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Scott Benner 0:03
Hello, and welcome to Episode 176 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is with Colleen, Colleen is interesting in a number of ways, but let me tell you something else first. Do you remember back in Episode 157 it was called Lindsay is a cornucopia of emotions. Do you remember that episode? my conversation with Lindsay came about because I asked a question online about how people might feel if diabetes was just magically cured. When I asked that question online, I came up with two people who wanted to be on the podcast one was Lindsay back in Episode 147. And one was Colleen, who you're going to hear today in Episode 176. And while the conversations begin, in the first couple of moments exactly the same, they go in completely different directions. Also, in this episode, I talk a little bit about art and being diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which I don't think I've been as clear about in previous episodes. Colleen just does an amazing job of sharing her life and times with type one. I'll tell you a little bit about her. She's an adult who has children, little babies, she's married, she's had Type One Diabetes for a very long time since she was little. And she is a long time very active member of the diabetes community online. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making changes to your health care plan. Oh, you know what I forgot to say something. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Dexcom. And on the pod. There'll be a little more information about both of these great products later in the show. But you can always go to my on the pod.com Ford slash juice box, or dexcom.com Ford slash juice box to find out more. There's also links in your show notes.

Colleen Ngyen 1:53
My name is Colleen Ngyen n g y en I know I've done I've been diabetic foot forever.

And I work with work for a camp. Kids with diabetes in the summer. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 2:07
that's about it. See,

Colleen Ngyen 2:08
I'm a diabetes nerd. Yeah.

Scott Benner 2:12
Okay, so I'm gonna get something out of the way very quickly. People listen to the show a lot will understand this. I think that these conversations go the best when they're completely just organic. And we don't plan them out. We don't email back and forth to talk about things. In the pursuit of that idea. I sometimes forget why I wanted to talk to people. So here's my recollection. I had this big idea one day, and I reached out I said to people, if you feel like this, please let me know if you want to be on the podcast. Is that about right? Yeah. Except I forget what this is.

Colleen Ngyen 2:50
Oh, it was a if you wouldn't want to cure?

Unknown Speaker 2:55
Ah,

Scott Benner 2:56
yeah. So it was up. It was up between that and adults who are afraid of using insulin because they're alone? I didn't think that was you because I know. You're not alone? No,

Colleen Ngyen 3:06
definitely not alone.

Scott Benner 3:09
Because you've got like children and dogs and husbands. Yeah, you can.

Colleen Ngyen 3:12
You can probably hear my dog a little bit right now.

Scott Benner 3:14
What's the dog's name? She's got her name is reka. Listen, if we hear ruka that'll be good. Yeah. Okay, so we'll get a little we'll dig down a little more into who you are. Because you were you. When you describe who you are. You're like, it's me. It's Colleen. I don't know. So let's do it like this. How old are you?

Colleen Ngyen 3:34
I am 31. All right. When

Unknown Speaker 3:35
were you diagnosed?

Unknown Speaker 3:37
I was three years old. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 3:39
I'm going to do some math now. Hold still.

Unknown Speaker 3:42
28 years? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 3:44
See? It's amazing. Yeah.

Colleen Ngyen 3:46
I usually tell people I was diagnosed at three and I've been diabetic for 20 years. So please don't do the math.

Scott Benner 3:52
Well, here's what I just did. If you want to look behind the curtain, I took 31 and I subtracted one that got me to 30. And then I realized I had two more and I took off those two took me right to 20

Colleen Ngyen 4:03
is that common core?

Scott Benner 4:05
You know what? That's the that's the one that the guy who didn't go to all the days of school? Yeah. Okay, so you've had diabetes forever? Yeah, it's interesting. 28 years, you were diagnosed at three years old. My daughter was diagnosed when she was two years old. But you're three years old? quite some time ago. And and so I'm gonna ask you a question before we get into why, you know. So when, when, when Arden was diagnosed at two, I remember hearing, like, people were like, Oh, you don't have to worry because long term complications from diabetes don't really come into play for like 30 years. And I remember going well then like, it'll be 32 when that happens? Yeah. Like, like, how is that comforting in any possible way? Like why would you say that to me? Like let's say that that's not even true, or it is true and I don't see it as being True. I don't think there's a number you can put on it. But it was this interesting idea that I thought, Oh, this is how they used to make people feel better. They were like, oh, you're 20 by the time this really affects you, you'll be old and you won't care about yourself anyway. And like, that was the vibe. Right? That came from them. Have you had any issues? so far? No, nothing? No. I'm lucky. And, and I do see it that way. A little bit, too. Yeah. Yeah. And because, I mean, 28 years ago, let's call it 30 years, because it's making my brain hurt to say 2030 years ago, you must have been like, that's not even like big brick meter. You get to take home time as it is.

Colleen Ngyen 5:39
I had I, my very first meter was just called one touch. Like not one touch something, it was just called the one touch. It was the one touch meter. And they were like, well only ever

Scott Benner 5:50
need one name. This will be great. Yeah,

Colleen Ngyen 5:51
right. And my second one would call the one touch two.

Unknown Speaker 5:57
Very creative.

Scott Benner 5:58
I have to say that sounds dirty. Actually. One Touch too. It feels like there's more to that sentence. But But okay, so you you she did have a meter, but it wasn't portable.

Colleen Ngyen 6:12
Yeah, yeah, I took, I think 60 seconds. And it was one of those ones. He had to put like the big blood drop on the strip. And I'm making a motion with my hand right now.

Scott Benner 6:25
Welcome to pantomime podcast.

Unknown Speaker 6:29
I'm putting it out.

Scott Benner 6:30
Yeah. So for the rest of the podcast, we'll all just sit very quietly and try to imagine what it is you're doing with your hands.

Unknown Speaker 6:36
Yeah. It'll probably get anyone to use that strip knows what I'm doing.

Scott Benner 6:41
So you were basically like cutting a vein open and like pouring on top of the meter. Just and and a minute later, as you're a little dizzy from the loss of blood? It would, it would give you a number. Essentially, I wonder if those big meters were more or less accurate than stuff that's available today?

Unknown Speaker 6:58
I believe they were less. Right.

Scott Benner 7:01
I mean, I don't know. Exactly. Right. So. Okay, so you were working with specious data? You're a little dizzy from the blood loss. And you were a couple of years old. I'm assuming did one of your parents. Were your parents together? Yes. Did one of them die more? They still are. Yep. Well, that's Listen, that's really good news. For people listening whose kids have diabetes, this probably isn't going to make us all get divorced.

Colleen Ngyen 7:26
Yeah, I mean, my, my mom was my primary caregiver. When my dad helped to, I mean, they were both very knowledgeable, still still are very knowledgeable. My mom, my mom, still, you know, sees my Dexcom information. And every once in a while will text me like, Hey, what's going on with a helicopter emoji?

Scott Benner 7:46
Colleen, listen, I didn't give up this much of my life for your health to watch you right away now. Is that comforting? Or is it annoying? Or how do you find it?

Colleen Ngyen 7:57
It is actually. I mean, it seems to me one. I was up in the middle of the night with my kids. And my blood sugar was like 300. And I use I use the T slim and I went to put in my blood sugar. And I accidentally put it in the carbs. Okay, and I was so tired that I just like whatever, just do it. And so, you know, I got like 30 units.

Unknown Speaker 8:22
You know, that's, that's how you want to roll. Yeah.

Colleen Ngyen 8:26
So and I wasn't waking up to my CGM alarms and but my mom saw it on my share and kept calling and calling and calling and came and knocked on my door and woke me up.

Scott Benner 8:36
She actually came to your home. Yeah. Does she live closer? Was it?

Colleen Ngyen 8:40
Yeah, she was called. And she actually works even closer. So

Scott Benner 8:42
it was nice. But still, she she saw she saw she saw you really high. Then she saw you dropping really fast and you weren't. You weren't waking up. And so she was like, Look, I'm not. This isn't how this is ending.

Colleen Ngyen 8:55
He was right she did. It was right. Like that's that saved me.

Scott Benner 8:58
Yeah, you were in a bad spot. Yeah. And that's something so when you put 300 in carbs, you obviously didn't realize it when you didn't you weren't what you weren't like, I'm just gonna get myself 300 carbs, right?

Unknown Speaker 9:07
No, no.

Colleen Ngyen 9:08
And it even gave me that like Max Bolus. Your maximum over your maximum boss, do you want to continue? And I was like half asleep. So I said yes,

Unknown Speaker 9:17
absolutely. I

Unknown Speaker 9:18
do. Let's roll up on this.

Unknown Speaker 9:21
Hi, give me Let's jump forever upon two feet first into the trashcan fire and see where we get.

Colleen Ngyen 9:27
And just so everyone listening knows I had no infant twins as I was very tired.

Scott Benner 9:35
It's possible you would have just, you know, done anything in that moment. So So the point is close to the dexcom share really did it. Right. But saved my life. And you know, your mom understood enough that it wasn't just like this weird number that was happening that she didn't understand. She understand it,

Unknown Speaker 9:51
we understand. Right? Yeah. And she's, I mean, she's,

Colleen Ngyen 9:54
she's called the ambulance for me, you know, numerous times over my life. So that

Scott Benner 9:59
was gonna be my next Question is that when you're young and the technology's not nearly what it is today, do you was being dizzy? part of your life was like, do you mean like, What? What was the test of time? Or how did you handle that?

Colleen Ngyen 10:14
Um, yeah, I mean, I was very aware of my sentence. I would tell my mom, I was hungry. That was usually the time. That's kind of what it feels like sometime. Yeah. Um, yeah, it was. It was a lot of going on feeling more than anything. Yeah.

Scott Benner 10:27
You know, it's so funny is this just this morning, we had what I would consider to be a technology meltdown here, where we got up in the morning Arden's pump needed to be changed on you know, I didn't expect it to need to be changed. We've been having, like an issue with the Dexcom, which Dexcom trying to help us with, but right now, it meant I had to do something this morning. So I pushed her out of the car this morning, with no CGM on, and a pump that had just been replaced. And I The last thing I said to her was, well, we had set a timer. I was like, when this timer goes off, test your blood sugar tax me. But But the last thing I said to her when she went out the door, as I said, Hey, pay attention to how you feel. Yeah. And and I realized it was like that must have been just that thought must have been prevalent everyday for you. Just pay attention to how I feel.

Colleen Ngyen 11:15
Absolutely. Which actually was actually I mean, I feel that that's helped me in other ways in my life. I'm very aware of my body all the time.

Scott Benner 11:24
I do always think that. I don't know that how many people would type one appreciate it. But you're more tuned into your health than most people are. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. You know, you really do. I'm able to ignore things about my health every day, because I don't have this overwhelming feeling that it could literally kill me today. Yeah, you're right. Like, I feel like the things I'm ignoring. I can, you know, that's not going to be a problem. So I'm like, I'm sapphires. And then I won't care. But

Colleen Ngyen 11:51
sometimes it makes me a little bit of a hype. Oh, God. My husband is a nurse and he rolled his eyes at me. But because

Scott Benner 11:58
you're constantly looking going, this could be something. Yeah, yeah. Arden's old site two sites ago. So what is that six days ago, maybe we change the pump a little early. So five days ago, I leaned on it and she goes that sore. And I remember thinking to myself, like mental note, keep checking that site to make sure it doesn't get infected, which she never had an infected site in all these years of having diabetes, and I was one of those things. Yeah. But I was still like, Okay, let's try to remember that, you know, okay, so my initial question to you was, I put it out there, I forget, let's try to if we can figure out the genesis of this. Someone online said something that made me feel something. So it wasn't what they said it, it sparked an idea in me. And I think the idea that it's part to me was, are there some people who have just had diabetes for so long? That it's part of who they are, and taking it from them might be strange. And and I asked that online, a lot of most people came in, who were parents. It's funny, the parents came in and they exactly, they were like, no,

Colleen Ngyen 13:03
not all the time. It's different. If you ask the parents, right? Yes to the actual person, hundred

Scott Benner 13:07
percent, they were like, take it away. I don't care if she's attached to it or feels like it's her not sure readjust. But some of the adults came in are like, you know what, I'm pretty good the way I am. I don't need this to change, which I found incredibly comforting, and thought the parents should be comforted by it too. But notice that they were not comforted by it. And I thought,

Unknown Speaker 13:25
my mom gets mad. My mom gets mad at me when I talk about.

Scott Benner 13:29
So tell me tell me a little bit about it. Like, is it just? Is it just wrapped in who you are at this point? Or how do you feel about that?

Colleen Ngyen 13:36
Yeah, I mean, to me, to me, like the shot, you know, the shots, the pricks the the pumps are not, that's not the hard part of diabetes, I can live with that. Even me, I don't need a cure. Right. I don't need 100% biological cure.

Scott Benner 13:53
And do you think that that's because? So let me ask this question, what's your level of concern that you're going to unexpectedly die in your sleep?

Colleen Ngyen 14:03
I mean, pretty, pretty high,

Unknown Speaker 14:05
I would say. And still,

Colleen Ngyen 14:06
I feel like that. I feel like there I could use better treatments. There are things that are more obtainable right now. That could that could help.

Scott Benner 14:16
You does? It does do do your feelings? Do you think your feelings are rooted in me think about how to say this. Are they rooted in your kind of? Because to me, it would be a common sense it to me, it's a common sense idea that they're probably not going to cure diseases. Right. Like we've all been around, excuse me. We've been around for quite some time as like, thinking people with medicine. I think we've managed to cure two, maybe three things of the bazillions of things that are possibly could go wrong with you. And so is it just that like, hey, look, it's fairly unlikely they're gonna hear this, so I don't want to think about that. Or is it?

Colleen Ngyen 14:53
Nah. Oh, maybe. I mean, maybe a little bit. I think. I think I You know, I am used, I'm used to being diabetic. I'm used to having diabetes. And

I don't, I don't know what to think of how to how to raise what I'm thinking,

Scott Benner 15:13
Oh, please, using your hands that we can't say, yeah.

Colleen Ngyen 15:17
I was actually just sitting on my hands. Okay, that maybe that'll help. Yeah, I've, you know, I was told that I there, you know, like everyone does that there'd be a cure in five to 10 years, or by the time I was a teenager, I think is what the doctor told my mom. And here I am at 31. And we're not even close. So, I mean, I can't keep I can't keep hoping for that. Because it's heartbreaking. And there's no, yeah, like, I that's not going to happen. And I'm, I have to be okay with that. I've accepted it. And, and fighting for just a carrier is not good enough for me. And you have to go Yeah, oh, I get very frustrated. It's all it's always parents no offense. The parents who are who get upset at, you know, at jdrf, because they're, they're fighting for treatments all as well as the cure. They, you know, they're giving money to organizations that are just fighting for a cure. But that's not what we need, necessarily.

Scott Benner 16:16
Yeah, it's a very it's an early feeling like so you here's the part you don't know about, right, which is because you were diagnosed as a little kid, and you weren't, it was you, it wasn't like somebody you loved, right. And so and so the part you don't know about as there are the stages of grief that you roll through as the parent of somebody who's just, you know, forget the word sex, they're just, their lives aren't going exactly the way you envisioned them. When you were sitting around your house in your 20s, go, look, we're gonna have a baby, everything's gonna be so great. You know, and so it's just that feeling of like, I can't fix this, I can't take it away. That's an incredible burden for you. And then you think, well, somebody else should help. And then when you look up, they don't feel like they're helping. You're like, Oh, my gosh, no one's gonna help us. But I agree with you. 1,000,000%, I understand the feeling because I've had it. Yeah, but I agree with you, I was able to push up there, but you see it online all the time, like somebody like it, you know, for you know, it'll be on the bottle, put up a like, Hey, here's the Omni pod and blah, blah, blah, and this is what it does. And maybe you'd be interested in it. And then inevitably, five comments down some lady who appears to be in her 30s, and someone's mom goes, spending money and all this and just cure it already. And I'm like, Well, first of all, if it was that easy, right? It's such a, it's such a strange statement. Like, to me, it sounds like they're saying, Would you just stop messing around and go outside and lift the house up over your head? As if that's a possibility in your day? You know, and then you'll hear from people who are, you know, their conspiracy kind of theorists who say, you know, that people make too much money off the cure it like as if there would be no money in curing it. And you know, and they said, well, then it wouldn't go on forever. And you know, people would still get diabetes. You know, you bought by the way, if you came up with a cure that that doesn't necessarily mean it would be, you know, simple word that just flipped out of my head.

Colleen Ngyen 18:13
And actually, that's why I have my kids are in trialnet,

Scott Benner 18:16
because you want to see it coming, right? Yeah,

Colleen Ngyen 18:18
why aren't they coming in? I want to help prevent as well. If you can, if you can,

Scott Benner 18:23
yeah, something some data.

Colleen Ngyen 18:25
And everyone else, you know, they

Scott Benner 18:28
see how nice you are. This is lovely. Yeah.

Colleen Ngyen 18:32
It helps that I have like, a lot of friends with.

Scott Benner 18:36
You do right, like so. you're one of those people who I've never met in person, but I genuinely feel like oh, my God in Philadelphia. Yeah. Okay. So take that away. Forget that we've met once. It doesn't matter that we've met once. I know baseball. Did Okay. Okay. So forget that part. Forget. Okay. This is the part I was trying to get to anyway. When I see your face. Yeah. statically. I feel like I know you. Yeah. But you know what I mean? Like they might let you in? Right? Like, but no, you know, you're not like I bumped into you one time, or we talked about baseball, or I've we've texted back and forth or something like that. You genuinely feel like somebody like you're one of those people who stayed in the community. But you stayed there because it brings you a great deal of comfort. These real friends, right? Wouldn't. And so if I said to you, I can magically take diabetes away today. So this is the real question. I have a magic wand. Well, I can wave it over your head and you don't have diabetes anymore. What do you say to the to the offer?

Colleen Ngyen 19:37
I have to say that I don't like I probably I would take it. I mean, I would. I don't know what I would do with myself.

Scott Benner 19:46
And of course, I would expect it obviously say you would take it but then what do you think comes after that?

Unknown Speaker 19:51
Like, no,

Scott Benner 19:52
do you lose friends? Do you lose support systems that are more to you than just diabetes? What do you think would happen next?

Colleen Ngyen 19:59
What would be the backlog? That's a hard thing cuz like I mean Altieri like diabetes camp is is my passion. If I could do it for a living I would. And I spend a lot of my not I don't have free time, but I spend a lot of my time working on that. So I don't. And I do, and I do it for the, for the not for myself, even your I mean for kids? And I don't know. Uh, yeah, it would take that away from me. I don't know what I would do with my life.

Scott Benner 20:30
So I it's funny, because I know what you're saying. Because you and I talking right now making this podcast or yesterday yesterday, I saw like a study from UCLA that talked about, I don't know, it was sleep or something, you know, and I thought, oh, I'll put that Oh, like, all right. I genuinely. I don't want to say I enjoy doing this stuff. I don't not enjoy it. But it feels like good work, I guess. Right? Yeah. And so if you took that from me, I'd be thrilled for the people who don't have diabetes. But there would be a void in my life where I felt like I'm not helping people anymore. Absolutely. And and I don't honestly know what I would fill that with. I feel like as I'm saying it, I'd fill it with Netflix. But

Unknown Speaker 21:17
what other things could I do? What else do I there's nothing that I feel that strongly about?

Unknown Speaker 21:22
Maybe I would exercise? that's

Colleen Ngyen 21:24
not entirely true. If we're friends on Facebook, you know, there are things I feel

Scott Benner 21:27
right, right there. Right. There's things. But would you it's an interesting idea that it is because there are other people out there who don't do that, who don't stay connected to people who are like, like, Listen, I'll say something right now. And I hope it comes off exactly the way I mean, if I shut this podcast off today, and never put another one of these episodes up, my kid would be just as healthy. You know, like, I might stop. Or I might stop learning about diabetes at the pace. I'm learning an app, but I wouldn't forget everything. Like I wouldn't be the one damaged by that decision. Right. And and, and as I say that, I think, well, there would be a lot of other time for things, but then I don't know what those things would be. Yeah, it's just really interesting how something that on day one felt so horrible. And on day, whatever this day is still is horrible. Yes, but not horrible in the way. I expected, I guess. Mm hmm. If that makes sense or not?

Colleen Ngyen 22:23
I mean, it's especially it's like shaped who I am. I mean, how could it not? I'm one of those people. I don't I don't normally refer to myself, as you know, a diabetic. I'm a person with diabetes. But I also wouldn't say that it doesn't define me because it absolutely does.

Scott Benner 22:41
Yeah, I mean, so much of your day. Really?

Colleen Ngyen 22:43
Yeah. The only person that might like my whole personality. I don't, I don't know. Like without it. It's always been it's been in my mind since I was three.

Scott Benner 22:53
That's such a strange thing, like and so as much as it's something that's not, you know, pleasant, or that you would use that it's not like, it's not like if I took a person who didn't have diabetes, I said, hey, how would you like diabetes, it's gonna shape who you are really gonna make you care about other people. You know, would you like that for that? And he'd be like, yeah, you know what? No, but could I just work on those things on my own, but it's funny, it forces you enter that situation. And I will say something that I'm sure I've shared her. But I don't know how clearly I've shared it. For the last decade, my daughter Arden has been using the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump. When I described you why I think the Omni pod is the right choice for anyone interested in pumping. It kind of sounds simple, right? There's an automatic insertion of the candle. There's no you know, things to fuss with, you just push a button that happens. It's waterproof, so you don't have to take it off for swimming, or bathing. And it's incredibly easy to change. When it's time to change your pump, it only takes a couple of moments. Now, you might think, well, that all sounds nice, but that's not exciting. But trust me, if the opposite was true in your life, you would find these things very exciting. If you had to take off your pump every time you got a shower, and then you forgot to put it back on and your blood sugar went skyrocketing up, which happens to a lot of people, then you would find waterproof, really exciting. If you were at your softball game and needed a new pump really quick and only took two minutes to switch it. And there was no priming and all that stuff. You'd find that very, very exciting. So while it is difficult sometimes for me to convey the amazing nature of the Omni pod because it's an insulin pump. It's not a car, I can't be like Hey, it goes zero to 60. And you know, trust me for an insulin pump. It's really, really exciting. I want you to go to my omnipod.com forward slash juicebox or click on the link in the show notes in your podcast app or Juicebox podcast.com because when you do that, on the pod is going to send you a free, no obligation demo of the On the pod that you can try on and wear, so you can decide for yourself, Miami pod.com, forward slash juicebox. I will say something that I'm sure I've shared her, but I don't know how clearly I've shared it prior to my daughter having diabetes, the person you're listening to right now, this is not the person I was. No, like, I was not this. I was kind, but I was privately kind, I would have never been behind overtly or in public, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to say something uplifting to someone, or, or, or if I wish, sometimes, sometimes I get scared to say this out loud, because I almost don't have time for what I'm doing now. But if you saw my private messages, and the amount of people who I'm talking to about their diabetes, or about and it's not as much nuts and bolts stuff, as you would think sometimes it's just like, Hey, you did it. Congratulations. That's amazing. Yeah, you know, I've been talking to a mom for weeks, who just messaged me one day, and she's like, I am gonna conquer cereal. And I was like, you go get it. I was like, like, and it was funny,

Unknown Speaker 26:13
and then tell me how you did it, please.

Scott Benner 26:15
I can do it. But But and I told her how I thought I how I did it. But then she didn't have to put into practice. And you have to actually find the balance between the insulin and the carbs, and the timing and all that crap. And and, and she's like, I'm gonna do it. And then someday, she'd send me a graph. And she's like, look how close I came. And I was like, Wow, that's amazing. And now I'm like, I'm being like, I'm like, I'm her support system now on this endeavor. And I like it. I mean, it's, it's, I don't dislike that she and I talked about that. And one day, the real interesting part is, and for those of you who may have corresponded with me at some point, or considering doing it now, one day, you just disappear, which is great, by the way, like I, one, one day, this woman just won't send me another message, which means she figured this thing out, you know, and that'll make me feel good, except the hose on the other end going, we'll just no goodbye at the end or

Unknown Speaker 27:11
just haven't gone anywhere.

Scott Benner 27:16
But it's, it's, it's again, it's something that you would not have if you knew me, prior to my daughter having diabetes. And you could look and see the person I am today that you would never, never be able to imagine that I would have transformed from that person to this person. Yeah,

Colleen Ngyen 27:33
that's something I think about a lot too, because I have no idea what kind of person I would have been.

Scott Benner 27:38
Yeah, who knows? Something like just like, really, just imagine if I could be in like, prison now. That's a sci fi movie.

Unknown Speaker 27:50
I'd be a lot richer.

Scott Benner 27:52
I would definitely have more money, I'd have more sleep. I would, um, I know that that would be a big deal for me, like I can, I know that I know that having more sleep would be a big deal for me. I can tell that this is going to adversely affect the end of my life. Whenever that ends up being. Yeah, you know, um, that that is one thing. I do remember thinking. on day four of our diagnosis, we were coming out of a carb counting class that ended up being a waste of time, but we came out of a carb count. And my wife said, it just hit my wife like a ton of bricks. She's like, is she gonna be able to have a baby? And I was like, are we gonna get divorced? And she was like, What? And I'm like, why? Like, because I never thought was she going to be able to have a baby? And all I thought was, is this going to be too much? Like, are we like, enough of like, is our whatever it is we are together? Like, is it enough to withstand this? You know, and it's not that I felt like it was like we were we weren't, I just thought this is an unnatural amount of other stuff, you know? Yeah. And then our endo tells us a month later that the national average of divorce is one in two but when you add a chronic illness to a spouse or a child, it goes to two and three. And I was like, Well, that sounds like more. Yeah, I was like, Why did you tell me that? Like I'm already crying a lot at home to begin with, but the more this information, please, Doc, upbeat lady,

Unknown Speaker 29:30
and so um, well use my here's my family.

Colleen Ngyen 29:35
My parents are still together and I have three year old twins.

Scott Benner 29:38
So can you Oh baby possible to stay married? Right. Yeah. So but but you get my point. Is that it? Yeah. Who knows who you would have been?

Colleen Ngyen 29:49
Well even like, my like I said, My husband is a nurse. And one of the first things you know, and he probably was using this as a you know, he liked to talk to me about Diabetes, because he was interested in it, because he was in nursing school. And then we got married.

Unknown Speaker 30:08
But what well what his pickup line have been?

Scott Benner 30:12
No, hey, I understand your insulin to carb ratio. And to be helpful with that you were like, I don't even like you. But if my insulin to carb ratio, your

Colleen Ngyen 30:24
diabetes is a huge part for our whole family, like, our whole fight family dynamic could be different, right? If our family even existed, like it's crazy to think about

Scott Benner 30:33
that it's and of course, you can make this a sort of assertion about nearly anything and anything. Yeah. Right. So had I not bought a waffle maker? Maybe I'd be 10 pounds lighter? And maybe, maybe I can't say for sure. Well, okay, so. So you would let it you would let diabetes be taken away, which I don't think is any great surprise to anybody. Yeah. But it would be a crazy impact on a lot of who you are. And, and so how do you think who you are, because the diabetes is impacting how you're raising your your really cute kids.

Colleen Ngyen 31:11
They come with me sometimes for camp, they see that work that we do. And I think that is important. And they actually just went out yesterday, I went on a run to job off supplies to a woman who was in a domestic violence situation and had to get out fast and didn't have any influence. And so, you know, they come along with me for that sort of thing. And I think me having diabetes and help being a part of the diabetes community is, is good for them to see. Other than that, like, I mean, they like to look at my dexcom my, my daughter, especially last, what's your color right now?

Unknown Speaker 31:52
She like yellow and red. Yes. Yeah.

Colleen Ngyen 31:56
And like yesterday, she yesterday, she actually like with emotion said, Oh, it's yellow. It was like, your three. You know what mommy's blood sugar? Like when I was three, I felt it that's different. Like, you know, he he saw my blood sugar and knew that I was not happy about it.

Scott Benner 32:13
Where do you sit with the idea? Like when you think about your kids, whether or not they get diabetes or not? I'm assuming you've thought about that, like, what is that? What's that initial feeling with you? And you think about I wonder if this could happen?

Colleen Ngyen 32:26
Yeah, I mean, my first instinct is do to do everything I can to avoid it. And, you know, there's all those statistics, you know, all these different things that they say, increased risk. And I tried to decrease risk as much as possible, like, I breastfed them, you know, they got their vitamin D, and, you know, pretty basically all of that, and I signed them up for trial net. But then I know that their risk is a little bit higher. It's it's actually not too far off. Right. So many other kid. But But if they got it, I mean, they're in the right place. Yeah, you

Scott Benner 33:03
would know what to do. That's, yeah. You're two generations into it. Now. Basically, you've got your mom behind you still? Who has incredible understanding of it, and then yours? Yeah,

Colleen Ngyen 33:12
I think it would actually be harder on my mom than it was.

Scott Benner 33:16
Do you think your mom feels any reasonable blame about your diabetes?

Colleen Ngyen 33:22
You know, I think she does. Because when I talk about that, when I like I read the diabetes rising. And I tried to talk to her about it. She did not want to hear it. She didn't want to hear anything about it. And it was just silly to me, because, you know, there's absolutely nothing she could have done. But yeah, she did. She definitely does.

Scott Benner 33:43
Yeah, me My wife has her side of the family has different endocrine issues, but they're the female people in their family. Excuse me. And I know that that feels like her fault to her. And no matter how much you say to somebody, look, there's no fault in this, you know, yeah, it's not it's not our fault as a decision. You know, even if I stand up and decide to, you know, go get my car and hit you with it. That's my fault. I've done that. Yeah. If we have an accident, maybe it's nobody's fault. You know, and so she can't. I mean, she does a good job of living, not thinking about it constantly. But I know it's been a burden to her at times.

Colleen Ngyen 34:20
And my son actually has a little Lego autoimmune skin disorder. And even that did give me a little, I felt a little, no one say guilty, but like, you can't help but think they're like, Oh my gosh, like, I gave that to him. And it's

Scott Benner 34:36
no different than when you look at your kids and they have your eyes and you're like, Oh, my eyes. Yeah, you know, and then you go, Oh, my God. Oh, my autoimmune thing. Yeah, sure.

Colleen Ngyen 34:45
I mean, I just got my fourth autoimmune diagnosis and like, I guess you're bound to have one.

Scott Benner 34:50
What else? What else do you have? What else? Well,

Colleen Ngyen 34:54
I was diagnosed with graves disease in Atlanta High School. And then Eventually, it became hashimotos instead. And then I either have ra or lupus I have like joint pain and swelling. And again, like I'm super in touch with my body and knew I was pretty aware that this was not normal. And I went to the doctor and I saw a rheumatologist and I said it's super early and I'm on meds to hopefully prevent any progression. But

Scott Benner 35:24
let's just say this for it to go in order. Even if I'm assuming it's a doctor named graves who figures it out. He's got to be magnanimous and give it a different name. Yeah. You don't tell people you have graves disease that's like, Well, I have a disease. What did you say to me? Not Not good. hashimotos at least sounds a little sexier. Yeah. And

Unknown Speaker 35:48
to be fair, I'd much rather have graves disease.

Scott Benner 35:50
What is the difference? What is the difference?

Colleen Ngyen 35:53
Okay. Diseases hyperthyroidism. Okay. So like, you know, I lost, I lost a ton of weight. Again, I was getting, you know, annual bloodwork for my thyroid already. So they caught it pretty early on, but, you know, I, I, you know, hashimotos is different. You can't keep the weight off.

Unknown Speaker 36:14
Yeah, it's difficult.

Colleen Ngyen 36:17
Yeah, yeah, ingredient is easy. Like, I was on meds for about a year and a half, and they weaned me off and everything was kosher. And, you know, now I'm on Synthroid for the rest of my life. Right.

Scott Benner 36:26
And so, the, the tough part about Synthroid is the taking it at the right time, and then not. So my way when you're trying to feed, my wife has hypothyroidism she takes and she takes Synthroid. And it was funny, because for years and years and years, she had all the symptoms, but no, but she wouldn't test out of the out of the what they call the safe range, so no doctor can do anything about it. I remember forcing a doctor one day, an endocrinologist, I said, Listen, is this is the medicine going to kill her if she doesn't have it? And he's like, No, I'm like, well then just give it to her. Like, like, what are you doing? You know, and in four days, four days, she started to feel better and and became like an her mood changed and all of our side effects that were happening were just all started to melt away. And I was like, seven years we couldn't get somebody to give her that medicine. Or you know, and then I guess here's as good a place as any to talk about it. Arden's been taking Synthroid now for about two months. So we, you know, Sherry normal, right. And so I don't think I've said it yet. I haven't, I'm going through my memory. I'm pretty sure I haven't said on the podcast yet. announcement dental. So thank you. I'm sure she's thrilled. But so it all started with Arden with just like, you know, we were in between, you know, her last endo appointment, we go every three months, she didn't have any elevated numbers at all to speak of. She had had one elevated number for hyperthyroidism once years ago, but it was there and then it was gone. It was a blip. But at home, she was we started noticing or telling you like our stomach hurt all the time. She's like, My stomach hurts. My stomach hurts. My stomach hurts. We start paying attention trying to figure out what's going on. And then we realized she was going to the bathroom for four and five days at a time.

Unknown Speaker 38:15
Oh, no. Right. And

Scott Benner 38:17
then when she was going, it was her body going, I figured out a way to get it all out of here. And like and she'd have this horrible, you know, diarrhea, and then but their stomach would still hurt. And it didn't matter what was happening or stomach hurt. And I was like what's because we took her back and Oh, got the blood test. And I want to say her number was up around eight and a half. And the doctor said, Well, we don't give Synthroid in till the numbers over 10. And luckily, I had this experience with my wife all these years ago, I was like, actually, you're gonna just do it right now. Yeah, you know, and now I'm such a different person. If me today was in my wife situation with her all that time I would I got her Synthroid on day one. Yeah, so we got it, gave it to Arden three or four days later, she's going to the bathroom on a regular schedule. And and things are starting to get better. She starts growing out, like a lot. It's awesome. Yeah, I'm like cool, like, bad and good. Like, it's hard to know how to feel about that. Like, you're so excited that you worked it out. Yeah, sad that it needs to be worked out. I guess. So.

Colleen Ngyen 39:25
Yeah. My mom was really upset when I was diagnosed at first and I said, it's just, it's just a pill I have to take like, this is nothing compared to what I've been dealing with like this is I can't tell you how many how many parents have campers. I've comforted what when they're upset because their kids going on Synthroid. Or you know, they have hypothyroidism I said, you know, this, most of us are

Scott Benner 39:49
Well, I'll tell you what, that's the that's the first thing that in a really long time made me cry again. week to week on the podcast, we talked about how I make small little adjustments to Arden's blood sugar and how I use Arden's dexcom thresholds are low and high alerts to tell me when it's time to bump and nudge and keep things in range. Right now, for instance, Arden's blood sugar is 101. She's actually sleeping and it's pretty early in the morning. And I've been managing things right from here. But earlier in this episode, you heard Colleen talk about a moment in her life where as an adult, she gave herself too much insulin in the middle of the night. Her mother, who was watching her blood sugar on her dexcom share, was able to come to her house and stop her potentially very dangerous low. That's pretty amazing. You know that Dexcom share is available for Android and iPhone. And you can share with up to five loved ones, so you can give access to whoever you want. Go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box, click on the links in your shownotes. Were at Juicebox podcast.com. To find out more about the Dexcom. Would you like to keep your blood sugar at 101? As easy as I'm doing it? Would you like to have the comfort of knowing that somebody else is aware of your blood sugar? Would you like to be able to see your kids blood sugar while they're at school or outside playing? I'm asking a lot of questions I think I already know the answer to I think the answer is yes. You would love all of that. So get started find out more about it. dexcom.com forward slash juicebox with links in your show notes or Juicebox podcast.com.

Well, I'll tell you what, that's the that's the first thing that in a really long time made me cry again. Like and it was just the idea of like two things that got me. It wasn't as much about the hyperthyroidism as it was about the two things that just I was like, how did she get to things like how is that fair? Yeah, you know, that that got me a little bit so I get where they're coming from? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 42:06
yeah.

Scott Benner 42:08
And at the same time, now, it's been a few months, you know, her stomach. She clearly had had stomach trouble for for many weeks. And so she was a little beat. She's a little beat up from it, and it gets better and better as it goes. But she she needed a time to rebound from it. We actually talked to our pediatrician who just said, Look, this is gonna sound very not technical. He goes, but she's been eating four and five days worth of food that's sitting inside of her. I said, Oh, he's like she's distended. And things are you should like you need to give her time to just yeah, everything for just settle down. Work it out. Yeah. And like, so she's taking like privacy at night before she goes to bed. And she's it's funny, because poor kid. Absolutely. But at the same time you see her do it. And it's just, I don't know, it's part of her routine,

Unknown Speaker 42:55
I guess. Yeah.

Scott Benner 42:56
You know, and I don't think she thinks much of it. I'm sure she's not thrilled about it. But it's also I don't see it crushing her.

Colleen Ngyen 43:04
Well, I I found that I joked that Synthroid, like a miracle drug that it was, it helped me fix things that I didn't know were wrong. Like, what? Like, well, I was tired, but I didn't realize quite how how tired it was like in the bathroom stuff. And, and some of my hormone imbalances, like, once I started taking that for a few months, I felt better, even though I didn't realize how bad I felt.

Scott Benner 43:28
So in fairness, when my wife started taking it, we went back to the doctor, and he's like, how are things going? I said, Well, I had a emergency grave dog in my backyard, but I filled it in. Because, because there were days where she would like I'm like, Oh my god, she's out of her mind. I'm going to have to murder her. And because being supportive, not helpful when that's going on, you're just like, hey, and she's just like, I don't care. And I'm like, okay, help me someone. So you had that going on, too?

Colleen Ngyen 44:00
Yeah, yeah, it will. And after, after I had the twins. I was my doc kept me on the same amount of Synthroid and I went super hyper thyroid. So she took me off of it and then all of a sudden I went and like totally hypo like, I don't even remember what my numbers were but it was outrageous and which is weird because I was still losing weight, but I had just had twins. So anyway, I my husband couldn't believe how much better I was how much happier I was. Once I started taking it again.

Scott Benner 44:33
Yeah, I think what we're seeing with Arden is first her her gi issues are clearing up Yeah. But they say that, you know, it's a lot of growth is really an all the sudden like, every time I look at her She looks taller. And I'm like Geez, I wonder how much of this had to do it. But the other thing the one thing we don't talk about is, is that in the summertime, Arden played in a massive amount of of softball, but she also slept a lot too. Yeah, so she'd sleep in like for real sleeping. Yeah. And, and now I'm thinking, I wonder how much of that is that as well? Because I always joke with a teenager. Yeah. Well, that's the other thing is hard. Because I've always joked my wife's been tired since I met her. But I've, you know, absolutely felt like that, like, forever. You know, she's my wife and sleep till noon. If you let her, like, you know, she doesn't if she doesn't set an alarm. She, you know, we used to joke with her like, four in the afternoon. I'm like, you've been up for four hours. Are you okay? Is everything good? And it's but it's so unfair. It's such a, I was gonna curse them, but it's a bad way to live. Yeah, you know, and, and it's not something that doctors are really good at. I mean, look at look at all the improvement. Arden's had in a short time, the doctor didn't want to give her the medicine.

Unknown Speaker 45:51
Yeah, that's nonsense,

Scott Benner 45:52
right? Because you, but because she didn't cross a certain number. You know, what, like, eight and a half is not normal. You know, you know, you she was significantly higher, just didn't hit some therapeutic level there.

Colleen Ngyen 46:04
And she's clearly displaying symptoms, like,

Scott Benner 46:06
and I go to a really good Children's Hospital for her and technology. And they still were just like, Well, you know, at this number. Now, if they didn't fight us when I said just give us the medicine. It's not like she's like, No, I can't she's like, okay, I'll set it here. Again. It was that easy. But she wasn't gonna do what her own. She wasn't going to do it too. She hit that number. So that's interesting. All right. Well, not unlike most of the episodes of the podcast, we've gotten fairly far away from the initial question. Yeah. And whatever. It doesn't matter to me. So. Okay, good. Yeah. So let's, let's let's just head down a completely different route. So what are your parameters for like, what do you see as a successful day with diabetes? Like you do? Where do you set like, your thresholds for your Dexcom? For instance, like

Unknown Speaker 46:56
70 to 180.

Scott Benner 46:57
Okay. And when do you react to your blood sugar being over? Whatever?

Colleen Ngyen 47:02
How do you? Um, it depends. I'm not as not as strict with it as I was, because I'm terrified of being low right now. Okay, because I'm home with my twins. And I have to drive a lot. But

Unknown Speaker 47:20
yeah,

Colleen Ngyen 47:20
I don't know. I, I try to follow the insulin on board. I had to have it for a while of stalking. Because I get a little too in order to know about it. So I backed off on that.

Unknown Speaker 47:33
Okay, well,

Colleen Ngyen 47:35
I was stalking and then crashing. Okay. without you being pregnant, I had to be an alternative.

Scott Benner 47:42
So because they want your agency super low when you're pregnant, right? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 47:46
I was five point. Right. My point. Yeah.

Scott Benner 47:51
A lot of lows or

Colleen Ngyen 47:55
nah, in the beginning, yes. But not towards the end, then

Scott Benner 47:58
you figured you kind of fit got it straight and everything. So what what goes into a five to eight, one c? Is it an incredible amount of the attention to detail for you?

Colleen Ngyen 48:07
Yes, his timing was big. And living by my Dexcom. I don't know if I could have like, my mom said that you could have done it without Dexcom. But I didn't have to. And it helped a lot. It made things a lot easier. Guys, you know, always had snacks on me Just in case, I, I wouldn't say I ate low carb, I only ate carbs that I knew. I only like I didn't eat pizza. Pretty much throughout my whole pregnancy. But I only encountered carbs that I knew exactly how they were going to react and how I could treat it. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 48:41
Yeah, yeah, I think sometimes. Because we talk on here all the time in the way I do, you know, handle Arden and sweet, I just sort of have the bumping and nudging method, like I keep these close tolerances, and then I just try not to leave them. And it takes it takes less insulin not to leave them. And because of that, then you don't see the lows, because you're not you're not crushing yourself with insulin all the time. Mm hmm. And so, but at the same time, you're not wrong. It is you know, it's effort, right. So I see other people doing it, like, you know, the person I was talking about earlier about, you know, trying to, you know, figure out cereal, like she'll she's gonna figure it out. She did. It's actually amazing. The graph is stunning. Like, I was like, Wow, you really got that straight. But I don't really see it as much about like, okay, now every day I eat something like this. It's always gonna look like this. I always think that more is like not now she knows how to handle that. Yeah, you don't mean like that now can now maybe she can take that information and translate it to a different food that's difficult or? Yeah, I don't think of it as much as about this attempt to be perfect. I just think of it as having this information that you can use to, you know, fight the fight.

Colleen Ngyen 49:56
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I'd say a good a good day. for diabetes is when things go the way I planned.

Scott Benner 50:04
No matter what, that's right. And so and so I see you brought up something that I think is really interesting because what like when we get back to the initial point when I asked people would you want to take diabetes away? And some people were like, Well, you know what, though, I also had that thought back, remember, I was talking about the fear of like doing like being aggressive with your insulin when you're alone? I couldn't remember if that was the thing I talked to you about, like, so we talked about being bold with insulin all the time on the podcast. And then some I do hear from adults who are like, it's hard to do, because I'm by myself. But But you're Yeah, you're not by yourself. But you're. You have kids. Yeah,

Colleen Ngyen 50:48
sure. Yeah. I'm caring for two kids, sometimes three kids, because I have a stepdaughter, too. Okay. And, yeah, I have, and I have to drive her back and forth to school. And I have to be able to do that. I can't, it's hard to take a risk of being low because I need to be able to safely transport them around.

Scott Benner 51:05
Yeah, it's the same fear for a different reason. So if you're by yourself, you're like, well, what if I get too low to help myself? But isn't it funny when you're around kids? You didn't think well, what if I get too low to help myself? You thought what if I get too low? And I can't help them? Yeah.

Colleen Ngyen 51:18
Yeah. You know, it's funny, I always say like, when I was pregnant, it was easy to keep those blood sugar's low, because I was doing it for them. And now I feel like it's hard to keep my blood sugar is low, because I'm doing it for them.

Scott Benner 51:34
Isn't it? Yeah, and no, but in this to two thoughts, they're like, that I'm doing for my kids makes it infinitely simple. Like, you know, no matter what, let's forget the diabetes for a second, just things you think you can't do. You can do. And yeah, but you need to be motivated by sometimes the love for another human being to do it. Because isn't it interesting, the love for yourself? Not enough?

Unknown Speaker 51:58
And no.

Scott Benner 52:01
And I don't, I totally have that too. I was thinking the other day about, I mean, I had the surgery on my shoulder, which is now over a year ago, and I'm finally in a better place with it. And but I haven't moved in the way I wanted to, for that whole time. You know, I wasn't able to lift things, throw things do stuff like that. And now, I want to get back into it. And I can't quite I can't quite find the motivation to handle it. And, and yet, I found myself thinking the other day, it's such a strange and bizarre thought. But my, my son, we talked about the pocket slot my son's been working out trying to find a college to play baseball at and he did. And I actually had the conscious thought the other day, like, I don't want to show up to his baseball games like the chubby dad. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, and I know, that's not why I should worry about my health. But I thought as I thought it Oh, my God is that the thing I could use to motivate myself, like, I don't want to, not that he'd be embarrassed. And not that it's funny when I think about myself, I'm not at my ideal weight. But as I go throughout my day, I don't see myself that way. Like my self esteem is not such that I think of myself poorly. But when I offered today to do the Giving Tuesday for the jdrf. And they were like, well send us a picture of yourself. They wanted us to wear the Omni pod demo, the junior effort. So I am wearing it on the pod demo for a couple days. And they're like, can send us a picture of yourself with the pod. I was like, wait, I got to photograph myself. I was like I didn't No one said that. You know. And if you see the picture on my Facebook page, it'll be long gone by the time the people see this, but somebody said, You look so serious. I'm like, I found an angle. And I was trying not to drop the camera. You know, and it just, but I don't having had all those conscious thoughts, then my next thoughts not well, I should really do something about that, because I'm pretty comfortable with myself. And so but when I thought about it through my kids, I thought well, I probably could do that. Yeah, and that's I don't know if that's sad or not. I can't

Unknown Speaker 54:09
I don't think so. Yeah,

Scott Benner 54:10
You don't think so? Good. I'm glad because it seems a little sad, right? But it's just such a human condition thing. Like it's easier to it's easier to care about somebody else's to care about yourself for some reason. Yeah.

Colleen Ngyen 54:24
I mean, as a parent you I mean you put them first though

Scott Benner 54:29
Yeah. And yeah, I mean even in that like you when you're talking about going to diabetes camps and helping those kids I think I see myself in a way you probably see yourself to like I however growing up affected me. I am really a caregiver at heart like I am most comfortable when I'm helping other people need to know I the people I know who aren't like that seem so much more successful but and then I got thinner By the way, but they're like forget all you people. I'm going to the gym Yeah. Wow, I wish I could do that. And those people are listening right now. They're like, you can do it. You're lazy and I'm like, Okay, I'm sorry. So okay, so you keep this one ad and this and the 70. people listening are like, Oh, it must be killing Scott that she lets her blood sugar go to 180. But I get it. I get that you. I get why. And so you pick the number where you weren't you weren't having lows anymore, but so is it just how old are those twins? They're almost three. No, jeez, that's gotta be exhausting.

Unknown Speaker 55:35
Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 55:36
So do you think that once they become less effort, you'll be able to transfer some of that back to yourself?

Unknown Speaker 55:42
Yes, absolutely. Kindergarten. Okay, we put goodbye.

Scott Benner 55:49
Why is everyone crying? Mommy's not crying get out. We've loved you enough. It's so funny. I am. You think it's gonna be easy, and maybe it will be for you. But the day that my son got on a bus, and I had been his and I had been a stay at home dad for every second that he was alive. My wife stayed home from work. She's like, I'm gonna stay home from work today and watch him get on the bus and you know, be there for him when he gets home and like have the whole day together as it that's a great idea. He gets on the bus and we turn around, we walk back up our driveway, and we're standing in our kitchen and I just start crying. My wife's like, my boys like making fun of me like you would think she's getting a camera taking pictures of me crying. This is back before digital. So she's got to go to effort to take pictures. And she's like, Oh, my God, you're like, a mess. And I was like, well, well, I just I couldn't even put it towards him. Like he's been with me. Like every second for five years. Why did we get why do we even let him get on that bus? Colleen? I don't know that woman driving that bus.

Colleen Ngyen 56:50
We're easing into it. They're they're in preschool twice a week right now. Okay, four hours total for the whole week. And I treasure those four.

Scott Benner 57:01
So you have a healthier outlook for these things.

Unknown Speaker 57:05
Okay,

Unknown Speaker 57:05
so what's different having two of them at once?

Scott Benner 57:08
Yeah, yeah. Do you know I'm stopping myself from going? What about 150? Colleen, could we put it?

Unknown Speaker 57:15
I'm okay. Right now.

Scott Benner 57:19
What is that? What is it's funny so? So let me let me ask you a question. Right? You look up and your blood sugar's 130. diagnol. up. You're not getting a, an alarm. But you happen to say it, but you happen to see it. Would you do something there?

Colleen Ngyen 57:35
Ah, if I don't have any if I hadn't eaten or anything like that. Yeah, I would.

Scott Benner 57:39
You would, you'd be like, hey, my blood sugar shouldn't be going up like this. Yeah. Okay. How often does your blood sugar actually gets to 180?

Unknown Speaker 57:47
Oh,

Unknown Speaker 57:47
that's a great question. Depends on the day.

Scott Benner 57:50
Does it sit at one at you?

Colleen Ngyen 57:52
Well, so that drives me crazy. That's the one thing I don't like. So like if it if it's just under that. You want me if it's like 175 right. I don't like that. But, but especially overnight right now. I can't I can't bring myself to bring it down.

Scott Benner 58:08
If it's 175 What's the feeling like? Oh, it's so close. Why don't you just beep so I can do something

Unknown Speaker 58:13
or no, no, like, I

Colleen Ngyen 58:14
mean, if I if I see it, I'll fix it. Right? Um, but

Scott Benner 58:18
you wish you knew. And it just barely gets to the it just doesn't quite get to the point where

Colleen Ngyen 58:23
Yeah, cuz I mean, I look at it pretty frequently. Okay. Oh, it's not like, I sound like I just go, buddy.

Unknown Speaker 58:29
It's interesting.

Colleen Ngyen 58:30
Like, actually, I'm freaking I'm a little tweaky right now. Because right before you called, my dog was on me and she ripped my sensor off. And now I'm like, Oh,

Unknown Speaker 58:41
you don't have your sensor on right now? No.

Scott Benner 58:43
So you in order in the exact same boat? Yes, we are. I just sent her a text. I'm like it because I told you like, Oh, I told her said set an alarm. Right. Meanwhile, she's not really gonna test when that alarm. So, so I sent her a text. I'm like, hey, test, and I get Hold on. And I'm like, okay, that seems reasonable. But that hold on was like nine minutes ago. And so. So then, so then I texted back, I'm like, hello. And here's the thing. I don't want I only wanted a text because I don't want it to be high. If she was getting, I know how much insulin I gave her. I know what her blood sugar I tested. We tested before she left. I gave her some insulin. I didn't give her enough to make her crash. She'd know if she was getting dizzy. She if she was hitting like 65 I'm not worried about her being low. And I'm not even worried about her falling fast. I have enough experience to know that I didn't do something to make her fall fast. If she's gonna drop like crazy on that, you know that thing that happens to you once every 60 days where you're like, wow, why the heck did that happen? You know, that would just be bad luck. I don't I'm not planning for bad luck today. So I'm really wanting her to test so that I can. I want to make sure she doesn't get too high because she's got to have lunch in but you know she's gonna eat in about a half an hour 45 minutes but I do With all the growing she's doing right now, holy yesterday, she came home, her blood sugar was great all day. A little spike at lunch, but it came right back again. And then she gets home, she has a snack. I totally bolus enough for the snack. And then it just starts climbing. I'm like more more I could not give her enough to stop this spike. And before I knew it, she was like 275. And I was like, she says, That never happens to us. So I gave her gave her more and it would move I gave her more like drink this water. And she's sitting doing her homework and more and more and my wife's like, I I really want to go to Panera Bread and get soup. And I was like, okay, like, I mean, whatever. And so she goes out and she says that it gets Do you want anything? And I was like, Oh, here it comes.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:44
And so I was like, I'm

Scott Benner 1:00:46
gonna have squash soup, pumpkin squash soup, and macaroni and cheese. And I was like,

Unknown Speaker 1:00:51
Well, okay,

Scott Benner 1:00:53
and so I'm like, so I'm pushing on this 260 that now it's 260 and I'm pushing, it won't move and it won't move. And finally, finally, finally, finally, my wife's like, Look, I just picked up the food, I'm on my way home. And her blood sugar was still like 260 I want to tell you that I gave her such an obnoxious amount of insulin. I was like, a lot has to work out here. This has to be this like because either This food is going to come home. And I'm she's still gonna be 260 and I'm not gonna have the heart to tell her not to eat it. Or, or I need to get her blood sugar like rock solid falling. You know what I mean? So that it actually worked. But I had to give her so much more than Yeah. And I think it's just because she's growing and they think she's very close to Lady time. Probably not. Yeah, not for this month. I mean for her life. It hasn't happened. It hasn't actually happened yet, but he feels like it's coming. I

Colleen Ngyen 1:01:53
was gonna say that's when you get those weird lows.

Scott Benner 1:01:57
And really just out of nowhere, they just, there's no reason for you to be low and all the sudden you are

Colleen Ngyen 1:02:03
okay, like why am I Why is this happening to me?

Scott Benner 1:02:06
And that happens to you during your period. Yep. Yeah, that's interesting. We did a whole episode with a girl who I can't think of her name right now. It's called Code Red. The episode and all we did was talk about what her blood sugar was like during her you know that time she described.

She described like, four weeks before she can tell when it's coming. She can tell you it felt to me like dealing with your with your menstruation. If you have Type One Diabetes is about a two and a half to three week process

Unknown Speaker 1:02:32
a month. It is it is horrible. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:02:36
So do you, do you? I'm assuming it doesn't feel like a process eventually. Eventually, it's just

Colleen Ngyen 1:02:44
yeah, I have like different profile my palm I just switch it over.

Scott Benner 1:02:47
No kidding. So so you just you're like here comes switch to it. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:51
And well,

Colleen Ngyen 1:02:54
I use a NuvaRing for birth control. And that helps because then it's very scientific of one where I can switch things over.

Scott Benner 1:03:00
Okay, so there's a lot there's a certain day And literally, you change your basal rates and your insulin carb ratios. And

Colleen Ngyen 1:03:05
Yep. And then that's it on low for like a little Yeah, like take the ring out. And then it starts like three days later. That's when I switch it over. Because then I'm below for the next like two days.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:17
I go back. Yes, I

Scott Benner 1:03:18
have twins. I do seven of those rings. Right. So anyway, hey, Arden just tested her blood sugar's 117. So that's all good. I am going to ask her real quick to see if the CGM is ready to be calibrated, which might be and and then we're on our way but Kelly, you and I have been talking for an hour.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:39
This was the like, Whoa,

Scott Benner 1:03:40
did it feel like it? No, it didn't good. That's more authentic like you tried to hone in on my podcast. I would say make your own podcast but soon after I made a podcast a lot of people seem to have an idea. And so and I'm not taking credit for anything I'm just saying find your own thing. Please

Colleen Ngyen 1:04:01
let me know when you want to talk about diabetes camp.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:04
Yeah, yeah, you

Scott Benner 1:04:04
know what let's do that. Which camp Do you work at?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:07
the Keystone diabetic kids camp? Yeah, cuz you're right. You're in Philly, right? I'm in Harrisburg. Harrisburg.

Scott Benner 1:04:13
Oh, so hey, those those school my son committed to Dickinson.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:18
Oh, no way. Yeah.

Colleen Ngyen 1:04:19
Enola like the other side. Harrisburg. Pretty close.

Scott Benner 1:04:22
No, no kidding. Yeah, we've, um, I've only been out there for his visit. And, um, hold on a second. I gotta tell her put the number and

Unknown Speaker 1:04:32
when we're in the same County,

Scott Benner 1:04:34
no kidding. He, he, um, so we'll talk for another second about things. Okay. If you're listening for the diabetes stuff, skip to the end now. And so. So he, at one point had 15 schools that were were interested like that initial interest like and all that meant was your GPA and your grades seemed to fit with us, and we liked the way you play baseball. And it's a long process. of recruiting it really is something and then, you know, then some of them will back out because they'll find kids they like better as players. Sometimes your, you know, your SAP doesn't hit correctly, like, you know, and so teams come away and some more Come on. And, and he had it down to a few really great like good, really good schools you would have been thrown with your kid with any of these schools. And then we started going on overnight visits and everything. And he just he was at Dickinson and I was sitting in a nice hotel room in Carlisle somewhere just thinking, this is it. I just sit here, I guess while he does this thing. And so in the morning, I went to meet him because he had to watch a prat. He was supposed to go watch another practice with the team after after he'd spent the night. And we met there. And he looked at me and he's like, I'm really comfortable here. And I was like, okay, you know, and he had been to some other schools. One of them had coed bathrooms. And here's the quote, I can't completely use the word. So you'll have to insert the word that starts with and is four letters long when I say this, but I had to stand in front of my 17 year old son while he said, Dad, it's weird to take a crap blog while a girl's taking a shower. Yeah. And I was like, That does sound weird, buddy. But he's like, it's like, it's not like it was right next to each other, but we were in the same space.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:29
And I was wondering if that was my alma mater.

Scott Benner 1:06:34
He goes, he goes, I'm not 100% sure I can do that. And I was like, joking. It was like, okay, it wasn't the whole reason he didn't completely love that school. Like there were other parts about it. It's didn't fit with him. But he came out and he's like, Daddy's like, there's, he's like, I really, I think I really want to go to Dickinson. And I was, like I said, that's great. I said, you know, you're at this visit with, I think that day there were, I think the baseball team had three different visit days. And then on that day, there were 13 kids there.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:01
And I said, Look, man,

Scott Benner 1:07:02
he likes all these kids. I said, you guys wouldn't be here if he wasn't hopeful to get any number of you. And I said, so if you're really comfortable. You shouldn't like don't be coy, you know? Yeah. And so I went and sat down and, and from a distance, I watched my son talking to this coach, and then they shook hands and I was like, Oh, my God. That said, I think my son's coming here to play baseball. It was just it was very exciting.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:28
I love Carlisle.

Scott Benner 1:07:30
Yeah. Is it I tell you, I was only there for a day and a half. But it was a it was a nice little town. Like it really was.

Colleen Ngyen 1:07:35
Yeah, it felt really like it up and coming. I would say, you know, they're starting to really renovate and rebuild a lot of that downtown area. Really nice. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 1:07:44
had a really good I definitely had a good feeling there. The campus was great and everything and it fits his academics like it's, it's, he was at one school, that would have been a daily challenge for him. And not that not that. I think that college shouldn't be challenging, but I was like, I don't know, do you really want to just be beating your head against this wall? Like every second you're here? Like, don't you think something should be at least on your level? Not always working hard, hard, hard, you know, like that? That sounds weird.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:13
No, you know, but like,

Scott Benner 1:08:15
he's like, this place really fits perfect for me. Okay, great. So

Unknown Speaker 1:08:20
we're only about 20 minutes away from me. No kidding. It's not a band Brian either. No, Turnpike.

Scott Benner 1:08:28
It wasn't. Okay.

So now for all you other people who don't care about my son going to baseball. In a second. I'm gonna say goodbye to Colleen and then you'll hear the stuff at the end of the podcast. So thank you very much calling for.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:39
Thanks for having me.

Scott Benner 1:08:43
But that conversation was very relaxed. I

like that.

Thank you very much, Colleen for coming on and telling your story. Thank you dex calm and on the pod for sponsoring the podcast, you can go to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Or let's do it a deeper voice Miam the pod.com forward slash juice box to find out much more about these wonderful products. If you're looking for a CGM or an insulin pump, I cannot more highly recommend the Dexcom or the Omni pod. Don't forget to back in Episode 174. If you just don't want an insulin pump, check out the pen the smart insulin pen from companion medical Episode 174. co tikki. looky looky gonna be back next week with more of the Juicebox Podcast

Unknown Speaker 1:09:25
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