#467 Come Together

Nicole, Amaia and Kylah found each other

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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 0:10
Hello, friends, welcome to Episode 467 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Nicole 0:16
Today's show is going to be a little different you'll see how in just a moment. But for those of you who are always asking for kids to beyond so that you know, my kids want to listen to other kids on the show, gotcha covered here. What do you say? As you're listening, please remember that nothing you'll hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. I'm going to take advantage of this extra music to remind you that the diabetes pro tip episodes are available right here in your podcast player. They begin in Episode 210, as are the defining diabetes episodes, and so much more after dark, and all the other episodes. If you're listening in a podcast player, please hit subscribe. tell a friend about the show. And if you're confused about any of that, you can figure it out at Juicebox podcast.com.

I'm gonna push record to nobody curse. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:29
Okay.

Nicole 1:32
One of you was going to curse which was the most likely one day?

Unknown Speaker 1:36
Ah,

Unknown Speaker 1:38
probably a Maya.

Nicole 1:45
That's a fair statement. Okay, so listen, there's going to be one thing here that we're going to have to be careful about while we're doing this. I've never done this with this many people before. But you're young so I can explain it to you. And unlike old people who'd be like, wait, what you'll understand, okay, so I'm recording all three of your voices on one audio track. So that means if you talk over each other, it's just gonna sound like a lot of voices, and I won't be able to fix it later. So that's why I was thinking, let's put the video on so we can see each other so we don't talk over each other. Now, okay. Inevitably, if I say something hilarious, and we all laugh, that's fine. Okay. But just don't talk over each other. If we're gonna be good, unless he gets crazy and you don't I mean, don't stifle yourself, but that's it. Okay, so. Alright, let me try to figure out what the hell's going on here. Which one of you email?

Unknown Speaker 2:36
Me?

Unknown Speaker 2:38
Nicole emailed?

Nicole 2:40
Nicole. Me? Yeah, you're the one that emailed? Yes. All right. And what's that on your arm? Is that an omni pod?

Unknown Speaker 2:48
Yeah, okay,

Unknown Speaker 2:49
we all have Omni pod. So all Yeah, mine's on my leg.

Nicole 2:53
Hang on a second. All three of you have diabetes.

Unknown Speaker 2:57
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Nicole 3:01
Let's do this. Okay, jeez. All right. Let's introduce everybody. First, Nicole, you go first because you sent the email. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, where us resident who is the caregiver of someone with Type One Diabetes, you can support T one D research and the Juicebox Podcast right there from your phone. The T one D exchange wants you to participate in their quick survey that can be completed in just a few minutes. After you're finished with the questions, and they are really simple. I've done it myself, it probably took like seven or eight minutes. And the information that you provide helps people living with Type One Diabetes. This is 100% anonymous, completely HIPAA compliant and does not require you to ever see a doctor or go to a remote site. Every time someone completes the process using the link in my bio, the podcast benefits as two people living with Type One Diabetes. So if you've been looking for a way to help T one D research, this podcast or both, nothing could be easier or more beneficial. So one last time just go to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. Click on join our registry now and answer this simple survey questions past participants just like you have helped to increase insurance coverage for blood glucose meter strips impacted changes in the American Diabetes Association's guidelines for pediatric Awan Siegel's helped for the FDA to expand CGM labeling to include finger stick replacements and Medicare coverage of CGM devices T one d exchange.org, Ford slash juicebox.

My name is Nicole aka chelski. And I'm 15. My family's originally from Poland but we moved to the United States and then we moved to the Cayman Islands. And Kyla Anna Maya are in the same high school, but I'm going to be moving to that high school next year as well.

Unknown Speaker 4:58
So we'll all be together.

Unknown Speaker 5:01
And we all love to play instruments. So I play the violin and the piano.

Nicole 5:06
Let's go a Maya next. Tell me about you.

Amaia 5:11
Okay. Um, so I'm the oldest and 17. And I'm the newest to Cayman Islands. I moved here about a year and a half ago. And my parents are teachers. My mom is Ecuadorian, and my dad's on the phone. And I lived in Ecuador before I moved here. And also I also play instruments. I also play the violin and the cats.

Nicole 5:38
Okay. All right. Ready? I'm just trying to keep this on my head. So Kyla, who the heck are you?

Unknown Speaker 5:46
Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 5:47
um,

Unknown Speaker 5:48
well, I'll be I'll be 13 in nine days. So I'm the youngest of the group.

Kylah 5:55
I'm like, I don't know. I'm kind of like their little sister.

Unknown Speaker 6:00
And I was born in California. And my parents are both teachers might well, my dad's a principal. And then my mom is a teacher. And we moved to the Cayman Islands when I was five. And I've been here. So I've been here for, like, eight years. And um, yeah, they moved here because they wanted to teach it at a national and international school. And, yeah, we all met playing. We all met kind of through different ways, but mainly through orchestra. We all are in Cayman Youth Orchestra and I played the flute.

Nicole 6:39
Okay, Nicole, did you say how old you were? I forget.

Unknown Speaker 6:42
Yeah, I'm 15. Right.

Nicole 6:44
So you guys are 1715 and 13? Yeah. Oh, live. You live on the Cayman Islands. Let's start with us. Let's be honest, for a second, your parents are just hippies that want to live on it. Right?

Unknown Speaker 6:56
I mean, I guess

Nicole 7:03
every adult says to themselves, you know what I'm gonna do, I'm just going to move to a really sunny, tropical place, I'm going to live there, I'm going to do a job and I'm gonna live there my whole life. And then we all chickened out, but your parents actually all did it. And

Unknown Speaker 7:18
yeah,

Nicole 7:19
so I'm gonna say you guys probably have the coolest sets of parents around. Here's what I still don't understand. How do you know about the podcast? Cuz you guys know, you mean together? Let's be serious for a second 1715 and 13. I haven't done the math yet. But seven and three is we know is 10. You add five, you've got 15. And you carry the one now we're at 45. I'm 49 years old. So collectively, you guys are still not as old as I am. by four years. How does this happen? Like I was really stunned to get Nicole's note who wants to tell me?

Unknown Speaker 7:55
Well, I, I kind of introduced both of them to the podcast.

Unknown Speaker 8:01
I

Unknown Speaker 8:04
my mom was like, Oh, you should listen to this podcast. And then I was like, Oh, that sounds cool. Because she's part of all these Facebook groups. And you know, your podcast gets shared all over everything ever. And so my mom was like, Oh, you should listen to this. And I was like, I'm like about diabetes. And I don't really want to like, center my life around that more diabetes. And then she was like, it's really good. And then one day, I was at my brother's baseball games, and I was listening to I was like, listening to music. And I was like, I wanna listen to podcasts. So I listened to your podcast, and I loved it. And I listened to the loop episode. And I got my mom. Like, I convinced her to get Lupe and then I told my aunt Nicole, I was like, you have to listen to this podcast. It's so great. It's like it helped me so much. And then yeah,

Nicole 8:52
you're freaking me out. So are you telling me Okay, Kyla, so what you're telling me is, you were so bored at a baseball game, you were willing to listen to a podcast about diabetes?

Unknown Speaker 9:01
I mean,

Unknown Speaker 9:04
I know your son plays baseball, so I'm not like bashing baseball or anything. We're like, but

Nicole 9:10
yeah. Do you want to know what Arden looks like it when it goes baseball games, she looks like she's going to kill herself. Just so you know. She says, Why am I here? I thought it would be nice if you came in. She's like, it's not. So okay. So now, it's interesting, because I guess your your group is so like, smaller because of where you're at, because normally a 17 year old a 13 year old wouldn't know each other. So is that? Yeah. Am I Is that something to do with like, where you live?

Unknown Speaker 9:39
Um, well, sort of, I guess you could say that. I'm kind of the one who brought the group together because I'm the one who put Thailand Nicole in my house. It was like, we're all diabetic. So we should be friends and then I start playing the game and see how it would work out. Okay. Both. Yeah,

Nicole 9:57
so am I You're like a diabetes to work. Then you were Like actually amazed and excited that they had diabetes toe.

nodding like yeah, she's a big dork. Okay. How long have you been there from Poland? You said Poland, right?

Unknown Speaker 10:14
Oh yeah, so I wasn't I'm the only one in my family that wasn't born in Poland. Like we visited every year when there wasn't COVID. But I was born in the States. And then we moved to K Man when I was one. So I would call K Man, my first home. And then America and Poland are like tied as my second. I guess.

Nicole 10:34
You've lived there for 14 of the 15 years you've been alive. The sound Yeah, really, really lovely. Okay, so we're gonna have to do some things we don't normally do. And I'm just going to go by age. So let's start this time at the oldest and then we'll go to the youngest, then we'll jump around a little bit. So Maya, how old were you when you were diagnosed? and What do you remember about it?

Amaia 10:55
Oh, I'm I was seven. When I was diagnosed, I we were all diagnosed in different places. I was diagnosed in Ecuador. And I do remember a lot I remember going to the hospital. I was diagnosed on Mother's Day. And also on the election day for us what are and I remember going to hospital and the doctors were telling me that I was diabetic. And I didn't really understand what's going on. I understood. So I had to have injections, but I didn't really like center on me what was going on. And then I didn't have the best education when I was diagnosed, because people often confuse type one and type two. So I didn't have a problem till like about a year ago, I got the Dexcom like five years after I was diagnosed, I didn't know about carb counting. My ANC was like crazy for the first four years that I had lifelong. And, and then it started like progressing after I went to like this conference, and that's where I got Dexcom. Okay, and then I moved here and then I met these girls, and then yeah, let me let me ask you a question. So when you're diagnosed? Are you diagnosed? I this is gonna sound funny, but I don't mean to be funny. were you diagnosed in English? Or were the doctors?

Nicole 12:16
Were the doctors English speaking?

Unknown Speaker 12:20
No, they were Spanish speaking is there I learned the vocabulary in Spanish first, and then

Nicole 12:27
is it easier in one language than the other easier? For reasons that I

Unknown Speaker 12:32
want? And I know English better.

Nicole 12:35
Okay. So it's easier in English because you know, English better. Okay, all right. Yes, I understand. Nicole, how old were you when you were diagnosed?

Unknown Speaker 12:45
I was diagnosed at 10 years old a month before my birthday.

Nicole 12:50
Okay. So about four years and five years ago. Yeah, okay.

Unknown Speaker 12:57
Yeah, exactly. Five.

Unknown Speaker 13:00
And

Unknown Speaker 13:02
what I remember is that it was actually sports day. And the day was over. And when I got back to school, I couldn't get up the stairs to get to my bag. And I was like, okay, maybe I was just tired from Sports Day. So I went home. And did you know, just everything normally. And through the night, I just kept going to the bathroom eating to drink so much. Like I drank the most I've ever drank in my life. And I was eating a lot. And my parents were like, We need to take you to the clinic, like first thing in the morning. So that's what happened. And they did, like, every test possible on me, except for the blood glucose test. So as you were driving home, we got a call and they're like, you have to come back right now. We need to test your blood glucose. And so when I did, it was 680. And it's actually the same number that a Maya had. Yeah. And they took me to the hospital. And that's where I learned everything. And I was diagnosed and came out here.

Nicole 14:07
Okay. She you guys both had the same exact blood sugar when you were diagnosed. That's crazy. Kyle. What was your blood sugar when you were diagnosed? You know?

Unknown Speaker 14:18
Me? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 14:19
I was

Unknown Speaker 14:20
like the 400. So it wasn't as bad

Nicole 14:22
like she doesn't know exactly. It's not like you guys. exact number. It's okay. How old were you? When it happened?

Unknown Speaker 14:28
I was seven. So I was diagnosed like five years ago. And I remember, like, I remember so we we went back to California for the summer. Because we go back every summer. Obviously this year, we couldn't go back. But that's like, that's where all of our family all of our friends are. So we went back to California and we've been there for like this all the summer break and then my dad had left like a couple days before because since he's the principal he had to come back or Really, he's a high school principal at our school. And so he had to come back early to start work again. And then my mom and the end, the rest of us could go back like a week or two later. And I might. So when I was diagnosed, my dad wasn't there. And that was kind of like, I don't know, it was just, it was different. And so my grandma went, and I remember for like all of our seminars and stuff, she took all like, a bunch of notes. And my mom and I were just freaking out. And she took a bunch of notes. And then she gave them all to my mom later. And so we were we were educated really well, in California, we were educated at a pretty big hospital. And so we knew all about like carb counting, we need the basic information that they give you. And I thought that was like basic and like stuff that everyone learns. But then, obviously, like listening to your podcast, and even hearing just like a Maya story, like, it's, it's really different where you're diagnosed. And yeah, so it was, it was crazy. And obviously, I was a seven year old, so my brain capacity was not sick.

Nicole 16:07
So let's get this out of the way right now. I don't really know where you are. So my geography is terrible. If I had to guess, and this would be a guess. I think you're closer to the equator, sort of St. JOHN St. Barts, but lower. Am I right? Everyone's nodding. Yes. Oh, it works. Nicole, you got to say a word.

Unknown Speaker 16:30
We're live right next to? Yeah, we're like near Cuba and Jamaica.

Unknown Speaker 16:36
Okay.

Unknown Speaker 16:37
Yeah, we're this cute little tiny island with, like, 29 miles long.

Nicole 16:43
At the coldest part of the year

Unknown Speaker 16:47
of our island.

Unknown Speaker 16:50
78.

Unknown Speaker 16:51
See, that seems

Nicole 16:54
you guys need anybody to come there and give like a diabetes talk or anything like that? Because I could do that. Just just you know, just get me there. Because that sounds right. Seven days the coldest. It gets all your Do you ever have storms that are scary?

Unknown Speaker 17:07
Oh, yeah. We had a very bad hurricane in 2004. I was actually a year before I came. But it was Hurricane Ivan. And the actual reason why my parents found this place was because my dad's boss has a business here. And they were like, Oh, you should come and help with relief and see this island. And so my dad did come here. And we actually have photos of like all the buildings and the rubble. And it's probably the worst natural disaster that we've had recently.

Nicole 17:44
My Did you see it? 1004 were you there on the island when it happened? I

Unknown Speaker 17:53
mean, No, I wasn't. No.

Nicole 17:55
Have you ever seen bad? Well, I

Unknown Speaker 17:56
only came like a year and a half ago. So okay, you

Nicole 17:59
just gotcha. All right. Geez, this is weird, because now I have questions for all of you. And yet I don't know what to do. So first of all, I think it's obvious. Kyle is the chattiest of the three of you, right?

Unknown Speaker 18:12
Yeah. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 18:14
definitely.

Nicole 18:15
I really wish I knew you guys played instruments, because I would have made your brain dumb. I don't know why. But I would have enjoyed that for some reason. Let's, let's ask a couple of questions. So we'll do it by hands and then I'll fill it in. Does everyone have an insulin pump? Yeah, yes, yes. Okay. Everyone's got an insulin pump. Is everyone wearing a CGM?

Unknown Speaker 18:38
Yep, yes,

Unknown Speaker 18:39
yeah. Yep.

Nicole 18:40
Everybody got Dexcom. You have some different

Unknown Speaker 18:42
Dexcom. But I don't. Yeah, I had libri for about two or three years. And then I got Dexcom at the end of last year.

Nicole 18:52
Okay. And do you have a preference?

Unknown Speaker 18:55
Yeah, I would have to say Dexcom. Why would you like the alarms? It's it. Yeah, the alarms are very useful.

Nicole 19:03
Yeah, no kidding. Okay. All right. So that makes sense. A pump. I see one Omni pod to you guys all wearing army pods.

Unknown Speaker 19:09
Yeah, I have mine saw my

Nicole 19:13
pilot show me her. Like I said, Okay. How do you get them there? Are they for sale there or your parents like black market trading them or something like that.

Unknown Speaker 19:22
They, they used to not be and so I would like my grandparents. They bring them every year and then this year, they couldn't bring them so we were like low on stock. And the pharmacy that it's kind of like near our school. I mean, everything's near school because our island so small, but there's this like one pharmacy that started carrying a Dexcom. And then like recently, like, a month or two ago, they started carrying the only pods so

Nicole 19:47
so you see the islands like I'm sorry, am I do you say what you're gonna say?

Unknown Speaker 19:52
No, I was just gonna say that. My dad's part of the reason why they started carrying on the plus here and because they had Dexcom. So my dad's like, if you can CGM He might as well just carry the pump. So you can

Nicole 20:03
bring down the pot here too. And he was from Ecuador. So they were scared of him because they thought it was like, Okay, we'll do it. Is that right? I don't know. Am I just making a joke? Or is it? No? Is it okay? All right. So that's okay. So your dad kind of went to bat and he got them to start carrying the assault pumps for you guys.

Unknown Speaker 20:25
Yeah, because before, we have to get everything shipped from America through like, shipping companies, and they'd have to send them here. And like, if anything got lost, or like anything happened, you'd be like, without an insulin pump. We're kind of glad that the pharmacy sell them here now.

Unknown Speaker 20:44
Also.

Unknown Speaker 20:46
Oh, I was just gonna say like we are, we don't have like a target on this island. We got Starbucks like a year ago. We don't have like the same things that they have in the US. It's, um, we're owned by the UK, like our island is owned by the UK. So we have a lot of like, we don't have the same things that the US has, like on the island,

Nicole 21:07
right? Do you guys have a bigger stock of insulin pumps than we do? Because I guess you're paying cash for them. Right? Are you? or Are you American? Like, don't I mean, I'm confused a little bit. Like, do you have just three months worth at any time? Or do you have like, way more?

Unknown Speaker 21:24
Ah, yeah. Um, I think Kyla has like a year supply. I usually have about six months or something. I don't know. It depends on like, how much your insurance allows you to have at a time. Gotcha. Yeah, you just get it. And

Nicole 21:42
do you think any of your parents are like, secretly spies or anything cool like that?

Unknown Speaker 21:47
I wish. I know, we really love to have like, everything stocked up just in case, you know, a hurricane. Oh, we recently had an earthquake. It was such a surprise because, yeah, everybody here has, like, a lot of people have recently came like our population is only 60,000. And a lot of people have come in like the past 10 years. And there has not been a single earthquake until January of like, 2020. We had a 7.7. And a lot of aftershocks. And it was like the biggest surprise, it was really crazy. Yeah, but thankfully, there was like, no tragedies or anything. Yeah. Did you have like an like, from what I don't? I think it's like July to like November or like early October is our hurricane season. And so we get like a bunch of we get like rain like almost every day it like pours. And we get tropical storms. Like I wouldn't say like it's it's like, not surprising if we get a tropical storm just like happens on a weekend or like, this past year, school was canceled for what we thought was going to be another hurricane. So it was kind of scary. But it happens like hurricane seasons every year so people know how to prepare for it and stuff. So

Nicole 23:11
So when there's hard rains like that you just live your life, right? You're not you don't like I would hide inside. I just came in and it got really nice. I stayed inside. So that wouldn't happen to you though. You just go about your business.

Unknown Speaker 23:23
Yeah, people are used to it like the island is so flat. The biggest mountain is what we locals called mountain trash. It's our landfill. And there's like no natural mountains. And so every time that pours the port and like all of the coast gets like kind of flooded even when there's like a big storm the whole port can be just covered in water and we're just like, no, we're used to it's just another day.

Nicole 23:54
Feeling like there's nowhere to run. Like Like if something like imagine Godzilla came for a second. Okay. You're being aware like you couldn't get in a car and run away. What did you say the whole islands like 29 miles across?

Unknown Speaker 24:05
Yeah, something Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 24:06
think Yeah.

Nicole 24:08
Did that Yeah, I freaking you out or is that the first time you ever thought about it? But like, you can't really just get away if you want to.

Unknown Speaker 24:15
I guess we do have like, since the last hurricane. A lot of our buildings have been made of concrete. And they're a lot more condos than houses probably. So it would be kind of easy to get up high. Like I remember after the earthquake, there's a tsunami warning and everyone instantly went to the highest place of the schools and everything because we were actually everybody was at school. It was kind of like the middle of the day. So we were like, just find the highest place of the school. It's okay.

Nicole 24:45
That's how you would escape Godzilla. I'm talking about what if you really got to go You don't need to

Unknown Speaker 24:51
get on a boat. I don't you have a

Nicole 24:53
speedboat available that you could just and and how far are you from the next Island

Unknown Speaker 25:00
Well, the next Island is small. So there are three islands that are like in our, in the Cayman Islands. So we have Grand Cayman, which is the one we live on, which is the biggest since like 2927 29 miles long. And then there's Cayman Brac, which I believe is 11 miles long. And then this little came in, which is like four miles long. So I mean, it could go to the next time they do pretty useless. So yeah, I guess

Nicole 25:26
before COVID before COVID what Nicole

Unknown Speaker 25:30
I guess before COVID when we got like, some days, we got like 10 cruise ships at the port, so probably be enough to get people out.

Nicole 25:39
Okay, now I'm gonna ask Maya this question, because she's the oldest okay?

Unknown Speaker 25:44
Do you date?

Nicole 25:48
Who do you date? There's like five people there, right? Seriously, Nicole, have you like i'd up like a 35 year old guy who doesn't look trashy because he's the best you can figure are there boys? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 26:04
I'd say we're probably focusing on school right? Now when

Nicole 26:09
you get older. Like, you're gonna want to date somebody, boy girl, something like that. Right? So like, where do you find one from like, yeah, cuz

Unknown Speaker 26:18
you don't? Well, I

Unknown Speaker 26:19
probably.

Unknown Speaker 26:22
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 26:25
Everybody knows each other here. Like, yes, it's a small world is literally used so much here you see, like half of your class at the supermarket every week. It's crazy. Okay, there are kids in my class who they're so they're like a couple names on the island that are like the original people that came to the island. I have kids in my class, whose last name is like, it's like one of those names. And they're places named after. So like, there's like Eden rock, like on the island and a kid. Last name is Eden, right? It's like that small like we have locals just like in

Nicole 27:04
town I grew up in there were these six streets. They're just these small side streets. They all had just very simple like people's names. And then I realized that there's a family that was literally just the names of the kids and the mother and the father was just the first names. You've been here? Oh, yeah. But okay, but this doesn't answer my question. So are you going to go to college somewhere else like, or is there like a Cayman college? Like, how long can you stay there as my point?

Unknown Speaker 27:31
I'm afraid to have a few colleges. Like we have the UCC II, which is the University College of Cayman Islands. And we have a Truman bot in law school that a lot of people go to which is well known for law. But usually lots of people go back to like bigger countries and things where they have a lot more opportunities for like the certain professions that are like more specific than law or engineering and

Unknown Speaker 28:01
broader things.

Nicole 28:02
So do you guys think about that ever? Like, do you ever think like, well, I live here my whole life? Or am I gonna go somewhere else? Do you ever consider that?

Unknown Speaker 28:11
Yeah, well, for me and Kyla, we have lived here a lot longer than a Maya. So it is like a bit of a bigger change for us. But I would say that since we also have family in America, it's not as bad like we could come back and visit if there's no COVID. Next time I

Nicole 28:31
understand. So I mean, you understand most people don't leave their town very often to begin with who just came in to call or you need you need me to call 911 is something going on? Did someone just come in the room? It's okay, fine. I want to describe to people like how much you guys wanted to do this. You're at your school right now. In three different rooms on three different laptops so that we can talk?

Unknown Speaker 28:52
Yeah, I can see Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 28:55
very nice. Yeah, I'm in the chemistry lab.

Nicole 28:58
I know I saw the periodic table behind you. But But I'm going to go around the horn here a little bit. I'm going to start with my like, do you think you're going to stay there forever? Do you think you're going to leave?

Unknown Speaker 29:10
Well, I'm a junior in high school. So I've been thinking about college a while I'm not. I'm very indecisive. So I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to go. But I know that I'll definitely leave the island. Okay. Well, you're

Nicole 29:23
the same age as artists like Arden is going to be 17 in a couple of months. And she's a junior in high school, too. Like she wants to go to college in New York. So she's bugging out of here as soon as she can, I think but but my point is, is that she can do that. Like she can just say I'm going to go to New York and then get on a train or in a car and then eventually be in New York. Whereas I don't know if I make Am I making more of this than it is Do you not think of yourselves as living in a remote place?

Unknown Speaker 29:50
I mean, we do but also it's it's really like common for people to just like hop on a plane and go to like, like some people Like hop on a plane and go to Miami for the weekend if we have like a three day weekend, because it's like, it's it's like an hour flight and it's it's not really a big deal. People don't really like, take a boat off the island because Jason do long but I mean,

Nicole 30:15
I'm looking at a map. Obviously Florida is like you just you're just you're hopping over Cuba and you're in Florida. And that's that. Where do you vacation? Yeah, it's about one hour about one hour, Nicole, okay. Because you understand, like, when I go on vacation, I go to where you live. But what do you do when you live in the place where people vacation? Don't go to

Unknown Speaker 30:40
I guess for my family. For my family, I guess we'd go to

Unknown Speaker 30:49
our other family like my grandparents, my aunt and uncle's because I have family in both the US and in Europe. And then also I've been on like school trips to France and Spain because I have French and Spanish class. And we just like I think Europe is popular. And also America because we do have like quite expensive clothing and things here and people usually save up to go to America just to buy all the clothes and like things that they need instead of in Kamen, because it's usually cheaper to buy as many clothes as you want in America than in Cayman

Nicole 31:35
are more expensive on the island.

Unknown Speaker 31:37
Yeah, prices can be redeemed. Here. It's because everything has to be shipped. We don't really, like it's such a small island. We don't really have like the proper soil to actually grow things here. Or, like we can't really raise livestock so everything gets imported, like all of our stuff. So you can't really like you can kind of stop by farmer's markets, but it's going to be stuff like you're going to get some fresh coconut water instead of like getting some pick strawberries. Okay. Yeah, the Yeah, we do have a few local things, but it's only like mango coconuts. I don't know that's there's only a few

Unknown Speaker 32:19
the mangoes are really good here though. I

Nicole 32:20
would imagine they are. did do you think of my I got bored and left?

Unknown Speaker 32:25
I think I think she's trying to get by she's trying to get back on.

Nicole 32:28
She said she got kicked out. Not by me. She's Hold on. I'm gonna let her back in. Okay, so your island is so small that on the analytics for the podcast, it doesn't even it's not even listed. Like said that you guys are listening. Yeah. isn't even being counted. Like at least it's

Unknown Speaker 32:50
most probably like just

Unknown Speaker 32:54
like us three and then like my mom and my mom and maybe Nicole's parents. Probably it.

Nicole 33:01
I welcome back. Can you hear me? Did you have to go to the bathroom? What happened?

Unknown Speaker 33:08
No, I think it kicked me out. I don't know something have with my internet. Gotcha. No

Nicole 33:13
problem. So do you all three, listen to the podcast now. Yeah, I want to know how I'm gonna kind of go through everybody. But I want to I really do want to start with the Maya because you said that your care wasn't really great for the first four years or so? What did that mean? Like a one see wise?

What did that mean? Like a one c wise.

Unknown Speaker 33:54
And I've got all the education was a very well, I mean, I didn't know about carb counting what the doctor basically told us was clear there and put like 14 units for breakfast, 14 units for lunch, 14 units for dinner. Doesn't matter what you eat. That's just what you do. And my own sees. I don't remember very well that they were that I think they were around like 10 or 11 for most of the time. And I remember my parents like asking me at school, like at the end of the day, they were like, I have blood sugar. That'd be like, they are in the two hundreds and three hundreds and they just be like, Oh, my God.

Nicole 34:32
So you got a Dexcom first. So then what did you make adjustments then? Or were you just looking at it going? Oh my God, my blood sugar sucks. Like, what did the Dexcom do for you? Because you didn't have very much education to go with it.

Unknown Speaker 34:47
Um, well what happened is I was the only diabetic on my school back then. And then a new family came and my best friend her little brother was diabetic and so that family basis Time that changed my life because they showed us lots of things as diabetes that we didn't know. And then thanks to them, I later went to a conference. And that's where I got my Dexcom. That's where I learned about like carb counting and all this other stuff about diabetes. I had no idea about

Scott Benner 35:17
was that conference on Ecuador?

Unknown Speaker 35:20
No, it was in Florida. It was. Oh, my God, I'm blanking on the names for life.

Nicole 35:29
You went to France for life. Okay. And then there you learnt? How old were you when that happened? Do you think

Unknown Speaker 35:36
I was about 11?

Nicole 35:38
Were you old enough to get there and think, Oh, my God, we don't know what we're doing. Like, was it weird? to like, hear everything?

Unknown Speaker 35:48
Yeah, like when my best friend when her mother was like seeing how we were handling. She was like, Oh, my God. And then my parents were like, there's no glueless we don't know what's going on. And then we went to the conference, and I saw so many people. And I was like, wow, look, all this technology. It was one of the first times that I had ever heard of the pump. So I didn't know what that was either. And then we my parents asked a bunch of people, they're like, shall we get the pump or the Dexcom? And then most people say, Get Dexcom first, because that's, like better to have when you're just getting started.

Nicole 36:21
You just see everything. That's really kind of incredible. Did you feel like it I guess how long did it take you to get your blood sugar's kind of stabilized? And did you notice feeling different than?

Unknown Speaker 36:35
Um, I think they do. I think it took a couple years after I got that score for me to learn how to have that over. And then I like switched a bunch of doctors to so that helps, okay.

Nicole 36:49
I just told our to add 10 carbs to her last meal, who's using a loop who understands what I just said,

Unknown Speaker 36:54
I'm using me and Nicole are both looping.

Nicole 36:58
So Arden Arden came from Chinese food in tune into nachos today. She has so so we were doing some like major league bolusing coming through the afternoon and everything.

Unknown Speaker 37:16
That's a lot of calculations.

Nicole 37:21
She's like, 135 now and I'm like, cool. Let's fix that. So okay, so now, uh, Maya, how are things like? Do you know you're a one See, how often do you guys go to clinics or doctors and do follow ups?

Unknown Speaker 37:36
About every three months, and my last agency was 6.7. Wow, that's

Nicole 37:41
really good. Congratulations. Thank you. So what do you think the biggest difference is between a 6.7? I can't say in the 10. Because I think the biggest difference is you used insulin, so but what I'm, what really is, like, if I told you, you only could like do one thing a day, like, what's the biggest secret? Do you think?

Unknown Speaker 38:09
Um, I think the biggest secret. And this is kind of what I struggled with going into like middle school and high school is that I would avoid putting in play when I went I like, I'd hear the beeping. And I just shut off and like, put it aside. Because I, this was back when I was using pins. And I didn't want to give myself injections. So then when I got the pump, and I started listening to your podcast, and I learned about like, Pre-Bolus thing. And so when I was like, Okay, I really have to try hard to get my agency down. So I tried really hard and I would make sure that I was always looking at my numbers and not being afraid of being bold with insulin.

Nicole 38:49
Yeah, that's really cool. Okay, Nicole, you seem like you're gonna be the most honest, there's something about like that European side of you where you're like real matter. Am I famous to you?

Unknown Speaker 39:05
I mean,

Unknown Speaker 39:06
I would say yes. Because a lot of people around the world have been like, really appreciate all of your episodes and how much that you tell them.

Nicole 39:20
To you. Like, are you? Is this weird for you? Like beyond the fact Yeah, like an old man and you're not like, Is it weird?

Unknown Speaker 39:30
In my opinion, I think

Unknown Speaker 39:32
it's very cool to have this opportunity.

Nicole 39:35
So whose mom Have I been? Whose name is Amy? Amy's who's my my mom. Okay. She said like, I think there was a little there wasn't confusion, but I think she had at the time was a little confused and so I messaged with her a little bit this week, and she's like they would be heartbroken if this didn't work out. Would you have been heartbroken if this didn't work out or she just being dry.

Unknown Speaker 39:59
probably would have said she was

Unknown Speaker 40:02
Yeah, I probably would have been.

Nicole 40:05
Nicole would have been fine to call. You've got that whole, like, Eastern Bloc thing going on where you just like, whatever if I come my comment if I don't doesn't really matter to me. Like, I'm just kidding. You're fine.

Unknown Speaker 40:17
me you're kind of famous. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 40:20
Yeah. Kyla has

Unknown Speaker 40:22
the longest the longest. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 40:23
I told like my friends. I was like, yeah, I'm recording a podcast today. They're like,

Unknown Speaker 40:27
Oh my gosh, that's

Unknown Speaker 40:28
so cool. They're like, make sure you mentioned me.

Nicole 40:32
In fairness to your friend, anything is cool, because you're in a very tidy place. Like what?

Unknown Speaker 40:42
opportunity? It's like, it's like a big thing. Everyone knows.

Nicole 40:46
Like, if you said, If you said you were going to ride a ferris wheel, they'd be like, Oh my god, it's like you're going to Mars. Because

Unknown Speaker 40:53
we don't even have like a theme park here. So one time when there was a theme park that came like, during the summer or spring break or something, the whole island knew about it. And everybody went, it's like, news spreads really fast here. Yeah. Something happens at like, one place, like the rest of the island knows within like, ah, like, I don't know, an hour or two. Everyone knows anything ever.

Nicole 41:19
Right? So if I was like, if I, if I was like, hey, like, in your mind right now. Don't say it out loud. But think of a mom, you know, is cheating. You know who it is?

Unknown Speaker 41:32
I guess so. I mean,

Unknown Speaker 41:36
there's a lot of different schools here. And like, every single school has its own, like gossip. And like, everybody knows everything about each other. But you do also know a bunch of people from different schools and you talk to them too. So like, news can spread around through friends or through parents or like, even on Facebook, like everybody that knows each other on this island has each other on Facebook, I would imagine. Yeah. It's like, like, everyone, like we were, I've been to a lot of like sports tournaments, like for basketball, volleyball, like, whatever. They, like, I I walk in. And I know, like everyone, because it's so close. I either know them from like, I know them from just anything, school doing other activities, or from like, youth group at church or whatever it is, like, I just know, you walk in and you know, everyone,

Nicole 42:30
yeah, I would I would really imagine. Okay, so are there other type ones there? And you guys are just the three coolest ones? Or are you like,

Unknown Speaker 42:40
um, that I remember that when I was diagnosed? My doctor said that there was 24 other diabetics on the like, in the entire entirety of the Cayman Islands. And I would have, I would assume that that's increased since then, because that was like five years ago, five ish, so yeah, but I'm not sure if she meant, like, including type two or just type one. Because to be honest, I'm pretty sure like most of them are actually adults. And, like, if there are diabetics, like around teenage we would all know each other. Right? Yeah. So I know, like the three of us. Sorry, there's the three of us that are diabetics that are like, kind of in the boys. Yeah. And there are a couple other boys that are diabetics. There's one that goes to high school, who's I think in it and Nikolas grade? And yeah, yeah. And so yeah, we've I mean, we don't really know him as well, like the three of us have kind of become just closer because different circumstances and

Nicole 43:53
head nod or anything like when you see him, Nikolas he like you and me we have it. Like when you walk by either you don't know each other is just sort of like a

Unknown Speaker 44:03
well, actually, I don't go to the same school yet. I go to a Catholic school and next year, I'll be transferring to the International School. Gotcha.

Nicole 44:15
Okay. All right. What I want to know, hold on a second. This is harder when it's three people I feel less good at this right. Because there's like little roads to go down with each of you, but I don't want to get too far away from any of you. And does that make sense? And plus, it feels wrong to kind of like she's super chatty, and you know, she'll take over so yeah,

Unknown Speaker 44:46
I mean, it probably would,

Nicole 44:47
but we're gonna go we're gonna go to you anyway though, because I am really interested in how someone your age here's like, what's the first episode you heard that made you think I like this and what about it? Did you like

Unknown Speaker 45:00
Fox in the loop house, I was freshman I heard. And I loved it because it was something I'd never heard of. And I knew, like, I was kind of I was in like fifth grade, I was going into middle school. And that was like, I kind of want to, like, do something different. I don't want to I don't want because before that my mom was a teacher. So she didn't have to, like I could go into her classroom every day before lunch, and get and she would give me insulin. And I was like, kind of at that age, going into middle school. And I was like, I want to do this on my own because I, like I don't want to be in middle school, and then take time to have to go to her room. Like to me, I was like, I was like a younger kid. I was like, that's not cool. That's not something people do. And I didn't want to do that. So I listened to your podcast. And I heard about looping. And that was like seeing something that was like, independent. And that also I was like, then my mom could give me a bit more independence. And she would have to worry about me. And because like, I didn't want her to worry. And she obviously didn't want to worry either. And I was like, this is really cool, because then I can convince her to do something that will help me and help her. And it'd be great. And then And then also, like your podcast was was very, it's just it's like it's funny, but also like real. And it's just a good mixture of both. So it's fun to be able to go to I don't know, it's kind of like talking about diabetes, but not in a way where you're thinking about it all the time. So I like that,

Nicole 46:38
like boring and stuff and like doesn't feel like oh, yeah, telling you stuff about things aren't fun, right? It's like an old person telling you fun things about stuff. That's not fun. Now, Nicole, when she comes to you, are you the next one? Does she come to you and go Hey, I found a podcast.

Unknown Speaker 46:55
I don't really know who she told first I guess I kind of just found out because we do meet like so often despite like, all of us not going to the same school except a Maya and Kyla do, but I don't. So I would have thought that like I only saw them once a month or something. But as time has gone by, we're practically seeing each other like, once a week, sometimes twice a week. And yeah, like even like around just like out in the open. We run into each other and like, even like a few weeks ago, I remember just finding a Maya with her other friends. And I was like, Oh, hey,

Unknown Speaker 47:34
how's it going? Is

Nicole 47:35
it weird when she's with people? who aren't the two of you? Are you like I didn't realize you had other friends?

Unknown Speaker 47:41
No, I

Unknown Speaker 47:42
think everybody knows everybody. Like when I met a Maya's friends. And I actually know Carla's friends. through dance. Yeah, we all are just friends. It's just

Nicole 47:53
yeah, it's very, it's super interesting that you guys are like, farther apart in age. Do you think if it wasn't for the diabetes, you wouldn't know each other?

Unknown Speaker 48:00
Probably not. I think that's kind of, well, Nina Maya. So, um, our parents like work together. But then we also met kind of, through babysitting. So we were both babysitting for our school for other teacher kids. And so we met through that, but we kind of had like, I feel like we had a bond because we were both diabetics. And I remember like, this one kid asked who's like what's on your leg? And we're like, oh, there's stickers. And he was like, that doesn't look like a sticker. And you're like, yeah, it's stickers for really cool people.

Unknown Speaker 48:32
And so

Unknown Speaker 48:34
we made a joke out of it, and we became like, friends.

Nicole 48:37
So you bonded over mocking a child who couldn't understand that your pod was 3d. Is that right? Yep. Yeah, is it creepy or funny when something kind of sexual or weird comes up on the podcast and you can hear me getting uncomfortable? And then I say I know there are children listening. My first creepier funny.

Unknown Speaker 49:04
I usually don't think much of it. I just like wave it off and be like, it's just Hi, Nicola. I'd say the same thing.

Nicole 49:13
Yeah, you just go by it. Alright, so. All right, Kyle, is it creepy or funny?

Unknown Speaker 49:18
I mean, I don't know. It's not like it's not funny, but I'm with them. Like, it's like, Okay, and then I can move on?

Unknown Speaker 49:26
I don't know. I wouldn't. I wouldn't.

Unknown Speaker 49:29
I wouldn't say it's like, I don't know.

Nicole 49:33
Like, here's why I'm saying this afternoon. My son's like, why is there something on your calendar late tonight? And I said, Oh, you know, I just talked about you guys and how we had to do it a different time than I usually do it. And he goes, he talked to a bunch of 15 year old girls and I was like, he goes that's weird, man. It's gonna be fun. And he goes now it's pretty weird and he walked away from me. So I was like, I just want to see what you thought because I it happens. It's a very strange thing for me, you want to hear about me for a second? Sure, why not? Normally people make a thing and it, it kind of gravitates towards a group. Like there are not a lot of podcasts that a 13 year old and a 65 year old listen to. Do you know what I mean? The diabetes is like a weird tie together. And, like, I think most people think that parents have kids listen to the show. But that's not true. Like I can see who listens. Like there's as many adults living with type one as there is. Parents, I would say there's probably pure children. But I interviewed a girl a few days ago, you'll hear it in months from now. But she's like, 14, she lives in Russia. And she just found the podcast and loves it. And I was talking to her and I'm like, it's so strange to me that you listen to this guy, just because of her age more than anything else. But I guess the topic is, is binding enough that it really doesn't matter. So like if there was like a Yeah. Does that make sense? Is that right?

Unknown Speaker 51:04
Yeah, I would say that the one good thing about diabetes is it has brought people together and like, I wouldn't have met a Maya if she wouldn't have seen my Freesat leave right on my arm and she wouldn't have said, Oh, is that what I think it is? Like? Are you diabetic, and then I wouldn't have met Kyla, and all of this wouldn't have happened. Yeah. And like I went to a diabetes camp. And it's like the same thing. Like, there are all these people that like I'm really close friends with now, but I would never have met them otherwise, because we live in different parts of the world. Like I live on this tiny little island and they're like, living up in like, I don't know, different places across the US.

Nicole 51:45
Right now. I mean, like Arden's friends seem to like me, but I can't tell. And she's only got like, she's got like a pretty tight friend group. This is interesting. Are are you guys in other friend groups that don't include the other two?

Unknown Speaker 52:00
Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 52:01
I mean, yeah. Or any especially for me since I'm in a different school. Yeah.

Nicole 52:06
Yeah. Any of you in a friend group with one of the other of the three of you that doesn't include the third one. Now, trying to get you into a fight not know.

Unknown Speaker 52:18
I call him a liar. Or they're closer in age. So they have like, friends that are like, Oh, yeah, in their grade, like, I'm the I'm the youngest one. So all of my friends are like, fellow seventh graders.

Nicole 52:32
Well, you're incredibly mature. Like for me? For being 13? You're You're You don't seem any different than Are you guys like in a? In a text chat? Like just a group chat? just the three of you. Yeah, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 52:48
The dead pancreas?

Unknown Speaker 52:49
Yeah.

Nicole 52:51
You know, some people are gonna hear that and say there, your pancreas has other function. It's not dead. It's just not making I don't care. Like listen to the name of our group.

Unknown Speaker 53:07
We found it on Pinterest, because one of our favorite things to do together is actually paint on the pods because, like, we've actually found that we get these small brushes. And we've gotten so good at painting whatever we want on ami pods. That's the thing about ami pods because they have like such a blank canvas and like they don't have tubes. And we were like, why don't we just paint on them? And so that's what happened. Yeah, and we found dead pancreas gang on Pinterest. We were like, We should make that the name of our whatsapp group.

Nicole 53:36
It's possible that I'm contractually obligated to remind you that it's not okay to paint the arm the pots. But between you and I don't worry about it. I think you're okay. I think the FDA says you're not supposed to or something like that. You ever notice if you can get their suntan lotion kind of cracks the plastic, you have to be careful about that. Oh, so

Unknown Speaker 54:00
what we do is we have this sealant so that it's basically just like another layer of plastic ish. So it's kind of like sealing it with glue that dries out and it's waterproof and everything's fine. Like Kyle has had the insulin pump for the longest and she's also painted it for the longest and like nothing related to the paint has gone wrong. It's always just like, the it running out of insulin or something. Normally, you know,

Nicole 54:24
Nikolas, you notice when you started talking about Pinterest that Kylie laughed like you guys were 45 year old Single Ladies with cat. She was

Unknown Speaker 54:34
just

Nicole 54:36
she laughed really hard. Like Please don't tell people we're on Pinterest. Pretty funny. All right. If I said right now who's the cutest boy in school? The same kid pop into your head? Where's it age thing?

Unknown Speaker 54:51
I think yeah.

Unknown Speaker 54:55
I don't know. Okay.

Nicole 54:57
Is there any good

Unknown Speaker 55:00
Like I have, like, you know, a 13 year old bank do which is different from like, a 17 year olds?

Nicole 55:08
What if I said, Who's the biggest jerk at school? Does that?

Unknown Speaker 55:12
We could think of like, a lot of them.

Nicole 55:14
How can he could there be? I mean, there's like 60,000

Unknown Speaker 55:19
I don't know, we know like

Nicole 55:27
flooding your head with people that are not desirable for your situation. What is it? What's in what's a day like with the doesn't include school? Like you're not at the beach constantly, right? Is that where like, visitors go? Or do you guys go there to

Unknown Speaker 55:46
know people? beaches are public? But yeah, like, on the beach a lot? Yeah. I like if you go to a birthday party, it's like, pretty likely, they're going to say like, oh, we'll just hang out on the beach. Or sometimes they'll go to like a hotel restaurant, because which that sounds kind of weird. But um, although like, the really nice hotels here, they have, they have kind of like a beach like area where they have the of cabanas that you can rent out. So people will rent out a cabana for their birthday party or whatever. And it's like normal. You guys

Scott Benner 56:23
need to drive like another example. God, I'm sorry. I didn't know.

Unknown Speaker 56:29
I was thinking like another example is that everybody knows like the same cinema. We all go to this one cinema and this ceiling. And this Yeah, it's this place called command a bay and they have like stores, their restaurants, like people usually go on Saturday and walk around and then see movies. And yeah, you see all your friends around? Yeah,

Nicole 56:52
there's no COVID on your island, right? No, and there hasn't been

Unknown Speaker 56:58
there. I think we

Unknown Speaker 57:02
I think we had 101 cases, you

Nicole 57:04
guys just put those in total water. It's just like it just shoved them into the ocean.

Unknown Speaker 57:09
We made them if you were

Unknown Speaker 57:13
if you had COVID you tested positive then you had to be in quarantine for 14 days. And if you come into our island, you have to be in quarantine for 14 days before you've tested and you're tested on 15th day. And like there's a pretty big, like, it was all over the news. This one girl broke quarantine. There's all over the US News because that never happened. And she was fined 1000s 10s of 1000s of dollars and put in prison. It was a big deal because we're we're COVID free, right? And if someone gets it, they spread it to everyone else and we kind of broke. So yeah, I was pretty serious. Because the way it came here was an Italian man came on a cruise ship and that's how it all started spreading because he went to the hospital. Unfortunately, he passed away and then all the doctors got it and then it spread to the population. But thankfully, it's like pretty much gone for now.

Nicole 58:07
I wish he didn't tell me that he passed away cuz you ruin my joke that I was gonna say. Anyway, most of your problems girls are gonna start with an Italian guy just so you know. Okay. Like any story that starts with I met an Italian guy or I met a guy, let's be perfectly honest, is gonna end with and I was crying at the end. So just be very careful. Okay. parents tell you not like they turned the lights off on him. I

Unknown Speaker 58:33
know. I know.

Unknown Speaker 58:35
Oh, I think they're like automatic or automatic.

Unknown Speaker 58:38
Yeah, wave your hands.

Unknown Speaker 58:42
Okay, yeah, my dad.

Nicole 58:44
Tyler's moved Kyle show me outside. Oh, is it?

Unknown Speaker 58:48
The sun sets at like six? So it's already dark outside? Yeah, look, this is. That's my legs.

Nicole 58:57
Is everybody hoping she trips like me? Or am I the only one thinking this? running around with their laptop? Even? Yeah, it still looks nicer than where I am. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 59:08
Yeah.

Nicole 59:11
So is it what I was going to ask her earlier is is, is the lack of places to go? Does it feel limiting living there? Or it probably doesn't, but I'm just asking because like, I'm trying to imagine back to when I was your age. Like before I could drive like, Am I can you drive?

Unknown Speaker 59:31
Um, technically, I could get my learner's permit. And I'm trying to convince my parents to let me get that. Why don't they let you

Unknown Speaker 59:42
learn how to drive so you could

Nicole 59:44
so like, before I could drive, I didn't go very far. I went wherever I could walk to or if like somebody's mom like you guys live in a time where like, parents are nice to kids. But when I was young, it didn't work that way. Like no one I knew his parents ever drove us anywhere. Like that was just like they were ignored. Basically like homeless cat, okay, like they just think we'd go to school come home, fend for ourselves for food, get yelled out a little bit, and then go to bed like that was life basically in the 80s for me and most other people, but like now like I see my, my, my daughter's like, friend's parents will come pick them up and date them. So I'm like, why is everybody so nice, but they're very nice now. So you can get around like that. But other than that you're kind of stuck to to where you can walk to and what you can do. So it doesn't matter. I guess if your worlds 29 miles longer. 4000 miles long, right? There's only so far you can go to begin with. Or am I wrong? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:37
Well, I mean, there are there really isn't like a place on this island that I haven't been. I've lived here I think I already mentioned I've lived here for eight years. So I've seen a lot of change. There have been things built, but like we don't really have. There aren't really like things really to do except for like the classic like, you can go to the turtle farm or you can go see the sting rays or play with the dolphins or like go to the beach like those are Island things but we don't really like you can't go to the mall on the weekend that doesn't exist here.

Nicole 1:01:12
We don't have malls if you go to a movie, you're all seeing the same movie. Doesn't matter what you want to see. Yeah, right.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:17
Yeah. And we'll get everything like two weeks later. Oh,

Nicole 1:01:21
like, do you get like the big stuff? Do you get like, end game came there? Stuff like that?

Unknown Speaker 1:01:26
Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was very popular. Yeah, let me just get it late. We get it later than like the US. Okay.

Nicole 1:01:33
Yeah. So by the time you're watching it, you're like Robert Downey is gonna die. And you've heard it.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:39
Yeah, one of my teachers actually saw it in the US before she came here. And she was like, if you guys don't shut up, I'm gonna spoil endgame for you.

Nicole 1:01:49
Arden came like she was like banging through the house of the day. She was so mad. Something in one division, one of her friends put on Instagram. Like before, she's like, I can't watch it this early in the day. She was very, I was like, why are you on the internet? She's like, I

Unknown Speaker 1:02:04
don't know.

Nicole 1:02:09
But she's very upset that somebody ruined it for. So do you guys all use the same kind of insulin are there? What do you use different ones?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:18
No, no. I use homologue that's just what I that's just what they had. I was diagnosed in California and that's just what they have.

Nicole 1:02:28
And Nicole, what about you?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:32
Um, so at the hospital, they had like novolog and Nova rapid so I use those especially after like, because my cousin is also diabetic. Me and my dad were like, I mean, my dad's brother and him. Were on the phone like for probably a whole day right after I got diagnosed, just talking and talking. And he was like, Yeah, my son uses Nova rapid so he's like, okay, we'll try Nova rapid. So that's how it all played out?

Nicole 1:03:03
And am I How about you? What do you use?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:07
Um, well, when I was first diagnosed, they put me with a Piedra and Lance's and then there was a time, I think it was like two years after I was diagnosed or something like that, where we couldn't actually find so then sometimes. So that's the first time that we got Hume along. And then when we came to the island, I don't think they have a Phaedra here. So it just stuck with him alone. Okay,

Nicole 1:03:29
I was wondering if there's like one thing that's more readily available. But anyway, how about other diabetes in your family, other type one or other endocrine issues? Like how about you guys? First? Does anybody have hypothyroidism? No, nothing like that.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:47
I have a little bit you got you have an interesting story to tell.

Nicole 1:03:53
My I want to hear I want to hear any story that starts with I got a little hypothyroid.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:00
We have a lot of crazy stories. I

Nicole 1:04:02
don't think that's how it works. But go ahead. By the way, we're just no way. We're finishing this in an hour. Just so let's just keep talking to my What do you got? What about that?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:10
Oh, so I don't I'm not sure how many years? This was. But my doctor, I guess. Yeah, I don't know. We did love tests or something. And she was like, Oh, you have hyperthyroidism. And I have to take this medication. I was like, okay, so I started doing it. And then we got here and my doctor did more blood tests when we first arrived to the island and then she was like, you don't have it. You were taking that medication when you didn't really need to, because apparently, it's a bit like on the low side, but it's not enough for me to be medicated. So I basically the medication that I had was kind of useless.

Nicole 1:04:50
So my I want you to make sure you hear that episode about thyroid disease. Okay, because they'll talk the doctor that's on it. She's going to talk about how some of the Testing levels, what they call in range. It doesn't matter if you have symptoms. So if you have hypothyroid symptoms, but your tests are technically in range, that doesn't matter, you should still take the medication. So, yeah, here's

Unknown Speaker 1:05:14
why do you have anything I never actually had symptoms. They just like, I don't feel anything. Gotcha. So

Nicole 1:05:21
if you ever do though, if you ever feel tired, or, you know, stuff like that your hair starts falling out, or, you know, start looking in weird directions, which is not a symptom of hypothyroidism. But like, if you ever start getting a thyroid, don't let just the numbers dictated always make sure they treat your symptoms. Okay. How about in the family? Does anybody have type one in their family?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:44
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:46
Nicole, so you have a I have?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:48
Yeah, I have an older cousin.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:51
We've actually always just known he's been diabetic, because we lived across the street from him and Pennsylvania, where I'm from. And he was like, very, very close, best friends with my older brother, Patrick. And they always like came across the street to our house to play video games. And as a toddler, I just went in there and like, I got to know him. And he's always been really close to us. And so when I got diabetes, we were like, Oh, my gosh, we should talk to them.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:24
We were all like, just like back and forth texting, like, what should we do? What should we do? She's going

Nicole 1:06:30
there trying to help you. It wasn't any help. Because other people some people manage in such, like, vastly different ways. It's sometimes one person's help, you would just be like, like, imagine if a Maya tried to help you five or six years ago, you'd be like, wait, why'd just just take 14 units and have dinner? That's it. You'd be like, No, I don't think. By the way, we'll bleep all this out in the cold but we're in Pennsylvania. Um,

Unknown Speaker 1:06:56
I was born in hospital. Yeah. Are you laughing? Because no, we had a conversation before. This.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:10
We're talking about like, Where were you from? And we all know, but we're, and then she was like, I was born. And then she like we went in. It was Yeah.

Nicole 1:07:18
Cool. Were you born in a manger? By any chance or anything like that? Or?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:22
No, nobody brought you pletely natural or anything?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:26
Yeah.

Nicole 1:07:28
I lived very close to there most of my life. Because I'm from Pennsylvania to I'm from right outside of Philadelphia.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:37
Oh, cool.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:38
I would go to the mall there.

Nicole 1:07:41
Did you go to Franklin Mills mall? Did you

Unknown Speaker 1:07:45
I mean, I was really little, but I have the photos.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:48
Wait a minute, you took pictures. That's exciting.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:54
Like, you know, when there's like the little things you put pennies in and then you ride them as a little kid. And then your parents take photos and they're like,

Nicole 1:08:03
What are you saying? I'm not supposed to be writing those things anymore.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:10
I mean, it's your choice. It's a free country.

Nicole 1:08:13
Country. We'll say. You say you just said a second ago. We have a ton of stories. So if I said to each of you, tell me your weirdest story. That's slamet that's diabetes related. Like Kylie You go first. But would it be?

Unknown Speaker 1:08:32
Um,

Nicole 1:08:34
Was that good?

Unknown Speaker 1:08:36
No. One time in my text at like 2am and it was complete gibberish it didn't like nothing. And

Unknown Speaker 1:08:48
we were all like, what does this mean? And Nicole texted in the morning? She was like, What are you trying to say? And I was like, I don't remember texting you and she was like,

Unknown Speaker 1:08:57
Oh 2am I

Unknown Speaker 1:08:58
was low.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:01
Without knowing it was like he was like, you know the recommended words at the top? Yeah. Like it was like she had clicks them and it was like this

Unknown Speaker 1:09:12
is great.

Nicole 1:09:13
My Do you remember anything about this except the next day?

Unknown Speaker 1:09:17
Yeah, I remember. I remember picking up my phone. When I was low. I was really well I don't know. I was really I remember picking it up but I don't actually remember texting and I remember waking up for school in the morning Allison I texted I was like, What the heck did I send them and I looked at the time was like two o'clock in the morning and then they're going counter like what and I was like, oh shoot guys. I was low. I'm sorry.

Nicole 1:09:42
told me the other day that she calculated her kids carbs then type them into her microwave.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:49
Great.

Nicole 1:09:51
She's like one Wait a minute. All right. So okay, so Maya has drunk texted although I drink You know, nobody's drinking, right? Like, no, we're all being reasonable people. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 1:10:07
the drinking age is 18. Of course, driving and drinking age is 18. You live on a party.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:17
We live on an island where they have a Tortuga rum like factory. Yeah. rum cake is their specialty and like all the tourists come and get it. Yeah.

Nicole 1:10:27
Do they make the rum right on the island?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:30
I think some of it gets made here and some is imported from Jamaica.

Nicole 1:10:35
Gotcha. You are very close to Jamaica, right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:39
Yeah. Alcohol is like, free of duty on planes like,

Nicole 1:10:48
like it would ruin the economy of Cayman Islands if they tax you for the alcohol, right? Yeah. I say, is anyone looking forward to drinking? Or do you think you won't?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:01
Hmm.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:02
I don't think so. I wouldn't drink responsibly if I ever do decide to because you know, diabetes and drinking don't mix.

Nicole 1:11:13
This even though you guys are all under age, but your mom said it was okay that I talked to you. So this is her fault. Really? Is weed more popular with kids now than drinking?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:25
Yeah, no.

Nicole 1:11:28
copping to anything. I've never even heard of weed. I don't know what you're saying right now?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:33
I think I think, I don't know. Well, again, from my viewpoint, as a 13 year old, yes. Because I think this is gonna sound kind of weird, but I think it's a bit more easily accessible to a younger kid than like alcohol would be, which I don't think that's how it should be. But I like that. I think it's easier for a kid to get.

Nicole 1:12:01
Yeah, like if I gave you $20 right now and I said, Go buy weed or alcohol, you and you'll win money. If you bring back one of them. You'd be like I could get Wheaties here.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:11
Ah,

Unknown Speaker 1:12:12
not necessarily. Okay. Not necessarily me. But some people because our islands so small people have like connections. So it's like, there's a guy. Yeah.

Nicole 1:12:23
Well, I first of all, very smart to say not necessarily me. You don't have to answer every question like that. I'm not assuming that you guys are like, like, bake all the time. You look like very reasonable kids. Okay, but I'm just asking you like from a general perspective, if that's the vibe, like it's, like, do people smoke before they drink? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 1:12:43
I think so. Yeah, I would say vape is like very Yeah, like much more common than like regular cigarettes for the youth here. Because like, a lot of older I mean, young adults do make a business of it here and sell it and they get away with it. So and also like at my own school, there has been instances of my classmates vaping in restaurants and yeah, but they also have like our islands pretty safe in general. So nothing I don't think here is really a big problem and like at schools they have like smoke detectors that can detect vapes and and weed and stuff like that and like like they're definitely people because our island so small you can make connections like go to the same guy if you're like a teenage kid you can have them buy you stuff but it's not it's not like as common because our island is like again because our islands also so small like if you do do any of these things someone's gonna everybody will know that Yeah, everyone will know but yeah, but the thing is like the crime light rate the crime rate is actually pretty low compared to other islands.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:01
Yeah, they're all scared and like

Unknown Speaker 1:14:03
Yeah, yeah, like the biggest problem here is probably the amount of car crashes there are everyday honestly because they're everybody hear drives a car like maybe like two cars per family or something. And like on the way to school, you might see a car crash every day and like people aren't really good drivers here are flowing

Nicole 1:14:27
with with cars not a lot of space. And where do you Yeah, are there any highways on the island? No,

Unknown Speaker 1:14:35
there are like I wouldn't call them highways compared to America but we call them highways. Yeah, but yeah, that's how important lane roads but that's the max for Yeah, like we we they just put in like on some of these like really common streets like when I first got here, they were like, one one road each map like it's just like certain things of like, just been put in because I growing. And yeah,

Nicole 1:15:02
Kyla, when you fly back to California, do you go into LA x? Where do you fly into? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:15:07
so you know what usually find? Pardon?

Nicole 1:15:10
I'm just gonna say, you know what the highways look like around la then.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:14
Okay, I lived probably like an hour away from LA. So it was like, I go to I've definitely used to like the LA area and stuff. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:26
Yeah, good. Yeah, it's like

Unknown Speaker 1:15:30
there has been like so many changes since like, the last few years like, I know since being here like my whole life and the district called West Bay, there's still some roads that like barely a single car can fit through, like, into neighborhoods. And like, you can only go like one way you got to wait for the other car to get out of your way. Now there's like highways that are pretty big for Caymanians and like, it's getting pretty industrialized here pretty quickly.

Nicole 1:15:59
You know, I was just thinking as I was looking at my wife, while Nicole was talking, that my son said, I, my wife's like, is this gonna work having three voices on I was like, it'll work because one person will talk more, one person will take a while to warm up. And a third person will just sit back and it's so interesting to see. Like, are you comfortable with your level of involvement? Are you just like these girls will not shut up. So I have to be quiet like which is sorry, don't be sorry.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:28
To my

Nicole 1:16:30
toes Really? Come on in the last 10 minutes. Like she's warmed up.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:35
When I get to know people I just do.

Nicole 1:16:37
You're not nervous anymore. Kinda hasn't been nervous since she was six. And I want to make sure that I as much as scared that her zooms gonna kick her off again, if she talks. I'm not sure what she's writing about.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:54
Well, I'm used to be Nicole and Kyler pretty crazy. I'd say so myself. This is gonna be a zoom call. And like technology always doesn't work very well. So I knew that they were going to talk over each other. So I just knew in my head that I could just quiet down and that they'd be fine.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:14
Yeah, good. What else?

Unknown Speaker 1:17:16
We also went over the bag before this that, um, I was introverted. I was extroverted.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:24
I'm like an ambivert.

Nicole 1:17:26
You're like the coals right? Where like people hope their kids are. And

Unknown Speaker 1:17:32
I'm like overinvolved over excited over. Like, in your face.

Nicole 1:17:38
Do you ever notice your parents looking at you thinking like, and they have a look on their face? Like, oh my god, she's not gonna stop. Like, or do you think?

Unknown Speaker 1:17:48
I'm

Unknown Speaker 1:17:50
like my family. We're pretty talkative,

Nicole 1:17:53
like the chatty in general, because I'm super chatty, but, but my wife and my son aren't. And Arden is when she's like feeling it. But Arden's also, like when she's quiet, she's quiet. But I talk constantly.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:06
Yeah, like my mom. I would say she's probably a bit more chatty than like my dad. Like, if she sees someone she knows it's gonna be like a while before you leave. And

Unknown Speaker 1:18:19
that's a very polite way of putting it.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:22
But yeah, my dad is my my dad's like, chatty, but he's not as like. chatty is my mom and my eldest brother. He's a senior. He's the quieter one. And then I have a brother in ninth grade.

Nicole 1:18:40
Maybe your brother doesn't have a chance. Maybe he's like, maybe he's like, my, it's just like, I'm never gonna be able to talk.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:46
When he was like younger. He wasn't like fifth grade. He was like so talkative, like, more talkative than me which is hard to believe but

Nicole 1:18:55
and I know what you like the podcast cuz you were probably like, Oh my God, this guy talks more than I did. That's amazing. Do you guys help each other with your blood sugar's ever? Like, do you ever get stuck on something and ask the other one?

Unknown Speaker 1:19:08
Yeah, all the time.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:12
Yeah, like just recently, I only started loop and Kyla helped me through it all pretty much. And uh, Maya's gonna start pretty soon and yeah, we can both help.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:22
Hopefully, I'm trying to convince my parents to like, buy everything, because they're not very convinced that I'm trying to convince them Well,

Nicole 1:19:30
I think Omnipod five is going to be out pretty soon. So you'll be able to get an algorithm right from Omni pod pretty soon. Yeah, so I think there's that if you if your parents are scared of the whole Do It Yourself thing, which I would understand. But if they were then I think you're gonna be able to get one from Omni pod pretty soon. I mean, it's March now. I don't know anything. Officially. I really don't like no one's told me a real date. Although if I'm being honest, I know a lot more than I'm allowed to say. Like, I've signed a lot of non disclosure agreements with a lot of different companies, but but but, but I would say on the part five is gonna be out pretty soon. So maybe you can, you know, but but like, I mean, is it that easy? Like when you guys are together? Do you ever like hold up food and go? Like, how many cars is this?

Unknown Speaker 1:20:20
Sometimes, like one or two each other's houses which it like, as Nicole said, it's like, almost every week, we hang out every weekend, and then you see each other orchestra but will like, one of the moms will say like, Oh, you know, it's 50 carbs or whatever. And then she'll tell us to Pre-Bolus and they all do together, which is kind of fun. But our carb ratios are so different. That it's like

Nicole 1:20:45
they are okay, so Hold on. Let me see if I can figure these out. Alright, so Maya 17. How tall are you?

Unknown Speaker 1:20:53
I am like five, four. I'm actually shorter than Nicole. Nicole. Yeah, I'm the tallest. Right? It's kind of

Nicole 1:21:02
your five four. Nicole. You're like, I mean, are you like?

Unknown Speaker 1:21:07
Like, no, I'm

Unknown Speaker 1:21:08
not really tall. But I mean, I'm 5758 I don't really know. Exactly.

Nicole 1:21:16
Okay. And you're like 5253? Like 533. Okay, so Nicole, I'm gonna start with you. What's your basil rate? Like? 1.1? Point two an hour ish. Right in there. One 1.2?

Unknown Speaker 1:21:29
No, actually, my highest is like 0.95.

Nicole 1:21:33
You're like point nine five. Okay. Gotcha. And how about my, what's your highest Basal rate?

Unknown Speaker 1:21:40
I think it's 0.9. Right now.

Nicole 1:21:43
Do you guys, are you ready to talk about this? You're gonna be able to do this. Did they fluctuate around your periods and stuff like that?

Unknown Speaker 1:21:50
Yeah, I'd say I need more in my period.

Scott Benner 1:21:53
Yeah. Okay. Is it

Unknown Speaker 1:21:55
started my period?

Nicole 1:21:59
bragging, right. She's like, I don't have to be bothered with that.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:05
You're so lucky. You don't?

Unknown Speaker 1:22:08
I'm like a holding out as long as I can. I feel like I'm on borrowed time.

Nicole 1:22:12
Yeah, I don't feel like it's up to you. Exactly. But I hear what you're saying. Like you're holding out as long as you can. Say No, when you notice it? Like, what is the?

Unknown Speaker 1:22:23
No, I'm just like crossing my fingers.

Nicole 1:22:26
Do you see what they're going through with the other two are going through and you're like, Oh, that's gonna happen.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:31
Yeah, and I also know, like, just from, like, relatives and like, I know, I'm gonna, like, I know what I'm gonna get probably like headaches, and I won't so much get the nauseous thing. But like, and so I have a feeling one. Okay, I also wear like, I'm wearing a contact now. And that gives me a headache. And then when I get a headache, it messes with my blood sugar. And so I get it's kind of wack. So I'm nervous for that.

Nicole 1:23:02
You know? Yeah. Today, Arden asked me, she put my hand on her stomach. And she's like, now push. A little more, hold it right there. And I went okay, and she's like, so it doesn't look fun to be a girl is what I'm saying. From the caller, when you look at the other two, and you see that they have other challenges with their insulin around that. Do you could you see patterns? Like are you around them enough to notice or?

Unknown Speaker 1:23:33
Kind of night? Yeah, I mean, not anything really like them? Like they don't really like change? But I'm not.

Nicole 1:23:42
I know, like that, huh? Not to you know, they're very mean, they're very mean to their parents, probably right

Unknown Speaker 1:23:49
away to our parents.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:54
But I noticed like, I noticed, like, both of their blood sugar's I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they go both kind of higher, and you need different base rates and stuff. So

Nicole 1:24:05
she just had to be more aggressive girls then at that time with boluses and stuff.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:10
Yeah, and I find that like Pre-Bolus saying, like, need more time sometimes depending on the food. Yeah. My

Unknown Speaker 1:24:21
Oh, yeah, I pretty much agree. Like, my whole like, my Basal schedule changes completely. Well, all my periods.

Nicole 1:24:30
And that's it's really crazy that it's, but it's you have to get you have to just make yourself okay with it and just go with I see too many people who are just, they're bothered by it all the time, instead of just saying like, this is how it works. And like, why don't we just be okay with it? Do you think that you guys have a different view of diabetes because you were born in a time with technology? And like, Oh, yeah, how do you think that'll be different for you as you're getting older?

Unknown Speaker 1:25:00
I know like when I was diagnosed, I got to CGM, like three months after I was diagnosed. So that was like, that's really different from like a lot of people. That's not necessarily normal. I was diagnosed in the summer. And then by October break, I had a CGM. And I had a pump by z next summer. So that is like, I know that that isn't necessarily normal. And so I'm always kind of like up on that. Like, I want to be up on the new technology and stuff. So I got four Omnipod, when Omnipod loop came out. I got it really soon afterwards, because I have listened to your podcast, and I really wanted to, like I really wanted to do it, because yeah, it helps a lot. I

Nicole 1:25:49
just want to be clear to people, you're using the Do It Yourself loop algorithm, right? Yes. I my favorite part of this hour, there's a lot of things I'm enjoying. And it's like an hour and a half now. But my favorite thing is that when a question gets asked, um, I get to look at her face like, I'm not gonna get to answer this. But she has an answer.

Unknown Speaker 1:26:10
I'm not looping. So I don't know why.

Nicole 1:26:13
And Nicole has like a bit of a governor on her like she stops for a second. But I think there's nothing that you couldn't pose as a question that Kyla would not have an answer for like a split second. Like really quick, like, what's the best backstreet boy like she has an answer already. Who is it? No. Okay. That's because I picked older but

Unknown Speaker 1:26:33
she's more into the Beatles. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:26:36
diehard Beatles fan?

Scott Benner 1:26:39
Are you really?

Unknown Speaker 1:26:40
Yeah,

Nicole 1:26:40
I am, too. How did that happen? What happens to your parents get you into it?

Unknown Speaker 1:26:44
No, my, my brother, my eldest brother, Jake. He went through a phase of like rock so well, he plays like war instruments or something. And he's really musical and he played he he went through this like rock phase. And then

Unknown Speaker 1:27:00
he introduced me to

Unknown Speaker 1:27:04
the Beatles, and then I became obsessed actually.

Nicole 1:27:07
What does that oh you have the Beatles Beatles? Do you like them more poppy Beatles stuff or the more rock and roll stuff?

Unknown Speaker 1:27:17
Like all of it for

Scott Benner 1:27:20
me love pardon see on a hill or Can't Buy Me Love.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:27
It's hard

Nicole 1:27:28
went really old kind of feeling with filling a hole to see what you would say. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 1:27:32
that's hard.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:33
I don't know. Like for that specific song I would say can't find the love but like, I'm also a big fan of like, some of their older songs like Twist and Shout is one of their older songs as well. And I love that song.

Nicole 1:27:48
That's excellent. Nicole What kind of music do you like?

Unknown Speaker 1:27:52
I also do like but I also recently got into BTS it's a Korean pop band in a minor obsessed with it.

Nicole 1:28:03
Am I is like not just obsessed she's giggling

Unknown Speaker 1:28:07
Yeah, she's known them for way longer

Nicole 1:28:10
Yeah, music that exists what is that the best that exists? BTS

Unknown Speaker 1:28:18
Oh, according to me probably listening to them for a long time and I'm very into this and then Nicole the sudden got into it. So I'm like yeah, now we can obsess about it together.

Nicole 1:28:31
Or no I'm I'm figuring in Maya for no for not liking the Beatles. I'm right, right.

Unknown Speaker 1:28:44
Oh my god.

Unknown Speaker 1:28:47
Well, I do like the Beatles, but I don't like know all their songs. The way Kyla does.

Nicole 1:28:52
Let me make I'm going to make a bet with you guys right now. I won't be alive to collect on the bat. But when you're all 50 you'll still know Beatles music. It'll still be life but you won't remember what BTS was. That's my that's my thought. Or your parents like giving you like Hey, what's going on situation now? They wanted to they Well, it was the

Unknown Speaker 1:29:13
lysiak

Unknown Speaker 1:29:15
they're not turning on I understand. Okay, they're on the coals wandering around.

Nicole 1:29:19
I have the same feeling I had when Khalid walked around. I was like, Oh, I wonder if she'll fall I imagine you guys would just like Kylie would laugh even if she fell but I think if

Unknown Speaker 1:29:31
I would

Scott Benner 1:29:33
if Nicole fell she'd probably die and fall right off

Unknown Speaker 1:29:38
like right over the edge. Oh, the rooms are like right here is this a doorway? I feel like even if

Nicole 1:29:42
she fell on my I would still feel like oh my god. I'm never gonna get to talk while we're doing

Unknown Speaker 1:29:46
Yeah. Like, right Oh

Nicole 1:29:52
yeah, right now like did you break into do this or?

Unknown Speaker 1:29:57
No, um, so since my day As the principal he like has a key. And he has an office there. So it's kind of like, and this is like my second home. So

Unknown Speaker 1:30:07
yeah, I don't really feel here.

Nicole 1:30:11
I gotcha. So you've Alright, so your mom was like the girls need to place with Wi Fi to do this thing you did. I was like, whatever, okay, like something like that.

Unknown Speaker 1:30:19
She was kind of like they're doing it in high school.

Unknown Speaker 1:30:22
And he was like, that's fine.

Nicole 1:30:24
I don't want to hear it. So I'm just gonna say yes to this. Okay. I'm gonna go to my advisor. If there's one thing that you wanted to definitely talk about while you were on today, but we haven't talked about it yet. What would it be?

Unknown Speaker 1:30:43
I think mostly talks about everything that I had in mind. And I didn't really have anything planned out. But I think we've talked about everything.

Nicole 1:30:51
I didn't plan anything, either. Like there was a part of me. I wonder how this is gonna go. Like, I was like, could you imagine if you guys were just like giggling and I was just sitting here going, Oh, my God. I don't know why I did this. But you were really? You guys were terrific. I

Unknown Speaker 1:31:06
know how you feel?

Nicole 1:31:07
No, I feel good about this. Are you kidding me? I'm almost 16 in my head. So this is perfect for me. I would just, I would have abandoned the diabetes stuff a long time ago. And we'd be talking about whether or not it's appropriate to watch the Marvel movies in chronological order in movie order by now. So,

Unknown Speaker 1:31:26
Nicole, Nicole can answer that way.

Unknown Speaker 1:31:29
Oh, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:31:31
We've watched all of the movies.

Scott Benner 1:31:33
Do you guys love the Tom Holland boy like my daughter does?

Unknown Speaker 1:31:37
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:31:40
We think he's the best Spider Man.

Nicole 1:31:43
Still one time. That's the one time I didn't wait to be polite to talk. She was like, Yes. 100% It's the Tom Holland. But his other movies. Let's be honest. They suck. Right? He's just Spider Man. Like you didn't watch cherry or anything like that. Right?

Unknown Speaker 1:31:57
I don't know. I don't think of watched his other way.

Nicole 1:32:01
I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Nicole, is there anything we didn't talk about that you hoped we would talk about?

Unknown Speaker 1:32:10
Ah, no, we covered a lot. Yeah, anything is? Yeah.

Nicole 1:32:18
Kylie, if I said you and I were going to talk for two more hours, would that be okay?

Unknown Speaker 1:32:23
I can probably do it.

Nicole 1:32:28
I think you absolutely could do. Like, like, Am I it's like, I can go now. This was fun. And then Nicole's, like, you know, she's like, I got excited. And I talked for a while it's pretty much over. But right now, like, I could get like a topic list from Kyle. And I think she would talk forever. Which by the way, I'm not making fun of you because I could do it. So I'm just sitting here the whole time. Arden made sugar cookies. And I am just waiting to get on to eat sugar cookie. Like I'm like, Oh, she's really good at making them. They're like, fluffy, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:00
We love to bake together. Yeah, some make sugar

Unknown Speaker 1:33:02
cookies and things. Okay. Oh my god. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:08
Right.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:10
No, one time we tried to make these cookies and I didn't put in enough flour. And they were like, weird.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:21
And it was. It was like grossest thing. It was like it hasn't happened since then.

Nicole 1:33:27
figured it out.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:29
I like it. Yeah.

Nicole 1:33:30
When I make them they end up Really? Like flat. I'm not good at making them. But Arden just makes them. They're amazing. I don't know how she does it. I told her to tell me but she said she wasn't going to. Do you guys hear that? She might on the podcast at some point. Like, is that something as listeners that you're like, Oh, I hope she does this.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:47
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Nicole 1:33:51
I told her earlier, I was like, you know, I bet you if you just popped on and said, my dad can't do this tonight. I'm gonna do it. instead. I was like, I bet you they would like that. And she can't imagine that. Like she doesn't understand. Like, you know what I mean? Like the you know, who she is, is a weird thing for her probably. So. So that's a good question. I guess if, if, if, if I was your father, would you be bothered that there was a podcast about you?

Unknown Speaker 1:34:20
I mean,

Nicole 1:34:23
I think Maya cares, but I want to hear what Nicole says first.

Unknown Speaker 1:34:29
If If I were to listen to it a lot and like, hear the stories from other diabetics and people like you've talked to as well I would kind of want in on it. Like, I want to talk to people like that too. I

Nicole 1:34:41
guess I don't think Arden beyond the fact that she knows I do this. I don't believe she's ever heard it before. It's a weird thing when you're in the middle of it. Like, like, I'm excited that she's gonna come on because I don't even know how it's gonna go.

Unknown Speaker 1:34:56
She should listen to this one as you think

Unknown Speaker 1:34:58
Yeah.

Nicole 1:35:02
She'll be like, leave me alone. And that'll be the end. I think. I think if it if it was the same, it would be the same. Like, I'm not listening to my dad's podcast. Like, it would seem weird. Because I mean, honestly, I'm like, I'm almost like a, like a senior citizen. I'm very close to like collecting like that, like, started getting a check from the government every month. And so, you know, thinking about it this way. Do you listen to other podcasts? Or when it's the thing that mixes people your age? Really? Right? Like you watch a ton of like YouTube videos, right? Not even

Unknown Speaker 1:35:39
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:35:41
Yeah, it's like, well, maybe

Unknown Speaker 1:35:42
like Netflix more Netflix? You guys?

Unknown Speaker 1:35:48
No, no,

Unknown Speaker 1:35:50
not really. You kind of see them like on other social media gets kind of annoying. Yeah. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:35:57
I'm not a bit like, I'm not really big on like social media or anything to begin with. That sounds super geeky, but I'd rather like read Harry Potter.

Nicole 1:36:08
It doesn't sound good here. That sounds great. I'm happy that you would rather do something like that. It is very interesting. The three of you met each other because you seem very close. And your interests are aligned up I think, well beyond diabetes, it seems like it's just very, it's very neat that you guys found each other like this. If another person with diabetes popped up? What would they have to be to be allowed in the group?

Unknown Speaker 1:36:34
I don't know. Just be themselves, you know, get to know us say

Nicole 1:36:38
the right thing to call like, just tell me like, Is there a kind of lead in where you'd be like, I don't know. would have to be a girl.

Unknown Speaker 1:36:49
I get like, I

Unknown Speaker 1:36:53
don't know. I think it would be weird if it was a guy because we're like, That's weird.

Nicole 1:36:59
That was the first time your ages that was the first time your ages popped up. Because Kylie was like, No, no boys. And um, I was like, I don't know, maybe a boy.

Unknown Speaker 1:37:09
I feel like,

Unknown Speaker 1:37:10
I feel like our like, ages would play a factor in that, because we're so different in age that like, who would take it different ways

Nicole 1:37:19
right now, I think. I was just wondering, but so it's possible that another cool kid could come along with diabetes and be allowed into the gang?

Unknown Speaker 1:37:28
I mean, sure.

Nicole 1:37:30
As long as they can

Unknown Speaker 1:37:31
be very picky about it. Yeah, like, as long as they're nice, like, want to be your friends then we can be there.

Nicole 1:37:41
Yeah. Nicole's very nice. Like, I don't know, there's rules.

Unknown Speaker 1:37:47
I feel like we're

Unknown Speaker 1:37:47
already super close that for someone to like kind of jump in. It would feel like almost like,

Unknown Speaker 1:37:53
yeah, there'd be like a

Unknown Speaker 1:37:55
movie. It's different.

Nicole 1:37:57
I watched Yeah, I watched artists type friend group, bring in an X a new person. It took a long time to like, integrate her in to where it felt very, very, very normal. But she but you still, you still know that she's the kid that came into the group last you can see it somehow when they're together. It's very interesting. I think you guys should keep it to three. I like this the way it is. Seriously.

Unknown Speaker 1:38:22
I mean, it's so small. I don't think

Nicole 1:38:26
it'd be great if I got a vote. Like if you met another girl with diabetes, you're like we have to. Scott gets to break the tie here. Like if Nicole's a yes. Amazing. Oh, Kelsey. Yes. Now. Let's see what Scott says first, that'd be amazing. If you get that kind of thing. I don't think you're gonna let me have any real control over your life. Okay, so do I want to come there to vacation?

Unknown Speaker 1:38:46
Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:38:47
Is it incredible when you can

Nicole 1:38:50
get expensive? Yeah. Like I say last one coin. Pardon? I gotta save some real money up to get there.

Unknown Speaker 1:39:02
Um, I wouldn't necessarily say like, you're gonna have to save up a ton of money but like our island just for like some

Unknown Speaker 1:39:10
perspective. I

Unknown Speaker 1:39:11
guess. It's ranked always next to like Switzerland. Oh, really? Like just above Switzerland. So yeah.

Nicole 1:39:18
Are you girls like rich and I don't realize that what's going on here?

Unknown Speaker 1:39:23
I mean, really,

Unknown Speaker 1:39:25
I would say like, sorry, you go, No, no, go ahead.

Unknown Speaker 1:39:32
I guess the wages here probably also different because like, depending on how much you get paid is probably how expensive things are and like it differs and

Unknown Speaker 1:39:41
also like people

Unknown Speaker 1:39:42
don't really like immediately go to buy clothes here. It's usually like Oh, you want to go to get like lobster at this restaurant instead of just go to get past or something because like, food is a lot more like I want to spend money on food instead of like clothing or You could just go to America or something. Yeah. What's also good? Oh, well, I was just gonna say our islands also a tax haven. We don't have taxes here. So that kind of contributes to the the richer, I guess, a general population.

Nicole 1:40:19
Yeah, I mean, I knew that which is why I tease the Maya about her dad being a gun runner. I mean, earlier, that is what I was saying is that, and she hasn't been. Have you noticed? You guys worry? Is it really funny? Because dad like this very nice, man. And you're just like, this is got nothing to do with who he is. Or

Unknown Speaker 1:40:37
he's super nice. Nice. Yeah, he's

Unknown Speaker 1:40:39
cute. Yeah.

Nicole 1:40:42
That's all I would. I'm just I only know what I know from 1980s action films, so you can't really hold me accountable for anything that I say. That's how I say this. Alright, so what would be? We're gonna say goodbye, but you guys are happy with us?

Unknown Speaker 1:41:00
Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:41:02
you think so?

Unknown Speaker 1:41:03
definite? Yes. Good.

Nicole 1:41:05
So everything like I don't I feel like I don't want to let you down now because I knew you would be excited. Like, I feel like I let you down. No,

Unknown Speaker 1:41:15
I'm really nervous for it. I was kind of nervous to

Nicole 1:41:19
wait. Kylie, you were nervous. When Nicole, Kyle was I Was she a she talking more or less Nicole than she usually does right now. We're the same

Unknown Speaker 1:41:32
honestly.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:39
He does so many plays. Right? She knows how to handle her nerves. And she does it. Like, slightly less like this is her normal level. This is her like,

Unknown Speaker 1:41:48
I'm on recording and stage level. You know,

Nicole 1:41:52
we've learned that you were dialing it back today. Just slightly. Behind you got a that's not probably good. Okay. And then, um, I like you. Have you been nervous the whole time.

Unknown Speaker 1:42:05
I get nervous pretty easily. I'm not really good at like talking on the camera. But talking about like diabetes in our life is making me pretty comfortable. pretty comfortable. And

Nicole 1:42:15
for the record, your father is not a gun runner. Is that right?

Unknown Speaker 1:42:20
He's a Spanish teacher.

Nicole 1:42:21
But let's be honest, if he was do you think he would tell you? Where do you think he'll be a Spanish teacher?

Unknown Speaker 1:42:31
I said I'm saying

Unknown Speaker 1:42:34
my brother's teachers. Okay, what are

Nicole 1:42:37
your brother's teachers? Hey, you can know Spanish and break a law by the way. And Nicole's? Nicole, you were you were nervous. But you weren't into it. Right? You were okay now?

Unknown Speaker 1:42:48
Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah.

Nicole 1:42:50
It's gonna be possible that like five years from now, I might keep the podcast going forever. Just so five years from now the three of you can do this again. Because I think that probably interest Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:03
Like, I'm gonna be like this quiet low.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:08
That'd be hilarious.

Nicole 1:43:09
No, you won't. Like what? I've learned one thing tonight for sure. I know. You're not going to be a quiet little thing five years from now that I figured out Okay. Anything we didn't say? Are we good?

Unknown Speaker 1:43:22
We're good.

Nicole 1:43:23
Excellent. This is very cool. It's your mom

Unknown Speaker 1:43:25
that we love your podcast?

Nicole 1:43:26
Pardon? Wait, am I was saying something nice about me. Quiet down. Say it again.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:34
We really love your podcast.

Nicole 1:43:36
Thank you. Yeah, I am to be super sincere. I'm incredibly touched that you guys listen to it, and that it's helpful to you at all. It really is very strange for me to sit here and think that they're three of you even met each other but that you met each other and listen to this thing that I do so far away from where you are, and then it's helpful to you is it's kind of overwhelming if I talked about it for real, I'd get really sappy. So I don't want to do that. But it's really very gratifying that you like it and that it's valuable. So thank you very much for saying that. And Maya for being the only one to think to say you're now my favorite just so you know that over the other two heads. Do you want me to rank you in the in the the way I like you or? No, that was?

Unknown Speaker 1:44:29
I think it would be a Maya Nicole me.

Scott Benner 1:44:31
Why do you think

Unknown Speaker 1:44:34
too much?

Unknown Speaker 1:44:36
I know about myself like if

Unknown Speaker 1:44:40
I pretend that it's not like I know I talked to you.

Nicole 1:44:43
Don't talk too much. This is a podcast if nobody talked it would be horrible. And I and I don't have an order that I like you. And I think the three of you were actually really delightful and together you're you're kind of amazing. So I'm super happy that you met each other Hold on tight to each other. Don't want to Let like dating get in between you. Okay? And look out. Seriously, can you look out for each other?

Unknown Speaker 1:45:09
Yeah, yeah.

Nicole 1:45:11
Nicole is the tallest so we'll make her the muscle like Nicola some shit down. Could you take care of it? Or what do you think? Can you throw some hands or

Unknown Speaker 1:45:25
they both play basketball. And I'm more like,

Unknown Speaker 1:45:30
volleyball and i don't i don't have really good.

Nicole 1:45:34
You play basketball. Do they bring the neck down for you?

Unknown Speaker 1:45:38
Well, I play basketball and volleyball and like, we use the same net

Nicole 1:45:46
that I am just using you because I'm short. In volleyball. You have to play the back line though. Right? You're in the back line.

Unknown Speaker 1:45:55
Actually. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:45:59
like an inch taller than me. So,

Nicole 1:46:02
ball in volleyball, right? They let you play. You get to use your hands and everything, right?

Unknown Speaker 1:46:07
Yeah.

Nicole 1:46:09
I love Kylie. The one thing that's interesting about you is you're a little too young for my sarcasm. It misses you a little bit. It's interesting. I enjoy it. Maya gets it but she can't bring herself to say anything. And Nicole says having way too good of a time. I don't know what's happening. I'm having a hard time saying goodbye to you, girl. Alright. Thank you very much. Hey, girl, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your experiences with everyone. If you guys want to see a photo that the girls took together, after they were done recording, it's at Juicebox Podcast calm on the page. For this specific episode. They sent me a group photo and their blood sugars, which I found heartwarming. And you'll see why when you see the picture. I reminded you at the beginning about the T one D exchange. I'm going to do it again here. T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. type one adults type one caregivers who are us residents head over take the survey. It does not take long. It is not incredibly personal. The information is not like it's like oh that was Billy like it's not like that. It's there just general questions that go a long way towards helping people with type one and it benefits the podcast T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. And even though there were no sponsors on today's show, why not just say this, I love the sponsors the Dexcom g sex the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump, g voeg hypo pen and touched by type one. There are links to all the sponsors right on the front page of Juicebox Podcast comm if you ever need the world's greatest CGM, the best blood sugar meter I've ever used the bomb diggity in insulin pumps, the glucagon that my daughter carries or support for people with type one diabetes, you go to Juicebox Podcast comm scroll down to sponsors and click there. I'm not saying you have to go check out meters but if you're going to support the podcast, that's all understand and Omni pod is doing like a free 30 day trial of the anomaly pod dash. You have to find out if you're eligible but it's worth checking out at Omni pod comm forward slash juicebox contours got a test trip saving program and I think some people are eligible for free meters that's Contour Next One comm Ford slash juice box you can get started with the Dexcom G six@dexcom.com Ford slash Juicebox Podcast check out the glucagon that my daughter carries g Vogue glucagon comm forward slash juice box and of course touched by type one is out there helping people with type one diabetes, and they're touched by type one.org. And on Facebook, and Instagram. The diabetes pro tip episodes are right there in your podcast player or at diabetes pro tip comm links to everything are in the show notes of your podcast player. Thanks so much for leaving amazing reviews for the show where you listen, thank you for rating the show, given it the five stars and then leaving some amazing words. That's huge. Of course, the thing that helps the show the most is when you share it with other people. So anytime you've told another person Hey, check out the Juicebox Podcast. That goes a long way. And I really appreciate it. For those of you who are looking for more in person, community you can check out the Facebook page for the show. It's private, and you can feel comfortable talking in there. Juicebox Podcast Type One Diabetes on Facebook. There's a bold with insulin page. That's the public page but the private page is called Juicebox Podcast Alright, that's it. It's Friday I'm going outside. I have a bush to replace bought a bush last year and it died. Just like turn brown and it's gone. So I'm replacing it. Now you know my excitement. I hope you have a good weekend as well.

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#466 Defining Diabetes: C-Peptide and Beta Cell

Scott and Jenny Smith define diabetes terms

In this Defining Diabetes episode, Scott and Jenny explain C-Peptide and Beta Cell

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Alexa - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public or their favorite podcast app.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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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
Friends, you're listening to Episode 466 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today, you're going to get a two for one defining diabetes. As Jenny Smith and I define beta cells, and C peptide. There's actually some bonus BONUS stuff in this too. For one, it's almost four for one, but I don't want to get confusing so you'll see as it goes. While you're listening, please remember that 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. We're becoming bold with insulin. After you're done listening to the podcast, they head to Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box and take the pod for a test drive. You can ditch your daily injections, or send your pump packing, try the Omni pod tubeless wireless continuous insulin management system. All you have to do is head on the pod comm forward slash juice box and when you get there, you're going to find out if you're eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash. That is crazy. Just get over I mean for free for a whole month. I know you know this, but there are 12 months in a year, you're getting 1/12 of the Year for free. You may be thinking right now Scott is on the pod still offering the free no obligation demo pod at on the pod comm forward slash juicebox? Well, yes they are. So head on over and see what option is right for you. There are also links in the show notes of your podcast player and at Juicebox Podcast comm if you can't remember on the pod comm forward slash juice box. I feel like I say this a lot of these in the beginning of these defining episodes. But I'm just going to come clean and tell you that I hear people say C peptide all the time. And I don't know what it means by the end. But here's my best story. A person who I saw online once who's been alive for just you know, must be 80 years old, said Type One Diabetes their whole life talked about one time how he missed older insulin because of C peptide. And I never understood what he was saying. And I'm wondering if like, was there There used to be an additive and insulin that doesn't exist anymore? Am I confusing two phrases Jenny's face is telling me I'm completely wrong about this?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:45
No, it's a really well and this statement in and of itself, you're not necessarily wrong. But

Unknown Speaker 2:52
did they use the Add

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:54
older insulin, they wouldn't have added c peptide, there's no purpose. So I think the definition of C peptide will give you reason for like the faces that clearly nobody else can see that I'm making to you look absurd.

Scott Benner 3:10
It kind of goes to my confusion about it because no one says these this word out loud ever like I am as involved in people talking about type one diabetes as any person could be. And no one says c peptide. But I think it's important to understand. So that's why I'm going to pick your brain for it. So what is it?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:31
So it's easy, it's actually it's a byproduct, essentially of insulin production. So when you're paying kurious, not outside insulin light from your bottle or your vial that you pump in or in Juju inject in pancreatic insulin that is created has a has c peptides, which are really just amino acids. It's like a structure right. And when the insulin is made, think of it as a round ball, for lack of a better visual. And when insulin gets released into the bloodstream, a part of it gets cleaved off from the creation and that part, which looks like a C way it looks better for you. So it's called C peptide c peptide, to my understanding really has no has no purpose offs of the creation of the insulin. Once insulin gets into the bloodstream and is doing its job. C peptide is what's left over sort of like byproduct. And so it floats around and it's a marker of how much insulin is being produced by the beta cells in the body. But outside generically created insulin or lab created insulin does not have C peptide in it, it was not created by the body. So that's why somebody with diabetes even using rapid insulin or Basal insulin or anything, they can still have C peptide levels drawn to see what is their actual beta cell pulled out, if any? Because the injected insulin doesn't have it, so it doesn't make a difference. But does that?

Scott Benner 5:16
No, it does, but it doesn't. So it doesn't do anything. There's no, like C peptide has no function, it's just a measurement we use to say. Okay, so the, the less, I'm assuming the less c peptide that can be found with testing is an indication of less and less insulin being produced by the pancreas.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:37
So there, there are markers, you know, certain lab levels that if it's under this level, that's diagnostic diagnostic of type one diabetes, some people get their c peptide levels tested through the course of the years, you know, to see is it declining? Is my C peptide level? Obviously, still type one, but is it kind of like stabilized? Am I not really losing any more betas or whatever? I mean, quite honestly, obviously, we know that once you have type one diabetes, you have type one diabetes, you know, but I think another way to like think about C peptide in terms of like it being a byproduct, it's sort of like when you're burning like wood in your fireplace. C peptide is like the smoke, that just sort of like it doesn't really have a purpose. It's not going to give you heat, it smells nice, maybe. But it's

Scott Benner 6:30
a good measure that there's a fire somewhere,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:32
but it's a good measure that there's a fire somewhere. Exactly. So it's just a it's a marker, essentially. So that's it. That's why I kind of made that funny face at the comment. Because older insulin and I'd have to do some homework, but older insulin to my knowledge didn't really I mean, it wouldn't have had c peptide for a benefit of the insolent action.

Scott Benner 6:53
It makes me wonder if I hate to say this, like this, but it makes me wonder how sometimes people see things that aren't really there. Like maybe this person saw their c peptide, like falling more after they switch to more modern insulins and made the correlation or I mean, could could the older insulins have protected beta cells? No, right? There's no there's no I mean,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:23
really, the only protection from beta cells in the initial diagnostic time period is, the faster you get containment of your blood sugar, the less stress on those betas, as well as the knockdown of the immune system that is constantly trying to destroy them. So you, you add in sort of this outside insulin to keep the blood sugar's controlled, which means the betas don't have to work as hard. So you may in terms of that help preservation of the beta cells initially. So the better control from the beginning, the more betas you're likely to retain. Okay, well, in a general sense,

Scott Benner 8:03
let's combine this, let's just keep going for a second. I know this probably seems overly simplistic, but maybe it isn't.

Alright, so we've already talked about the Omni pod. And you can go check out that free 30 day trial of the dash system at Omni pod comm forward slash juicebox, as well as demo pods and just go see if you're eligible. But we still haven't spoken about the Dexcom g six today@dexcom.com forward slash juice box, you can learn more about the Dexcom g six Siri integration. It's indicated for children two and above that you can share your data with up to 10 followers. And that there are smart device compatibility with tons of phones that are both Android and iPhone. There are customizable alerts and alarms that will let you know if you're heading higher or lower, and leaving the range that you get to set. There's so much going on with the Dexcom g six, it gives back. You know what I was gonna say gives back data that helps us make great decisions, but it just gives back if you use man made insulin, the Dexcom g six is a friend. Check it out@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. There you can get started with the Dexcom g six to tiny bit of information that you fill out and you're on your way. The Dexcom g six is one of the best decisions we've ever made for my daughter, my daughter and I use the Dexcom g six every day, every three days not even enough. We just use it constantly. It's there, but it needs to be there. It's not in the way when it doesn't. Check it out. Last thing before Jenny and I define beta cells and some other stuff. Don't forget to go touched by type one.org and follow them on Facebook and Instagram touched by type one.org. Just go check them out, you'll be happy that you did.

A beta cell is a type of cell found in the pancreatic isolettes that synthesize and secrete insulin and Amylin. beta cells make up 50 to 70% of the cells in human isolettes. in patients with type one diabetes, beta cell, mass and function are diminished, leading to insufficient insulin secretions and hyperglycemia. I guess we need to tell people what beta cells are just because they came up and I've never said it out loud on this podcast once I don't think so. I'm gonna do my best and then you're gonna tell me everywhere I'm wrong. But again, going back to an episode I did recently, I found out that beta cells are like, the only have like a gram of them in your body. It's apparently it's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:05
tiny.

Scott Benner 11:07
Yeah, yeah. So okay, let's figure that out. The pancreas

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:09
is a very tiny, it's really actually it's a gland. So the your, your pancreas is tiny, comparative to the very large organs like your liver and your stomach and your heart and everything. I mean, the pancreas is this tiny little brain.

Scott Benner 11:27
That when that was said, again, I think in Episode 451, I was like, Ha, really, like, you know, like, I do love doing this podcast, because people say things. I'm like, I never do that. But, uh, but so there are these, these beta cells, and their job right? make insulin, and Amylin, which I guess we have to say now, but Amazon is because we keep bringing things. But So in a nutshell, what do they do?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:54
So the I mean, the the definition of a beta cell really is just, it's any of the cells in the islets.

Scott Benner 12:03
islets of langerhans is really, that it's insulin producing cells as a beta cell. That's essentially what it does. It makes insulin and Amylin or Jesus, I split amyloid poly peptide is a 37 residue peptide hormone, it is co secreted with insulin from the pancreatic beet beta cells in the ratio of approximately 100 to one. So does that are we not getting Amylin, either? If you have Type One Diabetes called

Unknown Speaker 12:36
sembalun on the market, you know, both sembalun

Unknown Speaker 12:39
I have heard about someone? Yes, yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:42
it's an injectable form of amlan. It's so in the simplest term, yes. If you have type one, and you have beta cell issue, obviously, you're not producing insulin, well, if you have beta cell destruction, because Amylin is also produced there. You also have a lack of amlan. An amlan is, like I said, there is an injectable form of it now on the market is going on the market for a long time, actually called sembalun. And it's essentially, I mean, it's a, it's a piece that helps in the way that insulin is used after secreted in terms, mostly around meal time management. So, people who use similasan as a addition to their diabetes management, they take similar, it's an injectable doesn't come as a pill. So it's an injectable that you take along with meals. What it does is it helps to slow some of the fast digestive nature of that spike in the aftermath of a meal. It also helps to for many helps to reduce a bit the amount of actual insulin that you need to cover the meal. So you get a slower glycemic

Scott Benner 14:10
response from a meal, helping to prevent spiking. It also for many, like I said, helps to bring down the amount of insulin to actually cover the meal. The ADA says Amylin is a peptide hormone that is co secreted with insulin from the pancreatic pieces, beta cells and is thusly and and is thus deficient in diabetic people. It inhibits glucagon secretion, delays, gastric emptying, and acts as a satiating agent, so helps you feel full.

Unknown Speaker 14:44
Yes,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:44
I actually have somebody I work with. I've not worked with her for about two years or so. But she actually used the tiniest dose of similar or Amlin in the afternoon, because that was her time that she just she couldn't get over her. appetite. He just was so hungry in the afternoon despite eating really good lunch starting with a breakfast, you know, all the tricks that we aim to do, you know, for like decreasing the amount that you might eat. But similan did the trick. He didn't actually, I mean, she kind of used it in an off label sense. She just took the tiniest amount in the afternoon, sort of around like two o'clock ish, her snacking kind of came into play by about four. And so just that tiny amount of the amblin in her system helped to decrease her desire for food into the afternoon.

Scott Benner 15:35
Okay. sembalun is an injectable medicine for adults with type two and type one diabetes to control blood sugar, similar and slows down the movement of food through your stomach affects how fast sugars enter your blood system after eating is always used with insulin to help lower blood sugar during the three hours. Which which by the way, I made a joke with someone the other day, I said, I'm very good at managing blood sugars, and I can't pronounce post Pratt. No. I said that's my, that's my genius. I don't know how to say that. And, and I still understand what it means. I'm wondering as I'm sitting here, how many weight weight loss doctors use similan off label?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:21
I wouldn't. Yeah, that would be a good question. I don't know. I don't even know if it would be without a diagnosis without a diagnosis of diabetes had really question because there are a lot of other. There are a lot of other meds that are specific more for weight management. Well, I

Scott Benner 16:40
found my answer already. It says that using it off label without diabetes, could endanger patients due to a higher risk of hypoglycemia. Okay, can make you Well, yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:50
Because it really does suppress glucagon excretion. Right? And so if you have a decrease of that you also have less chance of your body responding to lows. Yeah, true like it's supposed to.

Scott Benner 17:03
So it doesn't have it doesn't have any use outside of people who have diabetes. Interesting. From what I've heard. Yeah, that's interesting. All right. We did it right. Hey, we said but beta cells all we said was c peptide ever somehow got into Amylin, which took us the similan and now we're done.

Unknown Speaker 17:21
Yay.

Scott Benner 17:27
I'd like to thank Omni pod Dexcom and touched by type one for sponsoring this episode of the Juicebox Podcast. Learn more about touched by type one at touched by type one.org or follow them on Facebook, and Instagram. Don't forget to see if you're eligible for the free 30 day trial the Omni pod dash at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. And of course check into that Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player and at Juicebox Podcast comm all of the sponsors and there's even a way for you to contact Jenny in there.

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#465 Easy Rider

Kyle was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as an adult.

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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 and welcome to Episode 465 of the Juicebox Podcast. I'm happy that you're here.

Today I'll be speaking with Kyle who was diagnosed as an adult has a number of people in his family with Type One Diabetes. It's a very interesting story. I really enjoyed our conversation. Here's the one thing though Kyle has a very deep voice, he's gonna make me sound like a soprano. So get ready made vibrator right out of your seat. I wonder if I could mess with my settings and make myself sound even deeper. 1234567 how's that sound? Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical, let's go farther, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. And at work, we put that back to like normal.

This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries g vo hypo pen. Find out more at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box. The episode is also sponsored by touched by type one, you can find out more about them on their Facebook page on Instagram, and it touched by type one.org. Do you ever look at your blood glucose meter and think I wonder if that thing's accurate? If you do, and you don't wanna have to worry about it anymore, you really should check out the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. And you can do that at Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox. There's links in the show notes and links at Juicebox Podcast comm to these and all of the sponsors. When you click on the links, you're supporting the show. All right. If you got any glasses near the edge of the table and you're not listening through headphones, now's the time to slide them towards the middle of the desk before Kyle's massive voice shakes them free.

Kyle Knudsen 2:33
Well, I'm Kyle Knudsen. And I live just outside the Minneapolis area.

Scott Benner 2:39
Okay, Kyle, parent of a type one type one yourself.

Kyle Knudsen 2:43
I am a type one myself.

Unknown Speaker 2:45
When were you diagnosed?

Kyle Knudsen 2:47
I was diagnosed August 1 2019. As a 39 year old later in life.

Scott Benner 2:55
Just got interesting. Right off the bat, didn't I? Yeah.

You know, I expected you to say like I was diagnosed in 1974 or something, you know, something like that. But but just recently at 39. Okay, so, you know, requisite question any diabetes in the family or other endocrine issues?

Kyle Knudsen 3:12
Yeah. So my older brother was diagnosed at 19 years old. So that would have been in 1997, I believe. So he has been, he has been, you know, 20 plus years as a type one diabetic and my younger sister was diagnosed, I believe at 33 or 34 just a few years ago. So I am the third of my three siblings to be diagnosed with Type One Diabetes. So

Unknown Speaker 3:43
you were the holdout?

Kyle Knudsen 3:45
Yeah, I was the Hold on. I thought I had made it you know, I figured if I hit four oh, I was going to be good to go. But 39 it's not getting there. I'm super interested in that. Did

Scott Benner 3:53
you have like a arbitrary cut off in your head?

Kyle Knudsen 3:58
You know, I'm so so my, my older brother was the first of anyone in our family to get it. So we kind of just thought it was a fluke. Okay, right. I mean, that's, that's the premise we had lived with for the better part of 20 years. It wasn't within my aunts and uncles or grandparents that there was no Type One Diabetes anywhere in our family. And then my sister got it and I had that little bit of like, Alright, well, maybe there's something more to it, but I'm a healthy 30 something at the time I you know, I didn't think a lot of it. And then my my personal diagnosis story, I didn't go into decay. I didn't luckily have to go through that. But I had a couple of weird things going on. Again, not paying that close attention now knowing the signs that would have been pretty easy to pick up on. But I was at a normal checkup mentioned a couple of things to my doctor. You know how You know, he said how you feel and I said, Fine, I had a little numbness in my right caption area. And then I had lost weight prior to diagnosis and then stopped losing weight and then started losing weight again without trying. So it's just kind of a weird, you know, little thing. Next day, he called me and said, your blood sugar registered at 429. Pretty sure you're type one diabetic, like your siblings. Wow.

Scott Benner 5:30
Hey, you said that you you just kind of offhandedly said like I'm a healthy person in my 30s. Did you think of your sister as not optimally healthy? Or is it? No, no, no, I

Kyle Knudsen 5:41
would say no. All three of us, you know, no major health problems take reasonably good care of ourselves. And you know, we're there was nothing that when she was diagnosed, that would have led me to believe she was going to be diagnosed either. Yeah. Maybe it was just, you know, blissful denial on my part. That's why

Scott Benner 5:59
I was wondering like, if it was, if you would just like drawn an arbitrary line in the sand. You're like, obviously, I'm healthy. So this will be fine. I always think of friend of my parents when I was growing up, who was super skinny eight, whatever you wanted, and, you know, had a heart attack and died in his 40s. Yeah, but he was never heavy. So he just thought, like, I must be the person food doesn't impact.

Kyle Knudsen 6:19
It's what's inside, right? Yeah,

Scott Benner 6:21
yeah, sure. But it was just, it's interesting. And I like people have context too, because, you know, you just said it, but you can't look at somebody and tell if they're gonna get type one diabetes or not. And it but it was just interesting how it was building up around you, and you were probably looking for any kind of false flag that would keep you thinking that wasn't gonna happen.

Kyle Knudsen 6:40
Yeah, right. Exactly. That's that Well, one of the one of the unique things about when I was diagnosed, so I had just, from a personal standpoint, decided I was going to get in better shape, lose some weight, I was approaching 40. So I had been doing intermittent fasting as a part of my weight loss. So there's so many things with that, that that would create similar symptoms to early stages of diabetes, right. So I'm guessing I probably missed some of those pieces because of what I was doing from a dietary standpoint leading up to it.

Scott Benner 7:15
So with both your siblings being diagnosed as adults, do you have any feeling before you're diagnosed for what it is to live with diabetes? Or is it just something you see them do across the room? Like how involved or aware were you?

Kyle Knudsen 7:31
Yes. So no, no idea what it's like to live with it as an adult prior to diagnosis. I, you know, 23, four years ago, when my brother was diagnosed, it was a different time and diabetes, we're close. He's two years older, and we've always had a great relationship. We went to college together, and he got it in college. So I was two years behind them, but you know, just being around him understanding kind of some of the signs of when there might be a low or, or some of the stuff he was dealing with being aware, somewhat of a type one diabetes, but really, you know, it was it was an afterthought for me so I never dove in to really understand what it was what it meant, how it changed your life, what you know, the steps that you have to take everyday to effectively manage it was a completely new learning curve for me.

Scott Benner 8:27
What would you say? Was the the first Stark thing that struck you after you were diagnosed and you were home and trying to manage like, what did you like? What What were your like inner monologue? concepts?

Kyle Knudsen 8:41
Yeah. So out of the gates a huge fear of hypoglycemia. Because they were so aggressive, what I saw was the aggressiveness that my my brother's doctors used with him to get his sugar's down to a normal level. So he had lows quite frequently when he was first diagnosed. So that's just kind of what rang in my head. Right and not scary lows. I don't know that have you ever had a seizure or anything like that, that I'm aware of, but but lows, you know, wake up in the morning and be often strange and you know, all the things that happens to type one diabetics when you go into hyperglycemia. So so getting over I mean, that was kind of the first phase is just not being willing to, not not being willing to manage it somewhat aggressively because of that. So right out of the gate, my whole thought process was around, I don't want to go low. I mean, that kind of dominated my thinking. And that's, unfortunately, how a lot of care teams train you right out of the gate. Don't go low, right. here's, here's how you manage it. Don't go low, but not really having an understanding of all the other pieces of it.

Scott Benner 10:01
So interesting. He's got a completely different management style because it was so many years in the past, but it was the one thing that resonated with you when you look back on that time. Right? Yeah. Okay. And so there, you don't want this to happen to you. Now, what kind of gear Are you using as you begin?

Kyle Knudsen 10:20
So out of the gates, man,

Scott Benner 10:22
you're in Minnesota, they gave you a Medtronic pump, right?

Kyle Knudsen 10:25
Yeah. You know, no, no Medtronic, they

Scott Benner 10:28
don't take them to your forehead when you leave hospital.

Kyle Knudsen 10:31
They don't. It's funny actually, my so my farm D I've actually, quick side note, I've never met with an actual endocrinologist, I use my primary care doctor and then the farm D, okay. And he, he was not a huge proponent of Medtronic out of the gates, not that he didn't dislike it, he threw it out there as an option, but he was much more on the Omni pod or T slim option. So, so out of the gates, I was MDI, for MDI and finger sticks. From August 1, the time I was diagnosed until I think it was right around October 1, actually, that I ended up getting the Dexcom. Okay, so it was a it was a couple of months of time. In that time is where I discovered the Juicebox Podcast, I'd also started reading sugar surfing, and the type that dives into it. So I wanted to learn and understand and you know, I try to control my existence. I'm a controlled person. So this was one piece where I needed to figure it out. So out of the gates, it was sticking my finger, trying to understand the trends that my blood sugar was doing, you know, what it was doing, and waiting anxiously and bugging my care team daily about when I was going to get the prior authorization for my Dexcom. So I could get it, use it and start to actually see what my blood sugar was doing.

Scott Benner 12:01
You were really proactive then. And I like this. I want to understand this a little better. Did you build this care team purposefully on your own? Or were there just no endocrinologist near you?

Kyle Knudsen 12:13
So No, I didn't. It wasn't on purpose. And there is. There is an endocrinology team within the system that I that I've, you know, gone to for a while now. But my my primary care doc who actually the day before I was diagnosed was the first time I met with him. He was a new doctor, to me, kind of has a specialty or a liking for the endocrinology system, so it fits within his wheelhouse. So we spoke about it. And I said, So when do I go see the endocrinologist and he said, You don't have to, he said, you can we can set up that appointment. But he said, I'm in touch with him, I'm happy to handle your care. And then your farm D would be kind of your primary, you know, toys and gadgets and dosing and all that stuff. He works with us on that. And he's focused specifically on type one diabetics. And I said, Alright, let's roll with it. I didn't know any better. So I said, let's give it a shot. And it's worked out really well. For me, I

Scott Benner 13:16
tend to agree with that idea. I know that people, especially as adults talk about having trouble finding good endos that are helpful with diabetes anyway. And you got people who are thoughtful about it, and they can write your prescriptions. That seems like most of it, you know?

Kyle Knudsen 13:32
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And he's been really good about letting me do what I want to do. He sees my numbers he understand you know, he sees my my graphs, my numbers. He understands he hears me understanding dosing and what I need to do for my body and he says, Look, you're you know, you're better than us. So do your thing. Let me know how I can help and that that's been great. So

Scott Benner 13:52
hey, Kyle, you're riding the rails you're going across the country there's just a satchel thrown over your shoulder eating out of the can is that what's happening?

Kyle Knudsen 14:02
Yeah, there's a train about three blocks away that is blowing it's on the train that goes by about once every three days. So I'm it's decided right now is the time to go by.

Scott Benner 14:14
This is the time of year while I'm recording where my neighbor will pull out. It's I can only describe it as a lawn vacuum. It is a giant thing that is gas propelled. It has this incredible motor on it that creates this suction. And he pulls it behind a lawn mowers, the lawn mowers running, and the blade and the lawn mowers running. And then the vacuum is running. And it it's actually quieter outside than it is in my house for some reason. So every once in a while it happens like once a year. And he's sort of neurotic about it. Like I don't know how everyone else feels about their lawn. I'm not messy. But if I see some leaves in the backyard, I'm not like oh gosh, this needs to be rectified immediately, but If he if leaves fall, which they do all season long, he jumps out there and vacuums his whole lawn. I imagine he's got a mental illness, but he's a lovely man. I very much like it very particular about his lawn. And now

Kyle Knudsen 15:15
you got to talk him into doing your lawn while he's at it. Well, yeah,

Scott Benner 15:17
I don't know, I were on opposite political side. So I'm not sure he would just keep coming over. But But when he's out there, it would if I have to stop the recording, or otherwise, it would just go. Like the entire time. It just vibrates in my house. It's fascinating.

Kyle Knudsen 15:33
I think the trains done now. Ryan's done. Well, we

Scott Benner 15:35
have three weeks that noise. Exactly. Okay, so I had a thought before we move forward. Much. I don't want to lose my question. I'm trying to imagine having two small children and a wife I'm imagining that you have and then you're coming home from the doctor with a with a really serious illness. What's that? Like? for your family? Like, what did you see the impact on them? How did they do they treat you differently?

Kyle Knudsen 16:03
Yeah, no, that's a great question. So a couple of things that helped with my, with my wife in particular. So she has a she has two cousins on her side that have from different not they're not siblings, either their cousins as well, that have type one diabetes, one was diagnosed, I think at like age 910 11. And the other one was late teens. 1819. So she had a familiarity with it. Obviously, with my siblings having it she had a familiarity with it as well. So extremely supportive. out of the gates, right. I remember when I when I found out I was driving home from work, it was 530. At night, my doctor called me, which is never a great thing. So it was I was 10 minutes from home and he said, Hey, I'm just gonna cut straight to the chase, do the blood sugars for 29 year, you're pretty sure you're a type one diabetic. I need to see you tomorrow. I said great. There wasn't a whole lot of conversation, because there's not much to say. I said, We'll talk tomorrow. And I had 10 minutes to think about it. I got home and walked in and looked at her life. And I said, so. I'm a type one diabetic, and she kind of gave me the look of was for real, like, you know, it's just that, that, wow, okay, this changes things. And that, that it drastically changes things. And now it doesn't affect our lives a whole lot at all. But really supportive out of the gates and the girls, you know, my girls at the time were nine and six. And they, you know, we haven't we have a great family relationship throughout. And they didn't really understand it, but wanted to understand it and saw things and ask questions. And, you know, I've just tried to be really, really open with them about what I'm going through and what it means. And now it's become just a normal way of life. They joke with me make fun of me at times about stuff and and you know, they have a healthy comfort with it.

Scott Benner 18:09
Do you think they're scared that they're going to get it? Because I mean, at this point, it looks like the one thing your parents are really good at is making babies with diabetes?

Kyle Knudsen 18:16
Yeah. You know, I think I'm probably more worried about it than they are I tried to shield them from concern. I know what to look for. My wife knows what to look for. So we pay attention. But luckily at this point, we have two healthy girls that are showing those signs. So

Scott Benner 18:34
is the population where you live? Particularly Nordic? Yes, okay.

Kyle Knudsen 18:41
Most most of Minnesota has is Nord. I'm Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. My wife is mostly Swedish with a little bit of Norwegian I believe so mostly Swedish. Yeah, yeah, we're a bunch of nerds.

Scott Benner 18:53
Yeah, your last name is spelled incorrectly. Like it's got letters where they don't belong.

Kyle Knudsen 18:58
And so that's the Danish version of it.

Scott Benner 19:01
It looks like someone took your last name and shook it up. Just a little bit, but but you know, I think that that's really the diabetes is prevalent through that. That lineage. Is that correct? Do you think

Kyle Knudsen 19:15
that's my understanding? Yeah, I haven't looked deep into it. But I have read a handful of things that have said that, you know, that the diabetes is is more prominent in that part of the world

Scott Benner 19:27
that type one and super pale. People don't go well together for summer. Yeah,

Kyle Knudsen 19:30
exactly. Yeah. Well, it's

Scott Benner 19:32
either that or Vikings football gives you diabetes. And I was well, I was willing.

Kyle Knudsen 19:37
Yeah, Vikings. Football gives us a lot of

Scott Benner 19:39
at least heartburn. Right?

Kyle Knudsen 19:40
Yeah. A lot of herper. A lot of hurt.

Scott Benner 19:44
Okay, that that makes it easier wife. similar background. As far as, like from a kind of European northern. Yeah,

Kyle Knudsen 19:54
yep. Yep. Sweet, mostly Swedish. She grew up we both grew up in and around the Minneapolis St. Paul. area so, yeah, we have we have color heritage.

Scott Benner 20:05
Let me ask you a question that has nothing to do with anything. Are you guys really tall?

Kyle Knudsen 20:09
So I am I'm about six, three, my brother's about six, six. My wife is not she's five, six or five, seven. So we're

Scott Benner 20:18
one of the girl. I like that you're like my wife's not tall. She's just two inches taller than the average woman. Arden five, seven, and she looks like a giant walking around her her high school.

Kyle Knudsen 20:32
So my oldest is very tall. She's always been about three, four inches taller than the next closest in her class. The boys are starting to catch up now. But she's taller than my my youngest is. She's She's on the taller side of normal. But

Scott Benner 20:49
I don't know if you realize just your voice makes you feel tall.

Unknown Speaker 20:53
Well, good. I appreciate that.

Scott Benner 20:55
I was starting to wonder how people are going to tell us apart but your voice is deeper than mine. So and by the way, my deep voice is no inclination of my height whatsoever as I'm a completely average height. But actually to you I probably look like deficient somehow you'd probably look at me and think oh my god, something happened to that guy.

Kyle Knudsen 21:13
Yeah, well, it's funny, funny story about my height. And I said my brother's six, six. My dad is five, eight. And my mom is five, eight as well. So, you know, it probably came from my mom's side. But

Scott Benner 21:25
that is absolutely I know, my son. My son is legitimately 511 like he plays baseball. So people think that people who say they're 511 are five, eight, and people who say they're six feet or 510. But he's actually 511. And he did say to me recently, he's like, why don't we tell people I'm six feet tall. I look six feet tall. And I was like, Listen, man, what's the difference? You know, but I know he's pissed at me. He's got to be because my wife's father is six one. her brother's six, four. They have a cousin who's like six, eight. They've got an uncle who was six, nine and Mike sons. Like, I know. You're the reason I'm not that tall. Like he's just I think he sees me as what held him back from being over six feet tall. I'm sure it'll it'll it'll last in Burnham for the rest of his life.

Kyle Knudsen 22:08
Yeah, it's gonna affect the relationship long term.

Scott Benner 22:11
It's difficult not to not to feel it. You know, sometimes even like at a baseball game, he'll do something kind of extraordinary. And I know when people look at me, they think, hmm. Wonder if he stole that kid from a mall or something like that? I know. I know. They don't think we're like related by blood. I they can't pop. I don't look sometimes I'm like, Oh, my mailman must be incredibly athletic. Is

Kyle Knudsen 22:40
my dad got that several several times through high school college. You know, we're both my brother and I both being athletes looking at him looking at us looking at him like this matches together. Do you

Scott Benner 22:52
know that during college recruiting, I'd sometimes I'd walk away from him so people wouldn't associate me with him. So they wouldn't look and go. Oh my god, that kid's gonna get fat before he's on college. We'll just take care. He's too much of a risk. Oh, that's

Kyle Knudsen 23:07
funny.

Unknown Speaker 23:07
Oh my gosh. Okay, so

Scott Benner 23:08
you said you found the podcast? How does a 39 year old guy find a podcast?

Kyle Knudsen 23:14
Yeah, good question. You are officially the first podcast I have ever listened to. So, you know, kind of navigating through the front side of it. As much as I didn't want to be hypo. I got i did i in the same respect, I got, you know, anxious about my numbers being too high. So trying to find that balance. There's not a lot of resources and on Facebook. My, my doc had said, Hey, check out. Type One is not beyond type one. It was a Minnesota type one community. Okay, blanking on the name right now.

Scott Benner 24:01
Doesn't matter. Okay. It's not me. Yeah. Juicebox Podcast and other stuff. So right.

Kyle Knudsen 24:07
So So I said, Alright, cool. So I checked it out. And truthfully, out of the gates, I was like, well, this is everyone's just scaring me more when I you know, and read through this group and all the problems and people are this and, you know, it's like, it kind of made me a little more nervous. Well, through that some of those people were connected to the juicebox community on Facebook. And we're talking about the Juicebox Podcast and I never really thought much of it the first few times I heard it, you know, just still early on. What resonated? Was your bold with insulin. I saw that a few times and I saw some people posting pictures of them wearing your T shirts of all things. And it just piqued my interest or like all with insulin. Alright, that seems like what I want to do. How do I find out more about that? That's, that's honestly how I landed. And then I dug and landed on your podcast and listened to a few and then kind of went right into the pro tip series because you were early on the pro tip series. Yeah, at that point and kind of follow that through from there.

Scott Benner 25:15
Kyle, it's fascinating that you found a podcast because people badgered me into making a T shirt.

Unknown Speaker 25:23
That's how it worked. Really,

Scott Benner 25:24
it really is interesting, because I am not a person who's interested in you know, being in the T shirt business. It's not. It's not a fun idea for me, and it's just not something I but everyone's like, Can you make a T shirt? I'm like, I'm alright. You know? And then it really is kind of insane that it got to you like that. That's it? And isn't it interesting, too, that you had to? how, you know, listen, it's marketing when you come down to it. But obviously, in a personal situation, it's not you had to see something, three separate ways. And then you were finally like, Alright, I mean, I guess this sounds reasonable. I'll take a look. And it's something way out of your wheelhouse. Because you have no idea how difficult it is to explain what a podcast is to most people how to get it. There's a woman right now online, saying to me, I want to subscribe to the podcast, and I can't figure out how she's in a podcast app. And I'm, like, you're looking at the show in the app, but push the button that says subscribe now. And then, you know, it's just it's an arduous process to get people to it. So I have to thank all the other people who who talk about the show, so fervently, because you're a person I never would have reached. So yeah,

Kyle Knudsen 26:39
no. And I, I will say that it truly, it was life changing. And I you know, I'm not I'm not saying that to pump you up, just having a community where everyone is trying to figure out how to be better at managing type one diabetes, whether for themselves or someone they're caring for. And, you know, props to you, Scott, you've done a just a fantastic job of putting your energy into trying to help people live better lives with a disease. That's a total pain in the, you know,

Scott Benner 27:11
I appreciate that. I really do. And I have to tell you, that it's me, is confounding to me. Did you know I don't know if that makes I get that? No, I

Kyle Knudsen 27:21
don't I get it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 27:22
I get it. It's just I look up every day. And I'm like, really, like, you know, like, the emails come and they come constantly, and I love them. It's hard for me to answer them. I'm like, actually, today's email day, I've already spent two hours before talking to you trying to respond to people's emails. And and it's just once in a while I stopped but I think, how am I the guy that? How is that? How is this the thing? Like, do you mean like, like, I'm happy it works. And it really is just a slow building of it. What is it? It's the reason it's sad that you die when you get old, because I'm finally getting good at being alive. You know what I mean? Like, I finally learned enough things and was able to step back far enough to see them as a bigger picture. And, and even that, I think it's kind of a, I'm gonna say blessing, but people who listen know that I'm not religious, but I do see it as a as a blessing that I'm even able to communicate my thoughts, because I think that's one of the bigger problems around managing insulin is that nobody knows how to explain it to someone else in a way that's digestible and doesn't take, you know, seven years, you know, 15 minutes at a time. And I don't know, like, I can't believe that I'm the one that understands this. I mean, not that there aren't other people don't get me wrong, I'm just, it's weird that it's that I'm one of them,

Kyle Knudsen 28:43
I guess, you know, you it comes across in listening, and maybe it's different being you know, now 40, but pushing 40 when I was diagnosed, it just comes across that you're, you're genuine about it, Jenny is also genuine about it. So it's not like someone's preaching or, or telling you how to do things. It's it's exploring, you know, your path and managing Arden's diabetes through her life. And just making it practical and applying it and welcoming the input of others. And it's, it makes it really easy.

Scott Benner 29:19
I'm glad I wouldn't know another way to do it, honestly. And I am lucky in a couple you know, I was having this conversation with somebody yesterday, I'm getting ready to write a blog post for for a website. And they asked me to write something and I was having this conversation and she said, Why do you think the podcast is so popular? Because she reached out to me, she's like, you're it? She's like that podcast is all I hear about everywhere? And I was like, Oh, that's cool. Great. You know, and she's like, why do you think it's, it's gained traction like this? And I said, I just really don't want people to be unhealthy. And, and I figured out how not to do it. So feels weird not to tell somebody else right. You know, and And I'm lucky, I went on to teller and I'm happy to tell you I'm lucky My wife has a comfortable job. And so I was a stay at home dad. And so I actually got to witness it live through it not have to get up and go to work every day, not you know, not think about it from five in the afternoon till nine at night and pass out, go to sleep, get up in the morning, put eight seconds worth of thought the diabetes, worry about it all day do it again, like I was actually able to really diagnose it. There was a person that came into the private Facebook group yesterday and said, it was kind of funny. The private Facebook group has become so popular that people show up there but don't know what the podcast is. So this guy comes in and says, Hey, um, you guys are all having all this great success. I'm dying to know, like, what is it you're like, do like, where do you like, Where'd you learn this? I think what's the question and people like the podcast? And he's like, what podcast? Like, that's really like, trippy, you know, but I thought about going into the thread and saying, the way I learned about diabetes was to stare at my daughter for years, and figure out how to help her. And then I wrote about it on a blog until I was really good at explaining it. And then I started this podcast, because that's really the truth if I didn't have the time. And I guess the desire to I guess if I was a different person, the time might not matter. But I'm just the I'm the perfect blend to figure this out. I had time. I'm a caregiver at heart. I'm kind of emotional. So when I was failing her, I, I felt it very deeply. And at the same time, I'm a guy, so I didn't like fall down a rabbit hole of emotion. I was just like, damn it, I gotta fix this, you know, right. So it's just, it's a lucky dumb random mix. If I could try to get thrown into a different life. I might be, you know, a complete failure. Like who knows? Seriously.

Kyle Knudsen 31:51
Well, I'm glad you landed on this one, because it's been helpful.

Scott Benner 31:55
While I'm happy, you're better off I'm pretty sure Arden doesn't share your sense.

Kyle Knudsen 32:01
I get that.

Scott Benner 32:03
But it's even she's really even. That's a good example. Like, she's completely comfortable. Like, think of all the personal things we talked about on here about Arden. Yeah, she doesn't care. She doesn't know. She's never thought in the world about it. She doesn't know who any of you are. And I don't think she cares though. She's just she's like, if it's helping people. That's cool. And that's it, you know? But yeah, so what what struck you first so you're you you're scared of lows, but you realize you don't want to be higher. You don't want to have that variability like what was what was the breakthrough thought for you.

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Kyle Knudsen 35:48
when I was diagnosed you know my blood drop blood sugar level was we unfortunately nine like I said but my my a once he was 14 too so quite high Yeah. And and that that 14 two is what I started kind of doing some research around like what do they want see me? What is that? What is that? You know, what does that telling me and and that's where probably some my anxiousness about the highest came around. So trying things, you know, I was on Lantus and novolog pen out of the gates and just trying things and watching you know, watching my trends through fingerprints that first night, once I found your podcast, I still didn't have my Dexcom. So I'm trying to establish trend lines through I don't know, 15 fingerprints a day. I mean, I was you know, mildly obsessive about it. Because I really wanted to understand what my blood sugar's were doing. Getting the Dexcom obviously made a huge difference. And with before that I was already just being more bold, right? If something wasn't working, I wasn't just saying, Okay, well, you know, 15 grams of carbs is one unit. And that's just is what it is, if if something was sideways, I was correcting, I was I was starting to pay more attention to what different foods were doing to me, you know, from a glycemic load standpoint, whatever else, you know, maybe a protein bar at certain grams of carbohydrates is going to be true to, you know, one to 10 or one to 12 ratio. But that same carb load in a piece of white bread is much different. So I started just to pay more attention to that. And then really started to just be more aggressive and be more bold and try things and know that if I could catch it a low wasn't really scary anymore. The other thing that really resonated with me, and I think I mentioned to you in our first kind of communication a few months back, is stopping the arrows. And stopping the arrows is so key to my daily diabetes management. Because again, another one of your sayings. If you prevent highs, you're just as likely to prevent those lows, right? If you keep yourself from going high. So I try to make sure my trend lines are are stable, I try to make sure all of those things and that's really what I started to focus on is understanding when you have to take the infant, when does it need to hit? When when do I maybe have to do a split dose because I was MDI at the time, so on and so forth, and really honed in on that. So I went in end of October for check on not a diabetes related check. But I what since I was in I said well, you might as well do a blood draw and see and I had brought my a one c down to 6.8. So from August 1 at 14 to to end of October, I was 6.8, which I felt like was a pretty great start to my diabetes journey

Scott Benner 38:55
and listening to the show. It didn't resonate with you immediately. Did you have trepidation that you were able to blow past because I'm asking because I see people intersect with the information in a couple of ways. And one of them is they'll see it. It'll make sense to them. But their fear so overwhelming. They can't they can't break past it. And like you're, you're not, you're not the typical like archetype listener for the show. Do you know what I mean? Like you're I there are men listening. But I don't know how to say this. Like, I've interviewed a lot of guys. And you know, most of them are more like me. They're you know, I don't know, I don't know what to say here. Hold on a second. You're a very manly guy, Kyle, is what I'm saying. Right? Like, you're a big motorcycle riding guy. And and you know, I think of Jeremy who was on a few weeks ago who's you know, like works at a Harley dealership. And I'm like, I'm like how did I reach Jeremy because it seems like you and he shouldn't intersect Well with this but you did better than a lot of people.

Kyle Knudsen 40:04
Yeah, I I jumped right in, once I once I, once I had kind of affirmation of there's a better way to manage it. And that was both through your your podcasts or reading what people were posting within the online community. You know, reading a couple of the books that I was reading, I, I kind of made that switch right away to say, I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to get aggressive I'm going to do this because what I'm currently doing isn't working the way I want it to. So it's, it's, I'm making the change. Yeah. So it didn't take long for me to really just embrace it and go with it and get bold and, and do it. It hit right away. And yeah, again, you were my first podcast. So I would imagine that I am probably not the normal listener, the normal one, you know, I ride a Harley, I snowmobile, like, you know, we boat all summer and it looks like you build something

Scott Benner 41:04
with your hands at some point, or at least a bow and arrow or something.

Kyle Knudsen 41:08
I you know, I hunt some Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 41:12
I'm good. Imagine you riding an elk? That's all.

Unknown Speaker 41:17
I haven't done that yet.

Scott Benner 41:18
We'll get to that guy. What the hell? No, but even like, I'm trying to imagine you intersecting with me through a podcast. And sticking with it, you must have really been desperate.

Kyle Knudsen 41:30
I guess I probably was. Yeah, I was

Scott Benner 41:33
from New Jersey, just talking a million miles an hour about a lot of things that no one has said to me yet. And you you stuck in and listen, that's really cool. It really,

Kyle Knudsen 41:43
I know, I can say this to because I appreciate your sense of humor. But I do remember early on reading, you know, the way people were writing about this Scott guy, you know, and how he's changed their lives. And I'm like, you know who who these people think this guy is like some diabetes Savior. podcast, you know, that was early on. But then I got it. I understood, right. I it resonates

Scott Benner 42:08
I have to tell you, man, I see some of the really kind things that people post online or you know, an Instagram and stuff. And there's part of me that wants to jump in and be like, Hey, you guys gotta calm down a little bit. I swear to you, there are there are moments when I feel like I'm being spoken about like a deity. And it really is. It's strange for me, just so you're like, I'm not. I know somebody out there thinks I'm lying. But I don't see that and just go, oh, finally being treated the way I deserve. Like, I just I'm like, Oh, this is it feels weird to me. I'm really thrilled that people are having such great success, and that they're willing to tell other people, but you have to understand that I don't see me the way you see me. It's,

Kyle Knudsen 42:47
you know, I I can tell that very readily. Thank you. And I totally get it.

Scott Benner 42:53
Because I my family teases me constantly. I walked in the room the other day. Alright, hold on. I need a drink. Sorry. No, I got this really nice email. I get a lot of really nice emails. And apparently, if I think to tell my wife about them, I apparently start the conversation by going Hey, I just got a really nice email. Would you like to hear it? So I guess I've used the phrase really nice email enough. So I come in the room literally last night. And Arden and Kelly are together. Our house is so strange. Now Kelly's taken over the dining room. And you know, like she's working in there. And Arden was doing her homework in there. And I come into the room and I pause and Arden's got my sense of humor, like, exactly. And before I can open my mouth, she looks at me goes, any chance you received a really nice email you'd like to share with us. I was like, so I said no. And then she laughed. She goes, were you coming in here to tell us about that? And I was like, well, I did just get a really nice email.

Kyle Knudsen 43:52
That's really great.

Scott Benner 43:53
It's, um, if I really stopped and thought about it, I think I'd be overwhelmed by it. Yeah. And so I try to just keep going. I see the podcast is growing, and it's reaching people, and it's generally helping people. And so I just want to keep going. I also don't have the burden of how do I want to say this? There are a lot of people who share things online. And I don't know that they're not sharing it, because I think it's a business first to them, I guess, is what I mean. And, you know, I just don't have that feeling. I think that the podcast, I mean, it makes money because it has ads, but it has ads, because it's helping people. And because I don't, I don't do anything to grow the podcast, I can't, I couldn't afford to buy an ad or note, nor would I know how to do that. And so people are helped by it, they tell somebody else about it, it gets bigger, because it's bigger, it can support advertisements. And And to be perfectly honest, at this point, it takes up so much time that if it couldn't support advertisements, I don't think I'd be able to do it. So I think it's a pretty fair trade off. It's been Basically my full time job at this point, and you got it for free. And so and so I feel good about that. What I don't feel good about sometimes is, you know, seeing people say like, Hey, I bet you don't know about Pre-Bolus singing, of course, people don't know about it a lot of times and they go, if you just for $60, I'll explain it to you in my one month course. I'm like, Ah, that feels dirty to me. But then I don't need $60. I don't know if I don't know what I would do. Kyle, if I did, like if I was financially struggling, like, would I pimp this podcast out? I'm not sure. I don't think I would. It doesn't seem like me. But it's also it's not my life. So I'm not I'm not certain. So I'm not judging anybody. I'm just saying that I think it's easier for you to accept, because I don't appear to be asking you for anything. And you know, that makes it? Or am I am I overthinking it?

Kyle Knudsen 45:48
No, 100% I that that's that's what got that's what got me into listening to it is I could tell you, we're doing it to talk about the different products within Type One Diabetes that support your podcast, right? That's not why you were there. You're there to try to get the information out to people who who can really benefit from the information.

Scott Benner 46:09
I'm glad I'm very it's hard to know if you're doing what you mean to be doing sometimes. I don't know if that that makes sense or not. Yeah, that is my intention. I just, I I've probably said it 1000 times, but I used to cry in the shower. And I don't think that's how people should have to live. Especially if, if I'm if I'm telling you like if I said to you right now. Hey, Kyle, now that you've heard the podcast, does it make sense that I think that you can manage your type one diabetes really well manage insulin? Well, if you just get your Basal insulin straight Pre-Bolus your meals and understand that different foods have different impacts? Yeah,

Kyle Knudsen 46:46
that's it right? Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Yeah, it's almost that easy. It really is. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've you know, I'm a 15 1414 months 14 and a half months into my journey at this point in time. And, you know, if I look at my two week Dexcom right now, it probably says my averages 106107. And my standard deviation is somewhere around 15 to 18. And that's not difficult for me to maintain. Week after week, month after month at this point. It's, it's once you have and it's a few basic tools I Pre-Bolus. I you know, I watch my Dexcom around the time that I'm eating so I understand what's going on. I'm now I'm I'm I'm on the pod as well. I'm not looping at all, I just kind of do it organically at this point. Yeah. And I got both of my siblings on to Omnipod as well. And neither of them were on a pump. My brother the 20 some odd years in wasn't on a dex or up pump. He was still just finger sticking and doing multiple daily injections. And I've since turned him into a dex and Omnipod user and he loves it. And he's lowered his agency and he's doing doing really well with it. So

Scott Benner 48:06
do they listen, or do you kind of pass what you've heard to them? How does that work?

Kyle Knudsen 48:12
My sister listens. And then I just talk their ear off all the time when we're together and ask them questions and push them and you know, they probably get sick of me, but I don't know if it's a good question. I don't know if my brother's listened to or not. He's certainly familiar with it. And I know he is a part of I believe he is part of the the Facebook community.

Scott Benner 48:35
Is the IGN or Thor or something like that.

Kyle Knudsen 48:38
Yes, it's Yes. That No, it's Kirk. So

Scott Benner 48:41
close. Actually, I would have gotten to it if I guess three more times.

Kyle Knudsen 48:45
That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we're all Ks. Kirk and Kim and Kyle nice.

Scott Benner 48:51
I I'm I'm falling for children. Right now. My daughter being one of them. It's 11 o'clock here. Arden's just powering through a school she probably hasn't even eaten yet. There's a little boy, whose mom I would describe as patently lost eight days ago, my daughter's friend and mother of a 11 year old who again three days ago, whose graph was a disaster. And I have blood sugars in front of me that are 126 148 120 and 119. And they're all stable. So it really isn't, I'm not trying to say diabetes is super simple. I'm saying that there are steps you can take that will lead to that. I mean, three of those kids have eaten breakfast already. And two of them were what I would call bad at diabetes less than a week ago. And and now they're not and they're getting over their fears. They're understanding how to use their insulin, and I'm going to, you know, these two other people that I'm following, I'm going to be unfollowing them, probably today. They don't need me, they're fine. And get it you know, it just it comes to them and I I don't want to. I don't want to say there's three things you understand. You know, what I'm saying is, is that the culmination of this podcast will lead you to Kyle's outcome. If you can hear it and and not be afraid of it. I don't see how it doesn't I by now I keep Arden's a one C and the fives by mistake. You know what I mean? Like I'm not even trying anymore. So it just it just happens you do the things and then it happens. I don't know yeah,

Kyle Knudsen 50:29
I checked I mid summer I had my you know, annual a one c check. It was sometime in July and I was at I was at a six. That's excellent. And, and the month leading up to that I had a motorcycle trip and a couple other things where my blood sugar was probably higher than it normally would have been. So Truthfully, I would guess I'm consistent five and a half to six. Point.

Scott Benner 50:52
How is it? Did you keep your blood sugar higher to ride on purpose?

Kyle Knudsen 50:56
No, I didn't. So that's a that's an interesting dynamic to my life as being on motor sports and, and where the blood sugar threshold crosses, right. I I probably would knock back my, my mealtime insulin by maybe a half a unit while a while if I knew I was gonna then hop on my motorcycle and ride just to be on the safe side because I tend to be a little more aggressive. So you know, I just dialed it back slightly. With a with kinda in my head, if I could kind of land in that 100 to 110 range. Once everything settled down, then I know I'm comfortable. And I have time to react. But I didn't I didn't want to get into that. I'm going to keep it up at 130 or 140 all day long, just because I don't want to have to think about it. Because, you know, it's just that gives that makes me anxious to be at that point for that long so. So a little bit like right now I'm looking at it right now I'm at 91 straight as an arrow, and I've been that way for the last 45 minutes and I low 90s. Kyle, you're a disciple of this podcast.

Scott Benner 52:13
You're gonna have a T shirt one day. I don't know if they come in your size, but I think but

Kyle Knudsen 52:20
I'm only an XL. I'm taller than I am. Why?

Scott Benner 52:23
Well, listen, let me let me run my male bone a few days up the pod up the pole for a second here. I only wrote a motorcycle for years. I didn't have another form of transportation I grew up I was so broke growing up that I need to look I need a way to get to a job. Right. So my job I worked in a sheetmetal shop making $5 an hour is about 20 minutes from my house. Now I couldn't afford car insurance. My father left my mom my mom didn't drive so nobody in the house was insured. So the state of Pennsylvania thought that I needed to pay $4,000 a year to insure a free car my uncle gave me you know, that was worth eight cents. And so I couldn't figure out how to get on the road. So I went to a local motorcycle place my dad had written off and on. You know, when I was younger I so I had been a passenger on a motorcycle but not frequently. And I had never ridden a motorcycle in my entire life. So I go to this place. I pick out a motorcycle that looks like it's, you know, a good starter bike for lack of a better term. I think it was a Suzuki something 500 has had a little 500 cc engine. And I was broke. But it was only I think the bike was like 20 $500 brand new, so I could get like this loan on it where I paid like $89 a month for this motorcycle and insurance was like free, basically very inexpensive. So I do all this and the guy's like, okay, when do you want to pick it up? I said, I need you to deliver it. And he said, We don't deliver them. And I said well, I don't know how to ride a motorcycle, so I'm going to need you to deliver it. And they they begrudgingly brought it to my house and left it there. And then I would go outside in the afternoon after work in a parking lot next to my house and taught myself how to ride a motorcycle. And I just did it over and over again. The first time I went out on the road I thought my heart was going to explode. You know from my nerves, by remember that feeling horrible, but by the time I was done I had written almost 200,000 miles on a bike by the time I last wrote one and you won't be you won't care about this but I wrote a GS xr 750 for a really long time. It's a great bike. I love that bike so much. I miss riding motorcycles in a way that's hard to put into words. But I lost my nerve one day in the strangest way I'd been hit by a car didn't bother me. I'd laid my bike down a couple of times never bothered me. One day I parked it outside of a store on a hot day. And the the kickstand kind of melted into the blacktop and it fell over. And when I picked it up, it had like $2,000 worth of damage on it. And for some reason, my brain said, Hey, if that could happen to it falling over, why aren't we worried about it when it's moving and I swear to you after 200,000 miles, I lost my nerve to ride. Just I don't know what happened. I just lost my nerve. I sold it. And I I've never been on a bike since then. But

Kyle Knudsen 55:20
I laid my bike down. Last spring, last May, May of 2019. I someone was in my lane, so I had to lay it down to not run into them. And I wondered if I would lose my nerve. But you know what? I knew my bike was totaled right away. It was a Friday night. Saturday, I was bike shopping. And I just hopped right back on and kept going.

Scott Benner 55:44
I am a person who was comfortable. 90 miles an hour was 40. To me. And, and I've been, I got the 165 once and let me explain that to you. It ain't fun. And so I

Unknown Speaker 55:57
haven't done that. I was

Scott Benner 55:59
on this highway one morning. It was like four in the morning and the sun was up. And there was like just it felt like there was not another soul in the world that was out there. And I was at a light, you know, and it was one of those. It's one of those. It's in the Southside of Philly. So people who know there's like lights on the highway, and then there's not for a while. And so I'm sitting at the light. And I looked down at the speedometer, and I thought 170 wonder if it goes 170 It's the first time I ever thought that my life. I'm gonna find out. What I can tell you is that at 160 miles an hour, you can't focus on anything. But things are flying past you so quickly. Like I picked a point off in the distance, and I just tried to stay on it. And I got to that speed. I think I counted the two and I brought it right back down again. I was like, Well, I'm never gonna do that again. But that was it.

Kyle Knudsen 56:50
But you did it. Yeah, it was.

Scott Benner 56:51
It was exhilarating. I have to tell you, oh, my God, I was pulled over one time. What a good story. It doesn't fit here on the podcast. But let's just say that if you appeal a ticket enough times, you can't get out of it.

Kyle Knudsen 57:03
Good to know. Notice.

Scott Benner 57:06
by a third of the first judge, Kyle, I, she comes in she reads the thing. And she says you're being charged. You're being charged with going 105 miles an hour over the speed limit.

Unknown Speaker 57:21
How do you plead?

Scott Benner 57:24
started to speak, I swear to you as a female judge. I got a half of a word out of my mouth and she slammed the gavel down I went guilty.

Unknown Speaker 57:36
Oh, wow.

Unknown Speaker 57:36
I was like, Thank you, Your Honor. How do I appeal?

Unknown Speaker 57:41
Word.

Scott Benner 57:41
So by talking skills, eventually I eventually ended up in a court in Center City, Philadelphia. And I talked my way out of it. I explained to him that it was stupid. And that I you know, I my family, you know, counted on me. And my mom doesn't drive. My dad's not with us. And I don't know why I did this I shouldn't have. And I don't know what I said I was in a I was in a zone, you know. And when I got done, he said okay, and he found me guilty of avoiding a stop sign. And, and as I turned around, the district attorney said, We owe you a refund. And I said you can keep it and I walked out the door because I was afraid somebody could change their mind, you know?

Kyle Knudsen 58:22
Yeah, right. I don't need it.

Scott Benner 58:23
I paid them like $400 fine. I ran out of the courtroom. I got outside and that officer comes out and he goes, Yo, man, that was impressive. And I said thank you. I don't even know what I did. You know, and then you hear a voice and it's the judge. And they want me back in the chamber. And I walked back in and I I honestly was walking towards him thinking he can't change his mind. Like he already hit the table with the stick like, Yeah, he did the thing. And he and I was like 21 years old. And he said, Hey, man, what do you want to do with your life? And I said, right now I just really want to get out of here. And he laughed, and he goes, No, I mean, like for a job. And I said, I have no idea. He said, what do you do now? We're working a sheetmetal shop and he goes, you should be an attorney. And I was like, yeah, how come and he says cuz I have no idea. Why just let you out of that.

Kyle Knudsen 59:12
That's a great story.

Scott Benner 59:13
It was like excellent, man. I gotta go goodbye. By the way, props to Philadelphia three and a half years later, that money showed up in the mail refunded to me.

Unknown Speaker 59:23
Oh, wow.

Scott Benner 59:24
They actually found me and gave me my money back. And I was so broke. It was like somebody sent me a million dollars. Anyway, I love writing and and i but i am interested. Like when if if you see a number because you I'm assuming you bump your numbers a little bit. Can you bump while you're while you're going? Or do you pull over to do that? How do you handle it?

Kyle Knudsen 59:45
Yeah, so um, my buddies will make fun of me here and there. If you know they call it the beetus. Stop. There's there's times where it if I'm going high, I'll pull over and just say, you know hey, I I need five minutes just to do something with my pump here quick and then we'll be back on the way. If I'm trending low, and again, I'm normal. I'm not in a situation where I'm where it's a freefall, right? It's a slow trend with me generally, I keep a couple of lifesavers in my jacket pocket and, you know, pop it out and Papa lifesaver in and keep heading down the road. And I mean, if it gets more than that, I'll certainly pull over and make sure that it's safe. But for the most part, I can manage it while I'm on the road, and we do trips. We're in Utah for five days. And we're riding three 400 miles a day, this last summer, and I managed pretty well for the whole trip without any major incidences. So

Unknown Speaker 1:00:41
yeah, beautiful there. Right, Utah.

Kyle Knudsen 1:00:43
Oh, Unbelievable. Unbelievable. There's a lot of writing I've ever done.

Scott Benner 1:00:47
Yeah, there's a lot of listeners to the show that I get emails, so he should move to Utah, because I always talk about like, I want to retire somewhere where there's no humidity, and I don't want snow. And sometimes you're like, well, the snow, but look here and they'll send me like pictures of places. I'm like, Man, that is gorgeous. You know, like really something? Plus, I'm huge. I'm huge in the in the Oh my god, we're just slipped out of my head.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:11
How would that happen? Not hunting? No, it's the church in in Utah.

Kyle Knudsen 1:01:17
Oh, the Mormon Church.

Scott Benner 1:01:20
I'm the diabetes like, like, I think I'm the diabetes guru in the Mormon Church

Unknown Speaker 1:01:24
within the LDS. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 1:01:26
don't know how that happened. And I'm thrilled about it. By the way, in case people are listening, I would also like to be huge. And all the other churches in case you're on Yeah. steadfastly trying to get people listen to the podcast absolutely everywhere. That's really something so you can I don't want to talk about people who aren't you because it seems unfair. But your brother seems to fall into a category for me is that time when people were diagnosed, were really it was just about like, Hey, man, eat at the certain time, give yourself this insulin. You know, it was all very just regimented and not specific, I guess, at the same time, which is interesting mix. And they don't those people so frequently don't seem to translate out into a modern management system. Do you have any idea why? Like, why did you have to push him out of it?

Kyle Knudsen 1:02:15
Yeah, I think it was probably just not knowing, you know, not, again, to your point not to necessarily speak for him. But I started talking to him about Pre-Bolus Singh. And I'm like, and then at the same time, he had a CDE that he met with that had pushed him on Pre-Bolus Singh. And I remember he and I talked about it probably 30 days after he started doing it like that, that makes a huge difference. He said, You know, I rarely see myself go above 200 anymore, because I Pre-Bolus. So it wasn't an unwillingness it. I think it was just in not knowing, not knowing that there's another way to go about it. But I think it's as simple as that.

Scott Benner 1:02:58
Yeah, the most heartbreaking notes that I get, usually include the sentence, how could nobody have told me this? Yeah. You know, for older people who've been living with diabetes for a long time, like, it's, it's confounding to them as it is to me, but to them, especially when you've been living with a seven, five or an eight a one see your whole life and someone tells you, you're doing great, you're doing great. You're doing great. Yeah, like, Oh, I'm doing great. And then, you know, three weeks after, I mean, let's be honest, college, if nobody can say you, and I can say, I'm 49 years old, and I have a podcast, it's kind of ridiculous. And you know, and you're listening to it. So, you know, yeah. Yeah. But it, it shouldn't be this isn't where it should come from. Right? You know, right. It just isn't. And, but it is, and it's going to be like we could say, you know, we could pick any number of political, you know, or society type ideas and say, This isn't how it should be. But it is how it is. And I guess that I'm glad that it works and that it's helpful to people. It just is, you know, on a on a very basic level. It's sad that no one ever said that to your brother before and that you had to get diabetes for him to find out.

Kyle Knudsen 1:04:10
Yeah, you know, yeah, I wish there was another way.

Scott Benner 1:04:13
I mean, honestly, stop and think about your brother knows the Pre-Bolus because, three years ago, I got so many emails where he was like, Can you make a T shirt? And I was like, Oh, God, alright, I'll do it. But But you know, like that's, that should not be the pathway to health. Here's what I'm getting back.

Kyle Knudsen 1:04:30
No, it's in that you know, I have another friend a gal that's had diabetes longer than my brother She's. She's from Minnesota and was on a certain, you know, Minnesota manufactured insulin pump with with reasonably good success, and asked me about the Omnipod Dexcom set up and was astonished that there was another option. Like I my care team had never talked to me about anything, but You know, the Medtronic system. And she switched. And there's nothing bad about Medtronic in that she just the tubeless the fact that it was a little The Dexcom was a little more reliable than than the Medtronic CGM. And she's had great success with it since switching and was like I would if I hadn't asked you I would have never known and had I not gotten on your podcast, I would have been on the T slim. That was my plan from my early listening. But the Omni pod was ultimately what I landed on because of the other features, the flexibility that you said, the ease of use, you know, no tubes, so huge for me. No tubes, I

Scott Benner 1:05:42
just want to say out loud in case someone from Omni pod is listening, let's not go round and round about the ad costs next year. Did you hear what Kyle just said?

Kyle Knudsen 1:05:50
That's right. That's my stamp of approval.

Scott Benner 1:05:52
I gotta be honest with you. They're actually very nice to me, that we don't argue about stuff. But I just want to tease there for a second.

Kyle Knudsen 1:05:58
No, they're, they're great.

Scott Benner 1:05:59
They're, they're great. You know what, it really is lost on most people, and there'd be no reason for them to understand that sales. People come to your doctor and talk to them about drugs. And I mean, it's it's not nefarious, it's just it's the only way that drug companies can you know, if there's three different drugs that lower your blood pressure, you know, and I'm drug B, how do I get the word out? I send somebody to your office to tell you about drug B. And and if I get there first, that's the one you prescribe. And I think that you being in Minnesota, where I mean, I don't know how aware people are, but that's where Medtronic is, and and they probably just have a stranglehold on the area because it's easier for their salespeople to get out. I would think, you know, they don't they don't have to travel. You don't have to set up a remote office. You're right there.

Kyle Knudsen 1:06:46
Yeah, and Medtronic has such huge name recognition in Minnesota, and they're a great company, and philanthropic and all of those things. So there's so many good things about Medtronic. Yeah. But I had no idea who insulet was before, you know, but truly listening to your podcast. But looking into it in general, I had no idea. I didn't even know it was an option.

Scott Benner 1:07:07
That's real. I'm glad that said I'm glad you had the option in the end. Joking aside, I don't care what insulin pump you use, I want you to be happy. But if you know about them all, then you can make a decision. It's not just like, Oh, this must be the insulin pump. It's how I and I feel that way because that's how I felt about insulin. Like my daughter struggled using novolog. But I just thought that's what the doctor gave us. So this is insulin. I never imagined there was others and, and Arden is you know thrives on a Piedra. And not that not to say that there aren't people who use Nova Laude with a ton of success. And I'm sure there are plenty of people use Medtronic pumps with a ton of success, etc tandem whatever, but you need to know so you can choose. And yeah, you know, I think I I started on novolog and actually switched in for some reason with me, I'm on humalog now, because I had to try to humalog before I can try it for biography as you say, that's what I wanted to try but I had to try both human log is a completely different experience for me my I Pre-Bolus the 20 to 30 minutes to get Abend as opposed to novolog there was some times I had to wait 60 minutes for my blood sugar to start to bend after Pre-Bolus Singh. My my I have friends and siblings that are on novolog that don't have that same experience. So it's just it's very it's a very personal everything about this disease is very personal in art and novolog would take forever to work mpwc at the wrong time and Crusher, a Peter piedras super smooth for Arden so I could I could Pre-Bolus have an 8920 minutes out like it's nothing and it just it's super smooth and consistent for she tried fiasco recently. And I'm going to tell you, it was great. It was an absolutely great but it burned her constantly. So you know people talk about injection site burning. So with with V ASP. I guess there's I don't listen, I'm out of talking about school here, but I think there's a protein in there or something that makes it work the way it works, etc. I don't know. Obviously that's not very technical, but it whatever it was. Not only did it did she have injection site burning at a Bolus, but she'd wear a pod for three days. And when she got done, it was brew, it felt bruised. She said it's really just from the basil rate. It's thung constant and she was a real trooper. She went through two vials because some people had reported it going away after a while so Arden's like I'll tough it out and see what happens but she was sore for a while while she was wearing it and when it came off for a day or so afterwards. And so we wanted to keep using it because the Pre-Bolus time was real short and it and she was not having any If the lows at all, after meals, and not to she is a ton, but they were even better, like her time and range got better, her line got more stable and we wanted to keep using it. And it just it. It just wouldn't because of the burning sensation in that, but what feels like, you know, bruising when you're done with it.

Kyle Knudsen 1:10:19
Yeah, that's it. I had read about that, that burning sensation when I was looking at it. So that's interesting. My experience with humor blog is very similar to hers with a Piedra, I can Pre-Bolus 2025 minutes on 85 to 95 with confidence knowing that it'll pick up right where I needed to be once I eat. So it's been a good experience for me,

Scott Benner 1:10:41
we actually did a thing last night, her pump site, just, you know, when a pumps like goes, and you and you really start getting good at it, you can see right away like, Oh, this is it. Like even though the pumps not done for seven hours, like I'm gonna, I'm gonna try it now. Right? So last night, she's sitting around doing homework around like seven at night, and I'm watching her blood sugar go up for reasons that I don't think makes sense that and that when you hear me talk about like when the insulin doesn't do what I expected to do, like that's what was happening. I knew it wasn't food. I know. It wasn't a Bolus. I was like this is I think it's the site. So as she climbed over 140, and we Bolus and she didn't move. I was like, Hey, you gotta change your pump. So she's doing something, I'm cleaning the kitchen, we finally get the pump on. And she's gone. Like she popped right up to 190, which is fairly uncommon for us. And she's like, I'm hungry, too. So we switched the pump, which now has a pager in it again. But we still had the fiasco. So we injected a couple of units of, of the fiasco. And I was like, Huh, let me see what happens here. So, you know, because you change the site sometimes, and they're not as reactive right away. So I was like, well, this is like, so I put in a little fiasco, it ate up her blood sugar. I Bolus, we Bolus 10 units, or 10 grams, excuse me for a cookie she wanted to have. And then we watched the this very slow decline, like 191 8171 60, she got the 130. And I was like, you still want that cookie? And she said, Yeah, I said, I think now it's time to eat it. So she eats the cookie, I swear to you, goes down to 69. And levels off and comes up to 85. And when it was over, I was like, I'm so good at this.

And to this moment, the only way I could describe to you all listening about how to do it is that after enough time, you can see when to eat. You can just see it on the on the on the Dexcom I just number and and and I took the right steps to use the right amount of insulin. I knew the two units of injected was the right correction for the 190. And then, you know, we put in insulin for the 10 carbs. And I could just see it. I don't know, I don't know another way to explain it yet. I'm gonna figure out a way to explain it one day, but for now, he just, you know, after a while, you know?

Kyle Knudsen 1:13:06
Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, getting to that point, I know that's, that's made my life even that much easier as not looking at my decks and saying, alright, either I need to do something to correct this, whether it's, you know, turn, you know, turn my basil down or just have something to eat to stop it, or vice versa. Just knowing it's gonna go too high and knowing Alright, I gotta act now, knowing knowing when to step in, this makes such a huge difference. I mean, for me to get, for me to see north of 160 or 165 on my decks is rare because of reacting FDA at the appropriate time.

Scott Benner 1:13:46
I'm thrilled for you, man. I really am. I'm, I'm kind of a little amazed that it got to you and that, but and I'm just, you know, I'm listening for people listening. I'm older. I generalize about people, just so you know, it's part of how I grew up. And Kyle doesn't fit the profile for listening to this podcast.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:05
I agree.

Scott Benner 1:14:07
Thank you. Obviously, I'm wrong. And anybody can be anything. I hear you. I hear millennials. I hear what you're saying to my ear. And I'm not I'm not resistant to the idea. I'm just telling you that as a person. Listen, if you've listened to this podcast long enough, you've heard me guess about people a lot and be right about people I've never met before. Sometimes my generalizations work out this one just really surprised the heck out of me. It really did. So I'm thrilled for you. And I'm super happy you came on into this. Did we not talk about anything that you wanted to

Kyle Knudsen 1:14:36
know I really enjoyed the conversation. It was good. I would just add I one of the reasons I reached out to you when you put a posting out about an adult that you know might want to talk to you is that I feel like I don't fit the profile. I feel like I've I was blessed with the ability to get this disease later in life. Not that it's a blessing. To have this disease, but I'm so glad that I didn't get it at age five or 10 or 15, that I was able to get it as an adult. And I just encourage anyone who is listening or know someone that doesn't need to listen to, to take control, because it's doable at really any age.

Scott Benner 1:15:18
It's so just be bold, right? Be bold. Yeah, I can't believe that that turned into a, you know that in Episode 11. I just, I was just searching for words. And I said, I don't know you have to like be like bold with insulin. I had never said that before. I never, I don't think I ever wrote it down. I never had the thought. And as my process is I record and then I go back and edit. And, and I don't edit for content as much as I edit for sound and flow and things like that. And, as I don't, I never know what I'm going to name the episodes. And when I got done, I thought oh, I'll call this one bold within. So I said that in the podcast, and that seems like catchy. And I put it on the episode. And like a year later, it took like a year because the podcast was not particularly I shouldn't denigrate it, it was more popular than most podcasts. But it wasn't like it is now in the first you know, couple in the first year, so but like a year into it, I started seeing people were hashtagging bold with insulin. And I was like, that's me. Like, I don't I've never heard anybody else say that anywhere. You know, and, and that was I was like, Oh, that must be resonating with people. And that's really how I that's all man, I just said something randomly into a microphone that made sense to you. So

Kyle Knudsen 1:16:32
yeah, that's what grabbed my attention. And that's what truly has been a big part of being where I am today from a management standpoint. Now

Scott Benner 1:16:40
again, I'm I'm genuinely thrilled for you. And I appreciate you coming on here spending the time and then talking with me. And I love that your ride. So I don't understand that you sit back like that while you're writing but

Kyle Knudsen 1:16:51
it seems so comfortable that backrest and kick the legs up and high handlebars, it's great. I love it,

Scott Benner 1:16:59
I used to just lay on the gas tank and hold my head up with my left hand. under my chin, we'd go out and ride. a close friend of mine is a police officer, and he's actually bursal old now he's getting ready to retire. But when we were younger, they do three, two elevens. And then there were a handful of guys that rode and you've never experienced motorcycle riding until you've written in the dead of night with a bunch of cops. Because you just you know, no one has a fear of getting a ticket. So it's Yeah, it's very interesting and fun way to ride and, and I'd go out with them sometimes, and they'd go on these long rides. And I would just like, I'd be tired at some point. It's like, had these guys ride forever. Like my riding was more like, you know, transportation, and then a little bit of leisure. But at the same time, like I was the guy, I'm the guy that like I'd come up to a left turn. And I'd be like, I wonder how far I can lay this bike over before that foot peg hits the ground. Like, you know, like, more like that. And so I'd get bored because they cruising along and I jump out then come back and jump out and come back. I think they hated me. But uh, but when they got real cruzi I just lay on the gas tank and put my hand under my chin hold my head up. And they were all just seated back like they were in a Barco lounger. So

Kyle Knudsen 1:18:16
yeah, no that so you're not understanding how I ride the way I ride. I'm the same way How can you lay down and look up and that just sounds uncomfortable. But hey, takes all kinds and I'm a motorcycle enthusiast. So I love motorcycles.

Scott Benner 1:18:28
I really do. I genuinely hope that I like to move somewhere more rural and and

Unknown Speaker 1:18:34
do it as an older person for leisure, but I don't know Utah's pretty good for it. So my wife,

Scott Benner 1:18:41
my wife's gonna make me stay near these kids. I know she I mean not that I don't want to but here's my biggest fear cause one of them's gonna go live one place one's gonna live in the other place and my wife's gonna be like, we have to pick a spot in the middle of an airport. And then I'm gonna end up in somewhere I don't want to be you know,

Unknown Speaker 1:18:57
Omaha.

Scott Benner 1:18:58
I'm not denigrating the insurance capital of the world. I'm just saying that I don't I don't want humidity and I don't want snow and can the kids please move like that? Because as I get older alright man, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Kyle Knudsen 1:19:12
Yeah, thanks for having me, Scott. It's great time.

Scott Benner 1:19:25
A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, g Vogue glucagon, find out more about chivo hypo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juice box you spell that GVOKEGL you see ag o n.com Ford slash juice box. Thanks also to touched by type one, check them out at touched by type one.org and the Contour Next One blood glucose meter which you can find out more about at Contour. Next One COMM forward slash juice box

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