Scott Benner 12/17/24 Scott Benner 12/17/24

#1385 Estate Sale

Katy, living with T1D since age 11, shares her journey through inadequate early care, insurance struggles, GLP medication challenges, and managing life with two kids, including one with autism.

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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
Welcome back, friends to another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

Katie has type one diabetes and a couple of kids got a bunch of other stuff going on. She was diagnosed when she was 11 years old. But the reason she came on the show, it changed because she lost her insurance. You'll see what I'm talking about as you listen 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 you an adult living with type one or the caregiver of someone who is and a US resident, if you are, I'd love it if you would go to T 1d exchange.org/juicebox and take the survey. When you complete that survey, your answers are used to move type one diabetes research of all kinds. So if you'd like to help with type one research, but don't have time to go to a doctor or an investigation and you want to do something right there from your sofa. This is the way t 1d, exchange.org/juice, box. It should not take you more than about 10 minutes when you place your first order for ag one, with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink. Ag one.com/juice, box.

This episode of The Juicebox podcast is brought to you by my favorite diabetes organization, touched by type one. Please take a moment to learn more about them at touched by type one.org on Facebook and Instagram. Touched by type one.org check out their many programs, their annual conference awareness campaign, their D box program, dancing for diabetes. They have a dance program for local kids, a golf night and so much more. Touched by type one.org. You're looking to help or you want to see people helping people with type one. You want touched by type one.org. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by cozy Earth. Cozy earth.com use the offer code Juicebox at checkout to save 40% off of the clothing, towels, sheets, off of everything they have at cozy earth.com this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the continuous glucose monitor that my daughter wears the Dexcom g7 dexcom.com/juice box. Get started today using this link, and you'll not only be doing something great for yourself. You'll be supporting the Juicebox podcast. My

Katie 2:44
name is Katie. I live in Florida. I'm 49 years old, and I've been a type one diabetes for 38 years, almost 38 years since you were 11, since I was 11 years

Scott Benner 2:54
old. Damn. Be impressed, everyone. Okay, so hold on a second. Diagnosed at 11, type one. Do you have any other auto immune issues? No,

Katie 3:02
I don't. Nothing celiac. No, my daughter does have a gluten allergy. She has not been tested for celiac, but she definitely has an allergy.

Scott Benner 3:15
How about even eczema?

Katie 3:18
I do have eczema. I did have it pretty bad as a child. I've kind of grown out of it. It's gotten a lot better. Okay,

Scott Benner 3:25
um, do you have like, bad seasonal allergies, by any chance? Not

Katie 3:30
really bad. No. Cool, but you have them? Yeah, I would say so. All right,

Scott Benner 3:34
how about in your family line, your mom, your dad, your grandmother, your grandfather, stuff like

Katie 3:38
that. No, both my parents are treated for type two. My brother is the only other one with an autoimmune disorder. He has alopecia universalis. Yeah, so he has no hair anywhere on his body.

Scott Benner 3:56
Is that that means, like universally he has is that what that's supposed to mean?

Katie 4:00
Yep, no hair anywhere his whole life. No, he got that in his 30s. He started losing his hair in his 30s. That must have been a shock. I think it was. It started coming out in perfect circles. Think it started with his mustache and his eyebrows, and then he noticed it in his hair, and then it just started falling out all over. If

Scott Benner 4:24
that happened to me, as shocking and as upset as I would be, and how much, and I have a ton of empathy for your brother, I know for certain I would make a joke to somebody and say, I think tiny aliens are landing on me at night and creating cross circles. I would, yeah, he's

Katie 4:40
the oldest, 56 I believe there's four of us all together, and I'm the youngest. He's, yeah, he's, I believe he's fairly fine with it now,

Scott Benner 4:50
yeah, that's crazy. I mean, it's not crazy. Also, it's an autoimmune issue, right? It is, yeah. So how about his kids? Do they have any autoimmune stuff?

Katie 4:59
He doesn't have any biological kids. He has two step sons. I

Scott Benner 5:03
see okay. Now I want to start here by saying, also, you have one of those names that I feel like it's trying to trick me, and I wasn't listening very closely at the beginning when you introduced yourself. So is it you say Cathy or Katie? No, it's Katie. Katie. Okay, yeah. I mean, I thought it was, but I've had people come on with your spelling, and they're like, it's Kathy. And I'm like, I it isn't

Katie 5:26
no no Katie. I've gotten on my whole life, though, okay, when Katy Perry became popular, that was when people stopped calling me Kathy. So it was way later in my life,

Scott Benner 5:36
if only she could have pulled together sooner. You know, people started getting it right for me. Yeah, she said something shocking in an interview the other day. It's so shocking that I won't mention it here, but I was like, I can't believe you said that out loud. Nevertheless, if people have heard it, they're gonna go like, Oh, I know she had something to do with the dishes and Orlando Bloom. I won't say anything else. Now, I'll have to look it up. Yeah, don't, don't, don't look too closely. Okay, what I was going to say is, I don't know how long it's been now since I started saying, like, Hey, if you know you're using a GLP medication, you have type one, you should come on the podcast. I thought I was going to get a couple of people, you know what I mean? Like, I just didn't imagine that so many people would come forward because it's off label. It's just happening over and over again. So I want to learn a little bit about your journey, but then, you know, we'll get into what you're doing now, obviously, but I appreciate you reaching out. And, you know, I hope for people listening, they're not like, oh God, every week there's somebody on using a GLP, but, like, I don't control the flow of that. Like, you know, it's sort of the same thing as, you know, if people are like, oh my, you know, this week, everybody that he had on was like, using a T slim, or everybody he has on is using like, a Dexcom or an omnipot, whatever I have the people on who reach out to be on. So, like, yeah, like, I don't control the flow of it. But let's start at the beginning for a second. You're 11. You remember your diagnosis at all? The Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast, and it features a lightning fast 30 minute warm up time that's right from the time you put on the Dexcom g7 till the time you're getting readings. 30 minutes. That's pretty great. It also has a 12 hour grace period so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you, all that, on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable and light, these things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g7 a no brainer. The Dexcom g7 comes with way more than just this, up to 10 people can follow you. You can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes. It's covered by all sorts of insurances. And this might be the best part. It might be the best part alerts and alarms that are customizable, so that you can be alerted at the levels that make sense to you. Dexcom.com/juice, box. Links in the show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com, to Dexcom and all the sponsors. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful. If you're looking for a last minute holiday gift that doesn't feel last minute, check out cozy Earth and use my offer code to save 40% off of your entire cart that's going to be the sheets, the towels and the clothing, whatever you buy from cozy Earth com, you will save 40% by using Juicebox at checkout. That's all you have to do, is put in my code Juicebox at checkout and you'll save 40% and I'm talking about everything from dryer balls to the towels that I use to you know what I mean? They've got towels. They've got clothing that is super comfortable. I'm wearing the sweat pants right now. They're awesome. I'm gonna go out later today and use my pullover from cozy Earth also awesome. This stuff is temperate, right? It keeps you warm, but not hot. It keeps you cool, but not cold. Every way you want to be is the way cozy Earth wants you to be the sheets are a joy to sleep in. The towels, like I said, get all of your bits and your grooves and oh my goodness, the clothing, cozy earth.com. Use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 40%

Katie 9:13
I do. Yeah, I do. I remember specifically what stands out in my mind, is going to the movies, ordering M, M, S and a Coke, and getting up, I don't know how many times to go to the bathroom. My stomach hurting, and my mom saying something's not right. You shouldn't be paying this much. She said that I started wetting the bed shortly after that, and her knowing that that wasn't something I should be doing at 11 years old, she had enough knowledge of type one to know that that's probably what it was. She bought the little sticks that you had to pee on, and mine turned really dark, so she made everybody in the house pee on one nobody else's did. And except for hers, was a little bit darker than everybody else's, which, of course, she found was because she was on her way the developing type two. She got me into the pediatrician pretty quickly. They did the glucose test. They had me drink the nasty, you know, drink, and tested my blood sugar one time, probably a half an hour later, and immediately told her that they needed, I needed to get to the hospital right away. We lived in Washington State at the time, and we lived across the Puget Sound and needed to take a ferry to Seattle's Children's Hospital. So they told her that we needed to be on the next ferry over. So we went home, packed a bag, and we're on the next ferry. She called my dad, told him to come home from work. I remember asking her if I was going to die, and she told me she didn't know. She's like, I don't think so, but you I don't know. Can I

Scott Benner 11:01
say something to any parent listening? If your child says, Am I gonna die? You go, No, of course not.

Katie 11:09
I don't remember feeling like, Oh, wow. This is awful for me. I just was like, wow. I'm getting a lot of attention. You know,

Scott Benner 11:17
I'm still laughing about your cop saying, No,

Katie 11:20
I don't know. So I, I was in a room with four other girls, and, you know, gave me insulin. They gave me a sponge to practice on with saline and a sliding scale and all the things, and I started learning how to give myself shots.

Unknown Speaker 11:37
Is this 1986

Katie 11:39
1986 and they told my parents from the very beginning, this is her disease. She needs to learn everything about it. And I think I probably got a shot from someone else, maybe once. But other than that, I had to

Scott Benner 11:56
do it all describe using the sliding scale to me if my

Katie 12:00
blood sugar was in a certain range, I took this much insulin, and I was on regular and NPH, I can't remember exactly how much, but it was so many units. If I was between, you know, like 80 and 150 you do a

Scott Benner 12:17
test, and if you depending on where you were you'd use a certain amount of insulin. How often every day did you do that?

Katie 12:24
I tested before each meal? No, I didn't. I don't think I tested before lunch. I think it was only in the morning and then the evening. Okay? And that was it. My

Scott Benner 12:37
point is, is that phrase, this is their disease. They have to understand everything about it is a is a phrase that comes from a time when what you need to know was you tested twice a day, then you looked at the piece of paper, and then you gave yourself a shot, yeah. And somehow we've carried that forward. Now there's all this information and faster acting insolence and different ideas. And there are still some people who will look at an 11 year old and go, this is on you. And I'm like, wow, yeah, yeah, different world, you know what? I mean, yeah, it's easier in the long run because of the technology, but in the short term, there's a lot more to learn.

Katie 13:09
Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, and there was a no sugar. I mean, I wasn't allowed any sugar. No sugar allowed.

Scott Benner 13:16
Oh, fun. How long did that last? I would

Katie 13:19
say probably into my 20s. Oh, so

Scott Benner 13:21
you were very low carb. No,

Katie 13:24
I wouldn't call it low carb. Oh, so you definitely had, oh, yeah,

Scott Benner 13:28
yeah, just not a lollipop,

Katie 13:29
right? Gotcha. No sugar,

Scott Benner 13:32
no pure sugar, not sugar in something else that we don't care about. So

Katie 13:36
cake, no cookies, no

Unknown Speaker 13:38
cake. You're saying nothing fun.

Katie 13:41
I can have chips, so I definitely like the salty stuff.

Scott Benner 13:44
Isn't that fascinating that they would tell you there's no sugar, but carbs are fine, right? Yeah, very strange. Well, not strange, but for how people understand things, not that also simple, sugars would spike you more drastically and probably, and this is me guessing a little bit, but on that insulin, you probably weren't seeing as much resistance. So, right? You know what I mean? Maybe that insulin had a had an easier time with a piece of bread than it would have with a, you know, with a push up pop or something like that. But all right, so fair. Fair is fair, but you live like that into your 20s. Do you go to college? No, did diabetes have anything to do with

Katie 14:18
that? No, I don't think so. Okay, I don't think so. No, I was pretty independent, and I think and my parents, really, they were big believers, and you can do whatever you want to. So we moved to Florida when I was 14, so I got a new endo when we moved here, through Jocelyn diabetes, and I actually kept that endo until about a year ago. I had the same endo from the time I was 14 years old until a year ago.

Scott Benner 14:47
Really? Yeah, hindsight tells you that was a good idea or a bad idea. I'm

Katie 14:51
gonna say bad idea. Okay, why? He literally let me skate by on being just good enough for a long, long time. So he let me make pretty much all my adjustments and my own decisions. And I wouldn't say until I really started listening to the podcast and really started understanding that the actual process of my own disease and becoming my own advocate, that I was like, I'm going to take over and adjust this myself and do things myself. How

Scott Benner 15:24
long ago did you find the podcast?

Katie 15:26
Probably about three years ago.

Scott Benner 15:28
Oh my gosh, yeah.

Katie 15:30
So I lived with an A, 1c in the sevens, the eights for most my life.

Scott Benner 15:38
Yeah. Do you have any anything going on now, because of that, I am programmed not to say complications. Can I tell you something? Yeah, Katie, I'm just going to share something here that I think constantly and I never say out loud. I'm going to say it to see if I can get rid of it. I tried, for some reason in the past, so hard not to say complications, that when I want the word, I can't even find it in my brain, I've strong arm myself into not saying it. And I don't want to do that. I want to just say, like, Do you have any complications?

Katie 16:06
I understand that, because I do the same thing in the line of work. I'm in I don't like to say disabilities, so I understand that too. I try not to say that. I don't like it, yeah, so I do the same type of thing, but because

Scott Benner 16:20
I don't want to, I very firmly don't, do not believe in scaring people into taking care of themselves. And I think that, like, if that's the next question I ask, it could come off as trying to scare the people listening. But I I'm just asking because you had an A one saying the seven and eights for a really long time, and I want to know what the impact of that was.

Katie 16:42
The only thing that I am dealing with now, and I absolutely hate it, is my is frozen shoulder. It definitely hurts all the time. I

Scott Benner 16:54
have heard it described in a way that doesn't make it sound like the tiniest bit of fun. Have you ever had them work on it in any way? No,

Katie 17:00
I have gone through physical therapy for both of them. The biggest benefit I've gotten is through a chiropractor. That's what I've benefited the most from. Okay, so, but, yeah, I do my stretches and everything, but I do see a chiropractor regularly.

Scott Benner 17:17
Okay, did they do that thing where you make a chicken wing on the side, and then you push your elbow back, and they pull on your shoulder. I haven't done that. How about how about the one where they you bend your fist up towards your shoulder, and then they grab your elbow and pull it back.

Katie 17:32
That sounds horrible. I gotta just tell you

Scott Benner 17:34
I have and I'm not alone, because I see the views on the YouTube channels. But Scottie loves to watch somebody get adjusted by a chiropractor on the I do too. Yeah, I do too. It's funny because never to the point where I'm like, I'm gonna go, like, I'm gonna go hunt one. It's just there's something about it that I'm just like, Oh, I wonder what that is like, the one now that I in my wildest dreams, I can't imagine is good for you. They put the victim on a table, on their back, and then pull their head up straight. Have you seen that?

Katie 18:05
Yeah, yeah. I look at almost like they're gonna pop their head off. Yeah,

Scott Benner 18:10
yeah. It's so rudimentary, they'll like, wrap a towel around their neck, grab the towel and, like, yank up on your and as I see it, I have two distinct thoughts. That does not look safe and, oh, I would like to try that. I know that's ridiculous, but anyway, yeah, but your chiropractor helps you. You go to adjustment. It helps your shoulder. Yeah. So my next question is, is, did you go to therapy before or after you found the podcast?

Katie 18:35
That's a good question.

Scott Benner 18:36
You know? Why I'm asking I'm wondering if lower, more stable blood sugars. Like, I don't know if the frozen shoulder is something that's now happened and it's there, and you can't, I think it is, and you can't really change it much, because they break away the because that whole part of that therapy is, like, they move your arm around a lot, right to just kind of break, break it free. And it's very painful, from what I understand. I

Katie 18:58
think I started going probably before my mom had a frozen shoulder, and so I knew that's what it was. And that happened probably five years ago. The first one okay, and it resolved, and then the second one started. And every time I've gone they've said, Well, what did you do to injure it? And I've said, nothing. I didn't do anything. I'm a type one diabetic. I kind of, it's par for the course. I knew this was probably going to happen to me. Yeah, it's a current issue. It is with one of them, my right side, right now. Okay, yeah, which is kind of brings up another thing is, you know, going to the doctor, if you go to a just a general practice doctor or a new doctor at my age with my gray hair. I don't know if you remember, we just met on Saturday. Of course, I don't. And they see me at my age and I say, I'm a type one diabetic, they kind of look at me like, Are you sure you know? Like they don't believe you if somebody at my age or your type one, are you sure you're. Type one, and they look at my chart again. Oh yeah, I guess you are. It's like, well, what? It's kind of they don't see us often. It's like, we grow up, you know? And I'm a type one, and I have been since I was 11. I know what I'm talking about. So this frozen shoulder, when I say it's this way because I didn't injure it. It just is something that has happened to me.

Scott Benner 20:24
I've had elevated blood sugars for 30 years, right? Yeah, I don't know.

Katie 20:29
They just a lot of times, don't quite get what I'm trying to say,

Scott Benner 20:32
yeah. And so you find yourself having to re explain it all the time, all the time, yeah, should we take a left turn here and talk about your estate sale

Katie 20:42
story. Oh, sure,

Scott Benner 20:44
I love this. Yeah, this is awesome. So I don't want to interject. Just tell it from the beginning. Well,

Katie 20:49
I was pulling up to an estate sale that's really close to my house. I happened to see a woman and her husband walking out and on her jeans looked like a pager. And I thought, nobody in 2004 or 24 not 14 has a pager. And I said, that's an insulin pump, and it looks like mine. And my son was with me, and I said, that is a tea slim. And I rolled my window down, and I said, I have the same pump as you. And she grabbed it. She said, No way. She came up to my window and she said, You have type one? And I said, Yeah, I do. And I pulled mine out. I wear mine in my bra, of course. And and so we immediately started talking, and I said, Do you listen to and she finished my sentence, and she said, The Juicebox podcast. And so then we exchanged names and phone numbers and became Facebook friends, and we met for dinner about two weeks later and took that picture. And of course, while we were in that restaurant, talking and speaking the same language about diabetes and everything. There was a man in the restaurant that just let out the biggest art ever and just shocked us, and we couldn't stop giggling. And so I had to write that on the Facebook page, because I thought it was so funny that, I mean, we talk about bodily functions on that page anyway, so why not share it and and then add that picture of us? So I thought it was really funny, and I was happy to see that everybody else thought it was really funny too.

Scott Benner 22:31
Oh yeah, no, it was just terrific. I'm wondering, How frequently do you see other type ones out in the world?

Katie 22:35
It made me kind of wonder how often we have ran into each other, because we also found out her name is Laura. We also found out that we don't live very far from each other at all, and we do have friend, a friend in common. So, I mean, in Jacksonville is a pretty big city, so we must have seen each other more than you know, more than once. So it's just

Scott Benner 22:58
fascinating, because you're similarly aged. Am

Katie 23:00
I right? We are. Yeah, we're only a couple years apart, and even

Scott Benner 23:03
though you're, you're younger, you both have like, white hair. Yes,

Katie 23:07
a lot of people said we looked we look alike. I don't think we look alike, but yes, we both have gray hair. Yeah, we're, we're probably just two years apart, but

Scott Benner 23:16
you don't have like, old lady kinky gray hair. No, you have that. You can't. You have that because my wife's hair looks like yours. It has, yeah? It's like, silvery, yeah. Like, people look at it, they're like, Oh, my God. How did you accomplish that? How can I do that? And she's like, Oh, I just stopped dying my hair one day. And this is what happens,

Katie 23:32
exactly, genetics. Yeah,

Scott Benner 23:34
it's interesting. But what's more interesting is you don't see type ones out in the wild that often you see one. You speak up, because you know she's got your pump. And the two of you listen to this podcast. But when you said, Hey, do you listen to she knew what you were saying and completed the sentence? She did? You have to everyone listening for a second. Has to put yourself in my shoes when I hear that story, because I'm like, What the hell it's one thing to know the podcast is popular and out in the world and everything, but you really do limit the percentage of chance that two of you are gonna know what it is and not just know what it is, but have it so top of mind that if somebody says, Hey, do you listen? And while diabetes is in your head, you're like, Oh my God, they're gonna say Juicebox podcast. Like, that's crazy to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really appreciated you sharing that, and then you came to touch by type one last week I

Katie 24:25
did, and I went the the previous year as well, and I did just get the notification of when it's going to be the year after. So I'm pretty excited to go again, and it's only a couple hours away from me, so it's easy for me to go, and that's fun. Yeah, I just

Scott Benner 24:41
saw them announce it on their social media, and I jumped on and said, Hey, I haven't unpacked my bag yet from this one like slow, the person who runs the whole thing, jumped on and she said, My bag's not unpacked yet either. A lovely event, and they do such a wonderful job putting it together. Yeah, yeah, it's really something. But, but. Was nice to meet you in person like that. That was awesome. If we met the year before, I apologize for not knowing that I saw you

Katie 25:05
last year, and I think I talked to you, but I don't know that we talked much. Okay, I think I was fairly new to the podcast then. So, okay,

Scott Benner 25:14
so then explain to me, then if you've been listening to the podcast for maybe a year or a couple of years, maybe yes, right? And you've had diabetes your whole flipping life. How do you turn on a podcast made by a guy who doesn't have diabetes, right? Fair enough. My daughter has it, and I've been, you know, helping her take care of it for a very long time and all. But like, how do you turn that on and think, like, Oh, I'm gonna listen to this. Why don't you think like, this guy couldn't possibly understand my life? Or, how do you even know you need more so many questions in there. I'm so sorry. I'm unclear. How did you know to look for something like what was forcing you to go out and look for something that's my first question. Let's

Katie 25:51
see. I think part of the reason is because I am a parent of a child with and here's the word that I said, I don't like to use, I'm going to say different ability that is 22 years old, that was diagnosed at a young age, and I learned everything I possibly could about his disability. And so I then went into the field of autism and learned everything that I could, and now try and help other kids, and he is very well equipped in his life, and so I kind of knew that I could listen to you, because I kind of did what you are doing. I does that make sense? You're

Scott Benner 26:47
out there helping people with autism, and you're not. You don't have some fancy degree or have and I don't have it, right,

Katie 26:54
right? So I taught him to advocate for himself, but I never advocated for my own self. You know what I mean. So I thought, why am I not doing that for myself? If I did, if I instilled it in him, I need to take it back for myself. You're

Scott Benner 27:11
aware then that your care is not all it could be exactly. And your whole adult like, you're married, right? You have other kids, or just one. I have two, two kids, two kids, yeah, two kids. You're married. You've had diabetes for three plus decades, almost, you know, almost four, right? You know that entire time I could be doing better for myself. Why don't you? Yeah,

Katie 27:30
I mean, I wasn't doing horrible. No, no,

Scott Benner 27:33
and I'm certainly not saying you are. I'm saying, if you thought there was sealing What stops you from reaching for it?

Katie 27:38
I don't know, maybe just the lack of self love, you know, just not just trying to take care of everybody else, maybe, which I think a lot of mothers do.

Scott Benner 27:49
Yeah, you like yourself, though. You're not saying you didn't like yourself. Oh, I do like myself. You're just saying you were directing that, that care and concern onto other people. Oh,

Katie 27:58
definitely. Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so you

Scott Benner 28:01
decide, listen, I'm gonna tell you the same thing. Arden went off to college, and I said to Kelly, I'm like, I'm gonna go to a doctor and say, Hey, can you help me? Like, you know? And when I said it to the doctor, I said, Look, I got both of them off the college Damn. And have a heart attack. You know what I mean? Like, I mean something's, something's wrong with my body, you know, I knew that prior, and I would only reach for help if I was in a dire situation. It was interesting up until I just decided, like, Okay, I did the thing. I got everybody off, like, they're in reasonable shape now, like, you know, can I help myself a little bit? So that's awesome. When you're searching, what do you search for? When you decide, like, I'm gonna see if I can figure out more about this.

Katie 28:37
I went to the doctor that I had, you know, that I had for 30 years? And I said, he was kind of like your a 1c is it could be better, he had told me. And I said, Who, what pump, because I was on Medtronic for 25 years. And I said, Who has the best a 1c what patients have? What pump gives them the best a 1c I said, because I can't get it with Medtronic something's not right. I'm trying, and I keep throwing insulin at these with this CGM, and it's like, it's just not I keep gaining weight, and it's just not working. The CGM is, I'm constantly calibrating it. It's not right? It's not giving me the correct readings. And so he said, the T slim and and the g6 I think, was what I had at the time. And I said, Okay, well, I want to switch over to that. And he said, Okay. And, I mean, he pretty much do whatever I asked. So he gave it to me, or wrote the prescription, and I got it, and immediately everything started coming down. And was better. I went on Facebook and I joined the group for that T slim, and someone on there said, start listening to this podcast. And that's how I found you. And so I started listening to you, and that's when everything else started clicking into place.

Scott Benner 29:59
That's. Somebody said, you should try this podcast, yes, yeah,

Katie 30:04
yeah, okay, great. And then the glps came out, and again, I learned about those. And I said to my husband, who has type two, I said, Why don't you ask your doctor if you can get on these? And he did, and he started taking them. And so then I went to my doctor. And I said, hey, could I take these? And he said, Sure, I don't see why you can't take take them. And he wrote the prescription, and I started taking them. You

Scott Benner 30:28
were able to qualify for weight, I'm assuming. So, okay, so your husband qualified as a type two, though, right, right, right. If your BMI, I think, is over 27% you'll qualify with insurance for weight reasons. Did they give you, we go V or Z bound, or did they give you? Gave

Katie 30:44
me mongero? They did. And he, as he wrote it, he said they might not cover this on insurance because you're not a type two, but give it a try. And so I did, and they approved it, and they approved it for a year, and then they stopped approving it. Okay,

Scott Benner 31:02
we'll get to that. So you start taking it. I don't need your weight, but like, just keep your starting weight in mind, because I'm interested in how much you lost, if you lost any along the way, and everything else that happened. So when you start shooting it, is it point two, five? Yes. Is that how that wait? Is that how manjarna is? Yeah. Okay. And you do that for a month. I

Katie 31:23
did it for more than a month. I was on the starting dose for probably, oh, I did keep a diary of it. I'm sorry I didn't have it right here

Scott Benner 31:32
with how come the doctor didn't move you up and up? Were you not in Congress with him?

Katie 31:36
He told me, just let me know when you want to move up. Just send me through the My Chart thing, just send me a message. I just moved up slowly. Yeah, I want to say I was probably on it for about three months, the starting dose, and then I moved up, yeah, to the next one. So

Scott Benner 31:51
tell me, what was the, what was the initial impact when you started taking it? I'll find out what the dosing schedule is for Montana while you're doing that.

Katie 31:58
I would say it was, it was pretty quick that I needed, that it impacted how much insulin I needed. I went from about anywhere from 100 to 120 units a day to probably around 60. Let me tell you, I did not go to him or have much communication with him about dropping my basal rate, or how much my carb ratio, or any of that, I did it all on my own. I started just dropping it little by little, and then as my doses went up, I started dropping it more and more and more.

Scott Benner 32:37
Okay, so just let me clarify for people, because I was thinking of wegovy or ozempic When I said point two five, it's 2.5 milligrams, 2.5 right? Is the starting dose. It goes from 2.5 to five to 7.5 to 10 to 12.5 to 15, right? I do 12.5 right now. So you start using it your insulin needs drop in half. Yes. Do you have PCOS or no? Did you have a fair amount of weight to lose?

Katie 33:06
I would say I could stand to lose about 100 pounds.

Scott Benner 33:10
Okay, so do you think you had, like, insulin resistance, or were just using a lot of insulin because your body

Katie 33:14
mass? Yes. And I would say also insulin resistance. And I would say a big part of that was also menopause. I was hitting that at the same time.

Scott Benner 33:23
Is it helping with that? Yes, I hear stories about it helping people with perimenopause. Yeah, okay, you stay on it for three months. How much to weight did you lose the first three months?

Katie 33:33
I would say I lost an average of 10 pounds a month snap.

Scott Benner 33:36
I've got the power awesome. Did you notice at touch by type one this weekend, that at the opening ceremony, which is not really open, it's the opening talk, they ran a video from the previous year, and that I was briefly in that video, and that I look significantly different now than I did in that video. Yes. Wasn't that weird? Yeah, yeah. Because last year I thought, Oh, I look good here.

Katie 34:03
My daughter said that too. She's like, he's lost a lot of weight. Yeah, no

Scott Benner 34:06
kidding. And I had already lost a lot of weight because I showed up at that thing last year, and I was like, Look out people. It was really something like I sat there when I popped up in front of myself on that screen. I thought, Oh, I did not expect to have that reaction. I looked and I went, ooh, oh, I wasn't anywhere near where I am. Now, super interesting. Yeah, that's great. Do you have the same feeling, though, like you lose the first 10 pounds, you're like, Wow, all right, then it's 20, you're like, I look great. And then every time you lose more, you look back and go, What was I thinking? Yeah,

Katie 34:35
it's pretty exciting. Yeah, no, really is. It's hard to lose weight, you know, I do think that being diabetic, it kind of it works against you a little. I mean, it's difficult. It really is. I have had success in the past with Weight Watchers. Was helpful. I I've I've used that before, and I've done like a. Low carb diet. Those are always helpful, but then they, to me, aren't sustainable, because I end up just going, oh, forget I want bread or whatever, you know, like,

Unknown Speaker 35:10
I can't forget it.

Katie 35:11
Forget it. I'm starving myself in

Scott Benner 35:14
all the other ways that you had done this, had you ever lost 30 pounds in three months? No, no. I mean, it's not that it can't be done, but, man, it's hard. And you start, for me, I start looking at the clock. I'm like, hey, you know, like, when I went to the doctor at first about this, I was probably 51 and I was like, I don't have a whole lot of time here. And I know people think that's morbid, but you know what I mean? Like, yeah, what do I got here? Like, I mean, I'm gonna be 73 in 20 years. You think I'm gonna go out and travel the world and play pickleball on Thursdays and whatnot when I'm 70. Like, I hope so, but I can't count on that. Like, now I'm the time. I want to get to it a little faster. Now. Would have been nice if I would have started when I was 20, and never been in this position, I understand. But I also look back now and I see all the other things that the Manjaro, yeah, that juice, the good juice, we'll call it, like all the other things that I'm seeing it do for me that are well beyond just my weight, right?

Katie 36:06
You know, I know, and I feel that way too. So at the beginning, it is super exciting. You're like, I look so much better. I look back at the pictures, because now I've lost 50 pounds, a little over 50 pounds, and I'm like, I look so much better, but I also am like, I am amazed at how much better I feel and how much better I know that I am inside. You know how much my health is has improved, and how much less insulin I'm taking and how much I mean, not that that is a factor of health, you know, but for me, I need it, you know. Like you say, I need what you need, what you need, but I am taking so much more. It's better care of myself and on a whole. But now I'm running into this roadblock where my insurance is not going to cover it. I can still get it. My doctors will prescribe it. It's not that, but I now have had to take another job if I want to pay for this.

Scott Benner 37:10
So your doctor will prescribe it, but your insurance won't pay for it anymore, correct? They won't cover it. Can I ask you, though, if you still have 50 pounds to lose, why don't you just ask him for zbound Instead of Manjaro, they

Katie 37:23
won't cover a weight loss.

Scott Benner 37:24
Oh, your insurance doesn't cover that. No, shitty insurance. Yeah, it really is. Who do we blame your husband? Yeah, okay, we'll

Katie 37:33
do that. We'll do that. Yeah, because he can give it I can't,

Scott Benner 37:37
Julie, he has type two, right? Fancy man, I've seen people get a dual diagnosis, type one and insulin resistance. So

Katie 37:45
I switched endos, and I asked the new and endo for that if I could have a dual diagnosis. And he said, Absolutely not. You're not a type two, yeah. And I said, I have insulin resistance. And he said, No, you don't i? And I said, Okay, maybe I need a new new, new Endo. Let's

Scott Benner 38:06
see running for post. So also, maybe that's not a good example, but you know what I'm saying,

Katie 38:12
my new estate sale diversity, she has a different Endo, and she's also on mangero. So maybe I

Scott Benner 38:21
feel like what you need is a switch to a different office. Yeah. What is he like? Isn't that funny that a physician could look and see that you've had all this success and all this benefit from something and then be swayed by the arbitrary rules of an insurance company? You don't need this because the insurance won't cover it. What does that mean? Anything? You know, awesome. Thanks a lot. When you were talking about feeling better, I found myself thinking that before, I used to think like, I was, like, a vital person in a body that was just, like, not operating well, like, you don't even, like, I'd run up the stairs and I'd be like, Yeah, I am a person who runs up the stairs you don't even, but like, I always used to think, like, I guess, I guess, just to be clear, like, I think, oh, for a fat guy, I'm really fast, or for a person who's overweight, I'm more athletic than you would think I would be. Like, you used to look at me and you wouldn't imagine I was athletic, but I was like, stuff like that. Not like, not like, on the level of my son, but like, you know, for for a guy my age, I quick and agile and stuff like that. And I used to just think of it as, like, this is my level of proficiency with athleticism, and, you know, that kind of stuff. And now that I'm the all that weight is off of me, I realized, like, that was, like, a fraction of who I was. Yeah, it's really interesting how much I was being held back by it. And I know some people are going to listen and be like, Yeah, you were fat and it held you back from being athletic. Like, I know that seems obvious now, and it seems obvious to me, but I wasn't eating my way to that scenario. Like my body just really did not intersect with food very well, and it didn't matter what food it was like, no matter how I ate, how little, how much. What kind quality of it my body would just, like, constantly, like, I would just always be holding water weight and adding weight, and I'd get heavier and heavier and and feel achy. Oh, my God, everywhere. It didn't feel good. I was tired. Like, you know, all that stuff, I take this stuff and all the things that people have heard me talk about, like, I can absorb iron now through my food. It's a big deal. I used to have to get infusions to not pass out my knee and my my feet. I used to have plantar fasciitis. Don't have that anymore. My knee hurt. My knee doesn't hurt anymore. My back used to be super stiff. My back is not stiff anymore. I feel bad because everybody bought me this chair because my back was stiff a few years ago, and now I still have the chair and I don't have the stuff back, but I appreciate it nonetheless, like all these things that changed, and I do think a lot of them have to do with just inflammation, which is probably some sort of an immune response in my body, right? You know what I mean, and I brought it up earlier, but tell me how you feel like it may have impacted your Are you in menopause fully, or was it perimenopause?

Katie 41:03
No, I'm fully. It's menopausal. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 41:07
What symptoms did that help with? I'm

Katie 41:10
not exactly sure I I think I was going through menopause. I think I was pretty much done with it. Before that all it started. I am not sure that it helped with the the weight gain exactly. I had hot flashes. I didn't have a spotting or anything like that. So I don't know that it helped too much with that. Yeah,

Scott Benner 41:37
well, in ways that you could, like see and some things I've heard from other people. First of all, losing weight is going to help, right? Because that fat impacts your hormone right? So if you get rid of some of that, you might have some better luck there with hormonal fluctuations, stuff like that. But my wife specifically said, like, the hot flashes, the night sweats, like that, stuff really alleviated. Yeah, on it. And she also has long COVID, oh, which is a thing that I'm sure some people are like, that's not real, but I've seen it. It's pretty real. When she started taking a GLP, a lot of her long COVID symptoms got much easier. That's good, yeah, very cool. And then there was this moment I forget exactly what happened, but for a moment, she a doctor asked her, not her Endo, not the person who gave her the GLP, but another doctor said to her, Hey, if you're having a different symptom, stop taking that GLP for a week. And she came home and she's like, they told me to stop taking the GLP. And I was like, Look, I'm going to tell you the same thing. I tell the internet I'm not a doctor, and this isn't advice, but I wouldn't stop taking that. If I was No, I wouldn't either, right? And she's like, No, let me just do what He said for, you know, a week. And I'm like, All right, don't listen to me, which I've been married for a long time. I was expecting that. And so she definitely doesn't listen to me about anything, and she probably shouldn't, in fairness, but she stops taking it, and, like, four or five days later, she's like, Oh crap. So many of her long COVID symptoms started coming back right away. And I was like, I told you not to stop taking that magic juice. So she's like, Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take it again on Saturday. I'm like, why are you waiting till Saturday? She goes, That's my day to take it. I was like, Oh my God, just take it on Wednesday. What do you mean? What do you care? She's too type A that she waited till Saturday, but she started taking again. It ramped back up in her system, and she said, all that stuff, stop. Wow, that's amazing. Pretty awesome. Like again, I think just, I think it's inflammation that it's impacting,

Katie 43:33
right? Yeah, now I only have one more dose of mongero, and then I don't have any more so

Scott Benner 43:42
tell me again you literally had to go get a a job to pay for just this stuff,

Katie 43:46
right? I I am a respite provider. I have been working part time. I'm a respite provider for military families who have children with special needs. It's kind of a hit or miss job. They just call me when they need me, and I go into their home. So it's like a home health type of job, yeah, but I have taken a full time job as a preschool teacher, and so I am doing that now trying to figure out if I'm gonna go and now pay out of pocket for mongero prescription, you know, because it costs $550 a month if I want to make, yeah,

Scott Benner 44:26
the price came down recently, but it's still like five or $600 is what I was gonna say, right, yeah. Have you tried telling the preschool just to send the money right to Eli Lilly? Maybe they'll give you a tax break or something,

Katie 44:36
or maybe I can just go work for Eli Lilly. I mean, listen,

Scott Benner 44:41
if they give you a job before they buy an ad on this podcast about manjarna, then I'm gonna be pissed. Oh, my word. Meanwhile, I don't expect that a pharma company needs to buy an ad for any of their drugs like I'm pretty sure that, you know, they gotta handle them 1000 different ways, and I don't need it or want it, but I'm only really sharing my. Experience with it, but it's been very positive. And I do want to say because it bears saying it doesn't work for everybody. Like, there are people who know do not tolerate it at all, and there are also people with type one who take it, who don't see a big benefit in their insulin needs, that that does happen sometimes, sometimes people take it and they're like, I didn't see my insulin needs change at all for you. I mean, you, you had a pretty significant I mean, would you say 120 a day to 60 a day well, and

Katie 45:28
now it's even less than that. I take about 35 a day now.

Scott Benner 45:32
So some of that need was for your body mass. Yeah, yeah. It's some of it was for other reasons. And, I mean, what are we kind of hearing from people when they come on the podcast sometimes is that maybe they have some beta cells working, but it's just kind of so I don't even know how to put this, very un technical, but like, you know, like, your insulin need is so great you're not seeing it. And then you you kind of alleviate the need a little bit through weight loss, through hormonal control that you're getting, and then all of a sudden, maybe you're getting some help from your beta your beta cells. All of a sudden. Like, who knows? For some people, I do

Katie 46:06
have some beta cells that are so that are working, right? I just had that all checked, yeah, it's

Scott Benner 46:10
my expectation. And the people who don't see a bump from it just don't have any beta cell production at all, like, like, from it. But that's me, I want to be very clear. That is literally just me guessing right out of my ass. So like, I'm I really don't know anything. I'm just talking to people and trying to put two and two together. But yeah, so you're so your insulin needs for from 120 into the 30s a day. Yeah? God, you must be happy about that, huh?

Katie 46:35
I am. And now I'm scared after death, though, because I don't know what's gonna happen. Yeah, I say I don't know what's gonna happen. What's gonna happen is I'm gonna be paying, like,

Scott Benner 46:45
here's what's gonna happen, and I'm gonna sell whatever I have to sell to get this stuff. And that's gonna be that, can't you just go to your doctor and be like, Hey, man, what do you mean? A dick for pretty much. Like, here look what happened when I take the stuff, I go from 120 units a day, to 35 units a day. When I take the stuff, I'm down, would you say 50 pounds? Yeah?

Katie 47:07
And I it's still coming off, happening, yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 47:12
Why don't you're gonna stop me from getting this. This 50 pounds is gonna come back. I'm gonna be back to 120 units of insulin a day. And then you're gonna say to me, Oh, guess what? You qualify for this again, like, what are you being an asshole for? Like, or just go to a better doctor, I guess. But, yeah, Jesus, 600 a month. 612, 1824, 3036, that's $7,500 a year.

Katie 47:33
I know it's very depressing, it is. And the amount of money we pay in insurance is depressing. Also because, you know, I mean, we pay almost as much as our mortgage payment for the insurance that we have. Holy hell do you really when my, yeah, when my, I was gonna say, when my, when we got married, when I got married, 26 years ago, my dad told my husband, he's like, he said, make sure you are you sure you want to marry her. She's expensive. Make sure you always have good insurance.

Scott Benner 48:05
We've got other choices in the barn if you want to grab a different one, this one only eats the best Patty, just so you know, yeah, I just, I love your dad talking about you, like your cattle, by the way, that's awesome. And your husband didn't take him seriously, and he should have,

Katie 48:19
and he's still with me. He stuck around. In fairness,

Scott Benner 48:23
I once after I was married my my wife's father said to me, like we were in a big group of guys and somebody was giving me crap about something, and my father in law stepped up, and he goes, hey, hey, easy on him. He's, uh, he does good with her. I was like, Oh, God, what does that mean? I was like, this is awfully insulting to your daughter, but she is difficult. Nevertheless, I hope she'll never hear this. No. I mean, it's just, it's really upsetting to go through decades of toil, figure something out and then have somebody tell you, like, no, no. I don't think so. I don't think you can happen anymore. Are you just gonna go try the other doctor?

Katie 49:04
I don't know what to do. I've gone back and forth about it.

Scott Benner 49:08
Why would you not do that?

Katie 49:09
I should. I should, yeah, and I know who he is. I know who the doctor is. I've heard of him. Yeah,

Scott Benner 49:16
he's doctor. Your ass is gonna be skinny. Go talk to them. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Are you telling me, is this like a doctor in a mobile home or something like that? Or no, no, okay, okay, there's not like gators out front and a sign and you're gators

Katie 49:30
everywhere out front, and that's what everybody thinks. Yeah.

Scott Benner 49:35
Are there not, isn't it just like boa constrictors and gators on the roads pretty

Katie 49:40
much. That's all you ever see on the news. Is

Scott Benner 49:43
that not true? You're like, I don't think that's true. I live here.

Katie 49:46
You know, when we moved here, my dad made us give our dog away because he said that the alligators would eat it. We moved here with a dog. We believed him.

Scott Benner 49:54
Your dad's like, I figured out how to get rid of that dog. That's

Katie 49:57
my dad. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 49:58
finally got, oh, you. Want the dog to beaten by an alligator, dude, you're like, No daddy, like, God, we're gonna have to leave it here. And where were you? Puget? Sound, where were you over there?

Katie 50:07
Yeah, we were in across the water from Seattle. Yeah, you moved

Scott Benner 50:11
as far as a human being can move, going through us, the US, yeah, man, and you've been there ever since, yeah, never left you like the Florida. No,

Katie 50:23
I don't have air. Why are you there? Well, my husband was born and raised here, so he,

Scott Benner 50:30
I don't know he's the problem. Again, you're saying, yeah, yeah, pretty much. Boys always a problem. I know I'm a huge problem. So for my wife, I know she looks at me like, if you weren't here, I feel like I'd be happier, and I and I'm like, she's probably right about that and all that. By the way, that's unspoken. She doesn't say it out loud. I just I read it in her eyes. Oh, my god, wow. When you came on, when you signed up to come on, you were signing up to tell a happy story about I found this medication. Yeah, about that,

Katie 51:00
and now it's sad. So I guess if anybody listening has any insight on making my insurance pay, or I don't know when in the world, their insurance companies are finally going to jump on board and realize or the FDA is going to approve it for us, I know that it's it's gaining popularity for type one.

Scott Benner 51:20
Yeah. I mean, I'm doing more than my fair share of trying to get the word out about it. So, yeah,

Katie 51:24
I know there's studies, but I don't know how long it takes for those studies to finally, you know, get be finished, to where it's going to be something that we all can get. I don't know how long that happens. It's disingenuous

Scott Benner 51:38
to some degree, because they've done so there's been two studies let me see if I can find them on GLP that were so successful, the FDA stopped them. I think the one was for kidneys that I'm thinking of. Hold on a second. I'm gonna, I'm gonna find this. This is me talking half out of my ass, okay, but it's something I know I've seen before. I just don't have all the details. There was, like, I think an ozempic study about that was for kidneys and Novo and semaglutide Kidney study early due to strong efficacy signals. Okay, now you can go find this story if you want, and read through it. But what I'm telling you is my takeaway was this was working so well that the FDA was like, Hey, this isn't even right to put people in a double blind study over we know this works. Start giving them the drug for it. Let's stop studying it. It doesn't need to be studied anymore, right? It's been that successful. And then there was one recently, GLP, 94% type two. These are just my Google terms. Ah, here it is. Tris appetite reduced the risk of developing type two diabetes by 94% in adults with pre diabetes and obesity or overweight. This is an article from August 2024 okay, they did a study on people with pre diabetes. It benefited 94% of the people in the study. They're not pre diabetic anymore. Wow, when a study is 94% positive, you just go, Whoa, and you don't mean you're like, my god, this is working overwhelmingly for people, if they take five seconds. This study I'm looking at, evaluated 1032 adults who had pre diabetes at randomization, and obesity or overweight for a treatment period of 176 weeks, followed by a 17 week off treatment period for 193 weeks total. The result from this surmount one phase three studies, primary analysis in 72 weeks, and all participants were published in Union medicine. It worked. Okay, yeah, right. Take 1000 people with type one diabetes, randomize it, put them on a GLP, and let's get going. Because look at this, three goddamn years to do you got to get to it here. I would imagine that the insurance companies probably aren't at the moment thrilled, because the more they can, you know, they got to keep paying for it. But I would assume too, is it? I mean, I don't know how all that works, right? But as it becomes more and more obvious it's working, the company is going to have to make more of it. It should get easier to make and cheaper to make, and hopefully that can help the pricing process a little bit. But I mean, Jesus Christ, if it's helping women with PCOS, and it's helping people with type one diabetes and type two diabetes and obesity and me and like, you know, iron. Like, why not? Like, let's go. You know what I mean,

Katie 54:34
right? And is it, it brings up all the conspiracy theories. Is it because they just want to keep us sick, you know, and all the things that people say

Scott Benner 54:43
for, I don't know who's trying to keep you sick or not, I think they just don't want to pay for stuff. That's true. Yeah, definitely true. Maybe a company that makes crappy food isn't super excited about it. I would that, I that, I have no trouble imagining that in a, in a in an office somewhere, somebody who's making, like, you know, cupcakes that are basically. Plastic, and they stay good on a shelf for 17 years. They're like saying good all these people on these GLP medications because I splurged this week. I didn't shoot my GLP on the day I was supposed to. I got bum fuzzled On the day. So last night I splurged. I had a splurge yesterday. Let me tell you what I did. I went to a local deli. I got a turkey and roast beef sandwich with provolone, and I had half of it for lunch and half of it for dinner. I was crazy. Okay, for a person taking a GLP medication that pretty much qualifies as like, oh my god, so it's got to hurt the junk food market, and some if enough people get on it, but yeah, I just want to say again, they studied over 1000 people with pre diabetes, and 94% of them benefited from it. So you're going to see fewer heart attacks, fewer strokes. You're going to see less type two diabetes. And look at all the good things it did for you so far,

Katie 55:58
right? It's impacting a lot of markets. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 56:03
don't know. I just don't, I don't want to see type ones hooking for their GLP money. You know what I mean?

Katie 56:10
I guess that's my next option. No, I

Scott Benner 56:12
wasn't saying, yeah. I'm just saying, like, people shouldn't have to go do what you're talking like, you had a job you really enjoyed, right? And you'd like to keep doing that, but now you're like, Well, maybe I'll go do this one instead, because maybe I can make more money to pay for my GLP. And I don't like knowing your like specific details, but if this thing's $600 a month, this job in this preschool, you know, I don't imagine it's a laying 6090 grand a year on your Ford. So like you're working that whole month to get the GLP and not have much left over. Is that right?

Katie 56:42
I have some, I mean, and I enjoy it. I do enjoy work

Scott Benner 56:46
at the job so, but it's a chunk of your income. Oh,

Katie 56:50
yeah, would definitely be a chunk, yeah, all right, yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 56:54
See, that's just, I don't know. That's not right. You know, commiserate with anything else, like, as we learn more and more about it, like withholding it from people, starts to feel more and more like not giving them insulin, or not giving them their heart medication or something, right? You know, yeah, it just works too well to act like, oh, it's for the people who can afford it. Yeah, I agree, yeah, because there's plenty of people out there that couldn't just go pick up a job and shell 600 like we're we're teasing your husband for not providing but obviously, if, if you can afford to spend $600 a month on something that isn't your your base bills, you're doing okay to begin with. And so, you know, so there are plenty of people aren't doing okay to begin with. Could really use this medication? You know, I spoke yesterday. I'm actually gonna rush it out. It was so interesting. This 19 year old girl comes on the show. She's a college student. She literally, we did this from, like, her apartment at college. The interview she comes on, and she tells me about all of her problems, and it becomes obvious to me, like, as we're talking and I know you think, like, maybe you would have known this before you signed her up, but I didn't. She didn't have diabetes. She has hyper reactive or reactive hypoglycemia, or something like that, right? And I start picking through her, you know, her entire health history, and it's been bad. She's had a really terrible period since she was, like, 1314, years old, super low iron and ferritin passes out. You know, is getting B 12 injections right now because she can't stay awake. Like, all of these things are, like, wrong with her, and I'm like, what are they going to do? And there's no answer. Like, she's like, I don't know, you don't even mean, like, the doctors don't say anything. So I said to her, I'm like, you wanna do something weird? I was like, here, and I opened up a chat GPT window, and I described her to chat GPT, and then every time she told me something about herself, I entered it into it, and then asked it what it thought she should do it so remarkably, agreed with what I told her before I hit Enter, wow. I was like, here's what I think I would do if I was you. And I don't want to the episode's been out for a while, by the time somebody hears this, but I was like, she's on a proton pump, a hit burner for like, six years, I think for three, six years, it's clearly blocking like, so she's got these terrible periods. She's losing a lot of blood, and then she's taking a medication for her acid reflux that's keeping her from RE absorbing iron. I said I'd get off the PPI. You have to do it slowly. It's not as simple. You can't just, like I think, you're not supposed to just stop taking it all at once. I'd get an iron infusion. I would continue with the B 12 and infusions, digestive enzyme to your meals, to try to help your digestion, to see if we can't help clear up this probably what's pressure on your your esophageal sphincter, which is probably giving the acid, right? And I said, I'd like you to take a vacitol for your PCOS, which she also had, by the way. I said, all that. And the goddamn chat GT came back, and it was like, and it said, all the same stuff, wow. And I said to her, I'm like, I'll send this to you. Can show it to your mom. You know, I said, don't listen to me like I'm a guy on the podcast, like I'm sitting in the spare bedroom of my house right now. Just in case you're wondering, I was like, but I think you should look at all this, because your doctor's only throwing patches on your problems, right? Like he's never gonna get you to the point where you're just like, oh, I don't have reflux anymore, you know? And I even explained little things to her, like, she's like, I don't, I don't eat throughout the day. I have one big meal. I said, that's actually could be one of the reasons you have reflux. You have a big full meal, it pushes down on on that, that sphincter down there, and it kind of opens it up and allows the it allows the acid to come up through into your esophagus. I'm like, you could end up getting, like, Barrett's esophagus from that, which is pre cancerous, and, like, all this stuff. And she's on top of all that, completely exhausted. And I'm telling you right now, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say something that'll make me sound like a douche bag to somebody, but if she doesn't come on a podcast to talk to somebody about it, she's gonna live the next 30 years of her life like that, yeah, for sure. You know what. I mean, that's no good. And imagine they found all the answers for and then at the end, we're like, Ah, you don't need that, right? Just what happened to you? Oh, what are you gonna do rob a bank? I don't know. Aren't there bank Robbies in Florida all the time? Don't people ride alligators in and then rob banks, right, right, yeah, all the time, lasso them with one of those bow constrictors and you're on your

Katie 1:01:25
way right. Get away on a manatee

Scott Benner 1:01:31
like Aquaman in those old cartoons, low

Katie 1:01:33
manatee. Oh, no,

Scott Benner 1:01:35
he would have been on a big Sting Ray, right, right, yeah. Are you old? Nothing on my Aquaman reference or no, no.

Katie 1:01:42
Well, I am old, but I don't know, not that old. Is

Scott Benner 1:01:47
there anything we haven't talked about that we should have? Oh,

Katie 1:01:49
probably something pop the mind. Not really. What do you mean? Probably.

Scott Benner 1:01:54
What are you worried that we you worried we forgot something? No, I'm looking at your list. I feel like we handled it, I

Unknown Speaker 1:02:00
don't know. Struggle with my weight, type

Scott Benner 1:02:03
one for 37 years, 38 now, because it takes a lot to get on the podcast,

Katie 1:02:06
I didn't know what list you had. What list did I make? A list I have been

Scott Benner 1:02:10
living with, type one for 37 years. I've always struggled with my weight, with age and menopause came insulin resistance. I've asked my endo 35 years if I could try a GLP Med, and he very readily agreed, my blood sugars have improved, insulin needs have decreased, and weight has decreased. Okay, go. That's it. That was six months ago. Oh,

Katie 1:02:30
yeah, and now I have one shot left. Can you believe that?

Scott Benner 1:02:34
What milligram are you up to now? Well,

Katie 1:02:37
I went all the way up to 12.5 but I had, because when I moved up, I still had some left in the fridge that I saved. So if I moved up to 7.5 and I had a few left of five, then I just kept them in the fridge. And, you know, moved up, so what I have left in the fridge right now is five. So that's my very last one of the five. That sucks. It's almost like I weaned myself back down.

Scott Benner 1:03:09
Have you been gaining weight? Or has your insulin needs been going up? I have

Katie 1:03:13
not gained no, it actually, it hasn't. It's been fine, okay?

Scott Benner 1:03:17
I hope it keeps up, so we'll see. Let's be honest, it's not going to I mean, if it does, then God bless, that's wonderful. But I mean, you could run into that situation where you don't gain weight and a lot of your insulin requirements were because of your weight.

Katie 1:03:31
I hope so, and I'm not. I have no problem also going to a compounding pharmacy. I would do that too, and I think five was fine for me, okay. Is especially if I just want to maintain what I've been taking for the last month. You know,

Scott Benner 1:03:50
we're still losing weight, though, right? Very slowly,

Katie 1:03:53
just a little bit, like, maybe a pound every week, or Yeah, I found I

Scott Benner 1:03:58
stopped losing weight at this point, yeah, yeah. But, you know, I got dehydrated when I traveled this weekend. Oh, really. And I'm not, like, dehydrated, like, Oh, what was me? My kidneys hurt and I'm in trouble. But, like, I just didn't drink as much because I was traveling, yeah, yeah. And I got home, I was four pounds lighter than when I left. And I did look in the mirror and thought, oh, there is, like, more out of my midsection here. Like, my midsection is flatter, like all that stuff. But I thought the minute I start drinking regularly again, like this, these pounds are coming back, for sure. And they absolutely did. So, yeah, but I don't that's not how I'm trying to lose weight, obviously. But it was just really interesting. Like, you get on a plane Friday morning, you get down there, like, you know, by the time I get everything together, I'm supposed to go to this dinner. I go to the dinner. I don't need very much the dinner, but that's fine, like, and then next day, very busy, yeah, all day I, you know, I had to get in a car at 3am Sunday morning to leave. I was on a plane by 5am on Sunday Yeah. Got home, didn't bother weighing myself, weighed myself, like, the next day. And I was like, oh my god, I'm I was 182 it's like, the lowest I've ever been. And I was like, this is gonna this will all be the first big glass of water I have. Like, I think this is over. So what happened? Yeah, I hope it works out for you. But if it doesn't like you seem hesitant to go to that other doctor. I wasn't able to figure out why while we were talking, but I would

Katie 1:05:26
No, I think I probably will. I think the only hesitation is that I just went to the previous one. He's in a whole different practice, as in, like, we have two, well, we have more than two main hospitals here in Jacksonville, like we have the Baptist network, and then we've got, like, the University of Florida network, and we've got Memorial and so he would be in a whole new network. So I just have to be switching. That would bother you networks a little bit, because when you switch your Endo, you kind of want to switch everybody, so not only your Endo, but your general practice doctor, and your everybody else you have. Can't

Scott Benner 1:06:15
you just see the Endo, just for the GLP, I could probably and then not seeing for anything else,

I suppose. Yeah,

it feels like you're making more out of this than there is,

Unknown Speaker 1:06:28
perhaps,

Scott Benner 1:06:31
because I've been looking for a real good reason why you're saying this, and I can't find one, so, yeah, just call him and be like, Hey, you helped my friend. My doctor is a jerk. Can you help me too? And he'll be like, Yeah, sure. And that should be the end of it,

Katie 1:06:45
don't you think, probably, yeah, just go do it all right, I'll give it a try. Because

Scott Benner 1:06:50
if you don't get the ball rolling, at least, if a month from now you're like, Oh, I've gained 10 pounds, and I'm using 15 more units of insulin every day or whatever, right? Then you're going to be like, Oh, I wish I would have started this. And if a month from now, you're like, you know what? I don't even need this. GLP, then God bless you, and then keep going. But at least you had your Dexcom, you know?

Katie 1:07:08
Yeah, that's why. I'll let you know. I will put it out there on the Facebook page. Thank

Scott Benner 1:07:13
you. I appreciate that. All right, go out there and make more friends that listen to the podcast. I like that.

Katie 1:07:18
I will. All right, I'll send me your way. Thank you. Hold

Scott Benner 1:07:21
on one second for me. Okay, you can use the same continuous glucose monitor that Arden uses. All you have to do is go to dexcom.com/juicebox, and get started today. That's right. The Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Huge thanks to cozy Earth for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Cozy earth.com use the offer code Juicebox at checkout to save 40% off of your entire order. A huge thanks to touched by type one for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Check them out on their website, touched by type one.org or on Facebook and Instagram.

I'm still proud of what I said in that cozy Earth ad about they have dryer balls and the towels that I it was awesome. I'm really, really, really proud of myself. If you're newly diagnosed, check out the bold beginnings series. Find it at Juicebox podcast.com, up in the menu in the feature tab of the private Facebook group, or go into the audio app you're listening in right now and search for Juicebox podcast. Bold beginnings. Juicebox is one word. Juicebox podcast. Bold beginnings. This series is perfect for newly diagnosed people. I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed or following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. Hey, what's up, everybody? If you've noticed that the podcast sounds better and you're thinking like, how does that happen? What you're hearing is Rob at wrong way, recording doing his magic to these files. So if you want him to do his magic to you, wrong way, recording.com, you got a podcast. You want somebody to edit it. You want rob you.

#1384 Misdiagnosed and Misguided

Heather, 50, was diagnosed with T1D 18 months after an initial T2 diagnosis.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome back to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Heather is 50 years old. She was diagnosed with type one diabetes after she was misdiagnosed with type two diabetes, that process was painful for her, and we're going to talk about that today. 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. Don't forget, if you use my link drink AG, one.com/juicebox you'll get a free year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first order. And if you go to cozy earth.com and use the offer code juice box to check out, you're gonna save 40% off of your entire order, and that's in time for the holidays. Get over there. Now, if you are the caregiver of someone with type one diabetes or have type one yourself, please go to T 1d exchange.org/juice, box and complete the survey. This should take you about 10 minutes, and will really help type one diabetes research. You can help right from your house at T 1d exchange.org/juice, box. And while I don't ask often about this, there is a public Facebook page for the Juicebox Podcast. If you go give that a follow, that would be awesome. It would really help the show. There's also a private group, which I talk about a lot, but go find that public page too. The episode you're listening to is sponsored by us, med, us, med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, you can get your diabetes testing supplies the same way we do from us med. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries, G VO, hypo, pen. Find out more at gevoke, glucagon com, forward slash juice box.

Heather 1:58
My name is Heather. I was diagnosed with type one a year and a half ago. Obviously, misdiagnosis is type two first. Like everyone else,

Scott Benner 2:07
how long was the misdiagnosis for?

Unknown Speaker 2:09
So again, that's

Scott Benner 2:15
you think. We'll, we'll figure it out as we talk. Go ahead. Yeah.

Speaker 1 2:17
I mean, I'm trying to think back. I got confused with that question of like, from like, the dka ICU visit. It was about a month before I got into an end up, which was quick when I got the correct diagnosis. But I had gestational in 2012 and of course, when I look back now, I'm like, Ooh, I had symptoms from like, 2014

Scott Benner 2:44
Yeah, well, if you have gestational And how old are you right now,

Speaker 1 2:47
I'm 50. Okay, so I was a later mom. I was, I was just at the end of 38 when I had my kids. I have twins. Oh,

Scott Benner 2:56
okay, so you had twins, and you were 38 you had gestational with them. So at 49 when you show up with diabetes, they're just they, they just say, Oh, you have type two correct, because that's the expectation. Okay, are there other autoimmune issues for you or your family? So I

Speaker 1 3:12
have twins, and they're identical, and the one had has vitiligo, and his showed up probably like, maybe when he was two, I started to notice it, and my mother had it as well, so I knew what it was. Yep,

Scott Benner 3:26
your mom has an autoimmune issue. One of your twins does vitiligo correct, okay? And how about thyroid?

Speaker 1 3:34
Nothing that I know of, but I know that's like a tricky one, right? I

Scott Benner 3:39
mean, any super tired people in your family or can't even me, can't digest their food, hair falling out? Okay? Yeah, what? It's just still time. What a type one answer to a question, by the way. Hey, you have any of these problems not yet coming, we'll see. Don't worry, I'm looking for it. Okay, so vitiligo, a little uncommon, but not completely. And you were 38 when you have the kids? Yes, 48 they're 12 now ish, well, they'll be 12 in August. Cool. Happy birthday. Did you get, like, one of each or how'd they come out? No, so identical. But they're identical. I'm sorry, boys, yeah, yep. So in theory, they should be exactly the same, but they have some differences. Have you seen that Tiktok trend now where it's like, about twins and they're not identical, and somebody's like, what a waste of time? No, I haven't gonna get all that trouble to make twins. They're not identical. What leads you to the doctor, did you was, I mean, I assume, if you had gestational maybe you knew what was happening to you.

Speaker 1 4:46
So I actually didn't. I did that whatever test, right? When you drink the whatever is it? You're drinking glucose, whatever. When you're pregnant, whatever they make you

Scott Benner 4:56
do. It's the, yeah, what's it called? The glucose, not a challenge. It's a. Tolerance, glucose tolerance test, yeah,

Speaker 1 5:01
so I passed out taking that. And, um, they were like, Oh, you probably lost the baby. And I was like, what? Like, why would you say that? And if that's a possibility, like, Why did I take this test? Like, that was my first of, like, distrust, or just there, I guess every,

Scott Benner 5:20
every every conversation I have, I'm drawn to be like, where do you live? So I don't move there. Like, that's what

Speaker 1 5:27
I It gets better. And it's, I can tell you generically, it's three different states, so it's not even, like, state specific or city specific, okay, which is kind of sad. But anyway, so I luckily did not lose my baby, but then quickly found out there were two of them, and they wanted me to take I don't even remember what it was. It was a pill, so I'm gonna assume it was Metformin. And I didn't want to take anything while I was pregnant. And they kept pushing it, and at my next appointment, they made me watch a video of someone giving birth to how do I want to phrase it? I wasn't well controlled. So the baby was rather large, and then I was like, Okay, I'll take it like they scared me into it. And I'm like, Okay, wait,

Scott Benner 6:14
they scared you straight with a video of someone giving a vaginal birth to an oversized baby and saying you have to share your gestational diabetes. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 6:22
they were like, this is going to be you. Can I

Scott Benner 6:24
ask a question? Were you considering not listening to them? Like, were they like, this lady's gonna be a problem. We gotta get out the big gloves right

Speaker 1 6:32
now. I mean, I felt bullied. I hate to use that phrase, but I did. I felt like, All right, do I want to keep arguing this? Should I just trust so maybe I shouldn't say bully. But I was like, Maybe I should learn to trust these people. Is maybe more on my thought

Scott Benner 6:48
process at the time, make sure I understand you didn't want to take the glucose tolerance test right away.

Speaker 1 6:53
The tolerance test, I was okay with. I didn't want to take the Metformin.

Scott Benner 6:57
Metformin. Okay? Why? Tell me why. Like, your initial reaction, I

Speaker 1 7:02
just so I've always been more of, like, natural thinking of I have an issue. I can figure it out, whether it be exercising more or drinking more water or something like a medication would be the last resort for me personally. And there's no like judgment, like, who, however people want to live, that's how you want to live, right? But for me, any sort of medication would be my last thought. Okay?

Scott Benner 7:27
I just wanted, like, I have a brother like that, by the way, where he's just like, I'll be all right. And I'm like, Okay. And like, and I get his point. You know what I mean? Again, I get yours too. I just wanted to understand. So, okay, so you weren't there, like, Hey, you're gonna need Metformin. And you were like, Listen, I'll do a jumping jack and drink some more water. And then they were like, look, what'll happen to your vagina if a 20 pound baby comes out of it. Is that about what it went is that about

Speaker 1 7:51
it? Yeah, and just that, you know, the baby would have all these issues. Like, there was a lot of scare tactics that they used. And then I think I did a little research, and this is so long ago, but I don't know if it was, like, a Class C drug, I can't remember, but it wasn't something that you wanted to just take without any thought while you were pregnant. And that was my other, like, hesitation, um, and I'm not saying it's right or wrong. That was just my thoughts at the time, but I ended up taking it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 8:19
I just, I didn't realize that there was, like, like, the driver's ed equivalent of a gestational diabetes video, yeah. And

Speaker 1 8:26
I felt like very set up because it was, I had no idea. And then I went in for my appointment, and they had, like, the video going, I'm like, what is happening? What

Scott Benner 8:33
do you think happened on their side? Do you think, like, this hippie doesn't want to take our medicine? Is that? What do you think? Is that, how you came off to them. Do you believe or do you not know?

Speaker 1 8:42
Probably. I mean, I think, as much as I dislike most physicians, based on my experience, I understand their thought process of, you know, a medication is always, is typically an appropriate path, right? That's their belief system, right? Like I I understand that. I get it. It's not going to be, you know, exercise or eat better, or whatever it's going to be. We have a medication that can help you with that, and that's their belief. And oftentimes that's probably the correct path, but not always right. I see what you're saying

Scott Benner 9:17
like, you feel like establishment wants to go right to medication, and you're worried that they're just making that leap without trying other things. But do you look back now in hindsight and think, thank God I did that? No, no, but it worked out, though, right. The kids came out like an average size and all. So I

Speaker 1 9:36
went into I had them at 28 weeks, so they were both only two pounds.

Scott Benner 9:41
They weren't gonna be oversized, one way or the other. You're like they could have been two and a half pounds. But do you feel like you dodged other issues because of that? Let me do that. You keep talking, and I'm gonna look for something. Okay, okay, go ahead.

Speaker 1 9:56
I don't think I did, because after I had them. Um, it was simply okay. You don't need to take the medication anymore. And, like, good luck with your babies. Like it wasn't. We should test your labs. You should follow up with this doctor, that doctor. It was just like it was over. Stop taking it. Have a nice life. And so I did, and I didn't think anything about it ever again. You know, I had two premature babies that was living my life, working full time. I wasn't like, Oh, I wonder if they should have suggested a follow up, right, which I don't know you would think is standard protocol. Many years later, I'm in the ICU for a week at 90 pounds, diagnosed type two with malnutrition. Well, how tall are you? I'm 555,

Scott Benner 10:42
what did you weigh before the diabetes got you? So

Speaker 1 10:46
my whole life I've been like, around 115 but like, like, lean muscle.

Scott Benner 10:51
Well, 551, 15. To lose 25 pounds is significant. And

Speaker 1 10:56
I looked forward, right? And when i I'm sure all of us do the same thing. We think back on certain circumstances and situations prior to being diagnosed, I probably looked like I was on drugs. Yeah, 100% is probably why I was dismissed so many times when I knew something was wrong.

Scott Benner 11:17
Oh, you went to the doctor and people turned you away at first. Well, towards

Speaker 1 11:21
the end, yes. So, I mean, I random things before then, like, I think most employers, they have, you know, the health fairs. And if you go get your blood work done, you get like, $100 in your HSA. Like I would do that every year, because I wanted the $100 and back to 2014 I was testing high. It was like 121, 25 it wasn't like 600 but it was higher than, higher than it should have been. And it was always the same response of, oh, you're fine, you're thin, you don't have anything to worry about. Like, it was always the same response. And I was like, Cool,

Scott Benner 11:56
great, Heather, listening to the nurse in the cafeteria of the place where she worked.

Speaker 1 11:59
Yeah, and I'm like, Cool. I'm not worried. Thank you. This

Scott Benner 12:03
girl who seems to have been out of college for at least a month says I'm okay, yep, I'm not gonna think about this again, but I will take my honey. Thank you very much. I

Speaker 1 12:14
know it's also disturbing to me now, but at the time,

Scott Benner 12:18
see you were pre, you had pre, some form of pre diabetes, Lada for almost 10 years. Yes, yeah, okay, I would assume so, right. It sounds like, Hey, can I read you a list real quick? Yeah, babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes who have high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. During the pregnancy, of course, you're risking excessive birth weight, pre term birth, respiratory distress syndrome, miscarriage or stillbirth after the birth, hypoglycemia, jaundice, respiratory problems, higher risk of obesity and type two diabetes, long term risks for the babies type two diabetes and metabolic syndrome, increased risk of metabolic syndrome, which includes a cluster of conditions such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar and abnormal cholesterol levels. I guess it's probably hard to like, like, you know, in a world where it's hard to make a human being believe if they smoke a cigarette they might get cancer 50 years from now that, like, I don't know, how do you tell somebody that when they're pregnant? You know what I mean, right? Because your glucose is a little high, it's not a thing. Probably even sounds scary to most people. But anyway, yeah, I think that

Speaker 1 13:21
all sounds terrifying, yeah, but all they used was they're gonna be huge and, yeah, it's not gonna be pleasant. That's

Scott Benner 13:30
all they said. Well, I'm sure that they were somewhere between your little girl, Heather, are you sure? Is that like they probably were, really? Because maybe, Listen, I'm not sticking up for people who are lazy at their job, or ham fisted or whatever. But I wonder how many times you have to go through this rigmarole with people before you're just like, oh, let's just skip to the part where we tell them the baby's gonna come flying out like a truck, right? You know? Like, see if we can't get them to take care of themselves. I don't know. It's a weird thing. I see both sides of it. If you take insulin or so final ureas, you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most, be ready with GE voc hypo pen. My daughter carries GE voc hypo pen everywhere she goes, because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar in people with diabetes ages two and above that I trust low blood sugar. Emergencies can happen unexpectedly and they demand quick action. Luckily, jivo kypo pen can be administered in two simple steps, even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you store jivo kypo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use G vo kypo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why GEVO kypo Pen is in Arden's diabetes toolkit at gvoke, glucagon.com/juicebox, gvoke shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma, or if you. Of a tumor in your pancreas called an insulin Oma. Visit, gevoic glucagon.com/risk. For safety information. I have always disliked ordering diabetes supplies. I'm guessing you have as well. It hasn't been a problem for us for the last few years, though, because we began using us Med, you can too us med.com/juice box or call 888-721-1514, to get your free benefits. Check us med has served over 1 million people living with diabetes since 1996 they carry everything you need, from CGM to insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies and more. I'm talking about all the good ones, all your favorites, libre three, Dexcom, g7 and pumps like Omnipod five, Omnipod dash, tandem, and most recently, the I let pump from beta bionics, the stuff you're looking for, they have it at us. Med, 88887211514, or go to us, med.com/juice box to get started now use my link to support the podcast. That's us, med.com/juice box, or call 888-721-1514,

Unknown Speaker 16:13
and I think about

Speaker 1 16:14
how I would have thought back then, and I don't know even if they did go through the list, to your point, but I would have been like, Oh, this is a really big deal. I still probably would have been of the mindset of whatever I need to do right outside of taking Metformin. I can do that like I definitely had this. I can fix whatever thing that I don't have anymore. So, yeah, I don't know if it would have mattered, to be honest. Now it does. But then I would have been like, Okay, thanks.

Scott Benner 16:40
You grew up in a house where people didn't go to the doctor.

Speaker 1 16:43
So no, my parents, neither of them, were very healthy, like my dad had his first heart attack at 35 and his last one at 62 my mom passed away from DKA in 2019 but she was diagnosed as a type two in her 40s, really, and yes, and I, of course, like, I go over this in my head all the time now, which we'll never know, but I'm like, Was she a type two? Because she was on insulin, so she was on Metformin, plus a short and a long, and it was always a mess, and it was always blamed on her diet. And I think I supported ignorantly that thought process, because at the time, I ignorantly thought type two was all diet related as well.

Scott Benner 17:35
You were just like, Mom, you're just eating wrong. This is yes, yeah, you have guilt about that.

Speaker 1 17:41
I do, especially now that I'm in that situation, it's a very lonely and isolating feeling. So I don't think me badgering her about like eating a Hershey kiss in the past was relevant, right?

Scott Benner 17:56
Do you think now, like, oh my god, if somebody would talk to me like that, I'd be mortified, probably,

Speaker 1 18:02
yeah, like, really, I think I was more of like, a, I don't want to say a tough love, because she was my mom, but I was just like, Mom, we can fix this. Like, start implementing exercise, start eliminating this and that and that. Like it was always you can do X, Y, Z, and I think she did do some of them. Obviously, it didn't matter

Scott Benner 18:22
how long did she How long did she live with it?

Speaker 1 18:25
Um, so she passed away when she was 73 and so she was in her 40s when she was diagnosed type two, okay, I just remember it was always, I would always see her shaky. She was definitely always very moody that would come out of nowhere, just lots of behaviors that, now that you know I know more about everything, I'm like, oh, that's what this all was. And she just needed, like, help and guidance and someone to actually care for her appropriately on the medical side. And I don't think she received that, because even when she went into DKA, she lived alone and I lived, like, two hours away. I was with her over the weekend, and we would text a lot, so like that, Monday, I texted her, she said she wasn't feeling good. Tuesday, I checked in, I didn't hear anything from her, which wasn't uncommon. But then Wednesday, when I didn't hear from her, I felt uncomfortable, and I'm like, something wrong? So I called her neighbor. I'm like, Hey, can you run over? And that's when they found her, and even when they took her to the emergency room, and she had been there plenty of times before, and so they knew she had type two or type one, whatever, they initially sent her for X ray, she wasn't conscious, by the way. They sent her for X rays, because when they found her. She was on the floor. So it's like, I don't understand, I don't understand the protocol of you have an unconscious diabetic person, and our first concern is, did she break a bone?

Scott Benner 19:53
There's this episode I have with a an emergency room. Nurse. It's a it's a cold wind. So she's anonymous. She's an emergency room nurse with type one diabetes who was witnessing another hospital employee a medical issue. They were having a seizure from their type one diabetes, and they kept trying to send him out for a head CT, and she's like, his blood sugar is low, and like she had to stand there and have an argument that she almost lost, like they almost just pushed the guy out the door to another place. I'm taken back to that conversation all the time, because I remember her saying, I'd be safe for having a seizure at your house, Scott, than in the hospital

Speaker 1 20:31
I work in. That's so scary, and that's something I'm terrified of as well. I think everybody is. But anyway, so they, you know, did their X rays, and just fine, but then she passed away, like a day later, and I think they said from, like, sepsis. But it was, it was, you know, your parents

Scott Benner 20:48
were both reasonably unwell through their life, like your dad had a heart attack when he was 35 Yeah.

Speaker 1 20:53
And, like, yeah. So I think that was always my main motivation for always trying to be healthy like I did not. So I'm saying this respectfully, yeah, because it sounds disrespectful, but I didn't want to end up like them. You know, I'm was always into different sports. I enjoyed healthy eating, so it wasn't like I had to train myself to get there. That was just additional motivation of this isn't going to be me, because I got all the bases covered. I'm interested, I'm knowledgeable. Like, I don't need health care. I don't need anything because I got it. And so here we are,

Scott Benner 21:33
well, here we are, like, I got it. Don't worry, I'll just get my diabetes later. Yes. So okay, so you're diagnosed type two initially, but about a month later, what happens to get through the end, oh, and they're like, you don't have type two diabetes, is that

Speaker 1 21:47
well, so I got to tell the hospital story, because it's Oh please, at least disturbing to me. The morning of I remember waking up and I threw up, and then I remember nothing from that point on, until, like, I have little pieces, but mostly not until a few days later. But so I guess, after I threw up, I texted my friend, and I just said, I need help. And so she came over, because she's like, What's wrong with her? And so she took me to the hospital, but she said I was walking around getting my kids ready for school, and that we dropped my kids off at school first, which have no recollection of any of it. But anyway, so we get to the hospital, she texts me in which I don't remember anything. I remember only twice that I had to go into the bathroom there to throw up, and it was like a public bathroom, so it was just like, it was gross, it was dirty. But we were there for six hours, so initially they took blood work when we got in there, and I was, I don't remember that either. She said I was unconscious. Like, the whole time we were there for six hours, she kept going up and saying to the staff, she's like, my friend is dying. Like, can someone please see her? And they were just like, she'll be seen soon. It was just like, that same old whatever. Yeah. So at one point she tries to get me out, and she had just had surgery on her knee, so it was like she was struggling with trying to get unconscious me out the door, when she was like, kind of wobbling. And the the gentleman that had taken my blood saw her taking me out, and he ran up to her and said, you can't take her home. She's dying. And she's like, No kidding. Are you going to see her? And he's like, I can't do anything about who gets seen. And so then she's like, well, then we're out of here. And so we went to a hospital, which literally was like three minutes away, thank God. And she said I was in, I was being taken up to an ICU, ICU room within 15 minutes. So like, Thank God she took me when she did. I just remember, because I lost all this weight, okay? And for like, months prior, I couldn't sleep because, like, my tailbone was sticking out. So I couldn't lay on my back. I couldn't lay on my side because, like, my hip bones were sticking out. I couldn't lay on my stomach because my pelvic bones, like, I was so uncomfortable for months, so they put this pad on my tailbone and, like, that's the last thing I remember. I was like, oh my god, I have some like, comfort. It was the greatest feeling ever. I'm like, I can lay down without pain. I was there for several days, I think six in the ICU, and I just remember them on, like, the maybe the day before I left, saying that it was type two. I was so sick. Like, I can't even describe, like, how sick I was, like, I was just non functional. It took me, like, almost two months before I could even physically lift my purse without, like, strain. Like, that's how weak and just I was nuts.

Scott Benner 24:31
Yeah, who was taking care of your kids during that time after I got home? Well, no, like, while your health is degrading, like, Do you even remember those times. So this is the, probably

Speaker 1 24:43
one of the scarier parts that I look back on. I feel like the first thing that went at least for me, was my brain, like just the thought process, the thought functions, because there's so much I don't remember and then so this will happen. I was finally diagnosed in March, right? That whole hospital episode, but in December, I started randomly falling asleep, but not realizing I had fallen asleep in the afternoons, and I would wake up to my kids saying, Mom, where are you? Because school was out and I picked them up, and that's what would wake me up, but I would have no recollection of any of that happening, and I remember not being able to, you know, when you get out of the shower and you put the towel on your head to dried off a little bit, I remember not being able to do that because my head hurt so much from that slight like touching pressure. Yeah,

Scott Benner 25:39
when my just my iron was very low. I couldn't lift my hands up to dry my hair. Like me, yeah, when my iron got really low,

Speaker 1 25:49
yeah? I mean, it's crazy, yeah, but so it does scare me that, like there's so many things I don't remember. But when I was in the hospital, the friend that took me to the hospital took my kids. My kids are friends with her son, so like, for them, they were super excited. And I just left it at that place, right? Yeah. Like, just be excited. It's

Scott Benner 26:09
cool, going to camp. Mommy's gonna go die goodbye. But

Speaker 1 26:13
so it was like, you know, type two. Even at that point, I just felt disappointment. I was thinking to myself, I don't have type two. These people are nuts. I'm so sick and I can't believe I'm now gonna go home and I'm back to square one of I have no idea what's wrong with me. Like I not one spot type two.

Scott Benner 26:32
So you thought there was something significantly wrong with you, and they were telling you something that it

Speaker 1 26:38
wasn't correct. Okay, I didn't believe them for one second based on how you felt. Yes, okay. And I literally, and I'll, like, never use this phrase outside of this again. Like I literally felt like I was dying for months, like every part of my body and my brain was saying you were dying. And I remember my dog like, just constantly pawing at me to the point that I was like, What is wrong with our dog? It's like, he knew,

Scott Benner 27:05
yeah. He's like, I'm gonna eat this lady when she dies. I know. My God, isn't that something your dog's trying to help you? Yes? Yeah, you're so sick that a dog is like, something's wrong with this one. And yeah, and doctors don't know,

Speaker 1 27:20
it literally was like, constant, because you're

Scott Benner 27:24
skinny, by the way, because you're a thin person. Do you think that's the whole reason they're like, it's like, why would they not? Do you know what I mean? Like, why does the bullshit of, oh, you're thin, it's okay not make somebody go. I mean, if that's their mindset, then why don't they go, Oh, you're thin. This isn't type two. Like, you know what I mean? Like, if they're willing to make, like, a bullshit leap because of the size of your body for one reason, but not for the other, I

Speaker 1 27:47
agree. I think it's all laziness. I think it's complacent this, I really, and that's been my experience. It's just it's lazy. And I like when people are like, Oh, they're so busy. Well, what are they busy doing, because it's not patient care. They're generating income. They're busy generating income, but it's not patient care, because my story is far from unique. Yeah, you know, I've listened to tons of very similar stories on the podcast. It's just, it's lazy, and it's, I don't know why we all accept it, and I think it's we accept it, because what the heck else are we supposed to do? Well, yeah, like, what are we gonna do? Right?

Scott Benner 28:24
Because the other side of it is they're they're also just people. And you know what? I mean, like, they're in an imperfect system, and they're not perfect people, and everything else that goes along with being human is involved. But you would think that in a world that's so I mean, listen, look at what our I hate to talk like this, but like, look what our computers can accomplish, right? Like, we're shooting, I don't know, rockets to space stations and bringing them back again, and cars are driving themselves. And, you know, an algorithm can pretty much do anything it can. Can control your blood sugar through a thing that a guy in Russia made in an app. And I, you know, don't know the first thing about gestational diabetes, but by typing the sentence, what happens to a baby of a gestational mother if the mother has high blood glucose, I got the complete and utter breakdown of what happens in literally, a split second. You'd think we'd be able to figure out how to triage people more accurately, I

Speaker 1 29:22
know that's all I'm saying, but it gets better with that hospital, even though I appreciate that they did save my life because they did, right, of course, yeah, and I think we all go back and forth like ers are meant to keep you from dying, right? They're not technically meant to diagnose, right? It's just to stabilize you. So I do appreciate that they saved my life, however. So the day I was leaving is when I assume it was a diabetes educator came in, but I'm not really sure. And she gave me, you know, the pamphlets of, like, you know, a quarter of a bagels, 15 carbs, blah, blah, blah, like, things I was just like, this lady talking about, and why? Yeah. And then she whispered to me and said, You're not type two. You have type one. You need to see an endo. And she handed me a piece of paper where she wrote down like, five different endos and said I ranked them from who I recommend best to least good luck. And it was just kind of like, you know, be quiet. And I was again, I was still, like, this lady's nuts. Like, not type two, but I'm definitely not type one. And you also, you don't

Scott Benner 30:26
know the world that she understands. She's like, Listen, you were just misdiagnosed. I'm trying to save your life. Take this paper. And you're like, Okay, crazy person. Hey, yeah, I hear you. Yeah,

Speaker 1 30:38
yep. Thank God for her, right? But so, you know, all they make you do as an adult is, you know, stick the needle on your stomach. And as long as you can do that, then you're good to go. And, like, that's literally it. So there's no directions, advice, nothing right, which is, just as long as you can poke your stomach with the needle, you can leave now. And I remember specifically asking about like, because they told me I would have prescriptions for two insulins on how I was supposed to do that. And they were like, instructions will be with the prescription. So I'm like, Okay, so my friend takes me to pick them up. The long acting makes sense, 20 units once a day. But then for the short acting, it says take one unit as needed.

Speaker 2 31:25
Like, that's literally what it said. So it's like, it's so disturbing

Scott Benner 31:30
to me, when you look back at it, you're like, what does that mean? Because there's

Speaker 1 31:34
no scenario where that's an appropriately written prescription, right? Do you agree? I'm just like, yeah,

Scott Benner 31:41
no. I mean, the person were to say to you, look, we put a generic placeholder in the script because we don't know what to say yet, because we don't have your insulin to carb ratio. We're not sure if you're honeymooning. We don't know any of that stuff like, and these are things you're not gonna understand yet, but that's why you're gonna go right to an endocrinologist and get it all worked out. Like, you know, but no, as needed. So that's then up to you to go, Okay, well, here's a unit. Is that what's been is

Speaker 1 32:04
I called the hospital when I got home, because I'm like, I don't know what this means. Like, when would I know when I need it? And of course, they're like, Well, you're not a patient here anymore. You need to talk to your PCP. And I think this was like a Friday afternoon, of course. So then I don't even think I called them until Monday. And then, of course, they were like, well, we didn't prescribe you that. We can't tell you how you should take

Scott Benner 32:27
it. Just passing the buck everywhere, right? It

Speaker 1 32:30
was, yeah, and I'm still so sick at this point, and I'm just like, all right, I don't even believe these people anyway, I'll just take this one unit when I eat. This is so funny when I think back on some of this now, because, like, when I got home, like our neighborhood did, like a meal train, just to help so I didn't have to cook dinner for the kids. It was either the first or second day I was home, someone had just ordered pizza for the for us, and so I was still very much starving, right? Like I could eat all day long, every day, like 5000 calories. I still need more food. And I remember eating like six pieces of pizza, and I took one unit of insulin for it. That's about right

Scott Benner 33:12
as needed. Are you wearing a CGM? No, right?

Speaker 1 33:17
No, they didn't send me home with that. I there was a, oh, this is funny too. So it was, you know, with the glucometer, they didn't see anything. Like, I have to preface by saying, like, they provided no information and I was sick. I would keep saying I was really, really sick, yeah. So I would check, like, I think it said check four times a day. I don't remember exactly what it said of how many times to check, but I would check and it would just say, hi, and I remember calling the pharmacy and saying, My glucometer is wrong because it's not reading numbers, it's just reading words and and they literally just said, bring it back. We'll replace it. And I'm like, Okay, thank you. So my friend goes and picks up a new one, brings back the next one. Next one. The next time I check it, it's the same thing. I'm like, can't believe this one's broken too. Like it's not reading a number, and literally, I replaced three until I finally, like, looked at, like the directions, or Googled. I don't remember what I did, because my brain wasn't thinking, Heather,

Scott Benner 34:15
I hope this makes you feel better that the the in the middle of the night, the night we realized we thought Arden had diabetes, and I went out to I went down to a 24 hour pharmacy, and I got a glucose meter. We brought it back, and didn't really know how to do it, and we opened it up, put it together, and checked Arden's blood sugar, and when it said hi, I said out loud, oh, it's so nice. It says hello to you before it gives you the number. My wife's like, hold on, dummy, when you see that. So she she looks in the book, she goes, I think that means her blood sugar is over 500 and I was like, Oh, okay. And then we just packed up and we went to the hospital, like in the middle of the night. But I literally said those words, so I don't want you to feel bad because I wasn't sick. So. I was just dumb. Didn't notice,

Speaker 1 35:02
you don't know, right? Yeah?

Scott Benner 35:05
But I thought like, Well, what a lovely medical device. It's like, Hello. How are you? I'm gonna give your number in a second. Hold on. They don't do that. I love that. You return. How many? Three of them?

Speaker 1 35:15
Yeah. Nobody questioned me. And I literally kept saying, it's just saying words. Nobody was like, Well, what word is it saying? Like, no, yeah. It's like, Here you go. Your

Scott Benner 35:26
story just outlines all the gaps in how things are set up. Like, how many different times and how many different ways somebody can be dropped? And then, I mean, I love that. You call back the hospital and you're like, hey, I have a question. Like, you're not a patient here anymore, but you're like, you told me this, and it's like, that part's over. Now go talk to somebody else. Well, who, you know what I mean, like, and what is as needed. And you know, like, insulin, by the way, is really dangerous. So like, what if you decided one unit as needed meant every 15 minutes, right? Like, you don't, you wouldn't have known, although, in the case of six slices of pizza, that might have been appropriate, but, but Jesus. Yeah, not crazy. It's just crazy. How does it get to the point where you are now, like, what ends up happening that you figure things out?

Speaker 1 36:14
I mean, definitely the podcast, like, how do you find that? So I can't remember. I remember googling because, again, I wasn't feeling physically any better because I was taking one unit as needed, right? Like, wait a minute, how

Scott Benner 36:30
long did you do that? For? Like, a month, by the way, this is not funny, but it is kind of hilarious. So and you have, you have the right attitude to talk about it this way. So for a month, you're just like, how about now unit?

Speaker 1 36:42
I mean, I would eat, and I was still eating, like, and I know everybody manages differently, but I was still eating all day long, like I was starving still, because I was still, wasn't doing anything to feel better, because I didn't know what to do. But yeah, it was like a month, and I just I felt terrible, and I think I started Googling, just for, like, diabetes type one groups on Facebook in my area that I lived. And then I think that one came up on a thread of another group, the Juicebox one. So I'm like, Oh, I'll check that out. The

Scott Benner 37:16
randomness it takes. It was very random, yeah, to help yourself, is, is? I find that very frustrating. But then

Speaker 1 37:22
I didn't start listening to the podcast right away. I started just reading posts, and I'm like, oh, like, Pre Bolus and, like correction factors, and, you know, I'm like, What is all of this? And of course, I was terrified, and I actually still am. I'm, like, a very insecure type one still?

Scott Benner 37:40
Well, you're very new. I mean, I don't see a reason why you should feel completely confident. Like it's a year and a half that makes me feel better. Yeah, no, hell, I would. I was still crying in two years. Don't you worry. I didn't even have diabetes. This is my kid. I also didn't have a podcast to listen to, but that's neither here nor there. I was like, literally still crying in the shower two years into it, yeah. So

Speaker 1 38:04
the end of that, I see i i have a lot of negative things to say about them, but when I did get in there, at least I got a CGM, and they gave me the generic, you know, correction factor 50 and carb ratio of 15. So that at least gave me a starting point which I didn't have, right? Okay, so I'm grateful for that. I do know, at my six month appointment, after listening to a lot of episodes, I asked if they would help me, you know, down my ratios. And they had told me that at that point, this was my six month appointment, that I had been diabetic long enough and then I could just figure it out.

Scott Benner 38:42
Ah, you can make those adjustments. Heather, as needed. It drives

Speaker 1 38:47
me nuts because, like, I have a high deductible, and the visits are like, 350 holy crime. And then they charge, they have an extra charge for downloading my data

Scott Benner 38:58
of $50 I love that,

Unknown Speaker 39:02
which they've only ever gone over with me once

Scott Benner 39:04
we're gonna change your tires. Do you want these lug nuts back on? Because that's gonna be an extra charge, right? How could you charge someone to download their data? It's $50 I want just real quickly. Heather, this just isn't for you. Obviously. This is for other people listening. You're all scumbags. I just want to say, I mean, like anyone who's doing that, like, just be fcking ashamed to yourselves, like you're taking $350 off this lady to tell her, Hey, you could do it yourself. And, by the way, give me 50 more dollars to download your meter. Like, yep, and then not to help you with it. Correct pieces, 100% accurate, absolute pieces of anybody who would do that to

Speaker 1 39:41
you, I know, but like, that's where you get trapped, right? Because we need them for refills. So they provide me no service. They don't, yeah, other than they give me a prescription that they are so conservative with, too that I always have to ask. I remember, like, I'm on a pump now, but when I was still MDI, they didn't even write. It enough that I could prime my pen as many times as I used it a day. And I remember asking them to increase it, and they gave me a really hard time about it, making me almost feel like, like I'm a junkie or something like, like, what else would I be doing with the insulin? Like, I don't understand, like I was

Scott Benner 40:14
squirting it around the room, like fireworks. Like, you know, it's funny. You said junkie because I thought this like an 80s drug movie where the drug dealer makes fun of the guy buying the drugs, like, you, mean, I got to stand here and take this clowning on me before I can get my heroin, like, like, and they're like, Here, give us $50 Thank you. All right, here's your insulin. Yeah, I listen. I don't know, man. Like, the whole world's upside down. Like see I every time I have these conversations, I'm I'm inclined to say I see both sides. But then at some point, I think, no, I don't see their side as much. I know it's just people, and that a person who becomes a nurse is no different or better than a person who becomes a school teacher or the guy that comes and gets your, I don't know, does your does your dry cleaning like, you know, like everyone's people. You'll get good ones, and you'll get bad ones. And you'll get people who are very inclined to help people and to do a great job no matter what. And then you'll get people who are just like, I got this job. I wonder how long I cannot do it before someone fires me. Like those. Those people exist too, you know, in every walk of life, just like they don't care, they're not really trying to add to the greater good of anything. And those people are sometimes doctors too. I, you know, and then you get enough people together, and it gets into a system, it's like, hey, it turns out I can, you know, I don't have to work that hard, and I make a good living. And, you know, Heather's alive, she figured it out, you know? So we all win. We do. I have Porsche and Heather's alive, right? Jesus Christ, I don't know. I just think, like, I mean, there's a minimum, just do your job, right? Like, like, I don't

Speaker 1 41:59
expect them to care about me like, I don't. I think that's romanticizing a business. Yeah, of course, I expect them to do their job. That's it. You don't have to like me. You don't have to look me in the eye, which they usually don't. They don't even usually look at me. They just update things on their laptop, and then, like, that's it. And then I'll go into that my chart, and I'll read, you know, just like, five pages of notes of like, they checked my feet, and they did this, and they did that, which none of that even happened. And I'm

Scott Benner 42:27
like, What is this? No one looked at your feet, but they wrote it down. It's written

Speaker 1 42:31
on every one of my visit notes. They've never once looked at my feet, never once,

Scott Benner 42:37
I swear, I don't have anything bad to say about the Children's Hospital that Arden went to, I really don't the visits where we'd go in there, where they'd, like, let me check your sites, and they would just kind of palpate a little bit to see if there was, like, you know, you know, any spaces maybe, like, Oh, don't, don't inject here anymore. Don't put your pump here or something like that. They just pump it. Push on her belly. But how's your belly feel? Does that hurt? No. Okay, well, then there we go. And like, you know, like, so you pushed on her belly and you touched where her You said, Oh, you're doing a good job rotating. That's good. You're doing great. Everything's great. How are you? How are you? And Orton's like, I mean, I'm like, I'm eight, you know what? I mean, like, I play softball and I go to school and, I mean, I'm not dead, so I guess I'm good, you know, like, like, this is it, huh? This is the visit. I had to fight with them to give her thyroid medication. We don't medicate that number. I said, Well, you do with my kid, like, but I had to do that, you know, I got him up to, like, I don't think this is enough. You need to, like, look at t3 for her. Maybe Fight, fight. You know, they didn't. She grows the thyroid medications, not enough now, Arden starts having like issues where they're like, looking at her heart. This goes back a number of years. Not one person ever said, hey, you know, we put her, she had these thyroid symptoms. We put her on this thyroid medication. She gained 30 pounds, and we never moved up her dose. But these could be thyroid symptoms. Instead, they've got us scared out of our minds. You know, seeing a cardiologist, it took my wife and I to go. Do you think it's possible just just needs some more Synthroid because she gained weight, and then we couldn't get them to agree to that. So by the way, Heather, not for nothing. I started like knocking pills into little pieces and giving her extra I made her symptoms go away. And then I went back to the doctor and I said, Well, here's the thing I did, and now you helped me figure out how we should actually be doing it. Because I gave her extra, this Synthroid, and all this went away. There's no moment where they go, Hey, I'm really sorry for making you drive across the state to see a cardiologist and scare the daddy that your kid had a heart issue, and I didn't listen to you when you mentioned the thing about this Synthroid, but now that you figured out that it works, I'd be happy to adjust the dose and pretend like none of this ever happened, right?

Speaker 1 44:51
Yeah, okay, yeah. I mean, it's just, it's so much pressure because none of us are physicians, right? Like, and you. I personally don't have the capacity to figure out a lot of this, but we're all kind of forced to,

Scott Benner 45:05
oh, to the point where I don't want to say where I was, because I kind of give something away for another person, and which I don't think is right. I was with a healthcare professional for something recently. It was more personal, and they have no idea what I do for a living, which is to say they don't know I make a podcast, and they don't know anything about me. And we were talking and like I was a meal thing and going on and on little bit, there's a number of people there. And eventually this doctor turns to me and he goes, Hey, I'm so sorry. I don't know what you do. You're a doctor, right? And I was like, No. And he goes, you're not in the medical field. You're a nurse. You're and I'm like, and he's just like, looking at me like, blank. And I was like, I make a podcast. And he starts laughing. He goes, I thought you were a doctor. And I'm like, I'm passing as a doctor in this conversation. Be very clear. Heather, that says nothing good about me. That says something very scary about doc, almost didn't graduate from high school. Heather, I want to be very, very, very clear. There was like two months at the end where I was like, oh my god, I'm not going to graduate that I did not go to college. And I'm sitting with a group of professionals. One of them is a is a learned physician who thinks I'm a doctor, there's your problem. Yeah? Fix that.

Speaker 1 46:32
I know. Yeah, Jesus. But I mean, I think we'd all take advice from the podcast members right before, at least I would I have I'm better because of that community. It's listening to the different episodes, it's looking at different posts, and a lot of them are geared towards kids, but I still read them, and I'm like, Oh, should I try that? Oh, I'm gonna do this. And, like, sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't, yeah, but everything came from there. The only thing I got from the medical community was 15 and 50, right? Eat 45 carbs. Oh, 1515,

Scott Benner 47:09
eat 15 carbs. Wait 15 minutes if you're low. Oh, I got that too. Yeah. Oh, no. What? What are you saying?

Speaker 1 47:16
So, like, they just, it was the generic, like, My correction factor was 50 and my carb ratio was 15, and then from there it was, just figure it out from yourself. It's like 32 and seven. You know what's

Scott Benner 47:31
interesting, Jenny and I did these three episodes called the math behind where we had these like conversations about, you know about, like, what the starting math is to figure out somebody's carb ratio, for example. And it's this very basic thing that you know, doctors and practitioners do behind your back in the office, where they're, like, you look over and you think they're they're wizards, and then they come back and they say, let's start with one unit for this. It's like, it's this simple, like, it's just this simple mathematical formula. How much do you weigh?

Unknown Speaker 48:05
Right now, I weigh 124

Scott Benner 48:07
okay, what should the hourly basal rate be for 124 pound female with type one diabetes.

Speaker 1 48:20
I like that you went there because I have a little story with that. Okay,

Scott Benner 48:24
I don't know what I'm doing. It's all just off the top. Let's see, this is just chat GPT. It's not connected to anything. Let's see what it figures out. Highly individualized, even it's covering its ass. Oh, so here it is, total a common starting point is the estimate the total daily insulin requirements for adults. A rough estimate is point five to point seven units per kilogram of body weight per day. Typical basal insulin accounts for about 40 to 50% blah, blah. So this thing's gonna if you asked this thing enough questions and then filled in, like, oh, well, this is, you know, my total daily insulin and went on one, it would give you the answer that you needed. Like, it would divide the daily it's walking me through right now, how to figure this out. And so there are people running around all over the world whose settings are way off, and then they go to a doctor and say, like, how do I adjust this? And doctors like, I don't know. You've had diabetes for six months now, you figure it out. Like, I can ask the magic box, and it comes it explains the whole thing. Like my endo can't do it, I know. Just tell me, you want to get back to tick tock. Seriously. Just have the nerve to say to me, listen, that sounds like a lot of work, and it's almost lunchtime, so why don't you go figure it out? It just, I don't know. All right, what's your story? What did that just make you think? Not really

Speaker 1 49:41
a story, but my endo was always very focused on how much I weighed in the beginning. Because when I would ask to change this prescription, because I would run out, or be close to running out, you're taking too much insulin for your body. It was always because of your body weight. So there must be some sort of calculation somewhere that. Equates, right? That has some generic setting to how much you weigh. Yeah, for months that was that, no, you don't weigh enough to take that much insulin.

Scott Benner 50:10
Well, is it possible I have insulin resistance? Is it possible that I have PCOS? Is it possible that I'm eating, like, really poorly? Like, do you want to ask more questions or just say that and then pass me out of here again, nobody it's the rest of this. Heather, I used to say this more than I say it now it's what we don't say that's important. You know, mean, like, there's more. Like, you just said something great, what's the rest of it? Right? Like, that's where the answer is. Like, what's the rest of it? And no one knows. I don't want to, like, listen, there are people who know. I'm not going to say there aren't people who know. But like, for the most part, really think about this. How many people do you really trust? Oh, I know. How many people in the course of your life do you meet and go there's a person ride or die? End of the World, I'm going with that one. You don't meet that many people like that. So, so I've built these calculators that I have not had the nerve to put out into the public yet, and I don't know if I'm going to, but like, for example, it'll help you with your insulin sensitive figure out your insulin sensitivity. It can help you. It explains the whole thing to you. What's your total daily dose? Do you know what? How much insulin you use a day,

Speaker 1 51:21
yeah, it's like, it's roughly like 32 units. Like 32

Scott Benner 51:24
units. So is your in Do you know what your insulin sensitivity is set at? I have it at seven. You think one unit moves you 7.0 I'm sorry for, like, the correction factor, 32 sorry. So this thing thinks it's like 56 based on your total daily insulin. But I don't know if that's right or not, and that's why I'm not, like, moving these out into the world yet well,

Speaker 1 51:50
and I don't eat a lot, so I think that, oh, like my car, 5050,

Scott Benner 51:55
yeah. Okay, so then there's an example where it just wouldn't work for you, and that's why I don't think it's okay to put these out there. But like, people could tell me your total daily again, was it 32 Yeah, it's roughly 32 and your one unit moves you how much for insulin to carb ratio. My car ratio is seven, seven. And you find these numbers to be very accurate for you. I do

Speaker 1 52:18
good. I actually think the correction factor could be a little lower, to be honest,

Scott Benner 52:24
lower, like, one covers nine, or one covers five,

Speaker 1 52:30
more aggressive, yeah, but yeah, more aggressive. I think there's no reason to feel this way, but I think a lot of people do, like, if I would go lower, it's like some mental thing. Like, I have the reason I don't eat a lot is because I have this mental thing in my head about, like, I never want to take more than five units at a time. Like, if I take more than five units, it's catastrophic. Like, it's

Scott Benner 52:52
why? Why do you feel that way?

Speaker 1 52:54
I think, like a lot of people, but they handle it better. Like, I'm scared of, like, something wacky happening, right? Which I realized, like, if going low, and I realized, if I'm going low, I have the tools and the knowledge to keep myself safe, and everything will be fine. But then you'll read those posts of like, there was no reason I dropped a 32 out of nowhere, and I'm like, Oh my God. Like I have to prepare. And in my head, it's all make believe, like none of this is based on reality at all. In my head, I can manage something going wacky if it's only like five units or four units, but if we go beyond that, then it would just be completely unmanageable. Okay?

Scott Benner 53:35
I mean, I don't, I don't, not understand your fear. That's you know. So what do you do? Eat lower carb for that reason?

Speaker 1 53:42
I do. Yeah, yeah. I could go a lot of places with food.

Scott Benner 53:47
Like, were you lower carb prior to diabetes? No, no, yeah. So you have, you have a fear of getting low, and so you're trying to work with, like, I'll use less insulin, that'll give me less chance of getting low. That's part of

Speaker 1 54:01
it. That's a big part of it. What's the rest of it? I mean, the other part of it is I, like, I hate food now, like, if I could never eat again, I would happily not do so

Scott Benner 54:11
tell me more about that. Tell me more about that,

Speaker 1 54:15
because it's requiring me right? Even if my settings are completely correct, it's still requiring me to do something right that hopefully I get it right, but if I don't, then I'm gonna have to eat a stupid gummy or I'm gonna have to like you. It requires management, right? You feel

Scott Benner 54:33
judged by the outcome. Are you insulted that you need to do it?

Speaker 1 54:38
I feel annoyed by it. I feel overwhelmed by it is probably a better word. Like, I would just like to eat lunch and just eat lunch. Like, I'm just gonna eat whatever it is. I'm gonna go on about my day instead of, oh, did I get this wrong? Oh, I must have been stressed out right before I ate, because now it's going up and like, how long should I. Eight before I do like all of that. I don't want to think about that, no, and I obsess about it all day long,

Scott Benner 55:06
or just think about it, yeah, so

Speaker 1 55:09
it's like, I'm anxious about lows, but I'm also anxious about, you know, I want to be no higher than 120 ever, like, I want to just kind of be in the 80 to 100 all the time, because I feel like there's been, and I don't know any of this, this is all fabricated in my head, but I feel like there's no way I don't have an incredible amount of damage to my body from, like, 10 plus years of being undiagnosed, like, possible, I bet. Yeah, well,

Scott Benner 55:39
I mean, listen, if you're if your blood sugars are 114 for 10 years, it's not optimal. But I don't think you're in trouble.

Unknown Speaker 55:47
No. But who knows what it

Scott Benner 55:48
was, right? Yeah, well, yeah.

Speaker 1 55:51
And I know I have to, like, let it go. And I do believe, like, your body wants to heal.

Scott Benner 55:56
Yeah, it was like, I was gonna say, Where's your hippie stuff? Where'd that guy? It's

Unknown Speaker 56:00
there, it's still there.

Unknown Speaker 56:03
But I do believe that, like, our bodies want to be well,

Scott Benner 56:06
I know what you're saying, but saying it that way is, like, hilarious, is it? Yeah, I don't know. It just sounds like, it sounds like we've been smoking weed all afternoon, and we're talking about, and we're talking about Berberine,

Speaker 1 56:18
this is what I should do, and then maybe I could relax, oh, like,

Scott Benner 56:24
feels like we're in Colorado or on a campfire, and you're like, Yo man, just take more vitamin B. You know about methylation, like, but I totally understand what you mean. Like, I mean, and your body does try to heal itself, like, right? It is trying to, you know, you remake cells, and things can get better. Of course, you know, sometimes those duplicate incorrectly, but you know, for the most part, you know, we get cut, we heal, etc. Listen, it's important to note that I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'd be surprised if you had long term problems from that first couple of years of that, that slow onset, like, I mean, I'd bet, I'd bet for you being okay, if I had to bet some money, that could also be completely wrong, but you should just take some bourbon and see what that does. Or have you tried milk thistle? I'm just kidding. You probably shouldn't. But no, listen, not that there's not some great stuff going on, like with supplements, and there's some I take, some supplements that I'm sure people would laugh at me for. I it's not, it's certainly not a thing I would worry about. Yeah.

Speaker 1 57:33
I mean, I got a lot I got to stop worrying about because I know it's not helpful. Do

Scott Benner 57:37
you hard? Do you want a slice of pizza? Or are you happy eating the way you're eating?

Speaker 1 57:42
I don't want a slice of pizza because I don't want to deal with it. No, I

Scott Benner 57:46
didn't ask if you want to deal with it. I asked you if you wanted a slice of pizza, like, like, if it wasn't anything to deal with, would you want it? Yes. So you're restricting yourself to avoid the other thing, yes, and that's that making you upset.

Speaker 1 58:00
I'm upset that it exists in my life. Yes, okay, yeah.

Scott Benner 58:04
Is it? Is it changing your life in bad ways, the food or just the whole thing, the decision making tree that you're in? Like,

Speaker 1 58:12
I am not as as strong, I think, as a lot of people on this podcast, because I I'm very unhappy, and I can be dark a lot of times about all of this. Like, I'm amazed when I see people that I know how much time and effort and everything that they put into managing it, and they still have a really good attitude. Like, it amazes me because I am angry, I'm bitter, I feel like I have this very diseased body that I can't fix. Yeah, I all of it, all of it awful. I hear

Scott Benner 58:48
what you're saying. Have you thought about therapy to try to work through it?

Speaker 1 58:51
So I went to one hesitantly last year, and, um, it was just, it was so unhelpful and like, she didn't even know what to say.

Scott Benner 59:02
You're like, I'm bitter, and I feel like I'm in a broken body. And she's like, Yeah, no kidding,

Speaker 1 59:08
yeah. I mean, I think it was because, like, I could tell her I'm like, but I'm also grateful for and I could name 100 things, and that's the truth. Like, I'm grateful for all these things, and I also, like, despise everything about my life right now, like, and it's an equal, and I think that's where they get stuck. They're like, Oh,

Scott Benner 59:26
would it be helpful like to just be able to voice it with somebody else who would come along and say, Hey, I feel better too. I think

Speaker 1 59:34
so. I mean, I don't. There's not like, I think there's something to be said about, like, camaraderie, right? Yeah, even though it's like, well, with type one, but there isn't the supports out there for adults. I think just because everybody's doing their own thing, generally mean, like, if there was a freaking adult camp, I'd be like, Sign me up. There

Scott Benner 59:51
is an adult go, yeah, there's an adult camp. Yeah. It's called connected in motion. It's a Canadian thing, but they come into to. Of the US in a couple of places. Oh, you don't have to look into that. Connected in motion, connected in motion. Yeah, I, by the way, said that out loud, even though someone was on here once, and said, Oh my god, I'd love for you to speak at a connected emotion thing. I'm gonna go talk to people, and then no one got back to me. And I'm still saying connected in motion, connected in motion. So you're welcome, even though, apparently you don't want me there. Meanwhile, I don't know if the guy ever actually asked or not, but still funny to say. What I'm thinking is, if there's a soft spot in community for type one adults, I think it's this. I think that when you get a bunch of people together and they're they're both children or parents of and adults with, and you put them all in the same place, they clearly have significantly different perspectives, you know, based on their age and their experiences, but even based on when they're diagnosed. And even though I think an adult can take a lot from a conversation with a caregiver, and I think a caregiver could take a lot from a conversation with an adult. I think what ends up happening sometimes is that parents can get very, I don't know what the word is like, defensive, or they don't want to talk about bad things happening, because right now, they're in the part where they're like, if I figured this out, nothing bad is going to happen. And they don't want to hear from somebody who's like, I feel bitter because they don't want to think their kid's going to feel better. Do you know what I mean? Oh,

Speaker 1 1:01:27
yeah, 100% and I've actually thought a little bit about that with, like, my kids, and I can confidently say that if, if it was my kids, I'd be like, we got this. Like, you don't have anything to worry about. I will always have your back. We will get through this, like, and I feel confident saying that. I don't know why it gets twisted when it's yourself. I

Scott Benner 1:01:48
don't, yeah, first of all, I want to say I don't feel. I understand how parents feel. And if you're in a group with my group's huge. It's 51,000 active people, you know, and so it, I get it. If you're, like, talking about, like, how do we get this right? And blah, blah, blah. And then like, 135 year old, like, Wiz in person comes in, and they're like, we're all gonna die. Like, you're just, like, putting on digital black eyeliner. And they're just like, Listen, man, give up. Like, like, like, you're like, you're like, I don't want to hear this, right? And that is just that. That is an end of one, you know, situation from one person's experience. But also, there's other people that feel like that, and it would be nice that they could all get together and go, I feel bitter and I don't want to feel this way, because you don't want to feel that way, correct, right? I don't, yeah, so, I mean, it's tough, because a support group would be really valuable. You know, I don't know if I'm I don't know if I'm supposed to say this out loud or not. What am I gonna do? The group experts in my Facebook group mostly have type one diabetes, where they're, you know, where they their kid does, right? And these are just lovely people who are donating their time to answering questions in the Facebook group. And mostly what they do is they're like, hey, check out this episode. Or you should try bold beginnings. Or have you tried the Pro Tip series? How about these variables? Like, it's a very nice thing they do in their free time, but they have a chat where they can talk privately so they can say, like, Hey, I just reported a post or, you know, can somebody get a message? I'm not in that chat, by the way, very purposely. I don't I'm not involved in it on purpose, so that they can feel free to talk and, you know, have camaraderie with each other. And I hear back through people that that is maybe the best type one diabetes support group in the world, is that those 15 people in that chat. Oh, interesting. I've really toyed with learning more about WhatsApp and starting maybe a WhatsApp group for people with diabetes, and letting there be a an adult, what's WhatsApp chat and a like, maybe let it be more specific, like the but I gotta learn. I'm literally in the middle of learning about it right now, because, like, would that be nice if you could go on the Facebook group and go, Oh my God, there's a whatsapp chat for adult women who were diagnosed later. Or, like, you know, like, very specific, like, genres of people that you could jump into. Would you find that valuable? I would, you would. Okay, all right, what have we not talked about here? Heather, that we

Speaker 1 1:04:26
should have? Well, my kids, we could throw, you want to throw that in? I

Scott Benner 1:04:29
mean, they're identical, they're already special, but sure, let's talk about it. What is there been like you're not married? Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah, okay, and yeah, that been for a while or never? Yes, okay, always I was gonna say because I didn't dig into it, because it wasn't our path. But 38 twins in vitro.

Speaker 1 1:04:48
No, no. So it was a surprise. It was a really good, amazing, best thing in my life. Surprise

Scott Benner 1:04:58
that, by the way, your voice. Jump three octaves there, just in case the kids hear this. It was a lovely surprise. It didn't happen after a bar crawl, if that's what you're asking. It did not,

Speaker 1 1:05:12
no, but yeah, it's just been the three of us. So, I mean, I think that's some of my anxiety with all of this. You don't

Scott Benner 1:05:18
want to die and leave two young kids behind is that your thinking 100% and your parents both dropped out early, correct? And at the moment, you look like you could go before them. Yeah, I was gonna say that's occur to you, right? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 1:05:31
That's what terrifies me, is like they're gonna come home and find me dead anyway, whatever

Scott Benner 1:05:42
it's just like, that's probably not gonna happen, which, by the way, that's probably not gonna happen. You're stuck because you found your mom basically over the phone. You know what? I mean, like you, yeah, and I would like to point out she was 23 years older than you are, and not in great health. You're probably in better health with type one diabetes than your mom was without it. Probably,

Speaker 1 1:06:02
I actually don't disagree with that, but it's definitely, you know, she lived alone. I live alone. I'm like, anyway, so with them, I quickly did that trial, net after I was diagnosed, okay, and, you know, everything was negative, blah, blah, blah. And then months later, think they were asking me, like, does it hurt when you check your blood sugar? And I'm like, No, it doesn't hurt at all. Blah blah blah, trying to make it like normal for them, right? And so I'm like, here, let me, I'll do you. You can see it. That's cool. You get to your number blah blah blah, check both of them. They're both like, 120 something. I don't remember what it was, and this was first thing in the morning. And so like, of course, like all the other parents, right? Because I've seen all these posts too, and I can relate to them. Like, instantly panic. And like, Go, wash your hands, come back. Say, wash your hands, come back. Seem, I'm like, I'd be kidding me. So then I call the PCP, like, can you please order antibody tests again, C peptide? And she's like, No, there's no reason to and I'm like, Look, this is what I just did. Please do this. I have a deductible. I'm paying for it anyway. And she's like, I can't do that. And I'm like, Well, what can you do? And she's like, well, I can order an A, 1c and I was upset because I'm like, it's not going to be high, but fine, whatever. Fair enough. Yeah, so we get them, and they're both 5.8 and I'm like, Oh, my What

Scott Benner 1:07:22
the hell are you telling me your kids have diabetes? Not there yet. All right, geez, Heather, wait, oh, wait a hold this cat in the bag past the first hour. Hold on. Let me. Let me just tell Rob now. Go ahead. Charge me overtime. I know good editing overtime coming my way. Don't worry about it. Go ahead, Heather, what do you got? Go

Speaker 1 1:07:39
ahead. Then I was like, she's like, Oh, it's 5.8 they're fine, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, That's not fine. Like, what are we talking about? And my kids aren't overweight or and they don't eat, I don't want to sound ignorant. I'd like to take that comment back.

Scott Benner 1:07:53
Yeah, it wouldn't matter how much they wait or what they ate, if they're everyone sees higher or not. Like, it's just is, yeah, they're, they're, they're, yeah, their pancreas is either doing its job or it's not right.

Speaker 1 1:08:03
Yeah, clearly wasn't. But she's like, it's fine. And I'm like, no, like, can you please, like, order these other labs? And she's like, well, I don't know how to interpret them. I'm like, they're either positive or native. Like, there's, like, there's not much more you can do with them.

Scott Benner 1:08:17
Oh, wait, if you don't know how to interpret them, why am I paying you

Speaker 1 1:08:22
right? They either have the antibodies or they don't. But anyway, so then I just tried to get into an endo, which, of course, they were like, without a referral. Blah blah blah. So then I had a big PCP again. I'm like, please send whatever these endos want. So the endo was at USF, so, and I purposely chose that. I'm like, be in good hands here. Blah, blah, blah. So then they do run the antibody labs, and only one of them comes back with one positive, and it was the zinc one, the c8 thing, okay, and the other one comes back with none of them positive, but it's just sitting out in, you know, the my chart thing for two weeks, like I saw and got the notification. I was devastated, right? I was devastated. Two weeks I heard nothing from them, so then I finally send them a message. I'm like, Hey, I'm a little disappointed. This is devastating. I've heard from no one, like, what are the next steps? Because I was surprised too, because I hear a lot of really positive stories from the pediatric endos. And I'm like, Well, how did I choose the bad one again? But anyway, she's basically like, nothing you can do. Watch and wait. We'll send a script for a glucometer like that.

Scott Benner 1:09:30
Was it like, Would you like a free meter?

Speaker 1 1:09:34
And I'm like, This can't be watch and wait. So then I look on the list that is on the site of recommended end of

Scott Benner 1:09:43
Juicebox docs.com under undervalued resource. But yes, I know what you're talking about. Go

Speaker 1 1:09:49
ahead and so I go to one that's listed there. And it was just we did a telehealth to make it the appointment sooner. She spent the first 20. Minutes. So it was, we're on, you know, the zoom, both my kids are here to spend the first 20 minutes basically accusing me of, like, Munchausen, like, why would you ever check your kids blood sugar? Like, that's totally unacceptable. Why would you do that? And I'm trying to explain to her, like, how it happened. It was very innocent. They were curious. I want them to feel normal when they see me doing it. Yeah. And she wouldn't let it go. So then I'm like, Listen, this is what happened to me. Like everybody ignored me, then I almost died. Here I am. And she's like, Oh, all right. Like, this is one of the this was one of the recommended ones.

Scott Benner 1:10:33
Though I don't know what to tell you, everybody sucks, but they do.

Speaker 1 1:10:38
But then she continues to say that's not even the worst part. She says in front of my kids that I likely passed this to them in my placenta while I was pregnant. She said this to the three of us

Scott Benner 1:10:51
wait past what a higher a one thing, one type one. Oh, yes. Oh, that's not how that works. But okay,

Speaker 1 1:10:58
all right, so my my one son starts to cry, yeah, because he's

Scott Benner 1:11:02
like, why in the did I asked to have my blood sugar check? That was a guy that was like, Why did I say? Does that hurt? This was really the start of a bad decision making trick for me. Oh, my God, yes. You kid how old? He's like, 1110, they're

Speaker 1 1:11:16
11, so they're already getting to the point where, right, they're starting to be teens, and I'm not cool anymore, and, like, I suck for a variety of reasons. So now this lady's telling them, I've just given them, like, you know, this chronic condition. I'm just looking at her, and I'm like, never heard that before. And she's like, Oh yeah, absolutely,

Scott Benner 1:11:34
yeah, oh yeah, absolutely,

Unknown Speaker 1:11:37
I went pregnant too. She's pregnant.

Scott Benner 1:11:41
I don't know what that means, but Okay, good. Just that she should at least know, like, maybe

Speaker 1 1:11:46
she should, like, pregnant Endo, yeah. But anyway,

Scott Benner 1:11:50
a prendo. She's a prendo. Let's go with that. Okay.

Speaker 1 1:11:54
And then she just then started talking about, like, 45 carbs, or maybe it was 60, because I don't listen to any of this. I'm just like, all right. And then she's like, we need to refer you to weight management. And I was just like,

Scott Benner 1:12:08
for the kids, yes. Are they overweight? No,

Speaker 1 1:12:11
my kids are very skinny. My kids are 70 pounds when they're 11 years old. They've always been skinny, though, so it's not like a recent did she want them to put weight on? I know, because I didn't ask, because, like, at that point, right? Like I was done was like, whatever she said, like the respect was lost, or whatever she said, I didn't care, and didn't feel that it was valid in any way.

Scott Benner 1:12:34
Well, where are we now? Where are we now with the kids? So

Speaker 1 1:12:38
back to USF and the one actually has an appointment coming up in a couple of weeks, so I've been randomly checking. And the one that did not test positive for any of the antibodies, his are always below 100 like before meals after meals, like it seems fine. The other one, it's that it's not been anything over 140 but it's certainly a fasting 140s No? So the highest fasting has been like 130 something. I mean, close enough. I guess I don't

Scott Benner 1:13:11
think you should be able to wake up in the morning with a 130 blood sugar, though, I don't disagree with you. Yeah, that sounds junky to me. I think he's the one you're looking at like they're gonna need to be paying attention to,

Speaker 1 1:13:22
yeah, and he's the one that's going right. Um, so Well, first

Scott Benner 1:13:25
of all, let me say I'm sorry. Um, if that's what ends up happening, I'm I feel poorly. That's what's happening. But I'm glad you caught it and that you're ahead of it. It sucks that this is the that this is what happens when you try to go to doctors over and over, even the ones that people are like, Oh my God, this doctor is great. And then you go up there and they're like, are you why? Why are you checking their blood sugar? Like, how about this? How about hey, it seems like you really caught something here. Good thing. You check their blood sugar. Yeah. Again, everyone always sees something bad. It's backwards. How many times you look at someone and go, how is that the reaction you're having? Like, why not have why not this reaction over here? Like, oh, because what an opportunity to say, hey, it's great. You caught this early. If it's going to turn into something, we're going to know. We're going to be able to take care of it. Your mom already has type one, so you're already like, if that's what happens with you, then we're going to already know what to do. Boy, this is lucky. Like, just couch it differently. Like, right? You know what I mean, instead of looking at the kids and going see what this old bitch did to you, huh? I know,

Speaker 1 1:14:24
I know. Like, Jesus Christ, there was nothing beneficial for that comment, like, what am I supposed to do go back in time and not have them? If that was even true, which it's not true. But no, it's then my one son told me afterwards. He's like, I'm never gonna have kids because I don't want to do this to them. And I'm like, That's great. Yeah, that's great. Thanks, lady. And then my bill, let's not forget the bill. So

Scott Benner 1:14:46
what did it cost for her to make your kid upset and not want to have children, my God, and

Speaker 1 1:14:50
to accuse me? So for each visit, she charged for two even though we did it as a group, which is fine, she'd billed my insurance $2,100 Gosh, I'm not kidding you. And you know the contracted rate, I owe them 1100

Scott Benner 1:15:08
Listen, I want to say something I know. I tell people that my kids see, like, for endocrinology, we see a cash pay doctor, and then it's covered by my insurance. Like, I forget what it is, like 85 or 90% or something like that. In case, I've never said this out loud, the visits are 350 bucks. They're not $2,100 I know. And then they cover whatever they cover, and I end up paying like, 40 or $50 for my kids to see a doctor. Oh, wow, yeah. So my point is, is that $2,100 to get that hit? Level of care is ridiculous. I know every decent Doctor in the world is going to switch to cash pay. You're going to end up. We are going to end up. Everybody, like every decent Doctor, is going to start saying, I don't take insurance. You can send it in later. That's what dentists office do. By the way, a lot of doctors offices do that. They're like, look, I don't take your damn insurance. Go turn it into them later, and I'm sure you'll get reimbursed for most of it. But, like, I'm not getting involved in this game. And good doctors all over the place are doing this now. Now you got to be careful, because eventually doctors are going to do it too. But right now, the ones who can, um, pull their weight, and people know, and they know that they can run a basically, that they can run a business on word of mouth. That's what it really is. By the way, it's like they know they're good, and other people will tell other people about them, and they and to make a reasonable living, they don't have to work all day long. They can actually help you and sit my my kids doctor's appointments are 30 minutes long, if they're telehealth, and when we go in there, they're an hour. Oh, wow, yeah, you go, and you sit, you sit in a lovely chair next to a table with a lamp, and you have a conversation, like a human being, and you listen. They listen to everything. And when you leave there, everything's done. Scripts are taken care of, you know, if you need a blood work, it's all filled out. It's explained to you. This is what we're going to do. It's what we're looking for. You know, like all the stuff's done, you get a physical exam, a conversation, you know, and it's 350 bucks, and then when it's over, I only I pay, like, 50. It's amazing. It's not amazing. It's just you just, it's just reasonable, like, you just have to find reasonable people. That's the problem, is finding reasonable people.

Speaker 1 1:17:15
I mean, I would, I'm paying more than 350 and I don't get any of that, I'd happily pay 350 for someone to actually do their job. I

Scott Benner 1:17:24
texted with my doctor recently. I was like, I was like, Hey, I'm on my way to the pharmacy to pick this up. If they don't have it, what do you want me to do? And she's like, Oh, if they don't have it, text me and I'll just send another script for this instead. Wow, yeah, that's all. Find a reasonable person. It's not easy. I'm dumb beyond dumb luck that I found this person. But seriously, I don't know. It's just it's very upsetting to hear that somebody charged you $2,100 to make your kids sad, to say, to say that you were like, involved in Munch house since activities and to then not help with anything. All right, I don't know what to tell you. Good luck. You're all dead. It's not gonna know what you're gonna do. Like, exciting Are you made me upset? I'm gonna have lunch now, but

Speaker 1 1:18:15
so you shouldn't be, because truly, I know everybody says it, because it's true. Like, thank God for this group. Thank God for all the members and their insight and sharing their knowledge, their frustrations, like, all of it. Like, oh, we're all better because of this community. Like, just facts, I obviously,

Scott Benner 1:18:33
I mean, obviously I agree, and I appreciate you saying it. But it all it makes me feel like, is, I don't reach enough people. Like, every time, like I, I just said, this is somebody privately, but I'll say it here, even though it probably makes me sound crazy. Every time someone says something positive to me, I just think, well, there's I'm just I'm letting other people down. Like, if it works this, well, then why can't I reach more people with it and help more people. And so that's the part that just it kind of It breaks my heart. It keeps me up at night, kind of thing, like trying to figure out, like, how do you grow this? And I'll tell you the truth. Heather, the other day, I had a conversation with a person in the podcasting like space, like someone who works behind the scenes podcast hosting so they know, like, you know, they know what's what's what I was saying to this person, I don't know. Man, I'm like, I'm not growing this thing fast enough, like, it helps people, but it's not expanding quickly enough and to reach more people, because, you know, it How long can I do this for? I'm trying to help people now, that kind of thing. And we were on a on a like a Google meet up or something like that. And he said, Let me send you something. And I was like, okay, so he sends me this graphic, and I'm looking for it right now, see if I can find it. And he pulls this graphic up, and he says, Scott. He goes, buy down. Load, you're in the top 2% of all podcasts that exist in the world. Wow. And I was like, that's not possible. And he said, Now the 2% that are above you. He goes, actually, the 1% above you, you could reach, like, you could get into the top, like, 99 percentile. He's like, That's not undoable for you. He goes, that 1% above. He's like, you're not getting to that. He's like, no one's getting to that. That's dumb luck, smart list. Joe Rogan, kind of like space, you know what? I mean? Like 30 million people are listening to an episode that kind of stuff. He's like, you're not reaching that. He goes, No one reaches that. And I was like, okay, he goes, but you're right there. If you could grow 65 more percent, you'd be in the top 1% and he's like, Oh, wow. He goes, what is it you want? I was like, I want to reach more people with diabetes. And he goes, you're reaching as many people as this. This format allows. He's like, no one else is doing that. He's like, all those other shows are, like, comedy or famous people or something like that. And I was like, right? He goes, he's like, you, you've done it. You're, you're at the pinnacle right now. And he and he starts typing around. He goes, Look. He goes, I found a couple other podcasts where there were diabetes in the title. And I said, Okay. And he goes, there's a couple of them here. And he said, they pop up and down on these, like, low level on these sub category charts. They'll pop in over like the top 200 every once in a while, and they drop out again. And I was like, right? He goes, you get more downloads on an episode in the first two hours it's out than these people will get in the entire time their episode exists. And he's like, and those people are your closest competition. Oh, wow. And you would think that I'd leave that conversation and be like, I am doing it. And instead I left the conversation like, so then there's no way I can get better at this. Like, I can't reach more people and help more people. Like, listen to what Heather just said about the community and the group and the podcast and everything. Like, I can't, like, why can't I find more people? It's a very upsetting reality to learn that you've grown something as big as it almost possibly could be, and yet it's touching such a small percentage of people who live with diabetes that it feels like a failure when you judge it against how many people are walking around with diabetes? Do you know what I mean?

Unknown Speaker 1:22:10
Yeah, but I think that's a dark way to look at it.

Scott Benner 1:22:13
Oh, thanks, bitter.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:18
Welcome to the dark.

Scott Benner 1:22:19
No point in this conversation. Heather, did I just tell you to happy up? Did i?

Speaker 1 1:22:26
So, let me tell you this to make you feel better. So I've also heard about your podcast from Omada, which, you know who, what Omada is, right? The Diabetes platform through employers.

Scott Benner 1:22:40
No, I don't. I have no idea what that can I tell you a big secret about how I've grown it this big? Yeah, I don't pay attention to anything anyone else is doing. Okay, I don't care what anybody else is doing. I know this works. So I don't like, look out into the world for what's going on. I really don't like, like, when that guy mentioned these other two podcasts to me, he said the names of them, and I was like, I don't. I'm like, I've heard of that one, but I've never listened to it. And that other one, I don't know what you're talking about, so it's

Speaker 1 1:23:06
not a podcast. So it's, it's something that's offered through my employer, just, oh, and it's, I think it's more geared towards type two, but, and it's just, I mean, there's so many of these types of programs, right? They'll help you with coaching and nutrition and just different things to make your life better. It's diabetes related. But my coach that I have mentioned, hey, you should start listening. Juicebox. I'm like I already do. And then that blue circle health, which I know a couple people have posted on the page about that, which I thought was a little suspect, but I decided to check it out anyway. They also said you should check out Juicebox Podcast. I'm like I already do. So those are two professional organizations that are very well aware of the podcast, that are spreading the word and sharing that with with their patients clients, however you want

Scott Benner 1:23:57
to thank you to them very much. Also, I Googled Omada Health, and I see they're valued as a billion dollar company, and I'm over here worrying about the overtime on my podcast recording. But I guess, okay, you know, if I had a billion dollars, I know what I would do with it, and I know how I'd help more people with diabetes. But also I it's very possible I would just go to a beach. I tell you guys, you're all on your own, so just, let's be, let's be grateful. Maybe that's not happening. I appreciate that, and I know that. Like, look, I see people coming into the private Facebook group every day. How did you hear about this? My doctor told me, my nurse told me, a lady whispered it to me in the hallway at my endos office, like, you know, like I know, I know it's everywhere. It charts in 48 countries. I'm not unaware of any of that. It's just that if there's 1.8 billion or million people walking around with type one diabetes, and even though the group is huge at 50,000 people, that's not 1.8 million. And I'm not saying everybody would like me, or everybody would is even interested, but doesn't it feel like there should be a bigger percentage of than that? Yeah. Who I could make aware of it, at the very least, like, that's the part that, like it feels like you've done a lot and it's not enough. That that feeling, I live with that feeling a lot. I manage it. I used to not manage it. Well, I don't feel badly about it anymore, but it is how I think about the business side of what I'm doing and how I'm trying to drive things and make them grow. There's more people out there that need help. They don't. They don't know the podcast exists. Like, that's the thing I'm trying to get squared away somehow. I don't. I don't care if I'm in the top 1% or like, of podcasts. Like, that's really cool. I can't believe I'm just blowing past that. Actually, Heather gets real. It's an insane accomplishment, okay, but, but it's, it says a lot of things, you know, about the content, about the delivery. You know, it says good things about me, which I would probably do well to celebrate once in a while, maybe more than I do. I don't know, like, it just seems to me like this is a thing that I've seen help a lot of people, and whether it's going to help everyone, I don't think it could, but I wish they had the opportunity to find out if it was going to be valuable for them or not. And that seems like that's my responsibility, because who's else? Is it?

Speaker 1 1:26:11
You have to realize that there's going to be a subset of that population, of that 1.8 that is happy to manage at. I'm not gonna assign a number to it,

Scott Benner 1:26:22
whatever. Yeah, they're not looking to upgrade. They're good with micromanage,

Speaker 1 1:26:26
yeah, right. I mean, and like, that's okay. Not everybody's right. No, yeah, I don't have a problem

Scott Benner 1:26:33
with that. I don't want to sound crazy. That was my that's why I didn't want to bring us up. I don't want to sound crazy like, I don't think every 1.8 million people is out there in their mind, and they're mine, and I should get them as a listener. I get that there's a swath of them who are like, Hey, I'm good. Or maybe they actually just are good, like, they're like, I I managed a 681 say, I'm fine. And there's a group of people who are like, Oh, listen, I have a 781 say, and I ain't looking to make this any better, so blah, blah, or I don't have the bandwidth for this, or whatever. But at a 1.8 million Americans. Like, you'd think that 50,000 wouldn't be such a big number for a Facebook group, or that the amount of downloads that I do per episode, which I'm not going to share with you. Like, I look at that number, and I think that seems like a really small number compared to the possibilities of who would be interested in this but yet it's not, it's right in the top 2%

Unknown Speaker 1:27:24
Yeah, I think it's huge. It is, but it's

Scott Benner 1:27:27
still, listen, Heather, it is, but it's still disappointing to me. Okay, listen, yeah, but you just let me be upset. Jesus Christ. And it's not that. It's not enough. It feels like a missed opportunity. No, I hear you, yeah, I know I do. I'm trying to be funny and and say how I feel at the same time, because I don't want to, like, I don't want this to sound like, all like, boo hoo, because I'm doing great. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I know I'm doing well, and I know, and I know I'm doing well

Speaker 1 1:27:54
everyone, and that's like, admirable, yeah, not everyone is like, I would imagine the vast majority of us are type A, right, and we're micromanaging and we're making ourselves crazy because we can do X, Y, Z, right? I think we all probably have a similar personality type. Not everybody has that. Do you know what I mean? I know? Like, yeah, I do know what's crazy in this group of you know, I've been high for two seconds. What do I do now? And like, there'll be 100 people that chime in of this is what you can

Scott Benner 1:28:28
do. Yeah, get over here right now. Do this? Do that? Do this. Bing, bang, boom. It's all set. I learned that in episode 763 of the Juicebox Podcast. Like, like, I know, I see it all the time. It's, it's so wonderful. Like, it really, it just sometimes it melts my heart. Sometimes it makes it feel like it's going to like it's going to explode with like, Joy. Like, seriously, some days I have a bad day, and then someone comes over and is like, Look, I just wanted to share with you that this happened for me or for my kid or, you know, like, you have no idea. Like, I shudder to say this because I grew up in blogging, where somebody who was blogging to 50 people would do that thing where they're like, I get notes all the time because they're trying to make themselves seem bigger in the space. You know what I mean? Like, that happens a lot, whether you would know or not. I get them every five minutes. Like, like, they come in 73 different ways, through DMS and private messages and emails and some people who I can't believe but I gave them my my my phone number one time. And like, you know, like, and like, I probably get 20 or 25 notes a day, oh, wow, from people who are like, hey, oh, this thing, this thing, this guy made, like, look what it did. You know what I mean, and, and just doesn't feel like I'm reaching enough people I don't know they could just, it's, it's upsetting, like, and, and it's, it's and it's heartwarming at the same time. It's a weird space to be in. The way it feels is distasteful to say out loud, but it, but it's like, it's like that last episode of Schindler's List, when Oscar Schindler realizes he's wearing a pin that he could have, he could have sold it. Yeah. Like, it's not, obviously, this is not an apples to apples comparison, but like that feeling of I was out here doing everything I could, and I still didn't cover it the way I feel like I could have, yeah, and then, and then days pass, and I get older, you know what I mean? And I'm like, I don't know how long I can keep this going for so and then what happens to everybody after it's gone?

Unknown Speaker 1:30:24
So you think, hey, that's giving me anxiety. You

Scott Benner 1:30:27
think you're bitter, I'm dark too. Like, I'm trying to, like, you know what? It's funny, it's like, it's Be careful what you wish for. Like, what's worse than not helping people, helping people, and then not being able to help the rest of them like now, it's tangible like before, it's just a wish. I think I could help people, but I couldn't figure out a way to do it. Oh well, but I actually figured out I could help them, and now I can't figure out how to get to more of them. That feels like a failing for me.

Speaker 1 1:30:58
Excellent. I think that just makes you a good person, an honest person, someone with integrity. Do you know what I mean? Like you care. I think that's admirable, okay, a good quality to have, even though it makes you dark.

Scott Benner 1:31:11
All right? Well, I'm not, but I'm, generally speaking, I'm not, you know? I'm like, I'm upbeat, I know, yeah, I just That's all this was upset you you bump me out. Heather, no, it's not your fault. Don't worry about I'm just trying

Speaker 1 1:31:23
to recruit people into, like, the dark chat group you're gonna create. I just

Scott Benner 1:31:27
want people in the in the WhatsApp called bitter Heather. Well, listen, I actually think there'd be value on that. So

Speaker 1 1:31:37
it would have to be balanced, because, right, like you want to vent, but then you want to let it go. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:31:43
it doesn't. It's not gloomy or anything like that. Afterwards, it's just like, This is how it feels. And I just want to know that other people have felt this too. So I just looked at my email. Hi, we are two days into our two year old being diagnosed. I just finished episode three of the Juicebox Podcast. This diagnosis is another kick in the face to our family that's dealing with another chronic illness already. I really appreciate your words. I feel broken, so broken. Thank you for some hope now you would think that I'd read that and go look at this. I'm going to help this person, this little two year old kid, is going to have a better life, and his parents are going to be better off because they found this podcast two days into it. I know that's true because I've seen it happen 10s of 1000s of times, but they'll but later I'll just think, like, how can I find more people like that to help? And then that sounds pompous, doesn't it? And then that's a different problem. God damn it. Heather, that's not what it is. Yeah, I know it's not, but it sounds somebody right now is listening to a gun. Oh, this asshole thinks he can help everybody. Let's see Jesus ran around. I don't feel that. I don't feel like that. I just, I made this thing overwhelmingly, it helps people. I just want to give it to them. You know what? I mean?

Speaker 1 1:32:55
Yeah, that's all. And that email is, like, heartbreaking all

Scott Benner 1:32:59
day long, all day long. Like, don't stop sending emails. But some days I click on that, I'm like, oh, here we go. You know what I mean? You're like, it's, it's time to, like, absorb somebody else's sorrow for a minute. And like, because I really want to, I want to feel what he's saying, This guy, you know what I mean, into this person. If you ever hear this, you're going to be like, Oh, my God, that was five years ago. I guess he's on episode three. He's gonna, like, this kid's gonna be 17. He's gonna be like, Oh my god, I think I'm the one that sent that email. I don't know, Heather, we gotta stop. This is costing me a lot of money over time. Editing. Okay, all right, don't fit. And also, I don't want Rob feeling bad. He should get paid for his work. You know what? I mean, you don't even know who Rob is. You're like, Well, no, he's the guy that edits the show. It's fantastic, by the way, all right, light, hold on. I'm gonna say goodbye. That's enough of this. You were great, by the way, thank you. I was so great to talk to you. Thank you. Oh, no, I had a great time. Hold on one

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#1383 I'm Not Calm

Tess is a mother of four, her third child has type 1 diabetes. He plays a lot of sports.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Tess is the mother of four children, one of them who has type one diabetes. Her kids play a ton of travel sports, and her son's diagnosis was missed by their pediatrician.

Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. When you place your first order for ag one, with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink. AG, one.com/juice, box. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com. All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. That's Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com. Don't forget, if you're a US resident who has type one, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, visit T 1d exchange.org/juice box right now and complete that survey. It will take you 10 minutes to complete the survey, and that effort alone will help to move type one diabetes research forward. It will cost you nothing to help. Today's podcast is sponsored by us Med, US med.com/juicebox you can get your diabetes supplies from the same place that we do. And I'm talking about Dexcom, libre, Omnipod, tandem, and so much more us. Med.com/juice box, or call, 888-721-1514, this show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G, voke hypo pen. Find out more at G, VO, glucagon.com. Forward slash, juice box. I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 the only one year where CGM that's one insertion and one CGM a year, one CGM one year, not every 10 or 14 days ever since cgm.com/juicebox

Tess 2:27
My name is Tess, and I have four children. I have a 15 year old, a 13 year old, an 11 year old, who is my type, one diabetic, and

Scott Benner 2:39
an eight year old. How'd you mess up the spacing on the last one? What do you mean? I messed it up. They're all two years apart until the third, right? Until the one's three years apart, right? Well, to get tired a lot.

Tess 2:53
Yeah, three's a lot, actually. When I told my parents, who helped us that out a lot, it's the only reason we have four kids. When I told them I was pregnant with the last they were just silent, and I had to tell them, You're supposed to say congratulations.

Scott Benner 3:05
They were like, but we're never gonna stop watching your children. I think, right. Well, I just figured you were considering getting divorced. Now you decided not to. That's where the extra year came from.

Tess 3:19
Nope. We always wanted four. Actually, my husband would have way more if I let him, but kids are expensive, so

Scott Benner 3:25
really, your husband would like more children. Yes, he loves kids. Can I ask? Is he one of those people who loves kids but it's not that involved? Or is he really super involved?

Tess 3:34
No, he's really involved. He's their coach. Half my kids coaches for all their sports and and he loves babies, kids. He just loves kids. I do too, but not like him wreak havoc on your body. So I was done after four.

Scott Benner 3:49
This is like, I can't do this again. That's enough. Was he in for another one? Yeah, oh yeah, he would be. He said something like, he was like, Hey, do you think we should have five kids? Yeah. Oh, you say Get away from me. And then you struck him with a bat. Is that correct? Correct? And now that bat is now leaning on your side table of your bed, exactly. It's over for you, buddy. Get back. That's amazing. Well, congratulations on I mean, I'll do what your parents wouldn't do. Congratulations on your four kids. Like, was there any indication that type one might be in your life? Is it, you know, in an extended family, or anything like that? Nope, no indication at all. We have no one in the family with it, no one. No one just hey, congratulations. Here it is. Gotcha. What about other stuff? Meaning, celiac, hypothyroidism, anything like that,

Tess 4:43
nothing. I don't know. Does eczema count? Yeah, two of my kids have kind of dry skin like, that's about it.

Scott Benner 4:50
I count eczema. It's not a big one, but, yeah, sure, right, then, that's it, gotcha, that's it. Don't be damn All right. Well, lucky you. Yeah, right. How did. How did it happen? What was the first sign? Because if you if you weren't looking for it, you don't know about it. I'm interested in how you figured it out.

Tess 5:06
Yeah, his story is kind of interesting. So in June, 2020 he was six years old, almost seven, and he wet the bed one night. And I was like, well, that's strange. You know, he never wets the bed. So the next night, Hey, buddy, you gotta go to the bathroom before you go to bed. And he did, but he wet the bed again, like, all right, this is weird. So the next night, all right, you're not drinking anything after 6pm and he did not wet the bed that night. But for the next few weeks, he was wetting the bed like three to four times a week. And I was like, This is strange. Like, this is this kid, once he was potty trained, that was it. He hasn't went to bed, you know, really, ever. Maybe the first couple moms said he was potty trained at three. So I decided to call the pediatrician, and I made an appointment. And at this point, I had checked with Dr Google, and of course, Dr Google will tell you that bed wetting is a sign of type one diabetes. I had a friend whose teenage son had been diagnosed about six months ago, so I did call her up and just ask. And she said, Well, it's, you know, it's very simple. The pediatrician will have you, you know, pee in a cup, and if there's any sugar in his urine, they'll they'll probably send you right to the hospital. I made the appointment. I packed a hospital bag because I really thought it might be that I didn't tell my son. I didn't want to scare him, so I put it in the back of my husband's car. I sent my husband because he is much better with doctors and hospitals and needles and all that stuff than me. And I was waiting for his call, and he called me up. I was out on a walk with my other son, who was three at that time, my husband called and said, Doctor says he looks great. Urine is fine. Vitals are good, you know? And I remember just bursting into tears of joy, like so happy that it wasn't diabetes. I did say, though, why is he wetting the bed? And the pediatrician had told my husband, well, you know, COVID had just shut down the whole world a few months ago in March, and this was beginning of June. And so the pediatrician had just said, you know, the kids, all their schedules are off, everything, their whole worlds have been rocked. You know, school shut down, everything shut down. He's probably just wetting the bed because of that so, well, great. You know, I don't have a kid who's a type one diabetic. That's wonderful.

Scott Benner 7:27
He's just peeing in his bed. And he's a little too old for that, but, okay, right? But

Tess 7:32
he just, you know, diabetes, COVID, yeah, that was like, in the middle of the week. And then that weekend, we went to the beach for just a little little getaway couple days, and my son was walking towards the water, like in his bathing suit, away from me, and I could see every rib in his back. And I thought, he's a skinny kid. All my kids are thin, but I'd never seen his ribs from the back before. Yeah. And actually turned to my friend and I said, Gosh, like, you know, just something doesn't seem right. He just doesn't seem well to me. But that pediatrician checked him out, said he was fine. So what do I know? I'm not a doctor. I

Scott Benner 8:09
have a friend who's a pediatrician who would tell you he's not a doctor, he's a pediatrician. But go ahead, interesting. Here's how he here's how he told me, one day he goes, my father's not a doctor, he's a dentist. I'm not a doctor, I'm a pediatrician. And I don't know if that's like a professional joke or not, but anyway, go. I apologize. You're talking to your friend on the beach. Your kid looks very thin. What'd you figure

Tess 8:30
out? Yeah, well, so we go home and he's still, you know, he's kind of wetting the bed, but that was really the only symptom at the time. You know, he did, he wasn't, didn't have the extreme thirst yet? Well, obviously, me seeing the ribs in his back indicated he was losing weight, but he was, he was skinny anyways, so I didn't notice it, you know, a drastic change. So we get home, my gut just said, just, he's not well. And so I called the pediatrician again. I called like the nurse line, just left a message. It had been one week, and I said, you know, he was checked out in the office last week, but I just some he just doesn't seem that well. By now, he was asking to take naps, which was very strange for him. He hadn't nap since he gave them up at two years old, so he was really tired. The nurse called me back and she said, Hey, I talked with the doctor, the pediatrician, if you will. And he said that, you know, everything was fine, but since you're still worried, he'll go ahead and order some blood work just to make you feel better. So she sent the orders over that Friday afternoon, and I went online to make an appointment. And again, like diabetes was out of my mind now because, you know, the doctor said it wasn't that so what was in your mind at that point? I really didn't know. Okay, I really wasn't sure, but I knew, like, something is very wrong with him. And so I went to make the blood work appointment. And it was Friday afternoon. I was gonna wait till Monday, and something in my gut said, don't wait till Monday. See if. There's appointments tomorrow morning, Saturday morning. So I checked and there was an appointment. So I booked it online. Saturday morning comes. I send my husband, because, again, I don't, I don't do that stuff. You know, he's, he's more calm than me with you

Scott Benner 10:13
wanted all these kids go to the blood work exactly.

Tess 10:18
That's his job and this relationship. And so my husband took him and my little, my little six year old going off to get blood work. He was scared, but he was so brave. And so my husband called me when he's done, he said, Oh, he was he was so brave. He did such a good job. I'm going to take him to 711 to get a Slurpee to celebrate how brave he was so perfect. You can imagine what, what a Slurpee does that night, my son got very sick. I ended up sleeping with him in his bed, and he was like smacking his lips like and his lips were all dry. Looking back now, he was severely dehydrated, and he was waking up to urinate every hour and a half. And I laid there and listened to him peeing, and I could not believe how much urine was coming out of that little body. I thought, how, how can he be producing this much urine? Yeah, he's tiny, and he just peed an hour and a half ago, and then he was going to the sink and just gulping water. And I knew, I knew he was so sick, but again, I what diabetes was out the doctor said. But I laid there that night thinking, I should, I should get up and take him to the hospital now. But again, I don't. I don't like hospital. So to been my, my husband's job, and he's not a middle of the night person. So I said, oh, we'll wait. We'll wait till the morning. No one gets

Scott Benner 11:33
sick at night here, we don't let that right? You can't, you can't. You know, I've had people on the podcast who discussed one person was diagnosed as, like a baby, and their family found them drinking out of

Tess 11:44
the toilet. Oh, I remember that. Yeah, that's, that's the

Scott Benner 11:47
draw. And then you were restricting his his liquid there for a little walk. Imagine how like, thirsty he was and how compliant he was to listen to that's really, yeah, okay, I'm sorry. Go ahead, poor kid. Yeah, look at you. No, I'm just kidding.

Tess 12:03
Why'd I have a fourth after that? Now it's Sunday morning, and now my son's vomiting. I call the pediatricians, obviously close, but I call the on call doctor. It's a large practice, so there's many pediatricians there. I leave a message. I explained, you know, he was just seen. It had been exactly 10 days since I had had him in the office. He was just seen. He checked out, but he's really sick now. I explained, what's going on. I explained that he had just gotten blood work yesterday morning, but I didn't know if blood work, you know, came in on Sundays or whatever. Right left the message. Got a call back within 10 minutes, and it was a different pediatrician than the one I had seen 10 days prior. And she said, I just saw his blood work. His blood sugar is extremely high. You've got to get him to a hospital right away. And she said, and I looked back at his urine sample from 10 days ago, and I'm not sure how my colleague missed it, but there was glucose in his urine back then, oh, we've got

Scott Benner 13:01
Yeah. So we got somebody who put their glasses on before they look at your stuff. That's nice, good. Did you say yeah? 10 days ago, I tried to tell you all this, nobody listened to me. Yeah. I'll wait to hear what happens next. Does it have something to do with you? Throwing something because I can't wait. I'm excited. Go ahead. No,

Tess 13:17
no. So, of course, I say it's also COVID, so only one parent is allowed to go right to the hospital. So guess who goes? Because, yeah, like hospitals, and I wanted to go to the local one, like, you know, the county one, because it's just closer. And the on call pediatrician said, Oh no, you need to go downtown, where there's a, you know, to a big university that has a pediatric endocrinologist, you know, on staff at all times. So she gave me a couple of options. We have some world renowned hospitals right in our area, here on the East Coast. And so I picked the one that I had heard of the most, and sent my husband off. And they got there and they said he was a few hours away from the ICU. He did not need to go into the ICU, but I suspect it may be because it's such a big hospital. They have an entire pediatric endocrinology floor alone, and so I'm thinking maybe they were just better equipped to handle it because he was so sick he was in DKA,

Scott Benner 14:20
yeah, maybe his blood gasses were on the right side of horrifying that they were able to manage it somewhere else. Who knows? They didn't tell you, right? Yeah,

Tess 14:28
no, they didn't tell me.

Scott Benner 14:30
Can Can I stop you for a second? Sure, nobody likes hospitals. Why do you extra not like them?

Tess 14:36
I'm not calm, like my husband has a very calm demeanor. I get very anxious, and I was afraid, like my son would pick up on that, and wouldn't, I wouldn't be calm for him and my husband has the more calming presence when it comes to, like, scary stuff like that, like hospitals and stuff. Do you think

Scott Benner 14:54
people come on the podcast intent on naming their episodes because I'm not calm? Is a strong contour. Under for you, like a wonderfully declarative statement, because you're very You seem very calm now, and you're like, I'm not calm. And I'm like, oh, okay, so you were worried that you'd freak the kid out.

Tess 15:12
Yes, exactly okay. And I'm more calm now, Scott, because after my son's diagnosis and being completely on edge for about six months, I had to, had to go on a little medicine to help me be a little calmer. Oh, you're calmer now, yes, because every blood sugar alarm had me, you know, quaking and so do you

Scott Benner 15:31
get that adrenaline kick when you hear it?

Tess 15:33
Yes? And like, scared, yeah, in the beginning, yeah. Would

Scott Benner 15:37
it not go away? Then

Tess 15:38
it depended how bad the low blood sugar was. We had some scary lows in the beginning. I

Scott Benner 15:44
say, Okay, we'll hear about that later. Okay, sorry, back to the hospital. You and that guy that wanted all these babies are yes, you know, you split up the duties. You've got the three sleep. Did you have only three kids at that point? Or do you have four at that

Tess 15:57
point even? No, I had four. The fourth one was about three years old. Okay, so you're

Scott Benner 16:01
at home with your the other he's at the hospital. They move him and what do they what happens? Because I feel like something's about to happen.

Tess 16:10
Yeah, this, this is the, this is the punch line, I guess. So, the next day, Monday, my husband gets a call from the pediatrician who had missed the sugar, the glucose in his urine, and he apologized profusely. He did not make any excuses. My husband said he was very sincere. He said, You know, there's no excuse. I simply missed it.

Scott Benner 16:33
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Tess 17:37
and I'm so sorry. I was devastated when I heard that you guys were in the hospital with this, and here's the kicker, he said, and I should have known, because I'm a type one diabetic myself, and I was diagnosed around six years old when I started wetting the bed.

Scott Benner 17:52
I don't know why. I didn't think of it, right? That sounds so familiar. No, no, no, I think he's fine, right? Did your husband laugh at him?

Tess 18:04
I think my husband was more pleasant than I would have been to me. That's even worse, like, you know this disease,

Scott Benner 18:10
I know for certain, my response would have been, get the out of here. Look, that's exactly what I would have said if you said that to me. Oh, my God. Well, that's crazy, but okay, yeah, and it was nice of him to be so direct, because I think in a litigious world, people don't usually admit that they don't do anything, right? So that was, that was kind of him. You guys were accepting of his apology, or did you go toilet paper his house later? So

Tess 18:34
we actually had, you know, I knew from here on out, you know, he's my son would be seeing a pediatric endocrinologist quarterly. So we still needed a pediatrician for the minor illnesses throughout his life, and I didn't want to see that man ever again. And my husband said, well, don't you want our son's pediatrician to have the same disease that he has and really understand it? And I said, Oh, you have a point there. I'll tell

Scott Benner 18:59
you what I would have thought, I would have thought he's in our debt now he's going to try extra hard for us. That's how I would have thought of it.

Tess 19:08
That's true. I didn't think of it like that, but I my husband. I was like, alright, you have a point.

Scott Benner 19:14
Who won this little battle. So we did stay with

Tess 19:17
him. He was he was older. He was in his like, 60s, I think. And so about a year and a half after this is interesting, he announced his retirement. He wanted to spend more time with his wife and kids, and we my son was pretty healthy, other than the diabetes, so we didn't have to see him a lot, but he was kind of interesting at the practice. He was didn't have the best bedside manner, but all my friends whose kids went to this practice. We called him the MacGyver of doctors, because he was the guy who could figure out the most obscure things, like he was really good at that stuff. I had a friend whose son was sick, and he figured out, I want to say, f pies. Have you heard of this f pies? Yeah, I. Gets like an allergy to the protein and meat. I don't know I I could be wrong every maybe you need to Google it. Scott, it was something strange, and he figured it out when, like no one else could, he couldn't figure out the his own disease that he had when it was staring him in the

Scott Benner 20:18
face. But maybe his blood sugar was low while I'm just looking at it. Well,

Tess 20:21
I figured if he was in his 60s, he was he had diabetes for over 50 years, so I can't imagine the, you know, the changes he saw over his lifetime.

Scott Benner 20:30
No, I see he saw a lot of changes. And now you would wonder, did he go with them or not? Because sometimes people don't.

Tess 20:36
He did show my son. Our first meeting with him was like a zoom call, I think, after the diagnosis, and because it was still COVID, and he did show my son, I think he had the tandem pump, okay, yeah. But after he announced his retirement, and two months later, he was in a single car accident and was killed, oh my god, yeah. And to this day I wonder, like, was it a blood sugar issue? You know? Horrible. Yeah, Jesus,

Scott Benner 21:05
I came out of nowhere. Jesus, right, if I told you what I was what thought I was pushing out of my head when you told me that poor man was killed in a car accident, I can't even tell you now because it's too inappropriate. I'm going to tell you when we're done recording. Remind me, hold on a second. I literally can't, because I don't know how other people's brains work, but while you're talking and pausing, my brain fills in what I think you're gonna say, and I start writing around that. But once in a while, like the humorous part of me fills in stupid instead, instead of like, conversation, thank you. No, that's lovely. Except you were, like, we were on a zoom call, and he was, he showed my son, he showed my son his and you kind of like, and I just kept thinking, Do you know what I was thinking? I'd let it go, like, oh my god, this really went off the rails, because that happened a lot during zoom. Guys were like, not sure their cameras were on. You know what? I mean? Oh, yeah. Also, what are guys doing while they're working? That's another story. There were one too many of those, like news stories

Tess 22:11
during COVID. Yeah, I heard a few after the first

Scott Benner 22:14
one came out. I was like, All right, now we're all being extra careful now, right? No, no. Okay. Anyway, I wasn't thinking that we'll move on. The poor man died in a car accident. That's horrible. Did you just tell me that to shock me, or does that advance the story somehow?

Tess 22:29
No, that was it like it was just, it was a wild diagnosis story, for sure. And that was, like the culminating event that was like, Wow. You know, he just retired to spend he had sent a letter to all his patients. You know, I'm gonna spend time with my more time with my wife and kids. And

Scott Benner 22:45
could happen so fast. I had a small accident recently while we were on vacation, of all things, and it was a split second, like, just nobody's fault, craziest, little weird thing, like, you know, it was, like, kind of a low speed accident. Nobody was hurt or anything like that. But as I've, I've as I've looked back over like, 1000 times in my head, I'm like, like, my god, like, that's it felt like I was like, walking, and I stepped off a cliff, like it came out of nowhere. And as it was happening, I'm like, Oh, it's too late now, whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen, and that's that, you know, so just really, I mean life, I don't wanna say life is fragile, but it is, and, like, the fragility of it is it shouldn't be lost. Like, I'm gonna go home and spend time, like, imagine he was able to retire in his early 60s. He was probably so excited.

Tess 23:38
Maybe he was older than that? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, 60s or 70s definitely had all white hair, but, um, yeah, it was sad. And I wanted to ask some of the other pediatricians there, but that was their co worker and colleague, and I didn't want to ask, what happened? Hey, like, what do you know? What? Okay. I mean, I found the article online, and I just know it was like a single vehicle. So it made me think, gosh, did it? Was it related to, like, a blood sugar or something? Somebody

Scott Benner 24:04
I work with passed away recently. There's part of you that's like, I wonder what happened. And then there's like, the common sense party is like, do not ask. It's none of your business. You know what I

Tess 24:13
mean, right? I'm always curious, though. I always want to know that the details like that,

Scott Benner 24:17
Tess, you're kind of a party. I can tell in the first 20 minutes here, I think you're I think you're the mom at the ball field who is a bit of a problem. Am I wrong? This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the ever since 365 get 365 days of comfortable wear without having to change a sensor. When you think of a continuous glucose monitor, you think of a CGM that lasts 10 or 14 days, but the ever since 365 it lives up to its name, lasting 365 days. That's one year without having to change your CGM with the ever since 365 you can count on comfort and. Inconsistency, 365, days a year, because the ever since, silicon based adhesive is designed for your skin to be gentle and to allow you to take the transmitter on and off, to enjoy your shower, a trip to the pool or an activity where you don't want your CGM on your body, if you're looking for comfort, accuracy, and a one year where you are looking for ever since 365 go to Eversense cgm.com/juicebox, to learn more. If you take insulin or so faucinyas, you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most, be ready with GE voc hypo pen. My daughter carries GE voc hypo pen everywhere she goes, because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar in people with diabetes ages two and above that. I trust low blood sugar emergencies can happen unexpectedly, and they demand quick action. Luckily, jivo kypo pen can be administered in two simple steps, even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you store jivo kypo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use jivo kypo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why GEVO kypo Pen is in Arden's diabetes toolkit at gvoke, glucagon.com/juicebox, gvoke shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma, or if you have a tumor in your pancreas called an insulin Oma. Visit gevoic glucagon.com/risk, for safety information. No,

Tess 26:43
not me. No, no, I'm on the straight and narrow. Okay,

Scott Benner 26:47
I think you have punch with you during late games, but your son's diagnosed. He was six at the time, right?

Tess 26:56
Okay, he was let out. He was diagnosed on Father's Day. My poor husband, I sent him off to the hospital on father's day, June 21 2020

Scott Benner 27:05
Wow, to go pick up your kid. Yep, to go and

Tess 27:08
and then my son turns seven, a little like a like, about two weeks later, did

Scott Benner 27:14
he have to stay by himself at times in the hospital because of COVID? Or were you able because somebody was with Arden? We were there for five days, and Kelly was always with her. And then, if not, it was me, but were you not able to do that?

Tess 27:28
Yeah, someone was with him at all times. But actually they wouldn't discharge him until they watched both parents, like, give him an injection. So I had to come to the hospital one day. You know, every time the the diabetes educators came in, I would have to get on Zoom, and my husband would get me on his phone and not zoom, but like FaceTime, and my husband would be and he'd like angle the phone at the diabetes educator so I could be in on the education. But I did have to go to the hospital the one day, and I remember, like the security guard at the bottom, like, you know, she could see, she was like, there's already an adult up there. And I said, Well, I have to be up there. And they're like, only one adult allowed, you know? And I had to explain, like, no, no, I like, I have to go up there because they have to watch me give my son an injection before they will discharge him. Yeah,

Scott Benner 28:19
I know this isn't your fault, but you're making this worse. Please, let me go upstairs, right? Yeah, those COVID rules were fun. Are you? Is your I was gonna say your glitchy nature, but I don't know where that came from exactly. Did it not allow you to help with the diabetes? This end up falling more to your husband? Oh,

Tess 28:37
no, I That's when I found you. I I'm gonna research. I'm gonna I dived in head first. Dove in, I should say. But I didn't love giving the the injections, so when my husband was home, I'd have him do that. I didn't change a Dexcom deck. I hated the noise that the g6 made, and so I did not change the Dexcom for probably the first year my husband did that, but it was COVID. So my son was home with us for an entire year like I didn't have to worry about, you know, sending him off to school, like we had an entire year where he never left us. Was that about to learn about it? Yes, absolutely. A silver lining for us of COVID Was he was with us for a year straight.

Scott Benner 29:20
For me, my silver lining of COVID was not going to restaurants save so much money. I was like, Oh, my God, how much are we spending at restaurants? Exactly, right. But no, I like that idea of not being rushed back to work and everybody kind of being able to be around and but do you have like, were you anxious before this? Yes,

Tess 29:40
like, on and off, it's not terrible, but when it comes to health and medical things, that's where I get

Scott Benner 29:48
pretty anxious about for you and your husband, or more about the kids. It

Tess 29:52
definitely got worse when I had kids. Yeah, I don't care as much about him or I, but you know, you have these little kids and, like, they're your life. Test.

Scott Benner 30:00
Why couldn't you just say I don't care that much about him, and then not say where I because it would have been hilarious.

Tess 30:05
I was just trying to be diplomatic. I don't

Scott Benner 30:07
really care about him. I mean, me a little more so. But um, have you stopped and thought, what if something happens in one of these other ones? I'm not gonna be able

Tess 30:17
to manage? I think now we could manage because we're four years in I have had it on my radar to do the trial net. I actually said something to my oldest, who's 15, almost 16, my daughter, and I said, you know, I think I want to get the rest of you tested. And she got very upset and said, I don't want to know. Oh, and I thought, Well, I see that side too. Would you want to know you're gonna eventually get some life altering disease. I don't know. I mean, I think

Scott Benner 30:44
we can make the argument that that doctor would have liked to have known if he was having an accident, right? Yeah, but she's old enough to decide. Also, I mean, I guess you could do the blood work and not tell her, that would be weird, yes, yeah. Also, if you want to know where I'm going to get notes from woke people there. It is going to be right there. It is my duty to let you know that children are autonomous. I'm like, I know. I'm just, I'm just telling you, the woman could get a blood test for her kid and not tell her the alchemist she wanted to. It's completely,

Tess 31:11
I was actually thinking of it, because she just had her like, 15 year well, visit, and they ordered just routine blood work. And I thought, well, contact, try on that and just say hey. And, you know, take a little more blood and send some of it off, or try on that some blood over,

Scott Benner 31:26
of course you did, because it's a thing you want to know. Is that, right? Yeah,

Tess 31:30
well, and I listened to some of your episodes about T Z, o, t Z, yes. And so that seemed very promising. I just don't love that it's an infusion right now, I keep thinking maybe it'll eventually be a pill or something easier for kids to take, but

Scott Benner 31:49
I just interviewed somebody who did it recently. They had nothing but good things to say about the process. But in fairness, they had to relocate to a hotel for like, 14 days, go in every day and get the infusion. Now the mom said, she said one of this episode's not out yet, but she said one of the Silver Linings for her was, she's like, my kid is older. I was never going to spend two weeks with him the way we did, like playing games and like hanging out and stuff. And she's like, it was kind of nice. So, you know, you can find a silver lining a lot of things, right? Right? But I have to tell you, if my I'm gonna sound like a hypocrite now, but if my 15 year old told me I don't want to know, I'd say, Okay, well, then we're not gonna look you wanna respect that? Yeah, as much as it's fun for me to play both sides of the of the coin when we're talking here, I would, I would respect what they said for sure.

Tess 32:37
The other side is like, if there's something out there that could delay the onset and eventually, could it? Could you keep getting the tea sealed and it will keep delaying it eventually, like that, you never get it. Like if I could do something to prevent another one of my children from getting this terrible disease, then you would, right? Yeah. So yeah, it's

Scott Benner 32:59
yeah, be a tough lesson to learn in hindsight, that's for sure, right? Exactly, especially if you're only 15. So then go back to my old argument of, what else would you let a 15 year old decide about, right? Yeah, nothing. Right, yeah. So what if you told the kid like, look, we'll test, and I promise not to tell you, you know the answer of the test. Of course, if there's nothing wrong, you'll never know. But that, even that doesn't make sense, because if there is something wrong, you are going to bring it up. So it's not like you're going to find out that they're, you know, in stage one, type one diabetes, and not say anything, right? Yeah, so her, her argument doesn't hold a lot of water, does it? No.

Tess 33:40
And then I thought, well, I should just take all of the all the other kids, like everyone has to go. I believe they will test parents as well, right? Of type one diabetics? Maybe, yeah, trial net. So I'm like, just make it a family affair, and everyone's got to go give blood for this. Also

Scott Benner 33:57
that new sponsor screen for type one. I think that if you go to screen for type one.org, is that what it is? Yeah, you think right now, they're like, Oh, good, real happy. We bought that ad from you. I'm like, Well, I'm like, I think it's this sorry screen for type one. Give me a second. That cracks me up for some reason. Let me find it real quickly. They're probably like, wow, money, well spent. This guy, this guy finally brings it up in a casual conversation. Can't remember the link. Yeah, I take their point if that's what they're thinking right now, screen for type one.com, there's links in the show notes to it, so you can learn more about it there. I agree with you, because if she's gonna get it, she's gonna get it. Now, what she's saying is, if I'm gonna get it when I'm 27 I don't want to know when I'm 15, right? Which I get? Yeah, what you're thinking is, if you're gonna get it next year, and we could do something about that, why don't we do that and make it take two years? Maybe you know something, right? She didn't like that argument. We

Tess 34:55
didn't really delve into that. She was, she kind of shut it down. I would. I would, I would want to know, yeah, I think for any of my kids. But again, I've been thinking about it for two years. I still haven't done it for any of them. Well,

Scott Benner 35:07
you went on the anti anxiety medication. Now, if you went off that, you'd get it done tomorrow, right? You're

Tess 35:12
onto something. Scott, what'd they give you there? Well, Bucha, no, I don't even know what it is. It's just a, I think it's an antidepressant

Scott Benner 35:20
test. The amount of people who say to me, Oh, I take a thing. I don't know what it's called, floors me. It really does, like, you really don't know what it's called.

Tess 35:27
It's a it's a law. It's hard for it to pronounce, slight syllable. Scott, yeah, come on. Did

Scott Benner 35:34
it have any other like effects that you didn't want, or did you just see a benefit from it? Nope.

Tess 35:40
I just noticed, like, if my son was having, like, a low blood sugar, I, like, I could feel my heart wanting to start racing, me wanting to get so worried. But, like, it couldn't, like, it was blocking that, like, flight or fight response.

Scott Benner 35:53
We didn't help. I mean, did you try anything else? No, no, that was the first thing you tried. Okay, yeah, that worked, huh? All right. Like, well, right on. I'm glad you found something that helps. There's times when Arden's like, alarm will go off overnight, and my wife is like, Arden is Arden, okay? And I'm like, wow, hold on, I'm not even awake yet. Let me figure it out. And then I'll look and I'll say, oh, you know what? It's just a compression low and, you know, don't worry about it. And, like, I go back to sleep in 15 minutes later. I'm like, what is that light? That light is Kelly on her phone because she can't go back to sleep. And I'm like, Hey, we already looked and she's good, go back to sleep. She goes, it's not that easy. And I'm like, oh, okay, so

Tess 36:30
I'm with Kelly, yeah, I'm gonna stay up and watch it, make sure it's a compression low for at least 20 minutes before I'm gonna go back to sleep. It

Scott Benner 36:38
ruins the next two hours for her. She's just like, she's like, my heart, my heart is pounding, so I feel her, yeah, I think it's that thing, like, whatever happens the first time the kid comes out of the hoo ha whole like, it definitely throws you guys off. Yeah, it does, really. It turns everything into, like, high intensity that keep the baby alive. Like, guys have it too, but we like it comes and goes. You know what? I mean?

Tess 37:03
Yes, yeah, yeah, my husband's much more calm with that type of stuff. I'm the one. If there's something small, I immediately think it's big. And he's like, No, it's not a big deal now. Now, when my son was diagnosed, he was still saying the day I was packing him off to the hospital. He was saying, I think it's just a stomach bug. And I said, No, we're

Scott Benner 37:24
also boys, so you can't He probably just like fell. So, right? Listen, I have that thing. Somebody last last night, I did a late night ask me anything in the Facebook group. You guys should all be in the private Facebook group if

Tess 37:39
you're not. I saw that, right? I was gonna write to you and say, Are you gonna make me nervous tomorrow when I record with you? That's not

Scott Benner 37:45
my fault. That's you. Oh, we already figured that out earlier. And so what did somebody say to me? They asked me, I forget what they asked me, but I ended up admitting if I let people down, it really bothers me. An example that would be like, kind of commiserate to how you or Kelly might feel in the situations you're describing. It's gonna sound silly, but Arden was leaving for college last week on Friday, and we had tickets Thursday night to see, like, the 15th anniversary showing of Coraline in the movie theater, which is, like my wife's favorite movie. And it was gonna be me and Arden and Kelly and one of Arden's friends. Why did Cole not go? I shouldn't say here, because he's an adult, but he saw it when he was young, and it scared the hell out of him, and he still doesn't want to see the freaking movie. So he's like, No, thank you. And I'm like, Okay. I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, you're 24 now. And he goes, I don't care. I don't want to see this movie. So it's like one of those phantom events, things like, you know, like, it's not really through the movie theater, it's like a third party that sets it up. I bought these tickets months ago for Kelly, like, I saw that they were on sale. I bought them right away, and I knew she'd be super excited. And then it ended up being like, this weird thing where now we have to go the night before Arden's leaving for college, like, it just landed on a bad day, but whatever. And earlier in the day, Kelly's like, hey, what time's that showing again? I said, Oh, it's 730 I pulled out my phone. It's right there in my calendar. I touch the calendar thing, it launches the email shows the code. I'm like, Ah, I'm all set. This is perfect. We get to the theater, and I go back into my calendar, and I touch the link, and it launches the email, and the email won't open, and now I can't scan it to get in. So I'm outside, I'm calling my son. I'm like, Hey, can you go on my computer? Like, that's not working. The woman at the front's like, if you don't have this email, you can't come in. I'm like, but I have the reference number. She just doesn't matter. So I'm outside, I'm on the phone, and my daughter's friend, who I've known for since she was a little girl, like she picked a flower off a bush and she like, touched it to my neck. And Arden said, I thought you were gonna punch her like she came up behind me and touched me. She's like you reacted so harshly, and then I looked at you, and she goes, Dad, you. Face was purple, and I was like, was it? And she goes, dude, you looked like you could have run through a wall. And I And she's like, why were you so upset? I said I wasn't upset. And she goes, No, you were really, really upset. And I said I wasn't upset. I was sad. And she goes, what I said, I felt like I let everybody down. And she goes to go to a movie, and I'm like, Yeah, I probably have problems, but I felt like I let everyone down. And I I knew I could get us into that theater, but my wife was standing there and looking at me, and I knew I had to deal with it the way she wanted me to deal with it, because the woman at the front said, you can't get in without that email. And my wife's like a rule follower. So now that's the new rule we're doing. And I would have just gone and found the manager and been like, Listen, man, we bought these four seats. I have them right here in my calendar. We'll go sit in them. If somebody else shows up, just sit on them. Fair enough. I'll get up. But that's not going to happen, because I bought these seats. I would have talked my way into that in three seconds, right? So anyway, so I pulled myself like, I felt myself overreact to being touched on the neck. And I was like, Oh my God. Like, you're not okay. Like, so I, like, kind of took a deep breath. I went back to the woman at the front. I was like, Look, I have this reservation number. And she goes, Well, I can't get you into that. I was like, well, can someone else? And she goes, Oh yeah, probably the manager. I was like, Oh, do you think I could speak to him, please? So anyway, he gets us into 20 seconds with the, you know, the number, and as we're standing there waiting, somebody's in the bathroom, Arden goes, you okay? And I was like, Yeah, I'm absolutely fine. I know you think I'm upset, but I'm not. I'm not upset. I'm not angry. I was just, I just, I felt like I let everybody down. And she's like, No man, we're good. And I was like, okay, she goes, you know, we could have just bought four more seats and gone in. It wasn't sold out. Anyway, I don't that's the closest I can come to understanding what you're talking about, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, it's a long story that ends with people listening, going, Oh, wow, his parents did get divorced. I really do think it's like a I think it's a side effect of that, to be perfectly honest, yeah, yeah. But nevertheless, at least, you know, I'm not going to let you down if I'm with

Tess 42:22
you. I know Scott, you probably don't remember this. This was something else I wanted to mention. But a year after my son was diagnosed, we were at the beach again, and it was late. He his blood sugar. He was in the 40s, and we had pumped him full of so much sugar, and he was like, physically sick. Could not eat any more sugar. And I appealed in your Facebook group. Just what do I do my son, you know, he won't even take any more sugar. And I get message from you from Juicebox Podcast, and it just has this long number, and I write back, and I say phone number question mark, and I said, I'm on the East Coast too. Like you, Scott. I know it's late. It was like, two in the morning. I was like, did you want me to call you tomorrow? And you wrote now,

Scott Benner 43:08
oh, that was I do. Go ahead. Keep telling the story, yeah, because I think I come off like a hero in this Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah,

Tess 43:15
like, 2am and and I was like, oh my god, Scott. Scott Benner wants me to call him. And I had gotten my by now, like, my son's asleep, his blood sugar was, like, steady, at least in like, the high 50s. And I was like, Oh my God, you let me call you and help me walk through it. And I remember joking. We were joking, if my husband came out, he'd be like, Who are you talking to? And I would have to say Scott from Juicebox. And it sounds like that's Jake from State Farm,

Scott Benner 43:45
exactly. It's that State Farm commercial, like, Who are you talking, right? And my husband say,

Tess 43:50
well, he sounds hideous. I don't know if you remember that commercial, but it was so funny. I remember

Scott Benner 43:55
very I guess, too well, actually. And why did they get away from that? Just to give Patrick my homes all that money, I guess. But it was a great commercial. Hey, I don't want to die. I don't want to go too far into the State Farm commercial thing. But I was personally embarrassed for Andy Reid when they made him say nuggies in a State Farm commercial. I just want to say that that was horrible. I agree. Anyway, we're on the phone. What did I did I say anything helpful? Or did I just act like a sounding board so you could relax.

Tess 44:22
You were like a sounding board by then, and like his blood sugar. And you were like, Well, what did he eat? And I was like, wow, you know, or at the beach, he had pizza and I went for ice cream. And you were like, you don't go on vacation anymore. That just messes everything.

Scott Benner 44:37
Rock solid information for me,

Tess 44:39
right? But no, I think, you know, it was just all the physical activity, like on the beach and stuff, was just we needed to way adjust his, you know, his car ratio and and things.

Scott Benner 44:51
You don't realize that the first time, you know, like, you're seeing all that food, and you're like, I'm gonna, I know how to Bolus for this. I'm gonna do it. And. Don't take into account the running around and the heat and the swimming and that late and low thing that happens at two o'clock in the morning for some reason, and you know, all that other stuff, you figure it out that. Mean, have you figured it out now you go to the beach now without trouble? Yeah.

Tess 45:14
But you know, he my son, he's always been very sensitive to insulin, so it just, I just still don't feel like we have a, like, tight control, like it's just, it's so unpredictable with him. He's a he's a big athlete. He plays travel baseball and travel ice hockey with his sports and activities. He's a very active kid. It just affects his insulin needs, but it's just so unpredictable. So, you know, I hear a lot of your guests, and after they've been listening to you, you know, their a one, Cs are awesome in the fives or sixes, and like, we cannot get him, he's right around seven. And I cannot one one time about a year ago, dropped to 6.9 but I just, I want better for him.

Scott Benner 45:57
What's the management style that you use,

Tess 46:00
he's on the Omnipod five, and that that has helped a lot. He was on the arrows at first, where it wasn't talking to the Dexcom, and we struggled a lot. Still, the Omnipod five has helped, but it doesn't seem to be able to keep up with his highs and his lows as well as we'd like. And it's interesting, when we talk to his pediatric endocrinologist, we actually see an NP who is in the diabetes clinic there at the big hospital. And she's always like, no, he's doing great. And I'm always like, I don't think I mean, he's doing good enough. And I imagine she sees so many kids who probably are doing a lot worse. So in the grand scheme of things, for her, he's doing pretty well. But

Scott Benner 46:48
yeah, he's doing well the Juicebox world.

Tess 46:50
I feel like we can do better, like so many,

Scott Benner 46:55
in a common sense world, like I think you're right too, because I listen, I just interviewed a woman the other day. She's an adult now, but she said from 13 to like 26 she was in double digit, a one CS, and for a couple years, had a 14, right? And if you're the doctor who sees that a lot, every day, you see a seven, and you're like, lady, I don't know what your business perfect, you know? And I get that perspective, but you're saying, you know, is there a way for you to help me get just into the sixes, even, like, so I would ask you, what do you think is happening? Is it excursions at meals? Is it highs two or three hours after he eats? Is he getting low and then you're correcting, and then it's popping up or like, where do you think you're like, where you want to trim from when you think of that a one say he tends

Tess 47:45
to go high at night, and the pump can't seem to like, bring him down. And we've adjusted, you know, he has practice between all his sports almost every night of the week. So he eats like a meal, you know, before practice. But when he gets home at eight or nine at night, he's eating again, yeah, but the highs happen hours after eating, which makes you think, Oh, is it a basal thing? But that's not something you really adjust on the five you should it should be adjusting. It

Scott Benner 48:12
makes me think that if he's eating late at night, then he goes to bed, your digestion slows down. That food sits in his stomach longer, and it's pushing his blood sugar up. That's what it makes me think. That

Tess 48:22
makes think. That makes sense because, because if we give him all of it, like up front, usually it's low, he will go low, and then he treats and then he goes to sleep and goes high. So wonder if we should, like, maybe how high between 202

Scott Benner 48:37
50, and how much insulin would fix it. That's the thing.

Tess 48:42
It's so unpredictable. One day one unit brings them down 150 and the next time it won't touch it. Does that have

Scott Benner 48:51
anything to do? Do you think with the density or the fat content of the food he's eating? Do you see what I'm saying? Like, if one day a unit works and one day units too much. Is that the difference between a cheeseburger after practice and a ham sandwich after practice, you know what I mean, like, like, is it just a grease and protein thing? Maybe I don't think so. We're,

Tess 49:14
you know, we, we tend to take that into account when we're dosing him. What

Scott Benner 49:19
about activity at practice? Is there any way to track if, if, like, are you talking about baseball or hockey right now both

Tess 49:25
he Yeah, he both is going on right now. Yeah, it's fall season for travel baseball and hockey season just lasts forever.

Scott Benner 49:31
How tall is he? He's short. Oh, I'm gonna try that hard. A lot of it's about how tall you are once you get to college. So don't tell him that now to crush him. But if I told my kid that when he was your son's age, he would have been like, it doesn't matter. And I would have been like, oh, but it's going to my first thought was, why don't you try to do I know it's on the pod five, so you can't do an extended Bolus, but why don't you do like a two Bolus thing, like Bolus enough to stop a spike when he eats that late night meal? Go and then wait 90 minutes and Bolus the rest of it and see if you can get ahead of that latent high. That's that's sticky with a with that. I mean, that might work. Yeah, yeah. We can try that. Yeah. I think you just have to spread the insulin out a little bit. Because, you know, with the algorithm, you tell it, it's 30 carbs. It goes in. The algorithm doesn't think, Oh, two hours from now, if you have like, a fat or protein rise, I'm gonna, like, treat that like it's just gonna, it's gonna do what it does, right? It's, it does this. This micro Bolus is the but they call it non, they pod five, right? There's those little micro boluses. And, I mean, really, that's really just a pushing up of the basal, which is not going to cut into, like, a significant impact. If there is one there

Tess 50:45
exactly, I find myself overriding the pump a lot and needing to give, like, a big Bolus, but like that defeats the purpose, like we should be able to get it.

Scott Benner 50:55
Yeah, now you're awake, so maybe, maybe that's it, like, spread the carbs out over a longer timeline. Maybe that'll help it. Yeah, we'll try that with the shot. Also, if anyone's listening, I don't know if that's actually gonna work or not. I'm just saying, like, it's what I think it's what I would do if I was in your situation. Yeah, thanks. We'll try that. Yeah, why not? Right? Did your husband just make all these kids to try to get one of them to play a college sport? Is that? What's really going

Tess 51:21
on here? Maybe but the amount of money we're shelling out, all four of my kids play two travel sports a piece, so the amount of money we're shelling out, I think, is going to end up being the equivalent of the cost of college. Holy

Scott Benner 51:32
hell. What do you guys have, like an AI startup over there? You're making a bunch of money. What's going on? No

Tess 51:38
report. So I had to borrow my neighbors these Apple headphones somewhere, and had to borrow them from my from my

Scott Benner 51:43
name. They don't know that you said that before we started recording. That's right, yeah, I will tell you my my son said to us once in college, like, because he got a fair amount of money in college, right? And he's like, and I saved this much money going to college because I played baseball. And I was like, Dude, you don't think we spent that money when you were like, younger, like, what do you think a trip to like, you know, Florida costs, you know, what do you think? What do you think? Like, travel ball costs like, I remember travel balls being like, $3,000 a season. And, yeah, I'm sure it's

Tess 52:16
qualified for a tournament in Canada.

Scott Benner 52:19
Oh, last year we can't come. That's what you would have heard from me. We're busy. To

Tess 52:23
Canada. Where'd you go? Sarnia, right up past Detroit.

Scott Benner 52:29
I feel like you're making that up. Isn't that a book where people live in a closet? Narnia, oh, that's probably the same thing. Yeah. No, I would have been like, we're busy that day. Sorry, I can't do that. I eventually figured out, and I would say this to anybody that's listening, the right travel team for your kid is one where they play, and it's not expensive. It doesn't need to be expensive. They just need to play. And you know, if you're on a great team and you're only playing half the innings or you're not a starter, it's, you'd rather be on a half ass team and play every day. It's about playing more.

Tess 53:06
So, right? Yeah, and I think just keeping them busy, they're busy with sports, they're hopefully less likely to get into meth trouble or other things.

Scott Benner 53:15
Yes, by the way, I bring that up because I was interviewing a woman the other day who was describing her life, her hell scape. I think it's it's out now. And she says, you know, at some point her parents get divorced. Her sister was, like, four years older than her, so she went to her sister for advice, who didn't live at home anymore. And you know what, her sister gave her meth. I was like, Oh, okay. Sometimes I think I said it to her. I was like, do you hear how crazy this is? Because I think sometimes people are in situations they don't even they don't hear it anymore, you know, right? It's so funny. Like, I loved the time that my kids played sports, and they they loved it too, and when they stopped loving it, we didn't like when Arden was like, I don't want to play anymore. We're like, Well, fine, don't you know? Like, I my feelings weren't hurt or anything like that. It's absolutely fine. There's no way to know at this age what it feels like when it ends and it just it ends so abruptly. It's horrifying, like you won't be ready for it.

Tess 54:15
No, that's why you keep having more and then always be another one in sports.

Scott Benner 54:20
What a plan pass. I didn't think of it that way. If I just made 17 kids, I'd always be at a baseball game, right? Have I ever talked on the podcast about my son's last college game? Not that I remember, oh my god, he came up the bat in like, the seventh inning of a double header, and he was hitting well in the game, and you could see him, like, you know, how baseball works, like, first he got it, you know, he walked, and then he's, like, in a single, like, you could feel it coming, you know, and in the seventh inning, and he leads off the inning, and it's college baseball. I'm talking about, like, dead center. It's 400 feet dead center, like, right? Like, it's a, you're. You're playing in a professional size baseball stadium. And first pitch, he hit that ball dead center, and the and the kid in center field caught it with his back up against the wall and his hand up in the air, like he just he missed, he missed the lead off first pitch, home run by three feet. It was such a good ball. And I remember thinking, man, his next at bat. I can't wait to see his next at bat. And then they lost that game, so the second game of the double header was inconsequential. So the coach sat the starters and let everybody else play. Oh, that's tough. And I sat there like thinking, like the wait that was it, like, it's over, you know? Like, he was just like, right? He just like, he's so close, like, today, and like, he just needs one more, like, one more at bat. He's gonna, he's gonna go crazy. And as I'm feeling that, and then I'm like, oh my god, it's not over today. It's over, over like, there's no next week, there's no next year. There's no reason to, like, we could throw his baseball glove away right now. That kind of over, oh, that's so sad. Oh, Tess it. That's not the sad part. The sad part is that when I looked for him, like, once, I gathered myself, like to make eye contact with him to see if he was okay. I couldn't find him. He wasn't in the dugout, he wasn't on the field. It was in between games. He had probably just heard he wasn't playing in the second game. And I couldn't visual I couldn't locate him, and so I started walking around, and he was maybe 75 yards from the field, sitting in a piece of grass by himself, like, just sitting there. That's heartbreaking. And he's like, grown now, you know what I mean? Like, he's six, six feet tall, he's 210, pounds, like he's a he's a grown ass man, like, and he's sitting there like he's four, and he couldn't find us in the mall, you know, and, oh, you're gonna

Tess 57:01
make me cry, Scott, that that's so sad. I have the image in my head.

Scott Benner 57:05
Oh, you should have it's that exact image. So now I'm looking at him, I'm 75 yards from him, and I'm going, I should go hug him, and then I'm like, I should leave him alone. And I didn't know what to do. And so would you do? I got out of his eye line, and I just watched him to make sure he was okay. Oh, and then I cried a little bit, and I wondered if he was crying, but he was too far away for me to know he wasn't. By the way, I know him better now i don't i He might not cry if he got shot, which is so weird because I'm crying now. Yeah, I'm close. And so he sat there 20 minutes, and then he just stood up and, like, kind of straightened up his uniform and fixed his hat and went back and sat in the dugout for the second game. Wow. And I was like, and I sat there and I watched that second game, but it was just the it was the craziest thing. So then we have to leave him like he's in college, like he's not coming home with us. So he went back to school. We went home, and I woke up incredibly early the next morning. I got my car and I drove and I don't know where I was going, but I ended up at his little league baseball field, and I sat in the stands and cried like a baby for like 20 minutes, and then I pulled myself together and got my car and left. And I have never been back to that field. Well, that's a lie. They asked me to come back and announce a game last year. I did it for the girls, but it was the first time I had been back there in years. I came home, I couldn't go inside, so I just started, like, pulling weeds outside, like, just doing the most random things outdoors. And my wife came out, and I couldn't make eye contact with her. I was just like, don't like, I can't like, not now, like, I just can't. So I was just really, and it's because you do this thing over and over again year after year, it feels like your life, right? No, it is, yeah. A couple years later, I don't think about it anymore. It's really interesting. Wow, I just all

Tess 59:07
four of mine play, um, oh, the girls play softball, and the boys play baseball. So we are at the ball fields constantly.

Scott Benner 59:14
Yeah, no, I have, like, freckles on my cheeks from sun like that I didn't have when I was younger. You know, like, it's I spent a lot of my life standing there, sitting there, walking back and forth from driving to I have one thing, like, on my desktop, I have the video of his last home run in college. Every once in a while, I'll just, like, click on it, let it run for 20 seconds, and then I just shut off. And that's it. I probably shouldn't. He should never know I do that. But

Tess 59:47
does he listen? I

Scott Benner 59:49
can't imagine. And he'll never know. My wife doesn't. I'm like, I'm like, did you hear that thing today? She goes where I'm like, on the pocket. She goes, I listen to your podcast. And I go, Okay, I. She's like, I get enough of you here. I was like, All right, what have we not talked about that we should have? I think that's about it. Yeah, yeah. How close are you to me? Close,

Tess 1:00:11
yeah, like, outside, outside of Baltimore. Oh, okay, yeah. In fact, we're in New Jersey all the time for baseball tournaments. You guys have a lot of baseball up there. We

Scott Benner 1:00:23
do. I tell I'll tell people a secret. During COVID. New Jersey ran college baseball for like, basically disenfranchised college players, because everybody got sent home. And oh, my son later told me he goes that summer. I played during COVID. He goes college, not college, anywhere else he goes. That's the base best baseball I ever played. And he didn't mean him, he meant the competition. Because what happened was, is all the players got sent home from college, but the kids who were really good didn't stop playing, and they all got together in this one league, and it was legit, like my son played on a team that year where he was in the outfield with three center fielders, one from Penn, one from Duke, one from his school, one from the next school. Like their starting pitcher was like, I think from North Carolina. They had a kid that was throwing for Duke out of the pen, like they were a d1 baseball team. They were crazy. It was like an all star team, and then you show up and play another all star team. It

Tess 1:01:27
was awesome. Wow, yeah, yeah, there's some great facilities up by you, for sure. It was the

Scott Benner 1:01:31
best baseball I ever saw, too, and everybody got better. It was pretty awesome. But he actually remarked he went back to college, and he was like, this is not nearly as good as that. Basically thrown together league I played in in um, during COVID. So, wow, it was weird. We all sat very far from each other. Even though we were outside, we didn't realize at that point that being outside kind of fixed it so. But anyway, this is really cool. What are your other kids play? Three of mine play ice hockey, which so expensive, isn't it? Yeah,

Tess 1:02:05
although my one daughter, who the only one who doesn't play ice hockey, found the sport that turns out to be more expensive than ice hockey. What is it? It is competitive, hip hop dance. What the hell

Scott Benner 1:02:21
not real. Is that real? It's real.

Tess 1:02:23
She doesn't like the other styles of dance, but she's really good at hip hop, which is funny, because my husband, I have no rhythm at all, not sure where she came from, but

Scott Benner 1:02:33
that's awesome. She's good at it travel. Why? What makes that expensive?

Tess 1:02:39
Choreography fees, costume fees, the traveling on the weekend, the competition, competition fees, the monthly fee of going to the classes, you know, four hours of class each week. Wow, it's pretty amazing. Older, congratulations, she did it.

Scott Benner 1:02:56
Yay. Is that a thing she can get into college for? I don't

Tess 1:02:59
know. I don't know much. We're two years into the dance world. It's a new world for me. Yeah, do

Scott Benner 1:03:05
you think any of your kids will play in college? Have you noticed it on them, like the 15 year olds, old enough that you could smell it on them a little bit now, right?

Tess 1:03:13
She she's a really good softball player. She plays ice hockey. I'm not sure about college. I don't know that she even wants to my, my 11 year old son, the type one diabetic. He's a really strong athlete, but he has not hit his growth spurt yet. So I'm hoping you know he's smaller. So he's got kids on his baseball team that have 3040, pounds on him, and they can, they could crush the ball. I mean, he for his size, he can hit, yeah, I'm waiting for him to get, get go through puberty, so that I can see what, we can see what he really does. Do you

Scott Benner 1:03:45
have his thyroid tested? Yeah, they test that, actually, I wrote it down. They test that, like once a year. They do blood work on them once a year. What's this? TSH, is that, is that? What would say, thyroid? Yeah, I don't give access to oh two, yeah, it's good. He's good. Yeah. I only asked because when Arden's thyroid was managed, well, she got I've said this before, but Arden was probably the smallest person in her school, and now she's five seven, wow, yeah, but that all came after her thyroid medication.

Tess 1:04:17
I wonder if kids like, if my son, I don't know how to explain it. Like, was his growth stunted, or his like, when he went undiagnosed for who knows how long, and now he's just behind, but eventually, like, maybe he'll catch up.

Scott Benner 1:04:31
Yeah, I don't know. Like, I don't know like, if art and his thyroid was always an issue and we just finally figured it out, or if it was an issue around the time she was going to grow, and then it kind of slowed her down. And then when we got it straight, she, you know, picked speed up speed again. I don't know,

Tess 1:04:48
yeah, although my husband, he's like, six three now, but he was always the shortest in his class, he said, through middle school, and then he grew like, three or four inches, like in one summer. But. Before he started his freshman year of high school. So maybe my son will just be later like him, yeah, but my other son's taller. He's almost as tall as my the eight year old's almost as tall as the 11 year

Scott Benner 1:05:10
old. How tall are you? I'm 43 Wait, you're 43 Yeah. How tall are you? Five, four on a good day. Okay? Because you I said, How tall are you? And you told me you were 43 and I was like, I don't understand. Is that metric? She went to Canada one time, and she's using the metric system now. I thought you said, How old are you? No, I recognize like, why is doing how old I am? I just want to say this. I had to drive through Baltimore two weekends ago during that horrible rainstorm, and I almost died. I'm not even kidding. We had to go get Arden stuff. I'll leave you with this. This seems to be a story episode, so I don't know if I said this on the podcast directly or not. Arden is not going to the Savannah College of Art and Design anymore, and so she came home after her sophomore year, and she said there are a number of reasons why, but I do not want to go back there at the top of her list were very poor teaching. That was her biggest complaint. She went into one of her core classes this year, and on the first day, the teacher said, I've never taught this before. I've never done it professionally. If you have questions, do not ask me. And then gave them a YouTube blank. So that didn't go well for her and many other people. And even though she ended up with a good grade, and like, figured her way through the grade, she did not, she doesn't have the skill. And she said, if I go back there without that skill, I will tumble behind very quickly. And she's like, and this is not like, an isolated problem. This one teacher, this place, is like, I've never seen something go downhill as quickly as I've seen this. I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna go back to my other option coming out of high school, and she's now, at the moment, like, signed up as a psychology major, but she's looking very closely at pre law and being an attorney someday. Okay, so she's off at a university doing that now, but she made that decision after she came home from Savannah, and her stuff was still in Savannah, so we hustled around. She got accepted to a couple of schools. We figured out which one that she wanted to go to, got her all set up in a very short amount of time over the summer, this was not easy, and then my father in law got sick and passed away right as we were going on our first family vacation in six years. And we had two weeks during that time to retrieve art and stuff out of her place where they were going to trash it, because we only had the place to a certain day. So we went on the vacation, buried my father in law came home, Arden got sick. She got strep throat. We doctored her up as best as we could, and then she and I drove down to Savannah and got her stuff. We drove Savannah and back, 1400 miles in about 48 hours. And so, gosh, and then we got home, and then we had four days to take her to the next school. So we're coming home from Savannah after all this, pretty exhausted, and though the skies just open up and we're about through DC, which is the worst, yep, you know, but, but we're, we're, we're in that gap there. We're coming up in the Baltimore DC thing. And as we're going through Baltimore and all that construction, you just can't see. And so I'm in the left lane at times. I One way I drove was there were light poles overhead on the left side. I think I was in like, the express lane, yes, and I couldn't see the curb or the or the lines or anything on the left like so I just, I lined the corner of my car up with the lights over my head, and I kept them on the corner of the car. And there was a ton of pressure, because Arden was behind me in a different car, driving. Oh, it's so, like, scary. She's just like, I crashed. She's following me because she doesn't know what. She can't see shit either, right? This goes on for hours, and then it finally stops, or it slows down enough and we're like, oh my god, I can't believe we're alive. Like, we stopped and, like, regrouped, and we were like, I can't believe we didn't crash. We were doing like, putting down our sun visors to limit our field of view so our eyes wouldn't get distracted by the rain, as much like we were using all these little like, internet tricks, staring at the road like it was really insane. Wow. And we drove about an hour or so, and it was all good. Then we got to the Delaware, which is that Delaware Memorial Bridge maybe, yeah, yep, and it's just crystal clear, as we're like, two miles off the bridge. And I called her, and I was like, hey, looks good. Like, let's speed back up and get home, because it was getting late, you know, I swear to God, as I hung up the phone, the sky opened up again, and by the time we were on the bridge, there was air. The wind was blowing. Everything was going sideways. The cars were getting pushed. We were going 15 miles an hour. There were standing. Water. People were giving up and pulling over. You could not see anything going over the bridge. But I called her, and I was like, Do you want to stop? And she goes, just keep going. Then I was like, Okay. I said, Can you see anything? She goes, I can see you. And I was like, Oh, great. So this is on me. And so, like, so we're going over the bridge. And she goes, whoa. And I'm like, what? She goes, I thought the car was gonna blow off the bridge. I was like, Okay, great. This went on for like, 45 minutes. It was insane. And you could, you couldn't see but just as I said to her the second time, I'm like, there's an exit coming up, like we got over the bridge. I'm like, do you want to get off the road? And she goes, I don't think this is ever going to stop. I think we should keep going. So we kept crawling along and crawling along. And then it just it ended. It was just over. And I called her back and I said, Is this gonna sound counterintuitive how I usually talk to you? I'm like, But drive as fast as you can. I was like, because I said, this is on our it's to the west of us. And I was like, and I think we have to beat it, or this is going to happen again. I actually think we're better off driving insanely fast than letting this rain get to us again. So then we raced the rain for like, the last hour back through New Jersey. It was really crazy. Sounds like a fun trip? It wasn't. I thought I literally, like, it was the first time in a while. I was like, Oh, this is it. This is I'm gonna die, and it's gonna be my fault that art and follows me right along into a concrete wall or something like that. Anyway, people are like, you could have pulled over. I was like, yeah, maybe Tess, thank you. I appreciate it. I like that you shared your story. I'm glad you found something that helps you. I didn't ask you if the podcast helped you with the kid, but it sounds like it did. So I didn't want to sound like a, you know, like I was like, fishing for a compliment. No,

Tess 1:11:43
it definitely did

Scott Benner 1:11:44
good. I'm glad. Can you say for like, was it bold beginnings? Was it Pro Tip series? Was it just hearing conversations like, quickly? What was the best for you?

Tess 1:11:55
Definitely the the bold beginnings and the Pro Tip series, just in the very beginning, just learning it all and just being like, No, I'm not going to be okay with a $300 I mean, 300 300 blood sugar. You know, Scott says if the blood sugar is high, it means you need more insulin. You know, we were given the typical, you know, don't give any corrections. You might stack the insulin. And it was time to just say, No, we're gonna I know enough now to take matters into my own hands, from what I learned from the podcast, to try and get a little bit better. You know, control over his diabetes,

Scott Benner 1:12:31
that really is the big deal is having the confidence to make adjustments, right? I think, like I think, that when it boils down to it, once you have the confidence to make adjustments, whether it's the settings or to blood sugars, that's kind of the beginning of your path of you know, like getting there. I'm glad it helped. I really am. Okay. Well, thank you so much. Can you hold on for one second? For me, Sure, thank you.

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