Scott Benner 9/9/20 Scott Benner 9/9/20

#377 Chainsaw Antelope

Justin has had type 1 for most of his life

40 year old Justin was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 6 months old. He's here to talk about his life, retinopathy, neuropathy and his new path.

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Dexcom 20 Rule

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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 0:02
Hello friends, welcome to Episode 377 of the Juicebox Podcast. On today's show, we're gonna be speaking with Justin, he's 40 years old, and he's had Type One Diabetes for 40 years. Justin's here to talk about his life, but type one that includes some retinopathy and neuropathy. His message is uplifting, and his path is much improved. Please remember, while you're listening that nothing you 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. are becoming bold with insulin. Hey, do you have a great endocrinologist for Are you looking for one check out juice box docs.com. My website where listeners to the podcast share their great practitioners and it's also the same website where they sent me they're great practitioners. So if you have one, check it out and send it over. If you're looking for one the list grows every day so we might just have something for you juicebox Doc's calm of course is a free service to the podcast as is diabetes pro tip calm. Are you looking for all of the diabetes pro tip episodes in one place? diabetes pro tip.com. They're also here in your podcast app, and they started Episode 210.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter meter murderer murderer. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Please go to Contour Next one.com Ford slash juice box to learn more about the Contour Next One. The show is also brought to you by touched by type one.org. Head over to touched by type one.org. There are a great diabetes organization doing wonderful things. They have a ton of programs. One of them might be right for you touched by type one.org.

Justin 2:05
My name is Justin lemon. I am 40 years diabetic type one currently on the Omni pod and the Dexcom system. My hometown is right in the middle of Wyoming a little town called lander has about 1000 people in it. I'm currently down in the capital, Cheyenne, Wyoming. So

do work down here and

Scott Benner 2:37
that's me. How old are you, Justin? Oh, I'm 40 years old. You said you were diagnosed four years ago?

Justin 2:44
No, I've been I've been type one diabetic since I was six months old. Oh my gosh. You said 40 years ago? Yes. Yes.

Scott Benner 2:52
My gosh. All right. So you've had diabetes? Pretty much your entire life. My whole life? Yes. And you live Have you lived in Wyoming that entire time.

Justin 3:02
I moved from I was born in Phoenix, Arizona. I was diagnosed down there. And then my mom moved us back home to lander and I've been there ever since. Yes.

Scott Benner 3:14
Do you have any idea how old you were when you move back?

Justin 3:16
I was five years old. So I've been here. 35 years.

Scott Benner 3:19
This is perfect. Justin, I am thrilled to speak with you.

Justin 3:22
Well, it's great to speak with you to Ivor I've listened to almost every one of your podcasts. So this is an honor. No,

Scott Benner 3:29
please the honors mine. Thank you. I really appreciate you doing this especially because you're gonna come from, you know, a bit of a different perspective than a lot of people have in a lot of ways, you know. Right. I guess my first question for you is when were you first aware that you had diabetes? What's your earliest remembrance of it?

Justin 3:49
I knew I was diabetic. I mean, about the time I was five. I used to run away from my mom as she'd come and try to give me my shots for the day. So I was really horrified of needles back then. So that's that's a memory that sticks in my head.

Scott Benner 4:07
It's a she's she'd been doing it for a long time. But once you got mobile and a little more aware of what was happening, you tried to escape.

Justin 4:14
Yeah, once I could once I could once I was mobile, I could run

Scott Benner 4:21
that. I'm assuming you said your daily shot to where you were probably getting something in the daytime and maybe at mealtime.

Justin 4:29
Yes, I was at that point. I was getting two shots a day morning and evening. I was on Helio in our in human

Unknown Speaker 4:39
and in our um, at the time,

Justin 4:41
so fast acting and slower. Yeah.

Scott Benner 4:45
You ever speak to your mom about what it was like the ratio with the diabetes?

Justin 4:50
Um, yeah, the early part of my life was a struggle. When I was diagnosed, my glucose levels were about 100 and something so A lot of headaches, a lot of screaming and crying as a kid. She couldn't take me out to eat dinner that out in public like, because all I do is scream and holler and cry a lot. So it was a difficult time for her for sure.

Scott Benner 5:17
Do you think that your blood sugar's were like crazy out of whack?

Justin 5:23
I think so with the technology back then, you know, the shots and maybe checking glucose four or five times a day, I really didn't have her she didn't have control over it, but it was just, you know, technology at that point hadn't caught up

Scott Benner 5:40
was what it was. Do you have? Um, have you ever gone back and looked at looked at old medical records?

Justin 5:47
Um, I have not actually, that would be a good thing to do. It's interesting. Like,

Scott Benner 5:51
I just wondered, like, what was? What was the goal back then? And does your mom feel like she was meeting a goal? or was she just doing what she could do? like trying to, like, hold water back with her hands? kind of a thing?

Justin 6:02
Yeah, I think she was just trying to maintain because I mean, she was a single mother with two boys. She had to deal with both of us. I think she did what she could to. Yeah, try to make life as normal as possible for me.

Scott Benner 6:20
I'm sure she did. It's just it's fascinating to have this perspective now, like 2020. Looking back 40 years? Oh, yeah, you know, and being able to talk to somebody who's also young enough to be able to articulate it old enough to have had the experience. It's just, it's really interesting. How involved was your mother throughout the process? Like, she was an age where you were just on your own.

Justin 6:47
Uh, let's see, I started about eight or nine years old, I started giving my own shots. So I dropped my insulin, and I'd have her look at my insulin to make sure or look at my needle to make sure everything was correct. And then I just gave my own shots at that point.

Scott Benner 7:05
Okay. And did you do it pretty faithfully? Or were there times that you kind of abandoned it? Or do you remember?

Justin 7:14
No, at that point, you know, being diabetic my whole life, I really didn't see it as a different lifestyle. It's the only thing I grew up with. So the only thing I really knew, so I just knew it had to be done and just kind of took over at that point,

Scott Benner 7:29
no rebellion against it at all, at any point.

Justin 7:33
No, and I'm still not that way. Even today, you know, how you can get like, diabetes, burnout and stuff like that. It's just, it's really not there for me. I just try to find ways to solve the problem instead of let it get to me. So

Scott Benner 7:50
I'm, I'm I'm looking at residential property in Cheyenne, Wyoming right now. And it's more expensive than I thought it was going to be. I was very snobby, I guess when I looked.

Justin 8:03
Right. It's it's very expensive. We have a military base around here. And everybody knows what the military housing stipend is. So that

increases prices around here.

Scott Benner 8:17
Okay. Oh, they can price the houses to how much money they know you have.

Unknown Speaker 8:21
Oh, yeah,

Scott Benner 8:21
yes. Interesting. Yeah, I'm sure everybody tries that, but that's really interesting. Anyway, I'm currently we're like,

Unknown Speaker 8:28
oops, sorry. No, no place.

Justin 8:30
We're currently like, an hour and a half out of Denver. So, I mean, we're right next to the city for the most part.

Scott Benner 8:38
Gotcha. Oh, so you're getting rural without being too far from the city. I am looking at a $500,000 house. That's only one level. And that is kind of small. Actually. That's interesting. All right. I'll stop doing that now. When I have a lot of questions, I guess how was dating in high school?

Justin 9:01
Um, well, I mean, even even past high school datings It's a challenge at times. A lot of educating my girlfriends or they they didn't understand some of the issues that I was going through like when my glucose would go low or if they were high and I'd have a change in personality so as we get more angry or stuff like that, I think the A lot of my girlfriend's just couldn't wrap their head around it.

Scott Benner 9:36
It's got to be difficult. I mean, honestly, I did you spend time educating them about it or did that sort of not exist that ability?

Justin 9:44
Oh, yeah, that's something my mom and put into my head my whole life like let everybody know you're diabetic, everybody you work with as you're diabetic. That way if something does go wrong, at least they know that I am diabetic and into Go down those avenues first instead of fine.

Scott Benner 10:04
and wondering why? Why is Justin not standing up anymore? At least he has. So your mom's playing basically was at least to a 911 comes, there'll be 50 people yelling, he has diabetes.

Justin 10:15
That's right. Yeah. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 10:17
probably pretty good.

Unknown Speaker 10:20
So

Scott Benner 10:22
is it? Did you find somebody eventually? Who jived with you having diabetes? I guess I'm asking if you're married, or you haven't?

Justin 10:32
No, no, currently single. And that's, it's kind of in the later part of my life. Now, it's, it's a little bit scary to be alone, you know, with diabetes, because I'd like to have that backing of knowing that someone was there if something was to happen, but I'm pretty self sufficient. So I try to do things to where I'm always around a group of people or I'm with people that know what's going on to where, if something were to happen, then they could help out.

Scott Benner 11:04
So now being honest, Justin, would you say that diabetes has interfered with romantic relationships? Or do you think that your situation would be similar without it?

Justin 11:15
Well, it's Yeah, it's a good question. Because some of the stuff I wanted to talk about today, like diabetic neuropathy and stuff, Yes, it does. cause some issues in relationships today. But I think with with open dialogue and stuff with with my partners, then we can work around anything, you know. Okay, so

Scott Benner 11:39
yeah, that's the goal, right? Um, when did you begin to pump?

Unknown Speaker 11:45
Yes, yes.

Justin 11:48
So I got on my first insulin pump in 1998. And I've been on one ever since I went for tube pumps at first. And the Dexcom system wasn't out at that point. So or at least wasn't available to me at that point. So I don't know the early years on the pump. I really don't count just because the decks calm has really brought it full circle for me to be able to track everything. Yeah.

Scott Benner 12:18
So that time probably wasn't much better than injecting I'm assuming you were doing MDI at some point, right? You got off the nnr. And you were using the the newer insulins?

Justin 12:31
Yep. At that point, I searched in 98. I switched to human log, and then novolog, depending on my insurance, of course, but

Scott Benner 12:42
you did that first insulin for 19 years, then? Yes. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 12:46
Yes. All right.

Scott Benner 12:48
And how did you did it feel like starting over? When you change, just the insulin change? I'm wondering about

Justin 12:56
the insulin change. It took a minute to shift over to have my body get used to it. Yeah, I was, I can't tell you that the timeframe in there. I don't really remember. But the hardest part for me was the counting carbs. So when you when you go out to eat or whatever, when I was in college, and I went out to eat and you just kind of didn't know by looking at it, what kind of insulin you needed or, or that kind of stuff. So that was that was a bit of a challenge. But dialing that in? That was my saving grace for the most part.

Scott Benner 13:38
Yeah. Did you have? I guess, did you start off aggressively or more cautiously when you switch to the rapid acting's did like, I'm wondering if you had a bunch of lows, or if you took your time learning about it.

Justin 13:51
I did have a bunch of lows, but it wasn't because I was aggressive. It was just because of the switch and insulin. So I mean, I would hit 80. And, and then it go from 80 to like 46 in a matter of 15 minutes, you know, so I was just it was a real hard transition. And it pretty much wiped my body out for a minute. But after I got used to it. That's right. After I got used to it, it was

a blessing in disguise, I guess you'd say?

Scott Benner 14:25
Would you say that you weren't thrilled about it at first or you were excited for it?

Justin 14:30
I was excited to go on a pump. I was giving so many shots that it was deteriorating my muscle. So like the back of my arms look like craters on the moon because my muscle was deteriorating, and it just looked awful.

Scott Benner 14:46
Is that cleared up?

Yes, definitely. It's exciting. Good for you. All right. So you're putting insulin in and you don't really know what you're doing still, like you're testing with meters, which is you know, what you Had. Right? And you're in a college age at that point, is that right? Yes. Okay, so how long did that? How long was that your life?

Justin 15:13
Um, let's see, I got I got on the Dexcom for about four years ago now. So I'd spent from my 98 till 2016 without adex calm. And at that point I and I realized that I needed to check my glucose more, so I was giving probably 1415 finger sticks a day to test my glucose levels. And once I found the dex calm, I was like, Oh, no more finger pricks. All right, this is great.

Scott Benner 15:48
And even with those that many sticks, you were still having issues. So what was your What was your agency as an adult? during that time? Ah,

Justin 15:59
that's a good question I was sitting in the mid to upper six is 6.5 to 6.8,

Scott Benner 16:08
which is really very good. And were you experiencing a lot of lows along with that, or?

Justin 16:13
I do. And that's I had listened to in one of your podcasts, you know, you're a one C is the average of the, you know, three months or whatever. And it was hard, because I, I'd have a lot of highs, and I'd have a lot of lows, but it was averaging out and making my look good. And that wasn't really what I was looking for. I wanted the happy medium,

Scott Benner 16:37
but you need the stability for certain. But I'm just I'm interested in hearing the story about you coming to that conclusion. I'm wondering how your Well, I guess I don't know how frequently you see an endocrinologist?

Justin 16:49
Oh, you're a great question. I've got my first endocrinologist now. appointment in April, and I haven't had one for 20 years, my mom had taken me to the Barbara Davis center in Denver when I was a teenager. But after that, I really just learned everything I could off the internet.

Scott Benner 17:11
Where did you get your prescriptions from?

Justin 17:14
Just our local doctor in town.

Scott Benner 17:16
And he was completely comfortable doing that? Yes, yes. Thing is what I'm getting at.

Justin 17:22
Right. And they they don't know. I mean, at this point, I know more about diabetes, and most of them dead. So they're just kind of go off what I would say talk to them about, like, I'm getting highs and lows and not being able to figure it out. None of the none of my doctors could answer any of those questions. That's why I turned to the internet. Mainly, it's because I wanted answers to the questions. I couldn't find answers for

Scott Benner 17:50
this. Partly so I'm a little stuck, like it's my inclination to say Is this because of where you live, but you're also close to Denver. So you're not completely rural, but are there just not a ton of endocrinologist clamoring to be endocrinologist in Wyoming or?

Justin 18:04
Well, the orange, there are in Cheyenne down here, and I've been down here about a year now. But in lander, it was when I was growing up, there's 6000 people in my town. And now there's only about 8000 people, and there's no endocrinologist there at all, I have to drive two and a half hours to see an endocrinologist. So

it just didn't happen.

Scott Benner 18:28
That makes a lot of sense. I'm just trying to, you know, it's funny, because some people listen, you know, I see the map where people listen, and people listen in every state in the country and all over the world, actually. But it's it's more ever, it's more concentrated on the coasts a little bit. And I know there's more people there. But there's still it's this proportion that that there's more in some places, and I'm always talking behind the scenes with people about, you know, we have to go to places where they don't have care like this to talk to them. So, you know, it was funny when I'm, like, I'm trying to get something together in Iowa right now. And I was just in Oklahoma recently. And it's funny, because these more these smaller places that think of themselves as I don't know, I guess I can't put myself in their shoes, but a lot of them start the conversations with, like, I'm really, we're grateful you're considering coming here. And the first couple times it was said to me, it threw me off. And I was like, Why? Why are you grateful? Like, what does that mean? You know, like, what's, and then I realized that, you know, even like speakers or stuff, like they don't get people coming there. And, and I and I just said to my wife, I'm like, I think that what the podcast has taught me is that this information in people's hands is valuable. And the sooner they have it, the better. But some of them are disconnected from I mean, listen, it's hard to find people who understand podcasts, though. There's a lot of them but right you know, to find a person who says, Oh, I know what to do. I'll get a podcast app and I'll do this tonight. It's, it's not that well understood. Still, it's growing, but not that well understood. My idea is to go to places like Iowa or Wyoming or those kinds of places have a conversation with a few hundred people and light a fire. So that maybe then they start talking to each other or speaking back to their doctors. And that the idea that you don't have to be at the, at the will, of your, you know, your blood sugar is, you know, is real. My daughter sending me a text that I don't understand, oh,

Justin 20:35
this is gonna be our glucose, all right?

Scott Benner 20:37
No, no, no. She says, Are you here? And I said, Why? And I have a horrible feeling. She's about to tell me she has a half day and I didn't know it.

Justin, I probably shouldn't be in charge of humans. Oh, when it was over? Oh, get a ride. Let's see what happens.

Justin 21:01
Tell her to get her an Uber.

Scott Benner 21:04
It's, it's not a far walk. It's just a little too far away. Right?

Justin 21:10
Do you need to hang up? We can we can get back at it. And are you after you grab your daughter?

Scott Benner 21:15
Do you have like, if this went over 10 minutes from what we were thinking about? Would that be okay?

Justin 21:21
Oh, yeah, no, you're fine. Hold on a

Scott Benner 21:23
second. Let me see if she can get a ride first. And then we'll do this people are like, I can't believe I listened to this guy about insulin. He can't he doesn't even Doris,

Justin 21:31
I love it. This has been I mean, your podcast has been my golden nuggets for me. I mean, it's changed my life, because it's finally someone that talks about insulin pumps and, you know, a day in the life of someone on an insulin pump. So it's been really helpful for me.

Scott Benner 21:51
And so is that the first thing that it helped you with is just like an idea of community, people speaking about the things you want to talk about that you just can't find in your personal life.

Justin 22:03
That's exactly and you know, because I was still seeing when the earlier is on, or that when I had the Dexcom family and I was on the Omni pod. You guys talking about you talking about what you did to help your daughter out and put like stuff like Pre-Bolus in before you eat and letting your glucose go down before you actually starting to eat like I would have never known had I not listened to your podcast. I mean, there's only so much you can really find on the internet. So.

Scott Benner 22:35
So just let me ask you something, because you had it happen to you for so very long. When you watch the same thing happen over and over again every day. And it didn't occur to you to just try something different. Like I'm not it's not a admonishment of you, I'm trying to figure out like, do you just feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. And what's happening is what's supposed to happen.

Justin 22:55
I really wasn't happy with the outcomes I was seeing. So I wanted to do something to change that outcome. And I didn't want to do the same repetitive, like, let's just continue doing the same thing. And then hearing you say be bold with insulin that was just okay, well, let's try it. You know, like, I'll keep extra food on hand just in case I go low. But let's, let's see what I can do here. And let's actually test the parameters of the insulin and and see what I can see what the insulin does and how it works. And what I need to do to adjust that to fit my lifestyle. That makes

Scott Benner 23:33
me happy, Justin, I appreciate that, that struck you that way and that you gave it a chance that's a big, did it feel like a big leap to just use a bunch more insulin?

Justin 23:44
It did because I was at that point. I was like, Okay, so that's one unit of insulin for every 15 grams of carbs. And so I was following the protocol and things weren't working out. So I was like, Well, let me try this or let me adjust basal rates a little bit or when we increase my basal rate for that the next hour or two hours or decrease it so just trying to tailor it to my body because you know, when you go high or go low, you just don't feel right. So I was sick and tired of not feeling good. Yeah.

Scott Benner 24:22
I'm interested about how your doctors reacted when you or was there not? Did they not notice because I guess you're a one sees not bad, but your variability is probably much better now.

Justin 24:32
Yes, it is definitely better, um, with the doctors that I have in town. They really weren't that in depth on diabetes. So I didn't I really couldn't talk to them about that. So

Scott Benner 24:48
you really haven't had the ability to like celebrate this with anybody then right?

Justin 24:53
No, no, this is like, this is great for me. pat on the back like you did a good job. Let's continue to move forward.

Scott Benner 25:00
Austin's diabetes coming out party we're having today. Yeah. Oh, that's really boy. I'll tell you what, that's super interesting, isn't it? Because people who live in more metropolitan areas are surrounded by doctors, your people all the time, say I didn't like my endo. So I went and found another one, which I think is great, except there's actually another one for them to go find. And, but but many people in the country and around the world, they don't have that same opportunity to just pile up to go doctor shopping, I guess.

Justin 25:26
Right? I mean, and for me, I mean, like I said, it's been 20 years since I've had an endo and I'm, I'm excited. I don't even know what to expect. Like, when I go in, I really don't know what to what to expect from an endo anymore. So

Scott Benner 25:43
what is your data tell you a one says,

Justin 25:46
As of right now, I'm sitting at a 6.1. And that's from IPS. From the charts that I've seen, but off of my clarity,

Scott Benner 25:58
Yeah, I'm fine. I'm assuming the endo is just gonna look at you and treat you like you're a great guy and give you your prescription send you on your way, he's probably not gonna feel like he is a he or she's gonna have a thing in the world to tell you.

Justin 26:10
Well, there is there's a lot of stuff like I mean, I have diabetic retinopathy. So I've been getting the PRP laser and the injections in my eyes. Okay. So I have questions for him on that and different things that I want to talk about that and then the diabetic neuropathy stuff

Scott Benner 26:31
will get out of them for sure.

Justin 26:33
Yeah, definitely.

Scott Benner 26:35
So you have vision issues? Yes, I do. Okay, and then you're about to say there's something else as well.

Justin 26:43
Um, the last few years, I've noticed that diabetic neuropathy. So I'm, I'm losing like, sensation, like, I took a chainsaw to the knee a couple years ago. And I didn't even feel it. I hiked out of the back country and took myself to the hospital. And they were floored that I could walk into the hospital and actually tell him that I needed help. So it's that stuff. It's really scary, because I spend a lot of time in the backcountry snowboarding in the winter and whatnot. So I don't want to have it to where, you know, I think it's just me being cold. And my glucose is just plummet editor, and I really can't feel stuff. And do you

Scott Benner 27:27
attribute these things to? Basically the care you had in the beginning of your life?

Justin 27:33
Yeah, I think that since technology wasn't there, and you know, my mom did everything she could to keep me on an arm. So yeah, I think it's just I mean, modern technology is the key to diabetes right now. I think

Scott Benner 27:46
so too. Hey, let's take a detour for a second. What kind of work I do.

Justin 27:52
Right now I'm, I'm an auditor for the state of Wyoming. I contract for the federal government to do royalty audits for oil and natural gas. So I've got an office job now.

Scott Benner 28:07
I was just like, trying to wonder why you were chainsawing. Somewhere near nothing. But that's just Oh, I can't understand why. In my head.

Justin 28:15
Well, that was that was a little side hustle. I guess you'd say. Everyone's doing it to make a little bit of extra income back then.

Scott Benner 28:24
Gotcha. Gotcha. All right. Just like snowboarding with a chainsaw. I don't know. Yeah. So Wyoming thing I don't get.

Justin 28:31
You know, we're not that we're not that up kill.

Scott Benner 28:35
I'm telling you, my wife and I sat around last night for about an hour. Just searching out. rural land with a house on it. We didn't even know what state to look at. We were just looking all over the country. We're like, this one's nice. This one's nice. Trying to imagine getting away from weather so many people.

Justin 28:58
But I can't even imagine, you

Scott Benner 29:00
know, have you do you leave Wyoming much or have you ever?

Justin 29:04
Um, I do I like to travel. I mean, I've been all around the world, but I really haven't been to the east coast much. There's so many and I know that's where most of the population is that is on the east coast. Right?

Scott Benner 29:15
Right. Now if I could, I can step into my backyard and with a baseball, I could probably hit on 234 or five. My son My son could my son could probably hit about eight houses with a baseball for my backyard. Like in all different directions. That probably sounds crazy to you that

Justin 29:36
too. So I do live in town but my My home is right in town but I'm 10 minutes away from National Forest. By at that point, you barely see anybody out there.

Scott Benner 29:48
What are the winters like they're they really rough.

Justin 29:52
They can be down in Cheyenne, we've got the wind it's it's the wind tunnel on Interstate 80. So they There's a lot of wind down here. There's probably three or four inches of snow on the ground right now. That happened last night. But for the most part, I mean, decent winters. We don't see in my hometown. I mean, there'll be maybe a week during the winter that it's below zeros for the most part, but I have seen 40 below. Oh my god air.

Scott Benner 30:26
In it, I guess Denver's your airport. Right from where? Where you live? Yes. Okay. Yep. All right. So So, I want to hear a little more about how the retinopathy affects your life like day to day. Especially, is it tactile in your hands, your feet like, is it everywhere? Let's head over to Contour Next one.com forward slash juice box together. It pops up. What do I see first, the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, hyper accuracy, hypo price, see what they did. They're hyper hypo, like the accuracy is high, and the price is low. You get it, you can get the number one branded over the counter test strip at an affordable price, cacher copay. Remarkable accuracy and an affordable price for the contour next test strips may be less expensive than your insurance copay. And it's worth comparing. Head over to Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox. To find out more, when you get there, you're going to see that this meter is let's Arden's meter, you're gonna look right out and go, that's the meter Arden uses, I find it to be incredibly accurate, have a bright, strong light for nighttime viewing, it fits well in my hand and in art. And it has that second chance tester, right you can touch the blood not good enough, go back, get what you need. without ruining the test strip, you still get an accurate reading. This meter is the bee's knees to understand. That's a thing from like the 20s I think, but yet it holds true. There's even an app if you want to use to help you make sense of those blood glucose numbers. And that app of course is available for free for Android or iPhone. I'm gonna spend just a second seeing what the heck Bee's Knees means. A highly admired person or thing. The cat's meow even? Well, I don't like that. I like bee's knees. Okay. While you're on that internet, check out touched by type one.org. Because they may have programs that you're interested in, touched by type one.org actually find them on Facebook or Instagram because the founder is super pregnant. And she's adorable. Check out her pictures, Elizabeth is about ready to have her first baby. So maybe you'll find that on Instagram, or Facebook touched by type one. No pressure, Elizabeth but Scott is a terrific name for a baby. Last thing, T one D exchange, right? If you're looking to support Type One Diabetes Research in an anonymous way. It's 100%. HIPAA compliant will not take more than 10 minutes of your time. And it's not asking deeply probing questions, but the information will be taken to do something amazing with this is what you're looking for. And it supports the podcast, T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. I took the survey in about 10 minutes, seven to 10 minutes, I think I took it as the parent of a child with type one. You do have to be a US resident. But it can be for you the adult with type one or if you're the parent of a child, either or can do it. Then once a year, they'll come back ask you a few other kind of update questions. But other than that, that's it and you're going to do good. This research has been used to change ADA requirements for a one sake. It's been used to get CGM for Medicare patients. It's been used for really cool stuff. So if you want to improve the lives of type ones, and you want to support the podcast, p one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box like I said, super anonymous, HIPAA compliant. You'll never have to go to a doctor's office or visit a site. Just an easy way to give back. You know, before we get back to the show, I have to admit something. This is the first time I've lived in an ad. Scott is not a great name for a baby.

I want to hear a little more about how the retinopathy affects your life.

Justin 34:51
Um, well, the the retinopathy

it affected my peripheral vision so the laser that I can see About 2020 through the main focal point of my eye, but as you get off into the peripheral, I'm not able to see very well anymore. Of course, like night driving and glares from lights and stuff like that affect my eyes quite a bit. Has there

Scott Benner 35:17
been any improvement with any of your symptoms? Since you've got your stability better, and, and the variability of your blood sugar has lessened? It has Well, not that you could reverse. Yeah,

Justin 35:32
but I think that's

right. Well, I think that I mean, I've, I've kind of hit that plateau to where everything's like, starting to come into a norm and my vision is getting better. But I mean, even last year, I spent, oh, a month, month and a half without vision in my left eye, all I could see was a blood clot. So I had those capillaries bursting and bleeding in my eye. So

Unknown Speaker 36:02
he's the only

Justin 36:04
the laser helps. It affects my vision, but the laser helps and the shots, let the swelling go down from the laser. So then, I mean, it takes a round of shots in my eyes after that, to be able to actually see really well again.

Scott Benner 36:23
Thank you, for the person Justin I've ever spoken to who's gotten the shot in their eye? Can you tell me what it feels like?

Justin 36:29
Um, for the most part, you don't feel it, because they know me pretty good when it drops, and then they'll give you a numbing shot. Um, it's weird, though, because a couple of times, you know, it feels like it pops. Like you're poking a needle into a ball, you can feel that later got through.

Scott Benner 36:46
So just you just said a tingle right up my, my spine. We're pop is what got me in case you're wondering.

Justin 36:54
Well, I'd rather have the shots than laser because the laser treatment is just, it's frightening. It really is when you're going through how so I'm the bright light flashing when the laser hits your eyes. In the beginning, I felt it. I mean, they strap your head into a machine, to where sometimes it feels like the laser hits the back of your head and it yanked your head back. And this is I'm all numb. Yeah. And from shots and everything. So I'm not feeling it. But the laser like in my head is causing my body to move in ways that I didn't like want it to. So that's right.

Scott Benner 37:37
I am sorry, that that's part of your, your reality that that is, that's terrible, I hope very much that that story becomes less and less as the technology becomes more and more available for people. You know, right? I think the next stage really is cost, right? Like it has to get to a place where anybody can afford to have it.

Justin 37:59
You got to hit that equilibrium cost and what Pearson's will be able to afford Yeah, well, it's, I mean,

Scott Benner 38:11
is it one of those things, like if I went back in time, and I found you in your 30s, and I said, Listen, you're probably gonna have side effects, Miss diabetes, but I can give you this thing, but you're gonna have to pay cash for it like you think back then you would have been able to make the leap for that.

Justin 38:26
I would have made it happen. I mean, I worked on the drilling rigs, I was making enough money at that point to where I can afford

these,

Scott Benner 38:37
you could have done it. Yeah. Sort of what I'm getting at is like, there are people now I mean, listen, it's very expensive, there's gonna be plenty of people who can't afford it out of pocket one way or the other. But right now someone's listening who could do it out of pocket. And isn't. And I'm wondering if I talk to those people 20 years from now, they're gonna say, I wish I would have dug into my pocket and bought this thing. Like I'm trying to figure out, you know,

Justin 39:02
it's one of those things, especially with your eyes, like, if I will do whatever it takes to not go blind. So whether that be finding the money to pay for the treatment, or finding ways to better control my glucose or anything, whatever it takes I would do to to have a better lifestyle.

Scott Benner 39:27
Yeah, no, I mean, visions just, it's, it's one of those things, right? Yeah,

Justin 39:31
it's scary. Yeah. When when you have capillaries burst in your eye and you can't see anything but a red splotch. That's when you realize like, I need to. I need to do whatever it takes to make this better.

Scott Benner 39:45
Yeah. Um, geez, I think Arden's actually home by the way.

Justin 39:50
Oh, good.

Unknown Speaker 39:52
Look at her.

Justin 39:53
I was gonna ask her co founder. I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 39:55
I was wondering. I actually just did Find My iPhone to see where she was. And it says she's here. Yeah, she's Home, Oh, cool. Um, my son at that age would have had a stroke. If I was like, just find your own way home was a different kind of person who would have been like, I can't believe you've abandoned me here. I will not embarrass him and tell you a story about once when I asked him to cross the street, because you probably fought a grizzly bear. And you would find this story very embarrassing. Sorry, I won't do that. I got

Justin 40:22
good. I did things to that, that are like, way outside of what my norm would be, you know, I get scared during times. But do you think that's because your daughter had diabetes? Do you think that's why she's a little more,

Scott Benner 40:35
he's a little more like me, my son's a little more like my daughter, or like my wife. But that was a Freudian slip, I'm imagining. And, and he just does a little more reserved, and things he hadn't done before. He wouldn't. He wouldn't just jump into he's so much different. Now. He's going to be 20 in a couple of days. And I've seen him do a half a dozen things in the last six months that Oh, wow. Never would have done before. So he grew out of it. But there was a time when he was younger. Wow, this, this story actually has to do with me not understanding his schedule. There's a time when he was younger, when after school, he went with a bunch of friends to a restaurant. And they won't they walk to it. And while they were there, I realized that he had an orthodontist appointment that I'd forgotten about. And right when I remembered it, there was still time for him to get there. And the ortho appointment was quite literally across the street from where he was. Now. It's a traffic light with, you know, two lanes of traffic. So I said to him, I'll meet you at the doctor's office. But I can't get to you in time to get to the doctor's office, but you can get to the doctor's office. As like I said, so just go and he goes, how am I going to do that I'm like, go to the traffic light, wait for to turn green wait for there's no cars that come and go across the street. And I got a text from him five minutes later. And it just said, I can't do it. Like he could not bring himself to cross that street. So I picked him up and we went and he was a little late, and he's not that person anymore. But back then Arjun would have just been like, Yeah, okay. And then she would have ardent would have wandered into traffic, if she thought it was like what she needed to do. She's different. And is that her or her diabetes? You know, just there's no way to know, I've seen her be extraordinarily tough for her age a number of times. And there is times when I think it's because she's been through things that are just difficult. And difficult things just seem like something new to her, you know? So yeah, I think it's one of the I think it's one of the benefits of diabetes, which I'm sure that's not a sentence. It's spoken often, you know, the benefits of diabetes. But anyway, yeah, I think to your to your question, I think it I think it has something to do with that, honestly.

Justin 42:51
Well, because I'm, I mean, I view my life as being like more going to tell me to do something, I'll do it, or I'll figure out a way to do it. And it's just like, that's just kind of how I grew up. So I don't know, I can't honestly say it's diabetes, either. But diabetes is my whole life. So I can say it's not diabetes, either. So

Scott Benner 43:15
sometimes when someone's harsh with me, they're like, Oh, I'm sorry. I'm like, Listen, I've been married for 23 years. You can't scare me, like you think scares me. You're out here, right? Absolutely out of your mind. And I add to that, you know, my daughter has type one diabetes, like, there's not a lot that like we you know, you see people get flustered about things, sometimes you're like, This is nothing. And it's the worst thing happening to them. But they just they lack perspective

Justin 43:42
on it. Right? And just how calm you. I mean, from your podcast, how calm you are, when you're on your daughter's glucose would go low and stuff like that. I was just like, wow, okay. Well, you know, when you're dealing with this year's self, like I was, I wake up in the middle of mine in the middle of the night, and my glucose was like, 40. And I would freak out, you know, you kind of get scared and you want to eat the refrigerator at that point. So

Scott Benner 44:09
Well, listen, I also had the perspective of seeing or have a seizure twice. So Oh, really? Yeah. So I have the, you know, I have a little more perspective on that than people who haven't seen that. And do I want my daughter to have had a seizure? I don't, but I am calmer now with a 45 blood sugar than I was before I saw seizure. Now I'm like, Oh, she's not seizing, let's fix it. You know, I think everything's like that, to some degree. You just got to keep having experiences that you can kind of build on top of Of course, with diabetes, some of the experiences you have to have are frightening and scary. But, but, you know, once you have them, you're better off I think. I just Oh, go ahead. I was just gonna say I'm having more fun chatting with you. And we're not getting to why you why you wanted to be on the show. So why, you know, you you were very direct and you wanted to be on so I was I'm excited to hear what you have to share with people?

Justin 45:02
Well, I mean, a lot of this a

lot of this is finding from like my diabetic retinopathy and this this new neuropathy thing, stuff that's happening to me it just, I don't know, I feel like I'm losing control. So I want to gain that control back by getting this new info and stuff like that. But it's, I don't know, it's a flood of emotions. Because when you when you've got it, right, you feel like you're on top of the world. But when you don't have it, right, you feel like your life's crumbling around you.

Scott Benner 45:39
And you're saying, so when you see a blood sugar, that isn't what you're hoping for. It feels like it's hurting you. Like, like, well, it's psychologically,

Justin 45:49
Sunday is when

glucose is high, and say, like, right around to hundreds. And it doesn't matter how much influence you give, it doesn't matter what you do, it just doesn't seem to come down Did you can't get it to annoy him. So sometimes that stuff can be really frustrating. But you got to realize that it's going to kick in, you're going to give enough insulin, things are gonna happen and things will finally start moving. Once you know everything gets. Everything gets going, now you your insulin starts to work and everything like that. So.

Scott Benner 46:28
So it's hard, it's hard to trust that that's gonna happen, or it's hard to live in that space while it's happening. Yeah,

Justin 46:35
it's hard to live in the space while it's happening, because I mean, me, I won, I won 110 100 glucose all the time. And I'm not willing to accept it any other way. I guess. So. When it does it go outside and you feel like you're losing that control? It's, it's hard to control those emotions. Yeah,

Scott Benner 46:55
I hear that. I, I gained a little more perspective by using an algorithm, because we're in the teaching time of that. Arden's blood sugar's weren't where I was hoping they'd be either. And, you know, you come I came to the realization that this this numbers not good with me. I don't want it to be like this. But I think I can get to a point where it'll hardly ever be like this. So it's okay for a minute while we figure it out. Right, and I gotta raise that. Yeah, right. I think day to day, that idea would help you that more days than not your 110. Right.

Justin 47:35
Yeah. Yeah, for the most part. I mean, I'm sitting as of right now. Let me check my watch real quick. As of right, now, I'm sitting right at 101. So

Scott Benner 47:47
listen, Arden's blood sugar 70 right now,

Justin 47:50
that's even better in my opinion. So she

Scott Benner 47:53
she headed home this day. Um, you know, she heads into school. There. Her French class made different foods, French foods today, right? There's a lot of baked stuff and powdered sugar and stuff like that. And I, you know, I, I knew they were taking it in. And for some reason, it never correlated with them eating it. In my mind. I was like, I didn't think of that. So she texted me this morning. So she gets up in the morning, her blood sugar tried to go up and we stopped at around 120 and, and it was holding at 120 and getting ready to go back down again. When she texted me a picture of like baked goods. And I don't I'm looking at it now. I don't know what the heck any of this is. And there's like a dollop of chocolate on the plate of Ben. Yeah, he was, you know, you know, powdered sugar, that's something else. It's got like icing on top of

Justin 48:45
it's like a ton of carbs.

Scott Benner 48:48
Right. I don't know how much it is. And the other thing is Arden's not a sweets person. So I don't know if she's gonna take one bite of it and go, I don't want this. So I just said, I don't know, Bolus, 45 carbs. And we'll like, you know, for 45 carbs, and we'll see what we'll do. So we did five minutes. And a little while later. I mean, it's not like she texted me back and said, Wow, that stuff was amazing. I ate it all, you know, so I just a little while later, a blood sugar started to jump. And I got a I got an alert and I looked and she was like 159 with an arrow straight up. And so we just crushed it with a bunch of insulin. You know, like we just, like threw like four more units on it. And and I thought to myself, this will work. And we need to be ready in the future to take bazel away or stop it with food. And so far we've been able to stop the drop with just reducing bazel and it looks like we've got it. I mean, she's right at 70. So I sent her a text while I was talking to so if you want to eat something, eat if you're not, don't worry about it right now. But that whole process took I don't know two and a half hours maybe like she went from you No 122 it got the 190 at one point. And and now it's back to 70. So I, to me, the comfort, listen, I can't tell you how to feel. But I think you have to save yourself most of the time on 110. I don't want this spike. But I also don't want the psychological damage that comes to me from wringing my hands over it. So I'll just address it the way I know is gonna work and I'll move forward, I never look back with diabetes, you always have to kind of be moving forward. You know,

Justin 50:29
right. And and that's the thing you can't have. Without you don't get instantaneous results. I mean, a lot of it takes time. And I got to learn to like, accept the fact that it's going to take more time to get some of these sugars under control.

Scott Benner 50:46
Well, how did you get how did you get to the 110? And the stability? What what from the podcast or from having the technology helped you?

Justin 50:54
Oh, it was right from your podcast, because I had my low parameter set at 80. And my high parameter set at 180. So then you're like, well drop it. So I went to 150. And I got more alerts for a while, but then I dialed that in, and that dropped it to 130. And then that started working. And I was like, okay, is it takes the change, to actually prepare yourself and train yourself how to stay at these glucose levels. So I'm about to switch my upper parameter. This week, I think to go to 110. I'm gonna try 110, maybe 120. If I need to the 110

Scott Benner 51:39
and you're a baller, Justin, you understand me? That's amazing.

Justin 51:42
I'm gonna get it

Scott Benner 51:43
for you. I'm at 120 on my phone Arlen gets alerted at 130. That seems to work for us pretty well. But I like I like 110. I like to your goal is to be between 80 and 110. Most of the time?

Justin 51:57
Yeah, good

Scott Benner 51:58
for you, man. I'm happy for you. That's excellent. And you're not finding it difficult to do.

Justin 52:03
I mean, it takes about a week or two. I mean, cuz for the most part, I'm used to 130 now. So by the time I'm alerted at 130, I feel like I could use a little bit more time. So that's why I want to drop it back down. So I don't have the fluctuation as much. But do you feel though going

Scott Benner 52:25
at that, number one, do you feel low at that number?

Justin 52:29
No, I don't. And actually,

I mean, I'll get to 70. I just started feeling it. Once I got on the Dexcom I started feeling my lows, again, I used to not feel them at all, not even now. I mean, I was walking around at a glucose level of 10. Before I went into a coma for three and a half hours. So

Scott Benner 52:49
never knew you were low. Never knew as that was in 98. So that's the bouncing around of the blood sugar bit taking away that feeling from you the up and down up and down constantly, your body probably just finds a way to ignore it eventually.

Justin 53:04
Yes, it does well, and once I got this stability back, I mean, that's where everything started opening up again, like, Oh, you've got a sweet smell on your breath that I never even would have known Besides, you know, one of my friends saying that when I was little

different things like that. It's

it's just a learning process, you know?

Scott Benner 53:26
Yeah. And it's, it's a, you're a great indicator for what we say about, you know, keeping the stability, you know, as stable as possible, right? No bouncing around blood sugar. You know, I think it's silly when people argue like, it's, it's worse if it bounces up and down than if it's just high. Like, why don't we just both? Why don't we all agree that neither of those things are what we're looking for. Right? Right, everybody? Isn't it interesting how people's minds work? It's always either or. Nobody's Exactly. It couldn't just be both. How about I want I need stability. And I need a lower number. Like, why is that a problem to say, but, but I mean, you have real things going wrong with you that aren't going wrong anymore. Like the fact that you feel your lows again, I think it's pretty astonishing.

Justin 54:11
Yeah, that's my glucose levels get to like 180 I actually started to get a headache. And there were times when I was 400. And can feel a headache. So

it's a blessing in disguise. Really,

Scott Benner 54:24
no, it really is interesting. And now and you don't want the headache now. So so you make the you make the alarm lower, so you have more time to react. And I mean, just in case people are hearing it for the first time in 30 seconds. The lower you make your Dexcom alarm, the sooner you find out that your blood sugar is right. The sooner you find out it's rising, the less insulin you need to stop that rise.

Justin 54:47
Exactly. Because you get for me when you get over 200 it's gonna take double the amount of insulin to get you down so you may as well like attack this when when you have a stronger accent. To say,

Scott Benner 55:01
Justin, when you're using less insulin to stop a high, what is less likely to happen later? Hello, right. That's it. Yeah, you're like, well,

Justin 55:10
and I don't want your listeners to think that I'm perfect. I mean, because by all means I'm not I still have crazy glucose sometimes but it's just managing that it's it's knowing that you need to react to your your arrows going up or your arrows going down. That makes mean, that's the key to the whole thing is just it just tracking it. I think

Scott Benner 55:35
that it also since we're disclaimer in the statements. The other thing is that if your basal insulins not right, a lot of this won't work. So you you really do have to get your bazel is that the first step you you took,

Justin 55:49
um, when I first got on upon paper, they did me my standard basal rates. It took me a long time to figure out bagels without an endocrinologist there. I got it down, though. And I'm looking to go even smaller increments to where I can I can dial dial my head bazel down perfect. But once you get it to where you think it's perfect, yeah, that it's like changing season you go in from winter to spring, and your glucose changes a little while back. So

Scott Benner 56:22
I don't I perfect for bazel it's tough, like I'm more around like just stable, like stable. You don't I mean, like if you're working consistently, when you're you don't have food or bolus insulin and you that your blood sugar is thing. You know, it's not bouncing around, like the bouncing around is an indication, you know, your basal is probably too high or too low, or, you know, you're you're maybe you're making up for your bazel deficiency with meal insulin, you don't even realize that. There's that, but but you took it It took you a while to dial it in. But is that because you were going making a change? Like, every three months?

Justin 57:00
And no, no, I noticed, like, over 10 year periods, like about every 10 years, I'm going to change your body changes. I mean, for me, this is what I've noticed, my body changes a little bit, and I'm gonna have to change my baby's lifestyle changes. So you move from one house to another and you got a different schedule, so you're on a different thing. So you have to adjust a little bit or you go from summer to winter and Nagar you move from pedaling a road bike to snowboarding in the back country. And like it's it's the lifestyle change correlates with the basal rate change for me.

Scott Benner 57:45
Hey, good, I think everybody has that sometimes they don't see it, you know, like, sometimes you get, you get a little busy looking within these few days that you don't see that a bigger thing has happened.

Justin 57:57
Right, you got to look at the micro and the macro at that point hundred percent.

Scott Benner 58:00
Yeah, if you ignore one or the other, you're just gonna make an assumption that might be might be wrong.

Justin 58:07
Or just or even worse, you know, you start cheap chasing glucose levels. So you pump a bunch of insulin for your glucose levels rising, then you go low and then going low, then you compensate for that. And then all of a sudden, you have these spikes and dips that you're like, Okay, I can't even control this at the moment. So

Scott Benner 58:25
yeah, once you're behind, you're the only unless you get lucky once you're behind and you're chasing, the only thing to do is to just take food out, get yourself level again, start over that right, I think is some great, that's a great tip that we don't talk about enough is it you know, when you're chasing, just

Unknown Speaker 58:43
bail, like, stop, yeah,

Scott Benner 58:45
stop and let it find its level and then bring it down and, or crush it and stop it with juice, but don't over treat it, you have to stop the rollercoaster to so you can get off. You know? That's some pretty Yes,

Justin 59:00
exactly. And if it's

if it makes for higher glucose readings for 24 hour, hours, it doesn't matter what it takes, just get back to normal,

Scott Benner 59:09
you have to find some stability and get out now if your blood sugar is high all the time. See, it's tough, Justin when you talk about it, because you understand more about it now than you did. Like, you know, some people like oh, my blood sugar is always high. Well, that's, you know, there's a way for that not to be like none of you, you know, with the exception of people who have gastroparesis, or, you know, some other fairly uncommon problems. You know, most of you your your blood sugar is high because you don't have enough insulin at the right time. So it's not you don't have the special kind of diabetes that nobody can tame. And thinking that way is it's sort of it's it's like a double edged sword for people. It takes away their guilt, because they're like, Oh, this is just what it is. I can't do anything about it. But it also makes them complacent about it. And they don't try to fix it because they think this is what it

Unknown Speaker 1:00:01
Yeah, yeah, you got

Justin 1:00:02
it, you got to take control. You gotta, I mean, you got to be proactive in your diabetes, you can't just sit back and let things happen. Or she'll end up with diabetic retinopathy or losing a foot because of circulation or something, something like that. And you really don't want to go to those extremes. So,

Scott Benner 1:00:21
Justin, even if something that horrible doesn't happen, even if something that horrible doesn't happen, you're still stuck in a life where you're always messing with the diabetes. It's always there poking you in the ass. You know what I mean? Like, Hey, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. I mean, like, you're always like, bothered by it, it takes that upfront effort to find the kind of balance and stability that doesn't require a ton of upkeep all the time.

Justin 1:00:45
Right. And I think for me, it was like, realizing that I'm gonna have diabetes for the rest of my life. There's, there's nothing I can do about that. So let's fix what I can fix and not worry about the things that I can't fix

Unknown Speaker 1:00:59
for you.

Scott Benner 1:01:00
Good for you. What else? Is there anything else you did that? That was, you know, key to this for you.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:07
Uh,

Justin 1:01:09
a lot of it was being in a rural place to where nobody had the answers. So it pushed me forward to try to find answers. And I think that that's what's helped push me so far. And then finding your podcast. And then there's having all the all these different, like, day to day things that are happening. I was just like, this is great, because I really had no place to go. I was trying to search for something for answers. And for people who had the answers, and it was kind of leading nowhere at times. So to get your podcasts and it's great.

Scott Benner 1:01:45
How long did you find it again?

Justin 1:01:47
Oh, let's say this was

for I listened. I probably found it three years ago. Well, somewhere in there, but I listen, I've listened to every episode from year beginning till now. So

Scott Benner 1:02:04
I just do recommend that everybody does that.

Justin 1:02:08
I think so. And I've recommended it to a lot of people around here because this lady I work with she's a type two diabetic, but she just ordered her first set Omni pods. So I was just like, Oh, this is this is great. If you need any help, there's a great podcast out there. And then I told her that she can come downstairs and talk to me anytime she wants. So very

Scott Benner 1:02:29
nice. If you could feel Yeah, more more and more type twos are using insulin through pumps. So it is yeah.

Justin 1:02:39
It's it's like making type one and type two almost the same.

Scott Benner 1:02:44
The tools, right, at least that you're using are are similar, which is good for type twos, because then there are now more people to talk to about it. You know, before there's a disconnect between the two, and they don't really crossover. And type twos do struggle with community. I mean, and and wanting to tell people they don't come out as much. I guess this type ones, though.

Justin 1:03:08
Yeah. Yeah, it appears as though like, type one, people are more bold about it, I guess it's a,

Scott Benner 1:03:15
you know, you get to say, I mean, think about it from a, from a human standpoint, if you have type one, you get to say, Hey, this is a genetic thing. I didn't do this. And people with type two are in the same situation. But they're really led to believe that they did it to themselves. And so it's an embarrassment, you don't want to say, oh, gosh, look what I did. I gave myself type two diabetes. Like, that's not something you want to run out and tell everybody you know, and some people have the clarity to talk about it, but most don't. It's just not. It's a very underserved group of people. It really is.

Justin 1:03:45
Well, it's one of those things, I've had it my whole life. So I don't know anything different. But I'm the people who get it at like 16 or something like that. I can just only imagine what they're thinking and inside their head about, did I do this to myself?

Scott Benner 1:04:02
Right, like, like the unfair which 100% is, yeah, everybody needs. I think you need like a super amount of support in the beginning. Whether it's you and your, you know, a little kid, maybe it's your parents or if it's an adult or you know, a 16 year old, you need you need to have people around you. Right, almost like bubble wrap to protect you from your, from your own thoughts until you can become adept. And I am assuming accepting, you know,

Justin 1:04:33
right, or if you're people like me and don't have people around you that that's where this podcast is coming great because that I mean, I didn't have anyone to talk to in my hometown growing up. There was one other person that I knew that had diabetes, so

Scott Benner 1:04:49
I appreciate you telling me that I really do because it's still it's strange to me still when I when I go speak somewhere and people come up to me and I They, they have a real feeling of like, I know you. And, you know, I'm I'm just, you know, it's it's, it's it's lovely, I really mean that. But it's not not so strange,

Justin 1:05:12
right? You change lives for people you really do. And I don't think you understand that really, you know, maybe it's just a diabetes podcast that you do you know, your daughter has it, so you talk about it. But for people like me, it's really altered my view of my disease and how I need to work at it to control it. So

Scott Benner 1:05:36
that makes me feel good. It really does. Thank you

Justin 1:05:38
know, I really do appreciate it. And I don't I don't think I can put it into words to have you understand fully, but, um, yeah, he changed my life. You really did. Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:05:49
I'm happy that it was here for you. I tried to say to my wife the other day, that I, I separate in my mind myself from the podcast, somehow, like the podcast is a thing. I me, and my wife's like, you're the podcast, and I was like, maybe, but it's weird. It's hard to think of it that way. You know, like, if I if I leave joking aside, which we do sometimes if I if I start feeling in my soul that I'm the reason that's a weird ego thing. You know, like, I don't I don't want that to feel that way. Like I know, intellectually, what you said is 100%. True. I just don't want to. I don't know. I don't want it to let

Justin 1:06:31
go. Just don't let it go to your head.

Scott Benner 1:06:32
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't want to affect who I am. So I don't know if I could listen, it's really it's wonderful. 100% you've said it to me in person. I've gotten three Instagram messages and three emails this morning already. And it's really not even one o'clock in the afternoon yet. And if I read every one of them gone. Look what I did again, here. You know what I mean? Like it would? It would just It's weird. So I don't know if it's, I don't know, I can't I take it to heart. And I believe you. I just don't know how to. I don't know how to respond other than to say, That's very nice of you. Thank you. You know what I mean?

Justin 1:07:09
Well, and from my perspective, I'm glad you you segregate those because then you don't let it go to your head. I mean, this podcast would be over in a year, if you let it get to your head, you know, just come

Scott Benner 1:07:21
on. Every week. I was like, hey, Scott's back again, to tell you the magic about diabetes. You're gonna hear it because I know what I'm talking about. And you don't like yeah, you don't think that we go over big? You know, well, I'm good. I'm sorry.

Justin 1:07:38
But then you'd be like, Well, here's the Omni pie commercial.

Scott Benner 1:07:40
Yeah. Buy yourself an insulin pump and get out of here. Your silly kids? No, I, um, I think that that doesn't work. Because it wouldn't resonate with anybody, but also wouldn't work because it wouldn't genuinely be how I feel. You know, they mean, like, I don't feel like a huckster who talked you into using insulin. I'm just talking about what we do and, and that I realized one day that it's not just diabetes, and this will really work for most people. So

Justin 1:08:08
you know, well, and you let everybody in on your life, you and your daughter's life, you know, And that, to me is big. Because it's not just something you do and talk about, because this is what you know about or what you've been trained to do. This is something you're doing, because it's part of your lifestyle. So I think that's where it shines to is because these are real world scenarios, real people, and this is really working for your daughter. So that to me is great. Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:08:39
Yeah, I listened. I'll feel good all day from talking to you. So you've done you said, You've done as much for me as I've done for you. Seriously, I really read all the people listening. I it might sound weird, but I've said it a million times this podcast helps me in a bunch of ways, probably more so than it helps the people listening. So I'm, I'm chatty, it gives me a chance to chat. I like that. It helps me think about diabetes, so that I can help so that I can come up with new ideas for my daughter. It lets me get out sometimes anxiety and stress. I did an email or an episode The other day and like I I cried while I was saying something, and that's got to be good for you. You know, just get like that out. All right.

Justin 1:09:25
And you know, it touches your emotions like that you're drawing the audience to to believe and trust you as well. And it takes a lot for diabetes to be able to trust somebody else. So

Scott Benner 1:09:36
Justin, tell us what you're doing. I hear the smacking in the background.

Justin 1:09:39
Oh, I've got a little plastic egg that I was playing with. Are you nervous? No. I just always keep active gotcha. Excellent. I in my desk at work. I stand all day. So

Scott Benner 1:09:53
my desk goes up and down. I've still done the podcast a couple of times. I can't like you know, you have to stay Near the microphone. So sometimes you'll hear episodes where I'm I started having too good of a time. And then all of a sudden my voice goes over here, like this thing comes back again. So, but it's hard to know what to look at. Because I'm trying in like you're telling me your thing, right? But I'm listening to your thing, and then also thinking about how to direct the show. And so sure if something catches my eye, and I miss 10 words, I'm in trouble. You know what I mean? So I tried my best to take my attention away.

Justin 1:10:28
Well, in that, I mean, the little egg thing for me is kind of funny, because I remember the podcast where your dog was in the background making noises. And it just made me laugh. I mean,

Scott Benner 1:10:39
I moved the set up. I couldn't like I was like, I can't keep this. And by the way, for the same reason, like I'd hear the dog, and then I think, oh, they're gonna hear that on the recording. And I think I don't want that to be on the recording. And then before you know it, you've said eight more words, and I don't know what the heck you said. And I was like, I have to go somewhere where I can, I can concentrate a little better is as you can tell from this episode, I don't even know when my kids are at school. So many little bright light, I'll probably just catch my attention. Anyway, Justin, I got it. I'm sorry.

Justin 1:11:11
No, I just like sometimes I mean,

diversion of attention. It's gonna happen. So

Scott Benner 1:11:19
no, I listen. I'm not trying to be perfect here. I think that's obvious. I want to thank you. We've been talking for over an hour. I really appreciate the fact that you came on.

Justin 1:11:29
Oh, wow. It has been an hour. So cool. Yeah. Appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:33
Good. You have a good time.

Justin 1:11:35
Yes, it was great. Thank you. It's

Scott Benner 1:11:37
not I I really, I swear, I'm very appreciative what you said. And I'm glad that there's somebody in Wyoming who knows about this. Now who might tell somebody else one day like, I mean, I don't know, you probably only see a human being every couple of days, but eventually you'll bump into one that has diabetes.

Justin 1:11:52
Well, there's been, there's been more than I can count now. People that I've diabetics that I've told to check out your podcast, so I appreciate that. There's gonna be more of us, Wyoming and people listening to you.

Scott Benner 1:12:06
Thank you. Eventually, I'll get all 50 of you. I'm just

Unknown Speaker 1:12:11
joking. But

Justin 1:12:12
hey, there's more pronghorn antelope in Wyoming than there are people. So

Scott Benner 1:12:17
I didn't even know that was a real thing. No, it's true. Wait a minute. Now you're not getting away prong. horned antelope. Google agrees that exists on a second.

Justin 1:12:30
There's, there's more people in Denver than there are in Wyoming. It's interesting.

Scott Benner 1:12:35
It looks like a furry deer. But it's taller. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It's huge. Do they hunt those?

Justin 1:12:44
Oh, yeah, there's a hunting season out here for them.

Scott Benner 1:12:46
Before they before they overtake you guys. I guess you'd

Justin 1:12:51
well and every year they do the pronghorn antelope hunt. So you'll get all the celebrities that come in and pay high prices for out of state tags and licenses and stuff. So maybe

Scott Benner 1:13:01
Yeah, name a celebrity and hunted a pronghorn antelope to your knowledge.

Justin 1:13:07
Oh, gosh, you had to ask me that question. Don't put this on the podcast because I don't know.

Scott Benner 1:13:13
antlers dealership beautiful.

Justin 1:13:16
I'm glad like when they're fully developed, they almost look like a heart.

Scott Benner 1:13:21
Yeah, I'm looking at that. But that's really Oh, come together at the top. The left to the right.

Justin 1:13:28
Yep. All right. Well, let's have a look at it. They go over the back of it looks like a heart almost when they're fully developed.

Scott Benner 1:13:34
So go support the sponsors and then go check out a pronghorn antelope they're really kind of beautiful. Exactly Yeah, but not before you order your no obligation please do that first. So I keep doing the podcast

Justin 1:13:48
on new pods index cards and I

Scott Benner 1:13:51
also also touched by type one.org Contour Next one.com listen the ads the ads are a good sign it means that you guys are listening and and that people know you're here so that's a that's really great actually I swear I could not do it without the ads I my wife would look at me and say go get a job buddy right now

Justin 1:14:15
it's time for you to leave the house for one

Scott Benner 1:14:17
yeah either move out or make money i think is what is another way the podcast helps me I get to stay I get to do my my stay at home dad thing more often, you know because I don't have to have your house to work so I appreciate you guys a ton I there's probably no way for me to to adequately, adequately say that but um but I

Justin 1:14:37
really do. We appreciate you as well. I just

Scott Benner 1:14:40
and that's enough of you saying nice stuff to me. It's making me uncomfortable. You know, build a teepee or whatever it is you're going to do and I will. I will go downstairs and make sure Arden's not mad at me. First things first, let's thank Justin for being terrific on the show. Secondly, Thank you to the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, which you can find out more about at Contour Next One com forward slash juice box. Thirdly, touched by type one.org. Fourthly, T one d exchange.com. forward slash juice box. And fifthly. Justin said the most adorable thing when the recording stuff, and I'm so sorry the rest of you didn't hear it. He's like, how will I know if this is gonna be on? Like if it'll make it to air? I think he was worried that it wouldn't be good enough. Justin, I've never made a bad podcast in my life. My been been bing, bing, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, juicebox docs.com diabetes pro tip.com. These are just some offerings from the podcast that you can have for the free. Check it out by the by the private Facebook group, just for Juicebox Podcast listeners has skyrocketed to like well over 5000 members, and it is still as homey and kind and lovely as a place as it was with 1000 members. it very well may be the nicest place on Facebook. I'm not making that up. The page adds 40 new members a day. I'd love it if you were one of them. Okay, that's it for today. Kids. hope you had a good time on the podcast. There's gonna be more coming up, don't you worry.

#376 Zoe and Roxy's Wild Ride

A siblings perspective of type 1 diabetes

Zoe is the adult sibling of a person with type 1 diabetes.

Dexcom 20 Rule

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Friends Hello, how are you? Welcome to Episode 376 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is sponsored by the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump, and on the pod would love to send you a an absolutely free, no obligation demo of their product, they'd like to send it right to your house, so you can try it on and see what you think. Go to my Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box to get that pod experience kit sent out to you right away. To learn more about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor, you're going to want to go to dexcom.com Ford slash juicebox. There are links to all of the advertisers in the show notes of this episode. And at Juicebox podcast.com. Use the links and support the show.

For the first five years of my life, I was an only child and then it happened. My parents had more kids. And then I had siblings. Well, today we're going to talk to Roxy sister Zoe. Zoe does not have type one diabetes, but she did grow up with Roxy. And Roxy does. So for all of you are always like, I want to hear from someone. Sorry, I heard you. Here it is okay. But this is only going to be one perspective. Zoe's an adult, so as Roxy and they had their experience, if you've had a different experience, we would like to shine a different light on the subject. Reach out and let me know, you might just be able to get on the podcast and tell your story. When you get on the podcast and people are listening, I'll ask them to remember that nothing they hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And I'll further ask them to consult a physician before making any changes to their health care plan. or becoming bold with insulin. Zoe and Roxy's wild ride. Eric comes.

I think this is very nice of you to do. Thank you.

Zoey 2:16
Oh, sure. Why not?

Scott Benner 2:19
Hold on one second, let me help my daughter with insulin real quick.

Unknown Speaker 2:24
Okay.

Scott Benner 2:26
Her pump is at the very end of its insulin. We sort of we sort of noticed that in the car driving to school this morning. So the minute I'm done speaking to you, I'm gonna take her some insulin in a new pod. Okay, but we're good. We're gonna make it through this.

Unknown Speaker 2:41
Okay, don't you worry. Do whatever you have to do. Please. Are you kidding me?

Scott Benner 2:45
Alright, so you've probably don't listen to this podcast. I don't know. My sister does, which makes 100% sense. Yeah. So let me just tell you before we start, it's pretty laid back and conversational. I'm not gonna ask you anything you don't already know the answer to if I do. Just be like, I don't want to answer that or whatever. You know, it's not about Sure.

Zoey 3:09
Yeah. No, it's fine.

Scott Benner 3:10
If you and I end up getting along really well and a half an hour from now I say something and you're like, that's more like we've known each other for six months got cruise past? I'm

Zoey 3:18
usually that person. So are you really? Yeah, I am freakishly open.

Scott Benner 3:24
I am too. So I'll get into a setting with Pete. By the way. We're recording. I'll get into a setting with people who I don't know. And 15 minutes into it. They're looking at me like is there anything left about your life? You haven't?

Zoey 3:38
Yeah, I pretty much offer it all up in the beginning.

Scott Benner 3:41
Why? Do you know why? First of all, who are you tell people who you are?

Zoey 3:44
Oh, my name is Zoey. I am the sister of a diabetic. I have a younger sister. My sister Roxie got diabetes when she was nine. I believe. Okay, play. She was eight she turned nine in the hospital.

Scott Benner 3:59
No kidding. Good for her happy birthday. Yeah. How old is she out? You know? Do you remember?

Zoey 4:03
Ah, she's gonna be she's gonna kill me if I get this wrong. She's gonna be 33 I think on March 18. How old are you? 32 I'm 28 so we're four and a half four and a little bit years apart.

Scott Benner 4:14
Okay. So when she was diagnosed you were not even in school yet.

Zoey 4:18
Ah, no, I must have been like, I don't know kindergarten maybe you're like preschool or something. Yeah, right.

I was like around four so yeah, somewhere around there. But let's find out a little about you

Scott Benner 4:30
before we find out a little bit about Roxy. Okay, and you for whatever it is Roxy Did you Roxy and Zoey? Yeah, parents hippies.

Zoey 4:44
So funny. Um, they sound like hippies when I described them. But they're not really. We they're from Vermont. Actually. They're from like Long Island and New Jersey, but they have taken on their Vermont personas very seriously. They look like in the middle of nowhere. My dad was all Carhart, when I was an artist, my dad is a woodworker. So yes, they sound like hippies, but without the drugs

Scott Benner 5:08
would they have been? I didn't expect hippies are always high, but I hear what you're saying. Okay, what would they have been if they stayed on the island? Do you think? Oh over they run

Zoey 5:18
on happy, unhappy for sure. Yeah, just like development all over the place. I think my mom when she goes back to Long Island is just like, so sad to see

that it's just like mcmansions everywhere and stuff. She was

Scott Benner 5:33
looking for more open space.

Zoey 5:35
Yeah, for sure. My dad constantly says sitting on the front porch looking out at the beautiful piece of land on makes you want to live in Manhattan. He really doesn't. doesn't care for the city.

Scott Benner 5:48
You dead sarcasm was grown in Vermont. I can tell.

Unknown Speaker 5:51
Definitely.

Scott Benner 5:52
Vermont once. Here's what I know about Vermont. They don't like air conditioning for some reason.

Zoey 5:56
Yeah, we don't have air conditioning. I was living in Phoenix, Arizona this past summer, and I had to get used to it cuz it's everywhere is air conditioned. Yeah, we just have open air. Yeah,

Scott Benner 6:06
no, I know. I was there for a week. Yeah, maybe. I was near a big mountain. I remember being here. So here was my my experience. We wanted to go on a end of summer vacation. So we sort of picked somewhere close by where we wouldn't have to fly. But it would still be far enough away. rented this really beautiful house up on a mountain, you know, like and had a pool there. Like this is it right here. My son was playing a baseball game in the afternoon. So my wife left for Vermont with my daughter. And I went to my son's baseball game. And when the baseball game was over, he and I headed up. We were probably a couple of hours behind them. It was like a six. No, it's got four and a half hour drive. So I don't know where that puts us. Right. And where are you from? New Jersey. Okay, so no, no. Are you kidding? I'm actually from Philadelphia. I just live in New Jersey.

Zoey 7:05
Okay, I say hi. Just

Unknown Speaker 7:08
my wife got a really good job.

Zoey 7:11
Fair enough. Fair enough.

Scott Benner 7:14
One day, we hope to be able to afford a ton of carne heart and a place where nobody can get to us. Live in the dream. See how long we can stand each other before we murders the other one?

Zoey 7:25
Yeah, surprise. They're still perfectly happy shopping.

Scott Benner 7:29
No kidding. It does start it is starting to surprise. We're jumping around. So I the game ends and I'm on my way to Vermont with my son. And my daughter calls. My daughter's name is Arden. And she says mom says there's no air conditioning in this house. And I said that's impossible. I know how much I paid for this house. It's a vacation home. Look around harder. Maybe it's on a separate system. And

Zoey 7:56
you just open the doors. And that's your air conditioning.

Scott Benner 7:59
Yeah. Well, we didn't figure that out right away. So then we figured it out. And then everybody and by everybody. I mean the other three people in my family were so mad at me.

Zoey 8:11
Is it? I feel like I don't know. I used to just put fans in my room I guess. I don't know people are it's funny though. People bring that up often like oh, yeah, there's no, sir air conditioner. My house is always somewhere between 68 and 70 degrees here around. Minus 68. And I've been getting a lot of like, heat for that lately. Because apparently I had no people who keep their house at 55 and I was like you're a psychopath. That's ridiculous.

Scott Benner 8:39
Listen, I want the world to thrive but not bad enough to be cold. Yeah. So my highlights from my Vermont trip where was this? This is exactly the highlight. This is the thing about Vermont I will never in my entire life forget on our way to do some sightseeing. We're gonna go drive up a mountain and walk around have some Ben and Jerry's. That kind of a thing. Well, on the way to that event. We passed a what I'm going to call about a 25 foot travel trailer that looked like it was 50 years old. It was on the front yard of a home. It had a chicken wire fence around it. The doors were ripped off of it and it was being used as a giant Do you want to guess or should I say

Zoey 9:27
um I feel like it could have been definitely for some period of animal Okay, I want to say cows but I don't know if they'd fit in comfortably although they often keep cows pretty uncomfortable so I guess either chickens or goats

Scott Benner 9:44
my god you got it. It was a giant chicken coop This is

Zoey 9:48
my parents had chickens for a while.

I'm no stranger to a chicken coop.

Scott Benner 9:53
That was those My favorite part of the trip. My second sounds about right. My second favorite part was finding this little tiny movie theater. That was like privately owned and had these little digital theaters that that. Yeah, pretty much it. Yeah, I would go back if it was closer to something and had air conditioning.

Zoey 10:12
Yeah. Well, you can go in the winter and then it's like really cozy You know? So yeah,

Scott Benner 10:18
please. So you guys grew up in Vermont together. You and your sister?

Zoey 10:22
Yes, we did. Yeah, my sister. Yeah, I was born in Vermont. She was technically born in Jersey. But um, yeah, we grew up in Bennington, Vermont.

Scott Benner 10:31
Okay. What is your, like, earliest remembrance of her having type one.

Zoey 10:39
I remember her getting it, which I'm realizing now I think are probably some of my earliest memories, like at all. Because, um, yeah, I was about four. She, we like realized where I didn't realize anything. But my mom realized something was wrong, because we were skiing. And I think we had like the little kid. It was like the 90s. So we had those like one z suits, which is like impossible to go to the bathroom. And my sister had to pee, like every single run. And my mom was like, What the hell is going on here? And that's like, I remember being on the chairlift and my mom being like, concerned about that. And then I remember being in the hospital because it was her birthday. I was having a grand old time. I loved hospital pudding. So that was a highlight for me. Not for

Scott Benner 11:29
your child, aren't you?

Zoey 11:32
Good times. Um, yeah, I was like, four. So I remember that. I remember like, my family crying. I never seen my dad cry before I've ever seen him cry. Um, yeah, that was I mean, yes. I remember when she got it. And then like, you know, I, she's, like, so responsible. And I don't know if it's because she had diabetes. Like she could she got it so young, or if she always would have been like that, but um, I remember like my mom giving us like, going to like this chocolate shop and Manchester, Vermont. And what is the store getting like one chocolate and like savoring it for, like, hours on end, like unbelievable self control. And I had eaten like, 17 of them by that time or something like that?

Scott Benner 12:17
Well, I'm doing the math over here. I got eight minus three minus eight. I gotta carry the one. That's 13 sit on five. And then that makes the three a two. So your sister got diabetes, like 25 years ago?

Zoey 12:31
Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure.

Not good at mad. Yeah, yes.

Scott Benner 12:37
Why do you need math in Vermont?

Zoey 12:39
I'm well, I'm in law school. So I really don't need math. But yeah, yeah, me. My dad must use a lot of math building furniture and such.

Scott Benner 12:48
I'll tell you took it took no math to rip the door off that trailer.

Zoey 12:51
Yeah, exactly. Only to count your chickens. That's all you need to do.

I really, I must have had it for like, 20 Yeah,

Scott Benner 12:59
something like that. Don't like that. Okay, so a really long time. And how long did you guys live together out of those 25 some years?

Zoey 13:06
Oh, um, let's see, uh, until she was, well, you know, I'm, you know, counting when she'd come back in the summer for college, or, you know, I don't know, up until she was 18. Okay, we always lived together.

Scott Benner 13:21
So for about a decade, you you existed together while you were aging from four or five to 14 or 15? Yeah, gotcha. All right now. Initially, I wonder when you started really being aware of impact on you, I guess I should ask is, was there impact on you that you're aware of?

Zoey 13:44
Um, I don't. I don't think so. Really. I mean, other than like, there was a phase where my mom, like, I remember having to get like a shot or I don't know, I remember like being at the doctor for them to I must have been getting like vaccinations anyway or something. But I remember being told that they were like, checking to see if I if I could also have diabetes. And realistically, like, up until, I don't know, a couple of years ago, my mom if I ever said like, I have to pee all the time or something. My mom would be like, maybe have diabetes. Like that was that's always her initial reaction to anything. Yeah, to anything. Like, oh, I'm thirsty. You have diabetes. Like, I don't really feel like I got there was that much impact? I remember like feeling. Yeah, I was the younger one too. So. I think if anything, like Rob's you just became like more and more responsible, like an older sister would anyway. Yeah, I don't remember feeling like, like definitely not jealous or anything. I don't know.

Scott Benner 14:48
Did they spend more time with her than you? Because of the diabetes?

Zoey 14:54
No, I don't think so. My um, my mom like, we're At home, she's artists, so she was like at home with us mostly. So at that point, I think when she first got it, I was still young enough that I probably was only in school like half a day or something. So I was home with her more than more than my sister was.

Scott Benner 15:12
Do you have a appreciation for how your parents felt away from your sister? Did they ever say or do or act in a way that made you realize the diabetes was concerning to them?

Zoey 15:24
Yeah, I think I remember my dad getting a beeper, because it was the 90s like I said, Yeah. And that was like a big thing. Because he needed to, like constantly be being contact. I remember, I think she had like, a couple seizures in the beginning, um, at some point that I think we're, I don't know, you could probably tell me if they were related to diabetes or not. But I remember my sister, like, pretending she had one when we were like, really young, and freaking my mom out and like, see, it's horrible. Now that I think about it. like seeing my mom's reaction really, like, kind of instilled in me like how much she was, like, constantly worried. I don't think she really expressed it. Outwardly as much as I now realize that she probably had like a constant fear filled you're already nervous when you have kids anyway. But I would know but and then, on top of that, getting diabetes is like, makes you paranoid. Probably.

Scott Benner 16:26
It does a little bit and by the way, if it helps you I feel comfort. I mean, not that you need my approval, but not having children until after your 30 huge win for you.

Zoey 16:36
Yeah, seriously. I am so not ready. So that's good to hear. You

Scott Benner 16:40
probably don't even know yourself yet. So your parents, I guess we should go back for a second. Maybe walk me through a little more your sister pretending to have a seizure to freak your mom out. So this is just a prank, right? Let's do these quick today, shall we? You want to get the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump you can you want to try it before you buy it? You can my Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox Omni pod will send you a free no obligation, pod experience kit a demo, it will come to you right in the mail. You can put it on yourself or a loved one whomever it's for, wear it live with it. frolic about take a shower, take a bath skydive if you're a skydiver, you know, I'm saying do what you do in it and see what you think. If you want to keep moving after that, I'm the pod would be thrilled to help you. If you don't, it's fine. No pressure, no harm in trying. My Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box takes about three minutes. And that thing will be on its way here. Now the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor, can't get your free demo with that. But I can send you to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. to really look through the details. When you get there, you're going to find out about rise and fall alerts right find out if your blood sugar's going up or going down. If it's going up fast or going down fast, it can tell you that you can set the alarms to tell you when you want to know it's not like it always tells you at one number it tells you when you want to know. It'll also tell up to 10 of your followers, you can choose 10 people to follow your blood glucose, their phone can get alarms as well. So you have a backup, where if you're a parent, you know, it's easier to manage if everybody's seeing what's going on in real time. When we're Pre-Bolus thing with ardens Omni pod, we always use the data from the Dexcom g six to tell us how far in advance we need insulin, right? Do we have a little bit of a high blood sugar we need to get down before lunch. That's easy to do. And it's not as scary you can correct the high that's just how I do it, you correct the high and then you can still do your Pre-Bolus It's amazing. Just having that information in front of you opens up your possibilities. And it allows you to make really fine decisions or bold decisions with your art and spin around wearing it on the pod since she was four and a dexcom. Since like, I don't know so many generations index calm ago I've lost track years and years. These two tools are at the core of how Arden manages her blood sugar and be clear what that means. Arden has no diet restrictions. As a matter of fact, about three minutes ago she Pre-Bolus for macaroni and cheese and her eight one C has been between five two and six two for over six years. All that is accomplished with the Omni pod and the Dexcom can't be more precise because that's all there is to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox my Omni pod comm forward slash juice box links right there in the show notes for your podcast player. At Juicebox podcast.com have a couple seconds today and you'd like to support the show and add your voice to type one diabetes research that matters. T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box. Check it out.

This is just a prank right?

Zoey 20:27
I'm not sure the timeline, but I remember her like not being in school because we were in the same elementary school I think briefly maybe or, but there's nothing more like gone to school that day or something like that. And people knew that like my friend My parents friends knew that because we come from like a really small town and everyone's a doctor. And so I think she had had a seizure or something. And then we were like, we're in bed. My mom would read to us before bed, and we're in my parents bed like reading and my sister. Yeah, like, I think she told me what she was gonna do. Because I wasn't freaked out. I you know, not remembering quite clearly. But she I remember her like kind of like pretending she was having like convulsions and she like roll their eyes back. And my mom was like, screaming and like jumping up and down. She called

Scott Benner 21:25
me she What did she call your dad's beeper?

Zoey 21:28
No, there wasn't enough time before my sister like started laughing. My mom was like, she was so mad. And I don't blame her

Scott Benner 21:34
mentally. When you saw Miami Vice. Did you think your dad was like a cocaine drug lord. Oh, okay.

Zoey 21:42
But that's funny. I remember thinking his beeper was like, super cool. Because cell phones weren't really a thing yet. Definitely. Yeah, I mean that, you know, people had them but not like, I remember him getting a cell phone too. That's a big deal.

Scott Benner 21:58
So your sister was in. As you, as you recall, was she the manager of her insulin and things like that? Did she basically take care of herself?

Zoey 22:07
Yeah, well, she was pretty young. First. And I remember she had a pen, like a, that you had to like, step into her thigh every time. And that was I remember her, like, crying and being really upset that she had to do it in the earlier times, because she was only nine. So but then yeah, I don't she had a pump. She got a pump. Pretty quick, maybe? I don't know. I want to say when she was like 12 or 13, but I'm not sure. And it was like the mini med. I think, is that right? And then you got like a pumps, diesel tronic. Is that something like that? Or do

that she got a mini med one verse. I remember that one. What was the second?

Like? decent tronic or something? I don't know.

Scott Benner 22:59
Hold on a second. You're really close. It just made me laugh. That's how I wouldn't have been Medtronic maybe.

Zoey 23:06
Oh, I remember starting with a D. But now she has a different med one. So okay. Well, she had this one that I thought it started with a D? I don't know. But it had everything clear. So it looked like robotic and it was cool. And she pretty much yeah, I handled all that. Remember her like watching her like putting her say I used to want her to test my blood sugar.

Scott Benner 23:25
Do you remember why you wanted your blood sugar shocked or just cuz she was

Zoey 23:30
I think my mom wanted to do it to like, see that? Probably her like, wondering if I had diabetes. Um, but I just thought it was cool. And I want I think I want it to be like, it doesn't hurt like, you know, because you always had like little calluses all over her fingers from doing it.

Scott Benner 23:48
And you were like, I won't have calluses. Yeah. I wonder time. I'm trying to imagine if I if your mom didn't maybe pull you aside and try to be like, wouldn't it be cool to check your blood sugar? Like your sister tried to talk you into it? So she could see if you're?

Zoey 24:02
I don't know. Yeah, I remember like changing the needle and stuff. But it's funny.

Scott Benner 24:08
So this is really I know, you probably don't feel like it. But I think it's very interesting to hear that you have memories, but they're not. Like it's not horror stories or getting me like, yeah, it's interesting. It's definitely interesting. So I think your sister contacted me and said, Hey, I know you want to have on some siblings. And I think my sister Zoe would do it. Like, that's great. And then there was something about us, she's like, make sure you tell Is there a story or was that the seizure story is the story.

Zoey 24:36
Oh, no, there's another story. Okay. Um, this is probably the closest become to a horror story, but it wasn't. Roxy was just like always so cool about everything, which is funny because she's kind of a hypochondriac, and by her own admission, but I guess once you get diabetes, you're like, I can't suspect I have it. I already have it. She thought that she was always like, pretty independent and very like responsible, which I was not. So the only way in which she screwed me over is that I was a younger child and she never did anything bad. So when I did anything, as like a high schooler, it was like the end of the world. But she was in college and she had come home. I guess probably I was a sophomore in high school, I think it was like spring of my sophomore year. And she had come home for, I guess, summer break, because they get out early. And she had her wisdom teeth out, and I can't. Now remember, if it was something to do with like the medication they gave her after her wisdom teeth, or if something just like malfunction with her pump. But it her pumps stopped working. My parents were out of town. They had gone to sell North Carolina or something for my cousin's graduation. And my grandmother was still alive at that point. But she was like, practically blind. I was 15. Like I said, we live on now like a backside of a mountain. And we're about 25 minutes from town. And my sister's like, something's wrong. I don't like I can't really see very well, either. She was like, I think her trouble. something's not working in her blood sugar. Something happened was really high. Maybe or Is that right? No,

Scott Benner 26:28
no, I think really high if it's not working.

Zoey 26:30
Yeah. You know. And so I had my permit at the time, I guess, but you can't get your license at your 16. So I was I was probably like, 15 and a half. My grandmother's you only one there. She can't see anything. I only have my permit. My sister's like about to pass out. And I had to drive down into town and take her to the hospital. Because I was the only one who was like, able to drive physically. And we figured if I got pulled over, it'd be a pretty good excuse. My grandma, I guess it was fine. She was in the car. But she couldn't say anything. So it was no.

Unknown Speaker 27:07
Yes. Yeah, exactly.

Zoey 27:09
Yeah, so I yeah, that was that was. That's kind of cool, though. kind of funny. Sounds like

Unknown Speaker 27:16
diabetes brought you like a fun. Did you

Scott Benner 27:18
tell your parents afterwards?

Zoey 27:20
Yeah. Well, that later that night. Obviously, I was never neglected by Mr. Diabetes, because what I remember more is that I got sprayed by a skunk that night. Coming home. I got sprayed on like my bare leg, just like point blank got sprayed by a skunk and was home alone because Roxy wasn't there. And my grandma was with her was this and I was like,

Scott Benner 27:43
oh my god. Was the skunk at home. Biggest memory. Was the skunk at home or did you take Roxy to an animal hospital when our bugs are really?

Zoey 27:51
Nope, the skunk was at home eating cat food from our porch.

Unknown Speaker 27:55
As you do,

Zoey 27:57
yeah, sure. Makes the cat and the skunk word buddies. But skunk did not like me. Yeah, I remember. And also Rodney had to go. Apparently there was like no room, in the hospital and the normal places. So she was in the ICU, but not because she was in intensive care. And I didn't really know what ICU stood for. And so people were calling me and I was telling them she was in the ICU. And that was shocking to some people. But yeah, she was fine.

Scott Benner 28:30
almost a perfect story. I here's where here's what I thought I was so excited for half is that because you're like my grandmother was really old and almost and in the pause between almost and when you said blind I thought you're gonna say and almost dead. That's just like, I was always thinking ahead. And then you're like, blind. I'm like, that's even better. Like how are they going to like, fix this? Like the sisters losing her eyesight because her blood sugar is so high. Your child? grandma's blind? You live on a mountain?

Zoey 29:03
Yeah, it's like the perfect storm.

Scott Benner 29:06
Right to go to the hospital.

Zoey 29:08
That would have been epic. borrow the the neighbors like a horse and buggy.

Unknown Speaker 29:15
Put your

Scott Benner 29:16
grandma and your sister on. lit by what I'm assuming it's like a frayed rope. Ah,

Zoey 29:21
yeah, maybe I could have driven the john deere, we have one of those. I have to tell you again.

Scott Benner 29:26
Going into Vermont the first time because we're making some fun of it, but we shouldn't be my wife and my wife and I said to each other if there was a way to make money here, we'd move here immediately.

Zoey 29:35
Yeah, it's Yeah. And it's gorgeous. I went Yeah. What I yeah, I'm probably not gonna be able to move back there for a long time. But that's my goal.

Scott Benner 29:45
Doesn't bother you with a winter.

Zoey 29:47
No, I think I mean, sometimes it gets you know, like really bad if it's windy and like below zero, but I grew up like because there was nothing else to do. The winter we would if you got like, you know, I don't know if you're like an honor student or something you got Really cheap ski pass to not like the nicest mountain but a pretty nice mountain. And so we just go skiing every weekend pretty much for snowboarding,

Scott Benner 30:08
good students would get a cheaper pass the ski.

Zoey 30:11
Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:12
That's kind of brilliant, isn't it?

Zoey 30:14
Yeah, encouraging kids to do well, so they can, you know, pay for cheaper,

Scott Benner 30:19
you know, more suburban setting. How would you incentivize children for good grades? I'm trying to think around here. Could you give them? Yeah, I don't know. Like nothing, I don't think Yeah, I don't know what you can do. Gotcha. All right. Listen, what kind of an attorney Do you want to be?

Zoey 30:35
I'm going to be an immigration attorney.

Scott Benner 30:38
nice person.

Unknown Speaker 30:40
I try.

Scott Benner 30:41
I don't think you have to try. So it sounds like it's happening.

Zoey 30:43
Oh, yeah. It's important to me. So.

Scott Benner 30:48
Where do you live right now? Are you in Vermont?

Zoey 30:51
I know, I go to school in Rhode Island. But I'm moving to Arizona in September. Ah,

Scott Benner 30:57
okay. How did you become interested in immigration law? Because there certainly aren't a lot of people from outside of the United States trying to get into Vermont, and having

Zoey 31:06
no not at all, I will probably never, probably won't be able to end up back there for a long time. I used to live in South America for about three years, I learned Spanish became fluent in Spanish, and I kind of like fell in love with the the Chilean culture. I think when you live in a different country, you kind of get, you know, a sense that like, while every culture is different, and you know, you have a better appreciation for the fact that everyone's human and, you know, ultimately wants the same thing. And human rights are important.

Scott Benner 31:40
Yeah, I said to my wife the other day, I forget what political thing we were talking about. But I said, I think everyone should have to live somewhere else for five minutes, just so they can Yeah, cuz there's, there's a world out there. That if you haven't seen it, you imagine what it's like, and you're probably pretty wrong.

Zoey 31:57
Yeah, I think so. Definitely. Yeah, I'm doing a lot of I'll probably be working with a lot of kids seeking asylum. I'm gonna be working with the

organization called the Florence project in

Unknown Speaker 32:09
Arizona.

Zoey 32:13
So they have a children's team that I'll be working on.

Scott Benner 32:15
So before I ask you a couple of serious questions, I want to ask you one more silly question that's gonna alienate another tire state of people. Are people from Rhode Island weird?

Zoey 32:25
Um, they love Rhode Island a lot. So kind of they they're just like, like, if they never left Rhode Island, they don't think they'd care really much.

Scott Benner 32:39
What is it about there? Because it My question is a is a based on the calls coming from inside the house. This is from what I hear from people who are in Rhode Island that there's like, there's something particular about them, they fit well together. And then they seem like you can as soon as you move them out of Rhode Island for five seconds, you can look at them and go, you know, I think that person was from Rhode Island. No, yeah. Why is that? What is it about? I don't

Zoey 33:03
know. Well, their accent first of all is pretty intense.

I don't know. It's so unique, I think would like that. Even the geography of it. They're like super proud of very strange things like stuffies they call them are basically just like stuffed po hogs, but they're more breading than anything else. So I don't really understand what the big to do is.

Scott Benner 33:26
I'm googling what you just said, cuz that stuff

is I think that Yeah, I do not want to end up on a website where guys are dressed like cartoon characters on

Zoey 33:38
tread lightly tried to be really careful here. Rhode Island

stuffy.

There, yeah, they're just like really, really proud of brown. But also I mean, because I've been kind of involved in the Rhode Island legal community. It's like, you have to be so careful because it's such a tiny state and everyone knows everything about everyone. It's basically like, like, high school for states. It's like very quickie

Scott Benner 34:07
stuffies stuffed. claw hugs. Ko hugs ko hugs. Yeah, hold on. Stuff co hog or stuffies are popular elsewhere in New England, but only in Rhode Island are their annual kohan festivals in Warren in a fictional town called ko hog in a popular TV show called Family Guy. No hogs, of course, are the large. Of course. I'm still wondering What in God's name is this thing and I'm looking at it and the plan and the text says Of course. Cool. Hugs, of course, are the large hard shelled clams native to this area. The ones used in the chapters and clam cakes. kohan comes from the Indian name. Wow pop up blocker chalky. And there's a lot of words here I can't pronounce cultivated and clams for food and ornaments the introduction of them the area's first European settlers. For this dish, let's finish this up. The clam meat gets chopped up and mixed with bread crumbs, herbs and finely diced onions, bell peppers and celery. The whole savory mess is then baked in the clamshell. Yeah, right then. Mm hmm. And you say they love them and they're a little too proud of them. Is that what you're getting?

Zoey 35:21
I think they're just like a little too proud of everything, maybe. Like their beaches and like, I don't know. Their beaches are like kind of crowded and have a lot of red seaweed in them.

Scott Benner 35:35
But they love it. look good. I live in

Zoey 35:38
Bristol, Rhode Island. And it's really cute. Kind of like a sweet little Harbor Town. But in the summer Yeah, it gets kind of like unbearable. There's I usually leave but there's just like people everywhere. I sound like my parents.

Scott Benner 35:53
This Long Island, it's overwrought. We got to get out of here.

Zoey 35:57
Exactly. You want to live in Manhattan.

Scott Benner 36:00
Alright, so it makes you want to live in man that easily be the title of this episode. So have you ever and I'm sorry, if I'm the one putting this into your head? Are you aware that? You know people get Type One Diabetes at all ages?

Zoey 36:17
Yes. So it seems like people. I don't think this is scientific at all. But in my experience, it's like, either got it when you're like, you're three, like nine. It's like everyone I've ever talked to has always gotten in these weird times. Or like, early teens or like early 20s. I know. I know, a girl in college who when I went to college there shouldn't have diabetes. And she got it when she was like 22 movies.

Scott Benner 36:46
I have met somebody who's been diagnosed at every age, you can imagine right up to

Zoey 36:51
six. So Wow, type one. Yes. Oh, my time is so

Scott Benner 36:58
don't lose faith.

Zoey 37:00
Yeah, I do could have diabetes. One day,

Scott Benner 37:03
of course. See, aspirational is the way to go. My question was, of course this Did you ever think about it, but your experience was that it's for younger? You feel like you You enjoy a second ago felt like you had? Sorry. It felt like you would live past the age where this could happen to you?

Zoey 37:22
Um, yeah, I guess I like don't I? Yeah, I don't worry about it. I'm like, honestly never worried about it, though. I mean, that would suck. But I guess, you know, at least I'd have an older sister who knew everything about everything to tell me. It's weird, because in our family, there's no one else in our family who has it like that we knew of ever. Hmm. So I don't know, I thought, isn't it possible to like, when you get it as like you get a virus as a kid or something like that is

Scott Benner 37:53
that? Well, my my best understanding of the medical idea is that you have genetic markers that make you more or less likely to have it. And oftentimes, something happens that sort of sparks off that solar flare in your body. And, you know, for my daughter, I think she got hand foot Mouth Disease, which is just a simple thing kids get and Yeah, probably in that moment, her immune system got confused and attacked her pancreas instead of the hand foot mouth. Uh huh. Yes, you can get it. Yeah,

Zoey 38:25
I don't remember.

Unknown Speaker 38:28
I don't know if Roxy,

Zoey 38:30
Roxy getting like a sickness or something. But she probably did. Because I remember like them talking about that being a possible way. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm still not really. I always tell her that. Like, it's, it's good that she got to know me because I would probably be dead because I'm so irresponsible with that kind of stuff. And she's just like, unbelievably on it. So yeah, I don't think about it that much. I mean, maybe I will now have to call you back in a month and tell you if I'm like losing sleep over? Well, there's

Scott Benner 39:01
babies for your there is something you could do called trial net, where they would test you for the markers and tell you if you have any. Your interest.

Zoey 39:10
What do you think they would have done? Is that something that's new?

Scott Benner 39:14
I'm not new as in like today, but newer than 25 years ago.

Zoey 39:19
Oh, God. Yeah. So they probably wouldn't have done that. Because I do remember. I don't know. They probably just like tested by blood sugar or something when I was young to figure it out. But yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'll do it. So while we're heading

Scott Benner 39:31
down this road before we get off of it onto another idea ever considered what it would be like? Do you ever worry that your children might get type one?

Unknown Speaker 39:42
Um,

Zoey 39:44
no, mainly because I haven't really fun.

Scott Benner 39:49
Have you ever have you ever worried Zoey that one day you'd come on a podcast to do a favor for your sister and the host would make you freak out about your future?

Zoey 39:57
about whether or not I'm late. To the party of motherhood, Roxy and I talked about like kittens a lot and being like, we kind of go back and forth. Like I used to really, really want kids. And now I don't really do because mainly not diabetes, but I do think like, Oh my god, I would never stop worrying. And that's part of it. I think I would worry more about like, I don't know, like autism maybe or something like that

Scott Benner 40:26
getting some some money or something like that. Yeah, baby growing up in a chicken coop inside of a trailer on some guys.

Zoey 40:36
Get bucked off a horse. I don't know, run over by a tractor.

Scott Benner 40:39
I think obviously, if you if you don't have type one, there's, there's plenty of other things in the world to worry about. If you're, if you're gonna run around worrying. I don't, you know, I think to sit and think that you're going to get, you know, have some malady in the future or diseases is not a good use of your time. But I was just wondering, like, you know, if you, you would consider that. But it's interesting. You've gotten to the age, where you realize about yourself that if that baby comes out of you, you're That's it? That's the rest of your life. Like you said, Your mom. Still like, right? If you're like, I peed today, she's like, and how old your mom?

Zoey 41:19
6667?

Scott Benner 41:21
Do you really want to be worrying about a 28 year old when you're 67?

Unknown Speaker 41:24
No. But you will if you have one.

Zoey 41:28
I know I will just pretty much the the turnoff at this point. It's so funny. I every time I say that, like my aunt, I have a lot of moms. And they're always like, take it personally. They they're like very offended. Like, oh, you you want to have kids like I'm like have insulted them because they had kids. My cousins too. Like it's not something personal. I give in hard.

Scott Benner 41:50
My aunt and uncle didn't have children, one of my aunts and uncles and people were always hard on them. And I always just thought like, they don't seem like they want to leave him alone.

Zoey 41:59
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, my I'm not engaged or anything My boyfriend is I think he would be like a really lovely father. But I think he also, you know, we'd like to travel. I have a dog. She's sitting right here. That's a big

Scott Benner 42:13
enough mistake, in my opinion.

Zoey 42:15
Very, very committed to her fuzzy little face. But

Scott Benner 42:19
did your boyfriend is your boyfriend gonna find out on this podcast that he's not having kids? Is that what? No.

Zoey 42:26
We've talked about that a lot. I think it would be such a good dad, which is like the only reason I'm like, not 100%. But I'm like, but what if I'm just like a really bad mom. And then I'm like, oh, man, you know, a kid with diabetes. That'd be really hard. Especially like worrying all the time. I would imagine. I think my parents like played it really cool. But I think my mom was always probably, but Roxy was just like such a responsible teenager. I think having a kid with diabetes, I would really worry about like drinking and stuff because that would really like make your blood sugar go haywire, I guess especially if you're like, really drunk and don't know what's going on to make

Scott Benner 43:00
it lower could put you in a situation where you might misuse the insulin or something we have Yeah, episode about drinking heavily on with diabetes.

Zoey 43:08
I remember being in high school and there was a kid in my high school who had diabetes and his parents were like, very, like helicopter, always, like really, really worried. And I remember him getting a he was always just like, very sweet and kind of innocent. And I remember just getting like really, really drunk one night. And everyone was like, he was like, passed out and everyone was like, oh, what do we do like asking me we should like to I was like, literally like test his blood sugar on ours tester is like, it was scary for me. And I'm not I'm not his mom. I don't know. So this

Scott Benner 43:39
is interesting, right? And I By the way, I'm really very much enjoying this. It's not going anywhere the way I expected. But I like what you're saying. So in a highschool drinking situation, when a child who has type one passes out, you become the de facto doctor because your sister had diabetes. But in truth, you don't know what the hell you're doing.

Zoey 44:01
I have no idea. Like, this is not good. Yes.

Scott Benner 44:05
Yeah. You should never put your life in the hands of drunk people.

Zoey 44:08
No, definitely not. 100%. No.

Unknown Speaker 44:15
Oh my gosh, hey, listen, you don't have to answer this if you don't want to. But is the boyfriend coming to Arizona?

Scott Benner 44:23
Am I about to break you up? I'm sorry. Does he not know you're going to Arizona? Did you hang up? What just happened?

Zoey 44:28
Can you hear me? Okay. Sorry, um, anyway, wants to get his LLM in tax law. So the schools in Arizona don't offer that program. So we'll be we'll be doing long distance for

Scott Benner 44:43
a year or so. No kidding. That's interesting. Yeah. Listen, I'm gonna tell you this right now. This might come as a sad, horrifying shock to you. But if you do a long distance relationship for a year, you're gonna end up having a baby Why? Because that's a ton of commitment to somebody, you're gonna do a long distance relationship for a year and then not marry a girl and make her pregnant.

Zoey 45:10
Can I just marry him and not get pregnant? I mean, you could try

Unknown Speaker 45:15
doing my best.

Scott Benner 45:18
I can promise you that you can try if you want to, huh? What are you going to do? If your internal lady parts start telling you you have to make a baby, will you be able to fight them off?

Zoey 45:28
Yeah, well, I think that already happened. Like when I was like, 22. And I was like, had baby fever. And now I'm like, oh, they're so sticky. Every time they touch everything that's sticky. That's how I feel about kids. So it's very sticky. It's very interesting to hear you say that, because

Scott Benner 45:42
I'm a, a firm believer in that idea of there's like, certain times when you just, you know, the women who around you are like, now would be a great time to have a baby. And you're like, why? Yeah, I don't understand, like, what was confusing, you know, cuz your bits are really fun. And then it gets confusing. So you're like in a med tear, and we have no ability to defend that. And then you end up with a baby. That's how

Zoey 46:07
Yeah, I don't know. I just, I don't know if it's worth it for me.

Scott Benner 46:12
A lot. I have two children that I love immensely, and I'm not certain it's worth it for me. Just so you know.

Zoey 46:18
Well, that is definitely something to think about. And they're

Scott Benner 46:22
actually lovely kids, like bright and thoughtful. And not, they're not a problem. They don't create, like extra problems in my life. Just them human creates a lot of problems in my life.

Zoey 46:33
It's hard. I mean, like, like, my dog has recently decided she will not sleep on the floor, like always has to sleep in the bed in between me and my boyfriend. I'm like, this is rough. I mean, like, heart and and she's too cute. I don't want to move. I personally think she's cuter than a kid. But, you know, I might think differently if I created a human Hey, just for just so people know, when you just said this is rough. And you were talking about your dog that wasn't upon, right? No, I did make a point earlier with getting heat for keeping my thermostat at 68. But that was unintentional. Oh, no. He will be proud though. She loves buttons.

Scott Benner 47:08
What? So? Okay, so you've never really, here's what I'm learning. And this is, and by the way, I know you're gonna think oh, this is a mate, you're gonna probably think this was a waste of time after I say this. But I think the opposite. You don't know anything about type one diabetes, you weren't really impacted by it at all. You're not a different person because of it. Your sister's not unhappy because of it. You know, that's gonna be a really wonderful thing for people to hear. Because what I hear from people is that, oh, we spend more time with Billy and I know for sure that Joey's upset about it. But I think people are just projecting their, onto their younger kids. He looks upset their kids like

Zoey 47:46
oh, like their parent. The parents are worried that they're

Scott Benner 47:49
Yeah, they're worrying that they're screwing something up. See, this is interesting, because you were you were raised in a time where people didn't, I hope I hope this doesn't come to a shock to younger people. People didn't really care that much about their kids. Do you hear what I'm saying?

Zoey 48:06
Yeah, I was like, way more chill. Just like Well, no, go put in the neighborhood. Like, you're gonna get kidnapped like,

Scott Benner 48:14
nothing. Listen, growing up. I was like a little fat kid growing up. And there was a boy at the pool where I lived who tried to kill me and every other boy like every summer, he would drown us, right?

Zoey 48:27
Oh, yeah, they're like, no one gets worse

Scott Benner 48:30
round. No one said a word. My parents are watching me be drugged out, like looking at making friends. You know. And, by the way, that experience and many others, led me to figure out how to stop that kid from trying to drown me. Like I developed a personality around keeping a larger, stronger person from trying to kill me. Because I couldn't run away. Like, you know, cuz I'd had too many candies. So I had to, um, so I had to, I had to, like, talk my way. I had to be a person who he least wanted to drown. Yeah, right. And I came up with that. Because my guess what my parents looked at me and they're like, whatever, like good luck, you know. But looking back, I honestly think that's because they did. Just like, Look, we made the baby. We're paying close. Make sure it goes to school. What else do you want from me? Exactly. And you know, and so I think maybe that lack of that lack of overt concern constantly is good for a kid and it would be great for parents if they weren't burdened with it constantly. But in this sort of last generation, they really got swallowed up by everything needs to be perfect for these kids. You know, I can't let anything bad happened to them. That's a, you know, a bit of a misnomer in some things. Like Don't get me wrong, like you shouldn't want a bus hit them. But no, you might be right. Yeah, there's some things you're gonna have to defend them against. But there's some things you just let them try and Yeah, exactly. So, like, you should just, you know, chill out a little bit of heroin.

Zoey 50:10
Okay. It's okay. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think. I think my parents did a really good job. And I think like I said, looking back on it, they were probably my mom was probably like, constantly freaking out, but she didn't let I don't know. Do let me know that.

Scott Benner 50:31
She probably didn't let your sister know either.

Zoey 50:34
Yeah, I don't think she I think actually I talked about this recently, but like, you know how hard it must have been to be already you're a worried parent. And then on top of that, your tickets ivds. Like, that's a lot. But,

Scott Benner 50:47
um, because Roxy in Vermont still.

Zoey 50:49
No, she lives in Indiana.

Scott Benner 50:52
All right, that's good, because I'm gonna have to ask her to be on the show. And the internet's

Unknown Speaker 50:56
terrible. Yeah,

Scott Benner 50:58
it really is. It's just, there's a person I love who I want to be on the show more, but they live in Vermont, so they can't come on. Because, yeah, it's like

Zoey 51:07
a local local cybercafe. Well

Scott Benner 51:09
dial up like basically, I need Yeah,

Zoey 51:11
we have. We had dial up all through high school and our parents just got rid of it altogether.

Like DSL, I think, I don't know. Fancy.

Scott Benner 51:19
Right from 87. out of it, do you think Roxy would come on?

Zoey 51:26
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. That's

cute. Well, I love the name of this podcast, by the way, because like, some of my earliest memories are just like, juice boxes everywhere. So many juice boxes. And I think also just like glucose tablets, like rolling around in the back of the car.

Scott Benner 51:46
Always, oh, there's a juice box in the door of my car right now. And they're Yeah, they're pretty much always is. Yeah, as my daughter.

Zoey 51:56
I think in terms of being jealous, at any point, it was mainly just because like, I wanted to try her like Weird, Gross gel, like sugar packet. That was like the biggest, the biggest way in which she was favored. She had to eat gross glucose.

Scott Benner 52:13
You know, I'm gonna have to first of all, if that Roxie on to like, tell us the rest of the story. I'm also gonna have to someone's gonna reach out and be like, Yo, I was this, you know, my sibling had a terrible time. And I'm going to want to talk to them too. And, but it's interesting, because your parents are, are made for this Really? Like they're, like, seriously, look at them. They're on Long Island. Plenty of people live very happily on Long Island, not them. They're like, we need more relaxed. And so they move to a, you know, probably the most isn't the most. Come on. It's got to be the chillest place in America right for mine.

Zoey 52:48
I would. I wouldn't think so. Yeah. To be clear, my mom. Well, this current political climate is very high strung, but I think it would be way worse if she was in a city definitely would be exacerbated.

Unknown Speaker 53:03
Your mom is high strung because of the current political climate.

Zoey 53:06
Yeah, she's very angry. I don't blame her. I am too but you know, preaching to the choir.

Scott Benner 53:11
Real quick, just so that we so that we can be sure you were joking about children using heroin. Can you tell everybody for a second just in case

Zoey 53:20
definitely a joke, do not condone children and drug use. Not the coolest,

Scott Benner 53:26
because your sarcasm was really smooth air and I was like, we're gonna have to double back to that for a second.

Zoey 53:30
Because you just I mean arrow and you know, most things I say are sarcastic. My mom also doesn't get my sense of humor, which I think is frustrating for her.

Scott Benner 53:38
Art it My daughter has it. My daughter has it. My wife can't follow it sometimes my son Yeah, my son figured it out. And he's using it now. But he's a little more like my wife. So it took him longer. But yeah, the other night. I said something about so this, there's a movie called the intern with Robert De Niro. And oh,

Zoey 53:59
yeah, I saw that. What's

Scott Benner 54:00
the what's the girl's name? She's got like alabaster skin and dark hair. And

Zoey 54:06
I don't remember I don't like I can't even picture her right now. But I remember Robert DeNiro. Isn't

Scott Benner 54:11
that terrible Les Mis movie recently in Hathaway and Oh, yes. Who's so Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro are in this movie. That's, I mean, it's not a good movie, right? Yeah. No, but I really like it. So it and I've watched it like five times when it's been on cable. And it comes on while we were helping art and get ready for she was going to a thing where she was like doing her hair and everything and it comes on. Oh my god. I love this movie is my favorite movie. And a minute later Arden goes, are you kidding about the movie? I can't know. And when she can't read my sarcasm. I'm so thrilled. Yeah, because she's so good at it. I'm like, Oh, yeah, so then I pressed it. And so I was telling the truth, but in a sarcastic tone. I'm like, I've seen this movie like five times. It's great. Right. And she and I said, I magic. Oh my god, she's freaked out because I'm telling the truth in a tone that she reads the sarcasm. And then I said this Anne Hathaway right. I said, let me tell you something. If it was 15 years ago, you know who this Hannah Hathaway would be? And my wife goes, I know. And I said, Who are you thinking, Kelly? And she goes, Julia Roberts, and I was like, that's exactly what exactly what I was gonna say, this is in the in the heyday of the 90s films, and Hathaway would have been Julia Roberts. And Arden just looks at me and goes, I cannot tell if you were telling the truth or not. And it freaked me out. I was like, thank you.

Zoey 55:40
Oh, oh, yeah, I had I had very

mature sarcasm at 15. I'm pretty sure it was fully developed. Yeah.

Scott Benner 55:49
Anyway. Yeah, I read it in you immediately. I was concerned, everyone else didn't. Because sometimes I get notes from people. Disclaimer, yeah, I once in a while, get a note from people that it's like, you're so full of yourself. And I'm like, you really have to find a sarcastic person. stay around for a couple of seconds. So you can hear that.

Zoey 56:06
You're doing a podcast on type one diabetes, like, and making it interesting.

Unknown Speaker 56:12
Yeah, just say thank you. Is that what you're saying?

Zoey 56:16
I don't know. I feel like it's just like a weird, a weird dig to someone who's doing something like this. I don't know.

Scott Benner 56:24
You know, it happens very infrequently. Right. But once in a while, and it's funny. You don't realize this, though, because you have no idea. This is an incredibly popular podcast.

Zoey 56:33
Yeah. Rocky, Rocky does a listening so.

Scott Benner 56:36
So I find a way to make this, like, I make diabetes fun should be my T shirt. Or funner, which is not a word, but really would be more like, you know, correct for people's feelings, I guess. Uh huh.

Zoey 56:51
Yeah, I don't know. I guess I because of like, how I can see how this would be incredibly interesting and helpful. I mean, you know, my sisters are listening to it. But I guess because of how responsible Roxy was. And like her, you know, aside from the, you know, almost dying, going to the ICU and having her half blind to grandma. Forever. Like, that was the biggest, you know, and you know, but to me, I also actually remember one time having to, like, go out, like, I don't know, I think her blood sugar was at like, 38 or something like that. And my dad being like, we have to go find juice, like driving around at like, 1230 at night, and some like town when we're on vacation. I only again, every time I remember something, it's because there was something about me in there, too. So if you want to talk about being self centered,

Scott Benner 57:39
no, but that, but you're a little kid, you probably you should be. So yeah, you're a little kid. And so I just think that as much as you're not gonna really feel this right now. Because you don't have diabetes, and you don't have a child who has diabetes, the people who do, we're going to be incredibly comforted by your story. And your story really? Seriously. Your story really is, I grew up with a spouse with a sibling that had type one diabetes, and it didn't hurt my life. And no, not at all. Do you think it made you in any way? Did it elevate you? That you could tell?

Zoey 58:13
Um, I, I mean, you

Scott Benner 58:15
are, I hope so.

Zoey 58:16
I guess they're being like, more compassionate, or, you know, patient, I guess. But, I mean, it's really funny. There's like a running joke in my family. Because this one time I wrote this essay that was supposed to write an essay about someone I looked up to, and I wrote it about Roxy, and I talked about how she had diabetes. And she'd, like, you know, overcome all this stuff. And of course, like every one of my family was like, That's hilarious that you're using Roxy's diabetes to get good grades. And ever since then, it's been like this running joke that I like, use her diabetes when it is.

Unknown Speaker 58:50
But

Scott Benner 58:50
officer Listen, I know I'm only 15 and a half, but my sister's got diabetes in my old grandmother's almost blind, so not a lot of options here.

Zoey 59:00
That would have been fine. Yeah, there's, um, they, like still laugh about that. And I'm like I was writing about

Scott Benner 59:07
do you? Did you really look up to her? Are you like, hey, this guy is gonna get me this internship or something like that?

Zoey 59:13
No, I think I know, oh, my God, I was so young. I don't think I was even looking for an internship. But she I think I was probably in like, sixth grade or something. No, I definitely. I mean, we're, you know, we're, we've gotten a lot closer, and we're more you know, I think we look to each other for different things now as both, you know, adults, but as a kid, especially, I think I you know, did I definitely looked up to her a lot. And I think, I mean, she's also like, she was like the valedictorian of our high school and then graduated and I came in as a freshman. Like, I think I was like a disappointment.

Unknown Speaker 59:50
Yeah,

Zoey 59:50
yeah. I'll tell you responsible, but I don't I mean, I, I guess just being like more aware, but I really I will I'd love to say that it like affected me more, but maybe I just was being you know, self centered and little kid and didn't

Scott Benner 1:00:07
seem so interested to talk to her now because I bet you she didn't think of herself as very responsible. Maybe that's how you saw it. Do we definitely need the other side of this now?

Zoey 1:00:15
Yeah, yes.

Scott Benner 1:00:18
No, no, not at the same time I need. My brain needs time to ferment and as an adult, do you guys talk about diabetes? Because you said your close now? Does it come up ever? Does she not speak about it that much. Um,

Zoey 1:00:36
it comes up just because like, you know, but I mean, like, just for like logistics, like, show um, I actually recently for Christmas, I bought her a pair of nice leggings that have these really nice some pockets on the sides that are built in and I was like, Oh, this would be perfect for Roxy's pump. But, you know, other than that, I don't think she really, there were moments, I think when she would be frustrated with you know, implications of having it like, you know, you have to eat sometimes you don't want to things like that. But we don't, I don't know. I it could just be because she's like, you know, she's 32 now and has it so down, Pat, but there's other stuff. I mean, it's always changing too. And, you know, like that she has that patched thing now that like, senses your blood sugar wall like so you don't have to like test all the time. Yeah. But kind of like adjusting to those things. Like, you know, she'll mention in passing like, Oh, so frustrating. You know, my agency went up because the patch thing wasn't working. And I'm like getting used to it. But I think it's just normal for me now. So I don't really think about it as being like, Ah, yes. Today she complained about

Scott Benner 1:01:49
No, I wouldn't expect that. I'm just interested.

Zoey 1:01:52
Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.

Scott Benner 1:01:55
Were you ever aware of like, Did you go to her appointments when she was a little? Her doctor?

Zoey 1:01:59
Um, yes. Her doctor was named Jill Abel, Seth and I really liked that. And we would get to go to Albany, which is a CD. So that's why I remember that. But again, I'm like, Oh, I get to go get like I think we like went out to dinner in. We went to the pawn blossom. This was a Chinese restaurant that was better than the one that was in our town. So that's like, why I remember going to her doctor's. So two

Scott Benner 1:02:23
things able sac are Abel, Abel Seth,

Zoey 1:02:27
chill. Abel Seth, I believe was her name burger. I don't know if I'm supposed to be a broadcast. I'm looking

Unknown Speaker 1:02:33
here. How do you find it will seem to basically like her. She's actually

Zoey 1:02:37
really liked her. I remember that. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:02:39
she's it all day. Um,

Zoey 1:02:41
oh, she's still there.

Scott Benner 1:02:43
She's still doing her thing and opening.

Zoey 1:02:45
Yeah, well, she was great. I don't know I Roxy was especially for like when kiddos get diabetes. I think it's probably like a hard transition. I can imagine it would be even harder the older you get. So maybe getting in at nine was a blessing in disguise. But yeah, she always seemed like, very, like, understanding and helpful as far as I remember.

Scott Benner 1:03:08
Yeah. Well, people um, you know, I think if they when they find a good doctor, or one that they get along with, they stick to it. And you obviously travel that's really far to travel, isn't it?

Zoey 1:03:21
From betting town, it was like an hour

Scott Benner 1:03:22
an hour. Okay, so for so to you. You got to see the doctor who had Did you just like her name?

Zoey 1:03:30
I remember being really nice. I think, like, Yeah, I don't know, because we'd always go in. I mean, yeah, they weren't gonna like leave me at home. Because I think so. I think I'd had no choice but I made it work. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:03:42
And honestly, you're the bad seed. Something was gonna go wrong. Exactly.

Zoey 1:03:44
Yeah, for sure. I probably gonna burn the house down if they left me alone.

Scott Benner 1:03:48
But you're but your sister's endocrinologist visits? were basically the The doctor was nice. And I got Chinese food that was better than I had at home.

Zoey 1:03:57
Yeah, that is it. I think

Scott Benner 1:03:59
that's great. I think that's exactly how I expect it. So people ask me all the time, like, how does your son take this? And I was like, take what? Yeah, like, What are you talking about? This is just this is our This is how it goes? This is our life. Right? Like if, if Jordan was a lacrosse player instead of had diabetes, there'd be things we'd have to do for lacrosse. And it would impact Cole's life. And that would be our life, too. But yeah, I don't really see it as much different that I've tried asking him he doesn't have any He's like, you know, he actually sounds like he was like, I don't know. So I remember this one time we went to a restaurant we couldn't eat right away.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:33
Yeah, like,

Scott Benner 1:04:34
it wasn't a complaint. It was just a memory, you know? Yeah. But but he's like, other than that, like, whatever. I don't, I don't care. I don't think he I don't think he sees her like diabetes at all. Like he'll ask sometimes about her overall health, and we'll keep him filled in if something's going on with her. But no more or less than we keep her filled in if something's going on with him or Yeah, that's good. doesn't have anything to do with diabetes. Really?

Zoey 1:04:59
Yeah, I think that's I mean, that's a great, that's great that you're able to, you know, maintain that equilibrium. That's nice. Yeah, like I remember having to, like Roxy would have to order diet soda, and they'd bring them in sometimes, you know, waiters mix them up. So I would be like the guinea pig to have to taste both of them to make like, see which ones which before she drank it. I hate diet soda now, like, I think it's so because of that.

It is for us anyway. But yeah,

Scott Benner 1:05:27
it seems like your life is okay. Yeah.

Zoey 1:05:31
I got sprayed by a skunk. Thanks to Roxy's diabetes drive before you were illegal. Uh huh. I was doing that. Anyway, I hit a hay bale one time, though. And I was 13. So I was

Scott Benner 1:05:42
driving.

Zoey 1:05:43
Yeah, I was in that field. I was with like, my dad's. I was like, we called My uncle. But yeah. Yeah, he was like, I'll back up and I was like, okay, and I backed around a hay bale. And then he was like, get closer to it. And I was like, Okay, and then I hit it. So I dented the door of my grandmother's car.

Scott Benner 1:06:05
So this probation was put on you by your parents.

Zoey 1:06:09
Yeah, I mean, I was 13. So I couldn't

add it was just in the field like firehouse These are what this would you do in Vermont, you got to keep yourself occupied.

Scott Benner 1:06:18
Let me tell you, let me just tell you this is before we say goodbye, I I hundred percent certain I've never told this on the podcast before. I have been a daily driver since I was 13 years old. And I did not get my driver's license until I was 16. So we had circumstances that required it. And I alluded the law for three years to help my family and trust me, I was not growing up on a mountain and there was no fields anywhere near me.

Zoey 1:06:48
Yeah. Well in like North Dakota, you can get your license when you're like 14 to drive a tractor. You know, sometimes extenuating circumstances.

Scott Benner 1:06:56
Oh, by the way, I know because I actually tried as a 13 year old tried to get an attorney to get me a farmer's license out of state. I was Wow, I wasn't a dedicated industrious young man. I'm

Zoey 1:07:11
a chubby little industrious young man. I 13.

Scott Benner 1:07:12
I was thinning out a little bit. Yeah. I hear what you're saying. Good for you by the run away from your enemies. Well, finally, and then I didn't have as many. But they were all like this kids funny. We don't have to kill him. Like, you know what I mean? So because children have very basic ideas about how other people are treated. So I'm using guy gets to live. Yeah. Yeah, that's all. But yeah, I boy, this isn't. I'm not gonna bother you with it. But it's a good story. Maybe one day, it'll come out of here. Anyway, when I got when I got to my, my test, I took my driver's test on the day of my 16th birthday. Oh, well, because I did not want to risk one more day of driving without a license. And I had, because I was also I was a pragmatic criminal. So I didn't want to, I didn't want to be breaking the law. I just wanted to, you know, I had to mean, the grocery store was not close to our house. And my mom didn't drive. So anyway, I say, where do I get the car. That's another story now. So I go on my, on my birthday morning to get my driver's license, I talk a friend of mines older brother into letting me use this car. I had never driven this car before. So basically, he pulled it into the line for the test. And I got in the driver's seat. And I remember and this is gonna be something for you. Older people remember, but you get it. And the guy's like, you know, blow the horn. You know, dude, like, you have to do all that stuff. Put the turn signal on left, right, they make sure your hands kind of like fluidly go to these things. Yeah. Put on the high beams. And that was right at the time cars. were changing over from a button on the floor for high beams. Oh two pulling your like your turn signal back? Do you know what I mean? Yeah, so now many people have now heard that and thought I did not know there was ever a button on the floor that I also did not know, right? But there was a big metal button. Right? So I when he said high beams I simultaneously reached for the turn signal and stomp my foot and just thought one of these is gonna be running. And one of it was the turn signal. And so I did that.

Zoey 1:09:27
Yeah, I don't know that he would have been able to tell the daytime if your high beams.

Scott Benner 1:09:31
He knew he was very, very studious. I whipped through that test. I swear to God, and we pulled up in front of the building and he looks at me. He goes well, congratulations, you passed. It's like you've been driving forever.

Zoey 1:09:45
You're like ha ha I said

Scott Benner 1:09:47
thank you. And I reached out and took the paper from I got out of the car. I felt like I stole something. I was like, thank you very much. I had to like, consciously keep both of my hands on the wheel. Like I was just shy of like Putting my arm out on the window to get a little sun. You know? I've been driving a really long time. Yeah, we needed groceries. What are you gonna do?

Zoey 1:10:09
Yeah, I mean, you're gonna drive you're gonna do and your sister needs to go to hospital. You

Unknown Speaker 1:10:14
got to get to it.

Scott Benner 1:10:15
That's right. I hope we've all learned something here. From Zoey. I know we I have and I think the one thing I've definitely learned is please tell Roxie when she asked how this went that I want her to be on the show and ask her she'll send me another email. Okay.

Zoey 1:10:28
I'm sure she will. Yes. Well, good luck

Scott Benner 1:10:30
being an attorney. And I hope you help a lot of people. I hope that I hope that boy is nice when you go to Arizona.

Zoey 1:10:40
He's pretty nice. Yeah, it'll be good. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:10:43
I mean, in Rhode Island, who's he gonna mess with?

Zoey 1:10:45
Oh, yeah. Well, he's from Connecticut.

Scott Benner 1:10:48
Oh, my goodness. People can't drive at all.

Zoey 1:10:50
Not at all. No.

Scott Benner 1:10:53
People in Connecticut. No, you can't drive. Are you just finding out now? You terrible Really? Like you other than that, but

Zoey 1:11:00
honestly, actually a really bad driver. So that makes a lot of sense. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:11:03
100%? Yeah. Oh, no, no, that would not surprise me at all. The I took three years off of my life with stress driving through Connecticut one time.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:14
I will go to Massachusetts. Oh, that's where I was driving to.

Scott Benner 1:11:17
But by then, my brain exploded. So I couldn't tell anymore. But anyway, if I the day I die. Everyone who lives in Connecticut, just know that you stole yours from me. Mm hmm. Yeah. Your inability to speed up or change lanes? Absolutely maddening. Room. Sure you think it's safer, but it was give me a stroke. So anyway, I thank you so much for doing this. This is very kind of you. I really appreciate it.

Zoey 1:11:43
Yeah, no problem. My pleasure. I'll tell my sister, she's got to get on. Did you

Unknown Speaker 1:11:47
get your time? Yes, definitely.

Zoey 1:11:50
So funny to talk about things that I like didn't even you know, I don't know, I just didn't think about think about other people's perceptions of, you know, my experiences or any how it could have been any different than me and my sister,

Scott Benner 1:12:03
though. The truth is, by the way, anybody could have this conversation about anything in life. Like we're always impacting each other in ways we don't realize like, right, you're just living your life. You don't realize that, you know, you living your life is is is impacting someone else. Listen, yesterday. I didn't take my mom, my mom 77 I had to take her to a doctor's appointment. Right? So we don't live in the same state. Now. Don't get me wrong. We're, you know, bordering each other. We're not too long. But I'm at half an hour ride to my mom. So I get up in the morning. I take my kid to school. I'm making breakfast for I'm doing all this stuff. I got to get a shower. I gotta run out the door. I got to drive this 45 minute drive to get them my mom to drive for another half an hour to a doctor's appointment. It isn't going well for me already. Yeah. So we, you know, I get her to the appointment. Everything's fine. You know, she's great. And we're driving home. She says to me, I need Cole's address five days before his birthday. Now my son, his colon, his birthday is in February. And I was like what mom, and he shows his address at college. I need it five days before his birthday. So I can't help myself. So yeah, go, could I get it to you six days before his birthday. And she's like, what? And I said, What? Can I just give it to you? And now she goes, why don't have a pencil. And I said, Well, I was gonna email it to you. Because she had said, and I left that other story because I need you to email me his address. So I said, Mom, I'm like, I could just give it to you now and I swear she goes, I don't have a pencil. I said, Well, Mom, you won't need a pencil to receive an email. So this will be fine. She was Oh, okay, now we're driving. And I'm just like, Mom, listen, and then it gets confusing. She's like, Well, what I want to do is I'm like, Mommy, you're trying to send Cole a card for his birthday? And she's like, Yes, I was like, What is the five days have to do with it? And I couldn't like wrap my head around it and she's. But what I figured out after a painful conversation, was that five days in her mind gave her enough time to mail the card to him before his birthday. But didn't pressure me to have to come through on the ask of can you get Cole's addressed to me? Like she was? Ah, and so I'm like, Mom, you can't think about me like I'm okay. Just say I need Kohl's dress. So I said, Listen, these phones are magical. Ma'am. Let me show you something. I opened up my contacts, not while I'm driving. But you know, between me and us, oh, I've been driving since I'm 13. So pretty good. Right. And so, um, I afford my mom through a text message. My son's contact, said Mom, you'll touch that in it, do it now. Open up your your, you know, text, touch that and it's going to open it up and you're going to save it as a contact. And I said oh look here it already says that you have coals of contact. So just merge them together and you know, you'll have to address them. So then we go into our contacts, and there's a bunch of writing that doesn't make any sense in there. She's got Kohl's address twice. And I go, mom, you already had Kohl's address. No, I didn't. I was like, Yes, it look and I'm showing her and she's like, oh, okay, so I'm deleting her contacts and doing all this stuff. This process took 15 minutes. My mom doesn't realize that by her asking me for my son's address, which by the way, she already had. She put, by the time I got home, my wife goes, Hey, how'd it go? And I went, my mom. Oh, my I couldn't stop. Like, I was just like, I'm telling her the story. I'm all jacked up and everything I'm like, and she's like, what happened? I don't know. It's about close like she my mom took Can you please send me Cole's address at school? and turned it into a nightmare. And trust me, all of you are doing that to everyone around you. I'm doing it to people too. We don't realize it. There's a great story everywhere. We can have everybody sister call up and you know,

Zoey 1:16:00
just talk about growing up.

Scott Benner 1:16:01
Yeah, their side of the story. I'll be good. I will. I won't bother you with it. She asked me how to crash your apps. That was a painful 10 minutes. Oh my god.

Zoey 1:16:11
No. Oh my gosh, my aunt. This is Yeah, my my aunt is so so so sweet. My parents got her an iPad. Or maybe she got enough. My my dad taught her how to use it. But not really, because I came downstairs and I am in law school. So my life is kind of a hellscape a lot of the time. And when I'm home in Vermont, it's like, you know, very relaxing. And I try and take advantage of that. I come down and it's like, I deleted all my messages. And I'm like, and she had deleted somebody deleted her messages on her iPad. And she was like, I need to get them back. And I was like, I don't can and

I was like you

deleted them like and I was like here don't do this again. She's like, I didn't do that. And I was like, well, either way they could have disappeared. So I don't know to tell

Scott Benner 1:17:02
you. As I tried to teach my mom to swipe up to open the absolute she's stabbing at the phone. I'm like, Mom, stop stabbing it up, up. And then I'm showing her I'm like, here I close three. I'm like See that? She's like, yeah, I'm like you tried, boom. Your God. I called my brother. I called my brother with the other car. And I was like, why didn't you buy her that phone? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:25
Oh, man.

Scott Benner 1:17:26
By the way. My mom's lovely too. She just Yeah,

Zoey 1:17:28
yeah, people. It's hard.

Scott Benner 1:17:31
And during that good.

Zoey 1:17:33
Dad is like way more tech savvy than I am. Oh, he's got a lot of time. And my mom is like, yeah, my mom is like, I send it to my iPad. And I'm like, do you mean your email?

Unknown Speaker 1:17:47
That's really fine.

Scott Benner 1:17:49
Yeah, terrific. I love this. Thank you so much. Thank you. I really appreciate this. Hey, huge thanks to Omni pod and dex comm for supporting the show, please go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box and dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Don't forget to check out T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box if you'd like to add your voice to some very meaningful Type One Diabetes Research. Thanks so much to Zoey for coming on and sharing her recollections of growing up with Roxy. And if you think your sibling might like to come on the show and has had a different experience than the ones that we described, reach out. Thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you soon.

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Scott Benner 9/4/20 Scott Benner 9/4/20

#375 DEXCOM Calibration Practices

To calibrate or not to calibrate, that is the question

Jenny, Scott and the members of the Juicebox Facebook group compare their calibration ideas.

Dexcom 20 Rule

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:03
Hello friends and welcome to Episode 375 of the Juicebox Podcast. On today's show, Jenny Smith and I will discuss different ideas around calibrating continuous glucose monitors. My perspective, of course will come from the dexcom g six because that's what Arden uses. Jenny also wears the G six, but she has worn the Medtronic CGM. And many of you have added your thoughts to this episode through the private Facebook group. For the podcast. I asked this question Hey, calibrating your CGM? Yes or no. And we got a lot of answers. They're all woven into this episode. At the end, I will read directly to you from dex coms website. And of course, while you're listening, I'd love it if you'd remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. I also took a few minutes from the conversation while Jenny was setting up her microphone and everything and she was admitting to not being able to do something around her house and I put it at the end of the episode so you can enjoy it. Jenny is delightful. You want to know something else about Jenny. You can hire her just go to integrated diabetes.com Jenny Smith has been living with Type One Diabetes for 31 years. She holds a bachelor's degree in human nutrition and biology from the University of Wisconsin. She's a registered and licensed dietitian, a certified diabetes educator and certified trainer on most makes and models of insulin pumps, and continuous glucose monitors. She is also a very good friend of the podcast. So check her out. And while you're looking, check out the Contour Next One blood glucose meter go to Contour Next one.com Ford slash juice box to find what I believe to be the greatest blood glucose meter available. Second Chance test strips. super bright light for nighttime viewing. It fits easily in your hand, but doesn't slip away. Well, if that makes sense or not. But it's easy to hold. You don't drop it. I like the shape. I like how portable it is. I can find it in a bag at night without the lights on. I've never told you that before but it's easy to find in a bag. And it's testing ability is just first class. Contour next comm Ford slash juice box where the links in your show notes are the ones available at Juicebox podcast.com. If you have time, I'd also loved if you check out touched by type one.org and T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. Touched by type one is my favorite diabetes organization. And T one D exchange. They're doing research to help people living with Type One Diabetes. And every one of you that completes the research. You just need to be from the United States have type one diabetes or be the guardian or parent of someone with Type One Diabetes. Anyway, when you finish the research, the podcast gets a little help. You know to me a little Cha Ching, and you're helping people live better with Type One Diabetes. It's a great organization 100% HIPAA compliant, absolutely anonymous. You can take your information out at any time, just tell them Look, I don't want to be a part of this anymore. If you want to write so there's no pressure, you'll never have to go to a doctor's office never have to go to a testing site. And once a year, they'll ask you a couple of questions to keep your information updated. And your answers help shape Type One Diabetes Care. It's pretty cool. Being Arden's parent, I was able to fill out the survey took me less than 10 minutes. And I did not find any of the questions to be like I was I was never like, oh god, why they asked me that was all very, pretty simple actually. was easy to do. I think we're going to record an episode today that has the opportunity to be very controversial. Oh, great, but not in a way that I think. I don't think it's gonna get us in too much trouble. So I this is gonna sound crazy, right? But I want to talk about how you manage your G six. As far as calibrating it or not calibrating it goes. And I asked online and got 77 replies. I just said to people,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:28
and are all they are they're all different.

Scott Benner 4:30
Oh my god, all of them are so different. So it says I said Dexcom calibration thread, share what works for you. And I did say your tips may be used in an upcoming episode of the podcast. So first, I guess we'll talk about what we do and then we'll dig through all of this now for clarity, right that I mean Dexcom. You know their I guess their public statement is that the Dexcom g six does not need to be calibrated.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:59
It doesn't need To be unless it's unless the system asks for a calibration. Okay, in my year and a half of use of G six now I've, I think I've seen it asked for a calibration maybe twice, but its own like, you know, like, this is not right, or I think one of them might have been, you're not right, I'm going to give you a calibration then the system was like, No, no, no, no, no, I'm going to ask for calibration again in like 30 minutes, something I think it what it kind of did. Um, so yeah, technically g six isn't supposed to require a calibration through the whole 10 days of life, right? Unless it requests one.

Scott Benner 5:44
Okay. All right. So there's a whole bunch of information on the website about it, I'll probably read it at the end, just so that it's in here. By the way, keep in mind, I did not tell Dexcom I was making this I don't do that. So I didn't, I wasn't like we're gonna do a calibration episode. It's just something people talk about all the time. And every time someone talks about it, it's like religion or politics. don't mean like, someone will come in and say, Well, here's what I do. And 30 people be like, that's wrong. Don't do that. I was like, wow, everyone has such feelings about this, you know? Yes. So obviously, I think whatever works for you is what works for you. But, Jenny, do you like do you have like a, like a way like, when you start a new sensors, or a thing you do? You just,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:30
I started a new sensor. I pop it in, I expect. It's funny. I I see a lot of people you know, work with a lot of people are like, it always kind of like you just said it is always low for a one hour for five hours, six hours after I started up, I know that it's just going to read me low. And whatever. I'm kind of, I think I'm sort of odd in that. Sometimes when it gets going. It is spot on. And I always do a finger stick because I always want to verify where it is. That's just my habit. Yeah. Sometimes it stays completely reliable. from the get go. It's great, right? Sometimes it's a little bit off. But then as it kind of keeps going. It gets right on with a finger stick. Yeah. And sometimes it has that weird. Low. a fun thing about that low is, it always seems to be if I have to change the sensor at night. It's gonna be low. And then I'm gonna be fighting the annoying alerts. All night.

Scott Benner 7:43
All right. Okay. So always the time that I can relate to what you're saying, I might take a detour for a second here. But before I do your, uh, your your spotty on your end. You plugged in the Ethernet, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:57
I did plug it in. Yeah.

Scott Benner 7:58
All right. Make that mic a little closer to you, please. So I better I yes, I do think that. What's that old cartoon with around head? And do you know what I mean? It's like, if something's gonna go wrong, it will and it's attributed. How is it possible? I can't remember Murphy's Law. Okay, was it a cartoon?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:21
cartoon? I think it's actually, I don't know that it's necessarily is maybe it is a cartoon. I don't know.

Scott Benner 8:27
What am I kidding? No, no, it's like rule of thumb. My thinking of I think I may have had a mini stroke just now because I don't think there's any cartoon associated with Murphy's Law. Okay, let's get away from that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:38
I think that this might also be the issue between my voice. I, well, it came with the mic, okay. And I always try to be very protective of the mics and

Scott Benner 8:50
throw that away.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:51
I always put the little styrofoam thing back talking

Scott Benner 8:54
styrofoam between the microphone and our mouth. Well, you throw that out, please. No wonder you can't change that light bulb. Everything you said about the light bulbs thing in the episode now just so you know.

So yeah, so I said at the beginning, but just to reiterate, Arden cgms usually go on. And then they read perfectly. And then sometime in the first hour, it just decides that she's low, like, you know, way lower than she is. And if you let it ride out, it comes back up. Now,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:30
in a particular time, do you have like a defined time that usually

Scott Benner 9:34
Yeah, I think in like, if I don't see it in like three or four hours, then here I go. I calibrate it. If it's not that, okay, now I don't calibrate low to 90. Right. So we'll talk about that. Like you can confuse the CGM. If the reality is, if the reality is too far from where the CGM thinks it is. Right? You can't calibrate it because it just goes does not compute and you know, it If you fry, it's mine. And it takes forever for it to come back from that. But no if she's, if she's 100. And for clarity, too, I think this makes sense to say, obviously, we're using the Contour. Next One blood glucose meter. If you have a, like an old janky blood glucose meter, you know, the G six is probably way more reliable than your old meter is right? But I'm very comfortable that this meter is, is pretty spot on. And so if the meter tells me she's 100, but it says she's 60 Well, then that's too far apart, obviously. And so I'll calibrate it, but I'll tell it like she's 75 and kind of coax it up, and then test her again a little while later and coax it the rest of the way. So that's one of the ways I sort of, if it's too far apart, I calibrate but I don't you

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:59
have no timeframe to calibration, coaxing kind of way, like you said, and if it gets up to par quicker, you probably don't calibrate again at all.

Scott Benner 11:09
Or at all he does.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:10
Then you'll calibrate again. But that's not like a defined time period after that initial coaxing.

Scott Benner 11:17
Yeah, yeah, I don't have like, I don't have like a magic number to it. Like, like everyone else does. Like, here's a person who said, over 50 points off, I wait an hour for blood sugar's to stabilize. And if it's still off, I pull it and get a replacement. Well, that seems aggressive. Mm hmm. And I wouldn't do that. Because last night, like I said, Arden's sensor went on. around seven, came online, around nine was great. said she was low, around 10. She was in the shower, but I don't think that has anything to do with it. She gets out. It's wrong for a while. And then it just is right again. And then it just shuts off for like, two hours. So last night was That was last night was an uncommon occurrence for us. We don't usually lose a signal during it. But as it came back on, I calibrated it probably two times overnight. And then it's now it's, it's beautiful. Like, if I use this person's theory, I would have pulled it off. And I knew not to pull it off last night. I was like, No, this one's going to come around. Right? You know, and it did. Tina says that I calibrate if it's way off after warm up. But only if it's a stable arrow. I didn't do it once and waited for it to catch up. And that sensor ended up being not good. So there's so much anecdotal conversation in this thread. Everybody knows, I bet you if Dexcom was here, they would just tell you like, Don't calibrate it. It'll it'll figure it out. Right. But what do you do when it doesn't figure it out?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:03
Yeah, that's when people get frustrated like this. They're like, well, it's clearly not doing what I want it to do. I haven't calibrated so either. I'm just frustrated enough to pull it off and start a new one up. Or they calibrate and then they calibrate and then they calibrate and then calibrate and you know, I think Dexcom in the first 24 hours tells you not to calibrate, leave it alone, and the system should write itself after that. If the system is off compared to fingerstick. Then if your glucose is less than 70, you can calibrate if there's more than a 30% difference between finger stick and CGM. If your glucose is more than 70, and finger stick to CGM is off by more than 30 points, then you can calibrate. Okay. So those are the rules of thumb that at least used to be a piece for Dexcom in terms of when they would say, okay, it's it's okay, now to go ahead and calibrate. Yes, the system technically doesn't require them. But if it's this much off, you could calibrate because clearly, it's not keeping you where your finger sticks are. And again, I you know, the fact of using an accurate blood glucose monitor. That's huge. Yeah,

Scott Benner 14:24
that's huge. You definitely can't use an old technology. No, there's a Listen, I'll make this argument all day long. If you've got a 10 year old meter, and you've got a dexcom g six, you trust the dexcom g six, not the meter. And you don't tell the dexcom who might really know that your blood sugar is 90 that Oh, no, no, it's not it's 120 this old busted up meter I have here says so. You know, because then then you're then you're literally telling the CGM. Well, you're really 120 and it's going No, we're not. We're 90. That causes confusion. You know, the next person here says Stacy goes, don't calibrate, install the sensor, when the BG is most stable like right before bed, stay hydrated, learn what the trends are for you or your child, because everyone is different. Thanks again for the pocket. Okay, I thought about that. But so her explanation is, she doesn't like to put on a new sensor in a time of blood sugar turmoil, correct up or down or anything like that. Is that also something that helps? Do you think

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:28
I would expect that it would help? Yes. I mean, I don't. My personal do I pay attention to that? No. I mean, when my sensor dies, I replace it and I started up. But it for those who do have more issue with sensor accuracy from the get go, it could be a very good rule of thumb, because it used to be I mean, eons ago, when sensors first came out, that was the rule with the calibrations, make sure that you have a stable horizontal line or a horizontal arrow, or there's there's not a very large rate of change happening, so that the system can kind of get on par with what it's sensing in a more stable setting.

Scott Benner 16:12
That to me Makes sense. Because if you're rising quickly, and at the moment, you're 71, and you tell the thing, you're 71, it's aware that you're rising your meters not and so by the time you put the number in, you might be 80. And then that's also well, so. So it's interesting here, because the next Lisa comes in and says in these books, these two people are parents, it's interesting the difference between parents and maybe this is where we really give parents and people with type one a little extra because you know they're paying attention a little extra, right? Like I said, like I put my damn thing on whenever I need to. And that's the end of it. But Lisa said new sensor inserted and warm during stable time, she says the same thing. And then she says when it works for her stay hydrated, avoid rapid blood glucose changes during the warm up and the first hours. For example, it looks like they exercise physical exercise be suspicious of unexpected values in the first evening, I hundred percent believe in that I you know, first day of a dexcom. If I don't trust what I'm seeing I check, right. She says she gives a little rule of thumb here. If way off from a finger stick and a flat arrow. I calibrate a value in between but never more than too many malls. are 36 Oh, she's from? Oh, yeah, at least I think is Australian at a time. Normally given one the sensor gets a brain normally given one a sensor gets around. I don't know what she means by that. But so that's it for her right. It's way off from a finger stick. And you have a flat our calibrate a value in between but never more than than 36 points off for American. So I think what she's saying is, if the if the things that if the sensor says she's 100. And the meter says she's 136 she picks a midpoint and tells it Oh, I'm really 118 that's what I sounds like. Yeah, that sounds like what you're doing too. Well, yeah. coaxing it towards the truth. Right. Yeah. It's like the first hour of interrogation after you've been arrested. We don't go right. We don't go right for the for the idea that we start off with. So are you there?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:23
Right. I do have to say, you know, I guess I didn't, I guess I didn't really think about it in in terms. Maybe subconsciously. I was thinking about it. But in terms of like the comment about starting a new sensor before exercise. I don't do that. Okay. I will, I guess, again, subconscious level, I will start it when I'm not going to be moving so that things are moving quicker. I just do finger sticks. If I have a sensor that dies before I plan to go out and just do some finger sticks and go about my exercise plan.

Scott Benner 18:59
Yeah, well, we, you know, we've run into situations before where we're, you know, throwing on new equipment. Honestly, whether it's a pump or a CGM, and we're running out of the house or Arden's leaving, but we're gonna split up. And I think I must always say, hey, look, that's a new pump. So, you know, let's be extra careful. That's a new CGM. Pay attention to how you feel you should probably test in an hour. Right? You know, I think we all have feelings around technology, like, you know, a continuous glucose monitor, or even an insulin pump site isn't a television. It's not just like it works. This thing should do exactly what it's supposed to do every time this. There's also a dance it's doing with your physiology. And that's different for many, many of us, and not always repeatable in the same ways. So,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:52
right like I think there's some people to someone who is a very true listen To your podcasts, who I've been working with for a bit, and he actually wears two sensors, he wears g six, and he wears the libri. At the same time interesting. And, you know, a piece of it is the benefit with the pumping system that he uses when it's when he has a new sensor, he wants to be able to continue to feed glucose values to the system in order to keep it running right and doing what it's supposed to do. So he uses the libri data then to plug in the glucose values in order to not have to do finger sticks in that time period. But to be able to still give it glucose values, which I think is a you know, if you're not, if you don't really care about wearing more robotic parts, that's a great idea, you know, running those time periods to and I've had them g six for me has been kind of funny I have, I would say I have really good accuracy with it. But by about day eight on 90% of my sensors thus far, day eight, I start to get sensor error, wait three hours, and then it'll come back. I'll get a little data. And then they'll give me another sensor error, wait three hours. And at this point, if I get it twice, on day eight, I'm like, could put the air the sensors done, I take off, I call it in Dexcom is great. They've sent me new ones, but they always ask the same darn questions. I'm like, I don't know why it's dying on day eight for me, but it is so. But I mean, in terms of even just the time periods when you get those errors, having a backup, like wearing a Liebe Ray, which again, also doesn't require any calibration, right? Kind of can give you a back up in terms of your initial system a little overlap

Scott Benner 21:43
it You're right. It's a little overlap. No, no. And we do testing in that time. Like I I don't I agree with you, when when I see people who are like, Oh my god, the worst time of my life is the two hour warm up when I don't have Dexcom. Right. And I think those people must be newer to diabetes or to deck or in general, because I've never once thought oh my god, we've lost the CGM for two hours like this thing. Like last night it you know, it, it um, it lasted the full 10 days, like right up till the to the hard stop. And it wasn't a problem once during the thing. And then the next two hours, I just hold our nose like they get an hour just test. And if you need insulin, give it to yourself. Like you know, the way we did it for years and years and years before this technology exists.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:30
I feel like that's probably the case. And it's, I sort of have, I compare it to kind of being like, you're on the mothership, and all of a sudden you get like, spit out the back door, and now you're like Lost in Space is fast. Where am I traveling to? What's going

Scott Benner 22:48
on? I mean, quite honestly. fingerstick I mean, it's I know that and for many parents, I think it's hard when you've gotten so used to a system that you feel like you're saving your little ones fingers. Yeah, you know what? They're gonna be okay. It'll be hard. If you stick their finger, you know, they'll be okay. If you get information that's going to help in the short term, right? I'm helping a person right now. And I said, Hey, why don't you check with the meter, and they have the contour. So I was like, I'm pretty comfortable with this. And they responded back and we're like, we don't we never test. And I said, you probably should a little bit. And you know, and so And now's one of those touches. Why do you want me to test right now? I said, because we're about to do something. And I want to be 100% sure we're doing the right thing. And I don't know you. And you know, I don't know when you put the CGM on, I don't know how you've managed it. Like I just want. I want a little peace of mind here. Right? Don't take your peace of mind from an old meter. But you know, at the same time, Okay, ready? What do we have here? Dana's got some solid advice. I think I've probably calibrated every sensor a few times, but it has to be a flat arrow. I use decks comms for trends, and a finger pick a finger poke throughout the day. So if it's consistently off by 10, or 20 points, over two and three or two or three checks, then I'll calibrate. So if she's off by more like between 10 and 20 points, two or three times, then she brings the the CGM back. I have to admit, I would do that too. I don't know that that she's saying she does it consistently through every sensor. We don't do that. But if I saw that, I agree I would do it. You know. And Arden's a one see very closely matches her Dexcom data. Right so I'm comfortable that I'm doing the right thing.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 24:46
Yeah, mine does too. And that's a lot of people do some comparison. I mean, I'll usually get emails from people and they're like, well my my G ami from Dexcom was telling me this but my a one c came back at this. What's the What is the deal? You know, and I know that we've talked about that before on a couple of other episodes. But, I mean, you have to understand the difference, you know, blood glucose versus interstitial glucose, a little bit of variance there could be, I, myself also have very good comparison between the Dexcom average and my actual agency. They're, they're close. I think that the last one was within like, one point or point one. Um, well, that is,

Scott Benner 25:29
that is definitely how I, in the end, assess whether or not I'm managing that sensor well, right. And it's funny too, because, you know, back in the day, when people were rampid, for information back when information used to go really slow, like a new CGM, you know, the G five would come out and people right away, I get the notes, scotch doesn't work, review it, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I'm not gonna know for three months. Like, why do you? What are you talking? You asked

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:55
me two days after, right?

Scott Benner 25:57
Here's how we'll know three months from now I'll look at Arden's data. If somebody sent me an email and said, Please say data for me. So I'll look at Arden's data. And then I'll look at her a one C. And if they match, I'll say Huh, that CGM must have been pretty good. Because there's no other way to tell. And so I do think that this is kind of crazy, because it's user error. A lot of the times right and and not error, like oh, you screwed up. But I think Oh, you don't know how, which is why I want to put this this episode together. Because it just it is like sometimes this thing needs a little massaging. Chelsea said, we calibrate only if the arrow stable. Usually first thing in the morning, and before I go to bed, keep hydrated. Never calibrate when there is no arrow? Because she believes RAC that means the sensors confused in general, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:53
Correct. That means the sensor is it's still giving you data. But it's it's making sure like all of its little algorithm, whatever it's doing internally there, it's not giving you an error, an arrow of direction, because it's seeing a glucose value. But there's there's it makes sense for them. Yeah, it's kind of confused, I guess. Yeah.

Scott Benner 27:15
She goes on to say trying to calibrate when food or rapid insulins on board. And some people say this is hearse gleaming, I think what other people said to her that works to her, insert it, let it marinate overnight and then calibrate it in the morning. And in fairness, Jeanette came in and said this and put arrows to it. Like she was like, I completely agree with this one. Next person says we rarely calibrate. We know that the next con will oftentimes be off a bit in the first 12 hours. If you do calibrate, do so when numbers are stable and not dropping increasing quickly. Right? Yeah, see people are starting to hear anything idea

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:56
is not, it's not I guess, proprietary to Dexcom. A lot of people with Medtronic do exactly that as well, because of I think their sensor has long term been a little bit more wonky, kind of in the get go kind of stage. So there are a lot of people who even with the older Medtronic sensors would let it do that, like marination, they'd sort of inserted at night, they'd start it up first thing in the morning, still get another two hours of wait time period, but it was enough that they got rid of that sink in period.

Scott Benner 28:31
Have you ever seen people put a sensor on but and then cover it? Yeah. And not not at all, like put a transmitter in it or anything like that. I've seen people do that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:42
In fact, I've had a couple of parents who do that with their kids kind of this marinate idea. They'll use that whatever it's called caveman. It's like the the sticky wrap. It doesn't really stick stick.

Scott Benner 28:53
Like if you give blood now they wrap it around your cotton, right? Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:56
exactly. So that what they'll do is they'll put the Dexcom on not put anything in it like meaning like a transmitter. And then they just wrap that around let it sit and then they started up when the actual old the old sensor dies.

Scott Benner 29:10
Because index comms been on and in the past obviously a lot and they've they've know I've been told more than once. Right? There's this there's this wire that goes in and it needs time to I mean, let's say acclimate to the interstitial fluid. Yeah, what yeah, I think is what I so it's soaking in, right. I think the idea. It's like, I guess it's like, you know, it's like taking a log and dipping it in water and pulling it back out right away. The logs not wet in the middle from that, but if you throw it in there for a few hours, it'll soak through. Gabriella, I only calibrate within plus or minus 30% of Dexcom readings directionally towards my readings directionally towards my meter I don't get into calibration loops as a result. Have you ever seen a calibration loop personally, where it asks you to calibrate you calibrate and then tells you to calibrate again.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:02
I've not not with G six, I have had that with G five. Okay. But again not often either with that,

Scott Benner 30:08
I think I've seen it. I honestly have to say maybe twice. And we've gotten out of both of them by being persistent and, and doing it. Here's a question for you. Let's say you calibrate. And let's I'm gonna try to make up a number here. So let's just say your blood sugar is really 90. The Dexcom says you're 120 and you put in 90, and it says 110. You know, if you put in 90 again, it will agree with you, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:45
It did not done that.

Scott Benner 30:47
A double calibration on close numbers, forces it to agree. Now, the question in my head always is,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:57
does it stick then? Is that right?

Scott Benner 30:59
To do? Or is it just making me feel better? And and all I can say is that when I do that, things go okay afterwards. But I don't know if that's right or wrong. This is probably right, where I'm thinking right now people are listening. And they're just like they're pulling their hair out and punching the dashboard of their car. And they're like such bad information. Let's keep this in mind. I'm just telling you what I've done in the past. I'm not telling you to rule. I'm certainly not saying Dexcom says to do it. We're having a little conversation here about what other people do because it's such a varied thing. Don't do it if you don't like it, like you know, or try it once and see what happens. I don't know. But I don't even know if the outcomes right or not. I do know that it makes me comfortable. You've done it a couple of times. So it's Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:43
seems like it works when you've done it. Well I've done

Scott Benner 31:47
it enough to say it out loud and let my voice would be recorded while I'm doing it. Yeah, I willy nilly on here yelling about diabetes stuff. Right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:54
Right. Yeah, I I've never tried that. I guess the next time that I feel like it warrants a give it a whirl.

Scott Benner 32:01
See what happens.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:03
Mike, give that a whirl and see how that works out especially at two o'clock in the morning. I'm like, I'm not low.

Scott Benner 32:11
Elena says I don't calibrate I find that calibrating leads to far more inaccuracy than just letting it go. With that said, I do think the first 24 hours or so of a new sensor can be rough. And it eventually works itself out. Tara, we check on the first day. If it is 20 points off. we calibrate. And if it helps, and if it helps it not to be so wonky that day. Any other time we spot check it it's right on. that'll stop it. She's saying okay. Molly, I have never had to calibrate and when I test as long as my arrow is stable on my Dexcom they match within three to eight points.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:51
Wow. That's crazy. Oh, God, I think you know, and I think a big piece of this too, which has now been commented a couple of times. Yeah, I people is hydration. That is a and I know we've talked about it before I've mentioned it before that is just enormously important. And I think especially for for kids, little kids who you kind of have to coax them to drink more, right? And remind them I mean, kids without diabetes, I don't even think parents pay attention honestly, to how much their kid is drinking through the course of the day. But kids with diabetes, certainly especially with the fluxes that they have in their blood sugar. Hydration is huge. And then you've got kids who are very into sport I mean they might be doing something for four hours, you know, four times a week. Make sure they're drinking Yeah, absolutely. So but for sensors specific though hydration is

Scott Benner 33:51
so important well you know your point is well taken because today in the in the private Facebook group for the podcast it somebody asked about their creatine been been created or something like that, like yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:03
they're creating and been is Yeah, blood urea nitrogen is what it stands. Thank

Scott Benner 34:07
you, Jenny. And everyone who came in who had any kind of a medical background was like, Look, if I was you, I would just make sure I'm hydrated. You know, Natasha says we used to try to calibrate after the first 24 hours if dex was still over 20% off for the last sensor change. We did a pre soak no see that the new sensor, they soak their sensor overnight, and then snapped in the transmitter in the morning. And it worked without calibrating. dex was very close to the Contour. Next One, thank you for the plug. Once the 24 hours passed, no sex was also less jumpy during the 24 hours. And

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:45
I've seen that too. That's actually an interesting comment. You know, with G six, the the system has smoothed the data, right so you get this smoother trend line with SJ good? Yeah. But a lot of people have questioned in that first, like, let's even say 12 hours. Some people do get that like that little up gel where you can see that the numbers, those little dots every five minutes, they are more Up, down, up down versus this nice smooth into yeah each other. So that's interesting that somebody kind of commented on that.

Scott Benner 35:25
Well, someone comes in and asks, Do you can you explain pre soaking and she Natasha went on and said before the current sensor expires, apply the new sensor but not but do not move the transmitter. So the type so the type one will still be wearing two sensors one active one inactive for a period of time, this gives the new sensor a chance to acclimate for longer than the standard to our warmup period. If you do this, be sure to cover the new sensor to protect the delicate electronics. We use a band aid

Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:52
Oh, band aid. Yeah, this is completely

Scott Benner 35:54
off label. Obviously, most of our based on the podcast is off label, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:59
I would expect that a band aid that's one of those like larger band aids would probably be the better option just to protect that internal part of the sensor. Because you know, the funny thing about g six, and I didn't realize it initially after I started to wear it, but g six has this like sticky stuff. Like inside. And when you remove your transmitter, you can see it on there. And that's why you have to clean the transmitter off every time you take it off.

Scott Benner 36:27
Doesn't it remind you of like petroleum jelly or something? Does I don't know what it is, though.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 36:31
Yeah, it's like carmax or like, you know? Yeah, like petroleum jelly gynae.

Scott Benner 36:37
I, I definitely know what you're talking about. Yeah, it um, listen, Linda, we never calibrate. And I have to say to their sensors for weeks in a row that we don't calibrate. Like, I don't need most like, this is interesting to do. But I'm not a person who's in a position of saying, oh, wow, we really need to figure out what works because what works for us is, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:02
like, do what works for you. And you might have censored a sensor that one. One, I guess, idea of what to do with this particular issue. It could be different three months down the road when you've got another sensor. Oh, sorry. I thought I had it turned off. But yeah, it might be three months down the road, that it's a completely different calibration need, right that you do something completely different this time versus the last time that you needed to calibrate.

Scott Benner 37:34
Yeah, there's three people here, Irene, Jeanette and Jolie. And they all say the same thing. Like once in a while, like I put it on, and it works great. But sometimes I get it where it asks me to calibrate twice after a warm up, even though it's not supposed to like, have you seen that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:48
And if I have and I didn't see that until Gosh, a cup maybe it was the beginning of this summer that I put a sensor on. I gave it the code and accepted the code. And after the two hours, it was like, you need to calibrate with a with two finger sticks. Now it's like put I fed you a coat and then it I believe it's every 24 hours then if it didn't, for some reason register the code even though it told you you did right, you'll get the two hour warm up two finger stick and after that once a day, you'll get a request for another calibration every 24 hours with a new sensor. Okay,

Scott Benner 38:23
how amazing is all this by the way for it? Listen, for those of you who have walked into diabetes during the time of glucose monitoring, you're probably thinking, you know, Oh, that sounds like a problem. And for anyone, Jenny or me with Arden, who were around before this, I think this is all like astonishingly amazing. And just as magical. You know, Danielle, we rarely check with a finger poke. We only check when we are surprised by what Dexcom is telling us. I think that's important to remember. That is exactly how I feel about it. It's that like when I don't know how to I don't know how I know. But when I don't trust it, I don't trust it. And right, you get that over time. I think

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:04
it's kind of like with the ones that as you said they start up and it just reads like ello w Yeah, your low your blood sugar's like 39 I'm like, Yeah, I don't feel 39. I know. I mean, I have, you know, symptoms, thankfully for low blood sugar, still. And I would know a 39. I mean, I really would. And so I can be like yeah, that's totally wrong. I'm going to do a finger stick and it's going to come back at like 78 or like maybe 90 or something you know. So symptoms are another piece to it as well if you are feeling very differently than what the CGM is telling you. Even if you haven't done a finger stick in three months. Yep. Figure out where your glucometer is.

Scott Benner 39:45
Go find that. Megan says I don't calibrate if it's inaccurate we go off finger sticks. Excuse me, why can't I say finger sticks until Dexcom becomes accurate. My daughter has been wearing Dexcom for two years. I only calibrate if it's off by more than 50 points, which is rare. And I only calibrate when the arrow is level. Lizzie says I've never calibrated the dexcom CGM. Wow. Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:14
That's amazing. Yeah, it must have been must be somebody Then who's never been on G five because that required cat needed

Scott Benner 40:20
calibration. Right? Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:22
Although, interestingly, I have had people who've worn g five who said

Scott Benner 40:29
they want it back calibrated.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:30
I just don't calibrate it. I've just let it and honestly the system will, it will keep running. Unlike g4, and the previous if you didn't calibrate it, it would just stop giving you information. g five would keep giving you data. Okay, it would keep asking for calibrations,

Scott Benner 40:47
but it wouldn't.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:48
It wouldn't stop giving you data. Well, you're right.

Scott Benner 40:51
You're 100%, right. Oh, I remember that, too. Yeah. Okay, Sara in the morning with no carbs or insulin on board with a level arrow. So we're starting to see some similarities with people's answers that are that are repeating over I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:06
mean, I think if you could put it together in a simple, it would probably be one be hydrated. Yep. To make sure that the glucose value is stable, or that you're in a stable time period, meaning you haven't eaten like the whole basket of like chicken fries, and like ice cream, and now you're waiting for your sensor to give you good data. Right? Well,

Scott Benner 41:24
I'll tell you what, there's a couple of there's a couple of statements in here that really does shine a light on what anecdotal information is. Because there's a person and they're even putting a laughy face in it, who says, I usually only need it during the first sensor session with a new transmitter. I feel like the new transmitter needs a few days to learn me. The transmitter has nothing to do with the measurement of your blood sugar. It's just sending the signal right to but even so that's it right like it you see something over and over again. And if you misconstrue it, all of a sudden you feel like it's a rule. You know? It's like when people's like Murphy's Law. Oh, that thing. Always I love it. When people say this about diabetes, this stuff always goes wrong at the worst times. And to that I always respond, what would a good time be for it to go wrong? Right. Every time feels like a bad time.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:19
Right? Exactly.

Scott Benner 42:20
Yeah. Going along and live in your life. And then all of a sudden, something you're counting on stops working. There's a good time for that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:27
Yeah. Always stinks. Yeah, no matter if it's two o'clock in the morning, or when you're on the beach vacation or your whatever, in the middle of a basketball tournament. It's never a good time. Jeff,

Scott Benner 42:40
Brent and Jay, I don't calibrate.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:45
If I'm curious for those who are not calibrating

Scott Benner 42:48
how close they're a once the matches there.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:51
I'd be curious about that. But I'd also be curious if they're also people that may not be doing finger sticks. So they may not really know if their sensor is really off. Yeah, it. I mean, because, you know, having had diabetes as long as I have. I didn't have sensors for a good majority of my life with diabetes. I didn't. And I mean, my first sensor was in 2006. That's when I first started using them. And so I was always, I still am. I still do finger sticks during the day, even if it's not to check my CGM. It's because it's time to eat. And I'm so

Scott Benner 43:35
programmed.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 43:36
I'm just programmed to do a finger stick. I do a finger stick when I wake up in the morning. I do a finger stick at lunchtime. I do a finger stick at dinnertime. I always do it before I go to bed. And I'll even do more than that during the day with exercise. Right? And I just it's just a routine. It's like brushing my teeth. It's not something I think about anymore. So I think that I'm also a little bit more in tune then with Oh, my CGM is reading this. My finger stick was this. You know, and for those who pomp especially if you're relying on the CGM, but you've not really been doing finger sticks, and you're kind of wondering why Will my GM from Dexcom is telling me this is my average. But every time I get my a one c done, gosh, it looks like I'm a lot higher. Yeah,

Scott Benner 44:21
well,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:22
it. It could just be that CGM just isn't reading you as

Scott Benner 44:26
accurately. Do you remember a long time ago in the original Omni pod? PDM there was the meter and that the meter wasn't it wasn't great. And so that's how I figured it out. Right. So how did I figure out the meter wasn't great, because Arden's a one seat kept coming back higher than it should and it didn't matter. This is before CGM, and it didn't match what the finger sticks. were telling me. And that's when

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:54
we'll figure out how to play with the Kalam

Scott Benner 44:56
Yeah, then you change the calibration code and the meter works better. And so I used to it was 17 or 18, right? All the all the test strips for the Omni pod PDM or code 1616 and some people change the meter to code 17 and some people change the meter to code 18 depending on which ends up being more accurate for them, we were 18 I know a lot of people were 17

Jennifer Smith, CDE 45:19
Yes, I was 18

Scott Benner 45:20
Yes. And then Arden's a once he started matching my expectations, just like that. So you can be mad about it if you want. But at this point, now that meters a decade old, right, and you know, and so the people were like, I can't believe that the new dash doesn't have a meter in it. You don't want a meter in your technology, because the meter keeps getting older. All of our new technology now is updatable, right? It's like your iPhone, you want to put a new operating system on it, you can a new app. But if you stick a physical piece of equipment into it like a meter, now suddenly you are stuck with that meter forever. And that's that's I don't think that's a good play. And I think that's why if I had to guess why Omni pod took it out? I think that's one of the reasons. It could be. Yeah, I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:03
mean, it's also the reason I think that they've decided, you know, now when you get on the pod, the dash system, you get the Contour. Next One,

Scott Benner 46:11
right. And the PDM is now really just sort of like a lockdown Android device. Right? Right, exactly. But it's, but the point is, is that I saw that as far as moving on, I kept thinking like, Oh, my God, this meters old, old, old, and I felt tied to it at that point. You know, I am. I hate to say this, but I am so much more happy with the Contour. Next One, then I was with the PDM meter. Back in the day, I'm thrilled with it. And I think that two people listening probably were like, Oh, my God, Scott's taking a meter ad. We know he uses Dexcom, he probably doesn't even use a meter, we use a meter every time we need a meter. And it's a lot more than you think it is. And it's not because Dexcom is not great. It's for the reasons Jenny just said. So I was

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:55
actually kind of curious, you know, I my insurance doesn't cover the Contour. Next One, I wish it did. It covers the Accu check guide me, which is another very similar to the contour its accuracy. That kind of parallels, right. But the interesting thing is I do have a Contour Next One. And I had like the sample bottle of test strips that kind of comes with it. So I played once I got my Accu check. I was like, I'm just curious. And they were pretty spot on with each other, quite honestly, which was nice to see. But also then went back to my old school PDM and my freestyle light test strips and and I figured out that actually that code 18 is the one if it was the code 18 it was within like two to five points of the contour next in the accucheck. Yep. So that's old school as it is.

Scott Benner 47:45
Code. I know. I know. That doesn't make sense to a lot of people. But code 18 for code 16 strips in the old PDM perfect for Arden was the way to go. You know what's interesting here, here I have three people in a row who I know are not old school diabetes people but been added a long time right people whose comments that I'll pay attention to when I see them roll by Jen, a big note of calibration, Shawn, personally, I would never use the G six without calibrating. And then the third person reads as we calibrate if readings are off by more than 20%. But it doesn't happen that often. These are three people whose opinion I think are probably pretty good. And they said three different things.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:26
And they all do it differently. And I think it's also kind of as I commented earlier about mice a good number of my sensors like just being done on day eight. I think it goes back to the the truth in that the sensor filament interacts with everybody's body system, body tissue, interstitial fluid, whatever you're going to call it a bit differently. I think that's the reason some sensor systems work beautifully for some people, and not so beautiful for others. I've got friends who love their Medtronic sensors get really awesome accuracy finger stick CGM. It's always on they don't have any problems with their systems. I could not get that thing to work for me. For the life of me and I wore both my sensors I wore Medtronic and Dexcom and it just

Scott Benner 49:18
never want to work. Good. But you know, here's another name that I Kristen who I know. And she says I've never calibrated I do not believe my blood. Here's why. I do not believe my blood glucose meter to be more accurate than my dexcom. So she just doesn't have probably Chica confidence in her meter. And some people don't think about that. They're just like, yeah, I checked it. So the meter the meter is like God, you know, the meter said so the meters right? Well, you know, some of those meters. If you've seen the testing, I brought it up recently on an episode. There's I think the last one was like 2018, right and it kind of ranked them only like six meters even ranked in like I would use this. If I was You all the other ones were like, Don't buy this meter.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:03
Right? The variance was way off. Yeah,

Scott Benner 50:05
right. Well, okay, we're out of time, aren't we? Because we're also at the end of the list. I only had an hour today. So I actually got down to the list. There's people's I'm sorry, I skipped some that obviously were repetitive. But yeah, like Jenny said in the middle, I think that what works for you is important that checking with a quality meter is important. And it seems that you know, the consensus seems to be if you're going to calibrate, make sure you're hydrated at a stable blood sugar before exercise, no active insulin, that kind of stuff. So the thing has a chance to, clearly,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:44
correctly from the beginning.

Scott Benner 50:46
Yeah, that's it. I wonder if we'll get yelled at about this? I don't think so. I think we were very clear.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:51
Yeah, I don't think I mean, it's not like we're saying, This is what you should definitely be doing. 100% to make. I mean, that's not this is not medical advice. This is just discussion. Jennifer,

Scott Benner 51:01
this is a woke culture. Okay, if you say something out loud that somebody doesn't agree with. You're trying to ruin the world. Don't you understand?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:08
I do understand.

Scott Benner 51:10
All right. Listen, I want to wish you a lot of luck changing your light bulb. And I really wish I knew your husband, because I would go behind your back and tell him that you don't change the look.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:20
Like I will, he will laugh at me. He'll be like who don't you see this little like thing on the side? This is very, like, pull it off. And so I'm like, scouring.

Scott Benner 51:28
Well, listen, I'm gonna help you for a little bit before you go. He's get up on a ladder and look around the ridge at the ceiling to see if there's little set screws that are holding the whole thing or not. No, that's good.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:39
There are no screws, there's nothing.

Scott Benner 51:41
So then it's got to be. Did you twist it for? I don't want you to twist it out of the ceiling.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:47
Yeah, I twisted the glass part of it, which is would be the next option. Because I've seen the glass bulbs that just twist off, right? This one is either really screwed in unbelievably tight, which I guess might be the case. Or maybe I'm just too worried to try to unscrew it or like, heavier because I don't want it to crack in my hand.

Scott Benner 52:06
Here are my two thoughts. When you're trying to turn it is the base the metal base turning with it? No. Okay. So maybe you have I don't think you have to turn the base. But what I am thinking is, is it possible that it's a reverse thread?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:22
Oh, counterclockwise.

Scott Benner 52:23
If you have to turn it the other way opposite. I wish you had enough time I would like to make you go up right now and turn it and see if it comes off. But instead I will just wait for your text message later. And

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:32
I will let you know whether I required help to change the light bulb or not. I hundred

Scott Benner 52:37
percent agree you shouldn't tell anybody about this. That's all. Thanks. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 52:44
absolutely. Have a good weekend. Bye. Okay, bye.

Scott Benner 52:48
Hey, everybody, Jenny's gone. I'm still here. We're going to do everybody's favorite podcast thing I'm going to read to you for a second this is from dexcom.com. In their frequently asked questions. The question is, is my dexcom sensor accurate heading Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitoring system reading and meter value. Whether you're new to Dexcom, or experience, Review Product instructions before using the Dexcom g six. Keep using your blood glucose meter to make treatment decisions until you know how Dexcom works for you. Your meter gives you one number if you test twice, using the same or even different meter, it gives you another number and your Dexcom g six gives you a third. What do you do with all those numbers? Next heading is the test. The test your doctor does is considered a more accurate glucose number than any products you use at home. Both meters and Dexcom g six are compared to that doctors test to measure accuracy in clinical studies. They aren't compared to each other. Because of this, the dexcom g sex reading and meter value are unlikely to be exactly the same number, but they should be close. Compare the meter and your Dexcom g six to see how closely the numbers match each other. If your G six reading and meter value are within what we call the 20 rule, also known as the 20% 20 rule. They match closely. Here's the rule. To use the 20 rule follow the steps using the table below my gosh there's a table lookup your meter value in the green middle column. The left g six column shows the low range for G six reading that okay, you're gonna have to go look at this yourself. I'll put a link in the show notes for this 2020 rule goes on to talk about good fingerstick practices. When you're using your meter. Make sure your test strips are stored as directed and not expired. Your hands are clean for finger sticks. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, not hand gel and dry them then test. There are times when the numbers temporarily don't match, but are likely to become closer over time. For example, the sensors first day with newly inserted sensors the difference between your meter value and Your g six reading may be greater. Generally the match gets closer over the first 24 hours. Glucose changes quickly. When your glucose is changing quickly, it is more difficult to compare numbers. The meter and Dexcom g six measure glucose from different sources. They are blood and interstitial fluid and blood glucose changes a little before interstitial fluid. The match gets closer and easier to compare. When your glucose stabilizes pressure on the sensor. When something is pressing on your sensor, it can affect your G six readings, the match should get closer after the pressure is relieved. That of course is what people call a compression low. So everything they're saying here matches pretty much everything that we found. Talking to Jenny, you know my experiences and what everybody in the Facebook page was saying. To determine what to do watch your G six readings over several hours. If the readings are always higher or always lower than your meter values, and always outside of the 20 rule, consider calibrating. Also consider calibrating if your Dexcom g six meter numbers don't match and your expectations or symptoms fit the meter value, not the G six reading calibration. calibrating your G six with your meter is never required. It can make the dexcom g six more accurate or less accurate compared to lab results, but it should bring the G six reading closer to the meter. When calibrating make sure you enter the calibration within five minutes of taking the finger stick. You don't calibrate during a sensor error. If you like you can calculate the 20 rule on your own. The dexcom g six reading must be within 20% of the meter value when the meter value is 80 mg dl or higher 20 mg dl of the meter value when the meter value is under 80. Please note that the information listed here is applicable to the dexcom CGM user within the US only. I cannot just read you this link. Because it is it looks very maybe I can hold on one second. So it's dexcom.com forward slash FAQ s forward slash is dash my dash Dexcom dash sensor dash accurate. Like I said I'll put a link in the show notes.

Huge thanks to the Contour Next One blood glucose meter for sponsoring this episode. Go to Contour Next one.com Ford slash juice box to learn more. And thanks to touch by type one.org for being such a wonderful long term friend of the show. Check them out touched by type one.org. Of course if you'd like to get a dexcom CGM dexcom.com forward slash juice box you can get a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump that my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box take the survey at T one d exchange.org forward slash juice box guys ready to hear Jenny admitted not being able to do something that I think she's kind of embarrassed about and some other chitter chatter if you're looking for bonus material, I got you covered.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 58:18
I'm fed children I've gotten them changed I've wiped but

Scott Benner 58:23
I had

Jennifer Smith, CDE 58:25
washed my hands and then I picked my tomato isn't hi peppers from my garden and chili was how did you get up?

Scott Benner 58:32
Six o'clock. Oh, so last night.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 58:35
That was seven o'clock your time.

Scott Benner 58:38
Last night. Last night as Arden's pump was winding down. I was like it'll make it overnight, then her and her CGM me, right. And we change your CGM around seven o'clock it was done. It lasted the entire you know 10 days. It was working great right when I shut off and we hit like a little bit of a bleeder I was like God that'll probably be okay. So it comes on in two hours. And Ardennes. CGM starts are all exactly the same. It comes on nosorh blood sugar perfectly. And within an hour tells me she's low when she's not. And then we we coax it along and get it going and it's fine. So this happens. Around midnight I go to sleep. And at 2am Kelly wakes me up and she goes, Hey, I need help we changed Arden's pump, because our blood sugar was going up. And her CGM has lost its signal. And I was like, Okay, no problem. I'll take care of it. You go back to sleep. And I did take care of it, Jenny. And then I went back to sleep at 6am I was up for four hours in the middle of the night. And no and it just It would come back and it would go away and it would come back and it would go away. But I'm, I know, it's gonna be all right. And if this would have happened in the middle of the day, I want to be clear that this doesn't happen often. Does it just happen this time at a really bad time? But since it did happen, I know what I want to talk about today.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:18
Oh, great. And while we're waiting that I'm going to actually I've got like, I have so many chords. What's going on? What is the deal with chords? Right? The room

Scott Benner 1:00:29
is cleaned up, though. It's different.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:32
Oh, oh, because we are putting in new floors. Oh, this room. Okay, this. This is the bigger of, they put in new floors in our living room. They're like, we are purging our home of carpet.

Scott Benner 1:00:47
Okay,

Unknown Speaker 1:00:48
blah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:50
So living room got done. Now we're moving on to the space that has been my office which interestingly has been, it's the bigger of the two bedrooms, right. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:03
And

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:01:04
we're going to put new floors in here. And then we're going to put new floors in what is now the room that the boys technically share. Okay, we're gonna then transition rooms. I'm gonna take that room, which is actually the smaller they're gonna we're gonna move their stuff in this room and this is the bigger of soap.

Scott Benner 1:01:24
You're under. Well, listen, we are on stop. It's amazing. I know. There's nothing like being an adult is there? We just ordered a floor for Arden's room. And she very Arden just picked this floor that wasn't very expensive. So we were like, okay, yeah, you can have she's like, Can I do this? And when she picked that one, we're like, yes, you can. And you absolutely can. But we're replacing we. It's funny, you said this we wanted to replace, we've hardwood through most of our house. So kids bedrooms, and this room, amen. Is carpeted. And then our living room is carpeted. But everything else has Tyler or wood. And we wanted to make the living room, tile or wood or something. We weren't really sure what. Because the one one of the bonehead mistakes we made when we put the house together was we bought this carpeting and didn't realize and dog owners will know right away, you don't buy looped carpeting with a dog right. And we didn't know that our carpet cats or I think the over under on poles that I fixed in that carpet have to be in the thousands, you know, or sometimes the dog's leash or something gets called on a runs away and just Yanks out like six inches of carpet and I actually get back down on my hands and knees with a hot glue gun and toothpicks and put each one back in again. Right. Hi, God,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:02:51
you have so much more time than me. Oh my god.

Scott Benner 1:02:55
The other option was the other option would have been to burn the house down. It was like right in the middle of the room. You know, like I said, we got to get out of here. It was just really bad. And so we can't afford to put wood down or what we wanted to put down in there right now. So we just went out and bought like a really inexpensive piece of carpet and it's being delivered in a couple of days. I can't believe we're doing flooring at the same time

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:03:16
at same time. Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen the floor in that room. Usually there's like a nice couch behind you. And that's all I see besides like,

Scott Benner 1:03:25
Yeah, well my son stole the couch, just so you know. So that's gone now. He's like, I'm gonna take this sofa into my room because and he's home forever. So we're like, Alright, he's, you know, my gonna take the couch, you know? He's got that. And I have all of Arden's junk in here because we're waiting for the flooring to be put in her room. So it's a bit of a disaster. Anyway,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:03:47
but I was gonna say I'm gonna get yet another core do totally

forgot to plug the cord for the computer like Direct Connect in so give me a sec.

Scott Benner 1:03:55
Yeah, sure.

I make Jenny plug her I don't let her use Wi Fi while we're doing this. She's dragging an ethernet cable across.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:04:10
Oh, and I also realized that I I have no clue how to change the lights.

Scott Benner 1:04:17
What do you want to change in there? What do you mean what

Unknown Speaker 1:04:19
I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:04:20
want light bulbs in the ceiling died. You don't i

don't i cannot figure out how to

get like you talking about let me say I don't know how to get it off. I have no idea is there

Scott Benner 1:04:35
no screw in the middle of it.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:04:37
There's no screws. I've tried to turn in the glass.

It doesn't unscrew. I don't know what to do. So I have a big ol like floor lamp in here now so that I actually have Why have you

Scott Benner 1:04:53
brought anyone else into? Try to figure it out?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:04:58
No. I should If I knew I should ask my husband, do you

Scott Benner 1:05:02
not want to tell your husband? You can't figure out how to change the light bulbs, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:08
Like, I'm not this dumb, like, I don't know what the deal is. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:05:12
you're not wrong. It's is it glass? It's a dome, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:16
And it's glass. Right? So it's

like the wrong move. Like, I just I think I also need to get like a taller.

Scott Benner 1:05:23
Are you reaching? Yes. Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:25
Because I've got just the basic Let's switch. This stool has worked fine for all of the other like ceiling things. Right.

Scott Benner 1:05:31
So why wouldn't it work for this? How long has the light bulb in that light been working for you? This is the first time you try to change

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:39
it is we moved in.

It'll be October 1 will be two years in this house. And we've not changed the light bulbs in this light. It's obvious.

Scott Benner 1:05:52
That's good. Wrong. I'm doing all right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:54
Good lights, I guess you know, but also don't get used that very that often. And because I'm really on this in this room during the daytime. Okay, and so unless it's really dark in here, I typically don't usually use them. But anyway,

Scott Benner 1:06:13
yeah, cool. All right. Listen, let's try to bring your yes your bring your microphone a little closer. Do

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:06:18
no sir to me. Is that better? Try get

better. Yes. That's okay. There's this guy.

Scott Benner 1:06:25
It's been. So hopefully we've answered some of your questions today about how to calibrate or not calibrate your Dexcom g six and the other burning question. How many people does it take to change a light bulb in Jenny's house? As of now we know the answer to be more than one. If Jenny's involved and it's in her office. Thanks so much for listening to the Juicebox Podcast. Please take the time to share the show with a friend and leave a wonderful five star review on Apple podcasts. If you're so inclined.

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