#797 Island Adventure

November 25, 2022Scott Benner

Paola's daughter has type 1 diabetes and was a guest on episode 467 'Come Together'.

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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 797 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's show, I'm gonna be speaking with payola. She is the mother of a girl who's been on the podcast before. As a matter of fact, her daughter and her friends who all have type one diabetes were on together. If you remember that episode, this is going to be the mom of one of those girls. 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. We're becoming bold with insulin. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Join the registry, fill out the survey help people living with type one diabetes, help yourself move diabetes research forward without getting off your sofa. There's so much you can do in just the 10 minutes that will take you to complete that survey, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. If you're looking for the diabetes Pro Tip series that defining diabetes series bold beginnings or any of the series within the podcast, they are now listed at the top of juicebox podcast.com. Just go to your browser, and they're all right up there. If you're on a phone, hit the little menu icon, and then you'll see the list this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes. You don't want an insulin pump, but you want some of that good functionality that an insulin pump has. You're looking for the in pen in pen today.com today's podcast is also sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitoring system. You want to see your blood sugars in real time. Watch this. I'm going to turn my head. I now know Arden's blood sugar. I just looked at my phone. That was how quick I did 103 and stable. What do you think of that? You can do that to artists not even here actually are in the state right now. dexcom.com forward slash juicebox.

Paola 2:15
Okay, my name is Paola and I live in the Cayman Islands. My daughter is a Mayan. She's 18 years old and she's our type one diabetic daughter.

Scott Benner 2:26
Okay, was was my on the show before?

Paola 2:31
Yes, as a matter of fact, she was she spoke to you maybe a year ago, she was with her other type one diabetic friends on the island. And they interviewed with you. Yeah,

Scott Benner 2:44
okay. Oh, that's I still have such a fond memory of talking to those girls. It was, That episode was so much fun. I had a lot of fun. So, and you guys are the reason I am the number one podcast on the Cayman Islands. So thank you very much. It's our pleasure. Also, with five other people would start listening to one podcast, I think it would knock me off, but it's not a huge population.

Paola 3:09
Um, no, it's a very small population. As a matter of fact, I have shared it with a few other diabetic kids as well as adults. I'm not 100% sure whether they've been listening as well. So I wouldn't be able to tell you know, that's

Scott Benner 3:25
okay. I just know that when I look at my stats, I am always crushing the game in Ireland. So I'm excited. That's awesome. Yeah, you guys are you guys are moving the needle over there for sure. Well, what made you want to be on today?

Paola 3:40
Well, for one, I wanted to share my diagnosis, her story and also as a teacher, I wanted to share a few tips that teachers can do if they do have a type one diabetic student in their classroom.

Scott Benner 3:55
Okay, cool. Well, first, let me see if I can figure out what episode The girls were on. So that sure, do you remember what it was called?

Paola 4:04
Ah best? No, I wouldn't. I can text them. Yeah, and asker I'm sure

Scott Benner 4:15
it'll be more fun to see if we can figure

Paola 4:19
I think it was around the 404 20s. Maybe if I'm not if I'm recalling correctly.

Scott Benner 4:25
Okay. You know, the number.

Paola 4:28
I I could be round though. Well, that's more in

Scott Benner 4:31
the let's find out if you're right. Nice try. No. All right. Well, we'll figure it out as we go. Okay. So my is how old when she's diagnosed.

Paola 4:46
Maya was seven years old. She was diagnosed on May 8 2011. And first grade,

Scott Benner 4:56
first grade. Were you guys living where you are now at the time?

Paola 5:00
No, we were actually living in Ecuador. So prior to her diagnosis, um, I did, in fact, lose quite a bit of weight. But I didn't see any of the signs. I mean, all I knew was a she's always been a very active child, and she was running around and doing all sorts of sports. And I didn't pay attention to the weight, I feel horrible about it, because I didn't really pay attention to it until it got really, really bad. And then because we had a long weekend, the pediatric, our physician told us that we could run a blood test, we got the results, but there was nothing, nothing out of the ordinary, I guess and what he saw. So call them again and ask them there's something really definitely wrong because the Maya was super lethargic, she was laying on the couch, and it was very hard for, for her to stay up to stay awake. And, and that was normally not our child's I mean, she was always active playing with our dogs and things. And so we thought this was really weird. So we quickly ran another set of bloodwork. And as soon as we found out that our physician called us and told us, You have to come right away to the, to the hospital because of my is about to go into into a coma. Oh my gosh, yes. While she was extremely high, very lethargic, her head was falling down completely, she could not hold her head correctly, her arms just went down. It was it was really scary. So when we got to the hospital, we had lots of physicians, nurses poking her testing this and that, and it was, nobody was giving us any answers. All we knew was what they were doing. And it was very hard for us, as parents. And finally, a few minutes later, the pediatrician came out and told us well, I Maya has type one. And we were just shocked.

Scott Benner 7:12
Wow, it's crazy. You said that you felt like you ignored things. But what specifically did you see that now, you know, in retrospect, was a sign? Well,

Paola 7:21
yes, I'm glad you asked me that. So now I know, for example, the constant weight loss, the thirst. Going to the restroom at odd hours. But we have always been a family that drinks a lot of water. So to us, it didn't really become strange that she was more thirsty than before. You know, it just wasn't strange to us. And so when I learned about all the symptoms prior to that lead to the diagnosis, then I was just Oh, my goodness, I should have paid attention to this. Yeah. Well, obviously you. You don't know that. Because you're just not informed on a

Scott Benner 8:02
very little way to know how many how much weight do you think she lost?

Paola 8:07
Um, she was, she must have lost about 20 pounds or so. Wow, she was so thin Scott, you could see her ribs. And of course, I didn't notice this, particularly because she was seven years old and she got dressed by herself. She showered by herself. She ate all her her meals. So there was no way for us to really notice anything other than the 24 hours prior to her diagnosis, maybe even 36 hours prior.

Scott Benner 8:38
That's why that's how it happened to us to. I mean, Arden was clearly in hindsight, had lost weight, and, you know, all the other stuff, everything but until it became emergent, like to the point where you're like something's really really wrong. I couldn't I mean, I didn't put any of the pieces together. I also think that looking back on it as the person I am now is not helpful, because back then nobody in my family had ever been sick. I didn't like you know what I mean? Like we were living that life you get up you do your thing, you come home, you go to bed, you do it again, like get it no one was ever there was no illnesses to think about in that moment. Now, of course, like now I'm like, I'm like a radar detector, you know, something changes on like, what's gone? What would was less time moved to the bathroom.

Paola 9:34
Exactly. What happened here and I paid? Yes. And I also pay attention to those types of symptoms or signals and my students, so I'm super aware.

Scott Benner 9:47
No, I'm sure the kids are completely annoyed by it. Right. But I do ask questions like How long was your period? Oh, yeah. How'd this go? When's the last time you went to the bathroom? When's the last time you did this? Have you been eating Okay, how do you feel like the last thing I said to my son this weekend was, how do you feel? And he was like, why don't you need anything before we go? Like, all I was really saying was like, I was trying to signal him, like, think about yourself for a second. You know, because you're busy, and you're a college and you're playing sports, and you're doing a lot, like, stop for five seconds and think about your health. Has it been okay? And he's like, no, no, I'm good. And I was like, okay, but that's all I was really doing. At that point. I was just trying to get him to think about back then I didn't know what the hell was going on. So back then I just thought I was going to work and make some money and buy a house one day, and the kids would get married, and I'd retire. Like, that's how I felt my whole life was gonna go instead. This hell happened. So anyway, so. So there she is in the hospital? How is the health care in Ecuador? Was it okay? Were they able to help her?

Paola 10:48
Well, that's a good question. So we were provided and connected with an endocrinologist, not necessarily a children's endocrinologist or a pediatric. But he was the number one in in Ecuador in the country. And so everyone spoke very highly about him. So he came over Amaya was, was given her insulin through an IV, her meals came in. And she started to gain a little bit more for color and our skin a little bit more attentive, and so forth. And then came all of our training. So this physician would sit with me and would draw these, I'm not kidding you. He would draw these mountains and hills and in it, put formulas, and he would tell me, this is what you're going to do at this time, you're going to divide it and multiply it by this at this time, remember that this formula only works from this time to this time and so forth, then so am I was actually at the hospital for 10 days, because her her body wasn't reacting positively to the to the insulin and so they kept us there for a little longer. And then by the time we were ready to go, I I had more than 20 pieces of paper with different formulas and hills and mountains that I needed to be able to multiply and add and divide. And and all of this was so confusing at first. So confusing. That's it. And

Scott Benner 12:24
yeah, the math is the first thing that made me cry. Well, after the realization, the next thing that made me cry was the math actually. So

Paola 12:32
yes, and I'm not a very good mathematician either. So I thought, How am I going to figure this out? I mean, this is so complex. But so we were with this physician for about a year and a half or so. And then we had an accident took place in our family. And so we I tried to get a hold of them because the Maya was her numbers were really high. And I could not bring them down regardless of how much insulin I was. I was giving her we were using lentils and a Piedra back then we did not have the Dexcom because that technology didn't exist in Ecuador, and when when she was diagnosed, and so we went home with lentils and a Piedra and had to be administered at set times. So we had to go and train, not necessarily trained, but informed the school, the nurse that the school wasn't very comfortable and giving Amaya her shots, even though she's a nurse. So

Scott Benner 13:43
you said something a second ago, I'm confused by or I'm not following the thread on. You said there was an accident in the family.

Paola 13:50
Yes. So my sister passed away. And terrible accident.

Scott Benner 13:56
Okay. And did that have an impact on my care? Is that what you're getting at?

Paola 14:01
Or? Yes, yes. I'm sorry. So yeah. So we had this accident, and my sister passed away. And we were trying to get a hold of the physician and the endocrinologist, but we couldn't. And so when I finally got a hold of them, I asked them, look, these have been her numbers these days. And I have done everything that you've told me and I have not been able to bring her blood sugar's down. And so what do I do now? And he just told me, he just brushed me off saying things like, don't worry about it. Let her numbers run high. This is a hard time and your family don't worry about it. Just keep on giving her insulin Make, make. Make your meals weigh up told you and nothing more. or, and when I got home, I thought this can't be right, there must be something that we're doing wrong, right? Because her numbers were so high, she was constantly above 250, rarely below 180. And the more that I read online about the different things that I could be doing as a mother, when you have a type one, I would share that information with a physician. And he would just brush me off saying, Oh, no, that's the way they do it in the US, we do it here differently. Don't worry about that. Just keep on doing what you're doing here. What's interesting

Scott Benner 15:36
is so that he had one idea of how to do this, and no other interest in looking into it. Beyond that,

Paola 15:44
nothing, nothing, no other interest. And so after that position, I thought we can't continue with it. So immediately, I started looking for another another endocrinologist, we found another person who works closely with a nutritionist, and we thought, oh, this would be great. Because finally somebody else will be able to guide us with carb count and a proper balanced meals and so forth. And so we thought, okay, let's go with it. We lasted with this doctor for about eight months, because every time that I went with Amaya to have her checkups, he was so rude. So, so rude and his way of treating me Why Why don't you understand this? Can't you just figure out you're multiplying, you must be dividing and doing something wrong? How come her numbers continue being so high? And so I felt very threatened by his way of talking to me that I thought I can't continue like this, because it's not healthy for me. Therefore, I cannot help my daughter

Scott Benner 16:54
when you there. When you look back on that? Do you see a situation where he was covering for his lack of knowledge? or D?

Paola 17:04
Absolutely. Absolutely. He knew nothing. He he was basically giving us the same guidance that the first endocrinologist gave us, but then adding a twist, which was the nutrition factor. So he would say, make sure that she's got these items, certain meals, so that you have a better balance of of your food. And we thought we were doing okay, but every time we went to him, it was my stomach would be in the knots. I would get so nervous. And it wasn't healthy. Yeah.

Scott Benner 17:44
Oh, and you weren't gonna get anywhere either. Plus, it makes you crazy because you see a problem. And you know, there has to be a fix to it. And then the person who's in charge is telling you, you know, this is fine. You know, this is okay. Or you're doing it wrong. One or the other? And

Paola 17:58
yes, yeah. And constantly, the blame was on me. So I was doing something wrong. It wasn't a my, yeah, he never checked on a maya never. So it was always me. I was the one that was doing something wrong. I was making mistakes here and there. And so I felt I could not continue with him either. And so we were lucky enough to find another endocrinologist. And she was very interested in the background knowledge that we had with numbers and the nutrition and she so she made a few twists to a Maya's doses of both lenses and a Piedra and number started to get a little bit better. And we thought, okay, this is great. You know, so we're on a better track right now. We thought, This is fabulous. In those days. And as the years went by, Maya went through all her elementary years. So she finished school, she had great teachers. Her second grade teacher was fantastic. And so she was she had our phone numbers on the classroom phone right above it on a post said, she tried to help my as much as she could with, we're making sure that she was asking that she drank water that she was eating what she was supposed to be eating. And so she had a lot of she gave me a sense of security, which was very important as she was coming new with with diabetes into a school and to a school that had never had a type one diabetic students.

Scott Benner 19:44
Wow, that's lucky right to find somebody that that's willing to get involved and, and to understand what was your level of understanding of that point as you're as you're sending her into school, and you're having these problems with the doctors and not sure like, what's her or health, like at that moment? Are you still looking at 250 blood sugars? And you wondering what's going wrong? Or had you had you made a leap yet to figure this out on my own?

Paola 20:09
Well, I'm glad you asked me this, because prior to, while we were with our first two doctors, everything I heard from them was, oh, you can't continue doing it, you have to follow these rules. And make sure that Amaya takes in her insulin at the set times. And she's got to eat this amount at this time with this amount of insulin. So it was very rigid. And so that didn't allow us a lot of flexibility. And when we went to our third physician, she twists I allow my head to have more flexibility. She doesn't need to take her insulin at this time. If she's not hungry, she does not need to eat, you know, so it gave us a little bit. It broke away from the from the constraint that we had before. And besides that, I was reading, I was researching about the technology that existed in the US. And I thought, how can we don't have this here? I mean, I would question them.

Scott Benner 21:14
Yeah. Let me ask you a question. Did anyone in the beginning tell you you were doing sliding scale? They were used, that I was doing what? Using a sliding scale? Sometimes when I stepped on a scale, I wish it would slide away from me. But that's a different story. How would you like to use the in pen from Medtronic diabetes? You might be saying to me, Scott, what the heck is that? Just an insulin pen? Oh, no, no, it's not just an insulin pen. I think you and I need to visit in pen today.com together to learn more. I've clicked on it already. Have you know you haven't, you're on your phone, probably. But I'm here. So don't worry. In Penn today.com. This is where you're going to learn about what is this thing asking me to do? Do I want to take a survey now right now I'm making a podcast. Hold on, we'll do that later. Here's what you get with the pen, you get the pen, which is terrific. It's a pen. And then you get an app that connects to the pen. Now you see what's happening because that app is going to show you your current glucose. You can see your current level After pairing your continuous glucose monitor Oh, oh, okay. What else meal history, dosing history. Activity Log. That's right, you can see a list of the recent actions including doses meals and glucose readings in the activity log. How about if you push that Reports button reports can be generated for up to 90 days of data. It will and the impact is going to show your glucose history your active insulin remaining. That dosing calculator, I don't think you need to know anything else. If you don't want to pump. I mean, you have to look at the impact. And that's just my opinion. But I think you might agree once you go to in Penn today.com. When you're ready to try it fill out the form and you get going. There's videos there to learn about the in pen. testimonials from users, you can find out about their 24 hour technical support their hands on product training, online educational resources and learn about this offer that says you may pay as little as $35 for the event offers available to people with commercial insurance terms and conditions apply. But it's definitely worth you head over to Impend today.com. To find out more in pen requires a prescription and settings from your healthcare provider, you must use proper settings and follow the instructions as directed, or you could experience high or low glucose levels. For more safety information, once again, in Penn today.com. Dexcom is going to give you the power to manage your diabetes with confidence, make better diabetes decisions in the moment with the Dexcom G six. At the beginning of the episode, I told you that my daughter's blood sugar was 123. I think I'm looking now it's 109. It's drifting up slightly. I'm able to watch that with my phone, you can to Android or iPhone. Arden has her phone with her. It's feeding the information into the cloud. And then it drifts back down into my iPhone. I don't think that's technically how it happens. But the cloud is how it works. And you can see, speed, direction and number. That's amazing. Actually up to 10 people can follow a Dexcom user, anyone you want. That could be a teacher, it could be I guess you could be your priest. It can be really anybody. I don't know who you're wanting to do it but I mean probably use your visual mom or your dad or your husband, your wife or something but you know I'm saying dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. See the speed, direction and number of your blood sugar in real time on your phone or on a Dexcom receiver. You have no idea how valuable it is. It's everything. Every decision we make. Every card we cover, or don't. Every time we use insulin we first Look at what the Dexcom is telling us about what's happening with Ardens blood sugar. You will love it dexcom.com forward slash juice box Do not delay, you may be eligible for a free 10 day supply of the Dexcom G six. Go to my link to find out more

they ever used those words like you shoot this amount of insulin and she has to eat this many carbs?

Paola 25:36
They then say it and but I'm assuming Yes, they did. In Spanish. It's it's it's called something else. But yes, it is the same ideas there.

Scott Benner 25:45
Okay, so. So did you see? So interesting because you're being told one thing, and then you're online, you're like, seems like people do it a different way. And so you get to this new doctor. And they're basically you're telling you now count carbs use insulin for carbs? Correct? Okay, great. How long was that since her diagnosis?

Paola 26:07
Um, it was probably in my first four or five years.

Scott Benner 26:12
Wow. So for first four or five years, you're doing sliding scale, and then maybe 2016, you start counting carbs?

Paola 26:21
Correct. And so just to give you another idea of how bad our situation was with her man with our management was a minus a one C was always above nine. I could not bring it down. Was that because I didn't have the tools?

Scott Benner 26:39
Can you talk a little bit about how that made you feel? Personally,

Paola 26:45
I was heartbroken because the more I read about the care that you should have, the more that I wanted to make amends to what we were doing with with our daughter, and I had no support by the doctors. And so whatever, whenever I went to them, and I said, Hey, I read this article, I wouldn't even print it out for them. Look at this. Can I do this? And they would be like, no, no, no fallout, this is the way we do things. Ignore that. That's the way they do it in the US don't pay attention to those things.

Scott Benner 27:21
That sucks. I really does. Well, okay, but you got away from it. How did you so the new doctor helped you move away from it?

Paola 27:28
A little bit? Yes. So she made a few changes. But this is the best part. Am I yeah, we're in fifth grade. And because we, we? Well, my husband and I both work at American international schools. And am I as is a student in in those schools. We had a family who came from Canada. And they their youngest child was a type one. And their middle child became is best friend's in grade five. So their friendship led to us becoming very close to this family and learning from them. So it was my first time seeing a Dexcom it was my first time seeing the different types of snacks that you could have for in case you're low. It was our first exposure to to making corrections when you saw certain numbers. It was the first time that we heard about Pre-Bolus ng we had not heard about it before. Okay. So it was there was a lot of new things. And so we this family was amazing to us. And they shared even the friends for life conference in Orlando. And so we we thought, okay, we're gonna go. And so the two families, we left together from Quito, and we arrived to Florida, and we were in the conference together. And, gosh, it was just like, I cannot believe I am listening to all of these things that I have been wanting to do, but I have been unable to do it. Because the physicians wouldn't allow us to make those changes, would you? Would you ever

Scott Benner 29:23
would you have ever considered just going against the physician? Or do you do you think that's not something you would have been capable of doing?

Paola 29:32
I don't think my first years I would have been capable to do it. I would have been very hesitant just because I feared that I was playing with the insulin. I wasn't 100% sure that I could make those changes on my own. Sure. And so I was very hesitant. No, I

Scott Benner 29:51
understand. I just I want people to hear that. That it's that even in the face of I mean your own common sense, or your own ability to look added more information and say, I don't think this is right. Or at least I think we could be doing this differently, and maybe be having some better outcomes. And I mean, my goodness, like there certainly was room for better outcomes. Let's just say what he wants. He was that whole time. eights, it wasn't

Paola 30:14
the nine nines, late eights, nines, 10s. I believe we even got to 111 at some point.

Scott Benner 30:24
So this is how we do it in Ecuador, is is nines. And we're okay with it. And, and that person would have, I'm a little angry that person would have just let your daughter live like that her whole life until she was probably in her late 20s When she started having some sort of side effects from high blood sugars. And then they would assess like, this is what it this is just diabetes. It says, you know, that's it. Wow. That's it terrible. Absolutely. So meeting so meeting this other family really was by the watershed moment for you and hearing them say, yeah, right.

Paola 31:04
Absolutely. Absolutely. We're still in connection with them. Both Amaya and their daughter have gotten together. They're constantly chatting with each other. And so our connection with them is very, very strong as they've been wonderful to us. And because we were able to go to the friends for life conference, both my husband and I attended two different workshops. And in one of those workshops, we learned about Dexcom. And we were dumbfounded by this, oh, my gosh, what is this thing? And so we attended the whole workshop, and we asked them, a few families, what would be the most important tool if you were able to get one of these tools? Whether it's the pump? Or the Dexcom? Which would be your first Yeah, and everyone said, The Dexcom? Everyone said the Vex, I

Scott Benner 31:56
understand. Yeah, I mean, being able to see it is it's just the best part, right? Like, I mean, honestly, after you see it, then you then you want a pump immediately, then you're like, oh, okay, well, now I know what to do. You know, but first step, seeing things go on understanding them better. Seeing what you can do with the insulin makes such a big difference. It's just, it is I hate to say a game changer, but it really is.

Paola 32:22
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. So we looked into it, we called our insurance, we found out we were not going to get coverage for the Dexcom. But we thought you know what, her health is far more important right now. And as teachers, we made the huge sacrifice. So we bought six months supplies of Dexcom when we were in Orlando, and took them with us to Quito. And we also bought I had not heard of these, the glucose tablets.

Scott Benner 32:55
Okay, what were you doing? We have, how did you manage low blood sugars?

Paola 33:00
Um, well, this is this is the other crazy stuff. In Ecuador, the physicians, both physicians told us just give him a little bit of soda, if she's low, and we are a family that we do not drink soda at all. Just give her some oranges. And so what we did was, I would give her a little bit of fruit juice, any kind of fruit juice, and that would bring her up again. Okay, but it wasn't glucose tablets or anything like that. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 33:26
everything that was handy that she could carry with her and, and things like that. Exactly.

Paola 33:30
Gotcha. Exactly. Yeah. So we we arrived with the Dexcom. With, with glucose tablets, and right after we went to see the endocrinologist and we were so excited to show her the tools and provide her with some of the information that way she may also guide other other patients with it as well. And we showed her the glucose tablets and all of this. And she just sat there. Oh, Scott, it was so horrible. She just sat there. Let me talk about all of these things and said, Oh, Allah. We don't manage diabetes that way in Aquitar.

Scott Benner 34:13
Still, still that's the answer. Okay. That was

Paola 34:17
her answer. Was her answer.

Scott Benner 34:20
Is that about when you were done? Were you just like, yeah,

Paola 34:23
we waited we waited until she until we had another bloodwork. I believe we waited about six more months. We saw her twice after that last time. And that was it. Yeah. Because in the US in order for you to get Dexcom you need a pediatricians. What do you call it? The prescription from a pediatrician and endocrinologist, pediatrician that can give you the prescription for it. So we were able at the friends for life conference, meet several people electricians and we found this amazing doctor. And she made immediately examined Amaya. She did some blood work for her. And immediately right after she gave us the prescription and we were order we were able to purchase Dexcom.

Scott Benner 35:16
Wow. That's great.

Paola 35:17
She did it for us.

Scott Benner 35:19
Maybe because somebody else you?

Paola 35:21
Absolutely. And with with this doctor, we stayed until we came. Well, we we've been with her ever since. Yeah. So that means that we have had to travel to the US and get a Maya to see her endocrinologist and in Orlando, get blood work. We take us we do as much as we can with bloodwork and Ecuador. But then we would take the results and whatever other checkups that she needed to have done, we would do those in the US.

Scott Benner 35:56
So just to kind of back up for a second. You and your husband are both teachers. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah. And so you just Where are you from originally? I'm from Ecuador. You are originally from Ecuador. Okay. And your husband as well?

Paola 36:11
No, my husband's from Venezuela.

Scott Benner 36:13
Okay. Did you meet him? Because he came to Ecuador to teach.

Paola 36:16
No, I actually met him in St. Michael's College in Vermont.

Scott Benner 36:22
Of course in Vermont. And

Paola 36:25
I know I know how you feel about Vermont?

Scott Benner 36:28
I'm just saying we're all the Ortiz's meet in Vermont. Yeah. So common. So okay, so you were in school in Vermont? He was from Venezuela. You were from Ecuador. You met there. You guys obviously got together. He came with you. And did you ever consider going to Van as well? No. Girls always win those conversations. Okay, so maybe your house basically. But you don't? Where have you lived since Ecuador?

Paola 37:00
Well, I was born in Ecuador. But I grew up in in Boston. And then I finished my elementary and middle school in Vienna, Austria, right. And then I graduated, I finished high school and Pennsylvania, and did College in Pennsylvania and then went to Vermont, and then Ecuador. And now Cayman Islands. Well, in between we've done Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Cayman Islands now

Scott Benner 37:30
do you just go where the jobs are where the teaching jobs already you pick places you'd like to work in, or like to live and then find work?

Paola 37:37
Um, it's where the jobs are and the experiences. It also has to do with how much we're gonna get paid. And so

Scott Benner 37:49
then, how did this happen to you when you were a child? Were your parents doing something similar?

Paola 37:55
No, my dad was secretary general of OPEC.

Scott Benner 38:00
Oh, that'll move you around. Yes.

Paola 38:04
So my dad was a diplomat for a good number of years. And so that allowed my sister and I to go through several international schools. And that's why I love that type of life. I have friends from different parts of the world. And so when the time came for us to choose a school for our Maya, I thought she has to enroll, we have to enroll her in an international school because they're so great.

Scott Benner 38:31
Wow, that's really cool. So I now remember teasing my about what her dad did for a living, because she was talking about how she wasn't Ecuador. But now she was here. And he was from like a perspective of a younger person. And I said to her, if I'm remembering, right, I said, my Are you sure your parents are teachers, but if they're like, international gunrunners, or something like that? And she said, she goes, they're not. I said, How do you know? And I just so enjoyed the pause after I said, How do you know where I know her brain was like, maybe they are lying to me. So it's just it's such an interesting life to be able to move around like that. And very, yeah, it's excellent. Actually.

Paola 39:10
It is it is. We're hoping to move in about two more years after we've been here for five years and Cayman Islands then travel elsewhere, just because it's your best way to get a real feel of living in a country taking in their culture, their traditions, the music, the food, and learning as you're working. So we love it.

Scott Benner 39:33
So you think I'm sort of after the girls after my is done, ready for college, then you guys might move somewhere else?

Paola 39:40
Yes. Well, am I coincidentally Scott, Maya is in the US right now. Because she's visiting the college that she has accepted. Oh, yeah. That's about I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 39:53
That's exciting. I just did this with Arden. Kelly and I just took art into a number of schools, and she chose one then we spent a few days and, and and got the feel for the place. And it was a it was such a good time. It's very good for her. What is she going to study?

Paola 40:08
Um, she wants to do something in the sciences and biology, but she's still unsure. 100%

Scott Benner 40:15
sure my son is about to graduate, he's still unsure. So it's off. He's, wow. He's like, he's like, I don't know, do you want to get a master's degree? And he's like, Oh, no. What do you want to do? He goes, I'm gonna take a break. He's like, I'm tired of school. Oh, well, there you go. Yeah, that makes sense. But that's very excited. Good for her. That's, that's yeah. Tell people nowadays, what's my agency?

Paola 40:41
Oh, so before we spoke to you, three months ago, her agency was 5.5. And about two weeks ago, she went, we went to the doctor and her agency went up a little bit. She's at 6.0. And we blame schoolwork. Because it's been very hard for her to, to manage the stress that she's dealing with. As a high school student, as a senior. There's lots of work and exams, and she's doing the IB. And it's very draining. There's lots to study. And so it's been harder for her to manage as tightly as she was doing before.

Scott Benner 41:27
Okay, that that I think is, I think, pretty common. Is she? Is she managing it more by herself than she was in the past?

Paola 41:38
Yes, yes. So I've tried to let go of the reins a little bit just because I need to get her ready for college. And so so that she becomes more independent. She's really good about bolusing prior to her meal, so that is that is a huge plus, she's really good about that, um, counting carbs, or predicting or estimating how much is her meal is a little harder, just because sometimes she'll forget, oh, the fats. Oh, I need to add this for the protein. Yeah. And so that's where she makes her mistakes. And then that raises her numbers a bit. It's interesting.

Scott Benner 42:16
This is right where Arden is right now to like she's taking more and more of her, her care over. And she's having these like experiences like I did before, where she's trying to figure out, you know, what is this meal going to do ahead of time and get getting it right sometimes and getting it wrong sometimes and missing things like fat and protein. And you know what day of the pump, it is that kind of stuff. I still I'm doing my best to just slip in once in a while, you know, like I'll say like, I think maybe you should change your pod before you go out to dinner. She's like, Oh, no, there's still 30 units. And I'm like, I know. But if you look at your blood sugar, your blood sugar over the last four or five hours, it's been drifting up and you've been bolusing more, it's a good indication that the site might be done. And, you know, a couple of times chickened out, and it'd be fine that she comes home and she's like, I have to change my pot. And I was like, I know. So it's watching her figure it out now, but it's going pretty, pretty well actually. And it sounds like I mean, listen to six a one save for as a 17 year old girl, as it's really good, you know, so she's getting it and so will so am I right?

Paola 43:27
Yes, yes. I'm thrilled that she's so independent with it. So at school, she'll just change it. She's got her supplies at school. And prior to this trip to visit the school that she's going to go to in the fall she took all her supplies with her she was ready we had the the doctor's letter indicating what she was taking with her because when you travel with all of these items, they set alarms they they stand out because it's not your common Mm

Scott Benner 44:03
hmm yeah, so she's got the letter that's like I have diabetes and the stuff is my equipment all that stuff. She buyers Yeah, yeah by yourself right now she fly to the states on her own?

Paola 44:13
No, no, she actually went with her dad my husband took her I couldn't go just because I have a friend visiting so we had to divide and conquer. Gotcha different place. How many kids um, is our only daughter.

Scott Benner 44:27
Is there any other type one in your family?

Paola 44:30
No, so am I is our only type one but my mom has Hashimotos and rheumatoid arthritis. Yeah. And her for oh, this is something I forgot to tell you about. A Maya was misdiagnosed with fibroid and therefore for her first five years she took levothyroxine

Scott Benner 45:00
How do you miss diagnose her with it?

Paola 45:03
Well, the doctors just run these tests. And immediately they must have seen that the numbers were a little off with her thyroid. And so therefore, they gave her this medication. And she had to take it daily until we went to the US. And we met this other endocrinologist, she did the blood work and immediately said, Wait a minute, this is just wrong. Take this out, you are not going to take levothyroxine anymore. And and let's see what that's going to do to your system and about six months. And so we ran tests after that. And she confirmed Amaya, in fact, does not have a thyroid issue.

Scott Benner 45:44
Hold on a second. Let's pick through this. This is interesting. So do you remember the numbers back in Ecuador? Like what was the TSH that made them made them think she needed the thyroid replacement hormone?

Paola 45:56
I believe? Probably, if I'm correct, could it be three, four? I could be wrong, though. Three

Scott Benner 46:05
or four number? And then what is it now without the without it? anymore?

Paola 46:14
Yes, they do. But I don't have her latest results.

Scott Benner 46:18
So I would say to you this that they'll call any number. There's a big wide range where they say it's in range. I think that thoughtful endos will keep your TSH under about 2.1. Right? They want it to be under there, but it's a lot about symptoms. So does she have the symptoms? Does she have tiredness or weight gain hair loss problems with her nails? Constipation, moodiness, does she get cold or hot? Like that kind of stuff?

Paola 46:55
Well, now that you mentioned that, that is exactly what's happening right now, in the last two years, she's been feeling a lot of those symptoms that you described, and her endocrinology was on island hasn't given her any medication because her number her range is 182 to one I believe.

Scott Benner 47:14
So it's very close. So I would say this. Very similarly. It's interesting, very similarly to a lot of things about diabetes. The, you know, the the range that they quote unquote, say is is normal is not what's important. So with thyroid, it's symptoms, like you should treat the symptoms. And don't worry about what the blood test says so much. I think it's very possible that unlike diabetes, the way they do it on Ecuador, about thyroid might be right. The doctor might have got the thyroid piece, right and the diabetes piece kind of wrong. So if she's having if she's having those symptoms, that thyroid replacement hormone could take care of it in just a couple of weeks. She could feel better. Oh, okay, isn't that interesting?

Paola 48:07
Oh, I should run those tests. Again, I would replay there's a couple

Scott Benner 48:11
things you can do here. Hold on, I'm gonna look over at another heater monitor for a second. So there's a whole series on thyroid that I just did. Called the finding thyroid, I would listen to those. And I would listen to episode Hall a second. You would think I'd be better at knowing my podcast than other people. But that's not the truth. Episode 413 thyroid disease explained, is a long thoughtful conversation with the woman who manages my family's thyroid problems. My wife, my son, my daughter, so she's not an outside of the box thinker because I don't like that term, but she's just more in tune with with managing a thyroid problem. So where as a some doctors will say oh, your TSH is three or four that's in range, you're fine. A doctor like Dr. BENITO who you'll find it episode 413 will tell you I think her numbers like 2.1 or something like that showed Matt she'll medicate over like 2.1 If there's symptoms, and my both of my kids thyroids are managed like right out to the end of the earth and they and they don't have trouble with them. And she even supplements their T three a little bit, which is definitely more outside of the box thinking but like for instance, Arden's thyroid if she just managed that with a T for replacement, which could be lever thyroxin or Arden uses terrorists and there's a couple of different drugs. Her thyroid numbers are great, but she's still very tired. But if you add a tiny bit of cider mill to Ardens regiment which is T three, then the tiredness goes away. So it's, it's really it's you got to find somebody who understands it. But I think I think that you got good information the first time. And then you got to the states where they just said, Oh, this isn't rain. She doesn't need this. But I think I think, yeah, I think it's possible. Well, I mean, from what you're saying, but I definitely think it's worth looking into it if she's having the symptoms right now.

Paola 50:24
Yes, now that you mentioned those symptoms, I will definitely call on our physician and see if we can get some blood work done. Just that, you know, and Aquitar. Thyroid is the most common ailment, really? Everybody has it? Yes. One we live in altitude. So the altitude has a huge factor in it. And in addition to that, there's our salt has less sodium than your regular salt, and therefore those may be causes. Yeah.

Scott Benner 50:56
You guys use a lot. You guys use a lot of sea salt on your foods? Not? Not regular table salt. Oh, isn't that interesting? You'll hear about that. And the episodes to be talking about that a lot. Yeah, so people, you saw that you see more goiters jump started, you see more goiters? In Ecuador.

Paola 51:14
Yeah, you probably do. Yeah. Interesting. For sure.

Scott Benner 51:18
Not crazy. Sure. You know, as you and I have been talking this whole time. You You really helped me and you don't know why I'm gonna tell you in a second. I recorded this episode back in October. It's April now. So it's a while ago, with a with a boy, young boy as type one who lives in Ecuador. And oh, wow. Yeah. And I kept thinking, My goodness, that episode should have been in my editing queue by now. Like, why have I not edited that show yet. And it was, I looked while you were talking. And it's a simple, just a file management problem. It got moved into a completed folder, and it's not completed. So I just slid it back over. I may have never noticed that I didn't post it. Had you not said I grew up in Ecuador. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it. My pleasure. Yeah, it's um, it's a great story that kids got crazy and sundry. I don't want to ruin it for people because it'll be out before they hear yours. But it's, it's a really great story. And you saved me from never putting it up. So thank you very much.

Paola 52:24
Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. Well, I know now, for example, that you can get T slim and Ecuador. So that is that is that's a major plus to any type one diabetic that is diagnosed. Yeah. Maya was like,

Scott Benner 52:43
Oh, my gosh, the availability of all this technology is just very important, you know, and the companies they think move it around the world, I guess, as fast as they can. But there's so many different health systems and insurances. And but, you know, the way things get paid for it's just, it's incredibly difficult. There's plenty of people in all kinds of different countries that come on the show and, and do what you do, like have to leave the country to pick up supplies. It's, it's, it's pretty common, actually, if people can afford it. They're doing it all the time.

Paola 53:12
Yes, yes. And so that's why am I was able to get the ducks calm. That's why we use the Dexcom before we even went to the pump. Because we know for sure, we were battling issues to get coverage for our Dexcom. And so we knew that if we tried the pump that that was going to even be a steeper hill to climb, and we knew that was impossible. And so the insurance company said to us, okay, what we'll do is we'll cover 50% of the Dexcom because it is a medical need. And then you guys can cover the rest, but we cannot cover your pump.

Scott Benner 53:50
That's something Well, yeah. What now? She's gonna be on your insurance for a while, obviously. Yeah. Everything else. Okay, but at least she'll have better access when she's in the States, right?

Paola 54:04
Yes. Well, as soon as we moved, and we took this post this job and Cayman Islands, we were assured that the insurance company would cover a mic as am I as needs and so we got the pump. Four months after we arrived.

Scott Benner 54:23
Okay, pretty quickly. That's it hasn't been has been Omnipod. Yeah, it hasn't been the same issue there as it was prior.

Paola 54:30
Gotcha. No, no. Yeah, actually. It's been wonderful.

Scott Benner 54:33
Yeah. The three girls that were on together, including your daughter, were they all using the same pumps? Or no,

Paola 54:39
they are yes, they all use the Omnipod. They all use Dexcom. The only difference is that one of them is looping. The other one was looping but something happened to the Reilly link and therefore she stopped looping and now she's back to regular pumping. Regular pumping gas

Scott Benner 55:00
Chess played something. I just it's for people who don't know is these three girls that are friends. They're not even particular. They're not even Exactly. Similarly, age, they all met through, you know, through having diabetes and living on cayman islands like that. And, you know, Maya was one of the three girls. They were just really delightful. That's excellent. Cool. Yeah. Well, yeah. What else have we? What have we not covered that you want to talk about? I want to make sure we're getting it everything.

Paola 55:28
Oh, thank you. So may I talk about teaching a type one student? Yeah, please. Okay, so, in when I was first diagnosed, I had never had the experience of having a type one students. Um, I was diagnosed in May. And then in September was, as we started school, I got my first type one diabetic student. She was from Brazil. And she came with no technology tools. Mom was a complete wreck. If I thought I was a mess. Because I thought I was a mess. This mother was by far, messier than I was completely. She came to school every day with her daughter's lunch, she, she waited at the school, she was she was making sure that she had her insulin thing, this poor woman lived the entire school year on campus. And so this, the students that I had, she was very shy, very quiet. She didn't want to engage much with with her peers. And on top of it, she had had such a horrible diagnosis in Brazil, that it made her not want to share her diabetes with anybody other than just let me know how she was feeling. So it was very hard. Okay. And as I tried to train the next year's teacher that she would have, because she was going up another grade, the family heard that they were getting transferred. So she left. And so the summer comes, we start back up in September again. And I hear that I'm going to have another type two student. And so I get my students, she had a little bit more knowledge about type one mother was very supportive was diagnosed at the same age as Amaya. But she didn't have any technology either. And she managed with the same more or less the same formulas that I was seeing and that I had been using with Amaya. The same story, we finish the school year, and this child leaves the school and the summer comes. And then again in September, I get my third type one students. This was three, three years in a row, right, three years in a row. So I was I was looking at this and saying, thinking to myself, what what's happening here. I'm not an experienced mother as a type of a type one. But yet, I'm getting all of these students and I'm trying to learn from them and get the best experience that I could from them. Now my third student came from the US was a mom from from Boston, she was doing some anthropological studies in an Exeter and he came with a pump with the Dexcom. It was the first time that I had seen the Little Red Book of the American Association of diabetes, the one that has the carb count on it. It was the first time I had seen that little book, I had never seen it before. And his pump was wired. So I'm assuming it must have not been the Omnipod. So we had it was with this particular student was my first time that I had that I had used the glucagon. I had never used the glucagon before nor the will nor did I know how to use it. But mom when she came in at the beginning of the school year to let me know about her son. She taught me how to use it. And that was my first time with it. And I had never seen it before. You didn't need

Scott Benner 59:22
a student though. I beg your pardon. Did you have to use it for the student or you? You were just trained on it?

Paola 59:28
I was trained on it. And a few months later, I believe it was after Christmas. My students had an episode and so I had to give them glucagon. Wow. Okay. Yes. And that to me was a shock.

Scott Benner 59:45
Yeah. Was that a common thing for that boy or do you not know?

Paola 59:49
Um, I believe that wasn't common because he had we had had a sports morning and so he had done a lot of sports, I believe. And so Oh, probably he hadn't eaten what he was supposed to and his blood sugar just went,

Scott Benner 1:00:04
wow. Wow, Was that scary?

Paola 1:00:07
Super scary. I had never experienced that before. In the meantime, I had my students wait outside for me while I was taking care of this particular student. I had some of the some of my colleagues also there with me, they were all giving me all sorts of positive energy. Paula, you can do it. If you can do it. You can do it. You know, it was just like, oh my god, that but I wasn't 100% Sure, because I've never administered glucagon before.

Scott Benner 1:00:32
Sure. And at this point, at this point, Maya has type one.

Paola 1:00:36
Yes, I am I already had. Right. So

Scott Benner 1:00:39
you're probably like, great. Is this gonna happen to her? Yeah, exactly. Right. So exactly. So these three kids in a row? Did you learn something new from each one of them?

Paola 1:00:51
Yes, I did. So I took on about little bits and pieces from their management. And I tried to tweak that with with Amaya. But then I would share that information with the physicians and they would bring it down again. So it got to a point where I stopped sharing, but I was I was doing a little bit of the things that I would learn from these three students. Although the two first ones were managing exactly the same way as I was. Okay. Okay. It was just my American students that managed it completely different because he had the pump.

Scott Benner 1:01:27
Yeah. Hadn't had more knowledge and more technology. Yeah. And then okay, yeah. Did you ever figure out why they kept leaving? were you driving them away? Or was that just happenstance?

Paola 1:01:37
I know, you may think it's that way. But no, I'm all of these families, because it's an American International School, they get transferred quite often come and go. And so they all left. And this the my last students, they, they were actually supposed to be in Ecuador for two years, but the mom was able to get all the data that she needed for her research. So they left

Scott Benner 1:01:58
Okay, now, the fourth year, was there another kid? Or is that there?

Paola 1:02:01
No, no, no, that was it. That was it. And so currently, I have a type one students. She is She was diagnosed in first grade like Amaya in May. And she's on the Dexcom and the Omni pod lived in the US was diagnosed in the US. And then they moved to Cayman Islands, for her to start grade one. And when she came, no, I'm sorry, grade two. And the second grade teacher did not get involved at all with her management. She did not follow her in the Dexcom nothing. And so mom was a little worried about her schooling, primarily because she had had a very negative real conversation with the school's nurse. And so that didn't go very well for her. So she was hesitant to allow the nurse to manage her daughter. And so that was that was very difficult. So she would come to the school to change her pods to administer any other insulin or any other food that she needed. The teacher wasn't engaged at all with her management. And so when, when, when it came to her being in my classroom, mom asked specifically that she'd be placed in my class. And so before school started, I had been following her on the Dexcom. So I follow Amaya, and my students and all of a sudden I've got alarms, beeping, her alarms, my alarms, I've got cases for low blood sugars. In the classroom, I make sure that my students has a possibility to engage in every single activity that I do in the classroom. She if we're gonna have snacks, I make sure that she Bolus us for the snack prior to having her snack if we're gonna have a celebration. It's exactly the same way. I've never put her on the side. She's made short videos about her diabetes and tried to teach peers about it. It is lovely to see how the students are so aware of her needs. When they hear an alarm. They immediately come and ask me Miss Paula was that Amaya or is that Emily? And so they are aware of her alarms they they know how she feels if they see her laying down a little too much or or babbling or sometimes she'll start sweating. Then they'll let me know this Bala. I don't think Molly feels okay. And so immediately I'll go over, I'll check on her. We've done meter checks in the classroom, we've done pod changes in the classroom, anything that she needs and to help her feel as comfortable as she possibly can as another student, right, not as a type one student, but just as another student.

Scott Benner 1:05:25
Yeah. Is it? Is it common that if everything's sort of out the open and comfortable for all that all the kids are comfortable with it?

Paola 1:05:36
Yes, well, so. So like, I as a mom, who is going to monitor Amaya, I've always told my students you're going to hear these alarms, this is what this means. I teach the students I give them many workshops on what the type one is. And so they're aware they're more informed. And so when I had Emily, I did the same thing with the with her peers. And so she's, she's feeling super at ease in the classroom, she feels comfortable, if she's hungry, she'll just get her snacks we Bolus sometimes it's wonderful I can, I could see her numbers really going on, on a relatively straight line. And I'll tell her before lunch, don't Bolus until we're in the cafeteria, and then you Bolus. So the kids are hearing all of this vocabulary. And so they're wondering, what is that? You know, they ask questions,

Scott Benner 1:06:35
how old right down to your current student? How old? Are those kids?

Paola 1:06:39
They're in grade three,

Scott Benner 1:06:40
three. Okay, that's excellent. I'm super excited that you're doing that. You're spreading your awareness around and helping and, and learning at the same time and just, you know, absolute treating people like people and, and not like problems or illnesses. It's just, it's a wonderful way to think about it. And and you can see that if you didn't have the experience you had you very well may not know how to do any of that. Just like, you know, you spoke about with a student where the teacher they had last time they're like, look not you know, this one's not really engaging. This teacher doesn't engage with her on about diabetes at all. That's really what

Paola 1:07:15
exactly, exactly, so her mom is super i We chat all the time I let her know, you know what we had a birthday, I'm going to we're going to have this snack, I'm going to Bolus this much so that she knows so well, mom is Mom is constantly informed of whatever changes I've made, whatever boluses I've done corrections have made and even when I've given her a juice, if there's a need. Now, I do that all the time with her now that we're getting to the end of the school year, and mom is a little concerned about what's going to happen in grade four. You know, I don't know if she wants me to continue, continue following her on Dexcom, I would be more than happy to do it. But I don't want to interfere with whatever's happening in that classroom as well. So I want to make sure that the teacher is well informed not that she would be able to Bolus because just I was talking to two of the grade four teachers. And they both said, You know what I would prefer if it stayed in your hands, I don't want to have anything to do with it. You know, because they don't feel comfortable managing the PDM and inputting all of this data and if necessary, so some of them feel comfortable. Others don't feel as comfortable,

Scott Benner 1:08:31
right? And then that's just what happens, right? It's the luck of the draw, you get a teacher who's like, I'll give it a try. Or you might get a teacher, it's like please, I don't want to be involved in this. And however that is does the school not know who's who, with who the teachers are? Like, couldn't you put the student with somebody who might be more amenable to learning?

Paola 1:08:50
Yes, yes, I believe so. So that that meeting should come in early June, where we gather as teachers and we put specific students in specific classrooms, just one out of a request of a parent for a health need. And in this case, my students will have a health need, therefore she needs to be placed in a good classroom. Nice. Well, that teacher that is going to be willing to make the changes that that she would need, you know, make adjustments,

Scott Benner 1:09:18
right. That's excellent. Yeah, well, pal, I thank you. I have a couple of recordings today. So I have to bug out. I can get to my next one on time. But I want to make sure that we're that were you feel comfortable about what we did today.

Paola 1:09:33
Yes, thank you so much, Scott. I really appreciate it. I wanted to, to talk to you to share my experience as well as what teachers can do in the future for when you get a type one students you know, it's so common, so common nowadays. That if you get one or two that that know how to how to manage it. Gosh, what an what a Comfort it is for a family to know that there's, there's somebody that can help.

Scott Benner 1:10:04
Well, I think overarching ly, your through your conversation, what I took from it was to be open minded, because you ran into a number of people who weren't. And it stifled your daughter's care for years really. And then then you, you know, you were open minded but they weren't and that blocked you. And then you get, you know, you get later on in your story. And you find out that there are teachers who are some of them are, again, more open minded to being involved in something that they're not comfortable with. And, and some aren't, some are, some aren't. And even how thoughtfully you were taking from other people like sort of paying attention to like, well, this students doing this thing, we don't do that. Let me examine that. Is that something that we could maybe integrate into our lives and make our situation better, and then giving back to them? It's just it's communication, open, mindless call, whatever you want? That's what I took from your conversation. So thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah, sir. Oh,

Paola 1:11:04
thank you, Scott, I really appreciate it. I hope that more families in Ecuador hear the podcast, I have been suggesting it to a few that I know that are families with type one, so that they also listen to you and learn from you.

Scott Benner 1:11:21
I hope everyone learns how to balance the insulin that they need against the carbs that they're taking in, and, and learns how to, to, I was gonna say, fight back, but advocate for yourself, when you notice something happening in your life or your health. That just doesn't make sense to you. But somebody in a position of power is telling you, it's okay. It's very important to continue to question that, and to try to get your own answers. So

Paola 1:11:49
yeah, I believe so I believe that I am an advocate for that. Because otherwise, then we can all learn, we can all make changes to better our health, and it's the health of our kids that is at stake. If we don't learn and don't question,

Scott Benner 1:12:05
you don't want your life to be stuck in the spot where somebody else randomly puts it because of their lack of understanding. So Correct. Yeah, go get it. Absolutely. Excellent. All right, hold on one second. Of course, I could turn the recording back on you. Go ahead. We were saying goodbye. And you said you wish we were recording. So what did you want to say?

Paola 1:12:24
I just wanted to say that your podcast has been our lifesaver, I have learned so much from the stories of different moms and dads dealing with this condition and making the changes and questioning physicians and at the same time learning about all of those pro tips, the the ideas that are behind the a better care are so important for every single family to, to take into that to make those changes to to make sure that we provide the better health for ourselves. And you do it so naturally. And so Well, Scott, so thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Scott Benner 1:13:04
thank you for telling me that to turn the recording back on because I did not want to miss that. And you're very welcome. I genuinely appreciate the kind words and I hope that other people find similar outcomes, listening to the podcast. So I mean, you guys are doing terrific. It's really It's inspiring, so well done for you seriously. I mean, thank you so much. Of course, I can say it as much as I want, it doesn't mean everybody hears it and puts it into practice. So it's very, very exciting. Okay, now we'll stop again. I mean, if you unless you're gonna say something else nice about me, then I'll let this go a little longer. But

I want to thank my guests for coming on today and sharing her story. And of course, I'd like to thank Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes and remind you to go to Impend today.com to get the insulin pen that does more. And of course, Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six, they'd like you to come over and see if you're eligible for a free 10 day trial, the Dexcom g six@dexcom.com. Forward slash juice box. And if you don't need the trial, just want to get going. You can do that on my link as well. links in the show notes of your podcast player, and links at juicebox podcast.com to Dexcom in pen and all the sponsors. When you support the sponsors, you're supporting the production of the show. And for that I think you among other things there are a lot of series within the podcast that people listen to that kind of standalone items and I've put them all in one place. You can find them at juicebox podcast.com. At the top of the page you'll see home episodes other stuff right but then you'll see after dark asks gotten Jenny algorithm pumping bulb Beginnings The finding diabetes to finding thyroid diabetes, pro tip diabetes variables meant For Wellness, they're all there. If I see you guys using the links and enjoying them, I actually have a couple more things I'll put up there for you. So if you're in a browser there at the top of the page, if you're on your phone, you have to hit the three lines, that means menu and then it'll drop down and show it to you. So I'm just going to click on one to give you an idea I'm gonna click on bold beginnings, takes you to a page says if you were just diagnosed with type one diabetes, the ball beginning series, did you bah bah bah. And it lists all the episodes honeymooning adult diagnosis long acting insulin. So there's a ton of them there. I'm not going to read them all to you. Right there. There's an online player you can list the all the episodes there are you can launch links to Apple podcasts, Spotify, I heart podcast, Amazon music, you can of course, go to your own podcast app and search for bold beginnings Juicebox Podcast there, you scroll down a little more, and you'll see links to defining diabetes, the thyroid series, algorithm pumping diabetes variables, s on and on. They're all right there. Just watch it. Here's the afterdark I click on that. Now I'm on a different page for afterdark it's amazing how the internet works. You know, the internet. It's magical. Anyway, you can find all these in the podcast player you're listening in right now. But I wanted to make them accessible and shareable on the website. And that I've done and now I've told you about it. And because of all this and that and the other thing, I'm not finished. I'm dizzy. I've done five of these tonight. I hope you guys have a good weekend. I'm gonna go to sleep