#198 Call Her Freddy
Scott Benner
From Minnesota to Prague….
Michelle is from the Mid-West. Her entire family, including their young daughter with type 1, recently moved to Prague. This is what they've learned about living abroad with type 1 diabetes.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Hello, everyone, welcome to Episode 198 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by dexcom, makers of the G six continuous glucose monitor, and buy the only self contained tubeless insulin pump on the market on the pod, you can go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box to get a free no obligation demo today. Or go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box to learn more about getting started with the G six. Today, something kind of odd is going to happen on the podcast. It's small, but it's odd. I'll be speaking with Michelle, she's the mom of a type one diabetic. She's also part of a four person family, her her husband and two small children who moved from Minnesota to Prague to teach overseas. But in Prague, you know, the Czech Republic. And on last week's episode, we spoke with Alaina who was from the Czech Republic, I promise this was not on purpose. It is however, incredibly strange, as I don't know how I ended up with two people on the podcast and consecutive weeks who are either from or living in the Czech Republic. Anyway, I just found that really interesting. The odds must be pretty stacked against me, I can't imagine there are that many people in the Czech Republic listening to the podcast. But obviously, there are a few. And don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should ever be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before being bold with insulin. or making any changes to your health care plan. Go ahead and introduce yourself anyway you want to be known and we'll just jump right in.
Michelle 1:48
Okay, I'm Michelle ago, I'm the mother of a type one five year old. And we're originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. And we travel the world and we are in Prague right now.
Scott Benner 2:00
Very nice time. Michelle's being she You see, I'm gonna leave in where I asked her to introduce herself because the little laugh afterwards cuz she was like, what are we going to talk about? You should send me some notes. And I'm like, man, it'll be okay. Don't worry. I know you're like what's gonna happen, but I hope it makes you feel better to know that I don't also know what's gonna happen. So it'll be it'll be good. So you're you reached out. Just because you have all this incredible experience with traveling with tight bond and being overseas, and having to use insurance and and get medical supplies and everything like that. And so I think that's a really cool topic. How did you end up leaving Minneapolis for the world?
Michelle 2:43
Well, we applied with a actually with a missionary organization in the summer of 2016, or I guess, in the spring, but we just felt like, this is where we're supposed to be right now. So I mean, for us, this was a very unique calling, I think within like, four months of applying. We had all the funding that we needed, and we were on a plane to Prague. So yeah, but we still our mission organization is based in the US. So the tricky thing is that we still have US based health insurance, but we're living here. So, so one hard thing is if we're getting equipment, or certain supplies, we still have to go through US companies, even though we're not located there. And we don't have an embassy mailbox here where they could ship to. So that would be like one caveat is if you are with the military, the embassy, and then those companies will ship to you. But otherwise you have to use a US mailing address. So that has made things a little bit tricky. But we've made it work for two years.
Scott Benner 3:50
And so somebody on the US side has to then get your supplies and then send them to you.
Michelle 3:55
Well, actually, before we left, we explained to our insurance what was happening and we were able to get two years worth of pump supplies to bring with us. So we put them we had like three suitcases full of stuff
Scott Benner 4:07
that we add stuff. That's okay, so let me make sure I understand everything. So it's you you're it's your daughter, right? Yeah. And she's five and and her husband, I'm assuming. Mm hmm. And the other kids.
Michelle 4:21
We have one other Yep. He's two and a half, two and a half.
Scott Benner 4:24
So. Oh, wow. Two and a half. So you were pregnant when you left?
Michelle 4:28
No, I was nine months old. Okay. maybe six months? I don't know. He was born in November. We left in August. Oh, math. Yeah,
Scott Benner 4:39
obviously this is something you guys wanted to do. You're on your way did you and you had the diabetes was in your life when you when you made this decision. He left How long? How long did did she have diabetes before you guys did this?
Michelle 4:53
Two years before he was diagnosed in August of 2014. She was 16 months old. And so we, you know, and we got the pump almost immediately, she only did injections for two months. And then we got the insulin pump. Because her doses that she needed were very, very small at the time. So the pump really allowed us to give her those minute doses, which was great. And so yeah, after two years, you know, I mean, and you know, if you live with something for 24 hours a day, and you're managing it that way all the time, you become familiar with it pretty quickly.
Unknown Speaker 5:27
Yeah. So
Michelle 5:27
after two years, I mean, we we still encounter new situations, even now. And we're almost, you know, I don't know how many how many years is that? A lot of years, four years in the duration. But yeah, after two years, we had seen a lot of things and we felt comfortable moving.
Scott Benner 5:47
So that's really cool. Yeah. Are you adventurous like this before? All this? We you always somebody who was like, let's just try this?
Michelle 5:56
Well, we Yeah, I mean, we moved to Minnesota The day after our wedding. So I guess you could call that adventurous, got in a car, and then we were gone. So
Scott Benner 6:06
it's a lot of effort to avoid writing. thank you notes. Michelle.
Unknown Speaker 6:08
Yeah.
Scott Benner 6:09
All right. Soccer is good. I, I imagined in my mind, your your daughter got diabetes, and you're like, I'm gonna go to Prague, you all stay here. And then they just glommed onto your idea and chased you over there? Because I felt like running away a couple of times.
Unknown Speaker 6:25
Of course, yeah.
Michelle 6:26
You know, we were actually thankful that that was the diagnosis at the time, because we had seen her get sick. And we asked the doctor, it actually I had asked point blank, could it be type one diabetes? And I was told no, because her weight was good. She had just had a 15 month checkup? And they said, Oh, no, her weight is good. And you know, type one is autoimmune. If she was autoimmune, she would have been sick with other things. And she'd never been sick. You know, she'd never even had a fever. And so they said, there's no way that she's type one. And so they just didn't even test her. That's an interesting. And she was Yeah, and she had a lot of diaper used at the time. And so at the 15 month checkup, the pediatrician had said, Oh, well, that can be a sign of autoimmune. But you're she's so healthy, that I don't think it's that at all. He said, You just need to change her diaper more. plump she is it's all fine.
Unknown Speaker 7:17
My medical diagnosis. That's,
Michelle 7:22
I think, kind of anti daycare, we both my husband and I worked full time at the time. And our daughter was in daycare four days a week. And I just got the feeling that our pediatrician didn't really agree with that choice. Because he was just kind of blaming the daycare saying, Oh, well, obviously, they're not changing her enough, you know, and we loved the ladies that took care of our daughter. And we did not feel that they were doing an enough job at all. And so we really fought with him on that. And then in the summer, we even like, let her go around without a diaper at all. And just with the dress on, you know, and even still, she had to have Neistat in or she would have the yeast infection. And that went on for a few months. And then after her 15 month checkup, I went online and thought, well, there has to be something else we can do, you know. And so then I read an article that said that this could be a symptom of type one diabetes, and I thought, well, it's not like call the National Guard. This is one thing, you know, so we'll wait. And we'll see if any other symptoms develop. But I said something to my husband at that time. I said, Well, do you think it could be type one? And he said, No, that would be so weird. And then then she started to really heavily wet her diapers. I mean, every one of them was just like 10 pounds heavy, just so have you like completely saturated hanging off her. And it was like every hour, and we were about to go on a trip, our wedding anniversary, and I and we were gonna take her with us and I called the Doctor again. And I said, Okay, well, now she also has like these really heavy diapers all the time. We're changing her. And I described how heavy and how often they said, well, it's summer, you know, she's just drinking a lot. And, and I said specifically like, could it be type one diabetes? She also has these diaper rashes. And they said, Oh, no, no, no, no, she we looked at her chart, her weight is good her she's very healthy. And nobody told me and I didn't look into it enough. Nobody told me the risks of her being undiagnosed and type one. And two, then when we came back from our trip over the weekend, then she got violently ill she was in decay. She ended up in PETA or contemplative care. And we switched pediatricians i was i was livid.
Scott Benner 9:36
You know, I never heard a doctor base everything on your weight being okay
Michelle 9:39
you with very, very small children. I don't know how old Arden was at diagnosis, but I've heard this from other parents too. If their child is still getting their, you know, like checkups during their first year or two years of life when they're really little and they go in all the time. They base a lot of their health on weight. You know, healthy weight means I A lot, and so that we went through any that was definitely true. They thought, you know, well, your weight is good. And then but then they also kind of paired that with the fact that I think they have this mis assumption that if you're type one, it's autoimmune. So you're gonna just be prone to all these illnesses, which, with our kids, that is not true at all. Our youngest is the one who really gets sick and is affected by colds and everything so much more. And Winnie like, has never still never had any kind of prescription for anything like no bronchitis, no pneumonia, nothing, right.
Scott Benner 10:33
I always see I always see with Arden, like, she's a sign of diabetes, is incredibly healthy and doesn't get saved almost at all. Yeah, probably because her immune system is probably too good, which is probably how it beat up and killed her pancreas. And, you know, like,
Unknown Speaker 10:48
that's the theory. Yeah.
Scott Benner 10:50
Yeah. And I'm, I'm very similar. Like, I, if I get sick, I'm sick for four hours. Like, like, I get, oh, I just happened to me. A week or so ago. Like I said to my wife, I'm like, I don't feel well. And I'm going to lay down now is like eight o'clock at night. And at midnight, I opened my eyes. I was like, Oh, I'm all better. And it just, you know, I don't know that. That's just, I don't know. That's a very, very strange.
Michelle 11:17
Anyway. So you were saying you're talking about running away a diagnosis or feeling that way. But so for us, we felt very thankful that, that this was her diagnosis, and that it was something that we could manage, because just in those last couple days, when she got really sick, and it happened very, very quickly, we didn't know what to do with her. And we were so worried about her. And then and when she was in decay, I mean, it was the scariest thing ever. And we were so thankful that, that we can manage type one, and that she can live a completely normal, healthy life apart, you know, apart from this one thing, you know, that she has to deal with. And it's not that it's easy, but it's doable, right. And so, and that's the blessing is that it's doable. And we were so glad that like, we could do a week of training at the hospital and do all these classes and go home and figure it out. And so
Scott Benner 12:06
we your mind must have really wandered when she ended up in the hospital, right? Like, like, before you have because everybody's been telling you it's not diabetes, every time you've brought up. Did you wonder what else it might be? Like? Were you did you let your imagination get the best of you that or did they give you? No, I didn't
Michelle 12:21
I just kept looking for more symptoms of type one thinking, well, it's, you know, I just kept watching, like for the list of symptoms that I'd read online. And then when something new would present itself? I was I would say, Oh, yeah, I don't know, I maybe they're awesome. And then the day that she threw up when I brought her into the pediatrician, I said, test her for test your blood sugar. I want it you know, like I want you to do if it's that is so I don't know, I still have kind of had that. I don't know idea. But like I said, I definitely didn't research it enough. And no one warned me. None of the nurses I talked to the pediatrician, nobody told me what would happen. If she was type one, her pancreas was shutting down, and it wasn't taking care of it. And nobody told me, you know that we could have just brought her to someone with a meter. Or we could have bought a meter at the pharmacy to check her. You know, and you know how insurance works. You don't always know what you're going to pay at the doctor. And if they tell you you don't need to come in, you're like, Okay, I guess I will. Like,
Scott Benner 13:21
it's very hard situation to be, like aggressive in
Michelle 13:25
well, and we didn't know what the test was. And so I was thinking I don't want to be one of those parents who ordered an unnecessary, like invasive tests for my kids. They didn't tell me it was just a finger prick. Nobody said like, well, it's so easy, you know, just bring her in, just to be sure, yeah. And we were not kind of parents who called wolf all the time. You know, we never came in unless it was a regular checkup. So I just I still can't believe that nobody looked into anything any further. You know, it's not like we had this history of calling in all the time for silly little things. You know, we had a concern, and we had reasons for our concern. And we kind of got brushed aside, because they had this chart that said she was healthy, you know, healthy based on her weight.
Scott Benner 14:05
And it's only because you hadn't figured it out a couple of times to
Michelle 14:09
like you. We asked a couple of different people, and, you know, so anyway, but
Scott Benner 14:16
has that affected how you do things now? Like are you more aggressive, I guess in situations like that anymore?
Michelle 14:24
I don't know. I think I'm aggressive anyway. So I don't think I need to be more aggressive. I think I'm aggressive enough. But I think we're you know, we're more picky now about our pediatrician for sure. You know, we definitely like, like to be in someone's care who advocates for you know, like finger sticking or like blood testing or someone who will look and look into those things. And I think being here in Prague, we've noticed or at least I've noticed, I'm in a group for moms of type one kids here and I've met so many more people whose children are diagnosed young age than I ever met in Minneapolis, like so many more. It's really incredible. So I think we've seen there a lot more cautious here with health care. And testing is everything is so much cheaper. So you don't have these prices hanging over your head. If the doctor says like, Oh, I want to, you know, run this test or look into this thing for you, you know, you're not worried right away about I says
Scott Benner 15:26
Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitoring system is now FDA permitted for zero finger sticks. That means you can make treatment decisions based on your Dexcom. And if you don't believe the FDA, believe me, because I just did it five minutes ago with our Arden's been at school all day. As she left for school in the morning, her blood sugar was 120 and it was starting to rise. Then we gave her a Temp Basal increase and bolused the blood sugar actually went to 140 and hung there for about 30 minutes before we started to get it to come back down. Eight o'clock. 830 got it back down under 121 10. And eventually around 9am. It leveled out around 92 stayed there for an hour and a half. She's got an early lunch today. So about 1020 she texts me and says, Hey, I'm going to be going to lunch soon. I looked up saw the trend of the Dexcom graph saw whatever blood sugar was 92. And I said okay, let's do a Temp Basal increase of 40% for an hour and a half. And Bolus 14 units. We're going to extend it. Let's do 50% now, and 50% over the next hour. It's now 25 minutes later and Arden's eating, her blood sugar is 98. And it is stable. And if by chance we've made some sort of an error with her bolus, and it starts to go up or down, we'll be able to make adjustments on the fly because of the information coming back from her CGM. And how am I doing that? Because it has the share feature. And I can see it at home while I'm talking to you while Arden's off at school. Sharon follow is available for Android and Apple. These are our results. Yours may vary. Check out dexcom.com forward slash juice box with links in your show notes or Juicebox podcast.com to find out more. What was her blood sugar when she went to DK?
Michelle 17:17
It was over 500 on the meter that they had at the pediatricians office. But I don't I don't know. You know, like they don't think they told us at the hospital and yeah, I mean, that's fine. I
Scott Benner 17:30
was just I was just wondering how far it got because she was tiny, right? So
Michelle 17:34
yeah, yeah. So everything happened really rapidly. And I've read some studies too, like there's a study out of the UK, done on small children who are diagnosed with type one, and they talk about how rapidly the symptoms develop, you know, so for Winnie, when she started heavily wetting her diapers, it was maybe like, a week and a half. And then she was in the hospital DK, you know, so the diaper use was allowed around for quite a bit longer. But then then when she started had more of the classic symptoms that you would recognize in adults or other people, it was like less than two weeks.
Scott Benner 18:10
Yeah. So you know, it's funny you say that, because if you make me go through my timeline, and Arjun was definitely sick and not feeling well. She was having these intermittent bowel movements, like it was days in between, and they were they were rock hard, like there was no moisture to them whatsoever. But when the heavy urination started, it was only a couple days, we were in the hospital. Right? Like it. Yeah, like that. I felt like I guess now that you look back, if that was sort of like the, that was the last one, you know, yeah, it's really something. Um, so what I'm doing in Prague,
Michelle 18:46
we work for a Christian school. My husband and I both do and, and our kids go to school here while we're teaching. So that's been interesting. So our kids are like, in a, in a school run by these really nice Czech ladies. And so we've learned I've learned some of the the vocab for for diabetes in Czech, which has been interesting, but where Winnie is the director also speaks English and Winnie's teacher also knows she's proficient in English. She's not fluent, but, but she speaks well enough that we can communicate so. So that was important to us, especially in the beginning. We toyed around with the idea of putting her in a complete Lea check environment for next year. But you kind of run into the same issues that you do in the US with really little ones and type one where the schools aren't always prepared to take them. They don't have a system in place because your kid might be the first one they've ever seen. Yeah. So we didn't and we didn't know anybody in our immediate vicinity, who has a type one kid when he's age in school, so there wasn't anything recommended to us and I looked into a few and nothing really struck me social stay where she is for next year. But it's good. You know, she's she's still she's learning the language and doing really well. And they celebrate world diabetes day with her and November the whole school wears blue for her even the cook at the school. So it's, it's pretty fun. Yeah.
Scott Benner 20:19
So do you speak any? Did you speak any of the language coming in? Or did you? No, no? Are you picking it up at all?
Michelle 20:28
A little bit, I go, I sit in on one of the classes at the high school where we teach. And then I do the same assignments at the high school kids in the class. Um, so yeah, I do that when I'm and that's, that's fun. It's good.
Scott Benner 20:43
I can't imagine like making up a language as an adult, like, it seems.
Michelle 20:48
It's good, it's good for your brain, right? Keep learning new things. And you're, it's useful. A lot of the like, the government buildings that we go into, people don't always speak English. And so like, if I go to the post office, I probably have to speak to them in Czech, or I have to pick a very specific post office, you know, where they're going to be more likely to speak English, and then have to go the touristy areas that I don't want to go to.
Unknown Speaker 21:15
So
Unknown Speaker 21:16
is that isolating at all?
Michelle 21:18
Um, a little bit, but you know, I have a group of You mean, like, for like, a type one community?
Scott Benner 21:25
In general, like, do you you know, I mean, if I get incredibly bored, I can wander into my backyard and talk to my neighbor. Like, you know, but but like, do you? Is it like you and your husband and the kids and then
Michelle 21:36
you have to go to school where we teach, they speak English, you know, an English speaking school. So the people that coworkers speak English, even the ones who teach track, they speak English. Also, so So no, so in that way, we're kind of in this bubble. And yeah, it can be a little overwhelming sometimes to go out until like, like to go to the post office. For example, if I have to ask them for something new. I might have to, like, refuse a. I don't know if you can hear when is Dexcom is going on? Okay, yeah, I just heard it on my phone. But um, anyway, yeah, like to go to post office, I have to prepare myself, you know, for like, 30 minutes I'll spend that I need and like, you know, going with a picture of what I want.
Scott Benner 22:21
How long you spend it? Are you planning on staying? Is it indefinite? Or do you have a?
Michelle 22:26
I don't know, maybe like we'd like to stay for next year. We're coming back for a little bit this summer, because we need to fundraise for our third year. Okay.
Scott Benner 22:33
So do you have to come home and be like, Hey, listen, everybody. We're doing good work over here. Somebody needs to pay for it. And
Michelle 22:41
we, you know, we've been really fortunate that we have a pretty, pretty awesome support team behind us. So yeah, that's pretty good. It's
Scott Benner 22:49
actually very, it's amazing. It's a, it's, I don't know, a lot of people that would do something like that. So I'm a little overwhelmed with what you guys. Oh, wow. That's really great. Yeah.
Michelle 23:01
Yeah, it's totally doable, though. It's, it's really great. And it's just by God's grace, that we're here. And we're just happy to be here. So I'd have the opportunity, though. And, yeah, and I think it's important for people to know that you, they can do things like that they can move across the world with type one, and it's okay, it'll be fine. And actually, we were talking about when Winnie goes to college, if, if she's uninsured, at any point, we'll ship it to Europe, because you can buy insulin here at the pharmacy without insurance for like 40 bucks. So we're just like, we're gonna send her to Europe, if effer doesn't have insurance, and then, and we feel that they'll have what she needs, because that's one thing we've appreciated about the opportunity here is the price of some of the things so like, our durable medical equipment we sought to get through the US but like, we can pay for insulin out of pocket, and then our insurance will reimburse us and the insulin are so cheap, we can afford to do that. So I just go to the pharmacy and like glucagon we bought the other day, and it was like 20 bucks for glucagon, which is a vial
Scott Benner 24:05
of insulin last year.
Michelle 24:07
Well, I get it like a box. So like an entire box of five pen fills with $40 Oh,
Scott Benner 24:13
that's pretty reasonable.
Unknown Speaker 24:16
Yeah,
Scott Benner 24:17
that's like, yeah, that's, uh, I mean, I think that's about my copay. Maybe it is. Yeah, when when Arden's insulin pumps, I think we get more than five. But we probably have more insulin than that for that money. But still, it's
Michelle 24:30
right. Well, it depends on what your prescription is, right? Like for winning one box was her monthly need. And so for us, our copay was $40 for the one box, but then, you know, if we were the retail price on that I think I saw at our target pharmacy one time was like $450, you know, so I never could have walked into the target pharmacy and bought my insulin without insurance without the copay. But that's what we do here. I just walk in and I have to have a prescription from the doctor. So that's wonderful. Here, they don't keep your prescription on file at the pharmacy, the doctor will write you a paper slip, and then you go in with it. And then if you want more insulin, you have to go back to the doctor and get another slip. But they'll write you like a three month supply. And so we get enough to get us between appointments, and it works totally fine. And he also, in our doctor said, if we ever ran out, we just email him and he'll send us a prescription In the meantime, and our pediatrician here has written us a prescription for insulin, because when we first arrived, she was the first doctor that we met. And so it you don't even have to go to the endocrinologist. And it was really easy. I mean, I just showed them. I didn't even show them her paperwork from Minnesota had it with me. But I just said she's diabetic, I need her insulin. And they were like, Okay, what do you want?
Scott Benner 25:47
So when you say it's easy, is that more common Sensi? Like, like less, there's rules, and we have to like follow these paths and more like, boy, your kid has diabetes. So short take insulin, is it like that?
Michelle 25:59
Yeah, I mean, I think it's maybe less bureaucratic, I think in our situation might be a little different, because they know that we have like a US prescription. So Wendy Winnie's doctor here, she actually sees a diabetologist not an endocrinologist, they have like this subspecialty underneath endocrinology, like people who deal specifically with diabetes. So her diabetologist he sticks more to like what her prescription in the US was, but I mean, he doesn't try to rewrite it or recommend anything different. He's like, Okay, if this is what you're using, and it works for you, I'll just write you the same prescription is really great.
Scott Benner 26:35
Because any Yeah, any of that weight that can get lifted from you, honestly makes everything better, just not having to make these facts. I'll tell you that. You and I are talking in May, I don't know when this goes up, you know, it could be months from now. But we just had an I just we just had this, you know, Job Change in our life for my little my wife, my wife went from one place to another and our insurance changed. And so we're starting to get settled. And she's settling in at the job. And about a weekend I said, Okay, let's you know, let's see, let's like, let's get excited. Let's call the next comment on the pot and see if they accept this insurance because we had been buying through a third party called edge Park, which is, yep, which edge Park has gotten better over the years, but it's generally speaking your heart. And so people who just came into edge Park now might be like, it's not bad to you. I say, you should have tried doing it five years ago. But but but nevertheless, I called up Dexcom. They're like, yeah, we take your insurance. And I was like, Yay, I didn't like I just I felt elated. I was like, This is so exciting. And Omnipod just called me yesterday. And I know what you're thinking they sponsor the show. Shouldn't I get these pumps for free? No, that's not how it works. I pay for I'm like everybody else. And and so I called up and I was like, here's all my information. You know, please let me know. And they call me back in just a couple days and said, here's what we've learned. Your pumps are going to be 100% free. Do you want to order some now? I was like, really? Like no copay? No, I pay you a little bit. I get paid nothing. Just tell us what you want. And they're gonna come. Oh, wow. It was just such a relief. You know, just one less thing to think about to do to argue about the call about to get an email about like, I was just, I just was really grateful for that, to be perfectly honest. It's like, Wow, that's so now. That is really good. Yeah. So I said my wife got home from work. I was like, Kelly, you can never leave this job. This is the job. In case you're wondering. You have to keep forever.
Unknown Speaker 28:27
Yeah,
Scott Benner 28:28
just going to College Park again for No, sir.
Unknown Speaker 28:32
Yeah, yep. I've been there.
Scott Benner 28:35
I interviewed someone. Now I'm going to get this wrong. I know. I'll pick the wrong one is a checklist avakian ours, the Czech Republic, which is Czech Republic Republic, I interviewed a young girl who's in university in England, but who's from the Czech Republic. And she was talking about how she goes back and forth to get different things. And she wants to, you know, it was I was, but everything she spoke about was just, I wish I could just stay here in England because it's so easy. And everyone tells me that everybody I've ever spoken to from the UK tells me the same thing. Like it's just very easy to have diabetes here. So yeah, yep. Yeah. It makes you a little sad when they're saying it. Like. I'm actually on my way, in a couple days, to some meeting at Novo Nordisk where they want to talk about insulin pricing. And ah, like, I'm gonna be a rabble rouser a little bit when I'm when I'm in there. So let's see.
Michelle 29:32
Yeah, you can ask them why they why they charge double what most European countries?
Unknown Speaker 29:37
Yeah, yeah, I mentioned your 49 double bet. Well,
Michelle 29:39
I mean, at least at least more than that. I mean, here I think. Yeah, our price is like 10% of what it was in Minneapolis. But, you know, like you were saying, it depends on what your prescription is, though, to you know, like if you if here, they charge you by the box. It's not necessarily like your one month supply is this copay right now. And then, you know, so it's good that it's affordable. It's good. Yeah.
Scott Benner 30:07
Buy it. Now I know for us like whatever Arden's prescription for insulin is, that's what our copay covers. Like, right? And so if that if if the if the script says it's four boxes that its fourth script were to say same sex, it's still the same price, right?
Michelle 30:22
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, so your price per box can vary based on what your prescription is, right? Yeah.
Scott Benner 30:28
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, very generally speaking in in my favor, the more we need, right?
Michelle 30:34
Yeah, the higher they write the prescription the letter, the farther that copay stretches, the retail price is still the same, you know, like, if you were to not have a prescription and have to go in and just buy a box, and you'd pay the retail price. So that's,
Scott Benner 30:48
I don't know, what's missing. Here, excuse me, for anybody, Michelle. And I almost didn't do this, because I almost don't have a voice. But excuse me, it and there's so many different levels and tiers of insurance here. Like, my wife works at a pharma company, and she has a really good insurance and so, but you can easily work at that same company and get a different level of that insurance or work in a different company and, and have a plan that doesn't come anywhere near, you know, 100% of your Durable Medical goods and stuff like that. So yeah, it is luck of the draw a lot
Michelle 31:22
it is. And it also just depends on what your employer has. And you know, you could be fortunate and get a job for Google, and I don't know how their insurances, but it's going to be different than somebody who works at a department store, you know, probably, yeah, oh, they're gonna offer different things. And
Scott Benner 31:39
with a big enough company who self ensures, then things get easier. And that is, that is definitely been my finding in the past. And
Unknown Speaker 31:47
right, I don't
Scott Benner 31:48
know how much people understand that when companies get so big. They really only use the insurance companies to service the insurance, they just ever, you know, the whatever it ends up being whatever the insurance company is, you know, you make a claim the insurance company pays and all the paperwork that happens is like that. But at the end of the year, or a couple of times a year, your company just writes one big check for every dollar that that insurance company has sent out they are they are financing your your health insurance 100% from the company, they just their service to the company. I don't know if people know that or not. But
Unknown Speaker 32:21
now they do.
Scott Benner 32:22
Yeah, no. And when you get big enough like that, when you get with a company like that, they generally are more generous, I found. If you're considering insulin pump therapy, the best way to understand the comfort and convenience of the Omni pod system is to try it firsthand. To try a free no obligation pod today. All you have to do, you can get a demo kit, which includes a sample nonfunctioning pod and see what you think there's absolutely no obligation to buy. You'll get to wear a nonfunctioning pod to see how it feels, you'll be able to find a spot on your body that works best for you. And then you can feel the freedom you could have with an omni pod. Try to imagine your I don't know. having lunch lunches a nice meal the day, don't you think the sun's out? The birds are chirping, and you're hungry. This lunch you're about to have is a little strange. It's a little carb heavy, but it's got some simple sugars in it. And you'd like to see the insulin, you're giving yourself stretched out through an extended bolus. How do you do that? With a push of a button, the same way you would give yourself a bolus or change your basal rates, or do any of the things that you need to do with your insulin pump all wirelessly from the personal diabetes manager. That's right, there is no big unit of thing stuck to you. You are not connected between the tube and this controlling device. This controlling device with Omni pod completely wireless with every other insulin pump tethered with a tube
Unknown Speaker 33:59
IU Eric.
Scott Benner 34:02
I mean unless you like that sort of thing. And then really I don't care. I'm just add to that. Get it I mean, like I'm not judging, just try it on the pod, go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. Check it out today. The free no obligation demo seriously as simple as sign up for and I think you'll like it.
Michelle 34:22
But my name is diagnosed, we have my husband worked for a corporation, and they had they had good insurance. So you know, but she easily could have been diagnosed when we didn't have that policy. You know, and so, yeah, and actually, that's one of the reasons we still have the insurance in the US like, and we haven't switched over to check insurance as we think about what if we did move back someday, and we want to want to keep her insured and the glass because it's so it's a little bit chaotic. You know, I don't know if you've seen in the news. It's a little chaotic right now. So we do worry about these protections that are out there for people with pre existing conditions, pre existing conditions, and will they stay? You know, Will these protections stay? And would we have to worry about her either getting denied a policy? Or more likely would you know, she'd be charged so much that it would be a burden and be unaffordable for her? You know, which is the more likely scenario, right, like that's the most likely thing is that they would take away the protection for people with pre existing and that you'd have to pay so much that you couldn't afford, you could have insurance. You can't afford it, but you can have it right. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, that's why that's why we talk sometimes about anything go to Europe for coffee. Just anywhere, anywhere, where she can just walk into the pharmacy and and buyer insulin out of pocket.
Scott Benner 35:50
But it's so you said you found a community of people with type one. Hmm, in Prague. How did that? Would You Do? Is there a Prague Facebook? How'd you figure it out?
Michelle 36:01
Yeah, well, I mean, they're on Facebook, just like everybody else. I'm just kidding. But I understand. But, uh, well, so check is a really complex language, it's very difficult. And so. And I say that, because it makes it hard to find a group if you don't know exactly what the name of the group is, because the way that a word is written can change based on how it's used in a sentence. So like, even your name changes, based on the structure of the sentence. So like, nothing, nothing stays the same. Nothing is sacred, you know, your first name, the name of the city, everything. So you can't just type in the word diabetes in check, and then expect to find a group. So I contacted the doctor that we were seeing. I'm at the hospital here, for Winnie's diabetic checkups. And I asked him if he knew of anything, and he recommended a Facebook group to me. And so it's for moms with kids of type one, but there's some dads in there too. And, yeah, and I'm the only as far as I know, I'm the only American in the group. And I, as far as I know, also the only native English speaker, I don't ask for comments. I don't think it's a super common thing for people to like, relocate when their kid has type one, you know, or like, relocate this far at least to relocate to a different country? Yeah. So it's a little bit weird. And I think in our case, too, it's weird, because we still have our US insurance policy. And I think, yeah, for some reasons, it makes sense for us to switch to the check policy. And then for other reasons that we like keeping the US. I don't know, it's the system we know, like weed. And we know, like, I don't remember what the terms are for the measurements, but they measure blood sugar differently here, you know, so like, your, your blood sugar might be three or four or five. It's on a different scale. centimeters. Yeah, right. I don't know what else. So I don't, you'll have to look it up. And then you can add that into the podcast. I don't remember what the different all the different scales are. But
Scott Benner 38:08
I hear from so many people from outside of the US who told me that they listened to the podcast with the conversion charts so that when the numbers come in, they can they can follow along easier,
Michelle 38:17
right? Well, I like the US scale better. I think it's more precise, because there you have more numbers to work with, you know, like, I think, I think to convert you divide by 18, or something there abouts. But, you know, with the European chart, they're only measuring to the first decimal, you know, and so you might have numbers like one to 20. And that's what you're working with. And you might have like 1.1 1.2, all the way up to 20. But then in the US. So the equivalent would be numbers like 20 to 400. And so you have so many more numbers you're working with, and I just feel like that'd be more of a chat way at what I know that I know that system. That's what we've done for four years. So it's hard to want to switch. And then we think well, how long if we switched over to European equipment? How long would we have to like, are we committing to staying here forever, then or for four years? What are insurance? Let us get a new pump. If we move back? I know there's a big question.
Scott Benner 39:17
I'm starting the timer right now on somebody who's gonna email me to tell me that there's their their thing is precise to you just don't understand it, which I completely believe could be true. So
Michelle 39:26
I think it's not precise. I just think I just think that one way is maybe a little more precise. I don't understand why they have two scales. I mean, the whole thing is interesting. I don't I don't know insulin pumps aren't aren't technology. So like, why didn't they just make them all universal? I don't know. Do they want to keep the market separate? It's a ploy.
Scott Benner 39:51
Like, even for money.
Michelle 39:54
While you think about like how long have meters been around for why did they have to make two separate scales. It just Seems a little silly. I don't know,
Scott Benner 40:02
you're a bad math people and other things. I'm assuming the first email I get is from either I'm gonna say South Africa or Australia. That's kind of that's gonna be I my outlier is New Zealand. I'm thinking that's where they're like, you got so wrong about that. But I agree with you at least my interpretation of it, like I see like, somebody's like my blood sugar's 2.4. And then I look on the scale, and it's within like a 10 or 15 point range on our scale. And I was like, well, that's
Michelle 40:30
right. Exactly. Yeah. And I think that's where you get in into the preciseness factor and
Scott Benner 40:36
listen, maybe maybe what they said, was these meters aren't that accurate anyway, it's around 2.4. Deal with it, you'll be fine. Yeah, that's, that's very interesting. So okay, so I think the real story here is that you just sort of bravely stood up and like, we're gonna leave the country now with our little tiny diagnose kid, and it's going to be fine. And it has been fine, right? There's no like, you don't have some scary stories, or you didn't run out of insulin on a on a train from a 1958 black and white movie where some guys with Tommy guns tried to kill you or nothing like that bad has happened. It's all just been fine. Do you fly a lot? Like back in?
Michelle 41:19
I think I mean, I know more than anybody else. We we probably, I mean, here we take the train more than anything, you know, because it's, it's cheaper that way. We've flown it. I mean, a few times since being here, but whether
Scott Benner 41:33
it's alone? You don't you don't have any, you don't have any compunction about going on a trip to Taiwan?
Michelle 41:41
No, no, I don't think at all. We brought I mean, we brought a lot of insulin with us, we brought like, oh, at least like a three or six months supply to get us started. Because we were worried about like, how would we find a doctor, you know, like, we didn't even know who our doctor would be when we got here, because we didn't know where our flat would be, or any of those things. So we brought a pretty big supply with us. And we just put it in a cooler bag with ice packs and refrigerated it as soon as we got here. And all of it was fine. You know, like it, it lasted just fine. So yeah,
Scott Benner 42:17
I want to overlaid on what Michelle said, most of the things that you worry about, I'm talking to everybody listening now are not things you should be worrying about. Like it's not that shouldn't pay attention to it. If you're going to travel, you know, you're gonna have to keep the insulin cool. You're gonna have to make sure you have everything with the definitely don't I saw somebody online the other day that went on vacation, like I have everything except for and they forgot, like, I forget what it was. But it was like this one important component like in the, in the midst of making themselves crazy and gathering all this stuff together. They forgot, like the most obvious part of what they needed. You know, and I think sometimes we make ourselves mental about stuff like that. And I can tell you, I mean, we've traveled my family and I travel to the Caribbean. I don't want to say frequently, because it's not frequently, but periodically, that's where we vacation. And there is that thought in your head, like I do not want to get to this tiny little island and not have something, right. And so I do carry more than I need. You know, if we're going away for a week, I take 10 on the pods with me. And as I'm putting the 10 in there in the box, and I think that's not going to be enough. And then I go that's a month's worth of Army pods. How could that not be enough? Like what what one would have to go bed every day. And I'd still have three left when I got home. And that's never gonna happen. That's never happened in the, you know, five years old. 678-910-1112 13 that 10 years I've been using on the pod nothing like that's even remotely happened. But the minute you add the uncertainty and you're like, but it could, but the truth is, it's not going to right? And if it does, you have insulin with your needles. It's not like you couldn't figure it out if something crazy happened.
Michelle 43:56
Yeah, and I think that's the good thing that people in type one community, they're really good about helping each other and people are all about asking for help. You know, when we were on the plane right over our flight got delayed, or one of them did our second flight coming out of New York and that was our overseas flight got delayed and so my ice packs had started to like like they weren't and it was then I was thinking like, Oh, I don't know if they're gonna last as long as they thought they would. But we told the flight attendants you know, I have insulin in this bag and they brought me extra ice in like a bag to add to this cooler that I already had. Yeah, so and then with her diabetes supplies, we spread them out across different pieces of luggage in case something got lost. So like the pump supplies that we brought, I had like a mix of infusion sets and cartridges in each bag. You know, so it's not like I put only one item in each bag. Every every bag had an assortment of different items. So if one bag, a bag, they'll have what we needed, out of one of those bags, you know and then we always carry some in a carry on You know, yeah, you know, we don't usually we don't usually check bags, because we're not usually been gone that long. But definitely when we came here we had to check baggage. So, you know, that's where most of her stuff was, but some of it was with us on the plane just in case everything got lost for a period of time. You know, if you're traveling somewhere
Scott Benner 45:19
reasonably modern, you're gonna be okay. I Oh, yeah,
Michelle 45:23
that's the thing. Yeah. It just depends on though. Like, how long will it take them to get to you? And especially here, like a lot of things aren't open on the weekends, like, Oh, yeah, like the pharmacy is not open on the weekends. Yeah, if you want to go to the pharmacy on the weekend, you have to go out to the hospital. Or maybe there might be one in like a shopping mall. But like our neighborhood pharmacy did not have any week. hours. No, Saturday, no, Sunday. Yeah. Um,
Scott Benner 45:47
when I first met, when I first met my wife, she was leaving to go back to college, it was the summertime and she was gonna go and I remember, I met her at her job. And she's in his office, she's writing this like, massive list. And I was like, what, what is that? And she's like, Oh, these are the things I need to bring back to school. I was like, where do you go to school? Like on Mars? Like you wrote shampoo on this list? Like, do they not have shampoo where you go to school? And and it was interesting, like, you know, for the first couple moments of the conversation, I was like, is this girl freaked out about like crossing a state line without conditioner? Or like, what? And then she just, you know, at the end, she's like, Look, here's the truth. stuff I buy here, my mom pays for stuff I buy when I'm at school I have to pay for and I was like, oh, okay, you're just you're just trying to get this stuff for free. Before you leave. I'm like that I understand. But when I thought she was planning for this, like, excursion, I was like, you're going to Delaware not, you know, not an island in the middle of the Pacific. Like, like, it's, you know, you'll be okay, when you get there. And I think that's important to remember, almost anywhere you go. In a modern world, there'll be a pharmacy, they'll be something you can find. It's not like you're gonna be in an incredibly emergent in an emergent situation like, that you just can't get your way out of and if that happens to you. That's pretty random. You know, so yeah, it's the worry, I think that cripples most people and you don't have that, for whatever reason. I haven't figured it out yet, Misha, but you're, you're very carefree in your mind.
Michelle 47:16
It's not, you know, so we're not as carefree as you think we just work we plan carefully. Okay, like, when we applied with this mission organization to go overseas, we explained pretty clearly, like, our child has type one, we need to be near a hospital somewhere, like, we can't go just anywhere, you know, like, we would love to say that we would go to Africa, or we would go to some little village somewhere. But we can't do that, you know, so. But like you said, in a modern world, especially those of us who've grown up in a modern world, you'd then you feel more comfortable, you don't have to worry so much, you know how to find the things that you need. So we still stayed within that, that realm, like we were not ready to leave, or something like that. And I think if you're an adult with type one, and you want to do that, that's one thing. But if you're a parent of a child, I think you just you just feel this like really heavy weight to protect them. And to make sure that there's they're really super sick. You know, and, and so like, we're not going to go to this place that doesn't have refrigerators, you know, I've read online about villages where they don't have refrigerators to keep their insulin in. And so they make like clay pots to keep their insulin and to try to keep it cold. But isn't stay good long enough, because that's not a sufficient replacement for refrigerator, you know, so we weren't we were not willing to take our child into a situation like that. Because then we feel like we're putting her life at risk. Right. And that's not worth it. Yeah. So the
Scott Benner 48:40
comfort, the comfort you live with you helped create by putting yourself in the best situation. Yeah,
Michelle 48:46
we I mean, we specifically requested to be in a bigger city. And there were a couple of different options that they presented to us that they thought would be a good fit. And so in Prague was one of those. And so we're only like 30 minutes from the university hospital here. And there are lots of pharmacies, right in our neighborhood. So it's, there's an airport here, you know, like, it's your big city. So, yes, everything we have everything we need we have right here. So yes, it may seem carefree, because we're willing to go all this distance, but it was pretty pretty well thought out and planned and it took us we you know, we applied in April to come but we did not decide until the end of May that we for sure wanted to do this and we did a lot of checking with you know, like the insurance company in different places to make sure we could have all the supplies we needed an access to everything that we wanted. So, yeah, I don't know. They not everything worked out exactly the way that we thought it would, you know, but like I said, we came with like two years of infusion sets and cartridges and things so good.
Scott Benner 50:00
Jeff are alive. So you were done over there and come back again, with all the stuff that you bought so
Michelle 50:03
well. And this summer, we're switching to Omnipod. Because shout out to Omnipod. But we have the automatic pump right now, which as you know, will no longer be around. And so we had to switch to something new. And so this summer part of what we're doing is getting a bulk order Omni pad was amazing. That was one of the easiest transactions I've ever had. And they're giving, they're giving us one year's worth of pods to take back with us because we don't have an address here that they can ship to.
Scott Benner 50:32
So so cool. Yeah, they're working very hard on getting into like, they just sent a group of people to the UK to start work to start working. I know
Michelle 50:42
I heard that. Yeah, they tell me though, so maybe you can find this out for me, they couldn't tell me if the European Omni pod will be compatible with us in pod because, as we were saying, in Europe, and also in Canada, they measure blood sugar differently than in the US. And so, although we're coming with a one year supply of pods, I thought, what if something breaks? Or what if her or PDM breaks or something? And like, what if I just need a part? Is it possible I could go to the European army pod and just get apart if I need it. But they couldn't tell me if everything's going to be compatible or not? Well, um,
Scott Benner 51:19
I don't know the answer to that. But I can tell you that that new PDM, that's gonna be out pretty soon, as soon as the FDA is done fiddling with it and looking at it, it's gonna be really inexpensive. So I don't know that it would be cumbersome for you to have an extra one. Because it's really just gonna be an Android phone shell like you don't I mean, like, it's there. The reason they switched to it partly is so that they can make, you know, upgrades and move innovation along quicker. But it's also because the, you know, it's not gonna really cost anything. It's possible, Michelle, that by the time I come back to edit this episode, and put it out, I'll be able to say something at the end that people would really like to hear that.
Michelle 52:03
Yeah, it would just be interesting to know if the if they'll be compatible. I guess my my question would be, you know, if they measure blood sugar differently, do those pods talk differently to the Pdn? Right. Yeah, I don't know. It's something Gaucher. So nobody knew there. But anyway, it'd be Yeah, just be nice to know if they would be a resource for us it out here. But anyway, but that's why we come with a year's worth of stuff. So that if, if we, you know, start to run low on something, hopefully we can make a plan before we've run out, because we have the whole year. And then I know like we have Dexcom. And they also were able to help us get a year supply of stuff. We've done that with them twice. Now, that was not quite as smooth of a process, as with Omni pod, but I now have really nicely I won't say her name. But there's a really nice lady at Dexcom. Now who knows me very well, and who were I work with her exclusively now and doing our orders. Because when you want a whole year's worth of stuff, you just can't go through the normal channels, typically, with Omni pod that was surprising. I didn't have to ask per supervisor or talk to anybody in charge. See Am I ordered to go through. So that was awesome. Usually, though, it takes several weeks of calling. And finally finding someone at the top of the food chain, who knows the right overrides and can help me because our insurance is not the problem. They know we're overseas and they will help us navigate everything. The problem is usually the provider is not understanding this weird scenario that we're in and knowing that it will be okay. Your bill will be paid. Our insurance will work with you.
Unknown Speaker 53:38
I got you. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 53:39
that's interesting. Well,
Unknown Speaker 53:40
yeah.
Scott Benner 53:41
Is there anything? Is there anything because you had some pretty? I think I feel like you had specific thoughts. And I know, I held you back by not giving you things that I wanted to talk about. But this was a really good conversation. I think it was because we left it loose like that. So I am sorry.
Michelle 53:57
I was just wondering, I just like to really be prepared. I
Unknown Speaker 54:01
know.
Scott Benner 54:02
And I like you not to be prepared. So
Unknown Speaker 54:04
we can chat.
Scott Benner 54:06
I think it worked out really well, actually. But so No, I just want to I want to make sure that if you have any nuggets about being overseas or about travel in general that I didn't ask you about or we didn't get to that I don't I don't want to leave them out. You know, is there is there anything that you've learned along the way that you think people would really benefit from knowing?
Michelle 54:28
I don't know. I mean, that's a that's a pretty big question. I think Don't be afraid to travel. You know, don't be afraid to go somewhere. We we certainly were not ready to even like drive to Michigan for my cousin's wedding after when our winning was diagnosed our daughter. So because she got diagnosed in August, and there was a wedding I think in October, but we got Winnie's pump in September, right. So we had the diagnosis in August. Then we got a pump in like it was September, October, something like that. And then this wedding was happening and I October and we were not ready at all for a long road trip. At that point, we just didn't feel comfortable. And then you're also dealing with cake, and dessert. And all these things, you know that that can feel really overwhelming when you don't have a package in front of you. And you're newly diagnosed, you know, and you're trying to guess, and you're like, I don't even know how my kid's body reacts to these things. So. So, I mean, yeah, just being comfortable to travel once, once you're ready to, and that's different for everybody. But, but I think, you know, you can't be afraid to go somewhere. I know, I have friends here who are from the Czech Republic, who will not go anywhere with their kid on a plane, because they're too afraid that but they will go places by car, but they will not fly anywhere. And so I'm hoping they will change their minds someday, because I think they're going to they're going to miss out on so much. If they limit themselves that way. We know what
Scott Benner 55:53
are their fears about the plane? I don't like crashing the side of a mountain fears or
Michelle 56:01
no, no, no, no, I think it has to do more with access to supplies and going to places that are so far away, that they feel like they couldn't go to the pharmacy and get what they needed. And honestly, I don't know. Like, if you were to be someone who was like, from Europe with European insurance and like to travel to the US, for example. I think I would be kind of scared. You know, I was if you ran out of insulin, and you didn't have an insurance policy that someone took there,
Unknown Speaker 56:31
I kind of screwed. No one would know,
Michelle 56:36
it is easier to go the other way. It's easier to have us insurance and go into Europe. Yeah, because things are cheaper. So I think I think for them, it's just they traveled to places, you know, really close by where, where they know that how the game works. And they know that they can still get supplies easily. Yeah,
Scott Benner 56:54
I just imagine the the very fear of like, being somewhere being being a foreigner. And being in America and just having this lucky. Having someone from America looking good, you're not American, this doesn't count go away. And having that fear of like somebody can just discount you just because you're not speaking English, or from America or whatever it ends up being. But I don't know if that's an unreal, fear, I would I would feel that and I have to say to in the reverse being American, I totally feel like it's probably a completely pompous and Unreal thing, but I feel like I could just go anywhere and be me. And it'll be fine. And, and I don't know that other people get to feel that way all the time. And that's
Michelle 57:34
pompous and unreal. Yeah,
Scott Benner 57:36
I know it is.
Michelle 57:37
But you keep a low profile, or we are we don't want to call attention to our American
Unknown Speaker 57:42
American mess.
Michelle 57:44
We try to keep a pretty low profile, and we try to blend in and be respectful of the culture here. Yeah, but
Scott Benner 57:49
I'm saying generally speaking, I was kind of putting it on me for funny, but like, yeah, I think generally speaking, Americans have that feeling like it's everything works for us, usually. So when I go somewhere else, I want it to work for me. I mean, we've all been on vacation and seen somebody like stomping and going nuts and you're like, what's wrong? I asked for a drink 10 minutes ago, when it's not back yet. I'm like, really, that's what's going wrong. And but you know, like, you have that feeling like, everything's so automatic, and it just works here. You don't I mean, you want something you get it. It's it's within reach of you normally, you know, if you have a problem, there's someone to complain to. There's a system that, you know, there's a system in place that makes your complaint, something they have to listen to. And you know, it's just our lives are set up really well here. I don't know how much people could appreciate that there's other places in the world where that might not be the case.
Michelle 58:40
I think they are set up? Well, I just think it's really expensive.
Unknown Speaker 58:43
Yeah. Oh, no,
Michelle 58:45
the hard part is the expense of it. Because I think, you know, in Minneapolis, when we go to the endocrinologist, our appointments go relatively quickly, quickly, we have a scheduled time, and we get in usually on time, and it's pretty fast. But here you know, it's you kind of are like, it's like a cattle call almost, I guess a little bit. But, but it's like the flip side, it's so affordable. And if you have an emergency, you know, they'll see you more quickly. But if it's just like a regular, you know, diabetes checkup. It's very different takes a lot more time. You know, so I think we interact with, oh, maybe like four different people when we go to a diabetes appointment. So there will be someone who takes Winifred tighten weights. And then we go to a different area where someone downloads all the information from her pump and from her Dexcom and then we go to a different area where someone picks her finger and does her agency and we don't get the agency immediately. We don't get the results for like two weeks. And also it's not just like a little drop on a test strip. They take like a vial of Blood. So they do a big finger stick and take a lot of blood, and then you don't get the results right away. So it's not even really gratifying that, oh, you stuck my finger and look at all that blood, you know, then you have to wait to find out what they did with all that blood. And then then you go to meet with the diet pathologist.
Scott Benner 1:00:17
So he's got here, she has all that information, and then you kind of can pile it there and make decisions and talk.
Michelle 1:00:24
Yeah, like he gets all the data from the Dexcom in the pump, and he doesn't get the winsy right away. You know, he he finds out when we find out what they went see is that
Scott Benner 1:00:32
if my onesies come in the room before I'm five minutes into the the actual visit on like, this is taking forever.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:40
But you know what, yeah, but it but it's
Michelle 1:00:42
different than that's how I think that's like, part of the reason that they that the cost is so much lower. And and I appreciate that, you know, I think it's it's hard coming from a system where we get everything. So immediately, like you said, but but I think I really appreciate the fact that people can afford to take care of themselves. And
Scott Benner 1:01:01
no matter what, and when you're what you're really describing is pace of life and expectation like here. Yeah, right. I work really hard. Most of the hours of my life, I come home, I clean something, eat something pass out, get up and do it. Again, when I go to the doctor, I needed to go quick, quick, quick, because I got to get back to my fast paced life in progress. Imagining life's not as fast paced, it's okay, if something takes longer. And if it eats up a little more of my time, it doesn't matter because I don't have to run back to my rat race job to make enough money to pay for it to begin with. So yeah, it is an expectation about what like life balance, I guess.
Michelle 1:01:36
It is. And I think it's also an understanding of how the system works. And being prepared for it. You know, like the first appointment we went to, we weren't prepared for the wait time. So now I bring a coloring book for winnifred. Or I bring something for myself to do and my
Unknown Speaker 1:01:48
coloring book for you broke his
Michelle 1:01:50
elbow while he was here in our first year and head of surgery here. And that was a really interesting experience. And he had some of the same kind of wait times and his appointments and the first appointment he went to, he didn't know how long the wait time would be. And so he had to go to the bathroom. And he waited and he waited, he waited because he was afraid that he was going to leave the restroom, and they would call his name. And but now he will go with a book if he has to go, you know, for an appointment like like that. Because he knows that there'll be a wait. So I think it's also you need to understand how the system works. And it took us a little while to learn that because we definitely were frustrated in the beginning, you know, not understanding because they don't they don't tell you things that for them are given they don't explain to Okay, your appointment is at 915. But you're probably going to wait 30 minutes before they call your name. Right. Yeah, and you're expected to know that this is the system, you know, they give you the same rundown that they give to anybody else. Yeah. So, yeah, this takes a little while, I think to figure it out. But um, but it's okay. And you only go to the endocrinologist hopefully, you know, like three or four times a year. You're not having to go there every week. So it's okay. You can you can wait a couple times a year,
Scott Benner 1:03:04
you'll be alright. Oh, no, I feel that's a great thing. Actually. I like the idea of being a little slower paced and not rushing constantly. So I have one last question been wondering. Okay. The entire our winner. Yeah. Is it like from
Unknown Speaker 1:03:21
Winifred? Yeah, where
Scott Benner 1:03:22
did you get the name?
Michelle 1:03:24
Oh, um, she's named after my grandpa Frederick. Dhoni. If we were if we had had a boy, he would have been Frederick. But she was a girl. And so
Scott Benner 1:03:35
it's not it's not when aford It's when a Fred
Unknown Speaker 1:03:39
when a Fred
Scott Benner 1:03:39
right. Okay. And then yeah, cuz I was thinking, Wonder Years. Every time you said wow, like is this thing? It's like, Did this poor kid get her name through Netflix? Like that's what I was wondering if, if you were just a big fan of a television show or not. But you have a more thoughtful reason. Yeah. Which is more satisfying, by the way.
Michelle 1:03:59
Yeah, it's got some family family ties to
Scott Benner 1:04:02
it. Because a boy wouldn't have been Freddie for short.
Michelle 1:04:05
I don't know. Maybe as when he's when he have friends now who call her Fred. You know, our friend Jake. He calls her Fred. He thinks it's really funny. That she might be Freddie, you know, she can be shouted up at the front house doesn't mean she can't be Freddie.
Scott Benner 1:04:23
You are doing amazing things. You put your family in a in a really unique situation, and then you shared it here. I really appreciate you taking the time to this. People should know that. Michelle did not have Skype, she had to go to quite some distance to figure out how we could talk. We are in a major time difference. It's late in the afternoon where you are and it's early in the morning where I am. And so this really worked out well. And then just as we were getting ready to do it, I kind of lost my voice to what I think is allergies. But But I was really concerned I wouldn't talk and so I didn't talk as much this episode which for you, those of you who write me to tell me I talk too much, you must have been thrilled. And so this all worked out very well. But it had a lot of roadblocks. And I, I'm genuinely pleased that we got this one recorded. And I appreciate all the effort you put it on your side.
Michelle 1:05:13
Oh, it was nothing. No, thank you for the opportunity. I hope that there are people out there who are inspired to go travel or to go live somewhere new or to go, you know, do something crazy, adventurous, you know,
Scott Benner 1:05:27
diabetes really doesn't need to in any way impede you from doing any of the things that you can imagine.
Michelle 1:05:32
No, absolutely not. You need to plan more. But I think once you have your planning done, you're good to go. Ready for takeoff.
Scott Benner 1:05:40
So thank you so much for coming on and doing this. Huge thanks to Michelle for coming on the show all the way from Prague to tell us about her life with Type One Diabetes and all the traveling she does. Get out there people. Just go ahead, go somewhere. She went to Prague, you can go anywhere. Thank you dex comment on the pod for sponsoring the show, please go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box, or my omnipod.com forward slash juice box for more information. Those links are also available at Juicebox podcast.com. Or in the links of your podcast app. There are our show notes in there, push some buttons, try to figure it out. A quick thank you also to dancing for diabetes, though their ad run is over for 2018. I sincerely appreciate everything they did for the podcast. And I hope that you all got a chance to check out dancing for diabetes. If you didn't, here's a freebie dancing for diabetes, go to dancing the number four diabetes.com to check it out. Elizabeth is doing amazing things there. It is totally worth checking into. Hey, you want to talk about what's coming up for the rest of December? Let's do that real quick, shall we? I actually have it written down in front of me. And for those of you who know me, you might know that me writing anything down is a fairly incredible act. On December 18, you'll be hearing from Anthony Anderson from ABCs blackish. And to tell the truth, on December 20. You'll be hearing a q&a with Brett Christianson, the new CEO of Omni pod. He'll be responding to all of my questions, as well as the ones you left on Facebook and Instagram for me to pass on to on the pod. That's fun, right? It's gonna be a long one. Nice, good, really get in there and ask a bunch of questions left right answer him. It's gonna be good times. And then on the 27th. I'll be speaking with Chris Rutan about exercise, how insulin works, how insulin works around weight gain, weight loss, all that kind of like stuff that you know, you wish you understood a little better. Chris really understands it. And he's going to be on to tell us more. Then after the first of the year, season five of the Juicebox Podcast will begin. Last thing that I'd like to remind you about, if the podcast is helpful to you, please help it to grow by sharing it with someone else. It really is incredibly difficult. I can't afford advertising for the show. And so it is very word of mouth. You are the ones who help it grow. I really appreciate that you do that. And I just want to remind you to keep going because, you know I love it. And I want to keep doing it and I want you to keep getting it. So share, share, share
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