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#933 The Doser

Podcast Episodes

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

#933 The Doser

Scott Benner

David's son has type 1 diabetes and we go down some rabbit holes.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon MusicGoogle Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio PublicAmazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 933 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's program, what am I my grandmother is it 1978 My programs on on today's episode, I'll be speaking with David. He's the father of a child with type one diabetes. And he and I go down a number of different rabbit holes together. The topics of those holes are lost on me at the moment, meaning I forget. But while you're trying to figure it out, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. Alright, you ready three quick ways to save money. Your first month of therapy@betterhelp.com forward slash juicebox will be accompanied by a 10% savings for using that link. If you want to start with ag one from athletic greens, you will get five free travel packs in a year supply of vitamin D with my link athletic greens.com forward slash juice box. And you can save 35% off your entire order at cozy earth.com When you use the offer code juice box at checkout

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by touched by type one, go to touched by type one.org. Go to their events tab. And you'll be able to get tickets to see me speak live pretty soon. It's June now. So I mean, in a couple of months if I'm if I'm not forgetting the date, I could look on my calendar, but it's like touched by type one.org. Go check them out. The podcast is also sponsored today by cozy Earth. The last thing I do tonight before I go to bed, I'm going to take a shower, and then I'm going to tell off with my new cozy Earth towels. What a joy, what a joy this is going to be you can get those same towels and save 35% at cozy earth.com When you use the offer code juicebox at checkout, they also have bedding and lounge where all kinds of great stuff. You can't go wrong at cosy earth.com

Unknown Speaker 2:30
I guess everybody says that. So

Scott Benner 2:33
you know it's funny. I think most people are nervous. I think if you listen you can hear dissipates in the first 10 minutes. Usually. Some people hold on to it the whole time. Some people think they're not nervous than they are. But I don't know how you wouldn't be you know, it's not something you do every day. I'm not nervous. Just say today, but I'm as cool and calm as you can possibly imagine. So let's get in fact right now I'm thinking to myself, do I want to sneak a look at what David said when he when he sent him his his choice of dates or do I just want to wing it? That's literally where I'm at at the moment.

Unknown Speaker 3:08
I don't even remember what I sent it without that.

Scott Benner 3:10
See? Now that makes it interesting. Okay, introduce yourself real quick. You don't need to visualize them.

Speaker 2 3:15
Okay, I'm I'm David. Live in Wisconsin. I have a son with type one diabetes. He's was diagnosed in August of 2019 2020 21.

Scott Benner 3:26
Three years this summer. Yep. Have you ever been on another type one podcast? No.

Unknown Speaker 3:35
I've never been on a podcast. I'm reading

Scott Benner 3:37
your I'm reading your, your intake. Hold on one second. I think Do you think people were just amazed that I have any kind of system at all employees? They're just like, wow, this guy thought this through a little bit. Your tea one parent have not been on a podcast. Some of the things you're hoping to cover? Parent type one. Oh, you said how on the pod Dexcom. And the podcast improve your life.

Unknown Speaker 4:02
Call it Oh yeah.

Scott Benner 4:03
You call it the diabetic Trinity. Yeah, if anybody's wondering, that's how they've got on the show today. Now before that I before you even said that and I asked you to come on. So why don't we talk a little bit about it. So let's get a little background here. Do you have type one? Oh, no, I don't anyone else in your family have it besides child?

Speaker 2 4:25
So before my son had it, you know, everybody was like no, nobody has anything but then after dig in a little bit, my my mom's grandma had it. And my mom's cousin had it.

Scott Benner 4:42
Oh, your mom's grandma. Okay. I see that that's a little far away that your mom might have been too young to know about that.

Speaker 2 4:51
Yes, she after like after like I guess reimbursing in you know into it like shots and all that kind of stuff. Then my mom's like, Oh, I remember when I was a kid. Like they taught her how to give her cousin a shot. So, but now she's like, she, she doesn't like doing that she she like, is afraid of, you know, given shots. So I don't know if her having to do it as a kid was, like, gotten traumatizing or what?

Scott Benner 5:23
I love that you're like, does anybody in our family on this like, no, hold on? Yes. Yeah, this

Speaker 2 5:30
Yeah. When you you know, when you're having a kid and everybody's like pulling up all the you know, history, like our doctor asked, like, Do we have anything and you know, I'm texting everybody and everybody's like, no, no, we're good. We're good.

Scott Benner 5:46
When you said you dug deeper, what did that mean? Did you just look at them and go, are you sure?

Speaker 2 5:50
Yeah, I was like, you don't? Like nobody in our family has this. And then my mom's like, oh, yeah, I forgot. I was like, oh,

Scott Benner 6:00
did she say that Wisconsin accent did she go? Oh, my god like that?

Unknown Speaker 6:04
No, I don't sound like that.

Scott Benner 6:05
Do I know of course nothing. Okay. Just a little bit. It's okay. I can't or I can hardly hear it. Okay, so that's interesting enough that that just under pressure, it sounds like your mom's childhood trauma kicked back in and she was like, wait a minute, I do remember this.

Speaker 2 6:22
Yeah, the first time she was like, go ahead, give him a shot. And we use it's called a shot blocker. Well, we don't use it anymore, because we have Omni pop, but we use a shot blocker and my son's like, Yeah, I can't even feel it. And my mom was like, shaking like her hand was shaking. She was like, I don't want to do that. So I'm like, that's fine.

Scott Benner 6:41
Doesn't matter. I'm not doing it one way or the other. Well, that's that's, uh, maybe she'll get there. I don't know. It's been three years now. She was probably like, get a pump

Speaker 2 6:48
kick. Yeah, she Yeah, we got the Omnipod. She's like, Oh, this is awesome.

Scott Benner 6:52
Now I'll watch your kid again. Yeah.

Speaker 2 6:55
My dad, like never fazed him. He's like, What do I got to do? I'm like, just do this, this and this. He's like, okay,

Scott Benner 7:01
yeah. Well, you know, I understand that. So did you ever but

Speaker 2 7:05
obviously, he didn't have to do it when he was a little kid, just his cousin. So

Scott Benner 7:09
I don't know. He might have remembered it as fun. Your boys and girls can be different in waistline. Like, wait, I get this that my cousin? Amazing. Bring it to me. Do you ever find that cousin tracker? Tracker down?

Unknown Speaker 7:20
So my mom's cousin did pass away?

Scott Benner 7:23
Oh, that must have been incredibly encouraging to you. Yeah,

Speaker 2 7:26
I was like, what and there, but I don't I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Or, you know?

Scott Benner 7:33
It's hard to find out too.

Speaker 2 7:35
Yeah, I really haven't. I really haven't just dug into it yet. I guess.

Scott Benner 7:40
Did she pass earlier than you would expect a person to?

Speaker 2 7:44
Um, well, I think it was a I think her customer was a guy. Oh,

Scott Benner 7:47
I'm sorry. No, it's okay.

Speaker 2 7:50
I don't even know the age. But I want to say like 40s. Somewhere in that. So yeah, quite probably quite earlier than normal.

Scott Benner 8:00
That was earlier than I was hoping to go for sure. So yeah, as I was growing up, was saying I gotta at least make it through my 40s. Right. Okay. All right. Well, let's not look into that right now. Because his situation is very likely incredibly different than than yours. So tell me a little bit about the diagnosis. How did it go down?

Speaker 2 8:20
Um, so it obviously summertime, we had actually gone to the doctor prior, because he was kind of having those symptoms. So, you know, wetting the bed, like two, three times a night. So we went to the doctor, and the funny thing was, so I'm an EMT. So I was like, I something's wrong here. You know? And but I hate to like WebMD stuff, you know, that always sends you down. Like the worst. The worst path? Oh, yeah, sure. So we got some, you know, appointment as doctor took him in. And he kind of talked us out of it. You know, he was like,

Scott Benner 9:00
I don't do this very often, but I clicked the wrong button. And for a half a second, I was not recording, you just started. My apologies. The doctor tried to talk you out of it.

Speaker 2 9:10
You know how kids can wet the bed. And even though my son, you know, didn't for a long time, just like, like normal kids. And he went back to wetting the bed. And so he kind of talks us out of it and goes through a bunch of stuff and, like, just keeps kind of leading us away from anything medical. And it never, I don't know, it didn't sit well with me. But you know, like you've said in the past, like doctors have this, like, ability to kind of lead you and you just trust them then. So

Scott Benner 9:53
also delay. Let me say this, I think pediatricians have a job, and they just kind of assess what's going on. The town and then they try to apply what you're saying to what they notice happening. Because most of the time kids don't have type one diabetes. And so they're they're looking for what makes the most sense. The problem is you didn't know that you had autoimmune in your family, because WebMD and rabbit holes, leading you to bad things. Sometimes it's more accurate when you have autoimmune issues in your life. So

Speaker 2 10:23
yeah, I've kind of as stuff has popped up, I've kind of noticed that, you know, like, like my girlfriend she has she had some thyroid issues. And then I was like, well, you should look at other because she was having like eye issues. And I was like, well, from the podcast, I learned that if you have one kind of autoimmune, you might have another you know, you're more susceptible. So she started doing her own research and found about like Graves disease. And that's that ended up being what she had.

Scott Benner 11:03
Wait a minute, your girlfriend has graves. Yeah,

Speaker 2 11:07
graves graves I disease. I guess it's different than just graves. I don't really no, she's explained it to me. Pretty much like I've explained diabetes to her we have a basic understanding of it, but like, yeah, I guess there's issues with the eye it can. It can like bald a little bit she can get I think headaches. She has like blurred vision sometimes from it. She thought it was all the doctors thought it was you know, I issues. You know, kept sending her to put her get her glasses check. Oh, you need to you need a new prescription. And she's like, No, I've gotten multiple prescriptions. None of them help.

Scott Benner 11:45
Let me ask you a question. Just because you said something that threw me off a little bit. So let's start over. You're a person. You have one kid. Yes, I

Unknown Speaker 11:53
have one child.

Scott Benner 11:53
You have a girlfriend? Yes. He's the girlfriend. The child's mom. No. Ah, okay. So ironically, your kid has an autoimmune disease. And you found a girlfriend with an autoimmune disease. Yeah, look at you. Yeah,

Speaker 2 12:08
it was after too, like she, you know, we've been dating for a while. And then she was having these issues. And I'm like, you gotta gotta go to the doctor figure out what it is. And they were kinda send her down, you know, different paths. And she was she has like, the, you know, like, that feeling like, This is wrong. Like, I don't know what they're saying. And I'm like, Well, you think it's wrong then? We got to like, do our own research or something. Yeah, go to a different doctor or something. So but yeah, she did her own research and I think her her aunt was like, look this up and cuz she was like looking up like other autoimmune 's and then ended up finding out it. Yeah, she found graves. It was Graves disease. And then they they said it's just graves eye disease or whatever.

Scott Benner 13:01
Well, you're like a divining rod for autoimmune issues.

Speaker 2 13:04
Yeah. Unfortunate for everybody around me.

Scott Benner 13:07
Well, that's one way to look at it. Maybe you just have a gift? Who knows? Yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh, well, I'm sorry for her she did she find? What is she doing for the for the AI stuff?

Speaker 2 13:20
Um, well, so there's, there's some medicine they have her on, which helps it and it's kind of just something you're I guess, stuck with. So but she did have like thyroid cancer, which like led to finding the eye disease. So they removed the thyroid. So that has, that can actually, I guess the doctor said there's a chance it might help the graves, like might not flare up or whatever is often so it's just kind of one of those things she's you know? Well, yes. So we'll live in with and learning about

Scott Benner 13:57
I'm googling here because I don't want to I don't want to test my memory while we're recording but Graves disease treatments, radioactive iodine, anti thyroid medicines, surgery. thyroidectomy comm Yeah,

Speaker 2 14:11
yeah. So she had she had a thyroidectomy not to fix the graves. But because they found cancer in there. Sure. So the doctor was like, well, side effects. This might help the graves. She was like, What is your lucky

Scott Benner 14:25
day? So did they take the entire thyroid or piece? Oh, yeah. Okay. So she's want to so that's interesting because now she needs a thyroid replacement. But if you have graves you need an anti thyroid medication. So maybe she's just on a lower dose. This is me guessing now.

Speaker 2 14:44
I don't know the exact dose I know. Cuz I think that's that runs in like your family too, right?

Scott Benner 14:52
Yeah, but hold on, give me a second. I'm scrolling Graves disease and thyroid eye disease which they call Ted need different medicines medicine for Graves disease treat the thyroid medicine for Ted treats the eyes. That's why medicine for one won't work for the other. Oh, so she is putting something in her eyes

Unknown Speaker 15:14
like eyedrops or whatever,

Scott Benner 15:15
I'm guessing.

Speaker 2 15:16
Yeah, yeah, she has. She has some eyedrops that were like prescribed and then there's some other stuff that they have her take. There's like one over the counter thing. I don't remember what it is. And then, and then some medicine because of the thyroid. But I knew I was at I was asking her like, well, what are your levels? Like, I even know what I'm talking about. And she was like, well, they wandered around here. And I was like, I think that's what I heard on the podcast.

Scott Benner 15:41
Well, then that's right, because I heard that on a podcast so you're all Yeah.

Speaker 2 15:44
Hey, I trusted him. I heard on this bigrams podcast I've definitely trust because it's tends to be correct.

Scott Benner 15:52
That's very kind of you and, and somehow scary to me, but thank you, I do my best. Okay, well, that's interesting. Anybody else around you have auto immune if you do sniff them out at work or anywhere else.

I am not embarrassed to tell you that I am sitting here again making a cozy Earth ad in cozy Earth joggers. That's just how soft they are. I spent a lot of my day today making social media for the podcast. So I only had to be you know, like reasonably dressed from the waist up. And so I took the opportunity to wear these joggers all day and I am so happy. You have no idea how soft they are and light but warm but not hot, but cool, but they're perfect. Are they perfect? They might be perfect. Cozy earth.com use the offer code juicebox to save 35% on your entire order. Now I'm on the website right now. Let's see a little click here for like a $50 credit might get that the first time you log on. There's clothing for men for women. There's bedding. They break it down by best sellers. What else I got here? Oh, bath accessories, accessories. Is that a word? It is right. I have the waffle towels. Oh my goodness. Now let me tell you what color they're in. I forgot the waffle towels in what they call a white. I think I got white. I'm like how am I? I'm not sure what they call that it's white. I'm not embarrassed. So I've got the black joggers, the white towels. I have a blue sweatshirt. It's a ultra soft bamboo hoodie. Fantastic. Arden has these pajama pants. Like maybe they're not maybe they're joggers. I'm not sure, but they fit her perfectly. You know Arden's not a person who puts on clothing and goes I love it a lot. And I said hey, you know curves the earth sent you some pants to try. She pulled them right on came out and she goes, Hey, these are these are really great. And I was like, Ah, I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew you would like those. And I think you might like some of this stuff as well. Just go check it out cozy earth.com If you want something great if you don't I mean I understand. But don't forget if you're buying juice box at checkout to save 35%. I also want to quickly mention that touched by type one longtime sponsor of the podcast. If you go to their web page and go to programs, I might have said events at the beginning but I'm at programs, scroll down to annual conference. And oh, there's a date. September 16 2023 is a free conference for individuals of all ages, and backgrounds. The goal is to educate, encourage and empower all lives touched by type one diabetes, whether they have type one, or just the connection to someone who does you hear what I'm saying here. If you have any connection to type one diabetes, registration opens on August 1, you can get absolutely free tickets to come to this wonderful event. I've spoken at every every touched by type one event. They are. Don't tell the big orgs this but best run. Lovely, beautiful surroundings. The food is terrific. The speakers are great. So many great people are going to be there this year. I don't know if I'm allowed to tell you who I know a number of them. What I can tell you for sure is I am one of them. Touched by type one.org. Go check it out. There are links in the show notes of the podcast player you're listening in right now and links at juicebox podcast.com. To cozy Earth touch by type one and all the sponsors

Unknown Speaker 20:11
I'm trying to think I don't. I don't think anybody.

Scott Benner 20:14
Alright, so maybe you're not a divining rod then nevermind. Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 20:17
just found a couple. Yeah.

Scott Benner 20:18
So how old is I'm sorry, your son, right?

Speaker 2 20:22
Yeah. So he was born in 2012. So he'll be 10 this summer. Oh, okay. So he was about seven when he was diagnosed. Yeah, he just turned seven because his birthday is at the end of June and then he was diagnosed in the beginning of August. Okay,

Scott Benner 20:34
before we keep going. Is there a dog in your room pushing around on the floor?

Speaker 2 20:38
Yeah, I got a little. A little Frenchie. He's is he loud?

Scott Benner 20:43
Whatever he's doing. I find myself wishing he wasn't doing okay. Let me crab is give him something softer to play with.

Unknown Speaker 20:52
Yeah, he was definitely chewing on something or put a

Scott Benner 20:55
carpet in the room or something. I don't know. Is that a hardwood floor? Oh, no,

Speaker 2 20:58
that was his teeth on the bone. That was his like, breathing. Oh, okay. He was like snorting while he was chewing his toy.

Scott Benner 21:08
Heisei. Oh, over here. It sounded like something clacking on the floor. My obviously Basil is mostly a French Bulldog. And but his snorting is intermittent. Like you won't notice him and then all of a sudden. It's there.

Speaker 2 21:23
Oh, yeah. He hasn't snorted all morning. Yeah. Just he's like, Oh, you're on the podcast. And now it's time.

Scott Benner 21:30
I think that guy's recording his voice. Yeah, it's crazy. Anyway, nice dogs. A little stupid, but in a nice way. I don't know about yours. Mine is a little

Speaker 2 21:40
dopey. Oh, no, he's he's pretty smart. He's a little puppy still, though.

Scott Benner 21:45
Oh, wow. Well, good for you. Mine's mostly okay. And then the dumb the dumb things he does are incredibly stupid. You're just like, Wow. All right, buddy. Anyway, son's diagnosed? What were the symptoms? What drew you to believe it? Um,

Speaker 2 22:01
so he had the, the extreme, you know, Bedwetting, that was like the big red flag. And then.

Unknown Speaker 22:09
And then he he was with his mom. She's a dog that's like, really?

Scott Benner 22:15
See now I made you aware of the dog.

Speaker 2 22:17
Yeah. So then he was with his mom. And she had called me and was like, I'm taking him to the hospital, he's vomiting. And she's like, something's wrong. So her, you know, intuition. Kind of was like, I need to take him to hospital. Something's, something's wrong. So we ended up going, there's a, there's a Children's Clinic in our, like, in our city. So we took him there. And now. So like, I don't know if I said it before, but like, I'm an EMT firefighter. So I used to work in this area. So I know some of the hospitals but I, I'd never this clinic is new, so I really didn't know it. So we took him there. And they they start going through their questions, and then the doctor, like, I can see it in his face. You know, I work with, like, you know, doctors and nurses every once in awhile and stuff. And I was like, something that he knows what's what it is like he has in his mind, but he's not telling us yet. I was like, okay, that's, that's weird. So they're like, we're gonna do a blood sugar. And I'd actually thought about doing a blood sugar like I was at the store earlier that week, like, Man, I should just buy one of these and just, like, test it and see. And I was like, after a visit with a doctor or whatever. It's, it was like, Oh, I'm just, I'm just overthinking this. So the doctor test his blood sugar. And it's, I want to say it was six 670 or 690 or something like that. Wow. So really high. So immediately, then I knew. And then they the nurse, I think, actually, I think it was the nurse that tested cuz she left. And then his mom looked at me and was like, what does that mean? And he was like, It's not good. So, like, one of the things we get taught in EMT is like, like a sweet breath sounds like hey, just breathe on me. So he's like breathing on me. And I can, it just smells like Starburst. And I'm like, did he have any candy before? You know, on the ride over here? And she's like, No, no, he can't. He couldn't eat anything. And I was like, Okay, well, I'm like, home like he has diabetes. And then she was like, Are you sure? And I'm like, I've like never been more sure. Yeah. So I'm the doctor. comes in. And then he's like, we can't do anything here. And I was like, What do you mean, you can't do anything here? He's like, Well, we can't even give IVs here. And I'm like, Well, this was a waste of time. So, so I'm like, Okay, well, when we're gonna go to the hospital, and he's like, you need, we need to call an ambulance. And we're like, right down the road from the hospital,

Scott Benner 25:23
not not for nothing to if they call an ambulance, and you were working, you might come to pick them up. So yeah,

Speaker 2 25:28
well, now I don't work in the area. So like, I don't know. Like, I maybe in the past, I would have known the guys, but I don't, you know, I didn't know any of them. And so I was like, well, that, no, I'll just take him to the hospital myself. And they're arguing with me. No, it's a liability thing. And blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, let me sign an AMA, which is basically like, yeah, basically relieves them, if anything, were to happen to my son, you know? And so

Scott Benner 26:00
I know that from Grey's Anatomy, that's all. Okay, thank you.

Speaker 2 26:06
So, the doctor is like arguing with me. And he's like, Well, fine, go up front, and sign it. So I go up front and sign it. And then nothing happens. Like, my son's not there. His mom's not with, like, what what was going on. So I like, tried to go and back and the door's locked, because it's a clinic. And I'm like, I need to go back there. So I go back there. And the doctors like still, like, you know, kind of arguing with her, like, pressuring her into calling an ambulance. And I'm like, Dude, I know how this works. Like, it's going to be three minutes before they get in the ambulance, it's going to take them five to seven minutes to get here, they're gonna have to load them up, they're gonna have to do stuff that takes three or four minutes, then the drive there, even if their lights and sirens is, it really doesn't save that much

Scott Benner 26:50
time. If you just shut up, we could get there before.

Speaker 2 26:52
I'm like, I could have them there in four minutes. Like, I'm like, it's fine. And they're, like, really adamant about it. And I'm like, then just call an ambulance. So hands up going by ambulance, to the local hospital. I told him because there's two hospitals. So I told them which one that I want him to go to? And then yeah, of course, I got in the car. And I beat him there by about, I don't know, five to seven minutes. Like I said, I would.

Scott Benner 27:21
Hey, I want to take a little detour for a second, how long? Let me start at the beginning. Where you and his mom ever married? Yes. Okay. How long have you been not married? At this point?

Speaker 2 27:32
I'm about I want to say, like a year and a half to two years, somewhere around there.

Scott Benner 27:40
Would you describe your co parenting as like, nice, like, up until then? Was it going well? Or did you not talk to each other very much. I'm trying to figure out how this it was.

Speaker 2 27:50
It was going pretty good on I'd say, I'd say before that scale one to 10. It was like a six or seven. You know, it's I mean, your divorce for you know, a reason. You know, so there's always that, but, but when it came to my son, I thought it was going pretty good.

Scott Benner 28:08
Okay, David, I have to tell you, I'm married. And I think communication is six or seven sounds like when you said that. I was like, well, they get divorced for Okay, so you guys are getting along. Okay, so it wasn't difficult for you to be in the room together or any of that stuff.

Speaker 2 28:26
No, no, I mean, not for you. And I obviously I can't Yeah, I can't speak for her. Right. But, um, you know,

Scott Benner 28:35
outside possibility. She's standing there thinking oh, this.

Speaker 2 28:38
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, of course. Okay. I got there's definitely a possibility. But yeah, for I mean, for me, I, you know, I've always tried to just like, look at it, like, you know, what's the best for my son? Like, if I have to be in an uncomfortable position, but it's best for him then. Then that's fine with me. You know,

Scott Benner 28:57
excellent. No, no, I just want to understand because as we move forward, I feel like it's gonna unfold. So I didn't want to not have context go in there. Alright, so you're at the hospital. You get done waiting for your son to arrive. They do they take you at your word that he has type one because you're like, you just came from the clinic? You don't well, that over? Yeah, so

Speaker 2 29:15
well. I just told the like, receptionist I'm like, so there's an ambulance on the way. My son's in it. And I just said he has diabetes. I really didn't know. You know, I knew one of them you for the basics. I knew one. You basically took insulin and one you you know, took a pill. I was 90% sure it wasn't the pill one. And I was like, Yeah, this one's gonna be a little bit harder than you know diet and exercise and that because obviously he's a nine year old kid that was was playing soccer at the time as like it's not like he's you know, out of shape or anything like that.

Scott Benner 29:53
Well, that's a really it's interesting to to hear. To hear you talk about it from an EMT. perspective because I've heard it from a nurses perspective. I've heard it from a I've there been physicians on here whose kids have been diagnosed who have been diagnosed themselves. But an EMT like I think it's interesting for people to hear that, like, what you knew was a number above a certain thing meant diabetes.

Speaker 2 30:18
Oh, yeah, I knew that. Yeah, I knew that, that that high was just because, you know, we're looking at, at the kind of, like, 120 is our, you know, normal range. Obviously. There's other things that can, you know, raise that and actually listening to the podcast has been a lot more context because say, we have like a patient at my work. And, you know, their their blood sugar's say 180. But I know that they're super stressed out, and maybe, or they've just ate or something like that. You've heard that context of that it's a really well, that's why you know, the adrenaline or whatever,

Scott Benner 31:03
right? Not an emergent problem, but something that happens to people that you don't know, you never know, because you're not testing their blood sugar usually. Yeah, that's interesting. Well, I'm glad I can help it work. Okay, so,

Speaker 2 31:15
yeah, you've made you've made me the resident expert. At work.

Scott Benner 31:20
I would like to let all the people of Wisconsin know that they are welcome. In a very, I'm making a benevolent wave right now. I'm really joking. Well, how long were you in the hospital?

Speaker 2 31:35
Um, let's see. Okay, well, so. So then they they transported him from that hospital to children's in Milwaukee. And then we were at Children's Milwaukee for, I want to say maybe three days.

Scott Benner 31:57
Okay. brought his monitor down slowly started. Yeah,

Speaker 2 32:01
yeah, they had them. Some kind of some kind of, I don't know if it was like a, you know, policy or something that they had him in the ICU the first night. And I think it had to do just because he originally was like, vomiting. Yeah. So they, they had him in the ICU the first night, and then they moved him the second, like day into just a regular room.

Scott Benner 32:30
Well, he was probably NDK when he got there. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So it takes a lot more takes a lot more nursing takes different equipment to you know, to slowly bring your blood sugar down in a safe way. They do not want to just like Jack your blood sugar down very quickly. So

Speaker 2 32:47
yeah, he had like, basically was a, like a bag hanging of insulin and a head went through a pump, and then it would like, like dosage? And then they would they would just check in like every hour to make sure it was coming down.

Scott Benner 33:04
At this point, does he lived mostly with you with his mom? Or is it pretty equal?

Speaker 2 33:10
It's pretty equal. I mean, a lot of it deals with my, my schedule at work. So okay, that's like a huge factor. But he's definitely with, with with us, like split 5050 is as much as possible. I mean, obviously, stuff comes up and we will swap days or whatever.

Scott Benner 33:27
Yeah. So you both they're becoming educated and doing it together.

Speaker 2 33:32
Yeah, yeah. So we're both we're both in the hospital. Doing, you know, all the in hospital education. Of course, I'm, my family always jokes, like, I love to do research. And I really don't, I just kind of get down those rabbit holes. I start, you know, reading about something and then it sends me somewhere else. And then somewhere else. And next thing you know, I've spent like three hours reading about something or whatever that I've been looking up. So yeah, I did. Immediately. I was like, I want to I want this thing called a Dexcom. And I was like, in my insurance don't cover it. I want the because I think Abbott made one at the time to leave, or whatever. Yeah. So I was like, I was like, I want this one. But if I can't get this one I want this one.

Scott Benner 34:18
Said I want the I want this one. But if I can't have that one, I'll take the cheap one.

Speaker 2 34:23
Yeah, I was like, I was like, I don't care. I want this thing to tell us all the time.

Scott Benner 34:26
Right. What do you end up getting?

Speaker 2 34:29
We ended up getting the Dexcom it took a little while obviously. I ended up like, you know, calling Dexcom and having them kind of start the ball rolling and then calling my while his endocrinologist they wanted to have us test for a while, you know, the, I guess the same old routine that almost everybody goes through.

Scott Benner 34:54
Just tell them I can actually test at the same time he's wearing a Dexcom

Speaker 2 34:58
No, I didn't think about that. But I was like, why not how to do this? And they're like, What do you mean? I'm like, Well, we have to test the blood sugar at pretty much every patient at my job. Like, every time we pick up a patient, we test their blood sugar, you know, if we think it's that or not. And, okay, so it's like, I'm pretty sure I understand how I got this down. comedor works. I've been using it. Yeah, cuz I've been doing. I've been doing this for like a decade at that time. I'm like, Yeah, I've been doing this for a long time. Like, I know how to do I know how to use this.

Scott Benner 35:32
Well, how soon after he got out of the hospital? Did you have a CGM?

Speaker 2 35:37
Oh, um, I know, we went through the whole summer. And then some of the some of the winter without it. Because I know some stuff came up. I know we were. We were in. I want to say we're like doing like, the Chicago zoo, like you walk through the lights. And I was like, Oh, I just had a, I just had a CGM, this would be so much easier because I had to like test them and stuff. And you know, if it gets high, then I'm like, trying to get it back down or whatever. And so

Scott Benner 36:17
an insurance thing that made it take that long? Or was it the doctor pushing you back?

Speaker 2 36:23
I think it was just a little bit of everything, you know, a little bit of the insurance, they had some rules, like you have to, you know, test this many times a day, and this and that. And obviously, we had the prescriptions that prove that. So it just seemed and then the the doctor's office, oh, we want you to, you know, do finger sticks for a certain amount of time. And just like a little bit of everything kind of piled up. So I ended up calling my insurance and finding out, you know, what do they cover and all that kind of stuff? So I did, I did kind of all the legwork, so that I didn't like pick one and then and then get everything approved. And then they're like, Yeah, your insurances and pay for this.

Scott Benner 37:08
But so you were pretty ready. By the time it came, you knew how to how you wanted to use it and what it was going to do for you?

Speaker 2 37:13
Oh, yeah, I had, I had a basic idea of, you know, what it did how it worked, you know, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, you know how to put it on all that kind of stuff. So I was like, ready to go when it came in the mail. And like, let's do this. And they're like, they had like, a zoom, like a Zoom meeting with, I think, with a Dexcom nurse or something like that. And they were like, Oh, we got to do this. We get like, I want to put this thing on now.

Scott Benner 37:41
We I've been thinking about this for a few months. Now. I'm good to go. I know where I want to put it. I think I know how to insert it. Let's go. What did you learn? Or did you learn anything? Shocking, or surprising? After you could see his blood sugar constant?

Speaker 2 37:57
Um, yeah, I we saw the, like, cars. So at first when they when they, you know, tell you it's like here, you get the you get the lunch or dinner or whatever ready, you figure out how many carbs it is, and then you dose for that. And then you give them the food. So like, originally, I'm thinking, you know, and this goes, I'm thinking it's more like a medicine that we give at work, you know, which is working through an IV in you know, a couple minutes, not realizing that, you know, some insolence take 1520 25 minutes to work. And so I'm dosing him. And then you know, when you check, whatever, three hours later, his numbers are good. Well, I didn't realize he was like, spiking, you know, 182 10 like, and then coming back down. So that was the biggest surprise to me. I was like, why is these huge spikes here? Like we're ending at the right area? But, you know, why are we Why is he spiking and then falling back down?

Scott Benner 39:01
Right? Yeah, no, I mean, I had the same experience. I just like I used to think they do this thing. Before CGM, they wanted you to test at certain times, and the times they would give you the test actually did give you the greatest chance, I should say, of getting a number close to what you were hoping for. So you know, test before you eat, make a decision off of that, that number, how much insulin you need for food and to correct this number. And then don't ask again for like three hours or more after they eat. And then you'll see where you ended up. And you're like, okay, and you know, gosh, I started at 150 I ended at 110. This went pretty good because in your mind, excuse me in your mind, you never went over 150 And you didn't go under 110 It's just how your brain like tricks you into believing this is what must have happened. You know that you throw that CGM and you see see one fit The winter 171 to 210, it was 280 that it dropped like a rock for five minutes, then it leveled off at 200, then it fell again and you know, then you test it and you are 110. And you're like, oh, everything's fine. It, it shifts your perspective. So once you know that, you want to make a change, what's the first change you make? And how do you figure out how to make that change?

Speaker 2 40:22
Well, then, I want to say the first change we did was, you know, start to start Pre-Bolus Singh and stuff like that. I actually didn't want to, like, so he's young. So I'm like, I don't I don't know, if I want him to wear a pump. You know, I was like, I don't know how how beneficial that can be. So we kind of tried all the other stuff, you know, trying to do a Pre-Bolus trying to find different foods that might not have like, such a hard hit because he was like a big, like milk drinker. And he used to love those like, those like, they're in the breakfast aisle, they're like, but they're, they're not just milk there, they got like protein and stuff like that, and I'm sure, and they had way more sugar than like some other brands. But, you know, we weren't paying attention to that beforehand. And I'm like, Man, these things have a lot of sugar in them. So you start looking at different brands like okay, well this, this might not hit as hard this, you know, this might not be as drastic. So I think the first step was like Pre-Bolus Seeing and trying to choose foods that may not have had like such a such a big effect on the on the sugars rising so fast.

Scott Benner 41:45
Is funny once you start paying attention what you learn about foods specifically, I people who don't have diabetes in my life, sometimes I'm like, don't eat that. Like there's nothing valuable about that at all, you know, or, or I'll say like, you have no idea what that would do to Arden's blood sugar. I'm totally interested in what it's going to tax your pancreas with. You know, like, there's just certain things. I mean, you know, you don't have to look at labels for very long, just certain things like this is probably not a good idea.

Speaker 2 42:13
Yeah, yeah, there's things. There's things that I eat and drink, and I'm like, Man, I wish I had a Dexcom on right now, I'd love to see how this how this affected me. I'm gonna

Scott Benner 42:21
say milk with added sugars. Definitely one of them. So yeah, but drinks are where, where we get so much sugar that people don't realize, you know, it just it comes in. I don't know. You know, it's sort of like, I don't know, it's sort of like a condiment when you're when you're counting your carbs. Like sometimes you forget to count the condiment, which has 789 carbs, and you're just like, Oh, that's not food. That's a condiment. And sometimes I think people are similar was, you know, drinks. They're like, Oh, it's not food. So I don't have to worry about its impact. But you get a lot of a lot of stuff goes in your body through your liquids, so you have to be really careful.

Speaker 2 42:58
Yeah, I'd never I never realized until you know until you see it

Scott Benner 43:02
had to look. Yeah. Well, that makes sense. So you injecting for how long? How long did your mom get off of having to babysit?

Speaker 2 43:12
So we injected for her for a while, like, I know. Man, I don't even know how long we've been on it. Probably. Probably coming up on a year. Now. I guess we've been on the pump. Right. Um, but it felt like forever. Like because we had, you know, we had that CGM. And then I, like I said, Before, I was kind of against the pump. I was like, man, just this is more stuff like, like, what do you you know, if the pump fails, you have to have a way to give it so you're still carrying the pen around. So it's like, I don't know if I want to do it. And then I think that's how I ended up actually finding your podcast is i i was doing like a little bit of research on the pump. Because his mom was like, I think we should do this. I think we should do this. I was like, Okay, let me let me look into it. And then I'll see it, you know, and I think I think I found the something about the Omni pod and then it like linked to your to your podcast. And then so I listen to your podcast. And then I was like, Man, I don't even like I don't even listen to podcast. So I was like, How do I even find, like, do this so I had just gotten an Apple phone. And it had the little like podcast app on there. I was like, I wonder if it's in here. And then that's when I started listening to it. And then I was like, oh, yeah, we're getting the pump. Let's get on this now. That's cool.

Scott Benner 44:46
You know, earlier we skipped over something. So you know, we you we talked about you seeing what was happening after meals. And did you then you jump to like talking about a pump because I think you're gonna tell Talk about how you started treating with a pump. But it didn't take that much time. Did you see what was happening with meals and just let that happen? Or did you? Because now you're telling me you didn't really find the podcast until the pump. So you wouldn't have really known about Pre-Bolus thing unless somebody brought it up to you besides me, did someone else bring it up?

Speaker 2 45:16
Um, I feel like I read it somewhere. Okay. You know, trying to cuz I know, in I didn't, I guess I didn't actually have a word for it. But, you know, I would see like, Okay, we injected here. Now, now we're watching the Dexcom. And he's eating. And then it's rising, and then it's falling. And it's like, you know, kind of putting two and two together. Like, they're, you know, why is it? Why is it doing this? Why is it taking so long to like, kick in? And then it made sense to Yeah, kind of on a on a basic level kind of made sense. I just didn't have like a term for it or anything like that. So I know we did. Because at first like, I would like dosage of like, give him his food now, you know, like in a panic and yeah, and you're all like, freaking out. If it takes like five minutes. And then, you know, come to find out. You're like, oh, no, he's got 10 more minutes before.

Scott Benner 46:17
You have a little more time than you think. I love I'm enjoying talking to a guy. How old are you? 36 you don't get to talk to as many men as I do women. And I love you have so many guy answers. Like if I said to you like David asked me what time of day my children were born? I'd say I don't know. But if you ask my wife, my wife knows the exact minute they were born. You know how long ago did Arden get? an insulin pump? Like I know that because of the podcast. But trust me if it wasn't for the pod? Yes. I have no idea. I I swear to you right now, if you asked me what day Arden was diagnosed? I don't know. It's like, later in August.

Speaker 2 47:02
You know? Yeah, it's it all kind of blended together. Because, like, I remember we, you know, I remember dosing with a with a pen, and it felt like forever. And I remember not having a Dexcom and that, you know, and it feels but it feels like I've had a Dexcom Well, he's had a Dexcom for ever now. And it feels like he's had a pump forever, too.

Scott Benner 47:28
Yeah, so just tell you all I know if that boy's mom was here, and I said, when did you start using a pump? She'd be like April 16. Two?

Unknown Speaker 47:36
Yeah, she would definitely have the dates.

Scott Benner 47:38
Yeah, I don't know. I enjoy this. I love the in specific nature of your answers, can I because I don't think it matters to be perfectly honest. But and I also think it's a good gets a good view into people's minds and how you know, life is busy. And you know, there's a lot going on with diabetes, obviously in your and your job and work and just trying to raise a kid in general. It's hard to remember all this stuff. And you know, it starts to blur together after a while and there's nothing wrong with it. I was just kind of teasing you. I thought it was hilarious. Okay, so now you've got a you got a pump. You've got the CGM. You figured out how to start Pre-Bolus thing. The pump leads you to the podcast. What does the podcast lead you to?

Speaker 2 48:20
It leads me to like, well, first. So I was doing the research on the pump found the podcast and then after listening to the podcast, because I was like, there's a lot of like, good info in this podcast. So me, I guess, being who I am, I went to like episode one. And just started listening. Because my my drive to work probably, it's almost I can almost fit a whole podcast in it. So I usually start it on my way to work. And then on my way home, I'll I'll finish it. And I just started hammering those out and finding out kind of how much you can manipulate the pump and find out you know how you can adjust the Basal rolls and do all that stuff. And so that's kind of where, you know, the podcasts and the pump led me to was on just having way more control over it.

Scott Benner 49:21
Not just thinking of the insulin was something that you put in then it goes off and does whatever it does, and you're just hoping it doesn't run you over. Yeah, that's good. I'm glad. I also appreciate when you went back to listen at the beginning. Thank you.

Speaker 2 49:35
Yeah, I listened let's say like 250 episodes before I like came I was like I need to hear stuff because you know there's so much stuff going on this past like year I was like I need to hear some like fresh new stuff because I actually found it interesting. In the beginning. I want to say it was before like dash came out. And I want to say But it might have even been before Dexcom six came out. So it I kind of liked to hear like, it makes me appreciate it, you know, you get that one bad Dexcom or you get that one bad pump, you know, something fails or whatever, but it makes me appreciate like what people had to go through with like the older the older technology, you know, yeah. They like I have no idea, you know, what a, what a whatever, G four, G five, whatever they, whatever, you know, setbacks or whatever they had. So like hearing other people talk about them and stuff kind of made me appreciate everything we got now.

Scott Benner 50:44
Yeah, it's funny how it ends up working because Arden's had them for a while I go back and forth, I think the seven plus was our first one, which I know is weird, because in current times people think of G five, G six, and G seven coming out soon. But there was a, you know, they went to a different naming system at G four, they started four or five, six, and now sevens coming. But nonetheless, it's just like every other technology thing, you get it, it's the best thing you've ever seen. And you're like, This is amazing, then you use it for a while, and you're like, This is amazing, but I wish it did this, or I wish it didn't do that, or would be nice. If this was round, or you know, whatever you start thinking. And the company thinks the same thing. They're like, Hmm, that makes sense. They hear feedback from people, they use it themselves, they go Alright, well, we'll make a little adjustment, you get the next one. And immediately you're like, This is the best thing I've ever seen. You know, and I just tried to imagine that at some point, there was a person in the world who was like, wait, I can buy a glass vial for my for my needle and boil it at home and keep it clean. This is the best thing I've ever seen. You know?

Speaker 2 51:53
Yeah, that's a crazy, that's even a crazy thing to think about, like boil stuff at home.

Scott Benner 51:59
last 100 years, though, just remember insulin, like people were only giving themselves insulin, it's literally 100 years this year. Like so, insulin is 100 years old and 2021. I know it's about 2022 now, but only by a couple months. So insulin is only 100 years old. And we went from Good luck, you're gonna die, you know, to hear inject this, this may be keep you alive to Hey, run around a lot. Don't eat carbs ever. Maybe that'll keep you alive a little longer. To know, we figured this out in check this people started living with diabetes. It sounds sad looking backwards, right. But prior to insulin, you got diabetes type one, you just died. Like that was there. You know, that's 101 years ago, I have diabetes, type one, I'm going to die. And then all of a sudden, here's some insulin, some people live really well on it, you hear some lucky stories from the beginning, people just went on forever. But even if you got people into their 30s and 40s, back then it was a huge win. Like, they got a life that they weren't going to get you know. And then

Speaker 2 53:03
that's like, that's a crazy thing that like even to consider trying to fathom

Scott Benner 53:07
everything from the past color's the future. So that's what slows down care sometimes is that sometimes you're talking to an older doctor who has a foot in the past. And they're just like, please, if you make, you know, there was probably a time in the last 30 years that they thought if you make it to 40, good for you. And now all of a sudden, people are saying like, look, there really may be no reason given current insolence and technology, that this even impacts the length of your life if you understand it early enough. I'm thrilled that you figured it out that early. You know, see that little thing People made fun of you for David goes down rabbit holes, it helped. Although in fairness, your ex seemed to know before he knew. She's like yeah, I

Speaker 2 53:51
was like, Why are you so set on a pump? Like why? Why do you want this? And then I started reading about it. And I was like, Oh, you're right.

Scott Benner 54:00
I bet you if you just said that a couple more times while you're married, you might say yeah. Oh, lesson learned. I'll tell you what the next girl is gonna be right about everything.

Unknown Speaker 54:10
Oh, yeah, she is my girlfriend's. Is that right about everything?

Scott Benner 54:14
I know it. David doesn't have money to do that twice. He's You're right. You're 100% right. We should definitely leave like we're gonna let the cat on fire because it seems like it's something you want to do. Let's do it. That's hilarious. Not that women want to like cats on fire. You understand? I'm sorry. I take that crazy idea. And yeah, I understand. I know you do. But there are women listening who are like I would never let a cat on fire. Like I know you wouldn't calm down. Oh, now I said calm down to women. Now I'm screwed right now you're done. I've been married how long? You're looking at me? In an attempt to be funny. I said the worst thing in the world that you're you're not allowed to say calm down to people.

Unknown Speaker 54:54
That definitely does not work. No, no

Scott Benner 54:57
it as the app listen I joke around with Are you in the Facebook group? Yeah. So do you know Isabel moderates the group for me?

Speaker 2 55:08
I didn't, I didn't know that much. I just I definitely try to, you know, inject where I can or whatever and but I didn't know like, I don't know any of the moderators. It's

Scott Benner 55:20
just what it's me and this lovely woman named Isabel who helps, you know, mostly what she sticks with is like, she jumps in gives like, pushes, like people like, Oh, you have a question. This episode will help with that, like she's doing that kind of stuff, which is really great. Okay, but we talked privately, and I joked with her recently, and I said, um, I'm going to write a book, it's going to be a short book, it's going to be called things you can't say to your wife, it'd be like a pamphlet and calm down. Definitely one of them. You know, just, I think how many lives can be saved? If you just,

Speaker 2 55:52
yeah, you just handed out at the wedding?

Scott Benner 55:55
Exactly. I think I told her, I'm like, we're gonna call it like, you can't say to your wife. Like, I'm gonna sell a million of them. And they're only they're only gonna be like, it's gonna be like three or four pages long, but it's gonna save your life. You keep it like a reference in your pocket. You feel yourself talking. You flip through it, and you go, Oh, yeah, I can't say that. Nevermind. Yeah. And by the way, there are things you shouldn't say to your husband either, but I don't see anybody sweating that?

Unknown Speaker 56:24
Yeah, they don't worry about that too much.

Scott Benner 56:25
Look at you. Generalizing. You said, now you're in trouble. Good. Get me off the hook. Excellent. So how would you say your son's doing now diabetes wise, what would you categorize? You know, his day to day like?

Speaker 2 56:41
Um, I'd say he's, he's doing really well. It definitely matured him. So that's kind of a it's a good thing, but also a little bit of a sad thing. But he, so we got him. Obviously, I use a lot of your advice. We got him a cell phone, which he has that school. So he's got everything there. And he's got his I don't know what's called PDM. We call it a dozer. dozer. So that's Yeah. dozer. So he, you know, if anything happens if he starts to go a little high, so I have his high set fairly high, just so it doesn't beep at school, which is 200. But mine set at 160. So if it, if mine goes off, I can just text him, like, hey, dose this much. And then he just goes up to his teacher tells her he needs to do something, she's like, No problem. And then he, they don't have desks. So he, he keeps everything in his backpack, which is like in the hallway of school. So he'll just go out in the hallway, if he needs to dose or if he needs, you know, a little piece of candy or something to bring him up, or, you know, whatever he needs to do. He can just go in the hallway, take care of it come back. And the teachers have been great about it. They, you know, every year we sit down and do the, you know, the prep for the school year, and they're, they're basically just like, what do you need us to do? What do you want us to do? But he's kind of getting to that age where he can do a lot of it himself. And I've started kind of like quizzing him, like, hey, what would you dose for this? And he'll say, you know, in the beginning, he would be like, Well, I don't know, I don't know. And I'm like, Just guess he's like, Well, what if I'm wrong? I'm like, Well,

Scott Benner 58:39
don't worry, we're not listening to your kid, I'm just wanting your guests

Speaker 2 58:42
know, I listened to you, I'll be like, I'll be like, if you're wrong, then we'll either give you more insulin because you need more insulin, or we'll give you some juice to bring your number back up. But then you learned from that. Okay, you know, now I know. You know, I'll say, Well, how many units is this? You know, we like 1.2, you know? And then I'm like, okay, yeah, if you need more insulin, you need more. So a lot of times if if I think he's close, I just, I'll go with it. And truthfully, a lot of times he ends up being more right than I would have been.

Scott Benner 59:15
I do that too. Honestly, I think it's a great way to teach them and let them see it in person. Like don't get me wrong if I thought some oh my god, hold on. I cannot wait for winter to be over. Hold on. I was so dry. I, you know, don't get me wrong if Arden was like I think that's 11 units. And I was like I think it's three I'd be like Oh, I think you're wrong, you know, but let's go over it. But I take your point like if you think oh no, this is three and he says three and a half I'm like yeah, whatever you think speaking of the old PDM from Omni pod he used to have to hold he might still have to one some of them you have to hold this arrow up to you know make the the number climb. You know when you're trying to decide how much insulin use I know most people probably Put the carbs and let the pump decide. But you know, I use a little more. And I just whipped that arrow up. And as the number was climbing, I just take my thumb off. And if I meant to get the five units, and it stopped at 5.3, I was just like, that's fine. I just got to put them being because my experience was I was frequently her blood sugar's were high anyway. So I mean, I guess I didn't have enough is how I was thinking about it. I was like, I have five 5.3. What's the difference? You know, I know, point three is the difference. But it's the scale, give it a shot. And I think you'll learn a lot from that by not being caught in that panic that you kind of described earlier about when you put the insulin in. Everyone knows that feeling like I've injected the insulin, it's an early on feeling with diabetes. Oh my god, start eating. Like right now, like 30 seconds passes in the beginning and you start to like, your flopsweat. You know, like, Oh, my God, this is bad. Like, you know, something bad's gonna happen. Now we'll Pre-Bolus You know, I don't know, 1520 minutes if we need to art and I own a restaurant the other day. And we were like, Pre-Bolus and walking through the parking lot. Just like Yeah,

Speaker 2 1:01:05
yeah, that's the that's the one I find hard. It's like, you never know how quick they're gonna be at the restaurant.

Scott Benner 1:01:11
Well, every once in a while, I won't lie, David, every once in a while you're sitting there going, where's the food? Where's the food, but you know, we've walked into a parking lot. We're in a lot of cars there middle of the day. I was like, go ahead. Like your budget was like 120 as a guide and Bolus, like not all of it, but let's do half of it now. Get it Get yeah, that's,

Speaker 2 1:01:27
that's what I did. When we went, we went out to eat with my dad. And I like Pre-Bolus I want to say like, like two thirds of the meal. And I'm like, I'll just give you the rest when it gets here. Because we use fi ASP. C ASP. So works pretends to, it tends to work a little bit quicker for him, so Oh, nothing bolusing now it's such a huge deal as it was before

Scott Benner 1:01:54
I we crushed that meal yesterday. Now the thing we messed up was that there were French fries involved. And we both kind of said like, you're gonna need insulin for the fat and the fries later. And then I like we went home and like, like parted ways. And I just forgot to bring it up again. And she forgot about it. And then next thing you know, I was like fighting with a fat rise, her and I were fighting with a fat rice for like two hours. And then we finally broke it and brought it back down again. But the meal itself like man like that Pre-Bolus was legit. We sat and ate her budget was like 88 While we were eating. And awesome. Yeah, it's not just awesome. It lets you sit there and talk like people instead of, you know, you go in you, you do what you do. And 10 minutes later, you hear like beeping Are you testing like, oh, it's already going up? It ruins everything, you know? So,

Speaker 2 1:02:46
yeah, kind of interrupts Yeah, you were conversation or whatever,

Scott Benner 1:02:51
it's hard to sit and just be you know, when you're trying to, you know, when you're chasing this number, when just you know, getting the insulin on the right side of the meals is pretty much all you need to do. So, anyway. Do you remember why you wanted to come on at this point? Or do you feel reasonably okay about this conversation?

Speaker 2 1:03:11
Um, I feel pretty good about it. I mean, I just, I just, I guess, appreciated, like hearing a lot of people's different stories, and, you know, just wanted to kind of share my story.

Scott Benner 1:03:26
Well, I really appreciate that, honestly, I, the podcast is it's nothing without people like you. I I mean, the management stuff is great. And I think it's terrific. And I could talk about it forever. But I don't think it would be as entertaining. And I don't think it would be as interesting and I think maybe great stories, hearing people's lives, draws people in, and then it allows them to go look for the management stuff. You know, I was talking to somebody I was pitching, I can probably tell you this hold on. I can tell you this, because by the time yours comes out, it'll be long past. So I was pitching the Helmsley foundation yesterday, on having somebody from their foundation come on the podcast. This is probably words you don't know anything about but there's a charitable foundation called the Helmsley Foundation. And suddenly, a number of years ago, they just shifted to starting to support diabetes, and it felt like it was almost out of nowhere. And it turns out that somebody that came in to the foundation has children with type one. And I was talking to a PR person yesterday talking about how I would like to have him on his name is David coincidentally. And yeah, and it really is weird because I don't think I've interviewed that many David's. So you know, I'm talking to her about what I think, you know, why would like the mother come on the podcast and you know what story I want to get. And I think at first she was sort of like this is different than what people usually ask about. You know, like they want to know about The foundation they want to know about, like what they're doing. And I'll get to that while we're talking. But I would really just like to hear what it's like for him to be the father of kids with type one and what drove him to do what he's doing. You know, just just a, an interesting conversation with a person like, no, no need to come on and read your manifesto, the information you want to get out into the world, because that's not interesting to people. And so I find somebody like you incredibly interesting, I feel, I feel like regular stories are assessable. And that people can find their way through, you know, through you. So I really appreciate you doing this. Not that, you know, the guy from Helmsley is not going to be really interesting. But if I just had on, I don't know, practice voices in the diabetes community over and over again, you would just hear the same four stories over and over again. So, you know, I really do appreciate you taking the time to do this.

Speaker 2 1:05:55
Yeah, I find that the stories, it's, it's kind of like, we, your podcast is kind of like how we train like as EMTs. And stuff, a lot of times, or even as firefighters, a lot of times you get somebody that's, you know, then, like they're teaching the class. So they'll teach you something in the class, but then they always have a story related to whatever they're teaching you. So, like, I've been learning kind of that way, since I've been doing this. And so when I found the podcast, I was like, I don't know if stuff really stuck with me. And I don't know if it's just because that's how I've been kind of learning through my career. So I just find it like, super easy to retain stuff that people say, and then I can, you know, look it up, do my own research, see how, you know, try it out, or whatever it may be. But yeah, that's, that's what I find super helpful.

Scott Benner 1:07:00
It's amazing. I'm happy that that it's valuable to I really am I just, it just, it's obvious to me that these conversations are important, and that they don't have to have any goal when they start. You know, like, I mean, honestly, you came on to say, you know, in your intake form, you just like, I don't know, like, you know, I liked the podcast, and we got some technology, but we didn't talk about any of that, really. And it's an insight into your mind and your situation. And then other people can hear it and find commonality and think, okay, like that worked for him, or didn't work for him. Or I could try this or maybe listen, maybe you guys are just listening to right now going, I can't tell my wife to calm down. No, you can't. You cannot tell her that it doesn't even matter if she's literally, if that's the best advice in the world, you're not allowed to say that. I could say it. I've actually had private conversations with people where they're really upset about diabetes. And I'll say, can I tell you something that I assume your spouse wants to say to you, but they won't? Like, you gotta come? Yeah, but you're out of your mind, like, just relax a little bit, you know what I mean? You can't just, you know, like, you can't just, you can't be at this level of panic constantly. It's not okay. But it's not a something, it's not something you'll accept from a person in your home. You know, you'll you'll accept it from a stranger. But anyway, somebody gets something out of this conversation. And maybe it leads them to another conversation, or leads them to a device or how to fight for something that they need with their doctor, whatever it ends up being like, it would be, it would be foolish of me. I think it would be foolish of anybody. But it does seem to be how some people try to do stuff, to try to take an hour of conversation and decide, this is what this is going to be about. And then I get you on and I forced the conversation into that direction. Because that's not fun to listen to. And then even if we do get to the thing, you know, that's on the title. It might be so stilted and uncomfortable that people just wouldn't listen to it to begin with. So I just say talk and whatever comes out comes out, and then we'll do it again tomorrow, you know? Yeah, I appreciate it. I really do.

Speaker 2 1:09:18
Yeah, the one. The one thing I'd have to say that, like, the podcast did that helped me out the most was to not just kind of take what the doctors like, want to do or what they say like, when we go into his doctor's appointments. I'll be like, This is what we're doing. This is what we need. This is how it's going. And his his agency has gone from above seven to let's see, it was 5.9. And then this last one was like 6.1. And my like, my real goal is like this Six. Like, if we can just stay around six, I'm happy anything better than that is, you know, a win, but I'm not trying to, you know, stress them out or anything. So I've I feel like we're, you know, hitting my goal. And when I go into the doctor's office, actually, so his doctor doesn't have type one diabetes, I found the most helpful people to talk to in the office are the nurses that have diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:10:28
I can imagine. Yeah, like, I can

Speaker 2 1:10:31
get so much good information from them. Like I saw a nurse wearing, she was wearing a libre. And I thought she was just wearing it to see how it feels tested out. She's like, she's like, Oh, I usually use Dexcom. But she's like, we had these laying around, and they're expired. So I'm just using them up. Like, oh, wait, you actually need that? And she's like, Yeah. And I was like, Oh, let me pick your brain.

Scott Benner 1:10:56
I agree. I think it's a great idea. Does you know what you just said made me want to ask you are you interested in on the pod five? Are you gonna try an algorithm?

Speaker 2 1:11:05
I want it so bad. I'm on the like, whatever the waitlist or the interested list or whatever. Because my son has, it's so weird Hill. And it doesn't matter what he eats. But at night, when he goes to bed, his sugar will just shoot up. And sometimes it's just so stubborn to get back down. And it's at first I thought it was like growth spurts because it would happen, then it would stop. But like sometimes it happens for like weeks and weeks and just never seems to stop. And then when it stops it only it'll stop for like a day or two and then it's back to like being super difficult nights.

Scott Benner 1:11:48
Yeah. Well, I think you're gonna get that that's

Speaker 2 1:11:52
yeah, I'm, I wanna, I'm interested in seeing like, what it does, because I've raised as basil at night, like, almost double what it what it is during the day. And it helps, but I'm just like, Man, I need this algorithm. I need to see what what it does. Tell me. I have a computer tell me what to do.

Scott Benner 1:12:10
Yeah, need to sleep to? Yeah, that's amazing. Actually, you know, I, I know this little like anecdote about on the pod that I pops in my head all the time. I always swallow it, because I'm not sure that I'm supposed to say it. But I'm just gonna say it now. So I never think about it again. You mentioned earlier you were like, the PDM. But we call it the doser. Yeah, so I know that there is a person who works at on the pod, really high up it on the pod who came into the company. And one of the things they said was, why are we calling this thing of PDM. It's such a clunky, like, weird name. But it was kind of so ingrained in the, you know, in the device at that point, they couldn't just like change it. And you know, and it stands for Personal diabetes Manager, which is just, you know, very indicative of probably, you know, they were starting the company, and they're like, What do we call this thing? And somebody probably said, like, it's a personal diabetes management, like, oh, okay, let's call it that. You know, but I think it's, it's, it's very, it's a very good thought that it would be cool if it had a better name. And I just when you said that, I thought, I bet that person wishes that was called a doser, or something else. But I wouldn't be surprised just based on what I know, if one day, that name just kind of like, slowly translates into something else. I always kind of keep an eye out for that to see if that ever happens. Because I know there's somebody in the company who's like, PDM why are we saying that?

Unknown Speaker 1:13:39
I know PDM sounds like so, like, 90s to me

Scott Benner 1:13:44
why they get it? And I think it is and then that's why so I bet you one day it gets changed. And if it ever gets changed, I'm gonna after it happens, I'm gonna get the person on the podcast who I know, would be spearheading that that movement, and get them to tell the funny story of when they got there. And they were like, What are we calling this? Anyway, I had to get that out of my head pops into my head like three times a month and I'm tired of it happening. I figured if I said it out loud, it would just be gone. So I appreciate it. Well

Speaker 2 1:14:11
tell them if they you know if they want to name it. doser I'm totally fine with that.

Scott Benner 1:14:14
Yeah, yeah. You don't have that copyrighted or anything like that. No. I think you'd be better off it was called the thing.

Speaker 2 1:14:22
I know. I'll be like, Hey, do you have do you have to get the thing? Oh, sir. You have the doser with you? Like yeah, I'm like, Okay.

Scott Benner 1:14:29
I know for certain that if you asked Arden what her Lance was called. I don't imagine she would call it a lance. I don't know what she would call it. I don't even think we call it anything. I hear people call it pricker. Or I've heard somebody say it was the stab or once and stab. I'm like, Oh, I wouldn't say that if I was you. But anyway, I don't even know what Arden would call it. I almost guarantee she doesn't know the PDM is called well, though she does because we would use that. We would say PDM a lot when she was younger. So I bet you that it's stuck in our head. But I don't know, I can't wait to see what they they end up calling it now. Or you know if eventually it'll just go to your phone. And you'll just go to your it'll be the Omni pod app.

Speaker 2 1:15:15
Yeah, that that would be so ideal, because I mean, him having him having his phone at school just makes it so much easier being able to text and stuff. And yeah, that would that would be awesome. You know, it's honestly, if they got it to an Apple Watch. Then after the phone,

Scott Benner 1:15:31
man, I just realized like, so it's launching with like, I think it's got phone controlling, like, I don't know, one Android at launch. And they're going to expand after that. But I just realized that language wise, you wouldn't call it anything once it was on the phone. Like when you look at your Dexcom, you don't think to open your Dexcom app, you just think that the place where you see your Dexcom is on your phone. So when you look at the app, that's your Dexcom to you. So because

Unknown Speaker 1:16:00
I'll I'll just ask them like, what's your number? Right?

Scott Benner 1:16:03
So it's not like it's even an app to them. It's a portal that you don't think about that way. So I imagine once phone control for pumps goes, you will won't actually need a moniker like PDM. It'll just be like, you know, we need to Bolus now. And then that will just be the place your mind goes to, to accomplish that. Like I don't think of Netflix as being on an app. But it is I just think of it as Netflix. Yeah. All right. I don't know why that's important to me. Language is interesting. So all right, David, thank you so much for doing this. I really do appreciate it.

Speaker 2 1:16:34
Yeah, thank you. Thanks for letting me come on here and tell our story.

Scott Benner 1:16:46
Huge thanks to David for coming on the show and sharing that story. And I want to thank cozy earth.com and remind you to use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 35% off your entire order, and touch by type one.org. That's where you can go find out about all the events in the goings ons and the things that doings that touched by type one does, the doings that they does are touched by type one.org. I have a little time here. So let me thank you so much for subscribing to the podcast. Those of you have been doing it this week. You've driven the show up into the top 10 In the US medicine category, and it's been staying there with some pretty big names. I really appreciate it. If you're not subscribed, please please do. Looking for community around type one diabetes, check out Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. That's pretty much all I got for you today. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.


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