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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 753 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today, Karissa is on the show with us she's going to talk about a number of issues that she's having trouble figuring out. Krista is the mother of a child with type one, the wife of a man who has type one diabetes, and she is the daughter in law, a woman with type one diabetes. diabetes has Karissa surrounded on all sides. While you're listening today. Please remember, please remember, please boy, 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. If you have type one diabetes, and you're from the United States of the Americas, or are the caregiver of someone with type one, all you need to do is fill out the survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Please go do that now and helps people with type one diabetes. It helps you and it helps me t one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. My voice got very strange, because i Hey, all right. You ready for Karissa?

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes in pen is an insulin pen that does more than you expect. Learn more about it at in pen today.com. The podcast is also sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. Dex comm.com forward slash juicebox. And in the time, it took me to say that URL I picked up my phone opened it up and saw that Arden's blood sugar is 90, you can do that to more information in the ad that is forthcoming.

Charissa 2:12
Hello, my name is Karissa and typically synonymous with a yellow hoodie or a frog hat. I live in rural Missouri, and that's probably enough weirdness to get you started.

Scott Benner 2:27
I'm sorry, frog hat you said?

Charissa 2:29
Yes. When I joined the Guard, the guys did not know what they got themselves into. Because I showed up in a frog hat and rain boots.

Scott Benner 2:39
The the, like the government port like the National Guard.

Charissa 2:44
Yeah, the Air National Guard. Yeah, sub sect of the Air Force there.

Scott Benner 2:48
We fly planes out of Missouri.

Charissa 2:50
No, I actually joined in Vermont, and I was an aerospace ground equipment mechanic.

Scott Benner 2:56
Gotcha. So that was fine. I'll say why are we flying such like extra distance to get to the border? Like why don't we put them closer to the ocean? Shouldn't we?

Charissa 3:04
Well, actually, Missouri does have an Air Guard unit as well, as well as an active Air Force Base. They just have a different mission.

Scott Benner 3:11
Can you tell me what the mission is? Or do you not know?

Charissa 3:14
I don't actually know. I mean, I know it's like flying and stuff. How's that? Different jets? We were at 16. Although they've even the guard unit and Vermont has transitioned to the F 35. So

Scott Benner 3:26
how does that work? Is it it's not a full time commitment right.

Charissa 3:31
Now, um, it was a when I was doing it. It was one weekend, a month, two weeks a year training. And then I got to volunteer for TDY and deployments. And so I got to learn a lot and have a lot of fun with those

Scott Benner 3:43
TDY.

Charissa 3:45
Temporary it's, it's just a two week training. I should know what it stands for. I don't

Scott Benner 3:53
Okay, hold on. That's that's not a big deal. I just

Charissa 3:57
started I thought I knew something here. Like

Scott Benner 3:59
I do TD wise all the time. What do they stand for? I don't know. A big part of my life, though. I

Charissa 4:06
go somewhere for two weeks. And

Scott Benner 4:10
it's fun. Do you think you were the only person to show up that day with a frog hat on or whether, you know,

Charissa 4:16
judging from their expressions, probably guessed. They had other. They had had a few other women in their shop before. And when I when I enlisted, I wasn't the only the only girl in the shop, which was kind of cool. How long before? So I was in. So I enlisted in 2008. And then I took an active duty assignment in 2006 did that for three years, wrecked my back, moved to Missouri and so I'm inactive now, which is why I have good health insurance. But once the paperwork is processed, then you know we'll have to we'll have to shift gears there. So

Scott Benner 4:57
do you have type one are you the parent of someone with type one

Charissa 5:00
I'm a parent. My two year and a half year old son Calvin has type one and his dad has type one and also his grandmother. They were all diagnosed right around the same time.

Scott Benner 5:12
Yes, grandmother, the her son and her grandchild were diagnosed all around the same time.

Charissa 5:19
Yeah, so my husband was diagnosed first, and then like six to nine months later, he walked, my husband walks in the door and says, Guess what? My mom was diagnosed with type one. And it was it was like we had had conversations, you know, if the kids ever get type one, at least I'll be older. We don't have to worry about it. And we miss all the thinking signs. We just thought Calum was growing. He had recently had vaccinations. So you know, we attributed you know, some of the sleepiness to that growing and yeah, he went into DKA. I sent a picture of his breathing to my sister who's an Army combat medic, and she says, you know, that's not right. Take him in. And he had been vomiting and stuff, too, but he had kind of stopped vomiting. So we thought maybe that was a good sign. But yeah, when his breathing went south, that was that was the catalyst there.

Scott Benner 6:08
How old was Calvin was diagnosed. 16 months. Wow. At least two and a half now. Yep. I might call this episode Calvin and frogs. That's awesome. I know. Oh, that would make me happy. I know. Did you name him after Calvin and Hobbes? Yes, I knew you did. And I don't know you at all. And in four minutes of talking to you, I was like she named that cater for that comic.

Charissa 6:32
Oh, yeah. Yeah, my husband's a huge fan too. So it works out.

Scott Benner 6:35
Excellent. You know, I have a fairly massive Calvin and Hobbes tattoo on my leg.

Charissa 6:40
You actually said that on a Facebook post. I was like, that's so cool.

Scott Benner 6:44
You can't see it. It's my it's private. But although I could I could probably sign up with a little bit of like, lotion. Make it look a bit get look summertime ready and get it out for somebody who knows. That's fascinating. I really, I'm so pleased with myself that I figured that out so quickly. I could stop the episode right now and be completely happy with this. You all listening would be like wait, what did I download this for? But I'm completely satisfied at this point. Everything's gonna be a bonus after this. Karissa. How long have you been married?

Charissa 7:16
Um, let's see. We got married at the end of 2017. So not very long. Couple years.

Scott Benner 7:23
Yeah. Okay. Three, four years. You've been married kid? Two and a half years old and the other kids are just this one.

Charissa 7:29
Yep. Phoebe just turned 402 children.

Scott Benner 7:32
Yeah, little girl. Yep. Okay. Well,

Charissa 7:36
I wouldn't ever Phoebe if she was a boy. But

Scott Benner 7:39
listen, I don't know how to judge the world. I mean, I must

Charissa 7:43
mean, you know, if she decides at some point that yeah, gender reassignment is a thing she she could, you know, decide to keep her name and just say Phoebe as a boy. Oh, no.

Scott Benner 7:53
I'm okay with it. I don't have any opinions about anything. Do you think of that? No, that's great. I seriously thought. Okay, so little girl for little boy, two and a half. He's had diabetes since he was 16 months old. That's only maybe a year not even you're not even up to a year yet, right?

Charissa 8:14
It's been a little over a year, diagnosed October 2020.

Scott Benner 8:19
And how long has your husband had it?

Charissa 8:22
A couple of years now. Because he was diagnosed right after we moved to Missouri, it was actually a giant fluke of a thing that we even caught it. So that was 2019. Right? After Calvin was born,

Scott Benner 8:36
how was he died? How was the husband of the husband? How was that boy diagnosed that you're married.

Charissa 8:42
So he, we moved up to Missouri and I wanted to get us all into a clinic near our house. So I made us all go in for checkups, to do the new patient and processing and stuff like that. And they ran as a one C It was Hi. So they diagnosed with type two. He had so my husband is prior military as well. So he went to an appointment at the VA. And the VA nurse said, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but you do not fit the picture of a type to get tested for type one. He did and his antibodies came back positive.

Scott Benner 9:17
Okay. And then did his diagnosis lead him to understanding his mom's problem, or does she have her own sort of like, diagnosis story and how old was she when she was diagnosed?

Charissa 9:29
She's in her early 50s. And I don't know a lot about her diagnosis story, but I mean, they caught it early as well. She's still at able to manage with a low carb diet. Just trying to prolong kind of the life of her pancreas. And then I think now she does like a once a week shot.

Scott Benner 9:46
Oh, she's got some sort of a honeymoon going on. That seems.

Charissa 9:50
So they're both allotted. So it's very slow onset.

Scott Benner 9:52
Gotcha. So obviously your husband is Lada as well. Gotcha. Wow. Okay. I'm sorry, I'm stuck. There's so much there. I didn't expect I could feel I could feel my brain reordering everything that you've said.

Charissa 10:11
You know, depending on how much you want to talk about and what aspects your brain might just do this all the time, or like,

Scott Benner 10:19
Well, how was it becoming the wife of a type one? What was that? Like?

Charissa 10:27
So at first, I was kind of a jerk about it. I was like, you know, what, if your thing you deal with it, you don't want me out down your throat because I'm kind of a pain in the butt. Like, for real, I am a pain in the butt. Because I worry about everything. I will fuss about everything until I absolutely understand it. So when Josh was first diagnosed, it was like, Okay, it's your thing. You deal with it. Just let me know if you need me. And then when Calvin was diagnosed, that's when I really dug in. Because, you know, I manage Calvin's care. And so then Josh, Josh kind of got the aftermath of all of that. So I did and getting involved in Josh's care especially because you know, with his blood sugar's he was also kind of neat. Okay, when he wasn't taking care of themselves, so now he has a CGM.

Scott Benner 11:15
So his blood sugar's were high, and he was difficult to be around.

Charissa 11:20
Um, so they were mostly high. And that didn't seem to bother him as much. It's when he would get active and in a project, like a physical project, and he would go low, like he just said, some really mean targeted things that he doesn't realize.

Scott Benner 11:35
Gotcha. Oh, that's fun. Yeah. Oh, personal heartful like to everybody, not just you. Um,

Charissa 11:48
I think if he had, like, if he had, if he spoke to anybody else on a regular basis, it would probably be across the board. But ya know, it's Hmm.

Scott Benner 11:59
But lucky you you're there, huh? I know.

Charissa 12:03
And he doesn't even realize it too. He's such a bonehead. Sometimes

Scott Benner 12:06
I understand. So you basically learn things about Calvin's care, and then looked at your husband was like, he needs this help, too. Yeah. Okay. So you initially after saying, you're an adult, you can handle this. You learn more through your son and realize maybe he needs help that he doesn't know about? And then you jumped in? And did you kind of write both the chips? Or how are things going?

Charissa 12:28
So he's still primarily does his own care, he doesn't don't adjustments and his insulin, he doesn't track anything. So the only way I can really look at things is when I pull up his libre app and start sifting through it if I think he, like, if I think he needs something, and he's not doing it on his own.

Scott Benner 12:45
Okay. How often do you look at his stuff?

Charissa 12:49
Maybe once every couple of months, okay, so

Scott Benner 12:51
you're not totally you know, to involve to begin with, but you're also busy because having a two year old with diabetes is not easy.

Charissa 12:57
No, and it's been a monstrosity lately. Calvin was in the hospital about a week ago with a stomach bug. And so, like his body has completely changed in his management. So right now his body is absorbing glucose so slowly that I actually have to give the carbs a lead time before I dose and I'm dosing it in half unit increments, kind of like a pump instead of you know, if he eats so many carbs, I'll give him a unit. I can't do that. It'll crash it, so I have to stagger the half units.

Scott Benner 13:29
Yeah, how much is the way

Charissa 13:32
he was 30 pounds. He lost like we all lost a lot of fluids with this virus except for Josh. Josh actually came out of it. Okay. But when I had it, I had it right before he did, and I had been having some gastrointestinal issues, so I thought it anyway so I thought it was that and then Calvin got sick and I lost like eight pounds of fluids on that Virus.

Scott Benner 13:53
Virus COVID

Charissa 13:56
No, just a stomach bug. We actually had COVID twice already.

Scott Benner 13:59
Look at you. overachievers

Charissa 14:02
I hate it. Like we got vaccinated to like that's the not funny part. Like come on. Yeah.

Scott Benner 14:08
You don't you live in the middle of nowhere. How did you meet enough people to get what's going on?

Charissa 14:15
I go grocery shopping once a week.

Scott Benner 14:18
You can't? Yeah, you can't do that. You have to have the food AirDrop. If these people are not going to take it seriously and give you the COVID

Charissa 14:26
Oh, Misery doesn't misery is very, you know, everybody's gonna get it. Why worry about it? And so that's kind of

Scott Benner 14:34
Yeah, was it? Was it any different the first time well, so real quickly, just asking you. You were vaccinated when you got the first time? Yeah. And how was the experience of being sick?

Charissa 14:45
Um, so the first time I was mostly just tired, Josh lost his sense of smell. The second time it really kicked my butt because it kind of just flared up everything I already had going on. So I had muscle aches. I was tired like my joints hurt. or like it was just miserable.

Scott Benner 15:01
Gotcha. Did it last any longer or shorter the first or second time?

Charissa 15:06
I feel like it lasted a little longer than second time too. I had COVID fatigue for an extra couple of weeks after that.

Scott Benner 15:12
How about the kids that began it?

Charissa 15:15
Um, so the first time that kids didn't miss a beat the second time, Calvin's blood sugar's acted like he was sick, but he didn't show any physical symptoms. It was weird.

Scott Benner 15:24
That's interesting. Wow. How old are you? 36. Okay. I don't know why that makes it. Okay. Like if for some reason. If you're in your 20s I'd be like, oh, goodness, but then I was like, alright, she can handle this.

Charissa 15:36
Yeah, well, so here's the other thing. My husband's dad got COVID and he's unvaccinated had some health issues. We found out he had to open right before Thanksgiving. And he ended up dying a week later, Josh had to make an emergency trip out to Arizona. I'm sorry. And his blood sugar's during that period. Were really interesting. Your husband's

Scott Benner 15:56
where? Yeah, from adrenaline and anxiety. You think things like that?

Charissa 16:03
Mostly adrenaline Joash does not typically a debit physical symptoms of being stressed out, but you could see it in his blood sugar. Yeah,

Scott Benner 16:12
you can see it in my face.

Charissa 16:16
I'm still looking at your pictures you don't look particularly stressed right now. And

Scott Benner 16:20
that photo I was I was like six days into a week off. And I I hadn't been around. I hadn't been around diabetes for like, for a while. And I was somewhere where the weather was nice. And my son was having fun and it was a lot going on there that day, but when I'm upset you can you get to see it my face. Yeah, I'm not particularly good at hiding it. I don't believe

Charissa 16:42
Oh, no. Yeah.

Scott Benner 16:44
Okay. Wow, there's what made you want to come on the podcast?

Charissa 16:48
I actually wanted my husband to come on, because

Scott Benner 16:53
this is going great, then.

Charissa 16:56
Now it's fine. Um, I just I I get nervous. Clearly. My words I start shaking. Like I'm kind of a hot mess.

Scott Benner 17:06
We Oh, wait, hold on sooner. What do you mean? Clearly you think you've come off as nervous so far?

Charissa 17:11
Yeah. Well, I mean, I like shaking. You're shaking? Yeah, a little bit of coffee.

Scott Benner 17:20
Well, I mean, listen, from my perspective, you're not nervous. That's positive, positive. So you Why did you want him to come on?

Charissa 17:30
Because the story is just really interesting. And so his diagnosis, you know, he was diagnosed and then if mom was diagnosed as son has diagnosed like, it's a different perspective from me because I can still kind of stay disconnected. You know, he had to deal with all of this diabetes while dealing with his own. We're not dealing with his own diabetes, because he wasn't at the time. I mean, that's beside the point. But his onset to so Calvin's birth was actually a little traumatic. We were moving out of base housing out of Florida. And I got preeclampsia. The week we were moving. So we were supposed to move to Missouri on a Friday, I ended up in the hospital and um, on a Monday, Calvin was born by emergency C section on the Saturday, Josh wanted to come be with me and I told him, No, you need to close up this house because we are not staying in Florida. And so he and he had Phoebe with him. She was 18 months all the time. So he was trying to close up the house with a toddler while his wife is in the hospital. Not sure if she was going to be okay. And then his son was born. The hospital called him late. It was

Scott Benner 18:37
a mess. Yeah. That's nice. And so you thought that his perspective on that story was interesting because he got diabetes first, and then got to watch it happen around him to other times.

Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes in pen is an insulin pen that offers some of the functionality that you've come to expect from an insulin pump. I know you're thinking, Oh, Scott, please tell me more. Well, I will. Yes, the pen is a pen. But it also has an application that lives on your smart device. This app shows you your current glucose levels, meal history, dose history and activity log glucose history, active insulin remaining a dosing calculator and reports that you and your physician can use while you're trying to decide what your next step is. Well, well, well, it's not just an insulin pen. Now is in Penn today.com. That's where you're going to find out more information and get started. If you're ready to try the M pen, just fill out the form at in pen today.com or do some more reading. There's actually some videos you could check out to about that. Listen calculator, the dose reminders, card counting support, and the digital logbook. So if you want to lighten your diabetes management load, but you're not ready for an insulin pump in Penn is probably right for you. In Penn today.com in Penn also offers 24 hour Technical Support hands on product training, and online educational resources. And here's something else that you'll find it in Penn today.com. It is actually very exciting. Now this offer is for people with commercial insurance in terms and conditions do apply, but you may pay as little as $35 for the pen. And that's because Medtronic diabetes does not want cost to be a roadblock to you getting the therapy you need within pen $35. How crazy is that? In pen today.com in pen requires a prescription and settings from your healthcare provider, you must use proper settings and follow the instructions as directed, where you can experience high or low glucose levels. For more safety information where to get started today, you can go to in pen today.com. How would you like to know what your blood sugar is, without poking a hole in your finger, you can with the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitoring system, which is available@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Not only does Dexcom offers zero finger sticks, but you can get your glucose readings right on your smart device that's your iPhone or your Android don't have a phone. That's okay. You can use Dex comms receiver on any of these devices, you're able to set up customizable alerts and alarms, setting your optimal range so that you'll get notified when your glucose levels go too high or too low. And you can share this data with up to 10 followers. Imagine what that could look like your child could be at school, and their data could be available to you, your spouse, their aunt, the school nurse, anyone who you choose, my daughter has been wearing a Dexcom for ever. And it helps us in multiple ways. Around meals, we're able to see if our boluses are well timed, and well measured. If they aren't, we can tell by how her blood sugar reacts and then go back the next time and make an adjustment without the Dexcom CGM were sort of flying blind, but not just that meals. Also during activity and sleep. The Dexcom offers us an unprecedented level of comfort and security, being able to see my daughter's blood sugars in real time. And not just the number. But the speed and direction is an absolute game changer. If you're using insulin dexcom.com forward slash juice box head over there today to see if you're eligible for a free 10 day trial of the Dexcom G six, the Dexcom is at the center of how we've been able to keep our daughter's a one C between five two and six two. for over seven years, we've been able to minimize variability and keep her blood sugar's in a stable range because of the information that we can see with the Dexcom. These are our results and yours may vary. But using Dexcom feedback has helped my daughter without any food restrictions, live a more normal and healthy life dexcom.com forward slash juice box when you use my legs to reach the advertisers, you're supporting the podcast, I thank you very much for finding those links and clicking on them or typing them in, as I've said in the ads.

Charissa 23:43
Right. And he like in retrospect, he kind of thinks that that whole sequence of events may have been what triggered his diabetes because he didn't get sick or anything like that. Like there was no obvious catalyst except that time of stress.

Scott Benner 23:59
So the birth weight you're seeing around Calvin's birth and the the changing of the house was very stressful for your husband. Yes, obviously. And then he then he gets his diagnosis soon after that. Yep. Gotcha. Are there other autoimmune diseases in his family?

Charissa 24:18
Not so far. Um, he had mentioned. So when we first got together, you know, we had talked about diabetes because my grandpa had type two diabetes, and he had mentioned some of his other family members, like great aunts and uncles. Maybe it's just great uncles. I don't know somebody had something getting dated, but we never connected it because back then diabetes was just diabetes. We never connected it as type one. You're just like, okay, they had diabetes runs on both sides or families.

Scott Benner 24:44
Okay, and this was like some great uncle that might have had type one. Yeah, all right. But you don't see any other stuff celiac? How about people who are like crazy like, allergic to things or not yet. Do you guys talk enough that you would know?

Charissa 25:03
Um, so my family history kind of, I kind of find out things in pieces. And I think his is the same way. So, I was tested for celiac 10 years ago came back negative Calvin was tested at diagnosis and while he was in the hospital, because I guess they do that annually now that he's type one, which is great, that makes me really happy. So, you know, no, no positive. You know, they're just Josh's family history. You know, his dad had some health issues, but they were surrounding his, like blood clots. He had some blood clot issues. So nothing we know about autoimmune there. And then on his mom's side, on his mom's side, it's just the diabetes. Oh, you know what? There is something. So dementia runs on both sides of my family, my grandma on my mom's side, or on my dad's side had Alzheimer's. My grandma on my mom's side had Lewy Body disease, which is another form of dementia. So I know you posted something about the Alzheimer's. That's why I was really, really interested in that.

Scott Benner 26:14
Yeah, I think that those are that there's enough research around that that talks about inflammation that makes you just kind of wonder, get on me.

Charissa 26:23
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And yeah, cuz I did some additional reading and the evidence, you know, connecting all of these auto immunities is pretty damning.

Scott Benner 26:33
Yeah, no, no. Let's see. I'm looking at something about his missus maybe involved in the body Lewy body dementia. Okay, so this is from the NIH T cells, which are key players in the body's immune system may be involved in the degeneration of neurons and Lewy Body. According to an IA supported study, researchers at Stanford, Northwestern identify how a certain type of T cells which is involved in autoimmune disease may travel to the brain to destroy neurons. So good times.

Charissa 27:13
Yeah, I'm gonna lose my frickin mind.

Scott Benner 27:16
Probably not, you know, or maybe whatever.

Charissa 27:20
I'm just rolling with it. It's like, you know what, I'm just gonna be bonkers. When I get old. It's cool. women in my family lives forever. So I'm just not going to know anything.

Scott Benner 27:30
Just be old and like, just like, listen, let me tell you a story. So we were away this weekend. And my mom is 79. She's just gotten her third round of chemotherapy. She's doing well, by all accounts. And she says to me, um, you know, take some pictures while you're out looking at colleges with Arden and send them to me. All right. So I sent her a number of pictures. She's 79. So it's not like she she doesn't hear the ding and go right to her text. Like usually I know if I text my mom, something I might hear back from about it in the day or so. And next day, she I get this phone call from her. She was hey, who's this guy in this photo with Arden. And I'm like, What is she talking about? I was like, What photo mom and she goes, she describes the picture to me and I opened up on my my text messages. That's me, mom. And she goes, that's you? And I said, Yeah, she was oh, I can't believe I didn't recognize you. I was like me either. And then I'm like, I'm texting my brothers. I'm like sending the picture to my brother's like, Mom doesn't know who the guy in this photo is. Like, I think we should start with getting her eyes checked. You know, let's let's hope for that, you know, but I don't know what's gonna be like, I'm sitting here right now telling you I can't I'm not certain why my mom doesn't recognize me in a photograph. I mean, sure. I photograph way handsomer than I am in person, right? I mean, I'm basically a model. But it shouldn't be that confusing. And, you know, I mean, can you imagine if you knew when you were 36 that that might happen one day, who would care? You don't? I mean? Like, like, Who would care? Like it's too far into the future? Screw it. Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Charissa 29:16
No, I really don't. It's just It's something I've kind of accepted as a possibility. There's not a lot of worry there.

Scott Benner 29:25
Good, good. Perfect. Sorry, I'm answering a text. I don't mean to do that. But it's yeah, I'm trying to Well, I guess more like COVID related craziness. We've had a we had a leak in our shower. Oh, no. And, you know, so we contact a lifelong friend who's a builder. And I'm like, Hey, listen. I need my shower fixed. This is July. For context. We're speaking now in the middle of February. And he goes, Yeah, sure, beginning of the year, and I win You can't just fix my shower prior to six months, like like, from now on. He's like, No, I was like, he goes COVID No way, like COVID. I was like, hold on a second. I swear people just using this as an excuse now. Like, what's happening? Exactly. And he said, all of my jobs are behind because I can't get materials. Like, oh, no kidding. That's crazy. And I didn't think of that. You know what I mean? So hold on one second. So he just tried to call me.

Charissa 30:40
Oh, yeah, you don't want to miss that if you're

Scott Benner 30:42
telling my wife

I'm telling my wife, who will almost assuredly say you can just call him when it's I would do the same thing now. You'll be done like an hour. Just call him then. I'm now I've sent her all the information. What happens next? No one knows. But I like it. My wife's been like, since she was 20. Like, she's like, I'll do it and like, go ahead. And she's like

Charissa 31:31
so i There are definitely things I push to my husband just because I can now I had to deal with when I was single. So my tire blew on Friday, like blew on the freeway. I'm on the side of the road. I met, you know, call the tow truck. So the cars been up the shop since then. And this morning, you know, we needed to go bring the keys. And you know, Josh brought up I could do it and I could go get my coffee and or, or you can do it and you can bring the coffee. And he did and it's wonderful.

Scott Benner 32:06
Yeah, I don't have that. I gotta be honest. I at one point this morning, you know, I so we get home last night. Like we drove Thursday 15 hours, like straight shot. Then, you know, ate something we shouldn't have eaten too late at night, went to bed got up in the morning. Did a whole day of like sightseeing. I'm not sure what happened to my voice just then sightseeing going around this college campus trying to figure things out that we got there a day prior to when the tour was so we could you know, kind of get the lay of the land and figure things out. Next day, full tour all day. Massive day my knee sore at the end of the day. Very unpleasant. And oh boy, hold on a second. And then I'm sorry, I'm laughing because my wife just texted me back. Just call him when you're done. It'll be fine. I can't schedule anything. I can't see your calendar. My iPad is like right next to where she is right now. She could pick it up and look at my calendar. But she means it's not on her phone. So anyway, this seems like she doesn't want to be involved in this

Charissa 33:19
as unfair as it is I'm totally on her side though.

Scott Benner 33:22
I would do man she grew up across the street from she's known him her entire life

Charissa 33:29
I just don't do I listen.

Scott Benner 33:31
I see how it is so anyway, all day Saturday do this tour you know eat some dinner go to bed get up drive 15 hours home you know get home last night you know crawl into bed all of us like we all just like it's just me Arden and Kelly we gotten up our bed like we're sitting there like let's just put one TV show on before we go to bed. They pick a TV show I freakin hate. Then I get up this morning. I've got to go get the dogs from the kennel before I talk to you. So I'm rushing around like a lunatic. The lady at the kennel is trying to be like cordial. And I'm like, Honey, I gotta go. running out the door to come speak with you. And then in the middle of it. The guy had been waiting for a phone call from for eight months calls. And I'm like, Hey, can you just text him? She's like, No, I can't do it. And I just want that story to sit here for all the time in memoriam so that any men who might hear it in the future will know what to expect. I drove the entire trip both directions and other people in the car like we could drive we could drive just ask I was like, You don't mean that. So?

Charissa 34:41
Well, I mean. So in my husband case, in my husband's case, he actually won't let me drive because he's terrified of my driveway. He hates it. He would rather just drive to exhaustion because he doesn't want to deal with my stuff. Why is your driving

Scott Benner 34:55
so bad? It's not he's just dramatic. Is his blood sugar was high? Hey, looking back, do you see any things about your husband's diabetes that may have existed longer? Or before you knew he had Lada?

Charissa 35:14
No, because he did mentioned that he was thirsty all the time. But he didn't tell me about it. Kind of did this thing,

Scott Benner 35:20
how long it was, how long did he in hindsight, tell you? He had been thirsty for like years of thirst or months? Or

Charissa 35:29
maybe a month or two? Oh, God, not anything significant.

Scott Benner 35:32
I gotcha. So what do you find interesting about his story? I mean, he's not here. By the way, how did this happen? As you say, you should be on the podcast. He's like, I'm not doing that you do it.

Charissa 35:41
So when I brought it, like when I brought it up on the Facebook page, cuz you had posted looking for people, and I was like, Oh, my husband should do it. That's the weekend. That's the week his dad died, so I never brought it up.

Scott Benner 35:54
Oh, why should you put the cart before the horse?

Charissa 35:57
Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I wanted to talk to him about doing it.

Scott Benner 36:02
And then it just never happened that way.

Charissa 36:06
No. And I did, like mentioned much, much later, as, you know, when I told him, but I was gonna do it. I was like, Yeah, I really wanted you to do it. But you know, that's the week you're dead dead. So I didn't feel comfortable bringing it up. And then you posted looking for somebody who had, you know, another autoimmune disease? And I was like, Well, I don't, but I've been tested for everything.

Scott Benner 36:26
Why have you been tested for everything? Because I

Charissa 36:29
have unexplained joint pain and fatigue, and a host of symptoms that I can't even remember in any given date and time unless I'm experiencing it. It's frustrating. Have

Scott Benner 36:40
you had them your whole life? Or are they something that's new?

Charissa 36:42
There, so they kind of, they have different onset times. Like the joint pain started in 2018, after Phoebe was born after. So in 2018, I had an MRI, and they showed a minor back injury. And then I got sent back to work, we can sell the equipment mechanics, and they the doctors on the Air Force Base told me Oh, it'll fix itself. It did not it got worse. So I had to have surgery eventually. But the joint pain started post that. And so I ended up being tested like so even while I was pregnant with Calvin they tested for actually, I have a spreadsheet for this. My memory is not great. So I have a spreadsheet for every No,

Scott Benner 37:30
no, this is crazy of a spreadsheet for your pain. I love it, get it out.

Charissa 37:34
I have a spreadsheet sheet for symptoms, I have a spreadsheet for every bit of bloodwork that I have record of I want

Scott Benner 37:42
to hear about a lot of this. So tell me when it's in front of you. Okay, so I've got it pulled up. Let's see jumping to 2018. You're, like 3233 years old, you would have done this prior to that.

Charissa 38:00
I'm sorry to say that one more time. I

Scott Benner 38:01
said, this was about three or so years ago, but you didn't have any of this pain prior to that. So prior to your early 30s.

Charissa 38:08
Nope. Um, prior to my early 30s, I had gastrointestinal issues. And so that's also been kind of a thing. But I just figured well, so I just figured I had food intolerances like out gluten free for a lot of years. But before I got pregnant, I started eating gluten. Again, just in like small amounts, because I didn't want I don't know if this is logical. But this was my theory at the time. I didn't want my kids to have a reaction to gluten because they hadn't been exposed to it.

Scott Benner 38:39
So you tried to expose them in utero? Yes. Did it make you be pants again? Did you like to bother your belly?

Charissa 38:47
So it really didn't. So I had read that pregnancy is more synonymous with constipation. So I figured they would kind of balance each other out.

Scott Benner 38:59
Crossing your mind kind of mad scientist keep going.

Charissa 39:03
Like for once in my life, my system just kind of worked. I was like, alright,

Scott Benner 39:09
so you're better pregnant things work better when you're pregnant.

Charissa 39:12
Only in that respect, other than that pregnancy was miserable. I hated it. But the kids are cool. So it's alright.

Scott Benner 39:18
Okay. So okay, so you did that. And then after having your daughter, you started experiencing joint pain? Yes. Where what joints? All all of them down to wrists, fingers. ankles. Okay.

Charissa 39:36
Yes. Although in retrospect the knee and ankle pain could actually have been related to the back injury as opposed to actual joint.

Scott Benner 39:47
So the back maybe had your gait off and maybe messed with your other joints? All right.

Charissa 39:53
Yeah. Because I mean from so from, from kind of the waist down well, not the way from The lower back down, you know, I have I have nerve pain issues. And so those will manifest in my knees and my ankles.

Scott Benner 40:09
Hurting. Yes. And for how long and how frequently

Charissa 40:16
so right now it's not as bad. So I have a spinal cord stimulator implant. But before I had the back surgery, it was it was whenever I'd be up and moving. Just the pressure would, you know cause the cause the nerve endings to bottom out and cause pain in those areas?

Scott Benner 40:38
What was the back injury?

Charissa 40:41
It is a two because I mean,

Scott Benner 40:48
I mean, how did you do it? Do you lift something something fallen you like? Oh,

Charissa 40:53
that was actually one of the more frustrating things is it wasn't one event and I had to fight with the VA VA to get disability for it. Because it wasn't one traumatic event that caused the disc bulge and the pull up my health profile here. Give you the technical stuff. It was just repeated. We're in player because I was a heavy Oh, so actually, you don't let me give you some context for this. Before I had kids, I was five foot 220 pounds, working heavy equipment mechanics. So after I had Phoebe, I struggled to lose the weight. And I'm a fluffy girl now. Which is fine. It's not so bad. As long as I can stop gaining the stinking weight. But really? Okay, um I lost my train. Where did I go?

Scott Benner 41:58
Well, I can help you. You're lucky. I've been listening. Even if you have not been. You were trying to give context. You said I was five to 120 before I had the baby after the baby weight was a little difficult to get rid of fluffy now. Not about there's something for you. I think you were looking for body context for me. But you were doing a tough job. Heavy Machine something.

Charissa 42:22
That's what it was. Yeah. So I worked on. So I did diesel mechanics. I worked on hydraulic test stands on combine generator air conditioning units, like big, big equipment. So it was a big job for a little person. And so the wear and tear. If had my back injury had been treated when it was minor. I probably would have been fine. Okay. However it was the doctors just told me it'll fix itself go back to work. And it escalated and

Scott Benner 42:55
got worse and worse and worse mean what did you lose function of?

Charissa 43:00
So I was in pain all the time. I was angry. I you know, I had back pain. hip pain, knee pain, ankle pain, like just constant.

Scott Benner 43:11
Yeah. Do your wrists hurt?

Charissa 43:15
They do. Yeah, shoulders. Yeah, the right one more than the left. Okay, so sciatica right side other spondylosis with raid a que lo pathI lumbar region lumbar degenerative disc disease lumbar facet at I just wrecked my back.

Scott Benner 43:31
Yeah. Just kind of doing stuff. Yeah. You just you kind of weren't ready for I guess and or your body wasn't ever going to be okay with. It sounds like yeah, then it got worse and worse. Did it debilitate you? Is that how you finally got out of it?

Charissa 43:45
Yeah, so I was 30. I was 35. When I got back surgery. I was a 35 year old walking with a cane.

Scott Benner 43:53
That's fine. How old were you when you had Phoebe?

Charissa 43:57
33.

Scott Benner 44:01
Okay. And then you had back surgery and then you had a Calvin.

Charissa 44:05
I had Calvin and then I had back surgery. The reason that we decided to have Calvin when we did is because I was already in pain. Like I already had chronic back pain and chronic joint pain. And I thought if we waited, I wasn't gonna be able to have another kid. And I really like I had my brother and sister growing up. And we're super close. And so I really wanted Phoebe to

Scott Benner 44:28
have that. Yeah, I say do how do you manage the pain now?

Charissa 44:33
spinal cord stimulator. It's awesome.

Scott Benner 44:36
Okay, is it internal or external? Its internal.

Charissa 44:39
So I have two leads that are implanted along the spinal cord and there's a battery pack that's underneath my skin. That feels really funny. And then I have a remote, a cool little remote that lets me adjust the the vibration.

Scott Benner 44:54
It's constant. And what does it do confuse the nerves or

Charissa 44:59
Oh But maybe actually, it just like it. You know how a 10s unit works where it just kind of works things out for you. Yeah,

Scott Benner 45:09
it's that but internal. So the so is there no pain now with the stimulator?

Charissa 45:16
Very little to none. Yeah.

Scott Benner 45:18
No killing. Do you ever have to get up a little bit like does it ever need more? It does? Yeah.

Charissa 45:23
When I'm working, like if I'm doing anything physical, I definitely do. We're gonna build a fence today for my garden. And so I'll probably have to jack it up after that. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 45:33
They need an app for the phone. You don't want to mess with a remote. I'd like to see it right on your phone. That would be nice. And so did that alleviate joint pain, knee pain, hip pain, like what did it fix?

Charissa 45:45
So it helps. So the knees and the ankles may have additional issue wearing tear issues, but I haven't followed up on it. But as far as like the nerve pain, it's cut out the nerve pain. So now you know, I've got like, kind of the grating, you know, just worn out pains. But I still have you know, Shoulder Elbow, wrist hands, my hands are getting kind of obnoxious because they like to swell up when storms are running through.

Scott Benner 46:19
But you don't have RA or anything like that.

Charissa 46:22
My blood work is absolutely stinking perfect. And it's maddening.

Scott Benner 46:28
It sucks. It really does. Really? Does the nerve pain feel like? Let me see some other questions. Have you ever felt like your bones hurt? Yes. If you've had that feeling of like, My bones are bruised or aching.

Charissa 46:43
They ache but there's no physical damage that is, you know, visible from the outside. And if I fuss with my joints, like there's no point where I can touch them that will cause it to hurt. It just hurts.

Scott Benner 46:56
It just hurts. Does this have any? Excuse me just have any relation to your period your cycle at all? No. Okay. pretty regular. I'm sorry. I know. It's like 40 minutes. And I'm like you've pretty regular periods.

Charissa 47:11
I think so I don't really track it anymore. I never really tracked it actually.

Scott Benner 47:16
Not super heavy, though. Or, like less than awkward amount of time, nothing like that.

Charissa 47:22
I mean, they're more frequent than I'd like. Like I get maybe three, three and a half weeks.

Scott Benner 47:27
But okay. Okay. I'm just asking all the questions. Fine. This is why in the old west, you would just eventually, like leave your woman behind. Like showing her out. We'll get another one. Oh my god, it's terrible. A couple of

Charissa 47:44
weeks ago, I told my husband like, I want to blame you if you left me like you did not sign up for this. And he's like, Well, you didn't sign up for my either.

Scott Benner 47:52
What do you say? Like, like abandoned at the Walmart kind of thing. Like just like

Charissa 48:00
at home, I was feeling just terrible. We had a snowstorm come through and those like storms change of season and then when it gets really hot and humid in the summer, those for some reason, like those scenarios just wreck me. And I like I'm just like a puddle. Like just a puddle full of pain.

Scott Benner 48:23
Would you be better? Would you better than like Phoenix Do you think?

Charissa 48:29
Um, maybe. I mean, we're better in misery than we were in Florida. Florida was miserable, humid. Yeah. But you know, the fall times here are pretty dry. And that's one of my worst. One of the catalysts for starting to follow up on it again is a couple of years ago and get ready get the bloodwork done, which all came back normal except for inflammation. Like there was one fall day I woke up and my hands felt like they were being crushed. And that scared me. But check for rheumatoid check for lupus checked for

Scott Benner 49:11
fibromyalgia like fibromyalgia, Lymes disease heavy metals, they do all that

Charissa 49:19
they didn't check for heavy metals. But you know, everything else

Scott Benner 49:24
came back. Hmm, came it all came back clear. Yep. Krista, do you ever self medicate? i

Charissa 49:33
So oh, you know, there is one little thing. There is one little thing. So when I went to the neurologist, they actually gave me a brain scan for Ms. And that came back clear. But they did a vitamin panel, my D, my D vitamin D was low, or actually that was actually a decision. Yes, so that was deficient. And then my B 12. was on the low end so I started a multivitamin that has between Oh, and D. And then I recently started one that added iodine into the mix because I don't eat iodized salt. And I know that can do some, I do listen to your podcasts.

Scott Benner 50:14
Does that happen that that happened to impact anything? Not so far. I keep wondering how many people are we're gonna have to test their vitamin D, and it comes back a little before we start acting like, well, that must be the normal level of people's vitamin D at this point. I mean, like, not that it's not impactful, and that you don't need it. But I mean, it's happening to so many people that it's just, you know, it's crazy. Yeah, so, so question is impacted my question. Do you ever find yourself so badly off that you have to self medicate? Like, how do you manage pain before the stimulator? It's just a weird thing to ask. Because I'm basically asking, it's great not to have anything back. Yeah, like you smoking weed or drinking or like, doing something harder? No, I.

Charissa 51:06
So weed is not my thing. You know, no, no judgment on the people who do it. It's just not my thing. But before I had kids, I like I realized, like, when I was pregnant, and after I had kids, because I wasn't drinking. I realized how much I self medicated with alcohol for a really long time. Yeah, well, I mean, probably for everything. But yeah, that was part of

Scott Benner 51:32
it. What's the other stuff?

Charissa 51:33
What's the other stuff? Oh, just life stuff. You know, life gets hard. I drink a little.

Scott Benner 51:38
You know, it's not my thing. And so I'm fascinated by it. Like, no, yeah, I don't know how to, like, I don't know how to like, I can't commiserate with that. For some reason. Like, when life gets hard, like, I don't know what happens to me. I don't think to do that. But it's, like, not a judgement. I just, I mean, I'm sure if I thought to do it, I would do it.

Charissa 52:01
I mean, it's not a bad thing. Since you know, I've, since I've had kids, and especially now with Calvin's diabetes, I drink even less, because I can't bear the thought of not being in control of a situation if something were to arise. So I've had to come up with other coping mechanisms. So gardening is a big one. You know, bike riding is something I actually started before I had kids so that I've gotten back into

Scott Benner 52:24
you're able to do that. You're able to do that now.

Charissa 52:28
Yes. So that was one of the really cool things about the spinal cord stimulator is that I got to get my bike for free. I'm actually doing a happy dance.

Scott Benner 52:36
How did you find out about the stimulator visit VA or a private doctor?

Charissa 52:41
Private Doctor, I have not done much with the VA Health Care System yet, because I get tired of fighting on the civilian side. I don't want to fight the VA for the rest of my life. Okay, I

Scott Benner 52:53
don't like yeah, okay.

Charissa 52:55
But so my. So first I went to when they found the injury, they sent me to neurosurgery. And they talked about spinal fusion, which is probably what I've should have gotten instead of the spinal cord stimulator. The spinal cord stimulator was an option, because I have two small children. And I cannot commit the time for recovery. For the spinal fusion. Like if I have the spinal fusion, I would be at higher risk for subsequent surgeries. Because, you know, I have two small kids to take care of like, I cannot

Scott Benner 53:30
lift such a scary thing. To me. The idea of having back surgery is if I find it frightening,

Charissa 53:36
I was terrified. I dang near canceled the day before because I was so scared because I read a stinking article about what could go wrong with this thing.

Scott Benner 53:44
Yeah. So you had a bulging disc, and they were in that they think that's where your pain comes from?

Charissa 53:51
Yeah.

Scott Benner 53:54
It's terrible. Like I just it's the worst kind of pain, like because it comes and goes and it feels like it's soft muscle, but it acts like it's structural. Back pain is terrible. It really, really

Charissa 54:05
is. And, like I had gotten to the point where mine just didn't go away.

Scott Benner 54:09
Right? How would you characterize your stress and anxiety level? Why you laugh?

Charissa 54:21
Because if there's a chart, I would be like, over left field.

Scott Benner 54:25
There's a lot of good,

Charissa 54:28
oh, it's just life stuff. But I you know, I deal with it all right. You know, it's just, you kind of take things one step at a time. So there's something that my basic training instructor said, that really sticks with me. And that's, you know, it doesn't get better, you get better. And so that's kind of the mentality that I just roll forward with, you know, every every forward motion counts. And it's okay to backpedal like Take it, take two steps back and just push forward again.

Scott Benner 55:03
That's cool. That's really insightful. Actually. I want to talk to you a little bit about Calvin's diabetes and what you were faced with in the beginning and what you've learned so far and what's working and what's not working. So,

Charissa 55:18
yeah, usually gets really annoyed about how much I talk about Ellen's diabetes.

Scott Benner 55:22
Oh, guess what, this me your time. So, you're gonna you're gonna get this song about it as much as you want. diagnosed, he sends him home he a little kid, they give you a pen.

Charissa 55:35
They did. We had. So they sent us home with the JR, quick pins. And I had, but I so when we first got our prescriptions, TRICARE had us go through Express Scripts, pharmacies. And those stinkers had cancelled the medication, because they said they couldn't get in touch with the endos office. Our endos offense is wonderful. So even early on, I knew that was a load of, you know, right. Um, so we like I was in a stinking panic because Calvin ran out of insulin. And I was like, ready to go down to Walmart with a credit card and just pay for it and the Walmart next to us you know, they we got an emergency authorization through so we could pick it up from Walmart. But Walmart gave us the pens I only had the whole units. So for a month there until we got the junior quick seconds back. I had to modify a 16 month old diet for whole unit dosages. I was so bad.

Scott Benner 56:42
Yeah, no kidding. His half unit syringes and pens are a lifesaver when you have a little really are was was Calvin still. bottles at 16 months.

Charissa 56:53
He had. You know what? He was off bottles at that point. He was still eating a lot of rice cereal and a lot of pure rates starting solid.

Scott Benner 57:02
Okay. So what's the I mean, he's on a slow acting right away.

Charissa 57:08
Yes. Okay. Yep. Yep, he was on land. And

Scott Benner 57:11
a lot of for Calvin. He's not messing around. He's jumping. Right.

Charissa 57:14
I've actually looked into that a little bit, because I remember you saying that Arden's potential honeymoon period was like three days. And, you know, I read, you know, I'm on the I'm on Facebook quite a bit. So I read about other people's honeymoons and Calvin's, whether it's his pancreas taken in, I wasn't sure if a lot of played a factor. But another thought has entered my mind of gastrointestinal issues, which is why I'm glad he gets tested for celiac annually. Because it could be an absorption of glucose that makes this happen or a lack of absorption. But he pretty regularly, like we have to adjust his Lantis like his, his, a lot of times his Bolus stays fine. So I'm inclined to think his pancreas is doing something. But his baseline needs to be adjusted pretty frequently,

Scott Benner 58:06
how drastically from what Allah.

Charissa 58:10
So typically a unit and one of the challenges a lot of a lot of times we get stuck between half units, so we kind of just waffle until he's solid on one or the other, you know whether we want to fight the highs of the lows. But, so, in this last fall, we actually had to back off his Lantis two units. Because I had moved him up because his body was running high. He had needed it. And then, you know, a couple of weeks or a month later, all of a sudden he's just crashing. And it took me a minute to realize what was happening because we've never backed off Atlantis before our kind of understanding was that once you're on, you know this dosage, you just kind of go up from there to see growth, we didn't realize we would have to backpedal. So he would get into a blood sugar of like 131 20 like a really nice spot for him, you know, a little buffer on each side. And he would just start crashing. So his Lantus, you know, he get into that good range, and if Lantis would just yank him. Gotcha. And so we backed off a unit and it was still doing it, but a little bit less, you know, it was on a diagonal instead of a crash. Right, right. Back off again. That's, that's kind of how we figured that out. Yeah. And

Scott Benner 59:28
how much does he weigh now versus how much do you weigh when he was diagnosed?

Charissa 59:32
He is about 30 pounds now. Yeah. When he was diagnosed, he was still a little guy. I honestly can't remember his weight. I don't want to say about half that.

Scott Benner 59:42
Okay. Wow. Okay, so he's gained a significant amount of weight since he's been diagnosed. Good. So are things easier now that he's gained weight?

Charissa 59:54
They were until he got the stomach virus. Yeah. Right.

Scott Benner 59:57
And then that's changed everything. assuming

Charissa 1:00:00
I'm working with a totally different body, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:00:03
how would how was it going? Like, like what? You said your husband uses. Libre does your son use CGM?

Charissa 1:00:12
Yes, the dex calm. So when we first got the dex calm, it was really frustrating. Because it seems like his he just, he had a lot of false readings like there was one day that was particularly scary. And my mom, like, so from the beginning, I've really just kind of honed in on different trends and things. There was one day we were playing outside. And at the time of day, typically he would his blood sugar would start to come down. But his Dex calm, showed that he was going up. And I was like, that's weird. I'm just gonna double check. And he was actually low. Like legitimately low, like, you know, 50s or 60s. And that scares the hell out of me. But you know, since he's turned two and gotten older and gotten a little more meat on him, it's actually been a lot more accurate. And it's saved our lives a couple of times, and especially with the stomach virus, like thankfully, we have a really, really good sensor this last week, so I could actually figure things out.

Scott Benner 1:01:12
Yeah. Well, I mean, I assume that after the virus is completely cleared, you'll see some return to normalcy, that would be my expectation.

Charissa 1:01:20
That's mine, too. But you know, for for right now, we're just rolling with what it is and trying to keep him in range as best we can with with the tools that

Scott Benner 1:01:28
we have. What was his day once he when he was diagnosed?

Charissa 1:01:32
I have no idea. It wasn't pretty. I can tell you that. It wasn't significantly high, either.

Scott Benner 1:01:38
Okay, how about his blood sugar when you got into the hospital? Do you remember?

Charissa 1:01:42
Uh, not really. But I know, again, it wasn't like, it wasn't like outrageously high, but it was definitely high diabetes, because, you know, the nurses checked his blood sugar. And I like, Cust like, just oh my god. And that's when I told the nurses, you know, his dad has type one. You know that. That's what I knew.

Scott Benner 1:02:02
What, um, where's my question? What is a once he's been so far in this first year?

Charissa 1:02:11
So we haven't been great, but we're getting better. In the hospital last week is a Wednesday it was 6.8.

Scott Benner 1:02:18
That's good. That's really good. So you're, you're bringing it down. So you're figuring it out? So you're basically trying to keep him safe. Let him eat. Let him grow and slowly move in the direction you're looking for? Yes, it makes a lot of sense to me. Especially with a little kid like that. And you have another young child too. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot going on, is what I'm saying. Yeah. Are you okay?

Charissa 1:02:43
For the most part, I have my days, like, the other day, I was just like, Oh, my God, hell with this league? Like this is the worst, but

Scott Benner 1:02:53
oh, my gosh, are you working at this point, or no.

Charissa 1:02:56
I'm actually in grad school, library and information science, but it's an online program. So I can work my schedule, aside from deadlines around everything that goes on

Scott Benner 1:03:06
around here. Gotcha. And you're done with the guard.

Charissa 1:03:10
I am in inactive status, for the medical out processing. So I get to keep my health benefits as long as I'm still in there. But you know, I'm not expected to go to Vermont and do drills or anything like that right now.

Scott Benner 1:03:26
Right. And your husband is I'm sorry, is he in the service too, or is he works in the private sector.

Charissa 1:03:32
He's out now he got out before Phoebe was born. And so he was a stay at home with CB for the first year while I was finishing up my active duty assignment.

Scott Benner 1:03:40
Okay, I see. Interesting. All right. Yeah. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you want to talk about?

Charissa 1:03:48
I mean, I always like talking about gardening. I love my garden. But it can own it loosely relates to diabetes. And it's the only way I can get my kids to eat a steak and vegetable.

Scott Benner 1:03:58
So they'll eat something that they've grown.

Charissa 1:04:01
No, they'll eat something if I'm eating it. Like they'll try something if it's something I'm actively eating, but if I put it on their plate, they won't have anything to do with it.

Scott Benner 1:04:09
So interesting. But they'll eat what you eat. Yeah, that's thoughtful. Yeah, what do you alright, I'll bite What are you growing Chris? So what's what's helping you with your stress out there in the yard?

Charissa 1:04:21
So last year, so I love peppers. Peppers are just everything and the hot peppers actually do help with my inflammation a little bit. I think it has to do with the release of endorphins. So peppers, tomatoes, eggplants. I did okra for the first time. Last year and fresh okra is phenomenal. I can't like I've tried to do greens and I'm gonna try brussel sprouts again. They're a labor of love. They, they're interesting.

Scott Benner 1:04:48
They're difficult to grow.

Charissa 1:04:51
They kind of they just have a really like the seed packet says, you know one thing and then experience tells you something totally different. So I plant them in the spring. Just let them chill out for the summer and then hopefully I'll get a harvest in the fall. That was my experience last year and I am kind of planning for that the same so I started them earlier and I'm gonna put them out earlier. I'm terrible at root veggies. Carrots are supposed to be easy to grow HECM can't do it

Scott Benner 1:05:17
yet. Do a carrot. Not yet, Missouri. They're like, there's like wind come with me down the lane there. Do you get tornadoes? Or am I thinking of the wrong part of the country?

Charissa 1:05:26
Oh, no, you're the right part of the country. Gotcha. That's,

Scott Benner 1:05:30
that's part of the fun too.

Charissa 1:05:32
Um, you know, and it's funny because where we live, it's supposed to be like tornadoes are historically a little bit more active here. But so far knock on wood. Like Bruneau level knock on wood on everything. If you haven't watched in Canada, that won't make much sense. But you know, it's a we've been fortunate so far last year, we really didn't have much of a storm system even though like we're Kentucky got hammered. This this fall to like spring is the typical tornado season, but we actually get a lot of storm activity around the holidays like Christmas that years.

Scott Benner 1:06:14
I'm gonna say here just because it fits. Foods that that they say fight inflammation or tomatoes, olive oil, leafy greens like spinach, kale, collards, fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, nuts like almonds, walnuts, and others. fruits like strawberries, blueberries, oranges and cherries, and foods that they say this is from Harvard. are inflammatory, lard, processed meats, refined carbohydrates, sodas, fried foods. So I don't know have you had any luck impacting your, your information that way?

Charissa 1:06:54
Um, so the peppers, the hot peppers, I found out help. Tomatoes my stomach, not good does not always agree with. Okay, I really have to be mindful of tomatoes. I don't drink soda. I just don't. In my 20s I drank a lot of Dr. Pepper. And I just I felt really sluggish. And I realized that one day once I stopped like once I went through a short stint where I wasn't drinking because I couldn't afford it. I realized I felt better. So I stopped drinking soda. High fructose corn syrup does not exist in this house.

Scott Benner 1:07:27
Good. That's excellent. I was not was but have been always interested. As you travel south on the East Coast. There's a line when you get underneath of it. You can't even find a diet soda anywhere. Not that you like I'm not saying diet soda is better than soda. I'm saying. I'm saying listen, if you want my opinion, don't drink soda. But the it's just interesting how if you're in a store, and you can't find a diet version of a drink? To me that's cultural. Right? Yeah, like these, like, what the store is saying is, look, if I put diet something in here, nobody gonna buy it. So I can't I can't take up any space in my cooler for this, even that I find kind of fascinating around soda sodas. I hear people talk about soda. Like it's like it's a staple in their life a lot. That fascinates me really, that there's not just something that somebody might have once in a while. But it's something that's drank, like consistently throughout every day. I don't know why our brains work that way. We do it with carb counting to see if I can make sense for a second. You put a waffle on a plate, and you're like, how many carbs is this and it has three tablespoons of syrup on it, which is probably like for anybody who's having a waffle. And it's hard to recognize that the syrup probably has more carbs in it than the waffle does. But yeah, but it's smaller, or it doesn't seem as substantial. So I don't think your brain works that way. You know, like, it's just as interesting that people don't tend to count the carbs for condiments, which could very easily like add up quickly if you're having honey mustard or ketchup are things like that. And it's, it's not thought of the same way. And for some reason I think liquids are that too. Yeah, you know, like, oh, how do you eat? I eat great. But, you know, nobody's for some reasons thinking about what's in the soda or what's in the liquid that you're drinking.

Charissa 1:09:29
Yeah, or in that point, like, you know, if you have a salad, there are people out there that will literally soak their salad with salad dressing. And depending on the salad dressing, it's a terrible idea.

Scott Benner 1:09:42
My wife got a salad in a restaurant once and they started bolusing or her and Kelly we're gonna Hernan we're gonna split it as a we should really look this up. I looked it up the salad had like 90 carbs in it. I was like how can a salad of 90 carbs? What does that even mean? But like, like, you're not actually having a salad, You've tricked yourself into believing you're eating something healthy at that point. Anyway, I'm gonna listen, I'm not saying I don't roll into a restaurant once in a while and just completely throw caution to the wind and just like, I'm gonna have this and this and this. But if in your mind, you know, I don't know, it's a cheeseburger and your bolusing for just the bun, and you're not bolusing for the topping, or the fat that's going to slow down digestion and create a, you know, and you don't realize that your body's going to, you know, take protein, something that has no carbs in it, and break it down and store it as glucose like, these are things that, you know, impact your blood sugars that make other people go like, Oh, I it's just diabetes. It's crazy. I don't know what happened. I only ate a cheeseburger. Anyway,

Charissa 1:10:49
yeah. I actually have a story about the learning to when when we knew propane was needed. And it's, it's one of those things that so it's what I call the peanut butter sandwich. Say the

Scott Benner 1:11:06
way say that again, the peanut butter what?

Charissa 1:11:08
So it the the catalyst was a peanut butter sandwich. So typically, so I feed the kids breakfast and lunch with typically very little variation. As long as I know that they'll eat the first two meals of the day consistently, I can experiment with dinner, you know, they'll complain and refuse to eat, and it's okay. Because, you know, they've, they they get enough. Yeah. Yeah. So, typically, I would feed them chicken nuggets. But one day Calvin was coming down, and I was like, you know, it'll be quicker if I do a peanut butter sandwich. So I made some peanut butter sandwiches. And I was talking on the phone with a friend from Vermont, and his little alarm goes off. And I'm like, well, that's weird. You know, never go slow at this time. So I gave him a low snack. No big deal. I keep chatting on the phone. And he's going lower. Just like what I thought Dexcom was off. Its rocker. So I think your poked him and Dexcom was spot on. And so I was like, with my friend, I was like, I gotta go. I gotta, you know. So the next day, well, I thought about it. And I had seen, you know, other moms talking about, you know, foods, like chicken nuggets have a lot of fat. But I looked, flew and I was like, oh, yeah, that's the case. So the next day, I did chicken nuggets. And the expected response happened, no low. So the next day, I tried to peanut butter sandwich again, this time I was prepared. And he hit that low. And so that's when I realized I needed to dose for the protein, like I needed to create the discrepancy between the chicken nuggets and the peanut butter sandwich, that would give me the same outcome. And that's where I started dosing for protein. Well, good

Scott Benner 1:12:56
for you. Oh, wait to pay attention. Very nice. Are you generally I have to go I feel to get my teeth cleaned, actually. But it's a weird thing to say. But I gotta get my teeth clean. Are you generally happy with the direction that Calvin's diabetes is headed in and your understanding of it?

Charissa 1:13:13
Yeah, he's improving. And that's really positive. We have a pump training scheduled for March 7. That would be pretty huge.

Scott Benner 1:13:21
That's great. What kind of hump you getting?

Charissa 1:13:23
We did the T slim. And that actually. So there's an interesting point about that too, because with us having to potentially change insurances in the near future. My husband's insurance is terrible. It has a $6,000 deductible per person per year. I know we're going to meet that and we can't afford it. Yeah, so the T slim the entrance now covered 90% of the T slim. And I asked the rep out of pocket if we had to pay for supplies. What would that be monthly? $150 a month. I was like, Okay, that would suck. But I think I can manage that. So that's why we went with the diesel.

Scott Benner 1:13:55
I would take whatever. I mean, if I was in a financial situation, I would take whichever one was affordable. That just makes sense. So

Charissa 1:14:03
yeah, you have to kind of think ahead about that transition to

Scott Benner 1:14:06
well, he used the control IQ Do you think

Charissa 1:14:09
eventually, um, I, I'm glad we're starting off at the base like you because that'll give me a feel for it. And then, you know, once I can kind of understand how that works, then I'm more I think more able to understand how the algorithm is going to act.

Scott Benner 1:14:25
Okay. Did they did they tell you you were starting with baseline here? Did you ask to start with it?

Charissa 1:14:30
They told us we were starting Basal IQ. Yeah, that's good. All

Scott Benner 1:14:33
right. Got it. Okay. Well, Chris, I had a really nice time talking to you. I think I will look back on this episode and say to myself, I have no idea what we talked about. And yet I enjoyed myself. And I think those are the best ones. So thank you. I really appreciate you putting in the time and and doing this with me. Yeah, thanks for having me on the show. Yeah, it was wonderful.

I'd like to thank Karissa for coming on the show and sharing this story with us. I also want to thank Ian pen from Medtronic, diabetes, and Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six. You can learn more about the N pen and get started today at in pen today.com. You can also get started with the Dexcom g six@dexcom.com. Forward slash juice box, you may be eligible for a free 10 day trial, head over and find out. While I'm thanking people, let me thank you for listening, supporting, subscribing, and sharing the Juicebox Podcast.

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