Scott Benner 1/22/21 Scott Benner 1/22/21

#431 Switching to an Insulin Pump

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The Juicebox Podcast: Type 1 Diabetes social media community sent their tips for switching from MDI to pumping.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to Episode 431 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is about switching from multiple daily injections to a pump. And what I've done is gone on to the Facebook page for the podcast and gotten people's feedback about what was most valuable to them when they did the switch from injections to pumping.

Before I jump in and get started, I'd like to remind you to check out T one D exchange at T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. And here's why. You can support T one D research and the Juicebox Podcast by checking out the T one D exchange because they're looking for type one adults and caregivers who are us residents to participate in a quick survey that can be completed in just a few minutes. You can do this survey from your phone or your computer. And you never have to leave your home or visit a doctor's office to make a substantial impact on Type One Diabetes Research. This is 100% anonymous HIPAA compliant. And every time one of you completes the process by using my link, T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. You'll be helping to support people with type one. And the show past participants just like you have helped to bring increased coverage for test strips, Medicare coverage for CGM, and they've helped to change the ADA guidelines for pediatric ANC goals, you can give back in just a few moments. Okay, I've done this a couple of times. And it's incredibly popular. So we're doing it again, and went on to the Facebook page Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes, it's a private page where listeners can talk about whatever they want. It has well over 8000 members at this point. And it's just a hotbed of discussion around diabetes management. So I put the question up there. For those of you who have transitioned from MDI, to pumping, please share your tips, things to look out for and remembrance. Here's what came back that I thought was very interesting. Right off the bat, Nicole says, start with what the endo suggests, but only give them 24 hours. If you've listened to all the podcast episodes, you know what to do, if you have a Dexcom Be bold. Marianne said that Initially, it was a little difficult to get over having a device attached to her, but that she eventually did. She said, you'll probably need to adjust your dosages with the team, be prepared for that. And nothing's really permanent. So if you don't like it, she's like, just send it back. She also suggested trying to create a time for the transition. That's a less stressful time in your life. Because there is a commitment involved in understanding it. I take Marion's point, but I also think sometimes there's never a perfect time. So I guess, you know, figure out what would be best for you. But I would caution against waiting for the perfect time. And I would also caution against immediately wanting to give up, because it is going to be different. And if you've been doing shots for a while, and succeeding with it, you know, you might just be used to things working. And the truth is you're going to have to start over might not just work perfectly immediately. Jen said that she switched from MDI to pumping over 20 years ago. And all she really remembers was being terrified. She got a quick doctor's office visit tiny bit of training, they sent her home. But she called technical support a number of times the beginning. So she wants to let you know not to be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Katie says not to forget that you're no longer using a slow acting or long acting insulin like levemir, Chrissy but one of those that your pump is giving you all of your insulin, it's doing your basal insulin, as well as your meals and corrections. So if there's a problem with your pump site, you need to be aware that DK a can set in much more quickly than is likely with MDI. So if you get up in the morning, and you're you know, MDI and you shoot your your letelier Lantus, let's say, it's in there, it's doing something, but if you get up in the morning and put a pump on and there's some sort of a problem with the site and you're not getting your basal insulin, you may not know right away. So you know, what I would do in that situation is test more frequently or pay attention to your glucose monitor if you have one. In my opinion, it's not something to be scared of. It's just something to remember. You're getting your basal insulin from your pump now. Ashley said that the first few pumps that she put on just didn't go well. And she didn't realize that she could have them replaced. infusion sets or if you haven't on the pod, the pot itself, and she was just throwing them away. But if you have a failure, especially in the beginning, when you don't know what you're doing, call the company, they very well may replace your items.

That would lead me to say that it is not uncommon in the first week or so of using a pump to have user error with the insertion or wearing of the pump, that it's important to, you know, keep trying get information, don't just think that the first experience you have is how this is going to be now because there are a lot of people who use insulin pumps of all different kinds very successfully, all day every day. So when you're starting at the beginning, and it's not working, if it's not working, maybe look inward before you look outward is my best advice. From what I've seen people talking about online all these years. Josh says that his remembrance for the beginning was that he just immediately felt more in control. And he started tweaking his basal insulin and extending his boluses that that made him comfortable. Amy brings something up that I see a lot. They had fairly good control with MDI and then move to a pump and recognize the transition, that it's not just a flick of the wrist, and everything's okay. Again. What I would say that I notice is that sometimes doctors offices can be careful when they set up basal insulin, I guess they think of it as careful when they set up basal insulin for the first time. So say you've been doing MDI forever, and you get 24 units a day. What I would do, there is the quick math and say, Well, maybe I'm about a unit an hour that. But sometimes doctors offices are scared to send you out dollar for dollar from the way you did it to the pump. And they kind of go without better high than low theory, and a lot of them will take back some. But if it was me, if Arden was using 24 units a day of basil, insulin, I'd start by setting her baseline one unit per hour. And I'd see what happens and make my adjustments from there. I guess the problem comes in where the doctors don't want you to touch the basal insulin. So they set it low to show where the highs are. So they can come back in later and add insulin. Being a person, the way we are here that makes those changes on our own. I would start about where I thought because here's what I see happen. Those ratios are kind of lost in the moment for people often. And what happens is, instead of thinking, Oh, I used to use 24 units a day, MDI, and now I'm only using 19, or something like that. I'm probably not using enough basal insulin, they think pumps don't work. So your brain makes this illogical leap that feels logical. And then you get caught in a little bit of a, you know, a shitstorm. And if you don't have a doctor's office that quickly gets back with you and makes adjustments, which a lot of them don't do sometimes, then you start blaming the pump, and you start having these feelings like I was better on shots, you know, and you could lose faith pretty quickly. I've seen that happen a lot. So that is definitely something to look out for. Some arrow warns that once you're on a pump, it's not a free for all of food, just because it's easy to Bolus. So you know, do your best to stay on track with how you eat. She also mentions that it's possible your insulin usage might go up, and that that's okay. I would say it's also possible that people lose track of the fact that they were taking 30 units of basal insulin of one kind. And using, I don't know, let's say they use 20 units are 25 units of, of, you know, novolog fast acting insulin for meals and corrections. So in their head, they're only using like 25 or 30 units of insulin a day because people just generally don't think of basil as insulin. For some reason they think of it when they're MDI, like, I inject this one story of the day. And then my fast acting insulin is from meals and corrections. Somehow the two don't go together. To me, that might be where some of that comes in is then you move over to a pump. And instead of using 30 and 30, you're using 60 of all one insulin. And I guess I'll just say here in case people don't understand that a fast acting insulin like a nova lager, a human blog, Arden uses a pager there's fiasco, those kinds of insolence. Go into the pump, and you get little bits of it, you know, spaced out all day long to act as Basal and then you get more of it to act as a Bolus. So you're used to using to insolence on MDI. Going forward with a pump, you'll only be using one Bob says how backup supplies, things will fail from time to time, and you need some backup supplies. He's

talking about MDI stuff. Don't give away all your needles. I still have syringes from when Arden was four years old, and we still use them once in a while. Bob's 100%. Right? He says, and if you're using it on the pod have a paperclip around. So if anomaly so different pumps have different situations where they're going to all fail, at some point, something will happen to the flow of insulin. The pump will recognize it and shut itself down for safety reasons. They all do it. When on the pod does it it beeps and sometimes the beeping doesn't stop and you have to flip it over. There's a little hole in the back and you stuck a paperclip in there, and it stops the alarm. So a paperclip is definitely something to have around. Bob. You're 100% right? I seem to remember one time and Arden was young and it happened at a baseball game, we use the post of Kelly's earring to stop it. That was a desperate moment. She now says you're not going to learn everything in one day. It's trial and error. Pay attention to your CGM. If you have one adjust accordingly. small bumps and nudges. She says I have anxiety and was freaking out when I didn't have good numbers at first, but I had to just keep adjusting. And now she's in range 80% of the time and she's happy with her pump. Tara says that patience is key. It can take a few days or even weeks to get all the settings correct. She said they started without a Dexcom. So it initially took longer for her son. Since then they've changed pumps twice with the CGM. And with being bold and the transition went much faster and smoother. what she's saying is, is that when you can see the blood sugar, and you feel the reading into what she's saying, but I feel like what she's saying is when you can see the blood sugar in real time, and you have that faith in yourself to make changes, it can it will go much easier. Some of you will use pumps that offer soft candles or steel candles. She said that they had great success with this the old ones, and that you can get your endo to write prescriptions for changes more frequently if you need it to to avoid absorption issues. And that's with any pump. Misty says it may get worse before it gets better. It takes time to dial in your settings. She's saying again, your rates from MDI will change and change again. But it's worth pushing through. And she suggests that Basal testing is definitely necessary. She found pick a timeframe at a time like I think that to start with overnight, then, you know, pick pick segments of the day to get I have to tell you too, and I say in other parts of the podcast. I'm a fan of as few basil programs as possible. Like I don't think you're outsmarting diabetes by having like a different Basal program every hour. You know, it's point three, five at three o'clock and point four or five at four o'clock and point to like, yeah, I think there's a balance in there you find you can find eventually, where maybe you'll have one, two, maybe three standard Basal settings throughout the day. I think if you start having more than that, there are other things you could be looking at. staska says start with the endo settings. But keep in mind they keep it on the safer side. I said this earlier. We give it a week to see they gave it a week to see how the body was adjusting. But she didn't want to keep things high too long. After a week, they started to make slow adjustments after talking to the endo. And once she was confident and she understood how the body was reacting to the insulin, started making the insulin adjustments on her own. She says you can be as bold as necessary as long as you're paying attention. Joanne said what I said earlier, which is don't panic right away and just decide this is a bad idea if it doesn't go exactly right. A lot of people came in to agree with her about that. And Jessica wanted to offer that she loves using the extended Bolus features and Temp Basal that pumping allows a different Jessica says listen to the pro tip episodes. Thank you, Jessica. Don't rely solely on your endo to make adjustments, watch the Dexcom keep track of your trends and make adjustments was necessary. When you leave the house, it's more than 20 minutes away taking insulin pen as a backup because in case you have a bad sight. So I have to say we don't bring extra insulin with Arden. If we're in what I think of driving distance. Like if it's an amount of time I wouldn't care if I had to go back. If I'm going to try to spend the afternoon at someone's house for a picnic and it's a half an hour from my house. We take extra insulin and some pumps with us. I don't bring needles I have to admit. But her point is valid and worth considering having backups is not a bad idea. Brent makes what I think is a great point. He said that it's just the new ballgame when you start over and this is something I find myself telling people privately as well.

Want to see how to put this, you might be doing terrific on MDI. But what what comes with a pump, you know, maybe you just don't want injections or you want more control over basil insulin or something like that. Anyway, it took you a long time to figure out injections. And it's going to take you a little bit of time to figure out pumping, it is a different game. But at the same time, it's really exactly the same. It's the mechanics of the pump, the nuts and bolts, how it works that you have to get accustomed to. And while you're getting accustomed to it, you will feel like where you could feel like I should say that you don't know what you're doing, which might lead you to have that feeling like why did I do this, I knew what I was doing. And now I don't again, but trust me, it's worth the effort. If it's something you're looking for. Amy makes a great point here. She said that after you're up and running and things are working, take a step back and look at the pump data, right look at what it's doing. Especially she says if you're using an algorithm based pump, because you'll be able to see the increases and decreases and basil when corrections go in and stuff like that. And it'll give you an insight into what's happening. Heather says that she felt like every new step was scary for her son, who was just diagnosed recently, and eight years old. They got their demo on the pod and just left it on the table for a few days until he was ready to try it on. She also figured out things about how to remove adhesive and overlay patches that help hold things on. So there's a little bit of a new world in there. Some people use patches, Arden doesn't we never put a patch on ardens Omnipod. It stays on fine for three days. But I like that she didn't rush here, she went out and got the Omnipod demo, and just was like alright, let's just leave it here till we're ready. I think that's a good vibe. Even though this episode doesn't have a sponsor, it's a great place to say, I really do believe when I say during the app in the ads for Omni pod, one of the greatest things about Omni pod is you can get a free no obligation demo, you can actually try it on and where'd the other pumps just don't lend themselves to that. But on the pods tubeless nature makes that accessible to you. My Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox to get that free demo. And you're helping out the podcast if you use the link. Allen's recommending the book pumping insulin which I've never read, but I've heard so many good things about I'm absolutely happy to say it here. He also wants to point out that the information that's available in doctors offices can often be lacking. And that's what led him to pumping insulin. He said back in. Let's see back in 2007. My doctor at the time told me they'd write a prescription for a pump. But if I needed help with it, I'd have to get somewhere else. He said he appreciated the honesty but finds that a little frightening. Lauren says keep in mind that you are probably rounding up your insulin amounts of MDI. So the same ratio on a pump might not work. So this is the exact opposite of what I was talking about earlier. But it's still really valuable to say that you might what she's saying,

Laurie, I'm Lauren, I'm sorry, Lauren, I'm speaking for you here. But what I'm saying is you might have been using a unit or a half a unit because that's what you could measure with a syringe when maybe point four or point six or 1.1 was more like what you need it. Brianna says to do your research to decide what pump is right for you. She spent a long time looking at the pros and cons of all the pumps that were on the market. She says that she eventually found that her body responded differently to insulin going in through MDI and through a pump that there was a big learning curve for she had to Wendy for 19 years and was previously on a pump years ago as a child but didn't use insulin correctly then and eventually transitioned to MDI, having been well controlled with MDI. She just thought the transition to a pump would be seamless. And it wasn't. Kristen says Try not to put too much pressure on yourself when you make the switch. She found it stressful to learn to use a new piece of equipment, and says give yourself or your child some time to adjust. And you may hate it at first, but give it time. She said it can be strange to wear something on your body at first, but one day, you'll probably barely notice it. I must say that I've worn a couple of Dexcom and some Omnipod demos in my time. And I have to agree with that. I've obviously never used them for insulin or for actually taking care of diabetes. But when I've worn the things myself, I have forgotten that they were there eventually they do become pretty seamless. And that's probably hard to imagine, especially for parents who are looking at their kids and thinking oh, they're so small and this thing, but I do think you just get accustomed to it. I know Arden Christian continues on that for her switching to pumping was life changing. It just took time to adjust. She says as far as management goes, you already know how to use insulin pumps to the same this is a great point that I really want to echo. You're just delivering the insulin a different way. That's it. The basil is going in a different way. The boluses are going into Way, instead of pushing in a needle and pushing on a plunger, you're pushing a button, it's going through a tube, she finishes by saying, take your time. And if you need help, come back to this Facebook group will help you Kaylee's saying something that I've heard people say before. A pump is not a cure for diabetes. And while it makes life much easier with type one, or type two, I guess if you need insulin, it still sucks, you still have diabetes, it's going to be work to learn a new method for both you or if you have a child for your child, too. Don't forget to write down your settings, she said. So you're not scampering around trying to remember things. And remember that technology can fail at times. So you're gonna want to not just rely on that programming to remember all your settings forever, write them down somewhere. But what she's saying is valid, that sometimes you can hear people outside of diabetes, say, Oh, do you have one of those pumps, and they say it like, Oh, you must have if you have a pump, it's probably just super simple, right? Probably makes the whole thing go away. If you're feeling that way, like a pump is just going to make diabetes disappear. And it's not going to you're still gonna have diabetes, you're still gonna need to Bolus your meals Pre-Bolus you know, understand your settings, just the delivery of insulin is going to be different, easier, in my opinion, and you're not going to get stuck as much, which is a big deal to me, Arden also being an omni pod user, I really enjoy the fact that she does not have to take her pump off to bave or to swim, which means we can get a nice stable basil setting and use it 24 seven kgs just jumped in and thanked me for doing the episode and said that they've been MDI for three and a half years and the idea of pumping scares everyone in our family. And I'm, I've got to tell you hate. That is unfounded fear, you really don't need to be afraid. You're just delivering the incident a little differently. You get rid of the shots, and you're picking up your ability to manipulate your basal insulin and create extended boluses. It's not scary. I know you're scared, but trust me, it's not actually scary. Christy said she wished that someone would have told her that or on the pod beeps to let you know when it's done. She was in a board meeting the first time it went off and she had no idea what to do. Christy, I would tell you that the on the pod came with a book and it would have explained all that in there. But I get your point, it would be nice if someone would just go over it real quickly with you. That's one of the great things about I don't know about other pumps, but on the pod for certain. let you know when your reservoir is getting low, let you know when it's coming time to change it. It's good stuff. Linda says they got a pump quickly and not had and at that time had not known about the podcast. So they were very reliant on their endo team for help. She said her diabetes educator was awesome and called several times after we placed the pump. In the days and weeks that followed. They were calling to make sure everything was going good to help with adjustments. This is great if you get this kind of no good knock on some wood Good for you.

She still says she remembers being overwhelmed at first by all the steps that it took to replace the site and being afraid that she'd forget something. That's just the I get that but that's the not knowing right? It's like you don't know what you don't know. So you're worried about everything. She has a tea slump pump. She said it's user friendly, told her exactly what to do. Her biggest advice would be to just know that there will need to be adjustments made. Julia says something I've heard a lot of as well. She remembers feeling like she'd just been diagnosed all over again. We kind of touched on it earlier, but it could give you that feeling. Heather says take your time. Listen to the instructions on how to change your sight. And if you're getting persistent highs, it could be that your candle is bent or something like that happened while you were changing your infusion set. We've only ever had that once where Arden got a bent canula and it took a couple of hours to figure out because we were swimming and she was away from her CGM. Had she been right with her CGM. At the time we would have noticed the rise right away. And he says I remember being in high school when pumps started really being used that her endo was all about it. Her mom really wanted her to get it and she didn't want anything to do with it. She didn't want the tubing, the pumping attached to her all the time, the newness of it. She just didn't want it. She got a two pump and had it less than a year and hated it. She'd get it caught on doorknobs drop it never had a pocket to put it in. She was in private school. She wore skirts sounds like everything was not going well. It wasn't until her sophomore or junior year of college that she got an omni pod and it was a game changer. Oh, well. Thank you my Omni pod comm forward slash juice box. That was nice of you to say any Thank you. Carmen, figuring out how to adjust the basil rates on time of day was a huge advantage. So you know my daughter you guys hear me talk about all the time but Arden needs less insulin from basil overnight than she does during the day. And you have the ability to make those changes you can say from midnight to seven, I want it to be point nine, five, but from seven to, you know, midnight, I want it to be 1.2. Sara says she's the type one she's had it for 29 years she used the pump for about 13 years, got tired of it went back to MDI was never super comfortable with extended bonuses and stuff. But she says, however, I am now trying to regain better control, and I'm about to switch back to a pump. She's got a Dexcom g six now, for about six months. She loves it and she's eager to get going with a pump again. And she's hopeful to lower her one season the sixes Sarah, I definitely think you can do that. Christine's talking about the power of Temp Basal, and extended boluses. There's things that I think a lot of people don't think about. I talked about them pretty extensively with Jenny in the diabetes pro tip episodes. I think these things are amazing tools that pumping offers. And please take a look at those episodes and try to figure it out. Dee says that when they started on on the pod, she had a couple of errors in the beginning. And it all seemed like a pretty big mess. But she stuck with it. Just remember basil is not going to be right right away. And the need to make changes. It's obviously you're hearing a lot of people say the same things because it's just what happens. Megan basil testing and patience is huge, especially if you're moving to an algorithm based pump. Like the Medtronic 670 G, for example. Both of these systems should be started with the algorithm off until basil testing is complete. So if you're thinking about doing that, she's 100%. Right? If you're starting with an algorithm, you start with the algorithm not working so that you can get the basil right before you start expecting the algorithm to do something. She said juicebox listeners know the importance of basil testing however, it seems there's not enough follow up in the transition from MDI. long acting insulin to pumping basil rates. I very much agree Megan it's a we do not talk about basal insulin the right way overall. Tara says if you have a younger child, oh, this is a good point. They're on the pod like ticks as it's getting ready to go in and she said it made her daughter anxious. They gave her headphones and an iPad so she wouldn't hear it. It's click click click. I have to tell you Arden's been working on the pod for 13 maybe years, and she still counts the clicks as they go in. So I hear you. I think everybody within the pod knows about the clicking. But the clicking is it's part of the game. It's how it makes tension to put the insert. It's not important. It's just you know how it works,

but the headphones to eliminate you being able to hear the clicking smart. Courtney's reminding us that the pump is only as smart as the settings that are in it. She had to remind herself that the pump was only going to do its job once she did hers. Here's a fun story from Danielle. She said my daughter was six years old when we told her how she wasn't going to have to get shots anymore because she was getting it on the pod. So she was very excited. The first time they put on the pump. The clicking and insertion scared her but they told her Don't worry, because you're not going to feel it anymore. No more shots. Then it came time to give her her first Bolus. They explained it again no more shots that her daughter ran from the house down the street to avoid the Bolus. She said when they finally got her to calm down and gave her the insulin. Her eyes went very big and she suddenly realized no more shots. She thought she was going to feel the insertion every time she got insulin. That was the one thing they didn't think to explain to her. That's a great little piece of advice and an amusing anecdote. Sara just says please, everyone share your tips so we can get this episode up. I need it. We're making the transition soon. Big smiley face. That's really great. People here we're waiting for insurance approval. A lot of people in the thread are just talking about we're getting a pump. Laura, I would say that the fear of making the move from MDI to pumping at least for her fear of change. Yeah, what's what we already doing something it's working. And then she said we should they were worried about and then she says they were worried about cost. Is this really something everyone would like? So a lot of those concerns? Okay, good. I was hoping this one came up with. Okay, good. I was hoping this one would come up. Martha says that her total basal insulin went down, that the initial formulas for pump therapy starting with about 80% of original basil dose had to be dramatically reduced. She went from injecting 18 units of to Joe to 12 units on the pump. See, everyone's not the same. And I'm not saying this happened to this specific person. But there are many people on MDI who are using way too much basil and find themselves feeding their insulin constantly. So as long as they eat on a certain schedule, they don't notice that they're using too much basal insulin, and it mimics really great control because you're being held low and steady. And as you try to drop you add food. I hope that makes sense. So there's a lot of different scenarios people find themselves in with their Basal. Some people don't have enough some people have too much, you know, etc. You'll find out who you are. When you change to a pump. Jennifer says, if you're using a tube pump, remember that you're going to disconnect it for, you know, bathing, for example, she says, Be aware that your child may take the pump off for a shower and forget to put it back on. Of course, whether you're a child or an adult for getting to hook back up to your

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pump,

Scott Benner 30:30
we know you don't have insulin, and you will be surprised how quickly your blood sugar will rise to a dangerous level without any insulin. Tommy asks for me to talk about transitioning during the honeymoon period. Tommy what I would say there is if someone's honeymooning, and they maybe don't need very much insulin or at times it feels like they don't need any for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. Your ability to shut basil down or to tamp it back is going to be amazing for you. Here I'll bring this up. Never turn your basil insulin off. So you don't suspend your pump. When you want your basil to go away. You always do a Temp Basal decrease, because when they end, you go back to your regular Basal rate. suspending insulin and again, maybe forgetting to turn it back on is another quick way to get into DK always Temp Basal never suspend. Now I hope all of you find the diabetes pro tip episodes that are here in the podcast. They begin at Episode 210 with an episode called diabetes pro tip newly diagnosed or starting over. But if you've been through them, and just want to get back to some things that might be specific to this to 19 is about insulin pumping to 26 about the perfect Bolus setting basil, insulin 237 Pre-Bolus ng 217. These are all things that might have more stuff for you about using a pump like episode 218 Temp Basal. There's also one here about fat and protein rises, which we'll talk a little bit about using extended boluses. And that's Episode 263. You can find them all in your podcast app or at diabetes pro tip.com. All right back to the list. Kyle says Don't forget to rotate your sites, that's a great one. Don't always put your pump in the same exact place. Oh, he also says you can do a Temp Basal like 0% like Temp Basal off when you first start pumping until your old injected basil insulin gets through your system and then boom, pop it right back on again. You can just sort of match them up as close as possible. So you don't have an overlap of your injected basal insulin, and you're pumped basal insulin on your first day. Eva says that for her pumping was the first time she had any concept of insulin onboard, since it was now being displayed right there on her pump and sometimes scared her away from being as bold with insulin as she was with MDI. It was only once she pushed that out of her head that she was able to add insulin when she knew she needed more. So we talked about insulin on board through the pro tip series, I hope you've heard them. There's a lot about how your settings get set up on your pump, your doctor chooses an amount of time that they think the insulin stays in your system. If that number is not accurate, then the pump can imagine that there's insulin, it's still active when there's not. In other words, imagine that the pump thinks that the insulin stays in your system for four hours. But really, you use up the insulin most times in three hours. Then between that third and fourth hour, the pumps gonna still think there's insulin active in there working and say you go to have like three or four carbs. The pump might say no, you don't need any insulin. You still have some active, but he may not. It's a you'll figure it out. But don't just maybe I'll do an episode of insulin on board with Jenny sometime might be a good idea. Alright, let's see what's next. He says I need this episode. Now. very forceful IV is coming. Carrie remembers being excited that she would not wait. I remember being excited that I would not be as lazy of a diabetic since I would not have to get all the paraphernalia out just to give myself a single shot. But I wish I had a provider that once we had all the settings in would have done the little small test with me to really hone in the settings. Also remember that it's a tool, not a savior or a cure. We've gone over that you're still responsible for understanding. Absolutely true have a backup plan for failures with your pump. It is an electronic device and it could fail. Twain describes learning about a pump as an elephant that's charging at you. I think she's mixing her metaphors you're joining I think you're mixing your metaphors but I love it. I'm just starting this week so I'm a super noob But here is what I know it's an elephant a giant elephant that feels like it is charging you the classes and forms the logging pump the represent The logging, the pumper apps, the sailing start actually starting it more logging. It feels like you'll never see the end of the tunnel, but you get there. So an elephant one bite at a time. So worth it. So where she mixed is she said, I love this. You said it's like an elephant charging it. But I think the saying is how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, right? I'm not sure what you did there join. But I like the kid who I like what Vicki does here. She says I can wholeheartedly say it was the worst thing I've gone through in 25 years of having diabetes.

Looking back, I wish I really understood all the terms in the defining diabetes series before getting a pump. I went from MDI and basically had no knowledge of carb counting. I was diagnosed in 95. And I really didn't stay up with it. So overnight, I needed to understand basil correction factor, insulin on board, extended Bolus, etc. Also, she says work with your diabetes educator, when you're setting the basil rates, get them to teach you when you should make the changes. I was on 14 units of lantis on MDI, my diabetes educator who I later fired started me on four units. Yeah, that wasn't gonna work out with a pump. And would only let me increase it if she said it was okay, they need to teach you how to use the pump. I agree. And Vicki, I appreciate you bringing up the defining diabetes series. There is a series within the podcast called defining diabetes. And this is going to be a big deal for you. Because new terms are gonna pop up with a pump. If you don't know what they mean, you might as well be reading a different language when someone's explaining it to you. You need to understand the terms that you're going to be using. And I do believe, and I'm just you know, I know I made them. So I might be a little biased. But those defining diabetes series are an amazing way to learn a lot of things very quickly. Hey, Katie, you have a great post here. But we covered everything that you said already. But I want to thank you for it. Oh, I hear Jennifer says I recall being nervous about my son accidentally dosing. When he first got his pump. He had an animus Ping. So I learned how to lock the pump or use the second security feature that helped ease my anxiety and apparently there was a pin number she could use. Also, I recall being thrilled that our world got bigger once parents don't have to worry about the needles, he got invited to a lot more playdates and sleepovers. People were just more comfortable with the electronics. That's an excellent point. And leads me into the idea that I'd like to bring up which is that I know the Omni pod has limits that you can set I'm sure every other pump those as well. Max Bolus max basil rate so that you can't by mistake want to give one unit give 100 units as a Bolus or so you can set it wherever you want. I think ardens max basil is set at like six units are seven units an hour. So I can't mistakenly type in nine or 10 or 77, or something like that. And same with her Bolus. I don't remember where it's at at the moment, but I just took the biggest Bolus I've ever made in my life added a couple of units to it and limited it at that so that somebody doesn't end up doing, you know, 175 if they mean 17, but I'm also not in a situation where if suddenly she eats something more than usual, the pumps not stopping us from giving a couple of more units than we normally do. It's a very important safety feature. Please check it out. Kelsey, you're asking a lot of good questions here in the thread. They're all covered in the diabetes pro tip episodes. Stephen says best tips I got were in my original training from a CDE, who was also a T one D. The first was about changing sites, be sure to prime the kanila and add the appropriate amount of insulin to create the puddle of insulin so it can aid so it can enable the insulin to start the absorption breaking the clumps of insulin into single molecules so the body can use them. Steven, I am not following you because Arden's never used the tube pump, but I trust you as a great person on this site. So I'm going to continue reading. The second great tip was to use skin prep as a skin barrier. And adhesive enhancer been using it for over 20 years. The third was to understand that the basil rates will change and that the insulin to carb ratio will change no matter what you do. Don't take it personally, Steven, I'm gonna say I'm guessing tube pumps get air in them, you have to prime them through. It's not something I understand. Because I've never used the tube pump but I do know it's important. So if you have a two pump, make sure you understand how to prime it. If you have an omni pod, it takes care of that automatically. And what else did I want to say here? I just had a thought in my head Steven, what the hell you made me think of something and now it's gone.

Unknown Speaker 39:35
Oh, Tim, what

Scott Benner 39:38
about basil rates? I got it. Look at me. I lost my mind yet. Basil rates are going to change and that's whether you're MDI or you're pumping, you're gonna gain weight become more or less sedentary. There's all kinds of reasons why the amount of insulin you'll need will change, hormonal changes. It's not ever going to be set it and forget it, you're never just gonna be like, Oh, my basil rate is point seven, five an hour. I'll never think of that again. Don't think that's gonna happen. Jenna, this is brilliant. Start your first few sites around the same place on the body. for consistency. different locations can require different basil rates. Like for instance, Arden's thigh needs a little more insulin than ardens arms, very good, her belly doesn't need as much as her thighs, etc. That could be different from every for everybody. Jenna goes on to say different locations can require different basil rates, Pre-Bolus times and just overall insulin need and action time. Personally, when doing MDI, I recognize that I have poor arm absorption and great belly absorption. Jenna has great belly absorption. If you're ever on the podcast, Jenna, that's gonna be the title of your episode. So I started putting my pods primarily on my belly for the first few months. So I could figure out how to best use my pump. And its features without adding confusion of absorption differences. That's pretty brilliant. Also a great time to re mind you that you can't just put the pump in the same exact spot over and over again, very similar to you just can't inject over and over in the same places, you have to have a few sites and you should rotate them often. And don't forget that please. In the same vein, Arden has times of the month where she's more easy to control and less easy to control. I don't think that was English. But when I know she's going to be harder and need more insulin, I make sure that her pumps are on her sites that work better. And times when she's going to be easier. I put it on the sites that need a little more work. So it's not that drastic, but it is significant enough to mention that you should be paying attention to it. Okay, well, that's it. I appreciate everyone jumping in the thread and leaving their thoughts remembrances and tips of switching from MDI, to pumping. I remember the time personally as not that confusing or different, because I was pretty bad at it with MDI. So I didn't notice that I was bad at it with pumping, just just move one show from this side of the room to that side of the room. You know what I mean? I can say now looking back with hindsight that everything that everyone mentioned here is well worth understanding. But in the end, you're changing insulin delivery systems, you're eliminating using two different insolence, you're using just one fast acting insulin that's being dispersed by the pump, both for basil and Bolus. You need to know the terms of the pump stuff, because otherwise you're like, I don't understand what a Temp Basal is. You learn that kind of stuff, you learn what a kanila is that kind of thing. You start figuring out what spots on the body work better, which spots need a little more insulin, get that basil insulin, right? Don't sit and stare at it, especially, especially just do the math. If you were using 10 units a day, and now all of a sudden you're using five units a day of basil, insulin, and you're like, oh, the blood sugar is always high. Please don't say pumps don't work. Think, why are we not using all the basal insulin we used to? That's just such a big thing. Just I just see it so much with people. And here's one last tip for me. When you're wearing an insulin pump, and you think this site might be bad for whatever reason, and you're, you know, pumping in insulin, you're not seeing anything happening, you're not sure if the site's bad. Or if you just have a high blood sugar and you're not using enough insulin. making it an injection, as a correction will bypass the pump, right? So if you inject in that scenario, and your blood sugar starts to move down pretty quickly, that's a good way to figure out that the site might be bad. You say makes sense, Scott, but what I think of it in the moment, you probably would not, which is why I've mentioned it here. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, I really want to thank the people on the private Facebook group for the podcast. It's called Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes, I hope to see you there. And that's it. They don't forget the T one D exchange. If you can go to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. And get involved in the registry. You'll be helping people with type one diabetes, a huge amount you'll be helping the show. That by the way is for us residents who have type one diabetes or us residents who are the caregivers for someone who has type one diabetes. And because we talk so much about it. I know there are plenty of other pumps. But of course the Omni pod is a sponsor of the show, and they offer a free, no obligation demo, it'll be sent right to your house, you can actually try it on my omnipod.com forward slash juicebox. There's

still links in the show notes and links at Juicebox Podcast comm I forgot to mention that the defining diabetes episodes are of course available, they're spread throughout the podcast. But if you go to diabetes pro tip comm and scroll to the bottom of the page. There's they're all there. So you can find them that way if you just want to find out what number they are and then Don't listen to the media player or you can listen to them right on the website. I really appreciate you listening. I'll be back soon with more episodes of the Juicebox Podcast.

If you'd think you'd be a great guest for the podcast, reach out to me by emailing me at Scott at Juicebox podcast.com. I'm currently booking for the second half of 2021 I think that's August or later. I'm looking for anyone who thinks they have a good story. Somebody who really wants to share help people or just want to be involved in the podcast. bonus if you think you have a good after dark episode and you email me, I'm Scott@Juiceboxpodcast.com

#430 Poodle Power

Diabetic alert service dog

Esther is a type 1 who has a diabetic alert service dog. She also has hypothyroidism.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:09
Hello everybody and welcome to Episode 430 of the Juicebox Podcast Hey show is with a young woman who has type one diabetes, and diabetes alert service dog. Esther knows a ton about this topic, and she's a lot of fun. Plus, she's got a great story. All you have to do is sit back, relax, or continue to march to the grocery store, do your dishes or ignore your family, whatever you're doing with your headphones on right now. And listen as we present to you another episode of the Juicebox Podcast. Please remember while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan are becoming bold with insulin. If after this you want to find Esther on Instagram, she is chronically underscored annoyed, chronically annoyed, underscore in between the words understand the underscore Well, if you don't, you're not gonna find her. Or I guess you could just search for chronically annoyed and then look for dogs. And then I think you'll find her honest. Listen to my understanding of Instagram searches.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing for over 12 years. Omni pod, you can get a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump by going to my link at my Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box. And to learn more about ardens continuous glucose monitor her Dexcom je six, head over to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. The Dexcom is perfect for anyone using insulin. And of course, if you're looking to get involved, where to learn more about a great organization, check out touched by type one at touched by type one.org. We're on Facebook and Instagram.

Esther 2:10
Hi, I'm Esther, I'm a type one diabetic. I'm an artist. I'm a teacher and I'm a service dog handler.

Scott Benner 2:17
Service Dog handler that's interesting. You You're you may I'm gonna probably use the wrong words here. But I'm not sure you own a service dog. Right? It helps you with your the dog helps you with your type one.

Esther 2:28
Yes, I have a diabetic alert service dog.

Scott Benner 2:31
But the but the terminology would be service dog handler. Is that to infer. But is that what am I making sense here? like is that so you? Yeah. Tell me about

Esther 2:44
being a handler and first, I own and rely on my dog? I don't train them for other people.

Scott Benner 2:50
Gotcha. That's what I wasn't sure about. So there are people who are trainers, but not necessarily users for the lack of a better term, I guess ball handler, right. I got it. I'm finding these things out. Okay, so let's talk. Let's start at the beginning. When were you diagnosed? How old are you now?

Esther 3:09
February 10 2000. And I am almost 23. At this point,

Unknown Speaker 3:15
you were three. When you were diagnosed?

Esther 3:17
I was barely two and a half,

Scott Benner 3:20
two and a half. Wow. That must feel like not even somebody that must not even feel like your story, right?

Esther 3:28
Yes and no. I don't have the usual diagnosis story. We had just moved. I am from a military family. And we had just moved to Arkansas and my dad had gone overseas to Turkey for a year long, single deployment. Okay. So we weren't even in a house yet. We were with my grandparents. And my grandmother is type two diabetic. And my mom was really obsessed with this very popular TV show. Maybe you've heard of it. It's called mash. She was

Scott Benner 4:05
a fan. Yes, I was as well, by the way.

Esther 4:08
And she saw the episode with the diabetic helicopter pilot. So when I started drinking like an inhuman amount of liquids and wetting the bed and showing these signs, she decided to use my grandmother's glucometer to check my blood sugar

Scott Benner 4:27
because of what she saw on mash.

Unknown Speaker 4:29
Yes. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 4:31
There we go.

Esther 4:33
So we we were in a very small town, she took me to the doctor an hour away. And next thing you knew we were at Arkansas Children's Hospital. And the doctors were like, how is she not in a coma? or dead or NDK? And the answer was mash. So I got diagnosed and we didn't even stay in the hospital very long. The only downside was My father wasn't allowed to come back for the diagnosis. So my mom had to take care of my older siblings and learn the whole diabetes shebang by herself.

Scott Benner 5:09
Yeah. In 2000. Right, right in around 2000. Yes. Wow. Mash, by the way, was on in the 70s. Mm hmm. So and I remember that exact episode. I mean, I say something that might embarrass me. But I received the entire run of mash as a gift. digitally, and in the past year or so I've watched the entire and there's a lot of episodes.

Esther 5:38
I started watching it on Hulu. And I haven't even gotten through a third of it.

Scott Benner 5:42
Yeah, I don't. I want to be clear that I don't sit down and watch I watch while I'm doing something else. Yes, yeah, dishes, laundry, you know, making food, things like that. I really don't want people to think that I sat for how many episodes going on forever. And I'm thinking now that the helicopter pilots name was smiling jack. And I remember I can remember the whole thing like he was he was like one of the best helicopter pilots and didn't want to stop flying. And the only need to bring home a couple more people to like, I don't know, like reach some sort of an award or something. And they figured out he had diabetes. I I've got the whole thing. Am I so embarrassed? I believe there were I'm gonna look now because I don't I don't want to be wrong about this. There were 11 seasons of mash. And that was back when, when you made an effort when you made a television show. There were a lot of episodes every season like usually 25 or 26 or something like that. So there's a ton of them. Okay, so mash figured out that you had type one diabetes, but then we had to move forward. There were no other episodes of mash to help your mom I don't think what TV show Did she go to next to figure out type one?

Esther 7:01
That's interesting, because you know, you were already writing your blog at that time. But my mother is not very tech savvy. So she didn't you know, jump on the whole internet train. Yeah. And we moved a lot. I am the fifth of eight children, military family, we moved a lot. I didn't grow up going to jdrf events or diabetes camp. It was just kind of me and mom, roughing it changing endos every couple years with every move. Yeah. Stuff like that. She read a lot of books. We have so many copies of the Pink Panther book. So she read a lot of books. And she learned as she went. And we made it work.

Scott Benner 7:53
That's amazing. I mean, I guess that's all you can do. Really? Yeah. 2000 I mean, the technology wasn't terrible, right? What? What are you using for insulin? Do you you know, have you ever asked?

Esther 8:04
I have asked I don't know what insulin I was on originally, but a few years later, I was on I was put on novolog and I've been using novolog ever since. They started us out with pens. However, I was a two and a half year old child and the pens were scary. So we moved to using regular syringes with miles until I was in elementary school. I want to say 2005 or six I was put on the Animas 2000.

Scott Benner 8:34
That's a pump that people really loved. We did you have it right up until it was just Hey,

Esther 8:40
no, no. So I had the NMS 2000. And it was top of the line it was water resistant. It was the first one where you could detach and put a placeholder in the site and just swimming without your pump. It was really really nifty. Until I broke it. I actually broke to animals to 1000s my younger sister chewed the rubber buttons off of one and the other malfunctions going down a slide at a Burger King playplace because of the static electricity,

Unknown Speaker 9:11
homos useless. Please tell me she was like 50

Esther 9:15
Oh, no, she was a she was a toddler. It

Scott Benner 9:18
would have been more fun if she was like 23 and she got the rubber buttons off of your insulin pump. So that's that's pretty funny.

Esther 9:28
But the Burger King slide incident happened in Germany. So that was a nerve wracking. But Animas pulled through and they got us a new pump very, very quickly. And the new pump after that incident was the one touch pain.

Scott Benner 9:46
That's the one I'm thinking of. Okay.

Esther 9:48
That was the first animus pump that came with its own glucometer and it had, I don't know if it was Bluetooth but it wireless wirelessly sent your blood sugar from the glucometer to pump. So I had the one touch ping up until 2009 when I decided I was done with the pump done with the wires and I went back on pens for many years until I got on Omni pod in 2016.

Scott Benner 10:16
Excellent. You know, I just did something while you were telling me about that that ended up being really, really a huge letdown I tried to translate Burger King into German and it's Burger King. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 10:31
I could have told you that.

Unknown Speaker 10:32
What a letdown that was.

Unknown Speaker 10:37
Damn it. Oh my gosh.

Esther 10:39
He's on a military base.

Scott Benner 10:41
So I just said Burger King. Cuz you guys. I figured it'd be like a German translation for burger at least but it's not. Apparently there's not no

Esther 10:49
because it's a franchise.

Scott Benner 10:51
Such a letdown. I'm not joking with you. I was really there was a moment there. Oh, wow, this went wrong on me. Okay, why you have a lot of brothers and sisters. Did your dad just get your mom pregnant every time he came home from the military. How'd that work? Exactly?

Unknown Speaker 11:05
Yeah, pretty much. That's how it works. Yeah.

Esther 11:09
What's funny is that when my parents got married in the 80s, my mom didn't want kids. And my dad said, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And apparently they crossed it multiple times.

Scott Benner 11:18
He crossed it about every 10 and a half months probably it sounds like

Esther 11:22
my oldest sibling is 30 now and my youngest is 14.

Scott Benner 11:27
Do you think your parents call having sex crossing that bridge? Honey, it's time to cross the bridge again. Oh my gosh. Oh. Any other diabetes in with your family with those those brothers and sisters?

Esther 11:44
Not type one. But we have the genes. Both my parents have hypothyroidism, myself and three or four of my siblings all have hypothyroidism. My 16 year old sister was just recently diagnosed with an amplified pain syndrome, which is another chronic illness. We have food allergies galore, celiac tendencies. So it's like a sensitivity not true. celiacs disease. I'm lactose intolerance. Lots of fun stuff.

Scott Benner 12:14
You guys are a party. Your dog is probably like, I gotta get out of here. I'm gonna get sick. Ever see him scratch at the door. He's like, I gotta go. How did you end up with a service dog? What was your your pathway to that.

Esther 12:30
So this was really fun. I didn't really know a lot about service dogs. I knew Guide Dogs existed. But when I was a senior in high school, somebody put it on my Facebook page, they sent me a little documentary about diabetic alert dogs. And I was like, what, this is a thing. And of course, my animal loving, teenage self jumped on that train and Dove headfirst into research. And I went to my parents about it. I was like, Guys, did you know that this existed? This is amazing. And they were like, yeah, we looked into it when you were a kid. It was just way too expensive. I was like, Oh, well,

Scott Benner 13:06
great. Thanks. We just thought maybe one day a dog would come out. We have having babies, we would train the dog. We tried to train your sister wants to do it for you. But she ended up just chewing the buttons off your

that's good. I'm having a lot of fun at your parents expense. Don't let them listen to this.

Esther 13:25
I have a lot of fun at their expense, too. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 13:28
well, Lucky them. In fact, then

Esther 13:31
I'm the middle child,

Scott Benner 13:32
I can get away it just yeah, there's too many people on either side of it, you can kind of blend in if you need to. Well, so a lot of you know, a lot of issues that are all centered around autoimmune. And so and you guys move around a ton. So it must be difficult for all of those people to find doctors to help them. Does that. Is that a problem for everybody? Or, or how to work?

Esther 13:57
Okay, so when you move to a new military base or a new station, it takes a couple months, but you generally get set up with the on base clinic with your primary care provider. The problem is getting the referral for the specialist, you know the endocrinologist Okay. And then the problem is which endocrinologist take your insurance? And is that endocrinologist good for you? Or are you stuck with them and they're not really listening to you? So

Scott Benner 14:26
are you saying that your your general practitioner is on base, but then you have to leave the base to get more specialized care? Yes, I got it. Okay. Ah, oh, so how many times? How many different windows? Do you think you've had

Esther 14:40
more than a dozen? I have moved about 13 times in my life.

Scott Benner 14:43
Okay, here's an interesting question of more than a dozen. How many good windows Do you feel like you've had?

Unknown Speaker 14:48
For me? No three.

Scott Benner 14:51
who just got knocked off the list at the end there who almost made it? I'm trying to imagine that one. Like, there was four or no, you know, I don't want to count him?

Esther 15:01
Well see, I don't always have an endocrinologist, I generally will have an endocrinologist team. The question is, do I see the endocrinologist? Or do I see the nurse practitioner? Yeah, cuz some places, I see the endocrinologist once and then never hear from them again. And I always see the nurse practitioner. And then some stations, we've had to fight for the referral, because the primary care thinks that they can take care of the type one on their own when they have no idea when what they're talking about.

Scott Benner 15:31
Well, that's interesting. Sometimes they've tried to keep you on the base for the entirety of the care. We can handle this. Have you ever tried that?

Unknown Speaker 15:39
No, no. I wonder

Scott Benner 15:41
as you're getting older and older, if you'll decide, well, I guess, you know, let's ask this question. How do you feel about your level of care? Like, are you happy with where you're at? Are there improvements you're trying to make? Are there difficulties? Where are you? Where are you right now?

Esther 15:56
Right now with my care, my I had a very good nurse practitioner. She retired, so I'm about to start breaking in a new nurse practitioner in September. And I my, as far as diabetes ago, it's pretty average, I'm getting average care. Uh, the problem is that nobody is taking care of my thyroid. And that's what's really beaten me up right now. You know,

Scott Benner 16:22
I haven't dug completely into this yet on the podcast, but I will at some point when I have complete details. But I've watched my wife struggle with hypothyroidism, and then Arden. And we're in the middle right now. of, we have just found a doctor who's a more, I don't know how to say it a less actually in the box thinker, and is making adjustments and working on other things. And I have to tell you, like really making leaps and bounds improvements for both my wife and my daughter, just by having somebody who doesn't look at the testing and say, Oh, it's in Ranger, okay. And treating the symptoms instead of the number in the test. If that makes right. You know,

Esther 17:12
my current problem is that my TSH, my number for my thyroid is out of range. And my previous nurse practitioner didn't really want to take any drastic steps

Scott Benner 17:24
to fix it. What would a drastic step have been like more medicine?

Esther 17:29
No, I've gone through two dose increases, but I'm drastic step. something other than that, something other than just increase the Synthroid. Maybe we can look at other medications. Maybe we can look at a thyroid booster to take on top of the medication. Look at it from a different angle. Yes, they

Scott Benner 17:51
don't want to talk about vitamins or other other things that might be helpful. Do you have any joint pain or muscle pain or anything like that?

Esther 18:03
Yes, but it's it's not related to the thyroid. It's related to snapping my collarbone in half in 2013.

Scott Benner 18:11
Specific pain. Gotcha.

Unknown Speaker 18:12
Yeah.

Scott Benner 18:15
Was that trying to stop the dog from escaping? Is that what we

Esther 18:18
know that was flipping backwards off of a golf cart at like 20 miles per hour? I

Scott Benner 18:22
don't think you should have done that. Just in case you're looking for my fault. It was the drivers fault driver to golf too fast.

Esther 18:29
I did not eat myself off the back of a golf cart.

Scott Benner 18:33
Are you certain? No, wow, that's terrible. How bad how badly did but let's talk about that just for a second. How badly Did that hurt? Do you use insulin, then you need the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. That is my opinion. Because when you use insulin fluctuations happen, and you're blind to them if you can't see what's going on inside of your body, but the Dexcom gives you that look, you get to see the speed and direction of your blood sugar. And it makes a huge difference. When making decisions about insulin and food. You also have to consider your safety at times. And the Dexcom g six has built in alarms to help you with that. You can set the low alarm wherever you want the high alarm wherever you want. And the Dexcom will tell you when you reach that threshold. That knowledge gives you the ability to stop a low before it becomes a problem or to stop arise before it becomes a high blood sugar that ruins hours of your day. Head over to dexcom.com forward slash juice box to learn more about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. My daughter has been wearing it for years. And that is at the core of how we keep her a one c between five two and six. For now over six years. I'm confident that the information that The Dexcom gives back to you could help you do the same. Are you using a tube pump or injecting your insulin and wish you weren't, you don't have to, you could use the Omnipod tubeless insulin pump, it is self contained. So for pumpers out there who are accustomed to getting their tubing stuck on door handles or ripping out their sets or taking off their pumps to take a shower or go swimming and then forgetting to put them back on, and their blood sugar's shooting up, none of that happens with Omni pod. You can check it out easily at Miami pod.com, forward slash juicebox. And after you're there, and you think this might be a good idea, you can ask Omni pod to send you a free, no obligation demo of the pump. And they will do that easy. You just ask and then they do it. It comes to your home. And then you can wear it or put it on your child, whoever needs to understand what it's like to wear it on the pod can before they buy. If you decide later, that only pod is for you. That's terrific. It's easy to move forward. And if you don't like it, it's not a big deal. It didn't cost you anything and there was no obligation. My Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox tubeless insulin pumping is next level. My daughter has been using an omni pod for over 12 years, she's worn one every day since she was four years old. It is an absolute friend in the journey with type one diabetes, and it could help you in your use of insulin as well. Last thing touched by type one is an organization dedicated to helping people with type one diabetes. And they would just like you to know about them to check them out. Touched by type one.org. You can also find them on Instagram, and Facebook. As a matter of fact, all of the advertisers are listed right there in the show notes of your podcast player, where there are links that you could find easily at Juicebox Podcast comm

there's a lot more left to Esther's story. So let's get back to it. First, we'll find out what it was like to be tossed off that golf cart.

Esther 22:09
It hurts so bad that I have memory loss,

Unknown Speaker 22:11
just tried to let the whole thing

Esther 22:13
out. He went into shock and I still don't remember. I remember going down. And I don't remember anything from hitting the ground to basically coming to on the way to the emergency room. No

Scott Benner 22:26
kidding. Were you actually playing golf? are you riding in a car?

Esther 22:29
No, I was at a summer camp.

Scott Benner 22:31
Ah, just going from place to place. Yes. I was gonna say How were you shooting up until then I was looking for your score. And what whole year just for the golf fans, you know, so they can understand. Wow, sorry about that. That's so terrible. I bring it up because Arden has those symptoms or had those symptoms. And we've increased her intake of some specific vitamins that have done away with them in conjunction with getting her Arden doesn't use Synthroid, she uses to rescind. And we've been increasing that slowly getting to a better level. So we finally had a doctor who was willing to look and say that, you know, by weight ardens tiersen. Those doesn't seem strong enough, her number seems in range. But her symptoms say she doesn't have enough of the hormone. And so this doctor was willing to move it up a little bit and add a significant course of vitamin B 12. And a very specific one like she moved us to a very specific vitamin and also vitamin D increasing Arden's vitamin D intake significantly. So just little things like that, and we've been at it for a couple of months. Now she just did a retest there, the tiersen is going to get adjusted again and then we're gonna move on and see if you know how that helps. But are you experiencing mostly the tired just that feeling you can't get rested? That is that your biggest problem?

Esther 24:06
My biggest problem is depression, ah, with the thyroid,

Scott Benner 24:10
and that's another thing people don't realize that if you move that up too much that thyroid the way you can go from hypo to hyper how you can tell is you'll start getting like heart palpitations, you'll get you can get sad, anxiety start crying for no reason. Like there's a lot of stuff that happens with having too much of that of that hormone, which I think is can be why some doctors are you know, hesitant to do it. But it's so necessary or you could go to a T three and T four together. I can't think of a T three name off top my head now. Damn, I'll think of it and it's so depression. Do you feel like it's really connected to the to the hypothyroidism

Esther 24:57
we can I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and about Vitamin D deficiency when I was 13. So I've been, we've been dealing with it long enough that we can clearly link depressive episodes to a lack to when my thyroid numbers are not where they should be. Okay? Now, I

Scott Benner 25:13
believe that 100% you can't, nobody would be able to talk me out of believing that. And so what happens is your needs change. But it's difficult to change with the need, you don't notice the need changing until you have the symptom is that what is that the biggest problem?

Esther 25:30
It's difficult to describe the symptoms in a way to motivate the doctors to do something about it.

Scott Benner 25:37
Ah, ah, okay, so what what ends up happening is you just do you think they don't believe you? That it's related to that and they look back and they is your tea? Or your TSH? Did you say it was out of range or in range?

Unknown Speaker 25:54
Oh, it's out of range? lower high low, I

Scott Benner 25:56
would imagine. Hi. Hi. Okay. So you appear to have too much. You. You appear hypo?

Esther 26:04
I am hypothyroidism. The TSH is supposed to be between one and four minus 12.

Scott Benner 26:11
It's so what's the plan? Like what what's supposed to bring it into range?

Esther 26:16
the centroid supposedly, but it's not doing its job doesn't do that.

Unknown Speaker 26:20
Have you tried others?

Esther 26:23
No. But I'm hopeful that my new nurse practitioner in that I see for the first time in September, will finally you know, listen to me. And maybe we can switch something up. Try something new.

Scott Benner 26:37
Is the T for not being picked up by your system? Has anybody discussed that with you? Maybe I figured out the name of the T three. It's called psycho Mal. Maybe that's it. The tough part of it is is when you make adjustments, these medications, it really messes with you. If it's Yes,

Esther 26:53
it does. Yeah. And I already struggle with insulin resistance, hypoglycemia, unawareness, hyperglycemia, and awareness, hence the dog. So my, my, I, I'm over here, like, I tweak things all the time without talking to the doctor. I've been doing this for 20 years, I tweak things. But then when I need a change in prescription or change in dose or change in medication, then the battle comes of convincing the nurse practitioner to make those changes.

Scott Benner 27:24
And it's not as easy as saying, Look, I'm doing it and it's working. I just need the medicine.

Esther 27:28
Right. It's kind of like I will tell you something my previous nurse practitioner, we had one big disagreement point. And that was your podcast. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 27:39
that's a shame. He doesn't like it. And I have lost

Scott Benner 27:43
the listener. Terrible.

Esther 27:45
I the first day I the first time I asked her Hey, have you heard of the Juicebox Podcast? She looked at me and she said yes.

Unknown Speaker 27:53
She didn't like it. That's good. I was like,

Unknown Speaker 27:55
oh, okay, then

Scott Benner 27:57
she's still listening. I'm saying it right now. That's all that's fine. hyperthyroidism definitely comes with insulin resistance when you have too much, you know, going on it definitely makes it I've seen that while we're adjusting artists medications. If she gets hyper during the medication adjustment, her needs for insulin go up pretty pretty drastically pretty immediately.

Esther 28:23
Yeah. My my second biggest symptom that I deal with with the hypothyroidism is my inability to lose weight. My not my blood sugar's could be perfect. I could be exercising, eating great. And I can't lose weight. I don't gain weight either. Yeah, it's it's just stuck, stuck.

Scott Benner 28:43
Well, that definitely, to me says your hypo. Right. So why, you know, you gotta I mean, I know it's easy to say like, you got to find a doctor that can help you but there just aren't that many of them that are willing to think outside of and be and I think you're, you're saying something that's incredibly important. It's that being flexible around care, and being willing to make a small adjustment. Look, again, make another small adjustment you know, being willing to do blood tests more frequently to see where the medications putting you and not just trying something and waiting six months or whatever and then and then going back anyone how do you feel like you know, I'm

Esther 29:20
also a very impatient person when it comes to my health I I make an adjustment and the next day I'm like, okay, is it better? But I have to slow down cuz you gotta see what the change does before you can change something else. Oh, yeah,

Scott Benner 29:35
this medicine is I think weeks and weeks to be sure like you have to you have to choose and go and stick with it and see what happens. You can't You can't three days and go it's not working. I'm going to take more like that definitely don't work. Yeah. Wow. I'm sorry. It really is. It's not fun. Do any of your siblings have better luck with it than you are having?

Esther 29:58
Um, so none of my other friends siblings see an endocrinologist. Um, I'm the only one because of diabetes. So there's, as the rest of my family handle their thyroid, basically seeing the primary doctor, getting the blood test every three months, I'm adjusting the medication as needed and go on their merry way. But because I have the jackpot of both, I get to work with endocrinologist team,

Scott Benner 30:29
what are they doing better? Like? Are they having better outcomes than you are? Or no, not necessarily?

Esther 30:34
Well, it's different outcomes, because the hypo and the diabetes work against each other. And the other people in my family have, they either just have hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism and something else other than type one diabetes, so their care is obviously going to look a lot different. And they're everyone else's numbers are good. Everyone else is great.

Scott Benner 31:00
How about how they feel? Or they keep weight off and things like that? Or are they in similar situation with that?

Esther 31:07
Um, I mean, we're we're basically Vikings. We're tall, broad people. But yeah, my siblings with hypothyroidism don't have as much trouble with weight fluctuation as I do. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 31:21
Okay. Well, and and, and so they don't need as much adjustment either. It's not they're not struggling to begin with. It's just working out better for them. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, that whole,

Esther 31:33
they're generally focused on the hammer collegiate migraines. So

Scott Benner 31:39
they've got a different problem

Esther 31:41
than they do we all have our issues. Oh,

Scott Benner 31:44
my gosh, wow. Your whole bloodline needs to be out in the sun more often, I think or something like that. You guys needed some vitamin D. When you were growing me. You said is what is your background? Like? Where do your parents? Where's the lineage? Run? I guess.

Esther 32:02
I'm on my dad's side is just a European and Cherokee. I'm just American. And my mom's side is mostly Irish.

Scott Benner 32:13
Yeah, that Irish is tough. It's tough on the auto immune for some reason. I don't know if everyone's noticed that or not. Yeah, the real pale people struggle with some stuff for some reason. And we've talked about stuff on the podcast before, you know, just the idea of like the potato famine, being really impactful on Irish people.

Esther 32:33
And I've heard you talk about that. And I literally, like it blew my mind.

Scott Benner 32:39
Well, you don't talk too much. Because you know, it's just a podcast, but it is definitely something I've heard about a couple of times and looked at once or twice.

Esther 32:47
I think it should warrant more like in depth study. Not by me. I don't have that.

Scott Benner 32:55
Someone besides me should look at it. I just know that there are a fair amount of people who I've met with autoimmune issues. hypo thyroid to be you know, be specific, who will tell you that they have you know, a pretty, a pretty strong Irish, you know, or that part of the world. background. And right. I don't know, is what it is, I guess, but all right. Well, let's find some good news in here somewhere. How do you find the service dog is is? Is it a good

Esther 33:29
Enzo? Um, so senior year of high school, found out about diabetic alert dog started researching kind of ignored the fact that my parents didn't really put a lot of effort into it. I'm pretty stubborn like that. And I spent three years researching, watching YouTube videos, reading articles, getting any piece of information I could get my hands on about diabetic alert dogs and service dogs. Almost got scammed out of $25,000. But I went to a religious conference, where we ran into a family with a service poodle, they gave me some information. And a year and two months later, Renzo came home. Wow.

Scott Benner 34:13
Service poodles. A great pairing of words, in case you're wondering, but I want to hear a little bit about how did you almost get scammed out of money because this is a pretty prevalent problem, isn't it with service dogs,

Esther 34:24
right. So in in the United States, dogs, service dogs, it's not a regulated industry. And there's a lot of misinformation going around. So I will not name the organization. But there was there's a prevalent service dog training organization that was placing dogs before they were actually trained. People were paying 25 plus $1,000 to this organization. And what people were getting back was an unruly untrained puppy.

Scott Benner 34:56
Wow, that's so you got a pattern. gotta feed it that and everything else. And it's right. It's costing you money, no problem.

Esther 35:05
I got I contacted the organization, thinking they were legitimate, and I was approved, and they wanted me to start fundraising the $25,000. And as I was starting the fundraising process through the company, they got sued. So, a miss, dodged that bullet, thankfully. And I actually got an even better trained dog for a fraction of the cost from a local company to me, gotcha.

Scott Benner 35:35
What did you end up paying for the dog? If I can ask you just so people can have an idea of what it really should cost?

Esther 35:41
$8,750 for a dog who has public access trained, obedience trained could detect high and low blood sugars responds to fainting episodes and retrieved at General items. Wow.

Scott Benner 35:53
Can they bring you like a remote control? Where's that above and beyond? Well, the dog look at you and be like, that's not my job, or

Esther 35:59
no, dogs aren't robots. never stops, service dogs are not a finished product. Honestly, that's how a lot of program dogs end up failing, once they're placed with their family, because the family won't keep training. And the service dogs aren't a finished product, they don't come out of training, and poof, they're perfect for the rest of their lives.

Scott Benner 36:19
It's interesting how much time in a month that you give to continued education for the dog.

Esther 36:25
So rienzo's, each dog is different, but my dog, we do tend to minute 10 to 30 minute training sessions a couple times a week, I try to make sure we go out into a public place so we can maintain manners. A few, like at least three times a week, but um, you can it's just a matter of consistency, honestly.

Scott Benner 36:49
Wow. That's, that's interesting. I hadn't considered that that there's upkeep, basically maintenance, you have to do yes, to keep it going.

Esther 36:57
I've also added on to his training. At this point, we've been together for a year and a half and two thirds of what he knows as far as commands and tasks I taught him.

Scott Benner 37:08
It's like when you buy a Tesla, and then you want it to drive itself and you give him like another $4,000 and they add it to it. They just upload it to the car. You just continuing to upload things to the car. That's really cool. Like what do you have goals for the dog that franza that he that he hasn't reached out that you're working towards?

Esther 37:25
Yes. So recently, just when we went into quarantine a few months ago, I registered Renzo with the American Kennel Club because he has a purebred Standard Poodle, and he just passed and received his novice trick dog title. There's five levels of trick dog titles. I hope that we can get all of them. I also want to get his Canine Good Citizen certification through the A Casey. I have big plans for my dog.

Scott Benner 37:52
Wow. What can he then? Sire other dogs? That would be good service dogs or is there no correlation? Oh, I got you. You don't want him wandering off looking for a girl? Oh, well. Oh, wait, no, wait, I'm joking. But is that a real thing? Like do is is a service dog always spayed? or neutered or no,

Esther 38:13
no, it's up to the owner. Except I went through a program and the program requires all of their dogs to be fixed before placement. So he was neutered long before he was even matched with me.

Scott Benner 38:23
I gotcha. Okay, well, that's interesting. Well, then he's definitely not gonna do that. Or where he'd be amazing if he did?

Esther 38:31
No, he's not up to standards, so he wouldn't be a sire anyway.

Scott Benner 38:35
Oh, really? Like, is there? Am I using this word with quotes, but are there imperfections about him that would stop that from happening?

Esther 38:42
Yes. So he's only 26 inches at the shoulder, which is within standard AK standard for the breed. But he only weighs about 50 pounds. He's a very lanky boy. He's also a party poodle, which means he's black and white and the A Casey doesn't actually recognize the multicolored poodles. So that's actually why he got donated to the service dog program because he was he came from a show line and it can't be a show dog. So he became a service dog.

Scott Benner 39:07
No kidding. That's super interesting. You just use the a lot of terms I've never heard before. lanky boy and party poodle party poodle, strong contender for the name of this episode, in case you're wondering, but I am afraid to Google either of those terms. Because

Unknown Speaker 39:26
it is my term okay.

Unknown Speaker 39:28
But party poodle is not right.

Esther 39:31
Party pa RT refers to the coloring of his coat. You can have solid coded poodles, party, poodles, Phantom poodles,

Scott Benner 39:42
I don't even know all of them. Well, you can safely Google just for the I would keep the lie off of it, just in case. I'm not sure where the internet will take you then. Actually it just redirects you back to p. e AR ti. Well, that's really cool. Like there's so much about this that obviously, I don't know about And it's a lot to consider. How much time do you give to, to Enzo? I mean, at what point I can ask a thoughtful question here. At what point? Is Enzo, a family member? And at what point? Is he a tool? Or do you not consider him a tool? like, Okay, you know what I mean? Like there's a, I'm trying to understand how that feels.

Esther 40:23
Yes. And I will. I'm so glad to answer this question, because it's a question I get a lot. So Renzo is a dog. He still has the basic needs of a dog, he needs stimulus, he needs exercise, he needs affection. When the vest is on, and we're in public, he's working, which means he's ignoring his surroundings, and he's ignoring other people. And he's focusing just on me, when we're at home, and the vest is off, you know, he will roam around the house, he will play with dog toys, he'll play with the other dogs, he'll cuddle with everyone in the family, he'll harass my pet rabbit. But if he smells, my blood sugar, doing weird things, he will find me in the house and still alert. So he'll still do his job, whether he is quote, on duty, or at home. He like the whole reason I have him is that he's a tool in my diabetes management toolbox.

Scott Benner 41:16
So I mean, this really seriously like so that the vest that he wears, is that an indicator to him that he's, I mean, on duty for? Or will he'll, he'll just do it no matter what, like, he doesn't have to go find the vest if he smells your blood sugar low. But

Esther 41:29
no, no, that's so he can I can literally commit, like, give him a word. And he's like, oh, we're working now. But when I put the vest on, and I'm like, do you want to, like, let's gear up, that's the word I use. He knows that we're going to be in public, that's really his key to be behaved, because the service started in public needs to be out of the way and unnoticed.

Scott Benner 41:53
Gotcha. Okay. I understand. By the way, there's a great movie in this where the dogs can talk to each other. And like, you know, they're on the job. And they take it really seriously almost like, What am I thinking of Secret Service agents, except for service dogs. there's a there's a kid's movie in there, someone can write it. I'm just telling you. I think it would be amazing if talking dogs came home from work at the end of the day. And we're taking off the rest and like they talking about their long days and everything like that. I would be very

Unknown Speaker 42:19
nice. Really cute.

Scott Benner 42:21
Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 42:22
Like I could Yeah, I just,

Scott Benner 42:23
as you said like wearing the vest. I saw the vest as the uniform. And anyway, I don't have time for that one. So anybody can feel free to pick up and run with that. I'll take a writing credit at the end. It's not a big deal. That that's really interesting. It made your life better.

Esther 42:40
Oh, yeah, my, my agency dropped in the first few months after having Renzo his alerts are on point he alerts at ADM, below 190 and above. And if it's quickly rising or falling, his his nose is rarely ever wrong. And sometimes he catches it before my Libra or my meter. Like he'll alert and it looks like he is like wrong. But actually 15 minutes later, I'm either spiking or crashing. Did you

Scott Benner 43:07
give samples during his training? Or did they can they use anyone samples?

Esther 43:12
So I had to mail saliva samples of in range high and low to the trainer to use. But what's ironic is that renza his trainer was hypoglycemic, and renzoni nose is so sensitive that he has alerted like half a dozen other people other than me.

Scott Benner 43:33
Oh, no kidding. Like, somebody can just walk by with some low blood sugar and they'll be like, and I was like, Yo, what's up your low? And how does he tell you your low? I mean, sign language. What's he do?

Esther 43:42
He will pour me if it's an emergency, like rising or falling quickly, he will jump up on me. And if I'm having brain fog, and I'm just not getting it. He will bark at me.

Scott Benner 43:55
By the way, I feel like you just explained how married guys ask for sex. Dude. go through it again. He'll Paul you have it right. It goes say to get

Esther 44:06
regular alerts as a PA that has popped up on my leg. I hear it. If it's an emergency, he'll jump up on me.

Unknown Speaker 44:13
Huh? I was

Esther 44:15
not getting it. he barks at me

Scott Benner 44:17
telling you right now you just described that. Oh my goodness. While you trust me. It's not that funny. If you've been married for a while. Sorry. Oh my gosh. We know each other. Yeah. And and it was really great to meet you the time I did. tell people where we met.

Esther 44:37
We were we met at the Kansas City jdrf type one nation summit.

Unknown Speaker 44:44
We did and where

Esther 44:45
you were exhausted.

Scott Benner 44:46
I was and how good was I told the people?

Esther 44:50
Oh, you were fantastic. It made me feel special because you knew exactly who I was when I walked up was a dead giveaway.

Scott Benner 44:57
Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you for sure. Fisher that the poodle did give it away. But I appreciate you saying how fantastic it was without being prompted, I want to say about Kansas City, I had never been before, and got in the day before and went and got some lunch and had these chicken wings. That really made me happy. I just never had chicken wings to make me that happy before. And I went and did the whole the whole thing the next day. I actually have to thank people right here. Because later that night, you know, the people who brought me out from the jdrf chapter there in Kansas City, were just like, yo, let us take you to dinner and I, I get a little like, I'm like, I'm just gonna go home, like, let me just sleep and get back on the plane and get out of here, you know? But I said, No, no, that'd be great. Let me go. So they took me to this place. And as we're approaching it in the car, I think I'm gonna get off like I'm getting shot like this is it this is this is a hit, because we're like in some industrial park and the window was down a little bit and it smelled a little like cow manure. And I was like, what is happening right now? Where's our rail yard going behind? I'm like, where are we like, this is definitely like they're gonna, they're gonna pop me this is what's going on here. I don't know what I did wrong. But I've upset the Kansas City mafia, obviously. And this is what's happening. So we pull up, and I say to the person driving me, I'm like, I gotta ask you like, Where the hell are we like, you smell the Commodore? Right? Like, this is the restaurant that's not the restaurant. I'm smelling, isn't it? And she's like, no, no. And she points to this building said there's a rail yard nearby. And these shipments come in sometimes. So it smells like this once in a while. I'm like, Okay, you got to like, understand, I'd never been there before. So I'm just like, whatever. She points to this building that really is just a nondescript square, you know, building. And she's like, this is the restaurant. And then I went in and had maybe the best barbecue I've ever had in my entire life.

Esther 46:50
Yep, that's Kansas City in a nutshell, is

Scott Benner 46:52
that what I just ate and it was so good that I came home. And when the Coronavirus thing started, I spent time learning about how to make barbecue because I realized

Esther 47:03
that Kansas City barbecue is the best. Well, I

Scott Benner 47:06
don't know if I realized that what I realized was that my entire life, I didn't like ribs. And then I had ribs in Kansas City and realized that nobody had ever prepared them correctly for me. Yep. And now I know how to make them myself. And I love ribs. ribs are good. That's fantastic. Yeah, so had I not come? I would never have had that experience missing out. I seriously would have been. I'm not joking with you. I made some great ribs the other day.

Esther 47:32
I gotta tell you though, something very funny happened at that event where we met during the break between your the the other woman who spoke and your that

Unknown Speaker 47:45
I wait other people speak while I was there. I did realize that.

Unknown Speaker 47:50
The jdrf lady? Oh, yeah, I

Scott Benner 47:51
didn't know. I only hear myself. I'm just kidding. Yeah, I bet. I didn't other other people there but God.

Esther 47:59
But I went to ask a question at the jdrf table. And they had to go find somebody to get my question answered. And so I was standing there with renzoni by the jdrf. table, and a line formed. And this couple came up and started asking me about Renzo and diabetic alert dogs. And I was happy to answer all their questions. It's something I'm very passionate about. And then they were like, thank you. And they went away and another person came up a line formed people thought I was a rep there to talk about diabetic alert dogs.

Scott Benner 48:36
weird feeling, isn't it? When it is? Yeah, trust me, I I hear you. It seems like from the outside, it would just be like, Oh, it's nice, so many people, but it's hard to like wrap your head around when it happens. I had trouble getting through the that area you're discussing to go back and be private somewhere and just eat something for a second because I would take a step and it was really trust me, please. It was very nice and not necessary. But people wanted to say thank you or they want to take a picture or something like that. I would chat with him for a little while. And then I would turn and think now I'm going to go get my lunch and take one more step and somebody would go Hey, and I'm like, Okay, I'm never getting out of the spot right here. Am I so I just kind of put my back to the wall and like just was like alright, everybody, let's let's go come on over. Well, you know, we'll do it at the same time. is it's very, it's very nice. It's just overwhelming if it's never happened to you before.

Unknown Speaker 49:30
shopping with a service dog.

Scott Benner 49:32
Everybody has a question. Yes. Is that the biggest issue with a service dog is keeping people from touching?

Unknown Speaker 49:38
Um,

Scott Benner 49:40
in public, I guess.

Esther 49:42
I can't say for certain what the biggest problem is. However, it is very common. Like I would say that people with service dogs don't go to the grocery store on the weekend because they want to avoid people because you take a few steps and then then it's Oh cute doggy. Oh, my pet. What's wrong with you? Oh, are you a trainer? Oh, how do I sign up for one? Like, it's not so much the touching as the overwhelming intrusion. I'm just trying to shop for peanut butter. Like, and I'm really passionate about the topic, I could talk about it for hours. But if I'm having a bad blood sugar day, and I am just out of it, and I just want to get through the grocery store, and a dozen people stopped me to ask to pet my dog or ask me questions. I don't want to be rude.

Scott Benner 50:34
He had spent an hour and a half at the grocery store either, right? No, I, it makes sense to me. Because everyone is just having their own personal response. They don't recognize that someone just asked you for seconds before and then when they walk away, he's gonna do it.

Esther 50:48
I remind myself of that every day. Yeah, each person who asks me to pet my poodle, who I think is a unicorn sometimes, because of people's reactions, they don't realize that they're the 30th person asking that day, they just see a cute dog and they want to pet it.

Scott Benner 51:06
Pet my poodle should be a T shirt. Kiss your honor. I think I just did some music. And I liked the idea of those words all together. Well, no, I hear you. And it's it. You know, it really does make sense on both sides. You You don't you don't have that time. And they don't have that knowledge and too bad mix. Right? So you're just trying to avoid Listen, I think we all try to avoid going to the grocery store when it's too busy. know for certain. Okay, let's see. How about your outcomes? Have your outcomes with your agencies and variability and stuff like that improved with a service dog?

Esther 51:43
Yes, my variability has really improved, my agency is still like, I have an 8.6. And the insulin resistance and the hypothyroid situation I think are contributing to that. However, I didn't even know what variability was until I heard it on the podcast. And so I've been really focusing on that. And renjo really helps with it. In fact, the original trainer taught him to alert above 200 and below 70. And I actually retrained him to do 190 and 80. Because I wanted to know if it was going up before it got to the two hundreds, my range is 80 to 135. That's where I want to be. But if my dog alerted to my specific range, she'd be alerting all but he'd be alert alerting a lot more than I would need him to. Because really, he's there to prevent emergencies. What do you think is holding you back from having the one see that you're

Scott Benner 52:44
looking for?

Unknown Speaker 52:46
Um, well,

Esther 52:50
I would like the short answer would be insulin resistance. The long answer is, I was I've been switching back and forth between the pump and pens to figure out what I liked better. And I really think I like the pins. And you know, going back and forth isn't the greatest thing to do for your body. Don't follow my example. But I finally because I was listening to your podcast, and I was translating everything you were saying to the pins. Once I went back on the pump, I felt like I was relearning it all over again. Okay. Well, I went back to the pro tips and everything. And I just personally feel more comfortable on pens.

Scott Benner 53:27
Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that for certain I just was wondering if, because you're you're paying a lot of attention. And and you're, you know, you know, when you're high and when you're low from different technologies and from from Renzo. And I just wondered that you think it's the insulin resistance and that might stem back to the to the thyroid? Yeah. I just I don't want

Esther 53:50
it to be under control so badly. Yeah.

Scott Benner 53:53
I don't think enough people appreciate the impact of thyroid when it's not working correctly.

Esther 53:58
I did it for a long time. Yeah. I was diagnosed when I was a teenager. What did I know? I just took the pill and everything was hunky dory. It's not

Scott Benner 54:05
Yeah, it's, it can work well for people or not. And when it doesn't work well, it's it's not normally an easy fix. And, like you said, it's a slow, it's slow going to make adjustments.

Esther 54:17
And it has to build up in your system. It

Scott Benner 54:19
has a half life, and you don't always guess right the first time so you could you know, make an adjustment, wait a month, you know, do another blood test and find out what didn't do it. You know, and and, you know, I still don't feel any differently. And then you have to just back the other way. It's a it's a long game, and you have to see the value in it or I think it's possible that you just lose sight of wanting to play that game. And you really if you have a thyroid issue, and you're having any of the thyroid symptoms, your medications not right. And isn't Yeah, and it would be incredibly beneficial if you put some put put the effort that was needed into getting it fixed. And part of that effort. might end up being finding a doctor who isn't so cookie cutter when it comes to fine.

Esther 55:06
I will say I liked my nurse practitioner, she did a lot for me, she filled out the paperwork for my dog, she got me on libri. She got me on Omnipod the first time around. But we disagreed on some big things like dawn phenomenon, I told her, we need to address this, we need to adjust the high blood sugars in the morning because I can't function at my job with the high blood sugars in the morning. And yet, she said, Oh, it's fine. If you're high in the morning, just take a correction. I'm more worried about the 5% of lows you're having. And so we really butt heads on that. Yeah. And so even though I liked her, I'm not incredibly sorry to see her go. I'm excited to work with someone new, clean slate. That was the longest I've ever had one. Doctor for anything. I had her for four years.

Scott Benner 55:57
Yeah. And you're and you're butting heads on a pretty big issue. Because Yeah, because there's a way to not wake up high and not have a bunch of lows. It's Yeah, it's not a zero sum game. You don't have to pick between them. You know,

Esther 56:11
that's what I was saying. I was like, can we address both, but the only way she wanted to address the highest was with a correction. And I think that's where the disconnect between endocrinologist who live with type one. And endocrinologist who don't is because she doesn't understand what it does to us. Like, you can tell I'm sure with Arden, if she wakes up in range, she's awesome. And if she wakes up high, she's probably a little more snarky and sluggish.

Scott Benner 56:38
It's a big difference in how you feel. Yeah, and in some ways that determines how our mornings go, how we treat people, how we perform at our jobs or in school. And it's a big deal. It could be it could also impact the decision you make about food first thing in the morning, by the way, and then lead you down a bad road. Like if you're if you're feeling like none of this matters. And you you know you don't you don't have the energy to cook the meal that you normally would. So you grab something, it's easier. And your blood sugar goes out. And it just you know snowballs from there. And you can't get back. Yeah, no, I know. I'm sorry for you. I'm glad you're switching. But well, I hope I can find some better answers and share them on the podcast through this journey with Arden. Hopefully it'll come together. sooner than later. I actually have asked the doctor if when this is done if she would come on the show. And I'm hoping she will because she's just thinks about it in a different way, which I find to be really helpful.

Esther 57:36
That would be really interesting. Yeah,

Scott Benner 57:38
I hope so. I hope I can work that out. Actually.

Esther 57:41
You think Arden's getting older? Do you think Arden will ever be on the show?

Scott Benner 57:45
Yeah, sometimes I think she will be. And sometimes I think she won't be

Esther 57:49
like a teenager to me. So no.

Scott Benner 57:52
I asked her once in a while. And once in a while she acts like she might. And then sometimes she says she won't. And I figured it'll happen or it won't happen. At some point. There's definitely things I'd love to talk to her about on the podcast. And so I hope she comes on it just for her. I mean, you guys might find that interesting, but I would I want to do it, you know, for her?

Esther 58:10
Well, I think I mean, I respect artists choice. But being someone who grew up as a type one diabetic child, adolescent teenager, not having the support network or community that I have now through the internet. Like, I didn't know anyone like me. I didn't know there were blogs out there or podcasts out there. Yeah. And being able to connect with people who are going through the same thing, I think would have changed a lot of how I went through my teenage years with Type One Diabetes. I agree

Scott Benner 58:49
with you. You spend some time on Instagram, right? sharing some stuff about your life. tell people what your Instagram handle is.

Esther 58:57
Oh, yeah. On Instagram, I am chronically underscore annoyed on tik tok. I am chronically annoyed. And on YouTube, I am chronically annoyed s d team.

Scott Benner 59:08
Nice. Although I read this morning that this tech talk is bad. And so I will find you the article says it's on board panda.com and it says I am a nerd who figured out how who figures out how apps work for a living. I've reverse engineered tik tok. It's scary stay away from it. Like that's interesting. So anyway, I'll share that written a place where you can find it too. I thought that was really something because it is incredibly popular. But no i to your to your point about you know, being there online so somebody else can see it. I mean, obviously I'm a big believer in that or the podcast wouldn't exist so

Esther 59:49
Oh, yeah. I I got on Instagram, I don't know in 2018 to to find the Type One Diabetes community and and to build Build a support system. Never did, I think I would have 1000s of followers looking to me for advice on any social media platform, and I don't give advice. I just share my experiences, and maybe some dumb jokes along the way. But the community that exists online is amazing. And I first got into it by downloading bianche type one. That was That was my first introduction to an online Type One Diabetes community. And it was amazing.

Scott Benner 1:00:33
I agree. And they had What did they have? Like? Almost like a message board? I guess? Is that how you would describe it?

Esther 1:00:41
It's similar to Twitter. I guess it is a message board where you can follow different topics and make posts, but it's all for type one diabetics or friends and family of type one diabetics.

Scott Benner 1:00:54
Nice. Is that still running? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Esther 1:00:59
It's had multiple updates. I still have that I'm not very active on it. But I've met some really cool people through beyond type one. I even got to meet up with another type one diabetic I met on the app in Denver A few years ago, and we went to an amusement park together, where we ran into another type one diabetic.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:21
So that was fun. Mm hmm.

Scott Benner 1:01:25
What do you get out of like, on your side of it from meeting those people? Like you said, you didn't know anybody like you what happens when you do all of a sudden, no, somebody like you?

Esther 1:01:34
Well, it, I wouldn't say it backfired. But it, it didn't turn out the way I thought it would. Because I went through the diabetes journey a lot differently than other people. I found that I had a lot of insight that others were lacking. So instead of gaining encouragement, I ended up giving it because I I've been doing this for so long on my own. That I found that I had a lot of stuff to give, but I still gained, I still gain information. I gained friends. And I just think it's very wholesome, the way we can share experiences and information.

Scott Benner 1:02:21
I agree with you. I really do. I think it's a it's a wonderful platform, especially for people who are distanced and don't have connection. And who really does. I mean, honestly, a lot of people have type one diabetes, but you know, still there's not that many to where you're always gonna know, three and four people with it. And you're gonna find them, you know,

Esther 1:02:41
and, you know, as a kid, I, by the time I was 10 years old, I had spent half of my life in Europe. So, I really didn't know a lot of people like me. There weren't there were no jdrf events to go to, or, you know, diabetes camps to be to go to it was just me and mom.

Scott Benner 1:03:03
What other places have you lived?

Esther 1:03:06
Oh, this is a fun one. Let's see. I was born in Texas. And then we moved to Arkansas where I was diagnosed, and then we went to North Yorkshire and we lived in Menwith Hill, England. And then we moved to Alabama. Then we went to Kaiserslautern, Germany. Back to Arkansas for another deployment. Back to Alabama, then off to Colorado, then we were in Virginia for a while and now, I have been living in Missouri for the past five years.

Scott Benner 1:03:40
I think I'm just impressed that you said them on order, which I'm assuming they were in order, but yes. Do you speak any other languages like German or British?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:48
I speak sarcasm.

Scott Benner 1:03:52
Me too. That's the only one I have

Esther 1:03:54
to speak type one diabetes in service dog handler. Know, out of out of my my family. Some a lot of people in my family speak languages. A lot of people in my family play instruments are very musical. I'm a visual arts person. I actually hold an associate's degree in Visual Arts and an associate's degree in business. But I'm taking a break from college right now. And I'm a teacher. Cool, what

Unknown Speaker 1:04:22
do you teach?

Esther 1:04:24
I teach public speaking, digital literacy. And this coming year, I will also be teaching art and running the library.

Scott Benner 1:04:32
Wow, look at it. Good for you. That's excellent. And Renzo comes to work with you. Obviously,

Esther 1:04:37
yes. Renzo loves coming to work with me because he loves children. Well, honestly, both both my dog and my students respect each other. And it's hard for them to have self control sometimes, but they respect the fact that he's there for a reason. And the reason is not for them to love on him.

Scott Benner 1:04:57
How old are the kids you normally teach?

Esther 1:05:00
Third through eighth grade. Oh wait this year I'm also going to be teaching high school.

Scott Benner 1:05:04
Wow. That's really cool. Good for you. That's excellent. Yeah, I think big just the government must have put you guys in in country and left you here just to stop having to cart all of you around the globe. It was probably get expensive.

Esther 1:05:20
My father retired in 2015. But yeah, it um, yeah, there's a lot of us. Okay, how

Scott Benner 1:05:27
long was he in total Dino?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:29
Oh, I

Esther 1:05:32
okay. But here's the thing. He was in the army first. And then he got out of the army. And then he was National Guard. And then he got into the Air Force. So I have no idea. Wow. No, that was all before I was born. A lot of serving.

Scott Benner 1:05:43
Yeah, no kidding. That's, uh, that's interesting. Did you prefer living overseas to here or vice versa? Do you have any?

Esther 1:05:50
I would? Well, here's the thing. I lived overseas when I was a child, the last time I was out of country, I was 13. I would have a much different perspective now as a young adult than I did as a child as a kid. It was pretty stinking cool. Yeah, I would imagine. I hear that. A lot of places. I've been to Italy. I've been to Austria, Ireland, France. lots lots of places.

Scott Benner 1:06:14
That's really cool. It was really it's a it's a rich experience, just to have as a little kid, you know? Yes. No kidding. Well, listen, I we've done this for an hour. I really appreciate you being on and And is there anything we didn't get through that you wanted to? I don't want to skip anything.

Esther 1:06:30
We talked a lot about hypothyroidism. Ironically. And Renzo? Do I answer all your questions about diabetic alert dogs? specifically?

Scott Benner 1:06:41
Yeah, no, I feel good about it. I think, you know, if I'm speaking from an outsider's perspective, I believe that a diabetic alert dog for somebody who wants one is amazing. And I can also see how another person might see it as another responsibility that they don't have time for, like I can, I can see both both perspectives, you know, pretty evenly. But I think the biggest problem, excuse me is that I don't want to see people spend a lot of money for something that didn't need to cost that much money and won't help them, you know, because it ends up being a shakedown, is there any central location that they can go to make sure they're not being taken advantage of? Or is it? Is it location to location?

Esther 1:07:24
It's, it's knowing the red flags to look for when looking for a program. And that is something you learn through experience and research. Unfortunately, I talk a lot about it on Instagram and Tiktok. But to what you said, it's so true, any diabetic could make use of a dog but not every but not every diabetic needs one. I honestly didn't need one until I started experiencing hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. And awareness. That's the whole reason I got the dog. Having a dog with you. 24. Seven is a lifestyle shift that not everybody can handle,

Scott Benner 1:07:57
right? No, I can't I can imagine that being true. Hey, what are some of the red flags that that would tell me this might not be a great organization?

Esther 1:08:06
If they won't answer certain questions, like training methodology? How old are the dogs when they get placed? How long? Does it take the dogs to be fully trained? Are they public access, ready, when they're placed? Or do they just know the alerts? How closely do they work with their clients? Or do they not give you updates and stuff like that? Do they want you to pay the whole amount upfront before they start training your dog? Or will they take a down payment and start working with your dog immediately? Those are those are the questions to ask. Those are the big red flags to look out for.

Scott Benner 1:08:46
Is it just true that nowhere should it cost $25,000.

Esther 1:08:50
Unfortunately, if you go to a nonprofit organization, you're gonna spend anywhere between 15 to 50,000. It's in there in high demand, low supply, it takes up to two years to fully train a service dog. A lot of people have waiting lists, I went through a program called canine specialty training, LLC is located in Independence, Missouri, it is not nonprofit, therefore, it's first come first serve. And that's how I got my dog so quickly. So it's really it's really worth it to try and look for small local training companies or organizations rather than going to a big nonprofit organization.

Scott Benner 1:09:39
Well, let me just put this out there. I'm not a doctor, and I have no training at all. But for $50,000 I will come live at your house. Teach your kid how to keep their blood sugar, right or you as an adult, I'll stay with you for I mean, 50 grand, let's be fair, two months, and we'll make sure you're okay before I go. And that's it. 50 grand. That's I'll definitely live in your house for $50,000. If I if I ever buy a $50,000 dog, I imagined that I will need some sort of like mental health help because I'm so cheap. I can't even imagine it just that that Fried my mind would just be like when you started at 15,000 I was like, oh my god 15 pounds. Oh,

Esther 1:10:20
my dog was considered cheap. No kidding. And I actually didn't have to pay for all of them because I got a grant that is specifically for type one diabetics to get a service dog through cosmopolitan International. Everyone can find it on their website. Okay, it is application based, though.

Scott Benner 1:10:37
cosmopolitan International. Okay, I just want to go over one more time again, for $50,000 there's very few things I won't do. In case you're wondering like, do you need me to come paint your house or? I don't know, do change the oil on your car. just name it. Honestly, I'm happy to come over, just let me know. I'm sure a lot of people would fall in line with that idea as well. That's an amazing amount of money. And I'm glad you're you've shared some of those things to stop people from spending if they don't need to.

Esther 1:11:04
Well, I spent years doing research and trial and error so I'm happy to be a shortcut for people and share what I've experienced. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:11:13
yeah. Listen, go find her on Instagram if you need not, don't go on tik tok. Apparently, that's the place where? I don't know they're stealing all your something or other. I'm not 100% sure. But the article was very interesting. Yeah, cool. Listen, thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it.

Esther 1:11:28
You're so welcome. Thank you for having me on. I was looking forward to it for like eight months.

Scott Benner 1:11:34
Sorry about that. Mark. Did you did you do you have a good time? How'd we do?

Esther 1:11:38
Oh, I had a fantastic time. Cool. I could probably could never get bored of talking to you. I love your sense of humor. And I love the information you put out there for people.

Scott Benner 1:11:46
I really appreciate that. Thank your people for introducing me to good barbecue. I really do think that it really changed my life honestly, like I I smoked a pork butt the other day. That is there not words I thought I'd ever say out loud. Had I not gone to Kansas City to speak at that event. I never would have had that thought in my life. So

Esther 1:12:04
well. I hope to see you come back.

Scott Benner 1:12:06
I would love that. I had a great time. By the way. Interesting little city like it's if you come in from the east coast, and you've been in a big city before it's a very feels like a tiny place. But it's this. It's this neat feeling. Yeah, like you know,

Esther 1:12:20
I moved here from Yorktown, Virginia. It was complete culture shock.

Scott Benner 1:12:25
Yeah. But it's it was a lovely like a little a great place to walk around and enjoy. While I had that free time in the first day and I liked it a lot. I really did. I thought it was cool. And the airport was I've never stood in a security line so short my entire life at an airport. It was where did you come in on a little It was like a little roundy is like a semi circle. Am I making sense when I say that? Yeah, I

Esther 1:12:49
Kansas City International.

Scott Benner 1:12:51
Oh my god, I got right. So I asked people, you know, what time do I need to get back in the morning to the airport to fly out here. I don't want to be late, you know, and I'm flying out of here. I want to get to the airport somewhere about 90 minutes to two hours ahead of time. And so I'm asking what time to leave. And my flights I think at 9am flight. And someone says Well, we'll we could pick you up at the at the hotel at 815. And I was like, wait, no, like, Don't Don't do that. Like, are you sure. And they were so sure. And I didn't want to argue with anybody. So I argued a little bit and I got picked up at like 745 and eight o'clock I was at the airport. And at 809 I was through security and sitting at the gate and I thought oh my

Esther 1:13:35
god. It's amazing. And they're actually redoing the airport, I saw that they can make that process faster.

Scott Benner 1:13:43
I don't imagine they can. It was it was magical, honestly. Anyway, maybe one day we'll all fly again. And I'll come back. So Alright, I am going to I'm gonna go get some things done here and I appreciate your time very much. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

Esther 1:13:57
Thank you for having me. Have a great day. You too.

Scott Benner 1:14:02
Huge thanks to Esther for coming on and telling us about her life with Type One Diabetes and her experiences with her diabetes alert service dog. Thanks to two touched by type one on the pod and Dexcom for sponsoring this episode of the Juicebox Podcast. When you support the sponsors, you are supporting the show and helping to keep it free and plentiful. Check out dexcom@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox Omnipod of course is that my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box get yourself that free no obligation demo and touched by type one.org and Instagram and Facebook. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure Dexcom and Omnipod are on Instagram and Facebook too. But I just never seem to say that. I'll see you soon for the next episode of the Juicebox Podcast. Thank you so much for listening for sharing the show with others and for leaving your beautiful ratings and reviews wherever you listen. Subscribe in a podcast player. These well If you're listening online, really consider a podcast that they're free. And they're easy, and thank you. That was an awkward, stilted end to this conversation. I'm not gonna do anything about it. I'm just gonna leave it there. This would be an example of a smooth ending. If you're enjoying the show, please tell a friend. Thanks so much for listening. I'll see you soon. See how much better that was. Didn't get all choppy and weird. Anyway, that's that I'm out of here.

#429 Piggy Pancakes

Type 1 diabetes from a child's perspective

Jaden is eleven years old. In this episode he does an inspired job of describing life with type 1 diabetes.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to Episode 429 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is special. It's with my friend Jaden. Jaden is 11 years old. He's had Type One Diabetes for two years. And in that time, he's had to overcome a couple of different issues. Jaden does a remarkable job of sharing his story, and articulating his feelings. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I enjoyed having it.

Today's show is with an 11 year old Jaden and Jaden wanted to come on the podcast after he heard Jonathan on episode 384, after dark bipolar, Jaden has had some issues with depression. And he's had Type One Diabetes for two years. He came on the show today to try to help other people. And he did a magnificent job. Some of you are probably skeptical of guests that are very young. But I implore you to listen to Jaden does a great job of explaining his situation. And even towards the end of the episode has some revelations. It's incredibly worth your time.

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 healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin.

This episode does not have any ads but I would like to remind you that the Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom gs six continuous glucose monitor by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump, g Volk hypo pen touched by type one. And please don't forget to visit the T one D exchange. There are links in the show notes and links at Juicebox podcast.com. All of the sponsors, you can get to them directly by typing in dexcom.com forward slash juicebox Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox my omnipod.com forward slash juicebox T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox touched by type one.org and G Volk glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. That's it for the advertisers today. But please remember that by supporting them, you're supporting the show and keeping it free. So if you have a need for an insulin pump, a glucose monitor a meter some glucagon helping people with type one diabetes, or getting involved in research. Please consider using these links.

Jaden, how old are you? 1111 Wow, I don't think you're the are you the youngest person maybe to ever be on the show? I'll have to figure that out. I'm not certain you might be. How old were you when you got type one diabetes?

Unknown Speaker 3:35
Nine, nine.

Scott Benner 3:37
So you've been doing this for a couple of years? Yeah. How's it going so far?

Unknown Speaker 3:42
Um, no,

Jaden 3:44
I don't like and it frustrates me and stuff. But, um, before, I wasn't taking very good care of it. But now I'm trying to do better since I heard that. I was going to be on this. And I was trying to do better before but it just always frustrated me. And I've tried to basically as my mom would say, I tried to over come in I tried to like kick its butt and tell Oh, I I tried to like tell it that I'm better.

Scott Benner 4:24
So were you trying to overpower diabetes without taking care of it?

Jaden 4:29
Yes. And I would like sneak snacks and stuff. But I'm now I'm like taking better care of myself and stuff. That's really good news.

Scott Benner 4:40
Well, let's find out a little bit about that stuff before you know when you were a young man of nine. So you get type one diabetes and your How was it explained to you or what's your understanding of it when you get it? Do you remember?

Unknown Speaker 4:56
Oh, wow,

Jaden 4:58
I had to stay in the house. hospital for two weeks and a day. I, I originally went into the hospital because I got hit in the head with a basketball play in a basketball game. And so I just had a really bad headache. And I went to the hospital and I will well that that day I woke up with a red eye and it was also a it was also puffy. So So my parents took me to the hospital, and they said, I had mersa. And then it was like, they said, I had mersa and orbital cellulitis. And it was like, inside and behind my eye. Wow. Yeah. And then, so they

Unknown Speaker 6:00
ended up

Jaden 6:04
like, I still wasn't doing good and stuff. So like one night. I just started wetting the bed bed really bad, which I would like, never really did. And my mom told them to test me and they tested me for like strep throat and stuff. And everything that it really couldn't be. And so

Unknown Speaker 6:33
we told them to

Jaden 6:36
my mom told them to test me for anything else, and they tested me for diabetes. Then it came back, like 500 or something. Yeah, my sugar was like 500. And I just like my mom was outside crying in the hall. And I'm like, go ahead, tell me. And she told me and I started crying. And then

Unknown Speaker 7:04
yeah,

Jaden 7:06
I just cried a bunch. And I just felt like life suck, did everything. And my sister. She came some of the days and so did my dad and my mom. And then I got a bunch of letters from the kids at school. And that kind of made me Cheer up, um, and the people from our church, and, um,

Scott Benner 7:36
she got a lot of support from people and that that definitely helped you feel better.

Jaden 7:40
Yeah. And then there was one lady that was there at the hospital and she was my favorite and all of them. And she played games with me like that. We had a we in there that the hospital supported. I think we had a Wii and the Xbox and a ps4. But my sister didn't get an Xbox till, like, last year. So I didn't know like how to play on the Xbox and stuff. And I didn't really like it. So that crossed out the Xbox and I don't like ps4. So I just played on the week because we have one and Jaden, it's funny, isn't it? You weed in the bed and then you got to play we in the hospital. Exactly, exactly. Right.

Scott Benner 8:29
So was the cellulitis in your I know that you were really little when this happened? But was that a function or part of having undiagnosed diabetes? Did they say Do you remember?

Unknown Speaker 8:40
exactly sure.

Scott Benner 8:41
Okay. I'm not either. So. I mean, I just made a p joke. And I'm 50 so I don't really know a lot about medicine. But okay, so you got to the hospital, they found a number of different issues. That's probably why you were there for so long that the diabetes part of it, but they're also helping you with the cellulitis and that you got hit with the basketball. Did you have a concussion by any chance?

Unknown Speaker 9:04
I think so.

Scott Benner 9:05
What have you learned from this? You gotta keep your hands up and you're playing basketball, right?

Unknown Speaker 9:09
Yeah.

Jaden 9:10
What happened is actually I don't think I had a concussion but

Unknown Speaker 9:15
what happened was

Jaden 9:18
my friend was making well so right before that happened, I lead like a very long shot. It was like the middle or second to middle on the on the other team side, and I shot it and I made it and then my friend tried to do same thing. And I was like talking to one of my ever friends cuz I didn't hear the whistle blow yet like it was well, it was after the game but my friend was making shy and me and my friend were talking about stuff and then my friend shot the ball and hit me in the head. he mistook

Scott Benner 10:04
your head for the hoop. You think I guess your head look like a basketball hoop,

Jaden 10:09
but he's, I don't know, but he was pretty bad at he's pretty bad at basketball. And

Unknown Speaker 10:18
he always, yeah, he

Jaden 10:20
always tries to do shots. He can't make like, he's always short on basketball.

Scott Benner 10:29
But he diagnosed you with Type One Diabetes.

Jaden 10:33
Well, I know I'm fat. I had it before that, but Oh, really? Yeah. That's what she thought. But um, my friend, he felt really bad. And he said, I'm sorry. And I said, It's fine, dude.

Scott Benner 10:48
I imagine. He didn't I imagine at nine years old. He probably felt terrible. Like he probably felt like he hit you in the head, man. You got diabetes?

Unknown Speaker 10:56
Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 10:57
Did you get you a good present for your birthday that year at all? Um,

Jaden 11:03
I honestly forget what he I think he got me a big gift basket. As soon as I got home filled with army guys and monster truck, see

Scott Benner 11:12
if it works. And that's a long time ago. That was like 20% of your life ago. It was a really long time ago. So yeah, Jaden, do you have any other health issues that you're dealing with besides the diabetes?

Unknown Speaker 11:27
I mean, no.

Unknown Speaker 11:31
I mean, I have

Jaden 11:34
a little I had a little bit of depression. And I still can't do but I had to go to a psych hospital. But because I just there was a couple years ago, I just wasn't, like very good, but I had to go there and they made me take off my vices and stuff.

Scott Benner 11:59
Let me ask you that the way you felt that led to going to the hospital, did you feel that way before the diabetes, or was that after diabetes?

Jaden 12:10
I think I always want to blame it on my diabetes, I think I want to blame everything on my diabetes, but um,

Unknown Speaker 12:21
I think

Jaden 12:22
it was a mixture of that. And I'm adopted, and I never got to see my birth parents or anything. But they're, they just weren't in a good state and stuff. Like, they're into a bunch of nasty stuff. So and a lot of my siblings are but the slash share, I got to talk to my birth sister. Her name is passion. But um, yeah, so that kind of help on leave a little bit of like, pain and stuff in me cuz I just kind of feel I kind of felt abandoned because like, as soon as I was born, like, three hours after I was born, my mom walked out of the hospital to get drugs.

Scott Benner 13:18
I'm sorry. Hey, um, I'm adopted. Did you do that?

Unknown Speaker 13:24
Oh, you're Yeah,

Scott Benner 13:26
yeah, I was adopted when I was. I mean, I was put up for adoption right away when I was born. And I think my parents got me. It probably in the first month or so I had to go to, like, through the foster system, I guess it was like it was 100 years ago. So it was a really long time ago. I think, basically, they took me out of the hospital. And they put me in a cardboard box. And the nice lady came by, and she took care of me for a while. And then I got adopted. I think that's about what happened, I might be wrong. But my parents adopted me. Like I said, in the first number of weeks of my life, and I've always known that I was adopted, I don't remember being told. And I find sometimes when I'm talking to other people who are adopted, that they kind of fall into like one or two different, pretty specific categories. I feel like they either really care that they're adopted, and it's upsetting to them, somehow, or they don't seem to mind at all, or at least say they don't mind. And I'm sure there's other character characteristics around being adopted. But those are the two that I've bumped into the most. And I am I never had that feeling like like, I wish I knew who everyone was and that I could meet people but I understand that you felt that way. Yeah, so you think maybe underlying throughout your very throughout your life, you felt like you just wanted to meet people and why would somebody just leave you? Is that the kind of the feeling

Unknown Speaker 14:59
Yeah.

Jaden 15:01
Like, it just kind of made me, it kind of hurt me like just knowing that someone would do that. Like, if I had a kid, I want to leave them to go get drugs, and stuff.

Scott Benner 15:17
Dude, I can tell you that some of the best lessons that I've learned from my dad who's no longer alive. And this is the man who adopted me. Like it, you hope that you learn from adults what to do, right? Like, you hope that somebody does something. And it's a really great example. And then you just go like, that's how you be a good person, I see it happen every day, my somebody in my family or my life is a good person. And that does happen, you will meet people like that, where you can kind of be aspirational about them. And I met plenty of people along the way who were like that, but they ended up being people I've worked with, or friends that had great traits. And I know this is a weird conversation, maybe. But what I learned to do was to look for the examples and other people that I hoped came from family. Yeah, and so if my family didn't do the things that I thought were very valuable and worth, you know, trying to mimic or be like, I would, you know, do it other ways. I, I used to work with a guy who had a great sense of humor. And I thought that made a lightness about him. And I could see that he had problems in his life, but he never acted like it. And I thought that that's a good way to be. And I had been like that when I was younger. I met people who were very thoughtful. kind, I've met a man who was very giving just a lot of people along the way. And I would just kind of cherry pick, just take the good parts of them and think, well, that's something that I might want to do. But back to my dad, who was my adopted dad, not even my birth dad. He was just, you know, he was fine. But he wasn't a great guy. And what I would do is I would see the things that he did that I didn't think were good. And I would just think Alright, well, there's a good example of how I don't want to act. You know what I mean? And so sometimes people are good examples, in a bad way. Sometimes they do something that makes you think, alright, that's definitely not the way I want to be. And, you know, so sometimes it's just how you look at it. Because you could be sad that they're not the people you want them to be. Or you can, you know, turn and look at your mom, you know, now and say, here's a person who really cares about me is taking care of me, you know? Yeah, it sucks, man. I know. But I can tell you, it's gonna get better. And there'll be times in your life where you'll look back, and you won't even remember feeling like this.

Jaden 17:50
Right? I can even say that my mom cares about me a little too much

Scott Benner 17:56
does she? How come?

Jaden 17:58
He just does like she's all like, she's just taking care of me in it sometimes. Sometimes when she takes care of me, it just gets kind of annoying.

Unknown Speaker 18:12
In a good way.

Scott Benner 18:13
Moms that are good are annoying. Oh, she hugging you too much. You think she knows that.

Unknown Speaker 18:23
But

Scott Benner 18:25
I can tell from the times that your mom has written to me over the years that she really loves you and cares about you. And I think that's terrific. Yeah, good for you, man. Look, you have somebody just like you wanted, you know?

Jaden 18:37
Yeah. And my bike I like came out with my dad. Like, my mom's The one who cares about me. And my sister was the one that grumbles about me. And my dad is the one that as soon as I as soon as he gets home from work or says I used to get off the bus. He's the one that would wrestle with me.

Scott Benner 19:03
Yeah, that's how it goes. Man. That sounds like a good family to me.

Jaden 19:06
Like as soon as I walk in the door, he'll like tackle me.

Scott Benner 19:10
Well tell him to be careful because you don't know how to catch a basketball. I realized the boy threw it at you but that's not the point. Yeah. So interesting. I guess you can you tell me. You said you went for your depression. You went to a hospital? How long were you there?

Jaden 19:28
Oh, I think I was there about

Unknown Speaker 19:32
a week.

Scott Benner 19:33
Okay. And well shorter than the diabetes. That's not bad. Did they teach you like what do you learn there? How do you what do you get out of it? That helps you?

Unknown Speaker 19:46
I mean,

Jaden 19:48
they basically like, do yoga and they're it's kind of weird.

Unknown Speaker 19:54
teach you to relax a little bit.

Jaden 19:56
Yeah, but um, the lady that did the Yoga. She was a little bit of a psycho. She was crazy.

Scott Benner 20:05
No, no, no, Jaden those those people are called hippies. They're not. She's not crazy. She's just, you know, she's just living life a different way. That's all. Did she teach you anything that was valuable? Oh,

Jaden 20:20
well, um, she was really crazy. And me and someone else was like laughing at her and we kind of bonded there.

Scott Benner 20:34
You found a friend making fun of the yoga teacher? That's nice.

Jaden 20:36
Yeah, yeah. So that's what I think they're they like Dude, there, they try a setup there. They try and make like, really weird activities to do to try to help to try and make you think you're calming down by it. And then in order to do that, they have to have like a crazy person up there. And then the people laughing bond and make friendships. So you think and that's how they deal with their depression.

Scott Benner 21:07
You think that this lady's so smart that her plan was to irritate you into having a conversation with the person next to you and forming a friendship? Maybe Hey, listen, then if she did that, she's kind of a genius, don't you think?

Unknown Speaker 21:24
Right.

Unknown Speaker 21:25
I guess so.

Scott Benner 21:26
Did I just hear that you're on the pod might be expiring soon.

Unknown Speaker 21:30
Yeah,

Scott Benner 21:30
yeah. That's cool. How long till it's done?

Unknown Speaker 21:33
Like two o'clock, two o'clock.

Scott Benner 21:35
game today. That's what it was done. Right? Yeah. I could probably sing that in my head. It's cool that it tells you when it's almost done, because I would forget sometimes. Yeah, if it didn't. So you said earlier that you have been trying to take better care of yourself. Your diabetes, yes. In in preparation for coming on the podcast.

Jaden 22:03
A little bit of that. And I was also trying to do it before good. But I will say that before, I wasn't trying as hard, okay. But I was just trying to do better. And I'm going to try to work harder even once this is done. And but I just didn't want to come on here with like, an A one seed. It's like eight or nine.

Scott Benner 22:32
There's nothing wrong with that, man, you get into something.

Jaden 22:34
Yeah. But I, my mom always wants me down to be like, she wants me to be in the best condition I can be. So in the future. I can like be healthy and stuff because her dad was a type two, or type one, I forget. But he didn't really take care of himself. And that was part of the well, he just then he just didn't get around very well. He wasn't a good cheap.

Scott Benner 23:09
didn't let me tell you that your health is the most important thing that exists. So nothing else works. If you're not feeling well, you know that you're you haven't been alive that long. But you've you've learned a lot of stuff. And one of those things is when you feel better. You feel better, right?

Jaden 23:25
Yeah, yeah. And also, um, our friend from Florida, he lost his leg because of this. So she just wants me to be the healthiest I can be.

Scott Benner 23:37
Well, that's good advice. Although you can't count examples from Florida because there's something up with those people. And I don't know what it is. But the craziest news stories in the world come out of Florida all the time. Right. Yeah. Have you ever once saw a news story about a boa constrictor like killing an antelope? And you're like, Oh, that must be like, you know, in Africa or something? Like No, no, it's Florida.

Jaden 23:59
Yeah, that happened while we were down there.

Scott Benner 24:03
I was trying to make up something crazy. Jaden. But what is it you saw in Florida?

Jaden 24:07
Well, I mean, we saw some crazy stuff we shot we while we were down there. The newspaper came in like now a gator and a kid almost or something like that.

Scott Benner 24:19
Yeah, that makes your life so much better, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. Right. Like I mean, at least an alligator ratio. Should we should have like a moment of silence for the kid that got eaten by the alligator. I didn't mean to make you laugh there. I might be like that yoga lady. Was she wearing baggy pants chin?

Jaden 24:40
I'm a little. I mean, they weren't super baggy, but

Scott Benner 24:45
they're flowers on them.

Unknown Speaker 24:46
Yes.

Scott Benner 24:47
What else can I guess? I wish you weren't a tank top. No, no,

Unknown Speaker 24:52
that'd be too crazy,

Scott Benner 24:53
too crazy. It's probably not allowed to be not allowed to do that around the kids. But okay. So, what is it? Do you listen to the podcast?

Jaden 25:03
Um, I mean, my mom will sometimes Listen, I, I mean, I wouldn't I don't do it by myself, but my mom would sometimes listen. And like if she's listening to one in particular that I like maybe like, the one with Jonathan, um, I walked in from school, and I heard her listening to it. And I asked her, can you restart this? And she said, Why? I said, I kind of want to hear it. And she said, Okay. And we were sent to that dinner. And that one was good. And we listened to a couple offers, I forget.

Scott Benner 25:47
But Jane, do you know, it still freaks me out a little bit to think that that somewhere in Ohio, a family's having dinner and listening to the podcast at the same time, it's hard for me not

Unknown Speaker 25:57
a bad thing. Oh, it's

Scott Benner 25:58
a great thing. You should be listening 24 hours a day. And that's not what I'm saying. And on on different devices, too. But my point is that, it's if you ever do something like what I'm doing, you'll find out that your expectation in the beginning isn't that it's going to be as popular and that it's odd. Not odd, but nice and kind of strange to think that at the same time, all over the world, like people are listening, it's it's a little mind bending, I was gonna say something else, but you're too young. But it's just it's a little my unless you like to curse, and it's okay with your mom. And then, you know, I'd like to know what your favorite curses are. But we'll do that at the end. All right, so. But, but so what have you been doing with your diabetes? That's been helping because you're you're a one sees coming down?

Unknown Speaker 26:46
Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 26:47
cool. What are you doing? Um,

Unknown Speaker 26:49
I mean,

Jaden 26:51
I think a little bit. I mean, I think that what started to make me think to try and bring it down and stuff. There's two things this and like, I want to, like, be on this and stuff. And I want to try better. So I wouldn't be giving like, I wouldn't say bad examples, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't be giving a a like, example, that was like my a once he would be 12 or something.

Scott Benner 27:29
Okay, so let's pick that apart for a second. First thing, why did you want to come on the podcast?

Jaden 27:35
I want to help people, I want to maybe get some ideas from other people how to help. I wanted to, um, I want to like, do what my mom told me, I should try to do but she told me I should try be on here. And she said, maybe it would help.

Scott Benner 27:59
Yeah, I have to tell you Jaden. I don't know if you realize this or not. But I have a very long standing rule in my life. And I pay very, very close attention to it. I never break my rule, but I break it for you. You're the only one I break my rule for it's a simple little rule, but I do not correspond with children directly. So even like my, my daughter's friends, like my wife will be like, hey, text Arden's friend and ask them like, why do you think I have a 16 year old girl's phone number I do not write because Jane, if things ever gets sideways, you know what I mean? If the man ever comes, I don't want to be seen as texting with kids. You know what I'm saying? Right? Like, I just think people would see that odd, like, but you every once in a while you send me a nice message through your mom's account online. And I'm always happy to talk to you. So yeah, you're the only one I do it with just so you know. Otherwise, you're That's it? Cuz 11 the new 15 really, so we can hang up? Yeah, so you're trying to help people out? Right? And by just I guess, telling them what's happened to you and what you've done. might might help them like, sort of like maybe Jonathan helped you. Is that right? Yeah. It's funny, man. Because some people some adults don't like to listen to interviews with kids. And so like, every time one comes up, I'm there's part of me the part of me that wants the podcast to get downloaded a lot. Like I don't know, kids sometimes don't like but then I realize how helpful it is to people who do want to hear it. And then I stopped thinking about that. So I'm really happy that you're doing this and I'm glad that you had like a goal. Like it doesn't matter to me like a goal to do better is a goal to do better. But then you have to moving forward from here I have a goal that's for you. You know what I mean? Like I'm gonna continue to do this for myself so that I can, you know, be healthier because you must feel better with your blood sugar lowered. No.

Unknown Speaker 30:00
Yeah, I do.

Scott Benner 30:01
What does it feel like when it's hi?

Jaden 30:03
Oh, well, I was about to get that in a minute. The second reason I

Scott Benner 30:09
didn't I didn't mean to rush you. I'm sorry.

Unknown Speaker 30:11
Oh, it's okay. Okay, thanks.

Unknown Speaker 30:12
What's your second?

Jaden 30:13
The second reason I want to do this is because I'm in a car ride. To up to a good name, wasn't it? No. To? Yeah, good name. No, wait,

Scott Benner 30:28
hold on. While you're thinking about that, try not to let that wire up. Because I want to hear what you're really saying. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 30:40
Two.

Unknown Speaker 30:42
Crawford County,

Scott Benner 30:44
you reminded me of my uncle right now, Jade. I have an uncle who is very careful to get all the details in the story, right? Even the details that don't matter to the story. And you just you were just like, we were in the car on our way to? Um, was it Greenville? No. Was it? No, it doesn't matter if you're in the car. You're in the car. Where were you going?

Jaden 31:09
I think it was Crawford County, okay. Something. And in the car, I'd like my sugar was high that morning like to wear it when it read on the sensor. Okay. And, um, it just said hi. And my mom was up the and my dad didn't know where my poker fiend was. So I think it, we found it, but my mom checked it non night before because that was the night that we changed it. And it felt like by the couch, because she fell asleep by it and knocked it over. Gotcha. And But anyway, we left then my dad said try and bring it down with your pump. And I said, Okay, so I gave myself insulin, and we wait a little. And my cousin was with us. So I sat up front, because I wasn't feeling good. I can't sit in the back if I don't feel good. And if I yes, but um, and then I didn't listen often. So and again. Because I still wasn't down. My dad stopped at Tim Hortons. And he said, Eli, Do you want anything? Because that's my cousin's name. And he said, maybe. So he went in, and my dad got something, Eli got something. And I said, Dad, can I have some fun? And he said, okay, you can, but you better not let your sugar go higher. And I said, I'll try not to. So he got me. The drink delight. And we went a little more, and I couldn't drink my drink. Because like, I felt like I was gonna throw up. Cuz you typically do if you're high, I mean, and so I ate the I tried to drink the shake. I mean, the coffee, but I cannot do it. So I said it there. And my dad had to drink it because it was melting. So I'm, like, on the way to a gas station because we were making a pit stop. I threw up in the car. And my dad was like, are you okay? And I said, I think we need to stop up here discuss the issue. And he said, Okay, we'll do that. And yeah, and then I had to get through ecig ketones out by pain. So, um, yeah. And then

Scott Benner 33:59
so you had a really high blood sugar during a car ride with your father who doesn't sound like he's not the main person who helps you with your diabetes, right? He's more Yeah, the wrestling tackling guy. And so and the poker was jammed under the sofa because your mom fell asleep. By the way. This is why you're not supposed to smoke sit laying down because you could fall asleep and burn the house down, except your mom fell asleep and knocked the poker over very similar situation. And so you don't make it. And so and so you're having this obviously, your blood sugar's super high. Was it normally high a lot or is that wasn't common?

Jaden 34:37
Um, it wasn't really common. That was, well, it's typically high. But um, I mean, it's not typically high like, my shoulders like a roller coaster, ooh, all the time. It will go up and down and up and down. But it's typically high but um,

Scott Benner 35:00
Okay, so but this so this is something that you've had to deal with in the past, you just didn't have all the tools to take care of it, you're in the car doesn't make you feel good. Like there's a lot of different problems.

Jaden 35:08
Yeah, but I mean, it's never been like Chi for all day, pretty much. It's just been high for maybe an hour or two at the max guy. And so I wasn't used to it being high all day, and typically shy of kinda, I wouldn't say friend, because I like I knew him when I was growing up, but I was too young to remember it now. But, um, he's been well, not now. But he's in Florida right now, I think. But he has type one diabetes. He's a friend from church. And he's my mom's friend's kid. He's 21 I think 2122. But he has this and he would like me and him talk after church and stuff and

Unknown Speaker 36:14
stuff like that. But, um,

Jaden 36:18
but he said that, like, he was surprised that I didn't feel anything when I was hired. Because like, when I'm high, I don't feel nothing. Except for that day, like, every time I'm high and stuff, like if it was for two hours, one hour, 30 minutes, I wouldn't feel anything. Like it would just feel normal. And I wouldn't feel anything. So he was kind of surprised about that. Because like he said, he always felt something when he was high. And I said, Yeah, it will probably hit me more sooner, though. And as soon like, as soon as I said that, like a couple days after that the car ride happened on white Street. But um, and at the gas station. Yeah. I just didn't feel good at all. And I think up through up again there. And then we ended up going to, I think the next stop we went we went straight to Crawford County. Yeah. But then we, we went to his grave. Crawford's grave. No, Colonel Crawford. That's it. And we went to his grave. And there were a bunch of other tombs there.

Scott Benner 37:51
Jaden. Let me stop you for a second because I'm, I have been since you started talking about this, this part of the story. I have been trying to figure out what Crawford was. And now I'm thinking you were going to visit like, like a historical site with your dad. Your Colonel Crawford. Colonel Crawford?

Jaden 38:11
Yes. And he? He was friends with George Washington.

Scott Benner 38:14
All right, hold on a second. He didn't happen to know Colonel Mustard. Do you think Hold on a second. I just learned that I don't know how to spell Colonel. That was pretty embarrassing. Hold on a second. I got it. I'm on top of things now. Colonel Crawford High School. Oh, isn't Ohio, Colonel Crawford. Today, we're gonna figure this out together. William Crawford. Is that sound right?

Unknown Speaker 38:43
Uh, I don't know.

Scott Benner 38:44
Okay, so you were off. I see a painting of him. And let me tell you, he looks fancy. Us. I'm not making this up chin. So you and your dad, you're getting this now. You and your father and your cousin went on like a little day trip? To check out like some historical sites?

Jaden 39:07
Yes, it was for my school. We went up to Colonel Colonel village or whatever it's called. And we went to see his tombstone.

Scott Benner 39:19
Gotcha. You didn't throw up on his tombstone. Did you know good job. Wait, hold it together. All right. And you know, though, now what does this story about Colonel Crawford which by the way, Colonel Crawford is a strong contender for the title of your episode. Just so you know. Where Colonel Mustard I haven't decided yet. What What does that have to do with why you wanted to be on the podcast? He's there's two reasons you want to be on the podcast said to help people and then because of something that happened in this story. What happened?

Jaden 39:54
Well, we once it flew up, I felt better and stuff. But um We went to go out to eat after and my sugar was so high and stuff and we then they seem to think that there could be something wrong with my pump. So we just kept going and stuff. And then I said, Wait, what if there's something wrong with my pump and that's it. My dad was like, oh, that could be and I gave myself insulin with the shot and I came down a little but not too much. And I still wasn't feeling good or anything after but we were going to eat at Bob Evans, but then we ate at Taco Bell. I think

Scott Benner 40:40
when for the border.

Jaden 40:42
I got like 767 cheese roll ups,

Scott Benner 40:49
six or seven cheese roll out to try to stay away from the carbs.

Jaden 40:54
I think those have actually a lot of carbs.

Scott Benner 40:56
I don't know that you can get anything at Taco Bell. It doesn't have carbs. Did the pump site end up being bad? You? Did you learn that through injecting or no?

Jaden 41:04
Yeah, we did. And it worked at all. And then we went to Taco Bell. And because like we already gave our cell phones one for Bob Evans. And then we realized is that it was close. So we had to think of a high carb place that we could eat because like pink I gave myself like eight units because I was going to have a piggy pink cake. Like two of them.

Scott Benner 41:31
Piggy what Say that again?

Unknown Speaker 41:33
Hanky Panky cake.

Scott Benner 41:35
pancake. I'm googling Hold on a second. Oh, it's a pancake that looks like a pig.

Jaden 41:40
Yeah. bananas and I chocolate chips. Is it smile? That's cute. Yeah, me. My grandmother passed away. She passed away I think last year or something. But she used to always take us to Bob Evans when we stayed the night, me and my cousin both. And we would always order the piggy pancake. It was our favorite thing to get there.

Scott Benner 42:05
Nice. Now your episode is gonna be called piggy pancake in case you're wondering, hey, listen, I only have two pieces of advice for people. If your blood sugar doesn't move, when you're injecting, you know, when you're putting insulin in with your pump. A quick and easy way to see if your pump site is bad is to inject some insulin with a needle. And because if you put it in like that, and your blood sugar starts to move very quickly, you can assume that maybe the site is starting to fail. That's the one thing I tell people all the time. The second thing I tell people, Jaden is don't eat at Taco Bell. That is not really food. That's not good for you. Listen. Let's take a small sidebar for a second here. Colonel William Crawford was born in Berkeley County, Virginia in 1732. As you said he met George Washington who then was a young surveyor. They taught him a trade and then hired him to do some surveying in western Pennsylvania. Now there's much more information here. Somehow this story ends with in 1927, a stone wall was erected near the site where Colonel Crawford was captured on June 7 1782. They don't know where his body was buried. So I don't know how he went from like, hey, George Washington, what's up to I was captured. But it seems like a very gangster story. There's a battle of Sandusky combined forces in the Shawnee Delaware River. There's a lot of stuff going did you learn about this for school?

Jaden 43:34
Yes, my dad took me since I'm homeschooled. I don't really go on field trips. And the virus is happening at this time, obviously. So the school wouldn't have been able to go on field trips cheaper. So my dad just took me and before we went to Grenada and cut in and that word here,

Scott Benner 43:55
hold on a second. Jaden. I'm getting excited. The volunteers were in search of Native Americans who had captured a group of Moravian missionaries from it's a word that starts with a G and then has an end which

Jaden 44:11
Yeah, grenade and hot and yeah, I

Scott Benner 44:12
think we all know that's not how you spell but good. Aiden Hutton will say and Schoenbrunn villages, well, you had all the salient details while you're telling me this. Good. All right. I'm gonna read this later so that I can understand more about this in my personal time. Anyway, what did you learn from this day? Besides pancakes that look like pigs are more fun than cheese roll ups from Taco Bell? I learned

Unknown Speaker 44:34
that it sucks to be in ketoacidosis

Scott Benner 44:38
There you go. JD that's 100%. Right. It sucks to be in ketoacidosis. You did learn that and so you don't want to feel like that anymore. Is that the point? Yeah, yeah. All right.

Jaden 44:50
And it's like after Jonathan was talking about that, like I tried to be like how he's trying to take care of But and I didn't know I would be like, exactly what happened to him.

Scott Benner 45:06
So but so you're doing better now? Is that right? Like things are just going better for you? What changes have you made that have helped you feel better and help your blood sugar be less roller coaster?

Jaden 45:19
mean? I've tried to take better.

Scott Benner 45:23
Hey, Jaden. Jaden Hold on a second. Our connections gotten bad. So I don't know why. So I'm gonna, can you push stop? Hey, sorry. No, don't be sorry. Hey, listen, James done a great job of telling a story. But the internet connection on your end is getting funky. So I was wondering if we could stop the zoom call and then go back into it again. Yeah. Okay. So just, I'll end the meeting, which will kick you out and then I need you to hit that link and get back to it.

Unknown Speaker 45:52
Okay. Hi, I'm

Scott Benner 45:53
here.

Unknown Speaker 45:56
Can you hear me?

Scott Benner 45:56
I can hear you. Yeah, you're a little clear. Okay, there's a little bit of a noise behind you. I'm not sure if like the heater came on or something like,

Jaden 46:03
yeah, that's my sister one day heater on and I told her. I told her, just try. I might. I'll tell you. I'm gonna go into the living room so you can't hear my mom. My mom said, My sister is trying to act like a fan girl. wearing her juicebox sweatshirt that my mom got her.

Scott Benner 46:29
How old is your sister?

Unknown Speaker 46:30
She's 18. Ah,

Scott Benner 46:33
that's nice. All right, said hello, please.

Unknown Speaker 46:36
God said hello.

Jaden 46:39
But she had to turn the heater on because she was cold. I say I may have a heater in your room. Right? Yeah,

Scott Benner 46:46
go warm yourself up in another place. Hey, Jaden, that's great. I appreciate you making it sound better. So let me tell me when you're settled, I don't want you to be moving around. But but so you, you went through DK that day. You Colonel DK, I guess. And and it just was something you just didn't want to go through again. And then I asked you about some of the changes you've made that are keeping your blood sugar more stable. So what are you doing now? For your diabetes that you weren't doing a year ago?

Unknown Speaker 47:23
Um, I'm like,

Jaden 47:28
I don't know how to say it. Um, I'd say like on that event kind of scared me. So unlike just not sneaking snacks anymore. I'm

Unknown Speaker 47:44
I mean,

Jaden 47:47
I don't like, I don't do this on purpose. But I free my pump. Like, I know how much stuff is like, my mom says I'm guessing on it. But like, I know how much food is like, we took a test on it and stuff. And like, I absolutely demolished it. You could say Yeah. But like, I know how much like stuff. I know how much insulin to give for stuff. And it just feels like she thinks that I don't know how to do it. And she says I'm guessing through it. And I just like,

Scott Benner 48:35
didn't I tell you a secret? Oh, I'm guessing a lot of the times too. But when I guess and I get it wrong, I guess different than next time?

Jaden 48:45
Yeah, that's what I do. I mean, like, for pizza. If I'm having like free pieces, I know it will affect me hard after. So I do like, so my ratio is like one unit every 10 cards. So I kind of guessed that like each site says about one, one and a half units. And so I do maybe six if and I have about four pieces. I'll do six units and have about four pieces. Because afterwards it will kind of affect me hard. And if I see my sugar trending up, I'll give myself maybe another unit and it will typically at least the highest that we'll go for that is about 200. If if I do it that way, if my mom does it all the time, she's right with it, but I am not trying to be found rude about it, but she's just kind of awful at all.

Scott Benner 49:50
She doesn't get that she doesn't get the numbers, does she use less insulin or more insulin than you use?

Jaden 49:56
Um, She's so funny. Number like, and what the thing I have is weird. Like, if we put in my sugar and stuff, which I typically don't do, because it like it just, it's weird when you put in my sugar, like, if you put in your sugar and it's like 200, it will add in. So it's supposed to add insulin, but like, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't if it's once, like my mom wants to put it in for 143. And it gave me point two, but if she would put it in for like, 250, and want to give me any insulin at all,

Scott Benner 50:38
you know why that is? I can tell you why. Okay, so if you've had insulin before that, and the pump still thinks that that insulin is active, it doesn't give you more. So there's a setting in your pump called insulin action time. And most doctors set it to like four hours. So if at let's say at 12 o'clock, at noon, you eat some food, and you don't use enough insulin for it, you mess it up somehow and don't get the count, right? And then two hours later, your blood sugar's 140. And you're say to yourself, Well, I would like to give myself some insulin to get this down. And you tell the pump, I'm 140, how much insulin should I have? It's gonna say none, because two hours ago, you gave yourself insulin, you told it, you used enough insulin, and it believes that that insulin is going to stay active in you for four hours. So if you were to have gotten it right at noon, your blood sugar wouldn't be as high. But if you were to, but the pump doesn't let you go back and say, oh, Remember when I told you this thing was 20 carbs, it was probably really 30 carbs. So you just have to, you can override what the pump wants in that situation. If you think you need more insulin, you can just dial it up and give it to yourself.

Jaden 52:08
That's what I do. And my mom always wants to put my sugar in and stuff but I don't know we do it. Because every time we get does that, but now I know.

Scott Benner 52:19
I have to tell you, I imagine that just now when you said that adult people with type one diabetes who are listening are smiling and thinking Jaden starting to get this. So good for you. That's excellent. Tell your mom to be a little bolder, right? Yeah. But so you're learning how to do these things. And listen, man, you're young. I know. It feels like you've been alive forever. But elevens pretty young. And I think if you understand it, this Well, now you're you're Pre-Bolus Singh.

Unknown Speaker 52:50
Yes. Good.

Jaden 52:52
And, and I'm doing a little I mean, it's typically I, I have a hard time waiting to eat food.

Scott Benner 53:03
Don't think about it as waiting to eat food thinking about doing something before you were even going to eat. Yeah, that's

Jaden 53:09
what I do. But like I sometimes my mom typically wants me Wait, wait 25 minutes for 30 minutes. So I just kind of watch a show. If I don't eat it. Like, in five minutes. I typically just watch a show. And that kind of helps like, frame time faster.

Scott Benner 53:28
Do you have to wait 30 minutes to Pre-Bolus Are you trying to bring down a higher number before?

Jaden 53:34
No I to eat? Like, like if I give myself insulin? She typically wants me and we always 20 or 25? If not 30 minutes till I eat. But I think I mean, I would do 20 but not 30 or 25 for stuff.

Scott Benner 53:51
Yeah. I hear you. Listen, here's what I'm going to tell you. What's your agency right now?

Jaden 53:56
Um, I think it's last time we looked at was like, a 7.2. Wow, that's really

Scott Benner 54:04
great.

Jaden 54:04
Your 6.8 and when I was in the hospital, I think it was maybe nine.

Scott Benner 54:11
And that wasn't that long ago. Right?

Unknown Speaker 54:14
Two years ago. Wow.

Scott Benner 54:15
See? You're doing a good job. So you started at a nine? You're down

Jaden 54:19
nine. I think it was a nine I'm not sure though. But my average sugar I know my average sugar like it's when we got my sister It was like 226 maybe and now and that was for like for three weeks or something. And now for like a month is on my average sugars like 171 60

Scott Benner 54:59
Wow. Good for you. You're bringing it down

Jaden 55:01
a couple a couple weeks ago, like the Mall of the month one, the month section was like 124. Wow. So like me and my mom, like we were really proud and stuff.

Scott Benner 55:15
I'm very proud of you as well. That's excellent. Tell your mom. I told her. She did a good job. And so are you. Yeah. Yeah, Listen, man, you're gonna keep doing that. So that number is going to keep as you learn more stuff. And you have more experiences, Bolus and things you'll get better at it. And the blood sugar will keep coming down, you'll start getting it more stable, there'll be less rollercoasters. And before you know it, you'll have an agency that you want. And it'll be easier and easier to do day after day, because you're gonna keep learning how to do it, the real, the real secret you already figured out which is to pay attention to it. And and now you're paying attention. I do have a question about the old you, you know, back in the day, I wondered try to understand taking food and on purpose not giving yourself insulin for what why does he can you explain why that happens or how it feels while you're doing it?

Jaden 56:11
I mean, thank you. If my friends were over, like, once my friends were over me, my best friend and his refers. We were playing on my sister's Xbox, cuz she told us we could. She was over at their sister's house. And the boys stayed here. She went over to their sisters. And so she gave us all permission to play on the Xbox, she put the oldest brother in charge. And so he we all took turns playing. And then my friend, which is the medium child, the medium kid added the free. They he went down and got a big bucket of pretzels cuz I mean, we I always liked the pretzels and stuff. So my mom buys them. And he went down and grabbed them. And so he was just eating some and I said, Please don't do this, please don't do this. And he came in with them. And I said, great. You did it. And so I just started eating them and stuff. And like, I kept saying No, Mr. Self, I'll give myself insulin after ate them. And then I fell asleep playing Xbox box. And my friend ended up finishing the bucket and just left it on the floor. And my mom walked in and she said, You ate all these things. And I said, order them to

Scott Benner 57:57
what stops you from giving yourself the insulin when you see the pretzels, like when you see the pretzels. What stops you from going, huh? I'm gonna have some pretzels. Button button button beep I'm gonna eat my pretzels now.

Jaden 58:09
I mean, it's just like when I'm hanging out with friends. And I know the right thing to do. I mean, I'm getting better at it now. But when I used to see friends and I knew the right thing to do, I would always want to try to avoid it. Because when I first got this, even today I I kind of I know everyone says and I know I am still a normal kid. But I'm just, it just to me doesn't feel like I am. It feels like I have this. And this makes me different from everyone else.

Scott Benner 58:48
Can I tell you? Yep, everybody's got something, man. You just don't see it all the time. Everybody has something they're thinking about something they're uncomfortable with something they don't want other people to see or they don't want to be bothered with. And the truth is, is that some people figure out how to deal with those things. And some people don't. But you're starting to figure it out. So my best advice to you would be Don't worry about what other people think. Right? And not as many people are looking at you as you think they are. Right. So it's hard to feel like that. But, you know, the truth is, everyone's got their own life. They don't care about you. You don't I mean, they're not worried about the stuff you're doing around pretzels. And it feels like that to you. It feels like everyone's looking they're gonna bring these pretzels in the room and I have to give myself insulin and no one else does. But the truth is, no one cares. Like, if you feel like they do or they're judging you, and if you and maybe you'll meet somebody one day who really is then that person is not a friend. You know what I mean? Like your friends would want you to be comfortable. they'd want you to be healthy. They wouldn't want to see you get DK or I ended up back in the hospital, they would want good things for you. And and you definitely need to want them for yourself. And Jaden, I gotta tell you, man, you have to worry about yourself. Okay? Your first, your health is first how you feel is first. And you're as normal as anybody, man. You're 100% as normal as anybody, everybody. Everybody's different. And there is no real normal. Like, I mean, what does that mean? Like? What is normal mean? Exactly? You don't I mean, like, for you normal means you have to Pre-Bolus your insulin before you eat. So don't feel weird about that. That's who you are, man. I think you're a great person, why not? Just go ahead and be you, you know?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:45
You know?

Jaden 1:00:47
And also, like, it kind of just bugs me when like, my friends ask, like, what are you doing stuff like, when they're concerned about me, I kind of just wish they would think of me how they used to like, I'm, like, just like, everyone, before I got this would I just not really pay attention to me and stuff, like only my friends, which are, like, there were a couple friends I had at school. And I mean, I was sick, there was a couple, but the only friends I would really talk to school is my neighbor. And my friend's sister. And that would be it. And they would be like, really the only people I would actually like hang out with, like, at recess and stuff. But I'm not saying that I have like no other friends besides them. But those are the people I really only talked to at recess and stuff. And like everyone else kind of avoided me. Everyone told them like, stuff about me and stuff wasn't true. And they just kind of avoided me. And they were like, a lot of them were jerks to me, and I kind of miss being treated like that. I don't miss being treated like a jerk. But I just kind of wish it was like that still. Because I instead of people always been like, caring to me and stuff. Like I like that. But it just seems like they're too worried and stuff.

Scott Benner 1:02:36
I understand. But I think the way to get past that might be for you to just accept that this is how it is and make it normal. Like you ever see somebody, this is going to be a weird example, to ever see somebody wearing clothes that are really strange and weird. And they look super normal and comfortable in them. Like it's their confidence that makes them look good. It's that they're not worried about how other people see them like people, some people just feel comfortable in their own skin. Like, do you know what I mean? Like they just they know who they are. And they're okay with it. And that feeling goes out to the people around you. And then you seem you seem like there's nothing to look at. You're just you're just the way you're supposed to be. And you're always the way you're supposed to be. But you're the one that will make it normal. It's not them. It's not the people on the outside that get to tell you how you feel. You tell them how you feel? And then they'll react that way. Does that make sense? Mm hmm. Yeah. And if you need somebody to treat you like a jerk, I'm sure your sister will do it.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:43
Every day.

Scott Benner 1:03:45
She's handling you don't worry, Jaden, you're doing terrific. It's definitely gonna get better. You're just at the very beginning of this, which is hard to see sometimes. But this is the very, very beginning of this. And as the months and years progress and you get older, you're gonna, you're gonna do really wonderful because you're and I'm telling you right now, man, I'm not going to tell you anything different than I would say to anyone else. If I was talking to an adult, that was three times your age, I would tell them. If they said what you just said, For the last hour, I would tell them, you're going to do well. I can tell. I've talked to a lot of people. And you have what everyone who does well has. And you know what that is? You're trying that really is the core of how people end up doing well with Type One Diabetes. They care. They're paying attention, and they're trying, and it just gets better when you do those things. You're doing it man, you're doing great. Plus you talk to your sister and Linda user Xbox sounds like you got a full supply of pretzels as long as you don't invite that kid over. And you're doing you're doing all right, you know? Yep, plus it. Now Ohio. I guess you Last LeBron, that sucks. But I mean, other than that, is it a decent place to live? Oh, yeah, yeah, you go, what, what, what would make things? Like what? What's your next goal for yourself with your diabetes?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:16
Oh,

Jaden 1:05:16
my next goal is to I'm sure, I mean, get down to at least 5.5 or 5.8 on a one. See?

Scott Benner 1:05:31
That's great. Tell me something about your Dexcom. Where is your high alarm set out? When does it tell you you're getting high?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:38
I think that's maybe 200. Okay, I'll

Scott Benner 1:05:41
tell you what, if you start if you listen to me, okay. Pre-Bolus your meals, right? Yeah, pay attention to the foods you're eating. Meaning, you know, understand that pretzels take a different amount of insulin maybe then grapes do or that, you know, just like you're doing pizza might need more attention than a salad does, right? Like that kind of stuff. Yeah, keep keep paying attention to that. And remember that as you're growing, your basil needs are going to go up. Okay, yeah. And so be kind of flexible. And remember to change your settings when your settings need to be changed. Don't look at your blood sugar for three weeks going, I don't understand why it won't come down. Like give yourself some more insulin where you need to pay attention to how you're growing, keep doing what you're doing, you're going to get that a one C and the fives you absolutely well, and keep an end, as you're doing that have a goal of getting your high alarm on your Dexcom down to 140 by the end of the year. Okay, so the reasoning for that is, if you don't let your blood sugar get high, it won't be high. So when your blood sugar gets to 200, and it beeps, you're like, my blood sugar's 200, then you have to give yourself some insulin right? And you have to give yourself a fair amount to get it to come down. And sometimes you give yourself too much and you get low. But if your Dexcom were to tell you, oh, my blood sugar's 130. The amount, excuse me, you're the first episode I've done this year, I'm not used to talking the the amount of insulin that you would need to make a 130 into a 90 is much less than the amount of insulin, you'd need to make a 200 into a 90. So in short, the sooner you know, your blood sugars going up, the sooner you can do something about it. And when you do something about it at a lower number, you use less insulin. And by using less insulin, you're less likely to cause a low later, and that's where you start making stability. Does that make sense? Yep. All right, man. You're doing Oh, and if

Jaden 1:07:50
if you hear that noise, that's my sister opening up. Closing the garage door. She just

Scott Benner 1:07:56
don't worry about it. It's all good, man. We're done. Anyway. So is there anything left to say that you that you want to say that we haven't talked about?

Unknown Speaker 1:08:03
Um,

Unknown Speaker 1:08:05
I don't think so. I

Unknown Speaker 1:08:06
mean,

Jaden 1:08:07
I've not I know. I'm not really able to just sit down on the floor and talk to someone for about an hour by Phil enjoyed this.

Scott Benner 1:08:15
Well, Jen, I enjoyed it, too. And you did a really great job. Like, seriously, your stories were good. You're thoughtful about how you feel, even though you might not realize that because you're 11 I thought you were really insightful. And I thought you shared a lot of valuable information that other people are going to do. Do well to listen. So. You did exactly what you meant to do, man. Congratulations. Yeah. Good for you. Is it feel weird now that we did it? Yeah. Was it weird? Like you were nervous? Like sometimes you would text me and be like, you'd be like it we're recording and like three weeks? And I'd be like, what is this? I look nice. Jaden. I'm like we are. And were you like nervous as it was coming up or now cuz you did it? Yeah,

Jaden 1:08:56
I was. My mom and dad kept telling me to write like something up like and say, but I kept forgetting. And I'm like,

Unknown Speaker 1:09:06
I don't know what I'm gonna say.

Scott Benner 1:09:08
You did a really good job. And you're Let's remind people as you're going out, you're 11 right? Yeah, yeah. Did you did a great job. Are you kidding me? This was fantastic. I can't believe you were even nervous. You're good at this. And you didn't write anything? Right. We just talked. Oh, I'm great at this. You don't have to worry. I'll take you right through it. I thought we did good here. What do you think we should call the episode?

Unknown Speaker 1:09:34
Um,

Unknown Speaker 1:09:36
I don't know.

Scott Benner 1:09:37
It's hard to pick the titles. But I'll figure it you know

Jaden 1:09:42
what, just for the fun of it. Name it pinky pain, gay.

Scott Benner 1:09:45
I really might make a piggy pancake in case you're like that is really where I was at on that too. Okay, all right. I that might be what I do Jaden. I I really very well may do that. Alright, listen, man. Tell your mom I said Thanks so much for helping get us set up. And I think you're doing terrific. I really do. I wouldn't lie to you. And I think you need to keep doing what you're doing. You know, pay attention here in some of the way we talked about just now. And you you're on your way to doing something really great. I'm proud of you. You came a really long way through a lot of can we can we curse at the end? Jaden? Do you ever curse in Ohio?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:26
Well,

Unknown Speaker 1:10:26
no, I mean, should I Christians, but to Christians, not curse? I mean,

Scott Benner 1:10:34
do we not admit that we curse? Is that the play? Is that how we do it? I don't know. You don't know. Do you ever hear any wrappers around the house?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:42
No, no, really? All right. Well,

Unknown Speaker 1:10:44
my sister.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:46
Do you ever?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:48
Um, if I'm mad?

Scott Benner 1:10:49
Yeah. What's your go to curse? I won't. I'll bleep it out so people can hear. What is it? Ah,

Unknown Speaker 1:10:56
I honestly don't know. I think

Scott Benner 1:11:00
when you get mad you do though.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:02
Uh, yeah. Yeah. Probably. Probably.

Scott Benner 1:11:07
Yeah, it's a good one. Descriptive makes a point. But like, you stub your toe, you

Jaden 1:11:14
know? Oh, no, no, no. I mean, I don't scream a fight. Like, I don't get like say that. If I stub my toe or anything. They're just mad at someone.

Scott Benner 1:11:26
What about when you're walking down the stairs, and you drop something? And you What do you say?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:32
I just say crap.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:33
Yeah, I like and my dad might

Unknown Speaker 1:11:37
also just get mad at me for saying

Unknown Speaker 1:11:41
he doesn't like,

Jaden 1:11:42
Yeah, he doesn't like us using any words that could be like, anywhere close to being the customer. Like no replacement.

Scott Benner 1:11:52
Oh my God. He would not like it here then. I curse like all day long. Jaden. If If I curse on this podcast as much as I curse in my real life. I gotta tell you, I love cursing. I really do. But say that. We heard. What's that?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:09
You're weird?

Scott Benner 1:12:10
Weird. All right. I'm not telling you my favorite curse word. I think it'll kill you.

You were really great, man. This was excellent. Be proud of yourself. You did a wonderful job.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:24
Oh, okay.

Scott Benner 1:12:26
All right. I hope you have a good day. I hope you'll learn something. Yeah. And please tell your family I said hello. And thank you sister for wearing the sweatshirt for the podcast. All right. Okay, see ya. All right, brother. Take care.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:39
You too. Bye.

Scott Benner 1:12:46
Well, first, I'd like to thank Jaden and his family for allowing him to come on the show and for wanting to and for his incredible and honest portrayal of his life. And its type one diabetes, the show wouldn't be possible without the sponsors. So if you're looking for an insulin pump, check out the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump. If you'd like to see your blood sugars in real time, get a continuous glucose monitor and consider getting the Dexcom g six touched by type one does amazing things for people with type one diabetes. And all they would like is for you to check them out. Jeeva hypo pain is the glucagon that my daughter carries. And of course we love the Contour Next One blood glucose meter for its accuracy and ease of use. There are links right in the shownotes of your podcast player and at Juicebox podcast.com for each and every one of the advertisers. If you have the need, please consider supporting them through my links. Last but not least, the T one D exchange isn't simple and easy way for you to support Type One Diabetes Research and the podcast. 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. After you finish the questions you will be contacted annually to update your information if necessary. And to be asked further questions. This is 100% anonymous, HIPAA compliant and does not require you to ever see a doctor or go to a remote site. Every time someone completes the process using T one d exchange.org. forward slash Juicebox Podcast benefits. So if you're looking for a way to help T one D research, the podcast or both, nothing could be easier or more beneficial. After you go to T one D exchange with my link, click on join our registry now. And after that you just complete a simple survey. I've done it for Arden. It only took me a few minutes. Past participants like you have helped to bring increased coverage for test strips, Medicare coverage for CGM, and they've also helped to change the ADA guideline for pediatric Awan seagulls. It's exciting to Imagine what your participation may lead to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox.