#1530 After Dark: Divorce and Addiction

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

Anonymous guest discusses a porn addiction, alcohol use, and the resilient climb toward recovery and renewed self-worth. 

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

---

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 back to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Anonymous Speaker 0:14
Hi, my name is I'm a parent of a type one diabetic in Texas. If

Scott Benner 0:21
this is your first time listening to the Juicebox Podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcasts or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox Podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management, go to juiceboxpodcast.com. Up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. The episode you're about to listen to was sponsored by touched by type one. Go check them out right now on Facebook, Instagram, and, of course, at touched by type one.org check out that Programs tab when you get to the website to see all the great things that they're doing for people living with type one diabetes touched by type one.org today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the ever since 365 the one year where CGM that's one insertion a year. That's it. And here's a little bonus for you. How about there's no limit on how many friends and family you can share your data with with the ever since now, app No Limits ever since. Hi, my name is,

Anonymous Speaker 1:50
I'm a parent of a type one diabetic in Texas. You're

Scott Benner 1:53
a parent of a type one in Texas, but we met in Florida. Yes,

Anonymous Speaker 1:57
that's right, it was at the touched by type one conference almost two years ago. Did you

Scott Benner 2:02
travel to Florida for that conference? Yeah, I did. Oh, wow, that's awesome. How did you find it

Anonymous Speaker 2:08
from you? I was I started listening to the podcast a little a few couple months before that, maybe. And one episode you mentioned it. It was a free conference in Florida, and I checked the dates it was available, so I booked it, flew out there and enjoyed the conference. It's great. That's

Scott Benner 2:26
awesome. That's great. Also, yeah, the value there is you can fly into Orlando for less than you can Uber across town. So it's not usually too bad from almost anywhere in the country. Well, it was, it was lovely to meet you. Let me make sure say your name again. I want to make sure I say across make sure I say it correctly, like that. Yep. Okay, that was good, awesome. Oh, thank you. And you are the father of a child with type one. That's right. Okay, you have a couple of interesting little bends to your story. I feel like we're gonna get to every one of them, so I'm excited about it. But tell me a little bit first about your child's diagnosis? Sure. So

Anonymous Speaker 3:04
that was two years ago, just over two years ago. So 2023 in January, we had all gotten COVID. Around New Year's beginning of the year, the whole family got COVID. The little one who was for the time about to turn five, he seemed to have it the worst of us. We didn't really know what was going on. As the rest of us were getting better, he seemed to be getting worse, and that, that's really all we kind of knew. There was a little bit more leading up to that, which, looking back, knowing what I know now, we should have picked up on sooner. I was the frequent thirst, unquenchable thirst, really, and frequent urination had started a couple months earlier and kind of gradually increased over time. It just started out pretty normal, and then, like, a little bit week by week, he was, like, drinking more and more water and going to the bathroom more and more often, yeah. And it was such a slow increase that you know as it was happening. Didn't think much of it, but after a couple of months, like, oh my god, this guy's peeing every 30 minutes, like, this isn't right.

Scott Benner 4:10
You're saying then that you think the diabetes symptoms began before the COVID.

Anonymous Speaker 4:14
Yeah, I think they began before the COVID, but the COVID made it worse, and then so then he went into full DKA, which we didn't know, took him in to emergency room one day, because he would have been throwing up. He wasn't able to get up anymore. He wasn't able to drink water anymore. So we took him to the emergency room. Thank God the doctor there knew immediately what it was. The first thing they tested was blood sugar. First Reading came up high. He didn't even give a number. It was so high, yeah, so they had to do another test. His blood sugar was 833

Scott Benner 4:53
My gosh. How old is he at that point, he was 425

Anonymous Speaker 4:58
this was four. Two

Scott Benner 5:00
days before his birthday, and he's your youngest, or no, there's a younger one. He's my youngest.

Anonymous Speaker 5:04
I have another one that's a few years older. Okay, okay,

Scott Benner 5:08
well, so what do you think you said? Or how did it present that the ER, right away said, this is type one diabetes.

Anonymous Speaker 5:15
Hmm, good question. I was carrying him in, and we didn't really say anything. Like, it was, like, on site, really, yeah, he, he was looking, I hate to say this, but on the verge of death, really, like, he lost a third of his body weight. He looks like a skeleton with skin on. Like, it was really scary at that point. What

Scott Benner 5:41
slowed down your ability to to seek the help? Was it that you guys were all sick at the same time? Yeah,

Anonymous Speaker 5:47
we all had COVID, so we thought that that's what it was. So we were resting, taking it easy the day before we went to the ER, my wife actually took him to an urgent care clinic. They did not check his blood sugar. They heard the symptoms about the COVID related symptoms. They also heard the symptoms about the thirst and urination. They tested him for COVID, and they sent him home with that, yeah, some basic care instructions. And,

Unknown Speaker 6:13
yeah, hmm, a third

Scott Benner 6:15
of his weight. How much did he lose? Almost

Anonymous Speaker 6:18
10 pounds. Oh my gosh, yeah. He was down to 11 kilograms when they weighed him, and he would probably have been like, 15, I think, okay,

Scott Benner 6:26
okay. So you go to a to, like, an urgent care, you don't really get much of a you probably get the Oh, it's COVID kind of thing. And then yeah, the next day, you're all just like, No, no, he's dying, yeah, when you take him to the ER, do you take him to the ER, thinking he's dying from COVID. Yeah, really. Okay, so when the doctor looks at him and says, This is type one diabetes, are you relieved or shocked?

Anonymous Speaker 6:51
Both? Yeah, diabetes hadn't crossed my mind at all. I've heard of diabetes. I'm aware that insulin pumps exist, and it's insulin, it's, I know it's a blood sugar thing, and insulin, I'm aware that there's treatment for it. That was kind of where I was at. I didn't really know what the treatment was like or anything. But once I heard diabetes, I was I did feel relieved. I thought, okay, there is, there's treatment for this. There's something to be done, and we know what it is.

Scott Benner 7:19
Yeah, it's not this scourge that's going across the planet that nobody seems to understand very well. Yeah, exactly. Listen, I met your son when I met you, is that right?

Anonymous Speaker 7:28
No, you didn't. He didn't go with

Scott Benner 7:30
me. No, oh, how do I remember that then? Oh, I'm trying to think of how I remember, why I remember it differently. Oh, that's a shame. My memory was garbage. You met a lot of people that weekend. It's okay. I did meet a lot of people, so I guess I'm going to jump around, because I know about your story a little bit, but I'm going to jump here for a second on that day in the ER, you're a married person, that's right. How long after that, were you not a married person?

Anonymous Speaker 7:55
It became final nine months later. Were

Scott Benner 7:59
you in the midst of getting a divorce during the COVID? Yes, Oh, fun. The day

Anonymous Speaker 8:04
that he went to the ER, I had a meeting with my lawyer the same day of that morning I met with my lawyer because we were supposed to go to mediation the next week. So we were my lawyer had scheduled a pre mediation, no game, planning session with me that morning. So I've been talking to my lawyer that morning, planning how we would handle mediation and all that. We are going to get a mediation seven days later. This is like

Scott Benner 8:30
2023, ish, is that right? Yeah, that's right. Okay. So this is not like, oh my gosh, like COVID time. This is three years after COVID time. Did og COVID have something to do with you guys getting divorced? Or is there another aspect that's a whole other story, whole other thing. Okay, all right. It's not like, Okay, I just know. I just know too many people that when COVID hit, they were like, Oh, this is the end,

Anonymous Speaker 8:53
right here. Yeah, we were on the rails before that. I got you.

Scott Benner 8:57
Okay. Well, this is interesting. So did the diagnosis slow the divorce down at all? Like you're living at home getting divorced? Is that right? Yeah, we were

Anonymous Speaker 9:07
still living together. Yeah, we were separated in the house. So we'd been separated in the house for a couple of years. At that point, divorce had been filed four months earlier, and we were still living in the same house together. I was trying to wait out the process basically, like, this situation is livable for now, where we have separate rooms, separate lives, like we take care of the kids, we each take care of our responsibilities. Why shake things up until we have to like, okay, we're getting divorced. Our marriage is ending. Fine. It was still to be determined. Who is going to be moving out, where you're going to move what's the child custody agreement going to be like, and things like that. So I was trying to to get to mediation, see where things were going to land, and then proceed from there.

Scott Benner 9:54
Okay, so did the kids know? Well, like the kids are young, but did they understand that? Like we all live together, but we don't.

Anonymous Speaker 9:59
Yeah, we didn't explain a much going when it was starting, like, when we started sleeping in separate room bedrooms, I don't think we, I didn't explain anything to the kids about that. Like, mom and dad are just sleeping in different rooms now. Yeah,

Scott Benner 10:14
it's, like, regular marriage, except you, like, said it out loud, yeah, okay. Like, I don't want to, like, I'm not trying to dig too far. I'm trying to set up the expectation for how the diabetes gets split up later. That's really what I'm interested in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there was part of me that wondered if the shock or the of the diagnosis, like, pushed you guys together a little bit, or things stayed pretty much the same. From there, we

Anonymous Speaker 10:42
had to work together. We did work together on on his treatment. It was it took both of us, early on, literally chasing him around the house to give him an insulin shot. You know, one person chasing him, the other one, like setting the trap, basically ambush, and one person had to hold him down. Sometimes, one person had to hold him down while the other one did the shot. Like, that's just how it went at

Unknown Speaker 11:06
the beginning. Yeah, you

Scott Benner 11:08
you understand. What I'm trying to figure out is, did that whole time, did it make you see each other the way you remembered you? Or was that anxiety of that time a thing that drove you like, because, what am I asking? You've heard people be on the podcast before, right? And like, but this time's difficult on their marriage. Did it make your difficult thing more difficult, or did it bring you together? I guess neither. Okay, you guys were cemented where you were then,

Anonymous Speaker 11:37
yeah, we were there was no chance of of reconciliation. At this point, I was done with the marriage. With any chance. I spent years trying to work on reconciliation. I see so at this point, we were able to work together as CO parents, learn about diabetes together, learn to manage together. But so that did slow down the divorce process, because once, when he went to the hospital that day, I called my lawyer back and said, pre cancel mediation. We can't go. It was seven days later, like he's getting him into the ICU. We can't do it. I don't even, I don't know when he might, he might be helped by then, but even me as I can't do it, yeah,

Scott Benner 12:21
right, I'm fried. And an hour and a half ago, I thought my kid was dying. So yeah, let's take a pause. So

Anonymous Speaker 12:27
we put a pause on, on everything. And we were really focused on on the kid for a few months. And then after a few months, April ish, things were settling a little bit. I started to feel like I knew what I was doing. I looking back, naive, no idea what I was doing. That's when I, three months later, I reached back out to the lawyer and said, Okay, things are settling a little bit. Let's, let's get this process moving again. And

Scott Benner 12:51
does one of you take the reins on the diabetes thing? Because I feel like it's you, but I of course, don't know your ex, so I don't know. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 and just as the name says, it lasts for a full year, imagine for a second a CGM with just one sensor placement and one warm up period every year. Imagine a sensor that has exceptional accuracy over that year and is actually the most accurate CGM in the low range that you can get. What if I told you that this sensor had no risk of falling off or being knocked off? That may seem too good to be true, but I'm not even done telling you about it. Yet. The Eversense 365 has essentially no compression lows. It features incredibly gentle adhesive for its transmitter. You can take the transmitter off when you don't want to wear your CGM and put it right back on without having to waste the sensor or go through another warm up period. The app works with iOS and Android, even Apple Watch. You can manage your diabetes instead of your CGM with the ever since 365 learn more and get started today at ever since cgm.com/juicebox, dot com, slash, Juicebox, one year, one CGM,

Anonymous Speaker 14:05
no, I tried to make it even between us. One point of Con, one point of contention we've had kind of started way back then, because, of course, when he was first diagnosed, we didn't have the technology yet, like we went home from the hospital with with a contour meter and test strips and, you know, Huma log Junior pen, quick pens, that kind of thing. And so we were doing finger sticks throughout the day, including overnight. In our co parenting life, I had kind of set up a precedent of sharing responsibilities in other areas. So when it came to dropping kids at school and picking them up, we split up those duties evenly. When it came to dinner, we split that evenly as well. We took turns making dinner and the major response. It is a parenting and taking care of the house. We we split as evenly as we could. That's how I wanted it to be. And I helped me to make it clear, you know, who was cooking dinner each night. Because early on, sometimes it was the crap shooting. Neither of us wanted to cook. So once the diabetes started, start, I started to see, okay, how can we split this up? This responsibility up? Because he was in daycare at the time, so somebody had to go to the daycare during the day, check on him during lunch, make sure things are being done right, because the daycare was not prepared for that. And at the same time, somebody had to check him, check on him at night, in the middle of night, two o'clock in the morning. So that ended up becoming how responsibility was getting split. I worked from home, so I worked a mile away from the daycare. It was easy for me to take off my lunchtime, be there for his lunch, check on him, check his blood sugar, get him insulin as needed, and make sure he ate his food and all that kind of stuff. And that means that I left night times to her. I tried to split that with her initially, and I took I tried to take some turns waking up in the middle night to take care of him, and then realized she was going to wake up anyway, even if I was there, even if I was even if I said I'm going to take care of it tonight, she would also wake up. And then I'd have to try to take care of the kid, and also have her looking over my shoulder, which I hated. So let

Scott Benner 16:22
me tell you something you've just tapped into. One of the things that my wife and I still argue about, like, if I get up in the middle of the night for something diabetes related, and I come back into the room and she's awake, I say to her, if you're up, why am I up? Yeah, that like I'm getting up so you can sleep. If you're going to be up, let me sleep and you take care of it. Yeah, yeah, no, I got you. So

Anonymous Speaker 16:44
we didn't say this out loud, and maybe I should have, but when I realized she was going to wake up anyway, and daytime lunchtime was going to fall on me because of my proximity to daycare, I quietly decided, okay, she gets I get daytime, she gets night time okay, and that was how I that's how I decided we would split it. That became an issue as we proceeded to mediation,

Scott Benner 17:08
because it sounded like you were dumping it on her. Yeah, yeah. She

Anonymous Speaker 17:11
made it out to be that I was incapable of taking care of her child at night, not that I was letting her do it and taking on other responsibilities. There was a bit of a blow up a month later that resulted in me moving out of the house. I don't know yet if I want to get into that story gotcha, but I ended up moving out suddenly, and we had to get a emergency custody agreement in place. And the only thing she would agree to is I could have our older son every other week, the non diabetic child, but the diabetic child, she said, you can't have him overnight, and she was really adamant about that. Okay, so i i for two months when I was my week with the kids, I would go to her house to pick him up in the morning, take the kids to school and daycare, drop them off, and then pick them up in the afternoon, have dinner with them, and then in the evening, take him back to her house, drop him off again, then go back home, put the other kid to bed, wake up and do it the next day again. Yeah, and I did that for two months to keep the peace enough to Okay, fine. I want to have some custody of my kids, and I just wanted to get to mediation. Let's get to mediation. Let's get this settled.

Scott Benner 18:26
That worked for the time being. It was horrible,

Anonymous Speaker 18:30
but it worked. It got I got through two months and I barely remember it. So yeah, at the time, it felt miserable, but it is what it is, and I got through it. I

Scott Benner 18:40
don't want you to like, I understand the delicacies around talking about a divorce on a podcast and everything. I think I'm getting the vibe from you. And of course, I'm not speaking to her. I don't know her. Her side of is probably your your big asshole and everything like that. So I'm sure that everybody has their opinion. But it does sound like, you know from this part of the conversation that we're having, that there was a there were a lot of times for you to overcome resistance. Who cares why it's there and that you were trying to accomplish that it feels like maybe the diabetes thing got used against you a little bit, which is unfortunate, obviously, are one of you markedly better at diabetes than the other, or do you both kind of have a handle

Anonymous Speaker 19:20
on it. That's an interesting question, also, because we would both say, Yes, I'm better. I'm pretty sure.

Scott Benner 19:27
How long were you guys married before you decided not to be married anymore? 10

Anonymous Speaker 19:30
years. We got married in 2012 and divorced. So 11 years, by the time it was final,

Scott Benner 19:37
when did you stop liking each other? If you got married in 1120, 13, sounds like you got sounds like you have a fair amount of animosity to both of you. Yeah,

Anonymous Speaker 19:49
there was the last five years were pretty rough. I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 19:53
Sucks. That's okay. Yeah, no, no, I what am I saying? I was gonna say I grew up with a in a divorced family, but I'm married. I know what you're talking. Good about listen, I married almost 30 years. Wow. Yeah, I beg. There's not much difference between your marriage, just my wife and I are more hard headed than you guys were. I

Anonymous Speaker 20:12
was willing to try to make things work. That's what I wanted. I wanted to work out the issues, to, like, figure out how to how to get past it and reconcile. Somehow she was adamant against that, so

Scott Benner 20:23
it was broken for her, it wasn't getting fixed. Now, listen, the other thing in your notes, does it factor into this, or does it not fit here?

Anonymous Speaker 20:30
We can get to that. Okay, I think I can get there.

Scott Benner 20:34
Okay, keep going. So, yeah, please go on

Anonymous Speaker 20:37
the mediation. We got to mediation, and she was still sticking to that point that I can't have the diabetes child overnight. We may actually agree to everything else custody for the other child. No problem. 5050, custody assets, house investments or whatever. We made a list. We had a full list. We we just put stuff in her column, stuff in my column. Made it as even as we could, and agreed to that all the details were worked out, except for this one. She did not want me to have overnights with the diabetic child,

Scott Benner 21:08
gotcha, and it took all day on that one issue. What were the arguments against? He

Anonymous Speaker 21:16
said that I could not wake up for a low at night, she said that his numbers were bad when he was with me. Granted, we were six months into diagnosis, right? I had maybe started listening to the podcast. Maybe not yet. No, actually, no, I didn't, because I learned about it two weeks later. Gotcha, I learned about it from diabetes camp, so I hadn't started listening to podcasts yet. We knew what the doctor told us I knew the insulin to carb ratio and the insulin sensitivity factor. I knew how to do the math. I know I knew about checking blood sugar. We had a Dexcom by then and all that, so we didn't have the insulin pump yet. That came later, so I knew the basics, but there's so much variability to this that I've learned since then. So I can back then I could, I can remember saying, like, I understand this. I know what I'm doing. But now two years, almost two years later, they're like, I didn't, yeah, you had a fairly new you had a six month understanding of it. Yeah, I had a six month understanding Yeah. But is it fair to say that so did she?

Scott Benner 22:17
Yeah, yeah. I would agree, yes. It's not like, it's not like she was like, rocketed ahead of your knowledge somehow. No,

Anonymous Speaker 22:23
okay, no. And that that's what I remember talking to the mediator about, because he would go back and forth. And he walked into the room one time, he said, and he I remember him saying to me, she says the number, his numbers are all screwed up when he's with you. And I pulled out my phone, I pulled out the app we were using to track his numbers. We used to use this app for logging food and insulin shots and things like that, and his blood sugar when we at meal times. And I pulled out the phone and said, Okay, look, two days ago, he was with her at her house, under her care. Breakfast time, his blood sugar was 240 lunchtime, his blood sugar, and she gave him insulin for it. She gave him this much insulin lunch time he was still over 200 and like, that particular day, I guess, coincidentally, was kind of a crappy day for his blood sugar, but it was under her care. Of like I was looking at, looking at what she did, and like I would have done the same thing. I don't think I would have done anything different, but his blood sugar was still high.

Scott Benner 23:21
Yeah. Now you're in that horrible situation where you're like, look, here's an instance, based on how you're measuring this, that she didn't do a good job. But let me be honest and tell you, I wouldn't have done anything different than she was doing. This thing is just variable, and to try to say that one of us is better than the other is ridiculous.

Anonymous Speaker 23:37
Yes, exactly. That's the point I made to him, and he hit with him, seeing the chart like that, he he got it, but it took a few more hours before what finally did it was because we had been the mediator. Had been going back and forth between us. We were in different rooms in the building. Yeah,

Scott Benner 23:54
I'm not laughing, but it's kind of hilarious. But I know like, your mediator is going

Anonymous Speaker 23:59
back and forth. And towards the end of the day, he's like, I have a Hail Mary. I have some I have an idea. Let's get you in the room with the lawyer, with her and her lawyer, all of us down at the same table. And let me ask you about the diabetes because, because I had already, like, spent the day teach, teaching him about diabetes management as much as I knew. And so we did that. So we all sat down in a room. He asked me how I managed diabetes. I explained again about insulin carb ratios and measuring blood sugar and all the basic stuff you you learn at the beginning. And the lawyer, her lawyer, also asked me a few questions about how I how I manage and and all of that. And then, after that conversation, their attitude changed. I don't know what happened in the other room, but after

Scott Benner 24:48
you're a classic divorced dad the way you're so, so kind when you're talking, because I feel like I know what happened. It sounds like they went in the other room and went like, Hey, I think you might be fully here, because this all now that we. Understand it better. Seems like this, but you don't have to say that. That's just how it seems to me from the story that

Anonymous Speaker 25:04
could have been. The other thing that crossed my mind is like, hey, we don't want to put him on a stand. He actually doubts, like he knows what he's talking

Scott Benner 25:10
about. Oh yeah, yeah. We maybe, let's just be smart about this, or we're going to cause ourselves a different problem somewhere else.

Anonymous Speaker 25:18
Yeah, I got you. That's the best thing, because I do speak well, like, and I knew what I was talking about. I could rattle everything off, off top my head and explain things. And so I speak, well, yeah,

Scott Benner 25:30
I would love to be in a mediation, not for this, because this sounds horrible, but like, I love, I would love to argue about something, anything really just be sounds like it would be awesome, not if it's about your personal life, but the mediation

Anonymous Speaker 25:41
was so boring, though, like we were sitting in the room the media would come talk to us for a little bit and get our side and like, Okay, you got your list of assets and things, and get your side of the story, then go back to the other room and talk to them for a while. And I was just hanging out by a lawyer, just waiting. What's

Scott Benner 25:57
it like buying a house and you already own a house is the worst thing that's ever happened to

Unknown Speaker 26:02
you. I haven't bought a

Anonymous Speaker 26:03
house yet. I've been renting the last couple of years. I'm starting to think about it, especially because a couple years ago, mortgage rates were terrible. Yeah,

Scott Benner 26:13
that was the time. Oh, that's

Anonymous Speaker 26:15
the one thing when, when we were still married, when COVID hit, interest rates plummeted, right? So I got her house refinance and got us a mortgage rate I want to see under 2%

Scott Benner 26:27
Oh, a joy, except it's not your house anymore. Not

Anonymous Speaker 26:30
Not anymore. She got the house. Oh my gosh, the worst. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking now, like, am I gonna buy a house, giving

Scott Benner 26:37
a house to somebody? But yeah, you can imagine it just, I'm, I'm thinking about it. It's breaking my heart. Just Just,

Anonymous Speaker 26:43
just terrible. I lost that 2% interest rate. That's exactly

Scott Benner 26:47
the part that would bother me. I'd be like, but I got such a nice rate. Oh, good for you, by the way. Nice refinance. Good catch. Yeah, it was good timing. I refinanced during COVID too. I saw it coming. I was like, hey, get some free money. Okay, so you get through mediation, and now you've got, now you got a rhythm setting. Now the kid can stay with you like so what do you do? How do you set it up? At the

Anonymous Speaker 27:13
time, we were doing one week on with both kids, one week without the kids. So kids, both kids are with me for a week. Both kids are with her for a week. We did that for about a year. We've changed to a slightly different schedule since then, but we were getting to that rhythm of, okay, I have both kids for a week managing the diabetes. When the kids with me, it's all on me. I was doing everything, waking up at night, daytime checks like around when the school year started. We also got the Omnipod. He was starting on the Omnipod. I was the one pushing for the Omnipod, or at least some insulin pump. I was open to anything at that point, if you wanted Omnipod for two, for being for being tubeless, fine with me. I don't really care. I, although I am interested in tandems algorithm, I'm, I'm hopeful for OmniPods next algorithm, because the current algorithm, I think, is not

Scott Benner 28:02
aggressive enough you want. You want Omnipod five to be more aggressive with highs, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. Is that enough to make you switch?

Anonymous Speaker 28:12
If I was making the decision alone, I would probably switch. Okay, I would probably get

Scott Benner 28:18
try loop. Oh, okay, move to a DIY

Anonymous Speaker 28:21
I could see either doing loop or eyelet, like, right, either all the controls in the world, or give me none of them and do everything. Oh,

Scott Benner 28:30
break that down for me. Tell me how I'm because that's pretty. That's two pretty opposite feelings. So,

Unknown Speaker 28:35
yeah, it's if

Anonymous Speaker 28:38
it works well, if it works the way it says. They say it does, and I doesn't require input, and it's it's easy to manage that. That's a dream. Like I want the diabetes to not take up so much time and energy and focus like that. That's ideal for the pump to just do everything by itself. And I just, we just live our lives like when they get the BI hormonal pump, I'm gonna start pushing for it. Okay,

Scott Benner 29:07
your imagination is that in the future islet has a bi hormonal pump that can bring up a low and maybe has a more aggressive algorithm that's shooting closer to six than to seven. And, yeah, that's what you then, then it's kind of hands free.

Unknown Speaker 29:22
Yeah, much more

Anonymous Speaker 29:23
so yeah, but I could also see doing the management and the hands on the loop, being able to, like, Bolus remotely, is is interesting to me, like, because at school, his blood sugar runs too high, and they don't do enough to take care of it sometimes. So

Scott Benner 29:39
it's hard for me to remember sometimes that you're talking about like a six year old and I'm talking about a 20 year old. It's funny. The rest of what you said tracks for me as well. Like, I think if you told Arden that a tubeless pump had the ability to stop her from being low and all she had to do was tell it like this is a normal meal. I mean, I don't. See a world where she wouldn't say, Yeah, let's try that. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So. And anyway, I'm glad people are chasing everything, and I want to say I agree with you. I think Omnipod should try to make their algorithm more aggressive. I've

Anonymous Speaker 30:11
had some interesting conversations with the reps about that. I'm sure everybody feels

Scott Benner 30:15
that way. Just in the end, the way it addresses highs is a little slow, and that gets you higher highs and longer to come back down. And we all know the pump can do it because people using a DIY version of an algorithm are using it with an Omnipod, and it's working great. So, right,

Anonymous Speaker 30:30
exactly. Yeah, yeah. So we've settled into this routine where I have him for half the time and I'm taking care of him, and she hasn't for half the time she'd take care of him. I've learned a lot from listening to you and Jenny and Erica and every all the other guests you've had on the show. I haven't listened every episode. Listened to a lot, but I have learned so much more about how to how to deal with this, how to count carbs, and I don't even part, barely even count carbs anymore. A lot more. Just look at the food and guess kind of thing. I took the kids to the Renaissance Fair on the weekend. Okay, we were having lunch, and my kid got steak on a stick. Okay, tell me for steak on a stick. I took a guess or gave him, like, a unit or something. I don't remember exactly. It's like, All right, let's just see how this goes. And ended up working out fine. Yeah,

Scott Benner 31:25
you're able to cover the cover the protein and any maybe fat that was in there. And yeah, it's awesome. I'm gonna guess the answer is no to this. But have you ever broached the subject of listening to the podcast with your ex?

Anonymous Speaker 31:36
I mentioned it. She said she's listened to it once or twice. Got the feeling she doesn't like it. Oh,

Scott Benner 31:41
nobody likes me. That's okay. It's fine. Sorry. No, don't worry about it. I mean. And

Anonymous Speaker 31:45
so I've listened to podcasts, I've learned so much more about how to manage so I've learned to manage highs pretty well. Where my ex wife has concerns is she feels like I end up with too many lows, too many very lows. That's what I get in trouble for in the endocrinologist appointments. We go to the appointments together, by the

Scott Benner 32:06
way. Oh, awesome. What do we call low and very low? What are those numbers?

Anonymous Speaker 32:10
Low is under 70 very low is under 55 okay. Oh, my God,

Scott Benner 32:14
you just unlocked a fear me having to go to an endocrinologist appointment with my ex, like that doesn't I'm sure, for her, by the way, as well, but I'm just saying like that does not sound fun. We go

Anonymous Speaker 32:25
to every appointment together. We always have Okay, and so she gets concerned about the lows, especially overnight lows. She will call me in the middle of night if, if his blood sugar goes too low. I have a sugar pixel on my nightstand. It wakes me up. The vibration Puck is under my pillow. I'm already awake. I wake up, I take care of it, but she will usually call me anyway in the middle night if there's a low. And when we're talking, when we when I say there's a lot of lows overall, long term, the chart of how much he's in range, how much he's low and all that, it's about 1% in the very low category and maybe three or 4% in the low category. I

Scott Benner 33:04
mean, you're telling me that three or 4% of the time he's between 55 and 70 and 1% of the time he's under 55 Yeah. I mean, that sounds like everybody who has diabetes to me,

Anonymous Speaker 33:14
right? Yeah. And so they get on my case about that awesome,

Unknown Speaker 33:18
yeah, kind of fun, but I managed to

Anonymous Speaker 33:21
keep him in range 75 80% of the time. Usually, yeah, then I look at her charts, or like her that, look at when she has him. She does very good with lows and very low just like sometimes no very low, sometimes no lows even,

Speaker 1 33:36
is there a pot here? Yes,

Scott Benner 33:41
of course, but it's because he's always 220

Anonymous Speaker 33:45
not 220 but like 160 Oh, okay, but 160 and then a lot of excursions up to two, up to 220 he's with her. He's very high, maybe 15% of the time, and then high, like 25% of the time. And you very high, it's like 5% and high, like 10% something like that, if all the numbers add up.

Scott Benner 34:06
I mean, I feel like we know which side of this argument I'm on. But okay, that gets to

Anonymous Speaker 34:10
why. I kind of wish Omnipod was more aggressive, because I don't really know how she manages highs. I get the feeling she lets the Omnipod deal with it. Oh, I see. I don't, I don't agree with that. I want to, I try to prevent a hive as soon as I see it start,

Scott Benner 34:25
yeah. So it's just two, it's two differences in theory, right there. Like, she's like, it'll go up and come back and you're like, I can stop it from going up, yes. So if you got a little better at getting ahead of the lows, nobody could bitch at you anymore. And I

Anonymous Speaker 34:38
don't mean like, Yeah, I've been, I've been trying to, I've been trying that, trying to overcome that,

Scott Benner 34:41
yeah, also I want to say I didn't use bitch at you as like, a gender thing, just,

Anonymous Speaker 34:45
you know, yeah, that's for the other listeners who are going to write reviews,

Scott Benner 34:49
right? I don't want to. I'm not a misogynist. I bitch at people all the time. Okay, yeah, I just want to be clear. All right, wow, boy. This sucks. I.

Speaker 1 35:00
Yeah, yeah, oh my god, yeah.

Scott Benner 35:03
But it also Joking aside, it sounds like you guys are doing a really reasonable job. Like, in the end, the kids doing well,

Anonymous Speaker 35:11
yeah, his a 1c is in the low sevens, like, so I think 7.3 last time,

Scott Benner 35:16
yeah. What's the offset there? What's his a 1c if he's with you for a week versus her with a week. I don't know how to

Anonymous Speaker 35:22
calculate that, but if I had to guess, probably six, probably 1% lower with me, 1% higher with her. Okay,

Scott Benner 35:27
so you're offsetting. You think if he was with her constantly, she'd have more of a high seven, high seven, maybe an eight, an eight. You're offsetting. There's no way to ask him how he feels. He's seven now, yeah, you don't know, so

Anonymous Speaker 35:42
I'm trying to work with him on Hey, when your phone beeps like, Hey, check it.

Scott Benner 35:48
Good luck. I'm still working on that

Anonymous Speaker 35:52
at home. Like he checks his numbers with me. Like, when his phone beeps, he'll check his numbers and he'll tell me what the number is like, okay, it's a little high. Why don't you check the Omnipod controller. Press use sensor. Tell me if it thinks you should get insulin. He does it. It says point one, five. All right, go for it. Do that. Yeah. I want to get him in the habit of, like, okay, he's high. Just see what Omnipod wants to do and do that. Like, that'll be a good starting point, yeah. Oh, it'd

Scott Benner 36:16
be awesome. But, you know, there are people listening who've had diabetes for 35 years. Just heard you say that and go, Yeah, I'm still working on that, too. That's an ongoing battle, a human battle. Really, listen, I think you guys should be proud of how it's going. I've interviewed divorced people that don't go nearly as well, so you're handling it well. Also, you guys have a certain kind of disposition that you were able to be divorced but stay in the house for that long together?

Anonymous Speaker 36:43
Yeah, I was pretty fine with it. She was pretty angry. One of the time was

Scott Benner 36:49
that a financial thing, is that the reason you did it,

Anonymous Speaker 36:51
I didn't want to be away from my kids, yeah, and I also worked from home at that point, even when the divorce started, like I want the house because I work here, and I didn't want to move and I wanted that 2% interest rate, yeah,

Scott Benner 37:05
okay. I mean, I get the solar

Anonymous Speaker 37:07
panels back in 2017 god

Scott Benner 37:09
damn it. I bought solar.

Anonymous Speaker 37:15
And honestly, like when COVID started, I would they, everybody had to work from home, and I haven't been forced to go back yet. So I was still working from home. I work here. This is my office. I want to stay. Yeah,

Scott Benner 37:28
what was the level of if I'm wrong about this, that just set me straight or tell me it's none of my business, but am I getting the vibe that you came home from work one day, which is to say, walked out of a room and somebody looked at you and said, I don't want to be married anymore. And you were like, What? What was that? How it happened? Or no, it wasn't like that. You saw it coming.

Anonymous Speaker 37:46
I was an asshole. I had a lot of problems. Gotcha

Scott Benner 37:49
All right. There you go. Look at you trying to get the ladies on your side with that statement. Very well done. They're like every woman listening right now is like, I would just one day like some guy to walk into a room and just admit that he's an asshole.

Anonymous Speaker 38:04
Yeah? And I was, I was walking through life, not really thinking about anything, focused on myself, a very selfish, self centered person, and there were difficulties in our marriage because of that, because of that, yeah, and I decided to start working on myself. So it's Hey, this leads to the other topic. I was never a heavy drinker, except back in college, but I had other issues going on that led me to 12 step recovery programs. And doing that, I also realized I'm an alcoholic, so I've been sober seven years now, and those difficulties that I caused seven years ago. She was not able to get past culturally,

Scott Benner 38:44
you guys the same background.

Anonymous Speaker 38:47
No,

Scott Benner 38:49
wait, wait, stop, stop. I knew it. I knew it. Oh, my God, can I generalize for a minute? Okay, you're of Indian descent, right? Yes, okay. And so when you talked about being very like, I'm gonna open up a can of worms here for people who think I'm generalizing, but I have a lot of Indian friends, so give me a minute. When you talked about just being focused on yourself, like, I have to admit, I did not know your background right away. I know you. I see what you look like and everything, but let's be honest, you're a little fluid. You could be a couple of things. Is that fair to say? Yeah, right, visually, so. But when you said I was very focused on myself, and then when the addiction thing was drinking, I was like, Oh, he's he's Indian. And then when, when she pushed back on you being too focused on yourself, I thought she's not, because culturally, that's very acceptable. Am I wrong about any of that? No, no, you're not wrong. Yeah. Like Indian women, generally speaking, expect that from their husbands on some level. Yeah,

Anonymous Speaker 39:48
divorce is very rare in India. My parents are divorced. Oh, really, which is, I can't think of anyone else in the family that's divorced, except my parents and me. Do you

Scott Benner 39:58
think it was because your dad? Up as an asshole, or what do

Anonymous Speaker 40:02
you think the story that I got growing up was that

Speaker 1 40:05
dad had an affair? Oh, well, that'll do it. I don't know

Anonymous Speaker 40:09
the truth. I don't know. Oh, I just overheard things from mom, and to this day, I don't really know he did marry the woman that he supposedly had an affair with. So I don't know fair

Scott Benner 40:19
enough, but people's lives, no, no, but people's lives are so interesting. Talk about a little bit about what that was like. Were you like, work focused, or was it something? No, it was. It was very inward and drinking. You said,

Anonymous Speaker 40:32
uh, yeah, my primary addiction is pornography. No kidding,

Scott Benner 40:37
yeah, you know how sometimes I say you're the first person to say that on the podcast. Okay, I'm saying it again, but that's very honest. I appreciate that so Oh, and that was something she was aware of, yeah, but she didn't know how bad it was. I see, I see, let me say again, how valuable it is for you to be that honest. Because I know you online. I see how much that kid and your family means to you and everything, and I think that people would have been people be like, Oh, drinking, I get it. Like, you know what I mean. But then also you're being very like, It's brave, I guess, to say that, because that's the thing. People aren't going to go like, Oh, yeah, okay, I get it, yeah, yeah. It doesn't get talked about enough. Yeah. How does that separate you from your family? Just a lot of alone time,

Anonymous Speaker 41:24
basically, yeah, very focused on the content on my phone.

Scott Benner 41:29
Wow. When did that start? Do you think, Oh,

Anonymous Speaker 41:32
I was exposed to pornography when I was like eight years old, and it probably started then, too

Scott Benner 41:40
young, yeah, for sure, yeah, wow. And that's because of us. How old are you? Oh, it

Anonymous Speaker 41:45
was very similar to a story I heard you tell recently. I I'm two months behind on the podcast. Oh, magazines in the woods. You talked about the cable box. Oh,

Scott Benner 41:55
the cable box. Oh yeah, yeah.

Anonymous Speaker 41:57
That was, that's, that's what it was for me too. Well. Figured out, you we had the black box cable box, but the channel was blocked. Figured out, if you go to the channel above, but the TV on channel two instead of channel three, then it comes in all blurry. Did you

Scott Benner 42:12
figure out that if you slide the plastic card through the top, move it around, you could make it come in better? No, no, that was specific to ours. Yeah, I also had the story of which I still feel stupid for. But we found the the books like, you know, the books we found pornography in the woods, like some kids had hidden it out there. And we were so young, we like, we told our parents. And now I look back and I realized my dad probably walked out in the woods and was like, Oh, awesome. Is it a thing you can joke about now? Like, how far past it are you? And what's the process to get through it?

Anonymous Speaker 42:47
Yeah, I joke about it. I started a 12 step recovery program that led to me doing other recovery work. And a couple years into me trying to change my behavior of my life. She was tired of it was tired. I don't know. I couldn't fully tell you what was going on with her. I can tell you I was trying. I was trying to change. Yeah, I was aware that I had problems. Tulsa programs, they're a lot of work, right? They really teach you how to look inward. So I was starting that process. I was pretty new to it, yeah,

Scott Benner 43:23
and she had had an Can I ask, Did did it keep you from being intimate with her? Yeah? Oh, wow. Okay, yeah, yeah, I got you. It was easier, easier, oh, than having to deal with somebody else's emotions to get to the end. Yeah, yeah. What did you figure out about your personality that let you slip farther down that road than other people do? I

Anonymous Speaker 43:48
I have a hole in me that I keep trying to fill with something else. And when I was in college, when I was like a young adult,

Scott Benner 43:59
that was alcohol. It's drinking. You drank a lot later, when pornography

Anonymous Speaker 44:04
became ubiquitous,

Scott Benner 44:07
it really is readily available. Yeah, I

Anonymous Speaker 44:09
switched. And what it comes down to is there's something in me that I'm not happy with, that I feel incomplete, and I keep trying to fill the void with something else, and I have a tendency to just reach for anything that feels better in the moment I see it was alcohol, it was porn, it was video games, sometimes it was whatever. It was people, sometimes it was my wife, sometimes it was work, sometimes like sometimes work filled the void. Yeah, but I've learned that nothing fills the void. Nothing, nothing in this

Speaker 1 44:48
world fills the void. Did you ever get the opportunity to ask your dad about it? A

Anonymous Speaker 44:52
little bit when I was getting divorced, I called my dad and asked some questions, but. Yeah, that's, that's when I started questioning and my own recollection of events, because he told stories differently than I remember them. Yeah, and I, I was a kid. I don't know if my memory is correct. I don't know if his memory is correct. That that left me like, starting to question even the story of their divorce. I don't know, but haven't really got farther into it. Yeah, I don't have a good relationship with my parents right now.

Scott Benner 45:29
I'm sorry. I um, I'll tell you that. You know, my parents got divorced when I was 13. My dad had been cheating on my mom, like, for a decade, so it was easy to just paint him with that brush. And, you know, there it is. And I'm sure that's how my mom felt and everything. But you know, you meet my dad 20 years later, and he talks about being married after I've been married for 15 years. And I'm like, some of that stuff he's saying sounds reasonable, and then you start realizing that nothing my mom said was incorrect, nothing my dad said was incorrect. They were just two different people who had two different perspectives in a personal relationship. And, like, if I get your ex on here right now, she's gonna go, Yeah, well, my ex husband was addicted to porn and he ignored us, and I'm gonna go, Oh, she's got her perspective and her life too, which is what I think makes those, those mediation so difficult, because neither of you are wrong while you're in there talking, and yet you have to come to some sort of an agreement. That's tough, you know, like, that's tough stuff. I was just wondering if your dad maybe had some similar gaps in his psychological health that maybe you identified with. But I guess you didn't get to that with him. Yeah, I don't really know on that part. Yeah, I understand. So what do you fill it with? Now, I guess recovery work. Oh, I wish you would have said meth. That would have been hilarious. But

Anonymous Speaker 46:46
I go to meetings every day. I have friends in recovery program, in my recovery programs, and good for you. Try to keep working on that. And I feel it with my kids. I fill it with my I've developed new friends and trying to get out more. I do volunteer work on the weekends, so I'm trying to find ways to fill the time and they're enjoyable.

Scott Benner 47:08
Do you drink anymore or not at all? No sober

Anonymous Speaker 47:11
seven and a half years. So

Scott Benner 47:12
then my follow up question to that is the porn thing follow the same pathway, like is a little not okay? Or can you be California sober with weed, like you are with weed, with porn.

Anonymous Speaker 47:24
I don't know. It's ongoing struggles.

Scott Benner 47:28
I got you. Yeah, so there's, it's not as easy as just like, well, I just won't do that ever again. Yeah,

Anonymous Speaker 47:35
yeah. It's not quite it's very easy to access and

Scott Benner 47:40
slippery slopey, when you a little bit, I didn't mean whatever pun is in that Sure, yes, it could be a slippery slope. Yes. About that man, that's tough. Are you dating anybody? No, but a thing that occurs you to try.

Anonymous Speaker 47:54
I'm on Dating Pro, dating apps. I'm trying to get myself out there like that's something I was gonna ask you something I was thinking about bringing up because you do your I don't understand series. I don't understand how to date. As a 39 year old is divorced with kids like, just don't understand what

Scott Benner 48:12
you're well, listen, you got to find somebody who's as dinged up as you are, because they'll also be accepting you understand, like, I I'm not trying to be funny, like we were, God, how much of this am I gonna say?

Anonymous Speaker 48:24
Dating app for parents, for single parents? Yeah.

Scott Benner 48:26
I mean, honestly, like, you don't like, you're not gonna go pick up a Kardashian at this point. You know what I mean? Like, like, people are no one listened to this. I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but people make allowances when they choose other people. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, if you're six, five and chiseled out of stone, and you got an IQ in the 120s and you're making 200 a year, you don't go to Arby's and ask out the girl making the the fries, right? It just doesn't work that way. Could you, could you meet her somewhere and fall in love with her? You absolutely could, but, like, that's just not how people do things. So yeah, if 100 is is full, and you got to take a point off for everything that people find undesirable, you've got to score. You got to go find somebody with a similar score to yours. Yeah, see what I'm saying. Otherwise they'll be like, Well, why would I do this with you? I could maybe go do it with somebody else. It's a weird way to think about people, but I think it's right. I think that's how we make decisions on stuff like that.

Anonymous Speaker 49:22
Yeah, I kind of get it. So I'm trying to do things to keep myself busy, try to put myself in new places where I can meet new people. And the dating apps are terrible. Have you

Scott Benner 49:34
ever figured just going thinking of going the other way? Why don't you jump up in the dating app and be like, Listen, I've got a pretty significant porn addiction. If you do too, I think we'd be perfect together, like, you just go on, like, a, like, a bender together. You know what I mean?

Anonymous Speaker 49:47
Yeah, I don't, but I don't want to, I don't want to talk

Scott Benner 49:51
off the defense, yeah, wow. It really is that serious, huh? Yeah, yeah. I'm making light of it, but it's like, because what I'm thinking is, like. That was a drinking thing. Like, you wouldn't go on the app and go, Look, I'm a recovering alcoholic, but I don't feel like pushing back anymore. Like, who wants to dive off a cliff with me at the end there? It ruins your life. It ruins your liver. It ruins all those kinds of things. But the porn thing is going to ruin something too, isn't it?

Speaker 1 50:15
Yeah, it ruins your spirit. Is that what it is? No, yeah. Wow.

Scott Benner 50:19
Just demoralizing.

Anonymous Speaker 50:21
Well, it, at least for me, it, it's such, like you said, a slippery slope that nothing else matters eventually, oh, like

Scott Benner 50:31
a black hole where you just, like, everything else is gone. Just porn, yeah. Can I ask a question? Does it ramp up like, you know, you start off with, yeah, you start off with weed, then you go to Coke, then you go to like, like, I mean, are there points where you're typing in and you're like, I can't believe I'm even trying to figure out if these words go together, yeah, of course. Oh, that sucks, man. I'm sorry. Yeah, no, it's probably tough to get a hug from somebody over this, huh?

Unknown Speaker 50:57
Yeah, that 12

Scott Benner 50:59
step meeting must be dodgy, as am I wrong?

Anonymous Speaker 51:04
Yeah, I ended up in a different program. You know, as I was getting as I was trying to get better, she came to me and admitted to her own indiscretions.

Scott Benner 51:15
Oh, no, your wife was cheating, yeah. Oh, in response to you, ignoring her, not even in she was tired

Anonymous Speaker 51:30
of feeling angry at me, and that was how she could feel better. Wow,

Scott Benner 51:34
so much easier for a woman to find casual sex and a guy, that's for sure. Yeah, because you were like, how do I date again? The answer is, be a lady. That's the simple way. Oh, how long was that going on? More More importantly, forget that. Did she tell you after you were divorced? No, no, during the marriage, did it even though you were ignoring her? Did it hurt that she did something equally crappy to you at this

Anonymous Speaker 52:03
point, I was trying to get better. So, yes, oh,

Scott Benner 52:08
I was in recovery programs by then. Why did she tell you? Oh, she was asking for permission. Oh, she's like, I wait. She's like, I did this. I want to do it more. Be cool with it. Yeah, basically, Oh, Jesus. I thought maybe, like, I wasn't sure if she was trying to hurt trying to hurt you or if she was trying to unburden herself. I couldn't figure out which it is. I don't know either. Yeah, that's tough. The only reason I can imagine to go to the person to tell them is to either unburden my guilt or to hurt them. Like, I can't see another reason. Yeah,

Anonymous Speaker 52:38
and to this day, I don't really know what she did or anything like that. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I know what she asked for. I know what she told me and but I don't know what was really going on.

Scott Benner 52:50
Do you care at this point, years later? Sometimes, wow, that sucks too. I try not to, because

Anonymous Speaker 52:58
the conclusion I came to because I ended up in a recovery program for people who are cheated on, basically, to put it short, most people in the program are that way. I was working on that, working on it from that angle, and came to a point where I realized it didn't matter what happened in the past, what mattered is, where is she now, and what does she want for the future? Are you willing to work on our communication and build trust between us or not? If you are great, let's just put the path behind us, and let's work on, on, work things out, if, if you're not well, whatever happened doesn't matter anyway. Let's just end this. Yeah,

Scott Benner 53:46
do you wish you guys would have tried harder, like you wish you would have been interested. Or do you you? Do you think it was salvageable?

Anonymous Speaker 53:54
I think so. Yeah, I know people in my recovery programs who've been through so much worse and gotten through

Unknown Speaker 54:01
it together. Man, you're a good dude,

Scott Benner 54:03
which is a weird thing to say after you've admitted all this stuff, but like you're like, you feel like you have a good soul. Does that make sense? Thank you. Yeah. Do you feel that way about yourself? Do you think you're like, an internally kind person? Yes, yeah, I do too. That's interesting. Yeah, you don't want, you don't want to paint people by the things they've done or been drawn into, or mistakes they've made. Sometimes, I think you just need to see that who you are and that there are just a lot of roadblocks between you and and being the person you want to be every day. Yeah, yeah. So is this as simple as, like you're in therapy, like you look back, did you just like growing up, just not fulfilled somehow, from your parents? I

Anonymous Speaker 54:46
don't know if it's that simple that plays into it. You talked about the ACES with Erica. Yeah, that's part of it, of course. I don't know if it's all the whole story neglect growing up my parents, I didn't feel. My parents were around enough, especially after the divorce. And yeah, there was, Do you

Scott Benner 55:04
have a classic Indian upbringing? Like, did you leave school, go to more school, come home, eat, get up, go to school. Well,

Anonymous Speaker 55:09
I grew up in LA, so lived in a like, oh, you know, white suburbs,

Scott Benner 55:16
yeah. So no, not really around here where I live. I mean, every Indian kid's got the same look on their face, which is, I can't believe I know how to code, and I'm 11, and you know, a lot of expectation for them, like a lot. Yeah, there

Anonymous Speaker 55:30
was some expectations, but not a lot. I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say a lot, although, yeah, I have a check on my shoulder, because, you know, I always felt like I wasn't good enough. I don't know if I could say there was a lot of expect. Lot of expectations, but it was always do better.

Scott Benner 55:45
You weren't meeting them if they're no matter what they were, as far as they were concerned. Basically, yeah,

Anonymous Speaker 55:49
it was a little bit of like, All right, good job. You ending on the test next time

Scott Benner 55:53
get 100 are your parents first generation or second? I was the first born in the country. You were the first. Okay? So they made it. They were like, We did it. We got here. Like, yeah, now go take advantage of all this stuff that we're supposed to do now, yeah, do better than me. Don't let us down. Yeah, that's and then they get divorced, and then your time is split, so that must weigh on you. Let's be a bummer here for a second. That's got to weigh on you incredibly. Like, you don't want your kids to feel that way. So what do you absolutely

Anonymous Speaker 56:21
yeah, it was that was part of why I was so adamant on on trying to work things out. I remember how hard that was for me as a kid, and I didn't want to put my kids through that.

Scott Benner 56:32
Yeah, your story makes more sense as we dig into it. Yeah. No, seriously, what do you do? And my first question is, is your ex still angry at you? Or is that part over

Speaker 1 56:43
for her? Seems like she's still angry. Yeah, not sure. I

Scott Benner 56:47
would be. I want to be clear. I'd still be angry at you, but you're trying to get to this goal of not letting this thing happen to your kids. But she does not have that experience growing up in your life to know that that's a thing to worry about. Or does she her parents are divorced as well, I see you guys are both on the same page about this part. Then

Anonymous Speaker 57:03
her story is a little bit different. The parts that I know, what I see happening in our interactions now is it feels to me like she projects her feelings and her attitudes towards her father to onto me as her father passed a long time ago before I ever met her, so I never had a chance to meet him. She has told me that he was addicted to everything, alcohol, drugs, sex, everything, and he left, or I'm not totally sure on the divorce story, but when they got divorced, he was gone, he was out of her life, and he never got better. He was it was an addict to lead that, yeah, when we when you're when we interact, I feel like she is projecting her feelings toward him onto me, and sees me that same way that I'm an addict. I'm always gonna be like, I'm never gonna get better. I

Scott Benner 57:56
think people do that in general. It's just that's such a big topic. It's probably more impactful, like, I think, you know, I mean, listen, I'm from a divorced household, and I'm adopted, right? So my wife had to deal with the fact that, like, anytime anyone argued when we were first together, I thought everything was over, yeah? So I'd panic that way, because, like, I'd be like, Oh no, we're disagreeing about something this. Talk about slippery slopes. We're all gonna move out. No one's going to know each other. We're all going to like, you know, we're going to be broke and living in crappy places and not grow up. Well, yeah. Like, I was going to like, yeah. Like, speed forward into that thought. My wife told me a story a long time ago, and it seems to encapsulate mostly how she feel, like, how her parents treated her, right, like, about big stuff, but she said that there was this day that her dad was replacing a light switch, and she wanted to help, and so he let her screw the light switch cover on. And I've probably told this once before on the podcast, but as we all know, like the cover on a light switch only goes on one way. You can't fit it in correctly. It literally goes around the switch. If the screws go in, it's on correctly. So he let her do that, and she screwed in the screws, and the light switch was on, and then in front of her, he unscrewed them and then put them back on. If you ask me, one of the things my wife, like, still hurts about inside from growing up, it's that idea of like she's never doing a good enough job, like that thing. So that's the light switch thing is a story. But, like, she got that from her parents a lot, same thing as you you got a 98 why wasn't it 101 like that kind of stuff that just sticks to you. It just does. And then you see it in other people, whether it's there or not, especially when you're married. Like, you look up and you go, why are you doing this stuff? Like, you know, you think, like, why are you making me feel that way? But you don't realize you just feel that way from when you were eight, and it's just not going away. And so you start seeing it where sometimes it doesn't even exist. Yeah, and yeah, being alive is difficult. I'm not going to say otherwise. How old are you? By the way,

Anonymous Speaker 59:53
I'm 39 turning 40 this year. All

Scott Benner 59:56
of that story inside of 40 years. Yeah, yeah. Well. That's the good news, though, you got a lot of time left. Yeah, doesn't feel like it sometimes, but, yeah, you wake up 10 years from now and this thing, this all could be in your past. Yeah, that's true. I hear you, except I don't know what you're gonna do about that. That's a tough addiction. Like, I mean, listen, alcohol is not like on your phone, you know what? I mean? Like, at least you got to go buy it somewhere. Like, yeah, you probably can't even look at Instagram. Yeah, I don't everything's so sexual at this point. Like, everything. I've complained about it and joked about it a lot, but there's an entire generation of people that think that a job is like, bouncing, you know, and guys like doing thirst trap stuff and like, there's just, like, it's a culture at this point. So, yeah, it's only going to get worse, too, like, because the line keeps getting pushed and pushed like, you're 40, I'm 53 you probably could agree with this, but maybe, maybe your life is different. But I'm going to tell you that if you would have gone and found me 20 years ago and told me that a girl can make a living taking pictures of her feet, I'd be like, I don't understand what you're saying. Dude. I mean, like, I'd be like, no, wait, what? And then you'd have to explain the future to me in a way that I'd be like, oh, like, they sped up the delivery system for sex and digitized it. I was like, I'd have to be like, Oh, that's crazy. It's not a thing I would have been able to imagine. So my point is, is like, I don't know what is going to happen by the time I'm 63 but I'm guessing it's going to make what's happening now look like, like Romper Room compared to what's going to be so, I mean, I feel for you. I don't know. I don't know how the hell you're supposed to avoid that. Plus, on top of that, you're a person and you're, you know, of a healthy age, and I'm sure you have a sex drive. And I don't know, man, seems like a lot. What do you guys talk about in that group that that's valuable to you?

Unknown Speaker 1:01:47
How to deal with life,

Anonymous Speaker 1:01:49
how to deal with life on life's terms,

Scott Benner 1:01:51
because, because, why? Because, what happens that moves you in the direction you don't want to go. When

Anonymous Speaker 1:01:58
things don't go the way I want, then I try to control and manage and fix things and will it to be the way that I think it should be. And so what I get from the program is learning to accept reality, except that things are the way they're they're meant to be, and that I don't know what's best, and I'm along for the ride.

Scott Benner 1:02:22
And so if you feel like that and you slip and you take a drink, for example, like, what does taking the drink accomplish when you feel like the way you just described? That's

Anonymous Speaker 1:02:32
what happens when I forget about the things I learned in recovery program. Okay, you know, I'm trying to fix, manage and control my life again.

Scott Benner 1:02:40
How does a drink give you control back? That's what I don't understand. Feel better in the moment. It's a quick fix. Everything's out of control. But I know if I take this drink and I hear that ice click that glass, and then I get this vibe from it, and I'm at least at a known quantity place, I put myself back, okay? And the porn does the same thing. Yeah? Interesting. You ever gamble like you ever slipped down that one I used to play poker? Did that do the same thing to a lesser extent? Yeah? Okay, ready? Here's a weird question. Does managing diabetes give you any of that vibe? Yeah, a little bit. I hear that from people sometimes, yeah, yeah. It's weird to think that your kids probably gonna have a better health outcome, you know, because of the way you're better control things, yeah, because you want to control things, that's really something. Wow, my God, is there anything we haven't talked about that we should have? Like, what am I missing here? Because I'm out of my depth on like, six different things. We

Anonymous Speaker 1:03:37
didn't talk about my Hashimotos, which I was recently diagnosed with for my

Scott Benner 1:03:41
GLP medication. So tell me about it. What did you figure out first that you the Hashimotos,

Anonymous Speaker 1:03:47
Hashimotos six months ago, maybe so actually, I think the day that I scheduled this with you, I got the diagnosis from my doctor. I knew my TSH was high, and that had been tested before, but it was in range, so that that's what the doctors would tell me, it's in range, don't worry about it. So I went back and check because I listen listen to you and listen to some episodes about Hashimotos, about thyroid, and heard that it can be high and still have these symptoms, these issues. So looked into it again and found out that when they said it was in range, it was in range, it was actually 3.7 so I found a new doctor. I was trying to schedule with my doctor, and I screwed up and ended up with a brand new doctor. Technology, I don't know. I was like on an app to schedule with my doctor, and I picked the wrong clinic, I guess, and ended up with a brand new doctor. Happened to

Scott Benner 1:04:40
me with a haircut once, but I noticed. I know what you're saying. I showed up, and I'm like, Who are you? But yeah, I got, you got

Anonymous Speaker 1:04:47
to see doctor. I was like, my TSH is high. I want to be tested for and my kid, and my kid has diabetes, diabetes, so I want to be tested for the autoimmune stuff. So he didn't want to. I was like, what? Why not? What? Why shouldn't they do it? And he was like, they have to take your blood. I don't care about that. Take the blood.

Scott Benner 1:05:07
That's the barrier to entry. Okay, yeah.

Anonymous Speaker 1:05:09
Like, I remember asking, like, why not to do the test? And he had nothing, like, Okay, do the test. Then what are we talking about? The test and test the positive for the antibodies. So he said, so he said, You have Hashimotos? Okay? I got in touch with an endocrinologist office. I ended up just getting one on my own, just like, found one and like, Hey, I diagnosed with Hashimotos. Can I see an endocrinologist here? Like, they worked it out. I don't know what they did to do, but ended up seeing a new doctor for an endocrinologist, and he ran all the tests again, got me on Synthroid and switched to the generic level with thyroxine,

Scott Benner 1:05:53
got my TSH down to one point something, 1.5 I think, and you felt better. Yeah, I felt better. What symptoms did it clear up for you? Depression,

Anonymous Speaker 1:06:02
anxiety, aches, joint aches, those have gone away.

Scott Benner 1:06:07
Hindsight, how long do you think you lived like that? 30 years. Do you think that had anything to do with like, some of the troubles you had in your personal relationships? Yeah,

Anonymous Speaker 1:06:17
I wonder that. I don't know if I'll ever know the answer, but that that's crossed my mind. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:06:23
I imagine it does. So now, did that alone help you with any of your other problems that we talked about today? Or no, it didn't touch those. My

Anonymous Speaker 1:06:32
life gets better, better and better. It's progress. I'm working on getting better. So yeah, it's progress, not perfection. It's always get better. So no, for sure, yeah, yeah, I have less depression now, less anxiety, and all of it helps, the medication, the recovery stuff, all of it helps. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:06:51
no. People should look, especially people listening to this podcast. If you've got a bunch of autoimmune in your family, in your life, or whatever, you should look into your thyroid. Just make sure it's okay, because the anxiety, the depression that, you know, short tempered, like things like that, like all that could, you know, could be impacted there. Yeah, but how do you get to the GLP? Were you was your weight an issue?

Anonymous Speaker 1:07:11
A little bit? I, I had been on a roller coaster weight for last six years, or something. 2017 I used to weigh just over 200 pounds. I'd finally crossed 200 I was inching towards 210 I was like feeling terrible at myself, so I made a change. I changed my diet. Try to stick to your salad for lunch, and portion control and doing all that stuff. And it really did make a lot of changes. And I around that time, I cut out caffeine and soda. Mostly I drink it Sprite, maybe once a week. Now, made huge diet changes. Didn't really start exercise or anything. Towards the end, I was starting to run, but in four years, I lost 50 pounds. Wow, I was down to 160 pounds four years ago, then, with all the issues going on in my marriage, some other things happened. I found out some other stuff that didn't know, some snooping stuff, so they discovered some things. And I can pinpoint this takes my mind, because when I look at my weight over time, I can see there's a particular event that happened four years ago when my weight started increasing, really? Yeah, it was a traumatic discovery. Okay, so from that point, four years ago, I started gaining weight again, and now I'm coming up to 200 again. And so when divorce started, especially once I moved out, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna start going to the gym. I got a personal trainer. I was working on my diet, exercise increased protein, going to the gym three times a week, doing what you're supposed to do, and not making any progress. And

Scott Benner 1:08:47
this time, it didn't help. Yeah. So finally, a

Anonymous Speaker 1:08:52
month ago, they started young the GLP. I didn't get the name brand stuff. They put me on the compound. My insurance wouldn't cover it. Didn't

Scott Benner 1:09:01
that just change. Aren't they not allowed to compound it anymore? I don't know. I

Anonymous Speaker 1:09:05
got it a month ago. Oh, have a vial on my fridge.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:09
Which compound

Scott Benner 1:09:12
I'm saying that wrong? I don't want to be the bearer of bad news. Hold on a second. Oh, no. But in the meantime, tell me, like, tell me how that helped. It

Anonymous Speaker 1:09:21
helps my digestion. You talked about GLP deficiency. I think I have that too. Okay, because I was having for the past year and a half, I've been having digestion issues. And, like, not to be gross, but like, when I eat food, it comes out of me within two hours. Okay? I was hungry all the time. I was eating. I was trying to eat healthy snacks, but I was eating a lot, and think that's counter productive to trying to lose weight. Once I started the GLP medication. The next day, my bowels were working better. My hunger was decreased. I was feeling great. I. Uh, it just it made a night and day difference, like the as soon as I started taking the medication, my stomach seemed to be working correctly.

Scott Benner 1:10:11
Yeah. I mean, listen, it's it significantly bettered my life and my day to day. I got up this morning and I rode for a half an hour. That's like the first thing I did today, which is not a thing Scott used to do. I'll eat normally, eliminate normally. My energy is better everything. But I have to tell you, today is March 27 this article is three days three days old. Oh no, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have scored big wins from the FDA in recent months as the agency cracks down on copycat versions of their GLP one blockbusters now, as the battle with compound glps comes to an end, both pharma giants are ramping up their direct to consumer offerings in the obesity space. So the FDA declared last month that the shortage of semaglutide, the active ingredient for novos wegovi and ozempic, has been resolved a decision that restricts pharmacies from manufacturing compounded versions of the drug. The agency did the same for Lily trizepatide found in the obesity and diabetes meds that found in majaro late last year. So I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't know that you're going to be in the same boat the next time you try to get it against you should start looking now about what to do. Okay, yeah, so the idea was, is that if the FDA says there's a shortage of something, then compound pharmacies are allowed to make it. And it sounds like that the companies must have got together and, you know, with the FDA in court and said, Look, there's no shortage. And got the shortage designation lifted, and now you can't compound it sucks. Your insurance may be covered for other reasons. If I get fat or maybe that's not, that's not the way you want to go. I was gonna, I was gonna ask you this unrelated to this, but any type two in your family, your parents, your grandparents, anything like

Anonymous Speaker 1:11:59
that. My mom's type two I'm pre diabetic.

Scott Benner 1:12:03
Oh, Cha Ching, there you go. You get your GLP for that. Can't you? I don't know if I can. I'll try that, not for pre diabetes, maybe. But

Anonymous Speaker 1:12:10
yeah, that's what I mean about getting fat. Or if, if I let the diabetes go and push for type try to get myself type two diabetes, then I can maybe get it.

Scott Benner 1:12:20
What a system, huh? That's terrible. Yeah, can't get it to keep yourself from being pre diabetic. But listen, two years ago, someone in my extended family was told the same thing she was told by a doctor, if you can just get your a 1c up another point three, we can give it to you. So just, you know, yeah, just go, you know, do what you're doing and and keep ignoring your health, and come back in a month and we'll check, we'll check your a 1c again and see if we can't get you that GOP medication. I was like, Wow, what a system. Yeah, terrible. I might be in the same boat, Yeah, but you're paying cash for it, right? Yeah, I'm paying cash. Well, the truth is that at this point, I don't know what you're paying for, but the cash price might not be. I don't think it's what it

Anonymous Speaker 1:13:03
used to be. I want to say it was like six or $700 a month. What are you

Scott Benner 1:13:08
paying now? 150 that's a big difference. Yeah, no, never mind. It's not gonna be that cheap. Yeah, geez. I again, I did not want to be the bearer of bad news, yeah? But, but, as you said, and I thought, I think I know something. Let me check. Oh, man, I'm sorry that feels. I feel like I ruined your day. If somebody told me I couldn't have the magic juice anymore, I'd be devastated. So I feel like I know how you are feeling in the moment, and it's, yeah,

Anonymous Speaker 1:13:35
yeah. I have enough to ask me another month, I think, because I'm only on the 50 units now, and they've been doing 25 units, and they're set up at 50 units after four weeks. So

Scott Benner 1:13:48
yeah, are you trying to lose weight still? Are you just trying to get all those other benefits with digestion and all that other stuff both? Yeah, gonna say you can go down like, I don't know how you shoot it. Do you shoot it with a pen, or is it in a vial?

Anonymous Speaker 1:14:03
I have a needle, vial. I have a vial. Drop from the vial, injecting my stomach. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:14:09
I mean, you can try cutting back a little bit to make it last a little longer, to see if you can get some impact from it still. But you're in a situation where you're trying to go up and dose, not down. Well,

Anonymous Speaker 1:14:19
I've been doing great with the with the dose I've been

Speaker 1 1:14:22
on. Oh, all right, awesome. Yeah, so

Anonymous Speaker 1:14:25
maybe that's an option. Just stay at the low dose for longer. Try to

Scott Benner 1:14:28
buy yourself some more time to figure it out. I don't know what the answer I honestly, it's so new. I don't know what the answer is right now, but you should definitely do some Googling. Okay, yeah, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, that's okay. No, it's not, not after the conversation we had, I literally feel like it's my fault the next bad thing that happens to

Anonymous Speaker 1:14:49
you. Now, let's get me started on the path, on the journey, and so I try to make the best of the what I have left of it and see what happens next. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:15:00
I don't know what's gonna happen. I In the end, a lot of people are using it. I can't imagine that. They're just gonna freeze everybody out and nothing's gonna come of it. Somebody's gonna push back on the pushback at some point. So, yeah, I mean, or more insurance is gonna have to start covering it for different reasons. You've got to imagine, if you're the comp, if you're Lily and novo, you must be out there doing all kinds of, like, testing on all different kind of use scenarios. They had to have looked and said, what are people using this for? We got to get all this FDA approved because they want to sell it. Yeah, they're not in the business not selling that stuff. So, right?

Anonymous Speaker 1:15:33
So I guess that means maybe I'll be without it for a while, but hopefully down the road.

Scott Benner 1:15:41
Yeah, I can't see a world where they don't find every pathway available to selling it. Do you know what I mean? That sounds like dastardly, but like, and I'm sure it is on some levels, but also it is helping people with a ton of different things. What about people out there that are, like, I don't know, addressing their PCOS with it, or, you know, there's a lot of other reasons people are using it. It's helping them. I don't see a world where you can make people's lives that much better and then go, I was kidding, you know, like you can't have it, like something's gonna get worked out, is what I'm saying. But again, it's not fair for you in the meantime, and it certainly doesn't make it better. Yeah, okay, sorry about that. We've been talking for an hour and a half, so I'm going to tell you, thank you very much. I really appreciate this. It's funny. I knew you had an addiction recovery story, but it was a left turn for me. I didn't realize what you were going to say. And again, I just have to tell you, I think it was incredibly brave for it to share that, and I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Anonymous Speaker 1:16:37
Yeah, thanks. And one more mention, please, juice cruise coming up. I'm gonna be there. Oh, awesome. Gonna meet you on the cruise. Anybody listening? Come join us. Meet

Scott Benner 1:16:47
me. Yeah. No kidding. We're Yeah, yeah. Like, listen. I didn't know I could turn it into a dating thing for everybody. Yeah.

Anonymous Speaker 1:16:52
I was about to say that, but

Scott Benner 1:16:55
100 listeners myself, I'm so close to being able to say Erica is going to be there too. I'm working that out. Are going to we're going on a cruise together for was it five nights, right?

Anonymous Speaker 1:17:05
Yeah, I think so, five nights in June. Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. The kids will be Yeah, we're all set to go. I genuinely,

Scott Benner 1:17:11
we've been talking about it a lot this week. I had a couple of meetings about it this week, and we're setting up some sponsors so you guys get, like, you know, grab bags and stuff like that. And we're trying to get a couple other things set up. Cool. It's just really super exciting, like, we're already talking about doing it again next year. So wow, everyone who's involved in getting it going is super excited. I am genuinely, like, my wife said, What do you like? How do you see these five days for you? And I was like, Well, I just think I'm gonna get to meet a lot of people and talk to them and hear a lot of stories. And I was like, that's really kind of all I want out of it is, you know, just to meet everybody. And I think I can accomplish that in five days. It'll be a lot of I'm sure my voice will be shot somewhere around Thursday. I've met so many of you like digitally, and I've met so many of you like, in passing, at conferences and stuff like that. But like, just really, like, almost living together for a few days. I just think is another level of of getting to know people and and through getting to know them, you get more of the depth of their story. Because, I mean, you just did it over last 90 minutes, man, like you said things, you're not the only one. You know what I mean, there are plenty of people in your situation, and these just are not things that we talk about. And I think until we understand these things about each other, it's more difficult to I don't know, just to see yourself and other people maybe, yeah, there's a lot of value in and anyway, that's what I'm hoping to do. I'm hoping to see inside of people and hear as much about them as they're willing to share. So that's what

Anonymous Speaker 1:18:37
I look forward to, meeting the other people who deal with this with diabetes. I'm hoping my kid meets some other kids and maybe meet some of the Facebook regulars that I kind of getting to know from the Facebook group. Yeah, I don't know who's going, but I'm hoping some of the regulars are going frequent commenters. I

Scott Benner 1:18:55
think they are. It's going to be a good time and then from there. And seriously, the reason we're talking about next year already. Is this a big undertaking to get this launched and everything? You know, it's a heck of a thing to make out of nothingness, you know? Yeah.

Anonymous Speaker 1:19:07
So while you're planning it, let's just start playing the next one, right? I get it, but

Scott Benner 1:19:12
I really do feel like maybe this one will create the excitement that would let the next one be even bigger, which would let us bring more speakers and really just try to turn it into something. So anyway, that's that's the goal, to capitalize

Anonymous Speaker 1:19:22
on the excitement the post crew. Is excitement that people will

Scott Benner 1:19:26
have. I don't think anything's gonna sell another cruise better than pictures of the cruise. So yeah, that's what we're shooting for. All right. Well, awesome. Actually, April, May, June, this will have come out after the cruise. So hopefully, every, hopefully everybody listening had a good time. So thank you, yeah, okay, hold on one second for me, this is awesome. Thank you.

This episode was sponsored by touched by type one. I want you to go find them on Facebook, Instagram, and give them a follow, and then head to touched by type. One.org where you're going to learn all about their programs and resources for people with type one diabetes. The podcast episode that you just enjoyed was sponsored by ever since CGM. They make the ever since 365 that thing lasts a whole year. One insertion every year. Come on. You probably feel like I'm messing with you, but I'm not. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast if you're living with type one diabetes. The after dark collection from the Juicebox Podcast is the only place to hear the stories that no one else talks about, from drugs to depression, self harm, trauma, addiction and so much more. Go to Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and click on after dark there you'll see a full list of all of the after dark episodes. Hey, what's up, everybody? If you've noticed that the podcast sounds better, and you're thinking like, how does that happen? What you're hearing is Rob at wrong way recording, doing his magic to these files. So if you want him to do his magic to you, wrong way recording.com, you got a podcast. You want somebody to edit it. You want rob you.

Please support the sponsors

---

The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!

Donate

#1529 I'm Not That Stupid

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

Facing braces and a fresh diabetes diagnosis at fourteen, Kiley proves confidence beats assumptions.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

---

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Welcome.

Kylie 0:15
Hi. My name is Kylie. I've had type one for almost 12 years now, and I live in Wisconsin.

Scott Benner 0:22
Check out my algorithm pumping series to help you make sense of automated insulin delivery systems like Omnipod five loop, Medtronic 780, G twist tandem control, IQ and much more. Each episode will dive into the setup features and real world usage tips that can transform your daily type one diabetes management. We cut through the jargon, share personal experiences and show you how these algorithms can simplify and streamline your care. If you're curious about automated insulin pumping, go find the algorithm pumping series in the Juicebox Podcast, easiest way. Juicebox podcast.com, and go up into the menu, click on series and it'll be right there. Please don't forget 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 healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour next.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us, med, us, med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, get your supplies the same way we do from us. Med, today's podcast is sponsored by the insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing since she was four years old. Omnipod. Omnipod.com/juicebox, you too can have the same insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing every day for 16 years. Hi.

Kylie 1:59
My name is Kylie. I've had type one for almost 12 years now, and I live in Wisconsin, Wisconsin.

Scott Benner 2:05
You're not from there, though. No, I am. You are. How long did you work on getting rid of that accent?

Kylie 2:13
I'm from the Milwaukee area originally, which doesn't necessarily have the strongest Wisconsin accent, but it comes out every once in a while, for

Scott Benner 2:21
sure, show off. We'll get to it. 12 years. How old are you? 2626 Oh, wow. So you were, you were but a child?

Kylie 2:29
Yes, so I was 14. It was right after eighth grade. Awesome,

Scott Benner 2:33
right before high school. Yep.

Kylie 2:35
I also got braces that summer, so that that was

Scott Benner 2:38
fun. Oh, what a nice thing, yeah, just pile

Kylie 2:41
everything on within three months. Diabetes, braces. High School, you

Scott Benner 2:45
got braces and diabetes, yep, and crippling, crippling, I don't know, self confidence issues. How do you remember the time? So I

Kylie 2:54
started showing symptoms, really, in March. So I was diagnosed in June, and I this is looking back at the time I didn't really know. So my cousin is also type one, and she was diagnosed the November before me, so she but she was two, almost three, so quite a bit younger. And we were at my uncle's house, at my aunt and uncle's house for Father's Day. And my mom was talking to my uncle and said, like, oh, like, I'm really concerned about Kylie, like she's been losing all this weight, drinking all this water. And he's like, Well, we've got a test kit here. Let's just poke her finger. And so I was upstairs with my cousins, and they came upstairs and they said, Kylie, like, we're going to test everybody's blood sugar for fun. You go first. It's like, Well, I'm not that stupid. I know something's up and I'm

Scott Benner 3:46
not that stupid. Might be the title of your episode. Go ahead.

Kylie 3:51
And so they tested my blood sugar, and it said, hi. Like, well, that's not good. And they tested again, still said, hi. I went downstairs, ate some more food, because, you know, I was starving. And then they didn't come back down, and I went back up, and they were all crying. And I, you have, we're really sorry, but you have type one diabetes, we've got to go to the hospital. So off to children's. And thankfully, I didn't have to stay overnight.

Scott Benner 4:16
But wait, hold on, why didn't you stay overnight?

Kylie 4:19
They weren't concerned about me going into like, full blown DKA, like I had ketones and everything, and my blood sugar was incredibly high, but they were able to get it down. And then the next day, we went back in, and they had classes for us, so an immediate concern, they just kept me there for a while, gave me an IV fluids, insulin, and then I came back the next day and they took my fasting blood sugar, and I see went

Scott Benner 4:46
from there. Yeah, you spent time in the hospital, then about probably six hours you went home that day. Yeah, interesting. Hey, did they complete the charade and test everybody else's blood sugar or once they got yours? They like, we're not really testing everyone's. No, I don't think they tested anyone else's. I find that insulting. I just want you to know, yeah, they weren't.

Kylie 5:07
They weren't really good at hiding their intentions, like, I think I knew something was up, like I wasn't really surprised. Like, I can't make it 20 minutes in the car without having to go to the bathroom, like something is wrong. But I didn't really want to say anything

Scott Benner 5:20
you thought something was wrong with you. I don't

Kylie 5:22
think consciously, necessarily. But like, once I saw it and I was like, Oh, this, this makes sense. Start

Scott Benner 5:28
putting the math together. You're like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah. My mom used to, like, think she was getting one over on you, but it was so telegraphed and obvious and like, it just reminded me that when when you said, like, Kylie, we're all going to test our blood sugar for a fun you go first. Like that would have been my mom would have been like, hey, guess what we're doing everybody. I'm like, Oh, what is she trying to trick us into? Oh, my gosh. Well, and they couldn't even hold it together. They were crying when you came back.

Kylie 5:55
Yeah, I think if they would have done it like before a meal or something, or like when they were already testing my cousin's blood sugar, it would have been a little bit more convincing, but just the fact that it was the way it was randomly, yeah, all

Scott Benner 6:07
right, before we move on, take a sidebar. Explain to me what a cheese curd is. I

Kylie 6:11
don't exactly know, but it's good for you. Kylie, good for you. It's just like this squeaky cheese that is often like, they are very good, but often deep fried. If you go to any farmer's market here, there will be like three stands selling them.

Scott Benner 6:26
And last thing explain to people to what degree the entire place shuts down when the Packers are playing. Depends

Kylie 6:33
on if bars and restaurants very busy, grocery stores very empty,

Scott Benner 6:39
just everyone's watching a game somewhere

Kylie 6:41
interesting. Okay, all right, there's the few Bears fans who are out doing something else, but

Scott Benner 6:48
they don't count. No, I've only been to your state one time, and I'm sorry to say it was to go visit my mom before she passed away. But yeah, you said in Oshkosh, right? Yeah, it was a nice place, except for something called Lake flies that apparently, what are those?

Kylie 7:03
They're just like flies that are around the lake and they are annoying and bite, and there's lots of bugs in the summer in Wisconsin.

Scott Benner 7:12
Yeah, I handled it. I want to just say for the record, my brother Rob was freaked out when we saw them. He acted much like a baby. I just want to say, Okay, so you've got your, you got your diabetes. Now the summer is really getting going. And also I, and I don't mean to, like put it, we've just met and all, but probably just became, like a woman recently, too, right? Not quite, actually, oh, hadn't gotten to that point yet.

Kylie 7:35
No, that also came after, so that was probably delayed by, oh, my diagnosis, diabetes,

Scott Benner 7:41
braces and that all in that summer or no, it was later. No, that

Kylie 7:46
was like eight months later. That was actually on my birthday. So that was fun.

Scott Benner 7:52
Sorry, I didn't mean to hit a nerve. I didn't realize that there was an actual, an actual memory.

Kylie 7:59
It's just one of those. It was a significant day, because my birthday is like, well, this is great. Like,

Scott Benner 8:05
yeah, it's a bit I've been listen. Arden has been in this phase of her life for many, many years now. I'm still watching her come to grips with it. She's like, this is not fair. And I'm like, No, I see that. So you get your diabetes, you start with, I'm going to try to guess a little bit here. It's 14 years ago. You get a pen. Or how did they start you with your management? Yep, I

Kylie 8:31
started on a pen for both Humalog and Lantus. And so actually, because my cousin was diagnosed before me, and my next door neighbor also was type one at that first class. I asked was like, So when can I get a pod? And how do you know what that is? Like? Oh, like, well, let's just figure all this out. And after six months, I started on the Omnipod because they were going to make me wait a year. But then my dad basically convinced, I don't know how, but he convinced the doctors and nurses to let me have it before then,

Scott Benner 9:03
did you end up having an oddly close relationship with your younger cousin, even though your ages were off?

Kylie 9:08
My family's all pretty close, but, like, we definitely have a different relationship. She gets it and I get it. So we talk about it occasionally, but honestly, not that much. No, you've never once joked that she gave it to you. No, no, that would have been a good one, huh?

Scott Benner 9:23
That's possible. And it's funny why you were saying this. I'm gonna say this quietly. Yesterday I saw my brother in law, and it's like, it's still winter time here, like spring is sprung and all. But like, you know what I mean? God, I miss everybody. We haven't seen each other in a few months. I'm like, yeah, it's winter time. Like, you know, everybody's hunkered down and everything. And the part that I went unsaid was, Nah, you guys get a sick a lot when I see you in the winter. So I don't know if it's really you, but when I see you in the winter time, I end up sick usually. So I'm, you know, that's part of the reason

Kylie 9:51
I was sick the February before I, like, started showing symptoms. So I feel like that was kind of the catalyst for everything. But do

Scott Benner 9:59
you. Genuinely feel like your your health was waning before then, before

Kylie 10:03
I was diagnosed, yeah, oh yeah, for sure. For sure. Okay, we had Spring Break that March, and like normally, you gain weight on spring break, and that was the first spring break, and only that, I lost weight. And from there, I just kept losing weight. By the time I was diagnosed, I was probably 5758, and only 100 pounds. Oh, wow, that's

Scott Benner 10:27
giving away Wisconsin's greatest secrets. We all gain weight during spring break. Over here, it was very, very strange. Everyone talked about it. Do you see Kylie's lost weight during spring break? What's going on?

Kylie 10:40
We were on vacation, so like you're eating food is not the best for you.

Scott Benner 10:44
You know, I got you what prompts you to want to come on the podcast 14 years later,

Kylie 10:48
you had posted a couple months ago that you're looking for people to fill some spots. And I considered it, and I like talking about diabetes and all my friends and experiences from it, and thought someone hopefully could benefit from something

Scott Benner 11:06
or awesome. So very specifically, when you were like, Oh, he's looking for place people to be on the podcast, you thought I'd like to talk about community and friendship. Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omnipod, and before I tell you about Omnipod, the device, I'd like to tell you about Omnipod, the company. I approached Omnipod in 2015 and asked them to buy an ad on a podcast that I hadn't even begun to make yet because the podcast didn't have any listeners, all I could promise them was that I was going to try to help people living with type one diabetes. And that was enough for Omnipod. They bought their first ad, and I used that money to support myself while I was growing the Juicebox Podcast. You might even say that Omnipod is the firm foundation of the Juicebox Podcast, and it's actually the firm foundation of how my daughter manages her type one diabetes every day, omnipod.com/juicebox whether you want the Omnipod five or the Omnipod dash, using my link lets Omnipod know what a good decision they made in 2015 and continue to make to this day. Omnipod is easy to use, easy to fill, easy to wear, and I know that because my daughter has been wearing one every day since she was four years old, and she will be 20 this year, there is not enough time in an ad for me to tell you everything that I know about Omnipod. But please take a look omnipod.com/juicebox I think Omnipod could be a good friend to you, just like it has been to my daughter and my family. Contour, next.com/juicebox that's the link you'll use to find out more about the contour. Next Gen blood glucose meter. When you get there, there's a little bit at the top you can click right on blood glucose monitoring. I'll do it with you. Go to meters, click on any of the meters. I'll click on the Next Gen, and you're going to get more information. It's easy to use, and highly accurate. Smart light provides a simple understanding of your blood glucose levels. And of course, with Second Chance sampling technology, you can save money with fewer wasted test strips. As if all that wasn't enough, the contour next gen also has a compatible app for an easy way to share and see your blood glucose results. Contour, next.com/juicebox and if you scroll down at that link, you're going to see things like a Buy Now button. You could register your meter after you purchase it. Or what is this? Download a coupon. Oh, receive a free contour next gen blood glucose meter. Do tell contour next.com/juicebox head over there. Now get the same accurate and reliable meter that we use. Yeah.

Kylie 13:54
I mean, I feel like you've got a great community on the Facebook group, and I, before I joined that, I found my own group here. And I don't know, I feel like I've taken advantage, like use diabetes to have experiences that I haven't. I went otherwise, like I I went to diabetes camp. I went to there used to be these conferences that were young adults with type one. And I went to a few of those. And I also very active in breakthrough T 1d activities.

Scott Benner 14:26
It's so proper not calling it JD, RF, that was awesome. Okay, you did that. I had to catch myself. Do you know that I was coming to your area to give a talk when COVID hit and they canceled it?

Kylie 14:40
Ah, yeah, that, yeah, that they shut down everything else pretty quick, like they were supposed to have. I think the Milwaukee area Gala was supposed to be that weekend, and then they canceled it. It's

Scott Benner 14:50
very possible that's when I was coming. So I remember being I was at my son's baseball thing for college, and I was standing outside. On a field, my phone rang and they were like, it's we're not, we're not doing this for canceling. I'm like, that'll be fine. And then, like, a day later, I was like, Yeah, I'm hearing more stuff. I don't, I don't think it's gonna be fine. I was so, yeah, and it just never got rescheduled. The whole Well, it's interesting. You bring up the community too, because that that entire infrastructure changed so significantly around then not a call out, but, you know, breakthrough, T, 1d very specifically changed how they did a lot of their in person stuff, and they thinned out. I think that's a polite way to say it. They thinned out a lot of their staff at local areas too.

Kylie 15:36
Yeah, we went from three separate chapters within our state to combining to just one?

Scott Benner 15:42
Yeah, and you're asking a few people to try to cover a lot of ground, and it just becomes difficult. So let's talk about then, what you got out of that, like when you went to those early meetings, even before JDRF, what were you looking for when you went? What did you end up finding at the hospital or just at for like, the community, like gatherings and things like that. I don't know. It's

Kylie 16:06
just always been really nice to like, meet someone and instantly like they understand everything. And Not that I mind explaining what type one is and everything that goes along with it, but it's nice to not have to like, it's nice to meet someone, and they just feel like, oh, yeah, you've got type one so do I, and you can talk about things, or they might have tips that you haven't heard or do something differently. And just, I feel like, very helpful to be able to talk to people. Yeah?

Scott Benner 16:35
So in the beginning, it's just not having to explain yourself is very valuable.

Kylie 16:40
Yeah, I think it just instantly connects you with people. Like, there's been a lot of times in public where someone will come up to me and just, like, show them, like, my pod's usually visible, and they're like, you've got type one, and like, show me their pump. And we like, talk for a little bit, and then go on our way.

Scott Benner 16:57
Did you ever go through a time where you, like, you took care of yourself. You're not burned out, but you don't want to know one ounce more or talk one second longer about it than necessary.

Kylie 17:09
I'd say a little bit to, like two years ago, like coming up on 10 years felt like, like, wow. That's a long, long time for me to have it. Like, hitting double digits felt significant, and I just like, I didn't not take care of myself. But I just like, this sucks. Like, I've been doing this for 10 years, like I'm kind of done,

Scott Benner 17:29
yeah? Like, God, it's still here, yeah? And so, like, can you describe that part of it? Like, so what do you do? Do you like, slide into, like, a minimal care mode, enough that you're healthy, but not enough to like you don't you just don't want to hear one more second about it. Is that how it feels, or how would you describe it?

Kylie 17:46
Like, I didn't really stop doing what I was doing. I didn't really change anything. I got all I take that back, I wasn't stressing as much about being just, like a little bit high. Like, I wasn't seeing like a 150 and thinking, oh, like, I should get this down right now I was more okay with that riding, which is, I mean, not high, but not well I want to be normally, so I just kind of loosened it a little bit. But I think at that time I was on the Omnipod five,

Scott Benner 18:17
okay, but I see, how long did it last for that feeling of like a

Kylie 18:24
just maybe, like a month or so. It really wasn't that bad.

Scott Benner 18:27
No kidding. Do you think it's just the the anniversary that made the feeling come? I think so, yeah, just kind of threw it in your face. Okay, so going back to meeting people in real life. Are any of those people still friends to this day?

Kylie 18:40
Yeah. So the second year I went to diabetes camp, that was after my sophomore year of high school, I made a friend there, and she lives in the city that I do now, so we still hang out and see each other, and then I'm part of the breakthrough T 1d ride group. So I see those people twice a week during the summer, because we go for bike rides around, usually afterwards we get dinner. Or if someone's hosting, like, have a potluck at their place. How tight knit

Scott Benner 19:11
is that ride group? Is it very state centric? Or like, were you impacted when that group of people passed away recently in a car accident? Yeah, so

Kylie 19:20
that was actually people from our group, so they're initially in the Madison group, but they didn't ride with us as much, but a very impactful group within the community, and a lot of the people that I bike with regularly are good friends with them. And

Scott Benner 19:36
so just shocking, yeah, that

Kylie 19:39
was a hard time for our group, and it'll be a hard time this summer, for sure,

Scott Benner 19:44
always the next time you ride will be the first time you've ridden since then. Yeah, oh, I'm sorry, yeah, that's terrible. One of the people had been on the podcast a couple of times, but, I mean, I didn't know anybody personally, still, it was just, I mean, shocking is the right word, a crazy accident. Yeah. So, yeah, okay, well, I didn't mean to be a bummer. I, for some reason, I thought they were in a different state than you and you might know them. And I'm like, you happen to know these people are like, yes, yes, they're they're right here. So sorry. I actually

Kylie 20:10
coincidentally, like, you had posted all of your like advocacy stuff for like, Diabetes Awareness Month, and then I saw that Michelle had been on a couple of your episodes, and I hadn't listened to them, so I went back and listened to them. And in the second time she's on, she's talking about our jerseys for Wisconsin have mile 23 on our sleeves for her son. And this is the first time I had met her, and so she actually tells the story of the first time we met.

Scott Benner 20:40
Oh, really, that's in the podcast. Yeah, no kidding.

Kylie 20:44
I think she calls me Kaylee, though. But I was like, I remember that close

Scott Benner 20:49
enough she got a lot of the letters. You know what I mean? Actually, she just just eliminated one. Really, you would have been okay. And this is your mom's fault for giving me this fancy name. I think

Kylie 21:01
they got it out of a baby book. So no kidding,

Scott Benner 21:03
has your life gotten bad since the Kylie Kelsey person has gotten famous?

Kylie 21:07
No, she seems like a fun person. It's was Kylie Jenner before her. And I like Kylie Kelsey better than I was better for you.

Scott Benner 21:15
Yeah. But do people actually like hear your name and go, oh, like Kylie Kelsey? No,

Kylie 21:20
I in high school, there was one kid who like, he's the first time I'm he couldn't, he always forgot my name because we weren't in a lot of classes together. So every time he'd ask, he's like, oh yeah. Like Kylie Jenner, I was like, yep, different spelling, though. So

Scott Benner 21:36
that's me, great. Okay, so meeting people in person has been a big deal for you. Would you explain to people how? And then I want to move to a different idea, but like, what has that given you? What has not just in the moment, but what's endured for you over time after meeting other people, diabetes comes with a lot of things to remember, so it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. Us. Med has done that for us. When it's time for Arden supplies to be refreshed, we get an email rolls up and in your inbox says, Hi, Arden. This is your friendly reorder email from us. Med. You open up the email, it's a big button that says, Click here to reorder, and you're done. Finally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one us, med has done that for us. An email arrives, we click on a link, and the next thing you know, your products are at the front door. That simple, us, med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link, I open up a box, I put the stuff in the drawer, and we're done. Us. Med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and the Dexcom g7 they accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers, and all you have to do to get started is call 888-721-1514, or go to my link, usmed.com/juicebox, using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juicebox Podcast,

Kylie 23:16
especially For like the like, breakthrough, T, 1d, stuff. It's just nice being around people who are even if they're not type one, but they have a connection, or even the people who like they don't have a connection. I think that's even greater. It's just reassuring to see that there's so many people who are like, dedicated to trying to find a cure and better treatments. And it's just also all the people that that I've met are always like, super fun, super nice, and it's nice to be able to talk to someone and trying to work in person, work through like, Hey, I'm having this issue when I'm doing this. Have has this happened to you? That type of stuff. It's just

Scott Benner 23:59
really valuable when people see you, yeah, yeah, now in every walk of life, but, but I see how that brings that so then when you I mean when the you know, the internet keeps exploding through your life with diabetes, and now you can meet people online who have type one. Is the experience similar? Or is it different online than it is in person.

Kylie 24:21
For me, I more use, like online for like, quick questions, and I haven't really met made any type one friends. Well, that's also kind of a bit of a lie. How

Scott Benner 24:32
many times have you lied in the last 20 minutes? Kylie, I know I keep,

Kylie 24:36
like remembering things as I'm talking in college there as part of a type one group. And so especially during COVID, we would meet up with other colleges and, like, just kind of play games online. And so that was fun. That was more social.

Scott Benner 24:52
It's still socially connected, and it brings the same thing, like, doesn't matter if it's in person or online, you get the same kind of judge from it. Yeah. Yeah, I

Kylie 25:00
prefer meeting people in person, just because I feel like it's easier to talk to someone and get to know someone that way. But yeah, no,

Scott Benner 25:09
I hear what you're saying. Okay, I got this message last night online about what the podcast had done for somebody. You know, it was pretty long, like I'm not gonna read it to you or anything like that, but it was long, and even as I was reading it, I thought, Oh, that's awesome. Like, I can't believe it does that for people. And it's weird, because I think I know it, like, I know it does it for people. Like, I've been told enough times, you know what I mean that. And yet, for some reason, like, it still shocks me when it happens happily. Like, I'm like, Oh, good. There's a been value here for this person. But when they explain it, or when you talk about it, it's always deeper than I can imagine that for some reason, like, like, the value for you, I guess, is what I mean,

Kylie 25:53
yeah. I understand what you mean. Yeah. It's just nice having that community and resources available.

Scott Benner 26:00
Some people are just overwhelmingly grateful for it. It always makes me wonder, like, what were they missing, or what did they need that that this was so impactful to them, like, especially

Kylie 26:11
if you don't know anyone in person or like, before you or your kid or family member is diagnosed, I think having that online community to at least get you started and point you in the right direction is awesome, yeah,

Scott Benner 26:26
and I guess just if you feel lonely too, like, what a what a great lift it is to get rid of that. All right, so tell me a little bit about growing up with diabetes. What was your takeaway through high school? In

Kylie 26:38
high school, like looking back, I didn't, definitely didn't manage it as well as I could have been. But I went to the doctor, and they said I was doing great, so I didn't think I needed to do anything else and but like, it really didn't impact, like, my what I did like, it was a part of my life, but I never con i never considered, like, letting it stop me from doing anything. And I don't, I mean, I do remember that the doctors telling me that right away, they're like, you can still do whatever you want. You can. It's not going to stop you from doing anything and but I also had already known people who had it, and I knew that they did whatever. So it just never really was a thought. You

Scott Benner 27:19
didn't need to be told that, but it was a nice it was a nice backup, like you and like, it was valuable to hear still, I think so, yeah, like, you're going into high school and everybody's starting to feel themselves. Or some people aren't you get diabetes and braces. Like, does it change your social structure? Or did things chug along? Or did you find people pulling away from you. Was there any experiences like that?

Kylie 27:43
No, I've been really lucky. I've had really close friends, like one of my best friends, even to this day, I've known since I was four and so and a lot of my friends I've been close with since, like, elementary school or high school, and even though, like, we live in different cities and went to different schools, like, we've all just stayed in touch and have remained really close. So I all my friends, like a lot of them came and did the walks with us, or they volunteered with me, and they've been really supportive throughout everything. Yeah,

Scott Benner 28:16
you had good friends. They continued on that path. Yeah, that's excellent. Did you have any trouble dating?

Kylie 28:21
No, it never really seemed to be an issue. And if it was an issue for someone, I was unaware of

Scott Benner 28:28
it. Okay, yeah. So even if it had been an issue, you had such a good experience, you couldn't tell me right now. Like, if there was a person out there that was just like, oh yeah, Kylie, I did not talk to her because this you wouldn't even know that, no, that's pretty awesome. Did your parents foster this feeling or how? Or was it? Do you think it's your energy? I mean,

Kylie 28:47
my parents have also always been very supportive of me and like, they have always helped out with volunteering and rides and walks and, like just fundraising to try and find a cure, and if I ever need it. Like my mom, she always took care of all my prescription stuff, especially with when we had to go through I don't know if you ever had to use edge park for Dexcom. I have

Scott Benner 29:16
had to use edge Park, yeah. So she would call

Kylie 29:18
them eight times to figure out why my prescription hadn't been sent yet, and so she always was very helpful with that type of stuff. I've

Scott Benner 29:27
always been very grateful for edge park for making me comfortable cursing at people on the phone. It's not a thing I was comfortable with at first.

Kylie 29:33
I'm sure she was close or dead because she's like, I don't know why. Like, they said they don't have the prior authorization. I just sent it to them, like, three months ago. I don't know why I have to do this every time I was like, Thanks for going and thankfully, by the time I was off to college, I could get them through Walgreens, so we didn't have to do that anymore. The

Scott Benner 29:54
amount of times I've said to somebody, no, I don't have a fax machine because it's. 2020 you're saying you'd like me to fax that to you. I started, just started saying, like, you guys, know, there's other ways to do this. Is everyone not stunned when in 2025, someone says, you, can you fax that to us? You think, how would I do that?

Kylie 30:18
Yeah, I would be like, I can send it to you in an email, but

Scott Benner 30:23
I can magically take a photo of it and have it in your hand five seconds from now, but I don't, I don't have a telephone that has a printer on it. They're behind I'm sure there's a reason. I'm sure the infrastructure is old. I'm sure they're tied into other systems that are old. There's clearly no discussion back and forth, like, that whole thing of, like, you know, I need to get, you know, verification that you still have diabetes. Well, I've had it for 15 years, I know, but we gotta just, we gotta be sure and, like, all that stuff, one, it's not going away. I also think some of that is just, I wouldn't call myself a conspiracy theorist, but I do think that, like, insurance companies make things difficult on purpose, and so like, I think it's some of that. I've also known people who've worked at those companies, and trust me, if you said to them, like, why is this so frustrating, they'd say, I know we're trying. You know what I mean? Like, it's just such a weird system that you caught in, and you feel

Kylie 31:14
bad that you're getting upset with a poor person who's on the phone who has no control over the system, but it's like, I gotta get somewhere. And I've called three times this

Scott Benner 31:23
week. Yeah, I will say that I'm trying to think maybe three years or more. Now we've been using us med. They're also sponsors, but like, we genuinely use them for CGM and pumps. And I just want to say us med.com/juicebox, Call now for your, I'm sorry I forget the ad call out for your free something, so they'll check your blah, blah, blah, make sure it's okay. I have

Kylie 31:45
been meaning to look into them because, for whatever reason, like, sometimes it takes like, two weeks for the pharmacies around here to get my prescription. So it's like, all right, I'm almost out. I can't really wait for this. Well, you

Scott Benner 32:00
know you're so close to Canada, maybe we've, maybe we've confused the fact that you're there and they're, they're not sending the stuff there anymore. I don't

Kylie 32:07
know. Maybe there's a whole other state in a lake in the way. But is

Scott Benner 32:12
that Michigan? Wait, yeah, the up, yeah, we're calling that a state too. Wow, gosh, I don't know. Once it gets that cold during the winter, I don't even think you count. My brother lives very close to you, obviously, and and you know, like he's accustomed to it. And there are still times been there forever, and there are still times during the winter that he'll send a note and say, like you wouldn't believe, like, what's happening here with the weather. It's like, there's so much snow, or it's so freaking cold, or, like, you know, like, that kind of thing last

Kylie 32:45
winter was it wasn't that cold, but it was incredibly snowy. Like, there were like, three days where people, like, stayed home from work, because separate times, we just got a ton of snow, just throughout the entire day, and we're like, well, we're not going to work today. Like, that would be dumb. And that's interesting,

Scott Benner 33:02
too, because you were a group of people who are not generally stopped by the snow. So you know that'd be like if a Canadian ran from a penguin? Very, just unprecedented. I kind of want to go backwards a little bit like your your little cousin has type one. There's people around you that have type one. Are you guys all like a similar background, are you, like, from a Nordic background, or something like that?

Kylie 33:24
I am, but I don't so I think there are a lot of, like, Irish, German, Swedish, Norwegian people in, like, Wisconsin, Minnesota area, but I don't know specifically about some of the other people that I know. But yeah, okay, my cousin and I are

Scott Benner 33:42
you are? Yeah. So are there other autoimmune issues too? Yes. So

Kylie 33:46
my cousin is on my dad's side, and then my mom has Hashimotos and alopecia, and my sister has Hashimotos, and I have Hashimotos, but I don't take anything for it yet, because my TSH has not been above two you have symptoms? I don't think so, not that I've noticed, at least.

Scott Benner 34:07
Don't you think alopecia would be a great radio name in the 60s. Hey everyone, it's alopecia. How are you? We're here today. We're going to do the news and then talk about the weather and maybe sing a couple of songs alopecia. I'll be right back. It'd be an awesome radio name. I

Kylie 34:22
never thought about that, but it does kind of sound like a name every

Scott Benner 34:24
time I hear it, it's all I think just the first time I've said it, you know, there's still times now I'm like, Wow. 11 years I can't believe I've never said that out loud. Every time someone says alopecia, I think, what a great radio name, wow. So a lot of just more like thyroid stuff, though, yeah, yeah. Is there weight issues within the family?

Kylie 34:47
My grandpa was always pretty large. He actually had type two diabetes, but that's really it. For the most part, we're pretty average. I'd say pretty average.

Scott Benner 34:56
What an exciting description for your family. Like,

Kylie 35:02
we're pretty, pretty active group, I think, like, no one has ever, I'd say, struggled with their weight. So people,

Scott Benner 35:10
I mean, and that biking thing that's a lot of work, like, is that a thing that came naturally to you, or is the thing you picked up for, I was gonna say, for diabetes, but once you were trying to, like, have, like, you know, connection with the diabetes world. So the first year

Kylie 35:22
we did the ride, my dad and I did it. I had not ever biked more than, like, probably five miles, so it was definitely something that I picked up. Like my dad pressured me. He's like, You should really do this. We should give it a try. And it's like, Fine, we'll try it. And then it was really fun. So we've just stuck with it.

Scott Benner 35:40
You were peer pressured by your father into riding a bike for diabetes. Yeah, it

Kylie 35:44
started out. He was like, we could just do like, 50 miles. And he's like, Oh, but the metric century is like 60 miles. And I was like, All right, fine. And he's like, Oh, but there's a good turnaround spot at 80 as a dad, we gotta stop somewhere.

Scott Benner 35:56
Was he that guy prior to that, or was he trying to be rah, rah, for diabetes for you. Oh,

Kylie 36:01
no. He's definitely like, all all in like, never, never stops moving. Always like, what's next? What's next? Really?

Scott Benner 36:08
Person, what kind of work, what kind of like, generally, what kind of work does he? Did he do? He's a recruiter, so for the military or for business, for businesses, all right, just got a lot of energy. Yes, yeah. You don't think it's cocaine or anything like that. He's natural. I

Kylie 36:23
mean, if it is, he's been hiding it really well. So I like to

Scott Benner 36:27
ask an adult, like, because you're older now, like, you're like, Hmm, is my dad on the on the sugar cooker? I don't, I don't think so. No, no, no, I don't think he No. I just think he's got it. Like, does he drink a lot of coffee?

Kylie 36:38
He has, like, one cup of coffee, and then he's, like, that's too much. I get too jittery. So

Scott Benner 36:43
no kidding, he's just got good energy. May I share a bike riding story with you? When I was a child, I was not in what you would call, like, fantastic. My cousin says there's this, like, bike a thon at the park, and we're going to do it. I want to be honest with you, I don't even remember what it was raising money for, but you go around, you say to people like, you know, can you pledge a certain amount of money per mile, that whole thing? And this may be the early 80s, so I think it was a big deal. If somebody's like, I'll give you 10 cents a mile. Like, you know what I mean? Like, oh, okay, I'll ride 10 miles or give me $1 like, that was kind of like that. And went to the park. Park had a bunch of hills, and my cousins and I rode 30 miles in this this thing. And I was like, really proud of myself. I was like, wow, that I didn't find it to be difficult All, all, you know, just great. And then later that night, I was to spend an evening at my cousin's house. And I wish I knew how old I was, but, you know, probably 12. Like, they're, like, in that age range there, you know what I mean, my aunt was, like, you know, like, you know, time for you guys to get cleaned up. Got to get a bath or whatever. Like, you know, so, like, I got a bath, and while I was in the bathtub, every muscle in my body froze up. It remains to this day, one of the most painful things that I can still recall, and that's why I don't like to exercise. I just that's my whole story. I had gone from how you say not that active to incredibly active in a five hour period, and it was apparently more than my body cared to do, and so I just everything froze up like a rock. It was horrifying.

Kylie 38:20
Always seems to be someone on rides that, like, will be going for a long distance, and they're like, Yeah, I've never ridden before and but, like, I'll just do this. I was like, All right, well, good luck. Like, that's, you're probably going to be in a lot of pain by the end of this, but we'll get you through it.

Scott Benner 38:39
Yeah. I was not okay. I just want to say, and also, it was that time of like, like in the world where I know that this is crazy to people, but there weren't even a lot of like over the counter pain medications. Do you know you mean, like, Yeah, I think we had buffering. Does anybody remember buffering? I've never heard of that. Look at you showing off, not being old. Do you think people right now are like, I gotta stop listening to this podcast. He said buffering today, and I don't know what he's talking about. I'm gonna pull it out. It might still be. It's not still available, is it? Oh, you can still buy this. They're calling it an NSAID. Now it wasn't an NSAID back then. Was it? Do you wanna find out together? They're calling it a what an NSAID, like a Advil. Oh, okay, look at you. Do you not know NSAID? No, you never get an achy, an alley or anything like that. If

Kylie 39:32
I have a headache, I take like Advil or Tylenol. I just hadn't heard that term before.

Scott Benner 39:39
Buffering was recalled in 2012 was a preventative measure. Everything's fine. It looks like it's been passed around a little bit. Looks like Novartis had it for a while. So is it just like a brand name or? Yeah, it was a brand name, like, literally, when I was growing up, there was aspirin and buffer, and if you had a pain, they gave you one of those things. There was no like, Ty, like, I don't remember Tylenol, or maybe we were too poor for Tylenol. Can you imagine what an episode name that would be, by the way, too poor for Tylenol. I feel like that if I ever do the podcast, if somebody interviews spam, like, can we call it too poor for Tylenol,

Kylie 40:16
please. That's one thing that, like, I just definitely didn't realize how much it costs until I, like, was actually going out and, like, buying Advil and Tylenol on my own. I thought this would be like five bucks, but, like, it's like 30. I'm

Scott Benner 40:29
enjoying watching my son, like, like, be an adult now, and, you know, having to go get something, he comes back and he'll ask, like, you know how much this is? Like, oh, yeah, yeah, I know. Don't worry. That's why. That's why you see me crying all the time. Oh, my god, yeah, it looks like it original formation of buffer and contained aspirin, magnesium carbonate and calcium carbonate. So it kind of helped people with stomach irritations, neutralizing stomach acid and for pain relief, and they called it for an anti inflammatory fever reducer. But that was, that, was it anyway. What I'm saying is I was in a ton of pain, and I don't think that buffer was gonna do and yet, that's what they were feeding me. Like, here, take a buffer. And I'm like, awesome. It was, like, my personal equivalent of, you know, I don't know, being shot in the Civil War, and then being like, here, chew on this thick while we cut your leg off. Awesome. Thanks. It's not helping. Anyway, I'm so sorry you married, engaged. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Coming soon or No, it'll be like, just in like, 10 months. Ish, 10 months, about a year from now. Yeah, time to back out is what you're getting for you. Yep. Did you say yes under duress? Were you like, all right, I guess so.

Kylie 41:56
Or there are a lot of people around, I kind of felt some pressure. So, you know, do you hate

Scott Benner 41:59
those videos as much as everyone else does. Like, you're like, I don't think she wants to say yes to, oh God. Like she's gonna there

Kylie 42:06
were, yeah, I just whenever there's, like, a ton, like, it's at a stadium where everyone's watching, that's just gotta be the worst feeling. Like, I don't like the attention on me. So if there were that many people around, that'd be, that'd be bad.

Scott Benner 42:19
You would not be looking to be on the jumbo trot. I like it. I love when the girls have the nerve to be like, No. Like, 70,000 people are watching. Like, why did you think this was a good idea? I barely know you get away from it. I always assume a lot of them just later go, like, look, I said yes, because, like, your mom was there and people were yelling, but like, I'm not up for this. Like, so yeah.

Kylie 42:36
Like, I didn't want to embarrass you in front of a whole stadium full of people. Like,

Scott Benner 42:41
did your man do the thing? Like, did he set it up? Were there friends there videoing? Or did you do it more like a human being? Yeah,

Kylie 42:48
well, it was kind of like, so my parents were in on it, and so it was actually at the end of the breakthrough T 1d ride last year. Oh, so we had just biked 100 miles, and then my parents had the ring, so he didn't have to keep that with him the whole time. Then he proposed after we crossed the finish line.

Scott Benner 43:11
Oh, so there's a sweaty photo of you somewhere looking happy.

Kylie 43:14
Yeah, it's far enough away that you can't tell how sweaty we are. But

Scott Benner 43:17
How long had you guys been dating? It was like a year and a half. Ish, nice, but you're in your you call yourself your late 20s. Now, how do you characterize it?

Kylie 43:27
I'd still say mid 20s. I feel like mid 20s is like 2324 to like 2627

Scott Benner 43:32
Okay, we're gonna call all the way to 27 mid 20s.

Kylie 43:37
I don't know. It's hard. You gotta divide by three. So that makes things weird, that

Scott Benner 43:41
as you get older, it'll become very valuable. And you're like, Oh, I'm not almost 60. No, I'm asking not because I'm like, trying to do, like, this is your life. But like, Are you the diabetes piece of it? Is it a thing he just was good with right away you're comfortable with, because it's got to be part of your consideration when you're going to marry somebody, right?

Kylie 44:01
For sure? Yeah, he had no idea what type one was when we first started dating, he didn't seem too phased by it. I don't think I should have asked him if what his initial thoughts were. He's obviously learned a lot, and now, like knows, I make him get me my low supplies. If I'm too low or anything. Are you just

Scott Benner 44:20
getting married so someone can get you a Juicebox in a situation you're like, Finally,

Kylie 44:25
yeah, it's very useful. I would would recommend,

Scott Benner 44:29
oh boy, I need gummy bears. I was rubbing hard in his head. We were watching TV the other night. She said, You rub my head. I was rubbing my head. And she goes, I'm gonna have to marry somebody if I need my head rubbed my entire life, right? And I said, you know, I mean, I'm like, I don't know how much longer I can do it for you. And she's like, you could see her get, like, really thoughtful. She's like, all right, maybe I'll let one of these boys talk to me. Oh my god. But like, how well could he run your insulin? If you could, you look at him one day and just. Go, you do it today. Could he do that?

Kylie 45:03
No, no. That's funny that you say that, because I actually just, like, last week or two weeks ago, I was like, Can I teach you how to do this? So if I just wanted a day off, like, you could do it. I didn't have to think about it. So we're something that I'm gonna teach him, but he understands the general concepts, but I don't know how much he won't be able to run my pump, for sure. I

Scott Benner 45:24
want to teach you how to do this. Also, I don't like the way you grocery shop, but we can fix that. Do you have a list of things in your head that he's doing wrong that you would like to get

Kylie 45:37
straightened out? No, the only thing is, he doesn't close the cabinets in our kitchen all the time, like he'll grab something out of it and just leave the cabinet open. Oh,

Scott Benner 45:45
What a bastard.

Kylie 45:48
He left for work. He had like, a work event where he was they were doing, like a game night, and he was grabbing games out of our cabinet. I was somewhere else, and I came home and it the game cabinet was left open, and I just sent him a picture, and it's like, really,

Scott Benner 46:02
it's awesome. I didn't know you were Catholic.

Kylie 46:05
I'm not. I was Catholic until like, second grade.

Scott Benner 46:09
It's okay. I feel like I still I think I'm right. I love the the photo sending, like, See, I didn't know it

Kylie 46:16
was more just to tease him. I didn't really care. No, of course, like we talked about it the day before. Yeah,

Scott Benner 46:22
it's just a teasing thing. Everything will be fine. Guys, go ahead, get married, it'll be all right. And by the way, on the other side, girls, we're horrible, and we will ruin your life, just so you know, I didn't want it to sound like it was just a one way street, but that's okay. So you would like him to understand more, but for your own comfort, not because of safety or anything like that. How was he with low blood sugars?

Kylie 46:43
Well, the safety is part of it too, because I've heard so many, like, horror stories now from your podcast of people in the hospital. I was like, I need just in, in case anything happens. I need someone to be able to run this and like, at least keep me stable throughout something. It doesn't have to be great, but at least don't let things go horribly. Which story

Scott Benner 47:05
sticks out in your head? Because one just jumped into my head and I am and I think this is well documented, the worst person to ask about the podcast, because I'm making it so quickly I don't remember it as well as I should sometimes. But like, do you remember the girl who had the seizure and her husband just left her in the bedroom all day.

Kylie 47:20
Oh, yes, I remember that. Yeah, I don't think he would do that. No,

Scott Benner 47:24
and he did not think he was doing anything wrong. Like, he's calling his he's he did all the right things, like, called out from work. He's like, Hey, I'm gonna stay here. She's having a problem. Blah, blah, blah. But he never really understood to the level that she was in distress. Yeah,

Kylie 47:35
I got food poisoning over Christmas, and unfortunately, like, right before, as I was getting sick, my blood sugar was low, but I did not want to eat anything. So he's like, where's your glue gun? It's like, I'm fine. I don't need that yet. I was like, just get me more sugar. You want

Scott Benner 47:51
to give him a little more context so he doesn't start stabbing you just because you're not hungry.

Kylie 47:57
I got the nose spray so he's, oh, doesn't, doesn't have to stab

Scott Benner 48:00
me the what did they call that? The back skin semi I just like it when people try

Kylie 48:08
to say it, that's all. It's been nasal spray, the yellow one,

Scott Benner 48:11
because sometimes people say back. Squeamy, I'm like, think you're over pronouncing that spelling.

Kylie 48:18
This is one thing I do wish that I had freshman year of college, because with a roommate that you've never like, you barely know or have never met, like, I still had the red box. And I was like, here's my glucagon. You should never, ever, ever have to use this. But in case you do, I need you to stab me while I'm unconscious. Take this powder, just shake it

Scott Benner 48:35
up a little bit, then inject this liquid into it. Now you want to roll that back and forth in your hand till you see the powder is gone. Okay, the powder going. Okay, the powder is going to see that. Now you want to stick this giant needle back into the thing. Now pull out all that stuff. Now get my pants down, if you can, please, and then just find a nice meaty part of my cheek and just jam it right. And then just inject the whole thing. And then see if you can stop me from biting my tongue until 911 comes. Thank you so much. I hope you have a great freshman year. My

Kylie 48:59
roommate. We're still friends. She has later admitted to me she's like, not gonna lie. That freaked me out a little bit, but I understand why you had to tell me, can you

Scott Benner 49:08
just imagine your first couple days of college? Some girl you don't know is like, Hey, can I show you this barbaric torture device and how it might save my life one day? But probably not. I also love that part where we all start going, listen, this is probably never going to happen, but just in case it does, please write down these 93 steps, yes, yeah. And how are you with needles?

Kylie 49:29
Yeah, I'm glad there's quicker and easier options for people now, because it's like, I I know how to do it, but if I'm unconscious, I am not any help. And whoever,

Scott Benner 49:39
whichever it is, whether it's GVO or the screen, squee the back squeamy, whichever one it is, like, I just think it's the delivery system so much better. It's awesome, you know,

Kylie 49:48
yeah, not having to wait for like, to mix things and like is, I think, key,

Scott Benner 49:54
yeah. I mean, I've told the story before, but Arden had a seizure when she was two, and my wife's, like. Make the thing. I was like, Oh, were you paying attention when they told us that? Because I stopped listening when the guy said, You're never going to need this, he said, You're never going to need this, I was in the middle of like inundation of like information. I was like, Well, I'm not going to start remembering the things I don't need like, because I'm having enough trouble remembering the things I do need back then. I was like, I was not good at the carb ratio thing. You know what I mean? Because we used to have the math that, like, you'd be like, this is 20 carbs. Then you do the math to figure out your, you know, whatever. And Scotty wouldn't credit that. So

Kylie 50:31
when Arden was diagnosed, did they, like, tell you everything at once, or was it over the course of, like, a couple days?

Scott Benner 50:36
It's like, four days in the hospital,

Kylie 50:38
okay? But yeah, because for me and for a lot of the kids in my area who were diagnosed, they did it, like, as steps. So, like, they're, like, six classes, and they all sucked. They were just really long and boring. And, like, first day, we didn't even learn about carb ratios. We just were they're like, here's an insulin pen. This is how you use it. Like, I don't actually remember what we learned the first day, because it wasn't carb ratios. We just taught, we were just learning, or taught how to give ourselves shots, or our parents to give ourselves shots,

Scott Benner 51:10
inject it into a towel or an orange or banana or something like that. Like, so you know how to do the shots. And then here's the math of the carb ratio, and here's what a carb is. And, like, all, that stuff. Like, I know somebody right now, personally who's in the middle of a diagnosis, like an adult diagnosis that's not a quick onset. It's interesting for me to see the feedback from like, oh, today they made me go to a GP, and the GP said, Maybe this. And like, you know, I said, I I'd like to go to an endo. And like, oh, we have a diabetes nurse practitioner on staff. And like, but, and like, and I'm like, go to an endo. Go to an endo. And then in the middle of it, they're like, they want to test my liver. And I'm like, your liver. I'm like, go to an endo. Go to an endo. And, you know, meanwhile, you know, I was able to get this person on a CGM, which is great. But, you know, like, I can see the excursions are getting worse at meals and, like, it's, you know, the resting blood sugars are getting higher. And I'm like, I keep saying to them, there's a sincere possibility that you could drift into this. And there's also a possibility that this could, like, light switch on you. And you don't want that to happen, like, and, and here's a list of really valuable endos. Like, you also don't want to get to a bad it's so hard Kylie, to explain to a person who's never had you know, a bunch of health issues that every doctor you call is not going to be the best one they think they are. It's interesting because they've never gone to doctors like this before. They're like, well, I got, we got in with our GP, and I'm like, I actually said I'm like, I have a very successful podcast. Because doctors don't understand diabetes very well. Some of them do. Here's a list of them get in with one of those, you know, and they don't feel my level of insistence, because they just think it's going to be okay. No matter who they talk to, it's really it's really interesting. So you have to watch them go to a meeting and then come back and go, Hey, none of that made sense. And I'm like, yes, because that person doesn't understand, but they're willing to see us. I'm like, oh, yeah, that this person will be very willing to kill you. They don't even know they're not doing it right. Like, that's how crazy it is. But this doctor does know go to this one, but to watch people not be able to properly advocate for themselves right away, because it's socially not polite. It's interesting. Like, I didn't, you know, I'm not built like that. So, like, it's weird for me to watch a person who is but they're like, well, they said we should try this, so we're going to do that, because that's what they said. I'm like, no, never go back to this person again. It's important to note that these people genuinely believe that I know what I'm talking about, and they still are having trouble doing it. It's interesting. Anyway, I feel bad when people are

Kylie 53:46
diagnosed. Yeah, even when I was diagnosed, and like, we knew what I was going in for, we got to the hospital and they pre took my blood sugar, and it was, honestly, it was in the 1000s or something. It was really high. And, like, once they took me back to room. So they're like, so what are you here for? Like, why do you think you're type one? Like, just you took my blood sugar. Like, you know, my blood sugar is incredibly high. Why have I had to tell this to four different people? Now we

Scott Benner 54:11
all think I have type one because of that number on the piece of paper right there. And you know that, right? Because you went to school for this. Like, please, please. And, but my point is, is that when it's, ha, you knew because you had a family member, right? But, like, but people who don't know, people who are just like, hey, I got this diabetes thing crazy, like, they don't know to say. They don't even know what the number means. So they don't know what to fight for. They don't know when to be concerned. It's a significant hole you're starting in, yeah, because

Kylie 54:41
if, like, I feel like, if I just had the number and no one, like, told me anything, I'd be like, Well, I feel fine for the most part, like, I probably don't have to go to the hospital right away. Like, but because I was told I had to go to the hospital and say, All right, I guess we're going to the hospital. That

Scott Benner 54:56
is exactly what I see happening right now with this person. Like, I. Know that they're they're not feeling sick like so far, they've lost weight, you know what I mean, and it wasn't weight they should have lost. So like, they know to be concerned about that at least. But they're not stumbling around sick. They're not well. How do I mean this? They're not in a situation that they would classically have thought of as sick in the past. So they don't see the NES, like, the immediate necessity of it, yeah? So, yeah, I don't know. I just, I find it upsetting, because I want to be like, listen, I actually have said, like, just listen to me and go do this thing. And I think they're up to doing that now, which is awesome, but we've been at this like, three weeks. Yeah,

Kylie 55:37
you shouldn't have to keep telling people, like, this is what I think but and then other people keep saying, well, it could be, what if we do this instead?

Scott Benner 55:45
But I want you to keep in mind that without me, they'd be three weeks into it having only seen a GP who told them, like, Yeah, we should test your liver here. Like, that's the extent of what's been said to them so far. You know, anyway, yeah, it's always

Kylie 55:59
it frustrates me, because I was like, I feel like it should be so easy. Just look at their blood, look at their antibodies. Like to me, it just seems like a quick thing to even if it's not the issue, it's a quick thing to check off the list to make sure it's

Scott Benner 56:11
not. Well, listen, if you think it's frustrating from your perspective, or if I think it's frustrating from mine, you should see what happens when actual endocrinologists who know what they're doing, who I know personally will send me like, stories of people's diagnosis, like privately. And I know someone, oh, sorry, no, no, just how frustrated they are with other medical professionals.

Kylie 56:34
I know someone who was diagnosed by their eye doctor because she'd been losing weight and, like all the classic symptoms, her other doctor, or wherever she went, had had done a blood draw, and, like, tested every supposedly tested everything, and couldn't find anything. And then she finally went to an eye doctor because her vision was getting worse, and this is Second hand information, but had like, sugar crystals in her eyes and or could see, like, the retinopathy or something, and that's how she got diagnosed. Yeah? And

Scott Benner 57:04
the other doctor was never going to do anything. It's fascinating. Yeah, yeah, no, no, listen, I don't know everything, but I was able to diagnose a person over text messages that two weeks later, their doctors hadn't told them they had diabetes yet. And I was like, No, this is type one. They're like, Well, finally, they're like, well, they're telling me it might be type two. I'm like, It's not type two. And I was like, just get this test. Like, I finally was able to get them to get a gatta, anybody test. And I was like, just, please, just make them force them. Like, I know, I know you don't know why. Just don't leave without this one blood test. And they were doing they did that, the test came back, and I said, Yes, this person has type one diabetes. Well, they gave him Metformin. I was like, awesome. It's like, you can take it if you want. It's not going to do anything. So anyway, what a tangled web we weave. Okay, so we're up on an hour here. Kylie, is there anything we haven't talked about that we should have? Anything I missed didn't bring out of you something you wanted to say that you haven't said? I don't think so. That's it. We did it.

Kylie 58:05
I think we covered everything.

Scott Benner 58:07
You've listened to a lot of the podcasts, huh? I have, yeah, can you tell me what you like about it? Don't kiss my ass. Just, I want to know. I just genuinely want to know what you like about it. No, I just

Kylie 58:19
like, even outside of the diabetes stuff, I feel like people always have interesting stories, or like, there's always, in almost every episode, there's something that I find entertaining. Like, either someone just comes out and says something completely wild that like you would never expect, and otherwise it's just like fun interactions and just everyone's perspective. I feel like is valuable, yeah,

Scott Benner 58:46
like my father, who is a preacher, we learned like to go to S and M dungeons, stuff like that.

Kylie 58:52
That one didn't think I'd be hearing that on a diabetes podcast, but,

Scott Benner 58:57
but then in Mountain House, you heard it. I did, yes, yeah. The amount of times that I've sat forward at this desk and gone, what'd you just say? Hold on a second.

Kylie 59:09
Yeah, I don't think I've got anything crazy that would shock you like that. So

Scott Benner 59:14
I was diagnosed on a heroin bender. I climbed out the window of my grandfather's house and was running around the streets wildly looking for heroin when the DPA took over. Awesome.

Kylie 59:23
I think about that episode a lot like, I hope she's doing well. Now I think

Scott Benner 59:27
about her too, just so you know, from crazy like that to like, funny to like, just downright horrifying sometimes, you know, like, really, yeah, people's stories are interesting.

Kylie 59:40
I'm very thankful I was not in some of those, like, scary diagnosis situations, like some of those stories, I'm especially from a parent's perspective, just would be or just anyone you know, just watching someone go through that would be terrifying.

Scott Benner 59:56
Yeah. What's your diet like to the stripper? Most? Mostly Jack and Coke. And I was like, is she What is she saying? Is she being funny? She's not being funny. That was, that was basically her, you know, like she, she sticks with me a lot too, because many, many, many, many, months, if not years later, she sent me back a note and said that she finally listened to herself on the podcast and recognized her as not a person she wanted to be, and made a lot of changes in her

Kylie 1:00:23
life, which is, yeah, that's awesome match and crazy that that's kind of how it played out. But I was just trying

Scott Benner 1:00:29
to get the idea of, like, how do you eat, so I could understand her blood sugars. And then she was like, oh, basically I exist on cocaine and Jack Daniels. And I was like, oh, okay, I really did. There's a lot of times Kylie and I have not known what to say next. Whenever you hear me say something really bizarre, it's just because my brain's going wait what

Kylie 1:00:48
I have that too, where it's like, I sometimes just have to tell people I don't know what to say to that. Like, really, that's okay. I didn't expect you to. I was like, okay, cool. Because that was out of nowhere.

Scott Benner 1:01:00
You've exceeded what my data set understands, and I don't know what to do next. So I've learned a lot. Like having these conversations, and it's funny because I sometimes I try to say that to my family, and they make fun of me, like, Hey, you have a podcast. And I'm like, I don't think you understand. Like, and they're not gonna listen, because it's me, you know what I mean, like, that'd be the strangest thing. Like, did you really know a lot about your dad's work growing up? And it's just like, sometimes I'm like, no, like, I have this understanding of something, and, you know, based on the countless people who have said this to me, you know, and, and it's interesting, because you start, you know, people's stories singularly are very interesting. But then when you start hearing them over time, and you and you see similarities in how people think, you can start to really step back and go, Oh, I know why I do this. Like, you know, I've heard enough people say this now that, like, I can now figure out a thing that I didn't like previously even understand. And I think it's awesome. Like, I really like it. I'm glad you like it,

Kylie 1:02:00
too. Yeah, the one thing that I can't this was fairly early on when I started listening, either I had gone back and listened to an older episode or, like you had just said it. The one thing that like made the biggest difference in my management was you said, like, to set your high alert, to be like lower so you could catch it before you went high. And I just kind of sat back and was like, that is the easiest thing I've ever heard. Why didn't I think of that? Like,

Scott Benner 1:02:27
that's such a great example of, like, when I'm like, Wait, that helped you. Like, you know, we just put together the small sip series with Jenny. You know, it's been a while. I mean, we've been working on it for a long time. But some people complain they don't like long form content, which is tough, because, I mean, it's kind of what I do. You know what I mean? And if I just came up to you out of the blue right now, just sort of a regular person, like somebody who wasn't doing this every day, like I am. And so me at the beginning and said, Look, just these things that you say, like, just say them real quickly, in five minutes, but make sure it's very actionable and understandable and not confusing. I would not have been able to do that. I've been, I would have been confused by that. But I've honed this over time, right? Like I am at the point now where, if you like, blurt something diabetes out at me, I can blurt something valuable back out at you, right? And so I've been watching for years, while not a large group of people, but, you know, a semi, you know, a semi, reasonable group of like people in the in the Facebook you know group are like, Hey, I can't listen to long form stuff, or I have ADHD, it just doesn't work for me. Or I don't learn by listening like that kind of stuff. My kids aren't going to listen to a whole hour. Like this episode of The Pro Tip series is awesome, but I can't get my kid to listen to it. And for years, I would think, like, I know I can get to a point where I can do it shorter, but I had to have enough practice and experience talking about it that I could get the idea out more quickly. And then as I was kind of honing that skill, it became obvious to me by listening to people that I didn't always understand what was valuable for them. Like, I'll tell a big, long story. You pull a piece out of it. Who knew it was going to be set a lower alarm? Like, do you know what I mean? Yeah, because I'm lucky enough to have that big Facebook group, which, by the time your episode comes up, there'll probably be like, 61,000 people in that group, or something like that. So I was able to go to them, because there's such a big community now, and lovely and all, and say to them, anything I've ever said in the podcast that was valuable to you, tell me in this just tell me in here. Like, and I don't mean like, I mean you can say it was this episode, like, that episode, great. But if there was a thing that was said, like a T shirt slogan that was brought up, or something like that, like, say it. And we got enough people, actually, we got a ton of feedback, which was awesome. And what we were able to do is take all the feedback and then go back and basically collate it and go, Okay, well, 14 people said this, but 75 people said this. And, you know, almost everyone mentioned this piece right here. So we took all of that, smashed it down. Into those sayings or those thoughts. Nico went back and Nico's the person who helps me with the Facebook group. So basically Isabelle took all the stuff and collated it down so that we had it into sections, categories, and removed duplicates, but knew how many times somebody had said something. Then Nico went back into the podcast and found the places where I said it. Then I was able to go back in and listen to it, and then Jenny and I were able to sit down and make five minute episodes that, like, really drilled down on this stuff, and they've only been out for a couple of weeks, and they're actually not even all out now. They will be by the time somebody hears this, and I'm already starting to get crazy good feedback from it, from those people who just can't listen through the one or two things that come up in an episode with like, wow, that's really valuable for me, that process had to happen to get to that. I don't know why I'm bringing this up, other than I watch a YouTube channel where a guy builds like bivariums. This is very strange. These are very popular, so I don't I don't feel bad saying this like because I think this is a thing a lot of people do, but what I noticed recently is that this guy has been at it for so long, and he was popular the whole time, so he was able to keep doing it. He was able to turn it into how he made a living. And because of that, now you're seeing videos that aren't just him building a vivarium. It's him building it with 10 years of experience, or he'll be able to do a follow up thing where you go, Oh, that's awesome. I'm so glad to know this follow up thing, this thing that he learned, but you realize that if he had just started making the YouTube channel, there's no way he would have even known to say that. And I feel lucky to be in that position now, where this thing is has been popular enough that I can continue to do it, so that we can start, like, literally going back into the podcast and mining it to learn how to talk to new people. I'm sorry I went on for a while there, but I've been thinking about that for a while. No, you're good. Thank you. Ali is like, Oh, I was wondering if this would happen during my

Kylie 1:06:58
episode. No, I did just have to go and look up what a vivarium was. I thought I knew what it was, but I had to confirm. Oh, what did you figure out it was? Oh, I knew the I knew what a terrarium was. I figured it was something similar.

Scott Benner 1:07:10
It's all the same. It's a big box that has, like, living stuff inside of it. Very, very pretty. During this conversation, at one point, a small dinosaur was staring at me from a large box with like, for a while we were talking. It happens every once in a while, he is looking at me like, you should go get a roach and bring it over here and give it to me. And he just stared at me for a long time until it got uncomfortable. Like I looked away. I was like, I know you're hungry. I'm so sorry. And I overslept today. Is the Absolute Truth, by the way, I was a little sleepy last night. I think I had a cold, in case anybody cares, and I I slept a little longer than I meant to. Normally, I would have come in here and got, like, these guys settled, and then I would have started, but instead I came in, they were all like, oh, the man is here with the bugs. And I was like, nope, making a podcast. They were like, what? So anyway, the big one is literally staring, looking at me like, what's going on, man? And for anybody who doesn't know, I probably should have said bug and not Roach, because now you're freaked out, but not the roaches like you're thinking so different roaches, special ones, yo, yeah, they can't fly. That's really a big deal. They can't climb out of a plastic tub, and they can't fly. So they're, they're, they're pretty perfect for this. Anyway, I really do appreciate you doing this and letting me babble at the end. So thank you very much. Yeah, thanks for having me. It was a pleasure. Hold on one second for

Kylie 1:08:35
me. You are done

Scott Benner 1:08:42
the conversation you just enjoyed was brought to you by us. Med, us. Med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, get started today and get your supplies from us. Med, I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter that my daughter carries, the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour next.com/juicebox and don't forget, you may be paying more through your insurance right now for the meter you have then you would pay for the contour next gen in cash. There are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now, and links at Juicebox podcast.com to contour and all of the sponsors, a huge thanks to Omnipod, not just my longest sponsor, but my first one. Omnipod.com/juicebox if you love the podcast and you love tubeless insulin pumps. This link is for you, omnipod.com/juicebox, I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed or following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The podcast contains so many different series and collections of information. Information that it can be difficult to find them in your traditional podcast app sometimes. That's why they're also collected at Juicebox podcast.com go up to the top, there's a menu right there. Click on series, defining diabetes. Bold beginnings, the Pro Tip series, small sips, Omnipod five ask Scott and Jenny, mental wellness, fat and protein, defining thyroid, after dark, diabetes, variables, Grand Rounds, cold, wind, pregnancy, type two diabetes, GLP, meds, the math behind diabetes, diabetes myths and so much more. You have to go check it out. It's all there and waiting for you, and it's absolutely free. Juicebox podcast.com the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong wayrecording.com. You.

Please support the sponsors

---

The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!

Donate

#1528 Klutzy Before MS

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

Barbara, 50, was misdiagnosed at first but ultimately learned 21 years ago—at age 29—that she has type 1 diabetes; she has since also been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

---

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
Welcome back, friends to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Barbara 0:14
Hi, my name is Barbara. I'm a type one diabetic. I was diagnosed 21 years ago, at age 29

Scott Benner 0:21
if this is your first time listening to the Juicebox Podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcasts or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox Podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management, go to Juicebox podcast.com, up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is brought to you by my favorite diabetes organization, touched by type one. Please take a moment to learn more about them at touched by type one.org, on Facebook and Instagram. Touched by type one.org. Check out their many programs, their annual conference awareness campaign, their D box program, dancing for diabetes. They have a dance program for local kids, a golf night and so much more. Touched by type one.org. You're looking to help or you want to see people helping people with type one you want touched by type one.org. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes and their mini med 780 G system designed to help ease the burden of diabetes management, imagine fewer worries about missed boluses or miscalculated carbs thanks to meal detection technology and automatic correction doses. Learn more and get started today at Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox This episode is sponsored by the tandem Moby system, which is powered by tandems, newest algorithm control iq plus technology. Tandem Moby has a predictive algorithm that helps prevent highs and lows, and is now available for ages two and up. Learn more and get started today at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox

Barbara 2:31
Hi. My name is Barbara. I'm a type one diabetic. I was diagnosed 21 years ago at age 29

Scott Benner 2:38
Yeah, see, you messed me up a little bit while we were getting this set up. I'm going to tell you why. Like, you were like, you why. Like, you were like, Oh, I'm going to try my husband's headphones. They're like, as old as my kids. They're 30, but you sound like you're 25 Well,

Barbara 2:50
you have no idea what a blessing that is to hear, because in a few days, I turned 50, and the very next day, my oldest turns 31

Scott Benner 2:59
so that was my next question. Is you guys were like, making babies out of high school, right?

Barbara 3:04
Pretty much, yeah, pretty much, okay, but married 30 years. Wow,

Scott Benner 3:08
so what? How old were you when you got married? I was 2020 My husband was 21 No kidding, you like high school sweethearts,

Barbara 3:17
no, not at all. We met. I was 18, and that was it. We just started seeing each other, dating, and it

Scott Benner 3:28
all worked. Got married. No kidding. Obviously, it's, either it's working out, or you're so tired you can't imagine getting rid of each other. You know, I don't.

Barbara 3:35
It's probably a happy medium of both. There are times

Scott Benner 3:39
when I look at my wife and I'm like, she doesn't like what I just said, but it's not just said, but it's not worth it to her. I like this. It's much more comfortable. So that's pretty cool. See, you weren't listen was this a shotgun wedding with the kids ages in the wood? Or

Barbara 3:54
no? Well actually, so we have two children. My oldest is going to be 31 and and Julie, that's her. She was a product of a previous relationship. So she was born the day after my 19th birthday, and he was long gone at that point. And my husband, Michael, my current husband, yeah, he had been around and he had been trying to date me for many months, and I just wanted nothing to do with that. So then, after I had this, this baby, and I'm, you know, raising her as a single parent, and, you know, barely an adult myself, I just turned 19, he just, he was men with her. He just fell in love with with with her, with me, and together, we just decided to get married, and two years later, we had our little boy, Bailey,

Scott Benner 4:50
our Barb. Your life is the rich tapestry that we're gonna find out about here. There's

Barbara 4:53
many layers, trust me, very interesting. I already feel

Scott Benner 4:56
it. I feel that that youth in your voice is more like now. Really youth, it's a pension for trouble. So we'll, we'll figure that all out. I like this. Gotcha. Arden's gonna be 21 soon, and she announced the other day she couldn't take care of her puppy because of her menstrual cramps. So I'm like, when you were like, I was, you know, just sort of an adult at 19, I was like, I don't know about that, but, you know, 30 years ago, different. Yeah, you're such a lovely person that a 20 year old boy married you with a baby. Yeah. Why are you so lovely? What's going on? I don't know. You know, I don't know what makes you so

Barbara 5:34
there's, there's, there's some more layers to the story. So I was 19, well, 18 when I was pregnant, and I was kind of, I don't want to say embarrassed, but I didn't, let's put it this way. I didn't tell anyone I was pregnant. I lived at home with my mother and my brother, who had recently moved back with his five year old daughter, going through a divorce himself, and I told no one. I was pregnant until the morning. I woke up on my 19th birthday and went, huh? I don't feel very well. And that night, we had some snow, and I remember my mother and I shoveling the driveway, and I went to my room to go to bed, and my water breaks, and I'm like, Okay, now what am I gonna do?

Scott Benner 6:21
Barb, how did you, My God, we're never gonna end up talking about your diabetes at this rate. But, like, so how are you just a very slight person, or are you bigger? Like, how did your body, how did you hide that you were pregnant? So

Barbara 6:32
I gained about 15 pounds. I was probably like, 125, foot three at the time, I don't know, to be honest, spoken to

Scott Benner 6:43
your mom. In hindsight, if you've been like, come on. You knew I was pregnant, right? No, she did not know. Your mom's not like, a meth or something that would make her like, No, nothing like that. Okay, so more

Barbara 6:54
layers. I was adopted by my grandparents. So this was my grandmother, who I call my mother, because she's raised me from very little age on up, and I don't know. I don't know how anyone didn't know. Now, my husband, I remember we weren't dating right here at the time. He claims he knew, he suspected it. I don't buy that at

Scott Benner 7:18
all. Wait while you were pregnant, you were not with the father at that point during the pregnancy,

Barbara 7:22
correct? Yeah. No, he he was, he was gone when I announced my pregnancy to him. He was goodbye, okay,

Scott Benner 7:28
but, but you weren't being intimate with your husband, your current like you got to really worry about him if he didn't know you were pregnant. And that was happening. So

Barbara 7:38
my FA, my family, owned the local bowling alley, and he would come in with his friends a couple nights a week. And so me working there, he was trying to to ask me out,

Scott Benner 7:52
avoiding him. Yeah, no, no, I listen. I once asked a girl out at a clover I don't know if anybody knows what that is, but she was a cash register person I'd never been in a store so many times in my life before I figured out the right way to do that.

Barbara 8:05
My mother recently asked him. She says, so Hey, Mike, do you bowl anymore? He goes, No, I got what I wanted.

Scott Benner 8:13
Yeah, I was throwing those balls around so that, you know, you know, it's funny. I just realized the way I started dating that girl would probably be stalking 30 years later, oh, I'm sure, yep, yep. And what your husband did too, you know what? I mean, you guys gotta understand, we didn't have hinge. There was no other way to find we had to talk to people. It was, it was difficult. Hey. All right, so you have, can I ask, like, generally speaking, where in the country do you live? Ohio, Ohio. Okay, all right. This is the family business. Getting pregnant early your mom was how old? No,

Barbara 8:44
so my birth mother had me when she was 21 okay. Now, when she was one years old, she had a brain aneurysm that ruptured. Oh, my God. And now she's in her 70s now, so at the time, it's amazing she lived through her pregnancy review, there was some some brain damage, and of the, you know, things of that nature. So when she had a child, she wasn't really able to take care of that child. That's where my grandparents stepped in and they adopted me. I

Scott Benner 9:23
see Did you know your father? No, no, no, okay, wow.

Barbara 9:27
We have since found him, although he has passed my daughter was able to figure it out through one of those ancestry things, yeah, we were able to figure it out. He has since passed away. But no, I had never, never met him.

Scott Benner 9:43
I think I recently may have figured out that I have a half brother because I'm adopted. I started to get noticed. Like, you know, I'm gonna stop now. Do you know what I mean? Like, you just I'm like, I don't think, and it's never what you want it to be, or even close exactly

Barbara 9:58
same thing. Yeah. Julie discovered I have, I have a half sister, and no, there's, there's no, no reason for me to track her down.

Scott Benner 10:07
Barb, what I'm saying is, when your story is my mom, who had some, you know, brain issues, got pregnant by a guy who left her like, you're like, I don't think I need to know the rest of this. Like, it doesn't feel like unless my story is my mom was a princess, and she didn't have time to take care of me. I don't really want to, I don't want to hear about it. Okay, it is interesting. The twists and turns that that lead you to, you know where you are now. Yeah,

Barbara 10:33
yeah, exactly. How old were you

Scott Benner 10:35
when you were diagnosed? I was 29 Oh, wow.

Barbara 10:41
And it was the typical they thought I was type two. And actually, the the amusing part of that was, do you remember the show? Er, yeah. Okay, so I started to have these kind of weird symptoms, you know, I was, it was about a month after my 29th birthday. So, you know, I'm 28 years old, waking up 345, times in the middle of night to go to the bathroom. In my delusional thought process, I'm like, Oh, I'm getting old. Well, that's not old. But anyway, I had an excuse for every odd symptom, you know, yeast infections, drinking a two liter of Diet Pepsi a day losing weight. I was probably like 115 and I was watching, er, one night after the kids had gone to bed, and there was a scenario on that was a type one, and I'm watching this thinking, oh my gosh, that's literally every that's my life. So I googled it, and every single symptom, every single symptom I could recognize, except erectile dysfunction. So I'm like, Okay, it's time to call

Scott Benner 11:55
the doctor. You were still getting nice heart erections. That's why. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Okay. Wow. So what is it like Noah Wiley and Dr Mark Green, like, helped you? Or is that, am I remembering these names right? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. I just want to throw a plug in here for no particular reason. Noah Wiley's new hospital television show on max called the pit is really good. You should check it out. Oh, I'll have to check it out. Yeah, I've never seen that. Maybe you'll get diagnosed with something else, yeah,

Barbara 12:24
well, hopefully not, because I do have a few other issues. What else is going on? So, just hypothyroidism and multiple sclerosis. When

Scott Benner 12:33
did you get an MS diagnosis? I was diagnosed

Barbara 12:36
with MS 10 years this year. No kidding.

Scott Benner 12:40
Oh, I'm sorry. How has that impacted your life? Not too bad,

Barbara 12:44
fortunately. So the thing with MS is you get lesions either in your brain or your spinal cord. Mine are my spinal cord, which what that means is it's mostly affecting my balance. So I was walking with my friend one day at a park, and we're on this boardwalk, and I'm walking like at an angle. She thought I was gonna walk off the boardwalk, just my balance was just so off. You were

Scott Benner 13:14
listing, yeah, pretty much tell people the real sadness of this. You're a professional tightrope walker, yeah,

Barbara 13:21
yeah, I had to give that up. Yeah. I'm a I'm a klutz. I'm well known way before Ms for not being very graceful. I

Scott Benner 13:31
mean, what did that feel like? What was more shocking, type one diagnosis or Ms. This episode is sponsored by tandem Diabetes Care, and today I'm going to tell you about tandems, newest pump and algorithm, the tandem mobi system with control iq plus technology features auto Bolus, which can cover missed meal boluses and help prevent hyperglycemia. It has a dedicated sleep activity setting and is controlled from your personal iPhone. Tandem will help you to check your benefits today through my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox this is going to help you to get started with tandem, smallest pump yet that's powered by its best algorithm ever control IQ. Plus technology helps to keep blood sugars in range by predicting glucose levels 30 minutes ahead, and it adjusts insulin accordingly. You can wear the tandem Moby in a number of ways. Wear it on body with a patch like adhesive sleeve that is sold separately. Clip it discreetly to your clothing or slip it into your pocket head. Now to my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox to check out your benefits and get started today. Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the mini med 780 G system. The mini med 780 G automated insulin delivery system anticipates, adjusts and corrects every five minutes. Real world results show people achieving up to 80% time in. Range with recommended settings, without increasing lows. But of course, Individual results may vary. The 780 G works around the clock, so you can focus on what matters. Have you heard about Medtronic extended infusion set? It's the first and only infusion set labeled for up to a seven day wear. This feature is repeatedly asked for and Medtronic has delivered. 97% of people using the 780 G reported that they could manage their diabetes without major disruptions of sleep. They felt more free to eat what they wanted, and they felt less stress with fewer alarms and alerts you can't beat that. Learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes by visiting Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox, probably the type one, really, probably the type

Barbara 15:48
one only, because at the time, the only knowledge I knew of diabetes was growing up as a child, my dad, my grandfather, he was a type two. He actually, he had passed away when I was 15. My only knowledge of diabetes was, was him. And then when my son was born and I did the the test for gestational diabetes, it had come back questionable. Well, it was like 140 which No, now that I know that that was nothing, but at the time, you know, 140 big deal

Scott Benner 16:26
I could do 140 right now when I see it, yeah, exactly.

Barbara 16:29
So, you know I had to do, and of course, this is in the mid 90s, so you had to do the five hour glucose test, yeah, and then it ended up coming back fine. So they they labeled me impaired glucose tolerant. So they said, it's not necessarily gestational diabetes, but you know, you just should act as if it is. But they don't tell me what you do to act as if it is, yeah, go figure that out. Exactly. So that was my only knowledge of diabetes. So

Scott Benner 17:07
if I weren't you 21 at that point, yeah, you should go figure it out. Yeah, exactly. Did you say? Hey, take a hard look at me. Look like I'm figuring anything out. I'm 21 years old. I got two kids, two guys. I don't know my mom. You think I'm over here making sense of the world. Like, help me a little. I love when they do crap like that. Like, you get it, you know, it's funny you said, you said earlier, you know, I was misdiagnosed initially as type two. And you said, it's so blase, because you're obviously, it's an experience you've had, and your experience talking to other people who have diabetes, but I just had to have a conversation with somebody who this is happening to in real time. And when I said to them, Oh, listen, this happens all the time, they couldn't wrap their head around how that could be true. Oh, wow, yeah, they were like, wait, what? People are constantly misdiagnosed type two instead of type one, like, as a person who had never been ill before, never had, like, a real diagnosis of something, not really been involved in the medical community at all, I guess, like, you know, in their personal life, they were like, that doesn't make any sense. Like, you go to the doctor, the doctor does some tests. They tell you what's wrong with you. So for a week, these people were running around going, like, my kid doesn't have type one diabetes, and it was an adult child, so, and I'm the one who's going, like, no, like, I'm so sorry. He has type one diabetes. And then, you know, five, six days go by and you get a text from this person. They're like, you were right. And like, they're devastated, like, you know what I mean, like, and so it was nice that they were able to, like, bounce it off of me and not go too far down the wrong road. He wasn't taking medication didn't need, or, you know, being misdiagnosed, or hurting himself somehow, which is awesome. But like, I felt very bad for them for the five days where they had, they got to pretend, or hope, or whatever you want to call it, that this wasn't going to be that. And I felt bad for them anyway. Well,

Barbara 18:56
that's like, so, you know, I make an appointment, you know, going to see the doctor, and you know, the nurse is, you know, checking me in, asking me, you know, why I'm there. And I said, Well, I'd like to be tested for diabetes. And she gives me this look like, Okay, why do you think you need to be tested for diabetes? So I start listing everything off. She goes, Oh, okay, Doctor will be in. So you think any of them would be smart enough to bring a glucometer in? No. So doctor comes in. I explained the same thing to him. He's like, Okay, we'll order some some blood work. So I go the next day get the blood work. They call me later that day and said, Well, you do have diabetes. We are a little alarmed by your numbers. Doctor called in a prescription for you pick that up and then come see him next week. So I said, Okay, well, let me ask you this, what was my blood sugar? Now, the only really knowledge I had was when I got that call that my blood sugar was 145 when I was pregnant, right? So then she tells me it was 487 and I went. Oh, that's high. She goes, Well, we're more concerned with the A 1c which, again, I have no idea what that means. And she said, we're more concerned with the A 1c which was 15 or 14.8

Scott Benner 20:13
Jesus, please tell me they just gave you Metformin, right? They gave me Metformin. Yeah. Okay, so did you die, or did you make it back the next week? So

Barbara 20:22
I go to the pharmacy to pick it up, which is our local grocery store here, and the pharmacist knew my mother in law. He his mother lived on the same street as my mother in law, okay? And so when I go to pick it up, he looks at me, and he says, Is this for you? And I said, Yes. And he says, I'm really confused. He goes, when I saw the last name come in, I thought it was for your mother in law, not you. And he said, Why are you prescribed this? So I tell him, and he he was the one who said, you sound more like a type one than a type two. This isn't gonna work. And when the nurse had called me and was telling me these numbers, I said to her, I need insulin. She goes, Oh no, honey, they've got great advancements. You'll never need to take a shot because you're

Scott Benner 21:14
type two, and we're gonna fix it with your Metformin. It's gonna be great. You know, love it. Oh yeah, get excited. It's happening. So what do you do now? You have, you have your own thought, which is, you're not agreeing with the doctor, the nurse, correct the doctor and nurses thought, and you have the pharmacist on your side. Like, what do you end up doing? Like, this is interesting to me. Like, how do you handle this, this crossroad? Sure.

Barbara 21:37
So this was the day before Good Friday. It was a Thursday. I remember my kids had had half a day of school. She called me as we're getting ready to go into parent teacher conferences. You know, no, I have this appointment for the following week. So I'm not really thinking much of it at this point, going through the rest of my day and then go to the pharmacy pick that med up. And now I'm, I'm kind of thinking, Wait a minute. You know what's going on? Well, when I see the doctor next week, we'll, we'll just figure it all out. So my husband, my mom and I, we go to this doctor's appointment, and the doctor now suddenly the doctor's office has a glucometer, and it was like 520

Scott Benner 22:23
Jesus. Are you okay? What are your other symptoms at that point? Looking back,

Barbara 22:27
I had lost probably 25 pounds. I was going to the bathroom constantly. I was constantly hungry. The

Scott Benner 22:35
doctor didn't say, hey. You know, I don't know a lot of type twos who lose weight. No, no, not at all. No, like I got type two diabetes and dropped 25 pounds. I've never heard anybody say that to me one time. Yeah,

Barbara 22:47
no. I mean, I was a 29 year old that weighed probably 115 Jesus. He had, yeah, he, he, it was not on his radar at all. Was it an old or not jump to twice? No. I mean, he was probably maybe late 40s, early 50s. At the time, I

Scott Benner 23:07
am looking for ways to give this guy a pass. I can't figure it out. Yeah,

Barbara 23:12
my husband and I have found a different general practitioner. Yeah,

Scott Benner 23:19
I go to the pharmacist. He sounded like he knew what he was doing. Be like, Listen, if I gave you 20 bucks, could I call you once in a while with my medical concerns? Jeez, I'm still like, I have to tell you, like, this is the most frightening,

Barbara 23:30
the best thing this guy could come up with. Yeah, no,

Scott Benner 23:34
I know we just talked. We just talked over each other by mistake, but let me say this, and then I want to hear what you're going to say. Like, this part frightens me the most about people's stories. The time between you're sick, you're losing weight, something's obviously wrong, you go to a physician, you find something out, and now you're living with that wrong diagnosis. Living scares me because whether it's five days and it just ends up bursting your bubble a little bit like in the story I told you. Or if it's some people who somehow are in such a lot of situations that they live for one two years misdiagnosed, you know, during a very slow onset, or the people who are misdiagnosed and then end up in DKA, which it freakin sounds to me like you're in, like, yeah, I most likely was the story. Gets Okay, Barb. Barb, you're breaking up, so let's wait a second till you get your signal back. Hold on a second. Barb, you can't hear me. Can you? Okay? Wait. You were broke. Okay, you're back. Go ahead. I can hear you, fine. Oh, no, you were like, This is what you sounded like. I'll have I'll have Rob leave it in so, so you can hear like everyone else will hear, but you get to hear it one day, you were like, No, that's exactly what you sounded like. The signal, just so funny. But go back to that moment. Go back to that moment. Keep talking.

Barbara 24:58
So we go to the stock. His appointment, and he basically is just giving us the rundown of of diabetes, which is just the type two information. And he said, so you know it could affect your eyesight, but don't worry about it. We'll just get you some glasses. And I looked at him, I said, No, that's not how it works. And plus, my vision is horrible. I wear glasses. Over contacts.

Scott Benner 25:23
Don't worry. If this gets worse, we'll get you glasses like that's your Jesus. Yeah, pretty

Barbara 25:27
much. So then he orders another type two med. I don't remember the name of it. I remember it started with an A and it has since been pulled from the market. So he put me on that. And I remember my mom was was pushing for an endocrinologist, and so he said, Well, we can schedule an appointment. I'll refer you. This is back when you had to have referrals, because I'll refer you to an endocrinologist. You can meet with him. In the meantime, you can meet with a diabetes educator through the Health Department. So I'm thinking, Okay, we'll we'll get somewhere with some of these other resources. Yeah, so I meet with the diabetes educator a couple days later, and she had a little more knowledge, but she's still going by type two, even though she told me that her two year old grandchild was just diagnosed with type one, but she was an older woman, and I'm thinking her thought process was, I was an adult, I was type two, and that is what it was. So she wasn't even, you know, thinking type one. She was giving me all the information I would need as a type two. So basically, diet and things like that, as I'm walking around with a blood sugar of 500 Yeah, taking these pills that are doing nothing for me, Yeah?

Scott Benner 26:50
Jeez. How long does this go on for a couple weeks?

Barbara 26:53
And I'm calling the doctor's office because now I have a glucometer, and I'm testing my blood sugar and it's, you know, 500 if it's reading a number, usually it's reading high. And so I'm calling this doctor every couple days, and I'm not getting anywhere. So finally, I get a call the next day, and the nurse said the doctor was doing rounds at the hospital, saw the endocrinologist, mentioned to you, mentioned your case to him, so he said, give his office a call and he'll fit you in, you know, ASAP. Well, probably what happened was I probably wore his office down because his staff was just so bothered by me calling daily that that's what happened. Let me

Scott Benner 27:40
tell you about Barb. And they go, Oh, Barb, yeah, no, no. She's calling every 10, you know. Geez. All right, I guess so that nut jobs calling again. Let's get her in before she really, like, starts, you know, blowing us up. Well, okay, so now, what does the endo say to you?

Barbara 27:52
So I go in to see him, and I'm telling him everything, and he's like, Well, you know, you're, I think you're type one. I think it's actually type one and a half, you know, lotta. And he said, so I'm gonna prescribe some Lantus for you, and then we'll, we'll start with that, and then we'll see him in a few weeks. In the meantime, the pills aren't going to do anything for you, so stop taking those. So I said, okay, no

Scott Benner 28:16
direction about eating, or how all this works. Anything at all, nothing. Okay, just take some Lantus

Barbara 28:22
and Lantus. Okay, so no instruction on how to even administer Lantus. Wait, what? He writes me a prescription for needles and Lantus to go to the pharmacy to pick it up.

Scott Benner 28:33
Doesn't tell you how much to inject.

Barbara 28:35
Well, I think on the prescription it said, like, 20 units or something, but

Scott Benner 28:39
he didn't say, hey, Barb, you're 29 Have you ever injected anything into yourself or anybody else in your life? No, no, let's go figure it out. Huh?

Barbara 28:48
Yeah, pretty much go figure it out. So I do. I go figure it out. Fortunately, the person that it's a different pharmacy I go to at this time, and I knew the person, she was actually a parent at my kid's school, and so I'm explaining all this to her. So she says, Okay, let me at least show you how to draw up the insulin and and, you know, give gave me some some background information, because she knew that I had no knowledge other than take this, right? So I remember that night, I'm home with this insulin, and I said to my husband, I have to inject this. And he was, he was worried about me injecting it without having any actual training on it, and so he didn't want me to. And I'm like, No, you don't understand. Like, we need to take this. Did

Scott Benner 29:39
he say you don't understand. Got to take this Barb. You're very klutzy. He didn't say that. Like, you're a very klutzy person. Like, let's not get involved with this. So

Barbara 29:47
I go in the kitchen and I inject it. Because I'm like, Okay, I've just got to do this. So I, you know, injected the Lantus. Well, I had had a follow up with the primary care, so with had already been scheduled at this point. I was not smart enough to drop him yet, so I go and see him. Tell him, yeah, I saw the endocrinologist, and, you know, he said it's, you know, type one. So he gave me Lantis. So I'm I'm taking Lantus. Then he says, okay, he goes, I think you need a faster insulin, too insulin to cover your meals. So I'm going to write you a prescription for R and give you a sliding scale. Well,

Scott Benner 30:25
now this guy's got all kinds of ideas. It's interesting. Boy, that's the PCP, right? Like, that's your general practitioner who could not figure out that you had type one diabetes. But then once the endo said you had type one and this is what I think you should do, that doctor said, Oh no, here's what I think you should do, right? Awesome. Wow. Yeah, I don't know how we're all alive, but keep talking. I'm sorry. And he still would label

Barbara 30:48
me on things as type two. I mean, he had not come to that recollection that I was type one. He was just under the impression I was type two, requiring insulin, but he gave me R. And so then I go back. I'm ping ponging between these two doctors now. So I go back to the endocrinologist, tell him that the primary care who prescribed me R, and so now I'm taking both of those. They have me split the Lantus. Take some in the morning, some at night. And now numbers are starting to come down. And so now I'm starting to see, you know, starting to feel a little better, starting to see 100 right? And I think, probably, like, I think was, that was April, May, June. It was two months later. I had an A, 1c, and it was like, seven, four, okay, so I came down, you know, kind of quickly, and I ended up seeing that endocrinologist for just a few years. I wasn't real fond of the care I was getting from him, but it was better than what I had been getting, yeah, from from the primary care. I remember it was quite a struggle to get better insulin than r, and I remember he he didn't want to to prescribe me Nova log. He had said to me, he's like, I'll switch your insulin one time, but that's it. I'm only gonna switch it this once. Okay? I'm like, All right. Because in the meantime, you know, I'm researching things. I'm finding things out, realizing that R is kind of old, and now I want a pin. Because I'm using vials, I want a pin, yeah, and that was begging to get, to get a pin, which I don't understand. What the issue with that was, it was just a delivery system. It was the same stuff. I

Scott Benner 32:35
find it crazy that you're telling a 20 year old story that I've also had somebody tell me six months ago? Yeah, that's the part that I think I find maybe most baffling,

Barbara 32:47
right? Honestly, it's easier to comprehend knowing this happened 20 years ago, but knowing that this happened within a year, that's, that's

Scott Benner 32:55
sad. It just means like that. For some people, it's not every, I'm not saying every doctor, obviously, but like but for some, for some doctors, there's just, there's no ability to they just, they can't move forward. They don't know how to do it. Or, you know, I don't know. I don't know why. It's beyond me to understand why. Well, let's fast forward a little bit, because Sure, you're 50 years old, and the only intake you have here on your little note to me is that you want to talk about how your carriage changed since you found the podcast. So what was your What was it like up until then? How did you find it? What changed for you? So in 2008

Barbara 33:31
I decided to go on an insulin pump. Just for reference, I was diagnosed in 2004 so about four years in, I decide I want to try an insulin pump. So I went with Medtronic, and I had used Medtronic insulin pumps. And things were, were I thought, well, a one CS and the sevens, but everything I had been told, I was told, Hey, you're doing great, you know, the typical, you know, stuff. And at that, my current endocrinologist, who I started seeing around 2009 in his office. They would do what they call pump clinics. So once a month, the Medtronic rep would come to the office and she would download your pump, and she would go over your information, and she would make any changes that the doctor had authorized. She could make within like, 10% anything beyond that, then, you know, she would give the recommendations to him, and he'd review it, and then you make changes. Okay, so every time I would go in, it was my a 1c, were in the sevens and, oh, you know, you, you could probably stand to do a little better, but, you know, other than that, you're doing great. I knew that there were people out there with a one season, the fives and the sixes. How did you know that? Ironically, my best friend is a type one diabetic. Oh, and she's been a type one diabetic since, like, freshman year of college, and I had just met her. I've met her around the time I was diabetic. Knows she was a parent at my kids school, and her daughter and my daughter are best friends, and her a 1c. Was like, 5857, okay. And I remember thinking, even know how that's possible. And she was MDI. What

Scott Benner 35:18
you know? Why are they telling me my seven is great, if this is, yeah, right, she was MDI,

Barbara 35:22
and she was maintaining that, so she actually went on a pump when I went on a pump and telling her how great it was. But again, that doesn't necessarily mean my control was any better. It was just that, you know, convenience is what, what I was getting from it, yeah. So I had switched to her endocrinologist, and like I said, I never ate, was able to get the tighter control that I wanted. Well, no one had ever used the words Pre Bolus with me. That was the key, okay. And it was during the pandemic, when I was home with with the MS, the medications that I take to to to prevent it from progressing, I immunocompromised, is how I would be labeled. So during the pandemic, I was home from work, and I remember thinking, You know what? I'm going to try to figure this. You know, figure this out. I was on Dexcom and Medtronic, so I'm like, but my Dexcom was just a, just a don't die function. For me, I was just using it for when I was high, when I was low, but I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't know what to do with the information. If I'm low, you drink a Juicebox. If I'm high, you try to give yourself some insulin. You know, it might not allow you to take insulin, because I'm, you know, riding 300 a lot. I didn't know what to do with the information that I had, so I remember I was on a Facebook group and someone was talking about a podcast that Kevin from Dexcom had had done, and I clicked on it and listened to it, and it was yours. It was your podcast, and it was, like, it was not quite 500 it was like 480 ish, something around there, okay. And I remember listening to that podcast and thinking, wow, I could listen to this. This is this. This sounds really helpful. So I started listening to a few more of your podcast, and I'm listening and I'm hearing words that no one has mentioned to me at all, you know, Pre Bolus, things of that nature. So I start doing it, and I get down to a

Scott Benner 37:40
six nice. It's exciting. Yeah, what do you think you heard that moved your a one? See a full point. Is it just the pre bolusing? I

Barbara 37:51
believe it was just the pre bolusing, because I don't think I was doing anything different, and I don't think I had the knowledge to do anything different other than Pre Bolus, because I thought I knew everything I needed to know as it was so

Scott Benner 38:06
fair enough to say Barb, then you understand your diabetes. You know incredibly well, with the fine exception of how to time your insulin. Yeah, pretty much, yeah. Gosh, should have called the podcast Pre Bolus probably would have been more popular. You got down to that. What were you gonna say then? I'm sorry I asked you, like, how it helped you? No,

Barbara 38:25
no, that's okay. So I start listening to the podcast, some of the other episodes, and I start, you know, doing some some pre ball listing, and it's working. And I realized that there was a whole wealth of information that I didn't know. This is the key. It's the Pre Bolus saying, trying not to get your numbers once your numbers are in 300 it's hard to recover from that. But if you're talking a number that's 151 60, I could function with that. I can get that down to a 100 to a 90. So I was able to do that. And then around that time, it was time to get a new pump. So I decided, well, I'd only been on Medtronic, so I thought I'm gonna give the Omnipod a try, which last week I went back on Medtronic, so I have the 780 G right now.

Scott Benner 39:19
You went Omnipod dash? No, no. Omnipod

Barbara 39:23
euros, iros

Scott Benner 39:24
pods. Okay, so like old school, you were just Yeah, and then how come you didn't go to Omnipod five? Why'd you go to 780 G? I

Barbara 39:32
have really good insurance. When I called Medtronic to figure out what the pump was going to be, and they called me back, first thing he said to me was, Wow, you've got really good insurance. And I said, Yes, I know that. And the problem is that runs through durable medical so to get the the Omnipod five running through pharmacy, my coverage is not as great I see, and I use a lot of insulin a day. Mm. I'm using 120 to 140 units a day, so I am literally changing my pump every day. Would

Scott Benner 40:07
you tell me your insulin to carb ratio? Or do you have any like hormonal impacts, something going on,

Barbara 40:14
not that I know of. I have, I have gained a lot of weight. I was

Scott Benner 40:19
just gonna my years, my next question was going to be, if you gained weight? Oh,

Barbara 40:23
yeah, yeah, I'm like, I said I was, you know, 121 30. Now I'm 240 when are

Scott Benner 40:28
we going to listen to Scott about the GLP meds? So I

Barbara 40:32
want to try GLP meds. My insurance does not cover we go V they don't cover it for weight loss. And I have talked to my doctor about trying to get it as maybe a dual diagnosis, type one, type two, right? He keeps kind of putting me off. He this is what he told me. He told me he would do it when I went on an insulin pump, he didn't care which one, but when I went on an insulin pump, that with an algorithm.

Scott Benner 41:01
That seems senseless, but my thought here is, is that, I mean, if he can't make the case to your insurance company that a one to four carb ratio might indicate some insulin resistance, I mean, I don't know what he's thinking. Do you know what I mean? Right, right? Yeah. So, I mean, can you tell me about how many carbs you take in in a day? Yeah, it's 100 No, not a lot. No, and, and you're using how many units a day? About 120 Oh, my goodness, yeah. I mean, the GLP is a no brainer. It wouldn't matter if you were getting your insulin through a sharp stick, that you were poking a hole in yourself in and then dumping the insulin, and I would think you should still try a GLP Med, right?

Barbara 41:40
No, that. That's my plan. I my plan. Now that I'm on you did the thing he asked. I his requirements that he asked me to do, right? So once I go back for my next appointment, I'm gonna push toward

Scott Benner 41:54
for that good for you, I would imagine that if you have insulin resistance, that's a side of your weight, that you'll see a more immediate impact. But if you have insulin resistance, that is due mostly to your body compensation composition, then when you know you start losing weight, you should see your insulin needs go down. I'm gonna guess why he wants you on an automated system. He thinks, as you lose weight, your insulin needs are gonna change drastically, and hopefully the the algorithm will keep up with it, yes, yes, and you won't end up being low. I mean, he could have just said, you can start an algorithm system or not, but let's just pay attention to your insulin needs as you lose weight. And that would have been the same thing if I'm right about what he was thinking, right,

Barbara 42:37
right? That No, no, because that's pretty much what he said. So, yeah,

Scott Benner 42:41
oh, all right, yeah. Then, then that's, I mean, that's exactly his concern, is. He thinks you're gonna get low, but I don't know. Like, well, I don't know why. See, that's one of those things where people's, like, preconceived notions get ahead of their brain. Like, you've had diabetes for, I mean, 20 years, he can't just say to you, like, look, you're gonna lose weight, your needs are going to go down. We're going to have to keep adjusting your set. Maybe he doesn't want to be involved in the settings adjusting. Would that be, yeah, I don't know, but you don't need that. You wouldn't need that from him, would you?

Barbara 43:13
No, no, no, I I feel I'm knowledgeable enough now that I can, I can work with him whatever comes at me. Yeah.

Scott Benner 43:21
Are you excited for Medtronic to add that new CGM, yes, yeah. That was

Barbara 43:27
quite the learning curve, which we're talking about a week and a half now and and going back to tubing, wasn't that much of a hardship. Giving up the Dexcom and trusting the sensor, that's been the learning curve. I've enjoyed that

Scott Benner 43:44
less. Yeah. I mean, I don't that that sensor of theirs is available in Europe, right? I wonder when it's coming up. You know, it's funny. I could just email somebody and ask, but they probably can't tell me,

Barbara 43:55
right? Yeah, well, when I called Medtronic, the Medtronic rep I talked to I had mentioned that to him, and he told me he had recently tried Omnipod five for a little while, and he told me that the new sensor, and I don't really believe much of this, but he did say it is FDA approved. They're just waiting to make sure they have enough before they release it to me. That doesn't make sense. But what do I know? I'm

Scott Benner 44:23
gonna try something here. I don't think I've ever done this, but let me see this. Do you you guys have an idea on when? What's it called simplra that right? Yeah. Let me spell it right, so I don't look like an idiot. She'll be like, great. We buy ads from you. You can't spell our stuff. So let me just take a look for a second here. Okay, making sure I'm spelling right. Do you have an idea when simplera will be available in the US? I. I won't tell anybody. I won't Okay, yeah, okay, let's see what happens. Very cool. It's like a little test of my, my power, yeah? Which I'm sure is gonna come back very limited. It's gonna say something like, you haven't signed enough NDAs for this one, buddy, or I don't know, I don't know usually, or we're hoping, like, you know, I understand, like publicly traded companies can't, they can't go although I don't know, the world seems to be changing so quickly. Now, apparently you can just say anything you want out loud. But you know, they don't say, You know what we're shooting for July, because if they don't hit July, it could hurt their stock. It could also be seen as, like, manipulating the stock and stuff like that. So there's, like, a lot of reasons they don't share stuff like that. I'm interested in do they have an idea? So let's see what happens. Okay, so you have an algorithm going now you're liking it, right? I've heard very good things about 780 Do you like the way it works?

Barbara 45:59
So I'll have to admit, the first couple days, I was thinking, Oh no, what have I done? But then I went, Okay, just give it time, because I think that's the biggest issue. Is it just it needs those first few days to I'll use the word learn, although I don't think that's the appropriate word that they would want me to use, you know, to get the right information dialed in. And then after a few days, it started leveling me out closer to that 100 target, whereas those first few days it was riding me at like 141 60. And I wasn't happy with that, sure, but now I'm now it's a little closer. I mean, it's not keeping me at 100 like I would like, but it's keeping me more like 110 120 so again, it's only like a week and a half in, so I can work with what's going on, because I know it'll just, it'll just get better, so I'm not too worried about it. Okay,

Scott Benner 46:53
yeah, no. I mean, listen, I've heard really, genuinely good things about it from people actually, going back, I'm going to say, over a year ago, from somebody I met who was overseas and already using it. My friend,

Barbara 47:05
she's, she's had it for quite a while now, like, think when it had first come out, she had recently had a new Medtronic pump. So she had, they had upgraded her as soon as the 780 G was available. And so she had been using that, and she was telling me, she goes, Oh, I think you'll like it. I think you should go back. And I went, I don't know, I don't know if I can give up the Dexcom, right? You know, I was running low on the on the supplies I had back piled so I knew I had to make a choice and do something. And what I did,

Scott Benner 47:37
it's awesome. Yeah, hey, you know what? I'm gonna brag for a second here. I knew, I knew about people having good success with 780 G from Europe because I was giving a talk once in Connecticut, and a few people flew across the ocean to hear me speak nice. That's my brag. I was very nice. I wasn't. You're entitled to that. I'm proud of it. Now, in the moment, I was just shocked. I actually think I said to her, What is wrong with you? Also, it felt very pressuring. I've had situations where people like, oh, I drove 16 hours to be here, and I even then, I was like, way to pressure me. I don't think I can come through to that, like, that's a long drive. But when somebody said I flew from England to hear you speak today in Connecticut. I was like, what now? Like, cool, but now I feel like I gotta really do a good job. I wasn't really feeling any stress until you just told me you got on a plane to do this. I you know, so I only drove over, like, an hour and a half to get here. Okay. Anyway, all right, cool, we'll see you're moving along. Like, can I ask you, do you have expectations about why you gained. I mean, you gained a pretty significant amount of weight. Like, was that through, like, aging activity? Like, what do you think got you there? Combo

Barbara 48:49
of everything. I think once the MS took place and I was my activity, I wasn't walking or is active. I think that had a lot to do with it. I actually had a knee replacement a year ago, which I think was the other thing in my letter that I mentioned wanting to talk about the experience of the surgery. So I had torn the meniscus in my knee, and so that laid me up for a few months. And although I was in the two hundreds prior to that, I think it was just a combination of lack of activity, and once it started going up, it just started going up, you know, you know, aggressively, we'll say, Okay,

Scott Benner 49:35
I understand is, is weight gain? Can that be an implication of Ms? No,

Barbara 49:40
not that. No, I don't believe. So I think it's, it's a byproduct of the lack of activity.

Scott Benner 49:46
Okay, I see, oh gosh, it sounds so easy for people like, just do that. Or like, you know, if you've been listening for a long time, you'll know that. I think, like, three years ago, I'm like, I'm getting a bicycle and I'm gonna ride a bike. I started riding the bike, and I'm like, Oh, my knee. Hertz. Then I was like, I have to have a knee surgery. Awesome. And then it takes time to rebound from that. Like, you don't think, like, I still, I don't know about you, you're about my age, but I just have my nose prepared. So for all of you were like, Scott, got a nose shot. I didn't get a nose shot, but I guess I kind of, I get an internal nose shot, right? So, you know, double deviation busted up cartilage. They opened up my passageways, like the guy explained to me at the follow up. I was like, Hey, I probably should have asked before you did this, but what did you do? And he's like, oh, you know you he's like, you had a double deviation. It was like, sticking out on both sides, blocking your airway. You had an overgrowth of soft tissue that had to get removed. It was blocking your airway. You had cartilage that was busted up and re formed a bit it was blocking your airway. And he goes to and at the bottom, I opened up your nostrils and tacked them down to make them wider. And I was like, Oh, awesome. Is that why my the top of my mouth is numb? And he goes, Yes. I was like, Oh, awesome. He goes, that should go away. I'm like, okay, whatever the reason is. I'm telling you what they did is because 20 years ago, if I would have had something like that done, like, three days later, I would have been like, Let's go like, I would have just been up and moving, and I'm now two weeks removed from it today. Today's two weeks. I'm like, Oh well, my digestion is just back to normal now from the medication they gave me because they put me on a bunch of antibiotics. Like, I'm like, at least my stomach feels better now. And like, and I was the first five or six days I was exhausted. Like, you know, like, like, I'd sit here, get done working, and like, just try to work. And I'd be like, zoning out. Like, some people will listen and go, Well, yeah, he had surgery on your face. But I've been a person that my whole life, like, I would have run through that wall, no problem. And this time I'm like, God, like, if, if I go to have something else done, I'm gonna have to build real recovery time into that. I guess that's the age I'm at now, you know, and you don't think about that as it's as you're getting older, but I am thinking about it now, and, you know, it makes perfect sense to me that you get, MS, you slow down, you know, you have a problem with your knee, and all of a sudden, like it turns into five years later, right? Yeah, that sucks.

Barbara 52:05
The irony of the whole thing with the knee was I had bought a treadmill, similar to your bicycle story, staring at you. I bought a treadmill, and two weeks later, I can't walk. My knee hurts, so I make an appointment for the doctor, and I walking down the hallway to see my primary care, and my knee snaps. Well, it that was the meniscus did a full tear, and it just snapped like a rubber band. Oh,

Scott Benner 52:34
it's terrible. I'm sorry. Yeah, listen, I got a long note from my brother the other day, and he's like, my feet hurt so bad. He works like a, like, a stands on a concrete floor, you know, and he's, and he's getting older now, and he's like, I can't believe this is happening. He's like, he's like, I can't even stand up. And I was like, Yeah, you're old. Like, you know, like, you have to go buy better shoes and get insoles in them. And, you know, his text reminded me of the Oscars were the other night, and that Mick Jagger gave out an award. Now, I don't know how old Mick Jagger is. He's in his mid 80s. Maybe he's an old man, you know, and he comes out and he's like, he looks old, but he's still full of life, and, you know, he's all right there and everything and but I looked down last like he is wearing the craziest pair of old man sneakers I've ever seen,

Speaker 1 53:21
these big, ugly, black sneakers.

Scott Benner 53:24
Anyway, it's coming for all of us. So what's your antic like? What's your expectation you're going to start a GLP? You think you can stick to it and then look up a year from now and have lost, you know, a fair amount of weight? Yeah? I mean, that's, that's what I'm hoping for. Yeah, I think you can do it. I know a person who lost 100 pounds on it in about a year and a half. So my

Barbara 53:45
daughter actually has been on wegovy, and she has lost 40 pounds on wegovy, and probably, well, she had started on her own, and then went to wegovy. So she it's been about six months now, and she's lost 40 pounds. And then, of course, in January, her health insurance provider dropped bucovi, so she just picked up a semi glutide from a compound pharmacy the other day. Yeah, so her next injection will be one of those.

Scott Benner 54:17
Glad she was able to keep it going for herself. I have to tell you, it's changed my life so drastically and for the better. Like, if someone took it from me, I mean, I would go to great lengths to get it back. Oh

Barbara 54:29
yeah, I've definitely been following your story, and I've shared the podcast with her, where you, where you've been dying that. Oh,

Scott Benner 54:37
I'm glad. Listen, I'm 60 pounds, like I seem to be, I don't know if you've installed is the right, like I'm at 60 pounds now I do. I think I have more weight to lose, I think I have some fat to lose, which I'll obviously, like, you know, you know, it'll, it'll make my weight drop down. But I don't think it's a lot. I think it's more about body shaping now that where I'm at, yeah. And just, it's just been such an awesome tool for me. The week that I didn't take it for my surgery, I gained like, five pounds, wow. And I didn't need any differently. I just started gaining weight. And I was like, Well, this is just awesome. And by the way, I mean that both ways, the medication is awesome and, and I mean the sarcastic awesome about like, I can't believe that without this, like, my weight just starts going up again, I don't know, like, I'm grateful that it exists and I'm disappointed that that's the reality, I guess, is both sides of it. Yeah,

Barbara 55:29
I definitely look forward to being able to try it. I will, I will try my best to get that prescription so

Scott Benner 55:36
she's going to the compound pharmacy because it's not being covered. She's paying cash. Is that a thing you've considered doing? Or you think you can get it covered? I'm

Barbara 55:44
going to try to get it covered. If not, I can try the compound pharmacy. Now, the issue with the compound pharmacies, it is no longer considered. Ozempic is no longer I forget the term, yeah, you know where I'm going. I wish

Scott Benner 55:59
I understand. I don't know the words, but it's if it's no longer considered something, then they then they're not allowed to compound it anymore,

Barbara 56:08
exactly. So when she picked up the compound, she said there was a long line of people picking it up. And so they're going through every so often in the line, making this announcement, saying the last day that we can make the current formula is like April 21 they're currently working on submitting another formula that's slightly different to get the approval for that. So they were telling everyone, the next time you pick up, you'll be fine, but then we should have an answer for you at that point, if we were able to get the approval for the next formula or not.

Scott Benner 56:46
Yeah, it's something about the availability of it. I don't know the phrasing right. If it's available commercially, they can't compound it. But if it's, if it's hard, like I guess, I guess it's about shortages. So if there's a significant shortage supply, then they can maybe temporarily be allowed to produce until the supply is back. And I did just see one of the big companies announced the other day, there's no shortage. I didn't realize that was a business decision when they said that they're saying, oh, there's no shortage, which means compound pharmacies can't make it correct. I see, well, you know what's gonna happen. I'm seeing it happen all over the place. Like, you're gonna see companies making generics of it, but, yeah, oh yeah, or biosimilars, or stuff like that. Like, that's all gonna happen, I think, quickly. And if you listen to Dr ham D's episode, yes, he seems very certain that newer forms in pill form, we're gonna be just as effective as the or maybe more so than the ejectables, one day, and I, and I actually remember saying to him something like, like, in the future, and he's like, not as far in the future as you think. So it's like, all right. Well, that's good. So because I do think it even being injected slows some people down. You know, some people aren't thrilled getting injected with stuff. And it makes it seem less approachable, I guess. But I think, I mean, obviously it works so well for so many people. I mean, a lot of companies are going to want to get in on it, and so I think there should be a lot of availability moving forward, but that doesn't help you today. Like, you know what? I mean, like, you're, you're in the situation, you're right now. You don't want to be waiting two years or whatever, right, right? Yeah, wow. What, uh, what have we not talked about that we should have,

Barbara 58:19
like, I said, I had, I had knee surgery. I ended up having to have a knee replacement after all that, because it

Scott Benner 58:26
was so damaged. Yeah, so what's that like? Doing that with type one? Some of your

Barbara 58:29
episodes over the years, you've talked about people that have had surgeries. You've referenced, I think, a surgery or two that Arden had. So when I went in for the pre op stuff at the hospital, I kind of knew what I should what I should mention. And I had talked about, you know, wanting to make sure that I had my phone in the operating room so they could monitor my Dexcom. Wanted to keep my Omnipod running, things like that. And they had checked with the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist said, Oh yeah, it's great, you know, we want to, you know, make sure we keep things running. So I said, Okay, let me know what, what do you want from me that day? How would you like me to place these sites? So they had given me all sorts of information, you know. He said, you know, just put them on your arms. We'll have your your phone, make sure it's on lock, but I'll have your code just in case. Everything seemed to go great. I saw my endocrinologist right before I mentioned to him the discussion I had, and he had even said to me, he's like, that's exactly what I would advise you to do. That's the plan that I would put in place for you. And I said, My only fear is that the day of surgery, they changed the plan. And he said they're not going to do that. He said, if they told you you're going to keep your pump on, you're going to keep your pump on, well, you know where I'm going with this, right?

Scott Benner 59:57
Oh, hi, welcome. Good morning. Let's get your pump off. Wait, I talked to the guy. What guy we don't know that guy, right? Yeah, it was more as we're

Barbara 1:00:04
wheeling into the R Yeah, yeah. They had checked my blood sugar against a Dexcom, and it was 142 to 143 i They were so impressed at how close it was. They anesthesiologist and his nurse. They were making jokes about doing selfies with my phone and the or, I mean, it was great banter back and forth. It seemed like everything was going great. So then the nurse says, Okay, we're ready to go. Looks at my husband said, you know, give her a kiss goodbye, and we'll, we'll keep you posted. So they're walking him out, and they start to wheel me, and the anesthesiologist says, Okay, it's time to turn the pump off. And I went, wait, what

Scott Benner 1:00:49
were you guys not just out in the hallway joking around about how great it was all work and everything. You don't remember any of that. Do

Barbara 1:00:56
you know I can't do that? And they said, No, we'll, we're going to monitor everything. Remember? He said, so we'll, we'll take care of everything. Well, I decide I'm not comfortable with just suspending it because I knew what was going to happen. So what I did, I did suspend it, although I shouldn't have. I put it on a three hour, figuring, okay, when it's done, when three hours are done, at least. If I don't know where this PDM is, it's going to turn basal back on. You know, if they lose it, or whatever the case happens to be, because of this point, I don't have as much faith in them as I did 30 seconds previous. Losing faith as I'm being wheeled into the alarm. So I put it on three hours. Next thing I know, I'm waking up. The rumor I was 140 wheeling in, I'm waking up. And I can hear them say, the anesthesiologist wants to know what her last blood glucose was. And they said 480 Oh, my God. And I went, wait, what? I'm 480

Scott Benner 1:02:05
Yeah. How'd you guys screw this up? Jesus, something going

Barbara 1:02:09
through the numbers and looking I see where I hit 450 and when I hit 450 that's when they gave me some insulin in the IV, so it kept me steady at 450 and I got up to 480 but had they not done that, I mean, who knows what I would have been because we're talking three hours without any insulin. Yeah, and distress on my body, of course, right,

Scott Benner 1:02:36
right, right? They don't know. Trust me, they don't know. They don't care. What they know is you're not going to die in three hours without this insulin. And they think that's better. Like, I don't, I don't know what they you know, what? I've had doctors on. I've asked them. They're never very clear when they talk about it. They're just like, well, you know, better high than low, like, that kind of, like, simple stuff. And, you know, like, like, why not just let the algorithm keep what? I mean, what would it have hurt to just set your target temporarily to 200 exactly, you know, exactly.

Barbara 1:03:03
Now, remember, I didn't have an algorithm at the time, okay, so I didn't have anything like that or, I mean, we could have done that with basal. I mean, if they were knowledgeable enough, I would have gladly reduced my basal to 50% Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:03:17
just kept something running. Also, you have an IV, and if I start to get low, you can give me dextrose. It's not a big deal, you know? It's not a big deal. And you

Barbara 1:03:26
and you can see the trends, because you have my phone in your hand that you just double check to make sure it's accurate, right? Hahaha,

Scott Benner 1:03:34
we should take a picture with it. Look how accurate it is. Remember all that again, out in the hallway?

Barbara 1:03:40
Yeah, exactly. That sucks. My surgery was actually outpatient, so I was scheduled to go home that day, but in the meantime, because they want you up and moving, so they put me in a patient room after recovery, and the idea was, give me about an hour, give me something to eat, regulate the pain meds, and then physical therapy would come in, and they would get me up and moving, and then, you know, slowly, get me, get me to the car and home. So immediately, when I woke up and I knew what was happening with my blood sugar. I'm I want my husband, and that poor man, he was walking down the hall, he heard them say, Okay, turn your puff off. Michaels,

Scott Benner 1:04:22
like, Am I in charge of getting your blood sugar down? I think I am, right. Yeah, pretty

Barbara 1:04:27
much. So they immediately bring him in. Now, they want me out. They want me in that patient room. Because they even said to him, he goes, how quickly can we get her to a room? She's under 500 we can, we can release her to the room now, yeah, because he's figuring, once we're in the room, you know, we can get you out

Scott Benner 1:04:45
of their face after my nose surgery. Like, I don't know if I knew which way was up. And the guy was like, All right, well, we called your ride. I'm gonna call me right? I'm like, I can't see all the walls yet exactly,

Barbara 1:04:54
okay. Well, I get into this room and I. Again, I'm expecting the nurse in the room they are in to help. They he didn't even know I was a diabetic. Yeah, so we get in the room and he's, you know, doing vitals. I still have some oxygen going, some coming out of the anesthesia I had been intubated. So he's got some some ice chips going and showing me this breathing thing that they wanted me to do every 10 minutes. And then he's putting some more pain meds on board and giving me some Zofran, because now they're going to bring a tray of food in so I can eat. And so they bring this tray of food in, and they uncover it, and it was the worst food ever. It was salisbury steak with mashed potatoes, peaches and heavy syrup, pineapple, white bread and an Italian ice an iced tea. Wow. And my husband looks down at this tray, and he says, that's a diabetic tray, because he had talked to them when they came out and gave him the she's out of surgery, her blood sugar was high. He had said, she'll work with getting her blood sugar back under control. But can you make sure you give her a low carb meal? Because she's not going to want to have a heart high carb meal. Also,

Scott Benner 1:06:18
she's 450 and you've had her insulin off for three hours, and there's a lot going on here. And the nurse goes, dial, what now?

Barbara 1:06:25
Yeah, right, exactly. Then he reaches he goes, well, well, why would she need a diabetic meal? And he my husband, said, well, she's a type one diabetic, and her blood sugar is 450 so he goes, Well, you won't be needing this. And he reaches over and grabs the little cup with the sweetener packets,

Scott Benner 1:06:42
but he took the one thing that you would have helped you. Why would she need that? Let me just bang my head through the wall, and then I'll explain it to you. Hold on one sec. Well, listen, I again. I don't think this is even specific to diabetes. You know what I mean? Like, sure, you call a place and say, Hey, listen, I get my car worked on. This is the same problem. Hi, I'm having this problem with the car. Let me note it for you. And then it all down. Like, great. You show up with the car. They go, what's the problem? I'm like, You know what the problem is? I called this week. Well, I don't know. Tell me again, to tell you again. Like, what did I tell the last person for like, like, you know what I mean? Like, then it happens, and the mechanic comes out and goes, What's the problem? Like, Jesus, I told her, I told him, I gotta tell you now. Like, why am I telling everybody if, like, why don't you just let me fix it? Like, like, right? And then that's the feeling you get, like, no one's actually paying attention. There's no How do I mean this? You want to think that there's a comprehensive web of communication in whatever you're doing, whether it's at your doctor's office or getting your car fixed or somewhere else. But the truth is that's not the case, and that most things are limited by the ability of the human being you're talking to to do their job, understand your needs and communicate them. And I just don't think that generally happens again. I don't think it's specific to your knee surgery or the fact that you had type one diabetes during it, or anything like that. I just think this is a limitation of human beings. I

Barbara 1:08:14
agree. Also, I had a second surgery a few months later. Ironically, I had broke my toe a week before the knee surgery on the other foot, and I was not going to hold up the surgery for treatment for a broken toe. So in the meantime, I had to have surgery to repair that that toe, and it was a different hospital, and I went in knowing what could happen. And so I'm going to have a very nice conversation with that anesthesiologist. Then an anesthesiologist says to me, my husband is a type one. He's on T slim. I know exactly what to do. My blood sugar stayed 118 the entire surgery, right? That's been

Scott Benner 1:08:55
my experience too. It's like once you bump into somebody that knows what they're doing, then it then all the things I just said, that's all gone now, now you just have somebody at the point of contact. Who knows what they're doing. Is the biggest thing other than that. I should have recorded what I said to the first person at the car place, and then just when I walked up to the next person said, Hey, what's going on? I should have just pushed play and held my phone up, yeah, because you're wasting your breath till you get to the person that's going to be actually doing the work. And then now it's important for them to know. And if you get lucky and you know, you get that situation you have with a toe surgery, then great, somebody knows what they're doing. And Bing, bang, boom, nothing to worry about. But the truth is, is that if you're going to be involved with medical care and you have type one when people say you have to advocate for yourself, that's a very polite way of saying you have to re explain someone's job to them as it is pertinent to you. Every time you look someone in the face, that's your job. And by the way, they may not understand or care or even put what you're saying into effect, or once they hear you, they might just take the Splenda from you, the one thing on the tray that may not have made your blood sugar go. Yeah, exactly, yeah. No. It's, I mean, listen, it's good to know, because you're, you're gonna get into a situation like this eventually, and you really do need to know how to, I'm gonna say advocate, but I'm gonna, I think what I mean is explain people's jobs to them, specific to your details. It's just the sad fact of all this, we're not there yet. You know, everything's not interconnected, and maybe computers and AI fix this. Maybe it makes it worse. I can't wait to see what happens right now. The, I mean, to use a, I guess, a saying from the 50s, like my mom would have said, is, like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Yep, exactly. Police your toe, your toes, all better you need, oh yeah, what's the bounce back time from a knee surgery like so the

Barbara 1:10:44
knee has been pretty good. I was off work for 12 weeks. I work retail on a concrete floor, so I was off for 12 weeks. Did some physical therapy, and it took about a year. They had set I still had some stiffness. I mean, I was able to move around and things of that nature. But they had kept saying, well, give it a year, because about six months in, I'm like, Well, I still have some stiffness and stuff. And literally, I think it was January, I went I realized my knee is great. It's almost back to normal. And it was a year ago last month. So yeah, it's pretty much takes a year. It is what

Scott Benner 1:11:22
it is. Like one day you just like, it's boring. But I was told I had arthritis in my toe, and they were gonna clean it out. But then they got in there and I had to get, like, micro needling surgery or something like that. And when I came out my it was stiff, like, it was hard to bend. And some days, day after day, I just sit here trying to curl my toe up, like, you know, and I was like, God, this is never going to work. And now I don't remember how long ago that surgery was, but my toes good. So, yeah, yeah, just sometimes it's just it takes longer than than you want, and then, like you said, you wake up one day and you're like, oh, doesn't hurt anymore. Awesome. So goodbye, all right. Well, Barbara, you were terrific. I appreciate you doing this with me. I went over time a little bit, but I enjoyed hearing the rest of your story. I can't thank you enough for doing this, and I'm thrilled that you found the podcast and it was helpful for you. Oh yeah,

Barbara 1:12:10
I have to thank you, because it has, it's been life changing. I mean, I know I've hear other people, you know, say that periodically, but it genuinely opened up a whole world of what to do with the data and with the numbers. And my a 1c are now under six, it's great. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 1:12:28
couldn't be happier for you. And it's very kind of you to give me some sort of credit. And I think everyone should, is what I'm saying. Yeah, anyone who's ever come on this podcast and not thanked me, I think you've, you've really missed an opportunity. So,

Barbara 1:12:42
my God, well, I appreciate everything you do. And I have heard every episode. I listen to it every day, and I've gone back and listened. It was about close to 500 episode when I started listening, and so I went back and listened to those previous ones. And yeah, it's, it's been life changing. You're caught

Scott Benner 1:13:01
up. You've listened to 1400 episodes of this podcast. Yeah. Barb, awesome. You're my favorite person. Well, thank you to whoever I said that to in the past. Don't feel slighted. Barb, stepped up. Okay, okay, yeah, no, this is awesome. Hold on one second for me, sure.

Thank thanks for tuning in today, and thanks to Medtronic diabetes for sponsoring this episode. We've been talking about Medtronic mini med 780 G system today, an automated insulin delivery system that helps make diabetes management easier day and night. Whether it's their meal detection technology or the Medtronic extended infusion set. It all comes together to simplify life with diabetes. Go find out more at my link, Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox the podcast you just enjoyed was sponsored by tandem diabetes care. Learn more about tandems, newest automated insulin delivery system, tandem Moby with control iq plus technology at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox there are links in the show notes and links at Juicebox podcast.com this episode was sponsored by touched by type one. I want you to go find them on Facebook, Instagram and give them a follow, and then head to touched by type one.org where you're going to learn all about their programs and resources for people with type one diabetes? Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend, and if you leave a five star review, ooh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card? When I created the defining diabetes series, I pictured. A dictionary, in my mind, to help you understand key terms that shape type one diabetes management. Along with Jenny Smith, who, of course, is an experienced diabetes educator, we break down concepts like basal, time and range, insulin on board and much more. This series must have 70 short episodes in it. We have to take the jargon out of the jargon so that you can focus on what really matters, living confidently and staying healthy. You can't do these things if you don't know what they mean. Go get your diabetes to find Juicebox podcast.com go up in the menu and click on series. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong wayrecording.com. You.

Please support the sponsors

---

The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!

Donate