#163 Go to Spain and or Apollonia
Scott Benner
Kelly hits all the right notes....
Kelly is an opera singer who has type 1 diabetes. Find out more about Kelly's music here.
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - google play/android - iheart radio - or their favorite podcast app.
“I will lean on my friends, family, and the DOC for support when I need it. I will focus on educating those around me about T1D, and supporting those who struggle. ”
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Hello and welcome to Episode 163 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by Omni pod and Dexcom. There will be some wonderfully produced and rather entertaining ads for both later in the show. But for now you can go to dexcom.com Ford slash juicebox or my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box for more information. If you're looking for an insulin pump, or a continuous glucose monitor, just go to the links I just mentioned. There's even links in the Notes for this episode and at Juicebox podcast.com. Today's guest is Kelly Griffin Kelly has type one diabetes, and is a professional performer she sings the opera, which is really cool, because I don't know how anybody can do that maybe I should try to sing the ads in opera later could happen. Anyway, Kelly and I met a long time ago online because she was a performer who felt compelled to hide her type one. But then after she found the podcast and some community online, she started to feel more open about it. We're going to talk about that today plus a lot more. It's really an interesting and encompassing episode, Kelly was even nice enough to send over a piece of one of her performances for me to include in the episode. It sort of sounds difficult, but I bet anybody could do it. Watch. Nothing. Okay. I'm not a soprano, maybe about nothing you hear on that night can't sing nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before being bold with insulin. I promise I will never do that again.
Unknown Speaker 1:35
I Scott Kelly, how
Unknown Speaker 1:36
are you?
Unknown Speaker 1:37
I'm good. How are you? Excellent. Thank you.
Scott Benner 1:50
This is gonna be great. I like having the chance to talk to a woman named Kelly who I don't have 25 years of animosity built up with
Unknown Speaker 1:59
not yet.
Unknown Speaker 2:02
You think you would like to do it?
Kelly Griffin 2:07
No, this is very exciting. For me. I've been a fan of the podcast for a long time, I've been listening and gleaning information. And it's really, really helpful. So I'm glad to be here.
Scott Benner 2:21
It's exciting for me too, because you're one of the few people who ever said to me that you were sort of, I've never heard somebody say hey, I kind of hide that I have diabetes. Like Yeah, and that was like, I think our first interaction together, which maybe goes back years now. Right? Right. Right. So that would be to me, you're already recording. So I'll probably just leave all this and
Kelly Griffin 2:47
Yeah, fine. I listen enough. I know, I know what goes on.
Scott Benner 2:53
So just introduce yourself any way you want. And we'll just keep going.
Kelly Griffin 2:56
Or I'm Kelly Griffin. I live in New York City, and I've been dealing with Type One Diabetes for about 15 years. Now.
Scott Benner 3:10
When you say dealing with you don't mean? You don't mean you work in a casino. And you know,
Kelly Griffin 3:15
again, not yet. But I have been living with Type One Diabetes for 15 years.
Scott Benner 3:22
I kind of liked it when you said dealing with if I'm being honest.
Unknown Speaker 3:25
It's pretty accurate.
Unknown Speaker 3:27
I've been putting up with this for
Kelly Griffin 3:30
you know, it's a day today 24 seven thing that that ride along with me, you know, whatever I do so yeah, absolutely.
Scott Benner 3:40
So you live right in the in the city you're in?
Kelly Griffin 3:43
Yep, I'm in New York City, Upper West Side, Manhattan.
Scott Benner 3:48
We never really talked about this. But for people who aren't from the East Coast or have never really been in Manhattan. It is a different lifestyle. You know, like very different, right? So when people talk about like, Oh, I have to carry a meter with me or you know, you're you're just running from building to building you're like ants running from hills, and except in the middle buses are trying to run you over.
Kelly Griffin 4:11
Right? And you are you know, when I leave for my day, depending on you know what my day looks like I may be leaving with a big bag or maybe a backpack everyone does. So, you know, when I I hear people talking about, you know, how am I going to carry my diabetes supplies. When I leave the house, I have so much other stuff that I'm carrying with me that my diabetes supplies are really a small thing compared to everything else because I probably won't be home in between activities and you know, you're running all over the place. So it's just a normal part of every day. And it's funny and I think some of the women will appreciate this. I was trying to get a little cross body bag, which is what they call it a little bag, you know that I should just kind of run around with and put my driver's license, a credit card, maybe some lipstick, and that's about it. But I'm thinking, you know, no, I've got to make sure I've got my pump, got to have my meter, I've got to have everything available. So it's like, there's always a little bit extra work. And it's always there. And I
Scott Benner 5:23
think to just living in the city is like yesterday is a great example. I had to run Arden to the salon right up the street from my house. And then she and Kelly were going to go get their nails done. They're going away this weekend. And so I took her to the to the first stop, I guess I don't know she was getting her eyebrows waxed. I guess that's not bad to say. Right. And I and and then we came home for a second and then she went to the next thing but in the city you don't pitstop back at your house. You had Nomad with that backpack, like every, everything you need for the day needs to be in there. Right? Yeah, it's just, it's a different sort of interesting lifestyle that I don't think exists many other places. Right? How old were you when you were diagnosed?
Kelly Griffin 6:08
I was 25 when I was diagnosed.
Scott Benner 6:11
Okay. And you were already an adult, and you were working in your profession now?
Kelly Griffin 6:16
Yeah, I was. I was actually in graduate school when I was diagnosed, so I was an adult away from home on my own. So I've always been the only one in charge of my diabetes. Yeah.
Scott Benner 6:30
How long are you in grad school? And until we diabetes?
Unknown Speaker 6:36
Oh,
Kelly Griffin 6:37
boy, let's see. I think it was about my last year. So I would say, you know, until about the age of, of 25. And then I, you know, started working and moving about so I'm, I'm involved in classical music. So I have always been working whatever job to kind of allow me to continue doing that. And I also own my own business. And so yeah, I just started living in the real world, you know, with my diabetes after graduate school.
Scott Benner 7:18
And how did that go?
Unknown Speaker 7:20
You know,
Kelly Griffin 7:22
I'm always so envious. The reason I came to you was because I saw the video of you and Arden on YouTube, when she was just a little girl, and you were administering shots. And then also, I think, trying to get her to have a little bit of juice or something because she was very low. And I just look at that. And I think, wow, I wish that for Christmas, one year, somebody could just come and take over my pump and my decks calm. And just let me go about my day. You know, I wish I had that kind of care. It was amazing to see that. But yeah, I was diagnosed as an adult. And I remember when I was diagnosed, they first thought it was type two, because I must have been going through some kind of honeymoon period. And also, because of my age, the doctor at the time, did not consider type one and and I remember someone suggesting to me based on my symptoms that maybe it could be type one. And so of course I started reading online. And I think when on some kind of a high protein, low carb diet, just combat whatever possibly could be going on in my in my diet. So when I took my, you know, fasting blood sugar for the lab studies, it wasn't an incredibly high, but it was high enough that it was definitely within a diabetic range. So the doctors put me on oral medications to start with and I had really good results again, I was still eating pretty low carb at that time just out of fear trying to deal with what what might be going on. And then I started trying to go back to my normal lifestyle and the oral meds just really weren't working anymore. And it was a diabetes educator who said to me, I think you might have type one. So when I was initially diagnosed again I was I just happened to be visiting my family. I came home from college, visiting my family, they took me to the doctor, he said, we think that you have diabetes again, thinking it was type two, we had planned a trip to Spain, and we were leaving the next day. So he said, go to Spain. Have fun, and let's deal with this. When you Get back
Unknown Speaker 10:03
in Spain cry.
Unknown Speaker 10:06
This is so much fun. I
Unknown Speaker 10:09
really love this place. Oh, look, it's
Scott Benner 10:15
so delightful advice. Go to Spain. Forget I just told you you have a lifelong illness, take some pictures and come home and then we'll just work this all out later.
Unknown Speaker 10:27
Oh, that's good. So here's a wonderful doctor, but it was just you know, at that time
Kelly Griffin 10:32
at the food, you know, I was afraid to eat. I didn't know what to eat. You know, I'm just, it was it was an interesting vacation. So anyway, like I said, as the month progressed, the oral meds just stopped working that Metformin you were taking, you know, Scott, I think that that was part of it. But I remember something, something else, kind of a 24 hour medication, whatever it was, I don't want to guess I don't say it wrong. But I think Metformin came along a little bit later. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 11:08
So,
Scott Benner 11:09
I'm sorry. So this was based mostly on just the fact of how old you are like they didn't want to believe at that point that you could have type one because you're in your mid 20s.
Kelly Griffin 11:18
I don't even think it occurred to anyone. It's interesting. So yeah, when I was told I had diabetes, I thought it was type two. So I was trying to manage it through the oral medication, diet, exercise, all of those things. And like I said, What a diabetes educator said to me, I think that when you go back in New York, you ought to have them look into type one. So I found an endocrinologist when I came to New York, and he ran some lab studies and said, Yeah, you know, it's, it's type one, and I was immediately put on insulin
Scott Benner 11:55
timeframe between when you first when someone first had diabetes to you when they said type one, how long were you doing the oral meds and everything?
Unknown Speaker 12:03
I would say? Maybe four, five months,
Scott Benner 12:09
and you were probably honeymooning and you were eating low protein. So it's Yeah, it's holding it together a little bit. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But,
Kelly Griffin 12:15
you know, the low carb thing for me only lasts a short while and it's like, okay, you know, at some point, I need to begin to get back to my normal life. And so when I started incorporating, you know, just regular foods into my diet, it just became more difficult to manage with those oral medications. So yeah, well, you
Scott Benner 12:38
know, prior to insulin, if you if you got type one, they would just did pretty much go on a starvation diet and run around a lot trying to stay alive.
Kelly Griffin 12:46
That's right. Yeah. And, you know, that was another thing that, I think because of what I looked like, at that time, you know, I think that at that time, they were associating type two with, you know, overweight, sedentary, probably a little older. And that's what the doctors were saying to me. And so they were even baffled that I would have type two as they thought I had, because with the diagnosis of type one, Scott, I probably lost about 20 pounds. Yeah.
Scott Benner 13:17
So even though even the overly simplistic visual cues for type two didn't apply to you,
Kelly Griffin 13:24
right? Because, you know, he, he didn't really know me. He was not my family doctor, I was visiting my family and seeing a doctor that really didn't know me. And you know, when you're young you think you're invincible. I didn't really establish care with with a primary doctor. So no one really would have known Hey, she lost 20 to 30 pounds. Maybe we ought to look into type one,
Scott Benner 13:48
especially in your I mean, in your 20s that's a time when you just I mean Invincibles even too It's too soft of a word.
Kelly Griffin 13:57
I thought I'd do it school. I got a little stress. You know, I'm not eating as much though. Yeah, sure. I'm gonna lose weight.
Scott Benner 14:03
If I lost 20 pounds right now. I'd be like, finally, the universe is looking out for me. Do you stop?
Kelly Griffin 14:09
Yeah. It's so funny because at the time that I was so tired, so lethargic, I was drinking soda all day because I don't drink coffee. But I will drink a soda to give myself caffeine. Now of course I was drinking regular soda at that time, but why not? I'm so thin. It doesn't really matter.
Scott Benner 14:35
You know, when I was growing up, my parents had friends and the husband was like a rail skinny real tall arm real thin. And his wife was kind of around and chubby. And she's alive in her 70s he died 25 years ago from a heart attack and but he was always that guy like real skinny could eat a whole pizza was still real skinny. Yeah, and and then always thought of his health as his weight which is interesting because there wasn't that much of a correlation? And it ended up being the wrong way to think about it. But if we do that, I mean, I would do that too.
Kelly Griffin 15:07
Yeah, I was so sick. I've never been sicker. But I thought, well, I'm dropping all this weight. This is fantastic.
Unknown Speaker 15:17
This time
Unknown Speaker 15:21
I find
Scott Benner 15:22
another college, I'm going to jump into the real world thinking about going up to Manhattan is a real This is beautiful. And so know. Exactly right. The plan was, yeah, sure. Right, that really went through. What was the first way they gave you to manage? But did you get like syringes? Or what was the deal at that point? Guess what, we have a dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor just came the other day. Dexcom started their shipping with 1000 units. They went to people like you know me with the podcast, and people like you, who just saw them online saying who wants to be first to give it a try. Now, if you didn't see that, don't worry, the rest of them are coming really, really soon. If you're a current g five or g4 user, and you'd like to go to G six, Contact Dexcom today, give him a call and be like, Hey, yo, what's up? Next time I am ready for a reorder, I want to move to G six. And they're going to help you do that. When you call tell them hey, I heard on the Juicebox Podcast that the Dexcom g six is like gonna shift like any day now. Is that true? How do I get involved. But if you're not a Dexcom customer currently, but you're listening to us on the podcast talking about using this continuous glucose monitor that we love so much, and you want to get started, go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box, and Dexcom will help you get going right away. Now you may be thinking, Scott, why do I need a dexcom continuous glucose monitor? Let me get in real close. Let's Get Real intimate. Let me explain it to you. Real, real nice. Because you do It's fantastic. It's amazing. You want to be able to see your blood sugar, where it's going how fast it's moving on to be able to make treatment decisions. Yeah, you do. You want to be able to say hey, my blood sugar starting to fall, I should maybe have a small snack, hey, my blood sugar starting to go up. Maybe I could bump it with a little bit of insulin here and stop a high blood sugar later. Of course, you want to see that. You want to see the speed and direction that your blood sugar is moving in real time because it's an amazing way to manage your type one diabetes. Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to tell you last week I said I was gonna tell you about the share. And then I didn't normally do it again. Party. I'll extend the music Hold on. All right, next one. This is free bonus add time, the share function on Dexcom means that you are a loved one can wear the dexcom continuous glucose monitor, while people you choose out in the world can follow your blood sugar on their Android or iPhone device that come on. Wouldn't you like to know what your kids blood sugar is right now wherever they are. Or maybe you're an adult living alone, who just wishes that somebody could have their back in a moment of emergency, you would have the freedom to set up a follower anywhere in the world. And you could set their alarms wherever you wanted to. Maybe you just want them to know when your blood sugar goes below 55 because you're hoping they could, I don't know give you a call three a text message. Hey, all right. There are limitless ways to use the share function on the Dexcom you will find the way that fits your life best, but trust me, it applies in some way to everybody. Go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box. They'll start today. And I hope you're as excited as I am about the newest version of Dexcom, the G six which like I said, we've just started using, I'm going to have a pretty extensive review for you as soon as I can. But first I got to absorb it, use it. Make sure I understand what I'm telling you. I'm not just gonna jump on here, but like it's great by it because I don't know. I don't know yet. But I'm hopeful. And what I see so far is really, really great. All right, let's get back to Kelly. What was the first way they gave you to manage? What did you get like syringes or what was the deal at that point?
Kelly Griffin 19:09
Yeah, I had the I think the first insulin that I was on was the Oh gosh. What's the one with the peaks and the valleys?
Scott Benner 19:20
humalog novolog
Kelly Griffin 19:22
24 hour insulin. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 19:24
geez.
Unknown Speaker 19:25
Oh, okay. You were doing
Unknown Speaker 19:28
regular and mph? Yes, yes. Yes. Yes.
Kelly Griffin 19:33
Yes. So I had some peaks I remember throughout the day, but that was very short lived. And then I went on something like a 24 hour I think like a Lantus or levemir. And then I would just do regular through the pens.
Scott Benner 19:51
It's interesting how it's changed so quickly.
Unknown Speaker 19:53
Oh, yeah.
Scott Benner 19:54
No, I remember when my friend was diagnosed when we were in our late teens, he was just like, I just have to take the shot in the morning and then at night before thinner. And I was like, That's it. That's it. That's it go. Okay. And he lost weight too. So he was like, This is great.
Kelly Griffin 20:08
Yeah, I'd be curious to know that a one see results.
Scott Benner 20:11
Yeah, it wasn't good. But that's what he was told. Yeah, you know, and in your late teens, a doctor said, do this, it's already stressful. You're not looking to dig deeper. I think. I think I still see that now with people, right? That you do Really? You want your life to be simple? Everyone does. It sounds it's obvious, right? And so if someone says this, we'll do it. But then there's a pause. And in your mind, you think, I don't think that's right. But they did say it was, so I'm just gonna go with it. You know, like, there's that go with it. So that I don't have to think about it anymore. Feeling.
Kelly Griffin 20:45
Right? Yeah. And it's so important, you know, for platforms like this, because although you're saying, you know, I'm not giving advice or anything, you know, but has to take control, I think anyone will tell you, you have to be your advocate, you know, you have to read up, you've got to study, you've got to know what's happening with diabetes, technology, all of these things, because you may go to a doctor who promotes one pump over the other or one CGM over the other or one way of managing things. But if you go in with the information and say, I choose to do it this way, and no one can argue with the results when they see your numbers, then, you know, I think that's the most beneficial thing that you can do. But you really have to take it into your own hands. Like, you're always saying, You can't wait three months for your next doctor's appointment to adjust your pump settings, and
Scott Benner 21:44
just talk to somebody on the phone yesterday. And I said, Look, you just have to bump them around yourself. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 21:48
you can't.
Scott Benner 21:49
I mean, can you imagine it could take six to nine months to get it? Right? Right. In that time, your blood sugar is high the entire time or in this situation? It was her daughter. But I think that I think that you, you know, to go back to that idea of it's it isn't fair, right to get diabetes isn't it's not fair. It shouldn't be, it's not what you were expecting, it's how you're planning. It's not how you were living prior to then. But at this point, now you have this part time job, that's really more of a full time job. And, you know, it's it's a part time job that you do from home. So you're really at it 24 hours a day. And and it's and you have to you can't just say, well, this isn't what I wanted for my life. So I'm going to ignore it. That's, yeah, that's what you do with a weed that grows in your backyard, but you don't have a way to cut it down. You just don't look at it, you're like, that thing will die when it gets cold. And you look away, you know, but this doesn't this doesn't go away ever. So to not take and to not take an active role in it is it bends my mind a little bit. But But I think of it that way. To go back to what you said earlier, because I'm taking care of a person that I love. Yeah, it's not me. There are plenty of things with my health that I ignore all the time. You know, like, I'm walking down the steps for the last week and my ankle clicks in a way that I'm pretty sure it's not okay. And so far, the way I've handled it was to think that'll stop.
Unknown Speaker 23:06
Yeah.
Kelly Griffin 23:08
put things in perspective, though, right? When other things come up. And people say, I know this is going to be an inconvenience for you. And I'm thinking you have no idea what I deal with on a daily basis. This is nothing.
Scott Benner 23:21
I do like that when I see people freaking out around me. And I'm like, what's wrong? She's the photographer we had for my son's senior portraits backed out of us. I was like, oh, and this is throwing you into a tizzy as I call another one.
Kelly Griffin 23:36
For a lot of things that and I don't think anyone really knows it unless you are living with it or helping someone else to, to live with it
Scott Benner 23:46
and no way to know. Right? Absolutely. Okay. So here we are. We're in the world. And we are working and you see business, you're involved in classical music, you have a lot of things going on. But you but the first time you and I really started speaking, if I'm remembering correctly, and because I do literally no research for the podcast. I don't know for sure. But if I'm remembering correctly, you were as an adult, in your workplace not sharing with people that you had diabetes, is that
Kelly Griffin 24:14
right? That's right. Yeah. When I would perform. Right, right around the time of my diagnosis. I shared it with some close people who were in business and also in, in classical music, you know, it's like, how do I handle this? Because even though I feel I have good control over it, somebody maybe should know, because God forbid something happened. I don't want to be isolated in this and then I also my mother hates this that I that I won't wear a bracelet or or something. I have Something in case I'm ever in a situation that I feel it's important to put it on. But I've got I just don't ever want to be visibly. Ill I hate to say that, but that's, you know, I just want to go about my life. I don't want people saying, Oh, you know, what's that? Or what's wrong? Are you okay? And that was always a struggle for me. So it was recommended to me, especially in music, that I just not talk about it. So I thought, okay, if I'm getting this advice from people that that I know, have my best interests in mind. It's probably correct, I should probably just keep it to myself. I wasn't in any way ashamed of it. You know, it's just, I didn't want to be treated special in any way. You know, I didn't want anyone to have to say, let's take a snack break for Kelly. No, I
Scott Benner 25:58
think I completely understand. I mean, it's just, it's no different than anything else. You didn't want to be singled out or treated any differently than anybody else. You're not looking for the focus to be on you all the time. Or for you to be a an easy excusive if someone else needs it, right, you know, cuz you, you do run into those situations all the time. So the other day, Arden comes home. And she says, I don't think my science teacher understands the diabetes all that well. And I was like, what's wrong? And she said, uh, so Arden needed to leave the room, or no, I, you know what, here's the exact scenario, her blood sugar was drifting low. But it wasn't falling. And she was gonna get on the bus soon and come home. And she always has a snack when she gets home. So I didn't want to over treat this drift. And so I said to her, Hey, are you in a room that you have like supplies? And she always does. She's like, yeah, I said, have like a couple of like, she's some candy aside, I think she had like, Mike and ikes, or gummy bears or something like that. I said, have a few of them. And so she gets up because she's allowed to move around the room for that stuff, walks over to the cabinet. Looks in the cabinet. The teacher must have moved the stuff a little bit. And so she asked the teacher Hey, where's my bag with my candy and my juice? The woman says, Oh, it's right here. Arden grabs like a few pieces of candy. She throws it in her mouth down. But now the teacher stops. Are you okay? And our arms like, yep, I'm good. Just gonna, I just needed a couple pieces of that candy. I'm gonna go back to my desk now. Right now she was fixated on her. So now 10 minutes later, she comes up to her and she's like, are you sure you're okay? And when it's like, I'm really I'm fine. But thank you. And then it goes a little further than the class ends. And she comes up to her and she goes, I knew something was wrong, because you're pale. And I said, Arden goes, I don't look pale. I don't. And I think, you know, it seems like but I didn't know what to say. And I said, Well, thank you. I appreciate you being concerned. And she left her alone. Then she comes home and tells me I said, Arden Listen, you've never gotten pale once in relationship to your diabetes, this woman's now just she's talking herself into seeing something.
Unknown Speaker 28:00
Yeah, of course, it's out
Scott Benner 28:02
of a real concern. Like she's not a bad person, you know, but look at all this that's going on around Arvind that she doesn't want. And that's the stuff I'm assuming you were trying to avoid.
Kelly Griffin 28:13
Exactly, especially in a performance situation. I'm, there's already so much else that I have to worry about. I don't want anyone worrying about me, you know? And in a way because no one ever has worried about me, you know, my parents are very aware of what's going on, but they've never been responsible for taking care of my diabetes. So even when I'm visiting them, if, if something happens if I have a low blood sugar, the dexcom starts beeping or whatever, you know, no one's running over. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, are you okay? Like, you know, my dad's a physician actually. And so you know, he'll just kind of look at me and he'll say you need something you need to handle something is something must be happening right now. He doesn't know the difference between the beeps you know, to is this for is that he doesn't know. Obviously
Scott Benner 29:13
Kelly I check the remote and the batteries are good in it. So I think I think you're beeping and do something about it. Please wait, isn't that that must be that must be incredibly difficult for them. Like, you know what I mean, like to have you have left the nest in a way and then for something so impactful to happen to that they couldn't be involved in. It must it must break their heart on some level like Do you know what I mean? Like not being able to Yeah, for sure. It's not really spoken about but I can imagine it from my personal Yeah, it's interesting.
Kelly Griffin 29:44
It really we talk about it, because I talk about it. You know, I especially when I started listening to the podcasts and you know, I went to friends for life. I was like, you know, I am going to meet another type one diabetic person or person with it. DVDs or whatever we want to be called now, I am going to meet one, I will find one. I know there's another one out there. Because, you know, for many, many years, I was the only one I knew that had type one. So that was quite, that made quite an impression on me to go down to Florida and meet all of these people, especially, you know, the adults who were living with and have been living with for much longer than I have, you know, type one, and it's just, it's really, really amazing. But I remember when I initially got the diagnosis now, this was when they thought I was tight to my mother was in the room with me. And I just being a kind of a dramatic person anyway, just burst into tears. And, you know, the poor doctors kind of got his hand on my shoulder, you know, like it. It's okay, it's okay. And then, my mom, I've never seen her look more stoic. But in a way I could also see because I know her. She was fighting back tears, but I think she was trying so hard to be strong for me to say, it's fine. We're just going to find a way to deal with this and we're going to move forward. But I've never seen her on the edge of crying like that.
Scott Benner 31:24
Yeah, it's it's a it's not easy to describe that feeling then something happens to your kids that you can't help is Yeah, it's on its way past helpless it It feels like soul crushing. It feels like, you know, it's I'm way more than just somebody's parent. But at the core if you made me cut things away from my life, and only make me one thing I would choose to be our Nicole's father. Yeah, it's just it's a tough, it's a tough situation to be put into.
Alright, on the pod, listen, you're just getting a regular length fad today, not like the super ad Dexcom got because they came out with something really cool and new. Get your dash out, I'm gonna give you a nice long ad as well. But for today, you don't need long you just need true. And you know what's true tubeless insulin pumping rocks, it is fantastic to be able to get your insulin when you want where you want without having to disconnect while you're swimming, or showering. Or, you know, maybe being friendly with a friend. You don't have to disconnect for anything, you can keep your blood sugar right where you want it all the time constantly. Without any nasty tubes running around in your clothing, or hanging out of your sleeve. You don't have to take the pump and jam it in your bra or on your belt. It is not 1975 I don't want something hanging from my belt. This isn't chips. That ain't my radio. I don't know what that means. But I do know that the Omni pod is, without a doubt the greatest insulin pump that I've ever seen. You go to Miami pod.com forward slash juice box to get a free no obligation demo. Now think about that. A no cost ain't no risk. You just give them a little bit of information about yourself. They'll send you out a demo pod. You can hold it, feel it, touch it, see what it's like and then you can apply it to your body and wear it and get the full experience before you decide. You know what that Scott God was right on that Juicebox Podcast? I should get the Omni pod. My Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox are the links in your show notes. Where the links at Juicebox Podcast comm start today. You will be very happy to eat it.
friends for life you went to friends for life to find other people who have type one diabetes. Yeah, he talked a little we never really talked about that here. I guess. I always assumed one day I'll just do the podcast from there. But I never really I don't know. I haven't worked towards that at all. But is it? Is it as trance wasn't as transformational for you as other people describe? It was? Is it just amazing to just settle into a place where these people are as natural and is free and comfortable as you feel in your own life except now there's others around you.
Kelly Griffin 34:17
Yeah, it was interesting to see how how people live differently with this. So adults that had you know, I wear an omni pod. And so I would see adults with an omni pod on the back of their upper arm, you know, just hanging out, you know, it's Orlando, it's hot. You're wearing short sleeves and there's your Omni pod. It would never occur to me to have an omni pod visible. You know, I'm always trying to find places where it can hide. So I just thought that was so fascinating. And it's like, you know, you go to work like that you you go and out in life, and I was so impressed. You know, that's, that's just amazing. And just to be able to talk to people, I think that I was already doing things as far as technology was concerned, there was nothing there. I tried a couple of other pumps when I was there, you know, they have demonstrations for you, they'll let you take a pump for 24 hours or something just to wear with sailing. And I did it and you know, I walked away kind of knowing nothing's gonna take me away from my Omnipod.
Scott Benner 35:30
Delightful with all the rubber tubing.
Kelly Griffin 35:33
You know, it's like, I'm rolling around at night, I'm getting caught and stuff. I'm like, Okay, this is not gonna work for me. But it was good to try. Because I had talked to people who said, I can't understand how you could wear an omni pod. Why don't you try this? Or why don't you try that. So I wanted to see what it was about. But I like that there are things for every lifestyle, everybody has different needs. And so that accommodated my needs best. And but just meeting the people, I have people that I am still in contact with today that I met at friends for life. And it's just nice to know that if I need to reach out or if they need to reach out, there's a whole community out there. And most of it, I'm finding online now they're the Facebook groups and or podcasts, you know, and you can really stay well informed and feel that you have a connection.
Scott Benner 36:31
I don't I don't know how people do it otherwise, because in real, you know, in real life, where are you going to? I mean, how do you even have time for that? Right, like right now. Now, not only is diabetes that says but I'm gonna say something, it's gonna sound counterintuitive, but not only is diabetes, taking up some of your time. But now I have to go to lunch with people who have type one diabetes, or make special, you know, movie trips, or, I mean, not that that wouldn't be great, once in a while. But when you need that feeling of I don't know, if it's camaraderie or just not feeling alone, you need it, you need it when you need it. You don't need it next Saturday at 11 o'clock in the morning, like, right, you know, so it's great that it's available. It's amazing that you can click onto a Facebook page and be like, wow, everyone here has diabetes or know somebody that does it. It's immediately everything I say is understood. There's no you know, the shorthand works. Now, I don't have to long explain things. This is this is this is an amazing thing to be surrounded with. And at the same time, you can walk away with it from it when you're done.
Unknown Speaker 37:34
Yeah, yeah.
Scott Benner 37:34
And you said something earlier about seeing how people do things differently with diabetes. It is really, it is interesting that it's, we all do things differently in our lives, but most of it's not visible. Right. Like, I mean, like I can't I don't know if I can think of something off the top of my head. But you know, the the pattern that my day takes is the pattern that I've set up. And your day probably takes a different pattern. And if we really watched you and I you'd be like, well, Kelly and Scott live very different lives. You know, I mean, they she makes different decisions about this. Now he does and everything. But when it's the diabetes, when it's a pumper, it's a CGM, or it's you taking an injection, it's out in the open, and you can really go wow, that person does this. I never would have thought to do that. Right. And you kind of build your perspective. And then you can adjust or an or, or do what you did and sit back and say I'm really comfortable with what I'm doing.
Kelly Griffin 38:28
Yeah, yeah, there was nothing that I needed to change. I was out. I think the most thrilling thing for me about friends for life was getting the updates on the artificial pancreas systems. I think that was the most exciting thing that I wanted to hear. And that was, you know, they had sessions and seminars, and I loved all of that. So yeah, very
Scott Benner 38:50
cool. I have to I mean, I just put up, you know, by the time this goes up, it'll be months ago, but I just put up a new interview with the CEO of the president of Vimy pod, and she talked about everything they have in their pipeline, and one of the things was their horizon system, which is there.
Unknown Speaker 39:07
Yeah.
Scott Benner 39:08
And it's just she's talking about this is great. You know, like, this needs to be now Can this be now and then, you know, well after we do this and this the FDA says okay, and you know, like yeah, in a year or so,
Kelly Griffin 39:20
you're like like great interview I did you listen? Well, it was very timely, of course, because of the is it animus that that closed? That is close?
Scott Benner 39:30
Yeah, that was dumb luck. If you are somebody who's listening to this now and listen to that back then, I was supposed to interview Shea see from ami pod, I'm gonna say two months ago and throughout a screw up on my end, it didn't happen and then when we just rescheduled it for when it fit again. And it happened to end up being like a handful of days after atomists said, we're not making insulin pumps anymore. So the timing of it just sort of worked out as far as the information being really kind of important in the moment. I
Unknown Speaker 39:59
Yeah,
Kelly Griffin 40:00
yeah. And I, you know, been reading about some of this and, you know, some of the blog posts that people have been putting up, you know, and how it's really important for us to have competition in the marketplace of pump systems because, you know, I, somebody asked me, Well, what would you do if if they didn't make Omni pod anymore? Well, I got I don't know that I could go to a tube pump. I think I might try to find a way to make MDI work again,
Scott Benner 40:32
that's interesting. No, I think it is definitely one of those pieces of technology, that it's difficult to train. I don't I'm not I don't mean to be insulting if someone's wearing a tube pump, because if it weren't, for you, it's wonderful. But it's a walk back, right? You know, when people look at the on the pod that were tubes, what they think is, oh, it sticks up off my skin, I have something that's attached to me, that's, you know, bigger than the thing I have attached to me now, which is, again, perspective is, you know, there's something something on your skin that's a little bigger or something on your skin that's smaller that runs around with 19 feet of tubing to something that's bigger, like, what's the something's attached to something somewhere? Yeah, you're not getting away from that with an insulin pump anytime soon. And so, you know, any but the lack of the tubing and the not disconnecting for activities and bathing and things like that, to me is kind of like I, you know, I'll walk you know, Arden's getting older now, but she get a shower, and you kind of wander into hand or something, and this pump is sticking on or, you know, wherever she's got it, and she doesn't know it's there. Yeah, you know,
Kelly Griffin 41:35
you forget about it. I think there are a couple of times recently that I've noticed, oh, it would be nice to be able to detach, like you can with a tube pump. But I think overall, this is working out best than if I'm backstage doing a costume change or something. That was that was my thing. That was why I would never go on a pump because my endocrinologists were always telling me about the pumps with tubing. And I said, No, no, no, no, I'm not going. And you know, doing a costume change with this, because then it's going to, I'm going to have to explain it, you know. And with the Omni pod, I just put on, you know, a camera Sol, and maybe some bike shorts or whatever. And I just wear that under my costume as most women are doing. No one even knows it's there. And if I've got to do a public costume change, there's there's nothing to worry about. I
Scott Benner 42:33
don't have to have those conversations, though. Yeah. So I have a question. I have a question you so you listen to the show. Did you ever hear Episode 71 called 14 going on? 50 with a kid named Ian. Who?
Unknown Speaker 42:47
I'm sure I did. Yeah. Is it is
Scott Benner 42:49
it is a student and an actor?
Kelly Griffin 42:51
Yes. very mature young man.
Unknown Speaker 42:53
Yes,
Scott Benner 42:54
yes. Okay, and what's up? That was the best. And so an Ian was, was his fear was if he let somebody know that he had type one diabetes in his performing life, that they may just not let him have jobs.
Unknown Speaker 43:09
Yeah, absolutely. And
Scott Benner 43:10
do you ever think of that?
Kelly Griffin 43:11
Yeah. And that was my initial thought, you know, I mean, forget once you get the job, how you're going to be treated? The question was, are you going to get the job? Do they understand enough about type one, to know that you can do the job? You can do it? Well, and you know, no one's going to have to stop the performance for me. You know, I will take care of this in such a way that it will be fine. And I don't know that everyone has that information. Oh, they know.
Scott Benner 43:41
Yeah. Well, and rightfully so we talked about our way there's no real
Unknown Speaker 43:44
reason, no reason for them to know.
Scott Benner 43:46
Yeah. But there isn't a there is. And this is something I always I feel badly when I see people get so upset about oh, this person said something unfeeling, or they didn't understand this. And I'm really angry. I'm like, you can't, there's 1000 things about their life, you don't know, you just we're not talking about it and that you shouldn't be. Listen, nobody should be saying anything stupid. But in a world where I'm pretty sure someone's gonna say something stupid,
Unknown Speaker 44:11
right?
Scott Benner 44:12
Where I'm pretty sure someone's going to say something stupid, it's reasonable to think that they're going to say something stupid about your disease that you they don't know anything about, they're going to take some sort of what seems to them to be intellectual leap and they're going to make a mistake or they're going to rub you the wrong way or whatever it's going to be in your regular life you can speak up and stop them but in your but in the moment where you're performing. And then somebody has to pick between you and a bunch of other people that diabetes very well could look like. Just one more thing for them to worry about.
Unknown Speaker 44:45
Yeah.
Scott Benner 44:46
And so it is completely reasonable. Not to not to let them know and at the same time I'm I advocate on here all the time for just being completely open with it and you know, then just landing wherever you fit, but If you're looking for a job, you can't you can't go to 35 performances to find the, you know, the 10 people who actually like what you do then to find the one that doesn't, you know, think your diabetes might be a problem. That's Yeah, that's untenable. You know?
Unknown Speaker 45:13
Yeah. Yeah. You know, it
Kelly Griffin 45:16
hasn't been a problem, Scott. I mean, of course, I don't walk into an audition and say, Hi, I'm Kelly with the type one. But no, I it's just never been a problem. And I find that, you know, when I am in performance, I will have a discussion with the stage manager, that's the person I usually go to and say, Look, this is my situation. Because, you know, oftentimes, there are rules backstage, no eating and costume. No food beyond this point, you know, that kind of thing. And so, before I get in trouble for, you know, having a snack or taking a sip of juice and costume, I will say, you know, look, I have type one diabetes, I will then give a short explanation of what that means. And generally, when I say insulin pump, their eyes get really big. And it's like, Okay, this is something more significant than I might have thought about that. Yeah. And, and I've never had anyone say to me, okay, so you're going to have to take your costume off before you have a sip of your juice. You know, it's,
Scott Benner 46:25
it's why is Kelly naked in the corner camisole? Well, her blood sugar's low. And she's not gonna get a stain on that costume. Well, you know, it's funny, I've said this, a couple of times, Arden's played softball for the same bunch of guys forever. And as much as they would tell you, they understand she has diabetes, they don't understand. They just, they're aware of it. And they think they know something about it, but they really, they sort of don't. And so when you explain it to somebody, you know, you have the time to sit down and thoughtfully be clear about it with them. It's not a problem. Here's the thing you you joked about, I don't come in the door and say, Hey, I'm Kelly, I have type one diabetes. Yeah, if you do that, and someone is put off right away, be clear, they're probably not put off by the diabetes, they're probably put off by the fact that you're crazy. And so right, that you've launched in the room yelling about your disease, I have diabetes, and if you don't like it, and belanja, I'm gonna have to do this. And they're probably like, oh, wow, I don't care about the diabetes. It's you I don't like Yeah. And so that is, you can, I've had that feeling where I've been advocating for Arden at school. And I wrote about it at one point, because I realized, I'm like, Oh, my I sound like a lunatic. You know, I'm only saying the things that that apply, but so much of it applies. And there's so many buzzwords and things they can't absorb. And I'm just saying them one after the other. I can't do this. Because because I'm going to be the nut. I'm going to be the nut parent, they're not going to ever listen to me again. You know, even though what I'm doing is not crazy. It feels like that to the other person. Right?
Kelly Griffin 47:59
You have to be cautious, and you've been living with it for so long. I mean, don't you find that even within the type one community, you might say something? And excuse me, if somebody's not familiar with it, then they may not even know the terminology.
Scott Benner 48:16
What happens when I get notes all the time? You said this? What does that mean? Yeah. And I'm like, okay, and I get it, because, you know, I was just having this conversation, Callie last evening with with my person at on the pod who, who might kind of liaison for these ads and things like that. And I said, you know, that the Thai the diabetes community online is like, it's like shedding a snake skin. And she's like, What do you mean? And I said, new faces, they come in, and they last about six months. And then most of them go go, they've absorbed what they need. And they're on their way, which I think of as being beautiful. Like it's just I came I didn't know something, I know it now. I'm going to go back to my life. Some people stay behind and try to dispense wisdom to the new people coming in. But for the most part, the bulk of the people are new, and they're either lost and looking for answers are so new to diabetes. They don't even have time to know if they're lost yet. Yeah, right. Right. And those people are as as what's the word I'm looking for? They are as a result, they're as much of a raw nerve as they will ever be in their life with diabetes at that point, and the tiniest thing could send them over and think like why are you speaking to me like this? Why would you say somebody how come you can't be more feeling and it is, I see it as being is a kindness to sort of relax and Excuse me, I'm getting a phone call. This is odd. Go with a sorry, I can't talk right now button and see what happens there. It's just a it's a bad time for them and they need other people to be understanding of that. Yeah, you know, and at the same time, some People take that anxiety and do a really weird thing with it, they they don't, they lash out. It's just a fascinating time in your life where nobody can really say anything to you, that's going to be comforting. And it is very easy to to get upset about almost anything. So right being around other people who understand you is maybe the most important part.
Kelly Griffin 50:20
It really is. And, you know, think thank God for this online community. I, you know, I found the Omni pod online, I remember when my endocrinologist was telling me, I want you on a pump. And I said, No way. I'm not wearing, you know, one of the models that I saw, and I just started looking online, Surely there's something else, there's got to be something else. And then I saw this tubeless system, and I'm thinking, Oh, you know, maybe I could do that. And there was pushback. But because, you know, it wasn't something that the office was that familiar with. Yeah. But, you know, they work great.
Scott Benner 51:03
It happens a lot happened to me. And it's happened to countless other people, where they just they don't know what to say. So they start saying other things. Yeah, I just saw a person just the other day, say, you know, I don't want to I don't want to cause you know, anybody an argument here online, but my endo told me that, you know, at six years old, it's not a proper time for my daughter to use on a pod. And I was like, what does that mean? Like, that's a meaningless statement of you know, but you know, too thin. I've heard him say, You're too thin, you're too chubby, you're too this You're too that you need your needs or this or that. It's all just, it's all nothingness. But you know, like, it's just it's it's their hang up or their excuse, because like you said earlier, maybe they maybe the maybe the practice pushes another pump for some reason, right? Maybe it's easier for them. You don't know what the reasons maybe they have a cable in the back that hooks to a Medtronic pump and downloads your information and they don't have the cable for the on the pod PDM. They're like, Well, you know, Medtronic is better. You don't know why people so Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 52:03
exactly. Exactly. It's
Scott Benner 52:06
a there's a lot of difference. So always advocate for yourself and do the research and, and be proactive is it's it's amazing advice, actually. Okay, so you said you you're I'm let's talk about you for a second. You said you're involved in classical music. I my favorite. Here's something nobody knows about me. I guess. The unaccompanied cello is my favorite music to listen to just Hello just by itself. That that is the if you want to see me cry, take me somewhere where someone's playing a cello. And then I will cry at some point. Because it hits me so incredibly, just deeply. What do you do? What is your when you say you're involved in classical music? What do you do? Can you be more specific?
Kelly Griffin 52:50
soprano I sing opera. Well, you have a wonderful young person, right? Who Who does your music for you?
Scott Benner 53:41
Yeah, music for this podcast was written by by a person who was nine years old when they wrote and recorded it and everything for me.
Unknown Speaker 53:49
Oh, that's fantastic. I love that name.
Scott Benner 53:51
Sydney. Yeah, she did a great job. I don't know if I mentioned that long time. When the podcasts first started, I could only kind of look into the world of diabetes to tell people Hey, I'm starting this thing. And her father Rob worked for works for Roche. And I had met him a long time ago, and just a very musical family and, and I knew about his daughter, and I said, Hey, do you think Sydney would be interested in doing this? And he was just so excited, like, I'm gonna pay her and he was like, Oh, okay. And, and she was just really thrilled. And I thought you did a great job. And if sometimes you think about like, Oh, I should change it. And I'm like, No, I like this. So, you know, just sometimes you just want to change things for the sake of changing and I guess but I don't know. I don't think about that as often as I as I did in the beginning.
Kelly Griffin 54:36
Now. You might lose some listeners if you open your podcast with opera. I don't know.
Scott Benner 54:41
You think that would just push people away? Would you do can I? I should I should get one of the ads and have you sing it? That'd be fantastic.
Unknown Speaker 54:51
That would be hilarious.
Scott Benner 54:52
For me for no one else like you. Like people would be like fast forwarding and throw it I'm like, No, this is wonderful
Kelly Griffin 54:59
to hear it and what like butter commercials that you know,
Scott Benner 55:03
Cindy, is most of your work on stage or do you? Do you get that kind of work do you do? Because in Manhattan, there's a lot of opportunities to do. Yeah,
Kelly Griffin 55:10
there are a lot of opportunities. Now my work is pretty much on stage. So it's really staged operas, concerts with orchestra or without and recital kind of work. So it's, yeah, it's all stage based work. Do you do?
Scott Benner 55:32
It's gonna ask if you find it fulfilling, but do you love it in a way that I wouldn't understand? Like, is it just a passion of yours? Or is it something you like? How do you how do you even realize you can sing opera? I guess is a great question. Well, I
Kelly Griffin 55:44
have a Yeah, that that came about quite by accident. I was taking voice lessons as a kid because I always wanted to sing. I remember, I was going to private, religious school and I remember getting an assignment. You know, what do you want to be when you grow up and find a newspaper or magazine article and write a brief synopsis? I was very young when all this was happening. And again, private religious, I found a picture of Prince. May he rest in peace and his scantily clad
Scott Benner 56:25
back up Ching, or is it Sheila E? Who was that?
Kelly Griffin 56:28
I think it might have been vanity and or apollonia. You go. Yeah, thank
Scott Benner 56:33
you very much.
Unknown Speaker 56:34
So you're not alone. By the way,
Unknown Speaker 56:39
Kelly, I'm
Scott Benner 56:40
gonna cut you off, there's a strong possibility this episode's gonna be called end or apollonia.
Kelly Griffin 56:50
Oh my gosh. So what I love about Okay, I have to say to my parents, thank you. Because I showed my mom You know, I always showed my mom my homework. And she was going to read through the the summary of you know, what I wanted to be when I was going to grow up. And so she called my father, he said, to take a look at Kelly's assignment. Because they didn't want to break my spirit. Because of course, I didn't understand that there was anything inappropriate about what I was doing. And I just knew I wanted to sing, you know, when I wanted to be on stage, and my dad looked at me said, this is very well written. And he said, if you want to be a performer, then maybe we should make sure you learn how to play an instrument, and maybe we should get you some dance classes. And, you know, so he just encouraged the basics. And I started taking voice lessons. And when I took voice lessons I was singing, like Bette Midler and Whitney Houston, and show tunes, and you know, things like that. And I think my mom came in on a lesson one time when I was again, probably a young teenager. And I was singing, I think it was something by Whitney Houston, that was probably inappropriate for a teenager to be singing. And she said to the voice teacher, can we find something else? Or Kelly to sing? You know, that's not so romantic in nature. Can we stick with something else? And shortly thereafter, I began singing art songs, which are, you know, classical music pieces, short selections, and, you know, school, enrolled me and in competitions and things and it was like, my own little thing that nobody else did. And it was, it was good. They kept me out of trouble as a year of our parents sense of propriety, actually led us sort of towards the type of media.
Scott Benner 58:58
That's interesting. Yeah. And when you're when your dad looked at that article, he looked at your mom and he was probably like, I think she wants to be a stripper. Look at this photo.
Kelly Griffin 59:06
And I wanted to, you know, what was funny was that I wanted to be Prince, you know, not not the to girl,
Scott Benner 59:13
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say we'd all like to be friends. Except for the fear of getting a life saving surgery because of his religion apparently is by the way, apparently what happened to him he was in a great amount of pain, because he wouldn't get a surgery because he didn't believe in it religiously. In the in the in the eyes of the idea of opening his body up.
Kelly Griffin 59:34
I've heard that and I've heard that the you know, whatever. overdose there may have been could have been kind of quite an accidental addiction, but who knows? You know, nobody knows
Scott Benner 59:45
that aside. I just want to say right now for the record, if anything will save my life. I'm up for it. And so that's it isn't. You want to be Prince? That's great. You have a like a big tall purple shoes or something?
Kelly Griffin 59:57
No, no, no, no, I just, you know, it was actually At that time, you know, the music was really, really big. And I just knew that I wanted to be a performer like he was. And, you know, you start taking voice lessons, and I realized that number one, my personality, and number two, my voice really aren't suited for pop music. Listen, if I could be Beyonce, I does stop singing opera in a minute. But like, it's just that's just not what I do. I don't think my personality would do well, I don't think that I know vocally, I don't think I would do well. And so you really learn where, right where you fit, you know, what's my, what's my genre? And that's classical music. That's what I do. That's excellent.
Scott Benner 1:00:46
I guess so opera doesn't get you a yacht is what you're saying?
Kelly Griffin 1:00:51
It can I think, or maybe, to, you know, opera isn't in demand as much as it was even 20 years ago. There was a time when I think probably the top 1% of opera singers were doing very well. And they probably still are. Yeah. But yeah, you do it at this point. Because you love it.
Scott Benner 1:01:11
Give me recordings that.
Kelly Griffin 1:01:15
Yeah, there are some things on line, I think. And I have some things that I use for auditions. I don't have a like a CD or something that I that I sell.
Scott Benner 1:01:28
We are coming up on an hour. So this has been very casual. And I was very careful not to talk too much. Because I got a scathing review that says I'm starting to talk too much on the podcast. Oh, said that's what the podcast is. Yeah, you should have seen me here. This is gonna go against the person who left the review. So hold on tight, whoever you are. I saw him in my I'm in. First of all, Joking aside. I like people like I don't I don't feel badly about the review. She still said she really likes the podcast, she just said that. I'm talking too much. And and I, I don't have trouble with that. I wrote a book. I'm completely capable of hearing people hate what I do. And I can keep moving. I'm not I'm not. I'm not bothered by that. You can't be if you're going to do stuff like this. But I was in my mid my kitchen, I stay away from it. Can you believe this? I look at this. And she sees it going on. I said, she said she loves the information that comes from the podcast, but I'm talking too much. And I'm like, I'm waving my hands around. Like the information comes from the talking. I said, I said I can't I can't, I started getting all like pretend agitated and messing around. And I said, isn't it interesting that, that I've crossed some sort of a line for like, you know what I mean? Like, she likes what she's hearing. And it's helpful to her, but I not delivering it to her the way she wants it delivered to her. And I thought I can you imagine if I spent my time trying to fine tune the podcast or anything I did in my life for everyone's desire?
Kelly Griffin 1:02:54
Absolutely not, there are too many people that are that are enjoying it and learning from it. And I think you know, not every EDM is for every person. And so that's why we have lots of different podcasts. And you know, lots of different people.
Scott Benner 1:03:10
I said, sometimes I don't talk very much at all. Sometimes, by the way, sometimes the guests will come on before we start recording. So hey, I'm really nervous. So I talk more to try to help them get comfortable. You want to kind of cover for them a little bit. I don't say that in the podcast, because that would be rude. I you know, and sometimes there have been people not very often I have to say, like one doesn't pop in my mind right now. But I know it's happened where you, you ask somebody a question. And their answers are very short. And this is an hour. Do you know, I mean, like something needs to be said. And so I start relating old stories or something like that, trying to get them to find, you know, whatever. Listen, yeah, here's my review of your review. There. What do you think of that? Now, I'm just kidding. The feedback was actually great. I thought about it for a while. I'm like, let me make sure I'm not. Because I am chatty. And we are from the northeast, Kelly. I start talking, I get faster as I'm speaking. You know, I heard from a guy the other day from Texas, and he was like, I'm just starting to get used to how fast you speak?
Kelly Griffin 1:04:09
Oh, wow. Yeah, I guess it is, you know, it's very individual. But that's the great thing about the podcast is that you have all kinds of people on from all different walks of life experiencing their diabetes in all different kinds of ways. And, you know, we're gonna find some people that we relate to a lot, some people not so much. And then some people like I was saying earlier and, you know, trying to hide things, you know, I'm much more open now. You know, again, not shouting down the street. I'm a family with the type one. But I mean, I'm learning that it's not such a big deal to live with this, you know, for other people to know that I'm living with us and it's a great time to educate.
Scott Benner 1:04:48
And you are having that feeling because of this community that you found. Oh, yeah.
Kelly Griffin 1:04:53
Because of the community because listening to the podcast, and especially listening to the parents, you know, I mean, Kids have no choice. They can't walk through school and pretend that they don't have type one diabetes and you know, discreetly just, you know, handle it on their own in a way that no one will ever notice. I mean, as discreet as you and Arden are, and her not having to go to the nurse's office and all of that people still must No, it just it is what it is. And as you're saying that I just texted Arden because I need her to test her blood sugar. So she's sitting in a class right now and she's gonna just pull her meter out or pull or PDM out and she's gonna test right there. And so
Scott Benner 1:05:32
yeah, yeah, so and it's, it's just unavoidable. Like, she just she's been drifting down while we're talking. And I'm sort of hoping that maybe the next comes off by a few points, and she's a little higher than it says, but she might not be and then it's thanks. We're gonna have to do a tiny correction 20 minutes before Pre-Bolus for lunch, but it is what it is, you know, so that's right. Yeah. But yeah, that's just it's a, it's a really cool to hear you talk about it, because you're not hiding, and you're not, you know, you're not having a coming out party for your diabetes. But at the same time, you found a really great balance between the two of them. And it's not something that sounds like you're impacted, adversely bite in either direction. It just it's like, it's, it's where your comfort level lies.
Kelly Griffin 1:06:18
Exactly. It's, it's no different for everyone. This is where I'm comfortable. I mean, look, I'm speaking to you about it on a podcast. So at this point, you know, I'm not terribly worried about it. But it's, it's been fine. And, you know, thank God, we have the technology, because, you know, I'm by myself and I rely on the Dexcom to be at night and I, you know, all of these things, and it's great that it's available.
Scott Benner 1:06:45
Now I agree with, these are the hardest episodes to end, because we're just so conversational, that it doesn't feel like there's an end point. So that I just have to be the one who yells, it's been an hour get off and
Unknown Speaker 1:06:55
found that it's up,
Scott Benner 1:06:57
you're done. Kelly with the type one diabetes, thank you very much for coming on. I love that you sing opera. And I can't wait for you to send me an mp3, any mp3 you want. I don't have to play the whole thing, even if it's just a little clip. And I'll just meld it in somewhere in the podcast. In here, if you don't want to, you know what if you don't want to keep that to yourself, and just send it to me anyway.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:23
I'll get you something.
Scott Benner 1:07:25
It's my it's my same advice for reviews. By the way, if you're really enjoying the podcast, leave a review. And if you're not, you're not Siskel and Ebert Keep quiet. That's all fine. Another podcast, not just mostly I'm kidding. But at some point, um, it's free people just like, I don't know, I guess they were trying to be, don't you think they were probably trying to be like, I really liked this podcast, I don't want it to get bad.
Kelly Griffin 1:07:49
It could be you know, maybe it was a listener who has been, you know, binge listening. And, you know, just had a
Scott Benner 1:07:56
couple in a row where I was chatting. Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny, too, if you're listening right now to the podcast in real time, aside from the one recently with the the Omni pod, President, these are things I recorded three months ago, like when somebody is listening to this, you know, you're going to be listening, my best guess is you're going to be listening to this in January or February, we did this in October, you know, because I can't be in a situation where I'm like, Oh, my gosh, the podcast has to go up, I quickly need to put one together. I don't ever want that to happen. So right, I record them ahead. So that so that they're always available. And you know, we've made promises to people about advertising and things like that. And so I'm trying to be responsible, but my life changes to, you know what I mean? Like, during times when I get on here, and I'm tired, and you speak more, or you're doing a great job, and I don't say as much or I think that it's more conversational, we go back and forth. Or it occurs to me to say something that takes five minutes to say, because that's how I think, you know, like, there's no, I'm not being long winded because I like hearing myself talk. I have found over my 46 years that this is pretty much the best way I I have to, to relate something, you know, I'll tell you one quick story, and then I'll let you go. But my son was writing his essay for college yesterday. And he is a very good technical writer. He is not a good creative writer. And this, of course, called for a little bit of both. And he finally said to me, can you look at it, I looked and I read and I said, Hey, the parts where you're writing about this flow really well. You seem really comfortable when you're writing when you get to talking more about how you feel. It's getting clunky. I said Come sit with me and I'll show you how I would do it. He's like, well explain it to me and I said, I can't like I genuinely, I don't know how to explain it to you. Well, you know, I said but I can do it. You can watch me. I'll do it out loud so you can hear and you know, and then just take from it what you will and we sat down for it. This is gonna sound crazy, but I guess we sat down for about two hours. And we wrote and edited and wrote and edited together until I started feeling him speaking words over my shoulder, that I was thinking I was gonna type. Then I thought, Okay, he's getting it. Like he figured out how to access that part of who he is and how to talk about it clearly. But I am not the person. I've said it a million times here, I can't just give you instructions. I don't, I don't know how to do that. I believe that at my, at my core, I'm just a storyteller. So that's the way things work. For me, it can be very, very frustrating at times, because I sometimes have to tell the story to myself, while I'm telling it to you. And the last paragraph I wrote for him as an example, I wrote the first sentence in four or five sentences later, I was finished. And I told him, I said, Would you believe if I told you that five minutes ago, when I wrote the first sentence, I did not know what direction this paragraph was going to take what I was trying to say with it, or, and I had no clue that what came up in the last sentence was ever going to come up. And I said, I know that might sound crazy to somebody like him, who's a good technical writer who would plan out what he was going to say. I said, but I'm just accessing a different part of myself. So it just has to kind of flow out the way it flows out. And not all of the words are valuable. So you know, when I'm writing, I can go back and drop lines and cut things out and do things like that. But when I'm talking, you're gonna have to listen to all the BS, the middle to get to the good part. Because that's all I got. So Well, that's all you know. I mean, it's just it is what it is. But I do get that it could be. As I'm even thinking back on the last three minutes of me talking now I'm like, God, I could get infuriated by that if it was somebody.
Kelly Griffin 1:11:43
But you know, what people are attracted to podcasts and any kind of entertainment due to the personality of the host. So it's that same personality that brings people in. So if someone doesn't like it, then that's probably, you know, someone who maybe needs to, you know, find another another host, because that's just personal preference. But I don't think you need to stop being you because that's what brings us all in. That's how that's part of how you care for your daughter. So well, you know, it's, it's all encompassing. So
Scott Benner 1:12:14
Kelly, I've been married to a woman named Kelly for 21 years. And I'm not comfortable with a person named Kelly being this kind to me. So we have a podcast right now, if you want to tell me that I'm doing something incorrectly or asked me why I have not, in fact, fixed the pole on the rug. that those are the sorts of things you should be directing me right now. You've made me very uncomfortable with your kindness. And I have to stop. But no, seriously, you were very kind. And I appreciate that, because that is at my core how I feel about it. But it's tough when someone tells you the thing you feel like you're doing a good job with. You're not and you're like, Oh, I'm not Oh, okay. And it's it's it's an IT, like I said it doesn't crush me. I'm not like thrown off by it. I can't imagine I would patently changed what I was doing. Because of one voice. There's 100 other reviews on there. And most of them are, you know, are different. But at the same time it does, it does occur to me that it's important to stop and listen, and and say this is someone's perspective, and it's completely valid. So maybe I talk too much. I don't know what to do about that. So I can't I don't have any time to edit this thing down. You people know how much time it takes just to get it recorded and online. It would be you know, when you listen to a professional podcast, you know, are the ones out in New York. And at the end, they're like I'm the host, and this is my co host and our editor was and this person did the sound. That's it's a lot of work, you know, so I don't have that kind of I don't have that kind of system going over here. You know, but one day, I don't know, maybe one day?
Kelly Griffin 1:13:50
Well, yeah. And whenever you step out and try to do something, be prepared for that kind of criticism as you as you know, you know, but I think it's it's better to step out and do it than to not because you're afraid of the criticism.
Scott Benner 1:14:04
Kelly have we just by mistake drawn a parallel between what I was talking about element of type one diabetes, I think we have,
Unknown Speaker 1:14:11
it could be a great time to stop.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:15
Thank you so much. God, it was a pleasure. Thank you
Scott Benner 1:14:30
so much Kelly for coming on the podcast and for sharing your music which I'll play at the end again. Also a huge thank you to Dexcom and on the pod for continuing to support the podcast with ads. Thank you to you guys for sharing the podcast with other people downloads grow every week. It is because you're sharing please keep doing that. Also, I just saw all the great new five star ratings. You guys left on iTunes and a couple of really great new reviews. Thank you very much. Did you know you can now leave reviews on Amazon Do you know why you can do that because As the Juicebox Podcast is now available for Alexa. That's right. If you're an Alexa user, all you have to say is Alexa enabled Juicebox Podcast. After you've enabled the Juicebox Podcast skill on your Alexa device, you can ask her to do all kinds of things, play a new episode, subscribe, rewind two minutes, go back five episodes. It's really crazy. I'm sure you will actually users know all about it. I don't have Lexus. I'm not 100% on top of this. But what I've been hearing from people who do have Alexa, I think this is something that's really exciting. So hopefully in your house in your life, you'll be saying a lot of this Alexa, tell Juicebox Podcast to play the newest episode. To find out more about Kelly Griffin, you can go to Kelly Griffin, soprano.com
Unknown Speaker 1:15:44
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