Scott Benner 5/26/20 Scott Benner 5/26/20

#339 Badlands

Dakota has complications

The path to understanding can be treacherous.

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello, everyone, welcome to Episode 339 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is sponsored by Omni pod, and Dexcom Omni pod, of course, is the insulin pump, excuse me, the tubeless insulin pump that Arden has been wearing since she was four years old. And we love it. And Dexcom, the greatest continuous glucose monitor known to mankind, you can find out more my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box, and dexcom.com forward slash juice box. I'll tell you more about the sponsors in just a few minutes. But first I want to tell you about Dakota today's guest. Dakota is an adult with Type One Diabetes, who is experiencing a number of complications. But he's starting to get things together. And he's here today to share what he wished that he would have known when he was a younger person for type one diabetes. It's a great episode full of hope, and honesty, just like I like.

While I've got your attention, I hope you check out diabetes pro tip calm. It's my website where I've collected all the diabetes pro tip episodes from the Juicebox Podcast right in one place. You can of course still listen to them in your podcast player. But for those of you who are trying to share them more easily, or just want to find them quickly. Diabetes pro tip.com has also added juice box docs.com. It's juicebox D oc s.com. On that page, you'll find a growing collection of amazing doctors all submitted by listeners like you. If you think you have a great diabetes physician practitioner of any kind, someone who's really helped you who really gets it gets what we talked about here on the podcast doesn't hassle you, and you'd like to share that doctor with someone else. Go to juice box docs.com right there, you can send me an email, you'll be able to see all the information I'm looking for, because you'll see what other people have given. And you can add your fantastic doctor to an ever growing list of diabetes professionals who are forward thinking, thoughtful and conscious of what technology can do. My name is Dakota, I'm 30 years old. I have been diabetic for 25 years.

Five years old. That's a long time ago.

It was pretty much I don't know a life without diabetes. Yeah, were you. That's interesting. So it's five years old. 25 years ago, I have to orient myself with time all the time. And that messes me up. But it was at 9094. Four. Okay. Do you have siblings at that point? I had an older brother who was 15. And he was a half the half brother. That was the only other sibling other than my parents. And younger back then the technology was not what it is today, I would imagine. What's your first sort of recollection of living with diabetes? How old were you? I would say the year later, about six years old. I for some reason, this memory stands out going up the stairs and I couldn't make it past the landing. And by the time we waited the two and a half minutes for the glucometer to actually test the blood sugar. It popped up reading 23. That was my first experience with a hypo. That's crazy. So tell people a little more because that's something that I think a lot of people listening to that don't understand. So do you remember the process can you walk through what it was like to check your blood sugar 25 years ago, the meters aren't as compact as they are today. You know if you have a if you have an actual glucometer or if you have a CGM, they were about the size of your of your phone. They weighed about as much as a brick. And the test trip was the size of a ketone strip. And the amount of blood that it took was you pretty much had to poke every finger just to get enough blood

bleed into a puddle to

Dakota 4:15
exactly 60 seconds into it you actually had to wipe the blood off the strip before inserting it into the machine

Unknown Speaker 4:24
so probably dinosaur age

Scott Benner 4:26
that's interesting. So you the the blood goes on the strip but the strip's not in the machine at that point, correct the blood out to saturate that little pad on the strip that's like a ketone trip or you have to kind of wait and wait. So this is all happening to her while you're six and a unable to propel yourself up the stairs. So something's clearly wrong and apparent goes it's like well, we'll get the meter and then they drag this thing out and hack open a vein. Fill up this test strip, they're putting them the thing you said you felt faint probably because of the blood loss. Not even Because of the blood sugar being low,

Unknown Speaker 5:01
I think for the blood bought Yeah,

Scott Benner 5:04
that's really something else, man, that's a it's a good look into, Oh, you know what your life could be like, for people who are, you know, will say something like, my Dexcom lost its connection for five minutes and I very upset.

It's a different world, what do you use now for technology.

Unknown Speaker 5:22
So I was always on the side of I didn't want to support the industry at all figure I give them enough money, I'm not gonna support all this new technology, old school has always worked out, it doesn't work. And I have now on the desktop g six as well as the Omni pod. And that was all pre listening to the show.

Scott Benner 5:41
That's cool. That's so interesting.

And I like to dig into that for just a second to kind of figure that out. So at some point, as an adult, you have like a real adverse feeling like, you know, I've already lose enough money to this disease. I'm not spending any more I'm not giving anybody anymore. It did it feel like an adversarial relationship at that point, like there was you. And then these people that they that they told you, the hospital, your doctor that was supposed to be helping you but you didn't feel like you were being helped by them. It totally felt that way, you know, it's the insulin already cost enough. And then when they change the product that you're on, or they want you to try a new medicine that's actually more expensive, you know, when you're able to get a good deal on syringes, and then you look at the price of a pump, you're still buying the insulin put into the pub, and they just seem like extra expenditures that aren't necessarily needed at that moment.

Unknown Speaker 6:37
And was this a?

Scott Benner 6:40
Was this a financial decision to like, were you were you hurting for the money? Or any you need to put in other places? Or was this solely like, I'm gonna take a stand against this, this feeling you're having? At the time, it was a little bit of both? I definitely thought like, you know, what, if I keep doing this, they're gonna miss me, which obviously is not the case. Like,

I'm keeping my money, you'll come crawling.

Dakota 7:03
Exactly. And then the financial aspect, you know, that was a big part of it, you know, early 20s, trying to figure out what life is. And now you have to find a job that offers you good insurance. So you can even get the products in the first place. And then they tell you, it's going to be a couple hundred dollars a month. It's a big chunk of your your income course. No, I don't think we talked about it enough. We always speak about it and kind of sort of simple terms. Like I have insurance. I don't have insurance. You just think of people as in two camps, like the poor people with no insurance. Oh, that's a shame for them. And the people do have insurance. Oh, that must not cost them anything. It's not true. You could have insurance and it still cost you a fair amount of money every month. And you know, and it's worse if you don't have insurance. You haven't tried to pay cash for things. When did you lose your fight with the man? How old were you?

Unknown Speaker 7:50
Um, it was actually

Scott Benner 7:54
2017 I finally gave in and I didn't know which was which at the time I am done enough research. And I actually ordered the Omni pod first thinking it was the CGM. So I was on a pump for the CGM, by mistake thinking you were gonna be able to see jam first. Exactly. That's interesting. So when you didn't collapse the the medical device system in America and you're what what was it that made you feel like I'm giving up this fight like because I mean, I'm serious. I'm not joking with you. Like it's, it's obviously meant something to you. But at some point, you just were like, Alright, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm going to try to get these devices. What led you to, I mean, letting go of something that that you felt so strongly about for 20 some years? It actually I decided to finally jump on board when I lost my eyesight due to the diabetes. Okay, so you felt like? Well, let's, let's, I guess we should dig into that a little bit. So you are legally blind? I am legally blind. Yes. What does that mean? As far as is there? I mean, you had you were sighted for such a long time. Like Can you put into perspective for someone what it feels like? Like what? You know what that situation is like, what can you do? What do you struggle with? What What do you see in front of you?

One way you can tell that a company stands behind what it does is when it offers you a free trial with zero obligation to continue understand, I mean, they're willing to put the product in your hand before they've got your john Hancock anywhere.

Unknown Speaker 9:38
You've made

Scott Benner 9:39
zero promises. They've got all the risk. They're showing you right up front. This is who we are, like us or don't like being on a first date and just telling people all the creepy stuff you like and you think I'm gonna find the one guy who thinks this is right.

That's what the parties

are very honest first date. No What am I talking about? If you go to Miami pod.com forward slash juicebox Omni pod will send you a free, no obligation demo pod right here home. This allows you to try the pod on to see what it would be like to be an omni pod person, right? A Potter. That's what today's Potter. After your demo pod arrives, your free, no obligation demo bond. You can live with it like it's your new friend, take it in the bath with you go out for a run, lay in the sun.

Have some fun.

I can't think of anything else that simply rhymes to that word that you could do with an insulin pump on Oh, you could probably make a pun. And maybe be talking to somebody and say something funny to them while you're wearing your new Omni pod demo. And you'll think to yourself, you know, earlier today, when I made that pun, I didn't even notice I was running on Wi Fi. This is the insulin pump for me. A pump that's giving me my basal insulin and allows me to bolus do extended bolus is Temp Basal increases and decreases all that great stuff. And I don't know I'm wearing it. Even when I'm putting my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. Get that free, no obligation demo today and use that link so that on the pod knows she came from the Juicebox Podcast.

Are you impressed that I did all that and then didn't make fun?

Unknown Speaker 11:30
I just couldn't think of one. All right.

Scott Benner 11:34
Next car, the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor is in fact, the greatest thing in the world. If you're using insulin, if you're a giraffe, the greatest thing in the world is tall trees with food on it. But if you're using insulin, the dexcom g six, the bee's knees. Now, where did the saying bee's knees come from? I don't know. But what I do know is that the dexcom g six shows you the speed and direction that your blood sugar's moving. And if you're the loved one, have a person with Type One Diabetes, it allows you to see their speed and direction remotely. remotely means anywhere. Apple or Android, through the internet, the web understanding even through cellular, cellular like I don't need Wi Fi exactly for this. That's right, Scott, your kid could be in his 10 volt. Have a blood sugar that starts falling. You could be in Madison, Wisconsin and see it happen. Huh? How about that? Then you text them you're like, Hey, I don't know why you're in Turkey. But your blood sugar is getting low. Why don't you have a juice dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Do it today. It can't possibly be understated. But I think it is an amazing idea. So we're talking about my omnipod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Get yourself the greatest insulin pump. Get yourself the most magnificent CGM. Let them know that you came from the Juicebox Podcast.

What do you struggle with? What What do you see in front of you?

Everything is essentially looking through a fog. There's I have no depth perception. My right eye has no vision. my left eye the vision is 2199 which now is technically one point out of being legally blind. But it's still essentially trying to look like a stack of Ziploc bags, everything you do. And my gosh, that's a kind of horrifying honestly. If you got to this, is this a Is this a side effect of your type one? Absolutely. It was a I suffered a diabetic hemorrhage in my right eye, even in 2017 but essentially filled my eye with blood. And too much later in August of 2017. The left eye followed suit did the same exact thing. Prior to this hemorrhage. Were you aware that your eyesight was in the midst of failing or did you not know right up until it happened? I had a prescription for glasses because I knew it was starting to diminish a little bit. And I could tell there's something else a little bit more serious happening. So I scheduled the appointment. That was on Wednesday. The doctor called me before the appointment said we need to push it till Monday. And the bleed happened on Sunday. Okay, when you and I were setting the call up I asked you to shut your camera off to save bandwidth and you I from what I could. I felt like I was seeing from this and were you using your phone as a magnifier to see the screen on your computer. What was that you were doing? I use my phone for everything. Yeah, even trying to type the reply to you before we started the call. It's have to get a picture of the keyboard. I've actually never used this laptop before, just to type the message back to I say, alright. How much has that? How does that I guess slow your day down? What does it mean? How does it change your life? I guess should be my question. What were you doing prior the things you were doing prior that you can't do any more? were you living the same life? How are you handling What's going on? Well, my past, I grew up racing, motorcycles, anything in the desert, it was an engine, that was my passion. And that is the biggest thing I've given up because I can no longer drive, even tried to pick up my daughter from daycare or going to help out my fiance's, I can't drive anymore. So it definitely takes a toll on you in the long run, you start to get this feeling like maybe you're not putting enough into the relationship because you know, the other partner is doing all the driving, as you'll always try to overcompensate in different aspects of a relationship. And that all comes from not being able to assist with tasks outside the home. Yeah, I can see that I it's a, you know, obviously not an apples to apples comparison. But I've been a stay at home dad for like 20 years. And in the beginning, you know, you do feel like I'm doing all these things, but it's not the money. And because it's not the money, it doesn't feel as important a little bit, you know what I mean? And, and you do, I found myself over doing other things trying to be like, Look, I'm valuable, you know, I mean, like, I'm, it's I'm trying my hardest, I'm in this 5050. And it's a weird feeling. It went away from me, I hope it I hope it doesn't stick with you. Because obviously your situation is it's not like you're just you know, you've made a decision not to be helpful. You know? Wow. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about that, about the motocross racing. So I have very little knowledge of this other than I have this incredibly clear memory of when I was a kid and my parents took me, they had a friend who rode they called it enduro bike racing, I guess. And it was, it felt like it was in the woods and my memory. And you just kind of went and stood on this, you know, some part on this course in the woods, and every few minutes, these amazing like, motorcycles would just come flying by and jumping over hills and mud flying everywhere. And I think back on it now. And I'm like that could not have been safe for me to be standing there watching that. Because you're so close to the course, you know, absolutely not, especially in endurocross. They're jumping over rocks, you know, there are definitely mud pits that they have to try to plow through. There's logs in the path that they're trying to jump over, it could take one foot and you have a bite coming at your forehead. Oh god, I'm telling you, I look back on my life. Now I see a couple of times where I feel like the state could have come in and taken me you know, because decisions my parents were making. That was one of them. There was another one where you went to West Virginia. And there was this like, we were on like the top of like an overlook. And my parents put me right on the edge of it to take a photo and I look at that photo. And I think like what is wrong with you, like would not have looked just as good if I was, say 10 feet from the edge of it. Like Did I really have to be at the precipice of death? To get this photograph off the boy, I'll have to see if I can find it and put it up on the website that coincide with us. But it's all the experience. It's I guess when you're younger, you're just like, oh, stand there. We'll take a picture. I don't know. I'm making excuses for them. It was dumb.

Unknown Speaker 18:15
But you're fearless. But what

Scott Benner 18:18
I remember about being at that is it was exhilarating. And that the the smell of sort of that two stroke, like exhaust was in the air. You don't I mean, I can still hear the bikes. The smell of the race field is too short, you had to mix with oil. So you're burning oil as well as race fuel. And it's a it's a very, very nostalgic. Oh, yeah, I can't, I'm telling you. I did it one time. And I feel like I'm standing there telling you about it. So I can't imagine how for a person who was enjoying actually participating in it. I mean, it's got to be an incredible loss for you among other things, but But still, yeah, I actually stopped when I was sick with the my parents recognize the signs of the diabetes. They took me in and sure enough, I was diagnosed. And about an hour later, they diagnosed me with a heart condition also my racing career stopped on the same day. No kidding.

I'm sorry to hear that.

So it's one of those where I've always been involved with the industry My dad was really big in the racing scene in Southern California as well. So it's always been a part of my family all my friends race so it's we never quite lost that touch. It's just by the time I jumped back into it was against financial is so expensive that but either be a bystander or do it just for fun. Yeah, yeah. So do you do you still try to go to races to as a spectator. I still now go to now I go to Supercross. It's definitely lost its edge from what I'm used to it. I started going to has very little so it's a very family oriented event. Now I go to different sorts of offroad races. I'm out here in Arizona now so I'll catch the NASCAR races that come through. Now I try to go on behalf of my organization to raise awareness. So you do that you do like set up a table? Or do you just how do you how do you raise awareness at an event like that? You're working on the process of actually getting into these events, just because it is very corporate structured. You know, typically, they want their vendors to pay to be there to sell a product, as a nonprofit, they try to get it to where, you know, discounted, or if there's an opening. Yeah. Apparently, the only events I have scheduled are with a local chapter, the jdrf for their walks and things like that. So nice. What do you do when you interact with people? What do you talk about with them? More anything they want? if they have any questions about diabetes, any of the complications, signs? Honestly, sharing my story has helped more people than I can count. You know, I used to think, Okay, well, my blood sugar is in the low 200. That's fine. And Fast Forward 20 years, it wasn't fine. Now, there's neuropathy going on, there's the obviously the vision. There's a lot of other things that diabetes can affect. My is just when loss, vision loss, a lot of the internal stuff as well. So just sharing what the doctors have told me, I'm in timeout at the hospital. And I've even crashed cars, because I've had a hypo while driving. So again, there's a lot that can come with it that most people might not realize. No, I think you're 100%. Right. I think that a lot of our though, a lot of how we we sort of build our world around diabetes comes from the things we hear initially. And if what you heard initially was, hey, listen, just try to keep his blood sugar between 90 and 200. And didn't realize that that was supposed to be you know, for this month, and the next month, then you'll come back and we'll shoot for better and better. Except, it doesn't work that way. For a lot of people. A lot of people start thinking, well, that's my range. You don't I mean, I tried to stay there. Exactly. I know, from listening to your past episodes, even as artists growing up, you know, it's not just even within that range. It's everything's adjusting rules on a weekly basis. And you know, when there's only one endocrinologist near you, where you can go and start backtracking. During all this, my parents are also going through a divorce. So now it's separated parents while you're trying to figure out what this disease is, as if they're not on the same page or not on the same page. So it's you're trying to figure out everything all at once. And especially for a young child, it's very overwhelming. Yeah, no kidding. I mean, I, I can't even imagine being your situation. I don't want to lose track of this. So let me ask you, you said you were diagnosed with a heart condition. What was that? Um, I had a bicuspid heart valve. So my aortic valve is fused with a second valve. So that having three leaflets my heart only had two leaflets. How

is that impacted you and your life?

Unknown Speaker 22:59
I got very out of breath. as a as a youngster.

Unknown Speaker 23:05
It was over overworking itself.

Scott Benner 23:09
And then in the year 2000, I underwent open heart surgery had the aortic valve replaced. Geez, my gosh, that's a 17 year old Have you? what's the what's my question here? What's the is there maintenance to that surgery? Like you go see someone like yearly? Or how does that? How do you keep track of that surgery? I go see my cardiologist every two years. He does an EKG, perfect. 20 years. That's about as quick as the appointment goes. No kidding. That's excellent to hear. Okay, so Dakota, since you're trying to raise awareness, and you're being so honest, I want to give context to, you know, a little more context to where you got to with your vision, if that's okay with you. So, let's just start with the the easiest measurable for people to kind of understand, do you know what your a one C was? Through the years? Were you keeping track of it? Or did you were you going to an endocrinologist kind of talk to me about how you how you manage that side of diabetes, most of my life by agency was above 12. Okay, I don't know if you recall with the the glucometers how they used to come with a vial of testing solution to calibrate your machine. When I would be on my way to the appointment. I knew I hadn't tested and I would sit there in the back with piles of the solution because the longer it sat, the higher the reading. And I would sit there and I'd fake the numbers the entire way down to the doctor's office. Meanwhile, having to go through push the two buttons try to change the date and the time make it look like I've been testing on a regular basis. I would get down there they would see the readings. They check the agency they say something's not adding up here. That's right. I decided I needed to start throwing in some highs. So I fudged the numbers forever. Mainly because I knew the endocrinologist was a yell at me when I went down there, there was no compassion. It was always scolding. Was your mom? were you living with your mom? In this moment? I was actually living with my dad. My mom had moved out of state. Okay, so you're with your father? Is he aware you're doing this? And no, no, you just kind of in the backseat of the car. Just Yes, chugging along, making up numbers.

Unknown Speaker 25:29
For all he knows, I'm back there playing a game boy.

Scott Benner 25:31
Wow, that's really something and how old? Were you? When you started doing that, that you? Do you recall? I want to say I was around 11 or 12. So just going into middle school? Well, and you How many years did you do something like that for I would say, on and off for a couple years. And eventually just got to a point where I had that mentality of, I know how my body feels, I don't need to test. So leading up to the vision loss, I would say I had gone almost three years without testing my glucose. And you know, Now, obviously, I'm not telling you, I'm sort of telling everybody that your body tries to adapt to the higher blood sugars. So that, yeah, they start feeling normal to you whether, and I always, you know, ordinal kind of pull that out every once in a while, like, you know, she's so accustomed to not testing very often. That, um, that you know, when you have to test a couple of times a day, and actually, it's funny last night was one of those nights, and you mentioned staying fluid earlier Arden's out of she's in a period right now of the month where she needs less insulin, and I didn't see it, I didn't notice it happen right away. So there were these kind of like an evening of lows that I thought like, this is just a thing. And then the next night came up, and it started happening. Oh, geez, I have to dial over in some back. So you know, bazel, insulin back, everything kind of dialed back for the spot. But we ended up testing a number of times. And now she uses the Contour. Next One meter, which needs you know, it's a great meter, it needs like no blood. And still, we tested I don't know, three or four times yesterday. And by the fourth time I sent her a text, like, hey, just check your blood sugar real quick. I want to make sure this is the number because we're about to make a decision, you know? And she was like, ah, I feel fine. And I reminded her I was like, I know you feel fine. But that that's not an end. I said, if I didn't if I feel fine, was the right way to manage your blood sugar, then this meter company and Dexcom that these companies would exist because you just ask people, how do you feel? Yeah, I feel great. But when I would say I was feeling fine, because I finally realized something was wrong. I was 350. And I said, I feel fine.

And you probably did you actually feel fine.

I felt perfectly normal. And I was at work at the time, I was actually up on a scissor lift. And I looked at my manager. I'm like, I have to come down now or I'm going to faint. And I went in the cinema. Actually, I tested my budget in the breakroom. So I lied. It wasn't three years, it's probably about a year and a half prior. And it came back at 180. And I am sitting there sweating and shaking. Because I feel so low. Yeah. We touch it. The only sense of having a like a stable point or like a point of like, basis is to get back up to that point. So would you consider and I, you know, I have no real world experience with it. But it was it sort of like the idea of like when you hear a drug addict say they need a fix. So they feel better. Like were you trying to get your blood sugar higher to feel better? Not necessarily higher than it was just back up to that. I would say 300 Mark, where I didn't feel essentially like, like you were alone. I was going like, like, yeah, like I was going numb or going low. Yeah, yeah. When your tongue starts to tingle, and your fingers start to tingle in your hand, you're shaking, you're sweating. Because you feel so low. And you're actually on the higher side of the scale. Yeah. It's pretty big wake up call. It's fascinating. I mean, honestly, a 180 your, your blood sugar's doubled of what you know, somebody who doesn't have type one is and that's so. So to cut, it's probably a good time to stop for a second because people who listen to podcasts have heard me say, you know, if you're cutting your blood sugar being higher as you're bringing it down, you know, you could end up feeling low when you're not really low. It doesn't make the it doesn't make the feelings not real. You know, you still feel that way. And you got kind of sometimes people talk to me about having to sort of titrate down slowly, you know, when once they've kind of figured out the whole thing here with the podcast. They're like, Alright, I can bring my blood sugar down. Some people bring it down pretty quickly. And it stays stable. And you know, I've heard back from people are like, Oh, I felt low for a couple of days. When a woman told me once she felt a little shaky for a week at like 120 but we never speak about it in the number range that you just spoke about it in like feeling low at 180 is a is a sincere indication of just how long your blood sugar had been in the three hundreds or Exactly, yeah. Well, for most of my most of my life I was in is what I've seen around all the forums and everything is I was in to end burnout for most of my life. Where I knew I had the disease. I didn't know how to take care of it. Be nobody around me understood it. This is back before we had social media in these large networks to be part of. And you know, it was I would in high school, I would be at school and drink a coke every day, I would take a huge dose of 20 to 25 units of insulin and go about my day. At night, I would take my my long lasting. And that was it for the day. So you, you would do a basal insulin at night. And one big bolus at your at your lunchtime meal and just do nothing else. Right. Wow. What was the intention there? Like? What did you feel like you were accomplishing when you did that? I just knew I had to take insulin. I didn't quite understand why. Okay, but I just knew I had to do this. Because what my parents and doctors had told me. So to me, okay, well, I did it twice today. I'm good. Okay, I put a lot in it will last. And that is how that in that simplistic ways how you thought about it? Like I'll use a lot. And this will be it'll just stay in me and you felt like you were filling up a gas tank? Almost? Exactly. I'll fill up the tank. And when it when it hits again, I'll all fill up again. Wow. Well, I am in the situation where I want to offer some sort of like, I don't know, I don't know what to say like it feels so sad to hear someone say that they had such little direction and, and understanding for such a long period of time. And yet, you know, you don't need my No, you don't need my words, they don't help you. And they and I guess what you really want to do that is you want somebody else to hear this, who doesn't get to the part where you are.

Unknown Speaker 32:11
Exactly. And that's, that's the whole point why I got through all the hoops and started, you know, my organization is I don't want anybody else to have to reach the point that I'm at whether you're a fan of Motorsports or not or racing are not reach out to somebody and don't just sit there on your own. I had a young lady reach out to me from Florida, at the same thing where she had reached burnout, her parents couldn't afford her for helping her anymore. And just kind of talking her through it. He was able to go out of getting a job that insurance. That way she could get the medications that she needed. It's more just having that ear to listen to what you need to say. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 32:51
Can I ask you do you find?

Scott Benner 32:53
Do you find when you're looking online, and there are people who are kind of holding themselves up is, you know, like, look at me, I'm doing it as an example. I'm trying to be a part of a community Do you ever feel like coming from? I don't know how to ask you this exactly. But But you let me start with this. Would you consider yourself coming from a, like a financially depressed background? Like you? was money an issue? Most of the time? For myself, I guess, for my family, not so much. There's more just the complete?

Unknown Speaker 33:28
being unaware of what was going on.

Scott Benner 33:30
Okay. Okay.

So then my numbers were fine. They knew the ANC was off, but the numbers on the reading and the printout were fine. So until I was honest with them, they weren't going to know the whole truth of where, you know, necessarily to help. And then once you're, you know, 1617 years old, you're now a young adult, you're wanting to be out do your own things while you're getting good grades, they really don't question what you're doing. I see. I see. And so, interestingly enough, I guess they so they decided to trust you. And with what you were showing them with your meter over the test that was coming from the doctor. Right? And was it not so much of a trust issue is that they just were like, oh, that doesn't make sense. His meter says this, so that must be wrong, or I, I'm trying to figure out how you disregard the test at the doctor's office? Well, every time they get, give me a new glucometer is maybe there's something wrong with the meter. Then the next time it's like, Okay, I need to put some more highs in the meter. And then suddenly, they start to kind of balance themselves out like, okay, I can see all the numbers, you know, shows this agency. But you also have to figure those numbers are only when you test it, you could be Hi, brew, or in between each one of those testings and then come back down to a certain number right before doesn't mean that you've been perfect all day. You could have been at a high elevated number most of the day. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 34:56
yeah. variabilities

Scott Benner 34:58
is hard for them to figure out. I guess. They're just looking at meter readings. Exactly. And that's why now being on the Dexcom I panic in that two hour warm up window now. That's funny. Is that funny really to go? You went from like, 350. No problem, though I don't like not only my blood sugar. And now I have my highest at 150. And now it'll be about me for the 150. And I'll go and kind of tell it I know, influence in the system. Let's give it a minute to kick in. Five minutes later, it beeps at me again. I don't think I've ever told a piece of electronics set up so many times as when you are in a high higher than your limit on your CGM. Yeah. And you're like, I know, I know. I'm doing it. I'm working on it. Stop. I I know we talked about I've talked with Dexcom about whether or not they could add a snooze to that. to like, you know, could I get alerted that my blood sugar's over 150? And me say, Okay, I hear you. Please don't tell me this again, for like, a half an hour. Like, like, I've given myself insulin. I know how long it's gonna take for me to get back under my number. So, you know,

Unknown Speaker 36:04
let the bolus take effect.

Scott Benner 36:06
Yeah, right. Yeah, I Well, we've mentioned it. So maybe they'll maybe they'll do that sometime. It's a great idea, honestly. So let me wrap my head around all this for a second because I am in a weird position where I'm listening to you. And I'm trying to feel like what are the people hearing you thinking right now, because, you know, if you're newer diagnosed, you know, in the last five or six or eight years, even the story you're telling, is, it sounds insane. You know, I mean, but I know that your story is not nearly as insane, as some people might believe it is that your story is actually much more common. Just people like you don't really step up that often and tell this story. So I really appreciate you doing this, first of all, because there are he and I try to make the point all the time, you know, well over a million and I forget what the number is 1,000,008 or something people living with Type One Diabetes. And you know, just because the couple hundred people you see on Instagram are the few hundred people you talk to on Facebook are all really trying hard and doing a great job. And you know, so, you know, somebody like me says, I can't believe how badly today went like Arden's blood sugar went to 170. And I couldn't get it down for like three hours. You know, like, that's not most people's experience with Type One Diabetes. a much, much larger group of people have an experience that is much closer to yours and mine. Well, and it's funny, that's actually why I eventually reached out to you is observing on social media that the diabetics that are out there, yes, sir. They all have their blogs and are doing a great job of sharing their journey. And even the people that you interview. It's kind of, you know, painting this perfect picture of, you know, diabetes isn't bad, as long as you take care of it. As I, my hope is, what the real dangers and damages are from it, it will make them want to paint that picture in their own minds. Yeah. Yeah. No, I was just contacted by someone the other day who asked me like, you know, is there an episode you would show to a young kid and like an early teen situation? Somebody who's just not at all interested in in their type one care? And I thought, I don't know. Like, you don't want to say to me, scaring people doesn't seem like the right idea. You know, and I also don't know that, you know, a cheerleader helps for a person who's in that situation, like, you know what I mean? Like, when you're feeling down and depressed about something or just like it's, you know, not possible. You're, you know, you're explaining a situation where you didn't know what to do and nobody around you really know and doctors would kind of yell at you. So, you know, would somebody coming up to you and you were 15 going Hey, Dakota, you can do it? It's easy, buddy. Here's how like, would you have just been like away from me, you know, or would you have been excited to hear from them? What do you think would have benefited you in that situation is I did not know how to answer that question right away about how do you help somebody that age who's going through I I honestly I would have put the head up on my sweater walked away. Like Don't talk to me. In ager. I I know everything but I don't know anything. Leave me alone. Let me do my thing. I took my objection. I'm fine. Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Actually. That's what I thought when I talked to my I eventually led them to an episode with a 15 year old boy who listened to the podcast and learn the podcast and takes care of himself really well. And I my only thought was like maybe show them this is that there are other tools that may be the ones people told them about. And they're not all that difficult to to use and maybe that would help but there is just part of me who believes that you know people are different, you know, and you had a different you know, a different reaction to that information then another person would have been and that you know, if you stop if you if you kind of stop and take a long look at everybody around you just you know pick 20 people that You know, and see how different they all are and the directions their lives went and how some of them take things super seriously. And some of them don't, or if some people are very detail oriented, and some people are sort of like, it'll all work out, like all that is just human nature, you know, different kinds of the way people think. But then you add this diabetes to it. Some of those personalities don't fit well with managing insulin. Right, right. And, and so that's what you're really talking about, like, how do you get to that personality? And you know, before they get into your situation, because, I mean, you can tell me, but I'd imagine you do almost anything to get into a time machine and make a different decision. Oh, absolutely. Like knowing what I know, today, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't even hesitate.

Unknown Speaker 40:48
As long as my family still comes into the picture in the future,

Scott Benner 40:52
I would absolutely go back. And kind of like you were saying was, you know, how do you reach these different people? I couldn't imagine somebody with severe anxiety, being diagnosed with diabetes. Because it's such a double edged sword, our breasts will cause your glucose to rise. And your glucose rises. What do you do? You stress? And if you give yourself insulin to come down, it's not coming down you stress for it's, it's such a unique double edged sword in that sense that how do you manage this? Without making it worse? Yeah. Yeah, how do you, you know, there's people in my life who are more, you know, prone to anxiety than not. And I'm sort of really relaxed. And you find sometimes saying to people, like, just you know, don't worry about it, or relax. And it's such an insulting thing for them to hear. Because they're not worrying about it on purpose. They're not, they don't want to be anxious about it. You know, it's just, it's how they react to that scenario. I do the same exact thing. I'm a fairly calm, very calm demeanor, especially with everything going on. And I see it as there's no point in freaking out about it. But when I see other people close to me, that do have anxiety in my work, what is your issue, like, take a step back, look what I'm going through, if I'm calm, you should be calm. I know, it's a really unfair way of trying to calm somebody down. And rather than being understanding, which is I know what I should be doing. A that's a good point, though, is that even the person like you who understands the scenario, when they're presented with that, that's how you feel you're like, Oh, just relax. So now put yourself in the shoes of a parent of you when you're 15. Knowing that anything they may say to you is going to pull your hoodie over your head and send you out the door. And now, you know what I mean? Now, these people are trying to put together the exact perfect seven words to get you to take your health more seriously. And even maybe you are taking it seriously, but you just didn't have the the right tools or the knowledge to deal with because I mean, you do you feel like you have those tools today.

Unknown Speaker 42:59
Absolutely.

Scott Benner 43:00
What's your agency right now?

Unknown Speaker 43:02
My last check was 6.2. My last draw was on Friday. And because of the holiday weekend, I have not gotten the results from that one. That's

Scott Benner 43:11
amazing. Congratulations is really something.

And the last time I had it checked prior to that it was still at 11. Wow, when did you make this decision? Like when did you have it? So let's I guess let's let's go to that, like you said 2017, you decided you're going to grab a CGM and you ended up with a pump by mistake and then you add CGM, right, in 2017. And everything first started. So through this vision loss, it was 10 times worse than it is today. At that point, the only difference in vision I could tell was that the sky was blue, the grass was green, and the ground was brown. And so everything was just stayed oriented. I had to I left my house, went and stayed with. With my dad at his new place, I'd only been to one. So I didn't know the house. And I had to feel the walls on how to get around the house. And in order to see what my reading was, it was essentially just poking, hoping there's enough blood and trying to get it to work. So I wasted hundreds of strips because they weren't filled on up all the way. I put the glucometer right up to my eye and move it slowly to the side and make out the shapes of the numbers that are on the screen. And it was finally once I went back to work at the beginning of 2018 my my insurance was reinstated that I immediately went on the on the pod and about a month later when all the Dexcom

kind of work do you do?

Unknown Speaker 44:41
I work at Costco

Scott Benner 44:43
and so when you were

so when your blood sugar is still incredibly high, your vision was actually worse than it is now so your vision is getting better as your blood sugar is more regulated and lower. I have also had seven Surgery. So a lot of these surgeries were actually reattaching the retina trying to repair the macula. A lot of these procedures, they do take time to reestablish the vision. Due to the disconnect for so long inside the eye. Do you expect more progress? Or do you think you're at where you're going to be? Or do you not know? By ophthalmologists? Has that built it take two years to even show? Okay, and my last surgery was in March, can I ask you are this I mean, the surgery sound painful, but are they, um, once they start to back the anesthesia off, it can be a little bit a little bit painful. But for the most part, it's just a quick outpatient. It's more, you're under local anesthesia. So you can see the tools moving inside your eye. And that's the part that can kind of make you freak out. Okay, that's, uh, that sounds worse than being able to hear the dentist's drill. Oh, exactly. Well, you hear him, and he puts this piece inside your eye. And then you start to see the bright flashes, and they're moving around. And you think to yourself, is he welding inside my eye. And then he calls for, I need, you know, two cc's of you know, a certain way, like when he's talking about oil, and then you see these little drops come into your eye and form into one big blob. And then suddenly, you see right through it. It's just it's a whole weird experience. It's really hard to explain. I, I can't I cannot imagine. I mean, I can imagine what you're saying. But I just can't imagine like sitting still Dorian, is do you have that? Do you have to stop yourself from that feeling of like, I need to get up and get away from this? Or, oh, when you're under the anesthesia? No, you can't. But like they when they start to back it off. On the second surgery I had, it was starting to get really painful during surgery. And I can start to feel everything as aware of everything. But I noticed my feet can move. And the anesthesiologist was sitting towards the end of the bed towards my feet. I just started clicking my feet together as fast as I could. And sure enough, he cranked it back up.

Unknown Speaker 47:10
Okay, I guess I'm awake. Yeah, thanks.

Scott Benner 47:13
There's something stuck in my head. And I'm about to run away. Just so you know. Exactly. Oh, my gosh. Wow. I it's hard to know what to say? Because it seems not just so life changing. But it just, it just seems I don't know what the word is. I don't want to just say sad, but it feels sad. You know, they mean, like I do, how do you deal with that part of it? I mean, are you? How do you how do you keep your chin up, I guess for the lack of a better term.

Unknown Speaker 47:41
Um,

Scott Benner 47:43
I mean, first thing, first, I look at my daughter, she's a year old. So backtrack. And when all this happened, December of 2017, we found out that we were having a baby. So through all of this, also a new dad trying to take care of a newborn with vision loss. So if you can imagine to give Arden when she's a month old, and do with your eyes closed? to code, I have to be honest, I can't imagine anything. You're perfectly honest. You don't need me like I'm sitting here trying to put my myself in your shoes just in my head. And I don't, you know, I it makes you feel like, you know, I should get done with you and shut my eyes and just try to even go to the next thing that I wanted to do. I don't know how I would accomplish that. Are there classes does? Does your doctor offer like direction for you? Like are you going to get better direction with your vision loss than you did with your diabetes,

Unknown Speaker 48:36
I actually meet with a low vision specialist.

Unknown Speaker 48:40
From the time this airs about four months, but next week, I meet with a low vision specialist and they work with different sorts of prisms, implanted into lenses. So the center part of my vision is what to damage the outside is still working. So these prisons will redirect the light to the outside of the eye and make it where the vision should increase for what the doctor say they have seen in the past.

Scott Benner 49:06
I hope that works for you. That sounds amazing.

But it's going to be a lot of almost rehabilitation teaching the outside of your eyes, you do all the seeing rather than the center part of your eyes. I understand that's a and that crystal helps that prism helps kind of retrain parts of your eye that aren't being used as actively I guess. That's what they say. I'm hoping that it's not so damaged in there that that's not an option. Mm hmm. What, um, what took you from, you know, see you, your vision goes the way it went. And you're at this agency that's incredibly elevated. Now you're at a six. Can you tell us what you did between that elevated eight, one C and the six like, how did you make that change so quickly? First, I knew that what you put into your body is probably the most important thing, whether it's insulin, food, hydration, anything. So post surgery, I knew that inflammation was a really big deal. And I went completely vegan for three months.

Unknown Speaker 50:15
I can't say I was happy about it,

Scott Benner 50:19
then I slowly just started to look at what I was eating. And, you know, try not to over saturate myself with processed foods, anything that, you know, I in carbs or sugars have just kept a really keen eye on what I was eating. And then once I got on the pump, it was a lot easier to say, you know, dial up or down when I needed it. And I was still doing carb counting at the time. And I noticed that I was still getting these big spikes in these low valleys. Yeah. And I was actually right around the time that I found your, your podcast. And just hearing how you kind of mentioned to, you know, you do your Pre-Bolus. And then you kind of work it after the meal until it's right where you want to be. So since I started listening to your podcast I have not carb counting is I will pre I will Pre-Bolus and then just go from there. Wow, that's amazing. Good for you. I hate counting carbs, I had to figure out a way not to do it. Because that's how that's why you know about it. Because I was just in my kitchen thinking like, I can't do this for the rest of my life. I had to figure out a way not to do this long book that you had to flip page to page and a page of fruits, a page of vegetables, a page of starches, actually gave you the portion size. And how many grams of carbs were in each one of those portions? Yeah. Yeah. Well, they came out every year from the nutritionist. Mm hmm.

Also a scale, I realized that, um,

I really did not like the idea of having to weigh and measure food. Yeah. And so I just, I don't know, I just, you know, it's a long time ago now. But I just started thinking, like, I got to figure out a way to do this, that that doesn't, doesn't cause me to, you know, need to scoop things with cup measuring cups all the time. Or you think you think to yourself, like there's already enough math involved. I don't want to be, you know, weighing out grams and ounces. And you know, all this different kind of stuff like this, just let me figure out how much insulin I need. And that's all the math I want to do right now. Yeah, yeah. And even like, just that even the math aside, I think it's just the taking something that's so frequent in your life breakfast, lunch, dinner snack, and turning it into a drudgery of any kind is, you know, I think is one of the ways that the diabetes ends up weighing on you get me like one of the one of the weights it has is, you know, it's scared of being alone, right? Scared of long term complications. I don't want to be the kid who passes out at school, you know, and I don't want to count and measure everything I put in my body for the rest of my life, I'm very proud to be able to give Arden you know, a couple of handfuls of a snack and not say, Hey, can you count 23 of those, please? You know what I mean? Like, that's, to me, that's a big deal. And it's important to make your life feel like it's not a weight on you, you know? Can you imagine if she's out at the lunch table, and she pulls out her baggie with 20 goldfish in it. That's all she's allowed. I can't give any of these away, I have all 20 of these bolts in

touch my damn goldfish.

And listen, there are times like, don't get me wrong, like, you know, if we're coming down from a high blood sugar or something and she gets high. I'm like, Yeah, no problem. I'm like, but we can't miss on these carbs. So, you know, take 15 of those. And I'll tell you, you can see, like, there's a sadness on her face. When that happens, like, Oh, no, I, you know, okay, you know, count them out. And, you know, what, if I'm still hungry or not hungry, when I get that, you know, what if I get to 11 of these, and I don't want anymore, I gotta eat the last four or, you know, vice versa. So I just I do my best for that not to, there's enough already coming from diabetes, that you should try to take things away wherever you can. And carb counting was just one of the things I really wanted to take away. Absolutely. It was an unnecessary headache on top of everything else. It's amazing how quickly you picked it up, and you're doing it so well. Like, I'm sure you guys did this, when you would go out to a restaurant and they would bring you a plate of food and you can't dig into your center. And to put Inspector Gadget on how many carbs are in everything on that plate. I do think if my if my if me looking at a plate was in a movie, you would see like a computer overlay fall over top of it and divide up into spots and numbers would pop up over top of AI over piles of food and everything. And

Unknown Speaker 54:36
you'd have the matrix going on behind you and you would have

Scott Benner 54:40
just like Einstein style equations above your head and it's no fun. Yeah, I look at it now. And I think like 710 you know, you count along and you're like alright is 63 and and then that one's you know, the glycemic load on that's gonna be heavy. So You know, we're gonna need insulin, at least in the four hour period, but that stuff's faster and you start, like, I wonder if I could just put some of this up front and the rest after and, you know, it's, it happens so quickly now, like, I hate I hate saying it to people almost because I feel like they think that this is like, you know, hours of their life spent. But I look at it, I'm like, all right, in 63 carbs 50%, up front, the other 50% over two and a half hours. And I think maybe we're gonna have to do you know, a bazel increase, you know, in here somewhere, probably in those last two and three and four hours. Well, and that's the crazy part that I'm still learning is, you know, that, you know, fats and proteins and oils, and you know, all this kind of stuff will make it where the sugar doesn't jive or the carbs won't digest as quickly in your system, but they will kick in on the back end. So, you know, a perfect example is there's a restaurant across the street that, you know, when I have a day off, I'll go over there, I'll grab a couple double margaritas that are made with the GAVI rounds, and all the sweet stuff. A burger sweet potato fries, and I go all out. I Pre-Bolus is 12 unit. I know it's a pretty hefty Pre-Bolus. And then I also increase my basal rate, the 45% for the next three hours. And for the first 30 minutes, I'm sitting there, I will sit right there at 90 and not budge. But then when I'm on my way home, it's 160. And then it's one cent I'm like, okay, obviously, there's not enough kicking in. And I'll give myself another four to five unit. As it gets, right. Yeah, this happened last week. It went straight up to 230. It flattened out. And then it went straight down. And once it hit 160, straight down. I just, I turned off the bazel increase. I turned off insulin delivery everything. And it look like a Boeing jet coming in for landing and sells it one on one.

Look at you.

Unknown Speaker 57:06
That was two hours.

Scott Benner 57:07
It's really amazing. How long

have you been at this? When do you start listening to the podcast? Number

December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, nine months ago. That's really great man congratulate seriously. I've been well done. Congratulations. I don't know what else to say that's a complete life turnaround in nine months. And no, I can't seem like the clarity report. I can't see everything that's on there. But I can't see the little snippet of a graph that you can see on your phone. I just like to see where it can come from and get it to settle down right at the bottom of that gray box. Without dipping into the red. I get some sort of enjoyment out of it. And essentially sharing that experience with with other people. There's you know, it's kind of do what you always say is being bold with influence. Use it where it works for you. You know, they say don't double up on insulin, it could be dangerous well, being highly dangerous to it that you're taking an educated guess. every three months. I'm saying there's the doctors Yeah, you're taking an educated guess every three months, and then adjusting it and then you'll see me again in three months. I'm adjusting it on the fly. Yeah, I hear you. Um, a couple of questions. So do they not make a meter that talks so that you can hear the number instead of have to see it?

Unknown Speaker 58:30
I'm sure they do

Unknown Speaker 58:33
that like that? Since I'm using the Dexcom.

Scott Benner 58:37
Guide? Hold on the phone. I can see that number just fine. On really as long as the bubbles gray. Don't freak out. Yeah. I What? What kind of cell phone? Do you have his iPhone or Android?

Unknown Speaker 58:49
iPad Android drives? gonna say because

Scott Benner 58:50
I think I think you can ask Siri what your blood sugar is on an iPhone. It'll just tell you. I do recall. Actually, I was on your podcast hearing something about that.

And it wasn't sure.

Unknown Speaker 59:02
I know through Android that there's times where when this all is first happening, I would have to use my tablet to take a picture of my phone to see what the glucose reading was. I don't know if it's this way on iPhone. But on the Android phone in the security settings. You cannot screenshot anything within the Dexcom app

Scott Benner 59:23
in the Android Yes.

Unknown Speaker 59:26
Because I do that all the time with iPhone that's interesting

Unknown Speaker 59:29
that you cannot screenshot anything within Dexcom to the privacy policy.

Scott Benner 59:35
I almost cursed okay.

I I'm sitting here thinking like is there not like some giant like with a magnifying glass help you like a big strong magnifying glass to see like your phone and stuff like that with not that I'm sure you haven't thought of these things already, but

Unknown Speaker 59:50
it definitely would.

Scott Benner 59:53
It's almost like the magnifying glasses that jewelers use where it has the lights built into it. There's like, if there's anything that I can't read from zooming in, I'll just take a screenshot of it that way I can zoom in on it. They said through the Dexcom. If I just screenshot the notification bar the reading in on it, then I can zoom in if I absolutely need to. And it's all more just finding ways to make your life work without being a complete nuisance to yourself or others. If you and I met face to face and we shook hands, and three days later, we met again, at that distance would you know, it was me visually. Um, if you didn't say anything, I would walk right by, okay. I do it at work all the time where this might sound kind of bad. But I start to figure out the build of the people that I work with, are you tall and skinny? Are you shorten heavy? And the beginning of the day, I'll make sure I walk right next to everybody. And I'll kind of make a mental note of what color shirt everybody's wearing, that depict colors. So, but from a distance, everybody's just a person until you're within 20 feet.

Dakota, why do you not sound bitter about all this?

I think it's an amazing story. If I can inspire people with it. That's my main goal. Yeah. Do you have private moments where you're just like, I can't believe this happened? He Yeah. You know, looking back on it, it's, I cannot blame anybody else. It's 100% by fall for my neglect. And I was raised with one of those where you know, you had be responsible for your decisions and your actions. And this was a decision that I made my whole life. And luckily, I caught it. The point where I'm not really blind. No, it didn't kill me. I have all my hands and feet for both my hands and feet. You know, it could have been so much worse.

That's an amazing attitude to have.

But there's definitely times where, you know, I used to work on cars and motorcycles and stuff all the time. Yeah, how hard it is to work on an engine when you can't see it. It's not easy. But it's actually easier than you think. Because you can't see it anyways, but Oh, really, you see your hands always up underneath something trying to unscrew a bolt that you've already loosened nine times out of 10 you can't see it. And since I do so many things through feel now you know, I, I live a quarter mile away from where I work. And the only thing that separates my house where I work is an alleyway. So doesn't take the pressure off my fiance, I went ahead bought a cute little beater just gave me to and from work. But I knew at night, I had to light up the road in front of me like it was daytime. So I ran complete wire harnesses underneath the floorboards through the engine compartment, and put light bars across the bottom of this thing so I can see to get from work at night. And surprisingly, it was probably the easiest wiring job I've ever done. Because I knew how to see the tip of my fingers better. We have a few more minutes left and I want to ask you has other parts of the world opened up to like do you find yourself listening to more like radio or music or like how does like your downtime change when your vision but when all of this first happened, it was I was trying to find anything on YouTube that I can just ask my phone to play. Because when this all started, I couldn't even read text message. So I had to ask my phone, you know, a Google read text message and it would read it to me and I would have to talk back to it to send the text message. And that was the only way I could keep in contact with anybody. I ended up watching a lot of market or listening to a lot of marketing like tutorials on YouTube. The Comedy station on Pandora was my go to and I was trying to find a diabetes podcast or listening to and I ended up finding one is a diabetes management. A couple guys based out of San Francisco and it was more just on Whole Foods diets rather than kind of like yours where you actually interviewing people who have these experiences. So a lot a lot more podcasts, a lot of comedy, stuff that could keep me in good spirits and laughing at home I'll listen to the news and to watch the news all put on your podcast I'm still on episode 240 but I have some catching up to do is a lot more audio based and visual based. Ours TV in our living room is quite large. So my spot on the couch, I can actually see what's going on. I can't see the fine details and in film, but I can kind of get the point of what's going on. Gotcha.

How um

how is your relationship been through all this is it I mean, if you don't mind It, what's the biggest change? I guess?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:04
Well,

Unknown Speaker 1:05:06
we actually, we have a long history, we were next door neighbors growing up. So it's not like we didn't know who we were. It's just I played baseball and she and raced motorcycles. He acted and did theater. So we were complete opposites, even though we live next door to each other. And when we reconnected, it was actually the day before my vision was lost. So our entire relationship, she only knows me as being visually deficient. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:35
So it's kind of like we're able to grow through this together.

Scott Benner 1:05:38
That's really That's sweet. Yeah, that's a fortuitous situation. And and especially at the beginning of a relationship, you know, I mean, I've seen people on a second date, you know, say they like a certain movie, and somebody else stopped going out with them. I've never, I've never heard a story where on my second date, I had to tell somebody, hey, I've lost the majority of my vision.

Oh, yeah, that's really sad.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:01
The thing is, we hadn't even gone on a date. And to top it off, we lived in separate cities. At this time. She was in LA, I was in San Diego. Okay, so it was it was more I just threw it out there. Hey, I come to a wedding in October. He said, yeah, we kept talking. And then suddenly, I'm driving home and realize something's not right.

Scott Benner 1:06:21
I want to end on that.

When when something's not right. Is it a light switch at that point to somebody? Is it just go off? Or does it dwindle down to nothing over hours or days? Or like, how does it go from everything I see everything okay to I don't know, with a diabetic hemorrhage, at least in my case, it was, it looks like a very streaky black waterfall in your field of vision. Okay, so it just looks like this constant, like rain or streaks come down within your vision. It's actually blood that's blocking the light from reaching your optic nerve. I see. And I know we didn't, we didn't touch on on this aspect of it. But leading up to that I was taking a different job, I had to get very physically fit for this job. So I was pushing myself extremely hard at the gym. As you know, more weight than I probably should have been trying to trying to push in on a leg press machine and my vision kept flashing crazy. I thought I was just getting a really good workout in. It turns out that it was like the beginning stages of these blood cells being overstressed starting to reverse. Gotcha. How long was that before you started seeing the black waterfall?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:41
About about a month?

Scott Benner 1:07:45
All right. Listen, tell me about what's your web address? And how can people find you? So through my website, or through Instagram, is pipe one motorsports.com is the number one type the number one motor sports calm? And then what are you on Instagram? What's your handle on Instagram is the same thing type the number one Motorsports alright. Dakota I really appreciate you coming on and telling this story. It's not. It's not something we get to hear that often. I really do appreciate there's, you know, other people who have come on and told similar stories, but I think they're all really impactful and important. I appreciate I always tell people I'm, you know, how happy and I am that they were so open and honest. But this is really a this really takes the cake I think for open and honest. So I really do appreciate this. Thank you so much for doing this

Unknown Speaker 1:08:41
facility. Thank you for having me on. About

Scott Benner 1:08:45
the code, everybody. And how about Dexcom and Omni pod for bringing you the show dexcom.com forward slash juice box, my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. Those links are available in the podcast player you're listening to right now on your phone, right in the notes or at Juicebox podcast.com if you can't remember them, but if you do remember them, and you use my link, that'll tell the companies that you came from the podcast I will very much appreciate that. And you will still get the same great technology one way or the other.

Before we go, I'm looking for someone to do an after dark episode with now this is a specific ask, be honest with yourself before you email me. I need someone who's divorced and parenting a child with Type One Diabetes, who will be completely honest about how to work through significant problems when one parent either has Certain management idea while the other one has another, or while one parent is doing a lot of the work, while the other one seems to be ignoring it. This is something that comes up a lot. But of course, it's difficult to get somebody that wants to speak about it. So what I'd like to say is you'll come on and be anonymous. But still, you have to really think about this. Make sure you're not going to get out at somehow, if you think you can tell that story. Be honest, and not vindictive, something that's gonna really help other people who are divorced and you won't get caught.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:35
drop me a line.

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Scott Benner 5/21/20 Scott Benner 5/21/20

#338 Jordan Won't Be Curbed

Being newly diagnosed at 26

Jordan talks about what it's like to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a young adult in the age of amazing diabetes technology.

Check out the Diabetes Pro Tip episodes and Juicebox Docs

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:07
Hey everybody, whoo. Oh, excuse me. Hey, everybody. Hey everybody, welcome to Episode 338 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is with Jordan, and it is a absolute delight. Seriously, this hour is going to rush by. And all you'll think when it's over is Oh, no, please can I have more? Jordan is a 25 year old girl who is newly diagnosed. And her outlook on diabetes is almost unlike anyone I've ever spoken to. Very interesting to hear person her age diagnosed right now, and the experience they're having. Beyond that, she really is wonderful. And the conversation is absolutely terrific. At the end of this episode, I'll fumbling around looking for an acronym that I'll never be able to think of. But just so you know, now it's a s m r. Okay, real quick. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan for becoming bold with insulin, be doctor.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod, and Dexcom on the pot, of course, the best insulin pump in the whole world in my opinion. And it's tubeless, you can try a free, no obligation demo of the AMI pod by clicking on the links in your show notes. Were the ones that Juicebox podcast.com that leads you to my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. And of course to learn more about the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor dexcom.com Ford slash juice box. There'll be more about these wonderful sponsors, little later in the show. But for now, this is Jordan.

Jordan 2:06
My name is Jordan. I'm 25 years old, I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, January 15 2019. While I was 25 years old.

Scott Benner 2:16
So Jordan, I do a thing when people who are newer diagnosed, reach out and want to be on the podcast. Sometimes I say to them, do it next year if you've lived with it. And sometimes I'm like, Yeah, come on right now. I don't know why I get the vibe one way or the other when I do. But you were one that I was like, hey, let's let's get this together as quickly as we can now for you know, coherency sake for people listening. What that means is that you emailed me in February, and now in August 1 recording so right away, right? Yes. I'm sorry that it took so long.

Jordan 2:49
No, no, that's fine. Very cool. I know you're a busy man. And you're booked up. So

Scott Benner 2:53
you're, you're very kind to say that so that other people think that is true about me? No, no. To be honest, it's this was the year that the podcast really showed to me. Like, how it was growing because I am booking Now, sometimes nine months or a year ahead of when people asked to be on and that yeah, that's amazing. throws me off a little bit. Right. You're 25 now where you're you, you're so you're still okay. Is there any diabetes in the family?

Jordan 3:23
Not my immediate family. So on my dad's side, his cousin has type one diabetes, and his uncle. So not any immediate family but distant family.

Scott Benner 3:34
So nobody was walking around thinking, Oh, my 25 year old daughter is probably gonna get diabetes any second now?

Jordan 3:41
Yeah, not at all just hit us all in the face.

Scott Benner 3:44
Now when that happens, and your father then did your father live with your brother while like did your uncle have diabetes, I guess when your your father and he were kids, I guess so.

Jordan 3:53
It's actually my dad's uncle. So it's not my uncle? Um, no, that's okay. But he didn't really see him that much. So he wasn't really around the whole diabetes thing. He didn't really. I mean, my parents both knew the symptoms of diabetics and all of that stuff, but they didn't really think their daughter would end up with diabetes.

Scott Benner 4:20
And so you know what, I was wondering if if had he lived with a brother with it? Was it Well, no, it was wondering what his reaction might have been. So you have a your diagnosis story, I think seems like it's worth telling. So yes, I know. I don't usually just go tell me your whole story about being diagnosed, but I want to hear yours.

Jordan 4:37
In December of 2018 I actually got a really bad car accident. I was at a Christmas party that my company was hosting and I had two alcoholic drinks. I ate a bunch of food budget Carvey stuff a chicken parm I broccoli, and I actually had pineapple Juice. I didn't know at this time that I was diabetic, obviously. And I drove home thinking, Oh yeah, I'm fine. I was at the party for about six hours. I didn't have a drink for about three hours before I left. It was really foggy. And it was raining that night. I was in a really unfamiliar area, and I ended up crashing into a curb on a rotary. So I had to call the cops cops came. They thought I was drunk. So they arrested me. I'm still going through that right now. But I am finding that I was diabetic at the time. I was experiencing symptoms before that. And it's funny because that day before I went to my party, I didn't really think anything of it, but I had Burger King for lunch, which I'm, I was always normally healthy. Burger King wasn't really my number one choice. But I had Burger King, I had a large Dr. Pepper. I will never drink Dr. Pepper again. And I got home in two hours after I ate the Burger King actually threw everything up.

Scott Benner 6:13
Did you just think that was your body being like conscious of your health?

Jordan 6:17
Yeah, yeah, I was like, you know, I had Burger King, that probably wasn't the best for me. So maybe my body was just rejecting the Burger King because I haven't had fast food and so long. So, um, that happened, accident happened. And 17 days after the accident. I was in the hospital and DK.

Scott Benner 6:40
Yeah, so it was coming on and going away still, like kind of ebb and flow and, you know, a little higher. So it's interesting that you think about the, the, like the fogginess of the of the night, do you think Yeah, was your vision? Do you think? Oh, yeah. Mm hmm. Not because it was definitely

Jordan 6:58
blurred? No, yeah. My vision was definitely blurred. And I was experiencing issues with my vision. Actually, I work in front of a computer all day. So I was like, you know, I think my eyes are getting worse because of me working in front of a computer and all that stuff. And it was actually because my blood sugar was too high. So I'm sorry for ya. I'm

Scott Benner 7:20
sure that'll work out. Do you have a good feeling? Oh, yeah. Work out in court?

Jordan 7:24
Yes, I do. I have a very good lawyer now. He definitely wants to fight for me, because it's clear that I had diabetes at that moment, because I actually had messaged my primary care on December 12, of 2018. I was like, You know what, I'm drinking over a gallon of water a day. I urinate a lot. My mouth is really dry. And I was like, I have trouble eating a bagel and blah, blah, blah. And my primary care actually never ended up responding to me. Um, so they actually could have diagnosed me before I even got my accident. Which sort of sucks.

Scott Benner 8:03
It's interesting how we kind of don't communicate still with our doctors properly. There's all this technology available. And still, no one's sort of put it together with how do you how do you speak properly to your doctor? I have to say that ardens endo is really responsive to emails. And oh, okay. We I think I've settled on another episode. But Arden has hypothyroidism and we were able to dial her medication in in a matter of weeks, instead of a matter of a year because it was try this Okay, here's another script, go get a blood test, you know, like that kind of thing. And it just it was so much more responsive. And it really does sound like if someone would have responded to you that you would have had a different situation. Well, I'm glad you're okay.

Jordan 8:45
Yeah, me too. No, I was not hurt in the accident. Um, I wasn't going fast. Just hit a curb and hit anything or anybody else, thank God. But when I was admitted to the ER, I was with my grandmother, and our hospital over here, sort of on a hill. So I'm trying to walk up the hill, and I'm very shortness of breath. I can almost not breathe. So I was walking up the hill walking up the hill, and all of a sudden, I couldn't breathe anymore. I was like, You know what, Nana, like, I need to I need to stop I need to sit down for a second. So I actually sat on the sidewalk. And she was like, Oh, no, no, no, no, I'm gonna go get someone. So I actually had to be wheelchairs into the hospital because I couldn't even walk anymore. I couldn't even breathe anymore.

Scott Benner 9:39
I guess it's a good so it's not a good sign when your grandmother can make it up the hill and you can't and

Unknown Speaker 9:43
it right.

Scott Benner 9:45
I'm gonna just actually I'm gonna divert for one half of a second and tell you though, yeah, when I was a kid, they would decorate the the Burger Kings. The McDonald's with these clings like these big things. They would stick to the window. So like, every time they you know, started a new campaign. It was almost like they kind of To repaper the windows with these things, there was this giant Burger King, he was the size of the entire door. It must, it must have been like three feet wide and six feet tall. So Burger King near my house and I said to my friends one day, I'm like, we've got to get that out of here. And and they were like, what I'm like, Don't you feel like we need this? Like, you know, back then, like we all had stereos that were really big. And like there was glass doors on I thought, wouldn't that be great on the glass door of a stereo? And so we did successfully steal that Burger King cleaning off? Oh, wow. Just really proud of that for some reason, and I just wanted to tell you. Okay, so you haven't you've had diabetes officially? for nine months ish?

Unknown Speaker 10:39
Not even nine months? Yeah. Yep.

Scott Benner 10:42
So this is, uh, this is great. So great. Not for you. But for the pocket. For you. It's a heart for the podcast. It's fantastic. All right. So I'd like to know you're in a major metropolitan area, and you're diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, and you know, January of 2019. How do you leave the hospital? What's the feeling going out the door? Like, what do you think this is going to be for your life. I'm going to start today talking about the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump. Arden, of course, has been wearing the AMI pod. Since she was four years old. She's going to be 16. This summer. That's a long time, Arden has been wearing an ami pot, every one of those days since she was four. And it is an absolute staple in her diabetes care. As quickly as time appears to be going in that little parable. It's going even more quickly, quicker, faster. the right word there as quickly as time's going by and that little parable, it's going even more quickly, more quickly can't be right, it's going even faster. That even sounds like wrong. What do I want to say? We're really we were way past what I wanted to say. All I want to say is, you know, everybody's sort of in their home right now. And time is going by incredibly slow and incredibly fast. At the same time, the days take forever. The weeks are going by is that that's what I met this lady here to get it just I'm sorry. It's like 1130 trying to get this done. Because it's not your problem. You don't care. Anyway, my point is, don't wait to try the Omni pod. Especially when they're offering you an absolutely free, no obligation demo, they'll put an omni pod in a box and send it to your home. There you will do whatever you want with it. Honestly, I guess if you wanted to stick it to the roof of your car and tell people you were a police officer. Like you should probably have the color like red and blue. But you could do that with it. But it would make more sense if you put it on your body where your child's body and tried it. See what it's like to wear it on the pot for a couple of days. Take a bath with a shower, wander around the house, do your calisthenics, please, this 1950 I gotta I might be something wrong with me. My point is, it's free and there's no obligation and you'll get to find out what you think of the Omni pod. without taking any risk. Just go to my Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox when you use that link, that's how I'm the pod No, she came from here. So help me out. If you can hit the link, you can find it right there in the show notes for your podcast player for Juicebox podcast.com, where you can just type it in. Now in my opinion, no diabetes technology suite. I don't mean like s ui TE sweet, like a grouping of things. I'm I'm I think I had a stroke a couple minutes ago. But that's not going to stop me from telling you about the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor and how amazing I think it is. I'm looking right now at ardens blood sugar, it is literally 1130 here. And Arden's in bed, her blood sugar's 93 and stable. But about an hour and a half ago, she was falling, and I didn't expect it. But she was drifting down 105 96 a little diagonal Down Arrow, I could sort of tell by the pathway of the of the arrow. This wasn't going to stop. And Arden was you know, wanting to get a shower before bed and they said I think you just have to have just maybe 1012 carbs right here. I know that from experience. You know, and, and I know that hold on.

I'm not editing this at all. I just again I'm sorry. Anyway, I know from experience that the pitch of that arrow, that line was telling me about 10 or 12 carbs, you should took the meme. When we got our shower, kind of bottomed out around 72 and came back up to this 93 number I'm seeing right now instead, I was able to do that. Because of what I've learned from Arden's Dexcom, g six over the years from using Dexcom for years and years and years, I can just interpret that But my ability to interpret that line would be meaningless if that line wasn't there. Without that information, if Arden was just doing finger sticks alone, I never would have seen that drop. As a matter of fact, if we would have tested her right before that shower, I would have seen a blood sugar of 103. And thought boost is perfect go. But it wasn't Dexcom told us that. And they told us that in a way that helped us stop a low from ever happening, and no rebound high. Now, you might notice the music's not playing anymore. But I hit a little stride there and I wasn't gonna stop dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. let Dexcom know you came from the Juicebox Podcast. More importantly, go find out more about it and get yourself one if you can. Seriously, best advice I could possibly give you get an Dexcom yet it on the pod. And they're not sponsors of the show today, but get a Contour. Next One blood glucose meter two links are in the show notes. And at Juicebox podcast.com. Okay, well, luckily, the guy who recorded those ads is not the same guy that interviewed Jordan. So let's get back to it. What do you think this is gonna be for your life,

Jordan 16:12
I felt like a new person. I felt like I didn't really even know much. I had a really bad experience in the hospital, I actually had to learn how to use an insulin pen by myself with YouTube.

Scott Benner 16:27
They just were in the room and shut the door again.

Jordan 16:32
Yeah, the nurses didn't even know how to use an insulin pen, which made me very, very scared. So I was just like, you know what, just give me my pen and I'll figure it out. So figured that out on my own. Of course, my mother stayed in the hospital with me, she slept in my hospital room every single night. It's wonderful. She did not go home at all, she went home, maybe for an hour each day to shower. But that's about it. So I walked out of the hospital, like, I'm a whole new person, I'm going to have a whole new lifestyle. I am not going to be able to eat ice cream at 10 o'clock at night anymore. I'm not gonna be able to eat this, this and that. Um, but obviously, I can eat whatever I want. That was just my thought when I was leaving the hospital. So

Unknown Speaker 17:19
Wow. That's

Scott Benner 17:21
Yeah, that's sad. And but understandable. If they were like, Hey, here's the thing that will keep you alive. We don't know how to show you to use it. But you've got to figure it out. But now, but I think that's kind of that's inspiring, though. And I think it to me, speaks to what I think people can do about taking over their own care and why you know, on some level, why I think the podcast is so important. So right, so you're given an insulin pen, you know, nothing of it. And you're saying YouTube is where you learn how to use it.

Jordan 17:52
Yes, I looked up using an insulin pen on YouTube. And me and my mom watched a video together. I tried it. And I did it

Scott Benner 18:01
was that. That's really spectacular. And I think, a good indicator to anybody listening that, you know, you can't, you can't like forget you shouldn't you can't just sit back and say, I'm getting incomplete advice. I guess. This is my life. Now I'll have incomplete advice. Right, right.

Jordan 18:19
Yes. So definitely doable by yourself. Yeah. Go ahead.

Scott Benner 18:24
No, no, I was gonna say that, you know, initially said, I felt like a new person. And there was a moment. But there was a moment where I thought you were going to go down the road where you're like, I'm a new woman now. Like, like, like, you men. Yes. You meant everything about life. completely different. Day one starting over. Except, yeah, except you don't get to be a baby and feel your way through it for nine years. Right? Exactly. Completely frightening or did you feel supported by your family or what helped them.

Jordan 18:54
I was very, very, very supported by my family. friends came to see me at the hospital. My mom's friends came to see me at the hospital. My grandparents came all the time. My mother and father were always there. My boyfriend was always there. So I definitely had a lot of support. The only thing is, is my family doesn't really know much about type one diabetes. So when I first got diagnosed, we were all on the internet on Google searching. What is type one diabetes? What can we do to do anything that helps type one diabetes, and all this stuff? And going on the internet was probably not the best thing for me to do.

Scott Benner 19:40
Yeah. So I was gonna say, Did you find helpful advice or did you find people going, Oh, my God, everything sucks.

Jordan 19:47
I did find some helpful stuff. But obviously, I ran into like the complications and sort of scared myself. So that was the only bad thing that I sort of saw.

Scott Benner 20:00
That's a unfortunate downside of the I think the need of the internet to help right people is that you're going to find, you know, I say all the time like the internet's for like three things, right? It's email pornography and complaining. And so I don't really know that it's or anything else. And, and so you're, you know, people don't generally get online to be like, Hey, you know what's amazing in my life, my CGM. And here's right, like nobody takes the time to talk about things that are going great because you're hoping life goes great. You know, you, you get stuck on the things that aren't going well. And then there's so much bad information as your story kind of highlights, you know, imagine other people who didn't think to go to YouTube when the nurse at the hospital said, Hey, here's your insulin pen. Good luck. Yeah. You know, then they make their way to the next person who was in that situation, who says, This is what diabetes is, we're all screwed. And then they think, Oh, I'm screwed. And then that's the path they go down. Right. So it's really, um, it's inspiring to know that you found one way, it's sad to know that sometimes people bump into that other information.

Jordan 21:11
Yeah, I mean, I'm sort of happy, I sort of figured it out on my own. Because I am 25 years old. I'm not 12 years old, getting diagnosed. still a kid. So me figuring it out myself sort of made me think that I can do this on my own. This is doable, if I just put my head together and try and do this myself. So I think it was helpful in a way but obviously, it did talk at the beginning. So

Scott Benner 21:41
I believe that too, I believe that it's, yeah, it's something that if you have, you know, sort of the right entree into that you can work your way through with with a with a decent mindset and some luck, you know what I mean? Like you don't bump into some bump into some stuff, you've got, you know, insurance that will help you those sorts of things. So, that that, um, it does lead me to that idea. Like, you're 25 like, you're right on that precipice for like, Hey, get off your parent's insurance. Are you like a gainfully employed? 25 year old a US college students still are you just so I went?

Jordan 22:11
Yeah. So I'm still on my mother's insurance as of right now. Um, but obviously, I'm gonna need to find my own insurance. I am employed at four different places. I am a girl's soccer coach right now. I'm a girls lacrosse coach in the spring. So I work at a high school in my town. I actually went to that high school. I work at a insulation company. I work at champs sports, which is a sneaker store. And then I work at Red Rose pizzeria in Springfield, mass,

Scott Benner 22:46
I believe, I believe you're part of what they call the gig economy. Isn't that? Isn't that what they listen to? If you're like, I don't know, try to stay alive. But you know where people right? People are always looking for gigs. Like, they'll they'll right now. It's like, oh, the you know, unemployment is fantastic. Sure. Because someone like Jordan has five jobs making the unemployment rate for less open jobs because of Jordan, then there should be a lot, a lot of other people in that situation. So you've named a few jobs there. I'm not sure about the installation come? Is there an opportunity in there for you to get health insurance with one of them?

Jordan 23:20
Yes. So if I were to be full time at Red Rose, I would get health insurance through them. I'm only part time right now. I am full time at the insulation company. And they do provide BlueCross BlueShield. So I will be looking into that

Scott Benner 23:37
option when the time's right when you when you have to get off and go right to your parents. Which better insurance then?

Jordan 23:43
Yeah, yeah, they have helped New England and it's definitely helped a lot.

Unknown Speaker 23:47
No kidding.

Scott Benner 23:48
Well, it's just interesting that and let me ask you, do you feel like you know, your five jobs right now. So do you have a job of those five that you think I wish this was my forever job? And I'd like to do this, but I'm going to have to go towards that because of the insurance. Do you feel that pressure?

Jordan 24:07
Um, actually, no, I want to get into law enforcement. So I wanna Yeah, so none of these jobs I want to do forever.

Scott Benner 24:21
Okay. What Why? Why, like law enforcement? Can I ask?

Jordan 24:25
I yeah. So I sort of always wanted to be a police officer, ever since I was growing up. I really know why. I just feel as though I want to provide people with safety. I've always been sort of a leader. I played three sports throughout high school. I was always a captain and I would always look out for my teammates. So I was always that leader, that person that made sure everybody's safe, everybody's good to go. So

Scott Benner 24:59
that's actually one of the Steps To do that, then what do you have to? Do? I mean, the police academy, did you do go through college for that? Or is it

Jordan 25:07
you don't have to go to college to be a police officer. But I do have three and a half years of college experience. I just didn't end up getting my degree. I will be going back and getting it. But I just ran into some car insurance issues and issues that I had to start working to make money.

Scott Benner 25:29
So I thought you're gonna say just ran to a curb, but I heard that story already. So yeah, you did. Okay. Well, that's really that's a great thing. And so this is something you're going to be moving towards soon.

Jordan 25:41
Yeah, I actually applied to be a correctional officer. And I'm waiting to hear back from them. It's been quite a while I passed the physical exam to be a correctional officer back in July.

So I'm sort of getting impatient, but

Scott Benner 25:58
maybe a strongly worded email. Right. And the diabetes doesn't get in the way of the idea of being I mean, I know it doesn't. But I'm asking you, you don't you're not seeing any roadblocks.

Jordan 26:09
No, not at all. Yeah, I don't think diabetes stops anybody from doing anything really. So

Scott Benner 26:15
yeah, there's some there's been someone on in the past who's fighting for certain pilot's license for people and actually making real headway. But there were certain I think certain truck drivers, certain trucks, you couldn't drive in the past. I think that's gone now. And then certain certain pilot's license you couldn't hold for, and I don't know, the designations for the certain plates. It's probably passenger planes. But But I think they're even making real inroads in that. And actually, glucose sensing technology is a big part of why people are being able to or people are able to make headway there. Because they're able to well, you know, so that kind of leads me to do you still have that pen that the nurse doesn't know how to use?

Did you still have that pen that the nurse doesn't know how to use?

Jordan 27:12
No, I'm actually on the on the pod dash. Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner 27:18
I think you're the first person I've spoken to. Really? I think it may be true. Yeah.

Jordan 27:23
Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, I love it. So I started. Let's see, it's August. Now. I started the Omni pod in late June. Okay.

Scott Benner 27:35
And you began right away with dash like, so you've never used the, like the second generation PDM?

Jordan 27:41
Nope, just started the dash. Cool.

Scott Benner 27:43
That's excellent. Yeah. So you have basically a small cell phone in your pocket that you can give yourself in some way?

Jordan 27:49
I do. Yep. It's great. The only issue I do have with the dash is if I put it on my thighs, obviously, I sort of forget about it. So when I'm putting on my leggings, or putting on my jeans, I'll run into it. And sometimes it'll just pop off.

Scott Benner 28:06
Oh, okay. So with just with with your site in general, if you don't think about one, you're just you know, you'll get used to that eventually. I think that I think everyone who's had diabetes longer than you just said, Oh, yeah, that that happens. The beginning. Yeah. So you went to insulin pumping? Are you using a glucose sensor? Or no?

Jordan 28:24
I am. I'm on the dexcom. Look at you.

Scott Benner 28:28
Get you to do an ad right now. So when did you find the CGM? Did you find it before or after the pump?

Jordan 28:35
Yes, I found it after the pump. I was still pricking my finger back in July. So I'm very, very, very new to Dexcom. And I actually learned how to use it on my own. So I didn't even go to my endo. I open up the box, read the directions and did my first one on my own. So

Scott Benner 28:56
this is really interesting, because I see this online a lot where people are like, they sent me my stuff, but I'm supposed to wait for the trainer. I have a I haven't I have a you know, some setup with them six weeks from now. I'm like, wait, you know, wait six weeks. And, and then you know, you'll see somebody come into a thread and say, I should just go ahead and put it on or find a YouTube video. It's easy. And I don't disagree with that. It's easy. But some people feel very compelled to like no, they told me to wait. And they wait. Did someone tell you to wait? Or were you would was that not even an issue?

Jordan 29:27
My endo actually told me if I get the dexcom she believes that I will be able to do it myself. So she was like, if you feel comfortable with doing the Dexcom by yourself, definitely do it. If you want to make an appointment, I can make an appointment for you right now. But just do whatever you want to do. And I was like, You know what? I can probably just figure it out. And she was telling me how it sort of works and how I'm supposed to put it on my body. So I was like, You know what, yeah, I can do that just pretty much sounds like my pump.

Scott Benner 29:57
So your generation is fantastic. Because, seriously, because like, you know, just even like you're you're accustomed to things being an app, right? Like just one, you know, one razor thin sliver of light on your cell phone, right? That's, that's the thing that makes this do that. And, and the idea of, you know, going in just getting information from another person, and that's how you can figure something out. It's interesting, because those people I was talking about who seem scared are usually in their 30s. Like, they're usually a little older, they have a kid already. And they're like, Oh, no, there's rules. Someone said this. And this is what we do. I don't know, I don't know what Dexcom or Omnipod, or any of the companies actually say about that. Like, I don't know, if they're kind of bound by the FDA to say you have to have training. Or if your doctor saying No, go ahead. Is the okay to do you don't mean like,

Unknown Speaker 30:49
Yeah,

Scott Benner 30:51
something that's really so you didn't have any trouble though?

Jordan 30:54
Well, when I started the Omnipod, I remember them telling me not to use the Omnipod without the Omnipod trainer, which I actually went to my endos office, and I got five pump classes from my diabetes educator. Okay, so I didn't get an actual Omni pod trainer. It was just five classes with my diabetes educator. And that's pretty much the classes that I needed. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 31:23
That's cool. And you don't run any trouble. You weren't like, oh, gosh, this all went incredibly wrong. You weren't bleeding on the floor. It just all. Just like, you weren't bleeding out yelling, I should have waited for the trainer.

Jordan 31:36
No, thank God, that didn't happen.

Scott Benner 31:39
I actually don't think that could happen. But no, but that's just, uh, it's just, it's I like that. I like the idea of It's okay, so how have you found pumping versus shots.

Jordan 31:50
Um, I love it. I love the fact that I don't really, I'm not really aware of me getting insulin at all times of the day. It's just sort of how I used to be, you know, I didn't really have to think about it. Obviously, when I eat, it's a different story, I'll have to Pre-Bolus and all that. But it's nice to know that I'm getting insulin at all times a day,

Scott Benner 32:14
without having to stop and calculate and react and stuff like that. Right? I think you're just an interesting, you're just an interesting person to speak with. Because you're right in that sweet spot age wise to be able to easily accept technology. And you're just recently diagnosed, you don't know anything about the versions of diabetes that have come before pens. Right. You know, no CGM. You know, boiling your needles. Yeah. Boiling your Yeah. Just as a story to you, it's not a it's not a it's not a real part of this world. And do you feel like you understand your care?

Jordan 32:53
Yes, um, in the beginning, I was very, very, very scared. Obviously. I was worried. And I was like, Mom, like, you need to have me. You have to have my call. Like, I'm loud at all times. Like, I'm gonna call you if anything goes wrong. And obviously, she was like, Oh, yeah, definitely Call me if you need anything. And she actually just couldn't, she couldn't even wait for me to get a CGM. She was like, wait, so there's something that you can get for it monitors your blood sugar. And you can let me know when you're in dangerous ranges. I'm like, Yeah, she's like, Oh, my God, you need to get that right away. So she was super excited when I got my dexcom just because she has access to my graph and stuff. So she can look at my blood sugar, she can check up on me. And she definitely just needed that reassurance that I am. Okay, I'm going to be okay.

Scott Benner 33:50
So it's telling, obviously, about diabetes that at 25 your mother still feels the same way as a parent of a three year old? Yeah, yeah. Just, you know, yes. Stay in the house. And we'll, we'll, I'll just live here until it's over. Right.

Unknown Speaker 34:07
Right. There's no reason to leave.

Jordan 34:09
Right. I actually live in an apartment with my boyfriend. And we're actually in the same unit as my parents. So my parents are just upstairs. If I were to be anywhere else, I think my parents would be more worried about me, you know, because I'm just downstairs they can walk downstairs and I'm right there.

Scott Benner 34:29
Yeah. What borrow a hole through the floor and just jump in real quick if

Unknown Speaker 34:33
there you go. Yep.

Scott Benner 34:35
That's interesting. Hey, that. So you, you you moved out, but basically,

Unknown Speaker 34:41
that basically did it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 34:44
That's interesting. Yeah. How's the boyfriend taking the whole like, so did you live together when you were diagnosed?

Jordan 34:50
Yes, we did. We've lived together for about a year now. Gotcha. I'm a little over a year. I

Scott Benner 34:56
you know me like it. You know, like if you weren't living together He could have been like, Oh, what's that?

Unknown Speaker 35:02
Right? Yeah. I'll call you next week. And

Unknown Speaker 35:06
see you later.

Scott Benner 35:08
I'm assuming you're working more towards a more serious relationship if you're if you're together and living together, and yeah, do you have a feeling for how it impacted him at all?

Jordan 35:18
Yeah, he was very, very, very scared. I know for a fact, he saw me in the hospital and was like, wow, this is really an eye opener for me. And he was really, he was really great. took care of me. He would ask me what I can eat and what I can, what I feel comfortable with eating and he would make sure that I feel as comfortable as possible at all times. It's great. Um, even his parents came to visit me at the hospital. His parents are lovely. And they even provided support for me. So he was absolutely great.

Scott Benner 35:56
They tried it. They didn't like pull him aside and go, Hey, could we get one with a pancreas? That works? Great. Nice. Yeah. I've, I've heard stories before of there have been people on here who, who know that their partner's parents tried to dissuade them from being with them when they die.

Jordan 36:13
That is just so crazy to me. Yeah.

Scott Benner 36:15
And and vice versa, by the way, also just great stories like yours, where everybody's just like, it'll be okay. Well, I'll do it together. Like that kind of thing. Right. But yeah, it's definitely, uh, yeah, it's a mixed bag of the of the responses, you get that I would have to say more of positive than negative, to be perfectly honest. But yeah, still, it threw me off when the first time someone said that. It was like, wait a minute, your mother in law told your husband not to marry you? Yeah. That's crazy. Doesn't she know, that's the opposite of how that works. Your kids always do the opposite of they should have said I'm all for this. It'll be great. Okay. So, and I mean, go ahead. No, no, you.

Jordan 36:55
And I mean, I did have thoughts of me, obviously, I want to have kids, right. And I had thoughts of me ended up having a baby, and what the chances are of them, having diabetes and all of that stuff. And I asked my endo about it, she's like, Look, it's not promised that your kid's gonna have diabetes. And I wouldn't worry at this point. So I would come home. And I'd be like, oh, what if my kid's gonna have diabetes, I don't want my kid to go through this. And my wife was just like, just chill out. If we do have a child that has diabetes, you'll know how to take care of him. Just think about it that way, him or her? So just think about it that way. And I was like, You know what? You're right. I mean, I guess I will know how to take care of them.

Scott Benner 37:41
The perspective is interesting, because, and I referenced him a lot, because on this issue, because it really struck me when he said it, but as a former baseball player who's actually currently with the Phillies, as a manager, or coach, Sam fold, he's been on the show a couple of times said, Yeah, type one his whole life. And I asked him about that he's got four kids. And you could tell him his response, that the vibe of his response was, I'm fine. They'd be fine, too. Like, I live like, I'm a person, I live a life. This is me, there's nothing wrong with me, why would I care if that was them? And it was almost as if he was saying, and this is me inferring from his answer, but I felt like he was saying, to say that I wouldn't want you know, obviously, I don't want anybody to have any kind of roadblocks they don't need in life, but to say that I wouldn't have a kid because I didn't want that child to maybe have diabetes is like saying my life's not valid. Right? Right. And, and I was really touched by that when he said, I don't know that I went into it then. Because I was a little like, Sam folds on the podcast a little excited. But I know him much better now. And I just I go over that a lot. And I think that that I think that you shouldn't have a kid if you have diabetes until that's your answer. Because right i think that it may say more about how you feel about yourself than it would about I don't know maybe I'm wrong, but it's an interesting thing to think about.

Jordan 39:12
I definitely agree with you. I don't think you should have a child if you are thinking the worst for your child, you know, yeah, I think you should always be positive and always think your child is gonna end up better than you even ended up you know what I mean? So

Scott Benner 39:30
yeah, and I do think seriously for your for your own like idea of self confidence and what you think of yourself to them if you can, if you can't imagine a child that is a an image of you and feel good about that. I feel like that might be more about how you feel about what's going on with you than it is about the kid you know, so Exactly. I think you should find find a way to to, to see that that other way to see yourself in a way that is redeemable and worthy. worthy of being you know, photocopied and going on into the world. Right? Yeah, that's all. I just I never thought of having babies photocopying yourself until just now. Do people even photocopy anymore? Is that almost gone?

Unknown Speaker 40:13
It might be

Scott Benner 40:14
like, gosh, okay, so you live in weatherwise? Are you dead?

Jordan 40:19
No, no, no, my dog. Boy. Sorry.

Scott Benner 40:22
Sorry. I didn't know if I should stop the recording. I didn't want to be a witness to anything. Get me out of a court battle right now if the boyfriend just you know, came in the room and watch over the headless. Oh, crap. Let me get out of this. You live in one of the worst places in the world for weather in my opinion. So I got ya. Why did they put Why did they put that city so close to that ocean? I think it's a bad idea. What how close? How close are you to Boston Harbor in that in that part of the

Jordan 40:51
so to Boston, it takes about two hours to get to Boston. So I'm not anywhere near the ocean. But our winters are absolutely awful

Unknown Speaker 41:01
to heart. Terrible.

Scott Benner 41:02
No. My son was in Boston years ago working out in January for he was recruiting for baseball. And it rained all day. It was a horrendous day of rain, right? I mean, we got done. It was an indoor event. Obviously, we kept going back to our hotel. There's inches of water flowing across the ground. And you know, he's exhausted from his day and we go back up to the hotel room and he's like, I'm gonna take a shower, and then I'll just sit here for a little bit. I can get some to eat after that. Yeah, that's fine. So I'm talking to my wife while he's in the shower. And my wife's like, it's gonna snow where you are? And I'm like, No, it can't. Because there's two flowing inches of water on the ground. There's no way snow could and by the time I get off the phone with her, there's six inches of snow on the ground. And I was like, we live. This is the worst place in the world. This is.

Jordan 41:49
Yeah, that's definitely Massachusetts for you.

Scott Benner 41:52
Snow shouldn't be able to start forming on the ground when there's running water on the road. It's all on. Yeah. Something wrong with that. That whole thing should be a beach is what I'm saying.

Unknown Speaker 42:02
Yeah. Yep.

Scott Benner 42:04
Someone made a huge mistake building a building there for I don't know. Anyway, I'm sure it's lovely that people live there probably like Screw you. This is fantastic. But you cheated us out of the Super Bowl. So I hate you. But, but that's fine. I

Unknown Speaker 42:17
don't even I don't

Jordan 42:18
even not even a Patriots fan. I

Scott Benner 42:19
don't even care that much about that. It still sticks with me a little bit. So anyway. All right. Well, I think we've learned a lot about you. And I want to learn a lot about now kind of where you feel like you're headed. So so you're in it just in such an interesting time of your life for people to hear, I think for people with younger children, or maybe people who were diagnosed not in this kind of the sweetest spot of diabetes technology that we're in right now. So, right, you really don't feel any limitations. I mean, you said that you want to do something that's strenuous, and you know, you're gonna have a gun. So that's not like us. You're not like, Hey, I'll take a safe job. And I'll kind of step back from you know, the world a little bit. you've, you've seemed confident about the idea of having children. How are how is management going? So like, let's talk about that first. Are you honeymooning still by any chance?

Jordan 43:13
I am not.

Unknown Speaker 43:15
Did you know?

Jordan 43:16
I was Yeah. I was honeymooning for about a month. It was I would say it was like March. I was honeymooning. Um, but it was only for a very, very, very short time, fortunately. Okay.

Scott Benner 43:30
And so you've had you know, CGM, and and, and for about three months now or so. And do you base your management off that, like, how are you and I talking is one of the things you Google? Did it lead you to this?

Jordan 43:45
Um, I actually found you guys through Spotify. I listened to the podcast, or I listened to podcasts all the time.

I haven't listened to podcasts while I'm at work. I'm not supposed to. But

Scott Benner 43:59
that's fine. Doesn't matter. Right? It's gonna keep you out of your ears, right.

Jordan 44:06
There you go. So I was actually on Spotify. And me being newly diagnosed. I was like, you know, I'm gonna look to see if there's any diabetes podcasts. So I looked up that I found another podcast I didn't really like, I don't remember what it was called.

Scott Benner 44:23
If there's other diabetes by guests that you didn't like, please feel free to name it. Right. And I'm just kidding. No, yeah. Right. So but that's good. You found a couple and you listen through and you chose the one that was right for you. And yeah, that's it. And so what were you hoping to get out of it? Do you think when you started looking?

Jordan 44:38
Well, when I was newly diagnosed, I like I said, I didn't really have much knowledge about the whole diabetes thing. So I was like, I want to hear different stories I want to hear about if people went through the same thing that I did, or how people went about managing their diabetes. So I started looking You guys, and I think it was a story that a young girl was telling about her diagnosis. And I think it was either her her mom that was on the podcast. And I was like, Oh my god, like I can relate to some things they're talking about. And the information was just really helpful. Because I just didn't even know what to do.

Scott Benner 45:25
Right. So this podcast is now your YouTube video. Is that the vibe?

Jordan 45:29
Yeah, this podcast is definitely my go to podcast.

Scott Benner 45:33
I play but I assumed when you reached out, it was a softball question. I know, you're gonna say nice things. But no, I'm, that I'm joking about that. I am I yes, I am joking about that. I checked with myself to make sure I was joking about that. What I was, what I'm interested in is that idea that you can find, like what feels like big, really incredibly difficult to understand information that can seem smaller and digestible. If it's if it's delivered the right bite.

Unknown Speaker 46:03
Right, exactly.

Scott Benner 46:05
Right. And I'm glad that that's how it hit you because it is my intention. And you know, I don't always do what I need to do. So yeah, I guess in going on

Jordan 46:14
the going on the internet, you see all these big words that doctors use, and you don't really even know what they mean. So the internet just sort of scared me. And when I heard your podcast, you guys were just talking about everyday life. And you guys intertwined diabetes in it, you know what I mean? So I could understand you guys more than I could understand, understand the internet. So it was just sort of a comfort thing. I was like, Okay, this will be cool. I can listen to this, and I can get used to this whole diabetes thing.

Scott Benner 46:48
Is it exciting to think that you'll end up doing that for thousands of other people? By Yeah, very exciting. Yeah. I'm happy for you like you're like closing the loop. Or I shouldn't say that. You're coming full circle, I guess is the

Unknown Speaker 47:03
right. Yeah.

Scott Benner 47:06
I'm sorry. I'm as you're trying to talk about diabetes. There's four different people messaging me on different social media things about their stuff. And I'm like, it's vibrating under my leg to the point where I'm like, I should look maybe though, maybe there's a tornado coming and my phone is trying to tell me it's a turns out I don't live anywhere near where there's tornadoes, so it's fine.

Unknown Speaker 47:23
Yeah, you're from New Jersey, right? Yeah,

Scott Benner 47:25
there's really no tornadoes here. Cuz I'm okay. Yeah, good. Yeah, I'll be good. I just, you know, when your phone starts really buzzing, and you get that feeling like you're like, maybe something is happening. I should know. Yeah. I don't want to be the last one to know that the town's on fire. Right? I don't want to be the last one out of the town. It's probably just somebody disagreeing with me about something instead, you said this, and you're wrong.

Unknown Speaker 47:50
doing my best over here, it helped George a cut me a break. Right.

Scott Benner 47:54
Exactly. Well, no, I I'm, I think about your situation and how quickly you sort of matriculated through it. Because you're, you're in a really interesting spot right now, where you have stability in your life around diabetes, and it's and bigger ideas around your life in less than a year. Right. And that's incredibly exciting to me to think that you were able to go from feeling like a new person, which meant, you know, everything in my life is new and different and scary and raw, to be this comfortable person that you are now, eight months later. I'm just super excited for you about that.

Jordan 48:32
Thank you. Thank you, I appreciate that. And yeah, at the beginning, I definitely didn't think I would be at the point I am now. I definitely thought that I would mourn a little bit more than I did. And have some more grief. But I sort of with all the support that I had for my family. I felt as though I was going to be okay from the start. Obviously, I was sort of upset in the beginning. Obviously, I didn't want diabetes, but I had to take into consideration that this isn't going away ever. So I'm going to either have to deal with it, or I won't be living anymore. Right?

Scott Benner 49:13
Yeah. And I think that's actually an important step that concept of look this is here now. Right You know, I can't ignore it. I used to talk about it in the past about like, you know, getting a bill at the beginning of the month and right and not opening it That's stupid. Like it's

Unknown Speaker 49:29
Yeah, because it's still gonna be they're still

Scott Benner 49:30
in there like it you can't just ignore it like I mean you could could put like a deck of cards over top of it but it's still just the bill under a deck of cards. So Exactly. You just have to you have to just go Okay, this is it. I'll dive in. I'll make the best of it that I can and look and look what you did. You found so many good avenues for yourself that there wasn't a ton of bad and had you had you not look down those roads, you would have been stuck standing still imagining the worst Right. And that really is, I'll tell you, it's, I don't know if it sounds trite or Pollyanna or what, but I really think that worry is an incredible waste of imagination. Because you really are just making up things in your head when you're worrying. Yeah, you have no real not I mean, you know, like, like, don't get me wrong, you're in the room, there's zombies outside. It's fine. Go ahead and worry. But you know, don't sit in the world where there are no zombies and worry about when they're coming. Because, right, they're not real, you know. So it just is it happens to people. And I think some people are more genetically predisposed to that worry. And some people aren't, you know, as much. Yeah, I don't know if it breaks down gender lines, or if it breaks down age, or if your past experiences, I'm sure all these things have something to do with it. I know, I feel very, I have a real caregivers mentality, like I always had always had my whole life like I you know, it's just in a situation where my dad left my mom, when my brothers were little, my mom went to work, it was sort of my job, that kind of like in, you know, to me, like, you have that feeling of like, these people are counting on me. And yeah, and then you get married, you're like, oh, it'll all start over again. And then my wife and I had a situation where she just had a better job opportunity. So it's like, oh, I'll stay home with the baby. Oh, I'm still doing this caregiver thing. Like, you know, and now I, I feel like that towards the people listening to the podcast, which is, it's very fulfilling, and it's incredibly not fair. Some days, you know, like, there there are days when I when I'm talking to people that I don't know, because I can't really stand the idea of what happens if they don't get the information that they need. Right. So I it's my huge goal in mind that the podcast handle that. So I can just reach all those people without talking to them one at a time. Right? Because that's not going to be a valuable way for me to help anybody with IBS. things a little too long. And you're just get one when you're done, which is still incredibly It's amazing. Still, like, don't get me wrong, like the seat to talk to talk to somebody on a Wednesday, and have them send a graph that looks like a horror show. And then right on Friday morning, they're like, Oh, my God, everything's better. I'm like, Yeah, I mean, it's just started, but I know it feels better. I'm excited for you. And they're on a better path, then they're, they're sort of on their way, which is nice. Yeah. But I like the idea that it reached you like, even in such a crazy way, like Spotify. Like, I remember when the company that hosted my podcast is like you can get on Spotify. Now, if you want. I was like, I mean, do I care? And I was like, Alright, so like, there was a day that I spent doing stuff like back and stuff that you'll never know about the podcast, where I sat there and thought, I wonder if anybody will even listen this way. And like years later, I found you.

Jordan 52:55
It's very Yeah, very, I did. So excited. Definitely. It's definitely helped me just hearing all the stories and all of the advice

Scott Benner 53:05
that you guys sort of talked about, it's definitely very helpful. I'm so glad it's there anything that's gone horribly wrong, that you've learned from? Like, have you had any moments where you're like, wow, screwed that way up.

Jordan 53:18
I'm not really, um, I haven't really had a blood sugar that's gone above. Probably, like 300 300 definitely, like critical. Um, but obviously, me being new, I still get into the, like, low to hundreds. But I've haven't gotten to anywhere near 300, which is really, really good. And I'm still sort of I work out a lot. And I have a personal trainer. We do like CrossFit type workouts. So it's very hard for me to monitor my blood sugar and either do a Temp Basal rate, or if I'm lifting heavy weights, I actually don't do a Temp Basal rate at all because my blood sugar goes up. Yeah, so it was definitely hard in that aspect to get used to working out in different workouts do different things to my blood sugar, and so forth. So the deck schrems definitely helped me out with that. I guess.

Scott Benner 54:22
It would it would be very difficult without it for certain.

Unknown Speaker 54:25
Yes.

Scott Benner 54:26
Did you see just the other day we I put up an episode. It's a new pro tips episode about exercise.

Unknown Speaker 54:33
Oh, you did? I didn't even see it. Yeah. Okay,

Scott Benner 54:34
about all the things you were just talking about. And in way in depth with Jenny. So. Oh, awesome. I enjoy that. definitely

Unknown Speaker 54:40
have to listen to that one. Yeah.

Scott Benner 54:42
So what is um, so what sucks? I don't I didn't ask you if it was okay to if you don't want to share you. You absolutely can. But what does success look like? Like what is your agency you're shooting for? What kind of variability right with vigor, standard deviation, all that kind of stuff that Yeah,

Jordan 54:56
looking at? Well, when I was at the hospital, my age See, was that a 13.6? That's when I was in DK. Um, and then in, let's see, what did I see my endo? I think I saw my endo in June, early June. And my a one C was at a 6.4.

Scott Benner 55:17
Wow.

Jordan 55:18
Yeah, that's, that's, that's wonderful. So it was a huge turnaround. She looked at me and she was like, You don't know how good this is? I didn't really even like, know, because I didn't really know the whole concept of Avon see and what it should be what it shouldn't be. And she was just like, you cut your agency in half. And I was like, Okay, cool. And she was like, this is really really, really good, though. I was like, Okay, awesome. So I thought I was on the right track in managing it. Well, which I was.

Scott Benner 55:53
That's excellent. And then oh, what do you think the, like, if I told you, you can only give, I don't know, two or three ideas from the podcast to another person. What do you think you'd give them?

Unknown Speaker 56:07
Um,

Jordan 56:12
I mean, if I were to talk to someone with Type One Diabetes, actually, you know what? My college friend. She was a softball player. I was a lacrosse player in college. We were in the same year, same age. And we were very similar. I got along really well with her. And we stayed in touch after we left college. And she actually messaged me, I would say, two, three weeks after I was diagnosed, saying she was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes.

Scott Benner 56:47
That's random.

Jordan 56:49
Yeah. So weird. so crazy. But yeah, she was diagnosed. And I actually told her about this podcast. I was like, Do you listen to podcasts? She's like, No, I don't really listen to podcasts that often. And I was like, well, there's this one diabetes podcast that really helped me. So I told her about it. And I was like, they have doctors on the episode that talked about diabetes and advice and all that stuff. And I was like, they literally cover everything with life, diabetes, everything. And I told her, this podcast isn't really like a diabetes overload. You guys don't like, talk about diabetes, the whole hour of the episodes, you know what I mean? Like, you guys get off into different topics, and you know, sort of overload diabetes, you know,

Scott Benner 57:44
oh, I appreciate that. Because I, I was very early on in the beginning, I was like, how I mean, how could this like sustain? Like, like, how could How could I? I thought about myself, like, would I, I always kind of tell people, like you could have the secret of life. And if you if you tell it the wrong way, or your audio is bad, people won't listen, you know, they're gonna be like, I'm not listening through static to find out the secret to life. You know, I am not going to listen to you know, and, you know, I've got a couple reviews I think would disagree with me, but like inane banter that goes on forever, that's about nothing. You know, like, I think that this should be about something, it should be valuable. And it should be entertaining, and it should be light. Because, because I could sit down and have a different conversation with you right now. That's super serious. And I would, you know, I mean, I don't know how you'd get through six or seven minutes of that before you you know, as a person listening, you'd think I already live this life. I don't need to be right. I don't need to be hit with it. It'd be like if I was depressed, and I let somebody pour a cup of depression over my head, you know, like, I don't need more. Thank you got plenty right here. Right. I just think the way you described it, like I was hoping you might say like, Oh, I tell people like you know, better to stop below than be higher or something like that. But just your the way you characterize the show was so nice. I was like a little misty. I thought I I can't even speak about it that like if you asked me to describe the show to you. I wouldn't have done as such a complete and loving job is you did. I don't think I could speak about the podcast the way you just did.

Jordan 59:18
Well, I do love it. So I appreciate that.

Scott Benner 59:22
But yeah, so all right, we have a couple of minutes left. You're gonna be the perfect person to ask this question of, okay, I've never said this on the podcast before it comes up in my personal life all the time. And I'm and whoever wrote the review that called me both egotistical and elitist. That hurt. I don't feel elitist at all. I do feel a little egotistical sometimes. But

Jordan 59:46
everybody can. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:47
I guess I okay. But fair enough. It's someone's feelings. But I'm trying to make a fun thing here for a second. So, in my private life, when I speak to people who listen to the podcast privately, they are Often starstruck in a way that trust me, completely baffles me. Because I don't obviously see that about myself in any way. Right? It baffles more my family. So if I'm on the phone with someone, and you can kind of hear their voice come through, I look over and my wife's eyes have rolled straight up the back of her head. They're down by her ass now they've rolled so far around, you know, and, and she's just like, why are people excited to talk to you? Like, I don't know, just let them have their feelings. You know? So are you. Is it exciting to be on this podcast?

Jordan 1:00:39
Oh, yeah, it's definitely exciting. When we first began the call, it was kind of weird. Like you saying my name, you know, like you talking to me? Because I usually hear you talking to other people. I usually listen to you saying other people's names. But now that you're talking to me, it's like a whole new story.

Scott Benner 1:00:58
It's it's very interesting to me, like you should be on my side of it. Where I'm like, sad for you that you feel that? No, I'm not sad. It's very nice. First of all, but But um, do you in your personal life ever speak to me out loud?

Jordan 1:01:13
I'm not really know, I think

Scott Benner 1:01:16
that shows real stability. Because a lot of people say I talked to you in my living room or in my car. And I'm thinking, I don't know that that's something you'd want to be sharing with other people. But

Jordan 1:01:26
But I understand yours. I mean, I just love listening. I don't know there's something about like your voice that's like calming, you know. Thank you. Um, so I do like listening to you. Do you

Scott Benner 1:01:40
think I think you have a lot of helpful things? Do you think I'm working too hard on this diabetes thing? Should I be doing one of those? Um, soothing podcasts instead? What are those called? Do you know what they're called?

Jordan 1:01:50
Yeah, the I know, you're talking about, um, like the relaxation

Scott Benner 1:01:54
capital word for it, though. Hold on, we're going to get we've got Google, you figured out how to use it in some time. I can't figure out what this is. All right. Come on. How is it not? It's like, Are people listening right now are like idiots this,

Jordan 1:02:09
but yeah, I don't. I know. I can't even think of it.

Scott Benner 1:02:13
This is so absurd. We had a real nice moment here. Like, I saw a person on television the other day, and it was their job. Oh, my God, it's right. It's right on the tip of my tongue. It's not an S. Oh, my God, this is terrible. msnbc came up and I typed that mess. That's not helpful. Google. Help Jesus. Figure it out. My kids would know. Because they're Yeah. Right. But I could maybe do that. I could maybe just be like one of those people. It's like, Jordan, it's time to go to bed. Close your dream. Breathe deeply. Well, those things get mad downloads. And then I don't have to know anything about diabetes to do those. Oh, yeah. So you've, it's really super interesting to me, because this podcast has been up since the beginning the very beginning of 2015. And we're talking now in the middle of 2019. And when you refer to the podcast, you say you guys, so do you think do you think of Jenny, when you're saying that? Are you thinking of like a royal? Like we like the idea of like an entity on the other side of your earbuds? How did you think I sort of

Jordan 1:03:25
Yeah, I sort of think of you and Gemini as like a Power Team. Because I do listen to those a lot just because I do want to hear her insight. Of course, just because I'm so new. So I definitely want to hear like a doctor's perspective of everything that I'm thinking about. But obviously, I still want to hear you talking with her and you relating actual real life to the medical field. So

Scott Benner 1:03:51
I have this soothing voice, by the way, just for clarity, right? I know you mean this, but Jenny is a certified diabetes educator. She's not a doctor. Okay. Yeah. And she's, you know, she has diabetes has had it for a very long time. She's a certified nutritionist. She's got a whole bunch of things. She's like, you know, went to school for Yeah, that's sort of like my diabetes educator. She's a nutritionist. She has cooking classes at the Medical Center I go to and stuff. So that's cool. Exactly. Like my diabetes educator, my heart. I'm so happy that I met Jenny because she and I think about diabetes. So similarly, but yet when we speak about it, the words are all different. And so I think we're a really good blend. You know, when we

Unknown Speaker 1:04:33
Yeah, you guys definitely are.

Scott Benner 1:04:34
Yep. I appreciate that. I appreciate so much about this. That it's, uh, it wouldn't be it would take me another hour to tell you exactly how much I appreciate it. But uh,

Jordan 1:04:44
Oh, my God. I appreciate being on here. So,

Scott Benner 1:04:47
thank you. If we say appreciate one more time, we'll have to name the podcast. No, Jordan Scott. Appreciate each other. And Jenny, right. All right. So we're done. Now. I'm so I don't want to curse because I'd like to try to leave this in. But I'm so pissed that I can't think of the word for I know you'll think about it later today and it'll come up but

Unknown Speaker 1:05:11
doesn't help us now. Join me now right now

Scott Benner 1:05:14
we're recording this is what's real. The real world doesn't exist when this microphone goes off. Okay, because no one can hear it. Damn it. No joking about that. So I'll tell you. I'm gonna give a minute. Yeah, very cool. Arden met Tom Holland this past weekend. Oh my god. Super excited. Arden was 15 year old Arden who lobbied her orthodontist to get her braces off three weeks early so that she can meet Tom Holland without her brace My God. Got that accomplished. decided that the ombre she had from when she was little made her look young went back had the had the fake color, stripped out of her hair to go back to her natural color was, you know, three or four times went back and forth. I'm just gonna wear a spider man shirt. No, I'm gonna wear a nice outfit. I want to look good. My picture one of the fat. I mean, all right. She goes, I might have to have her come on and tell us she will never I can never get her to come on the podcast, but maybe she would love that. I asked her and she's like, No, she did consider She's a friend who has type one. And I think maybe he wants to do it with her sometime. So maybe I'll just maybe one day I'll put them in front of microphones and and let them talk to each other. I won't even be in the room. We'll see what happens. There you go. But but so she goes in she's got this big plan. Now keep clear that there are thousands of girls my daughter's age at this thing. Who I believe all think that with the 30 seconds they're going to have with Tom has their pictures taken. He will marry them. Right right. Like I believe that teenage girl I'm pretty sure they all are like she's told me recently still. It's been days. She's like, I got Russia now. They're so fast. It's unfair to Tom he won't know how great I am. And he didn't get to know me and I was like, yeah, so she goes in with this big plan. She wants to she wants to tell him that her and her friend who are there have a bet that they'd like her to be able to remember his name from the time the pictures taken two hours later when they'll get to meet him for like a signature and autograph on this picture. And so Arden gets her friend goes first does like some like handshake the Tom Holland does that. He had perfected my daughter's like I was gonna try the handshake can't do that. Now. So to now Arden's like she's reached. She's got I'll tell him definitely tell him about the bat. She gets so starstruck, just doesn't come out. And she starts telling you about like, my friend, I have a bet that you can remember our names, and he's like, Oh, I'm not gonna be able to remember your name. And she's like, well, then as the security people, they she's already taking the photo, or shoving her through to the other side, because poor guys gonna be taking pictures for you know, ever. she yells. Remember that? I'm a diabetic.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:51
Oh, that she gets outside. And she goes, awesome. Why did I say that?

Scott Benner 1:07:58
And I said, I don't know. Why did you say that? Just I was just trying to say something I thought would be memorable for the next time I saw him. Oh, the whole day. She's just like, why did I say that? But not that she cares that she has diabetes? She said, She's just like, why didn't I just say like, my name were anything.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:15
Right? I bet he'll remember her though.

Scott Benner 1:08:17
Well, then she so made herself uncomfortable about it through the rest of the day, that when she went to get the signature, I'm like, are you gonna say hey, I'm the crazy person who yelled, I'm a diabetic.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:27
I'm the crazy diabetic. And

Scott Benner 1:08:29
she goes, You know, I don't think it's gonna be good. If I remind him of that. I was like, probably not. They're probably looking for you right now to kick you out of here, you know. And so she just kind of quietly went by. And she's like, the worst part of this is that because I was busy, like, trying to remember what to say, I didn't hug him. And I was like, Oh, so she's getting her autograph. And he's like, Hey, where are you from? And she's telling him and everything. And he's like, well, thanks for calling. And I don't know what else they said. And then she just goes, can I get a hug? And? And he's like, Yeah, sure. And he like, gets up and leans over the table and hugs her. And then we got outside of the thing. And I looked at it as like, she's gonna be happy for like a year. Like she was thrilled to see Spider Man. It's hard. Oh,

Jordan 1:09:09
my God. Yeah. That is so cool.

Scott Benner 1:09:13
It was But anyway, if you need people to remember you, and you just want to scream at them. I'm a diabetic. Maybe that will.

Jordan 1:09:20
Yeah, I will remember that. And it's new to me, too. So it's like, it's new news to me. So I'm just gonna yell it out.

Scott Benner 1:09:27
You'll be super, super excited. I just was so in the end, I'm telling you the story because I just it was it was just I was very proud that whatever my wife and I have done over the last couple of years, that she wasn't in any way, like, obstructed by saying out loud in front of what really was throngs of people. I have diabetes. Like she just she was not put off by it at all. And I just hope, I hope, I hope most people can live like that, like in a way Yeah. They're just not right. You know, they're not. They're not ashamed.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:03
So right,

Scott Benner 1:10:04
Jordan, I thank you very much. I am going to jump in the shower, and then come back and record an episode with Jenny.

Jordan 1:10:12
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Really

Scott Benner 1:10:15
appreciate you being on Take care.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:17
Take care. Nice to meet you as well.

Scott Benner 1:10:22
Hey, huge thanks to Jordan for coming on the show and doing such a great job telling her story. Thanks also to Dexcom and Omni pod for sponsoring this episode of the Juicebox Podcast, please go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. And dexcom.com Ford slash juice box to learn more about the sponsors. Also, a s m r is what I was thinking of just a few moments ago in the recording. It stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. And there are these recordings mostly on YouTube, where people either whisper or like scratch their nails on things like I don't know all about it. But I'm telling you, it's huge. But I'm not whispering into this microphone. I think it would just be weird if I was like,

Unknown Speaker 1:11:20
Oh,

Scott Benner 1:11:26
I'd like you to relax so you can sleep? I don't think that would be a good use of my time. Or should I be like a deep voice? ASMR? No, that's how it works. I can't just be like, hello, how are anyway, obviously I wouldn't know what to say. This has gone on long enough, don't you think? Anyway, ASMR is what I was trying to think of. It's sort of meaningless, but you know.

Okay, that's all I got for you. It's now 1145. And I need to go to sleep. I genuinely Hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast as much as I enjoyed making it, I really had a good time talking to Jordan. Thank you so much for listening to the show. And if you're still listening now you must be a huge fan. So this is why I put this information right here. I've launched a webpage called juice box docs.com. It's juicebox D o c s juicebox docs.com. The goal of that is to create a list of endocrinologist and diabetes educators, people who listeners of the show are using it and a lot of trying to put together a list of agile, smart, tech friendly, savvy juicebox friendly kinds of doctors because I get a lot of requests from people about you know a doctor in this area or this area. So if you've got one of those great Doc's send me an email with all the information so go to juicebox Doc's dot com First, see the information I'm looking for. Click on the link, send me your doc, and we'll put them in but only if they're great. They come great. If they're not great. We don't want to share interesting and if you need a great doctor, endocrinologist, certified diabetes educator etc. Check out juicebox Doc's calm. Also, I want to thank Alan, who told me that when I'm talking about diabetes, pro tip calm. Sometimes it sounds like there's an S on the end and there's not. He's diabetes pro tip calm. That's a webpage where all the diabetes pro tip episodes are collected in one place for easy listening and sharing. Thank you very much Alan for sending me that note. Everybody, have a great day. I will see you soon.

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Scott Benner 5/18/20 Scott Benner 5/18/20

#337 Over the Moon Pie

Kayla has made a few changes!

Kayla has taken quite a journey with type 1 diabetes.

Check out the Diabetes Pro Tip episodes and Juicebox Docs

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends welcome to episode. Oh, I don't know what episode this is. Yeah, I know already. Hello friends welcome to Episode 337 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter and touched by type one. Please take a moment to go to the links right here in your podcast players notes, or I've made them available at Juicebox Podcast comm for this episode anyway, go to those links check out the sponsors touched by type one is a wonderful organization supporting people with type one diabetes. And the Contour Next One blood glucose meter is absolutely without a doubt, no BS the best, easiest to carry easiest to use, most accurate blood glucose meter Arden has ever had. And if you go to Contour Next one.com there's a little thing at the top, I think it's yellow, you click on it to see if you're eligible for an absolutely free meter right now. Contour Next one.com touched by type one.org. If I tell you that today's episode is about one woman's journey through type one diabetes, it's too simple of a statement. And if I tell you more on that I'm gonna have to explain the whole episode to you. So I'm stuck. What do I say to get you to listen to this? Huh? No, no, it's good. tell you that much. Kayla has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. Well, that's not true. It's been a long time. But the journey we're, you know what? I got Corona, brain and Corona hair, you should see it. It's like a football. But I don't want to discount this episode because it really is a wonderful story. So I'm going to leave it to you. And of course, I'll remind you that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making changes to your medical plan for becoming bold with insulin. And now the end of the tune.

Kayla McBride 2:36
Hello, I'm Kayla McBride.

Scott Benner 2:40
Why don't you jump right in with your whole name. They're excellent. Okay. So Kayla's has not gone into some long drawn out like I'm Kayla McBride. And this is my story because Kayla and I have a history and email history that goes back into 2017. And it is Kayla, is it July still? Yes, right? Yes, it is July 2019. Right now. So many of you write me. I don't know if you understand how it goes or not. But you write me I see your emails piling up and piling up. And then one day I just put aside hours and I sit down and I answer everyone's emails. It's the best way I've come up with so far, which it's not good. It's just the best I can do. And a lot of us have correspondents that go back and forth. I am normally the I'm not usually the long part of the conversation. I'm usually like, that's great. Good job. This is cool. Keep writing like that kind of person because it's just a lot of writing for me. But we thought for this episode, we do something a little different. So I'm actually going to read Kayla's first note. And then we're going to start talking and then we're going to kind of go through the emails together and and see where Kayla has ended up because it's such a long kind of process. Okay, he'll ready.

Kayla McBride 3:57
Yeah, ready.

Scott Benner 3:59
So you you wrote in early December 2017. And you subject your email your subject line for email was I finally have hope with T one day. He said First of all, I want to thank you for all that you do for the diabetes community, which was very nice. You didn't have to do that. This month is my 10th anniversary with type one was amazing, right? Most, right. I mean, 10 years at anything. Pretty impressive. But then you told me that most of the journey has not been a smooth one. This is when I started settling into my chair ago Okay, here we go kill to have a sad story like Pull yourself together and writer back right. I was diagnosed at 17 junior high school family decided to take a vacation. And then you had felt ill for a while. You'd recently had a small surgery. So you figured it was that and then it wasn't. And you know, you started blaming jetlag and anything you could but you're on this trip with your family. Start getting worse frequent urination, you say intense muscle cramps, shortness of breath, all this bad stuff. up in dkw in the hospital for six days.

Kayla McBride 5:02
Yep. in La Jolla, California.

Scott Benner 5:06
I mean, there's worse places, right?

Kayla McBride 5:08
I know. We were actually pulling away from that hospital and there was a huge banner out front that said number one and diabetes care and I was like, Well, okay.

Scott Benner 5:20
least I've made it to the number. Can you imagine if you pulled away and said number three and diabetes care, you'd be like, Huh, all right, I guess still not bad. Since then, I have struggled with finding a good endocrinologist that lasted longer than a couple of years. My first endo I love this one would offer advice like eating a sandwich every night before going to bed to keep your blood sugar from plummeting. Yeah, he, that's a great one, how much? I'm trying to imagine how much weight I'd put on if I ate a sandwich every night before I went to bed. I'm I'm thinking probably more than I would want. And then you say, I didn't know anything about pumps, I couldn't recommend them. You did some research about pumps while you were in college. Got an omni pod. You said that helped keep better control throughout the craziness of college. And they said unfortunately, I was like, oh, there was like two sentences of upbeat as like here, we're gonna make it here comes the good part of Kayla's story. She beats the bad guy. And Nope. Unfortunately, a couple of years back, I had to switch back to MDI because I could no longer afford pumping. You're a college kid working in nonprofit and your MD, you went back to MDI and you said, You're a one CS, we're sitting at nine and that you were very frustrated by that. Now, here comes the good part. I started listening to the podcast a couple of months ago, and I immediately learned so much about how best to treat diabetes, but preventative action. Just obviously what we're talking about here, stay fluid, be ahead of the problem, that kind of thing. I learned the importance of the diabetes community. It's excellent, and that I'm not alone. Most importantly, I've gained so much more confidence in my treatment plan. A month ago, I decided to give the dexcom CGM a try. It's been such a lifesaver. I went to my endocrinologist appointment today and found out that my agency after a month of this Dexcom thing 7.1 I can't wait to see what maybe once he's gonna be at my next appointment. After I have months of data, being able to direct my blood sugar's where I want, etc. Blah, blah, blah. I could go on for days, Kayla. I write Kayla back in true form with tiny bullet points saying well, your diagnosis suck. People who ever written me are like, yeah, this is how this guy gets back. There we go. What you've done with your perspective, not to mention your agency is amazing. gratulations I hope we can keep in touch. And I would kind of like to know what your next day one says. So let's kind of start there. Tell me a little bit more about the diagnosis and then meeting this first anchor ologists endocrinologist. Excuse me, that wasn't so great.

Kayla McBride 7:45
Well, um, as the letter kind of said, I'd had a tonsillectomy earlier in 2007. And so going into not feeling well and everything. I just thought I was still recovering from that. As you get older, it takes longer to heal from the tonsillectomy. So I was like, okay, maybe this is gonna take a few months. Um, but it was about six months of just not feeling great. And then we just, we had this huge trip planned to San Diego, where we were going to see SeaWorld and go to the zoo and, you know, actually eat with shampoo at SeaWorld and all this stuff. And I just always wanted to go. And so we catch a flight, and I knew on the flight there that something wasn't right. And I told my mom even before then I said, you know, I'm not feeling too great. And she's like, well, as soon as we get home, we're gonna get everything tested. So let's just get through this trip. And so on the fly like I get up five or six times ago, there were extra, my feet were tingling the entire time. And I was like, What is going on? And so we're tingling? Yeah. Okay, yeah.

Scott Benner 8:55
I figured if I did this long enough, somebody would say my feet were dangling and you were the one good.

Kayla McBride 9:00
Um, and so we get to California and the whole trip was just, it was great, but it was also miserable. Like, we went to the zoo, and I had to ride the bus around the zoo, we couldn't walk because I was thought of breath the whole time. We went to the dinner with shampoo and I couldn't eat anything because I was so nauseous so I just ate fruit you know, because you're like, Oh, that's the more natural thing to eat. But is that just that didn't stay down very long and I remember we went to one like Mexican restaurant while we were there and I had seven glasses of sprite because you're like, when my when I'm nauseous. You have sprite like that's how I was raised. Like you have sprite and crackers and that's easy on the stomach. But you know, now that I know it was type one diabetes, but I was trying to fight that was probably the worst I could do. So we even get went to the ghiradelli Chocolate Factory the day before I was diagnosed. We were like, let's just split a big thing, so we get a big treat. And so the day before we were supposed to drive cross country back to Tennessee from California, and I basically fell out in the bathroom. And my stepdad pulled me out of the bathroom and made, you know, next thing I know, there's like 10 paramedics in the room, of course, I'm unconscious, lightly. In all of this, I ended up. I was in a coma for half a day after this, but, um, they said that even when he would try and like my stepdad would try and pull down my shirt that I would like fight him. Even though I was pretty much out of it. Um, but ended up in DK and I was in the ICU at lokoja. Hospital

Scott Benner 10:52
for six days.

Kayla McBride 10:54
And, yeah, it's a really exciting vacation.

Scott Benner 10:58
They tell you what your blood sugar was when you were in DK because it's I mean, your description at the very end is, I think indicative of you were probably pretty much at the end of being alive there.

Kayla McBride 11:10
Yeah, they said my organs were shutting down and you know, my whole family said you were just cold and clammy, we didn't know what was going to happen. And they said I was a 12 which I I know I've heard a lot higher, but you know, by anyone see what the 12 is all that? I know. I don't know an actual butcher.

Scott Benner 11:30
Yeah, that's really scary. And probably when you look at the story, you probably really needed to go to the hospital back at the Tingley feet Park. And you powered through you must have really wanted to go on that vacation. Hey, you know what, I have to ask you what shampoo a good cook or do you not remember?

It was like a buffet style. Oh, you

went to shampoos house and they cook. She cooked for you? That's not what happened. I see. I got you. Alright, fine. Well, that's terrible. Hey, Kayla, congratulations on being alive. Being sounds like you were right there. No knocking on Heaven's Door. As they say. I'm happy that you did not drop dead. Congratulations. But that was really just the beginning for you. Right, like so now you're you're diagnosed. And you're still a high school student. Right. Not fun. When you're back in Tennessee now. No longer in the number one type Ed center in the hallway. Right. And you meet. So you meet? I guess let me let me just ask a little bit. Was this during the summer?

Kayla McBride 12:41
No, it was during the school year. So I was it was actually December 2007. When I was diagnosed. I was in the hospital during like New Year's. This is like a Christmas trip for you guys.

Unknown Speaker 12:51
Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh.

Scott Benner 12:53
Now I feel bad. Because I know how hard it is to take a family on a vacation. It just it really seriously. Did you notice by the way, everyone's diagnosed on vacations, fat, it's fast. Yeah. Okay. So you're back in Tennessee. And you're going going to school? So 10 years ago? Is that a meme? Assuming they just gave you like, was it pins or needles? or What did you get to start with?

Kayla McBride 13:19
Yeah, it's just syringes and the glass file. And so, you know, of course, in high school, I was like, Oh, she's going to shoot up before lunch. And my English teacher at the time was, had this little side room that was kind of his office. He was like, you can just step in there before lunch every day. And you know, do your thing. So it was, it was really nice. Yeah,

Scott Benner 13:43
yeah. Assuming about like the 13th. Time for the shutup comments. You're like, I gotta move away from here one day. So did you not find? Did you not find high school to troubling with diabetes? or How did you find it?

Kayla McBride 14:00
Well, it was kind of towards my end of my high school journey. But I think in that letter, I said junior year, but it's actually my senior year. December my senior year, so I mean, I had six months and then I was having to go to college. So

Scott Benner 14:16
our whole relationships based on a lie that's in the second sentence first. I'm sorry, I have to call this short, but by no. So okay, that was actually your senior year. Just went back finished up your senior year and then jumped into into college. Doesn't sound any now that sounds worse to me. I thought at least you had a nice a year to get sort of accustomed to things. But you just finished up the last half of your senior year. And we're right away. How far away was college? Did you have to was it far from home?

Kayla McBride 14:47
I stayed in town and I'm so glad that I did choose that. Because I had already decided on Lipscomb University as my college which is in Nashville. I already decided that in My junior year so, um, so yeah, stayed in town I was close. So even though I'm sure wrecked my whole family to be like, you know, hope she stays alive hope she knows what she's doing. At least I was close.

Unknown Speaker 15:15
I know

Unknown Speaker 15:18
what did you know what you were doing?

Kayla McBride 15:21
So I, I really credit the Omni pod a lot for keeping me alive in college. So many times I was just like, Okay, I'm setting these alarms, and I'm not gonna worry about it until I hear one. And but I didn't have them in good parameters. I didn't. You know, like, it's just all the time, your time to check and see Oh, no,

Scott Benner 15:47
no, no, no, don't. So you're describing something that I think is, is probably now still and was more so years ago, just a common way of dealing with your diabetes. I've you know, they've given me these, I don't know, mathematical equations that tells me how much insulin and I get up in the morning I test my blood sugar. I give myself insulin I eat I wait a certain number of hours. I do it again. It's usually another mealtime by then this keeps happening. My blood sugar is never where I want it to be. But that's okay. I'll try again. And that's pretty much it. But I think what you were saying a moment ago was that by putting on an on the pod or having an insulin pump at all, at least you didn't have to draw a needle Are you skipping when you were doing MVI? Were there times? You're just like, I'm not giving myself insulin? like did you skip it?

Kayla McBride 16:37
Oh, yeah. And I would even do that with zombies. I would just I would skip meal doses and be like, Well, I have a drip going in, you know. So that's it won't be too bad.

Scott Benner 16:48
Okay, so Kayla, first of all, your story is fairly common. And I really appreciate you sharing it with everybody. So even with a pump on even when you hear me like, I'm doing my ads, and I'm like, you just push the button. It's so easy. You're like, Yeah, I just looked at that button. I was like, No thanks. Now, what stops you when you're wearing a pump? And it is just honestly as easy as pushing a button saying I would like you to give me insulin for 35, carbs and button. When it's that simple? What stops you from doing it? The Contour Next One blood glucose meter? Let's talk about it. How about it's tiny, but still easy to hold? How about it's got a little light on it. But that light is plenty bright enough. In the middle of the night, when you can't find your blood drop, just push the light look. But that's it just like that. It's very simple. Other things about that light that you might not know, is you sort of set you're not sort of that would be silly. How would you sort of set your Let's start over again, one of the other things about those lights that you don't know. But you could know if you went to Contour Next one.com and read about it is that you can set them for ranges. Right. So when you get a test, say like BB right and it's like 93 and 93 is in your range, the light will turn green. Oh, see what I'm saying? You don't yet. So it's just sort of this visual cue. This is where I mean to be this is above where I mean to be below where I mean to be a little something, but adds a lot of panache, and value. pump that panache is not valuable. Another thing you're going to love about the Contour. Next One is the app that goes along with it that you can use or not use totally up to you. Nobody's forcing you to use the app. But you can if you want and it's available for Android and iPhone, it'll help you plot those data points and make sense your blood sugars. And just from personal experience, I find the meter to be incredibly easy to handle. It's got a beautiful bright light for nighttime and the test strips beyond being accurate. super accurate. In fact, they're just easy to use, meaning I can touch the blood drop, knock it as much as I need and go back in and get more without wasting a test trip. So that's amazing. For certain I can tell you this little all the blood glucose meters pardon has ever had. This is my personal favorite. And hers is simple to use. It is handy. sleek, right? Hmm. Like a ski boat almost. You know when you look at I'm not into boats, but I've seen people look at both books. That's how I feel about the Contour Next One blog. Anyway, we've gotten off track. I think we all realize that now, Contour Next one.com top of the page, get a free Contour. Next One meter, click on that to see if you're eligible. And if you're not, it's a blood glucose meter. You have insurance and not really that expensive. So ask your doctor about it today. Get started with the meter that are done I really adore with that little bit of time you've now made for yourself in your life, right by not fumbling With your old meter or being like Angry attic because this thing's never right. Go to touched by type one.org. Take that new free time at New lightness in your soul. Go share it with other people. Or at least let them share their lightheartedness with you. Touched by type one.org is the place to go to watch people be lifted up, supported, and and watch them raise money. help find a cure for type one diabetes, touched by type one.org. Contour Next one.com links in your show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com, Bada bing bada boom, let's find the answer out to the question I just asked Caleb, before the very end really roll into our story. This is an interesting episode. I'll tell you why at the end of this little like the way it is right here. Right? It just trickles out to the end. I guess if I didn't talk, are you able to hear about it? Anyway, what I liked about this interview most is that I was doing a lot of reading in the very beginning reading the email, which I didn't realize at the time made me feel uncomfortable. I really do like the podcast to be free flowing. But kailyn I get through the emails and a little bit. And the conversation kind of sinks in a little more, she's more comfortable. I'm back into my groove. And this this episode is interesting. It takes on two kind of life's lives, definitely lives not life's, life's would be completely incorrect. This episode takes on kind of two different lives. What I say kind of this episode takes on two different lives. And you're about to see the transition. Well, hopefully you'll see it. Anyway, I've now talked meaninglessly for a minute and probably skip through this. But back to the show. I love you guys, thanks for listening. When it's that simple, what stops you from doing it?

Kayla McBride 21:51
At the time, I was still with that first endocrinologist. And I honestly did not feel knowledgeable about type one D at all. And I did not really know how to accurately dose and I was really scared of the insulin, honestly. So I said, Well, at least I know, I know, I have a little bit in me. And if it gets too high, I can just bump it down with a whole lot and be ready to catch it at the bottom.

Scott Benner 22:18
Did you? Did your doctor ever say something to Ben, you don't? You've never said this in your emails. But I'm just wondering, has anyone ever said to you back then better high than low?

Kayla McBride 22:30
I think they were always really scared of the lows, but they weren't even, they would just say you just need to do better. Like that's what I kept hearing was, you need to take care of yourself better. And I was like, I don't know what that means.

Scott Benner 22:42
Of course, by the way, too, when you're just introduced into diabetes when you're in your senior year of high school, not your junior year of high school, but in your senior year of high school, right when this is your introduction, and then you know you're graduating and then boom off to college. You need to do better from a person who is not telling you what that means. Or, or how to get to that spot. In a world where I mean, let's be honest, if like you need an Advil for something and it says every six hours, How frequently do you really take your Advil every six hours? Right? Like you take it and you feel a little better and then you forget again, it's um it's actually one of the biggest problems that prescribing physicians have with medications is that it's just human nature you start to feel better or you don't feel badly whichever, you know, whichever it is and that just doesn't make you think to take the medication again. A huge problem in the world of people with antidepressants, ironically is they begin out you know, sometimes depressed, they take they are anti depressant, they stop feeling depressed and the minute they stop feeling depressed they go I leave that medicine anymore. I'm not depressed never connecting the line between I'm not depressed anymore maybe because I took the medication and it's just it's very common. So I don't want you and you know you don't need me telling you but you shouldn't feel bad about this like this is no different than if I put a six year old in the car and told him to drive across the country you know and then they ran into a tree at the end of my driveway me yelling up going What are you doing? You gotta do better. I mean think of how ridiculous that is. You know? So you're going along in in this kind of loop of just you know, a test when I can I test when I think about it I don't want to be low I'm scared of being low. What happened? Did you have a bad low that that threw you off? Or was it just the fear someone put into you I

Kayla McBride 24:39
honestly didn't have too many bad lows.

And even in like I've been able to catch them all there was one incident as the day after Thanksgiving one year. I want to say it was like 2013 or something. And that I I fell out in the hallway with a low blood sugar and they had to do Like the jail and I ended up going to the hospital, but I didn't remember any of that. But

Scott Benner 25:08
that's the good thing about it. Yeah, you don't really remember any of it. And by the way, I took me two usages of the phrase fell out to realize that you were saying passed out, but I'm a local colloquialism I imagined

Unknown Speaker 25:20
I guess

Scott Benner 25:22
that's so if I told you I passed out, would you know that I meant fell out? Yeah. Yeah. I say you people got your own little like country down there something I hear what's that? So that so even that's more interesting, right? Not a lot of bad lows, still afraid. And that's just the message, right? That people get so often, like, be afraid be afraid the insulins gonna kill you. I'm like, Yeah, the insolent not having it's gonna kill me to like, what is the it's it's just a strange, you know, I feel like I repeat myself sometimes, but such a strange idea to decide, well, I'd rather die tomorrow than today. You're still dead? Like, what's the difference? And so you know, like, why not take a shot at living healthy here? Like, why is that not the message coming from the doctor? Like, look, this insulin can be dangerous if you use it incorrectly. Let's learn together how but it sounds like your doctor really didn't even know how to tell you to use it correctly and given them credit, where it's due 10 years ago, in those CGM, right, like it's not like, you know, not like anybody had ever seen anybody's buzzers. Everybody was really just working on this, like test weight test again, theory. The problem is, is that standing here today in 2019, that's still the advice a lot of people get. Hmm, that sucks. So you find the podcast, what's the first thing that strikes you? That makes you think, oh, wow, maybe there's a different way?

Kayla McBride 26:43
Well, when I found it, I was on MDI, I was off the Omni pod just because I couldn't afford it anymore. And I heard you talk a lot about the Dexcom, which I actually tried for a week in college, I tried the Dexcom out. But because I was so out of control, I was just overwhelmed. And it was one of those, you know, my that first endocrinologist was kind of if he didn't understand it, he didn't really want me to do it. So if you didn't understand the Omni pod, he didn't understand the Dexcom.

Scott Benner 27:16
I want to stop you for one second. I hope people understand that when another human being tells you, you need to figure this out. What they're really saying to you is I don't understand this either. I can't help you with it. So like, don't let don't let that pressure feel like that. Like understand that. If you had a better teacher, a better teacher wouldn't tell you. Hey, there's algebra, you go figure it out. And they would actually explain it to you. So yeah. So you tried it once saw your blood sugar's and thought to yourself, hey, this guy's right. I do need to take better care of myself. But I don't know how. So I'm gonna stop seeing my blood sugar now, and kind of got away from it.

Kayla McBride 27:51
Yeah. So when I started listening to your podcast, in 2017, it got me interested in the Dexcom again, and I knew that I needed a stronger control in my blood sugars, that I was only capturing that one window that I tested my sugars in. And so when I got the dex calm after I've listened to some of your episodes, I wasn't as intimidated. I was like, Okay, I know enough about myself. I've gotten myself through diabetes this far in life. You know, let's figure this out. So

Scott Benner 28:26
good for you. Yeah, that just that idea of like, I'm still alive. Now. Let me try to be alive. Better? If right,

Kayla McBride 28:32
let's feel better every day.

Scott Benner 28:34
And that really is not to be overlooked. Right, is that you did not feel well, most of your life. And in that in those years? Is that pretty accurate?

Kayla McBride 28:44
Right? Yeah. I just felt like there was, you know, not a whole lot of energy going on. And I kind of wonder if, if my whole college experience would be different. If I'd had better blood sugars in that time?

Scott Benner 28:56
I'm sure it would have been. Yeah, I'm sorry for you that's definitely can feel like something that's lost that you can't get back. But I don't think that's true. I just think that, you know, I mean, there's plenty of good things I've done in my life. I don't remember either. So don't worry about what happened past like, just, you know, move forward and keep doing what you're doing, I think. Okay, so, basically, that was a beautiful email that you sent me. I responded back, like I said, with bullet points. And, and even though I wonder, and so let me ask you, just very quickly, not to get too far away from your story. But when you send such a beautiful and thoughtful and well written letter, and you get back 53 words, do you on your end, do you think that guy must be busy? Or do you think Jeez, you could have given a little more to me here, buddy.

Kayla McBride 29:39
Well, I definitely know that you get a ton of emails. So I was just excited to get any response and the fact that you did take the time to, you know, talk to different parts of the letter like, Oh, that's really sweet. And you know, you're doing a whole lot

Scott Benner 29:53
to read them all. I just I hope everybody understands. It's just it becomes overwhelming at some point, but I really do read every one of them and Thank you. I was hoping that you didn't feel like you got, you know, shortchanged because I know so you did what we talked about and you wrote back again and now it's like, you know the end of June, early July in 2018. You're like, hey, Scott, I want to send you an update on my last six months. I was like excellent. Kayla's back. Kayla, who has a perfect name to be in country music is writing me again positive stuff first she says that see finally now she's everyone's starting to understand like, hey, let me just I'll throw the good stuff out and then ready the guy for the bad stuff. My ANC has continued to improve 6.4 in March of 2018. And now this month 6.1. I mean, that's stunning. You started at nine. These are numbers I never thought were possible. My thyroid medication is also decreasing. All this is amazing. I'm still having issues with dawn phenomenon. Nurse Practitioner said we might look into adding Metformin. I wonder if you talk to any type ones that have tried Metformin, and that you said not now, now that not so shiny points, I was like, it's funny, because even the positive stuff you were like, I might have to take that form. And that was positive, too. You said the diabetes, the diabetic dream is real. We should all receive free counseling for the mental and physical strain we have to endure. Today I went to my endo and got those even better results. But sometimes a break would be nice, a break from the planning ahead. The constant financial stress, the lack of sleep, etc. I've been in a slow Oh, excuse me, I've been in a slump of low energy tiredness, anxiety, wanting food conference then feeling guilty for them. I'm always a person to say snap out of it. I just having a little bit of a hard time this time around. So you know, I just thought I'd share the physical and mental stuff while buying continue. Baba, thank you. scaler. Right. And so Okay, let's see, that was June 28. I promptly responded back to Kayla five weeks later, because this is such a bad idea. Now I feel bad about this. And I said this a once the news is amazing. Congratulations. And then I said, Are you having any luck coming out of the burnout, which is basically because five weeks it passed? And I didn't know if you'd throw yourself out a window yet or not. And and then we don't talk again, really? In September, October, November, December. And so you know, okay. You. So let's talk about that point right there that spot in time. Diabetes, burnout, that's what people call it. Right? Well, but it's it's just, it's anything burnout, like, right, everything's like that anything you have to do frequently have to do daily becomes monotonous. And when you're doing it and doing it the best you can and it's not going your way. It's even more difficult, right? Because you're just, you're like, wait, I'm killing myself for this. It's not even working out. And But still, when it works out, it's still a lot of work. So I wondered if you couldn't talk about that a little bit like what it's like to do something day after day after day?

Kayla McBride 33:09
Well, I'll tell you, what's really helped me get through is sharing what I'm going through with others. And you talk about that all the time on here is the importance of community and knowing that you have support, but it's people realizing what exactly you have to go through. And you know, it's not just me asking, what are we going to have for lunch? But it's me asking, you know, what do I need to plan for? And so, that's really helped me a lot in turning my mindset around is having, you know, my family and friends that are closest to me at the time to ask, you know, how are you doing? How you're, how's everything going with your diabetes? How's your health? And then when I do explain to them, they kind of get it instead of kind of just going okay, okay, but not really understanding what all diabetes is, which I know it's a complicated topic. But

Scott Benner 34:05
do you think I should record an episode where I just speak to you like you're there, but you're not there. And then I leave long pauses of silence where you can answer out loud while you're driving in your car. Like, like if the podcast just started and I was like, Hey, how are you? It's so good to see you, then I don't talk for like 30 seconds while you're like I'm good. Scott, how have you been like, Oh, I'm great. And then there's a long pause. Because I could do that. For people who are, you know, not around others that understand their diabetes, or don't have a place to talk to other people. I have to tell you. One of the things about this show that initially surprised me was feedback like that, like the idea that I don't know another person with type one. There are no conversations about diabetes in my life, and listening to other people talk about is is really helpful to me. I did not I mean, I guess I expected a little bit but not to the level that you and other people have described. So you did you how did you engage those people? Did you actually go to somebody like your mom and say, Look, I need to talk about this sometimes, or I need you to be interested in it? Or did you just start doing it? How did you get that rolling?

Kayla McBride 35:09
Well, dexcom helps a lot, because I tend to wear my my arms. And so people ask that question, what is that? And then you can go into what type one diabetes. And you know, they may say, Well, I have a friend that has type one, or type two or whatever. But then you can kind of roll from there and say, you know, this test my blood sugar every five minutes, it helps me kind of see what's going on throughout the day, and how to plan for what's coming next. And so it is really more of a preventative fare than I had before. You know,

Scott Benner 35:43
so your gears acting as an icebreaker? Yeah. Okay. That's interesting, because there are as many people I've heard from as many people who think I hate when somebody sees my pomp or my CGM, and they start talking to me about what is this? And now you're giving me the exact opposite, like so that even that is just perspective and the way you react? Because you could take an opportunity when somebody's like, Hey, what's that to say? This is what it is. And and then maybe you'd find the sort of connection that Kayla found as well, just the ability to meet a person and talk about diabetes for a second, like it's a normal thing, because it really is a normal thing. But not to everyone. And so, you're left on your end feeling like, well, geez, it's not normal to them, so I won't bring it up, or, or this makes me different. But they have stuff that is normal for them that you don't have, but they don't think of it as making them different. Isn't it weird? Like, you know, if I was a, I don't know, like, if I liked photography, and you didn't, I wouldn't think oh, gosh, I should hide my photography, because it makes me different. It's just you should celebrate your differences, right? Like, it's, I mean, that's got to be a T shirt that that already exists. And so there's a good reason for it. Because it's important to do, it is important to look at yourself and say, This is me. There's nothing wrong with any of this. And no reason not to tell somebody about it. That's right. That's really excellent. Are your is your family more involved than they were in the past?

Kayla McBride 37:14
Yes, they are. And I think a lot of it was, you know, I had six months, kind of under the roof, and then I was gone to college. And so they didn't really see that struggle, and me trying to learn how to function and with this disease, and so I think it took me getting to Dexcom and sharing my better a one sees with them. And then they would ask questions. And then last year, my mom and sister went to the jdrf conference with me. And it just like, ramp them up. They were so excited.

Scott Benner 37:52
Excellent. That's so cool. Because then they see all those other people who were, you know, living your central your life. And and it's I don't know what, I don't know what that does. But it certainly does something because I felt it as well. I've been to big conferences, and there is an energy that's, you know, unmistakable. is very cool that they did that with you. Okay, so, six months after my that's an amazing Good job, though. Sorry. You're right back again. And now it's January of 2019. Hello, Scott, I hope you're doing well. It took some tough talks with my doctor, but I finally had some luck figuring out what's self care, I need to stay positively motivated. In the midst of my daily health. I have started Weight Watchers to help with my accountability in what I'm eating, and to encourage me to keep moving. That's excellent. And that's also just another look at planning, right? Like I was thinking about when you're saying it earlier, like you have to plan for your insulin plan for when you're going to put on your pump, that sort of thing. In eating is the same thing. Like I people say it all the time. Like if I know what I'm going to have I'm okay. It's when I roll into the kitchen hungry, that I get into trouble. You know, so little planning ahead. You switched up, let's say would you do you heard in the mornings, I switched it up with either yoga or Tai Chi along with walks throughout the day. Due to my dawn phenomenon, I found that less intense workouts are best for me. So I'm not battling an even more intense spike in the morning. So you were getting up in the morning seeing higher blood sugars than doing a tough workout which was probably spiking up your adrenaline other things your blood sugar was going up. Right? Which I'm assuming felt like a mixed message to you because you were doing something healthy and having an unhealthy response.

Kayla McBride 39:38
Yes, and it would help my blood sugars the rest of the part of the day but that morning was such a struggle.

Scott Benner 39:45
Cool. So you just step back it sounds like to me thought about it and said okay, obviously the the exercise is helping me throughout the day but what could I do right now to stop this one spike? Geez Kayla, you have in the in the In the span of about a year and a half gone from like, a everything sucks to like figuring out like to figuring out all these things. It's an amazing turnaround for you like that you must be jacked up like you have to be walking on Sundays like, Kayla is killing it. And and I don't know if you talk to yourself in the mirror or not. But if you do that, that's what I would say. Okay, so hold on, I found out less tense workouts. Oh, a new a one seagull. You've reached a new agency back in January 2019 5.7. Wow, you said it was unreal to you. I think it's unreal to me too. Stunning. Like, I mean, you started at a nine. And you were and you were like, just looking at the button on your on your on the pocket? Yeah, yeah, I'll just eat. And and now you're looking at you. You went from and now I'll just eat yoga, tai chi, you know, five, seven. You're there like a success story, unlike anything else, except that it's not unlike anything else. Because this is one I hope everyone's listening. One of many, many, many, many emails that follow this path that I have. So the point is, it's really possible for anybody, you know, what genuinely is? Well, congratulations, first of all, that's amazing. What did it feel like? Like, what's it feel like to wake up 18 months later and feel like you're having a completely different life?

Kayla McBride 41:27
It's, it's still surreal that, you know, I'm able to get this control. Because for so long, I just felt like, Oh, you know, some people were able to do that, but not me. But the more I see, the better blood sugar is and the better I feel and the more energy I have. And it just makes me want to do more. So actually, a week ago, I got the intent. So no longer a mile note, just MDX flex pins. And now I'm in pin. And that's been even more of a change and more helpful. So

Scott Benner 42:00
that's amazing. Because yesterday, companion medical, who makes the MSN contacted me about maybe becoming an advertiser on the podcast. That's crazy. I hadn't really heard from them much at all, since they were on, like a long time ago. But did you hear about them on the podcast?

Kayla McBride 42:16
Yes, I did.

Scott Benner 42:18
Okay. All right. I think I think we're finding a tone to our conversation here. This is this is very cool. So now you have you're in you're using a pen. Now that's talking to your Dexcom Data Explorer a little bit to me how it works,

Kayla McBride 42:35
though it doesn't do

on the actual internet itself. It only shows you your blood sugar from blood sugar from three hours ago. So it's not like you can look at your impairment and see your current blood sugars. But whenever you go and enter in, if you're about to eat, or if you need to do correction or anything, then that's when you can go in and do the calculator. And it compares your current blood sugar to what you're about to eat to the carbs you're about to intake. So that's

Scott Benner 43:07
pretty that's pretty out. And it has been really awesome so far. Yeah, it's it's when I you know, it's funny. I had, I had them on originally. Because the gentlemen one of the creators of the pen was a person who started I started knowing them through Dexcom. They were they work at Dexcom. And so I felt comfortable when they wanted to come on because I thought okay, it's a person who knows what they're talking about, like their goal for this for the product. You know, I think it's worth talking to them about it, even though we don't use it. So because it you know, it's a little weird for me if I don't if I haven't used it to talk about it. It's hard for me sometimes. But with that connection, and I knew where it was coming from it made sense to me. It's just so cool to know that it's working for you. And I'm sure others too, but that's just uh, that's really cool. Good for you. Look at this. It's fine. Yeah, it's really been good for you. And tell him what you pay for the podcast. Tell everybody. That's right. It's absolutely 100% Okay, so I went to the jdrf conference last week told as many people as I could about the podcast, thank you. It's helping so many people tackle confidence difficulties. My friend's mom's actually just decided to get a dexcom she was diagnosed type one later in life. She's got a severe fear of lows. told her to listen to the podcast and start target range. Oh, yeah. Like that's excellent. I mean, is there really no better advice but the next column then where to set your range? You know, like, how much it helps you with you want a little bit about other stuff. Very cool. Now, this is about the time I say to you, Kayla, I love getting your emails. And by the way, I emailed you back the same day that time, which just means that somehow Kayla emailed me on the day that I was answering you So just really congratulatory about your path, and stuff like that. Because, you know, honestly, it's, it's phenomenal. I went back and I read through those emails, and I was like, This is absolutely astonishing. And it's why I want to talk about this on the podcast today, at some point in there, over the next couple of days, I forced you to come on the show. I said, would you would you want to come on the podcast? And you said yes. Which is terrific. So now we're sort of through our emails and to, to present day, so to put my email away, because I hate reading long delay this. I'm bad at it, first of all. And I and I just need to ask you, if you were going to, you know, it's so simple to say go find yourself two years ago, or 10 years ago or whatever. But if you if you found somebody today who was in your situation, what do you think you would tell them, like, take the podcast out of it, take everything else out of if I put you in charge of helping that other person, you become me, and somebody else becomes you? What do you what do you say to them?

Kayla McBride 46:10
First of all, I tell them to make sure that everyone around you knows what you're going through, and they can help you in the good times and the bad times that support is going to be everything that I think that would be the cop thing, whether it's you know, joining jdrf

doing, you know, the different breakout groups with that, or

there is an awesome one here in town party like a diabetic and she helps out you know, people that are kind of the middle age he Wendy's and how they can manage the carbs and you know, still go out and have some fun every now and again, but still manage their blood sugars and be smart with their diabetes. So it's the support groups are everything.

Scott Benner 47:00
The idea that it's not all or nothing right, that you don't have to be perfect. Or just give everything away and forget it. Right. Right. There is a there's absolutely a balance. And you might not always I mean, listen, you just your ANC is stunning right now, right? Do you know what it is? Right now? Because you've probably had it done again, since you wrote me last?

Kayla McBride 47:20
And 6.1 was the last one.

Scott Benner 47:22
See, that's great to hear that you were five, seven years? six, one, did you feel any difference between five, seven and six? One?

Kayla McBride 47:28
Not really? No,

Scott Benner 47:29
you shouldn't. Because it's the same thing. And you know what I mean? Like, it's just it's a really great eight one seat. And that's another thing I see people do that I feel badly about. If you if you know, if you have a whatever point seven this time, and next time, it's a point four, you're like, Oh, great, I'm, you know, did better. But if it goes to the point eight next time, I mean, honestly, 6.8 6.4 6.7? What is there really that much of a difference? You know, like, to me what that says is, what I'm doing is working. But there's probably something in there, if I really want to tighten it down, there's probably something in there. I'm missing because I'm moving around a little bit, because I can tell you that Arden say once he just basically doesn't move anymore. You know, it's I tell people it's been between five, two and six, two for the past five years. And it has, but even the five two, I don't know, like what happened there. You know, I mean, like, That was amazing. But she's just generally right at 5556 like it since and the reasoning for that is the tools and using the same tools every day. And so it stands to reason that the outcomes would be the same. You know what I mean? Don't change the tools, the outcomes don't change too much. That's the place you're looking for, like this spot where you just do what you do. And you're okay. And you don't even have to worry about your agency. I don't even think if it wasn't for this podcast. I don't even know if I would even ask anymore. Because I'm that confident it's gonna be right where it is. You know what I mean? Like, it's just if you do the things you're supposed to do, it works. And and there's a there's a great relief in that because then you don't always think like, oh, gosh, am I doing the right thing? You just know, you just this repetitive action? And in my mind, that's planning. Do you know what I mean by that? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Cool. So okay, so support, right? Hundred percent for you. That was the most important thing, some sort of support somebody even and what does that mean, in real life? It doesn't always mean I'm imagining like that. You can go to your mom and be like, hey, everything's terrible. Is it? Is it just enough sometimes to be around a person who you know, understands?

Kayla McBride 49:35
Yes, for sure. My boyfriend RC we've been together for six years. And he is he's the one that I have my dexcom tethered to. And he is just really quick to say, Hey, are you snacking? Hey, are you filling the day? You know, anytime that he sees my blood sugar's being a little crazy. Or when we get home He's like, what happened this morning? You know, just things that He knows that there are other factors that go into it. And he doesn't do the freakout method. But he, you know, he's just really supportive about it. And my sister has been more in tune, and she just became a physical trainer. So she's been learning all the nutrition side of things, and she'll call me with random tips about, have you tried this? You know what, you should do this and see what your blood sugar does. And you know, so she's been really fascinated to learn more as well. So

Scott Benner 50:27
that's excellent. I think that it's it's important that to say to people that when that support you're looking at, like, really listen to what she's saying, like, it's not like they came along, and they were like, Hey, you should change your basal insulin. Like, it's not that specific. It's just like, how are things I saw blah, blah, blah? And then and you don't get defensive about it. You're just like, No, you know, I wasn't, or do you do ever? Like, do you ever hear back from them and think, alright, not today. Shut up.

Unknown Speaker 50:55
So,

Kayla McBride 50:56
before I tethered my Dexcom, to our C's phone and his technology, I had to have a talk with them, like, Look, you're gonna see some crazy blood sugars every now and again. And I kind of said, You can't freak out every time you have to trust me that I know what I'm doing. I mean, I'd like for you to still check in and say, Hey, how's it going, but don't immediately call 911? If, um, you know, have a high for a little bit of time, give me give me a little bit of faith that, give it down? You know?

Scott Benner 51:27
Yeah. That's excellent. Let's see. So you set some parameters and some expectations? Yeah, for sure. Do you follow them? Yeah, sounds like a good guy.

Kayla McBride 51:37
So now every time I get a good a one, say, my parents are like, good job, and RC Good job, too.

Scott Benner 51:44
I don't like RC getting prefer thing. But I mean, it's, that's, that's amazing. It really is a spectacular story, just you know, find one person now what do I do? What do I do if I can't find a person? What do I do if my life does not include people who I'm close to or that understand not to freak out? And that kind of thing? is online another way to go?

Kayla McBride 52:10
Yeah, or I mean, this podcast is a huge connection to Hey, I'm not the only one dealing with this struggle. And here's how other people are overcoming it. And it's been a big outlet for me as well.

Scott Benner 52:24
And you understand, I hope that I asked, because I don't have diabetes. So I don't know what you're talking about right now. What do you mean, like, I don't understand the thing that you're explaining. I mean, I understand that because you're explaining it really well. But I don't, I can't internalize it. Like I can talk more about the management stuff, because I understand it better. The rest of this podcast is just me wondering out loud trying to figure out what to tell my daughter one day. So I mean, seriously, you guys are helping me way more than I'm helping you. But I mean, you're not charging me either. So we're all good. We're just here for free doing a thing together. But it really is different from me. Like, I don't know, your account the conversation you and I are having right now. Besides, it's besides the fact that it's going to be incredibly helpful for the people who are listening. It's going to help me, but not today. It'll help me when my daughter goes to college or you know, when she's an adult, and she needs somebody to talk to but how much do I talk to her like, these conversations are going to be what rings in my head when I'm trying to help her. So I fooled you guys, this is all for me. And you're just it's just lucky that it's working out for you too. Okay, so RC, not named after the soda. I imagine.

Kayla McBride 53:38
We tell people that are like boxy like the cola. I would

Scott Benner 53:40
absolutely tell people that he's part of the RC cola family. And that, you know, he said he's a soda magnate. Maybe, you know, that sort of thing. All right. Well,

Kayla McBride 53:52
of course then they call me moon pie.

Scott Benner 53:54
Hey, wait a minute why Sadia?

Kayla McBride 53:57
If you go to any like, you know, small town here in Tennessee, or just I think in the south, you'll see there's these little country stores and they have RC cola and moon pie. stuff everywhere. So moon pies come Have you ever had a moon pie? Heard of one?

Scott Benner 54:12
I know what it is. I've not had one. Okay.

Kayla McBride 54:13
Okay. So yeah, so they apparently they go good together. I haven't tried it myself. But.

Scott Benner 54:19
So you NRC go well together. So you are moving by? Yeah. I like it. Okay. You guys should steal one of the signs out of one of the stores one time. stealing things isn't good. Nevermind. I shouldn't say that. Are you using the podcast mostly as community at this point, or are we still saying things at times that you're like, ooh, good idea. I'll try that. Yeah.

Kayla McBride 54:45
I really enjoyed it. I think the shade the shade episode you put up recently.

Unknown Speaker 54:53
I loved

Scott Benner 54:55
under the shade bus with Maddie.

Kayla McBride 54:57
Yes, it was awesome. And I love this app. thiness against Medtronic and

Scott Benner 55:04
should be nicer to people and caramel. And stop trying to take everybody's money and give them back stuff that only works. And

Kayla McBride 55:11
I was like, oh, get it

Scott Benner 55:12
much harder. Would you have to try just to do a good job? Think of it that

Unknown Speaker 55:15
Oh, right. True. Very true.

Scott Benner 55:19
Yeah, Maddie was terrific. I really enjoyed her a lot. And you guys are? Yeah, you're not similar in age. Really? I mean, you're, you're a decade out of almost a decade out of college. Right. And she's in college right now. So

Kayla McBride 55:31
yeah, but I still see myself as a lot younger.

Scott Benner 55:35
Do you know? So I want to ask you, we're about 10 minutes left. And so I want to ask you a couple other questions. So you alluded a couple of times in your notes, that your weight was a struggle for you. Yeah, and has, the improvements you've made with your blood sugar's led to any difference or change there that you can see,

Kayla McBride 55:57
I'm not really but I think the confidence that I can do different activities now, now that my blood sugar's are under control. And I can, you know, do harder workouts, and I have a lot more confidence in what my body is able to do. And that helped me feel stronger. So I think my main focus is just to be healthier, and not to focus so much on that number, which is, it's hard. But

Scott Benner 56:23
we can I ask you back when you were diagnosed? Would you have considered your weight? Not where you wanted it, then?

Kayla McBride 56:32
Well, not when I was diagnosed, because I'd lost 40 pounds. But prior to that, I guess.

Um, yeah, my weight has always been an issue.

And I've always felt a little heavier than everybody. But

I figure as long as you're focusing on your health and doing the best you can. And that's, you know, that's still a good thing, for sure.

Scott Benner 56:57
So I'm wondering if any of the sort of, I don't wanna say lessons, but the things that you've learned over the last year or so with your type one, Does any of it translate to that? Or have you not considered it that way yet? Because it's interesting, like, you know, I said before, that the planning aspect of dieting is very similar to the planning aspect of keeping your blood sugar where you want it. And I was wondering if like now that you have found, like, sort of this rhythm with your diabetes, if there was a way to translate some of those ideas, to, you know, your other goals, I guess?

Kayla McBride 57:35
Yeah, I think it made me more confident to try different things. And because I have found that rhythm with my diabetes, it's not as big a struggle to add on other things, like trying a different diet or trying, you know, a different routine is not as complicated or overwhelming, because I know that I can do my diabetes. Well, now,

Scott Benner 58:02
see, that's really interesting, isn't it to that, when you're having multiple struggles on multiple fronts, the, it really just feels hopeless. You know, and so now you found hope in one spot, and it makes you feel like, okay, that doesn't need as much focus, I can shift some of the energy I have left and some of the focus I have left to this other place. Right. And it's huge, because you're an adult, you're going to work, you know, you mean, like you get up and like thinking about your life, you go to work, you have diabetes, but you'd like to, you know, exercise and do things like that. Rc is taking up your time I can hear it. And, and and you know, you've got a relationship with your sister relationship with your parents, you know, all these different things. And they're only 24 hours a day, and you're asleep rate of them. So you know what I mean? I've 16 hours to accomplish all those things. Eight of them, I'm working now I'm down to eight left. I'm tired, I have to make myself dinner. And they're like, Where is the time to tackle a new thing? Because you can't ignore the diabetes completely. Right? You're always with that.

Unknown Speaker 59:05
Right?

Scott Benner 59:07
It's very, it's it's important to get the diabetes thing, that piece in check. So that it it creates more space for you in other places.

Kayla McBride 59:17
Yeah, it's so much less of a burden when you actually feel like you know what you're handling

Scott Benner 59:23
and it is completely completely understandable when you don't have those tools. So you know, when you take yourself back 10 years ago to two it's completely understandable that you wouldn't have anything left for anything else that just the the struggling with diabetes, and then feeling bad about it. And then like you said to being tired, worn down. I'm sure you were probably foggy and didn't realize that you said you know, I wish I wonder what it would have been like to go to college, you know, with blood sugar's that were more stable. You really there's nothing left. And then and then and then every three months you go to a doctor, you're like you have to help me and they're like, Yeah, do better. Huh, Wow, thank you. Appreciate it. I didn't, I didn't think of that. Well, thank God, you're here. Oh my gosh, what a horrible merry go round. If you easily could get caught on it. Yeah, that's terrible. It really is. I'm very happy to say

Kayla McBride 1:00:20
that I have a much better endocrinologist now, and I got them midway through college, and it's at Vanderbilt. So they're, you know, one of the top diabetes places around here. And they're very encouraging anything new that I throw at them? They say, yeah, let's try it. And, you know, so that made a huge difference.

Scott Benner 1:00:43
That's excellent. And so what you're saying is you you at some point said to them, Hey, I found a podcast, I'm gonna try some other stuff now. And they were supportive of it. Yeah. What was the try to think the question here? What kind of reaction did you get in the office? When you had such a drastic decrease? In a one say, like, do they just act like? I like I'm interested now, like, what happens to a person with a nine who comes in suddenly with a seven? Do you remember?

Kayla McBride 1:01:17
The nurse practitioner? She immediately was like, Are you having a lot of lows? You know, what's going on? How are you feeling? And I was like, Well, let me give you my, my dexcom data through the clarity app. And you can see how I've been doing. She was like, Oh, you know, just seeing how much more of a control that did have. And it wasn't just roller coaster.

Scott Benner 1:01:42
So that was it like that? It's the first thought, because how could someone go from a nine to a seven and three months, they must have had a bunch of lows. And now this number is just not accurate. And in their variability is off now once they look at the data and the data is proves to them? Hey, you really have like a legit seven? Like, what's that moment? Do you remember that moment? Because it's, I would think I'd be incredulous if I was a doctor, I just be like, What do I say? Like? Like, do I start thinking? Did I say something in the last appointment that made a two point change? Or a one see, like, Where did the conversation go? Do you recall?

Kayla McBride 1:02:17
Well, um, I told them that really, the big difference was having the decks calm and knowing what's going to happen and be able to prevent if anything goes is going to go crazy, up or down.

And

I think that was really just the the big point where they said, Okay, well, I guess we need to, I think they didn't know as much about the Dexcom as they wanted to. And so it kind of gave them an opportunity to learn as well. I did mention, you know, I listened to the Juicebox Podcast, and he really teaches us to be bold with our insulin. And so I kind of took that and ran with it. And you could tell they were a little hesitant. Just because I had been running higher, and now I'm running, you know, where I'm supposed to. They're just, again, it's that fear of, you know, let's make sure she's doing this in a healthy way.

Scott Benner 1:03:15
And so now you roll in later, with your five your fancy five day onesies, whatever. Do you just like, do you just float through the office now? Like, are you like the star person? Do you just like Hello, everyone, it's me. I am here again. So you can test my blood sugar. I will show you my five whatever a one c you'll send me your prescriptions and we'll leave like is it more of like a parade of Kayleigh going through the halls? Like Hello, everybody. Like, have you become famous there? What what what happens? Like what happens when you make that next leap? like are they just like, Okay, well, you don't need us anymore? Or what's the vibe?

Kayla McBride 1:03:50
They just are really encouraging. Thank you. No, this is incredible. You're doing an amazing job. And actually, my endocrinologist said, if you don't want to come back for six months, we can do that. And so that really felt good that he trusts me more with my care. And so I went back the next three months, and it was 6.2 or 6.1. Um, and then. And after that I made the call to go back every six months just because

Unknown Speaker 1:04:21
it's Well, yeah, yeah.

Kayla McBride 1:04:23
So that's the first one. Um, I didn't even know that was an option.

Scott Benner 1:04:27
How much is your copay? Do you know? I'm 5050. So yeah, we've cut out two visits a year at $50 apiece. Not only is this podcast free, it has made you $100 more. That's going to be the new thing. I tell people the podcast can make you money, right? It's a pyramid scheme with your copay something I'll figure out the details later. Now seriously, I can't tell you really. I always shudder to say that I'm proud of somebody because we don't know each other and it's reductive for me to tell you I'm proud of you. Cuz you don't need me to be proud of you. And it's not my place to be proud of you. But I'm incredibly proud of you. So I'm saying it anyway. I just really, oh my God, you're so well, it's, it's just, it's everything that I tried to tell people on the podcast, it just came true for you, you're in a me like, it's so doable with these little ideas. And and they really aren't. I mean, honestly, today, the amount of effort or worry that goes into your diabetes today versus two years ago. Describe the difference between those two.

Kayla McBride 1:05:38
I, I worry about it a lot less, and I have more of a routine with it. And I don't know, it just makes every day a lot simpler. It's not like this cloud looming over. It's more of like a Okay, let's do it. Let's tackle it.

Scott Benner 1:05:53
And what do you do on the days when it seems like too much? How do you Where do you go back to like, like, to start over again.

Kayla McBride 1:06:01
So there are still those days, and I have to, you know, take time for myself. So I'm RC leaves for work really early. So I use that time in the morning to work out and do my yoga and kind of had that time to reset for the day. And, um, you know, make sure I'm going to make good food choices during the day. And it's just kind of my mindset moment.

Scott Benner 1:06:23
Nice. That's excellent. Um, yoga, did you teach it to yourself? Did you go to a class? How did you figure it out?

Kayla McBride 1:06:28
No. So, um, when I worked at a music venue, back in the day, I did events for them. They had free yoga classes every Saturday. And so I did a few of those and found out that I really loved it. And I was a lot more flexible than I thought I was and, and so when I kind of got out on my own, I found that there was yoga with Adrian. It's like a free youtube channel. And it is awesome. And I mean, she puts up videos every week. And so you can follow along with that. And so I've kind of been doing that. And I've got her, she has her own app now. So you can follow videos on there, too. So

Scott Benner 1:07:10
that's so cool. And so I think what we're all learning right now, listening to you, is that you're proactive, right? Like you, you're just you. I mean, somebody offered a free yoga class on a Saturday, you're like, I'll try that. And yeah, like that. Sometimes that's all it takes is just a little like, oh, let me say, you know, like, me throw myself into that and see what happens. And if the yoga doesn't end up being it, then it's something else you keep moving. I mean, honestly, it really is like the the overarching theme of your story is that you just tried things like you try that Dexcom all the way back then. And just you said you were out of control, then it was overwhelming. But you tried it. You don't I mean, you easily could have just ignored it and thought no, not I won't you tried, you know, giving your boyfriend access to your data. And if it didn't work out, you could have just taken it back again. But at least you tried. Right? You know, it's excellent. I'm so excited for you. I really am over at the end here. And it feels like I should just tell you how excited I am for you. But yeah, I think that would be unnecessary. So I just want to ask you if there's anything that we didn't talk about that you were hoping to?

Kayla McBride 1:08:18
Well, I guess I was um, with Arden if she if she had junior or still sophomore what you're actually going to be up

Scott Benner 1:08:27
so she's a rising sophomore. So when she goes back when she goes back to school a month or social, she'll be in her second year of high school.

Kayla McBride 1:08:33
Okay, are you preparing her for what college is? how you handle it with college? And have you thought about that yet?

Scott Benner 1:08:41
I think Thank you get you Kayla bringing the table here for the podcast. Okay, hold on a second, Kayla, we're not done yet. Um, I think about this a lot. And, you know, I find that it's situational. And that there are these little incremental movements, like you know, how I thought about getting art in from elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school and all these little steps, right? Right now is a super interesting time. Because by the time Arden is in college or leaving for college, there will be multiple options for closed loop systems. Right? multiple, multiple options. And how much is that going to change things? Is, is what she needs to know going to be wildly different than than it is now? And I think the truth is, I think yes. And I also believe that closed loop systems are not as perfect as we're all hoping, you know, they mean like, they're not just going to it's not going to be this magical thing that you slap on your blood sugar just goes to 85 and stays there forever. It's not that right. But so I think that understanding how to manipulate the algorithm to Do what you want it to do, and to know when to leave it alone so that it can do what it wants to do. I think that's going to be the way of thinking about diabetes. For people who are using those systems. So much like the podcast is full of these like little like tools or you know, that that lead to your a one se and Arden's agency now, and everyone else listening, I believe there are going to be tools to, to that space, too. And I am currently trying very hard to figure out that so that I can talk about it with you guys. And so that I can pass it on to Arden, the things that artists are really going to need help with are the responsibility factors, you know, because right now we're doing this thing together. And so what do you do when someone's not with you all the time? You know, like when one thing we've really accomplished for art, and I think is that she doesn't really, like you talked about diabetes being like a smaller part of your day. It is such an incredibly small part of Arden's life, that it's possible, not that it's too small, but that it's that she just doesn't really understand the full impact of it some days, you know, I mean, because there's times that people step in and say something to her, or we get together and think oh, you know, look what happened here. I think that's the part like that's going to be the most difficult part is the transition from, I'm doing it with somebody to I'm doing it on my own. And I also wonder if it's really necessary, if it won't just find its way naturally, because it's not like what she and I are doing right now. can't continue to some degree or whatever degree she's comfortable with in college. Yeah, you know, like I would, this is not a brag, but I am at the point now, where if you just gave me your data, I could probably manage your diabetes, and I don't know you, it would take me a couple of hours to figure it out. And we'd be okay. And so I've done it remotely with other people, there are people listening right now who are like, oh, Scott followed my kids blood sugars for weeks. It's not something that I talked about a lot, because I don't have the bandwidth to do it for everybody who I imagined would want to do it. There have been some people who have had very significant cases. And I've been like, Okay, let me take a look. And I help them bump things around a little bit. But I can I can Bolus remotely like I have this thing. I don't know, at this point, I can kind of close my eyes and imagine what's going on. Like I sort of know what to do. And so I could keep doing that with her. I don't imagine she would want that. To me, like I'm trying to put myself in the space of a 19 year old art in the off at school. Like I don't know that she would want that. Maybe she would or maybe she'd want some version of it. So I don't know, I think we adjust as we go. We that's what we've been doing this whole time just making any small adjustments to how we handle things. And we course correct a lot. So I don't think it's going to be any different than that. But you might know better than me, you know, what would you? What would you want? If you if you had the opportunity for me to help you in college? Would you want that? Or would you not?

Kayla McBride 1:13:05
Um, to an extent, but I also want to know that I can handle it. And that, I mean, when I was in college, I didn't really share with anyone that I had type one. And I would hide my Omni pod. And so it was kind of a different mindset for me at the time. But I think for at an extent I do wish I've had some help. But I also wanted to know that I can handle it. And you know, what, if I decide to take a weekend trip with some girlfriends, then I can

know that I can handle myself and you know,

Scott Benner 1:13:42
yeah, it's it's so I have the perspective of a lot of different people. Because of this podcast again, it helps me way more than it helps you guys. I hope everybody knows that. But you know, there's a, I don't know, I don't know, I'm not I don't wanna give people's details away. But there's a junior in college somewhere in this country who I speak with on the regular. And they're having trouble right now with their basal rates. And they're waiting to talk about them with a parent. But this person's now going through a lot of lows. And a part of me wants to say to them, like you know what to do, like, you should just do it, you know, like, you don't need to go talk to your mom or dad first. But I know they know. And I know they'll get to that point at some at some point, but that they're on their path. You know what I mean? Like their process is taking the time that it's taking. Right? And so I get to see that person's experience. And I get to talk to a person who's 35 who has the luxury of looking back and saying I wish my parents were more involved. One of the things that sticks with me from one of the shows is that someone said I constantly was pushing my parents away, but I wish they would have stayed more involved. Like so that's like a parenting thing to me, right like what what happens when they Kid tells you, I don't need you. But you know they do.

Kayla McBride 1:15:02
Right when I was back to an extent as well,

Scott Benner 1:15:05
you know, so I see that part of it from those stories. And, you know, you see the stories of the people who are, you know, as you know, as having small problems with their eyes, or retinopathy or trigger finger and all the way up to people who have needed kidneys. And, and when I listen to their stories over and over again, if they started with diabetes at a younger age, they all have similar backgrounds of parents who were like, you'll be fine. Like, you know what you're doing, and they didn't, they all know that, like, in the back of their mind, they didn't know what they were doing. But to tell their parents No, no, I don't know what I'm doing felt like a letdown to the parents. So they sort of didn't say anything. So there's a balance between positivity and reality. Right? Like, like, it's nice to say you go get them killer, you can do it. But if they can't really do it, that's not a great message. Right? Right. So then, then the message needs to shift to I believe in you, I can help you. So I'll support you here. And I think you can put it into practice. And to be honest, I don't know who of all those people aren't going to be. So I just have to sort of stay fluid and wait for it to show itself and then keep adjusting. I don't really see parenting much differently than I see blood sugar's honestly, if that makes any sense at all. No. Now if I dropped that, she's she's screwed. I'm just kidding. No, but but I think I honestly there are times that I think like, what if I just like, you know, what if I did die, like, what would she do? And my, it's funny, the best thing that I can find myself hoping for is that she goes back to Episode One of this podcast and listened through it more because it works for other people. I think it would work for her too. So that's my backup plan. In the my backup plan is that if I don't find a way to be a decent parent through the transition, that maybe everyone else's stories will help her. I don't know. I feel like I've got my bases covered here. But maybe I don't

Kayla McBride 1:17:08
know. I hope she knows how lucky she is to have you and have you so in tune with her, you know, everyday struggle and whether it's good or bad, you know, you're very in tune and that's really awesome to have.

Scott Benner 1:17:22
She's my moon pie. Is that what you're saying?

Unknown Speaker 1:17:24
Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:17:26
What? What do you think about naming this episode? shambu can't cook.

Kayla McBride 1:17:32
Hey, you know that that works.

Scott Benner 1:17:36
All I thought in the back of my head for 35 minutes. Can I get away with calling this episode shambu? can't cook or am I the only person who thinks that's funny? I can't tell. I don't know. But what's something about Tennessee that I that I like Tennessee. What do we call this one? Can I call it the Great Smoky Mountains? Like what's the what's the thing? Hello, you don't have any idea? See?

Kayla McBride 1:18:03
Listen Music City.

Scott Benner 1:18:04
For all you people who give me trouble about what the podcast but it's not easy to come up with a title of a podcast episode. See, just like Kayla was like I asked her something about the place where she grew up and she's like, uh, see, I when I get the call whenever I want it shambu can't cook that's enough.

Kayla McBride 1:18:20
Well, Tennessee such a long state. It's almost like it's three different regions in three different states in one so like you have the Great Smoky Mountains to the east. And then you the middle is kind of known for Nashville Music City and then the West is Memphis and you know, it's a long flat state.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:38
Yeah. A lot going on. And that's

Scott Benner 1:18:40
not a good episode title long. That's not gonna work. All right, Kayla, I'm gonna say goodbye. Okay. Thank you so much for doing this.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:49
Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:18:52
I want to thank Kayla for coming on the show and sharing her story with all of us. And while I'm at it, I want to thank the Contour Next One blood glucose meter and touched by type one. It's possible you'll be eligible for a free meter, go to Contour Next one.com to find out and of course, support or witness what touched by type one is doing at touched by type one.org.

The tools that Kayla spoke about in the show are part of the Juicebox Podcast. There's a series actually called diabetes pro tip. It begins at Episode 210. And they run not concurrently throughout the show, so some people have trouble finding them. Because of that, I launched a website, diabetes pro tip.com no s at the end, diabetes pro tip.com. If you're interested in seeing them all collected in one place, go there and check them out. But then of course you can listen right through your podcast player. You don't have to listen online, but you can. And if you're somebody who's been helped by those tips in the past, feel free as a matter of I feel more than free to share diabetes pro tip.com with a friend