Multiple Daily Inhales
Liam was diagnosed ten days before his sixth birthday. Now he's fourteen, six foot three, and inhales his insulin. He and his mom Rachael explain how.
Jump to a moment
- Liam was diagnosed in August 2018, ten days before his sixth birthday, after the pediatrician missed it twice. The tell was thirst — Gatorade after camp, a wetting accident in his first week of kindergarten, a line of kids waiting behind him at a zoo water fountain. What broke it open was Rachael's father, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on Father's Day that year and was having his own blood sugar trouble. He told her to go buy a meter. It read HI twice. The ER read 582 — "a number I don't think I'll ever forget."
- They left the hospital after two and a half days with fixed units for 30 to 45 carbs, three test strips a day, and no one having mentioned that CGMs existed. She found them by scrolling at night. Insurance wanted ninety days of logged numbers she didn't have, so she scribbled in what was missing and it was approved. NovoLog and later Afrezza each took appeals and an external review.
- Afrezza entered the story in a restaurant. A co-owner in Indianapolis with type 1 inhaled at the table, then showed her his flat Dexcom line. She went home, found the pediatric trial on clinicaltrials.gov, contacted IU in Indianapolis, waited out a COVID enrollment pause, and got in during 2022. Eligibility required an A1C above 7.1 and Liam's was 7.2 — "we barely flew over the radar." For once she was glad the number wasn't lower. His lung function test took seven attempts with the whole room rooting for him; he passed on the fourth. A randomization button put him on inhaled insulin for the full year, and his A1C went from 7.2 to an all-time low 6.3.
- The early roller coaster had a specific fix. She posted in the Afrezza Facebook group and MannKind's CEO, Michael Castagna, asked for her number and called her directly. His coaching: the drift down to about 75 is the Afrezza wearing off, not a low heading lower — stop treating it and Liam will coast back up. They had been treating 70 to 80 as a low for four and a half years, because doctors kept telling them that anything under 180 was good. Scott's reframe: if you are only guarding against lows, you are doing it by keeping his blood sugar high.
- Liam gets on the mic at 1:13 and lays out the thing Scott says Afrezza users never manage to explain. Slow-acting at night. Awake at 6:45, 24 to 28 units inhaled — two 12s, plus a 4 if it's 28 — five to ten minutes before two waffles, two pieces of bacon and sugar-free syrup. Worst case after breakfast is about 180, and an hour later a 4 brings him to 80 to 120, or an 8 if he's snacked. Lunch is 24 to 32. Before soccer he eats a little and takes nothing, because the movement evens it out, and a 4 at 160 doesn't scare him because it's gone in an hour with no tail. He has never worn a pump and doesn't want one. On inhaled versus injected he is unambiguous: "It's tons more friendly to younger children. No pain, quick."
- Afrezza — Inhaled insulin — FDA approved for pediatric use in 2026, which is what Liam was in the trial for
- ClinicalTrials.gov — The registry Rachael searched herself to find the pediatric trial and its locations
- Bold Beginnings Series — The newly diagnosed questions answered plainly — for anyone sent home the way they were
- Juicebox Podcast Pro Tip Series — Management fundamentals with Jenny Smith, episodes 1000–1025
- Eversense 365 — One insertion a year, with unlimited data sharing through the Eversense Now app
- Twiist — An insulin pump with the twiist loop algorithm, targetable as low as 87 — or call (877) 489-4478
- US Med — Dexcom, Libre, Omnipod, Tandem, iLet and more — or call (888) 721-1514
Every word of the conversation
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Meet Rachael2:23
My name is Rachel, and I am the mother of a type one diabetic. His name is Liam, and he is gonna be 14 at the end of the week. And he was diagnosed, ten days before his sixth birthday.
Wow. That's almost eight years ago. It is eight years ago.
Yeah. Eight years ago. Four days ago was his, I guess, you would call his diiversary.
I was gonna say you're right up on it right here. Wow. Oh, you're at that little tipping point too. He's had it longer than he had... He didn't have it.
Yes. Yes. We are there.
Is that a thing that occurred to you as it was happening as you kinda crossed that line?
Yeah. Like, two years ago when, I was going back saying, oh, it's been six years. I was like, oh gosh. He's gonna be 12. I'm like, he's had diabetes half his life.
Yeah. Yeah.
No. It's crazy sometimes to think about it in in other ways. Well, I think you you have a pretty specific story, don't you?
I don't know. I like I like to think it's kinda typical, but then also kinda specific.
K. Let's let's find out. How did you figure out he had type one?
That sounds like your typical story, I would say. Typical in that he was having the excessive thirst, the frequent urination. We went to the doctors, I wanna say twice. I wanna say in July 2018, and then again at the beginning of August two thousand eighteen, went to the doctor, saw two different medical professionals, and both of them more or less just whisked us away and said, he's fine. Mhmm.
At the end of August, he started kindergarten. It was his first week of kindergarten, and he had an accident. The nurse called me and said he's gonna need some new pants. And I said, okay. So I ran some, you know, underwear and pants to the school.
Go to the Store and Buy a Meter4:21
In the meantime, I called my dad, and he was like, go to the store and get a glucose meter. And I was like, why would I do that? And he's like, to test his blood sugar. And I was like, okay.
What's your what's your dad like? Marcus Welby? What's going on there? There's... By the way, there's a reference for six people.
But, you know, how did your dad know that?
Well, that's a whole other story. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on Father's Day of 2018. So while dealing with his cancer pancreas, I guess you would call it, he was having blood sugar issues. So I guess maybe that's what tipped him off. Like, we...
I still to this day don't know how or why, but I assume it's something to do with his pancreas and him having issues with his blood sugars. So I guess at that time, he was just was like, go get one. And I was like, okay. Like, whenever my dad tells me to do something, I usually do it. So I was like, yep.
I'll take your advice. So I went to the store and bought one.
Yeah.
So forever grateful for him for sure.
Do do do you know that we were, coming home from something yesterday? It was myself and Arden. Arden's boyfriend was with us, I think Cole. And I don't know what we were talking about, but, you know, something about, you know, what do you do if the cops pull you over or something like that. And Arden said, could I just say, can I please call my dad?
He would know what to do. And I was so touched by that because she treats me like I'm an idiot all the time. You know what I mean? But I I realized that, like, when she got into a pinch, she was like, well, that... The guy the guy knows.
I'll I'll ask the guy. So Oh, yeah. I'm glad your father... That's really kind of amazing because I imagine you tested his blood sugar and it said, what? What?
Right?
Oh oh gosh. Yeah. Like... So I I didn't go pick him up from school early. I didn't because I I guess I didn't realize how serious it was.
So I left him at school for the day. And then in the meantime, I did call the doctor, and I said, hey. You know, we were in in July and August, and he was drinking a lot, peeing a lot, bed wetting, which he hadn't done in a while. And they said they they really didn't say much, to tell you the truth. So I just got him home from school, you know, got the little test kit out, said we're gonna poke your finger here and get a little bit of blood and test you.
And at that time, I didn't understand. It just came up high on the meter. Mhmm. And I was like, well, I don't know what that means. Let's just do it again.
So he pricked his little finger again and came back high again. We're reading the manual, and I was like, I think it means that he's over four hundred, I guess. I said, I don't know what that means. So I I called the doctor back, and I was like, hey. We got Liam and pricked him, and my meter says hi.
And they're like, go to the ER. And I was like, oh, you don't want me to come to you? And they're like, no. Go straight to the ER. And I was like, okay.
Did they say, well, we haven't been any help so far. Do you
Why start now?
Let's not let's not break the trend we're running. Okay.
Yeah. Exactly. So at that time, he was a... He was pretty lethargic. And at that time, I guess, was when you finally noticed you're like, he doesn't look healthy.
And, like, I I used to... Now looking back, he hadn't looked healthy for probably two, three months. He'd lost a lot of weight. And I guess when you see your kid every day, you just don't see that. You don't see the little sub...
Subtle differences. So we didn't notice anything different. But then when I looked at him, was like, oh, yeah. You don't look good. So told my husband, I'm packing him up.
We're going to the hospital. So he stayed home because our other son was two years old at that time. So he stayed home with the two year old, and I packed Liam up and took him and call... I think the doctor did help us in that they called the ER and said we're on our way.
Oh. Well, that's nice.
So they did that. You know? So when we got there, the ER was pretty packed. They called us straight back, which was great. So we felt very very VIP at that point and got his blood pricked there at the hospital, and that is when we saw the number of 582, which is a number I'll never forget.
And they admitted him straight away. Jeez. And then we stayed at the hospital for a few days.
Hey. Hey. Now you're saying that you're telling me he didn't look good for months maybe. Give me... I need a timeline on the phone call to the doctor's office where they send you to the ER and the first time you go to the doctor and say, hey.
The kid's wetting himself. What's the span of time in there?
Thirsty After Camp8:52
So I wanna say in June or maybe it was July. I signed him up for a week long summer camp. It's like a day camp because he was only, five. So it was like you went for the day and then you picked him up in the afternoon.
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After those camps, he would always just be like, I'm thirsty. I'm so thirsty. I'm thirsty, thirsty, thirsty. So we would just be giving him drinks, you know, water. I think around that same time, my mom would take him to soccer games, like, for my nephew, and she was like...
She'd come home and say, he's so thirsty. He, like, down two Gatorades. You know? And, like, she's like, he's just thirsty. And I wanna say June, July, we didn't know if it was behavioral issues or what, but he would, like, get up in the middle of night and just, like, drink from the sink.
And we would be like, you need to go to bed. You know? And we just thought it was behavioral since we didn't know it
was about diabetes. You didn't think it was the opening scene to a horror film?
It was... It... We went to the zoo one time, and they had this, like, lion that, like, would... That like, a drinking fountain. I just remember one time him just standing there just, like...
There was a line of kids behind him, and he's just sitting there, like, laughing on this this water fountain.
Jeez. Yeah. But... So I I guess my point is is that there's a lot of time in between the first time you said to a doctor, something's wrong with my son, and them going, no. There's not.
And then them calling the hospital for you and setting up concierge check-in. So Oh, yeah. Yeah. I I mean, 582. Is that the number?
Five Eighty-Two11:16
582. Yeah. A number I don't think I'll ever forget. Yeah.
I bet you the day you asked him, his blood sugar was a lot lower the first time you asked the doctor is my point, but probably still quantifiable and would have led them to type one diabetes as well. I I don't know. Correct. Yeah. Did you switch doctors' offices?
Oh, boy. Once we got, like... They didn't put him in, like, what is that called? Like, ICU. They just put him to the children's unit.
So they didn't put them, like, in, like... I don't know what you call that. The critical unit or anything like that. They do have a peds area. So they put them in there, and I will never ever forget the stink eye my husband gave that doctor when she came walking in.
He... Because he knew. He knew that we'd talked to her in June and July. We talked to her, and I wanna say a nurse practitioner. So it wasn't completely her.
It was somebody else also. And she just had a look of, like, a tail between her legs when she came walking in. Like, oh gosh. They knew this, and I I pushed them off and just whisked them away. So, like...
Yeah. Needless to say, we we did switch doctors shortly after that.
Yes. Wow. Jeez. Yeah. Okay.
So the... Wee. So you're you're... I mean, I don't know how many times people can tell me this before all of you here. I should probably take more control over what's happening to me.
You know, like, not in, a online, you know, creepy, crazy, you know, conspiracy way, but, like, pay attention. You know, it's it's occurred to me that I've been doing this so long that it's because of, like, the temperament in, you know, I don't know, the country politics everywhere else. This this... What I think of as common sense thing that I used to say, which is, like, you know, you're really gonna have to be responsible for yourself. You can't count on other people.
I'm... Now now I sound like now I sound like a lunatic. I didn't... But I but I really think you just have to you have to realize that... I don't know.
Like, may... People make mistakes or not everybody is as concerned about you as you are or what... Whatnot or whatever. Maybe they're busier, and your health is still failing while they're off thinking, oh, I did the right thing, and they're all proud of themselves. You you know what I mean?
And you now stop paying attention to this issue because you went and said, hey. He's peeing and blah blah blah. They said that's not a problem. So now in your head, that's not a problem anymore. You stop thinking about it, and that creates a longer time gap before something else horrifying has to happen, like a zombie in your bathroom in the middle of the night, like, drinking from the sink.
And then and then you go, oh, maybe there's something wrong here. You know what I mean? Like, there's an example to be made here that you you were onto it, and they shoot you away from it.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and, yeah, now today, in in today's times, oh, yeah, I believe advocating for your own health is just, like, your number one priority at this point. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't even think my wife cares if I stay alive as much as I do. What do you think of that? Like, you're all out I think you're all out there thinking everybody's on you. Oh, they'll get us.
They got us covered. I went to the guy. Did you? Oh, yeah. Did anybody hear the the the...
Why do I bother doing this, by the way, Racha? Did anybody hear the Coldwin episode where the doctors were selling drugs out of the back of the doctor's office?
Oh my gosh. No. I didn't.
That's a person who somebody would go to and go, oh, he's got me. No. He's selling fentanyl out of the back door. Okay. Count on yourself.
I don't know how many times I need to say this. Okay. So you, you you figured this whole thing out. Sounds like they had them in and out of there. Lickety bim.
I'm gonna guess three days. You'll tell me.
Oh, yeah. Yep. I think we stayed maybe counting the night that we got there. I think we were there for two more nights after that night. So about two and a half days.
Yep. And then they gave us some training and said, here's your prescriptions and sent you on your way.
And that training has set you up for nothing but success, and it's been smooth sailing since then. Tell everybody.
Oh, no. Absolutely not.
Wait. This is not what happened? You know, let's pause here. We'll put the ads here. We'll come right back and hear what happened.
Okay. Now go ahead, Rachel.
Here's Your Prescription, Good Luck15:23
He... I think we got, like, what pretty much everyone says, the whole... Here, you feed them 30 to 45 carbs, give them this many units, check again, you know, before lunch, and then again, feed them another 30, 45 carbs. Check again before dinner. Here's about enough test script...
Test strips to do this three times a day, and there you go. You're on your way.
But then after that... Right right... After that, they said, now this is rudimentary beginning stuff just to keep your kids safe for right now. You're gonna need to learn a lot more after this.
Yeah.
They they did say that.
Uh-huh. No.
No. Not really. What what happened? Did I tell you that or, like, somebody else or some guy on the Internet? Or how did you find all that out?
Yes. Oh, man. It's such a blur, but I wanna say, like, we didn't even know CGMs existed. They didn't tell us that those existed. Why would you?
Why would you? Ridiculous.
I would... Here's a few test strips. Like, it was to the point where that we were, like, nervous to, like, test strip him because we're like, are we gonna run out? You know? Like, they only gave you just enough.
Mhmm. I think, like, you know, my husband and I probably scroll on our iPads at night, beating on things. And I just remember, like, one night coming across a CGM, and I was like, oh my gosh. These exist. I'm like, you don't have to prick them.
You can see what their number is all the time. And I was like, we need these. And then, you know, you tell the insurance you need that, and they told us, nah. You don't need that. So For what?
With the insurance?
You need it for? Oh oh, you had to fight with the insurance?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. We fought fought with the insurance. He was he was diagnosed in August, so I can clearly remember. I I don't know when I found out about him, but at that point, they told me they needed 90 days of his numbers.
And I was like, like, starting from today? And they're like, we don't know. We just need ninety days of his numbers. And I was like, they sent me a little spreadsheet for morning, lunch dinner. You know?
Ninety Days of Numbers She Didn't Have17:25
What are his numbers for ninety days? And I'm an honest person, and I was missing a few numbers. So I sent it back to him, and they're like, we're missing some numbers. And I'm like, I I don't remember his number from forty five days ago. And they're like, well, we need ninety days of numbers.
So at that point, I was like, I don't know. So I just scribbled some numbers in those missing numbers and then sent it back to them, and then it was approved. But it was just... I don't know why we would have to go through so many hoops for something like that. You know?
Like, something
that's so necessary. I don't wanna sound like a conspiracy theorist, but is it possible that, one of the game plans of an insurance company is to keep saying no hoping you give up?
Oh, yeah. Yep. And we are very familiar with that at this point.
Yeah.
Oh,
yeah. I've... Again, a thing I've been saying long before the Internet sounded crazy. So, I mean, it's just... It just makes business sense.
Right? If you're if you're the insurance company, the last thing you wanna do is pay a claim. I don't know if everyone understands how money works, but you pay them money to have insurance, and their their hope and prayer is that you never need to collect. And then when you do need to collect, they say, well, are you sure? How about the...
How about I, I I feel like I don't wanna say this whole thing because it's very embarrassing, but I backed into my son's car, like, six months ago. Unbelievable. And, I I I, of course, I had to get it fixed. It's funny when you back into a car that you own and you insure both of them. You're like, oh, I've I've now...
I've damaged two of my own cars. I have to pay twice. There's no one to blame. Anyway, not... Neither near.
My son's car needs a hood and a bumper. And I... So I said, you know, so will you put a new hood on, new bumper, paint them, paint the fenders, and then, you know, so everything matches. And I said, no. We're not gonna paint the fenders.
I said, well, the car is over a year old. It's been out the sun for a year. It's not gonna look right. And they go, oh, you probably won't notice. And I went, no.
I'm I'm definitely gonna notice. And and they said, well, that's not part of the repair. Said, well, how is that not part of the repair? Like like, the car, it's it's his. First of it's my son's car.
He pays for it. But, you know, he's gonna have to resell that car one day. Like, it it needs to hold its value, and it's certainly not gonna hold its value if it looks like it's six different colors. And, you know, and then I, oh, we're not gonna do that. There's...
It's not necessary. Keep... You use the same... Just think about diabetes one time. It's not necessary.
You don't need that. It doesn't impact how the car runs. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And I pushed and pushed and pushed. And one day, they were just like, yeah.
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Oh, yeah. Yeah. It wasn't This sounds exactly like insurance.
All of them. Exactly. Yeah. By the way, I didn't give them any new data. I didn't say anything, like, exciting or thoughtful.
I didn't write numbers down for ninety days. I just I just they said no, and I said yes one more time, then they said no. And then eventually, they went, oh, yeah. I got you. You got us.
And then
He's not going away.
Yeah. Oh god. Is this guy gonna keep calling? Alright. Pain his car.
And so... And it was that simple once it was that simple.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I I have a feeling like, ugh, well, you know, we switch insurances at... Not every year, but maybe every two years, whenever we have to.
Like, my husband's work makes us, you know, switch an insurance. I I have a feeling, like, with most of the major insurances, I feel like when my name pops up on their screen I'm calling, like, there's a note somewhere that says, oh, no. It's this lady.
Maybe the background turns red on the screen and it flashes like an eighties movie about the about about, like, nuclear holocaust. You know what I mean? Yeah. So
They're like, this lady's persistent.
Well, good for you.
Yeah.
Yeah. You know? I screamed the f word into a phone one time so many times. I can't believe that the person on the other end didn't quit in the middle of the call. I would have if I was at...
I would have been like, I don't know what I'm doing. This is a gut wrenching job. This man is right. I am now taking the brunt of this for no reason for $9 an hour back then probably while the company is, like, you know, putting money putting money away in socks and burning in the backyard. They got so much of it.
So Oh, yeah. Well, good for you. What... So what what are some things you've had to push back about?
Fighting for NovoLog23:33
Well, we we obviously did the fight for the CGM. I remember when he was first started, I wanna say he was on, like, Humalog or something like that.
K.
We didn't feel that worked very well, so I wanted NovoLog because I read that it was better. Whether it is or not, I don't know. I remember arguing with them about wanting to try a different insulin, so that took, you know, some arguing and appeals. And then, of course, most recently, he is on the Afrezza after being in the trial. So...
And when that trial ended, obviously, the FDA approval comes much later. So we wanted to continue using that, and we had to fight with the insurance to use the Afrezza. That was in... I wanna say 2023 was when we argued for the Afrezza. I had to do two appeals, and then I asked for an external review.
And, magically, when we did the external review, they approved it.
Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Not dissimilar to when you call the doctor's office and the person on the phone, you know, was just somebody who's like, I'd like to get out of the house more. Maybe I'll get a job.
You you you... Which got... I'm glad they got a job. It's all good for me. But that person's now giving you medical advice when you're calling in about your kid.
Should I be worried? I mean, I don't... And I I wouldn't be. And you're like, what's the person on the phone at the doctor's office? Meanwhile, it's my mother-in-law who wants to go outside.
Get what I mean?
Oh.
You're all doomed. Good luck. I have argued about so many things that I believe if I sat here and tried to remember them all, it would take me ten minutes.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. No. I just I just remember arguing with several different insurance companies. The one we're with right now currently, I wanna say they've probably been the most agreeable, to tell you the truth.
So I do like who we're with now. I'm gonna be really upset when we have to switch from them.
I like most agreeable is like a high watermark. Yeah. Like
It's like the bottom bar here. You know?
He comes home after work. Oh, is that how we're measuring this? Alright. So I I wanna know more about the Afrezza. When, do you hear about it first?
How do you get involved in the trial? What year is that? Kinda walk me through it, please.
Okay. So I wanna say I was visiting a hold of high school friend down in Indianapolis. And I went down there and met with her and her husband, and were like, let's go to this restaurant. And our friend owns it or co owns it, and we're like, okay. So, of course, the co owner comes and sits down with us, and he's like, hey.
Do you wanna try all my new my new menu items? We just redid our menu, and I have a lot... Bunch of low carb items on it, like, you know, like, cauliflower wings, cauliflower pizza, a bunch of cauliflower, lots of low carb options, chicken. And I was, like, intrigued by, I guess, mainly his menu. But then more interestingly, when the food came, he gets out this inhaler and, like, puts a cartridge in it and inhales it.
A Restaurant Owner Inhaled at the Table26:41
And I see him on his phone, and I'm like, what are you doing? And he's like, taking my insulin. And I was like, do you have type one diabetes? And he's like, yeah. And he's...
He looked, like, surprised that I knew too. And I was like He
said, lady. Son has. Like, in the hell do you think I'm making chicken wings out of cauliflower for? You think I'm doing it for fun? Exactly.
Oh, yeah. So, yeah, he he... That's when I first knew Afrezza existed. And I was like, I think that my mind was just absolutely blown that, like, such a thing existed. You know?
Mhmm. Yeah. So he he he shows me his Dexcom and, like, shows me his line, and it's, like, pretty pretty flat. You know? It was nothing like we were seeing for Liam, obviously.
Yeah. Because in... What would that be? 2020... I wanna say that's, like, 2021.
So Liam would be... It'd be 6, seven, eight. Doing math here. I wouldn't say he'd be nine at that time. So I was
I'm like I'm enjoying I'm enjoying my conversation with you, but you counting is not math. I just want you to understand.
Of of all the things that I have to deal with with diabetes,
it's like the math. You're like
I'm the worst at math.
You're like, one, two, three. I'm doing math. Oh my god. I think she's just counting. But...
Okay.
I am counting. Yes. Yeah. Is not my strong suit. But, yeah, I
remember being, like, what? Nor is describing math. Again. Sorry. I'm sorry.
I think I'm giddy. I must have relaxed over the weekend.
Must have been a good one.
I did. I did a little project for myself. It's not for now, but go ahead.
Yeah. I just remembered talking to him and going, my my son's graph looks nothing like yours. And he's like, yep. It's Zofrezza. I just inhale it, and it works quick, and it's out of the body quick and all that.
And I was like, okay. And I just remember going home after that weekend, coming home to my husband and, like, mind being blown and explaining to him that there's insulin that you inhale. I'm like, it's powder. And, like, he's like, okay. And I'm like, just just amazed.
You know? And then, like, so that was probably, like, maybe summer of twenty twenty one. And then, like, one night, I'm scrolling through diabetes stuff, and something pops up that they're doing a pediatric trial for children. And I'm like, woah. So I told Liam because he is like...
He's probably 10 at that point because he'd had his birthday. And I'm like, hey. They're doing this trial for children for inhaled insulin. Yeah. And I showed him, you know, the insulin online about it and everything.
And he was like, I want that. He's like, yeah. I want that. And I'm like, okay. So I contacted...
She Found the Trial Herself29:23
When you go to the clinicaltrial.gov, it'll tell you all the locations that are doing the trial. So I saw... What is it? IU. IU down in Indy was doing it.
The IU Medical. So I contacted them and was like, I'm interested in the Afrezza trial for my son. He's 10. And I don't think they wrote back right away, but eventually, they wrote back, and they're like, yeah. Due to COVID, it's delayed.
We're not enrolling anybody at the moment. And so
decided not to have people in health stuff during COVID.
Yeah. Yeah. And this is 2021. So, yeah, I guess COVID was still still a thing.
Mhmm.
So, you know, I said, okay. Well, that's fine. Let me know when you are. Definitely still interested. Let me know.
So I wanna say in 2022, in January, they finally wrote me, and they're like, we're we're gonna start enrolling people. And I was like, okay. Sign us up. So January, February, I think we went down there for, like, a preliminary type of, I don't know what you would call it, preliminary... I don't know what you call it, investigation, I guess, of him and if he was eligible.
They're gonna give him the once over, kick the tires, see what happens. I gotcha.
Yeah. See if he was a good fit. You know? So you had to have an a one c of... Oh, what was it?
Glad, For Once, About a Higher A1C30:42
We barely made it. You had to have an a one c of more than, like, seven point o or 7.1. So they tested his a one c that day, and he was, like, 7.2. Like, we barely flew over the radar to be able to get into it. Like, if he would have been any lower, they would have told us, see you later.
Sorry. You're doing too good of a job.
Right. Right. I was like... Because I feel like right before that trial was when we finally... What was that?
Five years in, we're getting the hang of it. And so for once, I was actually happier to have a higher a one c because I was like, oh, you're eligible. Barely. So then in... They had us back down in March or April, I think March, had us back down for a...
I don't know what they call it. They had them sit... They told us it was gonna be a long visit, and they were absolutely right. It was, a half a day visit. You go down there.
They take your number, your blood glucose number. They have you eat, like, a 15 to 20 carb, like, Cliff Bar, and then they had him inhale. And then they, like, see how they had to wait till his number got down to a certain number again after eating it. So, like, we we had to wait, like, an hour and a half after his first dose, and he was high. And then, like, an hour and a half later, they gave him another dose.
And, like, yeah, we were there, like, almost a half a day to get his number down because they were only doing, like, the four units instead of the eight and twelve with him at that point on that day because, obviously, they don't wanna, like, overdose him on insulin while they're at the hospital. Yeah, we spent, like, half a day there, got his number back down to, I guess, would say in range, and then they let us go, and that was it. They sent us home.
They just needed the data of what happened to him during that process.
Seven Tries at the Lung Test32:25
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And they also did lung testing too. I forgot right before that.
They did, like, lung testing.
What's that look like? What's lung testing like? Like, blowing into a tube consistently, that kind of stuff? Are they doing lung?
This one was... It's way more, intense than the one that our... His endo just did last year. But the one that they did there was, like, this big mechanism that he had to have. He blew into this, like, tube.
He had to, like, plug his nose while he did it. So... And they said you have seven attempts. I wanna say it was seven, and you had to pass it four times. So, I mean, it was great.
We had, like, all the nurses and all the doctors in there, and we were just rooting him on. Like, I wanna say the first one, he failed. The second one, he passed. The third one, he passed. The fourth one, he passed, and then he failed again.
So then he only had, like, two or three more attempts or something like that. And so we're all like, you gotta get one of these. You know? And, like, we are just all rooting him on, and finally, he passes the fourth one. So, like, he didn't have to do the other two or whatever.
Yeah.
So, like, yeah, he passed this lung test. It's something to do with your lung capacity. I don't completely understand it, but it was it was a sign off to say that his lungs were healthy, I guess you could say. Because he he doesn't he doesn't have asthma or anything like that. So
No one yelled don't blow this in the middle of it because it would have been hilarious.
Oh, yeah. And then I and then I don't think it was that visit. Maybe it was the next visit. It was a very slow progress. They they say that we're gonna go in another room, and we're gonna hit a button, and it's gonna be very randomized.
You either, a, for the first six months, continue on your same regimen, and then button, you get the Afrezza for the whole year. Well, at that time, Liam was like, if I don't get Afrezza for the whole year, I don't wanna do this. And I was like, well, that's not how it works. So they went in the other room, pushed the button, came back, and they're like, you get the Afrezza for the whole year. So he was happy.
I was happy. Everyone was happy.
What's this magic button do?
It's some randomization that I do... That they do for the clinical trial. I think they wanna be able to see
Kinda what I'm sure it's They randomly... So people pass, they get to that point, then the randomized button tells them what bucket to drop the person into.
Yeah. Probably, like... I don't... I wouldn't believe it's some, like... It's...
I guess it's probably an alternative to a placebo because they obviously can't tell you to quit insulin for six months. But... Yeah. Something to compare it to maybe or a baseline. I'm not really sure.
But Very interesting. Happy.
Yeah. I wonder why things take so long. Yeah. I know.
I know the FDA approval was, what, just a few months back.
So Yeah. In 2026.
Yeah. Yeah. And we were in
it from Your kid's gonna be shaving by the time they get this together.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we were in that from... So that was, like, March 2022 till March 2023. So he's been taking Afrezza for, well
Four years?
Over four years now. Yeah.
Alright. So let's talk about what it... Like, functionally, what it really means. He gets on the study. They're giving him Afrezza as his only insulin source just for high blood sugars.
How do you use it?
Correct. They were pretty strict about that. They were like, we don't really want you messing with anything else, just the Afrezza. There were... They said if by chance you use, you know, your old NovoLog or whatever, we need to know.
And I wanna say we did have to use the NovoLog one time, and I had to report it to him. I said we did use it. It was... He got sick, had a sore throat, cough. You know?
I mean, it was winter that year. Who knows? And he got sick, and we did have to use NovoLog. And I I did write them, and I was like, I just want you to know. Like, he he couldn't inhale.
He said his throat hurt too bad. So we did use NovoLog, and and I don't know. They just said we appreciate you telling us or whatever. And I think they asked us what we used and when we used it and what dates or whatnot, and then that was it. Because they were giving us CGMs at that time for a whole year, that was reporting the data to them.
So maybe they just had to, like, do something with the data for those.
Well, Rachel, so so for this first full year, he's using a basal insulin. Right? Which one?
At that time, he was on the... Is it bas... Basaglar?
Okay. Basaglar. Yep. Basaglar. Basaglar.
Who cares?
Yeah. Really. Say that.
Yeah. May... Maybe they should just try picking better names.
I know. They're all hard.
So there's a reason behind that, but it's boring. Anyway, so he's he's shooting in insulin once a day. And Yep. Every time he eats, he's inhaling. Every time he gets high, he's inhaling.
How many times a day do you think he inhaled the insulin?
Obviously, once for each meal, and then I would say each meal, pretty much each meal requires a follow-up because it's in and out. And then if you're eating fat or protein, obviously, that slow rise you get afterwards. So I would say he was at least inhaling six times a day. Okay. You know?
And probably even more. Maybe six to eight times a day.
And when you and when you entered the trial, his a one c was 7.1 ish, like, under seven two. Right?
Yeah. It was, like, 7.2 because you had to be higher than 7.1 for the trial.
Seven Two to Six Three37:48
Yeah. Okay. And then a year later, his a one c after inhaling insulin for a year was?
We hit an all time low that we'd never seen, 6.3.
Okay. And what about variability? Was he bouncing around up and down a lot? Did he feel well? How did he make out with activity, all the stuff?
The... I'm gonna say the truth. When you first start using the Afrezza, it's a learning curve as with most, you know, insulins and the whole disease in general. So the first month or two, we had quite a bit of a roller coaster. I'll never forget.
Then the CEO Called Her38:28
I I joined the Afrezza Facebook group and made a post thinking maybe some people could help me that have been using it much longer. And I was like, we just started this. We're in the trial. I said, we are just like... He would go low, and then we would treat the low, and then he'd go super high.
And then we'd treat him again, and then he'd go low. So it was just a bunch of roller coaster, and I... I'll never forget. I thought, oh gosh. We're gonna get kicked out of the trial because the CEO, Michael...
I'm not gonna be able to say his name. Castagna.
Okay. He's been on the show. I don't know how to say his name, so don't feel bad.
Yeah. It's I think it's Italian. Castagna. I don't know. He must have saw my post because he's in that Facebook group, and he was...
He wrote me and was like, hey. Do you have a minute? Can we talk? And I'm like, oh gosh. Am I gonna get us kicked out?
I thought, oh, no. What did I do? And I was like, yeah. We can talk. And he's like, yeah.
Send me your phone number, and I'll give you a call. And gave him my phone number. He gave me a call, and he's like, hey. I just wanted to speak to you, like, you know, about the trouble you're having with the roller coasters and everything. He's like, what's what's happening?
When are you taking the Afrezza? Are you doing it before you eat, during, or after? What... What's going on? And I explained to him, you know, we're doing what the trial said.
We're taking it right before he eats, and then we're experiencing lows. And he's like, when are you experiencing the low? And I said, you know, maybe, like, an hour after eating and after taking it. And he's like, yeah. He goes, I have a feeling if you were just to...
He goes, I know it's hard not to treat a low. That's what initially he said. He's like, but if you were to kinda just leave that low alone, I have a feeling it's right when the Afrezza's wearing off, and you will see him pop right back up, but not, like, super high, but, you know, coast back up.
Yeah. Rachel, can I ask what what did low mean? What's the number?
At that time, I think we were still probably maybe considering, like, 75 low. Nowadays Yeah. Yeah. I'm more or less consider, like, 65.
You mean when he got to a perfect blood sugar, you gave him food?
Yeah. We were we were those people for sure. We were, like, thinking seventy and eighty was low.
Can I be clear, though? Like, is that five years into his diagnosis?
That would be... Yeah. That'd be, like, four
four and a half. Yeah. Let's get off the Afrezza train for half a second and talk about that. Yeah. How did you make it four and a half years thinking 75 was low?
What was going on?
Under One Eighty, You're Good41:01
I think it was because mainly Liam felt low at that time. Because, I mean, he was still sometimes... That was back when you thought one eighty was good. You know? Like, that's what the doctors were telling you.
If they were like, if you're under one eighty, you're good.
So you're so you're living... That's where the seven two seven one blood sugars... Or a one c is coming in. Is that one eighty for you, you were like, don't do anything. This is fine.
Yeah. Doctors told us we're doing great.
Gotcha. Got you. You're doing great. You remember remember us from the diagnosis time? We know what's going on.
Don't worry. Oh, yeah. And then you're fine. Is he gonna get sick later in his life? No.
Probably not. No. I mean, you won't know us by the time it happens. So Right. Okay.
So living at one eighty, and then... So 75 feels low to him. Are you panic? Like, chain... Like, when...
Is it... Like, put yourself in that in that person's body back down. Did 75 feel scary to you?
I don't know about panicking so much, but it just, like, sometimes he would complain. I feel low. My legs are weak, you know, like, shaky. And Mhmm. Well, when your kid's telling you, you know, I don't feel right, you just...
I guess you just are like, they don't feel right. So... And we were also probably doing the same mistake where you're like, oh, you know, what is it? 15 carbs and wait fifteen minutes and then give more. So, like, it's no wonder now, like, that he was going 200 and up when you're treating like that.
This this poor Michael's on the phone, and he's thinking, my insulin has gotten this kid's blood sugar into a perfect spot, and then they're feeding him again and making his blood sugar high and saying this Afrezza doesn't work. That's probably how it felt to him. He was probably like, ugh. It's... But Oh, I'm sure.
I'm certain of it.
He's he's like he's like, I'm killing myself over here, and this is what's happening. So... Okay. Well, that's really interesting. So before you found Afrezza, had you found the podcast?
Had we found it yet? I think we had. I, like... I think I found the podcast probably around COVID, probably around, like, 2019.
How come my voice isn't in your head then at that point?
I know. I feel like we were getting there because, like, the 7.2 that we had right before the trial was, like, the best we'd had. So I feel we must have been kind of on the train of, you know, You were heading in that direction. That's too high. I think we were heading in the right direction had we even not have joined the trial.
Yeah. Yeah. I think we were getting there
Fair enough.
That was the lowest a one c we'd had prior to Afrezza.
Also, not a judgment. I'm just... I'm trying to lay out for people that, you know, four and a half years in... I'm assuming somebody being diagnosed today is like, well, in four and a half years, I'll understand it completely. You know?
Yeah. It can't be it can't be otherwise. But what what happens that slows it down? Is it just life? Is it, like, you know, you don't have time to really dig in so incremental change happens?
It's... I mean, why is the... Why does it take four and a half years or more?
Yeah. I don't know. Like, I think half of it is when the medical professionals tell you you're doing a great job. Then... Like, because what what was...
Is it the ADA? They had they say your kid should have an a one c of 7.5 or lower. So, like, if you have 7.5, I feel like they were telling you, you're doing awesome.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're
listening. Reality... I mean, you're doing okay, but I I wouldn't say great.
I hear you.
So now... We now obviously strive to be closer to, like... He's in his teenage years now, so it's a little rough. But I... The last since the Afrezza, we have always been under 7.0 now.
I think his last one was 6.5
What makes it rough?
The month.
What makes it rough?
Fourteen and Six Foot Three44:59
He's he's a growing boy. He is gonna be 14. He's six foot three. He's always hungry. He always wants to eat.
We try to fill him up, but he he just likes to eat. And I think just sometimes he gets so busy. Sometimes he doesn't dose also. And then we'll notice him go up, and we'll be like, hey. Did you dose?
And he'll be like, oh, nope. I forgot. So I don't know. Maybe he's just too busy at this point to to dose, and he does forget every now and then.
He's 14 and six three?
Oh, he'd be 14 at the end of the week, but, yes, he is six foot three. Yes.
I don't know what it is with you ladies. I'm like, no. Not yet. He... He's not 14 till Friday.
Yeah. He's 14. So he's 14. And I... Every time I say to my wife, like, she's 22.
She was not till the summer. I'm like, what are you talking about? It's a week from now. Is your husband nine feet tall? Are you tall?
What's going on?
We have no idea. I'm five foot ten. My husband is six foot.
Yeah.
Yeah. Liam is six foot three. Now he does have... My my husband does have another son, who is 28, and he is six foot eight.
So Yes. So you're... So it sounds to me like you're holding Liam back from from from true height greatness. Your your husband is a six eight son?
Yes.
I know we don't I know we don't like to talk about her. Right? How tall is that kid's mom?
I wanna say she's, she's about the same height as me because, they got married.
Got a type. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. She's, like, six foot. I wanna... Or, no, she's, like, five foot ten like me, I wanna say.
Well, you're you're tall. I mean, five tens, a a respectable woman's height. You know what
I mean?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Alright.
So this kid is just eating and growing.
Yeah. We always say he's got a hollow leg or something. He's just always hungry. Yeah.
But where in the country are you? Are you are you growing one of those offensive linemen that I'm gonna get to watch ten years from now on television, or what's going on?
Well, we are in Indiana. I will tell you that. So we do grow a lot of corn. He actually is enjoying soccer.
Oh my god. He's so far from the ground, though. I was
I know. We we make a joke. He started playing last September, so he's been playing for almost a year now. And he started out in goal because
He filled the whole thing.
Choose. Yeah. Because he... Yeah. I mean, yeah.
Look at the They were
like they were like, stand him over there. Yeah.
He did goalie for maybe, like, six months, and then he's decided he doesn't wanna do goalie anymore much to me and my husband's disagreement on that. But we're like, you do you. So he has been starting to play the field now, and he plays soccer, like, twice a week. And then he also practices on his own in the backyard. So he...
He's very fairly active. So maybe that's why he's always hungry. I'm not sure.
Is it crazy to see a little kid running around in a giant body?
What's crazier is to see him on the field with all the little kids. Like, the kids that are, like, so short. Like, I... I'm... I often wonder what do the other parents think.
Like, oh, like, where's this kid's birth certificate? There's no way he's the same age.
They probably look at it. To them, it's... It just probably looks like a movie where he's just a giant running through a field of small things yelling, move, and just throwing things out of the way.
I know. He gets so many fouls because, like, he just touches someone and
And they go they go tumbling that he looks guilty. He's got the reverse problem of Joel Embiid who gets fouled constantly, and they're like, he's fine. I'm like, just because he's bigger than everybody else doesn't mean you weren't fouling him. Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. You're gonna... You'll see that too. Well well, it's pretty interesting. Well, I mean, listen.
I think you're doing a terrific job. I'm just trying to understand, you know, like, the pattern of what happens. I also think it's fantastic that you had to do a a Fresa trial in Indianapolis, the home of Eli Lilly. That has to be like a... Is it a thumb in the eye on purpose from Afrezza?
I don't know. But but, so he... I I I just wanna get back to this because I'm not sure. He does not use any other insulin other than slow acting injected Enafrezza for years now?
Correct. Yeah. I I could not even recall to you. It was probably maybe once since the trial. I can't even recall to you the last time he took NovoLog.
Even when he's sick now, I just kinda try to persuade him to take a drink and then inhale the ombreza and then take another drink, you know, like, to try to... If it's a sore throat type of thing.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
And and he does it. So, yeah, I
Can you Yeah. Can you describe the difference between managing that way? And did you have a pump prior to that, or was he MDI?
Multiple Daily Injections, Multiple Daily Inhales49:47
MDI. Yeah. So we still claim he's MDI. We say multiple daily injections, multiple daily inhales. Yeah.
So he's still MDI is what I consider him. He did. He's never had a pump.
Did you make that up, or did they?
I made it up myself.
You're supposed to say, that's mine. You can't have it after you say something like that.
I need to copyright that.
Yeah. I... Because I... Listen. I think we're t minus six months to an Afrezza ad that says m...
I'm MDI, multiple daily inhales. And and I know. Then you're
gonna and
you're gonna scroll by and go, son of a bitch. And, like
I have a few more, I have a few more, like, inhale jokes too. Maybe I shouldn't say
those ones. No. No. Keep them. I'm about to steal yours.
That's just... It's such a... I can't believe they haven't thought of it yet, or maybe they have. Maybe. I don't know.
Okay. It'll be just coming. Yeah. Yeah. But but what's the difference?
Cons, or All Pros50:41
You know, like, tell me... Are there cons, or are they all pros?
I'm trying to think of really some cons of it. I mean, because I've heard through the grapevine, they're gonna be coming out with, like, twos and different different doses. So, I mean, the con might be that you're restricted to four eights and twelves. So, I mean, yeah, that's a con, but I think they're working on that. The pros are just how quickly it works.
I don't know if it's something with Liam and his body, but he... I feel like food, once he eats it, it hits his blood sugar so quickly. I don't know if his body just digests it so quickly or what, but, like, we were pre... We did get pre bolusing from the podcast, so I will tell you we did learn that. Nobody really spoke much about that to us at the doctor's office.
So we did get that from the podcast. I started telling my husband, we need to start getting insulin into him before he eats, like, a half hour before. It got to the point where we were, like, preboiling him an hour before we ate.
Well, at a at a one eighty blood sugar.
Yeah. Yeah. Try to get them in range before we ate.
Let me say for clarity, you're not pre bolusing a one eighty. You're correcting the one eighty. Yeah. Yeah. And...
But using more insulin so that when the food starts up, it doesn't just bounce the other direction right away.
Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I...
It's so interesting to hear you talk about it. It's... I... You know, I try to remind myself all the time that everybody's not in the same place. And sometimes I get a little, like, confused thinking, like, everybody listening is just, like, kinda has it already.
You know what I mean? Like, it gets the whole thing, but it... That's not the case. And and four years into it, quite having it all together at that point, I don't think it's uncommon at all. I think it's actually probably more common than my experience allows me to believe from the people I get to talk to.
But Oh, yeah. You... Like, you're not doing anything wrong. You can... If doctors aren't listening, you twice told the lady not to worry, and twice it leads to problems.
And and then she's trying to pick her way through it and figure it out. It takes time. You make them nervous or you make them complacent by telling them, oh, you're doing great, you know, whatever that whole thing ends up doing to the psyche. And so you have to experience these problems over and over and over again till one day you just say to, you know, your husband or he says to you or whatever, like, I think we should be doing something different here. Like, you know, you could end up wasting ten years figuring that out.
Oh, easily.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of of one eighty blood sugars and calling it good. And if if doctors are listening now and they're like, one eighty is good.
Like, I mean, compared to two eighty, sure. It's better than one ninety. It's not better than 75, which apparently you were able to reach. And then as soon as you got there, you're like, oh, no. That's so wrong.
It's a 105 points below one eighty. I gotta fix it. You you know? Like... And the poor kid feels the way he feels because his body's not even used to being in a in a in a more stable, healthy range.
So he feels better when he's high. And then you start getting that pressure of, like, well, he doesn't feel good. We have to make his blood sugar higher so he feels better. Like, it... I I don't...
Like, does everyone not see what I'm saying? Or... You know what I mean? It's... It's just a very strange way to put this all together.
And then you just happen to walk into the Afrezza trial and never really kind of... You're almost like you're almost like when Darth Vader... Before he started Vader starts his training, but then doesn't finish and leaves. And so, like, you were, like, you were kinda going through your process, and then you're like, you know what? We're just gonna go inhale insulin instead.
And you would... Not to say not to say that I wasn't calling insulin the dark side. I was... I wasn't calling inhaled insulin the dark side. I'm saying, like, you were halfway through learning something, and you just pivoted hard in the middle of it.
So do you consider yourself understanding Afrezza now? Because you you did a thing earlier that all Afrezza users do. You start going like a four, an eight, a 12. You start throwing these numbers out. No one listening knows what the hell you're talking about.
And and you guys say it like, oh, there's a four. There's an eight. Like, what should I do here? Do an 8. Do a 4.
Do a 2. Do a 3. Like, no one... Again, no one knows what you're saying. So there's cartridges with certain measurements of powder in it, whatever, Afrezza.
And you what do you do? Do you do it by carb counts? Do you do it by vibe?
Yeah. I... Initially, they were telling us to, like, count the carbs and were telling us, like, a four unit is more like two units injected. You know, an eight's more like five to six units injected, and a 12 is like eight units injected or something, you know, along those lines. They had a little chart for us telling us how it compared to injected.
So at that time, I can't remember what his carb count was or what we thought it was. But currently, today, I wanna say, like, for breakfast, he's like a one to five carb lunch, more like a one to eight or 10 carb, and dinner, again, back to one to five. He's definitely more like... I don't know if you wanna call insulin resistant or not, but, like, morning and night, he needs more insulin. During the day, like, lunch, not so much.
Not so much.
Do I count carbs still? Yeah. But not, like, as exact as I used to. He... He's a creature of habit.
He eats a lot of the same things. So, I mean, we're lucky there. So, like, I know
To repeat it.
What to give him for a pizza, what to give him for his breakfast waffles. You know? Like Mhmm. He he eats the same things pretty often. So...
And then he has, like, that... I think people call it, like, the foot to floor where he goes up in the morning on his own type of thing. So we account for that too. But... Yeah.
So when you
say we kinda count carbs, kind of.
So I I hope one day you listen back to this and go, oh, this is why people don't understand inhaled insulin. So
I feel like it's a... It was a lot of trial and error. And it's like, I can't, like, tell somebody, oh, yeah. If you're eating pizza, you need, like, to take a 12 because it's it's... You know, you don't know what their carb ratio is.
So it's like, I can't really tell anybody how much to take I'm not due to
Yeah. Yeah. No. I'm not saying... First of all, I'm not saying that there's not a...
Like, you couldn't find a vibe and do it. I I don't think that at all. I just think that right now people have... This is my insulin to carb ratio. This is how many carbs are in this.
If I pre bolus it, then I get my insulin ahead of carb, you know, and then Right. This number kinda holds it steady. That that kind... They have a way of thinking about it that that it's linear. And Yeah.
And I don't know that this isn't. I just know that I keep trying to get people to explain it, and then they just started saying there's a four, an eight, a 12. And I go, okay. Okay. What?
I guess the best way I could explain it is I'm less fearful with the Afrezza than I am injected.
You don't see the lows?
I don't see... We don't see lows as much. And if we do see them, they're... They don't last as long. I'm just less fearful with the Afrezza because I know how quickly it lasts.
Like, it starts working. Mhmm. And then I know how long it's gonna last in his body and when it's gone. So, like, it's actually really great before sports. You know, some...
A lot of people when they're doing inject, it'll say... Or or if they're on pumps, which I am not familiar with, but people are like, oh, I'm putting them in sport mode or or or we don't give doses of injected before sports because it'll lead to lows. But, like, with the Afrezza, if he's going into soccer practice and I notice he's one sixty, I I... I'm not really fearful in telling him, hey. Take a four unit right now before soccer.
And, like, he's gonna go run out on the field for an hour with a four unit in his body. I'm just not scared because I know that it's gonna be out of his body again in, like, an hour or so.
So it knocks it knocks the number down but doesn't keep trailing afterwards?
Yeah. There's not that lingering effect like we would see with injected. Like... Because sometimes you'd see the effects of the injected for, what, three hours still? Like...
So I think... Yeah. I guess... Yeah. That's that's definitely the pro for me.
It's just how quickly it works and then knowing how quickly it's out of his body. And then if for some reason after that hour he's still high, I can redose him so much sooner than we used to be able to previously.
Do you have
If you aren't stacking it.
Yeah. No. No. I understand. Do you do...
It sounds amazing. Do you have ever have thought of, like, oh, I'll put them on an AID pump, and then I'll just use the Afrezza for high blood sugars, or is that not a thing that's occurred to you?
He's Never Wanted a Pump59:44
I do know a lot of people do that. But for us, Liam has never wanted to have a pump on his body. Mhmm. And respectfully, I I guess I just say, okay. If you don't want another device, that's fine.
But I have, like, made a hard... There is no option on a CGM. Like, you absolutely do need to have CGM on you, which I don't think he really minds having that on. But he's like, I don't wanna pump. I don't wanna pump.
I have to change every three days or, you know, or another thing to go wrong. He also, he's intuitive. He knows that the Dexcom sometimes can have inaccuracies. And he says, that scares me. What if my pumps...
Or my Dexcom's saying I'm high, but I'm really not high, and then it gives me insulin, and I didn't need that insulin. Or... So he... I don't know. He...
I don't wanna say he's fearful for... Of a pump, but
he's No. It's not on it's not on no one's radar. No one's thinking about that.
Yeah. He's not thinking about it. And I said, you know, that's fine with you. Maybe one day in the future, you'll want one. And, you know
Or maybe not. Listen. Maybe not too. Who... I don't...
I I couldn't possibly care less. I'm just I'm just trying to get your thought process around it.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. No. We... We've definitely thought about pumps, but he's just never.
I just feel like it'd just be a whole argument to get him a pump and have him do it and everything. So... And we have friends. We have quite a few type one friends, and I don't know. I just hear about their pump issues, and I'm like, ugh.
I don't know if I want that headache.
Why why do you have so many type one friends? Are you collecting them like Pokemon?
Yeah. We are. We are. That's so funny how, like, you you know, we knew nothing about type one diabetes. And then we had a...
I had a friend that go, hey. My other friend's daughter was just diagnosed, like, you know, so long after Liam was. And then and then my husband's like, hey. My friend's son was just diagnosed, like, six months after Liam. And then...
So we have those friends. And then we also went to a family diabetes camp down near Indianapolis, Indianapolis, like, two or three years ago, and we met. Funny thing is is they live where we live. They drove two hours to this camp. We drove two hours to this camp to find out we live in the same city.
So we're, like, pretty good friends with them too. We have a son.
Could've done that at a Panera Bread up the street, apparently. But... Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's pretty...
That's awesome. Does he enjoy knowing other people who have type one?
I think so. I don't... I don't know. I don't know if it's just like... Maybe it's me.
Maybe it's me talking to parents. They have to deal with diabetes too.
Yeah. Well, how are you doing with all this? Is it is it impacting your happiness and health?
I don't think as much as it used to. No. I don't think as much as it used to. I feel like now this is just our new normal. You know?
Okay. Is your husband very involved in it or no?
He will tell you that I am very controlling about the diabetes management. As with probably most couples when they have a child with diabetes. So I would say I do a lot of it. He... I I had a job where I went into work a few days a week, and then he would have to manage it.
He knows what to do. He does know what to do. He he knows how to handle it. We do have sometimes, like, little discussions about how much should he be taking, and he'll say this, and I'll say this, and then we'll end up, like, in the middle. And then we'll give him a dose that's in the middle of what we both think or something like that.
But
Okay.
I would say I do quite a bit of it. But he knows what to do.
Who's more... Is he more aggressive than you are?
Yeah. Yeah. I wanna say he's more aggressive.
Do you wanna know how I know that?
Because you are?
No. Because you talked about a seven a one c, and and you're following what you wanna do. So I figured higher a one c, less insulin. He must be the one who's advocating for more insulin.
Yeah. Yeah. He does... He he wants to he wants to knock it down and get it down. And whereas I'm, like, more ear on the side of caution.
You know? Like, I'm, like, trying to prevent the lows. And that's probably, like
Have you
So because we deal with the lows differently. K. You know, the whole 15 carbs, wait fifteen minutes, I think that is absolute crap. So I like to say he needs... You know, like, we like Skittles or gummy bears, you know, where they're two or three carbs a piece.
And I'm like, he needs maybe, like, five to seven carbs, and then let's wait longer. And my husband, when he goes low, sometimes I think he gives him more carbs than necessary. So
Does your husband panic?
Yeah. Yeah. So he's... What's that?
Does the husband the husband... Does your husband panic?
I don't know about panic, but he just gives him more carbs when he goes low than I would.
Because someone said 15 carbs fifteen minutes to him one time?
He definitely has heard that advice. I don't know if he still agrees with it or not. It's interesting. It also might be... It might also be Liam just saying, I want this when he's low.
It just lets him pay.
And and he lets him.
And you go, no. Yeah.
Yeah. That's try to I try to avoid Lowe's.
I've I've, like, I've, like, pulled a juice box out of Arden's mouth. No. No. No. That was it.
Like, it all
You only need to have a juice box.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. It's all...
I mean, it's all incredibly interesting. There's a dynamic going on there that, you know, has an impact. And it's funny too. Like, I I thought to say something to you, and I didn't want it to sound critical. So instead, I'll just preface it by saying I'm not being critical.
And you said you're guarding against Lowe's. And I wondered what if we called that I'm meaningfully keeping his blood sugar higher. Would you feel the same way about it?
No. Because I wouldn't say I'm, like, keeping it higher. I just try to avoid getting him to, like, 65. 65
is your date. I don't want that either. I'm saying that if you're if you're average... Going back, take... Before the Afrezza, if you're sitting at one eighty and saying, well, at least he's not low, and...
But you're covered by the ADA and the doctor going, you're doing great. So you're not even saying at least he's not low. You're going, this is awesome. He never gets low, and and we're within the number they gave us. It...
You know what I mean? Like, if you could look back on that moment now and I said to you, hey. His blood sugar was one eighty, but you'd preferred it to be 80. It's over a 100% higher than it should be. Like like, I think a lot of it's just framing and and words.
Do know what I mean? Because I hear people say, like, well, I'm just guarding against lows, and you are by keeping his blood sugar high. And Yeah. But but you don't think of it that way. You think of it as, you know, because the guardrail gives you, you know, the...
Gives you the ability to go, no. I'm doing the right thing. It's still okay. Everything's okay. But it's just all semantics.
You know what mean?
No. Absolute... Absolutely. And I think that was also a part of listening to the podcast was that was another takeaway that we got was... And I told my husband, I said...
I I listened to the podcast. He cannot stand listening to the podcast, I will tell you.
He doesn't like me? Well, I don't like him either.
It's not that he don't like you. It's I listened to the podcast on speed 1.5, which makes everything faster.
That would make me mental. I wouldn't be good with that either.
Yeah. Yeah. And he's like, I can't stand that. He goes, I can't stand that. And I'm like, oh, well, you
know what I like your husband. I'm sorry. Take it back.
Yeah. So that's one takeaway we got from the podcast was, like, we talk... We listened to the podcast or... Shall I I did? And I think there was a few episodes there where you were telling people, we never kept our bar at 200 or 300.
Like, some people... I I know we've heard people say, my my high bar is at 200. My high bar is at 300. We never had that. But I...
The takeaway where people are... You were telling people lower it. And then, like, once you're once you're good, lower it some more. You know? And then once you're good, lower it some more.
So today, I'd have to look. We currently have Liam's high bar, which, you know, maybe we should lower it one day soon. But currently, we have him... His range is from 70 to one fifty is what we have now on our phone.
You get a beep at 01:50? Where does Liam get the beep at?
I don't know what his is at because sometimes I mess with his if... Does remote learning from home. So he does remote school. He's at home.
Mhmm.
But he has to go in person. And I think when he's in person, I do bump his up so that it's not beeping. Because when he goes in person, it's just for testing, and I don't want him, like, beeping everywhere.
Why remote learning? Does he not fit in the building?
That's it. He can't fit through the doorway?
Yeah. That's what I figured. So, like, hey. Listen. You can't send this kid here.
He keeps hitting his head on stuff.
No. He's a... He... During COVID, our our local school opened up a virtual academy. So he was in second grade, and he did remote learning second grade.
My youngest was... Started kindergarten when Liam went into third grade. So both of them did virtual kindergarten for my youngest and him for third, and then my youngest did it for first, and he did it for fourth. And then they got rid of the younger grades. And so my youngest didn't have an option to do it anymore.
So he goes in person, and my oldest still had... Or Liam still had the option, and he chose that he wanted to continue to do it at home. So he's in eighth grade now and still doing it at home.
Your opinion, pros and cons of that?
Ugh. I know what he's eating and when he's eating for the most part.
That's diabetes. I'm talking about the other stuff, the kid the kid part.
He likes it. He doesn't have the distractions of other kids. You know, the whole switching classes, walking down the hallway. He he he likes that he doesn't have to wait for a bus and get on a bus or do the car line. When he's done at the end of the day, he ends as...
He closes his computer, and he can get on his Xbox right away. Yeah.
I think son sounds like a your son sounds like a princess just like me. I love that.
I know. I know.
I don't wanna get on a bus with those other people.
He he he... He's he's not like a loner or anything. He has friends, plays soccer. We have quite a few friends, and we go and do
things with them.
So, like, he... Oh, yeah. He's social. So, like... I know grandma always worries.
She's like, he doesn't mingle. And I'm like, he mingles. He's fine.
He's fine. He knows people. Calm down.
He's fine.
Calm down, mom. Hey. Are you a are you a trophy wife, Rachel?
I wish.
No. No. No. I I... Because you said...
Because the other son, I I I couldn't figure out if your husband just had a baby early in his life or if you're the or if you're the, like, oh, I'll get another one ten years younger, which which happened.
I don't know. We'd have to ask him, I guess, what he thinks about
the trophy.
You didn't you didn't ask him?
I didn't. I never would have asked him. No.
Are you younger than him?
I am. I am. By? Eight years.
Rachel. Take take the lap. Put your hand up and wave. It's okay. Look at you.
You're a home wrecker. What'd you do? Oh my gosh. You've... I want...
I wanna ask you if there's anything that we haven't talked about here, around... Especially around Afrezza. I... I'm gonna go down and and say one more time, I have done a poor job of getting information about Afrezza for people again. And I've interviewed the CEO, Michael, who you spoke about.
I Did a Bad Job Explaining Afrezza1:11:35
And when I left that conversation, I thought I did a bad job of understanding what Afrezza is. So I'm I'm beginning to not blame myself as much as I think that it's hard for people who use it to message it because I know people who love it, who use it, and love it. Like, love it. Love it. Love it.
And when I ask them to explain it to me, I don't know what's happening, but four seconds into it, all I hear is there's an eight, a four, and a 12, and I go, uh-oh. You're not doing a good job explaining this. And so it works, and people love it. Just have trouble articulating it. And and Yeah.
I wonder if Liam would have been... Is he in the house? He must be.
You don't
wanna believe
He is in the house. He is. He's probably... He's probably about just now to get to his lunch break. Yep.
Would would... Do you think he'd jump on and answer one question about Afrezza for me?
He might be able to.
Yeah. Would you... If I paused it, would you go ask him? Yeah. Alright.
I'm gonna hit pause. Okay. Alright. I'll I'll be here when you get back.
I found him. You're back? He said, yeah. I am back. He said, sure.
Awesome. So
I'm gonna have to put the earplugs in his ears, I assume.
Yeah. No. He's gonna need
to him to look at the camera and talk to the camera. Right?
Yeah. Just have him kinda orient himself in front of your microphone. That's all.
Okay.
I I mean, I could also explain it to him. So
Okay. Okay. Here. Put these on and then sit down in that seat. You might wanna get close.
And this is, like, where the mic is. So if you say something.
Hello?
Liam, holy Christ, man. Your voice is deeper than mine. What's up, Liam?
Nothing much. What's up with you?
Not too much. I appreciate you jumping on doors. I now feel like you're older than I am. Your mom told me you're, like, nine feet tall. That's pretty awesome.
I wish I was taller. I wanna ask... I don't wanna give you any context. I'll give you the context after. Okay?
Okay.
You use Afrezza. You don't inject fast acting insulin. You're not wearing a pump. That's correct?
Absolutely. Yeah.
Okay. Take me through your day. You wake up in the morning. Do you do your slow acting in the morning or at night?
Liam's Morning, Unit by Unit1:13:48
So I do my slow acting at night. I, usually wake up around 06:45, go downstairs, and pre bolus with twenty four to twenty eight units depending on how high my number is and eat breakfast.
Okay. So, Liam, tell me something. Is that, like, two twelves cartridges?
Yeah. Two twelve cartridges. And if it's 28, then I'll add a four.
Okay. And that's because you're you're eating, like, waffles and stuff like that. Right?
Yeah.
Okay. Alright. So you you... Do you say huff or inhale? You inhale them.
How much longer until you start eating?
It's usually not too long. It's usually five to ten minutes beforehand or sometimes a little more if I'm higher.
Okay. And your mom describes that you eat a lot of the same things. So what's your go to breakfast?
Usually, it's two pieces of bacon with, two, like, small sized waffles.
Regular syrup or sugar free syrup?
Sugar free. Yeah.
K. You put some butter on it? No. No. But waffles, bacon, sugar free syrup.
What's the highest your blood sugar gets after breakfast? If
if we hit it wrong and I'm high, then at most, like, maybe one eighty.
And if it doesn't get high, do you get low later?
Sometimes, but that's only if we do a bit too much.
What's low mean? What's the number?
Low is usually for me, like, 50 to 60.
Okay. Do you know how many carbs the waffles are by any chance?
I'm... Do you have any idea, mom? Do you have do you have much She
can't hear me.
Okay. Do you have a
Just say how many carbs of the waffles.
Oh, yeah. I think it's 10 each, maybe.
Okay. So it's 20 carbs of waffles, two pieces of bacon, the 24. What do you weigh? Do you know?
I weigh around one sixty to one fifty.
One sixty, one... Do you think of yourself as lean, thin, muscular?
Very thin.
Thin. Okay. Tall and thin. Like, you popped up and haven't filled out yet?
Yeah.
Are you going to? Did you look at your dad and think, oh, I'm gonna be thin or I'm gonna fill out?
I'm hoping not to get too big, but not to be too small.
You think you think there'll be more... A little more muscle and a little more. Okay. Okay. So let's pretend that later in the morning, we didn't quite hit it right.
An Hour Past Waffle Time1:16:29
Your blood sugar is one eighty. It's now an hour past waffle time. Is that the time you think to knock it down?
Usually, I'll try and knock it down a bit earlier, but at the latest, then... Yeah.
So what do you do? Throw on another four?
If I've had nothing else, then, yeah, four. But if I've had something smaller than an eight
Okay. And... But even an hour after your initial pre bolus for breakfast, there's no concern that you're gonna get low after that. If you're one eighty, that's not gonna keep trailing away. It'll either stay at one eighty or go up, or am I not right about that?
Sorry. Can you repeat?
Yeah. Sure. So you have the waffles. Your blood sugar goes to one eighty. It's an hour after you've eaten.
You're not gonna get low. Are you gonna go up, or is it gonna just sit at one eighty if you don't do anything?
I'll probably sit at one eighty, but I prefer I prefer not to.
Okay. So you throw in a four or if you've had another snack in the morning, maybe an eight. Where do you come down to? Where does it sit after you've made the correction?
We usually tend to sit at around 80 to one twenty.
Okay. Do you have any ability to move a one twenty down, or would a four be too much for that?
A four is usually about right for that, where I'll go out and move a bit.
A little movement would help too. Okay. Because you also have the... What'd she say you're using? Not Tresiba.
You use... What's your slow acting called? Shoot. You shoot it every day. What's it called?
You pick it up, you hold it, you look right at it, and it says on it. Basagar. Yeah. Sorry. That's it.
Don't be sorry. I was just testing you. Most people, oddly enough, don't know the names of their insulins, which is which is... I've learned is pretty common. Okay.
So we've got everything clear. We're one twenty to 80 somewhere in there. We're riding along. I hear you take your school at home, so you're you're going to classes, etcetera. You decide to eat, which is right about now, and you're gonna throw in, what, another 24, 28 depending on what you're gonna eat?
I'm pretty sure we usually do any for... Anywhere from 24 to 32 because lunch has... Is quite a bit more carby than breakfast for me.
Okay.
But... Yeah.
Okay. And then the same thing happens. You either need a little more to bring it down or you don't, and then this runs. And then you play soccer. You don't get low when you're playing soccer?
I don't tend to. But
Make it happen. But it's not happening every day when you're running around playing soccer, I mean.
Yeah. Okay. Not every day. Do Sometimes.
Do you eat before you go to soccer?
We... I don't tend to eat too much, but I I do like to eat a little bit before soccer.
Is it enough that it needs insulin?
No. Because, that movement in playing usually tends to even it out
or Okay.
Knock me down.
Little snack. You go into the whole thing. You've done MDI in the past. You've shot insulin before. Is your preference MDI?
I Prefer Inhaled a Hundred Percent1:19:52
Is your preference inhaled? Can you tell me the the... What... However you feel about that first?
I prefer inhaled a 100%. It's so much easier and fast acting.
Okay. And your a one c is what right now? Do you know?
I think it's 6.8. We... It used to be quite a bit lower. But
What... What's stopping it from being lower?
It's mostly me. I've been eating so much. I need to quit it.
Well, I mean, you're hungry. Right? You should be eating.
Yeah.
Yeah. Or are you eating, like, crappy food, or are you eating... Like, do you... Are you getting also chicken, fish, you know, vegetables, that kind of stuff too?
I try to eat vegetables and, meats and... When I can, but sometimes I'll get cravings for, you know, chips, candy, all that stuff.
And Sure.
Sometimes I forget to dose or predose, and it's a problem.
Talk about that. Like, I had a a kid your age recently describing... Meanwhile, I I wanna say he was your age, but when I talked to him, he sounded like this. So it was a little different than talking to you right now. It's hard for me to keep in my head that you're 14.
But do you... By the way, do people treat you like you're older?
Oh, all the time. Yes.
Yeah. Is it the height or the voice? What do you think it is?
I think it's a combination of both, and I... I've been told I act more mature for my age.
I don't know what you're planning for your life, but let me just suggest a podcast because with your voice, I really think you could knock it down. But but also please get an education. I, what was my question here? So okay, so you're doing... I think I...
No Pain, Quick1:21:50
What don't I know about Afrezza that people should know about it?
I'm not sure if you do know, but it... It's tons more friendly to, younger children. It's... No pain, quick. It's just a simple quick inhale.
Yeah. And that's what you remember about being little and having injections, the painfulness of it.
Yeah. It's incredibly hard to get used to.
Yeah. Yeah. I would imagine. CGMs, fantastic? Or Yeah.
Yeah. Better than finger sticks for you.
Yeah.
Okay. Do you have a... Do you have any trouble letting other people know that you have diabetes? Because if you go to school at home... I mean, where are you seeing people mostly?
Soccer, like, things like that?
I do, soccer, obviously, and talk to teammates, opponents, all that, and I do testing. And I'm I'm not too embarrassed about diabetes. I don't love to share it, but it's not something I'm afraid to share.
Okay. Do you have any other autoimmune issues? Do you have hypothyroidism or celiac or anything?
Not that... I don't know. No. But, there is worry.
About?
Well, my mom and grandma have a thyroid issue, so we're looking out for that.
Okay. Alright. So you test for it sometimes?
Yeah.
Yeah. Do you know what your TSH is? Do they tell you that stuff, or you just kinda go with the flow?
I go with the flow. I've, I don't know what that is. Sorry.
Don't be sorry. It's just a measurement when they're checking your thyroid. College. Are you thinking of going away to college or staying in in your home state?
I plan on staying here. I've heard it's quite a bit cheaper.
I Want to Be a Doctor1:23:44
Yeah. Well, it definitely is. Any idea what you're thinking of doing or too young for that?
I want to be a doctor. I know it's very hard and, you know, time consuming, but that's what I'd like to do.
When did you start feeling that way?
I've felt this way ever since probably around seven, maybe. I've always wanted to be a doctor.
Yeah. Hey. This will sound like a pivot, but how hard is it not to knock those little kids over when you're playing soccer? Don't you feel like you could just swap them and knock them out of the way if you wanted to?
Yeah. It's definitely hard sometimes to not because I'm so much bigger and they're... It's just... They're very small
and it
looks like don't want.
Yeah. Liam, they're in the way. Right? They're just like bugs. Yeah.
They're like, move. Does it ever... Do you ever think I should go play with older people, but then they'd knock your ass around then because you... You're probably not as strong as they are.
Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. Do wanna play with older people. It helps learn and get better and just makes you faster.
Have you ever done it just to try?
I've played a few pickup games with, like, high school kids. It's fun, but it's... It gets hard.
Because they're moving faster than you?
Yeah. They're faster, quicker, and they have so much more power than I have.
Yeah. Well, a couple years from now, you'll be a high school kid, and you'll you'll probably be dominating them. Do you wanna play college soccer, or do you not think you're up to that?
I'd love to, but it's it's not really up to me. It's whether I can I can get to that level?
Yeah. You're a very level headed person. It's not up to me. I mean, not a lot a lot of times kids are like, I'm gonna do it. I'm like, I mean, you...
We'll see. But... Yeah. Yeah. But you know that already, and you wanna be a doctor.
You smart, Liam? Am I talking to a smart person?
I... I'd like to think so, but sometimes I have trouble staying on it. I can do the assignments. It's just difficult sometimes to do them, if you get what I mean.
Because there's a lot other... Because there's other things calling your name that you could be doing or because... Do you think you have ADHD?
It's feel... It's... Like, I can't connect with the assignment. I don't see why it's relevant all the time.
Oh, Liam.
I get it's important, but sometimes I can't understand why it connects with what I want to do with my life.
Liam, I think you might be what they call too smart for your own good. What do you think of that?
I really appreciate that.
Yeah. No. No. No trouble. I remember feeling the exact same way growing up.
I was like, what is this for? I don't need this. Don't like this. I I need that over there. How do I get to that?
Is that how you feel?
Yeah. All the time.
Yeah. Are you using AI?
I don't tend to a lot, but sometimes, yes. It's Or... Well, I I don't use it for assignments necessarily.
No. No. I'm not... Yeah. Yeah.
I'm I'm I'm I'm looking for people like you to just pick it up and just mess with it and and see what you can do with it. And Yeah. Yeah. Like, I... I'd like to see how it could expand your your desire to do other things.
That... That's the... Because you're being not help... I'm not I'm not... Listen.
School's important. I'm not saying school's not important. But if you're if you're pacing above where the curriculum is, then the only way you're gonna find other stuff is to be able to kinda take your ideas and and branch them out. And where are gonna do that if it's not talking to a a peer or to a teacher? You're gonna have to talk to, you know, talk to your LLM and, and say, hey.
I wonder what we could do with this. I just watched my son last night, two hours before... This is gonna sound wasteful to people, but two hours before his fantasy football fantasy draft, sit down. And by the time he was done, he was looking at, like, a a full... I mean, I don't know another way to put it.
It was it was, you know, it was a system to track, people's, stats. You know, I think he set it up so that live during the draft, every time he told it a name was taken off, it would reorder everybody and suggest people back again for different... He had a system in place in two hours. Now is that important? It's for the world?
It it is not. But what I what I liked was watching him go from, like, an idea to a working system in just a couple of hours. That's not a thing you could do without that. You know what I mean? Like...
So I'm wondering what you would do with it.
Yeah. That sounds insane. I'm not sure what I would do with it.
I'm interested in what you would do. Tell your mom I said you need $20 a month in a Claude account. Okay? I... I'd like her to make the investment right now.
I wanna see what you would do with it. Liam, if you ever wanna talk about diabetes, you come back on the podcast and talk. You're good at this. So, your mom is, lovely. You you think of her as a a decent person?
She's looking at you right now. Right? Yeah. She can't hear what I said, though. She is...
She... She's a decent mom?
Oh, yeah. She is. I love her. Yeah.
Oh, that's nice. She didn't have to say off the go, like, I feel pressure to get my food paid for. I'm just gonna say something nice right now. No. No.
She seems lovely. She told a nice story and and and shared with me about your diagnosis and everything and your path, and I hope your story will help other people. I think it will. I think you said something very impactful about about Afrezza when I asked you what was good about it. You said it doesn't hurt, and it's hard to get used to that hurt.
So I I thought that was really insightful, man. I appreciate you sharing that with me.
Thank you. I really appreciate, everything you said and what you just said.
No. No. Cool. Listen. I I think I'm taking you from lunch.
So why don't you go ahead? You can hand that back to her. I'll say goodbye, and you go do what you're gonna do. And, I I hope you have a good day.
Okay. Thank you.
Yep. I appreciate
you having me on.
No. No. Was really nice, man. Thank you for doing it.
Okay. See you.
Yep.
Okay. Take those earbuds back from you. Alright. Hello?
It would have been nice if you told me Robert Goulet was getting on. There's the... By the way, that reference reference was for the same six people that got the Marcus Welby reference.
They're both know. He sounds like a man.
Of like a man? He sounds like he's gonna he sounds like he... He's gonna pick me up and throw me across the room. He's He's
our our man child.
I'm like I'm like, Liam. He goes, hello? And I'm like, Jesus. God. Alright.
I'm gonna leave everybody with this. Years and years ago, Howard Stern sent Stuttering John Melendez out to interview Robert Goulet. Robert Goulet has an incredibly deep voice. And during the conversation, Stutter and John says to him, do you ever get sore testicles? And I don't know where that I don't know where that question comes from.
But Robert Goulet, in in maybe the deepest voice I've ever heard, goes, I never get sore testicles. It's just... I don't know what the hell. But every time I hear somebody with a deep voice, all I hear is, in my head, I never get sore testicles. So he jumped...
So your 14 year old son jumps on, and the voice in my head goes, I never get sore testicles. I'm like, wait. He's 14. I gotta talk to him like that. You put me to disadvantage is what I'm saying, Rachel.
Yeah. He's he's very mature.
Very mature. I told him he can come on and talk about... If he ever wants to come on and talk about diabetes, he should. He's really good at it. Just thoughtful, can answer the questions and everything.
Oh, for sure. He says I'm he would.
He says he loves you too. Aw. Did you hear him say that?
I wonder. I did hear him.
I tried to get him to say something bad about you. He says I love her. I was like, okay. I asked him. I said, is she a decent mom?
You know what I mean? Like, in case he had to unburden himself? No. Apparently, you're doing alright. It's a good job.
Although you have a thyroid issue.
I Got the Hashimoto1:31:46
I do. I got the Hashimoto.
How long? How old were you when you got it?
I I think I had it again, like Liam, way longer than I knew. I finally got diagnosed with that in 2019. Short... My dad passed away from the pancreatic cancer. And right after he passed away, I felt like a bus hit me.
Mhmm. And then a bus hit me again. I went to the doctor. I thought maybe it was just depression. I gained a lot of weight, and that's when we found out it was my thyroid.
Yeah. Yeah. What's his TSH? Because you're getting it tested. Right?
Yep. We got it tested. I think she tests it every year, every other year. And I can't tell you what the number is, but it was, a one point something. It was always in range.
That's good. That's good news. Yeah. I... Sometimes they get into the three, four range.
They're like, it's in range. I'm like, oh, you've got a ton of symptoms. But it sounds like he's doing well. I'm glad you're paying attention to it.
Oh, yeah. We keep a real close eye on his thyroid for sure.
How about the... Yeah. I'm sorry. How about the young one?
I wanna say, yeah, I got his thyroid tested at least once. Probably should... They're going back to the doctor in September, probably about time to get that retested for him too. Just keep an eye on him. And whenever he hurts himself or we see blood, we get out the meter and use that blood to good use.
Before we wipe that off, let's just test your blood sugar real quick. On your Yeah. Is it... Obviously, your husband has either had kids or been married before. So, any other autoimmune on his side?
No. Honestly, I... Not that we're aware of. When Liam was diagnosed, we looked back and nobody had type one diabetes. Diabetes.
And, obviously, when he was diagnosed, I didn't even know I had a thyroid issue at that time. So Yeah. But my mom has hypothyroidism. And then on my dad's side, his sister has hypothyroidism. And then I take that back on my mom's side.
Her sister has hypothyroidism. So there's three hypos up the line and then me with the Hashi. So
Yeah. Yeah. Did the weight clear up after the Synthroid?
Yeah. So at the same time, was feeling like crap and finding out I had the hypo... They said, initially, I had the hypothyroidism. I take that back. Initially, they said hypothyroidism.
I was having stomach pain. I eliminated gluten out of my diet, which was mostly eliminating beer and bread, and I lost, like, 35 pounds.
Cool. Beer and bread. You're like Yeah. I don't know how to explain this to Scott. I was drinking with one hand and eating a pretzel with the other hand.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. My dad's dad. I... You're... Am I about right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, that whole new TikTok thing where people go me without this and then they lay on the ground. You know? That was me. I'm like, cutting out bread and beer and, yeah, and lost the weight. And then I think I maybe, like, kinda went back to gluten a little bit, and then the stomach pain came back.
And that's when I went to a different doctor, and they tested further into the thyroid, like, the antibodies that I didn't even know you could test on the t fours, and that's when they said I had the Hashimoto's. So, like, two years later in 2021, I think, was when they finally said you have Hashimoto's.
So I love that you said the Hashimoto's. That's fantastic. Thank you.
I know. I... Well, I always say if you're gonna have a disease, at least that one kinda sounds cool.
I think you said the pancreatic cancer too. You were done in everything. I appreciate this about you. How old are you?
I am gonna be 40 in October.
Oh, no kidding.
Yep.
Look at you. You're nice and young. Good for you. Don't live your life. Anybody over there using a GLP?
Nope. Nope. Nope. GLPs. Nope.
None of those.
I'm gonna start asking. I think everybody's using them now. What do you think of that?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My... I think my husband considered it, and then read, like, some of the side effects, and I don't...
I guess he decided it... He he didn't need it.
Tell him my side effects are I'm awesome. Okay? So... And see see if that changes in my... I just have my, my neighbors say the same thing.
I'm not... I'm worried about the side effects. He's like, you're not worried about the side effects of your high blood sugar and the neuropathy in your feet? I was like, I Oh, yeah. I would consider those two if I was you.
So I
think I think he read something about, like, eyes or something affecting his eyes, and he already has really bad eyes. So he's like, oh lord. I don't want anything to make my eyes any worse.
So I... Listen. I'd tell him to look a little deeper into that. Not a doctor. But if he...
It's it's fixed my life. So I would Yeah. I would... Actually, I'm gonna go downstairs and take it right now. What do think of it?
I'm gonna I'm gonna stop talking to you, go downstairs, jam that thing right into me and smile while it's happening. So That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. No.
I'm glad for everybody who's doing well there. Okay. I've kept you too long. I really appreciate this. If Liam...
Don't pressure him, Rachel. But if he shows any inclination about it, have him reach back out. Okay?
Yeah. Maybe when this one airs and he listens to it, maybe he'll say, I want my own.
So I mean, he's gonna hear... His voice is gonna make the speakers rumble. So he got on. All I could think was, ugh. His voice is deeper than mine.
Ruins it. It really does ruin it for me. Takes away all my gusto. Anyway, thank you so much for doing this. I really do appreciate it.
Yes. Thank you so much for having us on.
Oh, of course. Hold on one second for me. To learn more and see if you might be able to get Twist from the pharmacy and try it for free, head to visit.twist.com/juicebox. That's visit.twist.com/juicebox. Or give them a call at 18774.
That's +1 (877) 489-4478, and tell them Scott sent you. TWIST requires a prescription and is indicated for people with type one diabetes six and older. Arden has been getting her diabetes supplies from US Med for years. You can as well. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514.
Many thanks to US Med for sponsoring this episode and for being and for being longtime sponsors of the juice box podcast. There are links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to US Med, Twist, and today's other awesome sponsor, the Eversense CGM. They make, of course, the Eversense three sixty five, and that thing lasts an entire year. One insertion every year. Come on.
You probably feel like I'm messing with you, but I'm not. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox. Check it out. Let's face it. Diabetes is tough, but it's easier when you have a community around you.
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