#374 Back to School

Kristin is a teacher and the mother of a child with type 1 diabetes

She's here to talk about her life experiences and we even talk about going to school in the time of Covid-19.

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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 0:06
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Episode 374 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today, my guest is Kristin. Kristin is the mother of a child with Type One Diabetes. She's also an educator. So we get to talk a little bit about how she does things with her son. And a little bit about how she's feeling what she's expecting that she goes back to school in the midst of COVID-19. This one's got a little something for everybody. Please remember, as you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. If Juicebox Podcast has been valuable in your life, please consider taking a moment to share it with someone else. You could do that any way you want. And I would be grateful. Are you looking for a way to share the pro tip episodes from the podcast with someone else? diabetes pro tip.com. Need a great endocrinologist or have one to share juicebox docs.com.

You can support the podcast while supporting Type One Diabetes Research by going to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box and doing the T one D exchange survey. You might even consider checking out the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor@dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Or maybe you want to get yourself a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump. You can do that at my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box.

Kristin 1:54
My name is Kristen and I live in Virginia.

Scott Benner 1:59
I guess we'll start by saying that in your email. I guess I must have said something on the podcast at some point that made you realize that Arden was diagnosed at the same hospital that your child was is that right? Yeah. Uh huh. Ah, that's interesting, because I don't I'm sorry. I said that's interesting, because, you know, I don't live in Virginia, and I never have.

Kristin 2:20
So what I was gleaming from when I listened to one of your first podcasts or was reading on the site was that you guys were on vacation? And then the nearest Children's Hospital was? I think you guys you said you all were in the Outer Banks or something. And then the closest Children's Hospital was kings. I don't know if I'm allowed to say the name or not is daughter right? Is that? Is it the name? Yes. Uh huh. Yep. Ch Katie, a long time ago. And then you were talking about some of the doctors and then want to, um, one of the names came up? Um, are you still there? I am.

Scott Benner 2:59
I'm listening.

Kristin 3:01
My brain did something weird.

I just want to make sure

Scott Benner 3:05
I just figured maybe a lot of kids and you're not accustomed to being listened to. You're like, there's so much quiet. What's happening

Kristin 3:11
that well that you mentioned something about one of the doctors last names and it was in the same group. A doctor that's been there forever. Yeah. And, and I was like, Oh my gosh, that's the same people that that we used and so yeah, but we love them love them. And I think the can't remember. Me only have we've Dr. Joe Briscoe is the doc the main doctor that we see. Okay. And then the the diabetes educator, her name is Debbie miles. Those were the main two that we worked with. But I know there was like a rice Schneider or something. And then there was a couple other doctors in there that we've you know, heard of, or had like a you know, a wave down the hallway or something like that when my son got diagnosed.

Scott Benner 4:03
You we were we were in Virginia Beach on like a little vacation with family. And we were driving towards like the first hospital that my navigation system told us about and keep in mind with that means there's a navigation system in my car in 2006 which is not like not like Apple Maps popping up and being like you want to stop it while while on your way like it you know, it wasn't quite that fancy. But we're driving to the to the hospital. And I called Adam who some people might recognize as the doctor who came on and talked about Coronavirus a couple of times who's you know, Arden's pediatrician and my son's pediatrician. And I was like, I'm going to this hospital. Arden has diabetes. And you know, it's like 132 o'clock in the morning. I'm sure he was like, You're out of your mind. Like, you know, I'm sure what he was thinking. But I started really describing it to him. And of course, we had done a finger stick. And so he's like, Oh, yeah, you gotta go and I was like, right and then he jumped online and And he's like, I think you should reroute to this other hospital. So we just changed course and went there. Okay. And that's how we ended up there. And, you know, obviously, it really good Diabetes Center within that hospital. Yes. But you know, as as to whether or not it's funny, I asked people all the time about their diagnosis, like, how was it in the hospital? Like, you know, what was your experience? And if I thought about my experience, my experience was I cried, and I was confused.

Unknown Speaker 5:29
You know? Yep.

Kristin 5:32
I get to do that, again, I apologize.

Scott Benner 5:35
at work. Are you a teacher?

Kristin 5:37
I am a teacher. Yeah, we were in our pre service days. So the days that we hang out and get ready. Right now,

Unknown Speaker 5:46
though, there's their students in the dorm.

Kristin 5:49
There are no students here yet, we will start the day after Labor Day. But we're not even going to have kids, then I'm a fourth grade teacher. And the way our cities rolling everything out is kindergarten through third grade will start on a hybrid schedule. So like every other day, flip flop things. Next week, and fourth and fifth grade and up, will gradually be released back into the schools on hybrid schedules later, they want to see how it goes number cases and all that good stuff, how it goes so so people won't hear

Scott Benner 6:23
this right away. So make your prediction, like, how's this gonna go?

Kristin 6:28
Oh, my gosh. So, we've been talking, there's eight teachers on our grade level. So we, we've all been talking about how things are gonna work out. And

I personally

think it's probably going to at least be the first nine weeks first quarter. So probably November, we're really teeny little town. I'm, I mean, I don't mind sharing where I am, I'm in person. And so it's a little small town. There's only like, 12,000 people, and we've only had like 50 cases the entire time. So it's either they're all going to get together and schools gonna start and the cases are gonna go crazy. And then they'll have to, you know, lock it down, and we're all virtual, or we'll have to, or we'll start, and the kids will continue to be asymptomatic and nobody will know. And they'll start releasing them in so I can't

Scott Benner 7:21
wait, I think one person to get tested positive, everyone's gonna freak out. And that'll be the end of it.

Kristin 7:27
Pretty much we've been told if somebody gets tested then or if they test positive, then it's like, between two and five days of sanitizing the school and you know, then you got to look at who's in the room and who's part of the classes. So yeah, it's definitely gonna be very interesting.

Scott Benner 7:46
Yeah. That is something there's, um, my wife's a big proponent of the idea of putting people together in smaller groups and keeping them together. I think those are minis a word and get it wrong. Like I feel like it's called a cohort. But But she's just she's like, She's such a big proponent of that being a way to do things like this. So I don't know, I guess you're gonna find out. I'm just, I all I can tell you is that this summer, Cole played in, like a collegiate baseball league. Was it a game one day, and he hit home run, which is very fun. And I and I walked in, I got the ball. So um, I picked the ball up and I I stuck it in my pocket. And I got back to where I was sitting and I threw it. I think I like threw it on top of my cooler or something like that. Like four days later, he said, Hey, our game got canceled today. I said, Why? He goes off some kid we played last, you know, week has Corona. And he's like, so they're, they're canceling our game and the other team that we played, and I was like, Oh, do you know what kitty is? I'll find out. So he comes back. He goes, he remember that homerun? I hit I said he goes it was the pitcher. And I'm like, so are you telling me that this Corona boy was touching this baseball. Threw it towards you. You struck it and 400 feet later I picked it up and that's that's it? He goes yeah, I said I don't seem to have coronavirus I said I guess we're okay but but I brought it freaks me out for a second because I brought the ball home. And as I was coming through the house, I stuck it back in one of my in a bag and it ended up in my bedroom and I literally like stuck it on top of the tissue box next to my bed. So for everyone who's wondering how things spread, I took Corona baseball and jam that on tissues that I later rubbed all over my face.

Kristin 9:39
Ah, everybody let everybody have it in gold today. Right

Scott Benner 9:42
Kristen? I'll tell you right now if you asked me if I was being careful, I would have said absolutely I was.

Kristin 9:49
You're outside of course you can't get

Scott Benner 9:51
outside. I was nowhere near anybody. asked when I went into the restroom. I was completely careful except when I touched the corona baseball and then jammed it on my tissues Other than that, I was completely safe. So just everyone remember that when you're like, I'm being careful if you're an idiot, so am I, and we all are and nobody's being careful, you're being as careful as you can be, you know, that's really interesting. Well is your child school age for your school?

Kristin 10:15
He is actually. Um, so his name is Caleb, and he will be starting kindergarten this year, what are your start kindergarten. And he will, we chose the hybrid option for him. So there was two options, you could do hybrid where you go to school every other day, or you could do virtual, where you just stay home and hang out on a computer. And he is five years old and crazy and loves people and loves being out and about, and he really, really needs school. So he will start, we don't know, he'll be in school two days a week. And so he'll go to the local primary school here and hang out with other kindergarteners other little, you know, German kids. And then and then he'll be hanging out with mom at work for three days a week, while I do virtual teaching, and he does virtual online. Okay,

Scott Benner 11:11
so two things. One, I just decided I'm pulling this up now, because of the relevance and timing and and to show by the way, you just jumped ahead of like 30 recordings, people are gonna be very angry at you. But But unless you really botched the rest of this, and I'm just like, Oh, she fell apart at the end. But Mike, my question is, is what's the last two questions, actually, I guess, what's the idea of limited days is it he's there two days, and a group of other kids is there two other days?

Kristin 11:43
Yes, that's all about the size of the classrooms. Um, so we have, again, our towns really small. And so we only have, we have four schools total, we have one primary one, elementary one, middle one high school. And so what they can do by having, they'll have a days and B days. So eight days go, like Mondays and Thursdays and then be days go Tuesdays Fridays, and that way they can sanitize in between. And then we get Wednesdays, as a teacher work day just to collaborate really get a good sanitizing in there. And then the kids that way, the kids aren't missing super extended amount of days without school. And that way, they can have no more than 12 kids in a room at a time, they figured out that 12 kids is like the max number that they can have in a room space six feet apart, and in their own little desk bubble in the classroom.

Scott Benner 12:43
What are the chances as an educator in your opinion that five year olds will stay spaced apart?

Kristin 12:49
Um, I fully expect that if he doesn't, um, I mean, he's really good about wearing a mask. And that is a rule is the kids are supposed to be wearing masks, but I mean, recess, forget it, they're gonna they're gonna do their thing. They are eating lunch in the classrooms, and so they are going to be stuck at their desks eating lunch. Same thing throughout any other classroom that's in. And so I think they're gonna try their best, but I think recess is where they're gonna fall apart. Um, that's not as regulated as PE. But we don't even know what recess looks like yet. So let me suggest.

Scott Benner 13:30
But let me suggest you take two ropes and a six foot long stick now here you go. You tie one into the stick to one rope, but the other and just stick to another opportunity to tie the ropes around the kid's waist. So they can run about but they can't quite get close to each other and then continue to do that, like a honeycomb pattern and set all the kids in that situation, then they can just kind of move like a like a bird. Birds, what is it called a flock, they can move. I can't move. I couldn't pick a flock, I was in the middle of a absolute ridiculous idea. And then I lost flock and ruined my flow. That was flocking difficult. So you just move it around like that, and then they'd be fine. I don't know who's gonna untie them or tie them back up. That person will probably have to be, I don't know, euthanized, I guess right after they

Unknown Speaker 14:11
know the kids.

Scott Benner 14:12
So I'm not making light of it. Because I don't believe in being safe. I'm just trying to say that I think that the nature of man is going to take over at some point. And I think the opposite of someone's going to get sick and everybody panics is no one gets sick. And inside of two weeks, everybody's like, ask screw these rules. Yep, yeah. So this is gonna be quite a little experiment. How do you feel about Caleb and his type one being in this experiment?

Kristin 14:45
Oh, um, we will. I will say we really trust our doctors, his pediatrician, his endocrinologist, everybody we've spoken to I mean, listening to your podcasts and reading and stuff. Everybody has said they're no more susceptible than any other kid. We, my husband and I are kind of old school, we're, I mean, we say this unless something major happens, but we're kind of under the, the idea that you got to live life, he's got to get out there, he has not been able to go and he doesn't get to go play over other kids houses and you know, mommy just drop him off and drive away because of his situation. And so he needs that interaction. And it's a safe place. He's got a nurse, and I'm right down the road. And so we kind of feel like the benefits of being in school and around other kids outweigh the chances of him getting sick. And my husband and I are really particular. On watching numbers. He's got the Omni pod, he's got the Dexcom all that good stuff, we have an excellent nurse. And so we're, we're hoping that we can be a good team and just rally around him and he's gonna do whatever he's gonna do, because he's gonna love life and enjoy his time. And he's so excited about school, and all the adults will do all the worrying in the background kind of prep.

Scott Benner 16:06
Whoever's knocking, I'm recording, it's very likely my son who wants me to make him breakfast. I guarantee that's what that was 20 years old. He's like, Can you give me some eggs together? He's in between classes. Right now. He's in his bedroom. Getting a quantitative economics degree in my, in my house.

So that's exciting. And Tuesdays, which today are his, uh, his, like, he's got like three classes pretty much stacked on each other in the middle of the day here.

Unknown Speaker 16:37
I don't know. Yeah.

Scott Benner 16:40
So it's funny, because everything you just said, I can I can easily find myself agreeing with, right. Like about going back to school? I absolutely can't I'm not even like, it's not like a you said one thing that I completely disagree with it. I'm just being you know, amenable. I really can find myself agreeing with everything you just said. And at the same time, we have the ability, because right now Kelly is working from home because of Cronin. They're not making her go back anytime soon. And I obviously do what I do, you know, from my house. And so when the option came up for the school, you know, would you like to go back? Or would you like to stay home? And we said to Arden let's first I guess figure out what she wants to do. So we got her aside, and he said, hey, look, they're giving you the option? What do you think? You know, we like to give her the, like the illusion that we're like taking her opinion into account. letting her like if she said something crazy, we would just be like, Oh, well, if that's what you think, sure. We just shut that down in two seconds. But we're like, you know, what do you think? And she didn't hesitate. She said, I could stay home again. And I was like, Yeah, she goes home doing that. I was like, why she was so much easier. I get to sleep later. I don't have to get dressed in the morning. And she's like, this makes a ton of sense to me. Plus, you know, just it's better for me. And I was like, how's it better? She's like, I don't have to get up early. And I was like, gotcha, that was really I think the the real crux of her decision making process. And I said, so we said, well, what about people? And she goes,

Unknown Speaker 18:13
Oh, no, I don't need people. Yeah,

Scott Benner 18:16
it'd be alright, she goes. And she has a circle of friends. That is interesting, because they don't particularly have a second circle. So it's not like these six girls leave each other. And then each of them has five other friends. You know what I mean? Like, it's just they just stay together really. And so they've had some interactions and, like gone, like they're all starting to get their permits now. So they're driving, you know, and picking each other up for things and you know, stupid stuff. Like I'm going for a lot of rides with little girls is basically what I'm doing. It sounds terrible. I know I met it. Yeah. And it's just me and a bunch of little girls in a car usually. And but but don't worry, I let them drive. And you know, and it's very simplified. They'll come over to the house a little bit, a couple of them. They'll sit outside, light a fire at night or watch movie outside or something like that. And it's there. None of them are going back to school. They all were just like no, no, thanks. Like we'll just stay here so everybody makes this decision. Two weeks pass and the school pops up and goes you know what, we're not gonna let the kids go back to school and so all that Oh, yeah. All that for nothing. Right? Just like they just they did a 182 seconds. They're like, can I forget it? I think they're letting like the really little kids go back. I

Kristin 19:35
guess how ours?

Scott Benner 19:36
Yeah, I think they're more expendable a little kids apparently. I don't know what Just kidding. Easier to replay. Well, they're smaller. And so when you bury them, you don't need as much of a whole like so I think that's how they're probably thinking about it. But no, I mean, I obviously don't know the idea behind why it's okay for a little kids but not older kids. None of it makes sense to me. I actually think we're all in a situation. that none of it makes sense, like everything you try to do doesn't make sense. Like, in my opinion, you either have to say it's over, by end by over meaning, we're just gonna all go back and do what we used to do, and people are gonna get sick. Or you got to keep, you got to keep doing what you're doing. I don't see where the the middle ground confuses the hell out of me. Like you don't I mean, it's like, it's like, Christian, it's like starting with a condom and halfway through going, I had it on for over half the time. Yeah, the rest of this is probably gonna be fine. You know, like, and by the way, if you're only gonna wear it half the time. Don't take my advice on this, but I'd wear at the second half not the first day.

Kristin 20:45
I would agree.

Scott Benner 20:46
Well, that's the part where the magic really happens. And so at least, you know, in, in the confines of the condom, and I don't I didn't mean that until I said it now, I love the pun. But

Unknown Speaker 20:58
but so I just really don't.

Scott Benner 21:01
I don't know, like I get I I wear a mask everywhere I stay distant from people, I still, you know, I clean my hands. Very, very carefully. When I go out, you know, you're in the grocery store. And somebody's like, intersection, you stop, like, go ahead. You know, like, like, there's all that still going on. I think if there was a fight in the grocery store right now, which, obviously now you all know, the secret that I only ever go to the grocery store. But because this is my only examples. But, but if there was a fight, and like somebody was like, gonna be like, how that kid's beaten up that kid, that's not fair. I'd like Oh, well. And I'd walked away, you know, but like six months ago, I would have just grabbed one of them and like, what are you doing? You like? So? There's that kind of stuff? And having said that, like? I don't know, like, I mean, if anybody claims to know anything about this, I think you're hoping more than understanding. So it's either gonna be terrible, or it's not. Some places might be okay, and some might not. And I don't know how the hell you think you're gonna guess which is which? So I'm super interested, like, I love using your kid as a test case. So let's get them in there.

Kristin 22:07
All right, thanks. I like the HKT. But I don't know if I want to visit them at all.

Scott Benner 22:12
No, I mean, listen, I think at this point for children, the idea that, you know, they can be asymptomatic and fine or fight it off pretty quickly, or obviously have not been a big part of people who have been, you know, Elon and really, really impacted by it is pretty obvious from the data. But I do wonder about that next step, like you know, is, you know, I'm not wishing this on you, but like, is Caleb gonna grow like horns? And when he's 35, you know, out of the side of his head or something like that. And they'll be like, Oh, those are those Corona horns. Yeah. All the kids that went back to school in 2020. got those.

Kristin 22:50
We'd be doing because we get a preschooler, too. So Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner 22:53
Well, they'll kill each other when they have you ever seen Rams run into each other? It's vicious.

Kristin 22:56
Oh, net? Well, they already tried to do that without the horn. So

Scott Benner 23:01
tell me a little bit about Caleb's. Um, diagnosis view what? Okay, it's time you've thought about it long enough. I mean, it's not even a commitment. What are you thinking about? You're just asking Omni pod to send you a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump. That's not a commitment. That's, you know, you get something fun in the mail and you give it a try my Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box to get that going right now. When you get there. It really is just a couple of moments of information. And then on the pod with magically in their hearts, send you out a free, no obligation demo. You try it on, you decide if you like it, and then you move forward or you don't. It's that simple. Would you like to experience everything that comes with insulin pumping, including Temp Basal increases and decreases, extended boluses for those tough meals like pizza and pasta. If you're MDI, you're probably injecting multiple times through those meals, but you don't have to do that with the Omni pod. And with the Omni pod, you get to do it tubeless Lee, all of the other pumps are connected to a controller via long piece of tubing that delivers the insulin from the controller to the site. But on the pod is all in one. It's tubeless. It's self contained, and it's worth understanding what it is. So have them send you a free, no obligation demo. It's that easy. A pod experience kit will show right up at your house. You can try it on where it do whatever it is you do in your life, see if it's for you. If it is great, and if it's not, no harm, no foul, you tried. Just imagine an insulin pump that you can hide with your clothing or wear out loud and proud. It's up to you. It has no tubing. You don't have to take shots all day anymore. And when you're having those tough meals, you can manipulate your basal insulin or do whatever you want. It's it's all within your control. You're in control of your insulin bazel and Bolus. It's huge. You know what else is huge? Hmm, nope, not that the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. You want the Dexcom g six, you need the Dexcom g six. I am putting you in a trance right now you're listening to my very deep voice. And my very deep voice is saying to you get a dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. That's it. You've been hypnotized. I don't even have to keep talking. It's already over. But just in case that didn't work dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Go find out about rise and fall rate alarms. Find out what it means to be able to see your blood sugar, speed and direction right there on your cell phone, Apple and Android. Learn the joy and goodness of no finger sticks and no calibration. Would you love it if someone could see your blood sugar from afar? Hmm. Would you like to see your child's blood sugar while they're at school, or your wife's while she's sleeping? or anybody else in between Dexcom users can share their blood sugar's with up to 10 followers of their choosing to Mason. I get whipped over my phone right now and tell you that Arden's blood sugar is 103. I am nowhere near art, but I know what our blood sugar is. And I know that it's stable. You could have that to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box. And don't forget that on the pod tubeless insulin pump, my omnipod.com Ford slash juice box, round out the trifecta go to T one d exchange.org. Ford slash juice box and throw in your information with that survey, make a difference in people's lives with Type One Diabetes. While you're supporting the podcast, it's 100%, HIPAA compliant, and totally anonymous. You can drop out at any time. Links to all the sponsors are available at Juicebox podcast.com, where they're right here in the show notes of your podcast player. Let's get back to Kristen.

Kristin 27:14
He was three years old. So we've we've passed two years, and we noticed him gone, you know, peeing a lot. He was wetting the bed and he had already, you know, he was doing really well with potty training and stuff, especially at night. And so we just chalked it up to he's just sleeping too hard. He can't wake up. And he was drinking a ton of water, like just dying of thirst. And so we call the doctor and we spoken to one of the nurses This was on a Saturday and they're like, well just we'll schedule a time for him to come in come in on Tuesday. This was an April 2018. And so we we go in just kind of like be bopping along, it's the end of the day where the last appointment and they do a finger prick. And then they did a urine test and his blood sugar was like 224 and which in the realm of things compared to other kids. I found that is not too awful, right. And he, the doctor called the endocrinologist at ch Katie and spoke with them. And they It was a lot of information real quick is very, very end of the day. It's the doctor and us in the office and he said kills pediatrician. And he's like so I spoke to this doctor and y'all need to go ahead and pack your stuff. Somebody's gonna need to stay with him the night at ch Katie and they'll fill you in on what's going on. It's looking like he's got diabetes. And that was it. And my husband and I are just completely in shock killed. still mad that he you know, got a finger prick and that her and and then he had no idea what was about to come for him.

We actually

got all packed up. And I we got him in the car. We went to chick fil a and got him we still laugh about it. We got him a chocolate milkshake on the way to the hospital. And we had no idea what chocolate milkshakes do some blood sugars or anything. And we were trying to make them happy. We didn't understand what's going on, got to the hospital. They got them in they did all the blood work and everything that was probably one of the most traumatizing things for him and for me to sit and deal with. And they told us like officially the next day. We spoke with the diabetes educator Debbie miles who was amazing and she just threw a ton of information at us. And we had trainings all day that Wednesday Caleb hung out With a friend of ours, actually, that came in and sat with him and like, the playroom they have upstairs. And I spent the night with him. And we started trying to learn how to do the whole dosing with insulin. And he was so teeny that he had to get the diluted insulin. And so they were trying the teeny tiny little syringes. And my husband and I are like, you know, what the heck is this? How does this work? I didn't understand the calorie, the carb counting and the ratios or anything like that. And I just remember, every two seconds crying, because, you know, I thought I had done this to my kid. And then we got a little more big, we got a little more education that Thursday. And they actually pulled us because he was so small. They were like, you know what, you need to try a pump. And I know a lot of people say that their doctors make them have, you know, diabetes for so long. And you have to get used to do on insulin, you know, injections and stuff. But Dr. Dre risko was wonderful. And he's like, no, let's just try a pump. He's got such small amounts anyway. I mean, he was getting my new amounts of insulin at first. And so we started in Medtronic. And they told us about the CGM and everything, we got a loaner. And we learned how to use the pump. We went home with a loaner that Thursday, my husband and I probably called the emergency number, like three times from Thursday to like the following Monday, when we went back to get just because, you know, he, his range was 101 80 was his safe range at the time. And then if he was over 250, you know, check ketones and do all these other things. And, and I remember he'd hit like, 252 and we'd be like, Oh my gosh, he's gonna die. What do we do? And so we'd call them the doctor on call, and they're like, it's okay. Just give him some water give the insulin time we were still learning. You know, we had to bolus him after he ate because he was picky. And we were still trying to figure out what foods he would eat and what was safe and, and he eats anything you want, but at the time, how much you eat. And so and then we got set up later the next week with his CGM, and with the Medtronic, and the The Guardian, and then his own pump and everything. And he, I ended up I had to quit work, because I was the full time caretaker and he was in preschool at the time, and he was not allowed to be at preschool. without somebody they weren't licensed or anything to help take care of them. And so I went every every other day to preschool with him, and I would hang out for three hours while he did his classes and stuff. And I would bolus him first food and snacks and stuff. And, and that was our whole spring. And then he was and that was it. And then the next year, his preschool was wonderful. And they actually got licensed on giving him his his insulin doses, they learned how to use this pump and everything. That's great. And so we kind of sign you know, son his life away that we trusted them to do it. And he finished out two years. Well, one and a half years of preschool. And when we we traded to the Omni pod and the Dexcom because my husband listened to your podcast a long time about it. And we were tired of the tubes and just the site changes took forever. And it was just a whole lot. And we weren't happy with how accurate the CGM was at the time and he was just we're just annoyed with it. So we tried the Omnipod and the Dexcom absolutely love the way that we do everything now so much easier. And he even Caleb has said he likes it there's no there's no to was he's not getting caught on anything. And he he helps out with his site changes and, and everything and got a little routine down. And yeah,

Scott Benner 34:04
do me a favor. Just just take one pause right here. Yeah, this is where I'm gonna put the ads around the pod index calm. Okay, and then we'll start back up again. Okay, so

Kristin 34:17
good timing.

Scott Benner 34:19
I didn't know you're gonna say that. But not only did you say it You said it right where I was gonna put the ad and I was just like, my gosh, this is easy. Should I just do the ad live with Kristen right now? Can you that'd be so funny kid. Yeah. Do I say it enough that you could probably say

Kristin 34:36
what is it? I'm dead? Well, I know I was thinking about the contour next test strips that actually like strips you know, if you put a dab of blood and it doesn't get it all you can do it again. And And so yeah, every time I pick up this contour next, because we have that do your ads are working real well. We I think about that,

Scott Benner 34:59
so yeah. That's so funny, I could slip into it. In two seconds, the episode or two ago, I did the I did two ads. And I didn't pause. And I just did the whole thing. And I was done. And when I got done, I actually left it in the episode. I was like, I can't believe I just did that. That was amazing. Even I was, like, I got through that whole thing. I didn't make a mistake. I didn't say anything stupid. I was like, sometimes I'll just wander off into just absolute, like odd things later on. Like, I should probably just trim that up a little bit there. I get, I get a little pilot, but I'm glad it's working. And by the way, if you're an advertiser, you know, you're a Christian saying, Yeah, it's not too early to talk about 2021 give me a call. Anyway, well, I guess I should ask like, you didn't just get bullied into something by a guy on a podcast, what made you change from the Medtronic to the the Omni pod in the Dexcom.

Kristin 36:00
So I'm actually, um, I had a student two years ago, and he had the Dexcom. And so this is my first year teaching here in my little town, and killed still had the Medtronic and everything. And I remember seeing his decks Come on, like, What is this thing? There's, you know, you don't have to finger stick No way. And just, I mean, he just be bought along. He only had an Dexcom he was still doing the injections and everything. But I remember seeing that. And then with listening to your podcast, and then my husband was, was talking with me about it. And we asked Caleb, like, Hey, would you like to try this? What do you think about this thing? We got the little test Omni pod to try that out. And so he wore that around for like a day. And he's, I mean, he's five. He's more worried about plan and what kind of video games he can play and what friends are coming over then he is what kind of pump he's wearing. Because that's just not his. He deals with that when he has to. That's not his world right now. Yeah. So we said, let's try this out and Scott's wrong, then we'll just not listen to the podcast anymore, and we won't use them anymore. We'll just go back to what we've been doing. Because it's, you know, the worst. Worse than that would be the shots and we don't want to deal with that

Scott Benner 37:21
person. Let's just clarify. If you don't like the pump, that's the advertise. You can still listen to the show. You don't have to like, you know, you don't get people ideas are like, wow, if I don't agree with them once I can stop listening. No, you're not even allowed to stop listening. stay subscribed, listen to every episode. These are the rules. I've Yeah, don't give people those thoughts. Not allowed to stop. None of you were allowed to stop listening. Okay, Chris, and now keep your thoughts going is, you know, you see how easy it is to to get a thought in someone's head.

Unknown Speaker 37:53
choke him out. Geez.

Kristin 37:55
So we ended up we love it.

And it really has been great. It, I was kind of nervous about the Omni pod because of his size. I mean, he's teeny, he's like 45 pounds, you know. And he's just, he's always been on the smaller side. And I'm thinking he's got this big old block stuck to him, he's gonna knock it off. how's that gonna work. And it's been great, the changing sites is so much easier. We have the sticky patches that we put around that and he just does this thing I like that we can rotate sites more because with the pump, it was kind of harder to you know, yet have like double tubes stuck into places and trying to find the right spot and everything. So with the pod, we can put it in more spots and try things out that he likes and and we like the PDM setup, it's so much easier to use the the little, you know, phone thing that they that came with it. And then we have a phone that we use for his Dexcom. And he just keeps it in a little. A little fanny pack that he wears on his back one of the spy belts that are running and stuff and he he you would never know. That's cool. We get compliments all the time on it.

Scott Benner 39:16
I have to ask you so you to go back just a second. Like you said you went into the preschool. And for that first that first time he was he three then? Yes. Okay. And you kind of just do sat off to the side. I used to sit outside Did you sit outside or what did you do?

Kristin 39:34
It's at a church and so they just let me sit. I would hang out like in the front foyer. I end up getting bored and so they let me help with the volunteers. Like setting stuff up cutting things out and just just being around so that when the time came for lunch or snack or whatever that I was there to be able to go home.

Scott Benner 39:56
I see I would have fallen asleep and one of the pews I think I would have I used to car, listen to the radio and just chill out

Kristin 40:05
on high alert at this time. Yeah,

Scott Benner 40:07
but Oh, don't worry, I was running back and forth like in like a moron, get it, you know, like there was no CGM back then. So I was like, it's time to test again. And oh my god, I just I do not. I don't I do not remember that time as fondly as I'm making it sound I don't think I'm saying I don't think I'm making it sound that fond and I'm still like, oh, but you quit your job to do it. Like that's pretty bad ass like you just were like this kid like you never thought like, oh he's little we don't even know him that well like nothing like

Kristin 40:38
um, no I so I was a teacher and another local city and, and it was April and so at that time my husband and I were talking, I mean he's diagnosed on a Tuesday and so that whole week, you know, in the hospital and stuff I'm dealing with that my thing about work. And I have seen teacher at the time. So that actually helped out a lot with my room, I had somebody who's kind of in charge, and they just had a sub, kind of sit there and, you know, just be a warm body in there. And so my students were still taking care of I knew that and then I remembered

Unknown Speaker 41:13
a picture of education.

Unknown Speaker 41:16
I know,

Scott Benner 41:17
we were legally covered. Don't worry, we were legally covered. It's fine. I don't know what those kids like, learned or anything occurred to me, you're the teacher who like I like the kids come home and go, yo, guess what? My English teacher just flaked out and quit. Yeah, I don't know. Kid got something and she's gone. Like, it's just that. Yeah, that's the other side of it. Wow, that's really cool. It's interesting to hear the side of it is what I mean? Like it's a, it's because I'm used to, I'm used to the other side, like, Hey, I'm used to art and coming home and going, Hey, my math teacher got pregnant, so should be gone pretty soon.

Kristin 41:53
Yeah, no, um, we. So I ended up having to quit, and my boss completely understood, she was awesome about it. And I actually went in and visited my students at the time. And the cool thing was, this was actually a group that I linked up with. And so I had known them for two years. And so we had a really good relationship. And I just explained, you know, Caleb got sick, and this is what's going on, and I'm crying and they're crying. And so they, but I would come and visit, like Field Day, things like that, when we still had that fun stuff in school. And then I was able to get a job. We decided we were ready for me to go back because we could only do so long. Like, unfortunately, I could not be a stay at home parent. So when his preschool agreed that they would, because we knew he had two more years, he's in that weird birthday time. His birthday is Halloween. So he's, he's the older kid in class. And so when the preschool agreed to actually let him come and they get trained in everything, we said, okay, we can make it work. And so we were able to set up our daily routine. And I worked. I mean, I still work. I'm sitting in my building right now, five minutes away from his preschool. So if there was an emergency, I could go and help. And we trained him on everything. And we just had a really good texting system set up. And we had like a text group among the teachers and the, the administrators there and my husband and, and me, and we just did that

Scott Benner 43:28
said, Would any would anybody feel comfortable popping into the text chain? Or was there somebody that was kind of leading the charge, like you or your husband? or How did that work?

Kristin 43:38
So the cool thing was, my husband would, he's really good about remembering, like with lunchtime and stuff, so he would say like, hey, when we got more brave about giving him insulin beforehand, we would text the group and say, Hey, you know, lunch is coming up at 1130. I know it's 1115. Go ahead and give him 20 carbs. And then let's see what he does. And then give them the rest after lunch kind of thing. By the time he had and he was getting finger sticks. And so he they would always tell us what his number was and whatnot, and we would correct or, or Bolus after he ate when he was still on the pump. But with Omni pod in the Dexcom they would just look at his number and say, Hey, this is what his number says. Do you want us do anything else? Unfortunately, because we are still working on getting his ratios down, he always ran a little high. We kind of let him do that for safety reasons because he's so active. So when he drops he drops like a bombshell and he'll just he'll go low real quick. And so they were normally correcting right before lunch and Pre-Bolus saying if there was ever anything like we have all the bells and alarm setup, where things can go off for lows and highs and stuff. But my husband was always the one to text and kind of just tell them hey, do this for lunchtime.

Scott Benner 45:00
What is it different now the management style because it's funny you said something that I find that people say very commonly, you know, blood sugar's just dropped out of nowhere all the time. And then as time passes, I think people come to realize that their, their boluses are probably like pretty severely Miss timed, and it's creating an unbalance of, you know, the insulin action against the, you know, the impact of the carbs. And then they they're crashing, because the foods getting out of their system and the insulin still behind, and then they feed that and then they don't bolus and they jump up again, that goes back and forth. Have you? Have you gotten better with that yet? Or is that still sort of your, your reality?

Kristin 45:45
We have, we've had some days, from actually from listening to you is where we've made the big decision, like, we've got to start getting his numbers under control. You know, if Arden can have a one to five, whatever, and Caleb's is eight, something, we got to work on getting it down. And so we're getting better about timing and Pre-Bolus saying and, and correcting with giving him with bolusing for his number, we still rely on the on the pod and let the pod make the decision for the number. We don't, I've heard you talk about, you know, I'm gonna give are the equivalent of a juice box, you know, in carbs, we still just kind of rely on our ratios right now and getting those together. But the last six months, he's been hanging out with just me, him and his sister have been bored at home with mom. And so we've really been able to hone in on his numbers because I'm around all the time. If there is an emergency, we're not having to go run off somewhere and hope that the school nurse gets him in time.

Unknown Speaker 46:51
We're getting there.

Scott Benner 46:52
Yeah, using this time for but to make those adjustments. That's really cool. I just I'm watching this person right now their blood sugar's and I have, you know, helped them a little. And it's funny to see somebody. Not funny, but it's interesting. Excuse me. It's interesting to see somebody have a problem. Be kind of told, oh, look, you know, this is the fix. And then you help them with it. hold their hand with it for a day. And they're like, Oh my god, this is amazing. Look at how stable these blood sugars are. I'm like, Yeah, right. So just do those things. Then the next day, they're like, they just fall right back into it again, like, Well, I was scared to give the insulin I was like, Oh, yeah, but we did it yesterday. And you saw it was fine. And you know, like, you know, like, but I don't understand what happened. I'm like, do not understand or like, what is it? Exactly? And then they'll kind of pare back well, I guess we should have done this and I'm like, Yeah, right. Like so do that you know and then the but the fears real like it's it's like it's it's just like they've been indoctrinated to believe like this blood sugar is going to get low right here. And I'm and I said but it didn't the day we were together I showed you like look, Basil's right now put the insulin in the right place for the meals. Didn't get too high. Didn't get too low. Do it again. And then they're like, well, I don't understand like the last 12 hours have been a mess. And I'm like, Well, no, you do understand like, look here. You didn't Pre-Bolus this meal, it led to a high, then you overcorrected, which led to a crashing low, which led to it which led to you eating too much food and then not putting it insulin for you got high, and then you corrected. And now all of a sudden, it's 12 hours later. And I said, so you're 12 hours later, trying to say like, I don't know what happened. I know what happened 12 hours ago, you didn't Pre-Bolus lunch. That's what happened, you know. So anyway, this person is going to get it. They're real bright, and they want to do it. And they're going to and it's just it's interesting to watch that resistance in the beginning to Yep, you know, what you think is going to happen and being so wrong. I've come to explaining it to people. I don't know if I've ever said on the podcast before. But I said, I said, Look, you know, first we're going to get your bazel. Right. And then you're going to see that everything that happened before wasn't what you thought. I said one time this I feel so bad about this. I said one time to a person who I didn't know on the phone. I said imagine you've been married for like 20 years. And it's been this happy marriage and everything's fine. Yeah, little house and your picket fence and a couple of kids and the dogs cute. And one day you find out your husband's got three other families. Right? Like what? And I'm against three other family I think I'm being like, like, fantastical when I'm making this really big, crazy story. It's got three other families. One's in another state two are up the street. You know, everything you thought about your life isn't real. And I said so all of your memories and your feelings and the way that it none of its true anymore. And the next thing I was going to say was and so you know when your Basal is really wrong like that you're living sort of in a lie. You're seeing things happen that aren't really what's going on but Now we're going to make your appraisal right. And then you're going to, you're going to be able to not only get things more predictive, but you'll actually be able to trust what you're seeing. And you're going to have to give away some notions that you have that really are based on these lies. And then she starts crying. Oh, I'm like, wait, what's going on? Husband just left her. Like, Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Actually, that person's listening. I still feel bad. But, but it was just like, I guess I have to think of another explanation, because that's the one that that's the one that really like resonates with me, like, you know, because people think they're so certain What's going on? And then you fix their bazel. And they're like, No, I don't understand. Like, this is what's happening. I'm like, No, no, no, no, he wasn't out volunteering. He was he was staying with his family on j street right over there. Anyway, probably too much of a word picture. So I'm working on paring it. I really do feel bad about that. But she she rebounded, though. And so you know, I mean, listen. Well, what was what was the other option? We were halfway through the conversation? She couldn't leave then right. But anyway, so are you gonna take this system from preschool, into kindergarten.

Kristin 51:22
So we have already had his, um, his IEP has been about individualized health plan, meeting and 504, like all in one with his, the nurse and you know, everybody else that needs to be involved at the primary school. And so we're pretty much gonna have the same kind of system on a texting basis with the nurse. We have sugar mate for like numbers, if, and that's something I have to talk to her about if she wants to have like sugar made up where she can watch that on the computer at school. I mean, my husband and I always have the Dexcom follow stuff. And so we've always got alarms going off and send other busy, they're dealing with a lot of stuff right now. And so we, I mean, part of me just kind of feels like where he and I are just going to watch numbers, and we're going to see if the nurses interested in having his Dexcom follow up on her phone. And because he is the only diabetic right now? No, there's, I think he's one of two at the school right now for this year. And so it's, it's not, you know, like 10 different kids and all sorts of alarms going off for all of them. We're a small town. And so we watch out for each other here. And so we're gonna try the same system. We're hoping we don't always teacher is yet so we're hoping that she'll be really willing to talk with us and either email back and forth with me, or our big thing is just communication. Because he's, he's not at the point he can't read. So I can't text him and tell him you know, hey, give yourself this much or anything, I have to do that with the adults. But we're hoping that they'll be willing to work with us enough and understand, like, Hey, we can make your world really easy if you'll just send us a text here and there or respond to them. And your world can be really rough. If you don't, because then you're gonna have a kid that's like passed out on your floor. If you're not careful. And you don't listen to us, do you? Do you think

Scott Benner 53:20
you'll get a little more? Like, does it grease the wheels that you work there?

Unknown Speaker 53:25
A little bit?

Kristin 53:26
So I'm not at that school, but

Scott Benner 53:29
they know where you are though. Right? Like you guys are, like, get away? Yeah, like do you get like some professional courtesy or something like that? I guess is what I'm saying.

Kristin 53:37
Um, I think the big thing unfortunately, I can be the

I can definitely be the squeaky wheel because I can direct call, like work extensions kind of thing. But, um, I it does make me a lot more vocal for any diabetics at all in the system. Yeah, just because it's it's so near and dear to me. And like I actually just got trained yesterday to be one of the people to help with diabetic students at my school. And so I can help with other children that I mean already know what I'm doing anyway. But you know, now official. So yeah, I think I had it's a fine line because my husband and I are, I mean, that's our kid we're gonna take care of him and we're gonna mama bear and Papa Bear we're gonna come out but you also don't want to alienate anybody or make yourself look bad because you do have to work where they do. Yeah,

Scott Benner 54:30
it's um, and it sticks to you that whole like, yeah, Christians unreasonable, but you know, like that thing. It's hard to get rid of that. Yeah, but no, I think I mean, obviously, I think you'll be fine. I was just wondering if it if it's any easier, I guess just being able to get to people is the easy part. Having like, closer contact, but even that, I guess you're you're not being treated. He doesn't feel like you're being treated any differently than anybody else would be.

Kristin 54:53
No, they're I mean, they're really good about it. Luckily, with the five of four practice, our district requires any case with allergies, any anything special asthma, they all have five oh fours.

Scott Benner 55:05
I'm excited. I'm actually sitting here. But while you're talking about this, I'm looking at this I have a sample hypo pen, the G voke glucagon hypo pen and I keep thinking like, the one reason I was excited for Arden to go back to school was I could look up the nurse go look at this here, you don't have to mix it anymore. You just like this. And like just click, it's all done. And meanwhile, artists never used glucagon once at school, but I still am like, wow, that's such a leap to put it into, you know, like this pre mix thing that you just kind of, I don't know if I'm saying in a way that people understand but very similarly to like everything like an epi pen. You just like pop the cap off and just go. Yep, it's done. It's very cool.

Unknown Speaker 55:44
So we have the powder for him. Yeah.

Scott Benner 55:47
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, listen, whatever works for you is I'm just I'm excited about this one. I think this one's interesting. So anyway,

Unknown Speaker 55:56
I

Scott Benner 55:57
so you seem okay. Like you're like, Alright, now let me paint a picture for you. Caleb's in kindergarten, and you hear through the grapevine little girl in third grade, had a fever today. She went home. And they're testing her for COVID. Caleb don't have school tomorrow.

Kristin 56:19
Um, I have a feeling that this school wouldn't let us just because I think they're, I mean, the schools open. Yes. And I'll tell you why in a second. But if the school if they follow whatever procedures they've said right now, I have a feeling they'd be waiting for the results before they would open it back up. It'd be that like two to five days. Yeah. Um, but Caleb, I've always said there's two types of diabetics, there's the really sickly ones that seem to catch everything and they're always you know, in the hospital or they're always at home or and then numbers are all over the place. Or there's the ones whose bodies are like on superhero status and their pancreas is dead because our immune system so good that it's like killed off the pancreas, and it just continues to kill everything that comes at it. And Caleb, I say this and hopefully I'm not, you know, shoot myself in the foot.

Scott Benner 57:10
be emailing three weeks now. Can you take that part out about kale never getting sick? He's got the bubonic plague.

Unknown Speaker 57:17
Yeah, exactly. And a

Kristin 57:20
Yeah. But he's, um, he's always been a really healthy kid. I guess sister's the one that's like, you know, got ear infections and fevers and stuff all the time. But, um, she's not in type one. But, uh, my husband and I are kind of convinced that he his immune system is just so hardcore that it's like, you know, take that COVID. And he's only been, he's been to the hospital one time for his blood sugars. And it was because he had a three day stomach virus. And we just could not he couldn't keep anything in. And we hadn't learned the whole glucagon, you know, many doses or anything yet. Yeah. So we got to hang out with endocrinologist that ch Katie again for three days, because he couldn't keep food down and his numbers, he just kept staying low. We couldn't get him up. Yeah. So I'm certainly

Scott Benner 58:06
not trying to talk you out of it. I'm just I, you know, I think it's first of all, it's a personal choice. And, and, you know, it sounds like yours is well thought out as anyone elses. I just, you know, I'm wondering, I can't wait to find out what happens. I hope it's all great. I want to get back to life. You know, what I mean? Like, I'm not looking to stay in my house. And, and, and do all this forever. So if, you know, if there's a path back, I'd like to be on it. That's for certain. Yeah. You know? And I don't know, like, do you think you'd give him a vaccine if one came out? Or do you think you would take it yourself? Or

Kristin 58:44
so being a teacher? I've been told that I'm, I'm not an essential worker, but I am because I'm, you know,

Scott Benner 58:52
wait a second, teachers aren't essential workers.

Kristin 58:55
Were not the nurse, if you want to call it like nurses kind

Scott Benner 58:59
of thing. We're not that kind of seeing what the problem is.

Kristin 59:03
But we are essential workers in schools. I mean, where it's kind of hard to fill the spot if people are sick.

Scott Benner 59:09
Yeah, we know the guy that drives my garbage truck is an essential worker in that garbage truck. And I think in life, like I think everybody's essential at their job, which is it's such an I understand the difference. I just I was what I was wondering was like, Are you really not a designated essential worker? As a teacher?

Kristin 59:26
I do not like, I don't want to comment on snow days. We can put it that way. But I'm in the realm of like vaccines and the first people to get them. Yeah, yes. I think they haven't talked about it yet. It's not like they haven't mentioned here, like everybody will get it if it comes out. But I mean, we're always the first to get flu vaccines, things like that. My husband and I, personally are huge proponents. I'm the type if there was a pill that's going to fix the problem. Where is it? If there's a shot that's going to make me not feel like this, then you know, come on, let's do it. So yeah, we we would I'm also a teacher. So I'm all about learning and trying. And so we definitely have our family lined up. Let's do it. Cool.

Scott Benner 1:00:07
Are there are you hearing about any teachers who fall into categories that may make them susceptible who are skipping, going coming in?

Kristin 1:00:18
So we have some, we have some teachers that are pregnant, but they're in the older grades. So they don't have students right now. So they're just continuing on and they're able to teach from the rooms without still without kids there. We do have older teachers, I think we only have like, four in our district that have actually said like, Hey, I'm not, I'm not going to trust it. Sorry, but I'm out. But I think in that case, it's like I FMLA thing. I'm not sure. Right. Everybody in my school, we're here.

Scott Benner 1:00:48
Ready to go. I you have now absolutely encapsulated my thinking. I'm trying to imagine myself in 11th or 12th. grade, my teacher nine months pregnant, run a zoom call her water breaks. Oh, through zoom, the class coaches are through the birth because the the ambulance can't get to her. This is my this is the scenario I'm making up in my mind. How great would that be? Oh, how great would it be if somebody actually yelled Mrs. Patton's Mrs. Patton, you got to move the camera. We can't see her vagina, right. We don't know what to say. Like, I don't know if the heads out or not. It's breech call your cat you need help. Seriously, there are going to be so many great videos of kids going to school. Online. They're already I don't know if you've already Christian, I'm gonna bleep this out. Okay. But there's, there's a video online. And it's, it's, there's it's a classroom, right? It's like, it's like a high school classroom. And I swear to you, you start hearing, kind of like heavy breathing, and then a little commotion. And a female voice says, Oh, my God, you're so big.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:03
Oh, my

Unknown Speaker 1:02:05
God.

Scott Benner 1:02:07
I believe that out for everybody. And it was I it was absolutely. I'm like, wait, what is this my son's like, you're gonna want to listen to this again. And I'm like, okay. So it's just even in my son's own school. So I know, people aren't making this up. He's in a class. And this very complicated thing is being described. And there's this boy in the class who's not on mute. And he thinks he is. And so that, you know, the professor's like, so Does everyone understand? Oh, and the kid just goes, No, Kathy, actually, I don't understand. I'm completely confused and worried that I've chosen the wrong major. And there's a pause and she goes, john, I don't think your mic is muted. And he just goes, he bought, he almost breaks down, because I'm so sorry. I'm just really stressed out. And I already went into this whole thing. And I was like, these are fascinating. I want all of these videos to be pulled together on one website where I can spend a year of my life watching people say things that they don't realize other people can.

Kristin 1:03:15
What is it like zoom fails? or something? I don't know.

Scott Benner 1:03:17
But I mean, honestly, what are we doing? We shouldn't be filming this. But we shouldn't be doing this podcast, I should be online registering a URL right now. I mean, really, there should be a YouTube just for this. Because this is not gonna stop. And I don't know if you've seen, you haven't seen the other side. But I have, like, I've seen Arden shutter camera off, mute what's going on and start a text chain with the kids in class where they're talking behind the teachers back. So it's and it's just like, Dude, what did she just say? I don't understand. And sometimes it's that easy. Like, it's just the kids talking without, like, you know about the class. But sometimes, you know, teachers or people, and they sometimes do silly stuff, and then the kids are just like it. I don't know, are you gonna allow yourself? You have to you have to be on video as a teacher.

Kristin 1:04:09
So we do, um, we were hoping I mean, us personally as teachers. I mean, since they can't be with us, we would like to have it required where the kids have to be on video because I mean, fourth graders, if they if they lock it out, and they get rid of their script, their video and their audio, like they're in the next room playing fortnight or whatever, they're not sitting there listening.

Scott Benner 1:04:34
Have you seen that guy who figured out how to make a he made a video of himself appearing to listen to a zoom?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:40
And no one's playing

Scott Benner 1:04:41
it in front of the camera like on another device? You can't tell?

Kristin 1:04:45
Oh, God cannot tell. Don't move ideas out like that. Please.

Scott Benner 1:04:50
Do you think these kids need your help with this? They know what they're doing. They know what they're doing. They're making money on Tick Tock. They know how to they know how to manipulate this whole thing. There's kids With careers from little booty dances, he understands they don't they don't need me to figure this is anything I can figure out. They figured out three months ago.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:10
But no, so yeah.

Scott Benner 1:05:12
Sorry, I was gonna say Do you have any, like concerned about kids recording you?

Kristin 1:05:17
Um, I will not really, um, I mean, that I don't do anything or say anything that's great enough or dumb enough to afford. I mean, I might like look kind of funny. But we're also in the work setting. So I'm not like at home, you know, rolling out of bed with a cup of coffee in my PJs or anything. I'm at work in my classroom. Like, I've had to get ready for the day. And so hopefully, they see a very, you know, put together teacher sitting at her desk talking to them. You know, the, the what I look like in the spring like the mom rolling out in my leggings and T shirt. There's a homeless lady trying

Scott Benner 1:05:57
to teach us about social studies right now. And she looks like she's about to murder somebody. Yeah, that's how I would look normally. Yeah, but let me help you here if I can a little LED light at just the right angle? Uh huh. washes out all the wrinkles, make sure double chin go away. It's fantastic. Yeah, absolutely have to invest in just a small little light, then you want those kids to click on and be like, you know, our teacher looks like a movie star over there, like, you know, but now I figure there's going to be screen grabs, and they're going to be right on your face with mustaches. And, you know, yeah, I feel like that's what I would be doing, if I was

Kristin 1:06:33
whatever they you know, whatever they do, as long as my thing is as long as they they get?

Yeah, I mean,

Scott Benner 1:06:42
how do you test remotely in a way that makes you feel like they're not cheating.

Kristin 1:06:48
So we actually have some platforms. Google is awesome, because you can do Google forums, and you can have quizzes through there. So it like automatically grades it for you. And then we have a system that we use, called power test. And it's like, you put all these tests, sort of like our sLl is here in Virginia, and you put everything in on there, and the kids log in, and then the kid it automatically grades it shoots out their data to you. And it's but it's like locked out like their screens locked out when they're in it. They can't try to like go on Wikipedia and look up the answer really quick or anything. But at home, we we kind of have a benefit of the doubt or trusting that they're doing what they're supposed to do, and that there's an adult around making sure that they don't have the textbook open while they're doing the test. So but, I mean, you can't be 100% certain, we're just, we're just little by little chugging along, seeing how it'll work.

Scott Benner 1:07:50
No, I hear you. It's it's gonna be interesting. I, I want to be clear, I would cheat my absolute head off if I was in that situation. And I just I remember who I was back then. And I would absolutely cheat like in just in a vicious way. I, I mean, listen, you're doing everything you can obviously everyone's doing everything they can. But this is I have to say, too. I do think that an unintended good thing from kids having text is that when they get home, I see them, like they'll get confused. And they'll start a text chain. They'll be like, Listen, I don't understand your problem number six, and there are some kids who just want the answer. But there's always like, one kid is like, No, you could understand this, I could explain it to you, like children are going to be really good at working in groups. I think it's an unintended unintended, you know, benefit of this kind of concept of them being able to quote unquote, cheap. And it really is interesting like to watch how, how things are changing. And at the same time, they're not as they're not as good as we hope in some places, and they're not as bad as we think in some places, too. It's a really, it really is something else. You know, I have I have a lot of hope so. Oh, there's also a video online by the way. I don't I think it's a South American country. I can't think of where exactly, and they're having like a political meeting of you know, like the people who run the town. And one one lady just rolls out of the shower. And her cameras on and she doesn't realize that Her phone's propped up and she thinks she's listening but it's the videos on and she just butt naked just walks out of the shower. Absolutely fantastic. I just I'm telling you like this is this is the year of videos that you're gonna look at online and go oh my god, this is fascinating. So, but yeah, absolutely great. stuff. Well Listen, good luck, first of all, seriously, in figuring out a pathway. Is there any concern that this doesn't end? Or do you guys feel like in the spring? What's that? What is the long term like outlook for how long you'll be doing? This? I guess, is my question.

Kristin 1:10:18
So our students are locked in for the first semester. So they had to make their decision on hybrid or virtual through the end of January. And so they, what we've been told is that we're going to reassess and they did like parent surveys to figure out what parents were willing to do and wanted to do. And so we were told that they'll do surveys, I guess, right before Christmas, right after something, and they'll see, you know, where the cases have been blown up, and they're crazy now? Or are we at like, 52, compared to 50, or something, where we are now, and they'll go from there. So I have been told that you're gonna have families that can keep virtual the whole time. And then I'm pretty sure if we've gotten into hybrid, and we're actually in school every other day, and our groups flip flopping, then they'll continue that. My hope is, it'd be amazing if this vaccine, you know, a vaccine came out, and everybody starts getting it, and everybody's like, Alright, let's do this school, and everything opens back up. And it's, you know, like Disney World. And magically, everything is just amazing. And we're back and spring is normal. But, um, we just got our time. See?

Scott Benner 1:11:35
No, that's really interesting. I have to say that. I think that all schools and industries, and everyone is doing a reasonable job of being like, Look, we're really hopeful, like we'll see in a week, we'll see in two weeks, we're gonna keep going. Everyone is staying very flexible, which is, which I think is interesting, although I think it doesn't look flexible from the outside, I think sometimes feel like they promised this and they knew they weren't going to do I don't think anybody knows anything. You know, I think whatever they think today very well could be bad information in a week or two. And yeah, you know, I it's ball. Listen, it's obviously socks, and it would be very nice to go back to school and into work into all the other things. So yeah, my fingers crossed. I hope it I hope it goes well. But you know, yeah, yeah. Right. I hope it goes well, for you specifically. And for all of us, actually. Is there anything we didn't say that you were hoping to talk about? I took you on, like a very twisty windy road. But I actually feel like we got everything out that you that you were hoping to talk about. But am I wrong?

Kristin 1:12:42
Oh, no, um, I think the biggest thing that I wish that parents out there, I'm on a lot of parent boards on Facebook, and all the parents are like, what are you doing with your kid and your kid going to school and all these parents are, you know, like, no, my child's not going to school, and you know, this disease is bad enough. And they everything is blamed on diabetes. And I feel like when you start doing that, you're the kid kind of feels like, well, we couldn't go on vacation because of my diabetes, or, you know, we couldn't have cake at grandma's birthday. Because my diabetes, like parents got to remember their their kid, there is a child first. And you don't always have to involve, you know, kids or kids. And you don't always have to let them be privy to adult discussions. And so if you decide as a family, hey, we're not going to go to school, we're going to do virtual, then don't just say, Well, you know, because little Johnny's got diabetes, and even though he's well managed, and he, you know, been sick twice in his life, he's not going to go. Don't always try to you kind of make the kid feel like they're at blame. Yeah. If you're not careful.

Scott Benner 1:13:57
So your point, your point is, is that do whatever you're gonna do, but whether it's around Corona or anything else, don't turn to you don't turn to your kid and go, Well, you know, we saved up we were gonna go to Turks and Caicos but we don't know how to keep your insulin cool. So we can't go like it's you know, like, don't get don't put it on that even if that is your reason, although that'd be a strange reason, because there's a lot of easy ways to keep insulin cool. But, but, but even if that is your reason, don't let the kids think that's the reason and and and kind of be cool about it. You got to be an adult in those scenarios. I'll tell you. It's funny because as you're talking, I'm making your point just now. I think that the one caveat for me, that's, that's bigger. Like I think it fits in All of the explanations you use. And and I can see where it doesn't fit in the in the COVID explanation because there really is. There is an unknown that you're just not like you live in a place where you said like you said there's like 50 cases, but I live in a place where There were a lot of cases. And and you know, there are people who were in New York City or Florida or other places where, you know, California still getting over run, I think whether it's a situation is different. So it's situational to, and, and I think nobody, what you're seeing online with people just like what are you doing, they're just dying for someone to give them some direction. You know, like anybody just say something that that I can that I can believe in and and, you know, kind of hook my wagon to. And I think I honestly believe that there's no, there's no way to know how this is gonna go this could end up being nothing for somebody and you know, and it could end up being the end of someone's life and and then you get caught in that weird conversation where if you know, how many kids dying is okay with us like that, that you know, like in and, you know, where's the line? Like, where do you draw a line who gets to draw the line? And so I think that's why it's America and you get to decide, you know, so it's a there's personal freedom. And, you know, if you're not if, if your personal freedom is not completely, you know, is not hurting someone else, then you're good. But you know, whether it's Corona or anything else. Your personal freedom doesn't get to outweigh my personal freedom, I guess is the it's is the way I think about all the time aside of this as well, just, you know, I have free speech, but you can't yell something that, you know, you know, the old adage can't yell fire in a theater and then I get trampled. That's, that's not free speech. Yeah, that that's just not nice. So be nice. Just be nice. There. It is, it's a weird thing to feel like you're protecting someone else. Like that's not a position we find ourselves in very often, like I'm wearing a mask, so you don't get sick. Not so I don't like as much it's a I think that's a an easy idea for people to wrap their heads around in some. And for some people, it's just not we were somewhere recently in a store. And there were 30 people in this kind of large warehouse space. It's you know, nobody was anywhere near each other. Everyone had a mask on with the exception of this one person who had the mask, but just was wearing it around his neck. And it It wasn't by mistake he didn't forget. Like he walked in as soon as he got past the people who were running the store. he purposely pulled this mask down over his neck. I don't know the guy said it, you know, situation. But it started to feel like, go ahead. Somebody say something to me. I dare you. They started having that vibe about it. I'm like, I was finding myself thinking like, Look, man. I don't know. I mean, I don't know how much this mask is helping anybody or not helping anybody. But just what are you doing? Like, why are you making everybody It was almost like he walked in with a zipper down and was just like I had someone say something to me about it. I dare you to and it was it was very strange. And he was just it was a weird feeling to be around. And I don't even know how to put it into context for our conversation honestly, other than it just felt strange. And I don't know, I don't know if he's right, or I'm right. Or, you know, it. Could we all have been in there without a mask? I don't think so. But I don't know. And I don't know how long this is gonna last either. I think that say like, we put a lot of arbitrary stops on things like it'll be right by this fall. It'll be alright, by the summer, it'll be alright. But the spring like, it gets all right, when it's all right. And, you know, I agree. I don't know what the hell that is. whole thing's confusing, is gonna curse. Really? So do you think my last question, I'll let you go? Do you think that kids are going to come out of this year of school? With the same level of understanding that they would have if they were in person? Is there a way to do that?

Kristin 1:18:56
Um, I think it depends on the kid. There are kids learn all sorts of different ways. And some kids, you know, they, they walk by a book, and they learn everything that's in it. I mean, you're gonna have the kids that are really into the virtual and that's just where they shine. And they, you know, they little sponges, and they soak it all up. You have kids that are in the classroom, we're going a lot slower, our pace has to be slower because it's we're trying to keep pace between virtual and our, you know, in class at the same time. And you year, it just, I think the big thing is, is there I heard somebody talked about it, it's like, everybody's trying to say, you know, all these kids are, you know, they're not going to know everything. Well guess what? Everybody's going to be in that boat. It's, it's not like if you're one kid who worked out in the fields for a year and didn't go to school at all, and everybody else went to school. Now they're behind. It's not like that. Everybody's in the same boat, unless you're homeschooling. And that's you You know, you're doing your own thing. So all the kids are on the same, the same kind of playing field. And they, we just got to trust that they have parents at home that are willing to support them if they're virtual and hanging out, and that they're making sure they do their work and listen and not text in with a group of friends while the teachers talking. And then you're going to have kids that in the classroom that are doing awesome, because they're glad to be in school, and they're able to interact with the teacher, even if they have stay six feet apart. And that they're just happy to be here, though. They'll soak up anything. And they want to listen to anything that the teacher says, because it's a different adult than, you know, mom and dad that they've seen all all summer. And so everybody's everybody's in the same boat right now. Yes,

Scott Benner 1:20:50
that idea of incremental growth. He was what I took from what you just said, is really interesting. Like there's, I think, I think it's easy to feel like there's a grouping of information I learned in fifth grade and a grouping of information. I live in sixth grade. And if I if I miss one of them, I fallen behind and, and now Oh gosh, like it reminds me of like preschool is a great example. Like, you know, at some point, it became okay to learn how to read in kindergarten, you know, but, but at some point, people are like, well, I could probably teach my kid when they're four to read. And then the first four year old who knew how to read made everybody else go, Oh, my God, I gotta get my kid to learn how to read by the time he's four, because it'll be behind like, as if that would make a difference. And I guess this really is the same idea. Like we're like, you know, everybody's going through the same thing. There are going to be some people who shine and some people who would have shined who might not and vice versa. But that's just natural selection for the moment. Really? That's so interesting to think of it that way. See, I was

Kristin 1:21:53
way outside of this, too. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:21:55
Yes. Some people are surging, I'll tell you seriously. This podcast is a great example of that. In February, February, let me take a look real quick, I'll make the point to you. So I have to pull it up real fast.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:16
In

Scott Benner 1:22:18
I can look at the whole year real quick, just to look. So I run the numbers for the year and then look at it by the month, right. So as January started, I had the best month I ever had. And in February, it did better. And in March, it did better still. And I was like, Ooh, I'm experiencing some growth, then Corona. And April dropped down, like something like I think was 14% at the time, like total downloads. And I was like, oh god like is that if the podcast not work anymore? You don't even like like, like what's going on? And and then I saw some reporting from from reputable podcast hosting that said that podcast listening was down almost like 18%, I think. And I thought, Oh, well, at least I'm not 18% you know. And then the next month, it was right back to where it was in March. And then the growth continued June, July, August. And I thought, Okay, this is cool. But then I checked back in with the, you know, the people who keep track of stuff like this. And a lot of podcasts are still really faltering and they're failing. And so even that's random, like, my topic, apparently, is something people are still willing to listen to, even though life has changed. But there were other topics where people were like, no, I only listened to that when I commute, or I only listened to that. And they just stopped. It just it's not for them. And so some people grow and some people don't. And just I guess it's not something you can really control. Like, it's just there's going to be some luck of the draw in this.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:49
Interesting, huh?

Scott Benner 1:23:52
All right, there's a lot to consider here, Kristen. We're not going to fix the world today. I appreciate you coming on and telling Caleb's story and, and and sharing how you handled you know, preschool and and I love it. Like it's just I love that interaction. The one thing I didn't ask you was, have you seen a decrease in a one seeing an increase in stability over the couple of years?

Kristin 1:24:17
We're getting there. Yeah. His his body you know, diabetes, yay. Those for a loop every once in a while and he'll have it just depends on how active he is we're finding out okay, if he's active, his numbers seem to be great. And his ratios really good. And he has this good flatline. And then if he has days where he's like vegging out on the couch or just, you know, kind of hanging out, then he'll be higher. And so we're we're still just trying to get that figured out. We're really hoping that just him being in the school environment and and up and active and doing things will that his ratios and his bazel rates and stuff are perfect for that country. Today

Scott Benner 1:25:00
Yeah, no, I, I had the same thing when Arden stopped going into school. I her insulin needs changed pretty drastically in different ways than you're describing. But yeah, yeah, it's interesting, like, you almost need a sitting around basal rate and up and moving base or you know,

Kristin 1:25:18
and we have that we have weekend versus weekday and we've found his, his body is kind of different, like he doesn't really drop while he's active, like if he's running out at the beach or something, he's fine. It's like the hours after is where he'll start to drop, and we have to change his we have to decreases bazel after the activity. And I know some kids like during the activity or something but or for him. We've had days where if he's really active One day, the next day, his numbers will be lower. And it's like his body's just got to have a chance to catch up.

Scott Benner 1:25:54
Have you have you know, tried taking bazel away prior to activity and getting into what I guess some people would call like a neutral? Like no bazel during the activity situation. Have you messed with that at all? It's hard. I know, because the activity sometimes does not present itself as like, we're gonna be active in an hour,

Unknown Speaker 1:26:15
you know? Yeah.

Kristin 1:26:18
Yeah, for example, like we would have, wow, that's a cool days and just hanging out in the backyard, and my kids are playing this little kiddie pool and they go crazy for like two hours. And I would have days where I would try to get as bazel down before he started, I really would never take it away. I would just decrease it quite a bit. And still, he would either ride high afterward and his body like Haha, yeah, right. You know, you felt you're doing something right. And then we would have days where he I would not mess that at all and see what happens. And then all of a sudden, we're like, Don't juice boxes at him three hours after he got out of the pool or? Yeah. So he, his I don't know his body is it's like it's on a lag. Sometimes.

Scott Benner 1:27:06
Yeah, almost sounds like in that scenario, you need to have like a much lower basal rate, like as the activity ends into the many hours afterwards. That's interesting. Yeah. Well, good luck. I hope you figure it out. That is, but does not sound like fun at all. In any way, just so in case you're wondering, nothing fun about what you just said. I really do appreciate you doing this. I really want to wish Kristen Good luck as she heads back to school. And for all of us. Honestly, I hope that whatever you're doing or have to do or need to do is safe for you. And something that you're comfortable with. I realized it's a really difficult time. And it's genuinely hard to know what the right thing to do is so good luck to everybody. Thanks so much on the pod index comm for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. Please go to my Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box, and dexcom.com Ford slash juicebox. To learn more about those sponsors. And of course, T one d exchange.org. forward slash fusebox. Oh, geez, I almost forgot you wanna hear something bizarre. So I just put up the episode how to eat vegan cat with Jordan. If you haven't heard it. It's fun. And later that night, like the same day, I put it up right later that night, I get a notification from the website. I used to run my giveaways. And they're like, Hey, your giveaways over choose a winner. So I'm like, All right. So I go to the website, and I take my mouse and I click and I say hey, pick a winner. And it goes blue does it ever does. And boom. You know who wins? Jordan? Isn't that not crazy? Here's why. I recorded that episode with Jordan six months ago. Put the episode up with her that day. The giveaway ends the magic machine picked Jordans name. Crazy is what it is. blew my mind. I was like I just sat here I was like what mysticism is this? Anyway, Jordan God, what did Jordan get? I might forget what Jordan Jordan got a sweatshirt from the podcast the know the signs sweatshirt when it's got the list of you know all the signs of symptoms with Type One Diabetes on the back. She got a bunch of Dexcom swag, a bunch of Omni pod swag. A really cool Dexcom t shirt was in there and on the pod shirt that I think for dash like a pretty read artist has a very soft she has one. She got a bunch of stuff from touched by type one. They're gonna be sending her stuff. Lily's chocolate gift pack, and I understand Jordan, that lilies might have put a little extra chocolate and that gift back. So look for that coming up. Jordan one, a 30 minute consultation with Jenny Smith. And I mean, just the, you know, just the good feeling of winning I guess she got to. Anyway, thanks to everyone almost 3000 entries. Thanks to everyone for helping me to celebrate the 2 million download of the Juicebox Podcast. I don't know what we'll do with 3 million. But if what I'm seeing is any indication, we won't have to wait a year to find out. Which I guess really should make me say thank you so much for sharing the podcast with people because it is growing exponentially. And I have all of you to thank for that. Every time you share the podcast on Instagram or Facebook or tell a friend about it, the show just gains more and more listeners and people seem to enjoy it and they stick around and listen, so I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. I can't I don't know what else to say other than Thank you, but 2 million is crazy. Can't wait to get the 5 million, 5 million. I think we can get the 5 million pretty easy. Let's see if we can't do that. I'm betting weekend.

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