#1886 Game Set Match
Fifty-four years with type 1, diagnosed at three: stigma as a kid, retinopathy, a lost eye, gastroparesis, and the mental-health support that never came. An honest conversation about endurance.
Game Set Match
Cold Open & Sponsors 0:00
Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
There were certain parents that wouldn't let their kids play with me because they were afraid that their kid would, catch what I had.
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57, and 54 Years In 2:35
Alright. So my name is Eric Gilbert.
Eric, how old are you?
57.
57. You have type one yourself?
I do.
How long have you had type one?
Fifty four years.
Wow. You were three.
I was three.
You weren't just three. You were three fifty four years ago.
Yes.
Oh, I can't wait to talk to you about this.
Yeah. 1971 is when, I was diagnosed.
The year of my birth?
Exactly.
Yeah. How do you like, Eric, when you're filling something out online and you have to scroll back in the year and it just takes forever to scroll that wheel to your birthday?
Your thumb gets sore after a while.
And then and the the thing that I'm noticing, I mentioned this to my wife recently, it used to be when I was younger and I scrolled, there were still a lot of dates behind my date and now there's not as many behind me anymore. Like, it's almost like they're like, yeah. Nobody born from here back is alive anymore, so we don't actually have to go to that. It's very upsetting. Have to
say That's right. Well, you know, surprisingly, my grandmother is 105 years old.
Is she really?
Yep.
Good for her. Or is it good for her, or is she like is she like, Eric, I got why won't he take me? Like, what what's her what's her quality of life?
She's pretty good, all things considered. She's up in a facility up in Wisconsin, and so she runs the roost there.
Look at her. That's pretty awesome.
Yep. Yeah.
Earliest Memories & Being Treated Like a Leper 4:10
Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen. What's your first memory of diabetes? I mean, you're diagnosed before you would even remember it.
Right? So
Yeah. I mean, some of the earliest memories I have is being rushed to the hospital to well, being rushed to the hospital is very little to have my blood drawn to have them check to see if my blood sugar was high. Another real vivid memory I have at a very young age is being extremely sick and being rushed to the hospital. And then the medical staff trying to put an IV in me, and they couldn't find a vein. And so they ended up sticking the needle into my shin Oh, okay.
To get fluids into me.
Eric, you remember that at three years old?
Oh, well, I don't know if I was three, but it was, you know, three, four, five. And, yeah, the pain of having a needle shoved into your shinbone at that age, is a lasting vivid memory.
Jeez. I would oh, gosh. That's not a great not a great memory to have. No. Did it get better from there, or what was it like I mean, what was it like growing up with diabetes over fifty years ago?
Antiquated. I was treated a lot like a leper back then because, you know, people didn't really know what diabetes was. So my mom reminded me when we were talking recently about this that there were certain parents that wouldn't let their kids play with me because they were afraid that their kid would catch what I had. So I just remember a lot of chaos and turmoil very young because, you know, at in 1971, in the early seventies, my parents were still, you know, young and trying to figure out how to keep me alive plus also raise their other baby son. So it was it was a lot of chaos.
And then just all of the unknown about the diabetes at that point
Mhmm.
The infancy of, you know, research and a true understanding of what diabetes is and how to treat it.
Oh, gosh. Your parents struggle a lot, do you think, with it, or was it because it was probably, what, one injection a day? Was it kind of out of sight, out of mind mostly, or have you ever talked to her about it?
It was it was a second full time job for my mom because, you know, she was when I was diagnosed, she was given a vial of insulin, say, keep your son alive. She was learning just as much as I was at that time. My dad was involved, but not as intimately as my mom was. You know, she had to cook meals for me all the time. She had to, you know, keep me alive and keep my you know, raising my brother at the same time.
So that's that's a big, responsibility, and duty for her.
Yeah. Did did you talk to her about it as an adult? Do do you know what her, I mean, her experience was? Did she ever share that with you?
I I don't think we've specifically talked about that.
Mhmm. Do you have the kind of relationship where you talk about stuff like that? You just don't talk about diabetes?
No. We she's always asking questions about the diabetes at this point, trying to I mean, I guess you can never not be a mom if you're a mom. So she's always concerned about my well-being, making sure I'm doing everything still I need to do, making sure that I'm getting to doctor's appointments, you know, things like that, helping out wherever she can. You know, she she picks up prescriptions for me when she goes to Costco and things like that. So it it's it's she's still very not as she's not as involved as she was when I was little, but she still is, an active participant in my management.
Mom, the Rock — and the Weight of Needing Help 8:30
Do you how does that make you feel that she's still interested after all this time?
Thank god.
Yeah? Why? Tell me what that support does for you.
Well, I mean, this is and especially having diabetes for fifty four years, it is draining, and it's difficult mentally a lot of the times. And so she's concerned about that. She's concerned about my well-being. She wants to see me succeed. And so, you know, she just takes an active role in making sure I'm doing okay.
She you know, at this point, she knows the signs of me getting low, and so she will give that nudge of, well, do you need something to eat, or should we stop so that you can get something to eat? You know, things like that. So I'm a appreciate
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Does it just give you the feeling like I'm not I'm not completely alone? There are people paying attention to me. Is it comforting? Did you have trouble over the years that would make her still worried about you today?
So yes. I mean, I appreciate that she still is interested in my well-being and making sure I'm doing well. Mhmm. There's been so many things over all the years where she has had to play a major role in my life because of the diabetes with all the complications and all that stuff that I'm sure we'll get into. Yeah.
So she'll you know, she was very very involved. I mean, at certain points of my life, she was, you know, my primary caregiver in my twenties and thirties Yeah. Just out of necessity. Hard hard
for her to let go of it, do you think?
I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, she's been involved with this since day one also. And but but she has also given freedom to take care of myself. She I mean, for lack of a better description of it, I'm sure as a young child, she babied me about it.
But that was out of the both of us learning and learning how to deal with this. So yeah. So, I mean, it's I'm very fortunate that I've had such strong family support
Mhmm.
At least from my parents. But still, it's a struggle. I don't feel necessarily seen all the time as you know, like, especially with my mom. Sometimes I wish that I wasn't seen by her, but, you know, that's just the mother's love for her child.
Yeah. Yeah. And so so even though it's interesting, isn't it? Even though you're really even at at this is really interesting, actually. So I'm gonna try to wrap my head around this.
So even though you've been at this for fifty four years, you're nearly 60 years old, You completely accept the idea that support is necessary for you, but it's still difficult to accept the support all the time. Sometimes it feels like too much.
Yes.
How do you square that circle?
Well, it's it is a necessity. I couldn't do this alone. I have friends that are supportive. I have friends that try to understand, but it's not the same as with my, like, with my mother. Mhmm.
She understands it. She's trying to keep up with understanding the evolution of the care for diabetes. My friends are sounding boards. My friends are shoulders to cry on. But she is, you know, she's the rock.
She's the one that when things are bad, I know I can go to her.
Yeah. Well, I mean, Eric, it's it shouldn't be lost to anybody listening that you're again, you're 57 years old, and that made you emotional.
Yes.
Yeah. You know, that's I don't know I don't know exactly how to unfold this completely because I'm obviously in in a I'm in your mom's position, and my daughter's had diabetes now for, gosh, almost twenty years. And I I see the same thing. Like, she needs help. She wants help.
She doesn't want help. She doesn't wanna think she needs help. And these things they're they're all happening at the same time. It it's not it's not like one day you feel one way and one day you feel the other way. When you're asking for help I mean, you're gonna tell me if you feel that way.
But when when you feel like you need help or you're asking for help, at the same time, there's another force inside of you that's making you feel bad for asking or making you feel like a child for needing it. Is that fair?
“I Don’t Want This” 17:07
I think it's fair. I think the way I see that statement of yours is is while it's correct, at least in my opinion, in in the way I think of things is I don't want this this damn disease. I never asked for it. So me having to ask for help, in my mind says that, oh, I'm I'm I'm not a complete person because I need help with this even though it's out of my control. Mhmm.
Now that is probably not good thinking because it's it's probably not correct thinking, because while my mom is willing to drop anything to help, and I'm sure you are the same way with your daughter, we have to we have to suck down our pride to ask for that help, and that's never easy for anybody.
I think you
And he
me, Eric, you already said the thing that I feel like is the core of the problem. You said, I don't want this. And that's the thing that strikes me. Because sometimes Arden and I will sit and talk about this stuff, and they're difficult conversations because she is sad and angry at diabetes, at me, at things that she shouldn't be. I feel the same way.
And and when when when you let all the emotions out and you let go of all the, I mean, the conscious stuff and you just let yourself be in it for a second, the only feeling I'm ever left with is I don't want this to be our situation. It just is. And Right. You you know, and what a there's the defeating piece of it. Right?
When you when you boil it all right down, you go, oh, we could fix all this right now if we could just make the diabetes disappear, which we can't do, so we can't so then that's where the problem begins to bubble up from. And then that's that's the first step of you losing perfection. Whatever the perfection of your personal relationship is on the day one when you're a little baby and she's holding you right there. Right? That first fracture happens, I don't know, when you wanna pick up a toy and she wants you to come into the other room or you don't wanna eat and she and so there these little fractures happen constantly between your consciousness and desires and her consciousness and desires.
And mostly, as humans, we're good at, like, growing up with those things and and keeping our relationships together. It's this thing right here, this diabetes thing is just it's way bigger than the rest of it. And you I think you can put safeguards in place and put great thinking practices in place and have good mindset and perspective and all of that. And all that does is what do they say? It puts lipstick on a pig.
You know what I mean?
Yep.
Yeah. And so at at the bottom, it's always gonna be that feeling of I I don't want this to be happening to me and and me thinking I don't want this to be happening to you. But at the same time, me thinking this isn't what I had in mind when I became a parent either. So Right.
Yeah. None of us signed up for this.
Exactly. Yeah. I'm sure there was an easier way to say what I just said. That was probably it. But yeah.
Anyway, it I think it's it's just really interesting to hear a person with your years of service in this thing, which I think maybe is how we should think about it. Your decades of service in in this diabetes thing, and and hers as well and everything else that comes with it. And to hear that you're still having the same feelings that probably an eight year old has, a five year old has, a 20 year old has with diabetes.
Yeah. It's it's never ending.
Yeah. But but having said that, Eric, do you think you live a good life?
I think I live a good life. Yes.
Yeah. Well, how well, let's figure out how to do that then. If that's the situation, how do you how do you get to the point where you can say that fifty years in?
A lot of a lot of support from my family
Yeah.
From my parents. Their their tireless efforts to help me. I'm sure it's the same with you that, you know, you're willing to do whatever you need to help your daughter no matter what, and that's the way they were. You know? As as a three, four, five year old, I think my mom was she was trying to absorb and learn as much as she could about diabetes so that she had a better understanding of it and then could translate that into how she cared for me.
And so, you know, I'm sure and I I I don't speak from that from that parental side of things. I only know because I live at 247, 365. And so I can't I I can't put myself in in my mom's or your position to understand that side of things
Yeah.
Because I don't have the perspective. That's I'm not the parent of a child with it. I am the child. And so, you know, in the early seventies and eighties, my mom was, like I said, a tireless tireless advocate to learn as much as she could to help me survive.
One of the most disappointing parental moments I've had is when you get down to saying to your child, I'm so sorry. I can't explain this well. You really won't understand unless you have your own kid. And because when somebody said that to me, I was like, what a cop out. You know what I mean?
But it's I'll tell you. Of all the things that you can't understand without the perspective, there's one of them right there. Like, I can't I can't articulate the drive inside of me to protect those kids. I don't I don't know how I can't put it into human words. It is only a feeling, you know, and and therefore, you get stuck in this situation.
I've been in the exact same situation you've been in probably where you're just you know, the person on the other side is like, I don't want this or need this. And you're saying, you don't understand. I can't not do this. Like like and then you and then if you're a good parent, then you have to swallow all of that and then stop. And that's really difficult.
That's that that really is the idea of, like, sometimes you just gotta let a high blood sugar be high for a little while so they can figure it out and that you hope that they manage it in a healthy way and it becomes a habit that helps them long term, but that you're not in charge of it turning out that way. That's a hard thing to, like it's a hard thing to accept. I think when you're raising kids do you have kids, Eric?
No. I don't.
No. When you have kids, the idea that you're gonna raise them to some sort of success and happiness, it it changes and morphs over time because I think the goal changes and morphs over time, which makes it all feel much more acceptable when it pivots and morphs. But when your end goal is a lifetime of health and you get farther and farther away from that when decisions are made, you can't pivot with that. You you don't you don't start thinking, like, I really hope this kid's a one c stays in a safe range. And then all of a sudden, it's a nine or a ten and eleven and you go, okay.
Well, I guess that's okay. It's be right? Because it's not. So Right. And if you push back, you're gonna you're gonna break your relationship up.
And if you don't push back, there's gonna be a health issue.
Yep. Yeah. Exactly.
You know, the only answer, Eric, is you did the right thing. Don't have kids. Wow. You can't you can't can't win, man. It's a win it's a game with no winning strategy.
Uh-huh. You know, even when you also, like, keep in mind when I say it's a game with no winning strategy, the saying you always want the thing you don't have is a 100% true, and it never shines brighter than when you parent a child well because they'll just find a different thing to be disappointed in. Because I think they're supposed to feel that disappointment to separate from you so they can go be an adult on their own. But then again, the health issue stops that from happening Yep. Sometimes.
Man, it's a shitty
Yeah. Right. Exactly. Exactly.
Well, what what
And we and we live it daily.
It's it right. Oh, not just daily. Right? It shifts by the hour sometimes.
By the minute.
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. What made you wanna come on and chat?
The Missing Mental-Health Support 26:14
Because well so for a couple reasons. One, I don't think there is enough, advocacy out there for somebody that's had type one for fifty fifty plus years. I don't think that people hear enough from somebody like me that's had it for over fifty years to see that, you know, it like, in your daughter's case, twenty years. Well, that seems like a lifetime, which it is, but you you can live successfully with this with this disease for as long as you want. Yeah.
And so, you know, I I think one of the biggest one of the biggest issues I see is that there is, excuse me, a tremendous lack of mental health support for type ones. And this is something I've struggled with for a very long time trying to find some help. And a year ago, I started with a a new doctor who is a, you know, a diabetic specialist. Mhmm. And she has she has a she's a concierge doctor that I found here in my town.
And she also has a counseling degree. And so in addition to all the work we do about the control issues, we've been getting into the the mental health side of things, and, you know, she's she's been a lifesaver. And because like I said, I've tried for years to find help on how to deal with the diabetes. And I've talked to, you know, various therapists and whatnot, and and nobody can relate. I was at a breakthrough t one d event a couple years ago, three years ago.
And so, like, one of the the big wigs from back in New York was there, and so, you know, they opened the floor up to questions. And so I asked a question about what's breakthrough doing about helping with, you know, the mental health side of things for diabetes. And the guy deferred to a panelist that was there, and it was a mother of a a child that had type one. And her answer was, we'll see a therapist. And that just struck me as a horrible response, and it filled me with anger and murderous thoughts towards this person because of I mean, I thought it was a flippant rote response.
Mhmm.
Especially, you know, as this thing
started In that setting too. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And, you know, and there was there were a number of people in the audience that were type ones. At that point, you know, I had, like, fifty one years, and so they recognized that or they asked anybody with over, like, forty years to stand up, and there was only, like, three of us. And then after fifty, there was just myself and a guy that was, like, in his seventies. And so to have that answer really set me off. And it just it just reconfirmed where I think there's a huge lack of support for all of us type ones.
What would you so, I mean, I hear the story. Like, you asked the guy attached to the organization. He's like, I don't know. Ask her. And she goes, I don't know.
You you so I get that, I mean, that's defeating in itself. But what would a good response have been? Like, what would you appreciate would have appreciated hearing?
I think something to the effect of, you know what? We we're doing something at breakthrough t one d. You know, let me give you some resources or here's my email. Email me, and I can get you in touch with those resources.
It would have been nice to know that they were working towards it and or had already thought about it, and they had a mechanism for spreading it.
Yes.
Okay. But they don't but in your experience, that was not offered?
No. And it's just you know, this will this will be my little soapbox. You know, I think, like, with especially breakthrough, they only care about the kids. They don't care if you've had type one for, in my case, fifty four years. You know?
I am, a black hole to them. You know? They only want my money for donations, but they're not willing to help me with anything. And that's been my experience over the years, not just with them. I mean, ten, twelve years ago, I was in a bad place, and I called Jocelyn's to see if they had any sort of direct mental health help.
And, I mean, I got passed around from department to department, and nobody had a solution. Nobody had an idea. Then there was you know, they couldn't even refer me to somebody that was you know, had a specialization in dealing with people with t one d for their mental health side of things. Yeah. Because, you know, we we can take care of the physical side of things.
I mean, hell, we've got so many different things that help, the pumps, the CGMs, all that stuff. But I just see that there is a huge lack of acknowledgment about the mental side of things.
I listen. I try to put effort into getting pump companies to make content with me that will help people use their pumps better because I even think that happens there where they're like, look. Here's the thing. And then you say, well, how do you use it? Yeah.
I don't know. You gotta go ask your doctor about that. And then you go to you know? And by the way, FDA does not allow pump companies to to give you direction about how to use their device. Actually, device manufacturers in general cannot act like doctors.
They're not allowed to. So forget that they're not allowed to, you know, but then they go, oh, don't Ask your doctor. You get to your doctor, and your doctor says, I don't really know much about that pump. And then Right. I mean, okay.
Great. So we're pumping out new new new content in the form of technology all the time, but but we're not really teaching people how to use it very well. And then, you know, I'm I I've tried over and over again to make content that will hopefully help people understand nuts and bolts ways of using their their devices better, even using the insulin better. Nobody even teaches you how to use insulin. Like, that's just this is your ratio.
Count your carbs. God bless. Like Right. Awesome. Thanks.
Have at it.
Yeah. Yeah. A little more to it than that, but okay, buddy. Right. And at the same time, like, I could put myself easily in the shoes of the people at the JDRF who are saying, like, look.
Here's what we're this is what we're focused on. We are not focused on the thing that you need. But then you're saying, well, if you're not, who is? Because no one else seems to be either.
Right.
Yeah. So is that just a thing that like, you either need one of those organizations to decide to be valuable in that space, or do you need its own organization to pop up and then who pays for that? And then how do you get the word out about it so people even know where it is with time? Like, almost makes the argument that it needs to be folded into a bigger place that already has attention and and you know where to go. Like, you think of them when you're going somewhere.
Right? It's a Right. Why going to the hospital can be frustrating when they can't help you? Because you're like, well, where else am I supposed to go in this situation?
And Right.
You you know, like, I I boy, do you think it's a limitation of society more than it is a limitation of JDRF, for example? It's hard not to be mad at them, though. Right, Eric? You've at this a long time.
Right. Right. And yeah. I mean, they're they're high on my list these days because, like I said, they just want the money. They don't care about if you're not a child, you know, by the age of, what, 16, 17, 18, you're an afterthought to them.
And so it's frustrating. In all honesty, I don't feel like outside of my family, my friends, doctor Sloan, the my my doctor I was mentioning, I don't feel like I have support. I don't feel like I have the support where I need it the most on, not necessarily a daily basis, but on a regular basis, meaning the the mental health side of things. How can somebody live with a disease, a chronic disease for fifty four years and not have some issues? How is it that you know?
And I mean and now talking to you, you understand because you you live vicariously through it with your daughter, and you do this podcast. But this is something that I can never take a vacation from. This is a twenty four seven, March issue. And as you said earlier, minute by minute, hour by hour, you know, thing that we have to address. That weighs that weighs mentally on somebody.
I mean, that's a big burden to carry. And so how and I I I appreciate your question of how do we do this? How how do we make this available? And that's that's the crux of the problem.
Yeah. You don't know. You're busy living with it. You you can't fix it too. Like, you need you really do need somebody else to put their brain onto it.
And Right.
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, and and at this point
in life, I wish that, you know, ten years ago when I started, you know, identifying these issues, I wish I woulda had the ability to go back to school and get a a different degree than what I have. So that then I could have maybe, you know, been that that counselor for all these people.
What does what has worked for you over the years? You said you had an issue about ten years ago. Would you share what that was?
Gastroparesis & Losing 60 Pounds 36:55
So I've had a number of issues from the diabetes over the years Back in starting in, like, 2010, I started having stomach problems. And and and so from, like, December 2010 till January 2011, I lost 60 pounds. And it was you know, I went through testing, so much testing, and it was determined that I I have, gastroparesis.
Okay.
And so that was why I lost 60 pounds because I couldn't eat anything. I couldn't keep anything down. Anything I ate came right back out. And so, I mean, it got so bad that at one point, my doctor at the time was thinking that they're gonna have to put a feeding tube in me, and that did not sound appealing. And so I ended up going out to the Mayo Clinic out in Arizona.
They had a gastroparesis, excuse me, program out there that I went to and I learned about things and, you know, got educated on on how to deal with yet another side effect of the diabetes. Mhmm. You know, different eating, keeping the blood sugars down so that they don't go high, and that's what set it off. And so now, yeah, it's just another thing I live with, as a result of this diabetes.
Yeah. Hey. Do you listen to the podcast with any regularity?
I I listen to it, you know, a couple times a month.
Okay. Well, that's pretty regular.
The time. Yeah. Yeah. No.
But that that's that's regularity. So you but you're aware of how I tried to talk about it, about understanding how the insulin works, understanding how the food's impacting you, like that stuff. Is that a thing that would have been valuable for you to know sooner? Like, you just said, like, you know, what did they teach you? And the things they taught you are not, like, not incredibly, like, uncommon ideas modern day.
But I'm imagining as you were growing up, people didn't talk to you about stuff like that. Right?
Diabetes in the ’70s: Urine Strips & Pig Insulin 39:08
No. No. I mean, what what technology we had in the seventies and eighties is I mean, at the time at the time, it was revolutionary. Now, I mean, I think I I would guess the majority of people don't even know what we used to do. I mean, you're probably familiar with it, but when I was a little kid, I mean, how do you test for for, you know, sugars in your blood?
Well, had to pee into a little paper cup, take a little eye dropper, pull out some urine, put it in the test tube, five drops of urine in the test tube, and drop a tablet in it.
Yeah. It
fizz, and then it gave you a color spectrum, blue to, like, dark orange. Blue was you had negative sugar in your urine, and orange would meant that you had high high sugar in there. That's what we had. It wasn't until early eighties that they started coming out with the, you could test your blood sugar by pricking your finger and then putting that on a little strip, and then, you know, you had a meter that would read it. Yeah.
But Nice.
Probably feels like like a 10 lifetimes ago, I would imagine.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You know, insulin back then was I mean, it was pig insulin derivative. We had two types, NPH and regular.
Mhmm.
The NPH was, you know, eight hour lasting, and so you do that. And I, you know, I I had a doctor back then that was a pediatrician endocrinologist. So, you know, he was he was very involved in diabetes and diabetes research, and so he always gave me the latest and greatest. I think it was high school when I first started doing multiple injections a day through all the research that was being done at the time. And, you know, anytime I would have to tell a doctor or a nurse or end up in the ER, you know, that I was on multiple shots a day, they're like, oh, well, you must be a really brittle diabetic if you're doing so many shots a day.
But, no, that's how your nondiabetic body works by having constant insulin throughout the day. That's what I'm trying to mimic. And so, you know, everything was such a shock back in that time period when I was first diagnosed. But I think there's at least for me, I think there was a lack of understanding about the bigger picture of diabetes. And and
every so every time something shifted or changed, you run into a person who really knows the way before that, but not this way. And then they become one of those people who's like, oh, you don't you you must be, brittle, for example. You're shooting so many times. So you're following you're following new teachings by being you know, trying to trying to honestly line up the insulin with the impact of the food. Right?
And then you then you're impacted by a person. You run into a person who says, oh my gosh. You must be doing this wrong because of this because they don't understand the new idea. And then the next new idea comes and it keeps happening. It keeps happening.
Fighting for the Next Thing, Not This One 42:40
Do you think that if someone from a big organization who is clearly not helping people in your situation right now, do you think they'd say, well, yeah, well, we're trying to do the thing, though. Like, we're trying to get to the next thing. Like, we're not we're we're not an organization that, like, is here supporting you day to day. We're an organization who is trying to make TZL work, make CGMs work, argue with, you know, legislators about something. Actually, I just remember something very recently.
Like, JDRF had a big, actually, that Eladon trial that's going on right now. I interviewed that doctor, and he gave a lot of credit to JDRF for their, like, basically, their work in DC about making things easier for him to do his work. And I I but it still seems incredibly unfair to me that you as the as the person with diabetes, like like, you're by the by the virtue of the day you're diagnosed or that anybody is diagnosed, you were planted on a timeline. And that timeline keeps shifting, but it doesn't it's not there for you anymore. Meaning, like, insulin gets better, pumps get better, people come up with algorithms that work better, organizations are busy fighting for the next thing, you know, at at the government level or or whatnot.
And you're back here going on the like, I'm the one living right now with the stuff that's available right now, and I need this kind of support. My hospital doesn't offer it. Just go talk to a therapist. How I don't even how am I gonna find a therapist who even understands diabetes? Like, I I'm sitting here listening to you, and I think that your converse that that your story is incredibly valuable to hear.
And I think it'll be incredibly valuable for everybody who listens to it. But my, like, my concerning takeaway forty minutes in is that the only person that this conversation is not gonna help is you. Does that make sense?
Well, it does. Yeah. And if I can help somebody else, hey. Great. I've I've done something that would that makes me feel good because I'm helping somebody else.
And, I mean, we haven't even touched on, you know, some of the other complications I have. But I think your your premise about, you know, these companies focusing on the next the next big thing is is, yes, they are they are working tirelessly trying to figure out how to cure this. I've been hearing for fifty four years that a cure is right around the corner. Yeah. You know, let's let's stop that false hope because it's been fifty four years in my case, and there's still not a cure.
Let's let's instead say, look. We are working diligently to make management the easiest it can so that you avoid complications. But further to your point, these these organizations, they they serve an important role. Like you said, the whole DC thing, the funding of all these research projects. But I think they could because who else is going to be?
You have type one or breakthrough t one d, JDRF, American Diabetes Association. I mean, those are the big ones. I don't know you even know if the American Diabetes Association is still around. But they are the ones that are in the public eye. They're the ones that the public, you know, probably is are are easiest to find those organizations.
Mhmm.
So why can't they incorporate somehow getting that mental health side of things? Because it's it's it it's not something that you can separate out. I wish I didn't have to, you know, have all these, you know, issues with my mind because that would make life much easier, not just for me, but for everybody. But how how do you how how do you deal with this on a daily, yearly basis? It's not easy.
Technology makes it easier, but that's still, it still is a drain mental drain.
Can I ask you two questions that both might be difficult to to answer?
Of course.
If I tell you let's just make up a scenario, right, where they do cure type one diabetes, but it's three hundred years from now. So you said even if I'm not helped by sharing today, hopefully, it'll help somebody else. So if what if your life being part of the, I don't know, part of the petri dish where they figure out how to die you know, how to cure diabetes three hundred years from now. Like, even though you won't be alive in three hundred years, if I told you that was definitely gonna happen, would you say, okay. Fine.
I understand you're not helping me, but eventually we're getting to it, or does that timeline make it like, because right now, what they're saying to you is five more years, five more years, five more years, which I think is I think it's cruel, by the way, to say that to people. Yeah. Right? But I get how it keeps people engaged. They think it it it lends hope to people.
I think it kinda does the the opposite. It's my opinion. But so my question is is that if you knew that what they were doing right now was gonna lead to a cure in three hundred years, would you stop would it would that stop you from feeling cross about how it's being handled right now? No. Okay.
And if they told you, listen. We can help you with the thing you're asking for right now, then we're not gonna get to the cure in three hundred years. Would you say, well, that's better serve the people that are here now, or would you say, no. No. No.
Leave me be. Let's let's go for that.
I would say let's see if there's a way that we can find a medium between those two extremes.
Yeah. Okay.
Because why should I be discounted now when when I'm here now? I mean, there there should be they should be able to balance it. Great. I I lead the way three hundred years from now. It's no longer.
So be it. You know? There's nothing I can do about that. Quit torturing me that there's a cure right around the corner. That's not fair as, you know, as what you said.
Mhmm.
But there's got to be a way to balance it.
I'm with you, Eric. I'm just I'm trying to play devil's advocate in a couple of weeks.
Yeah. No. No. I understand.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm with you. I think that it should not be difficult for large organizations to put a strike team of people together to build even if it's just a list that you can email to somebody or a website you can go to to, like, search in your area to find, you know, a therapist that's either cash pay or or or otherwise may and and if those people don't exist, is there not something you could do to, I don't know, incentivize, young people going off to college to pick this up as a, you know, as a focus? I think that too when they're always telling us, like, there's not enough endos.
Well, spend some of that money on incentivizing people to be endocrinologists. You know what I mean? Like, what about, like, you know, you gotta go to med school, and med school costs x number of dollars. But guess what? If you become an endocrinologist and dedicate ten years to people with diabetes after you graduate, how about we'll pay, 20% of your of your student loans, or we'll give you a set amount of money?
Or, like, there's other ways to spend this money to try to spread good in the world. And and I don't even know that it takes that much. I'll say something now that I think is I hope it doesn't sound self serving. I don't I certainly don't mean it that way, but I think I motivate a lot of people to go into endocrinology and being a nurse practitioner and, helping people in the here and now. And that's just leading by example, really.
You you know? Like, there there's a lot of ways to there's a lot of ways to push towards good.
Right. And you're fortunate to have this platform that is so informative, and and it helps people.
Yeah. But can I yeah? But yeah. But it's not fortunate. I made this on purpose.
Sure.
Exactly. They could they could try and they and by the way, I I this is gonna sound like I'm talking about somebody specifically. I'm not I see all kinds of organizations with, like, this high mindedness that, like, they're gonna kinda copy the thing that I've done or, you know, try to do but they always do it wrong. They always make it too corporate. They always make it boring.
They always make it dry. They always turn it to something perfect on paper that nobody's gonna spend their time with. And then they'll they'll quietly and privately say, look. We made it available. They didn't want it.
Well, you made something available that doesn't fit into people's lives is what you did. You you know, like, you you it it has to be, like, you know, for for corporate people who are always running around saying stuff like meet people where they are, they sure as hell won't they're not good at meeting people where they are. They're good at meeting people where they think it looks good.
Right.
Yeah. Right.
You know, I mean, so I I think and this is just my perception that nowadays, you know, meaning the last five, ten years, I think that with the evolution of all the technology we have, it it has helped alleviate some of the complications that, you know, us type ones face.
Surely.
10,000 Lasers and a Volleyball: Losing an Eye 52:48
You know, better understanding, keeping your a one c's in range and and all that stuff. But, you know, one of so back in the mid nineties, starting '93, '94, I started having retinopathy issues. And I eventually, after so starting, like I said, like, in '93, I did my first laser laser shots in my eyes. Ninety four, ninety five, ninety six is when I went through living hell with my eyes. Over the over that period of time, I had over 10,000 lasers in in both my eyes.
I had, like, seven vitrectomies where they go and they suck the fluid out of your eye because it kept filling up with blood. Had a detached retina. And and finally, you know, I was I was three years of all this, my doctor was finally able to save both my eyes. I go out and playing volleyball. I get hit in the eye with a volleyball, and so that killed my right eye.
No kidding. Are serious? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Because, you know, the eye was in a weakened condition at that point from all the surgeries and all the lasers and stuff. So yeah. So I lost my eye back in 1997.
No shit. Game set match, Eric. That's terrible. Oh, also a great title for your episode. Yeah.
Well, you go you go through all that, and you're like, that's it. I'm back to life, and then life hits you in the face, like, literally?
Literally. Literally. Yeah. Right in the
eye. Jesus. Oh,
I'm sorry. Yeah.
That sucks.
It does. It does. And so you
know? But did I
let that slow me down? No. You know? I I have I have vision on my left eye these days. It's not a 100%, but I can live.
I've had to learn how to readjust everything. Like, I had to stop playing, you know, a lot of contact sports, at that point back in the late nineties because of the depth perception. I've had to learn how to drive more cautiously because of the depth depth perception. I can't drive on open roads at night. I mean, I could get around the city with with enough, street lights and stuff, but I can't drive on the open road.
And, you know, I decided at that point in '97, '98 that I didn't have enough challenges. So I went to law school in starting in '99.
Did you really?
Yep. And so I I went through law school with one eye.
Are you an attorney now?
I am.
Oh, lovely. Kinda love your practice.
Right now, I am between jobs, but I had been doing construction litigation for a number of years.
K. Wow. That's really that's impressive, man. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And so when I got done with law school and passed the bar, my right eye started, it became so painful that I couldn't live with the pain, so I had it, removed. And so now I have a prosthetic.
Oh, do you really? Do people know?
Yep. And no. I my right eye is, you know, semi closed on a permanent basis. Mhmm. And the eye does not does not move as much as the left eye, but the procedure I had, I went to a doctor in Fort Worth, Texas that was a specialist in, enucleations.
And so he did an implant where he tied all the nerve endings to this implant so the eye does move a little bit, but, I still look like there's something wrong with my with my face, with my eye.
Fascinating that they can do that. I knew a kid growing up, his father had I I mean, colloquially, I mean, we just call it a glass eye. Right? But, like Yeah. The kid the kid didn't know for a long till the kid till the dad told him he didn't even know.
And I was like, that's stunning. How did you not like but, you know, I guess you're just used to how people look. You don't think twice about it really when you're younger. Do you wear a patch, or do you do you how do you feel about it?
No. I mean, it's it's I have a prosthetic onion. So looks how you do it.
Yeah. That's how you roll. Do you ever wear a
patch? Only after procedures, you know, because you had to have it bandaged up and whatnot. But you know, as it
I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
No. I was gonna ask how having one eye made law school more difficult.
Oh, it was it was very difficult, because everything is about reading. And so, you know, what what took somebody maybe two hours, it take me four or five hours just because it it's difficult to, you know, read smoothly from line to line because it you know, it's makes it makes it difficult to track. And so yeah. So, I mean, you know, law school took a lot of work, long hours at the library and studying all the time. But, you know, it was
Worth it? You think it was worth it?
Yes. I agree with the
jobs now. You're probably like, well, I don't know about right now, but it was before. Right.
Right. It was something that it was a goal I wanted to do. And so it was worth it in that sense that even just with, you know, the one eye, I could do it, and I did it.
Showing it to yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And do do you think AI is gonna mess with attorneys?
Yes.
Yeah. Because it's because they can read and understand so quickly.
Yeah. But they don't it's the you know, it's all the hallucination stuff where they make up cases and whatnot, and that's where Yeah. People are getting in big trouble.
They get past that, though, and then what? Like, law clerks? Like, that's gonna that's gonna hit people like that pretty hard. Right?
I I still think they're gonna have have the hurdle of unauthorized practice of law, and that's one of the the state rules in a lot of states, you know, that if you're not an attorney, you can't practice. So, know, eventually, they'll figure out how to get past that too.
Mhmm. Or they'll make somebody get certified to run the AI for the sit for the scenario or something like that?
Yeah. Something like that.
It's interesting. Yep. Man, so just to talk about your care for a little more. Like, you've obviously, you know, talking about your eye, you've had other issues. You know, do are are we not listing any of your other complications?
Can we just get them all out in the list to make sure we know what they are before we move forward?
Those are the main ones.
Managing Today: MDI, CGM & a GLP-1 59:57
The okay. We have them then. So Yes. Your care today, obviously, is insanely different than it has been. Probably you've probably iterated through diabetes a number of times over the years.
But how do you characterize how you manage today? Like, is are you I'm shooting for a five and a half a one c guy, or, like, what what's your goals?
Goals are to to have an a one c as close to six as possible.
Mhmm.
My my retina specialist, doctor down in Dallas, Texas, you know, he he's happy with things under, six five. So, you know, the last I think the last year, I've been six, six three, and six four.
That's awesome. And how do you accomplish that today? Like, what's your technology?
I have a CGM.
And you're MDI?
What?
Are you injecting insulin, or do you use a
Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. No. I still use I still use, pens.
I
Sorry. That that you're so old school. MDI, multiple daily injections. You were like, I don't know what what does that mean.
Yes. Exactly. I thought that was a new pump or something.
That's great. That was that's the first time that's happened in a while. You're like, MDI. I don't know what that is. Yeah.
So you're just with with the help of a CGM, you're managing with injections into a mid Sixes a one c? Yep. Fantastic. That's wonderful. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, talk to talk to people for a second. I mean, how big of a leap is continuous glucose monitoring?
Oh, it's life changing, especially for me. I am I am so desensitized to highs and lows.
Mhmm.
I I can't catch them. And so without the CGM, I probably would be in a lot worse shape than I am today. You know, my CGM was going off last night. I'm like, hey. You know, this is a great dream.
I keep hearing this beeping noise. I must be at a concert or something. No. I was 52. So I finally woke up and had a coke quickly.
And, know, would I have woken up if I didn't have a CGM? Who knows? I don't have to worry about it, luckily.
Yeah. No. It's a big deal. And do you adjust during the day? Like, I imagine you inject if you get a little too high, that kind of stuff?
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I I you know, at this point, it's just second nature. Oh, you know, you wanna have a doughnut.
That's six maybe extra units. Pop that in there. Have the doughnut. French fries and hamburger, it's probably 10 extra units, you know, if you if you get a large fry or something. So it's just you know, by now, it's second nature.
But, I mean, I I am thankful that the CGM technology came around.
Yeah. Do
you And I started using I started using the Dexcom in 2011.
Okay. Yeah. It's early. Do you when you think of french fries as an example, do you think, like, oh, I just know french fries take extra over the carb count, or do you actually think about the fat impact of it? How how does like, when you're, like, taking care of it in the moment, what's your thought process?
I need to do extra insulin because of the the fries and the carbs. Okay. And, you know, it's it's interesting. I recently so things things for me have kinda changed over the last eight months because my doctor got me in a GLP one.
Oh, yeah.
Because and it and it's been great. I've lost, you know, thirty, thirty five pounds at this point.
Nice.
And it has done wonders for the management of the diabetes. Mhmm. My my Humalog pen now lasts, like, thirteen days, whereas before it was six to seven. Mhmm. My Tresiba lasts, you know, another week, week and a half than it used to just because I'm taking so much less insulin.
Yeah. It's interesting to hear how you quantify it. It's not like like, if you ask me, what does a GLP do for your daughter? I'd say, oh, it significantly decreases her insulin to carb ratio, her basal, her sensitivity. And you were just like, hey.
The pen lasts a lot longer, man. I'm using less insulin. Like, that's a really cool that's that's like some badass shit right there. You just you Yeah. You're you're a different era, man.
That's awesome. Right. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it and it's it's like I said, it's been incredible what it has the GLP one has done for me. I mean, it's you know, granted, yes, it helps suppress the appetite, and so that's, you know, that's been helpful. But I was, you know, at before I lost all the weight, I struggled.
I mean, I worked out, you know, almost daily and would could get nowhere losing weight. Mhmm. And, you know, it's the the, what they call, the desensitization to the insulin when you're you know, have the extra weight. And so, I mean, holy cow. It's it's been pretty it's been cool that losing that much weight has had such an impact on the the control of the diabetes.
Oh, man. I see it with people all the time. It it Yeah. It really is I mean, your insulin sensitivity either rises or your insulin resistance goes away. I mean, you can think about it any number of ways.
It doesn't really matter. Right? It's just it takes less insulin to do the same job. You're you're probably getting low less frequently too, I would imagine. Is that happening?
I think I'm more steady.
Yeah. That that's another way
to put time?
More stable.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right. Overnight still is a problem. And that's where I've I've had issues with that for a very long time.
What's your basal insulin? Were you using, like, Tresiba? Or
Yeah. Tresiba.
Okay. And you shoot it in the evenings?
In the mornings.
You shoot it in the morning. And you're still getting low overnight sometimes? Yep. So what do you think that is? Do you think it's, last meal of the day?
You're too heavy handed with that last meal, or what do you think it is?
I think there's any combination of it. You know, the like you said, the last meal of the day, that, what my activity level was throughout the day. Mhmm. If I did more activity, you know, I have a a tendency to drop in the middle of the night. You know, if I have too much of a snack before I go to bed, oh, then it do I get high and have to do a couple units to help bring it down?
And then does that crash me? Mhmm. And and and so it's always just it's frustrating, especially at night, living by myself. You know, I think there's I worry about it to an extent. But like I said, you know
Yeah. You're a great person to ask. So I'm just asking your perspective. I'm not telling you you're doing something right or wrong. Okay?
Why Not a Pump? 1:07:10
For that's not for you. You seem very reasonable. This is for the people listening. If I said to you, Eric, why don't you go get an insulin pump that has an algorithm running it that would, at midnight, detect that it thinks you're gonna get low in a half an hour and cut your base off and stop that low from happening? Why is that not an attractive idea to you?
So I see the benefit of that, and the benefit of the pump in general. But my problem with the pump is that, you know, a lot of them go on the back of your arm. And so with my one eye and my depth perception issues, I have a tendency to run into things. And insurance only pays for, you know, whatever it is, one or two a month or whatever the amount is. And so if I get if I get knocked off, I'm out, you know, whatever amount of money it costs.
And so then, you know, you're losing the insulin in that. And so while it's not conducive to my lifestyle at this point, maybe at some point it will. My doctor keeps, you know, having discussions with me about that. But I I just
Follow-up question. Are those things are those the things you're imagining will happen, or you've tried it and that's what happened?
Oh, I've tried, you know, like, the CGM on my arm Mhmm. The back of the arm, running into a door jam and ripping it off or, you know, getting it caught on something because, oh, I misjudged where that opening was.
Well, because you can I mean, you can wear pump sites on your abdomen? You could put them there. You could, I mean, my daughter wears her pumps on her legs sometimes or arm. But not her she doesn't particularly enjoy her arms. She does her abdomen a lot, her thighs.
I see people do it on the top of their butts. Like, there's all kinds of different places people wear stuff. I I would just I'm sorry. I would be worried that I'm I'm worried it's the wrong you're you're a grown person, but you're older than I am. But, like, all I would tell you is to try not to let your past experience, like, dictate what you think is going on now.
Because if Sure. You mean, even if you could get a couple of samples and try it for a half a hot minute, like, maybe that would happen. Like, you know, instead of making a complete switchover. I I mean, I'm just telling you, like, GLP, down weight, using less insulin, algorithm, trying to stop your lows, you might you might love that. You know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah.
No. I I and it's it's you're not the first person to tell me I should look look into that. And, you know, it's something that I will, you know, consider at some point.
Setting your ways, Eric?
Very much so.
Yeah. Yeah.
Very much so.
Yeah. We all are. I was just wondering. Yeah. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. No. I and and I think I think part of it too is, the mentality of, damn it. Now I've got another thing attached to my body.
Okay. Why does that matter?
Some perceived freedom from this damn disease.
Okay. What if I said to you the freedom would come from not getting low as much, not being able to sleep more? Could you not see that as an exchange?
It is a different lifestyle thinking that scares me.
Okay. Well, that's fair.
Because because I've been doing it this way for so long. I I mean, I like I said, I don't doubt that there is much to gain from it. I mean, I think that's the evidence is the evidence exists that it makes a difference. So I'm just, you know, I'm just setting my ways, I guess. Antiquated thinking.
Yeah. I mean, it it's interesting because you you're a bright guy. I I didn't think you didn't know the things I was gonna say. I think it's just more interesting to listen through people's, you know, why why can't people change? Like, you because the truth is is that, I mean, you, you know, you have electricity in your house.
You must have enough money to, like, make this move if you have to. I mean, you're in between jobs. That's fair enough. Like but I'm imagining you'll be working again sooner than later. So, I mean, I don't know, man.
Like, I think it's worth trying. And then if you don't like it, like, fair enough. Whatever. But to say that it's definitely gonna be a problem or, you know, I'm it's something attached to me or another like, I mean, you you won't know till you do it. Right.
You know? And and it's just I I I can tell you right now that I watched my daughter use it, and the amount of effort she has to put into it is so insignificant compared to what you're describing even. It it's and I think it's just gonna get better too. You know? Like, I I mean, I I know you're probably been living for fifty years with people telling you, hey.
It's gonna get it's gonna get cured. Obviously, you don't believe that at this point and with, you know, with good reason. Right. But if I would imagine that that, like, it's just gonna keep getting better probably sounds like the same thing to you, but it I'm telling you, I'm watching it get better really quickly. Like, real
real That's interesting.
Really, really quickly. It's happening Yeah. Super fast. And I don't know. They're just they're great tools.
Be sad if my daughter wasn't using a pump because I I think it would add to her burden in the way you're describing imagining that a pump would, if that makes sense.
Right.
And sad sad's the wrong word. Like, if you're out there with MDI listening right now, you're like, don't be sad for I'm not sad for you. Like like, I'm just saying, I think I think you can do whatever you want. I think that's great. I think you're leaving a lot on the table by not at least giving it a shot, I guess, is my is the way I should put it.
Right. No. And I I I understand, and I appreciate that perspective.
Yeah. No. I imagine you do. You're a thoughtful guy. I'm I'm enjoying our conversation.
Yeah. Yeah. Anything that we haven't talked about that we should have or anything that feels like it got left out?
You know, at this point, I don't think so. I mean, I think we've covered
Did okay?
So yeah.
Aging With Type 1, Community & Starting Over 1:14:02
Yeah. That's fine. I appreciate it. And I appreciate you doing this too. And you're right.
There's not enough voices around this time of life, with all this. I I thought earlier to mention the t1dto100 website. I don't know if you know that one. I'm gonna pull it up here just so I make sure I have it. It's, it literally is t1d2100.com.
It's to help people navigate type one diabetes as they age.
Oh, interesting.
Run by a lady named Joanne Milo. She's been on the podcast to talk about it. But she's pretty, you know, locked in in the space and and, you know, she's an older person with type one. I'm sure she won't like it when when she hears that I said that, but she's a she's a she's a person of a certain age who has type one diabetes who's really focused on, you know, that. There's I know there are people who listen who are, you know, older too and simple concerns about, like, how do I place my pump when my hands get shakier?
How am I supposed to see these screens or do these touch screens and stuff like that? Like, a lot of things that you don't think about when you're designing for, you know, a younger person. Like, what happens when you get older? And Right. And do I lose my technology then?
Is that what happens? Like or and, I mean or is there gonna be some support? And, I mean, if we didn't learn anything from your conversation, we should have learned that there's probably not support. So Right. You really are on your own a little bit.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unless I mean, is community valuable for you at all? That that's that I I I didn't mean to, like, act like we were gonna stop talking and ask you another question.
But for a person like you who's lived for this many decades with it prior to the Internet, like, have you found the value of other people with type one, whether they're virtual or in person, or is that a thing that missed you because of your age?
I think it has, to a certain extent, missed me because of my age. I know that there's a fledgling support group here in Albuquerque that's just kinda getting going that, you know, a couple people are trying to start, and I've gone to an event with them, go to one with them this week. Good. But it it's it's the the it's the different perspective that I I I just can't necessarily grasp. You know?
I there you know, somebody like me, I've I've seen so much. I've gone through so much. I've dealt with so much that there's the the the discussions are incongruent from where I'm at. You know, I I want to engage and figure out how have how has one dealt with the burnout for multiple decades? You know, what what types of solutions or what types of steps do you have that helps alleviate that?
That is that's what I wanna hear as opposed to, well, you know, how do you use the CGM? Okay? You know, that's valid, and I'm not trying to discount it, but it's that the different levels of things. You know, can I help somebody understand how to use the CGM? To an extent, stick it in, follow it, you know, learn learn how to use it.
You know, that's very simplified, but I think there's value to them Yeah. To the communities. I just have not exposed myself to those.
Well, as you do that, I take my suggestion, if you would. Of course. It's not as much about you showing up and being like, I know how to do a thing. This is it. Now you listen and do it too.
I would say tell your story and just let that be what you you give to it. And then hope that they listen to your story and are able to reverse engineer and say, okay. Well, I haven't been out as long as he has, but he has real perspective that I don't have. But then be open to taking that same thing back from them. Because while they probably feel to you like they don't have as much knowledge or time in the simulator, What they have that you don't have as a starting point that is a starting point that was more is more modern than yours is.
Because I can tell you that I think the worst mistake you can make as a person who's been living with diabetes for five decades is to not appreciate enough to get over the nervousness that this thing is not the same as it was when you were younger and that you could reset yourself and start over in this new world if you wanted to. And that that probably would it probably would lend, I would think, not just health support, but mental health support too. Because a lot of the burden you've been describing over the conversation, it could be a burden based on your management style and your and your expectation of what diabetes is. I'm saying maybe it doesn't have to be that. Don't fight it.
Go with it and see what happens.
Sure.
Yeah.
No. And that makes sense.
Diagnosed today. If you were diagnosed today, you'd you'd somebody would say to you, we're gonna get you a continuous glucose monitor. Which one of these pumps do you wanna try? And you wouldn't say, oh, I don't want that thing stuck to me or but you would go, oh, is that how we do it? Okay.
Fine. Give me the thing. You know? And then whether you ended up with a t slim or a Medtronic or an Omnipod or a Twist or any of these other pumps, you'd quickly learn that, hey. This thing stops me from getting low, and my a one c is in the sixes, and, you know, it's not so bad.
Like like, you know, like, it it's I, you know, I gotta change it once in a while. And trust me, by the way, all that burnout stuff you're talking about, it's gonna apply to this new stuff too. Eventually, you're gonna get sick of swapping your site or you're gonna have a site go bad while you're at the movie or something like you know what mean? Like, it's all gonna happen. Right.
But your baseline changes. Like, your your expectation baseline changes, your health baseline changes, and, hopefully, your hopefully, your, like, mental burden changes. I I think one of the more interesting things about all of this is is that if I took somebody who was diagnosed last year and somehow was able to upload your feelings and experiences into them, they would probably realize that their shit ain't so bad. And yet Right. And yet, because that's the only perspective they have, their shit's pretty bad.
And and you do you know
what I mean?
Like and so, like, everything is just what you know. And I'm saying, you know, maybe there's some hope, you know, maybe there's some hope, Eric, that one day that, you know, the thing you know will lend you comfort when you try the new thing. And, that's what I would I would that's what I would encourage you to do, honestly.
And that makes sense. Yeah. You know? And I I appreciate that, that perspective and your willingness to, say those things to me because I need to hear it.
Yeah. Well, man, listen, man. You came on here to help people. I'm just hoping to help you a little bit too. And them, by the way, while they're listening, because most people feel the way you feel about especially if they've had this longer.
Right? Like, what are they gonna do? And even if they haven't had it longer, listening to your conversation, I mean, listen. Spoiler alert for those of you who are listening and haven't been around it this much longer. I'm not saying your life isn't difficult, but try to imagine your life through Eric's lens.
You you know what I mean? And maybe take a second to go, My pump shuts itself off before I get low. It's pretty awesome. You know? But, anyway, I I I really do appreciate you taking the time to share all this with everybody and me.
Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity to be able share it.
Oh, it was awesome. A great time, really. Yeah. Okay. Well, I I'm definitely gonna call this one game set match.
Okay.
Just because there wasn't a lot of lightheartedness in this. And, certainly, you getting hit with the volleyball is not one of them, but it was I do think it's a kind of a I think it can kinda be a poignant thought process here, which is, like, you fought through a thing and fought through it and fought through it and came out the other side, and then it still kicked you in the balls one more time. And Yep. And and but I don't hear a guy giving up, and I think that's really important.
Yeah. Because, you know, if I give up, what does that mean? I'm dead.
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well yeah. Right?
Like, there's two options, get up and keep going or don't. And Right. Yeah. Yeah. I choose you.
Alright. Alright. Thank you. Hold on one second for me. Okay?
Of course. Thank you.
You just had a great time listening to the juice box podcast. You're on a high. You wanna do something else? Go to cozyearth.com and get yourself some beautiful sheets, towels, clothing. And don't forget those dryer balls.
20% off when you use the offer code juice box at checkout.cozyearth.com. Use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 20%. Listen to that deep voice. Go do it. 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. I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter that my daughter carries, the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at kontoornext.com/juicebox.
And don't forget, you may be paying more through your insurance right now for the meter you have than you would pay for the contour next gen in cash. There are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Kontoor and all of the sponsors.
- Decades of management carry a real mental load that advances in physical care don’t address. Eric’s point is that mental-health support for long-time type 1s is hard to find — and that a provider who understands diabetes (his has a counseling degree) can be a lifeline. If you’re struggling, it’s worth seeking that kind of help.
- A CGM can be life-changing, especially if years of highs and lows have dulled your ability to feel them. Eric credits his with catching overnight lows he’d otherwise sleep through. Talk to your care team about CGM options.
- Insulin needs aren’t fixed. A GLP-1 added by Eric’s doctor drove meaningful weight loss and steadied his numbers, stretching how long his insulin pens last. Any medication change should go through your care team.
- Today’s automated pumps can cut basal to head off lows and ease both the physical and mental burden — and they’re worth trying even after decades of doing it another way. A bad experience with old hardware doesn’t have to define what’s possible now. Explore options with your provider.
- You’re allowed to start over. A long-held management style and a fixed idea of what diabetes “is” can quietly become their own burden; revisiting both with fresh tools — and trading stories with people at different stages — can lighten the load.
- Contour Next Gen Meter — The blood glucose meter Arden carries — possibly cheaper in cash than through insurance. An episode sponsor.
- Medtronic MiniMed 780G — Automated insulin delivery with meal-detection technology — an episode sponsor.
- Cozy Earth — Bedding, towels, and apparel — use code JUICEBOX for 20% off. An episode sponsor.
- T1D2100 — Joanne Milo — Joanne Milo's resource for navigating type 1 diabetes as you age.
- Ask Scott and Jenny — The listener-question series with Scott and Jenny Smith.
- Juicebox Newsletter — Sign up at the bottom of the homepage.
