#769 Heather's Kin
Heather has type 1 diabetes.
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.
+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
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 769 of the Juicebox Podcast.
Today's episode features Heather who has type one diabetes as does everyone else she knows pretty much at least everyone she's related to well, not everyone, but a lot of people. You'll see. 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. If you are a person living with type one diabetes, who is a US resident, or you are a person who is the caregiver of someone living with type one diabetes, also US resident, go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box and complete the survey. When you do you'll be helping yourself you'll be helping me and people with type one diabetes, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. You know the answers to every question they're going to ask their very basic questions about your health. Specifically about type one diabetes, you'll be able to answer them with no trouble takes fewer than 10 minutes it's completely HIPAA compliant and absolutely anonymous. T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox.
Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is brought to you by us med get your diabetes supplies from us med start now by calling 888-721-1514 or by going to us med.com Ford slash juicebox. And us med has a new product update that I'm going to tell you more about during the ad but I'm just gonna give you a little taste right now. FreeStyle Libre three at US med you can get it now. This episode is also sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Yes, indeed, you can use the same blood glucose meter is ardent and get the same great results at contour next one.com forward slash juice box.
Heather 2:14
My name is Heather and I live in northern suburbs of Chicago. And I am a type one myself, my brother is type one and two of my three children are type one.
Scott Benner 2:24
See already. Now we know why you're here. Do you think at this point, Heather, do you think people listen to the podcast and think like everybody who has type one diabetes has like so many other people in their family? Or do they realize that just once in a while people like you reach out? I always wonder that.
Heather 2:41
You know what? I don't know, because I haven't run into it. I mean, I know several singleton type ones, but I have I've yet to run into multiple family members like personally, like I see them on, you know, podcasts or hear my podcasts or I see them on, like Facebook page things. But personally, I've never run into anybody and our hours is a little bit different because my brother was diagnosed when he was seven, and he's now 50. And then we thought we were home free because nobody else had it. And then all of a sudden my son years later was diagnosed. Then I was diagnosed that my daughter was diagnosed so
Unknown Speaker 3:21
Oh, no. Bizarre. So the brother 43 years ago. Yeah, he was diagnosed. I don't want to show off, but
Scott Benner 3:30
I don't know. 40 years ago. What are we talking about here? This ad? I don't know. I don't want to. I'm embarrassing myself. I feel like it was the late 70s.
Unknown Speaker 3:41
Yes. Was it? Yes, it was.
Scott Benner 3:45
Yeah, that was amazing. Okay, now, your son, who is how old now?
Heather 3:51
He is now. 24. He
Unknown Speaker 3:52
was diagnosed at 1410 years ago. 10 years ago. 2012. Up? Hmm, that was
Heather 4:01
I was I was I was diagnosed eight years ago at age 40. Oh, okay. And I was actually misdiagnosed as type two. And then I had a terrible doctor. And then I started, they put me on insulin. And it wasn't working. And then I sort of did my own thing because I was you know, I knew how to take I didn't do anything drastic, but I was like, I'm gonna take a little more insulin. I'm gonna do this. Oh, I apologize.
Scott Benner 4:36
Wait, wait. I have a question though. Like, right off the bat. Your brother's had diabetes for I mean, listen to eight years ago, your brother's had diabetes for almost 40 years, right? And then or 35, whatever. It doesn't matter how long time is when my point and then your son gets type one diabetes? How did they think you have type two?
Heather 4:56
Well, because I had a terrible doctor. I tried to tell him I'm like look at Send my family. And he, I guess I had I have lost weight since then. So I guess they looked at my body weight and it wasn't like gigantic, I was probably 175 for I mean, I could have lost the plot some weight. You know, I wasn't obese by any means. But I think they just looked, I don't know, this doctor was terrible. And so they put me on Metformin. First I didn't work, then they put me on insulin. That sort of work, but not really, I still had really high sugars. And then I sort of started doing my own thing. And then all of a sudden, I was the same ratios as my son, and I'm like, time to get a new doctor. And I did and they did all the tests. And sure enough, So lo and behold,
Scott Benner 5:36
the first doctor wouldn't do the testing like C peptide, stuff like that. antibody testing,
Heather 5:43
he, I guess he never did. And I didn't really know what to ask for to tell you the truth. Because, you know, when my son was diagnosed, it was so cut and dry that I didn't know about all the blood tests that needed to be done. You know, he was definitely type one. I mean, he was a dk egg.
Scott Benner 5:56
How long did this go for you? Well,
Heather 6:01
I think it was like a year and a half. Really? Okay. Yeah, I think I mean, I had sugars that were like two and 300. I was pretty much always that. I'm surprised I don't have any, like lasting, you know, damage of any sort. I think it was just hanging on. I think I was taking enough insulin and enough Metformin, and maybe I was still a little bit honeymooning to just keep myself afloat.
Scott Benner 6:26
Did you lose a lot of weight during that time?
Heather 6:29
I didn't, then that weird. I wished I did. I lost a little bit, but not a ton. I lost weight after the fact. After you got after I got an insulin while I was exercising more, I mean, I was working at it. But yeah, it was just was a very bizarre situation. And, you know, I talked to my doctor now who I love. And she's like, and I remember getting her and I told her without being super mean. I'm like, you know, this doctor who is in her office? And she's like, Yeah, he's really good if you have type two, but he really doesn't know about type one. So I thought, Well, that makes sense. So
Scott Benner 7:05
you weren't seeing? You weren't seeing an endocrinologist with the first doctor?
Heather 7:10
The first doctor was an endocrinologist. Yes. But he but he, according to this second doctor that I got, after I did some research because with our, or I don't know, if it's insurance, I think it's just the hospital. You can only switch once. I think you could probably find it. But when I was looking for a new doctor, they're like, make sure you get the one you want. Because you can only switch one time within I don't know how many years. So I did some research. And I found a really good one. But yes, he was an endocrinologist. But he was just one that I because I was in the hospital for something else. I had a really bad infection. And I had some high sugars in the hospital. And they're like, Oh, this is normal, blah, blah, blah, here, test your blood sugar once a week. So that's, that's how it started. And I started doing that. And I'm like, wow, this is really high. I don't think I'm supposed to be this way. And then when I called my primary care, they're like, Here, go see this doctor. And so I got sort of thrown with this one original doctor who didn't, excuse me didn't know what he was doing. For me personally. Maybe he was wonderful with other things, but not in my case
Scott Benner 8:08
in Chicago to like, I see. I feel like that would be how you think you could find a decent doctor. So yeah, he was
Heather 8:15
also he's quite elderly. I mean, I didn't know. You know, I just thought you need anybody. I guess I was more concerned about my son. You know, I'm always more concerned about other people than myself. So I think I was just like, Okay, I'll just do what they say. But I'm busy with everybody else making sure they're okay.
Scott Benner 8:31
And by the at that point, your son basically had it for six years already. Right? Yeah.
Heather 8:36
So I mean, I wasn't really taking care of him anymore. I, I still have a little bit of a power power over diabetes. Like I like to control. I try and control every part of it. But he had kind of told me Skedaddle mom leave me alone at that point, that just just in general taken care of everybody else. And I thought I was taking care of myself by going to an endocrinologist. But you know, I wasn't taking care of myself, because I wasn't really advocating it first for myself, because I didn't really know any better.
Scott Benner 9:06
Okay, did you have any of those feelings? Like, I'm not doing a good job managing my type two diabetes feelings?
Heather 9:13
Oh, yeah. I mean, because when my son was diagnosed, I mean, he was I think he's 14 Yeah, 14 when he was diagnosed, so he pretty much took over right away, you know, he's like, I'm fine. And of course, being around my brother, you know, I was devastated. But my son's like, it's fine. Because he saw it, you know, uncle, his uncle was totally fine and, you know, lived a good life and, but I still had some control issues over it. So when I had to deal with myself, my sugars were high and I couldn't get them under control. I was like, What is going on? And I did so much research and so much this and that's when finally they put me on insulin. And that's when I started doing my own thing. You know, they, I was on Lantis first and that didn't work. And then they put me on human log with Volantis and I think I was on a very short a small dose. I can't really I remember but then I started opening it little by little. And then all of a sudden, like I said, I was one to 10 just like my son. Yes. Like, look at that. Now my blood sugars are good.
Scott Benner 10:10
So I have a little bit of insight from your note. But, you know, to go back to your brother and I don't want to talk about somebody who's not here too much, but I think there's a lot of context here. He's diagnosed a very long time ago, you know, obviously, managing and regular an MPH, but he never stopped doing that. Is that right?
Heather 10:28
Never stopped taking insulin No, never stopped
Scott Benner 10:30
a management system that was just regular an MPH and so he didn't modernize his insulin or did he eventually?
Heather 10:36
No, he I think he has I think he's on human log and something else. No, but he still only takes, but he still only takes a shot in the morning and a shot at night and pokes his finger. He has no technology, he has no desire. He doesn't even have pens. He uses the actual syringes and the vial.
Scott Benner 10:53
But I'm thinking, is that why diabetes looked kind of? I don't want to say easy, but I guess not very encumbering to you because he his interactions with it weren't really very frequent in front of people, I would imagine.
Heather 11:07
Maybe, maybe I but I think they just saw that. You know, he still had a great job. He still traveled all the time with his job, you know, he still had a full life. So nobody saw it as Hey, Oh, God can't do this. Or he can't do that. You know, we never saw any of that. And that's
Scott Benner 11:26
no one's diabetes. Yeah, no one's even aware of his health. They're just aware of like, he looks like he's doing the things you expect an adult to be doing.
Heather 11:33
Right. And everybody knew that he had diabetes, but and, you know, we knew that he would go into the bathroom before dinner and take a shot, you know, our family is very open, we just lift up our shirt and, you know, poker stomach or, you know, we two of us have pumps my daughter still MDI, but, you know, we're not shy at all. He's a little bit more shy. But you know, back in the day, it wasn't as common and, you know, it wasn't as easy to, you know, whip something out it out at dinner, you know, there was more to it, you know, for sure.
Scott Benner 12:00
So, when your son's diagnosed, then, I mean, did you ever think to manage the way your brother was managing or you went along with what? What was suggested to you
Heather 12:09
know, I just listened to the hospital, and what they said made more sense. And I started talking to my brother, I'm like, hey, you know, this is how they told us to do it. He's like, Nah, I'm fine. Like I I do just fine. I know when he can tell when he's high. And he's, he's amazing. Like, he's like, I think I'm high right now. I'm thinking probably this number and he'll test and he's pretty dang close. And they'll say, I think I'm low right now. And he'll pick a number and he's pretty dang close. I don't know how he does it. Do you
Scott Benner 12:39
mean, do you know what he do? You know what that means? We say he's fine. Like, do you really know, his a onesies and things like that?
Heather 12:47
You know what I have never seen. Actually take that back one time. I did see as a one. See, it was 6.6. But that was a long time ago. Right. I assume it's the same, you know, I guess I don't know. He has no damage that I know of. I mean, this this is I don't I don't know he tells me is a onesies. I guess he could be making it up. But you know, I don't know for sure.
Scott Benner 13:13
That would be a lot of effort to call your call your adult sister to make up your agency tour. Yes, yes.
Heather 13:18
No, I do have to say when he was a teenager like I didn't think he was going to make it through his teenage years. Like I'm not kidding. We all thought that he just wasn't going to make it he had a horrible time with his diabetes and just in general being a teenager
Scott Benner 13:40
I have a message here from our friends at us met the long awaited FreeStyle Libre three CGM is ready for delivery. And us med as a big stack of them. That's right, the new CGM which is the most accurate 14 Day system out there is ready and waiting for you at us met. All you have to do to get started at US med is go to us med.com Ford slash juicebox or if you prefer the phone 888-721-1514 Maybe you're already a US med customer if that's the case, just call my number. Let them know I want that FreeStyle Libre three Bring it on. If you don't know about us med here's a couple quick things. They accept Medicare nationwide and over 18 and over 800 private insurers they have an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and have served over 1 million people living with diabetes since 1996. They always provide 90 days worth of supplies and of course you get fast and free shipping. US med carries everything from the Dexcom G six to now the FreeStyle Libre three, I guess you could get the two as well if you wanted it, testing supplies, insulin pumps, you name it. They got it at us med we just received our order of on the pods the other day from us Med and our bins Dexcom supplies, were ready to ship and I was able to go on to the website and change the delivery address. So she gets them right at college. Super simple, super easy, US med. Now one of the things you might want to ask us med about or perhaps even buy online yourself, depending on where you can get the best deal is the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Why do I say that? Because it contour next.com I'm gonna I'm going to type it in contour next.com forward slash juicebox I can't stop myself from going forward slash at contour next.com forward slash juice box you can actually just buy the test strips and the meter right there if you like big yellow button says buy now takes you to Jesus eight different online venues where you can get the the stuff that I'm sure I'm sure contours thrilled that I call it the stuff but you know what I mean? The Contour Next One meter, Walmart, Amazon Walgreens CVS, something major Kroger target Rite Aid, there's all kinds of links here. And I'm telling you, you're going to be surprised by the price. Check it out at contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. Everybody has a blood glucose meter, everyone needs a blood glucose meter. But all blood glucose meters are not born the same. Some of them just aren't as accurate as others, and you deserve an accurate meter for my money. It's the Contour Next One. Contour next one.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes of the podcast player you're listening in right now. And links at juicebox podcast.com. To contour us Med and all the sponsors when you're clicking on my links or typing them in a browser, you're supporting the show. And for that, I'd like to say thank you. Now we're gonna get back to Heather.
Heather 16:50
So we were just we were how so? Did you
Scott Benner 16:54
Yeah, you can you can you tell me more about that?
Heather 16:56
Yeah, he he was kind of into some drugs, some friends that weren't the best friends. He struggled with. I don't know if it was just the diabetes, I think he just didn't want to be a diabetic at that time. And also just didn't want people to tell him what to do in general. Even without the diabetes, he just had a really, really rough childhood. You know, my parents didn't quite know what to do with him. They ended up putting him in a psychiatric hospital in the city, which was probably the worst place for him. But they didn't know what else to do. Because he just wasn't taking care of himself. And all that. And we really didn't think he was gonna make it. He ran away a few times. Called the paramedics I can't tell you how many times with him in convulsions. And so for him to make it through that we were all shocked. And he's I mean, I don't I mean, I guess maybe the paramedics have been called he lives by himself. So I don't know. But I don't know about it. If they have,
Scott Benner 17:58
I think your brother is brilliant. He set the bar so low, that just being upright, you're like he's doing amazing.
Heather 18:04
I know. Well, that could be part of it. But he also on the flip side, I grew up with it with him having diabetes so many years ago, so when they told me I'll all this new technology and stuff when my son was diagnosed, I'm like, wow, this is gonna be super easy. Because, you know, I remember with the test tubes and the urine. And yeah, I think we had little tablets, I wasn't really involved in it. I just remember holding up this test tube to different colors. And so I mean, it's come a long way. So I can I tell people that I'm like, I don't know if we'll see a cure in my lifetime. But I can tell you what has changed since my brother was diagnosed, and it's huge.
Scott Benner 18:41
Was there any concern not that they're even the same person but and maybe your your son might have a completely different personality. But when your son's diagnosed, do any of the thoughts of what your brother's life was, like creep into your head? Do you think maybe these were issues he was having? Because of diabetes, not personality? Or, or something like that? Did you ever worry about that?
Heather 19:00
I did kind of worry about it. I was a little bit more relieved because my son wasn't in general going through any of those problems at that time. And that's about the age that my brother was completely out of control. So my, my son was pretty, not that my brother wasn't a good kid, but he just had his struggles. My son wasn't having any struggles when he was diagnosed, so at least he had that going for him. So I didn't, that really didn't concern me. I wasn't too worried about that. I just was more worried about, you know, the end of the life that he knew, and now he has to join this new life that no, no mother, no parent wants their kid to have to struggle. And, you know, anyway, anyway, and so, you know, I was devastated for that. But I don't think it ever occurred to me that he would have any of the problems that my brother did.
Scott Benner 19:51
Okay, so your son's diagnosed, he gets, what kind of technology
Heather 19:56
he got Dexcom and he was doing and yeah i for a while, but I think it was like less than a year before he got the pump. So I got a T slim and he's still on both of those. And he's he's doing great.
Scott Benner 20:11
Did he go to college at the end of high school,
Heather 20:15
he went to college, he went to community college for a couple years decided that wasn't for him. There. That was really hard for me because I always told my kids, I'm like four year degree, you need a four year degree, I don't care what it's in, but get a four year degree. And then you know, things change. And he was a very smart kid, very bright computers. And he just didn't like school. So he ended up going and doing some sort of, uh, it was called like a boot camp, computer boot camp, and then some other training and he's, I call it his big boy job. Now he's got a real job now and with insurance, and he's doing great. He and his girlfriend bought a condo together, they've got two dogs, my grandkids, so they're, they're doing fantastic. And the girlfriend that is with I mean, I know she's gonna be around forever, because they've been together forever. But she was with him before and after diabetes diagnosis. And I think my feeling is anyone who's a young kid who can stick with somebody after the fact. That's a good, that's a good egg.
Scott Benner 21:09
I really only asked because I was wondering, how do you left? Was he leaving home after high school? Or was he still at the house? I was trying to figure out how management was going there. Oh, he was still at the
Heather 21:19
house. I think it was a year to try to think, a year, a year after because when he was at the community college, he was still living at home. But then he and his girlfriend moved into an apartment. So he I mean, he's always he's been really good about managing it.
Scott Benner 21:37
Do you follow his blood sugar's
Heather 21:39
I used to I don't anymore. I follow my daughters, and obviously my own. And that's about all I can handle right now. I don't think I can handle following him. Because I am sure that he has lows that he takes care of. And I'm sure he has highs that he takes care of. And I just, I mentally can't do it. I mean, I guess I could if I had to, but I don't think he wants me to tell you the truth. Do you
Scott Benner 22:03
still go back and forth about it? Like do you check in with him at like endo visits or anything like that? Or are you pretty much out of it?
Heather 22:10
Oh, no, no, no, I remind him, I make sure that he has his endo visits, I make sure he I'm still semi in charge of his supplies. He could do it. It's just easier for me because we're all kind of on the same schedule. So I just kind of ordered everything at the same time. So I need to start releasing that to him a little bit more. But yeah, he has I think his latest his last a one C was 6.4 or 6.5. It was one of those two, that's great, which you know, and he doesn't let it get you know, he's not as controlling about it as I am. But he does. Okay, like neither one of us has is on see IQ. Eventually, I think I might I'm getting closer and closer. But I think it's just the control. We like to see what our blood sugar is. We like to be able to be the one to be like, Oh, I'll correct it this way. Yeah. And I know, it seems like more work. But I'm so used to it that it's not more work. It's just way of life for me. And it's working. And it's working for me.
Scott Benner 23:11
Oh, yeah. I think whatever works is what's right. I I'm just interested about kids always in their early 20s. Right. They want to be independent. They don't You don't get to see my blood sugar. You don't have to be kind. But could you please order my supplies and do like they? Yeah, they want to be in charge of all the fun stuff.
Heather 23:26
Right? Yeah, no, I have to give him credit. He has never asked me to order his supplies. You just do it. I just have done it. And it's me. If I were to say, Here you go, it's on you. It would be totally fine.
Scott Benner 23:37
That's just like me saying that my wife vacuums my bedroom. And I don't say anything about it because I want her to keep doing. I don't ever whip out the vacuum and run towards the bedroom. Because I'm like, Well, if I vacuum it, she might stop. Yeah. So good. Yeah, I hear what you're saying. So okay, so wait a minute. So you're both using tandem control, but not control IQ. You're using I'm assuming g 6x? Calm? Yeah, he's got an A one C and the lower sixes and 24 years old living on his own seems terrific to me. Your brother's never shown any interest in this technology? Like never ask you about it be like, Hey, let me see that like nothing. Never.
Heather 24:17
Never. He's very private. I mean, he will. I mean, he doesn't hide it from us necessarily. But like in his travels and stuff like that. I don't. I think that's probably part of why he doesn't want it because, you know, God forbid somebody sees the wire. They might know he's a diabetic. I don't know this for sure. This is just my feeling. He's just, he's not open about it. Like we're like, I've got all of my supplies like all over the place sometimes. And like I said, if we're out in public, my daughter has no problem lifting up her shirt. She has an eye port, which is wonderful for her MDI. So she just lifts it up and, you know, takes a shot right there, right? No big deal. She's changed her Dexcom in public She doesn't care. Nobody cares. And I'm glad I normalized it. I didn't want people to be embarrassed about it. Because it's nothing to be embarrassed about. Obviously, nobody would do anything. You know, I told him I said, you know, if you're in a restaurant, don't turn to the person next to you and be like, Haha, look what I'm doing. You don't have to do that. You don't have to, like shove it in their nose. Right. But there's nothing wrong with doing this in public as long as you you know, yeah. are respectful of other people who might be a little queasy of needles or this and that. No, I
Scott Benner 25:29
think that's excellent. It's your situation. There's no reason you'd have to hide. So now the next thing I'm really interested in, is yes, that your son had diabetes for Am I right? About six years before you got it? Yes. Did you ever once think I might get diabetes?
Heather 25:48
Never. Okay. Never, never ever. I thought. I never I thought maybe one of my other kids would get it. But I never never crossed my mind that I would
Scott Benner 25:58
to you. And at 14 years old to me, you were Yeah, yeah. So
Heather 26:02
with the time I didn't know that there were so many people my age, all of a sudden, maybe not all of a sudden, but it was being more prevalent that people my age or older, were getting type one. But then once I was diagnosed, I started doing a little research. I'm like, look at that. There's a lot of us out there.
Scott Benner 26:18
Yeah, Jenny and I were talking about this the other day, while we were recording about how just probably the function of the JDRF being originally called the Juvenile diabetes Research Foundation probably makes a lot of people think you can't get diabetes after you're 18. You know, just a misnomer. So I'm wondering when you're diagnosed, does he turn into the parent? Or like, what's the what what ends up being the? You know what I mean? Like, there's, there's got to be this moment where he's like, Oh, she has a thing I know about like, like, I've had this thing, nobody else has had it. Now my mom has it like this he become you don't I mean, like, does he turn into a mentor? Or does he like, the whole dynamic?
Heather 27:01
You know, he actually was a mentor. I don't know that he necessarily wanted to He never complained about it. But I was the one asking him. That was like questions. I had so many questions for him. And especially when I went on the pump, I had questions for him. But when I first was diagnosed, and I was just doing shots, I remember the first shot that I had to get myself and this is when I was misdiagnosed as type type two, but I think it took me 45 minutes before I finally was able to get my shot. And my son sat there and he was just laughing hysterically. He's like, Mom, just do it. Like, and I try, you know, I, I get ready, and I, you know, 123 and then I'd stop and he's like, Oh my gosh, just do it already.
Scott Benner 27:39
You had given him countless shots. I had given him a million shots.
Heather 27:43
But for some reason, I just couldn't do it to myself. But he has been he has been a mentor, and I still talk to him about it. Like, you know, I'll you know, if I find something that works for me, I'm like, Hey, you might want to try this. Like, you know, the never ending pasta battle. You know, we both love pasta. And you know, we're looking always looking for different kinds or different. Extended boluses or this and that or different ways of doing things. And we'll share. You know, what works for us. What doesn't? Yeah, different low snacks. We're always looking for new low slip low snacks. I mean, not as much anymore. I guess he's not my mentor. But at the beginning. Yes, yeah.
Scott Benner 28:23
I just met at the beginning. And by the way, dreamfields is my favorite pasta. I find it the easiest to Bolus for oh, okay, so now so now here's my, here's my real question. They're not a sponsor, but I would let them be just in case they're listening.
Heather 28:39
I'm gonna write that I'm writing it down right now.
Scott Benner 28:41
You know, I thought maybe it was possible. You worked for dreamfields. And you're gonna I, so now I want to dig into this a little bit. The difference between being the caregiver of someone with type one and having type one. So what, what were the things that happened? When it became about you? And how was that different than managing it when you were helping somebody else?
Heather 29:07
Oh, let's see.
Scott Benner 29:10
I want you to know, I think about this all the time. I wonder, like, what would happen if I woke up one day and I had type one, if this podcast wouldn't turn into like me being like, Oh, I'm so bad at this for myself. You know, or, or if, if I be able to apply it and work there'd be psychological things or like it just seems like it's I don't know, it's it seems to me like there's a big shift in there somewhere. Maybe you were effortless about it. I don't know.
Heather 29:39
I don't think that there was a big shift for me. If anything, I think it was maybe easier. Because I always felt like when I tried to. Like I said my son really sort of took over from day one. I tried to be a little bit more controlling, but he really he just took it and ran with it. He was amazing. thing, as was my daughter when she was diagnosed. So when I was diagnosed, I really wasn't answering your question. I really wasn't taking care of him that much anymore. So the focus was really just on me. And I, I guess there was a little bit of a little bit of guilt, because I'm like, Oh, great, you know, definitely comes from my side of the family. And, you know, once I was diagnosed, I'm like, well, here now I know, I've given my kids even a stronger chance of getting it. But as far as caretaking? I don't. I don't think there was much of a shift other than him all of a sudden becoming the mentor. What about perspective?
Scott Benner 30:43
Were there things that you were doing with him? That you maybe didn't see the the complete range of emotions that would be impacted or something to that effect that when it is something you had to do to yourself? You recognize that? Oh, gosh, there's more to this than I thought or is everything about the way you expected it?
Heather 31:04
Um, I think maybe like when he would be low. Like, even if he wasn't super low, I was like, in a panic and like, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, gotta do this. Gotta do this. And for a kid to hear that that's like nagging. Like Leave me alone, mom. I mean, I know it's emergent, or it can be emergent. But then when I was having those lows, I'm like, Oh, 75. I'm fine. I've got a little bit. So I kind of would look back and be like, Oh, I was kind of a bully to him. Not not a bully. But I was kind of very naggy to him. Just take care of it, take care of it take care of it when that's about the only thing I can think of all I
Scott Benner 31:42
did was art. It was 65 the other day, and it was sitting there and I'm like art and this is not holding on. Like I showed her the line. I'm like, look at the line. The line is telling us it's gonna keep going down. If you just did something right this second, it would take a few carbs and it would be over. And she's like, I have plenty of time. Plenty of time. Yes.
Heather 32:00
Oh my gosh, she sounds like my daughter. Right? I get I get 50 threes. She's in college and I get 50 threes like Arrow angle down. I'm like, you know, I always send her like a blood drop and a low arrow text. Like, just tell me that, you know, this is going on? She's like, I'm fine. I'm fine. You're not. You're not fine.
Scott Benner 32:19
It's always it's always like, it's fine. I'm like are now the hours diagonal down. I was like, yeah, the Dexcom is not. It's not magic, right? You know, it's not exactly what's happening. Now. It's a little behind real time. You're probably a little lower than this already. And then you know, 55 and then she's like, I'm dizzy. And I'm like, Oh, no kidding. Are you really? I don't know how that goes. Well, that wolf is gonna kill something.
Heather 32:42
I know. Yeah. Sorry about that.
Unknown Speaker 32:44
What kind of dogs are Labradors? Oh, wow, very nice. They're
Heather 32:47
Yeah, they're two years old. And they
Scott Benner 32:50
think they see something.
Heather 32:52
Yeah, they probably just hear something outside. But yeah, my daughter does the same thing. Sometimes I just don't want to follow her just for that reason. It's worrisome to because she can't feel them half the time like I'm 75. And I start to feel a little bit shaky, right. But I'm okay for a little bit. And then as I get lower, I get like sweaty or and this and that. She it takes her a while. And then finally she's like, oh, yeah, I guess I did feel that I'm like, Oh, gosh. God help us all.
Scott Benner 33:22
How old? Was she when she was diagnosed? She was 18. Okay, and how old is she
Heather 33:27
now? 90. And she was diagnosed a year ago in February. Okay, and you have another child? I have another child. And we did TrialNet with him. And so far, he has no one of the auto antibodies or whatever they're called antibodies for type one. Yeah. So he has none of them. You know, they say that that should be good for about five years. Who knows? We'll see.
Scott Benner 33:50
How old is he? I'm sorry. He's 2222.
Heather 33:55
Yeah, so I'm not that I want any not that I want any of my kids to have diabetes. However, of the kids, I have the two that have it are the best to have it. This one who does not as of now, hopefully it stays that way. He struggles with some anxiety and depression already, and I think that would just be not a good situation. I mean, we'd work we'd figure it out. But I just I'm hopeful that he is spared.
Scott Benner 34:23
Are there any other autoimmune, the family? Non celiac? Nothing? Nothing. How about extended family? Your parents mom got a thyroid problem.
Heather 34:34
No, everyone's pretty healthy. the only the only other diabetes we have in our family is my dad's aunt who has passed away not from diabetes. I think she was just old age or maybe it was a combination. But she excuse me, she had diabetes. That was the only other diabetes that we knew of in our family. And still to this day,
Scott Benner 34:54
you said not diabetes she and my brain filled in was hit by an elephant. That's what I wanted you to say. I don't know. Oh, I wanted like some exciting death for this poor woman. For the podcast. That's the three kids have the same father. Yes. Okay. Are you married? No, not anymore. Okay. Does he have any issues besides being a terrible guy? Uh, no, I'm just kidding.
Heather 35:19
No, actually, I wasn't gonna bring this up. But I, it's fine that you brought it up. He actually was diagnosed with type one as well. I don't know. And I wasn't gonna bring it up, because I don't know a whole lot about his situation. Holy Hell, I know. But he was diagnosed, he was a pilot in the Navy. And we were still married. And he was diagnosed at that point as type two as well. And he, which was weird, because he was like, tall, skinny. I mean, fit. So that didn't make sense. And I didn't know a whole lot about diabetes other than my brother at that point. So I you know, I just went along with it. And so that kind of spiraled down. It was like a downward spiral for him. Because if you're a pilot in the Navy, that's who you are. And if you can't fly, your life's kind of over. Yeah. Or
Scott Benner 36:10
so you think I put up? I put up an episode two days ago with a mom whose kid wanted to be an Air Force pilot because his father was, and he was just diagnosed recently. It's interesting that you said pilot. Hey, just real quick. A health check on you. How's your uterus? You? Okay? You pumped all those kids out pretty quick. I'm starting to look at the dates now. And it's hitting me you made those babies in a span of like, five years, right?
Heather 36:34
Oh, probably not good. Machine heaven. Well, okay. So here's the thing. I got married. He was in the Navy, I couldn't really hold down a job. Because we were moving like every seven months, right? So I figured I might as well have my family. And I'm glad I did. Because I'm I'm 48 and my youngest is 19. I mean, I love the fact that I'm, you know, one day gonna be a young grandma.
Scott Benner 36:58
I have to be honest, I'm there with you. I'm 50 my son's 22. And Arden is going to be 18 in a couple of months. You're a little younger than me in that spectrum. But I really do. Because there are times we go to kids events. And there are parents who are sometimes 1518 years older than me. And oh, yeah. And I'm like, I don't even know how they're doing this. I'm tired. When I get home from this thing. You know what I mean? So
Heather 37:22
especially where I live, where the area that I'm live in the parent age is much older than me. Like I was by far the youngest mom of all of my kids friends. Yeah. When they were in high school, a grade school. Bit so yeah, I did I you know, I started Yeah, but glad I did.
Scott Benner 37:44
Yeah. When when my kids were younger, even cultural references from other parents. I'd realized I'm like, Oh, my God, we're not even the same generation. Yeah.
Heather 37:54
Yeah, I mean, some of these parents I'm like, is that I'd have to ask my kid I'm like, set their grandfather is that their dad? And even now, even though I work at a school, and even now some of the parents I look at them, I'm like, holy cow. Yeah. Like, how do you have any energy? Because I certainly if I had somebody in elementary school right now, I could do it. I don't want to do it. That's the thing.
Scott Benner 38:16
My son said to me, like, yes, he's like, Hey, I might be pitching on Wednesday. Do you want to come up with like a two and a half hour ride? To probably watch him pitch for a couple of innings? You know? And I'm like, Yeah, I'll be there. But if I was 10 years older, I'd be like, I don't know, man. Tell a friend to hold up a video camera or something. Because I can't do I can't drive for five hours to watch your pitch for 30 minutes. But yeah, I still feel lucky that we can. We can do that kind of stuff. Yeah. I mean, there's there's there's trade offs. I mean, we had kids when we were like, like we were functionally idiots. Still, we were pretty young. And there was a lot of stuff we didn't understand. But even that didn't I mean, it didn't stop us. It didn't get in our way. It was just, it was different. I do see the benefit of sometimes older people, they make more. I don't know. Like they they they had more life experience on their own, I guess, which is definitely something I don't have. I have no experience about being by myself, that's for sure. Anyway, I just I just started doing the math. I'd like I'd make notes while I'm talking. And I'm like 24 2219 She's 48. And I was like, hold on a second.
Heather 39:19
Yeah, no, I was done before I was done having kids by the time I was 30, or before I was 30. Something like that.
Scott Benner 39:24
Yeah. But now let's get back to what you brought up because that's even more astonishing. You have type one diabetes, and you married a person who ended up also having type one diabetes, your kids had no chance, I'm guessing. But the odds there you know what I say the odds must not be good. This is not the first time someone said this to me, but but still, that's insane. But given
Heather 39:48
anything like for both of us to have been diagnosed later in life is really bizarre. I think it's very, very strange.
Scott Benner 39:56
Are you on top of like a, like nuclear waste? store
Unknown Speaker 40:00
like not that I know of. Now we're aligned. What else that's buzzing really
Heather 40:05
well. I grew up in Georgia. And I moved here. I moved here on as a second grade. And he lived in the same area around here, but sort of a different town. So no, I don't think so.
Scott Benner 40:17
House is a yellowing. Basically basement doesn't smell weird. Like
Heather 40:22
I guess I grew up I didn't grow up around a lot of like, wire you know,
Scott Benner 40:27
I'm just kidding.
Heather 40:27
I don't. But yeah, I I don't I really don't know. But he, yeah, their dad. He's very secretive about his like when they used to go visit him. Like my son had to go to the bathroom, even at their house to do a shot and this and that. And I thought that was ridiculous. But but he's very secretive. Not that secretive. That's a bad word. Right? Fit. Thank you private, very private about his
Scott Benner 40:53
use his diabetes. I know you guys aren't together. But do you have any idea of how he manages this? He is he using tech or
Heather 41:01
a he does not have a pump? He I think he's just MDI, and he did have a Dexcom. But my daughter just recently told me that he was sending her all of his sensors because he didn't like it. I don't know why he didn't like it.
Scott Benner 41:15
All that information that helps you be healthy. It's upset. Yeah.
Heather 41:18
I mean, I think it's fantastic. Oh,
Scott Benner 41:21
everything's not for everybody. But yeah, really is that's I'm genuinely when you said that. I was like, I just wanted to tease you about having a bunch of babies. And then you were like, Well, I wasn't gonna bring it up. But he has type one. Oh, my God. Do people cross the street when they see your family for fear that you will give them diabetes?
Heather 41:42
I don't know probably if they saw us, but
Scott Benner 41:45
oh, here comes those people. Oh, my goodness, get on the other side of the road.
Heather 41:49
I tell you, we've got a lot of supplies in this house. That's for sure.
Scott Benner 41:52
That, that it looks like a pharmacy in there
Heather 41:56
that we have a lot and like when my daughter was diagnosed, they she couldn't get a Dexcom right away with insurance. We had to wait for that to line but a little bit, but I was like, desperate. I'm in a site called my son. I'm like, how many transmitters Do you have? He's like, I'm good. Mom, I've got plenty. So we were able to slap one on her right when she got home from the hospital. Because we had you know, we had plenty of supplies between the two of us.
Scott Benner 42:18
You can kind of treat the supplies like a rolling. It doesn't matter. Really? Right as as long as you
Unknown Speaker 42:24
Oh, that's nice. It's kind of nice.
Scott Benner 42:28
Finally, the upside of three people in the house.
Heather 42:31
Yeah. And I you know, I know a couple people local and I'm like, if you ever need anything, you know, not that I you know, can give away everything. But if you get stuck, let me know.
Scott Benner 42:40
On the back of a van. You're selling watches and lending people, sensors and stuff.
Heather 42:45
Can I interest you in a transmitter?
Scott Benner 42:48
I've got this G five still now says it's out of date. But you know, how far is your daughter away at school? She local or she somewhere?
Heather 42:58
She's not she is not far at all. She's just up in Milwaukee, which is not far it's about without it there. There's hardly any traffic going that way anyways, but it's like an hour and 10 minutes. So that's phenomenal. Really close. I love
Scott Benner 43:09
it. I think Arden is gonna go to Georgia. And that's, of course a plane ride for us.
Heather 43:16
See, well, my daughter wanted to go to Pennsylvania. And I was like, oh, like, this is before diagnosis. I still thought that was too far. Like, oh, you know, you can't come home on you know, long weekends and stuff like that. And then she got diagnosed, and I was like, oh my god, I was like panic stricken. I was like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my God, what do I gotta do? And then she picked that school, and I was just breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Scott Benner 43:41
Did she seem to care about the distance? Or was it just something you were worried about? Oh, no,
Heather 43:45
it was a total mom problem. She was not concerned at all. I mean, as far as her diabetes go, she was not concerned at all. I think she started thinking like, Oh, if I ever want to come back home other than, you know, long breaks, I'm kind of out of luck. And this school that she went to happen to give her the most money and she didn't want student loans. So she made a smart decision for and it's a good, it's a phenomenal school. So, you know,
Scott Benner 44:08
no, that's good stuff. You know, with Arden, we've had some opportunities in the last couple of months. I mean, we've obviously been slowly handing Arden's care to her very slowly, very slowly. But I sped up a little bit a few months ago, and I just said look, if you expect to go away to school, you really have to be able to take care of this like front to back. So let's, you know, I'm gonna back out of this as far as I can. And, you know, you're gonna take your lumps here, but like, let's let you like get to each student really great job. That's good. But still, it's you know, it feels like a really, really far distance. You know, like she's, we drove down there for the visit and it was like 1415 hour drive and you know, if you need to take a flight it's gonna be Yeah, it's gonna take
Heather 44:54
my my middle son who is not type one. He went to school about three hours away and he had a medical emergency. See, and that three hour car drive was the longest car drive of my life. Like it felt like it was, I don't know, four or five days, I just, I couldn't get there fast enough. And the fact that she's only an hour and 10 minutes away, just makes you breathe a sigh of relief, because it still would be, you know, in a medical emergency, it still would seem like a long time, but it's a whole lot faster than anything further. Yeah.
Scott Benner 45:22
The other place Arden was thinking of was in Manhattan. And that's an hour for so I was like, that's fine. Like, I could even get on a train and be there in like 90 minutes. And so I was like, Yeah, do that, like, you know, although I have to admit the living in Manhattan Park sounded really expensive. Sounds like, yeah, so maybe not. Yeah, maybe go to Georgia. I want to shift gears here a little bit. And you put this in your note to me. And so I'd like to learn more about it. Because it's the first time it's come up in the podcast. But one of your children had a health difficulty with vaping. Yes. And I wanted to know more about that. It's not something I know anything about.
Heather 45:57
Yes, that was my 24 year old who is type one. He was vaping. And I knew he was vaping. I was not happy with his vaping. He was vaping. Marijuana. I was not thrilled with it. It wasn't a all day long occurrence. But it doesn't matter. To me, it doesn't matter. I just didn't. It wasn't the marijuana that bothered me so much. It was the vaping part. Like there's so much stuff in there that you don't know about. And, you know, sure enough, he got sick, he because I had told him from the time he was diagnosed as type one. And when he moved out the house and like he ever gets sick if you ever get a fever, and it's you know, let me know, let me know right away when you have a fever, because I'm always scared of decay. So he called me one day and he's like, you know, my member, you told me to let you know, like, whenever I had a fever, I said, yeah, he's like, Well, I've had a fever for like four days. I'm like, Oh my gosh,
Scott Benner 46:49
I got right on it mom.
Heather 46:52
Like, thanks for letting me know on day one. And he's like, you know, I feel pretty bad. I've been to the doctor once. They said I have just like a pneumonia type of thing. And I was like, Okay, well, that's not great. But, you know, let me go grab me some groceries, I'll get you some, you know, just sick, sick food, you know, especially with diabetes. I wanted to make sure that he was you know, getting the carbs and taking the insulin to stay away from DK. So I ran to the store, went to his house, walked in, took one look at him dropped the groceries. I'm like, You are not okay. So we went straight to the hospital. And sure enough, they got us right in because they didn't know what it was. And they you know, they thought it was an infectious disease, something because he couldn't breathe. I mean, he was coughing, and he was happy. He could, but he just had a very hard time breathing. But he was miserable. And so they got us in and they admitted him. You know, we all had to wear gowns and masks and stuff like this well before COVID. So this is all new to us. And you know, we had all that. So the first two days, he was in a general room, and they still didn't know what was wrong with him. They're like, Oh, he's got this. He's got this, maybe this, but tests were all inconclusive. Like nothing came back positive. So it didn't know what was wrong with him. But he continued to get worse. So then they're like, alright, we'll do a biopsy on his lungs. And I don't, they knew that he was vaping. They knew that he had a history of vaping. But it just I don't think I don't think it clicked with the doctors because this was all new. The whole vaping I forget what it's called vaping lung
Scott Benner 48:28
disease. Disease. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. It has
Heather 48:31
some sort of a name now. But then it didn't, because it was just the beginning of all of these have this packet of time where all of these people were getting sick. So then they went to do the biopsy and as long and when they were doing that he stopped breathing, or his stats went down to like 20. Whatever happened, they put them on a ventilator. And there he stayed for, I think it was 12 days. Wow. Well, he was on a ventilator longest 12 days of my life, of course, because they just didn't know what was wrong with him. And I think it was like, I don't know, the first couple days he was on the ventilator on the news was the very first deaths in Illinois from this vaping disease. And I thought, here we go. And right then I'm like, here's this is what's going to happen. And I started to prepare myself. And that sounds terrible. But that's personally how I deal with things like I would have been devastated. No matter no matter how much I prepared myself, it would have been just horrible, and I just can't even think about it. But at that time, I'm like, I just have to read myself, I have to enjoy the time that I have with him now. And that's what I did. And I did not I hardly left the hospital. They like forced me to leave a couple of times. They're like you really need to go take a shower, or you really need to go get something to eat. Or in the one time I actually did leave because my daughter had some sort of fundraising meeting or something and I felt bad because I you know, wasn't paying attention to any of my other kids. So I went to Get out with her. And of course, the doctor called me the hospital. They're like, You need to get back here. His I think his lung collapsed or something, something pretty bad had happened. So I flew back and I'm like, I'm never leaving the hospital over again. Yeah. So it was it was pretty bad. And they, again, they didn't know what was wrong with him. They thought they knew, eventually with the vaping, and the deaths that were happening, and all the all the illness around regarding this that was popping up, right, but they didn't know what to do. So on his lucky for him, he was young, lucky for him, his heart was in great condition. And they just pumped him full of steroids and cross their fingers. And somehow, I don't know how but somehow he came out of it. Wow. And, but during that time, his type one care I was panicked about two and the first two days was horrible. The nurses, probably no, it probably was not their fault. They just didn't have the training. They didn't know what to do. They were doing sliding scale, and it just was a mess. But then once we got to the ICU, those nurses were phenomenal. Like, yeah, oh my gosh, they not only did they know what to do, they respected my wishes, like they, they would tell me, they let me keep a Dexcom on him. And this poor Dexcom went through CT scans, I know it's not supposed to, but it survived. And I still did poke his finger just to make sure but it just made me feel better to kind of have a gauge and even without going through all the CT scans, and he had one like every single day. Um, that desktop still worked, it still was pretty much in range, even when I poked his finger, but they they really respected my wishes of letting me know, like when they would test him, they put everything up on a whiteboard. So I could see they let me know how much insulin they were giving him. They would ask me is this okay? You know, do you think do you agree with this, and I can't say enough about them. Like, I wish I could go back and hug each and every one of them because they just they knew how concerned I was about this vaping illness. And above that I was concerned about his diabetes as well. And they just couldn't have been more wonderful. That's
Scott Benner 52:09
excellent. Are you going to obviously heal better if your blood sugar's are stable and lower. So
Heather 52:14
Right. And that's, that was part of my concern, you know, the first few days of these nurses who didn't know what they were doing. And again, no fault of their own, because they were probably trained to do what they were doing. But once I got up there, they just they really, and I taught them a lot, too. They're like, Oh, we didn't know that, or we didn't know that. And so we worked together, and we got him through it somehow. But it was how long?
Scott Benner 52:39
I'm sorry, how long until you thought he was out of the woods. Like what was that timeframe?
Heather 52:45
Not until they started trying to take them off the vent. So, so two weeks, because it was it was bad, bad, bad. And every day, his lungs would get worse. And at one point, his X ray, you couldn't even see his lungs. It looked like a just a white screen. I mean, it just was it was completely covered. So that was pretty scary. And again, they just kept pumping him and he you know, he was sedated, was in a coma. But he was sedated for the ventilator. And then I think it was on day 10 That they're like, Okay, we see a little bit of improvement. And he was had started to grieve over the vent, which I didn't know, I didn't know you could do that. I thought if you were on a ventilator, you were just on a ventilator. I didn't realize you could also breathe at the same time. But he was like fighting the ventilator with his breathing even though he was sedated. And they said, Well, that's a good sign. So they and his X ray started to look better. I think actually, I think it was like day nine or I don't I think maybe, let's say day 10. Right, it's X ray started to look better in the morning. And then in the afternoon, they looked even better. So then they're like, alright, we'll start trying to I forget all the medical terms, something to do with peep there. I remember that word. It had something to do with the, I think the amount of air that they were giving him. But they started to wean him off of the ventilator and see what would happen. And the first day it didn't happen. We all had our fingers crossed. We're like, Oh, this is gonna work and it didn't. So they had to sedate him again. And then the next day we tried to get in the morning, didn't work. And then the next afternoon we tried again. And as we were trying, because x rays were getting better and better. No idea how or why. Maybe his body finally started fighting it. I don't know maybe the steroids finally started to work there charm that we'll never know. But he started to get better. And then finally, I think it was on the 12th day. It the morning didn't work but the afternoon time worked and they were able to take the ventilator out how long
Scott Benner 54:45
prior to the illness had he been vaping you know?
Heather 54:53
Probably a couple of years. So I don't think it was. I mean vaping I think is not good for you. I'm just going to, that's my personal feeling. I think he got a hold of some bad cartridges that had what I think they find found it was like the vitamin E or there was something else that was tainted in some of these cartridges. And that's why all of a sudden all these people were getting sick. And I think they must have stopped putting that in the cartridges since then, because now you don't hear of it. Was he just yet at that time? Was
Scott Benner 55:24
he just vaping? Like weed oil? Or was he also like just doing I guess nicotine?
Heather 55:31
He never Nope. It was always weed oil. It was never nicotine. So he don't hate must have gotten a bad cartridge, maybe an illegal cartridge. But I remember the CDC wanted to they got a hold of all of our all of his cartridges and some lady it was kind of like it felt like it was like a little drug deal or something she showed up at the hospital with this bag. And we had to do a little trade off. You know, we went through all of his drawers at his house and got all of his stuff that he got because we wanted to give it to them so they could try and figure out what was going on.
Scott Benner 56:06
That's amazing. Well, yeah, it was a big problem. They were it was it was panic, too.
Heather 56:12
Yeah. I mean, it was a huge problem. And it happened very quickly. And it lasts. It was very severe for I think like two or three months. I don't really remember because I was really focused on just him. But I remember it being really bad for a short while and then it was gone. So and unfortunately he was one of the ones and he actually I think they called him patient zero or something at that hospital. Or maybe it was in the county. I don't know if it was in the state or if it was in the county. I can't remember. No, that's not an easy one. No, no, no, it's not. And you know, now we now we joke about it now that he's okay, because he's like, Hey, Mom, I two claims to fame, my patient zero for that. And then years ago, he and his brother both got whooping cough, which they both were vaccinated against whooping cough, but they were on the news to students at so and so high school, whooping cough. So he's like, I've two things mama, like, Oh, please don't be proud of those.
Scott Benner 57:04
I don't know if you all remember the whooping cough kid. But guess what? He's back. He's back. Not to make light of this. But how does he get his weed and now?
Heather 57:13
Oh, he does not touch anything. Well, that was it that fixed it. The thing is, he was on a ventilator for 12 days, of course doesn't remember much of that. That's not what stopped him from vaping or smoking weed. What stopped him is his chest tube that he had in those three days after he was off the ventilator when he was conscious. They were draining his chest. He said I don't ever want to have a chest tube and ever again, he said he could feel it. Every time he moved. He said the whole idea of the chest tube. He said so he said so if any parent ever wants their kid to stop smoking, tell them to put a chest tube in their kid and I guarantee their kid will.
Scott Benner 57:54
I don't know if that's a viable deterrent, but I don't I don't think
Heather 57:57
it is. But you know,
Scott Benner 58:00
I take his point. Oh, I see. So he stopped the Yeah, that's um, that's something else. Okay. Yeah. Hold on. We've done a lot here. Give me a half a second. I gotta breathe.
Heather 58:15
I know, we've got a lot going on in this family. I
Scott Benner 58:17
mean, honestly, there's so much happening that any I mean, there's no way to like even head down a road. But I do want to go back to your to your daughter because I feel like we just kind of skipped over her for a second. So you are helping her manager? No.
Heather 58:34
I'm not really. You know, I if I see it being low, I just remind I mean, when she she sees it slow to she never doesn't see it. I just like her to acknowledge to let me know that she sees it because then I feel better. I'm like, Okay, I know she, she sees that she's taking care of it. But as far as management, I don't do too much. I mean, she's in college now. So there's not a whole lot I can do.
Scott Benner 58:58
Right? Do you go with her to no appointments?
Heather 59:01
I used to I don't anymore. We have the same Endo. She and I luckily that's the one that came to see her when she was diagnosed in the hospital. So she got to be with her right away, which was fantastic. I was so excited. So we didn't have to fight to switch doctors. But I don't go anymore. But she you know, she has signed a waiver and I can ask questions because we usually have our endo appointments about the same time because we're every three months so I'm usually a week or two after my daughter.
Scott Benner 59:28
So you guys, she's she's not using a child's Endo. She's using an adult No,
Heather 59:33
she's an adult because she was 18 when she was diagnosed, you can stay
Scott Benner 59:37
with them longer if you're in college. I think it's 24 maybe it's the number you can keep pediatrician into your 20s right
Heather 59:45
but she because she was 18 at diagnosis they didn't start with a excuse me a pediatric No they just sent her straight to the adults which is fine. I'm glad they did because our doctors phenomenal I love her. But yes She,
Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
I'm sorry. Oh, that's sorry.
Heather 1:00:02
I was just say she was diagnosed back in February. And that one, they all the signs were there. I just I don't know if I chose not to see them. She had lost a lot of weight. But you know, it was also a teenage thing. You know, she lost a lot of weight, but she'd been exercising. She was hungry all the time. But she was a teenager. She was drinking all the time. But she she's been doing that for like, a million years. That's just her
Scott Benner 1:00:26
water. Yeah.
Heather 1:00:28
So all of those things. It just didn't click, or maybe it did click, and I just didn't want it to come to the surface of my brain. I don't know. But then she started really? Uh, go ahead.
Scott Benner 1:00:40
No, I was gonna say, if I was you, I would have tried. I think my brain would have tried to avoid it, too.
Heather 1:00:45
I really think that my brain probably was, yeah, because she lost a lot of weight.
Scott Benner 1:00:50
You've had enough? Yeah. Honestly, if I'm being I mean, no one's in charge of this. But if there's a you know, if there's a line that says, I've had my fill of this, I think you're done. I think whatever you owe the universe you you paid back already.
Heather 1:01:05
I hope so. Yeah. I hope so. But I brought her she went to the doctor, not because of those symptoms, but because she had really bad heartburn, like so much so that she had stopped eating. She's like, it just hurts. I can't swallow anything. So I'm like, alright, we better go have that checked out. And the doctor, you know, checked her out and saw the weight loss, but didn't think any thing up? I mean, she mentioned it. And she's like, are you working out? And my daughter is like, Well, yeah, she's like, well, it's quite a bit of weight. And,
Scott Benner 1:01:34
again, Heather, how does somebody not go? Well, since your mom, your dad, your brother and your uncle have type one diabetes? What if we just checked? Well, we had
Heather 1:01:43
seen a doctor there, there was like five PDF pediatricians in the office. And we had our general one, but that one was busy. So we saw somebody else. And I always am convinced at that time, I was always convinced that somebody you know, I don't know, I always ask the question. Could it be diabetes? Yeah, I would, if I was you. And I didn't say Could it be diabetes, necessarily, but I just said, just do some blood work just because this is just weird. And she's just not eating. And as long as we're here and the doctors like, oh, yeah, sure, no problem. You know, go right now we'll do some blood work. And she gave us some acids or prescription for something. And so she went to get her bloodwork done. And then that night at like one in the morning, my phone rang. And it had a city that's close by and I thought that's weird. And then my, but I didn't get to it in time. It was the house phone that rang first. Well, I'm sorry, take the bike, the house phone rang first, I didn't get to it because I don't have a house phone in my room. And then my cell phone rang and it said the city and I thought that's that's gotta be the hospital. And you know, it could be some one of my other kids. So I answered it. And it was our real pediatrician. And he's like, how's your daughter doing? I'm like, what I'm like, half asleep. He's like how she doing? I'm like, I don't know, she's sleeping. He's like, her glucose levels. And as soon as he said that, I flew out of bed. I'm like, Oh, my God, you stop there, right there. Because I know exactly what you're going to say. Yeah. And he said, You need to get out of the hospital, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, and then the next day, the original doctor called and she said, I just want to apologize. She said, I should have done a urine test. And I said, Don't you know, don't worry, you know, it's fine now, right? She's not gonna work out. She's okay. You know, having not seen all of the background, I probably wouldn't have thought that either. Because she didn't present with you know, she didn't say hey, I've been drinking a lot of water. Hey, I'm hungry all the time. She just said I have heartburn and I can't eat.
Scott Benner 1:03:37
I think tandem index calm should send you like a punch card, like at a submarine shop, you know? And like after a certain number of sensors, I send you a free one or something like that. Fair. Seems fair on that one. Yeah, it would be nice. Yeah. You want to be on the box of the of the tandem tee slip,
Heather 1:03:54
man. You know,
Scott Benner 1:03:56
I just like, you know, sitting there.
Heather 1:03:58
I'm trying to convince my daughter to and not really convincing. I'm just trying to I feel like she'll have an easier time not that she's having a hard time with MDI. She really is doing great. But she's she's like, I just don't want to pump it's fine. I don't mind carrying around my insulin and this and that. At first. She was going to do Omnipod back when she was first diagnosed, but now she's like, I don't know. I'm gonna stick with what I'm doing for now.
Scott Benner 1:04:19
Yeah, again, I think people should do what's working for them. And
Heather 1:04:22
yeah, and so whatever works for her. Yeah. You know, I love my pump, but that doesn't mean that she will.
Scott Benner 1:04:28
How do you? I have one more question. How do you come to find yourself listening to the podcast?
Heather 1:04:35
Well, I started listening religiously when COVID hit because I started really walking a lot. And I needed something to do and I can't I don't know if somebody told me about it or how I came across it. But I really enjoyed it and a lot of the things I already knew, but it's just, it's just it's nice to hear other people. It's nice to feel like you're not alone. It's nice to hear that other people have problems. You know, you might not have them. i That sounds bad. I don't I don't know. I mean, it's nice that other people have problems. There. Let
Scott Benner 1:05:07
me stop you. I agree with you. And I know you didn't mean it in like a like a biting light. But it is comforting to not feel alone. Yes. And in this scenario, other people having problems is how you don't feel alone, which is yes. Sucks for them, but really great for you. Yeah, no, I know what you're saying.
Heather 1:05:28
Yeah. So when I, you know, would hear these different things. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, it's just so devastating. And then I'm like, my problems don't seem like nothing. It's like, okay, yeah. You know, they had to deal with that my mind is nothing. And I just, I really, even though I knew most of the stuff, it was fun to listen and be like, oh, yeah, I'm doing that. I'm doing that. Oh, I should try that. I haven't been listening too much lately up. It's been so busy. I couldn't even tell you what I'm doing. But I need to get back into it. Because I there's so many that I haven't listened to. But I did send my daughter when she was first diagnosed, I sent her list of like the the important ones like for the newly diagnosed and she really enjoyed listening to them as well.
Scott Benner 1:06:11
I'm glad I actually am getting ready to do an episode with Jenny, where we I went on the Facebook page and the private Facebook page, and I asked people about what helped them when they were newly diagnosed, or what they wish somebody would have told them. And we compiled what everyone said, and Jenny and I are gonna go over and an episode. Oh, which that'll be a good one. Yeah, I'm excited for but you know, it's funny. A lot of people I know who have podcasts about other things, not diabetes, specifically, they would say that the COVID killed their show. And my show like, like exploded during COVID.
Heather 1:06:48
Well, and I'm definitely one of those people because I, I would do this three and a half mile loop. And I put your earbuds in and off we go.
Scott Benner 1:06:58
Listen to it, I appreciate it very much. My initial concern was that, oh, I just in my mind imagined that people must listen while they commute. And now no one's commuting anymore. And my gosh, this is gonna be terrible. But it absolutely went the other direction. So I was really I was really grateful. I was nervous there for a while there was about a week and a half, two weeks, where not just me. But every podcast, like like podcasting dipped, like I think it was 18% One month at the beginning of COVID. And I heard these reports. I was like, oh, gosh, and I went looked at my numbers. And I had gone up and I was like, Oh, am I gonna be the exception to this rule is like, please. And you know, it did work out that way. So, I mean, COVID was great for this podcast, I can't believe that's what I'm saying. But it really was, it really helped it explode even more. Which was, you know, I'm grateful. I'm grateful other people find the, the information, you know, and have an opportunity. So it's just very cool. So your daughter did listen. I'd like to see you get your brother to listen, I bet you couldn't do that for money.
Heather 1:08:06
There's no way not gonna happen. Unless I play it when he's here. It comes up on Saturdays. Maybe I'll just blast it.
Scott Benner 1:08:13
I'll tell you boy, I don't know if he's got that type of like personality where he'd want to talk. But, but there's something about his story I find really interesting.
Heather 1:08:23
You know what, I think he would have a fantastic story. If I can convince him to do it. We'll see. I don't I don't know if I can I don't pressure
Scott Benner 1:08:30
him. But if he ever comes up, tell him I I'd be fascinated to hear from somebody that's been managing for that long that way. And hear how he's doing and what he's doing. Really, sincerely. Yeah, that'd be something.
Heather 1:08:44
Well, I'm I'm still confused. I mean, not confused. I'm still fascinated that he's still alive in general, with his background, but the fact that he's able to control himself and be alive, just the way he's doing it is yeah, he's doing something right.
Scott Benner 1:08:59
I need to I need to talk to him just so I can ask. Like, what kind of drugs and what were you doing? And like, I'm super I know, you don't want to share his personal information, but like, in my mind is you know, I don't know he's flying on the nose of a jet plane with heroin in his hand. And I'm like, dying to know his whole story.
Heather 1:09:15
But no, he um, like I said, I I really didn't think he was going to make it through his teenage years. I really didn't. And so thankful that he did because he's an amazing uncle. All around to my kids. Just an amazing brother. Okay, yeah,
Scott Benner 1:09:33
that's excellent. I'm glad for you. Well, I I really appreciate you doing this if we didn't miss anything that you wanted to talk about. I feel very good about this episode.
Heather 1:09:40
And I think we touched on pretty much every excellent good
Scott Benner 1:09:45
I'm glad I had a great time talking with you. I really appreciate you doing this.
Heather 1:09:48
I did too. Thank you so much. Sorry about my dogs barking Oh,
Scott Benner 1:09:51
listen, people like dogs they I get know sometimes that people miss my dogs because I moved away from them. So anyway, that's that I liked your dogs barking I
Heather 1:10:01
thought well they still they usually can go with my mom and dad but they How dare them they went to Hawaii for two weeks. So to me the dogs during my spring break so
Scott Benner 1:10:11
enjoy that. Alright All right thank you hold on one second for me
a huge thanks to Heather for sharing her story with us. And another thank you to us Med and Contour Next One. Us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 Are you looking for that? Brand new FreeStyle Libre three, get your hands on it at us med if you're looking for the Contour Next One blood glucose meter look no farther than contour next.com forward slash juice box. You may pay less in cash than you do through your insurance. For the Contour Next One and the test trips. Go check it out
if you're enjoying the Juicebox Podcast, please tell someone else about it. Like your doctor, a friend, a stranger on the street. Anybody really. And don't forget to please subscribe or follow in an audio Apple like Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, stuff like that. Just go into your audio app search for the podcast, hit subscribe or follow whatever the app is using. I don't know why they all can't just pick one but they can't now I have to say subscribe or follow follow or subscribe. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Please support the sponsors
The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!
