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The Juicebox Podcast is from the writer of the popular diabetes parenting blog Arden's Day and the award winning parenting memoir, 'Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Dad'. Hosted by Scott Benner, the show features intimate conversations of living and parenting with type I diabetes.

Filtering by Category: Dexcom

#642 A Mother and Son Story

March 08, 2022Scott Benner

Joe has type 1 diabetes and he's here today with his mom.

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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 642 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's episode you're going to hear three voices mine. I'm Scott, Marilyn. She's Marilyn and Joe. Marilyn son, Joe has type one diabetes. Marilyn reached out to me a long time ago to get me to come speak at something in Manhattan if I'm remembering correctly on long, I don't remember exactly is a long time ago. Anyway, we've been in contact a lot since then I've gotten to know them, and I wanted you to hear their story. Please remember, while you're listening today 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 healthcare plan. Or becoming bold with insulin. Or you from the United States and have type one diabetes or care for someone who does perfect. You are eligible to join the T one D registry and take their survey. T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box head over there. Answer the simple survey doesn't take long I swear like less than 10 minutes. You're going to help people living with type one diabetes and you're going to support the Juicebox Podcast p one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored today by Omni pod makers of the Omni pod dash and the Omni pod promise to things that I will tell you about later in the show. For now, try hard to remember this link Omni pod.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one. And guess what? Touched by type one has a big golf tournament coming up on Saturday, April 2 in Orlando, Florida. Would you like to register? Would you like to learn more? You can at touched by type one.org. Okay, we're going to get to the show now. But just remember there are links to the sponsors and all the sponsors in the show notes of your podcast player. And it juicebox podcast.com. I don't usually say that here. But I'm enamored with how my voice sounds right now. So I'm just looking for reasons to keep talking. Your comms Marilyn, and Joe.

Marilyn 2:34
My name is Marilyn. I am a mom to two kids. My older daughter Jenna is 22. My son Joseph is soon to be 19.

Scott Benner 2:45
Well, happy birthday, Joseph. How are you?

Joe 2:47
Thank you. I'm good. I'm Joseph, one of the two kids and also the diabetic. How old

Scott Benner 2:54
are you and you're diagnosed? Nine years old? Nine. Okay. Wow. So that's a happier life. Yeah, okay. Marilyn, I feel like you and I met when you sent me an email and tried to get me to come to New York to speak at something. Is that right?

Marilyn 3:10
I did. That is one email that I reached out with. Um, I think my first email was when I first found your podcast and felt so relieved that I found something that made sense to me. And you answered and then I was even more shocked because I thought Wow, he really answered. He's a real person. This is this could work. But then yes, I did try to set something up here on Long Island.

Scott Benner 3:42
Let me ask you. The first time you reached out how long ago do you think that was?

Marilyn 3:47
That was I found I started listening to the podcast in July she's gone again. Yeah. I don't know what she's doing.

Scott Benner 4:00
I don't know that she's doing anything she on like something wireless. She doing it through a phone or something like that.

Joe 4:06
Now she's on her laptop. Laptop plugged in headphones. I made it foolproof so she couldn't cut out.

Scott Benner 4:13
Do the fun thing is she's talking right now. I know. You're back.

Marilyn 4:19
You've been back. Yeah. I just got a message that my internet connection was unstable.

Scott Benner 4:24
Okay. Is there a spot in the house? Where she could walk a little closer to the router? Maybe or something like that? Yeah,

Marilyn 4:30
I'm gonna try.

Joe 4:32
No one's there. Go to the living room. People are here. What people? I'm out of ideas. This older daughter.

Scott Benner 4:42
Okay, this older daughter who escaped diabetes?

Joe 4:44
Yes. The Lucky One. Now she's not home.

Marilyn 4:48
She's not home yet. My husband's home. Oh, he should get a little soon to be leaving, right. He's on vacation this week. Oh

Scott Benner 4:54
my goodness. We need money being made here. Right. He can relax when you Leave him and not before.

Marilyn 5:01
I really gave him the right not to come in the room. No matter what. How's that a little better?

Scott Benner 5:08
We'll find out. So okay, July of when did you find the podcast? 2019. Oh, okay. So see, the reason I find that interesting is because, you know, we're really only talking about two years, but Josef's had type one for nine years. So right where you twist it up for seven years,

Marilyn 5:29
pretty much. Yeah, I knowing at the time, I don't think I thought that because I was listening to our doctors and I thought I wasn't someone, like when I listened to the podcast now i and even your story how you thought, you know, this can't be right. There must be more I was to the side of okay, this is what the doctor says. So he's the expert. We, you know, we, we fortunately never had anything in our lives or extended family where we've ever had, you know, chronic illness or something where we had to deal with doctors all the time. It pretty much was like our checkups once a year. You know, my kids weren't really sick kids. They weren't they didn't. Have you read? They were? I just trusted what they said. You were just for the first cup. Yeah, yeah, the first couple of years. It was just like, Okay, well, you know, we go every four months, they would tell me, you know, well, you do want him like, you know, between seven and a half, and we were kind of close, but not really. But he never really, you know, made me feel like I wasn't doing anything, right. Wrong. Okay. So

Scott Benner 6:39
for a number of years, Joseph, you've got like a, you've got an N A one C in the sevens as your kid. And you don't? Do you see anything wrong with what's happening? Are you having issues?

Joe 6:51
No, I had no idea. Okay. All right. And so,

Scott Benner 6:55
now when you figure it out, you figured out you're listening to me, and you're like, there's a different way to do this. And does that panic you then? I mean, when do you get like, when does it upset you?

Marilyn 7:07
Yes. When will I kind of back up a little 2018 was kind of just like a wacky year in our lives. We just had a lot going on. And my husband and I were like all over the place. And we finally kind of like re grounded ourselves. And, and I think, honestly, I think it was just the toll of, you know, me not sleeping for a number of years. And I was just burnt out and it reflected in our relationship and things were just I was always angry with everybody. And so 2018 kind of straightened all that out. And then I kind of realized, I haven't even paid a ticket like not that I didn't pay attention to his diabetes, I was treating it. But I wasn't focused on it. And I kind of got to the point that I said, This can't be good. Like his these hype can't be good. And I wanted to do something about it. And I literally had thought I was working. My job. I wasn't working through the summer at that point. I was working in a school. But then I had gotten a job where I was working through the summer and I had about a 25 minute commute. And I literally sat one morning and I said, you know I've never listened to a podcast. So I was like, I need some direction. Something like maybe there's a podcast on diabetes. Let's start with that. Instead of looking for a book or whatever I had. No, I never joined any Facebook groups. I I never reached out that way ahead. No one really, in our lives that I could go to. We when he was first diagnosed, we were involved with JDRF. But then truthfully, even Joseph got to the point as he got a little older. He said I really don't want to do these walks. I really don't know nothing against that. But no, so I didn't have any. I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 8:58
No, I was gonna just I want to before I move forward, Joe, I've called you Joe with Tom. But now your mom's calling you Joseph and it's panicking me but you want to call Joe right?

Joe 9:06
You can? Yeah, Joe is fine. She's called me Joseph forever, no matter how much I tried to say call me.

Scott Benner 9:12
Listen, when you name your son after the Lord, you want to reuse them as much as you can. Okay, so that's one way to look at it. Yeah, no pressure there at all. Joe? Just No, not at all. Please unite the universe. Could you please.

Marilyn 9:24
That's coming from an Italian family when you have 17 Joe's and Joseph's it's kind of like you're trying to you're gel. You're Joseph here. Yeah.

Scott Benner 9:32
It's Michael in my wife's family was always one name. Right? We'll go somewhere and everyone will be named Michael except the people in my family.

Marilyn 9:40
And the whole room turns just like, I don't even know

Scott Benner 9:43
these people need, they need nicknames. And they all have because of it. You know, it's funny, you name your kids something and then you end up calling them something completely different because it's, and it's not the point. The point is this Joe, so you're just rolling around, you know? 910 11 1213 In, what do you do? Are you even aware of your a one sees other than I see, you're a really kind of grounded person. I, Joe and I have spoken a number of times, so tell me what it's like to go into those appointments as a kid, are you paying attention? Do you really care? Like, what is that, like your doctor's appointments?

Joe 10:21
I, I hated it. Not as much now cuz like the control I have. I'm kind of, like, um, I'm not scared to go to them anymore, because I know what I'm doing. But as a kid, um, I always just saw my parents did felt like, like Alien, where I would just lay on a table, and they would examine me and like, check me and like, they would check like my site points, like, where are you doing your shots and have to, like, feel where you're doing your spots to make sure it's not irritated? Like, it would just freak me out. I felt like an experiment. That's what I would always tell them.

Scott Benner 10:53
So it's just an uncomfortable situation. You're not taking anything like you're not leaving and going, Oh, here's a useful bit of information. I

Joe 10:59
have no, okay. It was just a time where they would look at me. And then they would like report to my mom. And I would have told us that we just had to be there, you know,

Scott Benner 11:07
did it feel? Did you have any feeling of Pass Fail? Or did you not think about that deeply?

Joe 11:13
Not really, now.

Scott Benner 11:15
Okay. All right. How about you, Marilyn, did you feel pass fail, or they'd hadn't, you didn't know enough about it back then to think you were doing good or better, worse, or anything?

Marilyn 11:25
I did, um, when we were initially, he was initially diagnosed. And we started I remember, in fact, it's funny. I, you know, pulled out all my notes from diagnosis I had I saved everything and getting ready for the podcast. I said, Well, let me go over my dates. And you don't know what's going on. And when I looked through the notes that they gave us when it was I don't know if it's comical or sad, but I have a whole page of his a onesies that I would handwrite and binder notes and I had to write down his blood sugar's all the time we tested and all I have is a note that says a one c takes me up to seven, excellent seven to seven and a half. Very good. And that was my barometer like that was what I so as I look through all my notes, like next to some I have sad faces, so my happy faces, but to look at them, it's. So I would feel like I would feel like we waited four months. And then I got this number. And now I'm like, I suck at it. Like, what did I do? But

Scott Benner 12:32
were you? Were you making any purposeful decisions?

Marilyn 12:35
No, I didn't know. I can't explain it. I didn't know to kind of take the reins and just say this is there's got to be a way to deal with this. You know, the ironic not that it's ironic. But my my brother, he's nine years older, he was diagnosed in his early 40s as a type two, you know, and he didn't live he lived in Jersey at the time and not that we're not close, but we don't talk on a daily basis. It's you know, just Yeah. Are you know how it is over? Yeah, and, and I remember hearing Oh, Mark, you know, if they say he's tight, too, but he's still young. So he was the type, I'm not taking any PII. I can do this with diet and exercise. And about a year and a half later, he was type one and started you know, and then he ended up in the hospital. He lost like 30 pounds, but because I remember my parents going there, but because he was so out of touch. I didn't even know enough. Like nobody talked about it. That's how, I don't know. That's just how my family was. So

Scott Benner 13:39
your brother, your brother was misdiagnosed as a type two for about a year.

Marilyn 13:42
Absolutely. Gotcha. Absolutely. I know that now. Um, I didn't know that then. And it was kind of like, Is he okay? Yeah, he's okay. Okay. You know, I was like, Okay, so he's on it's okay. Joe. You know what that meant?

Scott Benner 13:56
Yeah. Any chance show that he's an uncle that you look like? facial structure, height, body style? Yeah. Nothing like that. I was just wondering, Okay. I'm always looking for like little like, like connection points when we're having these conversations. So, Joe, if I told you your mom is a verbose email writer, would that surprise you?

Joe 14:16
If you want to tell me what the word verbose means? I will totally back you up.

Scott Benner 14:22
She writes a plentiful li with many words, and goes on. Oh, yeah. This makes sense to you. I told you I totally talk that way too. Oh, my God, man does mount if you passed away right now and they were looking for your writings. I may be in possession of some of them.

Marilyn 14:41
I am I am I do. It's funny. I often find I get my thoughts out better on paper than verbally. Scott, you should see your text

Scott Benner 14:51
does understand the brevity of

Joe 14:53
she texts in chapters. So like, I'll be out. Whether it's my girlfriend, my friends. Whatever. And I'll get a text and it's like high, your 260 Or no, not even that high, but really high your 182. And then like, you should hit like return and make a space below and then there's another line. And then it's like, I would suggest taking this amount of insulin. What did you eat? Did you do this? What did you eat for breakfast? What's on your kit? Did you check your kid? Your sensor could be awesome. It's like eight lines. When you possibly be doing

Marilyn 15:24
when you're, when you're giving my eulogy, you will say how your mother cared?

Scott Benner 15:28
I bet you I bet you will say my mom could never figure out texting

Marilyn 15:33
you right? He didn't. He would always get mad at me because I would use the dot dot dot after I'd say a statement and he would yell, he would say to me, that's not good. Like, I'm just, I'm just like giving a pause. And you know,

Scott Benner 15:49
I get pressured i do i get pressured for using punctuation Well, in texting by my children. And my son does not like it if I call him and I don't FaceTime him. Like, if I FaceTime him, that's okay. But if I call him he does not seem to. He does not seem to like talking on the phone.

Marilyn 16:05
Really? Yeah. Because they don't realize that's what the phone is for.

Joe 16:10
I don't care about talking on the phone.

Scott Benner 16:12
Well, yeah, okay. See, look, everybody's got their thing. But anyway, you wrote some really long emails, but I want to say something. I apologize. Don't apologize. As we're joking about them. They were also very cogent, and thoughtful. And they got me to write you back. Because I've received long emails that ramble and I just kind of pretend like I didn't see them. Delete. I don't know what I'm gonna do. Like, I think part of me it's like, am I about to replied to like a person who's in the middle of a psychological breakdown, I'm not qualified to help with, and I probably was, but you are, but you're seemed manageable.

Marilyn 16:47
I knew I was crazy.

Scott Benner 16:49
And, and I knew I was crazy. I don't think you can be crazy. And no, you're crazy. But no, I don't know, the technicalities. I also don't think the word crazy is acceptable any longer. But I'm sorry.

Marilyn 17:01
But one thing you will learn about me, I am not politically correct my

Scott Benner 17:06
mouth. And if you don't know how to text, I'm pretty sure you're not gonna know the the wokeness of culture. So. Anyway, so then, you know, so then we start talking more about like, I guess you were involved with JDRF still, and you were trying to get me to this event. And I kept telling you, I don't think this is going to work. I don't think they're going to want to do this. And and you were like No, no. And you were really persistent. I just thought like, Okay, well, you know, let her go. Like, maybe she'll work. And, but at the same time, we started talking more about like management stuff. And Joe, you and I ended up on the phone together for a while, right? Like I basically gave you a private talk. Yeah. What was that? Like? Like leading up to it? Were you like, Oh my God, my mom's gonna make me talk to a stranger on the phone. Or

Joe 18:01
I don't really mind talking to people. Like I was pretty. That wasn't the problem. I was just like, Who is this guy giving me advice on my loans? Like, I found this podcast, and she's like, I'm gonna have this dude call you and he's gonna tell you what to do. Like was just joking.

Scott Benner 18:19
But your father, do you go to your father and go like, Was she the only one? What happened? How did we end up like this? What did you do?

Marilyn 18:29
Well, he's forgetting after I found the podcast in July, I started following your Facebook group and your your page. And within weeks, I see a post that you are going to be local to me at a church in Pennsylvania. And I thought, oh my god, we're going and, and that's what I had said to my husband. I'm like, listen, I found this guy. I found this podcast. He's not he's on, you know, our coasts. It's not for I'm like, you want to go away for the weekend? And he was he was like, All right, he's like, we'll get a hotel. It'll be like a getaway anymore. Like, we're gonna stick with this thing all day. And we're gonna learn how to do this. So I kind of got you know, he was on board I guess because it was it made away and, and I came to see life. So what and I remember saying to Joseph, listen, I found this podcast like, you know, you're welcome to come if you want to learn he's like, Oh, you go he's like, you just come back and tell me he said

Joe 19:29
Yeah, I was just like, let me know

Scott Benner 19:30
what you learn to things around that first of all, I was getting ready to do like, I was getting ready to do like nine speaking events in nine months. And I just like almost like you know, you Chris Rock or roll into a comedy club or 10 people are because he needs to brush up I was like, I gotta I gotta do a practice one and get myself rolling again. And and I wanted to do and then someone online said like, I'll find the space will you come? Like Alright, well, that's good. I can kind of like shake the rust off and I And also when you're doing these things online with people, like a lot of people say things that never come true. And you just learned to say, that would be nice, thank you, and then you don't hear from them again. But when someone says to you, I think I can get a space. And then suddenly, like, 12 hours later, like I have the space. And I'm like, Okay, well, I guess I'm doing this now. And you know, and then I find out someone drove from Long Island. And my understanding of Long Island, which I've brought up on the podcast a number of times, is that my son used to have to play baseball once in a while, way out on the island. And all I know about it is I hate driving there and driving back from there. Ben told me that your first deal? Yes, that's all I know about Long Island is that like, it is a horror to drive through. And and, and so when you came from there, like my frame of reference was, these people really wanted to do this, because that is not a pleasant commute, you know, to get here. But the other part of my thought, based on our brief conversation just now was that I completely understand how Joe must have felt because I'm that person really like? It's, it feels a bit incongruous if I'm being honest, who I am with how I think about the world, because if I wasn't me, I would think this situation is completely ridiculous. Like a, a person with a podcast, talking about a health thing that somebody drove to and made their kid call somebody on the phone like, I would, I would, if it wasn't me, I'd step back and go, you're out of your mind for doing this. So I only don't feel that way. Because I know the truth of it. But how are people on the outside of me supposed to know that I'm not a lunatic?

Marilyn 21:43
You know, what really did it when Joseph started. He had after like, a few years of diagnosis I got he started a diabetes camp in the summer, which I really it was out on the island. I really wanted him to go he didn't want to do it. The first, I think two years. And then I somehow I don't know, I got I bribed him. I don't know, I promised something. I got him to go. And they each summer would have you know, different activities each day. And then they would have reps come out, and you'd get samples of things or pamphlets. And that's how I learned about the Dexcom. And when I came home with it, I was like, What in the world is like I never even thought to think of technology. I knew he didn't want to pump. Like I knew about a pump. In the beginning. He learned about that. And he never wanted it. And I always felt like you know, I'm not going to force him to do it. You know, he got handed this deal. I'm not going to force him to do that. If he didn't want it. I just wasn't in that headspace. So when I learned about the Dexcom, that was one thing that I thought, Oh, my goodness, this is amazing. You know, so we did start him. He started on that in. We're just trying to figure that out. Right before it was 2016.

Scott Benner 22:52
Did your to bring that? Did you bring that that pamphlet home? Because you felt like you were supposed to or because you saw it and thought okay, I would actually like this. To be honest, I probably threw it in my backpack. And she found I love the difference between what happens and what people's parents think are happening. Right? He probably just had to bring it home in his heart. Scott, he knew deep down that he wanted to make this.

Marilyn 23:15
Yeah, no, I know, Joseph better. And I went to my doctor, when we went, I said, I want that, you know, and we're gonna do and I called the rep we got a rule set up. And when I saw that, you know, we would check. I mean, I was like, you know, when he wakes up breakfast, lunch, dinner before bed 2am for years. And when I saw what was happening in between, I remember I was I it's like embarrassing to say that I was like, oh my god, I This is impossible. Like, he goes up and down this nut. And I remember saying to the Endo, this this is happening. Like this isn't good that you know, so if I check him three times a day, and his number happens to be 160. Great. But if it was 330, you know, and he was like, Well, you know what he didn't? He didn't say like, you really want to try to work on it. Almost like, yeah, that's what I think got me after it took a while, but I was like something's wrong. Right.

Scott Benner 24:18
I think when Dexcom I'm sorry, I think when Dexcom first came out, I think that it showed it showed it shone a light on a lot of endocrinologist, they, they I bet you they didn't like it at first, I bet your first they looked at these charts and when people are gonna ask questions about them.

Marilyn 24:35
Right. And, and I have to say we, we've had the same endocrinologist from when he was diagnosed. And I like him and we got along with him and I and I have nothing against you know, I believe he was doing what he was, you know, he's with a big hospital and I believe he was doing what he was taught to huge practice, you know, whatever. But since learning what I've learned and being the way I am You know, now that what I know, it's just a shame and it really does fall in the same. You know, I mean, I found in my notes I told Joseph last night, I think my notes said if at bedtime and 2am over to only correct if he's over 250.

Scott Benner 25:18
I was like, mortified, like now it's like, yeah,

Marilyn 25:21
right, exactly. So right. So the thought of what I did, that's how that's how I took it. Like that was a that put me in a bad place to for years of like, what am I doing to him? What did I do to him? I wasted these years that I could have been, you know, he could have been healthier. He could have been like, what did I

Scott Benner 25:39
do? Even earlier in your conversation? You said something that gave me that horrible, wasted time feeling? Yes. And chose You're still young. So it probably doesn't feel like this still. But at some point your life you'll start thinking about like, time is gone. Or I've made a decision that I can't fix. It's a horrible feeling as you get older, when it relates to health or your children. It's worse. You know, like, when you wake up one day, and you're, you know, you realize your 16 year old is a is a pompous ass, and you go, Oh, God, what I do, it's, it's too late. You don't I mean, like, I made decisions when the kid was seven that led to this. And now I, what do I do? Like if it's a really terrible feeling? And so, and Marilyn, you're running around being angry, Joe, were you aware she was angry? Or did you just think she's crazy?

Joe 26:31
She's crazy. I think she was angry about something. But I think I was too young to understand why.

Scott Benner 26:35
Okay, did she seem angry at your dad or angry at you or angry in general?

Joe 26:40
Um, I think she was angry at me for reasons that I couldn't understand. And like, even when I say that, I don't need me. I think she was just mad at the situation. And the fact that she, like you guys are saying she did feel like she put me in harm's way for so many years. But I didn't think that way. I just thought, take the shot. Take, like, check a blood sugar and move on with your day. You know,

Scott Benner 27:05
but you felt you felt that anger coming towards you?

Joe 27:09
Yeah, I just didn't know why. Okay, so I look back. I can see it really wasn't me. It was the situation right.

Scott Benner 27:15
Now. Does that break your heart?

Marilyn 27:17
Yes. Because I know I I was angry. I know. I was so it affected. I think plus, I kind of I am the sole now that Joseph older it's kind of like the two of us, but I was the one that like took the reins with this. And it was solo act. Like even when he was first diagnosed. I gave the shots. I like it just was the way it was. Um,

Scott Benner 27:42
what do you do at school? Joe? Who, um, where? How'd you inject the school when you were younger? Did you do it?

Joe 27:50
If I remember right? I went to the nurse and I did.

Scott Benner 27:55
You did it at the nurse's office?

Marilyn 27:56
Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, well, once you started doing your own shots you did but in the beginning, he was only on short acting and long acting twice a day. So he had to eat. Exactly. You know, like we had to give him exactly the same carbs all the time because that's what they told us to do.

Scott Benner 28:16
Joe started on regular an MPH Wow. How far out on that island? Do you live?

Marilyn 28:23
Clap right. Being clear. I remember rolling the bottle you know,

Scott Benner 28:27
nine should have been nine years ago.

Marilyn 28:31
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Humalog and humulin and pH and we gave it at breakfast twice and dinner twice. So he was eat. I mean they it's funny. I don't even know. I mean I'm sure Joseph remembers it because it was horrible. Like in the beginning I remember them telling us well you know if he's hungry because he had to eat but what I gave you know for the insulin we gave them so they never said like if he wants a snack just give him It took about a year six months a year into my notes where it was like it'd be once a snack give him a unit and let them have a snack. So they would tell us you know he can have like jello and whipped cream and grown Do you remember how many cups

Joe 29:13
I would sky? I would like throw up with cream. It's I don't eat jello to this day because it's I'm all I ate.

Marilyn 29:23
I'm mortified that I can remember saying if you'd like I'm hungry as a kid I'm like you want a cup ready with you want a couple isn't bad.

Scott Benner 29:34
No one in the history of the world has ever said you want a cup of ready with

Marilyn 29:39
like that'll fill you boy underweight to begin with. You know,

Scott Benner 29:45
would you like a bite of dusty air Joe? Bye by the way, I got no carbs. You said a minute ago like I'm sure he remembers that because it was terrible. And I thought I bet you that's how the girl I lost my virginity to talks about it. She remembers that.

Marilyn 30:09
Oh, oh, it's well, that's

Scott Benner 30:13
just me. But here's the interesting thing, right? Like you're involved and interested, you're going to doctor's appointments. And you know, I mean, you're trying to be in the community, you're going on JDRF walks and getting stuff, he's going to a camps and stuff. And so, I'm gonna probably come off poorly for a second here to some people, but you're doing all the things that the system wants you to do. Mm hmm. And it was but it means nothing valueless to you. Absolutely. Congratulations.

Marilyn 30:42
Absolutely. Okay. That's what, that's what when I heard when I found your podcast. At first, I literally because I didn't even know I was I don't even know how to download that podcast player. I don't even know how to do that. They never had done it. And I just Google, you know, I typed in the search, and I there was another one or one or two that came up first. But then I saw juicebox. And I just thought, I'm like, Oh, that's cute. That's a cool title. Okay, and I hit that. And I listened. I went to the beginning, because I didn't think like, let me do the most current. And I listened to the interview with Adam from American Idol. Okay, and then I listened to a few others. And when I heard you talk about the numbers in between and the depths, and bringing it down, and it literally I was like, That's it like, that's what I've been saying. I've been saying this shouldn't be happening in between checking on a meter and, and that's when I knew. I'm like, this is this is something this is this is it. I can't even explain to you how happy I was and how relieved so when you say you can't believe that people, you know, that you do a podcast and and people get such value out of it. It's because sadly, I guess, and maybe back then there maybe now there are more doctors that see the things you see and say, but it wasn't around. It was like I struck gold. Nobody's and then when I found out and then I was like who is this guy? And then when I found out you know, like you were reeling on the East Coast. I was like, oh my god, like, you know, I could drive to his house and find me right to my email.

Scott Benner 32:26
There you go email better at it. Yeah. Plus, I sound enough like you that it's, you know, probably comfort. Yes, yeah.

Marilyn 32:33
Yes, they do get your humor, which makes it and that was the other part of it. It wasn't boring. And it wasn't like someone was preaching to me. And it was entertaining. Yeah, but not but but and. Oh, I'm telling you even now. I don't know.

Unknown Speaker 32:47
But I keep waiting.

Marilyn 32:51
It gets me happy. If I I don't know. What would have happened. I really don't. What I don't even want to think that I still would have been that.

Scott Benner 33:00
Let's go over it. Oh, man. Oh, let's go over. I saved your marriage. Right? You did? Yeah. Okay. I probably saved your kid's life. Probably right.

Marilyn 33:08
I made me a nicer person.

Scott Benner 33:10
I made you a better person.

Marilyn 33:12
I'm a nicer person now.

Scott Benner 33:14
Super. Just I mean, listen, whatever that 10% is you send to the church, I think just send to me for a while. And then we'll be fine. We'll call you coffee. I'm teasing please. No one.

Marilyn 33:23
I was so happy you did that.

Scott Benner 33:25
Oh my god. That freaks me out. So Oh, like everything about my life makes me gives me what they call douche chills. I don't know, Joe, if that and I don't know why. You're saying that. It's uncomfortable.

Marilyn 33:36
It shouldn't be

Scott Benner 33:40
that you think that because you had the experience. I mean, listen, I was just being you know, I was just joking a second ago. But at the same time, if we step back and act like adults for a second, a podcast did those things. It's a real thing. You know, like, I am a good guy. Like I did show up at a church in the middle of wherever the hell it was. And you know, and talk to, but you think there may have been 40 or 50 people there? Oh, I

Marilyn 34:03
think you had a little more than I'd say 100. Nice. Crowd.

Scott Benner 34:06
Had a good crowd. We talked to some people help people out. I listen. I Saturday

Marilyn 34:11
on your own time.

Scott Benner 34:12
I'm a decent person. I know. Right? Like, I know my values. And I know my, my goals. And it's just I mean, I'm 50 Joe seriously when your mom says your podcast to a 50 year old like there's a party that goes like chicken a job man like Right? Feel it a little bit, don't you? I mean, you guys are indoctrinated. Now you can't even say anything bad about me. Come on. No, I

Joe 34:41
mean, at some point like yes, I get it where it's like what else this guy had to do, like doesn't want to do anything or like, but at the other point, I get it because I can't really criticize you because one time I remember my mom like laying everything out for me about what your show and everything has done for us. I just sat there on my bed and I was like, So you're telling me this stranger like kind of saved my life? She was like, Yeah. And I was like, kind of did. So I can't really bash it.

Scott Benner 35:08
Yeah, I know. But we were trying to have fun Joe and you wouldn't say anything bad. So now we have I mean, I'm the one left self deprecating humor, and it's too much.

Joe 35:17
I'm still having fun.

Scott Benner 35:18
Good. I, I saw I mean it, Jen. Genuinely. It's a strange thing. Like, I can see that. Yeah. I mean, for instance, like today. When when you and I are done today, my wife and I are going to a wedding. Like so I'm, I'm jamming this in today, because it's my job. You know what I mean? And the three days prior to today, the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we're speaking on Thursday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of this week, in September of 2021. Those three days had more downloads than 2015 did when I started the podcast the entire year. That's amazing. But that's a weird thing to wrap your head around. But

Marilyn 36:06
I can see your point. But I I can also see from when I jumped on board and started listening the growth that you have had and watching it like as a I'm better at your subscriber fan?

Scott Benner 36:22
Um, no. Yes. Oh, I

Marilyn 36:24
I didn't think you were bad. When I started listening. If I when I started listening way at the beginning, it was funny how different you could tell like you had just started. Yeah, no, I think you're much more comfortable. I think you're much more well known. I really do. I it's

Scott Benner 36:41
a big part. I did a podcast this week with somebody else. I was on someone else's podcast, which I don't normally do. But this person really grabbed my attention. And, you know, she asked me the first question. And I was like, there's a feeling inside like you just like, I'm like, I could talk about this forever if I had to, and and try to make it interesting and entertaining. You know that that really is what lacks, like, it's funny. I know other people who have, you know, diabetes, they put up diabetes content. I know they listen to the show, because I put up a topic. And then four days later, I watched them put the topic up and there and so I realize it's being listened to, but they have no real. They're not. They're not I don't know if they don't have substance or I don't listen to their podcast, but what I do know is, is that they don't have the reach. And, and if it was as easy as saying, we'll just do it the way that guy does it, then they would. But I don't think it's that easy. So I do give myself credit for that part of it. I do think there's something about this whole mix of me and my ideas. Oh, hold on. Excuse me, me and my ideas and how I go about things. It does coalesce Well, yeah, but I couldn't you

Marilyn 37:54
have again why? You have a get chatty to reach people to be entertaining to be I don't want to see deep for lack of a better word. But you you you can touch people you can in good way.

Scott Benner 38:11
My pop pop psychology is fun. What do you think? So

Marilyn 38:15
we, I don't want to say we're full. I don't want to say we're fortunate enough because obviously it's your situation and Arden's diagnosis that brought you to to channel it to this. I think you could have been successful, whatever your topic would have been whatever your thing would have been. You could do this with anything. It just we

Scott Benner 38:33
you're making me from it. You're nice, you're making me think I should start a new girl podcast. Show you let me tell you tell you, I've

Marilyn 38:41
heard you say, I would listen to it because I love that show. But I have heard you say that, you know you hope people listen, learn, like absorb. And you know, not purposely move on. But you know, you're here for the people that need to take the tools and the information and go. I took the tools and the information. And we Joseph is better for it. 100 times over, but I don't want to go because I consider this. I consider this part of his treatment. I consider this. Like if I want to know what's coming up what the cutting edge or what might be happening. This is where I go. I don't go to the news. I don't go to the website. I don't go to because your content is interesting. Your content is relevant. It's

Scott Benner 39:29
a timely, it's evergreen. It is. It is Joe Do you listen to this? I do. Oh, well. Thank

Marilyn 39:36
you next time.

Scott Benner 39:39
Yeah, well, I mean,

Joe 39:42
that I understand. It took a little while but I do.

Scott Benner 39:46
So I want to talk about Joe and you and I talked on the phone

Would you like to play some golf in Orlando, Florida and support a wonderful type on diabetes organization? You can do that go to touched by type one.org and Register now for the golfing for diabetes, call a golfing for diabetes, but for is fo Ari, you get it. It's funny. Listen, they're a great diabetes organization. I don't know who wrote that upon. It's not up to me, you understand I'm saying doesn't matter. You want to play golf, you're in the Orlando area, you want to support type one diabetes, this is pretty much a slam dunk for you. Touched by type one.org piddly little dreamy music, and we're gonna talk about Omni pod. Omni pod makes a tubeless insulin pump. It's actually the very same tubeless insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing. Since she was four years old. She is almost 18. So that's a very long time. That's how you do math around here. That's a very, very long time. And really, it is because you wear an omni pod. Every day, my daughter has had one on every day, since she was four. It has been nothing but a friend to us in this trip. Why do you care? Well, maybe you're on injections, and you'd like to have a little finer control over your boluses or your Basal insulin that you could definitely do with the Omni pod. Maybe you're trying to decide between pumps right now, you can't figure out which one's the one for you. Well, that makes sense, too. I don't want you jumping into something that you don't want. How can you be sure? Well, you could take advantage of Omni pods free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash. To find out if you're eligible for that free 30 day trial, all you have to do is go to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. If you're eligible, you're using the Omni pod dash for free for 30 days, that should give you plenty of time to decide if you want to keep going or not. And if you don't want to keep going, how many pots not gonna have so you will say thanks for giving it a shot. But if you want to, it's very simple to continue on. Now, why would I choose the only pod over other pumps what you've probably heard me talk about on the podcast number of times, chief among those reasons, there's no tubing on the pod is a tubeless device. So yes, you have a controller where you tell it I would like to put in 10 carbs with insulin please. But that thing is not attached to the user. So there's no like infusion set, followed by a big long tube that goes to a controller that holds the insulin, you have to clip to your belt or your pocket or I don't know where you would clip it, probably stick it in your pants, I don't know you do whatever you want with it, I guess. But with an omni pod, you don't have to worry about that you understand that that's not attached to you. You just have this little pod to stuck on you can see to the website on the pod.com forward slash juicebox. Just head over now and take a look. You can bathe, run around like a lunatic swim, jump in the ocean, jump in a river jump in a lake. I guess you could jump out of a plane. You can do all these things with an omni pod on and you're not going to get your tubing caught on anything and you don't have to disconnect to go in the water. It's a big deal on the pod.com forward slash juice box. Jesko check it out and see what you think. Now you may be thinking, Scott, you know what, I'm not gonna get the Omni pod dash right now, because I'm really looking forward to the Omni pod five, it's just been announced it's gonna come out soon. That's what I want. I want that algorithm pumping. I want that sweet, sweet algorithm pumping. And that's what I'm waiting for. You don't have to do that. Because with the Omni pod promise, you remember I mentioned the Omni pod promise the beginning of the episode I told you I was gonna tell you more about it. And now here we are. The Omni pod promise says this. Super simple. You can upgrade to Omni pods latest technologies for no additional cost as soon as they're available to you and covered by your insurance terms and conditions apply. But you can find out all those details@alibaba.com Ford slash juice box. So there's no reason not to get that dash now, even if you want the Omni pod five liter for full safety, risk information, free trial terms on the pod promise terms. All you have to do to find out those terms and conditions is go to omnipod.com forward slash juicebox. And now we get back to Joe and his mommy.

Which time well the very first time. Okay, so was it overwhelming? Or did things make sense? Like I I'm trying to understand, like, come at it from my point for a second. I don't really know you, right? I know your mom like we've just gone over who your mom is, you know, big picture. That's my that's my image of her. i There's a little bit of me it's like oh god, this woman's gonna make her son get on the phone with me. You You know, like so, you know, you get on and in my heart what I'm thinking is there's no way he wants to be doing this. Like, that's no verse thought.

Joe 45:09
I mean, I didn't want to, to, you could say I didn't want to for the sheer fact that, like I've just laziness. But the fact that she was like this could help you with diabetes, I was so fed up with it to the point where like, there would be instances where I'm just like, No, I don't need insulin, I'm not doing this. I would just like, just leave my blood sugar the way it was, because I was just so fed up with like, like, how bad I felt physically. Just how it would do what's worse, the most inconvenient times. So yes, it was weird. But at the same time, I was like, You know what, if this can help fine, because I'm kind of done good. I just didn't want to deal with anymore.

Scott Benner 45:48
I gotcha. I like it when people say this stuff always happens at the most inconvenient times. Because I think when would be convenient for your pump to oddly just stop working right or

Joe 45:57
when you're laying in bed with zero plans doing absolutely nothing for the next two days. And

Scott Benner 46:02
that doesn't that's not well, please make the truth is how often does that I guess if you're young, it happens more often. But I have not your mom and I are like, Wait, that happens to people. Exactly. So So when when we get off that call. How did you feel leaving the call? Do you feel hopeful? Are you a little bit? Yeah,

Joe 46:22
yeah, cuz granted, I think I was at the point where I was where I thought nothing was really going to help me I kind of just have to live with this. But when you said like this works, my daughter's done. And I would hear you on my mom's Show Me on the other podcast, you talked about Arden's numbers. And it helped a lot. I'm hearing the podcast is with Arden, because I just liked hearing her perspective. Okay, I can see a lot of similarities in the way that her I think,

Scott Benner 46:50
you know, her episode, but her episode almost immediately became the most popular one that's been up in years. Really. It blew past like the numbers like usually Dexcom news, like when Kevin comes on, those are usually the ones that reach out beyond my sphere. So I see them, I see them download beyond what a popular episode usually does. And Arden's jumped right past those. That's cool. Yeah, it's an associate. That's interesting. So you feel a lot the way she described?

Joe 47:25
Yeah. Like, I could relate a lot to what she said.

Scott Benner 47:29
Yeah, I think the I had her on because I, in my heart, I think that's how most people think about it. And kids. And I think it's, I mean, adults and kids and with diabetes. And I think that it would be really difficult for a parent who's coming from a different perspective and has different goals and desires and loves you in a different way than you love yourself. Like, I think that they needed to hear that. And part of why I waited so long to put on the podcast is I was waiting for her to get into a spot in her life where I thought she would be really articulate about it. You know? Yeah, I just think that it's, it's not I don't know, like, you know, some people their lives look on Instagram. You can't you can't pretend that that's really what life is,

Joe 48:18
you know, I don't have Instagram, because I think it's dumb.

Scott Benner 48:22
But, but you know that, you know, everybody puts their best foot forward, you know, mostly, and their expectations are big. And I think sometimes around health, a parent can say, well, I've put all this effort into it. I want this kid to be really healthy, we are accomplishing that. The kids just going to keep doing it. And I can't even tell you if Arden's gonna keep doing it. Like we're leaving for a couple of days now. And this is our first time Arden's going to live in this house by herself for almost four full days. Right. And I tried to walk into a room last night, I said, Hey, I need to explain something to you. For while we're gone, and within 30 seconds, she was not listening to me. And there is a little voice in your head that goes, you know, other people would pay for this conversation. And I don't say that I don't say that out loud. I just said, Hey, our interest is really important. You know, like, right, we've been transferring power away more quickly over the last year and even more so over the last three months. And I've let her make mistakes and I've let her live with higher blood sugars and you know, and so that she could have experiences I'll tell you one recently, she had a site that wasn't good. And I said to her Arden I think your site's bad. And she said No, it's my period. And I went okay, I think it's the site right and after about after let them valley after 18 hours I get a text from her I'm paying a lot. And I was like yeah, your blood sugar is high. And she's like, well, that's because of my period I said that's because the site is bad. And so I let it go about 10 more hours. And you know I'm you know her blood sugar Stuck in the 150s. Like, you know, in that range, which I know, must have been crawling. I know some people are like, Wow, 150 Shut up, idiot. But yeah, I mean, I'm a person, I look at a 120. And I'm like, why are we not doing something about this? Like, you know, so I went into her and I said, okay, hey, I'm like, that's enough. Now I'm going to insert some, you know, some privilege here, we're gonna change, we're gonna change your site. So changed your pump, I injected, I made a Bolus through an injection, and I said, I'm gonna have your blood sugar down. In about an hour and a half, it's gonna get stable. I said, we're probably gonna have to catch it on the other side, because you've been high for a while. So I used a fair amount of insulin here. And then the pings gonna stop. And then that all happened. And even at that, a day later, when I tried to tell her something about while we were gone, she was like, Oh, buddy, leave me alone. Right. So that's human nature.

Marilyn 50:58
And you know what, that's the biggest struggle I found that the biggest struggle with Joseph because it's not just diabetes, it's life with a teenager. It's, it's, you know, you're you're doing making those decisions with everything else. They're doing their homework, their, you know, their rules, they're going out. And that's where we got to the point that like when he first spoke with you, you know, I yeah, I totally agree. He was ready. He felt all those feelings and was ready to do this. But It dwindled away a little bit, because I wasn't, he wasn't in a place where he was finally ready to say, Holy crap, I really have to take a hold of that.

Scott Benner 51:36
So talk about Would you please like you had like a reckoning and then you were just like, I forget it. Right?

Marilyn 51:44
Joseph? You me? Yeah.

Scott Benner 51:45
Yeah. Joe, tell me. Tell me about that.

Joe 51:48
You mean, like when I first when I realized like, what what I felt when I realized that I need to take care of this.

Scott Benner 51:54
This time. Right here to me is the whole episode. That's why I had you on so you, you came on the you know, you we talked you understood suddenly things, but that didn't make you put them into practice? Is that right?

Joe 52:07
No, no, definitely not. It had to become routine and had to become something because I knew one way for so many years. I just like do this. I'm alive. Okay. And then. Um, this is this is not long ago. Um, I listened to one of your episodes, I don't remember which one. And I like, ran into the kitchen. You know, I got home from work. And I ran into the house. I was like, Mom, I can have seizures. And she was like, Yes,

Marilyn 52:41
he had no. That was right after we, we finally came to a blow up. And I don't even know if he remembers this was the time I know, it was that like the pivoting moment where we changed, he changed. We just I had my typical meltdowns and breakdowns and fights in this. And I just lost it one night. And

Joe 53:05
because our relationship was not good at all during this now,

Marilyn 53:09
because all I felt like all I was to him was a mother nagging about diabetes. Yeah. And as much as I tried, it was just always an issue because it wasn't controlled. And then I got to the point that I was obsessed, like, if I tell you obsessed, I used to think to myself, like what would i What would I be doing? Well, this time if I didn't have to. And I didn't want him to know that because I didn't want him to think feel bad. But you know, like, if I didn't have to worry about this and read things about diabetes and listen to what would I listen to what I just felt like it was all consuming.

Scott Benner 53:48
And when he was without this, right, right, right, like,

Marilyn 53:51
what would my life have been if I didn't do this list? 10 years. Yeah. And I don't mean that in a negative way towards him. I would do anything for you, you know, you do anything for your kids no matter what, what they had or what they have to go through. But I just felt like we were spinning our wheels. And I felt like we have to get to a point that he gets this. So we don't have to think about this all the time. Like I would hear it. And then it got to the point that and this was definitely on me. This wasn't anything he was intentionally doing. Where I would listen to the podcast and it was almost like, everyone, it seemed like everybody was getting it but us or I couldn't relay the information enough to him to make him care. So then I was getting to the point that I was like, Well, I don't even want to hear these happy stories because this is making me sad that we were not there yet. What's going to get us there. I don't want to fight about this. And we just I had one night I remember saying to him, you die I can remember saying your diabetes is gonna kill me before it kills you. And it was just because I never when he was little, you know, I didn't attack head and tell him you know, you can lose your foot one day you don't because I couldn't even control I didn't know, I didn't understand that even that well, right. And I just wasn't my like not gonna tell this guy as he gets older, he learned new things. But I never made it a point to say, oh, did you know this could happen to you? If you know I didn't want to threaten? And

Scott Benner 55:16
let me jump in here and show. Joe when she says that to you? Is that one of the first times in your life? You see your mom as a person and not your mom?

Joe 55:24
Yes, definitely. When she said that, I don't remember exactly what I felt. But I knew I was damn. Like, I got it. Things like that. That's not right.

Scott Benner 55:38
Was it a guilty feeling? Or? Yeah, or a loving feeling?

Joe 55:43
Both? Because I always tell her like, I always did tell her like, you need to let me take the reins a little bit. And granted, I get washed me because I didn't know nearly as much as I do now or what she knew. Like I said I'd even have a seizure. I heard you say Arden had a seizure once and I was like, What

Scott Benner 56:03
did you wonder? Like, what else could happen to me that I don't? Yeah, Joe.

Marilyn 56:07
That's what, that's what between the fight we had, and that, because that's when he started listening. What happened was after a fight, we kind of had to come to Jesus moment. And we started I said to him, Okay, this is what we're gonna do. If you're good with it. I'll give you two episodes a week. And I'll listen to it again, too. And we started with the pro tips. And when you're through with it, we'll talk about it. And we did that. And that's how we did it. And he totally, and then when he shortly learned about the seizure? I remember saying to him, You telling me that's all I had to tell you, like four years ago, and this would evolve?

Scott Benner 56:44
Probably, probably not, it just would have found a different way to ignore you. That's all.

Marilyn 56:48
Yeah, you're right. Well, think of Illinois. Me. Yeah. Oh, please.

Scott Benner 56:52
Well, you don't know how to tax Why would I listen to? But imagine that dynamic that gets set up, right? You're a person, you're not a you're not a professional diabetes person. And suddenly your kid has diabetes, he doesn't know what he's talking about. You don't know what you're talking about. Now you do a division of labor where your husband's like, alright, you can do that. I'll go make money. And you know, your daughter, I'm assuming somewhere is like, nobody's even paying attention to me anymore. Please. That's another part of it. Yeah. So there's all this happening. And then it's not easy. And it's not intuitive. And it doesn't go the way they tell you it's going to go. And it brings in all of these interpersonal and psychological issues. Doctors don't talk about them at all. Like once in a while they'll say to you, you should see a therapist. You ever no one ever tells the doctor's office? Oh, me or Joseph? Yeah, either. Have you ever heard that?

Marilyn 57:44
Um, they just did that. Now, yeah. But truthfully, I sought that out on my own because I knew I needed to, I knew I was getting to the point that I was just like this unhealthy. You know what I mean? And then I got to the point that I'm like, something happens to me. He screwed like, you know,

Scott Benner 58:03
yeah. I mean, they really, he's not screwed, he has to start over. You there's a if that were to happen, let's just say you get hit by a train. And you're, and you're gone. Right prior to this happening, his health declines. And with some luck, he figures that out on his own, and he does or he doesn't like that's sort of just the way it is like, you know, for every person who comes on here and tells that good story. I try to have someone come on and tell the other story so that you realize that probably more people I'm gonna guess many more people than not are not doing well managing insulin and their diabetes. And that that really could be your your a lot if you don't understand these things. To me, though, the the worst part of the whole conversation is just it's that it's that feeling like that the dynamic between the two of you had disintegrated. And you weren't you were going to build an adult relationship where that that kid was not going to call you very much after he moved out. Mm hmm. You got you this this almost kind of like, dissolved your mother son relationship. Is that better now?

Marilyn 59:09
I think so. Oh, you both think so good.

Scott Benner 59:12
Well, he said yes to and maybe he just wants you to pay for college, or maybe Yeah, exactly. Or maybe he really means it. Let's find the right job. How's that? It's almost done. How did it how's the changed for you?

Joe 59:24
How is the dynamic changed? Yeah. In a sense, I think it's brought us closer together because we've never had to work on something together as hard as we have diabetes. For like, and no one else has. And this is no one's fault. It's just like no one really took the reins except harder. Like my sister knows about it. My dad knows about it, obviously the non diabetic but like, but like the only app they're almost like, every once in a while. I'll get a text from my sister because I have all three of them on the app for the Dexcom every once in a while. attachment. She's like you good. Like, it'd be like 42

Scott Benner 1:00:05
Hey, I have plans this weekend don't die.

Joe 1:00:07
Yeah, it's like that. But um,

Marilyn 1:00:10
his friends text him more wrong.

Scott Benner 1:00:14
Do you have your friends following you? Yeah. It's really fun. It's really funny. It's nice. You guys started like a little social group around your blood sugar. Yeah, we

Joe 1:00:23
did. It's really cute. Um,

Marilyn 1:00:25
so when he was on the track team in high school.

Joe 1:00:30
That's another thing.

Scott Benner 1:00:31
Sorry, go ahead. That's another thing.

Joe 1:00:34
That's just another thing about it. Because I played sports. Like, since I was in seventh grade. And the people my like, my, my teammates would look at me and be like, you're really pale, dude. And I'd be like, really? I remember in middle school, the nurse, you have to come out at like three o'clock and be like, Joseph, check your blood sugar. And then she gives me like, milk and a graham cracker. And then I have to go run a mile. And I puke.

Scott Benner 1:01:01
Yeah, that sounds horrible.

Joe 1:01:04
It's just a weird balance. But it was it was just another way. Like, as I got into high school and everything, it was another reason to find balance in it and like find what worked because I had to perform like I was expected to perform a certain way and participate in my team. So I had to figure it out.

Scott Benner 1:01:19
Isn't it terrible that it has to devolve before? Like I mean, it seems like a rule like some people don't some people find. I mean, technology's definitely helpful. The podcast is pretty readily available. And it's popular so people can find it sooner. But you think that you guys had to basically go to like a point where you're like, Well, we're all going to just die here. If we don't do something like that sucks that it was break before. Yeah, that as you're talking, like the part of my brain that wonders how to make the podcast better. Like that's the part I'm thinking about right now. Like, how do you how do you stop people from having to have these, these experiences before they can have better experiences? You know, like, how do you how do you it's just the it's even the way our healthcare system works, right? Like, we're not going to help you. We're not going to help you not get cancer, but we'll definitely help you after you get it. And that kind of stuff.

Marilyn 1:02:13
So I just started diagnosis. Yeah, it's just I don't know,

Scott Benner 1:02:18
I agree. I just I mean, I have doctors on and I talked to them. And I have private conversations. And I still don't know what the answer is. Because well, it's too big of a picture and everybody can't. Like, Joe, how well did I do in an hour of bringing you up to speed?

Joe 1:02:35
You helped me understand a lot more than doctors did. That's for sure.

Scott Benner 1:02:38
Yeah. I don't know why you didn't do that a couple times a year with somebody

Marilyn 1:02:41
you said more than an hour, then his his doctor told him in eight years.

Scott Benner 1:02:47
He shouldn't be that way. Yeah, you know, and I don't, it doesn't need to be like, I mean, I mean, all joking aside, there's nothing that special about me, like somebody else, figure out how to do this, you know what I mean? Like or try or want to do it? Like maybe that's the difference. Maybe there are people that deliver it and the way you deliver. I'm amazing, but that's not the point. The point is basically other people could do it in their own way. And that that might be reasonable as well. I'm sure there are people who are but obviously, there's something about scope and reach that's lacking. Right. Right. Right. And that's why just the podcast format just works. Because I have

Marilyn 1:03:23
to tell you, once we found the podcast, like I said, you know, his doctor still gave the same advice still, you know, once his agency started coming down, he was like, Oh, you're doing really good. Never asked why never asked how never, you know, showed an interest or why didn't you do anything different? And at that point, yeah. Joseph liked him. I liked him. And it was kind of like, look, he gives us up prescriptions when we need it. We go to get checked, but we got the podcast. So let's do that. Both of you know, like, we're good. I'm not gonna find like, you know, he was still Joseph turning 19 Next week, I'm like, You're gonna need a new and he was a pediatric and I'm like, You're gonna need a new one soon anyway, which we actually found. That's a funny story to tell you that. So we just kept going because I was like, was a bad guy, and he doesn't bother us. And he's happy. We're happy. You know, it was

Scott Benner 1:04:15
like, you just keep going. You turn into those Madagascar penguins. You just smile and wait. That's exactly yeah. Thanks a lot for coming. Oh, no, I love it. Thanks for you. Oh, that thing you said earlier about? Moving my site over an inch is very helpful. Thank you.

Marilyn 1:04:31
He was like he was a robot every time we went in.

Scott Benner 1:04:35
Do you think that doctor is somewhere right now thinking I did a really good job with that job, kid.

Marilyn 1:04:39
Yeah, he's probably thinking, Where is that job? Give me a year left.

Scott Benner 1:04:44
No, but you know what I mean? Like, I wonder if like you left any thought, ah, when I said really work?

Marilyn 1:04:48
Yeah, you know, who knows? It's like, I did it.

Scott Benner 1:04:52
I did. It. Just goes home to his wife. He's like, lay down. I'm victorious. Saving young man today I told you I'm God. God, I mean, I wonder how much of that complex that they talked about with doctors. Like, I wonder how much it reinforces them. Because I take your point. If it was me, I'd run the a one C and come in the room and go, Hey, what happened? Wait, what you guys do? You know,

Joe 1:05:21
Scott, you'd be a great and

Scott Benner 1:05:25
we would just curse for 10 minutes and talk about getting your Basal right get the hell out of there. I think that would be okay if I you know how much more kids would love their endos if they just talk once in a while during the real 100% It's 100% relatable, like, you know, I went to my doctor's today. He said he said some crazy stuff about 4chan and then asked me like and I don't by the way I should back up right now. I don't use for channel a channel. I don't even understand what that is I I reached for something crazy on the internet out of my brain just now. So meanwhile, we're gonna get email all the conspiracy people who listen to the podcast for a brief second, like I knew he was new. And now they're, they're like, Oh, damn it. Man. Yeah, there's something about I just listen, you guys can probably appreciate this more than people were Marilyn, you at the very least. I just I'm 50 years old. And when I was in high school, the talk of the town was that a man from New York named Howard Stern was coming on the radio. And we just all started listening. And what I took from it more than anything was is that he had my attention. Mm hmm. And he can and if something wasn't in his mind entertaining, it got the Chi bash real quick. They put us right to it, right, like anywhere. And I think about that, like, even in this conversation with you like, Man, I know I have to run you over a little bit. Because you're you're going to get going on a thought. And if I don't stop you, you'll just talk for an hour. Right? And that's and there's nothing wrong with that. I want you to talk. But you're also from the East Coast. So you don't mind when I run you over you go, Okay, it's his turn to talk now. And you kind of back out of it a little bit. That only happens when the voice in my head goes move on. And I have that voice constantly while I'm talking. Like that's enough information we understand move on go make it interesting to keep it going say something else that's valuable. Like so my brain works that way when I'm recording the show. And I know that most people who don't know Howard Stern just think oh, God, I'm listening to a podcast about diabetes from a guy who loves the podcast, or loves that radio show that you know where they degrade women. But the world has changed significantly. And I've gotten to watch a real progression of that. That man in his broadcasting skills. Oh, absolutely. And and I've learned a lot from that. So like it or not, if you like this podcast, and it's helping you in some small way you can thank Howard Stern. Thank him. Yeah. So and I just, to me, that's it. Like, how are you going to sit and listen to something so dry and boring and technical? You're not know, and it's not going to make any sense to you either.

Marilyn 1:08:14
I have to tell you when I said like when I initially searched you and I said there were a few. Back then there were a few ahead of you in the search. I gave it a try. And I'm not even kidding you to maybe it's just the way I am two to three minutes. I'm like out, like if I don't get that initial grant and that initial, it's not going to happen.

Scott Benner 1:08:34
Well, I have that feeling I turned podcasts on. I can't get through the intro sometimes. Yeah. Oh, God, is it gonna be like this, you know, super serious and no personality. And listen, one of the nicest things I can tell you is that if an actor comes on the Stern show to talk about a movie, he'll interview him for two hours. They'll never mention the movie at all. And when it's over, I feel like oh, I should see that movie. Right? Because you learn. Right, right. And so most people don't understand that most people are real ham fisted. And they're just they push things forward and slam you in the face with it and think that that's the way to get somebody to, to do something. But I'm because he knows the questions to it. Yeah, yeah, I'm making a podcast where I want you to, I want you to understand how to use your Basal insulin. And I want you to Pre-Bolus and understand the impacts of your foods and boring stuff that when people start talking about it, you go, Oh, my brain doesn't care about this. I don't care about this. A world where a world where you could pick up your phone and choose between a dozen different services that will pump music or video into your face. And I'm going to have what a dry conversation about the glycemic index, and you're going to listen, I guess, you just you just heard that you just heard your son say he thought he was okay. You know, like, why would I listen to that? I'm okay.

Marilyn 1:09:55
In a way that's what was frustrating to like, excuse me when we when I first started listening. I knew Joseph was love your sense of humor. I knew once he heard you, he'd be hooked. Like I knew it. Him too. But he he had to be read he had to. And I have to say, like, I don't want I hope this doesn't come off. As you know, Joseph my forte or growing up, like he, he was an amazing kid when it came to diabetes. He never, ever gave me if I said, we're gonna try this wherever he was the most. He really was easygoing did with the only thing like I said, he didn't want to pump. And that's how I felt like, this take gives me no grief with this. He was handed this at nine. I'm going to force that on him. He and I'm blessed that he, as he got older, he was athletic, and he cares about his health and he eats, right? And he works out. And to me, that's it. It's almost like God, and you have to worry about that part of it. You know, so he really, it's made him an amazing. I mean, don't get me wrong. He's still a typical 18 year old that I could

Scott Benner 1:11:04
she just can't let you have it, man. Just can't take him with the other right away. So very Catholic move, Maryland. Sorry. Yeah. He just guilt him and then hit him and then smile out. But

Marilyn 1:11:16
I do believe it's, it made him mature. Beyond his like, it really did give him a part of his life that I think even he would say, he wouldn't be this way without the dipole.

Joe 1:11:27
Yeah, no doubt.

Scott Benner 1:11:28
I believe that I think Arden's who she is because of it too, in a good way. But there are plenty who are hurt by it, too. Right? Yeah. Good, John. Sorry.

Joe 1:11:38
No, it's just like, it makes you think differently as you grow up. Cuz I had diabetes so early, to the point where like, I had diabetes through the transition, of like, become of being a kid and becoming a teenager and becoming like a young adult. So like, if I'm out now. And like, people are like, oh, yeah, like take a beer. Take this take that. I'm like, Oh, my blood sugar go up. No, like, I just don't. I don't drink ever because I'm just like, I want all this for this gross. Like, I'm gonna go to 250 and a half an hour. I'm not doing

Scott Benner 1:12:10
well and talk about that and feel badly. Like when did you realize that you didn't feel well? As far as what like When did like at what point in your, in your recent history? Did your blood sugar's get regulated to the point where you're like, Oh, God, I didn't feel good before this. Well, I

Joe 1:12:27
would be like, I just, I saw the amount of energy I had my soul, like how workouts changed. And even when I started, like, gaining better control, I got better at the sports that I played, because because my body was functioning the way it was supposed to. Um, but yeah, probably when I started getting an actual grip on it, I was like, Wow, I'm 150 now and I feel like I'm 250 like, I'm dizzy. My head hurts. I'd feel I've always been able to tell when I'm well, I could tell 100 Like, I just know when I'm dropping. You can feel the fall. But yeah, I feel every fall have like a spider sense. It's weird.

Scott Benner 1:13:02
It's happening. You wish. I wish he imagined being Spider Man. Amazing. Because you could get the hell off of Long Island without being on that. Right? That'd be that'd be brilliant. That's really that's what I would wish for if I was both of you. A way to fly over that road. Well, so Joe, what what do you think? I mean, coming about an average day now. Is your mom very involved anymore with your diabetes?

Joe 1:13:29
Um, it's yeah, she's definitely involved. And if like something goes wrong, I'm not that it's like drastic, but excuse me, if I have if I have a rise, right? Drop. I'm like, Oh, all right. Well, I did this, like, what do you think? And then she's like, okay, it was definitely timing, like, tomorrow, try the same and do this. And I'm like, Okay, let me do it the next day, and more often than not, it works.

Scott Benner 1:13:51
Yeah. How long did it take you to trust that it was gonna work?

Joe 1:13:54
Um, the more I listen to your show, the more I thought it was gonna work because everyone seemed to have good results with it. So I was like, alright, tested, just has to do something.

Scott Benner 1:14:01
Yeah, that the, the fear part is, it's huge for some people and some people. Yes, no, some people can just look at and go, alright, if it's gonna work, it's gonna work. You know, and, like, Arden is a great example. You can tell from her interview that, you know, she just believes in what we do. Yeah, like the idea that she's gonna have, like a big problem doesn't even really occur to her. Right, which, which that that kind of comfort, lets her do things that other people would be freaked out by. Yeah, you know what I mean, when I'm telling her to add carbs to our last meal. Sorry. Yeah. And by the way, Arden's blood sugar is 143 Right now, she had eggs, bacon and a piece of toast.

Joe 1:14:48
I was just 142 I think I'm higher now cuz I have fat right? So I'm a bit higher. I'd like to do right now, but I have a bunch of insulin on board.

Scott Benner 1:14:57
So yeah, you're um

Marilyn 1:15:01
What am I telling you?

Scott Benner 1:15:01
I just let you guys

Joe 1:15:05
know she's gonna do it right now, Scott on the budget. The extended Bolus is your friend

Scott Benner 1:15:09
do you think? Do you think she's sending you a very long text right now behind your back? Yeah,

Joe 1:15:13
she's talking to you. No, I'm

Marilyn 1:15:15
not because my cell phone is far away from my house. I don't even know what you are right now.

Joe 1:15:20
Okay, good. Don't look how does? Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:15:23
Do you have anxiety around that not knowing what his blood sugar is?

Marilyn 1:15:27
Me? Yeah, I would have six months ago. There are days now. And that's why that's how I know things are better. I mean, obviously, number one I know things are better. Through is a one C and just the way he controls it. But I find it work. I can go through an all sudden thing. Oh, my God, I haven't even checked. I think the alarm went off, like what's happening? Or he'll text me and be like, catching it. And then I'll look and be like, Well, what's happening? Where I used to look at that thing? Yeah. Oh, all the time constantly.

Scott Benner 1:16:01
Is it fair to say I've improved your sex life?

Joe 1:16:04
Um, it's not a conversation we need to have.

Marilyn 1:16:08
Me or Joseph. Joe,

Scott Benner 1:16:09
I just want to dig into your mom's sex life for a second while you're listening. I mean,

Marilyn 1:16:12
I probably get my husband to listen to the podcast. That's another story. So that's an interesting, I'm gonna gross him out. He's

Scott Benner 1:16:19
not gonna lie. No, I was just teasing. I just had to say something to make him like panic for a second.

Joe 1:16:24
That was the most alert I did all day.

Scott Benner 1:16:27
I have to go. I have to go. Still super gnarly, dude. What's it? What's it? Like?

Marilyn 1:16:33
Is there any time that that would be good, Joseph. Yeah, what

Scott Benner 1:16:35
time of the day? Should we get back together and discuss whether or not your mom and dad sex life is picked up after you're

Joe 1:16:41
not in the room?

Marilyn 1:16:43
I have a happier person. I'll give you that.

Scott Benner 1:16:45
Good. I'm glad. That's yeah,

Marilyn 1:16:47
no, I, I think I know I have become a much better person. With this amount of stress left from my life gone from my life. Joe was and I still worry about him. We're still working on. He's good. I just hit him last week with them. Because now I have this now that he's in a space where he's in a better place. The other day I said to him, Joseph, you know, looping is right. And he was like, what I'm like, You gotta listen to this episode. And I sent him the one with Katie. Yeah, because I'm, I'm now that he's in. I wanted to try the DIY loop. But I knew I didn't have enough confidence in myself to do it a year ago. And I knew he wasn't in a place that I'm like this. We have to start at step one. First. Let's get this under control. But I do feel he's at that place now. Like we both can't wait for Omnipod. Five to come out.

Scott Benner 1:17:43
Oh, it'll be before you know it now. But Joe, are you in? Are you still in high school? Are you in college now?

Joe 1:17:50
I'm in my last year of college and your last year of college. I'm only in a I'm in a two year program. So Okay. All right. And it hasn't been four

Scott Benner 1:18:00
years. It was like I was like, hold on. He's a genius he started

Marilyn 1:18:05
you know what it took to get him to go to a two year college.

Joe 1:18:08
If you saw my grades you would

Scott Benner 1:18:10
think well, what are you planning on doing after you finish the the associate's

Joe 1:18:15
right now I'm an intro mechanic at a dealership. I'm so probably stick there for a little while, see if I can move up and become an actual tech. And then I'm sorry, no, no, go

Scott Benner 1:18:28
ahead. No, no, you can talk for yourself good you keep talking.

Joe 1:18:32
Now just basically just see if I can move up and then I'll I love trades and I want to learn like as much as possible. So whether it be go back to school for like a welding job, or stay a mechanic and move to different shops, just see what else is out there for me.

Scott Benner 1:18:48
Did you hear the after dark episode recently with Mike who was an auto mechanic by me he diabetes overthrow his his, um, his, you know, all of his complications got so bad that he had to stop working with his hands. So

Joe 1:19:04
I could never do that.

Marilyn 1:19:05
I told you about that one. Joseph. He was the one that he initially that was an amazing episode, because when I listened to his how we eat episode, I would have never thought that was the same person to know the complications that he had. Oh, you did? Tell me about that one. Yes. You know who I said he was on before? And he talked about how Yes. And I had said, listen to that one night. That was amazing. And that was

Scott Benner 1:19:29
because when you listen to him in the how we eat episode, you're you're listening to the man who understands now, right and his life from that moment forward in the way it is. And then when he tells you about the previous parts of his life, right, you know, to what we talked about earlier, like he can't turn back time, you know, that idea of wasted time and wasted opportunities.

Marilyn 1:19:47
That's why I wanted Joseph to hear it. Yeah, I thought it was I didn't even realize it was him until I started listening. And I thought to myself when his voice sounds like what do I know? And then when I realized who he was, I was shot. He has a very specific

Scott Benner 1:20:00
voice. He really does. Yes, he does. Yeah. But okay, so I mean, I'm not bringing it up, like, I'm not trying to bug you out. I'm just I just It popped into my head, like, you know, he's he loved, he was a mechanic, he loved that he used to work on pianos, he loved that. And then he lost his dexterity lost a half of both keys, you know, so. But he, but in the reason I want to tie that all together, is because you said something earlier, that that made me think of this. So you talked about like, Joe's was a good kid. And he, you know, he got along with everything. And he didn't complain, he did the things he was supposed to do. And doctors are telling you, you're doing all right. And the truth is, is that none of that really matters. If it's not, if it's not true on the number side, do you know what you mean? Like if you're if your variability isn't tight, and your blood sugars aren't bouncing up and down, you're not spending a bunch of time with real high blood sugars are real low blood sugars, you can have as good of an attitude as you want. If you're, you're still, your body's still being hurt, you know. And so I think sometimes we commingle the, I have a good attitude with everything's going okay with health. And for some reason, we give more credence to the part where, like, always smile, and it's fine. We're paying the mortgage, then then, like, you know, my blood sugar was 180 for seven hours yesterday. Right? Like, there's I don't, I don't know if it's because it's, it's easier to control that stuff. You know what I mean? Maybe like, it's easier just to put a smile on your face than it is to figure out how to Pre-Bolus Right, but I don't see it that way. Like, the way I see it is that those things that you do can lead to those other things you say actually honestly being true. Instead of just wishful thinking or blissful ignorance. Right, you know, so I, and it's just not like, it's not easy. And it sucks, and I wish nobody had to do it. But since this is the situation, I mean, just put a little effort up front and save yourself countless hours and days and weeks of, of stress and anxiety. And Joe, is that working for you that way? Like, are you okay, like if you moved out right now, would you be alright?

Joe 1:22:17
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:22:20
That's yeah, yeah. i It's interesting, like, you're not sure, but you're confident that it would be?

Joe 1:22:25
No, yeah, I think that'd be pretty good. Because, you know, if I, if I need something, just text away, and she normally helps him just figure out what I could have done better and like, how to prevent it for next time. And I like I worked full time this entire summer. I was out eight to find every single day. Yeah. And, you know, I had to learn how to work with it. Because like, I'm I was, like I said, I'm a mechanic, I'm on my feet the entire day. So I had to learn how to produce my Basal and do well, because I was exerting energy. And I was, you know, I had a lot of activity going on. So my blood sugar behaved differently. And I would go back and forth and hurt and be like, Okay, let's reduce your Basal for X amount of hours. And as soon as you eat, take this amount, but take less here. Just help me work it out. Yeah, so that's great. I think I could do okay,

Scott Benner 1:23:13
man, that's really wonderful to you're able to help him like that. I want to tell you all that one have a memory that still endures for me is walking you through putting on your first pot through a video. That was hilarious.

Marilyn 1:23:26
You know, it's funny, you know, even that, not related to diabetes, but I remember him starting it. And he texted me and he was like, oh, Scott said, he can do it. This time. And I was at work. And I was like, Ooh, but I'd want to be there. And, and he told me that Scott was like, What are you for? Tell your mother, you could do this yourself. And to me, I was like, You know what? He's right. Why am I hovering? Why am I like, I guess I wouldn't be there for him. And then I was like, oh, yeah, I have to let him do more. And if he fails, he fails. And he'll figure it out again. Excuse me. Yeah. But the I remember you telling that I'm like, Oh, God, he's right. I'm good with parenting things.

Scott Benner 1:24:10
It's hard not to take Joe seriously. His voice is deeper the mind. So? No, yeah, I just it's I mean, listen, if he says I'm Joe, by the way, that's a real thing. And like, just say something in a commanding way, and people will listen. He does. Yeah. I honestly, I think it's one of the unintended secrets and consequences in the podcast. Like, I think I have a voice that you that makes you comfortable. Yeah, you do have a very good book. Yeah. So it's just that's dumb luck. Yeah. Because I have turned on other things where the guy starts talking like yeah, I'm not listening to that. Yeah, absolutely. Can't hear you squeak next hour of this. I don't care how good the content is.

Marilyn 1:24:51
That happened with one of the first diabetes podcasts I heard. And I was a woman and I thought nope, do this

Scott Benner 1:25:00
Oh, gosh, I feel like I know you're talking about.

Marilyn 1:25:03
Uh, you might.

Scott Benner 1:25:06
Alright, is there anything that we haven't talked about that we should have?

Marilyn 1:25:13
Joseph, do you have anything?

Joe 1:25:15
Not think? pretty much covered.

Scott Benner 1:25:17
It'd be good. If you listened to this and it was to other people. You'd be okay with this. Yeah. I think you did a good job. I think you guys did a good job, too. I just, I was interested. Was anybody ever nervous?

Marilyn 1:25:30
Um, I, at one point, I honestly, I knew what I wanted to express and why I wanted to come on. But I did have that feeling like what in the world if we kind of told like, what am I going to say? What but no, you have a way of there was nothing to be nervous about. Good.

Scott Benner 1:25:46
I'm glad. I'm very glad. Everybody. Gotcha.

Joe 1:25:49
Sorry, Mark, do you want about the new Endo? We saw? Oh, but I noticed. No, you were

Marilyn 1:25:56
excited about that. Yeah, quickly. Because Joseph sounds like a 32 year old man, we can't really see a pediatric endocrinologist much longer. And I know, with this whole transition of him doing things, I wanted him to find an endo, local, because, you know, eventually, I'm not going to be going with him any visits, even though I still want to. So I called around and I wanted to find someone who thinks the way you, Scott use the way you think and would be on board with us doing all this. So I made some calls, asked some references, found a guy local, interviewed his office manager as if I was interviewing him for a job and had a feeling like this guy might be a good fit, young guy. So we go for the first appointment. And I failed to tell Joseph that he was having bloodwork done that day. So that didn't go over. Well. We were not having a good time in the waiting room, right? Yeah.

Joe 1:26:48
Yeah, I used to be petrified of needles, and then I got diabetes. So I kind of had to muscle through that. Yeah. Now they're just thinking.

Marilyn 1:26:57
He he was the kid or his pediatrician still says she has the talk of like her dinners and her when she meets colleagues, because he I could never tell him when we had a well visit or when he had a checkup because I literally would have to chase him in the house to get him into the car tip for adopters.

Scott Benner 1:27:15
Have you ever throw hands at a nurse? Oh,

Marilyn 1:27:19
did I? Um, I don't think I know Janet punched the

Joe 1:27:24
nurse bear strep test is surprisingly the non diabetic

Marilyn 1:27:27
kid hit a doc No. But he he had when he was little. And I swear this is what did it he at 18 months he had a block tear duct that he had surgery on under procedure and he had a he was in the hospital for an hernia. And well, Joseph, I hope you don't mind undescended testicle when he was 18 months old, but he's fine now.

Scott Benner 1:27:50
But your voice is fine. So it must be where it belongs. Yeah, these

Marilyn 1:27:54
so anyway, but I swear with that blood work and staying in the hospital and surgery and going in the afternoon. I swear subconsciously that did something to him. Because after that to get him even to the pediatrician for a shot, it would take the nurse that doctor knee it was a workout. I had bought into the for well visits without shoes on because I couldn't rest. He was a peanut, but I could not get him. And he's the one that get that time. His pediatrician will still say, of all the kids to get a dose with this. I remember when the blood work came back. It was like no.

Scott Benner 1:28:29
Joe never have kids. If that's not what you're hearing right now, I don't know what you're hearing.

Marilyn 1:28:34
Right? He knows he'll admit it.

Joe 1:28:37
Oh, no, I was terrible. But now it's like, now when I'm putting on a pod. I'll like be looking at my laptop or something. And I'll miss the needle cap and I'll put it through my string. And I'll be like, oh, and I just pull it out.

Scott Benner 1:28:50
He has changed. You got past that one. Yeah, so we've been.

Marilyn 1:28:56
Yeah. And it gets to the point that we're still a little nervous thinking like, I hope he's on board with this whole way we treat things and stuff. So he's like, Oh, can I see a PDM in it? And I was like, Okay, here we go. And he's looking and he's like, he said to Joseph, you Bolus a lot during the day. And I thought, oh, here we go. You know, it's either gonna be what are you doing? Or he was so thrilled, like, so thrilled at the way Joseph would be aggressive with with numbers and his tight range. And it was just and they had such a rapport, like they just got along so well, he was so I've never seen a doctor, so elated. He's like, he said, Joseph, it's half my patients looked at it the way you look at it. And he's like, this would be fantastic. Right, Joe? He just was so and Joseph loved him. And I just feel like, okay, he can see this guy and they're going to be on the same page and he told him all the complications he's going to avoid and how people don't you know, they don't treat as aggressively as he does, and it was just amazing. It made me feel like okay, he's gonna be good. He's got this guy. They're on the same page. It's not going to be like a robot every time he goes. And it was amazing. So

Scott Benner 1:30:11
you're gonna be okay when he when he leaves the house? I think so. Joe, is there a girl while

Joe 1:30:17
we're in the waiting room? Like she told me on the podcast? I'm like, maybe wait, a visitor, Joe?

Scott Benner 1:30:22
No. I'm always between a rock and a hard place on that one. Because I do want people to tell their doctors about it. And yet, I don't want you to do something that's gonna make your doctor think that you're a kook. So.

Marilyn 1:30:32
Exactly. On the first Yeah. The first visit, I thought, oh, let's let's just

Scott Benner 1:30:37
say, Joe. Can you imagine Maryland charging through the door yelling about it's a podcast?

Joe 1:30:43
Yeah, that's the secret.

Marilyn 1:30:46
But now that I know that we know he's he's the thinks the way. You know, it's like he thinks the way we think. Yeah, it's like, Absolutely. next visit. You're gonna tell him all about this.

Scott Benner 1:30:57
I would make a joke here about me being the secret. But I fear people would think I was being serious. So I'm not going to. But it's yeah, it would be all it could be off putting to some people. Yeah. And but but at the same time, spreading the word is going to help somebody else because a lot of people come through the podcast through doctors.

Marilyn 1:31:17
Absolutely. It's I tell so many people, even my brother, you know, he's perfect example. We just in texting. I didn't even tell Joseph this. I was texting him this week about something. And my brother just started fast. And I started telling him my brother is still very I'm not as aggressive as I'd like him to be with his treatment. But

Scott Benner 1:31:40
when you move out, she's gonna start working on him.

Marilyn 1:31:44
Project

Joe 1:31:47
advertising, just shoot her an email.

Scott Benner 1:31:52
Give a business you'd like to advertise my own committee got

Marilyn 1:31:55
oh, I'll tell you. I would go I would go to the hilltops and, and speak about this. did shoot and I still I still will get you to Long Island. I still have that one guy who would sponsor it and it will happen when the world is back to the way the world why

Scott Benner 1:32:11
I ever speak in public again. I'll be surprised the way everything's going. But I actually have somebody designing like a crest like a logo for the podcast. Yeah, it I hope it comes out really well. And I have a lot of hope. It's somebody with type one who wanted to help the podcast and as an artist, her art is really amazing

Joe 1:32:27
that she would put a banner on the side of her car and drive. I'm literally

Scott Benner 1:32:31
my car for a tattoo before I die. Like just one person who was moved by it enough to get a tattoo or named their child after me.

Joe 1:32:39
Don't tell me that she tells me I'm not allowed to get more tattoos. Oh, we just

Marilyn 1:32:43
got to this year. And plus, I would never let him get it. He doesn't want like a type one. Not nothing against people, but get the type one job.

Joe 1:32:51
You know what I did? Scott? I she, I told her I she knew I was getting my first one. I told her I booked an appointment for a second one. And she goes, Did you ever think about what these could do to your blood sugar and I go I have an extensive research model. There's nothing you could tell me that will make me stop doing this because it's safe. And you need to keep your numbers low. Otherwise, if they're high, they can get infected. So I was like Do not tell me I kid.

Scott Benner 1:33:13
You meant during the healing process like a couple of days. Now. I was just reaching out one, Joe, I just want to tell you something and I want to make sure like man, how old are you? 52 Okay, 40 years from now. She's gonna be up here.

Marilyn 1:33:30
I'm gonna haunt them when I'm gone.

Scott Benner 1:33:35
She is never gonna leave you alone, man. Is she your sister this way?

Joe 1:33:44
All you do is gossip. You're doing it like don't do anything. I'm not saying you don't do anything but you're not. Obviously she's not diabetic. You have no reason to be honored. She's also 22 She's an adult.

Scott Benner 1:33:57
I'm imagining I'm imagining your sister right now listening to this. Yo man, what's your problem?

Marilyn 1:34:02
You're picking the wrong week to bring perhaps you can branch out into like the Dr. Phil podcast and we might be on with another episode of those non non diabetic related related.

Scott Benner 1:34:17
Alright, so guys, listen, I really enjoyed this and I honestly would keep going but I have to get into a call somewhere. Yeah, it's not fun at all. When we get off I'll explain to you why I decided to drive instead of

Marilyn 1:34:34
me it's not Long Island traffic.

Joe 1:34:38
It's so good. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 1:34:40
really appreciate you doing this Joe. I hope maybe one day Joe when you're older, you might come back without your mom and totally talk a little more about this

first type of a quart of course I'd like to thank Joe and his mom, Marilyn for coming on the show and having such an open and honest conversation. Thank you very much. I also want to thank touched by type one, and remind you to head over to touch by titebond.org. And check out all they're doing including that golf outing. And of course, to get yourself a free, no obligation 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash. If you want to know if you're eligible for that, all you have to do is go to Omni pod.com Ford slash juicebox. Don't forget that T one D exchange survey T one D exchange.org. Ford slash juice box

is a pretty long episode. So I'll just thank you for listening remind you that I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast tell you not to forget about that Facebook page Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place to talk about type one. And honestly type two, I got all kinds of peoples in there. If you're using insulin Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes may just be the place for you. It's on Facebook, and it's private. So you don't have to worry about anybody poking around. You got to answer some questions to get in there. You know what I'm saying? You know, I'm saying I don't even know what I'm saying at this point. So there's very little chance that you know what I'm saying but you should check out the Facebook group. What else? diabetes pro tips started a yoga my brain just shut off the diabetes pro tips. They started episode 210 But you can also find them at Juicebox Podcast calm and diabetes pro tip.com diabetes pro tip calm you'll also find the defining diabetes series. There's a ton of stuff on the website you can check out and everything of course is available wherever you get audio, Spotify, Apple, or any other audio app you can think of the show should be right there and it will definitely be free.

#641 Defining Thyroid: Graves disease.

March 07, 2022Scott Benner

Scott and Jenny Smith define thyroid terms.

In this Defining Thyroid episode, Scott and Jenny explain Graves disease.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Amazon Alexa - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public or their favorite podcast app.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com forward slash juicebox Hello friends and welcome to episode 641 of the Juicebox Podcast

Today's episode is a short one, it is also the second to last in the defining thyroid series. Today Jenny Smith and I are going to define Graves disease. 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 are becoming bold with insulin. The defining thyroid theories began at episode 616 with hypothyroidism and Hashimotos thyroiditis. In episode 619. We defined pituitary and thyroid glands in Episode 624 T sh testing Episode 628, T four and T three and episode 632 auto immune episode 636 goitre episode 640 thyroiditis today in Episode 641 will be defining Graves disease. Then there's one more episode coming that episode number is 644 and it will be all about how to take your thyroid medication. G voc hypo pan has no visible needle, and it's the first premixed auto injector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is G voc hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple to learn more about. All you have to do is go to G voc glucagon.com Ford slash juicebox. G voc shouldn't be used in patients with insulinoma or phaeochromocytoma. Visit G voc glucagon.com/risk. Can you just very quickly can we talk about Graves disease? Yes. All right. Well, I have always

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:25
just ask and we'll talk about it.

Scott Benner 2:28
Nothing even years from now if I send you a note and I say Jenny, I just really want to talk about Graves disease, you'll say hold on I'll call you.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:36
Right I'll call you. Let's get on the

Scott Benner 2:39
phone and we'll chat about it. Well grave Graves is the one around thyroid that you don't hear about as much in my experience. But I have it here as Graves disease is caused by a malfunction in the body's disease fighting immune system so it's autoimmune. It is unknown why this happens. The immune system normally produces normally produces antibodies designed to target a specific virus bacterium or other foreign substance. But as we all know, once in a while it gets weird and goes after you

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:10
which is so much fun and it does

Scott Benner 3:12
make my life perfect. It's an immune system disorder that results in the overproduction of thyroid hormones. That of course is called hyperthyroidism. Although a number of disorders may result in hyperthyroidism Graves' disease is a common cause thyroid hormones affect many blood systems so signs and symptoms of Graves disease can be wide ranging so Graves disease isn't isn't hyperthyroidism which is always how I had it mixed up in my head Graves disease is a thing that happens and then hyper hyperthyroidism comes from it. Am I understanding that right? Or no,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:50
I guess I mean, that's kind of a simplified, I guess. I'm trying to like digest what you just said to make sure. It's kind of like it's kind of like diabetes, right? Or type one diabetes specifically, right? I mean, it's the body's in auto immune system that is improperly doing something. And the result is a diagnosis of type one. So the result of the immune disorder and in Graves disease is specifically the immune disorder. That's named because your body over produces thyroid hormones, right hyperthyroidism? Essentially,

Scott Benner 4:38
I'm wrong about what I just said then so Graves disease is something that you that happens, it's autoimmune, and when it happens, you get hyperthyroidism. It's not like Arden got Coxsackie virus and then she got type one diabetes, it's Graves disease. It's not its own separate thing. Right, right. Okay.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:59
Yes. That's Yes, I'm good. Re Yes. redefinition there. Yes.

Scott Benner 5:04
Yeah, I'm just trying to understand it along because, you know, I have very simple brain I hear Graves disease, and I think, oh, they named it because it killed you. But I'm assuming probably some doctor that discovered it, but Right. But that

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:16
I mean, Graves disease is a common. It's a common cause of hyperthyroidism, but it's not the only reason that you may have hyperthyroidism, right. Graves disease is specifically an immune system like an autoimmune disorder. Okay, one of the hype, one of the reasons for hyperthyroidism. So

Scott Benner 5:36
interesting. This You see, there's a first of all, by the way, Robert Graves, an Irish doctor who first described the condition in the 1800s, not because it put people in the grave, but I guess then all the diseases would be called Graves disease in the church, if that's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:52
especially those that had no treatment other than just, you know, go to bed and put a warm blanket on your body, I guess.

Scott Benner 6:00
He broke his knee, he's got Graves disease. So, you know, I'm going to give a couple symptoms here of it just because it's, you know, anxiety, irritability, a fine tremor of the hands or fingers, heat sensitivity, an increase in perspiration, warmer moist skin weight loss, despite normal eating habits, enlarged thyroid, which could be called a goiter, and a change in menstrual cycles are some common ways to know something's up, I'll tell you those things. In general, if those things are happening to you, my brain goes thyroid right away, they just write hair falls.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:42
And it's, and especially if you're a, a woman, again, most thyroid conditions are much more prevalent in women or in females than in the male population. Not that you can't be you know, male and have thyroid disorder, but it is much more common in women, and especially under the age of, I think it's under the age of 40 is much more common for it to, you know, come into play. And a lot of women especially around the time of a pregnancy, that change in hormones, especially in somebody who already has an autoimmune disorder to begin with. Much more common to have the potential for thyroid disorder, both hyper and hypo around that time to

Scott Benner 7:33
the bulging eyes are a real common sign of graves, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:37
It was something that was my mom's one of my mom's diagnostic along with obviously, you know, the goiter there's that word again, which we defined before. So no listen to

Scott Benner 7:50
everything was just sticking out of your mom's head. You guys thought something's wrong with mom. Yes, we

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:55
were well, and we were I was it was actually after my before my brother was born. So I was my brother's younger than I am. So it must have been after I was born. So

Scott Benner 8:05
yes. So okay, so if you're seeing these symptoms, get to a doctor and then in the next episode, we'll explain how to how to take the medication because it's easy but you can miss time it and really take away from its effectiveness. Right. Am I making sense here? Yes. Yes. Good. Ah, hold on. See, Graves is one of those things like i don't i don't know like there's, you know what I'm saying right? Like there's, you get cancer, you have cancer, you lose weight, you your body dies, like cancer makes these things happen. But I know what cancer is. Right? I know that it's cells that are you know, that have mold doing the wrong thing. Wrong thing multiplied incorrectly, they've become diseased etc. I understand what cancer is. But I still don't in my heart know what Graves disease is.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:03
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just Graves disease is the autoimmune hyperthyroid sort of term, right? I mean Graves disease, you have hyperthyroidism, but the reason it is happening is because of your your immune system.

Scott Benner 9:21
So is Graves disease, the hyper thyroidism version of Hashimotos and Hashimotos

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:28
is correct. They're both autoimmune derived, right?

Scott Benner 9:32
So you can shoot I know this is I know at this point, you're thinking like, Why can't this guy get this straight, but I don't know why it doesn't roll right in my head. So, hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, you can have hypothyroidism without Hashimotos. But if you have Hashimotos, that's an autoimmune disease that causes hypothyroidism. However, there yes there. So yes, you however, you could have hypothyroidism without having Hashimotos. Similarly, you can Couldn't have hyperthyroidism without graves. But if you have graves, you're going to have hyperthyroidism.

Unknown Speaker 10:06
Yes. There. Yes.

Scott Benner 10:09
I think I talked myself through it finally, my God. Alright, I'm going to leave this part in because my confusion is has to be other people's confusion

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:18
there people's confusion. Absolutely. Because somebody you know, I know family member for you wise have issues with their thyroid, but not everybody in your family with thyroid disorder has an autoimmune thyroid disorder. Correct. So these are just the two main potential hypo or hyper that comes because their auto immune system is creating the problem. There are many other reasons you could have an Under or overactive thyroid issue that is not from autoimmune derived like problem

Scott Benner 10:57
yeah, to speak about. Oh my gosh, hold on. I don't know what's wrong, Amelia.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:03
Some water. Maybe it's winter, you know, dry house, I

Scott Benner 11:06
need hot tea. That's what I'm gonna get next time. So using my family as an example. My wife has hypothyroidism so does Arden. Neither of them are auto immune. My son had a real crazy like bout of like, like, I don't know, like it was a tough year in COVID. stressful and all that stuff. And then he got Hashimotos. As I look back on it now, we know because he did trial that when he was like 12 that Cole doesn't have any markers for type one diabetes, but I bet you if he did, he would have got type one diabetes. When this thing happened in his life. It's possible, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:46
it's possible, just the body with the way that his body would deal with whatever environmental factor came in that turned it on.

Scott Benner 11:53
Right. So So then my kids are auto immune. Sensitive, let's just call it which is not a real thing. But it but probably and Oh, that's interesting.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:06
So yeah, well, and the other interesting thing is that Arden's thyroid disorder is not she has no autoimmune she that she has no antibodies for thyroid, right? So if those antibodies as we've defined kind of before, if those aren't there, then the reason for per thyroid problem is from something else, something else is going on, that's creating the havoc within her thyroid, right? Because, again, antibody positive would be autoimmune related in terms of like Hashimotos. So I'm gonna that's very interesting for her because she has an autoimmune disorder already.

Scott Benner 12:51
I'm gonna guess. Inflammation. Like I know that's such a word that people just throw around. But I think people with autoimmune issues have inflammation in their bodies and things go wonky because of it. And that is going to be my guess you have to treat our guts better than we do. We're doing that right now. For Arden are this take? Yes. All kinds of stuff. So I enjoy everyday arguing with her about taking the supplements.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:14
I'm sure that you do if she's still taking I'm curious if she's still taking or maybe one of you was taking Berberine for sensitivity my

Scott Benner 13:24
son was but but it stopped when we figured out those they were throwing at it before they realized he had Hashimotos Gotcha. Yes, she's um, she's just taking a couple of different probiotics like very, like, Target and Target potent probiotics. Fish oil. She's, we've had she's getting a blood draw today, actually. And then after that her vitamin D supplementation is going to go from pill form to liquid drops. Yeah, and some other things. So hopefully I'll report on that later with some success. Oh, well, there there we go. Now we're done with Graves disease, for sure. We muddled through. Yes. Well, that's my confusion. But I again, you know, I think that's what these these conversations are for to try to talk through this stuff because I don't know. Anyway.

A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Kibo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juicebox you spell that GVOKEGL You see ag o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. And hey, if you like Jenny and you'd like to hire her, she works at Integrated diabetes. dot com

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#640 Defining Thyroid: Thyroiditis

March 04, 2022Scott Benner

Scott and Jenny Smith define thyroid terms.

In this Defining Thyroid episode, Scott and Jenny explain Thyroiditis.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 640 of the Juicebox Podcast.

In this the seventh installment of the defining thyroid series, Jenny Smith and I will define thyroiditis. So far in the defining thyroid series, we've tackled hypothyroidism, and Hashimotos thyroiditis. That's an episode 616. In Episode 619, we define pituitary and thyroid glands. In Episode 624, we defined P S H testing, and in Episode 628, we define T four and T three. In episode 632. We talked about auto immune episode 636 was goiter, and today in Episode 640 thyroiditis. While you're listening today, 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 are becoming bold with insulin?

If you have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone with type one, and are a US resident, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And take the survey. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor, learn more and get started today@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. It's at that very link that you'll be able to say hello to Dexcom. Let's define thyroiditis

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:09
I was checking off. So I remember which of these as well. I'm sure you probably

Scott Benner 2:13
Well, I I appreciate that we've known each other long enough that you're not 100% sure if I'm doing it so that you're handling it to which I really appreciate. Thyroid is is interesting because my wife has hypothyroidism my daughter's had it for years. My son has Hashimotos now and until I met Dr. BENITO nobody ever said the words thyroiditis to me ever. And she used it so much. While she was talking to us that I thought Well, this must be important because she has said it a number of times. Can you tell me what it is?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:48
It's the swelling, right? Just swelling of the thyroid gland. Correct? Yeah. And which can either cause high or low levels of the thyroid hormones kind of into the bloodstream or in circulation. That's my general idea of what thyroiditis and I mean, itis is really inflammation. So that's anything that ends in itis is an inflammatory type of condition. Okay.

Scott Benner 3:15
Interestingly enough around this because I don't think there's a ton to talk about around this. When when she was saying it, I I had no like I said, I had no context and I jumped a thyroid storm, in my mind in my head for some reason. But those are not the same thing. No, right. So I'm going to blend those two here together just because why not keep my confusion together. thyroid storm also referred to as a thyrotoxic crisis is an acute life threatening hypermetabolic state induced by excessive release of thyroid hormones, T H s in individuals with thyroid toxicity, Tyro Toxis store, thyroid storm may be the initial presentation of thyroid Toxis. I know I'm not saying that right. firerock thyroid talk. Holy God,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:12
is it there? Is it there a toxic Kosis Is there a sea of courses? Yes, yes. thyrotoxicosis.

Scott Benner 4:18
If I were gonna say that word, thyroids. I'll do it again, thyroid store and maybe the initial presentation of thyroid toxicosis in undiagnosed children. Okay. All right. So a thyroid storm, is I didn't realize this is much more serious than thyroiditis, thyroiditis is inflammation. thyroid storm is is a real like legitimate problem. That's interesting. So these are just words you may hear while you're talking about your thyroid issues in the doctor's office, and I didn't want people like I don't think they're like, I don't think thyroid thyroiditis and thyroid storm are things that you're going to need to know day to day while you're managing your thyroid issues. But I don't want you to be in the situation I was in where I was sitting there with a dumb look on my face gone. Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh. Yeah, sure, sure. Yeah, thyroid is right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:12
Once every storm from what I know, is very, it's rare. Yeah. Right. That is not a it's not, you know,

Scott Benner 5:20
it's not likely something you're going to see. But I think it's I do think it's a phrase that people know. Because, yes, I know it. Then other people have to know because I'm not like, you know, I mean, prior to this, I wasn't digging around for words like that. And I remember when I said it the first time privately, Dr. BENITO was like, no, no, no, she put her hand up like it was COVID time. So we were talking through video, she put her hand up, she was that is not the same thing. And I was like, Oh, well, there goes me sounding like I know what I'm talking about. But I just wanted to have them here in the series, because, you know, I think you're going to hear them. And if you do, you should.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:00
Well, and I. Yeah, I was gonna say in in from what I remember about just the term thyroid storm, which again, I think it's a general enough term that some people may not know enough about it or may misunderstand, from what I know about it, just the general it's much more relative to treatment, that has not gone the right way for Graves disease. Okay. I believe, again, rare as it is, if you're treating hyperactive thyroid with what they it's like a, it's like a radioactive iodine that's used. It can result in thyroid storm. But that's again, it's rare to happen. So it's not something to be concerned if that's the therapy that they're going to use for your greatest disease. But it can occur I

Scott Benner 6:58
see. Yeah, because it's saying here that your heart rate your blood pressure, your body temperature can all soar to dangerously high levels during a thyroid storm. So this is not something that people who just have hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism are gonna see this this is yeah, very specifically very specific. Yeah, to you. Oh, wow. That's really crazy. While the symptoms are insane, fever, sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, delirium, severe weakness, seizures, irregular heartbeat, yellow skin, jaundice. Yeah, this is not I want to be clear, this is not something that most any of you are going to run into. If you have it, it's good to

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:37
clear up what it is to be able to say, you know, definitively, you're very likely, you're more unlikely to have this ever happened to you. But this is what it is just in case somebody, you know, sort of strangely uses the term and you're like, I don't know, I don't know exactly what that is.

Scott Benner 7:55
I'll tell you the one thing that switching back to thyroiditis, when Dr. BENITO was talking to us about it privately, you know, Arden had a swing in her health at one point, and she kind of the doctor kind of couldn't figure out what it was a couple years. Okay. And she just said, Well, this just might be thyroiditis, and we're gonna have to wait for it to pass and calm and like she almost made it sound like you know, you can get a swelling of you know, and it can happen. It says the, the most common cause of thyroiditis. Some of the agents known to cause thyroiditis are antibodies. This is the most common cause drugs, radiation organisms like viruses or bacteria, conditions in which the body attacks itself, or autoimmune disease. thyroiditis can be an autoimmune disease while we know that, but the way she made it sound was like, well, maybe Arden just had a virus and it and her thyroids acting up because of it. And we'll we'll get on top of it with medication, retest her later and see if we can move we'll move the medication back when it's time. That could I guess that, you know, for most people, I mean, I really love bringing this up, because I'm a very strange person. I don't have a thyroid issue. And I am really enjoying talking about this. But but it's because you

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:09
live, you live with enough thyroid issues. Right?

Scott Benner 9:13
I did I know how important it is to really understand it so that you can see what's happening around you and make adjustments. And moreover, because of my job, and the amount of people I see who have, you know, some sort of hyper hypothyroidism Graves disease who live in this in this bubble. I see how many people are not managing it well, don't understand it and are struggling very needlessly and correct. That's why I wanted to do this because it's just, it's just it's not it's this tiny little pill, you take it once a day. It's not that hard, you know, and it's a huge help for

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:49
you. I think the hard thing is finding somebody who can manage that medication well for you and that the other hard part is paying close enough attention to your own body. You know, when something is not right anymore, that you can say, you know, my meds have been working really great. Everything's been in line, Hey, Doc, I'm getting this symptom back or I've got this like new and it's just sort of started and otherwise I feel okay, but this is not right. So it's always important to bring up anything that doesn't seem right once medications are well managed, because it could mean that something has changed. And you may need more or less.

Scott Benner 10:28
Jenny is doing a great job of getting us ready to talk about the next topic. Very good, Jenny, that's awesome. Look at you just segwaying away. Seriously, you should put this on your CV. Thinking

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:40
about doing that. It's just what was in my mind in terms of our context.

Scott Benner 10:45
But it works, because the next thing we're going to talk about is how to treat your thyroid. So you did Oh, all right. Awesome. Thank you. I'll talk to you soon. Yeah. Cool. I think you should put podcaster on your CV.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:57
I think, you know, I actually I probably should, I mean, I've done this enough with you. I mean, that I probably

Scott Benner 11:04
really good. I like to see it on your I want to see it on there. Let's get it in.

Before I tell you about the sponsor Dexcom. I'd like to thank you for listening to the defining thyroid series. It's not over yet. There are a few more episodes, but I'm getting a crazy amount of positive feedback from the listeners. And I appreciate it. This is a little bit of a departure from the diabetes stuff. But I thought it was really important. And I'm glad you're enjoying it. You can say hello to dexcom@dexcom.com forward slash juice box. I'm going to give you an example a real life example of something that's going on in our house right now. So my daughter has to be on a steroid pack for six days. And as you will know, if you've ever tried to take steroids, and you have type one diabetes, those steroids can make your blood sugar go up significantly. And with my daughter, they tried, but I knew I was going to combat it with a significant Basal increase. But that's a scary thing to do, isn't it? Right? As an example, my daughter's Basal is 1.1 An hour during the day, right now. And I didn't know how much I was going to have to increase it. So what do I do? Well, I use the data that was coming back from the Dexcom to make adjustments almost in real time to Ardens. Basal needs to know how much she ended up needing per hour to combat those steroids. four units an hour, I can tell you right now, that without seeing my daughter's blood sugar in real time, right in front of me on my phone, I would never have had the nerve to go from 1.1 to four. But that ends up being what she needed. And I was assisted by the data that came back from the Dexcom G six. That is just one example of how having that constant feedback of blood sugar data is valuable. I mean, just imagine the same situation, but a growth spurt. Or maybe some female hormones are in play. You can make adjustments and see their impacts in real time. You can see your blood sugar on the Dexcom receiver or on an iPhone or an Android phone. That was a big help to me today. Being able to see my daughter's blood sugar's when she wasn't with me when I sent her off to school with a Basal rate that was four times normal. That gave me a lot of pause. But I felt comfortable because a I knew it was working. It had been working for a number of hours at home and be I knew if something went crazy, I'd see it right on my phone. And I'd be able to do something about it right away. The Dexcom G six shows you what your blood sugar is. It shows you what direction it's moving if it's moving, and it tells you how quickly it's moving in that direction. This information is of key importance dexcom.com Ford slash juice box. These are my results. Yours may vary of course. But I'm going to tell you right now, the speed, direction and number of your blood sugar right there on your phone. There's nothing like it. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player, and links at juicebox podcast.com. For Dexcom. And all of the sponsors. When you click on the links, you're supporting the show, head over now and say hello to Dexcom dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. I'll be back very soon, with much much more

If you're wondering what signs and symptoms to look for in hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Graves' disease and Hashimotos I'm going to list them all for you right now. If you already know what they are. Well then thanks so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast, but if you're waiting for the signs and symptoms they're gonna happen like right now. symptoms of hypothyroidism Farey the Mayo Clinic list of possible symptoms as fatigue, increased sensitivity to cold constipation, dry skin weight gain, puffy face, hoarseness, muscle weakness, elevated blood cholesterol level, muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness, pain stiffness or swelling in your joints heavier than normal or irregular menstrual periods. thinning hair slow heart rate depression impaired memory enlarged thyroid gland, which could be known as a goiter. If you're looking for this in infants, you might also look for a large protruding tongue difficulty breathing, hoarse, crying, an umbilical hernia, or yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes. As the disease progresses in infants, you may also notice constipation, poor muscle tone and excessive sleepiness. In teens, you may notice poor growth resulting in short stature, delayed development of permanent teeth, delayed puberty or poor mental development. Let's move on to hyperthyroidism. Still on the Mayo Clinic's website, they say of course, that hyperthyroidism can mimic other health problems. We've been talking about this through all these episodes, you know that unintentional weight loss even when your appetite and food intake stay the same or increase, rapid heartbeat, irregular heartbeat, pounding of your heart, increased appetite, nervousness, anxiety, and irritability. Tremors usually a fine trembling in your hands or fingers, sweating changes in menstrual patterns. increased sensitivity, heat, changes in bowel patterns, especially more frequent bowel movements, and enlarged thyroid gland of course called a goiter, which may appear a swelling at the base of your neck, fatigue, muscle weakness, difficulty sleeping, skin thinning, find embrittle hair. For Graves disease, you're looking for dry eyes, red or swollen eyes, excessive tearing or discomfort in one or both eyes, light sensitivity, blurred or double vision, inflammation or reduced eye movement, protruding eyeballs. Just quickly Hashimotos disease which as we know is an autoimmune version of hypothyroidism. Hashimotos disease progresses slowly over the years you may not notice signs or symptoms of the disease. Eventually the decline in thyroid hormone production can result in any the following. There gonna be a lot of duplicates here from hypothyroidism, fatigue and sluggishness, increased sensitivity to cold increase sleepiness, dry skin, constipation, muscle weakness, muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness, joint pain and stiffness, irregular or excessive menstrual bleeding, depression, problems with memory or concentration, swelling of the thyroid, the goiter of puffy face, brittle nails, hair loss, enlargement of the tongue. I'd like to just finish by saying that if you have any of these, please see a doctor get a simple blood test and get yourself some answers. Don't forget a TSH over two is enough reason to be concerned. Treat your symptoms, not the lab values. Thanks again for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

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