#1623 Camp and Canine Victory
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Eleven-year-old Toby and his mom share his type 1 diabetes diagnosis, camp adventures, and life with a service dog.
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Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back friends to another episode of The Juicebox podcast.
Toby 0:15
Hi, I'm Toby Gustafson. I'm from Verona, Wisconsin, and I'm 11 years old, and I've been diagnosed for roughly a year and a half.
Scott Benner 0:27
If your loved one is newly diagnosed with type one diabetes and you're seeking a clear, practical perspective, check out the bold beginning series on the Juicebox podcast. It's hosted by myself and Jenny Smith, an experienced diabetes educator with over 35 years of personal insight into type one, our series cuts through the medical jargon and delivers straightforward answers to your most pressing questions. You'll gain insight from real patients and caregivers and find practical advice to help you confidently navigate life with type one. You can start your journey informed and empowered with the Juicebox podcast, the bold beginning series, and all of the collections in the Juicebox podcast are available in your audio app and at Juicebox podcast.com in the menu. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan, or becoming bold with insulin.
Today's episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Eversense 365 you can experience the Eversense 365 CGM system for as low as $199 for a full year visit ever since cgm.com/juicebox for more details and eligibility, this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by Omnipod five. Omnipod five is a tube, free, automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a 1c and time and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections, learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox of my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox the episode you're about to listen to was sponsored by touched by type one. Go check them out right now on Facebook, Instagram, and, of course, at touched by type one.org check out that Programs tab when you get to the website to see all the great things that they're doing for people living with type one diabetes. Touched by type one.org.
Toby 2:41
Hi, I'm Toby Gustafson. I'm from Verona, Wisconsin, and I'm 11 years old, and I've been diagnosed for roughly a year and a
Scott Benner 2:49
half. Wow. And who else is with us?
Brianna 2:52
And I'm Brianna Toby's Mom. Hi, it's
Scott Benner 2:55
cool for you guys to do this with me. Thank you very much. So Toby, you told me that you have a list of things you want to talk about. I think that's awesome. Can I ask you a couple of questions before we get your to your list, though? Yeah, okay. How long have you said you've had type one about a year, about a year and a half ish, okay. Do you remember not feeling well before you were diagnosed? Or how did that time go right before somebody told you you had diabetes?
Toby 3:20
Yeah, really tired. Most of the main symptoms with that show up with type one. And then blood draw, like after school at one point in time, and then middle of the night, went to the like at nine, I got sent to the hospital for it.
Scott Benner 3:39
So mom, you saw something was going on, and took him to the doctor for a blood test.
Brianna 3:44
Yeah, what's kind of interesting is, way back in October, which was quite a ways before he was diagnosed, the following February, he was having some digestive troubles, and so we had done some workups with his doctor, and couldn't quite figure out what it was they thought, based on one of the labs, that maybe he had intolerance to dairy. But the issues continued, and then we noticed he was kind of losing a little bit of weight in February, and it kind of came to a peak when we went for a weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge. Toby. Do you want to talk about that at all?
Toby 4:25
Yeah. So at the time, I was 10 years old, I was at the hospital on February 19, 2024 I was at the Great Wolf Lodge the week before, that's at the Wisconsin Dells. And I was taking a break, and I was super hungry, so I would have known gotten funnel cake. It was, like, big, like, at least the size of your head. It had ice cream, sprinkles, whipped cream, all that other stuff. Yeah, after I'd eaten that, i. It into a sugar coma, and it was just really tired, and I was laying down in the middle of a water
Scott Benner 5:04
park. You ate that thing and it made you so tired you you couldn't even get up and move around anymore. Basically,
Brianna 5:11
no, yeah, you fell asleep and took a real long nap in the water park, right? Yeah.
Scott Benner 5:17
And Brianna, how did that make you? Like, how did that strike you?
Brianna 5:21
Yeah, that made me feel really nervous. I had already scheduled an appointment for him the following Monday. So this happened over the weekend, and I had made the appointment because of the weight loss and the continued digestive troubles, and then when he fell asleep in the middle of a water park as a 10 year old. I knew something was seriously wrong. I didn't know what, and then he just didn't ever recover, really, from that incident in the water park. He had really bad belly pain, and we tried going out to dinner, but he wasn't feeling well enough for that. He slept on the drive home from the water park.
Scott Benner 6:00
Yeah, a lot of high blood sugar kind of issues, right? Yeah, exactly, yeah. You're waiting for the return of the blood draw. When you get it back, they just call the house and say, get to the hospital.
Brianna 6:11
Yep, exactly. And Toby had already gone to bed for the night, so we went down and woke him up.
Scott Benner 6:17
You woke him up, got him together, headed off to the hospital. Did you know that you were at that point? Did they tell you on the phone? Did they say, Hey, he has type one diabetes, or did they say you just have to go to the
Brianna 6:27
hospital? No. What actually happened is his blood test results came back through the My Chart app, and I saw them, and I saw that the suit, he had super high blood sugar. I can't remember. I think it was in the 606
Toby 6:43
and what's that, Toby, I'm pretty sure it was like 670 something. Yeah, that
Brianna 6:49
that could be about, right? And I actually had a friend and co worker whose child was diagnosed with type one a little less than a month before then, and right away, I took a screenshot of it, and I sent it to her, and I said, this has got to be type one, right? You know? What else could it be? And she was like, yeah, that, you know, could be for sure. And then we headed to the hospital. At that point, the clinic didn't actually call us back with the lab results until we were already on our way to the
Scott Benner 7:24
hospital. You saw it sooner, Toby, can I ask you a question? You don't have to be embarrassed, so if you're embarrassed, don't answer. But your mom said you were having digestive issues. Did that mean it wasn't coming out or it came out too much? Came out too much, too much. Okay, all right. Then, once you get to the hospital, do you remember Toby, like, what that was like, or were you kind of out of it at that point, not feeling well, like, what do you remember about in taking in the hospital in the next couple of days that you were there?
Toby 7:53
So right when we got there, we did a finger poke, and I was really nervous about doing it. And there was this other person there. I cannot remember her name. She did tell us her name, but she said that the middle finger doesn't hurt as bad as any of the other fingers. So I just trusted her. And then that just kept on going. So now I have scars on my finger, so now I have to switch to my ring finger.
Scott Benner 8:17
Toby, I have a question, do you think the nurse was trying to get you to give the finger to be funny and to make it a lighter situation for you. Probably, yeah, yeah, right. She was trying to be trying to make it fun for you, because you got to go like this then, right. No, no. Would you do? How'd you would you go to her this way? I just had to stick out my hand. Oh, just stuck out your hand. I mean, do you think that's true? Like, because, Toby, it's interesting, you're, you know, you're young, but I talk to a lot of people who have type one diabetes, and very often something that gets said to them in the first couple of days, that's not always, like, a real rule, you know, ends up being a rule in their head, because they think, like, well, this is the first place that they put it or told me to do it, and then they do it over and over and over again for no real reason. Like, does that feel like maybe what's happened to you? Like, did you just got it into your head, like the middle fingers, the right finger to use?
Toby 9:09
Yeah, yeah. So that, so that just went to the other hand, to the other middle finger, yeah. And then it just kept on going, so that I had to switch to a different set of fingers. How often do you test depends on how my blood sugar is. Sometimes it's not even every other day, but sometimes it's like, I don't know, like, 13 times a
Scott Benner 9:30
day, depending on what's going on. Yeah, yeah. Do you also wear a CGM? I imagine? Yes, I do. Which one? Dexcom, g7 g7 Do you have a pump? Yes. Omnipod, Omnipod five or Omnipod dash five, five, so you're automated.
Toby 9:47
Yes. How do you like that? My blood sugar has been a lot more stable on like when I'm at home. School's been a lot better than it was before, but when I was on shots, because then. Just whenever I poked, I'd be high or low.
Scott Benner 10:02
Yeah, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but when before, when you were just doing MDI, before you had a pump, and you were either high or low, was that exhausting? Was it like a lot? Did a lot of your life feel like it was diabetes? Yeah, yeah, a lot. Can you explain to me, how that how that impacts you.
Toby 10:23
Just made my life a lot more stressful and lot more stuff going on. So I did take more responsibilities.
Scott Benner 10:32
The pump is making that better.
Toby 10:35
Yeah, it's having less it's given me a lot less responsibilities than
Scott Benner 10:40
what I had. Okay, so the whole system is kind of taking up some of the extra work. Yeah, and have you felt that remove stress? For you?
Toby 10:49
Yes, it has removed a lot of stress. That's awesome.
Scott Benner 10:53
That's really great. So let's tell people before we get too deep into this. Toby, how come you're on the podcast today? How did we meet? I guess
Toby 11:00
my mom had entered me into the camp Sweeney raffling thing. You had picked someone else, but then they didn't answer. So then you'd picked again. And I got picked that crazy. And then I got sent to camp. And then I was and then I was, my mom was thinking that we would be able to do a podcast to say how it all went at all. Yeah,
Scott Benner 11:25
it was a great idea, actually, yes. So you guys, I guess, for people listening, you don't know, like, it's not uncommon for people to enter giveaways, and then when you contact them and say, Hey, you won, they just never get back to you, you know, you got to give them a little time, you know, because maybe there's an email in a junk, you know, in a junk folder, or something like that, but after a certain amount of time, like, all right, well, listen, this is your last attempt. Like, you have to answer, and no one answered. And I was like, Okay, I'll just choose again. And it wasn't even me that chose. Toby, you got picked randomly by chatgpt. I fed all the names into it. And I was like, here, pick a winner. You know, I actually gave it a long explanation of what we were doing. And then just, you know, asked it to randomly choose a winner. It shows you. And then, how long did you go to Camp Sweeney for? Like, how long are the sessions?
Toby 12:10
A little bit less than three weeks. 18 days. 18
Scott Benner 12:13
days. Yeah, and you're from the constant and Cam Sweeney is in Texas. Yep, wow. How'd you get there? Drove, no kidding, you make like a little teen hours, a little family event? Yep. Brianna, How was the ride? The
Brianna 12:30
ride was pretty uneventful. Thankfully, both of our children are really good car people. They love, you know, eating snacks and watching their tech and so the drive was pretty uneventful. Toby brought his service dog, who he also won through a giveaway that we found on the Juicebox podcast. Seriously,
Scott Benner 12:54
yeah, oh my gosh. How do you win so much stuff? It's awesome. I don't know. He's so lucky. That's really crazy. It's funny because your last name just makes me think of that movie, so I don't remember it any other way. Grumpy Old Men, right?
Brianna 13:06
Yeah, his dad's name is Jonathan Gustafson, so
Scott Benner 13:11
I just hear him yelling in my head. Is it Walter? Matthau, I can hear him yelling it like in my head. So okay, so you guys, this is interesting. The whole family drives down, and then you gotta leave in there. Now Brandon, he hasn't had diabetes that long, Wisconsin, not close to Texas. I don't assume you lived in Texas for 18 days while he was there, right?
Brianna 13:31
No, we didn't, though I really wanted to, but my husband told me that was silly and we needed to go back home. So we compromised, and we stayed for about five days. So about Toby's first week of camp, almost. And we kind of had a little family vacation down there with his brother, nice. And then we headed back from
Scott Benner 13:51
there, head back, and then just, just one per does his dad just come back and get you? Toby? Your Mom? Dad? Yeah, I did. Okay. Wow. Okay, so, all right, what did you guys do for five days in Texas? Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. We talk a lot about ways to lower your a 1c on this podcast, did you know that the Omnipod five was shown to lower a 1c that's right. Omnipod five is a tube free automated insulin delivery system, and it was shown to significantly improve a 1c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they switched from daily injections. My daughter is about to turn 21 years old, and she has been wearing an Omnipod every day since she was four. It has been a friend to our family, and I think it could be a friend to yours. If you're ready to try Omnipod five for yourself or your family, use my link now to get started omnipod.com/juicebox get that free. Omnipod five Starter Kit today. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox this episode. The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 and just as the name says, it lasts for a full year, imagine for a second a CGM with just one sensor placement and one warm up period every year. Imagine a sensor that has exceptional accuracy over that year and is actually the most accurate CGM in the low range that you can get. What if I told you that this sensor had no risk of falling off or being knocked off? That may seem too good to be true, but I'm not even done telling you about it yet. The Eversense 365 has essentially no compression lows. It features incredibly gentle adhesive for its transmitter. You can take the transmitter off when you don't want to wear your CGM and put it right back on without having to waste the sensor or go through another warm up period. The app works with iOS and Android, even Apple Watch. You can manage your diabetes instead of your CGM with the ever since 365 learn more and get started today at ever since cgm.com/juicebox, one year, one CGM, oh,
Brianna 16:07
we went to lots of parks. We went to a water park. There's this Longhorn cattle drive, okay, that we went to Brianna. How
Scott Benner 16:17
many times did your husband say we can go now? Do you say it every day or No,
Brianna 16:23
I think By day three, he started saying, why are we in Texas in the middle of summer, it is so
Scott Benner 16:29
hot. So tell people though, why? What was your anxiety?
Brianna 16:33
Well, you know, I've never left Toby with anyone overnight, I don't think except for family members. So to think about leaving him so far away for so long, that was really scary. You know, I felt confident that they would manage his blood sugars Well, which they absolutely did a great job of that. I was more nervous about just if he would feel safe and comfortable and be having a good time. And from his stories since he's gotten home, it sounds like it was a wonderful experience.
Scott Benner 17:09
Awesome. Toby, were you nervous about being left alone at camp
Toby 17:14
a little bit at first, but then, just like drifted off and it
Scott Benner 17:17
wasn't there, you didn't think about it again. How long do you think it took before you were
Toby 17:21
comfortable? Maybe day, two days.
Scott Benner 17:23
Okay? And what about camp made you comfortable
Toby 17:27
having multiple other friends there, and one other kid was actually in my camp, and that got drawn from the podcast. Cole Oh,
Scott Benner 17:37
no kidding. Oh, that's great. How many, I'm asking you, but Brianna, I don't know how many kids that end up going through the podcast this year. Was it, like, four or six or something like that? I'm pretty sure it was six. Six, right? Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. I'm so glad to, like, I mean, we just, you know, we, I don't know who he is, but I interviewed Ernie, you know, the camp director, and I remember at the end just being like, hey, you know, if you want to give away a slot, like, I'll, I'll give it away for you. And then they, I think they liked the attention that it brought. So they did it a couple more times. And we actually got people to offset some costs, if I'm not mistaken, Omnipod and US med paid for one kid to go each. And then we had a private donor who kicked in for somebody, and then the camp matched that. I think that's how we got to six. So that's just some random person who loves the camp and wanted to see a kid go to it paid for one person to go, yeah, just a lot of kind people doing kind things. All right, so Toby, what goes on at camp? What were the activities like, how much were you involved in your diabetes? How did they manage your type? One? Tell me the whole thing.
Toby 18:46
There were so many activities. I can't even name them all, but the ones that I did overall were boating and canoeing, water park hiking, adventure course, zip line, rifle range weight and weight lifting. Wow,
Scott Benner 19:03
you shot a rifle while you were there.
Toby 19:05
Yeah, do you hit anything? Yeah, I had a shot a hat, a hat. Yeah, that's very cool. And a rubber duck.
Scott Benner 19:13
Brianna, how does that make you feel like that? He got so comfortable so quickly, and did so many things. I mean, there's probably a lot of things he's never even done before,
Toby 19:21
right? I mean, yeah, rifles,
Scott Benner 19:25
Wisconsin, I'm assuming you've been hunting, but yeah, that's fine,
Brianna 19:28
yeah, yeah. He, he has been hunting before, with lots of family members who are hunters, but I was very surprised about the weight lifting. I think the first week of camp he signed up for weight lifting three times, and he continued to sign up for it throughout camp. So that was pretty cool.
Toby 19:46
Three times a day out of the five session, 545, minute
Scott Benner 19:51
groups to be there's a lot of things to do, and you can kind of go around and put your name on it and go do different things and then say, Oh, I love doing that. I'll do it more. I didn't like that. I won't. It as much, basically, oh, that's pretty cool, actually. I guess I'm gonna have to, like, veer off this for a second. You want a service dog through the podcast? Yes. How did that happen? Brianna, how did that happen?
Brianna 20:12
So you had made a post, I believe, about Louie's legacy scholarship. Oh, my God, that was you. Yes. That was back in April. And so we applied for that, and Annie from medi dogs interviewed us and then selected Toby to receive op so that was super cool. And it's been a lot of work, but really good work, and really good learning of responsibility for Toby too. I
Scott Benner 20:42
think we're gonna have to look to see if, if chat GPT likes the last name Gustafson, maybe like, I'm gonna, by the way, if I do another giveaway and you win, I'm skipping yours and picking the next person, they can't win again. You didn't enter to win a comic book from Omnipod? Did you? No, okay, good, because I'm picking the winners for that this weekend. I'm so scared you're gonna win one. So how do you like having a service dog? Toby,
Toby 21:07
really good. He's been doing a whole bunch of work. So if I he's been doing really good with lows and ties, ties we just started. But lows, he's gotten really good at
Scott Benner 21:23
does he go to school with you, or do you just use him at home? And how do you use him? He's gonna go everywhere with me. Okay, when he's done being trained completely, he's always in training. So, yeah, he's going to school next year as well. And so if I painted a picture, you're like, hanging around the house doing some stuff, and you start to get low, but you don't feel it yet. Does the dog know before you know?
Toby 21:49
Yeah, sometimes yes, he can sense like drops and
Scott Benner 21:53
all that stuff. So how does he tell you he'd boot me with his nose? No kidding. And how do you tell the difference between the dogs being playful and the dog thinks you're
Toby 22:04
low, he'll jump up at me and boop me. Okay? Like he'll try and boot me in the
Scott Benner 22:09
face, and if you ignore him, what happens? He'll
Toby 22:13
just keep booping. If it doesn't work, he'll go to mom or dad. If there's no other people that he trusts, they can go till he'll bark at me,
Scott Benner 22:24
and then once you treat, like say, you grab a juice box, and you hit the juice box real quickly. I don't exactly understand how this works, so, but does he look and go, Oh, he drank a juice box. We're good now. Or does he wait for your blood sugar to come back up before he leaves you alone?
Toby 22:37
So what would happen is he'd boot me. I put my hand out to my side and say, what is it? If it's high, his he'll put his nose over my hand. If it's low, he'll put his nose under my hand, and I'll treat him while he's still in that
Scott Benner 22:53
position, wow. And then he knows you did something about it, yeah. And
Toby 22:57
I'll do something about it. And then I'll say, all done after and then he'll just be like, Okay, I did my job, and then I'm done for now.
Scott Benner 23:05
Wow, that's kind of marvelous, isn't it? Like, really, like, Brandon, that's crazy, right? Yeah, by the only one,
Brianna 23:13
he learns so fast. It's unbelievable. He's so smart, and I can't believe how quickly he picks up on new skills when we teach him. So we're continuing to work with Annie from medie dogs to work on his ongoing training. So Toby and op get together with her twice per week right now, and then, once school starts in September, then they'll just train together once a week, and Toby and op have tasks that they do together in between to practice the skills that he's learned.
Scott Benner 23:48
Wow. And Toby, how are you enjoying? Did you have a pet prior to this? Yes, I do. What else you still do? What do you
Toby 23:56
have? He's a 14 year old golden retriever. Oh,
Scott Benner 23:59
so you have a dog already, yes, okay, but it doesn't. He didn't have a job or do anything. He just eats and poops.
Toby 24:05
Yeah, gotcha. He's just a family
Scott Benner 24:09
dog. Family dog. When your mom first came to you and said, Hey, we want a service dog, were you excited? Or were you like, I don't need that, or how did you feel about it? And how do you feel about it now?
Toby 24:18
So what happened was I had my parents had told me about it, and then we went on a call with Annie and one other person. I can't remember her name, but then we just had, like, a 45 minute conversation about it. But that was also right when my brother had his tonsillectomy, so he was, he was still talking, but not
Scott Benner 24:44
How old's your brother? Seven. Can I ask a question? Brianna, this is interesting. Today is Day How do you count the days? Do you count the surgery day as day one? Or is the second day? Day one? Oh, I don't know. All right, so today's day surgery is Day Zero. Today is day eight of Arden's tonsillectomy,
Toby 25:04
and it's been horrendous.
Brianna 25:08
Yeah, it's terrible. The recovery is awful, especially as you get older. So I'm sure hers is extra
Scott Benner 25:14
bad. Yeah, did they give him, like, narcotics to help him?
Brianna 25:19
No, they didn't. But the surgery is a lot easier recovery the younger you are, so probably by day, I don't know, 910 he was doing pretty well, okay. But I've heard for adults, it can take a month before you're really feeling back to normal.
Scott Benner 25:37
This was really something like not a thing she did lightly. Obviously, it's kind of a big deal, but she just was getting sick so often and getting tonsillitis so often, and actually, the last time, ended up in the hospital to get IV antibiotics to try to get rid of it. So she was like, I'm getting rid of these tonsils. You know, they came out. And, you know, yesterday, she said something like, I can feel the scabs rubbing against my throat, I think she said and but she hasn't spoken like she's whispered a couple of words in the last day or two, but I haven't heard her speak in like, a week. Oh, poor thing. Yeah, it's, it's pretty terrible. So she's at the point where you have to set an alarm to take the next dose of medicine before the pain starts. And if you if she's like, if it doesn't do that, it's just searing pain. And then that pain reflects, I guess, radiates, to your ear. I guess there's a nerve in your this is what I'm understanding. There's a nerve in your throat. And so not only do you have all the throat pain, but you have, like, she said, it feels like we've been talking through whiteboard a lot. And she's like, you know, when you use a Q tip and it goes all the way to the back and slips in and you get that, like, searing poke pain, she's like, that's what it feels like the whole time. And, oh, gosh. So your your son didn't talk about that way,
Brianna 26:54
you know, he's seven, so his description was not very clear. He just really didn't eat for a long time. It took a really long time before he got back to eating. Well, yeah, but he didn't really complain of a lot of pain. We just stayed up on Tylenol and ibuprofen, and it seemed like for him being a little kid, that that worked well enough for him.
Scott Benner 27:20
Yeah, no, this is probably something we should have done earlier. We just didn't, I mean, we honestly, in hindsight, we didn't really know it wasn't as bad when she was younger. But, yeah, it's pretty, pretty bad. Anyway, sorry, it was a good, good way for me to get some information about that. Okay, Toby, so camp was awesome. OP is awesome. Obviously, I must be like a hero in that house type, right? What else did I buy you guys? You better hope I give a car away one day. Be Awesome, right? You guys will be like, Oh, we won the car too. But what else was on your list to talk about?
Toby 27:53
Breakthrough T, 1d Yeah, whatever you want to
Scott Benner 27:55
talk about, you came ready with a list. So tell me what you want to
Toby 27:59
say. So breakthrough T, 1d is a research facility, and they have been a huge part in my life. And I'd be thinking a whole bunch of other kids life as well when I was diagnosed, then they had already, they gave me a stuffed animal called Rufus. It's a bear, probably a foot. It's like a stuffed bear. He wears a shirt and has like, poke sites on his hand, and then the rest of his body just covered up with it, with like, shot sites and all that stuff. I
Scott Benner 28:33
don't have a Rufus, but I do have, I gotta give some credit here to Medtronic. Like, check out this lion. Isn't that great? Yeah, that's from Medtronic. I got that at friends for life. I actually brought it home with me, because I was like, this is a nice stuffed animal. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I think he's just going to sit on my desk. You just reminded me that he's been on the floor next to my desk for a week, and I haven't done anything with him, so I'll have to move him. So when you're diagnosed, somebody came to the hospital gave you, like, a gift basket or something like that. It had Rufus in it and other things, and that was from breakthrough. Was from breakthrough T,
Toby 29:03
1d. Yeah, I got some I got a backpack for it, for my medical stuff, a few books, nice, some other stuff.
Scott Benner 29:12
Yeah, and that made you feel, how like when you got that stuff, relieved
Toby 29:16
that people wouldn't like, understood what it what type one really is? It was
Scott Benner 29:23
nice to know that somebody understood what you were going through, yeah. What were you going through?
Toby 29:27
A lot of emotions. Yeah, tell me really scared when I got my first insulin injection. Because, I mean, no, 10 year old kid likes getting shots every time they eat, yeah, sure. And poking their finger with needles every day,
Scott Benner 29:44
so you were scared of the pokes, the needles, stuff like that, and understanding that you weren't by yourself, like alone, that other people knew about this was was valuable, yes, and that's the thing you felt on your own, not a thing your mom told you or somebody explained to. You? You felt like that? I just felt like that. Yeah, once you get out of the hospital, you're pretty young, right? Do you understand how to count carbs? Like, what is it like? What's your part in diabetes? And what's your mom's part in diabetes? Your dad's part in it when you're coming out of the hospital, my
Toby 30:18
only part for, like, the first two, three months, was being able to poke my finger on my own, doing all my stuff, just managing my blood sugar at camp. Camp actually just kind of forced me to be able to change my Dexcom on my own. Okay, but I've been able to change my Omnipod on my own for like, two, three months now, camp has been something that has just, like, brought that to me, like it's like, I can't not do it. Like they're making me do it. I have to do
Scott Benner 30:57
it. So you were able to change your CGM at camp for the first time. Yes, awesome. Man, congratulations. That's really cool. How did it feel? Were you proud of yourself?
Toby 31:07
Yeah, but I'd not do it again yet. So
Scott Benner 31:11
you did it at camp. But when you came home, you're like, Okay, listen, you guys can get back to doing this. I'm not gonna do it for now. Yeah, tell me why. What about it? I mean, are you scared of it? Is it just an extra thing you don't want to do? What's the feeling?
Toby 31:25
I'm scared of it. Because, like, I mean, what kid would want to stab a needle into their skin just by pushing a button? It's literally, like a millimeter thick needle. So, but does it hurt? I mean, depends on where you put it. If it hits like a nerve, yes,
Scott Benner 31:45
for sure, it hurts. Okay? And that happens sometimes,
Toby 31:49
sometimes it happens, but it did not happen when I did it there.
Scott Benner 31:53
What's the difference between you pushing the button and your mom pushing the button?
Toby 31:57
I don't have to hesitate about pushing it. My mom just does it,
Scott Benner 32:00
because she's not gonna feel it if it hits a nerve, right? Yeah. She's like, whatever you think. That's how it feels to her. She's like, whatever. Or no, no, no, she cares, right? Yeah, yeah, of course. So, but do you not have the same feeling about putting on the pod? Like, couldn't the pod hit a nerve or or hurt more or less one time to the next
Toby 32:21
the Omnipod just shoots itself in. All I have to do is push a button and then just clicks a few times, and that puts it in on its own. So I don't have to push the button to inject the needle on its own,
Scott Benner 32:34
right? Okay, so because you're but you are pushing a button on your phone, right?
Toby 32:39
Yeah, but it's not like I'm pushing it onto my skin and then pushing the button I
Scott Benner 32:43
see. And so it helps that the Omnipod is already on. And do you pinch when you put Omnipod on? Do you like, gather up a little skin?
Toby 32:50
I actually grab onto the outside of the Omnipod and just pull up a tiny bit? Yeah, because for some reason that helps it, because nerves are usually closer to the surface, so then sometimes that would just make it not hit as many nerves. Okay, so it's like every 10 Omnipod changes I hit a nerve or something like that. How
Scott Benner 33:14
do you find the clicking? Because it clicks right, and it's not always the same number of clicks.
Toby 33:20
Yeah. So I, what I know is that four through nine clicks
Scott Benner 33:26
gonna come somewhere between four through nine. Do you ever like when it gets to nine? Are you ever like, wow, it's taking forever, sometimes, sometimes. And you know what's happening when it injects the when it puts the cannula in? You know how it does it, right?
Toby 33:39
Yeah, just twists a knob and that unlocks the needle, and then there's a spring in there that pulls it back in. So,
Scott Benner 33:47
you know, there's a needle in the Omnipod, yeah, but you don't care about that one. No, interesting. I don't know why. And you did, and you did it fine at camp, yes, because peer pressure, like the good kind of peer pressure, you felt like everybody else is doing it. I should do
Toby 34:02
it too. No, I've just been, I've been changing the Omnipod before. I've had either of my camps. I went to Wisconsin's line camp as well,
Scott Benner 34:10
right? But I'm saying the Dexcom camp, you did it once. Oh, yeah. Did they like, were they like, hey, everybody does their own thing, or did was it like you saw everybody doing it? You thought, well, I should try it too.
Toby 34:21
I just kind of was like, Yeah, I don't, I'm not 100% comfortable with people at Camp doing it. I mean, they're called, they're college kids.
Scott Benner 34:31
So Brianna, is this a control thing for Toby? Is he
Brianna 34:34
absolutely is. So Toby is very particular about how everything gets put on his body. So he likes me to change his pods. He tolerates his dad putting on his pods, and pretty much rest of the situations. He wants to put it on himself. So at school with grandma, he wants to do it himself. I got
Scott Benner 34:58
you said, Toby, you were at that camp, and you're like. I'm not letting these nudnicks Do this. They're college kids. I'll have to handle it myself. Yeah, yeah. I see okay. That makes sense to me. That makes complete sense to me. Actually, what else is on that list there?
Toby 35:10
I have two more things, so I'm gonna just save school for last food choices. It somewhat forced me to eat somewhat healthier, because, let's say you drink like a regular soda, like every day or something, my blood sugar would just spike. So then I limit myself for like, every once in a while to a diet soda or a sugar free
Scott Benner 35:43
okay. How do you find them to be versus the regular one?
Toby 35:47
Regular spikes my blood sugar, diet or zero sugar, if it affects it's maybe 510, points.
Scott Benner 35:56
What about the taste, though? Do you prefer one over the other?
Toby 35:59
Depends on how I'm feeling? I mean, I'm usually drinking more Diet Coke or Pepsi,
Scott Benner 36:04
okay, but you but before diabetes, you drank regular soda, yeah? Like root beer and sprite. I love that you said root beer. Thank you for doing a Wisconsin thing. You know that you said root beer? Yeah? Yeah. My brother lives out there with you people in the constant so he didn't used to say words like that, but he does now sometimes, can you say roof for me, please? Roof? Yeah, that's the thing on top of your house. Yep. What is it called? A roof? What does a dog say? Rough? And if your hands have like stones on them, they are like when somebody works real hard and their hands get rough. Say that word rough. So it's rough, rough, rough, yeah, yeah, excellent. Have you ever been ice fishing? Yes, I know you have. Don't worry. I understand the whole thing. I know what's going on up there. Do you think the Packers are
Toby 36:56
awesome? Depends. Last year they weren't the best. They definitely weren't. You
Scott Benner 37:01
miss Aaron Rodgers in the time when you guys were great. No, no, you don't like Aaron
Toby 37:06
Rodgers, not really. Yeah, my dad does not. For sure, your
Scott Benner 37:10
dad doesn't like him. No, because of football or something else. You know,
Toby 37:16
well, when he lost against the Chiefs before the Super Bowl, he just slammed his helmet down the ground. Yeah. Kind of rage quitting.
Scott Benner 37:24
You think your dad, your dad quit him too in that moment. Oh,
Toby 37:28
he's just quit him overall, because language and all too.
Scott Benner 37:32
Oh, I see what you're saying. They don't like the guy in general. Do you guys? Have you ever been to a game? I've been to three now, awesome in the winter, when it's freezing cold, yep, doesn't bother you. Nope, no. You live in a different place. Was Texas, like, Did it feel like you were like, a whole world away, or did it not really make you feel like you were far from home?
Toby 37:54
After about three days, it just felt like it was normal. But when I came back, I was like, it's cold. It was like, 75 or 80, and I was on a morning walk that day, and I was wearing sweat pants and a sweatshirt.
Scott Benner 38:11
Yeah, you didn't feel like a Wisconsinite anymore. You were like, wow, it's chilly out here. Yeah, you go for morning walks,
Toby 38:17
yes, with my dog and with opened my other dog.
Scott Benner 38:21
Nice. You take them with your parents or by yourself. My mom usually goes with me. Goes with you. Awesome. Are you doing it for exercise or doing it for the dogs both, both. How else do you get exercise? Do you play sports or do anything like that?
Toby 38:34
Yeah, I do martial arts. Oh, nice. What kind um, taekwondo, Korean martial arts.
Scott Benner 38:41
Very nice. That's awesome. What else am I not asking you? What did you want to talk about? About school and diabetes?
Toby 38:47
So with school like, it might seem impossible just to go to school, but really, I don't think it is. You just have to adjust to it. Like, as soon as you get, like, adjusted after the first week or two weeks, like it doesn't feel like anything. When I first went to school and getting shots, I was like, What is this? Why am I living in this world? But then now it's like, it's nothing, like there's no big deal with it. I'll poke on my own. I'll change my Omnipod on my own if I need to. Right?
Scott Benner 39:26
Do you read Toby? Are you a reader? Yeah. I read, yeah. What kind of books do you like?
Toby 39:31
Graphic novels, and every once in a while, I'll read, like National Geographic books,
Scott Benner 39:37
yeah. Do you know how I could tell you were a reader? How you don't know? No, you use words that I wouldn't expect you to use at your age, so I figured you must have read them somewhere. You like reading, huh? Yeah, that's awesome. Keep doing that. Okay, don't get like 13 and think you're cool and stop reading. Yeah, keep reading. That'd be great. What do you enjoy? Doing at school. What's your favorite subject?
Toby 40:01
Either science
Scott Benner 40:03
or math. Okay, do you have any idea what you want to do when you're an adult? Probably neuroscience. Oh, just some neuroscience. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. What do your parents do? Something like that for work? No, no,
Toby 40:17
my mom, I can't remember. What are you? Mom,
Brianna 40:21
I work in Special Education Administration, and dad is a teacher.
Scott Benner 40:25
Oh, you guys are teachers. That's awesome. And when you're mad at your husband, do you yell Gustafson at him? Not usually. Could you please do it for me one day? Sure, someday, just for you. I'll think of you when I do it, I swear, like in outrage. Just yell the name and then just throw your hands up there and walk away. Don't even give it any context. Be just be gone. Toby. Do you have obviously friends, right? Yes, yeah. Do you talk to them about your diabetes? Trusted friends? Yes, okay, so inner circle people, people who are close with you. Yes. What do they know about it? Like, if you got low, could they help you? Did they understand any of that?
Toby 41:02
Yeah, so one of my friend's mom is a cancer nurse, so she knows, like, all the doctor and things with all of it, because she went through every single thing of the training. So she knows, like, the doctor training and like, she knows how to help with my blood sugar as well. Yeah, so I ate at my friend's house, and I had dosed there because I was going to his little brother's basketball game.
Scott Benner 41:31
And you felt comfortable around her because she was a nurse.
Toby 41:36
I feel comfortable around most of my friend's parents because, like, they're adults that understand, but some of them don't fully understand it. Sure my neighbors, for sure,
Scott Benner 41:50
understand. Okay, you carry glucagon with you? Yes, I do. Which one do you carry?
Toby 41:55
I cannot remember. I think it starts with a T. It's a nasal spray.
Scott Benner 41:59
Oh, back to me. It
Toby 42:01
starts
Brianna 42:02
with the T now, yeah, it's, it's, it's that one. You're right,
Scott Benner 42:06
yeah, yep, back send me with a T. Tax Simi,
Toby 42:11
I bet you said backs in me. I did. That's what it is, babe. I'm just
Scott Benner 42:14
agreeing with you because you're wrong and I was trying to make you feel good because you're young.
Toby 42:18
I was like, I was like,
Scott Benner 42:19
what? Huh, it's a B. It's back to me.
Toby 42:22
I know just sounds so weird. It's a T, but, huh,
Scott Benner 42:26
it's not a T. Okay, you're, you're just misremembering it. That's all when you go look, you'll be like, Oh, it is back to me, although, uh, my favorite thing is that people, some people, call it back squeamy. I don't know. It's such a funny thing. I don't know you know what I mean. Toby, like, if I said to you, it's called back squeamy. Wouldn't you think that's probably not what it's called. It's a weird word. Who would make
Toby 42:45
that word up? Right? I don't know. I don't know what I'd say.
Scott Benner 42:49
Yeah, I gotcha. Movies, television. What do you like
Toby 42:54
if I watch movies? I'd probably watch, like Marvel movies.
Scott Benner 42:58
Did you see Superman? No, did you want to
Toby 43:02
whole bunch of people, all my friends, and whole bunch of like, all of my friends who watched it had said that it's a it's like not, it's nothing like what it they made it sound like they didn't like it. No, it's like nothing. What it looks like at the beginning or sounds like,
Scott Benner 43:23
I don't know. I enjoyed it, though. We had a good time. Now, I have not seen Fantastic Four yet. But have you seen that?
Toby 43:29
No, but I have seen one of the Fantastic Four movies. Okay,
Scott Benner 43:34
okay, well, yeah. I mean, you guys can't afford to go do that. Your mom used up a lot of money living in Texas for five days by the time you pulled out of Texas, did you say to yourself, like, I'm glad I did this, but I didn't need to, or were you happy you did it and thought it was a
Brianna 43:51
good idea? I am still happy that I did it. I think it was the right amount of time. I now feel like staying for the full 18 days would have been crazy, so I'm glad my husband talked me out of that.
Scott Benner 44:02
The right thing for you is that what you're saying, Yep, it would have been too jarring for you to just be like, Hey, get out of here, you crazy kid, and then just leave. Yeah, it was too far away. I got you. No, I completely understand. Would he have flown if that wasn't a consideration, Would one of you just jumped on a plane with him, taking him there, pushed him off the plane and gotten back on and come home like if you did it again. We're
Brianna 44:24
more of a road trip family, though. Toby and his dad did fly home, but yeah, if it was closer to us, then we probably would have just ditched him. That's what we did for the Wisconsin Lions Camp. We drove him there, dropped him off, drove home, but we knew we were only a couple hours away in case something came up.
Scott Benner 44:44
I don't know exactly where you live, and I'm not asking, but like, from my brother, I know you have to fly into one airport and like, Don't you have to go to a small airport to fly to an international airport to fly out? Like, isn't that the whole problem with Wisconsin?
Brianna 44:56
Yes, yeah. Typically you drive down to Chicago. Or fly into Chicago.
Scott Benner 45:01
First is there like a mid, mid, something, airport, Midland, mid. I can't think of it now, yeah,
Brianna 45:07
I think that's further north than us. I can't remember the name of it either. I'm
Toby 45:11
so excited. Yeah, Toby, what do you guys, I mean, we live in the Madison area, so it's not as far away from Chicago.
Scott Benner 45:18
Yeah, by the by the school. Yeah, you guys probably live incredibly close to where my brother lives, actually, oh, like, 20 minutes away from Madison. Yeah, I was only out there once. I don't know what Lake flies are exactly, but they were horrifying.
Toby 45:33
I know, yeah, they're, they're terrible. Up in, up in the up. I love what's the up Lake Michigan area a little bit further up. It's funny, like,
Scott Benner 45:44
could you say things that my sister in law says? Like, you said the Dells earlier. And I was like, I've heard my sister in law say that, then you just said the up. I was like, I've heard that too. I don't know anything about it. I just these are just words that I've heard the Upper
Brianna 45:56
Peninsula of Michigan. That's what it stands for. Up.
Scott Benner 46:00
Yeah, I would definitely call it up the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Is Not, not a sexy name for anything. Toby, what do you not understand about diabetes that you're hoping to get as a skill? And can you tell me one thing your mom does great about your diabetes, and one thing you wish she would do differently?
Toby 46:18
One thing that I for sure, don't understand is why, why you have diabetes? No, just like why in general?
Scott Benner 46:27
Tell me make that a bigger question. Why? What? Why
Toby 46:30
is it a thing? How is it a thing? How did this all start, and all that stuff?
Scott Benner 46:36
Oh, so not even to you, but just in general. You'd love to know why, why anybody has diabetes,
Toby 46:40
yeah, yeah. Why it even happened in the
Scott Benner 46:44
first place? Right? Do you have any other medical issues? Or do other people in your family have any other medical issues?
Toby 46:51
My mom will be able to explain that with autoimmune diseases, it's more on
Scott Benner 46:55
her side. Brianna, we found something you were okay to talk about. Go
Brianna 46:58
ahead. I guess it's my turn. Toby's dad's side of the family has nothing. They have beautiful health. My side is a hot mess. Express, so both on my mom and dad's side, there's a lot of autoimmune issues. Both Toby and his brother have something called pandas.
Scott Benner 47:16
Oh, that's Yeah, I know what that is. Okay,
Brianna 47:19
yeah. So basically, when they get strep throat, then it causes behavioral changes, ticks, things like that, which that's an autoimmune disease I have had when I was in college. I had something called ITP, or immune thrombocytopenia, cause my platelets to get attacked by my body, and so my blood was not able to clot, and then I have colitis, along with both of Toby's grandparents on my side, and then his grandma and aunt and on on my Ma, like my grand, my mom and Toby's aunt and two relatives on my dad's side all have rheumatoid arthritis. We've got a little hypothyroidism, some lupus.
Scott Benner 48:10
What do you guys like? English, Irish, German, like that mix
Brianna 48:13
more like Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, a
Scott Benner 48:16
little more in that direction. Okay, yeah, all
Brianna 48:19
right, yeah, yeah. So a whole bunch, but there's a lot of auto immune. So, yeah, it's my fault. I get, I take the credit for it. Well, it's nobody's
Toby 48:29
fault, but it, yeah, last name is more Swedish,
Scott Benner 48:34
yeah, no. I mean, it's, it's great. It's incredible. Like, you really are, like, out of a comic book. Is that a common name, by the way, Gustafson. Yeah,
Brianna 48:43
I don't know. I don't think it's super common. I don't think there are any other gustafsons that Toby goes to school with. Gotcha. Okay,
Scott Benner 48:52
well, so the Okay, so there's a fair amount of autoimmune on your your both sides of your family. Yeah. Okay. And do you brand the thing you have? Is that a thing you struggle with to this day, or is it a thing that's been managed? Well,
Brianna 49:04
no, so I haven't had any issues with my platelets since I was in college. They don't really know what caused it, but it is an autoimmune issue, so that's resolved.
Scott Benner 49:18
Okay, well, that's good. Okay. So, so Toby, what's the thing your mom's awesome at, at diabetes, a lot. She's good at a lot
Toby 49:26
of us, like a whole, whole bunch of stuff. Okay, more than I can probably list she can probably list them.
Scott Benner 49:32
We don't either. But listen to me this. This episode is for one thing and one thing only. It's the highlight. What a good guy I am, and that you've won a dog and a trip to camp, I'm just, I'm teasing you. We don't need anybody else getting credit during this hour, okay? But no, your mom's good at a lot of stuff. Is that right? Yeah, that's cool. So you feel very lucky that she's thinking about it involved and everything. Yes, very much. Awesome. Is there anything she does or does? And understand that you wish was different. This is your chance. You could, you can get something
Toby 50:04
straightened out. Not I can think of at the very moment that's
Scott Benner 50:08
awesome. Isn't that great Brianna, to hear that you're awesome at
Brianna 50:10
this? Yeah. I was really nervous to hear his response. I was to a
Scott Benner 50:14
little bit actually, actually, when I asked, I was like, why don't I ask more people this question? This is a great question, but you're happy, yes, yeah. Brianna, what's the thing you wish you were a little more
Toby 50:25
adept at? Oh,
Brianna 50:27
I feel like how to manage blood sugars when you eat trashy food. That's something we're still working on. Getting that just right. You know, when you eat pizza, pasta or Chinese food for sure, mom, yeah,
Toby 50:44
I should tell the story about, like, when we had cookies at the neighbor's house.
Brianna 50:51
Oh yeah, that was really bad. So we frequently have Saturday night dinner with one of our neighbors families, and we had dinner at their house. And you know, we're we're guessing the carb count. We don't know for sure, but we're taking a rough estimate. And so we dose them for dinner, ate dinner, then they had gotten some cookies from a bakery for dessert, and we use chat GPT. We weighed the cookie and put that into chat GPT based on the type of cookie, and used that as our carb count and Toby's when we were picking up to go home, Toby's blood sugar, his alarm went off, his little alarm went off. So below 75 so I think, did we give you a juice? Maybe something we treated it there, had him help clean up. And then we're walking home, and he was just being so goofy. His body was all over the place, and he was like, I can't walk. And he was just being so silly. And he hadn't ever had a really severe low before that. We didn't know what that looked like for him. As soon as we got home, which we lived two houses from them, we did a finger poke, and I think he was maybe 32 Oh, something like that. Super low, yeah. And so then I just
Toby 52:16
threw I went into the 20s after that. Did you that could be still conscious?
Brianna 52:22
Yeah, it could have been high 20s, but so we gave him a bunch more sugar, and he actually didn't feel awful until after he was already starting to come back up. But that was super scary, and we're a little more cautious about our dosing when we don't know our carb count. Yeah, kind of since that experience,
Scott Benner 52:45
how much do you remember? How many carbs it thought the cookie was? Oh, I have
Brianna 52:49
no idea. I feel like it was 50 plus though. Oh, wow, yeah, it was a big cookie,
Scott Benner 52:56
cookie, I have to say. And I've only been to Wisconsin one time, and I'm not painting with too broad of a brush here, but I had trouble eating. Well, in Wisconsin, I don't think it's Wisconsin exactly, but, like, I was there for a number of days, always in a restaurant, like, you know, didn't have an opportunity for, like, home cooked food, because what we were there for, and a lot of stuff. A lot of the offerings were, like, greasy or deep fried, or, like, fatty or that kind of thing. And I was like, wow. Like, wow. Like, this is hard. I found myself thinking, I wonder how people who have diabetes, like, manage this. I also would say that, like, you know, non diet drinks were prevalent, you know, like, it was harder to find a diet iced tea at places. It was, you know, sugar free iced tea. It was, I had that vibe of like when you drive south down the eastern seaboard, usually right around North Carolina, you start having trouble finding just diet soda, even, like at a gas station, it just becomes very, I guess, just, I don't know geographic about how people eat, generally speaking, I know Brianna. You listen to the podcast like I'm stunned, like when I know that sounds crazy, but like when, when a 10 year old says to me, like, I drink soda, like that throws me for a loop. But I know everybody drinks soda, but it's just a thing I don't know, just in a million years I wouldn't do, like, not soda in general, like soda with sugar in it, like before diabetes even it just seems, it seems insane to me, but I know that that's not uncommon for most, you know, places and people and everything like that. I don't know how you handle something like that. I've never, never in my life, tried to Bolus for that.
Brianna 54:28
Yeah, we don't have soda in our house, and we never did, even before diabetes. But when he goes and visits grandparents, they have soda there, or occasionally, if we go out to a restaurant, so that has been a switch. I don't think we've ever tried to Bolus for a regular soda. I don't feel like Toby has had a regular soda since he's been diagnosed. What about
Toby 54:51
Denmark? Remember in Denmark how that pizza place messed up and got me just a regular Coke, and that spiked me into like 300 Parents,
Scott Benner 55:00
yeah, but you weren't true. Your mom saying you weren't trying to, like, I don't think I couldn't do it. Like I can. Bolus for like, Arden went on a boba tea kick for a while, and we figured that out. So that's got to be similar. That's a very sugary drink. She was having one of those, like, every week for a little while. She's like, I'm gonna get boba tea. And I'm like, Okay, this must be awesome. I haven't tried it because it's got, like, balls floating it. Do you know what it is? Have you ever seen it? Yes, I've seen them. Yeah, you drink the you eat. Have you ever had it?
Toby 55:30
Yeah, I've gotten one from icky sticky.
Scott Benner 55:34
Are the balls weird when you drink them? Oh, no,
Toby 55:37
that's hard to say. Usually I save them for last and I pop them in my mouth. I
Scott Benner 55:41
got you. I don't think I could do that. Maybe I'll try the next time she gets that.
Toby 55:46
Okay, if you get it like a fruity flavor, they're not as bad.
Scott Benner 55:49
Yeah, a fruity
Toby 55:50
flavor sounds good, yeah, okay. But like, the bread ones are really weird
Scott Benner 55:57
overall. Let me finish with this. Toby, do you want to go back to camp again? Very much you do. You enjoyed it that much. Gotcha. Did you make friends a lot people you're keeping in touch with now that you're home? Yes, that's awesome, too. Tell people one reason why they should consider going to diabetes camp.
Toby 56:19
You get to make new friends, meet people your age with diabetes. There's a whole bunch of activities that you can do. They give you the cards that you do. You can just, like, like, literally, there's no such thing as diabetes besides trading lows, trading highs, poking and putting on your stuff. Otherwise, like you don't even have to watch your sugars or anything,
Scott Benner 56:44
okay, kind of like a little vacation,
Toby 56:46
basically, just like you don't have to even watch anything. So they'll watch your blood sugar. They'll watch your watch when you need to change your stuff and all that.
Scott Benner 56:58
Yeah, and Brianna, they give you a different phone when you get there at Sweeney, right?
Brianna 57:03
Yeah, that's true. So as soon as we arrived to camp with Toby, they assigned him a camp phone. They turned off all of his follow stuff, they changed his password so we couldn't creep on him, even if we wanted to. I could,
Toby 57:19
though like and it's
Scott Benner 57:20
part of their system, right? I don't completely remember how it was explained to me, but they can track all the phones. Is that how it works?
Brianna 57:26
Yeah, yeah. So Toby shared that his counselor had his follow app, so his counselor was able to follow him, and then at night time, the med staff had the counselors phones, so then they followed the kids
Scott Benner 57:41
I see and Toby. Did you miss your phone for 18 days, or were you didn't mind that you didn't have it? I didn't really ever use the phone in the first place, so you don't use it for other things right now,
Toby 57:52
driving and reading. I use Libby, okay? And then you have games on your phone, yeah? But I don't use them as often as I do with like Libby prodigy, which is a math game. Okay, what's Libby? Libby is a book app where you can rent books from your public library, and then, like, there are holds on it too, just in case other people have them, because there's not an infinite amount of the books,
Scott Benner 58:25
interesting. Oh, I'm looking right now. Libby app.com, cool. Yeah. Brianna, why is he such a good kid? Has he always been like this?
Brianna 58:35
He is. He's so bright and so fun. We enjoy him. We just we're so lucky to have Toby.
Scott Benner 58:41
Toby, your parents love you. Isn't that nice?
Toby 58:43
Yeah, yeah. I think everyone's parents love them,
Scott Benner 58:48
yeah. I think so too. I really do. How about your brother? Who's the better kid? You or him?
Toby 58:55
Depends. Depends. Very much, depends,
Scott Benner 58:59
all right? Well, I really today could be different than tomorrow.
Toby 59:03
Today. Me today. You're on a podcast. No, it could change.
Scott Benner 59:07
Yeah, it probably will. Don't worry. Well, I really appreciate you guys doing this. I want to make sure, is there anything that we haven't talked about that we should
Toby 59:15
have? I don't have anything.
Brianna 59:16
You're good, mom. Yeah, I think I'm good too. Thank
Scott Benner 59:20
you. Awesome. No, it's my pleasure. I can't wait for you guys to win the next giveaway.
Brianna 59:25
We'll take a break from applying.
Scott Benner 59:27
No. I mean, why? At this point it's awesome. Like, just hundreds of people, like, I'm not kidding, right? Like, hundreds and hundreds of people are like, Oh my God, I want to win the thing. The list goes on forever and ever and ever, and it's just you've won, like, two, pretty cool. I mean, not for nothing, but what do you think it saved you? What was the cost of the camp had you had to pay it out
Brianna 59:48
of pocket? Yeah? Five grand.
Scott Benner 59:51
Yeah, yeah. I'm getting a Christmas card right Toby, something, something's gonna come to the house at the holidays for me. Yeah? Send me some of that Wisconsin popcorn. Stepped in the caramel.
Toby 1:00:01
Yeah, but the dog that's like 50 grand. Oh, my God.
Brianna 1:00:06
Well, that might be a slight
Scott Benner 1:00:08
exaggeration. Let me have at least 15. Can I just have this for a minute? Brianna, I've saved your family. $55,000 is what I'm
Brianna 1:00:15
hearing. I think you deserve more than a Christmas card.
Scott Benner 1:00:18
Toby's going to college. On me. It sounds like this is awesome. All right. Well, I'm all, I mean, Toby, is there anything nice you want to say about me right now? There's no pressure at all
Toby 1:00:27
that my parents really do like your podcast episodes, and my mom has listened to almost every single one published. Oh, I'm super happy she's coming up on that.
Scott Benner 1:00:38
I'm very happy it's it's been valuable for you, and it has Brianna, you you're learning through the podcast?
Brianna 1:00:44
Oh, absolutely. I feel like we've learned so much more through the podcast than we've learned anywhere else. And as a result, Toby's a 1c is 6.0 and that is absolutely because of what we've learned from the podcast.
Scott Benner 1:00:59
Toby, good job. Man, that's a lot of hard work. Good for you. Seriously, really well done. Man, that's awesome. Yeah, listen, I'm feeling pretty good about this right now. I feel like, I mean 55,000 in Wisconsin, that's like $7 million isn't it? Practically, yeah, is it cheaper to live in Wisconsin than other places?
Brianna 1:01:16
Probably compared to some places. It also depends where you live in Wisconsin, okay, I just figured, in the north, I think I
Scott Benner 1:01:24
just figured, if you had to put up with that much cold, it has to be cheaper. That's what I thought. I mean, it should be. I mean,
Toby 1:01:31
honestly, yeah, compared to Norway, it's a lot cheaper. Nor wait. Norway is terrible. Wait,
Scott Benner 1:01:37
Norway, like across the ocean, Norway, yeah, not like, there's not a place in Wisconsin called Norway.
Brianna 1:01:44
Well, there is a place in the up called Norway. Is there really? Yeah, but that is definitely cheaper than where we live in Wisconsin. But he's talking about Norway. We went on a family vacation to Europe last summer.
Scott Benner 1:01:58
Oh, oh, I feel like maybe I paid for that. Then that's awesome. I feel like I sent you to Norway and that where you got the pizza with the bad soda
Toby 1:02:05
might have been, but I think it might have been Denmark.
Scott Benner 1:02:09
Denmark, they make pizza in Denmark
Brianna 1:02:11
with french fries on it. Was it any good? What do you think
Toby 1:02:15
I liked it? Do you guys have like,
Scott Benner 1:02:17
like, Mom and Pop pizza there? Or if you go to get pizzas at like, Domino's or Pizza Hut or something
Toby 1:02:22
like that? I don't know. Actually, I can't remember. I think it's like, think it's like, single restaurants, like the it's not a big business, just like, one small place.
Scott Benner 1:02:33
Gotcha, hey, do you guys go to that farmer's market that's in the middle of town? Is it summer? Am I just saying something random, or am I saying something you know about,
Brianna 1:02:41
yeah, Madison farmer's market that goes around the capital,
Scott Benner 1:02:44
yeah? Like, they do, like, they kind of close off a few streets there, and there's vendors and everything. Yep, you do that. Yeah, I've been to that.
Toby 1:02:53
I mean, there's a lot of stuff.
Scott Benner 1:02:55
Toby, let me have it for a second, all right, just give it to me. Say, wow, that's amazing. I can't believe you've been to a farmer's market near my house. We don't live anywhere near each other. That crazy? Yeah, I was trying to connect. Toby, you really ruined it at the end. It's okay. Thank you so much, guys. Hold on one second for me. Okay.
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