#1521 Fueled By Anxiety
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.
Lexy is a mom of three who’s also opened her home to foster kids. Her oldest has type 1 diabetes, and this episode is a warm, thoughtful conversation about parenting through it all.
+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Lexi 0:14
Hi, I am Lexi my son Hayes was diagnosed January 4, 2022
Scott Benner 0:22
nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code Juicebox at checkout. That's Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com AG, one is offering my listeners a free $76 gift. When you sign up, you'll get a welcome kit, a bottle of d3, k2, and five free travel packs in your first box. So make sure you check out drink. AG, one.com/juicebox to get this offer, I created the diabetes variables 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 going to 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 Juicebox podcast.com this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the twist a ID system powered by tide pool that features the twist loop algorithm, which you can target to a glucose level as low as 87 Learn more at twist.com/juicebox. That's twist with two eyes.com/juicebox. Get precision insulin delivery with a target range that you choose at twist.com/juicebox, that's t, w, I, I st.com/juicebox, this episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by us. Med, us. Med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, get your supplies the same way we do from us. Med, today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour 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 contour next.com/juicebox
Lexi 2:36
Hi. I am Lexi. I am a mom of three little boys, also a foster mom. My son, Hayes was diagnosed January 4, 2022 we've just kind of been rolling through it since then.
Scott Benner 2:51
Nice. Let's go back to the question you asked me right before we hit record. Yes. So I don't think I've ever just spoken about it while we're being recorded, and I think maybe it's time. What's your concern? Like that? Will you won't have anything to say? Yeah.
Lexi 3:06
I mean, I just, I signed up to be on a podcast, what, five or six months ago, and I think I filled out a little form and and then I just joined today. So I wanted to make sure that we have, you know, something to talk about.
Scott Benner 3:19
Listen, it's not uncommon. Everybody's worried when they jump on a so everybody thinks that they'll be bad when they get to the end of the recording. A surprising number of people tell me it's okay if I want to delete it, which always fascinates me, because I've never done that. So like, you know all the episodes you've heard that you've enjoyed, a large majority of them. At the end of it, the person said, if you want to delete that, I would completely understand. I'm like, What are you talking about? It's like, what are you talking about? It's interesting. The I don't know if it's self confidence or just the lack of experience with the idea, but trust me, we're gonna have a really fun conversation. We'll learn a bunch of stuff about you. I'll probably say something fairly inappropriate, and then it'll be over. It just goes like that. Let's start first with, I don't know why you have so much energy when you have more than three children. How did that happen? What do you are you drinking? What are you doing right now, to be jacked up like this, probably on my third cup of coffee. Okay, all right, that's fair. So how old are you? I just turned 30. Wow. You have 30 energy. How old were you when you had your first baby, by the way?
Lexi 4:17
Oh, 25
Scott Benner 4:20
oh. So have you done anything else in the last five years except make a baby, have a baby?
Lexi 4:25
No, I think I've been, yeah, pregnant a lot, or had kids cycling through my house a lot. It's just been all kids last five years.
Scott Benner 4:34
No kidding, on purpose is that was like a plan or just worked out? Think it just
Lexi 4:39
worked out. I mean, I always wanted to have kids, and we just started having kids, and then we kept having kids, and then we became foster parents, so then there was just a lot more kids. And yeah, how many kids are in the house right now? Right now, just my three. We had a foster son a few weeks ago, but he's not here now. Oh, interesting
Scott Benner 4:58
for a small time. When I was young, my parents fostered a kid. His name was Russell. Hey, Russell. What's up? If he's out there. But now that I've said his name, I'm thinking of the Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr, Christmas movie Home for the Holidays. You know that one? I think so Thanksgiving. It's a Thanksgiving movie. Anyway. This is not important. What's important is that at some point in the movie Holly Hunter with her Holly Hunter accent, is that an accent, or is it a list? I don't know exactly what it is, but she says, she goes, hello, Russell, and I saw that. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Unknown Speaker 5:33
Yes. No, yes.
Scott Benner 5:36
Anyway, that's what that just happened in my little brain. Okay, so you got married, you started making kids. You've been doing it for about the past five years. What leads you to foster children when you have so many of your own? Honestly,
Lexi 5:50
I don't know, we're kind of crazy. We actually became foster parents the year my toddler was diagnosed with diabetes, and it's just we're faithful people, and it kind of felt like a calling. And honestly, I was really crazy. My husband was on a work trip, and I was like, I think I'm gonna go to this foster care interest meeting. And he's like, where are you at? I was like, I'm just hearing about it. And my husband knows that I'm a little impulsive, so he's like, Oh, she's going to this interest meeting. I guess we're going to become foster parents. And a few months later, we did
Scott Benner 6:19
what else have you come home with randomly, a
Lexi 6:21
dog. I have done that, I guess, a lot of impulse purchases, but nothing too crazy, nothing like a car or anything like that. But, yeah, yeah, I think I shouldn't say impulse. It just once I have my mindset. I'm like, Hey, we should do this. It's just full force, like, I don't sit around and think about it too much. We just, we just do it. So, so listen, that's
Scott Benner 6:40
interesting. Do you have a lot of success in your life? We do. Yeah, me too, because I've been thinking about this, what you just talked about a second ago, just the idea of having some motivation and then just doing it, like a lot of things that I've made happen for the podcast or personally, or anything like that, is like, I've put a thought together. I've gone, unlike you, I've thought about it for a while, and then I'm like, No, this is a good idea, the realization that the only thing left to do is is just to do it and it will work. And I do that a lot. So listen, did you set your mind on helping someone? Was that the motivation?
Lexi 7:15
Yeah, I mean, I just felt like my husband and I were really blessed at a young age, like with our house, our family, all of these things. And even though, despite this diagnosis of diabetes, I'm sure we'll talk about that, we still just had this community of people. And, you know, the foster care system, there's just not enough foster parents. And I'm like, if we could help other kids with, you know, the community and the resources that we have and and maybe even one day, and we haven't yet have a kid that has type one like, I can't imagine being a foster kid going into the system and then landing at somebody's house and them having no idea about diabetes,
Scott Benner 7:55
right? I've got a couple of after darks about that that are, you know, they're pretty stunning conversations. Okay, so tell me something, once you take a kid in, is there a length of time told you at the beginning, or is that just up in the air?
Lexi 8:08
No, it's just up in the air. And you and you get, you know, I remember our first placement, or, I guess our second placement, they call you and they're like, Hey, we have these two kids coming to your house in an hour. And, you know, nothing. I mean, they just show up at your house. And, I mean, those kids that we had, they had medication patches on their back, and the social worker didn't even know what the medication was. I mean, you you really know nothing how old they were, four year old twins. Four
Scott Benner 8:32
year old twins with medications on their medication patches on you can't ask them, and you, and you say to the social worker, what is this for? And they go, I don't know. I think they smoke too much, like, Yeah, great. They're like,
Lexi 8:44
it's, it's Friday night. The doctor's office opens on Monday. So,
Scott Benner 8:47
yeah, try not to think about it till Monday. Yeah, what did the patches end up being for?
Lexi 8:52
They were like, sedative patches. Because they said these kids had ADHD, and I don't know the the home they were in was putting these sedative patches on them. So obviously, as soon as I found out what they were, I'm like, can you rip these off like, I'm afraid to
Scott Benner 9:05
touch them? Oh, my God. Wait, wait, that's did that end up being how long did you have those kids for three to four months? Did those patches end up being necessary in the four months that you had them? The contour next gen blood glucose meter is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and it's entirely possible that it is less expensive in cash than you're paying right now for your meter through your insurance company. That's right. If you go to my link, contour next.com/juicebox, you're going to find links to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Rite, aid, Kroger and Meijer, you could be paying more right now through your insurance for your test strips in meter than you would pay through my link for the contour next gen and contour next test strips in cash. What am I saying? My link may be cheaper out of your pocket than you're paying right now. Now, even with your insurance, and I don't know what meter you have right now, I can't say that, but what I can say for sure is that the contour next gen meter is accurate. It is reliable, and it is the meter that we've been using for years, contour next.com/juicebox and if you already have a contour meter, and you're buying test strips doing so through the Juicebox. Podcast link will help to support the show. The brand new twist insulin pump offers peace of mind with unmatched personalization and allows you to target a glucose level as low as 87 there are more reasons why you might be interested in checking out twist, but just in case that one got you twist.com/juicebox that's twist with two eyes.com/juicebox. You can target glucose levels between 87 and 180 it's completely up to you. In addition to precision insulin delivery that's made possible by twist design. Twist also offers you the ability to edit your carb entries even after you've bolused. This gives the twist loop algorithm the best information to make its decisions with, and the twist loop algorithm lives on the pump, so you don't have to stay next to your phone for it to do its job. Twist is coming very soon, so if you'd like to learn more or get on the wait list. Go to twist.com/juicebox. That's twist with two eyes.com/juicebox. Links in the show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com. Diabetes comes with a lot of things to remember, so it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. US med has done that for us, when it's time for Arden supplies to be refreshed, we get an email rolls up and in your inbox says, Hi, Arden, this is your friendly reorder email from us. Med. You open up the email. It's a big button that says, Click here to reorder, and you're done. Finally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one. US. Med has done that for us. An email arrives, we click on a link, and the next thing you know, your products are at the front door. That simple, US med.com/juicebox, or call, 888-721-1514, I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link, I open up a box, I put the stuff in the drawer, and we're done. Us. Med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and the Dexcom g7 they accept Medicare nationwide over 800 private insurers, and all you have to do to get started is call 888-721-1514, or go to my link, usmed.com/juicebox, using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juicebox Podcast.
Speaker 1 12:54
No, no. Well, that's
Scott Benner 12:57
upsetting. Yeah.
Lexi 12:59
I mean, they were at a home, and, you know, no judgment to whoever had them, but they were having Mountain Dew for breakfast and eating whatever they wanted all day, and then
Scott Benner 13:11
amped up. Hey, I gave this kid Mountain Dew and a ho ho, and he's acting crazy. Can we set we hit him with a Trank? Oh, my God, oh, the whole world. I don't you ever feel smart like, this is one of those moments,
Lexi 13:28
yeah. And so, can you imagine a diabetic kid coming through the system like that, and you're, you know, the way that they just kind of drop kids on you, and you don't really even know what medications or things that they they have, you know, it's
Scott Benner 13:43
wild. Lexi, does that become, like, the sole focus of your four months? Like, is there really time to live? Or are you, I mean, you know what I mean, like, four year olds, puppies, there's some things you have to, like, stop everything else for. Like, is that one of those things? And then, how do you do that in your life? Do you work? Yeah,
Lexi 14:02
so I did. At the time I was working. I was lucky enough to become a stay at home mom a few months ago. But through all of this time, you know, both my husband and I work full time, we had, you know, toddlers of our own, diabetes, everything. And, I mean, I guess we just really didn't sleep much. But it's
Scott Benner 14:20
time for me to stop wondering if you're kind Are you insane? Is there something wrong with you?
Lexi 14:24
No, no, I think there's just a lot of things we wanted to accomplish and a lot of people we wanted to help. And it's awesome. Instead of probably just waiting and doing things at different chapters of our life, we're like, we'll just sacrifice some sleep for a little bit and just roll through it. And
Scott Benner 14:39
your husband's good with this. Are you just super cute? And you have a nice way of asking,
Lexi 14:43
honestly, my husband's amazing. He just kind of says, you know, whatever you want to do, I'll just support you. And he just, he rolls with it. So it
Scott Benner 14:52
sounds like you're cute, but Okay, all right, now, whatever you want to do, how long have you been married? At
Lexi 14:59
2018, Mean, I gotta do some math here, six
Scott Benner 15:02
years, seven years. Oh, wow, yeah, all right. Well, he seems like a decent guy. He is, he is, I argue about everything that somebody wants to do in the house. I think we should. I'm like, No, I don't think so. I don't think that doesn't sound like a good idea, even like, I mean, it's just the lovely thing he did. He spent four months of your life taking care of these four year olds. Four year olds. Do you know where they are now? Is that difficult? No, it's
Lexi 15:26
really tough. You know, a lot of times when they leave from your home, they either get reunited with their parents with relatives, or they move them to other foster homes. And most of the time, you don't have contact afterwards. We do have contact with our our first set of boys that we had, because they were reunited with family. But it's up to whoever gets them next. If you know they're allowed to have contact and you don't get their information, they get your information and they decide if they want to reach back out to you. So yeah, and
Scott Benner 15:54
they're probably busy with the with the Mountain Dew purchases and everything. There's some good sales once in a while on Pepsi, if you're aware of it. Okay, all right, girl, but okay, I was walking through the store the other day, and I saw three two liter bottles for $6 and I thought that seems like a deal. I don't know, but it really did seem inexpensive. Okay, all right, so your kids, all boys. Did you say that all boys? Right? And which one is the type one, the oldest, the oldest one. How old is he now? He just turned five last week, diagnosed when 22 right
Lexi 16:33
before his second birthday. So January, 2022 Okay, a few weeks before his birthday. Okay,
Scott Benner 16:38
safe to say it was a shock, or you saw it coming? Did you see something happening?
Lexi 16:42
Oh, total shock. We had a six week baby at home, so just in the thick of you know, postpartum times, my husband's grandfather had just died, and my grandfather had died on Monday, and we had a pediatrician appointment on Tuesday to see why my son was peeing through all of his diapers and just drinking water all the time. So it was just a it was already kind of a dark, dark time. Obviously, like most people, after you get the diagnosis, you're like, Wow, all of this makes sense, but at the time, you know, we have no family, no way to really, I guess see it coming. You
Scott Benner 17:21
don't have family like a family history, family history. Okay, sucks. So much bad stuff happened all at once. What was going on during that time with him that made it was it just the peeing, or was there, were there other things, or did hindsight show you other things? No.
Lexi 17:35
I mean, he was just chugging a ton of water, and he was just peeing through so many diapers, and we were doing two diapers at night, and he was still peeing through those. And my kids were daycare kids. We were working full time. And, I mean, the months of September, October, November, December, right before diagnosis. I mean, he had everything, you know, they asked, Oh, has he been sick with everything? I'm like, have you had a one year old in daycare? I mean, everything, Hand, Foot and Mouth the stomach bug to the point that we went in the garage and put a tarp on our living room floor. The stomach bug was so bad. Illness after illness, he was actually diagnosed with asthma during one of his illnesses, so he was already a nebulizer kid. And so I'm sure one of those kind of, you know, kind of play, but
Scott Benner 18:21
Arden had a Coxsackie. It's really common to have coxsack you before a type one diagnosis. Oh, really, yeah, you didn't know. Oh, oh, um, gosh. I'm trying to think of what episode it is now, but at some point, this is a weird, a weird timeline, but yeah, at this point, Sanofi owns the drug called t, z, O, that used to be called temizaplab, but it was brought to market by a company called prevention bio. And I once had the CEO on and he was talking about how one of the other things he's thought about doing was trying to create a vaccine for Coxsackie, because he thought if he could limit the amount of kids that got Coxsackie, he might limit them getting type one diabetes when they were super young. Oh, wow, yeah. So viruses, I mean, frequently lead to, if you're already pre disposed to having type one diabetes, meaning you have antibodies, and it's probably going to happen at some point. A virus can kind of kick all that into motion. And it is not uncommon. In fact, it is fairly common or people who have those antibodies, who are going to get type one at some point to have it kicked off by Coxsackie virus. That all makes sense. Yeah,
Lexi 19:28
yeah. I mean, I knew certain viruses definitely had high risk. I just, I didn't know about that one. I remember sitting in the hospital just looking at all the COVID stuff, right? This was right out of COVID, and it would be hard to pinpoint anything for my son, because, like I said, he had, he probably had every probably had every virus you could
Scott Benner 19:43
have. Did he have COVID as well? Yes, he had all of it. Yeah. I mean, who knows? You know what I mean. But yeah, geez, the kid was like a little, little virus sponge. But also, if his immune system was run down or misfire, I'm just gonna use the word misfiring, which is. Probably not anywhere, right? Like if it was acting up, I guess then it makes a lot of sense that you started contracting a bunch of stuff. Yep, yeah, I'm sorry. It sucks. Did you get the other kids tested? Do you have any idea if they have antibodies?
Lexi 20:12
No, but I'm just coming off a JDRF summit this past weekend, and I think they've finally convinced me that it's time for me to start doing that for my other kids. They're three in one so when I looked into it for my three year old before, he was only like a year and a half at the time. So I think now he's old enough that I could start testing. I mean, I've definitely had the days where I'm randomly pricking his finger, but I know that antibodies, there's so much that they're researching now, delaying the onset that I definitely find it worth it now to start screening them each year. Yeah,
Scott Benner 20:44
we did ads for screen for type one last year, which would help you find out. I think JDRF has a program, trial net probably has a program. There's probably a number of people doing it at this point. Well, I wish you luck. I hope none of that happens. Thank you. Me too. I imagined you did Yes, so you don't have any family issue, but picking through for a second like down to like, thyroid or celiac, or there's no autoimmune in your family, or just no type one.
Lexi 21:10
So no type one, but there has been thyroid on my husband's side of the family, his mom. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, I know. No, we weren't sure how much that was connected. We haven't dug too deep, cutting, just accepted. All right, this is how it is. And you know, we had those times, especially my son, Hayes, and then his brother was six weeks when he was diagnosed, and you kind of stop, and you're like, all right, should we just not have any more kids? Right? Because this, you know, is in our family now, and you know, we kind of made up our mind then that we're not going to let diabetes stop us from doing anything that we would do if it didn't. So
Scott Benner 21:49
are you trying for a girl? What's going on here? Like everyone
Lexi 21:53
asked me that, you know, I'd be okay be an all boy mom, but yeah, I think we'll definitely have at least one more kid. But I don't want diabetes to stop us from doing anything that we would do if, if we didn't have diabetes. And so I've been pretty, pretty strong on that. And sometimes I spiral a little bit, you know, when you start trying to dig into your family tree and, you know, find the connections. Because I'm like, you know, it, it takes me back to that place of like, oh, maybe, you know, maybe we should think about this. And I'm like, No, you know, I'm gonna keep moving forward. So what's your
Scott Benner 22:26
husband? Like Bitcoin mining? How's he making all this money to take care of these
Lexi 22:30
kids? No, he works for a gym. Yeah,
Scott Benner 22:33
my God, is he stealing from the lockers during the day? That's awesome. I know. I know also, I'm moving to wherever you are because it sounds affordable. Oh, no, we're good for you. That's Are you going to make another like, Are you actively trying to have a baby?
Lexi 22:48
No, not, right now, okay, I have a almost one year old. I need a little break. Yes, yes.
Scott Benner 22:55
Listen, I don't want to tell you what to do, but three is plenty. You're good.
Lexi 23:01
Hey, I've gotten used to four. We usually have four kids around here, so
Scott Benner 23:03
they'll make friends, and then there'll be 19 people in your house, and you'll be like, Oh, we should not have had these many children if it ends up that way. Like, I It's funny, like, my house is for my son, it doesn't work this way, but for my daughter, all the all her friends come here, and so there's a lot of people here. Usually, I love that, yeah, but so much so that, like, if I try to work later in the evening, like she's got friends whose voices, like, cut through, and I'll come down and I'll be like, actually, I'll just say her name, because she'll be thrilled. I'll be like, hey, Assange here. How did you know I'm like, How did I know it was coming through the floor? That's how I knew she's another friend who giggles after she talks all the time like, I know when she's here, like, you know, it's I like that. Her friends think of here as, like, comfortable. Oh
Lexi 23:50
yeah. You want that? Like, I, I would love to be that fair my kid. All
Scott Benner 23:54
right, so let's dig into this, being the mom of a toddler with type one thing. So you get home from the hospital and it's, you know, in your lap, you obviously have a ton of energy for whatever reason. What's your your plan? Did you have a plan? Or were you just lost? No,
Lexi 24:10
I mean, we were, we were really deep in grief during this time, and granted, Emily both just lost our grandfathers. We're in the hospital during my grandfather's funeral. I couldn't even go back to be a part of that. And then now, I mean, I remember at the pediatrician office, they told me, hey, you need to go to the ER. And I remember calling my husband, and he, you know, neither of us had any idea about type one diabetes, first of all. And he goes, Well, I'm sure they'll, they'll fix it, and we'll be good, like he had no idea. When I called him and said, Hey, is this type one diabetes that? That meant forever? He thought, oh, they he's gonna go the hospital and they're gonna fix it. He's gonna be good. And so we all kind of had to come with term, come to terms with that. And you know, on top of that, we have a six week old baby, like we're already not sleeping. You know, you're just, your emotions are in these just, you know, tough places. But. One thing that I'm grateful for, I guess, in the sense, is, even though i What did have a six week old baby, I was on maternity leave, so I was home and had time to really invest in in learning this before I had to send them back to daycare. You know, I can't imagine some of these people that they get a diagnosis, and then the next week they have to go back to work and they have to leave their kid with somebody else. Yeah, I think about that a lot, yeah. And I was very lucky that, you know, I had time, obviously. What do you do? You start scouring the internet and joining all these Facebook groups and just trying to find all the information you can. That's how I found the podcast. And what I figured from the point was, I need to get him on a pump. I don't think I'll feel comfortable sending my toddler back with other people doing these injections, because to me, it just seems so easy to mess up, to just do an extra half unit when it's like his basal was like, point 05, you know? Yeah, you mess up just a little and that's a really scary amount for a toddler. So how quickly were you able to get him a pump? So he was on a CGM within a week and a pump within three weeks, okay?
Scott Benner 26:02
And that was you, you moved that through. Yes, I
Lexi 26:05
stayed on the hospital. But luckily, the physician that we had, we had researched and saw that he was pretty okay with some of the, you know, algorithm looping and different things. That made us think that he would let us get on technology pretty quick. So,
Scott Benner 26:21
oh, wow. And you figured that out through, I almost said the internet like I was 1000 years old. Did you use the box? No. You figured that out through, like, a Facebook group, like, through local people. How'd you how'd you sniff out who this doctor was? Yeah.
Lexi 26:35
So through Facebook groups, and I can't remember if it was our local one at the time, or Juicebox, or which Facebook group, but it was just searching, right using the search bar, looking for, you know, physicians that were kind of up to date, because everyone has those physicians that went to school and they know their medical terminology but aren't up to date on technology at all. Yeah, and we did not want that we knew from the get go that we wanted the cutting edge stuff for our son. And do you really
Scott Benner 27:06
believe that this came from just your concern about letting another person use the syringe on him? Was it the actual poking I should ask, or was it the idea that they could mess it up? I
Lexi 27:16
do think it was the fear of of them messing it up. Another aspect was really like the control, right? When things are going in through a pump, I can go back and I can actually see, oh, you gave him this amount of insulin. And when you just hand somebody a syringe and tell them to dose him, I can't go back on this humog Junior pen and see what you did. Okay?
Scott Benner 27:36
You want to be able to track what they did as well, right, right, all right. I got you. How much did he weigh at that point? Do you remember? I
Lexi 27:44
honestly have no idea, but like, 2040, pounds. He's 40 pounds now, maybe half of that, okay,
Scott Benner 27:49
but he was small, was my point? Yeah, right, right. Okay, and you what pump did you end up
Lexi 27:53
with at the time? It was Omnipod dash, okay, and you using what? Now we're back to the dash, because we loop, but we moved to the Omnipod five for a while. Tried
Scott Benner 28:04
Omnipod five, so you were dash manual. Omnipod five then loop, or did you loop? Okay, you didn't do loop, then Omnipod five then loop. No. Okay, all right, and he's wearing a g7 at this point. Yes, yeah. I figured you got him the g7 you know, it's funny. We're having a conversation online with somebody the other day, and they were like, the adhesive on the on the g7 sucks. I wish it was like the g6 I like this better. About the six like and this thing stinks. And I was like, I'm having the exact opposite experience of you. And it led to that conversation about the fact that this is a it's a piece of plastic and wire and etc, and it's trying to mesh with your, you know, your physiology. And not everybody's the same. So some people have oil or your skin or drier skin, or some people you know, are better hydrated or not. Or I've seen Dexcom is just not work on people. I've seen libres not work on people. And the same device works like magically for someone else. It's interesting. It's, you know, it sucks, but there's no magical way to just make it work for everybody the same, but awesome device. I enjoy it a lot. It's so much smaller, and it's funny, Arden says the sticky stuff is too sticky,
Lexi 29:12
I know, like all the adhesives, but I mean, I'm in a little diabetes mom's group message locally here. And same thing in our group message, like everyone has some people into six. Majority do like the seven, but it's same thing when it comes to pumps, right? Like, there's just no one size fits all.
Scott Benner 29:33
I just love that. Arden is like, this thing's so sticky, and the woman's on the online saying to me, like, you know, it doesn't stick. And I'm like, it doesn't
Unknown Speaker 29:41
everybody's so different. Yeah,
Scott Benner 29:43
it's awesome. What made you go to loop?
Lexi 29:46
Yeah, I mean, we just weren't getting the control that we wanted. And maybe it's because I like too much control. I feel like the five is great if you just want to put in a few settings and let it run. I. Like the detail of loop, right? I love looking at night scout and looking at the reports of how we can change. And then, honestly, as a toddler, everything changes so quickly, right? Oh, I want to snack. Oh, never mind. I don't want to eat that anymore. Or here I'm going to eat this 30 car whatever, and then I'm going to go run down the street to my on my bike or whatever. And I wanted the ability to be able to pivot better. I guess during those circumstances, I don't know, I just feel like we got much better control. I mean,
Scott Benner 30:31
I think whatever works is the best thing. His variables change too frequently for the and the Omnipod five wasn't keeping up with the changes.
Lexi 30:39
You know, he was still in daycare at this time, right? So we still just like a Petri dish. And so he would get sick and his needs would go way up in the pod would learn that, right? And then the next pod change, he would have a lot of lows, and so not having kind of those overrides or profiles. And I know there's ways to manipulate it on the five by changing the target or activity mode and things like that. But it just seemed easier for me to pivot, you know, on loop, yeah, as well, as you know, when he's at daycare, and I know that recess is coming up and he's trending a certain way, being able to pop on the override and not have to bother his, you know, preschool teacher, who also has all these 20 other little two year olds running around, I was able to take off some of the load from her,
Scott Benner 31:21
right? Doing it remotely with loop. Yes, yeah. So listen, I think it's, I think loops awesome. So, yeah, okay, what's it like? I guess, like, day to day, I'd like to know, like, you know, I raised the toddler on MDI and then eventually on a pump. But the truth is, I was using the pump like MDI for a while to begin with, just, you know, it was just a replacement for the shots in the beginning, before I really knew what I was doing. So what's it modern day like raising a little kid with type one, like, what are the things that you constantly struggle with, and what are the, what are the ways that you found to get around them? Yeah, so I think
Lexi 31:57
for haze, I mean, the biggest barrier or things that I found, I guess this is with any kid with a diagnosis of anything was just being different, right? I remember he went to daycare one day, and they were doing they were giving little M Ms whenever a kid got something right, and the teacher didn't reach out, and she just decided, like, oh, he has diabetes, I'm not going to give him M Ms as a reward. And they ended up giving each kid, like, 4m Ms, which is like two carbs. I mean, he could have just had it, right? But they didn't know, and they went and explained it to him that, you know, just like so and so has an allergy to peanuts. It's like your allergy to sugar.
Scott Benner 32:34
Awesome. This lady is the lady who put the the Mountain Dew and the four year olds. Is that? Right? You're here to tell people.
Lexi 32:40
That's how I felt at the time that he carried the weight of that right kind of law, I'm allergic to sugar. And it's like, no, you're not allergic to sugar. But just realizing like, Hey, you are going to be different and going through school, or any of these situations, like, there are times that I'm going to have to pull him out and do a pod change, or make him sit out and have a Juicebox. And you know, that was a really, really hard thing to come to terms with.
Scott Benner 33:05
Yeah, it's difficult Lexi to know, and it sucks to have to do it at such a young age. But like anybody who's got kids, you know that there's this moment where you have to explain to them that everybody might not be terrific all the time. Yeah, you have to start saying, like, oh, you know, well, that, that lady, she doesn't know what she's talking about. Or, up until then, they think, you know, I don't know. That's my teacher. That's like, that, that woman, you know, she knows what she's doing. That guy knows what he's doing. Like, you know, he's in a position of power. Like, the first time, you have to start telling kids that everything's not perfect. It's sad. Like, because you had to tell your kid, listen, this woman, who we told you, is going to take care of you, and she knows what she's doing. All these people do right? They didn't know this, and they're wrong. And then you have to now, you have to talk him out of believing what they told them. It starts that whole journey of learning what the world is, and it sucks, if it has to start too early, that's all I think it does.
Lexi 34:01
Yeah, it does. But I will say, like, especially Foster Care has given our family such perspective, right? I mean, one of the sweetest videos on my phone was I had, was our first foster placement, a four and six year old little boy, and he always wanted, he never did a pod change, but he was just always so interested in what I'm doing. You know, it's two year old haze and all these devices. And it he filmed the video for me. I was like, hey, I need to film a video doing a pod change for, you know, grandparents or whoever needs to change this. And he's sitting here going, and there's this device and and we got to put it on his butt. And it's just like, the cutest thing, yeah, it's a little voiceover of the six year old little boy. And you're like, Wow, this boy has to deal with such hard things, but and so does haze. But they're different, and everyone has hard things that they have to deal with. We just they're all different, and sometimes they're invisible, and sometimes you can see it on people. But you know, in this life, we all experience hard things, so why do. Uh, yeah, harp and just, you know, keep moving forward. How'd
Scott Benner 35:03
you learn that? What did you experience that was difficult before this, before the diabetes, honestly,
Lexi 35:07
the diabetes was a huge turning point in my life. I mean, I think before that, the only other thing that felt really deep, which may sound silly to some, was we had to re home a dog because they were aggressive to Hayes when he was a baby. And, you know, at the time before you have kids, dogs are like, your babies, yeah,
Scott Benner 35:28
Lexi, you seem like young to me. Like, just because you're 20, you're much younger than I am. But so in your, I was gonna say your young life. I don't know why, but in your life, like this, diabetes is the first, like, real objectionable thing that happened. Like, would you say your life was like cruising along until then? I mean, ish,
Lexi 35:47
I definitely had loss of lost other grandparents and things like that. But I will say that diabetes is the hardest thing I've ever overcome in my life. And maybe that's because it was my first kind of true, like adult, deep grief, where you're like, This is changes my whole life, right? Losing Someone different things like that, like, I, you know, you move through the grief, but this is something that I have to deal with every single day. 24/7, and this is on
Scott Benner 36:14
me. You're not looking to lose a grandparent, but if you are in your late 20s, is not terrible, like, it's not that's not a bad run for them, right? They were probably almost 80 years old, right? Yeah. So I take your point. Has anything happened since then? Have you been like, wow, I didn't realize how much easier this would be now that I've got this perspective. Or are you like, waiting for the next shoe to drop? Are you like, I'm ready? Is like, something bad gonna happen? Because I know what to do now. Did it start off a chain of events, or Has it just been this, this diabetes thing, and that's what you're dealing with now, and nothing else big has happened yet? No.
Lexi 36:48
I mean, obviously some of the moves from our foster kids have left us in a little bit of a grief period for a little bit nothing. I'll say diabetes has definitely given us this huge perspective where things don't seem, I shouldn't say, things don't seem as hard. What's that quote? Where it's not, it's not that things get easier. You just get better equipped to handle them. Yeah. So I do think that diabetes just gave us a huge perspective shift. And, you know, we have a huge, I mean, community. We've been blessed with amazing family and and when we got the diagnosis. I mean, I dove into all of these diabetes groups. I'm involved with JDRF. I have this diabetes moms group message and being with other people who who get it. I don't know. I can't emphasize that enough. I don't know
Scott Benner 37:35
how to explain it exactly. I realize it's probably pretty simply explained, but to me, it seems like for the amount of good that comes from it and the amount that you get out of it, there should be a deeper explanation of what it is. But I think in the end, just having people around to understand is incredibly valuable. And you know, if you can get help from them or information from them, that's a bonus, but just them being there is a big deal.
Lexi 38:00
The keynote at the JDRF summit this past weekend, she was amazing. She said type one for 40 years, but she put up a little meme of this Husky floating around in space, and she's like, just having someone who can just sit there and just say, I have no idea together. You don't even have to have the answer or anything, but just a group of people that were like, Hey, we just all have no idea, but we get it, we understand it. I mean, that's truly, you know, just having another diabetes mom and texts at 3am when you're trying to get, you know, this low, to come up, they just get it, and you and you feel better knowing that someone else just gets it. Yeah,
Scott Benner 38:33
I think you can almost take away the underlying shame that you have for not being better at something or knowing something. You know, I don't even know if that's always conscious, that people feel ashamed, but you do, like something happens and you don't know what to do, and you have that like, oh, that dread feeling if somebody else says, Oh, I don't know what the hell that is. Either you go, okay, maybe I'm not supposed to know what this is, you know. And like, maybe we can find out together, or I can find out separately, or whatever, but at least I'm not here beating myself up consciously or subconsciously about a thing that I'd have no way of understanding, right? Yeah, it's pretty nice. Tell me a little more. Like, you do you like, WhatsApp it or how do you guys, where's your little group?
Lexi 39:12
Yeah, we just have a text message. I mean, we it just grew from, you know, connecting with one diabetes mom in the area, and then she knew somebody, and I knew somebody, and then we just all put ourselves together so we all live locally and can meet up and go out for margaritas, and, you know, complain about diabetes away from our young kids, and
Scott Benner 39:33
then go back, Lexi, what are the complaints? Oh, I haven't
Lexi 39:37
slept in three nights because we had, you know, stomach bug, or, you know, one mom has a Dexcom prescription for every two days because the her kids allergic to every adhesive. And, you know, I don't know, just kind of all the different things that were that we're going through. But then we also share resources. I mean, some of the kids in our group, you know, are already on. In elementary school, I just registered Hayes for kindergarten. So, you know, at daycare, I kind of just got to tell the teachers, you know, hey, this is how I want you to handle it, and they would do it. And, you know, just hearing from moms that, hey, the public school system is a little different, you know, they go by your health plan and, you know, different things like that.
Scott Benner 40:20
Yeah, no, it's interesting. I wonder if anybody's ever gotten together a group and somebody said, like, Oh, I like this podcast. And then somebody else goes, I don't like that guy. I'd love to hear that conversation. I would fly on a wall for the conversation where people are complaining about me. Would be awesome. I would love that. Can you make that happen? Can you just lay your phone down when somebody starts really complaining about me. I would love that. I'll
Lexi 40:42
try it for you. I will say I all of our all of our group are fans, but I'm sure there's groups out there.
Scott Benner 40:48
Does your group have a name? Have you guys given yourself a
Lexi 40:51
someone named it? The Diabetes moms? Are you in the set? I don't think I've ever said it out loud. It's just the text message. When
Scott Benner 41:00
one of Arden's friends texts her, it's like, her name with like, a saying and a bunch of emojis, and when the voiceover is on it, like, speaks the whole thing out. It's infuriating and hilarious at the same time, because it's like, blah blah, blah emoji and this emoji and that emoji. And I'm like, oh my god, I love that. It's fun. Well, that's that's nice. Are they? Are you guys? I'm trying to find out, are you spread out over age? Like is the diabetes, the thing that brings you together, and doesn't matter that one of you is 30, or one of you is 45 or or are you similarly aged? We
Lexi 41:33
are similar age. Our kids are probably all of our kids are probably eight and under. Okay, so, yeah, I think our kids are around the same point
Scott Benner 41:44
while you're together. If you can come up with a fix for what happens when I'm wearing my headphones and the beeping goes off really loudly, I'd love that to not happen anymore to me, because that still happens sometimes. Whole brainstorm, yeah, if you guys can figure that out, do you have the when the Dexcom follow goes off in your ears and you're wearing your headphones. Does it announce it to you? Because I get like, a voice that says it's Beep, beep, high glucose notification from Arden even 99 that's what it says to me. It does that happen to everybody or just me?
Lexi 42:13
I don't know. I see I'm on my laptop and I don't use my headphones much in my phone. Oh, oh, I do content. I don't have the problem. Sorry. I
Scott Benner 42:21
don't want to listen to the people I live. The people I live with, so I put my head. No, that's not true. I you know, it's funny, like we live in such a digital household, like people go to school, they are working digitally. Like everything that you almost have to wear headphones to do anything because somebody else is doing something that can't be interrupted, happens a lot, actually. Oh, you don't have that problem yet. No,
Lexi 42:42
I'm in the toddler household, so it's just loud little squeals and, yeah, tears and laughs all day, right now
Scott Benner 42:49
I get like, stink eye like, for like, doing the dishes at the wrong time, like I'm on a meeting. I'm like, Ah,
Lexi 42:55
okay, no, I told my husband. I was like, you have to work out the home if I'm gonna be a stay at home, mom, because there's no way that I can keep these three little plus, you know, other kids.
Scott Benner 43:05
Oh, your husband's like, I have to go to the gym now and work
Lexi 43:11
and work, that's right. She tell him,
Scott Benner 43:13
look, we've been together a while now, and we've got three kids. I don't even care what you look like anymore, so you're not doing it for me exactly. Just keep getting paid, just his mental health, yeah, exactly, just for him, just for him. Yes. Do you work out at the same or did you work out like he does? Or you guys not do it together?
Lexi 43:33
I do. It's kind of embarrassing to say we have three gym memberships because we all like working at different places. I definitely need that too. Yeah, it helps. Oh yeah, it was good practice too, with diabetes. You know, I feel like the big things that I wanted to share today was really one of of hope, right? I didn't stop having kids or stop pursuing dreams of being a foster parent and things like that, just because of diabetes. And another one being community. Obviously, you know, you have to find your people who can step up for you. I mean, now I have babysitters and people to bounce ideas off of and resources off of, and just sharing my 3am you know, crying sessions or whatever. But the other one was just like feeling empowered and preparation, and I feel like just, you're saying a bold with insulin like that was the biggest thing when I got the diagnosis, was I was just scared, right? And when you're not confident in something, I don't know that the anxiety creeps in and the numbers are all over the place. And the gym was like a really good place for me to start practicing. You know, I put together a million documents for my son, and just really practicing putting those together and putting my son into a childcare place, but still being on site, right? And so not only am I getting my some help with my mental and physical health at the gym, but I was also practicing leaving my son somewhere and practicing what information did they need to know to care. For my son. Yeah,
Scott Benner 45:01
I practiced with Arden upstairs. That's how I did it. Oh, really, that's what that texting diabetes episode, it's like, episode four of the podcast is about, it's about the day like that. She was upstairs and needed insulin, and I just didn't feel like walking upstairs, so I texted her, and I had to go listen to that. Yeah. And then she did it. And I was like, Oh, that worked. And then I thought, like, I could do that when she's at a friend's house, or why couldn't I do that while she was at school? And then I got real apprehensive about it, and I was like, What is stopping me? Right? Like, What's stopping me from doing this? I just watched it work, and I realized at some point, like it was just my fear, like I had this idea that if I was with her, I could stop something bad from happening, but if I wasn't with her, then I couldn't. So not okay. But then I just practiced again, like she's across the street with a friend. And I was like, hey, text here. And I was like, I could run over there if I had to, you know. And then it worked. And I was like, Oh, okay. Like, it's what you're saying. Like you were practicing leaving him somewhere. I was practicing monitoring and advising from a distance. Then once a week, caught our, you know, our rhythm with that. Then I moved it on to school, and then, boom, everything got better and better again. So, you know, it just occurred to me one day I was like, the only thing stopping me is that I'm afraid. Like, if I stop being afraid, maybe I'll be okay. It's nice to hear you say that that idea of like, being bold was helpful to you, because I haven't gotten away from it. It's just the podcast has grown so much that I don't think I talk about it as much as I probably did in the past. But I've seen like, that phrase be, like, foundational for so many people. People bring it up to me, like, no lie. Like, constantly, you know, like I was bold today, or like, Thank you for reminding me not to be afraid, like, that kind of stuff. I just didn't know how big of a deal it was going to be at the time when I said it originally. So it makes me feel good that that it helped you and and I love the idea that you practiced. I'll leave him at the gym with somebody I'm I'm close, you know, it's awesome.
Lexi 46:58
It's huge. And it kind of represents just confidence to me, right? You know, feeling empowered with insulin because, yeah, it is. It's such a scary thing when you get started. So that phrase definitely. And now we just had our first play date a few weeks ago. I dropped him off at somebody's house. Has no experience with
Scott Benner 47:17
type one. What did you tell them? I'm so interested. How much did you tell them? Yeah, so I
Lexi 47:22
have a little card that I had made, like a little postcard size, that I leave with him at the gym, and I leave with him at church. So times when I'm close by and it just talks about lows, you know, you need to give this smarty, this smarty, and then you need it tells you, like, hey, you need to call me if you're doing snacks, if you're doing any crazy exercise activities, that kind of thing. But I think in situations where he's just going to play for an hour or two, that's all they need to know, right? And that's a big thing that I've really worked on the past few years. I've created kind of all these guides for different people. You know, there's a guide for when they go to church, when they go to the gym, when they go this little play date, there's a guide for, you know, daycare, and then there's a guide for like my parents and my aunt and uncle and people who have a little more experience, where I want them dosing for fat and protein. I want them doing those extra things, but yeah, for things like those play dates, you know, I was nearby, and all they needed to worry about was low blood sugar.
Scott Benner 48:23
How does it work out like so you have the card. Has the card ever gotten used? Yeah.
Lexi 48:27
I mean, I have just, like, a little clear bag, and I put his phone on so that the Dexcom number just stays up. And then there's this little postcard that says, hey, under 85 give one of these Smarties. Under 70, give two of these smarties and anything else. Call me. I mean, now with technology, it's amazing. I mean, my five year old's wearing an Apple Watch. They have a cell phone, like I when I call him and he's at the play date, he answers me on his watch, and I say, go eat a smarty. You know, it's way different than when he was two years old, yeah.
Scott Benner 48:56
Oh, I know. It really helps. It's funny. I can't believe you haven't heard that episode, the episode four, like, because you're doing it, you're just doing it with a smart watch, I was doing it with a cell phone. Like, it's, it's awesome, you know? And he's good with that. Is he very just, like, does he have like, a boy attitude? Does he just stop for a second? Do the thing keep going?
Lexi 49:16
Oh, yes, yeah, yes. And we've had to have lots of talks of, like, hey, you know, I'm gonna let you go to your friends houses. I'm gonna let you run down to the neighbor's house, as long as you continue to answer the phone when I call you, and you know, until you're not answering the phone or, you know, not keeping up with it, then we'll have to have a talk. But you know, as much as you'll, you know, answer when I call you and continue to do these things, and you know your parents want you to do these things, and don't want diabetes to hold you back. So
Scott Benner 49:42
he's responding well to that Absolutely. What do you think his understanding of diabetes is?
Lexi 49:47
He's pretty well versed. I mean, he doesn't remember life before diabetes, so it's just always been his life. And he likes the perks too. You know, when he goes to his friend's house, they're like, wait, you have a cell phone? He's like, Yeah, I have a diabetes. I have a cell phone. Hey, you have an app watch? Oh yeah, I have diabetes. I have an Apple Watch. You know when he's eating a smarty and his three year old brother screaming for Smarties? And he's like, Oh well, I have diabetes, so I get Smarties. But as far as you know, he knows when he's high he needs insulin, and when he's low, he needs sugar. And that's kind of, that's it. Extent, yeah,
Scott Benner 50:18
like, so you haven't had any of those, like your immune system, like you don't, you haven't discussed any of that. Does he know what happens when he gets low? Does he know why it's so important, or, like, what's the level of understanding you gave him so he knows that I have to answer the phone? Is it just so that I can continue to go outside, or is it because I don't want to fall over and have a seizure? No,
Lexi 50:36
I don't think he truly understands. He's never felt his lows. I mean, he's been as low as I think the lowest I've seen is like 32 and he no symptoms, okay to him, it's just, I need to answer the phone if I want to continue to go to my friend's house by myself without my mom
Scott Benner 50:52
coming. This lady here, I got that. How did the mom the first play date? How did she handle it? Like, do you think she you know what I mean, like, was she nervous? Did she just not understand enough to be nervous? How did that work? She is definitely
Lexi 51:06
one of my, like, type B mom friends, and so she was not nervous. And I think that's why I kind of picked her to be the first one to try it. Because, again, within the age of technology, if something were to happen to Hayes phone, where I couldn't call his phone, I'd call her phone, or I have her husband's number, or however, and at least I hope that, because I simplified it so much that I gave her the confidence that if he goes low, he just needs to eat the smarty. And if, God forbid, anything horrible happened, I have this GVO pen that's like an epi pen that I need to stab into his leg.
Scott Benner 51:39
Did you tell her about the GVO hypo pen, yes, but
Lexi 51:43
I always frame it that, hey, it's just like an epi pen. Rip off the cap, put it in this thigh. It'll be hopefully you never have to use it. Yeah?
Scott Benner 51:50
You on purpose. Pick the the mom, you know, who is like, oh, that's fine. They could probably smoke crack like she's got that vibe, right? Yeah,
Lexi 51:57
yes, yes, because I have another mom friend who he's loves them, but I know that she would just be anxious and on eggshells the whole day, or the whole play date, I should say. And so I think it was a good one to kind of, yeah, you didn't put it on her, right? That's nice, right? I mean, I stayed really close by, just
Scott Benner 52:14
like, and I was behind a bush Scott outside. If
Lexi 52:18
you've seen some of the the childcare attendance at some of the gyms I've left to Matt, you know, this is way better. You're like, some didn't even look up at me when I dropped them off from their cell phones.
Scott Benner 52:30
Yes, diabetes. I don't care. I won't be paying attention. Thank you scrolling on Instagram. Yeah, I'm 14. Yeah. Have you seen the dress that Zendaya wore to the Grammys? Yeah? No. Look at this lady, this I'll show you. Oh, it's cool. I think this is a very healthy way to figure it out, you know, because the expectation that everybody's gonna care the way you care, or that everybody's gonna do the thing they're supposed to do, I think you can get lucky and meet people like that, but you can't. You can't be sure you're gonna meet those people, and you certainly can't hold those people to standards, whether it's, I mean, look, I get myself in trouble here a little bit like I get there's 504, plans, and the schools have to do like they have to do what's in the plan, and blah blah. And that's all well and good, and I believe in that too, right up until it doesn't happen, and then, you know, you can argue about it later what they were supposed to do, but it's not going to help you in the moment. So better, in my opinion, it sounds like your opinion, too, to navigate the world as it is, instead of trying to make the world what you want it to be, right? Is that what you're doing? Yeah.
Lexi 53:29
I mean, those health plans, like, oh my gosh, like the ones you get after your appointment with your Endo, just so confusing. So, like, not in how we think or how we act, like, Absolutely, like, those physicians aren't living our day to day life, you know, and I know that they have to kind of do this one size fits all, but it's not, it's not one size fits all. I mean, we all manage differently. And I think as much as you can take information complex information, just make it very simple and just tell people what you need them to do. I mean, the person who's watching your kid for an hour does not need to know all the pump instructions. They don't need to know all this extra information. Just take the complex, make it simple, and just tell them what they need to know in order to keep the kids safe. You and
Scott Benner 54:12
I would get along. Lexi, I think I know why you like this podcast. Yes, I don't have an expectation that everybody's going to run around doing everything perfectly all the time. No, and and I also believe that there's about a bazillion ailments, problems, diseases and life struggles that I don't understand. And if you just ran up to me and started explaining them to me, I'd be like, I don't know what you're saying right then after that, if I said I don't know what you're saying, you said no, but it's very important, because you're in charge. Now, I'd be like, No, I'm not you got the wrong guy? No, thank you. It's just a very realistic way of looking at it. Yeah, I don't understand what happened to you. Like, see, you're 30, you have three kids, you've fostered people. You're being very realistic. Nobody beat you when you were a child, or something crazy didn't happen to you. No, you just leveled up from the diabetes. Were you this person before diabetes? I was, what the hell? Lexi, yeah, good for you. What did you go to college? I
Lexi 55:08
did, NC State. Would you major marketing? Oh,
Scott Benner 55:12
you do understand people? Then I do, yeah, marketing, I It's, I hate talking about it, because it makes me feel bad, because it is targeted manipulation. It
Lexi 55:22
is, it is, oh my gosh, right. It's, it's
Scott Benner 55:25
psychology, really, yes, yeah,
Lexi 55:28
1,000% but it has, it's helped me so much. And, you know, all the things that I've prepared for Hayes and, yeah, what have you marketed so far? I shouldn't say I've necessarily marketed. It's more taking the complex? Well, I guess it is marketing, taking the complex and making it simple and gearing different guides towards the different people that watch my son, I think, has been a huge, huge thing, because, again, I don't let diabetes change our life. My husband and I go on trips without the kids. My kids, Hayes went to daycare for three years before I became a stay at home mom. He goes to the church daycare. He goes to gym daycare. He does overnights with my aunt, with my parents, like we don't hold back just because of diabetes, and the only reason we're able to do that is because maybe I'm a doomsday prepper, I don't know, but because I have so many type you know, plan, A, B, C, D, E, and so many guides and things that I felt confident leaving him in different situations. And so
Scott Benner 56:26
is there a concrete bunker in your backyard? What are we talking about?
Lexi 56:30
No, if my husband would let me, probably
Scott Benner 56:32
you're not anxious. There's sugar hidden. Sugar hidden everywhere. Oh, you're prepping for diabetes, stuff, Doomsday, diabetes. Yeah, you're not. You're not hiding from the from the rooskies or anything like that. Like in 1953 I got you okay? Oh no, no. Oh okay, I see, oh yes, you're I was gonna say like, You're not an anxious person at all, right? Are you? Yeah, it's anxiety keeping you focused. I
Lexi 56:58
think it does. I think it fuels me. That's probably just the coffee. It's
Scott Benner 57:06
probably the coffee and the anxiety. Interesting, okay, yeah, what have we not talked about that we should have? So
Lexi 57:12
I think, you know, like I said, the big things that I really wanted to drive are just that, you know, there is hope. I just remember such a dark period after diagnosis and and life does, life resumes, and so many people fight so many hard things, and this is just our hard thing. You know that we
Scott Benner 57:30
have to push through. Have you ever heard the episode do hard things? I think so. Okay, so I came to grips with this idea when a mom came on the podcast and shared her story in Episode 303, it's called do hard things, and I think it ran as the best of last year at 1287, as well. The long and the short of it is, is that she was on her way to her kids endo appointment on like tragically snowy roads, and the car crashed and her kid died. I can't imagine she reached out to be on the podcast, because she said the podcast was still felt. It made her feel connected to him. I don't know, she just told her story, and I thought, like, wow, yeah. Like, she's still going, you know what? I mean, yeah, it's incredibly inspirational, like, because it's, if you think about all the things throughout your day that you let way lay you, or something that you get pissed about, that lady would trade anything to have your problems and and I find that, like, valuable. And anyway, it's, it's what I think about now, when I think about all this, like, if she can push through that, I mean, what is it I'm supposed to complain about, right? You know what I mean? Yeah, I can imagine. I love complaining. Lexi as sport. I just want to say a sport, yeah, but like, in my actual, real life, like I'm not running around, like feeling that and and I have that feeling in me. I'm like, you know, the worst thing that happened to me so far is bad. I don't think it's important or good to measure your bad things against other people's bad things. Yeah, it's all relative. It's all completely relative. The worst thing that's ever happened to you is a really bad thing, right? Just because somebody else had something happened to them that's worse doesn't mean my thing's not important. But at the same time, you can derive perspective from it and say, Okay, this sucks, but I can keep doing this, and I don't know I that's sort of it's a big help to me that her coming on and sharing that, that story. So anyway, wait, I just bummed it right out at the end. Look at that. Can you tell me please, for this is for my edification. What do you like about the podcast? Why was it helpful for you?
Lexi 59:38
Yeah. So I think for me, I'm very I love, like, practical tips. So I always look for the episodes, like, on all the variables on all like, I want to know exactly how to dose for fat and protein. I want to know Pre Bolus timing, like, those are the pieces that, again, gave me confidence in order to, you know to dose that and move on to. The pumps that we do and things like that.
Scott Benner 1:00:01
So, so you like the management stuff, mostly? Yeah, I've always been
Lexi 1:00:05
like that, you know, we went to the JDRF Summit. My husband's going to like the feel good, like, you know, psychology sessions. And I'm like, No, I'm going to clinical research. I'm going to, you know, the I like the hard, tactical things.
Scott Benner 1:00:17
So when you talk about your friend group, your friend group around diabetes, it's not supportive as much as it is more about like, figuring it out so you can get it done and get it right.
Lexi 1:00:25
No, I do think that group is more supportive, okay, but I think personally, I like to look for the hard I like to look at data. I like to look at, you know, I tell my aunt when she watches my kid and they're going in the hot tub, you know, I want to rule for how much juice he should be sipping on in the hot tub. And it's, you know, I tell her to take his carb ratio and multiply his insulin on board, you know, like, I like to have those shortcuts and try to make things more concrete. I'm always interested by what people take from it, yeah, for me, it's absolutely, it's more of those management tips, yeah, whereas I think some of my friends in the group, it's probably more the stories, right? It's interesting, isn't it? Like you're a
Scott Benner 1:01:04
management person, but somebody will probably listen to you for your story. Yeah, Circle of Life ish, that's all. Yeah. I'm gonna tell you something on this recording, because it basically sets a six month timer for me to get something accomplished. Okay, okay, this is how I hold myself to account because but for the next six months, only you and I are gonna know about this. Gonna know about this. Okay? And probably your friends I'm gay, and then if they can't keep their mouth shut, whoever they tell and whatever, that's fine. I don't imagine people are running around talking about me in their private time. Never know. You never know. Actually, it is weird to know that that does happen. It does started a few years ago, I dove into the idea of, like, an online community for people listening that's outside of Facebook, not in place of Facebook, outside of Facebook. I looked at it, I liked the platform a lot, but it didn't feel completely baked all the way yet. And some three years later, the company's still going, and they've got their product. It works right? Like, it's good. It'll allow people to message with each other. It'll allow people to use, like, a Facebook type function. But it won't just be one feed. It could be like, like a feed for Omnipod, a feed for Dexcom, a feed for, you know, ever since three six, like, there could be a feed for all different kinds of topics. People could message with each other. They could do live video chats with each other from inside of it. I could chat live to them if I wanted to. Like it has a lot of functionality. It works really rock solid, and it has an Android and an iPhone app. It's expensive to run, and so what most people do, the reason they're expensive is cool. What most people do is they start niche communities than charge people to be in them and they make money off of them. That's what the platform is, I think, generally used. But I don't want to, you know me like, I'm not looking to charge money from people like, so what I think is, is that I'm going to set it up initially as a place where there are courses that are built off the information inside the different series in the podcast. And so you can kind of take like, like Quizlet type, like courses like, you know, love that, yeah, right. And then like, quiz yourself on it at the end, see how you're doing, like, get through it, maybe, like, level up, or whatever. And then at the same time, if you want to build a community in there or talk to people, it's there. If you want to, I think I have to charge the tiniest bit of money to keep out what I would call nudnix, which is might not be a word, you know, I don't know where in the country, yeah, lunatics, crazies, that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. To keep those people out, I'll probably charge like, a couple of dollars a month, like, just enough that a person who has a bad intention would be like, I'm not paying that guy $2 a month so that I can on people. Like, you know what I mean, like, I'll go on people for free somewhere else. It won't cost you, you know, it won't cost you about any like, I don't want to measure people's money. I don't, I don't, like, count other people's money, but I'm assuming, like, you know, 20, $40 a year is, like, manageable for people, and then that's it, like, that's what I want to do with it. And then I want to move it around. I'd like it if doctors offices started becoming aware of it. I think that's like, a way to help people get to the information that a doctor's office could stand behind. They could be like, hey, look, there's this thing. It's, you know, very cheap or free. And, you know, here's, here's the feedback we're getting from people about their outcomes and stuff like that. Anyway, it's a thought I had, and I am working on it right now.
Lexi 1:04:27
Yeah, I love that. Do you see it? Yeah, especially even, I mean, I guess this would have to be another, the next edition of it. But I just think about even training the daycare like, you know, our our hospital, tried to do a zoom to teach the daycare just basics and like, how cool, just to have a quick course to like, give the daycare teacher of like, Hey, here's the basics. Diabetes,
Scott Benner 1:04:49
the reason that's super doable, Lexi, and the reason why I'll be looking for suggestions from people in the future about that it's allowing me to take like, the entire like, series of bowl beginning episodes. It's and tell it like, look, here's what I want out of this. I want every actionable thing that's set in here, like, every piece of every suggestion, piece of advice, you know, actionable step that you can take about diabetes it's in here. Like, pull it out, make a list of them. Great. I'll take that list and tell me a colloquial way to explain it. Great. Now turn that whole thing into a quiz, and bang, bang, bang. It all comes back out again. You could exactly. You could feed an AI model the bold beginning series, and say, give me the information that's in this series that would help a person who doesn't know anything about diabetes manage a child for two hours. I love that. And it would pull it out, and then you could turn that into something. It's been a year and a half now since I first realized that probably every answer that people need exists inside of the conversations in the podcast, yeah, and I need to extract them like Absolutely. That's what an AI's the future listen. It takes what I would tell you, would probably be a solid month's worth of work, and it does 90% of it in an hour. Then you can sit down and actually do the human part of going, like, is this, right? Is this, you know, is this something I want to say? Is this the way it wants to be said, like you're not asking it to just give you the finished product and never look at it, but Right? It gives you the starting points. Oh, the heavy lifting gets done real easy. So I
Lexi 1:06:23
use chat GPT to help write some of my guides. Diabetes guide, oh, sure. You know, just, hey, can you make this more sustained? You know? Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:06:31
clean this up, yeah, like, you know, where the column, where do the commas go? Like that, yeah, the little stuff like that, that it's able to do right now is awesome. And, you know, some people have misgivings about it, and some people are just, like, downright scared of it. And May, they might even have, like, good reasons. I'm not saying otherwise, but the last version of it that came out, one of the newer versions, is just like, it has thinking. And before you would ask it something, it would be like, This is the answer. You're like, oh, okay, now you can tell it like, think about this, then go over it again and make sure that it's right, and then double check it again, and then go back to the source material and make sure that you've got all the quotes correct, like, and it takes the time and does all that. And so the returns are getting better and better all the time. It's pretty, pretty crazy, but I think it's at the point now where it can I can trust it to mine my own content and give it back to me in a way that I can now more manageably go through. What's the alternative? It's like Scott sits down and listens to 1000 hours of podcasts and keeps hand notes while he's listening. Like how I can't you know what I mean? All right, listen. I like you. You were cool. I appreciate you doing this very much. Anything you want to say before we go,
Lexi 1:07:43
no, but can you just say hi to my mom, because she is one of the most religious listeners, and I think that'd be super cool. Do you
Scott Benner 1:07:52
think she's a religious listener? Like she's religious and she listens, or she listens religiously, or listens religiously, but not religious. She's very religious. So one question I didn't ask you, like, like, for for the life of me, I'm like, is this LDS? Like, you got three kids already you're 30, but then I thought you'd have more by now if you were, yeah, yeah, no, I could smell my way around the different religions. I know Europe, yeah, this is just regular, good old fashioned religion. You're not building an army for God or anything like that, right? No, my
Lexi 1:08:22
with all my kids around, I don't get to listen as much as I would like, and my mom is always listening. She'll give me a little debriefs of some of the episodes. What's your mom's name? Veronica.
Scott Benner 1:08:35
Veronica. Hi. How are you? I appreciate you listening. Veronica. After you listen today, what are you planning on? Maybe some light lunch, going out with friends. Will you be calling Lexi to see how she's doing? That probably just freaked her out. That's awesome. Okay, that's awesome. Yeah, we can start talking to no, no, please. Are you kidding? More of that. All right. Hold on one second.
For me, the episode you just enjoyed was sponsored by the twist a ID system powered by tide pool. If you want a commercially available insulin pump with twist loop that offers unmatched personalization and precision for peace of mind, you want twist twist.com/juicebox, today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g7 and the Dexcom g7 warms up in just 30 minutes. Check it out now at dexcom.com/juicebox Arden has been getting her diabetes supplies from us med for three years. You can as well us med.com/juice box, or call 888-721-1514, my thanks to us, med for sponsoring this episode and for being longtime sponsors of the Juicebox Podcast. There are links in the show notes and links at Juicebox podcast.com to us, med and all of the sponsors you.
Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. My grand rounds series was designed by listeners to tell doctors what they need, and it also helps you to understand what to ask for. There's a mental wellness series that addresses the emotional side of diabetes and practical ways to stay balanced. And when we talk about GLP medications, well we'll break down what they are, how they may help you, and if they fit into your diabetes management plan. What do these three things have in common? They're all available at Juicebox, podcast.com, up in the menu. I know it can be hard to find these things in a podcast app, so we've collected them all for you@juiceboxpodcast.com the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongway recording.com. You.
Please support the sponsors
The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!
