#1989 Total Eclipse of the Heart
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Amalie's son was diagnosed the day of the eclipse. She asked the doctor if they could watch it first. Then he told her he'd be dead in a month.
Jump to a moment
- Her son Daniel was diagnosed at twelve, on the day of the solar eclipse, in the path of totality. The pediatrician's urine test came back and they were told to go straight to Children's. She asked whether they could see the eclipse first, and the doctor said yes. They watched it, then drove to the hospital, where his blood sugar came back in the 800s. He was not in DKA. They were discharged that night.
- The warning signs read as nothing at the time. He had lost ten pounds over a winter and two people told her kids plump up and sprout up. On a nine-hour drive he drained a 20-ounce bottle before they crossed the bridge, and they made him pee in McDonald's cups rather than stop. It only landed when he started crying on a walking tour in St. Augustine because he was so thirsty — she had never seen anyone cry about being thirsty.
- The line that reframes the whole episode comes on day one of diabetes education. Staff give Daniel the standard speech — this doesn't limit you, you can do anything you want. He answers, "Well, I can't go in the navy." Amalie is a fourth-generation naval officer, her husband served, her daughter is tracking to the Naval Academy, and the family line runs to the 1800s. Her reaction was to look around the room and think: he already knows.
- He keeps naming his own mortality casually. In Costco she suggested skipping a doomsday prep bucket and he said, "I'll probably be dead within a month or two, so we don't need one." At pump changes he would say this is what keeps me alive for the next couple of days. She is clear it isn't depression — it is matter-of-fact, and it started almost immediately. Scott's read is that the feeling is identical whether a person jokes about it or never says it out loud.
- Her actual agenda was money, and it is a specific plan rather than a worry. She is a federal employee with good coverage and still finds the system deliberately opaque — prior authorizations, tier exemption forms, a prescription that costs $250 for thirty days but $80 for ninety. What she wants is a trust, so that Daniel is not choosing a career by its benefits package at twenty-two or absorbing a few hundred dollars a quarter out of a first paycheck the day he ages off her plan at twenty-six.
- Bold Beginnings Series — The newly diagnosed questions answered plainly — for anyone leaving the hospital the way Amalie did
- Juicebox Podcast Pro Tip Series — Management fundamentals with Jenny Smith, episodes 1000–1025
- Juice Cruise — The trip Amalie is trying to talk her fifteen-year-old into — payments available
- Dexcom G7 — Now in ten and fifteen day wear, with a twelve hour grace period and up to ten followers
- Omnipod 5 — Tubeless automated delivery, updated with a new 100 mg/dL target option — free starter kit at the link
- T1D Exchange Registry — Eighteen and over, type 1 or caregiver, US resident
Every word of the conversation
Welcome and Sponsors0:03
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Meet Amalie2:02
Hi. My name is Amelie. I have a son, Daniel, who was diagnosed with type one diabetes in April 2024.
Amelie, you have one of those names that when it's spelled and I look at it, I think to myself, I'll just have her say her name, and that way, I won't have to wonder. But then once you said it, I thought, oh, yeah. Well, how else would you say that? Like, does that happen in your life a lot? Do people...
Yes. My name is mispronounced all the time. I get a lot of Amalia, Amelia. So I always say, my name is Amelie, like a homily just without the h.
Just get everybody going. And, you know, it's funny. Now that you said Amelia, I can see I can see how my brain would fill that in incorrectly. But at the same time, that's not at all how your name is spelled. And I'm now realizing I don't know how to spell Amelia.
Switch the e and the a.
Oh, you're... Switch... Oh, we... Oh, is that it? Yeah.
Oh, no kidding. What's your mom's name?
Amelie is the French name for Emily, and my father, was from New Orleans. So my maiden name is actually very French. So...
I see. I see. I met you... Did did your did your... Does your first name, like, really, like, rhythmically go with your maiden name?
You don't have to say it, but is
it just... Well, I'll just say it. It's Amelie Chardonnay. So... Yes.
It does. Yeah. What what... What's the... Oh, yeah.
Look what you married. Okay. That must have been that must have been disappointing for a couple of years.
Which is actually surprising because when I married my husband, I was like, oh, this is so easy. But it's really not because my last name starts with an f, which is often, people confuse it with, a v. Like, my grandmother thought for four years that my last name started with a v, and I showed her my driver's license. I was like, no. It actually starts with an f.
I don't know how long we were married when Kelly came home one day and just said, are people gonna call me Brenner forever? And I went, probably? I was like... She's like, that's not the name. I'm like, I don't think it matters.
So Yes. Anyway, thank you for indulging me with that, Amelie. I am Mhmm. And also a little behind this... The scenes.
I did this great conversation yesterday with this university student from Canada. I'll just say it here because they'll probably line up in the app... In the, you know, in the podcast somewhere. She said her name at the very beginning, and it was different. And I didn't clock it correctly, and then I spent ninety minutes talking around her name because I didn't wanna say it incorrectly again.
And I felt bad because I had a really nice connection with her, and I wanted to address her by her name a couple of times. I found myself just not doing So, anyway... Alright. Daniel. Right?
Yes. Dan. Okay. I see you went the other way on the names.
Did. We have a Peter, Anna, and Daniel, so they're easy.
Is this what... Is this like if they raise you as a democrat, you become a republican? If they raise you as a republican, you become a democrat? Like, they give you I
don't know.
They give you omelet, you go Dan. Okay. So how old was he when he was diagnosed?
He was 12.
And that's just a couple years ago?
Yes. He's 14 now, about to be 15.
The other kids have any stuff going on?
No. Not at all.
Any autoimmune on the husband's side, on your side?
So I was actually texting with my sister-in-law this morning because I was... I knew that you were gonna ask this question. And I... And his sister had some sort of thyroid issue Mhmm. Where she had her thyroid shrunk, but I don't know what exactly it is.
He's like, I don't know if it was thyroid cancer or the beginnings of cancer or just... So she had that shrunk, so she has to take some pill every day. But that's really it. There's no type one diabetes in our family. There's no type two diabetes.
Four Generations in the Navy6:01
I was a fourth generation naval officer. So, you know, in the military, there's a lot of, you know, no... You can't really have any medical issues and things like that. My husband was in the navy. So we're both, like, you know, fairly healthy.
Mhmm. My father's sister was in a car accident when she was 16, and she developed rheumatoid arthritis. But that, I guess, is... You know, was triggered from breaking her back in the car accident, and she eventually passed away in her mid forties.
I'm sorry. She she eventually passed away from what in her mid forties?
Rheumatoid arthritis.
Really? My
god. This was in the eighties. So she was fairly bedridden. You know?
God. That's crazy. Hey. You know, iSneaki iSneaki might be responsible for families talking about their health, but more than I think I am. I I I think I get a lot of people to go talk to their extended families about their health.
Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, look at me. Just doing good in the world. Okay. That's all I heard
from you. Husband's parents are, like, you know, approaching their nineties. Very help... Like, healthy, live independently, can still drive, like, mentally on top of stuff. His mom is, you know, maybe a little a little cognitive, you know, deterioration, but, I mean, they're doing great.
My mom is 77 and in Portugal right now on, like, a fifteen day trip with a bunch of people. My father sadly passed away from ALS, but that was service related in the Navy. So...
He was exposed to something?
Well, they don't know. But it is... When you go through the VA disability stuff, it's an automatic considered service related. So an interesting fact about ALS is, I don't know if, like, all the diagnosed cases... I...
My percentages are probably off because I haven't said this in a while. It's, like, fifty percent or sixty percent are military. And then of that 60%, like, 80% are navy. So there must be something on the ships.
Oh, that's crazy. Isn't that interesting? My gosh. Well, well, thank you for doing that and, you know, risking your ALS and everything. We we...
Is that, like, a thing that, like, you know, are them... Are midshipmen walking around going, are we gonna get ALS, or is it not a thing you think about while you're serving?
I don't think you think about it because you're young and healthy and...
Feels like how could this possibly... Yeah. I gotcha. Yeah. Were you on a...
What kind of ship did you serve on?
My first ship was a sprint class destroyer. So, you know, a smaller ship, about 300 people. And my second ship was a big deck amphib. So it's like a... Like an aircraft carrier, but it's amphibious, so it carries marines.
So that's about 3,000 people, you know, fully loaded.
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Actually, I haven't been on one since I went with the Navy.
You've never you've never been on the... You're like, that's enough of this? Is it like when I stopped working at a bakery, I was like, okay. I'm not gonna have a cinnamon again. Is that, like, different?
I would go on one. My husband is not interested on going one, and I've actually been talking to Daniel about the juice box cruise. And I was like, well, is this something you'd be interested in? And he's like, yeah. Maybe.
You know,
but he's 14, 15 years old.
So Yeah. We had...
Going on a cruise with your mom isn't, like, high on his list of things to do.
We had a we had a few kids his age on the last one. I think one of them's coming on soon as a guest. I would know if I wasn't running this entire thing by myself. I actually sat here this morning and I thought for the first time, do I need an assistant? Because I feel like I'm I feel like I'm drowning.
So... You probably do.
Yeah. I was like, jeez. Anyway, well, I hope I hope I see you guys there. And by the way, if anybody wants to come, and this was not planned at all, but juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise. Come with us, I think, July next year?
End of June? Yeah. Yeah. July. Can't remember when the hell we're doing it.
It's it's, like, seven months from now. I'm not I'm not on top of it yet, but you should be because you can make payments, and then it's easier. I'm
a bit I'm talking to them. I'm trying to...
You know, it takes a while
to convince them to do things you want them to do.
So... Well, I'm just laughing because I'm a terrible salesperson. And and I'm just I'm just like, oh, gosh. It's embarrassing. Okay.
A Nine-Hour Drive, and a Water Bottle12:31
So how is how is Daniel diagnosed? Does it come on very quickly? Does it sneak up on you?
I guess it came on quickly for us. I'll just tell you a quick short version of the story.
Yeah.
We were, it was... He was 12, and we started noticing he was losing... I mean, it's all the tip... It's a very typical story. I was listening to the double pancreas episode or something.
I was like, oh my gosh. This is, like, just like our story. But was losing weight. I take him to the pediatrician. They say, no.
This is, like, totally normal. Like, you know, he's probably growing. So, you know, they kinda plump out and then sprout up and then plump out and sprout up. So I was like, okay. Then I remember one of my best friends is a nurse.
I was like, do you think I should be worried? I think Daniel's lost, like, 10 pounds in the past two or three months. And she's like, no. Same thing. You know?
Plump up, sprout up, plump up, sprout up. And I was like, okay. You know, when your children get to a certain age, you don't see them naked anymore, like, because you're not putting them in bathtubs. You know, you're not helping them in the toilet. So this was over the winter.
And then in April, we went on a spring break trip, and we are driving. We are, you know, we are going to see my in laws, and then we were gonna go to this resort in Orlando, and then we had a wedding at the end. And in between that, my husband and our oldest son were going up to the Naval Academy for a funeral. So it's like everybody was going everywhere. We live in Cincinnati, Ohio, and we were leaving, which is, like, forty five minutes from Kentucky.
So we, you know, get in the car. Everybody's got water bottles, and they're those Gatorades. So they're, like, 20 ounce water bottles. And before we get over the bridge, you know, on this nine hour trip, he had drank his entire water bottle and was saying how thirsty he was. And, of course, being the good parents, we are really, you cannot drink all that water.
Like, run a nine hour trip.
Shut up. Like, we just got in the car.
It was. We just got in the car. And then, of course, he drank all this water. He's like, well, now I have to go to the bathroom. I was like, dude, we cannot stop.
Like, like, we're hardly into this trip. So we stop. My husband, like, loves McDonald's. So we stop at a McDonald's, and he gets those giant Cokes, Sean does, to, you know, drink and then chew the ice, which is also... Anyway, as the trip goes on, Daniel is drinking a lot of water, and then we're making him pee in these McDonald's cups so we don't have to stop on the trip.
So we thought that that was strange. Then he was fine at my in laws. When we were at the resort, I noticed he started getting up a lot to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and then he was starving. But he's, you know, like, newly 12 years old, so he's, you know, not on the kids menu anymore, and he wants, like, a regular hamburger. But it's also you're on vacation, so you're eating, like, lots of candy and eating crappy food and drinking sodas and all this stuff.
Long story short, when it really clicked with me, Sean and our older son had gone... Had left for the funeral. And I took the two younger kids, the 14 and 12 year old, to Saint Augustine, Florida. So it's hot, but it's not Mhmm. Miserable.
He Started Crying Because He Was Thirsty16:05
It's still April. And we were on this tour of the city, and we had gotten off this bus. And we were walking in Saint Augustine, and he started crying. And he said, I am so thirsty. He was crying.
Yeah. And in in your life, have you ever seen anybody cry over being thirsty? You know what I mean? Like, what a... It's an aggressive reaction to that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yes. And I was like, this is so weird. And so I pulled out my phone, and I googled, like, weight loss, really hungry. You know? It's like type one diabetes.
I was like, what? So I I remember I called my sister. My sister and I are very close, so I called her first. I was like, do you think Daniel might have diabetes? She's like, well, calm down.
She's like, maybe just call the doctor and see.
I was like, do think I need to take
him to the hospital? So I'm going through all this stuff. We eventually decided... I called his pediatrician, and I said, I know you guys don't wanna hear this, but I Googled his symptoms, and I think he has diabetes. And they were like, well, it could be a lot of things.
And at this point, he wasn't... I guess he probably was really sick, but we didn't think he was really sick. Mhmm. And I said, no. Just finish your trip.
Go to your wedding. Because we are going to a Reading in, like, very rural Georgia. So I was concerned about, you know, access to a hospital and stuff.
Oh, I've been in a Savannah hospital. You should have been concerned about that. So does this end in a hospital in Savannah? Because if it does, this story is how your son died. No.
It... Oh, it's not a story of how your son died in a Savannah hospital? Because I thought my daughter was going to. Go ahead. Alright.
Sorry. And whatever hospital, I'm not gonna say the name of the hospital, but I mean, absolute So go ahead.
Yeah. No. So we went to the wedding. At the wedding, he was definitely lethargic, and he's like, my stomach really hurts. Again, we're on...
We're at the tail end of this vacation. So we were just like, we're going home. I set up a pediatrician appointment with him. It's actually the the day of the eclipse. So it's, like, August 9, and he's kind of a science nerd.
Diagnosed on Eclipse Day18:19
So I was... Worked in the morning. His doctor's appointment was, like, 01:00. So we went. They just do the urine test.
And I'm like, yep. He has type one diabetes. I was like, oh my gosh. They're like, you need to go to Children's Hospital right away. And I said to them, I was like, well, the eclipse is at 02:15, and he's really excited because we were in the area of total, like, totality.
You're gonna get to experience it. Yeah.
And I said, he's, like, really been looking forward to... Like, all the schools were out here. You know, it was, like, a big thing.
Mhmm.
You know, people were meeting up, and they said, okay. So we went to the eclipse, and then I went straight down to our children's hospital in Cincinnati, which is fantastic. And Sean was traveling for work in, like, these, you know, big important meetings, so I was not been in touch with him. Yeah. And we were admitted to the ER.
He was... Thank god he wasn't in DKA. So we... I don't... I guess I started to get emotional because I'm still at this point don't really understand what is going on.
Like, I mean, I know that he has... That he's been diagnosed with diabetes, but I don't know that much about it. And then, you know, all these people are running in. They're, like, running all these tests on them, and I'm just sitting there by myself. I've got my two other kids at home, like, not sure.
You know, thankfully, we have a really good community up here. So my neighbor, you know, got my daughter and took her to do nails and stuff. My older son had gone to the movie with a friend. And...
What... When you said......
Were discharged that night.
So... Emily Emily, when you said I started getting emotional though, but I didn't understand what I... So can you talk just a second about what what the emotion was there?
What the Emotion Was20:10
Well, you're in the hospital with your son, and you know that this is a big deal. Like, he has type one diabetes. And I remember when they pricked his, you know, blood sugar, he was, like, in the eight hundreds. And then just with the urgency that the medical staff was attending to him was, like, very overwhelming to me.
It just felt... And and you're... For clarity too, you're a person who is trained and spent time on a floating rocket launcher. Right? So Yeah.
Yeah. And so do you think that you... Like, could you feel any of that? Like, I even love that you called your sister and she said, just calm down. I was like, that's awesome.
I I thought, oh, I should have married into a military family. That would have been good for me. I would have enjoyed it if people would have been just like, calm down, buddy. I'm like, oh, okay. Can I talk to you like that too?
This is awesome. But, I mean, did the... Did it help you? Like, did you find yourself fighting your own urge to be upset, or is there a is there a drive to hold it together for him? Like...
Because you sound a mute... You... You're... You've sounded very measured through the whole conversation, but your voice is broken in the last couple of minutes. I don't know if you're aware of it or if you're hiding it or...
But you've... You're upset now.
I'm aware of it. Yeah. I'm not... I just... Like, when you're reliving that sitting there...
And, of course, you wanna be strong. It's just me and him in there, and he's obviously scared and, you know, getting poked. And they're coming in, and they give you an insulin pen, and they're like, you know, give him an injection. And it's... It was just...
It was very overwhelming. And then the amount of people that were... You could tell it was serious by the way the doctors were reacting. And they were like, you know, we're gonna test them for DKA. You might be admitted.
You might not. And you're like, on your phone, like, what the hell is DKA?
Hello, Google? Like... Yeah. Yeah. I always wonder if people working in, like, emergency rooms or places like that hear these stories when they're told and then think, oh, we don't do the good job of helping people not to feel freaked out.
Because it is... It's... I mean, look, it's tough to... It's not their job to help you not feel freaked out. But at the same time, you hear the same thing over and over again.
I was running around spouting out a bunch of jargon. Like, you could be a little, No. There's there's ways to help. So, is he upset? Is he just out of it enough that he's going with the flow?
He was actually very... I mean, he was very lucid. Like, he wasn't, you know, like... I keep saying he wasn't super sick. I know he was super sick, but he wasn't
Acting it?
You know, like... I mean, he was, like, kind of... I think we caught it early enough that the symptoms were starting to show up, but he wasn't... Like, you know, some of these horrible stories. It's like, you know, I'm bringing my, like, almost comatose child into hospital.
Like, he was he was very alert and aware of what was going on. So...
I just talked to a I just talked to a lady who said she... Like, her 18... I guess, then 18 year old was so, like, aggressive during the the... Out of con... Like, not how their personality is at all.
Like, she said they started considering, like, how they were gonna even be able to get them to the to the physician because the person's like that... Because they were over 18, and they were like, I'm fine. I don't need them. They're just really, like, not acting like themselves at all. So...
Yeah. No. I wouldn't say he was that. I mean, one
thing about Daniel's personality is he's... He is a very easy breezy, chill, like, relaxed person. So he takes things in stride very well. And even... He's been like that his whole life.
I remember when I was pregnant with him, like, I would go to the doctor because it was my third... I was like, I have not felt him move. Like, I was so afraid he had died, like, in utero.
He was chilling even before he was born? Yes. He never moved around, and I was like, are you sure?
Like, this is weird. I'm seven months pregnant. Like, I should be feeling him, like, all the time. And they, you know, they finally gave me a heart rate monitor. Like, listen.
When you're getting freaked out, listen, and you'll be able to hear him. So so I always tell that because that is how he is as a person. He is, like, so relaxed and chill and easy breezy. Some might call it lazy. We choose easy breezy.
So...
Some might say it looks like he's sleeping when he's awake. But... Well...
So he was definitely... He got a little emotional, but I think he was trying to process just as much as me. So...
Yeah. He doesn't know what DKA means either. Mhmm. Wow. Yeah.
That sucks. Okay. So do they... I I... By the way, I love your...
Like, you... I know people know to some degree that I take, like, the tiniest little intake form. It's usually just a couple of sentences. But Mhmm. I was sitting with Arden last night, and she's not been feeling well the last couple of days.
And so we were hanging out together. And I said, hey. I gotta get to bed. I have a recording at 10:00 tomorrow. And then we do the same...
We joke all the time. Like, somebody goes, like, 10:00. These people not understand. You make a podcast. Why so early?
You you know? And and by the way, don't think 10:00 is wrong. But, but we're... And I pulled it up, and I saw your note, and I said, oh, this is new. Like, no one's ever written this in this forum before.
So I'm... It's kind of a bummer, the thing you wanna talk about, but at the same time, I think it's a really interesting conversation. So I wanna hear... I wanna kinda fast forward through the next couple of minutes, like... And...
Because I'd like to get to that conversation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So just real quickly, they leaves the hospital.
Do they talk to you about CGMs, pumps, insulin pens? Like, what's your understanding of technologies you're leaving? What's your understanding of your goals? How how...
Leaving the Hospital Knowing Nothing26:02
My understanding was, like, nothing. I... We left that night. My husband came home, so I had the conversation with him. So we're like, what the hell?
I was like, so we just took a week off work. Like, you need to clear your schedule for the next couple days because we are going to diabetes school. So when we went into the hospital, we were outpatient. So we were in the hospital during the day, and then we would come home. He left on MDI.
The... They, you know, like to approach it, like, out your carb counting, all of that stuff. And then he went on a pump, I think. He was diagnosed in April. And we went on the Omnipod Dexcom pump in September.
Well, I'm sorry. He went on a c... He went on the Libre CGM. That's... Don't get me started with insurance, but that was a whole another...
Figure out diabetes, then you also need to figure out your health insurance. So he went on the Libre CGM pretty quickly, like, within the week. And then, obviously, we had to switch to Dexcom when he went on the Omnipod.
Don't let the bastards get you down, Amelie. By the way, we already have maybe, I think, the greatest title for an episode ever. I've not said it out loud. I... Oh.
I'm so worried that if I don't say it, it won't somehow get captured. But it's gonna tie into something you've already said and something that I believe you're about to say. It's so good. I'm so excited to tell it to you. Okay.
But I would...... To hear it. Everyone listening already knows it because they saw it on their player. It's a weird world, but I I don't want you to know yet because...
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So he gets he gets technology. You guys go to diabetes.
I said, I I love that idea of, like, take some days off. We're going to diabetes school. It's like, awesome way to spend our free time. Does does Daniel come with you to that class, or is it just for the parents?
Oh, no. No. He's with us.
He's there. Okay.
Yeah. So we we were inpatient in the hospital for four days, not spending the night. We would, like, show up at 07:00 and leave at five.
Oh, like a proper job. Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm. They give you a break of fifteen...
I think legally, you gotta get a fifteen minute break and a thirty minute lunch. Did you did you get all that?
You do get lunch and all that. I mean, they were feeding him lunch. It's it's like the fire hose, you know, just
Yeah.
Explaining what diabetes is. You know? I mean, he he was a trooper. Like, it it was kind of sad. So I know my topics are mortality, and I don't wanna jump ahead.
But I told you we are we are a family of, you know, navy military people. My brother was in the navy. I was in the navy. My dad was in the navy. My grandfather was in the navy.
My husband's in the navy, you know, all the way back to the eighteen hundreds. And so our our oldest son was not interested in military. Our daughter is tracking to go to the Naval Academy. And then so when Daniel was diagnosed, like, literally, that first day of diabetes camp, they're like, not camp, but school, like, in the hospital. The...
Well, I Can't Go in the Navy29:14
You know, they they prop them up, and they're they're they're saying to him, you know, you you can do anything you want. This doesn't limit you, you know, that whole speech. And he looked at it. He goes, well, I can't go in the navy. I just looked around and got, like, a little teary eyed, and I was like, he already knows.
Yeah. Yeah.
How does he know that? I don't know.
Well, it makes sense. It's funny when I see people argue about it online. Maybe we'll take a left turn here because since your entire family has been fighting for America since before it was America, it sounds like. I see people argue about this online, and I have to tell you, like, I understand, like, from the, like, from the people, like, people can do anything. Like, I get it from that point of view, but it makes sense not to have somebody on man made insulin fighting.
Right?
It's... The the military is not set up to accommodate those types of illnesses, and it's not when you're in America on a base. It's when you're on a ship in the middle of The Gulf and you're stuck out there. You know? I think the Abraham Lincoln was at sea for two hundred and thirty days.
I don't know if you saw this. Like, they're just not set up to accommodate those things.
Well, they were... You're talking about recently in the Strait Of Hormuz?
Mhmm.
Yeah. They... Like, a couple guys threw themselves off the ship in protest. Like, they'd been out there so long. They were...
That's that's a real story. Right? Like, I'm not I'm not making that up yet.
No. This, like, happened this summer, and then it was funny because the the ship was gonna pull into Phuket, Thailand after two hundred and thirty days at sea. And I've... I I mean, Thailand is... We pulled into Thailand after...
It was our first, you know, port stop, and then people go crazy. The drinking, the prostitutes, the... You know, it's just... You know, there's always an outbreak of some sort of STD when you get back on the ship. And I was like, oh, Phuket's got it coming.
Here we come. Here we come. Is that where that place gets its name from? Because everybody... The the ship boards and everybody...
Docks, everybody thinks, oh, Phuket. Let's go. And this I don't know. Oh my god. That's crazy.
Don't know.
Yeah. But your point but your point is is that as as much as you like to think, well, my deployment's gonna be this long and it's gonna be measured. It doesn't always... It probably never goes exactly the way you expect it to. And what if you're out there for that long?
And what if you have a problem? Or... You know, I mean, listen. It's...
And it's just the nature of the work. I mean, you're working twenty hours a day. You're... You know, in... If something happens to the ship and you go into general quarters, you know, where the ship is under distress, you know, you're in a gas mask and stuff for eight to sixteen hours.
Like, I mean, how do you manage, especially something like type one diabetes, but really any health thing?
Anything. Yeah. Well, I mean, I I I... Again, I really do get the intent when people are like, oh, they shouldn't limit people, and I get all that. But, like, I don't know.
It's just... I think when I hear that story, like, I'd... I... Listen. I watch people tell me they can't go to the gym.
Like, I I go to the gym and I get low. I'm like, what about when I need you to run over here and save my life? Like, know what I mean? Like, I I... That's not a good time for you to go, hey, guys.
I'm sorry. I need a gummy. You know? Like, it's or I've... Or I'm, you know, I'm nauseous because my blood sugar's been high because I haven't been able to tend to it or, yeah.
I mean, listen. It all makes sense to me. But I just wanted to see what you thought having, of course Yeah. You know, served apparently as a child. It sounds like you were in the navy when you were four.
I swear it's got nothing to do with this podcast, and I'm not gonna derail this. But I so wanna know what it's like being a woman on one of those ships, especially married and, like, it must be insane. Am I wrong?
No. I was not married when I was on the ship. Oh. It was fine. It was...
I was... Yeah. I mean, I... So I, you know, joined the navy right after college. I was in the navy for seven years.
I got married when I was in the navy, but I was done with my ship stuff. So it was fine. My first ship was, I think, 30% female, and it had an integrated crew. So that, you know, it had female male officers, but it also had female male enlisted folks. And then my second ship was...
I was in the engineering department, which was about 900 people. I was the only female, like, in the leadership role, but it was fine.
You don't feel like a cheeseburger walking through a room of hungry people? I did not. Oh, wow. That's very nice. Look at that.
Good job.
I I was on
Good job, boys.
Interested in... Well, do... I also... I did not, like, you know, date or, you know, mess around with anybody on the ship. So...
Gotcha. Oh. Yeah. I see. Alright.
I just... I don't know. I I know a lot of guys, and I think if... I... I'm just imagining throwing them on a boat for a long time.
And...
Maybe I was I was fairly naive too. So, I mean, maybe I just missed a bunch of stuff. I don't know. Never really felt unsafe or anything.
Would be great to run a documentary back on you and everybody watching hard going, how does she not see all this?
I don't know. Yeah.
That's awesome. Anyway... Okay. So I'm gonna... We'll get back to Daniel a little bit.
But, like, your note just says I'll just read it. It just said children's awareness of mortality and medical trusts. That's all you put. So I am... I'm interested in what makes you, you know, what's happened in your life that makes you wanna talk about people's understanding of the, you know, the limits of their life.
What Happens When He Turns Twenty-Six35:03
I... So Daniel's only been diagnosed for two years. The insurance per... And I'm a federal employee, so I have really good health insurance, you know, through the government. And it's, you know, one of the better plans, you know, fairly low premiums and stuff like that.
I find the insurance so difficult to manage and figure out. And then I have just seen the cost growth over two and a half years. I switched our insurance this year from, like, Blue Cross Blue Shield because they went to that co pay... Insurance co pay versus the insurance deductibles.
Are they called when you... Out of pocket?
Not even... Like, I don't even have that high of out of pocket. It's, like, $350 or something. But, I guess it's the co pay. You know, when you go and it's like, oh, you got antibiotics.
It's $5. Mhmm. You know, now they're going to these formulas where it's like, oh, well, now you're gonna have to pay 30%, not just, like, the set amount, which really scares me because we probably spend a couple $100 every three months. His his prescriptions are filled every three months for the insulin, the CGMs, and the pumps.
Yeah.
And I've read people that stayed with this other insurance. They're spending, like, a thousand bucks every three months
Yeah.
To fill those prescriptions. And what I worry about is, you know, I have a son in college. I know your kids are older and, you know, entering that stage of life. I don't want Daniel to graduate from college, go on his own insurance, and he's already eaten up $300 of his probably minimal, you know Mhmm. Take home pay paying for this stuff.
Yeah. This happens to a lot of people. It certainly does. I mean, the amount of money we spend is insane. Like, you know...
And then you put on top of that the, you know, the glucagon. Yeah. I mean, that's, like, a $175. You know? And, hopefully, you don't have to use it.
So my husband and I have talked, and, I mean, we're fortunate that we're in a financial position, you know, where we're talking about retiring in the next ten years and setting up all that stuff. And it's like, I really wanna set up a trust for him because I don't want him to be financially burdened with this disease. Yeah. And it's, you know, however things go, I... Maybe we'll all be dead in four years, right, with the AI taking over the world.
Yeah. Then won't be worried about it. That'd be awesome. I'm sure the AI will come and get Daniel and the other type ones first. They'll probably farm you guys for something.
I don't know how it's gonna go exactly. You know what I mean? But you'll probably get rounded up in the first wave, I would think, or they put you to work. Who knows exactly? I don't know.
Yeah. I I I I have to tell you, like, it's it's funny because as you're saying this, I think... And you're fairly... Like, I... Listen.
Amelie, listen. I wanna be clear. I'm not a person who runs around calling me or anybody else or even using the word privileged because it feels like it feels like virtue signaling to me to some degree. But,
like Uh-huh.
I still understand that people are at certain levels of ability. Right? Like, some people make more money. Some people have better insurance. Like, even the the numbers you're spouting, people at home are probably like, I have insurance.
I wish that's all I was paying. And, like... So, like, there's levels of out of pocket on this down to people who... It doesn't matter what their out of pocket is because they... They don't have it anyway.
But, having said that, we are in a very similar situation. You know, I'm older than you, and I and my wife are... I mean, we just we just got back two weeks ago from, like... We were down south looking for places to move just trying to find a way to save a little bit of money in the last years of our employment. And it's not so that we can, like, you know, go on some, like, world trip.
Like, we're trying to figure out a way to put money in a pile and put it in a trust so that Arden can pay for medical stuff. If she if she turns into, like... Like, I don't know. Like, what if she gets sicker, or what if she is an eardwell, or what if she marries some guy who, you know, screws her over? Like...
Yeah. I mean, like, all the things are... Like, what if she just keeps shopping at the rate she's shopping at it right now? You you know? Like like like, you know, like, what's going to, like, you know, like, I don't want her to look up one day and go, no.
I I can't afford a CGM. I'll stop wearing one. And then the the downstream effects of, you know, well, now my AID system doesn't work, and now this happens. Now my... You know, like, I just...
We'd like her to not have to worry about at least that. But that but that means that we're gonna have to work much further into our lives than we were anticipating too. And Right. And I would be nice to know if we were all gonna get wiped out in a couple years because I really would stop trying so hard. I just wanna be completely clear.
If you could tell me that the Terminator thing was happening, I'd give up right now. I I... And Dan would just be sitting around whatever he does all day. I'd do it with him. With the
You watch YouTube videos with him.
Oh my god. I would love it. Tell him I'm on my way. So... Anyways...
Yeah. But it's a space that I'm interested in, like, really exploring, you know, because... And I read a lot of posts on, you know, your Facebook group and other things, and it's these children also have to, like, really consider, like, what jobs they can take based on the benefits plan, which, I mean, we all do. But when you're 22, it's like, you know, we'll have to get, you know, a job in this field because I need a good benefits plan. And I just I just...
You just don't want them to be constrained so much. So if there's something that we can do to help him that he doesn't have to worry about, you know, that stuff once he turns 26 and gets kicked off of our insurance.
Then that would be nice to do. Yeah. Right. Mhmm. Oh, please.
Insurance Is Built to Make You Give Up41:12
And you said you find it confusing. I I... I'm reminded all the time when people tell me, like, oh, I have a great doctor, but they were never sick before. So then they go back and they're like, maybe it's not as great as I thought it was. And and people say that about their insurance.
Oh, I have great insurance because you've never used it. You wouldn't know. Like, the five times you needed it, it paid for something, and you're like, oh my god. I have great insurance. When you really need it, like like, autoimmune need your insurance, then you find out how good your insurance is.
And it's, a lot of
people sneaky. I think it's sneaky, and it's not, like, forthright. So I don't even know how, but, I mean, I told you as a federal employee, and I stumbled upon this Facebook group that's like federal employee health benefits for type one diabetes. And I'm telling you, if I did not find that group, I wouldn't know what a pre authorization was. I wouldn't know what a tier exemption form was.
Like, I... You know, it's like... And so I go on there every January after open season. I was like, this is what I figured out, guys. You know, this is the health care plan.
You know, you have to... You know, in order to get, you know, the ninety day, rate, your doctor can't write a prescription for thirty days. Otherwise, it's gonna be three time... You know, why would a prescription cost $250 for thirty days, but then you only have to pay $80 for ninety days? Like, make it make sense.
It doesn't make sense.
Sure. Because everything is a... It's a trap to catch you and to... It's for them to save money somehow.
That's what it feels like.
Yeah. How could it not be that? Like, I mean, it... Because otherwise... I mean, as...
You know, joking about AI aside, how easy could it be to just, like, take the rule book from the insurance company, drop into AI, and say, look. Make this easier. Or... You know what I mean? And because it's...
You know, stuff gets layered on top of stuff as as businesses get built. Right? You start with an idea, then suddenly, like, well, we have to make an exemption here. We have to make a change here. And before you know it, it's, you know, thousands and thousands of pages of rewrites and changes and exemptions and o...
Only... Not if you have red hair and you're six feet tall, then it's this. You know, like, that kind of stuff. And then it just gets lost, nobody goes back to look through that stuff. And then you hire somebody who just knows that these are the rules, and then they apply the rules like that.
But at some point, the people at the top, the people making the money and, you know, trying to make the value for shareholders and all that stuff, Those people know that's how they make money. And I I fully 100% believe that making this podcast has made me sound like a conspiracy theorist a time or two, but I think if you really think about it, maybe no. I believe it's set up to try to get you to give up. That's how I think it's set up. I...
It's set up exactly the way my wife sets up sex. She just puts up enough blockades that I'll just eventually go, you know what? I'm good. Like I'm alright. Yeah.
I guess I'll just stop. But I think they do the same thing with that. I think they just... It's like, well, no. You, you know, you have to get a form or you have to do the...
How about the thing where they send you a bill? You pay the bill, and, like, sixty days later, you get the money back. And they go, turns out you didn't know this. Have you ever... Yeah.
Have you had that happen? So I now have... By the way, I'm not giving anybody financial advice, but anytime I get a bill, I don't pay it now. I make them send it to me twice. And if you have any idea how many times the second bill comes back and it says paid zero on it, happens so many times.
Because I got tired of sending... I got tired of loaning my money to the insurance company. So I was like, I don't let it get to collections, but I'm not giving it to you till I'm sure I owe it to you. And I am not gonna spend the time on the phone to find out if I'm sure or not because that's not my job either. So I just...
I think the whole thing is set up in in ways for them to sit on cash, to get you to give up before you ask for reimbursement, to not go get care to begin with. You know how many people have health insurance who just don't go to the doctor because of all this? Because they just don't wanna be involved in it. You know? So I think it's on purpose.
And if it's not, I'm wrong, but really feels like it. So No.
It does. And even... I mean, to your point, like, my daughter said, you know, goes to a dermatologist, and I was looking at the explanation of benefits. And I've been paying a co pay of, like, $35. And then when I get that explanation of benefits, it's like, portion's $10.
And I'm like, what? So do I have, like, a credit at the dermatology office? And it's like, I can't deal with this. It's, like, $20. I don't know.
You know what else can I? I'll I'll I'll complain about another thing. These FSA cards, that's gotta be a scam somewhere too. I can't I can't take... You know, you know, you put a certain amount of money in this every month, and, like, it's a credit card that you can use for medal ex...
Medical expenses. I... You know, you don't have to send in receipts. It's all... Oh, awesome.
And then every six months, I get a note from them that's like, hey. You know, you spent $900 at the dentist. Oh, that's not something you could use on the card. I'm like, of course, it is. I've used this card at the dentist a thousand times.
Well, yeah, but We need paperwork, and we need this. We need... My wife's just like, just mail them $900 back. We'll spend it somewhere else. Like, they...
Even that, like, we get asked for our... They... We give them our money, then we spend it appropriately, and then they tell us that we need to give it back or prove it. And I'm like, I don't know. How do you need me to...
It was a dentist, though. What do you... They don't sell cars there. I don't know what to tell you. It's...
Every... Everything I did there was medical. Like, you you know what I mean? Like, oh my god. I hate everything.
I'm really... I'm getting to that age. How old are you, Amelie? How are you?
I'm almost 49.
Oh, you're almost there. You're gonna hate everybody too in a couple more years. I am so sick of all of you. I'm gonna move to a field.
Yep. Pretty much.
So, and it's not... It's... By the way, it's never people in my life. I love the people around me. It's the it's the machine.
It's just got... I... I'm done. You you know what I mean? Like, I I I don't wanna do this anymore.
Like, whatever this is, I'm done. Thank you. Yes. Yeah.
And every January, when you have to send in your new prescriptions and, you know, it's... But we can't fill it because we don't have a prior authorization. They're like, is Daniel still a type one diabetic? I'm like, yes.
Yeah. And then now you're talking to some poor idiot. No offense to those people. But, like, know, I've had the job for five seconds. They don't know what type...
They they just know they're saying it out loud. Arden had to go into urgent care yesterday. I'm trying not to give her details away. And, we're sitting there, and and it's just the intake. And the intake nurse, and I think I'm being generous because I don't imagine the person's actually a nurse, asks the most off the wall question.
I don't even remember what it was. And both of us, Arden and I looked up like, what the hell did you just say? And all she replied was, sorry. The computer prompts me to say that. Was like, uh-oh.
We had a funny story when we... I mean, it's a little off topic, but I took Daniel in just for, like, a sports physical or something. He had this fairly new doctor. You know, at this point, I'm like, I just gotta get this paper signed so I can upload it so he can, you know, try out for sports or whatever. He's going through the thing, and he said, does Daniel have the phone?
I said, yes. And he starts going on and on and on about how he doesn't think kids this age should have phones, and it's really, you know, disruptive and the screen time and blah blah blah blah blah. And I let him go on for a while, and I'm just like, yeah. I know. I agree.
But he's... I felt he probably didn't intend to... And I think he was, like, freshly out of medical school. I don't think... It was coming across to me like, your 12 year old should not have a phone.
Yeah. You should have said to him, I, really appreciate you giving me a preview of your new TikTok channel, but could you shut up and just sign the paper, please?
No way. I finally just looked at him and I said, I totally agree with you. I was like, but he's a type one diabetic, so there's no way around it. And he got so flustered.
Yeah. We would, except his pancreas lives on it. So we don't know what else
to do. He needs it to deliver insulin. I mean, I was just like
We could start sharpening needles again maybe and give those to him if you like. Or he could just wither away. It's up to you, really. You think the phone's really causing a problem, do you? By the way, like, also, I get it.
Like, I I actually think that the, the pediatric society or whatever the hell that is probably tells them to talk to you about the the ills of, you know, phone exposure, which by the way, like, I'm with you. Like, I I believe I believe all the data about how bad your phone is for you. I'm I'm in. You got me. I...
I'm I'm with you. But, I mean, at some point, like, what are you going on for? Also, later, don't tell me that we don't have enough time to meet with people about their illnesses if you're spending eighteen minutes giving me your political opinion about cell phones in my in my doctor's appointment. Right. Maybe you're just not using your time wisely.
Okay?
Right.
They used to say thanks for coming to my TED talk, but, you know, that's, now I just... I I I would have said, like, he should get his own podcast, but even that's passe at this point. So he should get his own TikTok where he can yell for eight seconds at a time about this, and people only watch five seconds of it. Good luck, everybody. Sorry.
Okay. So we want this kid to have money. You're gonna work towards that. Insurance stinks. Does he come to you with the mortality thing?
Is it a thing you're worried about? Is it conversations you've had already?
He doesn't, like, wanna sit down and talk about it, but he will make comments that, I guess, they were just so surprising to me initially that children... I mean, that he, like, now has this disease where that's, like, in his headspace. The first time he did it, we were in Costco, and they have the, you know, those buckets of food, like, doomsday preparation things.
I I only know because I've seen crazy people sell them, but I... But go ahead. I didn't know I didn't know who
were Costco. And so we're walking around, and he's also... He's hard to go shopping with because, you know, he wants 8,000,000 things. And I told him eventually, was like, you're not allowed to get anything at Costco anymore because I don't want, you know, 500 of these things that you tasted and decided that you didn't like anymore. So
Will someone eat this yogurt?
A Doomsday Bucket at Costco52:01
Right. So we're in Costco, and they have those doomsday buckets. And he goes, mom, he goes, let's get one of these. I was like, I do not wanna doomsday. I was like, I don't want a doomsday bucket.
And he looks at me. He goes, yeah. He goes, I don't know. He goes, I'll probably be dead, you know, within a month or two. So, yeah, we don't need one.
And I, like, looked around. I, like, looked away from him and started crying because that was the first time he'd... Like, he'd said that. Like, I... Like, he knows he would not survive an apocalyptic event type of a thing.
Everyone Has a Plan to Break Into a Pharmacy52:38
Yeah. I was talking to, John who makes the Sugarpixel. We were chatting, and he just... He so offhandedly said to me, doesn't every type one have a plan for how to break into a pharmacy if things get upside down? And I was like I was like, I've already thought about it.
Like, I've I've thought about it in detail. Like, so much so that I'll be prepared to fight you when I get to the Walgreens if you're there too. And it's it's yeah. I mean... And and still, like, the sadness that hits you, like, even if I went to the Walgreens and I took every vial...
First of all, I'd feel terrible as I was taking it. Right? Because I would know that there's somebody else on their way that needs it too, and it would still hit me like that. Even if I took every vial of it. I mean, how long would that keep Arden going for?
Year, maybe? You know what I mean? Right. How
much is not a
Yeah. It's not forever.
There's no endless supply. Right. Right. I mean, we do the same thing. Like, you know, our prescription is three bottles, three vials, you know, a month.
He doesn't use that. And I said to my husband, I said, maybe I just won't fill it this month. He has no fill it. He was... We stockpile insulin.
Yeah. No. It's insane. I have some downstairs that I actually thought the other day I I should try to find somebody to give this to. And then the next script comes up and you're afraid not to fill it because you don't want the insurance company to say, well, why didn't you need it that time?
Right.
You know what I mean? Like, there's a whole, like, fear of... Everyone... Listen. Everyone with insurance and diabetes is nodding along right now.
They they know. They... They're like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
No.
I know. Does everybody stockpile the insulin? You know? I... Probably.
Yeah. Of course they do. If they have the ability to do it and they're only... And it's $20 or in a co pay or something like that, no one's saying no to it whether they need it or not. Like, if somebody...
Some... Jenny told me the other day, she's like, know, the g six got sundown and now it's only g seven. Mhmm. She's like, I got enough g sixes for, like, six months. I was like, okay.
You you know, like... Or... And so the people who have, like, the ability to do it or, you know, get their... Or, like... I mean, listen.
I have enough Omnipods to, like... I could wallpaper at least the back of my door with them. And it's because Arden has... Is written... Her script is written out that she might need to change it every two days.
And we do that sometimes, and sometimes we don't. And when you don't, you have an extra Omnipod. And, like, and those pile up over time. It's just... It's the fear.
Everyone's got the fear. But he now... But but you now realize in Costco, which... Of all the places. In Costco, you're like, oh, my son knows that if stuff gets upside down, he's just gonna die.
Like, that's crazy feeling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Is it the only time he said it?
No. No. No. He says stuff like that. A lot of times when he does a pump change, he doesn't say it so much anymore now.
You know, 12, 13. He's still... You know, now he's trying to be super cool because he's almost 15. But,
no, he'd come down. He'd be like,
oh, gotta change my pump if
I wanna live another three days. Like, you know, stuff
like that. And I don't think it's, like, depressive from him. It's just, like, very matter of fact kind of joking around, but he's like, oh, you know, this is what's gonna keep me alive for the next
couple of days. So I'm
gonna get on it and do it.
Every... And I think everyone's aware of that, if they're aware of it. And absolutely, I think I see people either joke about it or quietly, like, let it eat themselves up inside and they don't talk about it. But I don't think the feeling's any different whether you're the joker or the person who doesn't say it out loud. Like, it's...
It... You are you are constantly... Like, I mean, listen. We're all in a situation where we know our life is finite, but nobody has ever said to you before, like, you know, by the way, if you don't do this one thing, it's gonna be over in a couple of days. Like, that's not a that's not a a scenario that most people live in.
You you know? And then suddenly you get diabetes and you're struck with that. Like, this stuff keeps me alive. You take this away, you take away alive. You know?
And I just think that's... I... Maybe, like, children diagnosed... I don't know. Your daughter was diagnosed as, like, a baby pretty much, you know, before, like, 18.
Two?
She was two. Yeah.
Okay. Two. I wonder if they... Does does she have the same thought process as, like, then being die... Diagnosed when you're 12?
So you've lived twelve years without it, and then all of a sudden, you know, you're very involved in realizing that you have this disease. And The
first time I was...
In the mortality.
Yeah. The first time I was aware of how, like, aware she was, we had a friend who had a child who was... Is pretty significantly dismay... Mentally disabled.
I heard you tell this story recently.
Yeah. And she and she told me she'd prefer to be him because at least he can't die. Like, that's... That was pretty early on. She once told my my sister-in-law was babysitting her one day and her birthday was coming up.
And she told my sister-in-law that she wasn't gonna have diabetes much longer because it was gonna go away on her birthday. Yeah. That one was tough. That wasn't about dying. The rest of it is...
Like, I've seen, like, your your son's big... You know, oh, this thing's keeping me alive or I'm gonna go or when the zombies come, I guess I'll just run towards them. Like, that kind of thing. Mhmm. She says stuff like that a few times a year, you know, like, for for a long time.
Arden's Worst Day58:22
Yesterday, I'm gonna try to, like... So yesterday, Arden Arden has been not feeling well for a couple days. She's been in pain. And I'm gonna try to keep it like that that that, like, private. But we ended up yesterday at urgent care, her and I.
And a shout out, by the way, because the urgent care doctor is a listener of the podcast, and she's awesome. So, by the way, that's that's a heady thing one day when you're in an urgent care and the doctor's like, what's your name? Do you make a podcast about diabetes? I have type one. I'm like, oh, hey.
How are you? So we're there yesterday, and it's been a long couple of days. Like, she's been, you know, pushing through, going to work, going to school, but in pretty constant pain first for a thing. And, you know, we go there really kinda hoping that the doctor's gonna give her one medication. She gives her a different one, which I think might be working, which is great, but, like, not the point.
And, like... So she's sitting there in pain, like, exhausted from the pain. And then she gets the script. It's not the script she's hoping for, so she's... Now she's really, like, let down.
Then we have to stop at the drive through at the Walgreens on the way home, and she goes, why are we stopping? Is it gonna be ready? And I said, no. It's not gonna be ready. But if we don't stop, it'll never be ready.
And she's like, won't they just fill it? I'm like, yeah. Maybe. I'm like, but we can't take that risk. So we pull up to the thing.
We sit there forever till someone comes out. Like, we're, like, sitting there going, like, she sees us. Hello? Like, you know, she she comes out finally. Right away, it's met with I can't find it.
I don't know what you're trying to do. It would have just been called in the last twenty minutes. Here's where it came from. This is the doctor's name. Are you...
Is this your store code? It is like... And, like, she walks away and Arden goes, you're doing her job for her. And I said, Arden, the number of things I'm doing other people's jobs for related to people's health, not just yours, would floor you. And I said, so I'm like, if you don't do these things, it's not gonna work out.
If... I said, if you leave it to that person right there, you're not getting this medication today. I was like, we are going to explain to them what we need and what they're going to do. And so... And I said, gonna be very polite about it.
Nice. But I'm here to make sure they do what they're supposed to do. And then I said, okay. Now I'm gonna take you home, then I'm gonna come back and pick up the drug. And Orden's like, you do this all the time?
I'm like, every time. For you, for Cole, for mom, like, we need something. Like, this is how it goes. So it's a little demoralizing. So much so that she actually said to me later in the evening, I'm really sorry for wasting your day today.
And I was and I was like, you didn't waste my... She said, I'm sorry for ruining your day. And I said, Arden, honey, you didn't ruin my day. You ruined my life a long time ago. I was like, it's fine.
And she looked at me. I went, not about the diabetes, just in general. I said, don't worry about it. I said, actually, you didn't even do it. Mom did it to me back when she said, sure.
I'll marry you. And I said... So, I was like I was like, don't worry. I'm like, this is this is what I do. Like, it's okay.
You didn't ruin my day. I said, was happy to go to the doctor with you. I'm happy to sit here with you now. And so we sit down to do Allego together last night because she starts feeling better. She's pepping up a little, and we start doing Allego.
I swear to you, we're sitting there for ten minutes. I'm gonna tell you the absolute truth. We're sitting there for ten minutes. Her Dexcom loses its connection.
Oh my god.
As she's trying to eat and her blood sugar is going up and we're trying to like bolus for it. Okay. It'll come back. No big deal. We're sitting there a little longer, and she's trying to push Allego down.
And her finger slips. She has a gel nail on. The gel nail catches the end of Allego. It rips the gel nail off of her actual nail and rips a hole in her nail down to the down to the to the the cuticle underneath of her nail. It's insanely painful and doesn't come completely attached.
Now we are standing in the kitchen using a pair of nail clippers, slowly chipping... I'm slowly chipping this nail off trying to get down to the part that I need to see so I can get it off of her. So it's so she stops getting stabbed in her nail bed by her own nail that was literally ripped out a hole in the middle of her nail. Like... And she's just like, I can't believe this is happening.
And she's like, I've just like... I... And you could just see. She was like, I can't believe this is happening on top of how bad I have felt for the last couple of days. Right?
And I'm like, no. No. It's okay. We're gonna get... She's crying.
Like, you know, like, it's... She's clearly done. You know? Like, she's cooked. She's like, I I...
At one point, goes, just kill me. She goes, Jake, seriously. Just she's like, just just kill me. I'm done. And I was like, no.
I'm gonna get it off. And I'm like, all up. I'm like, don't worry. It's fine. You know?
Like, and we're clipping it off and everything. I'm trying to joke with her. I'm like, you better hope your boyfriend's handy because you see here, I'm putting a lot of effort into this. Like, I'm clicking around and everything. Should we get done?
We sit back down. I swear to god. We sit down and her pod goes beep and just expires. So her pod Seriously? Pod just shuts off.
It's, like, three minutes after we get the nail off of her. And she's like, no. Like, it was like she was talking to the universe. She was like, no. And I was like, Arden, no big deal.
I said, look at the high side. You rode that pod all the way to the end. It gave you eighty hours. She goes, that is not comforting right now. I was like, well, always look on the bright side of life.
This thing worked all the way out to eighty hours for you. I was like, isn't this great? Blah blah blah. Right? No.
Swear to god I'm not lying. So, like, so I... I'm like, I'll fill a pod for you real quickly. I filled the pod. Blah blah blah.
Gave it to her. She's letting the dog out. She comes back in. She says, I'm gonna put the pod on my leg. So she pulls her pants down, which, by the way, until your kid has diabetes, you never think you're gonna see your adult children without their pants so much, but just put diabetes in the world.
Everybody's asses out all the time. And so she pulls her pants down. As she pulls it down, and Arden wears her CGM on her hip. I said, oh, I know why your Dexcom doesn't have a signal. Her underwear got behind the sensor and pulled the sensor off.
It was... It pulled it away from her. I said, honey, your sensor's pulled off by your your your underwear. Pull it off. And I thought she was just going to just, like, literally shut off.
Like, I thought she was... I just gave her a hug. I'd like, now I'm hugging my daughter. She's not wearing her pants. The dog's outside.
The pump is laying
on the like, you got a naked shower today. Take it all off. I'm gonna take a bath.
She didn't have the the wherewithal to get a shower. And I'm like I'm like, it's gonna be okay. I'm like, we're just gonna get you set up, and we're gonna keep going. We're just gonna keep moving. It's gonna be okay.
And so in that confusion, she puts the pod on but forgets to prime it. And then she's like, did you not prime this pod? I said, no. She goes, I didn't either. And then the...
And the disappointment just kept piling up on top of itself. Right? So she puts that on. She stands up. My son comes down and goes, hey.
What's up? She goes she goes, I'm having the worst day of my life, and I think she meant it. And then she's standing there. She pops the new CGM on. I I said, see, we're all done.
Everything's good. Like, everything's good. And, like, let's down. And then we put together a couple more steps of the Lego, and I said, Arden, I really think we should go to bed. I said, I think the best thing that we could do to this day is put it out of its misery and start again tomorrow.
Don't you? And she said, yeah. I think so. And I was like, okay. So we packed up and and went upstairs.
I swear to God, I don't know. I mean, something... A plane would have had to crash into the house for something worse to happen during that, like, couple of hours of her life. It's really horrifying. And the diabetes made it worse and worse and worse and worse.
At the same time, she's gonna wake up today and be okay. You know? So it's just the thing you live with. But are you It's
so much sometimes.
It's it's it's way too much. It's absolutely terrible. Nobody should do it. And I told her when we were done, I said, look. I'm not gonna give you a lesson here.
I say, but I've interviewed people who... Whose parents had to sharpen needles in their kitchen. I said I've... And I've interviewed... I...
That's they they were born when they literally... Had to buy... You got one needle and one syringe, and when it got dull, you had to sharpen it. Every time you used it, you had to boil it to use it again. I was like, this is way better than that.
But but the unspoken part is, you know, what would be better than that? Not having a bunch of autoimmune issues. That's what would be way better than that. And I don't, you know, and I don't find that there's any way to be comforting about that part. I don't know.
Like, I don't have a, like, rah rah story for that one. You know what I mean? So... I know. Yeah.
So what you're learning, in my opinion, is that you get a diagnosis and life fundamentally shifts. It's not undoable and it's not it's not impossible to be happier to live great, but the set of expectations you get when you come sliding out into the world and the ones you get when you get diagnosed are... They're different. Sucks. A
100%.
I'm sorry. Really is terrible. No. I'm sorry too. I mean, I'm
sorry for everyone that has to deal with it. And I know it's hard on us as parents as a mental load, and it's really hard on them for a mental load. I try... I do... We do try to encourage.
He Doesn't Want Him Burdened1:08:18
I do it more than my husband does because he's like... One of the things we argue about is, like, does he really need to carry that bag around? You know, if he's going down with a friend and it's gonna be forty five minutes or an hour away, I was like, well, I guess he doesn't need it unless he needs it. Like, unless he passes out and needs his glucagon, he don't need it. Like, I mean...
I don't know how to plan for that. Your husband, is it is it because --...
What I mean?
Is it because it doesn't look masculine or because he thinks it's a...
Oh, no.
No. No. She doesn't
want him to be, like, burdened with diabetes at all. But the fact of the matter is is he will be. And so, you know, I'd be like, well, don't take the bag, but throw this in your pocket, you know, with a couple packs of gummies.
Well, I... So a couple things. You can't go anywhere without a way to save yourself. That's just not okay. But Arden started a new job.
It's, like, twenty minutes from our house. Right? And for the first couple of weeks, she leaves every day with this little... It's a little bag. The bag's got insulin in it, an extra couple of pumps, couple extra CGMs, extra stuff.
Right? And she carries it back and forth and back and forth. You know, she doesn't... It's and she's just one day she goes, I'm not bringing this anymore. And I was like, okay.
I was like, what are you gonna do if your pod expires unexpectedly or you have a problem with one of your devices? And she was, I'll just come home. And I was like, well, Arden, it's a job. Like, you can't just tell them like, hey, my pump stopped working. I'm gonna leave now.
That probably won't be okay. It'll be okay. It'll be okay. It'll be okay. It was like two weeks later, get a text.
Hey.
Can you bring me a pump?
I need a pump. And I was like, yeah, you do. And well, luckily for you, by the way, I make a podcast. So I'm sitting here working on something. I can stand up and leave and come back forty minutes later and keep working.
Nobody's gonna yell at me. But I walked in with that pump and looked at her, and I didn't say a word. I was like, here you go. She's like, thank you. And I was like, no problem.
Like, I didn't, like... I didn't give a crap about it or anything like that, but she was already like... As I walked in, she... I could tell she was thinking, oh, this guy is thinking I should have brought that bag with me. So I tried not to telegraph, and I don't think I did.
I think she just knew. So, I mean, if you can't get back easily, you gotta have this stuff with you. And and listen, I can tell you all the stories you want, and you're gonna ignore me. You know what I mean? But I was in an event last year, and it was...
It's a it's a private diabetes event that I do every year. And and this... And it... It's spent... It's a lot of time people just coming up to me and like, hey.
I noticed this thing. What do you think of this? Like, they just kinda wanna stuff through in the downtime when I'm not speaking. This person comes up to me and she starts off... My blood sugar was over 400 today, and I'm having trouble getting it down.
And I was like, wait. Well, I don't understand what happened. Like, wearing she's a pump. You know what mean? I'm like, I don't know what happened.
You had diabetes a long time. How did your blood sugar like magically go to 400? And it tells me the story. I was on my way to work. I realized I only had like 15 units left, but I thought I can make it through the day on fifteen units.
And then got to work, bolus for my coffee, ran out of insulin, blah blah blah. And I was like, well, then... I guess then what you probably... There's a gap of time when you went home to change your pump and everything. And she goes, no.
I just never did that. I just finished my day at work. I was like, you lived at work for six hours without insulin? And she's like, yeah. It's no big deal.
And I'm like, no. It's an incredibly big deal. I was like, you can't do that. Like, don't do that. And as I was talking to her, I thought, oh god.
I wonder how many people do that. That's all I could think. It's like, oh, it's just three hours. I'll probably be okay. Like, it's an hour till I get home.
I probably... Like, that... That's probably happening all day long. Then she gets back, puts the pump on, but doesn't have any fundamental, like, skills to bring it down. She just puts the pump back on.
So the pump just starts delivering her insulin again. She's not on an AID system. It's just given her her basal. She's like, I've made a couple of big boluses. I asked how much.
She told me, I asked her settings. I was like, that's not nearly enough insulin. She goes, how do you know? And I'm like, well, this is how long you've been without insulin. So then you've been without your basal all that time.
And I was like, so that amount is missing. And I was like, and you have to move the number. And then you're only putting in this much. She goes, oh, diabetes for, like, you know, twenty years. And then, you know, I get her set up.
I get... I I bring her blood sugar down. Like, I'm like, listen. I'm not a doctor, not advice. This is how much I put in.
She puts it in. She comes back here forty minutes later. She's like, oh, my blood sugar is falling. I'm like, yeah. How about that?
And then she tells me a story about how in her community, she's the person who newly diagnosed people come to for advice. And I was like, oh, that's how this stuff happens. I'm like, okay. So, I I mean, tell your husband he's gotta take his stuff with him, and his friends should know how to use his glucagon. You know?
Because you don't plan for something to
go wrong. He does. He's one of the hardest thing of parents is, like, trusting other people. So Daniel's 14. He's 12.
Like, we only let him sleep at one other person's house. Mhmm. But whenever they wanna, you know, hang out and sleep over, I was like, why don't you do it over here? Why don't
you do it over here? Yeah. Our house...
And it's really because, you know... And every time I write the parents, was like, hey. If Daniel's
gonna spend the night, just keep your phones on, please, in case I have to call you. Okay. Yeah. No. Now you're that way.
I'm gonna
show up at your house in the middle of the night.
Hi. Hi. Hello? Come in. Hello?
Open the door. Open the door. I... Listen. I once...
I... I've told this before, but Arden once stayed at a person's house, and the father... I I showed up in the morning. He's bleary eyed, holding the coffee out of his mind. I'm like, hey.
You alright, man? He goes, didn't sleep. And I was like, why not? He goes, I... How do you sleep?
And I'm like, what? He goes, I I I I couldn't sleep because of Arden's diabetes. It just freaked me out. And I was like, oh, yeah. You you gotta get over that.
I was like, is it weird? Or you'll never sleep again. She never went back there. Yeah. I I didn't I didn't see the next invite.
He was nice to do it, but, like, it was more than it was more than he was bargained for.
Yeah. This friend's dad's... His friend's dad's best friend is a type one, so he kind of understands everything.
That's nice.
Self-Managing in High School1:14:41
But, yeah, it's super stressful. Daniel's transitioning... Or he's transitioned into high school. So that's been, you know, with the high blood sugars, really, really hard. I mean, I am an analyst.
Like, you know, my job, I I majored in math, you know, engineering. Like, this is... Like, I work in numbers all day long. I analyze trends and stuff. Die...
You know, having Daniel on diabetes, like, really forces you to pull back a little bit. And I finally stopped checking that glucose, you know, where they give you the trends and stuff because it was stressing me out so much to get, you know, to the 90% in range and, you know, not make his life so miserable being like, you know, you're high. Correct. You're high. Correct.
You're high. Correct. And so when when he was in grade school, the nurse was very involved. She had a a sugar mate and would track... I think there are four kids in his school.
She tracked them all. We had each other's numbers. I could just be like, hey. He's going low or, hey. He's high.
Can you... You know, like, she was, like, Yeah. Very, very involved. When I took him to high school, they do have a nurse on staff full time, which I'm so thankful for. And she's like...
I was like, oh, you're gonna... Yeah. Just seeing what their process was. And she's like, no. They self manage here.
Like, if you want me to do something else, I will. But Daniel and I have taken it as an opportunity for him to try to become independent. Because if you remember, he's super easy breezy. And I don't know if he's not checking his numbers. He's eaten spaghetti and chocolate milk every day for lunch.
Jeez. I just don't think those things go together. That's all. I was like, that's crazy. At his school, you know, you have
to pay for the meal service. Like, it's not an option.
Mhmm.
So he... So we spend the money. So it's just... And I said, you know, maybe make better food choices or you're not giving yourself enough insulin. But he was sitting around two seventy five after lunch until he got home.
Oh.
But terrible. Right?
Yeah. And that makes you feel horrible too on top of everything else. Not does he... He feels horrible. You feel horrible.
Like, you know, you you...
I am so stressed out, and then he is not answering my messages. And I don't know.
I know.
The other... So I think it was this Monday. He was finally, like, at 01:15 all day long. And I said, I said, you did a really good job today. I said, what did you what did you eat for lunch?
He goes, spaghetti and chocolate milk. I was like, what? He goes, yeah. I said, how'd you keep your blood sugar down? He goes, oh, I pre bowls before lunch this time.
I was like, oh, were you not doing that before? Because we had the conversation 8,000,000 times. Like, make sure your... Whatever class you're in, like, maybe set a little alarm on your phone and, you know, at least put some units on board so you get something going. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm doing that. I'm doing that. So just dealing with, like, a 14, 15 year old and trying to give them the space. Yeah.
And you know it's not gonna be super easy, but I think it's a really good learning opportunity for him because I can't do everything and then send them to college in three years. Like, how's that gonna go?
Yeah. It's tough because you find yourself wondering and worrying, but the truth is is it's... You're just gonna have to keep just saying... It's parenting. Right?
Just keep saying this stuff over and over again, and hopefully, it'll stick to him. And look. He had a good outcome there. He he was two seventy five enough times after lunch. He was like, I guess I could do that thing, she said.
You know? Right. And he try... He was he was tired of... I mean, he was sick and tired of being sick and tired probably.
So Yeah. That's it.
It's encouraging.... Hard space to live in, and I know people do it with everything. Everything you do is that you have to watch your children fail so they can succeed because they have to learn on their own. And I'm not gonna go to college and live in this dorm room. Like, I mean, it's just not gonna happen.
Well, I... You know, it... Your point your point is is absolutely true. Like, everything is like that. They they do something.
It doesn't go right. They learn a lesson. They... Sometimes they don't learn the lesson. You know, sometimes it's something small and not a big deal.
Sometimes it's heroin. You know what I mean? Like... And... But Yeah.
But how frequently is it something that makes you feel like, oh, it's gonna kill them right now? Like, that's not... Like, you know what I mean? Like, you don't have a lot of things about that crossing the street when they're driving, you know, finding the right people to hang around. Like, there's stuff where you're like, okay.
Well, that's more immediate danger stuff. But until it's diabetes, and to this point of this conversation, until it's like, if I don't take this, something really bad's gonna happen to me, like, pretty fast. Like, that's... Those are different those are different table stakes at that point. You know what I mean?
It's not just like, oh, I'll let him date that girl and he'll find out. You know what I mean? Like, it's it's... It'll it'll break his heart a little bit, but he's young. He'll be alright.
Decisions You Can't Take Back1:19:51
He'll get over it. That's not that. And and at the same time, if... For many of you, it is that because most of you are gonna get through it and come out the other side okay, but the unknown... I was just talking about this with my son the other day.
I said the worst part about being a parent is making a decision and not knowing how it's going to turn out. Because once it turns out, you can't go back and do it again. It's too late. That thing's set in stone already. I don't know about you.
I think that's the worst part about being in charge of another human being is that I'm...
A 100%. Yeah. A 100%.
I'm gonna say something. And when this is over, whatever the outcome is is on me and it's irreversible. And that's Right. Yeah. That's leadership, I guess.
That's parenting. And it's it sucks, especially around health stuff because, oh, it's okay for your blood sugar to be one eighty for a little bit. Like, let's let him be a kid. And that's all well and good if everything's fine after that. But if you wake up 69 years old from a phone call from Dan who's like, hey, mom.
I gotta get this laser treatment in my eyes. You're gonna, like, go, oh, that was my fault. I did that. Like... And whether that's true or not, it's how it's gonna feel.
So that's why all this sucks.
It will.
Yeah. Go up kids, suckers.
I know. We dropped our oldest son at college a couple, like, in August. When I was hugging him goodbye, I said to him, I was like, don't start a cocaine ring and don't get anybody pregnant. And he looked at me. He's like, why would you say that?
I said, because at least I've said it out loud. So if you do it...
Not my fault.
I told them not
to do it.... That kid. Also, by the way, did you see they just busted a cocaine ring at Penn State? Yes. That's why I said it to him
because this all happens. There was that cocaine ring in Penn State, and then there was something else in Ohio where they busted a cocaine ring at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. So I said, I'm just saying it out loud so you know that I'm telling you not to do this when you're at school.
Did you see one of the kids' names was, his nickname was Pablo Pledge Cabarr? No. Yeah. Because they made the pledges, like, run the drugs or something like that.
Oh my gosh.
It's kind of it's kind of horrible and a little hilarious. Pablo Pledgekabar, who... Hey. Listen. If you're listening, whoever came up with well, I do...
I I mean, if you can hear this in federal prison, it's a... Good job. That's that's a good nickname. I don't know if it's worth the time you're gonna do, but good nickname. Yeah.
Oh, listen. I told... I've said on the podcast before, I I pulled my son aside. I said there are only a few things in life that are uneffable. And he goes, what?
I said, once you f them up, you can't uneff them. I was like, there's just a couple things. I said, you cannot kill somebody. Car accident by mistake, whatever. I said, even if you get away with it legally, it'll haunt you for the rest of your life.
I said Mhmm. You cannot get a girl pregnant by mistake. I said, that is a thing you can't undo. And I was like, just I said there's only a couple things. Just look for those things that are...
That you can't, you know, you can't tie back up when they get untied. And and avoid those things, you'll be okay. Please. Yeah. Like, that's it.
I I... And good luck. You know what I mean?
Good luck.
Yeah. I hope you enjoy spending my money on whatever it is. And then coming home in four years and telling you, this was a complete waste of time. I didn't need this college education. Like, oh, awesome.
That's great. Thanks. Yep. Yeah. Then he pivots, by the way, and for a 300 on...
We sent my son to school where he came back with a quantitative econ degree and a mathematics minor. And inside of nine months says to us, I don't really think this is the way I wanna go. And we were like, okay. And he's like, I'm gonna learn to code. And I was like, okay.
He goes, I think there's a pathway there for me. And I was like, you're going to learn to code? This kid up until then, I don't think knew how to open his email and didn't know... Didn't... Like, he had a laptop, but, you know, to run word documents on.
Like, he didn't know anything about computers. My wife's like, he's gonna learn to code? I'm like, that's what he said. And so he buys a $300 online course and nine months later has a job.
I believe it.
And I thought...
Well, he sounds super smart.
Mean, he's making that. So... But, Amelie, that's not the point. The point is I was like, oh god. He was right.
He didn't need that degree. That's all it made me think. I was like, this whole thing could've cost me $300. And I was like, ugh. So...
No. He still needed it. I know. Grew up immature and the experiences in college.
Yeah. I mean, I know, but you know what I mean? My goodness. Hey. Do you ever get to push a button to make a missile fire or anything cool like that?
No. But I got to oversee it.
That's awesome. They make...
Gunnery Officer1:24:42
So I was... When I was on the destroyer, I was the gunnery officer. So we had the vertical launch systems, you know, the tomahawk shootout from the ship
Jeez.
And go.
Is it...
We don't actually shoot tomahawks that often
Yeah.
Like, unless you're at war because they're expensive and stuff. But we, I mean, we would do exercises.
Have you ever been in a, like, a a live fire, like, actual situation?
Like, enemy fire? Yeah. No. Okay. I think when we were on the ship, we were in the Straits Of Hormuz, which is that, you know, very little space when you're coming out of The Gulf.
Mhmm. And it's it's intense going through there. And they they call them dowels, but they're the little boats, you know, in that area. And I think our captain, like, shot fired. They were...
He was uncomfortable with how close they were to the ship. So he, like, fired shots... Warning shots. Because when I deployed, it was right after the USS Cole had been bombed in Yemen.
Oh, jeez.
So, I mean, people were, like, a little bit nervous.
Yeah. I...
We're a lot nervous. Yeah. A lot nervous about that, you know, because one of those little boats just drove into the side of the USS Cole and, you know, blew a huge hole Yeah. In the ship.
That's crazy. Oh, I don't know how you do that. That's... I... Even being, like, in a tight space or incapable...
Like, I have a friend who, like, sings on a cruise ship, and she's like, this is... I can't... It's hard to do. Like, yeah. And she's, you know, not exactly doing all the things you just said.
Do you have to learn to fire a weapon even though you're not gonna be around one? Like, are you, like, range trained and stuff like that?
Yeah. Most people in the military. At least, like, a nine millimeter and a shotgun
Mhmm.
Or a rifle. Is it Sorry. A rifle.
Was that a thing that was, like, natural to you, or were you... While you were doing it, you were like, I can't believe I'm doing this.
No. I was the gunnery officer, so I've shot a lot of weapons. You shot a Even the big, you know, the giant ones, you know, where you're holding on with both sides, a 25 millimeter gun. Yeah.
Do you still do it now, like, to keep, like
We have been, like, to the gun range and shot, you know, pistols and stuff. We like our kids to know how... Like, just what a gun is and, like, how to shoot it. So in a very space, you know Yeah. Safe space Because I think those are, like, really powerful, and they seem to be around all the place.
So at least know how to handle and use it, but don't ever actually do that. You know? The same thing. Like
Yeah.
It's a powerful weapon. You don't wanna accidentally kill somebody or do anything like that. Mhmm.
Wow. What a thing. Oh my gosh. Well, are you happy you did this?
I am. I was was excited. I didn't tell anybody. So when I bought the mic, like, I what is this for? I said nothing.
He... But he's relentless sometimes with that. And so
I said, well, I have
an interview. And so then we were in the car.
Yeah.
But what interview? And Sean's like, what interview are you going on? I was fine. And Daniel goes, I know what you're doing. You're talking to that juice box guy.
You should have said it's for OnlyFans and just not spoken another word to him. Oh my god. Would have mortified him. He would have been like, oh my god. I'm not gonna ask her any more questions about anything.
My god. Well
I was excited, and you're very, very easy to talk to. I was a little bit nervous this morning, but, yeah, I mean, you are very easy to talk to and make people feel really comfortable. I know people have told you that, but you're amazing at what you do. Oh, thank you. That's awesome.
I know you're a big fan of Howard Stern. We were big fans of Howard Stern. We listened to him for years. And I can say... I mean, it seems like he's really easy to talk to too.
So that long form... This long format interview process, it's it's really good. It works for you.
Appreciate it. Yeah. You just really need to be, like... I mean, you have to actually be interested in people. That's the first thing.
You can't be like a... You know, you can't be reading from a list and you can't have no thoughts. You have to, you know, have follow-up questions. But I find just being interested in people to be the... And it'd be the really, like, the most important part of...
I've said this before. I'm not embarrassed at all. Like, I once listed Howard Stern interview ish, a porn star for, like, two hours. He never once asked her about what she did for work. And, like...
Yeah. And I don't
He's amazing at what he does, and it's really interesting.
Yeah. Just talk to her like she was just an average person that he snatched up off the street, and her life was incredibly interesting and layered. It was interesting to see how she had impacts. Like like, her upbringing had impacts on her life that she didn't recognize. It was interesting to watch him not tell her about herself, but ask her about herself and watch her learn about herself while she was answering.
And I've just... I've... Since then, I probably heard that when I was, I don't know, 18, 19 years old, something like that. And it's just always stuck with me that everybody is really interesting. So I I...
All the time all the time people ask me, like, do you interview? Like, famous people? This... I'm like, I just I generally end up talking to people who've never been interviewed in their entire life. And I was like, I I find it much more, like, fulfilling to have a conversation like this.
Plus, it's good it's good for me. Like, I get to meet more people, especially as I get older and don't wanna be around anybody. This is good to keep me connected to society. My wife is standing outside with me the other day, and I... And we're, like, looking at this house that I'm I'm pitching is, like, the place where we retire.
And she goes, what do you find attractive about this? I said, stop talking for a second. Do you hear that? I was like, it's nothing. I I never hear nothing.
I was like, this is what I wanna do. I wanna be able to walk outside sometimes and not hear anything. Said, that's all I care about. And I... She's like, well, who's gonna cut this grass?
I said, I don't care. We'll figure that out. I'm like, I don't... I... Yeah.
I don't care. I don't care. Let it grow high, and we'll we'll... I said other people around here seem to just bail it and sell it for hay. Let's do that or let's not.
Oh, you can hire the farmers. They'll come over and do it for you.
Exactly. And then they just take it away and they sell it. I'm like, there's a way. Like, everyone hears grass is cut. There must be a way to handle it.
I was like, I am getting out of... I... We gotta go. I... The amount of times I say we gotta go to her.
Yeah. I think I won't.
My parents bought a big farm in Virginia, like, as their retirement. They're not farmers, but they do. I mean, the farmer down the road comes and plants and hauls that stuff away. So it's, you know...
You're making
sense to ways around it.
You are making sense to me. Your parents did that at what age?
I was in college. So, I mean, they were probably our age. And my dad's best friend from the navy, they kind of had followed each other around for, you know, twenty or thirty years, and they found this beautiful piece of property on the Potomac River on the, you know, outside of DC. It's, like, super country. So it's in a little town called King George, near Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Sure. But that's gorgeous. Yeah. They bought, like, a 100 acres. So...
I don't need that much. I just need to go. I I I can't I can't... I just can't... Can I tell you, I'll finish this thought up?
I I I oddly use this as a reference a lot. Like, I... I'll say a lot of times, like, when you go to get new tires, like, you expect them to know how to use the lug gun and stuff like that. I don't know why that's my example as I don't buy tires that often. But Mhmm.
Having said that, I need tires. And so yesterday, in the middle of my daughter being in pain and, like, me trying to, like, do my job and all the other things, I really need to order a set of tires. And I think I try to call someone on the phone. It doesn't go well. I try to do it online.
You can't get a straight answer about how to, like, where to ship them. I'm like, okay. Fine. I'm just gonna drive to the tire store. So I drive to the tire store.
I go in. I am ignored summarily for twenty minutes, I would say. And then finally, someone comes up to me and is like, are you being helped? And I was like, no. And what I'm thinking is no.
And you've walked past me 18,000 times, but I appreciate you asking now. So I said, I need the size tires for this kind of vehicle. And the guy takes me over to the computer and types something and then turns around and wants me to browse them. And I'm like, okay. I'm like, well, I don't...
I... I'm like, I don't really know which ones I'm looking for. He goes, well, you have the option of all these. I'm like, well, what's the virtue of any of them? He has no idea.
And then I'm like, okay. I was like... And so, like, now I'm off to the side. It's me and my friend ChatGPT trying to figure out what tires to buy. I come back.
I go, I'm gonna get these. He goes, okay. We don't have those. I was like, they're right here on your website. He goes, yeah.
I don't have access to them on this system. It would be easier if you ordered them on the website. And I was like What? I'm like
Oh my god.
Oh, okay. And I was like, and then have them delivered to you. He goes, order your house, and then you can bring them here. I was like, but I could have them delivered to you. Right?
He goes, yeah. He goes, no. But once they say they're delivered, like, give us a couple days. And I'm like, uh-oh. And I go, I'll I'll be back.
I just leave. I'm like, okay. Now I get... Now I figure out I'll call a different place. I get this place on the phone.
I said, their guy, these are the exact tires I want. Can you can you do these tires? Maybe. And now he's clicking around. He comes back.
He says, well, they're this much money. I said, well, on this other website, they're this much money. I heard you guys price match. Oh, yeah. We price match.
Hold on a second. Clicks around a little bit. He goes, I can't find them. I'm like, I'm looking at them. I could send you the link.
Goes, I'm not set up for that. I'm like, I don't I don't even know what you mean by that. I'm like, you're on the website. Right? And he goes, yeah.
I said, well, how about if I just read the model number? I'm gonna transfer you. I was gone. And then this this woman answers the phone and says, hey. How can I help you?
And I don't know. I'm like, I was I was like, I was just talking to a guy at a location. I was trying to get him to... And she goes, oh, you know what probably happened? She goes in this long explanation about what happened.
I was like, yeah. Yeah. That's probably it. And she goes, okay. Well, I can transfer you.
I'm like, wait. You can't help me? She goes, no. I have to transfer you to another person to do that. I have now talked to three people whose job it is to find out if they can knock $30 off of each tire for me.
And all I could think was, what if we just fired two of you and made the the tires cheaper? It's all I could think. But I was like, okay. So I... I'm I'm...
Trust me. I'm upbeat. I'm polite. I'm not... It's not like I am now.
I'm on the phone with this guy for twenty five minutes. And at the end, he goes, I guess we can't do it for you.
Really?
I swear to god. And I was like, I just spent the last ninety to to two hour... Ninety minutes to two hours trying to get somebody to give me tires. And then my wife calls me from work, and all I could say to her was, like, we... I started explaining this to her, I stopped myself.
I said, hey. How's your day going? And I said, tell me about your day. And she goes, okay. And she's like, you alright?
I'm like, if I start telling you about what just happened to me, it's gonna end with me saying, we gotta get out of here. And I was like, and I don't wanna do that again. I was like, so, like like, just how was your day? She told me some nice things about her day. And she goes, are you alright?
I'm like, I just need tires. And
so You need to go to Costco and get tires.
Last night, I just bought them online. They're gonna show up at my house today. And then I'm just gonna drive to places and go, here. Put these on my car. And and and what I'm gonna end up doing is taking the part out where the other people think.
Like, I'm gonna think for them so they can do the thing. Because every time I ask someone to help me, they seemed incapable. And so
really hope they don't tell you that they can't put them on because you didn't buy the tires for them.
I don't. I I don't... I assume I'm gonna have to pay them extra. I don't even care. Now it's funny.
I went from trying to save money to caring what the tires cost. I just need the the book to go on my car, please. It was it was... Anyway, like, that shouldn't be like that. Do you know what mean?
They're modeling the insurance company.
I swear to god. Why would you need to send me to three different people to see if you can knock $30 off a tire?
I don't know.
I don't either.
That's frustrating.
Oh my god. But it's not just that. It's everything. And I sound crazy now. But if I sound crazy to you, you just haven't been alive long enough.
Give it two more decades. Give it two more deck... I mean, if the robots don't kill you. It's fine. Everything's gonna be fine.
I'm like, don't you worry. The robots are definitely gonna kill us. Okay. So
I hope not, but
we'll see. At least I'll have a great website while it's happening.
I know. My cousin was in the marine corps, and he posted something on Instagram the other day. He's like, I've got three years to train. And everyone's like, three years to train for what? He's like...
And then he posted a video of Terminator. I was like, okay. There we go.
I actually heard a thoughtful person say yesterday, I keep hearing this number. There's a 10% chance that AI is gonna, like, wipe us out. And the person said, I don't know if that's gonna happen or not, but I would like to change the messaging to there's a 10% chance that the people that own the AI companies are gonna wipe us out. And I was like, oh, thoughtful. Yeah.
Yeah. So, anyway, I don't know what's gonna happen. You don't know what's gonna happen. But No. We'll all have a plan for breaking into a pharmacy when it goes down.
Total Eclipse of the Heart1:38:10
Oh, and I'm gonna call the episode. Do you wanna guess, or should I just tell you it's pretty long now? I can just tell you.
Well, I assume that has something to do with the navy?
No. Sorry.
Oh, I don't know.
I'm gonna call it total eclipse of the heart.
Aw. I like that.
Isn't that nice? Yeah. And he got to see the the eclipse, but then things got sad afterwards.
I will always appreciate the doctor being like, yes. You can do that.
Yeah. I mean, you got...
Because it was cool. It's like a once in a lifetime experience, and I guess she recognized he was an entire Yeah. Like, health, you know, concerns that, yes, go do that with him before we ruin your life in other ways.
In other ways. Alright. Hold on one second for me. I have to, like, button this up, but I I gotta hit stop here. You were really terrific.
I appreciate you coming on. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Yep. Heck of an episode today, wouldn't you say? Let's thank Dexcom and the Omnipod five for sponsoring there. That's right, my friends. We were sponsored today by the dexcomgseven.
Dexcom.com/juicebox. Head over there right now. Look into that fifteen day Dexcom g seven. Fifteen days a long time. It's like half a month.
Don't check my math, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. And let's also thank the Omnipod five. My goodness gracious. Omnipod five tubeless. That beautiful algorithm's updated now with that new 100 target.
Get in there. Find out more about it. Omnipod.com/juicebox. You want some tubeless insulin pumping? Yeah.
You do. By any chance, have you tried the small sip series? It's curated takeaways from the juice box podcast voted on by listeners as the most helpful insights for managing their diabetes. These bite sized pieces of wisdom cover essential topics like insulin timing, carb management, and balancing highs and lows, making it easier for you to incorporate real life strategies into your daily routine. Take a deep dive, take a sip, and discover what our community finds most valuable on the journey to better diabetes management.
For more information on small sips, go to juiceboxpodcast.com and then go... Oh, actually, we changed the website. Let me see. Go to juiceboxpodcast.com. And from there, there's these two little lines on the right side top.
That's the menu. Then click that, then click series, then there's pro... There's small sips right there. Pro tips top, bold beginnings, bold... Bolus four, asks that.
There's a lot of them there. There's actually a little search there too. Could you just type small sips into the search? Oh, wow. That search works great.
Look at that. And then you could go right to, like, all results for small sips. Oh, and that takes you to the FAQ. You should check out the FAQ page too. I think that's juiceboxpodcast.com/jbfaq.
Seriously, that thing's amazing. Actually, whole website is... I mean, have you, like, seen it? You should you should go check out the website. The website rocks.
It is a potpourri, a never ending cornucopia of support for you and your diabetes journey. That's right. It really is. What else we got over here? Oh, I don't like the way that works.
I'm gonna fix that. Note to self, Change the change the masthead on the frequently asked questions page. Yeah. I don't like that. Fix that.
Oh, Claude. Oh, hell. I forgot to say thank you. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back again very, very soon.
What is that noise? Stop it. Stop. Can you hear that? My chameleon squeaking.
Are you squeaking? What are you rubbing the branch against the... Don't tell people I have reptiles. They'll think I'm weird. Thanks so much for listening.
I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juice Box podcast. Look at me. Get all deep in there Been another episode of the juice box podcast. You can hear it. What was that?
Oh, I'm getting alarms and alerts on my phone. I was gonna get real deep and tell you about the juice box podcast.
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