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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 635 of the Juicebox Podcast

Sara is with us today she is the mother of a child with type one diabetes and her child was diagnosed while on a family trip to Costa Rica. If you thought episode 478 DK a on a plane was crazy. Wait until you hear this because Sarah story is crazy on steroids. While you're listening, 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. After today's show, please consider going to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. To fill out the survey, you have to be a US resident who has type one or a US resident who is the parent or caregiver of a type one. This survey will only take you a few minutes, it can happen right there on your phone. And if you're interested, it may give you the option to be in trials in the future. T one D exchange.org forward slash juicebox.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod. If you are looking for a tubeless insulin pump, you're looking for the Omni pod dash. I'll be telling you more about it later in the show. But right now you could go over to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box to learn more about the Omni pod dash. See if you're eligible for a free 30 day trial of the dash. And if you'd like to learn more about the Omni pod five, you can go to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box five. Alright, everybody, buckle up. Sarah is gonna tell a story. And multiple times during this story, you're gonna think yourself. Oh, why did she just say? speedboat? No. Okay.

Sarah 2:23
Hello, my name is Sarah and we live in the Midwest. And my son Ezra who is 11 years old is a type one diabetic.

Scott Benner 2:35
already so many things don't make sense. You're in the Midwest, but your son's name is Ezra.

Unknown Speaker 2:40
He was born on the West Coast. Just say that just

Scott Benner 2:43
don't try to confuse me.

Sarah 2:45
We're temporary residents of the Midwest originating from a hippie town on the West Coast.

Scott Benner 2:51
Now I get it came out of the gate trying to confuse me. It's not necessary. How old was Ezra when he was diagnosed? As I

Sarah 3:02
was nine years old, and is 11 now and he's 11 My memory

Scott Benner 3:06
is rock solid this morning. I was amazing. I know for many people like Scott, you've only been recording for a minute, but it's a lot for me. So okay, so he's nine years old had two years any in your family at all? How about you? Yeah, roadwork anything like that.

Sarah 3:22
Everything's, I'm all good. But my dad was a type one diabetic who passed away at 46. So I was 14 when he died.

Scott Benner 3:31
These are the, um, I don't I don't think I've ever said this out loud. But that was one of the hardest, like, backgrounds to listen to is when a parent of a child, you know, in modern times has type one. And then they say, Oh, my, my mom or my dad had it, but it didn't go well. And, and that's how it's because that must scare the hell out of you. Right.

Sarah 3:54
Yeah, it absolutely does. I think. I think that it's, it's like kind of always looming, I'd say.

Scott Benner 4:05
And, you know, I mean, you've like fundamentally and intellectually, you know, that care now and care when your father had diabetes is completely different. But it's, I would imagine it's just hard to shake that. Yeah, my brain.

Sarah 4:18
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he died. So he was diagnosed, diagnosed in his early 30s. So that was a little bit unique, too. So he only had he was only type one for maybe like 15 years. And I don't you know, I was a kid. So I don't really remember what his management was like. I don't remember. I mean, I remember him having low blood sugar, and we'd be out and about doing things and all of a sudden, we'd need to like, run to the McDonald's drive thru so he could get like those little packets of honey or everything would be fine. And then he'd have low blood sugar and he'd just be really his mood would change. But aside from that, I you know, I don't really remember Number A lot of the day to day management of it, and he, you know, I yeah, I just I don't know, I wish I knew more my parents were divorced and I. So my mom doesn't have a really good kind of history on it. And I was living with him alone when he died. It but again, you know, I was a kid. So it's just not really there.

Scott Benner 5:26
Well, so say your parents divorced before he was diagnosed or after

Sarah 5:31
they divorced after. So he was diagnosed around the time I was born, which was in 77. And then they divorced in 82. So he, I mean, a lot of the period of his diabetes, my parents weren't together for you and only child. I have a sister who's a little bit younger than I am younger.

Scott Benner 5:51
And so when your parents divorced, you live with your father.

Sarah 5:55
When my parents divorced, we both lived with my mom. And then, you know, as I got a little bit older, and I was in my teen years, she and I were having a lot of problems. And so I went and lived with him.

Scott Benner 6:06
Gotcha. Yeah, I, you need a moderator when your teenage daughter becomes a teenager? Yeah, there's gotta be another voice going, Whoa, whoa, ladies, what are we doing? A timeout timeout. You know, this might not make sense to younger parents or people who don't have kids. But there's, I don't know how to think of it if it's if it's currency or what it is. But as a as a man in a in a standard relationship where there's a wife, and some children, and some of those children or women or men doesn't matter. Every time you see your wife have an issue with your kids, and you think you need to interject, you realize you're about to spend some of your capital. You don't get it back, you know? Like, like, it's like you started with $100. And every time you open your mouth, and you're like, Hey, listen, I think I think she's making sense here. Like your, your wife looks at you and just pulls out a ledger and goes minus five. And

Sarah 7:10
we're taking another five points off right there.

Scott Benner 7:13
And then there's notes underneath where it says didn't take my side conversation about bah. And you're like, listen, I think, you know, and then you'll come in, in a situation where like, Hey, listen, Arden is obviously wrong here. I will step in. And you would think that maybe there'd be like a bell that goes off. And I would like regain some of the capital. That doesn't work that way. I only go backwards. I've never gone up. So I take your point about you and your mom. I mean, I don't know. I'm assuming Kelly and Arden would have killed each other years ago if I wasn't here. And I bet you that they don't think that at all, by the way. No. You're never gonna get credit for that. Oh, no, no, I think they just think I'm a moron. You know, whatever. I'm the glue. But they'll think that they think I'm sure they're the glue for me in ways to not saying anyway. Okay, so you and your mom almost call each other's eyes out. You end up with your dad. More or less? Yeah. Are you and your mom just very similar?

Sarah 8:17
Um, you know, no, we're very different. And I think that was the the rub was. We just like didn't see eye to eye on stuff. Right?

Scott Benner 8:25
Okay, so But now you're with him? I know this is about your son. We'll get to at some point. But, uh, you get with your father. How old are you now?

Sarah 8:37
I was 14. So I lived with him for like the last six months of his life.

Scott Benner 8:43
Oh, holy. Really? Oh, I didn't mean to curse. That's terrible. Let me make a note about where I curse so I can go back later. I've learned that if I make a note, it's easier for me in the editing side. Only took me seven years to figure that out. That's how badly I can't read my own writing. I was like, it seems like a problem, but I'll try it. Oh, I'm sorry. I know. That's probably a long time ago. But that's terrible.

Sarah 9:10
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was terrible because i He was definitely getting worse while I was living with him, I think is I mean, just looking back now knowing what I know about diabetes. I think his blood sugar was just like really hard to manage for him. And he didn't tell me anything about it. And my mom hadn't told me anything about it. So you know, I was just living with this person who was who had I think a lot of I mean, I think his blood sugar was just either high or low. There was definitely one time I remember when he got really low and I had to call I had to call 911 Because he was near unconsciousness. But again, like they came and they you know got a sugars backup and then Was it like we never talked about it? Or he never said, you know, like, if I have low blood sugar, I need you to do this, this and this. There was no glucagon there is just, you know, he didn't know everything. Yeah, no idea. Yeah.

Scott Benner 10:13
Would that have been the early 90s? About that time?

Sarah 10:17
Yes, that would have been like 9192.

Scott Benner 10:21
Would be nice if you would acknowledge how amazing it was that I just did that. But you don't have

Sarah 10:26
Yeah, very good math.

Scott Benner 10:29
It's not the math that you should be impressed with. It's that I remembered how old you are and what year it was. And they see y'all don't know me well enough. I'm just telling you is a major accomplishment. Just now when I yanked out of my head. That was the early 90s. Let's say your dad had diabetes at a time. That is just, you know, before everything, he was probably using regular and mph, when he started, I'm guessing he did you know if he even switched to a faster acting, or would you even have no way of knowing that?

Sarah 11:00
No. And knowing that, no, I remember him taking his blood sugar, like doing finger pokes. And then I definitely remember him injecting himself, you know, into his thigh or into stomach. But I have no idea what kind of insulin he was using or how often he was injecting or anything like that.

Scott Benner 11:16
Okay. All right. Well, then, we fast forward till two years ago. How long has it been since your father's passed?

Sarah 11:27
Let's see. He passed on July 6, and this would have been I'm 30 years ago.

Scott Benner 11:34
Wow. Okay. Yeah. I'm gonna get off this right now. But you were alone with him when he died.

Sarah 11:41
I was not at his house. I was actually on a road trip with my mom. And he. He thought he had the flu. And he'd called into work and let his business partner know that he wasn't feeling well. And and then he didn't show up for work the next day, and his business partner thought something was wrong and and found him.

Scott Benner 12:04
And that road trip was called Rumble in the Jungle part three or something you did you guys. Was there a boxing poster that went along with it? disagreeing in a car park. Right. Okay, I have one last question. Did your father's passing bring you and your mom closer?

Sarah 12:27
Um, let's see. You know, it forced us to live together again, which I think ultimately made us kind of have to get along a little bit better. But you know, my dad, my dad's passing was really sudden, he was in really good shape. He had just done like a, I don't know, 300 mile bike race. It was just really? Oh, it wasn't. It was huge surprise. I remember him dropping me off at our house and waving goodbye. And he he looked fine. He looked really healthy. So it was definitely it was hard. It was you know, that was a really hard time.

Scott Benner 13:13
But I mean, he's probably in decay half the time. He's probably ripped. Right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. I know. That's a weird way to think about it. But if he's blood sugar's were high a lot. He probably didn't have any body fat. He probably looked lean and healthy. And yeah, people didn't understand at the time wouldn't see it like that. Okay. Well, so I appreciate you giving me that context. Because for me, I mean, understanding a little bit about what we're going to talk about here, I would think a lot of that colors, how you feel when as far as diagnosed. So I guess let's jump to that. Then. Were there any signs? Did you ever think yourself? Wow, somebody might get diabetes? One day my dad had it. Was there anything like that in your head prior?

Sarah 13:53
Yeah, I mean, I remember him saying that it skips generations. So like, in the back of my head, it was always kind of like this could happen. But the interesting thing is that it's something I've reflected on quite a bit since as has been diagnosed is, you know, you go to those Well Child checkups, and they asked for your family history, almost like every time you go to those and not one time, did any of his pediatrician say to me, Hey, you know, you have diabetes in your family and like, these would be the signs that you would be need to be aware of if your kid developed diabetes, because I didn't know what they were, you know, in my head, I had an idea of what diabetes looked like. And I didn't know what to look for. Like, my kid would be really thirsty and peeing a lot and lose weight. And, you know, these would be the other signs and symptoms. So it was like I knew it, but I wasn't. I didn't know what to look for, I guess.

Scott Benner 14:51
Yeah. Do you think you seem like a reasonable person? Sarah, I'm gonna ask you a question. Not that other people. By the way, if you've been on the podcast previously, I didn't ask you this question. It's not because you didn't seem reasonable. But it just popped into my head. Do you think we expect too much out of other people? Like because of their?

Sarah 15:13
I do think that we sometimes expect too much out of other people. Absolutely. Okay. And I, oh, yeah, no, no, I'm sorry. Good. And I think because because of our experience as rolling into decay so quickly, it just was, like, really rapid. I feel like it's one of those things, that's pretty easy. Like, you know, we have all the markers like, now, when you take your kid to the, to the pediatrician, or whatever they give him like a depression screening, that could be done for diabetes, just as easily, right? You could say to a parent, like, Hey, here's the three main symptoms of your child developing diabetes that you should look for, and it would be like a two minute conversation.

Scott Benner 15:56
So I don't know how that ends up happening. If the diabetes, you know, American diabetes Association has to make that a priority with the Pediatric Society. I don't know how like, because you're right. I mean, anybody who's got kids in the last least 10 years knows that at every well checkup the doctors like So how have you been? Like you just suddenly, like, they get real friendly with the kid? You're like, what are we doing now? Like, you can't beat my child? Like, where's this going? Like, what are your interests? Like, oh, man, what's up? Just hit him in the name look in his ear, you know, but then you realize pretty quickly, they're trying to find out if the kids depressed? I don't imagine that. You know, that wasn't something they always did, like. So you're saying at the end of that? And is there been any, you know, odd thirst issues? Have you lost weight recently, mood changes, like stuff like that? I wonder if the thing that gets me about it is like, I think it's important, you think it's important. But how many kids are there in the planet versus how many of them get diabetes? And if we're going to screen for that, like, what else are we going to screen for? Like, does your well visit become a nine hour? You know, three part interview at some point like, well, you don't I mean, like, where do they stop? I guess, when when they're adding things? I'm not against it. I'm just trying to think of it in a bigger way.

Sarah 17:21
Yeah, no, I can totally appreciate that. And I think, you know, even if you just had that conversation with families that have diabetes in their family history, you could, you know, reduce the number of conversations you're having, right? Like, we know that there's some genetic component to it. So even that right would catch a bunch of families, but not like all the families.

Scott Benner 17:46
Yeah. Wonder if there's not like us. 23andme or one of those services? I've heard of them. Yeah. So I did it. My wife made me do it. If I'm being honest, it wasn't even I did it. Like it was a Christmas present for me, like worst Christmas present ever. Like I opened up a box and like, what is it? She's like, it's a tube you're gonna spit into him like, oh, great, Merry Christmas. Because I'm adopted, and she wanted anyway, not the point. The point is, is that since I've used it, I opted into answering other questions. And every once in a while, I get an email from them. And it just asks like 10 or 11 questions and it it screens you for like this certain thing. And I'm like, as I was listening to you and thinking about the problem, I'm just like, that might be a good fix for this. Like, what if your kid attrition just send out a link once a while you just click through some stuff real quick. And yeah, like they get back to you. I'm a genius is what I just figured out. Yeah. You just figured it out. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. I'm being underpaid, sir.

So what are the first signs for Azur then?

Sarah 18:49
Let's see. So he was drinking more water. Although we had when he started to get sick, we were in Costa Rica. And the intention was that we were going to be there for many months and travel around. So he was drinking more water and was definitely paying a little bit more. And it made perfect sense to me because we were essentially in a jungle and it was really, really hot. And you know, yeah, everybody drinks more water when they're hot.

Scott Benner 19:23
Trust me, if you were in Antarctica, you'd think oh, he's wearing these these incredibly tight, heavy clothes. You would have found another way to like, like,

Sarah 19:31
justify it.

Scott Benner 19:33
What everybody's brain does, but because you imagine if our brains immediately jumped to oh my gosh, I saw a thing that's slightly different than yesterday. I probably have an incurable disease. Like we'd be pretty crippled as a society if ever Yeah, mind jump to that right away. So you see the thirst. I have to ask first. You were in Costa Rica.

Sarah 19:58
We were in Costa Rica. Yeah. So we have I'd always wanted to live abroad with my kids. And we just have this like window that opened up. And I thought if we don't go and do this right now, we're never going to have one of these windows again. And so we left the states at the beginning of April, with the intention that we would be there until through August and we were going to move every four weeks, so we would live in like several of the microclimates down there. So we got there in the beginning of April, and as Ezra was diagnosed April 23. So we've been there a little over three weeks. And and yeah, and he, when we got to Costa Rica, he had no symptoms, like everything was perfectly fine. He didn't start drinking more water until, I don't know, maybe a week or 10 days before he was diagnosed.

Scott Benner 20:50
That's 2019 Correct? Yes. What's it like being diagnosed in a different place than where you're used to living? The GM? Assuming healthcare seems different? There's probably language barriers. Unless

Sarah 21:03
you Yeah, yes. Yeah. So I don't speak Spanish. So that definitely makes communicating with medical professionals very challenging. It was, you know, initially, he was so so sick, that I was just, you know, the information was more just about is he going to survive, and the diabetes was a shock, but it was not the biggest shock in all of what was going on at that time. So definitely, like took a while for the, you know, like, okay, he's gonna live with a chronic illness to kind of sink in. Initially, when we got to the clinic in the closest little town that we were living by, he was, he had cerebral edema. He had his Ph was 6.8. He was unconscious, he was in kidney failure. He was really, really, really sick.

Scott Benner 22:03
Wow, how quickly did that come on?

Sarah 22:07
It came on. Let's see honest. On Sunday, I thought he was like developing maybe a little bit of a stomach flu. And then he was unconscious by like, middle of the night Monday.

Scott Benner 22:22
My gosh. Looking back prior to that, was he losing weight or anything?

Sarah 22:28
He was, yeah, you know, I have pictures that I look back on now and can see it like he doesn't, you know, he looks like he's lost weight. He looks he looks sick. Looking now that I can you know, now that I know what was happening, essentially, I think that he because we were in this really new environment. And but he'd gotten a bunch of mosquito bites. And so I think his body was just, it just developed really quickly. It was you know, by the time we got to the children's hospital there, he was in septic shock. And he was just real sick.

Scott Benner 23:01
It makes you feel any better a number of weeks before we realize the Arden had type one. I saw her running around in a hotel room we were in, in a diaper. And all I said to Kelly was are we raising her to be like a heroin chic model? Like there you go.

Sarah 23:21
That does make you feel a little bit better. Yeah, cuz I cute. I think like how on earth did I not notice that he had lost so much weight, but again, like I had no context for it. So it was like, Well, I guess as we're traveling and yeah, he's drinking all this water.

Scott Benner 23:34
How many children do you have? Two children? Is he the oldest, the youngest?

Sarah 23:39
He is the youngest. His sister was with us and she's 10 years older than him. So there's a big age gap between the two of them.

Scott Benner 23:46
Okay. Are they? Like, I don't know the word we do it backwards. What the hell? So what I want like I'm trying to find out if if one of them's like a step. brother or sister but Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Should I said natural brothers.

Sarah 24:03
I'm like, like a half sibling.

Scott Benner 24:06
Paternal. What but if I wanted to just Alright, hold on, sir. Let's do some basic language. If I wanted to just ask you. Are they related? By blood through both of you your husband? What would I have said? Why can't I take that? Paternal? I don't know. You don't know. Either. You I don't know. Yeah, your picture. So it makes me feel better, but you don't know. And by the way, you the emails of people are like the word you meant like, hi, thank you. I appreciate it. When you guys tell me how wrong I am. Thank you. Okay, so they are so are they both yours? Or is the older sibling your husband's? They're both mine. Both yours. Gotcha. Look at you. hooking a guy with a kid. Easy problem for Sarah.

Hey, listen joke if you want, that's a heavy lift, right? I'm not making this up. If you ever met men, they have a hard time taking care of the kids they made. You start tasking them with paying for someone else's kid, trust me to have you left. I know what I'm talking about. Stop it. Let's not pretend. Okay, so were you married prior?

Sarah 25:27
No, gotcha. You

Scott Benner 25:28
just did that to make your mom mad. Yeah, it

Sarah 25:31
was another thing that I can really do to make her mad.

Scott Benner 25:37
I have no idea if I'm right or wrong, but it's just hilarious. So it doesn't really matter. Okay, so does she have any markers? Have you checked her? Since all this has happened?

Sarah 25:48
Yeah, she has no markers. Okay,

Scott Benner 25:51
good. How long did you think he might die? During that situation? How many days until you felt more comfortable with his outcome?

Sarah 26:04
Oh, it was a lot of this. Like, initially, when we got there to the Children's Hospital, they said, they said he wouldn't make it. They said, actually, what they said was, when I got in there, they said, If you the, you know, Doctor, the ER doc was like, if you're a person of faith, you need to start praying. And then they said that, you know, they, it was just like a matter of waiting to see if SPH came up. And then once it was clear that his he was a little bit more stable. They said he would probably live but he was gonna have extensive brand damage. Oh, which was very, very scary. And then it was probably three and a half weeks, maybe three weeks. He was in ICU for four weeks. So about that about three weeks, it became relatively clear that he was going to Well, definitely that he was going to live and that he was probably not going to have extensive brain damage. Like at that point, he was able to squeeze her hand and he was semi conscious some of the time. And responsive. You know, like I could tell His personality was still in there. And so, but it was a while. I mean, it was definitely there were weeks of every day going to the hospital and just not knowing what was going to happen that day.

Scott Benner 27:33
You have to know that this is one of the moments where I think maybe I should know more about what we're going to talk about before we start as I laughed for the first 25 minutes, and then you tell me that I'm like, Ah, there's a striking tone shift isn't there? Sorry, how much? How many times during those three weeks? Did you think I really wish we didn't come to Costa Rica.

Sarah 27:58
Um, I mean, oddly, I felt like he was in really good hands there. And so it was hard to be there because mostly because of the language barrier. And, you know, we didn't have like our community or people but he, I felt like he was in good hands. I had a lot of faith in the doctor that was kind of had taken his case over I think the doctor, his name was Dr. Pres. And he really took us under his wing and I think felt pretty challenged by as just like he kept saying as was medical presentation is challenging. But I think he like was really enjoyed treating Ezra and so this the medical system down there are so different and just the way that people relate to one another is so different. It was it was like very comforting sometimes to be in that country because people are so warm and supportive and loving, that I would go to the hospital and there would just always be people around and people like very caring people. So I tried not to think about why are we here and why are we not in the states and they'd be so much better if we were in the States because I just couldn't really I couldn't get we couldn't get back to the States at that point. So it just felt like my energy was better served just to be really present to Ezra and like, helping him heal and survive.

Scott Benner 29:31
Well, I want to you know, I'd like to say that just in case I came off wrong. What I meant was is that like the exactly everything you said like not that it was like a place where they're like oh, medicine What's that? Like but you know, that just that you didn't have people with you the language barrier like being far from home like that kind of stuff, but it sounds like you handled that part really well. They knew he had type one immediately right like this length of time was because of how severe is the Kay was

here you are listening to the Juicebox Podcast settled in having a good time listening to Sarah story about Ezra, and you're thinking to yourself, I am going to get an insulin pump, I definitely am going to get an answer. I don't know what kind of insulin pump to get, but I'm going to get getting on the pot Omni pod.com forward slash juice box, that's where you go to learn more about the Omni pod dash. That's it, that's all you really have to do. The rest of what I say after this is just filler. It's because the company is paid for this time and they deserve my full, unadulterated attention. I'm going to give you details about the Omni pod dash tubeless we mentioned it, I'll say it one more time, because it's a big deal. completely self contained. This little Omni pod is you just it is slap it on, right? It's gotta be a little more careful. And that put your, you put it on the body. And itself inserts actually completely self contained me in the insulins inside of it already. So no tubing that goes back to a cartridge, no having to clip the cartridge onto your belt or stuff in your bra. I'm not editing that out wherever else you got to stick. Getting my full effort tonight on tickets, or wherever else you would have to stick those cartridges for those other tube insulin pumps. You don't have to do that with the Omni pod. Because it's tubeless the Omni pod comes off every 72 hours, you just put a new one on, right? Gone. Brand new one super simple to do. Takes I mean, we just did one two nights ago. I mean, if it took a minute and a half, I'd be surprised. I mean, we're very good at at this point, like changing on the pod, like a racecar tire like ran ran ran. It's like kind of done. But I'm a skilled professional you understand. In time you'll get it. Again, we're getting away from the point. The only pod is delicious, because you can swim with it. You can bathe with it, you can play the sports with it. You if you're an adult, you can make the puppy with it. There's no need to disconnect from your insulin. And that's important. Right? You know, we talked about this all the time on the podcast, really well defined, nicely balanced Basal insulin, you don't want to just disconnect for 45 minutes to take a bath or hour and a half to go swimming. You want to get your insulin with the Omni pod, you can what else have I told you? small handheld controller does not need to be near the pod constantly. Just like when you're like giving yourself instantly like hey, I'm gonna have 33 carbs and push button. It's like a Scott based on the stuff you put in doesn't really say any of this. But like you know, based on your settings, it'll say Oh 33 carbs is this much insulin, you just agree to it and you're on your way. The minute you push the button actually and agree to the insulin, you could take the PDF, that's the personal diabetes manager, the little handheld device, it's going to look like a like a little Android phone for the the Omni pod dash anyway, not the point like as soon as you send the signal to the pod, you could take the PDM and shoot it to the moon if you want it to use still get your Bolus. It's lovely really. My daughter has been using an omni pod every day since she was four years old. And she will be 18 this summer. I am I'm being completely honest, when I tell you that the Omni pod has been a friend to her. And I believe it may be to you as well. Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. If you heard about the Omni pod five, and you'd like to take a look on the pod.com forward slash juicebox five.

Sarah 34:07
Immediately when we got to the little clinic by the town we were living in. Like within probably five minutes, they said to me do you know he's a diabetic? And I was like No, he's not a diabetic and they're like, Yes, he is a diabetic. And that is when it all kind of sunk in that like okay, this is this is what's going on, right? He's having like a he's diabetic and this is something related to diabetes and then you know, I didn't understand at all like what was happening right? Like I thought okay, if you're diabetic, you take insulin and then the insulin, you know, fixes your blood sugar and then you're fine. But as soon as you initially was at the little clinic firehouse and then they had to transfer him to the hospital closest, and then from there, they transferred him to the Children's Hospital. In the capital, and it took us about, like, a full day to get from the little clinic to the Children's Hospital. And I talked to several doctors, you know, in the meantime, between hospitals and they all kept kind of just like, you know, re explaining it to me like, using DK, this isn't something that you can just like,

Scott Benner 35:21
pop, you know, real quick.

Sarah 35:22
Yeah, like this is gonna take a long time. It's very slow. It's, you know, he's very, very sick.

Scott Benner 35:27
How much of the the needing to travel Do you think impacted the situation early on?

Sarah 35:36
In terms of like having to

Scott Benner 35:37
get to the hospital like you? Oh,

Sarah 35:42
yeah, I mean, I don't know. That's a really good question. I haven't thought a lot about that. I don't I don't know. I mean, I obviously the sooner we could have gotten him. You know, kindergarten whose medical attention the better, but I don't know.

Scott Benner 36:04
Okay. I'm just wondering, what made the trip take so long?

Sarah 36:09
Oh, my goodness. So well, when we, when he was unconscious, we, you know, there's no like 911. So or maybe there is I don't know, I didn't know how to access it if there is. So we had to find somebody in the town we were living in to give us a ride up to the clinic, which was amazing. It was it ended up that there was like a guy working on a house right behind our house. And he spoke fluent English. And he had a motorcycle. And he went got a woman who had a minivan. And she was like there within three minutes. And he carried Ezra out into the van. And we got up to the clinic. And she scooped us out of my arms and ran him into the clinic and explained to them what was going on. And then we had to take a like a little ambulance from that clinic to the to the coast essentially. And then we had to get in a speedboat and go across a bay. And the water was really choppy that day. And so as is on like a stretcher, we're in an actual speedboat. And I'm holding on to the boat, and I'm watching as just like fly up every time we hit a bump, and like come back down into the stretcher. And then we got off the boat and got into the hospital there. And then they kind of reassessed and determined he needed to go to the Children's Hospital. And that was another couple hours to get there. So it was just a lot of traveling.

Scott Benner 37:43
I have to tell you, I thought at some point there'd be a donkey in the story. I didn't realize that's amazing. No, yeah, you might win weirdest diagnosis story, just I've said before, I don't have a trophy. But if I had one, I think you you could I could send it to you. So that's insane. That is absolutely insane. Your daughter's with you the entire time to

Sarah 38:06
know. So she came with us to the clinic. And they only allow one person in the ambulance. So she went back to our house. And then when we got to the hospital between the clinic and the Children's Hospital, they said to me, we have to take them to the Children's Hospital, but you can't come with us. We can't fit you in the ambulance. Because they I think they wanted to bring like an extra doctor. And so they said to me, you can walk down the street and there's a bus station down the street and in the at that bus station, you can get a bus and you can take the bus to the Capitol. And I was like, You gotta be kidding me. I'm not gonna not leaving my kids here. Like, I don't even know where the Children's Hospital is. And they were like, well, you don't have a choice. So this is what you have to do so. So when walk down the street, got on the bus, took the bus to the capital, I didn't know where to get off in the capital, because I didn't know where the Children's Hospital was. So it was like, some by some miracle, I actually ended up getting off at a stop, like within a mile of the Children's Hospital and got a cab and took it to the emergency room. And then when I walked into the emergency room, everyone kind of stopped and turned and looked at me. And you know, there I was, I think as was the only green girl in that hospital. So they all knew who I was. And at that point, I don't think they thought it was going to survive. So everything just like stopped. It was at that point it kind of really sunk in how sick he was because I could tell they were waiting for me. And you know, I just assumed the news wasn't good.

Scott Benner 39:47
Wow, that's crazy. I'm so sorry. That's a hell of a story. The number of weeks later when he was filming, how long did it take you? I'm assuming you you didn't pick up and start your trip over you got home after that?

Sarah 40:02
Yeah. So he was in the hospital there for nine weeks. And then he was stable enough to fly home. So we hopped on a plane and transferred him from the hospital there to the hospital here. And he was in the hospital here for about a week and a half and then discharged. And and yeah, and that was the end of our trip.

Scott Benner 40:23
I'm sorry, I just looked at your notes that you put in when you send in your I don't know what to call it. I don't even know how to explain to people how I get people on the show. But anyway, this entire time I've I felt I didn't realize are you not married? at all right now?

Sarah 40:38
I'm not married? No. So I was down there with my kids.

Scott Benner 40:40
Just just your kids. Yes. Holy hell. Just by yourself. Are you okay? Like?

Sarah 40:50
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, the whole. Obviously, this is was really, really hard. But he, I really thought we were going to lose them. And then I really thought he would survive, but he wouldn't be like the kid that I'd known. And he is thriving. And I feel so fortunate that he's alive and well. I'm okay. I mean, you know, he's a really, I mean, he's a really strong personality. He's really strong spirit. He always has been. So I'm not because of that. I think, you know, of course, he would survive something like this. He's a fighter. But yeah, we're doing good.

Scott Benner 41:40
Change your perspective on life at all? 1,000%. Yeah, like paint in your garage now and don't wear shoes and stuff like that.

Sarah 41:50
Don't sweat the small stuff? Yeah, just Life is short. You nothing's guaranteed. I, you know, the connection, I think there was like, maybe 15,000 people praying for him. I'm prior to him getting sick. I wouldn't say that I was a religious person. And then when he got sick, and you know, Costa Rica is a Catholic country. So there was a chapel in the hospital. And just a lot of the the most of the doctors and nurses down there would always tell me like, we're praying for him. We're praying for him. And it was just amazing, as people back home, heard that he was sick, just the outpouring of like, love and support. And I have a friend who has a connection to most of the Catholic communities on the west coast and a lot of the tribal Catholic communities and she had 1000s and 1000s of people praying for us, we and this just like, I would just hear about this. And people would send me messages how they had heard about Ezra and they had, they were praying for him. We were working with a woman in Australia who I don't know exactly how to describe, but kind of like a psychic, I guess. And that was really helpful. Just, it was just a solace. She would talk about how she thought as I was doing. And I know that all sounds kind of like hokey. But it really, I think, showed me the power of energy and connection and love in the universe and how transforming that can be. And not

Scott Benner 43:36
a way, not the way you thought prior to this.

Sarah 43:40
No, you know, I definitely thought you know, I in a long time. You know, I've been doing yoga and mindfulness for a very long time. And I'm a therapist. And so I definitely had kind of belief in the power of these things and the power of human connection, particularly, but I think this just really brought it to a whole new level for me that you know, we really have the capacity to impact one another through just the kind of positive energy that we send one another.

Scott Benner 44:19
I guess to just being in a different culture, like opens you up to their ideas, and then it works out. You think okay, well, cool. That worked.

Sarah 44:28
Yeah, totally. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, that's yeah, I mean, everyone's like, very positive down there. So I would, I would go to the hospital and they'd say, Oh, you know, like, his kidneys aren't working. And then they say, but don't worry, don't worry. We're gonna get it. We'll get this fixed. Don't worry. It's okay. So it's like, okay, well, I guess I'll try not to worry about that. We'll see what happens. Okay.

Scott Benner 44:53
Thanks. What's his recollection of this nine weeks?

Sarah 44:58
Does he He doesn't remember a lot of it she remember so after four weeks in ICU, he spent five weeks in the, like the endocrinology unit down there. Because when he was in ICU, he developed a really large, essentially a bed sore on his back. And it required, like a wound back and like surgeries every few days. So that really kept us in the country longer. I think if that would have been the case, things would have progressed a lot quicker, but he remembers that period a lot. And he not fondly. You know, yeah. Yeah. It wasn't fun for him.

Scott Benner 45:49
Nine years old. Wow. Okay. How are things now? Like? His? I mean, your home? Right. Your home? Yeah. So you've been you've been here for quite some time. But how does he manage? Actually, what did they give you there? And what do you have now?

Sarah 46:05
Sure. So there they gave us. Let's see, we had long acting and short acting. All injections? No. And I think just like, we were just doing finger pokes. So it was pretty basic. And then when we got home, we kept doing that. I think he got to CGM right away. We got the Dexcom. Pretty quick after we got back to the States. And then now he's on the T slim and the Dexcom. And and that's been great for us.

Scott Benner 46:37
So using their algorithm.

Sarah 46:39
Yes, yeah. Control. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 46:42
And you're from California. Right. Like you have a California accent? I don't know. I'm from Washington State, Washington State. It's the same thing like that side. I guess. I know. West Coast. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? By by the way, what I mean by like, California accent is like, you know, you enunciate all your words, and yeah. pronounce things correctly, you know, stuff like that. Sound like I imagine we're all supposed to sound I don't know. But okay, so West Coast, and you're in the middle of country right now, for reasons we haven't talked about. It's not important. And he's using pumping now. And do you think that has his story up until now impacted him? Or is he just a regular 11 year old kid with diabetes is probably like, not that interested in it? And, you know, like, you don't mean like that. Is there? Yeah. I I'm trying to, I think what I'm asking is, does the did the experience bring a depth of understanding to him or just to you?

Sarah 47:51
Gosh, that's a good question. I mean, I certainly have tried. My hope is that it is that way for him? Because it was such a, you know, big experience for him. But I think so. I mean, he's, you know, I think he has he's not naive, right to what life can send your way. And I, I do think that kind of shows. He has never really been, he's always been a kid. That's been a little bit. I mean, she's just a pretty wild spirit. He always has been. So I would say that he. I don't know that he's burden necessarily, but just that he's seen something that most kids is hmm, I mean, honestly, most people haven't. Right.

Scott Benner 48:49
Yeah. I wonder because I find, as my kids get older, that some of the things that happened to us that I thought were so impactful, impacted me or Kelly, but not them specifically. Like it's just different. So yeah, when they're kids, you know, like, they don't see things the same way. Or they don't have the same experiences. So things don't like impact them the same. Like, you know, I grew up like incredibly broke. And so when something goes good for us, I'm like, really impressed by it. I'm like, I can't believe we did this, you know? Yeah, my kids are like, this is our baseline expectation for you people you understand that? Right? Like, it's like, well, you know, had you had you lived in a situation where in the absolute worst part of the summer, you hung a sheet between the kitchen and the living room to keep the cold air in the one room we could afford to air condition, you'd see how exciting this is, but Right, they don't have that context. And so, you know, I used to sleep on the floor in the room that we could afford to put a window air conditioner in in the summertime. And my kids are just like, they don't have that experience. You know, it's one simple little example. So I was just wondering if he did? Do you guys ever talk about it? Or is it kind of in the past?

Sarah 50:05
No, you know, I really tried to talk about it with him. Just to keep filling it in for him, I think, you know, I think it's important that we talk about it because I want it to be. I want him to remember it, and not like the scary parts necessarily, but just like that this experience happened, and that it was, obviously like a really big deal for all of us. Typically, when we talk about it, we talk about it with his sister. And we'll just like tell stories, you know, it's not the nitty gritty of like, the medical stuff so much, there were just like, 1000 just wacky things that happened in that, you know, time that we were down there. Hilarious things. And I know, that probably sounds really strange, given the severity of what was going on. But, I mean, it was surreal, honestly, what was happening? So, you know, we definitely talked about it. And but I, you know, I agree with you that, like, this is all he knows. So like, this is just his life. And I've really tried to just make it as normal for us as possible, you know, like, not be overly anxious about his diabetes and not make too big of a deal out of it. Because I just want him to feel like he gets to be a normal kid.

Scott Benner 51:24
What was his understanding of your father's life prior to diabetes?

Sarah 51:30
There wasn't really, I mean, I think now we talked about it a lot like he, I, you know, aside from my dad being in as for being a diabetic and having that in common, my dad was, I think my dad and Ezra would have had a lot of other things in common. And so we talk a lot about, like, how great it would be if my dad were here, because my dad could, you know, be with us, and they could talk about diabetes, and my dad would understand it, that they could go fishing together, which is something they both love to do, and they could go sailing together and all these other things. We don't,

Scott Benner 52:03
I didn't mean to cut you off. You don't, you can keep

Sarah 52:07
I you know, really steer clear from like, you know, he died in middle age from diabetic complications, because I mean, the like, you know, as is probably going to live a long, happy life, because his diabetic management is going to be a lot better than my dad's in the technologies a lot better than it was in the 80s. So

Scott Benner 52:28
right. Now, I'm just like, wondering, like, not that you would say it this way, but I mean, I don't know how a kid wouldn't hear. Oh, I got the thing that killed my grandfather, apparently. Yay. Yeah. Give me like, Sue. I think that's, it sounds like what you're doing is introducing that idea. Not at all or very slowly. I mean, at some point, you're going to tell him I would imagine but I mean, I agree with i It sounds like you're doing it the right way, in my opinion. But I just was tricked trying to figure out like, like, because people could get dramatic. You don't? Yeah, don't seem like that. But I could see somebody Scarlett O'Hara, you know, forearm on the forehead. Oh, my God as her this is what killed my dad. Like, you don't mean like, I can see people. You don't seem like that. But some people are. And you know, yeah, they kind of lean into that, that sort of stuff. But yeah, I don't see why. He's too young, in my opinion to put that on him. Because the idea that this is a different world now management wise, and your outcome is very likely not going to be anything like that. I don't know if he could hear that after you told him the first part. So make sense to me. What do you do for a living?

Sarah 53:42
I'm a therapist. See, you

Scott Benner 53:44
know how to talk to people. Are you working right now? Sir? Am I being manipulated?

Sarah 53:50
This is actually a session I'm gonna send you a bill.

Scott Benner 53:53
Is this the Kelly send you what's going on? Am I crazy? Tell me now imagine that'd be a bot by the way. That'd be genius. Kelly did that she doesn't care that a lot of effort do you uh, does your you know I ask everybody who's a therapist this but does your profession help you in your personal life or not? Really?

Sarah 54:22
Definitely. It helps me Yeah, I think you know, just in this situation with him like, acknowledging my own like anxiety and worry and fear and being really trying to be really mindful at least of not projecting that onto him and not doing like you said like the Scarlett O'Hara it's We're doomed. Yeah. I think that's been really helpful.

Scott Benner 54:46
Are you smiling right now like I am imagining younger people going, Scarlett who what the. The irony is there's I've never seen that movie. I just know the cultural reference There's the internet for you. You don't actually have to know things to use them correctly. I don't know what to call this episode. Because I want to work as his name into it so badly. But all I have is the name of that band. And that doesn't make any sense. So

Sarah 55:24
yeah, I look forward to hearing what you decide to college.

Scott Benner 55:27
Yeah, well, it's gonna have something to do with a speedboat, I'm pretty sure because for anyone who's like, Listen, I'm gonna say something right now I'm not embarrassed by I love survivor, the TV show. I have seen a great many of the episodes. And there was this one, see if nobody's watched this show, at the end of the time on the island that they're on. They have some sort of a, I don't know, it's not important, but they leave with this kind of like a bucket full of votes, right. But then the votes are counted back on the mainland later in a live show. And so they used to try to do these weird transitions where it would look like Jeff Probst would be walking out of the island and right onto the stage, you know, in California where they would tell you who won one year, he jumped on a jet ski and rode away. And I laughed for like, it was so ridiculous that I laughed the entire time it was happening. And yet, that's what I thought you were telling me that your son was on a speedboat. Like, because all I could think was, well, that's unexpected. And

Sarah 56:31
yeah, it was when when the ambulance was driving to the coast. And it was like clear, we were gonna, you know, go down to the dock. I was, like, totally racking my brain. I'm like, what is happening right now? Yeah. Are we getting on the ferry? And then, all of a sudden, I realized like, oh, no, we're gonna get on that little speedboat. And sure enough, we got on the Speedboat.

Scott Benner 56:56
Your son's like, I can't believe I'm laughing but he's on death's door, obviously. Right. I would be the only thing stopping you from going? What is happening? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You don't fit me and I thought, I swear to God, I thought you're gonna say you wrote on the roof of the ambulance at one point, I was like,

Sarah 57:23
if they would have offered me that option, I probably would have taken it and absolutely done that rather than be sent down the street to find a bus to a city where I had no idea where the hospital was in

Scott Benner 57:36
a place. You don't speak the language. Exactly. Yeah, I would have joked about it at the time. But you went right into how everybody was staring at you when you walk into the hospital. So Well, now's not the time in this story to say this, but that really is frightening. You are incredibly, like either you're high or you're really healthy. But it's super early. Well, it's not super early, where you're at. He could be a little loaded right now, I guess. But I just don't like how did you? I guess I really do want to know, like, what did you do for yourself? Like, once you were home and settled and he was okay. Like, did you address this for yourself? Or did you do Yeah,

Sarah 58:19
yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I would say over the last couple years, it's like, kind of the, the, I don't know, settling in and kind of dealing with the trauma has been a big priority for me. I, you know, I have a really robust yoga practice. And I do a lot of kind of just sitting in meditation or mindfulness. I am a runner I am, I have a fantastic therapist, I have close friends that, you know, I really can talk to and lean on when I need support. I have family in the area. My sister's an just an amazing support system. My daughter's incredible. So, you know, I think it's been I mean, I do think one of the challenges has been COVID Because that was like we'd gotten back to the states in July and it kind of felt like life was just settling in back to a little bit of like a new normal for us and then COVID head and that's been I wouldn't say it's been particularly challenging. Like, with as you know, we kind of got things sorted out. So he was able to, like continue to go to school and I tried to keep things as normal and for him as possible, particularly since he was just, you know, newly diagnosed and had been through so much. But just working as a therapist over the last year and a half has been pretty intense because it's been such such struggle for so many people living through the pandemic.

Scott Benner 1:00:03
I don't usually get the episodes. But today's September 2 2021. My son went back to college five days ago, and this is Arden's first day of high school, and where she's in the building, so, Arden This is Arden's first day as a senior. But she's, uh, wow, she's only been to high school for a year and a couple of months. But she should be the beginning of her fourth here. My son, yes, same situation. My son is a senior in college, who's only been at school for three semesters, I think, Wow. You know, so, and I'll tell you this morning, she left and Kelly was still asleep. And I sat in the living room, I am not a like, I, I have to examine myself a little better. I don't enjoy my home, like I don't like I'm not a person who just sits in like, it's like, oh, I have a living room. Like I sit in the living room. If I'm doing something in the living room. I don't I don't know how to put what I'm saying exactly. Other than I'm usually doing something. And so I just sat down. And I was like, I'm gonna sit here for a few minutes. And the dogs were looking at me like, are you going to feed me? And I was like, huh, just yet? I need a second. Like, and I think was like, I can't believe they're finally back at school. And it's been so freaking long. You know? Like, it's, I mean, what is it? March to March and April? May? June, July? It's, it's, it's a year and a half? Yeah. So. And then I didn't have anything crazy happening in the middle of it like you did? You know, so? Geez. Like, goodness, I have other questions. You have a couple more minutes? Yeah, I do. Excellent. How are things going management wise? Like? Do you listen to this podcast? Like, how are you here? Yeah,

Sarah 1:01:51
so I found your podcast, Ezra, we were when we were in Costa Rica, he went to the surgery, like it felt like a lot. He went every few days for probably four weeks. So and I would just have to sit there and wait for him. And like, the worst part of waiting down there was feeling like I couldn't do anything. You know, I just had to wait. So I started listening to your podcast. And I started at the very beginning. And, you know, I don't know how many years ago that was that you started but it was, it was awesome. It was like a connection to the diabetes community. And it also felt like, okay, at some point, like, our lives are going to be normal enough, again, where I'm going to be thinking about packing low snacks, and, you know, managing his blood sugar numbers, and what kind of pump we're going to use and all those kinds of things. So that's when I found it. And then yeah, I mean, you know, right now, I Well, over the last, I would say, since we kind of got back and got on the pump, my I keep wanting more information from the doctors that we work with, about how to do better how to get as a one C lower, or, you know, just like all the nuances kind of managing diabetes. And I just often get told when we go to the endocrinologist, like you're doing a good job, he's in range enough to say once he looks pretty good. What I've really appreciated about your podcast is I feel like you dig in and really provide more kind of information about like, what it means to live with diabetes, and how, you know, even Pre-Bolus thing like all the kind of details that go into doing that correctly. So it's been really informative. It's been awesome. I thank you. I really appreciate what you do. Oh, no,

Scott Benner 1:03:45
that's my pleasure. I just I couldn't like you're, you're so focused on the story, which was terrific, by the way. I just was like, I don't even know how you ended up here. I just looked. And South American generals, not you could imagine, because I'm assuming the language barrier is, you know, would stop my podcast from being too big in South America. It's, you know, and I'm looking like through Honduras, Guatemala, like, there's nobody list like, you know, there's no one really listening in there. There's downloads, but they're not of any great consequence. And then all of a sudden, you just kind of keep banging down, then you get to Costa Rica, and I'm like, Oh, well, there's all Sarah's downloads.

I mean, it's you and somebody else, but I don't think too many people is what I'm saying. But that's really, that's really interesting. And I'm glad you just you just jumped on. Were you a podcast person prior to this?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:44
A little bit. Yeah. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 1:04:46
think the search there.

Sarah 1:04:48
Yeah. I mean, I kind of knew like, what I was anticipating what was gonna happen was we were gonna get you I mean, even this is true in the States, you know, like you go, maybe your kid SDK and you go in and you're in ICU. For a couple of days or whatever, and then you go home and they're like, here's a book, and a phone number to call good luck. And I, you know, kind of knew that was gonna happen, or I thought that might happen. So I was really just like looking for more information. And I think what I also appreciated about your podcast is it's very just like, Well, I mean, the scope of it's pretty amazing, but just it's really easy to listen to you like you. Present. It's just it's, I don't know, I'm amazing.

Scott Benner 1:05:33
I hear what you're trying to say. It's hard to get out. Yeah, it's weird to say. But yeah, I'm like, I'm terrific. I mean, there's no way around it. So sorry. You were struggling. I just I felt bad. Thank you for feeling about it. Yeah, you're fine. Um, yeah. Listen, the information is one thing, but it's delivered by it by like, God damn, delightful person. Yes. I mean, you heard me come up with what I fixed that healthcare problem in the first five minutes of the show. No one, no one's gonna listen to me, but doesn't matter. Oh, no, I appreciate that. I do. I mean, it's so I hope you understand that, from my perspective, it's crazy to think that that was your story. And at some point, I intersected with it. You know what I mean? Like, that's a real, like, it blows my mind a little bit, honestly, you know, joking aside, yeah, that I made a thing in this room. And you were going through all that in Costa Rica. And it found you and sounds like it was valuable for you. Like, that's just crazy to me. So, yeah, yeah, absolutely. It sounds obvious, like, Oh, you made a podcast because you thought people would hear it. And the internet, you know, it works everywhere, basically. And but it's not that obvious that you don't start something like this and think one day, this person is going to decide to take a trip with their children, and all this is going to happen. And at one point, you'll be sitting in a hospital like listening to me ramble on about diabetes. It's just very, it's cool. Like, I don't know, another way to put it doesn't need a big word. It's just pretty cool. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Excellent. Have we not talked about anything that you hope to speak about?

Sarah 1:07:15
I think we hit on most of it. Yeah. Yeah. I think I yeah, he's doing really well. Now. We had a lot of surgeries once he got back to the States. And for the most part, those

Scott Benner 1:07:29
WhatsApp for the bed sores.

Sarah 1:07:31
That sores and when he was in Costa Rica, he had a colostomy put in so that was no fun and very happy with that got taken down. But most I mean, since Yeah, like he's all I think we have most of the surgeries behind us. And he's doing really well right now.

Scott Benner 1:07:53
You at some point? Had to wake your your son woke up, and you had to say to him, Hey, buddy, you have diabetes, and you're crapping in the bag now, and like don't worry, though, we're still in Costa Rica.

Sarah 1:08:07
It's cool. Oh, my God. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:08:13
Mommy. All right, we're gonna jump from microclimate to microclimate. It's gonna be amazing. It'd be an experience of a lifetime to go home and tell all your friends about all the love of instead, this bag here smells really bad. And it's so bad. Don't worry. We'll take it off when we get home. Maybe? Yeah, well. You were the worst travel agent in the world, sir.

Sarah 1:08:48
Yes, sir, always tells me he's never going back. Like that's fair. Go back.

Scott Benner 1:08:53
I wouldn't even want to go to a warm weather climate. It probably gets a little hinky when the temperature goes above 85. He's like, Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. He doesn't have any other health all on a second. Goddamnit. Prior to diabetes, he didn't have any other health issues. No, no. Super healthy kid. And he doesn't now.

Sarah 1:09:20
No, no other health issues. Just the diabetes. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:09:23
gotcha. I didn't know. It was like you took Tiny Tim to Costa Rica. I wasn't sure what was. But um, and does your daughter have a hippie name? Like your son or no? You don't? Really? So yeah, just Yes.

How far up in Washington like, like Seattle.

Sarah 1:09:49
Let's see. I was raised in Seattle, but we were living in North Central Washington and a pretty rural area of Washington State. So that's part of the reason that we came back When we came back to the States, we came to the Midwest was my family's here. And we needed to be really close to the hospital and kind of the medical team for him. So it's been great to be here because we've gotten great medical care for him.

Scott Benner 1:10:16
Have you ever reconnected with the health care workers in Costa Rica told them how he's doing? Or is that would that be hard? Yeah.

Sarah 1:10:23
Yeah. No, every year around the anniversary of his diagnosis, I exchanged emails with his, the PICU doctor that treated him Dr. Perez. And just, you know, send him a picture and tell him like few highlights of the year as did ski team last year, or, you know, just letting him know kind of how great he's doing and how much I appreciate everything that they did for us down there. You guys

Scott Benner 1:10:48
are probably on their Chamber of Commerce website. They're like, Look, if you come here and get really super sick, we'll save your life. You could save you travel insurance. You don't need travel insurance. We got your back. I can see the headline now. Oh, my God, Sarah is the worst. Travel. Yeah, it might be the name of the I don't know. I love the speedboat thing. Well, it's hard to get away from me. Yeah. I wouldn't give anything to see that speedboat moment, because I'm assuming it's both hilarious and frightening at the same time from a third party perspective. Yeah. Like if I was hovering over top of it. I think I'd be like, Oh my god, this is horrifying. But look at that kid bouncing around on the Speedboat. And that woman looks very confused.

Sarah 1:11:32
Yeah. Yeah, I would say that was the majority of the experience once he got sick was like, just like, shock. And there. I mean, yeah. Like, here I am on the speedboat and my kids flying up and down. And the thing is, is like, you know, for the folks on the speedboat with us, like this is perfectly normal. So they're, no one's like making any big deal of the fact that he's, you know, in the air two feet every time we go over a giant wave. It's just, and I'm looking around, like, don't we need to worry about this? And no, we don't

Scott Benner 1:12:09
have your fancy American lady who's not going on a speedboat to get to a hospital. That's all I got. This was like a real life episode of The Amazing Race. Has anyone the viewers, has anyone I just for a minute thought I was talking to everybody. Have you ever seen that reality show?

Sarah 1:12:28
I hadn't that I know of it.

Scott Benner 1:12:31
Yeah. I mean, it's just, it occurs to me now. That's exactly what was happening. They were like, okay, the day starting Sara, you need to get to the hospital before your son dies. Good luck figuring it out. You don't speak any English. Here's a rudimentary map, like, you know, and then at the end, you get there. And there's this, this guy with a weird accent who says, You're the first person to arrive, then I guess you get to stay in the show another day. You get to live. It's not a perfect game show if I'm being honest. But but the entire situation feels like that. Like, go faster. Go faster, go faster. I don't know where I am. I don't know which way to go. I don't speak the language. Like, that's a crazy. That's just a crazy, crazy story. I am so glad you came on. Thank you so much for reaching out. By the way, other people listening have crazy stories. These are the things I'm interested in, like, like, what are you doing? Get on the show? There is done the right thing here today, you understand? What did make you one? I'm gonna let you go in a second. But what made you want to do this?

Sarah 1:13:35
You know, partially to just raise awareness about DKA I think. I mean, I know in the States, it's not as lethal as it is other places. But I had no idea what I was looking at. Right? I like, and maybe that's how I I'm assuming that's how it is for most parents. But if there's just like one person listening today, and they maybe have a diabetic kid, and they talk to their neighbor, or you know, I don't know, like somebody hears it, and they say, Hey, my kid's been, you know, drinking a lot of water go into the bathroom a lot. And this story helps them avoid what we had to go through that is time well spent. And yeah, I mean, that's kind of I think, why I wanted to come on is I just feel like I feel like we need to be more aware of decay, it's really

Scott Benner 1:14:35
understand. Yeah, yeah. No, I do. Well, listen, I do have an episode already called decay on a plane like do I just call this one day on a speedboat? Yes, I think you found it to turn into a series like eventually, yeah. DK on a public bus. DK on a motorcycle, you know? I mean, other people have to have good stories like this, like, you know, literally. Has anyone ever been in DK in a police chase? In a car, that'd be amazing. Give me a whole series. Imagine like 20 years into this podcast people are just like making stuff up now they're like, like I once was on DK in the space ride, because we're gonna be right baby soon so. Oh my god, Sarah, you're delightful. Did you know that about yourself? Thank you. I don't know why your mom didn't like you. I'll let her know that you tell her I said I think she's misguided. Although I bet you she could tell me some stories about a 14 year old you that would curl my hair. Oh my gosh. First, let's thank Sarah for coming on the show and telling that great story. And let me ask you, anybody listening if you are somebody you love is suffered DK on a strange mode of transportation. Please send me a note. I'd love to have you on the show. I think we might have a series going here. We got DK on a plane. DK on a speedboat. I mean, anybody got a something different a boat ferry rocketship. Anybody had DKA on horseback, let me know. Oh, I'm running out of music. I'm going to do the rest of this African music

I'd also like to thank Omni pod for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast to learn more about Omni pod five, go to juice box. But that's not right. To learn more about Omni pod five, go to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box five. And to learn more about the Omni pod dash to find out if you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the dash, and so much more. On the pod.com Ford slash juicebox. There are links in the show notes of the podcast player that you're listening in right now. And there are links at juicebox podcast.com. But you can always type you type it with your fingers and put those links right in your browser. I want to thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. DK a on horseback, anyone? Anyone at all? Find my email address. Hit me up