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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello, everyone, welcome to Episode 339 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is sponsored by Omni pod, and Dexcom Omni pod, of course, is the insulin pump, excuse me, the tubeless insulin pump that Arden has been wearing since she was four years old. And we love it. And Dexcom, the greatest continuous glucose monitor known to mankind, you can find out more my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box, and dexcom.com forward slash juice box. I'll tell you more about the sponsors in just a few minutes. But first I want to tell you about Dakota today's guest. Dakota is an adult with Type One Diabetes, who is experiencing a number of complications. But he's starting to get things together. And he's here today to share what he wished that he would have known when he was a younger person for type one diabetes. It's a great episode full of hope, and honesty, just like I like.

While I've got your attention, I hope you check out diabetes pro tip calm. It's my website where I've collected all the diabetes pro tip episodes from the Juicebox Podcast right in one place. You can of course still listen to them in your podcast player. But for those of you who are trying to share them more easily, or just want to find them quickly. Diabetes pro tip.com has also added juice box docs.com. It's juicebox D oc s.com. On that page, you'll find a growing collection of amazing doctors all submitted by listeners like you. If you think you have a great diabetes physician practitioner of any kind, someone who's really helped you who really gets it gets what we talked about here on the podcast doesn't hassle you, and you'd like to share that doctor with someone else. Go to juice box docs.com right there, you can send me an email, you'll be able to see all the information I'm looking for, because you'll see what other people have given. And you can add your fantastic doctor to an ever growing list of diabetes professionals who are forward thinking, thoughtful and conscious of what technology can do. My name is Dakota, I'm 30 years old. I have been diabetic for 25 years.

Five years old. That's a long time ago.

It was pretty much I don't know a life without diabetes. Yeah, were you. That's interesting. So it's five years old. 25 years ago, I have to orient myself with time all the time. And that messes me up. But it was at 9094. Four. Okay. Do you have siblings at that point? I had an older brother who was 15. And he was a half the half brother. That was the only other sibling other than my parents. And younger back then the technology was not what it is today, I would imagine. What's your first sort of recollection of living with diabetes? How old were you? I would say the year later, about six years old. I for some reason, this memory stands out going up the stairs and I couldn't make it past the landing. And by the time we waited the two and a half minutes for the glucometer to actually test the blood sugar. It popped up reading 23. That was my first experience with a hypo. That's crazy. So tell people a little more because that's something that I think a lot of people listening to that don't understand. So do you remember the process can you walk through what it was like to check your blood sugar 25 years ago, the meters aren't as compact as they are today. You know if you have a if you have an actual glucometer or if you have a CGM, they were about the size of your of your phone. They weighed about as much as a brick. And the test trip was the size of a ketone strip. And the amount of blood that it took was you pretty much had to poke every finger just to get enough blood

bleed into a puddle to

Dakota 4:15
exactly 60 seconds into it you actually had to wipe the blood off the strip before inserting it into the machine

Unknown Speaker 4:24
so probably dinosaur age

Scott Benner 4:26
that's interesting. So you the the blood goes on the strip but the strip's not in the machine at that point, correct the blood out to saturate that little pad on the strip that's like a ketone trip or you have to kind of wait and wait. So this is all happening to her while you're six and a unable to propel yourself up the stairs. So something's clearly wrong and apparent goes it's like well, we'll get the meter and then they drag this thing out and hack open a vein. Fill up this test strip, they're putting them the thing you said you felt faint probably because of the blood loss. Not even Because of the blood sugar being low,

Unknown Speaker 5:01
I think for the blood bought Yeah,

Scott Benner 5:04
that's really something else, man, that's a it's a good look into, Oh, you know what your life could be like, for people who are, you know, will say something like, my Dexcom lost its connection for five minutes and I very upset.

It's a different world, what do you use now for technology.

Unknown Speaker 5:22
So I was always on the side of I didn't want to support the industry at all figure I give them enough money, I'm not gonna support all this new technology, old school has always worked out, it doesn't work. And I have now on the desktop g six as well as the Omni pod. And that was all pre listening to the show.

Scott Benner 5:41
That's cool. That's so interesting.

And I like to dig into that for just a second to kind of figure that out. So at some point, as an adult, you have like a real adverse feeling like, you know, I've already lose enough money to this disease. I'm not spending any more I'm not giving anybody anymore. It did it feel like an adversarial relationship at that point, like there was you. And then these people that they that they told you, the hospital, your doctor that was supposed to be helping you but you didn't feel like you were being helped by them. It totally felt that way, you know, it's the insulin already cost enough. And then when they change the product that you're on, or they want you to try a new medicine that's actually more expensive, you know, when you're able to get a good deal on syringes, and then you look at the price of a pump, you're still buying the insulin put into the pub, and they just seem like extra expenditures that aren't necessarily needed at that moment.

Unknown Speaker 6:37
And was this a?

Scott Benner 6:40
Was this a financial decision to like, were you were you hurting for the money? Or any you need to put in other places? Or was this solely like, I'm gonna take a stand against this, this feeling you're having? At the time, it was a little bit of both? I definitely thought like, you know, what, if I keep doing this, they're gonna miss me, which obviously is not the case. Like,

I'm keeping my money, you'll come crawling.

Dakota 7:03
Exactly. And then the financial aspect, you know, that was a big part of it, you know, early 20s, trying to figure out what life is. And now you have to find a job that offers you good insurance. So you can even get the products in the first place. And then they tell you, it's going to be a couple hundred dollars a month. It's a big chunk of your your income course. No, I don't think we talked about it enough. We always speak about it and kind of sort of simple terms. Like I have insurance. I don't have insurance. You just think of people as in two camps, like the poor people with no insurance. Oh, that's a shame for them. And the people do have insurance. Oh, that must not cost them anything. It's not true. You could have insurance and it still cost you a fair amount of money every month. And you know, and it's worse if you don't have insurance. You haven't tried to pay cash for things. When did you lose your fight with the man? How old were you?

Unknown Speaker 7:50
Um, it was actually

Scott Benner 7:54
2017 I finally gave in and I didn't know which was which at the time I am done enough research. And I actually ordered the Omni pod first thinking it was the CGM. So I was on a pump for the CGM, by mistake thinking you were gonna be able to see jam first. Exactly. That's interesting. So when you didn't collapse the the medical device system in America and you're what what was it that made you feel like I'm giving up this fight like because I mean, I'm serious. I'm not joking with you. Like it's, it's obviously meant something to you. But at some point, you just were like, Alright, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm going to try to get these devices. What led you to, I mean, letting go of something that that you felt so strongly about for 20 some years? It actually I decided to finally jump on board when I lost my eyesight due to the diabetes. Okay, so you felt like? Well, let's, let's, I guess we should dig into that a little bit. So you are legally blind? I am legally blind. Yes. What does that mean? As far as is there? I mean, you had you were sighted for such a long time. Like Can you put into perspective for someone what it feels like? Like what? You know what that situation is like, what can you do? What do you struggle with? What What do you see in front of you?

One way you can tell that a company stands behind what it does is when it offers you a free trial with zero obligation to continue understand, I mean, they're willing to put the product in your hand before they've got your john Hancock anywhere.

Unknown Speaker 9:38
You've made

Scott Benner 9:39
zero promises. They've got all the risk. They're showing you right up front. This is who we are, like us or don't like being on a first date and just telling people all the creepy stuff you like and you think I'm gonna find the one guy who thinks this is right.

That's what the parties

are very honest first date. No What am I talking about? If you go to Miami pod.com forward slash juicebox Omni pod will send you a free, no obligation demo pod right here home. This allows you to try the pod on to see what it would be like to be an omni pod person, right? A Potter. That's what today's Potter. After your demo pod arrives, your free, no obligation demo bond. You can live with it like it's your new friend, take it in the bath with you go out for a run, lay in the sun.

Have some fun.

I can't think of anything else that simply rhymes to that word that you could do with an insulin pump on Oh, you could probably make a pun. And maybe be talking to somebody and say something funny to them while you're wearing your new Omni pod demo. And you'll think to yourself, you know, earlier today, when I made that pun, I didn't even notice I was running on Wi Fi. This is the insulin pump for me. A pump that's giving me my basal insulin and allows me to bolus do extended bolus is Temp Basal increases and decreases all that great stuff. And I don't know I'm wearing it. Even when I'm putting my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. Get that free, no obligation demo today and use that link so that on the pod knows she came from the Juicebox Podcast.

Are you impressed that I did all that and then didn't make fun?

Unknown Speaker 11:30
I just couldn't think of one. All right.

Scott Benner 11:34
Next car, the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor is in fact, the greatest thing in the world. If you're using insulin, if you're a giraffe, the greatest thing in the world is tall trees with food on it. But if you're using insulin, the dexcom g six, the bee's knees. Now, where did the saying bee's knees come from? I don't know. But what I do know is that the dexcom g six shows you the speed and direction that your blood sugar's moving. And if you're the loved one, have a person with Type One Diabetes, it allows you to see their speed and direction remotely. remotely means anywhere. Apple or Android, through the internet, the web understanding even through cellular, cellular like I don't need Wi Fi exactly for this. That's right, Scott, your kid could be in his 10 volt. Have a blood sugar that starts falling. You could be in Madison, Wisconsin and see it happen. Huh? How about that? Then you text them you're like, Hey, I don't know why you're in Turkey. But your blood sugar is getting low. Why don't you have a juice dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Do it today. It can't possibly be understated. But I think it is an amazing idea. So we're talking about my omnipod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Get yourself the greatest insulin pump. Get yourself the most magnificent CGM. Let them know that you came from the Juicebox Podcast.

What do you struggle with? What What do you see in front of you?

Everything is essentially looking through a fog. There's I have no depth perception. My right eye has no vision. my left eye the vision is 2199 which now is technically one point out of being legally blind. But it's still essentially trying to look like a stack of Ziploc bags, everything you do. And my gosh, that's a kind of horrifying honestly. If you got to this, is this a Is this a side effect of your type one? Absolutely. It was a I suffered a diabetic hemorrhage in my right eye, even in 2017 but essentially filled my eye with blood. And too much later in August of 2017. The left eye followed suit did the same exact thing. Prior to this hemorrhage. Were you aware that your eyesight was in the midst of failing or did you not know right up until it happened? I had a prescription for glasses because I knew it was starting to diminish a little bit. And I could tell there's something else a little bit more serious happening. So I scheduled the appointment. That was on Wednesday. The doctor called me before the appointment said we need to push it till Monday. And the bleed happened on Sunday. Okay, when you and I were setting the call up I asked you to shut your camera off to save bandwidth and you I from what I could. I felt like I was seeing from this and were you using your phone as a magnifier to see the screen on your computer. What was that you were doing? I use my phone for everything. Yeah, even trying to type the reply to you before we started the call. It's have to get a picture of the keyboard. I've actually never used this laptop before, just to type the message back to I say, alright. How much has that? How does that I guess slow your day down? What does it mean? How does it change your life? I guess should be my question. What were you doing prior the things you were doing prior that you can't do any more? were you living the same life? How are you handling What's going on? Well, my past, I grew up racing, motorcycles, anything in the desert, it was an engine, that was my passion. And that is the biggest thing I've given up because I can no longer drive, even tried to pick up my daughter from daycare or going to help out my fiance's, I can't drive anymore. So it definitely takes a toll on you in the long run, you start to get this feeling like maybe you're not putting enough into the relationship because you know, the other partner is doing all the driving, as you'll always try to overcompensate in different aspects of a relationship. And that all comes from not being able to assist with tasks outside the home. Yeah, I can see that I it's a, you know, obviously not an apples to apples comparison. But I've been a stay at home dad for like 20 years. And in the beginning, you know, you do feel like I'm doing all these things, but it's not the money. And because it's not the money, it doesn't feel as important a little bit, you know what I mean? And, and you do, I found myself over doing other things trying to be like, Look, I'm valuable, you know, I mean, like, I'm, it's I'm trying my hardest, I'm in this 5050. And it's a weird feeling. It went away from me, I hope it I hope it doesn't stick with you. Because obviously your situation is it's not like you're just you know, you've made a decision not to be helpful. You know? Wow. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about that, about the motocross racing. So I have very little knowledge of this other than I have this incredibly clear memory of when I was a kid and my parents took me, they had a friend who rode they called it enduro bike racing, I guess. And it was, it felt like it was in the woods and my memory. And you just kind of went and stood on this, you know, some part on this course in the woods, and every few minutes, these amazing like, motorcycles would just come flying by and jumping over hills and mud flying everywhere. And I think back on it now. And I'm like that could not have been safe for me to be standing there watching that. Because you're so close to the course, you know, absolutely not, especially in endurocross. They're jumping over rocks, you know, there are definitely mud pits that they have to try to plow through. There's logs in the path that they're trying to jump over, it could take one foot and you have a bite coming at your forehead. Oh god, I'm telling you, I look back on my life. Now I see a couple of times where I feel like the state could have come in and taken me you know, because decisions my parents were making. That was one of them. There was another one where you went to West Virginia. And there was this like, we were on like the top of like an overlook. And my parents put me right on the edge of it to take a photo and I look at that photo. And I think like what is wrong with you, like would not have looked just as good if I was, say 10 feet from the edge of it. Like Did I really have to be at the precipice of death? To get this photograph off the boy, I'll have to see if I can find it and put it up on the website that coincide with us. But it's all the experience. It's I guess when you're younger, you're just like, oh, stand there. We'll take a picture. I don't know. I'm making excuses for them. It was dumb.

Unknown Speaker 18:15
But you're fearless. But what

Scott Benner 18:18
I remember about being at that is it was exhilarating. And that the the smell of sort of that two stroke, like exhaust was in the air. You don't I mean, I can still hear the bikes. The smell of the race field is too short, you had to mix with oil. So you're burning oil as well as race fuel. And it's a it's a very, very nostalgic. Oh, yeah, I can't, I'm telling you. I did it one time. And I feel like I'm standing there telling you about it. So I can't imagine how for a person who was enjoying actually participating in it. I mean, it's got to be an incredible loss for you among other things, but But still, yeah, I actually stopped when I was sick with the my parents recognize the signs of the diabetes. They took me in and sure enough, I was diagnosed. And about an hour later, they diagnosed me with a heart condition also my racing career stopped on the same day. No kidding.

I'm sorry to hear that.

So it's one of those where I've always been involved with the industry My dad was really big in the racing scene in Southern California as well. So it's always been a part of my family all my friends race so it's we never quite lost that touch. It's just by the time I jumped back into it was against financial is so expensive that but either be a bystander or do it just for fun. Yeah, yeah. So do you do you still try to go to races to as a spectator. I still now go to now I go to Supercross. It's definitely lost its edge from what I'm used to it. I started going to has very little so it's a very family oriented event. Now I go to different sorts of offroad races. I'm out here in Arizona now so I'll catch the NASCAR races that come through. Now I try to go on behalf of my organization to raise awareness. So you do that you do like set up a table? Or do you just how do you how do you raise awareness at an event like that? You're working on the process of actually getting into these events, just because it is very corporate structured. You know, typically, they want their vendors to pay to be there to sell a product, as a nonprofit, they try to get it to where, you know, discounted, or if there's an opening. Yeah. Apparently, the only events I have scheduled are with a local chapter, the jdrf for their walks and things like that. So nice. What do you do when you interact with people? What do you talk about with them? More anything they want? if they have any questions about diabetes, any of the complications, signs? Honestly, sharing my story has helped more people than I can count. You know, I used to think, Okay, well, my blood sugar is in the low 200. That's fine. And Fast Forward 20 years, it wasn't fine. Now, there's neuropathy going on, there's the obviously the vision. There's a lot of other things that diabetes can affect. My is just when loss, vision loss, a lot of the internal stuff as well. So just sharing what the doctors have told me, I'm in timeout at the hospital. And I've even crashed cars, because I've had a hypo while driving. So again, there's a lot that can come with it that most people might not realize. No, I think you're 100%. Right. I think that a lot of our though, a lot of how we we sort of build our world around diabetes comes from the things we hear initially. And if what you heard initially was, hey, listen, just try to keep his blood sugar between 90 and 200. And didn't realize that that was supposed to be you know, for this month, and the next month, then you'll come back and we'll shoot for better and better. Except, it doesn't work that way. For a lot of people. A lot of people start thinking, well, that's my range. You don't I mean, I tried to stay there. Exactly. I know, from listening to your past episodes, even as artists growing up, you know, it's not just even within that range. It's everything's adjusting rules on a weekly basis. And you know, when there's only one endocrinologist near you, where you can go and start backtracking. During all this, my parents are also going through a divorce. So now it's separated parents while you're trying to figure out what this disease is, as if they're not on the same page or not on the same page. So it's you're trying to figure out everything all at once. And especially for a young child, it's very overwhelming. Yeah, no kidding. I mean, I, I can't even imagine being your situation. I don't want to lose track of this. So let me ask you, you said you were diagnosed with a heart condition. What was that? Um, I had a bicuspid heart valve. So my aortic valve is fused with a second valve. So that having three leaflets my heart only had two leaflets. How

is that impacted you and your life?

Unknown Speaker 22:59
I got very out of breath. as a as a youngster.

Unknown Speaker 23:05
It was over overworking itself.

Scott Benner 23:09
And then in the year 2000, I underwent open heart surgery had the aortic valve replaced. Geez, my gosh, that's a 17 year old Have you? what's the what's my question here? What's the is there maintenance to that surgery? Like you go see someone like yearly? Or how does that? How do you keep track of that surgery? I go see my cardiologist every two years. He does an EKG, perfect. 20 years. That's about as quick as the appointment goes. No kidding. That's excellent to hear. Okay, so Dakota, since you're trying to raise awareness, and you're being so honest, I want to give context to, you know, a little more context to where you got to with your vision, if that's okay with you. So, let's just start with the the easiest measurable for people to kind of understand, do you know what your a one C was? Through the years? Were you keeping track of it? Or did you were you going to an endocrinologist kind of talk to me about how you how you manage that side of diabetes, most of my life by agency was above 12. Okay, I don't know if you recall with the the glucometers how they used to come with a vial of testing solution to calibrate your machine. When I would be on my way to the appointment. I knew I hadn't tested and I would sit there in the back with piles of the solution because the longer it sat, the higher the reading. And I would sit there and I'd fake the numbers the entire way down to the doctor's office. Meanwhile, having to go through push the two buttons try to change the date and the time make it look like I've been testing on a regular basis. I would get down there they would see the readings. They check the agency they say something's not adding up here. That's right. I decided I needed to start throwing in some highs. So I fudged the numbers forever. Mainly because I knew the endocrinologist was a yell at me when I went down there, there was no compassion. It was always scolding. Was your mom? were you living with your mom? In this moment? I was actually living with my dad. My mom had moved out of state. Okay, so you're with your father? Is he aware you're doing this? And no, no, you just kind of in the backseat of the car. Just Yes, chugging along, making up numbers.

Unknown Speaker 25:29
For all he knows, I'm back there playing a game boy.

Scott Benner 25:31
Wow, that's really something and how old? Were you? When you started doing that, that you? Do you recall? I want to say I was around 11 or 12. So just going into middle school? Well, and you How many years did you do something like that for I would say, on and off for a couple years. And eventually just got to a point where I had that mentality of, I know how my body feels, I don't need to test. So leading up to the vision loss, I would say I had gone almost three years without testing my glucose. And you know, Now, obviously, I'm not telling you, I'm sort of telling everybody that your body tries to adapt to the higher blood sugars. So that, yeah, they start feeling normal to you whether, and I always, you know, ordinal kind of pull that out every once in a while, like, you know, she's so accustomed to not testing very often. That, um, that you know, when you have to test a couple of times a day, and actually, it's funny last night was one of those nights, and you mentioned staying fluid earlier Arden's out of she's in a period right now of the month where she needs less insulin, and I didn't see it, I didn't notice it happen right away. So there were these kind of like an evening of lows that I thought like, this is just a thing. And then the next night came up, and it started happening. Oh, geez, I have to dial over in some back. So you know, bazel, insulin back, everything kind of dialed back for the spot. But we ended up testing a number of times. And now she uses the Contour. Next One meter, which needs you know, it's a great meter, it needs like no blood. And still, we tested I don't know, three or four times yesterday. And by the fourth time I sent her a text, like, hey, just check your blood sugar real quick. I want to make sure this is the number because we're about to make a decision, you know? And she was like, ah, I feel fine. And I reminded her I was like, I know you feel fine. But that that's not an end. I said, if I didn't if I feel fine, was the right way to manage your blood sugar, then this meter company and Dexcom that these companies would exist because you just ask people, how do you feel? Yeah, I feel great. But when I would say I was feeling fine, because I finally realized something was wrong. I was 350. And I said, I feel fine.

And you probably did you actually feel fine.

I felt perfectly normal. And I was at work at the time, I was actually up on a scissor lift. And I looked at my manager. I'm like, I have to come down now or I'm going to faint. And I went in the cinema. Actually, I tested my budget in the breakroom. So I lied. It wasn't three years, it's probably about a year and a half prior. And it came back at 180. And I am sitting there sweating and shaking. Because I feel so low. Yeah. We touch it. The only sense of having a like a stable point or like a point of like, basis is to get back up to that point. So would you consider and I, you know, I have no real world experience with it. But it was it sort of like the idea of like when you hear a drug addict say they need a fix. So they feel better. Like were you trying to get your blood sugar higher to feel better? Not necessarily higher than it was just back up to that. I would say 300 Mark, where I didn't feel essentially like, like you were alone. I was going like, like, yeah, like I was going numb or going low. Yeah, yeah. When your tongue starts to tingle, and your fingers start to tingle in your hand, you're shaking, you're sweating. Because you feel so low. And you're actually on the higher side of the scale. Yeah. It's pretty big wake up call. It's fascinating. I mean, honestly, a 180 your, your blood sugar's doubled of what you know, somebody who doesn't have type one is and that's so. So to cut, it's probably a good time to stop for a second because people who listen to podcasts have heard me say, you know, if you're cutting your blood sugar being higher as you're bringing it down, you know, you could end up feeling low when you're not really low. It doesn't make the it doesn't make the feelings not real. You know, you still feel that way. And you got kind of sometimes people talk to me about having to sort of titrate down slowly, you know, when once they've kind of figured out the whole thing here with the podcast. They're like, Alright, I can bring my blood sugar down. Some people bring it down pretty quickly. And it stays stable. And you know, I've heard back from people are like, Oh, I felt low for a couple of days. When a woman told me once she felt a little shaky for a week at like 120 but we never speak about it in the number range that you just spoke about it in like feeling low at 180 is a is a sincere indication of just how long your blood sugar had been in the three hundreds or Exactly, yeah. Well, for most of my most of my life I was in is what I've seen around all the forums and everything is I was in to end burnout for most of my life. Where I knew I had the disease. I didn't know how to take care of it. Be nobody around me understood it. This is back before we had social media in these large networks to be part of. And you know, it was I would in high school, I would be at school and drink a coke every day, I would take a huge dose of 20 to 25 units of insulin and go about my day. At night, I would take my my long lasting. And that was it for the day. So you, you would do a basal insulin at night. And one big bolus at your at your lunchtime meal and just do nothing else. Right. Wow. What was the intention there? Like? What did you feel like you were accomplishing when you did that? I just knew I had to take insulin. I didn't quite understand why. Okay, but I just knew I had to do this. Because what my parents and doctors had told me. So to me, okay, well, I did it twice today. I'm good. Okay, I put a lot in it will last. And that is how that in that simplistic ways how you thought about it? Like I'll use a lot. And this will be it'll just stay in me and you felt like you were filling up a gas tank? Almost? Exactly. I'll fill up the tank. And when it when it hits again, I'll all fill up again. Wow. Well, I am in the situation where I want to offer some sort of like, I don't know, I don't know what to say like it feels so sad to hear someone say that they had such little direction and, and understanding for such a long period of time. And yet, you know, you don't need my No, you don't need my words, they don't help you. And they and I guess what you really want to do that is you want somebody else to hear this, who doesn't get to the part where you are.

Unknown Speaker 32:11
Exactly. And that's, that's the whole point why I got through all the hoops and started, you know, my organization is I don't want anybody else to have to reach the point that I'm at whether you're a fan of Motorsports or not or racing are not reach out to somebody and don't just sit there on your own. I had a young lady reach out to me from Florida, at the same thing where she had reached burnout, her parents couldn't afford her for helping her anymore. And just kind of talking her through it. He was able to go out of getting a job that insurance. That way she could get the medications that she needed. It's more just having that ear to listen to what you need to say. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 32:51
Can I ask you do you find?

Scott Benner 32:53
Do you find when you're looking online, and there are people who are kind of holding themselves up is, you know, like, look at me, I'm doing it as an example. I'm trying to be a part of a community Do you ever feel like coming from? I don't know how to ask you this exactly. But But you let me start with this. Would you consider yourself coming from a, like a financially depressed background? Like you? was money an issue? Most of the time? For myself, I guess, for my family, not so much. There's more just the complete?

Unknown Speaker 33:28
being unaware of what was going on.

Scott Benner 33:30
Okay. Okay.

So then my numbers were fine. They knew the ANC was off, but the numbers on the reading and the printout were fine. So until I was honest with them, they weren't going to know the whole truth of where, you know, necessarily to help. And then once you're, you know, 1617 years old, you're now a young adult, you're wanting to be out do your own things while you're getting good grades, they really don't question what you're doing. I see. I see. And so, interestingly enough, I guess they so they decided to trust you. And with what you were showing them with your meter over the test that was coming from the doctor. Right? And was it not so much of a trust issue is that they just were like, oh, that doesn't make sense. His meter says this, so that must be wrong, or I, I'm trying to figure out how you disregard the test at the doctor's office? Well, every time they get, give me a new glucometer is maybe there's something wrong with the meter. Then the next time it's like, Okay, I need to put some more highs in the meter. And then suddenly, they start to kind of balance themselves out like, okay, I can see all the numbers, you know, shows this agency. But you also have to figure those numbers are only when you test it, you could be Hi, brew, or in between each one of those testings and then come back down to a certain number right before doesn't mean that you've been perfect all day. You could have been at a high elevated number most of the day. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 34:56
yeah. variabilities

Scott Benner 34:58
is hard for them to figure out. I guess. They're just looking at meter readings. Exactly. And that's why now being on the Dexcom I panic in that two hour warm up window now. That's funny. Is that funny really to go? You went from like, 350. No problem, though I don't like not only my blood sugar. And now I have my highest at 150. And now it'll be about me for the 150. And I'll go and kind of tell it I know, influence in the system. Let's give it a minute to kick in. Five minutes later, it beeps at me again. I don't think I've ever told a piece of electronics set up so many times as when you are in a high higher than your limit on your CGM. Yeah. And you're like, I know, I know. I'm doing it. I'm working on it. Stop. I I know we talked about I've talked with Dexcom about whether or not they could add a snooze to that. to like, you know, could I get alerted that my blood sugar's over 150? And me say, Okay, I hear you. Please don't tell me this again, for like, a half an hour. Like, like, I've given myself insulin. I know how long it's gonna take for me to get back under my number. So, you know,

Unknown Speaker 36:04
let the bolus take effect.

Scott Benner 36:06
Yeah, right. Yeah, I Well, we've mentioned it. So maybe they'll maybe they'll do that sometime. It's a great idea, honestly. So let me wrap my head around all this for a second because I am in a weird position where I'm listening to you. And I'm trying to feel like what are the people hearing you thinking right now, because, you know, if you're newer diagnosed, you know, in the last five or six or eight years, even the story you're telling, is, it sounds insane. You know, I mean, but I know that your story is not nearly as insane, as some people might believe it is that your story is actually much more common. Just people like you don't really step up that often and tell this story. So I really appreciate you doing this, first of all, because there are he and I try to make the point all the time, you know, well over a million and I forget what the number is 1,000,008 or something people living with Type One Diabetes. And you know, just because the couple hundred people you see on Instagram are the few hundred people you talk to on Facebook are all really trying hard and doing a great job. And you know, so, you know, somebody like me says, I can't believe how badly today went like Arden's blood sugar went to 170. And I couldn't get it down for like three hours. You know, like, that's not most people's experience with Type One Diabetes. a much, much larger group of people have an experience that is much closer to yours and mine. Well, and it's funny, that's actually why I eventually reached out to you is observing on social media that the diabetics that are out there, yes, sir. They all have their blogs and are doing a great job of sharing their journey. And even the people that you interview. It's kind of, you know, painting this perfect picture of, you know, diabetes isn't bad, as long as you take care of it. As I, my hope is, what the real dangers and damages are from it, it will make them want to paint that picture in their own minds. Yeah. Yeah. No, I was just contacted by someone the other day who asked me like, you know, is there an episode you would show to a young kid and like an early teen situation? Somebody who's just not at all interested in in their type one care? And I thought, I don't know. Like, you don't want to say to me, scaring people doesn't seem like the right idea. You know, and I also don't know that, you know, a cheerleader helps for a person who's in that situation, like, you know what I mean? Like, when you're feeling down and depressed about something or just like it's, you know, not possible. You're, you know, you're explaining a situation where you didn't know what to do and nobody around you really know and doctors would kind of yell at you. So, you know, would somebody coming up to you and you were 15 going Hey, Dakota, you can do it? It's easy, buddy. Here's how like, would you have just been like away from me, you know, or would you have been excited to hear from them? What do you think would have benefited you in that situation is I did not know how to answer that question right away about how do you help somebody that age who's going through I I honestly I would have put the head up on my sweater walked away. Like Don't talk to me. In ager. I I know everything but I don't know anything. Leave me alone. Let me do my thing. I took my objection. I'm fine. Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Actually. That's what I thought when I talked to my I eventually led them to an episode with a 15 year old boy who listened to the podcast and learn the podcast and takes care of himself really well. And I my only thought was like maybe show them this is that there are other tools that may be the ones people told them about. And they're not all that difficult to to use and maybe that would help but there is just part of me who believes that you know people are different, you know, and you had a different you know, a different reaction to that information then another person would have been and that you know, if you stop if you if you kind of stop and take a long look at everybody around you just you know pick 20 people that You know, and see how different they all are and the directions their lives went and how some of them take things super seriously. And some of them don't, or if some people are very detail oriented, and some people are sort of like, it'll all work out, like all that is just human nature, you know, different kinds of the way people think. But then you add this diabetes to it. Some of those personalities don't fit well with managing insulin. Right, right. And, and so that's what you're really talking about, like, how do you get to that personality? And you know, before they get into your situation, because, I mean, you can tell me, but I'd imagine you do almost anything to get into a time machine and make a different decision. Oh, absolutely. Like knowing what I know, today, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't even hesitate.

Unknown Speaker 40:48
As long as my family still comes into the picture in the future,

Scott Benner 40:52
I would absolutely go back. And kind of like you were saying was, you know, how do you reach these different people? I couldn't imagine somebody with severe anxiety, being diagnosed with diabetes. Because it's such a double edged sword, our breasts will cause your glucose to rise. And your glucose rises. What do you do? You stress? And if you give yourself insulin to come down, it's not coming down you stress for it's, it's such a unique double edged sword in that sense that how do you manage this? Without making it worse? Yeah. Yeah, how do you, you know, there's people in my life who are more, you know, prone to anxiety than not. And I'm sort of really relaxed. And you find sometimes saying to people, like, just you know, don't worry about it, or relax. And it's such an insulting thing for them to hear. Because they're not worrying about it on purpose. They're not, they don't want to be anxious about it. You know, it's just, it's how they react to that scenario. I do the same exact thing. I'm a fairly calm, very calm demeanor, especially with everything going on. And I see it as there's no point in freaking out about it. But when I see other people close to me, that do have anxiety in my work, what is your issue, like, take a step back, look what I'm going through, if I'm calm, you should be calm. I know, it's a really unfair way of trying to calm somebody down. And rather than being understanding, which is I know what I should be doing. A that's a good point, though, is that even the person like you who understands the scenario, when they're presented with that, that's how you feel you're like, Oh, just relax. So now put yourself in the shoes of a parent of you when you're 15. Knowing that anything they may say to you is going to pull your hoodie over your head and send you out the door. And now, you know what I mean? Now, these people are trying to put together the exact perfect seven words to get you to take your health more seriously. And even maybe you are taking it seriously, but you just didn't have the the right tools or the knowledge to deal with because I mean, you do you feel like you have those tools today.

Unknown Speaker 42:59
Absolutely.

Scott Benner 43:00
What's your agency right now?

Unknown Speaker 43:02
My last check was 6.2. My last draw was on Friday. And because of the holiday weekend, I have not gotten the results from that one. That's

Scott Benner 43:11
amazing. Congratulations is really something.

And the last time I had it checked prior to that it was still at 11. Wow, when did you make this decision? Like when did you have it? So let's I guess let's let's go to that, like you said 2017, you decided you're going to grab a CGM and you ended up with a pump by mistake and then you add CGM, right, in 2017. And everything first started. So through this vision loss, it was 10 times worse than it is today. At that point, the only difference in vision I could tell was that the sky was blue, the grass was green, and the ground was brown. And so everything was just stayed oriented. I had to I left my house, went and stayed with. With my dad at his new place, I'd only been to one. So I didn't know the house. And I had to feel the walls on how to get around the house. And in order to see what my reading was, it was essentially just poking, hoping there's enough blood and trying to get it to work. So I wasted hundreds of strips because they weren't filled on up all the way. I put the glucometer right up to my eye and move it slowly to the side and make out the shapes of the numbers that are on the screen. And it was finally once I went back to work at the beginning of 2018 my my insurance was reinstated that I immediately went on the on the pod and about a month later when all the Dexcom

kind of work do you do?

Unknown Speaker 44:41
I work at Costco

Scott Benner 44:43
and so when you were

so when your blood sugar is still incredibly high, your vision was actually worse than it is now so your vision is getting better as your blood sugar is more regulated and lower. I have also had seven Surgery. So a lot of these surgeries were actually reattaching the retina trying to repair the macula. A lot of these procedures, they do take time to reestablish the vision. Due to the disconnect for so long inside the eye. Do you expect more progress? Or do you think you're at where you're going to be? Or do you not know? By ophthalmologists? Has that built it take two years to even show? Okay, and my last surgery was in March, can I ask you are this I mean, the surgery sound painful, but are they, um, once they start to back the anesthesia off, it can be a little bit a little bit painful. But for the most part, it's just a quick outpatient. It's more, you're under local anesthesia. So you can see the tools moving inside your eye. And that's the part that can kind of make you freak out. Okay, that's, uh, that sounds worse than being able to hear the dentist's drill. Oh, exactly. Well, you hear him, and he puts this piece inside your eye. And then you start to see the bright flashes, and they're moving around. And you think to yourself, is he welding inside my eye. And then he calls for, I need, you know, two cc's of you know, a certain way, like when he's talking about oil, and then you see these little drops come into your eye and form into one big blob. And then suddenly, you see right through it. It's just it's a whole weird experience. It's really hard to explain. I, I can't I cannot imagine. I mean, I can imagine what you're saying. But I just can't imagine like sitting still Dorian, is do you have that? Do you have to stop yourself from that feeling of like, I need to get up and get away from this? Or, oh, when you're under the anesthesia? No, you can't. But like they when they start to back it off. On the second surgery I had, it was starting to get really painful during surgery. And I can start to feel everything as aware of everything. But I noticed my feet can move. And the anesthesiologist was sitting towards the end of the bed towards my feet. I just started clicking my feet together as fast as I could. And sure enough, he cranked it back up.

Unknown Speaker 47:10
Okay, I guess I'm awake. Yeah, thanks.

Scott Benner 47:13
There's something stuck in my head. And I'm about to run away. Just so you know. Exactly. Oh, my gosh. Wow. I it's hard to know what to say? Because it seems not just so life changing. But it just, it just seems I don't know what the word is. I don't want to just say sad, but it feels sad. You know, they mean, like I do, how do you deal with that part of it? I mean, are you? How do you how do you keep your chin up, I guess for the lack of a better term.

Unknown Speaker 47:41
Um,

Scott Benner 47:43
I mean, first thing, first, I look at my daughter, she's a year old. So backtrack. And when all this happened, December of 2017, we found out that we were having a baby. So through all of this, also a new dad trying to take care of a newborn with vision loss. So if you can imagine to give Arden when she's a month old, and do with your eyes closed? to code, I have to be honest, I can't imagine anything. You're perfectly honest. You don't need me like I'm sitting here trying to put my myself in your shoes just in my head. And I don't, you know, I it makes you feel like, you know, I should get done with you and shut my eyes and just try to even go to the next thing that I wanted to do. I don't know how I would accomplish that. Are there classes does? Does your doctor offer like direction for you? Like are you going to get better direction with your vision loss than you did with your diabetes,

Unknown Speaker 48:36
I actually meet with a low vision specialist.

Unknown Speaker 48:40
From the time this airs about four months, but next week, I meet with a low vision specialist and they work with different sorts of prisms, implanted into lenses. So the center part of my vision is what to damage the outside is still working. So these prisons will redirect the light to the outside of the eye and make it where the vision should increase for what the doctor say they have seen in the past.

Scott Benner 49:06
I hope that works for you. That sounds amazing.

But it's going to be a lot of almost rehabilitation teaching the outside of your eyes, you do all the seeing rather than the center part of your eyes. I understand that's a and that crystal helps that prism helps kind of retrain parts of your eye that aren't being used as actively I guess. That's what they say. I'm hoping that it's not so damaged in there that that's not an option. Mm hmm. What, um, what took you from, you know, see you, your vision goes the way it went. And you're at this agency that's incredibly elevated. Now you're at a six. Can you tell us what you did between that elevated eight, one C and the six like, how did you make that change so quickly? First, I knew that what you put into your body is probably the most important thing, whether it's insulin, food, hydration, anything. So post surgery, I knew that inflammation was a really big deal. And I went completely vegan for three months.

Unknown Speaker 50:15
I can't say I was happy about it,

Scott Benner 50:19
then I slowly just started to look at what I was eating. And, you know, try not to over saturate myself with processed foods, anything that, you know, I in carbs or sugars have just kept a really keen eye on what I was eating. And then once I got on the pump, it was a lot easier to say, you know, dial up or down when I needed it. And I was still doing carb counting at the time. And I noticed that I was still getting these big spikes in these low valleys. Yeah. And I was actually right around the time that I found your, your podcast. And just hearing how you kind of mentioned to, you know, you do your Pre-Bolus. And then you kind of work it after the meal until it's right where you want to be. So since I started listening to your podcast I have not carb counting is I will pre I will Pre-Bolus and then just go from there. Wow, that's amazing. Good for you. I hate counting carbs, I had to figure out a way not to do it. Because that's how that's why you know about it. Because I was just in my kitchen thinking like, I can't do this for the rest of my life. I had to figure out a way not to do this long book that you had to flip page to page and a page of fruits, a page of vegetables, a page of starches, actually gave you the portion size. And how many grams of carbs were in each one of those portions? Yeah. Yeah. Well, they came out every year from the nutritionist. Mm hmm.

Also a scale, I realized that, um,

I really did not like the idea of having to weigh and measure food. Yeah. And so I just, I don't know, I just, you know, it's a long time ago now. But I just started thinking, like, I got to figure out a way to do this, that that doesn't, doesn't cause me to, you know, need to scoop things with cup measuring cups all the time. Or you think you think to yourself, like there's already enough math involved. I don't want to be, you know, weighing out grams and ounces. And you know, all this different kind of stuff like this, just let me figure out how much insulin I need. And that's all the math I want to do right now. Yeah, yeah. And even like, just that even the math aside, I think it's just the taking something that's so frequent in your life breakfast, lunch, dinner snack, and turning it into a drudgery of any kind is, you know, I think is one of the ways that the diabetes ends up weighing on you get me like one of the one of the weights it has is, you know, it's scared of being alone, right? Scared of long term complications. I don't want to be the kid who passes out at school, you know, and I don't want to count and measure everything I put in my body for the rest of my life, I'm very proud to be able to give Arden you know, a couple of handfuls of a snack and not say, Hey, can you count 23 of those, please? You know what I mean? Like, that's, to me, that's a big deal. And it's important to make your life feel like it's not a weight on you, you know? Can you imagine if she's out at the lunch table, and she pulls out her baggie with 20 goldfish in it. That's all she's allowed. I can't give any of these away, I have all 20 of these bolts in

touch my damn goldfish.

And listen, there are times like, don't get me wrong, like, you know, if we're coming down from a high blood sugar or something and she gets high. I'm like, Yeah, no problem. I'm like, but we can't miss on these carbs. So, you know, take 15 of those. And I'll tell you, you can see, like, there's a sadness on her face. When that happens, like, Oh, no, I, you know, okay, you know, count them out. And, you know, what, if I'm still hungry or not hungry, when I get that, you know, what if I get to 11 of these, and I don't want anymore, I gotta eat the last four or, you know, vice versa. So I just I do my best for that not to, there's enough already coming from diabetes, that you should try to take things away wherever you can. And carb counting was just one of the things I really wanted to take away. Absolutely. It was an unnecessary headache on top of everything else. It's amazing how quickly you picked it up, and you're doing it so well. Like, I'm sure you guys did this, when you would go out to a restaurant and they would bring you a plate of food and you can't dig into your center. And to put Inspector Gadget on how many carbs are in everything on that plate. I do think if my if my if me looking at a plate was in a movie, you would see like a computer overlay fall over top of it and divide up into spots and numbers would pop up over top of AI over piles of food and everything. And

Unknown Speaker 54:36
you'd have the matrix going on behind you and you would have

Scott Benner 54:40
just like Einstein style equations above your head and it's no fun. Yeah, I look at it now. And I think like 710 you know, you count along and you're like alright is 63 and and then that one's you know, the glycemic load on that's gonna be heavy. So You know, we're gonna need insulin, at least in the four hour period, but that stuff's faster and you start, like, I wonder if I could just put some of this up front and the rest after and, you know, it's, it happens so quickly now, like, I hate I hate saying it to people almost because I feel like they think that this is like, you know, hours of their life spent. But I look at it, I'm like, all right, in 63 carbs 50%, up front, the other 50% over two and a half hours. And I think maybe we're gonna have to do you know, a bazel increase, you know, in here somewhere, probably in those last two and three and four hours. Well, and that's the crazy part that I'm still learning is, you know, that, you know, fats and proteins and oils, and you know, all this kind of stuff will make it where the sugar doesn't jive or the carbs won't digest as quickly in your system, but they will kick in on the back end. So, you know, a perfect example is there's a restaurant across the street that, you know, when I have a day off, I'll go over there, I'll grab a couple double margaritas that are made with the GAVI rounds, and all the sweet stuff. A burger sweet potato fries, and I go all out. I Pre-Bolus is 12 unit. I know it's a pretty hefty Pre-Bolus. And then I also increase my basal rate, the 45% for the next three hours. And for the first 30 minutes, I'm sitting there, I will sit right there at 90 and not budge. But then when I'm on my way home, it's 160. And then it's one cent I'm like, okay, obviously, there's not enough kicking in. And I'll give myself another four to five unit. As it gets, right. Yeah, this happened last week. It went straight up to 230. It flattened out. And then it went straight down. And once it hit 160, straight down. I just, I turned off the bazel increase. I turned off insulin delivery everything. And it look like a Boeing jet coming in for landing and sells it one on one.

Look at you.

Unknown Speaker 57:06
That was two hours.

Scott Benner 57:07
It's really amazing. How long

have you been at this? When do you start listening to the podcast? Number

December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, nine months ago. That's really great man congratulate seriously. I've been well done. Congratulations. I don't know what else to say that's a complete life turnaround in nine months. And no, I can't seem like the clarity report. I can't see everything that's on there. But I can't see the little snippet of a graph that you can see on your phone. I just like to see where it can come from and get it to settle down right at the bottom of that gray box. Without dipping into the red. I get some sort of enjoyment out of it. And essentially sharing that experience with with other people. There's you know, it's kind of do what you always say is being bold with influence. Use it where it works for you. You know, they say don't double up on insulin, it could be dangerous well, being highly dangerous to it that you're taking an educated guess. every three months. I'm saying there's the doctors Yeah, you're taking an educated guess every three months, and then adjusting it and then you'll see me again in three months. I'm adjusting it on the fly. Yeah, I hear you. Um, a couple of questions. So do they not make a meter that talks so that you can hear the number instead of have to see it?

Unknown Speaker 58:30
I'm sure they do

Unknown Speaker 58:33
that like that? Since I'm using the Dexcom.

Scott Benner 58:37
Guide? Hold on the phone. I can see that number just fine. On really as long as the bubbles gray. Don't freak out. Yeah. I What? What kind of cell phone? Do you have his iPhone or Android?

Unknown Speaker 58:49
iPad Android drives? gonna say because

Scott Benner 58:50
I think I think you can ask Siri what your blood sugar is on an iPhone. It'll just tell you. I do recall. Actually, I was on your podcast hearing something about that.

And it wasn't sure.

Unknown Speaker 59:02
I know through Android that there's times where when this all is first happening, I would have to use my tablet to take a picture of my phone to see what the glucose reading was. I don't know if it's this way on iPhone. But on the Android phone in the security settings. You cannot screenshot anything within the Dexcom app

Scott Benner 59:23
in the Android Yes.

Unknown Speaker 59:26
Because I do that all the time with iPhone that's interesting

Unknown Speaker 59:29
that you cannot screenshot anything within Dexcom to the privacy policy.

Scott Benner 59:35
I almost cursed okay.

I I'm sitting here thinking like is there not like some giant like with a magnifying glass help you like a big strong magnifying glass to see like your phone and stuff like that with not that I'm sure you haven't thought of these things already, but

Unknown Speaker 59:50
it definitely would.

Scott Benner 59:53
It's almost like the magnifying glasses that jewelers use where it has the lights built into it. There's like, if there's anything that I can't read from zooming in, I'll just take a screenshot of it that way I can zoom in on it. They said through the Dexcom. If I just screenshot the notification bar the reading in on it, then I can zoom in if I absolutely need to. And it's all more just finding ways to make your life work without being a complete nuisance to yourself or others. If you and I met face to face and we shook hands, and three days later, we met again, at that distance would you know, it was me visually. Um, if you didn't say anything, I would walk right by, okay. I do it at work all the time where this might sound kind of bad. But I start to figure out the build of the people that I work with, are you tall and skinny? Are you shorten heavy? And the beginning of the day, I'll make sure I walk right next to everybody. And I'll kind of make a mental note of what color shirt everybody's wearing, that depict colors. So, but from a distance, everybody's just a person until you're within 20 feet.

Dakota, why do you not sound bitter about all this?

I think it's an amazing story. If I can inspire people with it. That's my main goal. Yeah. Do you have private moments where you're just like, I can't believe this happened? He Yeah. You know, looking back on it, it's, I cannot blame anybody else. It's 100% by fall for my neglect. And I was raised with one of those where you know, you had be responsible for your decisions and your actions. And this was a decision that I made my whole life. And luckily, I caught it. The point where I'm not really blind. No, it didn't kill me. I have all my hands and feet for both my hands and feet. You know, it could have been so much worse.

That's an amazing attitude to have.

But there's definitely times where, you know, I used to work on cars and motorcycles and stuff all the time. Yeah, how hard it is to work on an engine when you can't see it. It's not easy. But it's actually easier than you think. Because you can't see it anyways, but Oh, really, you see your hands always up underneath something trying to unscrew a bolt that you've already loosened nine times out of 10 you can't see it. And since I do so many things through feel now you know, I, I live a quarter mile away from where I work. And the only thing that separates my house where I work is an alleyway. So doesn't take the pressure off my fiance, I went ahead bought a cute little beater just gave me to and from work. But I knew at night, I had to light up the road in front of me like it was daytime. So I ran complete wire harnesses underneath the floorboards through the engine compartment, and put light bars across the bottom of this thing so I can see to get from work at night. And surprisingly, it was probably the easiest wiring job I've ever done. Because I knew how to see the tip of my fingers better. We have a few more minutes left and I want to ask you has other parts of the world opened up to like do you find yourself listening to more like radio or music or like how does like your downtime change when your vision but when all of this first happened, it was I was trying to find anything on YouTube that I can just ask my phone to play. Because when this all started, I couldn't even read text message. So I had to ask my phone, you know, a Google read text message and it would read it to me and I would have to talk back to it to send the text message. And that was the only way I could keep in contact with anybody. I ended up watching a lot of market or listening to a lot of marketing like tutorials on YouTube. The Comedy station on Pandora was my go to and I was trying to find a diabetes podcast or listening to and I ended up finding one is a diabetes management. A couple guys based out of San Francisco and it was more just on Whole Foods diets rather than kind of like yours where you actually interviewing people who have these experiences. So a lot a lot more podcasts, a lot of comedy, stuff that could keep me in good spirits and laughing at home I'll listen to the news and to watch the news all put on your podcast I'm still on episode 240 but I have some catching up to do is a lot more audio based and visual based. Ours TV in our living room is quite large. So my spot on the couch, I can actually see what's going on. I can't see the fine details and in film, but I can kind of get the point of what's going on. Gotcha.

How um

how is your relationship been through all this is it I mean, if you don't mind It, what's the biggest change? I guess?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:04
Well,

Unknown Speaker 1:05:06
we actually, we have a long history, we were next door neighbors growing up. So it's not like we didn't know who we were. It's just I played baseball and she and raced motorcycles. He acted and did theater. So we were complete opposites, even though we live next door to each other. And when we reconnected, it was actually the day before my vision was lost. So our entire relationship, she only knows me as being visually deficient. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:35
So it's kind of like we're able to grow through this together.

Scott Benner 1:05:38
That's really That's sweet. Yeah, that's a fortuitous situation. And and especially at the beginning of a relationship, you know, I mean, I've seen people on a second date, you know, say they like a certain movie, and somebody else stopped going out with them. I've never, I've never heard a story where on my second date, I had to tell somebody, hey, I've lost the majority of my vision.

Oh, yeah, that's really sad.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:01
The thing is, we hadn't even gone on a date. And to top it off, we lived in separate cities. At this time. She was in LA, I was in San Diego. Okay, so it was it was more I just threw it out there. Hey, I come to a wedding in October. He said, yeah, we kept talking. And then suddenly, I'm driving home and realize something's not right.

Scott Benner 1:06:21
I want to end on that.

When when something's not right. Is it a light switch at that point to somebody? Is it just go off? Or does it dwindle down to nothing over hours or days? Or like, how does it go from everything I see everything okay to I don't know, with a diabetic hemorrhage, at least in my case, it was, it looks like a very streaky black waterfall in your field of vision. Okay, so it just looks like this constant, like rain or streaks come down within your vision. It's actually blood that's blocking the light from reaching your optic nerve. I see. And I know we didn't, we didn't touch on on this aspect of it. But leading up to that I was taking a different job, I had to get very physically fit for this job. So I was pushing myself extremely hard at the gym. As you know, more weight than I probably should have been trying to trying to push in on a leg press machine and my vision kept flashing crazy. I thought I was just getting a really good workout in. It turns out that it was like the beginning stages of these blood cells being overstressed starting to reverse. Gotcha. How long was that before you started seeing the black waterfall?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:41
About about a month?

Scott Benner 1:07:45
All right. Listen, tell me about what's your web address? And how can people find you? So through my website, or through Instagram, is pipe one motorsports.com is the number one type the number one motor sports calm? And then what are you on Instagram? What's your handle on Instagram is the same thing type the number one Motorsports alright. Dakota I really appreciate you coming on and telling this story. It's not. It's not something we get to hear that often. I really do appreciate there's, you know, other people who have come on and told similar stories, but I think they're all really impactful and important. I appreciate I always tell people I'm, you know, how happy and I am that they were so open and honest. But this is really a this really takes the cake I think for open and honest. So I really do appreciate this. Thank you so much for doing this

Unknown Speaker 1:08:41
facility. Thank you for having me on. About

Scott Benner 1:08:45
the code, everybody. And how about Dexcom and Omni pod for bringing you the show dexcom.com forward slash juice box, my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. Those links are available in the podcast player you're listening to right now on your phone, right in the notes or at Juicebox podcast.com if you can't remember them, but if you do remember them, and you use my link, that'll tell the companies that you came from the podcast I will very much appreciate that. And you will still get the same great technology one way or the other.

Before we go, I'm looking for someone to do an after dark episode with now this is a specific ask, be honest with yourself before you email me. I need someone who's divorced and parenting a child with Type One Diabetes, who will be completely honest about how to work through significant problems when one parent either has Certain management idea while the other one has another, or while one parent is doing a lot of the work, while the other one seems to be ignoring it. This is something that comes up a lot. But of course, it's difficult to get somebody that wants to speak about it. So what I'd like to say is you'll come on and be anonymous. But still, you have to really think about this. Make sure you're not going to get out at somehow, if you think you can tell that story. Be honest, and not vindictive, something that's gonna really help other people who are divorced and you won't get caught.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:35
drop me a line.