Scott Benner 11/3/21 Scott Benner 11/3/21

#571 Insulin Cost: A Father's Fight

The father of a type 1 is trying to change insulin pricing in America. Support H.R. 4813 — Matt’s Act of 2021 at Insulin-Matters.com

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 571 of the Juicebox Podcast.

When rods child was diagnosed with type one diabetes, and he found out how much insulin cost, he didn't just sit on his hands. He got involved rods here today and tell you about some legislation that he's trying to get passed. And he'd like you to listen to his story. And then consider helping out by calling your representatives and sending emails. We'll talk about that towards the end though, for now. Please remember 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. You may have heard me talking about wanting to add as many people to the T one D exchange as I can in the month of November. Well, diabetes Awareness Month is one day old right now as I'm making this. And on November 1, you guys added 54 completed surveys at T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. If you're a US resident living with type one or caring for type one, please head over and give it a look. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo pen. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash Juicebox. Podcast is also sponsored by my favorite blood glucose meter, the Contour Next One, go to contour next one.com Ford slash juicebox. To learn more, and to get started.

Rod Regalado 1:57
Yeah. Hey, Scott. My name is Rod Regalado. And you and I briefly spoke a few weeks ago and and and you were kind enough to invite me on because we're we're trying to we're trying to pass a federal bill which puts a price cap on the cost of insulin. And so I'm really I'm just a single dad with a couple of kids at home. And, of course, that wasn't enough for me. I'm a glutton for punishment. So in fact, I actually brought in a foreign exchange student. So I've got three kids at home. And yeah, so that's kind of me and my son, Matthew was diagnosed with type one diabetes. And that's essentially how I started down this path about two years ago.

Scott Benner 2:43
So when you say we you're not you don't mean your lobbying Consortium? You mean? You? Right?

Rod Regalado 2:49
I mean, me? Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Let's find out. Yeah, pretty much a one man show. But, you know, this bill is going to die unless, unless our our brothers and sisters, our nieces and nephews, our parents and our kids demand some kind of change. And, you know, the status quo is just not acceptable. And that was, that was a reality. That hit me hard. When Matthew was diagnosed,

Scott Benner 3:18
how long ago? Was he diagnosed?

Rod Regalado 3:21
Yeah, it was September six. When he was 13 years old.

Scott Benner 3:26
It 2000 Yeah.

Rod Regalado 3:29
2019 19 2019 Yeah. Okay.

Scott Benner 3:33
2019 September, so you're just a year and a month into this? Two years, excuse me two years, I forgot what year was.

Rod Regalado 3:42
It happens to the best of us. Trust me, I don't think I'm the best. Well, you know, COVID COVID aside to kind of put everybody on the shelf for a year. So understandable. I get it.

Scott Benner 3:51
Fair enough. So, so two years with diabetes. You said you're a single dad have a couple of obviously a couple of people you're responsible for besides yourself. Right? What? What led to your even understanding of this? And the reason I ask is because as a person who has insurance, and whose child is covered by that insurance, I mean, I don't want anybody to get me wrong. I'm gonna play I'm gonna do a lot of devil's advocate thing while we're while we're talking today, right? Like,

Rod Regalado 4:20
no, perfectly reasonable. No, I want you to go right ahead. Hit me what you got.

Scott Benner 4:24
I don't know that in law. Listen, I know intellectually, that that insulin is incredibly expensive, and it's overpriced and, and all that goes along with it. None of that is lost to me. But in my life personally, insulin cost me $20 a month. Right. And so you know, what led to you being so aware of this and then tell me about how it impacted you and so forth.

Rod Regalado 4:49
Yeah, yeah, sure. So So Matthew was diagnosed and we take him to Children's Hospital. Truly, we found it accidentally I took him in for a sports physical That's how it kind of started, took him in for a sports physical. And that exposed the diabetes. And the very next day we were at Children's Hospital in Omaha. He was in there for about two and a half, three days. And they released him. Of course, I had to get all of the insulin and the ancillaries all the supplies, test kits, everything that goes along with it. And so after insurance, my out of pocket was north of 1000 bucks. But keep in mind, that's not just insulin, that was everything else

Scott Benner 5:36
hospital stay

Rod Regalado 5:37
the whole the whole kind of thing. No, the hospital stay was separate. Oh, okay. That was that was just the supplies I got you know CGM at that point.

Scott Benner 5:47
Meter Test trips, a little glucagon, some insulin needles, correct thing. Okay.

Rod Regalado 5:52
Exactly. Right. Yep. So 1000 bucks flies out of my bank account. And surely, if if they didn't ask me for 2000 that have given it to them. I just wanted my son home just wanted him home. So the following month rolls around, and time to replenish the insulin again. This time, I only need insulin, I've got all the ancillaries. And again, for short acting and long acting month supply after insurance. My cost was about 400 bucks. And now the gears are grinding between my ears. And I realize this is not sustainable. This is not going to work. So naturally, I call the insurance companies Is this legit? This can't be legit. I call my HR folks. See if there's any any recourse here. Is there anything else I can do? I call the pharmacist. Nope. It's this is what it is. And so I'm married to this invoice. And my son who's 13 is married to this invoice for ever. That's what got prompted me to call. Call a congressman. I don't know. I don't want to I got no rich uncle's and I've got I don't know any politicians. But I call it all. Yeah. I just called the office. I said, Hey, what is the deal with this? And that's kind of how this whole thing started. It was it was truly it was just a matter of me finding some resolution, long term resolution for my son, Matthew. That's what it was.

Scott Benner 7:27
So rod, you're talking about $400 A month by $5,000 a year that just suddenly gets added to your total of your out of your outgoing money. And it's for obviously for health. And so it comes first. Did you find yourself being able to pay it? Did you find yourself not paying other bills? How did you handle?

Rod Regalado 7:46
Yeah, right. Right. Right. So yeah, and that and that's, that's the problem. So luckily, I I make a good living. I work for a good company. And I'm my insurance I think is probably better than most. But the but my but my son doesn't have that liberty. He's He's He's 15. Now thinking ahead already. You're one right. So so yeah, to your question. How did I do it? Yeah. So you push one bill this way, and you push that bill that way? And you just figure it out? So the college fund? Yeah, sure. That takes a hit. College Fund, what college fund? Because you're paying off the hospital stay at the mera Lago with needles. If that's there, that's not going to go away. Retirement Fund. Yeah, that kind of takes a hit. Because now you got to shift what you're putting into that to compensate for the invoice that you got coming in every month. Yeah. So Right. And I'm not special. There's nothing special about me. But I do make a good living. I'm, I would say I'm middle of middle class. Not I don't make a ton of money. I'm certainly not destitute. But it's that's a burden. That's a That's a big number. Every month, every month.

Scott Benner 9:10
Is it fair to say that prior to diabetes, you felt like you were doing better than just getting by? Oh, sure. Yeah. Absolute. And then absolutely. Now you feel like I mean, listen, I don't honestly, I don't care how much money you make. I grew up broke $5,000. You might as well tell me a million dollars. That's a lot of money. You know, it is yeah. And a good point is that an amount of money that you can't come up with? Might as well be a million dollars. If I tell you if I walk up to a homeless person and say I need $50 right now to save your life. That that might or you might as well be telling them give me $50 million and bring me the Statue of Liberty. They can't come up with $50 it doesn't it's

Rod Regalado 9:48
yeah, you're exactly right. It is that is exactly it. So so we're just one family. So think about this for a minute. So in America There's roughly depends on what report you look at between seven and 8 million people that are insulin dependent. And type two,

Scott Benner 10:09
is that really the number? Geez?

Rod Regalado 10:11
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I think the CDC is, is claiming 7.5 million. And those are insulin dependent Americans. And, and the number of diabetics is growing exponentially every year. So when you when you factor in the type twos that are insulin dependent. I mean, that number is going to be massive in the coming years, massive. And so something has to give this log jam has to break at some point, it is financial ruin for so many families. And again, I'm just, I'm just one guy, Matthew was my son. He's my only son. Yeah, this is this is much bigger than us. When I started, when I made that phone call to my congressman. I was thinking about Matthew. And as I put my toe in the deep end, I realized this is so much bigger than me. And Matthew, is it is a massive, huge problem. Huge problem. So,

Scott Benner 11:19
okay, so you call you call, I don't even didn't even know who to call like I wouldn't. Like who

Rod Regalado 11:25
the hell? Yeah, yeah, I just so I called anybody would answer the phone, basically. And, and I realized, after a couple of months, that the only solution to this is a federal solution. And as you know, Scott, there are at present, there's probably 30 Plus states that recognize the problem. And so those states are passing legislation on a state level that price caps, insulin now, that's wonderful. But the issue with many of these state bills, is that all they'll throw $100 price cap at it. And that sounds great and makes fantastic headlines. But the issue is, if you don't have insurance, you pay the retail price. You're stuck with it. Retail Price, and and, and I do this periodically, and I'm not going to embarrass anybody. But I called last night and I do this every couple few months, I'll call and say hey, what's the price on this name brand fast acting insulin, and I did it yesterday. And I called a pharmacy in Little Rock. And they're fast acting for a box of five was 600 bucks. And then I called Tucson, another pharmacy 620 bucks. Well, guess what, you also probably need long acting. And that mirrors that within a couple 100 bucks, it mirrors the price of the fast acting. So suddenly, if you don't have insurance, and your state has passed a bill that puts a cap on it. Guess what, you're still tethered to that retail price. So Matt's act. Matt's act is truly a federal price cap. And so the way this bill works, is if you don't have insurance, the most you're gonna pay out of pocket is 60 bucks for the uninsured. Okay, it's remarkable.

Scott Benner 13:25
Alright, so I want to dig into it a little bit. So you call some you call a politician? And you say to them, This is what's happened to me. What do I do? I mean, did they say you're gonna get a bill passed? Like, how did you start down that

Rod Regalado 13:37
path? Yeah, yeah. So yeah, basically, I was calling anybody would answer the phone, and I called my congressman. And they were, they were very nice. And they took notes and they said, what we'll get back to you. And a week later, I get no phone call. There's no resolution, no sympathy. So now I'm, um, I'm agitated. So I call again. And they put me into this fellow's voicemail and I didn't know who he was at the time. And I left them pretty snarky voicemail. And literally, within within an hour or two, this fellow called me back and just so happens, this guy. I just landed in the right voicemail. This guy was the Chief of Staff for my congressman. And in fact, this fellow is a doctor. He's an MD. And he took up the cause. And he looked at the supply chain, he looked at what the hurdles are, and he looked at why, why the price is so high. And that that seed that I planted, became Matt's Act became our federal bill and it is a bipartisan bill. So you're not your congressman,

Scott Benner 14:52
after you made this phone call and you know, got it got the chief of staff and everybody starts thinking about this why he decided Did to write legislation and sponsored himself?

Rod Regalado 15:04
He did. Yes. He wrote they wrote the bill. And it is a bipartisan bill we so that that's really how it happened. They looked at the issues and why the insulin pricing is as it is, and and they found the mechanism that drives that price. And, and the reality is, it's the middlemen, the middlemen drive that price. Okay.

Scott Benner 15:31
So I guess for people who don't understand that terminology, so there's a pharmaceutical company, they they manufacture the insulin, there's you over here who needs the insulin? In the middle, there's an insurance company that you would think in the middle, there's an insurance company who has an agreement with, you know, I don't know how much of this people understand there's formularies that, you know, the the insurance companies say, well, we'll pay this much money for the insulin. I know, if I'm understanding it correctly, then the insulin manufacturers kind of set up the pricing. So that the formula, they're thinking about insured people when they're setting up this pricing. Correct, right. And I think part of how they do it, then the problem becomes that if you're not one of these insured people, the price is set up super high. And you don't I mean, like it's it's all to me, it seems like a dice game, so that everybody gets paid. And

Rod Regalado 16:29
it is yeah, right. Yeah, it's a game amante. It really is. Yeah, yeah. So basically, the way the system works right now, manufacturers produce this drug, which seven and a half, 8 million people have to consume daily. So in order for that product to reach the market, what they do, and what we're talking about is PBMs, pharmacy benefit managers, these are the middlemen, the pharmacy benefit managers negotiate between the manufacturers, and the insurance industry. And, and, and what they do is they say, well, we will place your insulin on the insurance formulary as a preferred drug. But in return, you guys, the manufacturers are going to give us rebates, rebates, you're not only going to give us rebates, but you're going to give us administrative fees. And so that jacks up the price and so these rebates, which is truly a trade secret, people don't know what those rebates look like, because they are trade secrets. It's not it's not disclosed. But if you don't, if the manufacturer does not pay the rebate, and the administrative fees, they are placed on a lower level on an insurance policy. So it might be a secondary or tertiary drug.

Scott Benner 17:59
And that's dangerous for them because then your doctor won't prescribe their drug because it's not covered by your insurance. Correct. Exactly. Right. Yeah, exactly. Right. Can't sell their stuff then. Okay.

Rod Regalado 18:09
That's exactly right. And, and not only that, but these pharmacy benefit managers also have a tremendous influence over the pharmacies, pharmacies, their pricing is set and if you don't charge your patients that retail price and they find out about it, they will cut you off. So they hold hostage the manufacturers and they hold hostage the the pharmacies and so you're saying

Scott Benner 18:41
that this is all set up so that the pharmacy benefit manager managers can make their money correct. And basically doing nothing but acting is like they're like the bag man. Right? They just they

Rod Regalado 18:55
truly are they truly are. They they are they are the they are the the dark people behind the curtain, pulling all the levers and they are they don't they don't package it any sexier. They don't make it any more potent or they don't get it to you faster. They do nothing but negotiate pricing between manufacturers, insurance and pharmacies they do nothing more than that. So

Scott Benner 19:21
how does this exist? At some point someone must have put legislation here's me guessing that years ago like oh, we need somebody to make sure everything's on the up and up so we'll put this this thing in place that and then it just they like everything else. People figure out how to game the system around good, etc. Yeah,

Rod Regalado 19:38
yeah. All I'm sure there is and surely Scott, I don't know how this thing was born. I know it goes back probably 2030 years and and I think the thought was if they have some middlemen negotiating the price, then the insurance companies would get a better return on on their negotiations. But in reality, what happened was, like you say, they figured out how to maximize their own profits. And they basically hijack the system. And that's truly what they did. It was truly

Scott Benner 20:13
any benefit that is there. Is it any good being done by a PBM? Or like, like for another drug maybe? Or like, is there I'm trying to imagine how something that's doing this can exist without somebody just going like, what we can't let this keep happening. So like, you don't I mean, does it do any good? Do you know that

Rod Regalado 20:30
that I can see no, no, truly, I can't. And I'm probably the wrong guy to ask that. Scott. Truly, I don't know. But it seems to me, if you look at the health care system as a whole. I mean, there's a reason why, you know, one in $7 is spent on health care in this country. Yeah. It and you got to think there's no way that these drugs cost that much to produce,

Scott Benner 20:55
it makes it makes you feel like it's entangled purposefully.

Rod Regalado 21:00
Sure. Oh, it's absolutely they've absolutely muddied the water. Yeah, absolutely. You can't have it at all. Yeah, I know, the average guy. I can't I can't make sense of it. But I do know, I do know, they hijacked the entire insulin industry. They did. So when they're getting away with it, what's

Scott Benner 21:19
the name of the bill that they put forth again?

Rod Regalado 21:21
Yeah, it's it's hr 4813. And it's, it's called Matt's act. Okay. 4813 is our bill number.

Scott Benner 21:31
And what does it do like, like layman's terms? What does the bill accomplish if it gets signed into law?

Rod Regalado 21:37
Sure. Yeah. So pretty easy. So basically, what we did was we, with the Congressman did was they looked at manufacturing costs, and they know what manufacturing costs are for insulin, because these manufacturers negotiate with the federal government, for Medicare and Medicaid, so they know what manufacturing costs are. So they looked at that. And they thought, Okay, well, we have to keep the manufacturers in business, because let's face it, they keep us alive. They keep us alive. Yeah. So they looked at that, and they said, Well, we know what manufacturing costs look like. We know what usual and customary markups look like. So they put a $60 cap, and that number is in flux, it might be $50 at the end of the day, and it might be 65. But that's roughly the number we're looking at. So if you are insulin dependent, and Matt's Act passes, that'll be your cost, if you are uninsured, and underinsured,

Scott Benner 22:41
and that's for your need, right, not for a file or a pen. So like if you're a person who needs a vial a month $50 If you're a person who needs three vials a month, $50 or no

Rod Regalado 22:50
$50. Okay. Yeah. What's your ever your prescription is? Whatever your purse? Yep. Yeah.

Scott Benner 22:55
And and this just covers people who are uninsured? What's the No, no,

Rod Regalado 23:00
no, our bill covers not only the uninsured, but the insured. So here's the genius of the bill. So if you have one of those high deductible plans, and let's say your deductible is, I don't know, let's say your deductible is $4,000. Well, you have to spend $4,000, before the insurance pays anything, anything. So you're you are going to pay the retail price, right until you hit 4000. The way mats Act works is if you have a high deductible, your out of pocket cost is zero. The assumption being you are paying that insurance company so much money, they will that they are going to carry the burden. They will your cost is zero. Yeah. And if you have run of the mill, average, everyday insurance, like most people, your cost is 2020 bucks. So if your copay is 15 bucks, it's 15 it co pays 25 Well, that's, you know, that's that's 25 bucks. Yeah,

Scott Benner 23:54
but there's no situation where it's suddenly $2,000 If you know you're right, if you'd need a ton of it's I'll tell you, I looked at your numbers that you're that you're touting here I have it is as of 2018 1.4 million T one 6.9 million T twos. That's, um, that's astounding. Okay, so now this thing gets written it Listen, what I know about this, you could fit in a thimble, but the way you're explaining it makes sense to me. I have the heart of a liberal person, you know, and I don't think that your healthcare should bankrupt you or or cause you to have to find 1000s of dollars a year that you don't have, right or you know, to go down a different road for a second Rob, even if you come up with the five grand like you said you're taking from somewhere to pay for this, right? And so maybe today it feels like you're getting away from it, or getting away with it, but But How old are you?

Rod Regalado 24:52
I'm 57 Okay, so 57 years

Scott Benner 24:55
old, let's say 20 years from now. Rods not walking so well or not remember things so well and his kids have to put him into some sort of a home. And now because rod wasn't able to save money, he's stuck with a Medicaid or Medicare system. And now he's in a subpar place. And at some point, at some point, this chicken comes home to roost, like you might be able to, like, push it off for a while and get your son his insulin, you know, you or somebody else, but at some point in your life, this is going to make an impact. And I think it's easy for people to think well, like drive a cheaper car, don't smoke cigarettes, you know, whatever your lifestyle choices are, which is, is a reasonable statement. But I'm saying at some point, it comes back to get you 10 years $5,000 $50,000. Yeah, 20 years is $100,000 out of pocket. And just because you can come up with five grand a year, doesn't like my daughter was diagnosed at two. So I mean, hold on a second, I'll do this. I'll play this with you for a second if my daughter is diagnosed at two. And I think they I think that women live to like 84 on the national average. So at two years times $5,000. This is assuming it doesn't go up, which of course it would, in a lifetime, at $5,000. A year at a lifetime. $410,000 at $5,000 a year.

Rod Regalado 26:22
Yeah. And that And that's assuming you don't go to the hospital and suffer DKA. So think about this got. So let's say, because let's face it, one in four Americans one in four every single day rations their insulin because they cannot afford it. And so what happens, they can't afford the insulin. So they go into diabetic ketoacidosis. They take them to the hospital, they treat them for two or three days. And then they discharged him with a 20 or $30,000 invoice, well, they couldn't afford the insulin on the front end. Right. So what makes you think they can afford that invoice you just handed him. And now Now you came up with a half a million dollars basically over a lifetime for insulin, insulin only. Now now add up how many times you have to go see the endocrinologist just for your routine checkups. That's not free,

Scott Benner 27:14
yet doesn't have to be that harsh. He didn't even have to go into DK, what if you're just carrying a heavier a one C than you should be. And when you're 30, you start running into health issues, those health issues are going to cost way more to the system, like so there's no common sense. And I listen, I'm with you. Like I said like I am a I'm a person who looks at things and I try to make sense of them. So if $5,000 a year aggregates out over two to $410,000 $500,000 a year or in a lifetime, and a couple of hospital stays is going to equal that number anyway. Well, then I the only thing I can think of and here's where I want to play devil's advocate for a minute is are the people who pull the strings on this, like, what don't I understand about an economy? Like, I hate to say this, but if people weren't sick, what our economy fold, like are they're like Machiavellian lunatics pulling strings going, listen, some people get sick, they have to buy medicine. And if they do, then that, you know, keeps a pharma company in business. And then pharma company makes advancements and maybe we learn about things. 50 years? Like, I mean, is there like a big picture that I can't wrap my head around?

Rod Regalado 28:32
Oh, no, no, I don't know. I think you're monitoring capsulated perfect. Yeah, it's money. It's funny, because because if it really was about people and lives and the economy in general, if that was a true statement, then then then there's no reason that they can't sell insulin to keep people healthy rather than watch them rational. And there's a reason believe me there is a reason that the manufacturers are offering coupons. There is a reason because because they know, but it's the middlemen again, you're going right I'm going right back to the guys that are pulling the levers. These like you say the Mac of alien dragons that are between the manufacturers and the patients. Those people only care about profits keeping only care about profit and it's a sad day. It's truly a sad day that America has allowed this to manifest itself as it has over the last 1020 years so I could its present. I

Scott Benner 29:36
could sit here broad off the top of my head and I haven't given a deep thought to it but I could sit here and paint you a picture where we need the machine to grind because if the machine grinds we make advancements we learn about different things. You know, if if if there and I am a person who who fundamentally believes that people get up and go to work in the morning to get paid. Yeah, so brilliant people, you know, I mean to I'm going to make a point and then I'm going to come around to it. So if I'm in college, or I'm getting ready to go to college, and I'm a truly brilliant person, and I look at the at the world, and I say, Okay, well, my goal is to make money, let's say, That's my goal. What, what, what form of work am I going to go into where I can do good, exceed my expectations for myself, personally, make a comfortable living, raise my own family, maybe go on a vacation sometime, buy a nice car, you know, save some money, etc, etc, like, chase my dream, and move the world forward. That's just a hopeful thing that a bright person might do that, right. And so and so when you have that person who spends for eight years being educated, you know, a master's and I'm listening, we could make an argument right now that it shouldn't cost hundreds of 1000s of dollars to get quality education like that, but it does. And so I come out of school 345 $100,000 in debt, and now I need to make $200,000 a year at the minimum, or I'm going to be screwed. And this company now needs to pay me because I am the best and the brightest. Someone's got to pay for that everyone needs to make money, the company needs to make money. Like when the machine grinds like that. It does benefit humanity. It doesn't benefit someone at home without insurance who needs insulin. And when I but I have to believe that there's a way to bank the machine grind without grinding people up as its fuel. Like like, Can't there be a there's gotta be a middle ground? And you think Well, Bill does that right? Like it? Fine. They make money still. And we get insulin?

Rod Regalado 31:40
Yes. Yeah, I know, without a shadow of a doubt. And we know this because these manufacturers, here's the interesting thing. We know what manufacturing costs look like? Okay, because these these companies negotiate with the federal government for Medicare, Medicaid, right? We know what, what their, what the manufacturing costs look like. So when you take and I'll just going to throw a random number out there, but it's fairly close. Let's say manufacturing costs plus usual and customary markups. Let's say that number is 20 bucks. And that and that's fairly close. It's probably maybe 22 or 2418, whatever, right? So when that product leaves the factory floor and arrives at the pharmacy, suddenly the price is 600 or $700. Right? Now, I have no problem with these manufacturers making a profit, they have to make a profit because they're going to manufacture new drugs, new, they're going to discover new things that makes humanity better. But when the system's hijacked, as it is now, no one benefits except those middlemen. Now, think about this, Scott. So let's say you, you come from a family where you can go to college, and you can get a master's degree and you have the liberty and your genius, and you can rack up a half a million dollar debt. Think about the kids who come from families like ours, where I don't have the liberty to put away 500 bucks a month. Yeah, so my son, my son is already disadvantaged, because I can't put away that kind of money. Right. So So what about what about those kids that we push them to the side and saying, yeah, sorry. No bad luck for you.

Scott Benner 33:37
Yeah. So I'll make the I'll make the alternative argument, because there's only two of us here. But everyone, as I'm saying this, I don't think this just please, I don't feel this way. Yeah, who says everybody gets to succeed?

Rod Regalado 33:52
Yeah, right. No, it's a fair question. Yeah. Nobody, nobody says, I mean, ultimately, at the end of the day, you truly are responsible for yourself. Yeah, but I believe I believe humanity's generally good I really do I believe that

Scott Benner 34:08
I do too. I think that people generally want good for each other. I do think that there's a study that shows that they want good for each other as long as it doesn't come from them. So there's I forget what the question system is you can ask people like these three questions about what they would give to someone else. And it's a it's interesting like they'd give you no, it has to do with what you have like would you give someone the shirt off your back? Yes, because I have more shirts. Would you give somebody this no because I don't have more of that like there's a there's a way the it listen to read it's got to be a survival instinct right like I can I can part with this and still be okay but I mean I so I don't disagree with you like I think if if some broke ass kid somewhere is brilliant and doesn't have the the opportunity to stretch his his legs and and figure out what he can do in the world. That's a shame. And and it should, it shouldn't be that way. I also think you're going to get hit with people who say, Well, why do you get to tell me how much I charge for the thing I make if you don't like it, start a pharmaceutical company and make your own insulin. That's what we did. Like that. You know what I mean? Like, that's gonna be the, the kosher to some to some real hardcore capitalists, they don't hear I'm rationing my insulin, and I'm sick. And it's going to shorten my life. They here, I started a company, I made a thing. You have no idea what the the risk that I went to, to start this thing. But I could also argue that away and say that these companies have been around so long that the people who put their who put their ass in the game are long gone now.

Rod Regalado 35:44
Right. But you all also have to be aware, and I'm sure you you know this. But one of the things that, and I'm not going to knock the manufacturers I mean, they are running a business. But one of the tricks that they've they've utilized over years past is they change the they change on a molecular level, they'll change the product, so as to extend their patents. And there is a reason why there's only three manufacturers, because because there are no generics. But if you want to talk about the economics of, of manufacturing drugs, that and and I have no problem with patents. I mean, these companies invest billions of dollars to manufacture these drugs. And they should be rewarded for it. But no problem with that.

Scott Benner 36:31
But but some of these Nazi insulins they've made their money a

Rod Regalado 36:34
million times over a million times. Yes, yes. Yeah. It's obscene.

Scott Benner 36:38
And so they're protecting their patents by changing. I do know that they'll they'll change the molecule a little bit to get reprinted. And then that that starts the process over again. Yeah, they'll and then they'll kind of like legacy out the older insulin so it's not available. And now you're now there. Now they hold their they their protect right back now. Right. But yeah, but

Rod Regalado 36:59
just because it's legal, just because it's legal doesn't make it moral, right? Because really, they haven't really changed if they've changed one molecule, right? And you're going to try and tell me that just because you change this tiny little molecule that you should get a patent extension for another? What is it seven years? 10? I don't know. I

Scott Benner 37:18
don't want long enough time to come up with another molecule.

Rod Regalado 37:20
I bet. Plenty of time. Yeah, sure.

Scott Benner 37:23
And so again, arguing the other side of it. It isn't moral. And I really I agree with you like I mean, if obviously, if money. Well see, I also think it's an oversimplification to say money, because I also think they're protecting the business. I think they're trying to stay in business long term. Like, I come from a completely bizarre perspective on this, because I have this podcast and anybody who listens to me knows that my heart and soul is in this and 100%. But my wife also went to college to be a doctor, and for personal reasons, couldn't go to medical school, and got a job at a pharmaceutical company, 21 years old, coming out of college, and is still at a pharmaceutical company, my wife is brilliant. And she and for anyone listening, believe this works her ass into the ground every day. And I know it might be hard to think of like a desk job is hard. My wife's job is intellectually past, intellectually, tasks her in a way that leaves her exhausted every day. Sure, this COVID thing sat in my dining room for 18 hours a day making sure that one of the COVID vaccines was going to be safe. My wife is the kind of person you want, looking at stuff like this, and making decisions like this. And those people are not a dime a dozen. And so you don't I mean, and so in so take all this out of it for a second take out insurance and all the horribleness that this is she's a person who has children, she has a home, she's trying to send her kids to college, she is putting an honest effort into something that she took years to understand. She wants to be compensated for it in a fair way. And she'd like to go on vacation once in a while. And I will show you from a personal perspective. If I had to bet $50 Right now, my wife's going to drop dead at a desk from a heart attack one day and there's no one listening to it. Well, Trump but listen, I'm telling you how how hard the job is and how hard she works and how stressful it is. And my point is that no one is going to remember her and that she's not the only person who does that. So I listen. Is there a CEO at the top of a company whose you know, Third Mistress is driving around in a Maserati that I paid for with insulin? Maybe? Right? Is that good? No, but you can't be mad at my wife about it or people like her who were actually in in the in they're trying to do good if you met those people they are you.

Rod Regalado 39:52
Oh, I know. I have I harbor no illusion about oh, no, I know. And that's and that's the investment. That's the investment that these guys companies make, they see the value of these employees. Because every day they go to work, trying to find some breakthrough. That's their job. That's what they're good at. They're geniuses. They're brilliant. And they can't do that

Scott Benner 40:15
their brains work in a different way. I don't I can't do eight how people like that think and most of us can. I also want to say not that I feel like I have to, but my wife's company doesn't make insulin. So I feel a little unencumbered, like giving a bigger picture from there. But she has worked for a company in the past that does, and then I can tell you that while she worked there having a daughter with type one diabetes, she felt extra fulfilled at her job. Yeah, and, and even moving forward. Now. There are you know, the the workers in pharma companies, they rely on each other. Like, there's, there's these meetings that they have, I don't know enough about them to be thoughtful about them. But my wife is involved in a meeting where like, people from different pharma companies get together and just talk about problems they're having or ideas and try to how to solve things. And the amount of times that I've heard my wife on calls, helping people make better decisions about helping people with diabetes, even there's value in that now, all of this is nice, and it doesn't change what you're saying. And it doesn't make it very true that there's no morality to charging somebody $5,000 a year to stay alive. I'm just trying to paint a picture that the way the world works, is so entangled, that I'm so concerned that pulling one thread, you can't fix anything but I love the idea of what you're trying to do. So my question is is how do we like what happened to the build it stall? What does it need? Why are you here?

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Rod Regalado 44:51
No, the bill has not stalled. Um, but basically so I make I make phone calls every single day every day. And I collaborate with diabetic advocacy groups. Shout out to touch by type one, by the way. And, and I work with these people daily, I make these phone calls and emails daily. And the the challenge that I see all the time is that most, well, virtually all of the time I call a congressional office and they're completely unaware of the bill, you have to understand these people have so much on their plate, their local constituents are calling about this, and that they have their own issues within their district. So they're not necessarily, let's face it, there are 1000s of bills that are introduced every year, these congressmen and senators are not going to know that this bill exists. And that's the challenge. And that's why I reached out to you, Scott, because I don't want this bill to die in the middle of the night. So

Scott Benner 45:57
how do you stop that from happening? Because I'm so scared that what you're gonna say is it's money, but it's maybe it's no, no, no,

Rod Regalado 46:02
no, no, no, no, it's not money. No, no. It money helps. But no, it's not money. No, what all I would ask is for all of your listeners, just take a look at Matt's act, it's 4813. Just look at the bill. See what it does. It's a very simple bill. It's not like most bills that are introduced these days are 1000s of pages long and reams and reams of paper. Mats act as 16 pages only deals with insulin and pricing. And it has safety nets in there to make sure that we're not jobbed and hosed. At some point down the road. There are safety measures in place. And I would just ask that you call your congressman, and ask them to at least look at hr 4813. And look at the merit of the bill. You either like it or don't like it in something my grandfather said to me when I was just a young boy. If my nickname was rabbit, he called me rabbit. He said rabbit, if you don't ask the question, they can't say no. But occasionally, they'll say yes. I'm just asking that people look at the bill, call their congressmen and ask them if they wouldn't mind. CO sponsoring the bill. Now, the one thing I'm hearing from a lot of congressional offices and Senators, is that now we're supporting HR three, which is fine. HR three is a large bill where they want to renegotiate drug pricing, I think it's top 150 drugs or something like that. I don't really know. But what I do know is that these two bills are not mutually exclusive. HR three is fine. But HR three capstar crisis renegotiates drug prices, only as it applies to Medicaid and Medicare.

Scott Benner 47:56
So if someone said that to you, you could say listen, there's no reason you can't support 4813 and three at the same time.

Rod Regalado 48:02
Exactly right. Exactly right. 4813 covers every single insulin dependent American HR three fine idea only applies to you if you're on Medicare or Medicaid. Yeah, in other words, leaves everyone else

Scott Benner 48:19
out. Okay. And it's about more. It's like a top, you said a certain number of drugs, which probably makes it even more difficult to push through.

Rod Regalado 48:27
Right, right. So yeah, and so that was the other thing we looked at. We tried to keep this thing as streamlined as possible. Only insulin. There are no writers on this thing. There are no backdoor deals. There's it's a very simple read. It's 16 pages.

Scott Benner 48:42
So can I ask you one? Can I ask you a like an inside baseball question about the policy? The political side of this is? Sure. Are there enough? Congressmen, Congress people, Congress, women, Congress, this congress people? Yeah. What happens when you get old rocks? Are there enough? Are there enough congress people who don't take money from Pharmo? Who would feel okay, putting their name on this?

Rod Regalado 49:08
Oh, that's an interesting question. Um, well, I can tell you this. I can tell you this. So the it maybe you know, this, maybe you don't, the largest the single largest caucus in Capitol in the nation's capitol. Is the congressional diabetes caucus. Yeah, it is the single largest caucus in in Washington, DC, over 300 members of the House are part of that caucus. So they might be taking money from big pharma and insurance industry. PBMs. Who knows?

Scott Benner 49:48
Yeah, they all have to have a lot. I mean, the PBMs have to have a lobbyist on top of lobbyists. You would think of course they do. They ran out of money. So

Rod Regalado 49:56
yeah, they got to protect that. That goose that laid the golden egg they got to protect But my point is 300 plus members are in the diabetes caucus. And I would suggest they don't know about the bill, because I will give them the benefit of the doubt. They just don't know about the bill. But if they did know about the bill, maybe just maybe they'll say, yes.

Scott Benner 50:20
I'm kind of hoping that a handful of attorneys who do lobbying work have kids with type one diabetes are listening. Yeah, I mean, I think that's, I mean, I hate to say that, but I think the way that Washington is set up is this is it, right? Like, you know, what you see on the news is what happens at the very end, it's how, you know, it's been scrubbed 1000 times, the way it gets scrubbed, is by is by powerful people who represent more people. Yeah, of usually of power, getting together in a room and making a decision. And then then they're telling these congress people, this one's okay to vote for this one isn't like, yeah, that's

Rod Regalado 50:56
that. Yeah, that's exactly true. That that is, that is a sad reality of Washington, DC it is. But I think there's enough people of goodwill in, in the Congress that would look at this and say, you know, I like this, and I can also share this with you. The, the leadership, the Democratic leadership, they presented this bill to them last year, and they liked the bill. They did like it. But, you know, we're fighting COVID, the election, the Trump impeachment, the, you know, all sorts of nonsense was going on, and it was just lost in the ether. Um, but now things have calmed down somewhat. depends on your perspective, I suppose. But, but I think now is a is a perfect time to resurrect this and just say, Listen, there's 300 of you guys that are part of the diabetes caucus. And where have you been for the last 20 years when the price went through the roof?

Scott Benner 51:57
So maybe the caucus? Is it possible that the caucus isn't focused on the same things that you wish they were?

Rod Regalado 52:03
Yes, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely true. So

Scott Benner 52:08
is it is the is the real hope here that everyone listening calls their congressperson and just simply says, I would like you to can take a look at hr 4813. It's called Matt's act. It's about making insulin affordable for people. It's a very simple bill 16 pages, take your five minutes to read it. This would mean a lot to my family, give them a half a second, a personal like, my son has type one, my daughter as type one, we're afraid we're not gonna be able to send our kids to college, we're afraid we're not going to be able to retire. We're afraid that we're going to die one day and our kids aren't going to be able to take care of themselves, whatever your truth is, share that with them. And just reiterate, please take a look at 4813

Rod Regalado 52:51
That's all I'm asking. That's all I'm asking. You know, and and I can I can I plug up a website. I created a Facebook group I started Yeah, sure. Good. Yeah. So so you can find us at insulin matters that calm. So it's www dot insulin dash matters calm, or the Facebook group under the same name, insulin matters. And I do have a letter that I posted on there, you can just download it, click on this link, it'll give you just plug in your zip code. And based on that zip code, it'll tell you who your congressman is. And you send that letter off and you can wordsmith it any way you like. But more than anything, just call your congressman and ask them to support 4813. And if they push back and say, Well, we're supporting HR three, just point out they're not mutually exclusive. They truly aren't.

Scott Benner 53:51
Right? Insulin matters. Ma TT ers.com That's it when I get there. Am I seeing blue and gray? Yeah, welcome to insulin matters a practical approach to Basal insulin management. Oh, no, no, no. What am I Sir

Rod Regalado 54:06
It's insulin matters be the difference.

Scott Benner 54:09
Insulin matters

Rod Regalado 54:11
Yeah, it'll it should pop up. Let me just see like the insulin different insulin douche matters. Calm the dash. That's yeah, little dash in there.

Scott Benner 54:21
Everybody rods in his 50s he don't know. I'm just trying to help

Rod Regalado 54:25
you. I'm a dinosaur. I'm a dinosaur.

Scott Benner 54:28
Alright, now I'm here. Insulin dash matters.com Yeah, that sounds Yeah, we need you need a tiny bit of a media prep there rod don't you? You spent this whole hour doing such a good job. Explain that you send us your website for insulin. Yeah, no. Don't worry about insulin dash matters calm as soon as it pops up. There's a cute kid here and it says support Bill HR for 13 Mad sack right at the top. Okay, so And there, I'm going to learn how to what do I click on to figure out how to find your letter?

Rod Regalado 55:07
Yeah. So if you scroll down just a little bit, probably about the middle of the body of the

Scott Benner 55:11
page. I say it man attack letter and find your representative.

Rod Regalado 55:15
Yep. And that's it. Okay. It's was that Yeah. All right, right. So yeah, I mean, I'm not truly I'm not looking for money. I'm not the letter and a phone call means way more to me, simply because that's how I got a bill. I made a phone call. And I don't I don't have any rich uncle's. I don't know, famous people. I don't know, my congressman. I simply made a phone call.

Scott Benner 55:39
Right. Let me ask you something just for clarity. Excuse me, I believe I know. Oh, I'm dying. This is the end. Let me get a sip. My tea guy called messed everything up. Um, you're not you're not making an income off of this. Right?

Rod Regalado 55:54
Nothing? Not a penny. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's

Scott Benner 55:56
just It's I don't believe you are. But I did see a donate button. So I just wanted you to be Yeah, people. So yeah,

Rod Regalado 56:03
right. Right. Well, the intention. Yeah, the intention is to whatever donations come in. Um, when I'm going to do with it is I'm going to buy ad space on like Facebook and Spotify just to promote the bill, just like 15 Second 32nd ad space, that nothing more than that. And if the bill makes it through, then I'm just going to donate the rest of the money to some, you know, 501 c three that gives out insulin or insulin. ancillaries. And there you go.

Scott Benner 56:36
Cool. Well, I appreciate you coming on and talking. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think we should have?

Rod Regalado 56:42
Oh, no, nothing comes to mind. I

Scott Benner 56:48
do a good job of arguing the other side without sounding like,

Rod Regalado 56:52
you know, what is that? You know, that's truly a lost art, Scott, you know, people, people can have disagreements, and they don't have to be so disagreeable. You've got your personal opinion, I got my personal opinion. You know, there's always middle ground. And there's I love I love having conversations, where I can disagree with someone, I can illustrate my point of view and illustrate your point of view. I think conversation is so fun. Yes, I

Scott Benner 57:17
enjoy talking. I also didn't like I mean, listen, I agree with a lot of the stuff you said. So I was I have a lot of arguments to be honest with you. But I do know that people could hear it and feel that way. And I think it's important not to disregard that. That's how people feel like, I know that you can take a moral high ground and say, Look, we're talking about insulin is people's health, money shouldn't matter. Well, that's all well and good. But you know, what matters to all the people who are making a living and feeding their kids off of the stuff that they're selling like? So you. What I am always reminded of is, is that there are a number of people who have contacted me over the years. And sometimes they want to come on the podcast talk about this. There's one person that sticks out in my mind. And this person, you know, I spoke to them on the phone, and I said, but you want to come on the podcast, what about? Well, in some pricings not fair. And I was like, oh, it's not like you have a fix for it. And she's, she says yes, you know, they should make it cheaper. And I was like, well, that doesn't sound very reasonable. You're going to go to a bunch of wealthy board members of a company and tell them to give their stuff away for less money, right? Like, is that how things have? You've noticed them working so far in your lifetime? You know, asking people about their better angels is. I mean, that's, I mean, I saw her in Brockovich. But other than that, I haven't seen it happen anywhere else, you know, in my life. Yeah, you're

Rod Regalado 58:34
exactly right. Yeah, there's one thing to bring a problem to the table. But if you have a problem, bring a solution, or at least bring an idea. Yeah. And this

Scott Benner 58:43
person then told me that it was listen, at its base, I understood that the context, they said, well, they spend so much money on advertising to get us to buy their products. And I was like, okay, and I was like, let me see where this is going. So if they just got rid of their public relations department and stopped buying ads, they could put that money towards the the cost the incident, I said, Well, that makes sense. I said, What do all the people do who work in their public relations department when they fire them? And they can't pay their bills anymore? Like, what if some of those people have diabetes, and now they can't afford their insulin? And I was like, are we just taking the money from here and putting it over there? Is it like Robin Hood, you know, stole from the rich and gave to the poor? And I know that that's what you think you're doing except the people who run the company aren't going to lose a nickel. When this happens. They're going to fire the guy that fixes the copier. You know what I mean? Like, that's the money doesn't just they don't give the money away. The money comes from somewhere. So your idea in a perfect world sounds delightful. But that isn't how it would end up working.

Rod Regalado 59:49
So utopian idea. Yeah, no.

Scott Benner 59:51
So if you're going to come at these problems, it's just my intention to say come at them with a real answer. And and to me, yours yours comes close. Because, I mean, there's can't be anybody in the world that has a soft spot for a pharmacy benefits manager. Except Except I gotta say, the pharmacy benefits manager who probably enjoys the island they live on. And which is, by the way, how I don't know if I've ever said this in the podcast. That's how I think of Pharmacy Benefits managers as big fat people sitting on an island at the top of a throne. laughing as the pennies that they take out of your dollars just keep falling into a pile. Yeah, it's

Rod Regalado 1:00:32
Yeah, yeah. It's hard. It's hard to say because you have to pull the curtain back to see what they look like. Yeah. Because they they are some shadowy characters.

Scott Benner 1:00:41
Well, I'm just saying that's how my mind mission Yeah, right on the same page got same page. But my expectation is, is that if I was a big, fat slob and leave rich person who was taken pennies out of out of sick people's pockets, left and right, I wouldn't care much about them. Because if I was I wouldn't have gotten to this space to begin with. So now we're about to have a formidable fight with a person who does not want to lose has a lot of incentive not to lose, and doesn't particularly care how they win is what That's right. Lactation,

Rod Regalado 1:01:12
you know, you know, you're exactly right. And that fight will come. I harbored no illusion, I know that fight will come. They will bring the big dogs, the lobbyists, the lawyers, the character assassins, they will all come knocking. sure of it. Well,

Scott Benner 1:01:29
I applaud you for one to be in front of that. Because I think that of all of the things that you just described that it can be scary that the character assassinations are so common in in, I mean, now that the internet's here, just so easy to just make up a lie about somebody, right? And so to want to be out in front of that is really brave, maybe you're not knowing what to put the dash in your URL is just just the amount of ignorance you need to get into this fight.

Rod Regalado 1:01:56
You know, I'm an old Marine, I am an old Marine. And really, I don't care. I'm too old in my life. And this isn't about me. Yeah, this, it was about Matthew. And now you know, it's about 8 million Americans, they can character assassinate me all they want. I don't care. If they can't kill me an evening,

Scott Benner 1:02:19
I can't yet I appreciate so much that you're that you're willing to do this and that you try this. I have to imagine that there was a moment, the beginning of where you just thought like, well, this isn't what I wanted. Like, I don't like I mean, this wasn't something you were looking to do, right?

Rod Regalado 1:02:31
It No, no, no, no, not at all. No looking back. Exactly. Yeah, but you know, you know, diabetes is an equal opportunity hater. It doesn't care. If you're on the right side of the aisle or the left side, it doesn't care if you're black or white. It doesn't care if you're rich or poor. Or if you're Jewish, or you're Catholic. It does not care. And it will make your life miserable. But it'll break you financially and emotionally. First,

Scott Benner 1:03:03
I have to ask you, this whole thing you want people to do make a phone call, send a letter? How much do you think of their time takes them to to accomplish that? Less than an hour? No, oh,

Rod Regalado 1:03:12
God, no, no. 15 minutes, 15 minutes to download the letter. It'll take you a couple of clicks. On the long end, it might take five minutes, okay to make a phone call. And I would just encourage your listeners. If you download the letter, ask him for a response. Ask them to call you back and tell you why they don't want to support the bill. Okay, I put him on the spot. Absolutely. I don't I don't want to shame any of those congressmen or senators. I don't want to shame them. I just want a fair hearing. Yeah, this is America give us a fair hearing.

Scott Benner 1:03:47
I think you'd be surprised to how little it takes to make something look like a wave. I say stuff like this all the time. And I don't know if people believe me or not. But honestly, if everyone who heard this did it, it would actually make an impact. The problem is, is that you're not going to do it. Not not in you know, I mean, listen, as a person who gets on here and says, Hey, if you want to support the podcast, you know, go go to here and just fill out this survey. For me. It's a survey that doesn't ask super personal questions. It's HIPAA compliant. Like I tell people all the time, you'll really support the podcast, and it'll take you 10 minutes. And it's surprising how often you have to say that just to get a small number of people to do it. You

Rod Regalado 1:04:30
know, it's not surprising to me at all. It truly Scott I literally every single day. So I work all day. I come home, they can dinner, maybe the laundry in and I jumped on the computer and I'll do a little bit of work. When am I driving home? I'll call this congressman or that Congressman. I call famous people I might make literally, I might make 50 phone calls. And I'll get two people to call me back. Right?

Scott Benner 1:04:58
Well, yeah, that's it. Listen, if you're, you know, if you're making that phone call, just tell people tell them say, look, I heard about it on a podcast, because they might you don't know like that, that feels very viral to people. And you know, you could give them the feeling of like, Oh, these we got to get out in front of this before more people call like, I want to be on the right. Because I mean, they're politicians, right? They just want to be on the right side of the argument. And for them the right side is you being happy. So you vote for them. It's

Rod Regalado 1:05:25
right. And let's face this got this is the right thing. Yeah. I mean,

Scott Benner 1:05:30
it has the added benefit of actually being a good thing

Rod Regalado 1:05:33
is a good thing. Yeah. There's, it's no coincidence that 300 Plus members of Congress are part of the congressional diabetes caucus, right? It's no coincidence. Now. It's time for them to do something.

Scott Benner 1:05:47
Do you know how many people you have signed on to Matt's acts so far? To two okay. And then what do you need to push it forward? Do you think

Rod Regalado 1:05:56
we need yes, we need a hearing. So the way the bill way a bill works, it's introduced, oftentimes, it's introduced by just one congressman, our bill is bipartisan. We have Angie Craig is our co sponsor, Democrat. Fortenberry is, is the author of the bill Republican. So the way it works is it has to go through a hearing a committee hearing, and in our case, it has to go through energy and commerce. And I know that sounds kind of weird, but it's energy and commerce because of interstate logs. Interstate Commerce loans. So once it goes through that hearing that committee, they'll vote it up or down. If they if they voted up, then it goes to the Health Committee, and the health committee will vote it up or down. And then once that happens, then it goes to the floor for a vote on the House floor. Yeah. After that, then it goes to the Senate. And the same thing happens to

Scott Benner 1:06:54
wow, okay, well, yeah, listen, it sounds like an uphill battle. But I appreciate that, when you're willing to fight. I hope that you're, you know, normally talk to people about their diabetes. So I hope your son's doing well.

Rod Regalado 1:07:06
He has thanks for asking.

Scott Benner 1:07:08
And was it a big? I mean, have you made the, you know, the adjustment, or is it still hard for you the diabetes?

Rod Regalado 1:07:16
Yeah, well, I'll tell you, man, you know, out of the gate, it was hard for us to find our sea legs is such everything was just kind of upside down, counting carbs and measuring. And, you know, we, we found our pace and so now it's almost second nature. You know, Matt, last night we had the pot roast and mashed potatoes and homemade mashed potatoes and gravy and, and we just know, okay, that dollop of mashed potatoes has X number of carbs in it, and he just knows off the top of his head, how many units he has to take so so it's actually a lot easier. But the the I've noticed recently the one thing that he's struggling with is emotionally it's difficult because you know, he's an athlete, he loves playing sports and he couldn't wear he couldn't want to pump so can't play football where pump had couldn't wear his Dexcom sensor because football the rip that thing off. So back to finger sticks. And, and it's just the whole sports thing, just

Scott Benner 1:08:26
right, you should jump on, you should drop on to my private Facebook group and talk to people there because there are wraps that you can put around Dexcom that make it almost impossible for them to be grabbed and ripped off. There are people playing football with them. And you could he could move to an insulin pump that's tubeless that might do similar things like that make things easier for him. So there's they're sometimes they're not that I'm not disregarding anything you just said. But I don't think you should give up. I think you should just ask other people how they do it because it is giving it I will Yeah,

Rod Regalado 1:08:58
I will. I will. It really took a toll on me. Yeah, he struggled with that. He struggled with

Scott Benner 1:09:03
that. So can imagine. Oh, it's terrible. I'm so sorry. Any other autoimmune in your family?

Rod Regalado 1:09:10
No feeling no thyroid? That kind of snow? Nothing? No, no, we're just old English, Irish, Dutch, Indian. You know, typical American mutts

Scott Benner 1:09:24
English Irish. There's a lot of I see a lot of autoimmune. We and people. English Irish. Yeah, that say that. That's their background. There's a big swath of Nordic people in Minnesota who who are impacted my wife's lineage is Irish English. Like I think there's something to that. I think taking the potatoes from those people for that long really messed them up or making me sorry, I'm sorry, making them eat potatoes for that

Rod Regalado 1:09:47
long. It could be truth. Brought Listen, I'm not a doctor. It could be the solution to my weight problem.

Scott Benner 1:09:56
Get those potatoes out of your diet. Well, I I just can't tell you how much I appreciate this or how well I thought you articulated this the the whole thing today, I really do appreciate your time.

Rod Regalado 1:10:07
Well, Scott, you know, I, again, I can't thank you enough for you know, lending me your megaphone, because without without folks like you, this message just doesn't get out. People don't know what they don't know. And it's not their fault. It's not because they're ignoring us. They just don't know. Yeah. So for what it's worth, Thanks for lending me the soapbox and your megaphone. And

Scott Benner 1:10:30
it's my pleasure, I would I would add this for anybody listening who's who's, you know, thinking about doing this is if you're listening and you really don't feel like this impacts you, right? I have insurance, I pay $20 a month, I don't even know how much insurance or insulin cost whatever it is, you're thinking, you know, right now, it doesn't hurt you. It's no skin off, you're asked to make this phone call. You know what I mean? Like, just send the letter, make the phone call, push people in that direction, you know, you'll feel good about yourself. At the very least you'll do something good, which is a bonus. And because I know how hard it is to take these earphones out now and be focused on something when your life is difficult. That doesn't impact you. But man, it could one day, uh, you know, just because you're successful doesn't mean your kid's gonna be, you know, bit when Billy's 35. And you're in a home and he doesn't have a good job. You might wish you sent this letter, you know? Because this isn't going to get better on its own. Like, I am a firm believer in capitalism. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. But this is the other side of that, which is you. It is hard to make change around stuff like this. And it really isn't. It really isn't going to happen until people get together in a group. And it I mean, look at the number what's the number how many people use insulin,

Rod Regalado 1:11:43
about seven and a half million, seven and a half million every single day. And one in four rations? Yeah, every day.

Scott Benner 1:11:50
So if you want to see the power of democracy, you put seven and a half million people send them a letter or making a phone call. And instead we'll be free tomorrow. Yeah, that's, that's yeah, that's the truth. It'll be it'll be affordable. Put

Rod Regalado 1:12:03
it that way. Yeah, right. Yeah. Free. Nothing's really affordable. And and you can afford the college fund and retirement fund. Yeah. Wouldn't it be nice to know when was the last time you gave yourself a $5,000? Well, let's say let's say you have a high Well, let's say you have regular insurance. 20 bucks a month. So now you're spending $240 a year as opposed to maybe, I don't know. 2000? was the last time you gave yourself a raise of couple 1000 bucks.

Scott Benner 1:12:31
Yeah, I think the problem is, is that I think part of how the part of the problem about how people think about money is because we're segmented into months. And because if you I make this much money, and this percentage of my money goes out the door, and this is what I expect. No one ever does the you know, I mean, like, Let's take something that everybody has the cell phone, right? So you know, how many kids are in your family? Right?

Rod Regalado 1:12:56
Two, and then two plus a foreign exchange student so I got three. How

Scott Benner 1:13:00
many cell phones? Are you paying for a month? Oh, four, four. Do you have any idea what your cell phone bill was?

Rod Regalado 1:13:07
Oh, God. Ah, I don't because it comes right out. Um, I would suspect it's a couple 100 bucks. Yeah, my God. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:13:13
So that's one of those things. Let's just say you're you have a I don't know, the two or $300 bill, it doesn't matter what it is. You pay $300 a month. He's like, Oh, I can afford that. That's fine. And then every year it's $3,600. And God, it's only $3,600 not really a big deal. I can come up with $3,600 a year. Don't worry about it. It's really important to me. 10 years of that $36,000.10 years. Oh, that feels like a lifetime. Do people even live 10 years? Yeah. Well, turns out they do. You know, so you start etha saying 36,000 for 10 years? Well, you know, 72,000 for 20 years 150,000 for, you know, for 40 years. And so suddenly,

Rod Regalado 1:13:54
there's a lot of money, you're talking about real money

Scott Benner 1:13:57
could be putting away. So my point is, is that we don't think about money the right way. Because we think about it. It's like oh, it's only $300 I have to come up with this month. But it's $150,000 You have to come up with over the next 40 years. And you will be alive most likely for 40 years.

Rod Regalado 1:14:12
And then how many of your kids could you put through college without Oh, or or?

Scott Benner 1:14:17
Or any number of things? How many how many of you are walking around right now wishing you could spend five grand on refurbishing a bathroom or you need a car that you've been? You've been driving a car 10 years too long that you drive down the road? You think the wheels gonna fall off and you're going to go crashing into a tree? How many different things do you miss? I mean, I agree with you man. Insulin shouldn't be one of the things that's causing you not to have something else or have and the health side of it. Like I really feel like we didn't dig into it enough. But if people are rationing insulin even a little bit, it's such a it's just such a right you know, right

Rod Regalado 1:14:52
right. So so the physical, the physical health aspects of it are devastating. But if you're one of those One in four Americans, let's just call it let's call it 1.5 million, just 1.5 million. So 1.5 million people rationed in this country every single day, because can't afford it. Right. So that implies if they can't afford the insulin, they probably can't afford to pay some bills here or some bills there. And so now you have this effect, whereby their mental health takes a hit. Yeah, so depression rolls in. Anxiety is part of your daily life. And now you're living with depression. And now you've got all of these things, coalescing at the same time.

Scott Benner 1:15:35
And I'll finish with saying that those people are generally speaking, not the people who have time to listen to a podcast about diabetes. Yeah, right. You're listening, you're probably lucky to begin with, even if you don't know it. And so take a minute and stick up for those people who aren't even lucky enough to have a job or a life where they can put some expensive headphones in their ears and listen to me prattle on for what is now an hour and 12 minutes with Rod. Because most people's lives don't even allow for this kind of stuff. And those are the people you're sticking up for, if not for yourself, so that's how I'll leave that. Alright, Ronnie, he did a good thing here today. I hope it helps. Yeah,

Rod Regalado 1:16:16
I You did you did your wonderful. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:16:19
yeah. You're You're being too nice. We don't know if it helps or not yet. Get it out there and find out.

Rod Regalado 1:16:24
I'm an optimist. I'm an optimist. You

Scott Benner 1:16:26
certainly I got it. It'll go yeah, you wouldn't be in this fight. If you weren't optimistic. That's for sure.

Rod Regalado 1:16:31
That's true. Well, listen up. Well, Scott, and thanks again for inviting me out. I truly appreciate the chat this morning.

Scott Benner 1:16:39
My pleasure insulin dash matters.com.

A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Kaipa pen at G folk glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. You spell that g VOKEGL. You see ag o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. And also like to thank the Contour Next One blood glucose meter and remind you that everything you need to know is that contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. And of course, don't forget the T one D exchange T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Go take that survey. I want to thank you guys for listening and for supporting the show and remind you that I'll be back soon with another episode. If you're enjoying this episode or the podcast in general, please share it with someone who you think might also enjoy it. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Your generosity and your support helped the podcast to grow every day. No kidding. Every day for the last six months. The podcast has had more downloads in the current month than it did in the previous one. That is because you're sharing the podcast. Thank you very, very much. I can't I honestly I could sit here and say thank you all night I wouldn't be able to say thank you enough.

#570 Cranky Panky

Mandy is a D-Mom who has seen some stuff.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 570 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today on the show, Mandy is here she is the mother of a child with type one diabetes. She does a lot of different things actually she writes books, and she's super honest on podcasts about the anxiety she feels around type one. 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. We're becoming bold with insulin. It is officially diabetes Awareness Month. And I want to remind you that I am personally trying to add 2000 surveys to the T one D exchange in the month of November, I need your help. If you're a type one who lives in the United States, or the caregiver of a type one who lives in the United States, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. take you less than 10 minutes, you can do it right from your phone. Super simple questions. Completely HIPAA compliant, and absolutely anonymous. That's all you have to do to help people living with type one T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod makers of the Omni pod dash and the Omni pod promise which I'll tell you more about me ads very very soon. The podcast is also sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor dexcom.com Ford slash juice box to get started right now.

Mandy Morreale 1:56
My name is Manny Morelli. And I am the mother of a type one diabetic. She is now 14 years old and was diagnosed when she was 1111. Three

Scott Benner 2:05
years ago. Wow. Um, three years ago, 2018 ish.

Mandy Morreale 2:13

Okay.

Scott Benner 2:17
That's not that long ago.

Mandy Morreale 2:20
It feels like it.

Scott Benner 2:20
Well, that was my question. Does it feel like forever ago? Or does it feel like it just happened?

Mandy Morreale 2:25
It feels like forever. Like, I really even though it's only been a couple years. It's like diabetes has always been in our life now.

Scott Benner 2:34
Can you? Can you properly explain to people the difference between the panic in the beginning and how you feel now?

Mandy Morreale 2:47
It's like night and day. I guess if anybody newly diagnosed is listening to this. It does get better. It doesn't get easier. I wouldn't say easier. But you learn how to do it better. I'm I'm much calmer person than I was in 2017. For sure.

Scott Benner 3:05
That's true. You stop vibrating, right? Everything. Everything stops feeling like a disaster. It's why I feel so badly for people who have anxiety. Because they always have that heightened feeling of like,

Mandy Morreale 3:15
ah, but that's that's me. I'm what I'm the most anxious person you'll ever

Scott Benner 3:19
meet. Oh, no kidding. And you feel better?

Mandy Morreale 3:22
I do. I mean, what was first diabetes? I got a million other words. But as far as my child and type one Yeah, I feel much better.

Scott Benner 3:28
Man. He's like, I don't have to panic about diabetes. I'm panicking about a number of other things. Thank you. Yes. That's funny, and not funny at the same time. So how did you figure out your daughter had type one.

Mandy Morreale 3:42
We were we were planning a memorial day trip to a waterpark. And I mean, everybody was excited. And except for Brandi, she was just kind of just laying around want to get out of bed. She kept saying her stomach hurt. And she was drinking an unbelievable amount of fluid. I've never seen anything like it. But I still didn't know that that's what it was because I've never had any experience with diabetes. So I kind of thought well, maybe she's getting strep throat maybe she's just got a stomach bug so we let it go for a couple days. until she finally and this is really sad. Her little frail little self come down the steps and she says Mom, I really need to go to the hospital. There's something really wrong. And we took her to urgent care

Scott Benner 4:29
see you made me sad when you said that because I'm

Mandy Morreale 4:32
really sad. I got so so bad.

Scott Benner 4:34
Well not that part not the part where you like knew she didn't feel well and you didn't like sprang into action like that an 11 year old was aware that their health was in danger. And and that's the part that got me I think that she was like I like unless she came downstairs like Alright, listen, you people are never gonna pull this together. So let me explain to you I have it wasn't like that right?

Mandy Morreale 4:56
No, no, she was just there's something really wrong Mom, I need to go to the hospital. Wow.

Scott Benner 5:00
What did you think? In that moment when she said that to you? Do you remember? Well,

Mandy Morreale 5:05
I have four kids. And they're all hypochondriacs. And they all have something that they don't have. So we, we went through a long period of somebody always needs to know the doctor, I've got this. I've got that. So I didn't really, I mean, I knew she was sick. But I didn't know. That's what it was. I really thought this was going to be another Urgent Care trip where Oh, you've got a stomach bug, go home and drink some fluids. You're fine.

Scott Benner 5:28
Have your kids ever complain about something that doesn't exist? Or they just kind of over? Blow blow the thing that does exist?

Mandy Morreale 5:35
My kids are like, WebMD looking up nonsense. Maybe they've all got something terribly. And none of them have anything except for brandy has diabetes.

Scott Benner 5:44
Wow. Yeah. Everybody's like, I have fibromyalgia. I'm like, do you like I have a lot of these symptoms is like, all right. Yeah. Yeah, everybody's got the internet. Right. So you're just like, I know what the problem is. And, you know, the, you know, the, the weird thing is, is that every once in a while somebody is right about that. And you know, and then everybody else gets to be like, Oh, I'm such hypochondriac, and I get to blow it off. But you get you got a thing, and you got stuck with it. So it sounds like is there any other autoimmune in your family line?

Mandy Morreale 6:14
No, no, um, I have a cousin actually, I'm sorry that that has type one. But she got diagnosed when she was pregnant, and it kind of just remained, right. And that doesn't that nobody,

Scott Benner 6:25
even those people you feel horrible for? Not that you wouldn't. But you know, so many people get gestational diabetes, and then it's gone. And then every, you know, every, you know, every random lucky person is like, Oh, look, mine stayed great. Or comes later in life after that. Okay, so somebody has it, but not the way you think of getting it? Yeah. As far as like, you know, I wonder if gestational is auto immune? I'm not sure. I'm not either. I'm wondering if I care enough to Google? Maybe not. So you ended up at Urgent Care eventually. And yes, were they able to diagnose her there?

Mandy Morreale 7:04
Um, yes, they did. It didn't take. It was really fast, actually. I mean, within maybe 30 minutes, we were right in the door and scene and like, Hey, this is what you got. And we're calling an ambulance to take you to the hospital. Okay.

Scott Benner 7:19
Okay. And so you're off. How long do they keep her at the hospital? I guess. How and what was her blood? Her a One CT, remember?

Mandy Morreale 7:28
I want to say 14. I don't remember her exact blood sugar. It was way up there. It wasn't even reading like on a on a finger. glucose. They were last for about five days.

Scott Benner 7:40
Wow. You said her he wants he was like 14. Yeah. Oh my goodness. How long? In hindsight, do you feel like this was going on?

Mandy Morreale 7:49
I'd say quite a while. I mean, I just kind of thought she was little. You know what I mean? I thought she was just a frail little thing. I didn't know. She was dying. I didn't know that's what it was. I just thought she was a little, little one.

Scott Benner 8:01
Did you put weight on when you got into the insulin? Oh, yeah. Real fast. More like back to where you remember her starting or beyond?

Mandy Morreale 8:11
Beyond. I mean, she's not like, like, heavy but she's, she's healthy.

Scott Benner 8:16
Well, that that was my, that was really my the the impetus behind my question was like, was perhaps her growth and her progression being stifled? Like,

Mandy Morreale 8:25
I definitely think so. I mean, she she was a little one. I think she was. I mean, she was done like, like little clothes, not like adult sizes. I don't know if you know what difference in the sizes are, but I could still buy like youth clothes for her. Like they still fit around a little waist. And she was just a bony little thing.

Scott Benner 8:40
Mandy. I've been a stay at home dad for over 20 years. Okay. Okay. I know more about girls clothes than anybody.

Mandy Morreale 8:49
I'm glad to still get her in like, like a six t at that point. Wow.

Scott Benner 8:55
Holy God. And that wasn't like, wow, that is interesting, isn't it? So she was she? You thought she was just in general? Your smaller child?

Mandy Morreale 9:04
Yeah, she was a little runt.

Scott Benner 9:06
Is she? Is she? Is she more in line with the other kids at this point?

Mandy Morreale 9:16
For the most part, yeah. I mean, she's she's healthy. She's about I think she's 140 pounds. She's like, five, six. That's right. It looks like a normal, normal 14

Scott Benner 9:25
year old. Yeah. That's very cool. It's exciting. Just to see somebody feel better is exciting. But in that moment, when you're in the hospital, and you've never really thought about type one diabetes before, I mean, and you've got four kids, like how do you juggle all that I'm interested in in how you absorb those first couple of days when you have so many other responsibilities.

Mandy Morreale 9:49
Well, everything turned brandy at that point. The other three were with their dad who is not brand new dad, so they were with him and I thought focused 100% on brandy. It was a whirlwind. I mean, I had a complete nervous breakdown twice, I guess. And that week, it was it was a lot. I imagine.

Scott Benner 10:12
I really don't did you feel was part of that feeling that you were falling apart to have anything to do with the wreck? The realization that she had been telling you she didn't feel well, and you didn't do anything?

Mandy Morreale 10:23
Oh, yeah, extreme, extreme guilt, I still feel guilty. It's like almost four years later, three and a half years later, I still feel so guilty. Like, I can still see in the back of my mind her just laying there telling me she didn't feel good. And I didn't really believe her. How does

Scott Benner 10:35
that if it does? How does that manifest in your current life visits? stress anxiety? Like, how does the guilt like hit you? Is it just a thought?

Mandy Morreale 10:46
More anxiety because I'm already an anxious person. I mean, there's, there's times where I can wake up in the middle of the night, be asleep and perfectly fine. Wake up. And I'm like, Oh, my God, what am I to bring to the hospital faster? Okay, so all these years later,

Scott Benner 10:58
I'm sorry? That that's, that's terrible. Well, I'm between two strangers. didn't do anything wrong. And I hope you stopped feeling that way. Because there's no like, there's no reasonable correlation. Really, you know, like he said, like, you have four kids, and they're always like, this hurts. That hurts. This has happened. You know, that guy? Sure. Like one of them was like, I'm dying. And they're like, of course you're not. And so she happened to be right. That's tough. So you're with me make sure I understand. Are you with? Are you with brandies father?

Mandy Morreale 11:34
I'm not no, he passed away. Um, actually, he passed away in February and she was diagnosed in May.

Scott Benner 11:41
How would you leave that out of the story? That's like saying I had a major car accident. I was wrapped around a tree. I lived through it. And then I took four steps and was diagnosed with type one diabetes. That's Are you okay? Good. Yeah.

Mandy Morreale 11:54
You sure? Yes.

Scott Benner 11:58
Okay. I didn't mean like, Are you sure? Like you would know, but I just want to be sure. Like that's, that's okay. My goodness. So am I right to say then your your second husband passes away. brandies, father, and a number of weeks later, she's diagnosed. Is that all right.

Mandy Morreale 12:18
To make myself not sound terrible. I don't know if you can edit this. I wasn't married to him.

Scott Benner 12:23
I think that sounds terrible. I think there are a lot of women right now we're like, I wish I could say I wasn't married to the guy. I'm

Mandy Morreale 12:34
just brandies. Dad, he was not my husband.

Scott Benner 12:36
Gotcha. So you didn't have you weren't living with him or having like some major emotional connection to him. Okay. So, okay, I don't want to go deeper. Because I'm afraid I'm gonna ask you that you weren't that upset. You're gonna be like, yeah, I really wasn't that upset. And then um, then that will make you

Mandy Morreale 12:53
upset. Nobody wants anybody to die. And you don't want to see your child's father die? No, of course. Not. I, I could have been more upset. But I was not.

Scott Benner 13:02
Maybe you're finding me joking in all the wrong places. But I'm still amused for reasons that are hard to put together. But how was she? I mean, her father passed.

Mandy Morreale 13:12
She Oh, it was? No, I mean, they had a relationship. Yes. But not not a great relationship. So she she, she cried. Yeah. We laid in bed and cried for together for at least a day and a half and and then she kind of just bounced back. It was she's she goes to therapy for now. Because she she kind of processed it a little better and faster than you would think one would.

Scott Benner 13:40
So you want to make sure that it was really processed. Yeah. Yeah. See, you're a good mom. You're doubting yourself, you doubt yourself earlier, you're doing the right stuff. This may I might be coming out of left field be 100% wrong by this. Is there any chance that the shock of his passing was the trauma that threw her body into flux?

Mandy Morreale 14:01
So I was I didn't want to say that because I didn't want to seem like a crazy person. But like, I've always thought that I didn't because it came out of nowhere. And they say that no traumatic events can can cause that to happen. So I really don't know. I have to

Scott Benner 14:14
tell you, I've seen people develop like Hashimotos after like, traumatic, like months of their life, and stuff like that.

Mandy Morreale 14:23
And again, she was she was still tiny. Back then to no matter what.

Scott Benner 14:26
Yeah, but she couldn't have I as I say she couldn't have had it that long. Maybe she could have maybe it could have been spa sputtering Pancrase that was going on for I mean, you know, you hear some people are diagnosed super early, and they'll experience their honeymoon for years. Like who's to say you couldn't not be diagnosed and experienced that honeymoon for years? Yeah, you know, I'm goodness. I'm sorry. i That's a lot to go through. It's it's a It's brave of you to tell us I seriously appreciate it. Okay, so she's diagnosed and And how did they start their treatment off? I mean only three years ago like there's a hopeful part of me that's like they gave her a pumping a CGM in the hospital. But what happened?

Hey, let's not waste any time let's dig right in. You may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash go to Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box to find out. That's a free 30 days 112 A year of using an insulin pump on the free, cheap, zero cost to you. Are you kidding me? Do you hear what I'm saying? Check out the Omni pod dash Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. Now if you're saying to yourself, but Scott, I am waiting for that next big thing that's coming from Omni pod. I don't want to waste my time switching to the dash right now. And plus, what if I switch to the dash and then I can't upgrade to that other thing? Should it ever happen? Well, to that I say ha. Not a concern. Because there's no need to wait for the next big thing with the Omni pod promise. You can upgrade to Omni pods latest technologies for no additional cost as soon as they're available to you and covered by insurance. Now Terms and Conditions apply. But what I'm saying is go get yourself on the pod Dash. And if in a few weeks or months or what have you. On the pod happens to come out with something else and you want it you come up and you go Hello Omnipod you promised I could switch and they'll go okay. And then that's it. Do you see what I'm saying? There's no need to wait. And why would you want the Omni pod? Well, hmm, friends, it's a tubeless insulin pump. There's no tubing, it doesn't get caught on desk drawers, or doorknobs or hinges or cabinet handles. Or you don't have to take it off to take a shower, go swimming. And because you don't have to take it off. You won't forget to put it back on after you take a shower and your blood sugar won't get all crazy high. Hey, you spent all afternoon trying to get back down again. I know that happens with the Omnipod because it's tubeless no tubing. That's what tubeless means. Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox links in the show notes. Links at Juicebox Podcast comm go check out the insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing for over 13 years every day. You know what else she's been wearing for quite some time. As a matter of fact, I've just utilized it moments ago. That's right. I'm talking about the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. How did I use it most recently? Well, let me tell you a little story. Arden's blood sugar got a little sticky high because she needed a new pump. And she was dilly dallying around about changing it. So she changed it got her insulin delivery back to where we wanted it to be. And we had to break this 160s blood sugar, which we were a little aggressive about and did a wonderful job of bringing it down as a matter of fact, almost stopped it perfectly around 75 But it drifted under 70 Arden's out at a friend's house. She's not paying attention to her blood sugar because she's a child. So I got a little alert on my phone BPP and I said, Well, what is this? And I looked and Arden's blood sugar had gone below 70 And I sent her a text. Let me read it to you. It says carbs 10 Now, she says, and this is stunning. Her response. Okay, then you know what she did? She took him 10 carbs. And you know her blood sugar is now it is superduper amazingly stable 78 I can follow Arden's Dexcom with my iPhone. If I had an Android phone, I can follow up with that as well. Actually up to 10 people could follow her seeing her blood sugar in real time just as she can on her phone. And one day she'll grow up and check it for herself. But for today, I can see it dexcom.com forward slash juicebox support the sponsors support the show back to Mandy

Mandy Morreale 19:14
they did not know I took a couple days. So she was on the you know, like the IV drip or whatever, bring an insulin down to save number. And then we went home. This was nervous breakdown number two when they sent us home with all this stuff, and I have no idea what to do like with just you know blood glucose meter and pens.

Scott Benner 19:34
Yeah. When you say nervous breakdown do you mean like, like traditional psychological, like falling apart or screaming in a pillow in a closet? Like

Mandy Morreale 19:45
this one. I mean, and I'm not really even embarrassed to say this because I think other moms are going to feel me on this when we I'm holding her hand. We're walking out of the hospital to find our car and we couldn't find our car and we sit down on the ground from the hospital on the streets and local Kentucky, and I start crying like a crazy person nervous breakdown.

Scott Benner 20:06
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, I don't have all of that. But we stopped in the dining room of the hospital on the way out. And Arden had this little pizza, which I didn't know anything about diabetes, then Kelly didn't know we gave her, you know, a shot, and I think in our thigh, and then she just ate, you know, I didn't think about Pre-Bolus thing or like, I didn't understand any of that. And then she ate the food. And we went out to the car. And we were in the parking garage. And I thought it was right away. I guess my, my fear slash paranoia. In you know, the slash quizzical nature about Arden's health has always been there. Because I was it was only 45 minutes after we gave the injection and all I could think of is like what's her blood sugar now? Yeah, you know, and so I tested her with a meter in the car, which, you know, at this point, it's, you know, it's hard to remember back that far. But it was traumatic to have to poke her finger. And so you're doing that she's two years old. She just spent like four days, five days in the hospital. She's, you know, she looks dazed. And I tested her. And then I got the number. And I can tell you that I don't remember the number. I just remember wondering, Am I supposed to do something about this? And then feeling frozen, and then driving and wondering the entire time if her blood sugar was going up or down while we were driving around? So and you were on your way back to four children? Right? Yeah. And you're a single mom of four kids. Right? So that's yeah, I mean, my God, I might have, I might have been like, Hey, honey, stand here for a second. Mommy's gonna leave. When a policeman comes, just tell him that I got here. Okay. Let me get diabetes. And there's some kids at home, you might want to check in on I gotta go. But but instead of just overwhelming responsibility that you felt like you couldn't stand up to or?

Mandy Morreale 22:10
Yeah, I really didn't feel like. I mean, maybe they gave me enough information in the hospital, but I wasn't able to receive it as well as I should have. Or maybe they didn't give me enough information in the hospital. But I just didn't feel like I could do it.

Scott Benner 22:26
I don't I can't. I can't say that. I don't understand. You know, I completely understand. So what pulls you out of that in the buy the car?

Mandy Morreale 22:37
I'm dead call somebody to come get us. We know we did. We ended up yes, we found the car but not that j. So I came and got us. You know, we went home from there.

Scott Benner 22:46
No kidding. Oh, that's really something else. Did you have family come and kind of pile around you after that? Or how did you how did the first days go? At home?

Mandy Morreale 22:57
No, not really no. I don't really think that the family understood or still, to this day even understands how serious it is and how much work goes into it. So it's, it's really been I mean, I have healthiness. I don't know if any of my family is listening. I'm not talking about about anybody. But.

Scott Benner 23:17
But in that moment, there weren't people around. No, yeah, you don't even know what they asked for. I was asked. So we were on vacation with my wife's family. And so I was asked when Kelly and I were asked, like, you know, what would help? And I just said, like, can you clean our house for us and get all the laundry done? Like, like, can you just give me a blank slate at home? Like I don't, I don't want to go home and have to do the laundry and figure out diabetes like so. And it was, you know, hindsight, it. It was very helpful, but it wasn't that helpful. It was just always the only thing I could think of like, can you go take other responsibilities away from me, please?

Mandy Morreale 24:00
Yeah, because then nobody, in my opinion, nobody's ever gonna be able to take this responsibility from me like I can't. I can't even transfer it to somebody else. This is mine and mine only I don't trust anybody to to do it.

Scott Benner 24:13
Yeah. Honestly, many for the first two years. I was a poor imitation of a caregiver for somebody with type one. I didn't know what I was doing. And I was pretty bad at it. Her a one C pointed that out. I couldn't get a one c out of the middle eights. Honestly, I really didn't know what I was doing. And she was so small. And you know, she didn't weigh very much and she didn't eat very much. And the amount of insulin she needed was such a little bit and there was no pump and there was no CGM and I was just like, trying not to give her a seizure. Most of the time it felt like like that felt like one of my goals most days. It's crazy. Did something happen that got you over it? Or did you learn something that made the feeling Like how do you transition?

Mandy Morreale 25:03
Oh, you are what happened? You got me over.

Scott Benner 25:07
Hey, we help people

Mandy Morreale 25:08
to find you.

Scott Benner 25:11
Mandy tell people we didn't plan that answer first. Okay. We did not plan that answer. So you can trust her. So No kidding. Yeah. So you struggled for two years. I struggled for two years. Did you like to cry in the shower? That was my favorite place to cry?

Mandy Morreale 25:24
Yes. Oh, well, yes. Well, I don't like showers on a bath person. So I would put the bathtub in, soak and just have a nice cry.

Scott Benner 25:31
I used to like, late afternoon, my wife would come home and be like, I never got a chance to get a shower today. And then that was my that I would just turn on the radio in the shower and cry in the shower, and then come out and be like, I'm ready for the next half of this day. Yeah, that's terrible. So you found so what did I forget? It's me for a second, like, what was it that that helped

Mandy Morreale 25:58
with, I mean, learning to be to use insulin I was afraid of insulin for for two years, I was I thought 200 was safe. And that we should just, you know, go to bed at 200 You're fine. At least you're not gonna die in your sleep. You know,

Scott Benner 26:14
I have to tell you that I think that at the core, oh, I'm gonna cough excuse me. That somehow came on by surprise. And not a surprise at the same time that was on. I got like a warning. If I had a warning light, it would have went on like, you're going off in a minute. Like I was like, I'm gonna cough. But how it's here again, hola. So I owe everybody an explanation. I tried to take a vitamin while you were talking last time. And now I see that was a horrible mistake, although I've never once coughed after taking a vitamin. But I usually don't take a vitamin and then continue to talk to people. You know what, at this rate, fear is? To me at the core of what most people struggle with. It's the fear of insulin. It's just it's very difficult. It's what struck me. It's what I hear people talk about. And until you understand all of the myriad of things that can make that fear lesson, and fear, feel more, feel less. So the word I want. Like, it just happens, right? Like like that feeling that low blood sugars can just happen magically out of nowhere. Which is true for people when they don't know how to use their insulin until you can get to that spot where you get your settings, right. And you get your timing right. And you're like, wow, things happen that I expect now, even like low blood sugars, I can kind of see coming almost like my cough just now. Like, like, I'm like, I think this is going to end up with us having to intervene in two hours. Like, I could never have seen stuff like that before and, you know, much respected Dexcom for the product that they make, because that makes it all

Mandy Morreale 28:02
Dexcom I don't think I slept for the first six months until we got Dexcom.

Scott Benner 28:07
Yeah, I was talking to a family the other day. And I said, Can I text you later? And she's like, I don't sleep doesn't matter when. And she was well, she wasn't kidding, you know, and I felt terrible. So it's like a sick look here. Let me see if I can help you a little bit. And they're in a similar situation like really little kid. And so much of that management with tiny, younger newly diagnosed people is like feel. It's not a lot of like mathematical answers. You know what I mean? Like, it's a little more of like, you got to know when to zig and zag and stuff like that and kind of sucks. So did you find the pro tips or did you start listening through episodes?

Mandy Morreale 28:46
I just started listening through episodes. We, I told you this in the email, we were on a cruise, actually, with all the kids and brandy had been going crazy on the buffet eating whatever she wanted. And I'm trying to, you know, keep a rein on it. And then coming home from Florida driving back to Kentucky. I was actually I'm like, I'm a really big office fan. So I was looking for something to listen to. So I'm looking at podcasts because I heard they had podcasts. And I found you. And I mean 10 hours in the car like the kids hate the sound of your voice still to this day, because 10 hours in the car from Kentucky to Florida. That's all we listen to.

Scott Benner 29:21
Some more people I get married. They already hate the sound of my voice. They're well ahead of the of the of the desire for the job. Yeah, I can imagine there are I believe I joked about it online the other day, but I believe there are a lot of children all over the world that hate me. Because their parents are like listen to this. But that and that helped. So it wasn't like you were like were you putting it in practice in the car ride already? Or was it Yeah, absolutely.

Mandy Morreale 29:47
Yes. Yeah. Cuz like on the way down. She slept obviously. But she was sleeping at 250 300 because I was comfortable and she was safe and she been asleep and let it be on the way home and I discover you and Be bold with insulin. So um, you know, make the choice to do it. And if she goes too far, I'm gonna put a juice box in there, and we'll be okay. And she rides home and like at like 90 instead of 300. And then it's like, oh my god.

Scott Benner 30:12
Did that alleviate any of your anxiety? Or?

Mandy Morreale 30:16
Yes, yes, absolutely.

Scott Benner 30:18
That's excellent. Well, I'm glad for you. That is really cool. I have to, I have to admit, and I, I'm hoping this never stops. But I am mixed with like two different emotions. When people talk like this. I'm very happy. And I feel very good about the podcast and what it does. And at the same time, I still don't feel like it's hard for me to take the if there's a compliment in there as hard for me to take it. So

Mandy Morreale 30:47
definitely a compliment in there, we would be absolutely lost without you. I'm sure

Scott Benner 30:52
1000s of other people would be as well. Let's say 10s of 1000s 10s

Mandy Morreale 30:55
of 1000s. If I was gonna say millions, where I thought I was overshooting millions lost without you

Scott Benner 31:01
Yeah, millions is probably overshooting. But I mean, you know, I mean, there's, there's like, three, I don't want to say how many downloads there are, but there's over 3 million downloads. And I think we're gonna get to 4 million this year. But there's also, you know, you know, assume some people listen to 10 or 20 episodes, some people listen to all of them, you know, you don't know how many downloads is really a person. But what I can tell you is it's, that's a lot. You know what I mean? Like, that's, that's, this is a very niche podcast. And yeah, I mean, it's not diabetes, it's not type two diabetes is type one, you know, and then most people have to get over the idea that I don't have diabetes. And that's a leap for people. So like, when you really like, funnel it down to the people who are going to be willing to listen at the beginning. The expansiveness of the show only has to do with people listening, finding it valuable than telling somebody else about it. Otherwise, I could never, I wouldn't be able to grow the podcast on my own life. Yeah, so that's really cool. How about how about your daughter? Is she a different person today than she was a year ago?

Mandy Morreale 32:13
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I can definitely well, she's turned into you know, a teenager throughout this course. So she's been a teenager to be nice. But I can see the difference you know, when she's high, her attitude how it is, as opposed to when she's steady and normal and doing what we're supposed to be doing. She's she's a pretty cool person to hang out with. When she's had a normal blood sugar.

Scott Benner 32:41
Any any weird, like body aches or anything like that when she gets higher? Besides just the cranky stuff? Do you notice any physical stuff?

Mandy Morreale 32:48
Oh, no, she's not really ever mentioned any physical? Okay. I mean, maybe like a headache. She kind of just cranky and headache.

Scott Benner 32:55
Okay, no, I was just wondering, actually, give me a second, I got a text Arden, about taking some insulin.

Nothing exciting. It's just bumping the number. So make sure she gets it. How much of her management is she? Part of and how much? Are you? You guys? Do it as a team? Or how do you do it?

Mandy Morreale 33:24
We're starting to transition now. To her taking a more active role in it. Because at first it was all me because she was younger. And then it was all me because I want to control our budget or you on track. Right now we're to the point where I think you know, what are you going to do without me? So let's start teaching you what you need to do.

Scott Benner 33:43
Right? And she's picking it up.

Mandy Morreale 33:46
She is just we're having some issues because summers rolling around and she wants to wear shorts and shorts and belly to show in our shirts and she doesn't want to Dexcom stolen and things like that. So we're had a little bit of fights about that. But for the most part, she's she's taken control. Yeah.

Scott Benner 34:01
Oh, that's interesting. I don't have that. That specific issue with art. And she doesn't care if people see the stuff. But I know that it's a reality for for a lot of people. So she doesn't want people to see it. And what do you what do you do with it then? Well, the Dexcom you can kind of go hip? Yeah, right.

Mandy Morreale 34:21
She basically just throws her stomach in her arms. And we're having such a terrible rash. Right now, though, from Omni pod that she went off of Omnipod for about a month try to clear up our arms. But the numbers weren't as good. So we're back on it now.

Scott Benner 34:35
Have you looked at some of the ways that people make barriers for

Mandy Morreale 34:41
Yeah, we actually just found the skin tech barrier about two weeks ago.

Scott Benner 34:45
Good. Yeah, it's um it's a shame but medical tape causes rashes for some people sometimes and it's not ever. It's not like the first time you put it on always. It's not and sometimes it just doesn't happen to anybody ever. There are times of years where it doesn't bother Arden at all, there's times of year where like, she'll be a little red, when she pulls it off, she doesn't really get a rash anymore. We used to get, she used us to make sure I lay this out, right. She never had a problem, and then started to develop a problem. And then that led me to stop using alcohol to prepper sites. And then the problem went away. Okay, and that's been the extent of it. So I this is like 2012 Maybe. And, and I she had this redness under her pod. And I was like, literally standing thinking like, what is what is happening? And as I was standing, I was rubbing my fingers together. I don't know why. Exactly. Mad Scientist. And I noticed my fingers were dry. And I thought like, why are my fingers so dry? And then I thought, Well, I do touch alcohol all the time. And then somehow that led me to, um, drying out her skin and then sticking something over top of it. Yeah, I wonder if that's a problem. Then I did a little research online and found out that in Europe, type ones are not taught to clean sites with alcohol. Emily? Yeah, I was like, wow, okay. Oh, I'll try something different then. So now we just clean it with, you know, a mild soap. Sometimes just warm water to pay, like, you know, if Arden's got a shower at 11 o'clock, and we're putting a pot on at one o'clock. Um, I'm just making sure she's clean, and you know, a little warm water and a clean towel, let it dry, put it on. And that took care of it for her. I mean, some, some people have really bad adhesive allergies. I'm not saying

Mandy Morreale 36:41
you know that she used the skin to skin tech or a barrier or anything or you just

Scott Benner 36:45
never, we've never used that. So and we're not even gentle when we take them off. Like, you know, people like how do I get this off, so it doesn't hurt like we peel up a corner and I look her in the face. And she goes, go ahead, and I just put and we read them. Oh, wow. And she goes, Oh, and then it's over. That's some people's skin is so delicate that even just pulling it off quickly would cause a problem for them. But you never know. I mean, it's it's, you know, you feel very badly for people who have those allergies. I mean, very badly. It's not enough. Like I feel terrible for people who want to use these devices and can't. Yeah, but it's just, it's part of the game. You don't I mean, like, once you're in this world, that's one of the things that may or may not happen to you just kind of sucks. But I hope the barrier works for because I mean, obviously pumping is a little easier.

Mandy Morreale 37:36
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So far as you know, we haven't a stuttering so far. We haven't had any problems. Since we started using a barrier. Yeah.

Scott Benner 37:43
Oh, I'm glad. That's excellent. Arden not answering me. So this is all going great. I'm going to text again. I think she's in a class. I mean, if that's what we're calling it on a laptop in our room, I'm assuming ignoring what the person is saying. And she's on Instagram is what I'm guessing. I'm guessing. This is been a real? A real? I don't know. I feel like my daughter's lost a year of going to high school, basically, and I don't just mean the the process of being there. And the friends I mean, the learning.

Mandy Morreale 38:22
Yeah. My my boys had twin boys. They graduated last year. They were barely at school did all the pandemic they didn't get graduation.

Scott Benner 38:34
Did they still? What are they doing now? Are they working or going to college or?

Mandy Morreale 38:39
were undecided? One of them's working. The other one is in the basement.

Scott Benner 38:48
Oh, my son skipped this semester because of all this. And he was in my basement. He was lifting weights. But he was in the basement. Maybe we all have a kid in the basement at this point. That's funny. Yeah, I mean, listen to even to be honest, like starting school up. Now is I mean, if if somebody wanted to skip a freshman year right now, it makes sense to me. Like you're gonna go off to a place and say, sit in a dorm room and take classes from a dorm room on a laptop, you know, and a lot of places. So my son's got his fingers crossed that the fall is going to be better. And that's what I hope so. Yeah, that's what he's aiming for. So tell me some other things that you were hoping to talk about when you came on, because I don't want to miss anything.

Mandy Morreale 39:42
I'm going blank. I'm nervous for one.

Scott Benner 39:44
Are you really nervous? You're still nervous.

Mandy Morreale 39:47
I'm still nervous. I told you. I've been nervous for a week about this. Oh my god.

Scott Benner 39:51
I'm sorry. You should have told. Are you going to be nervous after we've recorded?

Mandy Morreale 39:56
No, no. I mean, I feel better. I'm just I'm just a little blank on I should have took notes.

Scott Benner 40:02
Don't worry, Hey, I can't I don't worry, I just want to I can do it. I just wanted to make sure that that wasn't the same thing that you wanted to do. It's funny. In the course of making the podcast, I have learned about anxiety and actually some other more serious mental issues, that when I record with somebody, I like to not give them as long of a lead time. And I like to get their episode up more quickly. Because I find that it can kind of weigh on them. If it's just the waiting weighs on them.

Mandy Morreale 40:33
I'll be okay in that regard. Okay, good. Take your

Scott Benner 40:35
time. Thanks. Because there's one I'm rushing out in a week or so because I just don't want to torture the person, you know, and just the waiting would torture them. Meanwhile, they episodes terrific, they did a great job. It's gonna be incredibly helpful for a lot of people. And so I just don't want to make a problem for them. That's interesting. Do any of the kids have anxiety?

Mandy Morreale 40:56
I suppose. Yeah. One of them does.

Scott Benner 40:59
Okay. And do you see yourself in him? Vice versa? Does that help you help him? Or does it help you help yourself?

Mandy Morreale 41:07
It does. Yeah, he was having a really hard time, one day last week, and I kind of just explained to him how I feel when I'm when I'm getting anxious and what helps me we went out for a drive and got some fast food and talk some things down and calmed him down. Yeah,

Scott Benner 41:20
that's good. I thought you're gonna tell me, I told him my, I like a little edible and takes care of everything. You don't say that on here. When you have four kids? I don't want life is coming for it. But But no, I, um, I. I wasn't. It's nice. So you just basically say, Look, this is how it happens to me. I understand. You might be feeling the same way. He felt comforted by that. Do you think he just wanted the cheeseburger?

Mandy Morreale 41:43
No, he felt comfort. I mean, I could tell a whole difference in his demeanor and the way he was. Yeah. That's excellent. So just knowing somebody else has it makes you feel like you're not so out of your own head.

Scott Benner 41:55
Yet, what does it feel like? Do you have an ability to describe that an angle? Like it's an unreasonable concern about something that you intellectually know you don't need to be concerned about? Right? Know,

Mandy Morreale 42:08
yeah, yeah, it's, um, a lot of times it happens to me at night, I'll just wake up in the middle of night, worried about something absolutely ridiculous. And I'll get to where I can't breathe. I my limbs start shaking, I've got to go take a bath. We actually just bought a hot tub. And that's, that's helping a lot. You find me out in the hot tub in the middle of the night trying to calm down, over over nonsense. There were things that I know aren't going to happen.

Scott Benner 42:33
While the body, what's the word I'm looking for? Hold on a second. I might have injured myself without vitamin C. I'm kidding. So while that thing is happening, while you're, you know, out of it, and limbs feel weak and shaking and and you're worried about something? Do you know? Like, are you sitting there thinking I know this isn't important. Or I know this isn't a problem, but I can't stop worrying about it. Or can you not even focus on the idea that this isn't important?

Mandy Morreale 43:07
I know that it's not important. And I know that there's nothing wrong. But usually what I'll do is, is I'll text all for the kids make sure everybody's okay, I'll check brandies, blood sugar, and then I start working on steps to call myself down from there. Because once I know that they're fine. Nothing else really matters. And I can start, you know, backtracking back to normal.

Scott Benner 43:26
Can I ask you in you might not know. But if I showed up at your house with a billion dollars, and I was like, here's what I'm gonna do. I want to put a private security guard on everybody you love. I'm gonna have three nurses on this kid with the diabetes. Everybody is safe. Here's all the money in the world you'll ever need to pay your bills and your house. You have no worries in the world. Would you just worry about something else? Absolutely. Okay. Okay, then suddenly, you'd be like, there's not enough fresh water on the planet and or

Mandy Morreale 43:52
Absolutely, yeah. Or die. Like I'm gonna die of something. That's that's what's got me currently, I don't have anything wrong with me. I'm perfectly great health, but I'm like, if something happens to me, what, who's gonna take care of brandy? How are the boys gonna be okay, they're not even going to college. What are

Scott Benner 44:07
they gonna do? Ah, Suki. Okay, well, that. May I Mandy, that's a reasonable concern. I think I mean, I worry about that. Okay. I mean, I have a little bit of a insurance policy set up for my kids. I mean, it's not going to carry them through their life or anything like that. And I still think like, the weight, but the way it occurs to me is, if something were to happen to me, I don't worry that they'd be okay. I feel disappointed that I didn't get to tell them everything I wanted to tell them and not about how I felt but about the things I feel like they need to know. Yeah. And then that makes me feel like I wouldn't have shaped them. And then in then it leaves you without wonderment of what's going to happen to the like, where are they going to go? Which I guess is no different than what you're saying? You're just you're thinking more from a safety perspective and I'm Thinking of it as a as like a course perspective?

Mandy Morreale 45:04
Yeah. You feel like it's almost happened to you like this Arden, can Arden do what you do?

Scott Benner 45:11
I think that if Arden would remember to Pre-Bolus I think she could swing a low six a one C. And I have told her in the past, and I know I don't know what she would do. But I've told her in the past. I said look hard. And I know a lot of people listen to the podcast, and it feels like it's a thing now. But it's for you. I'm like that podcast, like I know other people get something out of it. But it's I made it for you. It's for you. It. It's how to take care of yourself. It's a it's a living, breathing document that will explain how to take care of yourself. It is literally about you. When you hear me given explanation in an episode, it will be about you. And so you'll be able to hear that. And and know what I was thinking because I've I've explained it out in in clear, plain language. So much so that strangers can understand it. Yeah, but I said, but it wasn't for them. It's great that it works for them. This is this is this is the thing I'm leaving behind for now. Well, she listened. That's it's lovely. Unless she doesn't listen to Mandy and then what? Yeah, that is the podcast.

Mandy Morreale 46:24
That's a great way of thinking that's, that's really

Scott Benner 46:27
beautiful. Yeah, well, you know, what it is really is. I don't know if other people have this feeling. But I enjoy writing. I don't do it anymore. But I used to daydream about having enough time to sit down and write things out that I thought my kids would benefit from things, I was worried we wouldn't get to like something you'd think of. And you're like, Oh, that's not really till they're 20. But they were 10. You know what I mean? Like, I should write that down somewhere. And then I thought, even if I did that, he couldn't do that. First of all, like you can't live a life and write about a life at the same time, there's not enough time for that. And so I couldn't be their parent. At the same time, I was documenting what I wanted them to know, or I would miss out on the new stuff that I would need to figure out. To say to them later, I don't make sense or not. It's just not a reasonable idea to write down, uh you know, a manual for life. While you're living a life, like maybe I can get old one day and like, sit down and write all my thoughts down. But that won't be in time for my kids. And not anybody else's. Nobody else is going to be interested in what I think about raising your kids like that's, you know what I mean? Something like, well, that's not going to work. But the podcast and the blog, I mean, it's obviously it's, it's for Arden, you know, it's it's yeah, it's hers. So hopefully she'll use that to get back to your question. But I mean, if I was being realistic, based on the stories that I hear on this podcast, I would think that if I dropped dead, she'd revolt against this, or a one C would go up into the 10s. And hopefully, she would figure out that she doesn't want to live that way. And then listen to the podcast. That's what everybody else is that you hear come on here, right? Yeah. So there are people who panic and look for it right away and find it. And there are people who get put in your situation, don't really know any better, haven't been taught any better. And then just one day think to themselves, like there's got to be a better way than this. And then there's the people who get caught in that bad go and never get out of it. And I mean, there really only a couple of lanes you can fall into. So I don't know what would happen to her. I think watching her she would take care of herself. But you know, people like to come on here. And I don't know if you've ever heard them. It's the adults that I've typed one, they always asked me. So you're really good at this. But like, you know, what about your daughter? What about when she's by yourself? And if you listen to that question, sometimes it's people being concerned, and sometimes it's people going, it's not going to work, buddy, like go Yeah, that's what they think. And I don't know if it's gonna work or not. Like, I don't know who she is. You don't I mean, so. Yeah, who she's gonna end up being I hope, I think she could. I think if she listened to the podcast, she could do it well. And then she'll need to want to, yeah, so we'll say, I don't know. I you know, for everybody out there is looking for some. Some way to stop worrying about whether or not yours kid's gonna be the one that does a great job with it, or your kids gonna be the one who ignores it. Like there's I don't think you're in charge of that. Really? I think you just say the things and, you know, like I was talking about earlier, just say the things and hope that somebody picks up on it and does it. Yeah. I don't know. What do you think? Are you what you're worried about?

Mandy Morreale 49:55
Oh, yeah, I'm always worried about that. Like, I can see Brandi getting married in law. walking down the aisle and me being like, Oh, you need to dose. Like, I don't think I want to be able to let it go.

Scott Benner 50:08
Yeah, I mean,

Mandy Morreale 50:11
maybe she'll marry an endocrinologist or something, and I'll, I can let go of it. But I don't know what if

Scott Benner 50:17
she doesn't get one of the endocrinologist that really understands that.

Mandy Morreale 50:21
Maybe you know, our endocrinologist, we were just there last week, and she was a 5.8. And I was thrilled to death. Like I took her on a shopping spree thrilled to death. Yeah, but the doctor said have to Oh,

Scott Benner 50:31
yeah. I mean, I'm going to use a colloquialism here, Mandy.

Mandy Morreale 50:39
If you pretty much what I said, yeah,

Scott Benner 50:41
if you're a 5.8, and you're not experiencing prolonged or frequent lows, and your variability is good, meaning she's not 300 sometimes and 50. Sometimes, and that's not happening all the time. Then you came about your 5.8. Legitimately. Now if you've got, you know, overnight, she's 65 for 10 hours, then you have not come across your five eight legitimately. That makes sense.

Mandy Morreale 51:07
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. We got it legitimately. And they said the same thing.

Scott Benner 51:11
Yeah, then five, eight, hell, congratulations. That's amazing. By the way, how much of that is your anxiety? When driving, driving what you do? I mean,

Mandy Morreale 51:24
I'm probably all of it. Just because I mean, I wanted I wanted to be okay, you know, I don't want any type of prolonged damage. I don't want to think about any of that. I want to give her the best shot at taking care of this. Without me one day that I possibly can.

Scott Benner 51:38
Hey, if I was there, if you and I were married? How would I help you with your anxiety?

Mandy Morreale 51:44
I would have none. Because you're like one of the few this is what's so appealing to most moms about you is like you, you're a man, and you're taking control of this. And there's not a lot of guys out there that do that. Not a lot of husbands now a lot of dads out there that do that. That's what I think is why you're at almost 4 million downloads because all these moms like oh my god.

Scott Benner 52:07
Well, that's not what Okay, that was really kind and I appreciate it. But that wasn't what I was asking. So I love that. It was very nice that you said it. You made me blush. So what was your face? Forget me for a second. I said me just making? If, if, if? If there was a person living with you, an adult who is concerned for you? How does that person help you with anxiety? Like what would make your anxiety better?

Mandy Morreale 52:33
Oh, nothing. No, I'm remarried. And I have a person who cares for me and puts my anxiety up there and make sure that things are, are good and reassures me that there's nothing to worry about. But there still is things to worry about.

Scott Benner 52:48
You try ever like an Effexor or something like that to take the edge off the anxiety. Have you ever tried one of those things?

Mandy Morreale 52:54
I have in the past? Yeah, but I'm not really a big medicine type person. I don't really like the feeling after or if you if you miss a dose and you're jittery and things like that. Yeah,

Scott Benner 53:05
I gotcha. Yeah, I was just looking for ways that people could help. But there is no way to help. Right? Like, like, because common, like, common sense won't help. Rationality won't help. The truth won't help. And definitely me saying You Can you calm down won't help. So that makes it worse, does it? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny, because it's, it is, it is both completely invaluable. And the Absolute Truth, but there's no way to get to it. Like if you just calm down, there's no big deal here. You know, but and that's something you would say to somebody who's in control of that feeling. Anybody? Have you ever talked to your parents? Or Did anybody else struggle with this and your family line? Anxiety?

Mandy Morreale 53:52
No, not really. Um, I mean, my sister, my sister has the same issues that I do. But we were we were kind of raised by our grandparents. And now they don't have anything like that. No.

Scott Benner 54:03
Do you think it's something that gets instilled in you? Or do you think it's a a wiring thing?

Mandy Morreale 54:08
I think it's a wiring thing,

Scott Benner 54:10
you know? Yeah. Do you think it's possible that if somebody's got that wiring issue, and then they're in a more traumatic upbringing, that it just makes it worse? I do. Yeah. I can happen. Okay. Yeah.

Mandy Morreale 54:24
Like my son for example. He's got nothing to worry about. What are you having panic attacks about? You've got nothing going on? I take care of your every need to live in my basement for free. You got nothing to worry about? Why are you ever going to get taxes? Just think you're kind of just wired that way?

Scott Benner 54:39
You've never locked him in the basement, right? No, okay. Well, then I'm just gonna say cuz that would be concerning. If I was like, I might wake up and he won't let me out. No, no, you've never done that. Then I think it's fine. Never done that. No, I lived in the attic for years. Yeah, yeah. And a house we lived in it had this like this. A framed attic like he couldn't you can only walk in the middle of the room because The the sharpness of the ceiling, if that makes sense. But my my parents had like kids and I was like, there's not a lot of room in here for everybody as I go in the attic. I remember my dad saying it's cold up there. And I was like, I'll take a blanket. Like, I got to get the hell out of this to my little kids in my room. Yeah. Gotta go. Yeah, that's really something. I feel. Um, and I wonder if you get this from other people ever. Like, I want to give you a hug or help you? And I don't know how. And like, is that? Is that not insulting? But is that? Does that feel bad to you that that I feel that way? Are you? Or does that make you know? Somebody?

Mandy Morreale 55:52
Everybody feels that way. Everybody wants to help you when you're in that moment, but nobody really can. Your I mean, your podcasts? I swear, I know he's not paying me to say this. But gosh, you have absolutely changed my level of anxiety from a 10 to maybe a SAM probably at a five now just by knowing that brandies, okay?

Scott Benner 56:12
I'm gonna go downstairs and tell my wife this when we're done. And she's gonna lie, and tell me that I've put her anxiety to 15 so funny. Well, I'm very happy that that's the truth. And I'm, I'm happy for you. I wish I wish it was doing more. But um, but that seems like a lot actually. Like cutting it in half.

Mandy Morreale 56:35
Oh, yeah, most definitely.

Scott Benner 56:37
Well, I had a question. I don't know what my question is, I guess I guess let me jump to this. Would you move her to an algorithm? Like when Omni pod five comes out? If that could like manage lows, would you? Where would that feel too out of your control?

Mandy Morreale 56:58
So the endocrinologist actually was telling us about that. They were hoping for that by the end of the year. I think the the new one and it's supposed to coincide with Dexcom. My only concern with that is I mean, Dexcom is wonderful. I couldn't live without it. But what about what's wrong?

Scott Benner 57:15
Yeah, I mean, it oddly turns out to not be that big of a problem. So yeah, it's hard to hard to. I mean, I guess listen, if you were a person whose body chemistry just doesn't jive with CGM sensing technology, and you couldn't get it, you couldn't get a CGM to ever work well on you, then obviously, that wouldn't be okay. But if your blood sugar was 130, and it thought you were 140 or verse Vysa, that wouldn't be a problem. Yeah, that works fine. And you just have to pay attention to it a little bit, too. Yeah.

Mandy Morreale 57:48
I mean, we always Dexcom generally spot on. But like we have those times when you first put one on, and you're low alerts, but she's really 120. Things like that. Worry me a little bit.

Scott Benner 57:57
There's ways there's simple like, once you have it, there's simple ways to like manage that moment. And they only take a couple of seconds. It's it's, it's like anything else with this diabetes technology is that when you can't, when you don't know enough about it, you can't imagine what to do. And then the worst seems like it's the answer. And then for for you, that's probably twice as bad. Like not, not not being light hearted. But like for you, it's probably twice as bad. But it's just like any it is quite honestly, like anything else. Like if I said to you right now. Tomorrow, I need you to pack your car and drive five states away and visit a national park. Take your kids, I need you to take a bunch of pictures and I need you to be home in 36 hours. You'd be like, Oh my god, I can't do that. But the truth is, you could. And if you just did it, you do it. And and I think that's the same way with this stuff. Like you just you imagine everything that can go wrong. Like it's, it's, you know, like, what do you hear from people? Like, I don't want to get a pump? What if it malfunctions and kills me? Well, okay, I mean, I guess that's happened in the past, like a couple of times in the last 20 years. But like, that's not really a thing you worry about, you know, what if I don't know how to insert this? What if I don't know, everybody feels like that the beginning? Like everybody feels like that. Like the, the the secret to all of this that everybody should know is obvious is that in the beginning, when you're struggling, you're only struggling because you don't have enough experience yet. And, and, and are you struggling if you're alive, like it's not going as well as you want it to? The struggle is that you think it's never going to change? But it does. If you don't give up it changes. And so, you know, I when I talk to people, I don't say it on here very much, but because I don't have the same kinds of conversations on here that I do privately. But the truth is that the desire to do well is a large part of succeeding with type one diabetes. Yeah, in my mind, just the desire to do well like you you legitimately want To do well, that desire propels you through the bullshit. It gets you through the experiences, and it gets you out the other side. It's it's just like, it's like flying through a cloud for 10 miles, like, just keep going, and it'll break eventually, and you'll still be up there and you'll see it'll feel it'll feel better. But while you're in the cloud, you're like, Oh, my God, I'm gonna crash, we're gonna get lightning like, I'm gonna crash into a bird like, you know, like it, it feels like there's an endless possibility for what could go wrong. Yeah, you know, but the truth is, you know, get your Basal right. Pre-Bolus understand the different impacts of foods stay flexible. That's it really, you know, just have enough experiences where it starts to make sense. That's it. I mean, is that what you found?

Mandy Morreale 1:00:47
Absolutely. Yeah. Like I said in the beginning, like, it's never easy. You just learn how to do it.

Scott Benner 1:00:54
Okay. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Just terrible. A, it's just tough in the beginning. It just really, really is. I just hope everybody can know, like, I used to say online. I took a little flack for it years ago, because I think it was very outside of how people talked about diabetes. But I would say now I hear people say it, but I would say diabetes is hard. And it's never really going to get easy. But one day, you'll get so good at it, that it'll feel easy. Yeah, definitely. And that is, I mean, that's kind of all you can hope for in this scenario, right? Is that it just doesn't feel burdensome all the time. And you have to, you have to let it to you. There are too many people who like the drama, not just around diabetes, but everything. Like they, they, they like being upset, and they don't like it I I'm that's the wrong word. It's somehow comfortable for them. Like maybe they grew up in a house where there was always drama, where people were always yelling or things were always going wrong. Like we all know, people who are more comfortable when something's wrong, and when everything's good. And we and we all know people who when things are good, make problems, because they're more comfortable. When there's just, you know, a disaster going on around them. I think you have to let it get better. You don't I mean, you have to I don't know, I don't know what happens. I'm not a psychiatrist. But there's something about people like staying in the muck sometimes. And you got to let yourself get out. You got to realize like, I am much better at this than I think I am. i There's a person recently that begged me to look at their kids graph. They begged me and I looked at it. And I was like, this is a good graph. But I don't know what I make. What is it you're worried about? Well, look at this here. I mean, yeah, me could have done a better job with the Bolus, but it's like, it's not bad. You know, and I'm talking to him, and I'm like, this is you're really much better at this than you think you are. And she's like, do you think so? And I was like, Yeah, I mean, look, you know, like, this is obvious. And I think just somebody telling her that was enough for to like, go Okay, so I'm not struggling anymore. Like, I think she was so accustomed to struggling that she couldn't believe that she wasn't almost, I don't know, like, I really don't know, it's just I see enough people that it strikes me that that ends up being the truth. You know,

Mandy Morreale 1:03:23
I also think a lot of a lot of endocrinologist just aren't. They kind of just give you a cut and dry do this, do this, do this, do this, which is all wrong. And then when you go to them, and you're and you're wanting the pat on the back for 5.8, you don't get it? Right. So you kind of feel like you're doing something wrong when you're not.

Scott Benner 1:03:43
Oh, hell, the thing that happened to you is way too common. So you get a doctor who doesn't understand any of the stuff I just said Get your Basal right Pre-Bolus They don't understand that. They see a five eight they immediately believe that's because you're having a lot of lows, because there's no way you could have a five eight if you had type one diabetes is what they're gonna think. And so

Mandy Morreale 1:04:02
he wanted us to be in the seventh house like what?

Scott Benner 1:04:09
Yeah. So what did you tell her?

Mandy Morreale 1:04:15
I kind of just, we're at the philosophy now we're Brian, he wants to she doesn't even want to go to doctor with me because I smile and I shake my head and I let them make their adjustments and and then we go out to the parking lot now put it all right back where it was. Because

Scott Benner 1:04:29
just smile and wave boys just smile and the only part of that little cartoon movie I remember when my kids were younger, those penguins just like that big grin on their face in Madagascar. And they're just saying no, and the one penguins like just smile and wave boys. That's how I feel in that in that story. Listen, I guess I should probably tell people to listen to their doctors but you've got a five eight without a lot of lows. You know what you're doing? Yeah, I mean telling somebody to raise their a one see a point and a half. It just says to me that she the doctor believes wholeheartedly, you're going to have some crazy dangerous low, which by the way for most people might be true. But it isn't for you, you understand the bigger picture. Yeah. And what she should be doing is asking you how did you do this? Because you've got a Dexcom there she can see there's no lows, right? Like,

Mandy Morreale 1:05:26
yeah, I mean, I mean, there's a low here and there, but she's never steady, low or comment.

Scott Benner 1:05:32
What are you calling low as well?

Mandy Morreale 1:05:34
Oh, maybe like 50? Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:05:37
I see a 50 once in a while you Oh, geez. You know, like, and you fix it? You don't let them be 50 for an hour. You go no, no.

Mandy Morreale 1:05:44
And it used to like, if she got anywhere near 80. I would freak out. Because I thought oh my god, this is gonna be too low. But now 50 100 juicebox. You'll be alright.

Scott Benner 1:05:54
I had a lady tell me they treated 115 at their house. And I was like, what? And she goes well, I don't put my husband does and I was like I gotcha. But well, she's like, I'm trying to talk about it. But he's just scared. And I don't think the doctors any different. I guarantee you that doctor all day long sees people who either have incredibly high blood, a onesies are incredibly low. The ones with the low ones are low too much. And it's dangerous for them. And she just lumped you in with that without I wonder if How long have you had that good? Anyone say?

Mandy Morreale 1:06:26
Oh, we've since finding the podcast. We've come down from it. We were an eight. And then we were seven seven. I mean steadily come down all the way. She was something 6.8 This time for this one. Now we're five when

Scott Benner 1:06:39
I wonder if you if you do it a couple more times if the doctoral chill out.

Mandy Morreale 1:06:45
I hope so. Yeah. If not, we'll we'll fix it when we get to the car. You did? You didn't

Scott Benner 1:06:51
tell her I learned this on a podcast, right? I did not think she would have handled that. Well, some of them do. By the way. There are a lot of people listening right now who were referred by their doctors, which is really Yeah, very cool. I get to see. So I hear stories, first of all, and some doctors write me notes and stuff like that, which is great. But when people come into the private Facebook group for the podcast, it asked where you heard about the podcast. Funnily some people come in and don't know what the podcast is. They're like what podcast that one's that? That's what those are. People have heard the Facebook group. It's just a great group. But a lot of people say my doctor recommended it. Wow. Yeah. So it makes you feel

Mandy Morreale 1:07:29
I mean, life's that would change though. Like if, if when you get diagnosed, instead of making us watch these ridiculous videos and play with a teddy bear and practice injections.

They make you listen to pro tips, your pink panther would go home and have an idea of what to do.

Scott Benner 1:07:44
Yeah, no, I didn't mean to cut you off. But yeah, I just stupid joke. I want to say but I agree with you. I think good information sooner is beneficial. Yeah. And in a way that you can digest it and understand it. And I will listen, if I'll take credit for one thing. I think I know how to talk about this in a way that is understandable and not overwhelming. Definitely. Right. So maybe the doctor just can't do that. Maybe that doctor sitting in front of you knows everything that I know and doesn't know how to say it to you. That's completely possible. It's not everybody's good at the chitchat, you know? So. Yeah, that makes sense to me. That damn pimp did you get the Pink Panther book when she was dying?

Mandy Morreale 1:08:25
We did get the Pink Panther movie. We got the Rufus the teddy bear.

Scott Benner 1:08:29
That stuff didn't help. You know, that's surprising. I really thought a teddy bear was gonna help you get your Basal right. Listen to teddy bears. Nice. I'm not gonna say a teddy bear. It's not nice. But you know, no one. I don't know who in the world believes that a person gets diagnosed with type one diabetes and goes home and reads a manual about type one diabetes. I don't know who thinks that actually happens. Yeah, you know, I just I held on to that damn book for 10 years. Even after I didn't need it. I wouldn't throw it away. And then one day, I was like, What am I doing right in the trash? I never opened it once in a decade. Yeah.

Mandy Morreale 1:09:06
Ours were up on top of refrigerator until we moved. And then we throw it out when we move.

Scott Benner 1:09:10
And it's got that weird grease on it from the kitchen like, taco. I must make too much bacon. That's what I always think when I feel. I'm always like, we got to make less bacon is this grease is up here. It's weird. Anyway, I'll ask you again. Just to be careful. Is there anything we didn't talk about that you wanted to?

Mandy Morreale 1:09:30
Know? I think we got it all.

Scott Benner 1:09:31
Are you still nervous?

Mandy Morreale 1:09:33
No, I'm much better now.

Scott Benner 1:09:35
Everybody's always better at the end. Yeah, I am. I wonder sometimes if people listening can hear when people relax. Like I can tell when I'm talking to people when they calm down. And they kind of chill out. I can tell people who think they're not nervous but they are. They're interesting.

Mandy Morreale 1:09:51
They're just I sent my friend a video right before you clicked on and came on my hands. My hands were just trembling while I was waiting for you to click cool.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:59
Are you seeing Yes.

Mandy Morreale 1:10:00
Oh yeah, I was like, maybe he forgot. I don't know. And I was early anyway, but

Scott Benner 1:10:05
Well, you were early. So like I was hopefully this will make you laugh as we go. Ah, hold on a second, I have to tell Arden to close the loop and hold on a second. Don't Bolus

I was walking like I took care of my dogs beforehand. And then I move some laundry. And then I went to the bathroom and wash my hands. And then I was and as I was doing all that, I got a notice that you were in the zoom. Like, I get an I get a message. And I looked at the time and I still like oh, I still have like five minutes like this is about when I said I was gonna come on. And I was like, Oh, really, she's there, we can get started. So meanwhile, you're like texting fade. I hope nobody forgot. I'm just like, I'm sorry. I feel badly now. Like I felt bad. I was moving stuff to the dryer while you were like you were upset and your hands were shaking? Well, well, Mandy, listen, I have no power over anything in the world. But if I did, I would pray for you. And everybody else is anxiety to leave them alone. Because I've seen it. I've seen it mess with people. And I know it's not nice. So I wish I wish you well. Thank you. Yeah. And I mean, just calm down. Okay. Why don't you just calm down? Has anybody ever said that to you? Like,

Mandy Morreale 1:11:31
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's great. Why don't you just go away? Leave me alone? Yeah, I will.

Scott Benner 1:11:38
Oh, I see, man. He's like, Look, you might not be the cause of my anxiety. But Joey making it much better. So you get to leave. I seriously, I hope people who don't have it can can't believe how how impactful it is. It's not good. So thank you very much. Would you hold on for one second? I've hit record again. I meant to do that. I meant to do this. And I didn't do it in the thing. So at the very beginning of our recording, I said to Andy, I'm having you on because I have a very good feeling about you. But Mandy sells books about type one diabetes, and I don't let people on here to sell things that I can't be sure of. But I was really sure about you Mandy, and over the last hour, you you more than proved out what I thought who I thought you are. So just very quickly. You're on Instagram. What's your handle on Instagram?

Mandy Morreale 1:12:33
Cranky panky books and we have a website cranky panky calm.

Scott Benner 1:12:37
How did you start doing that?

Mandy Morreale 1:12:40
Um, well, because I couldn't find anything that I really liked for brandy book wise. So I wrote my own illustrated my own. And then from there, I kind of built it up. And I think we've got about 11 type one books right now. And we're doing them for other authors.

Scott Benner 1:12:56
That's it's gone. Well, that's really great. And so tell me again, Cranky panky books calm,

Mandy Morreale 1:13:03
just cranky. panky.com. But on Instagram, we're cranky. Thank you books.

Scott Benner 1:13:07
Got it. Okay, so people should go check it out. And just while Mandy's still here, and we're finishing up, I take my responsibility, like very seriously about. I'm not a gatekeeper. But you would maybe or not, maybe maybe you wouldn't be surprised about how many people every day tried to get on this podcast. And a great number of them want to sell you something. And so I have to be incredibly careful about that. And I say no to a lot of people who want to come on the show. So understandable. Yeah, but you I just didn't think that's who you are. And I was like, I'm gonna take a flyer on this one here. I'm going to try and you more than proof to prove me right. And so I wanted to take a moment here at the end and tell people to check out and see what they think. Well,

Mandy Morreale 1:13:53
thank you know, appreciate it.

Scott Benner 1:13:55
Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for listening to the program. Thank you, Mandy, for being so honest. Thank you, Dexcom and Alibaba for sponsoring the show. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. dexcom.com Ford slash juice box Get started today with that Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. Peace of mind is but a few clicks away. And don't forget that Omni pod promise you get started right now with Omni pod at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Maybe you're eligible for a free 30 day supply of the Omni pod Dash. And last I want to remind you to go to the T one D exchange T one D exchange.org forward slash juice box. Fill out the survey support people living with type one diabetes. It's incredibly quick and simple to do and it benefits people just like you people living with type one diabetes. I want to thank you so much for listening and for supporting the show. October was just Another record month per downloads and that is completely because of you and your willingness to share the Juicebox Podcast with other people. It grows every month. I'm looking at statistics from 2021. It has not just grown every month but leapt leaped, leaped from where it was in January and where it was in January. I was thrilled with so where it is now is bonkers. All because of you sharing the show is maybe the kindest thing you can do. Thank you so much. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#569 I Want To Ride My Bicycle

I want to ride my bike. Corey rides a lot of bicycles.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 569 of the Juicebox Podcast

on today's show I'll be speaking with Corey, he's an adult living with type one diabetes who enjoys riding bicycles, both indoors and outdoors. We're going to be talking about that and a lot more. I for one can't wait to find out how he doesn't run to a walk. I mean, how do you ride a bike inside? How do you stop yourself from seeing the Queen song bicycle every time somebody says bicycle

while you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Please Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin.

How would you like to meet over 16,000 people just like you, you can at the Juicebox Podcast, private Facebook group. It's the most unlike Facebook group on Facebook that you'll ever see. doesn't even feel like you're on Facebook. It feels like your home Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes

this show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo penne Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. This episode of the podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one, please head to touched by type one.org To learn more about them and to get tickets for their 2021 dancing for diabetes program which I'll tell you more about a little later on.

Corey 2:01
Thanks for having me on Scott. My name is Cory Weibel. I'm a type one diabetic have been since since 1997. I'm really just kind of a triathlete. I have competed in multiple Iron Man's, you know, 70 point threes a lot of different triathlons. And, you know, with the pandemic, you know, we were inside, I really haven't been out much I haven't raced in about a year and a half and, you know, just stumbled on, you know, this team type one on Swift. And it's really become kind of my home away from home, you know, being being able to ride indoors on the trainer and still train for races that I hope happened in 2021. But really, it's just become a community of people that are are kinda like family now, you know, that we ride, you know, sometimes four or five days a week with and race. I raced twice a week, usually every week. So it's, you know, it's it's become like a family like atmosphere, based out of Facebook and a virtual world where my avatar? Hopefully it looks something like me.

Scott Benner 3:08
You've said a number of things that have made me think of a lot of questions. So that's good. So you've had type one for almost a quarter of a century. Yeah. Okay. And I'm interested in how long you've been not just racing on bikes, but doing triathlons. Specifically, how old are you two?

Corey 3:26
I'm 35. About to be 36.

Scott Benner 3:29
Oh, you were diagnosed when you were like five, six years old?

Corey 3:32
I was junior high school. Excuse

Scott Benner 3:34
me. Yeah, by my math, it's terrible. But junior high. So you've lived through it. Like you've come up through a couple of different segments of life with type one. But when did you start doing triathlons.

Corey 3:48
So I moved back. So I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I moved away after college. And I was just looking, I had gained some weight. And I was up to as much as 250 255 pounds. And I'm like, I gotta figure something out. Like because

Scott Benner 4:03
you're not my number. You talk. What's that? You're because you're not seven feet tall?

Corey 4:07
Yeah, so I'm six feet like I'm an average dude. I mean, my shoulders are built. I have pretty wide shoulders. So I hold weight pretty well. But like, in my mind, I knew like, I can't live like this. You

Scott Benner 4:19
can I can. I

can. I don't know. I mean, we'll talk. I've interesting questions about that. I think we'll see if everyone else thinks they're interesting. 50 to 55 on a six foot frame. When did you start thinking oh, cuz I know what you mean about being kind of broader in some places and you feel like you carry weight better and so it gives you that false sense of you're okay, like, what way do you start thinking like, This is tip in the wrong way for me?

Corey 4:45
Well, I started just getting into running and I would my gym. I lived in Wisconsin at the time and the gym I lived at was, you know, a half mile down the road so I could run there, do my workout run back home after work. And I just started weighing myself like once or twice a week, and I got on there. And I was like, man, like, this is a lot more than I thought. And when I moved to Wisconsin, I kinda, you know, I had to find an apartment to live in. So, you know, for like, a month, a month and a half, it was, hey, you know, you don't have a kitchen. It's it's fast food. And then I worked in college athletics. So I was I was working 7080 hours a week, some week, I was traveling a lot. And when you're traveling, you know, you stop at McDonald's, and you eat. And so I had put on the way and then there was just that when I finally got settled down, and, you know, stepped on the scale. I'm like, Man, this is this is too much because I played college baseball on a division to school. And I was never a light person. But you know, I played around 200. So 200 to 215. And I just knew that, you know, being up that high, even though my a one C was pretty decent. It was something that obviously wasn't going to be sustainable.

Scott Benner 6:09
Were you a first baseman,

Corey 6:11
I was a catcher.

Scott Benner 6:12
Your catcher was gonna be my next question. Interesting. Okay. So when you were on the road working in athletics, you were recruiting, I imagine?

Corey 6:21
No, so I worked as a sports information director or director of media and information for a division three conference. So I would go to like all the conference championships handle all the media for that stuff. So yeah, it was going from where I lived in Wisconsin, sometimes to Iowa or Illinois, and then traveling again in the same weekend, so it was a lot of a lot of car hours.

Scott Benner 6:46
It's terrible. Yeah, it

Corey 6:48
was awful.

Scott Benner 6:49
It's it's always interesting to me that the people who are sometimes around very athletic people, because of the effort they're putting into it, but not doing the movements that the the people that are around us that they their their health does suffer for that they're very sedentary, you know, watching other people be athletic. I guess it's a Yeah, it's a weird, it's weird to be that close to it and not involved in it.

Corey 7:12
Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 7:13
So So you see, you're running your run off to the gym, you're working out you're losing weight, I imagine. And this This, to me is very interesting, because I'm assuming this leads into doing triathlon somehow you meet some lunatics in a gym, and they're like, You know what we do? And you're like, I'll do that was it?

Corey 7:31
Actually, it's really weird because I, I don't have any like real life friends that do this. I had just the the school that I worked out of, it's called Ripon College. They had a lot. They had like a bike share program. And I was like, Oh, that's interesting. And actually, a friend of a friend was doing an Ironman, when I was moving back home. And I'm like, Hey, like, that looks interesting. Because to be honest, at the time, like, I'm a decent swimmer. But it wasn't something I was passionate about. I'm an okay runner, but it's not something I'm passionate about. And at the time, like riding bikes is okay. But it wasn't something I was passionate about. So, in my mind, I thought, hey, like, I can switch things up through this one event, and not be totally bored by everything. So that's kind of the way I got into it. And the friend of a friend that did an Ironman, he kind of, you know, that motivated me to get into it. He didn't continue to do it. So, you know, once I started, I just kind of fell in love with the competition portion of it. You know, at Seton Hill, I played baseball in college and, and we were really good. We actually went, went to the World Series one year, you know, I just needed that itch to be scratched. And I'm a pretty self motivated person. So doing all of this by myself really wasn't a big deal. So it just kind of was like a perfect storm of everything that came together

Scott Benner 9:05
to do you kind of found a way to reignite your competitive. Yeah, heart of Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Did you ever hear you ever hear Mike Tyson tell that story about how he got out of shape? Yeah, he says that, um, that the the competitive part of him is a monster, and he can't if he couldn't feed it at all. And if he would, he said he knew it would. It would just overwhelm his life. And one day, his wife kind of just, you know, gave him a little ribbing about how he was looking. And then a year and a half later, he's in the ring fighting again. He said,

Corey 9:40
Yeah, and yeah, it's kind of like that. Because I know that like, when I when I'm training, like I need to take like taking time off isn't bad. And I struggle with that. Like, if I take a day off in a month, like, I feel awful about myself, like, oh, I can't be getting better because I'm taking taking time off, and my wife is always like, Cory, you need to like, take a day or two and just like enjoy yourself, like, you can't just run yourself into the ground. But what do I do? I run myself into the ground every couple of months, and I have to take a couple days off. And then I realize, hey, yeah, I probably should have taken this day off. And it's a constant trouble because I have that competitive nature. Like, I always want to be getting better and finding that little bit of gain.

Scott Benner 10:26
Right? Well, so Cory, we're not gonna talk about your mental illness today, we're gonna stick on it. So although it would be interesting, I, I guess the the thing that that kind of interests me the most about you, is the possibilities of what you're about to say, based on what I've heard from other people. And let me tell you what I mean, by that. I have found at times that the more athletic people who have type one diabetes, seemed to know the least about it. And I know that's gonna sound crazy. And I'm sure there are plenty of athletic people who are like, I know a lot about my babies, and I'm sure you do. I'm just saying that there are times I talked to people who have done something in college, where they've been around like scenarios where they feel like the diabetes can't get in the way. So it's always a little better high than low or something like that. Yeah. And then you talk to them about, like, what's your ID once again, they're like, that's like seven and a half. And we're like, oh, have you ever considered like any, you start talking about diabetes management with them, and you realize, like, they don't know anything about this? Yeah. And and it's not always, but it has happened enough to me that it feels like a pattern to me. And then they do these amazing things. And I don't want to out this person, because he's lovely. But I was around a person one time who had done this kind of big thing around athletics, right. And I asked personally, like, how did you manage your blood sugar during that? And he said, I just ate a lot of candy bars. I'm like, wait, what? So are you telling me that you just went out and did this incredibly long range physical thing? And then on some sort of a scheduled devour to candy bar? Yeah. And he's like, Yeah, that's what I did. I was like, Oh, well, that doesn't feel like something I can tell people.

Corey 12:17
Right, exactly. That's not the message, right?

Scott Benner 12:20
And so because you've lived through a couple of generations of technology, I want to understand where you started with your management, where you are now and how that's maybe changed or informed what you're doing or if it hasn't, maybe, yeah, maybe, maybe, Cory, you're about to tell me you eat a lot of candy bars while you ride a bike. But, um, but go ahead.

Corey 12:37
Yeah, so I mean, obviously, when I first started 97, it was it was shots into the side. And it was, it was hard. And back then, I'll never forget my doctor when I was in the hospital, which I was in the hospital over Thanksgiving. Um, I do not recommend that it was as like a 14 or 15 year old person who Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday. It was absolutely miserable. Um, but I'll never forget the doctor when I was just kind of like trying to understand what diabetes was saying, Oh, yeah. And 10 years, they're thinking there'll be a cure. And, you know, I sit back now and think about that. And I'm like, man, like, that was way off. But you know, with with stuff like, you know, insulin pumps and CGM. It's, it makes a drastic difference. I know whenever I got my, my pump in my CGM, my Avon see dropped by like a point and a half just by not doing anything. And it really opened my eyes to like, how better management just in a simple sense of changing from sticking shots in myself to, you know, putting, uh, putting an insulin pump on can can really make a difference. And then it was just, you know, making those tweaks with my doctor, um, you know, every visit it might not have been a huge tweak, but, um, you know, it just seeing the numbers and not expecting drastic changes, you know, if I can go down from personally, I like to keep my a one C between like six, eight and seven Oh, and my doctor and I are pretty happy if that's where I'm at. But, you know, if it's like a six, seven, you know, it can fluctuate by point one and to me, that's a big deal and the attention to detail and trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work and just the information you can get from the pump. I know I typically can have some lows whenever I work out it during the day, so from between lunch and dinner, um, so I will let my my levels run a little bit high if I'm going to be riding, you know, in a race after work. That I know it's going to plummet right away. And I can take gels or you know, some carbs pre ride to kind of smooth that out. But it was a tough learning process. It's it really has been trial and error, and just finding out what works best for my body because, you know, talking to other, you know, diabetics that that are athletes, something's worked for one person, and then the next person's like, No, I can't do that. So, trial and error, kinda, to a point has been kind of where I'm at now in terms of trying to figure out how to do things if I'm doing a longer event. So probably about a month ago, I did a six or a six and a half hour ride. And I, I went in with a plan of what I wanted to do, of what I wanted to eat, and when I wanted to eat it, and I was in zone for almost the entire six hours, what zone, try to keep, so I try to keep it. I try to keep it around 180 or below. So I try to if I'm racing 120 to 180 is perfect if I'm but

Scott Benner 16:10
if you don't what happens,

Corey 16:14
try to figure it out on the fly.

Scott Benner 16:16
I mean, I mean, what, what mechanically happened, say, say you started race at 140? Would you get too low at some point?

Corey 16:26
It's a possibility. Yeah. So, you know, if I go out and run, let's say, I'm going out for a run after work today. I could no lie be at 330 at the start of the run, and 30 minutes later, I have an alert going off, and I'm down in any with no insulin on board.

Scott Benner 16:48
Can I ask you a question? Let me ask a question here. And it's the the answer. I don't care one way or the other. You don't listen to this podcast frequently. Right?

Corey 16:56
I occasionally not not consistent I

Scott Benner 16:59
consistently Yeah. So I want to, if I can for a second, I want to agree and disagree with you at the same time. But it'll be a lot of fun. And I'm sure a ton of fun for you having diabetes for 25 years and me not having it. I'm certain you're going to be thrilled by this conversation. But I expect you understand it's coming from a good place. So yeah, absolutely. So I would say that I believe and I have seen it happen over and over again 1000s of times enough to believe it. That if a person is using a really rock solid Basal insulin, meaning that they're their ratios are good and that they work and by work I mean, I mean, I guess what I what I mean is that you could not have food for 568 10 hours and your blood sugar doesn't fall if your Basal is in that space. And you have a good feeling for how to Bolus from meals Pre-Bolus Singh, you know, not creating situations where there's leftover insulin after the foods digested stuff like that. Yep, that if you go into something physical that and you don't have any active insulin going, I can't imagine you dropping that far. Like, I believe that you drop a person, not you, but a person can drop the three hundreds to 80 with a lot of activity, because you're activating the insulin that's in your body. Yeah, right. Right. And that kind of thing. And, again, I don't know what you're doing, like I might be talking about, like, one level of activity, and you might be carrying a boulder up a mountain. Like, I'm not I'm not saying that. You know what I mean? Yeah. But there's there is some balance to be found in there. And God, this is probably not what you expected. But a lot of type ones who have had diabetes for over 20 years that had it for so long before the technology existed. I feel like they're chasing more than they need to be. Yeah. And does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Okay. And I just think it gets hardwired into you at some point, like that idea of like, oh, when I'm active, I drop. Or when I do this, this happens. And you said something earlier that sparked this whole thought in me. But you're so good at telling your story. I couldn't jump in anywhere. But you said that some people have one experience, while other type ones have a completely different experience. And we take that as like, gospel for some gospel. Yeah, people have these anecdotal like experiences. And then one person will say, Well, I can do this and the other person will go well, I can't that doesn't work for me, except we don't have any background on either of these people do want right is one of them using significantly too much Basal insulin and hardly any Bolus insulin is one of them, you know, is one of their Basal insulins like being significantly underused and so they're bolusing constantly and they're dropping thing all the time. Nobody knows how to talk about it. granularly and so that a lot of their experiences and I know this, just speaking about management, and maybe taking it out of diabetes in general, but a lot of times people's experiences aren't that valuable to know. Because you don't know the other details surrounding them.

Corey 20:19
If that makes Yes. Okay. Yeah, you just know a small percentage.

Scott Benner 20:23
It's not enough to know if they're right. It's like anything else. Like there's, you know, any new story you see or a story your neighbor tells you, like, Oh, my God, the guy two doors over what a jerk bla bla bla bla bla, you go talk to the guy two years ago, he parked his car on my lawn, you know? Like really goes? Yeah, I mean, I come out and his cars parked in my honest Hey, can you move the car? And I'm talking to the neighbor. He's like, hey, it's always upset with where my car is? And I'm like, Yes, we don't have enough of this story here. And yeah, right happens. So often, when we're talking about diabetes, it's the, oh, this is a certainty or this happens to me, and then people share it online. And then suddenly, they think it's a rule. And yeah, that to me is, I think that's sometimes how we get where we are, which is that is that it's just anecdotes built on top of anecdotes that then make rolls in people's heads that they believe are true. And then their self fulfilling prophecies sometimes, and I'm not saying it activity doesn't make your blood sugar fall, obviously, obviously, you know, high level looking at it. That's what happens. And I don't have any reason for saying that to you. Other than I just wanted to say like, I'm not like, you should change your life, Cory? Oh,

Corey 21:33
no, no, no, it's okay. And to be honest, probably probably part of it plays in it is, I mean, it's scary as hell whenever, you know, I'm out on a especially on a run when I'm away from home. Yeah. And I think, hey, you know, this has happened to me in the past, because, you know, I could do you know, when I wake up in the morning, and maybe do a morning ride that I'm fasted, I could I don't drop it all. Yeah. But it's, it's the mid day stuff. And the the post work stuff where I bet I've had zero onboard insulin. And, you know, I haven't eaten in, you know, three or four hours, and I'm just tanking, and I've gone to my doctor, and I've taken examples, like from my pump and showed it, and I'm begging I'm like, someone, like, helped me understand this, because I'm trying to understand it. But you know, am I missing something? Am I too close to it? And I've been trying for, you know, a couple years to try and figure it out. Because it's a scary thing. If I'm, you know, a couple miles away from home, and, you know, I'm tanking, and I'm 50. And no one's around like,

Scott Benner 22:45
it feels to die all by yourself. Yeah. Out Run around, right. Well, I'm, yeah, scary. Obviously, I don't have context for that. And I'm not I'm not minimizing at all, I would say there are sometimes there are things that you don't think to think of like, like end of the day, when the end of the day when people's blood sugar's fall, like after work, which I think is fairly common, right? Yeah. Because I've been able to watch it in another person. What I will tell you is, is that being alive creates a level of stress and anxiety that no one's aware of. And I mean, being out in the world being at school being at work driving, and that requires more insulin. And so you have this bigger baseline, this heavier baseline events on that lives in you all day long. While this is existing, and you maybe it's adrenaline from like, having a crappy boss, or like, I don't know, like, you know what I mean? Like, somebody yelled at you all day, and then you leave that place, and you experience this, like, Oh, I'm out of there. And then all that goes away. And again, you have too much insulin in you when that happens. Yeah, and then there you go. I had to, I learned when my daughter was in school, that I'd have to keep pushing to keep her blood sugar where it was pushing with insulin, but that there was a moment in the afternoon that she had to eat, or that we had to create a Temp Basal that was that was completely void. It was gone. In order to create an inquiry This is because you don't listen too much. So like what I would, my thought would be this. She's going to get low. Excuse me, I'm sorry, at 3pm Yeah, there's an amount of carbs she could eat at 232 40 that would stop the low at 3pm from ever happening. Yeah, or we could completely eliminate or Basal from like, why I forget how I used to do it, but probably about from like 150 to three o'clock. So you take the Basal away for about an hour or so. Yeah, and then it creates a black hole in the future where the Basal doesn't exist. And so when the low comes and it tries the fall, normally it would be propelled by the existing Basal but in Then it gets caught by the sheer fact that there's no Basal that exists. Yeah, there's nothing there. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's trippy to think about it that way for some people but you it is it's like time travel. Like I always say that the the insulin you use now is for later. But a more specific way to think about it is that the insulin you used before it is for now. So right similarly the insulin that you took away before impacts now the same way. And yeah, and that kind of stuff is listen, I'm gonna be honest, I'm a person who cares about a child who has nothing but time to like, look at these things and then figure out little ways to manipulate insulin to make it work an adult try. I'm sure you have like a wife and a home. Yep, might have a baby a baby a baby on the way rationalizations. Yeah. And like so you're busy. You're not sitting around like I am pulling on your your mustache going. I wonder, yeah. It's hard for people. It's why you go to the doctor, you say, Please help me. And they go. I don't know, you get low in the afternoon? Yeah, yes. Thanks a lot.

Corey 26:05
Yeah, it's frustrating, because I would like to Toy what toy was some stuff, but, you know, it's a scary thing. You know, when you get I've never had to go to the hospital because of a low or anything. But, you know, my wife's had to help me, you know, overnight, you know, you know, she's had to help me once or twice overnight. And, you know, it's, it's terrifying. And it's tough to explain, because, you know, people just, I don't want to say they don't understand, but it's just something that's, it's hard to articulate. Um, and you can't, because my wife will look at me and, you know, she'll see, you know, I'll tell her, I'm low. And she goes, Well, how do you feel like she asked me about a month ago, like, how do you feel like, what does it feel like? And I tried to tell her, I'm like, You're never going to understand like, I love you more than anything in the entire world. But like, you'll I could never articulate that to you, a friend

Scott Benner 27:02
of mine. And you said that it feels like her mind is racing, but her body's going very slow.

Corey 27:07
Yeah, exactly. Okay. Um, and there's just no good way to explain it. Like I wish I could but unless you have type one like you, you just even even she asked like, I know when my blood sugar's going high. Like I feel that she said, What does it feel like? And I'm like, I can't explain it to you like, I can try but like, it won't even come close to like, what I feel and how it is

Scott Benner 27:32
Cory. I listen for a person who does not have diabetes at all. I am in and around it as much as anybody and I have 1000s of hours of talking to people that have both been recorded and haven't been recorded. I've heard people say a million different things. My daughter has type one diabetes I've seen adults and children below and adults and children be high and I still have zero context for what it means yeah to you.

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I could never possibly understand it because it's you're altered. You don't I mean like your your your brain is not functioning correctly and therefore all the feedback you're getting is skewed and wrong and not something people are used to seeing. It's like trying to describe being high to somebody who's never been high before. Like, what does that feel? Yeah, you know, it's the amount drugs. They're not bloodshed. Right,

Corey 30:09
right. Yeah, I got Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:12
I know, man, I went to college calm down. But But no, I get what you're saying. And I get your concerns. I and I and maybe, and maybe there's no answer for people who have had to live this long without the technology, like maybe there is no answer maybe that fear is just so grained in and well earned, by the way that you just don't want to break free of it. But I will say something, I don't think a one C is the measure of your health. I think that limiting variable variability of your high and low blood sugars is a good measurement. But a one season indicator, I would say to you that there are about 25 episodes of this podcast that are specifically maintenance. If you listen through them, I imagine your a one C would be in the fives inside of six months, and you would experience fewer lows while you were exercising. Okay, that's that is my guess, based on what I've seen happen to many, many other people and the responses you're giving me the thoughtfulness you have around diabetes. So yeah, you don't need to do that. I'm just saying that. I I know people who have competed in the Olympics that are doing strenuous things like very strenuous long term things and their blood sugar's don't fall while they're competing. Right? You know, and it's yeah, that kind of balance that I'm talking about. But that's not the point you I place a couple shows about this. You do something that I don't, I can't wrap my brain around. So like a triathlon includes bike swimming and running.

Corey 31:48
Yep, yeah, you swim, then you bike, and then you run?

Scott Benner 31:52
What if I told you I didn't plan on doing all three of those things in the rest of my life, let alone on the same day?

Corey 31:58
What when, when I first told my friends, I was doing it, that's the exact same thing. They said to me.

Scott Benner 32:03
That's my honest answer. That's why oh, that sounds horrible. When you said you run to the gym, I was like, kind of a insane person. And then I thought, Well, that makes total sense. Yeah, yeah. No, no. Um, so what is it? How do you prep for it? Like, and how, and what is the day like, when you're in a triathlon prior to COVID?

Corey 32:23
Yeah, prior to COVID. I mean, it's, you know, you, you set out a plan, and you, you know, it's kind of like diabetes, you, you know, you set out a plan to be as successful as possible, and you stick to that plan, you know, you deviate when you need to, usually, I work with a coach. So usually I have a plan, set up, you know, one to two weeks in advance, I take a look at it based on my life schedule, if I need to, you know, swap something out here, there. But, you know, it's usually getting to the pool two or three days a week, I'm running three or four days a week, and then, you know, biking, you know, right now I'm biking five or six days a week. Um, you know, a lot of times, that's, hey, I have to get up before work and do one of the workouts, maybe do one at lunch, or if I can't do one of those times, it's after work. And then on the weekends, obviously, it's, you know, there's more time to do some things. So that's whenever I would get in, you know, a longer run or a longer bike, but um, you know, a lot of time management and just trying to fit something in when there's some time in the work schedule. And in the personal life schedule.

Scott Benner 33:34
It is that that time is spent despite sound like such a simple question, but you're building muscular, like, look for words, but you're building your body in ways that it'll be able to do these things. You're building up a resilience to it, and you're growing towards a longer distance.

Corey 33:55
Yep. Correct. And there is some some short burst stuff sprinkled in there. But yeah, it's mostly an endurance, endurance workout.

Scott Benner 34:05
While I'm not asking you exactly where you work, what kind of work do you do that you have? Like, I'm, I'm fascinated that you have the time to do this. So like, how do you make that work?

Corey 34:13
So it's really nice, because I actually work. I work for 10 hour days, and I'm a full time work from home. So I have every Friday off. Um, so when I say you know, go workout at lunch. My basement I have a bike trainer, I have a wahoo kicker. So my actual bike is on that and I can just jump on there, go on Swift and get a workout in and then all I have to do is walk upstairs jump in the shower for five minutes and and I'm back at my work desk here. When I was working in the office, it was a little more difficult but you know, being being a work from home person, you know, I can take, you know, 20 minutes here over lunch or if I have a longer lunch one day and I was able to start work early, I can get an hour workout in over lunch or, you know, just step out my front door and go for a quick 45 minute run. And that's kind of helped a lot. us rather than just being able to, you know, drive to work, drive back, and then most of that time, it would be workouts, you know, strictly afterwards. Yeah.

Scott Benner 35:22
So you can kind of use commuting time and other dead time that Yeah, did exist during the day when you're at an office job that you don't think about. Yeah. You said Swift is that I apologize. But is that like, peloton like? Is it a? Is it like an online platform where people ride together? Where's that?

Corey 35:40
Yeah. So yeah, so it's a kind of, they consider it a multiplayer online cycling platform. So you know, you have an avatar, you have a smart trainer that's hooked up to I run it off my computer. And then as you cycle, you know, on the bike trainer, your avatar moves, you know, as hard as you're, you know, pedaling and cycling, you use watts. And that's, you know, how it dictates how fast you go, how far you go. So if you're going up, and what's nice about Swift is, it's a virtual world. But it simulates real life gradients. So if, in the game, you're going up a 5% Hill, the game will talk to your smart trainer, and the resistance will ramp up as if you're going up that 5% grade. I'm in real life. Gotcha. So yeah, it's it's like riding outside, you know, quote, unquote, it's like riding outside. But you know, you can do it from the basement. So if it's pouring down rain outside, or if it's snowing, I can get a comparable workout on the game as as I might outside,

Scott Benner 36:58
I'm laughing. And I don't know why. But I'm imagining that there's somebody who can ride a stationary bike who couldn't ride on the road, who's like an amazing person on Swift that if you took them outside, they'd be like, Ah, I don't know why that

Corey 37:10
you're, you are 100% Correct. Oh, no, Jenna, you know, people that, you know, do this type of stuff. There, there are people who are strictly professionals at racing in Swift. And you know, they might race outside. But there, there are certain things in the game that you can be really, really good at. Like, if you're a good sprinter and have good top end watts, you can be really, really good at specific things in here. You might be good at that outside. But you know, a team might snatch you up because you are a great sprinter because that can be used in certain aspects of the races. So it's the same in some sense. But you know, another sense, it's kind of a lot different. If that makes sense.

Scott Benner 37:59
I enjoyed your answer. And I was delighted by being correct. I thought I was being silly. And then all of a sudden, I was like, Am I making a point? Excellent.

Corey 38:10
No, because yeah, so what when you're on a bike trainer, you're not, because when you ride a bike outside, you have to have the ability to balance yourself as you're riding outside. So you're utilizing a lot more of your core, if you're on a bike trainer, you don't have to have that. So, you know, bike handling skills, when you're racing outside is a pretty significant thing. And, you know, some people you know, if they're racing or riding inside on Swift, they don't get that that quote unquote, practice on bike handling skills. So, you know, certain types of races outside bike handling skills are super important on you know, an Ironman bike leg, it's, you know, it's important, but it's not that important, but there's races like criteriums, where it's basically all out for 40 minutes around, you know, sometimes sharp turns, you know, that could, that could be a pretty significant, you know, safety hazard if you can't handle your bike on the road and, you know, caused an accident. So, in a triathlon,

Scott Benner 39:15
how fast do you think you're riding a bike?

Corey 39:18
Uh, you know, probably between, you know, top end, depending on the course how flat it is, or how hilly it is, you know, top end, you know, 30 miles an hour, you know, probably average around 20 to 22.

Scott Benner 39:32
That's fast ourself if you follow those for sure. Hey, quick question. It's gonna sound silly. I apologize. Is this an I'll bleep it out later. Is this hard on your like, you know, your bits and pieces and stuff like that? Like?

Corey 39:46
It's funny you asked that because I just had to go to the doctor today because I've had a saddle sore. So not necessarily my bits and pieces, but there is I think didn't have to go to the doctor today because of something that I kind of have ignored not taking care of

Scott Benner 40:05
for you. Do you find yourself having to expose your butt to a doctor today?

Corey 40:09
Oh, yeah, I did. So yeah, that was a great, great.

Scott Benner 40:13
Good doings, huh? Yeah, I've it doesn't fit here at all. But I told a story on the podcast one time where I went in for a physical and was told that it was like a visit with the doctor. I was told I was going to visit with the doctor for 15 minutes. And then I was going to make an appointment and come back for a physical. Yeah, well, apparently that was relayed to me improperly. So I was going to a physical not, which is fine. But I mean, I listen, I'm 50 I was going to a physical I know what the physical be. But I didn't think it was happening that moment. Luckily, I was prepared, meaning I didn't like you know, you know, run from the gym or something. And then like, show up, so I was, you know, prepared and clean and etc. And I sit there and I think we're just supposed to be talking and we're chatting away. And then he tells me to take my pants down. And I was like, kind of weird interview is this. And then before I knew it, I was having small talk with a man who was um, you know, he's taking his fingers score. I was not ready for it. I did not know it was gonna happen. And so your saddle sore is not making me laugh, because I have a lot. But yeah, I mean, even for ladies, I would think that they're, I mean, what's a word that like adults use like their hay hootenanny? Like I would imagine that's tough with that seat, right?

Corey 41:29
Yeah, so a bike fit is really important. You know, whether you're riding outside or whether you're, you know, you're riding inside on the trainer, that usually can cure things. So really, what mine came from was my saddle was really old. And it had worn away at the edges to the point where I was putting pressure on, on on a part of my, on our part of my bike that, you know, typically wasn't getting that pressure.

Scott Benner 41:58
I was gonna say, we're away at the saddle and then we're away you're asked, that's Yeah,

Corey 42:02
that's exactly what happens. Since I've gotten the saddle but, you know, it's, it's basically, you know, a saddle sores just like a pus filled bump that you that you get well, underneath of that. I'm thinking that I have a cyst there. And, you know, that might have to be surgically taken out, you know, for me to get better. It's like riding

Scott Benner 42:24
is gonna kill you. And by the way, if you want to look inside of my mind, I'm not bleeping Hey, hoochie nanny later, but I might. I might bleep out pus filled. Baby feel terrible. Well, that's, that's Listen, it's amazing. I hope it heals for you quickly and that you don't need surgery for certain. Yeah. Have you ever done an Iron Man and completed it? Yeah, I've done two of them. Do you have the tattoo?

Corey 42:49
My first one. To be honest, it's been so long that I can't remember what I think. 2014 I did Ironman Louisville. And then 2016 I did Ironman Maryland.

Scott Benner 43:01
But do you get the tattoo? No, I do not. I do not your wife tell you not to get her. Did you think it was a weird move?

Corey 43:08
I actually was going to and so I don't have any tattoos to begin with. Right? I'm not that I don't like them. It's just I never had any.

Scott Benner 43:16
I don't have to apologize. Very good. Yeah,

Corey 43:19
it's, uh, I had some picked out that I was going to do. And then it just kind of, you know, slipped my mind. And this is the first you you bring it up is the first time I've thought about it multiple years, which tells me that I probably should not do it.

Scott Benner 43:35
Yeah, you really don't care. I genuinely believe that I know, people who did an Ironman just to get the tattoo. So yeah. Oh, I believe that. So that's it. I don't fundamentally understand any of that. But it's still it's amazing. So you show in your note, you said that there's a so I guess this, this is what this width platform allows you to build teams and etc. And you said you guys have one? That's just for type ones.

Corey 44:03
Yeah, so it's actually a Facebook group. It's called swift team type one. Okay. Um, and when the pandemic started, I was just kind of looking for, you know, a group. I had read on a message board, like a triathlon message board that, Hey, there's this type one group, you know, someone had asked a question about type one diabetes, that was kind of out the left field and someone put in, oh, hey, you should check out this Facebook group. It's, it's Zwift. Team type one. So I went in there. It's a closed group. So I just had to put in that aim a type one and it's, it's a, it's a group of, you know, over 2000 people that either have type one, or have a close friend or family member that has type one. To be honest, it's mostly type one diabetics, about probably about 75% type one diabetics, and then As a spin off to that there's a race for a race team type one that kind of handles all of the racing stuff. So if you just want to race you can join that also. And we put together teams that that do really, really well with a large majority of the teams typically being type one diabetics.

Scott Benner 45:23
Okay. Wow, that's really cool. So you guys just it that's so you're together, virtually though, like you've never Yep. Do you even would you know, one of those people if you looked at them?

Corey 45:35
So actually, through this group, I met a kid that's a type one diabetic that lives 15 minutes away from me here in Pittsburgh. So, you know, I'm gonna, you know, when when things get a little bit better outside here, I'm gonna join him for some group rides. And yeah, it's, it's, it's really been cool. I, you know, on the on the type one group, you know, people are going in there. And, you know, we have a guy that travels for work. And when he travels to a different city, if there's one of us that that lives there, he's like, Hey, let's go out for a bike ride. You know, we have people meeting each other in real life off of the group, and it's really cool whenever you're traveling somewhere, Hey, is anybody from here and you know, getting together for group rides and stuff. So it's, it's, it's way more than I expected whenever I whenever I started.

Scott Benner 46:27
That's it. Listen, I think that's amazing. I also think that after that baby comes, if your wife lets you out of the house to go for a bike ride, I'll be amazed.

Corey 46:36
So you know what the worst part is, I actually signed up for two half Iron Man's last year that got bumped to this year. The first one is a week before her due date. And the second one is two weeks after she is set to give birth. So

Scott Benner 46:53
those sounds like when you go to those. That'll be the reason she leaves you 15 years later. So you'll be standing in a courtroom

Corey 47:01
ready? That's already cancelled?

Scott Benner 47:03
Yeah. For you be standing in a courtroom in your late 40s. Going Wait, are you still mad about that? And she'd be like, Oh, yeah. 100%

Corey 47:11
Actually, she she's the one telling me oh, yeah, you can you can go do that one. Two weeks after I'm like, Cory, Are you effing kidding me right? away?

Scott Benner 47:19
I'm leaving. How long you been married?

Corey 47:22
I'm got married at the end of 2019.

Scott Benner 47:25
That's a trap. Cory. Let me let's lay. I'm a Veteran. I'm gonna tell you something.

Corey 47:28
No, at the end. No, I'm sorry. She's gonna be mad. 2008.

Scott Benner 47:32
Don't worry. She tested you there. You can go. Sure. Go ahead. It's no problem you're supposed to then say no, of course I would never go then. That's that's exactly what I Oh, that's a trap. That would be like if she's like, you could you know, go out with one of my friends. I'm okay with an open she does. That. Cory. She doesn't mean that. That's not okay. You can't do that. No, no, no, no, you're smart. You took care of that very well.

Corey 47:55
I want so I was originally right. November, November 2019.

Scott Benner 48:00
Got him sit back and say your blood sugar is low right now. Hey, Cory. Yeah, exactly.

Corey 48:04
That's what we're gonna play it off.

Scott Benner 48:05
Yeah, you're fine. Don't worry about that. Corey, his wife. He knows when you got married, relax. No, seriously, I would never ever do that. That's like my one time my wife is I suppose looking at a car and she was she you can get that I was like, I waited like four more weeks to make sure she really really meant it. Because this was one of the Well that's

Corey 48:23
the thing. So So whenever you go, and especially the bigger races like Iron Man's and 70 point threes, we treat them as a small vacation. So we'll leave on a Thursday, the race is either a Saturday or Sunday. So we take it as like a Thursday through Monday thing. And my, my wife just loves to go, you know, as I'm racing, she's beating other people, you know, spectators and stuff show. She used to just, you know, post up at a bar on the, you know, on the right by the race and she'll follow me around and I couldn't ask for a more supportive wife seems like terms of this. It's, it's pretty insane. But yeah, we it's a whole thing. So we'll go a few days early. Check out some sites around places we go to we'll stay in there too after to see anything we want to do together. So yeah, it's turned out pretty well.

Scott Benner 49:17
Cory Listen, let's take a pause here while the married people who are laughing at you who have older children, and think that you think that's gonna be your life as you get older. Let's let them settle back down and wipe the tears out of their eyes as they're driving. You guys gotta be careful while you're driving. You can't just start crying like that. No, of course. Listen, I think that's really amazing. And if you can keep that going after you have kids, then you should write a book because that's pretty cool. Seriously, and I'm jealous of your if I'm being honest, I'm jealous of the fact that your passion also leans into your health. And that's really kind of great. You know what I mean? Like to have a thing that's doing two things at once. It's, it's, you know, it's it's fun. Feeling a passion? It's it's giving you a hobby. It's keeping you healthy. Like, that's really terrific.

Corey 50:06
Yeah, yeah, it's been a, it's been good so far

Scott Benner 50:09
know what kind of pump you're using. You said you had a pump, but you didn't tell me which one?

Corey 50:13
Yeah, so I had the 670 G,

Scott Benner 50:15
I was gonna say you're on Medtronic. It's right in that part of the country. Is that the automatic one? Is that the? Yeah, it is making those decisions for you. And it's keeping you at like a six, seven ish 687?

Corey 50:28
I think my last was 6969 with with very minimal blows. So Right?

Scott Benner 50:37
Does it allow you to override it? Like what? Like, what if you woke up today? And you were like, dammit, I want my agency to be six. His day, can you see how to inside of that system? How to manage that?

Corey 50:49
I would probably turn off, it's called Auto mode. I would turn that off and just be able to tinker with it myself. Yeah, gotcha.

Scott Benner 50:59
That's a rousing, rousing celebration for auto mode, you know what I would do? I would turn that auto mode.

Corey 51:07
Well, so yeah, so So auto mode I used to have trouble with with overnight lows, and, and it it made them non existent. So I was really happy in that, like, during the day, it can be a little iffy. But I'm actually I'm up on my warranty at the beginning of the year. So I have a endo appointment in July. And I'm going to toy with the idea of possibly moving on, if something else makes sense, fun time

Scott Benner 51:37
for you. It is like that. It's a fun time, you could be tandem IQ, you could go on the pod five, there's so many options now. And you get them yeah, the Dexcom sensor, which, from what I hear is a better experience, maybe than the metro.

Corey 51:50
Yeah. And that's what's really nice about like the the type one group to like, probably every couple of weeks, someone's coming on, like, hey, what do you think about this system, and I just kind of saved those conversations when I'm gonna sit down and really, you know, decide if I want to stay with Medtronic or go somewhere else. Because, you know, people are putting in, oh, I have this system, and they're given pros and cons. And, um, you know, to me, there isn't anywhere else that that I can think of that I can go where I get people that are wearing, you know, any system that's available, there's going to be at least multiple of them, or who are in that thread talking about it. So yeah, it's going to be a good source of information, you know, over the next couple of months, when I start to seriously look and see if I want to change Plus,

Scott Benner 52:41
they're living a similar lifestyle is yours, which makes it Yeah, exactly sure to hear from you would love the Facebook page for this podcast. Maybe? It's, um, I think it's up near like, 11,000. Listen, listeners are in there. And they're just talking about management stuff constantly.

Corey 52:55
Oh, yeah. No, I'll have to join that. Because that, yeah, I didn't know. That was a group. But I'm definitely going to join that

Scott Benner 53:03
I'm enjoying talking to you. Because you are mostly unaware of me and the podcast and all that stuff. And there, it's nice, because there are some times when people come on, and they're just so aware of it that you know, the conversations take a different turn because sometimes they're here to like say thank you sometimes and which is lovely. And I don't want to say it isn't so so yeah,

Corey 53:22
so I came across your podcast most to be honest, mostly through the athletic stuff. So I've listened to all the all the athletes you've had on and things of that nature. And yeah, I listened to so many podcasts and I have so many downloaded waited to go that I've been waiting to listen to for years. It's just sometimes tough to get to them. But you know, I've always enjoyed what what you've done so far. And yeah, I do want to listen to some of those management one. Thank you. That you had mentioned earlier.

Scott Benner 53:55
I also I'll tell you about them in the second quarter, but I appreciate how you said so far. I always like that when it makes me smile when somebody like they say something nice about you though, like so far everything I've heard. In case you've said something I

Corey 54:07
guarantee it's gonna kick your

Scott Benner 54:09
case, you've said something crazy that I don't know about. I don't want to attach myself to it. I don't want to be like this guy. Everything he says is genius. And then I got to pick up my phone one day and hear you talking about some crazy conspiracy theories. That was lovely. The way you slip that in there. You're like, you know, I've heard I'm okay saying I listened. Far my friend. Did this go anywhere near the way you expected? Or is it? Did you not have an expectation for this?

Corey 54:38
I really didn't have an expectation good. No, I

Scott Benner 54:41
thought I was I I'm not kicking you off. I'm just I thought it was great. I enjoy talking to you. I know that. Um, so for me, I'm in. I'm in an odd predicament. You know, in these conversations, you've had diabetes for a very long time. Do you have like I said before, I've had experiences that people have been diagnosed in the last five For 10 years even have not had, you've had more experiences that people diagnosed the last three or four years have not had, like you've lived through iterations of what it meant to have type one diabetes. And you get all those experiences. And then all this technology comes along. And these ideas like I mean, honestly, can you try to think back to 20 years ago, you're going into high school, I'm a doctor and I pull you aside and I go, Cory, what I want to do is create a black hole of Basal insulin two hours in the future, so that you'd be like, what is what now? You know, and none of that existed because nobody had CGM, they couldn't see what was happening. They couldn't suss out where things were going right and going wrong, etc, etc, right. But you feel a very soft spot in my heart when I'm talking to you. Because I have a friend who's passed away who has had who had type one diabetes, since we were kids, we were 18 or so. And he died for certain because of his type one. And he, you know, he grew up managing the way you would manage in the late 80s. And he never really ventured away from it, he never really thought more or less about it, it was always better high than low, because you know, I get dizzy or I fell out of bed one time or you know, like that, those kinds of things. And then the technology came along, the better insulin came along. And he just never sort of came along with it. And if I tried to talk to him about diabetes, it they tried to imagine just the angriest conversation, you could write like, he would take it as poorly as you could expect there. And yeah, and only because we love each other and knew each other for so long. Could I even get a couple sentences into Hey, I think you might like this Dexcom thing. Right? Right. But nonetheless, you know, it wasn't the B and you know, he had a heart attack eventually, and and he passed, he never woke up from that heart attack. And when I talk about diabetes, it is with my friend Mike's like memory in the back of my head that I never want to put people in a position where they think, better high than low. I don't know. Yeah, like, I'm gonna err on the side of caution. Because that's sometimes it hasn't for you. And it doesn't seem like it ever would. But it becomes a slippery slope for other people. Where Hey,

Corey 57:16
Scott, yeah, I'm not gonna be a show like, no. I mean, that's how I've thought in the past,

Scott Benner 57:22
I would imagine and with incredibly good reason, like I said, from where you came from 100%

Corey 57:28
Yeah, so yeah, I'm so I'm sorry, for your loss. Yeah, it's, and I'd be lying. If I said, you know, I'm terrified of diabetes, killing me. I mean, it, you know, it's, yeah, 20 plus years already. And, you know, you don't really know what it's done to your body, you know, and I'm only 35. You know, 36. You know, if, if there isn't a cure, you know, if I don't take care of myself, like, it's a scary proposition, you know, 20 more years down the road.

Scott Benner 58:01
Yeah. And it's only what it's really the only reason why I brought this stuff up with you earlier. And it wasn't because of you, it's because I have the added. I don't want to say pressure, because I don't mean pressure. But maybe it's responsibility, I'm not certain. But there are a lot of people who are going to listen to this. And so I don't want to, I never want to feel like I'm saying it's just 150 Let it be at 150. Because what happens to people's 150 becomes 160 comes 180, then all of a sudden, to hundreds, only 100 points higher than it's supposed to be and, and then they they kind of tumbled down that rabbit hole, and they lose track of it. And I am telling you again, I don't have type one. But this podcast is incredibly popular for a reason. I don't think it's my razor sharp wit. So it's because of how we talk about using insulin and how effective it ends up being for I think most of the people who listen. And so and so I just want people to know that there is a way to use your insulin that doesn't lead to issues like that. Now, most people are not going to be doing a triathlon or not working out like you every day, I'm not saying you're not going to that that couldn't possibly happen to you, obviously, it could, if you just jumped into it without having settings in the right place and really understanding, you know, the insulin use and stuff like that, which I'm not saying you don't I'm just saying if a person did and didn't have that they would put themselves in a problem very quickly. And I don't know what it's like to be by myself and feel like hopeless and lost and helpless like that. And I can't imagine it's not the scariest thing in the world. You know, so I get all sides of it. I just I think that people should in general also get all sides of it, and then make a decision based on absolutely, you know, based on what they want to do. I got very far away from there's a really cool Facebook group where people ride virtually that have type one diabetes, I'm sorry, which I hope people check out if you're like a swift user and you don't know about this

Corey 1:00:00
Yeah, and I mean, even if you just want to John want to join the group and you have a bike and you want to ride inside, like, just join the group and experience it, if you don't like it, you know, you can always leave like that there some of the most supportive people I've ever met in my entire life. And it's, it's, it's vastly positive. Like, if there's something negative said said in there, you know, it's it's taking care of not that not that things are, you know, not that it's just a rosy proposition that you can only say nice things, but, you know, if something, if something is set out a line, people are gonna say, hey, like, you know, why would you? Why would you say that? And I think it's just a general understanding in there of just like minded people that want to be healthier and want to be better. And biking is just one avenue to hopefully help. And then, you know, if you have questions, just ask, you know, someone probably has had an experience or, you know, has something that that might be able to help. Um, and, you know, I'd rather have too much information or, or too much, or an ability to ask too many questions, then not have that.

Scott Benner 1:01:14
Yeah. Well, you're preaching to the choir here, because the, the Facebook page around the podcast, I, I managed the same way. Like I don't like I don't, I don't really manage it at all. I look here a bunch of adults act like, you know, have conversations be nice to each other. The rules of the it's, it's, I wonder if I can just find them very quickly. Hold on a second. How do you figure this out? Group? Moderation, say, oh, group rules. Here's rule one, be nice, be helpful. Be human, treat people the way you would be treated if you break the rules, that I'm gonna have to kick you. And I don't want to be involved in both. Like, that's how the rules go. You don't? It sounds. Yeah, it sounds like the same thing. Yes. Yeah. My rule number three is, if this community becomes a pain in my ass, I'll delete it. Like, yeah, just like, Please don't make me involved in pettiness. And it turns out, it's never been a problem. And I think for similar reasons to what you're describing, because there was a catalyst that brought everybody together, they listened to the podcast already. So they were they were very similarly minded. They come together, and now they find themselves thinking about things. Similarly, so there's no real reason for them to fight. They just help each other. It's wonderful. It's one of the I can't believe I'm saying this. But creating that Facebook group is one of the was one of the top 100 best things I've ever done in my life, because I watch how it helps people. Yeah, and

Corey 1:02:38
stuff like that is like I'm not on Facebook, like I don't post anything on my junk. The only reason I'm on Facebook ever, is for racing. And we have, you know, we have groups of every team has their own messenger group and the team's online like, I talk to people on there, but I don't check Facebook outside of that. If I didn't have this, I probably wouldn't be on at all.

Scott Benner 1:03:02
Yeah, you and I are the same exact query. I'm a grown man, I don't want to be on airs. Every time I open it up to manage something for it, I remind myself, I'm managing a group for the podcast. I'm not on Facebook. That's how I feel. Yeah, exactly. So it's very similar to when I post something on Instagram, I think to myself, Oh, what am I 15? You know, so, but I, you know, it's a great way to reach people. And it's a great way for people to reach up each other. And I think that all that I think like I'm not denigrating, and I think it's wonderful. I just, I feel a little too old to be on social media like that. At times, you know, but it does a wonderful thing for people as the podcast does. And I bet you your writing group does and, and so yeah, and so on. You know, I love teasing you about being married. That was fun.

Corey 1:03:46
Hey, that's okay. I'm still in the early stages, so I can take it.

Scott Benner 1:03:50
Yeah. Oh, you're right. It had none of those things landed with any real honesty for you.

Corey 1:03:57
I'm still living the dream.

Scott Benner 1:03:58
Yeah, for 15 years. Now when I tell you, Cory, you're not allowed to go ride your bicycle on the weekend. But but I'm an adult. And I work hard enough. Like that's not how this works. Cory Shut up. Yeah, exactly. That's fantastic. Oh, my gosh. Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you were hoping to?

Corey 1:04:15
Yeah, I just actually wanted to plug our racing teams that that's okay. So really our biggest race group, it's called WT RL. And basically they do team time trials. So that's every team can be up to eight riders, and you ride as a team on different course routes every week. There's about 4000 riders every week. I think this past week there 700 teams. They're divided up into what's called Coffee classes, which are kind of broken down based on ability level. So in essence, there's four of those and the top 10 teams in each coffee class. get promoted to what's called the platinum league. And that race is shown on YouTube with commenters like a legit broadcast where they bounce from team to team talk about talk about how teams are racing talk about backstories. And our teams are wildly successful. And that this week, I know we have three teams in the platinum League. So it's not just like our teams are there, you know, some people do ride just to have a little bit of competitive but they are now to win. One of our teams that I raced on two weeks ago, we set a course record and and won our coffee class. And, and we finished, we finished third, your two weeks ago, we set a course record last week, we finished third. We've been in the platinum League for the last 22 out of the last 23 weeks. So we have some legit seriously good bike riders, you know, throughout. So if that's something that interests you know, jump in the people that do the commentary. To be honest, they love our team, they always talk about type one diabetes on the broadcast, talk about how, you know, we use the platform and the exercise to to help keep ourselves healthy. And we were featured on the broadcast last week for about two minutes, which doesn't seem like a lot. But you know, for an hour long race with hundreds of teams, you know, we were one of the ones they picked out. Yeah. And focused on so, you know, I just have to really shout out, you know, all our all our TTT teams, and how well they do and, you know, we do other things, too. For World diabetes Day, we did a 20 we do every year a 24 hour relay. So for 24 hours on World diabetes Day, you know, you'll find a pack of Team type one in Swift, and we have our own custom kits, jerseys that were made up for us. So you know, if you're riding in there, you'll you'll see someone's Phantom. You know, we we had people that rode 24 hours straight for the entire time. So, you know, we're doing outstanding things and people notice and, um, you know, if you're hesitant to just join, I guarantee you're gonna love it. You'll love the group and, you know, we're always looking for people to race. So, um, you know, enjoy the fun.

Scott Benner 1:07:30
I appreciate sharing that with everybody. That's excellent. It really

Corey 1:07:33
if you want to get a bike trainer you're in

Scott Benner 1:07:38
like a gory I gotta cancel this podcast you want me to ride I mean, you know I I'm giving my life here for this. I sit in this chair a lot to get this accomplished. It really is. That's very kind of you. I'm, I'm going to I'm going to do the very American thing of ignoring my health right up until it's about to kill me and then try to do that is very, that's my goal. Yeah, I just want to I'll say it's like, it's like hiding from a bear. Like, I just want to see it over the eye like, oh, there it is. Now I'm gonna learn how to shoot a gun right now.

Corey 1:08:14
You just You just got to be the the, the person in front of the slowest person so the bear doesn't get you. Yeah, that

Scott Benner 1:08:21
doesn't work with heart disease as well. But I understand what you're saying. Oh, no, no, I appreciate that very much. i Wow, that it seems so outside of who I am. That it's hard for me to wrap my head around while you're saying it. Yeah, I don't I think it's possible. Coming back to what we talked about early on. It's a really it's a really similar thing. My son plays baseball in college and my free time is spent supporting his endeavor or watching it. Yeah, and it really is interesting how much at certain at the times of year when being outside would be a good thing it takes up and then it makes those other months very focused on getting the other stuff done. You don't get to during that time. I'm sure he won't play forever. So when that's over, who knows? Maybe I shouldn't laugh maybe I'll find myself in my basement riding a bicycle getting a sore on my ass. And yeah, I can't wait to see you though. See me or this or what were you gonna say?

Corey 1:09:20
Oh no, no, you I do not want to see the sore. And for anyone and for if this makes it on do not look up what it looks like on Google images.

Scott Benner 1:09:29
What should they not Google? A saddle sores okay. Yeah, I don't know saddle sores yet? Do not. But real quick, make sure you click on the links for the advertisers before you Google saddle sores because I don't want you to start vomiting before you've done the other things I've asked you to do run the ads. Cuz everyone's gonna look now I'm not I just want you to know I will not be looking. I don't care and I don't want to know. But that's fantastic, Cory. I really appreciate this. Thank you so much. If you hold on a second I'll tell you about those other episodes and you can

Corey 1:10:03
okay yeah, I was actually one that you bought that

Scott Benner 1:10:05
one on one second

A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Kaipa pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juice box. you spell that GVOKEGL You see ag o n.com Ford slash juice box don't forget to go to touched by type one.org. Click on the program's tab go to dancing for diabetes and get your tickets for the dancing for diabetes extravaganza happening on November 13 2021. I want to thank Corey for coming on the show and thank all of you for listening and sharing the Juicebox Podcast. I'll be back soon with more