner 1:03:44 kids. I bet you do wish that, yep, jeez, you have five children. So many kids, it doesn't seem like a lot to you, or does it just seem like what people do? I
Chanel 1:03:55 came from a family with six kids. My My husband came from a family with five, so we always figured, you know, we'll have four or five kids. We'll see how it goes. Hey,
Scott Benner 1:04:09 your your husband, uh, owns an oil field.
Chanel 1:04:12 Uh, what is he? What kind of work does he? He's a civil engineer. That does
Scott Benner 1:04:15 not sound like a job, that makes a ton of money,
Chanel 1:04:20 not a ton of money. You're right. Things, things are a little bit crazy over here, but, but like, we want all of them. We love them.
Scott Benner 1:04:29 Oh no, I wouldn't say otherwise. No, I'm just, I'm trying to figure out how they're going to do you already talk in their ear. You're like, you don't need
Chanel 1:04:35 college. Well, my oldest actually wants to be an endocrinologist. Oh
Scott Benner 1:04:39 god. Well, tell her, there's that. What about something in a trade? Huh? Have she? Has she thought about plumbing? That's a really good job. Makes a ton of money, and you don't have to go to college for it. Let's see what we can get her involved in.
Chanel 1:04:52 Maybe we can, like, whisper to him in their sleep or something, get there.
Scott Benner 1:04:57 I both of my kids. I was like, you guys don't want to do a trade. Like, I. Think that'd be awesome. You know what I mean? Like, I'll split what college costs with you. I offered my son a car to stay home from college. I was like, this will be cheaper for us if I just purchase you a vehicle and you go to this school, like, more local school. I want to play baseball in school. I was like, Oh, I bet you do.
Chanel 1:05:20 Yeah. Oh, my God. Well, I think they know that they're gonna have to to help out with that.
Scott Benner 1:05:25 Yeah. Well, the one's definitely gonna help. The one girl is awesome. She'll probably get a job and start paying for college herself. The one
Chanel 1:05:33 she's she's already mowing lawns and babysitting for people, so she's got a savings account.
Scott Benner 1:05:39 I knew I wasn't kidding. That kid's got her own money, right? She does.
Chanel 1:05:43 How old is she now? She's 11, yeah, be damn
Scott Benner 1:05:46 Yeah. She's gonna own something. Yeah, she's pretty
Chanel 1:05:50 proud. She's not a spender. She saves her money the she mows lawns for a neighbor. He hired her, and he's hired her for just some odd jobs around his yard, nice. And he like, joked around with her and like, you're gonna go buy a doll. You're gonna and she
Scott Benner 1:06:11 did not pick I started a 401, K, but thank you.
Chanel 1:06:14 She did not pick up on his sarcasm at all. And she's like, No, I'm gonna put it in my credit union account. And he, he just kind of looked at her, and she's like, college is expensive.
Scott Benner 1:06:29 I got a money market paying 5% right now, buddy.
Chanel 1:06:33 And actually she does. And she was like, I'm gonna put it in my money market account and earn some interest on this. Where does she learn this? I set up a little account for all the kids. They'll get money, and we'll take their piggy banks in, and I'll let them deposit it and stuff. Awesome. But she has really taken it seriously. I
Scott Benner 1:06:51 was gonna say, can you put her on learning Dropbox for me and have her come give me a 15 minute tutorial? Because I'm having trouble setting I feel like she could get it worked out pretty quickly. Oh my gosh. Okay, so she's
Chanel 1:07:04 very, very bright, and things seem to come naturally to her. It's awesome. Good for her.
Scott Benner 1:07:11 That's really cool. All right, so I'm gonna let you go, but first, let me tell you this. I've learned this from chat GPT. A Utah accent and a Canadian accent have some similarities, but are generally quite distinct from each other. But here's a quick breakdown so one they have Val pronunciations. Both Utah and Canadian accents share some vowel shifts, but the Canadian accent is known for the Canadian raising where words like about sound more like a boot. Utah speakers don't typically have this trait, though they may have their own unique vowel pronunciation, such as flattening or lengthening certain vowels. And then there's something here called rotis. Roth rot. Rotith is, how the hell do you say that? Hold on a second. This thing's amazing, by the way. It's pronounced, rotis, t rhoticity. Okay, it came in my headphone so you couldn't hear it. But rhoticity, both accents are rhotic, meaning they pronounce the R at the end of the words, unlike some other English accents, uh, it tonation, uh, intonation and melody. Canadian accents have a distinct upward intonation, especially at the end of sentences, often referred to as Canadian question intonation. This is less common in Utah, which tends to have more of a level and straightforward intonation and word choices in slang, Canadian English often incorporates unique slang and expressions influenced by French and regional Canadian culture, whereas Utah slang is more influenced by western American culture. Oh,
Chanel 1:08:44 there you go. Bob's your uncle? Interesting. Yep, I didn't even know
Scott Benner 1:08:48 it's not the same, but it's so similar that it struck me for a little bit. Did we talk about everything you want to talk about? I
Chanel 1:08:55 don't know what else I put in the note, but like, there's been frustrating things with insurance. There's been totally mean people who just don't understand. We've had some scary lows a couple times with both of my kids, and we've had some some terrible school nurses. Luckily, we have a great one now, but in the past, we've had some real, real bad ones. What's your worst school nurse story? He was in kindergarten. She got on a pump just after kindergarten started, and the nurse would just keep her in her office all day. She wouldn't give her corrections. She said that the only time they can do corrections is at meal times, even though, you know that's not true when they're on the pump. And so she would she kept her in there for six hours one day and just monitoring her number, but refusing to give her insulin because her blood sugar was high, yeah. And so I. Called, and I'm like, What is going on? And she's like, well, we're just monitoring it. And I was like, well, like, give her a correction. And so that time I actually, I went and I went to the school and did it because she wouldn't. But another day she was going into this was also Kate. She was going into lunch, her number was like 72 which used to scare me, but I'm not scared of I'm not scared of that anymore. So this nurse decided not to dose her for lunch because she was low, so she didn't give her any insulin at all. And so then I'm at home seeing her number just like, skyrocket, and all of a sudden it's just high too straight up. And I called because nothing was changing. And I was like, What is going on here? What's happening? And she's like, Well, Kate was low, so I didn't give her her insulin for lunch. And I was like, Well, how many carbs Did she eat for lunch? Well, 85 so she gave her 85 carbs uncovered. Wouldn't give her a correction even. And I was like, but you didn't, you didn't even give her the insulin she needed for her meal. Yeah. And she's not low anymore, right? And she's not low, she's opposite. She's totally high, and so give her the insulin. And she said, Well, now, unfortunately, it's outside of mealtime, so I can't do a correction. Why are people so? And I was like, but you didn't give her her meal time insulin. She didn't get any of that. Yeah, give it to her. Now she needs insulin. And she was like, well, hopefully it will come down. And I said it will not come down unless you give her the insulin she needs. She needs the insulin for it to come down. You can't just keep her in your office monitoring things, because it's not coming down unless she has insulin. That's a registered nurse. Yeah, she was our school nurse. And the same lady another day she calls me, and Ryan was a little bit high. He's up, like, low two hundreds. And she was like, well, he's high, and I'm watching them, and I'm monitoring things because, you know, and it was the same thing. I can't give him a correction.
Scott Benner 1:12:22 We are bolusing. We're bolusing hope. So I'm sure it's gonna come down any second now. Oh, by the oh, let's call your episode Bolus hope. By the way, that's a great idea.
Chanel 1:12:34 She said, I'm gonna take him for a little run. I'll have him like we'll go on a walk, and we'll run a little and I'll have him drink some water, please. I was like, Please, just give him insulin and send him back to class. As long as he feels fine, the insulin will need a little bit of time to work, but if you give it to him, then it can start. We're
Scott Benner 1:12:54 willing to hope, we're willing to pray, we're willing to go on a run. We've given him a glass of water. Can you give him insulin? No, it's the wrong time. And so I
Chanel 1:13:03 said, please send him back to class. He doesn't need to be in your office waiting for it to come down. As long as he feels fine, send him back to class. So about five minutes later, I get a call from him on his phone, which he doesn't normally call during school, right? And so I was like, Well, this is weird.
Scott Benner 1:13:20 Hey, Mom, the nurse is an idiot.
Chanel 1:13:23 That's basically how it went. Hey, Mommy. Like, what's going on, bud? And he says the nurse is making me run laps.
Scott Benner 1:13:32 And I'll tell you what else. She doesn't even have a money market account. She doesn't know what she's doing. He's
Chanel 1:13:38 like, huffing and puffing. And I'm like, I just told her to send you back to class. Why are you running laps? And he's like, Oh, she sees that I'm on the phone. I gotta go. And he hangs up on me. And I was like,
Scott Benner 1:13:54 Are you kidding me? They had him cut the shrubs and dig a dig a trench, and
Chanel 1:13:59 so yeah, I was like, you gotta be, you gotta be kidding. That's awesome. That's this is not a thing. Oh, there's so many dumb
Scott Benner 1:14:07 people. It's fantastic.
Chanel 1:14:09 She doesn't, she doesn't work there anymore. No, she wasn't
Scott Benner 1:14:12 a she wasn't a star, a star, shocking. No, my God, that's great. I gotta go. She sees me.
Chanel 1:14:23 She sees that I'm on the phone. I gotta go.
Scott Benner 1:14:25 That's funny, but it's also sad. Oh, it's crazy, well. And
Chanel 1:14:28 she would also, like, call me to tattle on the kids. Like,
Scott Benner 1:14:37 you know, I had him out running laps, and he stopped and he was on his
Chanel 1:14:40 phone. Kate was caught eating a Skittle in class. And I was like, perfect, and she felt like she needed a little bump, like, that's what I'm trying to teach her to do. Caught. She was caught eating a Skittle. What
Scott Benner 1:14:54 a phrasing. How come the How come the story isn't Hey, you know, we just wanted to let you know how. Probably are of Kate. She got a little low in class. She took care of it herself.
Chanel 1:15:03 Oh, it was a total tattle, like, and I said, like, great, that's what I want her to do. I want her to recognize that she needs something and to just do it. Yeah. And like, this is part of her learning how to take care of this. And then another day Ryan was caught giving himself insulin, and I was like, perfect. He noticed he needed a correction, and he was doing it,
Scott Benner 1:15:27 yeah. Everybody's like, yeah. It's weird how people think I'm not kidding.
Chanel 1:15:32 And she's like, No, they need to come down to my office and I need to supervise that. They can't just give themselves insulin. They can't just eat something. We need to know about it. And I was like, you don't the whole goal is to get these kids independent in their care. They need to learn these things. And I am proud of them, and I don't want you to tattle to me. Like, maybe get
Scott Benner 1:15:56 on the team for God's sakes, seriously, right? Like, try to see what's going on here.
Chanel 1:16:02 And she actually told me, because, well, if I see something that I'm like, Oh, we're gonna have to catch this before, you know. So I'll tell them to eat. I'll text them and tell them to eat a little something or and they just give me a thumbs up, so I know that they saw it, and they do that. So she actually called me one day and she said, I don't have the right to text them while they're in her care. And I was like, I don't have the right. These are my kids. Like, what I have the right? You can't tell me not to not to text them.
Scott Benner 1:16:40 That's awesome. So, yeah, oh, so stop talking to those kids, because you're finding out what's going on. Yeah,
Chanel 1:16:47 pretty much, that's how it felt. Unbelievable. Are you calling the other parents? If you see their kid eat a Skittle or a Eminem or something, you're calling their parents to tattle?
Scott Benner 1:16:57 Yeah, probably not. I'm gonna guess,
Chanel 1:17:01 like, one little Skittle is not gonna send her up as high as you have her by not dosing her for lunch
Scott Benner 1:17:08 exactly. I didn't tattle on you when you gave her all those carbs and give her any insulin. You, oh, man, it must very frustrating in that your whole story is full of frustration. I'm so sorry.
Chanel 1:17:19 No, tell me about it. That's crazy.
Scott Benner 1:17:22 Chenille I have to stop or I have to spend more money on the editing. You don't want to send over money,
Chanel 1:17:27 do you? I don't want to cost you more money. Very much.
Scott Benner 1:17:31 You really, I really do appreciate your conversation. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Oh, of course, it's my pleasure. Hold on one second. You I'd like to thank the ever since 365 for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and remind you that if you want the only sensor that gets inserted once a year and not every 14 days, you want the ever since CGM, ever since cgm.com/juicebox one year, one CGM. Earlier you heard me talking about blue circle health, the free virtual type one diabetes care, education and support program for adults. And I know it sounds too good to be true, but I swear it's real. Thanks to funding from a big T 1d philanthropy group, blue circle, health doesn't bill your insurance or charge you a cent. In other words, it's free. They can help you with things like carb counting, insurance navigation, diabetes technology, insulin adjustments, peer support, Prescription Assistance and much more. So if you're tired of waiting nine months to get in with your endo or your educator, you can get an appointment with their team within one to two weeks. This program is showing what T 1d care can and should look like. Blue circle health is currently available in Florida, Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Delaware, Alabama and Missouri. If you live in one of those states, go to blue circle health.org to sign up today. The link is in the show notes, and please help me to spread the word blue circle health had to buy an ad because people don't believe that it's free, but it is. They're trying to give you free care if you live in Florida, Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Delaware, Alabama and Missouri. It's ready to go right now. And like I said, they're adding states so quickly in 2025 that you want to follow them on social media at Blue circle health, and you can also keep checking bluecircle health.org to see when your free care is available to you. 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, wrongway recording.com, you.
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