#1802 Mother of Invention
After years of confusion and missed signals, Roger confronts the truth about his diabetes—sharing diagnosis, adjustment, insulin, and the mindset shift that finally changed everything.
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Key Takeaways
- Early Diabetes Care: Roger was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 58 years ago at age two, during an era of glass syringes, boiled needles, and urine testing, highlighting how far diabetes management has evolved.
- The Impact of High A1Cs: Living with A1Cs in the 14-15 range for many years led to severe complications for Roger, including total blindness by age 22 and subsequent heart issues.
- Resilience and Adaptation: Despite losing his sight, Roger continued to work, ultimately becoming a skilled custom furniture maker, proving that significant physical challenges can be overcome with determination and adapted methods.
- Accessibility in Diabetes Tech: Roger successfully uses a DIY closed-loop system (Loop) with his Omnipod DASH, relying on screen readers and custom-designed tools (like the "Pod Filler Plus") to manage his diabetes independently as a blind person.
- The Power of Education and Pre-bolusing: Even after decades with diabetes, Roger found immense value in learning modern management techniques, specifically the concept of pre-bolusing, which dramatically improved his A1C.
Resources Mentioned
- Juice Box Podcast Small Sips: Search for "Small Sips" in your podcast player.
- US Med: usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514
- Eversense 365: eversensecgm.com/juicebox
- Tandem Mobi: tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox
- Contour Next ONE Meter: contournext.com/juicebox
- Loop and Learn (Facebook Group): Mentioned as a resource for DIY looping.
- Juice Cruise 2026: juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise
- Wrong Way Recording: wrongwayrecording.com
Introduction and Early Diagnosis
Scott Benner Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of the Juice Box podcast. Welcome.
Roger Hi. My name's, Roger Moore. I live in Alberta, Canada. I'm 60 years old. I was diagnosed at t one at the age of two.
Scott Benner If you'd like to hear about diabetes management in easy to take in bits, check out the small sips. That's the series on the Juice Box podcast that listeners are talking about like it's a cheat code. These are perfect little bursts of clarity, one person said. I finally understood things I've heard a 100 times. Short, simple, and somehow exactly what I needed.
Scott Benner People say small sips feels like someone pulling up a chair, sliding a cup across the table, and giving you one clean idea at a time. Nothing overwhelming. No fire hose of information, just steady helpful nudges that actually stick. People listen in their car, on walks, or rather actually bolusing anytime that they need a quick shot of perspective. And the reviews, they all say the same thing.
Scott Benner Small sips makes diabetes make sense. Search for the Juice Box podcast, small sips, wherever you get audio. Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan.
Roger This
Scott Benner episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by US Med, usmed.com/juicebox, or call (888) 721-1514. Get your supplies the same way we do from US Med. Today's episode is also sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five, the one year wear CGM. That's one insertion a year. That's it.
Scott Benner And here's a little bonus for you. How about there's no limit on how many friends and family you can share your data with with the Eversense Now app? No limits. Eversense. The podcast is also sponsored today by the Tandem Mobi system, which is powered by Tandem's newest algorithm, Control IQ Plus technology.
Scott Benner Tandem Mobi has a predictive algorithm that helps prevent highs and lows and is now available for ages two and up. Learn more and get started today at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Roger Hi. My name's, Raj Moore. I live in Alberta, Canada. I'm 60 years old. I was diagnosed at t one at the age of two.
Scott Benner No kidding. Fifty eight years ago. You born in Canada?
Roger Yes. Ontario.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger Yeah. I moved out to Alberta in 2012.
Scott Benner Oh, that's interesting. Okay. So you've had diabetes for fifty eight years.
Roger Yeah. My father was also a diabetic, forty seven years. Fortunately, he passed away in o nine at 71.
Scott Benner 71. And he was diagnosed in his thirties?
Roger I think he was twenty twenty seven.
Scott Benner 27.
Roger 27. Yeah.
Scott Benner Wow.
Roger Yeah. He just dropped dead in the driveway.
Scott Benner Did you feel like he was in good health and it was surprising or no?
Roger Apparently, he had about 50% kidney function before I find out this later because we went to the same endo. Yeah. He was he was a big man and, you know, strong. But he wouldn't
Scott Benner Wouldn't tell anybody if he wasn't doing well?
Roger Pardon?
Scott Benner You think he wouldn't tell people if he wasn't doing well?
Roger Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Worked all his life. Right?
Roger Had nothing, and then, you know, worked all his life and then just kept on going.
Speaker 3 Yeah. His motto was keep your foot on the gas.
Scott Benner Yeah. Sounds like it worked off alright for him for a for a a good long while.
Roger Well, that's the way he wanted to go. So anyways what?
Scott Benner I hear you. So he's got type one while you're growing up. I mean, do you know how how old were is he about when you were born?
Roger I'm the youngest boy out of with five kids, and my sister's the youngest. Mhmm. Yeah. He was about 26 maybe.
Scott Benner You think he was diagnosed just after you were or just before you were born maybe? Just after you were born. Yeah. Right around there.
Roger Yeah. It was still glass syringes, and I think my mom used to sharpen the needles on a stone.
Scott Benner Wow.
Roger You boil all that. I do blood testing with a little urine testing.
Scott Benner And Yeah.
Roger And then, you know, I was also I was I was born with a a VSD, which is a ventricular septal defect with a heart heart murmur.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Roger And they never they did two catheters. They never decided to close it. It wasn't giving me any problems, but hey. Well, I'll get into that later, but I eventually did have it closed.
Scott Benner Okay. So, Roger, you you think your dad had not had type one diabetes for very long before you were diagnosed with it? His youngest son of how many?
Roger Five kids.
Scott Benner Five kids. All together. Yeah. You the youngest boy or the youngest kid?
Roger Youngest boy. Youngest boy. And my sister's the youngest.
Scott Benner Okay. So he's got an, basically a newborn with type one diabetes. His diabetes is fairly newborn, and he's sharpening needles. Do you know what your management was like? Do you have any idea how they they took care of you in the early days?
Scott Benner Do you ever talk about it?
Roger Because my dad had it. My mom knew something was up with me, and she would squeeze squeeze the urine out of my diaper and test it.
Scott Benner Oh, okay.
Roger It was a little test kit you get with, you know, water, urine, and that little pill you put in right now with fizz. Mhmm. And you give a color color code a, and by what the I was in sick kids hospital. She took me there, then I I come out on one unit of insulin, you know, the age of l two. You know, a bill or two.
Growing Up with Diabetes in the 60s and 70s
Scott Benner Was she giving you that with with needles she sharpened herself?
Speaker 3 Yeah. I'm just kidding. I hope
Roger they sharpened herself.
Scott Benner But Well, I've heard people talk about that. That's why I did I know.
Speaker 3 It probably did way back. Yeah. Yeah. But, no,
Roger they were glass syringes, and she had to boil them.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Roger You know? Yeah. For my dad and myself. And
Scott Benner So you're getting, in the beginning, just a shot a day?
Roger Yep.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger One shot a
Scott Benner When do you think your management changed? Like, many years did you live on one shot a day? Then when did it go to two, and how did it progress? Do you know the progression of it?
Roger I was in my teens. I was seeing a pediatrician since I, you know, I got diabetes. I was in my teens, and he decided to put me on two needles a day and then add some quick acting.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger Mixing it. Right? And as a teen, a, you know, young, you know, third 12, 13, 14 kind of age. Right? But then when, you
Speaker 3 know,
Roger when when you become 15, 16 years old, all hell breaks loose. You don't give a a rat. I suppose you're diabetes. Right?
Scott Benner Not on the top of your of your list. But so you did you're telling me you think you did one shot a day from two years old into your early teens, then they went to two shots, and then eventually gave you a fast acting they like a mealtime insulin they gave you?
Roger They mix it.
Scott Benner Oh, okay.
Roger Yep. They mix. Yeah.
Scott Benner Alright. So you're getting two a day. And are you taking those two shots a day with regularity?
Roger Yep. Yes.
Scott Benner Okay. Yep. And then when's the next time it shifts? Because what is that regular in Miles per hour or is that beef and pork? Beef and pork.
Roger I was glad. Okay. And Dan Fraunil, they called it. Yep.
Scott Benner Oh, that's right. Yeah. You're in Canada. Yeah. And so you're doing that until regular and Miles per hour, which happens when?
Roger It's probably in the nineties.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger Because I was blind at that time.
Losing Sight and the Aftermath
Scott Benner So you lost your sight? Yes. At what age?
Roger I was 22.
Scott Benner 22.
Roger And Yeah. The yeah. Through 87, I was having problems. Just a week before Christmas was my last surgery, and that was basically it.
Scott Benner So so you're growing up with eye issues, and but nobody says to you maybe you should take more insulin?
Roger My a one c's were fourteen, fifteen.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger And my pediatrician, he never you he never say nothing to me. He would write on my blood requisition. Know I'm diabetic, so they wouldn't call him at, you know, two in the morning. Right? Tell him there was a problem.
Roger Yeah.
Scott Benner The guy in the lab's not oh my gosh. But but but if he feels that way, then why is he not helping you do something about it?
Roger I never knew diabetics could go blind until I was started going blind. They have just uneducated.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Roger Just uneducated about the whole thing. And by that time, it's too late. Right? Because that that fifteen, twenty years of having diabetes is when it starts creeping up on you.
Scott Benner Your best guess is you had diabetes fifteen, twenty fifteen years with a one c's in the twelve, thirteen, 14 range. Yep. And then what's the first do you remember what the first sign was that you were having trouble with your eyesight?
Roger My doctor, he he said, I I go every six months. He says, yeah. Yeah. He goes, I can see some activity in the back of your eyes. I gotta send you a book to the ophthalmologist, which I would go every year anyways.
Roger And then but, you know, I guess he he that was, like, between time. So off I went. And then, yeah, and then the late while the laser started
Scott Benner The lasers?
Roger I was going down. Was going down to Toronto, Western Hospital for the laser treatments. Oh.
Scott Benner What were they like, and how frequently were they?
Roger Sure. They were once a week for a while. They they try and stop the bleeding in the eyes. Mhmm. They didn't they didn't hurt any a little little zap, you know, but they didn't.
Roger Then it got to the point where I end up having this is my right eye, the first one that I lost use of. They did a they call it vitrectomy where they actually go in and they clean out all the scar tissue and some other stuff in there. And they put saline in it. Right? And they I had two of them done.
Roger And this after the second one through the night, it hammered really bad, and they said that about a week later, they said that the the has detached and is basically useless. It's unfixable.
Scott Benner Oh my god. How old were you then?
Roger 22.
Scott Benner 22. Yep. Wow. I mean, that's a long time ago now, but can you do your best to take me back to that point when that happens? Do you remember how that affects your life?
Scott Benner Maybe beyond the vision?
Roger Well, you know, I I we're at a full time job. And then I also my dad and I, I I trained, quarter horses, barrel racing horses. I did and I did lots of competition, and then all of a sudden, your doctor said, no more. Yeah.
Scott Benner That's that.
Roger You gotta because all the balancing around, right, you had to stop. Right?
Scott Benner So, Roger, the main I mean, your hobby and and your job, like, you love, just they just end. And does that I mean, can you put yourself back in that spot? What is that does it put you into a depression? Does it motivate you to try something else? Do you start worrying more about your other eye?
Scott Benner Like, what what happens next?
Roger Well, I was actually, they were working on both eyes at the same time.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger After it was in August, I lost the the use of the right eye, and then they were working on the the left eye. And then I have a track to me on it. And then I end up having to go back in just the week before Christmas, and they did another one, but they did a bunch of other work was on it. They I I think they tipped they call it a buckle. Mhmm.
Roger I remember right. I think they tipped the eye to try and keep the pressure in the back, and they fill it full of a saline bubble. And there's you know, talking almost forty years ago. Right?
Scott Benner Yeah. This procedure, is that just, like, four or five months after the right eye goes? Yep. Okay. And, I mean, at this point, you gotta be like, this ain't gonna work.
Scott Benner Right? Like, I mean
Roger I never I never thought that. I always you always have hope. Right? You always have hope you're gonna get better. But with that in your mind, you're gonna get better.
Roger And then then when I went back to the my doctor, he sent me after the the last surgery, you know, after Christmas in around February, they sent me to another doctor who was specialized in ultrasound on eyes, and he just said, if you touch the eye, it'll just crumble. There's nothing you can do anymore. And I just said he said, my head I'm blind.
Scott Benner Yeah. Just like that. Now this process, the first time you you have trouble with your eye, tell me again, you're about what age?
Roger Well, it came on. It was it was everything was done within a year.
Scott Benner Happened real fast. Okay.
Roger Oh, yeah.
Scott Benner So from the first from that doctor saying, hey. We're gonna send you over the optometrist a little sooner this year to Yep. Gone blind is about a year, year and a half.
Roger Yep. Yep. I was you know, it was over pretty quick.
Scott Benner You dating anybody at that time? No. No. Okay. Were you living with your parents still?
Scott Benner Yes. Okay. Yeah. Does that turn you right back into a little kid? Like, I mean, does your like, god, that's gotta be terrible.
Scott Benner Right? But, like, all of a sudden, you're dependent on people learning how to I mean, I guess you gotta learn how to be blind. Right?
Sponsor Messages
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Scott Benner But I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email because I don't trust myself, a 100%. So one time, I didn't respond to the email and the phone rings at the house. And it's like, ring, you know how it works. And I picked it up. Was like, hello?
Scott Benner And it was just the recording. It 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.
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Rebuilding Life: Woodworking Without Sight
Roger I I was really active too. Right? I had all the horses and I had my old vehicles and
Scott Benner Yeah.
Roger You know, like
Scott Benner Just all of a sudden just gone?
Roger Just everything just stops instantly. And I'm, you know, I'm laying on the couch, listening to the TV, and, you know, I guess getting probably depressed. And my dad finally kicks me in the ass and said, man, you you can't do the rest laying the couch the rest of your life. You gotta get do something. Go back to school and
Scott Benner Figure something out. Yeah. Yeah. My god. After this all because it happens quickly.
Scott Benner I imagine once it starts, it's a it's a roller coaster till till the part that we're up to now. But at any point, do you start wondering, like, how did this happen? Is there something I shouldn't be doing? Are there other things being damaged that I don't know about? We just know about our eyes that the doctors speak up.
Scott Benner Like, around the diabetes, does anybody try to help you?
Roger No. Nobody. Nobody. I don't I don't know if they even knew. Like, it is the education back then just wasn't
Scott Benner About forty years ago?
Roger Yeah. Like, I you know?
Scott Benner Is that eighty five? Am I right?
Roger Probably more of my own fault too because I wasn't really involved. I was involved in so much other stuff.
Scott Benner Yeah. Not not really parenting.
Speaker 3 So You
Roger know, I'm I I admit I you know, I'm the blame for it. It's it's all my
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's tough, though. Right. As a 60 year old guy, it's easy to sit here and have that kind of clarity.
Scott Benner But when you're two and you get diagnosed at a time when they're like, here's a shot. Here's another one. We're not really testing it. And then you become like you say, you become a teenager. You're not paying attention to it.
Scott Benner Like, it's hard to put the blame on that little boy. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. That's tough.
Scott Benner I don't think I'm behind you blaming yourself, to be perfectly honest with you. Timing and age, tough to blame you.
Roger Yeah. And land, at least, you know, lack of education. Right?
Scott Benner Yeah. Plus Canada. Not for nothing. I've heard stories. Okay.
Scott Benner So
Roger Freaking the worst worst thing to get anything approved, man.
Scott Benner Like, it Takes forever. Right? You see, you know, isn't it funny, like, the messaging if you're here, the messaging is, oh, Canada, it's free. You know? And when I talk to Canadians, they're like, sure.
Scott Benner It's free, but it takes me nine months to get there. Or or right? If you're not dying, you slide to the end of the list too with right? Am I right?
Roger Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner Oh,
Roger yeah. That's I know y'all wanna separate out here now. Mhmm.
Scott Benner Yeah. Well, the grass is always greener when you're hearing about other people's, like, you know, setups is what I'm saying. But, man, first of all, I know it's a long time ago, and you're not looking for my sympathy, but I'm so sorry. That's just you know, it's a tough role, man.
Roger Yeah. Yeah. It's great. It's no. It's not as I don't know the statistics now, but I I I imagine it's all the improvements in surgery and medicine and that this freak of diabetics going blind.
Scott Benner I would imagine it's far less.
Roger Happens. Like, my dad was going through bike's trouble too. Right? So
Scott Benner Yeah. So when your dad kicks you in the ass, what do you do? Do you get up or you'd be like, how about I just sit here for about a year and we'll talk about it? Like, did you, like
Roger It's it's funny. When I was driving, I my my grade, seven and eight shop teacher, I always knew where he lived, Dave Lawrence. So I call him up. You know? I find his phone number.
Roger I call him on home one day, and I told him I haven't talked to him for long time. Right? And he actually he he called to the house, and he had just gotten transferred to the high school as the tech director. And my back background is more mechanical Mhmm. Engines and stuff.
Roger Right? Because my dad had a construction company. So they didn't I wanted to take small engines maybe, and then they they didn't have it at the school then. He said, well, just come into the woodshop shop. We have an adult woodworking class.
Roger We're all retired adults coming in a, you know, couple of periods. They can do what they really want. So I went in there, and I I liked it. Right? And I I never dreamed I could do that kind of stuff.
Scott Benner Roger, you told me you can do
Roger woodworking without sight? Oh, yeah. Done it for, thirty seven years.
Scott Benner No kidding. You made a living at it?
Roger Yep. I had a shop back in, Ontario. Yeah.
Scott Benner That's awesome. With the passage of time, are you able to look back and think, like, I can't believe I accomplished all this, or does it not even feel that hard once you got involved in it and started trying?
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Roger It doesn't feel that hard once you get going or anything.
Scott Benner Yeah. That's awesome. Like, what did you make in your shop?
Roger Well, in the in the after I got going all the equipment I had in there, I was making custom furniture for people, like buffet hutches and dressers and, you know, blanket boxes, a lot of them. And and then I made the one store. I would do all his custom order stuff. People wanted something made. I would you know, big wall units and stuff like that.
Roger And then when I first originally started the old the the horse barn, I gutted all the stalls out, and so I put all my equipment in. Well, then we moved down to another town south, which was it was in town, but it was still it was an acre or a piece of property, and and my dad put up a big shop there for me. So I got into doing more more, like, more custom higher end stuff for people, like, in Toronto and stuff.
Scott Benner Roger, as a person who has their site and tried to build a cage for a chameleon to live in and looks at it now and realizes it's not really very square, and a couple of other things, are you telling me that you could accomplish that at a high level? Or are you telling me that all around Canada is a bunch of janky crooked furniture that nobody had the heart to tell you about when they bought it from you? Is so discomfort?
Speaker 3 No. No. It's square. Hey.
Scott Benner That's awesome. I mean, can you walk me through that? Like, without your sight, how do you, I mean, how are you running a saw? How do you do stuff like that?
Roger I already asked you that all carefully, man. I got push sticks and stuff. I've never you know, I got all my fingers still on there. And so
Scott Benner Goddamn. That's a bigger accomplishment than anything else I Yeah. Gotta be honest with you.
Speaker 3 Actually, when I moved to Milton, there's a fellow that was retired, and he wasn't doing nothing. So, like, he came down, and
Roger he was, you know, working kinda part time for me, helping me out. There's machines I wouldn't let him touch, and they're they're too dangerous.
Scott Benner Yeah. I'll get that, you idiot. You stay over there.
Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's almost pretty dangerous. No
Scott Benner kidding. No kidding, man. That is really phenomenal. Now did you ever figure out how to take care of your diabetes?
Pumping, Looping, and Invention
Roger Well, see, I'll always go by my my get my a one c done, and it was, you know, seven, eight. And then they would say, that's good. Oh, you're boring. Leave.
Scott Benner Well, how
Roger did I think, oh, okay. Everything's cool. Right?
Scott Benner So Yeah. But, Roger, tell me something. Like, what what is that? The modernization? Like, they got you on faster acting insulin.
Scott Benner You started counting carbs. Like, how did you get from those fourteens to the seven and eight?
Roger I never started counting carbs all last
Scott Benner year. Last year? Really?
Roger Really counting carbs, I just kinda could estimate. Okay. That side of much food need needs needs this much insulin. Right?
Scott Benner I've interviewed other people who don't have their sight. Like, are you, like, pitch black blind? Do you have some you are. You don't see you don't see anything.
Speaker 3 Okay.
Scott Benner And so I'm gonna get to that in a minute. But so you're telling me I mean, I'm assuming you were just like, look. I I'm using a saw with without my sight. I'm not counting carbs. Like, you're already living on the edge, I guess.
Scott Benner Yeah. What started last year? Like, what changed last year that made you count carbs?
Roger I went on a pump Mhmm. In 2010. My endo retired. I got a new young guy. I asked him about a pump, and he says, sure.
Roger Try it. Go try it. See we see what you can do. Mhmm. So down you know, I go down into the where the pump's place is, and they they set me up with a an Accu Chek Spirit pump.
Roger It's just a, you know, a manual pump. Right?
Scott Benner Yeah.
Roger Yeah. And it and it beeps. All the button pushes beep. And I mean, well, the the Amberley, the the work for Roche, Accu Chek, but the pump she wrote all these instructions out, and I still have them on my computer. All the button pushes to what goes how it works.
Roger Right? And Yeah. And it was a little bit a little scary in the beginning. Right? Like, you know, a little couple of panic modes when you get an inclusion.
Roger What what's this? Right? Right. Bars are going off, but, you know, I finally figured how to handle that. Couple years ago, Roche actually pulled out of North America, but it was a lure lock setup, and the and the one part is a rubber, like, rubber seal part.
Roger I couldn't get any parts anymore. I I must have went around and bought everything up in Canada to keep going. Right? And I was using Medtronic and lure lock sets that Educator now in Edmonton found me.
Scott Benner Mhmm. You're just trying to keep because you know the pump. You know how to use it, so you wanna keep using it as long as you can. Yeah. Yeah.
Roger And I was, like, come to grips with that. Okay. I'm going back on the needle.
Scott Benner Oh, yeah. Yeah. Funnel hour. Alright? It's a good run, but I'm out of here.
Scott Benner But did you try another pump, or did you There
Roger were there was nothing that would work. They all went to this this flat screen stuff.
Scott Benner Oh, touchscreen messes you up.
Roger Yeah. Touchscreen and, you know, my phone, there's a touchscreen, but it has a built in speech.
Scott Benner Right.
Roger So, anyways, one one day is on the lot. In 2024, Robin, I guess, and my doctor Rogers, they talk trying to find me an alternative. Well, they I guess they came up with looping.
Scott Benner Okay. So Tell me you loop with an Omnipod. Do you?
Roger Yes.
Scott Benner Get out of here.
Roger A dash. Yeah.
Scott Benner Okay. No kidding. Since It's a a phone app, and so you can use your basically, the speech, it helps you on the phone.
Roger BC Diabetes in British Columbia, they have tech guys on staff, and they build the app for people. You sign a waiver. Right? And so they'll build the app, and they'll help you install it on your phone. And they'll do it through you know, they did it, like, through my clinic, got me set up with that, and they maintain it.
Roger Fremont, they'll update it. I had it installed on my phone in May 2024, and I'm thinking, this is great. I can, you know, operate everything. That's, like, my manual pump, I had to get someone to look at the screen if I wanted to do any basal changes
Scott Benner Sure.
Roger You know, setting changes. Well, I can do everything myself with this loop app. So June, I went back to Edmonton, Robin hooked me up with the pump, and we put it in a zip bag, and I used I showed it was saline
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger So I could get used to changing the switching out the pump. Right?
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger And I just carry this little zippy bag with a pump in it with saline. Right? And just operate it that way along with the my manual pump. And then was in October that I went full on with insulin.
Scott Benner Before you started looping, what was your a one c before you started looping?
Roger 6.97.
Scott Benner Okay. And have you had any other complications other than your eyes?
Roger In 2005, I was exercising on my bike, and my throat started getting tight up each side. So I told my doctor. Next thing you know, I'm I'm in getting an angiogram done. And then, yeah, I got three blockages and two arteries, so I had to open heart surgery bypass surgery in March.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger 2005. Well, through the night, I suffered a stroke and a heart attack, and I was kept in induced coma for two weeks. And then I end up I lost the use of my left leg and left arm. I did regain it, but I did I was transferred to a rehab hospital and spent about three months there learning how to walk.
Scott Benner Any deficits since the rehab?
Roger I I suffer with muscle spasticity. It's tightness. The muscles won't relax.
Speaker 3 Mhmm.
Roger I mean, other than that, I, you know, I can walk, you know, not far anymore. Well, that's because I've had some other back issues related from arthritis and all that stuff.
Scott Benner Okay. Okay. So you have, like, a six nine before you start looping, but that was what? That was the pump. You were able to give yourself insulin more frequently.
Scott Benner You were on a basal, so your a one c came down. You started I imagine you learned more as you went, you know, about taking care of your blood sugars and stuff like that. How do you know when your blood sugar's high and low? You test with a meter?
Roger I use the Contour Next one. I was messing around with some apps, you know, the Accu Chek app and then the other one, and I got the Contour Next one to hook up to my iPod, which talks.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger And I I still use that to this day, and I can pair it by myself. I'd be on greetings and everything. And I use a no. I use a Dexcom, which, you know, for looping. Right?
Roger I was using the Libre, but I had to switch to the Dexcom.
Scott Benner Okay. Well, again, let me just say this, Roger. Contournext.com/juicebox if you'd like to learn more about that meter. It's a great meter. You made the meter talk through the through your iPod, did you say, or your phone?
Roger My iPod and my phone.
Scott Benner Okay. Okay. So you get your meter that way. How often a day do you think you're testing before CGMs?
Roger Probably eight to 10 times.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger After my heart surgery. Yeah. That kinda really smart me out. I actually had a a silent heart attack as well in 2012.
Scott Benner Kick the
Roger Jesus. They said it was in in 2000. I just might just bloated in my gut. Well, long story short, I had a pericardium they call it, and they they stuck a needle in the sack of my heart, trained a liter and a fluid of a liter and half of fluid off in all my abdomen and my lungs. That was fun stuff.
Roger That was fun stuff. Hospital food hospital food sucks. Jesus, god.
Scott Benner Alright. Well, I I wanna get back to the looping. So they they slapped this loop on you. Would you say twenty twenty four? Yes.
Scott Benner Jerry, once he go down again?
Roger Went from 6.9 to 6.5 to 5.8, and the last one was six.
Scott Benner Jesus. God, Roger. I don't know you, and that almost made me cry. That's awesome, man. Good for you.
Scott Benner That's really wonderful.
Roger You know, I guess the Loop app has that, graph, which I can't, you know, I obviously can't see it. Yeah. I joined that Loop and Learn Facebook group.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Roger And, you know, you know, know, Kenny Fox. Yeah. Listen to lots of his stuff. Lots of you and Jennifer there. So
Scott Benner Oh, no kidding. I didn't know you knew the podcast. I don't know how anybody gets to me. So, like, oh, that's Yeah. That's awesome.
Roger I've listened to lots of that, and I learned lots from the other unfortunately, other people's problems off the loop and learn.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger And I, you I save all this stuff on my computer, read it, and on the loop docs, I read all that. I got to the point where I was just getting burnt. I would've reading all this stuff and you know, because I have to listen to it through my computer. Mhmm. At night, I'd next thing you know, I'd start at seven, and I'd wake up at ten.
Scott Benner It's it's boring.
Speaker 3 Oh, yeah. You listen to this voice, this robotic voice synthesized voice in my ears. Right? Next thing I'm going to sleep.
Scott Benner Yeah. I mean, we got somebody gotta get you set up with AI. That's got a more natural voice to read to you. Yeah.
Roger I think you can change it.
Scott Benner Oh, okay. But still oh my gosh. So loop it loop and learn, man, that's isn't it something that it's just a group of people who put that all together, like, changed your life that much? It's wonderful. Yeah.
Roger I did Robin put Trio on my phone, and within five minutes, I I took it off because I knew it wouldn't work.
Scott Benner You didn't like Trio?
Roger No. Well, it wouldn't interact with my phone.
Scott Benner Oh, I see. With this.
Roger Because when they make an app, sometimes they don't label them properly, and there was just all it would say is edit. Edit. Well, what what am I gonna edit?
Scott Benner I pretty I gotta tell you something. The people who made that app probably just heard you say that. I wonder if they'll fix it. Get
Roger going. Hopefully.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. Get going, guys. What are doing over there? Your free time.
Scott Benner Because
Roger I gotta lay like, the loop the loop app is perfect. There is no
Scott Benner Every button's labeled correctly for the the speech thing.
Roger The only thing you gotta be careful of of with with the Loop app, when you you know, when you're priming your pump, it gives you a percentage.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Roger What I have to do is I have to swipe to the left and then, like, and then get the percentage, swipe to the right, and then swipe to the left. It'll give me the percentage again. It won't you can't leave it on the percentage, and it'll it won't pick it up counting down. Okay. Yeah.
Roger You suddenly know, little things like that, you gotta learn. Right? And there's a couple other things. You just gotta swipe left, right, and then you'll get to the
Scott Benner I wonder how many other people are using it the way you are. Do you have any idea? Have you met anybody else?
Roger Apparently, I'm the first one in Canada.
Scott Benner No. No kidding. Well, it's it's wonderful that it's helping you like that. It really is.
Roger Maybe they they they I was at a conference in Toronto in November, and they did a presentation, the one fella, and they submitted it to the the one in Spain and got accepted in that conference in Spain. Okay. Yeah. So I guess
Scott Benner Well, that's wonderful. I don't I don't know a ton about what you just said there, but, like, I think it's just really fascinating that something that a group of people, you know, came together online and then met each other in person and did all this wonderful work, and and it's reaching you in Ontario. It's really, really just wonderful.
Roger So going back to the loop for a second.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah.
Roger You're on the side of the loop where you have the little tiny hole where you gotta put the needle in to fill it. Mhmm. Well, there's a problem.
Scott Benner It's a little hard to find, is it?
Roger So what I did, I have a a computer controlled router in my shop.
Scott Benner You build a jig and put it in it? Yes. No kidding. Look. I used to have a real job, Roger.
Scott Benner You must have been pretty impressed just now when I came up with that.
Roger It's it's a pocket, and we it's a rectangle pocket, and then we put some, you know, j b weld. You ever heard that stuff called j b weld?
Scott Benner It's like epoxy? Yeah. Yeah.
Roger Yeah. We put that in the corners, and we push the pod in to make the mold and it harden. And then I built an arm with a seven sixteen hole in it, and it the needle goes in it, and it drop you line it up, and it drops straight down into the hole.
Scott Benner It hits that hole in the Omnipod, and then you can feel it push through, and then you send in the insulin.
Roger Fill it. So I let BC Diabetes have the let them three d print it.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger So they're selling them on Amazon. No kidding. They're called pod filler. It's for people with
Scott Benner Like like, dexterity issues.
Roger Dexterity. Yeah. And then there's one called pod filler plus, which it has it's for blind people and has three posts on the back. One's a 150, 200, and 300. So you use a pen cartridge.
Roger There's a little holder there too that they've they come up with it to put the this the pen and the cartridge in, use a pen cartridge, and you just push it in. Right? Mhmm. And it's all because the the syringe that comes with the pod only holds 200, so you got a 100 left. So you can use that 100, save two of them, and then use the the taller post to
Scott Benner use them off. Do you have any video? Has anybody ever videoed the filler working?
Roger Yeah. That doctor Elliot has.
Scott Benner I'd love to see that. I would love to see that work. That's that's really something. Boy, that's ingenious. You came up with that.
Roger Yeah. Yeah. The wooden one, they it's all it's all plastic now, three d printed ones.
Scott Benner Yeah. I guess they say necessity is the mother of invention. Right? So
Roger Yeah. Yeah. I'd let them do it. It's guess, my gift to the community.
Scott Benner Yeah. It's beautiful. It helps somebody. Listen. I I hear from older people all the time who wonder, like, how am I supposed to do this when I get older?
Scott Benner Dexterity is one thing, you know, having access to things, but people's sight changes. They're, you know, not as not as good with their fingers at some point. It it's a point of real concern for people. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner It's nice that you figured out even one thing. Are you still working? Do you work in the wood shops, though?
Roger I go there every day. I just putts around. I don't do too much.
Scott Benner No. Do you have people working for you?
Roger No. No. I just
Scott Benner Kinda done now.
Roger Yeah. When I moved to Alberta, I just after my father passed away, I just shut my shop down and it's family issues.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger I had to move.
Scott Benner Family issues. I got you. I I Yeah. I think everybody understands. Yeah.
Scott Benner Did you ever marry?
Roger No. No. I live with Shelly.
Scott Benner You have you have a lady friend? Is that what we're saying?
Roger Yes. Okay. Yep.
Scott Benner Is she she cited?
Roger She has about 10.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger Yeah.
Scott Benner You ever just walk into each other and be like, oh my god. Sorry.
Roger Yep. All the time.
Scott Benner Sorry. I don't know. It's just You know
Roger what you know what really sucks is, is the stop sign. It's a steel post when you're going on the sidewalk and your cane misses it. You're head first straight into it.
Scott Benner Oh my god. So the cane doesn't find the sign pole post, but your head finds the sign. Yeah. I guess it really does stop you.
Roger Done that many times.
Speaker 3 It's a real head banger.
Scott Benner Do you have, do you have pets or any animals now, sir? Service dogs?
Speaker 3 Got a got a cat now.
Scott Benner That I guess that don't help you much.
Roger No. No. I I had, three seeing eye dogs, three guide dogs, but I can't do the walking anymore because of the stroke. Mhmm. It won't allow me.
Roger And besides, who wants to take a dog over to the bathroom in Alberta at minus 50?
Scott Benner Yeah. Probably not even the dog. Dog's like, if you don't mind, I'll just stare on the floor. Yeah. No kidding.
Life Without Sight: Insights and Adjustments
Scott Benner Oh my gosh. So how did you find the podcast? I mean, did you find it, or did somebody show it to you?
Roger No. Robin, my educator, She sent me the link to it. Yeah. Oh, wow.
Scott Benner Well, thank you, Robin. That's wonderful.
Roger Yeah. She's really good at that. She sends you all that kind of stuff. And
Scott Benner That's awesome. It really is. So you like Yeah. Do you feel like you've I guess what I wanna know is, like, you've had diabetes for a long time. Right?
Scott Benner So, like, did you feel like the podcast taught you something you didn't know, or did you just help solidify ideas that you would had that you maybe other people didn't put context to?
Roger Three ball thing.
Scott Benner That's the thing you didn't know about?
Roger Yeah. I might have known about it, but I never used to do it.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger And now I do. And then
Scott Benner Tell people. Yep. Makes all the difference, doesn't it? Oh. Yep.
Scott Benner Simple thing. My whole job is to tell people to give themselves insulin a little before they eat.
Roger Yeah. I guess, you know, understanding how the insulin works and stuff. Hey.
Scott Benner It upgrades your care. Right? So this is the first time you stop to think about the action of the insulin juxtaposed against the impact of your food and and other variables? Yep. No kidding.
Roger Yeah. Oh. There's a lot of people listen to it. You know?
Scott Benner Oh, that's nice to say. I know. But it that is that's really lovely. It makes me happy to know it's helping you.
Roger Oh, yeah.
Scott Benner Does music take on a bigger part of your life? Like, how do you make up for I mean, the days are right. There's twenty four hours in every day, and you can't see now. So how do you refigure your life to fit your new situation?
Roger Well, I have my shop, but I'm thankful now that I have. It's a lot smaller, but I still have lots of equipment in there. I'm a tool junkie.
Speaker 3 Mhmm.
Roger I go spend a lot of time with it. I just finished making a Conestoga wagon, a scaled down version.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger Yeah. Kinda like a lawn ornament, but it's still, like, two feet wide, you know, five feet long with a big cover on top and everything and all the spoke wheels.
Scott Benner Just get an idea in your head. How long did it take you to make the wagon?
Roger Probably about two months, two and a half months.
Scott Benner No kidding.
Roger I didn't work on it steady, but
Scott Benner That's a year shorter than it would've taken me to do it. And mine and mine would've sucked. Oh my gosh. That's really you know, I I I just keep thinking everyone listening must be like, oh, I gotta stop complaining. And by the way, if you're not thinking that, like, seriously, maybe you start thinking it.
Scott Benner Oh, now I just, by the way, just Googled Conestoga wagon. You made one of those, but it down to scale?
Roger Yeah. Yeah. It's, like, two feet wide, so it fits on a patio sidewalk. You know the stones?
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah.
Roger And it's a with the tongue that's probably six feet long.
Scott Benner No kidding. That's incredible. Roger, that's incredible.
Roger The cover over top. It's all cedar.
Scott Benner Jesus. Will you sell it eventually or just make it for yourself?
Roger Hopefully, I'm gonna sell it.
Scott Benner Yeah. Proctor's like, I would like to sell it. I gotta I gotta feed this damn cat. I didn't know how much it was gonna eat. What made you wanna come on the podcast?
Roger I think, there was an email, I think, you sent out looking for people. It was back to get in before Christmas.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah.
Roger And I I went on your site, and I I guess I was messing around. The only time I could get was today. Kept trying to put dates in and dates in. Whether I was doing it right because sometimes the screen reader I use won't will read everything that's on the screen, depends how it's set up.
Scott Benner Yeah. I don't know. I use, a very sis like, a basic scheduling system that comes with, like, my website, to be perfectly honest with you. I don't, like, have anything fancy. But and I am pretty, packed usually.
Scott Benner So there's not a ton of wait. Hold on a second. My wife is here. This never happens. What's going on, Kelly?
Scott Benner I said we were gonna sell him. Hold on a second, Roger. I have to remember where the checkbook is. Here it is. Hold on.
Scott Benner And is there a check-in it? No checks. Checks. Don't see a check.
Roger It's peanut butter and water, right?
Scott Benner Well, don't look at me. I don't know. Listen. Tell him I can get him cash for later in the day, or I and I could I could run it to him if he wants, or I can mail a check or do something else. Okay.
Scott Benner I got a checkbook with no checks on it. I mean, do people write checks anymore?
Roger I never wrote a check-in ten years.
Scott Benner Yeah. I was gonna say, like, I I can we just, like, send it through Zelle or something? I mean, I'm happy the heater works and all, but, like, let's get with the times. Can I not just airdrop it to you or something? Yeah.
Speaker 3 Got apple pie? You're in you're you're in New York,
Roger are you?
Scott Benner New Jersey.
Roger New Jersey. Okay.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. I'm about, a little less than an hour out of Manhattan by car.
Roger Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay.
Scott Benner Ontario is west, east, central? Where the hell is that at? Buffalo.
Roger Oh, near there. North of North Of Buffalo, that
Scott Benner end. Okay.
Roger Because you can drive around the QEW, which the Queen is a highway around the lake and then down into Buffalo to the border.
Scott Benner Oh, I see. Oh, is Toronto in oh, Ontario? Yep. Yeah. I don't know how it all works for you guys.
Scott Benner Across. Yeah. Oh, I see. Across. Very nice.
Scott Benner Look at oh, I'm looking now. Big country. Lot of lot of cold though.
Roger I'm in, yeah, I'm in Alberta just, Southeast Edmonton
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger An hour.
Scott Benner Okay. Yeah. I'm seeing it here. Nice. I, I interviewed a woman once who was a can can dancer, like, in the sticks, like, north in Canada.
Scott Benner Great stories from her.
Roger Oh, yeah.
Scott Benner Very, very good stories from her Yeah. About living in the wilderness in Canada.
Roger Yeah.
Scott Benner So okay. So, you know, came on to the podcast because I was looking for people. But did you have a feeling, like, I wanna tell this story to somebody? Or
Roger Yeah. Like, I want take care of yourselves. Man, don't do the same that I did in this you know, educate.
Scott Benner Do you have a worry about, like, longevity at this point, or do they have they told you, like, things look good now, or where do you feel like you're at? Because, I mean, I imagine your heart is of a of a concern. Yes?
Roger Yeah. They it's funny. They the heart doctor said after you know, it's been twenty one years. He said, oh, after ten years, it starts to you know, ten years, you're at the top of the hill and then you're going down. Right?
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger The the graph, they call it, deteriorates or whatever. Well, I'm in, like, twenty first year or so.
Scott Benner Feels like it's okay.
Roger Whatever happens, happens, man.
Scott Benner If your your care is so much better now than it was. Right? So, like, one's gotta guess that I mean, would you say 2005? Is that when you had heart issues the first time? So
Scott Benner Like, that's gotta be from the early care, and then you make a shift to the pump. Just getting on the pump in, would you say, 2010? Yes. Just getting on the pump had to have been a big deal for your, you know, just having basal insulin running and and being able to push buttons to bolus for food, imagining dropped your a one c probably at least to the sevens. Right?
Scott Benner And then Oh, yeah. I mean, that's a good place to be. And then you have the damage that eventually creates the next issue. But since then, like, I mean, an a one c in the fives or low sixes is I don't think you're adding to your problem. Now it's just about No.
Scott Benner What holds on or what helps itself out. Do you get checked for blockages periodically now? Do they do they give you scans?
Roger They don't they they gotta do an, an angiogram to check for blockages. So I had one done in 2012 because I had a silent heart attack, and they wouldn't release me until they did that. And everything was still fine. Just probably stress related because of family issues. Mhmm.
Roger But I go every year. I see a cardiologist, doctor Chan, here in Camaros.
Scott Benner Explain a silent heart attack to me. What happened?
Roger Well, my symptoms were woke up one morning. My blood sugar was, like, 16, then all of a sudden, I start right at the top of my stomach. It just hurt like hell, and I felt crappy. So I went and laid down, and I I woke up. Or I didn't even go to sleep.
Roger I got up. I said, Shelley, call on the ambulance. And they so they took me in, and and I guess the blood tests showed that I had a silent heart attack.
Scott Benner Okay. That's how it's so that tough pain, like, in your like, right in your sternum?
Roger Yes.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah.
Roger Yeah. It was just pain there, and then then I guess, you know, they did the blood test. Then that's how they can tell you you've had a an issue.
Scott Benner Right? Because the there's muscle listen. Let's all be clear. I don't know what I'm talking about, but I've seen a number of different television shows about this. So I think there's a breakdown of the muscle that shows up in the blood work.
Scott Benner Right. And that's how they can tell. But they did that, and now they're checking you for blockages. But you haven't had trouble since then? No.
Scott Benner No. Oh, that's good. I'll knock on some wood for you.
Roger I ex I exercise every day, and I'm, like, bike. Right? So no. I get a I get a an echocardiogram every two years.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger And I see the cardiologist every year. So I
Scott Benner You eat any special way? How's your diet?
Roger Kind of simple. Yeah. Same same old.
Scott Benner That's just so I
Roger kinda like the one that sticks that sticks to what works. Right?
Scott Benner Yeah. Listen. I I basically have two poached eggs every day in my life, and I couldn't possibly care less. It's awesome.
Roger Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 Look at these far look at these farmers.
Roger They eat eggs every day, and they live to their freaking 90. Right?
Scott Benner So No. Listen. I had steak this week, a little chicken. I have a couple eggs every day.
Roger Oh, yeah.
Scott Benner It's just I just chug along. I don't I don't need too much variety either. What I was gonna ask you, what does Shelley know about diabetes? Like, how valuable is she with your care? If you had trouble with something, would she be able to help?
Scott Benner Like, how does that all work?
Roger Yeah. She doesn't know anything really about the looping and stuff like that. She knows, like, her she was married before to a fellow who, unfortunately, passed away. He was a diabetic. He had a kidney transplant back in the nineties.
Roger And so she does know
Scott Benner About about diabetes. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, if you said to her I mean, if your blood sugar got low, would she be able to help you?
Roger Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She knows she knows.
Scott Benner She knows what to do in those situations?
Roger Yeah. Get my juice box.
Scott Benner What about if it do you have glucagon with you?
Roger I have the the nasal spray.
Scott Benner Yeah. Is that what you have? Yeah. You use that? Yeah.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger Yeah. I carry my I carry my pocket all the time.
Scott Benner Yeah. Have you used it?
Roger Never. Never passed out. Never.
Scott Benner Never had well, listen. Your blood sugar was pretty high. I didn't see you passing out from a low blood sugar at any point. I mean, that would have been screwed up, Roger, if if Yeah. Know.
Scott Benner The world would have done that to you on top of the high blood sugar.
Speaker 3 But but but since I started up yeah.
Scott Benner Well, now, yeah, you're in a different world. You're playing with different tolerances now. Yeah. But she would know if you had a seizure, she'd know to squirt that in your nose.
Roger Yeah. I should show her whether she remembers or not.
Scott Benner I mean, I'd ask her once in a while. Yeah.
Speaker 3 I bet her I
Roger keep one beside my bed too. Right? So
Scott Benner Yeah. No kidding. Oh my gosh. I have a what are some things that people would be surprised by to learn from a blind person? Well, what surprised you, you know, when you lost your sight?
Scott Benner And and what do you think we'd hear and go, no kidding. Do you learn something from losing your sight? Do you like, has there been any value? I know it's a weird question, but, like, any anything that's come from it that's been transformational for you in some way or another? Or did you just learn you'd rather have your sight?
Scott Benner Because I think maybe that's possibility too.
Roger Well, I could tell you the downfalls of it.
Scott Benner Yeah. Go ahead. I'd like to hear what, like, what what it's really like.
Roger Well, I had a good job, and then all of a sudden, you got no no job, and you're on a disability pension that wouldn't pay to feed a hummingbird.
Speaker 3 Yeah.
Roger And then, yeah, you're always fighting with the government over all their they're dragging you in and they're always trying to screw you out of your pension money, right, in some way.
Scott Benner Like, I wonder if we could get maybe a a couple of loonies off the blind guy. Yeah. Great. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 3 Yeah. The guy on
Roger the corner is on pencils or something.
Scott Benner The struggles that we imagine are there. I mean, is there anything that's that I would think is amazingly difficult that just is not that troublesome for you?
Roger Walking around with the lights out.
Scott Benner You're like, I don't care what time of day it is. Yep. Does it mess with your circadian rhythm? Do you not have a, like, a rhythm to the sun rising and falling, or do you do you still have it from, like, feeling the sun on you?
Roger Used to in the beginning, in the last five years, six years, I go through stages where I'm up early, three, four in the morning, can't get back to sleep. Can't get back to sleep. And then all of a sudden, I it just switches. Right?
Scott Benner No kidding. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Let me ask you this question because I've I've asked this of every person I've ever spoken to who doesn't have their sight. How would you describe like, you're experiencing something.
Scott Benner Right? Like, how would you like, is there a visual input to your brain still? Like, what is it or no? Like, how do you explain what you are experiencing?
Roger My visual memory is very vivid, I guess, my mind.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Roger Yeah. That's that's how I
Scott Benner You kinda imagine a world.
Roger Yeah. Yeah. You know?
Scott Benner But when I shut my eyes, I feel like I see black. Do you have that experience, or is it something different?
Roger No. It's black. Well, what I tell people, it's like going out in the middle of the night and looking up into the sky and seeing all the stars Mhmm. All the white little dots. You know, you see all the stars, like a little dot.
Roger Right?
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger So it's it's all there's lots of little white dots and blue, red, purple dots just floating around. But it's all
Scott Benner And for the lack of a better word, you see those right now?
Roger Yes.
Scott Benner Okay.
Roger It it in the background, it's all black, but there's all these little
Scott Benner Constellation constellations floating around.
Roger Yep. Yeah. Are
Scott Benner you aware of them? Or I mean, now that I'm asking you about them, you are. But, like, do you day to day, do you think about them being there? No. No?
Scott Benner It's just part of
Roger it. Yeah. Just part of it. It's good.
Scott Benner Oh, it sounds good.
Roger Just get used to it. Yeah.
Navigating the World
Scott Benner Jeez. When's the last time you drove your car when you were your twenties?
Roger Could have drove to the hospital
Scott Benner for my last surgery here. What what do you miss the most?
Roger Riding in my horses. Riding racing comp competing.
Scott Benner Competing on your horses. Is there a way to ride? I mean, did what what
Roger Oh, man. I I know what you're gonna ask. I went to a riding ranch, and I was led around by somebody else. Oh, I sat on the horse, and somebody else had a had a rope. They were leading the horse around.
Roger I never felt so humiliated in my life.
Scott Benner Was gonna say, I bet you that didn't feel good. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Roger That's the first and last I thought ever happened.
Scott Benner Yeah. We're not gonna play the game anymore where you lead Roger around like he's six years old on a pony. We're not doing that again. Because you can't just yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner Right. Now I as soon as I asked you, I thought, man, that is what he's gonna say. Yeah.
Roger Here's one for you that February I always wanted a Corvette
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Roger Even even before I went blind. 2001, I went and bought a 1990 red candy apple red Corvette, and I think it was beautiful. Right? And I had that thing for a couple of years. My buddy used to drive around it.
Roger This is when I was single. Right? And Steve will go, what's a blind guy who want a car for? You know?
Scott Benner It's the same reason another guy wants a car for. So, girl, look at it. Pay attention.
Speaker 3 Yeah. Why why why is he what do you what do you want artwork for? Why do you collect artwork? Because a friend of my dad was an art broker,
Roger and I would buy paintings off them, you know, and get them framed. Right? Right. But, you know, I have lots of that stuff here, though.
Scott Benner Well, what's the answer to that one? Why would you buy artwork?
Roger Oh, every host needs a picture.
Scott Benner Like, listen. Just because I can't see it doesn't mean somebody else can't.
Speaker 3 Yeah. Who wants to look at my ugly
Roger mug up there?
Scott Benner Well, here's a question for you. There are companies a number of companies working on driverless cars. If they got to the point where they said to you, this car doesn't even need a steering wheel. Would you be interested in riding in a car that just took you somewhere? Like, you got in, spoke where you wanted to go, and you ended up there and it parked itself.
Scott Benner Would you be interested in that? No. You wouldn't. Because you wouldn't trust it or because you found other ways to get around?
Roger Because the other jackets on the rotor.
Scott Benner I'm just like, listen. I trust my blind in a driverless car more than I trust other people. Yeah. Okay. I got it.
Scott Benner Yeah. That that's interesting because I've I've I'm hearing more and more people talk about, like, as I get older, I'm I'm hopeful about the the cars that drive themselves because I think it'll keep me mobile longer and stuff like that. And I was wondering if that was something you thought
Roger Well, okay. Here's a here's a quite a scenario. You don't know the place where you're really going. Okay? So you put your coordinates in.
Roger You get there. Then what do you do?
Scott Benner You don't know where you're at once you get there. Yep. But if you have like, I'm I'm assuming you have transportation set up for yourself. They they drop you at the door. You know you're at the door, stuff like that.
Roger I live in a small they call it a city. I call it a town. It's only 20,000.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Roger The taxi service. So they're really good. They'll they'll take you right into your appointment. Or
Scott Benner Oh, okay. Somebody somebody actually go with you, get you in the door, stuff like that.
Roger Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. The car is gonna be like, you we're here. Go ahead and jump out. Get eject. Eject.
Scott Benner Get out. No. Oh, no. That's such an interesting like, see, that's a really interesting insight from you that, like, yeah. Sure.
Scott Benner The car gets there, but now it's there, and I don't know where I am. I could be anywhere in the world right now.
Roger Yeah. Like, where is you know?
Scott Benner Where is here?
Speaker 3 What do I do now? Yeah.
Roger That's that's great. I'm here.
Scott Benner Awesome. Hello? Anyone? Yeah. Know, you're calling for help.
Scott Benner Yeah. That that's no good.
Roger One of the hard things about being blind is when you go to a store is getting help. Some, like, grocery stores.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Roger I had a bitch of a time when I was in Ontario when Shelley lived in Ontario. Like, she's from Alberta. She lived in Ontario for five years. And getting the someone to help you do some grocery shoppings shopping, take her take us around or take her around. I had to call head office on the manager.
Roger He was being a
Scott Benner He didn't wanna help you find the Cocoa Puffs? Like, what what's the point?
Roger Well, they they just wouldn't walk around with you with you and help you, you know, get stuff in the cart and check you. Right? You know, you're buying 2 or $300 with our groceries at a time.
Scott Benner Yeah. I just need one of the kids to, like, tell me this is Quaker Oats. Like, I I is that a problem? What do you do then? Do you have somebody that goes with you, or do you order online?
Scott Benner I
Roger don't do you have Safeway there?
Scott Benner I mean, there's yeah. Like, grocery stores all over the place. I think Safeway is one of them. Yeah.
Roger Yeah. That's the way of Safeway here. They're just awesome to us. They treat us like family there. Any of this we just go ahead with customer service, and they'll usually, the one girl, Janice, they helps us.
Roger She just goes around with us and does helps us do our shopping.
Scott Benner Feels obvious, doesn't it? Can you I mean, I'm not having trouble imagining a person absolutely blind going into a grocery store saying, hey. Listen. I'm here to spend a bunch of money, but I can't see anything. Could you come around with me?
Scott Benner They go, no. What did he say? Just say no?
Roger Yeah. No. We don't have the manpower.
Scott Benner The manpower? Stop it. Yeah.
Roger Walmart had a sign a few years ago. Said, if you need help shopping in any way, we will help you. Just come to customer service. So great. We go there, and they're they're so freaking worried, the staff, about their break.
Scott Benner Listen. I'll come with you, but I only got six minutes.
Roger Yeah. They're so worried about they're you're trying to find someone. Well, I'm going on break, and then this
Scott Benner Wow. Yeah. Did I was gonna say that must be hard for you to accept after everything you've been through.
Roger Oh, I yeah. I I I have I have lots of patience. Hey. But, you know, there's there's a point.
Scott Benner You're like, I think you found my line. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just help me get my stuff and then go on break. Yeah.
Scott Benner How would that be? I think it'll work out
Roger for you. You still get paid. Walmart's Walmart's the worst. Like, Safeway is no problem. If they're gonna go on break, they'll just go later.
Roger Right?
Scott Benner Mhmm. But you don't do you not order things you like? Is it because you like to get out and move around, or do you, like, wanted to order stuff
Roger to It's an outing.
Scott Benner And give you something to do. Yeah.
Roger Yeah. It's an outing. My friend Norbert, unfortunately, he just passed away in December. He would take us. He was 81.
Roger He would take us. He would just sit there and watch the people because he knew knew everybody in town. Mhmm. He that was his good deed for the for the day. Right?
Roger But now his wife does it. So
Scott Benner Oh, that's really nice. It's it's it's it is really something when you meet decent people.
Roger I found the people here, like, as opposed to back in, like, Milton. Like, at the last place I lived was Milton. It was West Of Toronto. There's Toronto, Mississauga, then Milton along that 401 corridor. Ignorant.
Roger People are just ignorant there. Mhmm. Nude. And you you come to you come to town here, I'll tell you an instant. We were waiting across the street, Shelly and I, and this guy comes with a trailer or a truck, and he's making he and he knew we were waiting for him to to go.
Roger He pulls out and blocks the whole traffic, makes, like, a right hand turn, blocks everybody, gets out, and helps us cross the street.
Scott Benner Because otherwise, you weren't gonna make it?
Roger Well, no. He that
Speaker 3 was just he just wanted to help us because we were just waiting it back in, you know, Ontario. They'd run over you. Well,
Closing Thoughts and Contact Info
Scott Benner Roger, I have to tell you, we're up on time, and I'm enjoying this. And I my biggest problem is that my all the rest of my questions are about sex, and it seems inappropriate. So I'm not gonna ask them. Oh. And
Roger Off air.
Scott Benner But I'm yeah. So I I think we I think this is a good conversation. I wanna keep it right where it is. I'm gonna check myself and act like an adult and and say thank you, and ask you if there's anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to. I don't wanna skip or miss anything that you had in mind.
Scott Benner Yeah. We cover it?
Roger I think we covered up pretty much everything. Yeah. It's like, just, you know, looping is possible for blind people.
Scott Benner I'm thrilled that you said that. I was really excited to hear that you had that much success with that app. I hope other people are are helped by that somehow. Even people whose sight is limited somehow. It must be great to know that.
Scott Benner So
Roger Hey. Can you go on my amazon.ca and and look up pod filler plus?
Scott Benner Let me see if I wanna go
Roger on there. Pod filler. You'll see it's about $60.
Scott Benner Pod filler plus pod filling aid compatible with Omnipod five, Omnipod dash assistive device.
Roger It's for the blind. The pod and there's a just a pod filler. It's for a dexterity problem. It it it's a little bit smaller. It doesn't have those posts.
Roger I don't know if it's on Amazon.
Scott Benner No. I see. I see. Yeah. I see.
Scott Benner I'm on CA. Yeah. Pod filler. Oh, look at that. Yeah.
Scott Benner Just you the this is a just just as described, there's a place to put the the pod, and then there's this gonna arm to slide the syringe into, which I guess lines the syringe up perfectly with the fill hole.
Roger The one the one I designed is just like that. The way the way I fill my syringes, and even I did with my old pump, I use a a a cut off pencil. I use a pen cartridge. Mhmm. I just poke the needle in the end of the cartridge, and I use a pencil to push the insulin in.
Roger So that that's probably where they got the idea of those other posts from. You know, I'll let you come to that conclusion or whatever you want on that one. But
Scott Benner I'm looking on at on the Amazon for America. I do not see it here. Yeah. I don't think it's here in America.
Roger You can still order from, CA because I I I order stuff from .com, you know, to get for Shelley. Right? I I we we use Amazon a lot.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. Mean, That's right. I would imagine you do. Yeah.
Scott Benner I mean, that's that's awesome that I mean, hearing about that, I thought it was a big deal. Hearing how well, Loop works for you, I thought that was awesome. I think it's great to hear that you, you know, you've had these many issues, but you just haven't given up. Like, did you really do you kind of I mean, is that a thing that's in your personality, do you think you picked it up from watching your dad? Because you said your dad his theory on life seemed to be, like, you know, foot down, keep going.
Scott Benner Like, do you think you picked that up from him growing up?
Roger Oh, yeah. We're all all my brothers. I don't like that. They just yeah. We're all workers.
Scott Benner Yeah. Just don't give up. Keep keep moving.
Roger No. My dad came from nothing, had nothing. He was married, and my mom had two kids at 18, eleven months apart.
Scott Benner Did he really?
Roger Yeah. My dad would be when in, you know, young days, he'd be loading snow downtown Toronto with a front end loader with no cab. He'd have to unzip his snowsuit and give his injection and keep going. Right? So and he was on zinc.
Roger Have you ever heard of that? Zinc? Lenti?
Scott Benner Oh, lenti. Yes. That I've heard.
Roger Yeah. He was on zinc before lenti, and he had some issues. He wasn't he was losing too much weight, so they switched them to to lenti.
Scott Benner Zinc, is that like a was that an insulin at that point?
Roger Yeah. That was an insulin. I was saying that was one of the first ones.
Scott Benner Z I n z?
Roger Pretty sure they're called zinc. Yeah. Because I asked that guy one time. But I'm looking endo up
Scott Benner is an intermediate acting subcutaneous insulin, often referred to as lenti. Uses zinc to control the release and absorption of insulin providing twenty four hour coverage.
Roger Yeah. How about damn.
Scott Benner Cat and dog insulin came up, when I looked. That's interesting. I'll have look more at that. Yeah. Well Go ahead.
Roger One of the biggest things is your endo and their their their thinking. Like, if my my if my endo and my Robin and doctor Rogers weren't I call them call them forward thinking. Right? I never would would have looped. You get some of these older endos.
Roger They I've I've read that they say it's it's dangerous.
Scott Benner Loose things dangerous?
Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. They're, you know, afraid of what you don't know.
Scott Benner Yeah. No. I mean, in the end, everybody's gonna have their own experiences. You again, like, mother, you're mother of necessity right here. Right?
Scott Benner So you're you you just absolutely needed to find a way to do something so you don't put up the same walls and the same fear about things. You're like, I've gotta get this done. I gotta sit down and read all this documentation about this thing. I've gotta figure out how to get the insulin into this pump. I've gotta figure out how to do this.
Scott Benner Like, you just have no other choice. And once you don't have another choice, you know, then the the speed bumps don't seem as important, I would imagine.
Roger No. Yeah. No. You just keep trucking.
Scott Benner Man, people should people should, take something from that. Like, don't be so scared all the time. You know? No. Yeah.
Scott Benner Be bold. Be bold. That's one way to put it. Or act like you're in the middle of a parking lot, you don't know where the hell on earth you are, and you gotta figure something out.
Roger Oh, man. That's funny you mentioned that. When I moved to Alberta, that's what I tell everybody. I thought I was dropped in the middle of a field that night. I don't know where the hell I am because my my, sense of direction is reversed as opposed to being in Ontario.
Roger It's weird. Shelly's when she goes to Ontario, she's a total opposite. Right? Like
Scott Benner I was talking, around the house the other day about moving to another state, and somebody said, well, you wouldn't, you know, you wouldn't know anything. You hadn't been there before, and blah blah blah. I said, I what do you mean? Like, I don't leave this house. I don't know where I'm at right now.
Roger I I
Scott Benner said, dude, where I am is meaningless, like, like, quite honestly. Right?
Roger Like Yeah.
Scott Benner There's no great restaurants around here. I mean, I know a few people, but, you know, everybody's about the same no matter where I seem to go. And I was like I was like, I don't think it matters. I was like, I get up in the morning and I sometimes I don't even leave here. Like, I could not leave another house in another state and it would be warmer, and that would be better.
Scott Benner That's all I said. I was like, I I want it to be warm is what I told them.
Roger Yeah. Really?
Speaker 3 Hey. Springsteen and Bon Bon Jovi live there.
Scott Benner Well, I mean, not right where I'm at. Although I know. Although, I will tell you one time, Arden was out with her friends, and they were just, like, window shopping somewhere. And she came home and she's like, we saw we saw, Bon Jovi's son today. I was like, oh, yeah?
Scott Benner And she goes, yeah. I said, did you introduce yourself? She goes, I didn't. I was like, well, maybe you should have. And then she, you know, she kinda laughed and everything and now he's married to the girl from stranger things.
Roger Well.
Scott Benner So sometimes she pops up and I went, could have been you. Just had to say hello. Yep. But I've but even that's a great point. Like, I've never been to the Stone Pony.
Scott Benner I'm probably an hour from it. I've I've never been there. I'm never going. When we moved here, when we had kids, I remember like, we talked about, like, oh, this is wonderful. We're about about an hour from Manhattan.
Scott Benner We're about an hour from Philadelphia. There'll be museums and things, cultural stuff we can take the kids to. And, you know, the the second time you take your kid to an art museum and you you look over at them and they're bored out of their mind, you think, oh, I guess they don't care about this.
Roger No. I know. The younger generation nowadays, it's.
Scott Benner And then Roger, living near the museum's not as important anymore because apparently we're not coming back. So Yeah. Yeah. I figured I could live anywhere and I I'd be okay with it. So
Roger Yeah. Right on.
Scott Benner Anyway. But you're you're really awesome, dude. It was great to get to know you, and I appreciate you taking the time to do this. It really was really, really a great time talking to you.
Roger Yeah. How do you how do you get in touch with him? I need to ask a question or a phone.
Scott Benner If you wanna ask me a question, hold on. We'll stop the recording. I'll tell you all about it.
Roger Yeah. Alright.
Scott Benner Thank you.
Roger I I was would listen one of Kenny Fox. Mhmm. You're you're a good friend. I listen to podcast you did on Loop and Learn about five years ago, I think it was, and you were he was on there.
Scott Benner And I did a whole series. We did six at least six episodes together about Loop.
Roger Yeah. Yeah. Where can you send them to me and stuff? Because I you know, the more information, the better I have. Yeah.
Scott Benner Well, listen. Since you asked about it, I'm still recording. I'll tell people what episode numbers they are, but then I'll email them to you. So hold on one second. I'm on my website here.
Scott Benner Kenny's episodes are called Fox in the Loop House.
Roger That's right.
Scott Benner Yeah. That's what they're called. So well, yeah. We just did a part. So part six is episode fourteen eighty nine, and part four is fourteen thirty three.
Roger I knew I knew you guys did some, episodes there. Was just wondering. I you know, I don't like I'll send them Robin would do it.
Scott Benner No. I'll send them to you. I'll put what I'll do is I'll put an email together. Here. Let me stop the recording.
Scott Benner People don't care about this. Alright, everybody. See you later.
Episode Wrap-Up & Sponsor Details
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Scott Benner Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
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