#1907 Come On Over, Valerie
Come On Over, Valerie
Valerie’s daughter was diagnosed at 12 in full DKA. A year later, a newly-diagnosed mom on California’s Central Coast has become a confident, bold advocate — and shares how she got there.
Jump to a moment
- Type 1 can hide until it’s an emergency. Reagan’s slide — fatigue, stomachaches, weight loss, crying over homework she loved — was easy to chalk up to a stressful season, until a friend noticed her clothes hanging off her. She arrived at the hospital in full DKA with a blood sugar of 860. Trust the “mom gut.”
- You’re allowed to be the one who adjusts. Told the pump “should do it all” and to stop touching it, Valerie kept going once she understood why — and dialing in the correction factor is what finally got her daughter where she needed to be. Scott’s long-held view: feeling autonomously able to make meaningful setting changes is one of the biggest predictors of success.
- Adjust in small, deliberate steps — not by guessing. Valerie changes a couple of points at a time, waits a day or two, then keeps or reverts. She used a large-language model as a starting-point estimate (weight, age, puberty) and then refined from there — not blindly following it.
- Community and format matter. A podcast during chores, a mom spotted at a horse show, one friend on call day and night — Valerie assembled her knowledge from an ecosystem, not a single source. Her A1C went from 11.5 at diagnosis to 5.9, with her daughter running track, playing soccer and basketball, and barrel racing.
- Management first, then the rest. Reagan hasn’t fully “digested” the diagnosis, and that’s okay — Valerie is comfortable carrying it for now. Scott’s note: get the management buttoned up so it buffers the mental-health and burnout challenges that come later. (Reagan also has Hashimoto’s, currently untreated.)
- Touched by Type One — episode sponsor; programs and support for people with type 1 (Facebook, Instagram, touchedbytype1.org)
- Pro Tip Series — starts with “Newly Diagnosed / Starting Over”; the fats-and-protein and correction-factor concepts Valerie leaned on (verify slug)
- Small Sips Series — short, listener-voted takeaways (verify slug)
- Juicebox setting estimators & series menu — correction-factor/settings estimators and every series, up in the menu
- T1D Exchange Registry — a ~10-minute survey that moves type 1 research; US adults with T1D or caregivers
- Tandem Mobi (Control IQ+) — the pump Reagan uses; sponsor link
- Eversense 365 — one-year CGM; sponsor link
Every word of the conversation
Meet Valerie0:00
Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of the Juice Box podcast. Welcome. Please don't forget 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. Are you an adult living with type one or the caregiver of someone who is and a US resident?
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Have you tried the small sip series? They're curated takeaways from the juice box podcast voted on by listeners as the most helpful insights for managing their diabetes. These bite sized pieces of wisdom cover essential topics like insulin timing, carb management, and balancing highs and lows, making it easier for you to incorporate real life strategies into your daily routine. Dive deep, take a sip, and discover what our community finds most valuable on the journey to better diabetes management. For more information on small sips, go to juiceboxpodcast.com.
Click on the word series in the menu. The episode you're about to listen to was sponsored by Touched by Type One. Go check them out right now on Facebook, Instagram, and, of course, at touchedbytype1.org. Check out that programs tab when you get to the website to see all the great things that they're doing for people living with type one diabetes. Touched by type1.org.
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Visit eversensecgm.com/juicebox for more details and eligibility.
Hi. I am Valerie, and I have I'm a mother to a type one diabetic daughter who is 12 and going straight through puberty.
Fun times. Is this is she is she your only child?
No. I have a nine year old son.
Okay. 12 year old daughter, nine year old son. 12 year old daughter has type one. How long has she had it?
She was diagnosed 03/01/2025.
03/01/2020. Oh, wow. March, April, May. Just a year and a couple of months there.
Yes.
Okay. Okay. Pretty new to the whole thing. How old are you?
Absolutely. I am 42.
42. And married?
Yep.
Married. Married. Okay. 42, married, two kids, diabetes. What brings you here today?
Like, what made you say I I should add my voice to this whole thing?
Because of the complete unawareness of it all, I would like to maybe start with her diagnosis because that is what is so strong with me. And the fact that even sitting in a hospital telling me them telling me that she has type one diabetes, I had no idea what they were talking about. Mhmm.
So what gets you to the hospital? What did you see? Was she ill? Did somebody say something to you? How did that whole work?
Go through that part.
From Mexico to the Bathroom Floor3:52
Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. I start with Mexico. We went to Mexico in January.
Everything was fine, normal. When we got back, she was acting very tired. My stomach hurts here and there. I have a headache here and there. She has always been very bright with school and no problem with homework.
Towards the closer to the diagnosis, I was seeing her crying over, like, math homework, which she loves Mhmm. Any type of thing like that. And I was like, I am so confused. Yeah. And we I didn't have my husband in my life at the time because we were separated, and it was just me.
And I was chopping that all up to our family is going through a stressful time. These are just normal kid things that happen. Maybe she just got overrun that day, and feeling a little off.
Of all the things that threw you off about or the the yeah. I guess shone a light on her, the stomach pain, the the not being able to deal with things that she's usually good at, was there one thing that, like, hit you harder than the rest as something that really made you worry?
Yeah. So that went on for, like, a month, two months, and then she went she she had she's rode horses since she was five. She went to a horse show early in the morning, rode all day long. I was at my son's baseball game working the Snack Shack. I had a friend drop her off.
And prior to that, my friends had kinda said, oh, look at her little pants. They're so big on her. And I remember looking like, oh, that's weird because I don't remember that. But, your mind plays tricks with you. Mhmm.
When you see your kid every day, you don't notice the weight loss.
Sure.
So she came to me, and she was very embarrassed because she couldn't at that time, she was having trouble holding her her pee. You know, she had go pee all the time.
Mhmm.
I did not notice a lot of water. I I know in a lot of episodes I hear that they were just drinking, you know, eight glasses or more, but I didn't it was just the norm. So that day is the diagnosis day. And so she comes to the snack shack. I'm busy.
I'm like, okay. Here. Have some french fries. Have some Sprite. Have some peach rings.
Those were our favorites to share together. Mhmm. So then we go home, and she just kinda gets worse. And I'm like, okay. Just take a shower.
Maybe you're just tired from riding your horse all day. She didn't have a towel in the bathroom, and she, at that time, was in a lot of pain with her stomach and just her whole body. So she was in the fetal position on the mat in the bathroom. And at that point, I came and gave her a towel, and all I saw was a skeleton and her all her ribs. And I was like, oh my god.
I don't know what's going on. This was a Saturday, of course. I do have a friend down the street, and she was in nursing school, and that's the only thing I could think of. I called her, and I said, I don't know what's going on. Something's wrong.
Yeah. But in my mind, it was like starvation. I said, what do you wanna eat? She said, Chipotle. I took her.
We went in the drive through. When I tried to give her food because I was like, just eat just eat. Her mouth was then so dry. She could not swallow, could not eat. Again, keep in mind, I know nothing about the type one and what I should look for.
So I'm it's not making sense to me. So then we get home. My friend comes by. She checks her out. She does all of her her stuff.
She says she looks alright, but something's kind of off. She's kind of thinking the worst, more cancer like, but then she's like, can you smell her breath? And I did. It did not smell fruity. She's like, I'm gonna go home and get my glucometer.
So she goes and gets it, and it just didn't work. And she's like, that's weird. I maybe it's broken. Maybe my glucometer's broken. And she said, don't wanna send you to the hospital because I feel bad.
I was like, it's okay. Like, just keep my son. I will take her. I would rather go to bed knowing what was wrong or if something's going on.
And that's how worried you were. You were beyond, like, we can't ignore this any longer.
Yeah. But still not knowing what it was. And how knowing, like, really what a finger stick meant.
Sure. Valerie, give me a half a second, though. Like, Mexico, which, by the way, I can't believe you brought that up so earlier. I could've called this one south of the border disorder. But but it's too early it's too early in the episode.
But but so from Mexico to this, you know, skeleton on the floor Chipotle ride, how what how much time is there?
That was the middle of January. So, like, the end of January to, basically, the end of February,
March 1. Maybe about four, five weeks time?
Yeah.
That whole space okay. Go ahead. I'm sorry. So you you leave your son with your friend, and you head to the hospital?
860 and Full DKA8:34
Yes. And so we we live where there's, a smaller hospital. So it's just, like, the general hospital, and she said, just to ask them to check her finger, and I just wanna know if mine is broken. So I got in there, and I told them exactly that. Like, just wanna check her finger.
And for some reason, there was other people in the waiting room, but they just knew. Mhmm. They took her back. And sure enough, I still, again, didn't know what it meant, all it read was high on the hospital one, and their faces turned white. Nurses started running, and I'm just like, I don't know what's going on.
Later, come to find out, yeah, her her blood sugar was 860. Wow. Full DKA. They said we have to get her in and start her on IVs right away, but then we had to get an ambulance and be transferred an hour down south to go to the children's hospital.
You had to get to a different hospital. So did they stabilize her at the first hospital, or did they move her right away?
They they only started fluids. They didn't have any type of pediatric diabetes anywhere at all there. So, no, she was not. She wasn't anything
long at all. They got you got they got you out of there fast.
Yeah. So we had an hour ride. They did not wanna start insulin at all until she was at the pediatric hospital.
How long was she in that pediatric hospital?
She went into the ICU. That was the scariest thing in my life. I did not sleep for forty two hours. Talk about trauma. And she stayed there for a week.
Just she actually got stable pretty quick, and then we stayed in the pediatric just unit for about three days for education.
Okay. And was she did she come back to life? Did her her body fill out while she when she got back on the insulin? Like, how did you how did you notice all that stuff?
Absolutely. Absolutely.
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“I Want Bacon”12:33
That first day, yeah, she was, completely out of it. She did not go into a coma, but she was just obviously tired. She slept for a long time. When she woke up, she said, I want bacon.
I have that feeling when I wake up some days. So And
she's just a little girl. Like, she's always been small, but it was just so funny. And I'm like, oh, yeah. She's feeling better. She wants bacon, and she wants all this off of her right now.
Yeah. That's awesome. Well, so she popped back pretty quickly. Now at this point, somebody's told you type one diabetes. Yeah.
Do you have any context for it? Or is New. It all comes from those couple days in the hospital that your initial context?
Absolutely. It does not like, we've had a little bit of type two in the family because of lifestyle. Never had never thought I of being a medical parent. Nothing in my life as far as family and all that was never a thing.
Okay.
So it was so far in my mind. So, yeah, this was all a shock. The ER doctor had to take me out and just sit me down and explain little by little. But at that point, it's so much information, and I was not sleeping for days. It was a lot.
Yeah. And it's taken me a long time to really digest it.
How how do you mean?
Just all of the information that goes with it, it took me a a little bit.
Okay.
And I and I just don't I was don't I think I was ready for it. When when you have something that changes your life in a moment, it it really takes a while.
Yeah. No. Sure. Yeah. You're not gonna just immediately be like, oh, I completely understand.
I got it. Thanks a lot. But Yeah. But so we you're what are you now? Fourteen, fifteen months removed from this thing.
Right? Are you still absorbing it? Like, would you say that it's still a learning process? And if so, where are you learning from?
Learning From the Podcast14:33
That's a great question. That's what I wanted to talk about. I'm learning from you, Scott. I'm learning from you and your listeners and your and your guests. So she does have a great doctor, but she's very conservative.
We had to wait the six months for the pump, which, yes, that just confuses me. She did have a Dexcom from the hospital, which I don't know how I could have ever lived without that. And just listening because, like, her doctor would love for us to take it super slow and not do what I'm doing. Like, in the beginning, yes, I was that mom of, like, I feel comfortable with her being at 200 and above because, you know, in the hospital, they are talking about lows and all of that. Not really the highs as much.
Yeah.
So when I'm coming home, you do feel like you're coming home with a newborn of, like, oh my god. I don't know what I'm doing. So that was me for a bit. And my daughter, she did not let this stop her one bit. I'm gonna cry because she was just like that.
She went to school the first day she could, never stayed home, never stopped her sports, nothing. She has taken this and ran. I don't think she has fully digested it herself because I am the full caretaker of
it. Mhmm.
But she's not letting it stop her.
What do you mean you don't think she's completely digested it?
Like, if I ask her, what is your number? I don't know. I don't know.
You feel like she hasn't taken it on completely?
Yes.
Absolutely. She she's aware she has type one. She knows it's not gonna go away, like, that kind of stuff. Does she feel accepting of that part of it?
I don't know. I don't know. She is a little bit hard to talk to. I do we do need to get her hooked up with someone. She is going to camp next month, so I'm kind of waiting for that, to see what else needs to come after that.
But it's it's it's odd because she wears her Dexcom. She she's on the tandem Moby. She'll wear it on her arm here and there, and if it's out, it's out. She's not trying to cover it.
Mhmm.
But she is just very, no. I'm just normal. I'm just doing my thing.
It's a slow process. Also, she's some would you how did you put it? She's sometimes hard to talk to. That describes every human being I've ever met in my entire life, including me. So Yes.
Yes. Yes. It nobody credit. Yeah. Nobody wants to sit down and chat about all the things that are bothering them.
That's not a it it it's not it just doesn't feel I mean, not that you shouldn't, but it doesn't feel natural. When someone approaches you and says, how do you feel about this? You may not know how you feel about it. You may know and not wanna tell somebody. I mean, there's a a lot to this.
Talk about a a marathon. You you know what I mean? Like Yes. Getting to the end of that. But she's Yeah.
But she's taking care of herself, like, well. Right? Like, she wears her gear. She's not scared to Yeah. Show it to somebody, but she doesn't have the level of connection to it that you want or a level connection that you have.
I think that I have. I think that I am totally okay with completely overseeing all of this. I want her to take it as it comes and as she can digest it. I think, you know, she's 12. She has plenty of time that she's gonna have to deal and live with this, and I am completely willing and wanting to do this for her at this time.
Mhmm. So I'm not too worried about that right now.
Yeah. I I wouldn't be either. I I don't I don't subscribe to the idea of, like, you know, it's their disease. Give it to them now. They need to know.
Like, yeah, they need to know, and that's all true, but it doesn't have to happen all today. Right. And
she's absolutely so smart. Like, if she had to do a site change right now, she could do it herself, and and a DexCom, all of that. She she does know. She just simply just doesn't wanna have to take care of it right now.
You're proud of her.
I am so proud of her. I'm so incredibly proud of her. What she's taken on is amazing, and these type one diabetics are so incredibly strong.
No kidding. Okay. So you're saying you were told you're given more conservative marching orders from your doctor. Not not bad necessarily, but what it was, it not moving quickly enough for you? Or
Conservative Orders, and Fighting for the Pump18:45
I didn't I didn't know it all. I had no idea. So in the beginning, you know, she's going to school, and I'm, like, telling the nurses, no. I want her to stay in the two hundreds. Like because in the beginning, she was dipping really quick.
Mhmm. You know? Her body was getting used to trying to stabilize that healthy blood sugar. So when she would see a 100, it was like it was going down fast. So in those times, in those beginning when I think back, it was like, okay.
200 made me feel safe. And the doctors never really, like, pushed me further. And then we got on the pump, and I had to ask for that and keep on track with it. And another thing I have on my list is the insurance. So I had to be the one to, like, make sure that I get it within that year so I could actually get it covered.
You know what I mean?
Did you not have medical insurance at that point?
No. No. We do.
Oh, you do? Okay. Okay. What did you mean you had to get you had to get what in that year? Tell me I'm not pump.
Oh. Oh. Oh, I see.
Sorry. Like, all of the deductibles and everything was covered. So we knew at that point everything, her prescriptions and all that, were getting covered up by a 100%.
I see. Okay. Actually, that's completely my fault if I'm being honest. There's this is gonna sound ridiculous to some people, but there's a lizard in a cage that just leapt across it, and it took my attention for half a second. And then you said that, and I thought, I just did I miss what she just said just there?
So sorry.
Are you in your new office?
No. I'm so close to being in my new office. No. The the the cruise is this month in June, and I'm going to ADA in June. So in the I don't know how many days there are in June 30 or 31.
I know there's, like, a there's supposed to be isn't there a hymn, like, you can, like, sing to get to it? But, how many days there are in each month? But however many days there are in June 2026, I'm only gonna be home for half of them. And so I I'm up to the, we're waiting for the carpeting to be installed, and then, I've gotta get furniture. And I think I'm gonna move my office side first and the recording side second, because I have to get up the sound dampening on the wall still on the recording side.
So yeah.
I've been following
all Thank you. Yeah. I'm I'm trying to get to I my hope is that end of the summer, by August, for sure, I'll be working out of there. So there's still a lot of stuff to do. Then I gotta move all these guys with me to where they're gonna live.
And so anyway, and I'm doing it by myself. So it's and I'm working. So it's not Yeah. Absolutely. It's not going quickly is what I'm saying.
Yeah. We should probably
Take it slow.
Yeah. I I I think I have some people related to me looking for work. I should probably just start being like, hey. Can you move a desk? Can you do this?
Yeah. You
know? Absolutely.
But but, okay. So when you say when you say, you know, they're they're going slowly, the and the reason I wanna know about this is, you know, anybody who's ever tried to market something, you know, like, when you I don't know. If you sell a widget, right, you does how does somebody in Peoria, Illinois end up with your widget? You have no idea. Like, you'd like to think you do.
Right? Like, oh, I bought an ad or I you know, it was in a magazine or in the end, you don't know how you don't know how information travels. It's it's really difficult to, like, conceptualize how it does. Like so, like, I don't know what even what part of the country you're in if you're comfortable saying that.
Finding It From the Central Coast22:16
But Yeah. I'm on the Central Coast Of California.
Okay. Okay. How does someone in California, while their 11 year old is being diagnosed with type one diabetes, end up finding out about a podcast made by a guy in New Jersey watching a lizard jump across the tank? And and, like and and and how do you know to look for it? Like like, what's the trigger that makes you go, what I'm being told here, it's good, but it's not enough.
I need more. Where do I go look for more? How do you find out which way to go once you turn that way? It's just it's such a web of un unknown for me. I
don't Absolutely. Yeah. So I do not remember how I found yours. I I am on TikTok. I am on all the socials.
You know? So I'm sure something popped up. And then I do like to listen to podcasts when doing house chores and at work. I do have a little bit of ADD. So, like, when things are going in the background, I tend to work better.
So I I don't remember how I found it, but it was a little while after diagnosis. It was close to her getting the pump, so I would say, six months
Okay.
After her diagnosis.
And you Yeah.
In the hospital, I didn't have any any
Bandwidth.
Outlet, any nothing.
Yeah. You probably didn't even think to look. I I didn't think to I just thought whatever they're telling me is the whole thing. You know, it has to be. Right?
You don't know. Absolutely.
Okay.
So I just started listening, and I started from one. I started from one, but then I started seeing because then I started following your page and on your page, and I started seeing newer things. And I'm like, oh, I should probably kinda go backwards again and see where we are now currently. Mhmm. But I did listen to quite a bit of, you know, Arden's very first in the beginning and and and just kind of all of that.
Yeah.
She graduated from college the other day. That's gotta freak you out if you started listening from the beginning. Yeah. Yes.
And that's why I just think it's amazing because you've been through it all. What I'm gonna go through now with all of it. See, I have questions about that too.
Yeah. Well, I mean and the stuff I haven't been through, somebody I've talked to probably has been.
Absolutely.
Yeah. That that's why I like this this format so much.
So I so I right now, I'm into the pro series, and that is so helpful.
Good.
But I wanna tell you one thing about your podcast, and you're gonna laugh because
I hope so.
Yes. I found out in the beginning, yes, it was, you know, don't don't be afraid of insulin that stuck with me vague. So the doctors had to kind of stop me. At one point, it was the nurse and the social worker got getting on the phone with me saying, do not touch the pump in a very nice way, but I was like, woah. What is going on?
I'm touching it because it's just simply not getting her. But I understood what they were trying to say. They wanted to see the baseline. I tried that.
Oh, so they they set something up, and then they wanted to see a return on what they set up, but you were giving more insulin. And Absolutely. And they and they well, well, couldn't they just see that as the example that maybe it wasn't using enough insulin? Like, why do you have to swipe?
What I was trying to
say too. And yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So, I was cleaning toilets in my house, listening to your podcast, and it was the podcast with someone from Tandem itself talking. And she was saying that the correction factor is gonna be the key to the pump, and I'm like, what the hell is correction factor?
What the Hell Is Correction Factor?25:31
Laurel, I'm sorry. I coughed in your in your ear. Laurel Laurel, this is pretty recently. Yeah. I you should know I just recorded, like, five or six short episodes with her.
Oh, awesome. Awesome.
I like her a lot. I I I I really do. Okay. So she she mentions correction factor, and you're like, what's that mean?
Yes. So I'm like she and she's telling me, you know, in my ear while I'm cleaning your toilet Mhmm. This is gonna be the key to to the pump. And I'm like because at first, everyone's telling me how great the Moby is, and I'm like, yeah. But it's not getting my daughter where she needs to be.
Mhmm. And when I find this information, I'm like, hello. So I I look it up. I research it. And sure enough, I do make changes to her correction factor, and it worked.
Yeah. Amazing. And and so it just made me super frustrated that why do I have to be, you know, listening to find this information out? Is it not
the doctors didn't tell you?
Yes. And and, like, maybe they told me at the pump, training, but it is a lot to take in.
Mhmm.
But, yeah, I guess, why why was that not being tweaked?
The thing I try to
You know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah. The thing I try to think about is that you're you're buying an insulin pump. Right? Like, I don't know what the there's no through line here.
But, like, say you buy a coffee maker, and you plug it in and and you put in the four scoops in this amount of water like it says, and the coffee doesn't come out right. And you're like, people say this coffee is good. It's not it's not bad. It's not great. And then you you learn later online that the real key to it is taking the electric cord, wrapping the electric cord once around the base, then plugging it in.
And then you wanna have the handle on the right and use a quarter of a scoop more per scoop than it says, and only use RO water. And then you're gonna get great you know? Then And you go, oh my god. This thing makes perfect coffee. Why would no one tell me this?
Exactly. That's the feeling I think about the insulin pumps. Like, you're you're I think your understanding is I I would throw CGMs in with this as well. Is that is that the thing does what it does, and it does it perfectly. It doesn't need adjusting.
And then to realize that, you know, for a pump, its settings, carb ratio, sensitivity factor, blah blah blah blah, like, all that stuff, Those have to be dialed in really well, or it's not gonna work as well as it could. And then with the CGM, I've gotta be hydrated. It's gotta be in a good spot on my body. Like, but, you know, all the little, like, the little finicky parts of these things, no one speaks about that.
Exactly. And then here we are so dependent on these things for our children's lives. We're tired. We are running around crazy trying to figure these things out. So, yes, it it did feel very frustrating to have to find a a key point to all of this
in a very
odd way.
Let me ask you a question. Also, then you're given the thing. You're told the thing does a thing, then it doesn't, and you're left with thinking, well, it doesn't work then.
Yes. And that's what the doctor said. She said that, you know, this pump should be able to do it all. There are other ones that I would tell you to please, you know, interact with it and touch it more, but this is one that you shouldn't. And I'm like, okay.
Well then and then you flip on a podcast from some dipshit in New Jersey and listen to a lady from Tandem talk, and you're like, well, the lady that works at the company doesn't seem to agree with what the doctor said. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whoopsie.
Yeah.
So so I, yeah, I I I change it. I've never been a big chat GP tier. I can never say that.
Mhmm.
But I did look into it, and I did put her weight. I put her age and, you know, the fact that she's going through puberty. And they did give me a little bit of a a guide. And I'm not I am very in tune with her pump. I am very I watch her stuff all all the time.
I'm very in tune with her diabetes. So it's like, I'm not going to just take exactly what chat GPT says, but it was very close. And I did tweak it a little by little, and and we're we're definitely getting there.
Tell so tell me, Valerie, when you is it do you like Val or Valerie? Do you prefer?
Either one. I've gotten both my whole life. I it's totally up to
you. Well, because the Valerie makes me wanna sing. Is there a song called Valerie?
Yes. Amy Winehouse.
Oh, that's another That's what's in the back of my head. Yeah. I okay. Come on
there, Valerie.
Yeah. Yeah. So okay. You are you're a little lost. The doctor's like, don't touch it, but you're like, I'm gonna be touching it anyway just in case you're wondering.
Yeah. And then so and then you're like, well, I don't know what to do. So you go to ChatGPT, and you're like, this is how much she weighs. Like, where'd you even get that idea from? Is that from me?
No. I think so. There so okay. I have to tell you another part of this story too. In this type one diabetes world, I am I am shown that it is very small.
And so there was this mom at a horse show, and her little son walked by, and I saw Dexcom. And if you get to know me, you're gonna know me now. I ran after this kid. My daughter's name is Reagan. I said, Reagan, that kid's wearing a Dexcom.
The Horse Show Mom and ChatGPT30:48
Get him. No, mom. Don't do it. Don't do it. Does she have a lasso?
Could she get him with a no. I guess not. Go Right? I'm sorry. I've watching Dutton Ranch.
So Oh, yeah. Yeah. I love that.
So it was so funny. So, yeah, I totally ran after, but the mom was amazing. And so then she told me her diagnosis story, and she was like, I asked Chatbeti I
love that you can't say that because that trips me up sometimes. So you gotta roll Oh my god. You gotta roll through it. Chatbeti. Like that.
Do it like that.
There you go. Yeah. Chatbeti. Same. She asked because the the hospital had kind of, like, shunned her.
Like, no. You don't know what you're talking about, lady. You know? Mhmm. So she actually put in there, what do I say to them to, like, have them listen to me?
And so I guess that that just stuck with me, so I just kind of went from there.
Yeah. So I have those I have those estimators on my website, but I have the I have
the I have looked. Yeah.
I have the damnedest time, like, getting information like that out to people. Like, it is really you have no idea. I'm I'm not gonna sit here and complain about it, but, like, you know, any link I share on Facebook, Facebook doesn't want you leaving Facebook. So it kinda quells it. It doesn't show it to as many people.
If I complain about something or show you a picture of my daughter's graduation, then, you know, 50,000 people say it. But if I'm like, hey. Here's a you know, here's a thing you might go use that might help you, that won't show it to five people. So Oh, no. Yes.
It's lovely. But so okay. You she mentioned chat GPT about something else. You think, hell, I'll try it. You go in there, say, hey.
Here's some details about my kid. This is the pump she's using. Here's the outcomes we're having. What should I do maybe to make this better? And it put you comfortably enough being what it told you, you felt comfortable with enough to start with, and then you adjusted off of that.
Absolutely. Yes. And she would she's never been super bad. Like, she her a one c diagnosis was eleven point five. Mhmm.
And our first checkup, it was we got it down into the sixes, but I didn't really even know honestly about an a one c until a couple months. You know, I got used to what it was and what it meant.
Yeah. Yeah.
And now she is I mean, she is I'm still having to change things a lot, basal rates and all of that, because of her her puberty. Like, you just never know a day, but she is sometimes 90% in range to 88 to 85 on a bad time.
So is it fair to say that your motivation is more about getting those you don't want those spikes?
Yes. Because, you know, what you said before too is that, you know, the sugar is coarse, and it runs in their veins, and that is a motivation. And that's what got you up at night, and that's what gets me up at night.
Yeah. Well, it still makes me feel that way. Yeah. I I was talking to my neighbor the other day who's probably got prediabetes, and I I just have that feeling for him. You you you know?
Like, I actually I I I looked at my 70 year old neighbor, and I was like, I need you to do something. I can't keep worrying about you. I was like, it's making me upset. Damn it. I was like, give it me and do something.
And I think if they thought of that of it that way, they would feel maybe the same too.
Well because He's gonna think of it that way now because that's what I said to him. So I I said, listen to me. One day when you when you stand up and go, ugh, and fall over, I'm like, it's going to be because, you know, a high content of glucose in your blood system tore a little tiny hole in some artery or vein or something near your heart, and your body patched it over one too many times and blocked it. And that's how I was like, is that what you want? I was like, come on.
You you you know what I mean? Like, just for him, it's just a GLP. He just needs a GLP. He'll be fine. And and, and he's, oh, I don't know.
My wife's worried about it. I I don't wanna have problems in the bathroom. I'm like, you know who doesn't have problems in the bathroom? Dead people. So, like, you know, you know, was like, you know, let's get to it.
Anyway, so you figure out this for yourself. How long ago was this that you did this?
I think I've been really, really pushing and staying on it probably since she's got the pump. So
Last eight months?
Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. And and and where and did it work? I mean, are you I realize she's prepubescent and all that, but, like, for the most part, you're happy with where you're at now with all the decisions you made.
Yeah. Yes. We we do love the pump. It is you know? And I've gotten a lot of other people that I they actually come to me now and ask questions.
And I had a friend just recently, her daughter was on the Islet, also a teen, and just switched to the the Moby. And I said, it's going to be great. You just have to be patient with it. And once it's all tweaked and and everything's figured out, it's gonna be amazing. And she literally just texted me when we were on the phone and said that her range went from 67 to 85.
Autonomy Is the Predictor36:16
Oh, ain't that awesome?
With that.
It is. I'll say two things. First thing, tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. If you're interested in learning more about Tandem, please use my link. And the next thing is I I I've been do I've been saying this for a decade.
Okay? It's timing, amount, settings, understanding the impacts of your food. But I'll tell you one of the biggest predictors of somebody who's gonna be successful with type one diabetes, my opinion, is someone who feels autonomously able to make changes to their settings in a meaningful way.
You There you go. Yeah. I believe that too.
Yep. Diabetes is not gonna be set up and forget it. You're gonna have to make adjustments. And if you are in a situation like you were in the beginning where you're like, I this, we're not using enough insulin. And then when you say that back to a doctor, they slap your hand and tell you, no.
Don't touch the pump. Well, if you listen to them, welcome to a lifetime of a problem. You you know what I mean? Because and you need to feel autonomous and in an educated way. I don't mean just, like, you know, you're just, like, running around Harry Carey just, like, turning knobs and being like, I wonder what this will do.
But if you understand this stuff enough to make some meaningful adjustments to your settings, you are gonna do much better. Much, much, much better. Yeah.
Yes. And and just do the research behind it. But once you do get the idea of them, yes, just tweak them. I just do a couple points at a time, wait a day or two, see how it's going, keep it or, you know, adjust it back or or do more. Yeah.
And and that's where I am right now.
You play sports in school at all?
Yes. I played basketball.
Yeah. You can't play afraid. Like, it's okay to lose, but it's not okay to lose because you didn't try.
Absolutely.
That's kinda how I think about it. Like, I'm not saying again, I you're not out there just turning knobs and be like, I wonder what this will do, but go educate yourself a little bit. And then once you feel like you have enough, just be bold. You know? Move forward.
I you know, try something. I mean, you
know Bold with the insulin and bold with the the settings for sure.
If you don't know what you're talking about, try to find somebody that does. If your doctor doesn't know, try to find a different doctor. Like but please don't just sit still and go, well, I guess this is good enough, and then you start feeling ill. You know? And and then it it it listen.
I I can't I I feel like I can't say the same thing over and over again, but then at the same time, there's always new people coming on, so here it is again. Mhmm. Health drifts away slowly such that you don't realize it's happening. So if if you're living with higher blood sugars or your kid is, they don't feel well for the first couple days, the third day, the fifth day, the tenth day. Two months later, their body gets accustomed to not being in a healthy range.
That doesn't mean it's healthy for them. It just means they're not running around anymore, you know, like, oh, my stomach hurts all the time or whatever. Like, that doesn't mean that what's happening to them is okay. You you know, like, you you you your body exists in an optimal range, and diabetes is already messing with that. But I would tell you the same thing if you if your vitamin b twelve is too low, if your vitamin d isn't right.
Like, these things, the more optimized your body is, the better it works, the better you're going to feel, the better your life is gonna be, the fresher your mind is gonna be, and all the great things that come with being, you know, in that situation. This this insulin part is is front and center. You know? Absolutely. Yeah.
You need the amount you need.
You know, yes, they have this disease, but they why can't we keep them at a healthy range? You know? We we can. With with these devices, with these monitors, it's possible. It's not like it was before where you did just kinda have to do what you could to keep you feeling good.
Yeah. No. You don't It
is possible.
You have these tools and a and a tiny bit of understanding. I mean, listen. Let's be realistic. Like, I'd love to be grandiose and tell you this podcast is awesome and blah blah blah. Maybe it is.
But at the same time, all you did was find a podcast and then and talk to a lady at a horse show and, you know, and think to yourself, I should know more. And then get the to end of your understanding and then go to somebody else. I mean, you went to chat GPT, you're like, hey. What what is it I don't know here? And then, you know, give yourself a little more information.
You weren't you weren't, like, silly. You didn't go like, oh, you know, magic box. Tell me what to do, and then just blindly do it. You were still thoughtful about the way you applied it, and it took you eight months to get into a better situation. It's not a lot of effort.
You know? Absolutely. Eight months And then Go ahead.
Just find anyone. It doesn't matter who, where, who may be in your same situation. I only had one person, and I remember her son a long time ago just asked me to get him some juice. Did not know what I was doing when I was giving him juice, I heard a beeping. But when I was sitting in the hospital, I thought it's the first person I thought of, and she has been there for me day, night, all the time, always asking questions, and answering them.
And so kind, and and that is very important too.
You're telling me that prior to your daughter's diagnosis, you, you were in a social setting where somebody asked you to get a juice for a kid, and now you realize looking backwards that kid had type one diabetes. But in that moment,
you know.
How about that?
I didn't know in that moment. I didn't know.
So what else do you want people to know? First of all, you're doing a great job on the podcast. Thank you. And Oh, thank you. Yeah.
Yeah. No. Thank hey. Really lovely. But, you know, you're you're fresh to this, but you're moving very rapidly forward.
What do you think other people should know? Like, if they're stuck and they can't move, what what do you think would help them?
I think the main thing that you need to hear first is to be bold with insulin, because, yes, hospitals, doctors do make it sound scary. It is truly not scary if you use it. Sorry. I'm getting over being sick.
So Take your time.
That's why I sound like this. And and that's what you said before too, and the the name juice box. And you had said before of, you know, if they need the insulin, it's gonna work. If they don't, grab a juice box. And that's most of the time what we are doing.
And recently in the pro series, I hear the nudge and
is it nudge? Nudge. Isn't that correct?
Bump and nudge.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think that should be a slogan for type one diabetes because that is exactly what it is. Mhmm. You're bumping and nudging Yeah. Constantly. And and so I would tell them to to just not be afraid, to look for others, to reach out, to stand up in what you believe.
Because, yes, the doctor, I do love her. I do know that she's smart, but she did have me at one point pull me aside and said, would you like to see another doctor? And I was like, no. No. No.
I do appreciate, you know, you, but I am gonna do what's best for my daughter. So we did have to kinda have that little
Would You Like Another Doctor?43:04
Let's sit in that for a second. So Yeah. Your your doctor is giving you advice that you're not finding to be completely valuable. And you say, well, I believe this is, you know, what we need to be doing. You start doing that thing.
You're not having a scary outcome. In fact, things are getting better. And your doctor's response isn't, oh, wow. This is going better now. Tell me what you do.
It's do you wanna get away from me because you don't wanna listen to me? Like, she he or she doesn't see, like, that you're having better success on your own than you did with her? She's not interested? Yes.
I no. I just think that because it was the first time after the pump, and she saw that she I was really touching it, and she was just, you know, kind of I felt a little bit scolding me, and I was like, mhmm.
That's a passive aggressive shit, by the way, saying, like, do you wanna find another doctor? What that means is why don't you know what? That that would be like when you were eight years old if you didn't listen to your mom, and she said, would you prefer to live somewhere else? Like, woah. What?
Right. That's a lot of pressure right there. Wait. You're abandoning me because of how I feel? Maybe I should shut up and stop saying what I think now if you're gonna kick me out.
Like, what a shitty thing what is wrong with all of you? Jesus I don't know. In heaven, what is wrong with people? Well, look over at Valerie. Say, hey.
She's having some success. Maybe be a little curious instead of it doing what is oh, ew. Yeah. Yes. Yes.
And you still gave this person another chance? Look at you.
I do because I live in a small area.
Like, I had no choice, many
pediatric doctors.
I had no choice. I I I was I Yeah. Mommy drinks a little, but, like, you know, it's this or it's this or the home. So
Kinda feeling that way.
I gotcha. I gotcha. Oh, well, maybe maybe this person will eventually let down their ego guard or whatever and say, hey. Maybe I don't know all this, and and I could learn something from this person.
Yeah. So I I was I I said, no. We will work together at this. We both want the best for her. And this last appointment was better.
She did know I was still touching things, doing things. Just that and she just simply said, at this time, I'm just not gonna change her insulin because I can't see, you know, an actual outcome of just what the pump is doing. And I said, okay. That's fine.
Yeah. Don't tell her this, but I barely got out of high school, and that's an excuse. I you can still figure it out. If if she was proficient at what she was doing, she'd be able to figure it Why are you so calm? Are you you on Xanax?
No. No. What's good?
“I’ve Grown Up”45:57
Did you
is your mom was your mom a therapist? Like, why do you sound so no.
Oh my god.
There's no way. When you're responding to the doctor, why are you so measured? Like, I I'm I'm I'm proud of you, but I how do you get to it?
I've grown up. I will say, I would not react this way late at a different time in my life. I would see red. I was very hot headed. And, no, I guess I've just grown up, and I've realized that your reactions and even though you wanna change people, it's not gonna fucking change them at all.
They're gonna wanna change when they wanna change.
Right.
And so I guess I just took that.
That's like one of the more adult things that's been said to me this month. You you I I was, like, really proud of you. Yeah.
I didn't realize that. Yeah. I I yeah. I guess it's just that. Like, I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing because I know what that is right, and I'm I can't convince anyone else.
I guess it's got it's got it's got to where it's like, you're so busy with this disease. You're so consumed. Like, I'm gonna just let other things go because I have more important things to worry about.
Mhmm. Yeah. You're not you you you're like your husband came home, and he's like, I've been cheating on you. I'm gonna go. And you're like, no.
You're not. Stay here and cut the lawn. I'm gonna pull your shit together and get out there and do a couple things. You're not abandoning me. I'm we're getting this done.
I I almost feel like that's what you did with the doctor. She's like, would you like another doctor? You're like, no. You shut up and stay. We're gonna figure this out.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And that and that is how I feel.
That is how I feel. You're not getting rid of me. Sit here.
Nope. We're we're gonna do it. You're not getting away that easy and that fast.
I I'll tell you this summer, I've I I don't have a I I gotta get through this next I gotta get through this next month of work so that I can really, like, think again. But my my thirtieth wedding anniversary is coming up in in August.
Enjoying it.
Oh, thank you. And if I if you ask me what's the secret, I would say we're both too stubborn to leave. And so Absolutely.
Absolutely. And you know what? I'm gonna tell my husband later, like, Scott said I was so, like, calm.
He's like, what the hell? He'll be like, woah. Talking to Were you lying to him the whole time? But but no. But, seriously, like, sometimes you just you really do have to have, like, a longer view of things and and realize that every every little mistake or misstep or, you know, something you didn't like is not an excuse to just run away and start over again.
It it's yeah. I mean, I'm not saying if you get a terrible doctor, your life is short. You can go look for another one. But Mhmm. You know, I do wonder, you know, what this is gonna do.
Like, I I'm I'm interested, like, five years from now with this endocrinologist that you you allowed to stay with you, which is the way I see it. You know, will that person say one day, well, thank god that Valerie and I didn't get separated because I I, you know, I dropped my I dropped my force field and I learned something, and I've been helping more people because of it. It reminds me very much. There's an episode of the podcast called listen to the doctor, and I'm so sorry. I can't remember her name now.
But an endocrinologist reached out to me to be to come on the podcast. And it I mean, if you really wanna hear an example of somebody, like like, set their ego aside for, you know, for for other people, The doctor said that she was listening to the podcast or somebody told her about it and they were having success or something. And she started listening, and she came to the conclusion that she was not doing as good of a job for her patients as she could have been. And that's a real that's a real adult thing to say. You you know?
Absolutely. And then she makes adjustments to what she's doing, really applies a lot of the stuff in the pro tip series that I talk about, sees, you know, a massive improvement for the people she's helping. And then she goes back to the rest of the the practice and says, hey. I think we should all be listening to this these episodes and and doing a better job. And she mainly got pushback from the other doctors that that whose conclusion was is that I was bashing them.
They're like, you've given us a podcast where this guy is doctor bashing, and she told them he's not if you feel like he's bashing you, you really gotta look at yourself because he's not. He's just telling you what makes sense and what these people need and how we could help them. You know?
And and I feel like the diabetes world is moving at such a fast pace that you have to, as the doctor, keep up with it.
Oh, yeah. They're gonna give up soon. If this well, I would call this, like, an AI pace at this point. Right? Like Mhmm.
Like, the the the easiest way I can explain it to anybody listening who's not been around it this long is that there was a time in Arden's early diagnosis where if every few years a meter company put out a new meter, you felt like you were getting something. Now the meter didn't work better. It looked a little different. It maybe had a couple of buttons on it. I'm telling you they just refreshed how the thing looked.
And in the diabetes space, you were like, oh gosh. Finally, we're getting something. Then Dexcom came out, and they iterated very quickly, and they still are, by the way. And now that makes people mad. Like, it doesn't do the thing it's supposed to do, or they said it was gonna do this.
I like the way the other one did it. Trust me. You much prefer this than to the, oh, it's a new meter every three years. By you know what I mean? Like like, world.
So now you're iterating faster, then these companies come out with these algorithms. Honestly, you know, the the DIY community was ahead of all of them. And so that forces them to wanna catch up. Like, you know, think about it. You make an insulin pump.
You really wanna look up and find out that you somebody could download the algorithm to do a better job than the thing you they have now with you? No. So you gotta go out there and come up with something too. They come up with something and they go, oh, we did it. And instead of being able to rest on their laurels, which is what would have happened in the past, you know, oh, you got a meter.
We'll make you another meter one day. We'll change the color of it or something. Instead of that, well, Tandem is making you you know, they start with what did they start with? Basal IQ, then they went to Control IQ, and then they're trying other stuff in Omnipod, Omnipod five, Omnipod 5.2. I don't know what they're gonna call the next version of it that's coming out soon.
Medtronic was like, hey. Here's another algorithm. You know, Beta Bionics is like, try this islet thing. Here comes Twist with a a version of the loop. You gotta love this now.
But but if you're one of those doctors who already didn't understand, this is just gonna blank their brains. It's just gonna make them stare it along and go, I don't know. I don't know how that one works. You figure it out.
Yes. So they send the nurses out to go to training and stuff like that.
Yeah. And then they come back and tell you three things, and then you, you know, six weeks later, turn on a podcast with some lady from one of the companies who says something and goes, why? How come no one told me that? You you know? Like, so so when this is gonna be the world from now on, you're if you have a doctor who really is in the know and is keeping up at this breakneck speed, you've got gem.
Like, I say, if I was you, I'd send a bottle of wine to the house once a month. You you know? Just say, don't forget us. We love you. But moreover, that's probably not who you're gonna get.
No. And I and I feel pretty comfortable where I am now. You know, I've heard in other episodes that the insulin dealers, Dexcom dealers, I feel strongly that way. I feel I feel confident. Sorry.
Excuse me. In myself and my daughter of how we're we're doing this. Her last a one c, I was surprised, is 5.9.
Look at you.
Doing great. She runs track. She plays soccer. She plays basketball. She rides horses, barrel races.
All of these things, we're doing it. We're we're we are. As long as we can have someone there to do the the medical prescriptions, I think we're gonna be okay.
Caught in the Orbit54:03
Yeah. Hey. You know that that little meme as the chubby kid making the fist? No.
I haven't seen the movie.
Oh, he never had this. You know what's funny. He's, like, in a green shirt or something. Right? And everybody uses it for, like, you can do it kinda thing.
Yeah.
There's a a group expert in my in my Facebook group, and she made a meme that says, you can do it. Juice Box can help. Something like that. And Yay. Listening to you talk really like, I've always thought that was nice that she did, but, like, you you're the first person to contextualize it for me because I can get lost in the, just listen to this series.
This will help you feeling. Right? But now I'm I'm seeing maybe it's gotten much bigger than all that now. Like, maybe it really is just an ecosystem that has a chance to capture you and and show you itself in maybe eight or 10 different ways across this new Internet. Right?
And Mhmm. You'll bump into it one way or the other and get in there. Like, I I used to feel like it was my job to get you and then tell you, listen. First of all, you've gotta know this, and you've gotta feel this way, and this is the, you the the perspective you're gonna need, and this is the the the motivation that it'll require to get it done. You gotta be bold.
You have to do this. It's a ridiculous notion that I am gonna be able to capture a person and tell them everything I want to tell them. Now I realize, and I've been coming to this for a long time, but, really, your conversation today has really helped me kinda crystallize it a little more, is that I'm just sort of trying to catch you in maybe, like, the the gravity of the podcast and its surrounding community in the hopes that it holds you in orbit long enough that some of those, you know, floating meteor rocks that you need come stick to you, and you build up your own little cache of knowledge. That's a lot
of And I believe that's what happened to me.
Yeah. You know? I think so too. It's almost like I magnetized you and then spun you around in an ecosystem, and eventually enough stuck to you that you were like, I'm a whole person now. I have all the I have what I need.
I do. I do feel like I got all the tools from here, and and I'm good. I don't feel really scared much with it at all.
Yeah. I got the worst business model in the world. Every other company pulls you in and tries to keep you there. My goal is to get rid of you. I want you to feel like you feel so you go away.
But then I gotta go find 10 more people to make up for your downloads because you're out there watching the whole podcast, which, by way, thank you. I appreciate
Yes. Yes. I listen to it all the time. But there's always something new with each one, and I you know, then I'm here sharing my experience, and things are just gonna keep growing within this. So there's always gonna be something new to talk about
Yeah.
And always be something new to listen to. And one thing I wanted to bring up too is that the doctor before I know it's getting to an hour.
You're fine.
The doctors never taught us about fats and proteins, and that's what I'm really my brain hasn't quite wrapped its claws around it yet. That is huge.
Yeah. Just think of it this The fat slows digestion, and it stretches out the timeline of how the food is impacting the blood sugar so much so that you have to adjust how the insulin is hitting the timeline so you can overlap with its impacts. Does that make sense?
Right.
Yeah. Yeah. It's all
And I'm listening to those, and I'm chat GPTing and all of that. Like, she had a pretzel, a soft pretzel at baseball game. I thought I was doing so good. Mhmm. She was this perfect eighties, you know, kinda dipping a little bit.
I said, oh, where'd I got it? Oh, no. Hours later. You know? You're good.
Just throwing it on it at in the two hundreds, trying to keep her under the two hundreds. Just
Yeah. And listen. I here's my real hope. I I mean this, like, sincerely. I'm old.
Like, I in the next six to ten years, you guys gotta figure this out because Scottie gonna get tired at some point. So Yeah. But I think the algorithms will eventually get you to a point where you maybe you don't have to announce a meal, or at the very least, you can announce a meal, and it'll handle the the ebbs and flows that come afterwards. I think I think we can get there with with all this.
I do too.
I too. That exists now. But in the meantime, I don't want people living like that. You you know? And I I really feel like it it your conversation's really been helpful for me, Valerie, because, like, there are times where I can feel like, I don't Is there anything left for me to do?
You know what I mean? Like but I what I realized talking to you today is I just need to continue doing this conversational part of it. We gotta keep bringing people in, some from companies, some from people, some from users, some from doctors, blah blah blah, and let people keep talking to keep throwing more of those little meteorites into the into the, you know, the atmosphere so that when people come in, hopefully, they'll intersect one of those conversations in a way that'll help them.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I I that is definitely my marching orders for myself moving forward. Like, I just I need to keep filling the space with the conversation because most people by the way, for every person who might go to a large language model and ask a question, there's 10 people that just heard that that thought. I'm not letting that thing tell me what to do with my insulin.
Trust me. Like, I've and I don't know that you should or you shouldn't. I'm certainly not making a a, you know, a proclamation one way or the other. I'm just saying most people aren't willing to try new stuff and or to go out on a limb or to break free of what the doctor told them. I mean, I would suggest that they listen to your story and try to come to grips with where you'd be if you didn't question what was told to you.
But fair enough. That's not gonna happen for everybody. So maybe they'll bump into enough ideas that it'll change their mind or get them thinking in a different direction or something. You you know, like, that's really can be my only hope. And I think
Yeah. And my only hope would be, you know, just think about your child and that I've heard things on here being said too of, you know, they're sitting in school, and, you know, at 200, can they truly be their best?
Yeah. I don't think so.
No. And and then at a low, can they truly be their best? No. So as a parent, you know, we want to to give our kids all of those opportunities to be their best.
Yeah. No. I mean, it just I I get lost in it all the time because there there are a lot of factors, and I can imagine it's overwhelming. And then sometimes people add thyroid issues or celiac or other problems.
Oh, yes. Regan is, has Hashimoto's.
Oh, when did you find that out?
With her diagnosis. But she is not having any signs and symptoms, so they are not treating it right now.
Okay. But her TSH is elevated or no? Not right now.
I don't know. Not right now. No. It just had, like, markers for it. Mhmm.
My husband has Hashimoto's. I believe his parents have some autoimmune. My mom has alopecia.
Oh. That'd be my radio name if it was the fifties. I'd be like, it's alopecia coming at you. Like, that'd be like, wouldn't that be a great radio name in the fifties? Yes.
Alopecia. That's how I would do it. Alopecia. But oh, so there's a little bit of a a cocktail in the family history. How about you?
Would you have anything? No.
Nothing.
No no anxiety?
Yeah. Well, I think that's just life. Right. I think that's life. I think that's with you.
I'm at a low level of yeah. Yeah. No.
Definitely anxiety. Definitely, yeah, just hyper fixation on on things. And and I think and I will say for doctors, will give them this, that, you know, they are worried about getting overwhelmed with it all. And I believe that there are a lot of people out there that will and will just get tired and the burnout.
Management Now, Mental Health Later1:02:06
Yeah. Val, our conversation stayed a lot with management today, but the truth is and and I don't wanna scare you all. But once you get through this part of it, then the mental health and the life stuff comes. Like, because you're right. There's no reason with all this technology and knowledge available everywhere that you can't have a a lower stable a one c and and and and low variability and have great outcomes.
You absolutely can. But you're still a person, and at some point, that, you know, that feeling of burnout is gonna hit some people, overwhelmed and call whatever you wanna call it. Like, you know, like, at some point, you just you don't wanna get up and think about this stuff all the time, or you just you get so background that you forget to or it drifts away. Again, everything kinda drifts slowly, so slowly you can't tell. You know?
Like, oh, the shoreline's disappearing an eighth of an inch a year, and everybody's like, that's no big deal. Well, come back and find me in two thousand years. You're gonna think it's a big deal then. You you know, like, so, you know, same kinds of ideas. Right?
Things happen so slowly. We can't see them, so we don't react to them. We don't think they're important. We don't prioritize them, etcetera. Mental health is it.
So my my best advice is to get this management side, you know, buttoned up as best you can so that it can hopefully alleviate a lot of that mental health stuff and maybe give you a bigger buffer between where you are now and, I can't handle this anymore. And so that maybe, yes, you'll vacillate, you know, a little closer to that line, a little farther away from that line, but, hopefully, you won't fall on the other side of it too frequently where you really can't handle it. You're not paying attention to things. Your health is slipping quickly. You you know?
But you can't ignore that part. I you know? It's it's a it's a valid conversation. I I would think that, you know, an adult living with type one diabetes for forty years would probably listen to you and be like, ugh. She doesn't even know the half of it.
Wait till she sees. And you know?
And I can agree with that.
Yeah. You know, for sure. Right? But I would just say to them, you don't know the part she knows, which is if, you know, you're doing a good job of understanding insulin and timing and the impacts of the food and the fat and the protein and those things, that maybe the mental health side of it's not as impactful in that situation, and go put some effort back in that side. That's why the first episode of the pro tip series is called newly diagnosed or starting over.
Right.
Yeah. It's on purpose. You know? So, anyway. Alright.
Well, you were really awesome. What am I not talking about with you? What have we not brought up? I don't wanna miss anything.
No. I think I just had written down pretty much what we had covered, awareness.
Yeah.
I mean, up the correction factor. I mean, there's insurance stuff, but that was a whole another hour of talk. That is so frustrating.
Yeah. Just go run your head through a different brick wall. Yeah. Yeah. No.
For sure. For sure. Well, I I really appreciate you doing this with me. This was fantastic. How did I find having me.
Did you reach out, or did I find you, or how how did we get there?
I reached out.
Yeah. I
reached out. I don't again, I don't remember how I was, like I think just listening to your podcast, it said, you know, if you want Beyond, go on to Juice Fox podcast, go to the link or whatever. And I did, and I sent, and I did not expect anything back, and I did.
Well, listen. Here's the truth. Can I tell one of my secrets? Yeah. Think people believe that there's, like, this vetting process, and there's no way I'm gonna make it through and blah blah blah.
I don't turn anybody away, really. Like, I know who
And that's what's great about it because people learn from other people's experiences. Yeah. That's how we learn.
100%. Even when I get an email and I read it and I think, oh, this person's out of their fucking mind. I still wanna have you on the podcast because you know what? There's other people out there, they're out of their mind too. And then they would and they would like to hear your story, and I would like to hear it.
Like, you know what I mean? Or maybe or maybe people are so overwhelmed, think, well, what could they possibly add to it? How about just the knowledge that other people are overwhelmed? You know? You know, like, so I've had I've had people tell me, like, I didn't say anything valuable.
I said, the struggle you're having, hearing it is valuable. And and I said, and I said a couple things to you today that might help you. So it was valuable to you. It'll be valuable to somebody else because nobody has to feel like they need to be perfect. Nobody has to feel like, oh, that well, sure sure they're doing well.
They have it all together. That's how I feel. Every time I interview a professional athlete who tells me that they have, like, a nutritionist that's helping them, and then you ask them about their their management. They don't know the first thing about it. Like, yeah.
Well, it's easy for you because that guy's helping you. Or because, you know, this company that's, you know, that's called a team has a a $40,000,000 investment either. They're not gonna let anything bad happen to you. You're an investment. You you know, like, I don't have that.
Your daughter doesn't have that. Like, I don't have somebody running around after me going, well, Valerie's kids gotta be okay. Like, we gotta make sure we obviously, you don't have that. So I don't like hearing from people who have I I just wanna hear from regular people. You know?
Like, that's where the good that's where this good stuff comes at. And, yeah, you gotta have a long form conversation to get it out because you're not a practiced, you know, interviewee. You're not gonna jump on with your six bullet points. Like, I listen. I like some podcasts that are, like, preset up.
I mentioned one recently that I've been I've been listening to. Guy does a great job, but he clearly has a production staff. Every question's researched out till the end. They know exactly what order they're gonna ask them, and so it builds, you know, a storyline while they're talking. And the person he's interviewing knows what's gonna be asked and has probably answered that question 35,000 times already, so it seems so, like, natural when they say it.
Yeah. We don't have that here, but I don't know how valuable that is.
No. I don't either. And it was so funny because last night, my husband was like, you haven't gotten something with, like, what how it's gonna go and how it's gonna run. I was like, no. That's not
how That's not how this
works. Does it?
I the it's set up like that on purpose. I, I also think when I turn this on, like, every I'll tell you about four times a year, I come on and the person's just not there. And I think, good. That wasn't meant to be then. Like, I I want it to be hard for you to get on the podcast.
Like, easy for you to get the link and the and the and the the offer, but then hard for you to get to the day. Because if you're here, you really have something you wanna share.
Yeah.
Yeah. Absolutely. You had to fight a little bit to get to this spot to get your voice recorded. And, I think that's sort of part of how I come up with this stuff. And I'm not saying to you I couldn't boy, I'll tell you, I could put together 15 rock solid questions and make one of those, like, shiny YouTube podcasts in two seconds.
I just don't know how valuable it would be to people.
No. I I find this very valuable, and I think there's so many others that that do too. It's just it's just people going through the same thing in life having conversations and that we we can relate to and find things in that, you know, we need.
A 100%. No. I agree. I also think that everybody's repetitive. Like, I don't pay a lot of attention to people who compete with me.
I don't know that I have a direct competitor. Like, do you know what I mean? But if people who do do do a similar thing oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to step on you while you're saying something nice. You don't think I have a direct competitor?
No. I don't.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks. I just I just liked it when you said that out loud. And and so but but I see people out there doing a good job, doing a pre what I would consider, like, a prepackaged job.
To me, I find that stuff boring. Like, you sound like a, you know, you sound like a local newscaster. You sound like, you know you know what I mean? Like, hey. The weather today.
I'm like, oh, okay. Or I see people out there doing that. Like, I'm gonna lean really hard into the technology cure thing and yell into the camera. Like, I I can't stand that yelling into the camera thing. Like, I I don't have anything against the people.
It's the format that makes me, makes me nauseous. You know? Like, today, we're here to talk. I'm like, oh my god. Shut up.
Just like and I get it. Like, I get how TikTok works and that, you know, even YouTube videos. Nobody's watching a thirty five minute YouTube video about, like, you know, the new how do you put your Dexcom on? Like, nobody's you know what I mean? Like, you you know, like but I get that they scream to get your attention, so you stop so the algorithm thinks that they watched it, and then, hopefully, you'll scrub through it enough that YouTube will believe that you're a viewer and give them a view.
Like, I I know the game. Like, I I get all that. But for me, long conversation. Let the stuff come out where it comes out with regular people sharing regular stories, not preprogrammed content. And if you've got the tenacity to listen through for an hour, then you deserve what you get out of it.
And if you don't Absolutely. You then maybe it's not for you or maybe you'll have to come back another time, but this is the only way I know how to deliver it. So and I it's the way I think is the best. Well, thank you. And I think I I think my my experience tells me this is the way to do it.
So, anyway, Valerie, you were fantastic. What are some of the lines from that song? Any of it gonna work for a title for us? Is that one of her sad I'm drinking myself to death songs, or is it an upbeat song? No?
Come On Over, Valerie1:11:02
Come on over. What do you think? Lyrics. Yeah. Is it she basically just wants to hang out and come on over.
Is it? Well, that's what we did. I know. We hung out. Hold on a second.
Anyone else? Valerie lyrics. Well, sometimes I go out by myself. Over, Valerie. Yeah.
And I look across the water, and I think of all the things that you're doing in my head, and I paint a picture. Come on, Valerie. Get to the thing. But, by the way, what a sad life. I know.
Poor girl.
So sad.
I missed your ginger hair. This is getting sexual. Hold on a second. Put your house up for sale. Did you get a good lawyer?
I hope you catch a tan. Is this the worst of this song?
I guess
so. Since I since I've come on home alright. I'm just gonna call it come on home, Valerie. Okay. Let's not read too far into the rest of this song or we're gonna have trouble.
I think it just says come on over, Valerie.
Wait. It say come on sometimes I go out by myself and I look across the water. Since I've come on home while my body's been a mess, and I've missed your ginger. Yeah. This is we're gonna get HR involved if I keep reading this.
Hold on a second. Alright. Come on. You think it's come on no. It's since I've come on home.
Valerie. Why don't you come on over? You're right. Alright. Alright.
Let's just we're we're gonna call this one come on over, Valerie. Okay. Alright? Got you. Because we can't call it south of the border disorder.
No matter how much I would have loved that. Alright. Hold on one second, Valerie. Really do appreciate you spending the time with me. Okay.
The conversation you just heard was sponsored by Touched by Type One. Check them out please at touchedbytype1.org on Instagram and Facebook. You're gonna love them. I love them. They're helping so many people at touchedbytype1.org.
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