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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello and welcome to Episode 164 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode now you see me? What does that mean? I'll tell you in just a second. Today's episode of the podcast is brought to you by Omni pod with just two components the small wearable pod and the handheld personal diabetes manager. Beyond the pod insulin management system lets you manage insulin delivery simply and discreetly more convenient than daily insulin injections, and more comfortable than traditional tube pumps. The Omni pod enables you to live life more freely. You'll learn more in this episode, or you can go to my Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box for free no obligation demo right now. There's also links in the show notes. The podcast is also brought to you today by dexcom, makers of the G six continuous glucose monitor. We've been using g six for about a week and a half now. I have a very comprehensive review episode coming up in about another week. So I'm looking forward to anyway the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor which is a fantastic way to manage the ups and downs of your diabetes. You can learn more dexcom.com Ford slash juice box in the ads later in the podcast. Links in your show notes or Juicebox podcast.com. Now we're going to talk to Sean Busby. Sean is a professional snowboarder, which is actually a thing and his life is it's a bit insane. He's also living with two autoimmune issues and that's why he's on today to talk about lupus and type one diabetes. You can hear bazel snorkelling in the background basically one of the noises No, not now. Fine. onto the show. Here we go.

Unknown Speaker 1:47
Say something

Sean Busby 1:48
that's been testing Hello, hello, perfect.

Scott Benner 1:51
Just gonna say finally someone is used Skype before you called me. Most people just don't even know how it works. So they like what is Skype? Like I know, but it's still the best way to do this stuff. So yeah, I don't know. We sound crystal clear.

Sean Busby 2:05
So it's perfect. Perfect. Awesome.

Scott Benner 2:13
Allow me to remind you right here that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should ever be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making changes to your diabetes plan or really doing anything in general. Don't listen to me. I'm an idiot on a podcast. I mean, didn't your parents teach you to be like scared of strangers?

Sean Busby 2:33
I'm Sean Busby. I'm a professional snowboarder living with Type One Diabetes and lupus.

Scott Benner 2:40
Shawn, I think we've never met in person. But I think we've been in the same place a couple of times, and we just wouldn't know it. I feel like I was at something in Philadelphia once you might have been at or something at Lilly. I don't remember exactly. But I feel like I feel like I've been in a situation where people are like that, Shawn. I'm like, oh, and then I just get whisked in a different direction. And I don't think we've ever actually met in person. So it's very nice to meet you.

Sean Busby 3:03
Yeah, likewise.

Scott Benner 3:06
So we're here today to talk about something that riding on insulins doing called Now You See Me, right, and that's to what what's the hashtag supposed to be doing? Yeah,

Sean Busby 3:16
so the hashtag for this campaign during the month of May is called Now You See Me, so just this completely spelled out. But yeah, that's that. That's the hashtag. You nailed it. And we're trying to draw attention to people who are living with multiple autoimmune issues. Correct. So we know that there was a study that about 27% of people that have type one diabetes, will develop another autoimmune disease at some point in their lifetime. So I was one of those and the reason we chose may for this campaign is because like I said, I have lupus, in addition to my type one diabetes, and that's lupus is pretty rare for men to get about one in 10 people that get lupus are men. There's about a total of 500,000 people, or 500,000 been in the world that have it. And so I felt pretty alone when I got that diagnosis and unlike type one diabetes, at first I felt alone but then I found a great community and in type one, the type one community is pretty large and open and there's people talking about it, but not so much with lupus at least with men and with lupus. So I figured, you know, I bet I'm not the only one that's going through a double diagnosis. And anyway, so we chose may because may is also lupus awareness month so we just figured out this is a great time to start this and let's see who else is dealing with

Scott Benner 4:54
a double diagnosis or possibly more. Around here. We when we donate like clothes and things like household goods that you know, to organizations. We always use the Lupus Foundation because I just one day found myself thinking, How unlucky is it to get a disease that some people will tell you doesn't exist? Like, that's not good luck actually showing you have the worst Good luck in the world you got something hardly anybody ever gets and something hardly anybody ever gets at the same time. You must not let a lot or you probably just like, well, it's never gonna go the right way for But seriously, I mean, you got screwed twice, man.

Sean Busby 5:33
Yeah, I see it's funny because I've always spoken about that it's like, and why don't we play the lottery because the odds are looking like it's in our favor. So

Scott Benner 5:42
you always hit the low odds stuff, right? Like so that's Yeah, well,

Unknown Speaker 5:47
I'll say this,

Scott Benner 5:47
Shawn. So I don't think I've ever come out and said this on the podcast yet. But now seems like just as good a time as any. My daughter Arden is just about 14 years old. She's had type one since she was two. And a number of months ago now a while ago, I've maybe I've alluded to it once or twice, but she started having really intense stomach issues. And she would not use the bathroom for days at a time successfully. And then when she went, it was her body just being like, Oh my god, all this has to come out like really like a bad cycle she was in and we came up on our endocrinologist appointment and I walked in I said, Look, I'm I'm sorry to say this, but you're gonna have to test your thyroid. I'm like, because I think her thyroids, like, kind of gone, you know? Yeah. And And sure enough, now she has to take Synthroid every day, and it completely cleared things up. But it just, you know, that that's, you know, like, you think, well, one thing's enough. But to make your point, there it is. There's the second thing and looking back, it's not that surprising. My my wife has hyperthyroidism, and we go back through my wife's family line. And most of the women on my wife's side of the family have some endocrine issue. They're all different, but some one person has celiac. What my wife's grandmother had the celiac, we have a niece who just has like not a great immune system like there's, everyone seems to be a little touched by it. And Arden got to it looks like so. And it's stinks but finding out right away and doing something about it took her from being miserable to being right back. I can't tell you that Synthroid was in her for two, three days, and everything was back to normal again.

Sean Busby 7:36
Wow. Wow. Yeah. I mean, it's nice to know what that enemy is. You know what, that to have a face at least?

Scott Benner 7:43
Tell me a little bit about lupus because I've I'm kind of fascinated by it, but don't really know anything about it. How does it present?

Sean Busby 7:49
Yeah, so it's a super complicated disease, they refer to it as the cruel mystery just because it mimics so many diseases, it mimics multiple sclerosis. It can affect your muscles and mimic forms of like, muscular dystrophy or myositis. And for me, I they suspected it actually when I was 19 years old, and then I was sent out or I guess when I was about 20 years old, and I was sent out to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for two weeks. However, during that time and just me asking, Are you still getting good connection with me because I just got something on my phone it says poor connection. You

Scott Benner 8:40
sound great to me. So I'm good.

Sean Busby 8:42
Okay, yeah, awesome. Good. Um, so anyways, yeah, I was able to Mayo Clinic at the time I had severe hives over about 70% of my body. So I was treated with I was being treated with some steroids called prednisone. Which if anyone knows prednisone is super gnarly if you have type one diabetes, it's it's crazy. They try to keep control of your blood sugar's during that time frame. And in addition, that present zone is also one of the major drugs as used to treat lupus and suppress the immune system. So anyways, I get out there and when you're on prednisone can so it can basically mask the symptoms of lupus and the bloodwork okay. And that's essentially kind of what happened is what the doctors thought and but I was, I was put through a barrage of tests over two weeks. I was tested for Addison's disease. I was tested for Ms. All sorts of different complicated autoimmune diseases. And the doctors have Mayo Clinic in Minnesota just said you know, you most likely have a connective tissue disease based on your your lab results and everything we've been seeing. However, it's just not showing its face. It will probably show itself in 10 years with lupus It takes the average person with lupus about six years to get a diagnosis. Anyways, I had just returned from a snowboarding expedition in the Arctic Circle. And when I got back, I had these extreme headaches. And I've never had headaches before. And these headaches made me feel like I was going to have like a seizure, they were just so painful. And then on top of that, I had developed a rash across my face, across my chest, and back. And then I had also developed some sores in my mouth. And I was also really sore. But like, I couldn't tell if I was sore because I'm so active or, and just thinking that was normal, or if it was something else, I speed it up a little and I was sent to I went to my doctor's and the she ran some lab work in the lab work came back my it showed that my muscle enzymes were extremely high and out of range. And she was suspect my doctors expect that suspecting a myositis, or like sort of a kind of a dystrophy style disease of the muscles. And so then I was sent to a neurologist and the neurologist conducted tests. And that neurologist ran some various antibody tests and a bunch of my answer, I had a bunch of antibodies, like an anti nuclear antibody, which is kind of like a screening factor for lupus. And, or, yeah, and so the anti nuclear antibody, you know, that came back super high and positive, but that's been high and positive since I was 19 years old. And when I got diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, now, what I've been told is that an AMA just shows that there's or an anti nuclear antibody just shows that there's an autoimmune response going on, and I have type one diabetes, so it's probably positive because of that. Well, anyways, in addition to that, another test came back positive, which is kind of like the gold standard, like, thankfully, it was positive. So we could, we could catch it, but it's called a an anti double stranded DNA. And what that means is that you produce antibodies against your double stranded DNA so essentially, your body is just making antibodies against its its own cells and blood. And that is a hallmark basically timing of a hallmark diagnosis of lupus. So systemic lupus. So SLE. And I,

Scott Benner 12:42
can I jump in for a second? I just have to ask your question. So you say a lot of things that people don't say like I was at the Arctic Circle snowboarding. And that's, that's not as I've never heard anybody use that sentence before in my entire life. And everything that's happening to you, like, there's something about you're like, what, let me just go back for a second. How old were you when you're diagnosed with type one? I was diagnosed at 19. Okay, so 19. And then all this just starts at once for you. How? How did you live at home at that point where you just ate out in the, like, you live a life that I think most of us don't understand, like, you know, you just asked me if you could still hear. I'm assuming that's because you're like on the end of a flagpole on the top of a mountain trying to get reception or something like that right now.

Sean Busby 13:31
It might not be. And do let me know if you can't hear. For some reason. My phone keeps telling me poor connection. But I'm actually in Alaska right now. And But yeah,

Scott Benner 13:45
I see. That's my point. So So were you that guy when you were 19? Were you in Alaska when you were 19? Kind of were you at home like going maybe I'll go to college, maybe I'll snowboard in the Arctic Circle. Where were you in your life

Unknown Speaker 13:58
at that point?

Sean Busby 13:59
When I was 19, snowboarding was my life. And I was living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and my parents live in Southern California. And but I was I was full time training. I was competing and just traveling the world for snowboarding competitions. And so yeah, being diagnosed at 19 my life just kind of totally turned upside down. And I was very confused and very scared about what that meant. How

Scott Benner 14:27
did you prioritize things? Did you see the diabetes is okay? This is first or was the pain first or was there like what did you What did you see as your your biggest foe in the morning?

Sean Busby 14:42
With with lupus,

Scott Benner 14:44
no, but just in general, if you're the type one you've just gotten it you probably don't know a ton about it at that way. You're trying to be incredibly active. Now. Somebody's telling you, you have a different disease on top of that. When you wake up in the morning, like what's the first thing you think about?

Sean Busby 15:00
The first thing I actually think about when I wake up is, is anything hurted. Okay. And so I would say it's primarily focused on lupus. lupus is very, like, if I overdid something from the day before it can cause a flare into disease to become active or come out of remission. I'm also with that I'm highly allergic to sunlight. So that can cause it. So it's, that's the one thing is I'm still learning. It's not like I can go and, you know, test my, my blood and be like, Okay, my lupus is extremely active, and I need to do this. So I just, I usually that's kind of the first thing. However, you know, if I'm wearing my CGM, then I may get to jumpstart with with type one diabetes in the morning, depending on if I'm getting any sort of alarm. So that's kind of nice, too.

Scott Benner 15:53
I just, I mean, man, it's you have an incredible attitude. First of all, I would the first thing I would do if I felt pain was stop snowboarding. And so if you must, must really love it. First of all, actually, in my opinion, anyone who would go out in the cold and do anything, really loves what they're doing, because I don't even I can't wrap my head around being in the cold even so you're like a complete anomaly to me, which is

Unknown Speaker 16:18
fantastic.

Scott Benner 16:22
Boom, here comes the ad. What do I do first, next calm or on the pot? or flip a coin? Hold on, heads or tails heads is on? its head, not a face. It was head on the pod. Okay. Whoever said this podcast wasn't well thought out. Listen to me, right now, I'm gonna say some things that make a lot of sense to you. And to me, and just sense in general, common sense. Would you rather be tied to something or not tied to something, I heard your vote, he said not tied to something. The only pod does not have tubing to understand what that means. It means that you're wearing your insulin pump, you're getting your insulin, but you're not attached to another device that has to hang on your belt, be stuffed in your bra jam down your pants, I don't know what you do with it even be bounced on your head and put a cap on overtop of it. I don't know what to do with it. Because I've never had that problem because my daughter has never had that issue we've always used on the pod, the tubeless insulin pump of the gods, I can make that claim because no one can prove otherwise. Zeus uses an omni pod Zeus leader, the gods has type one diabetes uses Omni pod. I said it. That's 100% true. Prove me wrong. I'm just kidding. Go to my omnipod.com Ford slash juice box. When you do that, you can start a free, no obligation demo pod. They'll send it to you. And you can actually wear it and see what you think you can see that what I'm talking about is 100%. True. And then you just move forward very simply in the process. And on the pod helps you along the way. I actually had an on the pod customer service experience yesterday that I'm going to tell you about. I'm going to extend the music to tell you about it.

So we just had a job change here and we switched health insurance. And very Luckily, I felt like we upgraded our health insurance a little bit. And maybe we wouldn't have to use a third party anymore to buy our our Durable Medical goods, which turns out we don't have to. But all I did was call on the partners like hey, we just switched insurance. I used to use this third party supplier. I was wondering, can I use you now? Can I just buy them directly from you? And they said, Give me your information. That took a couple seconds. Then they said we'll call you back in a couple days. And you know what they did? They actually called me back. Crazy, right? guy calls up and he says hey, I'm calling from Omni pod to check through your insurance. Everything's great. Here's what your coverages we would like to place your first order, just like that. I mean, it was so simple. And I'm telling you that if that was that simple, just the process of getting the no obligation, nonfunctioning demo pod to try and check out. It's got to be the easiest thing in the world. I know so many you have done it. And you get back to me later. You're like, Hey, I tried out the demo pod. Now I'm using the honeypot. And by the way, I appreciate that appreciate it. When you click on the link, click click click on the link in the show notes or Juicebox podcast.com and you can try the demo bot. Thank you very much. I'm just saying I think it's gonna be really easy if my experience is any indication. There's really no muss no fuss give it a try. By omnipod.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast links in your show notes at Juicebox podcast.com. I really believe that you will love using the Omni pod hands on management system.

You open your eyes I'm not in pain. Good day. Check my blood sugar get moving, but then bye I hope I hope you take this the right way. But when somebody tells me they're a professional snowboarder, I can't wrap my brain around what that means or how you have food. So like, what is like how do you what is it they like? What is it they like for you being a professional snowboarder?

Sean Busby 20:14
So yeah, that it's basically consists of, well, and I also now am the Executive Director of Randy on insulin, which is a nonprofit that I started right when I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes when I was 19. But as a as a snowboarder that I, I've been a professional swimmer, since about the age of like, 16. It's basically communicating with my sponsors that they need to do what to do what I do, I'm figuring out trips, you know, pitching different sorts of trips, or expeditions that I may do to remote mountain ranges, and then also trying to get kind of marketing materials around that. So you're shooting photos, you're shooting video, you're writing articles for snowboard publications and magazines, we're testing here that will be coming out from for the following season or two seasons from now. So a bunch of the year that we usually have is from is Moby out in the, in the next season or the season after, and just kind of always providing feedback.

Scott Benner 21:24
So not much different than when I hear about somebody making like money playing video games, you're you're the the out front face for the activity and for the people who make gear or like that kind of stuff around that activity.

Sean Busby 21:39
Yeah, that's it. I guess that's a good way to put it. That's

Scott Benner 21:42
okay. Well, wow, I wish someone would have told me about that. When I was in high school, I would have not done what I did to be perfectly honest, because your life sounds much cooler. And so also, you are I'm assuming by now people listening are gonna have the same thought as I just did. But you're a go getter. Like that's, is that just kind of burned into who you are. I mean, you're like, I have diabetes. I'll start organization. I'll like that's that not many piano lines work that way, I guess.

Sean Busby 22:08
Yeah, I think a lot of things shaped me. Well, actually, a lot of things did shape me I wasn't. I mean, when I was just a snowboarder, and I didn't have type one diabetes, my focus was just solely it was it was selfish, it was just focused on my sport. And, and I think, you know, with being in being a sort of athlete, you're, you're typically just you want to go go go, you always are setting goals, and you're trying to achieve those goals. When I was diagnosed, I was actually misdiagnosed, I was mis diagnosed with Type two and I became extremely ill and extremely sick for three months, until I got the correct diagnosis of type one. And like when I was in the hospital for 12 days, I lost over 30 pounds of my body weight, I started losing snowboarding sponsors because they didn't want to support an athlete that was chronically sick. So like, while my teammates were going and competing in South America, I was essentially just like in a hospital, or, you know, back home with my parents being taken care of because I couldn't function because I wasn't on insulin. And but once I got that correct diagnosis of type one and got on the insulin and felt how amazing that feeling of having my first insulin shot was, and then it really grounded me and it's and then I had to learn about this disease. And all I found was, again, that community I was reading stories from on the jdrf website during children's congress of you know, five year olds, nine year olds 16 year olds like how they've lived life of type one diabetes and have no no different and how they still go out follow their their goals and their dreams and are being like a normal and are being a normal kid. And that's what inspired me and it showed me if they could do it then surely So could I and so they were they were my driving motivation and I know for a fact that if I got diagnosed with lupus and because of the lack of community and now maybe other people would argue there's you know, there's communities online and all that sort of stuff, but in terms of bed and like a positive community because a lot of stuff you read about online are you know, the really sad but really sad stories, right? Right. Um, and like a great example is Selena Gomez she has lupus she just got a kidney transplant because of it. And so like it's like that sort of those sort of stories that you read. And it it just showed me and that these kids can do it. I can and if I was diagnosed with lupus first I would be a complete wreck. I don't I know for a fact I wouldn't be snowboarding on because I

Scott Benner 24:45
think you would have reached out into the world and found sad stories and those sad stories would have led you towards believing this was your path but instead you reached out found type one people who are have a different message in the community. Is that the idea?

Sean Busby 24:59
Yeah. That's it, that's exactly as and there's just the community is so strong around type one. And I just hope that's the same for many other diseases because like I said, many people living with type one, like your daughter are going to develop another autoimmune disease. But I do really feel like type one set me up with the right tools of managing a chronic illness and the, with the amount of people I can reach out to and get support in that manner. So when I was diagnosed with another chronic illness, I had those I have a blueprint of how to manage such a thing.

Scott Benner 25:36
Yeah, there's sort of this moment, like, out of a bad like sci fi action movie where you're being attacked by flying gorillas. And then, you know, then dragons come up out of the woods, you're just like, Ah, this too, you know, like, like, you know, like, there's that feeling of like, okay, I'll I guess I'll defeat all of this as it comes at me. And I really do think that it goes unsaid sometimes, and it's hard to properly I think, articulate at times for some people, but you definitely don't want diabetes, you don't want everything that comes with it. And but there's this positive part about having it that you can't deny like this. I don't know, like you don't meet people who have type one who aren't, you know, resilient, and resourceful, and, you know, intelligent and thoughtful about their life and their health. And it's, it does something to you having this disease, and most of it sucks, but some of its incredibly positive. You know, I don't know if I've ever said this here once, but my daughter plays softball, but she's a third baseman. And they get involved in this game a couple of years ago, where they run out of pitching and she's like, well, I can throw a ball in your hand, I'll do it. And so she gets in pitches to this girl who's like nine times her size, like we could have hidden Arden inside of the batter if we needed to. And she lines the ball right back to Arden Arden can't quite get her glove on it hits her below the kneecap, knocks her right over. And you know, the coach goes running out on the field. And I was like, Oh, let me go out there. So he doesn't overreact to this. And that's my mind feeling from diabetes. I was like, Oh, she just got hit really hard in the knee. She'll be fine. And you know, like, and I rolled out there and I was like, how How's it going? And she's like, got these tears in the corner of her eye that she's just kind of holding back, you know? And she's like, Oh, it hurts. And I was like, right. And the guy, the coach who just raising a normal girl in the world, he's like, you know, let's get ice on it. Let's do this. And I was like, hold on, chill out. I'm like Arden, what do you want to do? She goes, let me stand up and see if I can throw another pitch. And so she does, right, she finishes the inning. Then she bumps for a single at the bottom of the inning comes back pitches the top of the next inning before she looks over at me and kind of gives me the high sign like, Hey, you know what, let me get out of this, my knees really starting to hurt. And a couple days later, she's at the doctor and she's got this little hairline, like fracture in her knee. And it heals fine, and she's fine. But at that point in her life, 12 years old, you know, a girl weighs 85 pounds at the time, you know, and she never thought like, let me stop. But she just did. She was like, Oh, this sucks. But I'll just keep going. And I genuinely believe that part of that is her personality. But part of that comes from from diabetes, I really do think it does. You know, it's amazing. But if you look deep enough, you can find something good at it. Now, I don't know if you can do the same with lupus or not. I mean, your description of it is I'm gonna be honest, fairly terrible. And it's scary to hear from the outside, like, I don't know, you and you're in Alaska, but if you were closer, I feel like I would hug you if we were nearby. But like, God, I'm so sorry. But do you feel like that day to day? Or do you handle it differently?

Sean Busby 28:53
Uh, yeah, I mean, I every every day is different. And every day, I'm still learning about different things and different therapies. And I, you know, I have a great set of doctors now. So I will fly back from Montana where I have my rheumatologists to also Baltimore, Maryland, where they have the Johns Hopkins lupus center. Okay, um, so I just go, you know, just try to see a center of excellence and just try to stay on top of it. And a lot of it, you know, I think with any chronic disease now, this is just an assumption, but a lot of it comes down to just your Outlook, if you can create a positive outlook around it, and like what creates positive outlook around, he has been involved in the community. So type one, and then also doing what I love, which is snowboarding and that just mentally that's just refreshing. It keeps me going and like, yeah, things can always be scary, regardless of the disease down the future in the future when you've had it for a few years. Like type type one can be scary. loops can be scary. But the important thing is to, for me and for anyone is just just to live right now in the present and you're gonna have bad days, but the bad days that you have like, by having that community and being able to talk to someone that has a chronic illness, it's gonna get you through that and that's going to be like with Type One Diabetes. That's the next best medicine the insulin and it's, it's, it's the only way I feel to be successful with living with chronic disease is to have a sense of community. Yeah, I'm

Scott Benner 30:35
sorry, I'm sending Arden heard lunchtime balls for do we just caught me at the very end of it. But anyway, we're doing a nine unit extended ball is 30% now and the rest over an hour in case anybody's interested her blood sugar's 130. And so it Listen, I can't I can't agree with you enough, honestly. You know, because there's, there's, there's two thoughts here. One is, you need to live your best life today. Like this is the life you have today, you need to make the most of it, if we're going to get hit by a car tomorrow, or my lupus is going to get worse or my type one's going to make my eyeballs fall out or whatever it ends up being, you know, like that. We don't know what the future holds. But we do know the future is out there somewhere. And it's coming eventually. And so be I mean, you're an amazing example of just do although I think you're doing all this just tried to meet Selena Gomez, but I'm just that's my personal idea. Have you met her?

Sean Busby 31:28
I know, but it is. I I do you hope to meet her one day? Yeah,

Scott Benner 31:32
I feel like you're the one that can work this out. But But you're married, right? Yeah, you've wasted that whole opportunity, but never

Unknown Speaker 31:39
nevertheless.

Scott Benner 31:42
Um, but but I mean, seriously, like, you're an amazing example. This for type one, you know, put the lupus aside for a second. Seriously put the loop aside for a second. You're in Alaska snowboarding with type one. What do you use? And you have a Dexcom?

Sean Busby 31:56
Yeah, I have an omni pod. And Dexcom?

Scott Benner 32:00
Yeah, you've got the gear of the best stuff. In my opinion. That's what we use to. And so. And so you're out there with this. I mean, this these little, this little bit of technology flying down the side of a mountain on what appears to me to be a very tiny, like surfboard. And so you're, it doesn't seem I mean, do you ever? Do you ever even stop and look at it like that? I guess you don't, right. Like you just have a different attitude. And I think that's important for people to hear. Because I know how much I've seen the community be kind of bolstered just by the idea that my 13 year old can play four or five softball games in a day and not have, you know, it's um, I think it's amazing for people to be able to see the things that they're most scared of, are not just possible, but they're possible in a really big way. Like, we're not all going to go snowboarding in Alaska. But you know, I mean, if you can snowboard in Alaska, my kid can definitely play, you know, soccer, you know, even like if Chris Freeman can ski across Maine, which apparently he has, you know what I mean? Like them, they might, they might kick and play basketball, rec basketball on Saturday, or I can go to the gym as an adult and not feel worried. But there is a way to manage these things. And and still do the things you want to do. How did you learn that management style? Like how did you figure out how to do what you do without it causing you a real problem with your blood sugar? Or does it?

Sean Busby 33:24
Well, I think that that attitude that you both have right there, that was that was number one, I have that to change my attitude to be like, Okay, this is these are the cards I've been dealt, this is what I needed. This is I, if I still want to be a pro athlete, or an athlete or whatever that was I, I just have to learn. And so I did as much research as I could. I reached out to, to as many people that had type one diabetes, that I came across online and tried to gather information. And then I just started going to the gym. And I was so underweight because I had been misdiagnosed for so long that I would go to like the local YMCA, like super early in the morning, right when they opened up because there'd be less people and I was just kind of a shame that I looked like a skeleton. And I would just do all sorts of different exercises that I normally never would do. I'm not a swimmer, but I would get in the pool. And I would start swimming laps. So I could just learn how my body reacted to that sort of stress or that sort of exercise and I record it in a logbook. And I did this for I did this for a few years, even going into snowboarding competitions, recording every like days before a snowboard competition recording everything that was going off my blood sugar's every two hours through the night. If I was making any corrections what those corrections were if I was giving myself any insulin, what that insulin was, and then resetting my insulin pump to basically mimic how my body had been acting the days before. So I was very hands on with it. And I would say, that's the other big thing of advice I would give is to just be extremely hands on with diabetes Test, test, test and learn our Check, check, check, and learn how to how your body reacts in certain exercises, or different climates, such different environments.

Scott Benner 35:24
So that's amazing. Because I say here on the podcast, I tell people, I'm like, Look, nothing's a mistake, but you need experiences, you know? And then you need to have the the kind of the equation like I did this, and this happened. Next time, I'd like to see this happen. So I'll do this like the you have to, you know, I always talk about like being in a fight, like, if you're in a fistfight, you want to hit first, because then everything that happens afterwards, you dictate, right. So if you make a decision with insulin, then you know, I did this, and this is what happened. But if you wait for diabetes to come at you, then you're forever covering your face and hoping not to get punched in the nose. And and then nothing that happens to you is valuable, because you can't act on it later. Because you don't know how, where it were derived from. And you did that with exercise and how it affected your body, which is brilliant. By the way, how long have you How old are you now? I can't believe I didn't ask you that.

Sean Busby 36:14
I'm 33. Okay, so

Scott Benner 36:16
you've been at this for a bit now. So yeah, 13 ish, 14 years with diabetes and lupus pretty much. But that's And so anyway, so sometimes people know, I'll say like, if you're having a real problem, figuring out like, Pre-Bolus thing is an example, sort of cheat and make the same lunch a couple days in a row. So at least you take out some of the factors and you can see what's going on. You did that like with exercise. And and that's how you taught yourself what your how your body would react to certain situations. So smart. Cheese, Shawn, I didn't know you're gonna do this. This is a great interview. I was like, Shawn, I was like, this is gonna go like 20 minutes, don't worry about I said, well yell about the hashtag a little bit. And I'll say, now you see me, you know, hashtag. And then I'll get you out of here. And now I'm like, Sean's great. We should have taken more time. Here's what I imagined I could be completely wrong. There are magic elves that work at Dexcom. That's what I think. I don't know how scientific it is or possible. But Arden just started using the brand new Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor about 12 days ago. I'll have a comprehensive review for you coming up next week. But for now, the upgrade in the insertion process alone. You heard Kevin Sarah talking about it back when he was on the show a few weeks ago. But I've now seen it in person. And oh my god, is it easy. And if you believe my daughter, which I do, because she's 13, and doesn't usually lie about things like this, not just painless, she didn't feel it. She didn't notice anything happened. We used it, I was crazy. We stuck on the thingy. And then we push the button. And then she turned back to me with this big look on her face and said, I didn't feel anything. Ain't gonna get better that feeling nothing is pretty much the epitome of what I want to feel when I'm inserting something into my body. I mean, you get what I'm saying. But if I'm getting poked with, let me try to clean this up. If you're going to put a wall, there's no good way this is if you're going to insert a continuous glucose monitor into me, I'd like to not feel it. And apparently, you're not going to, I really want you to go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box or click on the links in the show notes or Juicebox podcast.com to contact Dexcom. And to begin your journey with continuous glucose monitoring. And if you're already a customer, and you want to upgrade to G six, it's very simple to do. Please contact them today to find out more. I'm talking about not just pain free. literally no feeling. Nothing happens. It's like nothingness. On top of that the accuracy is crazy. Good. We're having a great experience with it. I will tell you all more about it very soon. I just want to have some more time with it before I come to conclusions and share them all with you. Pretty responsible of me, don't you think? What are we hoping for people to do with the hashtag ma just put pictures out or to tell their story a little bit about multiple diagnosis or what's your hope?

Sean Busby 39:22
Yeah, so again, we're we're trying to develop that immunity because we know that there are plenty of people out there that are doing it better managing type one in another disease and sometimes you know, for me too, I find where like you said, Have you wake up what do you think about I find a hard time to prioritize Type One Diabetes on Sundays and tight and I and sometimes you can be like oh, well, you know, lupus or type one or whatever it may be is so much worse than then this or that. But that's not fair to do to yourself. If you have any medical conditions there. They're always serious. Yeah. And you need to figure out how to prioritize them equally, and to be able to take care of yourself. And so for this, this month of May, we're doing this. Yeah, the hashtag. Now you see me, it's to basically allow people to come out and speak out about what it's like managing two diseases, share that with others, because most likely, there's people on the other end that are listening that are going to something similar, or maybe even the exact same thing. And so we're asking people to, you know, share their experience. Riding on insulin is putting up a ton of content, along with many of our partners around the world, that are also putting up content, share that content, just get it out there. And if people want to be more involved, they can they can donate to ratting on insulin, which is riding on insulin dot o RG, and just help he just help spread that message of awareness. And let's bring the light light. You know?

Scott Benner 41:04
Well, Shawn, I was gonna say it's incredibly important because you You said something that we all believe about, you know how strong community is and how much it helps you when you're found that and if you have a multiple diagnosis, the community for that is obviously going to be smaller. But it's, it's probably more important because you're dealing with these two things. And, and it is, I think this is a great idea, because you're really encouraging people to get out into the world and be, you know, a little more open about the things that they're dealing with, because they have probably plans and tricks and tips that they could share with each other to or just good stories that would help buoy somebody who's just been diagnosed, you know, the way it worked for you, I always feel badly about it, I don't, I think it's not a very, like, well kept secret. But type, the type to community is not very strong or active. And there are I've had multiple conversations with dozens of different companies, and they all would like to see it, you know, hey, wouldn't it be nice if there was more of a community, but you can't get people with type two in a big block to speak up. And the best, the best, you know, people can guess is that they're embarrassed by it. And so they don't want to talk about it because of the stigma that's pretty unfairly attached to it, you know, and, and this is this, I hope somebody does that for them just the same as I hope that people step up use this hashtag and, and do the same for people living with with multiple auto means, because I think it's just really important to find people who understand and maybe you can find a connection there that will help you so I this is

Unknown Speaker 42:39
Callie as Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:41
no, I appreciate this. I really do. I Wow, john, you doing a nice thing here from Alaska? What? So I before I'm gonna let you go in a minute, but tell me just real quick, what the hell you're doing on Alaska. Now, you know, you're gonna ride a snowboard or no, how do you not die riding a snowboard?

Sean Busby 42:59
Practice,

Scott Benner 43:00
practice? Where do you practice something like that? I've never here I'm going to tell you something. I'll tell you two things. It'll knock your socks off. I've never had a cup of coffee in my entire life. And I've never been on skis. There's two things I don't think and by the way, I've never seen Animal House. There's three things that most people don't believe. Right? And so when I think of skiing, I think of skiing like being eaten by a shark if I'm not in the Ocean Shark can eat me. So if I'm not on skis, I can't run headlong into a tree going what I'm assuming is like 1000 miles an hour. So you said practice how do you practice the snowboard? Where did you do that first?

Sean Busby 43:34
I did that first in Southern California so

Scott Benner 43:39
that makes sense.

Unknown Speaker 43:40
Yeah.

Sean Busby 43:43
went to elementary school in Laguna Beach and ended up in the mountains So yeah, I learned in Southern California. And it was a no to extend this any further but my my brother passed away when I was in high school and snowboarding became a coping mechanism for me it was just a place where I found a closeness to him was being up in the mountains because I grew up in Southern California and you know we had concrete backyards and all that so I need to that open space to reflect and feel close to my brother and God and and all that so that's where that's what really drove my snowboarding and yeah, it just kind of all funneled Alex and scroll from there. Um, I grew up in a soccer family. My father coached college soccer. Um, and

Scott Benner 44:41
that sounds terrible. I just kind of grew up in baseball family world. Yeah, we're a baseball fan. When you say soccer. I feel like you were like die fish should have stepped in and helped you But no, no, no offense to people who like soccer even though it's like a sport that doesn't seem to have any point but anyway. Shawn, we're gonna name this episode Shawn Busbee his life is a disaster and yet he still really upbeat. Dude, I'm so sorry. And I know it's probably been a long time. But you were like, my brother passed away. And I was like this poor guy. Like, have you ever been hit by a car? Has a kangaroo ever stolen your baby? What else has happened to you? Like, like, could you go on forever about like, or is that it?

Sean Busby 45:27
I've had crazy stories. But yeah, it definitely it definitely shaped who I became like, it was all proper, sadly, that I had to go through in my life and in order to be able to face our challenges in the future, as well. And but, yeah, I just got into snowboarding. And then after type one diabetes, I got into the back country side of snowboarding. And my goal is this backcountry snowboard all seven continents. And so just kind of the, I don't know, I think anyone that's an athlete, they're going to want to present, they're going to want to put more extreme challenges in front of them. And this is just something that kind of gives me a mission in my life. I guess

Scott Benner 46:15
I couldn't First of all, I couldn't agree with you more about going through tough things. And and, and, and that building for other stuff. I mean, that's, I think that's a no brainer. I think the most amazing thing you've said here today is that somewhere in South America, there's snow that just might have gone by for most people. But what I've learned in the last 40 minutes, is there snow in South America somewhere. And I never considered that once in my life. I'm assuming it's on the top of a mountain,

Unknown Speaker 46:43
but not so

Scott Benner 46:44
known Africa. See, you know, a lot of people in Africa listened to this podcast. I am literally bowled over by that every time I see people downloading in South Africa all over the continent. It's very strange. But hey, what's up Africa? I'm gonna let you go shopping, because I'm afraid you're gonna tell me that the end of the world is coming and you know about it somehow. Hey, guys, I have some bad news. March 33rd. But seriously, I I didn't I you have a great sense of humor, which is why I'm feel comfortable joking with you, even though we don't know each other. But But seriously, if if the things you just said over this last however long this has been. Don't fill people with hope, then they're not listening correctly. Because you are an amazing example of perseverance in the face of things that a lot of people I think would, would maybe run and hide from and do that's just incredibly commendable. And then on top of it, you're out in the world, sharing it with other people. So that's a that's huge. So yeah, that's really amazing. And I appreciate you coming on and talking about it with me.

Sean Busby 47:55
Now, well, thank you for your time and kind words. Absolutely.

Scott Benner 47:59
Um, can you I'm gonna stop the recording. Could you hold on one second? Yeah. I stopped the recording to ask Shawn for his address. So I could send him a bold with insulin t shirt because I gotta tell you what, that guy is bold. And so I did it. I did send it to the top of a mountain. care of a polar bear in that amazing. None of that is true. But yet I feel like it will be I feel like when it gets to the post office, wherever Sean is, there'll be a mailman. But he'll be a polar bear. It'll be a polar bear dresses a mailman. And they'll be like, Oh, no. And then they'll just like, have like some like, it'll be him in a moose. They'll be talking and then they'll just like eat a penguin. I don't know why I think any of that. I also don't know why people live out in the cold. None of that makes sense to me. You know, it does make sense to me thinking on the pot and Dexcom for being sponsors the Juicebox Podcast, it makes sense to me to say to you again, please click on the links in your show notes or at Juicebox podcast.com. Or if you have to type into a browser I guess you could my on the pod.com forward slash to Xbox or dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Thank you so much for listening for leaving reviews on iTunes for leaving reviews on Amazon for the new Amazon Alexa skill. You guys rock. Seriously. Your good peeps. I appreciate that. So this moose walks into a post office. He's got a penguin under his arm and he says that the polar bear behind the gunner. Hey, you want to eat this penguin? The polar bear looks at the moose and he says nothing could stop me from eating this penguin. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night. I'm a polar bear post office worker.

I'm hungry. And I am hungry. And I do want to eat that penguin. Mr. Moose. Thank you so much for bringing him in to me and we're gonna make penguin soup out of him. And then I will share the soup with you Mr. Moose, the moose. Oh, you're so Hi. Thank you for sharing the penguin soup with me. Post master Grizzly, I meant polar bear. Thank you so much. Why are you still listening to this? Why have you not prioritized your day and said this guy is babbling into this microphone? about some penguin and a moose and I'm still listening. This is a reflection on you not on me.

Unknown Speaker 50:24
Seriously.

Scott Benner 50:31
Oh my god. Have you not stopped it yet? Push stop. Go to the next podcast. I haven't had anything to say for over two minutes. Why are you still here? Nothing's gonna happen. I'm not it's not a Marvel movie. There's not going to be a cutscene at the end. This is it. It's over. I'm giving you permission to stop right now.

Unknown Speaker 50:52
Did you stop it?

Scott Benner 50:55
Are you still here?

Did you just hear some bizarre story like that was crazy. He's a snoring machine.

Unknown Speaker 51:05
Why are you still listening?