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#209 Leah Is Good

Podcast Episodes

The Juicebox Podcast is from the writer of the popular diabetes parenting blog Arden's Day and the award winning parenting memoir, 'Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Dad'. Hosted by Scott Benner, the show features intimate conversations of living and parenting with type I diabetes.

#209 Leah Is Good

Scott Benner

Leah and her son both have type 1 diabetes.….

Leah is a mother, a wife and a nurse who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 16. Her son Mason has recently joined the club. 

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon AlexaGoogle Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public or their favorite podcast app.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


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 friends and welcome to Episode 209 of the Juicebox Podcast Today's episode is called Lia is good and it is sponsored by real good foods on the pod dex calm and dancing for diabetes, you should go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box to learn more about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor when you're real good foods comm use the offer code juice box to save 20% on your entire order. You heard me right 20% you can visit dancing for diabetes.com or check them out on Facebook and Instagram to see what they're doing. And of course, if you'd like a free, no obligation demo of the Omni pod sent directly to your door, go to my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. And now on to the show.

Leah 0:56
It's so weird to talk to you I have to say I've been listening to your voice for like six months. So very exciting.

Scott Benner 1:03
I appreciate you being excited to be excited. to this episode of the podcast we're going to be speaking with Leah who has had Type One Diabetes for a very long time and she also has a child with type one. I want to remind you that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise and to always consult a physician before making changes to your medical plan. programming note beginning next week, I'll be running a series of conversations with Jenny Smith. She's the CD who's been on a couple of times you guys love her. I love her. And we are going to be talking about being bold with insulin soup to nuts. What's that mean? From MDI, Temp Basal, and everything in between. You're gonna get all the concepts that are spoken about spread out over all these episodes in Super targeted, shorter, consumable, shareable revisit episodes of the podcast. You're gonna love it.

Leah 2:02
My name is Leah. I am a wife, a mom of two. I am a nurse. And I have type one diabetes. And my son Mason also has type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 2:15
We are How old were you when you were diagnosed?

Leah 2:18
I was 16 years old. The summer before my senior year and that was in 1991.

Scott Benner 2:25
I say 2017

Leah 2:29
oh 1991. It was a 2007.

Unknown Speaker 2:35
But it's fine.

Scott Benner 2:37
I don't know if you saw what I did. There. I went 91 to 2001. Right away. I

Leah 2:40
put 10 Oh, I see you were doing math.

Scott Benner 2:42
Yeah, put 10 years right in the bank. And then I counted from one to 18 I got 17. And then I added the 10 in the 17 together. And then I was about to come up with 27. But that's a very long time to have to have diabetes.

Leah 2:56
Yeah, it's been in most of my life is does it feel?

Scott Benner 3:01
Does it genuinely feel like that?

Leah 3:04
It does. Yes. It's it's, it's hard to remember a time before. I mean, I do remember it because I was 16. But most of my life, I feel like I've had diabetes.

Scott Benner 3:16
Well, great fun. Um, was there any indication that you might get diabetes, people in your family no thing like that.

Leah 3:24
At the time, it was a big surprise. I had never known anyone with type one. I knew what it was. But I I didn't have anyone in my family. I thought it was just a fluke that I just got lucky and but then it turns out that there is some autoimmune history in my family. A lot of my aunts have hypothyroid and then later on, some other people were diagnosed with other autoimmune diseases.

Scott Benner 3:55
When you think about it, other autoimmune diseases in your family history. Just on the female side are male and female. Just a brief reminder that at some point today, you should visit dancing for diabetes, calm dancing, the number four diabetes calm. Both. Okay. So yeah, they were getting around to diabetes. It was coming, right?

Leah 4:16
Yes. Yes. later on. My cousin's child was also diagnosed, diagnosed with type one. And you know, then my son was diagnosed last year.

Scott Benner 4:27
Okay. How's your thyroid holding up?

Leah 4:29
I have hypothyroid. Yeah, I've had it for about 20 years. Okay. All right. So

Scott Benner 4:35
all right. I think we understand where we're at. Yeah. So 16 years old at almost 30 years ago. You were just needles and Amida?

Leah 4:48
Yes, yes. I had a big meter with big drops of blood. It was a one touch and I had a big kit and I did needles with regular insulin and mph and you can bind them in to the syringe and gave yourself an injection that way. Were they disposable syringes then? Yes, they

Unknown Speaker 5:12
were okay.

Unknown Speaker 5:14
Well,

Scott Benner 5:15
hold on a second Arden's blood sugar is trying to creep up on me. She is in her first couple of weeks of high school and isn't trying to move. She's in her first couple weeks of high school. She started off off strong the first day. She's like, I'm gonna buy lunch this year. And I was like,

Unknown Speaker 5:33
oh, huh.

Scott Benner 5:34
And she came home the first day and she goes, I'm not buying lunch anymore. That was after I put like $50 in her account. So I'm like,

Unknown Speaker 5:39
Yeah, okay.

Scott Benner 5:42
I've been figuring out her time of day, she's been getting a little. Her blood sugar is trying to go up in the in the early morning, which it didn't do last year. So we've been bolusing a little bit. I did a really a fun bolus today, because she was 96. Right before about 810 minutes before lunch. And so I did a 12 and a half unit Bolus, but I did it extended and I did zero percent up front and the the entire balance over a half an hour. And so I got a little more of a dip it held analysis at 121. And it says it's stable, but the Dexcom lines giving me the indication that maybe it wants to go up.

Unknown Speaker 6:24
Yeah, I'm creeping up.

Unknown Speaker 6:25
It's

Scott Benner 6:26
I think it's trying but I'm gonna give it five more minutes before Bolus again, so and it's been about an hour since we did the extended so the whole boss has been in for about a half an hour Anyway, I'm sorry, I'm just going to be keeping half an eye on that as we go. No, I

Leah 6:39
do the same thing all the day with my son.

Scott Benner 6:41
Well, how did that? So well. So wait. So first of all, we have to get you up to the present day. So you started you started with your needles and your mph yet regular that went on for how long do you think?

Leah 6:54
Well, I was until the pen came out. And then lantis came out about 2001 I think and I switched Atlantis and humalog. And I did pens until my son's diagnosis. I never had a pump. I never had a pump.

Scott Benner 7:10
Wow. Okay, so you were 10 years regular an MPH. And then you went the next 16 years. My math is on point today. The next 16 years still MDI and how was that going for you as far as your day to day? Like were you? Did you have it down? Did you know what you'd like? Yeah,

Leah 7:27
yeah. So I pretty quickly when I got diabetes, I was in the hospital for a week, and I hated it. It was not not fun at all. And I'd never wanted to be there again. And I quickly figured out what I needed to do to take care of my body. And I quickly figured out how to do it by feeling and not really going by a carb ratio. And I go to the endo, and they say, what's your carb ratio? And I just kind of guess what I thought it was. But I was like, Okay, I know what a sandwich would be. I know what, you know, an apple would be I just

Scott Benner 8:06
knew myself this would be would would cover this food. Yes. And was was was your knowing based on how you felt after you ate? Are you testing after you ate?

Leah 8:16
I tested a lot. But I also felt it in any time. I'm over, like 140 I feel I feel it. And if I'm under 60, I feel it. So I just went along, took care of myself, everything was going good. Every time I went to my appointments, they say oh, your numbers are great, keep doing what you're doing. So that's what I did. And you know, as soon as I became a nurse, I would go to the doctors and they would just kind of assume that I knew everything. But at the time, there wasn't a lot of changes going on. And so I wasn't seeking out information. I just was doing what worked. And you know, I was offered a pump, but all they would say is Hey, do you want a pump? And I would say no, I don't want one. I'm good. And everything's going well. I'm good how I am.

Scott Benner 9:12
And not Can I ask you Did you not want to pump because just things were going so well. You didn't feel like you needed to change?

Leah 9:19
No, I the sounds kind of silly, but I did not want to pump because I didn't think it was sexy.

Scott Benner 9:26
Ah, gotcha. I do everything based on how sexy I feel. That's not even true.

Leah 9:32
I don't know I just I I don't feel the same way now at all. But

Scott Benner 9:40
back then you just

Leah 9:42
couldn't figure out what what I would do with this tubing and you know, like a pager looking thing hanging out of me. I just didn't know how that would would work on me.

Scott Benner 9:54
You know what's funny is You and I are talking in September of 2018 I recognize that this probably won't go up for like three months, I can picture myself now humming, bringing sexy back as I insert that on the pod right here. Arden's been using it on the pod every day for almost 11 years. And just this morning, I was thinking about the first time that I saw it on the pod, it was at a pump training class at our local Children's Hospital, I made the decision that day, based on very little information, I'm not gonna lie to you, I saw that it was tubeless, I saw that it seemed innovative. It was thinking different than the other pumps in the room. A lot of which, by the way, are out of business now. But I remember I feel proud about this looking at the Omni pod thinking, when they change this pump, when they improve it, when they upgraded, I'm just going to get the improvements because it's self contained. I was excited that my daughter wouldn't have to have something attached to her by tubing. I mean, that was probably my first thought. But then just the idea of innovation, and being able to move forward quickly being agile as a company as a product. that excited me. And 11 years later, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that I made the absolute correct choice that day. And if you check out the Omni pod and decide you like it, today will be that day for you. The great news is it's simple. All you have to do is go to my on the pod.com forward slash juice box and request a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod that gets you started. Then if you'd like it, to reach back out and tell them I want to move forward. I want to be untethered, I want to wear it on the pod like garden. It's that easy. My Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox.

All we are going to Bolus Arden and then we're going to get back to your to your to your feelings Hold on one second. Sounds good 121 to 127. And so I am going to assume that it's going to try to keep climbing, I'm going to say hey, she's probably going to say hi Oh, she did. And I'm going to say one unit. And I got the K back the team answer to everything on text. First of all, I want to say that I think that that's a completely reasonable thought like just to say, this really isn't sexy. Like I don't want you trying to feel feminine, and we're just like a person and you don't want something slapped you. I will tell you right away. That the first time someone indicated to us that pumps were a thing. I thought I don't want something stuck to my daughter. Like, you know, I didn't think she wasn't gonna look sexy because she was four. But But she but she I definitely just thought this is going to alter reality in a way that is it can't be good as what I thought like I thought this just can't be good. But you get to this point, or at least I did, where you realize you can't judge everything based on before, before diabetes, right? Right. Like you have type one diabetes, now everything needs to be judged in that lens. You can't You can't hold up the idea, but I don't want this in my life. Because honestly, you don't get to make decisions like that. And and we all we all get caught up in that sort of like false feeling that things are going the way we want them to and if they don't we change them. And most things are like that, right? You know, if you don't like the paint in your living room, you might change the color. But your descent or ride to the end of your life is going to go about the way it's going to go some people get type one diabetes, and they're 16. Some people get type two diabetes when they're 60. And all other ages, some people get, you know, some people fall off a ladder cleaning out their gutters. As that person's falling. My gut is they think, Oh crap, and I can't believe this is how I'm gonna die. You know, like, because no one thinks they're gonna fall off a ladder. And no one thinks they're getting diabetes. But it doesn't stop us from judging. It doesn't stop us from judging what's happening to us now against what we wanted to happen. It's just very human, I guess. So I think you had a very reasonable reaction and you stuck to it. You stuck to your gut. I did. Even through like my two pregnancies. They

Leah 14:22
Lantus wasn't approved when I was pregnant to use. So I had to go back to mph and I did it around the clock. I had to do NPH injections every six hours on top of the human log I was taking so I did it like for two years because I had my kids back there 15 months apart.

Unknown Speaker 14:43
So yeah, one of those Irish twins.

Leah 14:46
Not quite a year. The year make some Irish twins. Gotcha. You know, and the thing is, I was open to having a pump. If I couldn't manage it the way I was. I wasn't like you were Yeah. Yeah, it was going well, and I just

Unknown Speaker 15:03
was when I

Scott Benner 15:04
was gonna say what was considered a good agency back then what was the ADA saying back then? Was it still? Was it seven and a half at that point?

Leah 15:11
Do you need to know because mine was always in the low sixes. Oh,

Scott Benner 15:14
so you just were like, I'm killing this and it doesn't.

Leah 15:17
I just was like, you know, I didn't, I did what I needed to do. I didn't think about it. I just, you know, I, I took care of myself, but I didn't think about diabetes all that much. And I didn't know anyone with diabetes, so I just kind of did it without thinking about it.

Scott Benner 15:38
You were just like an island unto yourself, like just by yourself and handling it and a low a one C, eating a fairly regular what people normal diet.

Leah 15:48
Oh, yeah, I just figured out like if I was going to eat a high carb that I had to take a boatload of insulin. Yeah. And that's, I still do that. I, I, I eat low carb now. Because we, both my kids have celiac disease too. So we don't have a lot of you know, it's okay.

Scott Benner 16:10
You want to go cry for a minute and come back?

Unknown Speaker 16:14
actually good. And we'll see you again. Yeah, a great example. Right?

Scott Benner 16:18
Because look what you've said in the first couple of minutes. I got type one diabetes, when I'm 16. My kid got it last year, my you know, my, my niece or I'm sorry, Your niece or nephew has it there's I have hypothyroidism my kids are feeling. And I'm good.

Leah 16:34
Like, you know, it's a perspective. And it's an it's the way you view things because, you know, I am a nurse, and I work in a cancer center. And I see a lot of really rare things and terminal patients. And so I have a different perspective, I think, than most people that. To me, it doesn't feel that bad. Diabetes does not feel that bad. And I've always felt that way. And I've said that, and I don't know what to say. It's just, maybe I feel like I'm lucky that I've been able to control it as I have. And I don't know why.

Scott Benner 17:16
What also you've it occurs to me as you're talking that you don't have a preconceived notion of what good means. Just I think being alive is good. Right? And having a family living your life?

Unknown Speaker 17:27
Yeah, that's the Yeah, absolutely.

Scott Benner 17:30
I hear you. I really do. I think it's perspective is, is everything to be perfectly honest, you know, like, even down to the things that, you know, I don't know how, how much people would believe or not believe that most of the correspondence I get back is, Hey, I heard what you're saying on the podcast about stuff. And it's great. But every once in a while I hear from somebody who is just really, they don't get it, like it didn't click with them, or it didn't work with them or whatever. And then that that not clicking for some people turns directly to anger to you know, I did what I did what I heard people saying, and it didn't work, and angry, like, and I and I always think well, you know, let's try again, or why did it get any better? Or like, Did you see any improvement at anything about this, like, but no, right away, too. And I think that's their perspective, too. And I don't know that you can, you know, I'm gonna use an example from somebody who I know will never hear this. But Arden just started on a new softball team not too long ago. And there's one girl on the team who just seems pissed all the time. There's no other real way to put it. She just seems angry constantly. And then one day, her one of her parents shows up and her parent is disabled to the point where they're riding a scooter around the game. And I tried to strike up a conversation with the parent and she was three times as angry as the kid. And I thought what chance does this little girl have of not being angry? Her mom is obviously upset about something she doesn't try to hide it. And this girl's taking on that, that that kind of like she's taking on the mantle of the family like this is what we do. We're mad. And and maybe it's completely reasonable that they're angry. I don't know the rest of their story. But I also know that I've met people, like you said in far worse situations who are not like that. And yeah, and so there is to some degree, you have to say in there, there was a moment when someone decided this is too much for me, I can't handle this, or I just don't want to or this wasn't the Rose Garden I was promised. And so because of that, I'm I'm gonna be pissed. I don't know that I completely. Well, not completely. I wouldn't judge anybody for that happening to them. Like I think we all have a tipping point, you know, and just some people's might be a little more. Their resolve might be a little stronger than other people for a number of reasons. But I love your attitude. And I think That was amazing as a long way of saying I loved your answer when you said No, I'm good. If you've been searching for low carb, high protein snacks that are made from real ingredients, look no further. And bonus if you're the kind of person who likes saving 20% now I've got a deal for you. You need to go to real good foods calm and when you check out use the offer code juice box to save that 20% there's also free shipping but that's not the best part. The best part comes when you open your oven and smell those amazing snacks. Just the other night I had the jalapeno and white cheddar poppers. They also have artichoke and cheese and pepperoni mozzarella. But let me tell you a little more about the poppers their chicken poppers delicious chicken filled with natural ingredients. My wife, she leans towards the enchiladas. That's pretty much our favorite thing it real good foods. Kelly loves the chicken enchiladas the beef enchiladas and she's getting ready to try the pork. Arden says cheese are her favorite. Now my mom loves the cauliflower crust pizza. You can get cauliflower vegetable, pepperoni, Margarita, or just cheese. So satisfy your low carb desires. And your high level taste all in the same place. Real good foods calm. And don't forget that when you finish your shopping, before you place your order to use the offer code juicebox to save 20% off the entire order. And

Unknown Speaker 21:26
real good foods we'll

Scott Benner 21:27
even throw in free shipping. And I have to tell you something. Their shipping is crazy. Amazing. It was the one thing I was concerned about about ordering food and having it delivered to my house like that food is supposed to be frozen. I just had this concern it would show up and like you know, be warm. But just the opposite. The person who devised the shipping plan is a genius. smartest the guy who made the poppers pure didn't have a pump for all that time, like what made you get a pump.

Leah 21:56
As soon as my son was diagnosed that night at the hospital. It just clicked in my head. I was like he's getting a pump. He's getting the Omni pod. And I am to and we're doing it right away. And I don't know why that just was very clear. That thought was very firmly in my brain that I had seen the Omni pod at. We had teaching it at work. And I had seen it and I was like oh, that's really cool. I've never seen a tubeless pump before and and so we didn't go to the class. I just went to the first endo appointment and said we want the Omni pod. And I messaged my endocrinologist and said, I want to get one. And so like within a month we got a Omni pod and the Dexcom

Scott Benner 22:47
right at the same time.

Leah 22:49
Yeah, we both did within a week. I got mine first. And he was super bummed. And then, you know, we went in a week later. And they were like, well, we got to do the sailing trial. And I was like, No, we're gonna we're going for it.

Scott Benner 23:00
Yeah, it'd be nice for most of existence. I think I get out. You know, it's so funny. Is that your answer about why did I finally after all those years go to a pump? it mirrors almost exactly every parent I've ever had on who has type one whose kids are later diagnosed. Going back to just last week, if anybody heard Laurie last week in Episode 189, right? It's not it's love. Like it really becomes parental love at some point it, it's I want to do. I was okay. I don't know what the standard of care is. Right? Like Whatever you say, whatever in your mind, the gold standard is. But if I didn't think as a person living with type one, if I didn't think I was right up to that standard. It was okay, because it was me. And then the minute I bring my child into it, I need to push up against that ceiling and further because I need better for them. It is it's incredibly interesting. I hope people hear that story enough to realize that even if you don't have a kid with Type One Diabetes, if you have type one, and you're an adult, like you should, like what the what the gold standard, whatever that is, I'm not telling you. I'm just saying want that for yourself. Because I haven't said this in a long time. So it bears repeating now that we're up to almost 200 episodes. You don't want to be the person 10 years from now, who looks at what everyone else is doing and says Oh, I didn't realize that the entire landscape of diabetes management has shifted and I did not go along with it. Like it like if you stop and think right? Would you today be in such a good place? If you were still on regular an MPH and didn't have a pump and didn't have a CGM? No, no. And so and so when things improving I'm not saying just change because they change like don't if you love if you love your pump and somebody else comes out with a pump and has a funky color, I'm not saying change because hey, that one's cool. But I mean when when things make a leap. You sort of have to leap along with it or you'll get left behind and that means you're leaving your health behind

Leah 24:57
I think absolutely That's how I handled. It was a huge, it was a huge learning curve to transition though, because, again, they were like, Mom has type one diabetes, and you're a nurse. So here's your pump, and I initially treated it like I did injections by just bolusing. And not using it to get the most out of it. And once I learned from you how to do extended boluses and 10 phases, it was just, it changed things for both of us so much, and made us so much more stable and in control of things. It's been amazing. Very happy for you that that sounds good. Yeah, no, absolutely.

Scott Benner 25:47
It's just it's you just don't want to be you know, it's a bazooka, you don't kill a fly with a bazooka, it does all this great stuff. If you just want to kill the flight. It's gonna fly swatter. And so it's fine. Like you have a pump. It's not just a way to not inject so many times, like, which I think is how doctors sell it to people. Yeah, and for whatever reason, but maybe because they don't understand. And maybe because they're just trying to tease you into, you know, keep doing it. But it's such a shortchanging, it's just like to think of a pump is just a way to get less injections, is as insulting as it is to say that a dex comes in alarm to keep you from dying. It's just such a minimal concept. Like there's so much more to it than that. And easy to understand. If someone can just explain it to you once it gets it doesn't take a lifetime to figure out. It's pretty simple. And so it's so cool that you did that. Um, it's very nice that you had kind of like Mason situation to kind of propel you that way. Can you tell me a little bit about about his diagnosis.

Leah 27:06
It wasn't on my radar that one of my children might get type one. I never, ever considered it at all. And then I, within like a week, I noticed he was going to the bathroom at night and drinking a lot. It was really hot summer. And so I kind of mentioned it to my husband. And he was like, Oh, yeah, and then I smelled his breath, and I smelled that metallic smell. And and then I one night, I just decided to go test him where he was sleeping. And I just knew, and it was off my meter. His number. And I I just knew it just Can I have known them? Yeah.

Scott Benner 27:48
Can I ask you how it struck you? Did

Unknown Speaker 27:49
you?

Scott Benner 27:50
Were you upset? Did you cry? Did you get just resolved? Like how did it hit you initially

Leah 27:57
that I was right, that I knew. I'm

Scott Benner 28:00
like dammit, I figured this out.

Leah 28:02
Excellent. I just it just was like, oh, all this stuff. And you know, I look back on the previous month. And the other things that had been going on little things here and there that it all made sense. And I mean, people have asked me if I was devastated. And it really wasn't, it was like, I was grateful that I was able to share it with him. I knew what it was and that we could do this. It would have been different probably if it was anything else. And honestly like the celiac diagnosis kind of threw me more for a loop because that what I didn't even wasn't aware of that at all. I had never been tested for it. So I was kind of like what, but but you know, it was a hard time initially with with his diagnosis. And we were we went to the hospital right away that night. And then we were discharged in the morning and had the education for a few hours on no sleep and got home. And I had that paper where they tell you what to give. And I was like, I need to follow this. You know, even though I knew everything. It's funny, I wanted a guide. I just I was in it.

Unknown Speaker 29:21
Interesting.

Leah 29:22
Yeah. So it took me like a few months. And I knew things like they were just out of control. And he was up and down. And I was like I know this can be better. I can see my lines here. I know how to do this. So I just have to figure it out for him. And it It took me for a little while but boy has has it changed a lot and the the Dexcom and the Omnipod are just like the things that did it really it's pretty cool.

Scott Benner 29:51
So I've a couple of questions.

Unknown Speaker 29:53
Yeah. When you

Scott Benner 29:54
when a board game Are you one of those people who gets up and yells like I like when you're like it's the maid in the pantry with a candlestick It's right to stand up and like I knew it a few like being right, because that's such a great that's such a first of all your response says, One, you've had diabetes for so long that you're like, well, I can do this. Like, that's not a big deal. The diabetes part's not a big deal from from your love that you were like, I won. I bet

Unknown Speaker 30:18
I figured

Scott Benner 30:18
this out by myself. You're like Sherlock Holmes in that moment. Yeah, just exploding to the whole room on the on the Orient Express why how you figured out the whole thing. I've blended nine different metaphors together there. And so but that's really funny. And then, and then so you, you know, into the hospital and right back out again, you fall into this really interesting category that's come up a couple of times in the podcast, too, when there are medical people on which is other medical people don't explain things to you, because they just Oh, yeah. Did you understand them already?

Leah 30:52
Completely.

Scott Benner 30:53
Is that frustrating?

Leah 30:56
Well, I find now that I do know a lot more in this area with regards to diabetes, but yeah, no, it is because I have to kind of take over and figure it out myself. And so

Scott Benner 31:14
that's what you did when you saw him going up and down and up and down, especially when you were staying stable. Right? Like you're you had stability, right? And he didn't,

Leah 31:20
right, right. Mm hmm. So I knew it was possible.

Scott Benner 31:24
Yeah. Oh, please. You're the, you know, everybody has their own m&m story, which, which I've talked about here before somebody explained to me that they, you know, it was a it was a nurse practitioner who told me they had a patient who used the dexcom to figure out how to eat m&ms without a spike. Yeah. And when I heard that, I think she was telling me a story about look, you can eat candy. And what I was hearing was a story about there's a way to balance insulin and timing so that your body doesn't move. And that to me was like that was it now some people will tell me, like, there's a blog post on my on my website about eating like French toast or Chinese food. People speak to me about that, I think to myself, Oh, that's their m&m story. That's the moment they realized.

Unknown Speaker 32:08
This is possible.

Scott Benner 32:10
Right? And so you actually had your own experience that you were able to say, Look, I know this is possible, because I do this for myself.

Unknown Speaker 32:17
Yes, Mm hmm.

Scott Benner 32:18
What did you what were the steps you took? Like, how did you kind of hammer your way through it with your son?

Leah 32:23
I was seeking out how to do this. And I was my endocrinol, or his endocrinologist was saying, Oh, no, you're doing great. And I was like, No, this can be better for me. I know that this can be better. And so and I would talk to like the school nurse, and she'd say, Oh, yeah, this is normal. And I was still like, no, no. So I mean, thank goodness, I found your podcast, I started listening, I started taking into practice some of the ideas that you were talking about, and started figuring it out it how insulin, reacted in his body to different foods and different times in different situations, and then started texting with him and gave him some freedom to be away from me and be able to do things on his own with my help. And, and that's how very quickly like within six months is a one c went from 6.7 to 5.4. Wow, you were already doing well.

Unknown Speaker 33:21
And then yeah,

Scott Benner 33:23
yeah, that's, by the way, you're one of the people who listen, I don't want to dissuade anybody, but I'm doing my best to keep up with all the messages and and I love talking to everybody. But Leah, you're one of the people that like, as I've gotten your messages through the months, I can see your momentum building, like like you do you know what I mean by that, like you kind of like I see you hit a little thing, then you kind of go past it now. And it's so like, heartwarming to look at. From my perspective. Please, no one think that if I answer you back in a short way that I'm not just like, oh my god, this is amazing. But you're not the only one sending a message. But at the same time, I love I love seeing it because yours was to your just to your point. Very quick. I thought, like you really like ascended that hill quickly. It was really cool to say it was just genuinely. I don't know, like it, it reinforced for me. What I was doing. You were helping me you didn't probably realize that at the time, but you gave me confidence about what I was doing when I was seeing what was happening for you. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it really is. It's it's, it's I mean, I said heartwarming already but it's beyond that. It's it's just sometimes I need the confidence to because, you know, it doesn't work for everybody. There are some listen this podcast and they leave too early or they don't it doesn't strike them the right way or so. Some people tell me I wish you would. You know, I wish that the episodes were more directional, and I don't know how to explain to them that like my brain does. really worked that way, like the best I can offer? You know? Yeah.

I feel like I let people down sometimes. But it was really nice to see what happened to you and your son.

Leah 35:09
Yeah. And it's not to say that it's not a struggle to do this. It's it's very challenging. I don't sleep, I mean, between his beeping and my beeping, it's, there's a lot of interrupted nights. But I really tried to take it on with with no fear. And I lived my life with no fear. Nobody ever taught me fear around diabetes when I was diagnosed. And so I didn't hold that. And I see a lot of comments and posts on social media now about fear and challenges. And I. And I think everyone's experience is different, but I've found a lot of value in having confidence in my ability to manage myself, and my son is

Scott Benner 36:04
good for you. Because there's something that happens in social media. To that point, so some people are just afraid. And yeah, right on, there's plenty to be afraid of. Right. So I get that. But I think there's also plenty of people trying to build presences on social media, and they do it sometimes by attracting people in with the, with the fear of like, you know, leading leading statements, like, you know, like, when you're when your kid falls, you don't say, Oh, my God, you're hurt, come here, you, you don't do that. Because then you put them in the mindset that they're hurt, like, you know, like, you don't act shocked when they fall over because it shocks them. And reaction, and you don't ask them a leading question, Where does it hurt? because then they'll be like, Well, you know, what, come to think of it. And you know, like, you can lead people to that direction. And I think on social media in the sometimes, sometimes people will, will sort of do that they'll they'll kind of pluck it heartstrings to get people to follow and like and things like that. And I I'm just much, I'm much more in the idea of put out positive stuff that you know, works. And when people find it and come to it as they will you, there's no reason to try to force somebody into it. You can't do that. And you shouldn't try to do that because they're not ready. I have a number of emails that start off with your podcast is unrealistic. And this doesn't work and blah, blah, blah, and you know, they're they're this close to being like go to hell. And then three months later, it's like, I kept listening and you know, sorry for the first email and just like, right, right on whatever. Yeah, but it's understandable because they just weren't in the right space when the information hit them the first time.

Leah 37:51
Yeah. Well, I was I've been in that space. And it's funny. When I first found your podcast, I went to my husband and I told him, oh, you should listen to this podcast with me. He's saying this and this. And he's like, honey, I've been telling you this for three months. Now. You didn't hear me? I'm like, I'm so sorry.

Scott Benner 38:08
Sorry. He was just probably used to not being listened to it Really? Yeah. Didn't know a way to fight through it.

Leah 38:14
It was just being ready to take the information in being ready. Yeah,

Scott Benner 38:19
I looked at my family the other day in my private life, and I said, forwards, forwards and they're looking right at me. And I'm like, No one listens to me. And then they just turned around and walked away. I was like, see, see, you're not listening. Now. I make sense. Sometimes. You know, that. I'm like, babbling. We're outside in the parking. I'm like, there are people online who listen to me. And my wife's like, they don't know you. And I'm like, Yeah, well, that's not the point. Anyway, your own home, no one listens to you. And Ben, but yeah, but you're 100%. Right. He's, it's such a great example to your he's standing there telling you something that just three months later, you're going to be like, hey, you're Rica. And while he's going, I've been saying this for 90 days in a row. And you just weren't ready to hear it. Like it's just that's very common, you know? Yeah. But the point is, the point has to be to everyone listening is that this diabetes thing. It's got its own life cycle. Right. And, and you right now, whether you're listening to the podcast, or following some Facebook group, or you're on Instagram, or wherever you're at trying to find your community. Right now that place feels like the whole world. It's got names and avatars that you recognize. And what you need to understand is that six months from now, on average, you won't be there anymore, and either will those people. It's a very few that stay behind and do this sort of thing. This podcast and some really great blogs and stuff like that. Most people go through this process, and then they leave and that is the best part. I've set it up. million times I'll say it again right here. When your name disappears out of my messages, when your face no longer strikes a chord with me when I see it in an avatar, that means you're off living your life somewhere. And then everything I tried to do, if you were if you were listening to me, and you got anything out of it, like that's a success, it's hard for you to imagine now because we do correspond that that wait one day, you just won't think to ever talk to me again. And and that'll be a great day for you. It really will be.

Leah 40:31
Yes, I am still in the process of figuring things out. I feel like of course,

Scott Benner 40:35
I'll take

Unknown Speaker 40:36
it takes forever. Like Like,

Scott Benner 40:38
like the big pieces for you fell into place, like you said pretty quickly over a number of months. But still, now that you're using kind of bigger ideas, the experience, the ability to have those experiences are going to be fewer and farther between. And so it's going to take you longer for this thing to come up this time. And that time and this time. I screwed up today, when I saw the bend in Arden's next con line. I should have Bolus then. And I didn't because I didn't her blood sugar's 140. It's going to go back down again on that Bolus that you heard me give her. But I could have stopped the 140 with less insulin a half an hour before. And I just think, Well, you know what was going on my dogs were not behaving and I was trying to start the podcast, there was a lot of stuff going on. But in that moment, right then in there had I put a half of unit in just a half a unit, then she would have leveled off I'm thinking more like 110. And instead now 140. And you think well, that's not bad. I don't think it's bad. I really want to be clear about that. I don't think my daughter's blood sugar being 140 90 minutes after I bowls for lunch while she was at school, by the way, with a banana grapes, a half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a grab bag of Cheetos, a juice bag that does have some sugar in it. Something something else. Oh, let me see if I say this to you. If you know what I'm talking about. My daughter did this to me the other day. Arden told me one of those cookies. When I say one of those cookies does anything popped into your head,

Leah 42:07
I guess an Oreo.

Scott Benner 42:09
Okay, so, in apparently around here, when the kids say one of those cookies do each other, they mean those cookies that are about four inches around and have this big swath of icing on top of them. You usually buy them at a place like Costco, they vaguely taste like cookies. They're always served at birthday parties. You're all nodding along at home. Now, if you've ever seen them before, my daughter says when she says to somebody, hey, I'm gonna have one of those cookies. They actually know what everyone's talking about.

Unknown Speaker 42:34
Oh my goodness, they're not food.

Scott Benner 42:37
I think they have like 36 grams of carbs in them. Like for one. It's gotta be poisoned. I'm not 100% Sure. So think about it a banana of varying size. I don't remember how big it was a half of a sandwich with jelly and peanut butter and a piece of bread. One of those cookies, a grab bag of Cheetos, a handful of grapes. I don't know how many a juice box that I think has eight carbs in it. And something else. And I didn't count the carbs. I just gave her this insulin and had I had I reacted when I knew to react, everything would have went perfectly and still. A complete Nutter failure is 140 blood sugar that's stable. Honestly, this is the perfect time to talk about the Dexcom gs six continuous glucose monitor. You just heard that story about ardens meal, all this foods not even having to count carbs, just putting in the insulin following the trends taking care of business. That is all possible because of the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor the edge stop here. I'm just telling you just go get it dexcom.com forward slash juice box and the music go do it. But I know you might need some more convincing somebody to tell you a story. I met someone recently who has had diabetes for 21 years. And even though they had a dexcom they weren't thinking about the data correctly. So their blood sugar's were jumping all over the place. And they could see it it was driving them crazy 60 460 400 all day long. This person and I spoke for about a half an hour, I showed them how to interpret the data coming back from their glucose monitor. And the very next day, my hand to God the very next day, this person sent me back a 24 hour graph that was so flat and beautiful. Without spikes or lows. It just warmed my heart in a way that you can't imagine. Maybe you can't imagine. I was so thrilled for her. How did she make those decisions with the information coming back to her with her Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. And you can do that too, by going to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Those links are also available at Juicebox podcast.com. And in the show notes of your podcast player. Get yourself a G six Get yourself a flat graph. These are my results, Yours may vary. Once you have your Dexcom, you'll have all this extra free time you won't be spending paying attention to your blood sugar. You know what you do with that time you go to dancing for diabetes, calm dancing, the number four diabetes.com. Then you check them out on Facebook, and on Instagram, and it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. And we could all use some more warm and fuzzy.

Leah 45:24
That's not a bad failure. Right? But amazing. I know. I know. Yeah, I could hear all that and know how much insulin I would take for that meal. But I'm still figuring it out what it would take for Mason's meal for that and, and it is like a little science experiment where I see what I'm doing, and then trying it again next time differently. And, and some and it's great. When it works. And then I learned when it doesn't,

Scott Benner 45:52
yeah, you just did. That's it just again, they're not mistakes, they're experiences. And you just learn. I call them the mistake this time because I from past experiences, saw what was gonna happen and just, I didn't have the bandwidth to handle it at that moment. And so something gave and that's what gave, but still, that's a miss and a miss. I know I hear people sometimes, because I will share art and say one, two, I wouldn't say once here right now it's five, four.

Unknown Speaker 46:19
And I think fantastic. And

Scott Benner 46:20
I think people think that means her blood sugar's 85 constantly. They don't realize if Arden's blood sugar was 85 constantly, Herbert Bayh once he would be like four, six, or something like that, and so it's not, you know, just because she went up to 140 for it, what's gonna end up being an hour is not a big deal. If I ate something with a lot of carbs in it, my blood sugar would probably go up to 140 for an hour, you know, so it's not the end of the world, right? It doesn't stay there go higher and comes back. It's perfection is not the goal. I've never once had a goal of perfection. My my goal is easy life, not think about diabetes very often stay fluid, you know, address insulin, what needs to be addressed? And other than that? Yeah, I don't really think about it very often. I'm thinking about it now, because you and I are talking about it, right? Even if we weren't, I would just think, okay, I bolused. This extra unit, this is the amount of time plus we don't know, this is the last day ever pump. it expires in a couple of hours. She's got a little bit of a, excuse me, she has a little bit of a head cold. There's a lot going on, you know, and by the way, as you're trying to figure Mason out as they grow. I don't know if anyone you probably know this yet because you're a nurse, but they get bigger and they get taller all happens all the time. Yeah. And and every time it happens, they need more insulin.

Leah 47:40
Now he gained 15 pounds this year.

Scott Benner 47:43
Yeah. Right. But like doesn't go off on their head or something. So you know, like, like male in the background that goes Ding, ding ding and go, Oh, we have to move up our insulin by 30%. Like, it's just, you just have to. I always like when I find myself looking at her thinking she looks bigger. I don't then the next thing I think is Have I been seeing blood sugars that are acting the way I expect them to? Because if not, she's probably needs more insulin now. It's um, it's really quite a ride. At least you don't have periods. That'll be a good thing. You

Leah 48:13
know, I didn't even know that was the thing

Scott Benner 48:16
that didn't never impact your life.

Leah 48:19
No, not that I I just didn't even no one ever said that. And like, the information I was getting was little I got little information. And we didn't have social media. I wasn't reading on diabetes blogs or Instagram at that time. So I just didn't know these things. And there was a lot of things like I had never heard of, and that was one of them. I never noticed that. And I didn't know that was the thing.

Scott Benner 48:45
So here's why that's amazing. I'm glad that came up. Here you are, again, like an island unto yourself. You're not really touching anybody else that has diabetes. And you're living a life where you're fluid with your insulin, you're giving yourself insulin, when you need insulin, you're you're you have an excitation of a blood sugar, and you're trying to keep yourself within it, right? Yeah. And so that when your needs increase, you just increase your insulin, you don't stop but you don't stop and think oh, this is the thing. I heard that guy talk about one time that happens. Like you don't do that you just know. And that goes right to what I say on the podcast, right? Like when your blood sugar is high. stop wondering what's happening and give yourself more insulin. Because it doesn't sort of in the moment matter what's happening. What matters is your blood sugar is trying to go higher and why is your blood sugar high? Because you don't have enough insulin. The same reason was why is your blood sugar low you have too much insulin you've missed timed it. There's not enough combination of those two ideas that that's the same for high or low. And so you were just doing that and not thinking about the other. Yes, that's such a good lesson for everyone.

Unknown Speaker 49:53
Is everyone listening is

Scott Benner 49:56
that's that's amazing. That's what that's that's got to be your takeaway from This episode doesn't mean don't listen the last 15 minutes. But that has to be a takeaway from this episode, which is, which is that look what it was. It was working for Leah the whole time. And she didn't even really know she was doing it. It was just, it was just I guess you didn't want to go back to the hospital since you were 16. Right.

Leah 50:16
You know, I just Yeah, oh, that was a big thing. But I figured out how to do it. And I didn't. I didn't rely on my doctor to figure it out for me. I if I needed to stack I stack. If they told me not to. I just said okay, and walked out and did my thing. And it was working. So they didn't question me. I'd go in, they say, Oh, looks good. Keep doing what you're doing. And I did all my appointments. I did all my labs. I had my eyes checked my feet check, you know, when I was supposed to, and Yep, it worked. So that was that I am

Scott Benner 50:54
getting to the point now with Arden's endo appointments, where I hate to say this, and I don't vote. I don't vocalize it to her or anywhere else, but I'm starting to feel like they're a waste of our time. Mostly.

Leah 51:05
Do you go every three months?

Scott Benner 51:06
I do. And I'm starting

Leah 51:08
I was gonna ask my Yeah, I was gonna ask my son's endocrinologist if we could switch to every six months at some point, because I mean, we're getting we're doing our a one sees there, but I'm making the changes on his pump, you know, they look at it is isn't within range, his deviation is great. So if he keeps going, I don't see why we would. I mean, at some point, I'm, I made a question them about it.

Scott Benner 51:42
It can't be ever just four months and just go three times a year, like because, yeah, the last couple times, and I'm sitting there, and they're like, hey, she looks good. Orange, like thanks. And you know, like, she's bored last time, our friends whether it was like a roomful of girls, and if you saw that, and so they're dorable. She's just like, come on, come with me. And so they all were there. But five minutes into it once Hey, your agency's back. It's five, four, yea, even at that I'm like, Okay, well, I mean, I already have the clarity, I kind of knew what it was going to be to begin with. And, you know, and and, and I'm like, all right, and then she starts asking me questions about stuff. Have you heard about this pump thing? And I'm like, wait a minute, I'm paying you like, like, are you gonna give me $40? Then because I'd give you 40 to come in here and write. And then you know, there's a bill later. And I'm like, I mean, I'm spending, you know, even it's minimal. We have really good insurance, I'm not gonna lie to you. But I mean, I still spend five or $600 a year just to go to those appointments. And apparently, what comes from them is the doctor asks me questions about diabetes.

Leah 52:46
So yeah, I had a similar situation at work. Last week, I was meeting with the diabetes educators at the hospital to do an in service in my unit, and I asked them about the app because it wasn't in our medication administration charting. And, and they said, What is that? I was like, Well, you know, I'm learning all this stuff from a podcast and you know, and on Instagram, so

Unknown Speaker 53:15
you know, leave me alone and get on Instagram

Scott Benner 53:17
maybe

Leah 53:20
step it up a little bit, but it's moving fast. And I don't know it seems like it's moving very fast.

Scott Benner 53:27
This is gonna be I think, a break neck time because yeah, t slim just came out with their What do they call that basal iQ? Which is, I guess, yeah, basically low glucose suspend, right? And, and Dexcom stuff is hammering along. And they just got I just saw one of their financial reports, they finally making money, so I can't wait to see what they do in r&d now that they have more money to spend. And, you know, and and that's moving along. I may or may not know what the pot is doing. But they're hammering along very quickly with what they're trying to accomplish with their artificial pancreas and the horizon system that's coming out, you know, as soon as they can get it out.

Leah 54:07
It's so exciting. And I love how you say it's like the baby stages of it all. That's barely started.

Unknown Speaker 54:14
Yeah, it really has,

Scott Benner 54:15
you can't even count. You can't even count regular and mph and your meter that took a half a gallon of blood to give you a reasonably inaccurate accounting of your blood sugar. You know, like that time was that was before the sun came up. Like don't even worry about that,

Unknown Speaker 54:31
right? We're talking about, we're talking about in the

Scott Benner 54:34
last, I don't know seven ish years when Dexcom first started to release their products and and then that next one that came out that the accuracy picked up and then the accuracy leaked. It leaked again and that were right there like something's about to happen, you know, and I'm, I'm heartened for me. Like, I'm not one of those people. It's like they're gonna cure it. I don't think they're gonna cure not My kid's lifetime. The part I'm excited about is, is automation before she goes to college, like that really is my like horizon goal. Like, yeah, for me and I mean that figuratively like i that is my often horizon thought. And it is my hope for the horizon system when went on the pod releases that I want. Because I just watched my son go to college for the first time last month. Oh my god, you know, as a freshman, and he is incredibly fit incredibly athletic, bright. On the baseball team at his college doesn't drink. Like his like he's a he's a fairly together person. And some people might be laughing right now going, Oh, that's funny man thinks this kid's not drinking at college, my son. My son called me two weeks in the college to tell me that guys on this team pulled him aside privately and said how impressive they thought it was that he doesn't turn Oh, and like and so wonderfully, even in that Thank you. Even in that he got a head cold, a pretty bad head cold and his second week. And it almost killed him. Because he wouldn't give up on classes. He wasn't gonna give up on baseball, but he lost like eight pounds in a week. He was just around, you know, he was he come up on, you know, FaceTime. And I'd be I send my wife was like, he doesn't look good. And I was like, No, I've been talking to him, I shipped them medicine, like, and I sent him to the Wellness Center. And if he was managing diabetes by himself, really by himself for the first time in his life, and all happened at once. I can't even imagine, like, you know, when you say Something's got to give, you know, it's a diabetes that gives you no, you know, you say to yourself, Well, I'm gonna let my blood sugar be a little higher, because I'm overwhelmed now. And I just think if that automation exists, and it can it can buoy Arden in college, I just think well imagine what it's going to do for younger people and older people who are not in as stressful the situation every day, like, I think it's gonna be amazing.

Leah 57:03
I'm excited, I'm excited. And my kids, they're eight, nine. So they got a while to go before college, but it's exciting.

Scott Benner 57:12
But still, if you're using Omnipod and Dexcom. Now, and I don't know, I'm lines, I'm, I really don't. But say less than two years from now, you're on the pods talking to your Dexcom. And you're telling a little thing on your phone, Hey, I just had a big meal, or you know, or it figures out at three o'clock in the morning that you're going to be low 1020 3040 minutes from now. But just imagine what a what an incredible leap that is. And then and then that's not the exciting part. The exciting part is you went from Dexcom g seven, you know, seven plus the not GS seven plus almost seven, eight years ago to this less than a decade later. Like, imagine five years after that. Like we can't I can't even imagine what's going to come five years after that. That's going to be the that's going to be the spot where, you know, you're gonna get disco ball lights and all the extra like bells and whistles are gonna come. It's gonna be really something.

Leah 58:05
Yeah, I'm hoping I can get some sleep.

Scott Benner 58:09
It's a reasonable goal. Yeah. And I think you should Yeah. Yes. So

Leah 58:13
I just, I hope, I hope that the technology does it as well, as

Scott Benner 58:21
I would do it, I guess. That's the only thing it's my it's my selling point right there too. Is it as long as I think the Medtronic is in that boat right? Now what get has a target goal of like, 120? I don't, I don't want automation that targets at 120. And so I understand if it has to, you know if it will, because it's so new. I don't I don't not understand why Medtronic might have made that decision. But that's not as that's not as good as what we're experiencing. So I needed to do that from all accounts. And I genuinely don't know anything, but I know that on the pot is shooting for a user defined

Unknown Speaker 58:57
around Yeah, blood

Scott Benner 58:58
sugar. And I don't know if please, I don't know if that's gonna happen or not. I just know that's their goal. So hopefully that that ends up working out that way. Because that's, that's amazing. I want to dial I want to dial that goal to 90 and you know, and see. See how that works.

Unknown Speaker 59:15
That that can't wait.

Scott Benner 59:17
Yeah, even if it came close to that it would be amazing. Yeah. So tell me something we have like five minutes left. See if we can fix something for you. Right? Why are you not sleeping? Besides you have two people diabetes near one of them?

Leah 59:31
Yeah, it's just the alarms going off. Sometimes Sometimes, so I'll I'll keep his his dexcom set at 75 during school hours, and then I won't switch it back and then at nighttime, you know, if he's going under 75. It'll start beeping and then it's good because then I can like turn them off for half hour. But then I'm kind of awake just to make sure that it's going the way I want it to go. Last night, I was running high, my pod needed to get changed. And I was just too tired to do it. So I just kept like trying to bolus myself and then enter the I just yeah, I needed to change it. So I did that early this morning.

Scott Benner 1:00:22
I hear you. It's, it's, the answer is you've two people in your life have diabetes. And one of them yeah, and one of them's the person you love.

Leah 1:00:30
Yeah. And I and I always used to wake up at least once a night to chest test my blood sugar before my Dexcom. So it's, that's not new, but it's the once the dex calm came and just trying to keep things in really great control overnight. And sometimes, you know, he just starts going up. And so I'm staying up to Bolus him until I get him where I want him to be overnight.

Scott Benner 1:00:57
I have to say, ours are like in in like, spits and like fits and Spencer fits in what is that free testing? I don't know, this thing fits and spurts. Maybe I don't have the internet in front of me right now. But anyway, it's like so last night, blood sugar great all night. Yeah, been like that for three days. At some point last week, there were three days where I was like, ah, like, she wanted to be low all the time. And, you know, and there was there's been times this month where she wanted to be higher. And yeah, it's just it's, you know, I sleep through some of them. And, you know, like, the Obviously, these real steady nights are easy to sleep through the low nights I don't have, I'm not as good as just ignoring them and going back to sleep. The high nights, I'm okay with bolusing going back to sleep and waking up again. And so, you know, it's just, again, it's diabetes, like you can't expect it to always be it's not always an 85 blood sugar doesn't matter how good dairy once is. Absolutely. And some people might say, Well, I'm comfortable with a budget of higher than that overnight. And I even make that decision. At some point. I was sick a couple weeks ago. And our sugar was sitting at 140. And I thought to myself, I got it, I have to go to sleep like I can't. I can't do this right now. So I just let her blood sugar be 140. Overnight, I did my best for it not to be and I went to sleep no more you have to take care yourself to at some point.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:25
Leah? Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:02:26
thank you. How did this go for you? Got

Leah 1:02:30
it. It was great. I was a little nervous. But it was exciting to and you know, it's nice to be able to talk about diabetes. And that, you know, I just I talked about it a lot now, and I never did before. So it's pretty great. It's made things better?

Scott Benner 1:02:46
Well, I think you guys are very lucky to have each other, obviously, I think he's he's helped you a lot in ways that you're still probably figuring out and you're obviously, you know, helping him in immense ways. And your husband's telling you all the stuff that He just won't listen to him.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:05
I tried to which by

Scott Benner 1:03:06
the way, I assume my wife would say you were right to do continue to ignore that man. have your best interests at heart Even though he probably does and it's just fun to think he doesn't for some reason. I don't know why you women hate us. That's a blanket statement. But if it had there's least once a day and I think to myself, if that woman wants to kill me, why doesn't she just smother me with a pillow?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:32
Yeah, like, Why

Scott Benner 1:03:32
is it taking so long? You know what I mean? Like, why is she just picking away at me super, super slow, like, why not just do it. I'm going to tell a funny story. And I'm gonna let you go. People I don't really know very well from the town I live in. It's to say that over the years, our kids have played similar sports and we've been next to each other in horrible situations and gymnasiums and baseball fields once or twice. And this person tells me what I still consider to be one of the funniest stories. I'm going to tell you over bazel snoring in the background right now. She said that one night she woke up and her husband was standing next to the bed holding a pillow. And now keep in mind he just needed an extra pillow. He went to a rocking chair in the corner to get an extra pillow but she opened her eyes. Her husband was standing there with a pillow and she said her first thought was and I can't curse in the podcast. Her first thought was f i was going to kill him. She said there was a split second where she thought he got to it first. He got to it first and she said that was exactly the tea. She thought you know the F word. I was gonna kill him. And then she was giving up in that moment. She thought Oh, well. beat me to it fair's fair and

Unknown Speaker 1:04:51
long time. You can tell

Scott Benner 1:04:55
I don't know what I would do if my first thought when I saw my wife moving through the room. Was Oh god, she's gonna kill me. But I know that's not a good sign. I don't think it's a great sign at all. But it's a funny, funny story. So just try to imagine it with the cursing. It's really hilarious. Anyway, that's the big secret. I tell anybody. If you ever speak to me in private, the first thing you're going to realize is that my ability not to curse on this podcast is a monumental, a monumental experience on my end, because I love to curse. And so yeah, I don't do it in this hour, a number of times a week, sometimes. It's hard to believe Actually, I was on a, I was at a call the other day with one of the companies who buys ads on the podcast, and my wife was working from home. And she goes, well done. You only curse twice and a half an hour on a business called like they know to expect it, it's fine. Anyway, please say hello to your son, for me and your whole family. And thank you well,

Leah 1:05:57
and thank you, Scott, thank you so much. I've just, I really appreciate everything you do. And you're doing amazing work. And it's definitely has affected us and helped us. So we appreciate it. And thank you, those sentiments

Scott Benner 1:06:11
mean a lot to me. So I very much appreciate your sharing. And thank

Unknown Speaker 1:06:15
you very much.

Scott Benner 1:06:19
Huge thanks to Leah for coming on the show sharing her life with type one as well as her sons. And if you're enjoying the program, I mean, if you like the podcast, please keep in mind, it's here, because of the sponsors. And then you check them out, you click on the links in the show notes and you look at them, you say, hey, maybe Scott's onto something here. And that helps everything you know what I mean by helps. I mean, the podcast is free because of the ads, you got to visit the sponsors. My omnipod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box, you go to real good foods. com use the offer code juice box and you save 20% on your order. And then once you've got your insulin pump, and your CGM and you're all happy, and you've seen the pictures of the little kids with diabetes dancing at dancing for diabetes.com, you make yourself some cauliflower crust pizza, and some chicken poppers. And you sit back and relax. And you say to yourself, this has been a good day. And just a quick note about the episodes that I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, the ones that are going to be with Jenny Smith, the certified diabetes educator who's been on the program a number of times before those episodes are going to come out in blocks. Sometimes there'll be two or three at a time. So when you see one check back to make sure you got them all. Now they're not going to be as long as the other episodes in the podcast, the interview style episodes, they're going to be more, some of them will be 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever it takes for Jenny and I to go over specific management ideas in very complete ways. Jenny and I have been having a terrific time recording these episodes. I cannot wait to get them onto your podcast player and in deer ears. I think you're gonna love them.


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