contact us

Use the form on the right to contact us.

You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.​

         

123 Street Avenue, City Town, 99999

(123) 555-6789

email@address.com

 

You can set your address, phone number, email and site description in the settings tab.
Link to read me page with more information.

Screenshot 2023-03-12 at 2.41.02 PM.png

Podcast Episodes

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: Teplizumab

#459 Marrying Diabetes

Scott Benner

Kristen and Jay got married.

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

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


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

I just want to remind you if you're looking for the Define diabetes episodes, or the pro tip series, they're all right there in your podcast player, just search defining diabetes. We're diabetes pro tip, you can also find them at Juicebox Podcast COMM And if you need a list of them and actually even if you want to listen online, diabetes pro tip.com is where you'll find them. Okay, a little more to do and then we'll get started.

This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries g vo Kibo pen. Find out more at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box. This episode is also sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter and you can find out more at Contour Next one.com forward slash juice box. There's a lot going on at that link. Don't make the mistake of not checking it out. You're going to get a great meter. That's incredibly accurate, easy to use. And there's a lot more at that link. I'm not kidding test strip programs, you may even be eligible for a free meter. Go take a look. Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox.

Kristen 2:07
My name is Kristen and my husband Jay was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes in September of 2017.

Scott Benner 2:17
September of 2017, September 2018, a year and a half ish, right a year and a half ish. How long have you guys been married?

Kristen 2:25
We've only been married about a year but we've been together for 910 years.

Scott Benner 2:31
Okay. Do you mind me asking how old?

Kristen 2:34
I am. 25.

Scott Benner 2:36
Okay, so you guys met each other in kindergarten or something like that?

Unknown Speaker 2:40
Basically.

Unknown Speaker 2:43
That's so nice. Did you date in high school?

Kristen 2:46
Um, well, I was in high school. It was not in high school.

Scott Benner 2:50
I Oh, now I see what you're saying. Jay. Jay has robbed the cradle. Where was he? arcade at the mall when

Kristen 2:58
he was actually my brother's hockey coach. And his younger brother is the same age as my younger brother. And they introduced us.

Scott Benner 3:08
No kidding. Oh, Christine is a bit of a may December thing is J significantly older than Kristen. No,

Kristen 3:15
he's about two and a half years older than me. Gotcha. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 3:19
Yeah.

Scott Benner 3:20
We all have the picture. We see what's happening. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 3:23
Yes.

Scott Benner 3:24
Were you planning on getting married when he was diagnosed? Or was that not in the workshop? Yeah, we

Kristen 3:30
were engaged that December, December 2016. And then he got diagnosed in September.

Scott Benner 3:39
Is it possible that the fear of getting married gave your husband type one diabetes? Yes or no? Maybe

Unknown Speaker 3:46
could have been

Scott Benner 3:48
shocked this system? Yeah. Blood Cells jump up and was like, we have to stop this. And then they just stopped this pancreas instead. That's fantastic. Well, well, anyway. I'm sorry to hear about his diagnosis. But it's it's interesting that you're on the show and not him because you reached out to me. Yeah. And so we're going to kind of find out about your experience, I guess, being the, you know, being the wife and I guess even the, the be truth of a person with type one. So let's go back to when he's diagnosed first. Yeah. I imagine shocking. Were you? Were you a part of the process? Or did he do it on his own?

Kristen 4:28
I was Yeah, I was a part of the process. Jay, how had an insane fear of needles. I mean, he he had the flu shot as a kid and he passed out knocked his front teeth out. So he's, he was absolutely terrified of needles. And I think once he realized what was happening. He did everything in his power not to go to the doctor.

Scott Benner 4:58
No kidding. Do you you think do you think let me ask you a question do you think when he knocked out his two front teeth that's when he decided to play hockey because he just figured why not right like have nothing to lose

Kristen 5:10
right i would say yes but he probably started playing hockey at about three years old and that happened and he was

Scott Benner 5:17
i don't know he was lucky to have his teeth that long man nevermind

Unknown Speaker 5:20
yeah true

Scott Benner 5:21
yeah you think he kind of diagnosed himself and then when he really oh yeah it was going on he just didn't go to the doctor but was his plan do you think

Unknown Speaker 5:31
i don't

Kristen 5:32
know exactly i don't know if either of us really understood what diabetes really was or what type one diabetes was jay like had all of the symptoms he was drinking excessive amounts of water and losing weight but we boiled it down to we moved home from a different city and jay had different work schedule he started having different eating habits we're like this is great you're losing weight and you're drinking lots of water this is wonderful but when it got past a certain point i was starting to get confused and i'm trying to compete with how much water he was drinking i was baffled there was no way i could drink that much water

Scott Benner 6:24
well you know what they say work schedule changes you get thirsty right away so it's january genuinely amusing when you take the diabetes out of it how how many people because that we almost all do it start looking for just any other reason that it might be that really is something because because i guess it feels like if you don't know it's not real but yeah you know the longer you don't know the longer you're hurting yourself it is really like you know it's a lot like when we talk about blood sugar's here and people were like well my doctor said 180 was okay yeah and i didn't know and i always think like did you not look like you could have like the internet exists you could have just said hey what's an average blood sugar person doesn't have diabetes and then when it came back and told you like 85 you could have went huh yeah this isn't good this isn't right it but instead we go with what the doctor said or nobody tells me it's not real it's interesting it's understandable but it's interesting

Unknown Speaker 7:25
for sure

Scott Benner 7:26
so he so he heads off to the doctor with his with his extreme needle phobia from his flu situation by the way my son cole was about 11 i got him a flu shot and just out of the corner of my eye i saw him i think he was gonna punch the nurse reached out and grabbed his hands like we're doing and he's like i don't want this and i was like well you can't hit this woman because you don't want it like that's not how this works yeah did your husband come close to punching anyone at hospital

Kristen 7:52
um no no i know passing out but definitely had to you know go through routine when the needle was coming and need to cold cloth over my face it was all thing but

Scott Benner 8:09
it was just here as a christian at this moment grown man scared of needles covered his face so you're standing there thinking i could probably do better than this right is that what was

Unknown Speaker 8:19
like i know i'm

Scott Benner 8:21
trying a little harder to find the guy who's not afraid of this

Kristen 8:24
well i think we're both pretty bad i'm just as bad like fainter got to get the room with the bed when you go get your blood taken

Unknown Speaker 8:35
yeah it's just bad

Scott Benner 8:37
i hear you so that's interesting though because you're both in that situation so when when the first time you're in the room together and he's holding a pen or a needle or something like that or do you think you were both thinking like well who's gonna do this because it's not going to be me

Kristen 8:50
yeah it was it was pretty awful yeah

Scott Benner 8:54
tell me what happened was it like a three stooges comedy or

Kristen 8:59
it's a it's all kind of a blur i think the nurses had to do it initially he wanted to in the leg for the longest time and now he obviously had to move sites around and so making the back of the arm and i remember he had me he's like okay well you can try just one and i did it in the leg but i think i it was as if i was trying to stab him with

Unknown Speaker 9:23
the insulin

Scott Benner 9:25
like a horror movie were you jabbing yeah

Kristen 9:27
no no i'm purpose ended up being what i did

Scott Benner 9:31
i wouldn't imagine so there was cursing then or do you guys not curse what did i

Kristen 9:35
oh yeah we curse yeah he said that i would never be allowed to do it again but that changed a

Scott Benner 9:45
little does he know that you're gonna spend the most of the rest of your lives together and you're going to you're going to do far worse to him than to each other to be perfectly honest so you guys are close to your wedding date he's been dying he's been diagnosed with type one You're starting to understand that it's a lifelong disease, and you're getting the idea of what diabetes is.

Unknown Speaker 10:05
Yep. You

Scott Benner 10:06
said he lost weight. Did he lose a lot of weight? Like prior to the diagnosis? Like, was it a couple pounds or 20 pounds? or How was it?

Unknown Speaker 10:15
It was a lot of weight.

Kristen 10:17
The doctors have boiled down to Jay being able to wait so long from diagnosis because he burned through a lot of weight. By the time Jay had hit the hospital, he had lost over 200 pounds.

Scott Benner 10:33
Oh my God, that's amazing. So yeah, my gosh, so I'm wrapping my head. I just got I just, I don't know what happened. I just like fried a circuit for how long? How long was the weight loss? In like time months.

Unknown Speaker 10:51
In months,

Unknown Speaker 10:52
it was

Unknown Speaker 10:54
probably three or four years.

Unknown Speaker 10:57
Oh, no kidding.

Unknown Speaker 10:58
It was a long time.

Scott Benner 11:00
Was he willfully trying to lose weight? Or was he just like, Hey, this is things are finally going my way. Like, which which way was it?

Kristen 11:08
It was unsure. I mean, his job switched to like a night shift to a day shift and walking. Like miles and miles and miles per day. So

Scott Benner 11:22
part of him just thought my life's like my lifestyle. My lifestyle is changing. And I'm good. Yeah. And it's working for me.

Kristen 11:28
Yeah. But obviously once it reached like a certain certain weight he had lost there was obviously an issue.

Scott Benner 11:35
Yeah, I was just reading something the other day. That said, I think the number they put in the article was 20 pounds. Like if you lose 20 pounds, and you weren't, you weren't trying to lose 20 pounds, you have to go you have need to go to the doctor. But but so something about him having that weight to lose. Yeah, help them The doctor said Do you have any, like clarification on that? Because that sounds?

Kristen 11:57
Yeah, it was because he had more weight to burn through is

Scott Benner 12:06
so he kind of sustained him for a while while he was going Yes.

Kristen 12:10
That's kind of what they they've said or, or that is Pinker's was slowly slowly shutting down over the years, or else he would have been in the hospital sooner.

Unknown Speaker 12:19
Yeah. Okay.

Kristen 12:21
I don't exactly know when it started or when that that weight loss was actually him trying. Right.

Scott Benner 12:27
That's so yeah, it's hard to know, I guess.

Kristen 12:30
Yeah. And without knowing anything about it, now I look back. And obviously, things would have been done differently for

Scott Benner 12:38
now. You can't hindsight 2020 you can't you can't fault yourself for that. So it's been a year and a half or so. It has the weight stayed off of him. Um, well, when he got to the hospital.

Kristen 12:52
Jay was so so skinny. He needed? Oh, yeah. When he was on he was in the hospital for almost three weeks. And he gained I think 30 pounds in three weeks.

Scott Benner 13:06
Wow. That's crazy. I mean, it's not that crazy, honestly, aren't in game almost Arden gave him was three pounds overnight when she started getting insulin.

Kristen 13:12
Yeah, yeah. And the color came back to his face and the weight came back on you can see his ribs or his bones anymore. And to put into perspective, J is normally probably two to 25. And he's six foot two like he's a he's a grown man.

Scott Benner 13:32
He's a big guy. Right? So yeah. It's it's even more startling when you see somebody who you expect to be sort of big and sturdy to Yeah, get frail. have happened to a friend of mine when I was young, and his father cancer and his dad was like, six, four. And I just always remember him being this massive person. And then, you know, a few weeks before he passed away. It was just like, it hit me one day. I was like, Oh my God, look, it feels like he shrunk. You know, yeah, really something. So you guys get over the shock. And he I'm assuming this he get over his needle phobia? Or how does he end up getting his insulin?

Kristen 14:04
He got over the needle phobia. It did take a while there was a long time where I would be I'd have to tell him that I'm thinking about making supper. So you should start getting the needle ready. Because it would take 45 minutes to an hour for him to even give himself one needle. But I mean, it's not even an issue anymore. He's any is on the Omnipod now, so he doesn't even have to deal with that anymore.

Scott Benner 14:35
That's very nice back then was it sort of like trying to coax a child into swallowing like a pill or something like that? You

Unknown Speaker 14:41
know? Yeah, maybe.

Scott Benner 14:43
Were you ever like there'll be like happy time with Kristen tonight? If you could just go Did you ever just like get yours? So it seriously for second? Was it ever? I don't I don't know if irritating is the right word but from a distance. Did you ever look at him and think oh my mom like I just put the let's Go man, like, like, Did it ever affect you that way? Cuz because here's why I ask when you love someone who has type one, you your concern for them in a way that's not always transferable like you, they don't always want you to tell them. Yeah, you know, I'm concerned for you, I'm worried for you, I really want you to Pre-Bolus or something like that. Like, it's hard. Like, you don't know what to say sometimes what not to say. So sometimes you bottle the stuff up. Did you ever have a feeling where you were like, Oh, my God, this guy is just like not? Like, what's he doing? Or did he get over it pretty quickly?

Kristen 15:33
Uh, no, I tend not to bottle things up. I just say what's on my mind. with J. With getting over that needle phobia, we started this technique. And it was like, if you don't do it on the countdown to five, you're not going to do it. So he won't even start 54321. And in the needle went and it seemed to help. And

Scott Benner 16:00
just giving them a timeline.

Kristen 16:02
Yeah. And then he would do some and I would do some and we just kind of went back and forth, they would help to give them a little bit of a break. And that seems so long ago that I don't think it lasted too too long after he was diagnosed there. There was a bigger issues that came along after he was diagnosed that kind of made that a small deal.

Scott Benner 16:27
What were the bigger issues.

Kristen 16:29
So he started, what they called it at the diabetic clinic was hungry nerve syndrome. So they had never seen it before. And I guess because his blood sugar's dropped so quickly, and they must have been high for so long. his nerves, I guess they say like they're at the, at the top of your skin. So it was just an excruciating pain. And that lasted for, I would say three months, I had to take a leave of absence from work and be at home every day with him. But luckily, that has all subsided. He's still taking medication for it, but he is in a whole different life compared to

Scott Benner 17:27
that. So it did be did just didn't I guess stop at some point. But how long did it take to stop? And what's the pain all over his body?

Kristen 17:35
Yeah, so how he described it as as if he had second degree burns all over his body. He he felt like his his his chest, you couldn't touch him lightly, because it just felt like it felt really bad. I don't really want to use what he exactly said. Because I know there's children and exactly, it hurt a lot. And he couldn't wear particular clothing. He had to buy like a particular sheet and blanket and an t shirt.

Scott Benner 18:15
Listen, I'm all for helpful until it starts costing money. And then you should have told him look stand naked in the center of the room. You're not buying sheets. How long did it take for to pass?

Kristen 18:30
About three months? Until it subsided? And then now? Yeah, it was pretty awful. He I I never want anyone else to experience that. Or watch someone go through that. And what what are the doctors call it hungry nerves and drum. They said that because his blood sugar like when he was diagnosed, his blood sugar was 600 which listen to other people's interviews, it seems like that's relatively normal at diagnosis. is a once he was 14. And within three months, when we went to the doctor, his agency went from a 14 to a seven. So they think in dropping that. That's their best

Scott Benner 19:21
kind of confused is.

Unknown Speaker 19:23
Yeah.

Scott Benner 19:24
You know, it's funny, I was just speaking with someone the other day who was told by their doctor that their child was in experiencing like an incredible hunger that comes sometimes from getting your blood sugar stable and that it should Oh, and I just had never even heard that before. So Oh, yes. Another one for me that.

Unknown Speaker 19:42
Yeah,

Kristen 19:42
that's really it's a lot of the doctors are quite baffled because these issues don't normally come until like 20 years down the road. And there's no way Jay could have had diabetes for 20 years.

Scott Benner 19:56
So so when they hear nerve when they hear nerves in general or problems with nerves they think that that's from long term problems but in his situation it probably it's probably not from that it's probably just something else and it has never like reoccurred or anything like that no would you do with all the sheets and the clothes

Unknown Speaker 20:17
he still wears them

Scott Benner 20:19
i don't like waste crystals

Unknown Speaker 20:22
i mean

Kristen 20:24
the pain is still there but it has subsided to an extent where he can live a normal life

Scott Benner 20:31
that could just be the marriage you don't know feeling that constantly because i have i feel like i'm buzzing a lot of the days i'm glad that it's something that he can work with and it doesn't affect his day to day in the same way do you think he feels do you think he feels it but he doesn't experience it the same way anymore like he's accustomed to it or it just has lessened

Kristen 20:53
yeah that could very much be it he's um he's a tough guy he played hockey for years he played hockey with broken limbs and broken ribs broken wrist and

Unknown Speaker 21:11
sounds so bad to him i guess

Kristen 21:13
right i guess i

Scott Benner 21:15
so you're in you're in canada

Unknown Speaker 21:17
yes i am

Scott Benner 21:18
but you're not canadian are you i am are you really you don't sound good to me i just said that from your voice so where we're in canada are you from

Kristen 21:27
i'm in alberta so like above montana idaho

Scott Benner 21:33
help me for a second why am i why am i confusing your accent with european

Unknown Speaker 21:42
um i don't i don't know i don't

Unknown Speaker 21:45
know i'm an idiot okay

Kristen 21:47
well my like j is from newfoundland which is east coast of canada maybe i'm picking up some of their accents it's

Unknown Speaker 21:55
like i don't know

Scott Benner 21:56
i'm telling you for a second i thought jay got himself like a russian mailer and had it shipped to canada which is a warm up i guess if you're leaving you know russia but for most other people no one's looking to go above montana like imagine imagine everyone who's in montana right now there's somewhere north of you oh horrible so cold

Unknown Speaker 22:18
oh yeah so cool

Scott Benner 22:21
so you said in your note your this is very interesting because do you guys both listen to the show or is it just you

Unknown Speaker 22:27
it's just me

Unknown Speaker 22:29
what made you reach out

Kristen 22:31
um i think after the pain subsided and we were working really hard on the diabetes i was like this isn't right like we're not achieving the numbers of the correct like there's got to be a better way to do this and i just started searching and i i like podcasts and i googled type one diabetes and this was one of the first ones that came up

Scott Benner 23:04
so my quality seo is the reason you found the podcast like if another one would have popped up ahead of it do you think you'd be on a different podcast right now

Kristen 23:11
well i listened to a couple other ones but they just weren't as good

Scott Benner 23:16
i got bless you i it's wrong for me to say it but this is totally the best diabetes podcast

Unknown Speaker 23:23
it's true it's so true

Scott Benner 23:25
thank you your check is in the mouth i appreciate you so i've just brought up my conversion chart so that we can talk about type one in a way that'll be helpful so when you found yourself online googling for a podcast and found the best one on the internet i'm so sorry there there are people who don't hear sarcasm correctly and so sometimes i have to cover myself attempt just joking i'm not joking i think it's the best one so in this moment it wasn't sarcasm it was you'll pick up the sarcasm okay so when when you were like no we have to figure something out where was his average blood sugar sitting

Kristen 24:03
well he would go to bed pretty good about i actually have my conversion rate up to so i can say both for the canadians and americans so he would go to bed monday this was long time ago he go to bed at about a nine like a 160 and he was waking up out of 15 which is about a 270 and i'm like what is happening i have to figure this out and at that point we were just poking we got the libra which was okay it's not that not that great and then once we got that Dexcom we saw that he had the dawn effect and right around 3am his blood sugar was just going through the roof um but he was not achieving between that 70 to 140 range, which is a four to eight, nine. In my language. He was, I don't know, lots of to hundreds, three hundreds. It took a long, long time to get his blood sugar down from those numbers. Okay.

Scott Benner 25:16
And so was this when he was on? injections is still?

Kristen 25:21
Yep, he actually just switched to an omni pod in February. It has not been that long. Okay.

Scott Benner 25:27
Okay. Yeah. So you found the best podcast and you found the best insulin pump?

Kristen 25:31
Exactly. When I found the podcast, he was using the Libra. And I think it took me like two days of whistling to come home and say, okay, you're changing to the Dexcom. And well, as everyone knows, any change with any of the equipment is is a learning curve. And it's a big deal. And he was very resistant, then.

Scott Benner 25:53
Luckily, he had you to force him into it.

Unknown Speaker 25:56
Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 25:57
Let me say for a second, I joke constantly about being married, and my wife, and I'm sure if she ever listened to this, she'd probably just put a pillow over my face bombs. Yeah, but most of I'm being serious for a second. Most of the advancements I've made personally in my life, are because of my wife's intolerance of the jackass that I was when she met me. So if I, there are so many things about myself that are better now. Because because my wife said, This isn't good enough. We should be trying harder. Yeah. And I appreciate I don't know if that's just because she doesn't want to do the laundry. Maybe she's like, Look, you need to stay alive. I don't want to fold clothes. Maybe it's that maybe it's that's possible. Maybe she loves me. I can't tell it's hard to tell. But but but anyway, but seriously, sometimes you just need someone who has your best interests at heart who's willing to over to ignore your bullheadedness about something so that's really it's really nice of you because it's not easy. No and and I'm still haven't spoken about my friend Mike in any kind of real context on the show, and maybe I will one day but but Mike passed away a couple of weeks ago. And and I think he he could have used somebody like you to, to push them a little more. And he was very stubborn about his type on his whole his whole life. And I tried as hard as I could and wasn't really in the in the position and I know his wife tried but he needed somebody to to grab him by the maybe by the neck and tell him Look, let's just try this because I love you and let's try you know. Anyway, I'll find the courage to talk about Mike one day.

Unknown Speaker 27:41
Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 27:42
I'm sorry to hear that. Thank

Scott Benner 27:43
you very much. Geez, now I'm just like, he was just who's my best friend that I and I wanted to say that but I was afraid it's gonna make me cry. So I tried to move on to another thought. But now now I'm stuck for a second. I'll tell you what we'll put we'll put an ad here.

Kristen 28:00
Okay, that's okay.

Scott Benner 28:02
There's nothing more fun than trying to sell an insulin pump after you've heard about a person passing. g vo hypo pan has no visible needle, and it's the first premixed autoinjector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is chivo hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple to learn more about. All you have to do is go to G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox g Vogue shouldn't be used in patients with insulin Noma or pheochromocytoma. They visit je Vogue glucagon.com slash risk.

Everyone deserves a blood glucose meter that is accurate, easy to use and easy to use. Not just in the daytime but at nighttime as well. It needs a bright light needs a screen that is legible and it has to fit your hand. This description perfectly describes the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. It is the meter we use here at home. And it is the most accurate blood glucose meter that Arden has ever had in me forever. Seriously, since the beginning she was two when she's almost 17. So for that entire time, this is the one it is incredibly accurate. Simple to hold simple to use, simple to see in the dark with and it has Second Chance test strips meaning you could touch the blood not good enough go back get more without endangering the accuracy of the test. We're wasting a test strip contour now Next One is the meter I would get if I was buying one right now today and you can find out more at Contour Next one.com forward slash juice box. There are links right there in the show notes of your podcast player. We're at Juicebox Podcast comm to the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, Jeeva, glucagon, and all of the sponsors of the Juicebox Podcast when you use the links, you're supporting the show. So please click on them if you have the desire to find out more. And don't forget about those diabetes pro tip episodes, and the defining diabetes episodes, which are also in your podcast player, or at diabetes pro tip.com.

You bring your husband this technology and you're like, Look, I'm listening to this podcast. And we're, you know, there's, there's more here for us like the we will find better tolerances. Was he resistant? Was he thoughtful about it? Did he push you aside?

Kristen 31:00
Yeah. We're both extremely stubborn and bullheaded. So we butt heads a little bit. And it's a hard balance, because I'm trying to boss him around, but be his wife. I don't know, I guess it's kind of my job. But

Scott Benner 31:20
I think your job is just to tell him he's wrong. He's underperforming, and he's not getting to have sex. I think those are really the things you're supposed to do. But what are you doing?

Unknown Speaker 31:31
Um,

Kristen 31:33
yeah, it just, I will come home. So excited every day and say something new that I learned on the Juicebox Podcast that he had to try. And we try it that night, and it would work and everything just started to work. And it started to click. And I i another reason that I use a podcast is because diabetes is so lonely and isolating. And I feel that and it can take over you a few but it but by using that Juicebox Podcast is like a community. And let me get over that. And, and also, let me help Jay in understanding like that I don't want him to ever feel super alone or super isolated, that I'm always I'm always here. And I like I have the knowledge and I understand. I don't understand what it's like to have type one. But I understand a lot about it and

Scott Benner 32:36
a lot of aspects about I feel the same way I there are times when I feel odd that you know that I'm the one who's talking about it when I don't have it. But yeah, but my my perspective of it is is no less, you know, important. I don't think I just I don't know what it's actually like to be the person. Right? What what kind of isolation? Can you describe the isolation? Are you able to put it into words? What happened when he was diagnosed?

Kristen 33:01
Yeah, um, well, we were on our own, we bought a house, like, five, six years ago now, like we were living our own life, we had our careers. And this happened and our whole world kind of came crashing down. Everything that we knew, changed. Jay, worked in a job where he was out in a field in the middle of nowhere. And in minus 40 plus 40. He can't do that anymore. That's too dangerous. There's just no cell service. There's

Unknown Speaker 33:44
it's just,

Scott Benner 33:46
you got you. You were worried about him? Was he worried about it? Or were you worried about it?

Kristen 33:51
I'm both really worried about it. I'm like, in remote areas where no one can reach you. So he hasn't been working since he'd got diagnosed, but we are at a point now where he will be going back but that was definitely hard. And then there was us learning about it, but us learning about it as at a very fast pace. And it's our everyday but everyone around us, all they know is just the very, very, very basic stuff. So it's not our support system was our family. But at the same time, they didn't have a clue what we were talking about.

Scott Benner 34:38
Right. So they're just nodding at you and yeah, looking a little sad for you. And yeah, saying things like, I understand. And that was difficult.

Kristen 34:50
Yeah, it was a lot of like, you're so strong and well, I don't think we have a choice here but but I understand like When something like this happens, you can be strong or you can not be strong. So I don't I'm trying to accept that as a compliment other than getting angry.

Scott Benner 35:10
I think that I understand what you're saying about not wanting to begin to get angry when people say things that don't quite fit what's actually happening, but you just had a break. They don't really know. Yeah, you know, and they are trying to be helpful. It just, it doesn't work out, usually. And I've listened. I've said it before. And I've taken flack over it in the past, because parents like to talk about how brave their kids are all the time. And I just think like, I mean, she I mean, it's brave, but they don't want to that's not like they saw it, they want to do it. Do you don't mean like brave, brave is brave is enlisting in the military when you don't have to write. Brave, right, if you you know, it's it's still brave if you if you get drafted, I guess. But the pinnacle of bravery is saying, There's no reason for me to be in this fight. But I'm going to get into it anyway, for reasons you get diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, it's not like you raise your hand and go, I'll take diabetes to someone else doesn't happen if you did that. That would be brave. What's you know, what's happening to you is strength. Its its resilience, like you are being hit with something hard, and you're and you're resilient. And that's amazingly, it's incredible. And it's not something that happens for everybody. That's why it's so remarkable when you see it, because we know some people are hit with the same thing that happened your husband and it crushes them. Yeah, right. And but you don't know why it crushed them. Maybe they didn't have the support system they needed or the understanding or the tools or the technology or the medication, or the insurance or all the possibilities, and how frequently, there's something happened with diabetes, that is absolutely like buries you in an avalanche. And you feel like you can't get out of it. And you go to your doctor and ask and they're just like, I don't know, like, we won't move this setting and see what happens. And it doesn't do anything. Yeah. Right. So And not only that, you're basically on Mars, because you live in Canada. So you're by yourself. I mean, I mean, when you picture when you said you bought a house I just pictured Santa is like castle, like just snow everywhere with a house right in the middle that you look at and think how do they get electricity? That thing?

Unknown Speaker 37:13
Exactly right, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 37:15
Am I really?

Unknown Speaker 37:17
It's a two storey igloo.

Scott Benner 37:21
Congratulations, a two storey igloo is absolutely going to be the title of this episode. Well done. Well done. That's spectacular. You were really honest, just now about how it felt? And it's Yeah, it's not good now. Do you think? I don't want to? I'm trying to figure out what to do. Do you think that not finding? Forget this podcast? Let's say you found let's say you just found nothing? Do you have a feeling for where you'd be right now?

Kristen 37:57
I'm probably not in a great place. The diabetic center here is probably as helpful as everybody else's few few examples. I mean, we have found a very good nurse practitioner at at the center. But this only happened when Jay got put on the Omnipod. But the information that they give is just so bad. I remember asking, when should we give the insulin before after the meal is like I'm confused. I don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing here. Or what Jay is supposed to be doing here and and they just do look at each other and kind of shrug their shoulders and go whenever you want. Really I'm like what? And now listening.

Scott Benner 38:47
It's the same good. Same thing I do with when I shave my cat today. No, not today. Doesn't work with insulin. It almost doesn't work with my facial hair. But I'm a stay at home dad. So I shave when I want to. It's like really one of the great perks of my job is that I don't have to shave every day. And by the way, I figured that out years ago, in the in the winter, I realized that the moms that I was mostly around with my kids when they were younger were wearing like sweat pants and weren't shaving their legs. And I thought

Unknown Speaker 39:18
I could do it. I

Scott Benner 39:20
thought if they don't have to shave their legs every day. There's no way I have to shave my face every day. Like we're all we're all in this fight together. So now I've become the laziest shaver ever. But that's amazing. So it didn't really matter when to give your insert it could have been before during after they gave you no guidance on that whatsoever.

Kristen 39:37
Apparently, apparently, yeah. And then they would be baffled why his blood sugar was at the 12 or 200.

Scott Benner 39:43
And so you were met with no answers like what would you be told? What would you be told in the beginning when you can you went in you're like look, we see 200 blood sugars all the time. What What should we do? Hmm.

Kristen 39:58
A lot of it was it's better to be high low this is this is better than being low isn't it i'm like okay we we have already been faced with what happens when you have high blood sugars no it's this is not the great the better alternative here i don't

Scott Benner 40:19
that's not an answer either

Kristen 40:21
no it's not and it makes me so angry and i remember there's some nurse practitioners who like my involvement and praise me and i know that drives me crazy because they'll ask his opinion and then they'd be like okay but let's talk to kristen because she has the good questions and it makes him so okay just

Scott Benner 40:42
sit there quietly while mommy figures this out you're gonna have to be careful there by the way you don't want that to turn into a situation where you are mommy you know you're not looking for that especially up in the cold so well do you guys so this had popped into my head earlier i didn't ask but now you brought it up so i'm gonna ask is there a way is it possible is i guess is my question is it possible that you're going to start helping him so much and do such a good job that he could get complacent and allow you to do it and not be as involved in it like is it because that's something parents think about a lot yeah but it sounds like that in the situation it could be similar and i'm not trying to get you divorced and careful how you answer but but it's an interesting conversation right like is it possible that you know i can put it into my own terms right i didn't get i didn't yesterday was a mess at my house at the timing of everything got messed up everything got pushed back and i did not get dinner made and when my wife came home she was she'd had a long day she was like in meetings constantly she had a headache she was tired she was gonna go out and exercise and i know she wanted to walk in the door and eat and there was no food there and she was irritated like to the point where like everyone started making fun of her behind her back like she was really upset and she got over it don't get me wrong but like there was an expectation there she was like i'm out i'm home and someone's gonna feed me and when it didn't happen she was like hey why is this not happening i wonder if your husband's has an expectation of like you'll take care of his blood sugar um

Kristen 42:21
i understand like why you might think that but no j is so on top of it he as like i am very involved in it is like a team effort but g goes on his own places that i'm not there and i'm just he has

Scott Benner 42:43
the same successes away without me from you that he does with you yeah it's just that you understand so you're you're more of like the conduit for the information yeah i listened to the podcast and then you come home and tell him the parts he needs to know

Kristen 42:59
yeah and he tries it or he'll say this is my blood sugar this is what i'm doing this is what i'm eating i'm thinking this what are you thinking

Unknown Speaker 43:07
gotcha

Kristen 43:08
and then we go off of that

Scott Benner 43:10
sounding board just he's yeah and let's let's brag for a second who's right more frequently you

Kristen 43:16
were i'm not going to answer that

Scott Benner 43:20
question everybody she's always right she's never been wrong once and save matt

Unknown Speaker 43:23
oh god

Scott Benner 43:26
listen if either of you knew what you were doing you'd move out of canada i'm just saying it's cold

Kristen 43:30
and it is very cool any sense to live there but it doesn't really doesn't it snowed here to two weeks ago

Unknown Speaker 43:39
in may

Kristen 43:40
yes yeah i like a lot of snow

Scott Benner 43:44
i'm sorry yeah is it is when it starts snowing do you just feel like oh my god i give up

Unknown Speaker 43:52
just cry just

Scott Benner 43:55
the snow snowing i know people on facebook from other places that flowers in their front yards and so nice and i hear all right well listen you have things you have that we don't have don't don't act like you have we don't have it it's fair's fair you have to freeze but you get alright i'm at a loss for what you get you get i'm sure there's something i think people in cold weather live longer

Unknown Speaker 44:22
i don't know

Scott Benner 44:24
not even true i freeze to death i may have learned that on a television show when i was 15 so it's possible that the people on the atm live longer because that's it

Kristen 44:35
i mean it gets like our average temperature in the winter time i don't know fahrenheit it's like minus minus 20 to minus 40 it's pretty normal for the wintertime it's freezing

Scott Benner 44:52
i just the other day i've been telling my wife recently we need to we need to retire somewhere i have very specific ideas i want it to be warm but not hot and not humid and i don't want weird bugs and and every time i say that people like say you're going to san diego i'm like i cannot afford san diego there's not another place and someone told me maybe northern texas but then i guess you get a little weird with like the bad like the you know the wind and the rain that like picks your house up and makes you see you know the wizard of oz so i don't know there's no good place the i think the key to life is to make enough money to live in warm weather places in the winter and cold weather places in the summer i'd like to probably angry yeah but i don't know how i'm gonna do that so i mean i guess i could call on the pod and like you know up my ad rate by 9,000% and that might help me but other than that i don't know what's gonna happen so okay so you switch so he's got dex now Dexcom g six or do you guys can't get you six in canada

Kristen 45:54
we cannot get the g six until maybe october or november

Scott Benner 45:59
do you have the five i have the five yeah still a fantastic meme sensor really really great so you have the g five and you Omnipod yeah did you get the new dash with the on the pod

Kristen 46:12
i don't know if that's out yet here either i tried to look that up and i cannot find this

Scott Benner 46:20
again you guys and being serious for a second having done the blog for so long the podcast canada has always last like they always it takes a long time for stuff to get there okay so but he's but he's pumping and how has that changed things for him it's biggest improvement you've seen i guess

Unknown Speaker 46:40
hmm um

Kristen 46:43
there's so many to lists i don't know if i can list all of them

Scott Benner 46:47
stream of consciousness then

Kristen 46:49
starters has a one c on friday we just went to his endocrinologist was 5.9 his a one c when he got diagnosed was 14 and since then have been between six seven and seven five on injections and then yeah with the pump 5.9 was the last one and just everything so having control of the basil rates is amazing

Unknown Speaker 47:23
it's the whole thing

Kristen 47:25
it's the whole thing the thing about living in alberta the thing is if you don't like the weather just wait a second because it could be 20 degrees which i think is like at one day and then the next day or during that day it could start snowing and drop to zero so the weather extremely affects jays basil rates so being able to have control of them is awesome in the winter time jays basil is 30% higher than the summertime

Scott Benner 48:03
juice

Unknown Speaker 48:03
it's yeah i've crazy

Scott Benner 48:06
a lot by the way that changing the seasons change their basil needs yeah and so are you saying colder needs more insulin

Kristen 48:14
yes and in the wintertime he also can't get out and golf every single second that he can whereas in the summertime is activity

Unknown Speaker 48:24
yeah

Scott Benner 48:25
yeah and when he has less activity he needs more Basal

Unknown Speaker 48:28
yeah for sure

Scott Benner 48:29
okay so you're a golf widow

Kristen 48:33
well he golf i drive the car

Unknown Speaker 48:36
you come along

Kristen 48:38
sometimes sometimes

Scott Benner 48:39
you guys thinking about having kids or no

Kristen 48:42
um yeah but i don't know how long until this podcast will go up it seems like three three to six months is kind of fair to say

Scott Benner 48:52
it's usually the that's usually how it goes we'll we'll there'll be a little baby by them

Kristen 48:57
well i'm hoping that's actually why i had to reschedule the podcast is that we're trying but we need a little help from from science

Scott Benner 49:06
so what you were gonna say you had to reschedule the podcast so you could have sex

Kristen 49:12
i guess that's kind of how it sounded but no

Scott Benner 49:14
we were trying i was like i can't do the podcast today we're making we're making

Unknown Speaker 49:19
sorry

Scott Benner 49:20
no no no please don't be sorry okay so yeah you did have to reschedule a recording this later than we were going to say you had like come you were going having conversations about ivf

Unknown Speaker 49:30
yes that's right

Scott Benner 49:33
i injections and everything are you underway are you still in the planning stages

Kristen 49:36
we are doing the testing at the moment and then in july we go and we decide what option we want to do

Scott Benner 49:47
hmm yeah no kidding yeah do you think you're gonna do you have any ideas

Kristen 49:52
um well there's two options there's a ui or there's ivf and whatever They kind of recommend to us as what we will, will do, I think. Okay.

Scott Benner 50:05
And yeah, and then it's you use the medications and then you go do what you're supposed to do and that makes is that right like that you we're not we're not talking about implanting things yet or are we talking about that?

Kristen 50:17
Yes, we are. IVF is like the implantation of the, the Blastoise light, which is the embryo one, day five, and I don't know too much about it, but I know pretty basic.

Scott Benner 50:29
Sounds like you're gonna know a lot about it. Yep,

Unknown Speaker 50:32
that's, that's true.

Scott Benner 50:34
There's a podcast about about IVF that you should try that I really I've heard a lot of good things about. It's called Matt and Dorries. Excellent Adventure. And excellent is eg GC LL. e. NT.

Kristen 50:47
I have actually listened to that. Oh, you know, that is awesome. How do I know? Yes, I

Scott Benner 50:52
know things about everything. Last night, I said something I said because you think you know everything. I was like, I don't think I know everything. But I mean, I'm right about this. You have tried that? You know, Matt's a television writer. Yeah. And his wife, I think is a journalist. Yeah, she

Kristen 51:08
works for BuzzFeed, I think which is like those elbows. videos you see on Facebook Like, DIY is I think

Scott Benner 51:16
BuzzFeed ruined blogging. Because nobody wants to read they're like, I just want to click through see some pictures video DiCaprio. watch a video at the end. Find out why that worms crawling out of that girl's cheek and then I'm back. But anyway, I've heard really good things about that podcast. So you've already listened to it all the way through. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 51:35
Yeah. It's awesome. Me?

Scott Benner 51:36
Yes. For the rest of you. I don't mind if you listen to other podcasts that aren't diabetes, as long as they don't get in front of mine in your listening list. And you definitely shouldn't listen to other diabetes podcast because I mean,

Unknown Speaker 51:47
it's true. What's the nice?

Scott Benner 51:50
Kristen just told you this is the best one. And believe me, she's from Canada. They don't lie about anything.

Unknown Speaker 51:55
No, we don't.

Scott Benner 51:57
And when she lie about not lying, probably not. Okay, well, I want to wish you luck. I hope it goes well. And that, you know, are you hoping for one or do you like when you start talking about IVF? Do you start thinking there could be more than one or how does that usually work? I don't know nothing about it. Besides,

Kristen 52:16
yeah. Well, their their goal is to only have one because there's a lot of risks with having multiples. But I mean, I'm still hoping for twins. I would love to have Yeah, one and done.

Scott Benner 52:29
Plus you're probably so lonely up there in the tundra. Then you're right yeah one to go gather like moose pelts. Yeah. And the other one could get firewood. You probably live in a sprawling metropolis. I I've just or maybe you don't. How is Alberta? Is it are you in the woods? Are you like, is it I? It's so much fun that I don't know anything.

Kristen 52:59
There's there's about in the city I live there's like 100 over 100,000 people are not a huge city, but we are right between place called Calgary and Edmonton. And they're, they're quite huge. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The Oilers and the flames.

Unknown Speaker 53:16
That's how I knew it. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 53:21
Yeah, and then. Yeah, no, all right.

Scott Benner 53:24
So Fine. You don't live in a tree or something like that? No, no, no. How would a tree even grow in that call, but I know nothing about how trees work. We

Kristen 53:32
have like evergreen trees. Lots of Christmas trees.

Scott Benner 53:35
We're lucky I understand this diabetes thing because if this podcast was about almost anything else, it would just be a lot of quiet. you going? I don't know how that works. That sounds horrible to me. This is the one thing I understand. Okay, so, uh, I mean, I like it. I like what you guys have got going. It's it seemed it seems healthy. It's supportive. It's obviously moving things along for him. Do you imagine there's a time where you he hits a rhythm and you guys just don't have to talk about this anymore?

Kristen 54:07
Yeah, that's that's what I'm hoping I'm hoping that it you don't have to talk about it as much or

Scott Benner 54:17
I don't want you to start having Munchausen thoughts like let's keep this diet like this blood sugar high so he needs me.

Unknown Speaker 54:23
No,

Scott Benner 54:23
I don't you don't sound like no, but but I'm saying the the other side of it is really like the goals got to be lessor diabetes conversations, you know, small, smaller part of your life. I just do what I do. I get to live my life. I don't have to think about diabetes as much. Absolutely. And that frees up time for you to to to raise little, your little Norse gods that you're gonna have. Right? Yeah. Because seriously, like, I listen, I can speak from from real experience. So there's been times when my whole day was about diabetes. Yeah, and I started figuring it out and it became less and less and less and now you know we talk about being bold with insulin and and then i tell people all the time like you'll find a rhythm and when you find your rhythm you're not as involved as much and i know people don't believe me that you know at first that you know a 70 to 120 blood sugar range doesn't make your Dexcom alarm constantly if you're using your insulin the right way but it's true yeah you know there's days that go by that i don't hear a Dexcom alarm ever and and that's got to be your goal and then i think after that kristen because you're right this will go up months and months after we recorded we're recording may i think that arden is going to continue on with the loop i've been using it and she's had it on for maybe four pods now so 12 days or so and i don't see why i would stop at this point you know and i'm learning a ton of stuff about the things that i talk about and how to how to make bigger you know better i guess decisions one of them i'll just i'll tell you what i'll share with you at the end i don't even have it fully formulated yet so you'll hear me months before you'll hear this with kristen i'll have sat down with i think i'm going to do another podcast with katy de simone that who's very involved in the looping world jenny smith and i are probably going to do a series about talking about how to loop so excuse me i can tell you that because you don't have a podcast about diabetes you won't rush to do it before me like some other people do when they hear me talking about social media but that's okay it doesn't matter you can do better i'm just gonna do like kristen said it's fine but seriously so one of the things we talk about all the time is like you know Temp Basal like you know i say you should up your basal rates at times when you need more you know when it's my carver like car beer like times right but when i watched this loop do things it's it's not so i you know gave arden you know her lunch Bolus when you and i were talking and almost immediately the loop increased arden's basil by like three times it was it went up to almost like six an hour yeah and then it just stayed there for like i don't know 10 minutes and then it went back down again and then it went back up and it's as she's eating i watch it push harder like you know i always give that example like put your hands together and press you know at the same rate i'm seeing it do exactly what i was trying to envision it's feeling more resistance from food and so it's pushing harder with the basil it's such a simple like idea and obviously we have it you know everyone listening has it figured out now about about the idea because we talked about it so much but to see it happen with that amount of insulin flip me out and i realized here's what i realized because of the artificial pump settings like you set your basil rate to whatever like what's your husband's basil right do you know is it

Kristen 58:11
yeah it's 1.2 1.2 an

Scott Benner 58:13
hour yeah and so when i tell you to double it to 2.4 that sounds like all the insulin in the world right it sounds like so much insulin and we only think of putting it up to 2.4 because that's how far the pump goes because the pump lets you double it to a you know 200% but with the loop there's a setting where you can say what's your maximum amount of basil you'll normally use and so when i first set it up i was like well for eight you know for basil rates like 1.4 or 1.8 i don't want it to go to all the way to like too high so i just sort of like doubled it i was like well you can go to two eight and then i realized they couldn't do what it wanted to do so yeah i pushed that thing way up to like seven i don't think it's ever used seven but there are times when it's like okay more pushing and then and then if it pushes too far it'll go down to zero it's just it's so great it's it's like watching my brain work on a screen

Kristen 59:12
wow i'm gonna have to look at look into it so

Scott Benner 59:14
insane it just it's and don't get me wrong there's things about it it is so counter intuitive in some ideas like there were times when i thought okay i have to change a setting obviously when i was getting it right in the first week or so yeah and my every instinct of what to change i was always wrong that was backwards if i thought turn that up it was turn it down if i thought turn that down it was turn it up until i really started to understand what the settings have you know control over what they're trying to accomplish and how it affects other settings and as soon as i got it all set my head i was like whoo this is pretty cool it doesn't it doesn't change what i think if you don't have

Unknown Speaker 59:53
no

Scott Benner 59:55
we can all keep doing what we're doing and i am definitely going to be able to speak Even more clearly about being bold because of what? looping but I will also say that in the future, I think that everyone who has a CGM at a pump who has access to something like this, it's going to it's at least very worth your, your time to try.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:18
Yeah, for sure.

Scott Benner 1:00:18
I'm gonna be an advocate of it going forward.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:22
Yeah, absolutely, I'd love to look at it. It's pretty cool. I'm

Scott Benner 1:00:25
looking at it right now across the room. It really did it, it, it totally cranked up her basil, then it dropped it back to nothing. And now it's got it at the normal level and her blood sugars. It's not as good as I would want it to be. But we're also on a new site right now. And I don't know how well the site works. We kind of moved around in her leg a little bit. But she's an hour, she's almost an hour passed when she gave herself the insulin, and her blood sugar is 121. And she's done eating. It's amazing thinks she's going to go down over the next 30 minutes. So you can kind of see the what it's predicting. But yeah, even that's neat. Like I'll like, I'll just at the end here, it's even cool because it shows you what it's predicting. And it's predicting, like three hours from now her blood sugar is going to be 40. Wow. But it doesn't mean her blood sugar is going to be 43 it means it's going to make adjustments between now and then to keep that from ever happening.

Kristen 1:01:22
Yeah, I've had to explain that. That very concept to so many people like, exercise makes Jay's blood sugar go down. But it doesn't mean he's gonna go low. Right? Yeah, just that so it doesn't.

Scott Benner 1:01:36
We make other decisions. Like, yes. It's like a time travel movie. It's like, it's like, somebody comes back from the future and tells you you're going to, you know, grow a unicorn horn if you go to Disneyland. Yeah. And so you just go, Well, I don't want a unicorn, so I won't go to Disneyland. And then it doesn't happen, right? Yeah. So this thing tells you Yes. Hey, you're gonna die three hours from now. But don't worry, we'll make adjustments. It'll stop that from ever being your reality. Really, really cool. So I'm sorry, like took up your time at the end of

Kristen 1:02:05
that? No, that's okay. I want to touch base quickly on what you said about increasing the basil and how you never thought about going over, like doubling it because your pump settings wouldn't let you and had to bump them out. With Jay's basil. It was very scary at the beginning. But during the nighttime when he has that domino effect and his blood sugar rises. I have or we have to triple his basil rate overnight.

Scott Benner 1:02:33
And how cool is it that you figure that out and had the man I say the loose testicles to do that?

Kristen 1:02:40
Yeah, it was a big deal. It was very scary. To do that. How

Scott Benner 1:02:45
does that sound? Hey, Jay, I'm gonna do something over here. If you don't wake up, I love you.

But seriously, how did you make the leap to do something it seemed that out of line with sanity.

Kristen 1:03:00
Um, well, it would happen night after night and I got sick of waking up, or one of us waking up one of us setting alarms at 2am 3am 4am just to look at the Dexcom to see what was happening and adjusting with with a Bolus when he was on injections. And when we got the pump I'm like, I'm just going to set up a bit like a basil program that starts running a higher basil one hour before it spikes every single night or over and over and over again. So I just started I did one 1.8 2.43 and it worked. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:03:43
is it fair to say that you trusted that what you knew was going to happen was going to happen?

Kristen 1:03:48
Absolutely. And but then you have to think like the other things that affect Jays blood sugar that you probably haven't experienced that is like drinking alcohol. Then what do you have to do with that increased Basal rate and most times I just switch it back to the other one depending on if he had a fatty carb snack before bed.

Scott Benner 1:04:10
Yeah. And if he gets a little woozy you have to turn it down.

Kristen 1:04:14
It depends if he has like a couple drinks with supper. There isn't actually too much that I have to do. I say I mean we or him or whoever is doing it.

Scott Benner 1:04:27
I've made you feel self conscious about it now I'm sorry. You I didn't mean to I apologize.

Kristen 1:04:33
No, it's okay. Um, and but if he does have a night where he is drinking all night long with friends or we're out on holidays and we're drinking lots what they did tell us at the at the clinic compared to what we actually do at the clinic. They said when you drink alcohol don't shoot a single drop of insulin for any carb you eat. for supper any anytime you're drinking and before bed. Have a fatty carb snack like go get french fries with donald's pizza or anything like that if we decided to do that jay's blood sugar would be well in the three hundreds that's not going to happen i don't want when he drinks we just say screw diabetes today you're gonna drink

Scott Benner 1:05:22
what was the point of that did they just think because become unconscious you should say hi to be safe or they thought that yes that was what they were saying

Kristen 1:05:29
yeah i'm assuming i yeah any anything i don't i don't understand why they said that but what we actually do is when he is drinking and it's obviously different for every person but when he is drinking we shoot insulin for supper for all the snacks for all the meals so he's keeping in range and right before bedtime we go get like it's it's an excessive amount of carbs that he has to eat before bed like 120 140 carbs but fatty carbs and he has that at bedtime and i take off that increased basil for the dawn effect and he is steady the entire night and there's no lows and there's no highs and i mean it doesn't go over one 130

Scott Benner 1:06:20
yeah that's amazing and you figured that out on your own and that's really the goal is to tell people that there's a lot you're gonna have to figure out on your own so yeah you know

Kristen 1:06:30
and until you can be at a point where you don't talk about diabetes all the time you have to put in the work and you have to

Scott Benner 1:06:36
yes it's such an important idea yeah it's it's it's more work down for less work later exactly and your goal and your hope is it's more work now for almost no work later yeah and try to make this on most days kind of like transparent in a way that you just don't notice it alright christine you were fantastic it's such a good sense of humor i said so many horrible things about your life i said that i feel like you live in a new igloo i said something about moose testicles at some point i gave you i gave you a podcast recommendation for podcasts already knew about and i really thought i had they there i was like well i'm gonna say something really like great for her and she's like i've heard that i inferred that you were a russian mail order bride at one point and flowers what i'm saying have a good time

Unknown Speaker 1:07:33
i did thank you for having me

Scott Benner 1:07:35
of course we are you less nervous now than you were when we started yes didn't start well by the way everyone kristen had like technical problems that i think she was like starting to panic in the beginning and i was starting to hear a little panic in her voice but she really mellowed out and did a nice job and she had her conversion chart weather and everything yeah very nice kudos thank you so much out let me say goodbye and then hold on and i will say goodbye to you like a real person when we're not recording your voice a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors je vogue glucagon find out more about chivo hypo pan at g folk glucagon.com forward slash juice box you spell that GVOKE gl use c ag o n.com forward slash juice box thanks also to the Contour Next One blood glucose meter find out more at Contour Next one.com forward slash juice box and please allow me to apologize to kristin this episode along with a handful of others got lost in the system this was recorded a long time ago kristin i am so sorry it took this long to come out and for those of you listening who it may have felt a little disjointed timeline wise i apologize there too thank you everyone for listening for subscribing for telling someone else about the show i'll be back very soon with much more of the Juicebox Podcast


Please support the sponsors

The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!

Donate

#458 Cutting on Cam

Scott Benner

Caitlin is 11 years old and she has type 1 diabetes

Get ready for a delightful hour with Caitlin followed by a few minutes with her mom.

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

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


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

Scott Benner 0:11
Hello friends and welcome to Episode 458 pieces and isn't sure I'm going with it. Hello and welcome to Episode 458 of the Juicebox Podcast. Oh, I was right I just checked. That's exciting. Today's show is with Caitlin, and her story is about much more than her age would indicate possible.

Please remember, while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. I'd like to take this time to thank you for sharing the show with others as it grows and grows march was the most downloaded month in the history of the show. That has a lot to do with you sharing it. And I thank you. I'd like to thank you also for leaving the great ratings and reviews where you listen for subscribing, your podcast app for checking out diabetes pro tip calm as often as you do. That website gets ton of traffic, and I really appreciate it.

Oh geez, I meant to say the show just hit 3 million total downloads. And I had a big celebration here where I'm sitting, none of you were invited. I did not record it. But trust me, it was a whiz bang knockdown affair. And if you were here, you would have a good time. Thanks so much for helping me reach 3 million downloads. Looking forward to many, many more. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. g evoke hypo Penn Find out more at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. You can support Type One Diabetes Research and the Juicebox Podcast. Here's how the T one D exchange is looking for type one adults and type one caregivers who are us residents to participate in a quick survey that can be completed in just a few minutes from your phone or computer. These questions are very simple, they only take a few minutes to answer. You'll be contacted annually to update your information and other than that there's nothing to do. This is 100% anonymous, completely HIPAA compliant, and you'll never have to go to a doctor or to a remote site. This is a simple way to add data to type one diabetes research and help everyone living with type one. Just go to T one D exchange using my link in the bio or by typing in T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. Click on join our registry now. Answer the simple survey. And you're all done. T one D exchange research has led to increased insurance coverage for blood glucose meter strips, changes in the American Diabetes Association's guidelines for pediatric a one c goals and they helped bring Medicare coverage to CGM devices. Check them out T one d exchange.org. Ford slash juicebox.

Caitlin 3:16
I am Caitlin Volk, and I am almost 11 years old.

Scott Benner 3:20
When is your 11th birthday?

Caitlin 3:22
May 30 2000. Oh, yeah,

Scott Benner 3:25
yeah, this year, right? Yeah. It'll also be may 30. In 2021 and 2020 to keep going.

Caitlin 3:34
Like the year of sport and everything.

Scott Benner 3:36
You do you want to say it

Unknown Speaker 3:39
was fine. What

Scott Benner 3:39
year were you born? 2000 992 1009. Wow.

Caitlin 3:45
Like in kindergarten, I think I was the last kid to turn six in kindergarten.

Scott Benner 3:50
Do you get like that birthday party like right before the end of the year?

Caitlin 3:54
No, my birthday is always the like second to last day of like, not the second class day, but it's after the spirit of the school year.

Scott Benner 4:04
After that you're not even in school when you have your birthday.

Caitlin 4:07
Yeah, only last year when I was in fourth grade. It was it was the first time my um, my birthday has been during the school year and it was the second last day of school.

Scott Benner 4:17
Did you do anything for it? Bring like food in or have a party? No.

Caitlin 4:22
We just all my friends were saying Happy birthday. And a lot of my some of my friends brought me gifts. And that was nice of them. And then and then I didn't go to the last day of school because we went to Disney for my birthday.

Scott Benner 4:34
That sounds like a better present. What was the best gift one of your friends brought you?

Caitlin 4:40
Um, candy from that line gave me the biggest like a huge bag and I was just digging through it and there's so much

Scott Benner 4:50
well done. Now what gift Did you get from those kids and you don't have to say who it came from, but that you thought Oh, I don't want this. I don't know. You don't know where We'll get to you will find your will find your center here, Caitlin. All right. All right. Tell me how old you were when you were diagnosed with type one.

Unknown Speaker 5:07
Um, oh,

Caitlin 5:10
I believe I was eight years old.

Scott Benner 5:12
Okay. And you're 11 now. So like, Well, almost 11, as we know, on the 30th of may 2020. Right. So like three years you've had type one.

Unknown Speaker 5:23
Yes.

Scott Benner 5:24
I'm not sure you have any brothers and sisters.

Caitlin 5:27
I have one brother. Who's my younger brother. He's very.

Scott Benner 5:33
He's very wide. I'm sorry. annoying. Oh, I'm sure he thinks you're annoying too. By the way. Did you know that? Yes. Are you annoying?

Unknown Speaker 5:41
A little bit?

Scott Benner 5:42
What does he do that bothers you?

Unknown Speaker 5:44
Um,

Caitlin 5:45
he's always like, every single time he does something he thinks is so cool. He goes Caitlyn, Caitlyn. Caitlyn. Caitlyn. Caitlyn. like trying to get my attention. I'm like, I'm in the middle of doing something. Like, tell me when I'm not doing something.

Scott Benner 5:58
Do you know why he does that?

Unknown Speaker 6:00
He just wants to show me what he did. How come? Why does,

Scott Benner 6:03
but why does he want to show you? I have no clue. You want me to tell you why he loves you. And he looks up to you. He thinks you're amazing. True. Like, it's true that you're amazing.

Unknown Speaker 6:15
I don't know about that. I

Scott Benner 6:16
just agreed pretty quickly. You were like, it is true that I'm amazing. No, I that's very likely What's going on? Is he he looks up to you. And you're his big sister. And he's probably really excited to show you something that he figured out.

Caitlin 6:29
Some things sometimes they don't understand him because he likes Star Wars and Legos. And he's like, so this the TIE fighter and this is the x wing fighter. And I'm like, sometimes he tells me things I don't understand. Like, I don't know what it is. Yeah, like they'll say like, this is a Baba Baba, like a character from Star Wars. I have no clue who this is. And I'm like, so wait, what? Who is this?

Scott Benner 6:51
I'm gonna tell you something. Now. I think it's gonna really help you. Okay. So I know this is weird, because you're 11 and I told your mom, I was gonna say anything weird to you. But we're five minutes and I'm gonna say something weird to you? Do you feel like boys? Do you think boys are your jam? Like one day when you're older? Do you think you'll date a boy? Or do you think you're thinking more about a girl? Or do you not know yet?

Unknown Speaker 7:12
Oh, no,

Unknown Speaker 7:13
you're not sure I don't want.

Caitlin 7:15
I don't want to do anything with relationships at

Scott Benner 7:17
all. Yeah, it's good. It's a good place weird. Of course it is. But let me say something to you if you should, at some point, as an older person, like, you know, when you're like 28, or something like that, meet a boy and have relationship with him. This feeling you're having right now. If not understanding what your brother is talking about. That's going to happen to you. Because we don't really change that much. Boys. Just we just get bigger and we have hair on our face. That's really the only and then he's still like there's still going to be like a 30 year old guy in your apartment talking about Star Wars just so you know. It's not gonna get any better than this. This is this is the end of it right here. So your brother's is preparing you really well for being in a relationship later. Trust me. He's gonna bother you and say stupid stuff to you that you don't care about. And you're gonna want him to be around because you like him, but you're not gonna really the rest of it. You just need to like last night for an hour before we went to bed. I tortured my wife while we were watching television. And why did I do it? I have no idea just makes this makes me happy to like pause pause the show and say oh my god Kelly. Did you see what just happened there? That's amazing. This great show. And she just stares the TV thinking in her head. Why did I marry this guy? Just want to watch the show. That's all I want

Caitlin 8:36
to do. I do that sometimes my brother annoy him see

Scott Benner 8:40
things impossible. He's telling you about Star Wars not because he likes you but because he's trying to annoy you. Yeah. I bet you it's not. I bet you

Caitlin 8:48
this morning this morning. He was annoying me a little bit. He was um so we got so since since the the virus going around we had to get computers like laptops for for us so we can do schoolwork.

Scott Benner 9:05
So don't hold that story for a second. Your parents bought you a laptop because of the Coronavirus.

Caitlin 9:11
Well, because the only computer so my dad has a computer that has cords and he can't move it. And then my mom has one which is the one I'm using. It's it doesn't have cords but she takes it around with her everywhere and she's going to be going to work throughout like all of this and I'm going to be with my grandparents and she takes the computer with her

Scott Benner 9:31
laptop. Yeah, Caitlin, this is Coronavirus is the best thing that ever happened to you is that

Caitlin 9:37
Yeah, but my mom but my parents they're like this is only for schoolwork related things only.

Scott Benner 9:42
Oh no, it's not Caitlin. You can do all kinds of stuff with it.

Unknown Speaker 9:47
So

Scott Benner 9:50
what do you think? What do you think you're going to do first when you like sneak around and like like you're going to shop for clothes or what would you love to do if you had full access to that computer?

Caitlin 9:59
Probably just play games. Yeah, play games that I play at school because there's a lot of games that are education that actually are nice and fun.

Scott Benner 10:08
Yeah, I would definitely I would say to your mom, Listen, I've been doing a great job taking care of this computer. And there's this educational game. I want to play with that be okay. She'll say yes to that. And that, yes,

Caitlin 10:19
we just heard this morning because we asked her this morning if we couldn't play something on there. I said, Sure. I told her all about it was like it's educational. It's math. It's fun, like something We play at school.

Scott Benner 10:34
Yes, this is this is how it starts Caitlin right here. So you got what did your brother get for Coronavirus? The same thing you got a computer to? Yes.

Caitlin 10:43
And I know he's gonna smash it because the last computer my mom had, besides the one I'm using, it was this big red one that she had for work. He he so my mom downloaded like Minecraft and Roblox on there for him because he doesn't have a lot of things that he likes to play with. Like, he has toys or whatever. But some of them, he's just not really into anymore. Like still keeps them. And so he um, he was playing I don't know what it was it was Roblox or Minecraft on it. And he, um, and I guess he got so mad at it cuz he every time he plays a game and he like dies or whatever, but it responds him he dies. And then he Oh, he gets so aggravated. And I'm like Cameron, if you're aggravated about it, put it down, like stop playing with it and put it down. And he goes, but I still want to play it and don't get aggravated about it just the game.

Unknown Speaker 11:36
You're saying?

Caitlin 11:37
Yes.

Scott Benner 11:39
He's ever bumped his head? Do you think he has any kind of a head injury or anything like that? Have your parents ever indicated to you that they didn't think he was you know, maybe as smart as you are? or anything like that? They were talking behind his back like that?

Caitlin 11:52
I don't get into their conversations ever.

Scott Benner 11:54
Where do you live? What part of the country? I live from Florida, Florida. And you don't get into your parents conversations?

Unknown Speaker 12:01
Sometimes, but not all the time.

Scott Benner 12:02
My kids seem to constantly be in my conversations.

Caitlin 12:06
I sometimes get into their conversations. I feel

Scott Benner 12:08
like we made a mistake when we were parenting when they were younger. And my I want to do you know, not allow them to have any, you know, opinion, but my wife was like, we have to let them think for themselves. It's like, Oh, this is gonna lead to problems. And then sure enough it did. They have their own thoughts. And they always want to interject them into the conversations. Do you have your own thoughts about things? Sometimes will tell me that when I was Oh, you got a story. Caitlin? Yeah, her box, go to your store.

Caitlin 12:38
My friends would always call me. Miss chatty Cathy, when I was in kindergarten, because I would chat so much.

Scott Benner 12:43
Maybe you can have a podcast one day?

Unknown Speaker 12:46
No, probably not.

Scott Benner 12:47
Why not? You haven't had or you're halfway there. True. Now you need a microphone. Couple other things I can get you set up. Can you imagine if you had a podcast? We just made fun of Cameron the whole time.

Caitlin 13:00
Do you think that would be a blast? I would have so much fun.

Scott Benner 13:06
All the stories you'd call it cutting on Cameron. Right?

Caitlin 13:11
I go to my mom after this and be like, Mom, I want to start a podcast right? Talk about

Scott Benner 13:15
camera and torture my brother, for everyone to hear. I bet you that'd be huge. I listen, if you end up doing that, that's gonna be on the Juicebox Podcast Broadcasting Network. I'm gonna fold that into the be one of our offerings. Okay. Okay, you could be my first other podcast. Can you commit to for a month? I don't know. Jeez, Caitlin. You're letting me down pretty quick here on this. Okay. Well, I take my offer back. So tell me something. What? What's your involvement with your diabetes? Like? Do you take care of it? Does your mom do you guys co do what you do with your dad cameras not in charge of it? I imagine.

Caitlin 13:48
Yes. He's not in charge of it at all. So sometimes he Um, so it's a mix between my parents and myself. So with the Dexcom, I'm linked, so it's my phone, linked up to it. Then my mom, my dad and then my grandma who's one of my grandmas who's a nurse practitioner, who studies some she she studies diabetes and other things. And so we're all linked up to that. So during the day while I'm at school, my mom, sometimes she'll text me and be like, hey, do a Temp Basal increase or Hey, do you a correction for this? Or hey, like either glucose tab, and I'll do it. And so during the they find here at my house, I'll I'll do some stuff and then my parents will do it. But at night, it's my parents because I never hear the alarms that night. It's tough to wake up in the middle of the

Scott Benner 14:41
night. It is so tell me this like if you were going to put your blood sugar right now.

Unknown Speaker 14:48
Oh, good question.

Scott Benner 14:49
That's not a good question. It's a pretty

Caitlin 14:51
taxing. I was texting my friends earlier. Like Wish me luck,

Scott Benner 14:55
because you're gonna be on the podcast. Did they wish you luck? Are they jealous?

Caitlin 14:59
Oh, They're like good luck. I'm not 126 Have you eaten today? Oh, yes, I had breakfast tonight. Before he told

Unknown Speaker 15:09
me what he ate.

Caitlin 15:10
I had a toasted croissant with egg and cheese,

Scott Benner 15:14
toasted croissant, egg and cheese and your 126 How long did you eat?

Caitlin 15:20
I around ate something.

Scott Benner 15:23
So it's been, it's been almost three hours. You're doing great. Yeah, you expect this to go up or come down.

Caitlin 15:30
My mom expected it to go straight up. So she knows a little bit more than I think she was intending to. For some reason today. She told me before I started this, she goes, we probably should have dosed more for this. And I'm like, What do you mean? We should have dose more for that? So I'm perfectly fine. Well,

Scott Benner 15:47
maybe you say to her lady, listen, I'm counting on you. And let's be more decisive. Right. But But okay, so you're perfectly fine. How high Did you get after you wait, was there a peak? Or did you stay kind of level?

Caitlin 15:57
Oh, I did kind of make a peak.

Scott Benner 16:01
You know where I went to?

Caitlin 16:04
I was, I'm okay, I'm going to eight. So I was at like, between the 80s and the 90s. And then it started to shoot up to the highest I got was 140. Some was like 144. And then it started to come down a bit.

Scott Benner 16:20
It just sounds like perhaps your Pre-Bolus was not quite long enough. Is that possible?

Caitlin 16:26
it? It does that a lot? Because when we first started it my mom listens to the podcast all the time. That's good.

Scott Benner 16:31
She should By the way, everyone should. And if and if anyone's listening right now, should they not subscribe to right in their apps? Yes. Yeah, right. Okay. I'm sorry, Caitlin.

Caitlin 16:42
My mom was listening to one of the one of your podcasts episodes. I don't remember which one it was. But the one I remember talking about Pre-Bolus thing was with Tommy, Tommy,

Scott Benner 16:51
I think it was actually called Tommy. But yeah, good.

Caitlin 16:55
And so she so when we, when my mom first heard of it, she was like, No wonder why she's picking up at school like he's going straight up. I should Pre-Bolus. So when I'd wake up, and my parents, I would tell him what I was going to eat in the morning, possibly cereal or like toast, I would, they would dose for it. And then I would like take a shower, get dressed, do whatever I need to do in the morning. And then I would come out and I'd be perfectly fine. Till them later on it. We stopped doing that. Because as I was getting a little older, I was waking up early, and like taking showers getting dressed and doing all that and then I would go out towards round seven go out and tell them what I was going to eat.

Scott Benner 17:36
So So you were Pre-Bolus Singh having good success with it. But then when you got to a certain age, you decided you wanted to be clean before you went to school. And that messed up your Pre-Bolus. What does that tell you about showering?

Unknown Speaker 17:50
Hello, I have no clue.

Scott Benner 17:54
Caitlin. So Alright, so now you're you're you're prepping in the morning. It's taking a little more time. And that time was when you use the Pre-Bolus. So have you fixed it? Because I'm assuming you figured out you need to Pre-Bolus right. Yeah, yeah. So what have you done to adjust your daytime, your morning ritual so that it works better?

Unknown Speaker 18:14
Yeah. I'm

Caitlin 18:18
just stayed the same. Until then. Sometimes in the morning. Like on weekends, I will wake up at a specific time. Like I it switches around. So sometimes if I wake up at like, seven in the morning, we'll Pre-Bolus and then I'll do something and then I'll eat sometimes if I wake up later. All right. When I wake up I want to straight eat.

Scott Benner 18:40
Yeah, well, what your mom, so. So five minutes before you and I started talking. Arden came wandering in here. And she's on our way downstairs because she's Of course going to school from my kitchen now. The Corona university we have downstairs in the area, and she's like, I'm hungry. And I said, Yeah, you look hungry. And she's like, she said, Can you make me something? I said that I can't. I'm about to record a podcast. And she's like, Alright, well, I'm just gonna have cereal then. I was like, Yeah, alright, so I said, you know, Bolus and then wait at least 15 minutes or until you have an arrow that's going down. And she was 120 when I told her that. Yeah. And so she did Bolus I'm looking at it here. I like to have Arden's graph up while I'm doing the podcast in case that comes up. And she's 109 right now, I don't know if she started out or not. But she had to Pre-Bolus and she looked at me when I was like you have to Pre-Bolus this is gonna be a mess. And she made a little face. Like, you could probably imagine the face was a little scrunched up irritated face because she just wanted to eat. And I said, and this is a quote from me, Caitlin, I said she made the face and I said, Shut up, right like that. And she didn't actually say anything. So then our little face tightened up a little more, and I'm like, get out of here and just Pre-Bolus. And, and everything's going right. And meanwhile, she's fine. You don't I mean, like, she doesn't want to wait, but it's not killing her. It's not changing. It's not making her upset. You need to wait. You can Yeah, you can do it.

Caitlin 20:16
With me sometimes, like, if I'm somewhere I'll get really hungry. Like, if we go to Disney, I'll get super hungry, because I've been walking or running or doing whatever that whole day, I'll get so hungry. And then my parents are like, okay, we're gonna Pre-Bolus and you're gonna wait. And I get so aggravated, because I'm like, one, I'm hungry. And to sometimes as I'm waiting for my blood sugar to go down, or for me to be ready to eat my like, my friends, because I like to go with my friends. I've seen them all eat, and I'm like, I just want to steal something and eat is

Scott Benner 20:50
there's only one little thing you have to change to make this all work. What is it, you know? Pre-Bolus before you get there, just think ahead a little bit more. That's all and even if it's just a little bit of insulin, because I hear what you're saying. Right? Like, you don't always know what you're gonna eat. Right? But let's say this, when you eat, do you ever eat and only need like a half unit of insulin? Don't you mostly need like a couple of units when you're eating? Yeah, right. So what if you just were like, Oh, let me just slip in a little bit of insulin here. So I get some of it going. And then we can go get the food, and then put in the rest of the insulin. And then I can start eating with my friends because I still have a little bit of a Pre-Bolus Yeah, it's a good idea. You know what I should do? I should probably record these ideas and put them on the internet so other people can hear them. Don't you think though?

Unknown Speaker 21:42
Yeah. Hey,

Scott Benner 21:43
what's it like living close to Disney? Is it just like a regular stop for you guys?

Caitlin 21:49
Um, we go, we go. Not really a lot. What we do go a lot a year, but it's always like, like months in between? Yeah.

Scott Benner 21:59
Well, you're not there every weekend. Yeah, yeah. But you know, for instance, most people listening go once every 10 years. You get to go cleanse you because it's near your house.

Unknown Speaker 22:07
Yeah.

Scott Benner 22:08
What's your favorite thing there to do?

Caitlin 22:10
My favorite thing to do is just go to the rides and meet the characters. That's the one thing I want to do every single time. What's the best ride?

Scott Benner 22:20
Well, let's go which one's the best and we'll work our way down.

Unknown Speaker 22:22
So many.

Scott Benner 22:26
Shut your eyes. Shut your eyes. We're at Disney. You're only allowed to go on one ride. Okay, what are you going on? There you go. See you. Later that falls, right?

Caitlin 22:38
Yes. I only went on it once in the ride on the wait line because we had a fast pass for it. I was so scared. I was like, Dad, dad. I don't want to go on this. Mom. Take me off. No. I even said I thought I was gonna puke. Because

Scott Benner 22:57
Do you think that part of what makes the ride great is the time you have to spend wondering about what's going to happen on the ride. Yes, yes. Right.

Caitlin 23:05
Because I because for some reason to me, when I go on a new ride, I think it's more scarier than it actually is. Tap here I thought it was gonna drop you from like the very top and you drop straight down to the floor. Right? So but really, we go on the we go on the smoother part of it, which I had no clue. We just went up and down, up and down halfway to the very top, like almost halfway to the very top and we just chopped down.

Scott Benner 23:31
This guy to scream. No. Did your blood sugar go up afterwards? Yes. You know why? nervousness? adrenaline? Yep. You know what adrenaline is?

Caitlin 23:43
Yeah, it's when you're like, freaking out nervous. Like, no, no, it's pumping.

Scott Benner 23:48
It could be anything. It could be like if you're excited to. Let's see if you can be excited, like in a sport. Do you play any sports?

Caitlin 23:58
Yeah, I don't know if dance is technically a sport. But yeah,

Scott Benner 24:01
listen, people are gonna tell you it is and if I don't say it is people are gonna get mad at me. But you know what I mean? It might not be I'm just kidding. Adrenaline is a hormone right? So it just big stress. Blood circuit eating eating increases like your rate of blood circulation breathing. The way carbohydrates are metabolized. It's prepping your body right to be like to like take off. Yeah, right like so it gets you all jacked up and then there's then there's nothing to do. So

Caitlin 24:32
my mom on Facebook, I was getting my ears pierced. And my mom was looking through her Facebook and I was there with her because she was showing me something. And I saw her posts and it was me have a picture of me to get route ready to get my ears pierced. And so it was me before and then she showed and then she showed the my blood sugar before perfectly fine. And then she goes and then it's the it's like the before and the after. It's my blood sugar, just shooting straight up. She goes, she was lying about herself being nervous because it's going straight up.

Scott Benner 25:06
Were you calm on the outside?

Caitlin 25:09
I said I was I was a little nervous but mostly calm.

Scott Benner 25:12
I was just like, in your face. It's not great. You know?

Caitlin 25:17
That's not my dad said it would be. It wouldn't be that bad. It

Scott Benner 25:21
hurt a little he lied to you so that you'd be comfortable. Yeah, you're starting to figure that out about parents.

Unknown Speaker 25:28
Gonna be like, it's gonna be fine.

Scott Benner 25:29
They told you like this Coronavirus is no big deal. Just you getting a laptop, right? Yeah, yeah. Do you think? Do you think that's true?

Unknown Speaker 25:37
sorta.

Scott Benner 25:38
I sort of think it's true. I sort of, I sort of, I'm like, I wonder what's gonna happen. Are

Caitlin 25:45
you very good. I'm very indecisive about things. You're 11

Scott Benner 25:50
Yeah, your brains like mush. It's not even a full brain yet. Yeah, you're doing really well, by the way for being 11 This is a good conversation. Yay. Yeah. Tell you. You want to tell me something? Yeah. All right. I was gonna say some but you go first.

De veau hypo pan has no visible needle, and it's the first pre mixed autoinjector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is chivo hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple. To learn more about. All you have to do is go to G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. g Vogue shouldn't be used in patients with insulin, Noma or pheochromocytoma. Visit g Vogue glucagon.com slash risk.

I just need to remind you to go to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. And check out all of the other sponsors of the podcast. They're all right there in the show notes of your podcast player links to find out if you're eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash or in there there's a link to learn more and get started with the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. You can find out about touched by type one.org g Volk hypo pen, it's all there right there in the show notes. There's also links at Juicebox Podcast comm to check them all out. And don't forget while you're there, that Contour Next One blood glucose meter good test and with that Contour Next One, you're gonna love it. All the links again, aren't Juicebox Podcast comm they're in the show notes of your podcast player or you can just type them into your browser. I'm not gonna make you listen to them here. But just remember when you hear him on another episode, you know, I'd like to support the podcast I will get a meter I mean don't get it if you don't want to but check it out at least the meters freakin terrific. And the other stuff my god are you kidding me a free 30 day trial the Omni pod dash Can you imagine if you're eligible for that? Check it out. And the Dexcom g sex you just know to get that stop it. Elizabeth was just on the other day from touched by type one. You heard her she's delightful touch by type one.org. All right, let's find out what Caitlyn wanted to ask me. Thanks so much for listening, guys. I really do appreciate it joking aside, your support of the show is evident. And I really appreciate it.

Caitlin 28:43
You remember when you did the for dancing for diabetes that caught that? Call? Not conference that that talk. Orlando.

Unknown Speaker 28:52
Were you there?

Caitlin 28:55
Oh, you you remember when you're asking about what's your favorite food? And that was the first in the first girl you talk to? That was me. Wow.

Scott Benner 29:03
How long was that last year? The year before when? I was good last year. You're lucky. Yeah.

Caitlin 29:10
The only reason why we went there because she was like, I go mom. So why is the reason we're going to Orlando and she goes because Scott Benner is gonna be there and I'm super excited. And I'm like, Oh, she's so sweet. Yeah, it's I had never heard of you. At the time. Well, I'm

Scott Benner 29:26
48 year old guy doing a podcast about Type One Diabetes near 11. So that makes sense. Don't you?

Caitlin 29:32
My mom showed me your podcasts and I was like, I was like was like

Unknown Speaker 29:36
my mind is blown. Do you listen? Yes.

Scott Benner 29:39
Hey, can you do me? Can I pick showers while you take showers you listen to podcast real quick before we go and he do me a favor. Can you say everyone should check out touched by type one.org

Caitlin 29:52
everybody should. Everybody should check out touched by pipe one.org.

Scott Benner 29:57
That's great because Scott's gonna be speaking there in May. Again. Yeah, now I don't have to put the ad in this episode. Thank you so much. Everybody that was an ad Just so you know, I'm not paying Caitlin, but I am making money for saying that. So

Unknown Speaker 30:10
I subscribed so I'm good.

Scott Benner 30:12
Thank you. Sometimes there's episodes that are not good for kids. Does your mom make you skip those? Yeah, to like, you know, once or bad or not. Oh, she come tell you like, Hey, don't listen to this week's Oh, sometimes. Oh, one of them's coming up this week, by the way, just so you know.

Caitlin 30:31
So the only ones I listened to her the ones with kids? Oh, I know aren't gonna be that bad.

Scott Benner 30:37
Yeah, I don't think well, I'm different. I guess I talk to my kids differently than other people do. Maybe. But I don't think any of them are bad. Some of them are just maybe like topics that are. You know, you're not ready for yet. But you will be one day.

Caitlin 30:51
One of one of them that my mom told me not to do is the um, the after dark or whatever.

Scott Benner 30:57
Yeah. You told me don't listen to those ones. Did you? Did you like look at them and think maybe I'm gonna listen Anyway, I hope you didn't.

Caitlin 31:04
I looked at them. And I was like, Okay, I read the little bio. And I was like, No. Okay.

Scott Benner 31:09
So what was so there was one about smoking weed. So that one and one about, like, nope, yeah. And there was drinking and there was one about a person to had like a tough life.

Unknown Speaker 31:21
I was like, no, not during those. Yeah.

Scott Benner 31:23
The next one's gonna be about sex. Don't listen to that one either. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 31:25
yeah. Yeah. Okay, good.

Caitlin 31:28
So that's my favorite ones are the one of them is loop de loop. That one about melody. You liked melody? Yeah, I like that one. That was fun.

Scott Benner 31:37
Yeah. I thought that was a weird conversation. But it was. When it was over. I thought, I don't even know what we talked about. And then I listened back to it and edited it. And I still didn't even know we talked it out. But I was like, it's good. And people like it. So.

Caitlin 31:50
And also Megan makes peace number 294. That one's fun.

Scott Benner 31:54
Yeah. Do you like it? What do you like better when? Like, do you like when people say something that you're like, wow, I never thought of that before. Do you like hearing about managing diabetes? What's your favorite part?

Unknown Speaker 32:06
All of them.

Unknown Speaker 32:07
Thank you.

Scott Benner 32:10
Do you listen to any other diabetes podcasts?

Caitlin 32:14
Well, that's the only one that I know of.

Scott Benner 32:16
Right? That I know when there is really?

Caitlin 32:18
Yeah, yeah, there's there's other ones but they're like people. I don't know.

Scott Benner 32:22
Yeah. Those aren't real podcast. Those are something. This is the one you've got the right one. This is the only podcast that serves children episodes about smoking weed. Yeah, it's it's not really what it was about. By the way. Do you want me to tell you what it was about? Yeah. Okay, I won't one day when you're ready. You know, you can go check them out. Do you know I've never done any drugs in my life?

Unknown Speaker 32:50
No, I never knew I

Scott Benner 32:51
never once asked me if I drink.

Unknown Speaker 32:55
I'd say yes. I don't.

Scott Benner 32:57
Not at all. But not even a little bit. Yeah, like people just like, oh, I'll have a beer. I don't even do that. Yeah, not even a little. Nobody in my house drinks. Actually.

Unknown Speaker 33:09
My mom and

Scott Benner 33:11
ycm Creek. Are your parents alcohol? Should we need help?

Unknown Speaker 33:14
there? No. They don't do it a lot. But sometimes

Scott Benner 33:18
fancy places they will fancy places. Your parents like to get a little like, a little liquor. Like of it. Yeah, just get going a little bit. Plus, you're in Florida, there must be a law about drinking that right? I have no. Do any of your friends drink? No. Good. That's good. And if they did, hanging out with them, right. But if they if they started, you'd have to stop hanging out with them. Right?

Caitlin 33:42
Probably. I'd be like I'm not hanging out with that could

Scott Benner 33:45
be a difficult decision, but that'd be a good decision for you. So what do we need to know here? What kind of gear do you have for your diabetes? Are you shooting insulin with a pen? Do you have an air pump?

Caitlin 33:57
I have a Omni pod. Nice. I started with the syringe then then pen and then the Omni pod.

Scott Benner 34:06
What's been your favorite way so far? Omni pod? How come?

Caitlin 34:11
Because it's so part of the reason is because at school I have we have nurses. And so our lunch every single time It starts at a different time, like different grades sorts of different times. But what's hard is we always go outside first. So I'll have to come outside and then run to the nurse's office and and take insulin and with the Omnipod I don't have to go to the nurse I can just follow the line. I can just follow my line to follow the line to go into to go into the lunchroom and I just sit down with my lunchbox. My all my dad he writes the carbs on E right how many carbs it is on the bags of of them. Or if it's like a pack of goldfish it will say the carbs, add it all up and put it on Omnipod Wow.

Scott Benner 35:00
That's really great. And so that keeps you from having to go to the nurse's office and from having to inject while you're at school and things like that.

Caitlin 35:06
Yeah. And then it wastes a lot of my time for lunch because I'll get there and they're like, because sometimes I'll get there and my class has already started like all my all my whole classes already. They're starting to eat and I'm still like in the nurse's office still shooting insulin at me.

Scott Benner 35:22
Yeah, that's x plus you get the Pre-Bolus a little on the way to your lunch. That helps Hey, real quick Caitlin, if you could just say Find out more at my on the pod comm slash juice box that'd be great. You don't have to wait what I'm just joking. Do you want to do it it's my on the pod but even deep in your voice little bit go in. To find out more about the Omni pod and to get a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod go to my like that good.

Unknown Speaker 35:45
I can't remember.

Scott Benner 35:47
Nevermind. Hold on a second. I have to hear my voice. Do you think I got the Coronavirus? No, I don't think so be that I've been locked in this house for like a week and a half. Let somebody Yeah. What have you been

Caitlin 36:03
like to just? We went to Disney for a full week. So we were out of the house.

Scott Benner 36:06
Wait a minute. let's admit to that people are gonna get mad at you so far. People have liked you.

Caitlin 36:11
We record we were quarantined in the hotel room for five days. Because we were there. You were there. Because we were there for a whole week Friday to Friday of last week. And so the parks are only open so for us. The parks were only open for those two days because they closed Sunday afternoon. Okay. We had went there. So Friday, we went to Disney Springs. Saturday we went to where did we go? We went to animal kingdom and then we went to Hollywood and then we left. Then we went back after Hollywood. We went to Disney Springs because I guess they were closing that Monday. So we just went there, bought everything we needed to do and then for so we did part of Monday went back then that part of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We just stayed in the hotel room and left Friday morning. So you

Scott Benner 36:59
know it's interesting. So you live Friday morning, by the way anybody who gets Coronavirus in Florida it's Caitlin's fault. But wait, see you Friday morning on the 20th. Probably. Um,

Caitlin 37:11
it wasn't morning. It was after lunch.

Scott Benner 37:14
Was it last Friday, like just past weekend or the week before? The week before? It's the 13th so you know, you actually won't know. So you've been in your house since then.

Caitlin 37:25
Oh, yes. Since we came back. We've been stuck in the house for a little bit.

Scott Benner 37:28
Yeah, more days. You have to wait to see if you have Coronavirus. Did you know that takes two weeks to know if you have it or not? Oh, no. One more than what you're doing great. You probably don't.

Caitlin 37:38
Have you had some of us I've been coughing and everything but it's not too severe. Just like a little younger adult.

Scott Benner 37:44
Do you think I can tell you? The first time I saw yo yo Ma and concert was at Carnegie Hall. I've just had a lot of words you might not know. Yo Yo, yo yo ma is a cellist. He plays the cello. And Carnegie Hall is a very famous space. In New York City. There's that cough that's your Corona right there.

Caitlin 38:04
No, Mike. I was drinking water whenever I'm

Scott Benner 38:07
Coronavirus. Now. We're in Carnegie Hall watching yo yo ma perform. Okay. And there's a guy in the row in front of me a little to the right. And every time he started to play the cello, this guy would go. And then when he'd stopped playing the cello, he never that never happened. So I think that sometimes people can feel so much pressure to be quiet, or to not cough that they do it. Like kind of subconsciously.

Unknown Speaker 38:41
That's weird.

Scott Benner 38:42
Don't you think? That could happen? Because why? Why was he able to be quiet when he wasn't playing the cello? Yeah, right. He wasn't a jerk. He wasn't doing it on purpose. It was just as soon as he knew he had to be quiet. He couldn't help himself.

Caitlin 38:57
I bet you he was uh, I bet you that dude was probably a really good person, like a good like a person and really into music. Well,

Scott Benner 39:05
I don't think a lot of people end up at Carnegie Hall watching a cello if they're really into it. That's not something you go to by mistake. Yeah. I

Caitlin 39:11
mean, it was my mom decided she liked the cello. So we'll go there.

Scott Benner 39:16
Yeah, yeah, I don't think so. I saw. I also saw um, yo, yo, ma. Wow, it's been a long time already. No, I was just looking up. My tickets up here. Oh, isn't that weird? Like, I feel like I saw him last year around Christmas. But it was two years ago at Christmas play. Yeah, I bought a poster and had it signed and it's hanging up right here while I'm working. So I was there on November 29 2018. He played all six sweets of the Bach cello. It's beautiful. Do you want to hear? Sure. I don't think I'm allowed to play music on this. I think I'll get in trouble. Don't think I'm allowed to do that. By

Unknown Speaker 40:03
playing I can't hear it. I

Scott Benner 40:04
wonder if you can hear it. I don't even know if you can. I don't know how that works. I haven't turned it on yet. Caitlin.

Unknown Speaker 40:10
Oh, cool. I was gonna say if it's turned on, I can't hear you calm down for a second.

Scott Benner 40:14
You're very excitable. Yes. I'm gonna play it for you. I might have to mute it out on the like for people people listening might not be able to hear it, but you will be able to hold on a second. So I think you're going to hate this, but I'm I'm interested to find out.

Unknown Speaker 40:35
Is it going to be loud?

Scott Benner 40:36
I don't know. Okay, I've never done this before. Hold on. Wait. Can you hear it? No.

Unknown Speaker 40:46
I only hear you.

Scott Benner 40:48
It's coming through my headphones. Hold on tight. Could you hear it? You couldn't hear it? Dammit. All right. Anyway, my favorite thing,

Caitlin 41:15
the things we can't do on a podcast.

Scott Benner 41:16
Well, apparently I could do it. But I'd have to do a whole thing. Because I really don't know how I would do it if I've never tried that before. Anyway,

Unknown Speaker 41:26
something.

Scott Benner 41:26
The unaccompanied cello is my favorite instrument.

Caitlin 41:30
I kind of know what that is.

Scott Benner 41:33
Don't just that. It's like a giant violin. It's like a giant violin. Okay. But if you told me, Scott, you are going to be stuck on a desert island for the rest of your life. And you can only take one piece of music with you. I would take the cello makes me happy. And sometimes I start like getting a little teary eyed for no reason because some of the notes hit me like really deep in my heart. It's lovely. Maybe one day you will you will find it most likely not.

Caitlin 42:02
Yeah, I'm not very I'm not really a music person.

Scott Benner 42:06
Well, I'm you're gonna be dead anyway for the Coronavirus. But you know, so you have a very good sense of humor for an 11 year old by the way. So are you nervous about this stuff at all?

Unknown Speaker 42:17
diabetes, for diabetes, I

Scott Benner 42:19
was gonna say Corona and but didn't tell me what you're thinking about around the whole thing.

Caitlin 42:24
So I heard him I'm a little nervous about the Coronavirus because I don't know if I misheard this, but I heard it while we were at Disney. We were eating dinner and the newscast was on. And it said people with diabetes have a really good chance of dying if they get the Coronavirus. And I'm like, What? I walk out of the room. I go, mom, I think they just said this on the news. But I think they said if somebody would if somebody with diabetes gets the Coronavirus, they have a chance of dying and I'm like, I'm so nervous. Almost like nope, nope, not never going out. It's hotel room ever. But I did.

Scott Benner 42:57
Well, so here's what you would you know what you'll find out if you actually listened to the episode that I've done a couple episodes about Corona. And yes, people with diabetes are at an increased risk. But that takes into account the people who are maybe not in as healthy of a place. So I think that for someone like you who is young and otherwise healthy and whose blood sugar's don't go over 126 when they eat a croissant egg, and I think you're going to be okay, that doesn't mean you can't get it still. I don't think it means that you're more likely to get it because you have diabetes. I think it means that if you get it and you have diabetes, and your health is not good, it might be more difficult to fight off. But the truth is if you have diabetes and your health is not good in general, other illnesses are also harder to fight off. I also think that when the media says diabetes, they often mean type two diabetes.

Unknown Speaker 43:55
Yeah,

Scott Benner 43:56
that's what I was thinking never get a full explanation from them about Yeah,

Caitlin 43:59
just like diabetes Coronavirus risk of dying each one

Scott Benner 44:06
well you know what you shouldn't do probably you shouldn't go to like Tower of Terror during so where you guys just trying to sneak it in under the under the thing they're trying to get a little fun in before you're gonna get locked up. Yeah, yeah.

Caitlin 44:19
Because we were planning before before the Coronavirus was even like in the United States, we had already planned it. We were like, Oh, it's not gonna get in the United States at all. We were planning that whole week going to Disney. Like we had it all planned out like magic kingdom would be like Tuesday, and looking will be like Thursday. We had it all planned out until they until we got the announcement saying the night before we left. That before we left we got it. We got a like a notification from Disney saying that they were closing the parks Sunday off sudden like at 12pm 12am they were closing all the parks.

Unknown Speaker 44:57
You know my heart was broken

Scott Benner 44:59
or something Crazy. I just realized there's a person who listens to this podcast, who was also at touched by type one last year in the same room you were in where you asked your question. Who dances at? Animal Kingdom? She's a performer, Animal Kingdom. And that crazy?

Caitlin 45:19
I don't recognize very many people at Disney that I know.

Scott Benner 45:22
Yeah, you wouldn't recognize her. But that's what she that's her job right now. That's what she does. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I thought so. So he just realized that he said, Okay, so what are your goals here for diabetes? When life goes back to normal? And you know, everything or even now? Do you want to be in charge of your insulin? Like, what is your desire around that? Do you wish your mom wasn't involved? Do you like your mom being involved? How do you like it? Like,

Caitlin 45:48
I like my parents being involved? Because a lot of the times, like at night, perhaps I can't hear you alarms. And I would never know. Like, if my parents weren't involved in this, I would never know that my alarms weren't going off.

Scott Benner 46:02
Do you get but what about during the day when you're awake? Would you like this start being in charge? Or? No?

Caitlin 46:09
I guess sometimes they'll be like, give yourself a correction. But then the, but then sometimes, they'll be like, give yourself a correction. I put my blood sugar and on the Omnipod. And there and it says not gonna give me anything. So I go like, What? How much do you want me to give me? How much do you want it to give me it's saying when I put the blood sugar, and it's not going to give me anything? But my parents still want me to give a correction. Because if I don't, it's still gonna go up.

Scott Benner 46:36
So it gets it doesn't get a little confusing when the when your pump says one thing and your parents say another thing? Yeah, yeah. Do you think? Let's see, do you want to go to college one day? Have you ever thought about that?

Caitlin 46:48
I do want to go to college, but I feel like I would want to go with my friend Sophie. Who's because we both want to be bakers. So thought why don't we go to like college for like coronary school. And also she's very like, at school. She's very strategic about my diabetes. She's like, She's like, Caitlin, your alarms going off? Are you alright?

Scott Benner 47:13
She pays attention to it for you.

Caitlin 47:14
Yeah. It's like she puts her friends before her almost. Oh,

Scott Benner 47:19
that's kind of nice. Does she? Does she do that with a lot of life or just with you in with a diabetes?

Caitlin 47:25
I have no clue. But she does that a lot. Like if we're like, if one of us like fallen were hurt and we're like bleeding. She'll, she'll be the first person zoom over like the flash and go. She'll be the first person over there.

Scott Benner 47:38
Which flashes your flash? kailyn. Which one? Do you like the best? Like the guy on the show? Grant Gustin I just say that you just say the flash, you don't have an attachment to it at all?

Unknown Speaker 47:49
No, I don't really I'm not into superheroes at all. Very nice. I'm

Scott Benner 47:53
looking at baking schools for you. Oh, hey,

Caitlin 47:57
Sophie and I were planning on starting our own bakery company called the Baker's to,

Scott Benner 48:04
like your own shop.

Caitlin 48:05
Yeah. But we were still planning on where we want to do it. We were thinking New York. Yeah, you already.

Scott Benner 48:14
You're already planning on leaving your parents?

Caitlin 48:18
Yep, yeah. But I'm not really leaving my family because a lot of my family lives up and on my dad's side. A lot of my family lives up in New York. So I won't be that lonely. Okay.

Scott Benner 48:29
Johnson and Wales has a campus in Miami. It's a good cooking school. They have Baking and Pastry Arts there. He tend to one faculty ratio. This is good. Alright, we'll write that down somewhere because you have a couple years so. Yeah. Right now you're just trying to get through middle school and stay away from boys? Pretty much. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 48:54
almost about to go to middle school.

Scott Benner 48:57
Really? So what grade right now? You're in fifth grade? Yeah, Caitlin. I have been lulled into believing you're 32 years old while we're talking. Don't laugh. I wasn't kidding. Oh, you sound very like mature. Why are you the oldest? You're the oldest, right? There's just two.

Caitlin 49:20
Yeah, I'm the oldest of my brother.

Scott Benner 49:22
You boss him around a lot. Yes. Yeah. All the time. does it bring you a real pleasure to tell him what to do? Yeah, because my wife looks happy when she's telling me what to do.

Caitlin 49:32
Cuz when I tell him what to do. I feel like the adult.

Scott Benner 49:35
Oh, you like being in charge? Yeah, yeah. Caitlin, I think that's a psychological issue. But you're too young to worry about it right now. No, seriously, I am. When my wife's telling me what to do. She never looks happier than in that moment. She loves to. She also likes to be right. Do you like to be right?

Unknown Speaker 49:55
Sometimes, not all the time.

Scott Benner 49:57
Does it make you happy to be right.

Caitlin 49:59
It Because then I feel like I knew something that I knew was right. And I do that a lot.

Scott Benner 50:05
Yeah, you're right a lot.

Caitlin 50:07
Um, I, because sometimes we'll be late. Like, if we're doing like a fast pass or whatever, we'll be late for something. And I'll be like, and so my mom, like, we're almost about there. And then she'll be like, why don't we take another route? And I'm like, What if we take this route? We get there quicker. And then sometimes we'll be late for it. And then I'm like, Well, I was I was right. We should have done that.

Scott Benner 50:30
Is it more satisfying to be right? Instead of your parents or your brother? Like, who do you like to be right? More? Correct, then?

Caitlin 50:38
My brother, your brother? Cuz it makes me feel smarter than him?

Scott Benner 50:41
I gotcha. Well, you're older than him. So that makes sense. Right? Yeah. Gotcha. Is your dad very involved with your diabetes? Besides the the carbs and stuff around lunchtime?

Caitlin 50:53
Yeah, he's very. He's very old to it. Sometimes.

Scott Benner 50:58
It doesn't you like that they're involved?

Caitlin 51:01
Yes. I love that they're involved.

Scott Benner 51:03
Do you want them to be involved? forever? Yeah.

Caitlin 51:08
For long for it till I die.

Scott Benner 51:11
Well, what about this? Let's paint a picture, right? We get we get past this. We find some boy eventually, one day, like 20 years from now. And he stops talking about Star Wars long enough that all right, I can go out with this kid. And you're at home with him and you're married now and it's time to eat. You're gonna call your dad and ask him how to Bolus?

Caitlin 51:32
Well, first of all, I'd have to teach the boy I'm with I'd have to teach him how this works.

Scott Benner 51:36
You're gonna expect them to help you too.

Caitlin 51:38
Yeah, I would expect him. I mean, he's living with me.

Scott Benner 51:41
100%. That's good. I don't disagree with you. I was just asking. I think that one day, you should meet somebody who cares about your health and yeah, be willing to help. That's very cool. Wow. I think we've learned a lot here. Caitlin, don't you?

Unknown Speaker 51:56
Yeah,

Scott Benner 51:57
yeah. Have you said anything you wish you didn't say? I don't know. Remember when you admitted to spreading the Coronavirus from Florida?

Unknown Speaker 52:05
Oh, yeah. I kind of get that a bit.

Scott Benner 52:12
I'm not laughing at you. I'm just laughing. Have we talked about we missed anything? Is there anything you'd like to talk about that we haven't spoken about?

Unknown Speaker 52:21
so much? Um,

Scott Benner 52:27
what would you want other kids to know about diabetes? That kids that that have it that maybe you're struggling and like because you don't sound like you're struggling with it? You sound like you're pretty okay with this.

Caitlin 52:38
Um, don't be scared or nervous about it? Because you'll get through it. And you'll be perfectly fine. Once you're through it.

Scott Benner 52:49
You think people worry? Did you ever worry?

Caitlin 52:51
I did worry a lot.

Scott Benner 52:53
What was your concern?

Caitlin 52:57
Like it wasn't going to get it was going to get worse from where it was

Scott Benner 53:02
like your blood sugar's would just go out of control, and you wouldn't be able to fix them.

Caitlin 53:07
I have basically the whole thing. I just, I don't know why I got really nervous when I first thought of it. Because part of it was because I never liked needles. I was a little kid. And then figuring out I had to take shots every single day and prick my finger every single day. I was so nervous. I was like, I'm never I'm never gonna get anywhere from this.

Scott Benner 53:29
I've never met anybody who likes needles. But it's funny. It's funny when people talk about it. People are always like, I was one of those people who didn't like needles. And I always I never say it. I'm saying it to you now. Right. But I've never said it before. I always think are there people running around who enjoy getting stuck with needles that I don't aware of? Like, it's a it's a funny thing to say it's like, you know, it's like saying it's like, it's like saying, you know, I'm not one of those people who likes falling into a volcano. Yeah, no one likes. Okay, right. Right, right. But there's no one around. It's like, Oh, you know what my favorite thing to do is, I love to fall into a volcano. The best thing ever. You don't hear that. But everyone always starts with that, like, well, I'm just one of those people who doesn't like needles. I'm afraid of needles. Like, yeah, we all are afraid of getting something stuck into us. You don't I mean, I think it's the level of tolerance you have for it. So when this is all going on, when you're first diagnosed, and there's needles coming at you when you're like eight years old and everything, and does it feel like Do you remember how it felt? It's such a weird question for somebody. Yeah. But what does it feel like to get diabetes?

Caitlin 54:38
I was so scared because I thought that because I knew my life was my life was like turned upside down. And it was going to be stuck with me my whole life. And I just thought, okay, I didn't know I had no clue about the Dexcom and Omnipod and what they did. So I just thought you had to take shots and needles every single day and I would be living For this, I have been living with this for like, I thought I would be living it for like my whole life just doing shots and needle shots and needles without the Dexcom an omni pod, because I had no clue those two exist existed at the time.

Scott Benner 55:12
So just it's scary to feel like this is this is the rest of your life. And it's always like this. And is it better now the way it is now? For you?

Caitlin 55:20
Yes, it is very, very happy. And because I don't have to do that every single day. Now, how often

Scott Benner 55:26
do you think you get shots now? Do you still get a needle once in a while? Nope. Not at all.

Caitlin 55:32
Unless if my Omni pod fails, and we don't have an extra pod by mom will have a vial? My mom will keep a vial of insulin and syringes in the bags just in case something goes wrong.

Scott Benner 55:45
Yeah, but it doesn't end up happening very frequently to

Caitlin 55:48
that much. Unless if my unless of my we don't have to change the Omni pod. And the insulin went bad and like my blood sugar's keep going up after having like 50 units in me. She'll have that sometimes.

Scott Benner 56:03
What about tea? Um, how often do you end up testing with a meter?

Unknown Speaker 56:09
I'm

Caitlin 56:11
not very often sometimes when I go swimming, and I'll have to eat like, right when I get out my Dexcom it wouldn't link up to my, my phone. And we'll be eating like right when I get out. So I'll test their error or if my arm or if my Dexcom falls out, which did happen over though, over the last weekend. Okay. Oh, and I went to Disney.

Scott Benner 56:34
So if there's a some sort of a breakdown of the technology, you go back to it. Yeah. Do you ever just check to be sure I think Arden tests probably. I bet your heart and soul tests about 15 times a week. But it's usually clustered on days where the CGM is either newer or older.

Caitlin 56:57
I do sometimes because it my Dexcom it's sometimes it gets confused, it gets a little confusing because it will say I'm at like 45 double arrows down when I feel like I'm at 90. So we'll test there like if, like, it'll be like, my parents will be like, are you do you feel fine, because it says you're at 45 going down going down and I'm like, I feel fine. I don't feel dizzy or lightheaded.

Scott Benner 57:23
What happens when you test in a situation like that?

Unknown Speaker 57:27
Um,

Caitlin 57:28
I'll test I'll see where I'm at. If it's different, we'll calibrate it or unless if it says it's different, but then it the arrows it show it's starting to come back up. And we won't do anything about it. But if it says it's still at 45 going down for like, for like the past like 15 minutes, and it's still going like that we'll calibrate it.

Scott Benner 57:50
Here. Yeah. There's all kinds of different opinions about how when to calibrate or not calibrate. CGM people are very passionate about those conversations. But I hear what you're saying. I think when there's a discrepancy, or when you don't feel the way it says it's always a good idea to test right away. It's the best thing. It really is. Are you thinking about? Or do you even know anything about like, we use the Omni pod. So do you know anything about the Omni pod horizon? The idea of like, one day, there'll be like a little computer program. That'll that'll tell your palm how much insulin to give you and have you and your mom ever spoken about that?

Caitlin 58:31
I think my mom has talked about it, but I don't really know. It's not something you're playing right now. But I do know she I think she was talking about word like Dexcom and Omnipod. We're going to we're coming together or like conjoining some at some point.

Unknown Speaker 58:49
No, no. Oh, that's it.

Unknown Speaker 58:51
Yeah. My mom says that's horizon. So yeah,

Scott Benner 58:53
there's something you guys are talking about. That's cool. That'll be like a year from now when you're like gonna be 12. You know, in on May 30 2021. That I remember your birthday. Yeah, you have to be impressed. You don't know that about me. She'd be impressed. But then an hour later, I know your your birthday is may 30 is a huge deal for me. Just so you know. I'm incredibly not good at remembering. Almost everything.

Unknown Speaker 59:22
Same here.

Scott Benner 59:23
It's weird. It's weird that I'm the one doing this podcast. It's even weird to me. Like when I start talking about diabetes, and people are like, Oh, that's great. I'm like, Huh, how did that end up being? such a weird thing? I should probably be. I don't know what I should be doing for a living. I don't think it's though. I didn't think it was gonna be this though. What do you want to do? I mean, the bakery thing is a real thing. I want to do that.

Caitlin 59:46
Yeah, that's something I'm planning on doing. Because my family Smith, because some of my family does baking like my great grandma. She bakes a lot. And sometimes for like parties. I'll do something with my mom.

Scott Benner 1:00:01
I went to baking school for three years when I was in high school. I couldn't make bread like you know, somebody makes a loaf of bread. I can make 150 loaves of bread at a time. What I know how to bake for like an industrial sized bakery. That's what I learned to do. Because I didn't want to go to high school. So I went to baking school, and it split my time. That's probably probably not something they do anymore. And it wasn't a good idea. I should have went to high school just so you know, these mad baking skills that I don't get to use very often, although I'm going to use them today because Arden wants cookies. That was that was what was told to me last night that I needed to make chocolate chip cookies today.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:42
Cookies.

Scott Benner 1:00:44
Do you like cookies, though? A little bit. You'd like them when they're thin and harder or puffier and softer.

Caitlin 1:00:52
Like a mix of them, because sometimes they'll be hard or softer. You really don't. cuz sometimes you can never determine if it's like that because sometimes they'll be puffy, but hard or thin but soft. They can change people are giving you puffy but hard or thin but soft cookies. Those

Scott Benner 1:01:10
people do not know what they're doing and baking cookies. Okay. You take a bite, you make a little face, you put it down. Very, very judgmentally. Okay, then you just push it into the trash and let them know with your actions. You have crappy cookie, and no one wants to eat this. It's so easy to do the right way,

Caitlin 1:01:32
then, I mean, the only reason why I like both of them. I mean, it's just a chocolate chip cookie. I mean, if you give me a cookie, and it's light, and it's puffy, but hard. I'll still eat it. I mean, it's a cookie.

Scott Benner 1:01:42
Caitlin's like any chocolate chip cookies a good cookie, Scott,

Unknown Speaker 1:01:45
any cookies. Good.

Scott Benner 1:01:46
All right. Listen, I was thinking it might be interesting for a second. Could I talk to your mom for the last couple of minutes? Okay, yeah. Hey, wait, Caitlin. Wait. Yeah, I really enjoyed talking to you. I want to tell you by Did you have fun doing this?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:00
Yes.

Scott Benner 1:02:01
Do you have any idea what we talked about? Anything like if I said to you right now, what's the little blurb gonna say? In your episode? Do you have any idea what it's gonna say? No, I don't either. I don't think that we talked about whatever. We talked about whatever. Yep. All right. Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. I hope. I hope you don't have the Coronavirus. I don't. Right. Good girl. Let me talk to your mom. Okay.

Hello. Okay. We're still recording. Can you put the headphones on for a second? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:40
All right. Oh, goodness.

Jessica 1:02:44
Got cords wrapped around everything. Can you hear me?

Scott Benner 1:02:48
What did you do to that girl? Why is she like 35 years old?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:51
I don't know.

Scott Benner 1:02:54
Either you or your husband like that?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:56
Ah, no.

Scott Benner 1:02:59
You're not like she she's the most responsible person in the house? Sometimes? Yeah, definitely. I'm just like, I'm talking to her. And at one point, it occurred to me I'm like, gosh, she's 11. Yeah, I really is, when you sent me a note, I want you to know that your note has mimicked a number of them that I've gotten over the years from people are like you don't understand. My kid is so good at talking. And so mature, and some of them are but some of them aren't. And yours really, really really is. Like, she's just like, right on. I'm like, Hey, is there anything we shouldn't have talked about today? Like, what do you think anything? She's like, I probably shouldn't have said that. We went to Disney. I was like, Wow, she even knows. Oh, my God. I was like, I just thought I thought Wow, she's even aware of that. Like, didn't even like she has like she was able to like, think back over the hour and go, Oh, you know what, I wish I wouldn't have said this. Right. But I said that. She was like funny without being mean about her brother. She was real. Were you listening the whole time?

Jessica 1:04:05
A little off and on. I had to make a couple of phone calls to insurance companies and make sure you know, we get supplies, and all that good stuff. So in between calls, I was kind of like, poking my head at the door. She did

Scott Benner 1:04:16
a terrific job. She was really really good. It was excellent. I'm glad Yeah, no kidding. She does want you to be involved with her diabetes care for her whole life.

Jessica 1:04:25
her entire life. So I must live for ever. 100,000

Scott Benner 1:04:29
more years. She has to go Yeah. And if she does get married, although relationships are not something she's thinking about. If she does get married, the boy is going to have to understand her diabetes. She said she's gonna have to teach it to him.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:46
Cuz she won't do it.

Scott Benner 1:04:48
You're like, yes. You think she's looking for for a different caretaker?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:52
Yes, that's that's probably what it is.

Scott Benner 1:04:55
She said she enjoyed bossing her brother around. She likes being right sometimes. She said, I told her my wife loves being right. She there's nothing more than my life. My wife enjoys them to tell me what to do at work, right? She just she's in her element in those moments. Yeah, it was really she was really delightful. Yeah, it was really nice. I don't know, when this will be out. But I think because we talked about Corona, I'm probably gonna have to push it up and have like, two years from now, like, you know what I mean?

Jessica 1:05:32
Wait, it's not gonna make sense to a lot of people. Or maybe it may,

Scott Benner 1:05:35
or the bigger problem would be six months from now, you know, everyone's dead. And we're joking around about curl, right?

Jessica 1:05:43
Not anymore. I know. We're like, I'm like, Oh, it's probably not funny. It was funny. In the moment when we were there. You know, Friday, we get up there Friday, mid afternoon. And we're like, What's good? Why is I mean, Disney Springs was empty. Because I believe everybody was at the parks. But there was no word of closures of anything. As far as we knew, I mean, we were on vacation time. So I wasn't watching the news, I wasn't paying attention to anything I was, you know, it's interesting, getting a family of four packed up to leave for seven days. So, and my friend was the same way. She had her family of five, she was packing up, you know, to prepare and everything like that. And we get up there, we're enjoying our time, you know, and all of a sudden, you know, we're, I'm looking at my phone, I was like, Oh, this is a little more real than what I thought. And I work I you know, working 50 plus hours a week, you know, outside of the home, so I don't have the TV on hardly ever. So it was I was like, Oh, my first down minute. I'm like, Oh, this may be more real than I anticipated.

Scott Benner 1:06:52
We it's funny. I was talking about this with Kelly a little bit too, that. Just the idea of it. It's just that if we wanted everybody to know right away, the federal government would have had to step up and be like, that's it. Everybody get into your houses turn on your television will explain to you why. When you let it trickle out like this, there are people who are more connected to the news, less connected to the news. Some people who are working so much are just like you got busy. And so like, Is it fair to say that a week and a half or two weeks later, if you knew what you knew now, do you think you would have went to Disney?

Jessica 1:07:25
No, no, not at all. Not at all. I mean, why we brought plenty of hand sanitizer because, you know, there was a run on hand sanitizer. We couldn't keep it on the shelves in the store. I just everyday somebody would come and ask your hand sanitizer. I was like, Oh, we haven't gotten any in in two weeks. You know, I'm not sure exactly. You know, you soap and water. And don't touch things. You know,

Scott Benner 1:07:45
that that's not even enough to make you think like, I wonder why people are asking now have they come in and been like, do you have any zombie guns? Why is everyone asking for a zombie gun?

Jessica 1:07:56
I may have turned on the news that

Scott Benner 1:07:59
hold on. That's the third guy they asked about zombie booby trap. Let me just find out what's going on here now. Right? Yeah. Now it's it really is interesting how it gets how slow rollout? Everyone, it's because you see people on Facebook. You know, there's different levels of virtue signaling going on around around Corona around life in general. But that idea of like people like to say smart things to make sure you know, that they know like that, you know, because who are you really telling on Facebook, the five people who follow what you're saying? What are you exactly fixing the world by making sure that Patti and Karen know about the the Coronavirus, like they haven't figured you know, but but so everybody's doing that thing. And I always think like, you know, there are people who don't know, they just aren't paying attention. If you need any more, you know, backing for that, right? Let's see, let's just do this, like how many people voted in the 2016? election? You'll see why I'm doing this in a second. 2016 United States presidential election simple. How many people are well listen, it's easy to do this way. Right? It looks like one person got 65 million votes. One person got like 62 million votes. Okay. What's that, like? 130 140 million people. Right. Right. Now, let's Google this. How many people live in the United States. So there are 327 million people in the United States given that they're probably not all a voting age. It does seem kind of suspect that only about 140 of the 140 of the 327 voted like so. There's just some people just aren't even like concerned with the presidential election for example, or now. You know, I don't listen to the weather. Right. I know people who constantly know The weather and I am forever walking outside being surprised by the weather. I opened the door on my golf training.

Jessica 1:10:07
Where we are there is no point in listening to the weather. It's it's gonna rain. It's not gonna rain. It's you know, Florida.

Scott Benner 1:10:13
I'm just my point is there's things that people, you know, tend to care about things that people tend not to care about. Everybody's different I because you didn't, as she was telling me that you guys were there. I did not imagine that you were the kind of people who were like, Huh, there's a really good reason for us not to do this. But Screw it. We're going anyway. Like, I know you well enough online to think that that's not who you are, right? Oh, no, no, not at all. It's it's just it's interesting to watch it all go. So let me ask you before I let you go on, do you have more?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:43
Oh, yeah. Yeah. All day.

Scott Benner 1:10:46
You're like, I have nothing but time Scott later, we're gonna play poker for potato chips.

Jessica 1:10:51
Exactly. I you know, I had her do a lesson plan, you know, for the week that she's gonna be with my mother in law. You know, her and my son are going to be with the mother in law for the rest of the week to do school lessons and you know, a sense of normalcy as you as you call it, during less. So hopefully they'll follow through on it.

Scott Benner 1:11:10
Just you know, she might not be willing to go because I told her she still got four more days before she knows if he has Corona or not.

Jessica 1:11:16
Right? she does. She does.

Scott Benner 1:11:18
She might be like, no one's coming in this house. And I'm not leaving Jessie. But how does she do with her type one with her diabetes stuff? Are you bring me in for an 11 year old? Are you pretty happy with how she handles it?

Jessica 1:11:32
Oh, very, very amazingly. Well, I know she she does. You know, as an 11 year old as a child, she does tend to, you know, fight on some things. But she would fight me on something else. If it was not diabetes. So and those are the times when I just kind of okay, I take over. And I do I do most of the care for her. But I rely heavily on her to do it. At school. Yeah. And we don't do that communication where you do with Arden at lunchtime, she just doesn't have that time she she is almost embarrassed to pull her phone out and be like, Hey, Mom, it's lunchtime. What do I need to dose. So we've come up with writing the carbs down on it used to be a piece of paper, but she we found that she wasn't eating everything. So we just write it on the packages, and she adds it up what she's going to eat. And if she decides she's gonna eat more, she'll dose a little more so that that tends to work for us. So I like that a lot.

Scott Benner 1:12:31
I obviously, just the more

Jessica 1:12:33
you don't follow cards,

Scott Benner 1:12:35
the more fluid just throw that insulin in and go ahead and eat. Let's see what happens.

Jessica 1:12:39
Yeah, we do that when it's not like pre packaged or anything. We'll just be like, Oh, that looks like

Scott Benner 1:12:45
sound like you're doing terrific. You really do. I appreciate. She's like she's like, there's episodes my mom tells me not to listen to and I was like the ones about the weed in the drinking. She goes yeah. I said, Did you listen to her not listen to them. And she goes, I didn't. She's like, but I did read the descriptions. I was like I said, well, there's one coming out about sex pretty soon. Please don't listen to that one. She sucked. Okay. Yeah, she was really good. Like, she just was terrific. I'm assuming you're very proud of her because she was. Yeah, she was excellent. Cameron apparently is a mindless pain in her ass that only wants to talk about Star Wars. Just so you know. When I told her one day, she'll be married to a man who's a mindless pain that only wants to talk about Star Wars. Is don't expect too much growth out of boys. Just see it now. Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna pretty much be the same, just taller. So yeah, well, I really appreciate you guys doing this. And I just want to say thank you to you as well.

Jessica 1:13:43
Thank you for allowing us to come on. I mean, I was not expecting I told her. I was like, Caitlin, I'll send this email out. But do not expect a response anytime soon. Don't expect you know him to say yeah, I'll do it or anything like that. So when I got the reply, I was like, Oh, okay. She held up her end. And I will tell

Scott Benner 1:14:01
you this, like, in all honesty, episodes with children don't do as well. There are people who you know, will say, like, give us skip it because they're just like, I don't wanna hear a kid talk for an hour. But I think those people are making a mistake number one, but number two, for every person who doesn't want to hear if there's somebody who wants to hear it. And so there's that's her story. Still someone's story, right? And she's still a person with type one. And I think people need to hear it. I mean, she told me something she learned from Tommy's episode. Yep. Right. And

Jessica 1:14:33
she wanted to hit she wants to hear more from kids. And that's why she was like, I want to go on mom. If Tommy can do it, I I can do it.

Scott Benner 1:14:40
Well, I'm glad and I hope a bunch of kids hear her and then they're motivated to Pre-Bolus or pay a little closer attention. You know, whatever it ends up being, just to know that there's another person out there like them who's, you know, at Disney and doesn't want to Pre-Bolus because their friends are you know, and she's told me she's like, sometimes my friends are eating and I can't eat and I'm just doesn't like it. Yeah. So

Jessica 1:15:03
we try to catch it beforehand. But you know, when you're in the moment, it's like oh, no.

Scott Benner 1:15:07
easy to forget.

Jessica 1:15:08
Yes, it is. That's when we go a little heavier on the insulin.

Scott Benner 1:15:12
Sounds like the wind. The croissant went very well this morning, I thought

Jessica 1:15:15
Yes, it did. I'm amazed at myself. I'm still trying to tackle that croissant.

Scott Benner 1:15:22
And I got it this time. We're still Arden had cereal this morning with what I'm gonna call not quite enough. Pre-Bolus but she's at 150 so she's doing okay. You know, it's like a giant I don't know. And she didn't measure it. I don't know how much he ate. I don't even know what kind of cereal it was to be honest. I was already talking to Caitlyn.

Jessica 1:15:39
Yeah, so probably a bunch.

Scott Benner 1:15:41
Yeah, just hit her with a big sledgehammer full of insulin and let her eat the cereal.

Jessica 1:15:45
There you go. I that's where I've come down to I was like, you know it, we'll figure it out. It will. Sometimes it's gonna be a little more sometimes it's gonna be a little less she she does good with measuring things out. I'm like, you don't have to do that. She's like, No, I want to I said okay, and she measured off the cereal and it's like, that's a snack. Like no it for a little more on there. But yeah, she she does very well with you know, dosing and things like that.

Scott Benner 1:16:14
It really sounds like it it really does. It's very cool. Well, congratulations, you have a lovely family. As long as you guys all don't

Unknown Speaker 1:16:21
die of Coronavirus Coronavirus,

Scott Benner 1:16:22
I think you're gonna have a lovely life.

Jessica 1:16:27
You got to be light hearted with us. You can't take everything too seriously. You don't have to live your life normally. Listen, I

Scott Benner 1:16:33
have to tell you, I think joking aside, I think this is an incredibly serious thing. But it is not gonna stop me from trying to stay light hearted about it or because we're trapped in our house. Like what Brian would get what point is not going to be all like Lord of the Flies in here. So, you know, people are being cool. Right now we're found, you know, we've had to tell my son a couple of times, because he'll he goes fishing for like, Yo, I was gonna go play basketball or something like that, like that. We're not or, you know, I heard the other day, my friend wants to come over and help me put my clothes away from college. And I went, yeah, she's not coming. So you know. I guess he's doesn't realize he's 20. So it's perfect. Right? Because we haven't gotten to that conference. Or maybe he just likes a free place to live and doesn't want to rock the boat. I don't know. Exactly. But he hasn't like pushed back. Because I think he knows it's serious, too. You know?

Jessica 1:17:20
Yeah. So now let's just follow the rules for a couple couple more weeks and

Scott Benner 1:17:24
hopefully help some people not get sick. Exactly. Exactly. Wish you a ton of luck. Oh, thank you. Yep. And I will talk to you soon.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:32
Yep. Thank you. Have a good day. You too. Bye. Bye.

Scott Benner 1:17:38
A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, GE Vogue glucagon, find out more about chivo hypo pan at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juice box. you spell that GVOKEGL Uc ag o n.com. forward slash juice box. Since it got thrown into the episode, checkout touched by type one.org. And all the other sponsors there's links right there in your show notes and links at Juicebox podcast.com. Wasn't Caitlin delightful. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I enjoyed our conversation together so much and I hope you did too. I'll be back next week with much more of the Juicebox Podcast. See you soon.


Please support the sponsors

The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!

Donate

#457 Jon Marks

Scott Benner

Sports talk show host with type 1 diabetes

Jon Marks is an adult living with type 1 diabetes who is also the host of WIPs afternoon drive show that he co-hosts with Ike Reese.

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

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello everyone and welcome to Episode 457 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's show, we'll be talking to john marks john is an adult living with Type One Diabetes. He was diagnosed in his 20s. Today's men talk about his early management things, he figured out where he is now and he's gonna tell us a little bit about his job. And that job is pretty cool. JOHN is a sports radio host in Philadelphia, he works on the station that I grew up listening to sports talk radio on, john, we're gonna talk about diabetes for a while, we're gonna add been to some sports, but then he's got a really important message on the back end, and I don't want you to miss. So if you get into the sports stuff, and you're like, oh, he stopped talking about diabetes. Hang on. Just one more second for me. Please remember, while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan for becoming bold with insulin. During this hour, I'm going to mention the diabetes pro tip episodes to john if you'd like to listen to them, they start back in Episode 210, where you can find them at diabetes pro tip.com. They're also available at Juicebox Podcast calm.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor get the CGM that my daughter and john Marks wears at dexcom.com/juicebox. And you can take the Omni pod for a test drive, go to my Omni pod comm Ford slash juicebox. Find out if you're eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash. That's actually you using it for 30 days. Or you can ask for a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod. And if you get that they'll send you out a pod that you can wear and try on it doesn't work. But it will give you the feeling of what it will be like to wear the on the pod. So whether you're going to look for that free 30 day trial, the dash or just try to get that free, no obligation demo, everything you want is at myOmnipod.com/juicebox. Last thing before we start check out the T one D exchange at T1dexchange.org/juicebox. Are you in the studio right now? Like are you going to do this then work?

Jon Marks 2:35
Yes, I came in at about 1030 to get it like an hour's worth of work done. And then I'm going to do this with you. And then I'm going to bounce out and then finish up my prep and get ready to go on the air. Oh, that's

Scott Benner 2:46
very cool. So we're recording already. This is very, very laid back.

Jon Marks 2:51
I listened to a couple of a couple of recent podcasts over the last week or so to get a feel for what it was. So I got a pretty good idea. You do a good job with it.

Scott Benner 2:58
Thank you. I listened to your show yesterday. I thought so anyway, go ahead Introduce yourself.

Jon Marks 3:06
My name is john Marx. I work for 94 Wy pm I am a talk sports talk radio host. You can listen to me every Monday through Friday from two to six. If you get the radio.com app and Scott, thanks for having me on the show man what's going on?

Scott Benner 3:23
I Well, I'm gonna have to go back probably to when you started in Philly, and I I grew up in Bucks County. So we listened to sports talk constantly. I like my earliest memories are walking around like a baseball card shop and hearing like Glen Mac now talk about like sports. And I love the like what I think what you do is is incredibly difficult to make look easy, you know to have these like very short conversations that are cogent. And somehow they're there unto themselves but then they build along the hours that you're on the on the on the radio, I think it's it's a really cool skill to have. And so I love listening when I get a chance I love listening to people talk I don't put on as much music as I even want to because of that. And I felt like one day I heard you offhandedly say to your co host that you had diabetes and it never really came back up into my head again. And then what was it now maybe a month or so ago? I was listening to the radio and I could hear your Dexcom beeping and I thought How come I've never asked john to come on the podcast. So here you are.

Jon Marks 4:30
You know it's funny how many diabetics are out there listening and know what that Dexcom alarm sounds like because between the tweets your I guess you emailed me or I don't know if your direct message me on twitter but between the DMS and the emails and must have got a dozen people saying hey, I'm on the Dexcom two or

Unknown Speaker 4:47
Hey,

Jon Marks 4:48
my daughter's on the desktop so it was not something I expected when that when the damn alarm goes off because you know you can't silence it right away because it puts the volume all the way up. Yeah, so everybody can hear it but it is It's funny how it works out sometimes. Isn't

Scott Benner 5:02
it interesting that you get that money responses? I immediately thought, you know, so seriously, I dropped my daughter off at a salon. She was having her nails done. And I was waiting outside listening to your show. And I heard the beeping and my brain thought that's not right. Arden's not low. I know she isn't. And then I was like, wait a minute, it was muffled like that wouldn't have sounded like that. And then it occurred to me, I was like, I remember this guy saying he had diabetes a couple years ago, this is what this is. So that day, I i were you trying to you adjusted your diet? Right?

Jon Marks 5:37
I'm that particular day.

Scott Benner 5:38
Yes. That what was going on and you were trying to eat right? Or something like that? I heard you saying,

Jon Marks 5:42
Well, I mean, I have ever since the pandemic started. So we're going on a year now I really decided that I was going to take advantage of not being able to do anything and really start exercising and eating better. I would say my diet was was usually you know, pretty good for being a diabetic but I really kind of took charge of it. I don't remember exactly what it was that day. You know what it was it since it was about a month ago, Scott that you know, my basil rates were probably a little bit off because of the the temperature change. Yeah. And what it does to me, but I mean, honestly, like, it's not it's not unusual for me to get a little bit low during the show and because I have an Apple Watch, which is amazing because I can get the Dexcom reading right on my watch. It's like it's you know, it's a it's amazing for any diabetics out there. You see going down and I know that I'm in a commercial break so what am I doing I'm trying to eat a granola bar during the commercial break, but doesn't work right away. So sometimes something like that will happen and you know, that's not a common with me, Scott, I mean, you know, we all have our highs and we all have our lows and we're just trying to try to manage them as best we can.

Scott Benner 6:50
So you feel a little when the weather warms up you need a little less you know what it's it's

Jon Marks 6:55
yes, I do it's um it's weird because weather warms up for a couple days and I switch it and then you know the Northeast in in spring and late winter then it gets that's 30 degrees 20 degrees again, so then you know, sometimes it it backfires on you. So yeah, yeah, for me when it gets warm, I need less when it gets when it gets cold, I need more and I think it's like that with a lot of people kind of pumped to us. I have an omni pod. I don't have the I don't have the dash I inquired about it and my insurance was telling me that I'm not eligible for it. And I had to go through the appeals process which I guess I'm currently going through they said it could take about three months but I'm an omni pod insulin pump user

Scott Benner 7:39
three months April May June I'll tell you what, if you wait that long, I assume their algorithm is going to be out so they on the pod five will come out and then your Dexcom and your on the pod will talk to each other and it'll adjust your basal insulin and things like that automatically. So I should just wait you maybe you should that's presents pretty trust me that's pretty great technology. My daughter's using an algorithm right now and it's fascinating to watch it work amazing. Yeah. might stop some of those lows for you. I'm wondering when you're talking does it You said you get you can get lower while you're talking so I think of your show is like I think of you as the driver and as like is the like the color a little bit sometimes. And so you're so you're you're talking a little more than he is and your pace like your your quick talker like I am that does that actually burn carbs for you? Do you get low just from that do you have to eat during the show? I guess is my question.

Jon Marks 8:32
I do I have a routine at are actually we just changed our clocks. So our break schedules are a little bit different now but I used to before we would go we would have a commercial free segment that would go from about 440 until 520 save about 40 minutes so during that break, I'm starting to get hungry anyway because lunch had been you know three or four hours before so that's when I would typically eat one of my protein bars that I have. So now that it's a little bit different but yeah, I mean it does it does it is it Scott when I have when I feel like I have a good show. When I get done in off the air. I just like mentally I'm just exhausted. Like oh yeah, nanny now I have to drive 55 minutes home and have two little kids is running and screaming and try to eat dinner and then get them in bed and everything else. So it goes quick.

Scott Benner 9:23
Yeah, does I have to tell you I it's not too similarly if I if I do this for an hour for 90 minutes for there's a span of time afterwards, your brain is scrambled like from listening and talking and trying to say the right thing and not say the wrong thing. And you know and all the things that you want to get out and everything it is exhausting talking like this. I just didn't realize it would it would affect blood sugar. Like that's kind of interesting.

Unknown Speaker 9:49
I think you can

Jon Marks 9:50
for people out there that are listening that are familiar with sports radio, and I'll just say like the Northeast which is Philly, New York and Boston, people not only take their sport It's serious, but they take their sports radio serious. I mean, it really is. It's a way of life and now heated conversations talking about quarterbacks and things like that. Looking at your mentions on Twitter, and people wanting you fired or threatening you or things like that. It gets it gets very interesting. So I don't know if my my my mean mentions take away from my blood sugar, but I think a long show sometimes.

Scott Benner 10:23
It's amazing. How old were you when you were diagnosed?

Unknown Speaker 10:27
So it was

Jon Marks 10:28
August 7 2002. So I would have been 24 turning 25 I was working. I was in between. I was in between jobs. I had left a an office job that I was working at and Center City, Philadelphia. I was working at a restaurant part time. And then I was working in another restaurant part time. So a two part time restaurant jobs. The one restaurant it was it opened like was a new restaurant, it opened and it did poorly from the start. So it turned into one part time job that I had. And I remember I was at my read, I was at my other job and I went across the street to a convenience store. And I bought two of the biggest jugs not like the 32 ounce jugs of Gatorade, but like the superduper big family size jugs of Gatorade because I was so thirsty. And I I couldn't quench my thirst. And I just remember chugging these two things of Gatorade. And the guy that I worked with looked at me and said, What the hell is wrong with you? Yeah, like, dude, you got to go to a doctor. And I'm like, I know I do. I think I have diabetes that was on. That was on August 6. The next day, I took a train went up because I didn't have a car I was living in the city took a train up to my parents house in suburban Philly, got her car and drove to the doctor. And that's where the that's where my my family doctor that I had since I was a baby was very upset because my blood sugar was 720. And he realized what what that I was diabetic at that point. That was August 7 2002. How did

Scott Benner 11:59
you know? Is it in the family? Are there any other endo issues in your family? No, I'm

Jon Marks 12:03
the first I don't even have anybody type two in my family. So I was the first it was just that, like the just not being able to quench my thirst. And I just got just what I thought it was, well, nothing else made sense. And probably two weeks before that I had a low. Again, it was on a train. And I remember calling my mom and saying I feel really sick. Can you come pick me up at the train station, I'm not going to be able to walk and she brought a Gatorade with me. And I drank the Gatorade and I felt much better. But what I didn't know was my sugar was probably 50 because I had ran to the train because I almost always missed the train. And I was hypoglycemic. So my sugar was low. So then it all kind of made sense at once. It was like if you watch the if you watch what's the what's the movie with with Kevin Costner where he's it? Anyway, he's, he's like limping and walking. Usual Suspects. Okay, you realize in the last scene in the movie, where Kevin Costner's character goes from doing this limp to where he's just walking space. And it's like, oh, my God, like, that's the guy. And like it was at that moment where I'm like, Oh, my God, I

Scott Benner 13:09
think I've diabetes just like that. You know, like, I'm Kaiser. So say, Kaiser shows. And I have diabetes.

Jon Marks 13:17
He's not very Yeah, I wasn't verbal. Kim. I was actually Yes. I'm just kind of. Yeah,

Scott Benner 13:21
so that's so that really, without any background? Did you use the internet or just the thirst thing drove you to diabetes in your mind?

Jon Marks 13:28
I mean, this was 2002. So I didn't, I probably had a flip phone at the time, right? So I just like and I remember saying it to my mom, when I got up there. And she goes, you don't have diabetes stop. And I'm like, Well, what the hell's going on? And but she looked at me, she said, You look like a drug addict. You really shouldn't waste probably six or 700 for, you know, three, four or five days. Yeah. So you know, went to the doctor Bang 720 you got to go to the hospital.

Scott Benner 13:54
So you're about two years prior to my daughter who was diagnosed in August 2000 excuse me four years 2006 when she was two years old. So you were just slightly ahead of the curve of technology too. Right. So what did you start with to manage?

Jon Marks 14:10
So here's the here's the kicker when I said I had two part time jobs, and then I one part time job, I had no health insurance. So just going to the hospital and then putting me in intensive care, because they were worried that there was probably going to be problems with my organs because my blood sugar was so high. So I don't have insurance in there. And you know, that's like staring down the barrel of a shotgun where it's like, oh, my God, what am I going to do? And luckily, you know, my parents aren't wealthy by it by any stretch, but I grew up in a middle class neighborhood. I was living on my own and I had an apartment of my own, but I knew at least that they could give me some some support as I needed. I started off with a vibe with a vial of long lasting in a vial is short lasting in needles, and in a one and a one touch a little meter. A meter. Yeah. And that's how I and that's how I did it.

Scott Benner 15:00
I try to explain to the people who listen to the show I'm like you they gave me a vile and a handful of needles and this little meter that look like it came out of a bubblegum machine and like you're gonna take care of your kid. And you know compared to now it's it's barbaric. And compared to even 10 years prior to that, it was the most amazing thing that ever existed. So it's interesting how it leaps forward so much. So you find on the pod when

Jon Marks 15:25
I'm so been married six years, seven years ago, and and you know, what's it like? I don't, I don't know why. I didn't get on a pump. I had I lived in Hawaii for a couple of years. I had, you know, gave started my radio career and my diabetes was not managed. Well. I didn't test my sugar. Well, I didn't test it often. I I wasn't a big sweets eater. So it's not like that I was eating cakes and cookies and all that stuff right there. But if you're not testing your sugar multiple times a day, you're never going to be regulated properly. Right. So I had for a number of years. That's that's how I lived I had multiple times where I bottomed out and I woke up in the back of an ambulance. You know, I I just always felt like especially when you first get diabetes, you feel like because you're still in the honeymoon phase. You always feel like that you're going to be able to go to get something right like you feel low. I can I'll be able to go to get to the store and get an arm Vegas. Yeah. Until the first time where it doesn't happen. And then happened in Center City, Philadelphia, I was going to deposit my my check from my job, and boom, straight down, right. And I woke up in the back of an ambulance. And the first thing I remember him saying, I didn't know if you're gonna make it or not. Wow. Yeah, so it's scary. But I mean, that's how I look for a long time. So

Scott Benner 16:42
I don't want to put words in your mouth. But I've heard adults. So you're in a really interesting space. I've talked to so many people, like, diagnosed as an adult, but not a real adult, if you know what I mean. Like, you know, just right and, and just try to ignore it. Like, it'll be okay. But do you have? Do you have any idea how many people tell me in that age range, they meet someone where they it ends up being they take better care of themselves? Because of someone else? Or for someone else? Did you have that? Like, like, were you doing it for you? Or did you do it because you met a woman? Or do you know what I mean?

Unknown Speaker 17:14
Um,

Jon Marks 17:15
I think I just I realized that doing what I was going to do, what I was doing, how he was managing my diabetes wasn't going to work. And I think it was when I went back to this, this was when it was I went back to seeing seeing an endocrinologist on a regular basis, right? When a couple of years where I would go, and then I wouldn't go for a year. And then when I needed prescriptions refilled. And they're like, you can't get your prescriptions refilled, unless we see you in the office. And I would have to go again, I think it was when I finally started getting regular a one C and it and I saw what, how how I was managing my diabetes, which was, you know, Not good, not terrible. I was trying. But it's very difficult when you're just using a meter. And you're just using a bile and a needle. It's very difficult. So that's when the doctor because I hadn't been a regular, bad, anything good. I think on a doctor on a regular basis. They said, Well, what about the pump? And I said, Sure, let's do it. But it really was the Dexcom that saved me. I could take injections right now. The Dexcom is the lifesaver. I mean, this is what's totally changed my life is being able to see what my blood sugar is at any moment and see what food does to my blood sugar so I can learn from that.

Scott Benner 18:32
Right so that's been the game changer fine tuning issues, then you can do with it. So it's it's interesting. I was talking to somebody yesterday. And he said that pump used to be this thing where if you were just really not on top of things at all, they slap a pump on you thinking well at least you're getting basil and so on we can we can know that's happening. And maybe you'll push some buttons once in a while when you eat and we'll get lucky and you'll Bolus once in a while, which makes it all nice not to get poked and all that stuff's great. It's great to be able to adjust you know Temp Basal rates and extended bonuses and things like that. But you're right once you can see the data in real time, it's eye opening in a way that's it's impossible to describe if you've done it to somebody who's never seen it before.

Jon Marks 19:11
Yeah, and you can't without seeing that you don't really know you you can test your sugar after an hour and you know what it is but you don't know how long it took to get to there and that was another thing with me was the taking too much insulin too soon, eating something that has carbs but they're slow acting carbs and then not realizing that's not going to hit me for two and a half or three hours and then I'm low and then I'm eating to solve that low but then my sugars getting high so then I'm waking up with a 350 you know, so the Dexcom for anybody out there that doesn't have a Dexcom get a Dexcom or get something like a Dexcom because it is is a life changer.

Scott Benner 19:48
I would tell you that I'm absolutely Arden. Like we love Omnipod we really do. Arden's had it since she was four, maybe, but you're right. If you made me choose, I'd have to take Seeing the data over the ease of pumping. If you made me pick just one like that, you know, it's a false choice for us. But that would be the way to go. I have a question about prior to all that you're bouncing around a lot. So were you the kind of person who was low so much that it counterbalanced the highest so you're a once he looked like it was reasonably okay in the sevens or were you more of I'm trying my best. Like I'm more in like the mid eights.

I don't know if I can say it better than it's been said already today. But the Dexcom je six continuous glucose monitor is an absolute must in your life with insulin. If you have type one or type two diabetes, you need to see what your insulin is doing, what impact it's having on your blood sugar, and how is the food you're eating, impacting all of it. Think about that, think about being able to see food, go into your mouth, go to your blood sugar and cause a rise. But you can see it happen in real time. And allows you to make a decision for next time, right? I Pre-Bolus my meal this time I did 15 minutes. But I started to get a rise before the insulin really kicked in. Maybe if I just adjusted my Pre-Bolus a little bit. I could stop that rise. Maybe I just need a little more insulin a little less, a little sooner, a little later. How do you figure that out? You figure that out with the information that comes back from the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor dexcom.com forward slash juice box links in your show notes. Links at Juicebox Podcast comm Get yourself a Dexcom g six, find out what your blood sugar's doing. Do you ever go to sleep with a blood sugar of 95 and wake up with a blood sugar of 250? Can you imagine if you could see exactly what happened overnight? When does your blood sugar start to rise overnight? When does it stop? Imagine now that you just set some basil rates that impact those rises. So you go to sleep at your 95 blood sugar, the rise is going to happen at 2am. But you're ahead of it. And you've changed your basal rate at 1am to get ready for that rise it to the rise never happens. And you wake up with that same blood sugar that you went to sleep with. Would that be cool? You can do it dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. I'm not even bothering to tell you that you can share your data with up to 10 followers if you want. That means your wife, your sister, your school nurse, anybody could see what your blood sugar's doing, if you want them to. Alright, while you're on the internet looking for that Dexcom Don't forget to get yourself a demo of the Omni pod or a trial you can get a trial or a demo two different things. So you can get a free no obligation demo of a non working on the pod just so you can wear it to see what you think you'd like banging around the house with it. And so you know, John's gonna say later he wears it on his arm. You can see if that works for you. Or you can dive in a little farther and get yourself if you're eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omnipod dash use the dash for 30 days for the freeze. You could do that. If you're eligible. Go find out at my Omni pod comm forward slash juice box we're talking about insulin pumping. We're talking about having control over your basil, your Temp Basal, your boluses you can extend your boluses there's all sorts of things you can do and I haven't even told you yet that it's tubeless so you're not connected to a device means you can jump in the shower without taking you off your pump. I just literally five minutes ago saw a story online. Someone tried to figure out why getting into a tub made their blood sugar come up. And after all this consternation and talking you know what the answer was they took off their tube insulin pump to get into the water, taking away their insulin and allowing their blood sugar to rise. But then on the pod. You can jump in the water and keep on that on the potty. It is tubeless it is waterproof. And it is wonderful. My on the pod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box of course don't forget the T one D exchange T one d exchange.org Ford slash juice box. Check them out support the show hit the links. Thank you back to john.

Jon Marks 24:34
Definitely highs and lows highs and lows highs and lows. eights. Yeah,

Scott Benner 24:38
yeah, definitely. But you passed out. You passed out a number of times though.

Jon Marks 24:42
Christmas. Christmas morning. When I guess though this was back when I was I was definitely living in my parents house. So I lived on my own for a while and then when you know coming back from living in Hawaii, I was there for a year or two and then I moved out but I remember it was Christmas. This morning the insulin that I was using you would have to take a half hour before eating and I took the shot of what we were going to have for for Christmas morning and then I fell back asleep and I guess breakfast got delayed I came downstairs only thing I remember is waking up on the floor with with with an ambulance in my neighborhood on Christmas morning which made all of my neighbors and people that I know in the area wonder what happened. So yeah, that was one of my times.

Scott Benner 25:28
Wow. And now you said you have a couple of kids do you know about trial net? Have you wondered if they've got like antibodies that marker type one or do you not think about that too

Jon Marks 25:39
much? I honestly don't think I not that you don't think about it? Because I mean obviously you do and it's something you worry about. I have I have baby number three coming. God willing in in July. But thank you but but I haven't No, I haven't looked into it. And I'd be more interested in I'd be more interested in information.

Scott Benner 25:59
Yeah, there's a woman named Carla Greenbaum was on recently she runs trial net, they'll send you out a kit for free you do a little thing at home send it back to them they'll tell you if you have any the antibody markers. And actually there was a gentleman on just the other day, who's just about ready to have his company's about to have a drug come out of trials with the FDA and they're seeing that if you have the markers they give you this drug it's an infusion. I think you get it. Got I hope I'm remembering this right maybe like once a day for like 12 days in a row and then you're done and it can hold off the onset for years. Wow, really fascinating stuff. So yeah, it's called trial that when we're done, I'll send you the information so you can you can have it. Hey, do you know um, you know, Sam fold has type one.

Jon Marks 26:44
Yes, it is. Um, he's a he's a he's a coach for the or he's in the front office for the Phillies. Now

Scott Benner 26:51
he's I guess well, Dombroski is, is Dombrowski, not the GM? I think he

Jon Marks 26:57
is like he's I think he's like the president of baseball operations. And then they bring somebody else in who has the general manager title.

Scott Benner 27:05
And that's Sam. Right? Yeah, yeah, Sam's got that Sam's got the GM has actually been on the show a couple of times. He's really just a delightfully nice guy just then if you ever bump into him, he's got like this great camp he does for kids with type one every year, and he's just a really, genuinely decent person. So I just figured you might bump into him at some point or another. Okay, so I have to ask you, I'm a huge howard stern fan. I have been all my life. And I always imagine that Howard would make up fights with other disc jockeys just to make on air stuff, but fights with sports, radio disc jockeys is real, isn't it? Well, Scott,

Jon Marks 27:43
I like you grew up on howard stern from man from middle school when I knew I was shouldn't be listening to him because I wasn't old enough for that type of content, right? All the way up through. I don't have I don't subscribe to Sirius anymore. But whenever I get like, my wife just got a new car. So she's got the one year subscription. So I every time every time I need to go somewhere, I take her car so I can listen to the stern stuff. Um, I mean, so in Philly, there's two sports radio stations. Where I am a Wi Fi, which is the leader in in sports radio for forever. And then the other station, which is 97 five, the fanatic. That is where I started and where I worked up until, I guess it was 2017. I guess now Yeah. 2017. So I was very much the enemy or I considered Wi Fi enemy for a long time. And then I switched and I came over here for I mean, for the most part, we I get along with everybody. There. I still consider most of the people over there, my friends. Everybody's been great to me here. But I would say some of the older generation of sports talkers in this town, they have a that's kind of what's kind of what they grew up with, which was just hating everybody and each other the fighting. Yeah.

Scott Benner 29:01
Well, you know, it really is that idea that back then there was a finite amount of radio stations that were talking about the thing you did, and if somebody else was succeeding, you were failing. Now there's outlets for everything. You know, you can get your get your voice anywhere, almost amazing. And I think and I think stern kind of kind of set the bar for just a radio war, right?

Jon Marks 29:21
Like no matter who he was, who was trying to go up against them. It was first john dibella in Philly, who had the morning zoo, he had the top rated station or star top rated show here in the mornings. And when Howard got syndicated, the wy SP was like, Okay, he's the guy to beat. Yeah, we're gonna beat them and then that like that's just was was was what he was gonna do. He was gonna stop at nothing to beat whoever was in his way. You had man cow who was out in out in Chicago and you had some other people across the country across the country. But yeah, I mean, that was radio wars. That's what you did. And you saw a lot of people. Even up until recently, there was a there was a sports radio host here. Not too long ago that was applying to Howard Stern. And method of you know, radio war stop at nothing to win. And, you know, it's time to kind of change that stuff to do the Howard Stern stuff anymore

Scott Benner 30:07
doesn't work. Yeah, do you know I went to that dibella funeral, I must be much older than you. I just realized. We took the day off, and we went down and it's the down there. And I think it was on Market Street. And it was hilarious.

Jon Marks 30:22
You and a lot of other people. It's, it's amazing. It's amazing. Like, obviously, I'm constantly looking at ratings and everything else with with with our show and other shows or whatever. But the ratings that howard stern did, you'd more or less have 25% of the city, listening to Howard Stern, you'll never see ratings like that, again, I was gonna make one in four cars. This

Scott Benner 30:43
is an amazing statistic. It really is. And do you feel that like, I look, I have a podcast, I'm not on the radio. And I feel it constantly, like, make this good. Make it better make it interesting. Don't let there be lols. You know, like, do you have all those feelings? Like you have that reserve voice in your head? That's like cut this call off?

Jon Marks 31:04
I had that I have anxiety every day when I wake up? Because it it is what am I going to talk about today? Right? When you do a radio show, if you if you're doing a lot of interviews, then you can do a lot of interviews. And that's kind of like the preponderance of what you're doing on a show. That's not what we do. We do mostly talk of interviews. But for the most part, it's, we're talking we're discussing, we're debating. So it's been I mean, honestly, it's even when we've had great writing success, like, hey, you're the number one show for the last six months in Philadelphia, it's difficult to enjoy because I have to, we have to answer the bell every morning of you know, like, or in the afternoon. But that's what I'm thinking about. When I wake up. The first thing I think about when I wake up is what the hell am I going to talk about today?

Scott Benner 31:50
I think if you put two average people in front of a microphone, they could maybe go for two and a half minutes and then they wouldn't be able to go anymore.

Jon Marks 31:59
Well, I mean, it's gone. I think it's just like I knew from a very young age, like you were talking about being a Howard Stern Show, I started off in I used to tape howard stern on a cassette and then I would listen to it when I got home I would tape the dude back then was the WP morning show with with with with Angelo and Tony Bruno and more Gani. I would tape radio because I would have to go to school and I wanted to listen to it. So for me, I think it's just one of those things where I just like, it's what I've always wanted to do. And kind of it's cool being on on here right now. Because I didn't get involved in radio, I didn't really get my act together in life. Until I became diabetic. And I had no insurance, I had a part time job. I was just kind of like, living right, like, what am I doing with my life? And it really, it kicked my butt into being like, you know, what, what are you doing, dude, go out there and do something with your life. And that's what I mean. And that's what I've done since then.

Scott Benner 32:57
No kidding. I'll tell you the amount of people who tell me and I see it with my daughter as well, that being a witness having to be aware of your health is gives you a lot of clarity, and that some of the healthiest people I meet have type one diabetes, because they're so in tune with what's going on with their with them, their self inside, it's it's a view that most people don't have of themselves. And it feels like you saw it, and it wasn't going right. And at some point, you're like, I gotta fix this. And then that led you to pulling everything else. That's incredibly interesting.

Jon Marks 33:30
Yeah, it was like I always say that, that people that people that are trying to manage their diabetes, right, you really have to want it. You have to want it you have to be diligent, it's it gets tiring to do it. You can't do it five days a week and then take the weekends off. It's seven days a week 24 hours a day. Whether it's with me myself Scott with with you have in your daughter, just the the burden that that must put on your mind because a turn right, like I couldn't imagine that I would much rather deal with it myself. Because I know that I can deal with it myself. But I have a I have a friend whose dad is he's not type one. He's type two. And he's he's in his 60s. And he, we were swimming. I was over somebody's house. He was there. We were swimming. And he's asking me about the Dexcom because I actually keep them on. I keep the pump and the Dexcom on my arm. Because that's the best best place for me is on the back of my arm, upper arm. Yeah. Otherwise they tear him off or whatever, right? So that's where I have them. So I'm swimming. He's asking me about him. And I'm asking him about his diabetes. And he's, you know, he never doesn't ever test his blood sugars and everything else. And I told him, I said, Listen, if you get the Dexcom, like, you will know what your blood sugars are at all times. And you can adjust it. If he didn't, I gave him the information. He never did anything with it because he's just like, Oh, I'm fine. Don't worry about it. Well, like you can't have that you can't feel like that. I'm fine. Everything's gonna be fine. So it kind of when it's done. For me in life, which is that like to be in radio and to have, you know, moderate success and to be doing this on a local level and, and having some success here in Philadelphia, like I've, I've been kicked. So many times I've been told I can't do this so many times I've really, really, really had to watch it and work for it. And it's the same thing with with with keeping your sugar's down. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 35:23
I mean, it is,

Scott Benner 35:25
well after you after you decide to do something like that you do recognize that other things are not as difficult as you think they are. Like, I find diabetes to be a major source of perspective for me, I there are things that prior to my daughter's diabetes, I would have thought were trouble or a problem or hard and now I don't look at those things the same way. It just I would I would be able to say to myself, I want to get something accomplished. I'll go do it. Nothing's as bad as my daughter's blood sugar being higher low to me. So I just

Jon Marks 35:54
felt like I heard you. I heard you say in a in a recent episode that that if your daughter's blood sugar's over 145 after you eat, you're like, inside, like, what did I do wrong? Did I not do this? Do not do that. And it's it's, um, I thought about it. And I said, well, man, like, if it's me, it's just like, Alright, well, I got to do better, but you wanted for your daughter. It's like you're, you're in charge. You're the one that it's trying to help her. It's,

Scott Benner 36:19
it does feel

Jon Marks 36:20
it really, it really puts life in perspective. And I'll tell you this, that that diabetic me is is a much more healthier person than non diabetic me.

Scott Benner 36:28
That's certainly something. Is your Does your wife have any involvement in your care? Or is that something you keep kind of separate?

Unknown Speaker 36:35
Um,

Unknown Speaker 36:37
I mean, No, she

Jon Marks 36:38
doesn't. She doesn't have it on her. She doesn't have it on her phone or anything like that. She She knows that I'm taking pretty, you know, pretty good care of myself now. But she's the one that pushed me before. She's the one that pushed me when I didn't have a pumper or a Dexcom. She pushed me saying like, well, how your sugars on my sugars are fine. Like how do you know? And she she was holding me accountable? Because they had it? I know if they were fine. I wasn't testing my sugar. Oh, no, they're fine. They're fine. Don't worry about it. I was just low, like, an hour ago, and I ate a granola bar. So I'm fine. Right? Yeah. So she was and she read before we got we got married to where it was like, I'd like to have this on before we get married. So like, so. We've been married almost seven years now. So that's

Scott Benner 37:21
how long it's been so fine to you was not passing out. Like I have a granola bar. I'm fine. Which meant I'm not gonna wake up in an ambulance.

Unknown Speaker 37:30
I yes. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 37:32
Yes, that's

Jon Marks 37:33
that was fine with me. were like, Alright, maybe I'm a little bit high. But whatever.

Unknown Speaker 37:36
I mean, it Yeah,

Scott Benner 37:37
yeah, you're right. But you're in a completely different space now.

Unknown Speaker 37:40
Oh, absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 37:41
Yeah, absolutely

Jon Marks 37:42
my biggest my biggest issue right now with my blood sugar, because so I get off the air at six o'clock. Depending on traffic, it could be anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour getting home. So by the time I get out to the studio gets on my car, so I'm getting home, usually between seven and 715, we try to have the kids in bed by eight o'clock. So I am rushing home so I can eat and some stuffing my face eating trying to put the kids asleep. And I'm exhausted. So what I what now the biggest problem is because then I'm asleep by nine o'clock, my blood sugar's are still getting a little bit higher, whatever. So it's, it's, that's my biggest problem spot right now is I will I will wake up at like 11 o'clock to use the bathroom and my sugars will be higher than they should be.

Scott Benner 38:29
Okay. And you'll What will you do? Will you adjust basil rates for that? Or do you think your meal ratio in the evening is like, are you but like, how are we into this? Are you like do you do you know if I said to you, that if you have something with a lot of fat in it, that you'll see a rise from the fat a couple of hours later or that protein can make you you're into all that.

Unknown Speaker 38:50
Yeah, yeah, I

Jon Marks 38:50
mean, a lot of time. A lot of times it's it's just it's it's not properly doing extended Bolus. It's it's not taking enough because I worried like the classic me taking too much insulin because I don't want to be high and then I get low. And then I eat to make up for it. But it's two months at a meeting. So then the sugars back up. Well, let

Scott Benner 39:14
me pitch something to you go back to Episode 210 and start the diabetes pro tip series. It's with me and a friend of mine who also happens to have type one for she's coming up on 33 years now and she's a CD. And we talk through all of the management ideas. Like one one, there might be like 20 episodes of it at this point. And I'll tell you people listen to that and tell me boom they're a once he's come back in the fives in the low sixes no trouble. Yeah, just management ideas and just talk through simply so if you if Jesus, if you can get help from that, I think that would be amazing. Going back to earlier I have to tell you that I don't really say it on here very much. But that pressure about doing it every time I start talking to somebody and you know because You're doing it with me. I don't want anybody's notes. I don't like knowing what we're going to talk about. First, I tell people Introduce yourself, I'll ask you a question, we'll start talking. And for the first 20 minutes, I feel an incredible pressure to build a narrative that will be interesting and want you to, it will make you want to listen till the end. And once I hit those 20 minutes, I can hear a voice in my head, that's just like, don't, don't ask this up now. Like, now you did it like, now pull it through to the end, you know, like, make it work. And I don't I love doing this, I really do, I have to tell you, I am very much in the same area as you. I mean, we used to put 90 minute cassette tapes in like, and tape the stern show, and then run home 90 minutes later and put in another tape and do it again. And then you'd listen to the whole show later. And I think it's an amazing skill to be able to have conversations that are interactive, without you being with people and hold people's attention. I find it to be an incredible, kind of a magical thing to be able to do. So I got,

Jon Marks 41:04
yeah, it's cool. It's cool. I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Be honest.

Scott Benner 41:08
And I seriously like, so people come on, like there's all levels like people call in. And some people are terrific, right? They have a little bit of an agenda. They know how to get to it and everything. How do you stop yourself? When somebody kind of hymns at halls? They mean, how do you stop yourself from like, going to get to it? Like how do you?

Jon Marks 41:24
Well, it's actually it's a, it's a great question, because I don't, I listened to a lot of audio, just from around the country, I listened to some stations up in Boston, because I feel like it's a it's a similar market with a similar style of way that they're doing things. And there's one particular show where the guy literally will give you 10 seconds. And if you're not good after 10 seconds, bam, you're gone. And he comes off as a jerk, because that's kind of his personality. And, you know, especially when I started this show, which was back into the end of 2017. I was running phone callers a lot, a lot sooner than I do right now. That there's a there's a thought in the business that if you allow a color on for more than two minutes, you're going to have people tuning out. So I'd say that that two minutes is is kind of what you're shooting for. And if they're good, leave them on for a little bit longer. But I mean, you're right, if you knew what you were getting with every caller, then it'd be easy. But unfortunately, some callers are much better than others. So if you get the bad call, or that's kind of maybe had a little bit to drink that day, which we'll get from time to time, or somebody that's just not very good on the air. You got to try it you got to it's it's I feel like it's one thing that I can definitely be better at is command over your show and command over the calls to where someone stutters for a second, you don't want to come off as being a jerk. Right? You also can't let him just continue to sound bad

Scott Benner 42:55
because they that car radio and you're talking are you talking mostly to people in cars? Is that the vibe?

Jon Marks 43:00
Um, you know, it's crazy, because you and I started listening to Sports Radio when there wasn't cell phones. So people were actually calling from landline phones. Yeah. I'd say that, that you probably get about 60% of people that are that are in the car driving tour.

Scott Benner 43:15
I think it's the whole thing is amazing. When would you spend the last couple of minutes talking a little bit of sports with me? Sure. All right. I What? I don't understand. Carson Wentz wanted out? Is that what ended up being the truth.

Jon Marks 43:31
Yeah, yeah. So I guess after he was benched, he decided that Nope, I'm out. And from that point on, he was like, one of those things where like, you know, when you're done, and maybe other people don't realize, you know, where you're done, but whatever, for whatever reason, at that moment, he decided he wanted out. So

Scott Benner 43:51
that's so then a lot of what you hear then through the media is just people saving face or trying to set things up in their favor going forward. It's what you do paying attention to sports a occurred to me while I was thinking about yesterday, that it's so similar to political conversation, in that, like, there's the truth. For one side, there's the truth for the other side. And there's somebody trying to figure out what it is like, there's what the team says it's what the players say, it's what the business says. And then there's sports and then you got to have to sift through it. And what's actually true, right

Jon Marks 44:23
because, because it just because a sports team leaks information to a media member or an agent for a player leaks information to a media member, if they're not given a lie detector test before they give that information to the to the media. So you're right, you're doing a lot of I think you're you're you're looking at the available information, you're deciding, okay, why is that being put out there and then you're trying to figure out what's true and what's not. And I think it's pretty safe to say that that last year was a really crappy year for the Philadelphia Eagles and that Carson Wentz for whatever reason. It was better for him to play elsewhere. Right?

Scott Benner 45:02
So is your is the content of the day for your show? Is it driven by you trying to get to the bottom of something or you knowing what the listeners want to talk about what the callers want to bring up?

Unknown Speaker 45:15
Um, alright, so

Jon Marks 45:16
So today is a Today's a Tuesday and normally this time of year, we are in spring training, down in Clearwater, Florida. We were actually down there last year, right? When, like, everything kind of hit the fan. Yeah, where we were there. We were down there. And they're like, okay, you can't interview players anymore. So it's like, oh, well, okay. So we, we, we were able to like tape a couple interviews, but we had to be a certain amount of time away, or feet away. Nobody had masks or anything. I think that people just started using hand sanitizer. You know, like, and it was all sold out. So I couldn't get in these hand sanitizer to take down there. We actually had my partner bought a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and he was pouring rubbing alcohol in his hands to sanitize. But so like, that's what we're doing today. We're not going down to Florida. But we're almost pretending we're in Florida today. And we're having a bunch of Phillies guests that are on. So like, I have to decide and we have to decide is the show. What is the jumping off point? If you tune in at two o'clock? What can we say? What can we do that's going to say cool, or it's going to be like Wow, good opinion, or it's going to get your attention to continue to, to remain tuning in. So you're more or less throwing your fastball, you're throwing your best pitch to try to catch people you're deciding what is the most important topic of the day? What is most interesting. So we're going to do a Phillies topic today. And I think it's going to be is this play off for bus like did the Phillies, the fourth highest payroll in baseball? Do we expect them to make the playoffs? Because I don't think a lot of people do. Normally it could be an Eagles conversation. But really, it's kind of reading the room, which is your audience, which is sports fans and deciding what is most meaningful and interesting to them at two o'clock.

Unknown Speaker 47:02
And it's you know, it's

Jon Marks 47:03
different. I've got I've worked. I've worked mornings. I've worked mid days. I've worked afternoon drive. I've worked nights, and each different time slot or day part is different. When you come in on at six o'clock in the morning. You're starting the day for the station. Right by two o'clock. What a topic. They may have been hot at six o'clock could be picked over two o'clock. Yeah. So I mean, it's interesting, but I think I think you get what you're what you're trying to do. Right trying to well done. Interesting, but

Scott Benner 47:30
it's not. It's interesting. It's work. I would say it's problematic for you. Because if the morning eats up that that topic, but it's still a reverent a relevant topic of the day, but then you almost have to kind of gloss over it and find the next thing that's most interesting and make it interesting,

Jon Marks 47:47
right? No, you're right. And, and it's, I mean, honestly, afternoon drives my least favorite day parts that I've worked just because I'm not getting home to a little bit later. And I'm not like I'm not a sleeping guy. I'm up early, and I'm ready to go early in the morning. But like it can be picked over sometimes. But like you said, sometimes you can take an idea, refine it and make it better. Yeah. I mean, it just it depends every day is different.

Scott Benner 48:13
Do you think that what you do has impact on players and teams? Like do you think you're not that you have sway over them? But do you think that they listen and that they make decisions based off what they think of is as how people feel?

Jon Marks 48:29
Me personally? No, the radio station and the sports culture in general. Absolutely. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 48:35
absolutely. There

Jon Marks 48:36
was a Barrett Brooks, who was an Eagles player back in the 90s alignment offensive lineman offensive lineman now does a he does a radio show that's, that's it's on an am station and it's national on a national network. He he had told a story, I guess it's two weeks ago now where they used to talk about in the locker room that the my station Wi Fi, that the Eagles used to listen to Wi Fi. And they would make decisions based on what the hosts and what the callers were saying. So I mean, if nothing else, it puts pressure on the teams to do things and like if Wi Fi wasn't around, and if this city didn't have it as an outlet. I don't know if Carson Wentz is gone. I don't know if he feels the pressure and the stress and the heat that he otherwise probably wouldn't have felt in a different market

Scott Benner 49:26
because they have they don't have the ability to do what the rest of us in the world have to do. Like we live in our lives you don't like right now if my neighbor hates me, he's 60 feet away from me talking crap about me. I have no idea I would never know. There'd be no way for him to like for me to have any impact from that law. But when you can hear people talking 24 hours a day about the decisions you make. I bet you it does really weigh on you and it is different around here right like if you if you picked up and went and did that sports talk and you know in the middle of the country somewhere you wouldn't want to have The same vibe and then it wouldn't have the same impact on the players.

Jon Marks 50:03
Yeah, and you can't do it right, I'll listen to we have a we have a station out in San Diego, I'll listen to their their morning show that I can get driving in because of the time difference. And they're very funny. There. You're not doing the same kind of sports talk in San Diego or in Los Angeles or in St. Louis, or in Texas that you're doing in the northeast, because we're I mean, we're,

Unknown Speaker 50:25
we're crazy. Yeah.

Scott Benner 50:26
mahomes isn't worried that somebody is going to bad mouth him on the radio after he throws a ball on the ground. Now, there's

Jon Marks 50:31
not going to be a host that's going to decide that he's he's really not a good player, and we're all crazy, probably not.

Scott Benner 50:37
So just your opinion, was once a good quarterback. And the injury just shut him off.

Jon Marks 50:43
I think that he has he gets in his own head. And last year when the offensive line was was poor, that instead of looking down the field, he was constantly worried about the rush. And that was his biggest problem. He just wasn't seeing the field Well, next year with a with a different with a different team and a better team and a better offensive line. I think he's going to be good. But I also believe that at some point he will get back in his head again. And that's something that you're always going to be able to deal with, you're going to have to deal with if you of course and mentally, he can be weak sometimes

Scott Benner 51:15
I was amazed for a size how well he could escape and then when he lost that tool, then he just suddenly started looking like please don't hit me. Like Yeah, I don't want to get run over back here over and over which I can't blame him for but and so Okay, so let me ask you if someone asked you Philly's question I'll let you go because I know you've a big day. Would you draft up would you draft a quarterback this year? The Eagles Yes, I

Jon Marks 51:40
knew it was coming okay. I'm like it's it's a difficult difficult question to answer because we're not evaluating the quarterbacks right like I'm not a I'm a football fan. I'm not I'm not an expert right now. I'm afraid that the Eagles they're not experts either. That's been part of their problem. But if they see a quarterback and they say because here's what I think the Eagles think about the Eagles current quarterback Jalen hertz, I think they like them but they realize he has limitations. And Can he really be a good enough quarterback to win a Super Bowl? I don't know if he can. So if there's an obvious upgrade and you see a quarterback and you're like damn this guy's good then I think he dropped them

Scott Benner 52:16
is there one out there in your mind?

Jon Marks 52:18
I here's the here's the problem. The top four quarterbacks might go to top four in the draft so if the Eagles are drafting at six they may not get together you're now you're looking at the fifth best quarterback and there's a big drop off. So the odds are Unless Unless they're able to trade up and get a guy that there won't be a guy there that they like

Scott Benner 52:33
so then you take the tight end

Unknown Speaker 52:36
you could he might be gone

Jon Marks 52:40
in going fifth in the most recent mock draft Okay, so now you're looking at a wide receiver or an offensive lineman it's very fluid it'll be it's it's it'll be fascinating to see what happens when the draft actually so this

Scott Benner 52:51
is a rebuild for the Eagles then.

Jon Marks 52:54
You know what, Scott? I don't think it is no, I don't I don't I don't think that they view it as a rebuild. I think they're they're viewing it as we need to make sure we get a quarterback. And if it's not this year, then you're gonna find out how good Jalen hertz really is.

Scott Benner 53:07
I don't know. It seems like I don't I I'm so accustomed to the football that I grew up with, which was there were 11 men on defense who were going to try to kill you and the 11 men on offense, we're going to try to kick to field goals and we were going to win sex. Like that's changed a little bit since then I tried to explain to my son I was like, there was a game it was a Monday night game, the Oilers were playing the Eagles, and by halftime, the oiler stop sending receivers over the middle of the field because they were running out of them. House a pain gate was the main one West Hopkins broke a man's nose I think Ernest Givens knows. And I just said nobody, like football just doesn't occur that way anymore. And my son's 21 he like he doesn't he just thinks it's a lot of really rich guys at score like 50 points by having a catch so

Jon Marks 53:55
well. And back then you could hit people in the head. Right? You can hit them late. You're playing on concrete most of the time and with astroturf. Yeah. I mean, it's it's safer now, which is better, but it's man football was different. back then.

Scott Benner 54:08
One time Andre waters tackled Emmitt Smith by running at the line diving on the ground, sliding across the astroturf and hitting them in the ankles. It's ridiculous. Yeah, they're playing on a concrete slip and slide. Okay. So the Phillies, and I'm gonna let you go after that. I were huge baseball fans. My son plays in college like there's baseball's been going around by house forever and ever. Is it the pitching is it just is it just the kingery didn't come along right like because bombs find on the corner. You find yourself looking at Hoskins wishing you had the guy that they like go to the Indians instead. Like it's just I gregorious is is great, is great for his age and he might be great. Not for his age. like where's the disconnect?

Jon Marks 54:58
I think I think what you have With this team is you have you remember that before the Phillies got really good and Kyla came in and Howard and Rollins and chase Utley and victory know before that team came about you had a bunch of good teams that weren't good enough, right? Well, I want 86 games two years in a row the way teams and he was the GM. Yeah, good, but they weren't good enough. And I worry that this team is good, but not good enough. And they're spending a lot of money. So it's not like you say, well spend, spend, spend, spend spend. I just don't like I just don't think they have enough good young players up right now. Right. like boom is raised a real deal. I love both, but who else? I don't want that. What happened with Calgary?

Scott Benner 55:43
Yeah, right. No.

Jon Marks 55:44
And you're hearing you're hearing sports, right? You're hearing Sports Radio Phillies fan talking right now? Because it's so frustrating because they had an opportunity. I just don't think they have enough good young players to supplement the roster. You needed like out Aaron Nolan. We're actually going to have him on our show today. Aaron, Noah is really good. I don't think he's good enough to be an ace. Right? You're missing a starting pitcher. Can Spencer Howard be that guy was kind of disappointing last year, right? They just need better younger players,

Scott Benner 56:09
right? There's somebody that people have to pop at the right time. It can't just be one of them. It has to be more than one pour. I have to tell you like just being the father of a baseball player. I watched Kangri walk out of the batter's box the other day, and I would have hugged him if I was near him. Like he I just he's had a look on his face like I don't understand like why I don't see the ball. Like it just you're heartbroken because he Scott all you mean, these guys appear to have all the tools and and that really brings me to my last question, right? Which is, How hard is it to be critical of people who are the best 3000 people in the world at something? Does that never seem ridiculous to you? Like Scott kingery is one of the best baseball players on the planet. He's just not in the top half a percent. You know what I mean? Like that's a weird. I don't know does Does that ever occur to you? I don't want to mess you up. Maybe you'll be like, Yeah, why are we picking on?

Jon Marks 57:01
it? No, it No, it never occurs to me. What's crazy is and you said your your son plays college baseball. To make it to double A in baseball is such a huge accomplishment. Right? It's a double A, it's something you have to be so good at baseball, even to be a double A player not not to mention a major leaguer in Scott kingery was a second round draft pick. So but honestly, it doesn't ever occur to me, like I to do this job and to be successful in this job. At least in this city. You can't, you can't worry about criticizing somebody, right? Like, if Scott kingery can't play and I don't think he can play then I'm gonna have to say I don't think Scott kingery can play right like with Jalen hertz, the Eagles quarterback yesterday I'd said I just don't think he's going to be good enough to really count and the matter, right. And these, I think these players today, they're wired so differently. They don't listen to sports radio, and they'd be crazy. If they did. They're looking at social media. And that's where they're getting their information from. I've never even thought, here's here's, I've been doing a radio show with the Eagles defensive end, Brandon Graham on Monday nights for an hour since the Superbowl year, right. And he's the one guy that I won't criticize, because we have a personal relationship. And that's, that's really

Unknown Speaker 58:20
about it. You know,

Jon Marks 58:21
I try to keep my distance from people normally. So not to worry about things like that.

Scott Benner 58:24
Brandon's got an old school vibe about him. I used to tell my son that I thought that if he wanted to Reggie white could have gotten to the quarterback on every play, but he knew when he didn't have to. And right Brandon knows when to when it has to happen. And does it like come hell or high water? It's um, it's really fascinating even as he gets older, like, it's, you know, it's not every game but my God, like when you need that guy to to disrupt what's happening. He's doing it. It's, it's like he I always felt like he understood the game on a different level.

Jon Marks 58:55
And with him, because like, me being a dad and having two young kids he has, he has two young children as well. On a personal level. That's where it that's where it gets me I mean, I see people online on social media that are listeners and the people that that I connect the most with our young parents like me. So when it's on a personal level, Scott it's difficult not to feel the personal

Scott Benner 59:20
relation so you can't get to know these guys because it'll just it'll mess you up.

Unknown Speaker 59:24
Yeah, I

Jon Marks 59:25
mean, if you're doing a different type of show, like like in Philly, you have the precedent Steve show, which is in the mornings, which is the closest thing to Howard that Howard that they've had since howard stern as far as kind of like a ratings juggernaut. Like they're on a rock radio station so they that they want the personal relationships with the players right like that's they want that those people come in and it's difficult to do in my position. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:46
no kidding. That's a very it's a it's amazing. I think of it as a as a real art form. Honestly, it's a it's fascinating to see somebody take a two minute conversation, like I said, make it cogent. Make it interesting. Move into Something else. And somehow when you get to the end of the hour, you feel like the hour was about the thing. And it wasn't these small and then you guys just very effortlessly go off into, you know, some conversation of your own and bringing in your own opinions, you do a terrific job. So if anybody's local I, and like you said radio.com that people get to listen anywhere, right?

Jon Marks 1:00:19
Anywhere. Yes, the radio.com app, it's Wi Fi in Philadelphia, but you can listen to so many stations from not just entercom stations, but also some other stations as well. So you can listen to whatever you want, wherever you want. I use it to listen to people all over the country as well. So that's really amazing.

Scott Benner 1:00:35
Listen, when I was growing up people you didn't like teams that weren't within 50 miles of your house. So I i I'm even fascinated by that. That there are people in Texas listen to the Eagles talk radios, as

Jon Marks 1:00:46
I let you know when I I love to listen to after the Cowboys have a a bad loss. I love to listen to the cowboy station The next morning, to hear them melt down in anger. It's amazing. It just makes you happy. So as a guy that grew

Unknown Speaker 1:01:01
up in Philly, though, I would imagine

Unknown Speaker 1:01:04
getting this guy if I can mention one of the things

Jon Marks 1:01:06
before we wrap this up. And since we talked a lot a lot about me being on the radio. I recently so we're we're our studio is we're looking out on the school river in downtown Philadelphia, right by 30th Street station where you can you know, it's like kind of the hub of getting the New York or going down to DC in the on the transit line and track and whatever else. And probably a couple months ago now, we had somebody that jumped off the bridge here down into the school committed suicide. Wow. And it there had been another one a week or so before that. And I knew at that time because I I had been feeling some anxiety of kind of being bottled up with the pandemic and not being able to go anywhere. And very innocently, I had said on the air. I said, Listen, you know, I'm feeling it, too. I'm feeling the depression. I know that it's difficult out there right now with losing jobs and everything else. So please, before you do something like that, email me, direct messaged me on on on Instagram and Twitter, like reach out to a family member called the suicide hotline like, don't do that. I understand. Like, I've dealt with depression before. And Scott, you wouldn't believe how many people reached out to me just to say thank you. You talk about impact. And it's what made me think about it. And it gets me emotional. Yeah. But the the impact that I had, just by saying that a couple of people reached out to me that were in really, really bad, bad places. One was homeless, living out of his car, listening to the station. But like that, to me, that meant more to me than anything I've ever said about sports on the air and the almost 20 years that I've been doing this. So the little things you don't realize the impact that you can make, just by letting people know like, Hey, listen, I'm there to, we're all there. And it's okay. Right.

Scott Benner 1:03:03
Now, I appreciate that. I've, I've had similar experiences with the podcast, and you really can't, you can't undervalue how much just knowing someone else is feeling the same is it can can, can bolster someone, and then giving them the opportunity just to have some sort of a connection is is a huge difference maker. Good for you. That's really something is that something you think you might get more involved in?

Jon Marks 1:03:28
Um, you know, it's there's so many different things that I want to get involved with. And it's like, with my show, right now, we really need to like I would like to have kind of a cause that we raise money for every year. And I had a I had a friend that that committed suicide, right before the Eagles won the Super Bowl, so 2017, because I remember his girlfriend and some friends went to his grave and put his Eagles jersey on the grave. And it's one of those things where you're like, I should like not that you blame yourself. But in hindsight, you're like, I can see that he was really, he was a really, you know, like, emotional and upset person.

Scott Benner 1:04:09
Yeah, you don't realize it in the moment or you don't stop the look, I guess is the bigger point like it, it feels like, especially now whenever, I mean, I've had these feelings where I work out of my house, and my family's here and everything. And there are times I'm just like, oh my god, I'm just staring at a wall. Like I there's like there's nothing else to do. I've done everything I'm supposed to do today. And there's still five hours left. You don't mean like it's a very strange feeling. Now, man, that's really That's lovely. Obviously, I hopefully you guys can can lean into that because it sounds like you had a big a big impact. Just saying it one time.

Jon Marks 1:04:43
Yep. Now, yes, absolutely. So my way it would be it'd be a good cause to kind of get behind because I think everybody can relate and people so many people have been touched or have went through whether it's they've dealt with somebody in their family with suicide or just, we don't talk enough about mental illness. No, we don't. We don't We should we should talk more about it. Absolutely.

Scott Benner 1:05:01
JOHN, thank you so much for doing this.

Huge thanks to john. Don't forget to check him out on that radio.com app or at 94 WIP if you're in the Philadelphia area. Thanks also to Dexcom and Omni pod for sponsoring this episode of the Juicebox Podcast. Find out more about that Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor at dexcom.com/juicebox and check out those trials and those demos of the Omnipod at myOmnipod.com/juicebox you may be eligible for a 30 day free trial of the Omni pod dash. And of course, adding your information to the T one D exchange helps everyone living with Type One Diabetes. If you or someone you love has type one diabetes, and you're a US citizen head to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. JOHN caught me by surprise there at the end, but I want to add the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to this episode. Help is available call 1-800-273-8255 or go to suicide preventionlifeline.org


Please support the sponsors

The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!

Donate