#381 Brent has a Story

September 15, 2020Scott Benner

Husband and father of three

Brent shares his 20-year journey as a person with Type 1 diabetes, a husband and father to three young children. After 15 years of manual daily injections and multiple daily finger sticks, Brent switched to a T1D physician in 2015 which has made all the difference in his daily management and overall health. He now uses a continuous glucose monitor and insulin pump and talks about the success he's had using technology for the past five years. Brent offers a laid-back personal perspective on why it's so important to take care of yourself and practice patience when living with T1D.

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Scott Benner 0:09
Hello, everyone, welcome to Episode 381 of the Juicebox Podcast. On today's show, we're gonna be speaking with Brent. Brent has had Type One Diabetes for 20 years. He's been married for a long time and he's got three kids. Brent's progression with Type One Diabetes has been steady but slow. And it's really coming together for him. So he's here to tell you his story. In fact, this is brandstory.

Please remember 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. We're becoming bold with insulin. If you're looking for a terrific endocrinologist, or have one that you'd like to share with people, please go to juicebox docs.com. And if you're enjoying the pro tip series of the podcast and like to share that with someone, or if you're looking to see the episodes all in one place, without using your podcast app, you're looking for diabetes pro tip.com.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, please visit Contour Next one.com Ford slash juice box to learn more about the Contour Next One. There's so much information at this link. I don't even know where you'll begin. But where I'm going to start by telling you about Arden's blood glucose meter, the Contour Next One blood glucose meter is incredibly accurate and cheaply priced. It's actually possible that the test trips purchased directly with cash could be cheaper than what you're paying through your copay with your insurance company, when that'd be interesting. Check it out. While you're there, you're gonna see all of the contour products listed right at the top. There's resources, such as downloadable log books, and the contour diabetes app that works in conjunction with the meter that's available for Apple or Android, it's even possible that you could be eligible for a free Contour Next One meter seriously, you got to go click around on those links. There's a test trip savings card there, it's worth picking around and learning about everything, not just about ardens meter. But if you're in the market for a new meter, I can't say enough good things about the Contour. Next One. It's absolutely been the most accurate meter My daughter has ever used. I'd also like to direct your attention to touched by type one.org. It's a great diabetes organization doing wonderful things with people living with type one diabetes, and they'd love it if you check them out on Facebook, Instagram. We're at touched by type one.org.

Brent 3:30
My name is Brent. I live in Payson, Utah. It's a town about an hour south of Salt Lake. I have had Type One Diabetes for just a tad over 20 years. I've been married for a little over 10 years. As three kids, two boys and a girl. My oldest son is eight. My daughter is four and my youngest son is one almost too

Scott Benner 3:59
bright. Do me a favor that cord with the with the microphone. I try not to brush spider, let it touch your clothes. Okay. Okay, that's all otherwise sounds terrific. And I appreciate you telling us about yourself. How old were you when you were diagnosed?

Brent 4:15
So I was 17 happened over Christmas break of all times. And I believe that was the Christmas break of 1999 to 2000. So I always just go off of 2000 since that's kind of an easy time to remember how long I've had it.

Scott Benner 4:39
Brent, you know what? It's funny. We all put so much effort into being worried about y2k and what would happen to computers and we should have been worried about what was going to happen to your pancreas.

Brent 4:49
Yeah, I had no worries about y2k either, didn't bother me at all.

Scott Benner 4:55
I do remember being in a number of meetings at my job and I just kept thinking I feel like we're making a big deal out of this. And the computers just gonna say it's January 1 2000. Here we go. But such an odd thing. Anyway, tell me about your diagnosis a little bit.

Brent 5:12
Yeah. So, um, you know, my memory is kind of fade a little bit, you know, the other. Yeah. I remember it being a Sunday morning. pretty typical Sunday morning, I'm a, I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints growing up here in Utah. But anyways, you know, did my regular thing and getting ready for church and going to church, and I was over there at church, I remember a couple people saying, it looks like you a little thin, and I, I just brushed that comment kind of off, I didn't really think anything of it. And after coming home from church that day, I was not feeling good at all, I just want to lay down and do nothing. Yeah. I was the kind of kid that, you know, wanted to be playing video games all the time, or watching TV or something. But for some reason, I just wanted to lay down and do nothing. I was using the bathroom a ton during the night, I think I got up at least once an hour. But anyways, after church, my parents had noticed that I was just doing nothing. And we had a friend that lived pretty close by who was a doctor. So he came over and kind of checked me out. And he had told my parents that I need go to the hospital. So we went to the hospital. I don't remember other much than checking into the hospital. And, you know, they ran some more tests. And, you know, told me I had diabetes, I had really no idea what that meant. I think I spent the course of the next couple days or three days in the hospital, learning about all I could and how to kind of manage it from there.

Scott Benner 7:20
They won't ever tell you what your blood sugar was, at your time of diagnosis.

Brent 7:24
I don't remember the exact number. But I remember it was over 600. So it was pretty high.

Scott Benner 7:30
That's why you weren't playing video games. Whenever.

Brent 7:33
Yeah, take it right out. I was

Scott Benner 7:36
our bread. Listen, we got it. We've got to dig down on something for a second here. Because since you listened through the entire show, you said in like a month and a half. So you're aware. And I've never been able to put my finger on this yet. But I asked every time to try to get closer to the answer. Why is the show so popular with Mormons? And why do they come on all the time? And like you have to be the sixth? or seventh perhaps? Like you do? Have you heard them as they're as they're talking? Sometimes people don't identify themselves right away. Sometimes I out them for having like, 43 kids or something like that. And I'm like, hey, so, but um, is there anything about the community? That's is diabetes? more prevalent? That doesn't make any sense? But is that possible?

Brent 8:27
I don't think it's any more prevalent around here anyways, I mean, I just I found the podcast, and it seemed really interesting, you know, listening to you and how you talked about your daughter, you know, finding out she had diabetes, and it was just really interesting in it. It hit me because you know, I've had it for at the time, it was only 19 and a half years when I had started listening, but you know, I've had it for 20 years ago. I've really not connected with a lot of other type one diabetics,

Scott Benner 9:01
so maybe it's the opposite maybe. Maybe there's just nobody in Utah. So everybody there needs to find Am I might be the Mitt Romney of type one. Diabetes, podcasting. It's possible. Is this not true? If you were to say that maybe.

Brent 9:14
And I really haven't listened to any other.

Scott Benner 9:19
Just found this one.

Brent 9:20
Yeah, I found this one. And you know, it just

clicked right off and I listened. I really liked it.

Scott Benner 9:26
I would like people of all religions to listen, I'm just telling you that, you know, it just comes up. So frequently. I'm not wondering how many people I've interviewed. Who, who did not tell me? It's possible. I've interviewed 306 people from the church. I don't know. Anyway,

Brent 9:45
I suppose.

Scott Benner 9:47
So how did you find how did you find growing up? And 20 years ago, what kind of technology they started with?

Brent 9:55
Um, so I remember, just syringes and vials. Well, what it was. I've used human log for most of my diabetes life. That's what I used. And I think it was humulin was what the other was called the long acting one.

Scott Benner 10:19
Yeah. What's your most dear? I'm sorry to cut you off? Did your parents jump in and help? Because that's a weird age, it's 17? Or did they do the like, he's a man, he'll handle it. Like, where? Where did that fall? And how did that impact you how, however it went.

Brent 10:34
So I do remember me handling most of it. I mean, my parents, you know, were they were there in the hospital learning about it just as much as I was. But, you know, I'm, I was practically an adult. So, you know, I just pretty much handled everything on my own, you know, short of, you know, setting up doctor's appointments and insurance and that kind of thing. But, you know, managing the diabetes, I pretty much handled it on my own, from what I remember,

Scott Benner 11:07
where you're out where your outcomes, what you were looking for, like, I'm interested how a 17 year old, you know, 20 years ago with some syringes, and some, you know, insulin we don't use anymore. Like, was your health where you wanted it to be? Or was that constant struggle? Or did was it not thought of that way at the time?

Brent 11:27
I honestly don't remember too much about how I did. Way back then I will tell you this. So later that summer later

2000

I got an early graduation gift and my sister also, there's this, I think it's kind of a high school program national throughout the country. It's called people to people, student ambassadors. Have you heard of that?

Scott Benner 11:56
I have not. No. But it was, um, so what it is.

Brent 12:01
Yeah. So what that is, it's a program that's available to youth, basically. And they go on a big trip somewhere around the world and experience

other cultures, okay.

And anyways, so that summer, my parents had bought my sister and I, well, we actually, you know, helped pay for it ourselves to we went into this program, I think our particular group, there was about 30 or 40 youth and, you know, five or six adult leaders. And we went to Scandinavia for three weeks. So here I am, I'm only six months newly diagnosed, I don't remember having any, or not very many worries about my diabetes and taking, you know, all the supplies that needed to go with me. Yeah. They had us keep a journal as part of the kind of the program. And I don't remember writing anything about my diabetes, rather than just everything I was experiencing. Right?

Scott Benner 13:19
Well, is that because the insulin back back then what you were doing is you were shooting insulin a couple times a day at certain times, then making sure to eat at certain times. Is that about it?

Brent 13:29
Yeah. So you know, I was doing my normal meal time. boluses, if you will, you know, take the insulin for meals. And then I was doing the human, I believe, a shot in the morning and then shot at night.

Scott Benner 13:42
And how do you find, like, how you manage now, compared to that. So how do you manage now?

Brent 13:49
I have been using a pub since 2015, a tandem pump. And I'm actually just got started on my second tandem pump. Just this past November,

Scott Benner 14:01
so you were 1616 years on in on MDI.

Brent 14:05
Yes, yes, that is. That is correct. I did. Okay. I won't say I did gray. And this might have been around maybe 2005. My blood sugar's were or my Avon See, I would say was probably between 10 and 13. So I mean, it wasn't the greatest right. And I wonder, I mean, I was also the doctor I was seeing was just a family physician. So it wasn't anybody specialized in diabetes. But it eventually turned to a point where he recommended me to diabetes doctor and I was able to reduce my agency a bit with I think I got it down between nine and 10%. So I mean, that was a pretty significant increase.

Scott Benner 15:00
Yeah, I mean, you moved it from what? Like more like, and was it swinging around like 10 1112? Like, or did you not? Check? How often were you checking it? I guess it's my question.

Brent 15:12
I was probably the only checking three times a day, I would guess

Scott Benner 15:15
your blood sugar three times a day. And did you go to an endo appointment quarterly? Or was it not that frequent?

Unknown Speaker 15:21
Um,

Brent 15:23
I mean, with the family physician, I think it might have been

maybe every three to six months. So maybe quarterly

Scott Benner 15:31
sees now you've listened to the podcast straight through, as you're listening. Do you think wow, the way people are doing it now is no, it's just not close to what I was doing growing up. Did you have that thought ever while you were listening?

Brent 15:43
I've had it a few times. I mean, it's understandable to me. No, that was 20 years ago. So I mean, things were a lot different back 20 years ago.

Scott Benner 15:54
Yeah. million percent.

Brent 15:56
Definitely blood sugar machines. I, when I was first started, I used a lot of one touch machines. And the first one I had thing was huge. And test trip was huge. And it required tons of blood compared to blood sugar machines today.

Scott Benner 16:17
Do you think that was that part of the impediment around testing more? Or was there just not an onus on testing more? Nobody was like you were testing enough for your doctor?

Brent 16:26
I think I was testing enough for my doctor.

Scott Benner 16:28
Friend. What about for you though? Like, were you? Like, how did you feel with a onesies that were that high? Was it an impediment? Did your body adjust to it? Is it something you look back on now and worry about?

Brent 16:43
I mean, yeah, I do worry about it. I mean, obviously, that's not a great a one C and, and whatnot. But I mean,

I'm still alive today,

Scott Benner 16:54
I really appreciate you being on because I mean, the podcast is five years old. So you're talking to people who are mostly brought up around faster acting insulin, you know, their carb counting, covering meals, you know, testing more frequently, we're in glucose monitors. That's the kind of stuff. And I think that people sometimes make the mistake of believing that that's just how it's how it is how it's always been. And, you know, like, that's it. And even today, there are more people in the world with diabetes, who have a story, it's like yours, then a story like theirs. But then those people who are listening going, Oh my gosh, like, you know, my one sees in the sevens and I'm always wanting to get it down. And, you know, like, I know what my blood sugar is all the time, etc. I think we all need to really remember that most people don't have access to good information, tools, and sometimes, you know, even, you know, the meters and the glucose monitors and the pumps and etc. Even smartphones, you know, it's easy to like, get caught in a bubble and think that this is how it is. But I think it's more the way you're describing honestly.

Brent 18:05
Yeah, most certainly as I mean.

Yeah, sorry. I lost my train of thought.

Scott Benner 18:15
up early in the morning. What time is it there?

Brent 18:17
It's a

it's just after seven. I get up at 530 here because I actually start work normally at

Scott Benner 18:25
seven o'clock. Oh, no kidding. You work from home or you.

Brent 18:28
I actually work I commute. I've got about a half an hour

Scott Benner 18:32
ish commute. I appreciate you making time for this. I really do.

Brent 18:36
Yeah. I felt this was pretty important. So I

Scott Benner 18:40
Well, what did you ask? You asked you asked for time off for this.

Brent 18:45
I just told him I was gonna come in later. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 18:47
thank you very much.

Brent 18:48
Look at this, this and I still work my normal time is the level of

Scott Benner 18:52
dedication. Brian, I expect from everyone listening to the show, just you know, Brent, listen to all of the episodes. He didn't say, Oh, I didn't think that one would be interesting. I don't want to hear that from you. People listen all the way through. And if I need you to get up early to be on the podcast, that's just what you have to do. Just kidding, from what what made it feel important to be on the podcast.

Brent 19:13
I just, you know, I just wanted to share my story, you know, hear, you know, let the listeners hear kind of another. Another story. I mean, that's what got me into this podcast, was hearing your daughter's story. And you know, to change in yours, your life, her life, your whole family's life. Just you know, having another point of view, basically. Yeah.

Scott Benner 19:40
So did it help you more like spiritually, like psychologically or was it helpful management wise or what did you what what's happened after hearing all those experiences,

Brent 19:51
I would say all the above. I mean, it's, you know, I think I've tried to get myself more involved with Other type one diabetics, and it's kind of even listening to this podcast. And you know, it's just kind of helped me even reflect on myself and how I manage my own diabetes.

Scott Benner 20:14
Were you meeting people? Is it online? or in person?

Brent 20:18
Yeah, it's mainly through Facebook groups and stuff.

Yeah, that's kind of the the main part.

I have some family that's got type one diabetes, and some pretty close friends that has it. But you know, aside from that, it's mainly been just online.

Scott Benner 20:40
Yeah. Do you find yourself talking about it more since you've listened? Or have you always been kind of open and conversational about it?

Brent 20:49
I've been pretty open about talking about it. But I think I, I do feel like I have been more open to talking about my diabetes to people since I have been listening to the podcast.

Scott Benner 21:01
Okay. That's excellent. Well, one second, Arden is asking me a question.

Unknown Speaker 21:08
Let's see,

Scott Benner 21:10
the blood sugar got a little low. And she's in class. She's trying to treat it already. But her blood sugar hasn't popped back up yet. And she's just like, my phone won't shut up. So she's had this very interesting, this is ridiculous. Solar people, you know, what, most likely? And then all the everything I gave her as you know, hey, try this or this. She is not right now. So why are you telling me about the phone? If you're not willing to Alright, listen, let's not try to make sense of children, I guess. So, her blood sugars have just required less insulin for the last over a week now. And at first, I know everybody's gonna laugh at me. But our What is this? What is this?

Unknown Speaker 22:05
What? Oh,

Scott Benner 22:08
I don't have a January electric statement. That's not why they're calling they're lying to me. Sorry about that. So her blood sugar's have been lower. And everyone's gonna laugh, because, you know, I always say like, don't just say they're sick. I think they're getting a cold. But when Arden has certain kinds of illnesses, her blood sugar just is easier to control. She needs less insulin. It's always been that way. So when this happened, we just assumed that's what was happening. We started cutting insulin back, you know, the way we normally do, but it still wasn't helping. And she was, you know, still just lower, lower, lower, lower, but she'd also kind of lost her appetite. So we thought, all right, we've made it even worse, you know, you couldn't, you know, she doesn't want to eat a whole lot. You know, you're trying to Bolus you don't really know how much to do. So her blood sugar's been a little up and down for the last few days. And finally, last night, I thought, what if so Arden just recently got an infusion of iron. And her her ferritin level was very low, which happens to me too, and it happened to her. So she'd been tired and rundown and is going on for a long time. And through the process of trying to diagnose this. We went through a lot of different things, one of them being thinking it was her hypothyroid medication, because the symptoms of low iron and hypothyroidism, so perfectly match each other that that made sense. So, yes, you know what I mean? So we lost a lot of time and art and spent a lot of time feeling rundown. And now she's had the iron for a month or so. And you can see her changing, like, she's got more energy, she's not as tired, she looks better, you know, like all the stuffs happening. Right? But she doesn't feel perfect yet, which we didn't expect and even the doctor that she saw, who was the hematologist told her Listen, it's going to take two to three months for you to feel the complete effects of this iron transfusion. Or infusion, excuse me. And you know, so in you know, he told her like two more months from now, however good you feel, then that's how good you're gonna feel from this. But I started wondering out loud yesterday with Kelly. Is it possible that as her cells are dying off and regenerating, but regenerating now being built from building blocks that have the correct amount of iron and ferritin in them? That's how she's feeling better, but could that be why her insulin needs have been higher? Because Arden's bazel rate is significantly higher than I would expect it to be. And it's not just like around food, like you're a grown man. What's your base rate?

Brent 24:46
Um, varies.

I mean, I have a schedule but I think it's anywhere between point nine an hour to 1.3 an hour

Scott Benner 24:57
right? So my hundred and 40 pounds daughter who's 15 her basal rate during the day has been 2.6. Wow. Right. And so that's just a lot.

Unknown Speaker 25:09
And now that is Yeah.

Scott Benner 25:10
So all of a sudden, yesterday, I was like, Oh my gosh, this isn't a thing, maybe that's going to go away. Like, we're gonna have to adjust to this. Maybe forever. And let's try. So I paired all of her settings down pretty significantly, had a lot of success overnight. But of course, this was my first day time with it. And she got the school and it's just, you know, it was doing great, doing great. And then all of a sudden, it dropped down. And now it just does not seem to want to move again. So that is, yeah, that's

Brent 25:44
interesting. Hold on a second.

Scott Benner 25:55
So I'm gonna get her to test and we're gonna check it out. not know, who knows, I could end up being wrong about this. And three days from now, her blood sugar's might go right back to the way they were, I don't know. But it's a significant difference in the amount of insulin she needs, like significant.

Brent 26:14
Yeah, well, hopefully she gets her numbers back to where they should be. And hopefully to get that figured out.

Scott Benner 26:20
Yeah, I appreciate that. I do. So first, so how do you find pumping versus how you were doing it for so long, because I'm it's very, it's very much interesting to talk to somebody who basically lived a lifetime not using an insulin pump, and now uses one.

Brent 26:36
I love it. I will say that right off, it's great. I don't know how I lived without it.

Unknown Speaker 26:42
Um,

Brent 26:43
so back in 2015, that's when my daughter was born. Okay. And she had some complications with being born that year, and she ended up being in the Nikki for 18 or 19 days, which, you know, that's traumatic in itself. But, you know, towards the end of the year, I had started researching pumps, what pumps I want to use, which one I think is going to be the best for me. I should say, a few years before that. I ended up switching doctors to a another one up in Salt Lake who has type one diabetes himself. And I actually still see him to this day. He's the best. I think it's, you know, if you can find a doctor that has type one diabetes themselves, I don't know if you're gonna get any better than that. Because they have. They understand everything. They have a different perspective than somebody who doesn't, if that makes sense. Oh, of course.

But anyways, so 2015.

I had researched a few different pumps, I didn't even considered Omni pod. And I think I was considering another Medtronic one. But I finally emailed my doctor and saying, here's what I'm looking at. I'm looking at this Medtronic pump. I think I will really like it because it talked with my glucose meter. I think it was the Contour. Next One link or something. had talked Bluetooth with it anyways, anyways, I emailed him, he actually recommended that I also look into CGM. And I actually hadn't even heard of it, which was

quite interesting, I guess.

Scott Benner 28:49
Well, you had no contact with people with diabetes. Right. So yeah, I wouldn't have heard.

Brent 28:54
I mean, I didn't really know anything. I mean, I knew what an insulin pump was. But he recommended two pumps for me. He had first mentioned the Animas five, which I don't think is even available anymore. Because it integrated with dexcom CGM. Oh, and the first thing he had told me is, he wouldn't recommend me doing the Medtronic team because they're CGM, he says wasn't very good. He outright said the dexcom is the best. And, you know, his opinion kind of kind of changed my mind pretty quickly, just because I trusted him and I knew him pretty well. Um, the other pump he recommended was the tandem t slim g4 at the time is what it was, and it was going to be integrating with Dexcom soon and that's the font that I chose. ended up using So I've been with Dexcom since g4.

Scott Benner 30:03
Yeah, cuz that animus vibe, how did that work with the g4 back then? Did they act? They didn't actually speak to each other? Did they? Or they did it. Oh, you know what it was, you could see your CGM data on your pump. Is that right? Yes.

Brent 30:15
But it was

Scott Benner 30:16
That's correct. It wasn't telling it what to do like a closed loop or like, no algorithm or anything like that right now.

Brent 30:21
Nothing like that. Um, I believe you were required to calibrate every

Scott Benner 30:28
12 hours, I believe how I remember it. So.

Brent 30:31
Um, yeah, the pump didn't do anything based off any other readings other than just showing you constantly what your blood sugar was, which was huge. I mean, poking my fingers for 15 years, 16 years, or whatever it was got a little. Yeah, I mean, my fingers. Were pretty callous. So you were

Scott Benner 30:56
you're like, you probably had those fingers, like you saw like people see sometimes online, which, you know, more newly diagnosed, people don't know from but those hard bumps all like everywhere, because you're constantly looking for space on your fingers. And eventually, after years, years, years, they just don't heal as quickly. And it's, it's Stark, right, like you can see it when you're looking.

Brent 31:17
Yeah.

Scott Benner 31:18
Can I ask how that? How did that affect tactilely? like touching things and lifting things? Did it have an

Brent 31:23
impact on that? I didn't seem to notice too much.

I don't know if this was the right thing to do. But I would sometimes take fingernail clippers and try and kind of cut away the callus a little bit. Take

Scott Benner 31:40
them away. You're doing your own landscaping there on your on your

Brent 31:45
Yeah, I did that every once in a while? I don't know.

Scott Benner 31:48
Don't worry, Brent, we will cover that with nothing on the Juicebox Podcast is considered advice. So that's funny, it worked, right? Hey, I guess whatever works, right? diabetes is a lot about, you know, making adjustments on the go and sort of, you know, being your own MacGyver and figuring things out, you know, for you. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 32:08
Yeah, and

Scott Benner 32:09
I mean, two more things that you made up during this episode, you're gonna be the Mormon MacGyver Just so you know, on the

Unknown Speaker 32:15
on the episode.

Scott Benner 32:18
So, hey, listen, tell me a little bit about having kids when you have type one,

Brent 32:21
it didn't really bother me at all. I mean, I didn't really think of it much. I mean, I know the symptoms, I know what to do with, you know, we we find out things. Luckily, all three of my kids are, are not type one diabetics. But you know, what, if they were, I'm not going to love them any less, and I'm going to know how to help them. And you know, I'm going to be able to basically coach them through it. That kind of thing. If they were,

Scott Benner 32:56
you'd have a leg up, you're kind of if your children ended up with diabetes, it would sort of be like what you were saying about seeing a doctor who has type one, it's just an extra level of understanding.

Brent 33:06
Yeah, it's an extra level of care.

Scott Benner 33:09
Yeah. That's excellent. That's wonderful. Well, what are your goals? Now that you're pumping? And you have a glucose monitor? What do you like? Do you have goals with your agency? Or how do you think of it? Because you are coming from an old school idea of this? So I'm interested in, in what you're doing now?

Brent 33:26
Absolutely. I mean, I see my endocrinologist every quarter, still every three months. And we have a goal of keeping it well below 7%. I usually do that pretty good. My last day when see. I was 6.7. I have been as low as 6.3. before. But you know, just basically under 7% is kind of the the goal with that.

Scott Benner 34:03
Does it fluctuate greatly? quarter to quarter?

Brent 34:07
Ah, not usually. It's usually pretty close between I'd say it's usually between six five and six, eight. Okay. You know, that's that's pretty good. And definitely a huge improvement over when I first started,

Scott Benner 34:23
right? Oh, no.

Brent 34:26
Yeah, I stay pretty consistently. Pretty close to that. The only exception was last year when I was in between jobs. I didn't have a month of Dexcom Okay. And it was just interesting to see how much it affected my pay one see and bloods here without having that for a month. I think my name once he got to 7.5 not horrible. But I mean, I haven't hadn't been over seven for

years.

Scott Benner 34:59
So you You moved anywhere from a half to a full point just from losing your glucose monitor for one month. Yeah, the CGM, the Dexcom. What did that change for you not having it? Like, do you remember that feeling of like, what what's gonna happen to me? I'm losing my CGM. How do I go back to what I was doing before?

Brent 35:19
Yeah, I was part of some groups on Facebook and an app called help around which, you know, it's type one diabetics, you know, trying to help each other giving them supplies and that kind of thing. I was almost in a panic to try and find some supplies that somebody can give me. Yeah, just because, you know, I hadn't been without a CGM for years. Right. And, you know, I didn't end up finding anything, unfortunately. I mean, I got some supplies, but they didn't end up working. I even went back as far as trying to find some GE for supplies, just so I could see my graph you were just gonna see right, it's going on.

Scott Benner 36:04
Listen, your your, your unemployment story is much better than most people's, you're only out of work for a month.

Brent 36:11
Um, so I wasn't out of work. So what happened was, I had switched jobs. February last year, and insurance would kick in until I had been there 90 days, I think. And I had enough of my leftover CGM supply to last for for two months. But then I had that third month where I wasn't gonna go pay out of pocket for the supplies, either. I had plenty of pump supplies. So I didn't have to get off of that. Luckily,

Scott Benner 36:44
can I ask you a question now that you've been through it and not asking, you know, for your your financial situation, but now having done it? Do you wish you would have paid cash for the month?

Brent 36:59
I wish I would have had the cash to pay for

Scott Benner 37:01
it. Right. Right.

Brent 37:04
But I mean, you know, what? Living a month without it. I, you know, came down to I lived 15 years without it. What's a bond can make it 30 days, right?

Scott Benner 37:17
So, can you tell me a little bit about like your health and your your how you physically feel? Do you? Do you have a comparison how you are living now versus how you were living then? And the impact that has on you? Um,

Brent 37:34
I'm not sure that I really notice a whole lot of difference. I mean, I'm not very active than the first

place, which, you know, it's

just something I never get around to running a

Scott Benner 37:48
marathon. But no, so you so it's likely that you began at a higher a one C and kept it steady. So you then your body adapts, and you don't feel the higher blood sugar. Did you feel it when it was coming down when you made the changes?

Brent 38:04
Yeah, I mean, I've I definitely feel my highs and I mean, I, I think I started feeling groggy, you know, 200 and above. And I can tell when I'm high without even having to look at my CGM. I do because that's what I do. Because I look at it pretty often. And I can, yeah, there's a big difference between high and low. I can definitely feel feel that.

Scott Benner 38:38
You just said something I want to ask you about you said you look at your CGM. Often, I was just speaking somewhere this weekend. And someone said to me, how do I stop myself from looking at this data? And I said, I said lower your high alarm? Because then you won't have to wonder if your blood sugar is getting high. It will tell you and then when you're not getting high, you won't think the look. So it made me wonder what your high alarm setup.

Brent 39:05
I have my high alarm set at 180. So anything above 180

Unknown Speaker 39:11
you get a good alarm.

Scott Benner 39:12
But prior to the alarms you find yourself checking.

Brent 39:15
I mean, I look at it fairly often. So I looked at it a few different ways. I have it I have the app on my phone. I have an iPhone. I also use sugar mate. I don't know if you've heard of that. I know

Scott Benner 39:28
sugar mate.

Brent 39:30
I use a Mac app on my work computer computers at home so I can up in the top I can see what my blood sugar is what it's doing

Scott Benner 39:41
Luca gram Is that what it's called? Yeah,

Brent 39:43
yep. I think it's a

sugar may glance or something.

Scott Benner 39:49
Okay. Okay. Oh, I know that one too. All right.

Brent 39:53
But I mean, I just have it everywhere. I have it on my palms. I just see Ever I mean, I'm not sitting there staring at it.

Scott Benner 40:04
No, I understand you're not No, I get that. But what do you see my point, though, that if you, if you know, the alarms going to sound prior to it becoming a problem than it, then you just realize I'll hear the alarm, I don't need to look at it, it'll tell me when it gets there. And that, I think that takes away a level of involvement. And there's also terrific research that says that the lower you bring down your high Dexcom alarm, the lower your a one C will go, because I'm gonna say it here just so other people can hear. But I know you've listened to the podcast already. But the sooner you react to a high or an impending high, the less insulin you need to stop it, most of the time, when you use less insulin, you're less likely to have a low later, and you can bring a 120 for instance, back to a 90 quicker with less insulin, then you can affect the 180. And so it's sort of like a little effort up front to lose all that other stuff. And it just it's a it's a matter of putting your effort in what I think of is a better place, but I'm not telling you how to live your life. But just that's how I do it. I don't know if you see any sense in that or not?

Brent 41:18
Yeah, no, no, I definitely do. It does make sense and whatnot. I know, one eight is just kind of weird. My doctor and I have figured is a good spot to know to have the alerts or not. I keep my phone on silent at work. So it's not

Unknown Speaker 41:39
blaring off vibrates for you.

Brent 41:41
And that kind of thing. And even at home sometimes. But I with my pump, I also get vibrates on my bump when it you know, tire blow as well. So I mean, I have another alert for you? Well,

Scott Benner 41:57
well, let me add one more thought to it is that if you if you as you bring the alert down, you sort of will start using insulin differently in a way that you don't recognize. Exactly. Right. And so eventually you don't find one at anymore, I would tell you for certain that what most people consider a 302 B. That's what I consider 180. Like that feeling you have when you see 300 is what I see. That's how I feel at one ad because we so infrequently see one ad? Oh, yeah, like a high blood sugar here would be like 160. And it's not because we're more involved. I actually think in a weird way, it's because we're less involved. But when we're involved, we're using more of the what you might consider to be the correct amount of insulin for the situation. And you only learn that through experience after experience. So I'm just here's what I'm telling you. Right. I think if you move your low alarm to 150 for a month, and then move it to 130. After that the next time you get your a one c check, there'll be a point lower. Right, I would definitely think that and I would think you wouldn't look at your CGM as much a month or two after that. But that's just that. That's my guess out loud.

Brent 43:14
Yeah, so. So I got my new tendon pump this last November. Okay. And it had it came with the bass like you I'm sure you hadn't

Scott Benner 43:26
heard that shut the bezel off yet. Well,

Brent 43:29
yep. And so actually, I just upgraded or updated my software to control IQ just last week, actually,

Scott Benner 43:38
five days ago. And this is a closed loop system. Not Not really. It doesn't have glucagon in it, but it's it's an algorithm.

Brent 43:45
Yes, yeah. So you know, if my blood sugar gets too high, it increases basal and can even deliver an automatic correction automatic correction bolus.

Scott Benner 43:55
Yeah. How are you finding? Um,

Brent 43:58
it's going pretty well. I mean, is it perfect? Of course not. Nothing's perfect. I mean, my blood sugar still gets high a little bit sometimes. And I'm still still learning it. You know, I'm only five days into it

Scott Benner 44:12
is a big adjustment. So yeah, yeah, you're not gonna have it in five days? That's for certain.

Brent 44:16
Yeah, you know, I, I would say, you know, give it at least a month to Ghana. Start, you know, to learn

Scott Benner 44:23
on Friday this, it's funny, because you and I are recording this and what February. And in all honesty, this might be out in August. But tomorrow, I'm interviewing somebody who's going to talk about control IQ to, and he's actually been using it longer. I think she was part of a study. So she might have a little more insight about it. But I think that, you know, I can tell you that from the algorithm stuff that we've done is that it's you know, so much about the settings being correct, so that the algorithm can can make good decisions, right? Yeah, I'm sure you'll find your way with it. Do you Do you have an expectation that it will bring your a one seat down? Is that your hope? Or are you just looking to be less involved?

Brent 45:06
Um, I'm hoping that's going to help with my agency. I'm kind of hoping that down, I mean, not that I've been in a horrible a one seat position. But you know, I've also looked forward to not having to manage it as well. And it's kind of nice that it's got a little bit of automatic

kind of control with it.

I believe it states on their website, you know, that control IQ is helping to lessen the burden on man engine diabetes. Yeah, but it does not replace an active role in taking care of it.

Scott Benner 45:52
It's 100% true, but it's my experience. And from everyone I've spoken to so far. If you're, if anyone is expecting an algorithm pump to just make diabetes disappear out of your life, I'm afraid that's not what's gonna happen. But it should, for people with higher like, imagine, you know, past, you know, Brent, from five years ago, having this thing slapped on him with a 12, a one C. And all the sudden, without really understanding anything else about diabetes, or a one c dropping, you know, five points into the sevens, that would be a absolute, you know, miracle for you. And yeah, and so it's going to be for so many of those people that we talked about, you know, at the beginning, people who just not as involved with management, and understanding, you know, the kind of the tools that that help your blood sugar be lower and stable. And the other thing is, and I'm wondering, even in five days, if you've seen this, is it helping your variability? Are you staying more stable?

Brent 46:45
I yes, I have been seeing more stability and less spiking and that kind of stuff. The last 24 hours within the exception of the last tool, any 30 minutes.

My blood sugar

has been pretty flat.

Scott Benner 47:08
Lovely, flat, where where's it flat? At? What number?

Brent 47:11
Um, so just in range, basically. So I have two ranges during the day. I'm 70 to 180. And then at night, I'm 80 to 150.

Scott Benner 47:24
Okay. Yeah. overnights. easier because you're not eating I guess. Yeah.

Brent 47:30
You mean, boosted shouldn't be

Scott Benner 47:33
erratically, right?

Brent 47:35
Yes, theoretically. But yeah, it. I mean, the last 24 hours on my pump here looks really good. I mean, there was only one time where it went high for about 10 minutes, and then it came right back down.

Scott Benner 47:54
So went over went over 184 unit got it back under again.

Brent 47:58
Yeah, yeah. And I think that was also some help with Bolus to that I did on my part, to say

Scott Benner 48:04
this thing's only manipulating your basal insulin right? It's not sending boluses through.

Brent 48:09
It can send an automatic correction bolus

of what it calculates it only I think it can remember from the training video, I think it says it does up to a 60% of the calculated needed bolus. Okay, but it can only do that once every hour.

Scott Benner 48:28
Okay, that doesn't sound bad at all to me.

Brent 48:32
No, no, it's actually really great. But it does mainly adjust the basal rate. Yeah, increase it or decrease it or completely stop it. Have you

Scott Benner 48:43
had any lows in the last five days?

Brent 48:46
I have had some lows. They haven't been horrible.

I think I've only gotten down to

55 the lowest right?

Scott Benner 48:58
So did you in the beginning think oh control? Like he was never gonna let me get low. I'll let me see what it does. And then you got low. Are you gonna intervene in the future, I guess is what I'm asking.

Brent 49:09
I mean, I know it won't prevent everything. And you know, he can only do so much. For instance, if I take way too much of a bolus of my blood sugar is dropping fast. It can only prevent so much. I mean, if there's way too much insulin on board, it's not going to be able to stop it all the way. The hard thing for me and this has actually been true with basal IQ two is not eating well. It's not true. Just basal IQ it's just been most of my life actually not eating one too many glucose tablets or, or that kind of thing to, you know, shoot you up higher than what you were hoping for. Yeah, kind of thing. But I mean the biggest adjustment with control IQ and basal IQ as well is you know that it It's also working to bring to help your blood sugar get up to that to the area that you need to be, and it's hard to not want to just chomp chomp chomp down on stuff, or,

you know, juice box or whatever.

So you don't go get too low.

Scott Benner 50:23
Is that feeling? Or is that a physical feeling when you when you can't stop?

Brent 50:29
It's been both. I mean, you know, when you start getting below 50, you start kind of getting that panic almost that it's like, I just need to eat sugar and sugar and sugar and sugar. And so I can get that right up in that pan thing. And then you know, it goes the other way. And then you kind of start taking more insulin to bring it back down into range.

Scott Benner 50:52
Yeah, but you feel like a physical need to eat. Is that correct?

Brent 50:57
Yes. I mean,

when I go low, you know, I feel First of all, I feel just different. I don't know how to explain it to somebody that's not a diabetic. Um,

Scott Benner 51:15
I had, let me ask you a question I had, I put up an episode just today with a girl named Aggie, and she's from hungry. And she said, she said that, when she gets low, her thoughts make sense in her head. But when she speaks them, they don't make sense to other people. It's like she like she's not saying what she thinks she's saying. But, but in her mind. She's right. So she can't get her thoughts that come out of her mouth. Has that ever happened to you?

Brent 51:44
Um, I don't think it's ever happened to me. I mean, I'm not saying that it won't ever happen.

But I mean, it's just I kind of

I know and I, I keep glucose tablets on me in my pocket all the time. So I always just

had popcorn out, put some in my mouth. And

it's, it's hard waiting for your blood sugar to go up to and not to continue just chomping down on the glucose tablets or whatever.

Scott Benner 52:16
Yeah, it's hard to wait. It's hard to wait I, I actually said in a in my talk this weekend. I was like, sometimes you just have to have the balls to wait. Like, you just have to be able to just wait a little bit. Because if you do, and you're you know, working off of you're like, don't get me wrong, not the first time you're, you're low. But once you've got a historical knowledge of how this works, and you've done the right things, and you're looking at your data, and your data is suggesting to you that this is going the way you expect it to that's the moment when you have to be able to say okay, let me just stop for a second. Let this Let this be and see what happens for a moment. Yeah, you know, it's a tough it's a tough decision to make, but it keeps you off the roller coaster. And there's nothing more true than you know, the thing that causes lows more than anything are highs. So if you you know, if you don't get high, it's sometimes it's it keeps you from getting low later. I don't think people think of it that way. Sometimes. I hear your kids are milling around. Are they all up? Or just yeah,

Brent 53:17
I'm

on my boys. My eight year olds come down a couple of times.

Scott Benner 53:22
He wasn't gonna make it much longer.

Brent 53:26
Yeah, he's got schooling a little while too. So I hope he's got enough.

Scott Benner 53:31
Listen, it's not your fault. You're busy. Hey, listen, any more plans for more kids?

Unknown Speaker 53:37
Um,

Brent 53:39
I think we're kind of hoping to still have one more. One more. Sure.

Unknown Speaker 53:41
Yeah.

Scott Benner 53:44
Four Sounds Sounds like a lot of work.

Brent 53:47
threes a lot of work.

Scott Benner 53:50
would better be worth it? Cuz if it's not worth it? What are you gonna Imagine if you said to me, Scott, I have three. It's a lot of work. And to be honest with you. I don't think it's worth it. I mean, that would be sad. Now, I think

Brent 54:03
yes, it would be sad. Yeah. No,

Scott Benner 54:05
I I agree with you. I there are definitely days where I wish I had more kids. Last night, I went into Arden's room where she was collecting her clothing she's grown out of and she's got a plan to sell it online. Mostly because I don't think she worked very often. And you know, she's she's telling me about her plan to make money. I said, so you're gonna take the clothes I bought and sell them for less money than I paid for him. I said, Why don't you just not buy clothes and steal out of my wallet? Wouldn't that go quicker? But But uh, but but she's I was looking at her and I thought that is, Oh, that's a woman standing in front of me a young woman, right, like, and I said, Come here, give me a hug. And I hugged her and she's like, why are you hugging me? I said, you look older. And I just want to hug you for a second before you look older again. So you're in a really sweet spot with your kids. eight, four and one. I hope you I hope you enjoy all that because There's no no no bullshit, man, it goes fast.

Brent 55:04
I tried to enjoy it. I'm not, you know,

I have ups and downs.

Scott Benner 55:09
Yeah, please. I had little kids, I know the downs. That's amazing. I They're so adorable in the background, you're gonna make people get pregnant. Right? If you if you keep hearing that they can't see what a pain your kids are they just think they're adorable because they're listening. Well, did we not? Did we? Is there anything we didn't say that you were hoping we were talking about?

Brent 55:31
Um, it's funny, I actually, like wrote out my whole story and tried to kind of figure out what I should talk about. Um,

let me just look over some things real quick.

Scott Benner 55:46
I can't wait to hear what you wrote down that we missed. Um, but Brent, honestly, I'm not bad at this, we probably got the most of it. Right.

Brent 55:55
Yeah, no, we definitely have.

I do want to say, you know,

taking care of yourself is very important. You know, especially if you have a family and kids, you know, you want to be around as long as possible. It's important to kind of, you know, take care of yourself, you know, do your best don't beat yourself up for not being perfect, because nobody's perfect. Even with the technology that's out there. Yeah, that's a

Scott Benner 56:29
damn good life lesson. And then it's, I think, 100% true. I mean, I can't speak to it from personal experience, obviously. But from talking to so many people, it feels like that. It wouldn't be difficult for diabetes to overwhelm you, and get the better of you and start feeling like, this is just my life. I can't do any better than this. And it's what's going to be is going to be but I, I really do think you can affect it. So and being positive about it is a is a good first step.

Brent 56:59
Yes, definitely. And and another thing is Be patient. things take time to learn. And that kind of thing I see on Facebook groups all the time, people complaining about everything that goes wrong and whatnot. Both with you know, Dexcom and tandem stuff. Things happen. But a lot of the time they don't happen as much as

Scott Benner 57:23
it looks like it does on Facebook. Yeah, no, Facebook is not to complain. It's not. People don't pop on to go, Oh, my God, everything's going so great. Let me tell you about it.

Brent 57:31
Yeah, yeah, I can tell you was quite an interesting time on Facebook. When Dexcom had their outage a month or two ago, whenever

Scott Benner 57:40
I spoke about it, too. It was interesting.

Brent 57:42
It was just so sad to see all the negativity

out there.

Scott Benner 57:50
Right away, you're thinking, yeah, this thing that's doing this amazing thing for me, you know, and not that you don't want it to do better, and not that the company doesn't want to, you know, fill in gaps when it has them. But yeah, it's it's interesting to see how quickly someone can turn on you. Yes. It really does give you that feeling like, wow, you know, watch my back. Because five seconds ago, I saw this little avatar with this name next to it saying, Next comes the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And three hours into the share not working correctly, which by the way, didn't mean the Dexcom wasn't working. The Dexcom was working fine. It was just, it was the sheer function. And you might have thought that Well, you know what, I heard less people upset when Australia was on fire. So seriously, you would think that would make people upset? No.

Unknown Speaker 58:36
Yeah.

Scott Benner 58:38
Now that's this is where this is where everybody gets upset. But now I hear you. So to just really do your best. Now you're not gonna think about having four kids. And so, but yeah, do your best, right. And it takes time yet sometimes you have to experience things going wrong. So you know what it looks like when they go right. You know how to make them go that way? It just takes time. Like it really does. Yes, it does. Yeah. Not being dramatic and getting frustrated. If you can help. It is a big hump. All right. Listen, you go make those kids smarter by sending them to school. I will you be very happy. I didn't have time to ask you about your magic underwear because I still want to understand it better than I do. And is that an insulting phrase magic underwear. I'm assuming you call it something different.

Brent 59:25
Yes, we do tell something different, but I'm not insulted.

Scott Benner 59:30
Listen, apparently it's not insulting because Mormons continue to come on this podcast. So I feel like I'm doing the right thing here. I really appreciate you doing this. Brent. Thank you.

Brent 59:41
Yeah, no, I really appreciate you taking the time to let me talk to you and share my story.

Scott Benner 59:47
Hundred percent is my pleasure. I hope you have a great day and I'll let you know as soon as this is going to come out. All right

Brent 59:54
now I hope you have a good day as well and I will look forward to when this comes out. I appreciate that.

Scott Benner 59:59
Thank you. family for me, thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:01
I will.

Scott Benner 1:00:03
Huge thanks to Brent for coming on and sharing his story. And of course the the Contour Next One blood glucose meter and touched by type one.org. for their support of the Juicebox Podcast, there's a list of all of the advertisers in the show notes of your podcast app, and at Juicebox podcast.com. But you can go to Contour Next one.com Ford slash juice box to find out more about this meter or touched by type one.org. To learn about that great organization. Last thing, if you go to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box, you can add your voice to some wonderful Type One Diabetes Research and it's super simple to do. Right there on your phone, your tablet, your PC from your home, you never have to visit a doctor. You never have to visit a site. It's completely HIPAA compliant. You can back out at any time if you change your mind and it is 1,000,000% anonymous. The answers you provide help people make good decisions about how to help people with type one diabetes. That's what your answers can do. Super simple. The ADA has made adjustments to their a one c recommendations for children because of T one D exchange. Test trips are covered by more insurance companies because of D one D exchange. The list goes on and on. This research does great stuff. You can support T one D exchange support people with type one diabetes and support the podcast T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. The survey didn't take me more than 10 minutes to complete. Thanks to everyone for listening to the podcast and for sharing it with someone else. Two days ago, the show had its most popular day in the history of the show. It was it was a day that I will not soon forget the downloads were astonishing. And I very much thank you all for being ardent listeners and for sharing the show so freely means a lot and you're helping the show to grow. So thank you very much. I'll see you soon with another episode of the Juicebox Podcast.