#1949 Diabetes Overload
Diabetes Overload
Ashley was working as a diabetes educator when her own son was diagnosed. She talks about the burnout she had already watched up close, and what she does differently because of it.
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- She was a diabetes educator when her own son was diagnosed. Ashley is an RN and a family practice clinic supervisor who was working as a diabetic educator and care manager the week Braden was diagnosed at eight. Her clinical knowledge meant she read his lab results before anyone called — and it also meant she had spent years watching adults who could not keep it up.
- Burnout is why she changed jobs. As a care manager she worked with a man in his twenties who was too burned out to dose at work, and he died. She describes going home from that to look at her freshly diagnosed child and being unable to hold both. Her read on the people she saw struggling: some started managing alone too young, and most simply did not have good resources or help.
- She insisted on a CGM immediately. At the training day the morning after discharge, she was told there were requirements — weeks of finger sticks first. She said send the prescription anyway and offered to pay cash. They left the pharmacy with a Dexcom that day. Getting an eight-year-old to wear it cost a fishing pole and a Fortnite account leveled to 100.
- Sports make his numbers unpredictable in both directions. Wrestling can send him to 400 on adrenaline or drop him to the 40s mid-match with no warning, and there is no practical way to check during a match. He is now on a DIY closed loop he found through the podcast, and she programs around a school lunch and recess pattern that was reliably dropping him.
- He forgets to pre-bolus, and she has made peace with that. Braden rates his own diabetes care a two because he starts eating before he doses. Both Ashley and Scott think that is ordinary for a preteen. Her position is that she would rather he be a happy kid thinking about his friends — so she lets the algorithm carry his school lunch and covers what she can from work. Not medical advice; that arrangement is between them and their care team.
- Diabetes Pro Tip series — Episodes 1000-1025 — settings, insulin timing, and food impact.
- Listener survey — The five-minute survey discussed in this episode; results at juiceboxpodcast.com/surveyresults.
- Touched By Type 1 — Programs, the annual conference, and Dancing for Diabetes.
Every word of the conversation
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A nurse, an educator, and a mom2:29
Hi. My name is Ashley. I'm a mom to four. My third one, he passed away shortly after birth due to a birth defect, and my fourth one is my son who has type one. He's 11, turning 12 on Saturday.
I'm also an RN. I'm a supervisor of a family practice clinic, and I used to be a diabetic educator.
Wow.
I was actually a diabetic educator when Braden was diagnosed.
Well, that's odd. Yeah. Okay. There's a lot to pick through there already. How you're married?
Yes.
You have to be or I mean, what would you do with all those So Right. Can you imagine three kids by yourself? I'm sorry for people who are doing it. I can't imagine that. I
I can't imagine, especially if you had children who are diabetic. I mean, it's so much work and then to try to coordinate between two people, especially if you're, like, the main caregiver, which sounds terrible, but, like, I feel like it has to kind of default slightly to one parent more than the other, otherwise, you'd be going against each other every day.
So what happened to us? We we we early on decided, like, it was gonna be one of us more, like, mainly because it was very difficult back then even just to pass it off, because you'd be like what what I found us doing, keeping in mind there were no CGMs, and we weren't using a pump because it was so long ago. But you'd find yourself going like, okay. Well, here she is. She ate two and a half hours ago.
It was this many carbs. I gave her this much insulin. We tested forty five minutes ago, and her blood sugar was this. She seems a little and you were like, it was too it was just too much information to pass back and forth to people. And then, you know, somebody wouldn't get the vibe of what the first person was doing and something would go wrong and it just kinda was a mess, honestly.
So I
can't imagine doing it how you guys had to do it in the beginning compared to now.
My god. Am I an old head now? Like, am I, like, a am I am I, like
Just like diabetes has grown so exponentially even just the last two, three years.
Yeah. I guess I hadn't thought about that. I guess I'm the modern version of, like, regular and Miles per hour. You just had a meter?
Right. Like, that's terrifying.
Yeah. Why why? Tell me why.
Well, so Braden's in, like, a bunch of sports. So he goes super high sometimes due to the adrenaline, but it's not predictable. He's like, if he wrestles, sometimes he'll shoot up to 400. Other times, he'll just stay at, like, 70. I don't know that.
He doesn't act differently. But then sometimes mid match, he's down to, like, 40 for no apparent reason. You can't just I mean, I guess you could stop a wrestling match and pick their finger and see where they're at. But
That'd be crazy.
That would he would lose his mind if that's what I started asking him to do it during every wrestling match.
I I can't imagine you looking at the ref and saying, hey. We just need to hold up one second. Right. Yeah. He's gonna he's he's gonna change.
Check his blood sugar just real quickly. Oh my god. Right. Yeah. I mean, I
think not go well.
Wrestling, and numbers you can’t see5:47
I take your point. It's it really is I don't know how to put it exactly. I I guess it's just a different time. And I didn't think anything of it back then because what you described going to 400 or, you know, dropping, falling, blah blah blah, we just didn't know unless somebody felt dizzy or you happened to test at the right time.
Right. Yeah. I had a friend when I was in high school who was diabetic, and she was the first person I was ever really exposed to it. And I just like, I didn't understand it, but I know she ate every day and took insulin every day. But let me tell you, not one time did I ever see her check her blood sugar.
How is she today? Do you still know her?
Yeah. She's good. She's on a pump and CGM now. Omnipod and Dexcom.
Cool.
Doing great. That's good. So weird to think back. Like, I know you didn't do that. That terrifies me too.
Like Well
My son is already not great at taking insulin. So
Is is he does he having trouble?
He so, like, yesterday, I asked him, like, what if what would you rate your diabetes care at? Like, he's like, a two. Like, why? He's like, because I always forget to put insulin in until after I start eating.
He can't remember to pre bolus? I think that I don't think that's a two. I think that's pretty common.
Yeah. That's what I thought too, but that was his his answer.
Why do you think he feels that way about it?
I think he just like, he knows he's supposed to pre bolus. That's a thing. We talk about it. But he just I don't know. He can't get it in his head, which I think part of that I'm kind of happy about.
Like, he's thinking about life and hanging out with his friends as a little preteen boy. Yeah. Not only that about diabetes, so that it's kind of a win, life first. I mean, I want him to have his life, so I need him to take the insulin. But I also want him to be a happy boy that doesn't get depressed.
And
Why she left the job7:48
Yeah. There's there's there's too much to think about, isn't there, Ashley?
Yeah. I so as when I after he was diagnosed, I was taken care of when I was a diabetic educator, I was also a care manager there. And I was taking care of this guy who is type one, and he was in his twenties, and he just didn't he was too burnt out. He couldn't do it. He didn't want to take the insulin while he was at work and didn't want to do the stuff, and and then he died.
And that's when I left being a care care manager and diabetic educator because I couldn't see that negative of the burnout that happens and then go home and look at my freshly diagnosed child.
Oh, you you changed you changed professions or or at least focuses because of Yeah. Do you think it was in was it the experience with that one person, or was it an overall kind of collection of experiences?
I think being the care manager, I kind of saw the worst of the worst for care, like, the people who needed the most help, which is great. I helped a lot of people, but I also saw so many people struggling. And that's all I could think about every day. Then when I go home, it's like, I'd look at my little tiny child who lost all this weight from diagnosis or prior to diagnosis. Like, is that gonna be his future?
Is he gonna be 21 and he's so burned out that he won't take insulin? And
Can I ask you, did the burned out people have anything in common? Like, was there something about them that you could put your finger on?
I don't know that it was a specific thing. Like, I thought maybe they just started too young on their own for some of them. I think a lot of them just didn't have really good resources and help, which shouldn't be Braden's case. But
Still was a lot for you to consider.
Right.
Yeah. Every time.
Like, you're this fresh in this world that you like, I obviously knew about diabetes and how to treat it, and that was really lucky for us. We didn't even have to stay in the hospital when he went to DKA because of my position.
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One year, one CGM. No. I I think
The week before diagnosis11:55
A lot.
I think I understand. Plus you you lost a child too. Yeah. Yeah. So you have some built in anxiety around that, I would imagine.
Yep. Yeah. A little bit.
That makes sense.
A little bit of PTSD of already losing one child to finding out you have another child. And, like so I kind of thought maybe Braden was heading that way. We went to the doctor. They tested him. His blood sugar at that exact moment when he was feeling fine was 75.
So he's good. He doesn't have diabetes. He's just puking for no reason every couple weeks. And then, like, the week before he was diagnosed, he just started not feeling good. Like, he stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday from puking, which had been normal every couple weeks.
So I scheduled a new appointment on Friday. Like, we're gonna go see a different doctor. Whatever. And then Wednesday night, we went to his wrestling academy, and he drank so much. I mean, like, he drank probably four Gatorades in this two hour practice.
And
then we went to Dave and Buster's, and he started crying there because he was so thirsty. And then he's like, I really don't feel good, mom. It's okay. We're going to the doctor on Friday. Be good.
Thursday, I was the day that I saw my patients in the clinic, and, like, he didn't feel good that morning. He was gonna stay home from school again, go to my mom's, whatever. Then my husband called, and he's like, hey, Ash. Like, he's kind of lethargic. He's really not feeling well.
I'm like, okay. We'll just take him to urgent care and get him checked there, and then we'll go from there. Because I already work in the Endo office. And then his lab results came through, like, on our MyChart, and I'm like, oh, you got super high ketones. Yeah.
Did you Cool.
Cool. Did you think prior to the lab results, were you thinking diabetes?
So I thought, like, this could be diabetes. And then I also thought, like, no. I'm a diabetic educator. I am totally just pushing these symptoms on him because that's what I see every day.
No.
There's no way.
The Oh, there was
a way.
Yeah. There was a way. The in the family, any other autoimmune stuff?
So I have thyroid issues. I have Graves and Hashimoto's, and my husband's mom had RA and lupus.
Okay. That's that's for sure. Anybody else? How about the kids? They have anything besides the type one?
Nope.
No? Okay. How old were you when you got your thyroid problem?
19. I was pregnant with my oldest, and she I went hyperthyroid. Mhmm. And then when I got pregnant with my son who passed away, like, shortly after that, it must have happened that I went hypo. I had miscarriage after miscarriage, and that was what they determined is that I flipped, and that's why I couldn't have babies because it's hard to get pregnant when you're super, super hypothyroid.
Gotcha. Were you managing it? I I mean well, but, like, were your numbers okay? Or because if you knew when you were 19, you were taking medication. Right?
No. They didn't put me on meds. They just said it was pregnancy induced and to just watch it. Like, I was right on that edge kind of
Oh.
Where you're hyper, but you're okay.
Mhmm. And nobody did anything for it?
No. They completely blew me off everywhere I went to. Like, I saw three different doctors, and my OB doctor wanted me to do the iodine treatment. Like, I I'm not doing that right now, like, radiation. I just had a baby, and I'm not going to not hold my baby.
That's not good for bonding or mental health.
So you wanted to kinda hold off a little bit. Yeah. Were what were your other simp did you have other symptoms? And if so, what were they?
When I was hyper, I had, like, all of the symptoms. I was all energy super, super thin. Like, I'm five to eight, and I was probably, like, one ten. Oh. Then, like, the GI symptoms that kinda come with it and the hot flashes and the heart palpitations and all of
Everything.
All of it.
Like, you're all jacked up on something Yeah. Because you are. Like,
if I was a monster drinker, it'd be, like, a 12 pack a day. That's probably what it felt like.
What what are the GI symptoms with hyper?
You get more diarrhea.
Oh, more. Excellent. Fun. Yeah. Who doesn't want more diarrhea?
Oh, it's a blast. When you're already thin and don't eat because you're never hungry.
When you said it's a blast, were you trying to be funny? Yeah. Oh, my god. That's awesome. Okay.
So his he goes to the urgent care, gets the labs back. I I am interested if because of your job, do they just act like you know what to do and then they don't say anything to you, or how does the process go?
So I saw the results before he saw like, my husband saw the results. I'm like, he's diabetic. He's gonna go to the hospital. And then they came in and told him that, to go to the hospital. Mhmm.
And I'm like, okay. Go to the children's the HSHS Children's Hospital in Green Bay because that's, like, the clinic I'm attached to. Go to that one. Well, in Green Bay, there's two hospitals right next to each other, and he went to the wrong hospital. So I'm sitting in the emergency room, like, just waiting for him to come through.
I'm like, what are you doing? Like, this should not take that long. I left work to come here. You should be here.
Two hospitals, four hours, and home17:37
Your husband went to the wrong hospital?
Yeah. I'm like he's like, I'm in the emergency room. I'm like, no. You're not. I I am here.
I do not see you. He did. He went to the wrong hospital, so I had to come over. And so we get called back to the room, whatever. I explained the symptoms, and they're like, oh, so he's type one.
Like, you think he's going into DKA again or something? I'm like, well, he doesn't have a type one diagnosis or anything at this point, not officially. And she's like, oh, the way you presented that just sounded like he already has it. Like
yeah. That happened to us too. We went to the desk at the emergency room. We're like, she has type one diabetes. And then she started asking questions, and we were like, oh, wait.
We're sorry. We're diagnosing her with type one diabetes. Like, like, this is, like, a, like, a fresh thing. So you did the same thing. Yeah.
Yeah. And the doctor's like, oh, okay. So we'll we'll just give him some fluids and some insulin and try to bring him down. And then from there, we will work on this, and and we'll get him in order. And then if things are good, we'll determine, like, if he can go home and you can manage it or if he has to stay.
And, ultimately, his stuff came down enough that they let us go home. We caught it pretty early. I mean, his blood sugar was, like, six thirty, which I feel like in the grand scheme of diagnostic numbers for DKA is pretty probably on the lower end.
How long was he at the hospital?
Four hours maybe.
Oh, no kidding. Did they get him out of DKA that quickly?
Yeah. He was, I mean, barely there.
It just it started to happen. Oh, wow. Well, thanks. I'm glad you figured it out so quick.
Then we went to the pharmacy, and they, like, wouldn't give us any insulin. Like, pretty sure we need that.
Why didn't they wanna did you not have a script?
They sent the prescriptions in, but they didn't have the junior pen the Humalog junior pens in stock, so we had to find a new pharmacy for that. And then my insurance didn't cover Lantus. They wanted Basaglar. And I was like, right at the end of this pharmacy shift, just give me the medicine. I'll pay for it.
Just wanna go home.
Yeah. Jeez. What a terrible thing. How long ago was this?
He was diagnosed about four years ago.
Four years ago.
October '22.
And he was what? Was he seven now?
Eight.
Eight. Okay.
Just turned eight.
How long has it felt how long does it feel like it's been? I know it's been four years, but does it feel like a lifetime ago, or
does it Yeah. Like, it's hard to remember not being him not being diabetic.
Hard conversations with an eleven-year-old20:18
Yeah. And do you think it's had any impacts on him growing up either positive or negative?
So we kinda talk about this a lot because he had a friend who committed suicide recently.
Oh my gosh.
And so we we have a lot of in-depth talks. Like, how does this feel? Like, where are you at? He's like, I hate it. Like, he's like, I obviously don't like it, but it's not the end of the world.
Mhmm. It definitely affects him. He has to leave practices because his blood sugar goes low. Or in matches, sometimes he doesn't wrestle good because his blood sugar is too high, and I can't get it to come down too fast without crashing him and making him feel weak.
Yeah.
Like he definitely sees that. Like, it's it's part of his life, and his friends don't have to deal with that. But he feel like it's not the end of the world. He's like, I know this is what I have, so it is what it is.
So you think he has a a fairly positive attitude about it?
Yeah. As good as an 11 year old boy can.
Yeah. No. I mean, he's he's really young. Gosh.
I know my daughters wouldn't have that attitude. That would be way worse.
They they what why do you think that?
Well, one is absolutely terrified of needles, so she would be losing her mind every time. My son, like, he's like, whatever. Take the shot. Whatever. I'll do the finger poke.
Unless he is super low, then we don't can't do anything because he's a rage monster.
Hey. I didn't expect to talk about this, but how do you parent through an acquaintance or a friend committing suicide with with your kids?
That was hard. Like, I was the one who told him, like, hey. One of we lost one of your friends today. And, like, he he guessed a friend, which is not the friend it was. And it's hard to, like so he wears a bracelet every day, like, live live like that person, and we talk about, like, living life and the being grateful for life every day.
I think that has really brought a lot of that talk that maybe you don't always recognize until someone dies.
Yeah. Wow. It must have been shocking when he chose a different kid. Did you did you consider did you consider talking to that person's parents, or did you think it's none of my business?
I think the reason so the kid he picked is a very emotional child.
Oh, okay.
Like like, he cries a lot and lets all those feelings. And so that's why he thought. And I don't know that that actually would
Lead to the same situation.
To yeah.
Yeah. It might it might actually be beneficial.
Right. That's what I and talked to my husband because he's a teacher and administrator. Like, this is who he said. Do you think, like, this is someone who should be on a suicide watch? Or, like, is that a thing?
He's like, I would not suspect that he he doesn't hold those emotions. He lets them go.
That's crazy. Yeah. I mean, I that being an adult is is it's really terrible. Imagine having to, like, moderate that with a child, and it's gonna have, like, impacts throughout their, like you know, they're gonna remember that person for years. You know what I mean?
I'm I'm sure he'll remember him forever. Yeah. I mean, they were good friends. They did sports together. They show in the fair together.
Oh, that sucks. Well okay.
And it's a small school. I mean, there's only, like, a 100 kids in their high school, so it's it's small.
Yeah. Right. Right. So everybody knows everybody.
Everybody knows everybody. Yeah.
Friends, alarms, and a raging low24:14
What about the diabetes with friends? Is he good with it being exposed to others? Does he have trouble, like, sharing it?
No. He's super good about it, and I think it's kind of cool to see some of it. Like, one of his friends put a Dexcom on him one day, and he let him do that. Like, I don't know, little things that are just kind of cool. We were sitting at a wrestling dual team in Iowa, And his other friend is like, hey.
What's your number? Because his alarm was going off. And he's like, 67. And then they all, like, freaked out with the six seven thing. Like, the whole side of the mat is just, like, 67.
And I don't know. It's funny. They're like, what is a good number, and what are we looking for? So I don't know. That's really cool.
I mean, do his friends understand that when he is high, he is slow and doesn't think good and whatever? No. They understand that when he's low, that he can not be well fun to be around.
Yeah. He's he's agitated when he's low?
Agitated is a word. He is a raging monster when he gets really low. Not always, but, like, he can. You could tell him the sky is blue and the trees are green, and he would be like, no.
Really argumentative right away.
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, okay. We need to take this low treatment. He's like, I'm not taking that.
Don't like those. Okay. I mean, there are definitely times when he was first diagnosed when we were playing the roller coaster game. Like, okay. You gotta have a low treatment, and he would not eat, and he would not drink.
And he would fight it and fight it. And I'm like, I can try to force you, but at the end of the day, he if I try to put a drink in his mouth, he's probably gonna spit in my face in that moment.
How do you handle that?
Cry.
Does that work? Eventually,
she comes around, but I do very distinctly remember there was a couple times where I was like, we're gonna die. Like, we're gonna go to the hospital because you're gonna die.
So the crying from you is out of fear?
Yeah.
Yeah. When Art when Arden was really little, and I mean, like, super little, you know, two, three, four years old, if I couldn't get her to drink or eat something when she was really low, I would purposefully get in, like, little arguments with her because the the back and forth arguing would like, it hit her adrenaline. It would and it would pop her blood sugar a little bit.
I think that probably is part of it because when he's arguing, I mean, he he does he gets all raging. He does come up a little bit, so I'd feel less about it. Yeah. Especially now that he doesn't have shots, that seems a little easier to manage because he uses Trio now, and that works
Oh, nice.
Pretty well.
Yeah. I I have to say I've it's not a thing. Like, I it's not a tactic. It's just something that happened, you know, that I realized one day when she got mad and I got upset and we were being upset together that her blood sugar would start to go back up without her taking anything. And then there was a couple of times where I couldn't get her to drink or eat, and I just, like, kinda picked a fight with her to make it happen.
It's not like a not like a point of pride or anything like that. It's just a thing that happened. I shared that once on the podcast years ago, and then I took a lot of crap online for it. So I look forward to somebody being terrible to me again.
But You know, sometimes we just gotta do what you gotta do in the moment. If you can't get them to eat a drink, you're not physically harming them by making them agitated.
Yeah.
If that's what will raise their blood sugar enough to make them think clearly, like, maybe I should actually just drink the freaking juice Yeah. Then
Actually, I was there. I did I did what I had to do. You you you know what I mean? It's it's a little hard to judge fifteen years. By the way, she just turned 22 yesterday.
She's doing I know
I saw that. Her pictures are so beautiful.
Oh, yeah.
So beautiful.
Thank you. Thank you. I'll tell her. So does he get a CGM? I mean, it's only four years ago.
Demanding a CGM on day one28:21
Do they offer you CGMs right away? You obviously know what they are. So what's that whole process like?
So we left the hospital. The next morning, we went right to Children's at 07:30 for our hundred hour training day. And they're I'm like, I want a CGM today. I'm like, I don't care if it's a Dexcom or Libre. I'm like, I know Libre is $75 cash pay.
I will cash pay if that's what I need to do, but I want that today. And, like, we don't usually I'm like, no. I want this today. Mhmm. This is happening.
So I don't care. Send the prescription in. So I did. And they sent in the they're like, well, you're not gonna get it. You have to have too many weeks so many weeks of finger pokes and blah blah blah.
I'm like, I don't care. Just send it. We went to the pharmacy. We got it. I had to bribe him like heck to get this Dexcom g six on his arm.
And if you're wondering what a bribe to an eight year old is, we he wanted his dad to level up his Fortnite account to level a 100 because he wanted that skin, and he needed a new Googan Squad fishing pole.
Did it cost you a fishing pole and a level up on a video game?
Yep. That's where we were at.
It's not bad. Yeah. You would probably gotten the fishing pole anyway. So
Right. Like, it was probably coming. Maybe not that one because it was, like, $250, but whatever. He put the Dexcom on. He hated the g six, though.
The g seven was lifesaving to us because every time putting that g six on was a nightmare.
You know what I'm I'm heartened by? The fake outrage social media around the move to g seven is not working.
It's so weird to me because I think the g seven is so much more accurate for us, and it warms up faster. And it doesn't hurt going in like the g six did on him at least.
Oh, well, I'm glad it yeah. I mean, Arden's been using it for, like, since day one, g seven. And as soon as they went to fifteen day, I got them to write the prescription for fifteen days.
Sweet. I have had fifteen days because I talked to the reps in the clinic still, and they don't generally last the full fifteen on him. But I feel like part of that's probably because he's so active, and he's little. I mean, he's, like, five foot one, but he's a hundred or not a hundred. He's, like, I weighed yesterday.
He's eighty five pounds.
Yeah.
It's like he's skinny. He has no fat on him. Like, negative fat. So and maybe that's why pushing and pulling in wrestling practice or golf practice or baseball practice.
It makes as much sense as anything else. Yeah. I mean, listen. You're you're in health care. If I put a heart monitor on you and then told you to go out in the world and just live your life and one of the leads fell off, you wouldn't say this heart monitor sucks.
Right. Yeah.
No. I don't think it's the g, the fifteen days fault. I think it's just a
I I don't dismiss the fact that it doesn't work the same for everybody. That I know is a 100% true. And I'm I feel really grateful that Arden's last right out to the last second. It's just it's dumb luck that it works for her physiology. And by the way, she deserves some dumb luck.
Not everything goes her way. And Yeah. But but what I'm talking about is the the people who thought they were gonna get social media clout by complaining about being forced off of g six. And I'm seeing them try their posts, so they're not working. Meaning, they're getting, like, one or two likes.
On progress, and people who resist it31:46
The algorithm's not picking them up. So the the fake outrage I'm gonna get, like, diabetes in you know, influence cred off of complaining about the upgrade of a device from one to the next is not working, which I I don't know. I I felt good about because I thought we were gonna see for I thought for six months, we were just gonna see people complaining and that it was gonna pop off, but it doesn't seem to be going that way. So
No. I just don't understand it. There's just I mean, having the two pieces of the g six to me, while it's great at the time, better than the things before, is kind of inconvenient, especially if you have a child who's already afraid of the g six or it in general, and then you have to snap on another piece and push on the area that in their head thinks really hurts.
Yeah. You know, I mean, listen. I I have to be honest. This is I I don't know how much of a pivot this is is I don't understand most of people's upset at this with progress. Like, I I I think it's possible that if you were born in the last twenty years or you've lived with cell phones or computers and the Internet and everything that you can things have been pretty good for you.
And you when they make something new, it just feels different, and then different feels scary. Like, I get all that. But you you needed to grow you're not old enough, but you needed to grow up when I grew up. Like, I I think, like, even just, you know like, I get the arguments about AI making art, for example, that, you know, they're like, well, it just scanned the Internet and stole everybody's style. And I'm like, yeah.
That's definitely wrong. Those people should be compensated. I hope we could figure out a way to do that. But if you just kinda step back for a second, if you were me in 1976 at five years old, six, 07/08 through the end of the seventies, this is magical. Like, what's going on right now?
And there are so many great ways to use it or to enjoy it or to be creative with it. And instead, I see people just going like, it's wrong. It's bad. Ah. And I'm like, I don't know.
Like, don't we wanna move like, isn't progress, like, what we're shooting for? I don't I I don't I don't know how to make sense of it exactly, but, like, my brain looks at it and goes, oh my god. It does this. I have five ideas right now I'm gonna do. And then other people see it and go, it's slop.
It's do it yourself. Like, do it myself. You thought I would
Not everyone has the skills to do it themselves.
How the hell was I gonna do that myself? I'm I
know what you're talking about. It's not like I'm going to go pay someone to do it. So either, I have this option that can do it for me, and it's really cool.
Oh, that's the other thing that's that absolutely baffles me. That you you've taken a job from an artist. I'm like, no. I haven't. I I cannot afford to hire an artist.
I've I've made a thing that would otherwise not exist. But if you think that the all they seem to set up this false narrative where I I had $90,000 to pay a programmer to do something, but instead, I decided to use AI to do it. Like, no. It wasn't gonna get done the other way. I don't have that kind of money.
I don't have that kind of resources. I'm a guy making a podcast. I'm not Coca Cola. You know what I mean? And and to see and to see that out, it is really interesting, the false narrative that comes up.
Like, oh, well, you did this instead of that. I'm like, no. I did this instead of nothing. Yeah. Also magic.
Like, are you like, magic. I just I I took an idea in my head, and I moved my fingers on a keyboard, and something showed up in the physical world that works. And you're going and you're going boo. I'm like, I don't know. You you and I are seeing a different pathway through the world, I guess.
And then they you know, it's, you know, water and electricity. And I'm like, no. I get it. Like but it won't be like this forever. I mean, look what happened the other day.
I don't know how like, if people track this stuff. But when there there's kind of this thing that happened. Right? Like, like, American companies making AI said we need more power to get more compute to make this thing work. Like, they said, it'll work better if we if we power it more.
And then a bunch of other companies that couldn't afford the power said, well, we'll just have to rewrite the code and make it work better. And they went off and did that, and that's actually working now. So some Chinese company just put out a model called Kimi, and Kimi doesn't use the same power that, you know, ChatGPT does, for example. So somebody got pressed into a corner to figure out how to make it better without using all the electric, and they figured it out. And ten years from now, it won't be like this again.
Just like you know what I mean? Just like things change along the way. I I don't know. I I just I wish everybody had to grow up in the seventies and watch Yeah. You know, watch one of three channels.
And after school television was a guy with a puppet who you probably would call a pedophile now if you looked at him. And and there was nothing to do, and he had to get up at 06:00 in the morning to watch Mighty Mouse. And and that was on Saturday, and then it didn't happen again till Saturday next year. And there were no computers and no Internet. You were bored out of your freaking mind and blah blah blah blah blah.
And then live through that for a day and then come back and tell me this is this is bad.
Right. Like, kids don't get it. You there's so much instant gratification for everything.
Yeah. Everything just works.
And if it's not there, then it's, like, a tantrum. And then if it's not how you exactly want it, it's also a tantrum. It's funny.
Yeah. They grew up where everything just did the thing it's they said it was gonna do.
Right.
There's an expectation that everything just works. It just does it. It happens immediately. I saw something the other day that said the average watch on a TikTok reel is three seconds. Yeah.
I mean
That's crazy.
Yeah. What it's the I'm being pressed by by things to make shorter podcast episodes. And it not that people don't want longer podcast episodes, but, you know, just through the the the the fact that you're alive, you might start an hour long podcast or an hour and twenty minute long podcast and listen to an hour of it or an hour and five minutes of it or something like that and not watch not listen to the last ten minutes or something, which is fine. I don't care about that. But the algorithm then reads that as not completing the the view.
What the algorithm rewards38:19
And so then I and then I get hurt if you don't listen all the way through. So the pressure is to make shorter stuff, twenty, twenty five minutes. Now even if it doesn't have all the information or doesn't, like, expand the conversation or whatever, I'll get I'll get a different I I get different weight on a chart if you just finish the episode.
That's weird. I'll make sure I finish all my episodes.
You're very nice, but, like, that's not my that's not why I'm telling you. What I'm telling you is that the algorithm is pressuring me into making something that I don't think is the right thing.
Right.
You know what I mean? Because you you and I have been talking for forty minutes so far. Yep. And we've talked about so many, like, big ideas and going over things we didn't expect to go over. Hopefully, it's been interesting for people so far.
I still have other stuff I wanna ask you about, the diabetes piece of it. And, anyway, I just making stuff to these algorithms is a mistake. And Yeah. You know what I mean? It's and I don't know how to fix it either.
I I have
no idea. Weird because, like, there is more stuff. And then if you're only doing that, the short little episodes, I don't know. Like, I really like the short episodes too. Like, when you and Jenny talk or when you do the little ones that are, like, ten or twelve minutes, that's interesting too.
Nothing at all.
Can fit in more than one.
Yeah. Yeah. But, like Yeah. No. I don't
I'm also open to the super long episodes. I don't The the three learn stories.
Yeah. Yeah. I listen. I appreciate that. And I don't I there's been there are some reasons to make shorter episodes, but not because the algorithm will put me higher on the chart because of it.
And then I can and then I can show the chart to somebody and get an ad for it, and then they'll like, it's that's ridiculous. And Yeah. And it's leading to a three second reel. Like, so when when when Instagram first came out, you were like, oh, I can see people's photography. You could look at a picture and be like, oh, that's really great.
And now and then in short term, it just went to, like I used to talk about all the time, like, I the flick flick tap. Like, it's flick tap tap, flip tap tap, flip tap tap. And I would say to Arden, I'm like, are are you liking those pictures? She goes, yeah. They're my friend's pictures.
I was like, what are they of? She goes, I don't know. She's liking them to to support her friends. But support them in what? Taking a picture that nobody looks at?
I don't even understand what we're talking about. And it went from that to now, like, people are making, like, videos, and you're watching three seconds of it. Yeah. Like, you can't put anything meaningful in three seconds.
I totally get that because my son had a wrestling YouTube channel. And, like, people watch it, and you can, like, see, like, they only watch this much. I'm like, so you watch the introduction. Cool. Appreciate that you liked it.
That makes him super excited. It's just funny.
But to what end? Exactly. Right. And and now, you know listen. I I I I don't know if you've seen it or not.
Like, I I put out a a survey. I I hope everybody goes and takes it. It's juiceboxpodcast.com/survey. It's just about how the podcast has been for you. It's, like, literally a five minute survey.
Actually, I did take the survey.
Thank you. Oh, I really appreciate it. And, and the the feedback that's coming back says that the podcast, the way it works, is really valuable for people. But you put me in an ecosystem where it's it's flip, tap, tap, flip, tap, tap, not even that now. People don't even like anymore.
Now it's just flip, flip, flip, flip. Like like, I mean, you're living in a dystopian movie where your eye your eyes are peeled apart by clamps, and we're just running, like, fractions of videos past you all day long. Like and I and, like I mean,
in three seconds, you can't even say, like, hey. It's Scott. That that you're out in three seconds. You're done.
Do you pre oh.
Get to introduce yourself.
Yeah. Yeah. Pre bowl. No. Oh, darn.
Guess they You're done.
I guess they won't learn to pre bowl. And and so you don't bother making content for that. But the people who do it anyway that get that view, then they go out and sell that view for ad space. But it's not real. Like and you just made the point with the YouTube video.
Like, they nobody's watching your YouTube video. Podcasts are unique where you can pick them up, put them down, pick them up, put them down. Yeah. You don't pick up and put down a YouTube video. It's No.
Not generally. Yeah.
You have to be really invested if that's what you're gonna do.
Exactly. And so now there's people out there like, look. I have ten, twenty, 30,000 views on my YouTube video. I'm like, no. You don't.
You know, you've you've
We don't have that. We're in the thousands.
Yeah. But
Which is fine. I don't need a 100,000 kids looking at my child wrestling, but he thinks it's really cool.
Yeah. Listen. I don't understand how to I don't understand any of this. I'm I am officially too old to think that this is a good idea. And I but the funny thing is is I don't think anybody else thinks this is a good idea either.
No. I mean, it's proven. Like, medically, we know our attention spans are getting drastically shorter.
Yeah. It's it's
gonna be a problem. The ADHD is astronomical. No one has attention span anymore. Mhmm. No one can do anything.
So what does that say for our future generations that have zero attention span? Like, how are we gonna get through college?
How are we
gonna have careers?
Well, you're
gonna cannot sit for a forty minute class.
Attention spans, and what we lose43:49
Yeah. And I think you have to think out farther than just a generation. Like, you have to ask yourself, like, what is it gonna mean to be a human being at some point? Right? And how much of this will be progress and how much of this will be a loss of yourself?
And I I don't know any I don't have a my brain does not expand far enough to consider all those things. I'm just gonna tell you that it would be a great idea to not scroll. That'd be a big eye that would really help you. Yep. So we'll see.
I mean, there's a whole listen. There's a whole world full of people who don't do it. They're not represented online. They're out there living their lives every day. I see the guy, you know, across the street from my house cutting his lawn.
He's not on TikTok. You know? He's he's living his life. I don't know if one learns better. I don't I don't know.
I'm not even making a judgment about it. I just think it's I just think it's
There has to be
a at
at minimum a balance. Like, okay. You're gonna look at it, but, also, you have to get out and live your life and do stuff that doesn't that requires you to think more than three seconds.
Yeah. And and and look at what you're, you know, look at what you're propping up is this idea of, like, I say all the time. Like, I'm not I'm not gonna scream into into my cell phone. But that's what works. Like, there's actually phrases that that are, like, proven to stop your scroll.
So if you pay attention, the videos all start with that phrasing. And it's always big eyes, like big bug eyes staring into their phone, like, or big faces, like, to grab your attention for a split second. And then they're selling that view. Like, you stay for ten seconds before you go, I don't care about this, and you scroll forward. They cared about it.
They just want the ten seconds. They just want they want the view click. And then they'll go out in the world and tell people, like, look. You know, I, you know, I don't it's boring, but I I bumped into some people recently who do diabetes influencing, and they asked me for my advice. And I said, you should try to help people.
Like, they you must know something. Like, take that thing out there and try to try to help people. And don't just scream into the camera and look pretty and bounce around and giggle and dance. Like, if you can help them, like, they'll come back and watch it again, and they'll tell somebody else about it. Otherwise, you're just you're just you're just being an attention whore.
And Right. That's not building a thing for you or for them.
So there's no benefit in that?
Well, not no. Not at all. And I can't and and, really, you have to like, if if I gave you a phone right now and let you scroll somebody else's feed and came back in ten minutes and asked you what you saw, you'd have absolutely no idea what you saw. No. So the person who thinks, oh, I'm being seen, you're not being seen.
You're not being seen at all. You are just you're digital visual noise. So, I mean, that's not a great way to live your life.
No. I look at like, my son will he scrolls through the TikTok when we're in the car or whatever. Like, what in the actual hell are you watching? Do watch the most random I mean, there's a lot of sports things. I get that stuff.
But some of the videos, it's just like, tap tap tap tap tap tap, like, people typing on their phone. Like, why are you watching that? That's so dumb.
Don't
like, these random AI videos that are so stupid. Like, how did that get into
your face? Hijacked. Listen. Every once in a while, I'm gonna tell you my two favorite videos this week. Not that I don't have I mean, I have social media like everybody else.
Little kids swimming off of Malibu with a 10 foot great white. They have no idea the shark is swimming around them. It is horrifying. And I'm just gonna let you all know that the veteran that slapped the guy in the head at the Cubs game for not standing up during the national anthem, I was delighted by that.
I didn't see that, but I feel like I need to look that up now.
There's a there's a, you know, there's a a Vietnam Veteran. He's at the Cubs game. He's out in the bleachers. Kids sitting in front of him, I don't know, 18, 19, 20 in that range, by himself, seated in front of the of the vet. A couple of rows up into the right are some older guys, probably late twenties.
They look like they might have, like, a, you know, a computer job, and they're at the game today or something like that. And I you can't really hear them, but the national anthem's playing, and the old man bends forward and says something to him. Like, you know, telling him, like, you know, get it seems like he's telling him you gotta stand up. And the kid kinda dismisses him, and the old man tells him again. And I don't know what the kid says, but when he turns back around to stay seated, the the old man, like, takes his left hand and slaps him in the head.
And That's crazy. And that kid pops up and looks forward. And the part of me that grew up in the seventies was like, see? That worked. And Yeah.
And and I also know we got listen. I'm not I live in the same, you know, same era that the rest of us live. I know we can't go around hitting people. I wouldn't do it. But watching it from a distance, I was like, maybe we ought to smack more people in the head.
That worked pretty well. Right. And then the two guys, the reason I explained to you, there were two, like, slightly older guys ahead. They turned around to give the old man shit, and he was like, whatever he said back to them, they shut up and turned around. And I thought
That's great.
Maybe we need a little more of all this. Now the news got ahold of the old guy, and he and he he was thoughtful about it afterwards. He says, look. I wish I didn't hit him. You know, he goes, you know but you need to understand, like, I lost a lot of friends in Vietnam.
People were fighting for him to be able to sit at that ballgame in the middle of the afternoon and watch the watch the Cubs play, And it it hurt that he didn't stand up. It's not respectful. And then and then the rest of it is he said, but it's not lost on me that I fought for his right to sit there if he doesn't wanna stand up. So it was really interesting to see him conflicted. Now if you could
use The bodge sword.
Yeah. And if you could use social media to have that, like, experience that I had, which only took me a minute to experience the initial video and then the the gentleman, like, speaking to the news afterwards. Like, that was kind of a full moment. Like, I feel like I got something out of that. Right?
I don't know what I would have figured out in three seconds, but, anyway, I'm sorry. Let let's finish up strong here. Your, son's using Trio. Yeah. So what do you use?
Letting the pump take lunch50:22
An Omnipod dash with DIY Trio and g seven? Yeah. Yeah. How's that all going for you? How do you find it?
I found it through the podcast. Oh. And it's going great. My so, like, in school kids, they have lunch, and then they have recess, and he was going low every day. So I'm like, well, let's program this algorithm so we can just do this.
So he took insulin at lunch one time the whole school year. One. What wait. Last year.
He's forgetting to bolus it for
No. He's he's just not doing it. We're just we're not.
Oh, you're you're testing.
The pump has officially taken over his lunch bowls at school. Not all the time because he eats way more outside of school than he does. But during school, like, he he doesn't take a lunch bowls. If he has some random snack during the day, then he has to bowl a sport.
Outcomes for that have been what? Good. Yeah. What what do you see usually?
Like, he'll go up a bit probably to, like, to 300 maybe. I try to catch it. I know he like, last year, he ate lunch at 11:50. So I give him some insulin from work, and and then he just goes about his day being a kid.
Where they are now51:38
Tell me why you were com tell me why you were comfortable with that.
Well, because one and if he isn't giving himself insulin or spotily giving himself insulin, it's easier to say, don't do it, and I will take care of it because then we're not double bolusing.
Okay. So why why are you so so he you you came to the conclusion that he was going to forget the bolus. Right?
Yes. Because he was doing that regular.
And you put him on the algorithm because you thought, well, this will be more aggressive and at least will hold him down, but he's still popping to, like, 300.
Not every day. That's, like, the highest days.
Okay. What's
the average? Say I'm on a phone call at work, so I also do triage and stuff, and I lose track of time a little bit. Mhmm. Then it's a late bolus. But it still catches it and brings them down pretty quick.
Like, it works pretty well. Most days, I would say he probably doesn't even go up to 200 on lunch. The bad days, he hits up to 300 and comes back down.
Is that
But we were having a lot of lows when he was giving himself insulin at lunch.
When he was giving himself insulin, he was having lows. Would you say that the three hundreds are more about the food that he eats or more about you not being able to jump in and throw some extra in when you see it go up?
Second. More when I'm just a little behind it.
So you're remote policing when you Yeah. So what happens? You get a little beep beep. He's going high, and you go, oh, this must have happened. You look at the suggested insulin and put the suggested insulin in?
So I start, like, all day. Like, at my work, I I have a double screen. One screen, I keep up mostly with his blood sugar stuff. Like, I have Nightscout open.
Mhmm.
And then I just kind of watch that and give him some insulin as needed to kind of keep him on track.
Okay.
So I think we're starting to hit puberty. Hate that. But our numbers are a little wonky right now as we're trying to adjust to turning into manhood.
Do you think there's a world where he will are you fearful how do I wanna ask you this? Are you fearful that by covering for him and not asking him to do it at all, he's never gonna do it, or do you think that he's about to get to an age where you can reassess and get him involved again?
So, like, when he goes to his friend's house or goes like, he went to the Dells with some of his friends once, he did his insulin. Or he like, at school, they went to Camp Unawala last year, and he did his insulin for that. So it was fine. Like, he can do it. Like, it's kind of one of the life balance.
Part of it, I'm sure, is a little bit of my history of the care manager and stuff that I don't want him to feel burned out. I want him to feel the burden of just being a 11, 12 year old boy with his friends and experience that and not have to be diabetic first.
Can I offer
I'd rather be his diabetes first?
Okay. Can I offer a tiny bit of perspective? Just my own personal?
Absolutely.
I would be careful not to overcompensate.
Like, when he's not in school, he mostly does it himself.
Okay.
Does he need some reminders? Like, hey. Did you take insulin for your snack
Yeah. Sure.
Or your drink?
Is
it going up?
I would But yeah.
I So it's like kind of a balance.
Oh, yeah. I mean, it sounds like you have it. I've just from just listening, I just thought, like, don't don't get so, like, defensive of one idea that you, like, let the other things, like, slide off a cliff is all.
Oh, absolutely not.
You're not doing that.
Pretty much the only one I do is lunch. Right. And like I said, if he has snacks at school, if he has when he has breakfast, lunch, dinner, Other days when he's not at school, he does it. It was just hard because we kept like, some days he would take his insulin, and then other days he wouldn't take his insulin. So then I'd give him insulin, and then he would also correct his insulin.
And then we're like, oh, crap. Now we have, like, way too much insulin, and he's super sensitive. So that extra unit is a big deal.
Yeah. No. I mean, listen. And just like we said earlier, you're gonna have to find the thing that works for you guys and and do what what, you know, what you gotta do.
I think as we move forward and he gets better, I think I'll probably each year try it and be like, hey. Are we gonna do our insulin at lunch? Like, this is on you, my little friend.
I mean, listen. At some point, I would imagine he he you said he knows when he's higher when he's wrestling. Right?
He doesn't feel highs. I can see it when he wrestles and he can't think through things that he would be able to think through.
I gotcha.
Or if even when you ask him questions when he's really high, like, it just takes longer. He's just like a a slow computer. Needs to be rebooted back down to where he should be.
Oh, no. Yeah. I know. And I know that Arden doesn't really notice it about herself in the moment. I don't I can't say that she doesn't know, but, you know, in that moment, I think it's you're not saying to yourself, oh, I'm probably answering slower now because, you know, it just kinda doesn't work that way.
Yeah. Yeah. I was He said he doesn't feel high at all. He feels lows, but not not high at all. He said he can't tell a difference.
Yeah. So, I mean, listen. Timers on the phone is I used that at school. Like, a timer would go off. She'd pre bolus then.
And, you know, she would text me and say, how much are we gonna do today? And I'd say, I'd, you know, I'd look at her blood sugar, and I'd say, well, your blood sugar is this. You know, you have this for lunch. I think let's put this much in now. And then when you sit down and you start eating, we'll do the rest.
I would say that sometimes. Sometimes we would send it up as, like I mean, I realize the systems are different now. Sometimes we would set up, like, extended boluses to put a bunch in upfront and then, like, dump the rest in over, like, thirty or sixty minutes to kinda so she wouldn't have to bolus a second time. There's a bunch of different ways I used to manipulate it to get it to work. The algorithms are I mean, obviously, to say that an 11 year old at school doesn't have to bolus a meal, his mom pops on remotely from her phone, throws some more insulin, and he'd only gets to 200 and doesn't generally get low afterwards.
Is that pretty awesome? You know? Yeah.
I mean, I'm very thankful for that. He's I mean, when he first got diagnosed, he was on the shots for a while despite my pressure to get on the pump right away.
Mhmm.
And, like, dad's a teacher in the same school, so he would just go down there at lunch. They'd figure it out, do a shot, have a 100 kids around them looking, and go on about their day.
Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I I listen. I think you're doing a great job.
You feel okay about it? Are you I mean, being a parent of a child with type one, is it a thing you're handling well? Are you in therapy? Are you crying still?
I'm pretty good about it. Like, there's days that I'm like, what is what is happening? Like, two weeks ago, he was just high. I mean, like, I he his total daily insulin is, like, 25 to 30. Mhmm.
And he was getting, like, sixty units a day and still just high. Like, what is what is going on? Change his pod. Change his insulin. Change his sites.
Like, why won't you come down? And then all of a sudden, the next week, just back to normal.
It's okay again.
Are you kidding me?
How do
blows my mind. Like so I have this perspective. Like, I see the family practice clinics, and I see these sliding scales prescribed and, like, oh, your blood sugar's 300. Take this much insulin. Like, how does that how can that functionally even work to people?
Because diabetes is so fluid. Like, one week, it's gonna be this, and the next week, it's gonna be wholly different. And we're just like, take the science scale for the rest of your life, and you'll be great.
I don't understand. I listen. Were you were you managing people who were doing that?
And it drove me insane because I'm not a prescriber, so I can't change it.
Does that happen in in
Take your insulin.
2021? How is that happening? Because that's, what, about four years ago. Right? So what what do you think the reasoning was behind the that that prescription from the doctor?
Some people just can't some people are not mentally there to do more. They won't do it, actually. They just straight refuse to do it, but they, okay, I'll take my insulin out my meals sometimes. Mhmm. But that's where they're at.
And, like, that's just that's what what they're gonna do.
So some some of it is just people's inability or or lack of desire?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah. It's heartbreaking. You see people with continuous 14 a one c's, and they just don't get it and don't care, and they feel fine, so they're fine until they aren't. And then they're like, oh my god. I need this gone now.
Like, well, it took a long time to get here. It's not going to go away overnight. It's gonna take some time.
Yeah. So do does everybody hit some level of horror that gets them turned around, or do some people just ride it straight into the abyss?
They just ride it straight to death.
Yeah. Jeez.
It's hard. I it's sad. I I just wanna be like, I'll come home with you. I used to make grids for people like, okay. You put your pen needles here, like, on this little map, and then you know you took your insulin for that meal.
And then, like, this is what we do. These are your meals. This is about what how many carbs are in that. So, like, this is what your insulin should be should you have this meal. Like, I tried to break it down to toddler level for some people.
And it's great because for some people, that really worked. Like, you have these standard meals like, oh, you're eating spaghetti. This is about how many carbs are in spaghetti. This is what your insulin should be. And then here's if your blood sugar is in these ranges, what you
do Yeah.
Which obviously is not a perfect system, but for some people, that was their perfect system.
Hey. I I not punitively, but just for understanding bigger picture. Intellect gets in the way sometimes?
Absolutely. Okay. Because you have to be able to under just to you have to be able to have a basic understanding of why you're doing this. Like, what's going on? Like, your body isn't making this insulin, and we have to have that for your food to get into your cells, and some people just can't comprehend that.
Yeah.
Why?
Explain it. It doesn't matter. It's fine
if you can explain it a 100 different ways, and you can use a teddy bear and the the same things that you would say to children to some of these adults, and they just I don't know if they just don't care or they just don't want to know maybe or just really don't have the mental capability to understand. And probably all of it for some of
them. Yeah.
But it is hard.
Sad. It sounds like it took a toll on you as well.
It did. And I won't like, I really enjoyed helping people. Like, the people that I could get some success to get their a one c from high to low even in just drawing pictures and telling them the basic things so they have something was great. Getting some of them to use the in pen so they could track stuff and get a recommendation, that worked pretty well.
Yeah.
Some of them are like I'm like, let's go on the Omnipod five because you don't have to know that much. And I mean, that sounds bad, but, like, you can give it some general ideas. Like, okay. For dinner, I usually eat about 40 carbs or at least that's what my nurse tells me. And as long as I'm sticking to my same normal meal sizes, it's giving me insulin, and it still has that ability to kind of help correct when I do it
wrong Mhmm.
Or I forget something.
Yeah. I always sort of I feel bad it's the wrong way, but to talk about it. But when pump companies are trying to make these pumps, there's, you know, there's levels of people looking for levels of help. And, you know, everybody's not you or me or, you know, or somebody else out there who's holding, like, 481 c. Like, some people are or more the way you described, and these pumps have to try to help everybody.
I'm I've always been, like, an advocate for like, I I I don't know if this is possible. It sounds possible to me, but, you know, I would I'd like a UI that, you know, has a switch in it that says, like, are you are you shooting for a five? Like, use this part. Yes. You know?
Are you are you having trouble remembering the bolus and you don't understand the math? And if I asked you what diabetes was, you wouldn't even be able to explain to me. You know what? Flip it over to this. It'll take care of that kind of stuff.
And Yeah. And instead of running around with a ten, eleven, 12 because you've probably seen people with up to 14 a one c's, I imagine,
Oh, yeah.
On the regular.
Yeah. On the regular. And Especially in family practice because that's where they get it.
And no one's helping them there for sure. So so Not the right way. If if you could slap even an algorithm on them that would drag drag them into the eights, that would be a massive, massive health benefit for them.
Yeah. That was my goals. I tried even when other educators are like, no. They can't handle this. They can't handle something.
Listen. All we have do is teach them how to start a pod. I mean, it's they're on their phones all day. It's not that hard to say, give me a meal. Like
Yeah. It can't handle what? Because the what's the alternative?
Right. They're not taking their stuff. They're going to die. I mean, that sounds harsh, but, like, eventually, you're going to have complications, and you're going to die.
It's not harsh. It's what's happening. I I I remind people all the time, if you're listening to this podcast and you're doing well, you are in the minority.
Absolutely. Yeah. I can't tell you the people that I see. And if you're seeing a family practice provider for your type one, you're probably doing bad for yourself.
Right.
And I love my job, and I love the providers I work with, but their knowledge of type one is none. Mhmm. Like, we have one type one patient who comes in, and he has a great a one c. And she's always like, you're going too low. You're going too low.
We need to adjust this. I'm like, first of all, it's not what you would adjust. Like, you're addressing the wrong thing here. But you do like, they don't have that knowledge.
Yeah. It's tough too because it's not really that difficult, is it, Ashley?
No. And I have to bite my tongue, though. I'm not a provider. I'm not overstepping, and I'm not losing my license. But I do make little comments.
Like, hey.
I hate the way the world works. I hate I hate that we see things that are wrong and then nobody says anything. Like, well, it's not my place or and not that you shouldn't have done that.
I I I understand. Tell her like, I don't change his prescriptions. I'm like, hey. Have you considered that maybe maybe the basal is off a little bit? And it's not that he his corrections are wrong, that maybe it's just the timing is slightly off, and that's
causing him to go low. Yeah.
Like, he's actually doing great, but lows. But lows. But lows. Like, but, like, you can treat they're not severe lows. They're minimal lows.
Like, you gotta look at the grand picture here, and and we want to be healthy. We want to live a life without complications the best we can. We don't want sandpaper going through our veins. So
yeah, I I don't know. I I just really I really can't wrap my head around why somebody can't figure out how to do this. I it's not it just isn't that difficult. Like, I I'm talking about a doctor, not the people.
Yeah. Like, doctors.
Yeah. How how they can't figure out how to explain this to somebody or or not to say something like, well, they can't handle a pump, but they're dying. Don't you think we should try? No.
I mean, they can't the end stage here. Why do we need something?
Why don't we just push them off a cliff then? I mean, what's the point exactly? Absolutely. I mean, it it it really is. It's it it is genuinely fascinating to me to to see, like, I don't know, to see a bull charging at you and to just close your eyes is how it feels.
Like, I don't know. Maybe it's gonna hit you anyway, but run,
die. Like, do something.
Do yell, hey. Look over there. I don't know. Like, shouldn't we try something? No?
Or just proactive. Yeah. We're just gonna shut our eyes and let it run us over because we don't think they could figure out how to put a pump on. Right. Yeah.
That's a lack of critical thinking.
Like, are you kidding me? You literally pull a sticker thing off and you stick it to your body. And then And people stick them everywhere on their body. I mean, there's not a whole lot of things you can do wrong there.
Yeah. Alright. Okay. Listen. We can't fix the world, Ashley.
Nope. And you gotta
get back to the Not today.
No. No. Not today. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that the packers aren't good. I just wanna kick that into the conversation at the end.
I'm not a big packer fan. I'm actually an eagles fan.
Oh, well, god bless you though. Everything's fine.
My son was a Chiefs fan forever, and then he met Jordan Love at Dick's one day. Okay. And now he's a diehard Packer fan. Let me tell you, Jordan Love is one of the coolest guys you could ever meet.
That'll do it. You meet meet one of those guys in person, and you'll you'll be a fan pretty quickly. At least a good
He even talked in a FaceTime group with all of his little 10 and 11 year old friends at that point. Oh, he's a cool guy.
Yeah. That's alright. Fine. Jordan
Jordan only only plus for the packers. Only push. Jordan was Eagles fan for life.
Yeah. How'd you get any how are you an Eagles fan?
I don't know. I started to be an Eagles fan when I was in high school. They must have been doing good and
Smart.
And then I jumped on that wagon and never let it go.
Smart of you. Very smart of you. Okay. Alright. Hold on
one second. Fan till death.
Well, you know, Brewers have that type one. Is he in center field? Garrett?
Garrett Mitchell? Yeah. Really cool. My we went to Vegas to see him, and he got to meet Garrett Mitchell. He got his he signed his glove.
He gave him a ball that said type one warrior on it autographed. Really cool guy.
I've been trying to get him on. He does not answer my, my DMs. So, I mean, if I was a if was a baseball player, I probably wouldn't answer my DMs either. But I'm just saying he he he's he's and he gets better and better. He's actually improving as a player as he goes along too.
His first year, like, not being unhealthy. So, yeah, it's it's really cool. It's a really cool guy. Yeah. Cool experience.
I'll see what we can figure out. Alright. Hold on one second for me, Ashley. I appreciate you doing this. Today's show was sponsored by Tandem Diabetes Care, the Eversense three sixty five, and Touched by Type one, who you can learn more about on Facebook, Instagram, and at touchedbytype1.org.
Head now to tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox and check out today's sponsor, Tandem Diabetes Care. Think you're gonna find exactly what you're looking for at that link, including a way to sign up and get started with a Tandem Mobi system. I'd like to thank the Eversense three sixty five for sponsoring this episode of the juice box podcast, And remind you, if you want the only sensor that gets inserted once a year and not every fourteen days, you want the Eversense CGM. Eversense CGM dot com slash juice box. One year, one CGM.
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