#1820 Orange Julius

Kelly opens up about raising two teens diagnosed with Type 1 at age six. She discusses international living , multiple miscarriages , alarm fatigue , and managing different sibling personalities.

Companies that Support Juicebox

Simplify Lifewith Omnipod

DexcomG7 15 Day Sensor

Save 20%Save 20% with offer code: JUICEBOX

US MEDGet your Diabetes Supplies

ContourEasy to Use and Highly Accurate

MiniMedMake everyday a better day

TandemControl-IQ+ with AutoBolus

CommunitySupport Touched By Type 1

EversenseOne Year One CGM

ABLEnowSave for Disability Expenses

Simplify Lifewith Omnipod

DexcomG7 15 Day Sensor

Save 20%Save 20% with offer code: JUICEBOX

US MEDGet your Diabetes Supplies

ContourEasy to Use and Highly Accurate

MiniMedMake everyday a better day

TandemControl-IQ+ with AutoBolus

CommunitySupport Touched By Type 1

EversenseOne Year One CGM

ABLEnowSave for Disability Expenses

Key Takeaways

• International Travel & Embassies: When traveling overseas with T1D, always carry your supplies on the plane in a medical bag. In emergencies, the US Embassy has an after-hours duty phone to help coordinate local medical care.
• The Mental Toll of Multiple Diagnoses: Having multiple children with T1D can cause severe burnout and alarm fatigue. It's completely valid to seek professional mental health support (like talk therapy or a psychiatrist) to process the trauma and grief associated with these life-altering events.
• Different Personalities Require Different Management: Sibling dynamics play a huge role in diabetes management. What works for an organized, self-driven child might not work for a forgetful teenager, and parents may need to adjust their oversight accordingly.
• The Crucial Role of Pre-Bolusing: Consistently pre-bolusing meals, especially unpredictable school lunches, is one of the most effective ways to prevent massive blood sugar spikes and reduce the compounding effort required to fix highs later.
• Get Ahead and Stay Ahead: A proactive approach to diabetes management—addressing highs promptly, understanding food impacts, and pre-bolusing—ultimately requires less total effort and emotional strain than constantly playing catch-up.

Resources Mentioned

• Juice Cruise 2026: juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise
• US Med: usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514
• Medtronic Diabetes (MiniMed 780G): medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox
• Touched by Type 1: touchedbytype1.org
• Eversense 365: eversensecgm.com/juicebox
• Tandem Diabetes Care (Tandem Mobi): tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox
• SugarPixel: customtype1.com/juicebox
• Wrong Way Recording: wrongwayrecording.com

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Introduction and Sponsors

Scott Benner (0:00)

Welcome back, friends. You are listening to the Juice Box podcast.

Kelly (0:14)

I'm Kelly. I have, two teenagers, and, coincidentally, they were both diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of six.

Scott Benner (0:26)

How would you like to share a type one diabetes getaway like no other? Join me on Juice Cruise 2026. You may be asking, what is Juice Cruise? It's a week long cruise designed specifically for people and families living with type one diabetes. It's not just a vacation. It's a chance to relax, connect, and feel understood in a way that is hard to find elsewhere. We're gonna sail out of Miami, and the cruise includes stops in CocoCay, San Juan, Saint Kitts, Nevis aboard the stunning Celebrity Beyond. This ship is chosen for its comfort, accessibility, and exceptional amenities. You're gonna enjoy a welcoming environment surrounded by others who get life with type one diabetes. I'm gonna host diabetes focused conversations and meetups on the days at sea. There's thoughtfully designed spaces, incredible dining, and modern amenities all throughout the celebrity beyond. Your kids can be supervised, there's teen programs so everyone gets time to recharge. Not just the the kids going on vacation, but maybe you get the kickback a little bit too. There's gonna be zero judgment, real connections, and a whole lot of sun and fun on Juice Cruise twenty twenty six. Please come with me. You're going to have a terrific time. You can learn more or set up your deposit at juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise. Get ahold of Suzanne at cruise planners. She will take care of everything. Links in the show notes. Links at juiceboxpodcast.com. While you're listening, please remember that 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 or becoming bold with insulin. Today's podcast is sponsored by US Med, u smed.com/juicebox. You can get your diabetes supplies from the same place that we do, and I'm talking about Dexcom, Libre, Omnipod, Tandem, and so much more. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. Today's episode is also sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the MiniMed seven eighty g system and their new sensor options, which include the Instinct sensor made by Abbott. Would you like to unleash the full potential of the MiniMed seven eighty g system? You can do that at my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.

Living Overseas and a Double Diagnosis

Kelly (2:55)

I'm Kelly. I have, two teenagers, and, coincidentally, they were both diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of six. We are a family of four that has lived overseas for six and a half of the last ten years.

Scott Benner (3:13)

Two kids. One is how old now? 17?

Kelly (3:17)

Almost 17.

Scott Benner (3:18)

Okay. And when both of them were in their six year old year, they got type one diabetes?

Kelly (3:24)

Yes. So with Kayla, who is my older, she was diagnosed at six, and we found out right after we realized we were going to be moving to France, the the following year. And so I was able to really enjoy my son not having diabetes for about two years, and it was always a joke. Oh, thank goodness. It was Kayla that had it and not my son, Cooper, and then he got it. And we are right. It was so much better. Kayla took it on really well. Cooper has just always been a challenge with eating and and remembering to dose and all of that.

Scott Benner (4:10)

Okay. Are there other autoimmune issues in your family? Do you or your husband have anything I'm talking about beyond type one diabetes?

Kelly (4:18)

Not for my husband or I. My husband's cousin has type one as well as his father, so my my husband's uncle. Oh. They both had type one. And my husband's side, it's also someone has Graves' disease. But my side, the only thing that they've ever really been somewhat concerned about is my dad was exposed to Agent Orange, and they were saying that possibly there's some sort of connection. They haven't found a connection close enough to actually pay for anything.

Scott Benner (4:52)

Well, I'm gonna guess that's about where that'll stop actually, right when they Exactly. Right when the government gets close to going. We might owe him money if we figure out the rest of this. They'll probably stop right around there.

Kelly (5:02)

Exactly.

Scott Benner (5:02)

He was in, in Vietnam? Yeah. He was. Why? Is he still alive? Yes. Wow. Gosh.

Kelly (5:10)

It's his birthday actually tomorrow. Oh. He'll be 82.

Scott Benner (5:12)

Happy birthday. That's awesome. Very nice. What agent orange what do you what does he feel like it did to him?

Kelly (5:19)

My dad suffers with, Parkinson's now.

Scott Benner (5:22)

Okay.

Kelly (5:23)

And so the VA did actually is is taking care of him for that.

Scott Benner (5:27)

Oh, well, I guess that's good. Is there an idea that that could have implications to his children and his children's children?

Kelly (5:33)

What I was told is that it could skip a generation. I haven't looked into too much about it when we found out we were over in France. And I said, oh, great. You know, take a look. But we were you know, it's hard enough to live over there. I had enough struggles, so I didn't look into it. And I don't need extra, frustration.

Scott Benner (5:55)

Kelly, you you've said a couple of things that make me feel like maybe this has all been a lot for you. Is that fair?

Kelly (6:04)

It has been.

Scott Benner (6:05)

Yeah.

Kelly (6:05)

I feel like we've we've been at this for over ten years. I feel the burnout. With with insurance, it gets incredibly difficult. Living overseas can be difficult when you're trying to switch out Libres and you're calling the French system and your French isn't great. When you're going into the pharmacy and they laugh when they ask for your, they call it the carte vitale, and it's a Social Security card, basically. All of the supplies would be completely free, and they like to remind you that every time you're in the system going to to purchase everything. It's been difficult. I I found your podcast when we returned from France back in, I think, 2021. So I started listening, and I listen a lot. And it's still like, if you listen, you'll have your a one c's in the low sixes. We're at, like, six and a half to seven and a half right now.

Scott Benner (7:05)

Okay.

Kelly (7:05)

So it's just it's every day is tough with alarms. We get alarm fatigue. And at night, you've got one high, one low, and it just having two is tough.

Scott Benner (7:21)

No. I would imagine. And they were how far apart in age are they?

Kelly (7:26)

They are about two and a half years apart.

Scott Benner (7:30)

Yeah. That's it. So we your first one gets it and is only maybe eight, maybe nine years old by the time your second one has it. Yeah. Then you have a nine year old and a six year old with type one diabetes.

Kelly (7:41)

Yep.

Scott Benner (7:41)

And that was about eight years ago.

Kelly (7:45)

So Kayla was in 2015 and Cooper was twenty seventeen.

Scott Benner (7:49)

Okay. And would you say that it had, like, a psychological impact on you? Did you find yourself looking for therapy, or did your stress rise? Were you anxious before and more anxious now? Like, can you describe how it hit you first?

Miscarriage, Trauma, and Mental Health

Kelly (8:06)

When Kayla was diagnosed, there was a lot of confusion. I really didn't understand the disease that sometimes you need sugar, sometimes you don't need sugar, and there were so many variables. And so I remember at the hospital, they were talking about carb counting, and we actually never really got into carb counting. We knew we did, oh, this is about a few units and went from that because with so many variables, I was I wasn't going to make myself crazy trying to understand this totally, like, foreign thing to me of carbs. So we did that. We tried to make it as low impact as possible, especially when we were once we moved over to France. There's not gonna be any restaurants that have your carb counts. You don't know when you're if you're at a restaurant in France, you don't know when the food's actually gonna be coming. The pre bola scene wasn't wasn't a thing. So we tried to make it, and and we were just MDI and finger pricking

Scott Benner (9:18)

Mhmm.

Kelly (9:18)

For seven and a half years. And so we did what we could. Kayla's numbers really hurt. They weren't awful. We were below we were in the seventh pretty much that whole time. When Cooper was diagnosed, we were actually in Italy on vacation, and that one hit extremely hard. I was actually I think I was about seven weeks pregnant at the time. And so when he was diagnosed, it was almost like I was trapped to having a third diabetic. It was like I was getting into this pregnancy without knowing that I had two diabetics and thinking this one could get it much, much earlier than six years old like my my other two. So I was worried that every day would be, is this diaper too full? And just really concerned, and that really screwed me up mentally.

Scott Benner (10:21)

Okay.

Kelly (10:22)

For that time when we were on vacation, I was actually I had I had suffered a few miss two miscarriages prior. So I was actually on progesterone and baby aspirin. They were trying to figure out what was going on with these losses. And so I forgot the the pills when we went to Italy. And so I went to the pharmacy trying to get the prescriptions, and then I contacted my doctor to get that information over to Italy, and then he was diagnosed. I completely forgot about all of that. I never followed up. I never got the pills. It ended up I lost the baby, two weeks after his diagnosis. So mentally, I was a mess. I was worried. First, I was scared about my thoughts of wanting this baby so much and then being so scared and then not wanting the baby and then losing the baby and realizing, you know what? Even if this baby does get diabetes I have two amazing kids right now. It helped make me feel a little better about wanting to grow our family. Mhmm. With that, I ended up trying a few times later. We never figured out what the problem was. It ended up because I had so many other miscarriages. I gave myself some grace on forgetting the progesterone and, aspirin, and I got through the really dark place of knowing that I do want another child that the diabetes is not a reason not to have it for us, but it it took a long time to get through it.

Scott Benner (12:11)

You know, I've been kinda playing around here in, Google Gemini while you're talking. And like you said, the Veterans Administration doesn't recognize a lot, but there's a lot of, information from the community. And it seems like the things that you're going through are not uncommon for a person whose father was exposed. Severe reproductive issues, infertility, generational miscarriages, autoimmune thyroid disorders, structural abnormalities, babies born with missing limbs, extra digits, webbed toes, congenital heart defects, that kind of stuff. The v again, I think the VA says that that's not connected. But the people living, seem to think it might be. So it's Yeah. That's really something. But but the the rest of it though, the your part of it, that kind of journey you went on from, gosh, do I really like, can I deal with, like, a third kid with type one diabetes? And then, like, actually experiencing a loss and then refiguring how you thought about it. That's a lot to go through and how much time. Like, how long did how long were you pregnant that time?

Sponsor Break

Scott Benner (13:21)

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Processing the Dark Places

Kelly (15:54)

I was seven weeks pregnant when he was diagnosed. I lost the baby two weeks later. And so this was the 2017, and it was a very, very dark place.

Scott Benner (16:10)

Yeah.

Kelly (16:11)

I did actually have, we were at the US embassy, and they do have a psychiatrist there who was incredibly helpful. I had never thought about seeing a psychiatrist before, and he was phenomenal. He helped me through everything. I was very against drugs, trying to get anything. He said it's not a tattoo. You can try it if you don't like it. It's it's not a big deal. He did prescribe me lorazepam, and I only know that because of the the White Lotus season. I I went back, and I I couldn't remember what it was. And I there was such a a scene about her lorazepam.

Scott Benner (16:53)

So That was the Piper season.

Kelly (16:55)

Yes. Piper. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I went back and I found it. I I took I think it was, like, during maybe the miscarriage awareness day or something. I knew it was gonna be difficult, so I took one of those. And I it I didn't feel any effects, and so I was like, forget it. I'm not I'm not going to do that. But talk therapy was was incredibly helpful. Having my kids being really great people, I really enjoy them, so that was helpful.

Scott Benner (17:23)

I just wanna be clear. I hate White Lotus, and I've seen every second of it. I hate watching it the same way I hate watch Severance. I just wanna say yes. The entire time

Kelly (17:33)

through Severance.

Scott Benner (17:34)

I oh, I just I look at Arden. I'm like, why are we watching this? It's terrible. I said that this is bull like, masquerading as high minded art. I was like, I don't I hate this. And then next week, she says, you wanna watch Severance? I'm like, yeah, okay. Let me sit down. I think it's possible. I just enjoy complaining about it. But I feel every time I get done watching White Lotus, I feel like nothing happened. Why am I watching this? It's horrible.

Kelly (17:58)

To agree. Yeah. It it was there's a few great scenes and then that's it. Yeah. But for us, we really we do had just gone to Thailand, so we really enjoyed Oh. Looking at the scenery. And then next season, they're going to, I think, the Alps in France somewhere.

Scott Benner (18:12)

So told me that.

Kelly (18:12)

We'll be watching it.

Scott Benner (18:14)

I hate myself for watching, and I'm sure I will. No. I really do. I know it's not good. If Mike White is listening, there's no reason he would be. I'm sorry for you, but I just I know that this is not real. Like, this is it's made Walter is it how does it how do you say his name? Goggins? Goggins? How Mhmm. It's made him much too famous.

Kelly (18:33)

He was amazing in, Justice.

Scott Benner (18:36)

Yes.

Kelly (18:36)

Or no. Justified.

Scott Benner (18:37)

Justified. Justified is awesome.

Kelly (18:39)

Loved him.

Scott Benner (18:39)

He was awesome in justified. Also, gave him a, a sitcom that didn't last very long that I have to say, I think if the writing was a little better, would have really done he was awesome in it. I like the guy a lot, but I'm seeing him in, like, too many commercials now. I mean, I feel good for him, but he looks a little too fit, a little too tan, a little too rich. That's all I'm gonna say. Walter, congratulations. I'm I'm I'm not I'm happy for your success. Let's move on. Did you blame yourself for thinking about, like, oh, maybe I don't wanna be pregnant again? Did you have any of that?

Kelly (19:12)

Oh, yeah. For for that dark dark period, it I had never thought that I would ever think of terminating a baby. So it was it was probably a week of thinking that. Just a lot of it feeling trapped that I didn't have all the information before I got pregnant.

Scott Benner (19:32)

Mhmm.

Kelly (19:32)

Then I turned it around while I was still pregnant, and then it didn't continue. So

Scott Benner (19:39)

Do you feel bad for thinking it then?

Kelly (19:41)

I felt awful for thinking it. Yeah. But then I kept trying. So it's no it was it was something where I had the feeling. I can honor that feeling, and I no longer feel feel bad about it. I'm happy that I did try

Scott Benner (19:57)

Yeah.

Kelly (19:57)

Again. But yeah. So that was it was really hard.

Scott Benner (20:00)

I I mean, if I could say outside of the shock of it happening and the you know, I'm assuming the crazy hormonal rush you get when you're first pregnant and then the rush that must come after the pregnancy, you know, ends, like, that's all gotta be overwhelming. But I don't think that thinking about it is insane at all. Like, I think it's pretty reasonable and rational to wonder. I've got two kids. They both got type one diabetes when they're six. Is this gonna happen again? Is that something we can all live through? I think you might be crazy not to think about that from my from my perspective. So but I can also understand how it would make you feel once it you know, once that happened afterwards. My gosh. Well, I'm sorry you went through that. Do you feel like, can you describe how you feel removed from it, like, a decade? Is it I mean, how do you look back on that time in in hindsight?

Kelly (20:49)

Thinking about it now, I've definitely turned the corner. For a long time, I couldn't be around babies. I ended up having seven miscarriages. So it was two a year consecutively, basically. And what I really enjoy now is that I real I don't remember due dates. I don't remember really, like, exact dates on when things happened. I know it was a hard time. I remember you know? It's it's a weird thing when babies are triggering.

Scott Benner (21:25)

Yeah.

Kelly (21:26)

It's great to really enjoy my family of four. It's great that at this age, we have teenagers and we can go on vacations and really enjoy time. So I try to look at those positives.

Scott Benner (21:40)

Yeah. I mean, babies are like Jeeps in the summertime. They're everywhere.

Kelly (21:43)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (21:44)

And, yeah, I guess if you're having a a triggered moment from it, that's terrible. Hey. Can I ask? I hope this doesn't seem insensitive. Why'd you keep trying when it was happening over and over again? Like, what was your mindset around it?

Kelly (21:58)

We kept trying different things. At first, there it was, you know, the normal. And then the next time, we're gonna try progesterone and baby aspirin, and then I forgot the pill. So the next time, I won't forget, and I'll do that. And then the next time, I had actual shots. I forget what it was called. Maybe Lovenox or something. And that actually scared me because it burned so much. It was a shot to my abdomen, and I felt so awful for the kids. And I actually posted in one of the diabetic groups. And I was like, oh my gosh. Are my kids having to feel this burn all the time? So and then the we just kept trying more things. And another thing is we were in France at the time. So I almost felt like had we been home, we would have tried a little harder, like, been a little more aggressive with things. I don't know. But it got to the point where we were going to be moving back to The States. I didn't wanna be pregnant during a move, and it was done.

Scott Benner (23:04)

How did it impact your husband? Did do you did two of you ever talk about it? Was it I mean, I can't imagine. I don't wanna I wouldn't wanna minimize anybody's experience, but, I mean, your experience and his have to be different, but I would imagine equally devastating. So did you talk about it together, or did you kinda have your own separate feelings?

Kelly (23:22)

When we were in it, it was very I was so distraught, and I didn't talk to him about his feelings at all. After and through each time, he would always say, we were a team, but, really, I was the decision maker

Scott Benner (23:37)

Yeah.

Kelly (23:37)

On it. We've never really gotten too in-depth about it since it's happened.

Scott Benner (23:45)

From your perspective, do you think he was doing it because you wanted to?

Kelly (23:50)

No. No. No. No. We were both we had always we're both children of three.

Scott Benner (23:55)

Yeah.

Kelly (23:55)

And we just always like, that was our family. We were com completing our family.

Scott Benner (23:59)

Did the pregnancies last about the same amount of time every time, or was it always different?

Kelly (24:04)

Yes. And and I guess that also makes it a little bit easier. I never got past ten weeks

Scott Benner (24:10)

Okay.

Kelly (24:10)

I think. So it was always, you know, hopeful, but we weren't you know, it it is weird. Like, yep. I'm pregnant again. Okay.

Scott Benner (24:19)

Oh, but you're not showing like, it's not No. Like, all the whole physical transformation is not there so much, and that part makes it a little easier to repeat. And and because do doctors also do that thing where they go, just try again? Do they give you that whole thing?

Kelly (24:33)

Yeah. And one thing that was weird is and maybe it was because we were in France. We never got sonogram pictures. We'd see them, but we never actually had them.

Scott Benner (24:42)

Oh, yeah.

Kelly (24:43)

So I guess it's a little less tangible.

Scott Benner (24:45)

Maybe they only give them to French people. Perhaps. If they're like, oh, they're American. They can't have it.

Kelly (24:50)

And one thing is I really wanted to have a baby in the American hospital in France because they talked about how amazing the food was. They are in tuxedos, and I I wanted that experience.

Scott Benner (25:01)

You're looking for the whole thing.

Kelly (25:03)

Well Exactly.

Scott Benner (25:04)

And that is I had no idea about that. They're in tuxedos? Yeah. Like, in the delivery wing?

Kelly (25:09)

Yeah. It's a private hospital. Oh.

Scott Benner (25:12)

Yeah. I mean, that does sound fun. But, I mean, now you're it's all these years later. Right? You got a great family and, you know, you're doing well.

Managing Different Sibling Personalities

Scott Benner (25:21)

Me about when you said, oh, we thought when the first one got it, lucky that one will be better at this than the other one. Like, has that all played out the way you expected, or is that not the case?

Kelly (25:31)

Exact it's exactly how we expected. My daughter, she is much more mindful about when what she's giving when she's giving it. My son, he will forget. He has no concept of a balanced meal. Right now, he is eating his school lunches every day with I think it's pizza, milk, and apples. You get a little fiber with that, but it's just it's it's been tough with him. Trying to text him with corrections has become more and more difficult. With my daughter, now that she is a junior in high school, I'm trying to not text her nearly as much so she has a little more control, and getting ready for college. But he's just he's sometimes he's just a bonehead, and he just doesn't doesn't think about diabetes.

Scott Benner (26:30)

He take after you and she takes after your husband or vice versa?

Kelly (26:34)

It's it's definitely that. He's more like me, and she's more like him.

Scott Benner (26:39)

And does that make it more frustrating or easier to understand?

Kelly (26:43)

It's easier to understand.

Scott Benner (26:45)

Okay. So do you give him a pass more than you should?

Kelly (26:48)

Maybe. I'd yeah. I definitely expect more from my daughter than my son. The one thing that I really was impressed with is on day one, he gave himself his first shot at six because he had seen his sister do it.

Scott Benner (27:01)

He's probably like, I see this all the time. I know what to do.

Kelly (27:04)

Yeah. Yeah. So he can do the things. He just doesn't know how much or when. A lot of times now he's getting to where he wants to give more insulin so he can get low, so he can snack and have all the treats. So

Scott Benner (27:18)

Oh, that's not a great plan.

Kelly (27:20)

No. It's not.

Scott Benner (27:20)

Can we just at least call that pre bolus thing for a snack later instead of getting low so we can eat? Yeah. Yeah. Please. Hey. Listen. I don't wanna be your therapist, but why do you expect more from your daughter than from your son?

Kelly (27:33)

I don't have to bug her as much. She has always been very organized, and so I don't need to expect more. She does what she needs to do, and I'm hoping to bring him up to her level.

Scott Benner (27:50)

So you just know she's going to do it. It's not so much that you want more from her. You just know she has she's together and she has more to give and she puts it towards this effort. Yep. Is that because that's her personality and she's just going to do it, or do you think she's beholden to how she believes you and your husband feel and what you want from her? Is she trying to make you happy?

Kelly (28:11)

I think she's self driven.

Scott Benner (28:13)

Okay. And he's just like a boy. He's just a knucklehead.

Kelly (28:17)

Exactly.

Scott Benner (28:18)

And he's got trouble remembering things like you.

Kelly (28:20)

Mhmm.

Scott Benner (28:21)

And do you have ADHD?

Kelly (28:22)

I do not.

Scott Benner (28:23)

Do you ever has anyone ever joked with you and said, like, hey. You have ADHD? Like that? No. No?

Scott Benner (28:30)

Okay.

Kelly (28:30)

But perhaps there's there's definitely times when I I get distracted.

Scott Benner (28:35)

Mhmm.

Kelly (28:36)

So it's possible.

Scott Benner (28:37)

Do you have anxiety?

Kelly (28:39)

Well, I didn't used to. I try to be, very go with the flow, but, yeah, it's I think with more moves and, less roots and instability, I have more anxiety.

Scott Benner (28:55)

That's interesting. What about I wouldn't call you guys transient, but you move probably more than some people. Right?

Kelly (29:02)

Yes. Yes. So before we had Kayla, we bought a house. We knew it wasn't our forever house, but we didn't expect to ever live overseas. In 2016, we moved over to France. We were there until the 2020. And when we were returning, we didn't want to return to our townhome, so we went to Virginia. For two years, we were there just renting. My kids immediately took to American life. My my son was actually in France longer than he was in America beforehand, but the second he came back, he was all about baseball, soccer, football, and just loved it. And then we had one more move over to Jordan for two years, and so we're back now just trying to find, our forever home. Or and when we say forever home, we're probably thinking just to get it through.

Scott Benner (30:02)

Through your son through college?

Kelly (30:04)

Not even through college. I think we'd even be happy with, high school. High school. But we're just trying to set down some roots. So I think that has been just a little difficult.

Scott Benner (30:13)

Okay. And that brings anxiety because you're always thinking about moving again because you're like, it's just not a lifestyle that sits comfortably with you or it doesn't sit comfortably with you since the kids have diabetes.

Kelly (30:26)

It's almost that we're just always kind of in limbo. Where are we going to live right now? We need to find a place so the kids can maintain stability. When it comes to the kids' diabetes, that's and that pretty much travels with us. Whatever we we need, we can we can do wherever.

Scott Benner (30:45)

Okay.

Kelly (30:46)

Because we were living overseas, travel became pretty simple. We were able to figure out, like, exactly what we needed to bring. A lot of people would bring, you know, three times the amount of of things that they needed. And when you're flying with all of these discount European airlines, you you can't bring a whole lot. So we we try to to be as as light packers as possible Yeah. And, it hasn't been too too difficult.

Alarm Fatigue and the Burden of Nights

Scott Benner (31:17)

Mhmm. So to the diabetes now, you're you said, a one c has been six and a half to seven and a half with both the kids?

Kelly (31:24)

Yeah. Cooper there's been times when Cooper reached eight. It hasn't been for a bit.

Scott Benner (31:30)

What do you think causes the rise when it happens?

Kelly (31:33)

I think a big one is the the lack of prebola scene as well as the nights. There are times when we'll have alarm fatigue. One will be high, one will be low, and it just gets where every night is daunting. The kids

Scott Benner (31:53)

Can you not put that type a husband onto that problem?

Kelly (31:56)

Yes. For him, he he needs to sleep more. His job is very demanding, and so I try to take on more. But when he takes it on, it's more we all kinda feel it afterwards. Like, I'm so tired, and I was up all night. We we actually got a sugar pixel recently. I didn't realize that there were different levels of the alarm. I didn't test it. And the first time, the first night, we had it on high, and it it it almost shook the whole house.

Scott Benner (32:30)

It woke everybody up?

Kelly (32:32)

He was like, if this is happening, we are getting to divorce. He was like, no way am I going to live through this.

Scott Benner (32:39)

Hey. Before you guys get divorced, let me just say customtype1.com/juicebox. I make a couple bucks when you buy one through my link.

Kelly (32:46)

And we did.

Scott Benner (32:46)

Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yes. So your husband is gosh. I hate these conversations. But is he not supportive of the whole thing?

Kelly (32:56)

He's incredibly supportive. Okay. Definitely. We've we've always been very good at being a team, talking about it.

Scott Benner (33:02)

But your team stay up at night, he's team. I sleep and don't wake me up.

Kelly (33:05)

No. No. He he will definitely do it. Okay. If he gets up, we all hear it. We all hear about it. We we definitely work together on it. I am much more invested. I will read the books and listen to all of your podcasts. I also have more time to do that. What I'm trying to do is when we started, the idea of a 7.5 a one c was what we were aiming for.

Scott Benner (33:33)

Sure.

Kelly (33:33)

And, I mean, we've been at this for a decade. I'm slowly trying to get them to be like, it's your 200 you need to correct. And I would love to get to the point where it's your one fifty. Let's correct. So it's just been hard to get everyone on board to want the tighter control.

Scott Benner (33:53)

Can we talk about that part of it for me, Kelly, please? Because I would like to separate your family and and your life away from the idea. So how do I mean this? Nothing that happens here going forward is punitive. I just really want your opinion. Okay? Your perspective. Does that make sense? Yep. Okay. If I told you that while we were sleeping, lava was coming into the kid's room, would your husband be like, but I gotta sleep? Right? He'd no. He'd say, look. There's there's fire in the house. We gotta go. We gotta I gotta get up. I gotta be doing the thing. He wouldn't complain. He was tired the next day. Like, why do you think people don't see diabetes that way?

Kelly (34:34)

I think you would complain about being tired after a lot

Scott Benner (34:37)

of think you would? He'd be like, can you believe there was lava in the house last night? Had to get up and save us all.

Kelly (34:42)

Night. Yes. Yeah. It's it's a tough thing, and I feel like perhaps because we have two to deal with, it just becomes twice as difficult because they aren't perfect at night. And I get it. I I know that a one c's are lowered at night, and so we're working on it. I actually just switched the alarm for the SugarPixel while he's away on a business trip to see if the lower alarm is going to work better. I know it's important.

Scott Benner (35:18)

I know you know it's important. I'm I'm listening to you. And I and by the way, I know he knows it's important. I'm asking, like I'm not talking about you guys right now. I'm asking you to, like, philosophize with me about a bigger idea. Right? Like, I just got done speaking, you know, to a person two days ago who's had diabetes for over thirty years, and they got up in the morning, had three units left in their pump, went to work and knew they had three units left in their pump. And then halfway through the work, they thought, oh, I'll just, like, I won't eat. I'll get through it. And, of course, a couple of hours later, they're out of insulin. And then they can't get home for three hours, then their blood sugar is, like, almost 500. And I was like I'm like, why didn't you bring up, like, more insulin with you or a pump or something? You know? Like, the the supplies say, I thought I'd make it. They know the other side of what happens if they don't. And yet it's not enough to move them to action. And I don't know if it's like maybe it's it's wrong to ask the parent of somebody this question because an adult's gonna tell you, hey. Life happens. It gets in the way. Blah blah blah. But, like, it's, like, there's some pretty significant impacts of that. What I'm imagining is that while that's happening, your guts are retching thinking about your kid's blood sugar being 200 overnight. And so you're try am I right? It's hard to deal with. Right? The knowledge? Yeah.

Kelly (36:37)

At the beginning for a while, I would just stay up until at least two or so. I sleep incredibly soundly. So having alarms, they would need to be loud for me to to wake up. So the way I battled it was I just didn't sleep until after two.

Scott Benner (36:57)

People with diabetes complaining about something everyone in the world wants, which is I sleep soundly. Nothing wakes me up. Everyone wants that right, until there's diabetes drop. But I'm saying when you wake up in the morning and realize your kid's blood sugar is one eighty five all night longer, it hurts. Right? I'll speak for myself. Like, it hurts me every time something like that happens.

Kelly (37:15)

Yeah. Like, oh, there was a fail.

Scott Benner (37:17)

See, you see it as a failure. I see it as a health thing. Yeah. I understand that I sleep soundly and that sleeping's part of being human. Like, I don't think of it as a failure if I didn't hear the alarm. I think of it as I don't know. Like, I think in my mind, I see my daughter's life as a timeline and I feel like I woke up in the morning to find out that, like, a couple of minutes just came off the back end of it. Yeah. I'm not saying that's true, like, apples to apples, but, like, I'm saying that that's how it makes me feel. Like, oh, we all slept last night, but instead of being 86 when she dies, Arden's gonna be 85 and 362. Like, do know what I mean? Like, that's how it feels to me. I don't know if that's right or not. It's just how it impacts me. I don't understand why other people don't feel that way enough so much so that they are motivated to do something about it. That's the part I can't I can't get straight in my head.

Kelly (38:06)

Yeah. Well and that's why we are are trying these different things. I would like to give the kids the sugar pixel and try the, vibrating under their pillow to see if that will help. We also just started the sugar mate. The phone actually wakes me up.

Scott Benner (38:27)

Okay.

Kelly (38:28)

So that's great for the lows. So we don't have any problems with the lows. But, unfortunately, with that one, the the it's only lows, not highs. We have taken since we came back to The States, we have taken, different approaches to get this handled. I'm hoping at some point, we can get the kids on, Omnipod five. We're struggling with the cost of it right now with our insurance versus what we had overseas. So, right now

Scott Benner (38:59)

What's their management right now?

Kelly (39:01)

Cooper is on the Libre three plus and Dash, and Kayla is on, Dash and g seven.

The Struggle to Pre-Bolus

Scott Benner (39:09)

And what happens when they get high overnight? Is it from, a late night meal? Is it a miss on dinner? How are these things that are happening overnight? Like, where do you think they're they're emanating from?

Kelly (39:19)

It could be a mix of everything. We'll have a late night meal. It could be if it's burgers, we know about the the late fat and protein spike. I actually was very excited. We had some tacos the other night, and I knew I was ready for the spike. And I I actually managed it. It was the first time that I actually, like, gave him the right amount, so that was exciting. But then it could be where Cooper is low, and he goes downstairs. I just found out today he he he says he got some milk. Well, then he also got some banana bread that I didn't know about, and then that spikes him. So it's not knowing exactly what he's having.

Scott Benner (40:08)

And So, mom, I got a little bit don't worry. I took care of I took care

Kelly (40:12)

of it. Exactly.

Scott Benner (40:12)

But then didn't tell you about the 40 carb piece of banana bread he took with him.

Kelly (40:17)

Yes.

Scott Benner (40:17)

Yeah. Yeah. And why do you think that is? Does he not know? Does he want not wanna be bothered? Do you think he forget do you think it's literally, like, he just forgets?

Kelly (40:26)

I don't think he knows the actual impact of what's going on with it.

Scott Benner (40:30)

And if you told him?

Kelly (40:32)

Oh, yeah. I said, I just noticed. What what did you do here? And he's you said you got milk. What else did you have? Oh, yeah. Well, I did this. I was like, okay.

Scott Benner (40:42)

And then you do say, well, we need a bolus for that? Yeah. And he says, leave me alone, old woman. What does he say exactly? Like, do does he ignore you? Why do you not push back? Tell me about that whole interplay.

Kelly (40:56)

I don't think he has down knowing how much he needs to give himself for the food that he's eating. We are one thing is he ends up having, like, school lunches every day. Every day, I know at 11:20, he really needs to get his pre bolus in. Mhmm. He forgets, or he'll have it, and it will still spike up. So it's like have five chances of very structured time. We know when he's going to be eating every single day at lunch, and it's still a struggle.

Scott Benner (41:34)

How about a timer on the phone? What if you called him at that time of day every day?

Kelly (41:39)

Oh, yeah. I text him. But even when he he does pre bolus, he'll go low and he'll eat, and then it's an immediate spike. I'm it's it's the school lunches. They're

Scott Benner (41:51)

Garbage.

Kelly (41:51)

Killing me right now.

Scott Benner (41:53)

Yeah. Yeah. Listen. It's again, not punitive. Incredibly hard. I believe this after talking to adults over and over again. It's incredibly hard to remember to pre bolus. It is, for some reason, psychologically difficult to say to yourself, well, I didn't pre bolus, so I'll bolus more here because I'm not pre bolus. I think there's something. I feel like I'm watching Arden, and I'm realizing as she's older, and I'm, like, seeing her interact with this all more as an adult. She doesn't mean to forget. And once she knows she forgets, she doesn't want to feel badly about forgetting. And then there's something simpler about ignoring than addressing. I'm sure there's some very simple psychology around this that I just don't understand. Mhmm. I think that they don't wanna let themselves down. I think they don't wanna feel like they're letting themselves down. I think they don't wanna feel like they're letting other people down. But then you get back to the truth of it, which is you're hungry when you're hungry, and nobody thinks to be hungry before they're hungry. Like, do you know what mean? Like, nobody goes like, oh, I bet you I'm gonna be hungry in a half an hour. I should start thinking about what I'm gonna eat so I can bolus for it in fifteen minutes. Like, that's just not how things work. Right? So you can set up timers to try to remind yourself. But, like, even with, like, with, like, thyroid medication, like, I realized that if Arden misses it for a day, I think she does that thing. You're trying to be perfect at something and perfection obviously doesn't happen, and then people go to a reset. You ever notice when people say I'm gonna start a diet, they say I'm gonna start on Monday? Yeah. There's actually something about that. There's a psychological aspect of that that I don't obviously have any education, so I don't really understand. There's definitely something to that that that strikes a lot of people. And what I think I see happening is that whatever it is that tells you, I will do it on Monday, works on a micro level with this diabetes thing too. Like, oh, I missed that. It's okay. I'll just get it next time.

Kelly (43:59)

Next time.

Scott Benner (44:00)

Yeah. Except there is never a next time because you miss breakfast, and that messes up lunch, and you then it messes up dinner, and then it messes up overnight, and you wake up high, and then it happens again. Like, there's no reset in there. Like and and so it feels like there's this fairly natural human intricacy that I don't completely understand that's getting in the way of the structured need of diabetes that causes the whole thing to just run off balance a little bit. And I don't know if any of that made sense to anybody else, but that made an incredible amount of sense to me. So

Kelly (44:36)

Well, that's good.

Scott Benner (44:38)

Yeah. I don't know how to fix that other than set a timer on your phone and pre bullish your meals. Because if you get the first one right, then the second one's more likely to be right, you're less likely to have to treat or eat in the middle, which causes some sort of imbalance again. And, anyway, when that person told me they didn't have insulin for three hours, I said, please never do that again. Like, go to work with another cartridge or whatever your whatever your pump would need so you could switch while you're like, you should always have this with you. And I said, like, look at all of the look at all of the stress and anxiety and high blood sugars and guilt and shame that you've been through over the last six hours now because of this going on more time. Like, are you telling me that this is less effort than bringing up extra pumps to work with you? And if you're sitting here telling me consciously, I know that's not the case, then you need to figure out. You, god, your therapist, whatever. However you're gonna figure it out. Like, why didn't you go with a pump that day? Like, why didn't you take insulin with you if you knew all this was gonna happen and you hate the way it makes it feel? Like, I don't know if it's self flagellation or I don't know, but I find it incredibly interesting. And I was, you know, looking for your input on it as well. So

Kelly (45:56)

When it comes to the pumps, we have so many such limited amount that for us, we run it until after the eight hours, but I've instilled with them to always have a pen with them.

Scott Benner (46:11)

Mhmm.

Kelly (46:11)

So they have it. Sometimes they won't one thing I I really do love about Omnipod is that it is so simple to kind of go back and forth. So if they want to have an afternoon without it, then we can give them the pen. We still have a bunch of Tresiba. So there's times when, if they want to go off the pump for a bit, we give them some Tresiba to deal with the long acting. But, yes, for me, having insulin and a backup is a nonnegotiable.

Scott Benner (46:46)

Yeah. Because the entirety of the issue between your children, the a one c that they have now and the one you're hoping for them to have for their health and their longevity and everything else, it gets all the human stuff. Right? Like, that's what gets in the way. It's all the just the frailties of people and where people drop the ball. Like, that's the stuff that's causing the issue. Right? Like, if you could get people to bolus when you wanted to, things would go better. Right? Am I right about that?

Kelly (47:15)

Most of the time, yes. There there are times that I'm still yeah.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Scott Benner (47:19)

Yeah. You're not quite right on everything. But I'm saying, like because I'm telling you right now, if she just said to me, here, take care of this, and I made all the decisions, I'd put her a one c right back where I wanted it. No trouble. It would be right there. And the overnight would be better, but, like, she's the one that has to live with it. She's the one that has to do it. I was in an event recently. It was a couple day event, and they sent me over somebody. There's a lot of people with diabetes at this event, and they sent me over, a person who new newer diagnosed as a person in, like, their late forties and coming out of a honeymoon. And he he says he gives me his pump and he's like, I I just don't like, I don't know what to do. Like, I'm two twenty all the time, you know, blah blah blah. And I just I pulled out my phone. I actually went to my own website. I was like, let's double check your settings. You know? I said, how much do you weigh? And we looked, I said, well, this thing thinks your basal's a little light. And if you're still coming out of a honeymoon like this, you know, the difference between point five an hour, point seven, point eight an hour is a big is a big difference. Think I your basal's a little light. So he said if you, explained my thinking, they changed their basal rate, and I said, okay. I'm like, now you gotta get this blood sugar down. Like, you know, how much do you wanna give to put this blood sugar down? And the person didn't know. So there's a thing I was at all day, and I think I intersected him at I was at a talk I was giving. It was after the talk. I think the talk was at 03:00. So let's say it's, like, 03:00 in the afternoon, and he's really scared. Like, he doesn't know what he's doing, and he's seeing high blood sugars that aren't going away. He doesn't feel well. And I just said, look. Let's do this. If I'm you, I bolus this much. I said, come find me in an hour. Came back in an hour. I said, okay. Let's put in more. Like, I worked his blood sugar down over about three and a half hours. I got it to one ten. Came over to me. I said, how do you feel? He goes, I feel like a little I almost feel like I'm low. And I was like, yeah. I said, you scared, or are you you know, do you actually feel shaky? Kinda couldn't tell, so I gave him a couple of carbs just to kinda make him feel better. And he said, oh, I feel better now. I'm like, good. And, we made a very small bolus. I think we put his blood sugar to, like, 87, 88, and that range is just slightly under 90. And it drifted back up to about a 105, and then, this thing goes on all night. And, you know, 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, every time I walked past him, he hold up his pump. His blood sugar was super stable at that number. And I said, that's good. I feel like, you know, we got you down without making you low. We gave some time for that insulin to get out of you. Feels like your basal's holding it there. I said, you know, if it should drift up on you, put in a little more basal, but I think you've got it. And he said, thank you. It was very appreciative, which is was nice, but not needed. And then the last thing he said to me was like, can you just stay with me and keep doing this? Like, jokingly. And I was like, no. I'm like, you can do it. And, like, know, I explained it to him and everything, but I really did walk away because I haven't been that involved with Arden in a long time. And I really did walk away and think, like, oh, I could still do that for her. Like, could do that. I think I could do it for anybody, honestly. Like, it's just about there's a group of people around afterwards and how did you do that? Because they all you know, a lot of them have diabetes. And I just said, honestly, like, I want it to be more difficult. And I know it sounds boring because I say it over and again, but it's timing, amount, understand the impacts of your food. Don't stare at a high blood sugar too long. I'm like, that's pretty much it. Like, if you just do those things, this is what happens. Know, You the next part of that is is I don't know how to get people to do those things. Like, you know, that's that's the part I don't think we're ever gonna come to a complete answer on anyway.

Kelly (51:09)

Yeah. I mean, it's a huge shift when you start thinking you correct after two fifty. When you speak with people who really have it figured out, they wouldn't they don't wanna they they don't wanna be over 200 ever.

Scott Benner (51:25)

Yeah. Two fifty.

Kelly (51:26)

And for us, it's like, okay. Well, we're eating, and it's gonna spike. I'm working on stopping the spike. Let's let's round it out. I I think we're we're definitely getting better.

Scott Benner (51:39)

Yeah.

Kelly (51:40)

But it's just it it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of communication knowing exactly what they're eating. I take full responsibility for the nights. I need I need to get those figured out.

Scott Benner (51:51)

In the end, every bit of this is easier said than done. Okay? But I just find it to be true that you are putting out a lot of effort. I don't mean you. I mean all of you. You're putting out a lot of effort. I think you could use less effort if you put it into a different place. And I do think it probably falls under the heading of, like, you know, work smarter, not harder. Yeah. But you but it's not as easy as that you have to hurdle over the psychological stuff too. Like, all the, like, you know, feeling like you let yourself down or having that body grief that says, do I wish this wasn't my situation? I don't wanna do this. You know, there's a lot more I'm not saying there's not a lot more to it. And I think that everybody you know, I said this over and over again this weekend, and I say it on the podcast all the time. I don't meet people who I think are noncompliant. I think everybody wants to do well. And, there are just different variables and speed bumps that get into people's foot, you know, into their way along the time. But if you wanna just talk about it dispassionately for a second, timing and amount, understand the impacts of your of your food. Don't stare at a high blood sugar and pre bolus. You gotta pre bolus. So, you know, work put in effort now to save yourself a lot of trouble later. And by the way, take out the words that go to diabetes. That's those are pretty good rules for life, to be perfectly honest with you. You know? And in the end, what I I got done saying to everybody, I was just like, look. Get ahead. Stay ahead. Like, get ahead. Stay ahead. Like, I said, jump on diabetes, beat the hell out of it, get it down on the ground, and hold it by the neck, and don't let it back up again. You stay in control of what's going on. Just get ahead of it. Stay ahead of it. So, I mean, that's, again, all easier said than done. But is there anything we haven't talked about that you wanted to? Like, I I did a fair amount of talking. So did we skip anything or anything we missed?

Traveling Internationally with T1D

Kelly (53:46)

One thing I wanted to talk about was our our international experience. Mhmm. For people who are going overseas, I know a lot of times they're asking about carrying their insulin. Everyone should always have a medical bag, an extra free medical bag that has all of their supplies. We moved overseas twice. That means that we brought everything that we owned for our supplies. And, like, mostly, the omni like, the CGMs and the pods and the insulin came on with us. We checked needles and things like that, but those are the things that you can carry on for free. All the insulin for two kids, we were able to get that in, like, one of those lunch boxes that Costco would have that expands.

Scott Benner (54:40)

Mhmm.

Kelly (54:40)

That was no issue. Have a medical certificate. You can get through the airports with water. Even in Jordan, every time we had to fight things like that, they weren't familiar with Omnipod, so they would look at those for a very long time. But you just have to to stay firm that, no. This here's the medical certificate. These are things that we need, that you can get through those. We had a medical emergency in Italy when Cooper was diagnosed. A lot of people don't know. I didn't know until we were in France, and there's a duty phone for US embassies. If there's a medical emergency, you can call the US embassy even if it's after hours, and they will help you. When he was diagnosed, we they called the doctor in Florence at the consulate, the US consulate in Florence, and he called the children's hospital. When we got there, they knew we were going to be there. They said, we need to make sure we take great care of you or my boss is going to be very angry or whatever it was. Like, they made sure to help us really well. And you have that option with the embassies. They can help you for things like that.

Scott Benner (56:00)

And you don't have to be in the military or anything. It's just being a citizen affords you that. Okay.

Kelly (56:04)

And and, the employees of US embassies, they have the duty phone for a week. And off hours, they're the ones that will help you through these kind of emergencies.

Scott Benner (56:14)

So That's good

Kelly (56:14)

to have this, this service that you can use. I was incredibly thankful that we had that. It was, of course, during All Saints Day, and everything was closed, but they still had people to help us. Also, insulin. If you are overseas, lot of times, if for us, our insurance, they covered 90%. So when you're buying the insulin overseas, it's cheaper anyway. Could be cheaper than your co pay. A lot of times, we would actually stock up when we were visiting different countries. That's an option as well. I think

Scott Benner (56:48)

Nice.

Kelly (56:49)

That's pretty much it when it comes to overseas stuff.

Scott Benner (56:52)

Do you think you'll ever go back, or do you think you're gonna live here for the foreseeable future?

Kelly (56:56)

I think we we want our kids to have a little bit of roots right now. We didn't expect to go back to Jordan, but we really enjoyed having that family time, having the the ability to travel on limited resources, and having the experience to experience cultures completely. Going to these international schools with kids of of all areas of the world, it was really great. But I think for now, we'll be here for at least through high school for Cooper.

Scott Benner (57:32)

Okay. Hey. Do your kids, speak a bunch of languages, or did that not work?

Kelly (57:36)

You'd think they would. Yeah. But

Scott Benner (57:37)

no. Kelly's like, I thought that was gonna be one of the things that happened. Yeah. How about you? Do you speak any French?

Kelly (57:44)

I speak a bit of French. I can get by definitely in a restaurant. Absolutely. I'm really good at that.

Scott Benner (57:51)

Don't

Kelly (57:52)

Otherwise, yeah, we we went expecting to be there for three years, added another year, and then COVID added another. So we were there longer than expected. My daughter, she is in French five now. So, yes, she kept with it. My son, he went back to he's doing Spanish, so he didn't. With us, we were in the embassy community. We are going to English speaking schools, so it it wasn't as immersive as, I would have hoped.

Agent Orange and Autoimmune Links

Scott Benner (58:21)

A lot of our native French speakers listen, so don't don't whip out your restaurant French here because they'll they'll definitely I mean, I they'll definitely judge you. Just wanna say. Also, if it didn't really completely fit into this conversation, but if you've had a a parent or a grandparent who was in the Vietnam War, it's really interesting to pick apart Asian orange and autoimmune. I I pulled up a lot of information for myself in case I needed it, which we didn't end up talking about, but it's worth looking into if you're interested in Birth defects, miscarriages, autoimmune issues, the difference between what the VA says is happening and what family groups and people who are living, you know, through this talk about there's a bit of a disparity between, you know, the the official stances from each. There seems to be a fair amount of organizations who are still fighting against this. There's a national birth defect registry, children of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance, legislative lobbying. It's it's interesting if you're if it's something you're you wanna know more about. There's a lot it seems like there's a lot of information out there that you could, immerse yourself in. So well, Kelly, thank you. This was awesome, and it's always nice to be treated well by a woman named Kelly. So I can go tell my wife.

Kelly (59:42)

I appreciate all that you have to say, so thank you.

Scott Benner (59:47)

Thank you for listening too. I mean, I heard you try to tell me a couple of times, and I didn't dig into it with you because it's Monday, and I don't need you to be nice to me today. I'm still waking up. It feels like you listen to the podcast a lot and that you found it valuable, and, I mean, that means a lot to me. Can you just tell me how you found it?

Kelly (1:00:03)

It was definitely it was the on Facebook groups all the time, and it wasn't until we returned that I had some time off to really get into podcasts. What it's done is change my perspective of things. There are some groups that a lot of complaining and that's diabetes, and yours was very different. It took a while to to get on board with it that, oh, these people all have it figured out. I'll never get there. It's definitely taking a while. But knowing that it can be done and changing your perspective of what is okay for your numbers and that you can get what you think is going to happen. It's it's taking a while, and I keep trying, but I really like hearing all of the different perspectives of everyone.

Scott Benner (1:00:56)

I'm glad. Tell me what holds you back. Is it expectation? Is it is it complacency because you've been at it so long? Like, what what keeps you from making, like, some big grand shift?

Kelly (1:01:07)

I think one of the reasons is was thinking, oh, I'm going to try I really wanted to try looping, but I'm not technical. It was too overwhelming. And then I was thinking I was holding out for Omnipod five, and now that is out of reach at the moment. Once the kids got on the pump because I was listening to you for probably two years before the kids got on Dash. And the only reason we got on Dash was because people were upgrading to Omnipod five, and they were giving them away. So that was the only thing, and that's it it sucks that it's a lot of it has to do with finances, but that's where we were at.

Scott Benner (1:01:50)

Yeah.

Kelly (1:01:50)

I felt like I could try harder once I had the dash because I know there's talk about, yes, this is same for MDI, but a lot of it is is very geared towards having better control as you can have these like, stopping the the basal is huge. Adding a little bit of insulin for corrections, it allows you to do so much more. So I'm getting there. I feel like with two of them, I don't know where my head's at. I can't focus on just one.

Scott Benner (1:02:25)

There's too much going on. Is that how it feels? Like, it there's too much going on to focus on all the things that you need to focus on at the same time.

Kelly (1:02:35)

Exactly.

Scott Benner (1:02:35)

Got it. Okay. Well, I wish you a ton of luck. I don't know what to do about that. Maybe you could grow another head, two more hands

Kelly (1:02:43)

Mhmm.

Scott Benner (1:02:43)

Or something like that. Or, you know, make the boy help more. You could always do that.

Kelly (1:02:48)

No. He he does a lot. It's just we hear it when he does it.

Scott Benner (1:02:52)

Just Every just send him outside when he starts complaining. That's all. Just I know. Because I do think that there's probably a barrier here that if you break through it, what you're gonna get to on the other side will be a lot more cruise control y than what you're doing now. Does that make sense? You know?

Kelly (1:03:12)

Yeah. I'm I'm just ready for it to all click.

Scott Benner (1:03:14)

Yeah. Hey. Any chance your husband's name is Julius so I can call this agent orange Julius or no?

Kelly (1:03:20)

It has not.

Scott Benner (1:03:22)

You could have lied, Kelly. Okay. Thank you. Don't know I don't know what to

Kelly (1:03:26)

call this up.

Scott Benner (1:03:27)

That's okay. I think I think that's the way we wanna go. And now I don't know what to call this, though, but that's okay. We'll figure it out. Thank you very much for doing this.

Kelly (1:03:35)

To hearing it.

Scott Benner (1:03:35)

Yeah. I'll figure it out. Don't worry. I really do appreciate your time. Can you hold on one second for me?

Kelly (1:03:39)

Yep.

Closing and Outro

Scott Benner (1:03:46)

I'd like to remind you again about the MiniMed seven eighty g automated insulin delivery system, which, of course, anticipates, adjusts, and corrects every five minutes twenty four seven. It works around the clock so you can focus on what matters. The juice box community knows the importance of using technology to simplify managing diabetes. To learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes, visit my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox. This episode of the juice box podcast was sponsored by US Med, u s med dot com slash juice box, or call (888) 721-1514. Get started today with US Med. Link's in the show notes. Link's at juiceboxpodcast.com. Okay. Well, here we are at the end of the episode. You're still with me? Thank you. I really do appreciate that. What else could you do for me? Why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review? Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribe in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me, or Instagram, TikTok. Oh, gosh. Here's one. Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page. You don't wanna miss please, do you not know about the private group? You have to join the private group. As of this recording, it has 74,000 members. They're active talking about diabetes. Whatever you need to know, there's a conversation happening in there right now. And I'm there all the time. Tag me. I'll say hi. The Juicebox podcast has been in production since January 2015, and in that time, we have amassed just a fantastic catalog of information for you. The defining diabetes series, also bold beginnings, diabetes pro tips, small sips, fat and protein, algorithm pumping, mental wellness, ask Scott and Jenny, diabetes variables defining thyroid, after dark, the math behind Omnipod five, pregnancy, how we eat, grand rounds, Coldwin, GLP meds, the quick start guide if you wanna get going with the podcast but you don't know where to go. Diabetes myths, there's even a type two diabetes pro tip series. All of this is at juiceboxpodcast.com. Go to the menu, click on series, and they can all be found right there. If you go to juiceboxpodcast.com/lists, you'll get all these great downloadable lists of all the the different series so you can save them on your phone, keep them for later. Every episode is listed along with its episode number. So you can go into Apple Podcasts or your, you know, wherever you listen to your audio, and say you wanna hear episode fourteen sixty nine, steal a one c overnight from the small sip series. You just go to the search bar, type juice box, one word, and then the episode number, fourteen sixty nine. It should be the first return you get. If you have a podcast and you need a fantastic editor, you want Rob from Wrong Way Recording. Listen. Truth be told, I'm, like, 20% smarter when Rob edits me. He takes out all the, like, gaps of time and when I go, and stuff like that. And it just I don't know, man. Like, I listen back and I'm like, why do I sound smarter? And then I remember because I did one smart thing. I hired Rob at wrongwayrecording.com.

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