148 Choose Your Own Adventure
Scott Benner
Mike Hoskins from Diabetes Mine joins the conversation...
Check out Mike's diabetes writing
Mike Hoskins from Diabetes Mine joins Scott to talk about episode 146 and a host of other type 1 diabetes stuff.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Hello, everyone, this is Episode 148 of the Juicebox Podcast. With this episode, we begin our fourth year of talking about type one diabetes. I'm pretty excited. You can hear my voice Actually, it's late at night. I'm tired. I'm just trying to get this out. But the rest of the shows really good. Just my intro is a little sleepy. I'll tell you what, though, let me try to find a little artificial excitement here at this late hour. Nope, I got nothing. This episode is sponsored tonight. Tonight. Today, this afternoon whenever you're listening, it's sponsored by Dexcom. And on the pod, you can go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box, or my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box to find out more. They're also very convenient links in the show notes of your podcast player, you can click right there, it'll take you right to the webpage. Technology is absolutely fascinating.
I am 100,000% confident you are going to love this episode. And I'm calling it choose your own adventure. So I sort of broke my own rule here on the podcast. The one rule I've had was, I usually just interview people who don't have another way of talking about diabetes. But today, we're gonna bend that rule just a little bit to talk to one of my absolutely favorite diabetes journalists. Today's episode is with Mike Hoskins, Mike writes for diabetes mind calm, I'll put some links in the show notes where you can find what he writes about type one. I just find Mike's writing to be special. To be perfectly honest, Mike has a way of explaining things that has always spoke to me. And frequently I very much enjoy his points of view. So when we put up the episode a couple weeks ago, Leo's dad is not a doctor Mike found me online. He had this real kind of visceral reaction to the to the episode and I thought Let's have him on the podcast and talk about it. So that's what I did. Please, please, please, please, please, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast Say it with me should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before being involved with insulin. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mike Hoskins.
Mike Hoskins 2:22
So this is Mike and I am in Metro Detroit, Michigan have been type one for most of my life since h5, which was 99 I'm sorry, 1990. I wish it was 1990. It was actually 1984. So majority of my life and had been blogging for a little while and my own personal blog, the diabetics corner booth. And for the past five or six years, I've been writing and doing journalism and advocating over@diabetes.com.
Scott Benner 2:54
And so I'm trying to remember the first time that I met you in person would have been you think it was at Lily in Indianapolis.
Mike Hoskins 3:03
It could have been I I lived in Indianapolis for about 11 years, moved there for a journalism job newspaper job. And that's, you know, clearly in the backyard. You know, worlds collided and eventually ended up there.
Scott Benner 3:18
Okay, so you're in Indianapolis for like a not a diabetes related business. It's just your your newspaper versus your your your writing.
Mike Hoskins 3:27
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, I grew up like my wife and I grew up here in Metro Detroit. And you know, I went to school for new for journalism here and then eventually had to leave the state to get an actual daily newspaper job and fog away south of Indianapolis.
Scott Benner 3:41
And am I right to say it's a little unfair. I know you before we're talking but you love that right? That the idea of being a journalist is is very kind of inherent in who you are.
Mike Hoskins 3:51
I do. I mean, I love writing at the base. I mean, I was diagnosed like I said, when I was five, and I think I started writing in some form or another about that same time, little Batman spoofs and eventually poetry and you know how to get a real job. So I went into newspapering when I was roughly in middle school. And I've been kind of doing it ever since up to some degree.
Scott Benner 4:12
And so I would say, and you don't have to respond, just be humble and be quiet. But I am very much a fan of how you how you write, and just the thorough nature of how you lay things out. And the very understandable way that I can read something that you've written about that I don't understand it. And I feel like I understand that but at the end, and I've just always been very impressed by that since I've met you. So I don't know if I've ever said that to you. But, but I but I like the way your mind works, I guess is what I'm saying.
Mike Hoskins 4:44
Well, you're one of the few you can pass some advice wine other people.
Scott Benner 4:50
Well, it's an Italian. That's how you end up here today a little bit too. So most of the time people hear podcasts. This podcast, I think they know when they're listening. They've been recording Sometimes months, you know, prior, sometimes when I do technology stuff, it's obviously more in the moment. But I don't know that I've ever done something like this where I put a put a show up last week, just a couple days ago, and you responded to me online about it. And I thought, I would love to keep talking about this with Mike. Because I think it's very, I think it's very obvious that there are perspectives in diabetes, and I don't mean in the space or writing about it, but in having it or living with it. And there is one perspective when your child has type one diabetes, and there's one perspective when you have it. You I happen to know grew up with a mother who also had type one. So you, you've been the child of a person with diabetes, and you've, you know, you've kind of had a different experience. But at the same time, when people talk about it, you know, when they sit down on the podcast, they talk about it, they only really are talking about it from their perspective, which is, you know, it may be obvious, but it's still not all the perspectives, I guess. Yeah. And and I think that to go on for just a second longer, I think that if you understand that my goal for this podcast is, it's very simple. I've said it before, but I'll say it real quickly to you, which is just that I don't think that the status quo of how we talk to people about diabetes is necessarily the best way, I don't like that we, that people start out in fear. And that that fear is, it's it's given to them by people who they trust some doctors or other people living with diabetes. And while I do believe there's plenty to be respectful of, and even fearful of, at times, I think that if you really want to, you know, live well, the fears, the first thing that has to go, and then so much good comes after it. But when we start out by telling people to be afraid, then that's a hole they can sometimes not dig themselves out of. And so while I understand that what I'm saying isn't for everybody, and isn't for everyone's specific or current situation. It is my dream of how people should talk about diabetes, I guess. know if that makes sense or not?
Mike Hoskins 7:14
Sure, absolutely. I mean, I share that I'm sure most people do. And, you know, look, I mean, it is, you know that the phrase, you know, put a coin to the hat for your diabetes may vary. I mean, you know, we can only talk from our personal perspective and what we've been through on our own end, and, you know, everybody's experience is different.
Unknown Speaker 7:33
Yeah, yeah. And
Scott Benner 7:34
at the same time, there are similarities, where I find that statement. So I believe what you just said, and I agree with you that everybody's diabetes is different. And at the same time, there are similarities that we all share. And if we allow the idea that if we allow what happens something, here's what I feel like happens, sometimes as people run up against something, a roadblock, they don't have the answer. And instead of imagining that there might be an answer, they just say, Oh, well, that's diabetes. And then they throw their hands up in the air, and they stop. And, and that's where I want people not to think that everyone's diabetes varies, because here's some simple truths. If you take insulin, your blood sugar goes down. If you eat food and don't have insulin, your blood sugar goes up, like like, you know, if you count your carbs and do everything you were told, but your blood sugar still ends up at 350. That's not just diabetes, that's, there's still something left, you don't understand. And I get scared that some people think that okay, 250 is the best I can do. And then they just go Well, that's it and they move on. So I completely agree with the statement. And I also think that sometimes people use it in the way that it's not intended.
Mike Hoskins 8:50
Yeah, totally. I mean, and there's a, there's always a balance in everything you do in life and diabetes, you know, across the board, and you have to be able to realize that, you know, sometimes it is a cop out and you know, things can be figured out, you can look at things you can try a little bit harder. Sometimes that's not always the case. And then sometimes there's a matter of, you know, I think one of the things we were talking back and forth on online was, you know, mental health, sometimes you're just not in the place or your family that helps you is not in the place to mentally go after that, you know, that field goal that that that touchdown, and you have to meet somewhere on the 50 yard line.
Scott Benner 9:31
Yep. And that and that is an incredible, like, it's an incredibly valuable concept. And it's just it's difficult to it's difficult to talk around all sides of it within an hour. You know what I mean? Like if I exploded out every part of what I needed to talk about in every podcast, and every episode would be 12 hours long and no one would listen to it. And so I sort of have to pick a theme like you know, you mean like, like a like, go ahead and go for it or, but I agree with you. I there are people You know, this is not apples for apples. But last week I got sick. I don't know that I had the flu. But I was, you know, woozy, dizzy, laid up feverish, couldn't function in the world like, you know, had to lay there till I felt better sick. And I think I found in a moment of clarity or maybe I had just watched so much television that I needed to think about something for a second, but I found myself relaying relating this to what you were just talking about with people with diabetes, who maybe are up against the wall, and don't know what to do at the moment, because I needed to get up to get the medicine I needed, right? It's so simple, but my head was full. And I knew there was some there is a medication across the room for me that if I took it, the pain in my head would lessen. And I couldn't get myself up to go get it. And in that moment, I thought, Oh, God, is this what it's like to have a high blood sugar and just really need the bolus and just not be able to bring yourself to do it. And and I'm wondering from you like, is that? Do those? Those have a correlation to each other?
Mike Hoskins 11:06
I absolutely think they do. I mean, there's something weird in our bodies that that make that just the way things work. Sometimes, I mean, you're talking about that I'm thinking, you know, low blood sugar, I mean, I can't count the times when I've been low, I know that I've been low, I logged before CGM, I would do a check, I'd be very, very low. I need a juice box, I need something, you know, to bring my sugar up, and I just sit in the chair, or wherever I happen to be. And I just stare at the floor. And I don't move for X amount of time. And I'm like, kind of why that is. But something suddenly just forces you to sit there and overanalyze something. And in the process, you're, you know, you're going even more low, you're slipping.
Scott Benner 11:49
I've said here before, and I say with a little bit of humor, but I I remember being not as amused when it happened is that I remember Arden's blood sugar being very low on time. And I'm just trying to, I'm trying to teach her that she's gonna have to take care of herself. At some point. She's like, could you bring me something? I said, No, aren't you know what, I think you need to get up and go get it. And she just sort of like, well, I guess I'm just gonna sit here and dive in. And I thought she was just being sarcastic and fun, but maybe there was that part of her was just like, Look, buddy, I can't pull my butt up from this. So I guess that's what's gonna happen if it's going to happen. And she seems so at peace with the idea. You know what I mean? Like, it is, it is interesting that you can get into that spot where your body, your brain just tells you Okay, I guess this is it. And, and you get very accepting very quickly.
Mike Hoskins 12:39
Well, I mean, there was a, you know, I, I'm sure other people have had this too. But I mean, I remember growing up where, you know, one of the classic symptoms of being low, you know, I'd be doing whatever I was doing, and somebody, you know, my mom, my dad would recognize, hey, I think you're low. Are you okay? And I'm like, No, I'm fine. You know, you go into that instant rebellion mode and go, you know, I'm fine. I can, nothing, you know, diabetes, not interfering. I can do whatever I want. And nothing is going wrong at the moment, even though everything is going wrong with them all.
Scott Benner 13:06
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's just super interesting. So I think so you're, you're kind of on a response to Episode 146, which is Leo's Leo's dad is not a doctor. And I think I want to make sure I'm right. But in my mind, did you bump on where we were joking about oh, my God, the blood sugar's 140? We've completely failed. Is that was that the thing that got you or what? What? What kind of made this that episode more interesting to you? Okay. Tell me a little bit.
Mike Hoskins 13:37
Well, first of all, you know, listen to us, you talk back and forth is dynamic in itself. That's what got me I loved I love the whole podcast and just listen to that interview. Nice job, both of you figure. But you know, what, I think it was the 140 dealt, but I think overall, just, you know, kind of the, the trends I see in the community sometimes are things such as you know, you have to be perfect you how you, you know, I you start getting a little nervous when numbers go above 141 50, you know, whatever they are. And one of the things I started noticing over time, more so too, is that when these things happen when you know, a pod fails, or when you know, a pump site fails, or you know, whatever the case is, you know, child gets sick sometimes, and certainly you can't make a blanket statement for everybody. But I've seen more and more examples of people just don't know what to do. The child doesn't know what to do as a teenager. I mean, I was involved in diabetes camp for many years in Indianapolis. And I recall seeing teenagers who, you know, their blood sugar would go you know, they would hit 200. And they would be in tears because they didn't understand why that was and they didn't know what to do about it. And their parents were always the one and these are, you know, 14 1516 year old, you know, teenagers Yeah, didn't know how to respond to a 200 blood sugar and Again, I mean, this is, you know, 510 years ago even. But that always made me very nervous. When are we becoming so focused on these numbers, being perfect, so to speak, that we're losing the ability to deal with things, as they naturally develop, and people who are not diabetic people who, you know, anybody who has a bowl of pasta, you know, their blood sugar will, you know, very briefly will rise high, depending on what you're eating. And then, you know, obviously, the body will go back down. But we've somehow got into a point where, if you're done, if you have diabetes, you can never go above a certain amount. And if you ever do for even a moment, something horrible has gone wrong, and it needs to be fixed. And that's certainly again, not meant to mean everybody who, you know, stays in tight control is doing that. But I've seen that example time and time again. And it just excuse,
Scott Benner 15:55
no, no, I hear you, I try so hard. And I don't know if I'm doing it as well as I hope I am. But I'm trying to at the same time, let people know that, you know, bye, bye. Here's an example. Here's a graph of Chinese food never over 110. All that means is I got that. So right that time, like it's almost lucky at that point. Like there's a lot of tools and a lot of ideas and concepts that that put me in that spot, but to not get any spike at all, that really is almost random. And and in a 24 hour period, I'd say Arden's blood sugar goes over 200, probably twice in a 24 hour period. And you know, sometimes it's just you get it wrong, or whatever. Sometimes it's just like you said, like, what are you gonna do? Yeah, you just, she ate a lot of carbs. And I can't, you know, I can't kill her with insulin, because later it will cause a problem, I have to try to keep a balance. And at the same time, how do you how do you give people the feeling that I can do this? If the message is? You can't? and and, and and it's not exactly, but I think that's how they hear it like, Oh, it's, it's because I think what happens is, is that once you accept 250 the first time, well, then it doesn't feel weird the second time, and then all of a sudden, if those 250 was okay, then I mean, how much better is 275 over 250 it's only 25 points, and they lose perspective that 275 is, you know, nearly 200 points higher than they really would hope their blood sugar to be. And that's the conversation that scares me. But yours scares me just as much too. And, and so you try to keep a balance, but at the same time, like that's, that's difficult, like, how do you say to somebody, you can do this, but it might go wrong. When it goes wrong, it's not your fault. But you can't believe that this is completely out of your hands. Because if you do, then you won't believe that you can in any way manage it. And it's, it's for the person, I think, to figure out. And and, and so I don't know, like, I want very much to me, Mike, you and I've spoken numerous times over the years, like, you know, I want very much to help people. And, and I think if you could see an email that I got the other day from a newly diagnosed family, I get them almost every day at this point. And they're going from start to a much better place so much more quickly than you could imagine or that you would even expect. And most of them say the same thing. I didn't know how much I needed to understand the insulin, and I didn't realize how much the fear was holding me back. And that was that sort of it. You know it? I don't want to oversimplify it. But I think when you take those couple things away, you just give people a better chance. And and I hope they understand I hope everybody listening understands this, like I don't mean it better chance for perfection. Because you know, I just got a one c back on Monday. And it was six one. But Arden's but I hope that doesn't make people picture a Dexcom graph in their mind of 115 blood sugar that never moves. You don't I mean, because that's certainly not her life. But that's not what the podcast is about either. So it's hard to I don't know, you understand? I hope.
Mike Hoskins 19:23
Yeah, I do. I mean, you can't like you said early on, I mean, you can hit every single angle, you know, in every moment of a podcast and a blog post, you know, even in online exploration, I mean people people float to what they want they often want to hear what they want to see and you know they follow that rabbit hole down as far as they can. You know, and that's not to say that's a bad thing. It's just that's that's how the human mind work right?
Scott Benner 19:48
I get I get you know what makes me nuts because I haven't I don't believe I've been around this nearly as long as you have but I've been around it for a while and I can't stand when someone writes Something and they're apologizing with one hand and giving you help with the other hand, like, Oh, you should do this, but don't do too much of it, you know, you probably could Bolus for that. But don't forget to test and but like that back and forth, like I get that you have to remind people like, you can't just go willy nilly, like, you know, rage bolusing and then forget about it. But at the same time, I feel like you never get to the real conversation, because you're always busy covering for what you said the sentence before. I don't mean you, but like, but but like, you know, somebody says something, then they cover themselves for it. And they say something and they cover themselves, then they say something that, you know, is not exactly what they think it's a portion of what they think. But they don't have the nerve to say the whole thing. And in my heart, like, I feel like if I was going to do that, I would just stop doing all this, because I don't know that that helps anybody. I you know, and and I just, I don't know, like, I think that the biggest problem we have is that when people share, they don't share what works. They share bits and pieces, or the bigger problems that like you're talking about when people you see people online. And I've said this here before, and I'm not afraid to say it. people end up online looking for help, mainly because they're new, and they're scared, they don't know. Or they're not having the success they were hoping for and they don't know, they're looking for help in some sort of a way you have a bunch of people together who don't know what they're doing. And when you show up on a Tuesday, and that guy over there has been there since last Wednesday, you think he knows something because he's been there longer than you. And then a bunch of people who don't know what they're talking about, end up trying to help each other. And it and that's me, have you? Have you ever seen a blog post where somebody asks a simple question, and we're a Facebook thread, they get 17 answers back, and you go down and you go, oh, there's the right answer right there. How's that person going to choose the right answer from the 17 replies that they got?
Mike Hoskins 21:50
Yeah, oh, these days? It's not only 17? It's 117. And you go down so many different avenues with those comments. But yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. I mean, none of us can proclaim to be experts. I mean, I think I know, maybe one or two experts, and maybe I'll put one of those hats on, you know, my medical team, you know, collectively, right? We're all basically, you know, twisting in the wind, for the most part, try to figure this out the best we can using whatever information we've got at the time. And and that's, that's the bottom line is there are no 100% right or wrong answers. You know, for the most part, you know, no, oh, my god. Yeah,
Scott Benner 22:30
it moment to moment, Mike. Right. The
Mike Hoskins 22:32
moment is off.
Scott Benner 22:33
Yeah, with within the same person moment to moment. It's just, you know, you can't, you can't you can't win, you know, but but you can, but I think you can give people tools that give them a better chance at it. And, and I all I think that I've done is I've broken down what I've seen work into, like, simple concepts to understand, like, that's that, that I think that's what this podcast is. Yeah,
Mike Hoskins 22:59
well, and, and I'm one of the classic examples, too. I mean, I was chuckling a moment ago, and you're talking about, you know, people talking on both sides of their mouth. I mean, I'm sure I do that all the time. I, I start everything off when I'm talking my personal story. I mean, I'm one of the laziest ones out there. I mean, I typically know what I need to do. And know that if I do it may very well work, you know, close to where I needed to. I just don't do it for whatever the reason. I admit that right out the door. I'm just lazy. And that's probably a cause of a lot of my problems.
Scott Benner 23:29
So let me ask you, so let's dig a little deeper, then. What do you think that's about? For those of you who heard that question, then thought, Oh, this is where Scott's gonna put an ad. You were 100%? Correct. congratulate yourself. Okay, you heard me at the beginning of the show. It's late at night. I'm tired. I'm giving it to you straight right here on the pot is a tubeless insulin pump. And I think you can check it out. This is lucky for you because on the pod offers a free, no obligation demo, which means if you go to my Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox, or click on the link in your show notes, you'll be taken to a web page. And you'll fill in the tiniest bit of information, your name and your address. And I think that might be it. Basically, you're telling the pod I'd like to see a demo pod, send it to my house and they do they send a demonstration pod, you can put it on see what you think you can hold it, touch it, feel it, look at it, smell it if you want although it's gonna smell like plastic, probably still, you'll get to see for real, what the footprint looks like and where you could wear it. You can try it on you can put it on, leave it on for a few days and see what you think. That way you can make a really sound decision. So basically, here it is. If you're using injections and you want to try a pump or you think you might want to try a pump, check out the Omni pod demo. And if you're already using a pump, you must be I mean this is just my guess but you must be sick and tired of being tethered to a controller with a long piece of tubing that cannot In my opinion, be fun. So give it a try. Click on the link in your show notes or go to my on the pod.com forward slash juice bye It is free and there is no obligation. I cannot think of one good reason for you not to try. But I can think of about 1000 great reasons you should take my word for it, give it a whirl.
What do you think that's about like, really like, so there are people right now who are listening whose kids have just been diagnosed, and they think, if I can just put them on the right path that they'll stay on that path. And I don't believe that that's true. I don't think for anything in life that you can just set somebody on a course and it's just gonna work. But I do think you can give people tools that hopefully when they hit the bumps, that maybe they can come out of them quicker. So how much of I don't know, like, I don't even know how to ask a person like yourself was had diabetes, would you say? 8494? Yeah, 20 2025 years? Almost. That's amazing, by the way, like, what what was it about how you grew up with it? That you don't think about it the way that people now think about it? Do you think it's just the data? Do you think it's just the knowledge of where your blood sugar is all the time changes people's expectations? Or what do you think?
Mike Hoskins 26:17
I mean, I think it's all of it. I mean, I don't think it's certainly anything unique to me whatsoever, I'm not different in that regard. It's just, I think, you know, it comes down to human behavior. And, you know, what kind of person are you? And, you know, and I'm, I'll preface with, you know, I'm not a parent, you know, my wife, and I don't have kids at this point. But, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, okay, parents, this is how you parent, I mean, it's going to be different for everybody. And, you know, nobody can be the other person's guide on, you know, this is how exactly you should parent, you know, it falls down to, you know, the kind of, you know, home atmosphere, or you know, all these different environmental factors that play into it. And, in the end, a lot of times, if your teen rebels, it's because your teen rebels, and there's not a sole reason for it a lot of the time. That's kind of where I come in. I mean, I, I rebelled. I mean, I just say, I'm the way I am. And that's kind of how I grew up, you know, nothing, nothing to say, my parents didn't, you know, do everything they needed to do and more, it's just, I wasn't interested in hearing it in those teenage years. Right.
Scott Benner 27:23
Right. How, how, how loose? Were you with your diabetes through those years?
Mike Hoskins 27:29
pretty loose. Yeah, I mean, you know, and that's the interesting thing you mentioned, you know, my mom, obviously, you know, she's been type one since she was five. And, you know, so she said, you know, 60 years or so, at this point, I'm at 3033, I think 3334. And so she's, you know, relatively about the same, you know, h5, you know, and, you know, she grew up in a time that was a lot different than, than what I grew up with, and what, you know, people grew up with now. And, you know, her mom was, was very strict, but also at the same time, you know, there was, you know, the, the food exchanges, so, you know, my grandma was ahead of the curve before anybody else was saying, hey, if you don't want, you know, a banana, or you know, a cup of fruit, you know, with your, with your, with your meal, you could have, you know, half a cup of ice cream, and you're not going to kill the kid by giving them a half a cup of ice cream, right. And everybody under the sun in the medical profession was like, screaming from the, you know, the rafters saying, you're going to kill that child. And, you know, grandma knew better. She knew the food exchange, the logic that worked. That's kind of how my mom grew up. But at the same time, grandma was always was also very strict with her and saw my mom rebel when she was a teenager, and you know, in her early 20s, and as the story goes, you know, she she said, you know, she didn't really test her blood sugar. You know, they didn't have that technology way back in the day before. I was diagnosed in 84. But she made the point that before I came along and was diagnosed, she had never checked her blood sugar. She didn't have a glucose monitor as it wasn't at four. And so she got one and we started testing at the same time.
Scott Benner 29:06
Yeah, you know, I just interviewed a guy a couple weeks ago, his interview won't be out for a while, but I'm gonna also interview his mom. And it's a similar situation he got up and he got diagnosed later in life and is in like, literally later in his 20s and 30s. And, and the mom has a similar situation like she fate. Almost like seeing your child habit. Made the mother go, Okay, well, I got to take better care of this, if nothing else is to just understand it for him or to be a role model for him in the situation. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's funny like it's like your diagnosis almost. Do you think it do you think your diagnosis changed how your mom even now that you're not with her anymore? Do you think she's a she a different person with diabetes and she would have been?
Mike Hoskins 29:48
Yeah, I definitely think so. I mean, I think you know, that, that does that that diagnosis of your child, you know, does that to to a person I would, I would have to assume, you know, for most people But yeah, I mean AI in these days, it's funny. I mean, you know, back in, in my college days, my last year of college, I went on insulin pump for the first time. And, you know, that was basically like the summer of 2001. And then within three or four months, I had convinced my mom to do the same. So, you know, we both we had night and day experiences on the type of pump that we use over the years by, you know, she's basically been on one the whole time, and I have up until more recently, for personal choices. And yeah, I mean, you know, we influence each other, you know, CGM, and, you know, insulin pump all those things. And these days, I mean, she's doing a lot better than I am. I mean, she's on on a rally link, you know, a hybrid, which you call it, Tom, homemade closed loop. Right. And, you know, you know, has just outstanding control. And yeah, she's doing outstanding, and
Unknown Speaker 30:53
she figured that out by herself.
Mike Hoskins 30:56
She did, yeah, obviously, with, you know, community support, you know, other people not that we're not waiting world helping, but yeah, I mean, you know, we, you know, the two of us kind of got together and, you know, put our clever thinking caps on and, you know, kind of got it done. That's cool. She's been loving it for think a little over a year, I think, you know, Thanksgiving, not this past one, but the one before that.
Scott Benner 31:15
All right. Getting good for her. That's pretty cool. So you see, you mentioned earlier, the idea of, of once something goes wrong, nobody knows how to deal with going wrong. Maybe it's because their parents have had it covered for them for so long. Or maybe it's because the technologies work so well for them. And then you know, what happens? If you don't know your insurance changes? You see it all the time, people are like, I've been I've had Dexcom forever, but my insurance should change? I don't have it anymore. I don't know what to do. But what's the what's the answer? Maybe you don't know. It's probably a bigger question. But I want to talk about it anyway. Like, I don't think I can't come to grips with the idea that the answer is you have to struggle and dig through the mud to understand. But I do think you need to understand. And so what do you see is like the the I don't think you're looking for people to live for years with, you know, unhealthy blood sugars and things like that, just so they understand the nuts and bolts of diabetes in case their pump gets broken, or they lose their insurance or something like that. But But do you think there's a balance? Like how can people understand without having the you know, back in my day, we climb nine miles up a hill for you know, for school like experience? Do you have any thoughts on that? Because you must think about it? Because I
Unknown Speaker 32:29
think about a lot?
Mike Hoskins 32:31
Yeah, I mean, and I think you're right. I mean, I don't think there is any, you know, textbook answer for it. I mean, I think it is varies, you know, for for everybody and what they're going through. And, you know, I certainly don't want to be that, that that curmudgeon of a guy who, you know, does, but you know, back in my day retrenched through feet of snow type person, which is funny because that that is exactly what it is.
Scott Benner 32:53
I bet you did. Yeah.
Mike Hoskins 32:55
Right. Yeah. Back in the 90s. When I was growing up, yeah, that's right. perspective, and I think that's what it comes down to it comes down to that perspective of, you know, being able to take a step back from something in that moment, you know, when whatever that that situation is crisis or not to realize and put it into perspective, is this something I need to, you know, no doubt over? Do I need to put more of a priority, you know, action item on this in my head? Or is this something I can kind of just let it coast for a little bit and watch it resolve itself? Naturally? You know, and I don't know where that line is? I mean, I think it varies per person, I think it depends on the situation. You know, I and I don't know why it is, I don't personally get freaked out when I see a blood sugar of 201 I think because I live in that range a lot more than than I probably should be. But I also just feel that, you know, I, I realized that, you know, in the grand scheme, this is, this isn't going to be contributing to my eight, one c being higher, or my glycemic variability, being you know, up and down across the board all the time. And this isn't going to give me a complication that, you know, even on the worst of days, I probably only have like a 40%, you know, risk long term of having a complication more than I've got these days. Right. You know, and I don't know, I mean, I just I personally, I've never really felt the need to, you know, spend all my mental energy on trying to get something so perfect that I drive myself insane. And then there's no guarantee in the end, I've only spent, you know, half my energy. You know, I've only I basically knocked off 50% of the risk, and there's still a 50% chance that something will happen, no matter what I did.
Scott Benner 34:49
Do you think that that perspective comes from knowing that you live so many years like like, like what if what if you would have started with Dexcom for example, back at five years Like, because you
Unknown Speaker 35:01
because you
Scott Benner 35:02
are in a situation where you don't know. You don't know what you like what your blood sugar was day to day moment to moment, like when you were five and 10 and 15. And like don't even like do you think that? Do you think that your expectation is set already?
Mike Hoskins 35:19
Yeah, sometimes I do. And I think that's dangerous. Yeah, I, I'm glad I grew up when I grew up, and I've gone through what I've gone through. Sometimes I wish I would have had, you know, the technology, whether it's a pump or or CGM, you know, from the moment I was diagnosed, I wish I would have had, you know, analog insulins with the bulb and I was diagnosed and not you know, animal insulin, you know, they had to use for a little while, I mean, all these things, I think it, it just, it depends on, you know, where I'm at in the moment and how I'm feeling about these things. And I think there's goods and Bad's on each side. And again, going back to the premise of, you know, I slack quite often and I'm lazy, and that probably doesn't help overall. I'm just I'm, I happen to be fortunate enough, where, you know, the, you know, the few complications, I've got, you know, neuropathy, retinopathy, about as mild as they could possibly ever be, where, really, I haven't had to do anything differently. You know, for the most part of my life, those have not really had a detrimental effect. And, and that's just, I think that's complete luck. You know, there's maybe something in my genes that has protected me from, you know, ending up on a worst complication scale at this point, based on my level of management when I was a teenager and in my 20s
Scott Benner 36:37
really is, I don't fascinator it just, you know, the, it, you take this, the disease is so multivariable. And then you apply it to people and people are so emotionally vulnerable. And then not all of them at the same insulin, none of them all get the same tools. Like there's just, I mean, it really is a story that can be rewritten a bazillion different ways. You know, and and I don't know, like, it's, I I'm with you sometimes, like I sometimes I see people who are like newly diagnosed that think that like I can, I can hold this down and make this perfect, and it's not going to be a problem. And I'll do these things. I'll take these steps, and it'll be okay. And, and I think that they don't realize that, you know, that might not be the issue, that it's possible, they could do everything right and still have a problem. I don't think that means they shouldn't try. But I think that that means that there's that there's no guarantee is I don't know, if you take that, if you take that hope of a guarantee from them, if then they're worse, nature wouldn't take over, and they just wouldn't do it anyway. It's such a, like, it's such a, I want to curse. Because I don't, I'm not allowed to curse in the
Mike Hoskins 37:51
story. I mean, it's fascinating in so many ways. And I think that, you know, I always come back to, you know, the community and the power of the community. And I think that, wherever you are, at whatever stage of this journey you happen to be at, you can find somebody that that can offer a little bit of balance in whatever way you need. And whatever degree you need that to be at, you know, if you're if you're totally in burnout mode, and you need that inspiration of somebody who is, you know, rah rah, rah, I've never I know, Bob 140, and my a one sees here, and this is how I do things, you need that, you know, more than you've had it, and vice versa, I think you can, if you're starting to feel a little overwhelmed at some of those things, you can look at some of these others and you can say, you know, there is a balance and and I can step back from this a little more than I have been, I'll be okay. Because really, there is no guarantee at the end of the day, I can't, you know, go off on a tangent and you know, do everything under the sun. But I can, I can live a little more than maybe I have been, you know, and that's, I think that's, that's good. That's bad that that's beautiful. that's frustrating.
Scott Benner 38:57
It's interesting that we don't really look for guarantees in the rest of life, but in this thing, it's something you feel like you have to try to like, I don't know conquer, and you know, like I've never once gotten in my car and thought somebody better guarantee me I'm not gonna have an accident right now. You know, I just I think I have to go somewhere and I go and that's the end of it. And and if I should get you know if I'm if I'm the unlucky guy today in New Jersey to get sideswiped by a tractor trailer, and I'm done. I don't think in my last second, I think, um, you know, I didn't get nobody followed through on my promise to live forever, and I get no car accident. It's just, uh, I don't know, Mike, I, I want so badly to say that. Like, as I was doing that episode with with, with Daniel, the one that we're talking about here today. As he and I were talking, I realized I was being a little more boisterous than I usually am. And and maybe that was just because I was talking to a guy and not a not a mom. I don't know, you know, not a woman. I'm not I'm not 100% sure, like maybe I go into more of like a listening mode. With with women than I do with men, like I couldn't tell you, but I could tell that I was more jacked up than I usually am. And that I was matching his enthusiasm for what he was trying to do for his son. Because I believe that I believe that he can, like, I think it's there. But the the linchpin that, that, that we don't we didn't talk about through that was, and that I do bring it up sometimes. But, you know, you asked me to do something for my kids, then I'll do it. And if you ask me to do something for me, then I might lay in my bed and go, Oh, but the pillows all the way over there. And so it is a different world. Like it's just, it's a completely different situation. It's the difference between having a dedicated, loving caregiver who would willingly give up their happiness for yours. And you a person who's living with diabetes, and trying to balance all the things that they want out of life at the same time, in 24 hours a day with eight hours of sleep, if they're lucky, you know, like, so. I guess there are times that I wonder if what I'm doing here, like, I almost wonder what will happen 20 years from now? Like, will there be 24 year old kids whose parents listened to the podcast 20 years ago, who were just like, Oh, yeah, diabetes is no big deal. You know, we set it up this way. And it worked for me, or they're gonna be like, Oh, my mom was so good at it, but I never really did it as well as she did. I you know, I don't know. I don't even know if I'll ever find out for my own kids completely. You know,
Mike Hoskins 41:34
all I know is I hope at that point in time we have we finally have harbor cars.
Scott Benner 41:39
Damn it. So at least you can get to the end to find out very one see without the traffic? No. Because what else is the end of doing Mike really, very little.
Mike Hoskins 41:51
Let's be honest here,
Scott Benner 41:52
the endocrinologist or as I call her, the lady with the a one c test machine. We were there the other day? And, and, and the endos asking me questions. And I'm just like, this is not valuable use of my time. And and she I realized, she goes on. She said something about she brings up the graphs because I feel like she felt like she was supposed to because now you can actually it's pretty cool. I don't know if people know. But if you have Dexcom, you can open your clarity app and it generates a code and you give it to the doctor and the doctor like pulls your graph right up online. It's pretty cool. And she goes up. Well, I see this here. And here she goes, What about these lows? And I'm like lows. I said, What are you calling low? And she goes, Well, it's under 70. Here, I said, well, there's our problem. I'm not calling that low. And so she's like, Oh, okay. And I said, you realize that I set the line on the Dexcom graph. If I would have just moved to the 60. You wouldn't have saw red? Would you have not called it a low then like I couldn't you know what I mean? I was like, Oh my God, is she just saying the stuff? She thinks she's supposed to say? Like, is she really trying to help me at all? Or is she just going hey, there's lows here, like I was, I was a little put off by that for a second. I was like, wow, I set the I set the the lines there. It's not It's not like there's a rule. It's it's I just put the line there. And then she went over that a couple other things. She touched art and sights rubbed her hands back and forth to see if there's any insulin collecting underneath them. And it was sort of over and I was like, why did we come here? I mean, I guess because they got the a one c machine.
Unknown Speaker 43:33
Yeah, well, sometimes he prescriptions do.
Scott Benner 43:36
I mean, I did get prescriptions while I was there to Mike. That was nice. Yeah. So but yeah, but you know, me like that was an interesting to me, that's a deeper look into like, when people are like, Well, my doctor said, My doctor said, I go to a really good Children's Hospital, like one of the one of the ones, you know what I mean? And still, she just was like, Oh, I saw read on a thing. So I pointed at it. And I was like, Oh, God, like this is not really medical advice. This is just, she's going down a checklist in her head. And I was a little disappointed, but but my point was, is that people need to understand that like when doctors say something to you. Your next question should always be Why? Like, you can't have I got a note the other day from somebody I haven't answered yet. My doctor says my kid can't have an insulin pump till they've had diabetes for a year. What do you think? And I'm like, no, that's not the next question. The next question is Why ask them? Why? Because I guarantee you, they don't have a reason. So you know, and if they have a reason, maybe you'll accept that but but ask for a reason. You know, you're low here. No, I'm not. Why do you think that? Well, it's red. Well, then what does that mean? You know, so, I went through and I explained to her, I said, Look, I have to be honest with you. I said if Arden's blood sugar should go to 65 at 11 o'clock at night, and she's got no insulin going and I think that I can get away with cutting her bazel off for a half an hour. are an hour to get the drift back up to 90. I'm not waking my daughter up to give her food if she's actually 65. I said, I'll test to be sure or sleep. But I'm not going to feed her. I mean, Mike the other day, there is a person, I hope no one ever actually hears my examples and thinks, oh god, that was me. But there was a person on line who was like, I don't know what to do. My child is refusing food and their blood sugar's low. I don't know what that means a panic Facebook message. Somebody said, What's their blood sugar? And she was 85. That was like 85. Like I said, off streamers at 85. Like, what are you talking about? 8585. So when that's, you know, I'm not falling. No insulin on boards just got to that number. And as soon as the thing beeped, she panicked. And I thought if it didn't beep would she have panicked? Didn't I mean? Like, like, what if it was 88? And it never woke her up? And the kids slept all night with the blood sugar? 88? Yeah. Yeah. It's just it's, it's you have to whether it's your day to day management, or your doctor talking to you, or whatever, you have to stop and go, Why? What, you know, I'm
Unknown Speaker 46:05
panicking,
Scott Benner 46:06
why am I panicking? Exactly. And kind of give yourself the opportunity to apply common sense and what you've know about diabetes to the situation, instead of just panicking, because a number got to something or whatnot. Yeah, I want you to, if you can, if you can go into a little more detail. I know we're jumping around, but that's what the whole podcast says. But if you can go into a little more detail about listening to Leo's that talk about, you know, these expectations for blood sugars. And, and the, the real, like, you could hear he was joking, a little bit like 140 Oh, my God, like, I know, you could hear it not because I could hear it, but at the same time, you know, you know, you, you know, he means it on some level as well as as, as do I, by the way, like Arden's blood sugar was 169, before lunch today, and I gotta tell you, I was like, ah, I got messed up, you know what I mean? But that's, that's not bad, or anything like that. I just gave her a little extra insulin. So, you know, I don't think it's a panic situation. But when you hear that, do you hear it more as a person who lives in the diabetes community wants to help people? Or do you hear it more as a person who doesn't manage their diabetes that way, like, I want the kind of the rest of the time we're talking, I'm just interested in what it's like, to try to help people to report on something that you're also living with. Okay, you guys, by now have to know what a continuous glucose monitor is, right? It's a small device that when a person with diabetes wears it, you can see their blood sugar, not just what it is. But where it is, is your blood sugar, 159, D is at 300 doesn't matter. If you don't know what direction it's moving, and how fast it's moving in that direction. And this is exactly the genius behind the dexcom continuous glucose monitor the G five oh, you're gonna love it. Listen, there's a share and follow feature, right? So your user, maybe it's your child, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's you, you have a Dexcom, right. And on your phone, the Dexcom. app, this app shares your blood sugar information with anybody you want it to. This is available for iPhone or Android. You listen like really wrap your head around it. Your kids at school, you can see their blood sugar. Not only is their blood sugar 75 It's so steady. You're just like, I love your blood sugar at 75. Look how steady or maybe it's 83 or 92. Maybe it's 115 it's falling. How fast is it falling is the following three points a minute, five points a minute, the next column is going to tell you that this information is invaluable and it brings a peace of mind. It can't be duplicated. It really Can you hear me talk about how I use the Dexcom. Every week on this podcast, you could do the same thing. Go to dexcom.com Ford slash juicebox. To find out more, I promise, I promise you will be happy that you did.
Mike Hoskins 49:18
Yeah, I mean, you know, like I said early on, I mean, I love the interview. And my first thoughts when hearing that part, as well as pretty much all the rest of it was I wanted to be able to jump through the screen and the podcast screen and just, you know, give him a hug and you know, give Leo a hug because, you know, nine months in I mean, it's it's just one of those things you don't like hearing about and they they are awesome and they sound great. And that was kind of my first instinct. My second one is it's like, wow, they're doing really great and I'm sucking at this moment. And I'm not even wearing my my Dexcom at the moment. So I need to put that back in because I can tell right now my sugar is high. Those are kind of my two immediate thoughts as I'm listening And throughout this, and then I start, I started, you know, my mind sort of wandering a little bit, I'm like, okay, you know, there there is that balance, you know, between the highs and the lows, and, you know, perspective and this and that. And, you know, what series and what's not so serious, you know, and I need a moment. And I started wondering, how, how would the community, you know, a week from now, a month from now, a year or two from now, when when you start seeing all these examples of people and parents saying, My a one sees this, this low number, and this is the only way you can get there, if you go low carb, this is how you do that. If you have to use a particular, you know, method of treatment, whether it's injections or insulin pumping, and you can't do this without CGM. All of these things and then you know, whatever that number threshold may be for a particular person, all these things started coming into my mind of, okay, maybe we can somehow take a step back and say, This isn't a prescription for one. And, you know, this is how you have to live your life, this is the only way to do it. And if you go over 140, then something is wrong. I think you have to be able to understand it's not a prescription for any of that. But I worry that some take it to that level. Some will use this all as as as case examples of why you should only do this, do that, and you should never allow for something else to be, you know, your reality, right. And then again, that's just that's probably my mind being warped and going down the rabbit hole. But that's, that's how I started feeling about it. As I was listening to more and more, I think coupled just with other things I've seen and heard over time.
Scott Benner 51:43
But I think I hope that when people hear me when I talk about like, Arden's high thresholds, 130, I don't mean I,
Unknown Speaker 51:51
I don't want to,
Scott Benner 51:52
I don't mean, I'm never gonna let her blood sugar get over 130 What I mean is that if you want to avoid 200, you have to know at 130. Like, like, that's the that's the idea. You know, last night, you know, Jesus, there's last night, her blood sugar was like 160, for a good part of the time, she was sitting doing her homework. And it was just at a certain time a night where I was like, if I push this too hard, she's just gonna get really low later. So I had to keep just kind of trying to nudge it down a little bit with some more bazel. But I couldn't have just, I couldn't have crushed her with a bolus for the 160 because then she would have been 55 an hour after she went to bed. And I was not sitting in my living room in a panic that Arden's butcher was 160. What you know, what I've learned is that if you, if you don't accept the high blood sugars, if you go after them, and you limit them to a couple of times a day, your agency is going to be around sex. Like that's, you know, as long as the when you when you actually when things are going better, and stabilities easier if you stay at a lower number, you know, as long as you're under 120, most of the time your agency is going to be around sex. Like it's not, you know, but it's when you see a 250 and then you stare at it for an hour and a half, or you don't do anything about it all afternoon, or, you know, if you're 304 times a day, that's when you get seven and eight and nine sometimes but I it's not. I try to say it as much as I remember to that I'm not in the panic constantly. I'm not running around going, oh my god aren't his blood sugar is not perfect. I genuinely don't think about Arden's blood sugar that much. I just, I, you know, I just there's certain, certain barriers that when you cross them, we do something, and I do something, if that thing would beep and Arden's here until until our head blade bled, she wouldn't do anything. You know what I mean? Because she's a kid, she's doing her homework, and she's thinking, Oh, he'll do it. Just like, you know, just like you brought up earlier, it's my biggest concern is that my goal is to transition this off to Arden. But that might not work out. You know, what might happen is she might just go Well, I'm not gonna do it that way. And that'll be the end of it. Like, I don't know, like, what happens when she's old enough to decide, and I'm not in a position to assert myself more yet. You know, it's a, it's a, it's my biggest concern, to be perfectly honest. And then there's part of me that thinks that if she just goes off the rails, at least for this first, you know, however many years, at least we were where we were, you know, and maybe that'll give her a chance to get through whatever rebellion, maybe she'll say and come out the other side. I don't know. It's in the end, the only thing I know for sure, is that she has type one diabetes, it's a lifelong disease, and it sucks.
Mike Hoskins 54:27
Yeah. You know, it's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I mean, if you remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books from from back in the day. I mean, it's like that. I mean, any little decision can can, you know, start a whole, you know, line of things that you just can't predict. And the transition period is interesting for everyone. Yeah,
Scott Benner 54:46
I think it is. I know for sure that advice I would give is that if you think that you're going to control this thing, and how it's going to go in your kid's head or all the other that that's a fool's errand. You can't put yourself in a position where you're trying to exert that much control over anything, you know, but you know, and I'm not going to repeat them here. But I do know a couple of things, if you start addressing your blood sugar, when it gets under over a certain number, and you kind of bump a nudge, and you're not like slamming with insulin and things like that, things will go better. You know, if you're aggressive with insulin, and not afraid of it that, you know, usually you use less insulin than you need, that most people just default to that, you know, when you're correcting later, it just means you didn't use enough up front, like those simple basic kinds of concepts. If you, if you if you think about them, while you're doing things, it is going to go better more often than it's not going to go better. And, and, you know, from there, you'll decide how that fits into your life, you know, and how much of it you can, you can bring, I do really need to talk to somebody who's experienced like abject burnout, so that they can be open about what that means, you know, like, what, what does it mean to sit in your house, knowing you're hurting yourself and not be able to do anything about it? You know, that is something that I think people need to hear.
Mike Hoskins 56:11
I mean, that goes, that goes very much back to the line of, you know, if you're hovering in, you know, whatever high number is for you. I mean, if you're, if you're living that way, you know, for an extended period of time. I mean, that's, that's a very clear sign that you're in burnout or, you know, there's there's some other issue going on. And, you know, that's always existed. I mean, I went through it. And that was a big case in my teens and my 20s. And I still go through it, you know, pretty regularly, probably once a year, I actually go through it to some extent,
Scott Benner 56:39
how long does it last when it happens to
Mike Hoskins 56:41
me, honestly, it doesn't, usually it's around the end of the year, beginning of the year with holidays, you know, I just get in that mode, where I've got so much else going on in life where my management is not my top priority at that point. It's like, Oh, you know, once I get into the new year resolution phase, I can do it a little bit better, right, about this time is when I start, you know, doing a little bit better. Yeah. So that's kind of how things have been going for a while on my end.
Scott Benner 57:06
It's funny, it's so similar to just like dieting for someone who struggles with their weight or something like that, you know, like, not giving yourself insulin, when you need it is the equivalent of like picking up a bag of potato chips, when you're not hungry, and sitting and eating the whole thing. And while you're eating it going, I know I shouldn't be doing this. And you know, it's just, it's, it is human nature, it's, uh, you know, it's succeed, it gets attached to a more finite idea of your life, you know, when it's when it's a disease. Because we can all you know, that's the great thing about like, parenting and everything there, you can kick a lot of cans down the road in life, you know, they mean, you like, your kid does something, you think you I should call them on that, but I'm tired. So I'll let it go. They don't end up in rehab that day. You don't I mean, and 20 years from now, when you look up and your kids like some giant disaster, you can make up all the excuses in the world that it wasn't you, you can always be kicking that can diabetes is the thing that stops you from kicking the can like when you're kicking it, you're aware you're kicking it. And and and when you're trying to put something off till tomorrow, it just feels so much more dire. And then if you already feel upset, then the dire nature of how you feel just compounds it it doesn't. It doesn't I hope people understand it doesn't break you out of it, it just makes it worse. You know, like, I hate hearing about endos who try to scare kids with you know, like, you don't want to lose your leg Do you like but you thought that was gonna help? You know, like, that's, that's not what motivates people.
Mike Hoskins 58:35
And even that is such a weird dynamic. I mean, I, I had that when I was when I was in those those later teen years when I was 16 and 17. I had an endo a pediatric endo at the time who did exactly that. And I was starting I had my first actual complication that just started materializing at that point. And I was only like, you know, 1617 years old. And my endo specifically said that, if you keep doing what you're doing, you will be dead by the time you were 21. And there were you know, there were other parts of that conversation too. But that actually motivated me for a time. And the same conversation came up in my early 20s, you know, with another handle as well. And that motivated me, you know, at least for the short term. And it got me back to where I needed to be to start managing more effectively and eventually, you know, get those habits in place I needed. And that doesn't it doesn't work anymore. It hasn't worked in a while. But it did at one point for
Scott Benner 59:33
me. Mike's like I've given up on the lions winning a Super Bowl, I have nothing to live for. It's almost like a slap in the face. Like, like, you know, in a bad movie. Like when you do that you are out of ideas. But you still should try, I guess is the idea, right? Like even if I could just snap this kid out of it for a little bit. It's worthwhile, and at the same time, I don't know I've seen my endo talk about It might nurse practitioner who's not the endo who I saw the other day. But she'll talk about like, there's some kids who are just, you know, you have to sit them down and tell them like, this is where you're headed. She's like, it feels horrible to tell them that. But there's nothing left. Like every other thing you've tried to explain to them just falls on deaf ears. They don't, they don't care. You know, for whatever the reason ends up being. And it's not her job. She's not a psychiatrist. She's just she's the person telling them about their blood sugar. And so, I don't know, Mike, is what we've learned here in this past hours. There is no solid concrete answer to anything diabetes related. Is that what we figured out? Or life in general? I
Unknown Speaker 1:00:37
think it's the fourth.
Scott Benner 1:00:38
I gotcha. Life is just unset concrete. Yeah, yeah.
Mike Hoskins 1:00:45
I currently have have frostkeep in my driveway, which is another whole side topic than I did. But that's the story of my diabetes life. It's like come on a new driveway. This happens. like diabetes.
Scott Benner 1:00:58
I finally So would you guys got something paved? And then some like we got frozen through your brand new paving right up in the air?
Mike Hoskins 1:01:05
Yeah. Two inches high. And then I turn your tripped and kill myself the other day. But but that is that's exactly the idea. I mean, everything you tried to do perfectly you have a perfect TV job. And this is analogy that came out of nowhere, honestly. But and then you just you trip over a two inch even there it is.
Scott Benner 1:01:25
I will tell you that. homeownership to me the worst thing about homeownership I say this all the time, though, there's all kinds of bills. But if you've ever paid to have a tree cut down, there is no indignity like giving someone money and having less when it's over that I that I I bump on it. No horrible. Here's $1,000 cut these two trees there. I now don't have $1,000 anymore. And I don't have to trees and and it but it needs to happen for whatever Oh, my god like I own a home is a is a horror.
Mike Hoskins 1:02:01
It's another one of those wonderful life adventures.
Scott Benner 1:02:04
It's certainly see you're thinking of it a different way. You You're an upbeat person, whereas I am. I'm just going oh, my God, I just drive on the grass. Forget the driveway. You don't need it. Like, I don't know that we've settled anything here.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:19
I don't think we were supposed.
Scott Benner 1:02:21
Good, good. That's perfect, then we've done excellent. I just wanted to tell you again, like it was just it means I don't want to say there's few people because there's a lot of people I respect. But when I hear from you, I always take it seriously. Like, you know, they always think like this is not Mike. Mike didn't just have five extra minutes. And he thought to write something on Facebook. You know what I mean? Like, I know when you're talking about this, especially diabetes in general, that it's coming from a thoughtful place. And so I always appreciate, you know, hearing it and and I appreciate you being the first person on who you broke my rule. I don't know, if I ended up saying that in the point when we were first on, it'll end up making that a podcast or not. But I just always sort of the only rule of the podcast has been that I don't, I don't usually have people on who have a voice somewhere else because they already have an avenue. And I like hearing from people who wouldn't otherwise be able to tell their story, I guess. But I'm making a huge exception for you. Because I'm always just very impressed with how you think about this stuff.
Mike Hoskins 1:03:22
Well, I tend to ramble. But I appreciate the comment. And I definitely appreciate the compensation. No,
Unknown Speaker 1:03:28
me too. I
Scott Benner 1:03:28
really don't. My genuine appreciation to Dexcom and I'm the pod for sponsoring this episode of the Juicebox Podcast and for signing on for the entirety of 2018. Thank you so much. You people are fantastic. And to my friend Mike Hoskins. I genuinely appreciate you coming on the show, sir. I always am just incredibly interested in what you think about living with diabetes and the community surrounding it. Not only that, but I mean, this was just a really great conversation. I love this. This felt very comfortable to me. I hope it did to you too. Mike writes at diabetes mind over on health line, and I put a link to that page right in the show notes. I'm telling you Mike is a thorough, thoughtful and intelligent writer and does a wonderful job reporting on type one diabetes. I will see you next week. Thank you for listening to the Juicebox Podcast Hey, the music stopped but you could you know use this time to reflect on how much you love the podcast and what would you say if you were leaving a review for it somewhere. But amazing things would you say how many stars would you click on if you were say reviewing it and iTunes probably all the stars. Probably all the good words. I'm just saying you know if you're not
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