#1981 Third Place at the Science Fair
Third Place at the Science Fair
Veronica's son was diagnosed at five. He is extremely sensitive to insulin, hard to keep in range, and turned his own adhesive problem into a science fair project.
Jump to a moment
- The signs were buried in an ordinary week. Veronica's son was five, home watching TV, drinking more, and wetting overnight after being daytime potty trained. She sent a MyChart message to his doctor and got a call back before the office opened the next morning. He was diagnosed without a hospital crisis.
- He is unusually sensitive to insulin. Even his newer endocrinologist, still getting to know him, has remarked on how sensitive he is and how hard he is to keep in range. Veronica describes being able to read it in his face — his eyes get darker — before a number tells her anything.
- He decides who does what, and it isn't always her. He swings between wanting to do everything himself and not wanting to pause a video game. But device changes are hers alone, which means a pump failure at two in the morning is her job no matter what. He also won't allow a device to come off without an adhesive remover spray.
- So he turned that into a science fair project. They looked up what's in the adhesive remover he uses, searched for all-natural equivalents of those ingredients, and emailed a few companies to ask questions. He took third place — and they emailed the company afterward to say thank you.
- Her frustration is the small stuff nobody adjusts for. Recess cancelled because it's a hundred and three degrees, schedule changes that move activity around, and variables that don't get addressed in time to matter. She also describes what changed once they found other families locally and he went to camp — from saying he hated diabetes several times a week to deciding parts of it were actually kind of cool.
- Diabetes Pro Tip series — Episodes 1000-1025 — settings, insulin timing, and food impact.
- Bold Beginnings series — Scott and Jenny Smith for the newly diagnosed.
- 504 plan builder — Free school-plan tool — for the kinds of day-to-day variables Veronica describes.
- Juicebox Podcast Facebook group — The private community, free to join.
Every word of the conversation
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Hi. My name's Veronica, and I am the mom to a seven year old type one diabetic.
Oh, boy, girl, are we saying? We don't have to. Boy. Boy. Little boy.
Boy. I have three boys.
Look at you. Yeah. Did you stop after the third one and think, okay. I guess I'm not getting a girl.
Three strikes are out.
Don't tell them that. It went wrong three times, and I gotta raise these kids.
Yeah.
I had so
many...... Well aware.
You had so many plans
to a boy.
Well, that seems purposeful. But you had so many plans to... How you're gonna dress that little girl, and now look.
I did. And I have really lost the plot in life, and I now sew the bulk of my kids' clothes, and I don't get to sew any dresses.
Sewing her kids' clothes2:40
Wait. You've... Would you be... You... You're making your own...
Have things gone wrong? Are you out of money, or are you just bored? What is going on?
I I think I just needed a hobby.
Veronica's like, listen, Scott. I was losing my mind. Okay? So I I started making clothing.
Yeah. I have a pink sparkly sewing room, and the kids are not allowed in there.
Bet your husband didn't see that coming when he married you.
Well, doesn't Absolutely not. I didn't know how to sew when he met me.
I have said to my kids more than once referring to my wife, listen. She was cool when I picked her. I don't know what to tell you. They don't believe that. I'm like, no.
I'm... Seriously, I know it's hard for you to believe she really was. She was a rock solid choice. I don't know what's happening right now. So tell me how old, was your son when he was diagnosed?
He was three.
Oh, gosh.
Yeah.
In your little pecking order, he's the oldest, the middle, the youngest?
He's the oldest. Yeah.
He's the oldest. He was three. Were any of the other kids, standing up by that point?
Yeah. The middle brother was... Had just turned one a couple months prior, and then, baby brother came along Were you... Couple years later.
A couple years. You weren't pregnant when he was diagnosed?
Well, I was, but we lost that baby the week after he was diagnosed. Oh my gosh.
You didn't think. I thought this is gonna be a fun story about your pink your pink pony club sewing room, but it doesn't sound like that at all. Okay.
No. I... It was probably for the best. We had a lot going on.
So... Jeez.
And the baby is... He's he's fun. He's... So I wouldn't trade him.
You finally got a good one. I hear what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I mean, I think he thinks he's a dinosaur, so it keeps life exciting.
He just runs around the house just banging into things and
And roaring.
And roaring. How old is he?
Two.
Look at that. That's really lovely. How old are you?
34.
Okay.
I had to think about that.
That's okay. It's part of the psychosis. You're... You don't... Don't worry.
It's all happening on schedule. It's all happening on schedule, Veronica. Don't worry about it. Tell me, is there any extended family with type one diabetes? Do you, your husband have autoimmune issues?
Other... Anything like that?
No autoimmune with me or my husband. My husband does have a younger sister who's type one. She was 17 when she was diagnosed, and my husband and I were, like, already engaged and out of the house. So, like, he was not around it at all and didn't really know anything about it other than she has diabetes.
His parents. Mom's got thyroid, so dad's celiac. Somebody's got RA.
Dad is type two.
Type two.
No thyroid? No. Think his mom
Go ahead.
Might have something thyroid going on. I can't remember. His older sister does have Hashimoto's.
Okay. I see it. Alright. Background, what kind of, genre are they? Irish, English.
English.
Yeah. I gotcha. Alright. I got the whole thing figured out. Okay.
Now now we move forward. So you have no idea what type one diabetes looks like when this hits your your kid initially. How how
Watching TV all day, drinking more6:12
do Not at all.
How do you figure it out?
Okay. This is... It was kind of a bunch of random things happening. But he he was in preschool, and the... I, at the time, was working in a public school.
And our winter breaks lined up except his teachers both got COVID. And because it was a small preschool, they just said, we'll go on winter break a week early. And so he was home... My husband worked from home. So he was just home with my husband for a week while I was finishing my last week at the school I was at.
And so he was just home watching TV all day pretty much in a lot of, like, dad's here and kind of supervising, but I'm kind of on my own. And so when I would get home, like, his behavior was just kind of just very unusual for him. He'd ask for an Oreo, I'd say, oh, we have to eat dinner first, and he'd fall to the floor crying, which seems relatively typical for a three year old, but was just very out of character for him. He was definitely drinking more, and he was daytime potty trained, but not overnight. But he was, like, peeing through diapers at night.
He was wetting the bed at nap time or, like, peeing on the floor, like, during the day, but, like, in the bathroom. Like, he, like, couldn't get to the toilet in time. So I was like, okay. All these weird things are kind of happening. The day that kind of, like, sent me over the edge, we were...
It was the Sunday before Christmas, and we went to church. And he could not sit still, like, wouldn't be quiet. He found, like like, a air vent grate on the floor and with... Look at that. His alarm's going off right now.
Oh, he's 61.
Is he at now with the...
He's at school.
He's at school? How do they how do they manage this? We'll get back to the church in a sec.
He has a brand new school nurse. Like, she just... First year being a school nurse this year. So it's been, we've been back at school. This is week two.
So it's been a little bit of a
A ride?
Ride starting back up. But so far, she's been really lovely. It's just been a lot of
Teaching.
Communication between the two of us.
Yeah. So So... So he's 61 right now. Does she know that? Is she going to get him?
Like, how does it work?
There's a there's a fifth grader at his school that also has type one, and his mom is so sweet. And she actually bought a Sugarpixel for the school nurse this year. So, she's able to see both the boys, blood sugar at the same time.
Oh, that'll make John happy. John owns Sugarpixel. He... He'll be he'll be thrilled to know Yes. That's very cool.
I also own one at home, but I did not buy one for the school nurse.
You're like, listen. I've got a line. Okay? Yeah. My line......
Send them a glucose to school, so that's in his classroom. But
Does it help? Does teachers say, oh, that's cool. It turns red, and I go, uh-oh. Or Yeah. Yeah.
He does not feel his lows at all.
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I've seen him, like, running around happy as can be on a playground, but his blood sugar was 29. Oh. You would never know that he's low. I can tell, like, his, like, eyes will get, like, a little, like, darker... Like, dark circles under his eyes, and he'll get a little paler
How she can see it in his eyes11:45
Yeah.
And sweaty, but also, like, sweaty at a playground seems normal.
Mhmm. So... Nobody wants to be pale and sweaty. That's for sure.
Yeah. Yeah. So then he gets mad because I'm like, you have to sit down and drink some juice. And he's like, but I wanna play with my friends. I'm like, well, I want a child.
I I complained about the three of you, but I'm not looking to trade any of you in. Exactly. Right. Right. My gosh.
What's his understanding of his type one?
He's got it down. He's so smart.
Yeah.
He is really, he's got a good idea of it, but also he kinda... I mean, he's seven. So he fluctuates between I wanna do this all by myself, and, I don't wanna stop playing video games, so you do this for me.
Mhmm. That sounds right. That's how I feel most of the time. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. So wait. We're back at church. He's fiddling with the he's fiddling with the vent. Am I right?
Yeah. He was, like, banging on the vent and making all this noise. So I finally just, like, took him out and, had him... I was letting him, like, go, like, outside, like, on the sidewalk. There was, like, just, like, a tiny bit of frost on the ground, and he was kind of, like, ice skating.
Mhmm. And then he'd come back in and he'd warm up, And then he'd go back out, and this older man came up to me. And he goes, where's his coat? And I was like, he doesn't have one. We don't wear coats in the car seat.
And we, at the time, lived in an area that was more low income. And I think he thought I couldn't afford to buy him a winter coat.
Okay.
And I was like, no. No. No. He has a winter coat at home. We just don't wear coats in the car seat, so he doesn't have it with him right now.
And he goes, well, some people would say what you're doing is child abuse.
And did you say, oh
And I was like
Great. I... This is when I come to church for acceptance and understanding.
No. I just, like, looked at him. I was like, he's fine. And he goes, that's what a child abuser would say.
And I
was just like, how do you respond to that?
Well, he's not wrong. What would you... If you were abusing him, would you tell him you were abusing him? Of course not.
Like, of... No. But, like, am I supposed to say, yeah. You're right. I'm abusing him.
Like, what? Like, what response were you looking for here? So I pick... I just, like, picked him up, and I took him into the women's bathroom because that guy couldn't follow me there and sat there and cried for a minute. And then I was like, something is wrong.
Like, this is not my kid. So then on Tuesday, he would go to my mom's house all day. And when I went to pick him up, it was, like, my last day of work. The next day was sort of winter break. I think Saturday was Christmas.
And he... I got to my mom's house. It was, like, almost 05:00, and he was still sleeping. Like, he had napped from, like, noon until 05:00. I'm like, that is weird.
Like, that's not right. And when I went to get him, he peed so much. His socks were wet, and the pillowcase was wet.
Wow. That's an impressive situation.
Yeah. I was like,
this is so normal. With it. He was
Yeah. And I was like, we... I was like, something's wrong. And I was like, mom, I was like, I think he has diabetes. And she's like, what?
Like, she was like, this is crazy.
Like, he's either that or a child abuser. So something's happening.
Something's wrong.
How did you know that? How did you think that?
A due date group, and a MyChart message15:06
I was in a, like, mom, like, due date group with all kids that were born in July 2019. And one of the moms had posted, like, two weeks before, hey. My kid's peeing a lot. Do you think he has diabetes? And I just remember thinking that post was so stupid because why are you not talking to your doctor?
Mhmm. Like, if you think your kids has diabetes, what is Facebook group gonna do for you?
Yeah. It turns out a lot. But... Yeah. Yeah.
And so that's how I learned that that was a symptom. And so I I sent a MyChart message to his doctor, and his doctor called me before the office even opened the next day. And they're like, hey. Come right now.
Okay. And that gets you. Yeah. That'll make you think twice. You're like, uh-oh.
I packed him up in the car, and I took... I was... I had, his one year old brother with me too. And we drive to the doctor, and the whole way there, I'm like, Veronica, you're an idiot. Like, every three year old has bad behavior.
Every three year old, what's the bed? Like, you are overreacting. Like, this is dumb. Mhmm. And you're gonna get to the doctor, and they're gonna be like, he's acting like a three year old.
And they tested his urine, and I don't know what units they used to test urine. But whatever it was, his glucose... There shouldn't be any glucose in your urine, and his was over 1,000. Well, then,
there you go.
Yeah. So they're like, well, we're gonna prick his finger. And so they did that, and it was $5.69. So they're like, okay. He has diabetes.
You're gonna have to go to the hospital. He's like, but we're gonna draw his blood here. And so they drew his blood in his pediatrician's office, and they were able to rush the labs at the hospital. So we were able to go home, and they're like, they will call you in, like, the next four hours and let you know where to go. Gosh.
So we went home. We were able to pack a bag. They told us to expect to be there a couple days. And luckily, his labs all came back fine. So we just went straight to endocrinology.
He didn't need any, like, ICU time or anything.
After the shock wears off17:24
How do you, I mean, after the shock wears off, the first the first wave of... There's a number of waves of shock to come. But after the first one wears off and you... You're bearing down, what do you do? You get somebody over to watch the baby?
You get the husband together? We do the whole I
ended up calling our, the... We had used an in home day care for the baby. And so I called her, and I was like, hey. I wasn't supposed to bring him in today, but I'm gonna need to bring him the next couple days, and told her what was going on. And she was super understanding.
So I dropped the baby off at her house, and then I actually posted in a mom's group on Facebook, and I was like, hey. My three year old was just diagnosed, and, like, what do I do?
Were... Did you feel did you feel like a did you feel like a heel then because you thought of the other woman? Why would you possibly put this in a Facebook group? Also Well
how can we But she was like, do you think my kid has diabetes? And I'm like, but that's a question for a doctor. Nobody can diagnose diabetes over Facebook.
Yeah. Sure. I mean, I could.
Not like, hey. I just got a diagnosis and, like, where are my resources?
I hear you. Hey. How come you didn't use the guy from church to babysit? He sounds very protective. He would have been fantastic.
We
went back to that church ever again. He actually... So I... My husband didn't know what was happening because he was... I didn't have my phone with me, and he was in church with our other son.
And, when he came out after church was over, he looked at me. He's like, what the heck just happened? And I had told him, and he walked back in and told the priest what happened. And he goes, yeah. I know.
The guy came up and told me first.
We've already called the state police on you, just so you know.
I'm like, oh my god. Yeah. I'm like, thankfully, we did not go there very often, so nobody knew who we were.
That's really fun. Okay. You're in the hospital now. The weight of it is coming together. What what are people saying to you?
How are you putting a plan together?
Yeah. It it was interesting. We had we had a really great diabetic educator. If he was wonderful teaching us all the things and people told me, like, they're, like, the three things... Like, on Facebook.
They're, like, the three things you need to do is join the Juice Box Facebook group, get an Omnipod, and get a Dexcom. And I said, okay. I'll work on that.
I'm on it.
So we did leave the hospital with the Dexcom, but they wouldn't give us a pump right away, which was fine, at that point. Hindsight's twenty twenty. But, he... We we had good education. My mom is a nurse.
My... I had cousins in town that were nurses, but even them, like, they were hosting Christmas dinner and they were like, is he allowed to eat this? And I'm like, aren't you a pediatric nurse? Like, shouldn't you know this information? But, no, nobody knows anything.
Well, Veronica, that's why people go to Facebook and ask other people questions sometimes.
Yeah. Mhmm. So family was... We had good supportive family. I do remember they sent a child life specialist in, And I had specifically asked her, like, for a book for him to kind of explain what was going on to him.
And she was like, oh, he doesn't understand. Like, he's too young to know what's going on. And I'm like...
She could've she could've just said we don't have free. We we don't have books. It would have been an easier answer. What is a child life
very aware that I'm stabbing him with needles several times a day.
Veronica, what the hell is a child life specialist?
So
I think when some people say AI is gonna steal my jobs, I think you guys should maybe consider that your job was pretend to begin with. But... Okay. What what is a child life specialist?
Yeah. They are... They they work in children's hospitals and help bring, they... I don't... They're like Santa Claus.
I don't know. They bring... They brought us, like, Play Doh and coloring books.
Okay. Alright. I'm good. Thanks. Keep moving.
Yeah.
Santa Claus, I guess. I think they help bring, like, educational materials to kids to help them understand a new diagnosis
That sounds nice.
And, like, help keep them calm.
I'm sorry for making you fun of it.
That sounds nice. It... It's nice, but it... It's something.
It's something. Can I get a book? No. Play Doh. I I They give
us a lot of Play Doh.
Your kid your kid don't understand anything anyway. Don't worry about
it. Yeah.
Oh, this is good and great. Hey. Are you married to a guy that goes to my church by any chance?
I know.
You got the same vibe. I just want to say.
But... Yeah. Okay. But he took it really well. He's...
Like, I have a video of him, like... I think it's, like, four days after diagnosis, and he's sitting there and he's describing all the parts of the pen needle and, like, how did I give himself a shot. He's he's really smart little boy.
Yeah. Well, that's awesome. Did you find a book for him ever, or did you find you didn't need it?
I wrote my own book.
Oh, well, there you go. That's... Did that happen during I didn't
have time to wait.
Did that did that happen during special time in your pink shiny room, or was it before that?
That was before I got my sewing room. We we ended up moving. We were living in Ohio when he was diagnosed. We're in Missouri now. Okay.
So sewing room didn't happen till we moved.
Nice. How how was it having the CGM right away? And what did you mean when you said hindsight's twenty twenty when you said it was okay if you leave him without a pump? Oh,
so his car ratio when we came home from the hospital was one to a 100.
So Not a lot of...
Dosing him for anything
Yeah.
Was a nightmare. Mhmm. He was at 300 constantly. And at the time, I also didn't know how to turn off the Dexcom high alarm, so his preschool really loved us because it just went off every five minutes the whole day he was there.
So what? I... You know what? Who cares?
They were actually...
They were so wonderful.
They did so good.
Yeah. Deal with it.
Yeah. Just a little bit. He was just there half day. They didn't have any... Like, there's no medical staff there.
It's just a little tiny church preschool. Different church than the one we were at.
Different.
But they were really wonderful about it. But they, we only packed, like, low carb snacks for him until he got a pump. Mhmm. So they didn't ever have to dose him for anything, and they just gave him fruit snacks if he ever went low. But he was, like, over 300 constantly those first five months.
Low carb snacks until the pump23:45
First five months. And and why do you think that is? Just because it was so... It was too hard....
Got him a pump.
Because you couldn't give him... So... Okay.
Yeah. We... Even when they approved his pump, they only approved him to go on Omnipod if he was wearing a g seven because he was using too little insulin to use automated mode.
Oh, okay. So that... Well, why does... I don't understand. Why would...
If you weren't gonna use automated mode, what does it matter what CGM you had?
Oh, it was before g seven and Omnipod were integrated. So they couldn't talk to each other. So they didn't want us to accidentally put him in automated mode with the g six.
They thought you were gonna accidentally put it into automation?
Yeah. So this is what I've decided about that hospital system.
Go ahead, Veronica. I'm I'm waiting to hear what
you decided.... One... There's only one children's hospital that was treat... Or, like, treating pediatric type ones within, like, a two hour radius of us. And I think they saw a lot of people that maybe didn't have a lot of education, and so they had a lot of safeguards in place to make sure kids stay...
Didn't go low.
It's a generous interpretation.
When they... You know, like, I think they just didn't encounter a lot of parents like my husband and myself where we, like, spent the time to research and learn and figure out what was gonna work best for him. So when we would challenge them on, like, hey. Like, I think his a one c is too high, and I, like, can't dose him the way I wanna dose him for things, they didn't wanna hear it because they didn't want him to go low.
I think that's a very generous interpretation. I appreciate how kind you are. I think that everybody
I tried.
I I think that everybody's brain says the first thing that it thinks, and they go, that must be right. And then then they just say it out loud. So, I mean, here's here's a g six or a g seven. Who cares? Here's the Omnipod five.
Keep it in manual. And after his insulin needs go up enough, we'll move it into automation. Mhmm. And then here's the button.
Don't touch up having a growth spurt really soon after. So within a month of getting a pump, we were able to go and automate it.
I... I'm just telling you. Everybody thinks they know something. I'm I'm one of those people, by the way. Every time I think something, I think I'm right too.
Guess what? We're all probably wrong. So, you know, then you start making rules, then kids can't get CGMs. Except, like, what if your insurance would have said what if your insurance would have said, hey. You can have a g six or you...
But you can't have a g seven. Then... And and Yeah. Now your kid's blood sugar stays at 300 all the time because you're not able to to bolus less. What about...
It's just it's just... I don't know.
Yeah. And nobody ever told me about, like, diluted insulin. Like, that wasn't a thing.
No. I mean, you're not getting enough....
About that until it was too late at that point by the time I learned about it. So there were things like, you know, if one of my other boys would get diagnosed and goes through something similar that I would be like, no. We're doing x, y, and z. But...
I think your story's taken away all my momentum. I... Usually, I get angry. This one just, I'm just going, you know what? It's...
It... We're all... We're finished. It's over. I just...
I... Nobody can think or they... Everyone's making rules for no reason, and then they think it's a rule for the next person. Person. And, like Yeah.
I can't. I can't. But we're in a
new hospital system now, and they're... They listen better.
Hey, Veronica. I'm having a meltdown. Like, you're worried about... You're telling your story. I...
I'm I'm losing faith in humanity. Well, like, before your eyes, you're like, wait.
I have a cool tip, though.
Okay.
A tour bus of an endo practice27:24
His endo at our new hospital system, they have, like, a Taylor Swift sized, like, tour bus. So I don't have to take him downtown to the hospital. This tour bus just comes to a school for all his appointments.
I mean And that's so cool. It's nice. Yeah. I mean, I like that. Okay.
But is the person showing up telling you you can't have a CGM because some
No. She's wonderful. She's really wonderful.
The bus lady's good, you're saying to me.
Yes. Bus lady's great.
I'd like to live on a bus for a couple of weeks. You know I mean?
I would not.
No. Just like a tour... Like, when guys... When people go on tour... You know what I mean?
Like, with a band?
Yeah. Well, I don't want the band there. It's just me. I I I think I'm just trying to get away. I just wanna get away from people for a couple of weeks.
Maybe it doesn't need to be on a bus. I guess I can go out in my backyard for a couple of weeks if I wanted to and just stand there. But It's...
No. It's too hot for that.
Yeah. The humidity It's
a 103 here today.
Is it really?
Yeah.
The humidity has been terrible this year. Really ruined. It ruined the season. Like, this... It's raining all...
I mean, I guess grass and everything has to grow. I'm with you. But, like, there's been a lot of rain.
It's not growing in a 103.
I know. Right? It just gets sad and wilts. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Well, listen. Everything's fine. Don't worry about it.
It'll all work out.
Yeah. Rolling blackouts are next. You'll be... Don't worry. When that happens, you just go, oh, it's okay.
I'm sure someone's taking care of it. Guess what? They're not. Okay? They're not.
They're not. They're
not. Buy a generator.
I'm so close. I'm so close to digging a bunker and putting guns in it. I could feel it. I'm like, I'm really, like, starting to slide off the edge here. I...
Sorry. I'm okay. Don't don't worry about me, everybody. Everything's gonna be fine.
Are we okay?
I don't know, Veronica. Like, your story just... I don't know how many times I'm supposed to listen to people get let down by the people who told, don't worry. This person will handle it for you before I before I just gotta tell you that that's my expectation. And then when it go when it goes right, that's the anomaly.
I listened to the last two days episodes just kind of preparing myself for today. And I was telling I was telling my coworker, I'm like, I am not as interesting as these people.
Oh, did you... You... Would you listen to the one... The guy with the, where I read the Hippocratic Oath? Did you listen to that one?
Yes. Yeah.
Yes. And then the the single mom the day before.
Oh. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. But I
was like,
But this guy... If you didn't hear the one... The Hippocratic Wuth one, people, go back.
I did. I listened to that this morning.
I know, Veronica, I'm talking to the people. Go back. Right? Because this guy's, like, blood sugar's high, his doctor says to him, you probably have HIV. And, like...
And then fights with him for a while about it.
It's just... It's Like, six months.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. No.
It's crazy. And then when he gets to the hospital, like, two different medical professionals say to him, hey. So I see he got type one diabetes. That's gonna be tough. And then walk out of a room and just leave him.
It's... Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Good luck.
I'm just... I I I I... I'm trying to assume... I'm sorry. I'm stammering a lot.
I'm trying to assume that people wanna come on the podcast to tell these stories, and that's why there's more of them. But at the same time, like, I don't know. There are people who come on and tell nice stories, and they're like, oh, I went here, they told me a thing, and I figured it out. It was okay. And everything...
They're just few and far between normally. And I don't know. Either that's real or it's not. But
Well, but it's like like I was telling my coworker earlier. I'm like, listened to those two episodes, and I'm like, I'm not that interesting. I don't have anything interesting to say.
You were accosted.
So maybe that's it.
You were accosted at a church by the old man from Home Alone. That's fantastic right off the bat. And, you know, you got good stuff. You haven't bad mouthed your husband yet, but we'll get to it.
No. He's good.
Oh, okay. Alright.
Alright. I've got a good one. Although my son will only let me do all of the device changes, so if a pump fails at two in the morning, I have to get woken up to change it.
He only lets her change the devices31:25
He doesn't trust the husband or the husband has paid him money to say that I want mom to do it? Which do you think is the
second gotta be the second one.
Yeah. For sure. That's what I I...
Because he'll let he'll let dad do it if I'm not home, which is only on Sunday nights when I'm gone for line dancing. But...
I I mean, I'm looking back on my time now and realizing I should have told Arden, listen. Here's $20. Tell mom you don't trust me. You need her to...
Yeah. I'm the only one that can change his his devices. I'm not sure why, but he did draw insulin out of the vial for the first time ever this week.
Oh, cool.
Like, without me helping. So I'm like, ugh. He goes, mom, you look tired today. I'm like, I'm exhausted.
He's he's six. Right?
He he just turned seven.
He just turned seven. Happy birthday. And your your seven year old's looking at you making an assessment and going, give give me the needle. I'll do less damage than you're gonna do. Let me have that laid out.
Yeah. We
we went to the we went to the grocery store the other day and bought, oh my gosh, probably enough groceries for a month. And he was, like, obsessing over the amount of money we spent on the groceries. And the next day, he's like, mom, I'm so sorry we spent so much money on groceries. And I'm like, dude, don't worry about the grocery money.
Is he anxious? Yeah. Are you? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Oh, oh, yeah.
Just a little.
Yeah. You know, before the babies or or just after them?
Always, but it's definitely worse since having kids. And especially since I had that, like, my son has to have diabetes, and then he did Mhmm. Did have diabetes. Mhmm. That really amped it up.
You, you worried about them all the time?
Not medicated. You're... Oh, yeah.
Not medicated. Hey. The lady the other day...
Not medicated.
She was... I... Oh, no. The woman I interviewed the other day, she's... I said, you're doing really great.
She goes, I... I'm on a cocktail. And I was like, oh, okay. She she said it was well No. Wellbutrin and something else, and they call it well off or something like that.
I forgot what she said. It was funny the way she said it. Yeah.
Yeah. I did I did try Wellbutrin even before the kids were in the picture, but, that was not for me.
No. Have you tried, lately, I've been hearing people say they're giving... I can't think of the name of it. They're giving this one at, like, a super low dose, and it's just kinda taken the edge off of people. Mhmm.
It's not a bad...
I was on something. I don't even know what it was anymore. And then when I... In between my second and third. And then it was safe to be on during pregnancy, but it was making me have morning sickness, so I stopped.
And... Did your anxiety come while you were pregnant?
Well, I don't think it ever left because...
Sure. Like, Scott, the medicine was not strong enough.
So how was diagnosed in December '20... What year? '22. Mhmm. And I went off of it in June '23.
And you're like, this is no different? I feel the same right now as I did before?
Think we we were, like, six months into a diabetes diagnosis with a three year old, and I was like, they're... I will never not be anxious again.
Veronica, all day long about everything, some things comes and goes, What's the level of it? Describe describe it to me.
I'm anxious about everything. Yeah. I also, I didn't describe my job well to you earlier. So I work at a school, but I'm a behavior analyst. So we're a small school that takes kids with extreme behavior.
So at any given moment, I could have a desk thrown at me, a chair flipped over, somebody's trying to punch me. So, you know, just kinda gotta live on the edge.
Was that anxiety, or is that just reality?
That's reality. That happens every day
in school. It doesn't leave you when you leave that scenario. You don't you don't feel safer other places?
I mean, I'm safe if I'm in my sewing room.
Did you not hear about the sparkly pink room, Scott? That's where I stay safe. Wait a minute. Why how much is this job must pay you a $500,000 a year where you're letting people turn to death? No?
Why are you doing it? Why are you being so nice to the world?
I love it.
You do?
I I cannot sit at a desk all day.
Okay.
Actually, just sitting here... Like, I know we're having a conversation, but this is hard for me just to sit still. I I need to be moving.
You don't drink. Right? You're you're not quieting the voices other ways or anything like that? No. Good.
I don't
think that's gonna good. I enjoy a drink on occasion, but Yep.
No. But not three before dinner is my point.
No way. Okay.
Good. Good.
I had a glass of wine. Actually, I had two glasses of wine with dinner this week and that... My husband's like, who are you?
I've never had a glass of wine in my life. I don't know if I've tried... I mean, I'm sure I've had a sip of it some... At some point or another, but...
Have.
You must have. Yeah. Did you, like, you were really nice to him and everything? And he's like, oh, this will be okay. Yeah.
I I think I just seemed more fun when I was 18.
Were you hiding your anxiety from him?
I don't think so.
No. He was dumbfounded by your beauty. Is that what you're telling me? He couldn't he couldn't... Yeah.
He couldn't think. That's what happens.
Yeah.
He gets stupid right away. You're like, I don't know. I think it'll be fine. And then later, people are like, why'd you do that? I'm like, I I don't I don't know.
I didn't notice. What about him has, had... Did he trick you about?
I don't know. I don't know. I I... This is... I say it all the time.
I really kinda hit the jackpot as far as, like, in laws, his his parents, his sisters. They're
Everybody's good.
They're really wonderful. So... And I know, like... I don't know. We don't...
It's like any family. Like, people don't always get along with every little aspect, but I know I can call them at any time, and they're gonna be there.
You had a good group. And you couldn't think of one bad thing to say about him? It's awesome.
Maybe he doesn't do the dishes enough.
Really? I just did the dishes, and I have to tell you there's no way anyone's gonna thank me
for If he hears this, he'll laugh because, I almost never do the dishes. Oh,
you just need him to do it because you don't wanna do it. Yeah. I see. I went on a little Go ahead.
Change all the medical devices. He can do the dishes.
I I... Paper plates make me so upset that... I know that sounds strange. I don't like the idea of paper plates. No.
No. So my wife sometimes is like, just get some paper plates in case I don't wanna, like, do the dishes. I'm like, I do the dishes. What do you even care? I was like, the paper plates make me anxious.
I... Not anxious. Upset. I don't like I don't like the idea of paper plates. Listen.
This isn't the time for that conversation. But nobody cares that the paper plates make me upset. They go, well, we want them. And I'm like, but I don't want them. And I...
And it... Anyway, nobody cares about me, I think is what I'm here to say. You're making me so sad.
No. Don't be sad.
You're my last recording before I take a break for the weekend. I'm taking a long weekend. My wife and I were taking a we're taking a long weekend. And you're my
Well, I've, I... See, I can't let people be sad, so then I have to think of happy things to tell them.
Jack this back up a little bit. This this kid of yours, he's doing well. He's on automation. Things are okay. He sounds like he's smart.
He's figuring things out. How did you figure out brilliant. What did they... I mean, is this gonna be one of those stories where you tell me, like, that you learn stuff from the podcast, or did you learn it somewhere else? Like, how did you figure out how to manage The podcast for sure.
Where she actually learned it39:28
Okay. Very nice. See, a one c right now?
We did go to the children with diabetes conference
Did you?
The year he was diagnosed, and that was really wonderful.
You enjoy you enjoy the camaraderie?
I do. Yeah. And I also really enjoy Disney World.
Yeah. You just went on vacation. I hear what you're saying. Yeah. What's his a one c today?
His last one was 6 point 2, but he was really mad because the last three before that were 5 point 8 5.9.
Sounds like somebody's got mommy's, problem. You know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. And variability, we don't see too many lows.
We don't see too many big spikes that last too long.
No. He's super variable. Okay. Both... So he had the same nurse the last two years, and this is the brand new school nurse this year.
But... So she's still getting to know him, but she's even made this comment too that he is so incredibly sensitive to insulin, and that he's really hard to keep in range.
How how, how much does he weigh?
Like, seventy pounds.
Okay.
Is he... He's really big for his age. He's actually almost as tall as me.
Is he super active?
Yeah. He's very active. He plays tennis. There's a lot of running in that too. But
Why does it...
Tennis down to a science.
Okay. But why do you......
Keep him steady there. But...
Why do you think he's bouncing around school?
He... Well, I don't really know, honestly. Well, first of all, he loves cereal. I can't get the kid to stop eating cereal for breakfast, and I'm not at home when he eats breakfast. So I have no control over that.
You could not buy cereal. I just wanna point out.
I I have been vetoed.
By by the... I
get outvoted a lot.
By the by the men by the men group?
By the men in the house.
And the dog.
And the dog.
Wait. There's four boys and a dog and then you and your anxiety. Do we count your anxiety as a person? We can. Right?
So it's you and your anxiety against that dog and those four boys.
Yeah. Ugh. The dog... I tried to keep him off the couch, and I just... I gave up this week.
He can just sleep on the couch now.
It's going sideways. Yeah. Probably...
He's too big. Probably... The dog weighs more than me. I'm like, I'm over it.
You're just giving stuff away left to right. You're like, cereal is bad. I take it. I don't care. The dog is ruining the whatever.
Is it is it... I mean, listen. You've been at this a few years now. Is it overwhelming still? No.
Okay. How would you describe it?
I think it's just, like, the new normal.
You don't find it to be overwhelming?
No. It's it's just it just is what it is. I think there's just so much variability in between, like, growth hormones and... You know? Like, this week at school, they're not going outside for recess because it's a 103 degrees outside, so it's too hot.
A hundred and three degrees, no recess42:50
Mhmm. So when... Like, last week, they're going outside for recess, and they're playing... Apparently, he's playing kickball this year, so they're running a ton. And so last week, he went low every single day after recess.
And I was, like, just about to tell the nurse, hey. Let's pull back his lunch, dosing so that he isn't going low. And then now they're not going outside, and he's sitting and playing Legos.
Okay. So these little these little variables are are not getting addressed in a timely way.
And sometimes you can give him one gummy bear, and he continues to drop. Like, it would... It's like nothing even happened. And sometimes you give him one gummy bear, and he shoots up to 300.
You don't see any correlation between how much insulin's on board or how much activity he's had prior to that situation?
No. And I... It... Like, I analyze graphs and data for, like, half my living, so I watch it meticulously. And it's...
He's just super sensitive.
You ever try asking AI what it sees? Like, throwing some graphs.
Actually, I use AI a lot at work, but I ask it, like... Sometimes I'll ask it to help me calculate if I'm doing, like, an extended bolus and if he's eating something really fatty. Mhmm.
But Never ask it.
Never ask everything.
How fast the chair moves when it's thrown by a seven year old. So how much time do I have to get out of the way? Has chair ever really been thrown
at you? Are 18 throwing chairs at me.
Oh, have you ever had a a chair thrown at you? You have?
Oh, yes. Oh my gosh. At least once a week.
No kidding.
I wasn't joking.
Why are the chairs not chained to something? Seriously. Can you bolt them to the floor?
I mean, it just depends on the student.
Oh, yeah. Okay. Do you always know which ones are gonna
Triggier student right now? Yeah. Yeah. They all, like, have different kind of behaviors. My tricky one right now, he just flips his desk over.
So, generally, I can just move out of the way, and then he generally almost immediately just picks it back up himself. So I'm like, okay. If they're throwing their chair a lot, we have switched to those, like, desks that have, like, the chair attached to the desk so they're
hard to heavy. Make them too heavy to throw.
Yeah. Jesus. Yeah. Or we switched, like, if they're, like, flipping desks, like, a lot in a way that they're trying to hurt people, not just, like, I'm mad, so I'm flipping a desk over. Mhmm.
We switched to those, like, really big, like, heavy metal desks that nobody can flip over.
Oh my gosh. That's horrifying. And there's, like, four... 40... Well, you you say, oh, I say horrifying.
There's there's, like, 40 kids in the school at one time?
Yeah. I think there's about that many right now. Yeah.
Jeez. And they all are on some level, like, in that vein?
Yeah. Yeah. So we're like a... It's considered a purchase of service. So when a school district says, like, we can't give this student a good education because of...
We... They can't meet the behavior needs, whether that's they're not trained in how to handle the behavior or they can't staff the student, to keep both the student, the staff, and the other kids at the school safe, they pay to send them to us.
Wow. Jeez. Imagine your kid is such an issue that the school district's like, we're gonna pay somebody to to take him out of here, so we're not breaking any laws, and we can get rid of the kid.
We actually just had a student. And, like, because we're so small, we don't have a nurse on staff. We have, like, some staff that are med trained, but they can just, like, give a medication.
Mhmm.
But they can't, you know, like, they can't manage diabetes or anything like that. But we actually did just have a student diagnosed with type one, and the school district is paying for him to have a nurse here one on one all day.
Okay. I'm gonna go through and ask you a couple of quick questions. Okay?
Okay.
You said in your little intake writing that you said that hearing other parents' stories helped you very much early on. Can you tell me, like, recant a story and how it impacted you?
Everybody complains the same way47:29
Yeah. I think it was just, I don't know a specific story off the bat, but I feel like a lot of episodes of the podcast, it's adults talking about their experience with type one or parents of older kids. They're... When Hal was diagnosed, you know, he was three, and they're just... It was hard to find an episode with other really little kids.
So when I would find one, it was nice to hear, like, okay. They're doing okay now. Or, hey. Like, we use diluted insulin and, like, things that helped them, like microdosing or, I don't know, different snack ideas that were helpful when the kids were little.
So you just get ideas or some confidence seeing that people have been where you are and they've moved forward, they're okay.
Yeah.
I laughed a little when you started talking because everyone complains the same way. If they're adults that live with type one, they go, this show is just nothing but parents. And if you're a parent of a kid with a little kid, you're like, oh, just no episodes for me. And then the other ones are like, oh my god. Everybody I...
Every time I turn on, it's an adult with diabetes. Just wanna hear somebody who's parenting a kid in their teens, and I'm like, oh, okay. I I... But No. I get that.
I... It's it's funny
how works. For yourself, not for Yeah. The whole audience.
I I I take your point. It's... So... Okay. So hearing stories is is that kind of, like, comfort.
That I I appreciate knowing that. I'm just gonna keep going through your thing here because your your son wants to be a social media influencer?
Oh, yeah. He has a TikTok. His goal... He wants 10,000 followers because he knows that he can make money, and he just really likes to save money.
How much money does he think he's gonna make?
I... He... I don't think he really even has, like, the grasp of Money? Money. Like, he he knows, like, what's a lot and what's a little and that things cost money, but I don't think he understands, like, the work that goes into social media.
I saw
this It's hard.
I saw the saddest thing the other day. So there's this young kid. He never puts himself on... I'd never seen this before. Just popped in front of me.
Right?
Nope. I know who you're talking about.
Oh my god. If I say what I say and you tell me it's what you were thinking of, my head's gonna explode. But I I guess he plays some sort of a game, and he videos the game. And then he gets on to make an announcement that his parents are getting divorced. They can't make the videos anyway, and he's crying, and he's just...
Just abs... Oh, hold on a second. Can you hear that?
Yes.
Oh, you won't be able to hear it much longer when I get into my new recording studio. And he's crying. My... I'm not gonna be able to do this anymore. It's gonna be too hard.
My family's, like, falling apart. Like... And you can hear in his voice, he's gotta be, like, nine, 10 years old. And all I could think was, and this is between you and Jesus, you can do whatever you want for. Like, I thought, this is not good.
Like, this kid shouldn't be doing this. You know what I mean? Like, he's built up some sort of a... An online, I don't know, presence, I guess, such that he thinks that people know who he is and that he feels responsible to them to put up videos of him playing this dumb game or whatever. And I'm just like, this is all wrong.
Like, this this isn't right at all.
Cal has a TikTok, but he does not get on TikTok. He does not post anything. He will just be, like, playing tennis and being like, you should film and make a TikTok out of this, and then that's what it is.
Oh, so you have a TikTok?
Yes. It's mine. But it's just... I told him it's it's all his diabetes stuff. So it's just...
It blowing
off?... Money. He's got, like, 3,500 followers.
So Oh.
It's not small, but, I mean, it's not
It's not big.
Tiny, but it's not Yeah. It's not making money.
It's not making money. It's not going to, by the way. No. It will. Yeah.
Actually, he did just, he did just get
The creator program.
Reached out.
You serious?
To pay him.
A company reached TikTok. But... Mhmm. Is it... You don't have tell me what company, but is it, like, a device manufacturer or something like that?
It's a, like, a sharps, waste company.
Are you serious? What did they... Will you please tell me how much they offered him to make the video?
$50.
$50.
Yeah. Did you tell him?
What did you tell him?
Pretty small, but, you know, it... He's excited about it. So...
I'm sure he is. I mean, that part's sweet. I'm not gonna make you feel bad about that part. But $50, stop it. That's the plan, by the way.
That's what they...
That's nothing.
Yeah. Well... No. No. No.
No. No. No. Listen. I'm gonna...
I'll let you all in on a secret. Here's what they're thinking. They're thinking you're all desperate and you wanna get involved in this. And you'll take any offer to make a video because you think it's gonna lead to something else, but the truth is it's not going to with the fine exception of a few people who are gonna get paid some reasonable amount of money. And so they're out there offering people $50,100 dollars, $200, go make a video, blah blah blah.
Off their budget, it's nothing. Right? They're like $50. They don't care. And if your kid drives three people to buy a sharps container, well, then they're...
They made money. And if they didn't, they Exactly. It's... It... No.
It's such a scam. Like, it's a real scam.
It really is.
Yeah. TikTok just put down... TikTok just made it harder for for people to make money on TikTok just from views. So now it's all getting pushed onto the companies to make those kinds of deals, but they're all gonna do bare bones offers. They're not gonna offer you anything.
So the structure the structure
And TikTok is very strict. Like, they... Hal cannot be the one making the advertisement. It has to be me because they don't let children advertise anything.
Well, that's... Makes sense. So... And... But my point is this is that, like, it the the structure is backwards now.
Like, it used to be if you made enough views, then someone would pay you because they were selling ads on your views. But now it's you go kill yourself, make the views. You don't get anything for that really. And you have to go find a third party willing to pay you, but those people are barely gonna pay you anything. So you do all of the work, and all of the risk gets put on you.
And if there's if there's reward, you will never be compensated equal to the amount of reward that somebody gets. So it's just... Absolutely. The paradigm's completely broken. Like, everyone's hustling for for brand deals now.
And trust me, that's not gonna last much longer because if... This is just my opinion. And and and maybe I'll be wrong, and then I'll come back and say I'm wrong. I don't think those views are valuable to those companies. I think they just hope they are.
And I think that one day in the next twelve to twenty four months, they're all gonna realize that they've been spending money in all this and it's not paying them back, then they're gonna stop and they're gonna go back to what they used to do. So I think this whole experiment is about halfway through right now. And I talked to a lot of these people. They are not seeing... They can't quantify what they're seeing, and whatever they're seeing, it isn't big enough.
The juice is not gonna be worth the squeeze at some point is what I'm telling you. So this is a moment Absolutely. This is a moment in time, and it's gonna fade. Nevertheless, we'll see what happens. I'll still be here.
I've been doing this for a long time. So, but
Oh, no.
You know, I'm not going anywhere, Veronica. No. I I do wish a guy in the church would yell at
computer is dinging at me.
What's wrong? What's it saying to you?
Wants me to plug it in.
Well, that's a good idea. Can you plug it in? Well,
I'll have to travel to do that, but I don't think anybody's in the building right now.
I'm just saying if Veronica disappears, then the podcast is over. You know what happened. Yeah. I'm gonna ask another question while you're walking. Go
for it.
Alright. Your son's kindergarten science fair project led to you creating an all natural adhesive remover?
Yeah.
What?
The adhesive remover project55:45
So, he only lets us take devices off if we use some sort of adhesive remover spray.
Okay.
And so he wanted to do the science fair in kindergarten, and he was trying to think of what we should do. And he wanted to do something diabetes related, and so I don't even know how we came up with let's make a new adhesive remover but using all natural ingredients. So we looked up the adhesive remover that he uses regularly and just kind of googled what all natural alternatives would be to those ingredients and then emailed a couple companies to see if we could get ahold of those products.
Okay.
And there was a company in Italy that thought that was a really cool project. So they agreed to help, and they sent us over a whole bunch of samples of their products. We mixed it together. He made a product and then got third place in the science fair.
Third place. Nice.
Yeah. I bet So then
Did you get $50 for that?
No. You got nothing.
You got nothing.
I got him ice cream. But then, we emailed the company to say, like, thank you, and he got third place. And they said, that's cool. Let's make this real. Oh.
So they worked for a while on getting it into production, and they got to the point where we got a final product, and then we started talking about packaging. And then communication kind of stalled a lot, and I don't know. We haven't heard from them in months.
They realized that they can sell it without you and that they don't have to cut you in. Is that about what's... Yeah. Has...
Probably.
That's about what they figured out. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's nice
and sucks.... A cousin that is a a biochemist, so he's reverse engineering it now.
Oh, no kidding. Your cousin's a biochemist? My husband's cousin. Yeah. No kidding.
I'm not. I I didn't really go to college or anything.
It's too much science for me.
I don't know anything about anything like that. I'm barely, barely able to do this. I, I I... Biochemistry. Jesus.
That sounds like a that sounds like a long four years in college to me. Oh, I wish you a ton of success. I hope it goes well.
Thank you.
Yeah. Do you... You'd be out there selling, like... What is the idea? You put it on and it just kinda, like, softens up the glue and it kinda peels off nicely?
Yeah. It worked well, and it didn't... You know, like, when you, like, peel off and there's all that residue, there's no residue in it when you use it.
Nice. You don't just tear it off and tell him to shut up.
Oh, he screams at me.
I'm sorry. I was
And then he's he's so fair. Like, he's blonde hair, blue eyes. He's so fair, and his, like, little, like, legs and arms are red for two days.
Yeah. I mean, it's not it's not fun. But, also, I was born in a different time than you. I was just like, it'll sting for a while, and you'll be okay. Just live through it.
So... Okay. What else? I showed with anxiety, your parents' stories that you put a lot in here. I appreciate that.
Science fair, how wants to make social media, everything because I I think I've been through everything that you wrote to me. So that's that's good. I feel like we did that. Is there anything that you wanna tell people that you haven't told them? Is there something that we didn't get to or anything you'd like to say?
I wanna make sure I don't miss anything.
No. I don't think so. Covered a lot.
We did okay? Well, we've been talking for a while. Is this outside of your, comfort zone, or were you okay with this?
No. It's outside of my comfort zone for sure.
Why'd you do it then?
My officemate is smiling at me now. I think just because, you know, when Hal was first diagnosed, it was helpful to hear other parents of young kids talking about it.
Thank you. It's a nice thing. So you wanna do it for somebody else?
Yeah.
I appreciate that very much. You have any tips or tricks? Anything you've learned along the way that you think they should know?
Find a community.
Mhmm.
We we live, like, thirty minutes outside of the city. And so there's, like... There's one other boy at his school with type one, but he's a couple years older, so they aren't, like, really running in the same circle. So we... When we moved here two years ago, I really, like, joined some, like, parents of t one d in the cities, like, Facebook groups and trying to find other families.
Finding other families, and camp1:00:35
And through that, there wasn't a a day camp for type ones in our area. So because we, were able to meet some other moms of kids his age, we were able to get a day camp for them for the summer. So they... He got to go to camp this summer, which was really fun.
Very nice.
And just having that community for him even, like, even being this young was... It definitely changed his outlook on it. He went from saying, I hate diabetes, and I wish I didn't have to do this, like, multiple times a week to, like, this is kinda cool. Alright. This is fun.
Feeling better about it. Yeah. Yeah. After meeting more people. I've had, I've been lucky enough the last couple of years to work with Camp Sweeney where they, you know...
Either sometimes we get people to donate space. I've had advertisers pay for slots. I've had, Camp Sweeney's donated space, like, whatever. And I get to give away, you know, trips to Camp Sweeney for kids. And then while they're at camp, at some point, they make, like, a little thank you video and put it online, which is lovely and not necessary.
But this is the time of year where I get to see four, five, six kids, like, just having the greatest time at camp. And they're like, thank you for sending me. And I'm like, I always think, like, I didn't really do it, but you're welcome. And, I'm glad that the podcast facilitated it somehow. But, the...
Some of them will write letters later, and they very much mimic what you just said. Yeah. Yeah. I I I can't say enough good things about just finding other people where you can feel understood and normal and not have to think about it, at the same time not have to feel like your situation is so different.
Yeah. And, like, they were the youngest age group at the camp, so they saw all the older kids exchanging phone numbers throughout the week. So then, you know, you had this group of, like, six and seven year olds that were, like, trading phone numbers, which is kinda funny because you don't usually see that.
Yeah. Looking That's nice.
But... So then all the moms had to start a group chat. We were like, okay. We need to set some limits around because they were, like, FaceTime each other, like, 13 times a day. Like, you guys cannot be on FaceTime all day.
They're excited. It'll go away.
So... We're like, alright. School's starting, so no FaceTime during school hours.
Oh, wow. It's... Ain't that nice, though? I wonder how much I wonder how much that'll stick. I wonder how much you'll still know those kids in six months or a year.
It'd be interesting to know. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well, it's very cool. Yeah.
Well, Veronica, I appreciate you coming on and sharing all this with everybody. And, I mean, I I guess you have to go back to work. You're you're I'm I'm making air quotes, but you're working. Right?
Yeah. We're on a lunch break, so I still got twenty minutes.
It's it's a nice lunch break. Well, I wanna let you go so you can eat a little bit, unless you just wanna have lunch with me and chat. I don't have any food, but you could you could whip out your sandwich. What is for lunch, by the way? What are you having?
Kielbasa and squash and zucchini.
Really? You brought it from home? Yes. It's nice. You didn't tell me, can I ask one last question real quickly?
Yeah. Of course.
What'd you build the sewing room for? Did you need an oasis?
Yes. Just somewhere to go and, be creative and and disassociate. I'll put headphones on, listen to an audiobook.
What was happening that you that you felt like I have a... I need a place to go?
I have three kids. Somehow
not a deep answer, and you had a very deep answer. I Yeah. You just a lot going on, and you could use some time.
Yeah.
Okay. Alright.
And I knew, like, realistically, like, you know, we're not going out on date nights and out a lot because we have three kids, and not only is it hard to find a sitter that can take care of a type one, but also to pay for a sitter and also pay for the date night out is just expensive. Yeah. So this is a way I could like, alright, like, get out and, like, have a night to do something.
That's awesome.
But also still be available when diabetes comes calling.
Yeah. That's a really great idea. I, I'm happy that you found something that works like that for you. It seems that the podcast you just enjoyed was sponsored by Tandem Diabetes Care. Learn more about Tandem's newest automated insulin delivery system, Tandem Mobi with Control IQ plus technology at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox.
There are links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Tandem and US Med, who also sponsored this episode of the juice box podcast. Get started with US Med at usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. Get your free benefits checked and get started today with US Med, the same place that we get our diabetes supplies. Usmed.com/juicebox. Links in the show notes.
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