#1813 Family Ties - Part 2
Brother and sister Jason and Crystal confront generational type 1 diabetes, grief over their dad, and how community, technology, and honest conversations reshaped their care and family bonds.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- The Catalyst for Change: Sometimes it takes a new diagnosis in the family—like a young grandchild—to snap adults out of diabetes burnout and motivate the entire family to adopt modern management techniques.
- Re-evaluating Past Guilt: It's important to view past management struggles through the lens of the era's available technology rather than personal failure, reducing familial guilt and blame.
- Open Communication: Breaking the generational silence about diabetes is essential. Discussing the condition openly can strengthen family bonds and lead to shared support and better health outcomes.
- Community Support Matters: Finding a community—whether through a Facebook group or a podcast—shows you that you aren't alone, provides practical management tips, and helps break down the feeling of being "stuck."
- Finding Your 'Why': Discovering a powerful personal motivator, like wanting to set a safe, healthy example for a newly diagnosed toddler, can instantly shift a person out of decades of complacency.
Resources Mentioned
- Juice Cruise 2026: juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise
- Contour Next Gen Meter: contournext.com/juicebox
- Medtronic Diabetes (MiniMed 780G): medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox
- Touched by Type 1: touchedbytype1.org
- Tandem Mobi: tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox
- Eversense 365: eversensecgm.com/juicebox
- Omnipod 5: omnipod.com/juicebox
- US Med: usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514
- Juice Box Podcast Private Facebook Group: Search "Juice Box Podcast, type one diabetes" on Facebook
- Wrong Way Recording: wrongwayrecording.com
Welcome & Sponsor Messages
Scott Benner Welcome back, friends, to another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
Crystal Hi. I'm Crystal Kermeads. I am a type one diabetic.
Speaker 3 I am Jason, and I have I have talked to you a couple of times before, Scott.
Scott Benner This is part two of a two part episode. Go look at the title. If you don't recognize it, you haven't heard part one yet. It's probably the episode right before this in your podcast player. How would you like to share a type one diabetes getaway like no other?
Scott Benner Join me on Juice Cruise 2026. You may be asking, what is Juice Cruise? It's a week long cruise designed specifically for people and families living with type one diabetes. It's not just a vacation. It's a chance to relax, connect, and feel understood in a way that is hard to find elsewhere.
Scott Benner We're gonna sail out of Miami, and the cruise includes stops in CocoCay, San Juan, Saint Kitts, and Nevis aboard the stunning Celebrity Beyond. This ship is chosen for its comfort, accessibility, and exceptional amenities. You're gonna enjoy a welcoming environment surrounded by others who get life with type one diabetes. I'm gonna host diabetes focused conversations and meetups on the days at sea. There's thoughtfully designed spaces, incredible dining, and modern amenities all throughout the celebrity beyond.
Scott Benner Your kids can be supervised and there's teen programs so everyone gets time to recharge. Not just the the kids going on vacation, but maybe you get to kick back a little bit too. There's gonna be zero judgment, real connections, and a whole lot of sun and fun on Juice Cruise twenty twenty six. Please come with me. You're going to have a terrific time.
Scott Benner You can learn more or set up your deposit at juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise. Get ahold of Suzanne at cruise planners. She will take care of everything. Link's in the show notes. Link's at juiceboxpodcast.com.
Scott Benner If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the juice box podcast private Facebook group. Juice Box Podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome. Type one, type two, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort, or community, check out Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook.
Scott Benner Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter. This is the meter that my daughter has on her person right now. It is incredibly accurate and waiting for you at kontoornext.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner Today's episode is also sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the MiniMed seven eighty g system and their new sensor options, which include the Instinct sensor made by Abbott. Would you like to unleash the full potential of the MiniMed seven eighty g system? You can do that at my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Reflecting on Responsibility and Guilt
Scott Benner Do you think you don't feel like that because you're a reasonably healthy human being, who understands that this isn't their fault? Or do you think it's you don't feel that way because you can blame your dad because if there is a lineage, it started with him and not you.
Speaker 3 No. I I think it's because I can look past the feelings part of it. I can look at the the technical side of it, the genetic side of it, and say, yeah. This is what we've been dealt. Nobody's fault.
Speaker 3 And the only way to deal with it is to, you know, take it by the range and just run with it and go with it and do what you have to do.
Scott Benner Yeah. I you know, I mean, you've probably been listening for a while. And, Chris, I don't know if you listen to me chitter chatter into this microphone or not ever, but I'm sure one reasonable high school level psychology class would have told me this. But I didn't realize that people have such a hard time doing things for themselves, but not a hard time doing them for other people.
Crystal Oh, definitely.
Scott Benner I didn't know that till I had all these conversations with people. I'm sure I was probably doing it myself and didn't know it. You know? But the amount of people who have type one diabetes who then take much better care of themselves because their children are diagnosed, And they have that same exact feeling that you guys said, which is the this was good enough for me, but it's not good enough for you. I don't know how many kids' diagnosis are saving their parents, but I think it's a lot more than you might think.
Scott Benner Really, really interesting, honestly, how it all kinda works. But what's even more interesting is that Crystal sorta, it sounds like, had the same, like, feeling about your child, Jason, as you did. You both were in separate places worried about your kid all of a sudden. And is Crystal, is that Yeah.
Speaker 3 I think that that happened to all three of us or or plus my mom, all four of us.
Scott Benner So All at once.
Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner I'm sorry. Arden is calling me? No. What is happening right now? What is does everyone not understand the situation here?
Scott Benner Scotty's got a job.
Speaker 3 Not a job. You're just a podcaster. Come on.
Scott Benner Somebody's is blocking you? She's trying to go to school. Me? Is it me that's blocking or am I gonna have to tell you guys to hold on a second? Hold on a second.
Scott Benner Because we all went out last night and that so nobody's car is in the normal place.
Speaker 3 Does she not know how to drive other people's cars?
Scott Benner I don't know what she knows. She does. No. She knows how to drive other people's cars. My kids are just there.
Scott Benner They could be princesses sometimes. They're like, hey. Your car's in my way. Come get it. Instead of, like, move it out of your way.
Scott Benner Well, we'll wait for her to respond. If you stop and sit back, is that the story of your family or do you think that's just really the beginning of the story? Like, to me, this is the that's the preamble. Right? Like, now moving forward, like, we can throw all that away and understand that this is your history.
Scott Benner There's part of me that wants to restart the conversation with today with, you know, Wesley's diagnosis and where you guys have gone since then. If you have a little more time, I'd like to keep talking if that's okay.
Speaker 3 I have plenty of time.
Scott Benner Awesome. Okay.
Crystal Me too. Alright. I don't work till tonight. So
Scott Benner Okay. She said, I got out. I had to do a 25 turn. Okay. Okay.
Scott Benner Alright. So that's good. So we don't have worry about that anymore. Okay. So let's do that.
The Turning Point: Wesley's Diagnosis
Scott Benner Let's pretend for a second that we all just knew your story and didn't need to be filled in the way we just were. Spend the next twenty minutes or so trying to figure out the rest of it. Let's pretend that this all starts with Wesley's diagnosed Jason at what age?
Speaker 3 Two and a half.
Scott Benner Two and a half. You've had diabetes since you were
Speaker 3 18.
Scott Benner 18. Your sister had it a couple of years before you. Your dad has it his whole life, basically. Your son's diagnosed. You guys realize that your situation is not such that you would like it to be his situation.
Scott Benner What is adjusting that look like for all of you?
Speaker 3 For me, you know, I paid attention to what my diabetes was doing, but it made me pay attention more because I was having to constantly, with my wife, pay attention to what Wesley's numbers were doing and what you do with a a two and a half year old type one diabetic that no one in our family, except for my grandma, really had experience with. So it made me focus, and it made me take take the time to make it a priority.
Scott Benner Okay. More on the details, more on the finer points of it because the tolerances are so much smaller with a little kid.
Speaker 3 Absolutely.
Scott Benner Jason, do you I'm gonna ask you a question about me. Do you think that that might be why me talking about it is helpful to people? Because do I take it to a different place than some people do? Because I started with a little kid.
Speaker 3 Yeah. I think so. I think that that helped me. Like, when I first started listening to you, like, I I felt there are some similarities between, you know, like, what you were talking about and doing and what I wanted to do. Mhmm.
Speaker 3 Or, like, what I wanted to do and what I had been doing. Because I didn't I didn't find you till, you know, after Yeah. Well, after he was diagnosed. But I I kinda saw that, and it kind of made me think, yeah, there's there's more than just me out here trying to do this.
Scott Benner That community part helps you too.
Speaker 3 Oh, huge.
Scott Benner Yeah. The knowledge.
Speaker 3 I mean Yeah. You can probably tell by the sheer number of posts I've made in the Facebook group post group.
Scott Benner Yeah. No. No. I I can't actually. You're you're passionate about it in a way that I I really appreciate.
Scott Benner As you were talking, thought I wonder if that's part of, like, the way I think about it is because I had to think about it for a person who weighed nineteen pounds that couldn't really tell me what was going on with tools that didn't that weren't really nearly as valuable or as insightful as they are now.
Speaker 3 When Wesley was diagnosed, like, I'm not sure, Like, Dexcom was really a huge thing at that time.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Speaker 3 So it was still and it it really wasn't a thing for two and a half year olds. So I just remember vividly having to wake up two or three times every night and go in and check his finger and, you know, deal with it appropriately at that time. It was it was extremely difficult. Again, it's just something I absolutely had to do, and I had to do a much better job than what I've been doing for myself or a much better job than Crystal had done or a much better job than my dad ever did. It's just imperative that I succeed.
Scott Benner Mhmm. So then you you find that success with your son how, like, in how much time? How long did it take you to transform what you knew and then apply what you thought you needed to do and get him into a place that you were like, oh, good. This is good. Do you know how long that took?
Speaker 3 Zero.
Scott Benner You got to it fast?
Speaker 3 Yeah. Right away.
Scott Benner And then did you then say, I'm gonna apply it to me now, or were you doing
Speaker 3 it Yep.
Scott Benner At the same time?
Speaker 3 I was the I was the guinea pig for Wesley. So anything that I wanted to do to Wesley, I I did myself first.
Scott Benner Okay.
Speaker 3 So I got way better control of myself and then worked on him simultaneously with the same kind of methods.
Scott Benner This is basically, like, the plane just crashed and Jason's the only one that stood up and he's gonna get everybody out one at a time. So you get him out and get you out, then do you go to your sister next or your dad?
Speaker 3 Our dad just kinda watched from the sidelines and at that point in time, I think he actually started to talk about it and ask questions, and he seek advice from Crystal and myself.
Scott Benner Wow. At that point, how old is he about? Oh, you're gonna to
Speaker 3 answer that one, Crystal.
Crystal Oh my goodness. So Wesley's how old? He's 14. 14. So
Scott Benner Eleven years been ago.
Crystal 60.
Scott Benner Oh, that's sad, isn't it? Fifty seven years with diabetes, and he's starting to ask questions. Yeah. Yep.
Crystal It took a long time for dad to openly talk about his diabetes. Yeah. Yeah. Even with Jason and I being diagnosed, I don't remember ever having, like, conversations about diabetes with that.
Scott Benner Yeah. I just think at a certain time with the way treatment was in certain, you know, historical, like, stopping points, there's there's probably wasn't a lot to talk about, really. Like, I take the shot. I eat. I don't die.
Scott Benner I take it again. I'm not dead. It must have worked. Yep. His experience, he puts it I mean, doesn't put it on you, but it becomes your experience.
Shifting the Family Dynamic
Scott Benner It colors your life the way it does. Jason, for some reason, has a feeling of, like, maybe this isn't good enough. I should try harder, but that's not really a ton of I mean, you're Jason, you're just really using more insulin. You're just being more aggressive with your insulin. Right?
Scott Benner And then Yeah. Your son comes, you pull the whole thing together like this. I know why you did it for him. I guess I'll wonder why your dad, like, jumped in two feet as well, like, with both feet. Like, I wonder if he didn't think, like, oh my god.
Scott Benner What am I not doing for myself that I should be doing? Like, because you start talking about what you're doing for Wesley. He must it must sound foreign to him for five seconds, but he also knows he's not doing well. So he must have really trusted what you were doing is what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 Yeah. And that's I kinda it's it's weird to me to think that too, like, how you said that. Like, you know, growing up, like, your your dad knows everything. Right? Your dad is the man.
Speaker 3 He does it. He's he's tough. He can handle it. But then to kinda see him start to relate back to myself and Crystal about his struggle, like, he's coming out, like, hugs and saying, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 Oh my gosh.
Scott Benner It's Yeah.
Speaker 3 We're starting to hint to actually wanting to to talk about it. And for him, that's really opening up.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Speaker 3 It was kinda it's just weird to look back on that and think that he's seeking advice from me. Yeah. You know, he's he's almost, like, treating me like, hey. You're the may you're the you're the guy that knows this.
Scott Benner Yes. Finally, one of us figured something out. Like, awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Speaker 3 Yeah. And then I think him seeing eventually, you know, when Wesley first got his Dexcom and his Omnipod, I think after he saw that, like, he's like, well, there that's that's pretty neat. Probably makes things a little bit easier. I don't have to go give myself shots in the bathroom and hide it from everybody. I can just do it from right here.
Scott Benner Yeah. Just opened his life up for him.
Crystal Yeah. And I think him seeing the Omnipod versus my Medtronic that I had back then
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Crystal And not having the tubing.
Scott Benner He was like, There's more than I know with that.
Crystal Lifestyle. He, you know, he was he was scared to death that it was just gonna fall out and that it would just not work because it was just gonna fall out all the time.
Scott Benner It's funny what people worry about all the time. You know? And I'll tell you this too. Like, Justin, I feel like you know me pretty well. Right?
Scott Benner And I'm a very emotional person. I don't have any trouble telling people how I feel. And, you know, last night I don't know if this got said while we were recording or not, but last night, I basically, I went to a concert last night. It was my Christmas gift. My wife, myself, and both my kids went to see Yo Yo Ma perform last night.
Scott Benner It's my fourth time seeing him. I have fairly strong beliefs that if you wanna understand actual calm and centered and connection to the world, like, you should go sit very quietly in a in an auditorium and listen to yoyo and I'll play this cello. And so I'm having a a wonderful time, and I am thrilled that my kids are there. My wife's come with me to every one of the concerts that I've been to. I don't I think she likes it.
Scott Benner I don't think she gets out of it what I get out of it. And the truth is is I don't even know how to quantify what I get out of it. I really I've had trouble explaining it to people. But there are certain notes that he hits on that cello that just make me cry, and I don't even know why. And not like blubbering crying, just tears just running down my face.
Scott Benner Like, it hits me somewhere right in the middle of my soul. And I'm thrilled to be there. I'm thrilled that the kids heard it. I don't think that it's their, you know, their jam. I don't know if they're gonna go home and download the complete works of Yo Yo Ma or anything like that, but I knew that them being there was important and that they would take something from it.
Scott Benner And when we were getting up to leave, there were some time while people were passing by that we just were standing at our seats, And I wanted to grab everybody and hug them and tell them how much it meant for me the to me that they were all there with me. And I just said, like, I'm really glad you guys are all here tonight. That's all I said. Like, I had so many thoughts in my head that I wanted to share, but those other three people, they're not me. Arden's the closest to me.
Scott Benner Like, I can be a little more open with her because she understands how I am, but my wife and my son are a little more, like, they're not as, like, connected that way. And so I seem a little, like, goofy to them when I'm like that, if that makes sense or not. Like, so anyway, so in that very should be easy to to share a moment, I censored myself. And and now I'm trying to put myself in your dad's position, and he's got this thing he's been living with his whole life. He doesn't know how to take care of himself very well.
Scott Benner He sees it happen to his kids after he was already worried it was gonna happen to his grandchildren. Like, it must have been a real you guys must have created a real open space for him to to start talking to you about like that. I wonder if you know what a nice job you did for him that he was able to talk like like that. Unlike other systems that will wait until your blood sugar is a 180 before delivering corrections, the MiniMed seven eighty g system is the only system with meal detection technology that automatically detects rising sugar levels and delivers more insulin as needed to help keep your sugar levels in range even if you're not a perfect carb counter.
Scott Benner Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes and their MiniMed seven eighty g system, which gives you real choices because the MiniMed seven eighty g system works with the Instinct sensor made by Avid, as well as the Simplera Sync and Guardian Force sensors, giving you options.
Scott Benner The Instinct sensor is the longest wear sensor yet, lasting fifteen days and designed exclusively for the MiniMed seven eighty g. And don't forget, Medtronic diabetes makes technology accessible for you with comprehensive insurance support, programs to help you with your out of pocket costs, or switching from other pump and CGM systems. Learn more and get started today with my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner Contournext.com/juicebox. That's the link you'll use to find out more about the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter.
Scott Benner When you get there, there's a little bit at the top. You can click right on blood glucose monitoring. I'll do it with you. Go to meters. Click on any of the meters.
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Scott Benner Contournext.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner And if you scroll down at that link, you're gonna see things like a buy now button. You could register your meter after you purchase it. Or what is this? Download a coupon.
Scott Benner Oh, receive a free Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter. Do tell. Kontoornext.com/juicebox. Head over there now. Get the same accurate and reliable meter that we use.
Healing and Communication
Speaker 3 And I feel like after that happened, I felt closer to my dad and, like, closer than I probably ever have
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Speaker 3 Because we had that that open lane of conversation then. I think it helped our relationship. You know, type one diabetes helped our relationship. Thank you. We're the worst disease ever.
Scott Benner Well, yeah. But in your situation, it's a catalyst or it could have been. Yeah. And it ended up being. This is true through all walks of life.
Scott Benner Right? Like, whether it's me at the concert being more emotional and not having the nerve to be as emotional as I was or this, but when people create space I god. I sound like a therapist. But when people create space where you feel comfortable, it's a really big deal and and it could be done in all all different parts of people's lives and it just doesn't happen frequently enough. I think your story outlines why it's so important.
Scott Benner I hope that's what people are hearing, honestly. Instead of me telling a, you know, a quick story about something that happened to me last night, this is a you guys laying your life out a little bit here and letting people hear about it. I I think it's really awesome. So so you guys all everyone levels up then. Right?
Scott Benner Wesley gets us started at great level. Jason, you level yourself up. Crystal, you level up your care. Crystal, I gotta ask you, is there any points where you think, like, well, hell, if this would've happened sooner, I coulda had a baby?
Crystal I mean, possibly, but I had already come to the, you know, come to grips
Scott Benner You're healthy enough not to torture yourself about that.
Crystal Yeah. Exactly. Yep. Yeah.
Scott Benner Good for you. That's lovely. I'm I'm very happy for you because there's nothing wrong with the decision you made. You know what I mean?
Crystal Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Alright. Now what am I not asking you guys?
Scott Benner Like, what don't I know about your lives that I should be asking you about? Like, what what are you sitting here because everybody always gets to the end and goes, it didn't go the way I thought it was going to. What should we be talking about that I don't know to ask you about or I haven't led you towards?
Speaker 3 You know, after that kind of all hit with Wesley, then it, you know, hit again couple years later with Cooper. And I think it still kinda had that same effect. It kinda opened the door up even more. It kinda got funny on Facebook because my dad would start, you know, commenting on things that I'd post about type one diabetes, and it it seemed like he was paying more and more attention to it.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Speaker 3 And I think if all of this would've happened a lot sooner, I think his outcome in life probably would've been a lot better. You know, he didn't die from type one diabetes, but it definitely contributed to his death.
Scott Benner Right.
Speaker 3 I think he could've lived lived longer if this all would have happened sooner.
Scott Benner And, Jason, is that like, does that are are you not healthy enough not to know that's not your fault?
Speaker 3 Oh, I know it's not my fault. Like
Scott Benner Did it impact you?
Speaker 3 Yeah. It impacted me. You're gonna talk to somebody that helped me deal with impact here this afternoon probably.
Scott Benner Yeah. Oh, yeah. I oh, Erica later. When I record with Erica later.
Speaker 3 Yep.
Scott Benner Yeah. I I know we've gone over it before, but, like, to put it all in one place, like, you have some feeling, like, if this all would have just happened sooner, maybe my dad would be alive.
Speaker 3 And Yeah. I think he would have lived longer.
Scott Benner Yeah. And then how do you work through that on your end?
Speaker 3 I just have to keep, you know, remembering the I can't keep going back and saying what could have happened because I can't change that. Mhmm. The only thing, you know, you can really do is just keep keep trudging forward and learn to deal with your your past regrets and keep that under under control and in a good spot in my brain.
Scott Benner Crystal, did you know that Jason was going through this, or were you going through anything similar?
Crystal I didn't know to that depth. No. I completely sympathize with it because I had the same feelings. You know, if I had talked to Deb earlier about, you know, my experience with my Medtronic, would he have had better control later on in his his life that he could have prevented the stroke, could have prevented the heart attack, could have prevented that stuff.
Scott Benner How is it, Crystal, to hear Jason talk about it? How does it make you feel when you hear how are you being what he went through?
Crystal That I'm glad it wasn't just me. Because I don't think that Jason and I have ever talked anything about, like, this stuff before together.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Crystal At least this and this death depth. No.
Scott Benner It's interesting. So your first thought isn't like, oh, my my poor brother. Your your thought is like, oh, god. I felt that too. Like, is it almost comforting to know that somebody else felt it?
Crystal Yes.
Scott Benner Yeah. You don't you don't mean like, I'm glad someone else is suffering to you. You mean like, oh, gosh. Like, you you're actually finding a community within your brother's experience right now of two people.
Crystal Yes. Yes.
Scott Benner Jeez. Well, this is awesome. I have thought once during this conversation, there is no other place on the planet for two people with type one diabetes to have a conversation like this that's going to have the opportunity to be heard by so many other people who could benefit from it. But I'm, in the moment, just happy for you guys that you're able to have this conversation. I think the bigger takeaway I'm having from this is that I'm I'm trying trying to stop myself from saying to all the people who who are listening, see, just talk to each other.
Scott Benner Like, I don't like there to be after school special, like, takeaways from the podcast. I'm hoping people get these things out of it on their own. But my god, like, if you're not listening and thinking, we should just all be talking to each other more frequently and being honest about how we feel. Like, look at all the good that would come from it. Yeah.
Scott Benner If you're not taking that from this story, I I don't know what to I don't know what to say about that. You know? I just think it's really important. And I'm really grateful for you guys to to share this stuff with me. So thank you for I'm not even stopping you from talking right now.
Scott Benner I just wanna thank you. Yeah. Yeah.
The Value of Community
Speaker 3 I Like, I agree with you, Scott. Like, it's just like the Facebook page. Like, the more communication people have and the more stories people hear, you know, it it allows you to open up more and share share those those shared experiences or as new experiences with other people that are kinda walking in shoes that are very similar to yours, it helps. It makes you feel seen. It makes you feel heard, and people can sympathize with you and and guide you who you know, guide you in a in a good direction, hopefully.
Scott Benner And I don't even know that it matters if you understand how it's helping. Just trust that it is because I think I do see people get bound up sometimes by, oh, like, what's what good is this of me sharing how I feel or, you know, or boohoo, you're all sitting together complaining together or what, you know, whatever kind of sometimes alternative harsher reactions people can have to watching, like, a community help each other at first. You You know what I'm saying. Right, Jason? Like, sometimes people come in there and you realize, like, oh, they're very new to this and they're resistant to this idea of being open and letting that openness kinda wash back on them and help them.
Scott Benner You've seen that happen before. Right?
Speaker 3 All the time there. Yeah.
Scott Benner Right. But also, we've been at it long enough. I know I have been. I I think you have been too. Like, long enough to know that a lot of people, if they hang in there, they get to it.
Speaker 3 You know? Right. Exactly.
Scott Benner Yeah. Which is because sometimes people come off really harshly at first. You're like, oh, they'll figure it out eventually. They're they're actually going through a really what I've come to think of is a very natural progression of I'm too broken. You can't help me.
Scott Benner This is all bull and then they they kinda have to sit there and, you know, in it for a little bit before it makes more sense to them. And they can kind of, like, give themselves over to the idea that having these other people around them whether it's virtually or not is really valuable. It's what you know, it makes me upset sometimes when you hear people pontificate in, you know, YouTube videos or, you know, ever you know, people's connections have to be in person, and I agree with that. I think I think we should all have in person connections with people. I'm not saying we shouldn't.
Scott Benner But in unique situations like this where you just don't have the opportunity to meet that many other people who have a similar experience, you almost have to go to the Internet for that. Like, there's just I mean, you can try as hard as you want to start a local group. You're just not gonna reach enough people to actually put a group together.
Speaker 3 Right.
Scott Benner And to actually get enough voices together that enough voices and enough perspectives together where the value works. I don't know if that makes sense or not. Like, I almost think of the community like a stew. Like, you can just put beef and carrots in it. If you want it, it won't be bad.
Scott Benner Right? But it is better if there's also potatoes in there and if you cook it longer and slower. Like, there's just a lot of variables that make that community the value that it is. And those variables are the extensive number of people and perspectives and experiences that are all there that kinda create that stew at the same time.
Speaker 3 Yeah. And it's and it's like the Facebook group and the podcast are, like, they're always there. Like, you know, I've mentioned this before, but, you know, I do a lot of work with breakthrough t one d. Mhmm. And, you know, they have all these events.
Speaker 3 Like, I I just filmed one event last night, but these events only happen maybe once a month. And they're not events that are focused around care or dealing with a current struggle. It's more about, you know, those are about raising funds and just introducing people to each other. They're not opening up deep conversations that happen on the podcast. They're not opening up conversations that happen in the Facebook group.
Speaker 3 And, you know, solutions aren't being like, now solutions aren't being made in these fundraising events.
Scott Benner Mhmm. The truth is is that you might not be able to go that night or the thing you need might not be mentioned and then you'll think it's valueless or whatever. Like, so there's something about the accessibility of the conversations, the accessibility of the group that allows for it to happen on your time. And therefore Exactly. In the moment you need it, it still exists, and it's right there, and it's ready to go.
Scott Benner When I tell people about the value of the group, one of the metrics I give them is that even at its slowest point, which is three AM eastern time, even at its lowest point in twenty four hours, there's still 50 to a 100 people in there. And that means there's no time when you're not gonna reach somebody.
Speaker 3 Right.
Scott Benner Yeah. I think that is important. By the way, most hours of most days, there's at least a thousand active people in the group pretty much all the time.
Speaker 3 Yeah. And that's, like, that's a thousand people that are looking for something related to t one d. It's just there. It's just such such a great resource. Like, I I think what you've built, Scott, is has changed so many people's lives and perspectives, and it's it's really just kinda opened up a door for people to to walk through if they want to.
Crystal No. We know we didn't have that.
Scott Benner No. Yeah. Crystal, it's part of what I'm trying to get across when I'm, like, picking through your life is that it's not it's definitely not anybody's fault. Like, nobody it it it would be like blaming a caveman for not having a hand warmer. You know what I mean?
Scott Benner Like, it's just not it just didn't exist then. Yeah. You guys were doing great. Like, I mean, honestly, if you look at your dad and you go back twenty years before that even or thirty years before that, like, imagine how jealous those people would have been at your father's care. You know what I mean?
Scott Benner Like, they would yeah. They would have been like this guy is is just out there, like, living life. And so it's always gonna be like that. We just happen to have lived through a unique leap. The Internet is a unique leap.
Scott Benner The technology is a unique leap, and and so we were lucky enough to be involved in it. I am quite sure that a hundred years from now, people are gonna look back at your care and Leslie's care and my daughter's care, and they're gonna be like, these people were lucky to be alive. That'll continue like that. It doesn't often happen in somebody's lifetime. I know I sound like an old person, but the day I got my first iPhone, I was excited because it would hold my contacts from my phone in it.
Scott Benner Like, think of how ridiculous that is. I was like, oh, now my contacts are all in one place. That was the value of an iPhone on day one. And now that's the least of what you think about on your iPhone. As a matter of fact, when you need somebody's phone number, the contact list isn't even the place you go to get it usually.
Scott Benner Then look at that leap in this what it was a I mean, when did it come out? It's not even twenty years yet. Right? Where the Internet goes from, like, you know, show me boobs and twenty five minutes later, half a picture is downloaded on your AOL to, hey, Siri. I think this happened or or high you know, or you're in an l l a large language model, like, no matter which one you you use, and you're asking complicated questions and getting back complicated answers that make sense, like, inside of twenty years.
Scott Benner It's it's phenomenal. You you know, real it really is. And and then it's important to remember that, like, your poor dad was there before that. And, like, it just you know, I I don't know. I really appreciate you laying all this out.
Scott Benner I hope it also makes you feel better about his his life because, I mean, it sounds to me like not only did he do well for himself with the tools he was given, but when the opportunity arose to do better for you guys, he jumped right in too. Like, it doesn't sound like he held himself back when he finally said, oh, this is an inflection point. Like, we all need to be paying attention. And he did
Speaker 3 I agree with that.
Scott Benner Yeah. And he did as an older man too, which is impressive too. Sorry. I cut you off, Crystal. Did I make you guys
Crystal cry? I just Me too.
Scott Benner Is anybody crying? No. I can't believe you guys haven't cried yet. You're really you're killing me. I'm trying to make a podcast here, Chris.
Scott Benner You couldn't get a little weepy once or twice. What the hell is going on? How about you, Jason? You're an emotional guy. Where's it been?
Scott Benner You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 I about got there.
Scott Benner I would have cried at Yo Yo Ma last night if I said exactly what I was thinking, by the way, like, to my kids. Like, I think that that experience is important. I I don't know if I sound like a high minded white lady right now, but I really mean it. Like, you should go online and find out when that man is coming to your part of the world and put on some nice clothes and treat yourself and go sit down. Don't say a goddamn word.
Scott Benner Don't look at your phone. Stare forward. Watch him hold that bow and watch those noise. I don't even care if you even know the music. Just sit there and watch it.
Scott Benner I think it really would change your life. If I would have started saying that to my kids and how much it meant for me to that they were all together, I would have like I probably would have cried. So anyway, my stoic
Speaker 3 Do regret do you regret not?
Scott Benner Yeah. All the time.
Speaker 3 That like?
Scott Benner All the time. All the time, I regret it. With my son, I do it by hugging him because if I talk to him too much about how I feel, I think it makes him uncomfortable a little bit. So I let him pick it up on his own. He still gets it.
Scott Benner I don't get the catharsis of saying it. So I I get robbed a little bit, but he doesn't get robbed because I know he hears it because I listen to him. He knows like, he said to me he said to my wife last night when we got home, we're so tired. There's nothing like a people with autoimmune diseases trying to go out in the middle of the day. Like, everyone was so exhausted when we got home.
Scott Benner Like, I think everybody's not this tired. But right now, but we're kinda, like, mulling around the kitchen, like, 11:00, we're home. He says, I keep wondering why does dad love this so much. I even think just him wondering that is enough. I did say to him, I said, I don't know how to explain it to you.
Scott Benner And I told him the same thing I told you. Man hits a certain string in a certain way, and I just water flows out of my eyes. Like, I'm just he it strikes me in a in a certain in a way that I I don't really have words for. Exactly. I don't know.
Scott Benner I said it it slows my pulse. It slows my heart rate. It makes me calm. Like, I I don't know what else to say. And and and there's something about watching and that guy's beyond an artist.
Scott Benner I know this is probably, like, pretty obtuse for most people. Like, a single man playing the cello, probably not a thing a lot of people are accustomed to talking about. But he's clearly a renaissance person. Like, he's he this is clearly a gift that he's had since he was a child. Right?
Scott Benner And you watch him he at some points, he's playing. He sat he's only sitting in a chair. Like, I I don't know if you guys ever seen him. Man walks out with a 400 year old cello. He's wearing a suit.
Scott Benner He puts the in the floor, sits down on a what does not look like a particularly comfortable chair, and he disappears into it. Like, there are times when he's playing that I don't even know if he knows we're there. Eyes are closed. He's leaning back. He's the cello's on him.
Scott Benner He's playing it. There's times that he makes it make a sound and you a smile comes over his face. Almost like he's pleased that he hit the note or something like that while playing a thirty minute piece. There's no music in front of him. And I've heard it recorded and played back a million times.
Scott Benner He's playing it perfectly. Like, even that, like, captures me. Like like, how does he how does he do that? And then, you know, talks for thirty seconds then sits back down and plays another thirty minute piece straight through. So it's fascinating.
Scott Benner I think that what I did last night was let my kids watch me watch it and that's enough, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3 Makes perfect sense. I think, Scott, you got a connection to music that I don't think every human has. Like, I think I have that same kind of connection to music that I enjoy and like where, you know, it sends that that tingle up your spine when you hear that particular part of the song. It's it's almost like an indescribable feeling.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Speaker 3 It just bubbles up and and smacks you right in the brain, in the heart, and everything. So
Scott Benner Feels like the string pulls me forward then pushes me back into, like, a I don't even know how to yeah. There's these two very I I didn't get their names. I'm sorry. These elderly women were sitting next to me last night, and we were talking in the intermission. The one woman said I was talking about how it made me feel, and she had, like, some more ideas.
Scott Benner She goes, are you a musician? I said, I have no skill whatsoever. Couldn't play music to save my life. She goes, what other music do you listen to? And I laughed and because she must have been 70.
Scott Benner You know? And I said, while driving around this week in my car, I mostly listen to Metallica. And she went, what? And the woman with her went, Metallica. You know, it's that rock music.
Scott Benner And she goes, oh, that's noise. And I say, it's not like, to me, it feels just like this. And she's like, I can't she couldn't understand that. But, like, to me, that the guitar and the percussion that goes with it and somehow the voice I think of as as an instrument not as a voice. I'm one of those people I don't know the words to songs.
Scott Benner I know, until I heard other people say this, I didn't know other people felt this way. But to some people, voices and music don't sound like voices. Like, you're not worried about the words. They sound like music.
Speaker 3 Right.
Scott Benner I'm one of those people. I don't know what anybody's saying. I just to me, the voice sounds like another instrument in the in the collection. But if you told me I was gonna be on a desert island for the rest of my life, I would just want Yo Yo Ma playing the cello if I could only take one thing with me. It does all those things for me in a very simple way, and I like that you sit quietly for it.
Scott Benner You don't dance. You don't even nod your head. You just you sit quietly and you experience it. I I don't know. I anyway, I got to show that to my kids, and I think they'll figure out in their own time why that's important to me.
Scott Benner And, hopefully, it'll end up opening something up for them. I don't I don't know. Anyway, Crystal I'm it will. Crystal's like, the cello. Are you kidding me?
Scott Benner Right, Crystal? Have you ever listened to the cello, Crystal?
Crystal No. I'm just listening because I think it's fascinating now. Music touches different people
Scott Benner Yeah.
Crystal In different ways.
Scott Benner Well, I will, I will send you the album you should listen to. Okay?
Speaker 3 And Crystal could probably attest to my ability to pick out music for certain situations, but I have an ability.
Crystal Yeah. He does.
Scott Benner Yeah. To, like,
Crystal lay does.
Scott Benner Like, lay the perfect thing over top of a moment.
Speaker 3 Yep.
Scott Benner Yeah. We don't have time now, but in the I think he did four pieces last night. And in the fourth one, he said, let's let this last piece celebrate life. And I think it's kinda like the last thing he said. And maybe five minutes into it, a woman had a a health issue right off to our left.
Scott Benner And she was a little older and and not for nothing. She was okay when it was over. But, I mean, it got to the point where they had her laid on the floor. He never stopped playing. And when it was all over, my son said, my god.
Scott Benner He's like, this is maybe the most cinematic moment I've ever been involved in in my entire life for real. He goes, I thought that lady was going to die while Yo Yo Ma was playing Bach behind her. And I thought, well, that'd be a great way to go out.
Speaker 3 It would be.
Scott Benner Yeah. Right? How how wonderful would that be? Like, not not the dying part, but if you're gonna go, not a music designer in a movie that picked the song over your death, like, it's it's Yo Yo Ma sitting there playing right behind you while you're passing on and she's fine. When we all left later, she was out front.
Scott Benner They were still kinda tending to her. But I so badly wanted to run up to her and be like, oh my gosh. How great would it have been if you died while that was playing? That would have been such a good story for everybody, you know. Nevertheless, she's okay.
Scott Benner I I I hope she continues to be. It was just very interesting. His response was it's like it felt like somebody engineered this moment because of what was going on, like, and everything. And and so Jason, you're good at that. When do you do this?
Scott Benner For, like, birthdays? And so when do you put the playlist together? What are we talking about here?
Speaker 3 Well, I I did pick out two songs at my dad's funeral. I'm pretty sure the lyrics to those songs definitely made the vast majority of people there cry. They just fit really well with who he is Yeah. And who he was to everybody around him. And then I don't know.
Speaker 3 I just had a really a knack for picking out the right music for that situation.
Scott Benner Nice.
Speaker 3 Especially sad situations.
Scott Benner Yeah. I think about all the time what music do I want playing at my funeral.
Speaker 3 All the time. Yes.
Scott Benner Yeah. Just because you feel like that's the, I don't know, the best way you could possibly, like, transfer to people how you feel about yourself. I also realized that when I think I think about sometimes, like, gosh, if my wife dies before me, will I end up picking music that makes her funeral about me and how I feel about her and not about her? Do other people not think about stuff like this?
Speaker 3 I don't know. I think about it. Do you think about it, Crystal?
Crystal I have never thought about it, but, I mean
Scott Benner Now you are. Now you're like now I gotta like. Crystal, do you know do you live in a a two story or a one story house?
Crystal Single story.
Scott Benner Single story. Do you know how you would get out if there was a fire? Have you thought about it?
Crystal Yes. Because my husband is on the fire department.
Scott Benner So And you know had that. And if that path is blocked, he told you know a different way to get out.
Crystal Yep. We've got multiple.
Scott Benner I don't understand people who haven't thought about that. It freaks me out if you haven't thought about how to get out of your house in case there's a fire.
Speaker 3 Yeah. I have multiple ways out of my house, Scott, if there were to be a fire. I have multiple ways to get to my kids if there happens to be a fire. So Yeah. I have thought about it extensively.
Scott Benner Other some people don't. Some people are like, oh, that won't happen. Or I hadn't thought about it like that. I'm like, I please and I'm not neurotic. I just that seems like one of those things like, I would not wanna be woken up in the middle of the night faced with this dilemma and that be the first time that I considered it.
Scott Benner So
Speaker 3 So when you went to your Yo Yo Ma concert, did you spot the exits when you walked into the auditorium?
Scott Benner I know. I'm not like that, but I know where they're at. I've also been there before, so I know my way around the building and everything like that. It wasn't my first time there.
Speaker 3 Yeah. I always I always spot the exits and pick the ones that not the the herd of people are gonna run towards.
Scott Benner You feel like the the way they won't go? Yeah. Yeah. There's little stuff like that. Like, I I don't know.
Scott Benner Like, I've told this story before, like, but my I brought this up in front of my brother-in-law once. And I was like, you don't know how you'd get out of your house if the first path was blocked? And he's like, no. And I was like, oh. And I just threw me for a loop.
Scott Benner I was like, oh. I said, I have a window out of a secondary bathroom that leads down to a half roof where you could jump pretty safely from. So that would be my next spot. From there, there's another one that would be a farther fall, but it would be this. Like, I think there's a bush I think you could grab.
Scott Benner Like, there's like, all these I'm like, you didn't think of any of that, hon. He's like, no. It's just it's just a different mindset. Like, it's not that he's not a dumb guy or anything like that. He doesn't things don't occur to him that way.
Community Jokes & Ending Wrap-up
Scott Benner Anyway, this has gotten pretty far from you know what we didn't do? I'm so sorry. What's your father's name? Tell everybody.
Speaker 3 Gary.
Scott Benner Gary. Well, will be for him then. We'll we'll we'll leave this here for him. I think I think the things that he worried about ultimately, which are, know, your kids, Jason, sounds like they're in good hands and and doing really well. And so I guess in the end, he didn't need to worry.
Scott Benner It would have been okay.
Speaker 3 It would have been. Yeah. Before we go, I have some requests.
Scott Benner Okay.
Speaker 3 First, I need to know if DexCom follow is down.
Scott Benner You just Jason
Speaker 3 There Oh. Seriously. Was There was a post about it. There's Someone just posted about it.
Scott Benner Did it happen today?
Speaker 3 No. It's not down. It's just down for that one person.
Scott Benner Yes. Yeah. I I Jason would like me to tell the whole world just because your dexcom's not connecting doesn't mean that the entirety of the system is not connecting.
Speaker 3 Yeah. And then I have I had another request from some people. They want you to say macchiato.
Scott Benner Macchiato? What is that? Yeah. Is that a drink?
Speaker 3 They also yeah. They also want you to say water.
Scott Benner Well, listen. I go through this a lot, and I'll tell you something that that's gonna be a problem for the next couple weeks after this. I know that you all say water. Is that right? No.
Scott Benner No? Water?
Speaker 3 Yeah. There you go. Just get closer. You're Water?
Speaker 3 Little too hard there, but you're close.
Scott Benner Water? No. What what I don't really understand what it is you people hear.
Speaker 3 We're not hearing the word water out of your mouth.
Scott Benner What are you hearing?
Speaker 3 Woah. You're you're you're you put like an h in there.
Scott Benner Water? I'm saying water. Yeah. But when I try to say it right, it's water?
Speaker 3 Oh, that's better.
Scott Benner Water is better? Yeah. No. That's ridiculous. That is not right.
Scott Benner I know for sure that's not right, Crystal. It sounds sounds I am when I say the word correctly, I am just doing the impression of what I think you guys want me to say. I don't know. It sounds very false to me what I'm saying. I know by the way, I'm also aware that this isn't the case.
Scott Benner I'll tell you what I'm dealing with right now is that yesterday, the Trump Rx thing came out. And
Crystal Oh, yeah.
Scott Benner No trump r x dot gov, and no one is able to talk about it without it becoming a political conversation.
Crystal Yeah. Mhmm.
Scott Benner So it's this is gonna be for weeks in the group. I'm gonna be dealing with this. And then I Yeah. Well You know?
Speaker 3 By the time this podcast is out, hopefully
Scott Benner That'll be over. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll be on to something else. Like, is Dexcom follow down?
Scott Benner What what are what are the other things that people say over and over again that you're just like,
Speaker 3 Insulin and storage temperature.
Crystal I was gonna say, how do I keep my insulin cold while I'm traveling?
Scott Benner You don't?
Speaker 3 You don't.
Crystal You just take it with you.
Speaker 3 It'll be fine. Yeah. And then airport security. Mhmm. And that one's Just walk
Crystal through like a normal person.
Scott Benner That one really is interesting, isn't it? Because there are times when I know it's the t it's TSA's fault that it goes poorly. And there are times I think people I don't know, like, what happens, but sometimes it feels like it's they wanna be upset. I can't tell exactly. A lot of it's just create Arnd I just flew to a into Boston the other day.
Scott Benner She and I went and did I think I can say this here, but she and I went and did social media for Omnipod. Like, we filmed a bunch of stuff for them. On the way out, like, you know, leaving Newark, she's like, it wasn't bad. Like, was only a step behind me. She's like, they swabbed my hands, swabbed the pod, and it was kind of it.
Scott Benner But on the way back, she walked through. Like, she looked light and airy. She had a big look on her face. I was like, what's up? She goes, like, they don't know I'm wearing an insulin pump.
Scott Benner I went through the thing, and I don't know if it didn't show or not, but I just nobody stopped me. She's like, that's never happened before.
Speaker 3 Yeah. Well, they definitely saw it if she went through the full body scanner. But
Scott Benner I mean, you would think so, but she's never not been stopped. Yeah. So she's like she goes we we get our stuff together and we keep walking. She goes she looks around and she goes, how many other things do people bring through that they shouldn't have brought through? And I was like, oh, it's best not to ask yourself that question.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Speaker 3 She just did her own security audit on TSA there and they fail.
Scott Benner She just learned that the world is held together with, duct tape and bailing wire and that we're all lucky it hasn't spun off its axis. Yeah. Yeah. And she I go watch it on her face. Like, she was first just thrilled that she didn't get stopped, and then immediately was like, are we safe?
Scott Benner And I was like, probably not. You'll be fine. Keep going. Anyway, anything else that the the the people are asking you to do?
Speaker 3 They have a bunch of other words. Most of them are French, so I can't pronounce them.
Scott Benner Mhmm. I don't know why that lady thinks we can all speak French. But but we we definitely can't. Well, guys, I really do appreciate you doing this. I have seven minutes to reset myself and record with Erica.
Speaker 3 So, hello for me and remind her that she saved me from myself.
Scott Benner Absolutely. Well, and for people, the, the five four three two one method was really valuable for you. Right?
Speaker 3 That was invaluable to me. I I don't think I would be in the mental state I am right now without it.
Scott Benner So Awesome. Well, at juiceboxpodcast.com/lists, Find the mental health one. Look for 54321, and then you'll know what Jason knows. Crystal, thank you very much for doing this with me. I really appreciate it.
Scott Benner Was lovely to get to you.
Crystal My pleasure. Thanks for including me. I appreciate it.
Scott Benner This was awesome. It really was. Okay. Hold on one second for me, guys.
Closing & Sponsor details
Scott Benner I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter that my daughter carries, the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter.
Scott Benner Learn more and get started today at contournext.com/juicebox. And don't forget, you may be paying more through your insurance right now for the meter you have than you would pay for the contour next gen in cash. There are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Kontoor and all of the sponsors.
Scott Benner I'd like to remind you again about the MiniMed seven eighty g automated insulin delivery system, which of course anticipates, adjusts, and corrects every five minutes twenty four seven. It works around the clock so you can focus on what matters.
Scott Benner The Juice Box community knows the importance of using technology to simplify managing diabetes. To learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes, visit my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner If this is your first time listening to the Juice Box podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple Podcasts or Spotify, really any audio app at all. Look for the Juice Box podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy.
Scott Benner Wanna learn more about your diabetes management? Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu and look for bold beginnings, the diabetes pro tip series, and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. Hey. Thanks for listening all the way to the end.
Scott Benner I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juice Box podcast. If you've ever heard a diabetes term and thought, okay. But what does that actually mean?
Scott Benner You need the defining diabetes series from the Juice Box podcast. Defining diabetes takes all those phrases and terms that you don't understand and makes them clear. Quick and easy episodes. Find out what bolus means, basal, insulin sensitivity, and all of the rest. There has to be over 60 episodes of Defining Diabetes.
Scott Benner Check it out now in your audio player or go to juiceboxpodcast.com and go up into the menu. Have a podcast? Want it to sound fantastic? Wrong way recording.com.
#1812 Family Ties - Part 1
Siblings Crystal and Jason share growing up with a dad who had type 1, their own diagnoses, fear of lows, years of mediocre control, and how a toddler’s diagnosis finally changed everything.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- Generational Impact: Type 1 diabetes can affect multiple generations within a family, and parents may experience profound guilt or denial when a child is diagnosed with the disease they also live with.
- Evolution of Care: Diabetes management has drastically improved since the 1990s. Moving from rigid schedules and basic injections to modern tools like CGMs and automated insulin pumps allows for significantly better control and quality of life.
- The Power of Communication: Breaking the silence around a chronic illness within a family is crucial. Openly discussing diabetes can lead to better support, shared knowledge, and improved health outcomes for everyone involved.
- Overcoming Stubbornness: It is common to resist changing deeply ingrained management habits, but being open to new technologies and perspectives—rather than settling for "good enough"—can lead to dramatic A1c improvements.
- Recognizing Lows: Experiencing early symptoms of hypoglycemia, such as an intense urge to eat or feeling dizzy, is a critical warning sign that requires immediate attention and proper management, especially prior to or right after diagnosis.
Resources Mentioned
- Touched by Type 1: touchedbytype1.org
- Tandem Mobi: tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox
- Eversense 365: eversensecgm.com/juicebox
- Omnipod 5: omnipod.com/juicebox
- US Med: usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514
- Juice Cruise 2026: juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise
- Wrong Way Recording: wrongwayrecording.com
Welcome & Introductions
Scott Benner Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of the Juice Box podcast. Welcome.
Crystal Hi. I'm Crystal Kremetz. I am a type one diabetic.
Speaker 3 I am Jason, and I have I have talked to you a couple of times before, Scott.
Scott Benner If this is your first time listening to the Juice Box podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple Podcasts or Spotify, really any audio app at all. Look for the Juice Box podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Wanna learn more about your diabetes management? Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu and look for bold beginnings, the diabetes pro tip series, and much more.
Scott Benner This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juice Box Podcast private Facebook group. Juice Box Podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome. Type one, type two, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me.
Scott Benner If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort, or community, check out Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. Nothing you hear on the Juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan.
Sponsor Messages
Crystal This
Scott Benner episode of the juice box podcast is brought to you by my favorite diabetes organization, touched by Type one. Please take a moment to learn more about them at touchedbytype1.org on Facebook and Instagram. Touchedbytype1.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.
Scott Benner Touchedbytype1.org. You're looking to help or you wanna see people helping people with typeone, you want touchedbytype1.org. Today's episode is also sponsored by the Tandem Mobi system with Control IQ plus technology. If you are looking for the only system with auto bolus, multiple wear options, and full control from your personal iPhone, you're looking for Tandem's newest pump and algorithm. Use my link to support the podcast, tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner Check it out. The podcast is also sponsored today by Eversense three sixty five, the only one year wear CGM. That's one insertion and one CGM a year. One CGM, one year. Not every ten or fourteen days.
Scott Benner Ever since cgm.com/juicebox.
Diagnoses in the Family
Crystal Hi. I'm Crystal Kermeadz. I am a type one diabetic. Have been since 1994, I believe, is when it was.
Scott Benner I I'm interested that you don't know that. I like that.
Crystal Well, I was a freshman in high school, but I can't figure out mentally at this point what year that was.
Scott Benner Because you're old or because you have a do you have a deficit? What happened?
Crystal No. Because I'm old.
Scott Benner Okay. Alright. Well, how
Speaker 3 old are you?
Crystal The mental math just doesn't mental sometimes. It doesn't math right.
Scott Benner How old are you?
Crystal I am 44. So it's been 30 it'll be thirty one years this year.
Scott Benner You were diagnosed when you were 13?
Crystal I was yes.
Scott Benner See how quickly what? Well, 44.
Crystal No. Sorry. I was 14.
Scott Benner Okay. And why I just missed by a little you know, you can't hold me accountable for, like, missing the end of the year, beginning of the year
Crystal diagnosis thing. It's not my fault. I haven't had the birthday yet
Scott Benner this
Crystal year.
Scott Benner So I see. But but be impressed with my math.
Crystal It was pretty impressive.
Scott Benner Oh, I mean, gosh. I took the year. I took the the your age. Boom. Boom. Just like that. It was nothing. Now we're not alone today, Crystal. It's not just you and I and the people listening. We also have with you another person.
Scott Benner Crystal, is this person your brother, your doctor, is it your garbage man? Who are we talking with right away?
Crystal It is my big brother.
Scott Benner Okay. And who are you?
Speaker 3 I I am Jason. And I have I have talked to you a couple of times before, Scott.
Scott Benner Yeah. Jason, you're gonna be one of the few people that have been on the show three times, I would imagine.
Speaker 3 That's, that's what my other little chat has told me already. So
Scott Benner Oh, your people have said this to you.
Speaker 3 The people have said this.
Scott Benner Well, would it surprise you to know that the only reason I'm certain about it is because those same people told me. So this morning, I got a note from somebody that said, like, oh, I'm so excited you're gonna talk to Jason today. And I looked at my calendar and I thought, no,
Speaker 3 I'm not.
Scott Benner I was like, I am I'm I'm actually recording three times today. I've recorded with Jenny already today. I said, then I have a lady named Crystal, and then later I've I've recorded with Erica. I said, Jason's not on my calendar. And the person said, Crystal's Jason's sister. You guys are talking together. And I went, well, now you ruined the surprise for me. So I was like, don't remember stuff like that.
Scott Benner Anyway, Jason, do you know other episodes you've been on off top of your head?
Speaker 3 No. We would both would both have to ask the same person for those episode numbers. So
Scott Benner Yeah. Do you remember what it was called?
Speaker 3 Keep Taking Showers.
Scott Benner Okay. Hold on. Keep Taking Showers episode twelve ninety two. And? Was that one?
Speaker 3 I do not remember the first one.
Scott Benner You don't remember the first one. Yeah. Well, I guess
Speaker 3 Or was that the first one? No. No. That was not the first one.
Scott Benner No. I don't think so. December seems like it was the last couple years. Yeah. I'll see if I can figure it out.
Scott Benner But I appreciate you guys coming back. And this is a quite an interesting little mix. So, Jason, you have type one diabetes as well?
Speaker 3 I do.
Scott Benner Yeah. Well, tell people what you were just doing.
Speaker 3 I was getting on a call here with Scott and looked at my little ducks card reading here, and it said 68 double arrows down. So starting off well.
Scott Benner Is this after a, like, a meal bolus?
Speaker 3 This was after a handful of jelly beans that, I obviously miscalculated the number of carbs in those jelly beans.
Scott Benner Oh, little aggressive. Maybe didn't need to A
Speaker 3 little aggressive.
Scott Benner It's a oh, jelly beans sounds nice. It's neither here nor there, Crystal. We're not here to talk about snacks. Are we? I mean, maybe we are. I have no idea. How did this all start? Like, how did we end up together, the three of us? Whose idea was this?
Crystal I believe it was Jason's idea.
Scott Benner Why did you think it was important, Jason?
Speaker 3 I don't know. I brought it up in, you know, that other little chat I was talking about, and, several of the people said, you know, it should be it'd be a really good idea to have you guys on because of our unique experience with type one diabetes.
Scott Benner Yeah. And for people who don't know, Jason is a group expert in the Facebook group. So that chat he's talking about is place where you guys all can speak privately to each other. Right?
Speaker 3 Yeah. It kinda lets us get on top of things a little bit quicker if somebody has a question or an immediate concern in the group that needs an answer. So
Scott Benner Yeah. No. It's awesome. I I let me take the time now to thank you for doing that. I really do appreciate the effort that must go into it. To be honest, I don't really even understand the full scope of. So I stay out of that. I've I've mentioned this before. Like, I was invited by the person who set that chat up. He said, look.
Scott Benner You know, it's your group. You can be in the chat. I said, I think it would be great if nobody had to worry about that they were saying something in front of me or, like, I want it to be, like, a place where you guys can just talk to each other. So I don't know what happens in there. Are there a lot of people shitting on me usually?
Speaker 3 Sometimes.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. What do I do wrong, Jason? What are the what's the consensus? What do I do wrong?
Speaker 3 No. We we talk a lot about, your tone sometimes. We can tell when it's like the real Scott and the not real Scott talking.
Scott Benner Oh, on the board? Like, in the group?
Speaker 3 No. In in on a podcast.
Scott Benner On a podcast. There's times that it feels like me and then there's times that it feels like podcast me. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 3 Yeah. Like, when you're being the honest you and maybe the podcast version of you.
Scott Benner Oh, that's interesting. I wish somebody would explain that to me. I would love that. Maybe I'd love to be that. Send me a list at the end of the month.
Scott Benner Like, here's where we thought this was gonna be you and not somebody said the other day, hey. This is a really good episode. And I didn't have the nerve to ask back the question I had in my head, which was, do you mean that the guest was good or was I particularly good that day? And I I wonder how often I'm not as good at it as I could be or I don't do as good of a job or whatever. It's anyway, neither here nor there.
Scott Benner Crystal's like, I have a real job. Stop talking about your podcast. This is stupid. No. No.
Scott Benner You should be, Crystal. That's exactly what you should be thinking. So who was diagnosed first?
Crystal I was.
Scott Benner And how many years after Jason till it was you?
Speaker 3 Wasn't it two years, Crystal?
Crystal Or was it one? It was two. Yeah.
Scott Benner So, Crystal, tell me, do you remember anything about your diagnosis or the lead up to it?
Crystal I just remember I could not drink enough. I would take, like, a 32 ounce jug of water to bed at night, and I'd have to get up in the middle of the night and fill it up when I got up to pee because, you know, the process of drinking water and peeing and drinking water and peeing, that's all you do. But I also remember prior to that feeling, like, the low sensation when I was, like, at school, and I'd have to go to the nurse's office. And she'd give me a juice box, and I'd sit there for, you know, ten minutes, and then I go back to class.
Scott Benner You were having low symptoms before your diagnosis that when explained to a school nurse, they thought, oh, this girl needs some sugar.
Crystal Yes.
Scott Benner Yeah. How long did that go
Crystal on for? I remember that going on for probably two or three months.
Scott Benner Oh, wow. Okay.
Crystal Yeah. Yeah. It was it was rough.
Scott Benner With hindsight equate it, how low did you do you think you are?
Crystal Oh, I was probably in the fifties, probably lower than that maybe.
Scott Benner Mhmm. So that it's not uncommon, by the way Yeah. Before diagnosis for people listening.
Speaker 3 Oh, you know, now that you mentioned that, Crystal, I experienced the exact same thing. Like, I remember that happening except I didn't go to the nurse because I'm a boy. Yeah. Right.
Scott Benner What'd you do? You just took advantage of running in circles and making yourself feel dizzier? You're like, oh, this is great.
Speaker 3 Normally, just just find something to eat or something to drink or whatever. But not knowing what I was doing, I just, you know, felt that urge that I needed to eat something. I didn't feel terribly low, but, you know, I felt that, like, that sensation that us type ones get when you get low is, like, I have to eat something.
Scott Benner Mhmm. Yeah. And you were happy.
Crystal Definitely. I didn't know what it was either, but that's when I went down to the nurse, and she's like, I think you just need some sugar. And so she give me sugar, and then I'd be fine.
Scott Benner Is that anything you took to back to your parents, or did the school tell your parents about it? Do you remember? No. No. If, Crystal's would you say 44?
Scott Benner How old are you, Jason?
Speaker 3 I think I'm 47.
Scott Benner Okay. She was 47. So she was first, but you are older? Correct. Do you have any other brothers or sisters?
Scott Benner No. No. Just the two of you guys. Okay.
Speaker 3 So You know, Scott, the if you remember, our dad is also type one.
Scott Benner Yep.
Speaker 3 You know, all this is going on, yet for me, I don't understand how things were caught sooner.
Scott Benner Oh, you think that it should've you think Crystal's situation should've been obvious to your parents?
Speaker 3 I think so. Yes. I don't know what Crystal thinks. But
Crystal Looking back at it, probably. But I think dad was in denial.
Scott Benner Oh, okay.
Crystal And because it was his fault.
Scott Benner I'm sorry. Your parents were together. Right? There's two people there? Four four
Crystal Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. Four in the house. So your mom have any autoimmune stuff, or is she just a a traveler in this?
Crystal She's just a normal everyday person.
Scott Benner Yeah. She just got brought along for the ride. How old tell me again how or, Crystal, how old was your father when he was diagnosed?
Crystal He was three.
Scott Benner Okay. So he's had it his whole life. Okay.
Crystal Yeah. He did.
Scott Benner So what do you mean you think he was in denial? Are you remembering interactions with him that, in hindsight, should have brought up some more questions?
Crystal When I got really, really sick and we decided to go to the doctor's office, he actually tested my blood sugar before we left, and it was well over 500. By the time we got to the hospital, it was well over a thousand.
Scott Benner Oh my gosh.
Crystal So yeah. But he blamed himself. So he, yeah, he was in complete denial that that it could happen to his kid because he was expecting it to skip a generation and be one of our kids.
Scott Benner He's like, I'm gonna be older when this happens, and I won't care.
Crystal But Exactly. Right?
Scott Benner Also, one of you have a wolf. What is going on there?
Crystal Sorry. That was my dog. The I think the FedEx guy's
Speaker 3 here.
Scott Benner What kind of dog is it?
Crystal Well, that one is a blue healer lab mix.
Scott Benner How many dogs do you have, Crystal?
Crystal I have two.
Scott Benner Okay. Two is fine. Yeah. More than two, I I send I send the government to check on you. I think there's something wrong.
Scott Benner Yeah. Nope.
Crystal Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner Okay. So what is the what mix?
Crystal He's a blue healer and lab mix.
Scott Benner I don't know what a blue healer is.
Crystal Well, they're supposed to be non shedding dogs, but tell you what, that dog sheds more than any animal I've ever owned.
Scott Benner Crystal's like, listen. Whoever sold me that dog, I'd like to take this opportunity to say, you lied to me. Okay?
Crystal Right?
Scott Benner Right. Also, Blue Heeler sounds like a sad doctor to me.
Crystal They're more of like a southern Southern? Like herding type dog.
Scott Benner I gotta just look real quickly. I'm sorry. I know this is apropos of nothing. Blue Heeler dog, and it's a mix with oh, it looks like a wolf.
Crystal Yeah. Kind of sorry.
Scott Benner Australian cattle dog. Is that the
Crystal Yep.
Scott Benner Okay. And and what's the mix with?
Crystal With a Labrador.
Scott Benner Is this a mutt or is this a thing people do?
Crystal No. It was just it was a mutt. Mama was a little whore.
Scott Benner Broadcast title. Jesus Christ. It's a little early in the in the show, but mama's a little whore. I mean, definitely get people
Crystal Mama was a little whore because his brother my oldest daughter has his brother, and his brother is a German shepherd healer mix.
Scott Benner Can I tell you the problem, Jason, with using that as a title is that people are gonna feel ripped off when they find out it's about a dog? You know what I mean? They're gonna be
Crystal like Exactly.
Scott Benner I clicked on this for sure to find out that Crystal was the the whoring question, and then then it turns out to be your dog, and I feel let down.
Crystal Yeah. Right?
Scott Benner Never nevertheless. Okay. Okay. So anyway, the FedEx guy, do you know what you ordered? Is it Amazon?
Crystal Dog food.
Scott Benner Dog oh, maybe he knows.
Crystal It's my Chewy order that's supposed to be here three days ago.
Scott Benner Hey, Chewy. What the hell?
Crystal No. It's FedEx because Chewy got it to them on it was their Monday. It's been sitting in the warehouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa since Monday.
Scott Benner I think that you can't trust anybody. That's what you're telling me.
Speaker 3 Right?
Scott Benner Yeah. The whole system is, I don't know if you know the word. Sorry. I wanna get back to it now. You're dizzy in the in the office.
Scott Benner It goes on for way too long. I mean, you're in I'm guessing clearly in DK by the time that your dad's like, hey. I guess, I gotta go. Do you have conversations with him over a lifetime about I mean, I guess he felt is he ashamed? Is he guilty?
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The First Low and Father's Guilt
Crystal He he had a lot of guilt. That was the first time I ever saw my father cry was when I was in the ICU because he felt so bad that he gave it to me.
Scott Benner Did he ever tell you that? Did he ever use those words?
Crystal Not to me. He told mom, and mom told me about it later on.
Scott Benner Okay. Did you feel that? I mean, I know you saw him cry that day, but moving forward, did he was that a, like, a I don't know, a feeling that laid over the house for you, or was he able to push through it?
Crystal I think he pushed through it
Scott Benner Yeah.
Crystal For the most part. I do feel that he was a little more attentive after that. Oh. Dad was a workaholic, so he worked all the time. And if I wanted to spend time with dad, I went to work with him.
Crystal So in the summertimes, I would go and work with him during the day when he was working for himself as electrician, and then he would go evenings to the local factory and work all evening. After I was diagnosed, you know, he was always kinda checking in on me. You know, you feeling okay? Do we need to stop for lunch?
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Crystal Or before, it was always me asking him, you know, do we need to go get some lunch? You're you're not acting quite right.
Scott Benner I see. Crystal, true or false, you could come to my house and reroute a couple of switches for me?
Crystal Oh, I definitely could. I'm helping my brother-in-law right now rewire his house.
Scott Benner No kidding. Oh, I wish we lived closer.
Crystal An old an old schoolhouse house, and they completely gutted it. And I'm working on rewiring that house right now.
Scott Benner And you learned that from being with your dad? Yes. Oh, that's cool. That's a nice thing to take through your life. Do you have kids?
Crystal I have two, two stepdaughters.
Scott Benner Okay. Do you teach them about electricity?
Crystal No. No. They don't get
Crystal They have no desire to learn.
Scott Benner That's not how TikTok works at all. So Yeah. Yeah.
Crystal Just like Jason had no desire to learn from dad.
Scott Benner So Oh. Oh.
Crystal I learned it.
Scott Benner That's it. It's very cool.
Crystal Yeah.
Scott Benner That is a skill I wish I had. My dad knew everything about electricity, and I never once absorbed any of it, and I really wish I would have. So okay. In that time, you're diagnosed. Do you know what your management style was like?
Crystal Very poor. Very little bit of management. It was you tested your blood sugar four times a day. You took your regular insulin and your NPH in the morning. You took your regular NPH at night, and you didn't care about it.
Crystal There was there was no checking.
Scott Benner Yeah. Poor compared to nowadays or poor compared to what was expected of you back then even? You were doing a good job with the system that was in place, or you weren't even sure. You were.
Crystal Yeah. Yeah. I thought, you know, we I was doing what the doctor told me to do. You know? You checked in the morning. You checked at lunch.
Crystal You checked after school or before dinner, and then you checked at bedtime.
Scott Benner Gotcha. Okay. And your dad had been managing that way his whole life pretty much?
Crystal Yes.
Scott Benner Yes. But do you guys both remember him being low sometimes?
Crystal Yes. I actually experienced my first low with him when I was probably, I don't know, four or five. I remember it vividly in our old living room in the house before we moved to the living room to the back of the house. It was in the morning, and he just started to shake all over the place. And I remember being so upset because he knocked over the lamp, and that's what made me mad.
Speaker 3 Mhmm.
Crystal And so that was back in the day where, I don't know, mom and dad had it set up where you just push one number on the phone and it rang mom's work. So I called mom at work and was telling her about it, and she's like, I'm gonna call the ambulance, and they're gonna come, they're gonna help your dad. And mom got there before the ambulance did, and I just I vividly remember that experience.
Scott Benner And did
Crystal you And I never wanted to have that happen to me.
Scott Benner Yeah. No kidding. Did you try to I'm your little kid then, but did you try to help him, or did you just sort of stand there and watch it happen being pissed about the lamp?
Crystal I had no idea what it was.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Crystal At that point, I was not educated.
Scott Benner Did a kid explain to you after that? Were they like, oh, guess what? Sometimes this happens to daddy or like, was there not that much conversation around it? Mean, you're a little kid.
Crystal That I don't remember. I don't remember
Scott Benner Yeah.
Crystal Having a conversation about it.
Scott Benner Do you remember more of the visceral part of it? You remember watching it happen to him? That feeling you had about, oh, no. We knocked the the lamp lamps must have been so expensive where you live. Yeah.
Scott Benner And where the and the lamp thing. And then that's something. Okay. I said that stuck with you. Remember as a family, like, ever talking about type one diabetes Yeah.
Scott Benner But, like I don't either. Growing up. Never. This thing that impacted him so much, just what I mean, you guys have heard the episodes where there was a woman on last year. Right?
Scott Benner Her mom tried to hide it, like, for, like, a decade. She thought her kids didn't know she had type one diabetes. They knew, but, like, the mom was trying to hide it. That's but yours wasn't being hidden. It just wasn't spoken about with him.
Scott Benner Right. Hey. Okay. Crystal, when you're diagnosed, I I see how it it was for you. But, Jason, how was it for you when she was diagnosed?
Living with Type 1 as a Teenager
Scott Benner See, I was in high school, so I don't think I paid a whole lot of attention. I I regret that for sure after, you know,
Speaker 3 lived experiences and looking back on it.
Scott Benner Yeah. I don't remember a whole lot of
Speaker 3 it at all because I was busy living my high school life.
Scott Benner Right. Yeah. Isn't that something like I think that's common by the way. I wouldn't think of it as a judgment about you. I would think that most people would have that experience, but it is weird.
Scott Benner Like, looking back on it as an older person, like, yeah, your sister's diagnosed with diabetes. You know, you know, I I guess, at least have some context for it with your father. And then you're just sort of like, well, okay. And then you just keep going. And and it doesn't become more of a focal point, I guess, is interesting.
Speaker 3 Yeah. And I think it also was just, you know, like, we were just talking about, like, it wasn't made out to be as big of a deal as it actually was in our family.
Scott Benner Mhmm. But why is that? This is a question for both of you. Was it not made out to be a big deal because your dad was trying to minimize it, or was it not made out to be a big deal because he didn't really know that it was?
Crystal I'm sure he knew it was a big deal. I just don't think that since he had it, since he was three, that it was a huge deal to him. You know, it's the only thing he ever knew.
Scott Benner But how are his health outcomes during that time?
Crystal Well
Scott Benner Do you know? Do you know what his a one c's were in hindsight?
Crystal Awful.
Scott Benner So that's the thing. This is by the way, this isn't me talking about your dad or you. This is me, like, wondering bigger, you know, around the conversations that I've been having for a decade. Like, I am fascinated that somebody could get type one diabetes, know the implications of it, it not be going well, and they act like, it's just what happens. Like, that part freaks me out.
Scott Benner I I really don't know I mean, if you can take diabetes out of it, we could talk about any number of things that go on in the world. I'm constantly baffled by people's ability to just ignore things that are that are happening to them. I don't know how to, like, explain that. You know what I mean?
Crystal So when he was little, you know, they always went to the University of Iowa to have all of his diabetes care taken care of.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Crystal But I think when he got older and kinda aged out of the pediatric system over there, he didn't see endocrinology until after I think it was till after Jason was diagnosed before he ever went back to an endocrinologist.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Crystal He was die he was managed by family medicine.
Scott Benner Yeah. Chris, I understand the functionality about the way it comes, but, like, like, if I walked up to you right now and stuck a little pen knife in your leg, and you were like, ow. And I said to you, like, yeah, we're just gonna leave that there forever. Just gonna fester a little and one day you'll die of an infection from this. But we're we all know this is a problem, but no one's gonna do anything about it.
Scott Benner And you're gonna agree to just live with it like this. And you go, okay. Like, that part just throws me for a loop. Every time something comes up with my health, I focus on how to get rid of it or change it
Crystal Yeah.
Scott Benner Or something. Like, I don't always succeed at it, but I I and some things have taken longer than others. But sometimes the tools just didn't exist, but I still push towards things like I guess it's like a it must be a coping mechanism. It's a couple shots a day. The outcomes aren't great.
Scott Benner I get dizzy sometimes. We had to call the ambulance once or twice, but you know what? I'm alive and there's no other answer. Then I get it. Then I get, like, well, I'm just I'm making the best of a bad situation.
Scott Benner I mean, once the technology shifts or the insulin gets better and people are still like, whatever. Like, I I interviewed a guy yesterday. He was really great. His name was Roger. Roger was 60 years old.
Scott Benner He is blind. Like, one hundred percent sees black blind. Diagnosed as a little kid, lost his sight in his early twenties on the podcast because he's looping and, like, you know, having all this great success and everything. And I was like, oh, when did you pull this all together? He's like, last year.
Scott Benner I'm like, last year? Like, when you were 15 you he was diagnosed when he was three. It took fifty six years to, like, I mean and and I see he had different, you know, different speed bumps along the way, but, like, I don't know. I don't even know if I'm articulating myself well. Like, it freaks me out that your dad was in the situation he was in, having the outcomes he had, then you were diagnosed and you just started managing the same way he did.
Scott Benner I mean, you guys are parents. Right, Jason? You have kids too. Right? Yep.
Scott Benner Doesn't that sound wrong to you?
Speaker 3 It definitely like, it does.
Scott Benner Okay.
Speaker 3 And I think after I was diagnosed, like, that's kind of the mindset that kicked in in my head after maybe a year or so of having type one. It's like, you know, I have to I have to do something about this because I don't want to end up like my dad.
Scott Benner Do you think about Crystal then when you have that idea? Like, like, oh, no. Crystal's gonna go the same way? Are you too young to worry about her too?
Speaker 3 Still too young. Because when I was diagnosed, you know, I was a senior in high school. And that summer after high school, I went to a two year tech school, like, right away. So it was like I was out of the house pretty quickly.
Scott Benner Okay. After your diagnosis. And Yes. And, Crystal, were you how long did you well, I guess I should ask you now, Crystal. Like, what's your management like now?
Crystal I'm on the Mobi with Dexcom g six.
Scott Benner Nice. And what are your outcomes like? What what do you generally think your a one c is gonna be when they look?
Crystal My last one was 6.8.
Scott Benner Oh, that's awesome. 9. Oh, you you must be thrilled with that.
Crystal I am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because the first probably ten years, was 11 or better.
Scott Benner So so then there you go. Like, so for the first ten years, you you have that horrible experience with your dad getting low. Right? You have that kind of aversion to it. Do you know he's not in a healthy way?
Scott Benner Or do you not or is it so not spoken about that you don't know? And at what point do you realize for yourself that your a one c's aren't good?
Crystal It took me quite a while to figure out that, you know, the way that dad and I were doing it wasn't the best way.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Crystal But there also wasn't a whole lot of research available because, you know, the Internet was just starting, and we didn't have podcasts. We didn't have forums online. We didn't have other diabetics to reach out to.
Scott Benner You're just piecing your way through it. You're trying to stay alive day to day. Your understanding of what's happening to you grows over time, and then eventually, there's enough tools and resources to coalesce all that stuff together and make a better decision?
Crystal Definitely. Yeah.
Scott Benner Alright. So when you guys do you both guys agree that when you look back, it's not a failing of your father's as much as it is just a symptom of the time?
Speaker 3 I think it's a symptom of the time, and I wouldn't say that our dad was always present in our lives every single day.
Scott Benner Mhmm. I think he was a lot more present
Speaker 3 in Crystal's life. A lot of times, I was out kinda doing my own thing, figuring life out, necessarily not without his guidance all the time.
Scott Benner Mhmm. Crystal, are you are you more like your dad than than your brother is?
Crystal Yes.
Scott Benner Okay. And Jason, are you more like your mom?
Speaker 3 Yeah. A 100%.
Scott Benner Gotcha. Okay. Oh, so interesting. So you have different mindsets. Crystal, when you figure it out, like, when you say to yourself, oh, no.
Dating and Stubbornness
Scott Benner We are not doing what we should be doing. Do you think of yourself or your dad, or do think of yourself as a team and you guys both need help?
Crystal Well, by the time I figured it out, I was an adult. So at that point, it was what do I need to do Mhmm. To better myself, and then we'll work on dad.
Scott Benner Okay. Did it work out that way?
Crystal Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Jason and I got him talked into a Dexcom and a Omnipod eventually. It took a lot of years of us actually doing it ourselves for him to see that it was okay to use modern technology to manage his diabetes.
Speaker 3 That's fair. That's really that's really recent. Like, it was I would say it was even after the first of my two type type one diabetic boys was diagnosed.
Scott Benner Yeah. You guys are, like, on a roll, by the way. You can you can make people with diabetes like it's nothing over there.
Speaker 3 Yeah. They didn't need any research candidates because I can I can make them?
Scott Benner This is like, watch this. Watch this. Boom. Diabetes. Yeah.
Scott Benner Like magic. Crystal, anything to the fact that you don't have natural children? Are you trying to avoid making diabetes babies, or did it just not work out that way?
Crystal I was older when I got married, and my a one c was not great. And so my husband and I made the choice the decision together that since he already had two that we would just
Scott Benner We'll use these. Yeah. Gotcha. Ready? We'll dig a little further.
Scott Benner Did you not date seriously as a younger person because of diabetes in any way?
Crystal I think so. Yeah. I was kind of awkward. I probably dated twice in high school.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Crystal And they weren't great relationships. They were
Speaker 3 Not at all. Awkward.
Crystal What do you mean not at all?
Speaker 3 I didn't like either of them.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Crystal Oh, well, true.
Scott Benner Idiots. There's morons. What do you mean awkward? Are you, like, socially awkward or awkward because you have diabetes and you wanna tell people about it? What did you mean?
Crystal I think it was the diabetes mostly. I know, I didn't know how to approach it with other people
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Crystal Because I didn't know anybody else who was diabetic except for my dad.
Scott Benner Okay. And so if you're gonna get close to these other people, then you either have to make a decision to, like, obfuscate. Don't tell them about it as much as possible or give them access to your life that you don't know how to give to people.
Crystal Exactly. Exactly. I didn't know how to approach the topic of, you know, no. I can't go out for ice cream today because my blood sugar is too high.
Scott Benner Okay.
Crystal And I don't wanna take another shot. Because at that point, I was you know, the pens came out at that point when I was later on in high school, and I didn't wanna have to carry it around all the time. Right. It was inconvenient, and I was a teenage girl, and I didn't have I shouldn't have to do that. Yeah.
Crystal It was
Scott Benner So I'll sit I'll just sit at home and sulk and be sad and alone versus do those other things.
Crystal Yes.
Scott Benner So you wanted to date? Sure. Yeah.
Crystal I mean, what teenage girl doesn't wanna date?
Scott Benner Okay. So, that all makes sense. But that goes on did you did you go to college or trade school or anything?
Crystal I did a couple years at the community college.
Scott Benner Were there boys there that you let know about your diabetes?
Crystal No. Because I was in the nursing program, so it was mostly all females
Scott Benner Okay.
Crystal In my classes.
Scott Benner So when do you, like I mean, Crystal, don't know how to ask this. Like, when are you, like, mama gotta get her cookies? Like, when does that happen exactly? Like, when are you, like, I'm just gonna dive into this for the sex part?
Crystal I was quite old.
Scott Benner Really? And this is
Crystal because 21 ish?
Scott Benner Because of the diabetes.
Crystal Just because I didn't know how to approach it, and I didn't know Yeah. How it would be accepted or not accepted.
Speaker 3 Right.
Crystal You know? Other people.
Speaker 3 Not in a serious enough relationship, you know, like Yeah.
Scott Benner To give over to give over that kind of access to your feelings and and how you feel to somebody. Yeah. Jason, I'm sorry we're talking about this about your sister in front of you. I'm sure you're not happy about that. Truly, I think it's genuinely insightful.
Scott Benner And then how old were you when you got married?
Crystal I was 26 when we got married.
Scott Benner Okay. I mean, that's not that old. Yeah. But now you're saying you're 26, you're you finally find a boy you're gonna talk about this with and Yep. Let him in and everything and that's all great.
Scott Benner And then but you get married, you start thinking like kids, but you're like, my a one c is, like, messed up. I can't do that. Did you think I can't even there's no way for me to make it better, so we shouldn't try?
Crystal Not so much that I couldn't make it better, but I was set in my ways and I wasn't
Scott Benner willing to Stubborn, you mean?
Crystal Yes. I was very stubborn.
Scott Benner Hey, Crystal, are you what they call are you what they call a pain in the
Crystal Yes.
Scott Benner Okay. Yes. Apparently, yes.
Scott Benner I mean, I'm a pain in the ass. So I was just wondering if maybe you were too. Yes. What is stuck in my ways mean?
Crystal So I wasn't willing to change what my daily routine was.
Scott Benner Why? You know? Tell me why.
Crystal Because I was a pain in the ass.
Scott Benner That's not what I wanted from dig deeper. Why not?
Speaker 3 You think it was working from your perspective? It was working.
Crystal Well, I mean, was working. I wasn't I wasn't in the elevenths anymore. I was down in probably the mid to upper eights. But
Scott Benner So it was better.
Crystal It was better. Okay. But it wasn't
Scott Benner But what were the goals What was your doc yeah. What was so there is this is what we're getting to is that back then, somebody might tell you an eight a one c is good, but you have to get that magic six or five to have a baby. And having done all you did to go from 11 to eight, you're like, I can't get the five. Is that how it felt?
Crystal Looking back at it, yes. Yeah.
Scott Benner Alright.
Crystal I was like, there's no way I'm ever gonna be below six or even in the sixes. I never thought I would be in the sixes before.
Scott Benner Do you think of your story as a sad story?
Crystal A little bit.
Scott Benner I'm not the one bringing that out today. This is already a feeling you have.
Crystal Yeah. No. I no.
Scott Benner Okay.
Crystal I I regret not taking it more seriously when I first got married and having my own, but I don't regret the two that I have.
Scott Benner No. I wouldn't think you would. Yeah. No. Okay.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. In case they hear that, we should say that.
Crystal Yeah. No.
Scott Benner Mom mommy loves you. All that stuff. Right?
Crystal Yes. I do. Okay.
Scott Benner What is not taking it more seriously mean? And is that a thing you knew that you weren't doing then, or is that only a thing you know through hindsight?
Crystal I think it's hindsight. You know, I was functioning. I was, as far as I knew, I was managing my diabetes.
Scott Benner Right.
Crystal Okay. Because I was taking my insulin every day. I was counting my carbs. I was checking my sugars. You know?
Crystal This was before CGM, so I was checking my sugars four or five times a
Speaker 3 day.
Scott Benner You were doing the things they asked you to do, you were having outcomes that people said, generally speaking, are are good? Yes.
Crystal Yeah. Exactly.
Scott Benner They just weren't good enough to good enough, quote, unquote, to have a baby back then the way people talked about it.
Crystal Yes.
Scott Benner Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Jason, at that point, when she's 26 and married, you're a couple years older.
Scott Benner You've now had diabetes for more than a handful of years.
Scott Benner What is your management like back then?
Speaker 3 So a little bit prior to Crystal getting married, we got married her and her husband got married a year before no. It's the same year.
Crystal It was the same year. Was, like, three weeks.
Speaker 3 Yeah. Three weeks. Yeah. Prior like, if you can if you step back probably, like, five years from that, I was living in San Diego at the time. I'd moved there, followed a girl.
Speaker 3 You know how that worked out, Scott. Didn't work out. My management at that point in time was I tested pretty frequently, and I swagged every single meal that I ate. I was pretty bold with insulin even back then. You know, I would take enough insulin to probably feel low, and then I knew it was time to eat or drink something again.
Scott Benner Okay. So you were riding on the lower side?
Speaker 3 Oh, definitely.
Scott Benner Okay. Why? Do you do you have hindsight into why that was your approach?
Speaker 3 I know exactly why that's my approach. So when I was diagnosed, I played a lot of roller hockey. What I noticed while playing hockey is that if my number was good, I played a lot better. So that was kind of instilled into my brain is I perform better when I'm at a reasonable number.
Scott Benner Okay. And so more you needed more insulin to make that happen.
Speaker 3 Right.
Scott Benner Isn't that silly that it's just that simple? Like, that you just had a hobby that you wanted to be able to do, and so you were more aggressive with it. And so where were your a one c's at that time then?
Speaker 3 Probably in the sixes. Yeah. I was also you know, I bounced between high fives and probably mid sixes for those ten years before Crystal got married.
Scott Benner Lot of lows with all
Speaker 3 those I would imagine so. Yes.
Scott Benner Yeah. Some of you probably didn't even know about, I would imagine.
Speaker 3 Yeah. We I've got some stories about being low too. So
Scott Benner I need a pivot point. So give me your best low story.
Speaker 3 My best low story? This is in San Diego. I was living by myself at this point in time. I was live in an apartment over by the Mormon temple in San Diego. It's a giant castle looking place.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Speaker 3 Woke up in the morning. I don't exactly remember what I was doing, getting ready for somebody to come over and pick me up to go out to lunch. And, apparently, what I what I think had happened is I took some insulin in the morning, had a little breakfast, and that is the last thing I remember. And, thankfully, that day, you know, living by myself in San Diego, you made sure you locked your door every day. And for some reason, I had unlocked the door in the morning, and my friend came over around lunchtime, and she bangs on the door.
Speaker 3 I don't answer it. Bangs on the door some more, and I don't answer it. And then she she decided, well, maybe I should poke my head in or see if the door's unlocked. And, thankfully, it was unblocked. And she came in, and she said that, yeah, you were laying halfway underneath the coffee table.
Speaker 3 Your feet were up on the couch, and you're throwing up all over yourself, and you're kinda drooling at the mouth. After that, you know, she called the called 911, and they came and picked me up and took me to the hospital. And that was a, like, a fiasco. Like, I just recently found the medical records from that. And they when they picked me up, they tested my, you know, blood sugar, and it was not high.
Speaker 3 It was pretty normal looking.
Crystal Mhmm.
Speaker 3 And so they didn't really suspect that it was from a low. But, you know, looking back on it and the knowledge that I have now, I'm pretty sure what happened is, you know, I had that seizure, and the adrenaline kicked in and brought up my number enough to, like, you know, save my life.
Scott Benner Yeah. The your liver helped you.
Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah. So I think that happened. And then, you know, after that whole incident, you know, they did, like, a CAT scan on me and all that stuff trying to figure out what was wrong with me, and it probably took my brain a good twelve, fourteen, fifteen hours to, like, partially reboot
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Speaker 3 And kinda wake up and figure out what's going on, and it just took a long time to recover from that. And it took me another probably solid week to remember any sort of details about what was happening around the time that I had the seizure.
Scott Benner Okay. Wow. Crystal, you knew this at what point do you know that happened to him? Is it, like, after it's
Crystal over? Us.
Scott Benner Oh, okay. So friend. Her friend called you guys. Did does somebody go out to him?
Crystal Mom did.
Scott Benner Okay.
Crystal Yeah. Mom did.
Scott Benner Gotcha. And you have diabetes at that time too. So are you thinking, like, oh, that's never happened to me before? Or I hope they never
Crystal thinking, holy crap. I don't ever want that to happen to me.
Scott Benner Do you think that that's partially why you let your blood sugars be higher?
Crystal Yes.
Scott Benner Okay.
Crystal A 100%. Yes.
Scott Benner So you're experiencing your dad get low, then hearing about Jason keeps you a little on the high side. And, Jason, your desire to be good at roller hockey keeps yours on the lower side.
Speaker 3 Exactly.
Scott Benner Isn't life strange? My gosh. And then where in this process like, I know when you guys go to your dad and say, hey. Why don't you try CGM? But before that, you guys must, like, pull things together even a little better.
Scott Benner So, like, are you doing that together? Do you guys have some sort of, like, crazy cool diabetes bond, or do you not really talk about it very much?
Speaker 3 We didn't talk about it much every now and then, but I don't think we ever, like, discussed it as a a point of conversation. It would probably come up in conversation, but not something that we kinda sought out from each other.
Scott Benner Okay.
Crystal Well, with you being up at Eden Prairie and then out in San Diego, I didn't have my diabetic brother
Scott Benner Lot of contact.
Crystal With me. Yeah. And,
Crystal you know, we didn't have cell phones back then. We didn't have FaceTime. We didn't have any of the good stuff Yeah. Back then. And, you know, I'm talking like I'm anciently old here.
Scott Benner Well, you're pretty old. Don't
Crystal I am pretty old.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry about it. Anybody who remembers no cell phones is pretty old Yeah. At this point.
Speaker 3 Yeah.
A Turning Point: Wesley's Diagnosis
Scott Benner Well, okay. So you guys don't have the ability to be contacted. Is there ever for a either of you, and this might I mean, maybe I'm maybe you'll say no. But do you ever have that feeling like, know what it's like to have diabetes. Jason's off somewhere having a different experience.
Scott Benner Crystal's off somewhere having a different experience. I wish we were closer about it or I wish did you ever worry about each other and not tell each other you were worried? Like, I'm looking for any of the what it felt like to be isolated from each other feelings.
Speaker 3 Don't think I I don't think I worried about it. I'd no. I didn't worry about it
Scott Benner Why not?
Speaker 3 When I was away. Why not?
Scott Benner Because you have Jason, you have a kid with diabetes.
Speaker 3 Yeah. I didn't I don't think I started worrying about it until, like, when my first kid was diagnosed. And that's I think I think having Wesley diagnosed kind of the catalyst within our family to actually start talking about it.
Scott Benner Ah, okay. That's what I wanna get to. So Wesley's diagnosed, and one of your thoughts not long after that is, holy shit. Is Crystal okay?
Speaker 3 Yeah. I definitely thought about that a lot more. Okay. And I know that we definitely talked about it significantly more than we had in the past after that.
Scott Benner Crystal, you know your brother's kinda like a like a touchy he's a feely guy. Right? Like he's got
Crystal He can be.
Scott Benner Yeah. He can be. Right? Okay. Are you like that too?
Scott Benner Less so?
Crystal I mean, yeah. I suppose so.
Scott Benner Crystal, what the hell was that? Yeah. Do you do you you are you do you get worried about people? Do you get, like do you think do you sit around worried about Jason sometimes?
Crystal Depends. I mean, I worry more for the boys than I do Jay. Okay. Because
Scott Benner Because you know your brother's an idiot. You're worried you can't take care of him.
Crystal Yeah. No. That's
Scott Benner Like, I don't know how this the next holding this whole thing together. I knew him when let me tell you a story.
Crystal Yeah. Right.
Scott Benner I'm 54. I have two younger brothers. I still I worry about my brothers, like, you know, a fair amount. And so I was I'm just wondering, like, how that all works. So but let's go back to your son being diagnosed and how that kind of, like, moves your family into another direction.
Scott Benner So what do you think the I'd like hear from both of you. Like, what was that process like? It sounds like it started with you, Jason, but then how does it transfer into Crystal and then become what it is now? And what is it now?
Speaker 3 I think when Wesley was diagnosed, it really kinda opened up everybody's eyes because, you know, he was only, like, two and a half years old. Mhmm. And we'd also been told the same thing growing up. You know, it always skips a generation skips a generation. And I think that really kinda opened up everybody's eyes as to, you know, this is a a real thing.
Speaker 3 And through watching not such good care happen, like, we can't let that happen to Wesley. Like, you we have to talk about it. We have to do something about it. I don't what what's your opinion, Crystal?
Crystal I felt that Wesley's diagnosis was a big turning point in the family, that it was okay to talk about it and that we needed to talk about it because what has always been done wasn't working for any of us.
Scott Benner At least not well enough for your desire for Wesley's outcomes.
Crystal Exactly. Yep.
Scott Benner Because it was working well enough for you guys. You guys were all okay with it because you were doing it for yourselves. Yep. But once it gets on to the child, then everyone how about your dad? Did your dad have that feeling too?
Scott Benner Do you know?
Speaker 3 Definitely.
Scott Benner This is his worst nightmare come true. He didn't think you guys were getting it. He thought some unnamed boy or girl in the future was gonna end up with it, and then that happened too.
Speaker 3 Right. I think it really again, like, it it hit him hard when Crystal and I were diagnosed, but, know, he balled it up and shoved it in the back of his brain. I think when Wesley was diagnosed, it was the first time, like, I visibly saw him, like, feel that that kind of pain, you know, that that knowledge that, yes, Wesley has type one. And he's so young, like, he's young like my dad was. Yeah.
Speaker 3 And there's nothing that Wesley can do to take care of himself because, you know, two and a half, he can't do that.
Scott Benner So Right. Your dad's Yeah. Your dad I'm sorry. Your dad's gone now. Right?
Scott Benner Yes. Pretty recently? Couple years?
Speaker 3 Two years as a crystal.
Crystal Two years. Yeah. '23. I don't know. '24.
Scott Benner Because I'm sitting here trying to put myself in his mind, like, is he sad because he knows what life's gonna be like, he thinks, because he had an experience. He thinks that this is gonna be the you know, this is gonna be your son's experience. Is he angry at himself, which is ridiculous, but still, I guess, he feel at fault. I wonder if it's just ends up being a mix of the whole thing or if there's, like, an overwhelming portion of this that that's got him. Did you guys ever get to talk
Speaker 3 to He was angry at himself for pausing all of this. You know? I think that he had that definite guilt and anger in the beginning, but I think I and my wife, Tina, do a really good job of taking care of our two t one d boys that I think that helped shift his mindset a little bit.
Scott Benner Mhmm. Jason, do you feel like that at all? Do you feel like I did this?
Speaker 3 No. I don't feel like that.
Scott Benner You don't feel like that? Okay.
Speaker 3 Not at all.
Scott Benner Because well, here's a question for you. Do you think you don't feel like that because you're a reasonably healthy human being, who understands that this isn't their fault? Or do you think it's you don't feel that way because you can blame your dad because if there is a lineage, it started with him and not you.
Sponsor Messages & Outro
Scott Benner This episode was too good to cut anything out of, but too long to make just one episode. So this is part one.
Scott Benner Make sure you go find part two right now. It's gonna be the next episode in your feed. The conversation you just heard was sponsored by Touched by Type One. Check them out, please, at touchedbytype1.org on Instagram and Facebook. You're gonna love them.
Scott Benner I love them. They're helping so many people at touchedbytype1.org. Head now to tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox and check out today's sponsor, Tandem Diabetes Care. I think you're gonna find exactly what you're looking for at that link, including a way to sign up and get started with the Tandem Mobi system. I'd like to thank the Eversense three sixty five for sponsoring this episode of the Juice Box podcast and remind you that if you want the only sensor that gets inserted once a year and not every fourteen days.
Scott Benner You want the Eversense CGM. Eversensecgm.com/juicebox. One year, one CGM. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the juice box podcast.
Scott Benner If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple Podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend. And if you leave a five star review, oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card?
Scott Benner How would you like to share a type one diabetes getaway like no other? Join me on Juice Cruise 2026. You may be asking, what is Juice Cruise? It's a week long cruise designed specifically for people and families living with type one diabetes. It's not just a vacation.
Scott Benner It's a chance to relax, connect, and feel understood in a way that is hard to find elsewhere. We're gonna sail out of Miami, and the cruise includes stops in CocoCay, San Juan, Saint Kitts, Nevis aboard the stunning Celebrity Beyond. This ship is chosen for its comfort, accessibility, and exceptional amenities. You're gonna enjoy a welcoming environment surrounded by others who get life with type one diabetes. I'm gonna host diabetes focused conversations and meetups on the days at sea.
Scott Benner There's thoughtfully designed spaces, incredible dining, and modern amenities all throughout the celebrity beyond. Your kids can be supervised, there's teen programs so everyone gets time to recharge. Not just the the kids going on vacation, but maybe you get the kickback a little bit too. There's gonna be zero judgment, real connections, and a whole lot of sun and fun on Juice Cruise 2026. Please come with me.
Scott Benner You're going to have a terrific time. You can learn more or set up your deposit at juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise. Get ahold of Suzanne at cruise planners. She will take care of everything. Link's in the show notes.
Scott Benner Link's at juiceboxpodcast.com. I created the diabetes variable series because I know that in type one diabetes management, the little things aren't that little, and they really add up. In this series, we'll break down everyday factors like stress, sleep, exercise, and those other variables that impact your day more than you might think. Jenny Smith and I are gonna get straight to the point with practical advice that you can trust. So check out the diabetes variable series in your podcast player or at juiceboxpodcast.com.
Scott Benner Have a podcast? Want it to sound fantastic? Wrongwayrecording.com.
#1811 Bolus 4 - Hamburger Helper
Helps your hamberger help her - make a great meal.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- The Meal Bolt Roadmap: A strategic approach to bolusing includes measuring the meal, evaluating yourself, adding base units, layering a correction, building the bolus shape, offsetting timing, looking at the CGM, and tweaking for next time.
- Hidden Carbs and Fats: When calculating insulin for packaged meals like Hamburger Helper, you must account for the ingredients you add, such as the fat in ground beef and the carbohydrates and fat in the milk, which drastically alter the total nutritional profile.
- Reading Labels Correctly: Pay close attention to "packaged" versus "prepared" nutritional panels. If the label only provides "packaged" data, you must manually calculate the macros of the added ingredients (meat, milk, butter, etc.).
- Fat Impacts Digestion: Meals heavy in fat (like ground beef and cheese sauce) will slow digestion, often requiring an extended bolus strategy to prevent post-meal spikes that occur hours later.
- Utilizing Modern Tools: Calculators like the Juicebox Podcast Bolus Calculator (or AI tools like ChatGPT/Gemini) can simplify the math of complex meals, breaking down the impact of fat, protein, and carbs to suggest initial and extended bolus amounts.
Resources Mentioned
- Juicebox Podcast Meal Bolt: juiceboxpodcast.com/meal-bolt
- US Med: usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514
- Omnipod 5: omnipod.com/juicebox
- Juice Cruise 2026: juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise
- Juice Box Podcast Private Facebook Group: Search "Juice Box Podcast, type one diabetes" on Facebook
- Tandem Mobi: tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox
- Eversense 365: eversensecgm.com/juicebox
- Dexcom G7: dexcom.com/juicebox
- Juicebox Podcast Support Tools (Calculators & Guides): Go to juiceboxpodcast.com and click "Support"
- Wrong Way Recording: wrongwayrecording.com
Introduction & The Meal Bolt Strategy
Scott Benner Here we are back together again, friends, for another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
Scott Benner In every episode of bolus four, Jenny Smith and I are gonna take a few minutes to talk through how to bolus for a single item of food.
Scott Benner Jenny and I are gonna follow a little bit of a road map called meal bolt.
Scott Benner Measure the meal, evaluate yourself, add the base units, layer a correction, build the bolus shape, offset the timing, look at the CGM, tweak for next time.
Scott Benner Having said that, these episodes are gonna be very conversational and not incredibly technical.
Scott Benner We want you to hear how we think about it, but we also would like you to know that this is kind of the pathway we're considering while we're talking about it.
Scott Benner So while you might not hear us say every letter of Miele Bolt in every episode, we will be thinking about it while we're talking.
Scott Benner If you wanna learn more, go to juiceboxpodcast.com/meal-bolt. But for now, we'll find out how to bowl us for today's subject.
Scott Benner Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise.
Scott Benner Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan.
Sponsor Messages
Scott Benner This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by US Med, usmed.com/juicebox, or call (888) 721-1514.
Scott Benner Get your supplies the same way we do from US Med. Today's episode is also sponsored by Omnipod.
Scott Benner Would you ever buy a car without test driving at first?
Scott Benner That's a big risk to take on a pretty large investment. You wouldn't do that. Right?
Scott Benner So why would you do it when it comes to choosing an insulin pump?
Scott Benner Most pumps come with a four year lock in period through the DME channel, and you don't even get to try it first.
Scott Benner But not Omnipod five. Omnipod five is available exclusively through the pharmacy, which means it doesn't come with a typical four year DME lock in period.
Scott Benner Plus, you can get started with a free thirty day trial to be sure it's the right choice for you or your family.
Scott Benner My daughter has been wearing an Omnipod every day for seventeen years.
Scott Benner Are you ready to give Omnipod five a try?
Scott Benner Request your free starter kit today at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. Terms and conditions apply.
Scott Benner Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner Find my link in the show notes of this podcast player or at juiceboxpodcast.com.
Bolusing for Hamburger Helper: The Jingles & Ingredients
Scott Benner Jennifer, we are going to bolus for you ready? Hamburger Helper.
Scott Benner Now before we talk about what's in Hamburger Helper, I would like to spend thirty seconds telling what I think is very important to mention here.
Scott Benner Hamburger Helper has maybe the greatest jingle in the world. I think it's brilliant.
Scott Benner I try to tell people about it all the time.
Scott Benner My family won't listen to me, but listen to this.
Jenny Smith I don't I didn't know Hamburger Helper had
Scott Benner a jingle, like a
Jenny Smith band aid.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was stuck on Band Aid. It's like that.
Scott Benner Hamburger helper helps your hamburger helper make a great meal.
Scott Benner Brilliant. Okay?
Scott Benner Because hamburger helper is what it is, and Hamburger Helper is what it's doing. Okay? And right?
Scott Benner And then it helps
Jenny Smith Oh my god. That's hilarious.
Scott Benner Oh my god.
Scott Benner It's brilliant. Whoever wrote it deserves an Emmy or a BAFTA or I don't know what they give.
Scott Benner They have Grammy.
Jenny Smith You broke it down and actually thought of it the way that the person who wrote the jingle was thinking of it having that meaning.
Scott Benner I can't not think of it when I hear it.
Jenny Smith Most people probably have not done that.
Scott Benner But there's more.
Jenny Smith Oh, there's more.
Scott Benner Keeping in mind, it was probably written a really long time ago. Hamburger Helper, which already brilliant.
Scott Benner Hamburger Helper helps your hamburger helper make a great meal. It's helping the helper.
Scott Benner But the way they pause, it's help her.
Scott Benner Because probably when they wrote the song, your wife was making it.
Scott Benner Right? So really think about all the implications. Hamburger helper helps your hamburger.
Scott Benner Help her make a great meal.
Scott Benner It's brilliant. Who wrote it?
Scott Benner We'll find out at the end. A genius, I guarantee you.
Scott Benner They probably also came up with the way to, like, separate ions from water or something like that.
Scott Benner Imagine this person is a brilliant person. (4:25) Nevertheless, Jenny, wait till you find out what's in hamburger helper cheeseburger macaroni.
Jenny Smith Oh, great.
Scott Benner Yeah. It's gonna be good.
Scott Benner It's a box dinner, macaroni entree with pasta and cheesy sauce.
Scott Benner It says it's made with real cheese and real spice that I mean, it would be funny if it was fake spices, but okay.
Scott Benner Just add beef, water, and milk.
Scott Benner And this is part of what I wanted to talk about today.
Jenny Smith Okay.
Scott Benner Because who knows? Are you buying 95% lean hamburger helper hamburger? 90?
Scott Benner 85? 80?
Jenny Smith 70?
Scott Benner They got 70?
Scott Benner I didn't know 70. 80 is the lowest I see at my place with does that sound fancy now?
Scott Benner People like, oh.
Jenny Smith I don't know. I really don't look in that section because we don't eat beef.
Jenny Smith So I I can't say that I look, but because there are many percentiles with many fat concentrations, which is what that percent means that you're talking about.
Scott Benner Okay. So I have the fat breakdowns there.
Scott Benner So when we put this all together, we're gonna but I'll tell you interestingly enough, I think, of course, I I think we've come to realize that when we're talking about this.
Scott Benner We're probably the only two dorks that are really that interested in this.
Scott Benner But four ounces of raw beef, 95 lean is 5.5 grams of fat.
Scott Benner 90% lean is 11 and a half, 85% lean. 1780% is 22.5.
Scott Benner 70% lean is 34 grams. It does it hold that after cooking?
Jenny Smith Well, that's what I was gonna say. This is precooked. Right?
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah.
Jenny Smith In which the case as the good dietitian that I started out being always taught to tell people, drain the grease.
Scott Benner Oh my god. The first time I said to my wife, take that grease out of the pan, she goes, why?
Scott Benner That's where the flavor is. I said, I'm trying to stay alive. What are you doing?
Scott Benner Like you know?
Jenny Smith Fat equals flavor a 100%.
Scott Benner I don't care. It does.
Scott Benner I wanna stay alive. Do you understand? I don't wanna eat something that I can't pour down my drain.
Jenny Smith Please don't even pour it.
Scott Benner No. Oh oh god. Don't pour down your drain.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith Yeah. But but when you were growing up, did your did your parents have
Scott Benner A coffee can?
Scott Benner Yeah. Coffee
Jenny Smith can. Their refrigerator that they put all the grease into, and then when it was full, they threw it away?
Scott Benner Yeah. Bacon grease, like anything like that.
Jenny Smith That's so funny.
Jenny Smith I've never I haven't thought of that. It's such a long time.
Scott Benner Yours was in the refrigerator?
Jenny Smith My mom always kept because she kept, you know, like, a an old, like, tin can.
Scott Benner A coffee can or something they put in.
Jenny Smith Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Jenny Smith And she would
Scott Benner But they refrigerate it.
Jenny Smith To and she kept it in the fridge so that it wouldn't get gross and whatever on the counter.
Jenny Smith It would solidify in the fridge. Yeah. And then she filled it until it was full and then got rid of it.
Scott Benner Did you have a little bin of coffee grinds under your sink?
Jenny Smith No. Well, our I should say yes. Mhmm.
Jenny Smith But truly only in the spring, summer, fall because then it went into the garden.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. Okay. Cooked, 95% lean is four grams of fat, 90% lean seven grams, eighty five percent nine grams, eighty percent eleven grams, seventy percent twelve grams.
Scott Benner Also, you're going to use milk in this, two cups.
Jenny Smith Mhmm.
Jenny Smith So And let's say most people now typically use 2%, I would expect.
Scott Benner Really?
Scott Benner I would never.
Jenny Smith You would never? Do you skim or whole milk?
Scott Benner Only whole milk. If I'm drinking milk, I'm going for it, Tony. I mean, that's that.
Scott Benner I can't drink milk water because that's really what it starts to feel like.
Jenny Smith I haven't had a glass of milk probably since
Scott Benner Oh, I wouldn't know when. Yeah.
Jenny Smith I don't even know when I the last time I had a glass of milk. Right.
Jenny Smith I probably grade school when I was with, yeah, California.
Scott Benner And I know this sounds crazy, maybe, or it doesn't.
Scott Benner I think I stopped drinking milk when, like, 11 year old girl started, like, getting breasts.
Scott Benner I was like, I think there's something wrong. And I just seriously, I was like, I don't know what they're doing, but I don't wanna be involved anymore.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I I really don't know what's happening, but I'm I'm getting out of this.
Scott Benner And I feel like that was twenty years ago.
Scott Benner 1% low fat, two and a half grams, 2% low fat, five grams, whole milk, eight grams.
The Nutritional Math of a Boxed Meal
Scott Benner Oh, okay. So let's say
Jenny Smith And that's in a one cup portion. Right?
Jenny Smith Eight ounces?
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. We need two cups. Oh, see?
Scott Benner So when you look at the little hamburger helper thing here, which by the way, way to not make it legible on your website, hamburger helper.
Scott Benner They show you the side of the box, but, you know, not in such a way that you can read the numbers.
Scott Benner Had to go somewhere else to get that.
Jenny Smith I'm curry like, hamburger helper, you brought it up.
Jenny Smith Yeah. I know that you don't eat it in your house.
Scott Benner Oh, no.
Jenny Smith So this must have definitely been something that came up enough when you asked for people's ideas.
Jenny Smith Right? It was was it, like, the top thing on a list?
Scott Benner No. There's two things.
Scott Benner It was on a list. Okay. But I wanna be absolutely clear, and I'll say this like this in case she's listening.
Scott Benner My wife eats like it's still $19.75 every once in a while.
Scott Benner So there is always a box of Velveeta mac and cheese and a box of Hamburger Helper in my house in case
Jenny Smith She gets the anchoring?
Scott Benner I would say in case the mixture of hormones, stress, anxiety, and sadness hit on the right spot on the right day.
Scott Benner You know what I mean? And then I hear the box shaking with the dry potatoes in there and and everything else.
Jenny Smith And you know what's being created?
Scott Benner Yeah. A pan that she doesn't clean.
Jenny Smith Oh my
Scott Benner Taking a taking a moment to take a personal shot at my wife during the podcast.
Jenny Smith Oh, that's okay. I won't tell her.
Scott Benner She's never gonna hear this.
Scott Benner It doesn't really matter. No. Alright. Let's see.
Scott Benner My god.
Jenny Smith My choice would be chocolate, by the way, if it was all that.
Jenny Smith Mine mine would be chocolate.
Scott Benner That's in the house too. Don't worry. Okay.
Scott Benner So a 120 out of a 140 calories, gram of fat.
Scott Benner So a lot of sodium, 630, 780 milligrams in protein.
Scott Benner So I And
Jenny Smith this is just the mix you're talking about without the addeds. Right?
Scott Benner I I have to go to Walmart. I had to get it back again.
Scott Benner Walmart has a good picture of the box. Thank you, Walmart.
Jenny Smith And how much
Scott Benner How often do people say that?
Jenny Smith How much ground beef gets added to this
Scott Benner then? We're gonna go through it right now.
Scott Benner The mix itself, point five fat, 700 milligrams of sodium, 28 carbs, three total sugars, one includes one added sugar, four protein.
Scott Benner And wow. Let me just tell you the ingredients.
Scott Benner Enriched macaroni, cornstarch, salt, enriched flour, modified whey, sugar, tomato, onion, cheddar, cheese, palm oil, citric acid, vegetable oil, yeast extract, garlic Parmesan cheese, annatto extract?
Jenny Smith Annatto, it actually comes from a plant. It's so you could buy white and yellow or orange cheddar cheese.
Jenny Smith Right? The orangey cheddar cheese isn't a different kind of cheddar cheese than the white.
Jenny Smith It's just got annatto added to it, typically.
Jenny Smith Some they might use other things in other but many times places use annatto.
Scott Benner Can I just say I didn't annatto that? Thank you. Thank you so much.
Scott Benner I appreciate
Jenny Smith it. Funny.
Scott Benner Yeah. Send send me out for an Emmy too.
Scott Benner Black pepper, monoglycerides, sodium phosphate, nonfat milk, natural flavors. Oh, silicon dioxide. Oh.
Scott Benner Isn't that silicon?
Jenny Smith It helps essentially.
Jenny Smith It's it's usually used as like a stabilizer, so it doesn't get like I
Scott Benner don't care, Janet.
Jenny Smith Yeah. I know.
Scott Benner It contains milk, wheat, but it may contain egg, soy ingredients.
Scott Benner Okay. So let's move 28 carbs or protein into the calculator.
Scott Benner We're gonna use the calculator today on juiceboxpodcast.com. So 28 carbs
Jenny Smith And 28 is a serving prepared completely?
Scott Benner Yeah. We'll get to that. Hold on a second.
Scott Benner We I don't know if they even tell you that.
Scott Benner Like, that's the thing we're gonna have to figure out because sometimes they're very clear about it and sometimes they are not.
Jenny Smith Well, and sometimes packages will actually have on their nutrition nutrition facts facts panel, panel, they'll they'll actually actually have have a panel of just the nutrition facts for the dry product.
Jenny Smith And then right next to it, if you look at the label heading, you'll actually see per prepared serving.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith And that's typically then the column that you want to look at for your total package of information besides at the very top of the label looking to see what is a serving size and how many servings are there once you prepare the product.
Scott Benner So help me understand that because I'm I'm seeing exactly what you're saying.
Scott Benner Serving size, one third cup as packaged, one cup prepared.
Scott Benner But then, like, fat, like, it tells me point five grams packaged, but prepared, it just gives me a percentage.
Scott Benner So it doesn't give me a new Yeah.
Jenny Smith Give you a gram number?
Scott Benner I'm not seeing a new a new gram number for anything. Like, total carbohydrates, 28 packaged, 10%.
Scott Benner Prepared 12%, but no new oh, it's interesting. Well, we're gonna add
Jenny Smith Well, I guess you'd have to add, what, 2% to 28. Right?
Scott Benner Yeah. I guess so. But now you're beyond me
Jenny Smith because I
Scott Benner I fell asleep in math class in ninth grade.
Scott Benner I I never woke up again.
Jenny Smith Or, you know, and I'm I'm making an assumption about how to read what they're usually, it's a little bit more explanatory.
Jenny Smith Again, it's the dry package. And then the next column over is usually prepared per recipe.
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith It'll usually say per serving, how much carb, protein, fat, sodium, all the things in grams.
Jenny Smith It doesn't usually just have a percent. That's interesting.
Scott Benner I'm just looking for the instructions now on the box because how much it was on the one thing and now it's on the other.
Scott Benner Oh.
Jenny Smith So, essentially, this label kind of, if it's really only giving you the amount per, you said, third cup dry product Yeah.
Jenny Smith You'd really have to then do the math and say, okay.
Jenny Smith I'm adding to this two cups of milk. So 16 grams of carb. Right?
Jenny Smith And all the extra fat and all of the extra protein.
Jenny Smith Now I'm also adding to this the what else did you see?
Scott Benner The meat?
Scott Benner Interesting because some boxes don't tell you and some do, like, even what you're putting into it.
Scott Benner Oh, hold on a second. Cheeseburger by the way, this is the cheeseburger. I brought that up.
The Art of the Bolus (and Jingles)
Scott Benner Right? Hamburger helper. Helps your hamburger helper make a great meal. It's amazing.
Scott Benner I mean, honestly, really think about it.
Scott Benner It's absolutely amazing.
Scott Benner The guy that wrote it or the woman, let me just say, whoever wrote it must have just sat around for three days happy with themselves when they were finished.
Scott Benner I'm possibly the only person who paid attention to it. I don't know about that or not.
Scott Benner Do you remember the, like, the little hand like, the the little chef hand?
Jenny Smith Oh, the happy little chef hand with the happy face? Absolutely. Remember what that looked like.
Scott Benner On the TV and tell you all about it. It's really it's really wonderful.
Scott Benner A huge thanks to my longest sponsor, Omnipod. Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner You may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link.
Scott Benner Go check it out. Omnipod.com/juicebox. Terms and conditions apply.
Scott Benner Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. (15:59) I have always disliked ordering diabetes supplies.
Scott Benner I'm guessing you have as well. (16:05) It hasn't been a problem for us for the last few years though because we began using US Med.
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Scott Benner Use my link to support the podcast.
Scott Benner That's usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514.
Jenny Smith My grandmother not my mom's mom.
Jenny Smith My mom's mom did a lot of cooking. My dad's mom did a lot more, like, packaged stuff at least once I got to know her.
Jenny Smith And she didn't have hamburger helper. She had tuna helper.
Scott Benner Oh, I've seen that.
Jenny Smith Right. Oh,
Scott Benner my mom would make that.
Jenny Smith It's the same concept.
Jenny Smith It just has canned tuna in it.
Scott Benner Can I tell you when that got made at my house when I was a kid, my expectation was we couldn't afford the hamburger?
Scott Benner Like, so Really? Yeah. So canned
Jenny Smith tuna Tuna
Scott Benner helper. Awesome.
Jenny Smith Maybe that was why it was at grandma's house.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner Oh, see. I might be giving you a look into your life right now.
Jenny Smith Fixed income.
Jenny Smith I don't know. Maybe.
Scott Benner That was always my expectation. Alright. Listen.
Scott Benner Let's add on to this. (17:46) I mean, look.
Scott Benner We can do it a couple of different ways just so you can get an idea.
Scott Benner But, you know, you're using how much beef is going in this here. Hold on a second.
Scott Benner It's just not easy. Like, I do this live so that people can see, like, they do not make it easy for you.
Jenny Smith Yeah. No. No. And if you are the person who wants to be as technical or accurate, instead of just saying, I bet it's about 30 grams per cup prepared, that's what I'm going to count.
Jenny Smith And a 100%, if that's what you do and it works out for you, then you continue using that Awesome.
Jenny Smith Right.
Jenny Smith As your strategy. Awesome. But then there are, you know, people who want the fats and the proteins.
Jenny Smith They want the extra strategy to be able to use things like the assistive navigation device that you've kind of come up with, right, for, boluses the right way with extended boluses, how much, why, how much, you know, and then you really do need to be able to break the package down and make all of the facts as accurate as possible for your benefit.
Scott Benner You know, I just came away from, a an educational thing that I was doing over the weekend where I just, you know, kept hammering into people.
Scott Benner Like, you know, fat changes your digestion. It's important to bolus for it.
Scott Benner You know, this is one of those things. All the fat if you look at the box, there's no fat in this.
Scott Benner And if you don't think about the beef and the and the milk, you know so look.
Scott Benner Here's the deal. Right? You use a pound of 80% lean ground beef, that's 44 grams of fat.
Scott Benner That's So, I mean, a servings a cup, I don't know how much beef you're getting in that or you're not getting in that, but the whole can like, you eat the whole box, this is what it is.
Scott Benner So I think we're just gonna I'm gonna set it up like the whole box, and then we'll we'll do the we'll do the division.
Jenny Smith The math. How many servings per container does it say on the it should.
Scott Benner Serbings size, a third of a cup is packaged, calories, servings per container for, again, they make it really difficult to see the box in a lot of the pictures.
Jenny Smith Because it I would expect as a pasta product, most pasta products are one cup prepared.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith Again Wait. It does say that noodle now.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Scott Benner But it does say that on yeah. But you're gonna get some noodles.
Scott Benner You're gonna get some beef.
Jenny Smith Some meat.
Scott Benner Some of the and cheese.
Scott Benner The inundated cheese. I was looking for another pun in there. I couldn't find it.
Scott Benner So alright.
Scott Benner So let's do this. So there's 28 carbs in the box.
Scott Benner There's point five grams of fat in the box.
Scott Benner I'm gonna go with 80% lean and say there's, you know, 44 carbs or or or 44 grams of fat.
Jenny Smith Fat. Yeah. Okay.
Scott Benner In there from the from the beef, but then the milk is going to be let's use whole milk.
Scott Benner That's 16 more. Right?
Jenny Smith For Whole milk would be 8 per one cup.
Scott Benner For a cup, it should be eight more. 48, 49. It'd be So 52. Mhmm.
Scott Benner We're just gonna go insulin to carb ratio.
Scott Benner One unit covers 10. Instant sensitivity, we'll just stick it 50 to 50. Yeah.
Scott Benner Make the we'll make the target 90 for this. Nothing on board.
Scott Benner Current blood sugar, I'm not even gonna put into the mix just so we get a number.
Scott Benner And if you ate the entire box of this with those numbers, 2.8 up front, 4.84 over eight it says over eight hours.
Scott Benner So but 7.6 units to cover the entire thing. But now we're
Jenny Smith gonna be the whole box.
Scott Benner That's the whole box. Right. Now we gotta figure out how many servings or how many cups are in a box.
Jenny Smith Well, and that would depend on, I think, the standard box.
Jenny Smith My expectation would be that the standard box serving would be four or maybe five.
Jenny Smith I'm thinking about a pound of beef plus the pasta in the back.
Jenny Smith I would think it would be at least five servings in a box. Okay.
Jenny Smith Maybe even six.
Scott Benner So if we divided it by six, it's a lot it's a it's a fat low carb meals or or lower it's lower lower carb.
Jenny Smith Sure. It yeah. Yeah. It's lower carb.
Jenny Smith It's definitely going to be a lower glycemic as well with the fat and the protein being heavier parts.
Scott Benner Well, you know what? Let's do it.
Scott Benner Let's just do it if you ate a quarter of the box. Right?
Scott Benner Because that's gonna be fairly easy math.
Scott Benner It takes the carbs from 28 to seven, and it takes what?
Scott Benner The fat down to, like, 10. Excuse me. 12 and a half. Is that right?
Scott Benner One, two, three, four, maybe 13. Right? Don't laugh at me. I really did fall asleep.
Scott Benner I I didn't I was tired.
Scott Benner You know, it's possible my iron might have been low when I was younger.
Scott Benner And now you're I have a disability and you're laughing at me. I hope you're happy.
Jenny Smith I'm not laughing at you. I promise.
Scott Benner So then there with the one to ten and fifty, it's, you know, it's a couple units because you're you know, it's it's just it's seven carbs and and 13 grams of fat.
Scott Benner Am I right? I have that correct?
Jenny Smith How much carb did you break it down into?
Scott Benner I mean, if the box is 28, oh, know what we didn't do? Prepared.
Scott Benner No. You know what we didn't do? We didn't do carbs in a cup of whole milk.
Scott Benner That's what we didn't do. We didn't think about the milk.
Jenny Smith Two cups of whole milk added?
Scott Benner One. Oh, no. Two. Two.
Scott Benner You're a 100% right.
Jenny Smith So 16 grams of extra carb.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith Right?
Jenny Smith No. Eight 12.
Scott Benner Yes. So we
Jenny Smith 12 grams per cup, so 12 grams and
Scott Benner 20 this is gonna over because I feel like a moron.
Scott Benner So there's 28 carbs for the box, 24 more for
Jenny Smith For the milk.
Scott Benner For the milk.
Scott Benner So that's now we're to 52, and then no more for the beef, but then Nope.
Scott Benner That that means we also we only used one cup of milk the first time.
Scott Benner So the fat is 44 for the beef, and then
Jenny Smith And another 16 for the milk.
Scott Benner For the milk. Okay. So 60. Right? $44.54 60.
Jenny Smith Mhmm.
Scott Benner And the protein stays at four. Okay. So let's start over again.
Scott Benner 5.2 upfront, 5.56 extended, 10.76 for the whole thing.
Scott Benner Now to split that into a quarter, I mean, I hate doing math in front of people because it makes me feel stupid.
Scott Benner But, well, 15 the fact goes down to 15, right, from 60, if we're gonna
Jenny Smith take a
Scott Benner quarter of it.
Scott Benner And what? Twelve, thirteen for the carbs. Right? 26.
Scott Benner Yeah. About that. Right?
Jenny Smith Carbs carbs are really low in this. Because when you look at the label, it also tells you that it's a third cup it's a third cup dry is 28 grams of carb.
Scott Benner Yeah. Right. Like
Jenny Smith But it also says that that as one cup prepared is also 28 grams of carb.
Scott Benner Yeah. So I the whole way nothing seems right about this is what I'm saying.
Scott Benner We get all but this is my point about doing this live again.
Scott Benner Like, if you're trying to make this for your kid Mhmm.
Scott Benner I 100% believe you're just gonna put in 28 carbs.
Scott Benner And and and 28 carbs is your whole number, and then you're gonna break down about how much you think, and you're gonna end up under you're gonna end up under bolusing for this.
Scott Benner Because the thing we haven't talked about is under the category of not all carbs are created equal.
Scott Benner This stuff hits hard. Like Yeah. You know?
Jenny Smith It can.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner For some people. And, I mean, if you end up giving somebody a quarter of this, you know, and thinking it's I don't know.
Scott Benner Thinking it's gonna hit, like, that 10 carbs or something.
Scott Benner I don't know.
Jenny Smith You know what would be interesting? You know how you brought up macaroni and cheese, but you also brought up the Velveeta macaroni and cheese?
Scott Benner Go ahead.
Jenny Smith So it's making me think of I wonder if a cleaner visual might be does help Hamburger Helper have any of the little prepackaged?
Scott Benner Oh, I don't know if they do that.
Jenny Smith Just carry be and maybe they
Scott Benner don't Maybe we can think about it differently.
Decoding the Microwave Cups and Flavors
Jenny Smith Because you do typically have to have the meat added and all the other things, but I'm wondering if they have another packaged product.
Scott Benner Oh, they do. I found it, Jenny. Don't worry. Okay. Here we go.
Scott Benner Hamburger helper singles, I typed in. To get the cheeseburger macaroni, it comes in a nice plastic cup so you can throw that in a landfill when you're done.
Scott Benner And, let's see what's in that.
Jenny Smith I could add other things to that, but I won't.
Scott Benner Okay.
Scott Benner Listen. Real oh, it comes with the beef. Is a says
Jenny Smith dehydrated beef.
Scott Benner This is it says real beef inside. I don't think they would lie to us.
Scott Benner So ingredients, specifications
Jenny Smith I don't even want you to read the ingredient list because I can't imagine how long it is.
Scott Benner It's extensive. There's a couple of artificial flavors in it.
Scott Benner There's one, two, three, four, five different oils at least, maybe. It's interesting.
Scott Benner There's vegetable, canola, soybean, sunflower, palm, and or coconut.
Scott Benner What are are some days are they out of one and they just go, extra palm today?
Jenny Smith The other funny thing I know we always, like, go off the rail when we talk about this kind of stuff, but it's kind of fun having somebody else to actually, like, like this.
Jenny Smith My consideration is always, who's the little, like, scientist? Because that's really Yeah. This isn't a gardener.
Scott Benner This isn't a farmer who's outgrowing the best tomato.
Jenny Smith This is a scientist sitting in a lab trying to figure out
Scott Benner How do I make this taste like beef and, yeah, cheese and
Jenny Smith yeah.
Jenny Smith Mix. Oh, that didn't taste quite right. So let's add some soybean oil. Nope.
Jenny Smith That's not quite right. Let's add a little canola oil.
Scott Benner Cooking class, like, twenty years ago, and it was led by a woman whose full time job was that.
Scott Benner That's what she did. Actually, if anyone's listening who does that, please come on.
Scott Benner I would love to understand that. Oh, seriously.
Scott Benner Oh, I really wanna find somebody who does that.
Scott Benner Can I just read you a review of the Please? Hamburg helplessness? It's five stars from Regina.
Scott Benner Hey, Regina.
Scott Benner If you left this on walmart.com, the headline is not perfect, but edible and enjoyable.
Jenny Smith I'd like to know what wasn't perfect given the man.
Jenny Smith The heck
Scott Benner This is great for a quick lunch or even a midnight snack.
Scott Benner It doesn't really taste like stovetop hamburger helper, but is completely edible and enjoyable.
Scott Benner Did not boil over like some of the other reviewers said. That person probably prepared it wrong.
Scott Benner A little shaming in there for the other person who microwaved the hamburger helper cup the wrong way.
Scott Benner I liked it, and I will purchase it again. It's very well written.
Jenny Smith It is quite well written for a package, but I'm curious the nutrition facts because it is all put together.
Jenny Smith You have to put nothing in this probably except water. Right?
Scott Benner That's that does seem to be what's happening here. Do you wanna hear a one star review?
Scott Benner Sure. A salty mushy overpriced disappointment. The who wrote who?
Scott Benner This was an absolute failure on every level. First, the taste overwhelmingly, punishingly salty.
Scott Benner There was no pleasant bite or texture whatsoever. Just a homogenous sloppy goo.
Scott Benner The instructions are a lie.
Scott Benner Even following them exactly results in overcooked noodles swimming in a thin yet oddly sticky sauce.
Scott Benner Save your money and your taste. Can I just say I'm sorry?
Scott Benner I'm who the fuck buys this and then expects it not to be something like this?
Scott Benner Like
Jenny Smith That is a 100% my consideration. For one, what did you what did you expect?
Scott Benner I mean, what did you what did you think was gonna happen?
Jenny Smith And then you took the extra time to actually put your thoughts down.
Scott Benner And they're so well written. Like, this is a well thought out review. Terry, 01/09/2026.
Scott Benner What's up? Oh, if you love messes, this is for you.
Scott Benner Do you think they mean the toilet or the cup?
Jenny Smith Or I think they are referring to the first one who gave it five stars and said, clearly, they cooked it wrong.
Scott Benner Not good. Not much flavor.
Jenny Smith Probably boiled a bit over.
Scott Benner Here's my favorite one from Mimi. What is this white stuff?
Jenny Smith It's a good question.
Scott Benner I read the directions, removed the seal and the flavor packet, filled with water to the line, started stirring the macaroni, and white pieces began to appear.
Scott Benner More stirring led to more pieces. I found the inside of the foam cup was coming off so gross.
Scott Benner The cup was she did throw it away. Good for you, Mimi.
Scott Benner Way to make a stand. I so hope that the last sentence of that was I still waited.
Scott Benner It wasn't bad. We didn't do what you wanted to do though when we found this.
Scott Benner Hold on a second.
Jenny Smith Wow.
Scott Benner I by the way, I know we keep saying this, but, like, I'm not above this.
Scott Benner People in my family Jen Jen Jenny's not eating this in in you know, you'd probably have to shoot her to get her to eat it.
Scott Benner But, like, I'm saying that, like, I'm sure something like this is in a cabinet downstairs in my house.
Scott Benner And I understand being in a rush and trying to make something quickly and everything.
Scott Benner I really I genuinely do.
Jenny Smith Sure.
Scott Benner But I still want you to know what it is when you're eating it.
Scott Benner We can all agree it's crazy and eat it at the same time.
Scott Benner Arden made ravioli the other day, chef Boyardee, and she took three bites and she goes, what is this?
Scott Benner And I was like, what? She goes, it does not taste like ravioli.
Scott Benner And I said, what's it taste like? I'll try it.
Scott Benner I came over and I put a couple pieces in my mouth.
Scott Benner I said, this tastes exactly like chef Boyardee ravioli. She goes Uh-huh.
Scott Benner But it doesn't taste like ravioli. I said, no. It doesn't.
Scott Benner But this is what this tastes like. I said, I know because I I was raised on this.
Scott Benner These cans were 45¢ when I was a kid. That's you know? Mhmm.
Scott Benner This is what I got. So
Jenny Smith Yeah. Anyway I remember what were they? SpaghettiOs.
Scott Benner Oh, you get meatballs or no meatballs?
Jenny Smith Oh, god.
Jenny Smith Jenny,
Scott Benner you didn't get the meatballs?
Jenny Smith Oh, god. No. Oh my god.
Jenny Smith I think I had the meatballs only once, and literally, I wouldn't eat the entire I wouldn't eat the rest of it.
Jenny Smith Was like, I don't know what this is.
Jenny Smith This is not meat.
Scott Benner Let me offer the alternative view of that.
Scott Benner I thought the meatballs were the best part of the spaghetti.
Jenny Smith You're like, give me all the meatballs.
Scott Benner Didn't like the sauce in spaghettios.
Jenny Smith Oh.
Jenny Smith It was different. You know, weirdly, I only had them when I went to a particular friend's house of mine.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith Her mom was not a cook.
Jenny Smith She did the best that she could, but she was not a cook. Right.
Jenny Smith So SpaghettiOs were or mac and cheese out of a box. Those were the typical thing.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith But I was always excited to get the SpaghettiOs, and I always I remember as a kid, I was having higher hopes for what it would taste like the next time I had it.
Jenny Smith Oh. And it
Scott Benner It never It
Jenny Smith never ever
Scott Benner was for you.
Jenny Smith Better, but I can remember, like, the feeling of the noodle, which was very, like was like a rubbery instead of being, like, a real noodle.
Scott Benner If you're a regular if you were accustomed to a real noodle, you're definitely not getting what you were what you were hoping for.
Jenny Smith But I think I like I like the sauce is what I like.
Scott Benner Oh, you like the sauce. Anyway. Look at you fancy.
Scott Benner By the way, right about now, Rob is editing this, and he's saying, these are supposed to be short.
Scott Benner I know, Rob.
Scott Benner I'm sorry, man. Use it as a longer one.
Scott Benner Put ads on it and and make it a longer one for the week.
Scott Benner I don't know
Jenny Smith what Jenny to tell eats SpaghettiOs. There you
Scott Benner go.
Scott Benner So I did I googled hamburger helper pasta cheeseburger macaroni two ounce microwavable cup.
Scott Benner By the way, part of the title is shelf stable nutrition label.
Scott Benner And I wanna say that this is the Google return AI overview return from it. It says Okay.
Scott Benner 220 calories, total fat four, saturated fat two, cholesterol 10, sodium seven twenty well, that's a lot of sodium in a little cup.
Scott Benner Mhmm. Total carbohydrates 36. Wow. Dietary fiber, one.
Scott Benner Sugar's five, including zero added.
Scott Benner Protein, nine. There's a lot of calcium in it. A hundred and twenty milligrams of calcium.
Scott Benner Why does the what about this shelf save stable adding the meat puts the carbs up so much?
Scott Benner You understand what I'm saying?
Jenny Smith Well, that's why I think that the breakdown for the box product, it cannot be correct.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith The breakdown, we it's got to be something there's something that we did incorrectly in terms of adding because as a comparative product, I'm assuming that this is maybe it's maybe the package here is also a little bit more than a cup portion once it's cooked.
Jenny Smith I don't know. Yeah. There has to be something off about
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith The servings in the box that we counted. I'm just trying to think through yeah.
Scott Benner I'm trying to think
Jenny Smith My brain.
Scott Benner I keep thinking. It's fine.
Scott Benner I we can keep going more carbs than the box prep that you add carbs to add beef to.
Jenny Smith And then protein. How much protein was in the in the meat?
Jenny Smith Because there wasn't a lot in the prepared product. Right?
Scott Benner Four in the box.
Scott Benner What about you're asking about the shelf stable one?
Jenny Smith No. For the box one, there was only four grams per portion.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Scott Benner But there's nine in this in the whole in the cup.
Jenny Smith And that's interesting.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Scott Benner So it's just I I I I don't know.
Scott Benner I think this is part of this series because I don't know how you're supposed to figure all this stuff out.
Scott Benner Also, by the way, when you're making Hamburger Helper, you're making it for one of two reasons.
Scott Benner Well, and the biggest reason is probably Yes.
Scott Benner Convenience.
Scott Benner And now I'm sitting around like an Einstein with numbers floating over my head trying to figure out how to bolus for this thing.
Scott Benner I figure you're gonna have to throw in some insulin and, you know, see how it goes.
Scott Benner And then next time, just adjust off the off your historic number.
Scott Benner It's I'm sure that's how I do it, to be perfectly honest, with stuff like this.
Jenny Smith Is an estimate. Absolutely. Yeah. It's an estimate of yeah.
Scott Benner Alright.
Scott Benner Let's see if we can figure out who wrote the Hamburger Helper jingle before we go.
Scott Benner Hamburger helper helps your hamburger helper make a great meal. It's brilliant. It's really brilliant.
Jenny Smith The fact that you have it memorized is hilarious.
Scott Benner I know the tune.
Scott Benner I just wanna say. I can't sing, but if I could sing, you would know that I I understand the tune of this and everything.
Scott Benner So I asked I asked the our overlords
Jenny Smith Okay.
Scott Benner Why would the one cup with the meat included have more carbs than the pasta only box that we add to?
Scott Benner And I mean, listen. It says the standard serving size for box is 42 grams.
Scott Benner The microwave cup is 57 dry product because you're staring at meat factor.
Scott Benner When you make the box, you're adding a full pound of fresh carb free meat.
Scott Benner This heavily dilutes the carbohydrate ratio in the fine meal.
Scott Benner You get a huge filling portion without the in the microwave cup.
Scott Benner Oh, it says the meat in quotes consists of freeze dried beef bits that weigh almost nothing because there isn't much actual meat volume.
Scott Benner The vast majority of the 57 gram cup, has to be made up of carbohydrate heavy ingredients like the macaroni carb.
Scott Benner So this is saying maybe you're getting more noodles than meat in the prepared
Jenny Smith cup. Prepared one.
Scott Benner Because how are they really getting meat in that cup?
Scott Benner And maybe you're filling up on the beef in the other one and not getting as many noodles when you scoop the cup out.
Scott Benner That's not a crazy consideration.
Jenny Smith No. Not at all.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Scott Benner I thought it was gonna be some I actually thought it was gonna be some chemical thing.
Scott Benner I really did for a second. Alright. Ready?
Scott Benner Cool.
Scott Benner The classic seventies and eighties TV jingle, like a lot of famous retro commercial music, the original campaigns including the famous hamburger helper helped her hamburger.
Scott Benner Oh, it's help her hamburger. They changed it to your when they got older because they don't wanna be sexist.
Scott Benner But it used to say hamburger helper helped her hamburger make a great meal slogan were created collaboratively by the Chicago advertising agency Needham, Harper, and Steers.
Scott Benner Joel Friedman, this ad copywriter, penned a massive chunk of the iconic musical Hamburger Helper Jingles through the eighties.
Scott Benner He wrote the catchy thirty second parody songs for various flavors, which usually featured the mascot singing to the camera.
Scott Benner Right? The little hand, the glove with the hat on.
Scott Benner And Mike Caffatera, he is the ad executive who invented the singing four fingered white glove mascot in 1977, originally called the helping hand.
Scott Benner The mascot is now affectionately known as Lefty.
Scott Benner Oh, in 2016, there was a a viral rap mixtape of it.
Jenny Smith Of course, there was.
Scott Benner I know I know Jenny better than all of you, but of course, there was means what in the hell is wrong with everybody?
Scott Benner Get a job and stop writing a rap jingle to the hamburger helper.
Jenny Smith Kim, go help somebody.
Jenny Smith I don't know. Help somebody instead.
Scott Benner Hi, Jenny.
Scott Benner I don't know what we just let's let's put a bow on this. Oh.
Scott Benner So I'm gonna use I think this is
Jenny Smith the funny I think this is even better than the McDonald's one.
Scott Benner Don't know. That McDonald's one was was pretty great.
Scott Benner Also, I have not been to McDonald's since then.
Scott Benner I just wanna know it didn't trigger me into, like, going to McDonald's, which I was proud of.
Scott Benner Because the other day, somebody showed me one of those marshmallow peeps, and I thought, oh, I'm gonna have a marshmallow peep.
Jenny Smith Yep.
Scott Benner So, you know, you get the I mean, listen.
Scott Benner Also, the jingle thing makes a great not not a great meal, but it makes a great point.
Scott Benner There are a ton of different Hamburger Helper flavors.
Jenny Smith I'm sure there are.
Jenny Smith I I mean quite sure that they probably also hit most of the traditional flavor preferences.
Jenny Smith I would guarantee that there's probably a taco y kind of one. There's
Scott Benner cheesy enchilada.
Scott Benner Are you cheating? How did you know that?
Jenny Smith I I'm guessing based on the food types people.
Jenny Smith I'm guessing there's an Italian one of some kind.
Scott Benner How about Salisbury steak?
Jenny Smith Interesting.
Jenny Smith I
Scott Benner could talk lovingly for an hour.
Jenny Smith Salisbury steak?
Scott Benner About a hungry man Swanson's Salisbury steak with those fake potatoes in it.
Scott Benner I wish you all could
Jenny Smith have I know you like
Scott Benner I wish you all could have grown up as poor as I was.
Scott Benner Cheeseburger macaroni, hamburger helper, Salisbury, cheesy enchilada, double cheeseburger macaroni, double deluxe beef stroganoff, cheesy ranch burger, cheesy Italian shells, beef pasta, four cheese lasagna.
Scott Benner I said stroganoff. I think I might have gotten to the end of it. Oh, excuse me.
Scott Benner Tomato basil penne, deluxe Philly cheesesteak, three cheese, potatoes stroganoff. My god. This never ends.
Scott Benner How about, Jenny, Hamburger Helper breakfast cheesy hash browns, chicken fried rice ham.
Scott Benner They got a whole offering here.
Scott Benner Tuna cheesy pasta?
Jenny Smith Do they have, like, a pad Thai kind of?
Jenny Smith Well, I'm just trying to think of all of the different, like, flavor preferences.
Scott Benner Tuna cheesy pasta, tuna creamy broccoli. I bet you there's no broccoli in that.
Jenny Smith Either that or you have to add it maybe.
Scott Benner Oh, that's interesting. Tetrazzini.
Scott Benner Tuna helper Tetrazzini. This goes on forever. Double deluxe Philly cheesesteak.
Scott Benner Deluxe beef stroganoff.
Scott Benner I think sometimes they just write the word deluxe on the box.
Jenny Smith I wonder if it actually indicates
Scott Benner A difference?
Jenny Smith A fat like a fat component that might be added maybe. Oh.
Jenny Smith Like, maybe you have to add butter to it or you have to add, like, heavy cream.
Jenny Smith Do you know what I mean? I do know what you deluxe.
Jenny Smith I would expect it's a little bit more, like, luxurious to the tongue.
Scott Benner Did you say luxurious to the tongue?
Jenny Smith I did.
Scott Benner Stop it. It's ridiculous.
Scott Benner Hold on a second. Let's click on double cheeseburger cheeseburger cheeseburger macaroni just a minute to see what changes.
Scott Benner Total carbs, 24.
Scott Benner No fat. Unprepared. It looks exactly the same as the other one.
Scott Benner So what do you do? You put more stuff in it?
Scott Benner Hold on a second.
Scott Benner Cook the ground meat in a 12 inch skillet. It does say to drain the ground meat.
Scott Benner God bless. Stir in water, milk, sauce mix, and pasta.
Scott Benner Heat to boiling. Reduce cover.
Scott Benner Yeah. I don't think it's pound oh, it just calls for a pound and a half of ground beef instead of a pound and three and a third cups of milk.
Scott Benner So it's deluxe when you put more stuff in it.
Scott Benner So that means I could just buy if this is more expensive than the regular one
Jenny Smith Then you might as well just look at the recipe and take the recipe and add add it to the regular one and
Scott Benner Scam if that's if that is.
Scott Benner Oh, brilliant people. People know how to steal your money, don't they? That's a thing for sure.
Jenny Smith Funny.
Scott Benner Alright, Jenny. Well, I gotta tell you, as I've said previously, I've grown up very poor.
Scott Benner I could never get Hamburger Helper, I can't get it down.
Scott Benner Like, it make the smell of it hits me right in the pit of my stomach.
Scott Benner I can't get I can't get close to it even.
Scott Benner So on Hamburger Helper nights, oh, this is gonna get sad.
Scott Benner They made me eat, leftovers or, like, they wouldn't cook me something else.
Scott Benner Or if I and if I didn't want any of that, I just didn't really get dinner.
Scott Benner So anyway
Jenny Smith You couldn't make yourself a peanut butter sandwich I don't like on your white bread?
Jenny Smith I don't like peanut butter. Oh,
Scott Benner okay. No. I would
Jenny Smith usually I know that.
Scott Benner Yeah. I don't like peanut butter, and I would probably tell you I probably haven't had a tablespoon of it in my entire life in total totality.
Scott Benner Wow. I don't there's something about the thick grittiness of it.
Scott Benner I don't I I'm not interested in.
Jenny Smith That's okay.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Scott Benner Anyway, left out a lot of candy bars when I was a kid. I'll tell you that much.
Scott Benner Because they all had those peanuts in them.
Jenny Smith Peanuts.
Scott Benner I also don't like when you bite a peanut, that dry feeling that they have. Oh.
Scott Benner You know how they mash dry in your teeth? Oh. Mhmm.
Scott Benner Oh my god.
Scott Benner I'm gonna go now before you start judging me. Goodbye.
Jenny Smith Okay. Goodbye.
Sponsor Outro
Scott Benner This episode is brought to you by Omnipod.
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Scott Benner Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514.
Scott Benner My thanks to US Med for sponsoring this episode and for being longtime sponsors of the juice box podcast.
Scott Benner There are links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to US Med and all of the sponsors.
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Scott Benner I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
Scott Benner My diabetes pro tip series is about cutting through the clutter of diabetes management to give you the straightforward practical insights that truly make a difference.
Scott Benner This series is all about mastering the fundamentals, whether it's the basics of insulin, dosing adjustments, or everyday management strategies that will empower you to take control.
Scott Benner I'm joined by Jenny Smith, who is a diabetes educator with over thirty five years of personal experience, and we break down complex concepts into simple, actionable tips.
Scott Benner The diabetes pro tip series runs between episode one thousand and one thousand twenty five in your podcast player, or you can listen to it at juiceboxpodcast.com by going up into the menu.
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Scott Benner If you have a podcast and you need a fantastic editor, you want Rob from Wrong Way Recording.
Scott Benner Listen. Truth be told, I'm, like, 20% smarter when Rob edits me.
Scott Benner He takes out all the, like, gaps of time and when I go, and stuff like that.
Scott Benner And it just I don't know, man. Like, I listen back and I'm like, why do I sound smarter?
Scott Benner And then I remember because I did one smart thing. I hired Rob at wrongwayrecording.com.