#1667 After Dark: Persistence
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Curtis, a combat veteran and paramedic, recounts surviving catastrophic injury, memory loss, and misdiagnosis before finding clarity with LADA, resilience through family, and purpose training a service Chihuahua for his diabetes journey.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox podcast.
Curtis 0:14
Hello. My name is Curtis. I'm a newly diagnosed Lada went from type two to lotta just this past couple of weeks.
Scott Benner 0:25
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Curtis 2:07
My name is Curtis. I'm a newly diagnosed lotta. Went from type two to lotta just this past couple weeks,
Scott Benner 2:16
past couple weeks. So how long ago did you get your initial diagnosis.
Curtis 2:21
The initial diagnosis, type two, was a year and a half ago, and before that, I was considered pre diabetic. And you know how they always say with pre diabetes, you know, exercise, lose weight, you'll be fine. That didn't happen.
Scott Benner 2:40
Did you exercise and lose weight and weren't fine? Or did none of it happen?
Curtis 2:44
So I went to kind of extreme. I went and did the whole low carb diet. You know, where I work is, I'm very active. I drive a brown truck that delivers packages. You know, everybody loves us, but so I'm constantly working and everything. And I lost, I was almost 300 pounds. I lost maybe about 30 pounds. Went back in and was told, Oh, well, you're not doing it, right? You're not doing you're not you're not exercising, you're not losing you know, you lost a little weight, but you're not eating right, and that's why you keep on creeping up. And it kept happening to where we ended up having me placed on Metformin and then another medication. And this was my outside doc, me and her didn't see eye to eye. And you know, I have her as a doc, but I also have my VA doc and my spouse. My wife is a nurse practitioner, and I trust her with a lot of the decisions. When it comes to, should I do something?
Scott Benner 3:58
Tell me, VA, Doc, you were you were in the military? Yes, no, just tell me. When did you go in, and how long are you with you?
Curtis 4:04
I was in from 1999 all the way till 2008
2006 was the second time I got injured. The first time I got injured I was our Humvee was hit by an IED, and I got knocked out, pretty good, nothing too tremendous, you know, then it got back and got deployed again, and the last injury, which took me out of being in the military, I was blown up three pieces of shrapnel and shot seven times Jesus. So I've gone through about 52 I believe, operations so far throughout the years. And actually that. When that injury happened, I had a traumatic brain injury to actually, where I don't remember my past. The only thing of that day that I truly remember is laying down on the ground, facing up, looking at it the most beautiful blue sky I've ever seen in my
Scott Benner 5:18
life. And do you think that's after you were you were hit.
Curtis 5:21
That was definitely after I was hit. Yeah, Chris, tell me, were you in a firefight? Yes, and no. So the IED was a I was told everything that happened. Yeah, remember, we had an IED roadside. It blew we were in a firefight, and that's when I got hit three times in the chest, and I was brought down, and unfortunately, my flight jacket was one of those ones that weren't up to spec, and it went through my Kevlar missed my heart barely. One went into my lung and one went into my abdomen. So then they we were because of the firefight and everything going on, it was the two hostile of an area to fly in and evac me, but I told us, going into the Humvee, they backtracked, and apparently I heard my buddy got blown up by an ID pretty close to us, and I wouldn't let them stop and take me. I made them go get them, and on our way back through the city, we were ambushed. And we were ambushed. I rolled on top of my buddy and I got hit four times in the back. Jeez. So then, of course, we, you know, got evacked out of there, went through a lot, a lot of hospital. I mean, I was in the hospital for two and a half years. Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries.
Scott Benner 6:55
So I'm sorry, man, that's, that's something else. And you were in the hospital for over two years after that. Wow, yep. How old were you when that happened? That was in 2006
Curtis 7:08
and I'm 42 my early 20s. Okay, my gosh, so yeah,
Scott Benner 7:15
well, I'm glad you're okay. I mean, I don't know if you are not, but I'm glad you're alive, I guess. And, and let's find out about the rest of it. So you told me before we started talking the you wonder if what's happening to you now doesn't have something to do with then, but what's the connection that you're you think you might see there? Yes.
Curtis 7:35
So while all this was happening in the hospital and everything, you know, I died a couple times in different operating rooms. In the reason I'm thinking, I'm not sure. I don't know about the data, but I had multiple blood infusions because I throughout from when I got injured to getting to a safe area, I was given blood multiple times, and then throughout some of the operations because I was still bleeding out, until they were able to stop all the bleeding and everything. I think they said they went through almost 17 units of blood at that
Scott Benner 8:12
time, just keeping you alive, to get you to a place where they could address what happened to you. Yes, my gosh, because they could airlift you out. Correct?
Curtis 8:21
So, right. We got back behind the wire, and I was taken straight into the surgery surgical area, and where they stabilized me from the time I got injured to stabilize at that location to be airlifted out, I went through 17 units of blood,
Scott Benner 8:39
my gosh, so there's like a more mobile surgical center close to the line, back behind the wire. They get you as stable as they can, to get you off to a hospital where they can address things further
Curtis 8:50
Correct. Yeah, we were transferred from there over to Germany until we were completely stable and able to go back to the United
Scott Benner 9:00
States. Yeah. Did your buddy make it as far as Germany, or did he pass before then
Curtis 9:04
he actually made it all the way back over the US, with me, and then during one of his operations, there was complications, and he passed?
Scott Benner 9:11
No, I'm so sorry. You know, before we started to record, you said, I don't know if there's a connection, but I feel like there could be. So what do you think between all those surgeries and the damage and the infusions and everything like, what is it that you're wondering about
Curtis 9:26
when I finally got diagnosed correctly? You know, I'm lot of now, and I have, what was it? The i Two is crazy high where, currently, right now, my beta cells are being destroyed, just trying to figure out from the trauma to all the blood infusions and all the operations is something either might have got it from somebody else's blood to even was the trauma, the kind of the onset that kind of kicked whatever in gear
Scott Benner 9:58
I see your brains just. All over the place trying to figure out what might have happened to you. Is there autoimmune in your family? You know, beyond type one diabetes? Is there thyroid, celiac, other autoimmune issues, I don't know, even psoriasis or what's the one where your skin gets different colors that Michael Jackson had? Why can't I think of it
Curtis 10:18
all of a sudden? Oh, I know what you're talking about. But, yeah, yeah, anything like that, mom, dad, uncles, aunts, anything you know, I knew you're gonna ask that, so I contacted my family just to make sure every I was correct, and we have no autoimmune. Okay, my father does have type two diabetes, but other than that,
Scott Benner 10:38
yeah, tell him to get in line. Everybody's got that. Okay, so you're not seeing any other autoimmune throughout your family line, correct? Okay, listen, I'm nobody in this scenario, but, like, I don't think you can get type one through an infusion, like, just like somebody else's blood. Kind of a situation that doesn't sound right to me, the traumatic part doesn't not make sense, but it's it would be uncommon with the other stories that people have told me, If the trauma was 20 years before the diagnosis, can I ask you a bigger question around that, I guess, why do you want to know? Why do you care how you got it? Curiosity? Yeah, just to know.
Curtis 11:17
Yeah, that's it. Okay. Just a curiosity. And then, you know, right before I actually finally had to start going to see the doctor and getting told, Oh, well, you're type. Two out of the military. I did a lot of different things, including, I've been a paramedic forever, and during covid, I was a paramedic on the weekends, and during the week, I was doing my normal job, and I caught it once. It wasn't that bad. Caught it again when it really came about, and I was out of work for about a month trying to get over it. Had a real hard, hard time, and I'm considered a long covid patient now because of it. And then I started having to go see doctors again, and that's when I know was told, hey, you know, your sugar is elevated. You got your pre diabetic. You're going to become diabetic if you don't take care of it. And so I really started trying to get as healthy as I possibly could. And then the doctor that I had, she, you know, she was trying to help. She wasn't the nicest about everything, and didn't believe anything I said. And then when I went to the VA to do blood work and everything else, like I normally do, the blood work came back that I was very elevated with a 1c and I was started on ozempic to see if that would help, along with the pills. And I was on that for about a year, and when I went back to my primary care on the health side, my prime, the doctor that I had, she left the practice, so I was given to, I was given a nurse practitioner to look over my care. And when I was telling her everything was going going on, and I told her, this is my care team. This is how I like to operate, she looked at me and said, well, all y'all are stupid awesome. I was like, okay. So I was like, Well, this is gonna be the first and probably the last time I'm gonna see you, ain't you?
Scott Benner 13:16
Oh, give me a second, because there's a lot to unpack here. So let me go back to you in the military, you weren't 300 pounds. Would you weigh in the
Curtis 13:24
military? Because I was also a bodybuilder in the military. I was about 232
Scott Benner 13:30
40. So how tall
Curtis 13:34
Can I ask five eight? My wife says I'm 510 but you
Scott Benner 13:38
know, that's what she just tells her friends, you're not tall, you're not short, you're you're carrying a lot of muscle. It sounds like, yes, where does the weight come? Is it come sitting in the hospital? Does it come after that? Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. It might sound crazy to say, but Summertime is right around the corner. That means more swimming, sports activities, vacations, and you know what's a great feeling, being able to stay connected to automated insulin delivery while doing it all. Omnipod five is the only tube free automated insulin delivery system in the US, and because it's tube free and waterproof, it goes everywhere you do, in the pool, in the ocean or on the soccer field. Unlike traditional insulin pumps, you never have to disconnect from Omnipod five for daily activities, which means you never have to take a break from automated insulin delivery ready to go tube free. Request your free Omnipod five Starter Kit today at omnipod.com/juicebox Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary full Terms and Conditions. Can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox type that link into your browser, or go to Juicebox podcast.com and click on the image of Omnipod right at the bottom. There's also a link right in the show notes of your podcast player. You've probably heard me talk about us. Med. How simple it is to reorder with us med using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you, but I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email, because I don't trust myself 100% so one time I didn't respond to the email, and the phone rings the house. It's like, ring. You know how it works. And I picked it up. I was like, hello, and it was just the recording was like, us. Med doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. It said, Hey, you're I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, Hey, your order's ready. You want us to send it? Push this button if you want us to send it, or if you'd like to wait. I think it lets you put it off, like, a couple of weeks, or push this button for that. That's pretty much it. I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door. That's it us. Med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, get your free benefits check now and get started with us. Med, Dexcom, Omnipod, tandem freestyle, they've got all your favorites, even that new eyelet pump. Check them out now at us, med.com/juicebox, or by calling 888-721-1514, there are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at Juicebox podcast.com to us, med and all the sponsors.
Curtis 16:18
It just came after that. You know, being sedentary in the hospital. I did gain weight, and then it just kept on being an issue. And then, you know, I had the depression, real bad after everything, especially losing my buddy, so much so in when was it, I was released out of the military with a medical honorable discharge in 2008 I completely felt lost in everything I did because I didn't have that structure anymore. I led to drinking very heavily, and at one point at my lowest, I decided I didn't want to deal with this anymore. I attempted suicide. You made an attempt. I did okay. I was successful in the attempt, but what I used didn't work. So I to be honest with you, I put my handgun to my head and I pulled the trigger. The firing pin hit the blasting cap of the round. The round just never went off. When that happened, I realized how stupid I was, because I was going to end my life and I was just going to put a ton of burden on my family. After that, I decided I'm done with it. I stopped drinking, and I stopped taking all my payments, and I went through a horrible detox in the hospital for a little bit of time. Once I got detox, I came back out, I started becoming, I was a paramedic for a system here, again, working as a paramedic. There was a young lady that sparked my interest for some reason. You know, I was always, You don't ever play where you work. But there was a young lady at one of the hospitals that me and her became really good friends. It was great. She helped me through a lot, and she was the first person that I've ever let in to my bubble, ever since I left the military, especially with, you know, my scarring and everything, because I have skin grafts, and I have scars where I've had operations and everything, and it's not the easiest thing to look at. Okay, one time, she had to do something, and I told her to just come stay at my house, my apartment, because she would something was being done at her house, and I worked nights. She worked days. I was like, you can sleep in the bed. I'll take the couch, and we have opposite shifts. We won't see each other. Well, I think day two or three, she came in because she got off a little earlier, and I was I took a little bit later shift, and I was coming out of the shower, and she was coming into the apartment. I didn't hear her. She didn't hear me, and she walked into the bathroom, and that was the first time that I've ever seen a woman walking in on me at my most vulnerable time, and she saw the scars and the markings and everything, and she didn't look horrified. And that was in 2011 and I'm happy to say that that is my wife. Now, she completes me. I mean, she has helped me tremendously from the depression to the memory loss and everything else that I've I've had to deal with ever since my injury. Yeah, and
Scott Benner 19:40
yeah Curtis was that was the memory loss. Does it cover a segment? Or does it cover everything before the injury? Like, I mean, did you forget the day and the week, but not your 10th birthday? Or, do you know what I mean? Like, how much did you lose when
Curtis 19:55
I was injured and had that I did not have any memory? From anything prior. I didn't know who my parents were. I didn't know I was with somebody at that time. I didn't know who anybody was. All I know was something was going on, and I didn't know what what was going on, and it freaked me out. Yeah, still today, I have a heart. I have maybe a handful of memories from my past before the incident, just little spurts, because something happened and it brought up a memory, but yeah,
Scott Benner 20:27
did stuff return? Like did somebody have to tell you that's your mom and reintroduce you to her? Did that come back?
Curtis 20:32
I didn't know who my parents were, and they told me who they were, and I still was very reluctant to believe it. Wow. But one day, I was sitting at home at my place, and Phil Collins in the air, in the air, yeah, came on over the radio, and it sparked a memory. And I was like, it surprised me. It was of me and my father. When he used to own part of a towing business, he would always take me in the tow truck, and we go and do everything. And it sparked a memory of me and him riding in the truck, listening to in the air tonight, and then I saw his face, and that's when it clicked, that is truly
Scott Benner 21:21
my father. That's the first time you're able to believe it really was your dad.
Curtis 21:25
Yep, and that happened. Oh, probably 2010 2011
Scott Benner 21:31
Did you share that with him? Did you tell him? Yeah, good.
Curtis 21:34
That's awesome. Yeah, it was really rough on my parents, because, you know, they see me as injured as I was, and so confused and scared, and they just wanted help, but I was so scared that I didn't know who they were, and I didn't want anybody
Scott Benner 21:51
near me. No, I understand that from little things to big things. What if someone lied you about something about your personality and told them like, you love this but you didn't, or you don't. I mean, like, if you were married, somebody definitely would have said you love doing the laundry and vacuuming, right? How do you trust anything? Because you're hoping these people are being clear with you, but you have no way to, like, I mean, I'm assuming there's pictures and you know, stuff like that, but still you're saying it's, it's hard to swallow that pill. Yeah.
Curtis 22:18
So I've seen all sorts of pictures of my past and videos and everything. And then once my brothers and my sister found out truly what I did in the military, I now no longer have a relationship with one of my sisters and two of my brothers
Scott Benner 22:37
because of your job in the military. Yes, sir, they don't like what you were doing, correct? Would you tell would you tell me what your job was?
Curtis 22:46
Let's just put it this way, I was deployed to unalive targets or people.
Scott Benner 22:51
Okay, so you were moving through places, hitting targets?
Curtis 22:56
Yes, in a way, okay, I had a very small skill set that not many of us had. Unfortunately, I do have some of the memories of what I've done in the military ever since it's been so long and the faces haunt me on a daily basis. You
Scott Benner 23:15
stop me if I'm asking too much. Were you a sniper?
Curtis 23:19
I was a Scout Sniper, yes, yeah,
Scott Benner 23:21
God, yeah. That's the thing we talk about. This is me being academic about it. I obviously have no context for it, but having a big conversation here the other day about, like, what it must be like for these kids that are flying drones now too, you know, because you're controlling the thing, and the thing is shooting somebody and but with you, you're you're looking through a scope and you're seeing that person. Yes, there's no getting around it. Do you ever think maybe it's good you don't remember it?
Curtis 23:49
Yes, I do, because the little bits that I do remember and the constant reminders I do have and the nightmares they
Scott Benner 23:57
suck. Curtis, it occurs to me as you're telling me that like if you don't remember anything from your past, but you can picture, you know, some of the the engagements that you had, but you don't have the rest of who you are like the rest of who you were. Might have been trained to deal with that better. The new you doesn't have that training or that experience, right? You see, I'm saying like you maybe, maybe the old you was good at it, which I know is kind of a horrifying thing for people to hear or think, but, but maybe that person was better suited to be a sniper than the person who you are now. And now you're stuck with some of that person's memories but none of their coping
Curtis 24:35
skills. Well, I see what you're saying, but you know, one thing that has helped me is, you know, being a firefighter paramedic for as long as I have been while I was in the service and out of the service, and everything that we've seen on the different calls that I've been to, from shooting, stabbings to suicides, homicides, you name it, it is actually made it to where I was able to cope a whole lot better because of. Everything that I've been through and seeing, okay, but there's always going to be some of these images that I'll never get out of hand. Do you ever wonder if they're real? Sometimes? Yeah, yeah, Wow, gosh, man, but it's a lot. Unfortunately, I know it is real. That's the bad part. Yeah. Also, I'll
Scott Benner 25:20
be listening to Weird road to go down, and I understand that people could be morally outraged by the job, but is your sister and you mean, you're in the military, they give you a job. You do the job, right? Like, what would have happened if you said no? Thank you. Does that happen? Do you know what I mean?
Curtis 25:33
Like, if you were to say no in a time of war, yeah, that could be punishable up to including
Scott Benner 25:42
death. That's a tough thing to for your sister to hang on you. I think. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not in her situation. But maybe it's, you know, just hard for her to talk to you. Maybe it's just hard for her to make sense of all of it. I don't know. I'm so sorry. There's a lot in there. Man, you're young too. Still, you're, would you say you're 42 Yeah, it's been 42 you've been through a bunch. Let's figure out the diabetes part. Like so we heard the part about you, um, being diagnosed as a type two. They gave you Metformin. Ozempic. Ozempic, help you lose weight.
Curtis 26:11
Actually, believe it or not, ozempic. I was on the highest dose, and they did nothing for my weight.
Scott Benner 26:16
What were you taking? I can't think about the highest doses. Is it two?
Curtis 26:20
Point? Is it two, two or three, I can't never remember that's
Scott Benner 26:24
that's not enough to lose the weight, if it's not working for you. But okay, so you were on ozempic. Did it help your blood sugars? I mean, it might have helped a little bit back then, right?
Curtis 26:31
It did help the ozembic, the Metformin, and the other met. I was on the combination of them, I still ran kind of a higher blood sugar. But yeah, I was still staying in the pre diabetic range.
Scott Benner 26:46
For people who thought you had type two or pre diabetes, they were pretty happy with the care. They didn't realize that you were just in a very early stage of
Curtis 26:53
Lada, correct, right? And with how my job is very active, that helps while I'm at work, my sugars stay pretty dag I'm good. But anytime I'm not at work because I don't have the adrenaline going and I'm not going fast, that's when they kept on, my sugars would go up. Yeah. So I lost the one doctor because she moved, and so I got this new one that said I was stupid pretty much. And at that time, it was time for my interest to get a new pre authorization for Zimbabwe. She was like, Yeah, I'll fill it out, but I don't think they're going to give it to you because you're under what you
Scott Benner 27:30
need to be. Oh, for the A 1c she should have tried for Manjaro, or we go V for you for weight before.
Curtis 27:36
Well, she filled it out, and then it came back that, you know, they denied it. And I was like, Well, can you, you know, rebuttal this and get it figured out and see what we need to do? Because this was my a, 1c, and she was like, No, it's just, you know, that's what they're gonna say. And she was like, you're pretty much just gonna have to get sick worse than you are now.
Scott Benner 27:58
I gotta. I got a close friend this happened to recently, where they basically told her to get type two diabetes and then they'll give it to her. And she's like, Yeah, no. I mean, awesome, right? Like, what a message from I know it's insurance, and insurance isn't health care really, you know what? I mean, it's that's not your doctor. Your doctor wants you to have it, but can I ask a question? Like, it's gonna kind of bother me until I ask it to you, go for it. It's a hustle job, right? I see the guy that works on my street. He's running the whole day in and out of that truck. How are you 300 pounds hustling like that? I
Curtis 28:29
don't know, because we hustle, and when we hustle, and I'm in a state that stays very, very hot, I live down in Texas, you're sweating your ass off on top of everything else. Exactly, during the summer, the back of that truck can be anywhere from 120 to 150 degrees, easy.
Scott Benner 28:46
So for people listening, are you eating a lot of calories, and that's how you're maintaining the weight? Or do you think it's something more metabolic? Or do you you have any idea?
Curtis 28:56
We weren't sure because I was on a low carb honestly, for my breakfast, I was drinking a protein shake that I made at home. So it was all natural. You know, you knew what was. It wasn't just Exactly, yeah. So there was that. And then for lunch was chicken and broccoli every single day, Jesus,
Scott Benner 29:14
and you 300 pounds and you're in a sweat box and you're running around like a lunatic, yes, geez, at what point do you say to yourself, How is this not impacting my weight?
Curtis 29:24
When the referral or the pre authorization got denied at that point, I was at 270 okay? And I was like, well, let's see what's gonna happen now. And so I kept on doing the same thing I always did and and because the nurse practitioner, or was she a nurse practitioner or a PA, either one, but she didn't believe me. I was like, You know what? How about you get me a Dexcom? I was like, then I can prove that I'm not lying. Because you don't believe believe me. This the woman that called you stupid. Yes, yeah. Well, tell me again. Why? Did she call you stupid? What did you say that gave her that response because I told her how, with my VA doctor telling me that even though I'm on the pills and ozembic at that time, that if I couldn't get everything under control, my sugar was going to keep on elevating to where we were going to have to look at the possible use of
Scott Benner 30:22
insulin. To you said that, and she said, You're stupid. Yep, that's common, isn't it?
Curtis 30:27
And the thing that was funny was, my wife was at that appointment with me, but she will not open up her mouth unless I you know, yeah. And she was biting her tongue going she was looking at this woman as you're an absolute
Scott Benner 30:47
idiot. I don't understand sometimes, but
Curtis 30:51
she held her tongue so they agreed to do the Dexcom. And three months go by, and I go back to her, and at this time I am incredibly sick. I gained another this is the time now I'm about 300 pounds. I have no energy whatsoever. I feel like absolute my a 1c, is now skyrocketed. Oh, geez. And she was like, Huh, well, maybe you do have type two I was like, Well, I've got something because I don't
Scott Benner 31:24
feel right. Yeah, something's up. So she went from believing that you were pre diabetic, but now thinking maybe you definitely have type two diabetes, right?
Curtis 31:33
And, you know, I brought in the Dexcom reports, and I brought in a binder of everything, every single thing I ate, and at what time I ate it, every single day.
Scott Benner 31:45
Yeah, you're on a little bit of, a little bit of a mission to show her, huh? Oh,
Curtis 31:49
yeah, when you tell me I'm wrong, I'm gonna prove you I'm
Scott Benner 31:52
right. I mean, I don't know why people can't just hear what you're saying and go, Oh, that's pot because you didn't say anything that's not reasonable. Like, you know, could have just said, Hey, let's, let's look into that for you. But nevertheless, okay, so you brought up reports. I'm sorry. Then what
Curtis 32:05
happened? So then she was like, Okay, well, let's see if we can get you on ozembic insurance. Comes back that prioritization. They okayed it, but they're not going to cover that drug because that's not on their formulary. Now,
Scott Benner 32:17
awesome. I was like, Okay, great.
Curtis 32:19
So then I was got, I was put on monjuro, okay? And she was like, now that I'm putting you on mongero, you have to come see me every, every three months and whatnot, or I won't continue the prescription. Did the mangero help you lose weight? Well, after I started taking the monjuro, I started seeing my blood sugars coming down. Yeah. I ended up getting up to 12 and a half milligrams of monturo.
Scott Benner 32:49
That's the dose I'm on. By the way, 12 and a half. Yep, yep. With that,
Curtis 32:54
my diet, exercise, you know, still constantly doing everything I am now, currently, today, I'm at 210
Scott Benner 33:01
pounds. Hey, man, look at you. That's awesome. Congratulations. I appreciate it. Yeah, I wanted to let you tell the story, because I wasn't sure where it's gonna go, but I was just chomping at the bit myself to tell you, like, get off the ozempic. Go for the manjar, the Zepp bound, you know, because it's also got a G I P in it, and that'll definitely help with the weight loss. You've lost 90 pound,
Curtis 33:20
yeah, but during that time I, you know, I was slowly climbing each level that you had to and, you know, my blood sugars was still messing around. Just not, not something, it's not right. I went back to that Doc, and I was like, Look, something's not right. I still don't feel right. I think something more is going on. And she's like, No, you just need to lose more weight. You need to eat right? And then this will all go away. I was like, it's not going away. That's the problem, because now my sugars are starting to increase again,
Scott Benner 33:54
right? Also, you're now, you're 20 pounds under when you were running around Fallujah, wherever the hell you are. So, like, I don't know where you are. I'm not asking, but like, I mean, you're out in the let me make the assumption you're out in the desert, right? Yeah, yes, right, right. You're 20 pounds under the weight you were when you were operating there, and you're still seeing the blood sugars. And then she says, lose more weight. Did you say that doesn't make any I can't stand
Curtis 34:19
I looked at her, and I was like, you know, if you're not going to help? I was like, it's pretty sad that I'm asking you for help, because I'm trying to better myself and get my health back into where it needs to be, and you're hinder of it. Like, you know what I'm done, right? I was like, I'm gonna go find another doctor, because you're just not going anywhere. I then went to another provider that's actually works with my wife at the same clinic, and they overtook my care and with how everything was, they were like, you know, let's try a little bit of long acting insulin, just to see what happens. I was like, okay, because I have what is that the dawn for. Phenomenon, phenomenon where I would be high as can be in the morning. It was crazy, right? And so we titrated, and I was, I ended up going up to, I think, 22 units a night, okay? And it was kind of working. But then summer came and working outside, pardon my language, it was a crap shoot, because it was like, okay, am I gonna get too hot to where? Then during the day, I'm gonna be even worse off, because I took too much Lantus and and then it went from having Lantus to then I had ended up having to have short acting as well. And insurance covered Nova log, bless my provider, they put me on a sliding scale. And I looked at him, I was like, Okay, I'll try this for a week, and we'll see how it goes. But after a week, if it doesn't do what it should do, I'm going to do it my way. Okay? And they looked at me and was like,
Scott Benner 35:55
How'd you know that there was a different way when they tell you sliding scale, how do you know there's other ways to use insulin
Curtis 35:59
from your wife. When I was diagnosed, you know, my wife had a good knowledge, but when I want to know something, I researched and I researched the, you know, what out of everything, so much so that I saw a lot of type ones are carb counting, and I'm like, okay, yes, I'm a type two, but I'm on insulin. Type ones are on insulin. So why can't I do the same thing a type one does?
Scott Benner 36:27
Yeah? To see if that works. Yeah. Man, it's just, I mean, if you look into it, it makes sense immediately. So that's great. So at what point does someone realize you're not type two? Is that recent? That more recently,
Curtis 36:40
it was very recently, so at the beginning of this year, I told the provider. I was like, Look, I really think I need to be placed on a pump. Because with me working outside and taking the long acting, yeah, and taking the short acting, I swear that long acting messes with me throughout the day, if it gets too hot. I was like, something needs to change. And she was like, Well, I've never worked with a pump. I don't feel comfortable with a pump. Oh, okay. I was like, Okay. I was like, well, then the next step is I need to get somebody in my care team that's comfortable with a pump. I talked with my wife, and I told her, Hey, I'm really looking at a pump. I think that'll probably be the best thing for me with how everything is. She was like, Okay, how do you want to go about it? I was like, well, several years ago, I went to a dinner with my wife that had a speaker in our area talk about diabetes and ozempic, okay? And so I learned a lot from that, little meeting. Well, for Endo, she is huge on research when it comes to diabetes and everything, and she is very well known. And so I was like, well, then that's who I want my endo to be, and that's also the endo that my wife refers to, okay? And I was like, Well, I want the best. I don't want something mediocre. We had a consult put in because of how my schedule was and everything else, told it was going to be about a four or five month wait, and ended up being closer to six months. I went and saw her middle of August to prepare I you know, I asked my provider. I was like, hey, what I want done is, let's do labs. So when I walk in there, I have everything to give her, and there's no question about anything. I was like, so I want all my labs done that I do every three months. But I also want all my antibodies for type one
Scott Benner 38:36
done. Get that out of the way too. So yeah, just so I
Curtis 38:40
walk in a week before my appointment, you know, all my labs come back, and I look at my wife, and my wife has been saying, you know, there's something about you that's different. You're not type two and you're not type one. She was like, you're in between, because you have a lot of the traits of both of them. And that's why we went with the testing, and when we got the results back, before I went to the appointment, it showed that I had pretty much Lada. And my wife was like, I knew it. And I was like, well, you sounds like you're right. I'm not ever gonna say you're wrong, that's for sure. So I did my research, got it all figured out. And then I also put in a list of, hey, this is what how my progress has been. And because I knew, because I've had a fight with several providers to get anything done correctly, that needed to be done, yeah, so I was ready to go in there. I was going to listen to them, but I was ready to react if I need to, and say, Hey, here's the facts. This is what I want. This is how we're going to do it. I walked in and, you know, they were asking me some questions, and I had everything from them, from how much insulin I was taking at any given time, I told them, You know, I was doing the sliding scale, but I went and did the carb counting. I know my car. Ratio. I know my insulin resistance, I know it all. What do you want to know? And they looked at me and said, How do you know all this stuff? And I was like, Well, I researched a lot, and then I got tired of researching, and I was starting to look for podcasts. I said, I listened to five or six podcasts before I was like, You know what I'm done. None of them are helping. They were boring to me. And then I was like, then I of course, saw your podcast, and I was like, Huh, I guess I'll listen to his newest one, just see how it is. Okay. And during it you were talking about the Pro Series episode, 1000 1026 or something like that, yeah. And I was like, huh, now I'm really interested. So I listened to those, and that's what helped me with my carb ratio, insulin resistance and just getting my levels all figured out myself, I'm glad. And when I went into the Indo, I said, here's everything. And they're like, Well, what would you like to do today? And I was like, Well, honestly, I was coming in for help, and they were like, well, has anybody talked to you about a pump? Because she, she looked at my blood work, and she was like, Oh, you're Lada. And I was like, Oh, wow, I'm not even gonna have to fight for this. Yes, you just looked at I was like,
Scott Benner 41:13
Curtis is like, I'm so ready for this fight, and nobody gonna fight. But you know why there's no fight because you, because of all what you did, right? They were like, You're
Curtis 41:22
a very type A personality. And I'm like, No, I just want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row before I walk in, trying
Scott Benner 41:27
to stay alive. Thanks. Yeah. What do you think, Curtis, is it about you that makes that your reaction? Because I talk to people all the time, and they all have, you know, the same ability you do. And they could, they could make decisions like that and get out ahead and collect information. But some of them do, and some of them don't. You have any idea about why you're a person who does
Curtis 41:46
the big thing is, is, I'm tired of feeling sick. I just want to feel good again. I wanted to be better. You know, I've got my wife, I've got four kids, and I'm looking at this going, if I don't take care of myself, I'm gonna start being like my father, who's type two, that's not really good control, and you can see it. And I've tried helping him, but he's like, Oh, I'll listen to what the docs say. Okay. But I was like, I do. I'm not ready to leave this planet just yet because of my stupidity. Again, I got you and you know, instead of using a firearm. It's, it would be diabetes, taking care of myself. Yeah, so you'd be
Scott Benner 42:25
making the decision, yeah, it's so funny. You're talking about this Curtis. I made an episode earlier today with Erica. She's in a lot of the mental health stuff. I kind of drag her into an episode where I was like, Look, I want to talk about the trolley problem. And I think, and I don't know if you know that that's like a like a thought exercise, right? If there were five people as a runaway trolley, five people tied to the track, you have nothing to do with tying them there. And then there's a lever, and if you pull the lever, the trolley would divert onto another track, but there's a person tied up there, would you pull the lever divert the track so that the one person was killed instead of the five people. Pretty common, you know, thought exercise. It's, you know, people talk about all the time that bigger picture. You'll have to listen to the episode to hear kind of where my brain went with it. But it made me think about people's inaction and and how with health, you can see people make the decision that, like, I didn't do this to myself, there's a big bad wolf out there somewhere. They tied the people to this track, this health track that I'm on. It's got nothing to do with me. If I don't do anything and something goes wrong, it's not my fault. It's an unseen foe's fault. It's a bad guy somewhere that did something to me, but if I get involved in it, now suddenly the outcomes are on me. It's easier to do nothing and then get to blame a faceless thing later. And you're telling me that that's what your dad's
Curtis 43:48
doing, kind of but he's actually now starting to he's control of Look at him. Awesome. You getting through to him too. I am. And I actually have, I was telling my mom. I was like, hey, you need to get dad to get tested for type one. I was like, just because of how I've been watching his numbers, because they let me start looking at his numbers through his Dexcom. Yeah, I'm seeing how one, a pump will help him tremendously. So I'm not really trying to push it on him, but I'm saying, hey, a pump could really help to tell them, hey, try Pre-Bolus. Don't, don't do this sliding scale like you're told. Let's figure out your carb count. Let's figure out insulin resistant and everything else. And go from there. Yeah, I was like, once I did that, things turned
Scott Benner 44:35
around for me. Curtis, I gotta tell you, you've been talking for 50 minutes. You've said a lot of interesting things. But I just want to point out that what my ego heard was there are five other podcasts out there about diabetes that are boring. That's all I heard. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding, but that's I pre I appreciate you being kind about mine.
Curtis 44:51
Oh, it's on. It's me being honest. And actually, once I went to the Endo, I will say that they were. On board with everything that I requested. And then they asked me about pumps. And I was like, yeah, it's easy. I want the tandem Moby. And they're like, but that's tubed. I was like, You got to understand, I work outside. It's hot. If it gets too hot, I can take that off, put it in my cooler to cool it down a little bit, and then put it back on.
Scott Benner 45:20
You. Like the idea of it being able to take it off? I would also imagine with the Moby being able to wear with one of those, what that on body kind of thing? Or you could clip it sleeve, yeah. So you have options there too.
Curtis 45:32
Actually, believe it or not, I wear boxer briefs and clip it. For some reason, they put pockets on them for some time on the boxer briefs, yeah, just a little, little, little pocket to put, like, your phone in it, or what, I just dropped the Moby in it, and that's where it sits. Curtis. You
Scott Benner 45:49
got to be careful. You lose a little more weight. Those briefs are going to slide right off you.
Curtis 45:53
I went from what a size 42 to a 34
Scott Benner 45:56
Isn't it crazy? I mean, you've lost 90. I've lost about 70. My brother and I were somewhere the other day, and he's getting, like, picking up like, a sweatshirt as a memory of the day somewhere. And I was in there with him, and you guys might know from listening to him, I'm very cheap, so I was walking around, and I'm like, Oh, these are expensive. Blah, blah, blah. And he's like, you can afford a sweatshirt. Oh, my God, I want to spend all the money on that. And then I saw a t shirt, and I was like, I do like that T shirt, though. And it was stylistically, not something that I would have bought prior to having lost weight, because there was an image on the front. I would never want somebody to be looking at the image, because then you could see the topography of my visage. You know what I mean? Like when you're wearing a solid color, it's a little harder to see your tits, I guess is what I'm saying here. I had no trouble buying the image with you on the shirt, and on top of that, I tried on a couple of different sizes, and I left with a medium, and I was a two XL. You know, what a great experience and be, you know, plus the way I feel, and, you know, how much better I feel and am and etc. Are you feeling like now that you've got your diabetes and check on top of your weight. Can you describe the change that's happened for you from 300 pounds not on insulin to on insulin to 20 or two
Curtis 47:11
Well, I will say having insulin is a little different. It was a big change to get used to, but I mean losing the weight and with me constantly exercising, I didn't have a lot of excess skin that some some people do, which is great, right? But because I've lost weight, I've got more energy, yeah, and I feel like I can do more, whereas there's some things that I couldn't do, because just walking, I get a little
Scott Benner 47:37
winded. You must have exhausted yourself. That work during the day, so I would imagine weren't worth anything. When you got home
Curtis 47:44
exactly, I was ready to go to bed. And then even right now, if my blood sugar goes anywhere over 135 I am worthless, like me and my wife can sit there, everything's fine. And once it hits over 135 I get, like, automatically sleepy. I'm ready to go to sleep,
Scott Benner 48:00
you've gotten your management to the point where sounds like your your blood sugars are lower your and your variability is very low too.
Curtis 48:08
So my last blood draw, my a 1c was a 5.2 or 5.1 and the standard deviation that I run with the Dexcom is anywhere from seven to
Scott Benner 48:23
12. Jesus, that's awesome. Do you think you're still honeymooning? Do you think the lot is still like, are you, I don't wanna say full blown, but like, are you still
Curtis 48:32
currently not converted all the way? I still have some of my beta cells. Okay, that's another thing. So I'm Lada, but if you look at my medical record, it doesn't say that. It says I'm type two insulin dependent. That's crazy, and the reason we had to keep that was we knew that if they were to switch mine to type one or Lata, you'd lose the Manjaro, I would lose manjuro, and they want me to stay on the mangero, because mongero is helping my insulin sensitivity, but it's also helping my heart, my kidneys and everything else. Yeah. So we're going to keep that going as long as we can, because there's studies going on right now about type ones with a GLP, oh yeah, and
Scott Benner 49:16
everything. Keep your head down, Curtis, and they'll be coverage for type ones sooner. Oh yeah, and
Curtis 49:20
so I'm just waiting for that, and then it'll get changed. The middle of August, I was seen by the Endo, and by the end of August, I had the Moby, and I started the Moby, and I went from taking anywhere from I had the 22 units of lannis, and then throughout the day, I was taken anywhere, including the lannis, anywhere from 40 to 80 units a day. Now I'm actually looking at my summary on tandem right now, and it says my average daily daily use of. Uh, insulin is
Scott Benner 50:01
23 units. 23 that's basal
Curtis 50:04
and Bolus together. That's basal and Bolus together.
Scott Benner 50:07
If you have insulin resistance, kids that GOP will help you. Well, I don't care what type you are, that's really awesome. Good for you. That's great. Yeah, you're making me feel through it's the end of the week. You're my last recording this week, and I'm sitting here feeling like, I feel like something I did help somebody, you know what? I mean, like, so I'm having a making me feel good. I appreciate that you share this with us.
Curtis 50:29
You definitely have helped. I mean, you know, after, after that indo appointment, I was like, You know what? I'm about to get put on a pump. I'm gonna listen to the Pro Series again. Started on the Pro Series, and I just started listening every episode after that, and I'm at episode, what was it? Almost 1300 Wow. It's like 1298 because with my job, since I don't really have a lot of interaction with a lot of people, I just listen to the podcast every day, all day long, and it's fun to listen to, because you hear everybody's different stories, and then someone will say something. It's like, Huh? I didn't think about that. Yeah. Well, let's look into
Scott Benner 51:11
that. That's the value, I think, of people, besides the entertainment of it is, is that if you just let people talk, they'll say something that's really valuable. You said something. I mean, it's half an hour ago now that I still feel like in my chest, like I still feel it like, you know, you talked about your attempting suicide. And, I mean, just like the dumb luck of that, of that firing pin, not, not doing its job, right, and, and, and what you took from it, like everything that came to you after that. It's really, I just think, really valuable, because you probably would have had that thought as that bullet was traveling through the chamber, and it would have been too late, yeah, you know what I mean, like that thought that hit you of like, I shouldn't be doing this, and you got, you know, whatever steps in and gives you an opportunity to make another decision, and then you took it, and then everything of your story after that is really just a masterful example of being an adult and taking care of yourself. You're really kicking ass,
Curtis 52:14
man, I appreciate it. I can't take all the credit, though. Now
Scott Benner 52:18
you got a wife, I'm sure she tells you when you're being dumb. That's probably helpful.
Curtis 52:21
And I do tell everybody at the time I married an Irish Red Headed ER nurse Okay, where she could kill me, bring me back to life and kill me again, just because I ticked her off. Well, she is now advanced, and now she's a nurse practitioner, so now she's got a slew of other things she
Scott Benner 52:42
can do to me. So yeah, and she make four babies for you. Well, we're actually a blended family, okay, okay,
Curtis 52:48
I have one son, and she has two sons and a daughter. I'll tell you straight up, they're all my kids. Yeah, I don't care what anybody says. Anytime anybody asked me if I How many kids I got, I always tell them for Yeah, look at you, because I've been with them since they were young. Yeah, our daughter, she's she's now a nurse. Our oldest son, he is an engineer. Our middle son, he is actually today, taking the test to become a to get into the police academy. So we're hoping he does well there. Good luck. Our youngest is finishing up high school. Wow.
Scott Benner 53:24
Man, look at you guys. That's awesome. You're a lovely person, too. Curtis, this is my first time really meeting. I've seen you online a little bit, but not to this level, obviously. Yes, sir, yeah, man, this is really wonderful view. What made you want to share this with everybody? Everybody's
Curtis 53:37
got a story, and you know you guys, right? My story might impact somebody to say, hey, you know, I've been there, and if I can pull through it, you can, yeah. I could tell you I still have my dark days. I always will. I
Scott Benner 53:54
wanted to ask you about depression. Is that something you still fight with
Curtis 53:58
every day? Yeah. But I can honestly tell you, I'll never, I'll never attempt on my life again, because now one I realized how stupid I was backed in and that was before I met my wife. Now I've got all my family, include my parents and brother. I've got four kids that look at me and if I was willing to do that and hurt myself again? How would that help them? And so everything I do is I do it for my family. I don't play that game anymore.
Scott Benner 54:28
Yeah, there's worse reasons to do things. That's for sure. That's a that's a that's a pretty good one. I really do appreciate you telling me this. I want to make sure. Is there anything? Like, I don't want to I'm not cutting you off, but like, if I just feel like you did such a good job of telling your story that if I keep talking, it's just gonna, it's gonna ruin what you did. But I want to make sure there's nothing that we missed.
Curtis 54:48
The biggest thing is is, you know, if somebody on the edge of, Do I need a pump? Do I not need a pump? Should I be on insulin? Do your research. I mean, honestly, do a little bit of research goes a long. Way, and with me doing the research and me presenting everything that I needed to at the doctor. But you know, I had it all in a binder, everything from my meds, my history, to everything about my diabetes to my lab work, and they just flipped through it and said, Wow, you are really organized. They didn't
Scott Benner 55:20
have a problem. Yeah, you did their job for them, really, right? I will
Curtis 55:24
say my indo did tell me they're like, Well, you know, you have a five two, which is really good. Just realize that these pumps, you might not keep it that low, because, you know, their target range is higher than what I've always kept my stuff at. I was like, I understand that, but it'll help keep me feeling better. Yeah, I mean, and instead of having to have two different insulins, I have one insulin. And, you know, I run the control IQ algorithm, I let it do its thing, and it keeps me in check really well. And the reason I went with tandem instead of the Omnipod one, if I was to pull the Omnipod off to cool it down, well, I just, you can't put it back on. I don't get it exactly. And with the Omnipod it, they tend to be less aggressive with their algorithm than the control
Scott Benner 56:19
IQ. Do you know Curtis that right now. I think Omnipod is in a they're doing a study right now. I think they're calling it just it's Omnipod. I don't know if it's five, 2.0 or something like that, but they're doing a study right now to make the algorithm. I'm going to use the word more aggressive. I don't know how they would characterize it, but one way or the other, that's not important. What's important is you find something that works for you and that's for everybody listening. Now, beyond that, what's important is finding something that works for you. But then, of course, once you find it, using my link to buy it, twist.com/juicebox omnipod.com/juicebox. Tandem diabetes.com. So Medtronic diabetes, you would just find the links at the web page. So we can keep making this podcast and hearing from people like Curtis, who has a fascinating you really have, somehow don't remember the first 22 years of your life, only the last 20, and still have four lives worth of stories to tell. Seriously. Oh yeah, no, man, that's that's incredible. Like, I mean, you talked about you're one person. You talked about being injured in battle and nearly dying. Did you get the Purple Heart? Yes. Did they give you a medal for covering your body? They requested it. I did. I didn't want it. You didn't want it. Okay? No, well, you deserve he was a brother. No, I hear you, man, but like you weren't wearing that vest anymore when you got on top of him, right? Nope, yeah. Okay, so that in itself is a story. Then there's everything that happened you with your memory loss and your recovery, that's a story in itself, fighting through this type two diabetes misdiagnosis thing. I mean, I don't know how many times I'm going to talk to somebody about it, but it's horrifying, and most people don't have the great outcome that you had. So like, I know how difficult that is. The subplot here of the story with your your sister judging you the way she does, and you've lost family, tried to take your own life. You're fighting with depression, and you're still living a really successful life out in the world, being a great part of it, being a dad to four people, a husband to somebody, and finding a way to take care of yourself, and then taking five minutes to come on here and tell everybody else about it. Yeah, seriously, man, if I had a medal, I'd give it to you. I do not. You're welcome. I don't have one. Just in case you're wondering, I could give you this Dexcom fidget spinner that I have here. I don't know where to send it. I got this at friends for life, guys, if you've been hearing this on the podcast, I apologize. Can you hear it?
Curtis 58:36
I hope not. Oh yeah, you can't hear this. Just heard something spin.
Speaker 1 58:39
I've been fidget spinning for like, weeks now, while I'm talking to people, and originally, probably right now, Rob's editing this and thinking like, is that what that noise is? I didn't know what that was. Usually it's a cricket gets loose in my room and I can't find it, and I'm trying to record and it's in the background, like making a bunch of noise. But that's a different story. If you don't listen to enough of the podcast, that's not going to make any sense
Curtis 59:00
to you. Just let one of your little guys run around. You know
Scott Benner 59:02
what? That's not though I'm getting right now. One of them is definitely looking at me like, let's do one more. One more Roach today. He's giving me the big eyes. So,
Curtis 59:10
so the cool thing is, just to add on to the story, because with my lows, I can't tell you when I get low until I hit about 30. Oh, once I hit 30, I got less than five minutes to do something about it, or I'm down.
Scott Benner 59:27
Yeah, we don't want you that low. How does that happen? I mean, you're on a seat, you're in a CGM, right?
Curtis 59:31
Sometimes it happens pretty quick, fast. It's just really weird. So because of it, that's one thing that my wife was very worried about, you know, us sleeping, and next thing we know it, she's not hearing the alarms. And I am very hypo to where, if you look at service dogs, and people have said stuff about it on the Facebook post, they're like, $30,000 yeah.
Scott Benner 59:54
I mean, I don't know who's supporting that. I actually, apparently got, got somebody one for free in a giveaway. I. Forgotten about it. I interviewed, I interviewed him, and she, she the kid, her kid, her kid, her son, won a trip to camp Sweeney through the podcast, and she's thanking me for it, and then she's like, also, I'm the one that won the service dog in your giveaway. And I was like, wait, what also? Well, listen, first of all, let's be clear. Do you have backsemi or G vogue at the house? So you have glucagon with you? I have g vote because of your podcast. Good, good, good. Let them hear that people know activity. A lot of times you'll see like, latent lows overnight when you have activity, but you have activity every day with your job. Yeah.
Curtis 1:00:33
So we actually end because I used to have a service dog in the past. Unfortunately, she died of cancer.
Scott Benner 1:00:40
Oh, my God, I'm sorry. Was that more for, like, just emotional support
Curtis 1:00:44
kind of Yeah, she actually was deployed several times over in the sandbox as well. She was actually a military working dog. She retired and got to come home and live with me. She was converted into a service dog to help me through the PTSD and all that Shepherd Curtis, she was a Belgian Malinois. Oh, wow, beautiful dog. Okay. Oh, she was, yeah. And I told my wife, you know, if we're gonna do this, we'll train the dog ourselves. One and two, I was like, I don't want a big dog again. I was like, I need something small, because I ride a Harley all the time, and so much so that I gave her something impossible to find, and leave it to a woman. She found it. So now I have a I'm not kidding you. She's less than two pounds, a little chihuahua.
Scott Benner 1:01:38
Are you telling me that it's you on a Harley with a chihuahua in a saddle bag.
Curtis 1:01:44
Yep, she's been trained for my lows. We still train daily by using saliva from when I was low and everything. But she she is jumped on that bandwagon, and that little dog can detect a low,
Scott Benner 1:02:01
really quick. Kidding, you trained your own service Chihuahua. Uh huh,
Curtis 1:02:05
yeah. So just think about a big, big guy jumping off a Harley with a chihuahua on his
Scott Benner 1:02:11
chest, honestly, Curtis, all I can think about is when I sit down three months from now and explain to chat GPT to make me an image of a of a burly guy on a Harley Davidson going through Texas with a chihuahua in a saddlebag to see what it comes up with. Oh,
Curtis 1:02:28
you're gonna have to send it to me, because in 20 or next year or 2028 I'm actually going to be doing a 10,000 mile motorcycle challenge. Good for you, and I've got to raise money for a charity, but I also have to get sponsors for it, because it's going to cost about $17,000 to do to go on the ride. And it's a ride where you can't use GPS. It's all secondary highways. It's not really any interstates. The directions that you're given are old maps go, but not maps go. Map Quest directions you have a tracker. If you go over 99 miles an hour, you get disqualified. If you get pulled over by a cop, you get disqualified. And whenever you stop to sleep, you have to sleep next to your motorcycle.
Scott Benner 1:03:20
Oh, you can only sleep where you can put the bike.
Curtis 1:03:23
No, last year they went from Daytona, Florida down to Key West, Key West to Homer, Alaska. A buddy of mine did it, and he actually finished first. It was awesome to watch him. Yeah, and I've decided that what I am going to do, because in my local area, there is actually a diabetic alert dog trainer. I'm talking with him, and what I'm going to try doing is getting enough raising enough money to where I can actually pay for two diabetic alert dogs to be given to diabetics in need, and I'm hoping that I can give at least one
Scott Benner 1:04:04
to a better Oh, I hope you can do that too. That'd be amazing, really. So yeah, Curtis, I had the opportunity last year to give a number of slots away to kids to go to camp, actually, a diabetes camp in Texas called Camp Sweeney, right? I can't tell you how, how good that ended up feeling. It wasn't even money out of my pocket. I was just doing it like from the podcast, you know what I mean? Like I was kind of the front face of it, and I felt terrific about it. I really did so much. So they reached out to me just recently, in September of 2025 they reached back out and they said, Hey, would you give some more away for next season? I said, Absolutely, that'd be great. And I've already reached out to a sponsor and asked them if they could cover the part that the camp Sweeney can't cover. And I'm hoping to give four away again next year, just because you'll see how good it'll make you feel if you're able to give someone that dog is what I'm saying. Oh yeah, definitely it'll be special for you. I wish you a ton of a ton of luck. I hope you can accomplish that. I. I know it's hard to get people to sponsor things and, you know, like that kind of stuff too, because they're going to be looking for, you know, what are they going to get out
Curtis 1:05:06
of it? Well, I'm even going to try getting tandem involved, Omnipod, anybody that I can, just to get awareness out. Yeah, the cool thing is, is my goal to do, it is to be one of the top, elite finishers. So if you finish in 10 to 14 days, you're an elite finisher. 14 to 21 days, you're a finisher. In anything over 21 days, you're a slow ass finisher. Well, I want to be the first one across
Scott Benner 1:05:35
Curtis coming in. Is this a company that tracks the riders? Or is there a
Curtis 1:05:38
website? There is a website. I'm not sure if they want me to let people know, but it's a very, very popular challenge for motorcycles.
Scott Benner 1:05:49
Can you just tell me what the challenge is called? Don't, don't worry about the website.
Curtis 1:05:53
Well, I guess, I mean, I don't think they'll kill me for it, but it's called the Hoka Hey, motorcycle challenge. Okay, and it's really cool how it's done, and it's a big challenge for a person to do, because to get done in 10 days, that means I'll be having to do 1000 miles a day.
Scott Benner 1:06:11
Yeah, it's, that's something else. 1000 miles of riding is dude, I've driven 700 miles in a day in a car, and it'll almost, it almost puts me out. You know what I mean. So being up upright on a bike, how would you have you thought already about how to manage your type one during that
Curtis 1:06:30
well, because of the insulin needs, and also I get back injections done because of my
Scott Benner 1:06:36
injury in the back. Yeah,
Curtis 1:06:38
I can't carry it all with me without it going bad. So I've already reached out to them about, you know, my wife meeting me at all the checkpoints to where I can swap out and get the equipment and everything that I need to take care of my diabetes for that stretch.
Scott Benner 1:06:57
Yeah. So you're just gonna have enough on you that if something emergent happens. You can deal with it, but that kind of big supplies are going to be from checkpoint to checkpoint, right? And
Curtis 1:07:07
that's the only place I can meet her, is at a checkpoint, which is fine with me. Pepper, my little chihuahua, she's actually going to take the ride with me, so she's got a little carrier that'll be right behind me in my seat.
Scott Benner 1:07:18
Yeah, well, it's awesome, man, I'm looking, I'm looking at the challenge online now it's great. I really hope you something you can get accomplished. All right. Well, listen, let me, let me say thank you and goodbye. This was absolutely awesome. Really want to just one more time tell you about I'm proud of you, like this is quite an accomplishment, that you're a person who really did a lot with their life in the face of a lot of challenges, and it's very commendable. So congratulations. I appreciate it absolutely. Thank you absolutely. Hold on one second for me.
Okay, us, med sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Check them out at us. Med.com/juicebox, or by calling 888-721-1514, get your free benefits check and get started today with us. Med,
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