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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Episode 447 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today we're gonna talk to Josh, who's got quite a story of diagnosis is diagnoses, diagnosis, diagnosis, definitely diagnoses. He's got quite the story. A year ago, in March 2020, Josh got sick. And after that he was diagnosed with maybe I shouldn't even tell you. Well, three things happened to him, that Josh thinks might be from that illness. I'm definitely not going to give you all the details. Just trust me and settle in and listen to an interesting, interesting story. We're gonna dedicate the first bit of the show to Josh, just laying it all out for you. And then it turns into more of a back and forth and the conversation opens up. But wait, do you hear the crazy stuff that's happened to this man? Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. There's no ads on this one today, just a couple of announcements, then we get right into the conversation.

Okay, if you're looking for the diabetes pro tip episodes, they begin at Episode 210. And they're also available at diabetes pro tip.com. Perhaps you have a great diabetes practitioner, or you're looking for one one way or the other. If you've got one to share, or you're looking to find a new one, check out juice box docs.com. It's a great list. It's being built by listeners just like you just think of it as like that little Penny thing at the convenience store. Or like give a penny take a penny. I don't think they let us do that anymore. But you remember, give a doctor or take a doctor. And last thing, please consider supporting the good work being done by the T one D exchange. Your participation will take just a few moments. But the impact of your kindness will last forever. The T one D exchange is looking for type one adults and type one caregivers who are us residents. They'd like you to participate in a quick survey that can be completed. I mean, we did it in seven minutes. And you can do it on your phone or your computer right there from your house. You don't have to go anywhere. I don't have to go to a doctor's office, and you're still helping with Type One Diabetes Research. After you finish their questions, you'll be contacted annually to update your information just in case anything's changed. And you may be asked further questions. This is 100% anonymous, it is completely HIPAA compliant. It never requires you to see a doctor and you can back out of it at any time if you'd like to. But your personal information will never be attached to the answers that you get. Now every time someone completes the process using my link, T one d exchange.org. forward slash Juicebox. Podcast will also benefit. So if you've been looking for a way to help type one research, or the podcast, or maybe both, nothing could be easier or more beneficial. The study is looking for up to 6000 participants, so there's plenty of space for you. The information that past participants have offered has helped to bring increased coverage for test trips Medicare coverage for CGM and changes to the ADA guidelines for pediatric a one seagulls super simple to do. You'll really be helping other people with type one diabetes. And it can be done again. At the T one D exchange T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox we're recording that way so don't say exactly but what part of the country on

Josh 3:55
Oh, I'm very close to you. I think I mean, I'm not sure if you're in North Jersey or southern jersey, but we're about to like the top of the Chesapeake Bay.

Scott Benner 4:02
Oh, no kidding. I'm just interested that you can be on your porch. Is it heated? Right?

Unknown Speaker 4:07
Well, it's uh, you know,

Unknown Speaker 4:08
yeah, he

Scott Benner 4:10
it used to be a concrete thing you know, that I glanced it in so it's, it's pretty well insulated. Nice. I just woke up this morning and I was like, it's please Why is it snowing again? Like Please stop.

I know people like it, but I don't.

Josh 4:25
Well, our family has a hardware store so I'm just happy to sell everybody ice powder.

Scott Benner 4:29
I was gonna say buckets of salt and scrapers and turning turn into a splash.

Josh 4:35
Last year. We didn't sell any of that stuff. No, it was it was just if it did snow it you know, turn to rain right away or whatever. Yeah.

Scott Benner 4:41
When that happens, you just stick that stuff in the back and sit on it for a year.

Josh 4:45
Yeah, for the most part. I mean, you know, we have a inside place to store it. So I mean, it keeps pretty good but shovels keep better than the salt for sure.

Scott Benner 4:55
But I'm just thinking you're staring at something you already paid for that you can't sell for another year. That's got It'd be pretty.

Unknown Speaker 5:02
Got it. I'll come to the world of retail, right? Yeah, no

Unknown Speaker 5:04
kidding.

Josh 5:06
My name is Josh, I guess I'm just here to tell you my story.

Scott Benner 5:09
Yeah. You have a good one to Josh. So I don't even know, there are some people's stories that I think there's an obvious jumping in point. And for years, I don't believe there is. So I'm just going to start slow with, you know, how long have you had diabetes? What was it like being diagnosed? That kind of stuff?

Josh 5:29
Sure. Well, I'll give you my whirlwind story. I know you like to do the same thing I do, and kind of, you know, go on tangents and stuff. So I kind of hit you with the story, and then we can take it from there. So I'm about this time last year, my youngest daughter, I got I got two ones. 12 right. Now one's 14. My youngest got the flu, right? Everybody gets the flu, no big deal. I called the pediatrician, they were like, it's going around, you know, keep her hydrated. If it doesn't spike above this, you know, we don't need to see her kind of thing. You know. So, you know, my parents live right next door, she stayed, she stayed home with them for the day. And then, by the end of that day, you know, my mom was sick. My dad's like, I think you're out to watch her tomorrow. So I stayed home with her. And next thing, you know, I had the flu. So, you know, the three of us were all, you know, dying on the couch or whatever, for a week, no big deal. You know, the few couple days go by and weekend rolls around, I started feeling a little better go back to work. You know, I'm on the sales floor, doing whatever. And you still have that little bit of that. That lingering cough that was going around, you know, for the last couple years and can't quite shake. Yeah, the next thing you know that that next Thursday, I woke up in the morning, and my hand was tingling. And I'd broken that wrist in high school. And it didn't really think that it was, you know, something serious, I thought, you know, I don't know, slept on it wrong, or whatever, right? I'm in my 40s now. You know, I kind of dismissed it for a day. And then the next day, my face went kind of tingling down by my, my left hand side of my jaw, like I just had to surgery or something, I took that one a little more seriously, but still, like, typically stubborn guy didn't go to the doctor's or anything. So you know, the weekend rolls around, and I hear I kind of just take it easy. The kids are at work, you know, divorced kids are at their moms that weekend. So they lounge around the house to try to get ready for the next week. So I still felt you know, terrible at Sunday. So I said to my dad, I think I'm gonna, you know, go in to see the walk in clinic tomorrow. So I figured, you know, why see my regular doctor, you know, X ray my hand or something. So, he takes the kids to school, I, you know, I go into the clinic there and they're like, Hey, we think you're having a stroke.

Unknown Speaker 8:00
It's like, Whoa,

Josh 8:01
really, you know, so I get to that I get to the hospital. And, you know, they brought a bunch of tests and stuff. And sure enough, like, not like one of those little mini strokes, you know, I always do things like, you know, full bore, so I had a had an actual stroke, and my hand in my face were you know, being controlled by a part of the brain that just sensitivity so my hand kind of felt like it's permanently dipped in ice or something. It's been that way for the last year. But um, you know, they This is how I found out so I hear these different stories from your, your, your different podcasts, you know, they were like, so how long you been diabetic? You know, and I'm like, What are you talking about? And my agency was apparently 13 and I think I was like 12 or 1300 for my sugars at the time. But But it wasn't just that my all my organs were infected, right? Have something you know, some some unknown yet unknown undiagnosed virus that may or may not have been COVID I'll get to that in a minute. But so so every organ was infected, right? So so my heart fracture rate was like 40% you know, they couldn't figure out what what it calls that it didn't seem like it was a heart attack, you know, but it wouldn't beat right. And you know, my kidneys and my pancreas and all that stuff weren't right. So you know, a couple days go by, they get me like, you know, feel a little better they start showing me how to inject myself with a pen and scoot me out the door and off I go, right so I go to the pharmacy and I pick up a couple pins right in it. I've got it I got a bunch of doctors follow up visits with that, you know, and you know, go home, you know, so the pain still tingling face still numb, you know, whatever. And, you know, there I stare I sit trying to deal with all that. And the one thing I'll say which I think I keep hearing over and over from you is there must not be enough endocrinologist in the world. I mean, there really must not be because, you know, I left the hospital you know, and they had an appointment immediately for cardiologist and I had an appointment that day scheduled for endocrinologist. I didn't really look at Got it. But you know, turns out it was like three months down the road, you know. So another thing I'll say is I found out like, way after the fact that apparently, my health insurance provider actually provides, depending on your situation, they provide one call nurses that you can speak to, and I got, I wish I had known that, you know, then because I kind of struggled around, I had had some, you know, friends and family that have had either a kid with diabetes or had diabetes, or, you know, some level of understanding a little more than the average person, but, you know, I was kind of left with a, you know, here's a pen Have at it, you know, and it was that, you know, every time you eat, shoot, shoot, ate, you know, and, and watch and test yourself, test yourself, test yourself, right, here's a, here's a non Bluetooth meter, you know, from the insurance company that write all your stuff down. This seems, seems daunting, right? I'm a fairly smart guy. But, uh, so So, you know, my first kind of thing was to deal with the heart basically, and, and, and the diabetes. So, you know, my first set of appointments was to the cardiologist, right, I was like, I gotta try to find another doctor get in or something with the endocrinologist, but I'll, I'll put that off and go to the cardiologist, the cardiologist, you know, they do a stress test, they run a bunch of stuff in their life is normal. Now, I have to tell you that the, the week, before the flu was like Valentine's Day, so it's almost like a full full blown year. And then the next week, was the last week of February, last year. And then so I got into the hospital out of the hospital, like March 2 through the fifth. So, you know, now there's this part of the story. I'm like, the second week of March. So I go and have a fairly normal experience at the cardiologist, they give me a heart monitor put me on that to kind of try to figure out why my heart was doing the things it was doing. Nobody was talking about some massive pandemic viral infection going around, right. So, you know, so I leave with this heart monitor. And, and I have to tell you, that when I had it for two weeks, I went to turn it back in. And now now they have a box outside, and I've got to, I got to give it a like, go drop it off, like, you know, like some kind of spy, you know, and they're gonna hold it there for a couple days and spray it down, because they don't understand what COVID is, or how it works or anything like that. But, you know, when I dropped it off, we're talking like St. Patrick's Day, and that's when everybody and their mom had COVID. Right? It's just, it's just exploding, and nobody knows what to do. So So that's kind of how it all started, you know? And then what happened there was, as you may or may not know, I hope you guys didn't have a personal experiences with this. But quote, unquote, elective surgery just shut down for like, a year. Yeah, like, so it was just like, shut down. And that's

Scott Benner 13:03
and then that's more than people who like when people hear elective surgery, they think like, Oh, I can't get a nose job because of COVID. But there's other things that like knee replacements and things that really impact people's lives that they just weren't doing at that time.

Josh 13:16
Oh, yeah. So I have a, I have a friend of the family that he had a heart transplant, right before COVID. And then when when COVID started, he was a missed rehab. And then when rehab, you know, when the COVID started rehab shut down, and then the insurance company, and he gives you so many weeks of rehab. So you started rehab, you didn't do rehab, you can't sort of back up so you just got you know, screwed out of half of his rehab. That's just how that worked. You know, that some of these companies are making some, but you look at I mean, look at my problems, I feel like they're, they're so they're severe, but they're minor compared to some other testing. I mean, you know, people aren't getting biopsies during this time period, right? You know, they're pushing off cancer treatments, because they don't even know if they have cancer or not, I can't imagine how, because I was pretty stressed about this heart stuff. And, and, and so I'm talking to the doctor, most of us that virtual, you know, like we're doing now, you know, we're FaceTime or whatever, talking to the doctor about different stuff. And what he really wants to do is what they call catheterization, where they go up there and they look at the heart with a with a tube, and then usually while they're in there already, they decide if they need to put a stent in or something. So they want to do that really bad. They want to check out the heart they want to see what's going on because I can't quite figure it out. Now you know, I'll skip ahead to the end and maybe go back to the middle or something but so he so so he wants to do this catherization keeps putting it off and putting it off putting off we can't get in we can't do anything. So, so finally, him and I kind of mutually decided that we're going to do a CAT scan of the heart, you know, real they don't usually do that because you know yields the same effect. is just going in there and then fixing it at the same time. So do that CAT scan in June. And they're like, Oh, yeah, just like we thought, looks like looks like a mild blockage. You know, I don't know that that's what calls whatever happened. But you know, we go in there and clean it up, you know, in and out same day, you know, put a little stent in there, no big deal. No big deal. open heart surgery, no big deal. You know, so yeah, I'm, I'm in my 40s, I'm like, Alright, well, you know, I like bacon, you know, I'm sure, I'm sure I've got a little bit of clog going on in there. You know, whatever, that's good. It's just one artery, whatever, we'll go get it cleaned up, in and out. You know, so. So it's, uh, you know, now now we're talking into June or July, they scheduled this mid July, they scheduled the stent surgery, you know, it's a really is a relatively benign procedure, you know, things have loosened up a little bit with COVID, but not really.

Unknown Speaker 15:51
So,

Josh 15:54
you know, they go in there. I'm sorry, backup, the way it works, which, you know, I don't know if you've had any experience with any, any surgeries minor or otherwise, during this whole thing, but, you know, they say that I have to go get a COVID test before I go and do the surgery, right, you know, make sure I don't have it going into surgery. So, okay, so they say you need to do it within 72 hours. Now, you know, my grammar differs from theirs, because what they meant was 72 hours. So I was hoping to do it, like the day before or something, but I had to do it a couple days in advance. So I go in there to do it, you know, then they're like, hey, by the way, you can't go to work or anything, because I'm because it's because we're essential business, like I might have set out if it's on tape or not, but we have a hardware store, it's retail, we're open, we're considered essential in the state, you know, we're selling stuff and doing stuff like normal. So

Scott Benner 16:46
but you know, like, test and then they, they want you to go sit by yourself until it's time for the surgery. Because if you're negative, and then you go bump into somebody

Josh 16:57
you didn't know. So so my. So my kids went to their they were just happenstance, though, at the after the first week of a two week stay at their mom's house for you know, for her, like summer vacation time. So, you know, I kind of had purposely planned that surgery or on a Friday, you know, middle of their, their thing, but as it turns out, I'm, I'm now I'm home alone, you know, to my own devices for a couple days before the, for the little tiny minor surgery, right. So, you know, we live down by the water went out on the bay, messed around on the kayak for a couple hours a day, you know, no big deal. I had to, you know, I'm sort of getting this, this this diabetes thing, right, um, I got some I got, you know, I got my Apple watch on I got my, I got, you know, all my stuff to be safe, you know, messed around the kayak, you know, you know, I got a little you know, snack or something, if in case I get low, I've got that all handled. But, you know, after messing around kayak for a couple hours, go all in and come back inside, do that for a couple days. Go and have the surgery, you know, and then they they go in, they come out and they're like we didn't do the surgery. You know, you're in you need to find a bypass to try not to sweat it. We're going to do it on Tuesday. Just stay here in the hospital. And you're, you know, then you're just sitting there like it would have been way better if I just woke up with, you know, five bypasses, but, but I don't know if you heard me correctly. So that's five bypasses. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 18:30
it went from Hey, you're gonna get a stent. This is really no big deal to and so can you describe to people what a bypass is? Do you know? Or did you just close your eyes? Yeah. Hey, just do it. I'll be okay. I don't want to know.

Josh 18:45
Yeah, and then No, no, I would say anybody getting a bypass, maybe don't Google it and watch the YouTube videos on it or whatever. But you know, the down and dirty is the, you know, the the arteries going in and out of the heart, right, they just cut them loose and reattach some stuff looks like you're just like traffic, just like a bypass around a city or whatever. And they put new pieces in there. So they get those new pieces. You know, if it's one bypass, they get it from someplace up in your chest somewhere, I believe. And if it's like five, they take a big chunk out of your leg. So they just cut me down by the knee and down by the ankle and they just jerked out an artery and cut it into pieces and put it around my heart. You know, so I was fortunate enough to have the head of the the team work on me and that was fantastic. I don't know that I had any kind of special pool which just happened to be that way. But you know, that guy did a fantastic job. And you know, I was the youngest one in the ward I can say by far had a little rough time with needs a little blood, you know, right after something but after that I bounced up there was pretty much walking around on my own. I'm not a big advocate of opioids or anything right so the first thing to do is pop a bunch of oxy and yeah, and then you know, I'm like, I don't want that, you know, some toughing it out with Tylenol and stuff and fighting to go home because, you know, I had the surgery on my youngest daughter's birthday. So that was kind of nervy I told the doctor he's not allowed to kill me on my kid's birthday.

Unknown Speaker 20:14
That's exactly what I would have said, by the way.

Josh 20:15
Yeah. Yeah. So, so anyway, you know, I go home I'm home for like a week. My parents live right next door, I might have mentioned that. They, they wanted me to stay with them. You know, it's uh, you know, I love my parents. It's one of those things where I you know, moved out for reason when I was kid right? They drive each other a little nuts when we're in the house and mom smother me that kind of stuff. So a couple days, there was plenty, you know, went back to my house. So my good test

Scott Benner 20:43
for your heart right away.

Unknown Speaker 20:46
Yeah. So then,

Josh 20:49
like a week later, I had I we have a standing thing work buddy of mine from college that incidentally lives North though view, slightly. buddy of mine from college and a buddy of mine from the next state over, we all kind of convene, and we and we go, we go down to the Outer Banks every summer. So I had asked the doctors, I'm like, Can I can I go down and out of banks. And they were like, like, two weeks after the surgery, they were like, they were like, sure, you know, you can't drive you can't lift anything, you can't really carry anything up the stairs, you know, you really should stay out of the Sun can't get in the water, but have at it, you know, so So I was like, watch sounds fine. Because that's like my therapy for the for the year, right? You know, go down there and just do nothing. So, you know, the kids helped me pack which was fantastic. And then when my buddy from from New Jersey came down and met us, you know, just outside of town and my dad kind of carried my car over there. And then my buddy drove me all the way down there which was which was wonderful. That was I was really one of those vacations where you really appreciate the vacation. Just Yeah, then I came back for like a week or two, I'd say you know, I guess it was like three weeks I was going to start cardiac rehab but they couldn't start it because of COVID till like Labor Day. And I did that till Thanksgiving while I was working right three days and work and taking some time off and here we are. I guess so. I don't know if getting questions. I feel like you might have some questions. That's

Scott Benner 22:11
crazy Josh. Okay, so let's start slow You stay right on the water and in the Outer Banks because I've been there twice and we've gone to the four by four houses both times so you like drive onto the beach drive like three miles up to the beach to your house and you have to have a four wheel drive car to get to it that's very relaxing

Josh 22:32
yeah so you're so you're so you're what you're in the north end of the Outer Banks when you're doing that sort of up by where the

Scott Benner 22:38
where the wild horses are. So God what is it called? I haven't been there in a while. I can't think of it now.

Josh 22:44
Like doc or something

Scott Benner 22:46
yeah, I I've been to doc and maybe not quite that far up wants to

Josh 22:51
Yeah, so we so we go the other way. We've been for about a decade now. We've been going down to Buxton, which is Hatteras Island, which is we're right next to the Hatteras lighthouse and a little duplex was it like say my two other buddies families? You know it's kind of nice for the duplexes right on the right on the dune you know, whatever. So we you know, we typically go over to Boca croak, you know, take the ferry over there and you know, the good and bad of Buxton is there's literally nothing to do but you know what there is to do there this little, little putt putt and and you know sandwich shop grocery store all kind of in walking distance which was good because I couldn't drive my truck You know, my buddies are all super helpful you know for sure but you know you're trying to regain your independence a little bit but you know, you want to do some stuff is kind of hard to remember at this point in the story I can't lift 10 pounds you know, that's a milk jug right? Like you know you want to you want to get out there and do something you know, but you can't even carry carry sack of groceries up the stairs. But I was walking on my own I wouldn't use a walker or anything I mean I was bounced around you just got to it's got to be careful because apparently I guess this part left out of the story but the other thing they do besides cut that piece out of your leg to put in your heart is they just they have to get to your heart right so they they just Bonsall you know your breastplate and this rip it open like in some kind of you know, alien movie or something and and then they just wrapped some some some metal wire around it to hold it closed and they and they may superglue you shut joshy a few I gotta be a little careful.

Scott Benner 24:34
I don't know if you ever cook a chicken at home. You were spatchcock. You know that you know the phrase, right? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 24:41
Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 24:44
strong likelihood. This episode is called spatchcock Josh but it's just that that's fascinating. So they just boom cuz they gotta get there. I didn't even think of that. I can tell you I freaked out when he's talking about pulling the the the pieces They needed out of your leg that actually the senate chill right up my spine into the base of my skull. And I almost passed out. I was like, Oh, I can't imagine having it done. But like you said, it's, I mean, two weeks later, even that battered you were able to just, like, go anywhere is pretty fascinating. And how long ago was this now? March, April. So.

Josh 25:24
So, you know, the stroke was in in March, but the open heart surgery was the the end of July.

Scott Benner 25:31
Okay. Now, okay, so we have to pick through this a little bit. So you had a stroke, major reconstruction of your heart and found out you had Type One Diabetes on this one thing and you were sick prior deep? Have you ever had an Did you ever get an antibody test? Or did they not exist at that point to see if you had COVID.

Josh 25:49
So so I don't know, I really say this part. But I have a friend that had that that has a sibling that that works for the government. So I was able to get one of the early ones, but that was still like about three months after. After it all happened, you know, it's like April or something. And so, so we took one of those and came back negative. And then several months after that, like, I don't know, the beginning of June or something, I was able to go to like lab core and get a blood, no more official blood blood tests. And both of those came back negative. So, you know, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I had COVID. But like, if I didn't have COVID it, I have all the stuff that they're saying COVID does. So one of my friends said, Hey, you know, you're probably the only person existing on earth that could get like some other, you know, super weird viral infection during a pandemic of another super weird virus. So, you know,

Scott Benner 26:51
I don't know, though, I mean, something. Well, first of all, I have to say, this is such a great jersey conversation, because you like, I know a guy that got me a thing. You know, like, my,

Josh 27:01
like, I say, we're in Maryland, but we're close enough.

Scott Benner 27:04
But still, like, it's got that vibe like you. You've been here before. And it's obvious. So No, but seriously, in east coast in general, it's just such a great feeling. You're just like, you know, you know, I got I got a friend, he took care of it. But so Okay, so something obviously happened, you had some sort of a viral problem, and it just attacked everything. But it didn't cause you to need five bypasses that was just bad genetics or hard living or something like that, right?

Josh 27:33
Well, well, I don't know that now. They're saying if you if you look it up, now they're saying that COVID causes, quote, unquote, rapid plaque buildup, because nobody can explain how I went from the chest X ray showing, you know, a little minor blockage to you know, everything blocked, like 100% Oh, yeah, like, I would have died if they didn't do it right away. So, so net. So, you know, they, they, they're all kind of like, but we don't have any evidence, but yeah, probably, you know, and, and, you know, nothing against the the cardiologists that, you know, did all this work to start with, but either he's really screwed up, you know, in looking at the chest x rays, you know, or there was a quick printer, I had some kind of rapid black.

Scott Benner 28:21
Yeah, see, I just assumed,

Josh 28:23
like, my great, I'm sorry. My grandfather's 97. Everybody seems healthy in our family. So I don't,

Scott Benner 28:29
yeah, I don't know. See, I just assume when you said it, that they misread the first test, and then got in there and was like, Oh, yeah, me too. We thought but I see what you're saying. And I have recently seen an article about that, about the rapid plaque through COVID. And, and

Josh 28:46
other saying COVID does the same thing that you know, a lot. I mean, a lot of the conversations are about the lungs. And I didn't really have much long issue other than I had this nasty, you know, like hoovering call for you know, the week after the flu, but um, you know, it's also doing stuff where it's kind of clotting, you know, is going through the heart or it's causing, you know, it's causing strokes, it's causing aneurysms. It's called different problems in different organs. And like I say, when it all started, I had all that I mean, my my Pete, my regular primary care doctor, she ran a bunch of tests. Now she's like, well, let's make sure it's not hepatitis, you know, I don't even know what there are like A, B, C, D, E, F, G, we're gonna check them all in like we're just gonna have to get like nine vials of blood that I had to draw here we're just going to run out what every test there is. And then you know, after that we did some more blood work like a month later and turns out every organ is working fine. Except for this whole pancreas thing. Right? You know, so I mean, I know we're, we're diabetic conversation but my my, so I didn't see a doctor about my diabetes again until like, the end of May. May, you know, going back from March and at that, from that time in between, I didn't know what kind of diabetic I was. And I seem to be responding like type one. But you know, I don't have type one type two, I didn't know what I was, nobody told me. So when I finally got to see somebody I, I asked, right, so then we did some blood work. And it seems like my pancreas is working a little bit, but, you know, damaged all the same. So, I guess that says that one a that we talked about a little bit. I think I'm officially diagnosed as a two. You know, so I don't know, you know, we're still in that. What do you call it that Cinderella period or whatever. Like, I've been doing great with the with the blood sugar's you know, went from 13 to 5.4 in the hospital, right, you know, and then, back in December, I was back up a little bit to like, 5.7. But, you know, I, I credit A lot of it to you, because, you know, I didn't get a lot of help till I finally got a chance to talk to the doctor. And then you know, I mean, she's, she's, she's just kind of like, here's this, here's this, and I'm like demanding, you know, continuous glucose monitor, I'm like, demanding a pump. So, I got the glucose monitor in, in May, and I and I, I got a G six, which I love. And then I and then I got the pump, which is Omni pod, and I got it in. While I was in the hospital, I was in the hospital for the surgery, and they were like, ooh, let's wait a week or two, to put that baby on. So after I got back from the beach, you know, we, we got I got the training for that put that on. So that was like mid August or something that I got that and that's where I really started to be able to control my sugars and stuff. Because before, you know, I'm taking a pen taking a long acting insulin, you know, at night. You know, they told me to take it at night. I don't sure why. Because, I mean, it seems like the way the cycles work and stuff that that brought me down more often than not, you know, in the middle of the night. You know, I think it probably should have been taking it during the morning or something. Right. But But, you know, I had had the two pins, and I, you know, I was taking the other one you're taking, you know, one to 10, you know, for whatever I was eating, trying to eat real good and trying to get it for, you know, 40 units or whatever for, for 40 carbs. You're doing all that doing all that basic math, but I'm shooting up and then I'm done. I'm eating the sandwich or something. Right. And, and you're seeing those big up and down spikes. And, you know, I cannot stress this enough. I know I keep I keep following your, your group on Facebook and stuff. And you keep hearing the same questions over and over again. But, you know, the PRI and and extended Bolus is like, you know, what does it you know, if you're not, if you're not, if you're just jamming yourself with a pen, you can't really can, you can't really do that. You can't do that without a pump, you know, but even if you have a pump you have to do that you can't just can't just eat and like watch it start to go up and then start to dose yourself and hope for the best. Right You have to you have to do more

Scott Benner 33:04
is that you got to find the right timing and use the insulin words need

Unknown Speaker 33:07
right? There's a science to it.

Scott Benner 33:09
Hey, I'm so so is it possible? It's such an interesting look, right? Because you're obviously very involved with your health. And probably you weren't probably a year ago, but still you're you're involved in it, you're paying attention to what's happening. And Isn't it crazy that nobody can really tell you exactly what happened? Like maybe you got a virus that puts you into like multiple, like system failures. And at the same time started diabetes. Is that possible? Like is there any any autoimmune in your family line? Two people have celiac hypothyroidism type one. Do you see that anywhere in your family? No,

Josh 33:48
no, not at all. I mean, I have my mom has a sister that passed away about a year before this conversation started. And she was she was a type two diabetic. You know, she had been heavy she had you know, she'd lost some weight. she she she loves sweet tea. Right? So I'm not sure that she managed it to the best of her ability. And she was doing that with you know, mainly with pills and then finally with it with some some insulin, I believe but you know, none of that, you know, I had a I had an uncle that had had a heart valve surgery. But that was a defect from you know, from birth or something, which is completely different than a bypass. So, you know, we're all relatively healthy. I mean, there's some skin cancer, there's some other stuff that's you know, that's popped up in the family but, but nothing nothing that explains this.

Scott Benner 34:39
Yeah. How about your girls? They were both sick at the same time too. Are they? Okay?

Josh 34:45
Just one which my oldest, you know, I mean, we're in the same house and my oldest was fine. You know, my dad was fine. You know, but, but my youngest. You know, she got this and, and, you know, I guess like you're hearing about most kids With with COVID and stuff, there is some there's some weird symptoms and stuff, but she basically just had the flu. You know, we didn't even it didn't even dawn on us that this could have been COVID till it started kind of, you know, just progressing and you start reading about some of the different symptoms and stuff. Like what we might have had COVID Yeah.

Scott Benner 35:18
It's that timing in that vert in those beginning months where nobody really First of all, it was here in January, and we weren't aware of it at all. I mean, when do you really feel like America became aware of it and the first

Josh 35:30
rate on St. Patrick's Day, right, right before me. I remember they shut they shut down Ireland for the bars St. Patrick's Day, right? Yeah, that's where I remember it was the week of St. Patrick's Day is when I kind of mark as the the timeframe that everything kind of shut down.

Scott Benner 35:46
We're March 13. I remember, Cole was in Florida playing baseball, and we rushed home, he actually got sick while we were down there. But he got something that we we don't think was viral because they gave him antibiotics. And it cleared it really quickly. But, you know, we rushed home from there. And God, that's 11. I mean, it's February 18. Now, so it's almost been a full year, I have to tell you to Joshua, you've been going through a thing. So you've been busy. But the last couple of days, I just sit in my house thinking like, oh, there's the wall in the living room again. It's still there. Like I just I'm, I'm really starting to, I want to go outside, and then it snowed. And I was like, oh God, like, I can't even wander around in my property anymore, you know, go to a park or something like it was just, I am almost at my wit's end, I think is what I'm saying. Like, if I snap and rob a bank or kill somebody, six months from now, you'll be able to use this recording, as this man was calling out for help. He's been he's been in his house too long. It's just,

Unknown Speaker 36:46
well, you. Yeah, you,

Josh 36:48
you, you, you brought up a point that I really, I can't, I can't really I can sympathize with but I've been really blessed, our business has been essential. It's been open, I've been I was home for a couple weeks dealing with this heart surgery thing. You know, but but I've had the added bonus of, you know, seeing 1000 customers a day and talking to people and things being sort of normal in my life. You know, and I've watched friends struggle that have you know, that are teachers or that or that own a restaurant or whatever the case may be and there and and, or work for any of those types of things. And and you know, of course, you're you're a stay at home dad, so you're a little more accustomed to it to start with, I imagine. But still, it's different. It's been a bad year, and it's been a bad year for people I imagine that have any type of mental health are prone to depression or something like that. I mean, it's just, it's just rough. And one thing to keep asking it with this with the, with the open heart surgery and stuff, I guess, I guess you're prone to depression for that. So they keep kind of you Okay, you feel all right. I'm like, I'm fine. You know, but also, like I say, I'm not home. The kids aren't home either. They, you know, they go to a private school. The private school was really cool. They did. They were they were virtual for a little bit, right last year. And then this year, they decided they were going to open up safely. So they moved all the classrooms around ripped out lockers, that all this weird stuff, but they gave us a choice. You know, your kids can go virtual, your kids can go full day, your kids can go what they call essential learner so so we opted for the essential learners. And that's basically eight to 1230 is the go in there. And they bang out all this core classes. And then they they skip lunch where everybody's a little more communal, and they skip gym, and they skip the stems program where they might be sharing a microscope or something and they just go home and they do their homework. So so even the kids have had a little bit of a sense of normalcy, you know, we're you know, you haven't, but, you know, but my kids played volleyball. You know, I was assistant coaching the year before this, I was kind of thankful, sort of that we didn't have volleyball this year, because I'm not sure I didn't ambition to assistant assistant coach this fall, but but, you know, I missed that. And I think the kids missed that. Yeah, it's good. It's it's a good physical activity getting them out. You know, but for us, it's a lot of running around because unlike, you know, public schools, you know, it's all the other sister schools that are, you know, an hour away sometimes. So, you know, it was a lot of it was a lot of run into two games and stuff last couple years, and this year, quieted a little bit for us, which was like something that I think I personally needed. But I'd like things to go back to normal, right? And I'm kind of sick of wearing these I kind of prefer the Gators over the mask because I'm in and out of my office all the time on the sales floor. But But everybody's sick of wearing those things. You know, it's hard for employee morale, it's hard for the customers, you know, nobody you know, everybody wants to be safe, but nobody wants to really, you know, just function with that stuff on all the time.

Scott Benner 39:44
I listen, I don't mind doing what whatever needs to be done. I'm happy to do I just because my life used to be. I'd get up in the morning and I you know, she wouldn't think of it this way. But I get my wife off to work. I get my daughter off to school. Come back. You know You clean up from the night before get the house in order. Do a little light cleaning. I've record a podcast, do some editing, have a little lunch, mess with the dogs a little bit. I go get Arden from school, we get that thing going they start making dinner like there was a pattern to it last night at 830. Arden, when can I have dinner and I went, I didn't give you dinner. And she has known like, Oh, sorry. Like, I just there's no rhyme or reason to anything like I can just, there's just nothing. There's no scheduling, it doesn't matter what time it is. It doesn't matter what day it is. I stood in the kitchen this morning. And I was like I was just here seven hours ago. I don't even like what do I do now? Like, you know what I mean? It's just ridiculous. I really need a schedule.

Josh 40:39
And your kids are a little older to a teenager, right?

Scott Benner 40:43
Yeah, yeah, she's 16 my son's still stuck here. He's going to be 21 in a couple of days. And,

Josh 40:48
yes, so So I mean, my two, like I said, they're 12 and 14, but I think about you know, had an aunt that was a teacher, it was a kindergarten teacher for like, 30 years. And, and, and I sit there and I think about these kids that are that are five, or eight, or something and you go, I mean, you know, they're kind of too young to leave at home. But the schools aren't like letting them go to school. And you know, sometimes, I got a buddy of mine that has kids in elementary school, middle school and high school, and our county, I think still, I don't know, at least to begin with, you know, they had kids going, you know, a couple days a week, but different different days for different age groups and stuff. And you're like, Oh my god, I can't, I can't imagine trying to try to schedule that in my own brain, ya know, like, I, I have, I have a calendar, I write stuff down. I can imagine the kids, this kid goes this day, and this kid goes this day. And this kid who's this day, the rest of days, they all stay home. Well, how do you run that?

Scott Benner 41:39
Yeah. Listen, I can't be certain. But I also think that everything we've done for the last year has probably saved a lot of people from going through what you went through. So that alone, hopefully, yeah, hopefully, like if it and if it did, then to me, it's worth it. Like, don't get me wrong, like six months from now. You know, if everything is is different, I'm not gonna like, think back on this. It's not, you know, it hasn't impacted me for the rest of my life in a way that I can't rebound from what I'm also lucky about because I did have that thought. Last night, I was cooking dinner. And I thought this is a bad day. I had a bad day today. I just did not there was nothing about being alive today. That was anything, but I'm lucky that mentally I'm, I guess I'm I'm built in a way that I can get through this and get to the next one. But there are plenty people that can either and I don't know, there's your

Josh 42:30
impression is real. Yeah. And, and like I was saying, in I tell a lot of people tell you know, summer employees and stuff. I mean, when this whole thing started to, you know, everybody's trying to decide, you know, leave the groceries out and spray them down, whatever the case may be, you know, like, all the stuff that was filthy before is filthy now, you know, like, like, a public bathroom is filthy, you know, like door handles to a restaurant or store, whatever, they're, they're filthy. You know, gas pumps are filthy, you know, I mean, keypads for, you know, the point of sales, you know, they're there. They're filthy. I mean, you know, wash your hands, right, you should be washing your hands. You know, if you're a parent, you got kids that are older now, but I mean, how many times did you spend your like your? You know, I don't know. I feel like my 30s were spent telling somebody to wash their hands, right? And friends that are nurses and stuff that wash your thumbs to write you wash your hand. Like don't put it in your mouth.

Scott Benner 43:29
I mean, obviously, there's it's shone a light on a lot of like, important stuff like that. Now we'll wait and see if if, if it if it sticks to people or you know, three months after you don't have to wear a mask anymore. Everybody's just licking their fingers and putting in their phone number at the grocery store again, and I can't I'm also Josh, I had a real job at one point in my life. And so

Josh 43:51
yeah, I read I read your book. I'm not gonna lie actually. I'm like, like three chapters in or whatever, but I got it off Amazon. Oh, and I started so so I heard about your real job.

Scott Benner 44:01
I had a real job and because of that my hands are I don't know how to describe this to people who have never worked with their hands like in a real vigorous way but I don't really have much in the way of like, grip on my hands. Like so things slip out of my hands sometimes I'm not I'm not having a stroke I don't think like you did but I can't grab

Unknown Speaker 44:20
this is a try having a stroke

Scott Benner 44:22
but opening those damn cellophane bags at the grocery store without like, I mean honestly without just touching your tongue to your finger a little bit like it's really hot it's so they're like trying to blow like warm air through my mask on my family. Can I get some humidity maybe will that help and my wife's like don't do that. I was like, how am I gonna get the bag open? I don't I can't get the bag open. So I don't know I just it's all very strange but and that it led to any of your health issues is that it possibly did is crazy. And you see are you going to get an antibody test to see if you have type one that can do that.

Josh 45:01
Yeah, I guess I mean, I don't know, like you said, I mean, there's so much going on and so much to kind of cross back and forth between different things that, you know, like, back around was the right around Christmas, I guess I was at the cardiologist and he goes, who's your? Who's your neurologist? And I don't have a neurologist, they're like, why not? You still have this stuff with your hand and stuff? And I'm like, I don't know, I haven't. I've haven't had time to deal with that, you know, I've been focused on you know, I mean, it took me forever to get an endocrinologist and get in there and see her a couple times and see the nutritionists and stuff. And the last time I was in there, I'm proud to report like I say, she said, She's, I have no advice for, you know, I don't even know why some of this stuff, some of the settings, you have work. But, you know, keep doing that. And I was complaining about, you know, my, my range or whatever, right? I'm like, I'm like, 20%. You know, you know, as far as my, my, you know, jump from from thing to thing, like, when I eat and stuff like it, you know, I was trying to get a little tighter trying to get my line a little flatter, but, you know, listening to you trying to do better. She's like, That's ridiculous. Like, you're, you know, when you're out arranger, you're like, you know, you hit like, 132. You know, I mean, you're not, it's not, you're not like 400 or something. So

Scott Benner 46:24
is that the Mendoza line? 400 400? everything's going great. And well, did you just tell her like, Look, there's a man's voice that comes out of my phone, and I'm just doing what he was saying. I don't

Josh 46:39
know, man. I mean, in all seriousness, I plugged the crap out of you. I think you're doing good work. I appreciate. You know, so. And I think I think that, you know, there's not really a lot of a lot of education for this. And I think that there's not really a lot of doctors that are doing this. And there's not a lot of doctors that are educated on this stuff. I've been reading, right, you know, there's I'm sure maybe, maybe I missed an episode or something. But there's a, there's a company that's working on insulin doesn't need to refrigerate is working on another pump. It's kind of like the Omni pod is coming out or something that

Scott Benner 47:08
seems pretty cool that yeah, that seems a little like vaporware to me. But it's, it's, it's a great, great idea. And if they can do it, that's amazing, what they're talking about doing is creating a more concentrated insulin. So the that also doesn't need to be refrigerated, which helps people around the world, but you wouldn't need as much of it, you know, if you're, if your carb ratio now is, you know, I don't know, three units, you know, for every 10 grams or something like that, it could end up being significantly less, which would mean the pump would need to hold less, and they could make a smaller pump. And you know, and it's going to work faster. But that's a lot of that's a lot of hoping and not a lot of you. I mean, none of that stuff exists right now. So they're working in the apple

Josh 47:49
and the Apple Watch is talking about, you know, there's gonna be some kind of magnetic reader, which seems like the holy grail for glucose monitors, you

Scott Benner 47:58
know, wrap my head around that either like, I don't know how you're gonna get some, but like, maybe it would like, Listen, if you if you tell me that the average person could wear an Apple Watch, and be told, Hey, your, your blood glucose is normal. Or maybe you ought to go to a doctor like that would be crazy. But I don't know how you'd make like specific decisions about insulin. If you had type one or type two without I don't understand how I just don't imagine that the technology took such a great leap, and none of us heard about it. Do you know what I mean? Like it Me neither. But I

Josh 48:30
have to tell you like our business. You know, we've been around since 1924. Right? So so we sold ice and cold and I have a hard time wrapping my head around delivering a cube of ice to somebody like second floor walk up or third floor walk up and put it in their icebox so that they can have refrigeration, you know, and I and I look at the I look at insulin the same way. I mean, man, holy cow. I mean, people were peeing on this on on strips and stuff to try to get you know, whatever. And then now you can prick your finger and check it and now now you can wear the Dexcom Now the Dexcom is getting smaller, you know,

Scott Benner 49:05
insulin that works. It's amazing insulin that works more quickly, that you might not need as much of That's amazing. I mean, that would just be a huge thing. There are other little things they need to work on to like canula technology like candles need to be, you know, an adhesive that doesn't you know, it's tough because, you know, if you make a million of something and 50,000 people break out from it, it's hard to ignore what's happening to 50,000 people it's also hard to ignore that the other million of them are not having trouble with it. It's so hard to like to innovate serve people as a customer service in the moment and cover everybody when when maybe most people aren't having the it's just in the internet makes it look worse. Like Yeah, he's a great example like the internet makes it looks crazy.

Josh 49:52
If I say anything to my my fellow Dexcom slash Omnipod. Where's like, I mean, it's right in the instructions. But you know, I think I think When I get on the different groups and stuff that I don't you don't you believe that? Like, I don't want to maybe start this Hi, but 90% of the problem is you didn't prep that area, right? Like you didn't, you know, like, I'm a little hairy. You know, I didn't, I didn't shave it. I didn't, I didn't. I didn't put a rubbing alcohol swab on there and make sure all the greases all my skin were off or whatever. And I just slapped that thing on there and didn't didn't stick who couldn't, you know,

Scott Benner 50:25
and you know, and here's the other side of it is we don't use alcohol, all the prep sites we use, we use whatever. We use warm water and a clean rag because at some point, Arden started having what looked like contact dermatitis. This is many, many years ago got it had to be. It's about nine years ago now. And at least you're cleaning it? Well. Yeah. Well, so I wrote a blog about it once because I remember looking at art and site thinking, God, what is this, like her on the pod is causing like a rash? And like the adhesive, and what am I gonna do without this pod? And I was standing literally standing, still thinking, and I found myself rubbing my fingers together thinking, and I realized how dry my hands were. And I thought, Oh, yeah, it's obvious why I'm so dry. I'm always touching alcohol. And then I went, Oh, wait a minute. And so I on my own, stopped cleaning her with alcohol. And the problem went away. Now this wouldn't be the answer for everybody, obviously. But for her it really was. And then I did a little research. And I found out that in Europe, if you go to your endocrinologist, they'll tell you explicitly not to clean with alcohol, where in America, they tell you explicitly to clean with alcohol. So right, like, wait a minute, and you know, so I started thinking like, Is this just a liability issue like this DNA mean like this in a more litigious place to somebody just not want to say don't, you know, kill, so we just, we cleaner really well. And we just don't use alcohol to dry your skin out. And that's it? Well, I

Josh 51:53
think cleaning cleaning, however we go about it, like that's a valid point. I mean, I don't really feel like I have sensitive skin. But I know my one daughter does. So and and going back to this technology, I have to say I can't imagine I know you've like literally grown up, you know, had her grow up with it. But I can't imagine having a kid with type one I know plenty of people that have and send them off to school, right and just kind of hoping for the best I mean, these dex coms, these continuous glucose monitors, you know, where you can control it, where you can see it, like, I don't micromanage my kids, but at the same time, like, I mean, I would want to know what their sugars are now. Like all day long, just like I want to know my own art. And I've learned a lot i'm sure I've already talked about it. But I've learned a lot from just spending like the last year looking at my mind, you know, looking at my every five minutes, I think comparing them from day to day, week to week looking at those reports, you know, I've got the sugar made, I've got the I've got the clarity app, and i and i and i look at all the different ways that that stuff matters. I've even compared it to my you know, the heart rate and stuff like that because because the heart stuff so I've looked at this become a data junkie on all this stuff. And and you know, I can tell what I've done wrong when I wouldn't my sugar's go up. I have to say though, I got a question for you. I got your quiet got you live. I I've been doing great except for this year. Uh, my, this new found neurologist put me on a drug to help deaden the nerve pain that I've got going. And it takes a couple weeks to ramp up in your system. So you know, it's actually been like about a month and a half, but my sugars go up and they stick you know, and I'm pretty damn sure that it's exactly that medicine that's doing it. I mean, I'm running higher. And I'm taking like, you know, two or three times what I should should have to take to bring my stuff down and I'm not really crashing but it's what's the drug? Well, it's it's Lyrica, Lyrica, which is a pretty common drug I guess for that and some other purposes. So I'm sure some other people are probably on it. Listen,

Scott Benner 54:03
pre gambling, nerve pain, medication, brand Lyrica. fibromyalgia, neurology, epilepsy, neuropathy, spinal stenosis. It's used for a lot of different things.

Josh 54:22
It's like, for me, I mean, but it's not working for me was supposed to do is kind of turn off the brain where it's over sensitive, over firing sensitivity. And, you know, like I say, my hand feels like it's an ice all the time. So I've just been taking more and more of it. And, and, and, you know, one of the side effects is makes you drowsy. So you know, guys, that guy, you get used to it. So I mean, I feel really blessed. I don't have all the side effects or anything. I just, I just feel tired. And now my sugars keep going up. You know, you eat a breakfast or something like that. And you do the PRI and extend it. The next thing you know, you're you're, you know, I'm blown over 200 And then I'll take 10 or something and it won't even budget, you know, and then it won't crash down. It'll just settle down. But you know, you'd like what happened to that 10 or 15 units that I just gave. That's a lot.

Scott Benner 55:10
Yeah. I am seeing, excuse me. I'm seeing a couple of like old forum conversations with people about you know, has anybody ever used Lyrica and lost control of their blood sugar's somebody said, Yes, I have. Didn't get a big, it wasn't a big conversation. But there were a couple people in there that said it did. There's an article another place, I've been on Lyrica started getting super high spikes every day. And then then yeah, some people say, I tried Lyrica, it didn't help me. I tried Lyrica. It did help me. Yeah, I don't know. It sounds like it's not out of the, out of the realm of possibility that, that it's making your blood sugar do that. But you're also saying it's not helping for what it was prescribed for?

Josh 55:57
Yeah, yeah. So I mean, the way it works is with you know, a lot of those kind of drugs, I mean, they start you off with a low dose, you take this twice a day, this level, you know, let's do it for a week or two, let's, let's, let's double that, you know, let's, you know, let's, let's switch from the little pill to the big pill, you know, let's take more of the big pill, you know, so I've been, I've been gradually ramping it up. And I'd say I'm at a, at a medium high level for what most people would take whatever, but it's not.

Unknown Speaker 56:23
It's not, it's not

Josh 56:24
doing anything for me as far as the resolve. So, you know, I'm on I'm at, I'm at the point where I'm probably, you know, next up is like, you know, do I get a refill? Do I just tell him, I'm going to stop, you know, what happens next, you know, we try a different medicine or something, but like I say, in the interim, you know, that Dexcom very clearly tells me, you know, and then I've checked it, you know, with the with, with the regular strips and stuff, you know, it's not like it's the Dexcom is reading or something, but why it affects it

Scott Benner 56:53
is weird, I would say I would get up to full strength first to make sure it's not gonna because It'd be a shame to go through all this and not take it all the way and find out it would have helped. But I mean, once it doesn't help for a long enough time, you'd have to bail on it. Right? Like, described right?

Josh 57:07
Before this episode, fantastic. I'm sorry, describe what

Scott Benner 57:11
their hand thing can you describe it? Like it feels cold to you? Is it cold to the touch? What I think your hand was cold if I touched it?

Josh 57:18
No, you wouldn't. It's uh, so what I've been told is that there's a part of the brain, obviously, the control sensitivity and stuff, and then I've got a, you know, like a grain of rice size damage that they can see on a MRI, whatever. And what it feels like, if I could describe it, you know, my hand, which is a different sensation than my face, but my hand feels like, if you took your hand right now, you went outside, and you just dipped it in the snow and ice or whatever, right? You just stuck it in there and just left it in there. Right. So it feels like wow. And, and it and it kind of goes up, radiates up to you know, tapering off to the elbow. But what's really weird too, is it it's hypersensitive, so if, if the air conditioner kicks on, or you're outside in the breeze, you know, it's gonna be 100 degrees or whatever, you're outside in the breeze. And, and, you know, little hairs on my arm move. You know, it feels like, you know, like a hurricane went through, it just feels terrible. And when I type on the keyboard, you know, pushing down on the buttons and stuff. You know, it's like, I'm stabbing myself with little needles every time I do it. But oddly enough, like, I've been to hand therapy and stuff, and oddly enough, my hand strength is fine. You know, I have a little trouble picking up like a quarter or something, sometimes could have a little trouble feeling it. But but for the most part, I don't have any of that, you know, it's not it's not neuropathy. Right? It's different. Because that's kind of what I thought to begin with. And I was kind of reading about, you know, that kind of stuff, which is a diabetic issue. You know, they were talking to me about not burning my hand and whatever, but, but it's not, it's, it's, it's brain damage. Right. So, so then, the other thing is, which kind of might go along and explain some of the COVID stuff to other people, but there's a nerve that comes out of the brain and kind of rides the, the temple kind of comes down the round the, the eye socket, and down, down the cheek into the mouth and kind of the tip of my tongue, you know, this one nerve, and it's damaged too. And it kind of feels like some sinus pressure on my eye a little bit, and it feels like novocaine that hasn't worn off for a year, you know, in my mouth, so, but don't really have any trouble chewing really, or anything. I mean, it's not it's not that it's, it's a gnome, right? It's just kind of like you know, we go to the dentist and come back and quite worn off yet.

Scott Benner 59:40
What's the prognosis for all this? Is there any chance of it improving for you? Or is it just gonna stay where it's at? Will it get worse? Have they given you any or you haven't really seen a neurologist, I guess you might not even know. Right? I

Josh 59:51
saw the one guy he's, he was like, he was like, it's not nerve damage. A lot of times with nerve damage. You know, the nerve will regenerate over the course of a month to or something like that. He's like what you've got, you know, like a, you know, a fried circuit. You know, it's it's, it's You got it, it's damaged, you know, that's not he didn't he didn't really prognose it like it's gonna improve he's like he's like, I think maybe we can give you something to, you know, make it numb sort of, you know not not, not nothing like alcohol but numb, like, you're desensitized that that that firing of that snaps it's a little bit so so far the what he's tried didn't so we'll see what happens next. Wow,

Scott Benner 1:00:30
I listen, this is could just be Hocus Pocus and I have not read a lot about it. But very recently I did hear about this idea of retraining your brain about pain and and I don't know if that would be valuable to you or not and but the person was talking about you know, if you have a chronic pain and your finger hurts that it really is just signals that are telling you your finger finger hurts and that you can I don't know, like I as I was reading I was like, this seems like some hippie shit, but I wasn't straight

Josh 1:01:01
right? It's like the matrix right? Is that really chicken?

Scott Benner 1:01:04
Yeah, just pretend it's not chicken it'll turn into a daisy. So like I was just like, I wonder how much value there is to that idea. And the only reason I stuck to it a little bit is because I have in my life read and enjoyed john Sarno his books about back pain and and general about body pain. And just, you know, the idea that you can kind of overwhelm your mind sometimes, but I don't know that this is nearly the same thing.

Josh 1:01:29
Yeah, so on a completely different side tangent I have, I have scoliosis, right, I've had a pretty bad curve, it's in my lower back, I went to a guy that's a non surgical scoliosis guy who kind of a chiropractor did a lot of can lever weights and some isolated muscle group exercises, and then that really helped and stuff. But I would say that it's compared to the average person, you know, I've got a relatively high sense of pain, you know, I deal with that, you know, dealt with that all the time, you know, before this, and then I've had kidney stones before, and I've, you know, I've, I've, they're, they're supposedly I don't take anything away from any, any women, but women in my life have told me they're worse than childbirth in some way. So I feel like my, you know, when you're, when you're at the hospital, and you have an open heart surgery to get done, whatever, and they're like, How do you feel? And I'm like, I don't know, like, like a two, you know, and they're like, the pain levels are like it too. You know, you're like, well, I don't know about kidney stones. Right? That's like a 10. You know, so this is like less than that. So

Scott Benner 1:02:28
just this it's not physical pain, but I, I hear what you're saying, like, I grew up really broke, and things were fairly terrible. A lot of the times, you know what I mean? financially, you know, around the house, my dad left my mom, like, there was a lot of things. And so, you know, in a situation like today, where, you know, my daughter's got type one diabetes, she's got hypothyroidism. My wife has hypothyroidism. I don't know if I've said it on the podcast yet. But it looks like my son has hashimotos. And we're just literally figuring all that out right now. And it's terrible. And yet, I'm like, this is like a four, like, you don't need like, I'm, I think I'm spending more time of my life right now worrying about other people than I am about anything else. And I could see how this one, I can see how this would make someone crazy. But if you grew up in my life, you'd be like, Oh, well, at least this isn't happening. You start like going, like, at least this didn't happen. And somehow that makes it better. I don't even know how to describe the

Josh 1:03:25
same. I guess I'm an optimist. I don't know, I'm thinking more of a realist, but I, you know, I have a tendency just to trudge forward, right? I mean, won't even get into, or divorce or that relationship or whatever. But you know, yeah, I mean, trudging forward, but then you also, you know, you and I both I think we both agree, I mean, we live in the United States, right? Like, I mean, you know, I mean, really, you know, for the, you know, for all the drama that's been going on the last couple years, or whatever, it's, it's really one of the best countries to live in. And, you know, you get to these other, you know, third world places and stuff. And those people deal with a lot more stuff you're dealing with,

Scott Benner 1:04:00
like, I'm not, I'm not running from 1713 year old boys with machine guns through Central Africa. It does seem, I said to my son the other day, I was like, I know, this sucks, man. I was like, but I said, if you're thinking you're going to get through your life, with everything being perfect, I'm sorry that I let you think that and, you know, and this sucks, and it's it's really impeding him at the moment, but we think it's gonna be long term, it's gonna be fine. And I was like, man, there's so many more horrible things that somebody could have said to you today. And, and so you got to just sort of keep your perspective about that. I said, plus you're going through it in a house with health insurance and people who are helping you like imagine, imagine if some doctor would have just said this to you and you would have gone home by yourself and not understood any of it. I was like there's there's a lot here to be, you know, to feel positive about but I with you, like I think of myself, as incredibly hopeful. And at the same time, I think other people see me as very realistic In a way that could feel like Scott's like doom and gloom, I'm like, I'm not I see the things that I see for what they are. But I don't think that any of that means that we can't do better tomorrow or we have hope of better. I don't know how I got that balance because I probably by all rights, the way I grew up should be out of my mind.

Josh 1:05:18
In Yeah, and same, I'm pretty optimistic. But I'm also I think I'd call myself a pre worrier. I think I've let my youngest daughter inherit that or whatever. So we, you know, I, I plan everything out, like 100 times in my head, like different ways, you know, different different stuff that could go wrong with it with the x, right, you know, school things, whatever, whatever it is, you know, all this stuff with this heart surgery and stuff, like I run all the scenarios, just, you know, have them all in the back of my head is like, just keep walking forward anyway.

Scott Benner 1:05:48
I have to admit, I once had a conversation with my brother in law, we were talking about something. And I started saying like, well, I guess it could go this way, this way. And I started describing a myriad of ways that this situation could progress. And he goes, have you thought about all this? I was like, yeah, you haven't. And he's like, right. I'm like, dude, like, I

Josh 1:06:05
mean, if you're, if you're not planning for the zombie apocalypse or something, you're doing something wrong. Like you

Unknown Speaker 1:06:09
don't know.

Josh 1:06:10
I'm not a prepper. But yeah,

Scott Benner 1:06:12
I'm like, you don't know which window to jump out of in case there's a fire and you can't get to the door. Like, you'd have to think about which window it is. I was like, I got the window. It's overtop of a bush on the way down the bush Hill, but you don't know that. And at the same time, I don't I don't prepare for anything. I just think like I I'm like, does everyone not know what they're gonna do if they find a genie in a bottle? Like you don't have that pre prepped in your mind? No. First wish. I want all my other wishes to come true. second wish no matter what, you can't say no to my third wish, third wish I need unlimited wishes. Boom, I'm done. Like, how does no one See that? Josh, I find that bottle one day, I do not want to go I need a Ferrari and a pretty girl. Like I do not want to like fall into that leg situation. But I just like,

Josh 1:07:00
where they all go wrong with the lottery too. Right? You you get all this stuff that you can't you can't maintain? You know, you got to think ahead.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:08
No, no, no,

Josh 1:07:09
you gotta pay for the gas. That Ferrari.

Scott Benner 1:07:10
Yeah, yeah, once one day, I realized that my 9000 square foot mansion isn't necessary, I need to be able to wish it away. Like I need. I mean, I just don't I, I tried to think things through even with my, you know, with my son's thing, he's having a, he's having an issue on the the hyperthyroidism. That's not, we're not certain yet, if it's a symptom of the hypothyroidism if it's something different. And while we're figuring that out, I can see about the four different ways that his health is going to go. And I already know what to do if it lands down any of those paths. And at the same time, you know, we're keeping Arden's blood sugar, the same as it always is. And I just don't know, like, maybe I'm not fun. Like, maybe I'm gonna die one day and realize I didn't get any of my free time over to anything valuable, like when you said about sitting on the beach is like, that is a good idea. And then I couldn't remember the last time I was on a beach. So I was like,

Josh 1:08:06
maybe I'd write well, you should do it more. I mean, we have these epic sunsets where I live in epic sunrises. And I think one of the best things I did in 2000 2021 is a couple my friends were like, you should start a Facebook group of, you know, some of these pictures, right? And I started, I started this little group, now it's a little over 1000. I mean, it's not not not anything, like what you've got, but, but there's no negative comments or anything, people were just posting pictures of pretty stuff that's in the county, you know, and it's fantastic. And as changed my feed, right, it's going from all this new stuff to like, you know, just some pretty sunsets and stuff. And, you know, and I and I kind of tell the kids, like, you know, like, we drive to school every day at a time that they see this what the sun come up over the, over the river, you know, and I'm like, look how pretty that like, you'd have to, like, take the headphone off for a second, right? And just appreciate where we live. You know, because it's a great view, it's a great sunsets, a great sunrise, you know, I get to see it almost every day. You know, and that's, you know, and and i don't i don't relax enough, either, right? I mean, you, you know, one of the things that this whole thing is taught me, the one doctor said I should have died twice. You know, it's like, it's like, Hey, is that little stuff? Maybe take a moment, that whole nonsense about smell the roses or whatever, but I mean, it's true.

Scott Benner 1:09:27
Yeah. Once you realize the everyone thinks in the back of their head, not made, it's not going to happen to me, I'm going to live on 105 I'll be playing golf when I'm 96 that's not what's going to happen to most of us and, and, but you get the hope about it. And therefore you get to ignore things because you think I have all the time in the world. And then once someone like actually shows you, Oh, actually, you know, you could give yourself too much insulin and pass out or did you notice your brain went haywire and your hands cold now and suddenly you're like, you know, I'm gonna take more time and and try to check so I'm trying to like I really hoped to come out of COVID with that idea at the front of my head, just really, I want to try to, you know, enjoy things a little more, I am going to be 50 in the summer. I mean, I, I had bacon for breakfast yesterday, I can't be here much longer, you know, I mean, so like, I need to, I need to just spend a little more time like that. I just always feel like there's something I'm a worker, like, I'm a worker bee, like, there's always something to do. And I want to do something and get something accomplished. I've Yeah,

Josh 1:10:29
I didn't even mention I'm one like, you know, like, I don't know, I don't even know, five, five different nonprofit boards, right. So I mean, besides, you know, the coaching with the volleyball and doing all of this good stuff, and, you know, actual work stuff, that I'm involved with this other stuff, too. You know, I just keep myself busy. Like I always have, you know, this was a real, this is a real, you know, like, halt hard stop, it was a hard stop is what it was.

Scott Benner 1:10:55
I, my wife is gonna need that soon, because she's been working on the safety side of a vaccine for COVID for about a year now. And she just gets up every morning, walks downstairs to the room that she took over in our house sits down and works for like 18 hours, and then gets up, walks upstairs, goes to the bathroom, brushing their teeth gets in bed,

Josh 1:11:18
and she just keeps doing right. God bless her.

Scott Benner 1:11:21
Yeah, well, so you're all gonna be well, because of this, she's gonna be dead. And we're trying to like tell her but she's just, she's a type A, and she comes from a blue collar family and there's work to be done. And that's what she sees. So you need people like that. Ah, but those people need people to tell them to, you know, walk outside and find a sunset. That's for certain You're making me think of a time we vacationed in Chincoteague is that where is that? Uh huh. And it's To this day, still the most amazing sunrise I've ever seen in my life. It was was it

Josh 1:11:57
the Porsches and stuff right? Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:11:58
that place like it's, it's just, it was the best it was the nicest sunrise I ever saw my It was so great that the following morning, I got up before the sun came up to go out and take pictures of it because I thought I'm never gonna see something like this again.

Josh 1:12:11
If the police we go in the Outer Banks, you know, I feel like a lot of Maryland is you have Ocean City and the Jersey Shore and all that stuff. But I mean, I feel like you know, there's a portion of us that go drive like nine hours to go down to the Outer Banks. And and you know, what I like about and i and i and to be honest with you, I'm about a mile walk from the water from my house, but I'm right I kind of at the top of the bay activity exactly where we are. But when you go down to the Outer Banks, it's kind of similar to what the rivers like here. I mean, there's nothing there. There's nothing you know, there's nothing to do really, and it's and it's somewhat it's somewhat therapeutic, you know, a couple years ago and it's like a memory I'll never I'll never forget in my my littlest you know, with my my get up at five o'clock kind of person, you know, even even on Saturday, whatever now she's a teen right? So she's not quite doing that but but we got up and you know, she's she's gonna carry I'm carrying her out to the beach or whatever, look, you know, that whatever. And we, we watched some baby turtles being born, right? It sets up good memory for her was cool memory for me. And, and there's not enough of that in a world, right? It's all it's all about. You know, like, I gotta do this, I gotta get milk today. I gotta remember to run to this. And I gotta remember to call that person back. And, you know, everything's tracked on your phone, and you're just running around, get up and look at your phone right away. It's not enough looking at maybe see turtles being born. I

Scott Benner 1:13:33
think my life was like that before the autoimmune stuff started in the family. Like I like you'll get to a part in the book where I just talked about going to the zoo and just sitting and watching the I think the Tigers eat with my son when he was little.

Josh 1:13:46
Yeah, you sound like you. I mean, not that you're not now but sound like you were amazing. You know, stay at home dad. Right. And, you know, I think that there's not enough credit given to stay at home moms or stay at home dads, you know, like, like to just sit around and do nothing, right. And some of them do, I suppose. But, but I mean, that's the job. That's a real job. You know, kudos to everybody that does it.

Scott Benner 1:14:06
If you do it, right. It's the best thing you'll ever do. But at some point, when stuff starts getting piled on you, and then you have to start prioritizing. You'd be surprised how quickly going to the zoo to watch the lions eat started falling on your list when you're like, instead, what if I figured out how not to kill art because, you know, in the beginning when she's just using a meter and we're injecting insulin, and there's no CGM and all that stuff, I always just felt like she was on the end of a giant yo yo. And I was throwing her towards like death and then yanking her back and then it was she was going back down and I just spent my whole day just yanking her back is what it felt like that to your earlier point that people who do this still without technology like this probably still feel like that most of the time and it's not a great yeah,

Josh 1:14:51
I know this. This whole thing is going to be interrupted like six or seven times with commercials which I say kudos to them, but I'm just gonna say again, you know, diabetic type one, two To get yourself a CGM and get yourself the G six, right because or the seven or whatever's next because, you know, I know some of the other ones are starting to do it now, but I can't imagine the point of sticking that thing on your arm and not have it actually read every five minutes automatically the ones that you have to like manually go and do it. That seems pointless to I mean, the G six, I can tell you, I've got it set up with with sugar mate, I don't think you talk about this too much. But I got set up with sugar mate. And and it's set up to call my dad, you know, in the evening time, yeah, hopefully overnight, and it said, I'm sorry, set up to call me it's up to text my dad. So you know, there's been a couple times where I've slept through the phone call, but nine times out of 10 the phone call wakes me up. And it gives me a warm warning that I'm starting to plummet. You know, and if I sleep through that, you know, you know, he he's like calling me trying to figure out why it's, you know, saying 45 or something, right? So, I think that that, you know, especially if you're especially if you're doing it on your own, like if you don't if you're if you're not the dad taking care of the kid or whatever. I mean, you know, those lows, particularly those midnight lows are are scary. And and, you know, how do you even know if you're picking yourself after every meal when you get up in the morning? If you're having one? Like how do you even know, I guess one day just fall over or something, right? I mean, I think and I was saying this, I bought a little bit of stock and Dexcom. And I'm hoping that, you know, it pays off dividends at some point when I have to get done saying this, but like, I listened to the CEO talk to you a couple times and stuff and I and I feel like they're pushing to get these things worn in hospitals. And I feel like they're just as valuable in a hospital if not more than like a heart monitor and stuff. I mean, you know, and it's easy, right? You know, they have that remote reporting. So why isn't everybody in the hospital just getting slapped with one whether it's laying there, you know, recovering or dying or whatever they're doing? Why don't they have a glucose monitor on all the time?

Scott Benner 1:16:54
I always think it's interesting that you know, you have a problem with your heart and you leave with a heart monitor you have a problem with your pancreas and they're like, we have a monitor for that. But that's it. And you know, it's just it's not required it's a pin stick yourself. Yeah. Hey, listen, if you feel dizzy try to eat something before you pass out. Good luck. Like I that's a weird Yeah, yeah, well, it's money. You know, I mean, it's it's insurance and all that stuff, but I feel Listen, I I've managed a child's diabetes without that stuff. And I've managed it with it and it's a lot easier with it. And I agree you can be more successful more frequently. I just I just opened up art and sugar meat while you're talking about because sugar made helped me with I know if you were around when I shared my blood sugar's for like two weeks I put my blood sugar's low.

Josh 1:17:39
Yeah, matter of fact, I Matter of fact, I just I think it was on your your group. I just told somebody that the link to it because they were asking about you know, like non diabetics and stuff. I go, Well, you did it. I thought it was fascinating. Now it's still up there live, but it has no feed because you're not hooked to it. I don't know if you knew that. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:17:54
no, I still only pay Yeah, I gotta figure I'm gonna have to either just shut the page off for now, or, or get a CGM back on somebody. I really was hoping to put it on more people. But it ended up being a little more technically an issue than I thought it was going to be like, it's easy for me to do it. But

Josh 1:18:11
yeah, well, it's up, I would tell everybody to go and rewind it to what like December, December 10, or something to Christmas somewhere there's about because it's kind of because he's looking at it looks like there's nothing there. And then you've got all your notes and stuff. And you're way better at that than I am I I started off strong. I started off with I saw the ads for one drop, and I was gonna buy that and I looked at it and I noticed that it was actually owned by a different company and, and they make a couple of different meters that work with that one drop and one of them is a little little crappy Bluetooth meter from Amazon. And I bought a bunch of strips real cheap off Amazon, I bought like three of them. I took one to work to my car. And you know, I was I was writing everything down. I was document everything. And that was before I got the guts to CGM, but it you know, I think it's important to track that stuff. And I know my own limitations. Like I'm not gonna keep a journal and drag it around with me every place I go, you know, I need a I need it do it automatically for me. So I recommend some method of tracking your blood sugar for anybody that's that's even maybe pre diabetic, you know, writing it down and writing down what what happened around the time you took it? You know, did I just wake up? Was it you know, are they eating something and you got to have some kind of documentation?

Scott Benner 1:19:28
Yeah, it shows you I mean, honestly, I did it for that. But I mean with Arden I just sort of step back and clear my mind. Like I'm in a, you know, a sci fi movie and just, I don't know, I I've gotten to the point now where I don't need at all to make decisions like I can just see it. But you know, it's like it's like I've been fixing engines my whole life and you pull up and you're like my carburetor sound. I'm like, sure everyone be quiet. I can hear you start to feel and I think everybody gets to that point at some point where you don't need it. But in the beginning when you're figuring it all out or if you're trying To figure out something that's going on at the moment of documenting stuff is, is incredibly valuable because you can look back and go oh, yeah, like, it's like you said, like, Oh, my blood sugar seems to go up every time when this happens. And I wonder why. And when I start making money,

Josh 1:20:12
I think the doctors, you know, listen to what you saying, Listen to what the doctors say. I think I think another thing, which I don't necessarily buys me by right away is, but I mean, I think I think the doctors try to keep it high, right? Like, if you're, if you're up above 120, I know people are gonna say that's not high, if you're up above, living above 120, if you're like, 200, but not 200. You know, I mean, that's good. It's good. It's good for you Good diabetic, nice job, you know, right. But if you if you go down to 80, that's not that far from 70. And then you get into 70, and 50. and stuff, you start passing now, so we don't want that. So we're gonna keep you a little, little high. You know, they in the hospital, they wanted me to stay above like, they, they wouldn't treat it if it was if it was above 150. Or, sorry. 252 50. Okay, you know, so, so, the whole time in hospital, it's riding like 250. You know, they just don't treat it and they don't want it to go down low. They don't want to have to watch you. I guess that's my opinion. I you know, I don't know. But I think that you know, you know, there's all kinds of problems going high, there's all kinds of problems with going low, and the ride that thread that needle and ride that line is is difficult. And and, uh, you know, I'm, I'm that same type bag, right? I want to, I want I want, I want to close the Fitbit loops or whatever, right? I want to complete that task, you know, so So, you know, I think with the diabetes, it's the same thing. Like I look at it, and I go, I go, he talks about and I look at it, and I can make that line flatter. Right, you know, I can, you know, and and i and i didn't eat the most healthy to begin with, you know, and, and you know, I've tried to do a lot, I mean, I've had not touched you know, a regular sugary soda, you know, or some of that kind of stuff you know, since since all this started, obviously, but I've tried to introduce some more normal stuff back to my diet right like to have Coke Zero and Gatorade zero and some of that kind of stuff and but I'm trying to make make it as you know, regular as possible, but enough to tell you man I rocked out to send it to you I rocked Thanksgiving, I was really really proud of it. I you know, I pre Pre-Bolus and I and I extended you know, and, and I ate turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and you know, I portion control that a little bit. But I ate all this stuff. And I had a flatline flattens fantastic, you know, showed it to the doctor and she was like befuddled about it.

Scott Benner 1:22:50
Oh, that is very cool. I and I have to say too. It's doable, right? And at the same time, it doesn't always have to be perfect. And so once you but once you know how to do it, it just sort of works out in your favor more frequently because you're taking the right steps doing the right things at the right times. And it's leading to better outcomes I get not worried. But I I sometimes think that people can hear the podcast just for a minute and think oh my god, I can keep my you know, his kids a one season the mid five. So I can just keep my blood sugar like you know, at six constantly. And that's not how Arden's blood sugar is, you know,

Josh 1:23:27
hurts a lot of work. Yes, a lot of work. I can't iterate enough, like you actually have to give a crap about your diabetes to get the numbers that you're getting, you know, right, I guess in your case, I guess you you can kind of force her to do stuff like this. You're still the parent. Yeah. But I mean, you know,

Scott Benner 1:23:44
will definitely not force her, but I hear what you're saying. And you can say, look, it's time to do this now do it. And there are times like she she got a little lower last night. So we had this go, I think we opened the loop during a change for a pump. So we wanted the I wanted the basil to run consistently. And she started So then once we got her there, we closed it and she started drifting. I was like, Hey, you know, this is the time like, eat something now. Like you're at it's drifting down. I will I will I will I will I will earn your 50 I will, I will, I will you know, then she drinks something and doesn't move off of 55 for a while. I'm like, are you gonna eat something else? And she just couldn't. And I and there are those moments where I'm like, God, is this what's gonna happen when she's by herself? Is she just gonna be like, I don't feel like doing this.

Josh 1:24:30
And in the loop seems fantastic. I mean, that's a whole separate conversation. I mean, that's hours of your podcasts, you know, in the past anyway, but I mean, like, I'm excited about I figured since I'm close enough, I'm not gonna do I'm not gonna do the Reilly link or doing that stuff. I was gonna wait it out for this other thing that's pending. You know, so I'm hoping that yeah, I think Omni pod live

Scott Benner 1:24:49
will be here pretty soon. So you just right.

Josh 1:24:52
I'm hoping that it's coming out. It's, it's, it's, it's it's kind of like you know, it's kind of like that fishing pole. It's like string just just enough in the in the in the point of view that I can almost see it. But, um, yeah, and then and then there's two different versions of that, right there's, there's the, there's the horizon, and there's the one that's actually going to work with the tide pool. And yeah, and I'm leaning towards that one, because I have an iPhone, right? So you got to make all this technology mesh together,

Scott Benner 1:25:18
it's a very cool thing that Omnipod did is that they said, Look, we're gonna put out an algorithm, and we're gonna let our pump work with tide pools algorithm as well, like that is just, that's, that's cool. It's, it's just, it gives you more options. And it also

Josh 1:25:32
Dexcom seems the same way, right, like Dexcom, sharing everything,

Scott Benner 1:25:35
they have a lot of board for business agreements, yeah, because you could listen, you get on the pod five, when it comes out, which shouldn't be long. Now. I mean, there's, there's one that tandem makes, you know, Medtronic is going to put out a new one, I think that I think the goal here with algorithm based pumping is get it out, prove to the FDA how it works, and then start ratcheting down on, on blood sugar goals, because they're still gonna, like, some of these things are still gonna have blood sugar levels of like, 110. And so you're gonna need to, you know, if that's not okay with you, but you still want to use the algorithm, I'm hoping there's a way that you can sort of mess with the settings a little bit to get, you know, steady at a lower number. But once you show the app, once they can show the FDA, some real data from people using it, they can say, Alright, look like, you know, if we just make the, let them change the goal, lower, nothing's gonna change. And then you'll see a year or two from now, that'll happen, in my opinion, and then you know, then that's it, then we're off to the races, then people who want to be in the fives, and people who just want to be in the sixes can both wear these algorithms, because right now, just the way the algorithms are at the moment, you take most people with type one diabetes who are living with 789 10 1112, a one sees, and you slap this algorithm on them, they suddenly get immensely more healthy. And that's and to be able to impact the masses, like, that is a huge thing. It's just, it's terrific. So I'm like, Well, I

Josh 1:27:02
guess I haven't used the algorithm, but but I'd have to, I have to imagine that you can attest to this, that I mean, like, doing it, I'm doing it on my own and keeping it down is a lot of effort. If I could program it in there and kind of have it do it automated for me, that would be a lot easier. And I think a lot of people take the easiest path. And, and, and I'm gonna sit here and tell you that it's been a, you know, listening to you has been immensely helpful. You know, I mean, you know, I don't even know that the injured crowd has talked about pri and extended Bolus to any kind of, you know, depth. I've certainly talked to them about it. But But, uh, you know, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of work. And if people don't want to put the work in, you know, they're going to get the results that they get without putting to work. And that's, that's how that goes. It's just how it is. It was just like, almost everything else in life. And I've been trying to put the work in for this, you know, it's, it's a new thing for me. And I'd like gadgets, right? I mean, so that's kind of cool, I've got the watch. And I've got the things stabbing me in the arm, and I've got the pump, and, you know, like, it's gonna feel like a robot or something,

Scott Benner 1:28:04
dude, I'm glad you're in the Facebook group, because I want to be able to keep up with all the other stuff that's going on with you and try to try to see if we can't, like, I'm just really interested to see where this goes, like I can see you coming back on like two years from now and updating me on everything that happened, I think that would be kind of incredible, because you just got dropped into the middle of a ton of health issues in just the snap of your fingers. And you have a great attitude, which is, which is laudable because like you said, it can be very natural to have depression issues after heart surgeries. It can be it can be natural to have a problem after any number of your I mean, diagnosis and you're not. It's just the it's a it's a testament to how you're built, I think and I appreciate you coming on and explaining that to me.

Josh 1:28:48
I've told a couple people like, you know, I just got it, you know, like it might my youngest is 12 right, you know, I got I got another eight years or you got a she's got her six years got to make it till she's 18. Right. That's, you know, like, that's, that's, that's like a micro goal. Like I got it's got to go that far. You know, like she you know, she we've got some some issues with Mom, you know, we've I've gotta be I gotta be the adult till she's an adult for sure. So that's, that's like my micro goal. So you know, whatever the doctors say, make sure the hearts run, right, whatever, I'm going to do that. You know, make sure everything everything's good. But you know, you got to sit there it's kind of like little goals and like kind of achievable goals, you know, right. We're going to figure out how this Dexcom works or figure out is Omnipod works we're gonna make this stuff Don't you know, and and, you know, you could fight all this stuff, but what's the point? Yeah, so like I said, I can't tell everybody who's listening enough. Like I feel like I don't want I don't want anybody to think that you're just plug in these two companies that are doing the spots for you. I mean, I commend them for for for paying you for this, which is fantastic. But I mean, you know, I think you generally believe that it's helped your daughter and I think it has and I and I feel the same way and I can't imagine doing this without the Dexcom like Dexcom. Number one, I mean, you can have different pumps, there's different arguments for the different pumps, you know, the different technologies built into the pump. Yeah, looping, non looping. But if you don't know what the hell is going on, right, like, if you don't know what, what your sugar is, and it's not enough to look at it, like every once in a while, two hours after he

Scott Benner 1:30:22
left. So I appreciate that. I mean, the way it worked out, I'm really grateful for because the podcast starts, it's just the podcast, right? It's not until it hits certain numbers and certain downloads that you realize that it becomes, it becomes a business really, like it's now now your goal is how do you keep what you had before? and nurtured along in this in this new way? Like meaning? How do you not take this valuable thing and turn it into some like money, gin, because that's not what I want. Like, I think it's popular because of what it is. I want to keep it as what it is, but it becomes a time suck that is just immense. And so you're like, Okay, I can't just do this for fun anymore. Like it needs to have some financial support, and it gets enough downloads to get that financial support. Now, do I want to do a commercial for a company that I've been using forever? And I believe in and I can speak about, honestly, where do I want to take, you know, a frozen pizza ad because that's what's being offered. And so, you know, I just feel grateful that companies that I actually can get behind Are you interested in advertising, because if they weren't, you'd be turning on the podcast. And I'd be you know, talking about erectile dysfunction medication or something like that. Or I can't even tell you the number of emails I get from, like, we'd love to do this with the podcast, we want to do this. We want to set up a there's just one company out, we want to set up a teaching program. And I'm like, Yeah, that sounds like something you want me to charge people for? Like, I don't I don't want to charge people. That's no, so I delete that. You know, and then, you know, our company sells this. Our company sells that art. I mean, I'm close to downloads where I could give you a Casper mattress ad. And I just don't write

Josh 1:32:06
I don't want to do or my pillow or

Scott Benner 1:32:08
just Well, I'm saying is that the podcast is very close to hitting a download number where anyone would be willing to advertise on it. So it doesn't wouldn't have to be diabetes related. But I also don't know why that's valuable. Like I just, you know, I'm I can't stand behind, you know, you know, Jerry's doorknobs I don't have one of Jerry's doorknobs, and I don't care. Like Like, I just, you know, I don't want to be that person who just like, out here like shucking and jiving to get you to buy a lamp, I just, I just want to be able to tell you look, this is how this pump works.

Josh 1:32:40
And there's podcasts and stuff out there that talk about, you know, particular products and things like that, too. And that's interesting and useful. And hey, look, I know, you talk about some of the stuff and I know you can't talk about some of the stuff that you're actually, you know, helping beta test sometimes or whatever, but, but I agree with you, I think I think relevancy is the key to me. I mean, I, I don't know if I think I left this part out of the story out, but like, that first four days that I was in the hospital with a stroke, you know, you're like, should I guess I'm diabetic, I'm gonna have to figure this out right now, like, so let me see what I can find on the internet flip, flip, flip, you know, oh, here's this podcast I can listen to. And you know, hey, you know, this, there's two or three others out there that are interesting, sort of, you know, right. I like yours. You know, I feel like I feel like we could grab a beer and have a conversation like this for hours. Like I know, I've rambled on for, you know, over over the, the podcast hours, I know what you're gonna do about editing, but

Scott Benner 1:33:36
I enjoyed this. My advice, I'm not editing. I also don't know about any other podcasts I and meaning I'm aware they exist, but I don't, I've never, never listened to them. There's one that somebody I've a business relationship once asked me to listen to a snippet of, to get my opinion about something. And other than I have never heard one of them. And, and I when I used to write a blog every day, I never read anyone else's blog either. And I still don't want to do I don't want to be interesting. People or think like, I just, you know, this, this is working for me, I don't. And I get my and I get my outside information from people I talked to. And so if you don't want to, yes, I don't talk about tandem, you know, pumps on here very often, but I've also never used the tandem pump. But when someone comes on as a tandem pump, I don't tell them not to talk about it. They talk about it. Like I just, you know, I can speak from my perspective. That's, you know,

Josh 1:34:32
and I think that's what that's what makes it relevant doesn't make it relevant to me. Like I'm like, Why? Well, you know, he's making that work with his daughter. And that seems like a good thing to try. And I like, you know, hey, I tell you the AMI pods great. I mean, I'm not I'm not, I'm not gonna tell you that I'm like, super athletic person or whatever. Right. But I mean, like we, you know, we recreate around the water, you know, we have a pool. You know, like I said, we went down to the beach. You know, to me, it seems like and I know people will say that the IQ and Some of the different stuff, but to me, it seems like, you know, having this thing you just stick on and it puts the canula and all by itself and stuff, and you wear it for three days, and you throw it away, versus having to worry about breaking a pump that you only get insurance to pay for every, every four years or something. It just seems better, you know, in so many different ways. I mean, I've had a couple of these guys go bad, I'm not going to tell you that they're perfect. But I will say that, you know, you call up Omnipod and you're like, you know, had one didn't, didn't fire up, right? I had one that, you know, whatever happened to it, you know, and they're like, Okay,

Scott Benner 1:35:34
look, my daughter's not wearing an omni pod because they buy ads. They buy ads, because my daughter has been wearing an omni pod for a really long time. And, you know, I'm a proponent of it. So it's just, I mean, that's obvious, right? And that, to me, the tubeless nature of the Omni pod to me is a game changer. And if if my daughter needs to, you know, live an extra six months without control IQ Ben tandems got it. But tandems got it on the tube pump on the pod will have it it's gonna be here soon. And we just live in such a consumer world where everybody just wants everything to be like so immediate, and I understand that desire. But I have a long game here. Like I'm not giving up to bliss to get another year of something that I'm gonna have anyway, like it just, it didn't make a big enough difference to me. Now you might have a situation where that's not true for you, or you might put it on the pot on and freaking hate it. I don't care if you do get a different pump. Like I mean, Omni pod wouldn't even care if there was someone from Omnipod on here right now. And I said, Hey, when somebody uses your pump, they don't like it. Should they just keep using it? They'd say, No, there are other pumps, they should try a different one. Like, it's just it's not No, no, you know what I mean?

Josh 1:36:44
And you've said this before, before, but like, Hey, you know what you call Omni pod day, they'll send you a free sample, you stick it on your body, see how you like it. I mean, it doesn't have the doesn't have the needle in it, whatever. But I mean, you can wear it, you know, and and i think i think i i did that I got some I got some information. I went to the endocrinologist, like educated, like, I want this thing. Can you make me? Can you give me this thing? I know, I need a script for this thing. But I think this thing would be what would help me. Right? You know, and you have to be your own advocate for this kind of stuff. You really do. I mean, you know, your daughter's lucky to have have you and your wife to be advocates, you know and and know about this technology and stay up on it because because there's a lot of different stuff and and and in the last what decade or something right? There's a lot of different stuff coming on the market. I mean, like you said you were doing all this stuff. You know, when she was little and and a tubeless pump wasn't even the thing. You know, I mean, you guys have had that what the most of the her most of the time is being hired full time. I

Scott Benner 1:37:38
don't know if it's the entire time it's been developed. But I can tell you that the day I have to go in a minute, Josh, I'm sorry. But the day that we went around to her hospital to look at a pump, like there was a pump day where you could go down and check them all out. I've told this before but I'll tell you in 30 seconds, they absolutely honest to God's truth. There's conference tables around the perimeter of the room. In the middle of the room, all the pumps are set up like on display. And in the back of a fairly large room in this like kind of like misshapen corner, there was a small table and someone had flung the Omni pod on to it like like it was like they walked to the table to put it there but got five feet away from the table. It's just like a screw it and toss it against the wall bounce on the table. They did not even put it out with the other pumps. So that's the Animus ping and whatever else was available back then all like you know, with heavenly light shone on it. So you could pick through

Josh 1:38:29
Yeah, it's very boring looking. Right?

Scott Benner 1:38:32
Well, so I'm walking around the room and I get a nurse practitioner. I said, Hey, what's this one? She goes, You don't want that? And I was like, why? And she goes, Well, your daughter's too lean for it. And I was like, What do you mean? She says to lean canula to lean, you know, just try this one. And I was like, well, this one? Like, am I right to understand like, this is the whole pump like there's no tubes. And she goes, Yeah, you don't want that she pushed me so hard. And I said, Well listen, I went back to my wife and I said, this looks right. To me. I said, this looks futuristic, and I kind of used it this time. If they make updates to it. It's not like they're gonna make 7000 versions of this pump. Like they're gonna keep updating, you're gonna keep getting the new one. Like, I this makes sense to me. There's no tubing, like, look at this. So we tried it. It was great for us. It was great for art. And two years later, the endocrinologist pulls me aside after an appointment to apologize. I know we pushed you away from the on the pod. We wanted to explain that back then we didn't have any experience with it. We didn't want you using a pump. We didn't know how to support. So it wasn't about my daughter. I didn't lean. That was just bullshit. Oh, great. So, you know, so she then she said, I want you to know we are now prescribing on the pods out of this practice because of our success with it. And it's a big hospital on the east coast. And so it just takes somebody you know, that's how long I've been with it. I've been with it since Omnipod was trashed to a nurse practitioner because they didn't understand it. And I just took a leap because it made sense to me. And it still makes the same sense to me today. And I've said this openly to the people that I work with it on the pod, if somebody comes out with something better than this, I can't tell you, I won't try it. Like, like, so keep innovating, keep doing good things. Because, you know, I want I want Omnipod to succeed, I want my daughter to succeed. If someone else comes along and does something else, then I mean, I'm foolish if I don't look, so you got to keep being, you know, gotta stay with this, you know, and keep and keep working on it. And they are they're a little behind right now. On on algorithm, but they're about to catch right up real quick. So

Josh 1:40:42
yeah, and I had to say, I'm not a big fan of carrying around this other thing, right, like Dexcom, Scott Dexcom got an app that you can function, the Dexcom with, right? You don't really need to carry around their thing. And then Omni pod, you know, there's no controls on it, which is fantastic. But then you got to carry around this thing. And I can't tell you, I've got it to a tile, you know, thing and but I've left it at work before, right? And I'm like, I'm like a 40 minute drive from from work and you get about halfway home, you're like crap, I need that for dinner.

Scott Benner 1:41:12
Well, I would think that this, probably the only thing standing between you and not having to worry about that is the FDA About Phone control. And I understand Yeah, on the pods, a CEO has talked about the desire to get the phone control. So hopefully that comes to because I don't think they want to be making PDMS either. I don't think that's the business they want to be in. So

Josh 1:41:34
if you can tell it's an old phone, right? You know what they're doing with it, they're just doing their best to just make something work.

Scott Benner 1:41:39
They took they took, basically like Android phones that are blanked out that have nothing on them, and they've made them, you know, into the PDMS. And that's not the that's not the business they're trying to be on. So I would assume that the minute phone control is reasonable and is going to get through the FDA, you're gonna say it. And I think the sooner you get to these algorithm loops, the sooner that the FDA is going to see the value in that. So, you know,

Josh 1:42:01
it's got I know, you said you had to go and I feel like we could talk like I said, I feel like we could talk for hours about this kind of stuff. I'm happy to come back on and, you know, talk to you again, or something that sometime I don't know, I don't know what the next chapter of that story is. I don't know how it ends.

Scott Benner 1:42:14
I know I can't wait to find out. I hope it's not your daughter calling me going. Hey, listen, both of his hands are cold now he can't pick up the phone. So right. Hey, but you're just how old are you again?

Josh 1:42:26
Um, so So when this all started I was 44. And then my birthday is in June right? So just you know a little bit after my my 45th birthday. I'm having open heart surgery. So that's always exciting.

Scott Benner 1:42:36
That's crazy. And and yet, man, no lie. If this happens to you, even 20 years ago, this probably kills you. Like the medicine right? Oh, amazing. Right now. It's just It's fantastic. There's nothing but but hope for people. And that's a that's a good thing. So I really appreciate you doing this. I genuinely do. I'm sorry that I have to run. But I mean, we went like 45 minutes longer than I thought we would. So

Unknown Speaker 1:43:00
no worries. It's a pleasure.

Scott Benner 1:43:07
Huge thanks to Josh for coming on and sharing all this. It's an amazing and crazy story. And I'm really thrilled that he was willing to share it with you. I'd also like to remind you to check out the T one D exchange at T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. spend a couple of minutes make a difference. Help out the show. Looking for those diabetes pro tip episodes there at diabetes pro tip.com. We're right there in your podcast player beginning in Episode 210. If you've got a doctor that you think is terrific and you wish other people knew about, you can share that doctor with everyone listening to this show by going to juice box docs.com and sending me that information. And if you need a doctor, there's quite a list there.

Whenever I mentioned links, don't forget that right there in your podcast player. There are show notes and the links are there. If you can't find them there or you're listening online, they're also available at Juicebox podcast.com. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing the show with others, please subscribe in a podcast app. I will see you soon.