#362 A Real Soap Opera

Kate writes for General Hospital

Kate Hall has a daughter and husband living with type 1 diabetes. She is also a writer on my favorite soap opera, General Hospital.

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:05
Hello, everyone and welcome to Episode 362 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today I'll be speaking with Kate Hall. Some of you might be thinking Kate halls been on the show before, actually, that was a different Kate Hall. The first Kate Hall is an Olympic hopeful who has type one diabetes. This Kate Hall is a long time soap opera writer she's written on As the World Turns All My Children, the young and the restless. And currently and for quite some time now actually, on General Hospital. Now General Hospital. I used to sit with my mom every day after school and watch General Hospital with her. I mean, like, legit. I know about Luke and Laura been on the run the left handed boy, don't forget when the cassadines tried to freeze Port Charles. I saw it all as a child. So when Kate reached out, and we were talking, she mentioned she was a writer, but she never said of what. And then I got to know her a little better. And she told me, Kate was grateful for the help that the podcast provided for her daughter who has type one diabetes. And as a way to say thank you. She named a character on general hospital after my daughter. Now a couple of things here, I joke about it once in a while I'm trying to get one of you to name a baby after me. hasn't happened yet. But character on General Hospital. Pretty cool. I very much enjoyed it. And so did Arden. I'm gonna play a clip from General Hospital at the end of the show so that you can hear it. But for now, let's get into the story. So Kate's a D mom of a little girl with Type One Diabetes. She's actually also married to a man who has type one. Both stories are interesting. They're all in here. Plus, we're going to learn a little bit about writing for soap operas. Real quick couple things before we start. Of course, nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making changes to your health care plan. Please, please please do that. And this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod, and Dexcom find out more about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor@dexcom.com Ford slash juice box. And you can get a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod sent right to your door by going to my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. If you need help remembering those links to Dexcom and on the pod or for any of the sponsors of the show. Look right there in the show notes of your podcast player or go to Juicebox podcast.com. Oh, I was singing along with the Skype ring and yoma almost was caught me. I'm so sorry. I have to get my energy up somehow for this. I record three of these this week.

Kate Hall 2:58
Oh my gosh.

Scott Benner 3:00
That's a lot. Okay, don't you worry. Listen, a couple of times while we're talking. Yes, my soap opera geek is going to come out once or twice. You have to jam it back in if it gets crazy.

Kate Hall 3:12
Okay, I'll do my best. I just

Scott Benner 3:14
go through my head right like I can't think of the first part of it. Right But it was love in the afternoon on Ryan's Oh, but there was a beginning part that I can't remember.

Kate Hall 3:23
Oh, see. I never watched Ryan. Oh, I didn't either.

Scott Benner 3:26
I'm just hoping this was like an ad that would run in between shows. Oh, okay. Got it. I don't know either. I just Okay, sure.

Kate Hall 3:34
You didn't watch right? Of course.

Scott Benner 3:40
Like a little fat kid after school watching soap operas with my mom.

Unknown Speaker 3:45
I love that. You guys.

Scott Benner 3:49
Oh my gosh. All right. We should start with with real talking because I just record the whole thing. This will you'll probably be mortified to find out that this is how your episode started. Excellent. Okay, so just go ahead and introduce yourself and and we'll start talking.

Kate Hall 4:03
Okay, I am Kate Hall and I have a 10 year old daughter Dylan with Type One Diabetes and my husband. Peter also has type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 4:14
Okay. You know, you're not the first Kate hall to be on the podcast, right? I do. Yes. I heard that episode. That was so funny. We have a lot of Mormons and, and a lot of case holes. That's exactly right. You understand? Okay, so how did we meet? I feel like I know like I feel like you reached out to say, what was yours one of the like, I need help emails or was yours a thank you email. I can't remember.

Kate Hall 4:39
I was all of the above. I started with a thank you. I think I messaged you on Instagram. Maybe just thanking you for all that you do and how much you've been helping our family and then I reached out wanting to be on the podcast. And then I reached out for help. After that.

Scott Benner 5:00
And I remember talking on the phone with you, because I feel like I embarrassed myself. Do you feel like I embarrassed myself on that phone call?

Kate Hall 5:07
No. Oh no, I actually was so grateful that we'd already spoken because it made me a little bit less nervous to do this today so much more. We've already chatted. Yes, no, we did speak on the phone. It was funny because you were like, you know, can you can you give me a call? And I'm like, sure. And then the next thing you're like, what's your number? I'll call you I'm like you're probably very smart not just giving random people your phone number.

Scott Benner 5:31
What if I just called you instead? So you don't remember me embarrassing myself? This is just

Kate Hall 5:37
no so what do you think you embarrass yourself with

Scott Benner 5:40
not to but I think that's what I know. I at some point discussed having written a book not not understanding that you are a professional writer who's one day time Grammys, okay. Daytime Emmys Excuse me.

Kate Hall 5:55
Um, I have never written a book and probably could not. So they are completely different genres. And yeah, that's crazy. That's nothing to be embarrassed

Scott Benner 6:04
about my books not really a book. It's a it's a I don't know. It's It's It's It's loosely connected blog posts like that are longer than regular. I could just, I don't have so ready.

Kate Hall 6:18
You were also on the Today show something I have not ever done any will never

Scott Benner 6:23
was on Katie Couric? Not to today's show. Oh, well. Okay, I did do fac er, though. That was really cool. Oh, that is cool. It was Yeah, it was cool to hear way

Kate Hall 6:32
more famous. And

Scott Benner 6:34
it was very cool to have the NPR guy in his deep NPR voice that he did not look like he was putting on it just felt like it came out of him, you know. And he's holding my book. And it's dog eared. It has like stickies in it. And all I could think the whole time I sat there was oh my god, I think he really read.

Kate Hall 6:50
Write read it closely enough to put sticky notes in it. Well,

Scott Benner 6:54
because Katie Kirk's producer read it and then told her about it. So right. It's my expectation that maybe NPR guy didn't either. But anyway, I'm in like, you're a real like, you're somebody pays you to write. I just want, right, I was in the right place at the right time. That's a different situation. You know, I mean, so I don't I just found myself embarrassed. Because I mentioned that I'd written a book. And it's not something I normally mentioned, either, which, by the way, now people are listening is like, Oh, this guy probably runs around all the time going. Have you seen my book? I don't think there are times I bumped into an old box of his books in the basement. And it actually makes me think, Hmm,

Unknown Speaker 7:29
I Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner 7:31
really feels like that. The thing about books is you can't really make any money off of them unless you're famous. So it's a lot of time for the much reward and the return is that you wrote a book, which is cool. Like, I have to admit in like certain scenarios. It's a selling point for me. Like I hear people say that all the time. Like, they'll have me out to speak and I they're like, oh, Scott wrote a book. And I'm like, it's not about what I'm here to talk about. But okay. Like, it would be like if I wrote motorcycles for dummies, and I was speaking at a diabetes event. They're like, Oh, he's an author. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 8:05
Yeah. It just gives you like street cred. wrote a book.

Scott Benner 8:09
It does. And by the way, it's published. Like, by, like, I didn't self publish it not to like, who and anybody who has but you know, I'll publish.

Unknown Speaker 8:18
Oh, it's legit. You should be proud of it.

Scott Benner 8:20
Right. Okay. People have already hung up the podcast. up half of that, so we stay in this. Are we saying your child's name? Did we say it?

Kate Hall 8:31
Yes. I said it, Dylan. Okay. Dylan is 11 She is. She just turned 10. And what

Scott Benner 8:39
how old was she when she was diagnosed?

Kate Hall 8:42
Nine. It was like a week before her?

No, a week after her birthday. So she had just turned nine. So we're just over a year. I'm remembering.

Scott Benner 8:50
This is why I pushed you off so far for your recording. Because I wanted you to like I might not have told you this. This could be you did not. I was manipulating you like a puppet. You just don't realize. But I wanted I would have told you if it would have occurred to me, but I wanted you to be with it longer before we talked about it.

Unknown Speaker 9:08
Oh, okay. Make sense, right?

Scott Benner 9:10
Yeah, that's make sense. Yes. You were nice. So it wasn't weird to say, hey, you can record in like December, right? Like, a year ago?

Kate Hall 9:19
You're like, I know it sounds far out. But how's the beginning of December?

Scott Benner 9:23
Sure. Don't give away them the language from the email because it's the same email that goes to everybody.

Kate Hall 9:28
Oh, sorry. I mean, mine said something totally.

Scott Benner 9:31
But no, no, I can't. I had to automate some of this. I was really losing my life to like writing emails and responding to stuff and which is really cool. But it was taking up more time. And I was like, suddenly not editing the podcast anymore. I was like, I think they'll stop listening if there's no podcast. So no,

Kate Hall 9:47
I was like suspect. I was like, I don't know. I mean, he keeps saying that he is talking to all these people who reach out to him like that just can't be true. And then I email you and you're like, do you have time to chat? I'm like, oh my god. It's real. He really does it so crazy. So

Scott Benner 10:03
I'm gonna tell you something that's gonna absolutely flip you out. We started recording at 10am. And at 959, I hung up the phone with the person I was talking to. Oh, wow, because she had a confusion about something and I didn't want to. I just seems like I don't know, it's so much easier to say than it is to type. And yeah, I'm pretty. I actually believe that I'm pretty good at explaining diabetes and writing. But it's, it takes a lot of time. And you can miss nuance and things like that. So, no, totally, it's easier that way. Again, let me preface that by saying or not preface it, but let me PostScript that by saying please don't call me. Busy, and I don't have time.

Kate Hall 10:47
But seriously, I like helping people. Well, obviously, I mean, it's my gosh, I just can't even tell you how helpful you have been?

Scott Benner 10:57
Well, Kate, you better be able to tell me because that's why you're right.

Kate Hall 11:00
Right. Okay, I will find that work.

Scott Benner 11:03
All right. First of all, you are your soap opera royalty. Tell me a little bit about what your mom and dad did in the world of soaps.

Kate Hall 11:11
Okay, so they met on the soap opera search for tomorrow. And they played Scott and Kathy and they got married on TV before they got married in real life. And yeah, so then, later in life, my mom switched over to the writing side. So I'm really following in her footsteps. But yeah, I come by the soap opera world naturally.

Scott Benner 11:37
Now if I had your mom here, and I said to her, what made you switch to writing? would she say something? Like I had said it so many times. I just I knew what they wanted me to say. Or

Kate Hall 11:44
is it? No, you know what she she would probably correct me on this, I would I tell people and maybe I'm wrong. I think she did it just because it's a much easier schedule when you have children. And it's just, like, I work from home, I can work in my pajamas, I have no meetings to go to. It's great. I can still like be a mom and get my kids off to school. But like, I have this job that I love. It's just sort of perfect for when you're trying to raise a family. For me, have you ever been on screen? Have you ever stuck yourself in the background or something like that for? No, I dream about it, though. I had dreams, like a couple times a month where I'm like, at the studio for whatever reason, which I'm never at the studio but and you know, it's kind of like they need somebody and like a hall do it. You know, and all of a sudden Patrick turns into this actor extraordinary. And I have like a, like a main role now on the show, which of course that would happen. No, I love I am a writer, I think because like, I didn't have the chops to be an actor I would have loved to I'm too self conscious. I do. I would take rejection horribly and like that's what an actor's life is. It's people telling you, you're not right for this, you know, I would I would have been bad at it. So this is me getting to like flex that muscle. But from behind the scenes,

Scott Benner 13:03
you know, I didn't understand all that. And I can't believe I'm gonna bring up the book. But when I'm laughing at myself, when I when I finished writing, and I turned in my work I got, you know, they got back to me. And they had made an edit, which is super interesting to watch someone else edit your work, because when I reread it, I couldn't figure out what they cut out of it, which I thought was fascinating. I was like, Oh, yeah, like, That's amazing, you know. And we had, obviously, the publisher and I had long conversations over many, you know, a year or more during the writing process and the business beside of it. Everything is the book came back, you know, and she sent me back her edit.

Unknown Speaker 13:42
What is that about a kid?

Scott Benner 13:42
And I was like, Yeah, like, I was just like, of course you are because I wrote a book. And and she's like, No, no, we don't do this. For most authors. She's like, you can talk. And I was like, what she goes, most people who can write are not good at being the out front face of what they're writing. That's true. And she's like, 100% true. And I think you just kind of said the same thing there, which is what made me think about it. She's like, people who are usually good writers are not great speakers. And I thought no kidding, right? And she's like, No, no, really, she's like, we're gonna, we're gonna get you stuff. And then by the way, most of the cool stuff. I did. I did. They didn't do like, you know, right. They were always like, do this magazine article. I was like, This is the cool stuff here. We're talking about how do I get on TV? Like, be on the radio? I don't want to actually you know, it's funny. I did a podcast the first time and they use the audio from that podcast to show to other people. They're like listening. Oh, it was very, very interesting. Tony rose. I was on his podcast, which folded a long, long time ago. Every day when I'm making this podcast, I tried to prove Tony wrong. Tony had like a it wasn't a podcast. It's my show. I guess it was but it was like blog talk radio. That was a thing for a while where people just recorded like, over telephones and it sounded like that too, you know. But Ryan tried to talk about diabetes on his and his his long defunct and, and I contacted him in 2015 when I was starting to do this, and I said, do you have any advice? You know, I take any advice you had. And he goes, we'll enjoy it while it lasts, because you'll run out of things to say eventually. And I laughed, and I said, Oh, I bet you I won't. I'll take that bet. Nothing. She could talk forever. Just so you know. I always I never forgot that. He said that. Because every once in a while I think of it. I'm like, I gotta keep it fresh and new and think of different ways to go. Because I don't want to get into a scenario where I feel like, oh, I've already said that, you know,

Kate Hall 15:42
right. No, totally.

Scott Benner 15:44
So how do you stop that from happening? on something? Like you're on general hospital right now? Something that's how long has that show been running?

Kate Hall 15:51
Oh, God. 50. Like, I want to say, like, 57 years or something?

Scott Benner 15:59
So do you have any ability to make something happen? That hasn't happened five times already? Like, how do you do that?

Kate Hall 16:05
I mean, I would say most stories are recycled in some way or another. But you know, I don't come up with a story. I am a script writer. So I am told, you know, this is what is going to happen. And then I write all the dialogue for my show, like the day that I'm signed. So are you choosing direction?

Scott Benner 16:28
Like, which? No, no, I mean, like, the direction of the story, like what, no, I, I like flesh it out through the die, like, I can change some things, you know, if I don't like how they got from point A to point B, I can change the middle part. But that, you know, the end of the day, the tag of the day has to be the tag of the day, unless I'm told otherwise. So that you don't run into like, you know, it makes me feel like these current Star Wars movies where they talked about, like JJ Abrams came out with his reboot. And then Ryan Johnson came up and sort of like, if you watch the second one, you could see in that script, where the guy was, like, I don't agree with the stuff that was said in the first script that I'm going to try to move them away from that with my writing. So you don't have the ability to do that they give you like, you know, Robert Scorpio is going to show up here. And by the end of it, this person, this person, this person needs to be going towards this bar for this reason, and you get them there. Is that the idea?

Kate Hall 17:24
Yeah, do yeah, and all the dialogue in the stage directions. And, you know, they're just sitting around doing nothing had been conversational, try to come up with something they can do. And, you know, with soaps, it's like, a lot. I feel like the what I'm most proud of is making, you know, either, like the absurd sound, normal, you know, like something that somebody would actually say, and also, you're doing a lot of like recapping and kind of, like, you know, you're like, Oh, God, I feel like they had this conversation, you know, two scripts ago. And so it's trying to keep like, you keep things fresh and not always sound like you're saying the same thing. And so I feel like that's sort of the biggest challenge, then there's a name for that in television, right in writing for television is what do they say? like Captain exposition? Like, what is that idea when an actor comes on to explain to you what's about to happen? What's it? Yeah, exposition. Yeah. It's like expository dialogue.

Scott Benner 18:22
Yeah. When a guy just walks into the scene and says, So you mean, if we push this button, that mountains going to blow up? And you think no one would say that in a real scenario, but since they only have 45 minutes to explain this to me, we got it. Right. That's how you leap over 15 minutes of dialogue that would draw that out. Right? So is it sort of the opposite of like, so how do you play against the idea as like a professional writer? Because what do they say? Right? Like, don't, don't explain something you can show. Mm hmm. You are, but you're, you're explaining it in lieu of showing it?

Kate Hall 18:55
Well, I mean, it's just it's in different scenarios. It just depends what you're going for. But yeah, ideally, you would like to show it and not say it, but like, they're just some situations where, you know, you gotta, you got to do it. And there's, it's funny, there's some actors who are just better at it than others. And we're like, Okay, give that to so and so because he is really good at just like whipping out this expository dialogue, but like making it sound pretty normal, and he like gets it done quickly. And so you also like you have certain people in your head who like you would assign that job to?

Scott Benner 19:33
Oh, there are some people who aren't as good at it. It sounds more like an ad coming out of their mouth like,

Unknown Speaker 19:39
Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 19:40
Yeah. It's interesting. Do you know the actors personally, or do you have that feeling just from watching them on television?

Kate Hall 19:46
I know some of them personally, I get intel on them from like my editor because I am a mom on the phone with her like usually at least once a week where she can say Tell me like, yeah, this person probably won't be as comfortable with this as that person would or whatever it is. and

Scott Benner 20:07
heavy lifting give it to this person.

Unknown Speaker 20:10
Yeah, exactly. Mm hmm. Something that's very cool.

Scott Benner 20:14
Yeah, I feel like we're learning a lot here. Let me ask you this. Do you ever do watch the show?

Kate Hall 20:21
I try to I am embarrassingly behind right now. It's, you know, it's an hour. And like, at the end of the day, it's not like my husband wants to sit and, you know, he would I guess if I had like, mandated it, but, you know, we watch other stuff on TV, we're not gonna like sit down and I'm not gonna like press General Hospital, I usually if I'm like working out in my house or something, and I'm on a treadmill, I'll put it on or I just don't have a ton of time to watch it. But I wish I did. Because it's, it's really helpful. Even now, even after writing for as long as I have, you know, we get new characters all the time. And the only way to really get their voices and figure out who they are, is to watch it. You know, me just reading words on a page isn't going to help me. There's a lot to unpack here. Here's why. First of all, I know women have a tough but if a man said if I mandated it about like that would not fly came out of your mouth so easily. You're like, Yeah, he do it if I told him to. And

Scott Benner 21:21
we're all everyone listening is like, Oh, yeah, absolutely. If

Unknown Speaker 21:25
I need more, I need more.

Scott Benner 21:28
He said,

Kate Hall 21:29
my job like, he would feel bad being like, Oh, I'm not watching dental hospital because I like work there. And I, you know, like, I, I didn't mean it. Like, I can just order him around. Yeah.

Scott Benner 21:41
Okay. And so. And the other thing is that there are times where I pop the podcast, and I want to make sure it sounds right through headphones. I want to make sure it sounds right. If you just flop your phone on the countertop, if you're running it through a speaker, you know, I try to top of that, I try to make sure that, you know, there's connecting phrases that I use that I try not to. Obviously, I'm you're trying to avoid. So I tried to avoid but I use so a lot to get me to my next thought. Right? I sort of let it go because nothing is scripted here. So I am really thinking along with the conversation, try to cut myself a little bit of a break, but I try to listen to it. You know, so that I can figure out what it is. And my my wife will be like, are you listening to your own podcasts? And I was like, Well, yeah, but I'm just trying to listen to the and she's like, Oh, sure you are and then the sporting, I did it with the episode that went up today, which is the second trimester of Samantha's pregnancy. Like I don't know if you Oh, yeah, I saw that it popped up on my phone. So I'm listening to it. And I'm by myself in my house making my breakfast. And the absolutely delicious thing happened. I made myself laugh. So I'm laughing in my kitchen at something I said on the podcast, and it made me feel like a dope. Like I was just like, how can this? No, I knew I was great. No, I don't know. It seems like it might be like a mental illness. I'm actually putting the ad here because while I was recording with Kate, my computer crashed. This is just a natural break in the conversation. I'm going to make this quick for you Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor see the speed and direction that blood sugar is moving with the dexcom g six. This is incredibly important. This information coming back from the Dexcom is going to inform it's going to supercharge your ability to understand how insulin is impacting blood sugars. how food is impacting blood sugars, how food impacts insulin, how insulin impacts food, it's going to show you so much You are going to be able to make decisions, unlike your wildest dreams could desire is that English? I think it is unlike your wildest dreams could desirable. There's a better way to say that. But what I'm saying is when you see this information, you begin to make better decisions about your type one diabetes, these decisions lead to better time and range, they can lead to lower a one sees so much when you can stop those spikes. And stop below before they happen. Just sort of find a way to keep your blood sugar in that zone that you're looking for. That's huge dexcom.com forward slash juice box Go find out more about it right now. The Dexcom g six is just a huge tool. In my daughter's life with Type One Diabetes, I do not believe that her a one C and all the other things that are important would be where they are without the dexcom I'm not even mentioning Sharon follow I should By the way, you know Dexcom like the wearer can share their information with up to 10 followers that's for iPhone or Android. Imagine your grandmother, school nurse, Mother, father and anybody you want. can see your blood sugar and if you're an adult, your best friend Friend at work, your sister, your brother, anyone, even your mom still like when you're an adult, you still need your mom, right? Well, with the dexcom g six, you can share your information with others if you want to.

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Oh, let's hear it for max auto save. It is amazing. Was that my fault? No, my computer just crashed. So the truth is, I am using a five year old computer that I need to replace. And I made a decision this year to upgrade sound equipment over computer equipment. And this is the third crash I've had in a year and I haven't had one before that so I think this thing shot. I might have to go out on a limb and replace the computer. So all that all that fat cash I'm making off the podcast going oh,

Kate Hall 28:02
you should have done it this weekend. One of those you know Cyber Monday do something hurry. I'm

Scott Benner 28:06
thinking about maybe still doing it after that. Anyway, we didn't really lose anything. But I saw I asked you about whether you watch the show because I wanted to ask you if while you're doing that, if the dialogue runs ahead in your brain, like Do you know what people are about to say? Is that weird? Do you ever find yourself mousing along with it? Or going Oh, they're about to say this?

Kate Hall 28:26
No. Because I mean, it airs almost three months after I've written it. So I'm a little like, I'm so far ahead in my writing that I'm like, it's more like a fun reminder. Like, oh, yeah, I thought the fun show.

Scott Benner 28:42
Yeah. So now that doesn't surprise me at all. Because I'll get emails all the time ago, I was listening to the show today. And you said this and thank you and I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. I I recorded that six months ago. Right? You know, and it went up today. And it's really, I can't believe I asked you that. Now I know that you said on the call. Of course you don't like because you're writing ahead. Right? Yeah, that's so cool. Okay, so all right. Let's get to the real meat of this. This meal doing now had diabetes for about a year were diagnosed. Tell me a little bit about what happened.

Kate Hall 29:21
It was her like well visit just her yearly annual visit and we went in and they said you know she's she's grown to inches but it says she hasn't gained any weight and the entire year so they're like, oh, the scale must be wrong. We'll go do another one. We went to another scale said the same thing. And I could tell the doctor was like, Huh, but then she was just gonna Dylan seemed like otherwise healthy and she was just she was going to have us come back for a weight check. And a month or two or something. And then I in the back of my head. We Pete and I had been on vacation. And when we got we left our kids With our nanny who's amazing. And when we came back, she said, You know, there was this one night where Dylan went to the bathroom, like, six times, she said, when she woke up in the morning, and, you know, I was like, Huh, that set off like mild alarm bells for me, but on the way to the doctor said, Dylan, you know, had that happen again, have you had to get up a lot? And she was like, No, and, you know, don't say anything to the doctors. embarrassing. I was like, okay, okay. And but then, you know, once I saw the concern, and her doctors face, I said, you know, there is one thing are, you know, and I told her what I just told you, and she said, Okay, so they did a urine test, there was glucose in Dylan's urine. And then they wanted to do a finger prick. But they didn't have a meter in the office. So they had to go somewhere else to another nearby doctor's office, get it, bring it back. And that was like, the worst sitting in the waiting room. Like, just wanted to get it over with so badly. And so they did the finger, the finger prick. And she was like, 300, and something. And just because of pee, I knew, obviously, that is not normal blood sugar. And so I was like, I think you have what Daddy has. And I thought that would sort of make her be calm about it. Like because she sees her father every day living a completely normal and healthy life. And she like flipped out, like, screaming and crying. And I mean, I was careful. And yeah, so there was no hospital stay for us. They just like sent us to the endocrinologist in like, the local one that they usually recommend. And we went to see her and they did all like the official tests. And then she got like her for a one fee and everything. And they officially said, yes, you have diabetes.

Scott Benner 32:01
Well, Had you ever considered before it happened that it might

Kate Hall 32:06
not once, and I feel so naive about that. But I, nobody ever said that I so my husband was diagnosed after we were married. He was in his early 30s. And everybody just kind of made it sound like he'd been struck by lightning. And no pediatrician ever told me it was like, there was a risk that our kids would get it. His doctor didn't say, hey, like, you know, when you have children just be on the lookout like nobody ever said it. And now, knowing what I know, I can't believe we weren't on the lookout for it. But we weren't like we were blindsided. I called him at work to tell him what was happening. He, like, was horrified and jumped on a train and came out and I remember them like, I still like cry. When I think about it them. We were in the parking lot of like a pizza place. Because when we went to the doctor, you know, they're doing all these tests, were waiting on them. So she said, you know, go get whatever you want for lunch. You know, of course, we're like, What do you want? You know, pizza, Pete was like, wait, she's eating pizza. And like, just, it's fine. I don't know, they told us It's fine. It's fine. Just meet us there. And he gets out of the car. And they just like ran to each other crying. And it was just, it was really, it was super emotional. And he had a lot of guilt, which of course he shouldn't have. But you know, he felt like, Oh my god, I gave this to her. And it was it was really sad. But it's also since then, I think connected them in a very special way.

Scott Benner 33:42
In that moment, when they kind of embraced and they were crying. Did you have a different? I don't know if you had the bandwidth at that moment or not. But did you suddenly see diabetes for your husband differently than you'd seen it prior? Oh, 100%

Kate Hall 33:56
I wasn't even I didn't even follow him on Dexcom. Like, he was just totally just doing this by himself. And I yes, it's changed dramatically how I looked at it for him and my empathy. And I mean, not that I wasn't empathetic before. Of course I was. But it's like a whole new level now. Well, you could just tell him to be I'm gonna mandate that he's just like a raise of blood sugar when he's low

Scott Benner 34:22
together. But no, I really, but I mean, I'm super interested in what you said, because it just feels like that it's possible that because of the lead up and that he was diagnosed when he was and that you guys got married, you know, you know, you weren't married when you're 18 or something like that? No. So that it's possible that for the first time in that moment, you saw how it impacts him. And have you spoken to him since then about? I mean, he's obviously I don't want to say hiding but there was a part of his life. He wasn't. He wasn't sharing right like about the diabetes. Does that make you feel strangely or do you understand the privacy is he as private now as he was then etc.

Kate Hall 35:00
I mean, I wouldn't necessarily say he was never hiding anything. It was just sort of, I didn't have that sense of, you know, other than like the first low he ever had. And I was pregnant, and I was sleeping in another room because he was snoring. And of course, that was just so annoying. And in the middle of the night, he like crawled into where I was, and was like, you know, I need juice. And I like, I want to say I ran but I probably waddled down the stairs and got, you know, a cup of orange juice. And he came back up, and he like, couldn't even bring it to his mouth. And I had to, like, feed it to him. And like, that was really scary. Obviously, it was it was our first experience with Alo and he had to, like, email his doctor the next day and be like, this happened to me last night. What was that? And the doctor was like, Oh, you just had your first low like, I we didn't know a lot going into this. And he was mis diagnosed at the beginning. And it was all confusing, but other than that, you know, needing to bring him something like that. I don't know. I didn't feel like it. Was this like team effort? Which is what I feel like it is now. Wow,

Scott Benner 36:12
that's that's really cool. Did How long did Pete have diabetes before it repeated with Dylan? I was just trying to say Pete and repeat just so you're one Pete and repeat. Well,

Kate Hall 36:21
that's so funny, because my sister married a Peter and my father is Peter. So it's Pete, repeat. And three peat is what we call them. If Arden was here, she would say Peters a euphemism for penis.

Unknown Speaker 36:38
Right?

Scott Benner 36:43
She's a delightful girl. Actually, by the time yours goes up, I'll say this year because it won't be teasing by then. But are denier gonna sit down and do a short series on the podcast of me trying to like pass ideas on to her? Oh, that's awesome. I had there was a lot of talking that got done to do that. And I think I committed to paying her if I'm not mistaken. Be and But

Kate Hall 37:09
well, now you're gonna have to know. I'm pretty sure

Scott Benner 37:12
I'm pretty sure I had to move her along with some cash. So for all you people out there who when I say like, If I was you, I'd pay them like people always like my son doesn't want to wear a pump. And I'm like, How old is he? They're always eight. I was like, you know, $50 would look huge to an eight year old, right? Like pay.

Kate Hall 37:27
And if they don't matter, candy,

Scott Benner 37:28
yeah. And if they don't like it after that, right on, like, but get them to try it. So I said to Arden, look, we're at this weird spot and you're, you know, in your life, you've had diabetes forever. And you're, you know, your dad's the guy on that podcast. And so it doesn't impact you the way it does other people. And she'll she'd be the first one to say that. There are days that go by where she doesn't think about having diabetes really, like it's not in the forefront of her mind. Right. But there's no doubt that I'm making calculations that she doesn't understand. And and I don't mean mathematical, I mean, you know, bigger ideas. Like she had Chinese food last night, that presented a problem to me, and I stayed ahead of it. Like, I kept her blood sugar like 180 that was like a Chinese food failure was like 180 for three hours. And, you know, everyone listening now is like, no Chinese food failures. 400 for six.

Unknown Speaker 38:20
Pretty good. Yes. And

Scott Benner 38:21
you're like, Huh, really? And I botched this, you know, and, and but she wouldn't know in this moment how to how to manage through those couple of hours so she wouldn't know what to do. And

Kate Hall 38:34
and is that a whole different ballgame now that you're looping?

Scott Benner 38:38
Yeah, no, yes. It's sort of like it's harder to correct with loop. Because loop doesn't want you to, but there's ways around it. There's ways around it. And the last version of loop that's out now is way better. Like it handles food way better. It doesn't cut bazel off like it used to. And it's just it's it's an updated version of Oh, that's good. Yeah. So it's, it's easier for me to correct with it. And I've learned how to like open the loop to crush a high to close it again. Like I've figured out some things. But at the same Yeah,

Kate Hall 39:13
why don't people just like, open it during the day and then close it for sleeping.

Scott Benner 39:19
Because you still have there are still going to be times where you have insulin needs changing during the day and the loop will get in front of those things. It'll get in front of it. Okay, and so as best they can, it's it's right around food. If you mess up the Bolus for food, then it's it's just, you know, it's a little more difficult to get back on top of but I really am figuring it out. It's just that Arden wouldn't know the right level of that

Kate Hall 39:45
right. And that's gonna be so great. Dylan will still eat those up with us.

Scott Benner 39:50
Well, I'll tell her not to see if it makes her feel differently about it because it's going to be me and her and at times, it's going to be me her and her friend Jani. is a kid who Arden met online who has diabetes. And we're going to do like a round robin thing if the technology holds up, which I think it will, and into the all three of us are going to talk about because Arden and Jani are in different situations like garden management is more stable than Yannis is. And Johnny's looking to, like get to that stability. So I think the information would impact both of them the same way, even though they're coming from two different places. So I have my fingers crossed, I practice on some kids who weren't mine in Kansas City a couple weeks ago. Now that I was like, here's other people's children will practice on them. Come on over here. And seriously, they took the information really well. They took notes, they were paying attention. Like it was really interesting. So

Unknown Speaker 40:45
Oh, that's so cool. So this podcast

Scott Benner 40:47
can't wait. Thank you. It's just a, it's a walk through my experience. And this is going to be the next part of my experience. So we're going to try to bring it to the show. We'll say I should knock on wood or something like that. She found that I've said this, that she'll back out and be like, Am I doing that? But does we need to have these conversations?

Kate Hall 41:06
Yeah, so I should not she does make it useful for everybody. Right,

Scott Benner 41:10
exactly. So that's our That's horrible. So okay, so so you had this thing? What I feel like, it's probably the most emotional moment of your life I'm imagining, and, you know, this whole sort of thing, you know, comes together for your husband, I get the part about feeling like you gave it to her. Is he shake that over time? Or does that stick with him? Do you think?

Kate Hall 41:32
Yes, I think he has.

I think he, it took a little while but you know, just had to keep telling him you know, she, you didn't give it to her any more than somebody gave it to you like it's just crap luck for both of you.

Scott Benner 41:49
I know Kelly has that feeling sometimes because Kelly has hypothyroidism. So there's an endocrine issue with Kelly. And it's, it seems like there's a feat on the female side of Kelly's family. They all seem to have a little bit of an endocrine thing. And I think that makes Kelly feel like she gave Arden diabetes, which she of course, you know, intellectually knows it's not true. But right, Martin,

Kate Hall 42:09
I get it. I get it. I would probably feel the same way. Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:12
go back to Dylan exploding in the doctor's office. Did you just let it happen? Did you I mean, I'm assuming you consoled her, but like, you just let her let her have her moment.

Kate Hall 42:21
Yeah, I let her have her moment. I kept trying to explain. I mean, I did not do you know, you always talked about like, crying in the shower, crying behind closed doors, but I was like, just 100% crying and that scared her. And I remember saying to her, I am not crying because I'm scared. Like, I know you are going to be fine. I'm crying because I'm, you know, really bummed out that this is happening to you, but it's going to be okay. She just she kept asking me if she was going to die. And I you know, maybe maybe she was asked me that before they came in with the meter. Like when she was a little confused. And that's when I said, No, you're gonna be fine, but you might have what Daddy has. And then when it was confirmed, and she looked at the doctor and said, Do I have diabetes? And her doctor said, Yes, Dylan. I think you do. And she I mean, she really she screamed. It was I was very surprised by it. But yeah, I let her do it and just hugged her. And, you know, we were leaving. And then I just like, couldn't deal anymore. And I like turned back and I remember hugging the nurse. And it was nice. I hadn't seen her again since because she was pregnant. So she's been been on maternity leave. And I saw her again for the first time at Dylan's well checkup this year. And I said, You know, I don't know if you remember. But last year, she just cut me off and she was like, Oh, I remember. And that was a nice little moment to see her again and have it be under much better circumstances.

Unknown Speaker 43:48
Remember your child screaming like

Kate Hall 43:53
I remember you losing your you know what all over the top? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 43:57
Look, you cry. The kid screamed. Am I remember this

Unknown Speaker 44:03
week? Oh, God. Blue Monday here just

Kate Hall 44:08
sent out. Yeah, they just send you on your way. I'm like, Wait, what? Drive to this other town and go see this person like okay,

Scott Benner 44:17
very likely gonna be fine. Goodbye. Yeah, geez. Well, I I'll tell you, I have to like commiserate with her a little bit because I was in a hotel room while my son was recruiting for baseball. So he was in high school trying to get into college. And we were away one weekend when I found out Arden had hypothyroidism. And I believe that I had to stop myself from punching a hole in the wall of the of the hotel. Oh, I just so angry. That, like in the way it felt to me was like, how could you How could it be two things? Oh, yeah. Like how could she get to things you know, like, which is that is is how it really struck me in my heart. I was like, it's enough. Right? She's doing okay with this. Why would you, you know, and I'm not even I'm not religious, I don't believe in you know, like, I just I don't feel that way. It's not like I was blaming a higher power. I just thought this is this feels wrong, you know and hold me together. I think that my son was in the he was in the bathroom and I didn't want to like think I didn't want to lose myself in front of him. So I just kind of held right there. I think I would have just run through the door in the adjoining room and but like, Hi. My daughter has hypothyroidism they go with their type one diabetes. Isn't this great?

Unknown Speaker 45:34
Oh,

Scott Benner 45:36
terrible. No. Do you have other children? I do. I have two

Kate Hall 45:42
other daughters. Both younger Dylan's my oldest. Then I have a daughter Sawyer, who is eight and my daughter Reese who is for

Scott Benner 45:52
better to pick names than a television writer for children. That's they say that's a hard thing to do. But if you've got the skill, you have it, and you apparently did just Peter get the head any input on the children's names? Or did you'd mandate what they were going to be?

Kate Hall 46:05
No no mandating on that we know we came to it together. Yeah, I just love sort of the kind of the boy names for girls. I just think it's cute. Yeah,

Scott Benner 46:17
I know. Um, Arden is only I think the last time I looked, it's really only a few thousand, maybe five to 9000 people in America are named Arden. And over half of them are men. So it's not a very common name. And it's not the girl's name, but I just loved it. When I saw it looks like this. I get to like, here we go. Well, you liked it so much that you named a character on General Hospital? I sure did. I really appreciate that. Thank you. Fun.

Kate Hall 46:47
So I was bummed out. Her first scene was supposed to be with Laura, of Luke and Laura. And but I guess they must have Jeannie Francis wasn't available that day or something. So they did cut her out of the show.

Scott Benner 46:59
I looked up and I just thought, oh my god, Tristan Rogers is still on this television show.

Kate Hall 47:03
Like, I know, he left for a while. But now he's back.

Unknown Speaker 47:07
I feel like he might be thinking that too. Like,

Unknown Speaker 47:11
am I still doing this? Here?

Scott Benner 47:15
But no, it was really cool. Thank you. I tell. I'm interested a little bit in how the podcast found you and and what it what it did or didn't do for you in the beginning?

Kate Hall 47:25
I did if I you know what, I think I have started following diabetes stuff on Instagram. And then somebody posted, like similar to what I did when their kid got a good a one feedback and, you know, said, you know, couldn't have done it without. And I was like, What's this? What's the Juicebox Podcast. And so I clicked on it. And I started listening. And I remember I was on a train into the city for doesn't matter who cares. And

details not important.

Scott Benner 48:00
matter why it

Kate Hall 48:01
matters like dialogue, and nobody needs to know. And I was listening, I'm texting paints, and you have to listen to this. It's so good. And I was walking through Grand Central and it was the one where you were talking about like shoving the juice box through the fence at her softball game. And she just, you know, took it down in one group. And I'm crying because to me that just was so like beautiful and brave. And I wanted that for Dylan. And so I just started like binge eating it right off the bat. And it was just, it just gave me the courage to finally stop staring at the Dexcom and like watching the spike to 300 every morning and being like, why does this keep happening? Why does this keep happening? I don't understand. And instead just do something about it. Like you always say, like, doesn't matter why it's happening, just give her more insulin. And it was the most freeing thing. And I mean, I've just eaten up to everything that I hear on it. And I it's helped us so much. Like, I'm nowhere near where you are, but I'm doing it like I tell people I have like two full time jobs. I write for General Hospital and I managed diabetes.

Scott Benner 49:13
But you're gonna say and I listened to a podcast,

Kate Hall 49:16
and it will that's true, too. Yeah. And I talked about this man. Like, he's my friend, like, well, Scott says, and everybody's like, you don't know God. You know, who tells you now? Yeah. Like Dylan will be like, Mom, you don't even know him. I'm like, Well, I'm going to so you just watch out.

Scott Benner 49:33
I talked to him on the phone. I know him better than you do. Honestly, talk to me more today than most of the people I know. So that's fine. I've actually interestingly enough, as you're talking about kind of being tough and going through things, and I remember that moment, like, kind of so vividly when she just kind of like took that juice and went right back out there. And it was so cool.

Kate Hall 49:53
Oh, so good. And I needed to hear that like we were right in the you know, Dave after this, it happened and I like It just gave me hope at the beginning before, it's like, it gave me hope before the tools like, I just needed. And I just, I wanted so desperately to hear other parents, because, you know, just it made me feel less alone. And also, just like we could do it, you know, they're doing it, we could do it too. Of course you get

Scott Benner 50:20
I mean, honestly, if I seriously I mean, that's if I can do it, literally anybody can. Because there's really just genuinely nothing special about me. It's not like I knew something first, or I have someone helping me or get anything like it's just these ideas, they kind of coalesce and you can, you can make sense of them after a while. We're actually in the middle of something right this second that, you know, is one of those other tough things like while you were telling me that story about listening to the podcast, I was texting Arden, Hey, you got to eat faster, what are you doing? And so she's had a fairly large lunch. So it's a pretty big bolus. And it looks to me like she got to, you know, she got there sat down and probably didn't start eating right away. Right. It's like 60 diagnol down right now. And I just and I'm just like, hey, it's all the food in she was eating and I was like, dude, faster. You know, that was, that was pretty much it, you know, in five minutes, and I told him like, leave your phone out. Because, you know, if this gets sideways, you're gonna probably need some juice. And you're, you're not going to be paying attention because she's, she's eating. So right now. It's the sets. She's the first day on a new sensor. So in my heart if she was here, I would think test because I don't think she's as low as she says she is, I think right the foods ahead of it a little bit. And we'll wait it out a little because we're not scared and she's eating. But you know that she's not here. It's still a little different. Like it changes what you're gonna do a little bit, you know, like, Oh, yeah, there's there could be a moment in here. I'm like, just have a little like juice. But I know she's not going to no need it. So now I'm fighting the urge to say she needs the juice and kind of watching it happen. Like I say on the you know, I don't say anything on this podcast, and I'm not doing in my own life, like so sometimes you just really do have to have the balls to wait a second.

Kate Hall 52:08
Yeah, I do that I texted him like, it's gonna hit like you ate lunch. It's all there. It's gonna hit you. Like just wait one second. Because you know what'll happen if you treat it. And you're also I try to remember to like the Dexcom is behind right? So the food could have already hit she might already be on our way up. I just don't see it yet.

Scott Benner 52:31
Wait, wait for one more reading. And then if that reading goes the wrong way. You go, Oh, I was wrong. All right. And go ahead and have some of that juice now or whatever you use your fast acting, you know, kind of treatment stuff. No, absolutely. I'm thrilled first of all that the podcast is valuable for you. I really am. I end up emailing that to a lot of people that sentence and I hope that it doesn't sound trite but I really am thrilled. That it that it did something for you.

Kate Hall 52:58
It's a total game changer. I just can't i can't imagine had I not found it.

Scott Benner 53:04
Very nice. It's very kind. Thank you. I really I mean that it's a it's a touching thing. It really is. Well, it's hard to know what to say. It's it's still strange to me to hear from people like that. Not that it's like it's not I don't want to sound like an ass. It's not unexpected. Like I'm not like I've heard other people say it's just the it's not something you get accustomed to hearing. It feels well. True. You're very nice. It feels special every time someone says it, I guess is

Unknown Speaker 53:34
well that's good.

Scott Benner 53:36
Yeah. What are your using technology? What are you managing?

Kate Hall 53:43
Yeah, we are Dexcom and Omnipod

Scott Benner 53:47
and enjoying it so far. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Amazing. What is what is your husband use?

Kate Hall 53:54
He is just the dexcom and he does injections interestingly, like he keeps an interesting case. So when he was first misdiagnosis, type two so he was on what is it Metformin that is that what it is for like a while and it was just awful and defeating and he would you know, wake up in the morning and I'd be there like holding my breath while he tested his blood sugar and it would be high and he wouldn't have eaten a carb and you know, like he never had carbs like once he was diagnosed he cut carbs completely out of his life. And finally he was correctly diagnosed. But I think he kind of got it in his head or maybe it was phrased to him in such a way that it was sort of like if you get on like the fast acting insulin like the insulin his meals kind of like you've you've given in, like you can do this on your own with food and exercise and what if you have to go to insulin like then like, well, like diabetes got you type of thing and It so he just took one injection of key doesn't take Mantis but you know whatever. The similar insulin is the long acting.

Yeah, love him here. That's what he takes.

And it wasn't until Dylan was diagnosed so we're talking like eight years of him just through diet. Like he chips.

Scott Benner 55:25
Yeah. Oh my god, okay, he was really misdiagnosed.

Kate Hall 55:30
Oh no, I mean they knew he had type one for all that time I met he went eight years just on one long acting shot a day and no fast acting. We didn't even have any in like nobody ever even prescribed him any insulin like fast acting and sleds and we this is a Yeah, it was worth it is a one C was fantastic. Like in the fives always. Wow.

Scott Benner 55:55
Okay, well, a long honeymoon.

Kate Hall 55:58
Um, yeah, well, he just didn't eat any carbs.

Unknown Speaker 56:01
Oh, ever. Oh, ever? What was he eating?

Kate Hall 56:04
Like salads and chicken and vegetables and meat and like no carbs. Like he went from having sushi rolls to like just sashimi. Luckily, he was never really a dessert person. So that part wasn't hard for him. But like, we just didn't order pizza anymore. And we, you know, made zoodles instead of noodles and like we just, he just didn't eat carbs. Okay, so anytime we go out to dinner, I'm like, I am having all the pasta because like, we never cooked any carbs at home. And I never got to eat that stuff anymore.

Scott Benner 56:37
And did that like that? That kind of went through everybody like you were sort of a low carb family at that point.

Kate Hall 56:43
Oh, no, the kids were like carb maniacs. And I ate carbs just like not for dinner when I was with him but like i certainly carbs for breakfast and lunch and stuff.

Scott Benner 56:53
Oh, I see. Just not notice just

Kate Hall 56:55
him. Just him. Yeah. And and then after we were on like an airplane home from I think we had been skiing in Utah. And we're on the plane home and he had had this horrible like accident on the slopes for this guy who didn't know how to ski just like careened right into Pete and like, you know, dentist is pull in the lenses of his goggles popped out like it was a very hard hit. But they were both wearing helmets. So that was good. But I think like something got really shaken up in his body. And it's his blood sugar on the ride home on the plane was like, through the roof to the point where his meter was just saying hi. And so when we got off the plane, he texted his doctor and that was the first time that he'd ever been prescribed, fast acting, the doctor said, okay, you need to go pick this up and give yourself a shot. And then that just sat in the fridge forever. I mean, he never really used it. And then when Dylan got diagnosed, he sort of realized, oh, like fast acting insulin isn't a weakness. It's just what you do to help you eat food like everybody else. So now he does take fast acting insulin and he you know, can have sushi rolls again, if he wants to and slice of pizza if he wants to. He still eats relatively low carb anyway. But

Scott Benner 58:11
but not not just strictly it anymore.

Kate Hall 58:14
Yes, not strictly anymore. Well,

Scott Benner 58:16
that's interesting. It's such a interesting path. And how is that affected? Well, I guess somebody asked us first, who did you and Dylan like? Is that the the chain of like care? is Pete involved with the owners at you and her?

Kate Hall 58:32
He is involved for sure. I mean, at the beginning, it was so nice to have somebody who like me now it's just, I could do it in my sleep. But at the beginning, like the meter was very like overwhelming to me. Like I'd never tested Pete's blood sugar. He just did that. So I'd never used one before. And all the steps. It was nice to have somebody know exactly what they were doing. He knew how to give an injection. He, he's just he knew how to put on a deck. Like that was so nice to have somebody already like knowing the ropes of everything. But in terms of her care, it just makes more sense. I mean, I'm packing my lunch like I know what's in it. I I'm here if need be. I mean, he stayed out of it completely all day. And I just text with Dylan. But if we're all home on the weekend, like Hill, certainly if he's making breakfast Hill, you know, bolus her and so he's definitely involved, but I like the first person I guess in the chain of command. Do you

Scott Benner 59:37
follow his Dexcom now? I do. Yes. Is that just do you think now a function of having seen Dylan's it just would feel weird not to know his?

Kate Hall 59:47
Yes. And also it made me realize like I could be very helpful sometimes. I mean, if he is out like working in the yard or something, and I noticed it's a precipitous drop and he not going to get the low Arm yet, but I can see where it's going. I'll just like run out with a glucose. That'd be like you're going to need this. And I'm sometimes I'm really nice about it. And then there are other times at night where I've been up with Dylan like three times, and then his alarm starts going off and I'm like, Oh, you got to be kidding me. And I like throw, like sorella glucose. Algo did a stab at him. And like I said, Why aren't you waking up to your alarm? And like, I can't deal with you too. So, you know. I can be like really helpful and a great wife. And then I can also be not so nice about it. But I do you know, I give him the sugar. I give them the glucose. That's just how I do it.

Scott Benner 1:00:37
In fairness last night, I think I heard Kelly say to me, I think Arden's CGM is going off and you're not hearing it. And I was like, Yeah, because I'm sleeping, but I hear what you're saying. So you know, and she was just like, like bouncing a little bit like it was just going under 70. And coming back again. And like she was just kind of like, she was riding along that line. It was like 75, and then it was 69. And then BBB, but then right back up again, like it was doing that. And I I'm saying to Kelly, I'm like, it's a newer CGM. It's okay. But she's like, just go look, it was like, I really think it's alright. Okay. So I went and tested her. And she was actually like, 78. And I was like, I see it's okay. Like I said, I was sleeping. But, but thank goodness for Kelly because I really, I mean, those alarms they do you get numb to them eventually,

Kate Hall 1:01:28
you know, and I, I incorporate them into my dream. So then the alarm is just the sound of a car honking on the street. Like, I fight it. My body fights is like, No, I don't want to wake up.

Scott Benner 1:01:40
I fell asleep last night. I was trying to stay awake, right for a little bit to just get Arden's blood sugar, right, right. Like, I thought it needed a little bump, and I was making sure that bump worked before I went to bed. So I fell asleep, listening to a different podcast than my own. And I woke up realizing that the people in the podcast were in my dream that we were having this whole adventure together. It was

Unknown Speaker 1:02:09
amazing.

Scott Benner 1:02:11
It was really weird. But I know how those alarms end up because you're right. It's like your beep, beep beep and like you realize later, like, that was like a truck in your dream was backing up. And it was the Dexcom alarm. Right? Yeah, I it's a weird life. We all have

Kate Hall 1:02:28
a weird life. And Pete never wakes up. So I silence his phone. Otherwise, I have two phones. alarming, like it kind of like sort of the same time but not really. And they're staggered, and it's really annoying.

Scott Benner 1:02:40
Well, that's actually super interesting, right? Because you see his Lowe's differently than you see hers, right?

Kate Hall 1:02:48
Like, in what respect?

Scott Benner 1:02:49
It doesn't seem like a more immediate need because she's a child or because she's your child,

Kate Hall 1:02:54
or Oh, definitely because she's not I at least know. Pete's getting those alarms. He, you know, knows what to do and would fill in, it's like, I have to catch it and tell her what to do. So yeah, I see them very differently. But I will check in and just be like Pete, are you eating and you know, just shoot them a quick just to make sure if I see it going really low or he'll be like, yeah, I tested. I'm not that low. I'm actually whatever. And

Scott Benner 1:03:21
so yeah, it definitely feels more urgent with Dylan. Here's my Sophie's Choice. Right? They're both in exactly the same situation. And they need care. Dylan first.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:33
Right?

Scott Benner 1:03:35
guys out there who aren't married yet? Just so you know. Okay. Like, there's gonna be a moment where you're just relegated to Plex leftover, just so you're aware. That's all I mean, I'll be

Kate Hall 1:03:46
I will do real quick. And I'll come right back.

Scott Benner 1:03:48
But I would do the same thing. I would, you know, I mean, if we were on a raft and it was going under, and somebody had to go over, you know, I'd nudge Kelly off before.

It is a real weird feeling. You don't recognize it right until you have a kid but your spouse No matter how much you love them. is really just the guy you met. Right? And your

Unknown Speaker 1:04:18
kids, right? Yeah, it's true.

Scott Benner 1:04:21
There's another plan somewhere but Dylan's Dylan. I'm not trying to say you're like, don't get me divorced, buddy. I'm just trying to be fair. But, but But seriously, there's like, there's a real interesting. Like, I see it more like if I get a text right or something comes up on my phone and I go to look at it. There's this horrible thing that happens in our house. It's very small, but it's not small. I get fixated on what I see. Like if I'm being texted or if it's Arden's blood sugar or something like that. I don't realize that Kelly standing four feet away thinking is everything okay? Right. And so I finished what I'm doing And Kelly's like, what is it and I'm a boy. So I'm like, Look, you can eat, I can either explain it to you, or take care of it. I'm not able to do both at the same time, like so. You know? So like, I need I need to finish it. I'm doing but by the time I'm done, even if it takes 20 seconds, I can sometimes see that it makes her physically uncomfortable. Yeah, she's worried for artists, you know, we're cool. Even if it's a text message. It's I think, in the back of her head, she's like, that's it. He died, right? Like it finally happened. You know what I mean? Like, I've been worried since he was alive and right. No, it's fine. Like, everything's fine. She's not a worrier. It's just in that moment. Like, it's, like, you feel like there's information there and you have to act and I always lean towards back then.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:39
Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:05:40
yeah. What are you gonna do? We chat.

Kate Hall 1:05:43
Well, you need to work on multitasking. Like, it's okay, it's Artem. But she's fine while you're texting.

Scott Benner 1:05:49
Yeah, yeah, you're not wrong. And that seems completely doable. It's just a dozen. And I see how mad she is when it's over. She's like, you couldn't have just told me and I'm like, I mean, I don't know. Like, it's just I was just, I was gonna be done the second. And she's like, I think it's because I make faces when I read too. And she infers from my faces. She's like, you looked worried. I was like, I did like that. I wasn't like, just so you know, the dentist wants to know if you're coming for your cleaning on Friday. I was typing in there, you know. It's actually interesting now that uh, hold on. Arden's blood sugar looks lower than it is.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:28
She tested?

Scott Benner 1:06:29
Yeah, she tested and everything's fine. And she's she's 100% fine, but my wife just texted me like you have Arden. And so that's, that means that her blood sugar has been a little lower for a little like, looking lower on the CGM. Then than it is but my wife finally my voice finally like Alright, listen to you're not killing my kid. Are you? Like that? That was that? It was it was like you have Arden right. And

Kate Hall 1:06:50
I'm like, I get those. Dylan you see Dylan? Right. You see? I got her.

Scott Benner 1:06:55
Yeah. Okay. It's thinking, Oh, I'm just the girl you met? I see what's going on?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:00
Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:07:03
You're delightful.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:05
about yourself.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:07
Um, like always nice to hear.

Scott Benner 1:07:10
Delightful. You're conversational. You can hold up your end of the conversation. This is very nice.

Kate Hall 1:07:15
I'm a I'm an anomaly. I'm a writer who can talk I guess, I guess. So.

Scott Benner 1:07:18
I find I you didn't you didn't make me work hard at all today, which I appreciate. And, and we still get out really cool information. But I don't feel like we probably did we not talk about anything you want to talk about?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:30
I don't think so. How is

Scott Benner 1:07:33
doing doing over? Like, how would you characterize her health and her well being?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:37
She's doing great.

Kate Hall 1:07:41
She is like the same happy, enthusiastic kid, which is just awesome. Like, I don't feel like she thinks about diabetes very often. It's like, I don't know, you probably feel the same way. It's like a gift you can give them you know, to take it on for them. So they can just be a normal kid. And so far, it's working. I you know, live in fear of like, puberty and all that stuff. But hopefully, we'll get through it. You'll have to

Scott Benner 1:08:13
wait then. And you will. It's just more I mean, I can I can't give away the secrets too much. people stop listening. But it's really just more insulin. Yeah, when you need it. And when you don't, don't. And you'll start to figure it out. There's a there's a weird rhythm to it. Like you're used to thinking of diabetes in the form of a day. And you have to start thinking about the days and forms of weeks, like right periods a little bit. And then once you can find that, I almost said flow, a better word than that for this scenario. Once you find that rhythm, even that's not right, right. But yeah, you know what I mean? Like, like once you can find that. It's like, Oh, this is the week where you're going to need more insulin. This is the week where you're going to need less insulin. This is the week where it's not going to act weird, but it might get funky once in a while. And you just sort of then there's that one week where it doesn't impact you and everything goes back but you learn how to like, bounce between them real effortlessly as it I mean, I I'm trying to learn that I guess, right? And it's doing mostly Okay, there's something it's just when you don't notice, because you're not the person. Like, right, it's not like I have like there's not like an alarm that goes off in my head when Arden's period starts or when she begins to oscillate or something like it's not like I get a message. Right? So I have to like see what's happening. And then I think oh, that's this and Oh, right. It's this week. Yeah. But I'm telling you, the, the real the real trick is going to be to get everything that you're going to accumulate over these next six, seven years, right and figure out a way to put it into context for a person living with diabetes because you you're going to have a very special set of skills as a caregiver that I don't think are Going to one to one transfer. Like the right note me like, that's the Yeah, that's the thing I'm starting to work through now and why I want to have on the podcast and stuff because there's, there's what I know how to do, there's what impacts me so that I can react to it and then living with it's going to be completely different. But I think there's a way to transfer what I know, into a person who has diabetes, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put Arden on that table, and I'm going to yank her up outside until the lightning hits her, and I'm going to try to make her you know, try to turn her into a Frankenstein version of my ideas in her life.

Kate Hall 1:10:37
Interesting, too, because it's almost like you have to sort of make them care as much, you know, like, make it be as important to them their health as it is. Like, I just don't, you know, I just imagine like a lazy teenager who just doesn't feel like dealing and like, No, you are gonna have to deal like

Scott Benner 1:10:57
100% right now my mom is like, 76 years old, somewhere, she's more worried about me than I am. Right? You know, and so you're always gonna have that over giving me like, Isn't it weird how our minds work, like, you know, she's your daughter, but to her, she's just, she's just her. And you know, not everything doesn't feel as important or even connected, you are less connected to yourself than you are to your kids. Right? You know, like, you have this, you don't have that same feeling of responsibility. She wasn't there. When she came out. And you were like, Oh, my God, it's my job to keep that thing alive. Like she didn't have any of those experiences. You know what I mean? So

Kate Hall 1:11:34
I used to be like, the biggest type of Kondracke and you know, always worried thinking I was going to get sick, or this was going to happen to me or that. And once I had kids that all like all of that energy just transferred, you don't care. You don't care anymore. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:11:49
exactly. I had an emotional conversation with my wife the other day about what it feels like to kind of care for Arden and be the one person that I cried through, because I realized I really only care about my kids, I stopped caring about myself. And you know, it's not that I don't take care of myself, but like, you come to that realization like that, if I were to get hit by a truck right now, My only regret would be that I wouldn't be able to help my kids more, right? Like, that's a really weird feeling to have. And your kids don't have that feeling about themselves. You know, I don't know, dozen years isn't going to sit we I have to, I think of it as my job, right in this next phase of the podcast to figure out how to take all this cool stuff that we all understand as caregivers, or adults who are listening who have found a way to, you know, be combined into who they are during the day. And I have to figure out how to explain that to my kid, like, so that I feel like is the next step. But I will get it all worked out way before your kid gets older. Don't worry about it.

Kate Hall 1:12:47
That's what I'm counting on. Like, all right, yes, please. And like technology and like, well, maybe it won't be as difficult because it'll be more sort of streamlined and easier than it is now.

Scott Benner 1:12:57
I think that's a sincere possibility. Okay, I really do. But I still think that there's the nuance right, that the scenarios and situations that they're going to need to understand how to, like employ that technology? And what Oh, totally? What do you do when, when the technology, you know, fails on you for some reason? You know, how do you how do you handle that part? And some of it's going to be, they're just going to have to have it happen to them. You know, and that's gonna be hard for you to say,

Kate Hall 1:13:26
right, but it's really the only way to learn. I mean, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:13:29
it is. So it's all gonna be fine, as long as I stay alive. But is that what you're telling me that the pressure is on me right now? Yeah. Yes.

Kate Hall 1:13:41
you've convinced Arden to do that theory to do because I think that will be amazing.

Scott Benner 1:13:45
Good. No, I think she's going to I really do. I bought the equipment that makes it possible for me to record two voices. So at this point, I am pot committed on that. And we'll see we'll see what happens. Well, I really appreciate you being on and doing this. Did this live up to your expectations? Or was it a huge letdown?

Kate Hall 1:14:03
No, it was great. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for letting me come on. I basically bribed you by getting your daughter's TV. So thanks. I just want to say that's probably true. Get my kids on television. You do get to come on the podcast.

Scott Benner 1:14:17
That's I you were booked before that, right?

Kate Hall 1:14:21
No, no. Well, yes, I yes. I was booked. But I think it was like part of the

Scott Benner 1:14:29
it was part of that conversation.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:31
Yeah, like part of the package a little bit. I

Scott Benner 1:14:33
have one last question for you. If you have a minute. Do you feel pressure to incorporate diabetes into the show?

Kate Hall 1:14:41
Oh, thank you for bringing this up. Oh my god. Okay. So there's a character on General Hospital. His name is Lucas he's currently used you know, cart like Sonny and Carly. You probably haven't watched in a long time.

Scott Benner 1:14:53
Anyway, I haven't and you still think I don't know who those people? Of course. Okay.

Kate Hall 1:14:57
Yeah. So or he's Bobby. Bobby and Tony's son, Lucas, Lucas Jones, and he so I've been writing for the show for like eight years. And I am getting my assignment and I look through it and I see that Bobby Spencer, they're giving her type two diabetes, and she's having conversation with her son. And you know, he's like, Mom, how can you not know how serious this is like with my type one? And I was like, Well, I'm sorry. Like, wait, what? Like there's this character has diabetes. And I had been writing for eight years and like, had no idea because nobody ever talks about it. So this actor poor man, I have like, I have alarms going off all the time. Now when he's in conversations, but it's husband, I have people talking about carrying glucose tabs around I have been saying, you know, I took insulin, but I didn't get a chance to finish my breakfast. So I'm writing it in every chance I can get which, and the show is being great about leaving it in there. I'm hoping they are liking the sort of realistic approach. Like obviously, it'll be the first thing that gets cut if the show is long or something but so far, it's made it in there. It's very cool. By now you got to get like a device on him somehow, right? Oh, I do. He wears a glucose monitor. Not that we've seen it, but we've heard it like we've heard his Dexcom go off.

Scott Benner 1:16:19
Oh, no kidding. Do they know that? That's so cool.

Kate Hall 1:16:22
I don't know if the actor has any idea what's happening. I think he just like says what's written there. I don't not sure if he really understands it, but he's doing it. So that's good. It's very interesting. I wonder what it's like to that's interesting. I'd be making me wonder like, what how much he thinks about or doesn't or he's just saying the words, but that's I know, I would like to if I ever meet him, I'll ask him and explain why all of a sudden he's talking about diabetes, but he hasn't done that for years and years.

Scott Benner 1:16:48
Do you feel that pressure come from community are you you're pretty much on its You're like an Instagram person, right? Pretty much.

Kate Hall 1:16:55
Yeah, I'm on Twitter. That's more like Twitter is my like soap opera persona and Instagram is just me.

Scott Benner 1:17:03
Well, our blood sugar's good. By the way, she's 65 diagonal up, everything's fine. She was hanging this version for a while everything's good. I don't want people to wonder is that as the episode stop, but I think we may be Pre-Bolus a couple minutes too early, is what I'm seeing as I'm looking at the graph, like I even realized when she was like lunches soon. I remember looking and thinking that seems four or five minutes early, that probably won't be a problem. But uh, it kind of was but fixed. No big deal. Just stick the juice through the fence, drink the juice, keep going.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:35
Okay.

Scott Benner 1:17:37
Well, I really appreciate you sharing all this. This went in more directions than I expected actually your husband's story. It really fascinated me. So I think it was cool that you were able to share all of that. I appreciate it.

Kate Hall 1:17:49
Oh, good. Well, thanks for letting me share it.

Scott Benner 1:17:54
Huge thanks to Kate for coming on the show and talking about being the mother and wife of someone with type one diabetes, and for having a really cool job and putting my daughter in general hospital which I'll play for you in just a second. Thanks also to dex comment on the pod for sponsoring this episode of the Juicebox Podcast. Get yourself a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod today at my Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box. And you're definitely going to want to go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box to learn all about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. Links to all of the spot links to all the sponsors or Juicebox podcast.com are right there in the show notes of the podcast player that you're listening with. Alright, ready, there's two little clips here. One is just a short blurb. You'll hear a couple of guys talking then it'll go into the blurb with Arden's name. And then there'll be a little like kind of scrub sound and then it'll go to the next one, which is a little longer is very cool hearing my daughter's name on General Hospital, because I am not kidding you. I sat for countless afternoons with my mom on the sofa watching GH and I'm not embarrassed, not even a little bit. Ada

Unknown Speaker 1:19:08
ottenere will be asking questions. Da Scorpio is a strong presence. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:14
allegations against the defendant objection is sustained. jury will disregard that defendants speculation with regards to miss McCall. Miss Soto.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:27
No further questions, Your Honor.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:30
Miss Arden, your witness.

Kate Hall 1:19:38
You stated that everyone within Dawn of day is equal. But that's actually not true. Is it? Some are more equal than others. Can you explain how the trust operates

Scott Benner 1:19:57
there's some video of that audio video for the audience. Is video the audio way to talk? Well, there's some video of that audio. I guess the video from that audio with the video that that audio is from? Yeah, the video that that audio is from is available at Juicebox Podcast comm on the page for the episode of this podcast, I feel like I've been very clear. And I don't know why you're confused if you're confused, but I'm certainly I guess by now you guys have listened long enough to know that if I'm doing this later at night, this is how this ends up going. And it's kind of late right now. So anyway, I'm sorry, but I need to go to sleep. So I'll see you soon with another episode of the Juicebox Podcast. You have an absolutely fantastic diabetes doctor and nurse practitioner or anything nutritionist, somebody you use, who's making your life better with Type One Diabetes. If you do, just know that not everyone gets a great doctor, but they could. If you go to juicebox, Doc's calm, you can add your fantastic physician or practitioner to an ever growing list of listener. of listener. I'm gonna have a stroke here. I can't think of a word listener. It's not suggested, what's the word when you want to? Oh my god. I'm not going to stop this recording too, I think of it recommended to an ever growing list of listener recommended doctors, physicians, practitioners, people who are helping them with their type one diabetes. So if you need a great Doc, check out juicebox Doc's calm and if you have one, you can go to that same link to email me your doctor. Just look at the format of how the information is there. That's the information I need about your great doc. Okay, I think you've gotten a pretty good look into how long my day is. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Say I can't talk I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Juicebox Podcast. If you're enjoying the show, please take the time to leave a wonderful rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I feel like this went well.

General Hospital names a supporting character after Arden! Sometime in August I received this heavily blurred image from a Juicebox Podcast listener named Ka...

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